"So you're saying it's gone? Completely vanished?" I was sitting close to Fred and George as we whispered together in the rather busy common room, our faces bowed towards one another with quill, ink and parchment between us as we conversed privately, an emergency meeting having been called. To anyone else on the outside, they would probably assume that we were plotting something or other, which would usually be the case except this time, it wasn't. "I can't believe it. He must have given you leprechaun gold. Why didn't you tell me sooner? It must have vanished soon after the World Cup."

"We didn't want to worry you about it. Maybe he made a mistake." George suggested, trying to give Bagman the benefit of the doubt. That sleazy, cheating, no-account prick Bagman.

"I very much doubt it, I bet it was intentional. It was a lot of money he owed you and now he's not coughing up like he should. That was all of your savings." I worried for the two of them, though for the moment they were trying to take things calmly. "You could always report him, you know." They insisted that they wanted to try and keep things clean and quiet for the time being, Fred already starting to write out the letter to Bagman in order to politely request their earnings, or at the very least their money back. "Tell him he's an arse. It's a good, strong opening." I suggested and Fred tossed me a grin.

"We'll save that for another time, shall we? How about this?" He wrote down a few sentences but George shook his head, saying that it sounded like they were accusing Bagman and they had to be careful how they worded it. We worked for a while but then George nudged us, having noticed that Harry was looking over our way so they decided to finish the letter later. "Once we're done, could we borrow Orion off you?"

"Sure, he'll be glad for the job. He was a little miffed at me when I used one of the school owls this morning to give him a break. He'd been doing so much flying over the summer, I thought he'd be happy." I said to them before they said goodnight and went to bed. I did some work on my own for a little while, the common room steadily emptying until it was just myself and the famous trio, Hermione trying to advocate a new movement she was planning which involved house-elves and their liberty. I could tell her right now that most elves would not appreciate her efforts, but even as Ron tried to explain it to her she wasn't listening.

It was only when Harry called out his owl's name, Hedwig, that I looked up to see him rushing over to the window in order to let her in, taking the letter in her beak. I thought nothing of it, but then he called me over saying that it was from Sirius. By the time I'd crossed the room, he'd already ripped open the letter and read it, and when I leaned over his shoulder I saw that dad was flying back here in order to see us, concerned about Harry's scar. "He's flying north? He's coming back?"

"Dumbledore reading what signs?" Ron repeated from the letter before seeing Harry's face and that he'd just hit himself on the head with his fist. "Harry, what's up?"

"I shouldn't have told him!"

"Well, it's too late now." I said to them brightly, giving Hedwig a few treats I happened to have on me and stroked her feathers as she enjoyed a well earned fuss after such a long flight. "Honestly Harry I'm not surprised he's already on his way back, he's worried about you. Don't think about it too much, he hasn't been caught yet and no one else knows about his secret little talent. At the very least I'll be glad to see him. I haven't even had the chance to talk to him properly face to face yet. So think of it this way, you're doing me a favour." I told him as I gave his shoulder a firm squeeze. "He'll be fine. Just make sure you tell us if anything else happens, alright? I'm off to bed, I've got double potions tomorrow and knowing Snape and he's probably still pissed I knocked him out last year, so I need to be well rested so that I don't run out of patience."

Giving the three of them a cheerful grin, I then complimented Hermione on her S.P.E.W badges but informed her that it was unlikely that everyone will share the same sentiments as her. All the same I gave her the two sickles entrance fee to keep her happy, suggesting quickly to look at a particular record book I knew of in the library to help with her case before going up to bed, yawning and stretching all the while, feeling rather cheerful. If dad was on his way back, then we'll probably see him soon.

Not too soon though, he can't exactly travel during the day time with Buckbeak, but I wonder where he'll hide himself once he was here? I'll have to wait for his reply, I'm sure he'll have it all under control, but for now, I had my own problems to worry about, and Snape was one of them. As I'd figured, he had definitely not forgiven me for attacking him last year, though he couldn't say anything about it. Instead he made potions even more miserable than usual, insisting I was doing things wrong, picking up on the tiniest little details, and even made me start over twice despite the fact my potion was flawless.

