Chapter 7

Gone and Not Telling

As January went on Myra quickly got over how Remus had missed their first partnered patrol. He had been there for the rest of them, and she really enjoyed them now, in contrast from when she had done them with the Hufflepuff Abigail York.

On their first patrol after Remus came back Myra tried to casually bring up his absence, but he had cleverly avoided it and turned on her instead.

"So how was your Christmas? We never got to talk much about it on the train." He seemed really interested in this, and Myra couldn't help but oblige and answer him in detail about her Christmas holiday. All through the conversation he looked to be listening intently and asking questions here and there about her family, and before she knew it she found herself telling him about Robert's parents and their isolation from the rest of the world and how her mother resented it and how she herself felt about it. All her friends knew that her grandparents were off in the Ural Mountains, but only Hestia knew how it affected the family.

Remus was sympathetic; he had been so fortunate as to know his own grandparents very well before they died when he was eight, so he knew both how it was to have grandparents and how it was to not have them.

There probably weren't so many students being caught that night as there should be, since the two prefects were so engrossed in their conversation.

But it wasn't just patrol that drew Myra and Remus together. They could now sometimes be found studying together in the library or chatting in the common room. And Myra was quite often invited to sit with the Marauders at meal times; sometimes she declined, and sometimes she accepted. Hestia was often with Myra when all of this happened; the two girls were rarely off alone, and so Hestia too got to know Remus on a whole new level.

One late evening at the end of January Hestia had a chat with Myra, because she and the two other girls had been talking a bit amongst themselves when Myra had been elsewhere. They were all wondering if there was something going on between Myra and Remus, since out of seemingly nowhere the two were a lot friendlier than before. Myra had laughed and very much denied that there was anything but friendship there. It was clear that Hestia didn't believe Myra, from the look on her face. Myra didn't understand why that was, but she didn't want to find out why.

...

During the last week of January the snow had almost been blown all away. The wind was so powerful the students had had trouble being outside. Trees lay almost flat against the ground, and so the wind blew nearly all the snow away. It was just a thin layer of greyish white left on the ground as February arrived, the first layer of snow that had sort of melted a bit and then frozen hard before more snow fell on top.

The first Tuesday of the month meant a new subject was being introduced in Defence Against the Dark Arts, the Imperturbable Charm this time. It was a charm to prevent a place from being eavesdropped upon and even created an invisible barrier to prevent objects getting close.

"Imperturb," Myra chanted, waving her wand in an elegant arc around inside the large see-through box she was standing in. A greyish red light grew out of her wand and leaked out onto the walls before fading away. She could feel that it didn't come out right, but still nodded to Henry, who was standing outside; she was signalling that he could try levitating the cushion towards the box.

The cushion hit something, something that was not firm like it was supposed to be, but springy. At least it couldn't penetrate the shield. Henry then nodded to Myra, signalling for her to start talking.

"Sometimes a dragon gets mistaken for a unicorn, which is troublesome for wandmakers when they go out to harvest unicorn hairs. This is the reason why it's common for wandmakers to be wrinkly, bald and smell of burnt hair."

"Where in Merlin's name did that come from?" Henry laughed.

"Bollocks," Myra cursed when it was clear the spell hadn't worked correctly. "It's just something I found in a book the other day. Remus was helping me do research for the Care of Magical Creatures essay and we came across this weird book. It had all kinds of silly fake facts in them."

Henry shook his head at her as she climbed out of the box. "You two seem to be getting along well these days, two crazy bookworms finding hidden 'treasures' in the library."

"Hey, I'm not a bookworm, he is. I'm just reaping the fruits of his cleverness."

"Are you sure that's all you're reaping off of him?"

Myra punched him hard on the shoulder, just when Professor Biggar came up to them.

"No violence in my classroom, Miss Kinney," he ordered too sternly for the occasion. "How is the spell coming along?"

"I've mastered the charm," Henry said proudly, very close to puffing up his chest in self-admiration.

"Very good," the professor said. "And you, Miss Kinney? I expect not."

Myra narrowed her eyes for a split second. It's not my bloody fault I can't understand your precious subject, she thought. "I've got the barrier working almost perfectly, but Henry could still hear me talking through the box."

"Demonstrate for me, both of you."

