A/N: So I was reading someone else's story and they stated that if a story has 40 chapters and 150 reviews then it's a terrible story. So what does that make my 30 chapter, 79 review story? Apparently a really really REALLY terrible story... It's a little depressing. Oh well, I have come to terms with the lack of reviews... but thank you to the few people who do actually review. I of course shall continue writing even if no one cares :) I'm stubborn like that.

Chapter 30

"What other time?"

I turned back to Sirius, not because of the question, but at the cold chill I felt hearing him ask it.

"Other time?" I fluttered my eyelashes, playing off the question with the innocent girl ploy. Maybe I should have remembered that ploy never really worked too well for me. Really, it appeared that I wasn't too innocent looking.

I found myself back up against the wall again, this time a tight grip on my shoulders kept me from moving. The longer, slender fingers dug into my skin making me wince slightly. It was likely that I was going to have some bruises later on. Gone were the fluid silver from before, now it was the heated steel. Professor Black was not happy. Of course neither was I. No one likes being pushed into a wall... At least being kissed was a pleasant outcome. This didn't look like it was going to end up pleasantly.

"You kissed him didn't you?"A growl came out from his throat, rumbling low and menacing. Him could only be one person to Sirius. "You actually kissed Snape." Seeing no disagreement in my eyes his eyes got colder, a darker aura surrounding him. "He's dangerous, he has no feelings. He's a shell of a human being... What are you playing at Aine?" He seemed to take my continued quiet as a by your leave to get louder, angrier. "You're messing around with me and him? What is going on?"

A surge of anger coursed through me, and somehow I managed to find enough energy to push the man away from me, pulling his grip off of me. Sparks flowed out of my eyes at the man still fuming in front of me. How dare he say that I was playing around with him. As if he was the center of my universe and everything had to do with him. He had kissed me twice, not the other way round. He was the one expecting me to jump into bed with him. I had never suggested it. He had absolutely no right to judge what I did, or even who I did it with. His own feud with Severus had nothing to do with me. And anyway it hadn't even been a real kiss with Severus.

"I'm going to have bruises..." My voice was low, quiet, calm even. It didn't match what I was feeling on the inside, but I needed to make him understand what he had done. That he had hurt me.

At my comment he looked instantly contrite, opening his mouth to apologize, but I cut him off.

"I did indeed kiss Severus." The apology pretty much died there. "That is none of your business, so I will not discuss that with you at all. I consider myself Severus's friend though, so on his behalf I shall say that you're wrong. The man of course has feelings, nor is he a fiend." I rubbed at my shoulders, wincing at the throbbing in them. "As for messing with you... It's fairly apparent that yes, I am attracted to you. But I have made no moves on you. That was all you."

"And Severus?"

"I'm attracted to him as well." I saw the argument in his Sirius's eyes before he even opened his mouth. "Don't even say it Sirius. You hate him, I get that. Believe me we all get that. But he has good qualities. Different ones from you. Hence how I'm attracted to you both." I sighed, getting weighed down by all this. "Believe me Sirius, this is not exactly what I planned. I just want you to find this horcrux so Harry can defeat Voldemort fast and then I can go home."

"After breaking the connection between us." Sirius said softly, and I wondered if he meant that two ways.

"Yes, and Severus might actually help with that." He heard that in two different ways as well... "I see now that I have been perhaps... a bit too flirtatious with you and Severus. I promise to stop that now." I smiled slightly, hoping that he would accept the olive branch, so we could go back to being friends.

"I doubt you could just stop with Severus and continue with me?" There was a joking quality to his question, and I sighed relieved that this whole incident hadn't caused our relationship to be irrevocably damaged.

"Or maybe the other way round?"

"I suppose both then..." He sulked softly, but the air around him had lightened considerably. In that moment when the air around him had darkened, his eyes getting hard, I could see the scary escapee from prison that had frightened people so long ago. Sirius might act the fool now, playing around with women but he was someone to avoid crossing.

We walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall in silence, neither of us really having anything to say. Well that is to say, we had nothing that we could say out loud. I didn't doubt that inside Sirius was having a serious argument with himself about what had just come to light. Not to mention I'm sure there were plenty of situations in which Severus came to great harm playing out in his head.

