A/N: yeah so its been a while but your in for a long haul folks, lots of reading for you, lots of thinking for me.....

Chapter Eight: Among Other Things

Passion is what separates the villians from the bad boy heroes. Some would beg to differ, but if Magneto had the same such burning passion as Professor X, and all his goonies did too, then he could have easily of disposed of the X-Men. It's not merely the difference between right and wrong, because that is truly in the eye of the beholder, but the passion by which it is held in.The emotion envoked by the subject of debate and quarrel must be that of greater strength than that of your adversary. At least that was Autumn's point of view, thats why she knew that Harry and The Order would in the end win. To her it wasn't a matter of who was the stronger wizard, it was who was the one with strength of character. A pack of mindless drones versus a surge of vengeful, hurt humans. Wonder who would win. . .

Autumn had been thinking a lot since her mother's death. Not that she didn't think before, but she didn't use to spend handfuls of idol hours wandering un-purposefully in reverie. Which is precisely what she was doing now. She was in the library, no one hung out in the library but Hermione and some nameless Ravenclaws, all of which paid her no heed. Autumn was left quite happily alone to wander from aisle to aisle, gliding her fingertips along the dusty spines of the unread potion books in the deep, dark reaches of the library. Autumn normally didn't think about things like passion, but she guessed that was just what happened to you when basically your only family dies. She sighed as the slowly lowered herself to the ground. She had gone around the same section of books so many times that she had memorized all the title, all of which paid her no heed. Autumn was left quite happily alone to wander from aisle to aisle, gliding her fingertips along the dusty sa

"How's your end of the deal shaping up then?"

"it's not"

"but we had a deal"

"breach of contract" Autumn stated simply, the truth was that the Slytherins, Draco Malfoy included, had grown sick of playing fair.

"They've just grown tired, in a couple of days they will shape up again. It takes a lot of work to keep all the aggressions inside."

"doesn't matter now, it's over. Neville had to go to the hospital wing today."

"big deal he goes everyday. he's madam promfrey's best costumer."

"he was sent because a slytherin cursed him in the hallway. find someone else to be your pawn. i'm sick of playing games." Autumn stood up and walked down the aisle, and deeper into the library. Draco followed, his cheeks flushed with anger. If she had not coughed from the dampness he would have never have found her. She was standing in front of a window with her eyes closed, allowing the sun's rays to wash over her. At this point she was tired of everything, and seemed to be stuck in a perpetual feeling of discontent. Draco wasn't even quite sure why exactly he had followed her as he looked upon her still body. So what if she didn't want to help him, he didn't need her, he didn't need anyone. He was afterall, a Malfoy. And if he gave up his reign over the Slytherins for the time being, Potter wouldn't be praise anymore, and hopefully looked down on for his failure.

Something hit Autumn suddenly and she fell limply to the ground. Draco scanned around the library, but it was in vain, no one was there. He kneeled down to Autumn, she flickered her eyes open. It wasn't an object that had hit her, but a strong force. Her head began to spin and she held on to the closest thing to her, Draco. Memories began to rush into her mind rather painfully. But they weren't her memories, they were his. Her eyes glossed over and she got lost in them, until she came to a specific one, a particually violent one. She literally snapped back into the present and gasped for air. She couldn't help but stare wildly at him. She didn't know, how could she have known? It's not like Draco Malfoy walked around bragging about his homelife.

"What in Merlin's name is wrong with you?" he asked. She couldn't reply, partly because she was having trouble remembering what words were and partly because whatever curse he had been hit with in that memory was now having affects on her. It had to have been a Cruciatus Curse, because her bones were in seering hot pain.

"When you were six someone hit you with a Cruciatus Curse, didn't they?" Autumn's voice was strained. He stared in bewilderment at her.

"How. . .what are you goin. . .that's not possible. . .there's no way. . ." Draco didn't make eye contact with her.

"How do you know that?" He demanded, she could hear the contempt in his voice, the hate.

"Then it's true."

"Answer me." He said in a low voice. Autumn looked directly at him, and there was fear in his eyes, and she knew it was present in hers also.

"I. . .I saw it, I felt it. Like a living memory or something." Her eye searched the floor, as if the answer was somewhere deep in the carpet.

