In His Shadow (A Harry Potter Fan Fiction)

Chapter 20- Hogsmeade

I pulled my woolly hat on, along with a scarf, and made my way out to meet Fred.

A couple of Slytherins gave me some strange looks. They probably wondered why I wasn’t on my way to Hogsmeade with Zach or Eleanor.

Fred was standing outside with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. I crept up behind him and pulled his off his woolly hat. He turned around,

“Hey! Give me my hat back!”

I giggled,

“Why should I?”

He tried to pull it out of my hand,

“It’s cold!”

I grinned,

“Okay, I’m sorry.”

I put the hat back onto his head, stretching it over his eyes. He pulled it back up,

“Come on, newbie. Let’s go before Zach and Eleanor track you down.”

We walked down a path, behind lots of other students. I pulled a bag of galleons out of my pocket,

“What can I buy in Hogsmeade?”

Fred grabbed onto my hand and pulled me down the path,

“Anything! Hogsmeade has it all!”

The path led us right into Hogsmeade. First, Fred took me to Honeydukes. After browsing through different sweets, I bought a chocolate frog and a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.

We exited the shop, and I held out the box to Fred,

“Treat yourself to a sweet, Freddo.”

He picked one and took a bite. After a couple of seconds, he spat it out on the floor,

“Agh! Why am I so unlucky? I got a vomit flavour one! Why me? Why couldn’t the newbie have got it?”

I leant against a shop window and tried to stop myself from laughing. I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks. Students walking past were staring at me, but I was laughing too much to care.

After a couple of minutes, I hit Fred on the back,

“How unlucky.”

He grinned,

“I will never eat one again. I honestly thought I had mastered those sweets!”

I raised my eyebrows,

“Not quite yet, my friend.”

We walked into Zonko’s, and began to look at all the different jokes. Fred smiled,

“Did you know why everyone was staring at you?”

I shrugged,

“Probably because I was laughing loudly.”

He shook his head,

“Most Slytherins don’t laugh like that. They would probably snigger with an evil look on their faces and walk away. You were actually laughing at something funny. Most students are probably wondering why you’re in Slytherin at all.”

I shrugged my shoulders,

“Beats me.”

I grabbed lots of stuff from the shelves and walked over to the till. As I passed my money over, I noticed Zach and Eleanor walking past the shop. They weren’t talking to eachother, just looking around with a frustrated expression.

The man in the shop passed me my bag. I muttered a quick thank you and ran over to Fred. He frowned at the frantic expression on my face,

“Ava? What’s up?”

I pulled him behind a shelf,

“I just saw Zach and Eleanor. I think they’re looking for me.”

He nodded,

“Right. I’ll buy my stuff, and then we’ll have to run.”

I frowned,

“Run where?”

He just smiled,

“You’ll see.”

I gulped nervously. Zonko’s Joke Shop was Fred’s favourite place to go in Hogsmeade. Zach and Eleanor probably knew that.

Eleanor’s icy voice sounded from nearby,

“Fred! Where is Potter?”

I cringed and ducked down further.

“I’m George. I don’t know where Ava is. She’s probably in the Three Broomsticks.”

“Of course! She’ll be trying out butterbeer with her brother and the mudblood.”

I waited a couple of seconds before Fred appeared next to me. I looked around,

“Where’s George? He basically just saved me.”

Fred winked,

“I had to do some quick thinking there. I pretended I was George. Let’s just hope Eleanor doesn’t bump into the real George on the way to the Three Broomsticks.”

I hugged him,

“You’re amazing, did you know that?”

He grinned,

“It has been said.”

We walked out of the shop, quickly looking around for any spying Slytherins. As soon as it was all clear, we started to walk down the road. I didn’t have a clue where we were going.

After about ten minutes, Fred stopped outside a pub. I raised my eyebrows,

“Is this it?”

He nodded,

“Welcome to the Hog’s Head.”

We walked into the pub. There was a cluster of students sitting down, and in the middle of them all were Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Fred smiled,

“Sorry we’re late! We had to stop off at Zonko’s on the way!”

Late for what? Was this some kind of meeting?

Harry smiled at me, but he looked a bit nervous.

“Fred,” I muttered, “what’s going on?”

He patted my shoulder,

“You’ll soon find out.”