It was all a blur. One minute he was with his friends. The next he and the dimwitted blood purist and his punky sidekick had been dragged to McGonagall's office by the ear by McGonagall herself.

But Reinhard wasn't sorry in the least. That brat had called Hermione, sweet innocent Hermione Granger, a mudblood. He deserved the hopefully broken- or at least fractured- nose that he had received.

Rein stretched his right fist that had ultimately landed the blow. It hurt a lot, but that wasn't surprising considering how hard it had hit Nott's nose.

Apart from the sore knuckles, Rein didn't escape the mini fight unharmed, however. Blaise Zabini had successfully punched him in his left eye, trying to defend his friend. It would most definitely become black. Zabini was the only one uninjured.

Reinhard hoped that Professor McGonagall would allow him to go down to the infirmary. He needed ice. And maybe it would give him a chance to check up on Cy.

As of now, Rein sat on the cushioned seat glaring across at his two fellow Slytherins.

"I hope the three of you understand just how much trouble you are all in." McGonagall was raging. Rein had never once seen her this mad. Even if he had only been in the school a few days.

"With all due respect, Ma'am. It isn't our fault. It's all cause of Naylor, y'see, He threw the first punch. I didn't lay a finger on him. I'm sure my father would agree also." McGonagall raised an eyebrow at the last few words that left Nott's mouth. "Oh, and perhaps my godmother would, too, you may have heard of her. Bellatrix Lestrange."

If McGonagall was scared, she sure as hell didn't show it.

Rein would have been scared if he was in her shoes. One of the most feared witches in the country, if not the world, and she would have been coming to the aid of her godson. Now that was scary.

"Is that a threat, Mr Nott?" McGonagall asked, her voice dangerously low. Now that scared Reinhard.

"No, Ma'am, simply an... assumption," Theodore smirked.

"Yes, well. I have a feeling that your 'assumption,' Mr Nott, would prove to be incorrect as I am sure that Mrs Lestrange would much prefer to carry on with her own business rather than to floo into my office just because three foolish boys couldn't do the bare minimum and behave. I suppose then it is not I, she would be upset with, but you for wasting her time, young man."

Nott stared back at her, his stare turning into a light glare.

"Twenty points from Slytherin, each."

The three Slytherins' jaws dropped.

"Now back to class the three of you, and if I ever have to correct any of you for such horrific behaviour again, It'll be detention, and I'm sure you don't want that."


Reinhard was still fuming. McGonagall had no right to take points from him. He was only coming to Hermione's defence. She didn't deserve to be called a mudblood. Nobody did. He walked through the halls to get to his next class. He now had Charms with Hufflepuff house.

Reinhard almost gasped when he felt a hand grab his shoulder roughly, it was Nott. Reinhard glared at him.

"You won't be so lucky next time, Naylor, mark my words." He reminded Rein of his mother. And Rein had just about enough of both of them, he snapped. But not in the way he did before.

"Oh really? What are you gonna do, huh? Get your godmother after me? Cause last time I checked, Theo, Bellatrix Lestrange is incapable of taking care of children, so what makes you think that she'll ever take care of you!?" By the look on Nott's face, Reinhard knew he struck close to home. He kept going anyway.

"And by the way, there will only be the next time if you ever touch or say anything to any of my friends or brother again. So stay out of our way and we'll stay out of yours, or next time, you'll get more than just a fist to the nose. Speaking of, better get down to the hospital wing."

Reinhard stormed off, as Nott and Zabini watched after him with wide eyes.

Wow. He thought. That felt... good.


Two Months Later.

The crowd full of first years babbled happily amongst themselves. Tonight a large feast was set to take place in the great hall. It was Halloween. And it was the talk of the school.

"I think the evolution of flobberworms isn't as wondrous as people think," Ally said to Terry Boot. Hermione just so happened to overhear.

The Slytherin and Ravenclaw first years were all crowded outside of the potions classroom in the basement.

"Oh, really? Why would that be?" Terry responded.

Hermione looked over at the two again, she awaited Ally's answer patiently, even though she herself was not a part of their conversation. She looked to Adhara, who was talking to the boys and Padma.

