Despite his broad experience in travel, Gabriel himself had never developed a taste for it. To him, the hours of restless waiting in-between destinations were torture and only with tremendous self-control was Gabriel able to focus his attention on an activity rather than become overrun with impatience. So it was that in Mr. Granger's sedan Gabriel stared with a pained face out the window with Hermione opposite him in the backseat and certain objects about them meant to keep them occupied. Hermione had taken up a book which Gabriel had skimmed through swiftly before discarding it as unworthy of being read. Thinking of her now, Gabriel glanced sideways at her and caught the intense, absorbing look she wore when she read. As warm a feeling as he felt then, Gabriel could not forget his boredom and sighed loudly. Hermione's eyes moved from the pages to his and they connected.

"Oh Gabriel," exhaled Hermione, though without a hint of sympathy. He sat for a moment expending more, but she had already begun reading again. Gabriel began yanking the seat belt until he had more maneuverability. He lay down upon his back and settled his head down in Hermione's lap. For added effect Gabriel contorted his face into his enticing, signature puppy-look of pity. A look of irritation passed across Hermione's face, but she didn't reject him.

"How is this trip going to get any better Gabe with you making the worst of it? It honestly hasn't been horribly long since we last stopped you know?" said Hermione, but she knew it was futile to argue with him as he certainly had done enough traveling over the past month alone. Gabriel grinned and stretched himself futher so that he occupied the entire backseat from his hands against Hermione's window, his head resting against the door, to his legs scrunched against his own door. Satisfied with the new situation, Gabriel closed his eyes in hopes of passing the trip with a nap. Hermione's trapped hands began to move beneath his shoulder blades and in due time, after several jerks, she had freed the book. She took to using GabrielÕs chest as a prop and returned to her reading while shaking her head with both disapproval and amusement.

After twenty minutes of this situation, Gabriel awoke to the poking of Hermione's finger in his side. As he began to shift, Hermione was encouraged and moved her legs beneath his back to increase his awakening.

"Gabriel, you're starting to hurt my legs. You have to get off," Hermione said in a soft voice. He opened his eyes and forced himself up and back into his own seat. Hermione meanwhile was probing through the bag on the floor between them which had contained all of the materials to help pass the time away. She brought out a book that looked frequently used and wore a curious expression on her face. Gabriel looked at the book and immediately jerked over to grab it out of her hands. He narrowly missed it as Hermione moved it out of his reach.

"That's not reading material Hermione," said Gabriel flatly with his hand extended toward the book.

"Really?" Hermione replied and opened to the first page where there was Gabriel's familiar scrawling words all about. She began to flip page after page, "Gabriel, what is this?"

"It's not yours. Give it here Hermione!" he responded impatiently and began pulling on his seat belt for more slack.

"This is a journal isn't it? How exciting, what have you written about me in here?" asked Hermione, and she moved to the pages which seemed fresher and found his latest writing. As she began to read, with the most tantalizing look of pleasure on her face, Gabriel lurched over after having simply undone his seat belt. He began to grab for the journal, but Hermione kept moving it away and giggling selfishly.

"Here we are! Now the good stuff starts,' said Hermione before she began reading aloud to Gabriel, "...Hermione. Yesterday seeing her in the yard brought back so much, but there is something..." At this point Hermione ceased reading a loud yet her eyes continued to read.

Gabriel snatched the journal from her hands quickly and began moving back to seat. Hermione grabbed a hold of him, but he freed his wrist and put his seat belt back on. Hermione had never seen him so cross and the humor of the event began to whither. The remainder of the trip went without one another speaking.

Gabriel was not taken so much by the interesting appearance of the Weasley home, but rather the warmth of the setting of the Burrow. A sense of home hung upon everything like a young babe on its mother and eased the timidity in Gabriel which had been building for the entire trip.

