Em was a little late to breakfast, but within acceptable limits. She greeted those students she knew with yawns and slow blinks, mumbling "g'mornin's" and nearly falling asleep into her oatmeal. Corvus was with her the whole time, standing sentinel on her shoulder. He attracted a few stares and questions.

"I've never seen anyone at Hogwarts with a crow," remarked one Slytherin.

"I'm not even sure where you can buy them," said another.

Emperial managed a sleepy grin. "Oh, I didn't buy Corvus. He and I have always been together. He just kind of came to me. It was destiny."

The Slytherins mostly seemed to find this an outlandish tale, but no one made any substantive objection.

And then Draco sat down.

"Pity. Mudblood parents couldn't afford an owl?" he inquired. Em was tired, but not so tired that she could ignore the insult. She was just too tired to return it with an insult of her own.

"No, they're quite rich, but I don't want an owl. No, this is Corvus, and he's worth more than any owl you can buy anywhere, or any other animal for that matter," she explained.

"Oh really? What's he do, then, that makes him so special?"

Em gave yet another sleepy grin and mumbled something completely unintelligible to her crow. It clearly wasn't English, that much was clear. The crow leaned its beak into her ear as if replying, though no words were heard, and then Em said something else in her strange tongue and broke into giggles. Draco looked unimpressed. At long last Em said in English, "My crow can do magic."

Laughter broke out along the length of the table. Some Ravenclaws at the next table over sniggered as well. Once again Em was too sleepy to pull off any substantive reply to this mockery, but the laughter did register in her mind and manifest as annoyance.

"Don't believe me? Well, Draco, I can't show you at the table because I'd get in trouble, but I'd be glad to give you a private demonstration later."

Draco looked positively smug at that challenge. The conversation around them soon shifted to other topics.

Eventually, breakfast had to end. Students shuffled off to their respective classes. Emperial tagged along with some Ravenclaws heading to Potions, lagging behind them with the knowledge that she was not a part of their social group, or even their society. She entered the classroom after everyone else, pulling the door closed behind her. She looked up just long enough for her pleading gaze to meet Professor Snape's cold one and he indicated an empty chair against the wall for her to occupy. She was just going to sit when he stopped her, right in the middle of giving his first instructions to the class.

"Today we will be studying the varied uses of Miss Atreipie why do you have that bird on your shoulder in my classroom?" he intoned in one smooth breath. All eyes turned to look at Emperial, and once again she felt very small.

Emperial clearly had no idea of how to react to this, but her bird saved her the trouble. It hopped from her shoulder to the desk and opened its mouth in a hiss. Snape, still a bit sore from his previous encounter with the creature, decided discretion was the better part of valor and switched tactics. "Keep it quiet," he instructed, and began his lessons.

For half an hour Em sat in her chair and fidgeted, Corvus sitting on the desk in front of her. After some instruction, the students all began making their potions, but Em was not included in this exercise. She could feel eyes on her all the time as curious students glanced at her and her bird, wondering why she didn't make a potion and why her familiar was in the classroom with her. Snape sat at his desk and monitored the situation, pointedly ignoring Emperial. Finally she could take it no longer and raised her hand.

Snape took his time in answering her silent call. He scanned the room twice after he saw her hand shoot up, just in case there was any doubt he was ignoring her. At long last he said, "Yes, miss Atreipie?"

Instantly, the whole class looked at her. Em's hand snaked across the table to rest on Corvus's feathers.

"Um, might I have something to do, Professor?"

"Ah, yes, I do believe I said I would find something for you." He rose from his desk and went to the cupboard behind him. When he turned back towards her, he was holding quill, some paper, and a book. He deposited the items on her desk (displacing Corvus in the process) and leaned close so none of the other students could hear him. "I am not going to give you a Potions assignment. I'm sure you know why. I already have one Neville Longbottom; I do not need another. You may read this book and tell me what you think of it, and afterwards, when I have reviewed your thoughts on paper, we will discuss in what direction to proceed." Em nodded and opened the book. It was a slim volume, about a hundred and fifty pages, titled "the Fundamentals of Potions." An encouraging title. Perhaps, if she reviewed the material well enough, Snape would allow her to try brewing some potions of her own.

It was certainly a dry book, filled with complicated (and often ridiculously hilarious) terminology meant for readers far more advanced in the subjects than she. If she had to pin down the authors motivations, it would be explaining his ideas on the fundamentals to those of a similar level of knowledge. Snape clearly intended for her to get nothing out of the book. Well, too bad for him.