For my part there was nothing to say. I was starting to realize that I had indeed been playing with the two men. Not that it was something I had set out to do, at least not in such a serious way. It was one thing to tease them both, but for Sirius at least it had been heightened to a whole new level. Could I say that I was unaware of what was going on? Not really no. In fact I had liked the flirting. But it was making me forget some important facts. I wasn't here for fun, I wasn't even really here to teach. I was here because Sirius had to find the horcrux, and I was basically distracting him. So now it all had to stop. I could just be happy though that it wasn't being ended in a way that left Sirius and I as enemies.

Walking into the Hall together greeted both of us with the sight of so many kids happily eating their lunch. And at the teacher's table sat the thing that had so shortly been a cause of contention between Sirius and I. Not that the thorn in Sirius's side would ever show any concern about the effect he was having on the other man, or would he notice the effect he ever had on me.

"Hello everyone." I smiled at everyone as I took my seat, noticeably Severus stayed quiet, but if my eyesight was still good then there was a faint blush on his cheeks. That kiss from earlier certainly had thrown him off. The man really needed to get kissed more often if that small peck on the lips was actually flustering him.

Sirius threw a nasty glare at Severus as he took his own seat. I don't think he even needed any problems with me to cause dissension with Snape. It was almost just a traditional gesture for him. Go to lunch, glare at Severus, sit down, eat the food...

"How was your first class dear?" Professor Sprout sat next to me, a friendly open look on her motherly face.

"Oh, it was fine. It's still a little surprising to be teaching things that are so mundane to me, but overall it was quite good. Though I still have older students to deal with, those might be harder."

"No problems with the students then...?" There was almost an expectant worry in her voice, such that she assumed that something had happened and if not then something bad was going to happen.

"Nothing more then your usual poking and prodding of the new teacher. They were testing me to see how far they could go. I'm pretty sure that I at least passed the test." I shot Sirius a look, and he just coughed into his hand, looking a little shameful.

"Well that's good..." The tone of Professor Sprout's voice indicated that she at least wasn't trusting the students continued good intentions. At some point I was going to come up with a problem, and I didn't doubt that the problem likely had a name. One thing you learn as a teacher is that every school has certain, almost stereotypical students. Apparently I hadn't yet come up against the 'troublemakers' or even the 'bad boy'. Though after a class with Miss Tsuroda, I didn't doubt I had met the 'know-it-all'.

"Do you want to know the names?" Severus asked from down the table.

I opened my mouth to answer. It certainly wasn't everyday that Severus actually offered help to me, and as such it was basically a miracle. I really wanted to comment on that, tease him a little, but out of the corner of my eye I saw a twitch appear on Sirius's temple. I remembered the argument, and my earlier promise. There was going to be no more teasing, or flirting, even if it had been innocent... enough. And for me who had a problem keeping the teasing out of my normal conversations with Severus, that just meant limiting my contact with the man.

"No thank you Professor Snape. I think I shall work out whom everyone is on my own."

Black eyes widened, and for a moment I saw just a flash of something before he started to scowl once again. As much of a miracle as it was for Severus to offer help, it seemed it was more of a miracle to him that I turned him down. It really did kill me though to see that flash of what might have been disappointment. But in the long run it was far better to keep everyone on good terms, and Sirius is just too hot tempered enough with out me giving him more reasons to blow up.

After eating I slipped off on my own, and headed to the library for continued research on my own personal problem. I had read every book Madam Pince had given me on Spiritual connections and so far none of them had produced any viable result. I had tried a few, with Madam Pince's help when it came to magic, but the results had varied from nothing happening, to one incident where my hair turned a rather pukish shade of green for a day (luckily before school started...). All that particular incident had accomplished was giving amusement to all around me. Snape had mocked, Sirius had laughed, and Tonks had suggested far easier ways of changing my hair colour if I was so inclined. Headmistress McGonagall had merely suggested that the particular shade of green didn't really suit me.

Since I had gone through all the spiritual connection books, I was now reading just about everything I could get my hands on. Just in case any of them held a clue to what I could do to solve this. Everything and anything was fair game. Books on famous wizards in case a wizard or witch had a similar problem. Books on beasts and monsters in case one had a talent for connecting to people. Books on potions in case amazingly one could be used as a cure. I even read an entire book on wizarding fashions in case somehow clothes were the answer...

