a/n: Mwhahaha! I'm back! Ready for another fun-filled chapter, everyone? You had better be…And just FYI, you might want to click back to chappies 12 and 13 of this fic for some reference, in case you don't remember certain conversations that're gonna be slightly important…(cackles evilly)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own my own car. (sigh) Life is such a drag.

Chapter 19: A Shot at Redemption

"What do you mean the pages are multiplying?" Claire asked, heart rate increasing by the second.

"Well, we seem to be growing more and more forgetful, now don't we?" Aquinas said, having a jolly ol' time being the deliverer of bad news. "You don't remember way back when you first came into the story, when you almost changed the outcome of a certain rainy Quidditch match?"

"What are you talking about?" Claire said, looking up from the book in her lap to the bird on her bedpost. "I didn't come anywhere near to changing who won that match—"

"I'm not talking about the winner, Claire," Aquinas said, rolling his eyes in frustration. "I'm referring more to the practice before the Quidditch match. Don't you remember standing in the common room, watching Oliver Wood chew Harry out for not being able to practice because McGonagall was sure that—"

"—Sirius was still in the castle!" Claire finished for him, the memory flooding back to her. "Bethany asked me what was going on, and I opened the book and…the words were changing on the page. I do remember that…but…" She looked up at Aquinas curiously. "YOU weren't here yet! How did you know that that happened!"

"I have my secrets and I prefer that they remain just that," Aquinas replied, trying to look important. He realized it was a frivolous task for a bird of his stature to look anything more important than a common English pigeon, and went on in a slightly put out tone, "Anyway, yes, you did witness the book changing because of something YOU did. And all you did there was listen in on a minor conversation. Naturally, if you're putting two and two together in that walnut-sized brain of yours, you can only begin to imagine what happened now that you've had several conversations with the key character..."

Claire's pulse began to rocket as she turned her gaze once again to the slightly thicker third book in her hands.

"Do I even want to know?" she asked, wincing slightly at the thought.

"Probably not," Aquinas said, and to Claire's mounting annoyance his smirk grew a bit wider.

She sighed.

"What page?" she asked.

"Oh, you can pretty much open it up anywhere and find something you've never read before," Aquinas replied, stretching his wings and flying down to rest instead on her trunk. All the better to see her reaction, Claire supposed.

Holding her breath, Claire opened to the place her bookmark had remained since a couple weeks ago, back when she was actually keeping track of where she was in the story…

The chapter was Grim Defeat. Now when she had been in the hospital wing, she had noticed then that there were some changes in the story. Only small ones though, where Harry and Ron and Hermione had questioned her about being at the match. There was nothing she hadn't seen before on these pages.

"There's nothing new here…" Claire said, looking up at Aquinas, who was (surprise surprise) smiling while admiring his beautifully clean feathers.

"Flip forward a few pages," he instructed, confident that he was correct.

She did as she was told…and then began breathing very, very hard and very, very fast…

"Aww, c'mon now!" Aquinas taunted. "You aren't at least going to do me the pleasure of reading out loud? I thought I would at least deserve that much…"

Claire swallowed hard and read, " 'Ch-Chapter Ten…Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw.' But…I thought th-that—"

"JK Rowling didn't write that part? Yeah, that seems to be what most people remember. Boy, are they going to be surprised the next time they open their books, eh?" Aquinas chuckled happily to himself. "Well, go on now, read it!"

Claire's breath came in short, quick gasps as her eyes darted across the page:

"Harry!" Fred and George shouted in unison as they entered the Great Hall for lunch. "Did you hear the news!"

"What news?" Ron asked curiously. Harry was certain that he, like himself, was also wondering what the identical, proud smirks on their faces were about.

"Some second year just trashed the dungeons—" George began excitedly.

"—and completely wrecked Snapey's facial excellence!" Fred finished in a similar tone, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Huh?" Harry and Ron said.

The twins were far too excited to answer.

"We have to meet this girl!" Fred said. "Come on, George, let's go find her!"

