"Hey, there she is!" a voice called. "I thought you would run off somewhere to brood in silence. You done breaking down, or am I still in the firing zone?"

Willow's heart leapt into her throat. She shot to her feet, trying to mask her expression with confusion. "Paige! I- uh- I'm fine, I've been fine. Since- I don't know, last month?"

"Yeah, you lie as good as you dodge bludgers," Paige said, ignoring Willow's offended scoff. She firmly wrapped her arm around Willow so that she couldn't escape. "Come on. I'm taking you somewhere."

"Do I have a choice?"

"No."

Paige guided Willow through the corridors, glaring at anyone who dared to stare at her. She guided Willow all the way through the castle, past the library, and up onto the Astronomy Tower. Willow glanced at the older girl with a confused expression.

"Your powers still working?" Paige asked.

"Yeah- wait, why?"

"Good, because this won't end well otherwise."

Without warning, Paige two-hand shoved Willow off the ledge. Willow yelped and instantly transformed herself into a falcon, desperately flapping her wings, then finally stopped her momentum and flew up. Paige was standing against the railing, grinning to herself. Willow clumsily landed, panted heavily, and pointed at Paige.

"What the hell was that for?" she snapped.

Paige shrugged. "Like I said in Uganda, my solution to awkward situations is shoving you off a cliff- er, in this case, the Astronomy Tower. You were being sad and mopey, and I don't know how to deal with that, so I fixed it."

Willow threw up her hands. "What- Paige, that is not how you fix bad situations!"

Paige shrugged. "You're not all depressed and moping around anymore, so I had to have changed something, haven't I?"

Willow groaned. "You're impossible!"

Paige smirked. "I think you meant to say I'm possible."

"No- what- I mean- ugh, Paige, I was having a down moment, that's all," Willow explained. "My friend said something, and it shouldn't have bothered me, but it got through to me, and...yeah, that happened. They didn't insult me, either, it was just- how do I explain this?"

"You stop lying and hiding and start telling the truth," Paige said. "You claimed you were fine earlier, but now you're saying that you had a breakdown? Hm, seems like your story isn't adding up. What part did I miss?"

"The part where you're bad at math and added up my story wrong," Willow teased.

Paige scoffed, gently slapping Willow. "You little- I'm not bad at math! I got all passing grades in that class when I was in primary school! No, I'm not a genius- that's too much work- but I'm not so bad that I can't tell when someone is lying to me!"

"Well, I'm not lying, I'm- "

"-stretching the truth," Paige finished. Willow tried to protest, but she cut her off. "Don't deny it. Seriously, you don't have to tell me lies. I'm not going to ask you what's going on if it's that important to you to keep it a secret."

"You- you won't?" Willow stammered.

Paige carelessly shrugged her shoulders. "No. You'll eventually spill anyway. You're weird, like that, but in a really cute way."

Willow felt her cheeks heat up. "Uh...thanks?"

"You're welcome. Now don't hug me."

Willow scoffed. "Why would I hug you for that? I'm not a touchy-feely type of person. You're not either."

Paige smiled. "Yeah, just making sure you weren't going to go all soft again and use me as your breakdown stabilizer. I don't do that. You're only allowed to use my sanity once per week."

Willow rolled her eyes. "I'm not breaking down anytime soon, Paige. I bottle it up and unleash it on idiots."

"I better watch out, then, since I'm not so great at math," Paige said playfully.

"That's not- ugh, how do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

Willow helplessly gestured with her hands. "That! Take my words and use them!"

"Words have power. You should be more careful with them."

"You're terrible."

"You're worse."

Willow and Paige stared at each other, both pretending to be furious with one another. The moment didn't last, though, as only seconds later, the Weasley twins appeared, both carrying armfuls of fireworks.

"Oh, hey, Willow, Paige, mind that you don't set these off, they're likely to blow up the whole tower!" Fred said, barely missing them with his teetering tower of Filibusters.

"So you're bringing fireworks up here that might backfire on you when you could easily find a better place to set them off safely," Paige summed up.

Fred set down the Filibusters and brushed his hands off, grinning at her. "Pretty much, yeah."

Paige shook her head. "'Safety first'- if you mean first rule to be ignored."

"Since when do you care about safety?" George snapped.

Paige appeared taken aback. "Um, since never. I'm just joking around with you."

"Yeah, sure sounded like it," George muttered.

