AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or favourited the story or who's following. I'm sorry for the long delay and have to admit that I found it wasn't so easy to go on from the last chapter because it did bring quite a change in tone. I hope I was able to deal with it properly now.

I didn't change Tonks' age on purpose. According to my own maths, Tonks should really have been in her seventh year during Harry's first. In OotP, it says that she's finished Auror training one year ago which makes her 21 and six years older than the trio-members if she's finished Hogwarts aged 17. The Lexicon makes her one year older though which is likely if she was born earlier in the year. I will keep it that way for the story but it is clearly stated that she hasn't been a Prefect. Thus I'm going to change this part.

She was one of my favourite characters and I really hated her off-screen death by the way. Not even the information that Bellatrix killed her was mentioned in the actual book.

Alright, enough waffling and on with the story. This has been my longest author's note so far.

Magical Music and a Troll

My aunt and uncle didn't mind having Mandy visit for Christmas as well. I was glad about that of course but it also meant that I had to tell Mandy about my family. I should do this anyway though. We had promised each other to talk about everything important after all. In this case, it was rather difficult though. I knew very well how Mandy felt about Voldemort. Telling her that my parents had been his supporters was out of the question, at least at the moment. Therefore In the end, I decided to tell her that they were in prison because they had used illegal dark magic. This was probably true I thought. Voldemort and his supporters were known for this after all.

Mandy sighed when she had heard it. "Like Andy," she said. "That's probably why some people are talking. Well, you know it's got nothing to do with you. It's been the same for Andy."

"Yes, you're right." Andy and his situation had given me a bit of comfort since I had known. At least I knew now that Neville's reaction had nothing to do with me but only with my parents. I hadn't done anything wrong as I had feared all the time. Unlike me, Andy could visit his parents regularly though. They were in a normal British prison that respected their rights. The same was not true for my parents. Azkaban had to be a very horrible place. I had asked Anthony about it again but nothing he told me was very comforting. I'd really like to see them or at least write them a letter so they knew I hadn't forgotten them. Too bad I didn't know how to do this. I couldn't simply send one of the school owls to Azkaban, could I? I didn't really want to ask anyone either. Maybe my aunt and uncle would tell me something when I visited them.

Mandy sighed. "Wizards seem to have a strong tendency to judge people for things they have no power over. Such as the family they're born into. I'm sure getting to know your aunt and uncle will be interesting though. Seeing adults dealing with that who aren't teachers. I'll stay at the orphanage the second week though. Andy and Aurora will miss us as well."

"Yeah, you're right. I might do that too. Or I'll visit at least."

I had to write to the orphanage though they knew that I would stay with my relatives anyway. Until now we had planned to return there during the holidays. I was quite nervous. Nymphadora (I kept referring to her by her first name in my head) was really nice but I didn't know what her parents would be like. I hoped they didn't blame me for my mother's behaviour towards them but probably not or they wouldn't have invited me.

"Hearing it directly from someone will be better than reading about it," she added.

I didn't feel like going to the library to read more about the past anymore. I was scared of finding horrible accounts of Azkaban or maybe of my parents' crimes as well. They probably had done something in the service of this madman and I was certain that it hadn't been anything good.

Mandy didn't seem to want to continue our research without me either. We had enough school work to keep us busy anyway. Afterwards, both of us preferred relaxing with the others in the common room to spending even more time in the library.

Finding my way through the school wasn't a problem anymore. I didn't feel as nervous as I had felt in the beginning anymore but I did stay wary whenever I was out on my own.

This happened rather frequently since Nymphadora had told me about my parents because we wanted to meet and get to know each other better. Nymphadora knew of a rather handy room on the fourth floor where we could meet in privacy and were provided with anything we wanted. Well, with the exception of food which the room didn't give us due to some law. I quickly forgot the name again, Nymphadora had probably only mentioned it to laughingly show off the fancy terms she knew.

She had been living in the wizarding world all her life and was familiar with all the things that were new to us. We didn't talk much about our families anymore though. Nymphadora confirmed that it wasn't possible to simply send an owl to Azkaban. Most of our meetings were spent with Nymphadora telling me about wizarding careers, fashion and music which seemed very important to her.

"I want to become an Auror. My marks are good enough but I'm still not sure if they'll accept me. I'm rather clumsy you see. Not while I'm duelling but maybe we'll never get that far."

"An Auror?" I asked, finally getting one of my last open questions answered. "What does an Auror do?" So they really existed. It wasn't much of a surprise but I still hadn't been sure.

"Aurors catch dark wizards. A bit like the Muggle police but not ordinary police. Something for the more serious crimes. They only admit people who are really good. That's why I'm not sure."

"Ah," I said in sudden understanding. "They arrested my parents; put them into Azkaban, didn't they?"

"Ehm, yes," Nymphadora said, her hair changing to a mousy brown which always happened when she was embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't think about that at the moment. But it's their job. They have to do this to protect the others. If people don't harm others, they won't get there."