I must have looked rather amusing to all the students who came into the library (or being serious the five or six who came in, after all it was the first day of classes). Here I was a muggle teacher, with absolutely no magic, unless you counted my sparkling personality... and I was spending the entire afternoon of my first classes in the library surrounded by piles of books on magics that I could never use. Really it was rather futile, and actually if I had thought about it before I would have realized it was also a mite bit suspicious.

"Professor?"

The voice was rather small and timid, and even before looking up I could have guessed it was a first year. And upon doing so I saw that it was the particular first year who seemed to have a habit of walking in on me doing odd things.

"Mr. Faust. Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to...to apo-apologize to you." He was fidgeting, moving anxiously back and forth on each foot. His face was a bright red, not surprising since he was apologizing to his teacher for seeing her in compromising positions not just once, but twice.

"Oh dear. Kerstan, you really don't have to apologize." Shaking my head I closed the book I was reading. "After all it was my fault, not yours."

"Still... I'm sorry." Kerstan seemed to lighten up considerably after me taking the blame, his voice was more certain. His eyes moved over all the books on the table, and he looked confused. "Do all teachers study this hard for classes?"

I glanced at the books and saw them from an outsiders viewpoint. Here I was sitting at a table surrounded by piles of books that made it almost hard to see over. It certainly did look like I was working hard.

"No not all teachers do. You've had Professor Black's class haven't you?"

The young boy with the dark hair laughed at that, and once again I wondered if this young boy was the Harry Potter of this age. But thinking things like that are foolish. Gryffindor, happy, dark hair... that doesn't make you Harry Potter. It can't. It was highly doubtful this boy had any events in his life to match any of Harry's. Nor would I want him to have had any.

"I do hope his classes improve." Kerstan said softly, at my sharp look he blushed slightly. "For his sake, not mine. The Slytherins will tear him apart if not."

I nodded at this rather correct statement.

"Kerstan, do you know that boy Cain Montgomery? He's in Slytherin." The boy was friendly enough that I didn't doubt he would have learned everyone's name. At my question he looked a little surprised but nodded, the gesture was hesitant though.

"You know about him already then, do you?" His voice was low, and nervous, like he was telling a dark secret. My eyes widened at the comment though.

"Well no I just wanted to know if you knew him... but now you're going to have to follow up on that little statement." I gestured to the seat across from me, and slowly Kerstan sat down in it, still fidgeting.

"Well I assumed as a teacher you would have known already..."

My look indicated that was certainly not true.

"Well...it's just a rumour that's been going around. Of course someone should never trust rumours. But really... It's just that the thing is Cain's father was reportedly a death eater. Not that it was proven, but he died suddenly around the same time as that last battle."

My eyes were certainly large now. If Draco wanted me to look out for things that might be important, this was certainly one of them. Not that a parent's beliefs necessarily translated into the son' beliefs. After all Draco would be the first one to point that out. His father had been a death eater, and he had managed to turn away from that destiny. But that could be also placed upon the help he had gotten from Harry that last year as well. I didn't doubt that without Severus and Harry, Draco would probably be dead or in Azkaban now.

As for Cain, I was not making a judgement but my eyes were going to watch him far more carefully now.

"You're certainly right, people shouldn't believe rumours."

"He isn't helping with his attitude either. I haven't seen him say more then two words to anyone, teachers and fellow Slytherins included."

"Well you're a nice kid. Maybe you can become friends with him." My suggestion brought a look of distaste to the young boys face.

"He's in Slytherin..."

"And of course being a Gryffindor you wouldn't be afraid of what other people might say." I lifted an eyebrow at the dark haired boy. A deep sigh erupted from the boy, looking beaten already.

"Of course Professor."

"Thank you Kerstan." I smiled up at him, giving him a rather blatant dismissal which he happily took and bounded away from my table.

Tapping my fingers on the table relaxed me a bit, and helped me think. So young Cain Montgomery's father had been a possible death eater. It was a bit of a coincidence that with the return of Lord Voldemort, a son of one of his death eaters was now at the school at the same time that Sirius and I were here looking for the all important horcrux.

I looked down at the book I had been reading and realized that my heart wasn't in the research anymore, not for today at least. My own personal problem was going to have to wait.

I waited outside the Potions classroom at the end of the day, before dinner. As the students poured out, I got a few strange looks. Once the classroom was empty I walked into the room.

