DISCLAIMER: just so we know…I own nothing of J. K Rowling's and the only things belonging to me are my monsters like Miriam and Darius, and this plot, thought we'd review that for everyone.

A/N-So is this story liked so far? It is OK? This is a Harry/Miriam fic, it could lead into a Miriam/Severus fic, but I'm not telling- you must find out on your own as the story progresses…or you can guess. I'm grateful for the reviews, I thank you so much and ask you to please continue. I'm making this a soap opera without trying, sorry…. Ok maybe I did try a little, enjoy!

Two

7th year Gryffindor boy's dormitory, twelve-fifteen in the morning.

Harry couldn't sleep; he kept seeing Miriam falling into his kiss, felt her lips yielding to his as he kissed her with soft force, how he wanted to feel her flesh beneath his without the barriers of clothing.

What was happening to him? What had he been doing kissing a full grown woman? A teacher! Had he lost his mind completely? He could get her fired! He could destroy everything between them before there was anything truly there to lose. But he had realized something during that kiss, he couldn't leave her alone, wouldn't leave her alone. He wanted more of her, he wanted to taste her, to feel her, to know her indefinitely- was he in lust or in love?

He stretched languidly and then tossed himself around, trying to get comfortable and dream of something else- someone else besides his new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. What she had said to Malfoy had been priceless, the look on his face after she had finished her seductive speech had left Harry in awe of her- but did he love her or lust her? If it was lust it was going to be a very long year and if it was love…how was he going to woo her…she was his professor, and there were certain laws against that.

Closing his eyes he saw Miriam Gentry in a dreamlike haze of glory. Her long black hair flowing freely to her waist in loose ringlets, her willowy limbs open and welcoming, her sultry eyes and lips beckoning. In his want he could almost taste the dewy musk of her shadowy skin, could nearly feel the pressure of her luscious lips pressed gently against his, coaxing slowly.

He flipped around in a restless fatigue a few more times before finally falling into a black sleep filled with dreams that in the morning he wouldn't quite remember.

Miriam's chamber, two-thirty in the morning.

A terror filled scream shattered the silent night and Miriam opened her eyes in panic to find herself sprawled across the floor, a burgundy sheet wrapped around her legs, trapping her to the bed; her heart was pounding in silent distress and her throat was painfully dry.

She had screamed- that was obvious, but why she had screamed was slowly fading from her mind. She pulled herself off of the floor and made her way to the door her body just beginning to waken from it's state of sleep- she would go out and clear her head, she needed to clear her head, but she wasn't sure why.

She made it down the corridor and slipped silently out a side door into the school gardens- outside she took a deep breath and let herself soak up the stars. How she missed the night, the permanent shadows she had lived in for so long were now no more than a distant dream. A raindrop fell from the dark sky creating a wet dot on Miriam's deep gray cloak. A scuffling behind her caused her to duck down in alarm, she had no glamour at the moment, it had waned away in sleep and she couldn't take the chance of being seen.

Suddenly coming outside seemed foolish, she never went anywhere without glamour, she never let anyone but Darius see her face. The scuffling turned into a silent whisper as the footsteps began to echo away from Miriam's hiding place. Miriam let out a gust of relief and slipped quietly back into the building, Filch. It had to have been Filch, no one else would wander around in the middle of the night…well there was her, but she had an excuse…maybe.

Back inside the building she crept easily back to her room and was almost to the door when a low "Tsk, tsk, tsk," began from just a few paces away. "Show yourself." Miriam ordered, if there was one thing that she detested beyond anything (maybe more than trains) was being followed, she would not be followed in the shadows- those were her safe haven, no one else's.

"I said show yourself." she growled darkly, her eyes locked on a space in front of her, she'd use magic if it didn't risk revelation to do so, she needed no wand- but she couldn't risk that- yet. "Are you dumb or def, I said show yourself now." a shape slipped soundly from the shadows and the light slivering through the beveled window revealed a shock of long silvery-blond hair, "Mr. Malfoy, I do not like being followed." her voice was low, frighteningly so.

He smirked at her and Miriam fought a great urge to wipe that smile from his face, she couldn't risk it, she shouldn't risk it, but she wanted too. "Professor, I was just curious, why are you sulking in the dark when all the others sleep?" Miriam's hands clenched and she took a step backwards, cloaking herself in the cool night, "I could ask you the same question, Mr. Malfoy, and unlike you, I can demote house points for a student being out of bed and waltzing the halls- now why don't you get back to bed before you get more than you bargained for."

She saw his face go from smirk to sinister, "Professor, as Head Boy I have a right to wander the halls looking for perpetrators, you can't take house points for that."