Henry stepped into the box and performed an acceptable version of the Imperturbable Charm. Myra then switched places with him and got the same result as earlier, though she thought maybe the barrier was less springy than before.

Without saying anything Professor Biggar went on to the last pair of students to check their progress, and then strode up to his desk. With a casual flick of his wand the boxes disappeared. "This was a fairly easy task; most of you have mastered it. Your homework is to write a short essay on the science of this charm. For those of you who did not master it," Myra was sure he had just set his eyes on her for a second, "you will have additional homework with practising. First thing next lesson you will perform it for me, and you had better have managed it by then."

"Next Thursday. Two days," Myra mumbled barely audible.

The class was dismissed, and Myra, Henry, Hestia, Ashley and Anna headed for Charms. On the way there they ran into all four Marauders.

They all greeted each other, some more overtly polite than others.

"Where to?" Remus asked Myra.

"Charms," she answered.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Myra grimaced, causing an amused smile to erupt on Remus' face.

"See you later," Remus said when their respective friends as usual had continued on their way without them.

Myra waved as she ran to catch up with Henry and the girls.

"I have an idea," Anna suddenly said. "How about having Remus help you with the Imperturbable Charm?"

"That's a wonderful idea," Ashley agreed. "I think he'd be the perfect person to help you,"

"Or maybe not," Anna added. "She wouldn't be so impenetrable with him around."

Ashley, Anna and Henry burst out laughing, even Hestia laughed. Myra couldn't help but smile too, but only because of the pun, not the meaning behind, which she definitely caught.

"Not funny," she said. "Why can't I be friends with Remus without you guys turning it into a big dirty deal? There was nothing of this when I befriended Henry over there."

"You were thirteen and still believed all boys carried dragon pox [12]," Hestia said dryly.

"That may have been the case, but I certainly don't think like that anymore."

"Do you want us to tease you with Henry?" Anna asked.

"Merlin, no!" Henry exclaimed.

This time Myra laughed too.

...

Later that day there was once again the monthly prefect meeting. Myra hadn't had time to practice so much on the Imperturbable Charm yet, but she decided to go to the meeting room right after dinner instead of doing a detour to the Gryffindor common room, and use the time waiting to practice. Hopefully there would be no distractions there.

She was sitting near the windows, sometimes letting her attention waver to the scenery outside, the sad fading winter scenery. Over and over again she waved her wand, seeing the greyish red light bleed into the meeting room walls.

It wasn't until about twenty minutes later that Myra figured it was a bad idea to cast the spell on this place; people had to be able to come in. So instead she emptied her book bag, transfigured one of her mittens into a squeaking rat and put it inside the bag.

"I hope a desperate motivation will help," she mumbled as the rat's loud squeals hurt in her ears.

Again and again she tried to work the spell, without much success. People began mingling in, holding their ears and making annoyed glares and sounds. Thankful that she was fairly good in Charms, Myra cast a moderated Silencing Charm on the rat before she continued practising.

"What on earth are you doing?" An amused and familiar voice sounded suddenly next to Myra.

She snapped around and saw the smiling, but once again tired and pale, face of Remus. She sighed. "I'm failing at the Imperturbable Charm." Almost everyone seemed to have arrived, so she gave up the attempt for now and pulled out the rat in order to transfigure it back.

"Wormtail?" Remus suddenly gasped.

"What?" Myra asked, her wand pointed at the rat hanging by its tail from one of her hands.

"Nothing," he quickly replied.

The rat returned to the red mitten it used to be.

"If you want, I can help you with the spell," Remus offered.

"You would?" Myra turned completely in his direction, staring up at him in near wonder.

"Sure, I would be happy to. I can't with a good conscience let you fail at Defence Against the Dark Arts if I have the ability to help." He said this jokingly.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Without thinking, Myra jumped up and hugged him.

He froze for a second, but quickly returned the hug.

When Myra pulled away she noticed that he looked a bit flushed, but she didn't ponder on it, since it made him look a bit less sick. "I think I was the only one really having trouble with it, and Professor Biggar wasn't nice about it. It will be fun to prove to him that I can do it. He doesn't need to know I didn't do it on my own."

Remus smiled. "He isn't the most sympathetic teacher we've had, that's for sure. We can stay behind after the meeting and start then, if that works for you?"

"That would be perfect," Myra beamed.