Severus was looking rather disgusted at a pile of different coloured vials on his desk. Apparently the Potions work hadn't gone too well since there were colours varying from brown to red to an interesting shifting purplish black. Knowing next to nothing about potions I still knew that you wanted all the potions to be the same colour to indicate that everyone had made the same thing. I don't think I would have wanted Severus's job, not if this was any indication of the student's potential in the subject. Not that I could personally understand the problems, after all didn't they just have to follow the directions on the board? It seemed rather simple to me. Sort of like following the directions on the back of a box of cake mix. Do everything right and you have a lovely two layered, chocolate covered golden cake. If you didn't, then you had more trash to throw out.

"Going well?" The smirk on my face was entirely out of habit. I couldn't have controlled it if I tried. Even with the glower I was getting from the hawk nosed Potions master at that very moment. It wasn't my fault. It was just amusing, and my face reacted before my brain thought about it.

"They're all just incapable of learning the art of potion making." He sneered out, looking away from the pile of mismatched colors on his desk to look at me cooly. "Can I help you Professor MacKinnion?"

"I would assume potion making would be like cooking. I bet you're probably a wonderful cook Severus." I smiled brightly, before the smile faltered. My brain reminded me that I wasn't supposed to be flirting with him anymore to avoid further troubles with Sirius. "Never mind. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about one of the Slytherin first years."

At my comment about potion making and cooking, Severus had looked surprised, now he just looked mildly annoyed. It was in general his normal appearance... He looked about ready to throw me out, so I thought it best to just hurry on before I found myself outside, wondering about the bruises I would have on my delicate derriere (If you keep telling yourself it's delicate, you too will believe it).

"Cain Montgomery. Do you know anything about him?"

A perfect black brow raised in my direction. There was no answer, at least not verbal. Instead Severus dug through the vials on his table and held up the one which was an interesting shifting colour between black and purple.

"Cain Montgomery is like that vial?"

So using sarcasm on Severus wasn't necessarily the best idea. Really the man didn't seem to appreciate the finer points of humour. Not if his grunt was any indication, or the look of disapproval on his face.

"I was indicating a likeness to what was in the vial." His voice took on the quality of a teacher. This was likely the way he sounded when speaking to his students. At least this would have been the way he sounded when talking to students if he was actually ever patient with any of them. It kind of made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that he was actually even trying to explain any of this to me.

"All right. I understand that, but not being a witch you will have to explain that a bit better to me."

"I'm referring to the colour. The boys shifts."

I tilted my head to look at the man, hoping that the change of view might help me understand that little ambiguous statement a bit better. Shifts? How does a boy shift? Was that a wizard term that I wasn't aware of? Sort of like teleporting or apparating?

"Well judging by the rather succinctly confused expression on your face I suppose I shall explain a bit more. Cain Montgomery goes back and forth. He seems to be rather unreadable."

"Wait, wait, wait." I held up my hand, shaking my head, trying to take a moment to think that through. "Are you saying that the almighty Professor Snape can't read one of his students? Even more so, one that's in his own house? I think I'm a little disappointed."

There goes that eyebrow again.

"I suppose you have better insight?"

"Well..."

I smirked again. Really I swear that it's not in my control most of the time.

"You should have known this, but I heard from young Kerstan that Cain's father was a death eater."

A distinct gloom cast itself over Severus's face. He stood up and started to pace back and forth across the front of the room. Thinking myself at least slightly intelligent, I stayed where I was in the back of the class. Generally gloomy teachers are best at distances, sort of like Monet paintings or shows involving clowns and watermelons. That advice taken doubly so when that gloomy teacher also is a wizard.

"Didn't you know his father?" Really I was taking my life into my hands by bringing up his past.

The question though made Severus stop his pacing and stare at me, as if he was just remembering my presence in the room.

"No, I didn't know any Montgomery." He ran an agitated hand through his hair, a gesture I hadn't seen him do before. Really I didn't think the nervous act really suited him too much. He would likely kill me if I said it, but it was more of a Sirius thing to do. "Just because I didn't know him, didn't mean he wasn't though. He had many followers that were secret."

Well there was no need to ask who he was referring to there... But there went my confirmation on the rumour. Now it was still speculation as to the connections of Cain's father.

"Well I probably don't have to tell you, but can you keep an eye on him just in case? It's too much of a coincidence to have a possible death eater's son here at the same time we're looking for something important."