"You're right, I can't, but I can give you a detention for following me and watching me from the shadows, I do believe that most people would consider that stalking." the look on his face dimmed slightly and he grumbled a 'damn' then slithered away to go find someone else to pester- Miriam hoped that if it was a student he'd be decently human, he didn't have an excuse for acting any other way, Miriam did, she wasn't human.

Once again she stood before her door and uttered softly: "Twilight Kisses." she had chosen the password on account that she herself was part of the twilight, and it sounded pretty rolling off her tongue. She passed through the door and it shut gracefully behind her- this time when she closed her eyes, she didn't dream.

First class of the day, eight 'o'clock in the morning, 7th year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs

She couldn't believe she had overslept, no meal for her, just jerky movements as hurriedly pulled on her blue-gray robes and a slight hum as she glamoured herself up. She dashed through the connecting hallway to her classroom and set things up with just a taste of trow magic, she slipped her wand into her pocket and felt the solid smoothness of it. It was mahogany and yew, 10 ½ inches, containing one phoenix feather, a griffin scale, a hair from a yuan-ti and a drop of trow blood. Mr. Ollivander had been most surprised when that particular wand had chosen her (Miriam hadn't been at all) he had remarked with a vague, "How very odd…" before accepting her money and going off to help another, a student, a first year.

Now, Miriam didn't need a wand, but it did help with the façade, it finalized her image as 'witch', and it might come in handy on the days where she couldn't use her magic without risk. There were a few such moments like that, where magic flowed freely through the world and wards were strong enough to detect her. All Hallows Eve, Yule, Beltane, Midsummer. Those were the moments when her face was at highest risk of being seen- she couldn't fight the old power, she wasn't old enough yet, at two hundred she might be able to fight the repose and use her glamour during one of those such nights, but by then she hoped to no longer be living a lie.

She sat back in her tall black chair and waited for the room to fill, she knew what she was doing, but for their sake she'd do it the human way.

The door opened and the first three students rushed in, smiles on their faces, "Hey Miriam!" she closed her eyes with a smile on her lips and then shushed them: "Professor Gentry, Miriam out of class, out of class." they grinned impishly and scuttled to a row of desks in the front, the rest of the class filed in and took seats in a similar fashion, they were talking amongst themselves after the bell rang and Miriam cleared her throat a few times to no avail. This wouldn't do if she was going to win their respect, she had Harry, Hermoine, and Ron's attention, but that simply wouldn't do. She stuck two fingers between her lips and blew.

The shrill screech brought the chatter to a standstill and Miriam smiled sweetly at them, "Class," she began, "I would like to welcome you to your seventh year at Hogwarts, I know you've already received welcome, but I welcome you to your final year of Defense Against the Dark Arts," she beamed brightly, went over the rules and guidelines (as it was required she do so) then once finished pulled down an overhead with a several pictures on it, the pictures were of several unlabeled, highly magical creatures with certain potentials towards the human (tendencies that could possibly be dangerous)- trow was one such creature on the list, there were several others and she wanted to see what they knew.

"As you can see, this is a list of- well pictures of creatures noted as dangerous because of their human abilities, I want you to write down what each picture is of, what their tendencies are and ways to protect yourself against them- they are after all, dark creatures and this is supposedly a defense class…alright, begin, this is not timed you have till the end of the class to edit your answers and figure things out, you may begin now."

There was a quiet scuffling of parchment and then the indistinct scratching of quills as they slid across in hurried excitement, Miriam really hadn't wanted to do the name game the first day, but she had be too rushed for anything else, damn sleep.

After supper, grading papers in the DADA classroom

Miriam scanned over the answers of the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw students from grades fourth to seventh and was highly impressed, Hermoine's answers were impeccable: "5) Yuan-ti, a snake demon that can make itself look more human to hide amongst it's prey, extremely intelligent and lethal, over the years many cults linked to the Yuan-ti have surfaced so it is well know that the Yuan-ti hold powers of influence and manipulation." superb, her answers were exactly what Miriam had been looking for, the Slytherin answers, however, were anything but, like Malfoy's interesting answer of: "1) Well obviously it's some sort of water creature- how stupid do you think we are? But if you really want the answer, it's a Siren, a beautiful woman that lures sailors into the sea with a song and then drowns them in the heat of passion, you really thought you'd stump us with this one?"

Actually, although he was right about what a Siren did, Malfoy was wrong, number one was a Dryad, it wasn't even a water creature, it was a woodland sprite that kept to a tree and delivered magical properties to the tree and the reason it was considered dark was that in a fit of fear the Dryad could run and leave behind a blast of magic so potent as to render a man dumb or have a spot of Blind Love placed upon him so that no matter the creature or the crime the object of affections, he will follow it until it is too late or until arrested…or worse.

Most of the Slytherin answers rounded on the same line so they had done it purposely, the year had barely started and they were telling her she was an unworthy teacher- stupid little blighters.

