-——————————————Last Time——————————————————

"Do you have to always take the easy way out?" Nick joked, "Not all the wards need re-doing, if we did that, we'd be working well into next year." He sighed. Shawn agreed with him, he made a good point, but then again, this is Nick Winters, the smartest guy in their year, what did you expect?

———————————————Onward——————————————————-—-—

Two hours later the three of us trudged into school tiredly. Troy was in between Nick and I, his arms around each of our shoulders, as we helped into the school. See, it had taken us longer than expected to untangle the wards, so it took a lot more of our energy to do so. I know two hours doesn't seem like a lot of work, but warding takes a lot out of you, and seeing as how Troy had the least amount of magical reserves of us, he's the one who's most drained. But that's not saying that Troy's weak. No, far from it, in fact, I'd say that his magical energy reaches that of about Albus Dumbledore's or Lord Voldemort's, and that's saying something.

Yes, me and Nick are more powerful than the both of them, but most Salem students are. Salem is the world's best invitation-only magical school. It's the place you go when you want to get the best education...if you're powerful enough to get in. The way they do it, is when you're eleven, they'll send you along with the rest of the students to your 'normal' magical school (i.e. Hogwarts, Salem School of Wizardry, DC's Magical Academy, etc...) and they'll measure your magical core. If they think you're strong enough, they'll send you along to Salem, with your parents' permission of course, and you'll learn to either become a Healer or an Auror. See, Salem is an accelerated school, we learn at twice the pace of Hogwarts, SSW, and DCMA, so by the time we're done with first year, we'd have the knowledge of a Hogwarts rising 3rd year. It's not very complicated actually. When you come to Salem, you're given a 'sorting' test. You answer a bunch of questions of what you would do in certain situation, and that will place you in a syllabus and a team. The syllabi are whether you will train to be a healer or an Auror. If you are chosen to be a healer, then you'll spend the first 4.5 years at school learning the basic subjects, but only in ways they could help healers, and the same for the defensemen.

Once you've taken the mid-terms for your 4th year that means you're done with the Hogwarts and SSW curriculum. After that you'll move on to certain Healer/Auror courses, like sword fighting, dueling, combat, muggle healing, anatomy, surgical courses, etc... But the reason that Nick, Troy, and I are all Aurors now is because we were put into the accelerated program. The accelerated program chooses three of the top defensemen of every year, and trains them to become Aurors. You start mid-way through third year, and end in the beginning of 5th year. It goes by really, really quickly, and it involves extreme training and endurance testing. As you learned earlier, us three were the ones to pilot the warding program for the accelerated, but they decided that we weren't the best test subjects (a story for another time...) so they went with the new accelerated people to try it. The greatest part about being in the accelerated program though, is that you get to go on real auror missions and are getting called from school a lot. Last year I was heading the American division in the search for my dad, it was gnarly. There's no accelerated thing for the Healers though, but we don't really care, if you didn't guess, there's a rivalry between Healers and Defensemen, no one really knows why, but there just is. Now, if you're in the accelerated program, you have the choice of both continuing on with your year, and doing everything you've learned over again, but at a slower pace, or you can take healing classes, starting with the 4th years. If you decide to take that, which is what I'm doing, then in the beginning of your 5th year, you take a crash course in healing studies, learning everything that the other students learned in their first 4 years, its really intense, but I managed to pass with flying colors. Troy and Nick can't handle studying though; they hate tests enough as it is, so they just took the easy way out. I mean, it's not a bad thing, I just like a challenge is all.

Damn...I sure can ramble a lot.

Now for the teams. There are four teams at Salem, much like the four Houses at Hogwarts. There are the snakes, which represent the cunning and the clever, the arrogant and the powerful, and the ruthless and the cold. Now, I may not seem like that, but I can be at sometimes. Normally, I show my cunning, clever, and arrogant side when I'm around my friends, I mean, it's just the way I am. But when I'm on the job at a raid, or anything like that, I'm ruthless and cold in my adrenalin, I literally go into auto-pilot, and I just keep going until it's over and I either collapse with magical exhaustion, or just inspect the damage. We are much like the Slytherins at Hogwarts.

Then there are the lions. They are the brave and fearless, selfless and dumb, and the ignorant and powerful. The lions are extremely brave, as you may see from Nick sometime later, they would die for their friends, and sometimes even there enemies, because their hearts are too weak to take the guilt. There is a borderline between dumb and brave, and sometimes they can cross it without meaning to. Ignorant and powerful, ignorance is just a natural to them, they tend to not pay attention to the world around them, they're the artsy ones, and powerful, well, the snakes and lions are the two most powerful teams, no one knows why, but we just are. These guys are the Gryffindor's of Salem.

