Dream a Little Dream For Me

Chapter Two -

Not In Kansas Anymore

Sarah blinked her eyes sleepily and sat up. She was sitting on the floor of the History of Magic classroom; the window was intact and she was all by herself. "Draco?" she called out, "Draco - are you there?" But she was met only by silence. A little put out, she got to her feet, her head swimming, and looked out the window; the mid afternoon skies where clear once again. She looked at her watch, it read ten past three. I've been out for a good half hour, she though worried. What's happening?

With that, she stepped across the classroom, opened the door, and walked out into the corridor. She needed to find someone with answers, and she wasn't going to do it hanging around in some old classroom.

***

Draco screwed up his eyes. His head was banging something rotten; his hand came groggily up to rub his temples, but to little effect. What the Hell was going on? What had that been outside the window - had it really exploded?

After a minute or two he realized he was lying down...but it didn't exactly feel like the stone paved floor of the History of Magic Classroom. There was a murmur of sound about him; incomprehensible to him through the steady rhythm pulsating against his brain.

"Draco?" he thought he heard someone say. "Draco are you okay?" He didn't recognize the voice, and as he gradually opened his eyes, he didn't recognize the face either. Not straight away at any rate.

He was in a bed...no, it was a couch. There were a great many people kneeling and standing around him as he blinked a number of times and sat up. "What...where am I?" Draco managed through dry lips. He rubbed his eyes, blinked once more, then finally focused properly on the scene before him.

"What the...!" he cried involuntarily, and promptly fell off the green velvet sofa and onto the hard, cold floor of the Slytherin common room. Pansy Parkinson, the girl who had been speaking to him, quickly dropped to her knees beside him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Draco!" she cried, "you're okay - you just...fainted, that's all." She winced as she said it, as if he might strike out and hit her for suggesting such a ridiculous idea. Instead, he merely stared at her in a rather ungraceful manner.

"What the Hell are you doing here?!" he demanded, scandalized after a moment or so's frenzied thinking. "You - you left the country - with your mother after your father was arrested - what the...I don't-"

Pansy looked horrified. "My father hasn't been arrested Draco - what are you talking about?" She reached up and went to stroke his face. As a knee jerk reaction, Draco snapped his head back and leapt to his feet, making his vision swim sickeningly.

"Don't you touch me!" he cried. As he stood he took a good look at the rest of the crowd watching him in wonder. "What are you looking at?!" he yelled at them; and then, after a thought, "and what the Hell am I doing back in the Slytherin common room?" Pansy looked at a couple of boys (and Draco used the description only loosely) to her left, a frown forming on her brow.

"Draco - we were all in here - playing chess and stuff - and you, well, collapsed on the floor - that was about half an hour ago. We were going to get the nurse, but-"

Draco didn't let her finish. "I was not playing chess!" he cried, the confusion getting the better of him. "I - I was in the History of Magic classroom, there was a storm..." he trailed off, the blank expressions of the crowd undermining what he was saying. He really, really didn't like what was happening here. He never thought he'd be back in this dungeon again, and now he was looking properly at the faces before him, there was definitely something odd going on. He didn't recognize half the people, some were familiar from when he was a Slytherin in the first and second years, and some...some were...wrong?

"Blaise?" he said uncertainly, and stepped towards a tall girl near the back of the crowd. "Blaise Zabini?" The girl's amber eyes flew open wide in shock at being spoken to. Draco reached her, ignoring all the stares he was getting from the unfamiliar faces, and took a good look at his childhood friend. "What happened to you?" he said, taking hold of her shoulders as she tensed up and made to flee. Draco had seen Blaise at breakfast; she had been self assured and friendly as usual. But now she shrunk from his attention and hid behind waist-length hair that should have been cropped behind her ears. And still she didn't speak to him, as if too afraid.

Draco let go of her and she pushed her chocolate coloured hair out of her face, before running for the dormitories. The blond boy watched after her in complete disbelief. Pansy had her arms crossed behind Draco, and was looking distinctly annoyed at him paying attention to another girl when she had been the one looking after him.

