Alone

Chapter 9

Jake and Derek finally arrived at the front entrance of Hogwarts. Derek was huffing and puffing and his bags lay at his feet.

"Next-" gasp for breath "-next time you decide to do this, please, hail a taxi or something," Derek gasped.

"There isn't going to be a next time; besides, you wanted to come with me," Jake pointed out. While Derek was red in the face and quite tired, Jake was feeling fine.

"I told you, you should've joined the gym with me," Jake told Derek smugly as the blond haired man tried to regain his breath. Derek muttered something that Jake didn't catch, but was sure that it was something that he didn't want to know.

Jake grinned as tugged his friend to his feet.

"Come on, time to go and brave Dumbledore," Jake said, his tone suddenly grim. Derek nodded at picked up his bags.

Entering the double doors, Jake wondered how he was going to explain him being here when he had clearly said that he wasn't coming back.

~~*~~

"The Ministry isn't doing anything!" an agitated member of the Order said heatedly that morning.

"No, Fudge isn't doing anything," Hermione, the rational person of the Order, shot back at Goyle. Goyle rolled his eyes and snorted.

"That's the same thing, Granger! No one in the Ministry is going to do anything because that idiot for a Minister is too blind to see what's in front of his eyes!" Goyle shouted.

"Yes, but Fudge-" Hermione started before Dumbledore cut her off.

"Please, both of you stop arguing. Us turning on each other is exactly what Voldemort wants."

Both members quietened down and sat back into their respective chairs, not looking at each other.

"I think Fudge doesn't know anything. I think the Death Eaters are controlling him or something," Draco suddenly said, causing the members to turn towards him.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked, the twinkle back in his eyes.

"Well, some of the higher members of the ministry I know for a fact are Death Eaters and if they feed Fudge completely different stories from what everyone else does, then Fudge would of course believe the Death Eaters. And he only believes them because he doesn't know better. I am willing to bet that they even said something like Dumbledore doesn't know what he's talking about and probably produced evidence of your mental state or something to say that you were mental," Draco explained in one breath. The rest of the Order all looked surprised.

"I mean, come on, if Fudge was this incompetent, why would the ministry hire him in the first place? Fudge has been around for as long as I can remember and he has done some good things in the past few years," Draco pointed out as the Order processed this. What Draco said was correct and it did make sense.

Before anyone could comment there was a knock at the door.

~~*~~

Jake trudged through the familiar halls of Hogwarts where the best six years of his teenage life was spent.

Nothing's changed much really, Jake thought as he led Derek towards the headmaster's office. No matter how many years have passed, Jake knew the school like the back of his hand. Well, as much of the school as he could remember and the route to the headmaster's office was one that was going to be permanently branded to the back of his mind.

Sighing out loud, Jake glanced at Derek to find that he was staring at the moving pictures on the wall.

"They're moving," Derek said breathlessly. Jake chuckled softly, but he was getting re-used to being in a magical environment as well.

After all, not being in one for a couple of years tend to make you forget things, Jake thought as he pried his friend away from the wall.

"I guess I forgot to tell you about moving pictures," Jake commented lightly as Derek whipped around and glared at him.

"Yes, and what else did you forget to tell me about? Dragons? Flying horses? Unicorns? Ghosts?" Derek listed off sarcastically as Jake hesitated.

"Well," he started as Derek stared at him.

"Are you telling me that they have all those things here?" Derek asked wide-eyed as Jake nodded.

"Yeah, the wizardry world does, but here at Hogwarts though, they only have ghosts and unicorns, amongst other things," Jake answered.

They had now arrived at the stone gargoyle, and Jake swallowed visibly and frowned.

"What?" Derek asked, starting to get worried. Being lost in a castle like this wasn't his idea of fun.

"I don't know the password," Jake croaked out as Derek groaned.

"Then what are we going to do?" he asked.

There were a few moments of silence before Jake brightened suddenly.

"I remember. Dumbledore likes sweets' names as his passwords, mainly muggle sweets I think, but sometimes not," Jake told Derek.

"Muggle?" Derek asked, thinking that to be called a Muggle was an insult.

"Non-magical people," Jake explained absently.

"Well that's just great, I sound like some pre-historic invention made by some blundering, idiotic moron that lived a few million years ago," Derek muttered sarcastically as Jake laughed.

"I guess you don't like being called a Muggle," Jake observed as Derek glared at him.

After trudging through God-knows-where for an hour and a half, dragging a heavy bag behind him, and then bombarded with moving pictures and ghosts, Derek was not in a mood to be called 'Muggle'.

"That is a bloody understatement," Derek answered as Jake grinned evilly, no doubt thinking up a plan to torment Derek further. But Derek didn't blame Jake; he could tell that he was doing to anything to stall having to go to Dumbledore's office.

"No use stalling Jake, faster we do this, faster we can get out of here."

Jake nodded and faced the gargoyle.

"Umm, lemon sherbet?" Jake tried.

The gargoyle didn't budge, but Derek looked at Jake as if he was crazy. Jake exhaled loudly and shrugged.

"You tell the password to the gargoyle," Jake explained and ignored the look Derek sent his way.

"If this is some joke then." Derek let the threat hang in the air as Jake waved his hand dismissively.

"Um, jelly beans?" Derek asked after some hesitation.

The gargoyle remained stationary.

"Sugar quills?"

"Jelly babies?"

"Chocolate frogs?"

"Skittles?"

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans?"

"Gummy bears?" Derek tried and a second later, the gargoyle jumped into two. Derek jumped as well, only he jumped back in fright and surprise. Jake stifled some laughter and turned his head and looked at the stairs.

Taking a deep breath, Jake walked up the first few steps and beckoned for Derek to follow him with the hand that wasn't carrying his luggage. Derek nervously stepped forward, but did as he mentioned.

The trip up the stairs, which usually took a long time, seems to pass in only a few seconds for Jake. When he stopped outside the door, he could hear one voice inside, though he couldn't quite hear what was being said. It sounded like something about Fudge and not knowing about Dumbledore's mental condition.

Jake shook his head and held up his hand, about to knock on the door when Derek stopped him.

"I know we have to do this, but I want you to promise me that if those people give you any kind of shit, you won't hold back and brood about their behaviour. Also, I want you to swear that you will not forgive them easily," Derek asked, almost in a pleading voice. Jake suddenly felt a rush of brotherly affection for his friend.

Jake nodded, to show that he agreed and that he knew that Derek cared. Derek squeezed his shoulder once and looked at the door; ready to face anything the room beyond might throw at them.

Jake knocked on the door.

~~*~~

Everybody in Dumbledore's office looked towards the door. Dumbledore frowned. He was sure he told the staff members that weren't in the Order that he wasn't to be disturbed that morning.

"Come in," Dumbledore called.

A few seconds later, the door opened hesitantly.

Two figures stepped into the light of the office.

One had black hair with auburn streaks in it and blue eyes. The other had blond hair and brown eyes.

Both were wearing Muggle clothing and carrying a suitcase each.

Hermione frowned. The black haired guy looked familiar, very familiar. She had a feeling she knew who he was, but couldn't quite grasp his identity.

In fact, it looked like the whole room seemed to find the dark haired stranger with the daunting eyes familiar.

Draco was the first person to speak.

"Well, well, Potter. And here I thought you weren't going to come. Guess you missed me too much; well, then again, who wouldn't?"