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The next morning at breakfast, a silvery, elegant, but exhausted owl crash-landed into my omelette. I assumed that the poor creature was extremely worn out from it's journey, because I recognized it.

"Pauvre Beau," I said soothingly, taking the owl out of my breakfast. I ignored the strange glances I earned from my classmates. "Long voyage de la France, eh?"

The owl hooted rather pathetically, but held its leg up to me. On the leg was a neatly rolled piece of baby pink parchment, which smelled of a light, familiar perfume. I untied it, unrolled it, and in French, read:

Dearest Saoirse,

I hope by the time this letter reaches you that you have heard about the Triwizard Tournament, because I don't want to ruin the surprise. But, I guess if I ruined the surprise of it, I ruined the surprise of it. Sorry! I heard ages ago, at the end of last term, when Madame Maxime (that's our headmistress at Beauxbatons, remember?) informed me that I was one of the students she wanted to enter! I was honored, so honored, of course, but excited as well, since she told me that the Tournament was to be held at Hogwarts!

The first thing I thought of was the prospect of visiting you, of course. We are like sisters, and yet, I haven't seen you since the summer when we toured the coast of Spain with my parents and Gabrielle. Remember, you had to do all the talking for us, since you were the only one who knew Spanish? Papa tried his hardest to get that Language Charm right, but….you know how that went. Anyway, Gabrielle is excited to see you as well, since she'll be accompanying me!

I do hope that you are ready to see us, because we have missed you awfully. Letters are not as nice as seeing each other in person. And though I look forward to seeing you and spending time together, I look forward to Beauxbatons' victory over Hogwarts in the Tournament even more!

See you on Halloween!

With the most love and affection, your friend,

Fleur Isabelle Delacour

"Alright, Saoirse, care to tell us why you seem completely fine with an owl crash-landing over your toast?" Angus inquired, dabbing the food off his mouth with a napkin. "And why you seem to know this clumsy bird."

"His name is Beau, he belongs to my French friend, Fleur," I explained, as I launched him back into flight. "She wrote to tell me that she'll be coming along with the rest of the lot from Beauxbatons."

Fleur Delacour and I had been friends since we were in diapers. Our grandmothers were friends, though Fleur's grandmother passed away some eight or so years ago. They were both models for a very big name in the French robe-making industry back in the day. My grandmother introduced me to the Delacours, and in turn, Fleur, who was a year my senior and a hundred times for beautiful and graceful than I could've ever hoped to be.

"You have a knack for making friends, McAuley," Fred told me. "Everywhere you go, you've got a mate."

"Even in Slytherin," George continued. He cast a sly look to Esther amongst the other Slytherins and shuddered, before adding, "I think that's some kind of record or something. Imagine your name going in the history books: Saoirse McAuley, the first-ever Gryffindor to make friends with a slimy Slytherin git…."

"They're not all evil," I said in defense of my friend. I stabbed a sausage more harshly than I had intended, and unfortunately reminded myself of Mad-Eye. "Sure, some of them are prats, but they're not all evil. Maybe some of them are. Some have been. But you can't judge everyone based on some people….Esther's quite nice."

"Yeah, well, she wasn't so nice when she rigged that dung bomb trap on us last here, was she?" Fred countered.

I laughed at the memory. Last year, Esther had pranked the master pranksters - she rigged a trap over the stairs leading to the Gryffindor tower, one that would cause an explosion of dung bombs to drop on the twins' heads. It was brilliant, and worked brilliantly. She didn't even get in trouble because, as Snape put it, there was no "real" proof that Esther was the culprit. Fred and George fumed for weeks, as it took nearly a month to get the smell of dung bomb off of them.

"That was your own fault," I replied. "You're the ones who gave her those sweets you'd jinxed, hm?"

"We didn't give them to her," Fred said.

"Yeah, technically, we only left a bowl of pumpkin pasties in the Hall for anyone to take," George said. "She took one, at her own risk, and she grew a beak because of it. We didn't shove anything down her throat, did we?"

"Oh, technically, smchechnically," I groaned. "She had a beak for about a week. And, besides, you're just determined to not like anyone in Slytherin."

