DISCLAIMER: I don't own anyone you recognize from JKR's books, nor am I making money off of writing this story. Please don't sue me!

Wow…it's been forever since I updated. I know that my reviews are really down, but now I'm more continuing it because I want to.

Was anybody else enraged beyond words at the sixth book? (no spoilers in here, btw)

On with the story…

SIT VIS TECUM—Chapter 8

Sara was no longer surprised in the mornings when a sudden rush of fluttering wings announced the arrival of the mail. In fact, this morning, she only glanced about nonchalantly, sipping her tea, until the feel of a light weight on her shoulder made her look around.

"Hey, Sara, is that your owl?" Alaina asked, absentmindedly twirling a lock of her hair with her finger. Sara smiled and Athena hopped down from her shoulder and stuck out her leg.

"Hey, Athena," Sara cooed as the owl gave her an affectionate nip on the finger. Sara, noticing a scroll attached to the owl's leg, untied the string smiling. "I can't believe you're back already! I expected that it would take you a month, and it's only been two weeks. Was the trip agreeable?"

Athena gave a hoot, nibbled a piece of ham Sara gave her, and took off toward the owlery to have a rest. Others at the table were staring the parchment curiously, waiting for her to open it.

"Who's that from?" Noah asked from beside her, peering around an Herbology book (they had a quiz that day and he had not studied yet).

"It's from Ariana, back in the States," Sara replied, noticing now that the scroll was heavier than she'd expected. Noah nodded as she unrolled what turned out to be two sheets of parchment covered with Ariana's neat script. Smiling, she began to read:

Dear Sara,

I'm sooo glad to hear from you! School started up again last week, and things are pretty much the same as always here. Except, of course, that you aren't here. We all miss you a lot, and wish you never had to leave.

So how is merry old England, anyway? Are you getting the accent down? When you write back to me, you'll have to tell me about your classes and your new friends. What's the school like?

Okay, so that's all that I have to say right now. Everyone has been eager to talk to you, though, so the other roll of parchment attached to this is messages from other people.

Write me back soon! If you ever feel down about anything, send me an express owl, kay? Be yourself, and you'll be fine.

Love Ya,

Ariana

P.S.--Find a hot guy with an accent for me!

Sara grinned, switching her attention to the second roll of parchment. Indeed, there were short notes from a lot of her friends. All of them contained messages of well-wishing and bits of humor and comfort. As she read through them, she was hit with a wave of euphoria at knowing that she was missed and loved back home, that they hadn't forgotten about her.

Then again, she thought, she wouldn't exactly be an easy person to forget.

Sara smiled to herself as she thought back to the Beaumore days. She had been such a quirky person, always wanting to conspire with others and always playing pranks on people, particularly the Zubeidas, or anyone else that had recently ticked off her or one of her friends.

Actually, of all of her friends, she had mainly been the plotter of it all. Her friends Ariana, Austin, Maria and Frankie were mostly the people who gathered the supplies and put the plan into action. She mainly just conceived the plan.

Sara went upstairs to the Ravenclaw dormitory with the others to retrieve her bag and books for Herbology, the first class of the day. As it was a class with the Slytherins, she didn't look forward to it very much, especially because of Snape and Malfoy.

Ever since their run-in on her first day at Hogwarts, they gave her venomous looks each time that they saw her. This was fine with Sara, just as long as they didn't try to curse her with their wands. She generally just ignored their looks, which only seemed to make them angrier. Personally, Sara could not care less whether or not the scumbags thought she was a piece of filth, because she thought the equal of them.

Once she had crammed her Herbology textbook and notebook into her bag, she trudged off through the dewy grass to the greenhouses with the rest of her peers. The sun was up, illuminating the grounds in the morning light. The group entered the greenhouse to find that the Slytherins had not yet arrived. They set their bags down on the tables in Greenhouse Two and sat down.

