Chapter 4

Author's note- the story is moving along...slowly, but its moving. Things pick up over the winter break- I promise.

Christmas break was soon approaching, and people were arranging to go and stay. Minerva had decided to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas, along with Albus, Aberforth, Tom, and a few students. Minerva learned from Tom that Lucius Malfoy, Abbot Crabbe and Alfanso Black were staying over Christmas break as well. Minerva didn't know what to think of it. Tom hadn't spoken of the boys since that day he gave her the monkshood. It had upset her greatly, and now it seemed that she would be spending Christmas with them. But Minerva decided to ignore her emotions- they were just three spoiled boys after all, and not people to be scared of. Minerva couldn't explain it, but she was truly scared of those three boys. And abandoning her emotions didn't help the matter...
Aberforth would be there at least. Minerva was happy for that. Aberforth was an excellent student, and she had promised to teach him higher transfiguration over the break. He was bright, almost as brilliant as his brother. Sometimes Minerva thought he surpassed Albus altogether. His friend, Alastor Moody, was also quite intelligent. They followed her around, and always participated in class. It was apparent Moody had a crush on her. The two boys had made it well known their dislike of the three Slytherian fifth years. In fact, many Gryffindor students had made that known to anyone who would listen. All of the teachers tended to agree with the Gryffindors- the boys were bad news. Except for Tom, that is. He still made it perfectly apparent that they were his favorite students. He announced to the faculty one day a lunch that they were staying to learn advanced potions form him- as Aberforth was staying to learn from Minerva.
The staff encouraged this- they all hoped that Tom would be a good influence on the three boys. And so, with great anxiousness, the break arrived. The first day was much like the normal school day. Minerva rose early and went to breakfast. All of the students and teachers sat at one table- their weren't many people there. After a leisurely breakfast, Minerva and Aberforth went to her classroom and worked on Transfiguration. They broke for lunch, and then went back to the dormitories for a nap. They worked again for a few hours before dinner. Aberforth, being a quick learner, by that time, had already mastered the lessons Minerva had planned until the end of third year. After dinner, they had simple recreation time with the others staying over Christmas break until people felt tired and started drifting off to sleep.
The oddities of the potions lessons began to emerge that first day. Most teachers who were training students over the break followed Minerva's pattern. However, Tom and the three boys left breakfast early, and used the deepest dungeons that only Tom knew how to get to. They didn't appear for lunch, and worked right up until dinner, then left again and only rejoined to group late at night. When asked about this unusual behavior, Tom claimed that potions was time-consuming, and needed intense dedication with few breaks in that dedication.
The strange behavior only continued as the vacation progressed.