Paige clenched her fists, walking closer to George. "If you have something to say to me, say it to my face, and like you mean it, Weasley. I don't have a problem if someone wants to let me know exactly what they think of me."

George shot to his feet. "You want to know what I think of you? You're the most annoying, obsessive, aggravating idiot in all of Gryffindor! It's impossible to get anything done with you around!"

Paige rolled her eyes. "Please. You couldn't have managed the majority of your first two years at Hogwarts if it wasn't for me. Sure, you can plan a great prank, but I'm the one that kept us on task and passing our classes while still entertaining everyone."

"If you mean barely scraping by, then that might be at least partially true," George growled.

Paige furiously stood her ground. "You know what? I'm not going to stoop as low as to insult someone that used to be my best friend. At least I make clear how I feel about him simply by my tone of voice. What happened to you, George? Where did the kid go that used to make sure I was laughing every day? What happened to that ginger that always forced a smile on my face? Oh yeah, he was mauled by jealousy!"

George was almost livid. "Jealousy? Of what, you?"

"You know exactly what I mean, George," Paige hissed.

Fred and Willow glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, then jumped in between the pair to separate them. Paige and George still glared daggers at each other from across the Astronomy Tower until Paige stormed out of view down the stairs. Willow stood there for a moment, fury threatening to spill over, then whipped around and marched towards George.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, but you can't treat Paige like that!" Willow shouted, forcing George to backpedal. "Whatever's come between you guys, it can't be important enough for it to escalate like this! Stop, before you hate each other forever!"

George gaped at Willow. "But- but Paige- "

"No, George, this time, I'm not backing down," Willow said. "You're in the wrong here. Either figure it out, or I'm not speaking to you."

She made to leave, marching down the Astronomy Tower's stairs. After recovering from his shock, George tried to go after her, but to Willow's surprise, Fred stopped him.

"George, let her go," he said firmly. "Come on, cool down before you do something stupid."

Willow half expected George to ignore his brother, but instead, George sighed and simply returned to the fireworks. Willow let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and met Paige at the bottom of the stairs. Together, they went to the Gryffindor common room, both still reeling from the fight, both still hiding it. How could they be losing their friend so quickly?

Professor Snape began Potions right away Thursday morning, later that week.

"I'll be assigning your new partners for this year. Complain, and you'll lose five house points. Let's hope your partner is sufficient to clean up your messes, Longbottom. Cypress, Malfoy, front desks."

Willow seethed as Neville's cheeks reddened. Appearing offended that he had to work with Malfoy, Cypress plunked down into his new desk. Thankfully, Malfoy still hadn't attended classes since his accident in Care of Magical Creatures, so Cypress was on his own for the time being. Willow wished she could call Griffin and have him absolutely clobber Snape for his rude comments and ridiculous pairings. He continued to call out names of students, most of which everyone could tell Snape had placed together for the sole purpose of creating tension. Willow found herself paired up with Tracey Davis. The Slytherin girl frowned at her, but at least she didn't outright appear to hate her. Willow hoped that they could mutually agree to not speak to each other. When Snape had finally finished calling out names, he continued without pause onto the ingredients they would need for the Shrinking Solution they were to make that day. Willow clumsily pulled out her quill and a scrap piece of parchment from her pocket to scribble it all down. Poor Neville, still flustered from Snape's comment, dropped his ink well in his rush to write everything down. It shattered and spilled all over the floor. He blushed furiously and bent to down to clean it up, using every ounce of his willpower to ignore Snape's burning gaze in the back of his head.

Willow bent down to help him. "Ignore Snape. He's trying to get into your head."

"I know, but it works every time!" Neville squeaked, shooting a terrified glance in Snape's direction. "He always manages to find something wrong I did and remove house points!"

"Screw house points. If he were even a tiny bit less biased, he would be awarding you house points for your effort. You can't worry about that. Hermione earns more than enough to make up for Snape's incessant idiocy."

Neville took a deep breath. "You're right." Students began moving around them to gather supplies. "I hope Blaze wrote down what we were supposed to do, because I didn't get a chance."

"If he didn't, let me know, and I'll give you my list."

Neville thanked Willow and hurried off to the supplies cabinet. Willow returned to her desk, where Tracey Davis had already thrown a collection of gross-looking items onto their cutting boards. Referring to her list, she realized that almost none of the items were anything close to the ingredients Snape had specified.

"Um...did you write down something different than I did?" Willow asked.

