Chapter 1 –

New Beginnings

Life has never been easy for me. Growing up I was always told to try harder, that I could be better, that I wasn't trying to "reach my full potential". When I was younger I either didn't know what they were talking about or I would figure it out and find myself feeling…. completely inadequate. As I've grown older I've learned to completely ignore their remarks of "not good enough" and pretend their looks of disappointment were for someone else.

It wasn't that my parents didn't love me; it's that they just expected so much more from me, more than I was willing or able to give. If I did learn one thing growing up with them, it was that sometimes everyone is right and no one is wrong. My parent's intentions and hopes for me were good; they just wanted me to be the best person I could be. My own thoughts on the future were less… fixed, less permanent, but they were what I thought, what I knew was best for me at the time.

Because of my parents I was forced to see things from other people's perspectives. That cliché phrase "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" actually makes sense to me. Sometimes it strikes me as odd that more people don't try to open their minds to other people's points of view like I do, but then most people would rather only see things for face value. They'd rather judge the book by its cover and live their blissful ignorant lives than try to find out more, look at the layers in things, or simply open the book and begin to read.

Of course, growing up as I did I had a lot of opportunities to utilize my skills of seeing from another persons eyes. Not just in my immediate family, but with my cousins and aunts and uncles too. I am part of a very large family, and a very hypocritical one as far as I'm concerned.

But when I started school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry I faced a whole new kind of discrimination. I had thought I'd experienced a lot in my life, but it turns out I hadn't the first clue about how hard life could be.

There were several reasons why I wasn't immediately accepted at Hogwarts. To begin with I started going there later than everyone else. Just before my sixth year of school my mother and father, out of nowhere, decided we were moving. And to England of all places, an entire ocean away from all that I knew and loved. Then I found out that not only was I going to a new place, I'd have a new schooling experience as well. Back in the states I had been home schooled by my mother, now I was going to a real school with other students. Not only was it a real school, it was a boarding school so I would be away from the only people I actually knew in all of Europe for the majority of the year.

But I took this all in stride. I accepted it. I did the whole meditation Zen thing and calmly packed my bags and allowed myself to be shipped off to the middle of Merlin knows where for school where I was completely ignored my entire first year. The students didn't know I existed, the faculty didn't bother with me because I was better than most students, but in a quiet way. I didn't make waves, I don't like to plow my way through life without examining my own and seeing how it affects the people around me. So instead of trying to make friends and bond with people, I kept to myself and tried not to screw up their lives.

Then I met this guy over the Christmas break. I was on vacation with my parents, we were visiting back home and one of my cousins had talked me into supervising an outing with her and some of her friends. The adults all trusted me, so as soon as I agreed to go along they stopped worrying about us and what we might get up to because I would supposedly keep them all in line. Needless to say I didn't. We ended up at an 18 and over bar, all seven of us in our hoochie outfits with our fake I.D.'s made it inside. And once they had left me to baby-sit their purses while they went and danced I happened to meet Josh.

Josh was a waiter at the bar who just happened to get off work and bump into me on my way back from the restroom. Our conversation led from one thing to another and before I knew it he was buying me drinks and I was spilling my guts out about how my life sucked. I never saw Josh after that night, but he did give me some great advice.

"Don't live your life for someone else in someone else's way trying not to mess up someone else's plans. Live your life like you want to, do things you want to do, and the next time you see a guy you like go for it, even if everyone and everything, including yourself, tells you he's out of your league. Life takes chances, takes risks, you've got to put in your full effort to be yourself and make yourself happy instead of letting people walk all over you and living your life around them."

And he was right. From that point on I decided to take a stand, to stop being the quiet girl that none of the students actually knew and the teachers didn't really notice.

So here I am, 17 years old, boarding the Hogwarts Express for the third and likely the final time and I am possessed to do something I haven't done since I started at Hogwarts: speak my mind. Or more specifically at the moment, yell at people.

"Move it! One side! Gang way! Coming through people!" I yelled as I shoved my way through the huge crowd in the walkway. First year students were huddled in their compartments, second years were trying not to get run over by my overlarge trunk as I floated it through the air in front of me and everyone else was yelling at me for being rude. Well forget them. Talk about rude they hadn't even had the decency all of last year to say "Hi I'm Bob, nice to meet you. How's your day been?" So I ignored their comments and made my way to the back of the train.