The meeting went in the usual fashion; reports on the rule-breaking trends, updates on how the new pairings and schedules worked, and other boring stuff. Once Carly and Timothy finished the meeting and everyone had left, Remus began his so-called lecture.

It wasn't the first time Remus had helped Myra with a Defence Against the Dark Arts problem, so she was starting to get used to his switch into teacher mode when he tried to tutor her. Earlier it had only been small problems, like not finding the right books for an essay, or a question about a spell that worked immediately, but this seemed to quickly turn into a much greater problem, needing more help.

He was sitting next to her by the oval table, the chair turned towards her, while he explained.

"What worked for me was to add a kind of a really small half-twirl at the end of the arc, like this." Remus drew a wide arc and at the end of it drew that half-twirl so quickly it was barely noticeable.

Myra squinted at the place where she thought the twirl had been drawn. "Could you do it a bit slower? The twirl was lost on me," she admitted sheepishly.

A warm smile crossed Remus' lips, and without question he repeated the wand movement, as slow as he could. Myra paid close attention, eyes darting between his arm, his hand, and the wand, all through the air.

"Right, right," Myra muttered and tried her best to repeat the movement.

"Of course, this is something I figured out for myself, something that works for me. It may not work for you at all."

"I understand that. What I don't understand is how you can come up with stuff like that, stuff like tweaking the spell to work better for you?"

Remus cocked his head, while thinking for a moment. "I really don't know. But that's an interesting question. Maybe I'll ask Professor Flitwick about it, he might know something."

The two Gryffindors practised for a little while longer, until Myra realised she was late for Gobstones club.

"Do you think you can help me tomorrow too?" She'd managed to make the barrier work, but the actual prevention of eavesdropping didn't work.

"I have Wizard's Chess tomorrow, but I think I can work with you a bit before that."

"You're a real saint, Remus."

"I don't know about that," he muttered, a bit too downcast than Myra would have expected.

"It's true." Myra felt the need to reassure him, but she had to go, no matter how much she wanted to find out what lay behind Remus' sudden mood change.

...

The next day Remus did as he had promised and helped Myra more with the Imperturbable Charm. There was some progress; the barrier held up, but now the sound was a bit muffled. Myra was ecstatic about this development, but stressed about not having perfected it before Defence Against the Dark Arts first thing the following day.

But it turned out that Professor Biggar had made empty threats last lesson, because they were just set to practice more instead.

Once again that evening, Remus helped Myra practice, in the common room, sitting at a small couch with a table near the boys' dorm stairs. There no one would be too much bothered by the squeaking of the transfigured rat they kept in a box Remus had gotten from his dorm.

There was no progress; still a strong barrier, but still the same muffled sound. She kept looking for that little something that would make the spell more powerful for her.

All the while they were training; Myra kept stealing secret glances at Remus. He looked positively dreadful. Feverish and pale at intervals, sweating, glassy eyed and yawning.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Myra asked when he interrupted a test-wave with his wand by stifling another yawn while pulling at the neck of his shirt. "It looks like you should be chained to a hospital bed."

A small smile tugged at the corner of Remus' lips. "I'm sure, I'm not as sick as I look."

Myra wasn't entirely convinced. "What is wrong with you?" she asked quietly, not wanting to draw the attention of the people around them.

Remus had been standing while waving his wand, trying to figure out an alternate way of doing it, now he sat down next to her on the small couch, and Myra could feel the heat radiating from him like a furnace. "There are many things wrong with me," he tried to joke it away.

Myra just stared at him as if to say he couldn't possibly believe she would leave it at that.

"I think I'm coming down with something," he said in all seriousness.

"You came down with something last month too," Myra reminded him.

"I usually do that, every time there is some virus going around, I catch it."

"So you have a weak immune system?"

"I guess I do."

Myra looked at him, thoroughly, trying to see if he told the truth. She was no Occlumens, but liked to think that her curiosity allowed her to spot things like lies and truth. Right now she saw truth in Remus' face, so she nodded. "Well, that sucks."

"Yeah."

"I'll let you off for today. We can try more tomorrow, after you've rested."

"If you say so," Remus said lightly, but the way his body seemed to deflate into the couch told her that he was very grateful.

...

On Friday afternoon as Myra sat with her friends eating lunch, she noticed Remus entering in the middle of the meal. And he looked worse than he had the evening before.

