I do not own Harry Potter. All rights go to J. K. Rowling as well as Warner brothers (For the movie rights).

Daughter of Darkness

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Come on Harry! Show those Puffs whose boss!" Izzy shouted at the top of her lungs as the rain pounded heavily over her hood while Harry flew over her at top speed.

While Izzy didn't really understand or even care for quidditch, she was gonna support her friend, even if it meant shouting herself horse.

She watched as the Hufflepuff team put up a good offense, keeping up with the relentless trio that was the flying foxes of Gryffindor. Those three were always amazing to watch because they were so in sync, seemingly communicating with their minds and nothing else.

Suddenly Harry pitched up and he was a speck in the sky, barely able to be seen even with the flashes of lightning cracking through the sky, one such bolt catching the Hufflepuff seeker, Cedric Diggory, and forcing him to land a bit crispier than when he had started the game. Harry was still up there though, and though Izzy couldn't see; she knew he must've been gaining on the snitch. Izzy chuckled to herself. With this win, Oliver might relax and let Harry enjoy a few days to himself. Merlin knew the boy needed it with how hard Oliver was putting the team through its paces.

As Izzy wiped the water from her face, she saw something that greatly disturbed her. Over a dozen dementors had flown through the clouds and appeared to be converging on one target. Harry. Izzy felt her throat squeeze shut as she watched them break off from the chase as a lone figure plummeted to the ground at top speed. It took a moment for Izzy to make the connection to Harry before he was suddenly slowing down, and just in time too as he came closer to the ground.

Dumbledore shouted out a spell over the winds and panicked students, forcing the dementors back before he had conjured a stretcher and was bringing Harry up to the castle right as Cedric somehow recovered and caught the snitch.

"Come on!" Izzy said, grabbing Hermione and Ron and running out of the stands. She was able to catch up to the Headmaster as Madame Pomfrey took Harry to the hospital wing.

"Will he be alright?" Ron asked from Izzy's right. Dumbledore turned his gaze down to the three third years and nodded.

"He will. He just needs rest," Dumbledore said as he looked up. "Oh dear," he sighed. Izzy turned and saw a riderless broom float gently into the Whomping Willow where it was subsequently smashed to pieces. Izzy, Hermione, and Ron all winced as the demented tree from hell launched several splinters of the broom back to the gates where they landed in a pile.

"What are we going to tell Harry?"

The three friends sat with him in the hospital wing until the rest of the Gryffindor team came up. He woke up not long after that, and reacted about as Izzy had expected him to when they broke the news of the loss and the destruction of his beloved broom.

The days seemed to fly by in a funk for the four. Harry was sulking at the loss of his broom that held so much sentimentality to him and not being able to go to the last Hogsmeade weekend of the first term, Ron was doing his best to cheer Harry up by promising to get all the candy he could at Honeydukes, and Hermione now spent most of her time in the library studying. Izzy herself didn't know what to do with her time since she didn't exactly feel like she fit with any of her closest friends at the moment.

Mostly, she spent her time up in the common room with Umbra in front of the fire doing her homework or writing runes in her journal. The poor snake didn't like the cold of the winter, so she was a bit sluggish and she had been digesting the mice she was fed a lot slower than normal.

There now less than a few days left until break, and Izzy studied as much as she could without killing herself. It was when she was returning a book on runes she had used for research that she ran into Luna, who was skipping merrily through the hallways without her shoes once again.

"Luna? It's December, where are your shoes?!" she asked.

"The Nargles took them. They'll turn up eventually I'm sure," Luna said with a smile. Izzy shook her head and took off her own shoes and shrank them down.

"Here. Take mine for now, alright? Your feet are already turning a deep pink. It's a wonder you haven't caught any frostbite yet!"

"I almost did catch it last week!" Luna said with wide eyes as she slipped on the shoes. "The wrackspurts managed to somehow confuse the knocker on the door to the Ravenclaw tower. I had to go sleep in my bed in the infirmary. Thankfully Madame Pomfrey was able to help me."

"Luna dear…are…are your housemates bullying you?" Izzy asked as her hair began to slowly turn red.

"I don't think so. Like I said, the wrackspurts and nargles are devious little creatures," Luna said.

"Well I'd like to catch those little buggers one day and give them a piece of my mind. They're attacking you and causing you harm."

