A/N - I know I said I wouldn't include warnings in later chapters, but I felt that it would be unfair for me to not say *something.* The story from this point forward will be diving into some tough topics that will have been referenced in the notes for chapter one. If you're uncomfortable with any of the topics listed in chapter one, I recommend proceeding with caution.

As always, thank you for being a part of the story.

"Emma, what did you do?"

Emma froze as she saw Persephone's head peering at her through the curtains of her bed. She had practically moved into Slytherin's dorms that week, but the guilt of what she wanted to do had kept her rooted to her bed. Her day had been stressful. Double potions and Herbology in the morning and History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration all in the same day had been a lot. On top of her classes, the whispers had started to follow her again.

She tried whatever she could – tried reading a book, tried reading her mom's diary, and tried to draw, but nothing helped. In her desperation, she pulled out the poorly wrapped bundle that held the scissors and closed the curtain around her bed. The note Remus wrote was still sitting on top of the fabric, and it nearly made Emma break – Because I trust you.

He trusted her to do the right thing, to be stronger than her need to hurt herself, but she wasn't. With guilt settling deep in her twisting stomach, she hastily shoved the note into her nightstand. She pulled the vials of Dittany and Murtlap out and grimaced. Because accidents happen.

Emma let out a cry, torn between wanting to give in and listening to Remus, but she couldn't listen to him. She couldn't fight anymore. Accidents happen.

It wasn't until the blade touched her skin that Emma felt any sense of relief. It made her feel sick that the sensation of cutting into her skin felt nice. It shouldn't feel nice, she knew that – but she felt in control. Only she could decide what happened with the cuts, and it brought an overwhelming sense of calm.

At least until Persephone snuck up on her. Emma looked down at both of her wrists, ashamed. She hadn't just cut into one, but both of them and turned to Persephone. "I did – I did something stupid," Emma said breathlessly as she tossed the scissors out of her hand. "I – I don't know what's wrong with me."

Persephone slipped into Emma's bed, blinking back her tears. "What can I do?" Persephone asked, jumping immediately into action as she looked down at the vials that sat next to Emma. "What are those for?"

"Those – those are for…"

"Which one do you need right now?"

Emma swallowed hard, looking at the vials and back at her wrists. "I – I think the Murtlap."

"Which one is the Murtlap?"

"The blue one," Emma said, feeling herself grow cold.

Without another word, Persephone picked up the blue vial. "It's a dropper?" she asked as she unscrewed the top, understanding when Emma nodded.

It was almost like Persephone had fixed Emma up a million times before. She carefully held the vial in one hand and dropped the liquid onto the cuts. When Persephone finished, she closed the bottle and placed it back down on the bed, holding Emma's hands. "Why?" she asked after a while, meeting Emma's watery gaze.

"Because I'm weak," Emma moaned, looking down at their hands. She couldn't understand how Persephone could still want to hold her hands. She couldn't understand how Persephone wasn't disgusted with her or why she was still sitting with her. None of it made sense. Why wasn't she leaving?"

"You're not weak," Persephone said quietly. "Tell me what's been going on."

Emma looked back up at Persephone, surprised to see that she looked scared, just like Remus did. With a small nod, Emma began to finally tell Persephone everything.

The two had eventually snuggled up with each other under the covers, as Emma continued to explain everything that happened over the past few months. Emma would begin to cry, and Persephone would wipe away her tears and pull her into a tight hug until she could continue again.

"I don't know why it bothers me so much now," Emma whispered with a sniffle. "It's not like Jocelyn hasn't always been like this. I should be used to it, and it shouldn't bother me, but it does."

"She's such a little shit," Persephone said after a while. "But you're not the only one. She does it to the girls in her dorm, too. She just doesn't care."

"She does it to the girls in her dorm?"

Persephone nodded, brushing away a wayward tear from Emma's face. "She mostly does it to push them around and make sure that the others follow her." Persephone shook her head. "Why didn't you tell me any of this?"

"I thought you would hate me." Emma shrugged slightly. "I didn't think you would want to be my friend or…want to talk to me. And then, after we had our fight…"

"All I did was wonder about you," Persephone admitted. "I was scared because I didn't understand why you were pushing me away or why you weren't talking to me."

"But at the Dueling Club meeting?"

"Emma, you idiot. I love you," Persephone said quietly. "You really don't understand how scared I've been. Now that I know, I'm going to do whatever I can to help you. I just wish you would've told me sooner."

Emma was quiet, a small frown crossing her face. "I love you, too," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Persephone smiled. "But you do know that I'm going to have to tell Snape, right? About what Jocelyn's been doing?"