"Well," Noah said, interlocking and stretching his fingers out. "I hope that they get here soon. The sooner we start, the earlier we get out of here."

"Oh, shut up Noah," Lisa said, setting her book and note paper up on the table in preparation for the start of class. "You're only saying that because you don't like getting your fingers dirty." Noah rolled his eyes, but everyone there sniggered. Sara had learned of Noah's dirt phobia during their very fist Herbology class of the term when he had refused to pick a dead lacewing fly out of the pot of the Zedlmip they were trying to cultivate. He hated the thought of touching dirt, which amused them all.

"Whatever," he mumbled. The greenhouse door swung open then and a group of Slytherin 5th-years walked in, smirks on their doltish faces for no apparent reason at all. Sara chose to ignore them; if they were trying to make an entrance, she wasn't giving them that satisfaction. As she was setting out her books in front of her, though, she heard a cold, drawling voice float over her shoulder.

"Well, well, well," Malfoy said, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's the Yankee Mudblood smart-ass."

"I beg your pardon?" she asked, turning around in her seat to face him better. There was a short pause, and it became apparent to her that Malfoy had no comeback or additional commentary for her. Instead, he just gave her his best sneer.

"You heard me." He swished his cloak dramatically and sat down, quietly whispering among the other Sytherins. Sara rolled her eyes and began a new page in her notebook for the day's Herbology lesson, then noticed an eerie stillness around her.

"What?" She asked her classmates. They threw each other looks of concern, finally staring at her. The look in their eyes was one of shock. "What?" she asked again, with more urgency.

"Um--" Paige began, "What was that about?" Sara rolled her eyes again.

"What? Malfoy calling me a few lame names?"

"Sara, that was more than lame names," Serenica said, concern in her eyes. "That was an awful combination of some of the worst names you could have been called."

"I don't see your point," Sara told them quite bluntly. "They're just a few names made up by some gits who aren't satisfied with their own pathetic lives--" but her words were broken when Professor Sprout, a plump young witch with flyaway red hair, took her post at the front of the classroom and commanded their silence.

"Today," she began, "we will be starting our lesson focusing on bowtruckles. Now the bowtruckle is a very shy creature--" Sara dipped her quill into her inkwell and began scratching notes on her paper absentmindedly. She needed to talk to someone, to get another opinion...

"Of course they'd think that," Rena said pointedly over a half-moon pie three hours later at lunchtime. Sara's Ravenclaw friends were all at the library, and Sara, having no real need to study, found herself invited again to sit at the Griffyndor table with the Marauders and Company.

"Why? I mean, I get the whole, you know, MB thing," she was careful to use that acronym for Mudblood, because although she didn't particularly care, James had said that it disturbed Lily. "But that other stuff was just old insults."

"Maybe they were to you," Sirius told her, "but Ravenclaws generally get sort of nutty when their intelligence capacity is mocked."

"Wow, Sirius, such big words you used!" James said in mock astonishment.

"Ha ha ha," Sirius said.

"Yeah, but seriously--"

"Thaaaat's me!" Sirius said in the voice of a game show host, making a grand sweeping gesture with his hand and managing to knock over Lily's glass of water, which splashed over the table.

"Way to go, Mr. Suave," Lily said sarcastically, waving her wand and drying the spill. Sirius chose to ignore her.

"Anyway, Sara, your friends probably took way more offense to the 'smart ass' comment than they should have. That in combination with the MB thing, topped with the 'Yankee' comment, well, it just upset them more than it probably should have," Rena finished expertly.

"I guess that makes sense," Sara said, adding sugar to her cup of tea. "But it's still weird, the way that they overreacted."

"They were probably scared, too," Remus said. "They know what happens when Malfoy gets angry; they've seen it before. They probably think that you being on his bad side will put them in danger as well."

"That's ridiculous!" Sara exclaimed. "Why would they think that?"