Severus started to walk up the aisle toward me, and even before I had a chance to even think about it, my feet had already taken a few steps backwards. It's an instinctual desire to flee before a predator. And if this man was anything, he was certainly a predator. But I stopped the movement and stood my ground. He stopped just in front of me.

"You have no real proof that he is involved. You have no real proof that his father was even a death eater. It's just a Gryfindors word against a Slytherin." He continued walking up toward the exit, stopping next to me once again. "Do your dirty work yourself. It's time for dinner."

He wasn't going anywhere. If I didn't know the man better I would say that he was actually waiting for me to go with him to dinner. That though would be entirely out of character, almost like a nice thing to do. But the fact of the matter was that he was waiting.

Now I could go with him, entirely as professional working friends. Not a sight of flirting at all. It was of course possible for me to be around Sirius and Severus without teasing them. That wasn't the problem. No the problem was that the more time around the two of them and it wasn't becoming an issue of wanting to tease the two of them, but something else. I couldn't help my contact with Sirius, but Severus I could. Limited contact was likely best in this situation

"I'm not too hungry."

That was a lie. I was starving. The house elves were certainly going to be getting a visit from me.

Severus certainly looked disgruntled at that statement, as if he had been expecting me to hop up happily and run off to dinner with him. That would have been true just a few hours ago, but since the incident with Sirius... well I wasn't about to add any more episodes to that little feud. Even though I really was jumping on the inside at Severus's 'invitation' to dinner.

"If I find anything out about your connection with Black, I'll let you know." At my surprised look, he huffed. "I wouldn't want to have to deal with the students impressions of me after hearing that I supposedly attacked you."

"Ah."

And here I thought the world had been sucked into a negative space where everything was opposite. In this special world Severus was actually helpful, loved kitties, wore pink and was best friends with Sirius.

No more words were said, and the man swept out of the Potions classroom. He was on his way to the Great Hall where he could partake of the tables overflowing with food... While I on the other hand was relegated to asking for leftovers from the kitchen. And why? Because Sirius had to be a little baby about my relationship with Severus.

It was with a great degree of sulking that I stomped out of the classroom myself.

That night I had an interesting dream.

Severus and Sirius were playing tug 'o war with a giant stuffed unicorn. In the background Headmistress McGonagall actually had her hair down (which was really the most shocking thing in the entire dream), and was dancing with the portrait of Dumbledore. Harry and Draco were dressed up as bunnies, and not surprisingly, were cuddling up together. There was also a large donkey, that somehow how looked exactly like Mat, without actually looking like him at all, as is the way in the dream world.

It was all fairly normal, as far as dreams go. Not the weirdest one I had ever had either. That dubious distinction went to a particularly odd dream involving a bunch of neon elephants bouncing around on large rubber balls. That dream I had written off due to some bad curry my mother had made the night before. If Sirius and Draco had been right about my cooking ability, I didn't doubt that I had gotten the talent (or lack there of) from my mother.

At some point in the dream though, things took a dark turn. Everything faded out, or more correctly it seemed like I was pulled out of the dream, pulled so far away that everything else got smaller and darker.

The horizon was now dark, misty, rain falling hard on everything. In this dream world I felt controlled, confined and frightened out of my mind. It was an odd turn, especially since I normally regarded darkness and rain rather fondly. The thought of the two didn't scare me, or make me sad. Quite the opposite instead. But in this dream, I was scared.

Something was coming.

And that was when I had woken up, luckily for me. Touching my cheeks I could feel the warm salty tears on my cheeks. Never before could I remember having a dream that affected me so much. And what I remembered, there hadn't been too much to it. No large monsters, or embarrassing situations. No, instead this was entirely based off the feeling in a dream. With the day dawning, and sleep slipping off me, the dream was already beginning to disappear, but the horrible feeling stayed with me.

Cold water fell down on my head, and still I couldn't help the feeling of desperation and depression that was clinging to me. It made my body heavy, my skin sticky and clammy, and suddenly I felt an incredible urge to cry. Something was wrong with me.

I retreated from my shower, knowing that it wasn't going to help like it had in the past. The clear water wasn't going to wash anything away. Wrapping a towel around myself, I walked back into the bedroom. It was rather lucky that I decided to cover up.

