TESS

"You know, he didn't mean it," Quinn said.

Tess glanced up at the Quidditch captain. "Mean what?"

"He didn't mean what he said on Thursday, about you cheating your way onto the team," Quinn clarified.

They were in Hogsmeade, taking the walk up to the Shrieking Shack. Snowflakes were whipping past them, getting stuck in hair and on clothing. Tess didn't mind; she loved snow.

"Of course he did," Raven said. "Are you mad, Quinn? Have you ever even met Malfoy? He's a slimy git!"

Tess was about to agree when she heard a faint yell. "Shh," she hissed, clapping her gloved hands over both Quinn and Raven's mouths.

"I didn't hear anything," Quinn said, pushing her hand away.

The yell came again. This time it was a curse.

"It's coming from the woods," Tess told her two companions, and shot off in the direction of the voice.

It was hard, running through the woods at top speed through seven or eight inches of snow, but Tess made it work. She tripped twice, ran into a branch three times, and ran into a tree once. Raven and Quinn, behind her, didn't do any of these things. They were behind her. They learned from her mistakes.

Finally Tess reached the voice and skidded to a halt.

Malfoy was lying face down in the snow, his clothes crusted with ice and snowflakes in his hair. A few feet behind him was a stream, formerly iced over. The ice was broken.

Tess dropped to her knees and rolled Malfoy over. His skin was pale and his lips were blue. He was way too cold. She pushed his scarf away from his neck and checked his pulse. It was faint, very faint.

She stood and took out her wand. "We have to get him to the hospital wing."

She was about to raise him with magic when Quinn placed his hand on her arm. "Think, Tess. You could leave him here. Be rid of him."

Tess turned and punched him in the jaw. He went down.

"I don't agree with that," she snarled, pointing her wand at him. "That'd be murder. Anyone who suggests I leave him here deserves to go to Azkaban. Kick me off the Quidditch team if you want for saying that and punching you, but I don't care."

She waved her wand at Malfoy and murmured, "Wingardium Leviosa." His body rose.

Tess ran.

She nearly collapsed when she got to the hospital wing, she was so out of breath. She shoved her wand in her front jeans pocket and hoisted Malfoy's arm over her shoulder, wrapping her arm around his ribcage. His head lolled against her cheek, making her feel like frostbite was setting in. On both of them.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Tess shouted. Oh, please be here please be here—

"Whatever is the matter?" Madam Pomfrey asked, bustling out of her office. She saw Malfoy and gasped, her eyes going wide and her complexion several shades paler.

For a moment she didn't do anything. Then she snapped out of her stupor and commanded, "Put him on a bed and light a fire while I get Professor Dum—er, Snape."

Tess dragged Malfoy over to a bed and stripped his coat off him. Then she Transfigured several things of little importance into large glass bowls, which she put fire in and set around his bed. Then she went to the hospital wing fireplace and lit that, too.

Professor Snape entered as she was finishing up. His eyes lit upon Malfoy and he crossed the room in three strides. "Did you do this?" he demanded, his black eyes fixed on Tess.

"No," Tess said incredulously.

Suddenly Raven was at her side, panting. She was not so out of breath that she couldn't gasp out a defensive "She didn't do it, I swear I was with her the whole time we were in Hogsmeade—"

"Silence!" Snape growled, taking a menacing step towards the two students. "Miss Wilford, explain."

"Quinn, Raven, and I were walking near the woods, on the way to the Shrieking Shack," Tess began, "when I heard this yelling. I followed it and it turns out, Malfoy had fallen into a stream, dragged himself out, and passed out."

"How do you know this?" Snape said menacingly, prowling closer.

"The signs were everywhere," Tess said indignantly. "Look at his coat, it's covered in ice! He—"

"Professor," Madam Pomfrey interrupted. "Professor, I must tend to my patient and I am unable to do so when you are in the hospital wing! I ask that you remove yourself from this room at once!"

Snape huffed. "Show me where he fell."

Raven nearly tripped over her own feet in her haste to lead the headmaster from the room. Tess looked at Madam Pomfrey. "Uh . . . could you . . . will he be okay?"

