Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter universe or any of the recognizable characters living there. I am just borrowing them to tell this story.

A/N: At long last, Chapter 9. I'm sorry for the long absence. I've been having the biggest case of writer's block. Now that I'd gotten past the dreaded testing that Bryan had to face, I've been stumped on exactly where I wanted to go with the story. I have many small ideas floating around in my head that I want to put into the story but fitting them all together in some semblance of order has proven to be more difficult than I had thought. I hope that this chapter was worth the wait, but probably wasn't.

Please don't forget to review and tell me what you think. Flames are welcome. I've got a fire freezing spell and I know how to use it.

~8-)

As the sun shone through the window of the fifth year boys' dorm it had the effect of warming the room, thus taking off the chill that had settled in the room during the night. It also shone itself directly into the face of one student that was too tired the previous night to pull the curtains on his four poster bed thereby effecting his abrupt rise to consciousness.

Slowly Bryan opened his eyes and rose to a sitting position. For a few moments he simply sat on his bed. His elbows were resting on his knees and his face was buried in his hands. The first thoughts that he had were about the tests that he had finished late last night. Never in his life had he taken such grueling exams as they had been. He knew that he must have passed every test except for his DADA and Potions exams. All of his professors were quick to praise him for his good work before they sent him on to his next test.

Professor Snape did no such thing after he had taken his Defense Against the Dark Arts test first thing yesterday. Not once during the entire exam did he ever tell him whether his answers were right or wrong; he simply went on to the next question or demonstration with his usual scowl firmly in place upon his face. When the last question was asked and no other demonstrations were demanded Bryan stood near his desk and waited while Snape was writing something down on the parchment before him. As if sensing that he still had an audience Professor tilted his head up just enough to let his eyes to barely become visible below his brow. Sweeping his left hand toward the door while covering the parchment with his right hand, he spoke in the same cold tone that he'd been using all morning. "What are you still doing here? Go on to your next exam. Professor Vector is waiting for you!" Bryan thanked him for his time and rushed out the door and toward one of his favorite subjects, Arithmancy.

If having Snape for DADA in the morning hadn't been bad enough, having him for Potions that night was even worse. The professor's scowl had deepened even further sometime since the morning. Add in the fact that he took to belittling Bryan whenever he made the slightest mistake in preparing one of the numerous potions that Snape had decided to use. Sometime in the second hour of the Potions exam Professor Snape took the knife from Bryan's hand and pointed it directly into its former owner's face. "How do you expect to pass a Potions test if you cannot even cut Beruvim stems correctly? We'll be here until you can prove that you can prepare a proper potion, even if it takes all night!" As if to emphasize his point, Professor Snape jammed the knife into the desk, straight through the stems that Bryan had just cut.

For two more hours Bryan prepared potion after potion to the apparent dissatisfaction of Professor Snape. He had even been asked to make some potions that he was sure weren't in any of the books that he'd been studying for the last four months, neither the textbooks nor the additional books that Hermione had recommended. Bryan was close to calling it quits and telling the professor exactly where he could put the next potion. Not only was it almost ten o'clock at night but he was also extremely low on potion supplies, several of which he'd completely depleted an hour or more ago. He was a little surprised when Professor Snape indicated that the test was over even though he still hadn't prepared a proper potion. It was a mentally exhausted Gryffindor that had crawled into bed that night, not even bothering to remove his robes.

As his mind caught back up with the present Bryan rubbed the last remnants of sleep from his face and stood up to stretch. He was rewarded by a slight twinge in his right calf muscle. Guess I've been neglecting my regimen for too long. Even a teenage body must be maintained. Bryan looked around at the beds of his fellow dorm mates and briefly thought about going back to bed. After all, it was Sunday and everybody would be sleeping in a little more than normal. At that moment Neville started to snore again, which seemed to prompt Seamus to start talking. If Bryan wasn't mistaken, it had sounded a lot like he had said, "Don't worry, Lavender, I'll protect you."

After another quick stretch, Bryan went to his wardrobe and pulled out the sweats that he had purchased when he had decided to try out for the house Quidditch team. Although they looked very much like every pair of muggle sweats he had owned, they were slightly different. They were entirely black except for the one inch wide stripe that went down the sides of both arms and both legs. On the left chest was the Hogwarts school crest while the back of the sweatshirt contained a large Gryffindor crest. If they stopped there he would have no problem wearing them anywhere in the muggle world. However, these particular sweats went a little further. The Gryffindor lion on the crest would occasionally move its head as if it were roaring as loud as it could. No sound could be heard thanks to a simple muting spell that Bryan had used on the lion shortly after he bought the sweats. It had quickly become annoying to have a lion roar every time you moved. In addition to the moving lion, the stripe that ran down the sides would alternate about every five seconds between the scarlet and gold colors of Gryffindor house. Time to get some real use out of these.

After slipping into the sweats and securing his wand in one sleeve, Bryan quietly left the room and headed out of the school toward the lake. He was a little surprised that he hadn't been stopped by anyone but let it slip from his mind as he began his warm-up exercises.

