AN: Check the first chapter for disclaimers

Poll results were overwhelmingly for the Raven, and I bow to your suggestions and reasoning.

Sorry for the delay guys, real life getting in the way of the HP world :P. It has been a huge couple of months for me, moved to a new town, changed jobs, lots more happening, so it has been busy.

Don't worry though, this story will continue for quite some time. I'm already framing an outline for a sequel when this one has barely reached 10% progress *Indigo does a facepalm at her own eagerness*.

This Chapter was written almost 2 months ago, but I have a habit of keeping a 2 chapter gap between the latest published and the one I'm currently working on. I had been stuck on a scene in ch 15 for a month now, but finally got it done yesterday and have progressed to Ch 16, thus you guys are finally getting this one. Sorry, but this scheme of mine helps me keep a continuity between chapters and helps remove major errors from the plot/story.

Anyways, Enjoy!


Helen came back into consciousness and was greeted by awful pain all over her abdomen and kidneys. It was like someone was chopping her organs into tiny little pieces. The pain was of the magnitude similar to the Sumerian magical channel ritual she had performed last year. However, the pain in that one was a bit of a shock and short lived, this ritual left her with a persistent lingering pain which had developed over time and was persistently bothersome. She would remain in this painful state for a few hours until her body found a new stable state, at which time the pain would rapidly recede.

She felt a cool cloth running over her neck and face and realized that she was lying on a soft surface, probably a bed. Padma must have put her in it and likely had cleaned her up after she had expelled the extra toxin from her body. Helen however, had another urgent matter to attend before she could properly thank the Indian girl.

Helen opened her eyes and got up as quickly as she could, groaning all the while. She willed a toilet to appear nearby and stumbled towards it, with the help of Padma. As soon as she was sitting, she let go. The liquid burned its way through her, though it didn't cause any damage, thanks to her generous intake of water throughout the day. After peeing for over two minutes, she cleaned up and got off the toilet.

Padma was standing just outside, ready to help her, and half carried, half guided her back to bed. Once she was back on her back, Padma covered her nude body with a warm sheet and sat at the bedside.

Helen looked at her friend and said heartily, "Thank you for taking care of me."

Padma blushed at the sincerity in her voice and spoke, "There is no need for thanks. You would have done the same for me. Though, I would have preferred that you hadn't gone through that at all."

Helen tried a mischievous smile, which probably might have looked like a grimace, "I will be doing the same. I want you to perform this ritual as well."

Padma blanched at that prospect and asked worriedly, "Do I have to? I am very unlikely to be a target of poisoning or something." She tried desperately to avoid the terrible process herself.

"It would be a relief for me if you do it." Helen responded, looking at her with big earnest eyes.

Padma soon capitulated and dreadfully agreed to the ritual. Once that was done, she started fussing on Helen, making sure she was at ease and as comfortable as she could be.

In order to divert her mind from the pain, Helen teased the girl, "So did you enjoy feeling my body?"

As Padma blushed at her insinuation, Helen continued with a playful smirk, "You could join me in the bed. Keep me company. It is quite late after all."

Controlling her blush, Padma replied with her own smirk "You were covered in vomit and blood, so I could hardly enjoy it. And despite the fact that you are beautiful and very pleasing to look at, I don't swing that way. I'm straight as a beam of light."

Instead of correcting Padma about the straightness of a beam of light, Helen smiled and said, "I know silly. I was just teasing."

Padma replied with her own smile, "I know."

"Though you should really get in the bed though. It really is quite late and we have classes in the morning." Helen said, summoning a clock to show that it was nearing 1 O'clock in the night.

Padma agreed and joined her in the bed, but summoned separate covers, causing Helen to smirk.

"What? You are naked under that sheet!" Padma exclaimed before continuing softly "And also I don't want to accidentally hurt you during the night."

Helen's smirk turned into a warm smile at hearing the concern and she took her hand into her own, holding it tightly. They fell asleep like that, holding each other's hand.

XXXXX

Helen woke up from an uncomfortable sleep at 4:30. The pain had started receding and would be completely gone in a few minutes. She remained on the bed till then, looking at the peaceful face of her beautiful friend. It was too bad she was not even slightly bisexual, because her lips looked very kissable. She had flawless rose beige colored skin with dark brown almost black hair and big brown eyes. Her face was oval shaped with a perfect little nose that Helen found completely adorable.