"Right behind you, Fred!" George replied. And with that the two hurried into the Hall.

"What the—" Harry began.

"Hey, Dean," Ron called behind him. "Have you heard what's happened? We're completely confused…"

"It's amazing!" Dean said, a proud smug on his face similar to that of the Weasley twin's.

"Some second year girl just showered her entire Potions class with a mild sleeping draft, putting the entire class to sleep!" Seamus cut in.

"Including the professor," Dean said as he and Seamus exchanged pleased grins.

Hermione's eyes widened in shock and Ron's mouth dropped open in a wondrous state of awe.

"That's not even the half of it, mate," Seamus said upon noticing Ron's expression. "You go ahead and tell them, Dean."

Dean cleared his throat, leaving them hanging in anticipation.

"Well, what is it!" Hermione asked. "Surely she didn't curse anyone, did she—?"

"Oh no, it's much better than that…" Dean said while Seamus began chuckling. "She wrote all over Snape's face with Inerasable Ink!"

"WHAT!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Seamus exclaimed excitedly, while Dean nodded furiously at his side. "She called him a name. 'Snivillus' is what I heard—"

"That's bloody brilliant!" Ron said, receiving a glare from Hermione. "I'm with Fred and George, we have to meet this girl! Come on, Harry—"

Harry followed Ron into the Great Hall, running over to where the Weasley twins were standing. Ron rushed forward and tapped the girl they were in front of on the shoulder. It wasn't until the girl spun around to face them that Harry recognized her…

It was the girl from the Quidditch match: Claire Woods.

As happy as Harry was that someone seemed to loathe Snape as much as he did, enough so to humiliate him in front of a group of students, he couldn't help but wonder what her motives were. Why would she go through all that trouble unless she had a really, really good reason?

Claire seemed to notice he was standing there at that moment, after the Weasleys had moved aside to jabber on excitedly about the miraculous coming out of a fellow trouble maker.

"Never thought you were one to favor Snape, Harry," Claire commented lightly, sipping her pumpkin juice. "I thought you'd at least be smiling at the fact that he's scrubbing his dungeon clean at the moment."

Before he responded he couldn't help but ponder how peculiar this girl was. He was certain he had never really talked to her much before, so how did she know how much he hated Snape? He wondered if perhaps she was friends with Colin Creevey—then remembered she had asked him a question.

"I don't like Snape. At all." Harry said truthfully. But before he could stop himself, he seemed to be voicing all his questions. "I'm just having trouble understanding why you did that. What have you got against him?"

Her reply was as simple as all her other had been.

"Loads," she said.

"I see…" Harry answered, not seeing at all.

Claire looked up at Aquinas.

"That's not so bad," she said, assuming that was all. Seeing the smirk was still growing on her feathery friends face, she added, "Or is it?"

"Read on, my dear," Aquinas said, leaning back and crossing his short, knobby talons in the mannor of a leisurely human. "Read on!"

Claire flipped ahead a couple pages and felt the color once again drain from her face:

"Harry?" Lupin called over the mass of people running out the door to dinner. "A word, if you don't mind?"

"See you at dinner then," Harry said to Ron and Hermione.

He walked over to Lupin's desk, wondering what this was all about. Lupin seemed to be thinking about how to word what he was about to say.

"Harry, I know I promised to give you lessons on how to fight the dementors—" Lupin began.

Harry felt his heart sinking immediately. Had Lupin changed his mind.

Noticing the look on Harry's face, Lupin added, "Don't worry, I'm still giving them to you. It's just it appears that one of the other students that passed out at the game overheard our conversation after class the other day about the lessons. She asked if she could take them as well."

Harry nodded, not knowing what he was supposed to say. Lupin sighed.

"I understand completely if you want to take them one on one," Lupin said, "I just wanted you to be aware that this girl would like to take them as well. Do you have any objections?"

Harry reflected for a minute on the prospect. He didn't much like the idea of someone else being in the room if he were to hear his mother and pass out again. Enough people knew about his dementor problem as it was.

