AN: I'm so definitely not procrastinating an essay. Nope. That is definitely not why I've had a sudden burst of activeness.

Disclaim: I still own nothing you recognize.

And again, I'd welcome feedback, especially about the character Amity. I'm using her as a substitute for the Weasleys updating people on Ginny since Skazzy is in Hufflepuff, and trying to work on a way to make her... make sense? Also, I'd like to know if any character's are acting Mary Sueish. Better to nip that in the bud. Thanks for reading!

Before Skazzy and Harry could attempt to blend in with the giant mass of people, someone that neither of them really wanted to see could be heard.

"What's going on? What's going on here?" came the voice of one Argus Filch. Instinct told Skazzy to book it, but then she'd be leaving her brother alone, and she was (never again) going to do that. Instead, she watched as Filch saw Mrs. Norris, angling herself between brother and potentially crazed caretaker.

"My cat, my cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked, and a few students winced at the sound. His gaze then landed on Skazzy, but he looked past her to her brother.

"YOU," he screamed, pointing at Harry, "You killed my cat! You killed her! I'll kill you for that!"

And then there was a booming "ARGUS," and it seemed like the teachers showed up. Dumbledore, the one to have brought Filch back to earth, swept past Skazzy and Harry and took Mrs. Norris from the torch. "Come with me Argus. And you two, Mr. and Ms. Potter."

Lockheart stepped forward eagerly.

"My office is closest! You can use it!" he said.

"Thank you Gilderoy," Dumbledore said. He swept through the crowd of students, which parted for him and those following. Amity gave Skazzy a strange look, and appeared to be holding Ginny, who for some reason was deathly pale. Skazzy was pretty sure that was not a good color for someone to be, since she remembered the last time she had looked deathly pale. But now was not the time for that, she reminded herself as Lockheart, McGonagall, Snape, and Sprout followed. She wasn't exactly sure what now was the time for, but it definitely wasn't that. Ron and Hermione were at the back of the crowd, and gave the two Potter's a 'what the hell' look. Harry mouthed 'tell you later' while Skazzy just shrugged. She remained silent as they went into Lockheart's office, smiling when all the Lockhearts in the pictures on the wall ran out of frame with hair curlers.

Lockheart lit up a few candles, and Dumbledore placed the cat on the table, examining her closely. He was also poking and prodding her, and Skazzy was wondering if there was a point to that or if he was crazy. Professor McGonagall was examining the cat as well, so perhaps there was a point to poking and prodding it.

Harry sat down in a chair outside of the light and Skazzy joined him. She wasn't paying any attention to Lockheart, who seemed to be flitting about entirely too happy about something, or Filch's dry, racking sobs. Instead she was watching Snape, who was apparently only watching her brother. She leaned over to Harry briefly.

"I am still visible, right?" she asked, one eye on Snape. Harry nodded, and Skazzy pulled back. Professor Sprout had her hand on the back of Skazzy's chair, although Skazzy wasn't entirely sure why she felt the need to hold onto a chair when there were plenty others to sit in. She vaguely watched as Dumbledore muttered words and poked the cat with his wand, and she noticed the beginnings of a look of worry on her brother's face. Right, one more toe out of line and he gets expelled, she remembered him complaining about back before his four hour torture session. Skazzy would absolutely take the fall for this when they started blaming them. She just hoped Harry wouldn't try and stop her. She continued to watch Snape, and shuddered when all the Lockhearts decided to come back and join the original, nodding at whatever random nonsense he was saying. She may not be able to sleep in his class, but she could tune him out really well. She was startled out of her one way staring contest with Snape when Dumbledore spoke.

"She's not dead," he said to Filch. That managed to shut Lockheart up, but everyone was staring at Dumbledore.

"Not dead? But why's she all stiff and frozen like a board?" Filch asked.

"She has been Petrified," Dumbledore announced. "But I don't know by what."

"Ask them!" Filch said, turning to the siblings.

"No second year could have done this," Dumbledore said, but Filch wasn't listening.

"He did it! He did it! You saw what he wrote on the wall! They found, in my office, they know I'm a Squib!" Filch said, turning purple.

"I didn't do anything," Harry said at the same time Skazzy asked what a squib was.

"Don't lie! You saw my Kwikspell letter!" Filch yelled at Skazzy. Skazzy was going to respond, but Harry had his hand on her shoulder, so she leaned back in the chair and scowled.

