Chapter Three

(Hey guys! Thanks so much for your kind reviews! Really appreciate them!

BTW, Dani's mother happens to be Hermione Granger. I just really, really think Harry and Hermione make a good pair, don't you?

Well, I hope you enjoy chapter three! Thanks for reading!

Much love,

God Bless,

Later!

-The Author. )

Dani sat, uninterested, in Divination. Her hand was etching silently over a parchment. She exhaled deeply and looked up. Trelawney was still waving her hands around talking of doom and such, tottering a bit too. She probably had a nip of sherry just before class started. Dani shook her head and resumed her drawing. It was coming along rather nicely too. The muscular fit body of a man, holding a coat over his shoulder. She glanced up again more swiftly as Trelawney raised her voice, but continued to draw trying to look as if she were paying attention. Another thing she knew she had inherited from her mother, was her annoyance of spectacles such as this. She rolled her eyes huffing and looked down. To her surprise, the finished product of the drawing turned out to have the head of Conall. She blushed and quickly crumpled it into her bag, but not before it blew her a kiss.

"Gahh…" Dani moaned a little, feeling stupid. Suddenly the door burst open and Conall himself strode in, tossing note to Trelawney and taking a seat next to Dani.

"Conall! Are you alright?" She whispered after Trelawney read the note and resumed her ravings.
"J-just fine…" he grumbled.

"Where'd you go?" she asked, "I was getting a little worried."

"Just taking care of some t-things…don't w-worry about it..." He said, starting to take notes. Dani shied away, looking at him puzzled, but decided to drop the whole thing.

As soon class was signaled as over, Conall practically lunged at the door leaving her behind.
"Conall! CONALL! Wait up!" She cried trying to catch up. He was fast despite how he looked and brushed past the students with ease, while Dani kept bumping into everyone.

She stopped in the middle of the mob of students and looked around for some sort of recognizable secret entrance. She knew most of them because she studied the Marauders Map a lot and spied a familiar old clock that led straight to the Gryffindor entrance. Perfect! Looking around cautiously, she slipped inside and followed the torch lights of the dark, dank tunnel, until she came to another large square exit; she slipped out of a picture bumping straight into the man she needed to see. He jolted back a little, startled and stared down at Dani who was gasping for air.

"C-Conall! W-what's wrong with you?" She demanded holding her hands on her knees, "did I say something? 'Because I don't think I did!"

He looked away, his usually spiked hair now falling limp in his face. "N-nothing, it's nothing…."
"Well it's gotta be something or else you wouldn't have ran like that! What's wrong?" She stared up at him, her dark green eyes scanning his turned face for an answer. She suddenly noticed, at his silence, that his hands were clenched very, very tightly and his teeth were bared in a sickening grimace. Dani's face loosened, her angry expression turned to one of worry and….fright.

She took a small step forward, her hand extended.

"Conall…? Seriously," she tried to swallow the lump of fear rising in her throat, but it would not go down, "Are you…o-okay?" She placed her hand hesitantly on his back. Suddenly the whole world was in slow motion as Conall grabbed her wrist wrenching her up to his distorted face. The steaming scent of rage pulsed against her face and his teeth were bared like fangs. His eye's were a dark, bloody gold, his hair began to turn a fiery scarlet and he had her wrist gripped so tightly, she thought it was broken.

"LEAVE…ME….ALONE…" He snarled in a coarse whisper, "OR….I'LL KILL YOU…" He shoved Dani away from him, jerking her wrist out of his grasp and shuffled quickly down the hallway and around a corner. Time sped back up and Dani stumbled back against the portrait she'd come out of startling a Rockwell boy and his dog to scamper off. She slid down the canvas and held her trembling wrist. Her knees felt like gelatin and she was paralyzed to the spot. Dani couldn't even cry. The shock of his anger, his rage, just put her in a state of a distilling euphoria. She blinked a few times to try and regain herself, wondering what on Earth she did wrong, but she couldn't stop seeing that bloody hatred in his eyes. Something had to be wrong with him. Quickly shaking her head, she rose to her feet and, half stumbling, half running, ran to the Headmistresses quarters. She threw herself against the large statue of the stone griffin, muttering the password and collapsing inside. McGonagall, who was rarely startled by anything, jolted from the sudden loud crash of the desperate Gryffindor.

"P-Potter!" she cried seeing Dani rise from the floor, panting, "what's wrong with you!" She almost asked it as if Dani were some mental case always crashing into rooms. McGonagall also glared down at her with frightened eyes, which Dani thought was a little strange, but the young Potter had no time to question her odd behavior.

