The Red Skies Above

Chapter V

The world came slowly to a stop and Hermione lifted the Time Turner from my neck and put it down her shirt.

I looked around the room we had landed in. The walls were completely blank except for a blank piece of canvas hanging on the wall. There was one window about two feet wide and tall, letting in the only light, although there wasn't much, for it was nighttime outside. This was the room Harry and I had shared when we were at the Order of the Phoenix.

Hermione faced me, looking a bit queasy and said, "We can take the Knight bus to Hogsmeade, and then sneak through somewhere in Hogwarts, meeting Harry in the common room. Of course, we'll have to switch with our real selves so that no one sees double, but that shouldn't be too hard." She headed for the door.

I didn't question her plan, but something else dawned on me. "Erm, Hermione? You don't happen to know when the Order meets, do you?"

Hermione looked bewildered. "No, I don't, Ron. But they wouldn't be having meetings. Ever since Voldemort took over eight years ago-oh!"

I nodded. "Yup. They stopped meeting after You-Know-Who took over, eight years ago, or should I say they stopped meeting tomorrow."

"Maybe Dumbledore packed something like the Invisibility cloak that we could use?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, why would he have the Invisibility cloak? It's in my closet at the Burrow. He only packed the Pollyjuice, antidote, some Sickles, and the Time Turner. None of that would help any." As I finished speaking, a noise was heard outside the door. Someone was coming!

Hermione and I looked at each other and then at the window.

"Hermione! Go fast! I'll seal the door, but they'll be through soon!" I whispered.

She stood on top of the desk in the corner and hoisted herself through the window as I quickly whispered, "Colloportus!" Just as someone attempted to open the door.

"Oh, come on, you!" I heard Molly Weasley say.

I scrambled over to the window and tried to get out, praying that she didn't realize who had shut the door. I finally budged through and landed on the ground one story below the window. I grasped my left wrist as pain shot through it. Hermione was next to me clutching one of her ankles, but when she noticed I was looking at her, she let go hurriedly and began to run to the street to signal the Knight Bus. I quickly followed her, trying not to anger any of the plants in the garden we had fallen in.

Once we scrambled to the curb and Hermione stuck out her right hand, the Knight Bus instantly appeared. I just hoped no one in Grimmauld Place had noticed the purple triple-decker. The door to the bus opened and out came a boy with a horrible case of acne.

He saw us and began a speech. "Welcome to the Knoight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand 'and, step on board, and we can tike you anywhere you want to go. My nime is Stan Shunpike-"

I cut him off. "Thanks for that lovely speech, Stan, but we really need to get to Hogsmead!"

Stan looked a bit flustered. "All you had t' siy, mite, woz you really needed t' get t' 'Ogsmead. I would 'ave allowed ya in, fer sure, but since I now see that ya don' care about what I siy, I'll just 'ave to leave ya 'ere," and he began to shut the door, when another voice from inside barked at him to be nice to the "lovely young witch and wizard." Stan immediately reopened the door and lied most unconvincingly, "I woz just joshin' ya. Er, come on in an' I'll stop treatin' ya like rubbish."

Pushing past him, I dropped eleven Sickles into his outstretched hand, and headed for the very back of the bus, my head looking at the floor for fear of being noticed by anyone. Before we completely sat down, the bus lurched forward and I was thrown into the wizard sitting in the bench to my right.

"Sorry, sir," I mumbled, still looking down incase he recognized me for being a juvenile.

"Weasley?" it was more of a statement than a question and he spat it like the word was a poison on his lips.

I quickly glanced up at the man. He was dressed in a long black robe with a clasp of a snake. I didn't need to see his face to know who it was: Lucius Malfoy.

"What are you doing here, Weasley?" he was looking at me suspiciously and for once I was glad that I was in my seventeen year old body, or my hair wouldn't have hidden my face.

I quickly adopted a brogue. "Er, no, I'm sorry, sir, but there must've been some mistake. I'm not after knowin' this Weasel you're speaking of."

Lucius studied me closely. "What's your name, boy?"

I quickly racked my brain and said the first non-Weasley name that came to mind. "I'm Barney McKinnon, sir, and I'm sorry for bumping into you." By now Hermione was looking in my direction to see what had happened. Lucius noticed this.

"Who's she?"

"She's, er, me cousin Maebh," and to lose his interest in "Barney McKinnon" I rambled on. "She's on me Father's side, don't you know? We seldom see each other so we decided to take ourselves a little holiday in Hogsmead. She does love that town, don't you know, especially the Three Broomsticks and Zonko's. She once got this wee little thing that could shout out anything you wanted it to, but her mum got real annoyed with it and squashed it with her foot, and do you know what? I swear by the holy Saint Bridget the little bugger started to bleed some oil or something that really looked interesting, so she-"

"That is enough, boy," Lucius ordered, signaling for me to go back to "Maebh."

I bowed slightly and returned to Hermione's side.

"What happened?" She asked immediately after I sat down.

"Oh, nothing other than running into Lucius Malfoy. I wonder why he's not at Hogwarts in the attack? Oh, wait, he's looking over here. Look out the window. You've got to speak in a brogue, Hermione. I told him you're my cousin Maebh and we're visiting Hogsmead on holiday," I said quickly, keeping an eye on Lucius.

"Who might you be telling him you are, surely?" Hermione asked in a horrible stage brogue.

"Er, I told him I was Barney McKinnon. I think he swallowed it."

"You what?" Hermione snapped. "Begorra, why isn't he at Hogwarts? Why isn't he fighting full boldly along side the Death Eaters? Why isn't he-"

Stan had come within earshot. "So, 'oo are ya, and why are ya on the Noight Bus in the middle of a school noight? You, guhl, don' look any older than sixteen, and by yer destination, I'm guessin' ya go to 'Ogwarts, am I roight?"

