Alright now, let's see... I had something I wanted to say at one point. Hmm... It'll come back to me. Anyway, sorry it's taking so long to get this thing up. Between my original stories, schoolwork and lack of motivation... but no excuses. Here it is, in all its glory. To all of you who asked, of course I'll be writing more!! (It's just taking forever) I'm so sorry it's taking so long.

"I just don't get it," Rick said. He wasn't looking at her, but Nym knew he was talking to her. There was no one else around, anyway. "I just don't get it."

"Which, your homework or Mandy?" Nym asked, looking up from the book she was reading. Remus had sent home for what seemed a whole trunk full of his old school books, which he'd given her. He'd decided that her lessons needed more structure, and had set about giving it to her. Now she was assigned readings, research, even essays for the lessons he, Sirius and James gave her. He'd actually seriously suggested they submit her grades to Professor Dumbledore for extra credit. Thankfully James had squashed that idea.

"Neither. Both."

"What is there not to get?" Nym asked. She wasn't really paying attention, though. Remus had set her an essay on dementors – no less than three feet! – that she was no where close to completing. He had to be the toughest teacher she had. Not that she minded, really. She learned so much, and all of it fascinating. And it was all way above first-year level, so she had an easier time on what her teachers assigned. But still, three whole feet!

"Not that you really care," Rick sighed. Really, Nym didn't. Why did dementors have to be so difficult? Rick was always going on about how much harder second year work was than first year. She didn't care that their blood was black, but she dutifully noted it anyway. Mandy was one of his best friends, but he fought with her all the time anyway. She said he tried to be too much like an older brother, and she already had one of those. Nym stroked Morwyn's fur absently. She'd made an effort to pay more attention to her pet, and between her attention and Jimmy's the feline was growing into the sweetest animal she'd ever encountered. What was it with dementors and souls? Couldn't they like roast mutton instead?

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Sure. You don't get neither Mandy nor your homework, and both of them." She wasn't sure that made any sense, but it seemed to be the gist of what he'd been going on about.

"What did I ever do to deserve you, Nym? You're the greatest friend a guy could ask for, but you're such a bloody trial."
"I do try." Except to listen to him, in which case she tried not to.

"But sometimes I wonder just how sympathetic you really are."

"It never changes." From just about not at all.

"Nym, there you are. Oh, it's you." Mandy had arrived, and as always when she and Rick were fighting, had started up the row again.

"Take yourself off, Mandy, no one wants you around here."
"Nym does, don't you Nym?"

"You can both take yourselves off as far as I'm concerned." Nym had tried to get them to stop arguing before, and it never seemed to work. Insulting them equally seemed about the only way to go, and even it was a rocky road.

"You heard her. You're not wanted, Rick. Get lost."
"You must have heard wrong. It's you that's not wanted."
"Shut up, both of you. What do you want, Mandy, I have better things to do."

Suddenly Mandy left off glaring at Rick. He might as well not have existed, but it was still an improvement. "Have you finished that essay for Professor Tofty?"

"Yeah."
"Could I borrow it? I promise not to copy. I just need another inch."
"Already handed it in, sorry."

Mandy huffed and stormed out of the library. Nym hoped she was never as bipolar as Mandy. One person like that was quite enough. If only it was just one person.

"You've been with that Hufflepuff boy again, haven't you?" Rose scolded when Nym entered the dormitory. The 'Lion Grlz' were all gathered on Hope's bed – the one farthest from Nym's – reading Teen Witch Weekly. "Have you no House pride?"
"It went out the window when I met some of my House mates," Nym said acidly. They ignored it.

"At least he's kind of cute," Hope giggled. "Unlike some others." She gave Mary a look that seemed to carry a great deal of scorn. Mary flushed, and the other girls giggled.

"You could at least hang out with someone from our House."
"Like who?" Nym demanded. "Heaven forbid you four."

"Well, maybe one of the boys?" Opal suggested a little too innocently. "I mean, you seem to be friends with lots of them."
Nym wanted nothing to do with the three first year Gryffindor boys. Battle lines were drawn in their dormitory – actually chalked on the floor, rigged with jinxes and curses should anyone cross them. Nym knew, having walked in there one day looking for Morwyn. She'd meant to go to the second year's room, thinking the kitten might be with Jimmy, but she'd forgotten her mission in her haste to escape the full fledged war. The three boys hated each other, and anyone who was stupid enough to associate with one was just inviting trouble.

