Title: Reflections in the Dark

Chapter: 6

By: Moondreams

Notes: I know it's been a long while since I posted last and for that I'm sorry. Kudos to Ann Dragon Malfoy who emailed me and LiquidV who's hoping for disembowelment of Draco apparently. Hopefully, the next chapter will be posted soon. I had such problems with this one. Stupid writers block. I'm trying to clear up a bit of what's going on without giving too much away. Anyway, enjoy. And review, it makes me post sooner. Yeah, I know that sounded lame. Oh, well.

Sparrow sat in his usual place as he leaned against the wall and watched the unicorn. The amulet on his chest, hidden by his shirt, felt heavier for some reason. He took it out and rubbed his thumb over the raised golden unicorn that had been engraved on it's blood red stone. He had meant to get rid of the cursed thing as soon as he had gotten to civilization. But Firenze had dragged him out of his cave and messed up his plans. Meddling centaur, he couldn't be like the rest of his kind and just ignore Sparrow. Centaur's had an uncanny ability to ignore everyone but themselves. They were vain creatures in the knowledge as unicorns were in their beauty. Even now Moonspinner was prancing around making a complete spectacle of herself. Sparrow put the amulet back under his shirt as he gave Moonspinner the attention she had wanted. He blinked twice and jerked his head to the side to tell her that he thought she was just showing off. She snorted before thrusting her head up in the air and prancing in the opposite direction. He had grown up reading the body language of animals since his contact with humans had mostly been limited. It wasn't hard to mimic the movements either. Some animals were near impossible to read, insects for one, fluttered around in such a hurry that none ever took time to 'talk'. The tamed animals mostly wanted to be petted or feed showing the laziness in their domestic lifestyles. Humans, on the other hand, were hard to read at times. During his hiding in the Dark Forest he had avoided human like creatures, like vampires and centaurs with the exception of Firenze who enjoyed having a human to talk to while trying to read Sparrow's future at times. He had tried talking with the merefolk but he failed to learn their screeching language as many of them tried to pull him into the water no matter what the temperature. It was strange being surrounded by so many humans all the time. After each care of magical creatures class, Sparrow was more then ready to see most of them go. Except for Hermione, she was the only one that had ever bothered to talk to him which at times made him uneasy and happy at the same time. But he enjoyed seeing her, nevertheless, he mused as he laid back into the grass and stared up overcast sky.

"Ready for the Hogsmead trip tomorrow?" asked Dean the moment Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table. Harry grinned and nodded.

"I heard Zonko's is getting in some new nose biting tea cups," George, who had been eavesdropping, butted in. "Why would you want nose biting tea cups?" asked Neville with puzzlement as he shoved a spoonful of hot eggs into his mouth.

"Think about it, mate," Fred stated with a mischievous grin.

"Afternoon tea?" Hermione asked in a 'I really don't want to know but I might as well ask' kind of voice.

"Hello! Divination! Swap Trelawny's cups with one of those and we might actually stay awake during the class," George grinned broadly as he envisioned

"Then she'll use the whole class to say how she envisioned it happening and she didn't do anything because it'd change fate or something like that," Ron, who had been sitting next to Hermione, sighed as if picturing the whole episode.

"Loony old bat," Ginny remarked. The Gryffindors turned to stare at the red head who blushed to her roots.

"What? She is," Ginny stated still blushing who had a deep loathing for the divination professor since she tried to predict Harry's death almost ever week.

"You've corrupted her," Ron accused the twins. The two identical faces just grinned back at him.

"It's about time we corrupted someone, might as well be Ginny," Fred snickered. "Just don't tell Mum, she's already stressing over Dad, the last thing I need is a howler," Ron said as he remembered the last one he received.

"Why is she stressing over your dad?" Harry asked wondering out loud. "Dad's been getting major over time lately," Fred replied.

"And not a lot of money," George pointed out.

"Did anyone get the scores of Ireland's last Quidditch game?" Seamus asked changing the subject. The talk immediately turned to Quidditch and England's chance for the next World Cup. Hermione bit into a piece of bacon and absent-mindedly glanced at the head table were the professors ate. She knew Sparrow never sat there but she couldn't resist looking during every meal. Maybe Ron was right, maybe she did obsess too much over things she felt were getting walked over, like Neville. Yes, that's it, she should treat Sparrow like Neville and not have him on her mind all day. She was almost positive that it had been Sparrow who had frightened in the library. Even though that would've ever been the longest sentence that she had ever heard him utter. But how could've he have gotten into the Gryffindor girl's dorms? She frowned as she chewed and pondered the answer. Suddenly, Dean and Seamus burst out laughing catching her attention. They were pointing up at the staff table where Snape's greasy hair was now a brilliant Gryffindor red with gold tips. Snape's face was turning the same shade as his new hair as he stood up and left in a huff. McGonagall's face cracked into a smile and Dumbledore's eyes sparkled with humor. As if taking cue from their head of Gryffindor, the table burst out laughing soon joined in by the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Fred got out a short pad of paper and checked a list that had been sprawled on it.

"So the Tie Dye Hair Elixir works," he explained. "Is it temporary?" Hermione asked frowning. Both twins grinned back at her and shrugged while the other Gryffindors turned to congratulate them. Ron and Harry were both clutching their sides as tears streamed down their faces from laughing so hard. Hermione sighed and stood up with a no-nonsense expression on her face.

"Come on Mione, tell me seeing Snape like that wasn't the funniest thing you've ever seen in your life," Harry laughed wiping tears from his cheeks.

"Except the amazing bouncing ferret," Ron pointed out. Harry nodded and laughed harder.

"Do either of you remember what class we have next?" Hermione asked. Both stopped laughing as a look of dismay crossed their faces.

"Hell," Ron swore as he sat down.

