The next morning I sent Dumbledore a rather short precise letter asking to meet with him on the Adrian's issue. I knew Adrian would never bother asking Snape to solve the issue, and I certainly was not going to talk to Snape anymore than I had to.

Fortunately for me, Dumbledore agreed to meet with me after the next Hogsmeade trip. He said that he was rather busy most of the week days or he would have agreed to meet sooner. I understood his position and the rapidly filling up schedule. Lately events were appearing on my calendar that I had never remembered writing down. However the Hogsmeade trip was not one of those things. I definitely remembered that one being written down.

To be perfectly honest, I was rather excited about the Hogsmeade trip. It gave me an excuse to hang out with my friends without having to study, or practice Quidditch. Lately I had been scheduling a large number of practices to prepare us for the upcoming matches. Also Adrian had taken it upon himself to show up to every single practice doing homework in the stands, and switching between watching me intensely and glaring at Roger any chance he had reason. Before and after every game Adrian begged me to take it just a tad easier, and at least consider taking and copying his homework for the few classes we had together. He had even gone as far as to ask the other prefects, minus the ones from Slytherin, to stand in for me. When Percy found out, he became enraged and hunted me down to lecture me just to find out I had nothing to do with the scheme.

It started off seeming sweet the first week, but eventually the feeling of his warm brown eyes drilling their worry into my soul got unnerving. I couldn't bear to ask him to leave the pitch though. I'd seen him between plays, watching the other chasers warm-up. The look on his face at those moments was similar to that of a forlorn precious two year old crying over a blanket. I had offered a couple of times to let him play, but he was adamantly against it insisting that if I was going to do my homework we had to go inside right then.

Regardless, Adrian won out in the end as far as shifts go. My shifts were cut down to a very sparse few of every other Friday. I had argued like a stubborn old woman to get Adrian to drop it and leave Percy and the Head Boy alone. However, he was more persistent, and our arguments were as productive as me bashing my head into one of the castles walls.

The nights I was on duty, I typically found myself accompanied by other prefects or Adrian. Sometimes Jess would join in on the brigade.

Since my class load was so heavy and all my other duties piling up, Jess and I had little time to spend with one another. Even the little time we had together was accompanied by Adrian, not that his presence was a bad thing; it just meant no time for girl talk.

However, Adrian being as insightful as a boy can be, would often wonder back to my dorm room or kitchen and leave Jess and I to talk. Jess and I were extremely grateful for Adrian's courtesy. As a result, I often snuck him into the prefect's bathroom and Jess would do his longer essays. Though sometimes Adrian would protest, it wouldn't take long for the warm water to sooth his muscles, and then he was similar to a puppy taking a nap.

Jess was an extreme perfectionist. Her assignments always had perfectly sculpted and aligned letters written to exact length, and containing exact specifications. She had the soul intent of leaving Hogwarts and becoming a healer since day one. Jess had set her final goal in life rather high. She was determined to become the chief healer at St.Mungo's. It seemed logical for her; whenever Jess wanted to do something she wanted to be the top of the top.

I was never actually certain if she had chosen her career path or her uncle had grown the idea within her. Either way Jess's uncle had a profound influence on her life since the first day she lived with him.

The reason Jess was with her uncle was never very clear. She had only said that her mother was unable to perform the task when she turned two. When asked about her father, she would state that he found himself too busy to care for her and maintain the income from his job at the ministry. As far as I knew, outside her family of course, I was the only one to get details on home life out of Jess.

It was only about two weeks after Jess's uncle had been cleared of all charges on an unnamed crime that Jess had moved in with him. About a month later, Jess's father had the two of them move into her father's home so he could see her a bit more often. Her grandparents had been a bit skeptical of her uncle caring for her, especially because of the charges that had been brought against him.

Jess's mother's parents had never been terribly fond of her father or his family. Her father's family was mostly purebloods, and all Slytherin.

Regardless of her grandparent's aggressive attempts to separate her parents, they had been a happy family until her mother's inability to care for Jess. Both of Jess's parents had high end security jobs in the ministry that her father refused to talk about. All Jess really knew was that the jobs were both top secret and very dangerous.

When Jess's mom had the 'incident' her uncle was the one charged with the crime. Despite all the accusations floating about her family, Jess refused to believe that her uncle was responsible for any of it. Even after his dark mark was revealed in the court room, and it was pointed out that all of his friends from Hogwarts had been put in Azkaban, Jess still believed her uncle's word over any evidence.