She read it one over, reading through the break between classes and into the next Potions course without pause. Then she went back and started reading again. Finally, nearing the end of the second class, she raised her hand. This time Snape was more attentive.

"Miss Atreipie?"

"May I go to the library?"

"You may not."

Any normal student would have dropped the point at that moment, but not Em. She lacked the common sense. "But sir, I need to go to the library."

"The library does not require your presence."

She held up the book. "I want to research in more detail some of the ideas in the book."

"I said no."

"How can you expect me to evaluate the book without understanding the concept behind-"

"I'm sure you'll find some way," he intoned. Em scowled and slumped back into her chair, defeated. She picked up the paper and quill and began to plan on writing something nasty. She surely would have, but at the exact moment a large rat scampered up onto her desk and sat back on its haunches, looking at Corvus. Em looked at the rat. The rat looked at Em. Other students noticed the rat. Snape noticed the rat.

And then there was another rat, gray to the first rat's black. Both were too disheveled to be mistaken for any familiar besides Scabbers, and Scabbers was too lazy to venture down to Snape's classroom and have his tail chopped off for the effort. No, these were nonmagic rats. Common dungeon rats, a bit larger than normal ones. A few of the girls in class whimpered.

Snape rose and pointed his wand at the rats, intending to scare them away. Em ignored everything in the room besides the rats and snaked her finger out to touch one.

"Don't!" came Snape's stern command, his arm frozen in midspell. He could not throw the curse with Em so close to the targets. She might get hit, and that would take a lot of explaining.

Still Em wasn't listening to him at all. She whispered a few words under her breath to the rats and they climbed onto her arms, scrambling awkwardly to her shoulders. Em giggled. "Why, how kind," she said aloud. "I'd be honored."

"Ew!" remarked one student as the classroom dissolved into gasps and murmurs.

"But," continued Emperial, "you mustn't bother me while I'm in Professor Snape's classroom. He's an awfully busy man, and can't you see his students are distracted?" The lead rat squeaked, look at its fellow, and dove for the floor. Then Emperial seemed to pretend to listen to the second rat for a moment. "Yes, yes, I understand. I won't forget. Thank you." The second rat joined its fellow and disappeared through a crack in the stone wall.

That was the cue for the classroom to erupt into laughter. Emperial looked moderately embarrassed. "Sorry, Professor," she called over the ruckus. "That really wasn't my fault! I swear it won't happen again!"

"Quiet! Silence, everyone! Back to your potions!" No one could silence a room quite like Snape. He glared at Emperial, but she had returned to her book with a happy smile and begun writing some things down. He sat back down and debated whether or not that constituted a disturbance on her part enough to get her thrown out by Dumbledore. He had a feeling the headmaster would take the girl's side again.

Next came lunch. Emperial left her paper and quill on the table and headed out with the other students, Corvus on her shoulder. Snape closed the door behind her with his wand and went to look at her desk.

There was the book, the quill, and the papers. Of the five he had given her, three and a half were covered in writing. Her handwriting was legible, at least. Then, on the fifth paper, he found something quite unexpected. A portrait of himself. Around it she had written a lengthy dialogue in miniscule handwritten ink letters.

This is Professor Snape. He's a nice man. At least, he acts nice in
his own way. He gave me a very hard book to read, which was mean,
but it's about Potions, which means he might give me a chance. Oh,
and I have a date with the Rat King, or so I have been told. Appar-
ently word among rats travels fast, because these rats know about
me in my home dimension. Rats are special like that. If any creature
can manage interdimensional travel naturally, it's rats and crows or
ravens or black birds at least. I love the name Severus. It's such a lov-
ely name. It's the name of a Roman emperor. I wonder if Professor
Snape knows this? I think he must. He's a smart man. My name is
Latin in origin. My old name, anyway. "Emily" comes from the Latin
for "ambitious." Ha ha! I think I need to find a way to make Professor
Snape cheer up. He seems really sad or mad at me all the time. I
wonder what Kancho would do if he were here? Probably tell me to
shut up! At least I have Corvus. I'm going to show Draco that Corvus
can do magic. Ha ha, Draco, I'll show you who's boss!

