AN: Sorry this is a day late guys. I've been working on finishing book 2 in my fantasy series, and time got away from me. I hope you enjoy this! Again, please remember this fic will not be 500k words, so there isn't as much detail here as some of you wish. I still hope you enjoy it, but feel free to comment your anger or your joy. I can take the anger, and the joy makes me happy.

All thanks to my beta Katherine.

When they returned from the ministry, no one knew what happened down in the depths of the ministry, but in the weeks that followed there were serious information leaks. Soon everyone knew who had been involved, Neville's Grandma gave an interview telling it like it was, and everyone suspected that Harry was "the chosen one", apparently that had been the secret of the prophecy no one had heard. Mia didn't really think anyone knew what the prophecy said, but she still wondered. Was Harry some chosen one, destined to defeat Voldemort? Sirius and Remus didn't know, but it did mean Harry got added protection from death eaters.

Fudge was sacked and replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour as the new Minister of Magic. He was a fierce wizard, the previous head of the Auror department, and Remus said he had a good head for security, but that he was likely too security conscious, for he didn't trust Dumbledore's advice on practically anything.

The Ministry passed out pamphlets on how to stay safe in these trying times, and Sirius laughed them all off as a joke, but still made Mia come up with security questions they could ask each other, just in case.

There were murders, the dark mark appeared above homes, and everyone inside would be found dead, there was a giant attack in the west, and the death eaters collapsed a muggle bridge, a well-known landmark, killing everyone trapped on it.

Two weeks into summer Dumbledore dropped Harry off in the middle of the night. They had thought he would be there the next morning, and the alarm spell work Mia from a dream. She wrapped a robe around herself and met Sirius on the landing as he went down to open the door. Meadow Lake had been prepared with every spell and precaution Dumbledore and the ministry could think of in preparation for Harry's visit. Mia had done up one of the rooms on the second floor near Remus's empty room for him. The empty floor made her sad when she climbed past it and she hoped Harry's presence would help. She was still sad Remus and Tonks had gotten their own house, she understood it, but a part of her wished they could all stay under one roof. They did visit often though.

They talked for a bit, catching Harry up on the things that couldn't be sent in a letter, then they went to bed for a few more hours. Ron and Hermione arrived by floo the next morning and woke Harry up to talk.

Mrs Weasley and Sirius had fought over who would get Harry for the summer, but with this being Sirius's first chance to host his godson, he won. Mrs Weasley would get Christmas though as a trade.

Their OWL grades arrived later that day, and Hermione, freaking out at the sight of Mia and Harry's owls floo'd back to the Burrow for Ron and her's letters. Mia cracked open her letter with anxiety. Gabe had brought up grades a few times, panicking about what he would get, but Mia hadn't worried about it. But now with the parchment in her hands it couldn't be avoided. She opened the letter and scanned down the list.

Pass Grades

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

Amelia Michelle Black has achieved:

Ancient Runes E

Arithmancy A

Astronomy A

Charms E

Defense Against the Dark Arts E

Herbology O

History of Magic A

Potions O

Transfiguration O

Mia stared down at her paper, absolutely speechless as Ron and Harry looked over Harry's grades. "Well I always knew Divination was a lost cause," Harry joked. "How about you, Mia?"

Mia was saved responding as the fire flared again and Hermione came back, followed by Ginny thrusting Ron's letter into his hands, then Hermione ripped open her own. Mia didn't hear the others talk about their grades, it was as if she was in a fog as she stared down at that last little O. Somehow, she had gotten an O in Transfiguration? She couldn't believe it. She kept double checking that it really was her name on the letter. Herbology and Potions didn't surprise her, those were classes she excelled at. She was shocked she hadn't gotten anything below an A. She had passed everything, even bloody History of Magic.

The fire flared again, and Gabe appeared. "Oh, good you got yours too. Let's trade." Mia looked up at him, blinking in her shock, and he took the paper from her and handed his over. She snapped out of her shock a little and read down his paper:

Gabriel Artemis Adewumi has achieved:

Ancient Runes E

Arithmancy E

Astronomy O

Charms O

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Herbology O

History of Magic O

Potions E

Transfiguration O

"Heeey! You did amazing Mia! Look at that O in transfiguration! I feel like I deserve that O for all my tutoring," he said with a grin.

Mia looked up at him with confusion. "Your middle name is Artemis?" she asked.

"Give that back!" Gabe said grabbing for the parchment, but Mia for once was too quick.