At the beginning of the year I had sat alone in an otherwise empty compartment at the very end of the train. This term I was going to sit in the very same compartment. First term it had been quiet at the end of the train and I was hoping on it being so once again so that I could take the opportunity to read and relax and nap for a while before we got to Hogwarts and I forced myself to be bold and stop hiding behind a façade of an innocent well behaved loner.

When I arrived the compartment was empty and the general area of the train was quiet, so I sighed thankfully and floated my trunk to the rack above the seats, pulled out my book and began to read. Sadly I didn't count on one thing: the people in the compartment next to me being extremely noisy. I ignored them for as long as I could, but then finally got fed up with them and, instead of swallowing my anger like I would have this time last year, I stood, book in hand, and marched over to the noisy compartment and knocked somewhat violently on the glass and wood door. Of course, I also didn't count on the hottest guy in school answering the door to the compartment.

"Yes? Can I help you… um…?" Sirius Black asked questioningly. He obviously recognized me but didn't know my name. I felt the anger boil over inside, but tried not to let it show through my fake smile and happy voice.

"The name's Anabell Burns, you can call me Becca after my middle name Rebecca."

"Um… okay… Can I help you with anything Becca?"

"Yes. You see you all are really loud, unnecessarily loud. While I understand that you're having a good time reliving old memories and deciding new ways to torture Slytherines and younger students, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep it down to a dull roar." I smiled brightly as I finished my little speech.

"Um… excuse me? Do you even know who I am?"

"Duh. Sirius Black," I pointed to Sirius with his medium length black hair and grey-blue eyes, " James potter," the kid with the messy jet black hair and hazel eyes wearing a captain's pin for quidditch and a Head boy badge to boot, " Lily Evans," the young redhead was eyeing me with her vivid green irises like a child who had said she was going to jump off the roof and fly, " Remus Lupin," his brown haired, deep brown eyed head popped out from behind a book and blinked owlishly at me, the stranger who had said his name, " Peter Pettigrew," now I pointed to the little blonde kid with the watery eyes who looked like he was about to wet his pants just because I happened to know his name and seemed a tad angry, " Jill Black," she smirked at me and focused her brown eyes on me while brushing a stray strand of her long black hair behind her shoulder, " and Belinda Hopkins." she looked a little uncomfortable with the situation and kept glancing from me to Sirius, who seemed to be becoming agitated with my presence, then she would look at Remus to see if her was going to do anything, then finally settle back down in her seat and fiddle with her short brown hair, still watching with her blue eyes. "You're the most popular people in school, the Gods of the Gryffindor House, and an all together pain in my side at the moment. Now if you don't mind, quiet down or cast a silencing spell. Goodbye."

"Excuse me, but what give you the right to talk to us like that? You don't even know us! You've never even talked to any of us before!" Sirius exclaimed angrily as I walked back to my compartment. He shouldn't have said anything. I hadn't really lost my temper up till then. But now that he'd brought it up I'd just have to correct him on a few things now wouldn't I?

"Well that could be because you're all to self involved to even notice that I existed. You four, the Marauders, too busy trying to date all the hot chicks at school and pull pranks on unsuspecting underclassmen, making jokes and causing trouble for everyone to notice a new class member last year. In all of your classes by the way, I was, and still am, in iall/i of your classes. And you three, Lily, Jill and Bindi, nicest sweetest girls around, kind to everyone who's not on your bad side, I sleep in the same dorm as you and you've never once said hi. I'm in the same grade as all of you, in most for the same classes and none of you, not one of you, have ever so much as introduced yourselves. No one has in fact. So do me a favor and shut the he11 up before I lose all of my self control." I had somehow managed to "get all up in his space" as my friend Candace from back in the states would say. I was inches from his face, glaring intensely and trying not to beat him over the head with my rather large hardback book. Instead of hitting him I did the next best thing, I whipped my head around really fast and swatted him in the face with my long red-blonde hair as I turned and stalked back into my compartment leaving him and his friends too awestruck to say anything.