Tracey sighed. "I'm going to make this clear right away. I have no idea what I'm doing, I don't care about this class, and I'm definitely not touching most of these ingredients."

"So...you want me to do all the work?"

Tracey shot Willow a look and snapped, "Is that a problem?"

Willow simply grinned. "No, that's actually great, because I'm terrible at working with people. Draco was only a good partner last year because he wouldn't let me do the actual brewing of the potion, which was the easy part. I'm good with doing all the work. If you want me to write down what I'm doing so you can study it at the end of term, I'll do it."

Tracey sat back in her seat, staring at Willow with an expression she couldn't read. "You're serious?"

Willow furrowed her eyebrows. "Um...yeah? Why wouldn't I be?"

Tracey nodded slowly, not taking her eyes off of Willow. "I don't know. That was a dumb question."

Willow shrugged. "There's no such thing. Just make sure you don't bump me while I'm making the potion, because God knows I need no help being a klutz and spilling the ingredients everywhere."

Without skipping a beat, Willow gathered up all of the potion ingredients, returned them to the cabinet, and replaced them with the correct ones. She grabbed a knife and began carefully cutting her daisy roots into as equal pieces as she could manage. Tracey never seemed to take her eyes off Willow, expression remaining stoic. Willow wished she could figure out why, but as Tracey didn't seem to have any intentions to hurt her in any way, she brushed it off. She'd eventually have it spelled out to her after the matter, if her past was any example. She continued to prepare the ingredients, skinned a shrivelfig, and measured out leech juice on her brass scale. Finally, just as she was beginning to combine the ingredients, Cypress stormed over to her table, having already finished his potion with ease.

"Can you believe him? I really have to work with that little git!" he hissed under his breath, eyes flashing as Snape passed by. The electricity sparking within his icy blue irises was almost terrifying. "I know for a fact that the idiot will make me do all the work, then take credit for it!"

Willow frowned. "Yeah, he's liable to do that. Just ignore his entire existence, especially when he's telling 'heroic' stories about himself. That really pisses him off."

Cypress didn't even smile. "I swear to God, if he takes his anger out on Oliver because of me, he's going to be my personal test subject for my newest line of potions, and he can be sure that there's no survival worth living as of the current state of them. The side effects I've identified are devastating."

Willow sighed. "Don't worry, there will be a mile-long line behind you to get a shot at him if he so much as glances at Oliver in a negative way. He's surrounded by a freaking army at this point."

Cypress smirked. "And I'm happy to lead that army." He combed his fingers through his hair, seeming to finally calm down a bit. "Okay, I'm going to experiment some more with my potions to make sure they're ready, you know, just in case he shows up today for the first time in forever and needs a wake-up call. Oh, and your rat spleen is slightly smaller than average, so you're going to want to stir it a little slower than usual to get it to mix."

Willow smiled. "Thanks. Go blow something up in Snape's face, will you?"

"It's a given at this point."

Willow snickered to herself. Leave it to Cypress to be careless, then suddenly flip a switch because of Oliver. He was slightly terrifying like that. Willow hoped that she never ended up on the wrong side of his anger. Stirring her potion clockwise, she realized that Tracey was missing, and when she cast around the room to locate her, she wished she hadn't. Willow groaned at the sight of the blonde boy striding into class, surrounded by an entourage of Slytherin girls that were cooing and simpering over his injury. Draco soaked up the attention like a desert cactus and stretched it for all it was worth. Willow watched in disgust as Tracey and Pansy particularly fawned over him. She was so aggravated that she spilled a bit of her potion onto Tracey's side of the table, burning and sizzling until it left a sizable divet. Willow huffed and finished up the potion as quickly as she could to let it simmer while she hightailed it over to Cypress's corner.

"I see what you mean more than ever, Cypress," she fumed. "He's an absolute git."

"How you had any faith in him before that he was going to turn out alright, I have no idea," Cypress said, nearly smashing another vial as he shoved it onto a shelf. "He only cares about himself. No one should care about too many people, but everyone has to have one person that they care about nearly as much as themselves."

"Well, that might be impossible for Draco. I've tried to become his friend but all he ever does is resort back to his idiot self...I'm quite honestly done trying, especially after what he's attempting to do to Hagrid."

"Good. He deserves nothing more than Karma's about to throw in his face. Oh, and by the way, you missed Snape's big bullying debut of the year," Cypress remarked, acid lacing his voice. "He's making Neville test his potion on his toad even though it was orange. Unless Hermione's helping him like I think she is, his toad's going to be poisoned." He shook his head in disgust. "What does he have against Neville? For God's sake, he's rubbish at most magical subjects, but it's not like he doesn't try!"

