I don't own Harry Potter. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling. The only thing I own is Ami.

Chapter Thirty Three

Learning to find Happiness...and possibly the Truth

When spring came to Hogwarts and the snow melted from the Whomping Willow Harry was with Professor Lupin learning how to defend himself against Dementors, not that she could blame him if it meant that he would no longer faint because of their effects. Good on him, in her honest opinion. He was taking the initiative and facing fear itself, she couldn't help but admire him for that. She was almost jealous that she didn't think to join him, but it was really too late to ask. All she could do was to wish him the best of luck.

Ami was sitting in the Common Room in front of the fire, waiting up for him when he came walking through the Portrait Hole.

"How did it go?" she asked.

He looked at her in surprise, he hadn't expected her to be there.

"Really well. He taught me the Patronus Charm, it's meant to defend me against Dementors." Harry explained.

"That's good, isn't it?" she smiled. "How's it done?"

"I need to think about my happiest memory, and say Expecto Patronum at the same time."

The Elemental nodded her head, figuring that his happiest memory was with his parents; if she was learning the Charm, she would have picked a moment with her parents before her mother's death, and there was no denying that her father was happier when she was alive that he was now. A smile touched her lips as she spoke.

"I'm happy for you, Harry. I really am."

It was the following morning when things started to go wrong. The Golden Quartet were heading out into the Clock Tower Courtyard when an argument broke out between Hermione and Ron; Ami was vaguely listening due to the fact that she was drawing in her book again, while Harry was trying to figure out what the fight between two of his best friends was about.

"It would be a beautiful day, if you haven't been ripped to pieces!" Ron snapped.

"Ripped to pieces?" Harry asked. "What are you talking about?"

Hermione sighed in annoyance.

"Ronald has lost his rat."

"I haven't lost anything! Your cat killed him!" Ron yelled.

"Did not!"

"Did!"

Ami rolled her eyes and closed her book with a snap.

"For goodness sake... You're both acting like children."

Ron scrunched up his face in irritation.

"Harry, Ami, you've seen that bloodthirsty beast of hers always lurking about. And now Scabbers is gone!"

Hermione rounded towards him, her brown eyes blazed in anger.

"Maybe you should learn to take better care of your pets!"

"Your cat killed him!"

"Did not!"

"Did!"

Ami leant over and whispered into Harry's ear as the couple continued their argument.

"What's betting that the bloody rat's going to turn up sooner or later?" she whispered.

"How about a Galleon?" he responded.

She snorted.

"Never took you as the betting sort, Harry."

"I'm not, and you aren't either."

"Ooh, touché, my friend."

They stayed silent for a moment before Ami leaned over to whisper into his ear.

"Still want to bet that Galleon?"

Harry snorted in laughter.

They all went down to the Black Lake's shore, where Hagrid was skipping stones, wearing the suit he wore to Buckbeak's hearing at the Ministry. Ami sat down with her book and begun drawing the scene, listening while her quill danced across the page. Hermione sat down beside her.

"How did it go, Hagrid? The hearing?" she asked.

The giant man rolled his eyes, and turned over the stone in his hands.

"Well, they started by taking turns talking about why we were there. Then I said my peace about Buckbeak being a good Hippogriff, always cleaned his feathers."

He sighed heavily, skipping the stone across the lake and taking up another one in his hands.

"Then Lucius Malfoy said that Buckbeak was a deadly, dangerous creature that would attack as soon as you looked at him."

Another skipped stone.

"And then he asked for the worst, good old Lucius. Buckbeak's been sentenced to death!"

Night fell on the castle, and the Gryffindors were now able to sleep back inside their tower. Ami was curled up in her bed, wrapped up in her quilt as if it was a cocoon. Tossing and turning she was unable to sleep, so she climbed out of bed and made her way down to the Common Room. She pulled her hair out of her ponytail and carded her fingers through it, hoping to tame what she suspected was bed hair. It turned out to be a good idea because once she stepped towards the collection of sofas and chairs in front of the fire, she bumped head first into Harry.

"Oof!"

She ended up tumbling to the floor with a groan.

"Ouch..."

Harry looked at her with wide eyes.

"Ami? What are you doing awake?" he asked.

The Elemental looked up at him with sleepy eyes, a pout formed on her lips.

"I couldn't sleep, what about you?"

With a Lumos lit wand he showed her the Marauders' Map.

"You remember that conversation we overheard at the Three Broomsticks?" he asked. Ami nodded her head. "Well, take a look at what I saw on the map."