A slightly plump woman with an alarming hair of red came from the door to great the guests. Mr. Granger greeted her and the two spoke while Hermione and Gabriel gathered together the materials all about the backseat of the car into the bag, with the exception of one which Gabriel had secured at his side between his hip and the waistband of his Jockeys. Molly Weasley watched Hermione as she emerged from the sedan, but at once her eyes switched to Gabriel as he appeared also. She spoke a little more with Mr. Granger before greeting Hermione with a hug and exchange of words. Mrs. Weasley then turned to Gabriel, who had since moved uneasily along side Mr. Granger.

"Gabriel is it? Hello, I am Mrs. Weasley. We're all very happy to have you stay here with us," Mrs. Weasley said. Before Gabriel could react the woman had wrapped him up in her arms giving him the impression that she was an especially emotional woman. Evidently Gabriel had a look of surprise on his face that met her fancy for when she looked at him she smiled. "Oh! Hermione was right, you are quite adorable...and quite the blusher!"

The group went to the house following Mrs. Weasley who was again speaking with Mr. Granger. Gabriel saw a look of immense anticipation on Hermione's face, but he noticed her eyes on his waist once for an abrupt moment as she passed him to enter the door inside.

Mrs. Weasley called several names Gabriel did not recognize, apart from one, up the stairs before welcoming the guests to sit down. Three boys appeared down the stairs, all of different heights. The middle boy began to search the room until his gaze locked on Gabriel, the void expression on his face offered Gabriel little comfort. Gabriel looked aside and noticed Hermione glancing back and forth between the two and his question to the identity of the boy was answered before Mrs. Weasley named him, Ron.

---

Time to Go
Author: Remadi Ye
Date: 11-09-02 11:59

Ye Residence, Orlando, Florida

Remadi rests in a hammock in her backyard, book in hand. She absently pets Neko, her black cat, as she flips the page. Hearing a branch snap, she looks up. Her father, an athletic looking Chinese man, smiles at her.

"All packed?" he asks. She nods, closing her book.

"Good. You okay?" The concern in his voice is mirrored in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she says, smiling to prove the point. "It's not like this is for forever. I'll only be gone for, what, nine months. I'll be back before you know it."

"I'm sure you will, sweetheart," he says, stopping beside the hammock. There is a short silence as the two look at each other. Remadi fights back the tears that start to well up in her eyes.

"Look at me, acting like it's my first day to kindergarten or something," Remadi says, trying to kid away her tears.

"Well, it kind of is. This is going to be your first time attending a school." Tony, her father, reminds her.

"I know. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She wipes away the tears that threaten to run down her cheeks. "It's not like I'm gone yet."

"No, that's when the party starts," Tony jokes.

"Thanks, Dad," Remadi replies drily before she slips out of the hammock and gives her father a hug. "Oh, Baba. You know I love you."

"I know, sweetheart. I love you, too. We still have two months left together once we get to England." He says softly as they hug and he strokes her hair. "Now don't think that this means that you don't have to keep up with your muggle studies. I don't want to find out that you've been slacking on your work just because you're dealing with all this magic now."

"I won't." They part. Neko meows at being left out and jumps onto Remadi's shoulder.

"He's going to be too big to sit on your shoulder pretty soon," Tony says, laughing. Remadi shakes her head, smiling at her cat.

"Onyxa never got too big for mom's shoulder," she replies. Neko purrs loudly at her and she scratches an ear.

"No, I suppose not," Tony says. "Well, I better get your trunk into the car. The plane leaves early tomorrow morning."

"I know dad," she says as they walk into the house. She goes to start dinner as he gets her trunk into the car.

"Geesh, Remadi. Think you have enough stuff in there? Your trunk weighs a ton," her father says as he comes back into the house rubbing his back.

"No, but I can always get more when we get to England," she replies with a grin. Neko meows in agreement.

---

San Francisco: Preparing for the Move - Part 2
Author: Oreileah McCoi
Date: 11-09-02 12:52

Orei looked around her room for the last time. Well, it wasn't her room any more. It belonged to some snot nosed kid, whose parents had bought their house. She sighed and walked out of the room closing the door behind her. They were going to be staying in a hotel tonight, because their plane left early tomorrow morning.