Now let me tell you about the badgers. They're the loyal, best friends group. They're mostly made up of healers, because they like to help people a lot, but there was one year when all three accelerated students came from the badgers...so don't think they're total sissy's either. They can be smart if they want to, and a lot of the time their loyalty turns into bravery and selflessness. They're thought to be the weakest team, which is kind of true, but even still they're pretty strong.

Lastly there are the eagles. The eagles are the smartest of the smarts, they can be loyal, but mostly like to be around books, and they're a lot like snakes in that they're cunning and clever. They can tend to overlook small things that we might notice, which tend to grind my nerves a lot. A lot of people think the eagles are the team for the elite. Like, if you're the Quidditch/Hockey team captain, an accelerated student, and an Eagle, you're considered one of the best in the school, seeing as how you're smart, powerful, and fairly athletic. Troy was on his way to becoming just that, as he would have the spot of Quidditch captain in the bag next year.

So you probably think there's a whole lot of team rivalry, right? Wrong...Everyone at Salem gets a long, well, except for the Healers and Defensemen, but no one really gives a damn if you're a snake or a lion. I mean, just look at my friends, a snake, a lion, and an eagle. I know if we were at Hogwarts we'd probably get jumped for something like that...

Anyway...now that my rambling is done, I should tell you that the wards are untangled and ready to be fixed. We probably wont do that till tomorrow though, because Troy looks like he's about to collapse right there. Nick and I are going to make him some pepper-up potion later. So he'll be fine.

"Hey Shawn, do you have any lacewing?" Nick asked me as we both stood over a bubbling cauldron in the Potions lab.

"Check the cupboards, but get out some wormwood while you're there, we'll need it for later." I said as I stood back from the caldron and waited for it to become a light shade of pink, as it was now a dark midnight blue.

"Got it." Nick sighed as he stood by me and added the lacewing flies to the potion. Steam rose at an alarming rate and Nick stepped back cautiously. Less than a minute later, it was a light shade of pink, and we could move on.

"Add the essences of belladonna will you?" Nick asked as I followed his instructions. As I lightly sprinkled the ingredient he turned the ladle clockwise for every three sprinklings I put.

"Alright, now we just need to add the wormwood, and let it cool, and Troy'll be better in no time." I sighed as I turned the ladle counter-clockwise seven times before going clockwise once. I did this for another minute before the potion turned a blood red and that gave Nick the clue to add the wormwood. It sizzled for a moment before it turned a light blue.

"Alright, let's leave it for about 40 minutes,'' I glanced at my watch, ''and then we'll let Troy know. In the mean time though, what do you wanna do?" I was incredibly bored, and in no mood to do anymore potions. It may have been my favorite subject, but I despised it to the fullest extent. It's not my fault that both my parents were extremely gifted in potions...

Two weeks later, and the wards were down, and put back up, I had successfully beaten Bill's arse in Wizards Chess at least 20 times, and I had learned to hone my new-found skills as a metamorphagus. Though I admit, that was an interesting day to say the least.

——————————————Flashback———————————————-————

It was the end of the trio's first week of working on the wards, and Shawn was sleeping quietly in her bedroom.

'BEEP!!!!' The sound interrupted the cold, still air as a hand emerged from the bed and slapped it off. Shawn groaned loudly and tumbled out of her bed as she stumbled into the bathroom. She got in, showered, got out, got dressed, and brushed her teeth. Finally she looked up into the mirror in her bathroom to inspect her reflection—

"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The scream pierced the morning air, and was said to have been heard from villages near by. No less than 30 seconds later, two half dressed teens burst into the bathroom door, wands out, ready for trouble.

"What is? Where's the werewolf?" Nick asked his blue eyes wide and alert.

"Shut up dipshit. Its morning, how the hell's a werewolf gonna be in here?" Troy asked in an annoyed voice as he dropped his wand arm to the side.

"So what is wrong Shawn?" Troy asked slightly worried.

"I've got a zit!" She screamed as she pointed to a miniscule pimple on her forehead. Nick and Troy shared a look before simultaneously slapping their foreheads.

"Oh dear. The oh so perfect Shawn Black has gotten a zit, whatever shall we do?" Troy groaned, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You've gotta little schmutz of sarcasm right there buddy." Shawn smiled before hitting his cheek lightly.

"Let's go down to breakfast. You woke me up, and now I'm hungry." Nick groaned.

"Me too. I could eat a whole hippogriff." Shawn sighed as the three made their way out of the lion's living room.

"You know, for a girl Shawn, you eat a lot." Troy said quietly.


"I know. I always do." The three walked the rest of the way silently, Shawn's head slightly bent as to hide her zit from the world. A moment later the three were sitting down and eating breakfast, as Tonks, Bill, and Owen marched in.

"Wow Shawn, nice hair cut! Did you get it this morning?" Tonks asked with a grin. Shawn looked up questioningly but found that her left eye was covered by a bit of hair.