There's a song that reminds me of Snape. Well, it reminds me of Family
in general. It goes like this:

Don't you know me?
I'm the one you used to talk to.
You stopped believing
But still I follow everywhere you go
I'm walking right behind you and I'm just around the corner
I'm always down the hall and by your side
You might call me your shadow
Or the reason that you laugh and you don't know why

… But who is "I" and who is" you?"

Snape resisted the urge to crumple the paper and placed the five sheets back on the desk. Inane prattle, to be sure, but there was some information worth noting in there. Why had she left everyone on the table? Did she want him to find it? It wasn't a terrible portrait. A bit cartoonish, but the skill of her lines showed this was a style she was familiar with, not some cartoonish attempt at realism. It was also drawn completely in ink. So apparently the girl had some artistic talent.

The grumble in the professor's stomach was inescapable, so he headed towards the banquet hall. Doubtless Emperial would be there, seated among the students. He entered the hall from the rear and took his place at the professor's table, scanning the crowd. Sinistra tried to greet him, but he merely grunted in reply and focused on his search. He didn't see her at the Slytherin table or the Gryffindor table. Since she could have been anywhere, he checked Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but still could find no sign of her.

A voice behind Snape caused him to twist in his seat, abandoning the search, at least for now.

"Ah, Severus, you've misplaced our young visitor, haven't you?" observed Dumbledore. "No need to be concerned. I'm sure she'll turn up sooner or later."

Later, prayed Snape. Let it be later.

Dumbledore gave Snape a pat on the back before taking his own seat. Now that the headmaster's attentions were elsewhere, Snape resumed his search. That was odd. Draco Malfoy was missing as well. Crabbe and Goyle were present, but Draco was not. Malfoys were always flanked by Crabbes or Goyles. Could it be the magical demonstration Emperial had scribbled about was taking place now?

There was no sense in losing any energy over it. Either the girl would turn up or she wouldn't. Snape would start to worry if Draco failed to turn up at Potions next class, not before.

That decided, he dug into his food with gusto. He hadn't realized how hungry he was.

When Em had left Snape's classroom, she had followed the Ravenclaws to lunch, but she had not not stopped to chitchat. She merely waited a moment for Draco to arrive and pulled him aside before he could enter the dining hall.

"What do you think you're doing? Get your hands off me," Draco complained.

"Do you want my magical demonstration or what?"

"I want to eat." He started to turn away, but Em would have none of that.

"No, now, Draco. You can eat later. It'll only take a minute."

Draco considered this, equally curious and skeptical about her claims and weighing the value of her offer against his current power situation.

Em rolled her eyes at his hesitation. "You can afford to miss the first part of lunch, Draco. I don't know how much longer I'll be here, so every minute counts."

"Fine, I'm game."

"Okay, this way." Draco started to follow, Crabbe and Goyle on his heels. "No, alone," insisted Em. That made Draco pause again and Em rolled her eyes once more. "For heaven's sakes, Draco, I'm not going to kill you."

"That's Malfoy to you."

"Malfoy, then. Hurry up! I haven't got all day, and the sooner I show you, the sooner we can both eat. Tell your cronies to go eat by themselves. Surely they can manage that bit of basic locomotion?"

Draco was tempted to spit at her, but there might be a professor nearby, so he settled for glaring and waved his hand at Crabbe and Goyle, dismissing them. "Lead on."

Emperial retraced a route that was quickly becoming familiar to her and reached the unused classroom where she had spoken with Harry and Dumbledore the day before. Once they were inside, she locked the door. "Good." But when she turned from the door, Draco has his wand raised. "Draco, please calm down. While I'm sure I could hurt you, I'm not going to, and I can't defend myself from your wand."

"Can't defend yourself? Don't know any simple countercurses?" he sneered.

"Of course not. I'm a Muggle."

Draco's mouth dropped open and he nearly dropped his wand as well. She seemed to be expecting this kind of reaction, and Draco kicked himself for not noticing the fact that he had not seen her use a wand or cast any spells while at Hogwarts. Of course, she did say she was on vacation, and students weren't allowed to cast spells during vacations (not at any school he knew of, at least), but still. Lack of a wand would have been easy material for taunting. But if she were a Muggle, then she couldn't be on vacation from Lallinum, as he'd heard… (Heard from the Gryffindors, no less. That stung.)

This whole time, the crow Corvus sat on Emperial's shoulder, unmoving. Now the crow took the initiative, swooping over to a dusty chair and perching on its back. Emperial followed the crow but sat on the table instead of the chair. Draco finally put away his wand.

