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Chapter Seven

Flight of the Fat Lady

As time went on, it became clear that Defence Against the Dark Arts was everyone's, except Malfoy's, favourite subject. And Ethan's, who still loved Potions (much to Eddie's disdain, for he hated Potions). Amara also loved her time in Ancient Runes, and found she actually had a real knack for it. Divination was a different story, because she dreaded her time in the stuffy tower classroom, especially when Parvati and Lavender spent their time up there, always coming back to the dormitory with 'news' to share.

Amara had gone to see Professor McGonagall about her decision of trying to stick it out for a year, before hoping to drop it, which she had approved upon, and even given her s small smile, which only lasted half a second. Fred and George, who had been there in detention at the time, had said it was the first time they had ever seen McGonagall smile, which meant that Amara was obviously her favourite.

Her table partner, Roger Malone, was a very shy boy. He seemed to stutter in the sight of Amara, but once he was with his friends, he was at ease and very excitable. Amara had spoken to Anthony, for she was worried that he was scared of her.

"Have I done something to Roger in the past?" she asked him after Ancient Runes one day.

"No," said Anthony, looking rather surprised.

"Then why does he stutter so much when I talk to him? It feels like he's scared of me," Amara frowned.

"Ah," Anthony said. "No … no he's not scared of you."

But that was all Amara managed to get out of him, so she stomped off, rather frustrated.

Hermione also kept on disappearing and re-appearing everywhere, and still managed to do three classes at once. Amara was getting more and more angry and confused at why this kept happening, because it would soon take its toll on her. She decided to corner her one day, after a class, so that she wouldn't be able to get out of it.

An opportunity did not happen until the next week. They had just finished Ancient Runes and everyone else had left. Hermione was making a fuss of her bag, so Amara pretended to go out the door, but stopped it before it shut so that she could peak through. Hermione looked around the classroom before fetching a sort of necklace from beneath her robes. On it, Amara saw a sort of hour-glass thing, which Hermione turned once. She then started fading in the air, which Amara gaped at. Before she knew it, Hermione had gone, leaving Amara blinking behind her.

Very very confused, Amara made her way to break, where she met Harry and Ron in the courtyard. What surprised her most was that Hermione was there too, sitting on the floor and reading a book.

"Hermione?" Amara said, shocked.

"What?" Ron said. "Where have you been?"

"What? Oh – it doesn't matter," Amara said. "Hermione, can you come with me for a second?"

"Why?" Hermione asked, closing her book.

"I – erm – I need the bathroom," Amara said pointedly.

Ron and Harry awkwardly looked away, making Amara smirk.

"OK," said Hermione, getting up. They walked in silence to the first empty bathroom, where Amara immediately faced her.

"I saw you," she said.

"Saw me?"

"In the Ancient Runes classroom – using that necklace thing,"

"What necklace thing?"

"The thing that made you disappear yet still be at break with Harry and Ron!"

"Ah," said Hermione. "Erm, you saw that?"

"Yes!" Amara said. "I was worried about you!"

"I wasn't supposed to tell anyone – nobody's meant to know," Hermione said.

"Well I know your little trick, and the library is only one step away if you can't tell me!"

Hermione sighed. "Alright, you see, it's a time-turner."

"A time turner?" asked Amara.

"Yes," said Hermione. "Because I'm taking extra classes, it makes me able to go back in time and do the lessons all over again – you see?"

"Wow," said Amara. "So that's why you were in the Ancient Runes class and the courtyard in a matter of minutes. And that's why you are in Divination and Ancient Runes, when I can't even do that."

Hermione nodded. "But you can't tell Harry and Ron."

"Why not?"

"Because Professor McGonagall went to drastic methods so that I could get one, she had to appeal to the Ministry."

Amara nodded, relieved that Hermione had finally told her. She gave her a hug.

"C'mon," she grinned. "We better get going – Ron and Harry will wonder where we went to."

-OOOOO-

Sometime in October, Amara, Hermione and Ron were in the common room and saw that a notice had been pinned up on the notice board.

"Shall we see what it says?" said Ron, dumping his bag on a chair. "Everyone seems excited."