"Your initials are GAA!" she said, with a gleeful smile.

"You better be nice to me or I won't tutor you anymore, Streak," he called, dropping Mia's paper and diving for her. She threw his paper in the air and darted away laughing but he caught her, and they fell onto the couch in a mess of arms and legs.

"Do you two need to get a room?" Ginny asked with a grin as she picked up their grades and looked them over. Ron and Harry exchanged scandalized looks.

"Hey, this is my house!" Mia said.

"And her room is for sleeping only! By herself!" Sirius said coming into the living room and glaring at Mia and Gabe.

"Hey! You have to be nice to me today, I passed all my OWL's," she told him smugly.

"What? All of them?" Hermione handed Sirius Mia's paper and he read it over with suspicion. "You didn't magic these did you?" he asked.

"Dad!" she exclaimed, but Sirius broke out in a grin.

"Only teasing. Of course you passed. You're just as brilliant as your mum." He crossed to the room and held out a hand. Mia took it and he pulled her from the couch and Gabe's clutches and hugged her. "I'm so proud of you Mia," he said seriously, before releasing her and turning to the others. "Well, what about the rest of you? Any Trolls in the room?"

None of them had gotten any Ts. Gabe had gotten everything he needed to go on to being an Auror, but Harry had not, only getting an E in Potions. She could tell it made him sad, but he seemed to shake it off quick enough. It was over. There was no changing it now. Hermione had the best grades of them all, and Gabe made a comment about quidditch practice getting in the way. Mia punched him in the arm, and he congratulated Hermione along with everyone else.

They had a big dinner to celebrate, over at the Weasley's. Apparently, Ron's older brother and Fleur were engaged, and she was driving everyone mad. Mia got it, she was trying to make everyone like her, which for her meant she was using bits of her Veela power, maybe without even noticing it. And while she was trying to make people like her, she kept forgetting and then saying really insulting or critical things, like she didn't get other people tried to default to niceness instead of cattiness.

Ron, Ginny and Hermione spent most of their time at Meadow Lake with Mia and Gabe the next few weeks. It was so weird to have them there with her, in her space, and being a part of her life, but it also felt so wonderful.

Eventually their Hogwarts letters came, and Harry and Gabe compared Quidditch Captain badges, and they all took a big trip to Diagon Alley, with lots of security including Hagrid and some ministry cars. Many shops were closed, Olivanders, and Mia's favorite discount bookstore. The entire road was mournful and dark, and people shuffled from building to building with their heads down. This was true of everywhere except Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Mia was so excited to finally see Fred and George's joke shop. They were so incredibly successful, people flocking to the brightly lit shop amid the bleak Diagon Alley. She had been following their progress in the paper, apparently the Ministry had even been ordering from their new defense line because the products were so high quality.

Sirius loved the joke shop. He got really distracted looking over all of their sick sweets that it was a while before everyone realized Ron Harry and Hermione were gone. Mia sighed and helped with searching the crowded shop, although she knew they would appear eventually. They did, insisting they had been in a back room, and the matter was dismissed, although Mia could tell by the look on Sirius's face that he would have a talk with Harry later.

Harry was better company than he had been the previous year. Apparently having Voldemort mucking about in his head had really put a damper on his mood.

Mia found a compartment on the Hogwarts express with Harry, Neville and Luna. She messaged the number to Gabe, who appeared only a short time after they left the station. "Did you skip prefect duties?" she asked as he tossed her his badge and slipped into the seat next to her.

"Yeah I'm over it. People keep staring at me, asking me about the ministry, and what really happened."

Mia laughed and Gabe looked offended. "All these years of people staring at me, and when they are finally looking at you too you can't take it." She shook her head in mock disgust.

"People keep looking at me funny too!" Neville said. "It's crazy." He looked to Luna who was absorbed in a magazine.

"You guys were there too, and now everyone knows it. And now everyone knows Dumbledore was telling the truth. Things are bound to be different."

Ron and Hermione appeared a few hours later after their prefect duty and scolded Draco for not doing his. Mia looked at Gabe and grinned. A short time later a second year came in all nervous and handed out small invitations to Harry, Neville, Mia and Gabe. It was some invitation to a luncheon in a compartment with Professor Slughorn, the professor Harry had said he helped Dumbledore recruit. Mia felt bad leaving the others, but then later she felt worse for having to sit through the lunch. Slughorn was clearly only interested in their family accomplishments, as though he was looking for the students with the best connections. Apparently coming from The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and having her father wrongly accused of being a death eater was enough to get Mia an invite, which made Mia doubt Slughorn's judgment. Gabe had been invited because of his father's family reputation and being a diplomat.

