A/N: I know I probably sound like a broken record, but thanks for the reviews! They're really encouraging, especially around this time of year (finals, blehhhhh). I'll try to keep my update schedule, but I might fall behind. Good luck for anyone else in the middle of finals!

After spending far too long squinting into telescopes and making star charts, Millie dropped Jas off in the Trophy Room, where an eager Filch was waiting for her. "Maybe a little hard work will teach you not to break school rules!" he cackled delightedly. Jas resisted the urge to throttle him. She'd heard he was a Squib; that meant she could easily beat the living daylights out of the little man.

Filch didn't let her go until after midnight. He'd made her begin polishing the entire contents of the Trophy Room without magic. She hadn't made much progress, since he was constantly examining her work and making her repolish trophies that he thought did not shine enough.

Jas staggered into her dorm room, remembering at the last minute she still didn't have an alarm clock. She decided she didn't care; with any luck Millie would wake her. Her neck ached from hunching over her telescope and her arms, shoulders, and back were throbbing from hours of polishing. Jas fell asleep almost immediately.


The next few days were a painful blur. Jas went to class, hurriedly did her homework during her break before and after dinner, went to detention, and collapsed on her bed at night. She spent the entire weekend catching up on reading and homework. She managed to avoid SF and Malfoy and didn't lose Gryffindor any more points, by some small miracle.

After classes on Wednesday of second week, Jas happily informed Millie she no longer had detention.

"Your first detention-free night since you've gotten here," Millie remarked slyly.

Jas glared at her. "Is not," she muttered.

"With your free time," Millie continued, "You should go ask Snape for an alarm clock."

Jas scowled. The idea of asking SF for anything was very nearly intolerable. "Can't you just keep waking me up?" she suggested hopefully. "Until I manage to get an alarm clock on my own, anyway?"

Millie gave her an amused look. "Jas, you don't have any money. How are you going to get an alarm clock? Steal it? Just ask Snape for one."

"All right," Jas finally agreed. It would be nice to have an alarm clock. Hopefully SF wouldn't make it difficult.

"Want me to come with you?" Millie asked.

Jas smiled. It was a nice gesture, seeing as, although Millie wasn't terrified of SF like most of the other people she knew, she definitely was not fond of him. "S'okay," she reassured her. "I'll be fine."

So Jas made her way down to the dungeons. Turning a corridor, she was unpleasantly surprised to see Malfoy with his sidekicks, Crabbe and Goyle, and his simpering wanna-be girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson. Parkinson sneered at Jas, but Malfoy pretended as if Jas simply did not exist, a habit he had developed after their duel. Jas certainly did not mind.

"Seen any snakes lately, Yates?" Parkinson sneered as the foursome walked past. Jas stopped dead. It was not her petty remark about snakes, but her use of Jas' old surname- how had the little twit found out? Jas hadn't told anyone her former surname. Had Malfoy told her? How did Malfoy know so much about things he shouldn't know about?

Jas' hand twitched towards her wand. No, she reminded herself, no. There's four of them and one of me and last time I couldn't even beat one of them in a duel. The knowledge did not make her any happier, but it did make her refrain from attacking. She would attack when she had better honed skills.

She knocked on SF's office door, scowling blackly to herself. She could not wait until the day Malfoy got what he deserved. SF's door swung open, revealing SF towering over her with an unpleasant expression. "In," he said, stepping back to allow her to enter. Jas sauntered in, trying not to feel nervous. She was beginning to think she could only feel two emotions towards this man: fear and anger. How ironic, when, as far as she could tell, SF only felt either anger or indifference on her part.

SF closed the office door behind her and moved over to the wall. "We will talk in my quarters," he said, "We have much to talk about."

Jas frowned. Actually, she just wanted an alarm clock. Was he going to yell at her for something she had done? She strained her memory, but she could not recall doing anything that would displease SF in the last few days.