"Yes, if he is alone," Madam Pomfrey said. "Shoo, child, shoo!"

Tess hurried after Snape and Raven.

"Look. I understand that you were worried and all, but did you have to punch me?"

Tess shrugged. "I was worried, and you were taking up valuable time."

She and Quinn were sitting on a log in the forest overlooking the lake, watching Raven try and fail at skipping stones. It had been two days since the Malfoy had nearly died, and although his condition was stable, he had yet to wake up.

"Why would you be worried about him?" Quinn asked.

Yeah. Why would I be? "I was thinking that I'd probably get blamed anyway, for being in the vicinity, so. . . ." She realized that Quinn was staring at her and blushed. "I'm going to go see if I can help Raven with her rocks." She hopped off the log, still blushing, and joined Raven. "Look, hold the stone like this."

"I know," Raven protested.

Tess repositioned her friend's arm, and in doing so noticed the time. "Oh my goodness, Raven, we'll be late for Care of Magical Creatures if we aren't careful. Come on!"

She grabbed Raven's arm and dragged her away from the lake. "Care of Magical Creatures, Quinn!"

That night they had their first Quidditch practice. It went okay, but Tess's head wasn't in the sport and she dropped the Quaffle sixteen times before Quinn decided to call it a night. She went to bed with a fuzzy feeling in her head and a sick feeling in her stomach. She didn't know why.

"Tess. Tess! TESS! TESS!"

Tess rolled over, groaning, and rubbed her eyes. Raven was standing over her bed, looking cautiously optimistic. "Jeez, it took you long enough! Malfoy's awake."

Tess was out of her bed and in her clothes before she knew what she was doing. Ignoring Raven's shocked look, she tore out of Ravenclaw Tower, arriving in the hospital wing in record-setting time. Just as she was raising her hand to knock on the door, she wondered why she was doing this.

She knocked anyway.

Madam Pomfrey opened the door. "Oh, it's you. Come on in."

Tess stepped inside and halted. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were in the hospital wing. Narcissa was sitting on the edge of Draco's bed, and Lucius was talking quietly with Snape.

"Hmm," Madam Pomfrey said. "Maybe—"

She broke off as Narcissa glanced over her shoulder. In the blink of an eye, she had crossed the room and embraced Tess. "Thank you," Draco's mother gasped. "Thank you so much for saving him!"

"I—er—it was no problem," Tess stammered weakly, trying to bear through the hug bravely. Finally Narcissa released her and stood back. "Draco, dear, we'll be leaving now, but if you have any issues or problems, contact us immediately, okay?"

"Yes, mother," Draco muttered.

Lucius walked over to Narcissa. He gave a short icy nod to Tess and guided his wife out of the room. With a suspicious glare, Snape followed.

"I thought you weren't allowed to send anything," Tess said to Draco, crossing the room to sit on one of the beds next to his.

He glared at her.

"Snape said so," Tess defended.

"Whatever," Malfoy snapped. "I won't have any problems."

Tess held up her hands. "Don't attack me; I thought it was a rule."

"It is for you," Malfoy said.

Neither of them said anything for a while. Then Malfoy spoke. "Thanks."

Tess, who had been examining her fingernails, looked up swiftly. "Say what?"

"Thanks," Malfoy mumbled awkwardly. "For—you know. Saving my life."

Tess was tempted to ask if he'd ever said thank you in his life. Then she thought better of it. This was a once in a lifetime chance. Better to take hold of it than ruin it. "No problem." She smiled.

Malfoy half-grinned back.

The letter came two weeks later.

Tess was eating breakfast and half listening to what Raven was saying (it was about Jack Ryans, whoever the heck that was). The windows to the Great Hall opened and owls flooded in. Seeing Eliic amongst them, Tess stood and held her arm out so he didn't plow into the pumpkin juice on the table.

"Got an owl?" Luna asked, sliding into the seat beside her. "That's nice, albeit probably prohibited."

"Yeah," Tess agreed. She untied the letter from Eliic's leg and sent him off again. The writing on the letter was unfamiliar, but she opened it anyway.