"That's very kind of you, Izzy, though I suspect the problem will solve itself soon as I've been working on ways to repel the nargles," Luna explained. Izzy gave an encouraging smile but internally she was worried. If it got any worse, Izzy would see what Minerva could do for this girl. Luna skipped off happily to do who knows what. Izzy danced on her feet, trying to keep her blood flowing, when she turned around and startled. Another blonde was in her path, and this one was looking at her with a far different curiosity than Luna had been.

"You're an odd girl," Daphne said.

"Well, normal is a bit boring," Izzy laughed. "So, I figure since I'm a metamorph, why even bother trying!" With that, Izzy focused hard and became a copy of the girl in front of her. The only thing she couldn't match was the height. Izzy managed to hold the shift for two and a half minutes.

"I see you've gotten a lot better at holding different appearances," Daphne said as Izzy let go of the morph, turning back into herself complete with blue hair, different colored eyes, and the scar across her face. "Why do you still keep the scar? There are potions that could easily take care of it," Daphne asked. Izzy looked thoughtful for a moment.

"To be honest, I don't know why I've kept it this long. I know the truth now, that what happened wasn't my fault. I don't know," Izzy said as she let the hand that was near her face drop with a shrug.

"Well I'm sure Madame Pomfrey wouldn't mind helping if you asked. Speaking of help, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me study for the arithmancy exam?" Daphne asked. Izzy smiled.

"Of course. I've been meaning to put in some time for that myself," she explained as she walked back into the library.

The two studied for a solid hour, but it was clear that Daphne wasn't totally in the right frame of mind. She kept chewing on her lip, something Izzy had noticed she did during class if something was bothering her.

"Is everything alright?" Izzy found herself asking. Daphne looked up in surprise for a moment before shaking her head. She looked around to make sure nobody was watching. Izzy had thought it odd that, even though hardly anyone was in the library, Daphne had still picked the most isolated spot she could find.

"I…find myself in a conundrum," Daphne admitted.

"Oh? Anything I can do to help?" Izzy asked, furrowing her brow. She tentatively considered Daphne a friend, though one she mostly only saw in class. The two would often do group work together if it was assigned in class.

"No it's just…I consider you a friend, Izzy. The problem is…is that, well there's social conventions that have to be observed within my house-"

"You're worried about how a pureblood Slytherin will be seen being friends with a muggleborn Gryffindor. The ultimate faux pas, without so many words," Izzy deduced. She gave Daphne a comforting smile. "It's alright. I understand. I think it's stupid, but I get it really. I'd still like us to be friends, even if we have to keep it a secret from people," Izzy explained.

"Thank you…I…I find you to be easy to talk to, for some reason. It's…rather nice to have an outside perspective on things, to be able to talk freely, I guess," Daphne said. "Tracy is my best friend and I feel there are some things I just can't talk about with her."

"Anytime you need to talk, I'll listen. I've been told I'm real good at it," Izzy said as she enlarged her ears. Daphne smothered a laugh before the two went back to studying.

"Harry?" Izzy asked as she looked at her three friends as they stepped through the portrait into the common room all rosy cheeked. She could tell Harry had been crying recently, but why?

"We just came from Hogsmeade," Ron explained. Izzy pursed her lips and stood up, crossing her arms. Her hair changed crimson as she let her anger and hurt that her two friends had somehow managed to sneak Harry to Hogsmeade without so much as telling her. She covered up the hurt with her anger.

"And what, pray tell, were you doing in Hogsmeade, Harry James Potter? Do you know how much trouble you could've gotten in had anyone seen you? Or worse, Sirius Black had found you?" she snarled.

"Relax, Izzy, he had his cloak! Besides, that's not important. We found out something about Sirius Black," Ron said, looking pointedly at Harry. Izzy's anger gave way to her concern as she flicked now purple eyes at her friend.

"He was my godfather…and he betrayed my parents. That's why he's after me. He wants to finish the job," Harry said. Izzy swallowed before wrapping Harry in a tight hug.

"It's gonna be alright, Harry," she whispered. He nodded against her shoulder before extricating himself before quietly slipping up the stairs. Izzy watched him go with worry.

"How did he even sneak out?" she asked as she rounded on her friends.