"I don't know, but I'd love a chance to find out why, then turn the tables, because I've heard rumors that Snape is rubbish at Astronomy."

Cypress smirked. "You just wait; one of these days I'm going to show him up at his own subject, and he's going to give me detention for a year, but I'm going to love every bit of it. He's never gotten any better at potion-making. I'm already light-years ahead of where he was when he was young. I can't wait to give the school something to talk about."

"There's the Cypress we know and love," Willow chuckled. "Oliver must be rubbing off on you a bit. I like this super-caring side to you." She lowered her voice. "But in all honesty, I want a front-row seat when you show up Snape."

Cypress smirked. "You've got it." Then, very nonchalantly, he added, "And yeah, Oliver might be rubbing off on me, but just a bit."

Willow grinned. "I know we won't be losing our Cypress anytime soon; I just hope he gets lost in Oliver's eyes."

Cypress scoffed and gently slapped Willow's shoulder. "I don't lose myself in anybody's eyes. People get lost in mine."

Willow rolled her eyes. "Sure, and Muggles ride dragons to work. We all know the truth: you both get lost in each other's eyes. Come on, Snape's about to attempt a pet murder. Let's make sure Neville's okay."

Cypress, only slightly put off, followed Willow towards the table where Snape was preparing to poison Trevor the toad. Neville gripped Willow's hand very hard when Snape poured a few drops of the potion down Trevor's throat. Instead of keeling over and dying, however, Trevor simply transformed into a tadpole. The Gryffindors burst into applause. Neville looked so relieved Willow worried he'd passed out for a second. Cypress smiled and commented, "Hermione's much better at Potions than I thought. Maybe I should give her a few tips on going off-book."

Snape killed the happy mood, though, before anyone could celebrate too much longer. He took five house points away from Gryffindor for Hermione's "cheating" and strode off into his office. Draco and a few Slytherins clapped approvingly. Cypress simply glared at Draco, then roughly threw his books into his bag and strode through the door exactly as the bell signaled the end of class, muttering something about meeting Oliver in the Great Hall for lunch. Willow found herself in the same aggravated mood and followed not far behind her Slytherin friend. Before she could get very far, an annoyingly superior voice found its way into her ears.

"Personally, I would have given Granger detention, cheating like that," he drawled. "What's the point in testing it at all if he knew that it would succeed?"

Willow could have sworn her entire head detonated. She turned on her heel, whipped her wand out of her pocket, and pointed it directly at Draco. "Maybe because there's some sort of soul left in him since, you know, Trevor could have easily died?"

Draco appeared disgusted. "He named that slimy thing? No wonder he can't produce even the simplest of potions; he's too busy worrying about his precious friend, considering that's the only thing he ever seems to talk to."

Without skipping a beat, Willow slammed Draco into the corridor wall, flipped him around, and wrenched his bad arm painfully back so that he cried out in pain. She brandished her wand at anyone of his entourage that dared come near.

"Does this remind you of anything, Draco? Maybe being helpless? Well, that's exactly how Neville felt when Snape decided to start bullying him for no reason. Neville has done nothing to deserve the treatment Snape is subjecting him to. He's perfectly fine in the friendship area, I might add, as all of Gryffindor seems to talk to him on a daily basis. Now, if you ever insult Neville again, or even suggest something negative about him, I'm going to give you a real injury to mope around about. Are we clear?"

Draco glared at her. "Crystal."

Willow released him, making sure to be rough on his bad arm. As expected, he didn't even flinch. Unfortunately, his Slytherin gang didn't seem to notice that, only glaring daggers at Willow. She picked up her bag that she'd thrown aside and marched to the Great Hall. Throwing it on the Gryffindor table, she plopped down in her usual seat, aggressively dumping mashed potatoes on her plate. She was so livid that she didn't even notice Fred and George appear on either side of her.

"Jeez, Willow, what did the potatoes ever do to you?" Fred asked.

Willow dropped her spoon in surprise. "Oh! Is it really that bad?"

George slowly put his hand up, eyebrows raised. "I swear I didn't do anything punishment worthy- at least by your standards. What pissed you off this time?"

Willow sighed, sliding her hands down her face. "I think I'm officially suspending all rocky friendships for the rest of my life. It's too much work. I'm sticking to you guys before I kill someone."

