To All my readers and reviewers-thank you so much for your kind reviews

Apologies that it has taken so long to put up the next installment. Hope none will be disappointed

Chapter 19

Meredith took Bill's advice to heart and worked hard to be perfect in potions. For every hour she spent on her other classes she gave two to potions. She spent countless hours studying, often staying up hours after her fellow Gryffindors had gone to bed. Her efforts left her tired and grouchy a great deal of the time, but it was all worth it when she got her high marks. Oliver and Percy had taken to standing on either side of her when she took her potions to Snape's desk and made sure to keep their eyes on both Snape and Flint until the potion was safely in the cabinet.

"Did you see his face when he told you your shrinking potion was perfect?" Patricia asked her. They were sitting on the sofa in the commonroom their books spread out on the table and a blanket covering both their legs. It was late January and the weather had become quite frigid. It was rather cozy to sit here by the fire.

"It was perfect," Meredith said running her new quill between her fingers, a Christmas present from her father. "I want to rub that git's greasy nose in it more than anything." Over Christmas she'd gone home to be with her father. They'd spent a quiet Christmas just the two of them. She worried about him now that she was back at school. He'd looked very ill when she'd seen him last. She'd told him about Snape and how awful he was. Her father had been very quiet for a long time, but after much prodding he'd finally told her that he'd gone to Hogwarts with Snape and they had been enemies. Though he didn't think Snape was especially cruel to her because of who her father was Meredith had different ideas, and it made her hate Snape even more.

"Let me look at your vampire essay," Meredith said setting down her charms homework. Patricia handed it over for inspection, as she did with all her homework. She used to have Percy check it for her, but he tended to be too critical. He would hand it back, tell her it was all wrong, and walk away. How was that supposed to help her? Meredith tended to be a little more constructive in her criticism. It wasn't that Patricia wasn't smart, she was, or that she didn't try, she did. She just didn't always grasp things as quickly as others. Meredith looked over the essay while Patricia idly played with her wand. Meredith did not raise an eye as she felt her hair lift off of her neck twist around on her head. Patricia had been trying to work Meredith's hair into a braid using magic for two weeks now.

"You might want to add some more to the paragraph on how to spot a vampire. Reactions to garlic, and lack of reflection and such."

"Thanks Mer," Patricia said lowering Meredith's hair and taking back her essay. Meredith pulled her essay for transfiguration out of her bag and looked it over while Patricia fixed her vampire essay.

"Hey Mer," Patricia said.

"Yeah," Meredith said absently, eyes on her essay.

"What does your Dad do?" Meredith jumped a little spilling ink on the parchment.

"Bloody hell," she snapped standing up and setting her essay on the table.

"Sorry," Patricia said wincing.

"It's all right," Meredith said. "I'll ask Tonks to do a spell on it to remove the blots. Um, my dad. He uh, does a lot of things." The truth was with her dad's condition he had had a lot of difficulty finding paid work. He didn't say much about it to her, but she wasn't stupid. She knew the money in her mother's vault would take care of both of them, but he insisted that it was to be used for her education.

"I was just wondering," Patricia said. "I guess it's not really any of my business." Meredith did not meet her friend's eye. There was a lot she hadn't told her friend about her homelife. Mostly, involving her dad and his condition. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her dad. He couldn't help being what he was. But she was afraid how other people might react. She had already heard the things that got said about werewolves from kids in the hallway and down in the great hall. She didn't understand how people could be so prejudice against people they didn't even know just because of something they had no control over.

"It's okay," Meredith said. She set her essay down on the table and rested her chin on her knees.

"You just don't talk about him much," Patricia said.

"I know," Meredith said. "I guess I just miss him a lot. I worry about him being all alone without me. We're all each other has you know."

"Your dad seems like a great guy," Patricia said.

"He is," Meredith said with a small smile.

Meredith was being extremely careful as she measured out the correct portion of porcupine quills. Snape was in a particularly foul mood today. He'd already taken ten points from Gryffindor because Oliver had been snoozing in the back of the room.

"Not so much," Percy whispered to her. "Too much and it'll explode."

"Weasley!!!" Snape barked at them. "If you are through doing Miss Lupin's assignment for her, perhaps you will note that your cauldron is boiling over." Percy let out a yelp as he quickly took his cauldron off the burner, burning his fingers in the process.

"Why didn't you tell Weasley to watch his own cauldron, Lupin?" Meredith gritted her teeth and brought her knife down on her quills with a loud thunk. She would not let Snape get to her. She was the bigger person here. She would not let him goad her into giving him one more excuse to take points from her house.

