On the Express I find where the guys are sitting and pass by their compartment. There's an empty compartment at the back where I sit, pulling down all of the shades and just leaving my trunk in the aisle. I grab a book from it, prop my feet on the lid and start to read. The train rattles along the tracks and I feel my exhaustion from break sneaking up on me, lulling me toward sleep with the help of the swaying of the train. I shake my head and focus on my book. I don't want to fall asleep. Unfortunately, that doesn't help much when I do drift off.

Running. Continuously running. There are spells flying all around and the dummies are reaching out with their all too real hands to grab at me. I duck and dodge around them, but no matter what I do, I'm soon surrounded by them. I try stunning them, binding them, and even try using a shield spell. None of them work. Finally I start using dark magic and watch with fascination and horror as those spells work. Fake blood starts appearing, but I'm firing spells off as quickly as I can, my core draining quickly because of the spells I'm using. I'm breathing heavily when I realise that if I continue this way that I'll end up unconscious. My eyes narrow as I go through all the various weapons I have on me. The only thing that I have which would work with any efficiency is my dagger. But that means getting closer than I'd like to the dummies. I put my wand away and pull out my dagger. A moment later and I feel blood run down my hand as I start cutting through the dummies. In that moment, with the blood all around, and the chaos of just trying to stay out of their grasps and away from Merlin knows what plan my father has, I feel oddly giddy. My knife slides through another dummy, and I smile.

A noise in my compartment wakes me up suddenly and I grab my dagger. By the time I realise who's in my compartment, I have my knife against their neck. Hazel eyes widen and James blinks a couple of times as I start to fully wake up. I pull my knife away from him and sheath it.

"What are you doing here James?" I ask.

He shrugs, "I went looking for you because we were getting worried. We hadn't heard from you in a while and you didn't show up in our compartment. So I went looking for you. I was about to give up when I heard someone whimpering in here. Were you having a bad dream?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm all right. I'm just really not in the mood to be around other people right now," I say.

"Are you sure you're all right Ann? You look a bit pale," James says.

"I'm fine. Just…please go," I say.

James frowns, but nods and leaves the compartment. I sigh and fall back to my seat. Sighing, I grab my book again and find where I had left off.

~*~AG~*~

It takes a few weeks for one of the guys to finally corner me. I'm rather good at avoiding people that I don't want to see, but it seems that Peter is better at finding people who don't want to be found than I'd thought.

"Come on Ann," Peter says, "I promise that it will just be you and Sirius. The rest of us figure that this is something he'd understand better than the rest of us, so please just talk to him. We miss you, and distancing yourself from us can't be good."

I sigh and finally look up from my essay, "I do not promise anything, but if accompanying you is the only way to get you to stop pestering me so that I may finish my essay, then so be it."

Peter waits for me to gather my things and we walk through the nearly empty halls. It's silent and tense between us, and even though Peter and I have never been extremely talkative with each other it's still very odd for us to walk to the common room completely silent. As we walk into the common room, I pull my hair up into a bun, feeling slightly annoyed that I can't make it as tight or as neat as I want to. Remus and James stand and head upstairs to the boys' dorm and I grip the shoulder strap of my bag a little tighter.

"Well?" I ask, "I have an essay that I need to finish."

Sirius stands, "Right. Do you want to drop off your bag or just leave? I don't think that you want to talk here."

"Assuredly not. We should just leave," I say. I frown and turn around, exiting the door that I'd just walked through. I can hear Sirius behind me and feel slightly annoyed that he's making so much noise. We go up to the top of one of the towers and climb out onto the roof. A few yards away and we climb over another small wall and settle against it. From the look of the area, it used to actually be a balcony on the roof. But the door has been walled up and there are a lot of spider webs under the eaves. The wind isn't blowing too hard, but I'm still glad that I tied my hair back.

"Ann, what happened over break? You haven't talked with us since you got back and you've been avoiding everyone," Sirius says.

"So I've been focusing on my studies? What's the problem with that?" I avoid looking at Sirius.

Sirius scoffs, "As if you need to focus on your studies. You're one of the smartest people here."

I don't say anything and just look out over the lake.

"Listen, Ann…you don't have to tell me whatever it is that happened. I just…we just want our friend back," Sirius whispers.

I sigh. 'You've been avoiding them for a while Grimwood. You really should stop.'

'What if you hurt them though? It's completely possible. Hurting people happens a lot in your family.'

'But you're not your family. Isn't this why you were sorted into Gryffindor in the first place?'

'That was a fluke.'

'It wasn't and you know it! Stop hiding and start acting like a Gryffindor. Just because something can happen, doesn't mean that it will.'