She followed him into his heavily warded quarters and sat down at the table when he gestured for her to do so. Perhaps it was the fact that she had no idea how to escape from his quarters, should she need to, or perhaps it was SF's somber expression- but wasn't that how he always looked?- but Jas was definitely feeling nervous now.

SF sat down. He summoned tea with a flick of his wrist. Jas wished for sugar, but didn't care to ask for it. "We didn't finish our previous conversation," SF said heavily, stirring his tea absently.

Their previous conversation? Which one? She'd thought the conversation they'd had about Neville's toad was quite finished. Did he mean before that?

"We've already concluded how you came to be expelled from Beauxbatons," Snape began.

Oh, no, Jas thought. Not that conversation.

"What happened after you put a Body Bind Curse on Mr. Proust?" SF asked.

Jas stared at him. Had he been planning to do this tonight? SF did not seem like a spur-of-the-moment kind of man. If he had, it would've been lovely if he would've informed her of his intentions. That way, perhaps she could've avoided him. "Er- I need an alarm clock," Jas said.

It was SF's turn to stare at her. "Duly noted," he said dryly. "After you put a Body Bind Curse on Mr. Proust?" he prodded.

"What happened to him?" Jas asked, frowning suddenly.

SF sighed. "Dumbledore will let you know when he knows. Now," he said, lacing his fingers together and giving Jas a piercing stare.

"Okay, okay," Jas muttered. "After I cursed him… I got a letter a few minutes later, I don't know how they got it there so fast. They told me I'd been expelled and the Magical Reversal Squad was on its way." Jas felt slightly ill, remembering how she'd felt reading that letter. Especially the word 'expelled.' "Anyway, I was already throwing everything in my trunk at that point because Mrs. Proust heard Mr. Proust hit the ground and so she came to investigate and found him keeled over. She was screaming and throwing things at me… guess she thought I'd killed him or something, I don't know. So I ran out of the house with my trunk." Jas hesitated. Did they have to do this tonight?

"Continue," SF said.

Jas sighed. "I took Muggle transportation away from the city I was in. It was the middle of the night when I got another owl from the Ministry. It said Magical Reversal had taken care of the Prousts and they gave me the date that my hearing would take place on." Jas chewed her bottom lip. "I decided to leave after that."

"Leave?" SF questioned.

"Leave the country," Jas supplied.

"Dare I ask why?" SF said sardonically.

Jas frowned at him. "Because I already knew what would happen," she explained morosely.

SF raised his eyebrow. "You are a Seer? I did not know."

Jas ground her teeth. Damn him and his sarcasm. "No," she said levelly, "I knew what would happen from experience. I'm just a child to them- I haven't got any say in anything. They'd already expelled me and I was pretty sure they wouldn't revoke the decision- the law is clear. They just wanted me to come to a hearing so they could formally snap my wand and send me back to foster care. And I wasn't going back to foster care- especially not without my wand!" Jas said vehemently.

"They would have deplored your use of magic against Mr. Proust because you did not attempt to run away or fight him using other means first," SF said tonelessly. "So it would have indeed been difficult to convince them that your actions were necessary."

Jas opened her mouth to protest and SF held up his hand. "I'm not saying I would agree with this decision- but it is more than likely the decision they would make."

"It wouldn't matter even if I had tried to kick him or whatever first," Jas muttered bitterly.

"You truly believe so?" SF asked.

"I know so," Jas said irritably. "I'm an orphan- I don't have anyone to complain if they're unfair. They could care less about me. I just would've been made an example of."

"You were an orphan," SF corrected mildly. "And I disagree with your theory, but that is besides the point. How did you come to be in England?"

"Muggle transportation," Jas said evasively.

"I believe Muggle transportation requires Muggle money. How did you come across enough money to make it to England?"

At least that was the slightly less incriminating question. "I, um, made it."

SF gave her a severe look. "You mean you transfigured Muggle money?"

Jas nodded slowly.

"And am I to assume you received letters warning you for your use of underage magic?"

Jas' brow furrowed. "I don't know," she said honestly. "There was an owl trying to get to me on the train as I was leaving France, but I just ignored it. A while after I left France, it stopped following me."