She didn't say anything, though. There was no telling what the other girls would try. To Nym, it seemed that they'd decided that since they were capable of reading Teen Witch, they had decided they really were teens, and should try to act just like the girls in the magazine. Which seemed to involve wearing lots of make up, fussing over clothes, and making boys' lives misery.
"Honestly, Nym," Rose said. "Just because you like him is no reason for you to follow him around like a lost puppy. He should be coming to you."

Momentarily, Nym was confused. Sure, she liked Rick, but as a friend only. She was more likely to have a romantic interest in Sirius. Yeah right. She was eleven years old, scrawny, brainy, and antisocial. And clumsy, she thought peevishly as she backed towards her bed and tripped over a book someone had left lying around. Dead clumsy.

While she was fighting to regain her balance, Nym finally noticed what had been bothering her since she'd come in. The curtains around the other girls' beds seemed to have faded from their royal red. To pink and purple. Of course, Nym thought glumly. Pink was the new… something or other. Red, maybe, or black. Or orange, or magenta, or rose or something. At least they hadn't changed hers 'to match'.

"Nymphadora?" Evans poked her head in. Great, Nym thought, just what I don't need. Evans smiled at her. "Sirius said you were up here. He'd like to see you." She shook her head wryly. "It's a mystery to me how he seems to always know where everyone is." Nym had noticed that too, but it didn't bother her as much as it once had. There were lots of uncanny things about Sirius – and James, and particularly Remus – but that was part of what made them so great.

"I'm coming," Nym grumbled, grabbing her cloak. Whatever Sirius wanted, you could bet it involved a trip to somewhere cold and drafty, or out into the snow.

Remus pounced on her when she stepped into the common room. "Come on, Nym, let's get going. Do you have a cloak?" Nym held it up. Remus laughed. "Of course. You learn."

"Remus, you should know that Sirius is expecting to see her. She should at least see what he wants before you drag her off," Evans said.

"That's where I'm taking her," Remus said absently. "Come on."

The ground outside was a soggy kind of frozen, like a bog that wasn't really sure it believed all that stuff about winter. Remus moved across it confidently, but Nym worried that if she miss-stepped she'd even up with soaked stockings and soggy shoes. She pulled her cloak close about herself as she hurried after him along the shore of the lake. The biting wind – who knew it was winter, whatever the ground might think – cut through anyway, chilling her. Remus didn't seem to notice, and strode ahead with his cloak free and snapping behind him.

Nym glanced at the lake, worried that whatever the boys had planned might somehow involve it. She didn't want anything to do with the lake, or the squid – which all the kids in the older years assured her was great fun to tease, although Nym didn't believe a word of it – or anything else in the cold, dark depths. A shadow under the thin ice that had formed over the shallower parts moved, and Nym unconsciously quickened her pace. She hated the lake. Every time she looked at it she felt chilled, as though she was once again drowning in its icy waters.

Remus was still walking ahead, but now he was moving away from the lake shore, moving at a tangent into the skeletal trees of the Forbidden Forest. Nym paused nervously. The Forbidden Forest was, well, forbidden. Especially to first years. And probably for good reason. But, then again, she thought, she was with Remus. And he was quite possibly as dangerous as anything in the Forest. He just kept his fangs hidden most of the time. A glance back at the lake decided her. She hurried forward and caught up to Remus. As she matched his pace, he glanced down at her.

"That's my Nym," he said with what he seemed to think was an encouraging smile. Perhaps it was just the Forest, but it seemed rather too wolf-like to Nym. "Fearless, even of the old Forest." His smile, which took in the stark trees, was much softer, more distant. He began to whistle a strange little tune, jovial yet haunting.

It wasn't much farther in when they saw Sirius and James at a campfire in a little depression that Nym was sure shouldn't have been able to hide them up to that point. "That's what you dragged me out here for?" she asked, going to stand next to the fire. "A campfire roast?" On a little spit – who knew where they'd got it – sausages were rotating slowly, colored a strange almost-black by the magical flames.