"Because it's true," Lily said quietly. Everyone turned to look at her. Sara could tell, simply by the expressions of sympathy on everyone's faces, that she was right.

Of course, nobody was about to admit that to her.

"No it's not, Lily," James said soothingly, putting his arm around her shoulder.

"Yes it is," she said miserably. "How many times have you guys been cursed and put in detention because of me?" Sara saw Sirius and James exchanging serious looks, which, by the matching looks on Remus' and Rena's faces, was cause for concern.

"Never," James said quickly. "We got into that trouble because of things that we did or said; not because of you."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Sirius said quickly. Lily shrugged.

"Okay," she said. Sara thought that she looked as though she didn't quite believe them, but went along with it. There was a pause.

"So, Sara, how's merry old England suiting you?" As much as she knew that it was a diversion on purpose, she couldn't help but laugh a little bit. Sirius didn't seem to realize that, not only had he asked her this question at least once a day since her arrival, but that the way he'd phrased it had appeared verbatim in the letter she'd received that morning from Ariana.

Sirius also didn't quite see that she wasn't laughing at him, but at the irony of the situation.

"You know, O'Hanlon, that wasn't supposed to be funny," he said, an annoyed blush coming to his cheeks.

"Again, Sirius, cut the last name crap," Lily said, giving a small smile. The others visibly relaxed.

"No, it's not that, Sirius, honestly." She pulled the letter from her bag. "It's just that I got a letter from my friend in the States today, and she asked the exact same question." Lily smiled.

"Oh, she wrote back to you already? What did she say?"

"Oh, you know, she gave me an update from Beaumore, wanted me to tell her how school was going here, stuff like that."

"Do you think--" Lily began. "Do you think I could read it?" Sara hesitated.

"I guess so." She shrugged and handed the letter over. James and Rena, who sat closest to her, leaned over, and Sirius hopped up and read over their shoulders.

"Could I read it when they're finished?" Rena asked.

"Sure, no problem." Sara finished her tea and looked up again at Lily, James and Sirius, whose eyes were skimming the lines on the page.

"Hey, this girl totally stole my question!" Sirius exclaimed when he came across the line about 'merry old England.'

"She doesn't even know you, mate," James reminded him exasperatedly, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, but she could," Sirius said cunningly, raising an eyebrow and pointing to a line on the page.

"'P.S.--Find a hot guy with an accent for me,'" Lily read. She laughed. "Really Sirius."

"Oh, come on, she said a 'hot guy with an accent.'" He raised his eyebrows and made a gesture toward himself with his hand. "Helloooo."

"Hi," James said. "Okay, so she wants a good-looking guy with an accent, why would she want to know you?" This remark was rewarded with smack on James' head. "Hey!"

"Hey. I could totally be that guy. I want to write her back and send a picture!"

"That's a bit egotistical of you," Remus said, looking up from whatever it was that he was writing. "Could I see that letter?"

"I had dibs on it next, Remmie," Rena said. Remus winced.

"I'll share it with you if you stop calling me Remmie."

"Deal," Rena said, looking expectantly at Lily. She handed over the first sheet of parchment, holding the other in her hands. Rena and Remus leaned in to read, but something made Lily frown.

"Hey Sara," she began in a questioning tone she didn't like. A defense mechanism somewhere kicked in and she desperately cast her eyes around the table, mind racing, to anything other than what Lily was talking about. Just as she had opened her mouth to draw breath--

"What's that for, Remus?" she blurted out, noticing his drawing and realizing that it was a lunar chart.

Everyone looked stunned. Their eyes turned to her, and initially she thought that their shocked expressions were because of her cutting Lily off. A few very pregnant moments later, she realized that she had unwittingly pushed a button in an area that she should have, instinct told her, left alone.

"Lunar chart for Divination," he said quickly, trying to shove it out of sight. She was about to forget the whole thing, until she remembered--

"Wait a second, I'm in Divination with you, and that wasn't part of our homework." His eyes widened slightly and he turned his head away. Sara looked around and saw all of them throwing cautionary glances at one another.

