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"Some first day, huh?" Harry whispered as we relaxed.

I hummed in agreement and pulled Harry into a loving kiss. "Certainly," I whispered back, "but as long as we have this, as long as each night I can fall asleep in your arms, and each morning I can wake up in them, we'll make it through this mess."

"I love you, Gia." Harry murmured, smiling softly.

"I love you too, Harry," I breathed quietly, as my eyes fluttered closed, "for forever and a day."

Chapter Twelve

The following day, though as gray and rainy as the previous one, was met with a sort of upbeat determination to not let anything get to us. However, to be safe and not sorry, I vowed to spend the day partially submerged in my Occlumency barriers. After preparing for the day rather quickly, I sat the trio, Luna, and Terry in the common room and gently set a large black bag on the table in front of them. "This," I said, reaching into the bag and pulling out one of the small rectangles, "is an enchanted mirror. I have fifteen of them here in this bag, and I'll be giving on to each of you, along with a small pouch that can attach to a belt or strap around your leg. The pouches are covered in protective spells to keep the mirrors safe."

"What do the mirrors actually do, though?" Terry asked.

"All fifteen mirrors are magically connected to each other, and allows anyone who has a mirror to be able to talk to someone else that has one of the other fifteen mirrors." Seeing that Terry and Luna were still a bit lost, I handed Harry, Hermione, and Ron mirrors, and then held one in my hand. "I think I can better show you." I put the mirror close to my lips, and said, "Harry Potter."

Immediately, the mirror in Harry's hands vibrated and he held it out, showing that the words Gia Grey appeared on the surface in smoky letters. "Accept," he said into the mirror. As he said that, his face appeared in my mirror and mine in his.

To my amazement, I realized that only our faces were visible. "It conceals your background, too." I said with wonder. I laughed as I heard my voice come out of Harry's mirror.

"That's brilliant!" Terry exclaimed.

I smiled. "And that's not all. Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger," I said into my mirror. Both of them accepted my call, and our mirror screens split to show all of our faces.

"Wow," Luna breathed. "Are you sure you want to give us one of the mirrors?"

"Of course Lu, that's why I got more than four. Here," I said, handing both her and Terry mirrors and pouches. "Over," I said into the mirror, and my screen immediately cleared, and my face disappeared from the others' mirrors as well. I placed my mirror in my own pouch, which I had spelled my initials into, and strapped it around my right thigh, right above my wand holster. Hermione and Luna copied this, while the three boys chose to strap theirs onto their belts.

"This way, if any of us need to contact the others for any reason, we can do it in a quick and secure way." Harry said, and then he paused. "But who'll get the other nine mirrors?"

I looked upwards at the ceiling as I pulled up a mental list. "Fred, George, and Ginny for sure," I started, ticking them off my fingers. "Draco, Blaise, Theo, Pansy, Tracey, and Daphne." I finished. "But now I see that I'll have to write for more, I want to give Susan one, as well."

"How are you going to get the Slytherins their mirrors?" Ron asked.

Right on time, Ario flew in through the common room window and landed on my shoulder. I shrunk the black bag with the remaining mirrors in it, and conjured a note. I gave both to Ario. "Ario," I said seriously, even as I lovingly stroked his obsidian feathers, "I need you to first take this up to the Gryffindor Tower, and give it to one of the Weasley kids, after they take what they should, take this to the Great Hall, and give it to Draco. You know Draco."

With an affirmative hoot, he affectionately nipped my ear and swooped out of the window again. I laughed at the others' expressions, "Well, that takes care of that."

Though Hagrid was still missing from the staff table at breakfast, Ron looked on the bright side. "At least we haven't got Snape, Binns, or Umbridge today," he said happily at the Gryffindor Table.

Shaking my head with a grin, Harry and I called, "Morning Lions!"

"Morning!" most of the Table replied, though sleepily. I smiled at the first years, who smiled brightly and waved. I waved back and nudged Harry who shot the smaller students a bright smile, causing them to burst into excited chatter. I looked amusedly at Hermione as she yawned loudly and poured herself some coffee.

"That actually cheers me up loads," she said tiredly.

"Definitely," Harry agreed. "And I'm glad we finished Snape and Binns' assignments, so it won't all pile up."

