"Are you coming this time?" Hermione asked as they sat in their room. There was another Hogsmaede weekend this week and Hermione had been trying to convince Abigail to come this time around. "It's so much fun, it'll be worth it."
Abigail sighed, "I don't know. I have a lot of work to do." Which wasn't a lie, per se, but it wasn't the truth either. She was honestly exhausted and had barely been sleeping. And when she was sleeping it was plagued with dreams.
"Oh, come on!" she tried. "If you come, I can help you with whatever you have left."
"I'll think about it," she replied, hoping it would placate the girl. Abigail didn't have anything against Hogsmaede she just thought it was a pointless trip. What good does spending money you don't have do when you could just stay in a huge castle that had free food?
"Fine," she huffed. "We're supposed to leave in a few hours though," she reminded her. "Ron and I could use the company."
"Take Harry then"
"He can't come, remember?" Hermione inquired. "His guardians never signed his permission slip."
"Not even sure you could call them guardians," Abigail scoffed. She ran a hand through her hair as she shook her head, "Did you know they made him sleep in a closet under the stairs?"
"Well, yes," she nodded solemnly, "But he doesn't anymore."
Her nose wrinkled slightly, "You guys say that like it makes it okay."
"It doesn't," she replied. "But they're trying."
"Are they?" she inquired. "Because it seems to me that they're just terrified of magic so they do the bare minimum to take care of him. I mean, why take him in to begin with if they weren't going to actually take care of him as they should?"
"I don't know," Hermione answered. "I don't know much, you'd have to ask Harry."
"About his neglectful and abusive guardians?" Abigail asked. "Yes, that ought to be easy to bring up."
"I have to get ready to go," she explained with a slight frown, "Are you coming?"
Abigail nodded reluctantly, "Alright, fine. But not for too long."
They both got changed and were ready to go in no time, dressed for snow. "Let's go before I change my mind," Abigail suggested, ushering the girl out.
"It's meant to be the most haunted building in Britain," Hermione explained as they stood behind the gate that surrounded the Shrieking Shack. "Did I mention that?"
"Twice," Ron confirmed.
She looked over at him, "Do you want to move a bit closer?"
"To the Shrieking Shack?" he gulped. He glanced back at Abigail, clearly hoping she would decline the offer for him. "I'm fine here."
"There's not much we can do closer that we can't do here," Abigail pointed out. "You guys want to head to the Three Broomsticks? It's getting cold."
"Well, well," Draco Malfoy spoke up from behind them and Abigail rolled her eyes. "Look who's here." The three of them turned around to see an overly amused boy observing them. "Shopping for your new dream home?" he inquired, gesturing toward the Shrieking Shack before addressing Ron, "Bit grand for you, isn't it, Weasel-Bee? Doesn't your family sleep in, uh, one room?"
Ron's fists were clenched at his sides, "Shut your mouth, Malfoy."
"Not very friendly," he tutted with a raised eyebrow. He glanced back at the two who had tagged along with him. "Boys, I think it's time we teach Weasel-Bee how to respect his superiors."
Abigail stepped forward, a scowl clear on her face, "The fact that you deem yourself as superior tells us everything we need to know about your standards, Malfoy." She crossed her arms over her chest as she continued, "You're not even half as grand as you'd like to make others think."
"Don't you talk to me," Draco snarled. He stepped closer so that he was towering over her and his voice dropped so only she could hear him. "With a father like yours, you're as much of a disgrace as that filthy mudblood." Abigail spat in the boy's face and he took a step back, his face reddened with anger. "You-" he began but was cut short when a snowball nailed him in his face. He looked around, "Who is that?"
Whoever the culprit was, was rendered invisible as they continued to pelt snowballs at Draco and his goons. They all stumbled backwards. "Don't stand there!" Draco scolded his friends, "Do something!"
"What?" one of them gaped, clearly unsure as to how they were supposed to stop someone they couldn't see. Before they could even make an attempt at doing something, however, his hat was pulled down to cover his face and his pants were yanked down. He moved to pull the hat back up but he was pushed forward, face first into the snow.
The other was grabbed by the scarf and spun around. When he was released, he grew dizzy and fell over. Draco was unable to run in time as he was dragged off by his feet. "What's the matter, Malfoy?" Ron inquired in amusement. "Lost your skis?"