He pointed to a part of the castle, and Ami saw what he meant. Peter Pettigrew was scurrying around the corridors, when he was meant to be a dead man. Oh, she was going to make him wish that he had killed her that night, because she was coming after him.

"Let's go."

Together they wandered down the darkened corridors, past sleeping paintings and unlit torches. Harry's wand served as the only light source, since they thought it unwise to expose the fact that Ami was with him. She could easily get away if she needed to, but that was unlikely, unless Harry forced her of course. They kept their eyes on Peter Pettigrew's name, seeing that he was beyond the next corner and coming straight towards them.

"Here he comes, get your wand out, Ami." Harry told her.

The Elemental nodded her head and drew her wand out of her pyjama pocket, aiming it into the darkness. Glancing down they saw that he was coming towards them quickly, scurrying like a cowardly rat before he dodged around them and disappeared around the next corner.

"That's impossible! Did you see him go past?!" Ami asked.

"No! Did you?" Harry responded.

"No!" She paused for a moment. "How could he have gone past us? Does he have an Invisibility Cloak or something?"

He looked at her with wide eyes.

"Shouldn't we be more concerned with the fact that a man who is meant to be dead is wandering around the castle?"

"...Oh yeah..."

They looked down at the map and saw that Snape was coming from behind them.

"Ami, run! I'll deal with Snape!" Harry ordered.

She wanted to protest but he pushed her forward and closed the map. Ami shook her head and ran back to the Gryffindor Common Room (how she managed to avoid Filch and the teachers she would never know).

It was her decision to curl up in one of the red armchairs in front of the fire when she got back inside. She wanted to wait for him to return, and hopefully avoid a detention if seeing Lupin on the way towards them was anything to go by. Thinking about it, she never got the chance to talk about the Defence against the Dark Arts class with Hermione; she made a note to discuss it with her the next day. Ami let out a yawn and curled up like a cat in the large chair, legs dangling over one of the arms and her head resting against the other. It wasn't long before she fell asleep there and then, it seemed all the excitement had caught up to her...

Meanwhile Harry was with Professor Lupin, who had been merciful and had managed to get Snape off his back (a miracle in itself, thinking about it). They were in the DADA classroom, Lupin holding the Marauders' Map with an angry expression on his face.

"Of all the things to find, I don't know how this map came to be in your possession. Why on Earth were you wandering around the school at night on your own?" he snapped.

Harry thought about it for a moment, he figured it was safe to say that Ami had been with him.

"I wasn't on my own... Ami came with me."

Lupin sighed.

"That's not the point! The fact is that you did something incredibly dangerous, especially with Sirius Black on the loose. This map in his hands would lead him straight to you. Did you think about that?"

Harry shook his head.

"No, Sir."

"Wandering about the castle in the dead of night with a killer on the loose is a poor way to repay your parents. They sacrificed their lives for you, so I am not going to punish you. But I am going to keep this map for the time being."

The boy nodded his head.

"Yes, Sir."

The professor smiled.

"Now, go back to your dormitory. I'll see you in the morning."

As Harry walked away, he realised something and called out.

"Professor, just so you know, I don't think that map's working very well. It showed someone that I know to be dead."

Lupin looked back at him.

"Who was it?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"That's impossible..."

"That's what I thought, not so sure about Ami though. Just telling you what I saw. Goodnight, Professor."

He returned to the Common Room and found Ami asleep, obviously waiting for him. Looking at her bedraggled hair and sleeping face brought a smile to his face. For reasons unknown to him at the present time, Harry leant down and pressed his lips to her forehead.

"Sweet dreams, Ami."

Just then he heard footsteps from the stairs to the girls' dorm. He looked up and saw Hermione come down, her body wrapped up in a white dressing gown.

"Been out sneaking around again?" she asked with a yawn.

"If you're looking for Ami, she was with me. I told her to come back here, she must have been waiting and fell asleep." Harry explained.

Hermione sighed.

"No points lost?"

"No points lost."

"Alright, help me get her over to the stairs. I'll put her to bed."

They cast the Levitation Charm together and floated the sleeping girl up the stairs. Harry called up the stairs after the two girls.

"Goodnight!"

Hermione smiled at him.

"Goodnight Harry."

Ami groaned in her sleep.

"Night... Night..."

The two of them chuckled at her midnight mutterings before disappearing off to bed.

What do you think? Let me know with your reviews. I am more than happy to receive constructive criticism about Ami and this story. Any questions? I am willing to answer them.

It feels good to be back writing. I couldn't take my computer with me on holiday. I'm hoping to use this week to play catch up.

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