I had only met Jess's uncle on one occasion, but I could never see him doing any harm to anyone of his family members. He was the type that took strays off the street and put bugs outside rather than squashing them to the floor.

Jess's uncle's living arrangements were what kept out of prison. He was living in a muggle apartment complex, and all his fellow residents adored him. They even threw him a party the day before he was forced to move out and into a wizarding residence. Later Jess found out not only did the ministry make him move but also forced him to end a relationship he had going 

on with a muggle two floors below him. The relationship had been going for three year's strong and he was applying for permission to expose her to the wizarding world when he was suddenly accused of the crime. Jess still suspects that he keeps in contact with her, especially since he still hasn't dated anyone else.

Besides, I know what killers are like now. There was no way that the soft round face and warm brown eyes of Jess's uncle could ever fall into the sharp cruel faces of my aunt and uncle.

My uncle had grown up acting cruelly towards everyone. He was sharp tongued, and his eyes were always as hard and cold as stone itself. I pitied my grandparents for the time they spent attempting to save him just to watch him be sorted into Slytherin. He was the first one to be sorted into that house, and the only. He married my aunt, a fellow Slytherin and pureblood, directly after graduation. The two had then immediately moved to London without a word and were not heard from until the incident with my cousins.

The war was closing up and the Death Eaters were being captured by the dozens. My family had no doubts that my aunt and uncle were part of the Dark Lord's army, but they had never imagined what lengths they would go to in order to force their children down the same path.

Things weren't so bad at first I suppose. The twins my aunt had were both sorted into Ravenclaw, which they accepted, but the two were still forced to become Death Eaters. The next set of twins she had were not so lucky. Bethan and Lorna where sorted into Hufflepuff and Gryffindor respectively. My aunt and uncle were absolutely outraged, and went after Bethan, and Lorna. However, fortunate or not, my older cousins Aiden and Scott stood in their way.

In my aunts rage she managed to kill Aiden while my uncle rendered Scott completely void of rational thought. Aurors had arrived soon after, but the damage to my cousin Theodore was irreversible. He seemed to be brainwashed by his parents' thoughts and had a very violent manner. Theodore had instantly lashed out at the Aurors that were attempting to help him, and that's how he ended up in the hospital strapped to the bed.

The day I was there at the hospital was the first and only day I ever saw the face of my relatives. My parents and I had walked in on the doctor asking their permission to help their son. I remember looking at the fire place to which he was speaking to and seeing their floating heads. My Aunt had high cheek bones that sharpened her face along. She would have been beautiful had it not been for the malice that streamed from her stone grey eyes through her dark brown hair that had fallen into her face. My uncle though, looked sickly and pale. He had always had a somewhat skeletal look to him. His eyes brewed the same hatred as his wife's only his came through a dark rock hard shade of brown. Their voices together had been enough to make me hide behind my mother.

In the end, they were permanently imprisoned in Azkaban. I was glad of that, but I still felt pity for my cousin who had to be locked away in St.Mungo's in a straight jacket so he would 

not hurt himself or those that took care of him. As for my twin girl cousins, I cannot really say I know what happened to them. They both sort of just disappeared. My family's only hope is that they had not gone with their mother's parents.

I never worried about them too often. They were all locked up, and had no way to escape. My aunt and uncle were in Azkaban and my cousin was wrapped up nice and tight in a padded room. So, I really never thought about them too often, minus an odd moment or two here and there. Or at least that was the case up until I had received that bump on the head from my encounter with Flint.

Since our little run in I had been having the weirdest flashes of scenes from what happened in the hospital. They came out like an odd slide show with no particular order. To top it off I had occasionally woken up suddenly in a cold sweat or breathing very heavily. They started off as a few here and there and then started happening more frequently. It seemed almost like an exponential growth. As the number rose I started getting increasingly painful headaches in the mornings following the dreams. It was starting to worry Jess and Adrian, so I promised that if they got much worse I'd go see Madame Pomfrey. Luckily though, the dreams and flashes hit a plateau three days before my meeting with Dumbledore. For those three days they started to subside, I attributed the retreating of the dreams to the herbs in the tea I had each night that week during my lessons with Snape. By the day of the Hogsmeade trip they were practically nonexistent.

