She woke in the infirmary at Hogwarts, and was never more grateful to see a place in her life. She was less grateful when she looked over and saw Dumbledore watching her.

"Back to the world of the living, hmmm?" said the headmaster, sounding amused as always.

"I think so," Tia tried sitting up, with no adverse effects. "Give me a few minutes to make sure."

Dumbledore nodded, that seemed a perfectly reasonable request. Tia took the extra time to scan the infirmary. There were no other occupants. "Where's Kerry? Is he alright?"

"He's fine. Madame Pomfrey let him out two days ago."

"Two…days?" Tia blinked in surprise and looked around again. The afternoon sun streamed in through the windows. She wondered how long she'd been out this time.

Finally, her curiosity got the better of her. "What happened?" she asked, trying not to sound too interested. The headmaster smiled. Tia got the feeling he enjoyed explaining things.

"After you stormed so heatedly out of my office, I was quite certain you were about to do something rash and sent a message to Hagrid to keep a watch on the forest borders. You see, we were perfectly aware of the fact that something was going on, and your report only confirmed it. Not to mention giving us a name, which we would have acted on had you not taken the job upon yourself. My denial of your suspicions was meant to discourage, not encourage you. I hardly expected a student, especially a student with so much adverse experience with dark wizards, to go chasing after one into the depths of the dark forest in the middle of the night.

"We realized the worst soon after. A friend of yours, one Cynthia Port, came tearing into my office not twenty minutes later, insisting that you'd gone off to get yourself killed and taken Kerry with you."

"Cynthia! But she didn't know anything about…" Tia had a sudden memory of bursting in on a common room full of Hufflepuffs. Cynthia could have been there, and she would be exactly the type to listen at the door while she and Kerry talked. "Oh," Tia recovered. "I'm surprised she cared." Then again, with Kerry along, of course she would.

"She seemed quite upset to me. There was nothing to do but send someone out to find where you'd gone. While we were searching, Hagrid contacted me, telling me some of his friends in the forest had seen a sort of broomstick chase going on among the trees. It wasn't hard to pinpoint your location after that. Though how you got past Hagrid in the first place, I don't know."

"There's a passage…from a room on the first floor. Ember…my cat, showed me. It opens into the dark forest."

"Cats are such astounding creatures. We shall have the passage sealed immediately. Can't have students accidentally wandering into the forest. Or the forest wandering into the school for that matter." Dumbledore shook his head, seeming to forget Tia's existence for a moment. "Ah! Where was I. Oh yes.

"Once we knew where you were, we of course set out to stop Seldon, but we were cut short by the arrival of an unfamiliar owl. It carried a message from Seldon that cautioned us to keep away from his hideout or he'd start sending pieces of our 'wayward students' back to us in little boxes. Perhaps I shouldn't have told you that?" He peered at Tia over his glasses.

"Standard dark wizard threat," she stated, trying to hide the fact that she felt slightly ill. Standard threats were one thing, having them applied to oneself quite another. Dumbledore smiled again. She decided that the headmaster had a well-hidden sadistic sense of humor.

"I'm sure Seldon expected us to back out completely, but we had no intention of abandoning a student so easily, as you stated so vehemently before." Tia jumped. "Yes, Hagrid has many friends in the forest willing to spy for him. They relayed everything that went on to us, quite accurately, without being seen. We were preparing to make an attack while Seldon was distracted by the near-completion of his spell, but you cut us off. That darkness trick. Even Severus was impressed, and you know that takes quite a bit of doing." Dumbledore chuckled, obviously amused, but Tia remembered something else.

"Professor Snape…Seldon said…" she started, but Dumbledore cut her off.

"As to that, I suggest you forget you ever heard it. Or at least, if you must pry, you can ask the Professor himself." Tia sighed. Dumbledore knew full well she'd never ask Snape anything. Seeing no further questions, the headmaster continued.

