Ron stood by the portrait hole, fidgeting. "Come on man, we'll be late if you don't get a move on."

Harry, feigning preoccupation replied; "If you're so worried about being late, just go without me. I'll catch up."

"You sure?" he checked, still hovering by the door uncertainly. "You don't mind?"

He shook his head. "Go. Eat. I'll be fine." On the inside however, Harry was actually mildly anxious. He was hoping against hope that Morgan hadn't gone off to breakfast without him. 'I may not get another chance to prove myself.' he thought tersely. Ron left, and he waited a few moments before going down. A quick glance of the common room revealed Morgan shielding herself with an enormous book.

Feeling eyes on her, Morgan peeked over the top of the volume. Upon seeing Harry, she relaxed visibly. "About time you got here. What took you so long?"

"I had to wait till Ron left." He answered with a casual shrug. "You hungry?"

"Not really, but at least now I can put this away." She began the task of stuffing the huge thing into her backpack. It did fit… just. "It was lucky that I had it with me. I only got it out yesterday for some extra research for Care of Magical Creatures."

Harry would have said something, had be not been so used to Hermione constantly saying something was for 'light reading' that would house a family of four. As they walked down to the Great Hall the conversation flowed freely. That freedom gradually slowed down to a trickle as they got closer to the hall… and all those people.

At the door, Morgan paused and drew a long, steadying breath. "Here goes nothing." she remarked flippantly despite the worms writhing around in her stomach.

Walking in, she felt like the whole world had stopped to have a good gawk. Pretending not to notice, she followed Harry to the Gryffindor table with her head high and her face blank. With all the eyes on her, Morgan started to feel like the worms had just grown teeth. Big pointy ones. Still, she kept pretending to be calm, thankful beyond all words for her years as an outcast at muggle school – they had taught her to mask her feelings.

As they sat down, Ron turned to greet Harry only to falter in sudden shock. "What's she doing here! I thought you were looking… oh." The penny had dropped. "So that's why you took so long."

"What on earth are you talking about Ron?"

For once, Hermione was the one confused. Ron looked like he was planning to milk this for all it was worth later, but for now there were more important things to deal with. "Harry took absolutely ages getting ready, and told me to go without him. I didn't know why, but apparently he had someone more important to see."

While Ron and Hermione shared what they thought was a knowing (and rather disapproving) look, Harry looked at Morgan. Her golden eyes seemed darker than usual, and her outward appearance was cold and hard. This was definitely not going to plan.

"So, why have you started here in sixth year?" Was this Hermione being civil? Harry's hopes soared… "Durmstrang not good enough for you?" …And came crashing straight back down.

Morgan chose to ignore that shot. "For your information, I was home-schooled by my grandmother. But for some reason, she made me come here. I've never even been to Durmstrang, not like I'd want to go there."

"Really?" she retorted, feigning surprise, "I'd have thought a future Death Eater like yourself would love it there."

The slap resounded across the hall. Hermione stared up at her, completely taken aback by her abrupt rage. She put her hand to her now stinging cheek.

Morgan stood up and towered over Hermione in her anger. "You know nothing about me." she hissed. "My father was murdered by Death Eaters when I was only six. And ever since, my mother has shut herself away, terrified that it might happen again, and have them claim someone else she loves. So don't you talk to me about Death Eaters." All of a sudden she seemed to realize the whole of the school just seen the commotion she had caused. Not wanting to feel like an interesting specimen in a lab, she stormed out, still shaking slightly from the tidal wave of emotion that had just crashed upon her.

Harry turned to his friends to say something, but words completely failed him and he merely shook his head sadly as he followed her out of the hall, hoping – he knew in vain – that he could find her. Ron helped Hermione up, still partially in a daze. "Did you know about that?"

"No." She hung her head. "But I do know that I shouldn't have said what I did."


Harry's hope was in vain. No one saw Morgan all the rest of that day, she wasn't even in class. Harry had almost given up when first thing next morning, there she was. Sitting by the fire, just holding a photo and crying openly.

But it was what happened next was what shocked him far more. Ron and Hermione approached her timidly. "Morgan?" she looked up, her face soaked with tears. "I'm really sorry for what I said yesterday and–"

Morgan waved her off. "It's not that. It's my–" she swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice steady. "It's my mum. She's gone missing."

"What!" Harry exclaimed, coming over.

Morgan laughed weakly. "It's a just one big convention." She took a deep, shaky breath and started to explain. "When I left the hall, McGonagall found me. She took me up to her office and told me that Death Eaters attacked my house and kidnapped my mum." She turned the photo around in her shaking hands. "I'm probably never going to see her again. Except for this."

She held up the photo. It was of a small girl joyously opening presents while a woman who looked like Morgan, only older and a man who looked remarkably like Lucius Malfoy – except that he was beaming. It was her family.

"We were so happy then." In the photo, all three stopped what they were doing to wave up at her, causing another wave of tears to fall from her eyes. Slowly closing them she whispered bitterly, "It's not fair."

Hermione tentatively reached out a hand. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Shrugging it off, she moved off to the stairs. "I just need to be alone for a while." She muttered, half to herself.


A/N: Nothing ever really goes right for her, I actually feel sorry for putting her through all this. R R!