So this is the new and improved chapter 3! I haven't changed too much, but I believe that these changes will make the story more realistic and better to read! The first few years will be more like long one-shots, so that Katoka's personality is introduced. She won't be playing a big role in the story until later on, so the first few years are (somewhat) peaceful for our heroine!

Thanks to all those that stuck around (:

Katoka's POV:

After that crappy stint in flying class, I expected Professor McGonagall to yell at us, give us detention, maybe even follow Aunt Rolanda's choice and expel us. My chest was pounding as I followed behind the tall witch and I could tell Harry was just as nervous. McGonagall led us to a classroom, where she went in and then came out with a boy.

The boy was pretty good looking and was an older Gryffindor. He had pretty brown hair and shimmering brown eyes. He had a playful look about him, but he had this strange scar about the side of his head, a patch of hair on that side looked like it wouldn't grow in like the rest of his hair.

"Wood, I've found you a new player: a seeker." McGonagall seemed pleased as she presented Harry to this Wood boy. "I've also brought a possible future trainee."

Wood smiled, looking down at us with kindness.

"Really? We haven't had a good seeker since Weasely left. They're just first years though. I can take a first year trainee, but I don't know about a first year player." Wood said uneasily, looking down at us. Professor McGonagall shot him a dirty look, making Wood cough and rub the back of his neck.

"B-but ahh..I trust your judgment. You two, meet me at the quidditch pitch after classes." Wood smiled, shaking each of our hands before rushing back into the classroom.

Panting, I shakily dropped off my broom and onto the ground. Harry got to prove his seeking skills before I could show off my "trainee" skills, so Harry was gone by the time I took to the air. Wood was waiting for me, and now watched as I shakily pushed into the air and forced myself to fly around.

What I lacked in speed, I made up for in a gradual gain in balance. For a first time flier, it was apparently very good that I wasn't falling off every second, even though I was going pretty slowly.

"Good job, McHugh, a few more flying lessons, you'll be a natural in the air!" Wood nodded, his arms crossed over his chest. "You'll be ready to play in your third year! Maybe your second if we need you and you improve!"

Ecstatic, I raced back to my room to write to my uncle.

"H-hey, Toka?"

I was in the library, going over my eight inch essay for charms when a wary looking Harry approached me. The poor boy was pouring sweat, wringing the cuffs of his cloak worriedly.

"What's up?" I asked, pushing my parchment away from me to show that he had my complete attention. Harry sighed, sitting down across the table from me and glanced around the room worriedly. I now noticed that he was a little paler than normal and that he had nervously wrung his hands so much that the skin had turned a light pink.

"You like animals, right?" Harry asked sketchily.

"..I'm not buying black-market animals off you." I said slowly, watching as Harry's eyebrows shot up his scarred forehead.

"No, uh..no. I just wanted to know what kind of animals you know the most about. D-dogs, right?" Harry asked, twisting his fingers together. I'm pretty sure I heard a few of his knuckles pop. He's gonna need some serious physical therapy if he keeps messing with his hands.

"Yeah, I've been raised alongside dogs, practically. My Uncle Bud's a big pheasant hunter, so we've always had a lot of dogs. Irish Setters, Beagles, the occasional German Shepard or Coon Hound. What'ya need to know, Harry?" I said, but Harry didn't seem to know where to start. He tried to find something to say, but just kept wringing his battered hands.

"You're looking a little tepid, dogs are great for stress, ya know." I said worriedly, watching a large bead of sweat dribble down his temple.

"W-what do you do with a mad dog?" Harry asked hurriedly, scratching his head of wild, dark brown hair.

"...Leave it the hell alone."

"I'm serious!" Harry cried, looking more nervous by the moment.

"As am I. haven't you ever heard of the saying: 'Let sleeping dogs lie', Harry?" I asked. Harry's green eyes suddenly widened, like he had the epitome of the century.

"Sleeping...get it asleep! Thanks Toka, you're a big help!" Harry said, tossing me a chocolate frog before rushing out of the library. I shrugged, opening up the chocolate and stuffing it in my mouth. I hated the way the magical chocolate would move around in your mouth for a moment before it 'died', but I did love chocolate.

"Today, you each will be creating your own antidote to common poisons. You will each work alone, but I will allow you to converse with your fellow classmates quietly about the different qualities that you chose to add to your potion. Starting: now." Snape said, sitting down at his desk and opening up a newspaper with moving pictures.

