Recap: Orphne Ephydria Avery came to Hogwarts under mysterious circumstances that required her to change her name to Ionia Rivers and get protective spells etched into her skin. Soon enough she found herself in the midst of an escalating prank war with the Gryffindors that got her a month's worth of detention and ultimately landed her in the hospital wing.

Chapter 6

When Io woke up she couldn't see.

It took her sluggish mind a while to process the things her other senses were telling her. The first thing she felt was a heavy pressure on her chest. The second thing was a burning sensation just about everywhere.

She tried to move her arms. Io gasped. That hurt. Oh. She noticed the bandages.

Oh. She wasn't blind, she was just wrapped in bandages from head to toe.

Wait, what?!

Io tried very hard to remember what had happened. At first all that she could think of was her chest burning, then images began flooding her mind. Hell, she had actually managed to faint twice in one day. Those nasty little Gryffinprats... she should have known they would wait for the feast to do this to her.

"See? She'll be alright. Can we go now?" someone whispered close by.

"Damn…" someone else gasped. Io was certain that was an accurate description of what she must look like. She was also fairly sure she knew who those voices belonged to. How had they managed to snuck in here?

"I think we've got to tell-" the second voice whispered. Must be Potter, Io guessed.

"Are you out of your mind?" the first hissed. Sirius, she decided.

"It wasn't supposed to do that... What if they can't figure out what's wrong?"

Sirius snorted. "Remind me to never accept a potion from you." A rustling sound. "Ouch!"

"Oh, shut up."

Io heard a door open.

"Someone's coming." More rustling. "Shut up!"

Someone was walking towards them.

Io felt a cool hand touching her pulse. She hissed in pain.

"There, there." The woman's voice was friendly, in a professional detached kind of way. Must be the nurse. "Can you lift your head a little?"

Before Io could even try, a hand on her neck helped her up and a glass touched her lips. She greedily drank down the liquid, even though swallowing hurt, a lot. A numbing sensation started spreading from her tongue through her body. Before her head even touched the pillow, Io was asleep again.

The next time Io woke up, she noticed a glaring light. Someone had taken off the bandages that had covered her eyes. The sun was pretty high up in the sky. Past noon, Io concluded.

"How are we feeling today? Better?" Io looked up into the face of a young woman, that was hovering over her. The nurse... what was her name? Pomfrey? When she couldn't find her voice, Io nodded hesitantly. The movement wasn't as painful as she had anticipated.

The nurse gave her a friendly smile.

"You've got a visitor. Are you feeling up to it?"

Io frowned. She really didn't feel like dealing with her house teacher now, or even worse McKinnon. Madam Pomfrey must have taken Io's silence as consent though, because she stepped away and let her visitor in. It was Remus Lupin.

"Hi," he said quietly.

He stepped closer, clearly hesitating. She noticed him scanning her injuries and suddenly got very annoyed. Figures they would come to gloat, she thought. For some reason she hadn't expected it from Remus, though. When he caught himself, he instantly looked down, abashed.

"Erm... I brought your transfiguration homework." Huh? Io screwed up her face. But... wasn't it still Sunday? She tried to remember her schedule. How long had she been asleep?

He put a scroll and a few books down on the table next to her bed.

"Thanks." Her voice was hoarse. She tried to clear it. "Not like it's going to do me any good."

Remus rose his brows in confusion.

"Oh come on, you know I'm terrible," Io stated matter-of-factly.

A faint smile showed on his face. "No arguing there. I also got your book. It- fell down when..."

Io looked over at the pile of books. Rowan Vanderlaan sat on top.

"Oh. Thanks." This time she meant it. She reached for it and although it still hurt a little to move her arms, Io felt relieved when she held Golden Fleece in her hands. Her fingers absentmindedly stroked the thick leather cover with the embossed title in gothic font. Io felt a little silly for getting so attached to a book that wasn't even hers.

Remus seemed very uncomfortable. He took a deep breath.

"I am very sorry. I knew they were going to do it- I mean, I didn't know exactly what, but I didn't ask either and I could have stopped them. I don't even know why I..."

Io looked up in surprise. Remus certainly looked sorry. She mulled that over for a moment and finally just shrugged.

"That's okay. I kinda had it coming."

Remus stared at her blankly, "You almost died."

She shrugged again. Remus blinked.

"I get it now."

"What?"

"Why this got out of hand so quickly. Sirius and you are very much alike."

Io frowned at that distasteful notion. Then a thought crossed her mind and she burst into laughter.

"Please let me see his face when you tell him that."

Remus joined in her laughter. That surely would be a sight for the gods.

Although Io already felt a lot better, Madam Pomfrey insisted on keeping her for a few more days in the hospital wing. She had finished Wenlock's book the very first day and after re-reading it a second time, Io got so bored she actually started studying for her other subjects.

Without all the distractions, the pranks and detention, she was slowly catching up on the material. As it turned out, also, Remus was a great tutor. After his first visit, they had struck up something akin to friendship. The third day, Io even lent him Wenlock's book - although only after he had sworn to protect it with his life and not let it get near any of his grubby Gryffindor friends.

He was smart and Io respected that, although she got really frustrated with his over the top humility at times. She often wondered how on earth he'd become friends with Prince Sirius and his pesky entourage, but she never did so out loud.

Her house teacher had finally come to investigate, but she told him she had no idea who had done this. As much as she wanted Potter and his smug boyfriend to clean bedpans for the rest of the year, that simply wasn't her style. If and when she got back at them, it would be her doing, not some lame detention.

She also got a visit from her roommates. The girls had shown up with sweets and plans for revenge. Elaine and Ethelyn plotted ways to make sure Potter and Black got expelled. Cadi promised to crush them in next Saturday's match. Abby went into a detailed description of how she would castrate Black and feed his bits to Potter. But Io figured she was okay with calling it a truce. For now.