"They are just worms, after all. So they had an extra zag that they never had four hundred years ago, big deal. While I admit that gaining most of its nutrients from the sun rather than water is a large change for the species, I feel as though that is it. I simply cannot understand why witches and wizards hold that as one of the most interesting points in our herbology book. What about the Mandrake plant? Hm? Didn't its cries only affect the hearing-impaired? For me, that is a much bigger evolution that should be talked about more than it already is."

Boot looked lost, "Oh." He said simply.

A few minutes later when Profesor Snape allowed the class to enter, Boot walked over to Hermione and sneered in her ear.

"What the bloody hell is she on about? She's so unbelievably boring. No wonder she hasn't got any friends."

Hermione went to open her mouth and respond when somebody pushed against her shoulder.

It was Ally.

Hermione caught a glimpse of her face, her eyes shone with unshed tears.

"Miss Price?" Snape had called after her, but she was gone.

Hermione took her seat next to Adhara.

"What was that all about?" Adhara had asked.

Hermione said nothing.

Allison didn't come back for the rest of class, which Dray had agreed was something that had never happened before.

She frowned, a belly full of guilt was forming.


The feast was simply marvellous. It was just like the arrival feast had been. Only this time, a thousand live bats fluttered from the walls of the ceiling.

This freaked Adhara out. At one point while walking to take a seat a bat had come down and flew directly above her head. She had jumped and grabbed an arm she thought was Pansy's.

It was, in fact, not Pansy's. But Theodore Nott's.

Theodore had looked at her awkwardly, and Adhara had been so embarrassed that she forgot to move her hand from his arm.

"Um..." He mumbled.

Adhara's face became a darker shade of red.

"Sorry, Bye." And with that she had dashed off to where Hermione and Falco sat, stifling laughs while Nott just stood there, his face just as red, rubbing the arm that Adhara Ives had just grabbed.

Apart from the bats there were floating candles and pumpkins.

Cries of celebration rang through the grand hall once the golden plates appeared on the table, signalling that the feast was just starting.

Fred and George Weasley were amongst the loudest of them all.

Hermione looked around. Ally wasn't here. She had heard of Padma who had heard from her twin sister Parvati that Ally was in the girl's toilets- Moaning Myrtle's toilet- and had been there all this time, crying and that she wanted to be left alone.

Hermione's guilt intensified. She knew what it felt like to be an outsider. She felt like it before. In her old school, and now with her family.

She was brought out of her thoughts when Fred Weasley offered her some mashed potatoes.


The tap squeaked as water poured out of the spout, it was clearly quite old, Pansy had never seen so much rust on one tap before, it was almost like nobody had ever bothered to clean it.

After twisting it so that it stopped, she gently picked up a wet towel.

The squeaking had not ceased, however, Pansy noticed. Although this time it was not coming from the tap, but from one of the bathroom stalls. And it sounded differently, maybe even... humanlike.

She had told herself not to get too carried away. But she couldn't help it. If somebody was crying, she would like to know who.

She saw that none of the stall doors was shut. Odd.

But it was the final stall on the right that had a small pair of feet with the Hogwarts school shoes on them.

Pansy took a few steps forward, happyMcGonagall with herself for finally discovering where the crying was sourced.

"Excuse me, Are you alright?"

The crying stopped, the two legs had shifted, also.

Pansy took another few steps forward. And to her complete and utter shock, sitting on the tiled bathroom floor was none other than the usually well composed and dignified Allison Price.

Ally looked up at her, embarrassment displayed in her watery eyes.

"Are you alright?"

Ally shook her head as she blew her nose with a tissue.

Pansy bit her lip and chewed on a part of her gum, a nasty habit she had had ever since she was five. Her mother and father had tried desperately for her to stop, but she had only managed to do so a week before coming to Hogwarts, but here she was again.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Pansy sat down beside Allison, who looked at her curiously in return.

It was quiet for about thirty seconds afterwards.

"Why do you care?" It wasn't snarky, it wasn't meant to sound rude. Instead, Allison was generally curious.

Pansy thought over her answer.

"Because you're upset-"

"Yeah, I know, but why do you care that I'm upset?"

Pansy looked at Allison again. This was truly a conversation she had never expected to have.

"Well, I don't like when people are upset. Because I don't like to be upset myself. I know this might sound... cheesy or somewhat annoying but I don't have the best home life, everyone in my household are usually miserable or sad at some point during the day. I've been cheering my little sister and my mother up since I was about four."

