A girl in the back of a large classroom held her head in the palm of her hand, tapping her quill lightly on the side of her desk. A yawn threatened to stretch her mouth open but her teeth clenched against it. Her sight maneuvered over the equally bored faces of her peers, resting on her friend, Severus Snape, whom she sat beside. He sat there, hunched over, scribbling each thing the Professor said onto his parchment. She rolled her eyes and had the most powerful urge to flick him in his long, hook-nose, but a voice from the front of the classroom caught her attention instead.

"Miss Fagan, please stand up here with me," Professor McGonagall said, waving up the black-haired girl. She blinked her dark eyes and sighed, standing and moving toward the front of the classroom. Her footsteps dragged across the wooden floor in a rather noisy manner until she stopped before her teacher and turned to face the class.

"Ariana Fagan, a normal 7th year student at Hogwarts, one would presume," said the professor, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. "What do you want to do as a career, Miss Fagan?"

"I want to – well I was thinking about being an Auror," she said quietly, her eyes darting to the greasy haired boy she called her friend from the back of the room. "But, Professor, what does that have to do with Transfig-"

"An Auror, hmm?" McGonagall said with raised eyebrows. "You're marks are certainly no problem, but…will you be able to tell?"

Ariana's eyebrows furrowed as she glanced up at her teacher. "Tell? Tell what?"

"Transfiguration is first and foremost concealment," the professor went on, "and to be an Auror, you must be able to know the evil any one wizard may be concealing."

"Anyone, Ariana."

At the sound of that low, nasally voice, her gaze shifted to the back of the room to Severus. Ariana's face contorted in horror as she saw her friend's face was shadowed by a large, black, pointed hood. "But…no…Sev-"

"Transfiguration is also manipulation." McGonagall looked down at Ariana who was still transfixed on her friend. "As an Auror, you must be able to decipher the manipulators…"

"…from the manipulated," a boy in the middle row said.

At the familiar voice, Ariana glanced at her peer as he stood. The handsome boy she had always reviled had his hands cuffed and he had visibly aged, his graying hair still in his eyes. Her head tilted and her mouth gaped open. "Sirius?"

"I wonder who she'll believe," Sirius said as he turned to two very real looking skeletons that sat to his side. "What do you think, James? Lily?"

Both skeletal figures crumbled to ash in their seats.

Sirius grunted. "My thoughts exactly."

"No…they can't be…" Ariana's eyes welled up with tears as her chest tightened. She tried to run over to the now empty seats but her feet would not move. She turned her head back to her teacher. "They were alive a moment ago! I saw them! No one touched them!"

"No one saved them either," McGonagall replied in a flat voice. She glanced at Sirius who hadn't moved an inch since his friends had fallen to dust. "If no one will save them, who will save him?"

"No…Someone help him!" said Ariana as a shadowed figure came from next to Snape and lifted it's wand with a very feminine hand. It pointed it to Sirius's back steadily, almost in slow motion as the rest of the class didn't bother to turn at all. She tried again to move her feet with all the strength she had. "NO!"

"NO!"

Ariana woke with a start and sat up in bed, heaving and sweating profusely. Her eyes finally adjusted to her surroundings, finding posters hung crooked on the walls clothes lying carelessly on the floor, and pictures displayed on the top of chestnut-colored dressers. She exhaled loudly and wiped the beads of sweat from her brow. Her eyes moved to the small alarm clock angled on her nightstand.

3:26 A.M.

A groan formed in her throat as her head hit the pillow again. Two hours…just two more hours…

She turned over and lifted the blanket over her head.

It was seemed like only minutes before she heard her mother's voice. "Ari! Wake up! You don't want to miss the train, do you?"

"No, of course not," she shouted back, a twinge of sarcasm in her tone. Thank Merlin, that's the last time she'll be saying that.

She threw the blanket off of her and hopped out of her bed. Her eyes went over to the alarm clock again as it read 5:54 A.M., then to the large suitcase in the corner of her room. Her seventh year, her last year…it almost seemed like a dream. No, scratch that. Last night I had a dream, a dream I'd rather not have ever again.

"Hurry up!"

A growl escaped her throat as she slipped on a long sleeve shirt. She hopped around her room as she put on her black slacks and zipped them up as she grabbed her heavy luggage. Dragging it across her carpeted floor, something caught her eye in the mirror. She paused and turned to the reflective glass with a sigh. Her thick hair was completely unkempt and her makeup-less face showed the dark bags under her eyes.

"Ariana Jane! Get down here this instant!"

Not another thought entered her mind as she ran out of the room, suit case in hand.

"Have a good year, darling!" Her mother hugged her one last time as the train whistle sounded.

Ariana smiled widely from the steps of the train as she let go of her mother. "Bye, Mum! I'll write as soon as possible, promise!"

