I dont know if my legs could go any faster.

I ran, and ran, weaving through the paths between the trees. The trees would keep me from being seen, they were everywhere and their green tops could allow anything from being seen. Which was exactly what I wanted.

For the past couple days, I had become invisible. I wasnt really talking to my friends, I wasnt eating, and all I did was read and workout..running to be exact. It wasnt normal, I understood that, but for me it was the only way out. I had it all planned out in my head as I ran through the forest deeper into areas I didnt know, but it was the only way to get to the entrance of the school while still staying covered by the trees.

If I had one more day with you, I would have apologized for everything, for letting you down and for blaming you for what I couldnt do. But I didnt have one more day, it was over...

A twig snapped from behind me, and it wasnt from me. I sharply glanced behind me, my eyes scanning for any sign of movement. There was movement, and I didnt know who it was or what it was, nor did I want to find out. My plan was to get out and do what had to be done, and with that, I sprinted off into the darkness of the forest.

Scarlett sometimes sat around watching the dots on the Marauder’s Map go about their business. She had been doing that when she noticed Emma’s dot was moving quickly through densely wooded areas. Her dot was going to slow to be on a broom, but too fast for her usual jobs. Scarlett decided to see what was up. She set a course to intercept Emma but miscalculated and came up behind her snapping a twig. Emma ran on like a frightened deer. Since Scarlett could see that girl wasn’t bleeding or hurt, nor did Scarlett see any danger herself she decided to just keep following Emma at a more leisurely pace.

I glanced back behind myself every few seconds, like a criminal on the run from the law. It was that mistake which cost me time. While looking back, I didnt realize the roots beneath me, and I accidently tripped over it. Luckily I was able to balance before I went down, but this one interruption caused me to do the one thing I didnt want to do: rethink.

I didnt want to rethink everything because I knew that if I let the little voices in my head that were begging me to go back, I would. Trying to ignore them, I looked forwards where I saw the entrance to the school, and for the first time in days I smiled slightly at how close I was.

No one knew where I was, except for the person that I saw, but at the moment I wasnt worried about that. I stopped and fumbled with the invisibility cloak in my hand, and in the other I had a bag of cherries. Once I got out of the grounds, I would eat one and be transported to where I wanted. The cherries were from my family's cherry tree which is one of a few left in the world. The cherries were like Floo Powder, they would take you anywhere you wanted.

My heart was pounding and I thought no one was near me, so I stopped running and decided to walk towards the entrance, thinking that I was safe and could not possibly be caught.

OCC: When in rome *shudders at the notion of using first person*

BIC: It was getting rather light out, another night of blissful hunting had went it's course. As a skilled lioness animagus, I often hunted at night, under the condition i don't get caught around large groups of firsties, or really annoying students. On my way back to the castle I thought I saw super girl blaze up to the corridor, I then realized that super heroes of super girls caliber don't exist, which left me to wonder, who the hell the girl was that was taking bat out of hell a little too literally. The use of that analogy should have been enough...

I transformed back into my human form and started shouting at her, in the impressive way that only I could do..."Oi, you...what are you doing Emma?"

Ooc: You're out of luck if you're expecting first person. I'm not a fan. And 'he' is longer than 'I' :P

Bic: Chase had taken to practicing his animagus form outside. If only dogs could see color, he would have noticed that the sky had gone from blue to black. Catching wiffs of some familiar scents he bounded off in their direction only to see Leo morph out of lioness form and shout at Emma. Chase swore he could smell Scarlett as well but ignored it because he was quite sure that she wouldn't be to happy if he gave her away.

I had two options, the first was to bolt, and the second was to actually face them.

Leo had called my name, she was right behind me which made me wonder how many of the others were around. I was frozen in my spot and looked at the cherries in my one hand and the invisibility cloak in the other, debating my options.

Bolt or Stay??, I wondered.

------ Switching to 3rd Person LoL---------

Emma turned around, her brown french braid whipping around her back. "Hello Leo!" she said with a comforting, innocent smile. "What brings you out here?" she asked politely, looking behind her friend to see if anyone else was in the area.

She knew she was caught, the question was for how long. All she had to do was eat a cherry and think of where she wanted to go, and she would be transported there, which would leave her friends behind. Yet she couldnt do that right away, she figured she owed them some kind of explanation. The explanation was simple.