"Ah, so you're finally done with that Malfoy? Excellent, you and Cypress can team up for pranking him in the Slytherin common room," Fred said. "We were wondering when you'd realize there's no room for improvement in that slimeball. Cypress is the only decent one out of that whole bunch. Well, maybe there's one or two odd ones mixed in there too; but for the most part, we're glad you came back to us, because we've got a ton of pranks lined up for the Slytherin quidditch team after we kick their arse this season."

Willow half-smiled. "I can't wait."

"Oh, that reminds me," George said, pulling something out of his pocket and handing it to Fred. "I finally figured out the series of charms to make this necklace work. Go ahead, Freddy, throw it at me." Glancing at Willow, he sighed and added, "I kind of deserve this one."

Fred tossed the necklace at George, and almost instantaneously upon touching him, it exploded into a series of scathing remarks about him, but in a way that was highly comical to the viewer. Willow crossed her arms and smirked at George. He was right. He did deserve a round of insults for how much fighting he was causing between Paige and himself. George simply rolled his eyes at the last comment, tapping his wand to the red jewel to shut it up. He handed the necklace to Willow.

"I call it the Pesky Pendant. When you throw this at someone, it immediately hurls a series of insults aimed personally at the person. All you have to do to make it stop is tap it with your wand. Only us three can make it stop; no one else's wands are incorporated in it."

Willow nodded. "Impressive. Thanks, guys. That makes me feel a lot better."

"Do us a favor and throw it at Malfoy next time you see him, will you?" Fred said.

Willow rolled her eyes. "I will. Trust me, it would happen whether you asked or not."

George jokingly saluted her. "Go cause chaos for us. We've unfortunately got yet another year of History of Magic to attend to. McGonagall threatened to throw us in the dungeons this year if we found another way to skip the first day."

"We can't have that! Go, and make sure Professor Binns knows you're there!"

The twins ran off, Lee scolding them for taking so long. Willow returned to eating her mashed potatoes until the bell rang. She begrudgingly got up and forced her mopey body to go towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The class was almost completely full by the time she got there, but thankfully, she found a desk next to her Gryffindor Sisters. Professor Lupin appeared shortly after and announced that their class would be practical, however, and soon, they were in the teacher's lounge, talking about some Boggart thing that was banging around in a wardrobe. Willow, however, was preoccupied with her seething about Draco's low whispers and laughter between Crabbe and Goyle to hear what was going on. She was unmistakably surprised when Lupin began counting down.

"Shoot- Seamus, I missed all that, what's going on?" she hissed.

Seamus sighed. "How did you miss all of that? We're going to try that spell on the Boggart, and Neville's first up, so he thinks Professor Snape is going to appear out of the wardrobe."

"Professor Sn- wait, didn't he just leave the staff room? How the heck is he popping out of a wardrobe?"

"Willow, you seriously need to work on your attention span," Dean whispered. "The Boggart turns into whatever the person facing it fears most. Neville fears Professor Snape, so he's planning on defeating him with this spell, Riddikulus. Just watch."

Willow looked on as Boggart-Snape burst out of the wardrobe, striding menacingly towards Neville. Willow instinctively gripped her wand, but it wasn't necessary. With a single cry from Neville, there was a sound that reminded Willow of a whip crack, and Snape was suddenly covered in an old woman's clothes, moth-eaten and old as dirt. The class burst into laughter. Willow nearly had to be removed from the room, she was laughing so hard. There was nothing that could have prepared her for seeing Snape in a stuffed vulture hat with a handbag slung over his shoulder. Sam happened to be in the same boat as her, and the pair of them moved to the far corner of the room, where their explosive giggling wouldn't bother the rest of the class as they fought Boggart after Boggart, transforming them into countless, far less scary, almost ridiculous beings. Willow and Sam applauded hard when Neville finally finished off the Boggart.

"That was something to watch!" Sam said. "Wish I could have had a go with it, though. I'm terrified of werewolves. On second thought, maybe having a werewolf in the staff room might not be the best idea..."

Willow shrugged. "Werewolves just howl all night. They're mostly humans anyway. Whenever I go to the Forbidden Forest, they seem to stick towards the darker part, the center of the forest. I don't think they're too scary, too be perfectly honest."

"What do you think the Boggart would turn into for you, Willow?" Sam asked, holding the door for her as the class emptied out of the staff room. "Do you know what your greatest fear is?"