"I knew there was something fishy about you, I just didn't know what. Muggles are even worse than Mudblood wizards!"

"Arrogant asses are even worse than either," she retorted, "and you, Draco, are an arrogant ass. Now do you want to see my crow do tricks or what? Since I've told you I'm a Muggle, you know I can't very well fake the magic myself."

"Let's see your dumb bird do flips in the air, then."

"I take offense at that," objected the bird.

For a moment, Draco was thrown off-balance, but he quickly recovered. "An Animagus!" he hissed, half-awed. The crow made a noise similar to laughing.

"No, I'm not an animagus. Just a crow."

"And I'm just a Muggle," agreed Emperial.

"Wait, this must be that Muggle trick… ven-ventrectomy!" Draco was momentarily pleased for having figured it out.

"I can't do ventriloquism," she corrected.

"But she is correct in saying that she's as much a Muggle as I am a crow. So the real reason you're here is not a demonstration from me, but from Em."

"How kind of you to remind me, Corvus," grinned Em. There was something malicious in her tone, and Draco reached for his wand again. Emperial stared at him seriously. "Upreln neteshye'ekiyepon klojumai viekesenn. Evru alldanneln?"

Draco's breath caught in his throat. "How?" he choked out.

"Call it my little gift. And if you harass me again, I'll make it your misery." She hopped off the table and picked Corvus off the chair. Draco couldn't move. He felt sick to his stomach and cold, very cold. The meaning of her words wormed its way into his head and squeezed his very soul with an iron vise. "Qu jemmel?" she added. "Iyetsken kaizzlmatl vuzemassl kreyeten. Moiya vessetennen tuzemahl vahlhressetuut. Kral kreimeizefell."

"Stop!" Draco wavered and grabbed the nearby table with his nearest hand, his sweaty palm dragging across the surface as his legs crumpled, old splinters digging painfully into his skin. He covered his face. "Stop!"

When this registered in Emperial's mind, she did stop. She knew she had gone too far, as always. She was instantly struck by the backwash of his emotions from her psychic invasion and filled with compassion. She ran to his side, sliding across the dusty floor on her knees.

"Oh, Draco, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that--"

Draco would have none of it, swatting blindly at her as he moaned, one hand still covering his face. Emperial grabbed his flailing arm and held it still. Her voice a whisper, she quickly half-sang, "Win dain a lotica, en vail tu ri, si lo ta? Fin dain a loluca, en dragu a sei lein? Vi faaru les shtai am, en rigalint?" Unlike her earlier words, these were soothing. She rubbed Draco's hand tenderly. "Win chent a lotica, en vail tu ri si lo ta. Fin dain a loluca si katigra neuver. Floreria for chesti, si entina?" Draco quieted, just a bit, and Emperial was heartened enough to place her arm around his shoulders.

"Why?"

"I'm sorry, I maybe should have mentioned I have a bad temper… It's a bit of an inherited thing. I know I shouldn't have, but the way you kept insulting anyone with a Muggle in their family…"

"But I've only known you for two days!" He looked up at her, teary-eyed.

"But I've known you for longer. Remember, I told you a girl named Jo Rowling told me all about you? You and a lot of other people at Hogwarts. I've been watching the past three years. I know many of the things you've said and done. I thought I could teach you a lesson. I'm sorry, that was stupid. I have to stop trying to teach people lessons, nothing ever works out exactly the way I've planned, or even close."

Draco looked down and went quiet. She still held his bloodied hand, cradled in her lap like a treasure. Corvus chose that moment to speak again. "I told you it was a stupid idea, Em. How many times do we have to tell you? But noo, you've got to go try your own stupid thing every single time… Don't you ever learn?" Em ignored the bird, shhing to Draco and tracing her fingers over his hand again. There was a slight tinge of pain and Draco flinched, closing his eyes. When he opened them he saw the cuts on his hand didn't look quite so bad as they had before. Emperial motioned for Corvus.

"Pick out the splinters, Corvy. At least you can make yourself a little useful."

"I'm not a walking set of tweezers," retorted the bird, but he did it anyway. He was surprisingly exact with his beak. When all the splinters were out he hopped onto Draco's shoulder and drolly remarked, "There, there, chap, you're alright. She's a frightfully stupid little girl, but no harm done."

"No," said Draco. It wasn't clear if he was agreeing or objecting. Since he kept his eyes resolutely to the floor, Em guessed it was an objection. She lifted Draco's hand to her faced and kissed it.