The food was good, but that was about all Mia could say for it. She, Gabe and Neville went back to their compartment while Harry made up an excuse and disappeared. He was late to the welcome feast to, and appeared still in his muggle clothes, and covered in blood. He wouldn't talk about it, but Mia suspected that was because everyone on their end of the table was looking at him. She was sure Hermione would tell her what happened later.

The next morning, they got their class schedules, which took a long time to sort through for the fifth years. Harry and Ron were both allowed to take potions, as Slughorn was their new teacher, Snape becoming the new DADA teacher, and Mia and Gabe had the same schedule, taking only Charms, DADA, Potions, Transfiguration and Herbology.

They both had first period free, which they spent wandering around the upper floors, enjoying each other's company, and some alone time for the first time since summer started.

Their next class was DADA, and it was clear Snape took the subject very seriously. Then they had another free period where Gabe went to work on their DADA homework, practicing non-verbal spells, and Mia went to the Hospital wing to see if Madam Pomfrey had any tasks for her. She corresponded with McGonagall and then Madam Pomfrey over the summer, to see if she could help more officially in the Hospital wing. She didn't just want to make pepperup potions when she was bored, she wanted to learn real diagnostic work and how to help students who came in with random hexes or potions side effects they were too nervous to tell the rout of. McGonagall agreed, only on the condition that Mia not let her grades drop, and Madam Pomfrey agreed happily, enjoying Mia's help and presence over the years.

A young student came in with a very strange rash that kept moving around whenever Pomfrey tried to examine it, and the girl said she didn't know what the cause was. It was an obvious lie, but this is what Mia was wanting. When a Death Eater cursed them, they wouldn't know what the jinx was, she needed to know how to treat the unknown. Pomfrey explained everything she did and saw and the conclusions it brought her to, explaining to Mia that for now watching her work would help it make more sense when she read about it later. She had recommended a few books that Mia had bought before term but hadn't had time to read yet. She sent Mia to fetch potions, and explained her spells, speaking them allowed even when she advised non-verbal was usually best in all cases except for teaching. When the little Ravenclaw was finally clear of spots, Madam Pomfrey told Mia how she thought the girl had likely contracted them, and her reasoning for the guess.

Eventually she turned from Mia to clean up and glanced at the clock. "Merlin, didn't you have Potions next period?"

Mia looked at the clock and panicked. The class was likely half over, and all the way in the potions room. She ran to the side closet taking off her apron as she went and darted for the door. "Wait! Take a note dear," Pomfrey called to her, as she finished scribbling and then threw the parchment to Mia. It soared across the room and landed in Mia's outstretched hand as she called her thanks and disappeared out the door. Mia ran as fast as she could, taking each shortcut she knew of. She was late to Potions, and today was their first class with Slughorn! She haden't particularly liked the teacher, but when she realized he would be teaching her favorite subject, she'd wanted to make a better first impression than being extremely late for class.

He frowned at her when she barged in, breathing heavy and apologised, handing over her note. Gabe grinned at her as she joined his table, Slughorn making tutting noises behind her as he unfolded the note. "Oh dear, oh dear, Miss Black, and I had such high hopes for you. Well, take out your cauldron and see how far you can get into the Draught of Living Death before class time is over." He paused and read the note as Mia started getting out her book and equipment. "Oh, ho, hooo," he said as he finished reading the note. "Stuck in the hospital wing helping Pomfrey diagnose a rare curse? Well, maybe I wasn't wrong after all. See how far you get now, the winner gets a wonderful prize!"

He gestured to a little potion in the front of the class that bubbled like molten gold and kept jumping up in large drops like little golden fish. Mia stared at the potion, her own cauldron sitting empty over the flame. "Felix Felicis," she whispered. It was supposed to be crazy hard to make, and took over six months. When she'd read about it, it had sounded like a challenge she wanted to take on but hadn't had the time.

Slughorn chuckled at her knowledge and told her to get started. Mia started piling in ingredients.

"What a day to be late, Streak," Gabe told her. "If you'd been on time, we would win the potion for sure."

Mia looked down at Gabe's potion which was steaming a weird grey green color that didn't look right. "What makes you think I would share with you," she asked as she crushed her Sopophorous bean and added in the juice. Her potion turned the right color, and she smiled.

