Hi there! Sorry for the cliffhanger and the late update!! Xl There's a festival going on here and me and my family visit our relative's houses and they us, so kinda busy. Especially with cleaning and decorating the day before. I'm so sorry I made many of you type in caps. xD

Hunni: There was no point for Harry, I admit! He was there because I love him and need to slip him in somewhere.

And I think 1 or 2 more posts should end the story...

Post 70

Dear Ms. Reine McKinnon,

It is my utmost regret to inform you that your father was murdered on the night of the seventh. He was ambushed by a band of Death Eaters on the way home from London. His body was found untouched and it is suspected that he may have been killed by the killing curse itself. If you would like to take a short break from school, please feel free to approach me.

Yours sincerely,

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore

My heart seemed to have dropped to the pit of my stomach. The piece of parchment shivered in my hand. I was aware that a few stray eyes were upon me.

"May I be excused, Professor?" I asked her in a voice filled with calm.

She nodded and I placed the letter on her table. I strode past the students, feeling their sharp gazes trying to stab through my back, to know what was going on. As soon as the door closed behind me, I finally felt free. I scooted towards the nearest girl's restroom, legs striding fast.

I entered through the doors and faced myself in the mirror above the sinks. I looked at myself. My father... was gone. Gone from my life forever. It seemed as though half of my troubles had disappeared together with him. I don't know whether I should be sad or not. To me he was like a stranger. He was hardly at home, I hardly ever saw him... but then again...

There were also those times where he did spend with me. The time he was there when he got me Sapphire. The times during my child hood where he'd surprise me with a toy he'd buy from some exotic country.

I sighed as I looked at myself in the mirror.

It was his own fault he mixed around with Death Eaters. And his death but no one's fault but his own. I splashed some water onto my face and then made sure I looked normal enough to return to class.

"Hey, what happened?" Asked Tina her voice full of curiosity and concern.

"Nothing, just news from home," I replied cheerfully. "Nothing unusual."

"Oh," replied Tina. "Funny they delivered it here right now though."

"Yeah, I thought so too."

I sat at the tables in the study area near the courtyard. It was raining cats and dogs outside and anyone who even put their foot in the ground would get their shoes dyed brown. Everyone was huddled in the study area, which was warm but quite small. Professor Sinistra was seated at the end of the table, assisting a couple of second year students on their Astronomy charts. Tina and I were at the other end, doing our Charms theory assignments.

And then Sirius dropped by.

"Hey, I heard what happened to your father," he said in a low voice in my ear.

Tina hadn't heard, she was still engrossed in her Charms, now canceling out a whole line of words messily.

I frowned. "How did you know?" I snapped.

"Marauders have their ways of finding out."

"Well, shut up about it."

He slid very close to me in the seat. "Why, doesn't it now make you the richest teen in all of Hogwarts?"

"Why, thinking of sharing it?"

"No, but there's no one in between our relationship now..." he added hopefully.

"Sirius," I faced him. "There is no relationship between us anymore." I slid uncomfortable away and he frowned.

I brought my gaze down onto the scroll of parchment only half filled with words, pretending to concentrate hard on it.

"I can't believe you're still doing this to me."

"Because no one has every done it to you before?" I asked. I looked at the History of Magic book.

In 1682, Honoria Nutcombe founded the Society for the Reformation of Hags...

"Are you ever going to accept me back?" He asked quietly.

I looked at him and gazed into those gray eyes. He waited and waited but I couldn't say anything. Well, I didn't know what to say. I looked down at my book instead. Honoria Nutcombe was born in 1665 in Ashridge to muggle parents...

"I might... I might kill myself!" He cried suddenly.

"No, you won't," I replied, rolling my eyes to the heavens. He can be so dramatic sometimes.

"How do you know..."

I let out a small chuckle.

With an exasperated or angry grunt, I didn't really know, he heaved himself from the bench and stormed out. I listened to his stomps as he thundered out the door, his robes billowing behind him.