"Draco," she said, "just what has got into you?"

"Yeah Malfoy," said one of the boys who looked remarkably like an ape. "You're acting all funny."

"Don't you call me that again!" Draco hissed, spinning on his heals to face the two who had spoken. "My name is Draco, and I don't know what the Hell is going on here, but I am getting out of this miserable excuse for a common room and am going back to my own house."

Pansy looked thoroughly perplexed. "Draco," she said tentively as he stormed over to the door, "this is your house."

He grabbed the handle and yanked on the heavy lead hinges that released him from the dungeons, just the way he used to do years ago. The familiarity did not please him. He paused and looked back at the numerous confused faces watching him depart. "I am a Gryffindor," he told them, "and I am now leaving." And with that, he strode out the door, slamming it behind him.

***

The corridors in Hogwarts were pretty much deserted, as was per usual of a Sunday afternoon. Draco stormed along, only half aware of where he was going; his thoughts in a turmoiled frenzy. Just what on Earth was going on here? he thought desperately to himself. If he was truly honest, he might have had a suspicion or two, but he was not going to give merit to any of them until he saw some solid proof.

And where was Sarah? The though suddenly occurred to him that he had been with the youngest Potter when the storm had hit them. Why hadn't she ended up in the Slytherin common room?

Draco rubbed his still sore head and walked through a secret passage hidden behind a tapestry of some sort of wizarding duel. All he could think of was getting back to the Gryffindor tower. Even though it had only been a week, the place still felt more like home than anywhere else, and Draco wanted that reassurance. The sun beaming through the arched windows along the corridor was still strong, despite the season, and Draco was getting hot and bothered. Why had Pansy been there? What was wrong with Blaise? The questions just kept tumbling over one another in his mind.

"Draco!" He spun on his heals. A rather stressed looking Sarah Potter came flying towards him from round the corner. "Draco - what's happening?" she cried as she arrived in front of him and lent on her knees for support, breathing deeply from running. "I got lost...where did you go?"

Draco helped the young girl stand. "Honestly," he said, "I have absolutely no idea. To all of the above. I was going back to Gryffindor - seems liked the most logical thing to do. Everything else all seems to have gone a bit crazy."

Sarah looked at him, her breath steadying, and nodded; so the two started walking in the direction of the Gryffindor tower. Draco rubbed his temples again in frustration. "My head's killing me," he moaned, "are you alright?"

Sarah shrugged. "I'm fine," she told him as they ascended a staircase leading towards Gryffindor. "I was a bit dizzy, but that's all."

"That's-" started Draco, then paused as he yanked Sarah away from a disappearing step in the middle of the flight just in time. "That's odd," he finished.

"So where were you?" asked Sarah again. "I was still in the History of Magic classroom - you had vanished when I came round." She looked at him carefully. "You didn't leave me there, did you? Coz I got lost - I couldn't remember how I'd got there and I started to panic-"

"Oh don't be stupid," snapped Draco, but with no malice to his tone. "Of course I didn't...abandon you, or anything." He chewed his lip as he looked left and right down the corridors of a T-junction. Deciding right was the way they wanted, he carried on walking, Sarah just behind, still looking at the blond boy's profile.

"Well?"

Draco gave half a glance at Sarah and sighed. "I...I woke up in the Slytherin common room. It was very weird."

Sarah though a moment. "I bet it was," was all she had to say.

They had veered into a passageway filled with portraits, most of whom were sleeping in the afternoon heat. A rather ruckus knight came charging by on horse back, moving from painting to painting, mildly arousing the frames' occupants from their dozing with his cries of damsels in distress and dragons to be slain. "Well...that was interesting," said Sarah once he was gone.

Draco, however, didn't have time to respond. For at that moment, who should come striding round the corner from the vague direction of the library, but Hermione Granger. She had an armful of books, as per usual, and was engrossed so much in the prologue of the top volume that she almost walked headlong into both Draco and Sarah.