"How did you do that?" Gabe asked. Mia just smiled and told him to turn down his flame. Having potions this year, with no Snape, would be fun. She tried to catch Draco's eye a few times in class, but he was ignoring her obviously.

Harry won the competition. Mia laughed at Hermione's disgust and outrage. Apparently, he had an old potions book someone had made good notes in. She may have been upset if she had ever had a chance to win, not being so late. But if anyone deserved a potion to make them lucky, it was Harry.

Classes were harder than the year before. Every teacher was now requiring nonverbal spells, and it took a long time for Mia to get the hang of it. When it finally clicked in her head, she started using them for everything, grabbing parchment or books from across the table, pouring her pumpkin juice. It felt cool to do magic silently, and she really needed the practice.

Harry started up private lessons with Dumbledore. He didn't confide in Mia what he was taught, but she was happy Dumbledore was finally including him. Harry needed to be treated as more than just the average sixth year if he was going to keep going up against Voldemort, chosen one or not.

Draco didn't play in the first quidditch game. The rumor was he was sick, but Mia checked the hospital wing, and he hadn't been there.

It took her a few weeks to finally corner him, but the sad almost mournful expression on his face when he told her to leave him alone made her stop. She'd expected more anger, and rage, his dad was still in Azkaban, but this utter hopelessness? What had happened that summer?

Harry spent two days trying to convince Mia Draco was a death eater until she finally snapped at him to give it a rest. "You don't get it Harry. I don't care if he is or isn't. It won't change the way I'm trying to help him. You forget, not all death eaters are hopelessly evil. Look at Snape."

"That's not really a great argument Mia."

"Oh, leave it alone Harry." He didn't. But Mia didn't humor him any more than Ron or Hermione did.

Hermione came to her half way through term, totally outraged over Harry and his secret book, written by the "Half-blood Prince." Hermione tried to get Mia on her side. "He's cheating!"

But Mia just shrugged as she studied a book on determining hex route of origin and its correlation to healing. "If at the end of the year he still does well, who can fault him if he actually learns what he's reading?" Mia reasoned. "And if he doesn't really learn, isn't that on him then when exams come?"

"But doesn't it make you angry?"

"No." Mia laughed. She had spent a lot of time angry about a lot of things over the years. Her anger had always been so quick to flair, but it was so exhausting. She wanted to let things roll off her more. "I'm still better than him. And so are you. Slughorn's the only one who doesn't know it, and honestly I don't really care about his attention."

Hermione just sighed, but Mia thought maybe her words had sunk in. Hermione was still completely against Harry's new old book, but she didn't seem as hurt by Harry's success.

Slughorn on the other hand, really loved Harry, and talked about him constantly. Harry scheduled quidditch practices every time Slughorn threw one of his "Slugclub" meetings, and Gabe was irritated because it meant he couldn't do the same. Mia kept reminding him that he couldn't schedule practices those nights anyways, because Mia had no excuse not to go, and he wasn't abandoning her.

A few of the meetings were actually kind of cool. The food was always really good, and sometimes he had really cool guests come like a famous Potioneer. Gabe had really liked meeting Gwenog Jones, a famous quidditch captain, and kept polishing his quidditch badge with his sleeve whenever she would look away until Mia elbowed him in the side and called him a prat. He had relaxed and pinned the badge onto her chest after that, and she just rolled her eyes and gave him back his prefect badge in trade. Both Prefects and quidditch captains shared the same status, and got to use the Prefects bathroom, which was wonderfully void of Lavender, with plenty of counter space. While having one of his badges didn't really give her the same privileges, she pretended like it did and used the bathroom regularly. Even some of the teachers played along. Both Flitwick and McGonagall had asked Mia to run errands only a Prefect would do, as if forgetting Gabe's Ravenclaw badge on her chest wasn't hers.

Christmas was a wonderful break from classes. Harry spent much of it at the Weasley's, but they all had Christmas dinner together. Apparently after Mia and Sirius had left, Percy, Ron's estranged older brother, and the Minister of Magic arrived just to "drop in" which became an excuse for Scrimgeour to corner Harry in the garden and ask for his vote of confidence in the Ministry, which he refused.

After Christmas came apparition lessons. Mia was determined to learn how to apparate, but she didn't particularly like it, nor was she very good at first. Gabe was one of the first to successfully apparate without splinching himself. Mia was surprised, and told him so, being that he was so tall, she thought he would have a harder time. He retorted that if height was an issue, she should have managed by then.

