Authors Note: Just to let you know, there's only four character spaces left. This is because I've already picked the first character. The character's name is Legion Black and the owner of said character is thedeathchandelier (he was the first person to apply). Congratulations to him! Now remember; four character spaces left, people! Get them whilst you can!


Here We Go Again.

Chapter Nine: Two Animals.

When I was little I read these detective books. They were about men who had to crack hidden codes or find some unknown person who wrote someone a threatening letter to solve some mystery. Those books always made it seem so obvious who the culprit was, but when I read my own mysterious note it made no sense at all. The only people I could really think of who would want to meet me was either the Vampire who bit me or the beach hut man. Neither one knew I was attending Hogwarts though, but perhaps they knew anyway?

The first thing I thought of doing was telling Professor McGonagall or maybe Neville, but I didn't want to worry them with the fact that someone may or may not be stalking me or something. So the only thing I could do was not go at all. I was so curious to find out who the mystery person could be though, that I argued with myself for hours into the night until I decided that I was going to go. Even if he or she does kill me, I thought bravely when I woke up on the 30th of September.

Classes ran through smoothly that morning. Defence Against the Dark Arts was just as exciting as usual. My first lesson we had learnt about Vampires, then on the second we went onto the subject of Werewolves (Professor Du Lac gave us a lecture on OWLs that lesson, which he said stood for Ordinary Wizarding Levels and was a bunch of exams on what we have learnt over the years), moving onto Veela's in the lesson afterwards, which took up two lessons. Leprechauns were next (this one took up three lessons as Du Lac went into an explanation of each and every performance of theirs he'd seen at the Quidditch matches with the Irish), and Hags were after that, Giants following on.

Potions was hilarious. Every time Professor Snape walked past me, I sat up straight on my stool and saluted to him. I found he liked to glare at me a lot, but then he likes to glare at everyone, doesn't he? I think he hates us all, but I know he really hates me. On our second lesson he gave us an OWLs lecture just like Du Lac and on the very same lesson mine and Scorpius' potion blew up everywhere (it was my fault; I carelessly threw in a bunch of random stuff). The next couple of lessons were boring then, but on our sixth one James brought in a bunch of magical fireworks and set them off half way through the lesson. He blamed me (I wacked him with my wand for that and accidently turned his hair purple), but we both got detention anyway.

Transfiguration was just downright freaky. McGonagall was very stern and didn't like nonsense. Whilst everyone was turning desks into pigs, she set me to work on trying to turn a matchstick into a needle. I completed it in one try so McGonagall, seeing my obvious quick talent, told me to try turning my desk into a pig, which also worked in around three tries. McGonagall (and also a bunch of people who were also watching) was dumbstruck. She told me I was to take OWLs with everyone else, even though I had only just started the school, and also said I was too quick a learner to bother waiting until next year.

Charms was by far my favourite lesson, along with Potions of course. Professor Flitwick made me laugh (he squeaked and fell backwards of my seat after he read my name off the register), but it was almost as though he were scared of me or something. When he walked past me, he'd just squeak out a well done and hurry on by. I found I was very good at this lesson though, so I didn't care if Flitwick was scared of me, as long as continued being good at whatever I was doing in the lesson.

History of Magic was just boring. Professor Binns was a ghost and he didn't even notice when James, Fred, and a bunch of randomers (along with me) did the conga out of the classroom whilst the lesson was still going on. I just slept during that lesson, though sometimes I threw pieces of screwed up parchment at others because I was so bored. Binns couldn't even remember my name and kept calling me Miss Rosella. That name got on my nerves so I threw one of the parchment balls at him, but obviously it just went straight through his ghostly figure.

Herbology was hard work. One plant tried to strangle me on my first ever lesson, which was when I went into the wrong greenhouse. Neville said the plant was called Devils Snare and told me to avoid said greenhouse. I liked getting muddy and working with flowers, but the herbs and magical plants I wanted to avoid. I told Neville I was going to set all the greenhouses on fire after he said I'd get used to it when I told him I absolutely hate Herbology. It was a joke of course, but Neville took it seriously and almost gave me a detention for suggesting such a thing.