"Merlin's beard, what on earth is wrong with him?" she muttered.

"Who?" Ashley asked.

"Remus. Look at him, it looks like he's about to die any moment. Again."

Ashley, Anna and Hestia looked in the direction Myra was looking.

"What have you done to him the last few days?" Anna asked, trying to joke, but it fell dead.

It looked like patrol and Defence Against the Dark Arts practice would be cancelled today, at least as far as Remus was concerned. So Myra decided to go talk to him to find out and ask if she needed to find a prefect replacement for him. "I have to ask him about tonight."

But just as she rose, he walked out of the Great Hall again with a speed no one in his condition should be able to have.

"Sit down, Myra," Hestia said, pulling on Myra's robe arm. "I'm sure that if he was unable to show up tonight, you would have heard so already."

"I suppose you're right," she mumbled, not quite convinced.

Lunch ended and Myra joined Henry for Care of Magical Creatures, while Hestia went off to Muggle Studies and Anna and Ashley went to Ancient Studies. Today's lesson was thankfully held inside, since it was blowing up a snowstorm outside, with the small amount of snow that was left. They would be learning the Talon-Clipping Charm.

Professor Kettleburn stood waiting at the front of the classroom with a huge set of pliers; they looked to be at least three feet long, and very sharp.

"Good afternoon, class," old Kettleburn said in his raspy voice when everyone was settled down. "Anyone know what this is?" He held out the pliers, dangerously close to Jugson, one of the Slytherins sitting up front.

A Ravenclaw held up her hand. Kettleburn nodded to her. "Pliers, sir," she answered arrogantly, as if it was the most stupid question in the world to ask.

"Correct, two points to Ravenclaw," Professor Kettleburn praised. "When Muggles clip the nails and claws of their pets, most often just dogs and cats, they use special pliers like these. Smaller ones, of course." He chuckled a bit. "But we, witches and wizards, sometimes have the need for greater equipment, for when we want to trim the claws of dragons, hippogriffs, griffins, or various small and large poultry. So, who here want to use these pliers and cut the claws of a Ukrainian Ironbelly?"

No one raised their hand or made a sound.

"That's what I thought," the professor chuckled again, and suddenly the pliers disappeared. "We have the Talon-Clipping Charm. What do we know about this charm?"

Several people raised their hands, Myra among them. Professor Kettleburn pointed out Myra. "It's most commonly used on dragons, since approaching a dragon with a set of pliers would qualify as a death sentence. But in later years it's been used for other creatures too, just because it's easier, and less risky."

"Five points to Gryffindor. Miss Kinney is absolutely correct. Up until 1934 witches and wizards cut the front claws of hippogriffs with pliers like you just saw. St. Mungo's petitioned to the Ministry to have them strongly advise people to use a charm or spell for their cutting needs. They did not want to waste capacity on such silly injuries as the ones people got after handling a temperamental hippogriff.

"The petition was successful, and for a year after that St. Mungo's sent home anyone mental enough to cut their hippogriff with pliers. Of course, people were given a pamphlet with instructions on disinfecting hippogriff bites and other non-poisonous bites and basic information about home-treatment, along with a signup sheet for talon-clipping classes.

"Eventually people caught the message, and we have used the Talon-Clipping Charm on anything with claws or long nails ever since. Anyone know the incantation?"

A few people raised their hands, and the Ravenclaw from earlier was called upon. "Digitus amputo [13]," she answered.

"Five points to Ravenclaw. Everyone repeat after me: Digitus amputo."

...

After Charms, the last class of the day, Myra and the girls went directly into the Great Hall for dinner. Myra glanced around at every person who entered the Great Hall, hoping to see Remus. While she had seen Sirius, James and Peter between Care of Magical Creatures and Charms, she had not seen Remus with them.

"Are you looking for Remus?" Hestia asked after the hundredth snap of Myra's head.

Myra nodded.

"Still gone?"

Myra nodded again. "I think I need to find Carly or Timothy, because I can't patrol alone tonight. We're not allowed to do it alone."

"I thought the prefects were more organized than this," Anna said.

"Me too," Myra muttered, feeling slightly neglected.

After having eaten her fill, Myra decided to try to find out about Remus, before she talked to the Head Boy or Girl. Looking down the table she tried to find his friends, the three of them were just leaving.

