A/N: I've had a couple of complaints about the laptop thing from chapter 22. I know electronics go hey-wire in Hogwarts. That is explained in Rilee's story - Riddles (you can from Monsoon under my Fave Authors.) Read it if you are looking for answers on Rilee. She is an interesting character. :) I like her, lol. OK, this might be a short chapter (I haven't wrote it yet, lmao.) And the opening scene is probably going to be dumb and a tad bit confusing. And if I get dates wrong... please let me know that correct one. I've misplaced my PoA book (doh!) and I can't be exact on it so... yeah. And ummm... There's probably ton's of mistakes. I should let everyone know, that I don't have a program with spell check on my computer. I use Wordpad to type, lol. Really screws me over with school projects, but anyway. Yeah, didn't be surprised if you find many, though, I'm sure y'all are smart and can figure out what the mistakes are suppose to be... Now on with the chapter!

Chapter 25 - Missing Pieces

For some unknown reason, the article inspired Nephiro. She sat across from me, staring at the paper, with this strange glimmer in her amber eyes. Besides thinking she has lost it, I thought for a second... that she was brilliant. No one in this school could have ever thought of an idea like this. No matter how far-fetched or adventurous other plans have been, this surpasses them with so much integrity, it's not even funny.

"It seems to me that Peter is dead," Nephiro said in a mysterious tone of voice. It sent small shivers down my spine that made me wiggle a little in my chair. She glanced up at me and smirked.

"Then, why are you smiling?" I asked, slightly uneasy. She slid her chair back and stood up.

"We have him, I think." She looked up at the clock. "We're late for potions."

"I told you we-"

"Stop. I know, I have a plan." Yeah, to land straight into detentions. I groaned. "First, we ask Madame Pince if we can borrow this," she stated, pointing to the paper I had discovered. I picked it up, as she gathered the others. We began walking back to the front desk. "Then after she tells us to be careful, which she is bound to say, we'll get the second paper we need."

"Errr... second paper?" She looked back at me.

"You'll see."

Madame Pince smiled at us as we approached the desk again. "Did you find what you were looking for, ladies?" she questioned.

"Yes, more than enough," Nephiro responded. "May we borrow this one-" she turned her head towards me and I held up the paper. Pince seemed to think about it for a moment.

"Alight, I guess you can. But, you need to be very careful. Remember they're almost as old as you." 'Holy shit… She was right!'

"Thanks. Can I borrow a more recent paper, as well?" Pince nodded. "I need July 17th, of this year." The old librarian left and I took a step toward Nep.

"What are you doing?"

"Ask me questions later. Give me time to read these." I glared at her from behind. This is my mystery too! Madame Pince returned with a newer looking paper in her hands.

"Here you go, Miss Miketsu. Please return these to me as soon as possible."

"Yes, ma'am." Nephiro strolled away, and I stood still and stared at the ceiling. "Emi!" I twitched a little and followed her out of the library. When we got out, she took the Daily Prophet from my hands and stuffed it into her bag. "Come on. Snape will be angry if we don't show up."

"I'm sure he is already angry," I mumbled. Her eyes narrowed.

"What was that, Black?" she growled. Suddenly, images of Nephiro and mine's fight and the cruelness that she was capable of, flashed into my head. No. Let's not cross Nephiro.

"I said, I'm sure he is already waiting," I replied.

Nephiro fed Snape some bullshit and we got off without a detention. She sat down, clearly proud of her manipulative power over people. Lily gave me a confused glance. I shrugged and started cutting up some ginger root.

After class, Nephiro walked the opposite way, toward, where I'm guessing, that Slytherin common room is. Feeling slightly irate that I'm letting her go after she pushed my proverbial button, I stood trying to calm down. Answers later, my ass.

"What did she want?" Draco asked, coming up to me with his hands in his pockets.

"She wanted me to give me the answers to the Defense homework," I lied.

"Oh, OK."

"Listen, I'm gonna go back to my room. I'll catch you later," I told him. We hugged and went our separate ways,

I walked back to the common room with Lily. She was talking, but I really wasn't listening. I was watching the other students in the hallway. Everyone seems to have something that sets him or her apart from everyone else. Some had odd hair colors, some had infectious laughs, some even seemed like they had no laugh. One person pulled my eyes away from the bustle.