"Something wrong with that?" James asked, inspecting the sausages critically. "I think you've over cooked them, Padfoot."
"You were the one cooking," Sirius said. He brought out a school bag – Wormtail's, Nym thought – and pulled hot dog buns and a thermos of tea out of it. "It's really amazing what those kitchen elves can come up with," he commented as he poured some steaming tea into a dented tin mug, which he passed to Nym.

Remus pulled out his wand and conjured three large armchairs, then a little ladder back stool. "For the cook who burned our food," he said to Nym with a wink. James and Sirius both dived at the empty armchair. After a brief tussle, Sirius was left sitting in wet snow.

With a look of great injured dignity, he served the sausages and buns and the seated himself on the little stool. "If sirs and miss need anything, they has only to ask. Paddy is here to serve sirs and miss."

"Well…" said Remus slowly, " I think, perhaps…" he glanced at James, "don't you?"

"Oh yes," James said with a small, rather malicious smile. Nym remembered that smile. It was the one he wore when he saw Snivellus rounding the corner with his head in the clouds. "I think that would be very appropriate."

"Don't you even think for a moment that…" Sirius began, but Remus cut him off.

"House elves must not contradict, Paddy. Punishment is in order, I think. Dance for us, Paddy."

Sirius dived at him. "Dance yourself, you great flea bag." The chair flipped over, depositing them both in the snow. Caught up watching them, Nym only barely saw James wave his wand, muttering something she could just make out. She turned quickly, wondering what he could be doing.

James saw her looking, and grinned, his eyes flickering to the little stool that had replaced the tipped armchair. Nym grinned in return. If they weren't playing tricks on other people, they'd always have each other for amusement, these three. And Wormtail, she supposed, where ever he was. She didn't particularly like him. Too rat like.

Sirius, victorious, ran to claim the armchair, and tripped over one of the stools as he went. He blinked for a moment, uncomprehending, before hauling James out of his own chair. When all three were occupied with their little fight, Nym looked at James's chair. It hadn't seemed so hard for him to change it. All he'd done was flick his wand like this… and what he'd said had sounded something like…

Nym screamed as a tree erupted from where the chair had stood. It jerked the boys out of their private world quickly. They grabbed their wands and turned about, scanning the trees for the intruder. Nym huddled in her chair, not seeing anything. Her wand dropped from her limp fingers.

"Nym?" James said after a time. "Did you do that?"

Nym, her face pale, nodded almost imperceptibly. "I think so." She wasn't sure he could hear the words. Perhaps she hadn't even said them. She'd transfigured a chair, alright. But not into another chair. What could she have done wrong. It had seemed so simple when James did it.

"That's sixth year transfiguration, at least," Remus murmured. "We've only got you up to, what would you say James, third?"
"Half way through third, maybe," James said, "but we skipped a lot. Where did you learn to do that, Nym?"

"I… I didn't," Nym said faintly. She couldn't take her eyes off the tree. "I tried to copy you. When you changed the other one. I just moved my wand like this and…"

"Woa," Sirius said, snatching the wand out of her hand with surprising speed. "Don't wave that thing around like that. No one ever tell you the havoc you can wreck like that?"

Nym reddened a little. Yes, she'd been warned. She was just so flustered. "Don't worry, Nym," Remus said kindly. "It happens. It just isn't normally so… spectacular." He inspected the tree. "What would you say, beech or oak?"

"Does it matter?" James asked. "The trogg will be happy."

"The what?" Nym asked.

James hardly seemed to hear, but he answered anyway. "The trogg. Little thing, sort of like a troll. This place belongs to it. Keeps it hidden, and so forth. Lets us use it. Did it a favor once."

"I reckon we can give her the key, then. It probably won't mind," Sirius said. "Besides, we'll be gone next year. She might as well use it. See Nym, repeat after me." He whistled the same little tune Remus had been whistling before. Nym tried a few times, but couldn't whistle very well. "You'll get it, don't worry. It's a bit hard the first time."

On the hike back to the castle for dinner as dusk fell, Nym realized none of the boys had ever answered her first question. "What were we doing out there, besides having a campfire?"

The glances that were tossed back and forth between the other three could have meant anything. "Planning," Sirius said.

"For what?"

"We're going to stop a war." Nym took an involuntary breath. Surely they couldn't mean…

"Or start one," Remus said dryly.

Now, review, please! Best motivator there is, whatever you have to say!! (And damn if I don't need it)