AN: I give you all my profuse apologies for the delayed update of this chapter.... I am so sorry that it took so long for me to get this done, but I am proud to say that it is done, and I worked through my writers block (I think my nice little "vacation" {if you could call it that; two days away in Iowa doesn't really qualify}helped me overcome it) I am also very pleased to say that this chapter is an extremely long one, at least for me, and I have been meaning to make them longer since chapter two, and I have finally accomplished such. Also of course, the usual, yet still undeniably special thanks to all of my readers and reviewers...your reviews really keep me going... I think I am going to cry, no just my allergies:) anyways thanks to all.. Ciao!!

Antigone Chaucer of Kells: Thanks so much, I am flattered... and again congrats on yet another ingenious quote of the day!!! Ps.... Good luck with that tingling....

Riley ravens: Here is my review on your review of my last chapter, as you requested, though it is not quite prompt... your review was lovely, though I was lost for a moment in between a sentence or two, but none the less it brightened my day!! Good day .... I say good day!

ItarildeSirfalas: (hope I spelled that right, I am too lazy to check, you understand) I see that you have finally caught up on your reviews of my amazing story, no more lagging behind, I expect a review from your no more than two days after my most recent update, a spot on this page should be greatly treasured and worked for... so no more lagging...luv ya!

Bookwormer: thank you for your enlightening reviews...and yes someone will find her while she is sleeping, just probably not someone you will expect...

And now that that is done its time for chappie number 8, hope you enjoy, since I certainly

do!!

Flight of the Pheonix

Chapter 8

While you were sleeping...

Dumbledore was sitting in his pleasantly cluttered office, thoroughly enjoying a satisfying silence as he read over the daily prophet. The most recent prophet did not seem to hold any important news, particularly involved with a certain dark lord on the loose, that had surfaced since the previous day. As the aged man sipped his heavily sugared tea, the door to his office swung open, revealing a highly distressed looking Professor Snape. The headmaster continued to calmly drink his tea, looking very unsurprised at the sudden entrance of his potions master.

The newest occupant of the room looked highly annoyed as he waited for the unruffled headmaster to greet him, in the usual way of offering something disgustingly sweet. Dumbledore finally came up from his cup of tea for a breath of air, and acknowledged the irritated professor's presence, by offering him the previously speculated chocolate and a seat, one of which the guest accepted and the other he distastefully refused. Dumbledore folded up the paper that was interrupted, and peered at the younger man over his half moon spectacles, analyzing his company.

"Is there something I can help you with Severus?" He finally asked, initiating the conversation.

"Yes Albus. I do not think you a fool. I know you recognize exactly what I wish to discuss." Snape said, his irritation apparent in his voice.

"Does this concern a certain student of yours, Severus?" Dumbledore questioned, as Snape nodded. "Albus, I do not know how much more I can take of this nonsense. She has started a trend, Albus. The students no longer take me seriously, a simple detention does not impend the same fear on the students as it once did. I thought that that girl was going to stay in check, now look what she has done. Not only does the whole student body know her name, but enormous amounts of them are acting as she did. If she doesn't watch herself I will be forced to use denser punishment to prove that I am not one to be walked upon."

"Serverus, the girl knows of her mistake and has already come to me with an apology, and a promise to watch herself further. And as for the other students, it will naturally die down in a week or so, just hang in there. I know you are capable of it, after what you have been through, with your membership in Voldemort's inner circle."

"Yes, I know very well professor what the circumstances are like when dealing with the dark lord, but that girl does not. I cannot protect her secret on my own. She needs to become more vigilant, if she is to carry out what we hope she will be able to. Albus, I suggest you speak to her about this matter, if you wish for her to be with us much longer."

"I am surprised you have such a concern for the girl." Dumbledore said, gaining a denial from Snape. "I will talk to her, for you, Severus. She is aware of the dangers of being too outspoken, and she has realized that, I do believe that your concern for her is well placed, but I also believe that you can be content with her safety currently. Now I do believe you have a class next period, you should be getting along as the bell will surely ring within the minute."