Care of Magical Creatures was fun. Professor Grubbly-Plank let us play with the nicer and safe animals, but when the more dangerous ones were out, she only let us go near them if she thought we were mature enough. She didn't find me at all mature and when she brought out the Hippogriff, she didn't let me ride it, but let Zach and Scorpius do so. I was really upset about that afterwards and nagged and complained to people a lot. It took at least a week until I forget about it all and went back to thinking Care of Magical Creatures was awesome.

The slightly less needed subjects weren't so bad. Divinations was rubbish though, but Astronomy was pretty interesting. I liked looking at the stars and plants, especially the moon. Every Wednesday at twenty minutes past midnight, we had to head up to the highest tower of Hogwarts for our lesson. I lost quite a bit of sleep because of the lesson and was very grouchy every Thursday morning. The Divinations professor was an absolute fraud. At beginning of the lesson, she'd predict at least on person's death, but nothing ever happened to said person. The only thing I liked about the lesson was that we were able to make things up to get good grades, and that I was very good at because I had a wild imagination.

After all classes were over and done with, we were aloud to have free time. We were all ordered to stay in our common rooms for said free time, which was lucky for me as I was able to stay up in my room during that time and start working on a plan to sneak out of the castle so I could meet the mystery person in the Forbidden Forest. The only thing I could come up with was to wait until everyone was asleep to leave, kick Mrs Norris, Filch the caretaker's cat if I saw her, and run away if any of the patrolling prefects or professors were coming or happened to see me.

Finally it was time to leave and I felt over excited, though also very nervous and kind of scared. I didn't change into my pyjamas, but instead stayed in the black skinny jeans, heeled boots, and corset top I had been wearing earlier that day, and then crawled into my bed, hoping the girls wouldn't notice anything odd, like the fact that I was wearing make up and my hair was brushed very neat and straight. When everyone was asleep, I crawled out of my bed and went over to my trunk, opening it up and pulling out a thin black zip-up jacket. I then snuck down to the stairs and left the common room, not noticing the dark figure that was lurking in the corner.

On my journey out of the castle I didn't see anyone at all, no prefects or professors, not even Mrs. Norris or Filch. I found this very odd but didn't worry about it. It would be easier getting out of the castle if I wasn't worrying my brains away. But it was easy enough anyway that even if I did worry I would get out of the castle with no trouble. When I reached the golden double doors that lead outside, I pulled them open with a hard tug and had to jump away quickly when they swung open and almost wacked me in the face. I think I just discovered Vampire strength, I laughed to myself.

As soon as I was outside and the doors were shut loosely behind me, I began to make my way towards the Forbidden Forest in a jog. I wanted to sprint as I loved to run, but I was scared that if I did so, I would discover Vampire speed, and that was something I didn't really want to do just yet, in case I got out of control and couldn't stop myself from running. I entered the forest after staring up at the tall, thick black trees for a second or two. I didn't want to linger for Hagrid the groundskeeper could see me from out of his brick huts many glass windows.

The forest was dark and silent. The only things you could hear were the rustling of leaves, the rare howl of a wolf, and sometimes a long hoot from the odd owl. Once or twice a twig snapped from behind me and I got the feeling that someone was following me, watching my every step. It was all very creepy and every couple of minutes I thought about going back, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so. There was no turning back now I was doing this. I continued to walk, hoping I would find the mystery persons sooner rather than later.

Snap. I paused my walking. Snap, thud. I turned my head to the left. Snap, snap, thud. My mouth hung open slightly as my breathing came in slow, short gasps. Snap, snap. I was completely frozen in fear now. Snap, thud, thud, thud, thud, snap, snap, thud. I didn't know what to do. Should I run away or scream? Should I stay put and see if it was the mystery man? But what if it was some highly dangerous magical creature that wanted to eat me up as a very late dinner. My mind was panicking. Thud, thud, thud, snap, thud, snap... There was silence.

"Nemesis?" a voice gasped from behind me, a voice that I recognized. I turned on the spot.

