Sorry this is so short, but writer's block has been kicking my butt, so I'm giving you what I have here and then heading for the fun of Christmas. Thank you all the reviews and sorry for the long wait.

Chapter 27

No more Shining Angel

As Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered Potions they noticed that Snape seemed distracted.

"Maybe he'll forget to teach class," Ron suggested.

As he spoke Hermione noticed Rath sitting amongst the Slytherines with Draco. He smirked at what Ron was saying.

"Mr. Weasley, I expect you have homework to hand in today?" Snape suddenly spoke up glaring at Ron.

Ron nodded his head, his face was pale and his eyes were wide.

"Excellent, read it aloud."

Ron's near popped out of his head. "Wha…"

"Read it aloud to the class."

Ron stood pulling out his scroll.

"Up here, in front of the class."

Ron gulped as he made his way to the front.

"Come on, Mr. Weasley, we haven't all day."

A few Slytherine's snickered.

"Um, Mmoonst-stone a-are…"

Harry wanted to cover his eyes, but didn't dare to. He glanced at Hermione to see the red streaked hair facing him. He looked in the direction she was facing to see who she was staring at: Rath. He was watching her as he melted and reformed his inkwell. Something odd was going on, but Harry wasn't sure what.

Snape watched the interaction between Rath and Hermione. He couldn't believe that Miss Granger would actually find Rath appealing. She was fascinated with learning, while he was a ½ alien hybrid from the states. He turned back to Mr. Weasley who was reading more steadily now that he realized his professor wasn't paying attention. Snape turned back to Rath again. He had asked Rath to sit in on a a high class during his break to see if the hybrid could pick up on any of it. He noticed Potter's suspicious looks as Rath and Hermione stared at each other. Like most boys in their year, Potter didn't see what the small witch was turning into. If he waited long enough he might lose her.

Ron continued ignoring the Slytherine jeers as he finished his report.

"Alright, Mr. Weasley," Snape spoke. "Very good, 5 points, I hope you all were taking notes, Mr. Weasley, made some good points." Snape enjoyed the annoyed faces of the Slytherines, now that he was outed as a spy, he no longer had to spoil them. Meanwhile Ron seemed in shock as he made his way to his seat. "If only your potions were as good as your presentation. Take out your supplies and continue yesterday's potion. Miss Granger, Rath, may I see you in the hall."

Ron and Harry watched confused as Hermione left.

Snape stepped into the hall and closed the door behind Hermione.

"Miss Granger, I understand you are staying for winter break."

"Yes, sir."

"I would like to ask if you would be interested in helping tutor Rath and a few other during that time."

"Of course, professor."

"Good, back to class."

Isabel lay on the grassy lawn behind the house staring aimlessly at the clouds above. She watched as the puffy shapes: bunnies, airplanes, and other things she thought she saw float by. All of this new power creeped her out, she could feel other people's energy. Like right now Lucius was walking toward her, both his and Voldemort's power felt like slime dripping across her skin. She was sure that if she tried to explain, it wouldn't make sense, but that's how she felt. She pressed her palm into the ground slightly and sent a small ripple of power at Lucius.

"Oof," he breathed as he tripped on the root that magically appeared. She smirked.

"Careful you wouldn't want to dirty that robe." Isabel said coolly, her eyes never leaving the sky.

"Isabel?"

"Expecting a different alien?"

"I saw what Kavar did to you." He said hesitantly.

"Mmm, yes that was interesting, wasn't it?" She could sense that Lucius was becoming uncomfortable. "Why are you here?"

"I want to talk about Kyle."

She smirked. "You're kidding, right?"

"Hardly."

She sighed as she sat up. "Have a seat."

"On the ground?" He asked sounding disgusted. Isabel pressed her palm to the ground again and a mound of dirt rose up. "Now you're above the ground."

He grimaced, but sat anyway.

"So shoot," when he didn't speak she sighed. "It's an American muggle reference, it means go, speak."

"What is Kyle like; I know you two are close?"

"You want me to give you pointers, okay, fine. Kyle is loyal, suspicious, and strong-willed, he won't back out of a fight, he cares for those he is close too and will protect fiercely. So basically, he'll hate you."

Lucius remained silent, "you love him?"

"He's my friend."

"Does he love you?"

"I don't know what he feels. I just know what he's like from our past together. We've both shared some major pain in the past."