"Hermione!" cried Draco as she went marching past, and grabbed her arm to secure her attention. "Am I glad to see you - you won't believe-" But that was as far as her got.

As if his touch had scolded her, Hermione cried out and yanked her arm from his grasp, almost loosing her stack of books in the process. Regaining her balance, she flicked her eyes up and down Draco's figure in a gesture of disbelief, which soon gave way to a flurry of anger.

"How...dare you!" she gasped. "Don't you ever, ever touch me again, you horrid little ferret." She gave him one last scandalized glare, didn't even acknowledge Sarah's presence, then stormed off, disappearing round the other corner of the corridor.

Draco stared after her, completely dumbstruck.

"What was that about?" asked Sarah, perplexed, staring in the same direction. Draco's jaw clenched and he raised his chin resolutely, the old Malfoy recognizable for a brief moment.

"Nothing," he said sternly, turning on his heals. "Absolutely nothing."

"But-" started Sarah as she rushed to follow him.

"Come on!" he snapped a little louder than he meant to. He just wanted to get back to Gryffindor. Some how, he knew everything would be better once he got there.

***

It seemed to take forever to get to the portrait of the fat lady who guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor tower, but eventually Draco and Sarah came storming up to it.

"Red hot filibuster," said Draco, who reached the painting first. The fat lady shifted in her silky pink dress and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm afraid not dear," she said in her rather pompous accent.

"What!" cried Draco as Sarah caught up with him. "I've just about had enough of this; filibuster - red hot filibuster!"

"Don't you take that tone with me young man," snapped the fat lady, "I-"

But whatever the portrait was going to say was lost by the fact that at that precise moment she swung quite violently on her hinges and slammed into the wall. One of the third years, Natalie MacDonald, came charging out from the common room, full Quidditch robes billowing out behind her.

"Natalie!" said Sarah, "oh thank goodness - the fat lady wasn't accepting the password, we would have been stuck out here." Natalie paused briefly to look at them.

"I'm sorry - do I know you?" she asked, one eyebrow arched. She then seemed to visibly shake herself. "Look I'm late for reserves practice - sorry - er...glad to help - I'll see you later." And with that she darted off.

Sarah looked uncertainly at Draco. "What did she mean, 'do I know you?' - we sit together in Charms and Potions - we're room-mates for Christ's sake."

Draco shook his head. "I told you things were weird," he said, and climbed into the portrait hole as it the fat lady began to swing shut, a faint grumble about reckless students on her lips.

Draco reached a familiar scene of squashy armchairs and a blazing fire with numerous students milling about, doing homework, chatting and playing games. For a moment, as Sarah dropped to her feet beside him, Draco felt calm again. But it didn't last. A girl he didn't recognize with brilliant red hair was standing by one of the windows, riffling through a stack of parchment and talking to a shorter boy with mousy brown hair. The two laughed and the girl happened to look over in Draco and Sarah's direction. A look of confusion flashed across her face, only to be replaced with one of, well, horror. She gasped and let out a shrill yelp, before dropping her entire pile of papers. The people around her initially laughed at her apparent clumsiness, but as soon as they looked over in the same direction, the conversation stilted horribly.

Draco, despite his steely upbringing, couldn't help but feel a flutter of real nerves travel through his lower abdomen. He had received some pretty cold receptions since his transferal into Gryffindor, but nothing as bad as this. Something very wrong was going on here, and he had no idea what it was.

There was an extremely tense few moments were the entire room was staring at the two new comers (or more accurately, just one in particular), in which Sarah looked at Draco, who was watching the others back intently and nervously clenching his wand. He gave her no acknowledgment of the look, so she turned her head once more and observed the scene, biting her lip and trying desperately to think of something to say that would alleviate the unpleasant atmosphere.

Her rescue came in the form of three sixth years walking down the stairs from the dorms above; one of whom talking rather loudly in an extremely irate tone.

