A/N: Sorry for the delay on this chapter, but I had writer's tar. I'm still looking for middle names for Pepper...though I like Lillian, and my dandy friend gave me Lee. I'm not sure what I'm going to use yet...the polls are still open!!! So give me ideas, I beg of you! Though keep in mind how her initials will look – P. . H. B. I think PLHB looks dandy. Her middle name probably won't start with P because, as my pal R to the I pointed out to me, PPHB doesn't look too good.

charmedsisters thanks again. I'm not sure if that spell will come into play in this story, but there's a good chance it will. You're now my excuse for not updating – you hadn't reviewed me until today so I couldn't post till today!

Chapter Twenty-Eight

By the next afternoon the castle was buzzing with talk about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

"I can't believe they sent an Auror that young and that attractive to come and teach us," Ron said as the four friends walked through the hallways. "Add the fact that she favors Gryffindor and..."

"We know!" Hermione, Pepper and Harry shouted. Ron had been saying that for the past day and a half. He was practically in awe of Professor Giancarlo and once he'd found out for sure that Hermione wasn't mad at him he was free to talk about the new teacher.

"So are you going to ask her how she knows you and your brothers?" Harry asked. "I'd be interested to know..."

"I'll ask her after class tomorrow," said Ron. "I want to know if I really should remember her. I hope she wasn't my baby sitter. Then she'd have all these embarrassing stories to tell about me."

"I'd like to know some of those," said Hermione, smiling somewhat. "Maybe she was there when Fred and George turned your teddy bear into a spider."

Harry and Hermione broke out into laughter (the first laugh that had come out of Hermione since she had gotten back to Hogwarts) and Ron's face turned red and he grumbled something indistinguishable. Pepper laughed at Ron's reaction, though she had no idea what was going on.

"I never should have told you about that," Ron said as the laughter died down.

There was a small silence. "Harry," Pepper said, "I've been thinking...and I know you're not really going to know much about this but – wait – are you sure you remember me asking you about your rendezvous with Spada?"

"Yes Pepper. You're starting to sound like Ron: going over this over and over again," Harry told her, sighing. "And, yes, I know what comes next..."

"But you're not supposed to remember!" Pepper, Harry, Hermione and Ron all said together.

"But really, you aren't," Pepper said, annoyed that this was happening and all her friends weren't helping at all. "I've got to write to my aunts about this."

"Why is it such a big deal that he remembered what you asked him, Pepper?" Ron asked.

"Because that's not supposed to happen," Pepper said. "The spell specifically states 'From now until it's now again/ After which the memory ends.' That means in twenty-four hours he was supposed to forget everything that happened in that time period. And that didn't happen! It might be because he's a wizard...or it could be because I said it wrong or something, but I still want to know. Therefore, I should write to my aunts. You know, I'm wondering why they haven't written in a while..."

"Hey, Pepper, why don't you use that spell on Malfoy?" Harry proposed. "That way you'd know –" he stopped suddenly and gulped, not wanting to suggest that Malfoy had raped Pepper or that she had even shagged him.

"You'd know what really happened," Ron finished for Harry, glancing over at his friend with some confusion.

"Why didn't I think of that before?" Pepper said, shaking her head at her own stupidity. "I should do that...though I don't know how or when I'm going to get him alone. Come to think of it, I don't really want to be alone with him in the first place." She faked a gag to show how disgusted that thought made her.

"I wonder if he'd remember what happened after twenty four hours was up?" Hermione thought aloud.

"He would if it's because wizards remember what happened," Pepper pointed out. "But if it was for some other reason...like because Harry's so powerful or something...then I doubt he'd remember anything that would happen. I mean, Malfoy's not the sharpest crayon in the box, is he?"

"That depends on the way you mean it, Pepper," Hermione said. "He's not too powerful, I don't think, but he is pretty smart. He's the second in the class, I think."

"Behind you, of course," Ron said.

"Well..." said Hermione, not wanting to boast. "Actually, he'd be third in the class, wouldn't he? Since Pepper came, and all."

"I think he'd still be second," Harry said. "I mean, I think you and Pepper are pretty much tied for number one. Both Pepper and Hermione's cheeks turned pink.

Pepper entered her dormitory with a mindset to write a letter to her aunts asking about what might have went wrong with her spell. When she opened her bed curtains to crawl in her bed and write her letter, she found three owls sitting on top of a package. One owl was her own Cashlinn, and another she recognized as Harry's owl. But she had never seen the third owl before. When they saw Pepper, the owls flew off the box in a rustle of feathers, letting Pepper take the package. Pepper gave each of the owls a treat before Hedwig and the owl she didn't know flew out the window and Pepper sat back on her bed, intending to open the package.