Your mother, father, and two sisters have been killed by Death Eaters.

It took her several minutes to actually register this fact. She shoved the letter into her robes and stumbled blindly from the hall. Then she ran.

She found an empty classroom and collapsed to the floor, stared at the ceiling. Why? Why? Why had Lucius Malfoy seen fit to kill her family? She had just saved his son's life, and he repaid her by murdering her family?

Of course, they're not dead, she reasoned. Dad's most likely an excellent wizard, and Mum's probably great also.

She swallowed hard, then shrank into the shadows as a group of students filed past the doorway.

She was at the door and out and running before she knew it. She didn't know why she was running or why she was so angry until she saw Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

With a feral scream of rage, she was on Crabbe, punching every inch of him she could reach. She broke his nose, his wrist, and fractured his collarbone before Goyle could drag her off. Crabbe lurched away, holding his good hand to his nose, then turned tail and ran for the hospital wing.

Satisfied, Tess turned her attention to Goyle. First she wrenched herself out of his headlock (Ow). Next she ran down the hall. Then she spun and ran at him again. As she was running she whipped out her wand and shot several hexes at him. He went down.

She heard a whistling sound and ducked reflexively. A jet of red light darted over her head and slammed into Goyle, who was just starting to get up. He went down again.

Tess leapt up, spinning with a spell coming out of her wand before she was even halfway around. Malfoy was already dropping to the floor. By the time he was back on his feet, Tess was two feet away and lunging. He came up just in time to be tackled viciously. His head hit the floor with a resounding crack. His eyes crossed for a moment.

"What are you DOING?" he demanded. He shoved her off and staggered to his feet. Unharmed, Tess jumped up and punched him in the jaw so hard he stumbled into the wall.

"I'm getting revenge," Tess snarled. She went to punch him in the stomach, but he had already leapt aside, so she nearly punched stone.

"Revenge—what?" Malfoy picked his wand up from the floor where he'd dropped it and held it out in front of him.

"Your father," Tess growled, "killed my family!"

Shock registered on Malfoy's face. "Say what? No he didn't! Prove it!"

Tess pulled out the letter and shoved it in his face. She was trembling with anger and hatred and she wanted to see the Malfoy family dead on the ground like her family was—

"Uh, it doesn't say who killed them," Malfoy pointed out.

"Death Eaters!" Tess shouted.

"Yeah."

"Your father!"

"What?"

"YOUR FATHER IS A DEATH EATER," Tess screamed. "HE KILLED MY FAMILY! I SAVE YOUR LIFE AND HE REPAYS ME BY KILLING MY PARENTS!"

"My father is not a Death Eater," Malfoy informed her. He seemed quite calm.

"LIKE I'M GOING TO BELIEVE THAT," Tess bellowed. "HE WENT TO AZKABAN FOR A YEAR, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" She tried to hex him, but he deflected the spell. "I WILL KILL HIM IF I EVER SEE HIM AGAIN!"

"Feel free," Malfoy said idly. "Just keep in mind that if you do try, it's you who's most likely going to end up dead, not him."

Tess was shaking with fury, but she lowered her wand. "You're lucky," she spat. "Lucky that I'm letting off so easy. I'll get my revenge some other time." She snatched the letter out of Malfoy's hands, then sprinted off. As she was running, she hurtled around a corner and nearly plowed into Professor McGonagall. "Professor!"

"Miss Wilford," Professor McGonagall exclaimed, dropping the stack of scrolls she had in her arms. Tess scrambled to help retrieve said scrolls. When they were all piled safely back in the Transfiguration teacher's arms, Tess asked, "Uh, could I go to the headmaster's office? I'd like to be excused from classes for the rest of the day. Week if it's possible." She had no idea how she was staying collected like this. She would have thought that she would be breaking down in tears right about now.

"Whatever do you need that for?" McGonagall asked.

Now Tess was starting to feel insecure and unsupported. She wanted to sit down. Instead she forced her legs to straighten, drawing on some hidden reserve of mental strength, and handed McGonagall the dreadful letter.

