Sasha's heart dropped.

"What?"

"You... Your father is standing in the court yard," said Lena incrediously. "Talk about speak of the devil, huh?"

Sasha glanced over her soulder quickly. Sure enough, her father was standing in the middle of the court yard with Headmistress Crumplebottom.

"Shit", she breathed. "What should I do?"

"Go talk to him. And quick. Get him the hell out of here."

Sasha looked once more at Dane. For some reason his presence, the fearlessness with which he presented himself to the world, gave her strength, too. And yet at the same time, his black eyes made her knees weak. She kind of liked it, though. It wasn't easy to worry about her father when the black eyes of Dane demanded she think only of him, especially after dreaming of him for seven years.

She lifted herself fromt he table, feeling more confident. She tried to mimic the fierce way that Dane walked, although she knew only he could be the rightful master of that stride. Still, she kept her eyes fixed on where she wanted to go, her head held high, and her chin pointed slightly out. The effect must have been pretty good, anyway, because her father took a small step back, before he tried his best to attempt a smile. It looked more like he was having a stroke. All the same, it was Sasha's turn to be taken aback. It got weirder.

"Hello, darling." He seemed to be trying to sound like a doteing father. Maybe for her Headmistress' sake? But why would he do that? It was so out of character for him to care about what anyone thought (except when his career reputation was a stake, but surely this little vist had nothing to do with that?).

The Headmistress, Professor Crumplebottom, stepped forward. She had grey frizzy hair, pulled back tight into a bun, round wire glasses, a slightly wrinkled face, and was yearing one of her usual black Victorian era dresses, despite the heat. In her hands were a pile of sealed envelopes.

"Ah, Miss. Winchcombe! Your father here would like to have a few words with you. Under the circumstances, I've decided to give you your dorm assignment early. I thought it might be nice for you to talk in a bit of privacy. You requested the same room mates as last year, correct?"

"Yes, I did. Sandy, Phil, and Lena."

"Lovely! Well, here you are," the Headmistress handed her an envelope with a piece of paper that had her dorm number and timetable for the year, as well a big iron key. She leaned in a little closer and said in a loud whisper, "I think it best if I give the other girl's their keys later."

Sasha just nodded. "Thank you, Headmistress."

The old woman waved her hands, bashfully, "Not to worry dear! Oh, such a good girl." She leaned backwards a little so she could touch her father's arm. "Mr. Winchcombe, you must be so proud! She's a lovely girl. Well, a lovely young lady, I suppose I 'ought say!"

"Yes", he said, as though something was caught in his throat, "her mother and I are very proud."

Professor Crumplebottom gave one last joyful laugh before saying, "Right, well, I'll leave you to it, then!" After a strange look from Mr. Winchcombe, she wondered off. Maybe back to her office, which was on the third floor of the main building.

"It says I'm in room 15. Come on."

Sasha led her father through one of the stone arches which surrounded the court, headed for her new room assignment. It wasn't a far walk, but it seemed to take forever with him following her. It was on the fourth floor of the tower that was situated next to the greenhouses. It was one of the best residents. It only had three dorm rooms in it, and it was in a beautiful location. The only thing was, it would take a little longer for Sasha to get to class.

They had to enter the door at the base of the building, climb the spiraling staircase, passing two doors on the way up, but finally, there they were. Room 15. Her new dorm. She unlocked it to find that the house elves had already brought up their trunks. She pushed hers to the window overlooking the greenhouses, from which you could also see the Mediterranean Sea.

After moving her trunk, she sat on her new bed. Her father sat across from her on one of the three remaining unclaimed beds.

"Narkissa...", he inhaled a great quantity of air,"... I'm not sure you to tell you this."

Sasha did not like the feeling she was getting from this. "Didn't you just come to say goodbye? A proper goodbye, I mean?"

He looked up at her surprised. "No, no, of course not," he mumbled, "if that was the case I would have just sent a owl."

Sasha knew perfectly well he hadn't come to say a proper 'goodbye', but she was slightly offended all the same. "It's just you looked so eager to speak to me as I was leaving."

"I was. I have something rather important to tell you. Its something I wanted to say in person."

"That's a first", thought Sasha bitterly.

"I wanted to catch you at your mother's, before you started school, but-"

"But you knew she wouldn't put up with you in her home."

Her father stared at her with an unreadable expression on his face. "Yes, something like that", he said, in an equally unreadable tone.

His fake, gentle tone was gone. "Narkissa, as you know, I take my job very seriously."

'Understatement of the century', she thought again, but said nothing.

"I've tried my best to hide it from you, but the werewolf situation isn't going very well."

'You couldn't have tried that hard.'