Pansy felt bad immediately, she didn't mean to trauma dump when poor Ally was here crying her eyes out.

But to Pansy's surprise, Ally only smiled reassuringly.

"I'm sorry... if I had known I wouldn't have-"

"No, No! I'm the one comforting you here, alright! None of that!" Pansy laughed slightly at the end, as did Ally.

There was yet another pause.

"I have no friends." Ally sniffed. "That's why I'm here. And everyone thinks I'm an annoying know-it-all. Can't say I blame them." Allison finished the last part sadly, It made Pansy's heartache. "I mean you're really lucky, you made friends on the first train ride. I talked to people like Neville Longbottom, but it wasn't quite right, for I didn't know what to talk about. I feel horrible for how I spoke to Boyet on the train, and I've been thinking of ways that I could apologize, but then I went and I screwed it up again with Hermione and then that night Reinhard and Dray were sneaking out. I know I didn't show it but I really wanted to be friends with the lot of you. I saw how you and Adhara befriended Hermione Granger at the station and how you were really nice to her. I really wanted to be friends with the three of you. And then how Reinhard stuck up for Hermione against Theo Nott, I really wanted to be his friend, too. But-"

The words didn't come to Pansy straight away as Allison broke out into another fit of tears.

"Ally, I dunno if this'll really help, but I only really got lucky when it came to making friends. The only reason I probably have the friends I have right now is that my family and I didn't know how to find Diagon Alley and a really nice girl I didn't know kindly offered to help, that girl was Adhara and we immediately hit it off, she was so fun to be around and a really welcoming person in general. We spent the whole trip to Diagon Alley together. She was the one who met Hermione first, she introduced me to both Hermione and Cy, who introduced us to Falco and Reinhard. As I said before, it was purely just luck."

Allison nodded. "Adhara is really nice. She never had a problem with me, at least I don't think so." The girl was staring down at her hands. "I always thought it was nice how she and the others and yourself didn't lose touch when you separated into different houses, you guys even introduced each other to other people."

Pansy nodded. An idea suddenly came to mind.

"Hey, how bout we ditch the feast, I have something really cool I'd like you to see."


It happened so fast.

One minute they were all sitting down, enjoying the feast and the next they were being hurled out of the Great Hall by the Year Heads and Prefects.

"Troll on the Second Floor!"

The Ravenclaws were all racing down the hallways, coming across the Hufflepuffs also, as they were headed down the same hall to get to the kitchens, while the Ravenclaws were going towards the stairwell.

"Guys!"

The Ravenclaw group- Padma included- all turned around to see Ron Weasley's worried gaze.

"Have any of you seen Maria or Pansy? I think I've lost them."

Hermione was the first to reply. "No sorry, Ron, I can't say that I h- OH MY GODS!"

"WHAT?" Adhara, Ron, Padma and Falco had said in union.

"It's Allison Price! She's in the second-floor bathroom!"

Adhara seemed to be registering for a short moment.

"But the trolls on the second floor!"

"Exactly!"

Without a second thought, Falco looked at Ron.

"Ron, you continue looking for Pansy and Maria. We have to go to save Ally."

Padma's eyes bulged out of their sockets. The five were blatantly ignoring the commotion going on around them, but none of them seemed to care.

"But we can't! We have to go up to our Common room, where it's safe!"

Hermione gave Ron a look, signalling him to go, which he gladly obliged.

"We have to go, Padma. What if she gets hurt, or worse?" Hermione argued back.

Padma bit her lip, while Falco and Adhara both voiced their agreement with Hermione.

"Why can't we just tell a professor?"

Adhara spoke next. "We can't find one, Padma, they're all grouped up in the Great Hall. The entrance to that is sealed."

Padma sighed. "Well, we better get up there quick. But if I die, I'm coming back to haunt you all."


It was massive.

It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite grey, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was dreadful. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

Pansy Rowe was terrified. And from the looks of it, so was Allison Price.

The two were crouched in the very same bathroom stall as they had just spoken in. Pansy's head peaked out only just slightly to get even the slightest view of the monster.

"It's a mountain troll." She could hear Ally whisper very quietly.

Pansy had figured as much.

The brunette was cowering- and rightly so- in the gap between the toilet and the wall of the stall.