"What are you talking about, people can't read other peoples minds." Draco snapped at her

"I didn't read your mind, it was different. Like looking in a pensieve, except I could feel what was going on as well. I...I can't explain it." She looked up at him, and when her eyes met him, he could see the worry, fear, and hurt buried inside of them. Draco Malfoy wasn't used to feeling such a broad range of emotions, like guilt, remorse, he especially never thought he would feel pity for someone, and he never expected it to be someone who was so violently different from him. He couldnt understand what exactly he was feeling, but it compelled him to reach out to her. He put his arms around her and she rested her head against his shoulder, she needed to find out what was wrong with her, but that could wait until after the pain subsided. They stayed that way for what seemed a long time. Draco could feel her body slowly ease and her muscles relax. Autumn was tired and he could see it, she was resting against his body when he spoke:

"Do you want me to take you to the hospital wing?" Autumn lifted her head and looked at him

"How am I supposed to explain why I am having the after affects of an Unforgivable?" He knew she was right, but he couldn't just leave her there. This whole pity thing was really starting to annoy him.

"I have an idea your not going to like."

"Yeah, but it's and idea I guess."

"We should go see your father." Autumn groaned, she didn't even try to hide her dismay and blatant dislike of the suggestion.

"You're right, and as much as I hate it, he can probably help." Draco helped Autumn up and they walked together through the rows of unused books until they got near life forms. Autumn went before Draco, looking as if it was just bad luck that they happened to cross paths and made her way down to the dungons to see her dear old dad.

"Yes, what is it I am busy." Professor Snape responded to the knock on the door. Autumn, standing on the other side, reeled around as to leave, but ended up with a face full of fabric for her efforts.

"It's Autumn, your daughter." She said in not the most respectful tone. 'This is hopeless' Draco thought to himself. Professor Snape answered the door to see two of the most unluckily students standing there, in an apparent bit of trouble, looking back at him. Both of them looked anxious and very nervous, Autumn was pale, and of course Severus assumed the worst.

"Come in, both of you." Autumn and Draco walked in and Severus closed the door. "I never would have expected this-"

"WHOA THERE!" Autumn interrupted. "We are here because something weird happened today in the library and we thought it might be some kind of reaction to an ingredient from class or something." Professor Snape regained some of this normal pallidness and gestured for them to sit.

"What exactly happened?" His tone was quite serious. They took turns telling their verison of the story and after a long line of questioning Professor Snape spoke:

"We should alert the Headmaster." Autumn grew quite frustrated at this answer, and slouched back in her chair.

"Mr. Malfoy, go find the Headmaster and tell him I need to see him immediately." Draco got up and promptly left the room.

"I was afraid this would happen, but your mother said there was no way, that it would have manifested itself sooner. It must have just needed a trigger."

"What are you talking about? Wait, when did you and mom ever talk?" Autumn was quite confused, her parents had rarely contacted each other throughout her childhood.

"That's not important now, Autumn, see we thought it was best not to tell you about it unless we were for certain that you had inherited it, your mother was afraid it would scare you."

"What would scare me? What did I inherit?" Autumn was tapping her fingers impatiently

"There isn't really a name for it I'm afraid." said Headmaster Dumbledore as he pushed his glasses up on his nose "It is a power, an ability that allows it's user to look into and experience memories of the person with who they are in physical contact with that invoke strong emotions."

"Great." Autumn sighed, it was the third time in a matter of two hours. Professor Snape gave her a dirty look, but she didn't pay attention to it, she was too busy trying to figure out whether or not her "powers" worked through clothes.

"So this "abililty," does it work through clothing?" Autumn tried to make it sound as casual sounding as possible. Draco, who had just re-entered with Dumbledore, raised his eyebrows.

"We don't know." Dumbledore responded

"Can I control it?" was her next question, it was met with some quite conversation and then they gave an answer:

"Yes, but we aren't sure how."

"What exactly are you sure of? What exactly do you know about my condition?" Autumn had grown more than impatient.

"We don't know much, your mother never spoke about it." Severus spoke up.

"Yeah, blame it on the dead woman."

"Your mother considered it to be her problem, and we thought it had skipped over you." Severus defended himself, which was unusual.

"Yeah, well, I guess it's my problem now, right? Thanks for nothing." Autumn left the room, there wasn't anything they could have said to change her mind and they didn't try to either. Professor Dumbledore recognized that she needed space, and allowed her to have it.

"Why are you wearing those gloves?" Ginny asked the next day

"My hands are frozen, among other things." Autumn stated simply

"Okay." Ginny knew something wasn't right, but she didn't want to upset Autumn. Up at the teacher's table, Professors Snape and Dumbledore spoke of the aforementioned;

"Just give her a couple of days Severus, then we will discuss the situation with her. Everything will be just fine." Dumbledore reassured Severus

"What if it happens again, before then?" Snape questioned

"We will just have to see."