Remember I update by the year but it has multiple parts, so be checking what chapter you're on so you don't lose your place. Please, please, please drop a comment on what you think. Thanks guys!

The usual after break avalanche hit us from the very first class Monday when Professor Flitwick set us work on Repairing Charms. They were simple in theory but you could only try to fix a broken ceramic bowl fruitlessly before you wanted it to stay broken. The good news was the charm could be used on a variety of things meaning we could practice it often, the bad news was that's exactly what Professor Flitwick expected. We were expected to have it down by Charms on Friday and my expectations were not high.

Cad and I handed in our translations in runes only to be set two more burial obelisks to have done by Wednesday. After lunch we were finally tackling Salamanders in Care of Magical Creatures which Cad had been waiting for for months. Professor Shortwood had a blazing fire on the grounds which housed a Salamander in it's fire folds. It blended in almost perfectly which made it very hard to distinguish enough of it to sketch. Professor Shortwood then notified us Saturday there would be a mandatory four hour Care of magical Creatures lesson where we'd have to keep a Salamander alive away from it's home fire which meant a lot of reading as well.

Transfiguration was more notes on human transfigurations, this time involving more complicated ones like bones and muscles which meant we were finally touching on whether you could give yourself wings. The short answer was: yes, if you dared. We were set a full chapter of reading to finish and take notes on for a quiz Wednesday. I was thoroughly exhausted and not at all looking forward to Astronomy but at least it motivated the others sufficiently to join me in the library and get a head start since there was zero chance we were getting to bed at a decent time.

Keeli and I went up to the common room, planning on merely reading until time to leave for Astronomy, but all expectations of relaxation were chucked right out the window when we walked in to see the entire house gathered in the common room.

"What's going on?" Keeli and I rushed over to Eunice and Dorothy who were looking more than a little upset. Eunice was actually full on crying.

"They're tossing our rooms!" Eunice sobbed. "They took my mice and loads of other things."

"Who's they?" I asked, shooting a look up the boy's dorm stairs where some loud thuds were sounding.

"Eleanor mostly. Filch is just finishing up with the boys' ones now, as the Prefects refused to help." Dorothy said miserably.

"Flitwick is just letting her get away with this?" I asked indignantly.

"He's the one who came in here and told us. He's over there." Dorothy pointed to a group of people but of course given the Professor's size I didn't see him until I'd shoved my way to the front.

The large table in the middle of the common room had been piled with all sorts of things from books to an assortment of large creatures. A line had formed of people protesting their things being taken away but very few got a verdict overturned. One of the fifth year boys was currently arguing his collection of spiders was necessary for his research into spider venom but Professor Flitwick was having none of it, saying 'lethal creatures aren't permitted'.

"A cat could be lethal, Professor, if angry enough." one of the fourth year girls argued.

"Yes, Ms. Derty, but these spiders are incredibly venomous. One bite from these creatures could prove easily fatal and would require specialist antivenom. A cat could be warded off with a wand. Additionally, the pet policy makes it very clear that only cats, owls, and toads are allowed. I'm sorry, Mr. Augustine, but they're going to be taken from you."

I looked around the table to see my new potions book in the pile. I reached out to grab it but a hand shot out quick as a snake to slap it away.

"Now now, Ms. Hales, that book is forbidden." Eleanor was giving me an infuriating smile.

"No it's not! We have it in the Hogwarts library!" I crossed my arms, turning to Professor Flitwick. "It's not forbidden, it's just discouraged. Professor Slughorn will vouch for me to have it, I'm sure."

"I understand, Ms. Hales." Professor Flitwick said patiently. "But as of now you have no permission slip to own this book, and the library has it in the restricted section for a reason. I'm afraid I can't let you have it back."

"Can't you write me a note Professor?"

He shook his head. "I'm not familiar with your potion's work. I'm sorry but I wouldn't know if you're ready for these sorts of brews or not. Get a note from Professor Slughorn and I'll be happy to return it."

"Also, Hales." Eleanor gave a smirk as she pulled over two leather cases that made my blood boil. "There were a number of worrying potions in your trunk."

"Excuse me? Those are mostly potion's I've brewed in class, they can't possibly be outlawed!"