As much as she enjoyed their company, she realized she mostly looked forward to spending time with Remus. That was only because they shared a fascination for magical artefacts, of course. Well maybe, it was more than that. Io couldn't shake the feeling her roommates' friendliness wasn't as reliable as she might have hoped before. She clearly remembered how dismissive they had been of her - very real - fears of getting poisoned.

Lying in bed, trying not to scratch the itchy skin under the bandages she wondered about how all of this would play out. Hogwarts was a strange place. She wasn't supposed to befriend someone from another house, although many students did and no one ever made a fuss. Wasn't Severus' girlfriend also a Gryffindor?

Perhaps it was because she was new and all the alliances and enmities had been established for years. But hopefully things would get back to normal now, whatever that meant. If she applied herself a little more and stayed out of trouble, she might even enjoy it here.

Still... it wasn't just her skin that kept irritating Io. For some reason she felt as though she had forgotten to do something very important. But the more she tried to remember the further it slipped away from her until she got a headache and let it go.

Finally, after four days Madam Pomfrey released her into the wild. They'd had a lengthy argument about the bandages first though. Io would not let herself be seen in that getup. She may not have known much about student life, but enough to not incite anyone to calling her 'the mummy'. In the end they settled on keeping just the bandages around her torso until all the skin around the runes had healed.

It was Thursday evening after dinner. The Great Hall wasn't yet deserted when Io made her way down to the dungeons. She passed a group of tiny Hufflepuffs who stopped and stared at her.

That's right. She wasn't just the new girl now, but the new girl with the puss-filled blisters. Great.

She hunched her shoulders and sped forward. There would be enough time to deal with annoying students in the morning - and probably for the rest of her student years. Io growled. Potter. He better watch out.

Before long she entered the dungeon. Most students of her house were still lounging in the comfortable sofas and chairs around the fireplace, revising homework or playing chess.

"There you are!" Cadi walked up to her and slung an arm around her shoulder, announcing to the room in a most pompous manner, "The fallen one has returned." Quickly they were surrounded by friendly faces inquiring about what had happened and wanting to see her battle scars.

"No, it's alright," she pulled up a sleeve of her sweater and showed her skin, "Madame Pomfrey fixed me up real quick."

"We'll get back at them," Wilkes let her know.

"Yeah, I've got my bludger set on the Black kid," a sixth year student named Mulciber announced with an evil grin. He playfully punched a young boy nearby. "Not you." The boy had familiar jet black hair and grey eyes. Io wondered whether the boy was in any way related to her favourite enemy.

"You can come to the game, right?" Cadi asked worriedly.

"Sure. Yeah." She felt a bit overwhelmed with all the attention.

"Come sit with us."

She spent the rest of the evening surrounded by students she hadn't really talked to before. There was Cadi of course, Mulciber the Quidditch Beater and his friends Rosier, Wilkes and some other sixth years she didn't know the names of. Severus joined them. Later Elaine showed up and a girl named Acantha.

Acantha Parkinson, as it turned out, appeared to be a pretty conceited little witch at first sight, but was in fact rather nice when you talked to her. She wanted to know everything about Greece and what it was like growing up there. Unfortunately, Io hadn't much to tell that would be remotely interesting.

"I spent some time there with an aunt of mine, just south of Kalamata. Do you know the region?" Acantha raved.

Io shook her head. She had never even been further south than Thessaloniki.

"It is absolutely lovely. Oh and those beautiful white Abraxans they have there! Is it true they make wands out of Abraxan feathers?"

"Oh. Yes. Actually, I-"

"Avery," Mulciber shouted right next to her. Io flinched in shock. She had no idea why.

"What?" the bloke called Avery replied from the far side of the room. He had short brown hair and a very pale face. Io's eyes turned on him and stuck there.

"You still working on that essay?"

Avery looked very annoyed.

"You mean you've got one?" Acantha exclaimed in excitement next to her.

Io lost track of the conversation, for some reason... that feeling of unease returned. Had they met before or...? She tried to place the Avery boy, but couldn't figure out where.

"Io?"

"Huh?" she looked up to meet Acantha's eyes.

"Your wand core is Abraxan?"

"Oh. Yeah," she shook her head as to get rid of her unease and took out her wand to show it to Acantha.

"Wow. White Abraxan?" Io nodded with a smile and felt a little proud. The white winged horses were only native to Greece and very few wandmakers managed to get a hold of their feathers.

"That's so rare! Is that Oak?"

"Cedar."

Meanwhile Avery had gone back to working on his essay. Io couldn't help but glance over every once in a while. Something about him bothered her. She searched her mind, for some reason she was certain she had heard that name before. But where?

Soon enough she gave up and excused herself to go to sleep. When she walked up to their room, she heard Abby's voice through the crack in the door.

"...don't even know what they see in her. It's not like she's pretty."

"Yeah. It's just because of Sirius," Ethelyn jeered.

"As if he would look twice at her if she wasn't the new girl..."

Io took a few steps backwards. She decided she was too tired for all of this. Then she straightened her back, noisily stepped up to the door and opened it. Abby turned around and gave her a warm smile.

"There you are... We thought you'd spend another night in the hospital wing."

This night Io couldn't find rest easily. Long after the other girls had gone to sleep, she still lay awake and peered through the window out into the lake. Her feelings of unease wouldn't go away. The entrancing movement of the flowers didn't help much, they rather aggravated her restlessness.

Must be the full moon, Io figured and turned around to find some sleep.

In the far distance a young wolf howled.

Notes: Well. Unlike I said this one didn't take long after all. Hope you guys enjoyed it! My brilliant beta reader MissMooToYou suggested I include a short recap at the beginning of each chapter, so I think I'll do that from now on.