Techy El Nerd: Now that you mention it, yes Snape was a bit stupid. I'm just not good at keeping the canon characters in character. As for the stairs to the dorms, did Ron's parents tell him about the stairs to the girls' dormitory? I think it's just something everyone finds out for themselves.

Laura Granger: Thanks. That's quite a compliment.

Chapter 8: Wolfsbane

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

"Hey, take a look at this." Zena pointed to an article on the front page of the Daily Prophet. It was the morning of the first day of school after the Christmas holiday.

"What?" Heather and Sarah asked at the same time.

"Muggle Born Witch, Campaigns for Rights of Half-breeds." Zena read. "Tara Silintha, creater and head of the Anti-Prejudice Association (APA), a society for muggle borns, werewolves, and other outcast's of society, has recently launched a campaign for the rights of half-breeds. If the move goes through, it will greatly increase the freedom, living conditions, and job opportunities given to half humans."

"'I believe that our prejudice's against our fellow wizards are what aided the rise of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.' Silintha says. 'If we wish to prevent calamity such as his, we must ban together, Muggle born, half-blood, and half-breed alike.'" Heather read over Zena's shoulder.

"She didn't say pure-bloods as well." Sarah muttered.

"I'm sure she meant pure-bloods too." Heather said.

"Yeah." Sarah shrugged. "I was just noting that she didn't refer to them."

"She sounds like a sensible woman." Lily said. "I hope she succeeds."

The other three nodded in agreement.

"We'd better get down to potions." Heather said. "We don't want to give Snape and excuse to dock house points."

"Today, we will be mixing a memory potion." Snape announced to the class. "At the end of the class, each of you will be testing it on yourselves. The instructions are on the board, and your ingredients are laid out beside you. You will… What is it Miss Lupin?" He sneered. Zena's hand had shot up in the air as soon as she had seen all the ingredients.

"Please sir. I'm allergic to Wolfsbane." She said.

"Too bad." Snape said. "You will be tying it anyway. Now…"

"But sir." Zena interrupted. "It's not a minor allergy. I'm extremely allergic to Wolfsbane. I get very sick with just a little bit. In the amounts we're speaking of here, there's a chance it could kill me."

"Miss Lupin, ten points from Gryffindor for interrupting me with irrelevant chatter. You will brew the potion and test it, even if I have to force it down your throat. I don't want to hear anymore excuses or lies." Snape snapped.

Zena's eyes filled with tears.

"Hey." Sarah said standing up. "That's not fair. You could kill her, and you're still going to make her drink it."

"Detention Malfoy." Snape said. "Sit down."

"NO!!!" Sarah yelled. "You are not going to force her to drink that potion."

"SIT DOWN MISS MALFOY!!!" Snape yelled. "A weeks worth of detention and twenty points from Gryffindor for arguing with a teacher. If she is allergic, then you may take her to the hospital wing after class. Now sit down before I take fifty points from Gryffindor."

Sarah did not sit. She stood, glaring at Snape. "I don't care. I'm not going to let you poison her."

"Me neither." Lily stood up beside Sarah. Heather stood as well.

"Deten…" Snape stopped.

The Potter boys had just risen as well, and walked over to stand behind Zena's seat. Danny and Zach soon followed. All around the room, Gryffindors were standing, glaring at Snape. Bernared Hagrid walked up, and towered over the professor.

"You let her be." He growled.

Snape scowled. "Detention all of you." He said, glaring at Sarah. "SIT!!! NOW!!!"

Everyone looked to Sarah to see what she would do. Sarah grabbed Zena, hauled her up, picked up her stuff, and walked out of the class.

Like sheep, the rest of the Gryffindors followed suit, leaving Snape and the Slytherins staring in shock.

Sarah led them through the hallways and up the stairs. It was only as they turned into the hallway in front of the Transfiguration classroom that anyone realized where they were going.

Sirius stopped, and grabbed Sarah. "Are you crazy?" He hissed. "You'll get us all in trouble."

"We're already in trouble." Sarah pointed out.

"But, we don't need more." Sirius said.

"For some reason, I don't think that this is going to get us more." Sarah answered. She wrenched her arm from Sirius's grasp. "If you don't mind." She said calmly. She marched forward and into the classroom.

McGonagall was teaching a group of Hufflepuffs. Everyone froze in shock as the procession of Gryffindors, headed by Silver's gang and the Potter twins, strode in.

"What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall asked.

"We need to talk to you professor." Sarah stated.

"You are interrupting a class." McGonagall pointed out. "In fact, I believe you should be in class as well Miss Malfoy. I hope you have a good reason for this."

"We do." Sarah, Lily, Heather, and the Potter twins all chorused.

McGonagall sighed. "Continue with the lesson." She said to her students. "I'll try to handle this quickly." She lead the Gryffindors into the hallway. "Now…" She turned to Sarah and pointed at her. "Explain."

"We were down in potions and we were going to make a memory potion…" Sarah began. "Snape said that we would all have to test ours at the end of class."

McGonagall frowned. "Professor Snape." She corrected. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Miss Lupin, would it?"