I slammed the door shut on my compartment and resettled myself with my book and began reading again. They didn't make anymore noise the rest of the train ride and I managed to read and nap peacefully until we pulled to a slow stop in Hogsmeade, the village just outside of the Hogwarts grounds. I pulled my trunk off the train and stashed it with the others before jumping into an empty carriage led by seemingly invisible horses which were really magical creatures called Thestrals. Thestrals can only be seen by someone who has witnessed the death of another person. I could see them due to an unfortunate experience as a child that I'd rather not think, talk, or hear about ever again.

When the carriage stopped I jumped out and walked purposefully into the school and straight into the Great Hall where I sat at the end closest to the teachers and read my book while I waited for the other students to finish filing in and finding their seats.

I waited patiently, looking around the huge room trying to find more people to reveal my presence to in about the same way I had the Marauders and their female cohorts. Having picked a few more Gryffindors, a couple of Ravenclaws, about a dozen Slytherines, and one incredibly annoying Hufflepuff I looked to the long table just ten feet from me where Dumbledore had stood to make his usual back-from-break speech involving a lot of well wishing for us and our families and hopes that we'll remember the rules and try to do well in class. I glanced down the table and saw that Sirius, James and Jill were chattering quietly while Lily gave them the Steak Eye, Peter shushed them nervously and Bindi and Remus rolled their eyes and ignored their antics. They didn't seem to be too bothered any more about my having told them off a couple of hours ago, but then they probably figured I was just some nut off her rocker and on a bender.

"-please remember to thank Professor McGonagall for providing the proper reasoning as to why I should extend your vacation an extra couple of days this year. Now, dig in!" and with that food appeared on the table. I piled some potatoes, green beans, and wild rice on my plate and, after pulling my book out from under the table and opening it to the correct page, began eating at a slow but steady pace while I continued my reading.

Around me everyone was conversing and socializing with their friends and having a general good time of it. I didn't have any friends, and I don't particularly find the idea of making new friends while trying to eat an easy exercise. So instead I simply concentrated on my book and my food until Dumbledore stood again and suggested we all retire to our beds so we wouldn't be too tired for the next day's classes.

With a scraping of chair legs everyone, including myself, stood and made their way out of the Great Hall and to our dorms. I somehow ended up behind a group of giggling first years and managed to restrain myself before lashing out at them and telling them to grow up. I rubbed my forehead in irritation, the rolled my head around on my neck to try and relieve some of the tension beginning to build at the base of my neck. Just then I caught a flash of something in the corner of my eye. A flash of bright blue…

I looked behind me and realized that the bright blue I had seen was Sirius's shirtsleeve and that he was glaring at me while his friends gave me strange looks of guilt mixed with anger and self-loathing. All except Peter, who just looked down right terrified.

"I don't bite you know." I said to him with a raised eyebrow. "And honestly I don't usually explode on people like that," I said to the rest of them "but I'm not going to apologize for what I said, because I meant every bit of it." I turned back around and walked forward instead of backward so that I wouldn't run over the little firsties on accident, not that it would be such a bad thing.

As soon as I arrived back at the Tower I ran up to my dorm and pulled a new book out of my trunk, seeing as I had finished the other one during dinner, then headed back down and sat in a little window seat where I usually spent my spare time reading and drawing.

I read until I was the only person left in the Commons. I was around 2 a.m. when I crept up the stairs, down the hall, across the dorm room, and slipped under my soft warm sheets and quilts. I fell asleep instantly, my head barely touching the pillow before unconsciousness set in.

The next morning found me wide awake and sitting in the same window sill reading at around 6:30a.m. I get up early out of habit. When I'm at home my mother is always up at around 6:30 and vacuuming the kitchen floor. Because the kitchen is right above my room I hear everything that goes on in it, and our vacuum is extremely noisy, so I use it like an alarm clock most days. I'm also a night owl, so I end up going to sleep really late, normally around midnight, but later if, like last night, I'm caught up in a book. I've learned to be quiet as a mouse, creeping around my house in the middle of the night on my way to bed so as not to wake my parents and have to put up with them giving me looks of annoyance and irritation for being up so late.