"With some map my brothers gave him. He used a secret passage," Ron explained. Izzy sighed and sat back down with a sigh before going back to the homework she had been doing.

The next day was the official start of break, and Izzy was sitting in the common room with Ron and Hermione, Hermione to no one's surprise was doing homework during break, when Harry came down the steps with dark circles under his eyes.

"You're up," Izzy said, giving him a smile.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"Gone. First day of break," Ron replied. "It's almost lunch time. What say we get something to eat and then go figure out what we're going to do?"

"No. I want to go see Hagrid. Find out why nobody ever told me the truth, why they hid this from me!" Harry snapped. Izzy gave him an unimpressed look.

"Look at yourself, Harry, and you'll have your answer. It's eating you up already and it hasn't even been a full day since you found out," Izzy said.

"I think I have every right to be angry," Harry growled. Izzy raised an eyebrow at him before sighing.

"Of course you do Harry! Sirius Black took something from you that you'll never get back! But being angry at people who care about you, who were trying to keep you safe, is not how you get answers!" she reasoned. Harry pursed his lips and grit his teeth before he let out a long breath.

"Yeah…I guess you're right. Hagrid wouldn't do anything to intentionally hurt me," he said.

"Exactly. Now why don't we go down to Hagrid's, forget about confronting him, and just chat."

They did go down to Hagrid's hut, only to find him in a state. He was so upset about everything that seemed to be happening. Black, the dementors, Buckbeak being put on trial, thinking everyone hated his class. It took the four of them an hour to get Hagrid to calm down.

To try and get everyone's mind off of Black, the four focused on Buckbeak. They spent hours in the library pouring over dusty old books to try and find a way to keep him from being killed like Hagrid feared he would be.

When Christmas rolled around, the four were still trying to find anything they could to help. Izzy woke up Christmas morning and prepared herself for another day in the library when she remembered what day it was.

Izzy made her way down the stairs beside Hermione when she came upon a most intriguing scene. Harry and Ron were sitting by the tree, a new broom between them.

"Check it out!" Harry said excitedly.

"Cool," Izzy said as she sat down on a comfy chair and rubbed the gunk out of her eyes.

"'Cool!' that's all you've got to say is 'cool!'" Ron said incredulously. Izzy giggled as Umbra's tongue flickered around as she slid out from under Izzy's shirt and slithered towards the fire. "This is a firebolt! The fastest broom in the world!" Ron explained.

"Really? Who gave it to ya, Harry?" Izzy asked.

"No clue. It was just here. No note or anything," Harry explained. "Speaking of gifts; here's yours," he said, handing her a heavy box. He gave Hermione her own present as Ron passed around the usual Weasley gift; A sweater.

Harry's gift was a box of magically preserved mice for Umbra as well as a large black rock that had series of runes etched into the bottom so that it would stay perpetually warm. Ron's personal gift to Izzy was a box of chocolate frogs.

"Aww, thanks boys!" Izzy said as she pulled them in for a hug. Izzy didn't say anything when she noticed that Hermione kept eyeing the firebolt as if it would explode.

Hermione handed her a wrapped parcel which Izzy immediately determined to be a book, judging by the size and weight. Izzy unwrapped it to find a book on advanced dueling tactics.

"Thank you!" Izzy squealed as she began to flip through the book.

"Aaaand we've lost her," Ron joked. Izzy was so absorbed in reading the book already that she didn't comment. She stuck her tongue out and blew a rather sharp raspberry before burying her nose back in the book. She heard more than saw Hermione open her own gift and give a side hug to Izzy who looked up and offered a smile before devouring the pages.

The Christmas feast was odd, to say the least. Very few students were left in the castle, and even fewer attended the feast. It was odd in that first, the quiet atmosphere of the great hall allowed students and teachers to talk with one another as if they had always done that. The second, was that Professor Trelawney had come down for the first time. She made odd claims that made Izzy wonder if that was what Harry, Ron, and Hermione put up with. After seeing the woman, she was even happier that she had chosen Runes and Arithmancy as her electives. Speaking of Runes, she had to finish drawing up her fire runic scheme for class.

After the Christmas feast, Hermione hung behind to talk to Minerva. Izzy assumed it was about her classes. Had she known the truth, Izzy would've told Hermione to take a different path.