"Oh, um..." she began, working up an excuse. "I am supposed to meet the other Ravenclaws in the library--actually, I was supposed to meet them five minutes ago. Catch you later."

Sara quickly gathered her letter back from Lily and Rena and shoved it into her bag. Hoisting the bag over her shoulder, she swung her legs over the bench and began to walk out of the Great Hall, not looking back until she was safely back in the entrance hall. She exhaled and leaned back against the stone wall of the hall, closing her eyes.

That had been closed. She really had no choice now but to go to the library to find her other friends there, maybe study a bit. She set off in that direction, thoughts and adrenaline still racing, though the near-miss incident was over. Frowning, Sara wondered what it was that Lily was going to ask her exactly.

She stopped walking, dug the letter out of her bag again, and quickly skimmed through the first page, then the second. She paused in the middle of the second page.

I'm so sorry about your parents.

It was at the beginning of the message that her friend Austin had written to her. She must have missed in the beginning when she'd read it because it had seemed so innocuous and normal to her.

Whatever. The point was that she was supposed to be in panic mode (which she was) and trying to make up excuses (which she needed to). She needed to have a fib to tell Lily--or, rather, everyone, as Lily had probably shared what she had read with all of them.

There was a little thing in the back of her mind that said it wasn't a big deal. She should just tell them the truth and be done with it. It was a good idea, really.

The idea seemed like a real possibility in her mind for about a fraction of a second. Until she remembered the reason why she hadn't done that in the first place.

She hated the pity. Period. She hated the looks that she got from everyone who looked at her, everyone who whispered. Sara didn't want to be singled out, called an orphan, any of it. Maybe when the time was right, she would tell them, but not yet.

Sara adjusted her backpack, arriving in the library. She quickly spotted her friends all sitting around a table, doing homework as usual. She hid a smile as she made her way over to the table.

"Got room for one more?" she asked.

"Sure," Connor said quickly, shifting a small stack of books next to him so that she could sit down between him and Tabitha. Sara pulled up a chair and sat down with her bag on her lap.

"What are you up to?" Connor asked quietly. Sara pulled out a book of Rune translations.

"Just some Ancient Runes homework," she said.

"Great," Connor said. "Maybe we could work together."

"Sure," Sara said, opening the book and beginning to translate. The two of them didn't really work together, per se--it was more like Sara working quickly and Connor asking for help when he got stuck.

"Wow, you're fast," he commented when she finished all of the fifty lines of translation in a quarter of an hour. "It usually takes me over an hour to do a rune translation like that."

"Well, you know, I've taken Runes for a while now, I guess I'm just used to it," she shrugged, tucking her completed translation back into her bag. When she looked up, Connor was giving her a weird look, the kind that made a person feel odd even though the look itself may not have been meant to evoke those types of feelings. "What?"

"Nothing," he answered quickly in the direction of his kneecap, a slight flush coming into his cheeks. "Is it etix or ettix that means wing?"

"Ettix, double 't,'" she said. She felt the situation growing slightly awkward and pulled out another book to read. This one was a book that was given to her by Professor Dumbledore for the class that she was taking with him.

This course wasn't really a course in the curriculum, but it was a special thing that she did because Professor Dumbledore felt that she "wasn't being challenged enough with her current course schedule." She didn't mind, though, because it was turning out to be one of her favorite classes.

Supplemental Education, as it was called, was taught by Dumbledore himself. Her first day in his office with him, she had been nervous about the class; she hadn't known what to expect. It turned out, though, that Dumbledore didn't know either.

"Miss O'Hanlon," he had said, peering over his half-moon spectacles at her. "This course has no real set curriculum yet. You will be setting it yourself." Sara had been slightly puzzled at this.

"I don't understand, Professor; do you mean that I get to choose what I learn in here?" Professor Dumbledore had smiled at her.

