No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 23

Arlene doesn't remember how she made it back to her dorm, all she remembers is that she was supposed to meet Sage at the Hufflepuff common room to hear about her date, but after going back to Hogwarts, she just wanted to climb into a hole and die.

Just as everything was okay again, life found a way to drop a ton of bricks on her face. It didn't help when Blaise, giving her a worried look, handed her the list of people going home for Christmas and reminded her that she needed to pack.

Bast seemed to sense that she was not in a good mood and entered her basket without protest and she was not alone, Pansy didn't make her usual remarks, which was lucky since Arlene was pretty sure she would have snapped.

When she was finally dressed in muggle clothing, all her belongings were back in the trunk, a few Knuts were in her pocket and Bast was asleep in her basket, Arlene opened her drawers to make sure she didn't forget anything and found them.

The photo she had taken from her mother's box and the Polaroid Sage had found. And then it was all too much, she broke down crying.

It seemed that her mother was right, going to Hogsmeade was a bad idea, just not for the reasons she thought.

Did her mother know? Was that why she was so afraid of Sirius Black ever coming near them? Because he had taken the love of her life and planned to take her daughter as well? For the hundredth time, she felt horrible for being angry at her mother.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, tears wouldn't do anything, and she had a train to catch.

She closed the drawer, leaving the pictures inside it, grabbed her trunk and Bast's basket, then left her dorm.

The castle was silent, everyone, with the exception of a few students, was going back home.

She found Sage in the compartment they always sate in, but Arlene had forgotten about her friend's ability to know something was up.

"What's wrong?" She asked almost as soon she sate down.

"Am I really that transparent?"

"No, I'm that Hufflepuff, spill"

So she did, she told her everything that she had been keeping to herself since the beginning of the year, the voices, Hermione's time traveler, Lupin, the infiri, the conversation at the leaky cauldron

By the end of it, Sage looked speechless, had this been a normal scenario, Sage would have probably yelled at her for going to Hogsmeade, but this wasn't a normal scenario.

"Oh god," Sage declared as she threw herself on the seats "I am such a terrible friend."

The Slytherin girl frowned "What? No! I'm the one who's been keeping secrets from you since September."

Sage looked even more wrecked "And I didn't notice! I thought all this was about the Quidditch team and Hogsmeade and Hermione."

"It is about them," Arlene was quick to say "and also my psychopath uncle and flashbacks of my dead father induced by literal soul sucking monsters, but you know."

Before Sage could blame herself again, the doors of the compartment slide open.

Miles, Marcus and Jade stood at the door, the three already in their muggle outfits with Miles wearing jeans and his Varsity, Marcus wearing a Beatles t shit and Jade wearing a little green dress.

"Someone looks sad." Miles announced as he invited himself in and sate down next to Arlene.

Jade and Marcus followed his lead and sate down next to Sage "He means that you look like your grandmother died."