So there I was, tapping my quill on a spare piece of parchment, taking a break after the six hundred and twenty ninth line of 'I will not cause brawls in the hallway', glaring across the room at a little rat with red hair. My mind was going through and dismissing every hex I could think of and more. That wench. I bloody hell tried to help the ungrateful woman and what do I get? A blasting and detention. Mind you, purple does look good on her. I couldn't help but smirk at her black eye. She deserved it anyway. Should teach her not to get in the way of my wand.

That sounds dirty. Scratch that last line.

She lifted her cold green eyes and glared at me. I just glared right back at her. A stare-down, was it? Well, two could play at that game. Until the stupid bitch hit me with the Conjuntius curse and I started blinking uncontrollably. I think Sirius was right, women should be chained to the kitchen, with a lead long enough to go to the bedroom and back. Just to clean. It's all this little shrew was good for.

I forced my eyes shut and muttered the counter curse then settled in for another good long glare. Yeah. That's right, you little redheaded mouse. I'm bigger, tougher and smarter than you. Ner.

Finally, I reached a thousand lines and staggered out of the classroom. It must have been nearly midnight. Great. No sleep last night, almost none tonight. Yippee. I staggered into the common room and... she must have been stalking me! I barely had enough energy to raise my head to acknowledge the fact that she was in the room with me. But still, my pride opened my gob for me.

'Waiting for me, are you? I don't exactly have all the much energy so whatever you were planning, it might have to wait.'

'Shut up, Potter, you're not so hot as you think.'

'Touche. Mind you, goes both ways. You might want to remember that next time you walk past some poor guy with your nose scraping the ceiling.'

'I only do that to you, and that's in the desperate hope that you'd back the hell off.'

'Never.' I muttered, slinking slowly across the common room towards the stairs to the guys dormitories.

'Fine. By the way, after Remus' transformation last night, I'd say he's probably worse off than all of us put together.'

'Remus is just fine, thanks, just like-.' Oh sweet holy mother or Merlin. I froze. Then, slowly, I turned to face her. She was sitting crosslegged in front of the fire, back straight, in her pyjamas. Only her wide eyes gave away the shock that she had actually stumbled across the truth.

'I thought so.'

I slumped over to her and fell back into the sofa, eyes closing briefly, dragging my hands over my face. 'Think you can keep it quiet?'

'Don't patronize me, Potter. I'm not a child,' she said, hair swinging in a curtain around her tiny face. Everything about her seemed small, but in some sort of proportion. I remembered something my mother said once: There's no such thing as an ugly girl. Only ones that are slightly out of proportion. The handsome ones are the ones who look symmetrical.

I'd always found that interesting but never quite understood it. Now, I did. This little bird perched on the floor, practically at my feet, was in perfect proportion. But she can't have been taller than five foot, four inches! It amazed me that I found it so easy to argue with her, when she was so little. I suddenly felt like the big bad bully. Something in my face must have changed, because her own softened slightly. I shook my head.

'I wish I could help him. I really do.'

'You help him every time you're with him. Just the fact that you didn't turn tail when you figured it out, helped him.'

I blinked and stared hard at her. I had no idea how much she actually knew. But she gave no sign that she knew about the illegal animagi. Gracefully (of course, gracefully, she used to do that crazy Muggle dancing, what was it…? Oh yeah, ballet), she stood and walked past me.

'Get some sleep, Potter. Your first game is coming up soon.'