"That's quite right," he said. "My only requirement is that you learn something new each week."

Then he had given Sara a book to look through in order to get ideas about what she wanted to study. That was the book she currently leafed through, sitting in the library with her friends. She had marked a few of the pages and was trying to decide what was most interesting to her.

"Hey, what's that book for?" Paige asked her curiously, indicating the old, worn, battered book that Sara read out of.

"Oh, this is for my Supplemental Education class. Dumbledore wants me to have a subject chosen by Wednesday when I go to the lesson." Paige gave a nod of understanding. Sara had explained the course to her friends previously, as they had all been very curious.

"Oh, ok," she said, going back to her Arithmancy homework. "Sara, what's the second flux of 7x-21?"

"Zero."

"Oh, thanks."

"No problem," she smiled. Sara sat back in her chair and began to read, but her mind suddenly flip-flopped. She couldn't concentrate on her book when the strange behaviors of her Gryffindor friends popped into her mind.

They were acting strange, very out of the ordinary. What was with Remus' lunar chart? They were all acting like there was a huge secret that she was about to uncover and shouldn't. Remus had mentioned not feeling his best, but he shot his best friends a look and they had understood. Sara wanted to come out and ask them what was going on, but she didn't want to lose their trust so early in the year.

She went back to trying to read until she gave up and did her essay and sketches for Herbology class. She wouldn't see the others until Double Transfiguration that afternoon.

History of Magic was, as always, a total bore. She sat still in her seat taking random notes at intervals when she didn't feel as though she was about to fall asleep. It was a slightly hellish hour of listening to Professor Binns' droning, monotonous voice.

"I wish the old cook would croak and get it over with," Sirius once said. "But wait--he's already dead."

"What a pity." James had kicked in, smiling.

History of Magic finally ended and, after a quick, trip back to the dorms for her books, hurried off to Transfiguration. Though the class was more challenging than the others, and she knew most of the coursework already, Transfiguration was one of her favorite classes, save for Supplemental Education. She turned into McGonagall's classroom and took her seat next to Noah and behind Alaina.

"Hey," she said in their general direction as she sat down, unclasping her bag and yanking out fresh parchment, a quill and ink, and her textbook. Her wand, of course, was stowed safely in the pocket of her robes. Alaina responded by tossing her mass of silky, strawberry-blond hair back onto Sara's desk, where it nearly covered her things. Lifting several strands, she saw that some hair had landed in her inkwell. "Scourgify," she muttered after retrieving her wand.

"What's wrong?" Alaina asked, sliding further down in her seat. Sweeping her arm behind her head, she gathered her flowing tresses and craned her neck back to look at Sara.

"Nothing, some of your hair just landed in my inkwell when you tossed it," she began. "It's not a big deal," she said at the look of alarm that appeared on her friend's face. "It was easy to remove."

"That was cool, though," said Noah, looking at Sara with an expression of mild admiration that had begun with the teacup incident in Charms weeks ago. Sara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Every time she uttered even the simplest incantation, he looked at her as if he had never seen anything quite like her before; it was like that with most of the Ravenclaws she knew, but in Noah and Connor it was the worst, and she was beginning to feel a slight sense of annoyance. Come to think of it, the only people who didn't goggle at her were her Gryffindor friends (who, she was reminded painfully, seemed to be acting strangely toward her, but for different reasons. What they were, she didn't know and didn't want to hazard a guess.

"Oh, come off it, Noah," she said, rearranging the items on her desk. "It's just a dumb cleaning charm, anyone could do it." Noah shrugged.

"I can't control mine that well," he said. Sara wasn't entirely sure of what to say to this, so it was a very good thing that, at that moment, a small crowd of Gryffindor students entered the room, headed by Sirius and James. They seemed to be quite keen on not only trying to avoid her eyes but at the same time to steal glances at her. This confirmed her previous suspicion and fear that Lily had shared that letter with everyone.