"I mean, he actually put his hand on me, grabbed me - I was so furious I could have hit him there and then but I had an armful of books and he was with a younger student - I didn't think it would have set a very good example to see one prefect belting another simply because he is a loathsome, arrogant, hateful little-"

Hermione Granger stopped mid-rant, her eyes falling widely on Draco and Sarah standing before her on the other side of the common room. There was a tall red headed boy standing to her left that Draco didn't recognize, and standing beside him, his face in an expression of utter disbelief, was-

"Harry!" cried Sarah. "What's going on?" She wrung her hands and stared anxiously at her brother, who stared back, brow creasing and mouth open, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite find the words.

Hermione, however, was not lost for words. "How...dare you!" she cried, storming across the room to face Draco directly. "What the Hell do you think you're doing - how did you get in our common room?!" The red headed boy was not far behind her. He pushed her out of the way and grabbed Draco by the collar, slamming him into the wall.

"I don't know what the bloody Hell you think you're playing at, but you get out of here and you leave Hermione alone right now - get it?!" Draco flung him angrily off and pushed him away. Sarah darted to his side.

"Don't you touch him!" she yelled at the boy, fully aware that everyone in the entire room still had their eyes firmly on them, hardly daring to breath for fear of missing what was going on.

Draco remained remarkably calm; his breathing was heavy, but he managed not to raise his voice. "Listen," he said through a clenched jaw, "I'm sorry Hermione - I didn't mean to upset you - I must have misunderstood..." he left it hanging as he looked at her, but she showed no sign of concern towards him. He felt a pain shoot through him that he remembered only from when his mother would tell him she was disappointed in him, the way only she could. He ground his teeth and looked away from her, showing no sign of emotion back. "And you," he continued to the red-headed boy, "I have no idea what I've done to offend you, but-"

"Breathing, Malfoy," interrupted the boy, "that's about all you have to do to offend me." There was a pause.

Draco stepped dangerously close to this boy, his eyes burning startlingly. "Don't you ever ...call me Malfoy again," he whispered. "Or I will give you something to be upset about."

The boy stared back, although clearly shaken, his gaze never wavered. Until someone spoke.

"Draco?" came a quiet voice from behind them. Hermione and the boy turned to look at the owner of the voice, as did everyone else in the room. Harry Potter was still standing exactly as he had been before; his eyes were shining but his posture one of strength. And then..."S-Sarah?"

"Yes Harry?" said the youngest Potter, confused. In one swift movement, Harry crossed the room, ignoring all the stares he was still getting from everyone, marched swiftly past Hermione and the boy, and swept Sarah up into his arms.

"Oh my God," gasped quietly, "I-I don't believe it, I-" He released Sarah from his embrace and held her at arms length, taking a good look at her shaking his head. "How-"

Draco watched as Potter hugged his sister again, and began to get an inkling as to what might have happened, just what a mess he might have gotten the two of them into, but it was interrupted. To the surprise and horror of most in the room, Harry Potter then released the black haired girl, turned, and embraced Draco like a brother.

***

"Harry Potter have you completely lost your mind?!" shrieked Hermione as Ron grabbed Harry and pulled him off the Slytherin boy.

"What the Hell Harry?!" he cried, but the boy just shook his head, tears in his eyes, and shrugged him off.

"No - you don't understand - it's them - it's really..." Harry turned away from his friends, unable to articulate what he meant. "It's me, Draco; it's Harry...you, you recognize me, don't you?"

"W-what?" stammered Sarah.

"It's Harry - from...from Germany. You've crossed over - haven't you?" Harry watched as Draco's eyes widened and Sarah looked uncertainly at him.

"Harry," croaked Draco, and flung his arms around him, leading to another eruption of sound from those around them. Harry ignored them, as did Draco. "Jesus Christ," he muttered, and let Harry go, a little embarrassed at his own sudden display of emotion. "Is it really you?"