By 7:30 most of the students in Gryffindor Tower were up and out of their beds if not fully awake or dressed. One poor third year managed to walk down to the common room still in his p.j.'s and half asleep, then tumble over onto one of the comfy couches and fall back into slumber again.

It was about this time that Lily, Jill and Bindi walked down the steps from the girl's dorm, deep in conversation. They stopped at the foot of the stairs and seemed to decide on something. I had been half watching them and half reading when they came down, and when Lily looked around the Commons and fixed her eyes on me, I concentrated fully on my book.

I wasn't afraid of her, I was afraid she'd make a scene. I don't like to cause scenes in public places if I don't have to, and if she came over and started yelling at me about the night before on the train and on the way to the Tower, it was going to make it a lot harder to find friends here. For these reasons I kept my eyes on the page I was attempting to read in vain and hoped she would suddenly veer off in another direction or think better of confronting me here and go on down to breakfast.

But, of course, that would have been asking for too much now wouldn't it? Lily walked right up to me and tapped me on the shoulder with a smile on her face.

"Halloo." I said, lowering my book and looking over at her with a small smile and what I hoped was an open and inviting expression. The less confrontational I was the less likely she was to be able to be mean to me. I'd studied her and her friends last year and noticed that Lily wasn't someone who got angry unless she had a reason to be. I also learned that she is a control freak and a book worm in the studious sense of the term, both good qualities in a student, but things she could use some work on in her social life. She is trying though, I mean, she finally let go enough to give James a chance now didn't she? And that's getting along rather well from what I've seen.

"Morning." Lily said with an equally polite smile. "We were wondering if by some chance you'd like to come to breakfast with us." At this my eyes just about popped out of my skull. I'd expected a thorough thrashing for my actions the previous day; instead I receive an invite to eat with them? To say the least I was a little thrown.

"Um… what?" I asked blinking blankly at her like a fish string stupidly out of it's fishbowl at a small child.

"Well, I mean, we understand if you don't want to." Lily started babbling nervously "We basically ignored you all last year and first term this year, and we're sorry for that. I mean, we never even said hi to you, and that's just outright rude. I mean, we didn't do it on purpose; we were all just so busy with… well, with important things that we never really thought twice about it. I mean, if we had bumped into you in the dorm room we would have I know, but we didn't even see you around much. The first few weeks we thought someone's things had gotten put in the wrong dorm or that you were sick in the infirmary and figured we'd meet you when you got well, and then after a while we just sort of forgot about it. Anyways we're really sorry we didn't say hi or introduce ourselves and we hope you'll forgive us and come to breakfast with us." Lily stopped babbling and looked at me, waiting for some sign of approval or disproval. At first I thought she must be pranking me, but then I noticed she was twisting her hands around, gripping and re-gripping them in different positions, something she only does when she's truly worried or nervous about something. I know this because I spent all of last year studying the people in the commons, in particular Lily and her friends and the Marauders because they just always seemed to be the most interesting subjects. I actually had quite a few drawings of them; Lily studying, Remus reading, Peter twitching in his seat, Jill and Bindi talking excitedly, James and Sirius plotting their newest prank or late night adventure. They all made such interesting subjects that they ended up being some of my favorite models for practicing drawing people.

"Um… well…" I blinked again and tried to force my brain into gear to sum up the words I had jumbling just in front of my mouth into a proper sentence. "I, uh, I guess that'd be fine, um, I guess…" I replied, still a little uncertain.

Lily brightened at my reply. "Really? Good! Come on, we're going down now." I marked my place in my book and stood from the window seat. Lily took my arm and placed it in hers, and we began walking to the Great Hall. Jill and Bindi were on my left, Lily holding my arm on the right. I felt like something between a celebrity being escorted from her car by her body guards to a prisoner being escorted to the gallows by the jail guards.

The three of them engaged me in polite conversation until we reached the Great Hall where they led me to an empty spot at the huge table. We all sat down and began eating bits of toast and eggs and sausage. They started talking about their breaks and what they had done, how much fun it had been, and the hot guys they had seen. When it came my turn to speak up about my vacation I just shrugged and said "It was okay. I went back to the States and visited my relatives. Saw a couple of my friends while I was there."