She was finishing on the last paper when the door opened and Harry walked cautiously in, "Do you need something, Harry. I'm almost done here and then I'll be happy to help you anyway I can." he gave her a dark smile and then settled down on top of a desk, his eyes never leaving her. Miriam began back at her work and found she couldn't with Harry's eyes still locked on her form, but now they weren't just locked, she could feel them undressing her with careful precision. She set aside the quill and fighting every yielding bone in her body asked tersely: "Is there something you needed, Harry? Because if you don't need it now I can get it too you later."

He said nothing, but he didn't need to, his eyes spoke for him, hot and smoldering, Miriam felt her blood boil- she wanted this to stop, he was her student and he would remain such, no matter what her lustful views on the topic were. At last her spoke, his voice bordering on erotically sensual, "I need you, Miriam." Miriam took a step back at his bold answer and felt a bubble burst inside her, a bubble of anger and want.

"Harry, I am your professor, not another student where it would be acceptable to have such a crush, but your teacher, a full grown woman and I must tell you know that you play with fire, a fire that once unleashed cannot and will not be controlled." her voice hurdled towards seething, but she no longer cared, he needed to know where she stood on the topic of the relationship he had hinted at for them, he needed to know that she was his teacher, nothing more.

His voice was incredibly husky as he approached her, cornering her, seducing her; "I like this fire, Professor, I want this."

"You don't know what you ask," was that truly her voice? That guttural growl coming from her throat…she half expected her head to go round 180 degrees…which it didn't, thankfully.

He brought a hand up to caress her face and ran two fingers along her lips, Miriam shivered, she couldn't deny her initial reaction to him, that was too obvious, she had kissed him back, but he was so young…so sweetly young, but his innocence had been killed, squelched like the last flame of a candle, and as he leant into her, Miriam felt her arms trail up his biceps to wind themselves around his neck, and then she was kissing him, eating at his mouth like she was starved.

Harry moaned into the kiss and that itself sent Miriam spiraling over the edge of her control, any reason she had had was sent to it's death out a mental window as she began to frantically rip at Harry's clothing. Harry was doing much the same, he was clawing at her belt, ripping it from the belt loops of her black jeans like something wild and frenzied; shoving her pants down over the slight curve of her waist he picked her up, Miriam wrapped her legs around his waist as he set her atop her desk.

Oh God! Was she really doing this? It had gone too far to pull back now and she was to involved to think straight- Harry had ripped his boxers and her panties away in one swift zip; he stuck a finger inside her and she cried out- she was so incredibly wet that even Harry's inspection sent waves of pleasure through her body. With another swift move, he was inside her and Miriam cried out in anguished ecstasy. Harry paused for a second to hold her eyes and Miriam knew what he was questioning, she was a virgin and she had a son, that wasn't possible even in fairytale standards.

Miriam found herself then and began to push away from him, tried to draw herself into shadow, she had almost lost her control, she had almost lost her glamour. A few seconds more and her secret would have been know, Harry would have kept it, yes, but she didn't want that sort of tie to him, and yet she knew that because he had been her first, she was tied to him in exactly that way…what had she been doing?

"Harry-" she began softly, "this stops here, what happened was a mistake on my part, I'm sorry."The flash of anger in his eyes was more than Miriam meant to do and she put her hand on his shoulder, "Harry, you know it's truth, if we become lovers and are caught…" she shut her eyes over the thought, "please, Harry, let it stop here."

"This isn't some game to me," he stated gruffly, pain in his eyes, "I thought about you all last night, you've been in my thoughts all day, you never seem to leave my mind- I think I fell in love with you that first second on the train and now you say that it stops here, well I won't let it."

"Harry, you must see how wrong this is? I'm old enough old enough to be your mother, and you…Harry this has to end here, you may say you want to bring it further, but I tell you it stops here." there was such an urging in her voice that Harry stepped away and met her eyes with fiery determination, "Alright, Miriam, this night it stops here, but the next time…we finish what we start." with that he turned his back to her, pulled on his clothing, and left the classroom, Miriam sank to her desk in tatters, gathering the ruins of her clothing she hurried to her rooms and locked all possible doorways behind her, she was determined more than ever to evade Harry's interest, but now that he'd had her, now that they'd been one…she wasn't sure she wanted to.

Damn it all to hell.

Changing her clothes she left her room in search of a man she'd vowed to call her friend- surely he'd sit and talk with her, she wouldn't mention this, and if it came up…she'd swear him to silence, and hopefully Harry's intent would stop…but as Miriam thought this to herself, another thought surfaced, she wasn't sure she wanted it to stop.

A/N- next chapter she talks with Snape and some things might come to the surface and he might suspect what she is…chapter four will be really good, I promise, chapter three is a friendship building, so sorry if it gets a little slow. R&R! thank you!