"Look after my bag, will you, Hestia? And take it with you if I don't come back before you leave. I'm going after Sirius, James and Peter," Myra said quickly and didn't even wait for an answer from Hestia before she hurried out of the Great Hall.

The three Marauders hadn't gone far when Myra reached the Entrance Hall. She almost ran straight into them as they stood huddled together, whispering in urgent tones.

"Hey!" she said and came to a skidding halt.

"Hello there, Myra Kinney," James greeted with a crooked grin. "What can we do you for?"

"I was just wondering where Remus is?"

All three boys exchanged unreadable glances.

"As I guess you know, he and I have prefect patrol tonight, but I haven't seen him all day. Well, except that short moment in lunch when he looked ready to die."

"He's away to visit his aunt for a few days. He left during lunch, in fact," Peter explained.

"He's visiting his sick aunt when he himself is so sick he can barely walk straight?"

"He's not that sick," Sirius said. Myra thought he looked a bit shifty saying it.

"I was with him last night, he was feverish and pale and tired and plain miserable. Wouldn't it be a bit risky to expose his aunt to that?"

"Like I said, he's not that sick," Sirius repeated firmly. "And it's nothing contagious. You haven't caught it, we haven't caught it."

Myra narrowed her eyes, and looked at the three of them in turn, trying to decide whether or not she should believe them. They looked steadfastly back, not even a tiny twitch in the corner of an eye.

Something didn't add up, but she would not tell them she thought so.

"Well, nice of him to let someone know then," she finally said, in an ironic tone. "No one's approached me with a replacement."

"I'll be a prefect for you," James nearly shouted with glee. "Lily's patrolling tonight, isn't she? Do you ever meet up with her during the night? Is she very friendly with that Mallard fellow?"

Now Myra stared in wonder, one eyebrow raised. "Tell Remus he'd better tell me next time he decides to run off," she said dismissively and walked back into the Great Hall.

By the Ravenclaw table she found Head Boy Timothy Ivory. "Hey, Timothy," she interrupted his conversation.

"Myra," he greeted.

"Have you heard that Remus is gone tonight?"

He frowned. "No, is he off to see his aunt again?"

"Apparently, and he didn't tell me anything. Just ran off at lunch today."

"He might have told Carly, and she just forgot to pass on the message. But if not, I'll have a word with him when he comes back. We've always been lenient with him having to leave every once in a while, as long as he gives a warning before hand. Do you have a partner tonight?"

Myra shook her head. "Not that I know of."

The Head Boy thought for a moment. "I'm not sure who might be free tonight without looking at the schedule, but if I can't find anyone for you, I'll take the patrol with you. Just show up in the Entrance Hall at 10:45 like usual and me or someone else will be there, all right?"

"Thanks, Timothy."

"No worries," he waved his hand, and Myra went back to the Gryffindor table.

"Did you sort it out?" Ashley wondered.

"Kind of," Myra answered, wanting another helping of dessert. She told the girls about her conversation with the Marauders and the Head Boy, but left out the part where she discussed with the boys about whether or not Remus was sick enough to leave anywhere. That was to be confided in Hestia later.

...

When it was ten minutes left until a quarter to eleven, Myra packed away her books and parchments, and went down to the Entrance Hall to see who would be so lucky as to be her partner for the evening. Praying to Merlin all the way down that it wasn't a Slytherin.

But it was Timothy Ivory who stood there in his Ravenclaw robes and Head Boy badge.

"Good evening, Myra," he greeted. "It seems that everyone else had more important things to do. I've already sent Lily and Richard on the way."

Some part of Myra felt performance anxiety creep up on her; this was the Head Boy after all. But she took a deep breath and reassured herself that Headmaster Dumbledore was the one who gave her the honour of being a prefect, and he most likely had the last word in whether or not she was allowed to continue with it if Timothy was to complain. "Let's go then," she said and led the way down into the dungeons, where she and Remus always began their patrol.

It was a fairly quiet night; not many stragglers were out and about breaking school rules. Timothy wasn't a very talkative type either, so Myra found time to think a lot in the quiet of the castle. And what else would she think about than the mystery that was Remus Lupin.

Something was wrong with him, that much was certain.

