A/N: This has to be one of my all-time favorite scenes with Raven and Gwen. Because it really shows you more about how different the two of them are. Plus Raven is being well... Raven. Enjoy and pls review! -Angel

Chapter 11

"Raven? Raven, why are you putting those on?" Gwen watched as Raven as she slipped on her brother's old army boots and resolutely tied the shoelaces. "Raven, you aren't going to…? Raven, promise me you won't hurt Severus. Please?"

"Fine," she answered all two readily then she stuck her foot in the second boot. "I won't hurt him. I'll just… bruise him a bit. Maybe mortally wound him."

"Raven! Please, you really don't need to do this, you know. You've all done enough as it is. I can protect myself, you know. But enough is enough. I'm fine. He didn't hurt me…"

"Gwen it isn't just because he hurt you, though that alone is enough of a reason to get Snivelus in trouble…"

"Raven, don't you see? This is why I didn't want Sirius telling you. I knew you'd overreact. He didn't hurt me and just because he is a… a narrowed-minded jerk doesn't mean that you should kick his butt."

"No, of course not." Raven looked trite for a moment as she stood and looked at Gwen. "I won't kick his butt, Gwen. Promise. I'll kick him high and hard but not in the butt. That I can promise you."

Raven grinned then she ran from the dormitory clomping her boots noisily as she did leaving an exasperated Gwen to follow. "Raven!"

Gwen ran down the stairs after her and then she saw Remus and the others seated in the Common Room waiting for them. "Remus, thank god you're here. Can you please talk your girlfriend out of hurting Severus?"

Remus glanced over at Raven, who clomped her way almost threateningly towards him, and then he glanced back at Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen, but I'm not that crazy. When Raven makes up her mind the only person who tries to change it is a desperately stupid person."

"Oh you're no help!" spinning she faced James and Lily with a pleading look in her eyes. "James… Lily… Can't either of you talk some sense into her?"

James just shook his head and smiled.

And then Lily shrugged. "Gwen, you'll have to learn this eventually but Raven has no sense. So trying to talk some into her is pointless."

Finally as a last resort she swung towards Sirius who stood behind her. "Sirius, you've got to talk her out of it. Please? For me?"

Looking very solemn Sirius walked over to Raven and took her shoulders in his hands. "Raven… Promise me something?"

Raven's eyes narrowed then she raised her chin. "I'm listening but I can't promise you anything."

"Promise me you won't hurt Severus…" a dangerous light came to Raven's eyes and Gwen felt pride grow in her for Sirius' understanding then he shattered it… "Until I'm there of course."

Raven grinned then and she slugged Sirius lightly in the chest. "That I can promise."

"Good," turning Sirius faced Gwen his eyes twinkling with mischief. "I've seen Raven's anger in action and it'll be nice to see it directed at someone other than me for a change."

Gwen couldn't say anything and only shook her head. He didn't understand. She guessed no one ever could. "Come on, Gwen, he hurt you. He insulted you. We're just making him pay for it. He deserves this." He held out his hand but Gwen could barely make it out.

"No one deserves this. No one does. A grudge is a grudge. And it always starts with one person. And then that person changes. It eats them alive… You don't know what it does to a person… I do… In fact I wouldn't be here if…" she looked away form him then and took another step back. "I'm going… somewhere…"

Turning she ran from the common room she didn't know where her feet were taking her. Only that she had to get away. She walked down unfamiliar hallways and went down corridors she had seen many times. Finally her feet slowed and she found herself just outside of Professor Dumbledore's office.

The great eagle's statue eyes stared at her and she felt remorse. She should never have disobeyed her mother. She didn't belong here. Carina Farr was right on predictions again. And now she had almost told her friends the truth. If the Headmaster found out, surely he would kick her out of Hogwarts. Then where would she be?

Sirius didn't see Gwen until History of Magic class and even there she ignored him. He tried to talk to her but her eyes remained steadily on Professor Binns as he explained the Goblin Wars. "Gwen, talk to me? Please talk to me? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."

"Sirius now is not the time." She said as she studiously dipped her quill in ink and continued writing her notes.

"And why the bloody hell not?"

She didn't even have the decency blink at his words, just dipped her bloody quill and continued writing. "We are in class and I am trying to learn."

Stubborn as always Sirius was not one to give in so easily. "What do you mean you be here if… If what Gwen? Tell me. You know you can trust me."

"Sirius, you are going to get us both in trouble. Now be quiet. I can't hear the professor."

