Candice almost skipped astronomy, but her curiosity overcame her want to continue studying. She couldn't wait to see what a wizard astronomy class was like! Well, astronomy was fascinating, but Candice was worried she had seriously upset Hermione. Hermione spent the class looking at her desk. She didn't once answer a question, or correct Ron. Wow. Candice chuckled at the thought. Hermione wasn't exactly nerdy, but she was what muggle children would call goody-two-shoes. Actually, Candice thought with admiration, Harry and Ron have a pretty good job of helping her become a little more lax about the rules. At dinner, Candice ate as much as she could, and took as much food back to her room as she could. When Candice went to bed that night, she saw a small piece of parchment taped to her hangings. It was written in tiny, neat handwriting that could only belong to one person. It read one word. Oxford.

Candice woke early. She really didn't want to leave, but Hogwarts had no dancing, so Hogwarts had to go. She packed up her trunk, and tried not to look to longingly at the small little room she had worked so hard on. At 3:30 in the morning, Candice Potter walked out of Hogwarts, down the main driveway, and began to follow the train tracks of the Hogwarts Express, her trunk floating behind her. Candice didn't know where the kitchens were, so she had to make do with what she had scavenged from last night. She was hungry, but still she began to jog, feeling the delight in some kind of exercise, telling herself she would be dancing soon.

Harry awoke with the feeling that something was wrong. In a way, he was right. He got dressed rather irritably, that annoying feeling in his gut making him anxious for some food. Hermione looked rather sad today, and Ron seemed to have picked up the same irritability. As soon as Harry got to the Great Hall, he realized what was wrong. The teachers were missing from the high table. No one sat there except Dumbledore, looking rather cross. Harry just stared.

"They're looking for Candice." Hermione said very quietly, as both Harry and Ron turned to look at her.

"Why would they look for her, she's asleep in your dormitory, right?" asked Ron, giving Hermione a quizzical look.

"She left this morning. She wasn't there when I woke up." Hermione answered, and pulled Ron and Harry towards the Gryffindor table. Sure enough, Lavender and Parvati were busy telling the rest of the school that the teachers were missing because they were looking for the escaped mind magician. Dumbledore stood at the end of breakfast, and announced that there would be no first period today, on account of the teachers were not back yet. He looked extremely irritated. Harry shivered. He was sure glad he wouldn't have to face Dumbledore while he was like this. So Harry and Ron went back up to the Gryffindor common room after breakfast, and had a good game of chess. Hermione had gone up to the girls' dormitory.

At 9:06 AM Hogwarts gave a small shiver. All of Hogwarts. The mind magician had returned. Everyone went to the second half of first period, and Candice appeared at Charms class. Hermione couldn't seem to decide whether or not she like Candice being back. Candice looked positively stormy. She was angry, and she kept twitching, as if she were about to go crazy form lack of movement. Professor Flitwick seemed to be avoiding her eyes. The whole class did. Yet Harry could tell she was glad she hadn't missed this class. They were beginning a unit on domestic charms, and started with home decorating. Now everyone saw what a dangerous being had entered their midst. Harry thought about the only time he had thought about running away, on the night the Knight Bus had picked him up. He realized the ministry would have caught up with him just like that. He was no match for the ministry. Candice however, was. She was cunning, crafty, and highly intelligent, quick witted, courageous, and lastly, enormously powerful. She could work the hardest Arithmancy problem in seconds. She could throw a hex in your face before you knew she was there. And she had just proved herself against the ministry and Albus Dumbledore. She had escaped everyone's control and protection for a whole five hours. Therefore, the whole school was in awe of her; the teachers looked at her with more respect. Mrs. Norris or Filch never went near her. Peeves would flee every time he saw her. It wasn't so much that she was magically powerful, she was socially powerful. She had gained the respect of most in the school, through a most unusual way, self-reliance. And as Harry looked at her, he saw what he himself must become in order to succeed. He must learn from her. He must beat Candice Potter. At that moment she caught him looking at her, green met green, and she smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile, it was a challenge.