"You know the rest. Seldon has been taken to Azkaban. The Ministry is quite excited, as you might guess. Unfortunately, it seems he was acting on his own, having had no contact with any others of his set for some time. The dark wizards left these days are truly the most slippery of them all." Dumbledore shook his head. "Grant is also in protective custody. They are sure he can be, ah, cured. He is still so young." He sighed. "He will not be returning to Hogwarts, at any rate. It is a shame, I hate to lose a student."

"I hardly think Grant counts as a loss," Tia muttered. "He was in the wrong House anyway."

"Do you think so? He may have been destined for Gryffindor after all. It takes a good amount of courage to pretend to be what you think you are not and defy an entire school of wizards. Loyalty to family, certainly, and a willingness to do what he thought right at all costs. Those sound like Gryffindor traits to me." Dumbledore lowered his spectacles and winked at her. "That old hat is harder to fool than you might think."

Tia wondered. She hadn't had much of a discussion with the sorting hat when she came to Hogwarts. When she'd put the thing on, it just sat silent for a long time, until she'd yelled at it to hurry up and put her somewhere or she was going to take it off and burn it. It then announced her to be in Slytherin, and sounded quite pleased with itself.

"Still, you're the last student I would expect to be bothered by a little stretching of the House guidelines." Dumbledore continued. "After all, some might call your actions in the forest very…un-Slytherinish."

"What…" Tia protested. "Acting on a chance to make Gryffindor look bad?"

"Ah, so that was your motivation. Of course. Nevertheless, your 'unmotivated' actions may very well win the House cup for Slytherin yet again," Tia blinked in surprise. "If only by reversing the negative pointage caused by some earlier 'accidents'. I, for one, would have thought it impossible, but Slytherin does have a way of coming out on top despite it all, doesn't it, hmmmm. Even if it means bringing in a dark wizard to be conveniently defeated.

"Anyway, Madame Pomfrey has said that you are to rest for the remainder of the day, at least. She believes you have a fairly low magic tolerance, did you know that?"

"That's what Grant said," Tia muttered.

"Ah. My apologies." Dumbledore rose from his seat.

"Wait." Tia stopped him. "I need to ask. Would that candle…would it really have summoned Voldemort back from the dead?"

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "The phoenix candle was designed to bring back a spirit from the dead. I have never believed Voldemort to be truly dead, and so the candle would most likely not have worked on him."

Tia slumped back against her pillows. "So it was all pointless."

"Do you think so?" Dumbledore smiled again. "If it makes you feel better, lighting that candle in the dark forest could have summoned any one of a thousand other nasty things, so it's probably best that the spell did not get completed."

"I guess so." Dumbledore started to leave again, when something else clicked in Tia's mind. "Wait! You said Voldemort isn't dead? I'd heard rumors, but….so what was all that mess with Harry Potter? Where is he? Will he come back? What…"

Dumbledore made calming motions with his hands. "So many questions all of a sudden. None of which I have the answer to, unfortunately. Don't worry. He is very much out of power right now, and most likely won't come back any time soon."

"Somehow, I'm not comforted."

"Not many of us are. Good afternoon." Dumbledore said, and let himself out.

The next day, Tia snuck out of the infirmary. She'd stayed as long as Dumbledore had said, and she wasn't going to stay any longer, in case Madame Pomfrey decided one of her foul-tasting brews was in order. Closing the door behind her, she crept down the halls until she was out of the area. This accomplished, she found herself at a loss. Should she go back to class today, or wait until tomorrow? She thought about the possibilities involved in facing Snape during Potions and decided to wait. Nearly half the school year was left for him to glare at her, what difference would one less day make? She wandered back to the Slytherin common room instead.

Kerry was waiting for her outside the door. "Tia! I knew you wouldn't go to class today. I wanted to see you earlier, but you know Madame Pomfrey. I was so worried! I thought you'd never wake up."

"You thought wrong."

"That's horrible, Tia, I really was worried."

Tia sighed. "Sorry. I'm just feeling incredibly stupid right now."

"Why?"