"To hell with the bloody professor. Trouble is my middle name and you know it. Now tell me, what was it you meant? I won't leave you alone until you tell me."

This time she actually paused her quill in mid-air just above the parchment and a small smile tugging at her lips. "Sirius Trouble Black. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue now does it? What on earth was your mother thinking?"

"Nothing that can be printed I'm afraid." He said smiling with her then almost cursed again as the smiled vanished and a worried frown crossed her forehead.

"Yes, of course that would be the case." She turned her head back to the parchment and then ignored him for the rest of the class. That girl was driving him insane. He swore if he didn't get her to talk soon he'd rip out his bloody hair!

Gwen sighed as she made her way up to the Gryffindor common room at nearly 10. The fat lady was still slightly cross at her from her first time there and gave a short sniff as she swung open when Gwen gave her the password. She was so tired that Gwen was almost certain she could do nothing more than fall down face first on her bed and sleep the rest of the night away.

Then she entered the room and saw that Remus, Raven, James, Sirius and Lily sat by the fire. All of them looking tired and worried. As soon as Gwen entered the common room Lily stood and walked over to her. "Gwen, oh goodness, you're alright. We were all so worried. Where have you been?"

"The library. I was studying. Why are you all up? It's late and we need to get some rest. Tomorrow's the first Quidditch match, isn't it James?"

"We were waiting for you." Raven said quietly as she stood and slowly walked to Gwen. The army boots were missing replaced by her usual tennis shoes old and worn with age. "I didn't hurt Severus. It was rather tempting since he walked past me and I could have tripped him, but I didn't. I'd never do something to hurt you Gwen or upset you. I'm sorry, you thought I would."

"Oh Raven… thank you. And I guess I owe you… all of you some sort of explanation." She gave a short bark of laughter then sighed. "This sounds familiar doesn't it? Me, explaining another lie."

"Yeah, it does…" Sirius said then he made room for her to sit on the chair beside him. "Come over here."

Biting her lip Gwen held back the tears and sat beside Sirius hugging him quickly as she buried her face in his shoulder. "I'm sorry…" she murmured and he ran a hand down her hair.

"It's okay, just don't start crying on me." He told her and laughing she managed to pull herself together and sat up. Turning she looked at her friends. Remus and Raven sat together on once couch and on the other James and Lily sat each one on opposite ends of the couch, Lily being closest to her and Sirius.

"Let's see, where to start? Well, I've told you about my father's death and how my mother took it. She's always hated the wizarding world and she never forgave the wizards for what they took from her. Which is why I was so nervous when I came here. I didn't know what to expect. That is, I knew what my mother told me, but I had never met a real wizard or witch. Or seen so much magic in one place. Everything was new to me… but to get here I…" Gwen suddenly stopped short as small owl buzzed into the room from the stairway that led up to the dormitories.

It buzzed to and fro around the room as if looking for something then it spotted Gwen and landed lightly on her shoulder. Gwen turned and looked into the wide moon shaped eyes of the miniature owl her mother adored. "Luka, what are you…?" a fat red envelope dropped into her lap and she stared at it a full minute as the rest of her friends seemed to shrink away from it.

"It's a Howler…" James said almost fearfully.

"Howler?" her mind buzzed two and fro and then her eyes widened. She remembered reading about these. They were yelling letters that burst open if you didn't open them right away. "I'm not opening it. You open it Sirius!" she shoved the letter at him and then he passed it to Lily who quickly tossed it to Raven who tossed it to James who, of course, tossed it to Remus. If any of them had seen the way they looked tossing that letter about as if it were a muggle's hot potato they would have burst out laughing.

But none of them were laughing. Finally the letter began to smoke and Raven (who had been the one holding it) yelped and dropped it to the ground. "It's gonna blow! Run for cover!"

Raven grabbed Remus and they dodged behind the couch they had been sitting in only moments before. Lily and James each hid behind their couch and Sirius grabbed Gwen and tossed her down backwards so she landed on her butt behind the chair they had been sitting in.

