Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday's Everyone! For those of you who celebrate today, I hope it was fantastic and that you enjoyed it very much. So as a treat, and my Holiday gift to my reviewers, TWO posts! Enjoy!

Chapter Fourteen

Since the Second War is Coming

Defense Against the Dark Arts was Cailee's most favorite class. Professor Lupin was as good as it gets, he was the best teacher she had ever had. The mock battle they had on the first day of class was awesome, and it had continued like that.

Today, they were learning about Craec's. Craec's were about the size of a dog, lived mostly in the dark, and could cause instant death if you looked one in the eye. Which was why they didn't have a real one in class. Lupin had split them up previously in groups of four about three weeks ago. So they sat in a square with their desks, and in the middle of their desks stood a large aquarium of different animals they were studying. There were three different varieties of species in there; a miniature mermaid and merman, named after the others, Merpeople minors; a type of swimming dog with flippers instead of legs and paws; and a singing fish. None of them were even half the size of Dobby the house-elf, but Cailee's favorite was the singing fish. It swam around with bubbles spilling out of its mouth sometimes; that was the fish singing, if you wanted to hear it, you had to either put your head in the tank with it, or point your wand at it and draw the music out of its mouth as it sang it; the wand pulled the music out so you could hear it without getting wet. They had almost finished up their unit with the aquatic creatures, and that's why they were starting the Craec's.

Cailee sat in a group with Seamus and Dean and Amber. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville had been put in another group. Cailee was becoming close friends with Amber, one of the more popular girls in their year. Even though they shared a dorm, they didn't talk too often. Usually because Amber was sneaking off to hang out with her friends, or to "late night studying sessions." No one believed that, especially not Cailee, since, one time on accident, she had stumbled in on Amber and her "tutor" in an empty classroom during a very heated moment. She had turned away without saying anything, and Amber still didn't know she had seen them. But still, Amber was nice. She didn't judge others like some of her friends seemed too. Some of her friends were hesitant about hanging out with Cailee because they were jealous, but that hadn't bothered Amber. Amber was pretty herself and wasn't insecure in any way with being friends with Cailee.

"So these. . .Cracks—" Dean started.

"Craec's," Professor Lupin corrected automatically as he walked by the groups.

"Right, so, they're kind of like Basilisks?"

"Yes, they are. I'm glad someone made that connection. Basilisks, and Craec's, are both deadly to look at. So, can anyone tell me a way to prevent yourself against one?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Look around corners with mirrors!" Hermione said, her hand shooting up in the air.

"Good one."

"How about, don't go near one?" some one asked.

"Yeah. But lets say—let's say, since the second war is coming, your faced against the Dark Lord," his eyes shifted over to Harry's for a minute, who met his stare straight on, "and, most of us know snakes are his favorites, he has one, does he not, Harry?"

"He does," Harry croaked out. Many of the class stared at him.

"So, you're faced against him, and he conjures a Craec, or maybe a Basilisk even. How will you defeat it?" No one answered. Not even Hermione.

"It's not easy. Both are made of tough skin and scales, and are rather evasive. Avarda Kedavra could work, true, but so could a Serpensortial Hex. Now, please look through your books, and as a group, come up with a list of twenty five ways you can stall, and eventually kill off one of the two animals. And then, I have a treat for you," he said, glancing to a closet whose doorknobs rattled dangerously.

"Ron, you're still afraid of spiders?" Hermione asked. The whole class had gotten a go at the boggart in the closet, which was turned into a Craec when they each went up against it.

"Yes, I am," he snapped, poking at his lunch. "And so what about it?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering."

"Yeah, well Cailee's afraid of dark sky. OOH, what's so scary about that?" Ron asked.

"No, its not a dark sky. It's a sky without stars, thank you," she said.

"Yeah, and?"

"I have my reasons. If you need to know them, I'll tell them to you, but now you don't need to know," she said, taking a bite of her soup. It had started to snow again, and it was cold inside the castle.

"At least we don't have any classes outside today," Harry said, as he looked up at the ceiling, a dark gray.

"Yeah, but we have Transfiguration. What's so great about that?" Ron mumbled, spearing his green beans with his fork and jamming them into his mouth.

"It wouldn't be so hard Ron, if you actually paid attention in class," Hermione said. If looks could kill, Ron wouldhave beenin the grave.

"Quiet! Settle down! I think you'll all be interested to hear this," Professor McGonagall said at the end of their class.

"Starting in January, you will get an unusual opportunity to intern at a job you would like to have a career in. A sign up sheet will be going around, so please place down three jobs you are interested in.A few timesa week you will have someone from your Career field come up to the school, and you will join them in classes. You will learn from them, and treat them as you would me. In April, May and June, some of you, depending on what you chose, will get to leave the school once a week and actually intern at your job. It's here to help you realize what you want to go for in the future and help you realize if what you wanted to be last year when you took your O.W.L.s isn't what you still want to be. If it isn't, you can come talk to me, and we'll just get you going in the right direction with your N.E.W.Ts, so please—"McGonagall went on, but the signup sheet had come to Cailee.

Cailee Ooteropeia 1-Quidditch Medic witch 2-Healer 3-Soccer player

She probably should have chosen something more witchlike, but this is what she really wanted to do. If McGonagall had a problem with her doing it, she would talk to her. Cailee passed the list onto Dean who looked up at Cailee, smiled, and said, "Me too." He was talking about soccer.

Author's Notes: I hope this chapter is good enough for you guys! I'm on my Christmas break from school, and I don't go back until January the ninth, so hopefully there will be plenty of updates between now and then. But only if you review!