It always came back to him. He had affected her life at first positively, but now he haunted her and she realized that the only way to get rid of it, was to follow her plan, which was to first get away from Hogwarts.

Scarlett saw that Emma was talking to Leo. Good it will slow the girl down, she thought. Scarlett hated running in a serious way and she was a little surly when she caught up to the two girls. “Where’s the fire?” She asked Emma and it came out sounding a little like an offer to light something on fire. “I mean, where you off to in such a hurry?” Scarlett amended in a hurry. She didn’t want Emma to think she was mad. Scarlett could have stopped running at any point if she wasn’t so nosey.

Emma looked over when Scarlett stepped out and came into view, "I wondered where you were..." she said hoping it would change the subject, but it didnt work. Do not give in! she screamed to herself in her mind, and smiled at Scarlett, "Nothing. I just have to leave Hogwarts." she said, trying to make it sound like nothing, eventhough it was obvisouly something.

"Sweet, well good luck with that," Leo said pulling a Remy, by trying to assimilate the knowledge, that when people say they're leaving Hogwarts, they don't actually want to be stopped. Her tone made it impossible to tell if she was being serious, or sarcastic. Leona sat down in the grass and waited for Emma to act.

Emma looked at Leo, her eyes becoming slits as she listened to Leo boring answer. A Remy answer. "You're annoying when you do that." she muttered to her friend, before deciding what she should do. She walked several feet forward until she knew she was outside of Hogwarts. There wasnt really a gate or anything, just an invisible line. Opening the bag with the cherries in, she held two in her hand, and held the bag losely in the other. It worked like floo powder, you thought where you wanted to go and then you went there.

Glancing for one last time up at her friends, she met Scarlett's gaze and held it. It wasnt because of Mark. No ..no..no this was about a whole different kind of guy. Her father.

Taking a cherry, she forgot about how much she hated them and popped it into her mouth, thinking only one thing in her mind. 32 Rochester Road, London England. The home of her dead father, hopefully the place where she would find answers of who killed him.

With a loud snap, she dissapeared from Hogwarts and landed in her backyard. She looked down to see only one cherry in her hand, an invisibility cloak, but she didnt have the bag of cherries. She had dropped it back in Hogwarts before she left. "Crap." she muttered, knowing that anyone could get the cherries and then follow her or go anywhere else.

Leona looked down at the cherries that made Emma disappear. She wondered why that was, or how it worked. She was kinda hungry though and willing to experiment. Leona began chewing on some while wondering where Emma was. She wished she could meet up with the little Miss Emma Potter, who randomly poofed away from the school. Suddenly she felt herself being sucked into nothingness, and knew she must be apparating somewhere.

Scarlett was a little surprised that Emma disappeared but not much. That girl had had the one foot out the door look about her. Leo ate a cherry and vanished too. Scarlett shrugged and decided to follow suit. She popped a cherry in her mouth and thought, I hope this take me to where ever Emma and Leo went.

Emma looked around at her backyard which was heavily forested since she owned several acres of land up on a hill. She hadnt been to this house since she and Mark stopped there several months ago. The house, land, trees, everything brought back many un-wanted memories.

Taking a deep breath of the forest air, she started walking towards the house's back door, climbing up several old creaky steps to get to the porch that wrapped around the whole house. The house was very old, and had a very western, ranch look to it, unlike her favored, modern french apartment in Paris. The house was large and had one floor which contained the kitchen, living room, den, dining room, 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms with many hallways connecting everything. The outside was landscaped beautifully and the back of the house was almost all windows, allowing the inside viewers to see the mountain view. The whole house was covered with different shades of faded dark wood.

After kicking up the matt, she found the key and was about to let herself in when she heard several pops coming from behind her. Turning around, she found herself facing Scarlett and Leo. At first she was quite shocked to see her friends following after her, but then she realized that the whole time she didnt expect anything less of them. "Welcome." she said with a grin, "I'll explain everything once we get inside." she added, opening the door to let them into the house, scanning the area to see if anyone, welcomed or not was there.