Helen looked away before her overactive libido made her do something regrettable. She really had to find someone to sate her needs which, she thought, wouldn't be very difficult, recalling the looks she got during the dinner last night.

Once the pain was gone she got up and left the bed. She felt better than ever, as if her body had more energy, despite the fact that she had not eaten at all yesterday. She summoned a mirror and checked herself out. Her skin looked more healthier than before, it was almost glowing. She willed the mirror away and mentally called for a bath.

After soaking in warm water for over twenty minutes, she got out and wore a fresh pair of shorts and T-shirt. She gently woke Padma up, and dragged the sleepy girl back to their rooms. After making sure Padma was nicely tucked in for another hour of sleep, Helen went into her room and brought out her new pet project.

She had seen a few muggles using mobiles, which were like portable telephones to communicate on the go and she wanted to replicate that device using magic. Her enchanting skills were advanced enough by now, to make a very basic device. Though she planned on making them much better than the muggle mobiles. She wanted people to talk face to face, similar to floo, but using a handheld gadget.

She sat in the oval by the huge window and worked on it for an hour till her year-mates started waking up. Packing her sheets of formulae and diagrams, she stood up and went to wake up Padma, who she knew would have a difficult day ahead of her, as she wasn't used to just 4-5 hours of sleep.

Soon they were all sitting in the great hall having breakfast, wondering which classes they would attend today. Helen was having an extra large and heavy breakfast, something she had never done before, of bacon, turkey sandwiches, eggs and oatmeal with milk.

Their group had two new additions today, in the form of Colin and Luna, both were invited by Helen to join them. Colin was extremely excited to sit by Helen and Luna had greeted a strange good morning, "Hello, Helen Potter. You look much cleaner today." And then she started making a fortress of bread, bacon and sausages.

"Um, thanks." Helen replied, not knowing what else to say and suppressed her surprise. That confirmed it for her though, Luna certainly was a seer of some sort. She wondered how to deal with her.

"You seem to be attracting a few wrackspurts. It's strange, as yesterday you were among the very few people who had none." Luna said to Helen, before demolishing her breakfast fortress.

Everyone just looked at her strangely for a moment and went back to eating without saying anything. Helen realized one thing then, she would have to look out for Luna, as her psyche seemed to be not completely there, as was the case with most of the seers and she would be a target for bullies, which unfortunately, her house was full of.

Soon, professor Flitwick came around distributing their timetables, which Padma was very happy to see, as they had the whole forenoon session free today, giving her time to catch a few more hours of sleep. Their timetable was still top heavy with 5 sessions on Mondays, and every other day having only 2 or 3 classes and Fridays being completely off except for Astronomy late in the night. On Mondays they had DADA double sessions in the morning, followed by afternoon classes of history of magic and transfiguration respectively, both with Gryffindor, right after lunch. Wednesdays had a repeat of afternoon classes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays in the first period they had potions with Hufflepuff followed by Herbology and Charms both with Gryffindors again and had the whole afternoon free. On Fridays, their whole morning and afternoon were free with only an astronomy class late in the night.

Only the first years and the fifth years had separate DADA classes in Hogwarts with a pair of houses, the rest of them had joint sessions on the subject with all the students of that year attending the class together.

Since they had a lot of free time this year, Helen planned to focus on all her extra-curricular works and make good progress in each. For alchemy, she would have her work cut out as she needed to become proficient in a lot of different subjects, starting with potions. She planned on getting Snape to give her extra lessons.

Helen looked over at the staff table and saw him getting up to head towards the dungeons. She excused herself from the group and quickly followed the potion master. She caught up to him on the stairs down to the upper dungeons.

"Good morning, Professor." She greeted him cordially, stepping along with him.

"Morning, Miss Potter." he replied, raising an eyebrow and asked, "What are you doing here? I don't recall the second year having a potions class today."

"I have a request, Sir." Helen asked in a faux nervous voice.

His eyebrow climbed even higher at her words. He signaled her to continue.

Helen started with deliberate hesitancy, "I was wondering if I could use a station in your lab for practice and research, with your permission of course, Sir. I'm really interested in the art of potion making and wanted to do extra work on it from this year onward. I promise I'll not disturb you or anyone else in the laboratory and will clean up after I'm done."

She gave him a big earnest eyed look to further influence his decision, knowing that it would make it difficult for him to say no to her.

