Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter...at least that's what my roommate keeps telling me (and her beta, Prosopopeia)…

Chapter Nine

"You guys haven't seen Oliver Wood anywhere have you?" asked Leah.

"I think he's having a Quidditch meeting with the team. You might be able to catch up with him," Sarah said, looking up from her book.

In a flurry of robes, Leah ran out of the Gryffindor common room on a quest to find who she thought was her one true love leaving Sarah, Goshien, and Sphen alone.

"Does she know that she is venturing on the obsessed side of her crush?" asked Sphen.

"You tell her that and she would yell bloody murder at you," said Goshien.

Sarah was dying to find out why Lupin had asked Goshien to stay late. So she did.

"Goshien, why did Lupin ask you to stay after class?"

"Oh, well, he wanted to know why I was afraid of the moon," answered Goshien casually.

"Did you tell him why?" Sarah knew why Goshien was afraid of the moon.

"I told the truth. I told him that I wasn't human exactly," Goshien replied.

"What do you mean you're not human exactly?" asked Sphen. He was sitting with his legs up on the coffee table and lazily lying back in the chair.

"You mind getting your feet off the table," snapped Sarah. Sphen replied by not removing his feet, but instead removing his shoes and stretching his feet.

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"What I mean is that I am half human and half Saiyan," said Goshien.

"Saiyan?" asked Sphen. "I think I've heard my Grandfather talk about them. What are they exactly?"

"Let's just say that me being half-Saiyan means that I am an alien. Saiyans are not of this world."

"I know what that's like," said Sphen. "I'm half demon and half angel."

"Demons are real?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah, but they're like the giants—they don't like wizards. So they steer clear of them...that's why wizards only have myths about them," replied Sphen.

"Then if you're half demon and half angel why are you going to Hogwarts?" asked Goshien.

"My mother is also part witch," said Sphen.

"Oh, okay," said Goshien.

"Am I the only non-alien, non-demon in here?" asked Sarah.

"Yes," replied Goshien and Sphen.

Sarah shook her head and turned her attention to Goshien again. "Anyways, do you know why Lupin wanted to know why you're afraid of the moon?"

"No, but I could sense that Lupin is different in a way too," said Goshien.

"What do you mean?" asked Sphen.

"Saiyans can read people's energy levels. He had a different energy reading than most people here," said Goshien.

"Do you know why?" asked Sarah.

"It could mean a lot of things…it could mean I am getting a cold...either way it is definitely interesting," explained Goshien.

"What other things can Saiyans do?" asked Sphen.

"Well," said Goshien. "When I am in Oozaru mode I could probably level Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. I can transform at any time I want to but I always transform at the full moon. Oh and Saiyans have tails."

"They do!" exclaimed Sphen excitedly.

"Yeah, but theirs are usually brown. Mine is silver because I am half witch," said Goshien.

"That's pretty cool," commented Sphen.

"Sure that's cool. But how about the time you used instant transmission. You and me ended up falling on top of Dumbledore when he was sleeping," pointed out Sarah to Goshien.

"That's true. But...it was funny," replied Goshien, remembering.

"For you or for me?" asked Sarah sarcastically.

At that point Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived and sat down with them.

"Harry, just ask her," said Ron. "I'm sure she'd let you go."

"But you know Harry isn't allowed to leave Hogwarts grounds. Not with Sirius Black out of Azkaban," argued Hermione.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Sarah.

"My uncle didn't sign my permission form to go to Hogsmeade this year," said Harry.

"I could forge it for you," offered Sphen.

"No," said Harry. "Professor McGonagall would probably know it was fake."

Hermione called her cat, Crookshanks, over. It had a spider dangling from its mouth.

"Hermione, where did you get that cat anyways?" asked Sarah.

"Why?"

"Well...cause... It looks like it has some weird disease or something," replied Sarah slowly.

"For your information, Sarah, I bought him in Diagon Alley," responded Hermione huffily.

"Oh...you should probably get your money back," said Sarah, looking back down at her book.

Hermione ignored her. "Oh Crookshanks did you catch that spider all by yourself?"

"Does he have to eat that in front of us?" asked Ron. He had taken quite a dislike to Crookshanks. Harry had told the others that Crookshanks had attacked Ron in the shop before Hermione had bought it.

"Oh leave him alone, Ron," scolded Hermione.

"All right, but keep him over there. Scabbers is sleeping in my bag," said Ron.

Crookshanks suddenly pounced on Ron's bag. He pulled it away but not before the tabby cat had dug his claws into the bag and started to tear at it.

"OY! GET OFF YOU STUPID ANIMAL!" screamed Ron.

Ron then whirled the bag around with Crookshanks clinging to it. They saw a dark small object fall out of the bag. It was Scabbers. The rodent started to run away but at that moment the tabby had released its nails from the bag and started to run after Scabbers.

"CATCH THAT CAT!" Ron roared as Crookshanks ran after Scabbers.

Oh god, thought Sarah. This is hilarious. I need popcorn and a reclining chair. She watched as Sphen got up and ran after the cat with Ron following him.

"I got him!" screamed Sphen as he lunged for the orange cat but right before he was able to stop him, the cat jumped out of the way and left him to be crushed by Ron who had also lunged for Crookshanks at the same time.