"I'm H-Maebh, Stan," Hermione began in an English accent until I elbowed her in the ribs and she began talking in her horrible stage brogue. "Sure and Barney and I are on a tiny wisp of a holiday to Hogsmead. He's twenty and I'm eighteen. He's me cousin, you see, on me dear Mither's side."

"Ow, riley? Nice t' meet ya, Barney!" He said, extending a hand to me, which I shook. "What's yer loin a wuhk?"

"Erm, I study the dragons. Bleedin' dangerous work, don't you know," I informed him.

"Noice job! Now, would ya moind tellin' me whoy yew 'ad a British accent when ya came on the bus, and now yew 'ave an Oirish one?" Stan asked, a glint in his eye.

"Alright. I'm not really Maebh," Hermione confessed, dropping the brogue. "I'm Hermione and this is Ron. We're students at Hogwarts and we need to get to Hogsmead as fast as possible!"

"Sorry, but the shor'est possible toyme for that trip would be around two hours, judging boi the amount of people on this 'ere bus," Stan told us.

I rounded on Stan. Because of all of my stress, I found myself yelling at the top of my lungs. "Look, Stan. We need to get to Hogwarts to save one of our friends. You've probably heard of him. His name's Harry Potter. You know. The boy who lived. But if we don't make it to Harry in time, he'll be the boy who was ruthlessly killed by You-Know-Who while his friends were stuck on a bloody bus! And you don't want that on your conscience, do you, Stan? You don't want to be responsible for Harry Potter's death, do you? Do you?"

I realized what I had done too late. Everyone on the bus was staring at me, and the driver Ernie had even pulled us to a stop to be able to see what was going on behind him. Lucius stood up, his eyes glued to the three of us, and with a sound like the crack of a whip, he was gone.

I groaned, exasperated and let out a long string of swear words, banging my head against the seat while Hermione tried to explain to the bus's contents that I was not mental, but merely extremely stressed.

Stan nodded his head a few times, his eyes wide and focused on me and said, "Be back in a tick," before hurrying to the front of the bus.

He returned several minutes later. "We should be arroiving in 'Ogsmead in a few," he informed us, keeping an eye on me. "You can get off there and then walk the rest of the woy t' 'Ogwarts."

The bus finally came to a halt, and we walked down the aisle to the door, trying to avoid the stares and odd looks people were giving us. Stepping out into Hogsmead Square, Hermione and I took off at a run as soon as the bus had disappeared.

Hermione grabbed my arm and disappeared behind the corner of a building, yanking me with. When our eyes met, I could tell she was furious. "What did you do that for? You yelled out why we were on that bus and the entire bus heard you, not to mention the fact that Lucius knows we were there! You are so thick some times, Ron! How could you have done that?"

"Look, Hermione. I have waited eight years in mourning for Harry. His death affected me much more than you. No!" Hermione tried to interrupt me. "Then I finally got the chance to make everything better, and guess what? We get stuck in traffic!"

Hermione reacted in defense to my accusation. "Well, Ronald, I didn't think that you were that stupid. I guess you proved me wrong. Only an idiot would react the way you did in that situation. Why didn't we just go to Malfoy manor and tell Lucius and all the Death Eaters that we were here to save him? You are so thick! Forget the Death Eaters! You're going to get us killed!"

I acted before my mind could scream at me not to. I didn't even notice what I had said until I saw the look on Hermione's face. "You never even cared for Harry!"

Hermione looked at me surprised that I had actually said that to her. I turned away, ashamed. "Hermione, I'm-I'm sor-" I began.

"Forget it," Hermione snapped, turning into a cat and taking off down the alley. I became a dog again and chased after her, and soon we were streaking across the town of Hogsmead and towards a wrought iron gate with the words, "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and wizardry," in shimmering gold iron at the top. On either side of the gate was a gargoyle shaped like a winged boar.

As we neared the castle, I began to see the Death Eaters assembled around the school, blasting it with every colored spell I could think of. For a moment, I thought that the defenses of Hogwarts had already failed, but with the jet of an especially bright spell, I saw the slight shadow of a hemisphere protecting against the Death Eaters. They were all aiming at a spot right in front of a figure in a billowing, ripped, blood red cloak. Even though the cloak's hood was up, I knew who it was.

Hermione started to head towards the other side of the castle where the tallest tower stood, when, out of nowhere, Dumbledore appeared in the dome. He stared at Hermione for a moment, and then she took off in full speed towards a small bush on the side of the Gryffindor Tower. To my surprise, she slipped through the bubble that was shielding Hogwarts, and disappeared into a mist inside.

I ran to the spot where she had been, and walked through a sort of tunnel, and heard a sound like a gun shot as the tunnel closed behind me.

What I had stepped into was a mist filling the inside of the dome, no doubt some sort of defense against the Death Eaters. Looking around, I recognized everything from my childhood, and in the distance, I thought I saw Hagrid's hut, the insides dark and lifeless.

Dumbledore turned to Hermione and me. "Near the base of the tower, there is a crack. Slip through it and you'll find yourselves in the Gryffindor common room. All of the students are in their dormitories. You'll have to find yourselves, and switch with them. Make sure Harry doesn't notice," with a smile Dumbledore added, "I've been waiting for you to show up for a few minutes. It's so good that you're here to save Harry. And now, I bit you farewell. We will not meet again in this world, but possibly only in the rewards we await."

Farewell, old friend, I thought, though something interrupted my thoughts.

And farewell to you, Mr. Weasley.

I spun around to look at Dumbledore who was still standing before me. It's a little something called telepathy, Ron, and with that Dumbledore walked away towards the Great Hall.