"Harry," Hermione interrupted tensely before Harry could reply, "perhaps we should go somewhere a little more private," she said in a lowered voice indicating the rest of the common room who were still aptly listening.

"Er...yeah," said Harry, quite bewildered still. "Yeah - let's go upstairs." He turned and walked quickly back to the steps he had just come down, Draco and Sarah right behind him. He didn't see it, but Hermione and Ron shared a very concerned look between them before following as well.

***

Harry could hear the frenzied chatter in the common room getting quieter and quieter as he climbed hastily up the stairs to the sixth year boys' dormitory. His mind was reeling and he could barely keep a straight thought; he wanted to ask so many questions, but he thought it best to hang on until they got to the confines of their bedroom.

He finally came to the door and burst through, barely a pause in his stride. Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom were sitting on their beds, talking with Seamus Finnigan who was doing his homework. They looked up startled as Harry came charging in the room.

"Mate, what's going-" Dean cried, but he didn't finish his sentence. As Draco and Sarah stepped over the threshold the three boys already in the room stiffened immediately.

"What the bloody Hell is this about?" yelled Seamus, and jumped off his bed. "Get out of here," he shouted, "you miserable, scheming..."

"Seamus!" cried Harry, stepping in between Seamus as he stormed up towards Draco. "Don't! It's a little hard to explain, but it's not what you think!"

Hermione and Ron came into the room and stopped, watching the scene before them. Seamus clenched his fists, Dean was standing with a very dark look on his face, and Neville just looked worried. Draco was staring at Seamus as if he'd seen a ghost.

"What is it then?" snapped Seamus.

Harry didn't know what to say. "Er...it's complicated," he said again. "You - you couldn't give us five minutes could you?" Seamus narrowed his eyes.

"Five minutes," he said, and swept out the room. "Keep an eye on him," he said not so quietly to Ron as he went past, then stormed down the stairs, Neville and Dean not far behind.

As the door swung shut behind the three boys there was a moment of tense silence between the five remaining occupants. Harry looked at the two new arrivals, two people he thought he would never see again, and slowly found his voice. "Tell me what happened," he said softly.

"We were in the History of Magic classroom," began Sarah, "and then there was like a storm, and the window exploded - I woke up about half an hour later, but Draco was in the Slytherin common room with a splitting head ache. What's going on?"

"History of Magic?" said Ron slowly, "isn't that where-"

"Yeah," interrupted Harry. "But what happened," he directed at Draco, "were you having an argument or...or what? What triggered it?"

"I have no idea, Harry," replied the blond haired boy, "honestly, this storm just appeared out of nowhere. Harry," he continued carefully, "are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Harry turned on his heals and marched over to his bed. He dropped to his knees, fully aware the others were still watching, and pulled out his beloved photo album from underneath the bed.

"Last November-" he said as he crossed back over the room, album in hand. "Last November I triggered a Dimensional Leap by activating the Hotspot right outside the History of Magic classroom. I ended up in an alternate reality. Your reality." He stopped right in front of Draco, and let the album fall open at the very back page in his hands. "It now seems for whatever reason, you two have now crossed over into mine." With a flick of his wand he cried 'revelio!' and pointed to the album, and on the hard-backed cover of the book, a photograph slowly came into sight. It was a portrait of four people, professionally done, and not taken that long ago.

"Hey!" cried Sarah as they all craned their necks to get a good look. "That's the photo that went missing from our gallery - the last family portrait!" She looked at Harry in disbelief. "That means...it's really you?" Her eyes were wide and she looked at Draco.

"This is unbelievable," he said, "what are the chances?"

"Very high actually," said Hermione matter of factly. Harry looked at her as he snapped the book shut once more.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Hermione flicked her hair back. "You created a link - remember. That's how you were able to get back. They must have just fallen through the same 'door' that you used." Harry noticed she avoided actually looking at either Draco or Sarah when she spoke.

"Hang on," said Ron, "you're going to have to go back and explain this to me - that's not Malfoy?"