"Did you meet any hot guys?" Jill prompted.

"Erm… yes… I met this one guy in a bar…"

"Yeah?" Bindi urged me on.

"Um, he was nice. We chatted for a bit and then he gave me some advice and left."

"Oh." Jill looked a little disappointed.

"What advice did he give you?"

"He told me to stop living my life according to other people's plans and to force people to live their lives around mine for once."

"He gives good advice." Jill commented.

"I thought so too." I nodded, taking another bite of my scrambled eggs.

"So, what classes are you taking?" Bindi asked.

"The same ones as James and Sirius, plus Runes and Care of Magical Creatures." I replied, looking to see if Lily would take the bait.

"So that means you've got N.E.W.T. Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Defense, and Divination plus Career Counseling this term." Lily counted each class off on a finger. She had James's schedule memorized too I bet. "You've got charms then first I take it?" I knew it!

"Yup, Charms, then Transfiguration, lunch, and double Defense." I said, managing to get away with only smirking at her instead of laughing loudly like I wanted to.

"Fun. You want to be an Auror as well then?" Jill asked.

"Yeah, either that or work with magical creatures, dragons preferably."

"Why on earth would you want to do that? Those things are vicious." Bindi pointed out.

"I don't know I like them I guess. The dragons and I have a certain understanding. I respect their personal space and need for freedom and respect, they don't torch me first chance they get. Besides, you have to admit they have certain elegance to them."

"She's insane." Bindi said.

"We're talking to a crazy lady." Jill added.

"Actually she reminds me a bit of you Jill." Lily quirked an eyebrow at Jill in amusement.

"What do you mean?"

"She just has some of the qualities you do is all."

"Yeah but how's that?"

"How's what?" James asked, leaning down and kissing Lily lightly on the lips before sitting down next to her and reaching for the biscuits.

"What's she doing here? Overreacting for no reason? Yelling at innocent bystanders? Ripping your heads off and eating them for breakfast?" Sirius asked, giving me a small glare.

"Well, I was thinking about kabobbing their heads for breakfast, but then I thought 'Hey, I'll just have eggs and toast today instead.' Besides, their heads wouldn't be very tasty, too much watery brain and hard skull. Now their arms on the other hand…" I trailed off, putting my last bite of eggs into my mouth and pushing my plate into the middle of the table where it disappeared to Merlin knows where. I pulled my book out of my bag while I chewed and opened it on the table in front of me. I looked up at him when he didn't respond immediately. "Yes?" he was staring at me, mouth opening and closing. It was like he had a million things to say, but could make none of them form into words and come out. "Can I help you with something? Taking your foot out of your mouth perhaps? Retrieving your tongue from a cat? Casting the counter curse that makes you stop imitating a goldfish?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're… very odd." He said shaking his head and sitting down next to me since it was the only seat left. James, Lily, Jill, and Peter were opposite me, Remus and Bindi were to my left and Sirius to my right.

"Thanks. You're odd too. Want some bacon?" I held out the basket for him.

"Sure…" he took the basket and fixed me with a look something like suspicion and confusion mixed together. I ignored him and began reading my book.

"What are you all up to today?" Jill asked the guys. I was paying attention, but I don't think they know I can read and listen at the same time, so they didn't bother to include me in the conversation.

"We've got class all day today. No free periods." Sirius responded.

"That sucks." I heard Lily say, like she didn't already know their entire schedule. "When does quidditch practice start back up?"

"Next week, but if I had it my way it's be this afternoon."

"Why not? Everyone on the team is obsessed with playing, I'm sure they'd love to get back out there after this long break we've had." Bindi pointed out.

"Hey! I'm not obsessed!" Jill and Sirius objected at the same time. Everyone chuckled at them, including myself.

"I have to find another player. Jones was messing about over break and fell from his broom. He landed back and head first. He's been unconscious for three or four days now apparently. McGonagall sent me a letter telling me not to expect him for practices or anything when we got back and to send a letter to his parents since I'm Head boy and a Gryffindor and Team Captain of the Quidditch team he plays on."

"That's awful. I hope he's okay."

"He'll be fine I'm sure, the Healers are doing wonderful things these days." Remus said from behind his Daily Prophet.