The morning I awoke for the trip to Hogsmeade, and went down to breakfast in my pajamas with Adrian and Jess. There I was greeted warmly by my owl Selene. I fed Selene a few treats gently stroking her white feathers as I read the letter. I had received Selene for my birthday my second year in Hogwarts. My parents had taken me shopping for my birthday at Diagon Alley. It was a rather special treat because they usually reserved any shopping to places we knew of in Scotland. When we arrived I instantly asked to go pick out a pet of my own.

I had never been able to get along with the school owls or my friends' pets. For some reason we just didn't get along, animals and me, I mean. However, I did rather well with our pet dog,Apollo. Regardless I wanted an owl of my own so I could write more letters to Jess and Adrian. Luckily, my parents agreed with me, so we made a trip to Eeylops Owl Emporium.

In the store, I searched the cages for an owl that fit me. The manager, after speaking with my parents, walked me past the cages until we reached Selene's. She was the only one that had made any aggressive movement towards me. He had then removed her from the cage, and placed her on my shoulder. She instantly hid herself in my hair, and hooted softly.

Selene was now nuzzling her face in my hair as I scanned over the letter from Dumbledore. The letter was sent to tell me the time of our meeting and the password to his office. When I looked up from the letter, I found myself smack dab in-between Fred Weasley and Oliver Wood. Looking over my shoulder I found a tall redhead, who was none other than George Weasley.



"Good morning Fred, George, Oliver," I said, attempting to make myself comfortable despite the fact that I was rather boxed in at the moment. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

A few seconds passed before Fred finally spoke up.

"We intend to join you, Jess, and Adrian to Hogsmeade," he said attempting to make full eye contact with me as he stole a biscuit from my plate.

I swatted his hand away and shook my head while flashing them all a slight smile. I was hoping this would turn into a great opportunity for them to actual get to know Adrian past his Slytherin exterior.

They, however, did not have quite the same idea in mind.

After a few moments of silence Adrian spoke up.

"So where should we visit today Mai," he asked smiling at me.

"Well obviously Honeydukes, and since you two are joining us Zonko's is a must," I said making a gesture to the two redheads. "And I know Jess and I require a visit Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, and Gladrag's."

"What on Earth do you need from Gladrags," commented Adrian with an eyebrow raised.

"Why does it matter?" muttered George.

"If she says she needs to we'll go with her since you're uninterested," added Fred. "Since you failed to take care of the issue you created for her."

"That's enough the both of you," I snapped.

"No, it's okay, they're right I caused the problem in the first place," Adrian said calmly.

"There wouldn't be a problem if you had put Flint in his place to begin with," Oliver remarked with arms folded.

"Oliver, according to you the only place for Flint is six feet under the Quidditch pitch," I commented rolling my eyes.

"I don't see your point Mai," George laughed.



Adrian shifted uncomfortably. I knew this conversation could not possibly end in anything good.

"Ever consider Jess and I might want to go alone?" I commented nonchalantly.

Adrian gave a panicked look at the other guys to which I returned with an 'it'll all be okay' smile'.

The conversation continued at a nicer pace until two things of light clashed nearby my head. The look on Adrian's face confirmed that the one glitter of light was sent by Marcus Flint, and the other spell was a defense spell sent by Adrian. I smiled at him until he and Oliver both moved to stand up and make their way to Flint's position.

"Oliver Wood park your butt or it'll cost you and the rest of Gryffindor twenty points," I snapped immediately before turning to Adrian.

"Please Adrian, let's try and avoid anymore issues," I said adding a pleading look for good measure.

Adrian took his seat reluctantly and continued to glare at Flint for the remainder of breakfast.

After breakfast the six of us entered Hogsmeade on slightly better terms. Oliver was standing to my right and Adrian was suffocatingly close to me on my left side. Fred and George stood directly behind the three of us and Adrian had Jess pulled close beside him on his right. Finally, after visiting what seemed to be every shop in Hogsmeade, the six of us made our way with purchases in hand to the Three Broomsticks for some much desired sustenance.

Inside The Three Broomsticks, there was a small band playing some music in a corner. They were a fairly decent band that I somewhat remembered had played in the pub before. The tune was fairly upbeat, and tad on the folk side. Though they were nothing spectacular, several people seemed to be enjoying themselves enough to dance, though it may have been their alcohol intake. Adrian, upon seeing this, immediately asked me if I cared to dance while the others took a seat. I of course accepted with a small smile and to my dismay a light tinge to my cheeks.