"Yes, I know. It's alright," I said even though I wasn't sure if it was. Did anyone really deserve being taken to such place? My parents hadn't seemed like bad people at all in my memories and neither had uncle Barty. Why did Nymphadora want to do this of all things?

She had probably realised that the subject made me uncomfortable and didn't say anything about Aurors anymore.

Instead, she told me of the various styles of dress robes which were worn on formal occasions. Pure-bloods often chose robes in their family colours, blue and silver in my case as I remembered. There were other rather old-fashioned variants and more modern ones which showed their wearers opinions on more than clothes. I hoped there wouldn't be any occasion where I had to wear any of those.

"I don't like this either," Nymphadora told me. "Mum sometimes drags me along to these Ministry balls though, she works there you know and I have to wear them there. We're not allowed to wear family colours though."

"What does your Mum do?" curiosity overcame my fear of unpleasant news again.

"She works at the Committee on Experimental Charms," Nymphadora explained. "It's not as exciting as it sounds though. At least her job isn't. Plenty of theoretical stuff for safety before they can actually do anything. She has found a new spell to test the strength of leak-proving charms on cauldrons so far." Nymphadora shrugged.

"This sounds fascinating," I said. There might be good reason for the "safety stuff" if spells could have dangerous side effects. Flitwick kept warning us about that.

"Do you really think so or are you joking?"

"I really think so," I assured her. "What does your father do?"

Nymphadora grinned. "He's a news reader on the Muggle news. Thinks is funny. He doesn't want to sever ties with the Muggle world completely either. Having Muggle money can't hurt if the Goblins decide to rebel again or something."

This was almost more interesting than the job of Nymphadora's mother to me. It obviously was possible to live in the Muggle world even if you were a witch. Probably with some tutoring and magical papers such as Professor McGonagall had brought to the orphanage but still possible. If I decided that absolutely didn't like it here, I could still continue living as a Muggle and so could Mandy.

The room also provided us with the necessary equipment to listen to wizarding music. Wizards didn't use tapes to record music but something that looked like crystals. The colour of the crystal depended on the group and they went with pieces of parchment describing the songs. There were magical gramophones as well Nymphadora told me but the crystals were easier to take with you.

She didn't really like the singer Celestina Warbeck but still had some songs by her. Her mother was a fan. I perfectly understood why Nymphadora didn't like the music. The lyrics made us both giggle like mad. The only acceptable song by her was the team anthem of a Quidditch team called Puddlemere United. It was called "Beat Back Those Bludgers, Boys, and Chuck That Quaffle Here"and the lyrics weren't much more intelligent than those of the other songs but at least, the song was much faster and had a memorable beat.

"Warbeck has donated all the money she got for this to Saint Mungo's," Nymphadora told me.

I didn't like to show my ignorance again but I could only learn if I asked. This was part of the Ravenclaw motto after all. "What is Saint Mungo's?"

"It's the wizarding hospital," Nymphadora explained. "The place where the Healers are trained and work."

"Is that where my father used to work?"

"Yes, exactly."

I sighed. Why hadn't my father kept working as a magical doctor rather than join those terrorists? I could have grown up with him and we could all have been happier.

"Let's listen to some really good music now," Nymphadora suggested. "The Weird Sisters. I really like them even though they're a bit mainstream."

Nymphadora's taste and mine didn't seem to be too different. Maybe it was because we were related. I liked the Weird Sisters as well and we both had plenty of fun when Nymphadora tried to teach me the accompanying dance to one of the songs.

When we checked the time again, it was quite late, at least for me. I didn't want to admit that I was scared of returning to my common room alone in the dark of course. Nymphadora certainly wouldn't understand that. I was a bit nervous because I might get into trouble with teachers as well. For someone who wanted to join the police, Nymphadora didn't seem to care about following the rules too much.

I was lucky though. I made it back without meeting either teachers or any dangerous things. I made sure to avoid the corridor on the third floor where I had heard this strange growling noise.

Turning around one corner, I heard the voices of Professor Snape and Quirrel but they seemed to be busy with some important conversation of their own and didn't look out for students.

I was really glad when I finally made it back to Ravenclaw tower though and decided to be more careful in future.

Halloween obviously was an important date in the magical community. The entire castle was decorated with pumpkins and many dishes with pumpkin in them were served as well. At dinner, live bats were flying around in the Great Hall. I grinned at the thought of Ms Thomson back at the orphanage. She had always been strictly against celebrating Halloween because upholding such "pagan traditions" might damage us. Ms Leakey had been rather offended by this because according to her "pagan traditions" weren't a bad thing. We hadn't celebrated Halloween though, maybe because Mrs Richards didn't want to annoy Ms Thomson.

At Hogwarts, they didn't seem to be interested in any traditional meaning of Halloween or if they were, no one told us. Maybe it was one of the things magical children were simply supposed to know without being told.