I rub the back of my neck . I turn to Sirius and nod, "All right. I…I'm not going to tell you why I've been avoiding you. That's not something that you need to know. But I will try to stop avoiding you all so much."

"Thank Merlin," Sirius mutters, then smiles, "I'm glad, Ann. I really am."

I chuckle, "Yeah, well I figured that if I didn't, you all wouldn't stop giving me puppy dog eyes from the end of the table at meals."

"I told James that it was working!" Sirius says. He laughs, "James thought that we should just kidnap you, but luckily Remus agreed with me that it would be a bad idea."

I bite my lip and say, "Yes, yes it would be!"

"Would you say that it would be a grim mistake?" Sirius asks.

I blink and glance at Sirius. When I see the smile on his face, I can't hold it in anymore and start laughing. Less than a second later and Sirius joins me and we're leaning against each other laughing.

~*~AG~*~

After talking with Sirius, the rest of the school year seems to pass very quickly. It's a blur of pranks, school work, detention, and a whole slew of other things. We find out that James is rather scared of spiders, though he won't admit it, and the guys have fun for a couple of days teasing him. Of course, this was found out while preparing for the "After-April-Fool's-Day-Prank", which ended up giving thirty students panic attacks, and sent one teacher screaming. Professor McGonagall wasn't too impressed and gave us detention for a month. Of course, that didn't really deter any of us from laughing all the way back to the dorms.

Though now we're going through our finals and Peter is annoying us with questions about charms and I'm half tempted to sew his lips shut. My right hand keeps twitching and I have to stop myself from reaching for my wand and actually jinxing him.

"Pete, mate, you might want to stop bothering Ann with your questions or else she might try one of her new spells on you," James says.

Peter looks at me with wide eyes before nodding and backing away.

Remus and Sirius start bickering over something to do with potions and James is trying to teach Peter what he needs to learn about charms. I sit there for a moment before finally snapping my book shut and leaving their dorm for mine. Even though I don't usually mind being around the boys for study sessions, with finals coming up, I want to make sure that I can pass my History class. And since I either fall asleep or end up doing something other than paying attention to Binns during that class, I have a lot of catching up to do. I frown at how loud it is in the common room and hope that the sound won't travel up to the girl's dorms. I walk in and sigh in relief when the noise cuts down quite a bit and there's no one in here. I wouldn't mind if Marlene was in here, but that Evans and the other two idiots aren't here is a definite bonus.

I settle on my bed when the door opens again and Lollick walks in. She pauses and watches me, looking uncertain as to if she should be in here. I roll my eyes and open my book.

"You can come in," I drawl, "I don't practice dark magic until every fifth blue moon."

The door closes and Lollick walks over to her bed, still looking rather weary. She settles on her bed on the opposite side of the room and starts working on her charms. I roll my eyes and go back to memorizing what Remus says that Binns has said will be on the final. After a few moments though, the noise in the common room increases and I growl, glaring at the door. I look over at Lollick and see that she looks slightly annoyed. I grab my wand and aim at the door, "Silencio."

Lollick looks up with wide eyes, "What did you-"

"Think you silly girl, I used a silencing charm on the door. I don't know about you, but all of that noise was bothering me," I say, trying exceedingly hard not to snap at her.

"Oh…right…" Lollick goes back to her studying.

I roll my eyes yet again and get back to my studying. It's not long though until Lollick begins muttering under her breath as the charm she's trying to master is getting the better of her. I wait a few more minutes, hoping that she'll calm down a bit, but it seems as though she's just going to get louder. Sure enough, she starts talking to herself and flipping through her book fast enough that I'm surprised that she doesn't end up cut.

"Ugh! Forget it, I will never get this!" Lollick says, throwing the book at her headboard.

"Do you want help?" I ask.

She blinks at me for a moment, "What?"

"Do you want me to help you?" I ask.

"I…well…are you sure?"

I raise an eyebrow, "Do you think I'd be asking if I wasn't sure?"

"Well maybe you're trying to be nice," Lollick says, sounding as though she doesn't believe it.

I snort, "Right, you don't think I'm nice. If you don't want my help then I can get back to my studying."

"No…I…if you really want to help, that'd be nice."

"All right," I nod, "What spell are you working on?"

"I still can't get a hang of the lumos charm," Lollick says, "I can get it to maybe be as bright as a matchstick, but then it goes out."

I nod and turn down the lights a bit, "It seems that maybe you're not putting enough power into the spell. Either that, or you're just not holding it long enough. Do you understand what I mean by that?"

Lollick slowly nods, "I think so. How do I put more power into a spell?"