Standing there was Davlon, mud smudged on his face and clothes, his hair messy and black with dirt, looking much unlike himself as he was usually very neat and tidy. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding and slowly walked up to him, feeling safe now though also quite unsure. Davlon looked confused at my appearance and you could say the same for me.

A big black dog suddenly bounded out from the black and skidded to a halt in front of me, its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth, a mischievous and crazy look in its eyes. The dog's expression changed into a look of worry and also confusion, just like Davlon and I, and it backed away, heading towards Davlon who was still staring at me, now as though he wished I wasn't anywhere near him. I couldn't believe my eyes when the dog began to change, morphing through different sizes and shapes. A boy in same messy state as Davlon was suddenly standing there.

"Err, hey there?" he said nervously.

"Hi... I think." I was tilting my head to the side, an expression on my face that made me look as though I was trying to work something out. "How did you just do that?"

"I'm an uh, an Animagus," he answered quietly. I was more confused now. "I can change into a dog and Davlon can change into a leopard."

"Right, animal shape-shifters basically... I'm Nemesis Riddle by the way." I stuck my hand out for him to shake.

"Oh, um, Legion Black." He took my hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too. Say, you wouldn't mind teaching me to do that, would you?" I asked, smiling a little now.

Legion bit his lip and turned to look at Davlon. "Uh, well, I don't know..." He turned back to me now. "Maybe Davlon could..."

Davlon now angrily decided to interrupt our small conversation. "Nemesis, what the hell do you think you're doing here?" he loudly demanded to know.

I shrugged. "No reason really. But if there was one, it'd be none of your business."

"Then what were doing is none of your business, so run along and get back to the castle," he ordered. "Remember that I'm a prefect and I can take points from you."

"Go on then, because I'm not going anywhere. I have to do something here."

"Nemesis, I'm warning you..."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No! You can't make me!" I yelled out. "I have just enough rights to be here as you do. And besides, even prefects aren't aloud into the forest, so I guess you're just going to have to take points from yourself and head back to the castle, too. And if you don't do that, then I'm not going to either!"

Legion mumbled something that sounded like 'she's right, Dave' and Davlon glared at him. "Thanks for siding with me, Lee." Legion grimaced at the sound of his nickname as Davlon turned back around to glare at me. "Fine, stay. But I'm not holding myself responsible if you get hurt or go missing."

"Fine."

"Fine."

I watched as Davlon turned onto his heel and ran. I could still see him as he jumped over a log and morphed into a jaguar half way over. He landed gently on his feet and ran off into the darkness. The sight of him changing would have fascinated me, but I was too angry with him to bother being so. Legion, who was also watching Davlon disappear, turned to me and smiled nervously.

"Uh, sorry about him, he's a bit of a grouch," he muttered quietly, though I could still hear him speak.

"It's alright, so am I sometimes," I said with a small smirk.

"Okay, uh, see you later maybe."

"Yeah, bye."

Legion turned, changing into his Animagus, and followed Davlon's previous path. I watched him disappear from sight and then continued walking north – I still needed to find the mystery person and all I'd managed to find was two shape-shifting boys, one who was shy and quiet and other who I now seemed to be in an argument with. As I walked, I wondered what house Legion was in. I had never seen him around before, not in the Great Hall or just around in the corridors, not even in classes. I figured he just liked to be on his own a lot.

I was venturing deeper and deeper into the forest as every other second went by. The trees were beginning to press together and the branches were starting to snatch at my hair and scram my face. The floor was now covered in a misty fog and it was rising further up into the air. I couldn't see anything anymore as the fog had gotten so high that it was floating from the ground to up above my head. I still kept walking though. Every now and then I would pull out my wand to check if I was still going north by saying this really neat spell I found in one of my books.

There was high cackle all of a sudden. Like earlier, my body froze up. There was yet another cackle, crueller this time. Even though I was in a frozen state, I managed to place my hand on my wand, just in case I needed it. There was one more cackle before a high, whispery voice spoke.

"Nemesis Riddle..."

With a gasp, I spun around to face the direction the voice and been produced from. It sounded like a man. Was it the mystery person? Did I finally find him? I smirked in triumph, but it slid back off my face as the voice whispered my name once more. But what if it wasn't him? This voice sounded like it wanted to hurt me, but the mystery man promised he wouldn't.