"Could I ask who the student is, Professor?" Harry asked.

"She's in your House," Lupin said. "A second year, though. Her name is Claire Woods."

Harry's mind began to spin. How was it this girl was becoming the subject of everything all of a sudden? However, he couldn't deny the fact that he was very intrigued by her, and would very much like the chance to know a bit more about her and why she was the way she was. He couldn't quite explain it, but he had been wondering that very thing ever since the girl had introduced herself to him in the Hospital Wing. In addition to that, if she passed out from the dementors too…she must have some horrors in her past that were at least vaguely similar to his. He felt rather content knowing he wasn't alone in this any more.

"I think that'd be fine, Professor," Harry said.

"Very good, as long as it doesn't bother you that's fine with me," Lupin said, shutting his briefcase and walking with Harry to the door. "I'll let her know the next time I see her—"

"Oh, no need for the Professor Lupin," Harry said before he could stop himself. Lupin looked at him oddly. "I mean, she's in my House. I can tell her myself the next time I see her."

Claire cocked an eyebrow at the book. Harry's personality wasn't exactly how she remembered. Since when was he so brave in talking to strange people? He was even tentative around Luna in Order of the Phoenix for a while! Why was he so eager to know about Claire?

"Confused?" Aquinas asked.

"Quite," Claire replied.

"Read some more," Aquinas said, clapping his wings together with glee.

Glaring, Claire continued:

Not feeling much like eating, Harry decided to return to the common room and perhaps start his homework. Upon entering the portrait hole, however, any thought of studying quickly left his mind.

As it turned out, it looked like Claire Woods had also abandoned eating that evening, because she was seated with her legs swinging over the arm rest of a chair in front of the fire, apparently deeply immersed in a book.

No time like the present, Harry thought.

He set down his bag and flopped down in a chair next to her.

"Hello," he said, trying to be friendly.

Claire shut her book and sat up quickly, her long dark brown ponytail swinging back and forth as she did so.

"Hi," she replied, smiling warmly.

Harry felt something funny in the pit of his stomach. He had been so overwhelmed in the hospital wing after seeing her with the grim that he hadn't noticed how pretty this girl was before...

She stopped reading right there, her stomach doing an odd sort of flip.

"Harry thinks I'm—I'm pretty?" Claire said, astounded.

Being only twelve years of age, Claire didn't exactly have a lot of experience with boys. In fact, she had none. The very thought of someone thinking her pretty sounded ridiculous to her.

Aquinas seemed to flinch at her question.

"You are definitely in for it," he muttered. "Anyway, forget about that for a minute and open this thing, will you?"

He gave the trunk a tap and Claire shuffled over on her knees to unlock it. As she opened it, Aquinas flew inside and began shoving things aside.

"Where are your other Harry Potter books?" he asked her.

"Why?" Claire asked. Her stomach immediately changed from the flip-flop feeling back to nausea.

"Ah, here they are!" he said, reaching the bottom of the trunk. "Here, take this big one, will you?"

"Goblet of Fire?" Claire asked, picking it up. "What for?"

"Open it up to the World Cup chapter," Aquinas said, perching himself on the lid of the trunk.

Doing as she was told, Claire found the correct chapter and began flipping through it.

"Actually, the one before it might be a better choice, now that I think of it," Aquinas said thoughtfully.

Flipping back, Claire read:

There was a wizard selling brass binoculars. Harry recognized them immediately as ominoculars, the kind that Claire Woods had showed him in his third year.

"Time out!" Claire exclaimed, her voice coming out oddly squeaky. "I'm in book 4 now! How did that happen!"

Aquinas grinned.

"Didn't realize that you let Harry and Ron use an instrument they weren't supposed to ever see until next year, now did you?" Aquinas said. "See, Claire, this is what happens to people who don't think. They get these nasty little surprises that they aren't quite ready for."

Claire glanced into her trunk at the fifth book. She couldn't bring herself to look at it.

"You don't have to look at that one now if you don't want to, but yes, you are in it," Aquinas said.