"With good reason," Fred grumbled below his breath.

"I'm not saying anything in the defense of Esther, or Slytherins," Angelina piped up. "But I reckon they're a bit jealous the dung bomb trap wasn't their own invention, Saoirse."

Angelina and I had a good chuckle, much to the distaste of the twins. From there, we all packed up our things, and headed off to our first class, which just happened to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, with Mad-Eye.

Though everyone seemed to be bubbling with excitement and anticipation, I didn't know what to think. I knew Mad-Eye, vaguely, as he came to our house from time to time for a visit with my grandad. I knew Mad-Eye's reputation as an Auror and now as a paranoid ex-Auror, but I didn't know how that translated into visiting grandad. I never knew what exactly it was they talked about, because whenever my grandad was "conducting business," as he called it, he was in the basement.

And I was not allowed anywhere near the basement.

I arrived in the old DADA classroom, and plunked down in my usual seat, which was beside Angus. It was the seat Quirrell had assigned us our third year, alphabetically, y'know - Matlock, McAuley….either way, no other teacher had bothered to assign us seats. There was no real reason for us to stay there; it'd simply become a habit.

A couple of rows behind where Angus and I sat, carefully taking out our supplies, Fred and George were getting the whole class riled up by tossing around a Fanged Frisbee. Where the hell they got that, I don't know, but I wouldn't doubt they nicked it from Filch.

"You two best put that way," Angus warned, turning in his chair. I didn't care enough to say anything - if they got in trouble with Moody, so be it. "Fanged Frisbees are banned, y'know."

"Oh, pull your wand out of your arse, Matlock," Fred countered with a mischievous grin. "Do you really need to be such a prefect?"

"Yeah, have a laugh," George added, making an impressive catch from a pass thrown by Lee. "For once in your sad life. Sometimes, you're such a pansy, Matlock…."

Oh, they'd done it. Angus practically had steam pouring from his ears, and I could quite literally feel the heat from his anger.

The hot-headed prefect rose from his seat, ripping his wand from his cloak pocket, as he bellowed, "If you two dare insult me or my life or my status as a prefect, by Merlin, I'll - !"

"You'll what, Matlock?" interrupted a gruff, familiar voice. Angus turned, looking at the magical-eyed man, flushed with embarrassment as he shrank back into his seat. "Right, that's what I thought - you'll sit back in your seat and cool off. Weasleys - put the bloody frisbee away. As for the rest of you, put the books away. You won't be needing them."

Cautiously, everyone began to slip their books back into their bags. I caught Esther's eye. She was sitting with the girl dubbed "the most beautiful Hogwarts girl ever," Grace Zabini. Esther and I shared a shrug, wondering what the hell Moody was going to teach us, or how he was going to teach us, without books.

Unlike the calm but curious Esther, Holly, who was seated next to Cedric Diggory, looked positively mortified, being so close to such a man. And Nate was still clutching his book in trembling hands, looking like he couldn't believe a professor would dare to ask him to put a book away.

Mad-Eye called roll. His normal, plain, bloodshot eye focused on the parchment, while his magical one zoomed around, stopping briefly as each student announced that they were present.

"So, I've been corresponding with some of your old professors," Moody began in that leathery voice of his. "You're in an alright spot, I suppose….yes, kappas, boggarts, Red Caps, werewolves….alright, those things are, but I daresay you're a very, very behind where I think you should be."

Tucking his hands behind his back, Moody gave a great, noisy limp around to the front of his desk.

"You've got to know what it's really like out there," Moody informed us. Even his magical eye looked dangerously serious. "You're not going to learn any of that in some damn book. No, you've got to learn to deal with curses first hand, yes, that's the most effective way there is."

He paused, as everyone mumbled in a panic about curses. Angus and I gave each other a worried little shrug, but Holly looked on the verge of tears.