He stood tall and lean. He hair was a dark brown, like a thickly polished piece of wood and had deep purple streaks throughout it. It hung down to about his ears and covered part of his face. I don't know why, but he seemed to have this dark glow that surrounded him, and only him. He was standing alone, gazing out a window that overlooked the Quidditch pitch. His gaze traveled and soon landed upon me. I gave my book to Lily and walked over to him.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Emi." He looked into my eyes with his gloomy gray ones. Something in them gave off a storm effect, like it had just stopped raining and the sky was beginning to clear up. Within 15 seconds, they went from a boring gray to a baby blue. I wanted to turn back time, and watch it over again; the way they change mesmerized me.

"Ephraim." His voice reminded me of Isaac's. A strong, husky, Irish accent, and the way he pronounced his name was enough to turn you into a puddle. "Ephraim Furduckin." He grinned and brushed past me and without saying a good-bye, disappeared into the crowd. Lily came up to me and literally tossed my charms book. I had to move quickly to catch it.

"There goes trouble," she stated. "Another 4th year, Ravenclaw." 'And he is Irish!' She shook her head. "And I'm not your house elf. Next you time you feel the urge to flirt with random guys, please carry your books."

"Sorry... and I wasn't flirting," I countered, coming back to reality. "Something about him... it drew me to him... Ephraim..."

"Well, it drew you because you're taken." She took a hold of my arm, and I yanked free. I was beginning to have deju vu from this morning.

"I can walk to the dormitory without being pulled," I said dryly. The fact I couldn't figure out drew me to Ephraim bugged the snot out of me, as if he was the remaining piece to a 500-puzzle set and I couldn't find him.

o.O

Kick, kick, punch, jab, knife strike, round kick, hook, sidekick, jab, spin back kick, spin honk. I slipped on the stone floor, probably due to the sweat the covered my feet, and landed on my back hard. Groaning in pain, I sat up and wiped the sweat off my forehead. The archery room was clean, everything in it's place. I had fixed the straw man, and he dangled slowly on the noose. The only thing you could hear was the sound of my breathing- rasp and fast. My invisible opponent was no longer a picture in my head and I sighed.

My body seemed to cry out in pain as I forced it to stand up, but I bit my lip and ignored it. I limped over to my robe and bag and grabbed them. I was putting on my robe when, Nephiro decided to grace me with her presence. "Yup. I was right. Like always," she said, with a freaky cheerfulness.

"Right about what? Being a whore?" I murmured. She sneered at me and handed me one of the Daily Prophets. It was one from earlier in the year, during the summer. It bore a picture of Ron's family and a small article about his father winning some contest and how they went to Egypt. "Oh, this is nice."

"Look at Scabbers." The bloody rat was looking sick even back in the summer. He looked around, nervously as the family smiled.

"OK. I'm looking. Am I supposed to make some kind of connection here? 'Cause I'm not getting it."

"Don't get shirty with me. See here." She pointed to Scabber's front paw. "Notice something?" On his left hand... err... paw, there was a small space between two of his toes, a space that the other paw didn't have.

"He is missin' a toe! I mean... a finger!" I exclaimed.

"Whoa! Soon maybe you'll get yourself a Nobel Prize!" I glowered at her comment.

"Shut up. So, this means I was right. Peter is Scabbers. And he didn't die..."

"10 points to Gryffindor!"

"I'm actually smart, I get good grades you bitch," I retorted. She laughed. When she stopped, she took the paper... no, snatched it, out of my hands and turned to leave.

"See you around, Black."

"Wait! I want to ask you something."

"I will not have your babies." I gave her a weird look and she just smiled.

"Have you ever heard of Ephraim Furduckin?" She raised he eyebrows.

"Why? Did you already discard, Malfoy?" I shook my head 'no'. "I know of him, but I haven't had a conversation with the kid, why?"

"There's something about him... it's just... I don't know."

"Strange?"

"Maybe..."

"Emi, everyone here is strange." And she left. And I was still missing puzzle pieces.

A/N: I told you it would be short. But, be happy and shut up. Another character. Oh joy, lol. Ephraim is my friend Moody's (no relation to Mad-Eye) character. :) He is Irish! How cool is that? drools More Irish dudes... Haha. Ephraim will play a bigger part next year. rubs chin evilly Yes... next year... I should work on that some, lol.