It wasn't unlike myself to be spying on people. But this time it was unintentional. I suppose it started with my restless sleeping leading me to swim in the lake. Swimming always helped calm my fears. Climbing out of the lake i slipped on the sweatpants and tank top i brought over my bathing suit and looked to the forest. Perhaps I could find it tonigth. As my searched the forest i walked ahead praying it was there. Suddenly a swig snapped and my natural instincts sent me up a tree. Emma was runnign and fast. I follwed scarmbling through the treetops liek a monkey, passing a lion which I knew to be Leo, until we reached a space in the woods. I sat ssilently in the tree watching the action unfold.

Scarlett showed up soon after along with Leo and Chase. I had never been stabbed but I assumed this is what it would feel like. As I listened i could feel my eyebrows raise. "So...she's running" I whispered softly one eye glued on the people and the other on the bag of cherries. "Not a nromal run away thing" i murmered quietly. As they disapperred I leapt down. Picking up a cherry i examined it and imemdiatly knew it to be a transportation thing. I threw away everythought in m y mind and popped it in my moputh wanting to go where Emma was. I nearly on Scarlett only missing by a few feet. "Not running away are we?" I questionged with a small smirk. "And without your favorite australian too"

Scarlett laughed as Cassie appeared nearly on top of her. "I am not runnin', I am followin'. So let's go." Scarlett followed Emma into her home. It was an odd style of architecture for France Scarlett though, but didn't comment. She loitered in foyer waiting for the girls to follow. Scarlett was ready to tag along with whatever they did.

OOC: England. They are in England. Not that it really matters lol

BIC: Emma followed in after Cassie, grinning at her friend, "I'm not running away." she as she shut the door behind her. Once they were inside, she turned around to say something when she saw the whole house trashed. Papers thrown everywhere, kitchen cabinets open, doors blasted through. "Oh my god.." she said softly, quickly summoning several cleaning spells, before turning around to her friends thinking that now was a good time to give an explanation. "My father has been dead for 2 years. I thought my step-mom had killed him, but now I think its for another reason." she said, picking up a paper at her feet that had the ministry stamp on it:

Potters,
The Ministry felt the need to search this house. No explanation is needed. We will not be bothering you again.

The Minister

It was short, but Emma felt that there were many things said between the lines.

The fact that it was almost impossible to see a black dog in the dark only annoyed Chase because everyone disappeared without him; it was kind of odd as well, had Leo not noticed him at all? The dog made a face at the taste of the cherry in human form Chase didn't like them much, so why he would as a dog escape him. Chase had his puppy eyes closed but when he opened them of coarse it was somewhere else. England? Chase was almost there in time to get through the door and, if he was still a puppy, it would have been easy. But instead, he had to scrape a paw against the door.

Leona followed Scarlett and Cassie into the trashed housed. "What they heck, the ministry members are wizards, you'd think they'd clean up after their mess," Leo said in annoyance knowing that no family would keep their house like this. With her acute hearing Leo heard scratching at the door. When she opened it and saw Chase there, she began laughing. "You need to work on the transforming back thing. You're like a fourth year now, It's embarrassing." She teased

The dog shook his head and moved past Leona and in. Taking a moment he switched back and spoke to her. "I can change back. Sometimes I just don't want to... Being a dog is easier than being a human. Their happy when their happy, and they sleep when they're sad. Everything else is said in various barks that nobody knows how to translate."

"That's actually true," she said, wondering if it actually was, but it seems right. Well so far as she noticed. Dogs were happy with people as long as you talked to them in a happy tone. You could say some of the meanest things to dogs, but as long as you said it in a joyful tone, they'd respond favorably.

Emma looked back to see Chase come in and say he didnt want to transform back. "Hi Chase." she said as she rushed around and peeked in several rooms, trying to figure out what was going on. By now the spells had cleaned up most of the house, as she made her way back to the group.

Turning to the group, she sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair. "I can't believe you guys followed me here." she said again more to herself. "I was planning on this trip being several days. I need to find out what happened to my father and why this happened to the house." she said, referring to the ministry search.

"So if you guys want to stay in, I can make room for you in the house but I will warn you I dont know what I'm looking for nor do I know how dangerous it will be. If not, I can make sure you get back to Hogwarts safely." she said slightly uncomfortable, not knowing what her friends reactions would be.