"Yeah, McGonagall is bound to give us tons of work today." I said, as I dug into my breakfast, not knowing how right I'd be.

That day, Double Charms was succeeded by Double Transfiguration. Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall both spent the first fifteen minutes of our lessons lecturing the class on the importance of OWLs.

"What you must remember," little Professor Flitwick said squeakily, perched as ever on a pile of books so that he could see over the top of his desk, "is that these examinations may influence your futures for many years to come! If you have not already given serious thought to your careers, now is the time to do so. And in the meantime, I'm afraid, we shall be working harder than ever to ensure that you all do yourselves justice!"

Then we spent more than an hour reviewing Summoning Charms, which, according to Professor Flitwick, were bound to come up in our OWLs, and he rounded off the lesson by setting us our longest amount of Charms homework ever.

It was the same, if not worse, in Transfiguration.

"You cannot pass an OWL," Professor McGonagall said grimly, "without serious application, practice, and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an OWL in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work."

The entire class was serious, paying close attention to what the Professor was telling us, and I smiled as I remembered Ron and Harry playing with the twins' fake wands in this very classroom the previous year.

"So…today we are starting Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until NEWT level, but they are still amongst the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your OWL."

As soon as Professor McGonagall allowed us to practice, I performed the spell with lazy ease, earning ten points for Gryffindor. I smirked after McGonagall had walked away and I whispered to the trio, "I told Umbridge I would earn those points back the next day," causing the three of them to snort and shake their heads in amusement.

After Hermione successfully vanished her snail on her third attempt, we helped Ron, Harry, and Neville to achieve it as well. Dean, having decided that his grade was more important than Seamus's attitude, asked for help, and eventually vanished his snail. By the end of the lesson, we were the only ones to completely vanish our snails, and were not given homework; the rest of the class was told to practice overnight. Since we only had the two assignments to do, the trio and I relaxed during lunch, chatting with our housemates and enjoying the second day back.

As we all laughed at some horribly told joke from Fred, my ears twitched. The feeling that I was being watched was present, and became more and more persistent as the minutes ticked by, as if the person staring at me desperately wanted me to know that they were watching me. Under the guise of tossing my hair over my shoulder, I quickly scanned the Hall and my eyes were drawn, as usual, to Draco's head of white blonde hair. I lowered my eyes to meet his stormy grey ones, and I saw that his forehead was creased with worry. I raised an eyebrow inquiringly and he, ever so slightly, tilted his head to his right. Following the tilt, my eyes traveled a little ways farther down the Slytherin Table and landed on Millicent Bulstrode, sandwiched between her two equally large goons, Crabbe and Goyle. And while Bulstrode was clearly trying hard to keep her facial expression clear, she was doing a rather poor job of it, and an anticipatory smirk kept threatening to bloom across her lips. Crabbe and Goyle, on the other hand, were outright grinning, which was actually a rather disgusting sight to see.

I looked back at Draco and frowned, my eyebrows coming together in confusion. He shrugged and mouthed Mirror, at the bell. Understanding, I nodded and turned back around to my Table. I gave a content sigh and leaned my head on Harry's shoulder, as expected, he wrapped his arm around me, his shoulder pushing my hair forward and causing it to partially cover my face. I reached up and kissed his cheek, and as I pretended to rub my cheek against his cheek affectionately, I whispered quickly in his ear. "Draco says Bulstrode and the other two imbeciles are up to something. He obviously can't walk over here himself to tell me what he knows, but he looks worried. He says he'll call us using his mirror when the bell rings."

Right on cue, Harry and I burst into loud laughter, along with the rest of our section of the Gryffindor Table as George gave the punch line of another joke. Harry tightened his arm me ever so slightly to let me know he understood, and the rest of lunch passed in a sort of feigned humor. I had to fight my leg's urge to tap incessantly, and suddenly, I loathed the fact that Harry and I always sat with our backs facing the rest of the Hall, particularly the Slytherin Table, even though they were the table farthest from us. Suddenly, I felt exposed and open to an attack, I felt vulnerable. I mentally snorted and rolled my eyes. Surely, I was over exaggerating? Nothing Bulstrode or her two cronies could come up with could possibly be that bad. But what if they hadn't come up with the plan, if there was one, and they were simply following orders? But then that begged the question…whose orders were they following?