"Why? Come on, Kerry! I ran off like an idiot to stop some dark wizard who, for all I knew, could have had eleven or so friends waiting with him. Plus, I dragged you along too, and we both could have been killed!" She shook her head in exasperation with herself. "You should have stopped me."

"Could I have stopped you?" Kerry asked.

"Point."

"So I thought it better to go with you, at least. I admit, I didn't believe you at first. I thought you were just seeing another story, like the time you thought Professor McGonagall was a ghost who walked through walls, until we found out she was using the cat door."

"Hmph. You didn't need to tell me that, I was fine with believing you trusted me. Oh well, I guess it was best that you came along, anyway. I mean…" Tia wondered how to phrase it. "You were really helpful back there. I couldn't have done it on my own."

Kerry shrugged. "Against Grant, maybe, but I was worse than useless against his father."

"Weren't we all." Tia stared at the wall for a minute. "You know, I think I'm going to start paying attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Good idea."

"No. Really. You see, the Headmaster said something strange. That Voldemort will likely try to come back. For real, not as a side effect of some inept candle experiment. If….no, when he does, I want to fight it."

Kerry was silent for a while, then he smiled. "I bet you'd be good at it too. You could get some pointers from your mom."

Tia groaned. "Oh I can't wait 'til she hears about this."

"I don't think she'll be too disappointed."

"Well…" Tia as interrupted by a new arrival in the hall.

"There you are!" Cynthia broke in. "Oh, you're up." She looked a little annoyed, but she masked it and went on. "Can you believe someone gave her more points than you for this whole incident, Kerry? The whole school's talking about it. Hufflepuff and Slytherin are nearly tied again!"

"Are they?" Tia was surprised. "How so…?"

"Snape." Kerry sighed. "He jumped at the chance to put Slytherin back in the listings, and started giving you points for things no one else would have thought of."

"Really?" Tia grinned. "Well well."

Cynthia sniffed. "You sound surprised. Snape's never been one to miss an opportunity, you know." Tia continued to grin at her. "Knock it off."

"Sorry."

"What she means is," Kerry broke in. "Is 'thanks for telling Dumbledore we were in danger.' Right, Tia?"

"Huh? What? Oh. That. Well…" Tia gave in. "Yeah. Thanks. I'm sure he would have gotten around to it anyway…"

"Tia!"

"Well he would have." Tia refused to meet his eye. "Okay, okay, I thanked her! Stop staring at me. I still don't understand why, though…" she said, turning back to Cynthia, who glared at her.

"I'm not such a bad person, really. Not enough to let two people go off and get themselves killed by a dark wizard when I could do something to stop it. What did you think I'd do, throw a party and say 'Welcome back, Voldemort!'?" She looked a little shocked at herself for using the name, but it didn't last long.

"Well, when you put it that way…" Tia looked embarrassed again.

"She does!" Kerry interrupted. "Does this mean you'll stop trying to kill each other?"

"Fine, but that's all."

"Oh come on…"

"No way." Tia turned her back on them both. "I bet this was all just a ploy to get me to like your new girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Kerry protested, followed closely by Cynthia. "Was that what you were worried about all this time?" He snickered.

"Worried? Who's worried? I don't care if you have a girlfriend."

"Right." Cynthia smirked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing!"

"Right."

"Oh come on, both of you…" Kerry tried again.

"Well," Tia said. "At least I'm getting my Potion's partner back, right Kerry?"

"Of course."

"Yeah, take him. Make sure you lose some points for Slytherin, okay?" Cynthia suggested.

"Not a chance, if Snape's back in form."

Cynthia sighed. "Oh well, at least Gryffindor's out of the running this year." She brightened. "Anyway, we're only tied, and we still have almost half the year to break it!" Her smile took on an evil glint again. "That's plenty of time for you to blow up the lab again, eh, Tia?"

"Eh, Tia?" echoed Kerry.

"I'll just ignore that." Tia sniffed.

Life was back to normal.