Willow paused in thought. "Now that I think about it...I don't have a clue."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "That's surprising. Normally, you know everything about yourself down to the exact science- except what your emotions are doing, of course, but that's beside the point. Do you at least have an idea of what scares you?"

Whispers of the first few lines of the prophecy echoed in Willow's ears, but she shut it out of her mind before they could grow. She feared the prophecy, but it wasn't her greatest fear, so there was no need to bring it up and torture herself right now. "No, not really. I'm not scared of much."

"Hm. Maybe you'd figure it out if you were faced with a Boggart. Try asking Professor Lupin if there's another Boggart. It's important to know what you're scared of, because you might be running from something that's better faced head-on."

Willow forced a smile onto her face. "I think I'll do that. Thanks, Sam."

As she expected, there didn't happen to be any extra Boggarts hanging around the castle. Professor Lupin did promise, however, that Willow would be the first in line if another happened to pop up. Feeling better that she might figure out that stubborn question, she lightly walked down the corridor towards the library, remembering that she had agreed to meet her friends for a round of studying in the library. They were already struggling to organize their days and study materials with the extra classes now weighing them down. Sue and Lisa sighed with relief when she sat down at their table.

"Thank Merlin, we were already having a panic attack over Ancient Runes," Sue said. "You're strangely good at this stuff, Willow. How do you think we should organize all our study materials?"

"Strangely g- hey, I may be a Gryffindor, but that doesn't mean I can't be organized," Willow retorted. "I think you should create some folders and arrange them in alphabetical order by class. When they start overflowing, stuff them under your bed in piles, each according to class, and if you can, make it chronological so you're not sifting through a hundred papers for a single lesson note."

"Oh- that's much simpler than my design," Lisa said, crumpling up a complicated-looking piece of parchment. "I tried to combine chronological, subject, and lesson unit into one study device, but it wasn't working out so well."

Willow raised her eyebrows. "I'm...sure it would have worked?"

Mandy shook her head at the end of the table. "No, I was going to tear my hair out by the fifth time she tried to explain it too me. I don't want to do any more thinking when I'm already trying to study for stupid Astronomy."

Lisa shrugged. "Yeah, I can see why the design failed now. We're using yours."

Over the course of the next hour, Willow helped her friends create an organized, colour-coded folder arrangement. The Smith twins, Cypress, and Oliver eventually showed up and copied her idea. Finally, satisfied with their work, they started in on their homework, most of them instantly getting on top of their Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment. Willow was done within a half hour, and after shaking out her cramped-up hand, she tended to Sam and Sally, who were struggling to come up with enough to say on Boggarts.

"How did you finish so fast? You didn't even pay attention to what Professor Lupin was saying today!" Sam complained.

Willow scoffed. "Are you questioning my ability to B.S. my way through life?"

"YES!" Sally exclaimed in frustration.

Willow chortled. "Guys, I literally opened my textbook and made sure to not copy it word for word, but close enough to it that I can't get it wrong. It's paraphrasing, just without much effort."

Cypress high-fived her. "Exactly how I get through Transfiguration papers."

"You guys are terrible. Don't you want to learn at least something from our subjects?" Sally asked.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm learning plenty. I'm just taking it easy for now because I'm avoiding the workload that's about to be dumped on us from all these dang classes," Willow said.

"Why do they have to give us so much homework? I want to be able to see my friends for more than two minutes a day," Oliver said.

"I guess we've just got to settle in and get ready to work our butts off until...December, ugh," Mandy groaned.

Lisa fell out of her chair, eyes closed. Everyone laughed. The timing of it was perfect. Lisa must have been working on her jokes, Willow thought to herself. Mandy, still chuckling, picked her up and set her back into her chair.

"That was a good one, Lisa, you actually made me laugh pretty hard," Mandy said. Lisa still went limp and fell out of the chair again. "Oh come on, silly, the joke's over, don't push your luck." Lisa didn't move. Mandy furrowed her brow. "Lisa? Seriously, you're scaring me now, what the heck are you trying to do?"

Willow shot to her feet, her brain suddenly exploding with electrical signals. "Something's wrong." She crouched down by Lisa, hand on her head. She summoned her healing powers. Hands glowing, she gently compressed her powers and sent them into Lisa. But the honey-warm glow did not transfer to her. Lisa remained unconscious, unresponsive, and extremely pale. Willow placed her finger on Lisa's neck to check her pulse. It was unnaturally slow. Willow tried to heal Lisa again, but nothing happened.