Now, I'm not sure exactly what the protocol is for when a house elf sees you naked. I'm sure with normal ones it wouldn't really be that much of a problem, for you at least. For the house elf though they would likely find the hardest thing in the room, and bang their heads against it in apology. The elf standing in the middle of my bedroom was of course Dobby, lucky or not. Being freed gave him some new insight on situations.

An enslaved house elf (for want of a better word) would consider walking in on their master or mistress naked as a horrible offense, and would punish themselves accordingly. Dobby on the other hand was a freed house elf. So therefore he didn't need to punish himself for my sake.

Of course that didn't stop him from finding the hardest thing in the room, which happened to be the stone wall, and was now as I stood there banging his head rather painfully against it. He may have been freed, but all that did was give him a normal person's insight on the embarrassing situation. Just imagine what would have happened if I had been naked, and not wearing a towel...

"Dobby!" I pulled him away from the wall, a feat in itself since the little guy was far more powerful then his small demeanour might have led you to believe. "As flattering as it is that the sight of me in a towel makes you want to bang your head against a wall... Is there a reason you're here?"

The question caused the large eyes to blink uncertainly at me, before the small elf jumped up, and pulled out an envelope. I thought for a second to ask where he had pulled it from, since he wasn't exactly wearing anything with pockets, but I thought better of that idea. It was likely a magic thing... and those were things better left unasked.

"A letter arrived for you Miss. Here. Dobby is sorry he intruded. Sorry."

I was worried that he was going to start banging his head again, but instead he just nodded the bruised looking head and popped out of the room. If ever there was a magic trick I would have liked to have learnt, that was it. Being able to get places so easily would have been useful. I could have scared the crap out of my students back home too. Never would have known where the teacher was...

The letter that had been thrust into my hand was over all a rather normal looking one. The envelope was white, normally shaped, and made out of what I assumed was normal paper. It was addressed to me, one Professor Aine Mackinnion at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizadry. Small indentations indicated that it had been sent by Owl post.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I cracked open the envelope and pulled out the paper from within, opening it and starting to read what had been sent to me.

Dear Aine,

Should I have started the letter with dear? I wasn't really sure. I don't write too many letters anymore.

Anyway, Draco has informed me that you are fine, and dealing well with the reported attacks. I'm sorry that I couldn't come see you myself, but there were some things that had to be dealt with at the Ministry. Hopefully he wasn't too rude to you. He informs me that he was the epitome of gentlemanly behaviour, but that just means he didn't try to kill you. Learning to take everything he says with a grain of salt took me quite awhile.

The real reason to write is that he also told me that you have informed Professor Snape about everything.

Do you know what a howler is?

I flinched a bit reading that bit, but calmed down when nothing was screamed out at me. And anyway those things supposedly screamed from the opening.

I'm sure you do. I considered sending you one of those, but that wouldn't have been very sensible for keeping this all a secret. That you told him of all people... I think it was a mistake.

So the feelings between the Professor and Harry hadn't been cleared up that easily. Not that one can really blame Harry, Severus had treated him rather harshly while at school.

Draco though has enlightened me to the... upside of letting Professor Snape in on this.

A snigger made its way past my lips. Sometimes my mind really did live in a gutter. There were ways of persuading that didn't include handcuffs or beds... But they weren't nearly as fun.

Don't tell anyone else. Frankly you're only there because of the problem you and Sirius have. Otherwise I would have you home in America right now. You're in rather a lot of danger at the school, so I would like to at least know you're taking care of yourself and being careful. At least try to. And while you're at it, look after Sirius.

I've been in contact with your parents as well. I thought it best to give them a place to contact you, so they've been writing my place and I am now passing the letter on to you.

Keep Sirius working hard. I need that horcrux now. I don't want to push him... but it's getting worse.

Harry

Really... Somehow in the letter it had gone from me not being able to really take care of myself, to having to look out for Sirius. Out of the two of us he was the wizard, the one with the wand who could easily deal with anything that came his way. But here, the muggle, was the one being asked to look after him. Apparently I looked far stronger then I thought, since Draco had basically asked me to do the same thing with Severus. So Harry didn't want to push Sirius, but it was okay for me to do it. It looked like I was doing his dirty work so the godson could keep his relationship with his Godfather all nice and fuzzy and warm.

