New chapter, just like I promised! Hope you enjoy it! I'm working on a new one as we speak! =)

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Audrey

            “Audrey! You want some Mountain Dew?!” Nikkie called out to me from her kitchen.

            “DUH!” I yelled back at her.

            I had decided to stay the night at her house. It had been a while since we had been able to spend time alone with just me and her. It was like old times again. We used to spend days on end at each other’s houses when we were young; it was great to do it again.

            She came back into the living room where we had hooked up a radio. Muggle music was always the best, especially when you were writing. There was a song for everything, and Nikkie and I knew that well. She set a cup of Mountain Dew next to me and took her seat.

            “So what story are you writing this time?” she asked.

            “Family Ties,” I answered. “I figure your dad probably wants to see the story he helped create soon, and when we were in school I really didn’t have too much time to work on it. You?”

            “Fumbling Freedom,” she decided. That whole series started as a joke between us. She asked me for an idea to write about and I told her that she should write a story about me finding an awesome, hot guy. Little did I know how serious she was about writing it.

            We both started writing, and Nikkie tossed me a bag of Chex Mix from her side of the table. “So what’s Arty up to tonight?” she asked me.

            I thought about it for a second. “I think he’s hanging out with Malfoy tonight. I don’t mind though. He needs to spend more time with his friends.” I paused for a minute. “And what’s Harry doing?”

            Nikkie shrugged. “Who knows? Probably hanging with Ron and getting in to trouble as always.” I opened the bag of Chex Mix and then she continued. “He said something about going on some trek to find something called Horcruxes. No idea what those are, but they don’t sound good.”

            Horcruxes. I had never heard of them either, and I agreed with her. They really didn’t sound good. I went to reply, but then a song came on the radio. It was a song both of us loved: Sexyback by Justin Timberlake. Yea, we may have grown up in the wizarding world, but we loved us some Muggle music!

            “I’m bringing sexy back!” I sang along.

            “Yea!” Nikkie added at just the right moment.

            Both of us started laughing uncontrollably. We were crazy, there was no denying that. When we finally stopped, I turned to her, “You know we already brought sexy back.”

            She shrugged lightly. “Perhaps we have.”

            Before I could give her an answer, there was a knock on the door. It was an odd time for there to be someone knocking. It was well after midnight, and no one on their right mind would be out wandering after dark. I was closer to the door, so I stood and peered out the peep hole. I was shocked when I saw Artemis and Malfoy standing there. They looked bothered, so I knew I had to answer it.

            I looked at Nikkie. “It’s Arty,” I told her.

            “Open it then,” she said back.

            I nodded slightly. I unlatched the door and opened it. I stepped outside, shutting the door behind me. I figured Nikkie wouldn’t be following me to talk to them. I stood in front of them silently for a moment. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be at his house?” I gestured at Malfoy.

            A frown appeared on Artemis’ face, and that’s when I started to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. “We can’t stay there,” he muttered quietly.

            “Why not?” I asked back.

            He looked around, as if to check if anyone’s listening. “We’re wanted men. “ He paused for a second. “Voldemort has ordered the Death Eaters to kill us on sight. We can’t go to Diagon Alley tomorrow; they found out about our plans.”

            For some reason, his words didn’t surprise me. I had figured it was only a matter of time before Voldemort would decide to have them killed. But I was disappointed in our trip cancelation, and worried about what was going to happen to them now that Voldemort had said that.

            “So what’s the plan?” I asked, curiously, and a tad panicked.

            Artemis took a deep breath, as if he was afraid of what I was going to think of it. “We have to run. We don’t have any choice. He has all of our houses monitored, and knows what we’re supposed to be spending the next twenty-four hours doing. We have to throw him off, and running is all we can do right now.” Artemis paused for a moment, as if he was debating on telling me something. “He also told them to kill you and Pansy, as you have no worth to them.”

            I suddenly felt my heart sink. It was bad enough that he Dark Lord was after Artemis and Malfoy, but now he wanted Pansy and me dead too? I took a deep breath, hoping that would calm me down, but it didn’t. I had officially been sent into panic mode.

            “What do you want me to do?” I asked, hesitantly.

            Artemis glanced at his feet and then back at me. “I want you to stay here for right now. We have to go get Pansy, and we’ll be back for you. I don’t know what you want to tell Nikkie, but you’re not going to be able to stay the whole night. We have to leave as soon as possible.”

            I barely nodded. I didn’t know how I was going to tell Nikkie, either. I’m sure telling her ‘hey, Voldemort wants me dead, gotta go, bye’ wasn’t going to cut it. Maybe the best thing to do was not tell her at all. “Alright, I’ll see you when you get back.”

            He pulled me into a hug, and kissed me gently. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised as he pulled away from me. “Now go back inside, please.”

            I slowly turned away from him, and went back into Nikkie’s house, shutting the door behind me. She was sitting at the table, still writing. She looked up at me, staring blankly for a moment before asking, “What did Artemis want?”

            I was silent for a moment, trying to think of something to say. I hadn’t thought of a way to lie to her yet. I didn’t know what she would think if I had just told her the truth, so lying was my best choice. I had only lied to her once before, and I was nervous about it.

            “He just wanted to say hi,” I muttered quietly, taking my seat across from her, trying to put my focus back to my story, but Nikkie didn’t let me do that.

            “Well why would he be over here? Doesn’t Malfoy live in Wiltshire? And Artemis in Dublin?” she asked.

            I shrugged. “Maybe they were in Diagon Alley; I didn’t ask.”

            “Hmmmm…” she mused, but said nothing more, and I was glad that she did.

            I put my mind back into my writing, even though I wasn’t sure what I was even writing anymore. I had all these ideas for this story when I sat down, but now, they had escaped me. My mind was flustered, drained. It was too worried about what was going to happen once I left here in a few hours.

            I struggled to stay awake through the night; I wasn’t used to staying up late anymore. Nikkie finally fell asleep on her carpeted floor shortly after four in the morning. Once I was sure she was definitely asleep, I gathered my things in my bag and made my way down the stairs and out the door quietly. I stepped out into the moonlight, glancing around the front yard. I spotted Artemis, Malfoy, and Pansy standing by the tree in the corner of the yard.

            I joined the group moments later. After a brief stretch, Artemis finally spoke. “You ready?” he asked me.

            I nodded, though deep down I was nowhere near ready for what this journey was sure to bring us. We were going on the run, and from Lord Voldemort. All I knew was this was going to be really trying and I was not ready for that. But I had no choice; I was already tangled in the web…