"The Ministry of Magic says you're all too young to learn about curses, that I'm supposed to teach only counter curses, and leave it at that," continued Moody. "But half of you in the room are of age anyway, and I don't think learning to protect yourself has anything to do with age. You've got to learn now, because you never know when Dark Magic will hit you. If someone comes at you with Dark Magic, they're not going to be polite and wait for you to be prepared - no, you've got to sense it, to be alert and watchful. Dumbledore agrees, he reckons you all can cope with it as well….Mr. Parker, put that book away while I'm talking to you, boy."

Nate nearly jumped out of his seat. Moody was turned, his back to us, as he glanced out at the rain beating down on the castle. It seemed impossible for Moody to have seen Nate frantically flipping through the pages of his book, trying to find the chapter on curses.

My Ravenclaw pal was silent, almost in awe as well as fearful, and dropped his book into his bag once more.

Turning back to us, Moody cracked his great, gnarly knuckles. He seemed almost casual, as if he were prepared to ask us about the weather, when he instead asked, "So….do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

After a cautious moment, a few hands slowly rose into the air. Nate, Holly, Cedric, Grace, Angus, Fred, George and Lee's hands, to be exact. Not mine. I was still feeling it out. I was trying to anticipate how the rest of the class would go.

What I didn't anticipate, though, was that Moody was actually going to show us the curses. But he did.

I was one of the first ones to leave class. I practically sprinted out. I vomited into the nearest bin. Filch caught me, looked at me in disgust, and muttered something about me having to clean up after myself. I didn't have time, as I was quickly interrupted by Esther.

"You alright, McAuley?" Esther asked, looking down at me, head tilted. "Or do I need to drag you off to the hospital wing, like Kemble?"

Holly had to leave halfway through the second curse.

"No, I'm okay," I said, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

That was a lie, and Esther knew it. Even Grace, who stood faithfully by her side, could probably tell I was lying.

I couldn't explain it. I just wasn't okay. Watching Moody kill that spider….it was just a spider, it shouldn't have made me sick to my stomach. It shouldn't have made my mind conjure those weird images of a powder-pink room and someone screaming, begging in French, then in English….

"Hey, back to earth!" Esther called, snapping her hands in front of my face. "Did Moody Imperius you too, or something? I think you need to go to the hospital wing, you don't look right…."

"I told you, I'm fine," I repeated harshly. "Thanks, though."

"Alright, if you say so," Esther said warily. It was obvious she didn't believe me, but she wasn't going to push my buttons any more. "I'll see you later."

"Okay."

"McAuley!"

I really wasn't in the mood for more chit-chat, but I stood and smiled nonetheless, as Angus and Angelina and Alicia approached.

"You reckon your friend Kemble's alright?" Angus inquired. He didn't really know her, but he looked genuinely worried. "She looked bloody awful back in there, nearly passed out right into Diggory's lap."

"Mm, hardly can blame her, though, it wasn't exactly a light class to start out the year with, was it?" added Angelina.

Alicia shrugged, saying, "Well, at least we've finally got someone good. Lupin was alright, but Moody has experience, I mean, real, solid experience. And that's what we need. Kappas and grindylows aren't the only things out there, after all."

"Yeah, but he didn't really need to actually kill stuff in front of us," Angelina retorted. "Even if they were just spiders."

"Maybe you should go check on Kemble," Angus suggested. "Just to make sure she's not too shaken up."

"You're right," I said to Angus. "She'd do the same for me."

"I'll walk you over," Angus said.

I thought it was a weird offer, but judging by the look in his eye, I figured it was a ruse so we had a chance to talk alone.

"Well, we'll see you later, then," Alicia said. "We wanted to prep ourselves for Snape."

I chuckled, suddenly feeling rather lucky that I had only scraped an A on my Potions O.W.L. (and that was all thanks to Nate who tutored me to hell). Snape only let people with O's move on, and since I hated Potions with a passion, I wasn't too sore about my A.

From there, Angus and I headed towards the hospital wing, both feeling exceptionally lucky we were only Average in Potions. As soon as he was certain no one was going to hear him, he swallowed hard, and turned to me.

"Sorry I blew up at the twins back in class," he said lowly.

I raised an eyebrow. "You're apologizing? For something you do at least forty seven times a day?"