Adrian smiled back at me with the smile that made his Slytherin girl fan club melt. He then bowed, took my hand gently in his, and led me to the dance floor. The two of us danced through the first song, but when the music turned to a slower pace song by a couple's request, I attempted to make my way to the table. Adrian, however, decided we should dance to the song and put his hands lightly on my shoulders to stop me. Again to my disappointment color flushed my cheeks as I accepted. As he moved me back to the floor, I stole a glance at Jess who proceeded to smile broadly and nod her head furiously.



About halfway through the dance Oliver came over and took over for Adrian who had very reluctantly given up the dance. After turning me over Adrian slowly made his way to the table and asked Jess to dance. Oliver insisted on a couple more songs before we returned to the table were Roger had made a sudden appearance.

I took my seat and shifted uncomfortably as Roger joined in on the current discussion. My weary wore down when Roger begged Jess for a dance. Roger had been infatuated with Jess since his first year. It was easy to see why, she was beautiful.

Jess was just a tad shorter than I. She had medium length straight sandy blonde hair, frosty blue eyes, and smooth pale skin with a light trace of freckles on the back of her shoulders. Jess's build made her seem very fragile, and light. She had long spindly fingers that touched her wrist. Jess's face had a sort of heart shape to it, which was also very petite. Every feature of her face from the small thin lips to the button nose to the elegant almost almond shaped eyes topped with thin dark blonde eyebrows matched the rest of her petite stature. The end of the attraction to her from most was her reclusive nature. It took a lot of patience to get to know Jess even just a little. Most people took her quiet nature as her being snobbish, but in taking the time to get to know her she was anything but.

Despite some rather savage looks coming from Adrian to Roger, and vice versa, the trip continued without incident. Though Oliver and Adrian locked into a cold staring contest when Oliver requested another dance with me, but nothing came out of it.

At some point while I was dancing with Oliver, Angelina and Lee showed up. The two of us entered the conversation at the table. About an hour after we had started chatting it was time to leave and we all trudged back to the castle.

Once inside the castle I quietly separated myself from the group and wandered to Dumbledore's office for our meeting. As I made my way up the winding stone steps to his door, the small bits of worry and nervousness grew inside my chest. I feared Dumbledore's anger in keeping the secret. I kept thinking about how he could take away my perfects status, possibly expel the three of us, or make Adrian return to his dorm room to face Flint.

When I reached the door I knocked lightly, terrified of entering the room. His kind and raspy voice invited me in immediately. Dumbledore then motioned at a chair in front of his desk. I took the seat, my hands trembling and my legs turning to jelly. With my voice shaking and growing softer every few words I mumbled out the issue to Dumbledore. He wasn't exactly pleased, nor was he angry about the situation. In fact, the only comment he really made during my explanation was the stereotypical shrink phrase or doctor phrase of, "I see." He seemed particularly troubled with the inner house turmoil of Slytherin, more than the fact that Adrian had been sharing a bed with two girls for several nights.

In the end, he agreed to allow Adrian to stay in the room until next semester. Dumbledore also assured me that Flint would most definitely graduate this year if at all possible. He also agreed 

to set up something else for Adrian next semester if the issue remained unresolved by then. At the end of our conversation I was rather relieved, and returned to the common room.

As the year furthered itself, the Chamber of Secrets was reopened according to rumor, and as a result the rules were increased in number and force. Also Snape increased my lessons so I could learn to help brew the potion that would undo the petrifaction any targeted students. The potion was excruciatingly precise on every aspect and consumed a lot of time to brew.

And if that weren't enough excitement for a semester, Harry was exposed as a Parsteltongue, and someone had stolen supplies from Snape making him very disagreeable to work with. Then the cherry on top of it all was the disaster of a Defense Against Dark Arts professor, if you can even call him a professor, Lockhart was causing mess after mess. Then, as if school issues weren't enough Roger, the twins, and Oliver had increased their efforts in separating me from Adrian.

Not long after the increasing of the compiled efforts, information on the semester's finals was handed out. After looking over my finals list for the tenth time I knew exactly how to spend the first few days of break: sleeping. On top of it all I was going completely mental just thinking about it, which was making everything even more difficult.

Fortunately for me, Adrian was there for me just like he had been the times before when Jess and I had stressed out over things. Though Adrian's efforts were slightly squandered by the twins deciding they should be helping me out as well, so they of course sent Oliver to study with me. This meant study time with Adrian, Oliver and I stuck in the same room since Jess never liked to study in groups. I would have been fine with just one or the other but I knew nothing pretty could come from both at the same time.