For the next few days Tansy spent most of her time avoiding other students; she would eat when the great hall was nearly empty and had started hiding herself away in a corner of the library during her free time. Her animal transformations were still difficult and exhausting; although she had managed to change into a cat a few more times, it required her undivided attention, which was difficult for her at the moment. She also found the whole process extremely draining and twice she'd got stuck in her cat form and had been unable to change back without a rest. Although she'd been reading about Animagi for almost a whole year she was only just beginning to appreciate the level of diligence and repetition that it was going to take for her to be able to change at will into her animal form.

The detentions set by Professor McGonagall after Tansy had cursed Draco had passed relatively painlessly because her head of house had sent her outside to help Hagrid with his game-keeping duties. They'd spent a happy couple of hours sitting in his cabin, drinking cups of coffee and eating Hagrid's homemade rock cakes, or pretending to eat them in Tansy's case. She'd also spent the time trying to persuade Hagrid to teach them something more interesting than Flobberworms: He seemed to have lost his confidence after the disastrous first lesson with the Hippogriffs and since then they'd spent every class poking bits of lettuce down the Flobberworms' slimy throats, a task which Tansy found both revolting and a little pointless as she was never quite sure if she was feeding the correct end.

As a direct result of the negative attention being piled upon her, Tansy's mutism and social anxiety seemed to have escalated until she found herself barely able to cope with day to day life at Hogwarts. She was sitting in the back of the Transfiguration class one lesson, with a bench to herself, when she suddenly became aware that all of the sixth years were staring at her.

'Professor McGonagall asked you a question, squirt,' a sixth year Ravenclaw hissed. Tansy blushed a deep red and looked quickly towards the front of the class, alarmed that Professor McGonagall wanted a response from her.

'Not to worry, Miss Laverstock. I just asked you if you could outline the difference between compound and elemental spells.' Tansy felt herself pale as she heard the question; none of the Professors had ever asked her something that required a verbal response in front of an entire class. She gulped; she knew the answer but she also knew that there was no way that she'd be able to talk in front of so many people.

'What are the differences?' Professor McGonagall walked towards the back of the classroom, obviously still expecting a response. When Tansy still didn't reply, the teacher finally became aware that something wasn't right; she knelt down so that she could look straight into Tansy's panicking eyes.

'Would an elemental Transfiguration require as much concentration as a compound Transfiguration?' The teacher asked, her voice oddly gentle. Tansy took a deep breath, and then, feeling as though the entire world was watching her, she shook her head.

'Correct, twenty points to Gryffindor.' Professor McGonagall stood up again and walked to the front of the class, leaving Tansy staring at the place where she had been knelt. It wasn't until she heard chairs being pushed back and the scuffle of people moving towards the door that she realised that the class had been dismissed. She started shoving her things into her bag, wanting nothing more than to get out of the room before she started crying.

'Miss Laverstock, can I talk to you a moment please?' Tansy nodded but didn't look up from her bag. She willed the tears to stay at bay until she was alone. 'Are you okay Miss Laverstock?' Tansy jumped; Professor McGonagall was standing right in front of her again and she hadn't heard her approach. 'I noticed how distressed you became when I asked you a question.' Tansy bit her lip against the tears welling up inside her.

'I can understand that you do not enjoy being the centre of attention, Miss Laverstock, however no matter how hard you try you will end up being the centre of attention at some point in your life. You won't always be able to blend into the background.' Tansy felt one of the tears over-spill onto her cheek and hoped the Professor wouldn't notice. After a long, uncomfortable silence the teacher finally dismissed her.

'Very well, Miss Laverstock, you can go…' Professor McGonagall sounded older than Tansy had ever heard her.

'Hey Tansy!' Tansy jumped about a foot in the air and swung round on her chair, her heart sinking miserably; somebody else coming to accuse her! Why couldn't they just leave her be? To her relief, she saw that it was Fred Weasley who had called out. He was wearing his red Quidditch robes and had a broomstick over his shoulder. He looked around warily and lowered his voice a little before continuing.

'Look Tansy, George and I badgered Percy. Well you know; there had to be something good we could make out of that bloody head boy badge.' Tansy looked at him suspiciously, wondering where this was going.

'Anyway, we got him to talk to some of the Gryffindors; you know, the ones who thought that you'd let Black into the castle. Oh and he talked to that girl as well, um, what's her name? The one who refused to sleep in your dormitory?'

'Lavender…' Tansy whispered.

'Yeah that one,' Fred continued. 'Anyway we just got him to point out that technically even people in our family are related to Sirius Black. He just told them even if you have rubbish relatives, it doesn't mean that you're like them.' He smiled wonkily at her and Tansy felt her heart miss a beat.