Shrugging, I dusted off the corners of my cauldron and started to skim through my potions book. An antidote to common poisons seemed easy enough, since it was on the eighth page of the first chapter. The list was simple enough: powered bezoar, ground unicorn horn, 'standard ingredients', and mistletoe berries.

After pouring a couple cups of water with standard herbs into the cauldron, I gave the pot a moment to heat up. I ground the bezoar and some unicorn horn, looking around the class as I did so. Harry and Ron seemed to be trying to copy each other, which wasn't working out too well. Hermione was tying her hair back after her hair fell into the cauldron as she was peering into it. Dean was sitting in front of me and was having trouble grinding his unicorn horn.

"Just twist your wrist, Dea." I whispered to Dean, who smiled back and nodded. I heard a scoff from beside me, even though I thought no one was sitting there. In the once empty seat was now Draco Malfoy, who was looking into my cauldron. I chose to ignore him and added four measures of the crushed bezoar into the cauldron.

"Why do you sprinkle it in like that?" Draco whispered, throwing in a handful of crushed bezoar into his cauldron. I said nothing, giving the potion five moments to heat up. Draco didn't seem off-put by my silence, but kept a sneaky eye on my brew. I waved my wand over my bubbling potion, before leaving it again to brew.

"Why did you turn the heat up like that?" Draco asked, making the fire underneath his cauldron more intense. I shrugged, watching Ron and Harry try to figure out how much 'a pinch' was. Dean was up to par with my step, and was waiting for his potion to brew. Snape was still reading his freaking newspaper, even though I'm pretty sure Crabbe's potion just started to bubble over.

"That looks like too little for a pinch." Draco said, watching me intently. Why was this ass-hat so intent on my freaking potion? Wasn't he just barking shit at Harry and I a few weeks ago.

"Wait...was that counterclockwise?" Draco asked, watching me stir my brew. I blew my hair out of my face, irritated. Don't get me wrong, usually if someone is talking to me: I'm super nice. Nine times out of ten, I'll actually want to talk to someone, but not if I think the person's a total jerk, like blondie over here.

"Mistletoe berries? I think baneberry would be better.." Draco said, reaching for the little white and red fruits. Quickly, I snatched the container of berries out of his hand and knocked it to the floor.

"What the bloody hell?" Draco asked, looking at his smashed container of berries. "What's wrong with you, McHuge!"

McHuge?

A fat joke?

Really?

Like I haven't heard that before.

"I believe you owe Miss McHugh an apology, since she just saved your hide. The baneberry would have killed you, as it is poisonous." Professor Snape said, seemingly done with his light reading. Draco's mouth popped wide open and his eyes almost rolled out of their sockets.

"Everyone, back to your work." Snape said, turning his back and began to prowl the desks. I plucked some boom berry out of my ingredient kit and plopped a few of them into the mixture.

"What were those?" The fellow blonde asked softly, trying to peep in on my potion. Ignoring him, I plucked a few sprigs of lavender and peppered them into the potion. Quickly, I added a few drops of moondew and a few mint leaves.

"None of those are on the list..do you want to get in trouble?" Draco deadpanned, erratically re-reading the text book. Sighing, I stirred the potion five times counter clockwise and left the potion to brew before I could bottle it. Letting out another annoyed sigh, I turned to Draco.

"Listen, I'm trying to be nice here. I know what I'm doing and I don't think someone who almost put poisonous berries into an anti-poison potion should be telling anyone what to do. Creepy, orange lunatic." I grumbled, feeling my Irish roots coming out. In front of me, Dean snickered as he spooned his potion into a vile.

"V-very well." Draco stuttered, turning back to his own potion, which promptly blew up in his face. The whole class burst into laughter. Ron and Harry actually were crying, but I kept my thoughts to myself and poured my dark teal colored liquid into my clear, oval vile. I brought my vile to Professor Snape, who seemed indifferent to my potion, but I saw the curious glance he through at the different colored liquid.

"So..you're pretty good at potions." Draco said as I started packing up my ingredient kit. I glanced at him quickly, and shrugged.

"Maybe..you and I could, ya know..maybe work together. Even though Potter has chosen the path of lesser blood, there's still a chance for you, Kato." Draco smiled, as if what he was saying was...nice.

"It's Katoka, you little brat." I smiled, narrowing my eyes. "You're lucky I left my shillelagh up in my room or I would bataireacht you straight to hell. For your information, I am half wizard and half muggle! I'd rather strip and eat bark off a tree with my bare teeth before I even thought about working with you. Now, you can either shut up and or go away, or you can let me break all your bones." I said casually with the best smile I could manage. Draco's grey-blue eyes widened with every word, and he looked offended.

