Just as we hoped, Lupin had kept the boggart on hand for all of us to practice against, hinting heavily that it was likely to come up in an exam so we all practiced against it. Just as I expected, Lee came face to face with a large flurry of moths which made him yelp before he managed to change them into a bunch of butterflies instead, though it wasn't really funny. Guess he lost his nerve. I knew what Fred and George were frightened of most, which rarely for them, wasn't the same thing. Fred was terrified of snakes, and George's worst fear was clowns. They were a muggle thing often showing up at children's birthday parties, and I think they were meant to be funny but the one Mr Weasley had arranged for the twins' fifth birthday had left a lifelong imprint on poor George.

Anyway, they dealt with theirs and each time got a huge round of laughter until finally, it was my turn. Lupin stood up a little straighter, watching me curiously as I drew my wand. The boggart floated as a balloon clown, courtesy of George's work before it started to shift shape in front of me. I waited patiently, nonplussed about what it would turn into but then it started to do something…well, odd. It shifted into several different things. A snake, a huge rat, fire, a dead fish, a reanimated corpse, but nothing fazed me. In fact, I was now frowning. "Professor Lupin, I think I broke the boggart."

"Now this is interesting." Lupin mused, watching closely before asking everyone else to move further back so that the boggart could focus on me. The boggart continued to shift, almost desperately as if unsure what to become. Now I was just getting impatient. Shouldn't it know what I was most frightened of? Since I had had no idea myself, I figured it would be able to pluck something out of my subconscious, maybe something I'd buried deep down and forgotten about but nothing. "Finish it off, Mia. Think of something amusing." Lupin directed so I gave a shrug then pointed my wand at the boggart.

"Ridikkulus." Immediately the boggart exploded into a series of fireworks, the rockets flying about the room until all at once bursting into a smouldering greyish flakes, signifying the end of the boggart.

"Mia, am I to assume that you have no rational fear?" Lupin looked at me with slight surprise so I shrugged.

"No reason to be afraid of something. If you can't blast it with your wand there's always a way to deal with it." I reasoned simply, a little disappointed. I don't know why I expected the boggart to show me something I was afraid of, I'd never been scared of anything all my life. Not really. I'd had moments when I'd been afraid, such as that one time I fell out of a tree and broke my collarbone, but after I was fixed up, I brushed it off and climbed the tree again. I just didn't see the point in living your life being scared over stupid things. Like moths. Sorry Lee, but it was true.

"Well, in any case, everybody who participated may have five points apiece for their efforts." Lupin decided, giving me a thoughtful look before continuing the lesson. Lee made it loudly known he was disappointed he didn't get to figure out what I was afraid of but now vowed that he would do his upmost to make me scream at something, so I wished him luck.

Knowing him, this meant all kinds of futile attempts to scare me, such as jumping out at me with boils and warts all over his face, chasing me with various projectiles and Merlin knows what else. He did his best, but seeing as each attempt failed and usually backfired on him, he eventually gave up though he held out until Halloween. A Hogsmeade trip had been organised which we all planned to go on, though Harry had to be left behind on account of his muggle relatives refusing to sign his consent form. I felt bad for him and discussed with the twins the possibility of helping him out next time.

"We should give him the map." I said as the three of us browsed through Zonko's.

"Well, it's not like we need it anymore. We know that castle better than anyone. Even Filch, I'd wager." George said thoughtfully, looking to Fred who shrugged.

"I've got nothing against it, I've been thinking it's time we started passing on our legacy to the future troublemakers of the school, and no one breaks rules quite like Harry Potter." I grinned at him, fully in agreement. It was true after all. When Harry broke rules, he did it spectacularly. So our minds made up, we continued our shopping, stopped in the Three Broomsticks for a drink, dropped in at Honeydukes in order to fill up on sweets then I decided I wanted a snack before heading back up to the castle so I split up from the twins who were heading back in order to sneak their supplies past Filch.

I bought myself a couple pasties, biting into one the moment I was outside as I pulled my scarf more securely around my neck. It looked like it was going to snow later, the skies were deep grey and heavy looking, I expect they'd be wanting to relieve themselves soon. Walking alone out of the village, I took my time to just enjoy the peace and quiet, though I wasn't particularly looking forward to passing those dementors again. They'd almost come at me again when we tried to leave, two of them swooping down out of nowhere and focusing on me intently, much to everyone else's alarm but McGonagall had sent them off with an angry shout and a patronus of her own, a sleek little cat just like her own animagus form.

For the time being I ignored any thought about dementors, thinking instead about the Halloween feast later and wondering if I'd get caught if I magically tampered with some of Slytherins' food to give them a good scare. It was Halloween after all. Now half way through my first pasty, I was happily concocting evil plans in my head when I heard a twig snap, making me stop and look around, at first thinking someone else was leaving Hogsmeade as well. It wasn't a person, and they weren't behind me.