"Might as well kill us now, mate," Harry said to the twins who merely shrugged and kept talking about how much they should charge for the new dye.

The Gryffindor students shuffled into the dungeon silently. Each one sat down at his or her desk opening their text books or just staring down at an 'interesting' spot on their desk.

"You're in for it now," Draco sniggered as he walked by the trio. Ron and Harry glared up at him. Draco caught Hermione's stare and winked at her. Ron just about leapt out of his seat and would've lunged at the blonde haired Slytherin if Harry hadn't been holding him back.

"Ignore him," Hermione said with a frown.

"Enough of the chatter," Snape boomed making all the Gryffindors jump. Neville, who had been sitting next to Hermione, slid down his seat a little farther as if he was trying to disappear under his desk. A large wizard hat was jammed down over Snape's head trying to cover up the coloring. From the look on his face, he apparently had been unsuccessful at removing the color. He gave them an extra hard potion to do going by each of the Gryffindors and giving each a scathing insult. He got to Hermione's, whose potion was perfect as always, and glared down at her. She met his gaze. He continued on to Neville's. His potion was an awful puke green color instead of the emerald green it was supposed to be. "Sloppy work, Longbottom," he sneered making the boy grow pale in the face. "Hold on, he's not done Professor," Hermione interrupted. She put the last teaspoon of ash into the cauldron making it turn the perfect color.

"5 points from Gryffindor for helping him," Snape said menacingly.

"That's not fair," she stated hotly.

"5 more points," Snape said almost daring for her to continue.

"Are you quite finished, Ms. Granger?" he sneered at her. She opened her mouth but before she could continue a loud crash came in the front of the room. Snape jerked around turning his attention from the Gryffindor girl to the person standing in front of the class. At the boy's feet was the remains of a glass jar containing dead toads.

"Sparrow," he heard the girl whisper. Several of the Slytherins burst out laughing.

"BOY! What are you doing in my class?" Snape bellowed. Sparrow dropped to one knee and clumsily started picking up the pieces not bothering to answer. His fingers fumbled over his task and he dropped a large piece just to have it shatter on the hard stones again. Snape sighed in frustration. What was it about Dumbledore and hiring idiots? First Trewlawny then Hagrid and now this dumb boy. "What do you need?" he demanded as he crossed the room in three long strides. The boy looked at him with a vapid expression.

"Hagrid," he said simply. He cocked his head to the side and looked up at the greasy haired professor.

"And?" he demanded.

"Pain." Snape crossed his arms ignoring the sniggering of the Slytherin students and some Gryffindors as well.

"Potion."

"Is Poppy out?" he growled down at the boy. Sparrow looked at him and shrugged. "A bright one, he is," Ron said sarcastically. Hermione glared at him causing the boy to flush. "The blue one on the second self, then write it down on the log order on my desk," Snape snarled and then once again turned his attention to the students. Sparrow found the potion after a minute of searching and carefully laid it on the desk. He turned towards the log book and closed his eyes for a second. He looked down and flexed his hand, which was shaking. He picked up the quill slowly. Several Slytherins sniggered. He pressed it down upon the paper and started to copy each letter found on the label.

"BOY!" Snape yelled. Sparrow's head jerked up and he jumped away from the desk. The movement jarred the ink causing it to knock over. He reached to try to catch only to get a handful of ink.

"Clumsy boy!" Snape snarled as he rushed over to his desk trying to remove everything from the ink's path. With a wave of his wand, the ink disappeared.

"Can't you write?" Snape demanded looking down at the beginnings of the potion's name being scribbled out in shaky letters. Sparrow looked up at him with fearful brown eyes and quickly shook his head. He grabbed the potion and sprinted out of the room. Snape watched him go. His eyes narrowed.

"No, it can't be..." he whispered. "Class dismissed, leave your cauldrons on the table. You can pick them up later today," he bellowed and then stalked out of the classroom and headed towards the Headmaster's office.

"What was that all about?" Harry asked as he walked down to the Great hall with Hermione and Ron at his side.

"I don't know but Sparrow probably saved us from getting a ton of homework. Remind me to kill my brothers later," Ron said with a sigh.

"It was so worth it, I hope Colin got a picture," said Harry with a grin on his face. Ron laughed.

"Yeah, it'd be the first time he did something right with that blasted camera of his." Hermione said nothing as she replayed the events in her head. Something about Sparrow had put the Potion's Master on edge. But what? She was jarred out of her thoughts as someone shoved her aside. A bunch of Slytherins pushed the three of them out of their way as they headed towards the Great Hall.

"Stupid Slytherins," Ron said.

"...and the jewel's were gone all of them," a Slytherin girl told her friend who gasped in return.

"All of them?" the friend as with her mouth wide open in shock.

"All of them! Ministry's keeping it hush hush though, doesn't want a bunch of important wizarding families getting all worked up. They're covering their butts, that's what they're doing," the other said. The two, when realizing they were getting left behind, sprinted towards their friends.

"Anyway, I was thinking that next practice, we could work on that new distracting technique that Angelina came up with," Ron said to Harry. Harry grinned and both fell into a long conversation about who had the better plans, Angelina or Oliver. Hermione rolled her eyes. Boys! All of them seemed to have quidditch on the brain. "Well, if you must talk about quidditch around me, you better tell Katie to stop flying towards the sun so much, she's missing quaffles because of it," Hermione pointed out vastly amused at the shocked looks of both boys.

"Well? Seriously, it's not like I don't watch the games. It's quite obvious," she pointed out.

"Thanks, Mione," Harry said with a smile. Hermione shook her head. Boys were so...completely oblivious sometimes. Hermione sighed. Maybe, if she could figure them out she'd write a book about them and help the rest of the female race to understand them.