"Oreileah McCoi! Get down here now!" her mother shouted, anxious to get out of the house before she too started crying. The doctor had pronounced her well enough to travel, whatever illness that had kept her from going to the Bahamas wouldn't keep her away from England.

"I'm coming!" she called as she made her way down the stairs. "Alright. Let's go." They had already sent the other boxes and things from the house to the new house in London. They left three days ago. Orei sighed and took one last look at the house she had grown up in.

"Alright, I'm ready." she said with a sigh and moved past her parents and climbed in the back seat of the car. She fished through her backpack and found the history of magic book she had been reading. Aage cooed in his cage and she smiled over at him. "Well, it can't be that bad." she said with a smile reaching through the bars to run a hand over his feathers.

"It won't be that bad Orei. I promise." her father said as he and her mother climbed into the car. She nodded and offered her father a soft smile. Though she wasn't quite sure about this.

It wasn't like she was simply moving to a new city, though that was part of it. She was moving to a whole new COUNTRY! There would be an ocean as well as a country between her and her best friend Jessica. She sighed and lowered her gaze to the book in her lap.

They settled into the hotel for the night and ordered a pizza and watched tv in relative silence. True Orei was excited but she was also sad that she had to leave the only place she had ever known.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When the sun rose the next morning they were already sitting in the terminal of the airport, waiting for the announcement for them to board. Aage was relatively quite in his cage on Orei's lap. They had made special arrangements for him to fly in the cabin of the plane with Orei and her family.

Finally, they were allowed to board the plane at 7:30 am. It was going to be a long flight, and Orei was almost positive that half way through she was going to be bored out of her mind. The plane took off at 8:00 am.

But, that wasn't the case. She ended up sleeping most of the flight to England. She barely noticed the thirteen hour trip, the only time she did wake was when the plane had stopped to refuel in New York.

She yawned as they stepped off the plane and into the terminal at Heathrow International Airport. Even though it was only 4 in the afternoon she was exhausted, which was valid given the fact that she had just flown across eight time zones.

Her father quickly got their baggage and the McCoi family quickly made their way outside to a waiting towncar to take them to their new home. She shivered a bit wishing she had left a jacket in her backpack. There was a noticeable temperature difference.

---

Millimeter by painstaking millimeter, Harry has increased the hole in the plaster. The opening is just large enough now that it's a little too big to be hidden by the pallet alone. To keep it from being seen, Harry's taken to bunching up what passes for a pillow and placing it on the pallet propped against the wall. To anyone looking in, it simply appears as if Harry's tried to make the pillow more fluffy and comfortable.

In between snatches of sleep on the thin, lumpy mattress in the cold, clammy room (though thankfully the stench no longer bothers him), the occasional questioning sessions by Voldemort and his goons and waiting for the healing potions to kick in afterwards, Harry diligently works on his little project. Having something to do has kept him from sinking further into utter despair and it's helped pass the time, even when the candle has burned down and no one's thought to replace it. Additionally, it's helped Harry to block out the draining effect the Dementor outside the door has.

As Harry slowly picks, picks, picks away at the wall, he always keeps one ear keenly focused to sounds coming from the hall. He also lets his mind wander freely with thoughts ranging from trying to predict what questions and tasks are on the O.W.L.s, to wondering whether Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley died of heart failure induced by exertion from overtaxing themselves dancing jigs at the news that Harry is missing and possibly dead, to the desire that Ron and Hermione have long since kissed and made up, to hoping that Ginny Weasley will be so thrilled to see Harry again, she'll dump that Prescott Clearwater on the spot and be Harry's girl.

A draft of air blows over Harry's face, causing him to blink several times. He leans closer to the hole as another slight movement of air wafts across his face. With his first smile in weeks, Harry realizes he's finally broken through the second wall. Excited that his efforts are finally paying off, Harry returns to work with renewed vigor.