"And how did you travel across countries using Muggle transportation? In my experience, you need documentation and such."

"I… I, uh-" Jas stuttered. This was not good. She couldn't lie to SF, he would know. Yet she did not want yet another black mark on her record.

"Yes?" SF said, his voice dangerous.

"I Confunded a few Muggles," Jas muttered.

SF sighed. "How many, to be precise?"

Jas thought. "Well… um. Quite a few. Every time we crossed a country or any time one of them seemed suspicious."

SF rubbed his temples. "Is there a particular reason you chose to come to England?"

"Yes," Jas said defensively. "I wanted to be in a country where I spoke the language, at least. I'm fluent in French, Spanish, and English, but I felt like Spain was too close to France for my liking, so I thought England would be a good place to start over."

"And how did that work out?" SF inquired dryly.

"Not well," Jas admitted morosely. "The British Ministry picked up on my use of underage magic immediately. I tried to use it as sparingly as I could, but it was difficult not to use it. Then the Ministry somehow figured out I was the one transfiguring Muggle money- I don't know how they figured it out so quickly. So the Aurors started looking for me and I started using even more magic to avoid them. I stopped transfiguring money because I thought maybe they'd leave me alone-" SF rolled his eyes, "-but they kept looking for me. I was getting really hungry since I couldn't buy food anymore."

"Yes," SF said dryly, "They do tend to keep an annoyingly close watch on witches and wizards who give Muggles fake money."

"It'd be okay if I could've figured out how to make the transfiguration permanent," Jas said, frowning.

"No, it would not," SF said sharply. "The Muggles produce only as much money as the amount of gold they have- they're money is representative of this gold wealth. So if there are too many rogue witches and wizards producing extra amounts of money, then the Muggle financial system could collapse."

"Oh," Jas muttered. She wondered why Muggles didn't simply use real gold in their money to avoid this problem, like witches and wizards did.

"So it was around this time you were apprehended?" SF asked.

"Yes," Jas agreed, "I was asleep in a park in London when some Muggle boys tried to mug me. At first, I just fought them physically, since I can fight pretty well, but I hadn't eaten for a week and so I was pretty weak. They stole my trunk- I'd shrunk it down and put it in my pocket, so I don't think they even realized what they'd stolen- so I used my wand on them to get it back. Only it was at such close range, they got my wand away from me and we were fighting again when the Aurors showed up."

Jas sighed. "The Aurors were more interested in getting me than stopping the Muggles, so the Muggles got away with my trunk and the Aurors captured me."

"Yes, Parker captured you," SF sneered. "How dreadful. What is this property damage, then?"

"Well, during the fight, especially with the Aurors, we damaged a lot of things in the park… personally, I don't think any of it should have been that hard to fix, but I don't know. And it wasn't like it was just me- some of it was the Aurors' fault!" Jas complained.

"Yes, well, I am sure the responsibility falls on you since it was you whom they were trying to apprehend," SF said indifferently.

Jas scowled. It didn't mean it was fair. SF leaned back in his chair, his glittering black eyes studying her. Jas looked away, choosing to stare at the table instead. It still unnerved her that they had the same eyes. How strange it was to resemble another person.

SF sighed. "Do you think your actions were wise?" he inquired.

Jas' brow furrowed. What did he mean by that? "I don't understand," she said.

"Do you think what you did was morally correct," SF explained, his lip curling slightly as he spoke, as if talk about morals was particularly distasteful to him.

"I don't know about being morally correct- I mean, I guess not- but I didn't have a choice, did I?" Jas said, feeling nervous. Was this a trick question?

"There is always a choice, Jasmin," SF said, frowning at her. Incorrect, Jas thought morosely.

"Well, I wasn't going to go back to foster care, if that's what you mean," Jas said defensively. "Especially not since I'd have to have my wand snapped in half- how would I defend myself if things got too bad?"