"Well, in the meantime I have to find either a new Seeker, or someone to play Chaser while Lily or I sub as Seeker." James sighed in irritation. "And the team was doing so well too."

"Who do we know that plays Seeker?" Jill asked.

"Well there's Briggs, Smithers, Johnston, or Reeves. They all tried out in September, but none of them were worth beans." Lily said.

"Remus, are you sure you don't want to pla-"

"No."

"But Remus, we know you're good at catching the stupid little snitch and your flyi-"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because people like me don't belong 50 feet in the air. It's a tad nerve wracking. We're very grounded people." What the he11 is he talking about 'people like him'? Everyone else mumbled some sort of agreement so it would seem there was a secret I wasn't clued in on. Maybe it had to do with the monthly disappearances of his. Maybe he was a werewolf sneaking off every full moon in the cover of darkness to a hidey hole where he could be kept safe from himself and others.

Yeah right.

"I guess we'll just have to hold try outs again." Lily finally broke the silence.

"You sure there isn't anyone else we know who plays Seeker?" Sirius asked.

"I do." I said nonchalantly. I know I seemed calm and distracted on the outside, but really I had read the same line about 60 times now because I was too busy screaming 'I DO I DO I DO' in my head. I not only played Seeker, I love Quidditch. I used to play on a team and was the co-captain for a few years.

"Excuse me?" Sirius half laughed, half blurted.

"I play Seeker." I repeated, flipping a page in my book.

"Really?" James was curious; you could hear the curiosity in his voice. "On a proper team or just for fun with friends and stuff?"

"I Co-Captained a team for four years. I was Seeker. I was pretty good too. I haven't played since summer, and I haven't played in a real game for about a year and a half now." I scanned the final line in my book and flipped another page.

"Really?" James was all excited now. Apparently I have potential. And honestly I'd love the chance to get back out there and play in a real game again. He11 I'd love a reason to fly again. I mean, quidditch is great fun, but flying is freedom on a stick. I hadn't done much flying at Hogwarts, I didn't want to get in anyone's way or get yelled at by a teacher for being out of bounds or something.

"Time for class!" Lily sang out excitedly. She ireally/i likes school.

I stood and marked my place in my book and gathered my bag. When I turned to walk out of the Hall, I realized Sirius was staring at me again, this time with something more like astonishment on his face.

"Helloooo?" I waved my hand in front of his eyes.

"What?"

"Come on Skippy, we've got Charms." I rolled my eyes and brushed past him.

"Skippy?" he asked, catching up to me.

"Your new nick name."

"Skippy?" this time he sounded a little condescending.

"You got a problem with it Skippy?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Blow it out your ear."

"Hey!" he stopped in his tracks.

James, Remus, and I were about ten steps ahead of him. Lily, Bindi and Jill had just turned down another corridor to get to their first class, whatever it is and Peter had vanished to Merlin knows where.. I glanced back over my shoulder at Sirius. "Keep up Skippy, we're leaving you behind." He ran to catch up with us again, but still lagged a few steps behind us the entire way to class.

During Charms I sat next to Remus and contemplated a number of things. How it had happened that I was becoming friends with the people I had yelled at the day before for being rude idiots. What Remus meant by 'his kind of people'. Where those four numbskulls were always running off to in the middle of the night. How the aforementioned numbskulls never got caught while they were running around in the middle of the night. Why the professor doesn't just Wingaurdium Leviosa himself about all day instead of standing on stools and piles of books. Most of all, why Sirius kept sneaking strange glances back at me when he thought I wasn't paying attention.

Finally class ended and we were off to Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall seemed to actually notice me for the first time when I walked into the room with the Marauders.

"Sirius no pranks this period, save them for later this month. I'd like to actually get peoples minds back into class today if you don't mind." She said to him as he walked in the class.

"No problem Professor. I'll schedule the first prank for this class sometime next week, sound good?" Sirius replied flashing a charming smile at McGonagall then taking his seat in the front row where she could keep an eye on him. Sirius is good in all of his classes, Charms and Defense are his strongest, but Transfiguration is his favorite. He and Professor McGonagall seem to have an understanding that relies on a certain amount of mutual respect. I can understand how Sirius could respect McGonagall, but how he managed to earn her respect I've yet to figure out.