"But that doesn't make sense," Paige said quietly, jabbing at the rat trying to escape from her table several minutes later. "I thought that they were your friends."

"Yeah, they are, I think," she said, successfully vanishing her rat along with the droppings it had left on her desk.

"Excellent, that's excellent, Miss O'Hanlon," Professor McGonagall said approvingly, swooping over to where Sara was sitting and promptly handing her another rat. "Try this one, just to make sure you've got it." The rat cowered and gave a feeble squeal as it disappeared from the desk. McGonagall beamed, continuing on to check on the progress of her other pupils. Sara simply shrugged, trying desperately to get people to go back to their own work.

"Sssssst," she heard a low hiss from her left. "Sara!" Sara turned and saw Rena motioning her to join them and mouthing the words 'come here.' She excused herself from the Ravenclaw circle. The others widened the circle for Sara to join them.

"Cool trick," Sirius said, grinning. "Think that you're good enough to vanish Malfoy yet?" Sara gave a small smile.

"Well," she said, her voice low, "I doubt it, but Snape already resembles a rat enough that maybe we can manage with him." James snorted, perhaps too loudly, causing Professor McGonagall to look toward them with one eyebrow raised.

"I do hope," she began, "that you are receiving help from Miss O'Hanlon in vanishing your rodents."

"Oh, yes, Professor," Sirius said in mock seriousness. "I can do it, see?" he pronounced the incantation and waved his wand, but only the head and the tail of the rat vanished successfully. McGonagall nodded slowly.

"I see," she said, approaching him and restoring his rat to the whole. "Well, at least you have vanished parts of it." She turned and observed the Ravenclaw tables for a moment, then made her way back toward her seat at the front of the room. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Well, Sirius," Lily began. "I think you could do with a bit more practice, anyway." He muttered something to himself. Remus had vanished his own rat (though he had to give it one more go; the tail was still wriggling on his desk), as had Lily and James. Arabella and Peter had made no progress whatsoever.

She was beginning to feel sorry for Arabella; she had learned from Serenica that she was a Squib, and was not likely to do well as far as magic was concerned. She was, however, one of the most friendly and accepting people that Sara had ever met, though was quite shy and reserved sometimes.

Peter Pettigrew, however, turned out to be a rather annoying little twit. He clung to James and Sirius (but mostly to James) as if they were his life-support system. As far as Sara could tell, he didn't have nearly as much magical ability as any of his friends (hence, the remedial potions and tutoring). Frankly, she couldn't see why they even put up with him, but they must have their own reasons. She watched as his beady eyes never left the rat he should have been vanishing, as he muttered to himself under his breath and made a few hopeless wand movements.

Sara absentmindedly twirled her wand in her fingers; as her rats were gone, she had nothing left to do but the homework that Professor McGonagall had written on the board (a foot of parchment on the common errors made in vanishing attempts and how to avoid them). Naturally, she did what anyone in this situation would do: she procrastinated.

It was lucky, though, that Sirius spoke up again, having managed, this time, to vanish everything but the whiskers of his rat.

"Hey, O'Hanlon," he started, making a quick evasive move as Lily made to hit him over the head, "D'you reckon I could see a photo of your friend, the one who wrote you, so that I can see if it would be worthwhile to write her back?" He smiled hopefully, despite the fact that Lily and Rena were both rolling their eyes and one of them had muttered something that sounded very much like 'prat' at her rat. Sara shrugged.

"Sure, I guess. I have a photo in my dormitory of her and a bunch of my other friends from home, if you're interested." Sirius smiled, and some of the others, particularly Lily, looked interested, too.

"Excellent," he said, vanishing the remaining rat whiskers. "I'll have to write her and introduce myself." James snorted.

"Yeah, that'll be great," he said, putting on a macho voice and mocking Sirius until he had a slight embarrassed flush appear in his cheeks. He muttered something under his breath and went silent.