She sighed. "No one understands- foster care is no picnic. No one cares about you. You're someone's maid, babysitter, free labor, trophy or whatever. You're never just- just a child." She frowned, feeling perhaps she was revealing too much. She decided it didn't matter, seeing as SF could apparently read minds anyway. "And it was especially bad for me. There were some nice people who would foster children because they're genuinely nice- but I always scared them off with my accidental magic." Jas stared morosely at the table.

"So no," she said, shaking herself slightly, "I wasn't going to go back. I was starving too death in England and I still didn't want to go back. I'd rather starve- some foster parents would starve you, anyway, to save money- then go back. Maybe what I did wasn't right, but I didn't know what else to do." Jas choked on the last words. SF couldn't judge her, it wasn't fair- he hadn't been there, he hadn't felt how she'd felt.

She fell silent, trying to push away her memories of that time in her life. After a few moments, she chanced a glance at SF. He was still leaning back, studying her, his face inscrutable. "I see," he said finally, looking thoughtful.

Do you? she challenged him silently. Do you really?

"I must impress upon you that what you did- no matter why you did it- was wrong. You lied, stole, and assaulted hapless Muggles." Jas flinched at his words. He made it sound so terrible. Was it that terrible?

"I didn't steal," Jas protested, frowning.

"Giving Muggles money you know is fake in exchange for goods is precisely the same as stealing. In fact, Muggles see it as a worse crime than stealing, I believe." Jas flinched again. She hated the way he sounded, almost as if he would've expected better from her. He didn't even know her. She vaguely wondered how he knew so much about Muggles.

"I was hungry," Jas muttered. It wasn't like she bought a bloody new wardrobe with the money.

"To say that the ends justify the means is no excuse," SF stated disapprovingly.

Jas sighed, biting her lip. Her stomach burned unpleasantly. She did not like being knocked down for what she'd done. Was she a bad person? Jas scowled at the table. Did it even matter? What did SF want?

"And then there is the matter of your incident with Draco Malfoy," SF continued, sighing.

Jas thought of something. "How does that little git always know so much?" she demanded.

"The Malfoys are a very old wizarding family and Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, has quite a lot of influence in the Ministry," SF said coldly, "So undoubtedly Mr. Malfoy learns much from his father."

Of course. The Ministry had captured her and the Ministry had brought her to SF and the Ministry had traced her back to France. No wonder the overgrown poodle knew so much.

"I am acquainted with Lucius," SF continued, "And so you would do well to obey me when I tell you not to antagonize Mr. Malfoy."

"What?" Jas protested. "He was antagonizing me!"

"Yes, well, ignore him. It would be excellent practice for learning how to keep your temper in check," SF said, sounding bored.

Jas glared at him. "What, are you afraid of Lucius or something?" she sneered, furious. Malfoy was the stupid git who had almost killed her and SF was telling her to be nice to him?

SF's eyes flashed. "Watch your mouth," he snapped, his voice hard.

"How am I going to do that? Take my eyes out and turn them around?" Jas suggested sarcastically. She bit her tongue the moment the words were out of her mouth. SF was going to kill her.

SF rose so quickly his chair banged against the floor, almost falling over. He closed the short distance between them in seconds, giving Jas no time to escape. He put both hands on the arms of Jas' chair and leaned over her, his face taut. "I cannot possibly imagine," he snarled, "What you think gives you the right to be so bloody disrespectful!"

Jas was leaning as far away from him as possible, fear overriding her anger. She refused to look at him, instead staring determinedly away. She felt raw with mixed emotions. Her eyes stung and she blinked angrily. She could not stay in this man's presence for any amount of time without eventually wishing to cry. She wondered if he had that effect on most people.

"Jasmin," SF said, his voice sounding surprisingly level, "Look at me."

She considered not listening to him, but he was too close for her to dare directly disobeying. She turned her head so her eyes met his, her chin stuck out stubbornly and her jaw set.

SF immediately leaned away from her. "I apologize," he said, frowning, "I did not intend to frighten you."

Jas scowled. Where did that come from? She wanted to tell him he had done no such thing and that she did not even find him remotely frightening, but that would be a lie, and SF was annoyingly good at picking up on lies.