"You...you...MCHUGE!" He shouted lamely, scooping at what little potion was left at the bottom of the cauldron into his vile as his cheeks glowed red. I felt a bit bad for screeching him out, but a part of me was proud of myself. With my head held high, I walked out arm and arm with Dean, leaving the fuming blonde behind.

"Happy Halloween, Toka! What you did in potions a few days ago, bloody brilliant!" Ron cheered, stuffing his pie hole with beef casserole. I cringed as I caught sight of his food in his mouth, but smiled none the less.

"Happy Hallows to you too, Red. Thanks, I suppose. I kinda feel bad though..not." I giggled, eating some more of the creamed chicken stew. Whoever made this was truly a magical creature. Harry snickered, choking a little on his pumpkin juice.

"So where's Hermione? She's missing all the candy." I asked, not noticing the brown haired girl in her typical spot. Ron shuffled in his seat a little awkwardly and Harry turned his attention to Dean, asking him to pass the pumpkin pie. Neville was sitting beside me and bent over to whisper in my ear.

"Ron said something bloody cruel 'bout 'er, and she 'eard. She's in the bathroom, cryin' 'er poor eyes out." Neville said, his eyes cast down as if he had something to feel bad about. I smiled, grabbing a few handfuls of candy from the bowls and stuffing them into my pockets.

"I'm gonna go see Hermione." I said, sending a sad glance Ron's way. I saw him shrink away from me and I knew that he knew he'd hurt the poor girl's feelings. I left the Great Hall, tapping down the hallway towards the girl's bathrooms.

"'Mione? Are ya' in here?" I called softly as I pushed open the old door. I heard slight sniffles coming from one of the stalls and a small bang.

"M-maybe.." A soft sob was heard from the middle stall. I shuffled over to the stall; pulling a playing card out of my back pocket and using it to slide against the stall lock and open the door. Hermione gasped, seeing the seemingly locked door open up.

"W-was that a speechless spell?" She sniffled, drying her eyes.

"No…it was...four of spades." I said, holding up the playing card before shoving it back into my pocket. Hermione laughed a bit, holding her hands out as I handed her a handful of thieved candy from the main hall.

"Now, you're gonna snack on that, get back to the Great Hall, pop Ron a good one and get yourself some dinner." I smiled, giving Hermione a quick hug.

"I'd follow along, but I gotta go take a shower before everyone makes the mad dash." I smiled, leaving the brunette in the bathroom to wash her face. I sucked on what a lot of the other students were calling 'American-muggle pops', but they were really just tootsie pops. As I walked, I couldn't help but notice the darkness of the halls and the strange shadows that seemed to dance against the stone. The hallways of Hogwarts were always creepier at night, especially when you're alone.

THUMP!

I stopped, stupidly, and slowly turned around.

"HOLY SHIT!" I screamed, dropping my tootsie pop in shock at the sight of the creature behind me. The thing was huge, with blue skin, big ears, a coned head, and some seriously jacked up teeth. It was wearing tattered and tight fitting clothes and was carrying a huge club.

With my heart pounding in my chest, I took off in a dead sprint down the hallway towards the Great Hall. My heart pounded out a beat like a drum: "Get to Great Hall, get to professors, get to Dumbledore, get to McGonagall, get to Snape, get to ANYBODY."

I heard the sound of something heavy being swung through the air and the sound of the door breaking. I turned around before shoving the doors open to the Great Hall. Nothing was following me and no one was in the Great Hall besides Professor Snape.

"Miss McHugh...what are you doing...here?" Snape asked, looking down at me.

"I uh...I was running away from that thing, sir." I admitted shamefully, looking down.

"That was a troll, McHugh. Come, I'll escort you to your dormitory." Snape said evenly, walking me out of the Grand Hall.

"Thank you." I whispered, following the dark figure down the dimly lit halls, which didn't seem as scary anymore now that professor Snape was here.

"You all will have today's class to practice a transfiguration spell, specifically, the acalanthus spell. You will be taking these bells." Professor McGonagall said, holding up a simple looking metal bell. "And transfigure it into a bird, specifically, a canary."

Without speaking, professor McGonagall's bell quickly began to melt and take shape. The bright metal turned a neon yellow hue, growing feathers and a beak before fully turning into a beautiful, giant canary.

The massive bird flapped it's wings, involuntarily making me twitch. Beside me, Dean patted my shoulder and covered his small laugh with a fake cough. He knew that birds scared the shit out of me, but for some reason, he thought it was funny. McGonagall passed out the small bells to the students and watched at her desks as the students began to attempt their acalanthus spells.