After what could have been a few hours or all day, Harry finally has the second opening big enough to peer through. With the pallet pulled away from the wall, Harry lies prone, the bare nub of the candle carefully pushed through the two holes, one eye pressed firmly against the first opening.

In the very faint light of the candle, all Harry can make out is a shadowy something that looks puddled on the floor. Easing the candle back through the holes, Harry puts his arms through up to his shoulder, stretching his fingers to grab whatever it is. With his fingertips, he touches something made of cloth. Stretching to the point that the first opening is biting into his shoulder, Harry is able to work the cloth towards him enough to fully grab it.

Pulling the cloth through, thinking that at the very least it can serve is a second blanket, Harry is stunned to find himself holding an invisibility cloak. His invisibility cloak! More excited than ever, Harry works at as fast as he can to enlarge both holes.

**********************

Harry sits rubbing his right arm over a series of burns wishing the healing potion would hurry up. As he waits, he thinks about what a close call he'd had. He's almost got the second hole big enough for him to crawl through. Harry was so intent on getting that last little bit done he nearly didn't hear the Death Eater coming for him. He'd gotten everything in place and covered up just in the nick of time. Luckily, back when he'd found his invisibility cloak, Harry had taken to keeping it in the space between the walls so that was one less thing he had to worry about when getting the hole covered. It had also helped that after getting the holes big enough to be able to extend his arm further into the room, Harry had been able to get a grip on what seemed to be an empty wooden crate. He would pull the crate over the opening in that room so if anyone entered into the room, Harry hoped the hole wouldn't be noticeable and give away what he was doing.

As he's sitting recuperating, one of the Death Eaters brings him a new candle (yay!), a large glass of cloudy water (double yay! even with the cloudiness), and a bowl of something mushy and dark gray (shudder!). Another rare smile passes over Harry's lips as the goon leaves. He's just been through another round of Voldemort's Hurt Harry game, brought food, and a replacement candle. This means it will be ages before anyone comes to bug Harry again thus giving him plenty of time to get into that other room and poke around.

Harry forces himself to eat the odious sludge that passes as a meal around here, giving his limbs more time for the healing potion to do its work. He also knows that despite its foul taste and dubious ingredients, eating the food is necessary to keep up his strength. Taking a gulp of the water to wash down the last of the pasty goo, Harry once more starts picking away at the plaster on the second hole.

A few minutes later, Harry, feeling rather triumphant, is crawling through into the other room. Candle in hand, he scans the room and determines it's nothing but a store room. From the looks of it, nothing much has been disturbed since it was placed in here. Poking around, he hears something roll and clatter onto the floor. Holding the candle aloft, he searches for whatever it was, grinning in glee when he spots it. His wand! His lovely eleven inch wand of holly with its phoenix feather from Fawkes!

Shoving his wand into a pocket, Harry continues looking about the room. The only other thing of interest is a crate full of books and papers. Dropping to his knees, Harry begins an examination of the contents, finding Dierna's name in some of the books and on a few of the papers.

Harry whispers softly, "These must be the things Dierna mentioned being stolen from her house."

The crate is too heavy to lift so Harry pulls out his wand and uses the Wingarium Leviosa spell to move it over to the hole. He carefully stacks all the books and papers beside his cloak in the space between the walls. Harry crawls back through the hole then uses both crates to cover up the opening on the store room side. After laying his wand atop the cloak, Harry sets about covering up the hole on his side. Afterwards, he reclines on the pallet, his mind whirling at how to use his wand and cloak to escape with both Dierna and her belongings.

---

Home Again
Author: Ethan Somerset
Date: 11-09-02 16:46

Many vibrantly green pine trees stretched tall above the old cottage in Canterbury. Ethan stood at the edge of the Somerset property and admired his home. He had been gone for many months and all at once realized just how nostalgic he had been.