SF sat drew a chair near hers and sat down. "Jasmin, you were rude. I will not tolerate rudeness from you. Apologize."

She considered pointing out that he was almost always rude, but she refrained. She was in no mood to be throttled. "I'm sorry," she muttered. Perhaps she was sorry. She did not enjoy provoking this man- it was a dangerous business.

"If you will recall," he continued, "I told you before that you could not possibly know- or understand, for that matter- my intentions or why I choose to do things. You are a child and I am your father- if I tell you to do something, you will obey, whether you understand or not."

Jas scowled. "I'm not a robot or a soldier," she snapped. "Sir," she added hurriedly, when SF's eyes flashed.

"Watch your tone," he growled. "And I'm not telling you to be a robot or a soldier, do not be dramatic. There are simply things you do not understand."

"Couldn't you try to explain to me?" Jas demanded petulantly.

"No," SF said flatly.

Jas frowned. "And what if I don't obey?" she asked, crossing her arms.

SF's eyes met hers. "Then your life will be very unpleasant," he replied levelly.

Jas sighed. "Will you ever tell me? I'm almost an adult," she pointed out.

SF's mouth twitched. "Almost an adult?" he echoed.

Jas glared at him. "Yes," she insisted.

"When you are an adult, I assure you, I will explain all that is prudent," SF said dryly.

Jas frowned. That didn't really mean anything. "All right," she said, privately thinking she was not convinced to be nice to Malfoy- if the git provoked her, then he deserved what he got, no matter who his father was.

"The incident with Malfoy, as well as your history and from what I have observed have led me to come to a few conclusions," SF continued.

Oh, lovely, Jas thought. She doubted she would like any of his conclusions.

"You are reckless, impulsive, and you have a terrible temper, as well as somewhat questionable morals," SF said thoughtfully, as if he were discussing an interesting science experiment and not a person.

Jas simply glared at him. He did not know her.

"You must learn to control your temper and your impulsivity- it could easily get you killed. In fact, it almost did get you killed most recently," SF added severely.

"You've got a temper," she pointed out mulishly.

For a moment, she thought SF would be angry. Instead, he smiled at her unpleasantly. "And I have yet to attack you, correct? But you chose to duel with Malfoy at the slightest provocation."

Jas scowled. He had a point. On the other hand, she'd known he wanted to throttle her half the time.

"As for the questionable activities you were previously involved in, know this: if you ever steal or transfigure money or attack a Muggle- no matter the provocation, unless they are actually trying to kill you- or break the law in any way, you will be a very, very, very sorry little girl." SF said this all quite pleasantly, but Jas was rather frightened by the look on his face. She wondered vaguely if he'd ever killed anyone.

"I'm not a little girl," Jas muttered. "And I don't plan on a repeat performance. Like I said, I was just trying to survive." Seeing SF narrow his eyes, she hurriedly added, "But I get your point."

"Good," SF said, looking satisfied. "Are your classes going well?" he inquired, standing up and putting his chair back in its original position.

"Yeah, they're pretty easy," Jas said honestly.

"Beaxbatons was more challenging?" SF asked, interested.

"No, Beauxbatons was probably the same or a little easier. School's just never been difficult for me," Jas said absently. It was true. Muggle or magical school, it didn't matter, Jas picked up on things quickly.

"Excellent. I'll expect top grades, then," SF said, smirking slightly.

Jas glared at him, tossing her hair over her shoulders and narrowing her eyes slightly. "It won't be a problem," she retorted. Did he doubt her? She would show him!

SF walked out of the room, leaving Jas sitting in her chair uncomfortably. She did not yet feel comfortable in SF's quarters, perhaps because she did not know how to leave without his assistance. A few moments later, SF returned with a small, dark object and offered it to her.

Jas blinked at it. "An alarm clock," he said impatiently.

"Oh," she said, taking it from him. It looked very similar to a Muggle alarm clock, only it didn't have a single button or switch. She frowned at it.