"Yes, Albus, thank you, but before I leave I was wondering where that enchanting bird of yours has gone off to." Snape could care less about the damned bird, that was always haunting the corner of the headmaster's office, but seeing that the bird was gone, as it never was, curiosity overtook him, igniting the question.

"Oh, he is out for a flight, he was becoming rather restless so I decided to let him fly around for a bit." Dumbledore replied with ease as he showed Snape to the door, the other professor had a look of disbelief on his face, but continued to his classroom, saving his suspicions for their next visit. There were some things Dumbledore didn't even tell his closest confidents.

Harry and Ron were sitting in the smoky Divination room, staring into their teacups, trying to decipher their unapparent futures. Harry looked into Ron's teacup and stared down at the tea leaves stuck to the bottom. He then looked over at Ron who was busy scribbling down words like death, devastation, and hostilities, words that he described Harry's future with, after looking into the tealeaves. It was routine for who ever read Harry's tealeaves, didn't matter what they saw, they just wrote down the same three words, just to make to the fanatical Professor Trelawney happy. At first Harry did not appreciate it, but Divination was a useless subject as it was, and it was an easy score for the lucky student who got to his teacup first. Harry's gaze returned once again to Ron's future embedded in the tea leaves. His study of the soggy material was rudely interrupted.

"Hey, Harry do you know where Pheona is?" This caused Harry to wonder at Ron's question. She had been with Hermione the last period, in muggle studies. And considering her company, he figured that Pheona would not be late to her next class. But maybe she just got lost, or had to get something.

"She is probably just running late." Harry replied, trying to eliminate Ron's worry, as he continued to intently stare at the tea leaves, silently willing any shape to form and show itself so that he could be finished with the useless assignment. He then saw the slight form of something; he looked from the teacup to the pages of translation, trying to decipher what the tea leaves where trying to tell him of his friend's future. Finally finding the meaning of the shape in the cup, Harry smirked and looked at his friend who, already finished with his assignment, seemed to be attempting to take a nap. Harry leaned over and nudged Ron awake, the smirk still wide on his face. Ron emitted a few grunts and attempted to roll over, causing himself to roll out of his chair. This gained many laughs from the rest of the students and a scold from the professor, claiming that there must be a serious environment for the art of tea leave reading.

Harry helped his friend back into his chair; his smirk had not yet been erased. Ron stared at him with a look of slight annoyance. "What are you smirking at? Don't you know its bad luck to awaken a sleeping student?" Ron asked.

"It's a sleeping bear, and as if bad luck is going to change my future much, according to what you've written down." Harry said, still smirking.

"Ha, very funny, now you better have a good reason for interrupting my nap, I didn't get much sleep last night." Ron replied.

"Could it be because of a certain girl?" Harry asked, eyeing the teacup containing his friend's future, and waggling his eyebrows. Ron's face paled.

"What did you see?" he asked as he dove for the cup. "I don't see anything." He said with confidence.

"Oh, but I did. And it proved to be very interesting." He then pointed to the page that described the shape he had spied in the cup, and Ron's eyebrows raised as he started to laugh.

"Yeah, so what?" Ron said, after he read the caption to the shape that told of his future. The caption had said that he would find true love during the next full moon. "Do you really believe the crap we learn in this class. I mean really Harry, look at your future, do you really believe it?"

"No, but the defensive wall you have put up is enough to make me. Who's the lucky woman Ron? I mean I can't believe you haven't told me, I thought we were friends." Harry teasingly prodded.

"Oh fine, but you know perfectly well why I chose not to tell you, because you always tease me about this crap, you are as bad as my brothers." Ron said, gaining a faux hurt look from his friend. "I have a crush on Pheona, alright? Is that what you wanted? Now, go ahead, pester me and make fun. I hope you don't mind if I just close my eyes while you do so."