He relented after a minute and asked her to follow him. He took her to the main classroom and then through the door on the side into a smaller room. The room had a few empty potion stations, a desk in the corner with a lot of glassed cabinets along the wall. There was a tall bookshelf filled to the brim with potions textbooks in another corner, with a couple of armchairs nearby. A fireplace was across the desk, probably for the floo connection. There was a low table next to it, carrying cauldrons of different metals and sizes.

Snape started explaining, "This is my private laboratory and office. You may use the stations here, as the ones in the main room are for class work only. The ingredients cabinets are off-limits without my permission. You may consult the books from that bookshelf, except from the top 3 shelves which you will not be able to access anyway as they are warded. You may use the apparatus and the cauldrons, but I expect them to be cleaned after you are done. If I'm working in the room, I expect you to keep the sound levels at the minimum. If a class is in session, you may use that door to enter and leave this room," he finished pointing at the door on the far wall.

She nodded at the instructions and he continued, "Understand that this is a privilege I'm giving to you. I expect you to follow these instructions or else I'll take away the privilege, never to be given again." He paused to make sure the message was received. "Now, I have the OWL students in a few minutes. You may use the lab right now if you wish." he ended softly, with a hint of hope in his voice.

"The door is password protected, which currently is set to 'Mora Tapinella'." With that, he turned around and left for the class.

"Wow!" Helen whispered to herself. She had expected only to get access to the classroom during the off hours and maybe a recommendation or two for books to read, but not this. She looked around the treasure trove Snape had opened up for her. A well equipped potions lab with a whole collection of related texts at her disposal. And a potions master available most of the time to consult. Her charms and persuasions had clearly worked better than she expected.

She would have to do something nice for him. She hadn't done anything for him when he had saved her last year during her Quidditch match, the problem was how to go about it.

Putting that aside for now, she went to the bookshelf and after browsing, pulled out a couple of heavy texts. Taking her robes off, she settled in an armchair for a long read.

XXXXX

Snape was distracted throughout the whole session with the fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins. The cause of his distraction was currently sitting in his office. For his fifth years, he usually started with a theory lecture, but today he had just given them instructions for a simple potion and had sat in his chair for the whole double period. Once the class was done and the students had left, he got up and carefully entered his office. He knew she hadn't left yet, as he had a monitoring charm on his office door and no one had left through it.

She was sitting on his favorite armchair facing towards him, reading what appeared to be quite an advanced text on the effects of temperature variation in potion making. She had another heavy text opened on the side table, whose cover he couldn't see but guessed it was the one that explained controlling exothermic reactions. She had to be incredibly advanced to even understand what those books had in them. Most of the students who he had just dismissed wouldn't understand a word in those books.

He quietly made his way over to his desk and sat down to observe the girl. She had taken her heels off and was sitting with her legs folded and the book resting in her lap. She would occasionally look over to the other text and go back to reading the one in her lap. He tried to guess which exact topic she was reading but kept getting distracted by the way she would bite her lip in concentration or how short her skirt was.

Realizing he was being a creep, he looked away and started working on his own research. He didn't make much progress because his eyes kept shifting to the girl, but every time he forced himself to concentrate on his work.

XXXXX

A throat clearing sound took Helen's attention away from the book. She looked up surprised to find Professor Snape sitting at his desk, looking at her with an unreadable expression.

"It's 5 minutes to lunch. You might want to attend that." He said.

Helen blushed a bit, having completely missed him entering the room or that almost three hours had gone by.

He suddenly asked her, "You already know that Porcupine quills should not be added to a cauldron with an active flame under it. Explain to me the reason for it as well as the exception to that practice."

Helen automatically answered, "Porcupine quills have an exothermic reaction with most of the common ingredients. To add them in a cauldron over fire would either melt the cauldron, if one is lucky, or, in the worst case, cause it to blow up. They can be added to low heated cauldrons in small quantities if a heat suppressing ingredient, like the dragon's tongue flower, is already in it."

Snape nodded, "I see that you understand the concepts in that book. I also see that you are far ahead of your curriculum. What I don't know is how you got so far ahead, hmm?"

He posted it like a question, so Helen answered, "I'm really interested in potions Professor. I plan to get a mastery in the subject and try to break your record as the youngest potion master." She gave him an angelic smile, "I hope you wouldn't mind my ambition."