The common room was indeed buzzing with anticipation, so Amara, Hermione and Ron (Harry was at Quidditch practice) went over to read it.

HOGSMEADE WEEKEND DATE

SUNDAY 31st OCTOBER

"Hogsmeade!" Amara squealed excitedly. "Oooh, I can't wait!"

Ron grinned. "I can't wait for Honeydukes!"

They were just about to have a hearty discussion with Dean and Seamus, but Hermione prodded them into finishing with the Star charts for Astronomy. Amara found this very dull, for Astronomy was one of her weaker subjects, like History of Magic.

Harry came in an hour later, looking frozen from Quidditch practice The rest of the team followed after him.

"What's happened?"

"First Hogsmeade weekend," Ron answered as Amara tried to sneak a look at Hermione's star chart. "End of October, Hallowe'en."

"Excellent," said Fred, coming over to them. "I need to visit Zonko's, I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets." He wandered off to sit with George and Lee.

Harry flopped into his chair, looking down.

Amara felt bad that she'd been so excited and Harry couldn't even go.

"Don't be sad Harry," she said. "Why don't you ask McGonagall if you can go? I mean, c'mon, it's not like it's a deserted village …"

"Amara! Harry's supposed to stay in school! Black is still at large!" Hermione said.

"He's not going to go to Hogsmeade – Amara's right, it's not going to be empty," Ron said.

"I think I will," said Harry.

Crookshanks jumped onto Amara's lap, much to her disgust, because a large hairy spider was dangling out from his mouth.

"Yuck," she shivered, shoving the cat over to Hermione's lap.

"Amara! Be careful!"

"What? It's cat – they always lands on their feet."

"It's not the point!"

"Keep him over there, though," said Ron. "I've got Scabbers in my bag."

Amara carried on with her star chart, her and Harry copying Ron's already finished copy. Hermione looked at her in disapproval, but Amara shrugged at her, still seeing if she could check Hermione's answers.

Crookshanks suddenly jumped at Ron, sinking his claws on his bag.

"OY!" Ron bellowed. "GET OFF, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!"

"Ron, don't hurt him!" Hermione squealed. The whole common room was silent, watching the events unfold.

Ron started to swing his bag around, with a spitting Crookshanks still clinging on.

"Watch out!" yelped Amara as the cat missed her head barely.

Scabbers suddenly came flying out of the bag – flying over Amara's head and landing on the floor.

"CATCH THAT CAT!"

George dived for Crookshanks as he chased the terrified rat. Amara ran after Ron, who was chasing after Crookshanks. Scabbers went under a chest of drawers. Amara pushed Crookshanks into Hermione's arms as Ron started to get Scabbers back.

"Look at him!" he said furiously, once retrieving him. "He's skin and bone! You keep that cat away from him!"

"Crookshanks doesn't understand it's wrong!" said Hermione. "All cats chase rats, Ron!"

"There's something funny about that animal!" Ron said. "It head me say that Scabbers was in my bag!"

"Oh, what rubbish," said Hermione. "Crookshanks could smell him, Ron, how else d'you think –"

"That cat's got it in for Scabbers!" said Ron, ignoring the occupants of the common room that were starting to giggle. Amara caught Fred's eye and bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. "And Scabbers was here first, and he's ill!"

Ron stormed off to the dormitories, Hermione going up the girls' stairs and leaving Amara and Harry to finish their star charts from their discarded charts on the table.

-OOOOO-

Ron's mood with Hermione had not stopped the next day. Amara was growing very weary of his attitude, because it meant that Hermione was now scared that he was going to lash out at her.

"How's Scabbers?" she asked in Herbology, where they were working on the same Puffapod.

"He's hiding at the bottom of my bed, shaking," Ron said angrily, spilling the pink beans from the pods on the floor, making the bloom in front of their eyes.

Luckily, it was Transfiguration next, so Amara got to enjoy it. Before they had entered the classroom, however, there was a group outside, with Lavender crying in the middle. Parvati was explaining something to Dean and Seamus.

"What's up Lavender?" asked Amara as they joined them.

"She got a letter this morning," said Parvati. "It's her rabbit, Binky. He's been killed by a fox."