'Thanks…' She said gratefully, blushing slightly as she thought of Percy and the Gryffindors talking about her.

'No problem, look I've got to go to Quidditch practice; here you go…' He smiled again, causing her heart to flutter for a second time. Then he handed her a chocolate frog and left the library. Tansy smiled slightly and shut her books, lowering her forehead to the cracked pages and inhaling the comforting smell of old parchment and dust. She wondered why Fred Weasley had suddenly had such an odd effect on her.

The day before Harry's first Quidditch match of the season Tansy, Hermione and Ron walked into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom to find Snape writing on the blackboard with his wand.

'Sit down,' Snape said, as they stopped in confusion. 'Professor Lupin is feeling too ill to teach today so I have agreed to take the lesson. Sit down and get your books out immediately.'

Tansy slid into a seat beside Hermione and rummaged around in her bag, before turning it upside down on her desk. Her heart sank a little; she'd forgotten her textbook. She glanced quickly at the bookshelf, wondering if she could borrow one before Snape noticed, but it was too late.

'No textbook, Laverstock?' He asked, with a sneer. 'Well I think that we'll have to make that another detention. Tomorrow morning, my office.'

'What, for forgetting a textbook?' Ron protested. Snape swung round.

'Twenty points from Gryffindor, Weasley. Criticize me again and it will be fifty!'

Ron opened his mouth to argue but Tansy put a hand on his arm and shook her head, trying to tell him that it really wasn't worth it.

'Sorry I'm late Professor Lupin, I –' Harry had run into the classroom and he skidded to a halt in front of Snape, who immediately took another ten points off Gryffindor for his late arrival. Tansy looked dispassionately at her friend as he refused to sit down without an explanation as to where Professor Lupin was. She wasn't at all surprised when Snape proceeded to take a further five points from Gryffindor.

The lesson progressed in the same vein; Snape proceeded to teach them about werewolves instead of Hinkypunks and, when Hermione and other members of the class protested, he ignored their comments. The action peaked when he called Hermione an insufferable know-it-all, to which Ron protested vehemently and received detention. Everyone was in a bad mood by the end of the day and the melancholy atmosphere wasn't vastly improved by the weather; the winds had reached gale-force and the rain was torrential. Nobody was looking forward to the Quidditch match the following day; Gryffindor would be playing Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin because apparently Malfoy's arm was still injured. Even Tansy, (who didn't particularly care for Quidditch), could understand why the Gryffindors were worried about the weather conditions effecting their chances for the Inter-House Quidditch Cup; she couldn't see how anyone would be able to remain airborne, let alone see to shoot goals or catch the Snitch.

If she was honest with herself, she was quite pleased to have a valid excuse to miss the game, even if it meant having to spend the morning in Snape's horrible underground office disembowelling a barrel full of horned toads. When was finally allowed to leave, she literally collided with a group of Slytherins who were making their way noisily down the stone passageway to their common room.

'Ah Lavatory,' Malfoy sneered, and Tansy noticed that he had finally taken off his bandages and was waving his arms around flamboyantly. 'Going to see your friend Potty in the hospital wing?' Tansy felt her stomach flip over. Her fear must've shown on her face because Malfoy sniggered.

'Potty fainted and fell off his broom; I think he might be dead.'

'He's not dead but he his maimed for life,' Pansy Parkinson shrieked, amid loud guffaws from the other Slytherins.

'That horrible scar…' Tansy didn't hear any more; she had already pushed past them and was halfway down the corridor. She tried to reassure herself that Harry wasn't dead and that the Slytherins were just trying to wind her up.

'Is he okay?' She panted, having run the whole way to the hospital wing. Hermione and Ron were sitting next to Harry's bed and she was relieved to see that Harry was awake and sitting up. All three of them looked upset and troubled. On the bed lay the remains of Harry's Nimbus 2000. Picking up a shard of wood, she ran her finger down the splintered edge.

'What happened?' She asked, and her voice trembled.

'The Dementors showed up at the match,' Hermione's voice shook and Tansy felt a cold revulsion sweep through her and shivered. 'Harry, well he fell off. We thought he was dead…' A tear rolled down Hermione's cheek.

'We lost the match,' Ron put in. 'Diggory got the Snitch and…' Tansy shook her head at him; she didn't care one Knut about the outcome of the match, she was just pleased that Harry was okay.

'Silver bullets?' Hermione asked feverishly. Tansy shook her head and flicked through her copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them for inspiration. The two friends were sitting in the library, tackling their homework from Professor Snape for the previous Defence class. Tansy knew that neither of the boys were bothering to complete the essay he'd set, but she really didn't want any more detentions with Snape if she could avoid it.