A huge black dog stepped cautiously out of the forest line, sniffing the air and staring at me rather intently with large, expressive blue eyes. At first I was surprised, but then I found myself smiling and naturally holding out my hand towards him. "Here boy, it's alright, I won't hurt you." The dog growled softly, stepping forwards again so that he was now fully exposed on the path, coming closer to me as I crouched down so that we were of a more even height. The poor thing looked completely starved, its ribs showing through the shaggy black mane of fur so I pulled the remainder of my pasty out from the packet then held it out for him to take. "Go on, it's all yours. You look like you need this more than I do." Sniffing at the pasty, the dog then very carefully opened his mouth and plucked it from my fingers, as if consciously avoiding an accidental scrape which only made me smile more.

The dog wolfed down the pasty half in seconds, practically swallowing it whole so I fed it another and this time whilst he ate, I scratched behind its ears and fussed over him. "You look like you could do with some decent caring for. I wouldn't be allowed to keep you at the castle, but I bet Hagrid wouldn't mind another pet. He's our gamekeeper, you see, and he loves animals. He's got a dog already, Fang, but I think you two would get along just fine if you're this friendly. Here, have some more." I handed over my third and final pasty then started digging around for something else to give the starved creature.

He whined at me softly, sitting down on his haunches and started to lick at my gloved fingers so I smiled and pulled the mittens off, letting him sniff my palm as I scratched his chin gently. His eyes were looking right at me with a sort of intense awareness which reminded me a little of Crookshanks. I swear that cat could understand human speech, and this dog gave of a similar feel. "Do you belong to someone at all? If you do then I'd like to hex them, they're doing a ruddy poor job of taking care of you, starving you and all. What do you think about Hagrid? Shall I take you to him?"

He was now licking at my fingers and wrist, getting up with a soft bark of sound in order to start snuffling at my ear, neck and face until I was giggling. I liked this dog, which was strange because I'd always been more inclined towards felines. In any case, I couldn't let this dog go now, not when I'd seen it in this state. Hagrid would take good care of him and I could visit every day, the elves in the kitchen would be more than happy to let me take meat down to him. I'll feed him up properly and maybe I could persuade mum that our house was in need of a pet dog. "Do you have a name?" I wondered out loud, murmuring to myself as my hands continued to rub and scratch as the dog wagged his tail, clearly very happy with the attention.

Hearing some jovial laughter from behind us, I let go of the dog and turned my head in order to look at who it was. Surprisingly, it was Ron and Hermione, their arms full of sweets from Honeydukes on their way back to the castle. I suspect all that would be for Harry, they were such good friends to him. Turning my head back to the dog, I was alarmed to find an empty space where he had been just a moment ago. Standing quickly, I looked around me just as Ron and Hermione spotted me and they called out. "Hey Mia! You lost something?"

"There was a big black dog here just now, you didn't happen to see where it went did you?" I asked, craning my neck to try and look into the forest to see if it was still around. Ron gasped loudly and dropped everything he was carrying, staring at me in alarm.

"Big black…Mia, did you see a grim?!"

"Oh for goodness sake Ron, the grim is just a superstition." Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron who didn't look entirely convinced, whilst I was just confused so I asked them what they were talking about. "Harry's been cursed with a death omen by Professor Trelawney, apparently he had a grim in his tea leaves and now she's insisting that he's going to die very soon." I couldn't help it, I laughed.

"You do realise Ron that Trelawney is only a few acorns short of being completely nuts, right? I don't believe in the grim, it's just a coincidental omen for silly nonsense like cloud reading and tarot cards." I said to him as he flushed and started to pick up everything he'd dropped. "But back to my original question, did you see the dog?" Shaking her head, Hermione apologised and said they hadn't seen anything. "Huh, I hope I'm not going crazy." Cupping my fingers to my lips I gave a sharp whistle, hoping that it might call the dog back but the trees remained silent and still, much to my disappointment. "Shame, he was gorgeous. Needed a good bath and some feeding, but I'd have liked to have kept him."

"It's bad luck to keep black dogs." Ron insisted, so all the way back we argued about dogs and the grim, with Ron taking a firm stance that it really was a death omen. Eventually we simply agreed to disagree, then Ron started asking me all about the epic prank I'd pulled on the Slytherins with Lee and his brothers. Hermione promptly voiced her opinion that although funny, it had gone a little too far and that as a prefect I could have gotten into serious trouble but Ron waved her off, saying that it was pure genius. Apparently, the Slytherins still couldn't get their common room to change back to their own colours, much to my smug satisfaction.

So once we were back at the castle we all headed up to the common room where I called out a hello to Harry then went up to my room in order to drop off my things before joining up with Fred and George in order to go to the feast. I didn't tell them about the dog, though I wasn't entirely sure why. It was sort of nice having something to keep to myself and I was adamant to try and find it again as soon as possible. Maybe I'll talk to Hagrid about it, ask him to keep a look out and owl me if he found it. In the meantime, I allowed myself to enjoy the feast I had been looking forward to all day, falling into my usual routine of antics with the twins, laughing casually and thoroughly enjoying myself late into the evening.