Occlumency was brought up at one of the Slugclub meetings, and someone mentioned Slughorn was a very accomplished in occlumency. Gabe got really excited and begged the professor to teach him, telling him about his progress so far. Slughorn seemed impressed at his stories of Mia dosing him with Veritaserum, as well as Mia's ability to brew it, and reluctantly agreed to coach Gabe a few times on the process.

Mia loved learning about brewing antidotes second term. It was a puzzle her brain loved solving, and she was good at it. She also progressed greatly in her time with Pomfrey. She now knew most of the basic counter jinxes and could diagnose the most frequent student blunders, and was learning to heal magical wounds, which each needed very different steps and spells.

Thanks to Harry after the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match, Mia got to learn how to fix a concussion. Part of his scull had actually been caved in a bit, and the spell to fix it was very interesting. When Katie Bell had been cursed during first term, Mia had learned how to tell something was beyond her skill, and when Ron had been poisoned, she learned that antidotes didn't always fix things right away, and how to repair lingering damage.

She also learned from these two events that Harry was convinced Draco was behind every bad thing that happened at Hogwarts. There was something wrong with Draco. He was very secretive, and working on something private, apparently, as Harry discovered, using the Room of Requirement to accomplish his tasks.

Sixth year was hard, but it was so much better in every way than Fifth year had been. The only dark part of the year was Draco. Something was wrong and he wouldn't tell her what. He was troubled, he had something weighing on him and try as she might he wouldn't let her help him. She tried so hard to convince him she only wanted to help and wouldn't judge him.

Whatever he needed she'd be there for him. He had so much more worth then his father or his father's people would ever give him, and she just wanted him to see it for himself. He wouldn't let her help, he wouldn't tell her what was wrong, but Mia hoped that he listened all the same and heard her when she said she would be there if he ever decided he needed it.

"You haven't cemented your fate yet Draco, you still have time to change," she told him, but he shook his head.

"You don't just hand in your resignation to the Dark Lord," he said with a sad grimace. "It's a lifetime of service or death." He walked away before she could say anything else.

At the end of term when things went down.

When the Sixth year's apparition test approached, Gabe was ready, but nervous. He gave Mia both his badges "just in case I don't come back." Mia shook her head, laughed at his morbid expression, and kissed him good luck as he left with Hermione and Ron. Mia went off to potions with Harry, which was practically empty. It was only them, Draco and one other student in class. Since they were so short on classmates, Slughorn told them to brew something amusing. Draco was annoyed and flipped through his book gloomily. She wanted to move to the table with him and try to bug him into talking, but it would be weird with so few students, and anything she said would be overheard. Mia sighed and made her tea additive from memory. It wasn't incredibly advanced like Harry's Euphoria potion, but Slughorn clapped and gave her points for originality when she added it to his tea and the dregs burst to the surface as pretty flowers.

Gabe passed his apparition test, as did Hermione. Ron splinched half an eyebrow, and they failed him. It was tragic, but not altogether surprising. Ron always lacked confidence in himself.

The last quidditch game of the year was very high tension all across the school. It had something to do with Gryffindor needing to win by three hundred points to beat Ravenclaw, or Ravenclaw winning if Gryffindor lost by less than one hundred but more than two hundred points or something, but Mia wasn't sure. Gabe had explained it at least twenty times but she mostly ignored him. He and Harry had started acting very civil and very professional around each other and didn't really speak about anything. The rest of the school either hexed the players or congratulated them when they saw them. Mia's shield charms were better than ever, and she blocked with ease the few hexes that came her way after a lousy aim at Gabe.

Mia learned so much from Madam Pomfrey that year. She could fix most of the common mishaps that came about from student life.

She was in the hospital wing when Snape brought Draco in, covered in blood. He had large gashes all over his body, the skin just barely closed, but based on the cuts in his robes, he should have died. Snape prescribed dittany, and Mia fetched it as Pomfrey looked him over. He was in bad shape, his eyes puffy and red, his hair matted with blood. Mia gave him privacy while Pomfrey cleaned him up, and then Mia returned and sat on the edge of his cot. He was turned away from her, pretending to sleep, but Mia wasn't fooled.

"What happened?" He didn't reply. "Was it part of... whatever you've been doing? In the room of requirement?"