The whole school began to assume they'd get the first half of first period off, because Candice left each night for the next week. Each time it took the teachers longer to find her and bring her back. Once she was gone for a full day. Hermione seemed to be stuck between disgust and fascination with Candice. Hermione spent all of her time in the library, where she said Candice practiced hexes constantly, yet avoided talking to Candice about anything except what was absolutely necessary. Harry just watched. Candice was fascinating to watch. In class, as the teacher talked, you could hear the information registering itself into her mind, transforming itself into something it could use, and mastering it, all in a matter of seconds. Any room she was in felt like it had a particularly loud bee in it; her mind seemed to move so fast. Harry believed the first step to learning was watching, at least that was what Professor McGonagall said. He noticed that Hermione seemed to have the same obsession to be like Candice. Candice did that to you, inspired you to be something better, something more like her. In fact, she wasn't a very likeable person. She was headstrong, opinionated, and very self-confident. She wasn't conceded, but the way she flaunted her beauty with her clothes said she was at least somewhat vain, and she had an annoying habit of always being right. Yet the more Harry talked to her, the more Harry figured her out. This also brought along a new type of kinship with Hermione. They both began to strive for the same thing. To be as good, or better, than Candice.

Candice closed the last book, and allowed her powers to rest. She had done enough tonight. She eliminated the light above her head, the mind magician version of the 'Lumos' spell, and trudged across the carpet, now a pretty pearl white, to her bed, which now displayed a dancer on the cover. She took a last look at the walls covered in dance pictures (copied from her magazines) and fell asleep. Her last conscious thought was a good one. She now knew 80 helpful curses and hexes; she was ready for the big test.