"I think he already knows," Emma muttered. "He's been absolutely miserable."

"Well, he listens to us Slytherins. She's not going to stop otherwise, and to be honest, most of us are sick of it. It's like - it's like she's trying to be a mini You-Know-Who."

"Idiot," Emma giggled.

"Can you imagine her with no nose? That's even worse."

The two burst out into laughter at the thought as Jocelyn having no nose was indeed a terrible thought. The idea of her being like a mini You-Know-Who was terrifying, but Emma could understand the analogy.

"Effie?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay here with me tonight?" Emma asked with a yawn.

"Of course."

The rest of January went by quickly. With Persephone telling Professor Snape what Jocelyn had been doing, the girl had finally been forced into detention and couldn't do much. Persephone had failed to mention to Emma that Jocelyn had been on her final warning. That meant that the professors finally had no choice but to pay attention to the things Jocelyn was doing.

With Jocelyn being forced into detention every night, Emma felt as though she could breathe a little easier. She still struggled and gave in to her desire to hurt herself, but true to her word, Persephone did what she could. In her letters home, Emma still couldn't convince herself to call Remus dad, but he signed every letter as such. It made her feel better, but she felt guilty that she still couldn't get herself to write it back.

When you're ready, he wrote to her one day. I'll be here, no matter what.

Without having to worry about Jocelyn, Emma started to get better. Emma wasn't as thin as she had been since she began to eat regularly in the kitchens. Her grades had started to improve, and she had even started to win the praise of McGonagall.

Emma still found herself bouncing back and forth between Slytherin and Hufflepuff's dorms, but she didn't mind. If the second-year Hufflepuffs weren't going to talk to her, she could make new friends. Millicent never seemed to like her, but she was on speaking terms with Pansy, and she found herself enjoying spending time with Tracey. Daphne always kept to herself and spent time with Louise, who was just as quiet.

When Valentine's Day arrived, it seemed that the entire castle was abuzz. Lockhart had the bright idea of bringing in dwarves that were meant to be cupids delivering cards. Though the holiday had been the day before, their Monday classes were spent being interrupted by the card-carrying cupids.

To Emma's surprise, she found herself given three cards. The first card arrived that morning with a particularly surly cupid. The cupid practically threw the card at Emma during her History of Magic class. Professor Binns acted as though nothing was happening and continued on with his lecture. He didn't appear to notice that a man just walked into the class dressed in tiny wings and carrying a harp.

"You could've given this to me yourself," Emma said to Persephone with a laugh.

"And miss out on seeing how red you would get? Never," Persephone answered with a grin.

"Too bad I'll miss your face when you're in potions," Emma said with a smirk.

"You did not," Persephone hissed.

Emma could only shrug.

In Herbology, Emma received a second card. She was partnered with Neville to give the Mandrakes fresh soil. The moment the cupid came into the greenhouse, he turned a bright shade of red. It wasn't until Emma read the card that she understood. With pink cheeks, Emma gave Neville a friendly kiss on the cheek and thanked him.

During her break, while Persephone was in potions, Emma received her third card. She was sitting on a bench near the Great Hall when the third cupid had arrived.

From your secret admirer, the card read. Emma was confused but proceeded to Charms in confusion. Emma showed the card to Persephone, who was grumpy for the rest of the class.

"I want to know who it is," Persephone grumbled, nearly hitting Flitwick with an overzealous Freezing charm.

"Miss Moon!" Flitwick squeaked grumpily. "Please do take care!"

"Sorry," Persephone muttered.

Emma bit back a laugh and turned to Persephone with a grin. "Like I don't want to know who it is?"

"I bet they're smart," Draco said from her other side.

"Yeah, they're smart because they know Persephone would go after them," Emma laughed as Persephone scoffed. "Is someone jealous?"

"I'm not jealous," Persephone grumbled.

"Of course, not," Emma smiled.

Just when Emma thought Jocelyn's reign of terror had been ruined, the first year came back in full force. There wasn't much that she could do to Emma physically as she was still being watched, but that didn't stop her from having others try.

Half-way through March, Persephone stumbled across Emma, quite literally, as she made her way towards the kitchens.

"Why are you on the floor?" Persephone asked, staring at Emma in confusion. "There's no reason for you to be on the floor…"

"I'll give you one guess," Emma grumbled, her head leaning back against the cold stone wall.

"Grossie Josie?"

"Grossie Josie."

Emma huffed, thinking about how Jocelyn had gotten her nickname in Slytherin. She didn't particularly agree with it, but most of the Slytherins refused to change their mind on the matter. Jocelyn's inability to pick up her clothes off the floor, and her habit of chewing with her mouth opened had earned the girl her nickname. Emma wasn't surprised as she had become almost like a maid trying to keep their room clean, but she still wished they would stop.