"Well, Ms. Hales." Professor Flitwick waved his wand to make a few float in the air. "Erumpent Potion is covered in third year, but is forbidden to be outside of the classroom. That'd be incredibly dangerous if it was to go off in your room. Also love potions are strictly banned, as well as Veritaserum."

"You honestly think I'd be waving around Erumpent Solution, Professor? I made it, I know what it's capable of." I tried not to yell.

"Professor, don't you think we should take all the potions? We don't know if these labels are even correct." Eleanor gave me a sickening smirk.

"No, Ms. Heady. We only take the banned items." he floated the potions over to his side and gestured for Eleanor to give me back my precious potion cases.

Eleanor gave me another smirk as she slid the cases to me, purposefully shoving them as roughly as possible. I stormed back to the couch to throw myself next to Keeli, opening the case to resort the potions she'd rummaged through.

Keeli saw the look on my face and knew what it must be about. "They took your book, didn't they?"

"Of course she did! And my potions!" I angrily reorganized. "She's so going to pay for this."

"Amelia, you know that won't help anything." Keeli was rubbing Eunice's back as she was still crying. "We try to get her back, then she'll want to get us back, and it'll start a vicious cycle."

I grumbled, angry she was right, and resigned to concocting revenge theories in my head. Finally thirty minutes later Professor Flitwick left the common room with all the confiscated items, leaving the rest of us in varying shades of angry to furious. Eleanor got more than a fair share of glares as we all marched up to our rooms. In addition to having our things taken, everything was left a mess. My robes were strewn about the floor and most of my books were piled on my bed. It took us another hour to return the room to a general state of organization, not helped by the fact Eunice was still crying over her confiscated pets. Joining the other houses at the Astronomy Tower a few hours later was a flurry of exchanging the news about the ransack. We walked up to the others and they seemed to have already grasped the broad strokes.

"The Head Girl took your book I got you?" Cad looked outraged.

"And your potions?" Louk threw in, equally upset.

"Yeah. The book got taken because it's 'restricted' but I can get it back if I get a note from Slughorn. Not all my potions, just some of the more 'dangerous' ones. Luckily none of them were my special vials, just my plain ones."

"What are you guys doing to get back at her?" Cad asked immediately as Professor Sinistra asked us to take out our telescopes.

"Nothing. That'll only make things worse." I pursed my lips.

"You're just going to take it lying down?" Amber looked personally offended.

"I don't like it any more than you, but retaliating will only start a vicious cycle of us trying to get back at each other. Eleanor has a lot more power than we do."

"And you have a house full of the biggest brains in the school I thought!" Cad threw his hands in the air.

"Smart enough to know revenge will only make it worse." Keeli warned. "We want this to be as bad as it gets."

Louk shook his head as he set up next to me. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with the Gryffindors. I think it's naive to do nothing. If she learns she can steamroll you she'll just do it again."

"Or she steamrolls us now and when we don't offer any resistance she moves on to something else."

"Couldn't you-"

"Look, it was my stuff she took. I'm mad about this, don't get me wrong, but she could make our lives a lot worse. So can we just drop it please?"

He scowled but turned back to his telescope in silence. The lesson seemed to drag on forever as we looked at Saturn's moons, finally letting out at one. I was so tired I barely had it in me to be mad as I collapsed into bed.

The next morning I steered away from the delicious smell of breakfast to head up to the teacher's table where Professor Slughorn was already spreading jam across some scones.

"Good morning, Professor."

"Good morning, Ms. Hales!"

"Very long story short, professor Flitwick has confiscated a potions book from me because he feels I'm not of an advanced enough level to handle them. He said I can get it back with a note from you confirming I can handle the potions inside responsibly."

"What book might this be?"

"Moste Potente Potions."

"Quite a serious book. May I ask how you came across it?"

"It was a Christmas gift."

"To what purpose do you plan to use it? There are some rather serious potions in there."

"It has some very interesting sections on potion safety and precautions, as well as an entire chapter on poison antidotes." I wasn't lying technically, but I didn't think it would win me any points if I admitted the illustrations of Polyjuice Potion gone wrong and the section on ways to sneak poisons into someone's food didn't interest me as well.