"If I may speak, Headmaster," said Snape, emerging from the shadows and Skazzy watched as Harry gulped. "Potter may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Skazzy noticed that Dumbledore, and Professors McGonagall and Sprout looked at Snape oddly. Her brother was looking at him oddly too. Skazzy would have, but she still wasn't entirely sure what normal for him was, and she settled for scowling.

"But we do have a suspicious set of circumstances here, why was he not at the Feast? Why was he in that corridor at all?" Snape asked.

"We went to Sir Nick's Deathday part," Harry answered, Skazzy nodding.

"But why not return to the feast afterwards?" Snape asked, eyes glittering. "Why go to that corridor?"

"Because he made the mistake of letting me take the lead back to the Hall. I still get confused sometimes," Skazzy answered before her brother could say anything. The only indication Snape gave that he heard her was a slight twitch in his eye.

"Going off to bed without food? I was under the impression they didn't serve food for the living at Deathday Parties," Snape continued. Skazzy was not the only one who looked confused. Dumbledore was giving Snape a searching look, while McGonagall was looking from Skazzy to Snape. Even Lockheart had shut up. "I suggest Potter isn't being completely truthful. I feel it best if certain privileges were revoked until he told the truth. I personally feel he should be taken off the quidditch team." Harry and McGonagall looked a little affronted at that.

"Now, really Severus, I see no reason to stop the boy from playing quidditch. The cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There's no reason to think Harry had anything to do with this." McGonagall said, nostrils flaring.

Dumbledore was giving Harry a searching look. "Innocent until proven guilty, Severus."

Snape and Filch did not looked pleased, and Skazzy made a note to avoid Filch at all costs. Although maybe now Snape would start insulting her like he did her brother. She didn't like people not doing what she expected, she told herself. The idea that she wanted her housemates to stop complaining about his unfair treatment of her never crossed her mind. Not once.

"My cat has been Petrified! I want to see some punishment!" Filch yelled. Dumbledore tried to placate him.

"We'll be able to cure her, Argus. Sprout," Dumbledore nodded to the woman who had been silent the whole time, "has recently come across mandrakes, and as soon as they reach their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockheart said, seemingly deciding that enough attention had not been given to him in the past few minutes. "I've done it hundreds of times, why I bet I could make the Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep–"

"I believe I am the potions master," Snape said icily. There was an awkward pause as Snape glared at Lockheart. Sprout was also glaring at Lockheart.

"You two may go," Dumbledore said, looking at the two Potters. They both left as quick as they could before they somehow got involved in whatever was about to happen. As soon as they were far away from Lockheart's office, they paused and looked at each other.

"Getting lost still?" Harry asked dryly. Skazzy shrugged.

"Seemed more likely than you getting lost," she retorted. Harry looked at the wall for a little bit.

"Think I should have told them about the voice?" he asked. Skazzy shook her head.

"I don't trust them," she said, folding her arms.

"You don't trust anyone," Harry pointed out. "What if it is important?"

Skazzy hesitated, before answering. "Maybe this is a one time thing? It's just, I didn't hear anything, and although I would absolutely agree with what ever you said the voice said, I'm not entirely sure how the wizards will take that."

"What, your willingness to lie for me" Harry asked, Skazzy snorted before leaning against him.

"We still don't know what a Squib is. Or this chamber thing," Harry said. Skazzy nodded.

"Maybe one of your friends knows," Skazzy said. Harry nodded and then a clock chimed somewhere.

"We should probably get to bed, so Snape doesn't try and frame me for any more things," Harry said. Skazzy sighed and pushed away from the wall. They both started heading to their common rooms, but Skazzy turned back.

"Oi, Harry?" she said, and Harry turned back to look at her. "Maybe don't tell your friends about the voice? I know you trust them," she said, when Harry opened his mouth. "It's just, the more people know, the more likely it won't stay a secret."

Harry looked at Skazzy and nodded, and they both returned to their common rooms. Skazzy was a bit preoccupied and it wasn't until Amity was standing in front of her did Skazzy realize she had been trying to talk to her.

"Oh, what?" Skazzy asked, since Amity was blocking the way to the dorm room.

"What happened? What was that? Why were you there?" she asked, her words tumbling over themselves.