He had missed the cottage with its hanging gables and shuttered windows. He had missed the incredibly rich and green lawn that ran from the doorstep to the cobbled street. Most of all, he had missed his parents. They meant everything to him, and although he was a grown man and perfectly capable of being fully independent, he enjoyed being home with them.

More than anything, Ethan was relieved and thankful to be home because he had come so close to losing his life. Unfortunately, two innocent people had died and he had been unable to rescue them. He felt responsible for their deaths and ached to seek comfort in his mother's arms.

Ethan approached the house, his stomach twisting into a painful knot for the hundredth time that day. Every minute he saw the violent images of the Muggle man and young Kendra Beck being murdered at the hands of cold and callous people. Even Koyla's face haunted him.

His hand shook as he reached for the doorknob. The door eased open and Ethan stumbled inside, fighting the very imminent urge to empty the contents of his stomach. His mother, Maren, let a wooden salad bowl clatter to the floor and rushed over to tend to her pale son.

"Ethan, what happened?" She knelt beside him on the floor and soothingly stroked Ethan's face.

He told her everything, unable to hold back the tears that he had been suppressing ever since the tragic events took place. He shuddered violently and buried his face in his mother's shoulder.

"There, there, Ethan. You tried your best," said Mrs. Somerset tenderly. "You mustn't punish yourself for being unable to save those two lives. Just think of all the other lives you saved. Koyla is behind bars now and will no longer harm anyone."

Ethan lifted his head and wiped away his tears. "I just can't help but feel especially terrible for the witch. Viktor knew her, for Merlin's sake! She was a Hogwarts student, on the Quidditch team, came from a big family..."

Maren placed her hands on Ethan's shoulders and climbed to her feet, then helped Ethan stand upright as well. "Perhaps you need to take a break from being an auror, Ethan, or maybe it's time you start an entirely new career altogether."

Ethan picked up the discarded salad bowl and followed his mother into the kitchen. "I don't know what else I could do, Mum."

"Well, I heard that Hogwarts has an opening. You could be a professor!" She smiled brilliantly and took the wooden bowl from his hands.

"I don't know anything about teaching..."

"Nonsense! It's the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. You're an auror and have had plenty of field experience in that very subject! It's perfect for you, really!"

Ethan shook his head. "I don't know..."

"Ethan, darling. It will give you an opportunity to work with the young girl's family and friends??"

"That's precisely why I wouldn't be able to do it, Mum!" Ethan sighed deeply and slid onto a stool. "It was so difficult for me to be there when they came to see her. She has three siblings...and friends, I'm sure. They'll all be very disappointed that I was unable to rescue her. I can't face them. I can't do it. She haunts me now, and I don't think she'll ever leave my thoughts."

Maren reached across the counter and gave his hand a squeeze. "You can't stay home forever, Ethan. Someday, you're going to have to fight your demons. Think of the good you can do for those children. Even if you couldn't help the girl, you can help them. I think this job would be good for you. It'll be a nice change from the ordinary, and it will give you a chance to relax a little. Why don't you at least apply for the job and see what happens?"

Ethan met his mother's eyes. "I suppose you're right."

"I'm always right," she cut in playfully.

He smiled for the first time in what seemed like a long time. "I'll apply for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position and see what happens."

---

Back to the Meeting
Author: Albus Dumbledore
Date: 11-09-02 18:40

I press my fingertips together and study Remus as he is speaking. As he finishes, and before Michael can start up again, I clear my throat.

"So, Remus! Just where does this leave us. First and foremost, Dierna is very strong. I do not think she will crack under pressure. We still have only a vague idea of where they are keeping our Head Auror and Mr. Potter. I'm afraid we'll have to rely on Severus to find that location. We can only hope he is swift and successful in his efforts."

I pause for a sip of tea before continuing. "Now, you keep talking of a backup plan... Plan B, as you call it. Do you have something specific in mind, or are you hoping to generate such a plan at this meeting? Much as I would like to get to the bottom of this, I do not think it wise to go running off in several different directions. We're bound to start tripping over each other."