The professor skimmed the letter, her eyes widening with each word. At last she looked up and said scratchily, "You're excused from classes until you see fit to return, Miss Wilford. If anyone asks, say I said you could." She paused. "I'm sorry, but weren't they Muggles?"

"No." Tess shook her head. "Henry and Kendra Wilford. Ministry of Magic."

"Oh," McGonagall said.

Tess took back the letter. "I'll just be in the common room." Slowly she walked past the professor. She waited until she'd turned the corner before breaking out in a steady lope. She passed Raven and Quinn in the halls and instead of going to their classes, they obviously saw that something was wrong and fell into step behind her.

She ignored them.

Alexa and Sadie were too annoying to kill. They'd find a way out somehow, right? And Mom and Dad . . . supposedly they were wizards, they could have Apparated out with Sadie and Alexa.

Tess kept making silent excuses as she ran, and when she got to the entrance to the staircase to Ravenclaw Tower, she sped up, leaving Raven and Quinn a few meters behind, and turned left instead of going straight. Immediately on the other side of the arch, she spun aside and dove into the wall. For anyone other than a Ravenclaw, it would have hurt like heck and they would have cursed loudly.

But for her, she passed right through the wall because she was a Ravenclaw. She fell several meters and landed on a trampoline. She bounced for a while to ease her momentum. She forced herself not to think about her family.

As she climbed off the trampoline, torches lining the walls flared up. Tess looked around. This was the Room of Requirement number two. The difference: it stayed in one place.

Today the Room was a library, and stacked on the tables was parchment and empty notebooks. Beside the piles were a few inkpots and quills.

Tess went to the tables and took a notebook from the piles. It was plain and brown, with the word Diary carved into the leather cover and painted black. Tess picked up a quill, opened the book, and wrote. When she was done she sat back and reread the entry.

December 3rd

I received a terrible letter today. My family, apparently, is dead. They have been killed by Death Eaters. I punched Crabbe and hexed Goyle, because they both have Death Eater parents, and I also walloped Malfoy a few times, although not enough to make him bleed. Sadly. He was quite calm about the situation. I shoved the letter in his face and called his father a Death Eater. He said that was false. It was quite a different reaction than the last time I called Lucius Malfoy a Death Eater. That time he slammed me up against the wall and snarled in my face.

Recently I saved Malfoy's life, and his father repays me by killing my family. Is this a way of saying that if I touch his son again, even if it's to help him, there'll be even worse consequences? I don't think that's possible. If he tortures me, maybe . . . but death I think I would welcome.

Maybe.

I'm not afraid of death. These days I wonder if I'm afraid of anything. To be fearless is to be foolish.

Raven and Quinn are probably looking for me. I don't care. My family is dead. They should leave me alone. I don't want their sympathy.

Well . . . I see many good books awaiting me, and I could finish my homework in here and turn it in by way of Raven, because even if I'm not going to classes I need to keep up with the homework.

Tess

She moved the notebook aside and propped it open so the ink could dry. A book appeared on the table. The cover read A Guide to Defense Against the Dark Arts: Everything (Spells, Potions, etc.) You Will Ever Need to Know.

Tess grabbed a sheet of parchment, leaving her quill in the inkpot, and scanned the table of contents. The Potions homework was to write a three-scroll essay on the Wolfsbane Potion, and a paragraph about the potion was anywhere (it wasn't in the assigned schoolbook) it would be here. Sure enough, she found a whole chapter on werewolves, how to heal a wound caused by one, what to do if you were bitten by a werewolf in full moon, and many other things, along with the Wolfsbane Potion.

"First off," Tess murmured as she wrote, "the Wolfsbane Potion is a very creative name, seeing as wolf means 'wolf' and bane means 'harmful or deadly to'."

She kept at it well into the day, and by the time she had managed to put her essay onto five scrolls, it was way past lunchtime. Her stomach growled impatiently.

She was glad for the work, glad that it was there to keep her mind off of . . . things. She didn't want to think about the letter.

Tess collected her scrolls, piled them in her arms, and went to the trampoline, where, on the wall, there was a ladder. She somehow managed to get up the ladder without dropping any of her scrolls, and once she got to the top she realized she could have used a simple Levitating Charm. Cursing herself for her stupidity, she went out the door and started up the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room.