"Actually, it's going very poorly".

'Gosh, I hadn't realized.'

"There is one werewolf, in particularly, who has been causing me some grief."

'Could it possibly, by any slight chance, be, oh I dunno? Fenrir Greyback?'

"Fenrir Greyback, is his name."

'Wow. would not have guessed.'

"Now, I know you're thinking 'but, what has this got to do with me?'"

'Actually, no I wasn't you great prick, but thanks for telling me what I 'ought to be thinking.'

"The fact is, we've been trying to win his loyalty for sometime now, so that the other, more vicious werewolves, will follow his example. You know the sort of thing."

'Thank you for telling me what I know, now. And for the record, all werewolves are vicious you dumb-fuck'

"Unfortunately, he does not trust our intentions."

'Smart, for a beast. I bet he saw right through you.'

"As it is, he has threatened to bite several ministry officials' children, because he does not feel werewolves are treated either equally or fairly."

'Because they aren't, as it should be. Inferi are more human than werewolves.'

"Actually, I am under the impression he thinks werewolves are superior to wizards."

'You think wizards are superior to muggles, so what's the difference?. An evil bastard like you would do no different in his situation.'

"All the same, I tried my best to ease his worries, but he insisted that wizards have no respect for werewolves, so he would teach us to fear them, instead. He kept swearing that he would made good on his promise to attack the children. Left with no other alternative, I did the only thing I could. I decided to prove that we saw werewolves as equals."

'How did a dumb fuck like you manage that?'

"And so, I gave him my word that within a year's time, I would marry my one and only daughter off to a werewolf."

'................................................................'

'................................................................'

'................................................................'

"You told him what?" asked Sasha, in a restrained voice. It was as calm as she could make it, but even still her father was surprised with how dangerous and cold it sounded. He clearly supposed she would go along with whatever order he gave her. But she couldn't think like that, she needed to keep a cool head, for now at least. She tried her best to contain her anger, but it was boiling up in her, driving her mad.

"You heard me, Narkissa. You will not fight me on this. Now it's not just the lives of children at stake."

Her jaw clenched up when she heard the first two sentences, but she was curious about the third so she asked, "Who else's' life have you risked, then?" This time she almost hissed her words.

"Yours. If you do not comply he will kill you. He also has promised to double the number of children he original guaranteed to attack. You should know, he has been known to go after families, so he will probably try to kill your mother and myself, as well. I have put a lot on the line for this. My entire career. If I settle things with Fenrir, I'll be promoted to head of the entire Being Division. In a few years I would be . Don't ruin this chance.

Sasha could feel her wand in the pocket of her jumper. She knew the killing curse. Never had she had an honest to god desire to murder someone, but now the offer was more than tempting.

When she didn't answer right away, Mr. Winchcombe assumed that it meant she had agreed so far, not that she was so absolutely furious she was contemplating murdering him.

Blissfully unaware, he continued, "I am aware that werewolves can be quite brash, or not up to the standards to which you may hold a normal wizard. As it is, I have... hm, let's just say, connections," he smiled, as though she should be impressed. "I am on fairly good terms with a particular werewolf who remains a reasonably well accepted member of society. After I explained to him the circumstance, and after quite a lot of begging on my part, Remus Lupin has agreed to marry you. Well, Narkissa, have you anything to say?"

She was quite for a moment. Her eyes bore into him like daggers. Finally, in a dark whisper, she said, "Get out."

"Excuse me?"

"Precisely," she said louder, but not loosing the edge to her voice, "you may excuse yourself from my home. Get out."

"I don't like your tone Nar-"

"I don't like your presence in my home. Get. Out." She said this louder, still. She stood up, and pointed towards the door with her left arm outstretched.

He stood up, too. "I hope your not planning on being difficult about this, Narkissa."

'Difficult? I'll show him fucking difficult!'

In a swift movement, Sasha grabbed her wand from her pocket, and pointed it directly at his throat.

"If I were you, I would go directly to the Headmistress' office, throw down some floo powder, and never come the fuck back", she said, viciously. Her father's hands were raised slightly, showing that he was defenseless. He was lead to the door, backwards, by Sasha, who still had her wand pressed so hard into his neck, he had trouble breathing easily.

"Open it", she commanded him. Wordlessly, he opened the door. "Leave, and don't come back, if you know what's good for you." He sidestepped out the door.

Sasha didn't see him go down the staircase because she had shut the door immediately and locked it. She heard him slam the door of the building and the crunch of gravel under his feet as he marched away. She drew in a deep breath of air and then gently lowered herself to the floor. She pulled her knees up close to her face, grabbed her hair in her hands, and before she knew it, started sobbing.