"He's never done that to anyone else you know," said Tina softly, putting the tip of her quill at her chin thoughtfully as she stared at the doorway although there wasn't anyone there anymore.

I sighed but didn't say anything.

"It's been... like how many months? Three?"

I grunted.

"It was really sad y'know... you were the first girl he kept for more than a month. The first. The others lasted the most a week," said Tina. "He seems desperate... If you ask me, I think his love is true. Maybe you should think about it. He's never ever, ever EVER ran after a girl this way."

I sighed heavily.

"Think of all the things he's done for you. He was there by your bed everyday you were hurt, wasn't he? Christella always talked about how you were using him and how he was so stupid," she said.

She had to bring that up. Those times. Urgh! They didn't mean anything anymore. If he couldn't keep his eyes (and lips) on only one girl, then I don't want to have anything to do with him. It was hard enough walking around school without almost every girl eyeing him and giving him flirtatious winks.

"I'm done for the day," I said quickly, shutting my book with a loud snap.

"Already?"

"Maybe I'll continue at night," I said, gathering all my quills and ink and stuffing them into my bag.

"Oh okay then," agreed Tina, like she always does, and she too started clearing her things.

"Oh my god!" Cried Tina, her hands shaking as she browsed frantically through her Transfiguration textbook. "How come I don't remember studying this!"

"Relax, Tina..." I muttered although my heart was beating as if I were falling from the sky.

We were at the Entrance Hall, waiting for the great double doors of the Great Hall where the first NEWTs exam will be taking place, Transfiguration.

Most of the students were frantically trying to cram last minute information into their heads, massaging their temples in frustration, and others too nervous to do anything.

"I'm so nervous..." she whispered. "What if I fail?"

"Just... just do your best, you'll be okay," I assured her. Though I myself thought that a chance of my failing was very possible.

"C'mon, test me something..." she said, her voice practically breaking.

"Um... what is the incantation for turning a table into a peacock?" I asked.

"Errrr... Tri... Tri- Trilius Inwe?"

"Right, uh... who invented the basic conjuring charm?"

"Augustus Summerbee?" She replied with a blank look on her face.

"No, Adrian Summerbee!"

"Oh my god, I'm going to fail," she muttered again, gripping her hair.

Before I could tell her to get a grip on herself, the large double doors slowly swung open and the hall gave a large gasp in unison and then fell deathly silent, every single eye looking up at Professor McGonagall who had just emerged from behind the terrible gates of the exam room.

"You may enter now," she said curtly.

With nervous glances at each other, all the seventh years filed into the room that once held many happy feasts now only held treacherous examinations.

I headed towards the Slytherin rows and settled on a table near the window. On it was a scroll facing down. A bottle of fresh black ink was placed in the right corner of the table, along with a bluish grey quill which undoubtedly held the Anti-Cheating spell.

Professor McGonagall glided to the front of the hall where she joined a couple of officials. Once everyone had sat down, she said, "You will be given 2 hours to complete your paper. Read all the instructions carefully," she too seemed nervous. "And good luck. You may turn over your papers and begin... now."

A swish of scrolls as everyone flipped their papers. My eyes scanned down the page and I knew this was not going to be an easy test. But I did the best I could.

The next day was Charms Practical. I managed to make the wizard's hat do somersaults in the air though it did seem a bit jerky at times. Potions was a terror. I wasn't sure I made the potion right and I knew I should've cut the Barca Roots into more equal pieces. The examiner was tsk-ing under her breath as she observed me. The next week slugged by with each and every NEWTs exam.

But then, on the last test, the seventh years had evolved from the most miserable lot of people to the happiest. As soon as they burst out of the doors from the History of Magic exam, they screeched and howled in joy. Not another day do they have to read up on the reasons for outlawed chimaera breeding, or why Sentina Springs held the meeting of magical creatures of 1469.

At the last feast, the House Cup was awarded. After Professor Dumbledore made his goodbye speech to all the students, and a special farewell to the seventh years, he awarded the House Cup to Gryffindor. Who was just ahead of Slytherin by a mere 30 points.