"Acalanthus." Hermione said primly, tapping her bell with her wand. The bell transformed into a gorgeous little bird, who began to fly around the room. I sighed, looking at my sad little bell that refused to transform for me at all. Ron seemed to be having the same problem as I was and he was starting to get frustrated. Dean had already transfigured his bird, which was flapping and whistling happily.

"Acalanthus…aaaaalllcanthus…alcancer.." I mumbled grumpily, jumping in joy when the metal began to warp. The metal turned a bright red before splitting in two, becoming two small pinchers. The bell had transfigured into a little crab that was about the size of my hand.

"I…it's a crab." I grumbled, frowning at the little sea creature. Dean burst out laughing while professor McGonagall swept over, taking my little crab out of my hands. She smiled at me before turning the crab back into a bell and gave me it back.

"Ah-cal-an-thus." McGonagall said nicely, nodding her head to me before going to check on Harry who had finally transfigured his bell. Ever since Harry's massive victory during his first Quidditch match, he seemed to lose focus for everything but the sport. I sighed, taking a small break before trying again, finally transfiguring my bell into the hell spawn that is a canary.

"Good job everyone! I want each of you to go through pages 30 to 38 in your textbooks, choose a transfiguration spell and write a six or seven inch paper on the spell of your choosing." McGonagall said, holding up the text book for the class before releasing us. The students stampeded out of the transfiguration classroom, some dashing up stairs and some running down the stairs and hidden corridors.

I joined up with Harry, Ron, and Neville as we parted ways from Dean and Hermione. The four of us had DADA together, while Dea and Hermione had another class. The defense against the dark arts classroom was dank and smelled like sand and expired peanut butter. The teacher, Professor Qurriell was a fidgety man, his fingers seemed to fumble over themselves and he always seemed like he was dropping something. He was a good teacher, but he acted like each student was a ticking time bomb whenever someone raised their hand.

"G-good evening, class." Qurriell stuttered with a kind smile on his face. I smiled back at him from my seat in the second row of desks while other students grumbled or smiled back. The man adjusted his turban nervously before asking us to open to the second chapter of the text book.

Harry nudged me, a smirk on his face as he pointed out that Ron was practically asleep sitting up. Giggling, I crumpled up a piece of parchment and tossed it at Ron, making him wake up with a snort. After the waking of the ginger, nothing else seemed to keep my attention.

Qurriell seemed to be stumbling over his lecture about some kind of creatures called Dementors, when Harry suddenly hissed. The scarred boy started rubbing his shoulder, trying to find what was hurting him. I turned to see what looked like a very sharp quill tip that someone had shot at Harry's shoulder, barley piercing the skin of his shoulder. I gasped, inspecting the slight wound before turning around to see who shot the quill tip at my friend.

A row behind us sat a trio of Slytherins, who were all snickering. Draco and two large Slytherin boys sat sneering at Harry. Scowling back, I feigned a lunge at the green and silver draped jerks, causing all three of them flinching at my fake out. Smirking at their cowardice, I turned back around to nurse at Harry's cut shoulder.

Draco's decent mood was quickly fouled as groups of Gryffindors came into the defense against the dark arts classroom. Draco was sitting in the third row with Crabbe and Goyle when the weasel, Potter, and McHuge unknowingly sat in the row in front of them.

Draco couldn't stand Potter. He was an egotistical, attention seeking, muggle lover. The proof was of who he chose to fly with: a muggle born, a few mud-bloods, and a blood traitor. Thankfully the muggle born Granger and the mud-blood Thomas weren't in this class, but the blood traitor ginger and the American mud-blood were.

Draco couldn't believe how the American had the gall to not only decline his friendship, but also degrade, humiliate, and threaten him. If he was being honest, Draco was a little hurt by her dismissal of him. Draco had never been dismissed before in his life, and here he was: being dismissed twice since entering Hogwarts.

Draco saw Crabbe breaking off the point on one of his quills and taking aim at Potter. Grinning, Draco nodded and watched as the sharpened tip flew through the air and nubbed Potter's skin, just below his neck. Draco's grin widened at Potter's reaction, but the smile wiped off his face by McHugh's reaction.

McHugh let out a little gasp before scotching closer to Potter. She pulled his hand away from his neck and pulled the collar of his sweater down a little bit to catch a glance at the pierce. Potter's shoulders stiffened in embarrassment as the blonde girl let his collar snap back in place before she spun to face the three culprits.