"I suppose you could handle them alright. You managed to brew an Erumpent Solution all on your own without exploding my lab. Do you have a piece of parchment?"

I handed him the piece of parchment and quill I'd already had ready, waiting while he scribbled a note. I looked down to see Professor Flitwick's chair empty however, and gave an inward huff.

"There you go, dear girl."

"Do you know where Professor Flitwick is?"

"He's already been by and gone. I'd assume he's up preparing for his lesson."

"Thank you so much sir. I'll see you tomorrow in class, then."

"Of course." he nodded his head as I turned to leave out of the Hall and head upstairs.

I was passing through the door when two sleepy Slytherins caught my eye. Damian gave a small wave as he passed me, but Louk stopped to chat after a monumental yawn.

"Where are you off to this early?"

"Going up to Flitwick's to get my book back."

"Are you getting your potions back as well?"

"No. They are strictly forbidden, and I doubt they're even around anymore. They were probably Vanished."

"Can I come with you?"

"Why?" I gave him a suspicious look but he just yawned again.

"I just want to."

I pursed my lips but nodded, gesturing for him to follow me. We passed the Gryffindors on the stairs but they were already on a staircase moving away from us so we merely waved.

"Are you sure you aren't going to try and get back at Eleanor?"

"I thought we'd agreed to drop this."

"But what if someone else, besides a Ravenclaw, was to exact revenge?"

"I'm one of the few Ravenclaws who has friends in other houses. She would know in about two seconds."

"That's presuming I got caught which, I mean, it's me." he held his hand out but I slapped it away.

"You'd be going against a seventh year Ravenclaw. She's very smart and very knowledgeable."

"But is she as cunning as a snake?" he tapped the symbol on his robes.

"She's probably already prepared for retaliation, I know I would."

"Yeah, from other Ravenclaws. She won't expect an attack from the other houses."

"Okay let's stop using the term 'attack' real quick." I looked around worriedly. "You said you'd drop it. Talking about it just makes me feel worse. At least I'm lucky and can get my stuff back."

We made it to the second landing and started walking to the Charms classroom. "Did any of the other Ravenclaws have their experiments ruined?"

"Oh yeah." I shuddered at the mere thought. "Lots of them."

He nodded, delving deep into thought, which I knew meant nothing good. I knocked on Professor Flitwick's door and walked in after getting a verbal confirmation. He was sitting at his desk grading papers as I walked up, showing him the note.

"Here's a note from Professor Slughorn regarding that book I got confiscated yesterday."

"Excellent, Ms. Hales! I'm sorry about that but you know we can never be too safe. Some of those potions would be very dangerous if they were to be attempted before one was ready." he rambled while he pulled out a spare piece of parchment, scribbling a few words. "Polyjuice Potion alone can go horribly wrong, not to mention all the poisons. Here you are. Take this note down to Mr. Filch in his office and he'll return your book."

"You don't have it?" I tried not to sound let down as I quickly read the note he gave me.

"Heavens no, I don't have the room! Confiscated items are turned over to Mr. Filch who has them filed away in a closet in his office. Well, 'closet' is misleading. It's probably around a large corridor at this point. He doesn't confiscate quite an awful lot."

"Mr. Filch has all the confiscated items in a closet?" Louk asked.

Professor Flitwick nodded. "Under lock and key, mind you; but just hand him that note and he'll fetch your book for you."

"Thank you, sir." I sighed. We left the room, closing the door behind us. "Man, I just want my book back. I didn't want to go on a whole quest around the castle."

"Could you maybe...hold off for a bit?"

"Hold off on getting my book back?" I gave him a look like he was crazy because, honestly, it was an absurd thing to ask of me especially.

"Please. Just until the end of the day." he gave me a sweet smile I glared at suspiciously.

"What are you up to?"

"Nothing, dearest Amelia. I would like to go with you is all. I'll meet you here in the foyer after the last bell? Do you even know where his office is?'