"Trying to make yourself look good by distracting Weasley. Thought you might look less like than useless incompetent you truly are by making Weasley lose focus." Meredith's knife slipped from her fingers and hit the floor.

"Stop it!" she shouted jumping to her feet. It happened so fast she couldn't have stopped it if she wanted to. Students screamed and jumped up as their cauldrons exploded. Snape was waving his wand frantically trying to stop the potions that were flying out of his cabinet and exploding in midair.

"What's happening!"

"Make it stop!"

"Meredith stop!" But she couldn't stop. She couldn't get control of herself. She clasped her hands to her head and tried to focus her mind. But she couldn't focus, she was too furious.

"Stupefy!" she heard Snape yell and her world went black.

Meredith blinked several times as the world slowly came back into focus. She looked around her and realized that she was in the hospital wing. She groaned as she remembered what had happened. She rubbed her head. Merlin, how had it happened? She hadn't lost control of her powers like that in years. Snape had just made her so angry.

"Good afternoon, Meredith," a gentle voice said beside her. Meredith turned and saw Dumbledore sitting by her bed, an amused expression on his face and a bag of toffees in his lap.

"Professor Dumbledore," she said softly. No doubt Snape had told the headmaster of the incident in the Potions classroom.

"How are you my dear?" he asked gently. Meredith felt tears in her eyes. She was going to be expelled she just knew it.

"I didn't mean to," she whispered. "I just couldn't control it."

"I know my dear," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "I know that it is not always easy to control one's temper. You are very much like your father in that aspect." Meredith was confused by that statement.

"My father? But Dad never loses his temper," she said shaking her head. Her eyes widened as she realized what he had meant.

"My father," she said. "My real father, you mean." Dumbledore shook his head and quickly changed the subject.

"It is difficult when one is so young to maintain the kind of control it take to keep a temper like yours in check. And with powers as strong as yours, it can often lead to incidents such as the one in the potions classroom today. However, I believe that with time and the proper instruction, you can learn to focus your mind so that this will not happen again." Meredith stared at the headmaster. He was not going to expel her. He was offering to help her control her temper.

"I have already written to your father," he said rising from his seat. "He has agreed that it would be best if I taught you myself. Privately. Our first lesson will be at noon tomorrow. Until then, I bid you good day." Meredith wanted to call after him, ask him what he had meant about her being like her real father. But the headmaster had already gone.

After being checked over by Madam Pomfrey she slowly made her way back to the dormitory. As she passed kids in the hall they all stared at her then quickly turned away. No doubt word of the incidents in potions had spread throughout the whole school.

"Parsnip," she said to the Fat Lady. The portrait swung open and she crawled through the hole. She found Percy, Oliver, and Patricia sitting in the common room waiting for her. They did not speak as she came over and sat down on the couch.

"Hi guys," she said not looking at any of them. No one spoke for a while.

"Are you all right?" Patricia finally asked her. Meredith sighed.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm okay."

"It was so weird," Oliver said. "Your eyes just went all wonky…" he broke off when Percy smacked him on the arm.

"It's okay," Meredith said. "I know it must have looked strange."

"It was scary," Patricia said. "Seeing Snape use a stunning spell on you."

"Teachers aren't supposed to use stunners on students," Percy said. "Unless there a danger to themselves or someone else."

"Today would certainly qualify," Meredith said.

"Has that ever happened before?" Patricia asked. Meredith sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"When I was little," she said. "It used to happen all the time. When I got mad."

"Bill made me mad when I was eight," Percy said thoughtfully. "He was making fun of the haircut that mum gave me. I was so mad that I made his hair catch on fire."

"I made my granny's wig fly off," Oliver said. "She was pinching my cheek, which I hated. It flew off and landed on the cat. Mum was not happy at all." The four of them laughed.

"Dumbledore said he could help me so I won't make things explode when I get mad," she said after a bit.

"Wow," Oliver said. "Private lessons with Dumbledore. I wonder what he'll be teaching you?"

"He didn't say," Meredith said. "But he must think it's real important. We're starting tomorrow."

"You will tell us all about it won't you?" Percy said.

"Yeah," Meredith said. "Sure, I guess. I'm real tired. I'm gonna go to bed." They said good night and she went up to her bed. After changing into pajamas she drew the curtains around her bed and crawled under the covers. As tired as she was she couldn't fall asleep. She couldn't stop thinking about what Dumbledore had said about her father. Like he hadn't really meant to say it, and how he changed the subject so quickly afterwards. It was a lot like her dad whenever he spoke of her father, which was hardly ever. Who was her father, and why were people so determined that she know as little as possible about him? This question floated through her mind as she finally drifted off to sleep.