A/N: Not one, not two, but three chapters in one day! This is a freak occurrence, I swear.

Anyway, I hope that you like reading the story so far as much as I like writing it; and as always, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

(And if you feel so inclined, I would love some reviews :))

I woke up the next morning to see that the sun was making a valiant effort to cut through the fog and into my window. Since the beginning of the summer, things had been unnaturally dreary, which I found ominous. I shivered, despite the three blankets piled on top of me, and was reminded again of the things that had happened at the end of the previous school year.

I believed Harry Potter's story that You-Know-Who had returned. I wasn't too close with him, but he was in my house—not to mention that Fred and George were convinced that he was neither insane nor a liar, and I trusted them. On top of that, I could find no other logical explanation for why Cedric would have died that night. It wasn't an accident. As much as I didn't want to think about the possibility of a second wizarding war, I also didn't want to be the fool that laughed at the idea of it. It could be a deadly mistake.

The summer following had been nerve-wracking. My brother, who had been a first year at the time, was terrified. I was, too, but I was also determined not to show it. And as if it didn't matter that we were both traumatized already, we came home to our parents fighting worse than ever. On top of the usual crap, there was now the added tension of a possible war. Making matters worse, Dad sided with Harry, while Mom simply refused to believe that You-Know-Who could be back. Dad said it was because she was a Muggle, and couldn't understand the whole situation. Mom said that she understood perfectly, and that Dad needed to stop believing every word that came out of Dumbledore's mouth. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time out of the house. I didn't want to hear it.

If Katie hadn't lived down the street, I probably would have gone mad within the first couple of weeks. Fred and George didn't really respond to my letters, and Lee was always too busy to travel halfway across the country. But Katie was always there. It was nice to know that I could run over and knock on her back door, and that there would never be a bad time.

We had been friends for as long as either of us could remember, and we were thrilled when we both were put into Gryffindor on our first night at Hogwarts. We had been so nervous about being separated, and I don't think I'll ever forget how anxious she looked before I was sorted, and how happy she looked after. I had actually met the Weasleys through her, after she joined the Quidditch team four years ago.

My train of thought was derailed by my cat, Cinnamon, who jumped on my chest in her usual good-morning greeting. I shifted her onto my lap and sat up, then looked around the dorm to see that I was the first one awake, as usual. I climbed out of bed and dressed, before making my way down to the common room. A few people were awake there, but I kept walking, as my stomach demanded that I go to the Great Hall for breakfast.

As I continued down the corridor, I was excited to see that there was still a hint of sunlight coming through the windows. No matter how faint, it was nice to see that such a thing still existed after months of gloom. Perhaps this was finally a good sign, after my disappointing return to Hogwarts. I smiled to myself, letting my mind wander again.

To be fair, I wasn't sure if "disappointing" was the right word. As the holidays drew to a close, I hadn't known what to expect when I came back to the castle.

I had wanted to see my friends again. A wish that had been granted. After an entire summer apart, it was wonderful to be back on the Hogwarts Express, locked up in a compartment for a few hours with Lee, Fred, and George. Of course, most of the time had been spent with Lee and me talking about our summers, while the twins seemed rather mum about where they had been. This seemed odd, as they usually came back with a million new stories of pranks and hi-jinks; and every time I tried to pursue the subject, they quickly redirected the conversation. I felt quite left-out from it all, and as happy as I was to have them back, it was mixed with a bitterness that I was out of the loop. As the school year had gotten underway, I tried to forget about it, and just have a good time when they were around. It wasn't too hard, since they had tons of new joke shop items to test and show off, and I often just let myself get caught up in the fun of it all. However, there were still those dark moments, usually late at night after another one of our awkward summer-related conversations, when I would find that I was, truly, a bit upset...and hurt.

I didn't have too much time to dwell on it, though. As a sixth year, I was finding that my homework was piling up at an alarming rate, as the classes themselves only became harder. Most of it was enjoyable. After my O.W.L.s, I had thankfully been able to drop all of the classes that I wasn't so enthusiastic about. Despite struggling through non-verbal spells, I was loving the challenge of the advanced magic that we had begun to learn in Charms and Transfiguration. These had been two of my favorite courses since first year, and continued to be such. Astronomy, as always, was wonderful. The real problem was that my two other classes had come up extremely short of being what I would have hoped.

The first to fall flat was Care of Magical Creatures. I had arrived at my first lesson to find that Hagrid would be gone for some undetermined amount of time, and in his place would be Professor Grubbly-Plank. To be clear, I love magical creatures. And there's really nothing wrong with Grubbly-Plank—she's a good teacher, and I don't mind her. But it's just not the same without Hagrid. Maybe I'm a masochist, but I honestly enjoyed the element of surprise in each class, and wondering just how dangerous or illegal the next lesson's creature would be. I had brought this point up once to the twins, and they still teased me about how they "couldn't believe that shy little Av could have such an adventurous side! Maybe she's a real Gryffindor after all!" Each time this occurred, whichever one had said it would be swiftly smacked with whatever I was holding.

The second class to disappoint was Defense against the Dar Arts.

Once again, I'm not sure if "disappointing" is an accurate word to describe the situation. Maybe "torture," "child abuse," or perhaps "bull-shit" would be helpful towards a better understanding of what was going on.

This year, the Ministry of Magic decided that Dolores Umbridge would make a good Professor. As on so many other occasions, they had been wrong. I could probably get a better education from a real toad. And I didn't appreciate being treated like a five year old every time I was in her presence. Not to mention that something about her gave me the feeling that she was, well, evil. No one could believe that someone so inept could possibly be a teacher. Of course, she was also so oddly intimidating that no one dared to go against her. Except Harry Potter, of course. It was now common knowledge that he had lost his temper with her quite a few times, and I still wasn't sure if I admired him for it, or thought that he was an idiot.

As I passed through the door of the Great Hall, I saw that Umbridge was at the staff table, wearing another of her gag-inducing pink cardigans. I rolled my eyes and headed over to the Gryffindor table, where I could see a couple of red- heads who surely wouldn't mind if I sat with them for breakfast.

Halfway there, just as I was passing the Hufflepuff table, I caught a movement in the corner of my eye, and I turned my head to see that Ivy was waving at someone…me? I looked around, which she seemed to find very funny, and I realized that there was no one else's attention that she was trying to attract. I smiled awkwardly and waved back, before making a beeline to my seat between Fred and George. A few seconds later, I chanced a glance back and saw that she was still looking at me. I blushed, and she gave a small laugh before turning back to the conversation she had been having with the girl sitting next to her.

The twins had seen the entire incident.

"Is that your infamous new study buddy?" George asked, grinning.

"You'll have to introduce us," Fred added, also looking amused at my still-red face. "It would be interesting to meet someone who is just as good at embarrassing you as we are."

"I am not embarrassed." I protested, but they knew I was lying. I reached for the nearest plate and loaded it with toast, figuring that maybe if I ignored them for long enough, they would change the subject. It worked, and a few minutes later we were having another animated discussion about possible new items for their joke shop.

Now I could only hope that no one could hear how fast my heart was still beating, or paid any attention as I watched her leave the Hall. And maybe I was imagining things, but I could swear that she looked back at me, just before she went through the doors, and gave me another one of those magical smiles.