"Oh no," said Amara. "I'm very sorry Lavender."

"I should of known!" cried Lavender. "You know what day it is?"

"Erm –"

"The sixteenth of October! 'That thing you're dreading, it will happen on the sixteenth of October!' Remember? She was right, she was right!"

She burst into another wave of tears, Amara was actually feeling quite sorry for the girl – she had had a rabbit once, and would have hated it if it had been killed.

Hermione, however, was thinking it through. "You – you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?"

"Well, not necessarily by a fox," said Lavender, sniffing. "but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't I?"

"Oh," said Hermione, pausing. "Was Binky an old rabbit?"

"N-no!" sobbed Lavender. "H-he was only a baby!"

"But then why would you dread him dying?" said Hermione.

"Hermione!" Amara said incredulously. Hermione was not seeing Lavender's emotions – in fact, Amara noted – she was just going through everything logically. She frowned at her.

"What? Look at it logically," Hermione said to Amara. "I mean," she turned to rest. "Binky didn't even die today, did he, Lavender just got the news today, and she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock –"

"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender," said Ron loudly. "She doesn't think other people's pets matter very much."

Professor McGonagall opened the door and Amara scurried inside, deciding to get inside quick before Ron and Hermione starting trying to kill each other.

Harry was going to ask Professor McGonagall at the end about going to Hogsmeade.

"One moment, please!" she said at the end. "As you're all in my house, you should hand in Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Hallowe'en. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"

Neville had some trouble with his form, but Amara wasn't listening as she made her way out of the door and into the Great Hall for lunch, because she was extremely hungry.

"D'you think McGonagall will let him?" asked Amara as they sat down next to Fred and George.

"Who?" asked Fred as they sat down.

"You're nosy," said Amara, grinning.

"All part of the charm," said Fred, giving her a wink, which made Ron clear his throat and George snort into his lunch.

"Harry," Amara carried on. "He's asking McGonagall for permission to Hogsmeade."

"Ah," said George. "I don't know if McGonagall will let him off – remember when Geraldine Foster left hers at home, Fred? She wasn't allowed to go – had to wait for it to be sent to her in the post."

"Yes," said Fred. "But Harry might be able to, who knows?"

-OOOOO-

They found out later that Harry had been unsuccessful, meaning Ron spouted out words to insult McGonagall that made Hermione irritated. This made them angry with each other again, which made Amara, in turn, annoyed as well. Everyone suggested ways of helping him to get into Hogsmeade, but none would work. Dean even suggested he could forge Harry's Uncle's signature, which Amara thought was a good idea, however McGonagall would see straight through it, because of her knowing that Harry had not got any permission. Ron and Amara had suggested Harry using the Invisibility Cloak and get through Filch, but Hermione irritated them all by telling them about the Dementors standing guard at the gates. Amara had forgotten about the Dementors, and Ron had too, because he did not suggest it again.

"I can't wait for us to be able to go to Hogsmeade," Eddie had said when Amara told them of Harry still not being able to go.

"I don't know much about it," admitted Flick, who was sat with them in the library whilst Piper was serving detention (she had 'accidently' put the wrong ingredient in her potion).

"Me neither," said Ethan. "Piper said that it's amazing."

"It is," said Eddie. "Jordan told us all about it when he went last year – he even managed to get us a pepper imp, you know, but that's only because he didn't like them."

"Pepper Imps?" asked Flick. "They sound gross to me."

"They were, kind of, but they were awesome because we breathed fire for ages," Eddie said, laughing.

"You breathed fire?" Flick said, looking shocked.

"Oh yeah, scared ol' Whiskers into the garden," Eddie said, grinning still.

"Apparently there's a Zonko's Joke Shop," Amara said. "That'll be worth going to."

"I want to go to Honeydukes," said Eddie, looking dreamy.

"You know," laughed Amara. "That's exactly what Ron said – did you know –"

Unluckily, Madam Pince thought they were making far too much noise and consequently kicked them out of the library.