I thought about it for a second, realizing I didn't. The bell for first period rang, seemingly making my mind up for me. "Fine, but you better meet me right after the bell or I find it alone!" I shouted as I ran up the stairs to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

After the short lesson on boggarts to continue practicing our Riddikulus spell, I had a full double History of Magic lesson to ruminate on what Louk could possibly want with Mr. Filch's office. Clearly he was conspiring somehow against Eleanor but I just wasn't sure how. He was mysteriously missing at lunch along with the Gryffindors in our group, leaving him unavailable for questioning, and I in fact didn't see him until he met me after the last bell. He ignored all of my questions as we walked to Mr. Filch's office and pretty soon the prospect of facing the aggressive watchman shook my suspicion into fear. I stood in front of the door that had a long list of the school's rules tacked to it, biting my lip before Louk nudged me.

"Go on."

I knocked so softly I was almost convinced he wouldn't hear me, but the old man must have had hearing like a bat because he ripped the door open not half a second later.

"What!"

"I-I have a note." I tried not to let my arm shake as I held out Flitwick's note to him.

He yanked it from my hand, scanning the note and scowling as he deemed it legitimate. "Come in then."

Louk had to shove me into the office where I stood still as stone, Mr. Filch himself taking a key from among the many on his belt to unlock what looked to be a closet door in the corner of his office. When he opened it I saw not a tiny closet, but a huge room rivaling the Great Hall absolutely packed and stacked with all manner of items. Live creatures crawled around, an entire barrel of Fanged Frisbees jumped of its own accord near the door as the gnarled groundskeeper limped out of sight. Louk was leaning over my shoulder to get a good look around in the few seconds Filch was gone, dutifully resuming a casual stance as the man returned clutching my precious book.

"Here." he shoved it at me.

I took it gratefully, clutching it to my chest. "Thank you, sir."

"Now go on, get out of here." he growled.

I didn't need to be told twice but the second I turned around to leave my foot hit something solid, making me trip and fall flat on my face at Filch's feet. Louk knelt next to me and offered me a hand up, an odd expression on his face.

"Always so clumsy."

"Sorry." I apologized to the groundskeeper before retaking my feet and scurrying out before he could give me detention or something.

"Well that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Louk was giving me a smile as we left the office.

"What do you mean, it was horrible! I never want to go in there again."

"Well, you shouldn't have to, unless that Head Girl of yours gets up to anymore trouble."

"Even so, she can't take my book again. I have a note now, and my potions will be Vanished on the spot."

"Don't remind me." he grumbled as we ascended the steps to head to the courtyard.

"Why did you want to go with me?"

"I figured you'd need a friend."

"Really, Louk."

"Really I just wanted to go with you, okay?"

"You and Cad aren't up to anything?"

"Why whatever do you mean, dearest Amelia?" he batted his eyelashes at me to which I continued to deadpan at.

"We asked you not to intervene."

"I promise I won't be doing a thing against Eleanor, alright?" he took my hand as we walked through the second floor corridor. "Now, we have more pressing matters to discuss. The next Hogsmeade visit is two Saturdays from now."

"Okay."

"And I want you to go with me. COnsider it making it up to me for ditching the Grey's party."

"I suppose that's fair."

"I thought maybe after breakfast we visit the candy store first, then the bookstore, then decide from there?"

"Sounds fine." I shrugged. "I'm not too picky on what we do."

"Perfect." he smiled as we walked up to the others.

Potion's Club after school Wednesday was a welcome retreat as I started on another batch of Erumpent Solution to replace the one I'd lost.

After classes now Keeli and I were rather reluctant to go back to the common room given the circumstances so we spent more and more time in the library. It was a theme throughout the house, and I'd never seen so many Ravenclaws out in the wild before. Some didn't seem to mind so much, like the artists who could set their easels up just about anywhere in the castle, but a few who needed peace and quiet for their work were visibly frustrated slouched in stairwells or in old classrooms. A few of them who'd had their experiments completely ruined, like the boy with the spiders, was in a visibly bad mood. The Prefects weren't in the best of tempers either, and it was unusual to avoid so many of my housemates.

The second week didn't pass much better than the first, and tensions in the Ravenclaw house were high. Eleanor was a noticeable pariah amongst us, but being an outsider had never bothered Ravenclaws very much. There was a good distance between her and the rest of us at meals and she alone was handling most of the Prefect duties as they seemed to be placating in protest. The library was officially my second home and it's where I spent a solid majority of my time out of the classroom. Work was increasing in volume again so the silver lining was usually I was joined by someone or another needing help. Cad was a particular figure, showing up on all the nights he didn't have Quidditch practice to swear at Ancient Runes with me.