"Nah, don't worry about it, I can take care of myself," Leo said with a bright smile. "We'll even help you clean up the place," she offered warmly, hoping she would appreciate the level of normalcy there was to cleaning. Leona looked around angrily, If the ministry ever did this to her home, she would definitely hunt them down.

Cassie shrugged at Emma's question. Looking around she saw The place was a disaster. If anythign bad were to happen in the house she would be the first hurt anyway and honestly she didnt care. "Im in...i no longer care what happens to me. And i like cleaning" she added as an after thought agreeing with Leo. She knew Emma must be going through something hard and felt for her friend. If her parents were ever taken she would kill the people involved. Her parents were her one soft spot although few people knew this.

Emma felt a little relieved when her friends said they were in. She didnt feel like she had dragged them into this anymore. "Ok guys..we just need to check one thing out before we begin to re-create this place." she said, as she walked through a hallway and turned left into the study, the place her father had lived in after her mother had died.

She gasped slightly as everything in the room was wiped clean. All of his papers and her first chance of finding out what had happened were gone. "This is so not good.." she said. Was there anything to even find? she thought to herself.

Turning around to her friends, she added quickly "Let's clean and hopefully I'll find something they missed."

Chase sighed slightly not liking how everyone was using the word clean. He wouldn't say no because everyone else was happy with helping, but he sure wish Nemo was here And of coarse, a Summerview house elf always replied to his name whether it be at thought or spoken word. And a Summerview house elf was always one to answer Chase or Callie first so... Nemo appeared. Which he hadn't actually planned with his thought but it worked.

"Sir, misses." He said almost giddily. "In need of some extra hands?" He held out his hands to look at in front of him and then looked down at his feet. "I can use these too!" Nemo was always excited at the prospect of helping Chase or any of his friends. It was usually a nice break. Going over his words he looked up at Chase and corrected the sir he had said, "Chase." He said with a little nod.

Chase laughed only slightly at Nemo's correction of himself and kneeled down wishing he was still a dog because house elfs were very short compared to him. "How ya doing Nemo?" He asked. Chase wasn't too worried about anything the ministry had done at the moment. He didn't quite know what was going on but depending on what it was he could probably get it back.

Scarlett was irritated that Chase seemed to be the only one who felt the same way about cleaning that she did. She was forced to admit that most of the reason Chase always irritated her was that he was a struck up twit, but her reminded her a little bit of herself. Scarlett forced those thought away and took out her wand. Maybe a little cleaning was just what she needed to forget things like that. Chases house elf appeared and rolled her eyes becoming irritated again. “I think we should each take a room and be thorough when we clean. Maybe the Ministry didn’t find what they were lookin’ for.”

Emma began to walk back towards Chase and Scarlett when she saw a house elf appear that was not hers. Her family was one of the only pure blood families that did not have a house elf. Instead she had a nanny to take care of her when she was younger.

"Hi." she said tentively to the house elf, wondering how it got here until she saw it next to Chase. "Hi Nemo." she corrected herself, before turning to Scarlett.

"Good idea Scar. I'll take my parents bedroom. Scar you can take my bedroom. Nemo kitchen. Leo living room." she said pausing to think about the rooms.

"Cass you can take the twins bedroom." she added with a faint smile, knowing Cassie would probably get distracted at the prank items in the room.

"And Chase..umm, you can take the guest room." she said softly, not sure about that decision.

"How does that sound?" she asked. There had to be something that they could find that would be a clue or atleast tell her somethig about if her step-mother was involved in her father's killing or not. A letter, a picture, something that to the ministry was nothing but really had evidence..

Scarlett nodded as Emma gave her, her assignment. Wasting no time she headed up the stairs and started peeking in rooms to find Emma’s. It wasn’t hard. Scarlett knew instantly that the pink and black room was Emma’s. It looked a bit like Emma’s room on the Star of Fortune, plus there pictures that had been pulled out of their frames strewn about the room. Some were classy black and whites of Paris, but others were full color moving ones of folks from Hogwarts.