-OOOOO-

The day of the first Hogsmeade trip dawned, bright, but cold. Amara dressed herself in her comfortable jeans, a t-shirt and a big, woolly jumper that was a nice, dark red. She wrapped her Gryffindor scarf around her, in case it was too cold, but decided to put on a jacket. She packed her purse with a little money in it, because she knew it would be easy to spend it all before heading down to the Great Hall with Hermione.

Ron and Harry were already there, and the latter looked thoroughly depressed.

"We'll bring you lots of sweets back from Honeydukes," Hermione said, looking sorry for him.

"Yeah, loads," said Ron, having had gotten over his squabble.

"Don't worry about me," said Harry. "I'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."

He went with them to the Entrance Hall, where Filch was checking people off on a long list, looking for people who were trying to get in.

Harry left them there, as Amara, Hermione and Ron joined the fairly long queue.

"We should have gotten Dean to forge his Uncle's signature before asking McGonagall," Amara muttered to Ron, who nodded.

"Names?" snapped Filch.

"Amara Matthews, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley," Amara said quickly, wanting to get into the village.

Finally they were able to take the walk down to the village from Hogwarts. Amara was practically skipping along, which made Ron laugh.

"Excited, there ol' Mattie?" came two voices from their left. They turned to see Fred and George walking along in matching jackets, grinning at her.

"'Mattie'?" asked Amara.

"Hmm, yes, we thought you deserved a nickname, you see," Fred said.

"So Mattie came up," said George.

Amara laughed. "I can't wait to get into the village – what d'you say we should visit first?"

"Zonko's," said Fred and George simultaneously.

Amara and Ron laughed.

"No surprise there, then," said Amara.

"Well, we do like to be predictable – anyways, we're meeting Lee, Angelina and Alicia in the Three Broomsticks – see you later," winked George.

The two twins sauntered off towards the village, whistling tunelessly.

"Where shall we go first?" asked Hermione as they finally entered the village. It was beautiful – like one of those villages featured in a fairy tale, with its little thatched cottages and cobbled streets.

"Zonko's?" asked Amara hopefully.

Hermione wrinkled her face.

"Oh c'mon, Hermione! Don't be such a spoilsport!" whined Amara. "We want to go to Zonko's!"

"Yeah, Hermione," Ron said, grinning.

Hermione relented and the three made their way into the very crowded joke shop, where it was very hard to get to any of the shelves, so Ron and Amara left empty-handed and rather put-out.

"What about Dervish and Bangs?" asked Hermione, pointing to another shop.

The three made their way through the village, looking into nearly every shop they saw. Amara liked the Post Office, with its hundreds of owls, and Amara got some treats for Archimedes and Hedwig. Then they went to Scrivencraft's, where Amara bought some new quills and Hermione did as well, because they were both running low. Finally, Ron persuaded them to go into Honeydukes.

The sweetshop was crowded with students, all eagerly buying sweets and chocolates by the handful. The shelves were filled with all kinds of sweets – coconut ice, nougat, toffees, lots of different chocolate in neat little rows, Every Flavour Beans in a large barrel and a scoop; Fizzing Whizzbees, which Amara wanted to try; Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Toothflossing Stringmints, Pepper Imps – like the ones Eddie was on about; Ice Mice, sugar quills, exploding bonbons, blood-flavoured lollipops were among the huge variety of normal flavoured lollipopos, Acid Pops, Cockroach Clusters, Chocolate Frogs – everything.

Amara, Hermione and Ron went rather mad in the sweetshop, buying everything and anything they could and buying a little extra for Harry when they got back. They left the shop with huge bags and their money bags much less full after the rampage. Hermione loved the Toothflossing stringments – she said her parents would love them, and Amara adored the Fizzing Whizzbees, the chewing gum and the sugar quills.

They decided to go into The Three Broomsticks and get a butterbeer. Ron blushed immediately when he saw the pretty barmaid, who went by the name Madam Rosemerta, so Amara went and got three butterbeers for their table. As soon as she drank it, she warmed up, for the air outside was very chilly.

"Wow, Harry would love to have this," said Amara, slurping her drink.

"Yeah, but we got him loads of sweets," said Hermione.

"It's a shame he can't be here, though," Ron said.