There was a letter attached to the box, so Pepper unfolded it, curious about the package's contents.

Pepper,

You didn't really think we'd let you get away, did you? Can you give Leo permission to tell us everything you told him so we don't have to beat it out of you?

Anyway, you want to know what's in the package, right? Well, we'll tell you – it's your parents' love letters, the ones you left in that house of yours. Yeah, that's right, both of those gigantic mansions are technically yours now...though we're not really sure if Dumbledore wanted us to give you that information yet...Oh well, we're your aunts, so we should really decide what to tell you and what not to tell you. So yes, those houses are yours. You don't have to decide what to do with them now. In fact, forget we told you that! Don't worry about it at all; the three of us and Dumbledore are taking care of things at the moment. For now just enjoy lovely Hogwarts. Tell us all that's been going on...and tell Hermione we're sorry about the loss of her parents. (And tell us what's been going on with Malfoy, who we told you to stay away from, don't forget!)

We hope you enjoy the letters. We had a good nostalgic cry over them and I'm sure you will too. Well, maybe not a nostalgic cry, but a cry nonetheless. By the way, did you happen to find Prue's diary from her first year at Hogwarts? It should have been with the letters but it wasn't there...there are other diary's we found if you'd like to read them. Though, we'd probably have to edit them a little for you, as Prue got a little...er...X rated.

So have fun reading and write back really soon! We miss you again already! (Alright, so maybe it's a LITTLE nice having some peace and quiet...)

No, we're just kidding, we miss you. Anyway, write back as soon as possible and enjoy the infamous love letters!

Love,

Aunt Piper, Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige

Pepper smiled to herself, chuckling at her aunts. She decided that she would give her Uncle Leo permission to tell them everything she had told him so she wouldn't have to get it beat out of her.

She was very glad that her aunts had sent her these letters because she really wanted to read them and she had regretted leaving them at her parents' house. Suddenly getting an idea, Pepper flipped over the box containing the letters, spilling the contents on her bed. She took the empty box and put her Astronomy compass and other various pointy objects dangerous to Hermione, (and even Pepper, if worse came to worse), into the package. Scrawling a note to her aunts telling them that Leo had permission to tell them everything and they were to keep these items from Hermione, she sealed the package. When Pepper was sure Cashlinn was well rested and reenergized, she tied the package to the owl's leg and sent her out the window.

Pepper checked her clock to see if she'd have time to read any of her letters before she had Hermione duty. She didn't, so she grabbed her book bag and headed downstairs to the common room to look after Hermione. Pepper, Harry, Ron, and Ginny had all made a schedule to watch over Hermione. They all wanted to make sure Hermione didn't have a minute to herself; even when she went to the bathroom Ginny or Pepper always went with her. None of them wanted to chance Hermione finding something sharp to hurt herself with. Pepper knew Hermione was catching on to their plan, but she didn't care if Hermione knew, as long as the plan worked Pepper was happy.

Harry and Ron were engaged in a game of Wizard's Chess and Hermione and Ginny were sitting at a table doing their homework. Pepper headed over to sit with Hermione and Ginny. "Hello," she greeted, sitting down in a chair next to Hermione.

The two of them barely acknowledged Pepper's presence. Apparently they were too absorbed in their homework to care. "Alright..." said Pepper, pulling out her own homework and getting started on Professor Giancarlo's essay on Patronuses.

The three girls were silent as they worked on their homework. Pepper wanted to strike up a conversation but knew Hermione would just tell her to shut up and do her work, so she didn't talk. A quarter of an hour into the silent working Pepper began to hum a merry tune.

"What are you so happy about?" Ginny finally said, still not looking up from her homework.

"Oh, nothing," said Pepper as she continued to hum. She wanted Ginny to insist Pepper tell her so that Pepper could happily explain about the letters from her aunts. Though, Pepper thought, that might put Hermione on edge, talking about dead parents and all...

"Then can you stop humming? I'm having difficulties with my Potions homework and I need to concentrate," Ginny said.

Feeling downtrodden, Pepper stopped her humming and they slipped into silence again. Until...

"I DID IT!"

The heads of Hermione, Ginny, and Pepper whipped their heads towards Harry and Ron's chess game, where Harry was jumping around jubilantly. He was obviously very happy about something, and Pepper didn't think it was because he lost again.