The train had begun to move as Ariana's mother started to get farther and farther from view. At least a minute passed before she left the steps and lugged her suitcase down the corridor of the train. Glancing into cabins, she walked by as quickly as her legs and luggage would allow her. She continued gazing through passing windows, watching her peers – new and old – laughing and chatting beyond the glass that separated them from her. She wasn't quite sure why she was looking inside their cabins, but kept on doing so until she had made her way to the last. In the window of the cabin sat the pale, greasy-haired boy, staring at the passing scenery by himself. A flash of her dream the night prior ran through her thoughts, sending an unnatural chill up her spine. Her hand reached for the handle of the sliding door when loud fits of laughter burst from behind her. She jumped slightly at the abrupt noise and spun around.

There stood a very alive-looking James Potter, accompanied by a grinning Remus Lupin. Ariana blinked a few times, her thoughts of a skeletal James overlapping her sight. It was only a dream, she reminded herself, exhaling loudly.

Still laughing, James turned at the slight noise. "Oh look, Moony! It's Snivelly's protector!"

Remus rolled his eyes and gave a slight wave to the girl. "It's nice to see you again, Ariana."

"Hello, Remus," she said pleasantly with a tight smile, which faded as her sight turned to the other boy. "James."

"So formal, Fagan," said James, mocking a pain in his chest. "What happened to the long list of swear words you spouted out before school ended?"

She slightly smiled at the boy, but glared nonetheless. "All in good time, Potter."

"By the way, how's Snivellus?" James glanced over her shoulder. "No, he doesn't seem to be hiding behind you. That's a change of pace. Or have you not seen him yet?"

Her glare turned deadly.

"Back down, Fagan! Perhaps you should save some of that energy for school," he replied with a smile. "No doubt you'll need to use it-"

"Will you leave her alone!" a feminine voice shouted behind the boys. James and Remus turned to see the familiar green-eyed redhead.

James grinned widely as his hazel eyes lit up. "Lily!"

She sneered and pushed past him to Ariana. "I hope that urchin isn't bothering you too badly, Ari."

"Not at all," said Ariana lightly, still glaring at James.

"C'mon Prongs," Remus said, patting James's shoulder, "before I have to muster up a respectable explanation to Padfoot and Wormtail as to why you were killed."

Hesitantly, the two walked down the corridor and out of sight.

Ariana smiled a bit and looked at girl in front of her, her nerves tensing again. "And how was your summer, Lily?"

Lily sighed exasperatedly. "Uneventful in every sense of the meaning. And yours?"

"Very much the same," Ari said with a laugh before glancing at the cabin once more. "Well, I should be going."

Lily looked in the same direction and shook her head disappointedly. "I still don't understand why you go out of your way so much to be a friend to him. Does he even see you as one?"

"I think he does," Ari said with a shrug. "Probably more of an annoyance, but…"

"And that's worth it?"

Ari smiled gently. "Having an annoyance is better than being alone with that foul group he clings to. So…yes, I think it is."

Lily smiled back, turned, and walked away. Ari reached again for the sliding door hand and slid it open, calling Snape's attention. She sat across from him with the same gentle smile she had given Lily a minute before. The lanky, pale boy simply stared at her for that moment with his usual gloomy expression.

"Hello, Severus," she said brightly, folding her hands on her lap.

"Ariana," he replied simply.

At the long pause, she took a deep breath. "How was your-"

"What was the commotion outside?"

She stopped, her expression not faltering even for a second. "Nothing out of the ordinary, just James Potter being an arse."

He released a lightly sigh, grumbling, "I suppose that means school truly is back in session."

"So how was-"

"It was like every other summer I've told of since second year," he said in a monotone voice. "I assume nothing of importance happened during yours, as usual."

Flashes of her dream filled her head at the comment and she fought back the urge to shudder. "Yes, of course."

Hmph. Nothing.

Welcome back to school.

"Took you both long enough," Sirius said with a grin as Remus and James reentered the cabin, candies sticking out of their fists and pockets. "Got my peppermint toads?"

"Of course," James replied, passing his friend the box of candy. He and Remus sat down across from Sirius and Peter as they settled into conversation. "Saw your girlfriend just now, Padfoot."

"Girlfriend? I doubt he even knows the term," said Remus with a laugh. "Perhaps fangirl he'd be more familiar with…"

Sirius smirked at his friend. "Know the term better than you, Moony."

Wormtail let out a laugh but remained to himself as the banter continued.

"Fagan decided to start in on me early this year," James cut in, leaning back in his seat.

Remus eyed him. "More like the other way around."

"Ariana?…eh, pretty girl," Sirius thought aloud. "Probably would be more attractive if she detached herself from Snivellus from time to time."

"You say that now," James said with confidence, "but we all know you're waiting for that first argument of the school year."

"I could say that same about you and Lily Evans," Sirius bit back, earning a glare from his friend. "Besides, it's easy to get the girl flustered."

"Almost to the point where she threatens castration," Remus said and paused before adding, "and sometimes past that point."

Sirius shrugged. "She'd never do any real harm."

"She chased you with her wand all around the Great Hall last spring, shouting that she'd curse you with Syphilis," said Remus, holding back laughter. "You cross her this year, she might actually do it."

"I'll take my chances."

"Well, don't go raving to us about how insane she is this year," James said with a yawn. "You're on your own with that one, Padfoot."

Sirius smiled confidently. "I'm sure I'll be just fine."

(to be continued)