"No," confirmed Harry as he went and put the album back under his bed. "That's Draco from-"

"From when you landed yourself in an alternate reality. Okay...so who's, er..."

"Sarah, my...well my sister," said Harry a little uncertainly. It wasn't something he was used to saying after all. "She's my sister."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment where no one was quite sure what to say.

"Okay..." said Sarah slowly. "We're in an alternate reality...right?"

"Er...yes," said Harry, remembering how hard it was for him to believe it last November, and how it had been even harder to convince Hermione of the fact. Other Hermione that was.

"We don't know why or how though?"

"Well-" said Harry, looking at Hermione, who gave a small shrug of the shoulders. "No - not really."

"Oh," said Sarah, and bit her lip. "Would it be too optimistic to ask if you know how to get us home again?"

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. "Well...we did it before...it was relatively easy enough. I guess we'll just do the same thing again," said Hermione.

"Back to the library then?" asked Ron. Hermione nodded.

"Back to the library indeed."

***

The common room stiffened again as Harry and the others walked through, but the group ignored it on the whole. They walked out into the stone corridor, once more past the grumbling fat lady and into the brilliant Indian summer sunshine. Hermione was in the lead with Ron (both had their arms crossed), followed by a silent Draco, and then Harry with Sarah right beside him.

"I have a question," said the youngest Potter after a short time. "Why did Draco wake up in the Slytherin common room with near-concussion, when I stayed in the History classroom with barely a headache to speak of?"

"Did you?" said Harry to the blond boy, who turned and looked back at him with a shrug.

"Yeah - it was fun."

"Well, I presume that's where other Malfoy was when the transition took place, as they've swapped bodies," said Hermione.

Harry thought. "Well, Draco's taken Malfoy's body," he said, thinking back to his own dimension swapping episode. He really had no idea what had happened to their Malfoy, just as he didn't know what happened to the other Harry last November. He was just about to open his mouth and ask Draco about his counterpart when Sarah asked another question.

"But that doesn't explain why I didn't move - why didn't I wake up in the Gryffindor common room or the Great Hall or something?"

Harry stopped walking, causing the others to halt as well. He looked at his sister (the word still jarring in his mind as he used it) for a moment. "Sarah," he began carefully, "how much did Sirius tell you about the Alternate Realities?"

The black haired girl looked over her shoulder at Draco, then back to Harry. "Er...well, not much. That when we were in Germany....basically that whole thing wasn't my brother Harry, it was another Harry...you."

Draco looked at the two Potters. "Yeah - that's about all he told any of us - he seemed reluctant to say anything. Especially as any mention of the subject seemed to piss Potter off something dreadful," he added on an afterthought.

Harry sighed and looked at his two best friends. He'd barely told Ron or Hermione anything either, it was all a bit too painful, and he'd thought he would never have any contact with that world again anyway, so it also seemed rather pointless to talk about it.

He let out the breath he was holding. "Okay, well..." he began, but the sentence faltered before it had even began. Something had caught his eye out the window, in the direction of Hogsmeade, the nearby wizarding town.

"What is it?" cried Hermione, spinning on her heals to look in the direction of Harry's gaze, Ron right behind her.

"I thought I saw something," he replied, "but maybe not." The three of them continued their intense observation for a moment or two longer, then turned away from the window.

"What was that about?" asked Draco, an eyebrow raised.

The trio looked at each other; Harry shrugged. "The town's been on alert since Voldemort's public return; they'll send us a signal if something goes wrong, and I've just been having a bad feeling lately. It's probably nothing, but I like to keep an eye out."

It was an odd occurrence that not one of the group flinched at the use of the word Voldemort.

There was a pause. "So, what were you going to say," said Sarah, "just before?" Harry sighed.

"I was going to say this world is very different from the one you know Sarah." He had the rapt attention of the group now, he didn't particularly like it, but he kept talking regardless. "It came down to one simple fact; when I was a baby Voldemort was after me and my parents, so we went into hiding and chose Sirius to be our secret keeper. In your world he accepted the job, but here in mine, in an attempt to throw Voldemort off the trail he gave the responsibility to Peter Pettigrew, who betrayed them. On the Hallowe'en after my first birthday, Voldemort found Godric's Hollow...he killed my parents."

