-1Chapter Two: Gotta Knock a Little Harder

"Happiness is just a word to me

And it might have meant a thing or two

If I'd known the difference

Emptiness, a lonely parody

And my life, another smokin' gun

A sign of my indifference"

Starting her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Arathelia sat alone by the shore of the lake, thinking back to last year. She had gotten him good, hadn't she? With her friend, Yumi's, help, she had magically rigged three water balloons to hit Draco on specified targets. The first target was his head. Who could resist messing up the peroxide prince's permanently perfect hair? The second place they targeted were his pants. The guy walked around so arrogantly, as if he were better than everyone else! So, they had rigged that balloon to hit him in the pants, making him look like a child who had an accident. The third didn't really have a specified target, just to hit him. When he looked around for the source of his embarrassment, his gaze immediately met Ara's. He looked furious at the smirking girl only a few feet away from him.

Ending her thoughts of the previous year as Yumi sat beside her, they proceeded to laugh at the giant squid and its random thrashing about as First Years threw stones at it. It was already a week into their Fifth year and Ara had yet to have a confrontation with Draco Malfoy. From what Ara had heard from her brunette friend, she too had someone to look out for in their rather large school. By a cruel chance of fate, Yumi had gotten on the notorious Boy Wonder's bad side, and now he was out to get her back. Ara ruffled her choppy, dark red hair and wrapped an arm around Yumi. She smiled happily at her friend.

"Hey, just think, Yumi! If that bugger tries anything on you, he answers to me!" Yumi smiled back, shivering mockingly at her friend's comment.

"Oh yeah, I know you'll take care of him! Hell, even I wouldn't want to be around when you get pissed off!" Ara playfully glared at Yumi and elbowed her in the ribs.

"Hey! Was that supposed to be sarcastic!" She asked, sounding incredulous.

At that moment, the last person Ara wanted to see was making his way over to her and Yumi's spot by the lake.

"Hmmm… Who is your little friend, here?" Draco asked Arathelia upon reaching them. His eyes roved over Yumi's form before they rested back on Ara. Before Arathelia could answer, Yumi shot up to stand directly in front of Draco. Glaring at him in hatred, she growled,

"I hope you aren't talking about me like that, cause if you are, I am just the girl who is gonna kick your ass if you try to talk about me like that again." Draco rolled his eyes.

"Let me guess. Gryffindor, right?" He paused for a moment, stepping closer to Yumi.

"Potter is going to just love you." He whispered softly in her ear, causing her to shiver slightly. Hating herself for her body's involuntary reaction, Yumi glared even more angrily at Draco and grabbed his shoulders. With all of her strength, she kneed him in the crotch. Before Yumi could inflict any more damage on him, Arathelia grabbed her under the arms and locked her hands behind her head to hold Yumi back. Still in the sleeper hold by Arathelia, Yumi watched in amusement as Draco squirmed on the ground in obvious pain.

"Geez, woman! Why did you drag me away?" she demanded. Laughing too hard to answer coherently, Arathelia pointed toward Draco. His two rather large cronies had shown up to help their leader and an extraordinarily ugly girl, who looked remarkably like a bulldog, sat beside him sobbing. To Ara and Yumi's ears, the sobs sounded much more like shrieks, but they were too occupied to comment on it. In fact, they were so occupied with laughing, they failed to see the smirking emerald eyed boy standing near them in the shadows. The young man, unnoticed by the two girls, nodded solemnly to the 'injured' Draco. In response, the blonde haired young man inconspicuously nodded back, showing his understanding of their unspoken plan.

Later that day, Yumi and Arathelia headed into the Great Hall, splitting ways to sit at their House tables. To both of their delight, neither Harry or Draco could be seen.

Sitting across from them, Yumi greeted her two friends.

"Hey Ron, Hermione!"

"Hello Yumi. How are things between you and Harry?" Hermione asked gently. Without intending to, Yumi flinched at the sound of Harry's name. Like some flinched at the sound of Voldemort's name, she flinched at Harry's. It wasn't that she feared him, it was the fact that he was masquerading around as someone he was not. He was supposed to be a hero, and what Yumi had seen that night last year had not been something a hero would do. It nearly broke her inside to find that the boy she had heard so many wonderful things about went around at night torturing innocent female students.

"Lets see…I have been avoiding him just like any other guy, so no, I have not seen him in quit some time!" Yumi responded happily, masking her hatred easily. The two across from her looked to each other questioningly and were about to comment, but she raised her hand, signaling them to stay silent. Checking her watch, Yumi raised her hand once more, counting down on her fingers.

"3...2...1..." As she reached one, Yumi ducked her head under the side of the table as two blurs of color whizzed by her, missing Ron and Hermione by a fraction. Missing their obvious targets, they flew a few more feet before landing on the ground. Yumi shot her head back up with a wide grin on her face.

"So…What were you two going to say?" She asked, as if she hadn't just tried to hit them with some magically tinkered product of her and Arathelia. Although the two of them had recently transferred over to Hogwarts from Durmstrang only two years ago, it looked as if they were as bad as Fred and George, possibly worse. Ron and Hermione pointed simultaneously to two Ravenclaw girls behind her. The two girls in question seated themselves on either side of Yumi. The two were almost exact mirror images of each other. They both were delicate looking Asian girls with long hair tied into low pig-tails. Both girls wore glasses and were notorious for their random behavior. Few people actually knew that the two of them were not related, although it immensely seemed so.

"YUMI!" They shouted simultaneously, hugging her from either side.

"What's up Sano? Kyoshi?" Yumi managed to squeeze out, her breathing constricted by the two girls still hugging her. Disengaging, Kyoshi pulled a piece of yellowing parchment from her inner robe pocket.

"My letter!" Sano yelled happily, grabbing a hold of the letter. Unfortunately, Kyoshi held strong.

"My letter!" Kyoshi yelled, pulling the letter in her direction. This went on for about three minutes before Yumi fell backwards off the bench, landing on her back, her legs still remaining on the bench.

"Ouch!…Now, what letter?" They both stopped abruptly to look down at Yumi.

"Your letter!" They shouted in unison as they shoved the letter to her. Still lying on her back. Yumi opened the letter and read,

'Dear Yumi,

Please report to my office promptly after dinner. This is not a punishment, nor are you in any kind of trouble.

Thank you for your time,

Professor McGonigul'

"Hmmm… I'm not sure of it, but don't you think a professor should know how to spell their own last name? Either way, I should still go, right?" Yumi asked aloud. Kyoshi and Sano shrugged in response.

'Big help they were!' Yumi thought sardonically as she headed out of the Great Hall in the mass of exiting students. As the students split up into their houses, each group heading in the direction of their common room, Yumi broke off and headed to the Transfiguration classroom.