"Ok, first of all, you need to mean it. You have to want to do the spell. Secondly, if you can imagine what you want the magic to do in your head, that will help your magic understand what you want to do than if you just try to force it. Finally, magic is a part of you. You shouldn't have to force it," I explain, "I know that it's not a really clear explanation, but honestly magic isn't clear cut."

"I think I understand what you're talking about," Lollick says. She then closes her eyes and tries again. This time her wand lights. She smiles and jumps up and down at the sight, "Oh my god! Thank you so much!"

I shrug, "Yeah, sure."

Lollick hesitates before asking, "So…does this mean that we're friends?"

I look at the girl with raised eyebrows, "Wait, you think my helping you with charms means that we're friends now?"

"Well…maybe."

I laugh for a moment before shaking my head, "No, we're not friends."

"But…"

"Listen, just because I help you in charms doesn't mean that I want to be friends. Really, all I want is for the dorm to be quiet so I can study. I can't do that if you're in here grumbling about not being able to do a simple spell," I say. I shrug and flop back onto my bed.

Lollick narrows her eyes, "You really are a horrible person. I don't know why I ever doubted Sarah."

I raise an eyebrow, "Oh, so that's what McDowell's been whispering behind my back. Well you know what. Go ahead and believe her. Follow her like some mindless little puffskein. I don't care."

Lollick leaves the room in a huff and I just flip through my book until I reach where I left off. A few moments later and there's a knock at the door before Marlene sticks her head in.

"Hey. Thought that I'd find you here. Hanah Lollick is in the common room saying that you were being mean to her by the way," Marlene says.

I shrug, "She can say what she wants to. All I did was tell her the truth and help her finally get the lumos spell down."

"Really?" Marlene's eyes widen, "You helped her out and she's lying about it? Wow…what a git."

"Yep!" I say before laughing, "I really don't care anymore."

"Understandable. You want to study with me?" Marlene asks.

"Study, with you?" I pretend to take offense at the idea. When Marlene just raises an eyebrow at me I laugh and nod, "Sure. But you're explaining the whole Julian de Marquette thing."

Marlene grins and nods.

~*~AG~*~

"FREEDOM!" James shouts as we're getting ready to get onto the Hogwarts express.

"Dear Merlin, James you don't have to be so loud!" Remus scolds.

I grin, "Oh come on Remus, let the boy celebrate a little. He's probably excited that he scraped by enough passing scores to continue onto his second year."

James glares at me and sticks out his tongue. Sirius reaches up and grabs James's tongue before the boy can pull it back in and whines.

"Well at least we finally knows who can control James," Remus says.

Peter nods, "But who controls Sirius?"

Remus and Peter look at each other for a moment before turning to me. I raise my eyebrows and put my hands on my hips.

"You really want me to be in control of those two nutters?" I ask, "Just think about it for a moment Remus."

We climb on the train as Remus debates it in his head and he bites his lip, "You're right. For some reason, the thought of you controlling both Sirius and James just scares me."

Peter seems to get the same idea, because he nods quickly, his hair flopping back and forth, "Yeah, that doesn't seem like a good idea. Remus, can you just keep control of them?"

Remus gives a dramatic sigh, "I'll probably go insane from it, but I shall do my best."

Sirius and James glance at each other. Sirius releases James's tongue and they ask, "What do you mean go insane? Aren't you already there?"

I duck out of the way as the three first years take off running down the corridor. Remus yelling at the other two and threatening them with various forms of torture. I grin and throw an arm around Peter's shoulders.

"Whelp, looks like it's just you and me," I say, "how about we go find a compartment and wait for them to calm down a bit?"

Peter nods, "Sounds like a good idea. I've got a set of snap cards if you wanna play."

"Perfect." The two of us chat as we find and settle into a compartment and begin to play.

AN/ Hey all, sorry that it's taken so long for me to get out the next chapter. My family just moved and it's been a state of chaos for a couple of weeks here. Plus it doesn't help that we forgot the internet router piece at our old home and it had to be mailed to our new one. *le sigh* At any rate, this is the end of their first year of Hogwarts *sniffles* I feel so proud of them. Anyway, I should be updating again soon (not much for me to do around here until my orientation for my new school and organizing the new house.) and there will be a couple of summer chapters and then second year will start.

And because I'm feeling nice, here's a preview of the next chapter...

"Who are you to disturb us?" Lord Black asks, his voice deeper and darker. He does not sound pleased at all.

The person in the middle steps forward, "We are an envoy from our Lord. We ask that we be granted a hearing with this mighty gathering for a mere moment before being on our way."

"And just whom is your Lord?" Lord Black asks.

"We are of Lord Voldemort."