"Hopefully McGonagall will let him go –"

"You know she won't," Hermione said. "Black's still out there."

"But it's Hogsmeade," said Amara.

"Anyways," Ron interrupted, in case another argument arose.

"Imagine if we could get our Christmas shopping done here?" Amara said. "We could get Harry stuff from Zonko's and stuff. I think I'd send some to Tessie as well, to make her laugh."

"Or you could get her some sweets," said Hermione.

"Oooh, yeah, some exploding bonbons – I could ask her to give them to Mum and Dad," laughed Amara.

"You're awful, Amara," said Hermione, shaking her head.

They had a very fulfilling afternoon – they ate lunch in The Three Broomsticks and saw what Ron said was an ogre.

"Look at that," Ron whispered as a huge, green fellow stomp inside.

"Man, that has to be an ogre," said Amara. "Look over there – is that a hag? And that dude looks like a vampire – is that blood he's drinking?"

"Must be," said Ron. "Or else something very red."

"Wonder who's blood it is," said Amara.

"Who knew you got these kind of people in the pub?" Ron said, craning his neck to look at the ogre.

"You know," said Hermione. "We better get going – we still have to walk all the way back up to the castle."

Amara and Ron agreed, so they stomped outside into the chilly air and made their way back up the lane and into the castle's grounds. It was a very long walk this time, because it was mainly uphill, and the three of them got slightly puffed out.

They met up with Harry in the common room when the sun was starting to set.

"They you go, Harry," Amara said, tipping a pile of sweets onto his lap. "We got as many as we could."

"Thanks," said Harry. "What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?"

Amara, Hermione and Ron eagerly explained all the places they had been and he listened, looking amused.

"What did you get up to, then?" asked Amara.

"Did you get any work done?"

"No," said Harry. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office. And then Snape came in and gave him this smoking goblet and he and Lupin talked about him taking more – and then he drank it all!"

"Lupin drank it?" Ron asked, gobsmacked. "Is he mad?"

Hermione looked at her watch. "We'd better go down, you know, the feast'll be starting in five minutes …"

"Why would Lupin drink it?" Amara asked as they went out the portrait hole. "I mean, surely Snape didn't poison Lupin on purpose – everyone would know it were him!"

"I don't know," said Harry as they entered the Great Hall. It was looking spectacular – candle-filled pumpkins were everywhere; live bats were fluttering amongst the students and flaming orange streamers were wiggling around the now stormy ceiling up ahead.

Amara managed to have a second helping of everything – even if she did feel slightly sick afterwards – because the food was delicious. Ron and Hermione ate second helpings too, as well as most of the people on the Hogsmeade trip.

At the end of the feast, the school ghosts put on a little show – Nearly Headless Nick put on a re-enactment of his be-heading.

Amara had enjoyed her day, and as she was walking up the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower, she was only thinking about settling down for a nice sleep in her bed. But when they got to the corridor which had the Fat Lady on it, it was crowded with Gryffindor students, all trying to get into the common room.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" asked Ron.

The portrait was not open, though, so more and more people jammed up the corridor.

"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice. "What's the hold-up here? You can't all have forgotten the password – excuse me, I'm Head Boy –"

But then, starting at the front and ending at the back like a Mexican wave, silence went through the crowd.

"Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

"What's going on?" asked Ginny, who had just arrived.

"We don't know," said Amara. "The Fat Lady isn't opening up."

Professor Dumbledore arrived a moment later, sweeping through the crowds and to the portrait. Amara, Hermione, Ron and Harry all squeezed forwards to see what was happening.

"Oh my god," said Amara, gasping.

The Fat Lady was no longer in her painting – in fact, nothing really remained of it, unless you counted the strips of canvas hanging off and large chunks on the floor below.

Professors McGonagall, Lupin and Snape arrived at the scene, immediately going to the painting.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" cackled a loud voice from above them.

Amara looked up to see Peeves bobbing up and down, grinning.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" asked Dumbledore.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir," he said in an oily voice. "Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between trees. Crying something dreadful. Poor thing."

"Did she say who did it?"

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, see." He flipped over and grinned. "Nasty temper, he's got, that Sirius Black."