For the second time in a short while he abandoned her to do patrol without him. Both times he had looked ready to drop dead at any moment the days before he disappeared. And this time he hadn't even notified anyone.

"Did you hear if Remus had told Carly about him leaving?" Myra suddenly asked. They were now on the first floor.

"He actually did, but she completely forgot about it," the Head Boy answered. "We had a Potions test last thing today, and his message got lost in that haze."

Myra nodded; that sounded reasonable.

So Remus had notified someone. But he had said nothing to her about cancelling their planned tutoring session.

When they reached the third floor, it was clear that something was going on there. Myra pushed thoughts of Remus out of her mind and shared a quick look with Timothy. There was a faint giggling coming from an empty classroom near the end of the hall, where the Clock Tower entrance was.

Briskly, but as quiet as possible, the two walked towards the classroom, and the giggling became louder. They reached the door, and Timothy motioned for Myra to do the honours.

Myra smiled in glee at what she knew would come, then replaced the smile with her sternest face and wrenched open the door.

Inside were two Slytherins, a girl sitting on an old and battered desk, and a boy who just scrambled out from standing between her legs.

"It is three quarters after curfew, why aren't you in your common room?" Myra asked with authority, stepping inside so Timothy could survey the scene as well.

The boy held his face straight. "Why aren't you in your common room?" he asked. The girl giggled at his cheek.

Myra raised one eyebrow before pointing to her chest, where the shiny prefect badge was pinned.

"Well, like you said, it's a quarter to eleven, weekend tomorrow, no need to be so meticulous about it. Rules are made to be broken."

Stepping closer, Myra recognized him as a seventh year and her as a fifth year. "And what had you been planning on doing in here if we hadn't shown up? Gone all the long way together? What if she isn't following the rules about going to the hospital wing once a month for a hormone potion? What would happen if that rule has been broken?"

"I haven't broken that rule!" the girl defended herself. "I've taken that potion every month since I was thirteen!"

"Yes, and good for you, but I'm trying to make a point here," Myra dismissed her and looked hard into the Slytherin boy's eyes. "What would happen if your little girlfriend here broke that rule?"

He swallowed visibly, but remained calm and cold. "So what? I have the money to make that problem go away."

Myra raised both eyebrows now and looked at him as if he was something repulsive under her shoe. "Ten points from Slytherin from both of you for being out after curfew and for being cheeky about it."

"Fine fine, we'll go," he surrendered grudgingly and the two lovers sped out of the classroom. "Uptight little Gryffindor needs to get herself laid," he whispered to his giggling girlfriend when they were some way down the hall.

"I heard that!" Myra called after them. "Fifteen points from Slytherin for that!"

Timothy had a hand over his mouth, laughter shining from his eyes. "You are so cruel," he breathed when he had recovered himself.

"Thank you," Myra bowed. "There's no greater pleasure than finding reasons to take points from Slytherin."

The two finished the third floor, and went up to the fourth floor, the last floor they had responsibility for. Lily and Mallard took fifth to seventh and all towers. Then it was down again, through the floors, but not so thorough this time. Hopefully they had scared away most of the students who were out of bounds.

Timothy was a bit more talkative now that the ice seemed to have melted between them after the incident with the Slytherins, so Myra gave up trying to figure out what was going on with Remus, in favour of participating in Timothy's conversation.

A bit after midnight Myra was back in the Gryffindor common room. Not many of her housemates were up still, but Hestia and Anna were among the few late nighters.

"Did anyone show up to help you?" Anna asked.

"The Head Boy took it himself," Myra answered, falling down into the couch the two girls were sitting in, exhausted after a long week and two long hours of walking up and down six floors.

"He is cute," Anna commented dreamily, gazing into the air.

"I guess he is," Myra yawned. "I've never really thought about it."

"You're too busy ogling Remus, aren't you?" The grin on Anna's face was infuriating.

If looks could kill, Anna would be so far in the ground her corpse would come back out in China. "If I say that yes, Remus is an attractive wizard, will you shut up about it? But he's not the only attractive wizard in the castle, nor is he the most attractive."

"Fine fine, I'll shut up!" Anna put her hands up in surrender, but added in a mutter: "For now."

Hestia just shook her head at their conversation, sitting cross legged on the couch, a book in her lap and parchment and quill on the armrest.

