Author's Note: Continued thanks to AjaTheNerdBunnyAuthor and MissesE!

Chapter 29 Corporeal Four

As the days went by more and more children began to arrive from winter break and Kim was bombarded with stories of other children's family vacations. The only person who seemed to have had a vacation even slightly as bad as hers was Grey who explained to her one chilly afternoon how he'd spent his christmas in his room as his parents had decided to go out for dinner.

"My mom doesn't want me telling my step dad that I'm a wizard," Grey said shyly.

"So you're a mud- muggleborn?" Kim asked. She'd almost said the word but caught herself.

"No, my mom's definitely a witch and so is my biological dad," said Grey. "I'm actually named after him but he and my mom were never married."

"Your dad's name was Grey?" Kim asked.

Grey shook his head. "Something to do with his last name," he said. "I'm not really suppose to talk about him. He wasn't exactly the best person."

Kim had become very familiar with that term. A lot of people in Slytherin said they were descended from 'not the best people', meaning death eaters. Other's we're proud of it, but quietly so as nowadays it was shameful to speak about.

"What about Lilith?" Kim asked.

Grey's spine straightened suddenly as if the sound of his sister's name was enough to scare him to pieces.

"What about her?" Grey asked.

"You said she's your half sister," Kim said.

Grey relaxed a little. "Oh," he said. "She's related on my mom's side."

Kim could tell Grey was a little uncomfortable talking about his sister but she pressed on anyway. There was something about her that just didn't seem right.

"Does she still go to Durmstrang?" Kim asked.

"No," Grey said and adjusted his bangs apsentmindendly. "She doesn't really like school that much so she kind of just does whatever she wants."

Kim laughed. "So she just skips school and everyone's cool with that?" she said. "How come the ministry of magic doesn't require her?"

"Look," Grey said. "I'm sure everyone would rather talk about my sister but I really don't want to talk about her right now. Can we just leave it at that?"

"Yeah," Kim said. "Sorry."

Just then Diamond came bursting through the door. "Kim! Kim! Guess who's here?"

Kim squealed happily as Diamond stepped back to reveal Cherokee.

"Your hair!" Kim screamed.

Over the break Cherokee had cut her raven black hair into a chin length bob. Kim noticed she was also wearing a bit of make up now too.

"Your hair!" Cherokee said as she gave Kim a hug. "It's practically brown now, what happened?" she laughed. "Did someone have a ruff night. Get it, ruff! Ruff!"

Kim whirled around and saw Grey's eyes dart quickly away.

"Cherokee have you met Grey?" she said before Cherokee gave him any more reason to be suspicious.

Cherokee covered her mouth but Kim could tell she was still smiling. She grabbed Kim and Diamond both by the elbows and took them over to a corner away from everyone else.

"Guess who I saw on the train," Cherokee said. "Leisel the Weasel!"

"Don't you think it's time we forgive her?" Diamond said. "I mean she was our friend and-" Diamond lowered her voice to a whisper. "She knows our secret."

"Our secret?" Kim raised an eyebrow.

"Yes our," said Diamond. "The three of us were still working on becoming animagi. What if she goes and tattles to Professor Alexandria about everything. She already suspects Kim of lycanthropy."

"Speaking of which," Cherokee said as she produced a roll of parchment from her bag. "After this essay you're going to have to be really careful," she said. "It was pretty easy for me because I actually know a werewolf but for the other kids, they might have actually done some research. You're not exactly flying under the radar Kim. I mean the first sign is physical scars. A werewolf when isolated from other humans turns to self harm. The second is decoloration of the hair. Everyone knows you were bright spanking blonde when you first came to Hogwarts. Personally I think you rock the brunette look but others might notice, especially since you disappear about once a month to go visit your grandmother or something."

Diamond sucked in a breath. "Touchy subject," she whispered.

Just then someone behind them cleared their throat and all three girls spun around on the balls of their feet. Kim was immediately surprised to see Liesel standing there, her hair as curly and mousy brown as ever and separated into two girlish pigtails.

"Hi guys," Liesel said and shuffled her feet awkwardly. "I uh, just wanted to apologize to you all. Especially Cherokee. Um that was sort of dumb telling James and his friends about your blood status."
"You think," scoffed Cherokee.

"I'm really sorry," said Leisel. "And it's not like I told them about Kim. I at least kept my mouth shut there."