That made Draco look up. "All better," said Em hopefully, relinquishing control of the hand back to its true master. Then she patted Draco on the head. "I wouldn't say a thing about your father, Draco. I won't tell. I told you, I'm evil, but I'm nice evil. Besides, I wouldn't exactly call my relationship with my mother pristine. Hell, I hate the woman, and I'd kill her if I could." She said it so matter-of-factly Draco didn't doubt the dispassionate intent. He did doubt if she were truly capable of the act. "Unfortunately, she's currently very useful to me, and I'm afraid I'm not allowed to kill anyone. For legal reasons, you understand. But I'm not going to blackmail you, really. Well, assuming you don't get me really angry, because when I'm angry I'm liable to do just about anything. Inherited trait, I mentioned. From my dad."

"I think I'd better go," said Draco.

"Can you stand?" That was the crow, still sitting on Draco's shoulder. Draco gave no answer, but pulled himself to his feet. Em rose moments after. Corvus ruffled his feather. "I do think we need to come to a business arrangement here. To begin with, we can't have you blabbing over school that I can talk or that Em can Talk with a capital T, which is what she was doing to you a minute ago, and we can't very well have the two of you at each others' throats… And Em's not really a Muggle, I'm sure you see, just like I'm not really a crow. I'm not an animagus, but I'm not 'just a crow.'"

"Who are you people?" Draco asked, his face twisting in a combination of confusion, disbelief, and anger.

"Oh, just a relative of Snape," beamed Em, but for all her smiling, Draco knew it had to be a baldfaced lie. Corvus was similarly forthcoming.

"And I'm merely a friend of Em's, trying unsuccessfully to save her from herself. But let us discuss treaties. Can the two of you find some way to put your dastardly energies to a mutually beneficial cause, or at least to direct said energies away from one another? Or am I going to have to mediate between the two of you before you kill each other? And you're not going to mention my speech capabilities, is that understood, young man? If you do, I'll just pretend to be a dumb bird, like I've been doing. And I'm sure you can see I'm very good at that, since you hadn't suspected anything until I actually spoke."

Draco was still numbed from Em's psychic assault, but he managed, "You can make it talk, but can you make it shut up?" That gave each of them a much-needed chuckle and the atmosphere in the room lightened.

"I do say!" objected the bird, ruffling his feathers and moving to the floor.

Em held her hand out. "Truce?" Without hesitation, Draco took it. "I rather think we could be friends, especially if we could find some way to take out our aggressions on a third party. I won't mess with Harry, though, so we'll need a different pansy. And I can't get in trouble or Dumbledore will throw me out."

"Shame we don't see eye to eye when it comes to Potter, but I can think of a few Hufflepuffs-"

"Actually, I was hoping you might help me with Professor Snape."

"Snape?"

Her eyes sparkled, a far cry from the tension between them just minutes earlier. "I'm afraid my 'uncle' doesn't much like me."

"So I've noticed."

"Oh, dear, we'd better go get some food, though. Are you hungry?"

In truth, Draco's hunger had completely vanished the moment she'd "Talked" to him, and now he felt to ill to even consider eating. It was a good thing he hadn't eaten beforehand; his lunch would probably have ended up on the floor. "No, I'm alright," he said. Em noticed he was still leaning heavily on the table.

"Oh dear," she sighed again. She sidled up to him and hooked one of his arms over her shoulders. "Here, if we're good about it, I can get you to the dorms without anybody noticing. Corvy still hasn't shown you any real magic, after all, so consider this it."

"Do I honestly look like your personal GPS navigation system, girl?"

"No, you look like mine, period. Now git to it."

Corvus gave something suspiciously similar to a sigh in reply and flew to Em's shoulder, standing on top of Draco's arm.

What the bird said after that point was lost to Draco. Apparently they had a method of communicating that involved no verbal speech on the bird's part. Emperial continued speaking aloud her side of the conversation, though, which made things interesting. "And which way now, Corvy?" she would ask, pausing. The bird evidently gave her some sort of reply, because she headed to the right. In this manner they found themselves standing in front of the Slytherin House Common Room, albeit not without a significantly long walk, and Em assured Draco the room was empty, because Corvus had told her so and he was never wrong. Draco would have questioned further, but settled for supplying the password so they could get inside.