Fred and George tried to argue for me but got points deducted, so I just told them not to bother and brewed the potion so perfectly that it deserved nothing less than full marks, bottling a sample to hand over to him with a smirk. I don't care if he fails me, it's not like he hasn't tried to before and Harry has the same problem. At least he's not the one marking our O. and N.E. otherwise we'd probably be awarded a Troll mark. I wouldn't put it past him. Even in the corridors he'd keep an eye out to see if I was doing anything remotely suspicious, even going so far as making me stop and turn out all my pockets and my bag in search of contraband until McGonagall had spotted us and demanded what was going on.

Seeing as it had been a very rare day when I wasn't loaded with dungbombs, stink pellets, whizz poppers and Circe knows what else, McGonagall gave a very sharp chiding for Snape's excessive victimisation and sent me on my way after forcing Snape to apologise to me. I walked away very happy with Fred and George also grinning, all of us praising McGonagall for being the best. In comparison to Snape, however, Mad-Eye Moody proved a rather interesting choice of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. The twins and Lee loved him, though the way he shouted 'CONSTANT VIGILANCE' every now and then, even halfway through a sentence, was rather funny.

He was teaching us about curses, including the three unforgiveable ones, demonstrating what they were and how to recognise them and how to best defend against them. The Crutiatus Curse and Killing Curse didn't have a block, but I theorised that since most – if not all – spells had a counter curse of some description, there had to be a means to defend against at least some of them. Magic always had an equal and an opposite, at least it did so in my opinion, so I began to research Magical Theory and write a paper on it, going into some depths over the counter curses and studying the language of magic in a bid to try and develop new spells of my own.

It was my toughest project yet and the fact that even I found it difficult was absolutely wonderful. It took time, effort and a great deal of research. I don't think I've ever spent so much time in the library, and Hermione found it completely fascinating so I enjoyed talking about it with her, our discussions often leading in that direction as she was able to keep up and understand my theory. Soon the project was like my baby, though every now and then I'd get so frustrated over a setback or a block that I had to leave it for a while.

I'd also started another paper on the misunderstanding of werewolf prejudice as kind of a side project to distract me from the main one and even McGonagall noticed how focused I was of late. It was Moody who brought it to her attention after I'd discussed both papers with him after class one day, hoping for new insight and when she asked to read what I'd already collected, I could tell that she was exceedingly impressed. She even wanted to take the papers to Dumbledore but I refused, insisting they weren't ready and that I wanted to be able to write definitive proof after some practical experimentation.

That didn't go down so well, McGonagall warning me not to play around with magic, especially when it was new and unknown, so I promised her that I would do it safely and away from anyone else so that no one ran the risk of getting hurt. She accepted this, but told me that I was to organise practice times with her so that she could be aware of where I was, what I was doing and ensure that I didn't hurt myself either, so I agreed. All in all, everything was looking good on the run up to Halloween, except for the Ludo Bagman business. He was ignoring Fred and George's letters. Orion came back each time looked sad and apologetic for not being able to bring a reply, even though I'd told him to bite Bagman until he did.

"Send him a Howler." I immediately told the twins, but they were still hesitant, though I could tell they were becoming desperate. Orion hooted at me almost painfully, nibbling at my hair and ear so I let him hop onto my hand. "Oh no it isn't your fault my darling, that arsehole Bagman is just a cheapskate, I'm sure you did your best so don't be sad." Stroking his feathers and feeding him his favourite owl treats, Orion flew away much happier than when he'd arrived. I watched him go, a pale spot in the sky before he finally vanished and I turned to the twins with a fired up air. "Definitely send him a Howler. Or a curse. I'm more than happy to do it for you." No one upsets my owl.