More stunned then anything Gwen heard something that sounded like an explosion and then the letter burst from where it lay it's enveloped flaps in the shape of lips, until it was mere inches from Gwen's face. "GWENDOLYN DACHA GENE EPIPHYSIS FARR!" it started and terrified of it Gwen back up until she hit the opposite wall, even then leaning back as if to escaped the words it spewed onto her face. "HOW DARE YOU GO AGAINST MY WISHES AND GO TO THAT SCHOOL! WHEN DUMBLEDORE SENT THAT LETTER I EXPRESSLY TOLD YOU THAT YOU WOULD NOT GO! YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THEIR KIND! YOU ARE A FAIRY AND MY DAUGHTER AND I SHALL NOT HAVE YOU RUNNING ABOUT AND LEARNING WHAT THEY CALL MAGIC! YOU SHALL BE TRAINED AS I WAS. AS ALL THE JUNTA FAIRIES HAVE BEEN! YOU ARE TO COME STRAIGHT HOME! NOW!" the letter stopped shouting and in the sweet coaxing voice that Gwen remembered her mother used when she was sure of something said. "SendLuka with your answer so I shall know when you are to arrive."

Then the letter dropped to the floor in front of Gwendolyn and burst into flames. Shocked and terrified Gwen stared at it for a whole minute as if afraid it would come back to life. Then she looked up and saw Remus, Raven, James and Lily all looking cautiously over their hiding spots cushions. Sirius lay on his belly where he had landed and stared at her. Then a small grin came across his face. "Gwendolyn Dacha Gene Epiphysis Farr?"

Gwen stared at him as she took in that he had actually had time to notice her full name when her mother had been doing all the rest of that yelling. Then a small smile split her face and she slowly nodded. "I've always hated it." She managed then burst into laughter with the rest of them.

"Dacha and Epiphysis are names of some Fae relatives on my mother's Junta Fairy side." She said explaining as she righted the chair that had fallen over when Sirius pushed her down. "Epiphysis you probably heard of. She was a muse of a sort. They came up with the word epiphany for her. Dacha… I don't really know who she was. Gene was my grandfather's name, on my father's side… but yeah, so I guess that's it. You pretty much know the whole story now…"

"Not quite. You want to run it by us again. Before you were… interrupted," Lily said eyeing the smoldering piled that had been the Howler as she seated herself back on the couch. "You were saying to get here you had to…?"

Gwen seated herself and Sirius moved to sit beside her and she scooted over to make room for him. "Well, as you can tell from what I've told you and… what you've heard, mama doesn't much like you wizarding folks. She blames you all for his death. So when I received my letter I was ecstatic. Only one other person in my family had ever been offered the chance to come here, to Hogwarts. My Papa… He always told me wonderful stories about this place… No, that's not right… there was someone else, someone on my mother's side. My great-grandma."

She looked down at her hands for a moment then she slowly pulled her wand out and showed it to them. Slowly she rubbed her hand along the intricate knotting vines that ran the length of the wand. "This belonged to her. In my family she was a disgrace. She loved the wizarding world so and masqueraded as a witch. Dumbledore convinced the old Headmaster to let her learn here. And she learned everything. No one ever knew who she was or what she was. She learned and then left. After she had my grandma things changed. She disappeared. No one in my family speaks of her. I had to ask so many times just to learn what little I know. Iam the most like her I hear. Though my hair is like my father's. Dark. And my eyes are his. In me there is… the same desperate feeling of being left behind and wanting to learn. Thirsting to learn…"

"When you received your letter your mother must have gone nuts. What did you do?" Remus asked from his seat next to Raven.

"You're right about that. She started ranting and raving again." Slipping her wand back into her cloak she folded her hands. "She forbid me to step foot upon the lands of that school as she called it. Then she took off in a huff to tend to her herb garden. She left me alone with my thoughts, the Hogwarts invitation and information. I packed so fast whatever I thought I'd need and then I traveled by flu powder to Diagon Alley. There a teacher met me and then took me to Hogwarts. I just never told Dumbledore that mother hadn't agreed to let me come. I mentioned she was… uncertain about letting me come… but…" Gwen shrugged then looked at her friends.

She wasn't at all afraid that they would blow the whistle upon her. She was certain that they understood her and she knew that they would only do as they saw was right.

Raven took a deep breath then let it out in an almost sigh then she looked at the others. "Looks like we've got ourselves a rogue fairy. There's just one thing that I've got to say to you, Miss Farr."

She stood and Gwen stood as well until they stood face to face, Raven's eyes were narrowed in the same look she had before and then she smiled. "Warn me the next time your mad mother sends you a Howler. I don't want to be around to blow my ears off."

Gwen laughed then and she looked at all her friends and then she did something she had never done to anyone. She hugged Raven and then she leaned back and smiled, nodding.

"That I can promise." She said mimicking Raven's earlier statement as she counted her blessings. All five of them. "I can definitely promise that."