Candice slept very little that night. She had been building up a store of food for the last week. Her trunk was full. Even though she had escaped every morning this week, she had known after the first attempt that just walking out of Hogwarts would not get her anywhere. She had only continued to try this route because she wanted to see the different ways the teachers would stop her. McGonagall had caught her all six times, probably because McGonagall had the most magician blood in her, and thought more like one. However, this week had proved the strategies of all the teachers, and now Candice felt ready to handle them. She took a secret passageway out of Hogwarts, one she had discovered behind the statue of Boris the Bewildered. It led to the north side of Hogwarts, right next to Hagrid's cabin, and the Forbidden Forest. Candice slipped past Hagrid's hut, silent as a shadow, just in case anyone bothered to look or listen around here tonight. She took a deep breath and stared into the black sea of trees before her. Creating a light, she walked into the Forbidden Forest. From there she used a summoning charm to get her trunk, and set off into the trees. Candice needed the light, she decided it was twice as dangerous without it. But she walked quietly anyway, and kept a constant watch on everything around her. She was agile enough to avoid the uneven footage of the forest, but this type of ground did not allow her to travel any faster then a quick walk. Candice wished she could fly a broomstick, but McGonagall had told her just yesterday that with her behavior, the privilege of that class was not going to be granted to her. Pity teachers aren't stupid, Candice thought. Right then, Candice heard a voice. She froze, and dimmed her light to a mere whisper. Every nerve was tense and on alert. The voice moved closer. Candice jumped up the nearest tree, praying nothing lived in it. She was lucky. The voice, now voices, passed beneath her. As soon as she saw the procession of black members, her eyes widened considerably, and she extinguished her light. At the back of the procession came a man, a small puny rat-like man. Sniveling slightly, he was using his wand to help along what looked like a crippled old man. Then his eyes turned toward the sky. Candice's heart was thumping so loud she was sure he could hear it, and she tried not to scream, the thing was so repulsive. It was a ghost, of sorts. A half-human. Part of this man seemed real, and some seemed almost transparent. That wasn't the scary thing about this creature. That attribute belonged to the look the body gave off. For it was a body, a dead body. Candice could see the rotting skeleton, almost smell the moldy bones. The paper-thin skin hung off of this creature, and it moved very little on its own. Candice could see an outline of what the corpse had once resembled, and that figure of power scared her too. The thing's eyes were blood red, and just looking at them made Candice shiver. Snivel continued to help this thing along, yet as it passed under Candice, a sharp howl pierced the silence of the night. The people below seemed frightened, and they moved more quickly. When they had passed, Candice came down very slowly, and began again, to walk. She was frightened, very frightened, but she really was escaping from Hogwarts, it wouldn't do to lose her gut now. Yet she couldn't help jumping at every twig that snapped, and every cricket's chirp. Soon Candice didn't need her light, she had come to a rather pretty moonlit clearing. Candice stopped dead in her tracks. A thought had just occurred to her. Candice glanced at the sky, knowing what she would see, and her heart sank. She gazed up at a full moon. As if on cue, another howl swam up through the trees, this time much closer. Another answered it, and another. Candice listened as howl after howl chorused through the dark, and grew nearer and nearer. Every time Candice thought about climbing up a tree, another howl would send a shiver down her spine, and she began to search the surrounding trees for any sign of the approaching wolves. Not that it took them long to get there at all. Soon a sea of growling, hungry, werewolves surrounded Candice on all sides. Candice opened her trunk, and began to throw the food inside to the ground. The wolves quickly began to quarrel over that, and Candice tried to slip away. She took one tiny step toward the nearest tree, trying to calm her pounding heart and praying the wolves wouldn't notice her. Candice moved more quickly as she succeeding in exiting the circle of wolves. They were finishing up, Candice began to sprint. She heard another chorus of growls behind her. Candice was sure she wouldn't be the winner of the race-to-the- tree battle and she didn't wait to find out. She took off as fast as her legs would carry her, with a pack of hungry werewolves on her heels. Unfortunately, they had four legs, and she only had two. She could hear them growling and snapping, catching up to her in a wave of gray. Candice saw a tree ahead with a low branch. Glad she had spent so much time in gymnastics, Candice gathered her strength, and jumped for it. Her hands connected with the branch, and she began to swing up on top of it when she saw the wolf. The largest wolf had also jumped, and was heading straight for her foot. Candice had no time to react; it was her martial arts instincts that saved her. She managed to retract her leg and kick the wolf right on the nose. The thing yelped and fell to the ground. Candice had to attempt another swing. She swung her legs back, and looked down at the snarling gray snouts. Another would jump. She heard it behind her as she swung, there was nothing she could do, and she had too much momentum. This wolf had decided to avoid her precious feet, and its ugly snout clamped onto her shoulder instead. Candice screamed, and tried not to let go of the branch, but it was inevitable. She fell, the wolf still burying its teeth in her shoulder. She screamed again, she had never known so much pain, and felt her grip slip. She felt herself fall through the pain of her shoulder, felt the jaws below waiting to devour her. But she wouldn't give up yet. She hit the ground with a dull thud, and thrust her magic out against the wolves. She fought for consciousness, tried to keep breathing and ignore the unbearable pain in her shoulder. She managed to throw out enough curses to force the wolves to back up into their original positions, surrounding her. Candice slowly got to her feet, trying very hard to keep aware of the movement of the wolves. Climbing a tree was now impossible; she couldn't do anything on that shoulder. She readied her magic, and as much of her body as would work. She would show these wolves who was boss.

Harry Potter awoke with a start. Something was horribly wrong. This was more than just Candice missing, this was awful. Harry fought down nausea and got slowly out of bed. He itched to fix the feeling of wrongness he felt. He opened a window to try to settle his upset stomach with some fresh air. He idly glanced down towards Hagrid's cabin. Then he heard it, the most horrible scream shot through the trees of the Forbidden Forest, and Harry's sense of wrongness intensified. The voice that uttered the scream was sickeningly familiar. Harry grabbed his wand and stuffed it into his pajama pocket. Without a second thought, he jumped on his firebolt and raced out the open window. This did nothing for his stomach. Harry went over the Forbidden Forest, and towards the sound of the second scream. Candice Potter was in trouble.