Hermione and Ron looked to the floor on this note, being more than familiar with Harry's tale of woe, but Sarah and Draco where very shocked.

"W-what?" stammered the young girl.

"He tried to then kill me - his original task - but because my mum had given her life to protect me the Avada Kedavra curse rebounded back on him, almost destroying him entirely...just like it did in Germany."

"Oh my God," said Sarah, her eyes as wide as saucers. "So, you're saying..."

"You were never born. Voldemort was gone, so the school never closed, not even to Muggle-Borns, and the Weasley family were never murdered."

"What?!" cried Ron.

Everyone looked at him. "That's Ron Weasley," said Harry to Sarah and Draco by way of an explanation.

"Oh," said Draco. Sarah looked very freaked out.

"I'm looking at a dead boy and technically I don't exist. Right, I've had enough, let's get to the library." And with that she turned on her heals and marched in the direction of the Hogwarts Library.

Unfortunately, the others had barely taken a step in her wake when a blinding explosion stopped them once more in there tracks. Shaken, Harry pelted over to the window again, a series of bright red flares shooting up in the sky before him. The sky above Hogsmeade. "Now I definitely saw something this time," he said to the others standing in horror beside him.

***

Draco could barely keep up with Harry as he torn down the corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Neither could the others in fact. Harry hadn't even had a chance to tell them where he was heading, a point Ron brought up as they charged through yet another tapestry and down another flight of stairs.

"Harry - what the bloody Hell are you doing - where - are - you taking us?" he gasped. Harry didn't even pause in his stride.

"The Honeydukes passageway - I have to get to Hogsmeade."

"Are you out of your mind?!" cried Sarah, "the place - is - under attack, we - we have to stay here!"

"None of you have to come," snapped Harry, perhaps a little harsher than he had meant to. They whipped round another corridor, and even he was starting to feel the strain on his system after ten minutes continuous sprinting; they slowed down as they reached the statue, behind which was a secret tunnel that would lead him directly into the cellar of the Hogsmeade sweet shop. What he did once he arrived there he would have to figure out later. "I can't just sit here and do nothing," he continued to the others as they leant on the walls for support and sucked oxygen into their struggling lungs. "I'm going to see what I can do to help, it's totally up to you if you stay here or not - in fact, it would probably be wiser if you-"

"Oh shut up Harry," interrupted Ron, who was looking even paler than usual after the sudden burst of activity. "Since when have we let you go on alone. You know, baring serious injury or physical barriers?" he added after a thought and another deep intake of breath.

Harry couldn't help but grin a little. "Like I said - up to you."

Hermione rolled her shoulders and took a steady breath. "Yes, Ron's right, I'll come too."

"And me," said Draco. His eyes were on Harry, but something about the way he was standing next to Hermione made the Gryffindor boy think for a moment. He didn't have time to ponder though.

"Right, okay - so when we get there, I want-"

"Hang on a minute," interrupted Sarah, "you're running headlong into danger...into a situation you know almost certainly to have rather violent Deatheaters involved in...and you're still doing it anyway? What are you thinking?! There are perfectly capable grown ups to handle this sort if thing!"

Harry rubbed his head; he didn't have time for this. "I know this probably seems weird to you, but I don't happen to have much faith in most 'grown ups' abilities to cope with things when Voldemort's around. Hence, I went to rescue you in Germany with Draco, and hence now I am going down to Hogsmeade and I - we - are going to help those people."

Sarah Potter's weight shifted uncomfortably as she thought about what Harry was saying. "Well...okay, I understand. And...I guess I'll come too, but I don't know how much good I'll be able to do."