Scarlett began to pick through the ruin of Emma’s room. The pillows and bed had been slashed so everything in the room was covered feathers and mattress padding. The bookcase had been thoroughly empty and books lay helter-skelter all over the place, some crumpling pages with the weight of their spines. Scarlett began to pick these up and carefully place them back on the shelves, conscious of how Emma felt about her books. Scarlett knew that she would never guess the order the books belonged in so she didn’t try. She figured Emma could arrange them herself when she had the chance. Who knew, the girl might even enjoy the task after such a shocking day.

One of the last books Scarlett reached for had scorch marks on the cover and many of the pages looked as if they had been burned out. Also there was a bloody, smeared handprint on the cover. Aside from the handprint the cover was blank and had no title. Curious Scarlett opened the book to see what it was. She found lined paper on the inside, with very neat hand writing covering what was left of the pages. Scarlett quickly realized this must be someone’s diary, probably Emma’s and she closed it, not wanting to pry. By being entrusted with Emma’s very own room Scarlett was getting enough insight into the other girl’s personality, Scarlett didn’t need to read her diary too. So she placed it on top of the bookshelf where she would remember to ask Emma if she had trapped it herself. Because if Emma had not trapped the diary then it was possible that the trap had been for Emma instead.

Emma followed behind Scarlett, heading up the stairs but instead of turning right towards her room, she turned left and went to the one room that was that way, her parents room. She entered the room by slowly opening the door and peaking through. Catching herself in the act, she laughed slightly at the old habit that she had from when she was little and woke up early to go check on her parents without waking them up.

The whole room was torn into shreds. The curtains were pulled off the windows, papers strewn everywhere, furniture broken and pictures ripped apart. Taking several steps into the room, she watched her steps being careful not to step on any broken mirror pieces. One tear slid down her face, which she was quick to wipe away as she walked around the bed to go to her father's dresser which was torn apart.

From what she could see, the ministry had taken any records, birth certificates and ID's her father had. However they had left a medical book of his along with a small bible. Bringing both close to her, she flipped through the medical book where she found several pieces of paper folded into it. One paper had adresses on it with people's names and the other seemed like letters to someone.

Standing up, she tried to make out what it said but couldnt since most of the ink had run. Maybe someone else can read it.. she thought to herself as she began to head back downstairs but stopped when she saw her bedroom door open. She knew Scarlett was in there, and she began to wonder what shape her room was in.

"Hi Scar." she said softly as she knocked on the door to her bedroom as she walked in, letting her friend know she was there.

Scarlett had picked through most of the mess with her own two hands. It was less likely that she would miss something that way. When she was satisfied that the Ministry had found whatever they came for she flicked a few cleaning spells from her wand. The last of the feathers from one of Emma’s pillows were zooming back to their rightful place as Emma came into the room. Scarlett was glad to have spared her friend the trauma of seeing her room ransacked. “Hey Em,” Scarlett said trying to fill her voice with compassion. She knew it must be hard to face such a violation of ones space.

Emma smiled at Scarlett when she heard her friend's voice. Scarlett had just cleaned the room, and luckily for Emma she had only caught a glimpse of it messy. There were several picture frames broken that she quickly repaired with her wand. She also quickly found that several family pictures were stolen along with some other personal possesions.

"I found this." she said, holding out the folded notes. "It was in his medical book. I think they are letters to someone outside of the family. I've never seen this address though." she said, referring to the address at the top of the letter which was to somewhere in the Netherlands. "My step-mom was from there so I'm wondering if it has something to do with her." she said, handing the letter to Scarlett to look at.

Cassie nodded and walked upstairs slowly to the Twins room. The house was wrecked and looked awful. She walked into the room and saw it too was trashed. She moved amongst the rubble. The room had two twin beds both disrupted. Pictures hung off walls sideways and some sat shattered on the floor. Lamps were broken and the bookcase was turned over to reveal a small steel door. She stepped through the gaping hole in the door and saw the twins hideout was trashed. Pranks were burned an destroyed and strewn about. She looked around and lifted a few vials she knew to be dangerous and placed them in her bag for protection. Making her way back into the room and spotted something on their dresser between their bed. A lime green and pnk frame sat covered in tiny rhinestones. Inside was a picture of herself and the twins at the annual pranks convention. The three of them were leaning over a bunch of prank paints covered in them and laughing in the picture. This was the point. She sunk down leaning on a bed her body wracked in silent sobs of seeing how she used to be. Tears streamed down her face as she hid herself from everyone.