She dropped her homework there and went right back down. She wandered the halls aimlessly for a few minutes. Her stomach growled, but she could tell from the lighting that she couldn't go to the Great Hall for lunch, because lunch had been over for three hours.

So Tess made her way down to the painting of the fruit, and she tickled the pear, and climbed through the portrait hole, and asked the elves for warm butterbeer, a thick slice of hearty bread, and a large amount of chocolate ice cream.

When it arrived she dove into the bread, saving the never-melting ice cream for last because it didn't make sense to eat dessert and then the main course.

She was just starting on the ice cream when someone said, "That's a lot of ice cream."

Tess jackknifed up, still holding the ice cream bowl. "Why are you down here?"

"Everyone's got a right to visit the kitchens," Malfoy said, spreading his hands peacefully.

Tess threw the ice cream in his face.

And then, of course, she ran. Running and homework were the only things she could really do all that well these days.

She ran out of the kitchens and down the hall, tore around the corner, and shot smack into Quinn.

From his position on the floor amongst shattered inkpots, broken quills, and fallen schoolbooks (from his bag), Quinn said most cheerfully, "Why, there you are! Raven and I've been looking for you for ages!"

Tess scrambled around, shoving things that were still in good shape back into his bag. "Reparo. Good for you. I need to play Quidditch."

This was such an odd collection of sentences that it took Quinn a moment to respond. "Um . . . there's a practice tonight. . . ."

"I need to play right now," Tess said forcefully.

"Go get in your robes, then," Quinn said, pushing her arm lightly. "I'll get Raven and we'll meet you out on the pitch."

Tess shot through one of the hoops on top of the goalpost, pressed low to her broom to avoid slamming into the rim. "SCOOOOOORRRREEEE," she bellowed.

Raven, riding wildly on her broom, twisted around the three goals and joined her, racing side by side. "If you're the Quaffle," she said, and feinted to the left. To avoid her Tess zipped forward a few meters.

Raven tossed her the Quaffle. "Quinn's on the other end of the field," she said.

As they flew down the field, they branched apart and threw the Quaffle back and forth rapidly. If anyone had tried to go between them they would have gotten a concussion, the ball was going so fast.

Just as they were about to crash into Quinn, they arced to the left, leaving Tess to score the goal. She flung the Quaffle at the hoop so hard Quinn didn't try to catch it, he just dove out of the way.

Breathing hard, Tess waited for Raven to retrieve the Quaffle and join her again. This time when the Quaffle was passed to her she passed it right back. Raven soared off.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah," Tess replied.

"That throw was a little hard," Quinn said.

"Yeah, well." Tess shrugged. She heard the whistle of a broom and dropped beneath Quinn, then raced to the side, hovering in front of one of the hoops.

Raven made as if she was going to try to score, but instead she threw the Quaffle to Tess, who didn't want it and threw it back. Quinn had zipped over to protect the hoop Tess was in front of, and he didn't have time to stop Raven from scoring.

Tess cheered. "Yeah! Nice throw!"

"We should make a name for that maneuver," Raven exclaimed.

"What about the Wilford feint?" Quinn suggested.

Tess's broom dropped several feet in the air, she was so surprised. "No." She spurred it back up to where it'd been before. "No, it sounds too much like the Wronski feint."

Quinn blinked at her hard tone. Raven seemed taken aback too, but she recovered faster than Quinn. "Well, then what about the Wilford—"

"The Davis feint." Tess spoke with authority, leaving no room for protests. "Let's see if we can make it a three person play, hmm?"

She dove, streaking down to where the Quaffle had landed in the sand beneath the scoring hoops.

After Quidditch practice Tess went back to the Room of Requirement Number Two. It didn't show up as the library; it became a room with stack upon stack of Quaffles. In the corner were a bunch of Silver Arrow broomsticks. Tess picked up a Quaffle and Transfigured it into an American football. She gripped it tightly, her fingers finding their usual place on the laces. Then she threw it.