"Petrification, a petrified cat, and a wrong turn," Skazzy replied before trying to move past. Apparently Amity wasn't done.

"That's it? That's all you're going to tell me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"If you wanted to know about the Deathday party, you should have gone," Skazzy replied. She stopped trying to get past Amity for a minute. "What's a squib?"

Amity sighed, looking sad. "It's someone who was born to a wizarding family but doesn't have magic. Apparently in the old days, families would have them killed. They aren't really respected in the wizarding world. Why?"

"Eh, turns out Filch is one. Tried to claim we did the whole thing because of that, but..." Skazzy trailed off. Amity looked even sadder for a moment.

"Oh, that must be awful for him," she said. Skazzy looked at her, confused.

"You can get around with out magic," she started, but Amity shook her head.

"No, I know that. It's just sad that he's surrounded by students who can do magic while he can't," Amity clarified. Skazzy debated whether she should feel sorry for Filch for a second before deciding that it wasn't worth the effort. This time Amity let her pass and followed her into the dorm room.

Skazzy was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep and thinking of happy thoughts to prevent another nightmare from occurring when Amity spoke up again.

"I'm worried about Ginny."

Skazzy made a sound that seemed like she was listening.

"She wasn't at the feast, and I didn't find her until about the time the feast got out," Amity continued. "She enjoys writing in her diary a lot, did you notice? She's begun doing it in classes."

"To be fair, I sleep through History, so I don't think that's a problem," Skazzy said since it was obvious that Amity expected her to talk. "And you still seemed to have gotten the better deal for missing the feast. Deathday parties aren't for living people."

"I'll assume that's why they're called Deathday Parties," Amity said, before yawning and turning to go to sleep. "Night Nixie."

Skazzy sighed. Apparently Amity had picked up on the Weasley twin's habit of calling her Nixie. And Harry told her she was not allowed to yell at anyone, and that after telling people three times that she preferred the name Skazzy, she should stop trying to get them to stop, because they won't. Amity seemed cheerful whenever she used the name, and something inside of Skazzy was loathe to take that away from her. The same something that wondered if she could ever be that cheerful. She turned to the door. She wished she was able to be cheerful like Amity. It would be...nice, she thought before falling into her nightmares.

She really needed that dreamless sleep potion.

Apparently the incident with Mrs. Norris was all the school could talk about. Filch was pacing the area as if he could catch the culprit because the culprit came back to the scene of the crime. When he wasn't pacing, or unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the message, he was lunging at students and trying to give them detention for 'breathing too loudly' and 'being too happy'.

Amity sighed as they sat down in Defense one day. Skazzy looked at her, having learned after two months that ignoring it got her a jab in the stomach.

"It's poor Ginny. She apparently really likes cats, and her brother was being just awful to her about it," Amity complained. She had been sitting with Ginny in Transfiguration before, while Skazzy had been partnered with the camera boy. She was working on getting him to stop fangirling her brother. She had more success on the days she was behind Amity. On the others, she usually got whacked in the head, 'accidentally'.

"Which one?" Skazzy asked, deciding that this conversation was much more interesting than whatever they were going to learn about in Defense.

"Ron. He thinks who ever is doing it is going to be expelled!"

"Well, apparently petrification is beyond a second year," Skazzy said, shrugging her shoulders. Amity got distracted by Lockheart's entrance, and Skazzy started tuning him out.

Hermione was, according to Harry, going a bit more book crazy. She was doing nothing else but reading. They didn't find out what was up until the next Wednesday. After a hurried lunch, because apparently Harry had been kept after Potions class, she and Harry were headed towards the library to meet Ron. Something about history papers. They ran into Justin Finch-Fletchly, and before Harry could say hi, he abruptly turned around and went the opposite direction. Harry frowned.

"That was weird," he said to Skazzy. Skazzy decided to not mention that almost all the Hufflepuffs were avoiding her, and that was a normal reaction to her. It's not like she cared.

They found Ron in the back of the Library, measuring an essay and complaining about being eight inches short. As Harry measured his essay, he told Ron about Justin's actions.

"Why do you care? Seems like a bit of an idiot, thinking Lockheart's great and all that," Ron started, before he was interrupted by Hermione.

"All the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out and there's a two week long waiting list for them," she complained, sitting next to Skazzy. "I wish I hadn't left my copy at home."