"What the...she hasn't been showing signs of anything lately, not even a cold," Sue said.

*PLEASE NOTE! THERE ARE TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THE CONTENT BELOW! If you have had an eating disorder, this may be especially painful to read, so please avoid it if you think this may harm you!*

Willow noticed something odd about the shape of Lisa's shirt. Gently lifting it halfway up Lisa's abdomen, she snapped her hand back, staring at Lisa's stomach in horror. Her friends gasped and cried out around her. Willow could count each of Lisa's ribs, they were so visible. Her hip bones jutted out so far that Willow wondered how her skin was even covering it. Lisa's body was nearly to the point of being a walking skeleton, skin stretched taut over her visible bone structure. Willow's blood ran cold when she realized exactly what was happening.

"Guys, Lisa's been starving herself. She's dying. We've got to get her to Madam Pomfrey, NOW!"

Oliver and Sue were holding onto each other and sobbing so hard that they could barely function. The Smith twins and Mandy were so horrified that they were rooted to the spot, staring at their friend with hollow, troubled eyes. Cypress was the only one that shook himself out of his terrified trance. Together, he and Willow managed to lift Lisa between them and run to the hospital wing. She was lighter than a feather. Willow's heart hammered against her ribs, which hurt worse and worse as the image of Lisa's decimated body swam in and out of her vision. The blood roared in her ears as her feet pounded the castle floor. Cypress and she received many concerned expressions as they sprinted through the corridors, but they hardly even noticed. All Willow could think about was Lisa's deathly, ghostly form, already beginning to waste away into nothing. Madam Pomfrey nearly shattered a flower vase when they kicked down the doors.

"Lisa is dying- she's starving herself- already passed out- she's dying- " Willow panted. "Help her!"

Madam Pomfrey was on her immediately. The blood drained from her face at the sight of Lisa's abdomen. "Move her here, quickly, then get out of here, because I don't want you to see this."

"What- no, I'm staying here, I can't leave her!" Willow insisted.

Madam Pomfrey turned to her with sad eyes. "Wait outside, please. Everything's going to be okay."

"No, I need to stay here, please, let me stay!" Willow persisted.

"Willow, we have to go," Cypress whispered, pulling her back.

"No, you can't make me leave!" Willow screamed, yanking her arm out of Cypress's grip. She kneeled next to Lisa's bed, glimpsing her friend's pale face once more, her stomach clenching itself as if she'd been run through with a spear.

"Willow, we have to leave her here!" Cypress said, regaining control of Willow. "She's with Madam Pomfrey. It's going to be okay now."

"No! I'm not leaving her!" Willow yelled, fighting for all she was worth.

"Willow, stop- we have to-" Cypress nearly lost control of her again. He yanked her back again with all the strength he possessed. "WILLOW! LOOK AT ME!" he roared.

Willow finally stopped fighting, noticing for the first time the stormy sheen in Cypress's eyes. There were no electric sparks left in his icy blue irises. They'd darkened to an unhappy hue that Willow had never seen before.

"Leave her," Cypress pleaded. "We can't help her now. Let Madam Pomfrey help her. Please."

Willow's mouth dropped open. Her will to fight sapped. She hung her head, slowly nodded, and let Cypress guide her outside. The rest of her friends were out there, most already in tears. Sam and Mandy had sunk to the floor, expressions unreadable as they stared at the wall, eyes sunken and defeated. Oliver threw himself into Cypress's arms and cried into his shoulder. Cypress hugged him tight, and for a split second, Willow almost thought she saw tears in his eyes, but he simply closed them, supporting Oliver as he struggled to cope with the situation. Sue and Sally were squeezing each other's hands with white knuckles, silent tears streaming down their faces. Willow forced herself to stop looking at all of them. She breathed in for a few counts, then exhaled for a few counts. She couldn't break down now. The situation was dire, but her friends needed her to stay strong. They needed someone to be strong for them. She had to be their rock to hang onto in this hurricane.

"Wisp, is that your friend in there?" a voice drawled. "Wow, you did a great job protecting them this time around, didn't you?"

Willow immediately fired off a spell in Malfoy's direction. There was a small yelp cut short by the collapse of the ceiling above where he was standing. She sifted through the rubble, rage driving her forward. She threw brick after brick over her shoulder until she found him, pulled him up by his ear, and punched him in the chest so hard that he flew into the wall.