The food was definitely good and different from the things we usually got to eat. This was a nice change even though the Hogwarts food was always excellent compared to the things we had gotten to eat at the orphanage.

I had kept the tendency to be one of the first to arrive at meals and eat relatively quickly because I might not get a second serving if I didn't. This way I had already finished my first plate of food when Professor Quirrell came running into the hall, looking pale and frightened and stuttering about a Troll in the dungeon.

The tumults which followed these words told us clearly that this was really serious. People on all the house tables seemed to be scared. I was worried too but I still thought that all the teachers and the great Professor Dumbledore should be able to deal with a Troll, whatever that really was. Wasn't Professor Quirrell supposed to teach us how to defend ourselves? He didn't seem to be very good at this himself.

A few loud bangs made me shriek. The next moment, I felt my face go red. The bangs had come from the Headmaster's wand and had actually been supposed to make us quiet. With most people who weren't me, this had worked reasonably well. Now everyone on the Ravenclaw table seemed to stare at me. How embarrassing. At least, they turned their attention back to Dumbledore a few moments later.

He used the relative quiet to tell the prefects that they should lead us all back to our dormitories. Our Prefects did their best to make us form an orderly group. Mandy and I were used to this but the others obviously were not and thus it took a while. There were six prefects for Ravenclaw and each of them took one year of students, the seventh years were supposed to look after themselves. Penelope was the one leading us again.

"I'm really glad we're in one of the towers," Mandy said. "Far away from the dungeons, isn't it?"

"Yes. I hope they'll manage to get rid of this Troll. Are they really dangerous?" I asked.

"Well, they're very strong and large," Anthony said. "Rather stupid as well though. The teachers should be able to deal with them without too much trouble."

"But what if we walk into it?" Morag asked.

I really didn't want to imagine that.

"We won't," Penelope said. "And even if we do, we older students will be able to deal with it too."

I hoped she was right. I couldn't think of any useful spells to fight a troll of. There were a few in my DADA-book but I had never practised them so far. Professor Quirrell never gave any practical lessons. He only told us to avoid dangers and that we should always carry garlic with us.

Our seventh-year Prefect suggested that the oldest students should walk at the both ends of our group so they could defend us if necessary. This was quickly arranged. Ravenclaws always tried to analyze any situation. I really hoped it would get us safely to our house.

"I'm not really worried about the troll but I'd like to know how it got in here," Lisa said. "They're too stupid to do this on their own. Someone has done it and he must have had his reasons. There must be a person who wants to put us into danger and I really don't like this."

I hadn't thought about this before but Lisa was right. This was worrying indeed. The Troll would hopefully be gone soon but the person who had let it in not. No one knew who it was. I really needed to be more careful and I was going to tell Tonks that I wouldn't meet her in the evenings anymore. We had enough time on Friday afternoons and on the weekend. She might think I was a coward but I didn't want to put myself into unnecessary danger. I still didn't know nearly enough to stay safe here.

Even though we all had claimed that we weren't scared of the Troll anymore, we were relieved when we finally reached the entrance to Ravenclaw tower. One of the seventh-years answered the right and finally got in.

"I don't think there's any place in this school where you're safer from a Troll than the Ravenclaw common room," Anthony said. "They'd never make it in here."

Despite of this, no one really felt like sleeping yet. Some of the others complained because they hadn't had a chance to finish eating. Mandy and I smiled at each other. Our orphanage tactic had saved us from empty stomachs this evening. The others tried to remedy the problems with chips and sweets. Penelope started lecturing them on healthy food but we all thought that this situation made an exception from this rule acceptable.

Before anyone was tempted to eat too much of these unhealthy treats, the problem was solved by some magic sending the food into our common room. Mandy and I allowed ourselves a second helping as well.

We kept discussing how the Troll might have entered the school but no one had a really convincing theory. After about an hour, Professor Flitwick came into our common room.

"Good evening, students," he told us. "I have good news for you. The Troll has been knocked out and is removed from the school at this moment. Three Gryffindor first-year students fought sneaked away from their housemates to fight it. They were lucky and survived but I still have to advice strongly against this kind of thing."

Padma raised her hand: "Gryffindor first-year students? Was one of them Harry Potter?"

"I didn't wish to give you the students' identity but I don't approve of lying either. Yes, one of them was Harry Potter."

Some of our housemates broke into awed whispers. I thought that Trolls weren't actually as dangerous as this reaction by the school staff had implied. Otherwise, the first-years wouldn't have been able to deal with it even if one of them was the great Harry Potter. As far as I had heard, he wasn't exactly an extraordinary student.

Everyone was glad that it had ended well but we'd still like to know how the Troll had been able to enter the castle. Professor Flitwick didn't know this either though.

Mandy and I were slightly worried when we went to bed this evening and I lay awake for a long time.