"I thought you had it memorized," Skazzy asked. Hermione just glared, and Skazzy turned away, looking for an escape.

"Why do you want it?" Harry asked.

"Same reason as everyone else: to read up on the Legend of the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione said.

"The Legend of what now?" Skazzy asked, turning back to the conversation.

"The Legend of the Chamber of Secrets. I can't remember what it was, but I know it was mentioned in there," She moaned. Then she saw that Ron was trying to look at her history essay, and the two started bickering.

"They do that a lot," Skazzy observed. The bell rang and Harry, Ron and Hermione headed off to History. Skazzy decided to find a room to hide in and do her homework. She didn't like doing it in the library, and the common room was definitely out, because everyone would stare at her, and she kind of wanted to be alone. Her nightmares had been getting worse.

Of course, it was also almost a year ago that it happened, so no surprise there. She had managed to swipe Harry's potion book which had the directions for it and was going to see if she could make it. So she headed out and found a different abandoned room from the one she used with Harry. She was reading intently, she almost missed when Ginny walked in the room, looking confused. Skazzy looked up when she heard Ginny make a noise that sounded like a strangled yelp.

"Uh, hi?" Skazzy said, completely aware of the fact that she hadn't actually been alone with Ginny since the summer when she may have accidentally apparently been extremely rude to her. Ginny was still looking around confused, and paled when she saw Skazzy.

"I, uh, need to, uh, CLASS!" Ginny shouted as she dashed out the room. Skazzy watched her go. She made a note to ask Harry if that was normal behavior for people. Or maybe not, because then he might ask about the Hufflepuffs. She went back to reading the potions book, casting a Lumos when it got dark in the room. It wasn't until she felt two people pick her up that she came out of her trance.

Two nearly identical faces stared back at her, grinning.

"Apparently somebody worried her friend by not going to dinner, which then worried her brother, who sent us off on a search for you," One of the twins said.

"Naughty Nixie, scaring your brother," the other one said.

"You can put me down now," She said, a little uncomfortable with her feet off the floor.

"Or we could bring you to Harry, make sure you don't disappear. Or get petrified," the first twin said as the grabbed her book bag and took her out of the room. They then delivered her to the abandoned room they had claimed, and presented her to Harry.

"See, no problem finding missing sisters," the second twin said. They both let go of her and she glared at them, before sitting down next to Harry. Then she noticed that everyone seemed quiet.

"Did I miss something?" Skazzy asked Harry, and Hermione launched into a tale about Binns actually being interesting, and students being weird, and Colin clearly not getting her message, and spiders scaring Ron by acting weird, and a ghost who forgot she was dead and tried to kill herself, and something about Malfoy and Slytherin. At the end of the story Skazzy was staring at Hermione.

"Wait, so Binns is actually aware he's teaching people?" Skazzy asked for clarification. Harry smacked her gently upside the head.

"Your missing the point," Harry said. "We think Malfoy might be the heir of Slytherin."

"Better him than you," Skazzy said, and she started her actual potions assignment. She needed to find out if you could owl-order potions ingredients she didn't have for the dreamless sleep potion.

"Yes, but we're going to try and figure out if the heir is Malfoy by infiltrating the Slytherin common room and asking him questions," Ron said. Skazzy looked at him confused.

"Wouldn't he notice you, I don't know, being you and being there?" Skazzy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope. Polyjuice Potion," Hermione said, and then explained what it was. And the fact that it was in a book in the restricted part of the library. Skazzy looked at her brother's two friends.

"You guys are a bad influence on him. And who's going to be stupid enough to sign something letting you get it out?"

She didn't get an answer, and soon everyone had to head to their dorm rooms. Skazzy walked into the Hufflepuff dorm to find she was being attacked by Amity. Or hugged. She was still trying to figure that out.

"I was so worried when I didn't see you at dinner, and your brother hadn't seen you since lunch. You could have been attacked and no one would have known!" Amity said, still clinging to Skazzy. She heard a few of the upper years snort, and mutter "Like the heir would attack his sister."

Skazzy tried to turn towards them, but Amity had apparently gotten extremely good at reading her body language and had tugged her off to bed. Skazzy was getting ready for another night of nightmares when she remembered Ginny.

"Eh, Ginny saw me there, she'd have known where I was," Skazzy closed her eyes and fell asleep, missing Amity's quiet "But she said she hadn't seen you."