"Wench," Persephone muttered as she grabbed the front of Emma's robes to pull her up. "But that doesn't tell me how you wound up on the floor."

Emma snorted as she grabbed onto Persephone's arms so that she could remain upright. "One of Jocelyn's friends tripped me. I just crawled over here and stayed."

"You – you haven't been, …right?"

"No," Emma grumbled, reflexively rubbing her wrists.

"Let me see," Persephone said sharply.

"Effie, I'm not cutting again. You would know."

Persephone just stared at Emma.

Emma huffed and pulled back the sleeves of her robe and rolled up the sleeves of her jumper. She held her hands up, turning the insides of her wrists out for Persephone to inspect. "I'm clean," she said. For now, she added in her head. She didn't want to admit that she had been using the Murtlap to heal her cuts and spacing out her nights.

Persephone hummed, releasing her hold on Emma. "Just making sure," she said, scrutinizing Emma. "Are you coming down to the dorm tonight or staying in Hufflepuff tonight?"

"I'll stay in mine," she said, walking over to the portrait of the fruit bowl and tickling the pear.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Persephone asked as Emma sat down at one of the tables.

"I'm fine," Emma smiled, turning to the house elf that had come by and agreeing to her usual meal.

When Emma made her way back to her common room, she wasn't expecting to be met with the rest of her classmates waiting up for her. Megan and Leanne stood to the back, looking as if they didn't want to be there, but the others gave her hard stares.

"Uhm, hello?" Emma said, freezing where she stood as she looked at everyone.

"You need to pick," Hannah said, glaring at Emma.

"I'm sorry, but what's going on?"

"You need to pick who your friends are," Wayne said. "All you do is hang out with the Slytherins."

"You don't come to the homework sessions," muttered Sally.

"You don't sit with us," Susan said.

"You don't think Potter had something to do with Justin being petrified," Ernie practically shouted.

The others turned to Megan and Leanne, who looked at each other and shook their heads. "We don't want to be a part of this," Megan said quietly. "She didn't do anything wrong."

"So, you want to be just like her?" Ernie asked, pointing a finger at Emma.

Leanne and Megan looked at each other again and fell back further from the group, not saying a word.

"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?" Emma shouted. "I'm right bloody here."

"A traitor," Ernie snarled.

"Do all of you seriously believe him?" Emma asked the group, shaking her head as several pairs of eyes glared at her.

"You act like you're not even a Hufflepuff," Susan said, her voice sarcastic. "Don't act as though we haven't seen you wear that Gryffindor cardigan."

"That cardigan is my father's, you idiot," Emma shouted. "Really? You lot are going to go on about me not being a Hufflepuff when you're pulling this nonsense?"

"What nonsense? We've all been here," Hannah muttered. "You've been nowhere near here."

"Well, she does always go to bed before any of us do," Leanne said quietly.

"Leanne!" Megan shouted in surprise. "I thought we were on Em's side!"

"Am I not allowed to be tired?" Emma grumbled. "I can't believe this."

"And we can't believe you," Roger said. "You don't even care that Justin is petrified. Have you even gone to see him?"

"Yes, I have!" Emma shouted, aggravated. "Just because I don't go all the time like you lot, doesn't mean that I don't go."

"Funny how no one's seen her go," Wayne said to Ernie.

"You need to pick Emma," Hannah insisted. "Are you one of us? Or one of them."

"What the bloody hell is going on?" asked a sleepy voice from behind the crowd. Paula, one of the Prefects, stumbled sleepily through the crowd. "What is with all of the yelling? You woke up most of the first years."

The crowd grumbled, looking over at Paula. "Sorry," Megan said to Paula, shooting daggers at the group. "I wanted nothing to do with this."

"What's going on?" Paula asked, stretching and looking at the group and then over at Emma who stood by herself.

"She's a snake, that's what's going on," Ernie snarled as he looked over at Emma.

"Oh, here we go," Emma muttered, growing more annoyed as the conversation went on.

"A snake?" Paula asked, looking over at Emma again. "But she's one of us."

"She doesn't act like it," Susan said with a shrug.

"How about you all go to bed," Paula suggested. "There's no point in talking about any of this right now, and it's rude for it to be all of you against one. You lot need to figure out how to talk to each other."

"Fine," Ernie said, shooting Emma a look before turning to Roger and Wayne. "Let's go."

"Let's go," Susan said to the other girls.

Emma let out a sigh as the others left, leaving her with Paula. "You all right?"