"Is there a problem?" SF inquired.

"How do you work it?" Jas asked, after a moment. She could probably figure it out on her own, but on the off chance that she couldn't, she did not want to have to seek SF out once more to ask for help.

SF looked amused, much to Jas' annoyance. "There are a variety of ways to 'work it,' but if you want to set the alarm, tap it with your wand and say "Resurrectio and then whatever time you would like to get up. Make sure to specify evening or daytime."

Jas considered this. "Would it work if I said the times in French?" she asked, feeling that she already knew the answer.

"Yes, of course," SF said impatiently.

"Why is that?" Jas demanded. "It's the same way with the Summoning Spell- how can you use different languages and get the same result?"

SF gave her an appraising look and seemed to consider something. "Well," he said slowly, "That answer is based heavily in magical theory."

"It is?" Jas said, bewildered.

"Yes. Tell me, what is language to you?" SF asked, adopting a professorial tone.

Jas considered. "A method of communication," Jas replied.

"Do you think using language?" SF continued.

"Well, yeah," Jas replied. In fact, sometimes she thought in two languages, but usually only in English.

"Do you believe you would be unable to think without language?"

Jas blinked. She had never considered that before. "No," Jas replied slowly, unsure if that was true. She would be capable of some sort of thought, even if she had no language, she was sure of that. How advanced those thoughts could get without the help of language was a mystery.

"Interesting," SF replied. "There is no right or wrong answer to that question, people enjoy debating it endlessly. My point is, language is tied irrevocably to our thoughts from the moment we learn to speak. We label everything in the world around us. Magic cares little for these labels- when we speak, we think. The deepest, most ancient magic does not come from a wand or incantation- it comes from our minds and, some would argue, our hearts and ah, feelings." SF sneered somewhat at that, as if he personally doubted it. "Therefore," he continued, "Our magic is not so much responding to the words we utter when performing magic, but the thoughts that go along with those words. It is why non-verbal spells are possible- verbalization and arguably, language, is hardly necessary, it is simply a crutch used to make magic more tangible."

Jas thought this all sounded immensely complicated, but interesting. "That's interesting," she said slowly.

"Indeed," SF agreed. "I would suggest reading a book on magical theory if you wish to learn more. You should be going, dinner has already begun."

Jas blinked. Getting an alarm clock had taken nearly two hours? "All right," she agreed, standing up. SF led her out of his chambers and opened his office door for her. "I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for the alarm clock," she said.

SF simply nodded.

Jas sped off, her thoughts wandering. SF seemed intelligent. Of course, he was a professor. She thought he could be an interesting person to be friends with.

That is, if he wasn't so bloody unpleasant.


"Jas, you do realize being a bookworm and a troublemaker doesn't actually go together?" Millie demanded when she found Jas sitting among a vast pile of books in Hogwarts' library once again.

Jas sighed. "I'm not a troublemaker," she grumbled, "As I don't make the trouble. Trouble just finds me."

"Right, then you're a troublefinder," Millie agreed, "And I suppose it was trouble that made you pull your wand on Malfoy."

Jas scowled. "Don't remind me. I hate that the slimy git beat me."

"I would say it was a draw, since that stupid snake could've easily turned on him and he wouldn't have been able to get it off himself," Millie said consolingly.

"Hmf," Jas muttered.

"What have you been doing in the library so much? I know for a fact you don't have that much homework," Millie said, leaning over Jas to look at some of the books she had piled on the desk.

"I've been researching a few things," Jas said absently, flipping through a thick book.

"Such as?" Millie prodded.

"Well, mostly enchantments and charms for parchment as well as magical mapmaking," Jas explained briskly.

"Mapmaking?" Millie echoed. "You're not still on about making a map of Hogwarts, are you? That would take ages."

Jas snorted. "Unless you haven't noticed, Millie, we're going to be here for years. I'm sure I can make a decent map."

"You won't need it; just give it a few months," Millie asserted, flopping down on a chair near Jas.