My mind cycled repeatedly through dozens of questions and suspicions, and finally, when I was sure I would snap from the tension I had mentally created for myself, the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, and the start of afternoon lessons. The second the bell rang, I slung my bag over my shoulder and nearly yanked Harry up from the table, pulling him towards the doors with forced calm. Hermione and Ron, perhaps sensing my urgency, hurried and were at our side in seconds. I felt a slow growl building up in my chest as students slowly trickled out of the double doors, and finally, my patience ran too thin.

"Excuse me!" I snapped sharply, the words partially coming out a snarl.

Immediately, the crowd parted and I dragged a sheepish Harry along out of the Great Hall and into the corridors, Ron and Hermione struggling to keep up. We hurried outside, as our next class was Care of Magical Creatures, and slipped into a dark alcove behind a large stone wall.

"Gia, wha—"

Hermione's question was interrupted as my leg began to vibrate and I held up a hand to stop her. Pulling my mirror out of its pouch, the name Draco Black floated in smoky letters across the surface. I quickly enlarged the mirror to show all four of our faces, and said, "Accept!"

Draco's still worried face quickly appeared on the mirror and he seemed startled to see Ron, Hermione, and Harry's faces crowded around mine. "Err…" he scratched his head.

"Draco focus," I said impatiently, "what's up with Bulstrode and the other two?"

His pale face cleared and his eyes became hard. "I honestly don't know Gia, but I'm worried."

I growled under my breath and rolled my eyes. "Dammit Draco, you got me all worked up for nothing?"

He lip automatically curled up in a sneer. "Be quiet for once Gia, and listen!"

My mouth snapped shut, and I pinched Harry's arm to stop him from saying anything. Draco looked behind him for a second, and his urgent expression reappeared. "Look, I know those three are up to something, exactly what, I don't know. However," he blew out a deep breath, "I saw Bulstrode receive a letter from my father last night—"

"Wait," Harry interrupted, "are you absolutely sure that it was from your father?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Honestly Pot- Harry, I think I would recognize my father's bloody owl. I grew up with that vicious menace. The point is, my father normally wouldn't even consider communicating with someone of Bulstrode's status, let alone the fact that she's a simple fifth year girl. The fact that he sent her a letter with own personal owl means it must be important business. And we all know that any business involving my father most likely—"

"involves Him," Ron said darkly.

Draco glanced over his shoulder again. "Yes, I'm coming, hold on!" he called behind him. Turning back to us, his words were hurried. "I'll see you lot in a few minutes, but I felt I had to warn you, especially you and Harry. I suggest you all watch your backs and keep an eye on them. If they've got instructions from my father for any reason, it can't be good for any of us."

All four of us nodded grimly.

"Thank you Draco," I said, "for giving us the heads up. If you can, see what else you can find out about what was in that letter or what they're planning, be careful though, we don't know what those idiots have gotten themselves into."

"Understood," he replied, "and I'll see what I can do."

"Over." We said in unison, and the four of us watched Draco's face disappear.

As we turned and began walking towards Hagrid's hut, I secured my mirror back into its pouch on my right thigh, and I sighed. "Why the hell would Lucius Malfoy send a letter, with his own personal owl, to Millicent Bulstrode?" I wondered, only loud enough for the trio to hear.

Hermione bit her lip. "What's the significance of it having been sent via his personal owl?" she asked.

I glanced at her. "Another pureblood thing," I said. "Most Heads, either Lord or Lady, of a family will have about two owls, sometimes more, that they use for different sorts of post. One owl is used to send general post, unimportant things, business, and such. While the other owl, the personal owl, is only used to send personal letters, to family, for example, or extremely important or private business. Personal owls are usually trained from birth to defend themselves against interference, whether by magic, another animal, or humans, in order to protect whatever it is that their master sent them to deliver."

It seems that neither Ron nor Harry knew that bit of information either, judging by their thoughtful expressions, though the latter wasn't too surprising. "It's only the second day back," Harry moaned, "and we've already got trouble and another bloody mystery. When are we going to get to the fun part?"

Shaking my head, a small grin suddenly bloomed on my face as we walked down the sloping lawn toward Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. With a child-like laugh, I shoved Harry's shoulder. "You're it!" I giggled, dancing out of his reach.

Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, stopped walking and raised his eyebrow at the display. But then he smiled and quickly tapped Hermione, and stepped away. "You're it!" he laughed. With a snort, Hermione jumped towards us, and we both yelped and took off running, with Hermione chasing after us. Though confused, Ron ran after us, his long legs easily allowing him to catch up with us. Hermione reached out and tapped the back of Harry's head.

"Now, you're it!" she squealed as Harry spun and tossed her over his shoulder. At the sound, I spun around and burst into laughter. Hermione was playfully pounding on Harry's back, yelling through her laughter for him to set her down. Ron and I followed behind the two as Harry carried her all the way to where the rest of the class waited, all four of us flushed and laughing. As Harry set a rather red Hermione down on her feet, she flicked his forehead, and quickly hid behind Ron's tall, broad frame. Ignoring the odd looks we received, the four of us calmed down, still smiling every time we looked at each other.

Professor Grubbly-Plank stood waiting for the rest of the class some ten yards from Hagrid's front door, a long trestle table in front of her laden with what appeared to be twigs. As we crowded around, a loud shout of laughter sounded from behind us; turning, we saw Draco and the other five Slytherins we were friends with walking towards us, their faces only just showing their annoyance. However, it wasn't those six that were laughing, it was Bulstrode, Crabbe, and Goyle…eerily similar of a Care of Magical Creatures lesson the previous year.

Bulstrode had clearly said something funny, because Crabbe and Goyle sniggered heartily, as they joined the rest of around the trestle table. Judging by the fact that the three of them repeatedly glanced at Harry, it wasn't hard to guess the topic of their joke. I saw Harry's jaw tighten, and forced my own temper down, now knowing that it only caused Harry pain.

"Everyone here?" Grubbly-Plank barked. I winced and shook my head, my ears ringing slightly.

Glaring at the woman, I kept my voice calm and respectful. "Excuse me Professor, could you please be mindful that some of us have sensitive hearing?"

The woman peered at me, and I grinned widely, showing off my four fangs. She nodded. "Ah yes, Miss Grey," she said. "I would like you to stay behind after the lesson, so that I may have a word with you."

"No problem, Professor." I said, my face not betraying my confusion and curiosity.

Bulstrode, Crabbe, and Goyle sniggered harder. "Mutt," I heard her mutter nastily.

Without looking at her, I raised an eyebrow, and a large wolf made entirely of bright red fire leapt out of thin air, and darted towards the large girl. She screamed loudly, but before the class could even snap their heads around to look at her, the wolf disappeared, and a dark smirk settled on my lips. Bulstrode's scream caused something else to happen, however; the twigs on the table leapt into the air and revealed themselves to be what looked like tiny pixie-ish creatures made of wood, each with knobby brown arms and legs, two twig-like fingers at the ends of each hand, and a funny, flat, bark-like face in which a pair of beetle-brown eyes glittered.

"Oooooh!" Parvati and Lavender squealed, rather annoyingly.

"Kindly keep your voices down, girls!" Grubbly-Plank ordered, scattering a handful of what looked like brown rice among the stick-creatures, who immediately fell upon the food. "So – anyone know the names of these creatures? Miss Granger?"

"Bowtruckles," Hermione said calmly. "They're tree guardian, usually living in wand-trees."

"Five points to Gryffindor," Grubbly-Plank awarded. "Yes, these are bowtruckles and, as Miss Granger rightly said, they generally live in trees whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?"

"Wood lice," I said clearly. "But if they can get fairy eggs, they'll eat those too."

"Excellent, take five points as well. So, whenever you need leaves or wood from a tree in which a bowtruckle lodges, it is wise to have a gift of wood lice ready to distract or placate it. They may not look dangerous but if angered, they will gouge out human eyes with their fingers, which, as you can see, are very sharp and not at all desirable near the eyeballs. So if you would like to gather closer, take a few wood lice and a bowtruckle – I have enough here for one between three – you can study them more closely. I want a sketch from each of you with all body parts labeled by the end of the lesson."

Despite Grubbly-Plank's words about groups of three, I stuck with the trio as none of us were interested in working with Parvati and Lavender. As we relaxed in the soft grass, I cast a gentle calming charm on the bowtruckle, and it contently settled down enough for us to sketch it.