He smirked at her cheekiness, "Lofty ambition, you will have to work very hard and dedicate a lot of time and effort to achieve it, though you certainly have the potential." He hesitated for a second and continued, "You may come here whenever you want to work or research. If you have difficulty in understanding any concepts, you may come to me."

"Now, if you wish to eat at all, you should go as lunch has already started."

Helen nodded and closed the books after noting the page she was on. She got up and smoothed her clothes, fully knowing that his eyes followed the path of her hands. She picked the books up and set them back in their proper place. She picked up her robes and held them in her arm and turned towards him.

With an affectionate smile, she said "Thank you, Professor, for allowing me access to your private lab and for this opportunity."

His face softened a bit and he nodded back at her. She then left for lunch, with a spring in her step.

XXXXX

Monday dawned bright and with second years excited as they had Lockhart first thing in the morning. The review from the other years who had attended his classes had been mixed so far. Some were enraptured by his classes after the disappointment of Quirrell's stutter last year, while others were ambivalent and thought he was a bit boring. That the first group mostly consisted of girls and the second mostly of boys might have had something to do with their opinions.

From what she had heard, Helen gathered that so far Lockhart had all the classes revising what they had learned in previous years to get a picture of their understanding of subject matter. Helen thought that he was doing the right thing to test the scope of their knowledge before starting to teach them something new. For the first years he had started with his book Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests teaching them how to counter the pests commonly found in magical dwellings.

After breakfast, the second years climbed to the first floor into a different classroom than last year. This one was much larger and had a conical shape, with a raised platform for the teacher at the front and rows of curved desks for three, with each row slightly higher than the one before it. The teacher's platform was quite big, enough for a practice duel, if required.

She knew that DADA actually had 3 separate classrooms. This was the bigger lecture hall, there was a smaller version of it in which they attended classes last year, and there was another even larger than this one which was a big rectangular room with a lot of open space where all the students of a class could practice spells and dueling simultaneously.

She sat down in front with Hermione and Daphne, with the rest of the girls taking up the remaining front seats while the boys happily occupied the back seats. Lockhart was already present, standing next to his desk, regally looking over the students with a pleasant smile on his face. When the last student sat down, he began.

"Good morning everyone. I am Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming-Smile Award - but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" he said with a grin. The class gave a short laugh.

Beaming, he continued, "First of all we will have a quiz of sorts, to know at what level your knowledge is."

He handed out the test papers and returned to the front of the class, "You have thirty minutes - start - now!"

The quiz consisted of questions based on the topics learned in the 1st year DADA classes, most of which required either one word or very short answers and covered the complete course of the first year defense class. Helen started working on her paper immediately and her friends did the same as well. After all, this was quite a simple test for her group, whom she had started tutoring during the last year.

Lockhart, meanwhile, roamed around the class, occasionally peering into the answer sheet of a few students, making sound cues indicating their performance. When he looked over the almost completed sheet of Helen, he gave her a brilliant smile, she returned one of her own to him and went back to her paper to complete the last few questions. She was done a couple of minutes later. She checked the time, it was still over ten minutes to go, so she decided to observe her new teacher.

On seeing her head up, Lockhart approached her and asked, "Done?"

"Yes, Professor," she replied softly with a smile, so as to not disturb her classmates. He gestured for her to hand over the answer sheet and she passed it over to him. He seemed a bit surprised at finding all the answers correct and gave her an approving look.

Soon, the time was up and everyone submitted their answer sheets. As soon as the last sheet was handed over, Lockhart started, "I'll assess these later, however, I did check your performance while you were answering the questions. It seems your previous teacher was not very, er... shall we say, efficient, in conveying his knowledge to you. We shall have to rectify the damage caused by that as well as learn about more advanced spells and dangerous creatures. However, I must commend Miss Potter here, who not only had answered all the questions correctly, but did so in almost half the time. Well done, Miss Potter, 20 points to Ravenclaw for your effort."

He looked proudly at her with those bright beautiful eyes, causing her to blush slightly. She gracefully accepted his appreciation and he began teaching. The class was a bit routine as Lockhart had them revise the contents of last year, but Helen thought that it was a wise plan considering that apart from her group, most of the students were lacking when it came to details and intricacies of first year DADA course matter. Still, it was a bit boring for her and she let her mind wander.