I'm in a lot of danger at the school? I reread the letter again, my brows furrowed together at that point. Sometimes I wondered at the intelligence of the boy wonder, after all was I safer at home? Hadn't people been killed at my school, in my department, likely by death eaters looking for me?

I flipped to the next piece of paper, and stared at my mother's perfect script. All right, so Harry wasn't exactly thinking correctly, but it had been considerate of him to contact my parents. After all it wasn't like I could use the phone to call them. Muggle contraptions are few and far between here.

Aine,

Should I be concerned that a young man named Harry Potter contacted us about you? That can't be his real name can it? He seemed nice enough, but he must get a lot of ribbing if that IS his real name. Are you getting involved with some strange crowds over there? Not that I should be surprised by that after that stupid incident with that ritual.

I hope you're getting that situation solved. Make sure you try and take a look at Freidrich's book on Spirituality in Rituals. There might be something there to help in case you haven't fixed it. In situations with blood it tends to require blood to break what was done. You could try performing the ritual again, or perhaps in reverse?

The Harry that I spoke to let me know that you're doing some work over there. Of course he didn't tell me exactly what or where, just that you were teaching. I shall think that this has to do with the person you're connected to. Why you're working when you should be solving the problem... I don't know. Just be careful. I don't know if you know, but some people were killed at NYU in your department. So actually it's a good thing you're over there now.

I was safer here... Two different views from two people. Perhaps the truth of the matter was that I wasn't really safe anywhere. If I was at home I might have been killed in that attack as well. The flip side though was that if I wasn't over here there might not have been an attack at the school. So being at the school was safe enough for me now... It was one of the safest places apparently, but judging by what happened in the books it wasn't as safe as people assumed.

Your father is not pleased with you, but he wants you to be safe. He's a little suspicious of the break in at NYU. I probably don't have to tell you that he's been having his friends at the job looking into it. Things aren't really as they've been portrayed in the press. It was a little suspicious to us that the break in was your department, right after you did something so stupid as a resurrection.

So we don't know what's going on, but be careful.

And in case you get involved with anyone while you're there, just be sure to be careful.

Love you,

Mom

Trust my mother to warn me about protection during sex while writing a letter to me about murders and resurrections. And she didn't even know that there were any men in my life... When I got home I was going to have to have a talk with her about her view of my personal life. Sadly enough for me I wasn't that promiscuous. The way things were going lately, I certainly wasn't going to have to worry about any of that while I was here. The really sad thing was that it was entirely of my own making...

It was a little worrisome though that dad was looking into the break in. The worry was that it could bring the trouble to their door. After all if the death eaters had broken into the school to get at me, then my parents were certainly at risk. I noticed a last piece of paper under my mother's letter.

We're keeping an eye on your parents. You've got no time to worry, just make my cousin find that horcrux faster and this will all be over. While you're at it, keep him away from Professor Snape. I'm looking into the backgrounds on those two boys you told me about, just keep an eye on them and send us anymore information you get. It might also be a good idea to keep your lips off anyone and concentrate on what you're doing.

Draco really was an ass sometimes... Though in his defense he had at least reassured me about my parents. Though the likelihood was that he hadn't realized he was doing it. For him it was entirely about what was important to him. The fact was that was Harry, and it just happened that our welfare was important enough to Harry so therefore was important to Draco.

I had expected worse from Harry after hearing about my little discussion with Severus. But he at least wasn't as close minded about the problem, at least not with Draco doing the pushing. There was a great deal of relief that accompanied the letter. Having Harry angry with me was something I had worried about. Draco I could deal with, hell I expected it, but Harry was someone I wanted to keep on my good side. I doubt he'd be too happy with the way I had been teasing his Godfather.

I realized I had been sitting only in a towel, reading letters, for a good 30 minutes. I still needed to go have breakfast. Today my class wasn't until after lunch, but that didn't mean I could just stay shut up in my room all day. Not to mention my stomach would not allow that. I got dressed, and rather lazily swept my hair up into a ponytail. After all who really did I care to make an effort for.

As I passed out of my rooms I spared a moment to realize that the letters had swept the nightmare from my mind, and the feeling of dread was gone. In fact I barely could even remember what I had dreamt about. Except Headmistress with her hair down... that was something that was going to stick with me. I wondered if I could get her to do that for real... It might cause a shock for the students though. But I needed something fun to pass the time.