After twenty minutes, Bryan felt sufficiently limber and started to run along the edge of the lake, not quite sprinting but also not quite jogging. His route around the lake took him along the edge of the school grounds as well as along the Dark Forest. Bryan could almost feel the eyes of many of the forest's residents follow him as he ran past. When he passed by Hagrid's hut he could hear Hagrid's pet boorhound, Fang, barking to be let out. Moments later the front door had opened and out bounded a very large black dog which ran up to Bryan and sniffed him briefly before heading into the forest. Bryan waved to a startled Hagrid who only managed to wave back before Bryan was too far away for much else. When Bryan reached the point where the lake went beyond Hogwarts' school grounds he simply turned and followed the new boundary and headed back in the general direction of the school.

He had forgotten how peaceful the world seemed first thing in the morning. When he would run he was able to simply let all the worries of the previous day just drift away and just enjoy his surroundings. With only the sounds of the animals as company he could almost imagine himself far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. But all too soon the first stirrings of human reality would make itself known and he'd take that as his cue to finish up and get on with his day. Today that reality came in the form of an unknown witch coming up behind him as he was doing his cool-down.

She looked to be in her early thirties or late twenties. She was wearing her raven-black hair in a loose ponytail that disappeared into the collar of her lightweight red and gold cloak. Her hazel eyes seemed to take in every detail of Bryan in a single glance before she gave him a warm smile. "Ah, a Gryffindor tempting the fates by being outside so early. You must be brave, indeed. If Filch were to catch you it'd be detentions for a month." The sparkle in her eyes told Bryan that this witch most definitely knew of Filch and that she was also kidding him about bravery. "I'm sorry, where are my manners. My name's Arabella Figg. I'm supposed to be the DADA professor." She held out her hand.

Bryan gave the new professor another quick once over and almost didn't shake her hand. It wasn't that he thought she was a bad person; he just thought that she looked almost frail and was afraid to hurt her accidentally. After a moment's pause, he took her hand and was immediately surprised by the strength of her grip. That'll teach me to judge someone on looks alone.  Bryan gave her a warm smile of his own as he shook her hand properly. "Hello, Professor Figg, I'm Bryan Dunn, fifth year Gryffindor that's just been caught out of bounds."

"Well, since I'm not your professor quite yet why don't we just forget the Professor Figg and stick with Arabella for now. That way I can forget that I saw you out here."

"Okay, but you have to call me Bryan then. I hate it when I get called Mr. Dunn. It makes me sound so OLD!" he said in the same light tone that Arabella had been using.

Arabella gave a small chuckle as she remembered all the times that she had heard similar sentiments when she was a student at Hogwarts. She was about to tell Bryan of one such incident when she was interrupted by a loud thump behind her. She turned around and found that one of her trunks had broken free of the levitation spell again and tumbled to the ground. She said a few words that Bryan didn't recognize but could guess to be swearing in another language. When she turned around again she was again a picture of joviality.

"It would seem that one of my trunks is in a foul mood and not cooperating with me. Would you be kind enough, Bryan, and help me carry my things to the Headmaster's office? I was supposed to meet with him first thing this morning and I'd rather not fight with this trunk the entire way."

"Not a problem, Arabella." With a quick flick of his arm, Bryan's wand slid from his shirt sleeve and into his awaiting hand. "Leviosa Vincio." The wayward trunk as well as half of Arabella's other things formed into a controlled, tight cluster and started to proceed ahead of them toward the castle entrance. They continued their light conversation the entire way.

After escorting Arabella to Dumbledore's office, Bryan headed back to the dorms and took a shower. As he was getting dressed to head down to breakfast he thought about how refreshing it was going to be to have a DADA professor that had a personality. His thoughts were interrupted when his dorm mates started to wake up. Dean, Seamus, and Neville wished him a good morning before they headed toward the showers themselves. Ron had a little more to say than that.

He was sitting up in bed and looking at Bryan with partially closed eyes and let out a giant yawn before getting out of bed. "What're you doing up already? If I'd been taking tests well into the night like you were mate, I'd probably sleep until dinner time." Another yawn. "How d'ya think you did? I hope you passed, for your sake. Otherwise Hermione'll be after you about making sure you study even harder."

"To be honest, Ron, I think I did pretty good on everything except DADA and Potions. Snape's just too hard to read. I swear he had me do everything that you've covered in the last four years and probably more. I got the feeling that he wanted to make sure I failed because he had me doing things that weren't in any of these books I've been studying." Bryan pointed to the large collection of books that piled on the desk next to his bed.

Ron walked over to Bryan and clapped him on the back before returning to his wardrobe and getting his shower stuff. "I wouldn't put anything past that oily git. He's got it in for all Gryffindors. I wouldn't be too surprised if he found some way to take away house points, too."

"Actually, he did. He took fifty points because I was running out of potion ingredients. He said I should've been better prepared and had adequate supplies. How was I to know that he'd have me make that many potions?" Bryan sighed as he followed Ron toward the door. When Ron turned and headed toward the showers, Bryan told him that he'd see him at breakfast.

"Okay, mate. If you see Harry before I do, tell him I'll let him have a rematch later if he's up to it." Both of them smiled at this. Ron was the resident chess champion and Harry kept getting beat time after time, but Harry kept coming back for more.

"Will do, Ron."

A/N #2: I seem to have hit another mental block. I had other ideas about what I wanted to put in this chapter, not the least of which was Dumbledore's formal introduction between Harry and Bryan, but whatever passes for my muse seems to have split again. Hopefully I can get it back soon so I can write a longer chapter 10. Please remember to review. And my thanks go out to those that already have.

~8-)