"Who are you?" I called out into the misty darkness.

The voice was silent for a few minutes. "It seems you got my little message after all," he said finally, confirming that he was indeed the mystery man.

"Uh, yeah... Who exactly are you?" I asked again.

"An old friend."

I shivered. "An old friend? Well you can't be Charlie, he doesn't know about Hogwarts..." The voice didn't respond so I took advantage of the moment to think over who he could be. Then a sudden thought came to me. "Are you that Vampire?" I asked with a cautious step back.

"What Vampire?" I took that answer as a no.

"Never mind, not important... hm, an old friend..."

As I continued to think, there was a crunch behind me. Had I been facing the wrong direction the whole time and he was actually behind me? Did the crunch mean he was going to reveal himself to me? Unfortunately no, it didn't. A dog and a leopard bolted into the misty clearing. Obviously they were Davlon and Legion. I patted Legion's furry head as he sped past me, chasing Davlon.

"Davlon!" I shrieked as he jumped at me and knocked me to the ground.

I sat up, hands on the muddy ground behind me, and shook the sudden dizziness from my head. I was so going to get him back for that! I stood up and brushed off my trousers. The mist had cleared and light was peeking in through the trees above. I looked around for the mystery man, but they had gone. Angrily I stomped my foot and threw my hands up in the air, silently cursing both the sunlight and the two Animagus'. Now I wasn't going to know who the man was unless he contacted me again!

Something nuzzled against the back of my knee. I jumped slightly at the sudden contact and looked down. It was only Davlon. He gave his best leopards' grin and then changed back to boy-mode. Looking around his tall figure, I spotted Legion standing shyly in the background with a small smile on his face.

"Listen, Nemesis. I'm sorry for shouting at you earlier, I just didn't want you to get hurt or anything," Davlon apologised quietly.

"It's alright, Dave," I said, using Legion's nickname for him. But it's not alright that you made the mystery man leave, I added to myself.

He grinned and slung his arm around my shoulder lazily. I thought suddenly of Charlie and shrugged his arm off. He just placed his arm back there. He reminded me a lot of Charlie and I couldn't help but feel sad that I probably wouldn't see Charlie for a long time. We both walked over to Legion as I forgot about my old best friend.

"I'm guessing you persuaded him to apologise to me?" I said to Legion.

He just nodded. Davlon glared at him. Legion grinned and shrugged. Davlon shrugged as well, then so did I, though I had no reason to. All three of us laughed a little, and then we began to sneakily make our way out of the forest and back towards the castle without any talking.

When we reached the Grand Staircase and had headed up only a few steps, Davlon departed from us with a wave of see you later as he was heading to the Ravenclaw Tower. I thought maybe Legion would go with him for I thought he was a Ravenclaw also, but he continued to follow me all the way up the Fat Lady's portrait, who asked us where we'd been, to which we didn't answer.

"You're a Gryffindor?" I asked Legion with crystal clear confusion.

"Yeah, I am," he replied.

"What year are you then? I never see you in classes," I said.

"Fifth, just like you. I prefer to just stay in the background without worrying about trouble," he admitted. "You know, like sitting at the back of the classroom and spending my free in the Forest with Davlon, running around like psychopathic maniacs that are high on drugs."

I laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like a perfect description for what you both do."

"Um, I was joking, just so you know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Oh, right."

"Mhmm..."

We were both silent for a while until the Fat Lady got annoyed at us hanging around ("Are you going in or just hanging around?" she had said.) and we both gave the password at the exact same time. With a quick flash of a grin at him, I stepped through the portrait hole and entered the common room, Legion following my lead.

"I'm going to bed," he with a yawn. "I'm so tired all of a sudden."

"I'll see you tomorrow then."

Legion nodded mutely and left my presence, heading back up to his dormitory. I stood rooted to the spot for a few minutes before also deciding I was going to go to bed. But then I stopped as the sound of footsteps came from over by the portrait hole. Someone appeared and I gasped at what the person spoke of.

"You've made some weird friends here, Nemesis," said James.