She spent the next good part of an hour practicing football plays, thinking about playing catch out in the backyard with Dad. He had always been better than her at throwing it.

"Tess?"

Tess fingered the hangings on her bed but didn't answer. She wasn't in the mood to answer. She wasn't in the mood to do anything. She stared at the canopy on her bed, feeling miserable.

"Tess, you missed dinner," Raven said.

Tess was tempted to let out a loud, unconvincing snore, but she held it in. She didn't want to talk.

She heard Raven sigh about Tess never telling her anything. There was a creak of bedsprings and a swish of curtains. A few minutes later Raven snored.

Tess slipped out of her bed, still fully dressed, and walked. When she arrived at the kitchen, she asked the elves for fettuccine Alfredo, white rolls, and root beer, and sat down on a couch near the fire, tucking her legs up on the armrest side.

An elf placed her food on the table and scuttled away. Tess ate half of the pasta, decided she couldn't eat, and asked, "Could I bake some brownies?"

"NO!" came the collective shout. At once the elves shoved her off the couch and jostled her towards the door. Tess tried to explain, but before she could there was a loud BANG and Malfoy shot through the portrait hole. "Settle down," he commanded the elves. Tess flinched at the harshness in his tone, but evidently the elves were used to it; they stopped pushing at her legs and shrank back.

"Why are they bothering you?" Malfoy said, looking at Tess.

She waited for the insult that was sure to come, but it didn't. She shrugged. "I wanted to make brownies . . . reminds me of home. . . ."

"This girl's family was killed sometime in the last week," Malfoy told the elves. "She gets to make brownies, you understand?"

The elves gradually came to nod as one.

"What ingredients do you need?" Malfoy turned to Tess with a questioning look in his gray eyes.

"Uh . . ." Tess tried to remember what she needed. Slowly she recalled and spoke. When all the things she needed were on the table nearest to her, she set to work. Her hands fell into the soothing rhythm of measuring sloppily and her eyes judged without a care. She poured the batter into a pan and shoved it into the oven.

Feeling a burst of hunger, she ate three of the white rolls and laid on the couch for fifteen minutes, staring at the high stone ceiling and thanking the heavens for kitchens and elves. Malfoy was either gone or hiding in the pantry. Probably the former.

The timer sounded. By the time Tess had scrambled over the back of the couch, the elves had already taken the two pans out of the oven. She found a knife and sliced the brownies in the pan.

"Remember when I showed up in your room and you dropped the plate?" Malfoy's voice asked.

So he had been hiding in the pantry?

Tess finished cutting the brownies before she said anything. "Hardly forgettable. That was also the day I learned my whole life was a lie, you brought me to your house, my scar was opened up by your father, and I took a ride on the Knight Bus."

"Well. Sorry about that." Malfoy reached for a brownie. If he'd known anything about cooking he wouldn't have touched the dessert, because it was still very hot. He touched it and jerked his hand back, wincing. "Ow."

"The oven is hot," Tess informed him, a sarcastic note creeping into her voice. It was an inside joke with her sisters, starting out as the glue gun is hot and evolving into things such as the oven is hot and fire is hot and such.

Something wet dripped onto her hand. She looked up instinctively, thinking it was raining, then realized that since she was in a building, it couldn't be raining. She swallowed hard. Her nose was getting that feeling, the one it always got when she cried. She closed her eyes. Not here. Anywhere but here. Anywhere but right in front of Malfoy.

Well, maybe not anywhere.

Tess sniffed, wishing there was a spell to make someone stop crying. She blinked and walked several paces away without explanation.

"Uh . . . Tess?"

She didn't answer.

"Are you okay?"

When Tess still didn't answer, there was a sort of grunt. "Duh. Of course you aren't. Why do people ask that, anyway?"

She'd been thinking the same thing.

Malfoy touched her arm. "You want me to get you one of your brownies?"

It was those words that made her sob. Suddenly she was crying and she couldn't stop even though she wanted to.

Malfoy put his arm around her shoulders, a gesture that would have made her hex him if she hadn't been in such an emotional state. Instead she leaned into his chest and slowly hugged him back, letting herself cry.