"And if you hadn't, we would have hexed you so badly you wouldn't be able to walk again in your life," Diamond said.

"Yeah, telling them my secret was still really not cool though," said Cherokee, crossing her arms.

"And I'm sorry!" Leisel pleaded. "Look, I came back because I have an idea for our animagi transformations."

Cherokee raised an eyebrow. "Really now?"

"Yes," said Leisel. "I found out my uncle is unregistered. He told me you have to brew this potion as well as recite this super complex transfiguration charm. He even gave me the recipe," Liesel said, and provided from her bag a crumbled piece of parchment paper.

"I don't know, looks a little sketchy," said Diamond as they passed the paper around.

Alright Leisel you've got one last shot to hang with us," said Cherokee as she handed the recipe back. "But if you ever betray me or anyone else again we will end you."

"Got it," said Liesel shakily and she took a deep breath.

"Great," said Kim. "Glad we're all back together because I've got something to show you all."

"Kim how come we've got to come all the way out into the forbidden forest in order for you to show us something?" Diamond asked several minutes later.

The four girls were standing in a circle around the stump Kim had found previously and three of them were utterly confused. Liesel looked a little scared even. There wasn't a reason why this needed this to happen, Kim just felt deep down like it was something she had to do. At that moment the sun sparked through the trees and sunbeams danced on the girl's faces. As Kim looked around she had this weird feeling like the four of them met here at this very stump all the time. It was a hard feeling to describe and then when Kim found the words, the feeling quickly dissipated.

"I need to teach you all the patronus charm," said Kim.

Cherokee laughed. "Kim are you feeling alright?" she asked.

"What even is the patronus charm?" asked Liesel.

"Quiet Weasel," Cherokee snapped.

Kim took a breath. "I don't know why but I have this feeling that the four of us are suppose to learn it," she explained.

Diamond raised an eyebrow. "And why is that exactly? The patronus charm is extremely complex. Why the sudden need to learn it right this very minute?"

Kim didn't have an answer but with every passing second she felt more and more anxious to get it over with.

"Is someone going to tell me what the patronus charm is?" Liesel demanded.

Cherokee let out an irritated sigh.

"The patronus charm is like a forcefield that dementors feed off of. It's extremely difficult to maintain let alone summon," she explained. "Advanced wizards have patronuses that take the form of a specific animal. Sort of like an animagus does when you change into it."

"Okay everyone link arms," said Kim.

She didn't know why or where she'd gotten this idea but it made sense that if they were somehow able to link their powers, they might cast stronger spells.

"Kim this is stupid," said Liesel as she reluctantly grabbed Cherokee's arm.

"Just trust me about this," Kim said. "Repeat after me, Expecto Patronum."

The group repeated the spell back to her and then took out their wands. On the count of three they all lifted them into the air and shouted the spell.

It was incredible. Silvery creatures erupted from the tips of each of the girl's wands and Kim could feel the energy buzzing around them. A silvery rat was skipping around Liesel's head, a wispy stag pranced from Cherokee's wand tip and a fearsome wolf prowled around Kim with a snarl. All this happened in an instant though because as soon as the creatures could be identified, Diamond screamed and skidded backwards, breaking the circle and wiping out the creatures.

"What just happened?" said Cherokee.

"It was the Grim!" Diamond shouted. "The Grim, it's everywhere," she began to sob. "I've been having dreams about it at night. I think it's following me. Kim do you know what this means?" she wailed.

"Wait, the Grim is your patronus?" Kim asked. "Are you sure? It might just be an animal that looks like it, or another type of dog."

"No it was the Grim!" Diamond insisted.

"Who cares!" shouted Liesel. "We just summoned actual patronuses. That makes us like magical geniuses or something."

Kim wasn't sure how good she felt about her own patronus. Were to anyone besides her friends see it, people might take that as a clue to who she really was. It made her a little angry as well, to not have a patronus that truly represented her.

"Kim how did you know that would happen when we linked arms?" Cherokee asked.

"I don't know, I just did," said Kim. "It was just this weird feeling. I also feel like it was a one time thing like we can't do that again."

"Well I don't want to do it again," said Diamond, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm done with this."

The girls made their way back to the castle and trudged through the thick snow, hugging their winter clothes close to them. As they reached the great hall, Kim, Diamond, Cherokee and Liesel ran into the two people the needed to see the least right then.