Chapter 1

Sasha exited the Potions classroom at the end of the lesson with the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins. As she hoisted the strap of her bag more securely on her shoulder, someone bumped into her… almost knocking her to the ground. A hand grabbed her elbow, keeping her from face-planting on the dungeon corridor floor

"Apologies! You ok?" asked one of the Weasley twins. She wasn't sure which one was apologizing at the moment. The other twin was standing beside his brother, routing through a bag of candy by the looks of it.

"I'm good. Sorry about that." Sasha replied. "What's with all the candy?" she nodded to the twin holding the bag.

"You'll know soon enough." He answered, with a grin. "They're still in the trial period." The twins headed off in the dwindling crowd towards the Great Hall for lunch.

Sasha took a few steps in the same direction until another hand gently grabbed her elbow. She turned to see Professor Snape. "Please remind your husband of our meeting this Saturday evening." He said curtly.

She glanced around, panicked that someone may have overheard him, but the corridor was empty apart from the two of them.

"Yes, Professor. Will you join us for dinner?" she asked.

"Thank you for the invitation." Professor Snape replied, not sounding very thankful.

He turned and walked back to his classroom while Sasha continued to the Great Hall.

Reaching the Gryffindor table, she sat down across from a couple of 5th years. Pulling her half written Transfiguration essay out and grabbing a sandwich off of the nearest plate, she contemplated how to finish the essay. After about 10 minutes she glanced up at the Staff table. Dumbledore was absent again, like usual, but the Umbridge troll was staring at the students with her signature fake smile. Sasha was reminded of the scar on the back of her left hand. I must not interfere.

She remembered that night so vividly. She really thought Jareth was going to kill the woman!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/././~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sasha had been on her way to Herbology. Before she reached the front doors, she saw Professor Umbridge speaking to what looked like a first year boy in very threatening tones. What made Sasha interrupt was the fact that Umbridge had her fingernails dug into the small boy's upper arm so hard that he was wincing and crying from the pain.

"Professor!" Sasha called. "You cannot grab him like that! You're hurting him!"

Professor Umbridge had turned to face Sasha and to her relief, the boy ran off unnoticed.

"That is not the proper way for a student to address a teacher. No, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a detention to help you remember how to interact with your superiors." Umbridge stated, in that god awful childlike voice. "Please come to my office this evening."

"Yes, Professor." Sasha replied. Trying her damnedest to keep any sarcasm from showing through. The little first year had escaped further torture, and that had been her goal. She could put up with whatever Umbridge had in store. Lines? Filing? Lecturing? She would get through it. The only hindrance would be the loss of study time.

That night after supper, Sasha made her way to Professor Umbridge's office. Floor to ceiling ugly pink walls, and an ungodly number of decorative hanging plates all with mewing kittens, greeted her as she followed the sickly sweet "You may come in".

Umbridge sat at her desk scribbling away with unnecessary flourish. She looked up as Sasha approached her desk.

"What will you have me do this evening, Professor?" asked Sasha, internally proud of herself for not sounding as sarcastic as she wanted to be.

"Lines, dear." Replied Professor Umbridge. "But….before we get started with that, I just have one question for you. You see, as a Ministry Official, I thought I had better go through and make sure all student information was updated. And…silly me, I just could not find your address, Ms. King."

There was no question in that. Sasha thought to herself. "Well, Professor Umbridge…" Sasha continued aloud, trying desperately to think of a respectful reply that would not make this situation escalate. "Professor Dumbledore knows where I live." She finished with a smile.

"But I do not!" Umbridge replied in her saccharin voice, staring expectantly at Sasha. "There is also no mention of your parents. In fact, the only information in your records is your name and class schedule."

Feeling guilty about having to pass the trouble onto someone else, but having no other choice, Sasha replied, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I'm not sure why all of that information did not make it into my records. Perhaps Professor Dumbledore would know?"

She could tell that Umbridge was not completely buying it. But she felt a twinge of relief as the corner of Umbridge's mouth curled up.

"I will see to it personally that those questions are answered." She replied threateningly, then instantly returned to her usual sickly sweet voice. "Let's get on with your punishment, shall we?"

Sasha laughed internally at that. Usually her punishments consisted of her standing in the middle of her bedroom with her arms tied and suspended above her head.

She jumped a bit as she turned to face the direction that Umbridge motioned. She hadn't realized there was someone else in the room.

Harry Potter was sitting at one of two desks, writing lines.

Lines are a piece of cake. She thought to herself as she headed towards the empty desk.

As she walked by Harry to sit down, she noticed the back of his hand was bleeding. A small gasp escaped from her as she realized the "cut" was a sentence. The same sentence that he had just written on his parchment. I must not tell lies.

"Is something wrong, dear?" Umbridge asked from behind her.

Harry looked up at Sasha. Tight lipped and a warning in his eyes. His head shook back and forth ever so slightly, before he returned to his lines.

Sasha looked at Umbridge with her eyes wide and mouth slightly opened. "No, Professor." She stammered as she sat down.

"Excellent!" Umbridge said, with a warm smile. She brought a piece of parchment and a quill to Sasha's desk.

"You won't need any ink for this quill. It's one of my special ones." She looked Sasha in the eyes, the smile leaving her face. "Since you think that it's appropriate for a student to interfere when a teacher is talking, your lines will be I must not interfere. I'm sure this will help you to not make that bad decision again." The smile returned to her lips. "You may get started."

"Yes, Professor."

Sasha glanced sideways at Harry. That poor kid… she thought, How could that BITCH do that to a kid?!