"Fine," Emma muttered. "It's just been hard."

Paula nodded. "It's been hard on all of us. Rough with what happened with Justin, but we can't turn on each other like that. We're family."

"Right," Emma said, giving Paula a weak smile. "Family."

"Go to bed, Lupin," Paula said. "You look exhausted."

The next day, Emma couldn't help but find herself aggravated. Even the allure of the weekend wasn't inspiring Emma to have a better mood. She was annoyed that she had hurt herself again. She was annoyed that her housemates had started to ignore her completely, and most of all, she was sick of the stupid rumors that Ernie kept spreading. Ernie seemed to have taken it upon himself to be the voice for everyone petrified.

Professor Snape's lousy attitude that morning wasn't doing much to help Emma's already sour mood. To the Ravenclaw's surprise and the Hufflepuff's irritation, Emma insisted on making noises every time Snape walked around the room.

"Snip, snop, snip, snop," Emma muttered under her breath as Snape walked by her table.

"Lupin," Snape said, whirling around in a flurry of black robe to glare at her. "What was that?"

"Snip, snop, Professor," Emma said with a shrug as she measured her Flobberworm mucus.

"Snip…snop?"

"Yes, Professor."

"5 points from Hufflepuff," Snape said, turning back around to make his way to his desk.

"Okay," Emma said simply.

"What are you doing?" Mandy asked Emma, her eyes darting around the room.

"Well, they all told me that I'm a snake, so why do I care?"

"What was that, Lupin?" Snape looked up from his desk, an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, didn't you hear, Professor? Apparently, I'm one of your students now," Emma said to Snape with a grin.

There was a collective groan from the other Hufflepuffs as Snape's eyes bored into Emma's. "20 points from Hufflepuff, and if I find out you've been staying in the Slytherin dorm again, then you can expect detention," Snape said. "Do you understand?"

Emma's smile faded, but she nodded. "Yes, Professor," she said quietly, ducking her head. How did he know that she had been staying in the Slytherin dorm? It had to be Millicent…she was the only one who complained about her being there.

"You've been staying in Slytherin?" Mandy asked Emma quietly.

"Yeah," Emma whispered, glancing up at Snape, who was still staring at her. "They, uh…decided I didn't belong and basically kicked me out. I wasn't staying there all the time."

Mandy nodded and returned to her Sleeping Draught and frowning at the color. "It's not turning the right color purple," she said.

Emma looked down at her own cauldron and compared it to Mandy's. "I think you added too much Flobberworm," Emma said, scratching her head.

"Quiet," Snape said sharply. "Or that'll be additional points from Hufflepuff."

"Sorry," Mandy mouthed to Emma.

Feeling aggravated after potions, Emma found she couldn't stand Lockhart more than usual. After sitting through another week of listening to him talk through the entirety of Wanderings with Werewolves, she had enough. She was fairly sure that with the amount of research she had done on werewolves last year, she could teach the class.

She raised her hand, waiting for Lockhart to finally pay attention to her. The Ravenclaw students looked at Emma in confusion as she refused to drop her hand. Emma's eyes bore into Lockhart, who cast glances her way but ignored her until he finally couldn't. Mandy covered her face, not wanting to watch after the disaster that was Potions.

"Ah, yes, Miss Lupin – you have a question?"

"Yes," Emma said, finally dropping her hand with a smile. "At what point were you planning on teaching us something?"

There was a collective gasp from everyone except Lockhart, who looked confused. He chuckled, looking around at the rest of the class with his brows furrowed. "I'm sorry?"

"Well, we've been talking about werewolves for two weeks, and I'm fairly certain that I know nothing about them."

"Well, I told you about how I saved a village from werewolves, surely that tells you everything you need to know."

Emma blinked owlishly at Lockhart. "Well, no," she said slowly. "I mean, can you tell us how to spot a werewolf?"

"Well, the Wagga Wagga werewolf was a wolf all the time," Lockhart said, clearing his throat. His winning smile was beginning to droop as he realized that more people were suddenly paying attention to Emma.

"Right, well, how did you know that he was a werewolf?"

Lockhart's grin grew as the class turned back to him, mouths open in shock. "Well," Lockhart started before launching back into passages right from the book.

Rolling her eyes, Emma closed her book. If attendance wasn't taken in each class, she wouldn't bother showing up. She wasn't learning anything of use, and she could be spending time doing more research.

When the bell rang for class to be over, Emma practically ran down to the kitchens. It seemed that Persephone had the same idea as she was already waiting for Emma when she got there.

"Do I even need to ask who aggravated Snape this morning?" Persephone asked. "Thought he was going to chew our bloody heads off."