"James, we need to have a meeting after classes today about what we're going to do about the quidditch team. Jones won't be back in school for some time it seems."

"Yes Professor, I agree. I've actually got a few ideas on the subject. As a matter of fact, here's one of them." James turned and smiled at me. McGonagall looked at me and blinked quizzically.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" she asked. See what I mean? It's like my teachers look at me and immediately develop amnesia for my face and name.

"Yes. I'm Becca Burns, I've been in your class for a year and a half now, and I'm the fourth addition to the 7th year Gryffindor girl's dorm." I said trying not to let my impatience come through in my voice.

"Oh! Yes of course! I met with you when you first came to Hogwarts to plan your schedule, I remember now." She nodded her head, and then turned back to James. "She plays Quidditch?"

"Not only that, she plays Seeker. iAnd/i she's apparently pretty good."

"No?"

"Yup. She Co-Captained her team back in the States. She is a little out of practice apparently, but we can soon remedy that."

"Good. Sounds like a fine candidate, but I think we should hold tryouts still, just in case there's some loose talent floating around that didn't try at the beginning of the year."

"Yes Ma'am, I'll get right on it." James winked at her and took his seat next to McGonagall.

I turned to walk to the back of the class where I usually would sit, but McGonagall had other ideas. "Miss Burns, would you mind sitting up here in the front today? I'm a little unaware of your progress in this class in the practical portion." I sat my books down next to Remus yet again. McGonagall leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially "Besides, it wouldn't do to have Sirius staring over his shoulder all class now would it?"

"Um… I suppose not…" What in bloody he11 is she talking about?

McGonagall turned her attention to the black board and waved her wand so that it began to fill with notes. I glanced over at Remus who was smirking at me.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"McGonagall's right, you're just the type."

"Erm… what?"

"Oh, never mind…"

"But—"

"Shh! She's starting class." Remus began taking notes, a serious expression on his face.

I sighed and followed suit.

After a good hour of note taking and lecturing Professor McGonagall decided it was time to review some of the spells we had covered in the first half of the year practically by actually practicing them. Go figure.

I was working on changing the appearance of my partner, Remus, so that his hair color was purple when McGonagall walked over and observed my progress. Transfiguration isn't me best class, but it's not my worst either, so I was doing fairly well with the review even though I hadn't practiced in a couple of weeks.

I waved my wand and said the spell silently in my head and a flash of yellow-orange light shot out of my wand and hit Remus in the forehead. After a moment's hesitation, his hair began to change color for its usual light brown to a nice bright purple. I congratulated myself by smiling brightly.

"Miss Burns, what color is his hair?"

"Purple."

"What color is his hair supposed to be?" Apparently when a student changes another students hair purple it's conceived as a mistake in the spell.

"Purple." Too bad I wanted it to be purple.

"Why purple?" McGonagall seemed a bit confused.

"I like the color purple, blue would have made him look a tad bit too pale and pink would have just made him look silly. Purple on the other hand brings out the yellows in his eyes." I said innocently. I really wasn't trying to be funny, that's just the way I think of it. I mean, if you're going to change someone's hair color, why not make it an odd color? And if you're going to make it an odd color, at least make it one that will complement the person in question.

"Well then, would you mind changing his color to something more subtle?" She obviously didn't believe me. Probably she heard that excuse before.

"Sure. Black or red?"

"Red with black highlights." Sirius and James were hovering over my shoulders now.

"Red with black highlights it is Skippy."

"Stop calling me Skippy!" I ignored Sirius's outrage and yet again said the spell silently, concentrating on the color I wanted and waving my wand at Remus. The same yellow-orange light hit him square in the forehead and moments later his hair began to change from bright purple to a natural red about the same color as Lily's with black highlights.

"Hmm…. Needs something…" I scratched my chin. "Oh! I know!" I waved my wand again and brown highlights appeared as well, helping the black and red mix more naturally.

Everyone seemed to be a bit stunned. Sirius's eye was twitching, James was blinking stupidly, and Remus was fiddling with a loose strand of his hair trying to get an idea of what it looked like. McGonagall was smiling lightly.