Lucius knew he was reaching beyond his character here, but his master liked this girl and he wanted to figure out why. "What happened?"

She looked up at him as though he had lost his mind, and sighed. "We, a member of our group killed a very close friend of Kyle's and mine. She eluded us both for month. She even used Kyle unwittingly to cover up the murder. After it happened Kyle left for a while and we remained close, but now we're here and things are complicated."

"Well, my master regards you highly, I cannot fathom why, but he does. If Kyle is of my wife pure witch blood, than I believe he is worthy of you, princess."

Isabel's eyes narrowed into slits as he talked. "Uh, sure, thanks." With that she stood and left him to ponder things on his mound of dirt.

Lucius knew he was going to have to be cautious around his wife's son; he wasn't a mere muggle or average wizard. He was a mudblood squib with alien powers. He must be dealt with carefully, because Lucius had no idea how Kyle could react to anything. He stood to go pen a letter to Draco, see what information his ungrateful brat could get him.

"What do you think they were talking about?" Nicolas asked turning away from the window.

"Who cares, Lucius is simply a puppet in the snake's world. It's us we have to worry about." Lonnie defended.

"Of course, survival of the fittest, but Isabel's gotten weird since she killed Kavar."

"Like her attitude, she acts like me, which is just wrong."

"Cause nobody wants another of you."

She shot him a glare.

"Well, it's true, you already look alike isn't that bad enough."

"Point taken," she sighed. "How do you think they'll react?" She asked pointing upward.

"Probably already know."

"How?"

"Everyone who leaves to planet in a husk has a homing beacon grown into the husk. They're keeping tabs on everyone."

"Why?"

"To make sure you don't go AWOL, and Kavar for the obvious reasons."

"So if they are tracking you, they know that you're in a cloaked place."

"Yup."

"Would they be stupid enough to reveal this place to the rest of the world?"

"If they were stupid, my understanding is that this world is so highly guarded that humans have no clue, except for the very few with magical kids. Why?"

"Well, they'll probably come here looking for the royal four, so maybe we can persuade them that they're dead and to take us."

"It wouldn't work, you're not Isabel and Max has that intergalactic brain tattoo."

"What would they do if their king was dead, and the royal four was gone."

"It's not completely; Max's son though human would be the rightful heir or Zan's wife."

"But I thought Tess was dead."

"She is, but that's not who I'm talking about."

Lonnie was about to ask more, when she caught sight of Isabel walking down the hall toward their room. "So would they come in a space ship or can they just beam themselves down?"

"Remember the swirling portal we used to get into the castle?"

"Sure."

"That's how we move between the two planets as well; it's just a matter of how it is configured."

"Who would they send?"

"I don't know, they have agents stationed all over Earth, it could be anyone. Most likely it would be one of the people you saw at the summit."

"Sounds fun," she looked up to see Isabel enter her room and close the door.

"She's creeping me out."

"Because she's not a shining angel anymore?"

"That and she seems to enjoy the snake's company."

"It is creepy, but she's going back to the castle soon and we won't have to worry about her."

"Thank you."

Ron and Harry entered the common room that night to find Rath and Hermione alone reading something.

"Hey, Mione." Ron spoke announcing them.

The two jumped and the book disappeared into Hermione's bag and quickly replaced by another. "What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Reading four eyes, what does it look like?" Rath growled.

Hermione slapped his arm, "play nice."

"And if I don't want to?" He asked with a tone in his voice the boys couldn't identify.

"I'll send you back to Kyle and Draco."

"So, at least the ferret's more fun than these two."

"Maybe you should go back, Rath." Ron spoke.

"Guys, cut it out, he's not going anywhere we have homework to finish. So if you two will just leave us, we may be able to finish before midnight."

Ron and Harry turned and went up to their room with sour looks on their faces.

"Finally peace and quiet," Rath commented.

"I should tell them." Hermione spoke.

"Why and ruin all the fun I'm having?"

"I don't like keeping secrets from them."

"You're not, they're just too dense to notice anything."

"Well, Snape knows so someone is bound to figure us out eventually."

"That's cause he's old, these kids are young and stupid."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"No, I, they…" She interrupted his sputtering excuses with a kiss.

"Good, cause I might have to do something, if you were."

"Nothing bad I hope, I saw how good you were in Potions and I don't want to be on the wrong end of your wand."