Disclaimer: Ok, I'm getting quite sick of saying this, so I've decided this is going to be the last. I don't own any of the characters (except for Leah and Elise). There, that's the final disclaimer for the duration of this story, hope you enjoyed it.

Chapter 4: Krysta

A gloomy fortnight had passed since Leah was last in the Three Broomsticks. She was mainly solitary during her days, sometimes talking to Elise, but only for brief periods. People had gotten to know her by now and its result of people mainly leaving her alone. She was that week's flavour; something new that people were curious to poke their nose into, but now she became a normal sight and it seemed that fame had only lasted a minute, not five.

Things had perhaps cooled down between Pansy and Leah, but there was still an air of uneasiness whenever they were in the same room – which applied to most of the time, considering most of her lessons were with her. They both talked to each other as minimally as possible and talking very politely whenever they had to.

However, Malfoy still kept a thick wall of spite between himself and her; never talking to her and only looking at her to throw her acidic looks through his narrowed, grey eyes. Several times, Leah had passed him in the common room while she did her homework. Often Malfoy was in sodden quidditch robes after a hard practice session, carrying his Nimbus Two Thousand and One over his shoulder and other times in his school robes, coming back from a prefects' meeting or patrolling the corridors.

She would try her hardest to keep her gaze from wondering in his direction so not to get her temper up and suppress her urge to shout at him. After all, she'd like to think that she was 'over' him and she didn't have anything else against him, but she also knew that there was still a little bit of resentment inside her bubbling and boiling, waiting to erupt. But so far, she was doing well in her standards and keeping herself concentrated on her work.

It was a Sunday night that Leah sat in front of the common room fire as the weather got colder and colder drawing up to December. As she finished the last of her essays, she heard a loud rapping at the small window towards the top of the wall. There sat a handsome barn owl, her family owl, with a scroll of parchment tied to one of its legs. Leah struggled to drag a heavy chair which had a mind of its own to stay where it was and became heavier as she put more force on it. As she finally got the chair under the window, she carefully climbed onto it, not sure of the chair's reactions, pried open the window and untied the letter, seeing the window wouldn't open enough for it to got inside. Leah slumped onto the chair as the barn owl flew off to find some food, opened the roll and started reading the neat writing Leah had become so familiar with.

Dear Leah,

Hi honey. How are you and how is your time at Hogwarts? I hope you've made many friends yet? Although I've had wind from your friends at Durmstrang that they are missing you. I'm fine and also your father, but things are getting busy for him at the ministry. Perhaps his workload will become less in time.

I've also gotten word from Chris that he hasn't been able to send you his letter with his owl because she's got a bad case of owl-pox. You should look at her, Leah – she's a right mess. But he handed me his letter to you to send it with this one. Be sure to send him a reply – he really wanted to talk to you I think, and I guess he'll use the owl you send off your letter with.

Well darling, I've got to dash. I'm sorry this letter had to be so short, but I promise to write you a longer one next time. Have a wonderful time,

With lots of love,

Mum

Leah set the letter from her mother on the armrest beside her, a familiar warm feeling spreading in her chest, and started to read the next letter with a bit of a smile and a little skip in her chest.

Hi Leah,

How are you? I'm fine. I think my work for the ministry of magic has doubled in the last six months – quite depressing, really. Well, how's school? Any new school buddies yet? I know what starting new schools are like, but you're not going to be there for long, right? So don't worry, you'll be back home where you belong in no time.

I heard that Harry Potter goes to your school, in fact, he's in your year, isn't he? Have you met him yet? If you have, is he like what I've been reading in the Daily Prophet? It's funny though, since You Know Who's appeared, they've totally changed their thoughts on him. First, he was a senile maniac and now he's the world's greatest hero. But then again, I wouldn't mind if I got that much publicity.

But I guess you can't believe everything in these reads now a days. They always manage to twist the truth a bit. They make the most boring things into what might be the next England Quidditch World Cup or something.

Well, that's enough of my babbling, and I'm sure I'm starting to lose you so I'll end it there. But I hope you'll be writing to me soon, won't you? Citrine's caught a bad case of owl-pox so I'm sorry if my letters will be late in getting to you.

