Chapter Fourteen-------

.:.A/N: I'm not sure if you read in my bio, but if you want art back in the story, go to the xanga site in my bio and leave a comment of whether you would like to have or wouldn't like to have art back in the story. Toodles, Nightwriter.:.

Recap: I had met Professor Flitwick over my duration I spent here during the summer, he had been very kind to me in telling me of how the school was and how the students acted over-all.

I smiled at him and gave a small wave as I took my seat in the back, beside Andy and Erin on my other side and waited for class to begin.

"Welcome back fifth year students to another exciting course of Charms!" Flitwick had mentioned to me before the term started that he would be teaching us a lot of subjects very quickly so that we could prepare for our O.W.L.s or whatever they were. "You all will be have to be able to keep up with the lesson plans I have drawn up over the summer holiday, but I suspect I won't have any trouble with this class now will I?" There was a loud chorus of "No sir" around the full classroom. "I thought I could count on you lot to help me along." Flitwick beamed at us all, and straightened the papers on his podium.

"Good, now let's start with a brief recap of what we learned last year shall we? Okay, pair up with the person sitting next to you and perform the incantation 'Metrofelina'" I turned to face Andy as poor Erin turned to an extremely nervous and trembling Pettigrew. Remus was paired up with Sirius; James with a shy looking Hufflepuff.

The incantation was suppose to make your ears flap, causing you to hover a few inches off your seat, that is if you got a good hold of your desk in time. Andy raised her wand at me when she made sure my hands were tightly clenched to the top of the desk in front of me. "Metrofelina!" I could feel the tops of my ear grow a bit longer and begin to flap causing me to fly out of my seat; my feet came off the floor a few inches. My ears began to hurt from the strain I put them through by holding onto the desk while they persistently flew upward.

"Hurry and say the counter-curse, Andy!" Through her laughing Andy had forgotten to say the counter-curse, causing me more embarrassing pain and her more humor. 'Oh just wait, I will have my revenge.' I smiled inwardly as she said the counter-curse and I came bounding down back in my seat. Andy must have caught whiff of my thoughts of revenge because her wide smile quickly faded into a scared frown.

"Oh no." I smiled wide and nodded as I raised my wand. 'I'm evil..'

"Ow! Okay, I'm SORRY! Now let me down, Al!" I had preformed the curse, to Andy's horror, and now had her at my will.

"Oh fine. Metrofelino." Andy gracefully slid back in her seat. "I never would have thought you'd be good at Charms. Guess I was proven very wrong." Andy laughed along with me as we turned around to watch Pettigrew's poor attempt to perform the charm on a bored looking Erin.

"M-metroflenia!" A stuttering Pettigrew wrongly shouted the charm, causing Erin's ears to turn a brilliantly forest green, clashing horribly with her auburn and bright orange hair. Her ears also tried to fly sideways from her head in opposite directions. "Er…t-that wasn't it was it?" James shook his head at Peter, who was looking upward, horrified if Erin would act upon the things she was so clearly saying in rage and pain.

"Pettigrew! I'ma gonna have your hide plastered on a mantel when I'm through with you! OOOWW!" Erin yelled out in pain as the skin between her head and ear split a bit, similar to that of a paper cut; small, but very painful. Flitwick came rushing over as fast as his petite body would physically allow brandishing a wand at Erin's head while muttering a spell hurriedly.

"Miss Dobson, are you alright dear? Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey? She's quite new to the staff but she can fix your ears up in a second." Erin's ears had ceased their seizure-like activity and Erin was now glaring furiously at Peter. The whole class had gathered around us, some standing or kneeling on desks to get a clear view at Erin's soon-to-be murder of Peter Pettigrew. Erin's eyes met Flitwick's for a split second before going back to Peter's frightened ones.

"No, but Pettigrew is gonna." With that she lunged forward and almost grabbed Peter's school robes until Andy and I grabbed the back of her trench coat first, leaving her to grasp the air in front of her angrily. 'That was a close one.' We pulled Erin back into her new seat; between us. Flitwick glanced nervously at Erin's sulking form before looking disapprovingly at Peter.

"Although Mr. Pettigrew's actions were not ones of much consideration, Miss Dobson, violence, however, is not the solution. Mr. Pettigrew, I think you should join me after class to learn the proper way of performing the incantation, as well as some other spells we will be going over next class." The students who were so hopeful of a full-out brawl between the two partners were now returning to their respective desks, muttering in disappointment.

"Sorry for attempting to kill Pettigrew, Professor." This proved the theory of mine that Flitwick was well liked amongst the student population; if he had Erin apologizing out guilt to him then, yeah that pretty much proves it.

That's alright Miss Dobson. We all say things we don't mean out of frustration." Flitwick walked back up to his podium.