"Conall!" she gasped, "Something's wrong…he's really, really mad…"

McGonagall, after regaining herself, scoffed, "Miss Potter, I am not here to deal with the likes of raging teenage hormones or personal issues of the sort…"

Dani shook her head, her shaggy mane of hair swishing in her face. "N-no! Not like that! He- He- I…I think he's...changing or something!"

The Headmistress's eyes widened and she placed a hand to her heart. "Changing? Are you sure?"

Dani nodded. "Yes ma'am…I can assure you that was NOT the Conall I know. He threw me against a wall for goodness sake!"

McGonagall nervously bit her lower lip. Dani stared at her dumbfounded that she could be worried about a half were, when she herself was one of the most powerful wizards she knew (besides Dumbledore of course). It should be easy for her!

"Well?" asked Dani raising her hands in question.

"'Well, what?' Miss Potter?" she snapped coldly.

"Go get him! He should be a piece of cake for you!" She stammered. 'What in blue blazes is wrong with this woman?' She pondered rapidly.

"Don't be rude, Miss. Potter! Twenty points from Gryffindor!"

Now that did it.

Dani's mouth dropped open in a shock. 'She just…took points…from her own team!' Yeah something was wrong here alright, Dani almost wished that Conall would've slung her over his shoulder unmercifully and carried her off. But there was no time to fiddle with silly points!

"W-whatever! Ma'am we have got to do something! There's a half were wolf out of control on your grounds! Aren't you going to do anything?"

McGonagall bit her nail. That expression of worry was coming back.

'Once again!' thought Dani, 'Something she wouldn't seemingly do, but maybe there was another story in here somewhere. Something that'd explain this behavior…' "Headmistress…are you afraid?" She asked, it being the only possible explanation to this madness.

McGonagall's head spun up. "No! Of course not! J-just trying to think of a way handle the situation."

"Uh, I'm no genius here…" Dani rambled sarcastically, "but maybe you should oh...I don't know…CATCH HIM?" Now she was staring at the Headmistress's face, and when, for the fourth time, it stopped sputtering like a fish out of water, Dani closed her eyes and irritably said;

"Listen if you aren't going to help me ma'am…I'll just go do it myself." She quickly turned out of the room and left before McGonagall could do or say anything. She felt a sudden spice rise inside of her, a sense of daring boldness like never before. She never EVER wanted to tell off an adult like that, but at this moment it seemed appropriate with McGonagall acting like that.

"What was up with that?" said Dani aloud, shaking her head, "She acted so strangely…maybe it's stress. Probably from yesterday when Peeve's blew up the row of toilets…" It was still odd though that the headmistress wouldn't jump to action with something a tad more serious, "Oh well, but all I know was that HAD to be one of the weirdest things I've ever-" She was about to finish her sentence, when a blur of toffee fur and mane ripped past her causing her to get shoved backward into an old suit of armor. With clamoring of metal in her ears, she looked to her left winching to see the doors of Hogwarts wide open and sending a chilly blast inside.

"Was that…Conall?" She asked herself rising from the floor. Suddenly, a bumbling wizard, whom she recognized as Professor Spart, the transfiguration teacher, came running up beside her gasping for breath. He gripped her shoulder almost taking her down again.

"We-we-" he wheezed like a man who was about to have an asthma attack, "Were- were-"

"Werewolf?" finished Dani looking down at the back of his balding head. He nodded his face as puffed and red as a Cherry Bluster candy.

"I know. That's Conall Lupin…he's a half werewolf…" She said looking towards the open doors again.

The Professor looked up, wide eyed and in shock. "A s-student was a w-werewolf?" He spat.

Dani nodded quickly. "Ye-… Professor!"

Suddenly, Spart collapsed to the ground having fainted from either dehydration, or shock. She knelt beside his large limp body and set him down gently, suddenly Liza came running in with a tall Ravenclaw boy following her and other students.

"Dani! We heard about Conall!" she gasped, "He's running loose?"

The Ravenclaw boy peered down at Spart from behind his glasses. "Is he alright?"

Dani looked at them both, as more students crowded around.

"Yes he is," she said addressing Liza, "…and I don't know…." she said turning to the other boy, then pointed to him. "You, tall ki- oh, hey Marley. Sorry your hair was in your face, didn't recognize you, anyway you and Liza take care of Spart, and one of you guys in the back go find a teacher or someone near by. Don't go to McGonagall, she seems to be having a nervous breakdown or something…" Dani removed her hand from under Spart's massive head and, taking out her wand moved towards the open doors.

"Dani!" cried Liza kneeling next to the fallen professor, "Where are you going?"

Dani turned to the crowd, her solemn green eyes staring at them. There was a sudden tranquil stillness in the air, despite that her body was trembling with a mixed emotion of courage and fear. She felt the rise in her heart again, beating with a just righteousness to help her friend. Then she simply said;

"To go get Conall."