Jas snorted again. "Is that why you got us lost the other day?"

"Oh, shut it," Millie said good-naturedly, taking a book off of Jas' pile and flipping through it. "Hey, what's this? The History of Purebloods? You need that for your map?" Millie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh," Jas said, glancing up with a small frown, "It's the only book I could find that mentioned the Blood Binding Spell. Apparently all the information on it is in the Restricted Section."

"Why do you-" Millie began, then stopped. "You still don't think Snape is your dad? Really, Jas, I'd be shocked if he wasn't. The more I see of you two, the more obvious it is you're related. You look alike, you act alike, you're even sarcastic like him-"

"Do not compare me to him," Jas growled.

Millie smirked. "You even have the same sweet disposition. So how are you going to prove it to yourself, then? Are you going back to your previous plan? I'd love to know how you plan on getting a bit of his hair," Millie said, grinning widely.

Jas smirked back at her. "Oh, I'm not giving up that easily," she retorted. She lowered her voice and glanced around. "Madam Pince has to sleep at some point. I'll go through the books in the Restricted Section then."

Millie frowned. "The only problem with your brilliant plan is that when Madam Pince is asleep, it's way past curfew and the library is closed."

Jas rolled her eyes. "Obviously. A Disillusionment Charm and some stealth should be enough to avoid most of the patrols. As for the library, Fred told me they don't lock the library at night."

Millie snorted. "And you believed him? I'm pretty sure I've never seen Fred or George in the library so I don't know how they'd know."

Jas shrugged. "Only one way to find out," she said cheerfully.

"Troublefinder… sure," Millie said sardonically.

Jas grinned slightly. "I need to find out about this," she protested. "Then I can go back to following the rules. Besides, breaking curfew isn't such a bad thing, is it?"

"No, but wandering around in the middle of the night is. McGonagall will have your head if she catches you. Didn't she say she didn't ever want to see you in her office again?"

"No, that would've been ridiculous. She said she didn't want to see me anytime soon," Jas corrected her.

"So when are you planning on carrying out this plan?" Millie asked curiously.

"Tomorrow night," Jas answered serenely.

"Jas!" Millie hissed. "That qualifies as soon! You could get expelled!"

"I thought you disliked boring," Jas remarked, raising an eyebrow. "Besides, it is not soon. It's almost been two weeks since I was in McGonagall's office."

Millie sighed. "Fine. I'll come with you then," she muttered. "Otherwise, you'll get yourself expelled for sure."

"Company would be lovely," Jas said vaguely, sifting through the pile of books again.

"So what progress have you made on this map?" Millie asked, watching Jas scribble something down on a piece of parchment.

"Well, I understand how to make maps, even magical ones," Jas said, looking up, "But Hogwarts is a challenge. The entire castle changes so much, I haven't the slightest clue how to apply magical mapmaking to it. But I'm sure I'll figure it out," she added determinedly.

"I told you," Millie said, picking up another book. "Fortune Telling and Muggles?" Millie said dubiously. "Thinking about getting a job for some extra cash?" Millie asked sarcastically.

Jas grimaced. "No. But every interesting subject in this bloody library is in the Restricted Section! That's why I have to get in."

"Interesting subject?" Millie echoed, still eyeing the book.

"Yes. That's one of the few books that mentions something called Legilmency, and it only mentions it very briefly and doesn't really say what it is."

"Why do you want to know what this Legil-thing is?" Millie asked.

Jas sighed. "Well, have you ever gotten the feeling that SF could read your mind?"

Millie nodded. "All the time… wait, are you saying you think he actually can?"

Jas nodded. "I think so. I don't know though, I've been trying to find out and Legilmency is the closest I could come to it, but of course, all the books on it are in the Restricted Section."

"That's just horrifying," Millie muttered, shaking her head. "He can actually read minds… it's a nightmare, honestly."

"At least he's not your dad," Jas grumbled. "You know how difficult this could make my life?"

"Oh, so now he's your dad?" Millie replied, smiling slightly.

Jas threw her quill at her.