Her mismatched eyes were narrowed in distaste, aimed straight at Draco. Draco found that his mouth went dry at the sight of the angry fire in the blue and gold orbs. She snarled at them and lunged, but stopped halfway. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle all flinched, which made her smirk before turning back to nurture Potter's little wound.

"Of course..Potter always gets the attention. 'Oh, I've got a little prick, pretty girl, please come tend to my festering wounds'. Please…" Draco muttered to himself, and then his brain froze.

P-pretty girl…

He did not just refer McHugh as 'pretty girl'.

Scowling at his inner thoughts, Draco watched as the American licked her thumb before pressing it against the slightly bleeding wound. Potter hissed, shying away from the pressure, but McHugh pulled him back.

"Now, now. After this class let's go to the dorms, I have some honey we can put on this." McHugh said softly as to not attract Qurriell's attention. Draco lent forward, intent on listening in on their conversation.

"Honey?" Potter asked, watching as McHugh pulled her thumb away from the small cut. It had stopped bleeding, but it still looked rather raw.

"Honey is an anti-bacterial; it'll help it heal better. It's either that or let me put some stinging alcohol on it or let the school nurse douse you in nasty potions." McHugh mused, peering at Potter's cut before adjusting his collar and then his cloak. Draco fumed internally, watching Potter smile like the cat that caught the canary.

"That does sound better than potions. You know a lot of things about natural remedies, why do you do so poorly in herbology?" Potter whispered to the blonde.

"I understand muggle herbs, but not too much all these new magical ones. I'm surprised that my best class is potions. Hopefully I'll be able to understand all these new herbs and ingredients." McHugh chuckled tugging at her hair. Draco knew that potion's was McHugh's best class; he purposely sat beside her in that class so he could try and shadow her.

One of Draco's favorite pastimes was to curl up in a chair by his mother's cauldron and watch her brew potions. Draco's mother had a flawless grace about her while she was crafting her potions, almost as if it was a dance. Draco decided that the American-mud blood gave off the same aura of relaxation, grace, and fluidity that his mother did as she brewed her potions.

Besides DADA and potions, Draco and McHugh only had one other class together: flying. Through the ever growing whispers of the grapevine, Draco knew that McHugh was a decently well-rounded student. She only seemed to fumble with a few classes, such as transfiguration, herbology, and astronomy.

"Why do I even care what she gets in her classes...?" Draco hissed to himself, his silver-blue eyes narrowing at the chattering Gryffindors in dislike

"Thank God we've got a lot of classes together. I don't know what I would do without your notes from History of Magic! Even though you're always late." Potter joked, shooting the floundering Qurriell another cautious look. The DADA professor had no clue that most of the students weren't listening to his rant, but he kept on stammering.

"How would you even know? Every time I come in you're dead asleep." McHugh giggled, rolling her eyes and writing something down.

"It's so boring in there, and Professor Binns is so…so.." Potter stumbled for a word, running a hand through his hair.

"Monotone?" McHugh joked, leaning her cheek against her hand.

"Exactly." Potter laughed, fiddling with a few scrolls in front of him.

"Thank God we have lunch after this." McHugh grumbled, resting her elbows on her desk and her face between her hands.

"Walk with me and Ron there?" Potter asked, eyeing the clock on the north side of the wall. McHugh nodded and Draco narrowed his eyes at the male Gryffindor. Who did he think he was? Asking McHugh to walk with him, like he was a bloody knight.

"Sure, we've got herbology after, so we can bounce to that right after." McHugh smiled, pulling her schedule out of one of her text books and double checking her classes.

"Sounds like a plan." Potter smiled, the two Gryffindors became silent as Qurriell turned to stare in their direction.

"And that class, is o-only..one of the f-few ways t-that dark ma-agic c-can be…identi-ified. H-have a good d-day." Qurriell said, releasing his students. Everyone in the room scurried out into the hall, ecstatic to be on their way to another lunch at Hogwarts.

"Move it Potter, McHuge." Draco snapped, seeing that the two Gryffindors were walking slowly in front of him. Crabbe and Goyle growled from behind him, having chosen to become Draco's personal body guards. Potter turned to face him with a sneer, grabbed McHugh's elbow and dragged her further ahead.

"Stupid Potter. Stupid McHugh." Draco huffed, watching the small blonde struggle to keep up with the scarred boy's walking pace.

"Come." Draco said, sticking his nose in the air. "It's lunch time." Draco announced to his two bodyguards, most likely because they already forgot what time it was. Huffing, the Malfoy heir stuck his nose further into the air and began to swagger down the hall.