"How dare you!" Willow shrieked, kicking him and planting her foot on his chest. "Lisa is dying, and it's all my fault! I should have known! I should have confronted her! But I didn't, and now she's dying because of my stupidity! So go ahead, toy with me all you want, it won't make a damn difference in the fact that I let my own friend almost die!"

Draco managed to get to his feet and tore down the corridor, every once in a while shooting a terrified glance back at Willow. She breathed heavily as he disappeared, aware of her friends staring open-mouthed at her, but still so wrapped up in her own pain that she couldn't feel anything else. The prophecy began stealthily invading her mind once more. She covered her ears to block out the voice, but nothing could stop it. Willow cried out in agony as the voice thundered in her ears.

The One born of powers...Receive the burden of the coming war...

"Willow? What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Don't come anywhere near me!" Willow warned.

Never succumb to fate...But friends, family, lovers, and besides...

"Willow, you don't have to face this alone, we're all here for each other," Mandy said. "Yes, we all should have noticed Lisa's condition, but this is in no way anyone's fault."

"I- I know, but- " Willow gasped. "Please, stay back!"

These lives she will most certainly suffocate.

"Willow, you have to tell us what's going- " Sam began.

"Just- just leave me alone!" Willow screeched.

Without warning, her powers took over. Willow found herself transforming into a falcon and was zooming out the nearest window before she could stop it. She shot towards the tree line of the Forbidden Forest and crash-landed in a tall tree. She fell through the canopy, bounced off multiple branches, and thudded onto the forest floor, a rush of air escaping her. Willow coughed and slowly sat up. Her mind felt like a thick cloud of foggy pain and anguish. She could almost feel it weighing down on her shoulders.

Is the prophecy already taking effect? she wondered with a pang of guilt. Is there nothing I can do to stop it?

Willow's heart sank when she got no answer. She'd forgotten that she'd sent Cebba away for a while. Willow held her shoulder, loneliness punching her in the gut. She'd also forgotten how much Cebba meant to her. Cebba was always there when she was completely abandoned, alone, or isolated. She was always ready to give Willow a kick to jump-start her day. What kind of person was she to send someone so important in her life away, Willow asked herself? There was hardly anything holding her together before; how was she supposed to cope now that one of her best friends was possibly dead?

Apparently, her powers had an answer. Willow glanced up to see trees growing thickly around her. They were so close, in fact, that they formed a sort of rectangular wall. Vines swooped overhead to tie their branches tightly together as a sort of leaf roof. Windows were carved out of tree trunks, a door swung open from beneath the hard bark, and furniture grew itself right out of the ground. Willow scoffed.

"Great, so now you want me to run away?" she asked no one in particular. "You think I should hole myself up and live my life out as a hermit? How is that supposed to help my friends?"

Almost in answer, letters shaved themselves out of the tree bark above the door. Willow walked closer to peer at the final product.

"'Power House'? What's that supposed to mean?"

Getting only silence as an answer, Willow frustratedly sat down on a log-chair, gazing at her surroundings. There were berry bushes in one corner, a couch along one wall, an empty space in the middle, some random chairs, and a pen that seemed to be for an animal. Suddenly, Willow shot to her feet.

"Wait...this is a place for me to practice my powers, isn't it?" she said. "It's got everything...every aspect of my powers...oh my God, there's even a shelf for whatever books I come across! Powers, you're awesome! It's like you want me to figure this out!"

Willow stared at her hands, which were glowing in response to her praise, but it suddenly faded as she remembered how they'd failed her earlier.

"But...unless I figure out this prophecy, I'm not going to be able to save my friends," she whispered.

Staring at her hands once more, Willow recounted all the danger she'd put her friends in because of what was within her. She closed her eyes and placed her arms behind her. Enough was enough. The time had come for her to make a decision, and she wasn't about to make one that would put a single soul in jeopardy. Willow exhaled, running a hand through her hair, then stood up.

"Well, I guess I better decorate this place how I want it to be, because I'm going to be spending a lot of time here."

Willow began growing plants and creating signs. She had to protect her friends from this prophecy. If she couldn't work her way through it, then there was only one option left that would keep them safe: get them out of the picture entirely. Willow struggled not to cry as she covered the book shelf in colourful flowers. She was going to struggle. It was for their own safety, but it was going to tear her apart. She loved her friends more than life itself.

But if they weren't her friends anymore, then the prophecy couldn't hurt them.