When Transfiguration had ended, everyone stood up and shoved books into bags and wands into robe pockets as they moved the desks back to their original positions. As the rest of the class filed out of the door, Sara slung her bag over her shoulder and started to leave with the rest.

"Wait one moment please, Miss O'Hanlon," Professor McGonagall said. Lily and Rena glanced at each other, then nodded their support before leaving the room. Sara turned and crossed the room, making her way to the professors' desk.

"Yes, ma'am?" she asked politely, an expression of mild confusion on her face.

"I just wanted to ask you how you are doing here," the professor said, a kind, concerned expression on her face. She gave Sara a kind smile.

"I'm, um, I'm okay, Professor," she said, now aware that she was fidgeting. She stood still for a few moments, determined not to let Professor McGonagall think she was nervous. "I rather like it here. It's very different from Beaumore, but it's okay." Professor McGonagall sat at her desk, beginning to pack up her belongings, since her last class of the day was finished.

"Alright. I checked with your other professors, and your coursework has been outstanding in every subject, even Arithmancy," she said, adding this last bit in response to Sara's opening her mouth to question that subject. "In fact," she continued, "You seem to have taken the top of the class, as far as marks are concerned. Of course, we haven't reached the end of the grading period yet, so anything could happen."

"Please excuse my saying so, Professor," Sara said, fixing her eyes upon McGonagall's, "but I don't think that my work will be half as impressive next year, when I don't know what I'm doing."

"Ah, yes," the professor said, eyeing Sara as though she were a mildly confusing book. "I daresay that you will perform exceptionally well. I must admit, though, that this year's work will be particularly difficult, as I'm sure you have heard that all in your year will be taking their Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations in June, so all of the professors will be preparing you all for the tests."

"Yes, I have heard about those. I will be taking those examination as well, won't I?"

"Yes," McGonagall said, a strange, unreadable expression on her face. "I am afraid that the Sorcery Aptitude Tests that you and your schoolmates took two years back to not equal anything that you do here, and therefore those test scores have no merit at this school, or even in this country. You will be able to prove yourself, however, through the O.W.L.s later in the year."

Sara nodded, briefly stunned. So all the studying and testing that she and her classmates in the States had done didn't matter at all. She looked down at her feet. It wasn't as though she didn't expect this, of course, but the news still came as a tiny bit of a surprise. She ignored her disappointment as she adjusted her bag of schoolbooks and parchment on her shoulder.

"Is there anything, Miss O'Hanlon, anything at all, that you want to talk about?" Professor McGonagall asked in a surprisingly quiet and gentle voice. Surely she meant the situation, or lack thereof, of Sara's parents. Sara quickly shook her head, causing the hair behind her ears to come loose and fall into her face. She quickly pushed it back again.

"No," she said softly. "Thank you, though. I appreciate your thought."

"Very well, then," said McGonagall, looking at her carefully. "You may go. I daresay that the Marauders and Co. are waiting for you outside my classroom door. Have a nice evening." Sara gave her a faint smile.

"Thank you very much, Professor McGonagall," she said, turning on her heels and walking composedly out of the room. She was not at all surprised to see Lily and Rena talking quietly outside of the classroom door. Both turned at the sound of her footsteps, smiling as she appeared in front of them.

"Hey," said Lily, coming forward with Rena at her side.

"Hey," Sara responded, smiling a little. "Thanks for waiting."

"No problem," answered Rena, smiling at her gently. "That's what friends are for."

Friends. They were friends. Sara smiled again, this one much more genuine, as she turned and began to walk back with Lily and Rena to the great marble staircase.

Okay, that's that! More should be coming within the week, but you never really know. Oh, yeah, and I also realized too late that McGonagall wouldn't supervise the vanishing charms (that, incidentally, would be taught by flitwick), but I didn't feel like rewriting anything at the moment.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU REVIEW!

Callista Rose