The third weekend in January came blistering cold as usual but I made sure I had a mountain of jackets on with my heaviest pair of boots after breakfast to meet Louk in the Great Hall. We lined up with the half a mile of other kids waiting for Filch to look at our permission slips and let us by. Why he saw to meticulously inspect every note for five minutes when he'd already seen them half a dozen times before was beyond me, but we just exchanged small talk while we shuffled alongside the other students. After nearly twenty minutes in line we finally made it into the snowy cold outside, pulling our scarves around our mouths and hunkering down for the long walk.

We walked into the candy store in a cold whirl of snow, stomping our feet and rubbing our hands together to warm up before browsing the shelves. We bought probably too much before wrapping up again to head to the bookstore. As usual we split up here so he could go look at the Dark Arts books while I browsed thePotions and fiction sections. I found an interesting read in the historical fiction section about a witch living in the court of a British king I just had to have, and Louk wouldn't hear a word about me paying for it myself. He got himself a book about new developments in dark art defense spells and we wrapped up once more to head to the Three Broomsticks for a drink. The place was pleasantly warm and the hot apple cider finished thawing out my insides.

"So, are you quite satisfied with your Hogsmeade weekend?" I smirked as I took off my two layers of scarves to avoid becoming too hot.

"It's not over yet, it's barely noon." he checked his watch. "I figured I'd keep you out here for a couple more hours at least."

"Feel like taking a trip to the potions store?"

"I was thinking something more along the lines of sitting here and reading."

"You want to sit here and read with me?" I raised my eyebrow.

"I thought you liked reading?"

"I do, but we can do that in the castle."

"And maybe I'd like to sit here, just us, and read."

"Alright, alright." I held my hands up in surrender. "Won't see me looking a gift horse in the mouth."

"Good. Now here." he handed me my new book.

We sat for probably three hours in the Three Broomsticks reading peacefully next to each other, delving into our candy a little and keeping our drinks full from the Broomstick's waitress. It wasn't very fancy but honestly it was just the thing I needed. I laid my head on his shoulder as we both continued to flip through the pages of our separate books. A multitude of kids came in throughout the day but our friends must have been busy elsewhere as I didn't see them the few times I looked up.

At three thirty Louk finally closed his book and said we should probably start heading back. I nodded and slid my book into my bag before layering my jackets back on. He took my hand as we stepped back out into the cold, and if anything the wind had picked up. It took us even longer to walk back up to the castle since we were walking straight into it, and it was so close to dinner when we finally returned we just skipped our common rooms and headed to the Great Hall. We sat our respective tables with our legs in the aisle, talking about our books while we waited for the others. Keeli came in just before dinner was served and saw us bent close to each other. She just nodded at me with a smile and sat a little ways so as not to interrupt.

"Five Galleons she calls me your boyfriend." he smirked.

"You know I don't take bets when I know I'll lose." I rolled my eyes as I stood up to join her.

His hand reached up to take mine, standing next to me in the middle of the walkway between our tables. "I had a lot of fun today, Amelia. It was nice getting to spend time just us."

"I did too. I'm sorry I wasn't really fun, but today really helped me destress."

"Good." he gave me a wide smile before releasing me to join Keeli.

"How did your date go with your boyfriend?" she teased, reaching over for the food that had just appeared on the plates in front of us.

"If you're asking how my afternoon went with Louk, it was lovely thank you. What did you do?"

She shrugged. "The usual, sat in the library and worked on my homework. Finally was able to use the Siphon Charm when I spilled some ink, so I've got that going for me. What did you guys do?"

"Went to the bookstore, then just read in the Three Broomsticks."

"That's it? Not much of a date."

"Well, it wasn't a date, so that hardly matters. I don't know, it was really relaxing. After having to duck around here for so long avoiding...certain people, it was nice to just unwind."

"Speaking of certain people, I haven't seen that one all day. It's been pretty Ravenclaw free all day, actually."

I shrugged. "Seems I hardly see anyone anymore unless it's when I'm going to bed."

"I just wish things could go back to how they were." she sighed, scooping potatoes onto her plate.