The Muggle Studies classroom was full of students, chatter, and – even though this work did not require magic – bright red stars shooting here and there. Neville Longbottom's wand had backfired once again, and Professor Burbage was trying to get him to quit, completely ignoring his strained mumbles that it was not his fault, and he was trying to stop them. In the end, she just shot a bright beam of light at his wand, causing it to smoke (but the stars had stopped), and he was given a half-week's worth of detention with her. His face was bright red, his mouth drooped, and he slumped in his chair.

At the table beside him, three girls were concentrating on the classwork they had the last ten minutes of class to work on. They had also been assigned a rather large essay on the Muggle police system, but they were given all of Christmas break to work on it – a break which was starting the next day. Loads of students were already packed up, and would be heading off on the train tomorrow. Just as many students, however much they were not sure of their safety within the castle, had chosen to stay.

The three girls at the table were among those sticking around. Their parents, all close friends since their own Hogwarts days, were off to ward off the winter blues in Mexico, half to relax and half to learn about Mexican wizarding history. The first girl was about a head taller than the other two, with small blue eyes, long, crazy curling blonde hair, and a very sharp, but pretty face. She was a bit overweight, as well, but it just made her look healthy instead of making her look even more unattractive. She was the only Ravenclaw in the group, and the only Ravenclaw any of them knew of to be best friends with a group of people from every single house, including Slytherin – although Aria and Ariel were her number ones. Her name was Hanna-Lee Royal, but everyone just called her Hanna.

The second girl had long, straight brown hair, big brown eyes, slightly tanned skin, and a very soft, beautiful face, complete with a small stud in her nose. She looked like the average pretty girl, but 'average' was something this Gryffindor was definitely not. Aria Montgomery was anything but normal, and that gave not only her personality, but her looks, a fun quirk and drew a lot of interest. She was a bit on the short side, and a bit on the skinny side – which was completely not her fault, since both her parents and her brother were like that. It was just genes.

The last girl was Ariel Metz, an exotically gorgeous redhead, with long, wavy-curly locks, big grey eyes, and a perfectly thin, but curvaceous, body. She had very defined features and high cheekbones, hot pink highlights through her hair, and the best clothes anyone had ever seen. She was, however, one of the kindest, most welcoming, and hard-working girls in Gryffindor. The only time she was ever rude to someone was when they were rude to her or someone else who did not deserve it first. She was also not big on dating, and out of her best friends, she was the only one who had not had at least one boyfriend. (Aria had dated only once, and it was only for a short time with Dean Thomas; Hanna had had many, many boyfriends because she went pretty far on the sex-front with all of them. She was considered the Slytherin whore, but for some reason no one really held that against her.)

The three girls all lived in a half-Muggle community, so it was not a big struggle to do the homework. In fact, it was rather boring – not that Muggle Studies work was ever exciting. They were currently doing work on textbook work, from a chapter called Keeping Safe – The Muggle Way.

"'In a large city, what is the best way for Muggles to keep safe?'" Hanna read from the textbook, while writing an inky "a" on her page. The work was supposed to be discussed in groups then written down, and Hanna had the neatest writing.

"A weapon?" Aria asked, unsure if that was legal or not.

"Maybe keeping in groups of friends..." Hanna said.

"Wear a helmet," Ariel muttered, causing Hanna and Aria to burst out laughing. Professor Burbage swooped down on them immediately, cawing at them to keep the volume down and get to work. She was probably the worst teacher ever, she yelled so much, and got everyone in trouble for things that were sometimes beyond their control. Aria once admitted that she'd much rather marry Snape then have to take Muggle Studies with Burbage again.

Once she swooped off, and the girls' new giggles had died down, they began working once more. Behind them, they heard Seamus, Dean, and Neville come up with very simple, obvious answers – the same answers that were examples in the text book.

Ariel turned her head to look back at them, said, "because that hasn't been said before," then turned back. Seamus said, "why don't you bang your head on the desk."

With a hint of hurt on her face, Ariel turned right around in her seat. "That was mean, Seamus," she said. "I was joking, but that was just rude."

The boys at Seamus' table let out uneasy laughs, until Seamus retorted with, "I meant the desk of love!" Then they burst out laughing. Aria and Hanna giggled, their hands over their mouths so no one would see. Ariel, Hanna, and Aria had a strange friendship with the boys – one minute they would be sitting together at lunch, and the next they would be at each other's throats. Neville never got into the fighting bits, but he never talked to them afterwards.

"Right," Ariel muttered.

"I mean it!" Seamus said, laughing along with the two boys. "The desk of love; the soft, cushion-y desk; the cloud desk!"

Ariel turned around, and muttered, "why don't I just hang myself with the love noose." The girls' table let out another round of laughter, and soon Professor Burbage was nearly wetting herself, trying to get Seamus, Dean, and Neville to quiet down, along with Hanna, and Aria once again. When the bell rang, and neither of the tables had their classwork finished, she told them all they could join Neville in detention at seven that night. A collective groan rippled through their group.

"Good going Finnegan," Ariel muttered, as her and her girls left the classroom. Seamus and his group followed behind.

"You started it, Metz," Seamus replied. Ariel shook her head and rolled her eyes. The boys behind her pushed past them, and flowed away in the heavy current of students going this way and that back to their common rooms. Hanna left them not long after to hurry up to her own common room. She had a date with a boy who's name she would not tell. They were sneaking off into Hogsmeade somehow, although Aria and Ariel seriously doubted how well that was going to work.