"Yes." Sarah said. "Zena told him that she was allergic to Wolfsbane, and that it could kill her to have to try the potion. Snape said that it was to bad and she would have to try it anyway, so…"

"I see." McGonagall interrupted. "You were quite right in coming to me. You all are released until your next class. Go to the common room. I shall deal with this."

"Thank you Professor." Sarah said, a bit relieved. Even she hadn't been entirely sure that this would work.

McGonagall graced them all with a rare smile. "You are welcome Miss Malfoy." She nodded to the Gryffindors. "Five points to each of you for standing up for each other, and ten points to Miss Malfoy for understanding how to deal with this. You may go."

All twelve Gryffindors cheered.

"Wow. Sixty points to Gryffindor in one go." Heather said back in the common room.

"Sixty-five." Lily corrected her. "Remember, Sarah got ten."

"Yeah." Heather agreed. "Do you think we'll still have detention?" She asked, her face falling as she thought about it.

"Doubt it." James said from behind them. The girls jumped as he spoke. They didn't know he had been listening. "Though I thought you were used to detention by now."

"Only when we earn it." Lily said coldly. She didn't like James at all.

"Hey," James spoke to Sarah, ignoring Lily. "You know, we've decided you may not be as bad as most Malfoys."

"Thanks ever so." Sarah muttered dryly.

"Just thought you'd like to know." He said casually.

"Actually, I couldn't care less about what you think." Sarah said. "You're not exactly high on the list of people who's opinions matter to me."

"Look, Malfoy," Sirius, who had been listening, came over. "We were just trying to say that you're at least starting to bring yourself out of the shame your family has…" He didn't get any further. Sarah stood up and slapped him. Glaring at the two of them, she stalked up the stairs to her dormitory. The rest of her friends followed.

"Smooth Sirius." James said sarcastically. "Really smooth."

"What did I do?" Sirius asked, rubbing his cheek. "I was telling the truth."

James sighed. "Never mind." He said.

"What?" Sirius asked as James left.

Nobody was surprised at all when McGonagall told the Gryffindor 1st years that they would not be getting detention for the incident. It was supposed to be hushed up, but word got around anyway. A rumor that Snape was on probation began to circulate, though Sarah, Lily, Zena, and Heather saw no evidence of this in class. Snape, however, had added Sarah to his list of targets.

Sarah didn't mind. She and the rest of Silver's Gang hit him with a prank at least once a week, and the Potter gang hit him just as much. In fact, because nobody could tell which group played which prank, they got away with it a lot of the time. Some of the students started a rather successful betting pool on who played which prank. The groups both got 10% of the profits made for telling the answer. They of course used these earnings to buy more materials for pranks.

"Whoever would have thought pranking would be so profitable." Heather commented to Zena one day after collecting their dues.

The Potters, and Lily were still not exactly friendly towards each other, but there was a sort of truce between them. Heather and Zena were very good friends Zach and Danny, and there was a not hostile, if not exactly friendly, relationship between Zach, Danny and Lily. Sarah, however, was still and outcast to all members of the opposite gang, though all of them but Sirius had slackened off on their tormenting. Sarah shrugged, and bore it, usually giving as good as she got.

"Today, we will be starting to study Dark Creatures." Professor Winters said one day in May. "Since this is a rather long unit of study, I will be dividing you up into pairs and assigning a creature for you to study. You will become an expert on that creature, and in two weeks, you will be giving a report. This is so there is at least two people in the class that will know about all the creatures we will study, so they will be able to help you." She stared around. "Any questions?"

Zena raised her hand. "Yes Miss Lupin?"

"What creatures are we studying?" Zena asked.

"Boggarts, Kappas, Grindylows, Vampires, Werewovles, and Red Caps." Winters said promptly. "Any other questions?"

There was a murmur of negativity.

"Very well than." Winters got out a list. "Here are your partners and your creatures. Zachary Weasley and James Potter will be doing Boggarts." Zach and James moved their desks together, grinning, and began to whisper.

"Kathy Weasley and Hannah Weasley will be doing Kappas." The cousins shrugged and moved over to each other.

"Zena Lupin and Bernard Hagrid will be doing Grindylows. Lillian Wright and…" Sarah crossed her fingers under the table. "…Daniel Longbottom will be doing Vampires." Both Sarah and Lily looked disappointed at this announcement.

"Sarah Malfoy and…" Sarah desperately hoped it wasn't Sirius. "Sirius Potter will be doing Werewolves." Both groaned, then glared at each other.

"And Harrison Podmore and Ophelia Phillips will be doing Red Caps." Winters rolled up the scroll of parchment. "There will be not partner switching, and no creature changing. If you have any questions, ask me after class."

Sarah gave Lily one desperate look, then went to sit by Sirius.

AN: I just want to make one thing perfectly clear; Zena being allergic to Wolfsbane is not related to her being a Werewolf. It's a natural allergy. Why else would Remus send them a book on becoming animagi if Zena could just take the Wolfsbane potion then?

Snape's probably a bit OOC in this chapter, but I needed him to be. I'm sorry. And for all future OOC incidents, I'm sorry.

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