She flopped down off her knees and onto the floor, staring into space.

"How do I fix this?" Claire asked.

Aquinas put on a thoughtful expression.

"Well," he began, "as of right now, you haven't changed anything terribly major in the plot. I advise that you be careful not to do this in the future, however, as you have come fairly close on many occasions."

Claire nodded, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, you appear to have missed most of your first class," Aquinas said, bringing Claire out of her thoughts. "If you want to be 'sick' for the rest of the day, I wouldn't blame you."

"I'm going to bed," said Claire.

And without another word, she jumped onto the mattress and closed the curtains. A minute or two later, she heard Aquinas fly out the window. She flopped back on her pillows and sighed. Her mind was too full for sleep anyway...

Scared out of her wits by all of her newly acquired knowledge, Claire stayed as far away from Harry and company as possible for the remainder of the term. She was starting to be really serious about it, even going as far as jumping into empty classrooms and running out of the common room unexpectedly whenever she saw one of the trio coming her direction. She wasn't doing well in many of her classes the last few weeks before the holidays or being seen much by anyone—her sole concern was to stay out of the books as much as humanly possible.

Aquinas took to perching on her shoulder as she walked through the corridors, laughing quietly at the way she was acting. Claire didn't even have the impulse to slug him; she just wasn't in the mood.

Saturday morning before the end of term, Claire was enjoying a quiet breakfast in the Great Hall. Most of the older students had already left, as this was a Hogsmeade weekend and most of them were eager to do some shopping in the village before Christmas rolled around. Aquinas happily munched some toast as Claire ate her cereal, and the two of them were just heading up the marble staircase when they were cornered by two red haired boys.

"Hi Fred, George," Claire said, trying to make a run for it.

"Not so fast!" the twins said, grabbing her arms and dragging her and a ruffled Aquinas into a nearby empty classroom. She stared longingly at the door after they shut it.

"We've been trying to find you all week!" George said. "Where have you been hiding?"

"Er—the library," Claire lied. "Catching up on some homework."

"I see," the twins said together.

"Well," said Fred with a smile. "We had something we wanted to give you."

"Consider is an early Christmas gift," George insisted, thrusting something into her hands.

Claire stared at the object with a new horror.

It was the Marauder's Map.

"But—" Claire started.

"No need to thank us," the twins said in unison.

She felt hopeless. Harry was supposed to receive this map and go to Hogsmeade i today /i , not Claire!

"But—why!" Claire asked, feeling anxious.

"Just wanted to help out a fellow marauder, mate!" George said, clapping her on the shoulder.

"We wanted to pass it on to future trouble makers," Fred added.

"We have it memorized anyway," they said together.

She tried to give them a smile, but she was certain it came out as more of a face one would make when suffering from indigestion.

The twins happily showed her how to use it (she decided not to point out that she already knew how it worked), and left quickly so that they could join the throng heading to the village. After they'd left, Claire looked at Aquinas, who was sitting on her shoulder, wings crossed and eyes narrowed.

She sighed.

"Don't worry," Claire said sadly, shoving the parchment into her robes. "I'll give the map to Harry. He's the one that should have gotten it…"

a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAAAAaaaa! My, that was a long chapter! (wipes sweat from brow) Soooo…How will this drastic change in gift-giving effect Harry and co! Is Claire going to pass out from all this stress! Will Aquinas's face fall off because he's so smug and thrilled that he proved someone wrong! Tune in next chapter and find out…

And by the way…(takes out guitar and sings to reviewers in a horribly out-of-tune voice)

Have I toooooold you late-ly….that-I-love-you! (strums strings) Have I toooooold you, there's-no-one-else-above-you!...(pretends she knows the words to this song…which she DOESN'T own ßplease note the disclaimer)…La la la la la….Anyway, you guys know you rock, right! (hugs everyone) I love you all so much, thank you for sticking with this silly story for so long, even though I don't update too terribly often! You make my day every time you send me a review! I'm being sincere here, really, I love you guys! Thanks for being so wonderful!