"Yes," came Bulstrode's pathetic attempt at Draco's drawl, "Father was just talking to Lord Malfoy a few days ago, you know, and it sounds as though the Ministry's really determined to crack down on substandard teaching in this place. So even if that overgrown moron does show up again, he'll probably be sent packing right away!"

Without any change in my facial expression, Bulstrode, Crabbe, and Goyle's half-finished sketches burst into flames and crumbled to ashes, forcing them to start over. Looking I looked over at Draco, who was glaring daggers at the three large Slytherins, but then our eyes met, and I nodded darkly. And so every few minutes, when the three idiots had finished part of their sketch, I would burn it all up, forcing them to start over and over again. This was a constant source of amusement for the trio and the six Slytherins throughout the lesson, and at the end, when it was time to turn in our work, all those three had to turn in was a pile of ashes. Grubbly-Plank gave them detention for not doing the class assignment. All in all, the trio and I were prepared to head off to Herbology with smirks on our faces, when I remembered Grubbly-Plank's request for me to stay behind.

"Wait for me?" I said to the others.

Harry raised his eyebrow in amusement. "Wait for you? I'm coming with you, of course." He said as if it should've been obvious.

"We can come as well, Gia," Hermione added, trying to hide her grin as Ron absently twirled her long, golden brown hair around his fingers. Harry and I shared a bright look, and I shook my head.

"Oh no, don't worry about it. You two can start walking, go slow, we'll catch up in a moment." I said, smiling largely. Blushing brightly, Hermione nodded, slipped her hand in Ron's and pulled him along in the direction of the greenhouses.

Taking a deep breath, Harry and I turned around and walked quickly back towards Professor Grubbly-Plank who was settling the bowtruckles back onto the trestle table. "Professor," I called gently, so as not to startle the little creatures, "You wanted to speak to me?"

Straightening up, Professor Grubbly-Plank looked pointedly at Harry, and my chin came up slightly. "Anything you need to say to me can be said in front of Harry, Professor."

Rolling her eyes, she said, "Very well, Miss Grey. It has become increasingly obvious to me that you are not…entirely human, and forgive me if I offend you, it seems to me that you are part magical-creature?"

Harry and my eyebrows shot up. Whatever I had been expecting the Professor to ask me about, it certainly wasn't my heritage, though I suppose it should've been obvious, seeing as she was our Care of Magical Creatures teacher. "Err…" I said, pushing my hair over my shoulder, "I'm not offended Professor, I'm rather proud of my heritage, and it's been a part of my family since the beginning. As to what magical creature blood I have, ma'am, I am a Lycan."

Now it was Professor Grubbly-Plank's eyebrows to raise. "By Merlin," she breathed, "to meet an actual Lycan descendant. Miss Grey, allow me to get to the point so that you won't be late to your next lesson, I was hoping that you would consent to being the topic of our next lesson?"

My mouth parted slightly in surprise. "You want me to be the creature you display to our class?" I asked, evenly.

She shook her head. "Not exactly, I'm simply asking if you could, perhaps, answer questions about what being a Lycan is truly like, tell some history about your people, etc." she clarified.

I bit my bottom lip, and felt Harry soothingly rubbing the small of my back. "I don't know if I'm comfortable with that request Professor, but," I said, heading off whatever she'd been about to say, "I will talk it over with my friends and consider it."

For the first time, Professor Grubbly-Plank's usually stern expression softened the slightest bit. She was a bit like McGonagall in that respect. "That's more than I could've expected Miss Grey, I thank you. Now, do hurry off to class."

"Good day, Professor!" Harry and I called as we ran to catch up with Hermione and Ron. They weren't too far ahead, and they seemed to have not minded our absence one bit as they walked, Ron with his arm slung loosely around Hermione's shoulder, and her arm around his waist.

"You two will never believe what Grubbly-Plank wanted!" I said as we walked beside the pair. As I told them, their eyes grew wide and their eyebrows rose exponentially. Hermione opened her mouth to speak when the door to the nearest greenhouse slammed open and a bunch of fourth years spilled out, including Ginny and Luna, both of whom appeared furious.