Hoping you're having a good time and missing my favorite friend,

Chris

He wasn't quite a boyfriend, Leah knew, but he wasn't a bad friend either. He had his very effective techniques of cheering you up or making you feel better of the situation you were bogged in. She let a little smile crack her face and put the two letters in her pocket so not to forget.

She sat quietly staring into the flames of the darkly lit room, thinking back to her home and her friends she had for the last six years. There were only two dear friends, Chris and Anastasia. Chris became a more intimate friend, but Ana was perhaps her only friend at Durmstrang, full of Dark people who kept to their own business and in Leah's opinion, weren't very cooperative and easy to be with. Durmstrang wasn't as big as Hogwarts, so everybody was capable of knowing everybody else who went there. Many of them seemed to be family friends so there were may groups of friends that didn't ever mix – similar to the relationships of Gryffindor and Slytherin, only far more. Ana was different from the rest, though. She didn't believe in groups and Dark magic and made sure she stood out from the rest.

However, Leah was a creature of habit and didn't mind spending her time there. Of course, she didn't know any different but she was happy with her old ways. Ana was constantly badgering her to be different but never succeeding. This never annoyed Leah, perhaps she just registered Ana to be like that. It's funny how life turns out, Leah thought, all the people life creates and the ones you meet…

Leah finally awoke from her thoughts and scooped up her essay, shoved it blindly into her school bag and walked towards her dorm.

When she entered, she saw Krysta lying lazily on her bedspread who looked up sleepily when Leah came to sit on the bed. Taking the cue, Krysta slid easily to Leah, coiled around her arm and settled around her neck and shoulders. Leah was greatful for her presence and understanding, perhaps more so than she did herself. Leah realized that once again, she had only one friend. Leah had spent a lot of time with Krysta over the last fortnight. Although, Leah was also aware that she wasn't the only one who was becoming good friends with her. She had seen on countless occasions, Elise playing, talking and taking care of her. They had come a long way, Leah thought. Elise's birthday was also fast approaching. Leah had found out in their short conversations and was thinking along the lines of an animal as her birthday present, since Elise's favorite subject was Care of Magical Creatures (although she wouldn't admit it for her life). Leah was pondering on getting her a Niffler, as it was the only non-dangerous animal they had come across in their lessons before. Leah knew of this because Elise had told her on countless times of a particular lesson in their fourth year and how they were so useful. Indeed, Leah would have liked to have one also but she forced herself to rethink, seeing that Krysta might like to have it as her dinner. Hmm, bad idea, thought Leah.

Leah started to uncoil Krysta from her cool embrace and placed her in an old basket laden with some ripped blankets. Krysta was usually free to wonder around the Slytherin area; there were many mice around the dungeon area, although Krysta could only go into the girls' areas. There was one particularly horrible incident when Krysta had slithered herself into one of the boys' dorms chasing after a particularly fat rodent and had come upon an unwary seventh year boy. This, of course, caused a lot of havoc. And so, Leah, though half pleased that such a baby lay inside a 'tough and gruff' seventh year, had to run though the room full of boys cowering in one corner and grab Krysta. Though, when she got to the middle of the room, she found Krysta who was playfully rearing up to meet eye to eye with a fifth year boy quivering on the floor. Leah gave the other boys in the room a sickly sweet smile of triumph, put Krysta on her shoulders and walked out of the room. She didn't notice though that the boys stared at her, their eyes goggling, after the girl with a hissing snake wrapped around her neck.

Leah smiled as she reminisced. She had become considerably popular among the boys; they called after her and asked her about snakes and so on, but this had only lasted for a few days. Leah could remember Pansy looking quite sour that week but it seemed that the icy wall between them had melted somewhat.

Leah gave a great sigh and lay back on her bed. Some thing crumpled and she shot up to realize it was only the letters she had put in her pocket for safekeeping. She pulled them out, now a little crinkled, and reread them. When she had finished, she gave them a last longing look and walked over to her trunk where she pulled out an old fashioned box. This box was made out of wood from Elder trees and had been previously owned by her mother, and had been owned by her grandmother before her. The polish had been worn by careful and loving handling from over the years and inside was covered in soft, black velvet. The lid of the box beared the same emblem as her ring – some sort of family emblem that had been in her family for ages. Leah now kept letters in this box from people that she loved the most.