She returned to her own parchment and started to write. By the third time of writing I must not interfere, the back of Sasha's hand had started to burn…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/././~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sasha finished writing the last bit of her Transfiguration essay, rolled it up neatly, and put it back in her bag. She popped the last bite of her sandwich in her mouth and headed out of the Great Hall towards her next class.

As she walked across the lawns towards the greenhouses, a white owl swooped down and landed on her shoulder.

"Hello, darling." She said to the owl, then kissed it on the beak.

"That was really cool! He's a beautiful owl!" came a voice a couple feet from her.

Sasha looked straight ahead to see a smiling girl named Cho walking towards her, making her way back to the castle.

"Thank you!" She said back to Cho as they passed each other.

Sasha looked at the bird perched on her shoulder. It almost looked like he was standing a bit taller after Cho's compliment.

"Don't let it go to your head, Hunny" She laughed.

The owl looked at her, cocked its head, and then affectionately nipped at her cheek before it flew off behind the greenhouses.

She sighed, then looked around to make sure that no one was paying her any attention before she followed suit behind the greenhouses.

Around the corner was not the white owl that had landed on her shoulder. Instead, her husband was standing there. Tall, lean, and emanating mystery and power.

"You know that I'm supposed to be catching up on all of the things that I should already know, right?" Sasha asked him, her hands on her hips and one eyebrow raised. "That's the whole point of me being here. To study. Get on the same level as my teenage peers. Some of these kids are wayyy better than me, so I should really be in class right now getting smart."

She finished by sticking her tongue out at him. He always says that he hates that….but she knows it drives him wild in all the right ways.

Just to prove her point unknowingly, he closed the gap between them. His hands were on her hips, pulling her into him. Sasha could feel his want for her through the thin material of his pants. She reveled in the fact that after all this time, he still wanted her this badly.

She was oh so tempted to pull her skirt up as his mouth moved onto hers. But….she heard the voices of her classmates through the thin walls of the greenhouse. Reluctantly, she pulled back a bit.

"Jareth, I have to get to class. I am here to learn, after all." She said with a little smirk.

The sexy, devilish grin that she first fell in love with spread across his face as he looked down at her. "You can't say no to me, I'm beautiful. Your schoolmate said so!"

"You're terrible!" Sasha laughed

Jareth still hadn't let her go. "You like it."

"I do." She smiled up at him as she gave her hips a little wiggle against him.

"If you continue that, you're coming back to the castle with me right now." He said as he bent his head to graze his teeth on the side of her neck.

Sasha wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. "I'll be home tomorrow afternoon as soon as I'm done in Charms."

"I suppose I can try to keep myself occupied until then." He pouted.

"Severus is coming Saturday to have dinner." Sasha reminded him. "Now I really have to get to class. I love you." She kissed him one more time before turning to head into class.

She yelped as he swatted her behind. She turned back to stick her tongue out at him again but he was gone already. Hurrying so that she wasn't even later, she made her way around to the front of the greenhouses.

~~~~/././~~~~

-Friday Afternoon-

Sasha was pleased with herself by the end of the Charms lesson. Professor Flitwick had complimented her on the hard work she had been doing to get the correct wrist movements.

She made her way to the gargoyle that guarded the staircase to Dumbledore's office. Just as she was about to give the gargoyle the password to enter, someone spoke from behind her.

"Eh-Hem," Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "I'm afraid Dumbledore is not in his office."

"Oh, umm…okay." Sasha frantically tried to think of how she was going to get back to the Goblin City without Dumbledore. Minerva would probably be her best bet.

Sasha started to walk away to go find Professor McGonagall when Umbridge interrupted her thoughts.

"What did you need, dear?" she asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"With Professor Dumbledore, what did you need to see him about?" Umbridge prodded.

"It's not impor-"

"Ms. King" said Professor McGonagall, as she walked towards Sasha and Umbridge. "Professor Dumbledore asked me to assist you in getting your paperwork. I assume that's what you are here for?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Sasha replied, thanking her lucky stars that Minerva showed up when she did.

"Minerva, what kind of paperwork could be so important that a student needed to personally retrieve it from Professor Dumbledore's office?" Umbridge asked, watching McGonagall as though she was about to catch her in a lie.

"Dolores," McGonagall sighed with annoyance, "It's not some great conspiracy. Professor Dumbledore wrote Ms. King a letter of recommendation for after she leaves Hogwarts this year. Now if you'll excuse us," she continued, "I do have an engagement that I would like to get to this evening."

Sasha and Minerva left Umbridge standing by the gargoyle as they spiraled upwards on the steps towards Dumbledore's office.

Once safely inside with the door closed, Minerva turned to Sasha. "She's most likely going to be watching when I leave. I think we need to talk to Albus, it may become too risky for you to leave the school with Dolores on alert."

"Jareth isn't going to like that." Sasha replied, "He already thinks it's a mistake that I came here. He tried to forbid me from returning after that cow put this scar on my hand. I don't know, maybe it was a mistake to start coming here. I just wanted to learn everything that I missed out on as a child. Now that Dolores has seen me here, I can't leave or she'll raise too many questions."

Minerva gave her a sympathetic smile. "I keep forgetting that you are not a 17 year old."

"Being part fae helps to look younger." Sasha laughed. "If I looked my real age, there's no way I could get away with being here."

"Well, you better get along." Minerva said. "Don't worry about Dolores, I'll deal with her when I leave."

"Thank you, Minerva." Sasha hugged her. "For everything. I'll see you on Monday."

And with that, Sasha grabbed a handful of Floo Powder from the container next to the fireplace, threw it into the fire, and stepped into the green flames.