Harry was just going say that she of all of them should probably stay behind, due to her limited practical knowledge of magic, but Draco piped up. "Don't worry kiddo," he said, "I'll look after you - best we stick together anyway." He looked at Harry, a slightly more serious expression adorning his features. "C'mon," he said, "we really should go."

Harry wanted to insist that Sarah stayed, wanted to keep her safe, but he realized there really was no time for a debate, so just nodded his head instead.

"Stay close," he instructed to the group as he tapped the statue on the head then gave the password. Obediently the stone creature sprung to life and moved aside so that the young group could squeeze their way past and into the tunnel.

"Another world, another crisis, another tunnel," said Draco after the statue had closed the passageway off again. "What is it about us Harry?"

"Just lucky I guess," he replied, appreciating the coincidence of the situation too. They made their way quickly along the irregular stone corridor, lit only by eerie torchlight, until they came to the trapdoor beneath the Honeydukes' cellar less than half an hour later. There hadn't been that much talking between them in that time.

"Right, stay close, stun anything that is suspicious looking, and well, just stay close to me - okay?" The others nodded, wands at the ready, and Harry, not dwelling too much on the situation, grabbed the handle of the trapdoor firmly and pushed.

The damn thing made a terrible screeching noise, and the five youngsters scrambled out from the tunnel and into the storage room as quickly as they possibly could, hiding behind a number of barrels of Bertie Bots Every Flavoured Beans. Harry held his breath, but after a minute of two he decided the coast was clear. "Come on," he whispered to the others, then pointed towards the stairs, signaling they should make their way up.

They made it up the wooden steps without too much fuss; they were far quieter than the door had been. Upon reaching the shop floor though, Harry immediately began to feel something was not quite right. The place was deserted, and not in a 'everyone's just run out of here in a mad panic' type of deserted Apart from the fact there were no people, the place seemed perfectly normal, nothing was disturbed or ransacked.

"Look," said Draco, and pointed through the shop window. Through the warped, old fashioned glass Harry, like Draco, could distinctly make out the shape of people milling around outside. The boys looked at one another.

"Let's go take a look," said Harry gingerly, and walked towards the door with the other four in tow.

Nobody seemed to particularly notice the five Hogwarts students emerging from the sweetshop, which was odd considering how many people there were on the street. Harry looked at his companions, who looked as if they were thinking the same thing as himself; this did not look like a town being overrun by the forces of the Dark Lord.

The people, to be fair, did look rather unsettled, and they were all talking with one another and looking up at the sky where the flares had been not that long before. But they were most definitely not under attack as the flares had suggested. Harry had enough. Making a decision, he walked over to the one familiar face he saw; Madame Rosmarta from the Three Broomsticks pub.

"Excuse me," said Harry politely, but the woman still jumped slightly at being addressed.

"Oh I am sorry Harry," she said, "didn't mean to - you startled me you see?"

"Sorry," said Harry genuinely, "I was just wondering if you could tell me what's going on?"

"Oh dear," she said, addressing the rest of the group as they approached as well. "It was You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters - they attacked the other end of the town. Old Bert in the tobacco store set off the alarm, and so the flares went up. It was chaos for about five - ten minutes, and then it just stopped. The officials showed up from your school, just as they're supposed to, but by the time they really got here, it was all over." She clutched at her neck scarf and looked about her again. "I really don't understand it - they just disappeared."

"Erm...thank you," said Harry to the fretful woman, then backed off, signaling the others to do the same. "Did you hear that?" he asked them once they were a fair distance away.

They nodded. "Yes," said Hermione, "what do you think it means?"

Harry shook his head back. "I don't know," he said, "I can't understand what-"

"Hang on," said Draco suddenly, "she said something about officials from the school?"

"Yeah," replied Ron, "they've got guys from the Ministry staying with us in case of a problem. An attack on the town would have probably brought them over here-"

"And away from the school."

"Oh God," said Harry, looking from Draco, up to the school, and then back to his long lost friend. "There was never a threat on the town, it was all-"

"A diversion," said the former Slytherin, all the colour draining from his already pale face.