"Huh?"

"Wow! Shawn?! When did that happen? I mean, your hair wasn't like that this morning!" Nick exclaimed as he conjured up a mirror. She looked at her reflection. Her wavy hair was up in a pony-tail, as it had been, but now a few locks of her black hair were swept over her left eye, covering up her zit.

"So wait, it wasn't on purpose?" Tonks asked.

"No, on the way down, the whole time I was focused on covering up this zit I had, and then boom!" Shawn said wide-eyed.

"Hmmm..." Tonks said as she snatched the mirror from her hand. She held it in front of Shawn's face, "I want you to focus on turning both of your eyes green. Okay?" Tonks said her voice and facial expression serious.

"Um...okay?" Shawn answered, though it was more of a question. She sighed and stared at her reflection, before closing her eyes. She imagined herself with green eyes. Bright, vibrant green eyes, glowing like emeralds, or like the color of the Snakes team. When she opened them, she was met by bright glowing eyes that had taken her own charcoal gray ones.

"Well I'll be." Tonks sighed, "You're a metamorphagus! Tell me, does anyone in your family have that ability?"

"Um...Well, dad told me of a 2nd cousin of his that is one. And I believe it's a common trait for the females on my mom's side of the family."

"Wicked." Nick and Troy grinned.

——————————————End Flashback———————————————————

So yeah, Tonks spent most of the weekend teaching me how to be all metamorphagus-like. Now I can change my appearance at will, which was totally cool.

The rest of the week went off without a hitch. We finished the wards, and by now all of us are tired and ready to leave. Though Nick, Troy, and I still have to go to Hogwarts for a day or two before we can head off to the Quidditch match. It'll be nice to see Viktor again, I must say.

So now, we were waiting in Madame's office to leave by floo. Our luggage and crap were at our feet, and I was incredibly bored out of my mind. But that's just how I am, so think nothing of it. Just then, the door to her office opened and in waltzed the slender body of our principal.

"You three ready to leave?" She asked quietly.

"Beyond ready." Nick yawned, which made Troy yawn, which of course, made me yawn."

"Alright, well, have fun at Hogwarts, and the Cup, and I will see you back here at the end of August." We nodded and stood up, "Oh! And Nicholas, please do try and catch the plane here this year, it was a shame you weren't able to last year." I smirked at Nick's bright red face and waited to get into the fireplace.

"Alright dear, you know what to say?"

"Yep."

I stepped into the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder. I dropped the powder is I simultaneously screamed.

"Hogwarts Headmasters office! Password: Lemon drops!" And with that, I was zooming through grates, as fast as they come.

I tumbled out of the fireplace and landed on the floor with a dull thud. I lay there for a moment or two until I felt Nick land on top of me. We both groaned for a second, and then Troy just waltzed out, laughing it up as he saw us on the ground. Slowly, an aged hand lifted Nick off of me and Troy pulled me to my feet. I shook the soot out of my hair (which was styled in black French-braided pig-tails, each pig-tail having a streak of red going down the middle) and held out my hand.

"Hi! I'm Shawn Black!" I beamed enthusiastically.

"It is a pleasure Miss Black. I am Albus Dumbledore."

"Shawn! Wake up! Albus' got a portkey; it'll take us to the pitch! But we needa go in like, 10 minutes!" I woke up to that, and a hand that was slapping me repeatedly in the face. Does that sound fun to you?

"I'm up, I'm up..." I groaned and rolled off of my bed, landing with a dull thud on the floor. I groaned again as Troy picked me up and set me on my feet.

"Come on, get your clothes, and your bag, and we'll leave!" I sighed and as Troy shoved my clothes into my hands and pushed me towards the bathroom. I changed and brushed my teeth and walked out with a brush running through my hair.

"I'm ready." I yawned, as Troy pulled me out of the guest room that he and I shared.

"Let's go!" We walked through the halls at a fast pace, and eventually ended up in front of the stone gargoyle that was guarding Albus' office.

"Lemon drops." We both said at the same time. We climbed in and up the stairs, knocked on the door, and walked in.

Inside was Nick, Severus, and Albus, all waiting by an old tea cup.

"Ahh, and here they are now." Albus smiled to us both as we grabbed hold of the cup.

"Miss Black, Mr. Winters, Mr. Andrews, I will see you in 3 months." He nodded towards us as I felt a familiar pull towards my naval. And then, they were gone.

A/N: Hey dudes and dudettes, sorry it took me way too long to get this up, but I've been really busy. Hopefully I'll update a bit over the next 2 weeks or so, but not this weekend because I've got an all weekend tournament coming up, wish me luck! Thanks to those that review, and to those that disagreed with 1st person, I hope you aren't too disappointed. Please review!

Disclaimer: Chapter 1, but just in case, i dont own HP!