"Well Miss Burns, it appears you're doing well in this class. Do keep up the good work. And speak up more in class; you obviously know what you're doing, so show it more often." Did she really just chastise me and compliment me at the same time?

"Yes Ma'am." I said with a southern accent. I was mocking her, yes, but she doesn't know that.

"How did you do that?" James asked.

"Um… I learned this spell in my fifth year. All I did this year was learn to say it silently, in my head. Plus I practice it a lot on my brother. He absolutely hates it because there's no proof it was me. He's a metamorphamagous you see. I change his hair to pink and my mom thinks 'Oh he must have done that on his own on accident.' He complains that it won't go away because I spelled it so it would stick for 24 hours and she thinks 'He's just having trouble getting a handle on his metamorphamagus skills, he'll figure it out eventually.' It's actually a fun way to spend a few hours. My favorite was when I made his hair polka dot pink and green. Drove him batty." I gazed off into empty space, chin resting on my fist, elbow resting on my desk, and reminisced about the antics I had gotten up to this past summer until my silent reverie was broken by the low maniacal chuckles coming from behind me. "Erm, what are you up to now?"

"Oh, nothing." Remus had moved around to huddle with the guys while McGonagall was on the other side of the room.

"Thanks by the way." Sirius smiled evilly and continued to plot something underhanded with his friends.

"Right. What's going on?" I shoved my way into their little huddle.

"You know, you're pushier than Jill." Sirius eyed me with irritation.

"Yes, thank you, now what are we plotting?"

James and Sirius exchanged glances, then James and Remus. Remus shrugged and James nodded. It was like they had their own little silent language. Lunatics.

"Jill is a Meta as well, we're going to use your idea on her. We were just deciding what color scheme to use on her."

"Oh, I see." Mixed feelings. I was only just becoming friends with the girls; I didn't really want them mad at me now.

"And you can't tell any of the girls, they'll murder us before we even get a chance to do anything."

"I don't know…."

"If you're worried about them getting mad at you, don't. They'll probably just blame us anyways." Remus said. "Mainly those two. They seem to think I'm completely innocent of any plotting when it comes to these pranks. Apparently I'm the voice of reason." Remus rolled his eyes and James and Sirius snickered.

"What the he11, I might as well give it a go."

By the time Transfiguration had ended we had the entire prank planned. We all walked to lunch, laughing about how the girls would react. Somehow I had been a little more accepted among them during that class, though Sirius still gave me strange looks every now and then.

We had a quick lunch with the girls then all eight of us, Lily, Jill, Bindi, James, Remus, Peter, Sirius and I, made our way to my best and favorite class: Defense Against the Dark Arts. Yippy! I love this class.

I practically skipped to a seat at the very front and center of the class room and began to take my books out.

"No need for your books today Miss Burns. We're going to have a practical session today." Professor Michaels, my favorite Professor and the only one to notice I existed in the last year and a half, walked up to me and smiled. "I like the enthusiasm though."

"Yeah, well, I like the class. So what are we doing today? Review?"

"A little review a little new. I'm going to teach you all how to duel properly, not that it'll matter in a fight with a Death Eater."

"What? Because Death Eaters are all dirty cheaters with no idea of what rules are?"

"No, because they know the rules and cross them anyways, and because they use curses that currently there exists no counter to. Remember, if you ever get into a fight with a Death Eater, I don't care who it is or what the occasion may be, you duck and cover and run away."

"Yes Sir!" I gave him an army salute and began putting my books back into my bag. "Need any help setting up?" I offered.

"Sure, just give me a hand moving these desks to the back of the room." The two of us began moving desks while the entire group I had walked here with sat on desks next to the door. When I reached them they all turned and looked at me with little smirks on their faces.

"Urm… something I can help you with?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, no, we're fine." Lily said quickly.

"Well then could you move? I need to get these desks to the back of the room."

"Yeah, we know." Bindi said, snickering a little. They all hopped off the desks and waited for me to finish moving the last of the desks.

"So." I smiled.

"So…" Jill had an evil glint in her eye. Uh oh, I recognize that glint. It's the very same glint she had in her eye just before she made ten gallons of blue paint fall on a group of first years. Crap.