She hastily put the lid back on the box and shoved it under her bed as the door to the dorm opened. It was Elise. Leah gave a small smile and tried to act as nothing happened; she didn't fancy the idea of letting Elise know about her secret box.

"So, what have you been up to?" Leah asked.

"Oh, nothing much, you?" Elise said not giving much thought to her reply.

Leah thought quickly, "I've just been working on my assignments."

Elise nodded and an awkward silence stood between them.

Leah gave a little laugh and persevered to continue the conversation, "So when's the Quidditch match? It's against Gryffindor, isn't it?"

Elise was quite surprised and said, "Oh, so you know about the Quidditch match, do you?"

Leah nodded and said, "You hear it around the corridors a lot."

"Yeah, it is against Gryffindor, but it's not until next week. You might want to be careful around the corridors, you know. Both houses get quite feisty towards the game, like hexes, jinxes and stuff. But since you're not really a Hogwarts student, it would probably be easy for you to get out of trouble."

Leah was grateful; she didn't fancy being struck by hexes. "That's good," was all she said.

Elise gave the old basket a loving look and walked over to stroke Krysta. "She's so beautiful."

"I know, she was given to me as a birth present, but it's been in the family for ages. I think it's older than my grandmother it's constantly reborn from the skin it died in. My boyfriend wasn't pleased though when he saw her at first," Leah stopped to take in what she had just said. She looked hesitantly at Elise who was smiling with excitement twinkling in her eyes.

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend. My last boyfriend broke up with me and sent me photographs of him and his new girlfriend in bed together, so I found a solution – I sent them to her dad. So obviously I don't have one at the moment, but I'm still looking out for one," Elise said and they launched into a very enthusiastic conversation.

"Don't go for Crabbe or Goyle, they're probably the last resolution. Actually, no – don't even think of it. It's too gross. Malfoy's not bad, but of course that's no match for you…  Pansy's already in the winning for him. She put a hex on a girl called Clementine Raads, a fifth year, last year for getting too close to him. I've never seen such a bad case of spaghetti hair in my life! She even perfected it by adding tomato sauce and grated Parmesan cheese" Elise said, half laughing.

Leah wasn't surprised, "So, that's why Pansy's so protective of him!"

"Yeah, and Pansy's fancied him for years but he's despised her for years too, only, he's got to be nice to her, because the Malfoys and Parkinsons are quite close, not to mention they're Death Eaters," Elise whispered, scared that someone might over hear.

This news wasn't a surprise, "But hasn't the Malfoys been taken to Azkaban?"

"Only Malfoy's dad, but he went along with other families too. But I don't think they'll stay captured for long – the Dementors aren't working with the ministry anymore, remember?" Elise said, quieter with every word. Elise had stopped stroking Krysta and came to Leah's bed and sat next to her, as to minimize the volume of their speech. "You might want to be careful with some of the people you meddle with; a lot of the Slytherins are children of Death Eaters. There aren't many that aren't. My parents like dark magic, but this doesn't mean that they are Death Eaters. But most of them are, so be careful. You don't want to be buddies with the wrong sort."

Leah listened attentively as Elise dished out names, "There's Crabbe and Goyle, Pansy, Blaise, Millicent, Montague, Bletchley, Nott, Warrington, Pucey, Higgs, er…" Elise counted them off on her fingers. "that's all I can remember at the moment."

But Leah had one name burning in her mind, "what about Malfoy?"

Elise thought for a moment and said, "You'd think so, wouldn't you? But as much as he's like his father I doubt that he will become a Death Eater. He's just got this huge grudge against Potter…"

"I've noticed…"

"…But you never know if will be or not. He's quite… unpredictable, you could say. But I don't think he'll do you any harm. Well, unless you mention his father. Crabbe had leeks sprouting from his ears for the whole week when he mentioned his father. But then again, he's pretty thick – don't think he would have noticed if leeks were sticking out of his nostrils."

They both laughed heartily and climbed into bed. They bid each other good night, but it was a while until Leah had gotten to sleep. She was rethinking about what Elise had said. She finally dropped off into a deep sleep with Elise's slow, deep breathing echoing in her mind.

A/N: so what do you think? Any queries or suggestions let me know by reviewing please. Thanks! Mia xx