Harry just sat looking at Ron with a surprised expression on his face. He hadn't been expecting that name to escape Ron's mouth. He had been expecting someone entirely different, someone who Ron had had a crush on since third year at least. It was obvious even though he wouldn't admit it. Harry then decided to let the subject drop, since Ron had once again fallen back to sleep, leaving Harry to really wonder about the future.

Pansy Parkinson was sitting in charms class, as always staring at her Drakey- poo, when a thought crossed her mind. Now this is something of scarce occurrence for Pansy, since she is not the thinking sort, so when this thought came to her mind she was, shall we put it, rather surprised. For days now, Pansy had been rather irked that Draco had not been giving her the attention she required. Pansy was feeling as though she had been alienated from Draco, although with her limited vocabulary, this was not the word she would have used to described her feelings.

She had seen Draco's looks from across the room in potions, looks full of longing for the new girl, Pheona. Pansy was confused as to why Draco's attention was no longer fully directed toward her, but to a stupid Gryffindor instead. She had tried to convince herself that something was just bothering her Draco, but then she spotted them flirting in the library. And Draco had even paid that little bitch a compliment. Pansy couldn't stand it, and had decided to resort to drastic measures. First she tried attaching herself to him more than ever, trying to receive his attention, but Draco only pushed her away and told her to annoy someone else for a while. She then told Draco that if he didn't snap out of his funk then their relationship was over; she only gained a snicker from Draco, with such a comment, which only proved to confuse her further.

So staying true to her word, Pansy "cut it off" and gave her beloved Draco the cold shoulder, thinking that it was only a matter of time before he came crawling back to her, begging for her forgiveness, which she would happily provide. This of course was not the case, as it had been three days since the devastating break up. Pansy was beginning to worry that her plan would fail, so an ingenious idea rolled like a lone tumble weed into her deserted mind.

Obviously Draco was too caught up in this other girl to see how much he truly missed Pansy. This caused Pansy to suspect that Pheona had used magic to seduce Draco, since nothing natural would cause him to be attracted to her. Pansy was dare she say insulted that she had to compete with such a creature, but Draco's obsession with her was apparently not one of natural occurrence, and pansy had to put a stop to it. And Pansy being very unlike Hermione, did not want to do the research to find the magic Pheona had used, and the magic to counter it, so Pansy decided to have a nice little chat with her. She would make Pheona stop using her twisted magic, that had veiled Draco from seeing his true love.

The bell rang, jolting Pansy out of her thoughts. She stood up, grabbed her books, and rushed out of the classroom, purposefully knocked into Draco, giving him one more chance to save himself before she did it for him. When she turned around to see the verdict of her scheme, she was devastated to see that he had merely turned down the opposite way down the hall. Pansy frowned at this finding it odd since they both had herbology next. She ignored the impulse to rush and follow him, instead assuring herself that he was getting a forgotten book, and was not searching for a certain someone who had abolished their relationship. Pansy kept reinventing the chat that she would soon be having with the little Gryffindor slut as she walked across the courtyard to reach the Herbology classroom.

Since she is not entirely used to thinking so much, Pansy had a hard time navigating and plotting revenge at the same instant. This caused Pansy to walk in the wrong direction, away from her rightful destination. Pansy's posse followed without a worked since they had put all of their trust in the smartest person of their team. Finally Millicent startled the ringleader out of her reverie, asking why they were walking the wrong way. Pansy, startled from her plotting, looked up to see where she had lead them. They had walked a good distance in the wrong direction, and Pansy sighed as the bell sounded once again, not wanting to sprint to dodge a detention. She then turned around in a swirl of robes, to start off in the correct direction, when she noticed something. There was a girl laying under a tree, her red hair unmistakable. Class forgotten, Pansy sauntered over to the sleeping form, with her posse close behind. The identity of the girl was confirmed, as Pansy filled with joy. Her day couldn't have gotten any better, and she thanked a higher being that she had worked out her plan already since it was the perfect opportunity to put it to action.