It was hard to tell who was more relieved to collapse on the couch: the physically and emotionally drained Draco or the weak little girl Em who had been supporting half his weight during their hike through the school. Corvus flew up to rest on a marble bust of some Roman emperor; the bust tried to shake him off but failed. Doubtless the crow was silently trumpeting his victory over the statue.

Draco felt tired, very tired. When she had spoken to him, he had been instantly torn open and vulnerable, and that was something Draco Malfoy did not like.

"You can't be infallible every day, Draco," Em said, as if reading his mind (and he didn't doubt she had). "Remember the time in the Forbidden Forest with Harry when you were a first year? You ran into Voldemort in the woods over the unicorn and screamed and fled."

Draco's eyes widened and he stiffened somewhat. Em's hand was still around his back, as it had been during their trek to the common room, and in their mutual laziness they had not bothered to properly reposition themselves on the couch. This meant that she felt his every movement.

"Sorry, I'm being stupid again. Oh, and I forgot, I'm supposed to call him 'You-Know-Who.'" She gave Draco a bit of a squeeze. "Loosen up, kiddo."

"I won't bother to ask how you know that as well, but I will object to you calling me a kid. I'm not a kid. I'm Draco Malfoy."

"Just how old do you think I am, Draco?"

Well now, that was a question. He was fourteen and stood a little taller than her but, in his current position he could feel her fully-developed breast cushioning his side, so she clearly wasn't too young.

"Fifteen?" he ventured. She laughed.

"I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted. I've been mistaken for being two or three years younger than I actually am for my whole life. Must be because I'm so short. No, I'm eighteen, which means I can vote and smoke and I'm technically an adult in my own country. So, kid, you're a kid for now. Better enjoy it, too. Don't be too hasty to grow up. I know I'm not. I've seen too many idiot girls around me try to be eighteen when their fourteen and live miserable, pathetic little lives of no enlightenment. Feh."

"It's not just your height," he grumbled, half-serious.

There was silence for a few moments more (Where was everyone? wondered Draco. Must be something truly good for lunch today.) and then Em began to hum a little tune. Draco's head lolled to the side and he drifted off into slumber.

Well, I certainly hope you're proud of yourself.

Oh, get off it, Corvy, you stuck up, pompous little ass.

That's your stuck-up, pompous little ass.

A mental giggle. Isn't he adorable when he's asleep?

I've not the mind to be judging that. People are coming, though. Wait, no, they're passing us… Oh, dear, I fear my route of return may have been a little too long, for it seems everyone's in their classrooms.

Oh, good, then you can run and tell Snape where we are.

I've already talked once today; I won't do it again.

Fetch me pen and paper. I'll write it. Corvus did so, lifting the materials from the books of some unscrupulous Slytherin who had left their homework out in the open. He flew parchment and quill over to Em. Lazily, she scribbled out a message and handed it to her bird. Fly safe, beloved Corvy.

Keep safe yourself, love, I'd hate to lose you again on account of your own stupidity.

A wry grin. Go! Corvus took off like lightning, somehow managing to get out the door without human aid. That was a part of his magic, of course.

"Poor, stupid kid," Em mused softly to the empty air. "So much like myself. He doesn't even know what evil is."

When Draco did not show up for Potions class, Snape was naturally enraged, but he had to at least try to conduct the lesson. It was too soon to throw himself into a panic, after all, and panicking would hardly be an impressive display after his rage yesterday morning. Too many scenes in one week and the students might deign to question his sanity.

The lesson was some twenty minutes in and the classroom was filled with the sounds of quills on paper when the door opened and in came Em's bird, carrying a scrap of paper. The door closed automatically behind the crow (How?) and the bird swooped over the head of a Slytherin to land on Snape's desk. It deposited the note there.

Professor Snape,

Draco and I are in the Slytherin Common Room. He was not
feeling well. I hope you enjoy your class without me; I'm sure
you will. See you at dinner?

Until then,

-Em

P. S. I will finish my book report and have it to you tomorrow.
Unless I finish it before then, in which case you will have it
tonight. Either way, we both win.

Snape stared the message, crumpled it up, and threw it expertly over his shoulder without looking, hearing the satisfying ping-crunch as it struck the side of the trash can and went in. The bird cocked its head at Snape. Not wanting to appear the least bit charitable, he waved it away, so it flew to Em's table, picked up her papers in its beak, and scraped the book into one claw.

The bird was a sight as it winged itself out of the classroom, book, papers, and all.

more to come soon!