HP:[" the Illithid Inquisition"]

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"What's got everyone so worked up?" He asked them.

"They just published the dates for the first Hogsmead weekends." Ron said. "We'll be able to visit the village next Saturday on Halloween."

Harry felt excited at the news. Hogsmead was the only purely magical village in all of the United Kingdom. It had nearly as many magical shops as Diagon Alley, a number of famous locations like the magical post office and two of the most famous, and most infamous bars in the magical world: the Three Broomsticks and the far seedier Hog's Head. It was also a place where many different magical folks could more easily intermix and so even just walking down the streets could lead to some amazing sights.

The village had been built near Hogwarts to take advantage of the school's many magical protections. This allowed the village to be easily hidden from muggles. Hogwarts students were allowed to visit Hogsmead a few times each year provided they weren't too young and had permission from their legal guardian. It was always an exciting time. Harry felt quite proud of himself as he thought of this. Normally the Dursleys would never allow Harry to do anything fun or interesting, but Harry had struck a deal with his uncle that if he was well behaved during his Aunt Marge's visit, Vernon would have to sign his permission form.

Vernon had signed his permission form right?

With dreadful slowness a terrible feeling of despair began to sink into Harry's guts. Uncle Vernon had refused to sign the permission form until after Harry had lasted the full week without doing any magic around his aunt. Which Harry had managed only by vanishing for half her visit when he was captured by the Illithids. Looking back on it now, Harry realized that he had never returned to his house to collect the form. The Minister had rushed him off to the Leaky Cauldron before he had a chance to collect it himself. And since Harry had been so shaken up by unexpectedly changing species he had forgotten to ever mention the permission slip to either Fudge or Dumbledore.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked as the inner dread Harry felt began to reflect on his face.

"I don't think I have the permission slip for Hogsmead." He said in stunned disbelief.

"What?" Ron suddenly exclaimed, "Why not? Don't tell me the muggles wouldn't sign it for you."

"They would have." Harry insisted. "We had a deal and everything. But it all happened just before I had to walk out of the house. I never went back for it. All that news about Sirius Black and how worried Dumbledore and Fudge were drove it out of my head."

"I can't believe it." Ron bemoaned in sympathy for Harry's predicament.

"Maybe that's for the best." Hermione offered in a commiserating tone of voice.

"What are you saying Hermione?" Ron shot at her. "Harry can't be the only one not to go to Hogsmead. It would be cruel."

"I would love for Harry to be able to go." Hermione defended herself. "But Sirius Black is still on the loose. It might not be safe for Harry to be out of the castle before he's caught."

"Hermione." Ron moaned in exasperation. "Black's not going to come anywhere near this place. Not with all those dementors around the grounds. They're probably watching Hogsmead just as closely as they watch the castle."

"Still, it's an unnecessary risk." Hermione declared. "Harry won't be able to go one way or the other so it doesn't matter. But I think this is probably for the best."

"I'm still not sure Black even is after me." Harry said for himself. "All the effort to break out of Azkaban and then he's going to attack a child in one of the best defended places in the world? If Black had any sense he'd be halfway to Borneo by now."

"Hey Harry, didn't you say Dumbledore packed your trunk?" Ron put in. "Maybe he did get the permission form for you and you just haven't found it yet. Let's go have a look."

"Harry needs to do his homework." Hermione objected. "We've got star charts to make and a twelve inch long parchment due on the freezing spell for Charms and-"

"He can copy my star chart." Ron interrupted, "And the way Harry's been going at it this year he's probably already finished half that other stuff."

The two of them made their way up to the boy's dorm and searched it for the missing form. But it was nowhere to be found. The best idea they could come up with to deal with the situation was to ask their head of house Professor McGonagall if Harry might be able to go to Hogsmead even without the permission form on the grounds that he was going to get it and only bad luck had thwarted him.

This plan came to nothing however. Professor McGonagall wasn't willing to bend the rules for them. While she did like her house and did the best to take care of her lions she was a very fair woman and expected her students not to need the rules bent for them. However Harry also had to say she looked rather relieved to have a reason to keep Harry out of Hogsmead, so perhaps she had been thinking along the same lines as Hermione; that the village was too big of a risk.

Whatever her reasons, the effect was the same. Harry would be the only student not to go to Hogsmead this coming weekend. Harry was fairly dejected by this turn of events. Not helping was how excited the rest of the third year kids grew throughout that week as the day of the trip drew near.

Ron and Hermione did their best to cheer Harry up and promised to get him a selection of souvenirs and treats from the trip so he wouldn't miss out on much. Fred and George had the grace to go silent about their plans when Harry came near after Ron had told them the bad news. Even Percy tried to build Harry's spirits, though he did a very bad job of it.

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