He flinched, and as it was obvious she knew he was awake, so he rolled over so she could see him. his eyes were bloodshot, and he had massive bags, like he hadn't been sleeping for ages. It had been so long since she'd gotten close enough to really see him, and it was clear this year of whatever stress he was holding had weighed on him.

"What are you on about now?" he asked, and Mia wondered if maybe he didn't know the name.

"The room of requirement. It's the room we met in last year to practice DADA, and the room you've been running off to all year."

He looked afraid for a moment, then his annoyed scowl was back. "Forget about it. Whatever you think is probably wrong, and it's all pointless anyways. I can't do it." He said this last bit to himself, and this time there was clear fear.

"Draco, if what your doing is this dangerous-"

He cut her off. "What I'm doing? It didn't cause this. What I'm doing is only dangerous if I fail. Potter did this to me. Oh yes, don't look so shocked. He tried to kill me."

"What?" Mia couldn't believe it. Well, she could. Harry had been really set on believing Draco was a death eater, and maybe he was, but still. Harry had almost killed Draco, because of what she learned was Snape's quick appearance and action, Draco had lived, but with how much blood he'd lost, if Snape had been another thirty seconds slower, Draco would have bled out and died.

"Yeah, that's right, Perfect Potter. What? Didn't think he was capable of such dark magic?" Draco asked, his sneer back in full force.

"No Draco, I know anyone is capable of it. We all have the potential for evil inside of us, and the potential for good."

"Oh, give it a rest already. I was going to use Cruciatus on him. Don't kid yourself, I I'm not innocent in all of this." He rolled over. "Go away and try to convert some other Slytherin for a change."

Mia sighed and stood up from the bed. "Sleep well Draco."

Mia saw Hermione first, Harry was already in his dorm room, so she had no one to vent her anger on.

Harry got detention for every Saturday for the rest of the year, that included the Ravenclaw/Gryffindor quidditch game. Mia was glad. It wasn't a good enough punishment. She couldn't believe what he did. He would have died had Snape not been there. He should have been expelled. She sighed and let out the anger in a long breath. If Harry was expelled, he would be an easy target for Voldemort. It was probably the only reason he wasn't expelled. Bloody chosen one.

When Mia did see him, he didn't cower from her rage, but he did try to justify it, how he didn't know what the spell would do, how he didn't want to kill Draco, how Draco was going to use an unforgivable on him, so it made it even in the end. And he seemed shocked when Mia said she knew about the Cruciatus curse, because Draco told her.

When Mia stopped yelling, Harry told her a little more, in a soft voice, where even Ron and Hermione couldn't hear.

"He was crying. In the bathroom, talking to Moaning Myrtle about how he couldn't do it, and how he'd be killed. His eyes were red like he'd been at it for a while." He looked at her, with something like pity, or remorse, and Mia started to think maybe he was sorry, but then she thought about it for just a moment.

"So you hexed him?" she asked in disgust. He came across Draco crying in a bathroom and started hexing him?

"No!" he said, trying to head off her yelling at him more. "No, it wasn't like that. I saw him, and then he saw me, and he just started hexing me." He looked baffled like it had made no sense.

Mia sighed, and deflated a little. "Of course," she said softly. "You saw him in a weak and vulnerable place, so he started hexing you to prove he wasn't."

Harry's face screwed up in confusion as he thought about it, and Mia left him there. She was still mad, and she would be for a while.

Gryffindor won the quidditch cup, and Mia didn't feel like celebrating. Neither did Gabe who felt like a total failure, losing his first year as Captain. Mia tried to console him, no one in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff had won the cup in over a decade, but it didn't make him feel better. This was gonna be his year, he'd said. Instead she and Gabe walked the ground, ignoring the world and enjoying each other's company.

Exams were coming, and Mia and Gabe were back to cramming at every possible moment. Mia was in the library with Gabe studying when he got a weird expression and started digging in his jeans. He pulled out a galleon and looked down at it with shock.

"What is it? Planning on bribing a teacher for a better grade?"

"It's our DA galleon," he said, looking at her with wide eyes.

"You still carry yours?"

"Of course."

It made Mia smile. He still wore his SPEW badge sometimes, even though he never attended meetings, and Hermione had turned over the majority of responsibilities to a passionate Fourth year. Loyalty wasn't a particular trait recognized in Ravenclaw, but Gabe was full of it. "Well what does it say?"

"Meet now, 5th floor corridor."

They looked at each other, and packed up their bags.

AN: We are so near the end here. Be preparrrrred!
*queue lion king music*