"Is this the broom?" Minerva asked as soon as she entered the common room. Harry sat up straight, and Izzy knew what Hermione had done. Izzy had the same thoughts, and was about to talk to Harry to at least take it to the Headmaster and see what he said.

"Yeah. It's a firebolt, Professor!" he said excitedly. Minerva nodded.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to take it form you for now, Mister Potter. Unless you can prove with certainty where it came from, we have to take precautions," Minerva said sternly. Izzy watched Harry visibly deflated.

"It won't take more than a few weeks," Minerva explained calmly. "You'll have it back as soon as we know it's jinx-free."

"There's nothing wrong with it," Harry defended. He looked like he was about to cry just a little, and Izzy understood the frustration he had. Harry loved to fly, far more than he loved quidditch. He'd been restless without his beloved nimbus. "Honestly-"

"You can't be sure of that, Potter," Minerva said gently. "You're a third year, and Professor Flitwick is considered an expert in jinxes and charms. Until the both of us are satisfied that nothing has been done to it, flying on it is out of the question," she continued sternly. Izzy watched as Harry reluctantly handed over the broom, Minerva striding out with it. Ron rounded on Hermione.

"What the bloody hell did you go running to McGonagall for?" he roared. Hermione stood her ground and stared him directly in the eye.

"Because I thought – and Professor McGonagall agrees with me – that that broom was probably sent by Sirius Black!" she shouted before grabbing her book bag and stomping up to the dorm. Izzy looked hesitantly between dorm and her two friends.

"Well?" Ron asked incredulously.

"She has a point, even though I think she could've communicated it a better way," Izzy said. She saw the moment Ron looked at her like she was a traitor, and she began to worry if this was how their friendship ended, over a stupid broom.

A week went by, and Izzy was caught between her friends. Ron and Harry were angry with Hermione, Hermione was running herself into the ground with however the hell she was getting to all of her classes and not missing a single one, and Izzy was doing her best to make sure that Hermione was at least getting a decent amount of sleep and eating properly, but nothing seemed to be helping. She had talked to Luna, asked her what she would do, but the spacey blonde didn't exactly give her the answers she was hoping for and she couldn't speak the language of Luna yet.

'Too many Nargles.'

She had talked to Daphne while the two worked on their arithmancy homework.

"I don't know. Everyone knows Hermione is a bookworm, but this is becoming an unhealthy obsession. There are a few Slytherins who are betting if she'll just keel over and die," Daphne explained. Izzy went completely pale at the thought, all color literally draining from her hair and eyes, turning everything white. Daphne rushed to reassure her.

"Easy, I know she's your best friend, so you're just going to have to make a hard decision. You're going to have to force her to stop somehow," Daphne advised. Izzy nodded.

"She's not going to like that," Izzy said with a small smile, knowing Hermione would be mad at her until she got her books back.

"I'd imagine not. For now, let's finish this homework. You're good at arithmancy so tell me…"

Hermione went up to the common room after getting a bite to eat for lunch, well, what could constitute for Lunch if her biological clock didn't feel screwy right now. All the time turning she had been doing for the past few months had really thrown everything out of whack. She was still hungry, but she needed to study.

Izzy was in the common room with a head full of purple hair waiting for Hermione to get back. She was idly flipping the peculiar galleon between her fingers when the brunette walked in. She had disappeared a few hours ago, gone to several classes, and now, they had a free period she knew Hermione would want to spend in the quiet comfort of the common room, a pile of books and papers around her. Or she would've, had Izzy not hidden them.

"Where are my books?" Hermione asked frantically as she began searching the common room.

"You're going to take a break Hermione," Izzy said in as commanding a tone as she could possibly manage. Hermione rounded on her slowly. The sunlight filtering in from the high window above Hermione contrasted heavily with the dark circles under Hermione's eyes, Izzy gulped.

"Isabella. Where. Are. My. Books?" Hermione asked.

"I've hidden them, and you'll not get them back until you've had an hour to relax. You've been looking even more tired these last few days, and I can see you haven't been eating properly. It's showing in your face," Izzy pleaded. "Please, I'm worried about you."

"I told you, your worry is appreciated but unnecessary," Hermione snapped.