"If you believe him, you're an idiot, Weasley!" a dark-haired girl shouted, storming out after Ginny and Luna. "Just like Loony, here!"

"Harry's telling the bloody truth, you stupid bint! And I dare you to say that again!" Ginny snapped, both her and Luna had their wands pointed at the girl, and she had hers pointed towards them.

"Is there a problem?" I asked smoothly as Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I walked up. The other fourth years hurried back up to the castle. The girl, a fourth year I recognized as Romilda Vane, paled at the sight of us and stormed away, breaking into a run to catch up with the others.

"Romilda Vane was spouting off about Harry during class," Luna said angrily, her normally pale face flushed in her anger. "She caused an entire class argument and the class was split right down the middle, people who believed Harry and people who didn't."

"It might please you to know," Ginny said dryly, "that Sprout believes you about You-Know-Who, Harry."

"And you know we're one hundred percent behind you, right Harry?" Luna added uncertainly. Harry gave the two younger girls one-armed hugs.

"Of course," he said. "Now both of you head off to class or you'll be late. Oh, and try not blast anyone's heads off."

"No promises!" Ginny laughed over her shoulder as the two of them ran back up to the castle. And then, we were quickly approached by Susan, Hannah, and Ernie.

"I'm with you too," Ernie said, shaking Harry's head. "My family's always stood behind Dumbledore, and now I stand behind you, Harry."

"Me too," Hannah added seriously.

"And you already know where I stand," Susan said with a grin. She leaned towards me.

"I know you're still waiting on that explanation Susan, and I promise you'll have it tomorrow, but only after I give you a gift of sorts." I said, heading her off.

She raised an eyebrow. "A gift?"

I nodded. "Yes, you'll find out tomorrow. Think you can wait another day?"

Susan smiled and nodded, almost exasperatedly.

To nobody's surprise, Professor Sprout started our lesson by lecturing us about the importance of OWLs. And I once again, I thought about how busy we'd be this year after assigned an essay when class was about to end. Between training, homework, and various side projects, we'd barely have time for anything extra or fun. At dinner, I wrote a quick letter to Remus about getting more mirrors, putting it in a small box along with a bag of Galleons, and letters from Harry and Draco to Sirius. I had made sure that both included the Bulstrode situation in both of their letters, Draco adding what he knew, and Harry adding what the four of us had pieced together ourselves. I called Prim, who popped softly underneath the table, and shrunk the box, before giving it to her with instructions to give it to Ario. Checking the time, I stood up.

"Come on Harry, we've got detention." I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder.

"I thought you weren't going to serve it?" Harry asked as he got up, as well.

I shrugged. "I guess I owe Umbridge five galleons, because there's no way in hell I'm leaving you alone with her."

We had barely left the Great Hall when an angry voice from behind us said, "Oi, Potter!"

Harry sighed deeply and we turned around to face an angry Angelina. "What now?" he muttered tiredly, his mood rapidly plummeting.

"I'll tell you what now," Angelina growled, poking him hard in the chest. "Why have you got detention already, Potter? I need you at tryouts on Friday, and I can't have you getting into trouble this year!"

Checking the time, I began pulling Harry away, down the corridor. "Don't worry Ang," I called over my shoulder, "I'll keep him out of trouble!"

As soon as we rounded the corner, I shadowed Harry and I into the nearest corridor by Umbridge's classroom. When we knocked on the door, she called, "Come in," in her disgustingly sugary voice. We entered cautiously, me in front of Harry, and looked around. I can't imagine that it looked much better with Lockhart, and the fake-Moody had filled the office with various instruments of detecting wrongdoing and concealment, but now the office looked completely unrecognizable.

The surfaces had all been draped in lacy covers and cloth. There were several vases full of dried flowers, each one residing on its own doily. And on one of the walls was a collection of ornamental plates, each decorated with a large Technicolor kitten wearing a different bow around its neck. These caused my lip to curl up slightly, and my expression didn't change, even as Umbridge spoke.

"I must say, I am surprised to see you, Miss Grey." She said sweetly, though I saw a bead of sweat appear on her low forehead.

I gave her a sarcastic smile. "Simply paying my debt to society, Professor." I said. "I suppose I owe you five galleons, then?"