"She's completely crazy," Ariel muttered, climbing the ever-moving staircases up to Gryffindor tower.

"She's also blowing off detention," Aria said, slightly angry. Hanna was always worming her way out of detentions – skipping them, then sucking up to the teacher the next day with some sob story that pulled at their heart. The only ones she had never tried this with were Snape and Professor McGonagall, but that was because she knew she would never get away with it.

"She'll make up for it somehow," Ariel said, patting Aria's shoulder. "Remember last time? She blew off detention, then the Weasley twins put Exploding Snap cards into her pudding, so it exploded all over her at dinner." Aria laughed fondly at the memory. And Ariel was right, in the end, Hanna always got worse than what her detention was going to be in the first place.

"I wonder what we're going to have to do with her, anyways," Ariel thought aloud.

"Not a clue, but probably something without magic," Aria said. "Flibbertigibbet," she added, and the portrait hole in front of them swung open. The girls climbed through.

"It's pretty much always without magic," Ariel said, "because if we could use our wands it wouldn't be much of a punishment."

"Oh shut up," Aria said, and the girls giggled all the way up to the third year girls' dormitory.

Ariel and Aria spent the better part of the afternoon playing Wizard's Chess, watched eagerly by Ron Weasley, who was not at all reserved about giving them tips. Well, more like excitedly half-shouting at them what they should and should not be doing each move. It could have been a lot more annoying, but Ron knew the ins and outs of Wizard's Chess, and the girls were quite bad at it. They just wished he would stop yelling.

At five thirty, the girls, accompanied by Ron Weasley (who was not with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger because he was currently fighting with Hermione, but Harry needed help on his Potions homework badly so he chose to stay on her good side for the time being), trooped down to the Great Hall to have dinner. They loaded their plates, ate heartily, and their talk and laughter floated around them. Ron was actually quite an enjoyable fellow, and the girls made a mental note to spend more time with him.

"Oi, can you see Hanna over there?" Aria asked Ron, who was facing the Ravenclaw table – the girls were sitting on the other side, facing Slytherin.

"What?" Ron asked, his mouth full. He swallowed, and scanned the Ravenclaw table. "No, she's not."

"Must be out on her date," Ariel muttered, and Aria rolled her eyes. Ron cocked an eyebrow, but didn't ask. It most obviously was none of his business.

Dinner went normally again, and Seamus and Dean even came and joined them. Ron was filled in on what happened in Muggle Studies, and they all had a good laugh about it. Nobody liked Professor Burbage; she was nearly as bad as Snape, but her classes were less emotionally abusing.

Speaking of Snape, the hook-nosed, bat-like teacher came swooping into the Great Hall just as dinner vanished and pudding appeared. Ariel reached out for a bit of pie, but Snape was suddenly behind them, and said croakily, "do not bother, Miss Metz. You and Miss Montgomery need to come with me."

"But we have detention soon," Aria complained, which was only a half lie. They had an entire hour before seven o'clock.

"You will not be having your detentions tonight, please, follow me," Snape ordered. Shrugging, a little confused, Aria and Ariel got up, and began following Snape – who was walking rather quickly – out of the Great Hall. It was a lot of effort to keep up to him, since he was heading so quickly towards the doors.

"Why are we going outside?" Ariel asked. "It's horrible outside!"

Snape ignored her, and pushed open the doors. Harsh wind smacked their faces, and they could see the blinding rain falling in sheets, the lightening cracking across the sky, and the thunder yelling from above. The Whomping Willow was even having trouble standing up to the heavy winds.

He started out into the grounds, but the girls did not follow him. "We're not going out there!" Ariel yelled. Snape stopped abruptly, turned around, and said, "you will, unless you want one hundred points off Gryffindor... Each." His mouth stretched into a dirty smile. Letting of a few muttered swear words each, the girls pulled their cloaks tight and stepped out into the storm. It was hard to see where they were going, not only because of the rain, but because of the hair that was being blown right into their faces. And it seemed like forever before they stopped. Soaked to the bone and absolutely freezing cold, they were led into the game keeper Hagrid's hut. Rubeus Hagrid was not present – he had gone earlier to Hogsmeade for a drink, and was now staying there until the storm died down a little – but Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Lupin were. On the floor, seeping around the teacher's feet as they stood in a circle, was a trail of blood.

Snape cleared his throat, and all three teachers jumped. Professor McGonagall hurried over to her students, and Snape filled her gap in the semi-circle, tutting disapprovingly.

"This is going to come as a shock," Professor McGonagall said softy. Ariel and Aria had never heard her speak softly to anyone. "We found her just like this here; obviously whoever meant to do this knew that Hagrid had been gone since mid-day."

"Did what?" Aria asked.

"What are you talking about?" Ariel followed up. McGonagall sighed, then led the girls over to where the pool of blood was seeping from. All the Professors moved aside. The sight nearly made the girls sick.

On the floor lay Hanna, her blonde hair bloodstained and her eyes empty and glassy. Her body had been nearly ripped to shreds. The person did not even bother to use magic; instead he wanted to tear her apart, like he had a personal grudge only this would solve.

"We believe it was the work of Sirius Black," Professor McGonagall muttered. Ariel shook her head slowly, Aria wiped fast-flowing tears from her eyes, then the two girls hugged each other and broke down in each other's arms.

"Best get them back up to the castle," Professor Dumbledore said calmly. "Remus, could you escort them?"