Pansy had barely managed to pull her out in time before the entire wall of the stall collapsed thanks to the hideous creature's wooden club colliding with the row.

The two first years were now completely visible to anything with eyes. Which, unfortunately, the mountain troll had.

The creature spotted them, and Pansy let out a nervous squeak, she hadn't brought her wand. But then again, what good would that do? It's not like she had learned any good spells. They were only going to be moving onto the proper and most useful spells after the Christmas Holidays.

And by the looks of things, Ally didn't have her wand on her, either.

Without even getting a chance to think of a possible exit route, the troll took a brutal swing of his club with a loud roar.

The Hufflepuff and the Slytherin both closed their eyes tightly, both using their hands to cover their faces, blocking out all other sounds and waiting for an impact.

It never came.

Pansy dared to glance up.

The troll had a dazed look on its face as its club floated through the air overhead.

"Pansy?!"

Pansy and Allison's heads both darted up at the familiar voice.

Falco.

The boy looked to be out of breath, he was holding his wand up, his face a mix between concentration and fear.

The troll let out another noise, it was then that three other figures darted into the room.

"Took you long enough!" Fal exclaimed.

It was the remainder of the Ravenclaw group. Padma, Hermione and Adhara.

"So much stai- Pansy?!"

Adhara could've groaned. She had really better start reading as many books as Hermione, cause hell she didn't think the troll would be this big, she had thought a troll would look a lot more different, maybe more humanlike and... smaller.

And now they had not one but two people to save from the beast.

Shouldn't be too hard.

Without warning, the troll let out a roar of sorts and came barrelling forward, bumping into the centre of the bathroom, which happened to be the squeaky sinks that Pansy had been using earlier. Somehow not even a scratch came to it.

Odd.

Hermione was brought back to reality by yet another roar.

If it had been in a movie back home, the sound would have made her laugh. But now it was just drop dead terrifying.

Shouts were being yelled out by anyone and everyone in the room who was able to speak.

This caused the troll to come towards the group of children, seemingly forgetting about the other two girls.

This caused Falco to lose control of the levitation spell and make the wooden club fall on the monster's foot.

Ooh! Hermione felt that.

Unfortunately for the group, this made the beast angrier, Hermione pulled out her wand but it was knocked out of her hand by Padma who was running to the other side of the room to take cover.

"HERMIONE WATCH OUT!" Squealed Pansy.

Hermione looked up and saw the beast's wooden club swinging in her direction, she barely had time to dive out of the way.

Now that was a close one.

"Thanks, Pans!"

"Don't mention it!"

Adhara looked for a possible exit route, she had her wand with her. Maybe she could think of a spell to move the troll so they could slip out. Walsh had surely told her about some.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Falco yelled.

"Swish and flick!" Alvara and Hermione both shouted back at him at the exact same time.

Fal huffed. "It's a bit hard to remember when you're in a life or death situation!"

Hermione huffed as she pulled out her wand herself. "I'll just do it myself."

The troll was getting angrier by the minute, Ally saw it grip its club tighter with its gruesome hands.

"Hurry Mione!" Yelled Pansy, in a desperate tone.

Hermione couldn't do it fast enough. The troll swung its weapon, a lot more brutal than last time, No one would have time to duck, They all let out a scream, shouts of anguish coming from each.

The club was just a few centimetres away from coming into contact with Padma's skull.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the blow to strike and for her to be knocked out, most likely worse.

But it never came.

Everybody was too terrified to hear the shouts from behind them, it wasn't until Adhara felt arms pull her back, familiar arms, strong and sturdy. She didn't know where she had felt these arms before. But she didn't like it. She didn't know how to explain, but it felt as though these arms were associated with a bad memory or a bad event. She had never felt a feeling like it before, and it made Adhara feel fear.

Adhara Ives slowly opened her eyes, she was okay.

She was staring into the striking grey eyes of an older man. He wasn't mean-looking, he looked like he would have been nice... If he hadn't been looking at her like some sort of ghost from his past.

"Are you alright, Adhara?" The man asked carefully, he took his arms off of her and scooted back a bit.

Adhara looked at him, she didn't answer, only nodded. His expression didn't change. She had never seen him before, but there was definitely something familiar.

She could see the scene of a seemingly unconscious mountain troll being levitated out of the bathroom by Professor Quarrell.