"Out of the way!" Draco demanded once he had managed to scramble to his feet. The three of them made their way up the snow covered hill and Draco pushed the two out of the way so he could get away faster, "Move!"
Ron, Hermione and Abigail we're all laughing when the tails on Ron and Abigail's hat began to move seemingly on their own and then Hermione's hair did as well. "Harry!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Bloody hell, Harry," Ron muttered once a laughing Harry had revealed himself. "That's not funny." And despite him saying it wasn't, the four of them all fell into a fit of laughter, unable to contain themselves.
The three of them made their way through town and Abigail addressed Harry, "Do you really think it's a good idea for you to be here?" She looked around for a moment, "It's not that I don't want you here, it's just...What if Sirius Black shows up?"
"I don't have to worry about that when I have this," he informed her as he held up what appears to be a map. "It's called the Marauder's Map," he explained, "But it shows me where people are."
Abigail's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she looked down at the seemingly blank piece of paper, "Where did you get it?"
"Fred and George gave it to me."
"Those weasels!" Ron exclaimed. "Never told me about any Marauder's Map."
"He won't keep it," Hermione pointed out, "He'll turn it over to Professor McGonagall." She then turned to look at Harry, "Aren't you?"
"Sure," Ron scoffed. "Along with his Invisibility Cloak."
"Look who it is," Hermione spoke up with an amused expression on her face, "Madam Rosmerta." They all looked over to the Three Broomsticks. "Ron fancies her."
"That's not true!" he protested, but it was clear that the blush on his face wasn't from the cold.
"Professor McGonagall!" the Minister of Magic shouted, drawing the three's attention back to the pub.
"Cornelius!" she replied in greeting.
"Allow me, minister," Hagrid spoke and he moved to help Fudge down."
"Rosmerta, my dear," Fudge greeted as she stepped out of her pub, "I hope business is good."
"It'd be a lot better if the Ministry wasn't sending dementors into my pub every other night!" she exclaimed, clearly irritated with the new precautions being made throughout Hogsmeade.
Fudge shook his head, "We have a killer on the loose!"
"Sirius Black in Hogsmeade!" the women snickered. "And what would bring him here." The Minister mumbled something in response that clearly took her by surprise. "Harry Potter?" she repeated, much louder than the Minister had.
"Come," he suggested and he entered the building, followed by Rosmerta and McGonagall.
"Harry!" Abigail shouted after the boy as he slipped into the bar, invisible cloak keeping him from being caught. Abigail, Ron and Hermione quickly ran over and tried to enter but the shrunken heads scolded them.
"No underage wizards allowed in today!" one of them shouted.
"Shut the damn door!" the other yelled.
"So rude," Hermione scoffed.
"Thick heads," Ron mumbled before the three turned around and left. They made their way over to a bench and awaited Harry's re-emergence with whatever information he would learn.
"Ron, Abby, look!" Hermione suggested and the three got up from the bench upon seeing the invisible footprints being made in the snow as someone ran through the crowds of people. Abigail was quick to run after him as he passed through a crowd of confused chorus singers.
"Sorry," Hermione apologized as Abigail ran through the crowd without a word to anyone, "Excuse me."
"Merry Christmas," Ron nodded in acknowledgement and eventually, the two caught up with Abigail.
She took a few steps forward to go to where Harry was sitting but Ron tried to stop her. She shrugged his hand off. Abigail walked over to the rock that was sniffling and knelt down cautiously beside it. She reached up and pulled the invisibility cloak off the boy and revealed a crying Harry. "Harry," she began, "What happened?"
"He knew them," he explained simply and she grew confused.
"What?"
"He knew them and he betrayed them." He looked up at the girl and she could see the bitterness in his eyes, "But you knew that already, didn't you?"
"Harry, I-"
"In every story you told me about my dad," he began, "You could have told me. You could have told me that Sirius Black was one of those friends. That he was my godfather."
"What's going on?" Hermione asked as she approached them cautiously, Ron following closely behind.
He stood up and faced Hermione and Ron, his anger getting the best of him, "He was their friend!" Hermione and Ron exchanged a worried look and Abigail remained kneeling on the ground with her head in her hands. "I hope he finds me," he informed them. "Because when he does, I'm gonna be ready!" Abigail looked up to see the pure rage on the boy's face as he added, "When he does, I'm gonna kill him!"