Pheona was awakened from her peaceful nap by a loud wailing. She was pulled from a pleasant dream, one of the past, and refused to open her eyes, instantaneously, for fear of what she might see. Finally curiosity overcame fear and Pheona opened her eyes to inspect the source of the awful sound that had not yet decided to desist. Preparing to see a banshee, Pheona warily looked up into the Face of a blond (AN: ha no e this time) girl. Pheona's view of the girl consisted mostly of her mouth, which was hanging open in order to emit the incessant sound. Pheona then realized that the girl was in fact screaming at her. Pheona, having no idea why, quickly jumped up to receive a better view of her awakener.

When Pheona stood up, the sound slowly quieted, leaving her ears ringing. Pheona took a good look at the girl in front of her. Being in her distorted state, Pheona could not quite pinpoint who the girl was exactly. As Pheona stood contemplating the girl, the subject of her contemplation had again started to emit awful sounds, though not as loudly as before.

Pheona's thoughts were brought to a halt when the girl screamed, "Are you listening to me you whore?" It was the last word that caught her attention. This was the time when Pheona decided to figure out who the girl was, in order to determine how to answer this question. However, as Pheona analyzed, the girl abandoned her question and continued to speak in broken sentences. She had blond hair and rather looked like a bulldog, but Pheona decided no to look at her not so charming face, so instead her eyes darted to the emblem on the chest of the girls black school robes. The emblem sported a green snake, signifying that the girl was in Slytherin.

Finally regaining her composure, Pheona realized who the girl was. She remembered seeing the girl in her potions class, she remembeedr seeing the girl h staring at Draco the whole class, and hanging on him during meals. She also recalled seeing her in the library as she rushed out, after realizing that she had been flirting with Draco, and then the next day she was staring darts at her, like a child whose candy had been taken. Pheona then realized why she had been looking so murderously at her; she had apparently claimed Draco, and Pheona had evidently crossed the wrong line.

The girl continued to scream profanities at Pheona, asking what magic she was using on her boyfriend to make him act so wrong and unnatural. The girl shrieked for another five minutes at least, all without taking a breath, causing Pheona to wonder just how long this could go on, dreading that it could probably last hours. She was frantically trying to figure out how to shut the girl up, at least, before either of their heads exploded. Pheona was having trouble with her self- imposed mission, as she could only pick up bits and pieces of what the girl was saying through her bawls. The information she had managed to grasp, could have initiated a laughing fit for Pheona, if she hadn't had such a headache, and a mission to complete.

The girl seemingly thought that Pheona was using magic on Draco to seduce him, and make him hers. Pheona had to admit that Draco was cute, okay hot, but no one was worth the effort, especially since Pheona wasn't exactly in the situation for a boyfriend, or someone of the sort. As Pheona stood wondering where this girl could possibly had gotten the notion that she would try such a thing, the screaming stopped, and the girl seemed to be even more infuriated. Deep in thought, Pheona did not notice the absence of the persistent screeches, and was thoroughly surprised to suddenly feel a hand touching her face, only to be pulled away once more, leaving behind a stinging sensation, on her cheek.

Slightly stunned for the length of a mere second Pheona reflexively reached out and slapped back. She was not sure why the girl had chosen to resort to violence, but she was sure that she was not going to be pushed around by some pansy. (AN: used in the sense of the word, not the name, just some dramatic irony for you there.)

"I am not exactly sure what you are talking about, but I can do what I want, and so can Draco. He's not your little puppy and you don't need to be controlling him... or me." Pheona said, in a tone the exactly opposite of the blond girl's. Her voice full of authority and confidence, Pheona continued to give the flabbergasted girl a piece of her mind. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I do believe I have a class to go to, but before I go, I must ask you to please stay out of my affairs, as they are none of your business, or else I cannot be taken responsible for my actions." Pheona did not care that the girl had the wrong impression about her relationship with Draco, since she hated him at this point, but she was not going to let someone think that they could tell her what to do, no matter the situation. As Pheona stood, taking in the affect her words had on the girl, she saw the girl's hand reach for something in her pocket, and was vaguely aware when the girl, pulled out her wand and mutter a curse, sending it Pheona's way.