"I WON!" Harry cried. "I BEAT RON! YES! FINALLY I AM VICTORIOUS!" He rushed over to the girls' table and gave each of them a hug in turn. Ron sat there on the floor, looking very glum and surprised.

"You beat Ron?" said Ginny, sounding as surprised as Ron looked.

"YES! I DID IT!" Harry shouted, punching the air with his fists. He was starting to attract a lot of attention from the other Gryffindors in the common room.

"You cheated, Harry," said Ron who still hadn't gotten up from his seat in front of the fire. "I know you did. There's no possible way you could have beaten me like that."

"I WON!" Harry repeated. Obviously, he wasn't paying any attention to what Ron had to say.

"Good for you, Harry," was all Hermione had to say before she turned back to her homework. Chess wasn't her biggest priority at the moment.

"My chess pieces were conspiring against me!" Ron tried to explain. Pepper walked over to Ron as he picked up his pawn and examined it. The pawn grumbled in protest and Ron sneered at it. "Weren't you conspiring against me?"

To the great surprise of Ron and Pepper his chess pieces answered him in the affirmative. "Really?" said Ron.

"You asked and we told you," said the king.

"Ah-ha!" said Ron. "See, Harry, I told you that you didn't really win!"

Harry stopped in mid-punch and turned around to look at Ron and the chess set.

Pepper couldn't believe how weird this was getting.

Pepper was lying wide awake in her four-poster. She couldn't get to sleep, though she had been trying for hours. She could hear the buzz of conversation coming from the common room. It wasn't officially her bedtime yet, but to convince Hermione to go to bed early Pepper had to do so herself. Hermione was sound asleep at the moment, which made Pepper very happy.

Pepper rolled over, trying to achieve sleep once more. Just as she was drifting off there was a sharp tap at the window pane. Not wanting the owl that was at the window, (Pepper thought it was probably Cashlinn), Pepper got out of bed quickly. She was very surprised to find that it was not an owl tapping at the window, but a hawk looking bird. It flew into the window in a great rustle of feathers and landed on the back of a chair.

Curious, Pepper took the parchment from its leg and gave in an owl treat. It declined the treat so Pepper shrugged and let it sit there while she read the letter.

Pepper, it's Draco. I've got something urgent to tell you. I don't have much time. Meet me in the DADA room at midnight.

Pepper looked at the letter in puzzlement. She turned the parchment over; looking for something hidden to pop out at her and tell her it was all a big joke. When she couldn't find one of those she reread the letter again. This couldn't be serious: Malfoy writing her an urgent letter, telling her to meet him somewhere at midnight? Plus he was addressing her by her first name? And why did it always have to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts room? That's where she met with him before...maybe there was something significant about that.

She looked at the clock on her nightstand. She had an hour before Malfoy wanted her to meet him. Pepper wanted to go to see if he was for real, but she didn't really want to go alone. Especially if she got caught...she decided to take Ron and Harry under the Invisibility Cloak.

Careful not to wake her dorm mates, Pepper went down to the common room, where a few Gryffindors, including Ron and Harry, remained. The two boys in question were sitting at a table, finishing up the rest of their homework.

"Harry, Ron, I need your help," Pepper told them, shoving Malfoy's letter in their faces.

They read and reread and read again before looking at her, both of them with a raised eyebrow. "This isn't serious, is it?" said Ron.

"I think it is, which is why I need your help," Pepper said, taking a seat at their table. "If Malfoy really is in trouble, if this really is urgent –"

"Why should you help him? Why would he even be asking you to meet him in the first place? Why would he tell you something urgent?" Harry said, brandishing the letter.

"I have no idea. But I want to find out if this is real. He says he doesn't have much time...I don't want anyone to die, Harry," said Pepper. "And if this really is a joke to get me out wandering the castle at night...well, that's where you guys come in. The three of us need to head down there in the Invisibility Cloak and I get out before we get into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. You stay under the cloak when we get in there and if Malfoy's just messing with me and tries to hex me or something then you two will be there to back me up. If this is urgent then I'll try to help and if he's not even there then we pray no teachers saw us and we get the heck out of there."

"Sounds good to me," Harry agreed. "How much time do we have?"

"Three quarters of an hour, I think," Pepper told him.

"Should we wake Hermione?" Ron asked.

"No, she needs her sleep. Harry, why don't you go get your cloak and we'll wait for this place to empty..."

"This will be a good opportunity to do the Truth Spell on him, won't it?" said Ron. "Unless he's not there."

"Yeah. I just need to catch him off guard and hope he won't remember what happens in the twenty four hours the spell's on him," Pepper said. "Now let's get this party started."