"Well apparently it is!" Lyra shouted. "You stay up till god knows when reading your books, you're doing homework seemingly all hours of the day, you've spent more time in the library in the past few months than I think you have in the last two years, and it looks like you're barely on your feet!" Izzy pointed out, her temper beginning to get the better of her.

"I said I'm fine, Isabella. Now you tell me where my books are!" Hermione ordered.

"No! I told you what you have to do. If you refuse, I'm telling Minerva that something is wrong and then dragging you to the hospital wing!" Izzy shouted, her hands curling into fists at her side. "You're being unreasonable here, Hermione! I mean, look at the whole situation with the firebolt. You didn't bother to try and explain to Harry anything, just went straight to Minerva! That's not the Hermione I know!"

"I'm being unreasonable?" Hermione asked incredulously. "I'm trying to advance my education and you're the one trying to hold me back!" she snapped. It felt like a slap to the face for Izzy, but Hermione wasn't done. "I've told you that I've been fine this entire term and not once did you believe me; I could see it in your eyes! You, of all people! Doubting me!" she snarled. Izzy backed away as Hermione advanced, her hand on her wand. Izzy didn't, couldn't, pull hers on Hermione. She knew Hermione would never hurt her, she was just tired and upset. "And while we're on the subject of Ron and Harry, why don't you go and join them, if what you think I did was so wrong. Then you can stop bothering me, being a bad friend, and getting in the way of my education!" she shouted.

Izzy looked hurt at Hermione's words, but the brunette didn't take notice.

"I – " she started. "I just thought-I wanted to help," she said feebly. Hermione glared at her.

"Well I don't need your help, and I don't need you," she growled. Izzy reared back as if she'd been physically struck. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as they both changed to a deep ocean blue, as did her hair. With everything going on, Ron and Hermione fighting, Ron asking her to pick a side and then treating her like a traitor when he thought she chose Hermione's. It all came flooding back at once right as Hermione seemed to realize what she had just said.

It was well known to the brunette what Izzy was afraid of the most. After all, her boggart had shown it. Izzy was afraid of being alone, unloved by anyone.

"Izzy I– " Hermione started to say fearfully, reaching out to the girl in front of her now sporting the bluest hair she'd ever seen.

"Your books are in my trunk under my hoodie," Izzy whispered, head ducked low with her hair creating a curtain so Hermione couldn't see her tears that fell in burning streaks down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she whispered shakily before running out of the common room as fast as she could go.

Out the common room, down the steps. The castle felt too small, like it was constricting on her. She couldn't breathe! Air, she needed air!

Izzy tore out the great and found herself by the gates. Without even thinking, Izzy passed the swinging pendulum, the fountain, ran all the way across the bridge, and stumbled to her knees when she reached the three rocks on the trail to Hagrid's hut. Izzy stood for a moment before falling back to her knees, shaking fiercely as the January cold and sobbing wracked her body.

"Stupid, stupid," she muttered as tears continued to stream down her face.

"I sh-should've known!" she sobbed, hair turning a deeper and deeper blue. She had been afraid of this since the summer when all three of her friends had met up in Diagon. Well, not this exact situation, she couldn't have predicted that her friendship with them could've imploded so spectacularly, but she should've known she'd end up in this position at some point. Nothing, especially people, ever lasted for her.

Izzy sat there, in the snow and ice for several hours. The tears had long since stopped but she couldn't make herself to go back to the castle. What if she ran into Hermione? What if her best-former best friend hated her? Izzy knew that Hermione loved her books. She should've just talked to her, been sterner but not taken her things.

Somehow that made it worse. Before, everyone else simply left her life whether through their choice or an accident. Izzy always tried to hold on, clung to those people as tight as she could but it never mattered in the end. They always left her. Never before had it been her doing, and that made this so much more painful. It was her own fault she was in this position. With that thought, Izzy closed her eyes and laid her head back against the rocks. Despite the cold, she was tired, and sleep beckoned her.

She surrendered without a fight to the darkness.

Red=angry

Gray=nervous/anxious/irritated

Orange=happy/excited

Blue=sad/overwhelmed

Purple=worried/concerned/frustrated

Green=jealous/suspicious

Brown=content/relaxed

Yellow=afraid/shocked

Pink=amusement

Silver=determination

Light blue=embarrassment