Adhara now realized that she was in the hallway, it didn't take long for her to see that her friends were taken out of the bathroom also, and so was Falco, who was unharmed, thankfully.

McGonagall was with Pansy and Ally, already bombarding them with questions, while Madame Pomfrey was with Falco, Hermione was beside him, asking the woman if Cy was alright. Padma had gone quiet, which was understandable since it was only under a minute ago they were fighting for their lives, although she was soon approached by Professor Lupin Black, who offered her chocolate.

"How do you know my name?" The small brunette asked. The man's expression didn't change.

"My name is Sirius, Sirius Lupin Black."

Adhara smiled. "I've heard of you! You're professor Lupin Black's husband aren't you!?"

Black smiled, it looked rare on his slightly wrinkled face. "I am."

Adhara nodded and took a deep breath, what had just happened sinking in. "Thank you, I suppose it was you who pulled me out of there."

Sirius nodded, he looked like he was waiting for her to do something, or that he was searching for something deep inside of her, waiting for some sort of emotion.

"I did, I also stunned the beast, and don't you worry. No monster like that will ever enter this castle again."

Adhara nodded. "Thank you very much, sir. You saved my life. Not to seem rude, but you didn't answer my previous question. How do you know my name?"

Black opened his mouth as if to say something.

"Sirius." Someone called softly, it wasn't long before Adhara noticed it was Professor Lupin. "We have to get going now, we must clean up."

Sirius nodded, and he turned to Adhara. "It was lovely meeting you... Miss Ives. I'd say we'll be seeing each other again soon."

Sirius walked off. Adhara didn't have long to think about the previous encounter before she finally heard Flitwick's voice.

"Five points to Hufflepuff for Miss Pansy Rowe, Five to Slytherin for Miss Allison Price, and twenty to Ravenclaw for Miss Hermione Granger, Adhara Ives, Falco Naylor and Padma Patil, all for outstanding bravery."

"Just don't any of you ever think about doing that again," McGonagall warned.


The Ravenclaws, Slytherin and Hufflepuff all walked together back to where the great hall was after being let go.

Ally followed behind them, Adhara soon came to join her. "Hey Ally."

"Hey."

"How are you feeling?"

Allison smiled. "I'm doing alright. Thanks."

Adhara nodded. "That's good."

Allison looked at the opposing brunette. "Hey, Adhara?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to thank you, you know. For coming to save me and Pansy. Since, you know, you only thought I was there and you still came."

"Don't mention it, honestly, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I didn't. At the end of the day we're piers and we have to help one another out."

"Even if it means nearly getting ourselves killed in the process?" Ally laughed, earning a grin in response.

"Even if it means almost getting ourselves killed in the process." She agreed with a laugh.

"There was one more thing, actually."

Adhara raised her eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Could I maybe... You know what, never mind, it's stupid."

"No, no, go on. Trust me, I know stupid, I have History of Magic with Professor Binns for crying out loud."

Ally smiled, but hesitated. "I don't mean this to come out all cheesy and all, but, um... could I maybe... Hang out with you guys, I promise not to talk too much and all, you know, about books and all that stuff."

Adhara raised her eyebrows, while Ally looked to the ground.

"On one condition."

Ally nodded viciously. "Anything!"

"You talk about books, school, classes and whatever in Godric's name you want and whenever you want. I truly don't care, I mean that respectfully, mind you. I'll listen and I'll take it in, I think I speak for the rest of us, we all have many interests, Ally."

Allison's smile was wide as she nodded, Hermione seemed to be listening as she gave Ally a smile.

"Shit." Ally never expected such foul language to escape Falco Naylor's mouth.

Padma gasped. "Fal-"

"Now do you believe me, Adhara?"

Adhara walked up to where Falco stood and stared at the wall that he stared at smugly, although seeming surprised himself as they had seen Mrs Norris walking around earlier that week, which was to say that she hadn't been in the hallway two months ago.

"It must be some prank, Fal."

"But look," Allison replied, somewhat fearfully. "It says the exact same thing as it did last time."

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware.

Just then a crowd full of voices came from each direction, uh oh, people must have been returning from their common rooms.

"Well, as Falco Naylor said..." Hermione started.

"-Shit." The whole group said together.