Umbridge's smile became a bit more fixed. "No thanks," she said, her voice noticeably less sugary.

"Well, sit down," she said, pointing towards a small table draped in lace besides which she had drawn up a high backed chair. With a lazy flick of my wand, I conjured a soft armchair and transfigured Harry's into one as well. As we sat down, I saw that a blank parchment lay on the table, apparently, waiting for Harry.

Harry bent down to reach into his bag, but Umbridge stopped him. "No, not with your quill," she said, "you're going to be using a rather special one of mine." She handed him a long, thin black quill with an unusually sharp point. The second I saw it, I knew that I recognized it from somewhere, but I couldn't put a name to it. I had a bad feeling in my gut, but I leaned back and decided to wait and see.

Umbridge looked at me and she knew from my position – leaning back, legs and arms crossed, eyes cold as ice, and my top fangs just poking out over my lips – that I wasn't going to be doing any line-writing, with her quill or otherwise. She huffed lightly and peered at Harry.

"I want you to write, I will not tell lies," she told him. I gritted my teeth, even as my lips curled back further exposing my fangs, and I felt a slight rumble of a growl beginning deep in my chest, and watched Harry's face abruptly go cold and blank.

"How many times?" he asked without a hint of emotion. I admit I was proud of him in that moment, though Umbridge certainly looked miffed at the lack of reaction. She glanced at me, and I saw her squashed nose take a small sniff, as if to smell smoke in the air. I grinned to myself. It seems she still had the day's lesson in the forefront of her mind.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to…sink in," she said sweetly. "Off you go." She moved over to her desk, sat down, and bent over a stack of parchment that looked like essays for marking. My eyes followed her every move. Harry raised the sharp black quill, and I realized what was missing.

"Wait, doesn't he need ink?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, he won't need ink," Umbridge said with the merest suggestion of a laugh in her voice.

Harry stared at her for a second as if she were a nutter, which I wholeheartedly agreed with, before putting the quill to the parchment and writing: I must not tell lies. He let out a gasp of pain and my eyes snapped from Umbridge to him. The words appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. But the harsh coppery scent of blood assaulted my nose at the same time that the words appeared on the back of Harry's right hand, cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel. Yet even as my inner wolf snarled protectively – the sound coming out of my own mouth – and my vision tinged red, the skin on the back of Harry's hand healed over again, leaving the skin rather red, but unblemished. As my anger mounted, Harry cursed and immediately clutched his stomach.

I rapidly used my Occlumency to reign in my temper, I let it cool into an icy darkness in my core, and I finally realized what the quill was.

"You dare use an illegal blood quill on my Harry?" I snarled, my inner wolf's deep growling creating a sinister undertone, as I stood up from the conjured armchair, I was only two or so inches taller than Umbridge but in my rage, I towered over her in my rage and she shrank. I slowly approached her and she tried to back away but it seemed she couldn't summon enough strength to even move the chair she sat in.

"I'm going to make a few things very clear," I growled angrily, "If you ever attempt to hurt Harry or my other friends in any way, I will rip your arms and legs off with my bare hands, make you eat them, and burn down this bloody office with you in it." I snorted. "And believe me, I know spells that will keep you alive and conscious through all of it."

Umbridge made a choked noise in the back of her throat and her skin disgustingly resembled lumpy, cold porridge.

"Now, I would like to tell you to stop baiting us," I said sarcastically, "but since I know that you're too stupid to heed my warning, prepare for war and one hell of a school year. Grab your bag, Harry." I said, not unpinning my glare from Umbridge. Finally, I spun on my heel, grabbed my bag, and Harry and I walked towards the door. Opening it, we turned one last time.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Umbridge." Harry said icily. I gave her a fanged grin, and we left, slamming the door behind us.

Though it wasn't too late, the corridors were still completely deserted as we made our way up to East Tower, where we found Ron and Hermione waiting up for us. "We'll tell you in the morning," I said tiredly, holding up a hand to stall their questions. "We've got a free period after breakfast…" I paused, "training cancelled tomorrow, I'm sleeping in."

Bidding them goodnight, Harry and I trooped up to our room, took a long, hot shower, in which we thoroughly expressed our love for each other, and then climbed into bed, falling asleep in each other's arms.