"Yeah, I guess I am," he chuckled. "It's just….I get paranoid. When George called me a pansy, I got a bit panicky….I thought, y'know, by using that term, that they….they knew…."

Now, I was grinning at Angus sympathetically. Now I understood why a little teasing got him so furious, and I felt a little bad, to be honest.

"Angus, I'm sure it was just a word, not some sort of clue to anything," I assured him in all honesty. "It's Fred and George. When it comes to anything other than pranks and mischief, they're pretty dense."

Angus gave me a small, but grateful smile, and asked, "You really think so?"

"Of course," I nodded. "And even if they did know, or anyone knew, for that matter, I'd give them hell for you if they ever got nasty."

He laughed. "That's why you're my Secret-Keeper, McAuley."

I laughed, too. Of course, I wasn't a real Secret-Keeper. He just teased me by saying that because I was the only one he trusted to tell that he was gay.

We came to the big doors that led into the hospital wing, and Angus said, "This is where I leave you, for now."

"Thanks," I grinned.

He was gone, trodding back down the stairs, and I went inside to see if Holly was having a nervous breakdown or not. I turned back towards the wing and opened the doors, to be scared to death by Madame Pomfrey.

"Miss McAuley, did Professor Moody's lesson sicken you as well?" she inquired, in a huffy sort of tone. "I've got to have a conversation with that man, showing those things to children…."

"Er, I'm just here to see Holly," I told her earnestly.

"Alright, that's fine," Madame Pomfrey replied. "She's in the last cot down there. Bit shaken, but she'll be fine once her stomach settles."

"Great, thanks," I nodded.

I walked down the row of cots, and sat myself down on the one next to Holly's. She was lying down, curled in a ball facing me, her face ghostly pale and her brown eyes even wider and bigger than they usually were.

"How're you feeling, Hol?" I asked lightly.

"That was horrible, Saoirse," she said in a low, eerie sort of way. "Horrible."

"I know, I was a little affected by it all as well," I said. "But are you alright? Do you feel okay, I mean?"

"I don't know," Holly said. Her eyes, which had been focused on the floor, finally met mine. "Just seeing someone use the curses for real….my Uncle Al was killed by one of them….my dad told me all kinds of horrible things he'd seen as an Auror, but seeing them today it just….it made everything so real…."

There was a fat silence. I understood what she was saying completely, after the weird vision or memory I had of the powder-pink room and the screaming….though I would never admit that to Holly, or anyone, because I was sure it was a hallucination. Either way, it was terrifyingly real, and brought to life by Moody.

"Yeah, I get it," I said finally, seeing as Holly was staring at me expectantly.

I was, after all, supposed to be her voice of reason, and spacing out and looking scared as well wasn't going to help her any. Even though the words left my mouth, Holly didn't look convinced. She looked like she was trying to read my expression and figure me out, though her puzzled look indicated she couldn't read the strange thoughts swirling in my mind, the thoughts about the powder-pink room.

"Well," I sighed. I stood, dusting my hands off on my thighs through my robes. "I just wanted to make sure that you made it out of Moody's class alive. If you're okay, and in no danger of death, I'll let you sleep it off, alright?"

"Okay, thanks," Holly muttered. She pulled the blankets around her face, and told me, "I think I'm going to need to be sedated if I have to sit through Moody's class for the rest of the year."

I gave a tight smile. "Hopefully not. See you."

"Thanks, Saoirse."

I nodded, turned on my heels, and exited, only after escaping from Madame Pomfrey, who was still convinced that I was sick and needed treatment. When I did finally escape from her medically-concerned claws, I nearly ran head-on into George.

"What the bloody hell are you doing, standing right outside of a door?" I asked sharply, annoyed that he'd gotten in my way.

"That's top secret, McAuley," he said, flashing a wink, before sprinting off to Fred, who was a few paces away.

They were gone in a millisecond, and I rolled my eyes, imagining what kind of prank they'd dreamt up now. Sometimes, I wondered what it'd be like to be their Secret-Keeper. It'd definitely be more interesting than being Angus', at least.

But, I didn't have time to ponder all of that. I had other thoughts to mull over for the moment being.