The cat now was waving a paw underneath an old set of chests, trying to get the rat that had scurried underneath it. Hermione went over and picked up Crookshanks while Ron, with great difficulty, fetched Scabbers from under the chest.

"Look at him!" he said furiously to Hermione. "He's skin and bones! Keep that cat away from him!"

"Crookshanks doesn't understand that it's wrong," replied Hermione concernedly. "All cats chase rats."

"He heard me say Scabbers was in my bag," accused Ron, his fury rising.

"Oh, that's ridiculous. Crookshanks could smell him, Ron," shot back Hermione. She looked at Crookshanks. "Couldn't you, Crookshanks?"

"That cat has it out for Scabbers and he was here first. Not to mention he's sick."

With that Ron stormed up the stairs that led to the boy's dorms.

"Wow... If I could, I would rewind that all over again," remarked Goshien.

"I wouldn't," groaned Sphen, who was rubbing his back. "Ron weighs a ton. I think it's all those pumpkin pasties."

Ron was still mad at Hermione the next day. Sarah had asked Harry if this was the longest she had ever been mad at him. "Oh no, I've seen worse with these two," he had said. Harry had asked McGonagall if he could go to Hogsmeade without his permission sheet signed and of course she said no. Oh like that was a big surprise, thought Sarah.

So Harry was left at Hogwarts with no one to talk to except for Lupin while Sarah, Goshien, Sphen, Ron (who still wasn't talking to Hermione), and Hermione went to Hogsmeade.

This is perfect Halloween weather, thought Sarah as they entered the Three Broomsticks after Ron had gotten his fill of candy at Honeydukes.

Everyone sat at a table with Ron and Hermione on opposite ends. Goshien had suggested this when she saw that at Honeydukes, Ron had tried to curse Hermione behind her back several times.

"It's a shame Harry couldn't come. Why didn't his uncle let him go?" asked Sphen.

"Oh, didn't you know," said Hermione. "He got angry at his Aunt Marge and he accidentally turned her into a human air balloon."

"No way," said Sarah, impressed. "Oh, I wish I could have seen it. Muggles are so funny when they interact with magic."

Everyone looked at Sarah and then back Hermione.

"What?" asked Sarah.

"Sarah," said Hermione. "I am Muggle-born."

"You're a Mudblood. You can hardly—OUCH! Goshien, what the hell was that for?" she asked.

Goshien whispered to Sarah about how she had called Hermione a Mudblood by accident.

"Oooh...Hermione...I am sorry. It's just that I grew up with that word. I don't mean it in offensively but it's just the way... My brothers love to joke about Muggle-borns...so I always hear that word..." Sarah said, trying to apologize the best she could.

"It's okay... Your brothers must be real jerks," said Hermione understandingly.

"You sound like you know them personally," said Goshien.

Ron, Hermione, and Sphen (Sphen playing referee) went to go get Butterbeers for everyone. Meanwhile, Goshien and Sarah got into a deep argument about which Dark Lord had the better strategy. Sarah thought that her father was better than Grindelwald, who Goshien was arguing for.

"Goshien, look at Voldemort's record. He was in power for nearly twenty years. People are still afraid to say his name in case he might just pop up of nowhere," argued Sarah.

"You're totally out of your mind, Riddle. Grindelwald was better. I mean he wasn't afraid of Dumbledore unlike someone we know," countered Goshien.

"Oooh no, don't pull out the Dumbledore card. Because if you do that I have to take out the Death Eater card and then—" But Sarah was never able to finish because they had just noticed that Ron, Hermione, and Sphen were listening to everything they said.

"We do that sometimes," explained Goshien. "But for someone who says she hates her father, she always takes his side."

Sarah glared at Goshien. Then she put up the laughing guise she used when talking about something she didn't want to.

"Hey, you have to admit… My father has style."

After they all finished their drinks and Sarah finished her conversation with Goshien, they headed back to the castle for the Halloween feast.

Sarah and the others relayed to Harry all the info on Hogsmeade and he in turn told the others about Lupin drinking the potion that Snape had made for him. Ron had nearly been killed by Goshien when he said that maybe Snape was trying to poison Lupin while they had been heading back to the common room. But there was a little problem

"What's going on?" asked Ron. Sarah peered over and saw that the portrait was closed.

"Let me through, please," directed Ron's older brother Percy as he shoved his way through to the portrait.

"Somebody, get Professor Dumbledore!" came Percy's voice when he reached the portrait.

Within minutes the headmaster was among the crowd. The kids moved aside for him and that was when Sarah saw what the problem was. The Fat Lady was missing and the portrait had been viciously attacked and cut in strips. Chunks had been removed away completely.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore to the teachers who had shown up. "Professor McGonagall, will you find Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search for her."

"You won't find her," said Peeves the Poltergeist, who had been watching from the rafters.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" asked Dumbledore calmly.

"Ashamed, Your Headship," Peeves replied in an oily tone. Even he would never insult Dumbledore. "Doesn't want to be seen. Saw her running through the landscape on the fourth floor. Crying something dreadful."

"Did she say who did it?" asked Dumbledore.

"Oh yes. He got quite angry when she wouldn't let him in. Nasty temper he's got...that Sirius Black."

Everyone in the group turned and looked at Harry. He looked like someone had hit him over the head with a club.