'A werewolf's a human at the end of the day,' she said slowly. 'So I'm guessing he or she can be killed in the same way as anyone else.'

'Oh no! I'm going to have to start again…' Hermione ran her fingers through her bushy hair and crumpled up her parchment and Tansy looked at her friend with concern; she was getting incredibly worried about Hermione's overloaded timetable and had no idea how her friend was coping with the extra classes and the huge amount of homework. Hermione was looking more and more frazzled with each passing day, and was constantly close to tears.

'Let's start by how you recognise a werewolf,' she suggested. 'Look, this could be useful; recognizing the signs of lycanthropy…' Tansy ran her finger down a numbered list. '…oh this one could be useful; it says that a werewolf will look tired and ill on the days leading to and from a transformation and may be unable to hold down a regular job.'

'Or this one,' Hermione put in, reading over Tansy's shoulder. 'It says that transformations are so painful that they typically become a werewolf's worst fear…' She trailed off and Tansy knew immediately that they were both thinking the same thing.

'Professor Lupin's Boggart,' she said hesitantly. 'I thought it was a crystal ball but actually…'

'It was the full moon,' Hermione supplied, looking terrified. 'And last Friday was the day after the full moon!' Hermione put her hands to her mouth in horror. 'Tansy, we have to tell someone.'

Tansy thought for a moment, before shaking her head obstinately. 'No we can't.'

'But…' Hermione began but Tansy cut across her.

'It's all stupid prejudice isn't it? At the end of the day, for twenty seven days out of twenty eight, Professor Lupin's human like the rest of us. Why shouldn't he have a normal job? As long as he steers clear of students when he's dangerous, which he's obviously doing? If we tell someone now, he'll have to leave. This is probably the first decent job he's had for years. Please Hermione, we can't spoil it.' Tansy pleaded.

'But why do you feel so strongly about it Tansy?' Hermione asked, looking perplexed.

Tansy swallowed down her emotions. 'It's just… it's not his fault that he was bitten by a werewolf is it? I mean…' She dropped her voice as something rustled nearby, before continuing. 'Just because something bad happened to him that, just that one time, it doesn't make him a monster.' Hermione nodded thoughtfully and Tansy relaxed slightly.

Malfoy spent most of the next week doing Dementor impressions whenever he saw Harry. Subtlety had never been his strong point, but Tansy thought that he was making it incredibly obvious that he'd been faking his injury all along; he had removed his bandages straight after the Quidditch match without even waiting for a couple of days. After their Thursday morning Potions class, during which Ron lost another fifty points from Gryffindor, he pushed past Tansy as she made her way out of the classroom, causing her to lose her balance. Crabbe and Goyle followed his example and, being about six times her weight, succeeded in knocking her over. As she picked herself up, Harry appeared beside her.

'You okay?' He asked, helping her to pick up her books. Tansy nodded in reply and brushed down her Arithmancy homework which had been crumpled and torn by the Slytherins' clumsy feet. Harry looked over his shoulder to make sure that no one was within earshot.

'Listen Tansy, you know when that Dementor picked you up on the train?' He began, talking very fast. Tansy shuddered as she remembered the clammy hands and the intense cold that had penetrated her very bones, before nodding reluctantly.

'You know, well you know you sort of passed out… I, erm, well I just wondered, did you hear things from your past?' He trailed off, blushing furiously and Tansy looked at him levelly. 'When I get near a Dementor, I can hear Voldemort murdering my mum…' Tansy could see tears pricking the corners of his eyes and put a comforting hand on his arm.

'Dementors make you relive the worst experiences of your life, Harry. The worst that has happened to you would make anyone pass out.' Her voice trembled slightly but she carried on anyway.

'When the Dementor on the train picked me up, I remembered being tortured by my mum when I was just a baby and…' She hurriedly stopped herself from saying too much and changed the subject slightly. 'I... I never want to see that again.'

Harry gulped, 'I'm sorry Tansy…'

'Not your fault,' she whispered. 'It's just hard knowing that, that she was just as bad as the rest of them…'

Harry put a hand on her shoulder and didn't speak again until they had entered the great hall.

'Professor Lupin made the Dementor on the train back off. Maybe he could teach us how to fight them?' Tansy nodded apprehensively.

'Lupin doesn't really like me…' She began. 'Maybe he'd teach you, but he wouldn't want anything to do with me.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Harry said, looking annoyed; Professor Lupin was his favourite teacher and he didn't like hearing anything against him. 'Look, I'm sure that he'd teach us both, but if you don't want to ask him, then I'll do it on my own.'

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