"Yeah, frustration. I had all thought of following through with my original plan; killing Pettigrew. If you two wouldn't have stopped me, I could have done it too!" We just grinned brightly at her.

"Wouldn't want our best friend to become a murder on the run, that is, if you weren't planning on staying here after the crime was committed now would we?" Laughing, Erin slung a long arm around our shoulders while whipping her boots on the desk in front of us.

"No, guess not." We faced forward to the front as Flitwick began to talk again.

"Although some of you had some problems with the spell," At this we snorted simultaneously. "I think you've got it down pretty well and now we can move ahead to the next lesson. Class dismissed." I put my 'Charms grade five' book back in my bag as we took our leave and headed towards the Transfiguration room, where we would be having class with Professor McGonagall. From what I had seen and heard of her, she was pretty strict and it was her third year teaching here at Hogwarts.

"How's your ears?" Erin turned her head towards me to show me her ears. There was affine line encrusted in blood between her ear and head; I assume that the other side looks the same. I reached up to push her hair away from it to get a better look while the sleeves of my oxford shirt slipped down to my elbows.

"Hey, Al, what happened to your arms? Did'ya get in a fight with a weed-whacker?" Erin took a hold of my right forearm to see more clearly at the some of the deeper cuts that Madam Pomfrey wasn't able to fix after my transformation, leaving behind bruised and still quite open wounds. She had given me some gauze to wrap it in if they ever opened and began to bleed.

I hissed quietly in pain as I wrenched my arm out of Erin's tight grip and pushed my sleeve back down, hiding my wounds from them and the people walking around us. "No, I-I fell down a hill into a thorn bush." 'Nice one.' I looked around quickly to see if anyone had seen my arm or had heard the lame excuse I had given my friends for the time being.

"Oh. Okay. You shouldn't fall down hills like that Al. Not good for you." She ruffled my hair as we kept walking. Neither Erin nor Andy looked very convinced but as long as they don't decided to go deeper into the discussion I'm fine.

It wasn't that I didn't trust them, no, I trust them completely. It's just that they might not understand what I am. Hell, I don't even understand what I am. And until I do, I'm not planning on shouting it off the school roof anytime soon. When I do, I'll let you know.

The day went pretty smoothly from then on. McGonagall's class was only a lecture of O.W.L.s behavior and study habits. I don't quite remember History of Magic, partly because I was either staring out the window, or playing 'Hang Man' with Andy. Potions wasn't that bad. The new teacher, Professor Bodsindale, had us concoct a simple potion. It was fairly easy, just like chemistry back at school in America. She was nice overall. Divination went pretty smoothly, well kind of anyway.

I was sitting next to the window of the heavily perfume and overly warmed North tower trying to clear my head of the migraine that was forming under the fumes. I had been inching the window open piece by piece inconspicuously as to not alarm Professor Trelawney, who was flailing around the rest of the class swooping over to groups at random like the bat she was to decipher their very unfortunate, and according to her, very near deaths. I knew it was all a show to make them scared.

I mean honestly, do you think ten out of the class of forty are going to die by a rogue flying carpet? I think not.

Trelawney came hurrying over to my table where I was alone; Erin had Ancient Runes while Andy had Muggle Studies. "Ohhh! Let me see your crystal ball. What do you see darling?" Her bug-like eyes peered at me through the coke bottle glasses, magnifying them.

I looked down at the swirling mass in front of me that I had so blatantly been ignoring. "Er….a fire perhaps?" I took a random guess, and seeing her hesitant look, I could tell I was wrong.

"Well, dear, I don't think you have the Inner Eye." I covered my snort as a heavy cough.

"Yeah, I figured as much." Her bony hands roamed over the ball before looking back up at me with an expression of deepest pity.

"My dear, from what I can see, you will have trying situations of the utmost pain. I'm most sorry darling." She looked down dramatically as if she had failed me some how. Her head then snapped back up. "The window's open." She made to shut it quickly, while in my mind I was shouting at her not to.

'NO! My only source of oxygen! I'll die! HELP!' I played with the thought of pretending to faint as to get me out of the wretched room, but she dismissed us quickly as to save our lives from the blood-seeking troll that was apparently going to come crashing down on top of her room at any given moment.

I met up later with Andy and Erin at dinner where we received notice of Astronomy was cancelled on account of the storm. I looked up at the ceiling of the Great Hall. 'Trippy..' the ceiling showed the weather outside as it was, so it looked like we were getting rained on but the raindrops seem to evaporate before they could reach us.

We left the Great Hall, stomachs full and tired, leaving no time for discussion as we headed for our respective dorms for some long awaited sleep.

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Viola! 2,000 words! Woot! It's a long one! Perhaps the longest I've written! R&R!

Chou-

nightwriter