"Hey, Hestia, do you think you can help me a bit with the Imperturbable Charm? If you have the time." Myra leant forward to catch Hestia's attention.

"Can't you manage to practice on your own?" Hestia didn't look up from her work.

"Just supervise, watch and tell me if I'm doing something wrong. I'm this close to mastering it now." She held two fingers close together to demonstrate.

"Fine, just give me five minutes to finish this."

"Did you catch any rule breakers today?" Anna asked.

"A couple of Slytherins, two Hufflepuffs and a Gryffindor."

"Ooh, Slytherins! How many points did you take from them?"

"Thirty-five," Myra answered smugly.

"That's my girl. What did they do?"

"They were having foreplay in an empty classroom in the Charms corridor. A seventh year and a fifth year. He was awfully rude to me, so I took fifteen points from him for it."

Anna smiled as if she'd just found a thousand unknown galleons in her pocket.

"Okay, I'm ready," Hestia announced and put her homework away.

"I'm too tired to sit here and watch you two do this, so good night!" Anna demonstrated with a yawn and went up to the dorms. Only a couple of handfuls were left now, grouped around the common room.

"Let's see how far you've gotten with Mr Lupin then." Hestia sat straight and waited.

Myra demonstrated after summoning a mitten to transfigure and a box to charm. She could either get the barrier working perfectly or she could block out sound completely, but not both properties at the same time.

"You have to find the common link between the two in the way you move your wand and the magic you draw from your core," Hestia said.

"Oh really, it's that simple? Why on earth didn't someone tell me that sooner," Myra said sarcastically.

Hestia clicked her tongue in annoyance. This was exactly why Hestia wouldn't normally help Myra with her homework or other academic trouble. Hestia didn't have the patience to deal with Myra's comments and interruptions. And Myra often didn't understand Hestia's complicated way of explaining things.

With a sigh that sounded like she was facing her doom, Hestia tried to explain in a simpler way.

The two Gryffindors were at it for nearly an hour, actually making great progress and were the only ones left in the common room, when a hair-raising howl interrupted them. Both looked at each other, then out the window, where the sound had come from.

Myra knew at once what it was, since it was her greatest fear. But both of them walked over to the window and gazed out onto the grounds. The night was pitch-black, but the moon was full and bright and lighting up the ground, making the snow that was left sparkle like a million diamonds.

The howl came again, followed by a couple of lower and deeper howls.

"The Shrieking Shack," Myra muttered, rubbing her hands over her arms in an effort to get rid of the goose bumps.

"They're always worse during the full moon," Hestia mentioned.

"I think you're right. Never thought about it before, but I guess you're right."

It was frightening, knowing that ghosts wandered the castle every day, all day, one of them even teaching a class. But none of them were harmful, not even Peeves the Poltergeist. But the ghosts inhabiting the Shrieking Shack, the viciousness of them, having the house so close to the school, it was bizarre. Exactly the same creatures as the ones inside the castle, so peaceful in one place and so horrifying in another. No wonder the ones in the Shrieking Shack was Myra's Boggart.


Notes

[12] A twist on the idea of boy-cooties, with help from the lovely people at the HPFF forums.

[13] Talon-Clipping Charm, invented by J.K. Rowling, mentioned in Goblet of Fire, the incantation for it, Digitus Amputo, invented by me.


Author Notes

Wonderful beta-work by the always-amazing Orion Knight! Bow down to her!

I'm now officially done editing the stuff I wrote during NaNoWriMo. Of course, I might edit some more here and there, but I'm now focusing on planning Myra's sixth school year. NaNo took us all the way to the end of September her sixth years, so now I'm almost done planning that year all the way through June. Think I'm going to blog some photos of how I'm working when I plan. Not sure if many other writers out there are as mental as me...

Please review if you have any thoughts on the chapter!

Coming: Chapter 8 – Currently Untitled

"Hestia Jones, can I have a word with you, please?" he asked politely and formally. "Will you go out with me in Hogsmeade on Saturday?" Ambrose asked, his tone calm, clear and well rehearsed. "Eh, tomorrow, as a date," he added with an afterthought, for once in his life looking insecure. Hestia stared at him for a few long seconds. Then she blurted out: "Why?" Ambrose sputtered; this was clearly not something he had expected. Or rehearsed, Myra thought while chuckling in her head.