"Sorry, I was just…mad."

"You didn't talk much at breakfast this morning. What happened?"

"Oh, you know – just a Hufflepuff intervention last night," Emma said, sitting down and accepting the bowl of soup that a house elf brought to her.

"An intervention?" Persephone bit into her sandwich, eyes narrowed. "For what?"

"It's nothing," Emma muttered. "Can you come to my dorm since I'm not allowed in yours anymore?"

Persephone looked at Emma sadly. "Snape read us the riot act and said we're not allowed in other dorms…"

"Of course, he did," Emma said, giving Persephone a wry smile. "Oh, well."

"Are you going to be okay?"

Emma was quiet as she twirled her spoon in her soup. "I guess I'm going to have to be," she said. "What choice do I have?"

"At least we can still come here," Persephone said hopefully. "No one said anything about the kitchens."

"Yeah," Emma said with a small nod. "I suppose you're right."

March moved slowly, and Emma was grateful when April arrived. It meant that she could go home for a few weeks, though a part of her didn't want to. Emma had eventually gotten used to her routine. Still, since Snape seemed to be watching her, she had something else to worry about.

"What can I do to help?" Persephone asked Emma one morning at breakfast after spotting soft, pink lines on her wrists. "You can't keep doing this."

"I don't know what else to do," Emma said, ignoring the burning in her nose as tears flooded her eyes. "The moment I started to feel like things were okay, everything went to shit." She reached into her bag and pulled out a letter. "Re wrote to me and mum got worse." She handed the letter to Persephone. "Everyone in the dorm is bloody ignoring me, and I feel like I can't even spend time with the rest of you. I know your lot is fine with it, but Snape's not. Of course, the rest of my house isn't fine with it."

"Maybe you should ask Re for help?"

"I can't ask him," Emma moaned, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. "I already had to ask him to send me more Murtlap two weeks ago. Do you know how embarrassing that was? And the disappointment – I could bloody feel it in the letter. You know how he is…it just makes the whole thing worse."

"Em…"

"Persephone, I can't keep living like this. I can't read, I can't think – drawing is useless because I just get mad and wind up throwing everything…"

"What if you go to Madame Pomfrey," Persephone suggested gently. "Maybe she'll have something that'll help."

"I can't." Emma pulled her hands away. "I – I just can't. I can't have someone else know that I'm like this."

Persephone looked at Emma sadly and nodded. "If you're sure…"

The next week Emma and Persephone sat in the library reading through the pamphlet that was distributed to the second years.

"I can't believe that we have to start picking classes for next year," Persephone said quietly. "I just want to get through the rest of the week. I'm already imagining being in France."

Emma scratched her nose with the end of her quill as she looked through the pamphlet. "I just can't believe that Caspian isn't going with you," she said. "I would love to go to France."

"Maybe you can go with us next year," Persephone said. "If you want to, of course."

"More like if Re would let me go."

"You know he wouldn't say no to you."

Emma hummed quietly as she flipped to the next page of the pamphlet. "Have we changed our minds on classes?" Emma asked, her brow furrowed.

"I don't think so," Persephone said with a frown. "Bloody hell, this is hard. Everyone else has until the end of the holiday to do this."

"Well, silly us – we decided to go home for Easter hols," Emma grumbled. "So, we're taking Divination?"

"I think so," Persephone said, checking the box next to the class name. "Care of Magical Creatures?"

"Yeah," Emma said, checking the box next to Care of Magical Creatures. "Are you sure you don't want to take Ancient Runes with me?"

"I was thinking about taking Arithmancy, actually," Persephone said. "Mum said that divination and arithmancy go together really well."

"Really?" Emma gave Persephone a skeptical look.

"Yeah, mum said that they work together. Something about the charts and whatever."

"Well, maybe you could try and teach me, and I can try and teach you ancient runes?"

"That could work," Persephone said with a nod. "Let's do it."

The two grinned at each other and checked the appropriate boxes. "It's so weird to be thinking about third year when we haven't even done our exams yet."

"Oh, don't even remind me," Persephone groaned. "As soon as we get back from hols I bet they start making us cram for exams."

"Probably," Emma said with a shrug. "Who takes the forms again?"

"McGonagall," Persephone said, taking a look through the pamphlet one more time before closing it. "Should we go drop the forms off?"

"Might as well," Emma said, closing her pamphlet. "One less thing to worry about before hols." Emma put her things away and stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder and starting to leave the library. With a frown, she turned back around to see Persephone just watching her sadly and not getting up. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah, sorry," Persephone said, gathering her things and joining Emma. "Let's go."