At the end of the class, Lockhart asked her to stay behind. When it was only the two of them left he spoke, "I saw that you were not paying attention during the class, Miss Potter. I understand it though, considering you already knew the subject matter. However, from the next onwards, we will start with the new topics, so I expect you to pay attention in the class. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Professor." Helen replied.

"Now that that's out of way" he continued more cheerfully, "the reason I held you back is two fold. One, I see that you are more advanced than the rest of your peers, so if you ever wish to learn something advanced or out of the curriculum, you can approach me and I will help you as long as it is not dangerous or dark. After all, I understand your thirst for knowledge, I was a Ravenclaw as well." he said with a conspiratorial grin, Helen returned her own.

"Secondly, I understand that like me, you also have quite a lot of fame in our world. But unlike me, you do not have any experience on how to deal with it. Being famous can be a double edged sword, it can be rewarding and glorious but it can also be tedious and painful. I would like you to know that my door is always open for you, if you ever need advice or help in this regard. In fact, in the next few weeks, I would like it if you would come to my office to talk about it, even if you don't have any troubles yet. I'll help you cope with the stress of being the center of everyone's attention." She consented and he let her go.

She started towards the grounds, as her friends had gone out to get some sun. On her way she thought about the conversion she just had. She was pleased to have made acquaintance with Lockhart as more than just a teacher-student relationship. To know him personally could be quite useful for her in various social circles and could open many doors for her that otherwise would be difficult for her to open on her own. She had noticed that he was a bit vain and narcissistic and liked to be in the limelight. All she had to do was be nice and slightly vulnerable in front of him and he would jump at the opportunity to be a mentor to the Girl-Who-Lived.

As she joined her friends in the sun, she framed a plan of action to handle Lockhart and to coax him into introducing her to his social circle. She would go meet him in his office later this month and would try to further strengthen their relations. For now though, she wanted to get some sun while it lasted, so she took off her robes, shoes and socks and laid down beside Micheal to enjoy the heat.

XXXXX

The Ravenclaw Quidditch team had a practice session early in the morning on Wednesday to check out the feasibility of Morag's and Robert's plan for the team. They practiced with Morag, Cho and Roger playing as Chasers while Robert filled up the vacant Beater position. After an hour of practice the team decided that the current line was quite good as the three chasers worked very well together and Robert was quite at home with a Beater bat in his hand. They decided that they would only change the positions if they found an exceptional flyer in the tryouts, otherwise they would only recruit the two reserves.

Three days later, on Saturday, they held the tryouts. They didn't find anyone better to replace any of the current starting seven, so they filled the reserves with the best of the lot. Roger's year-mate Isaac Lewis and a 5th year Joseph Hughes made the cut. Robert believed that this year they were probably one of the favorites to win the cup as the best team for last year, Hufflepuff's, was now pretty much gone as three of their starting players had graduated last year. Slytherin were in a similar position as they too had lost two of their starting players from last year.

Later as they met in the sixth year's Oval for a tactical meeting, they did a SWOT analysis of all the teams. Griffindors had the strongest defense with the best Keeper and Beaters in Hogwarts, while their Chaser trio would be better as well this year after playing together for a year. However, they would have a new Seeker after they decided to kick McLaggen off the team. That made their team unbalanced with no good overall strategy available for them to apply to their gameplay except to drag the game as long as possible to allow their Chasers to outscore their opponents, if possible.

Hufflepuff had to rebuild their team with an eye on the future as well. They had two new Chasers and a new Keeper, undermining both their offense and defense. Furthermore, they would have two more spots to fill next year as their last Chaser and one of the Beater would graduate this year. Keeping that in mind they had recruited from the lower years so as to not have the same problem for some time. One of Cedric's dorm-mates was selected as Keeper while the Chaser spots were filled by a 3rd year boy and Megan Jones from Helen's year. Both the reserves were 4th years. In Robert's opinion they were the weakest time this year and Helen and the rest of the team agreed.

Slytherin were the other favorites this year, despite losing two starting players from last year. The reason for that however was not talent but equipment. Malfoy Sr. had bought the whole team the latest Nimbus brooms, the 2001's, which were the fastest in the world, as long as Draco got the Seeker spot of course. Slytherin hadn't outed this information yet, but Helen was informed about it by Daphne, who found the whole idea of nepotism stupid. Higgs had gone back to fill the Chaser spot and a 6th year boy was their new Keeper. Malfoy, was of course, their newest Seeker and had the broom advantage over the rest of the Seekers.

Ravenclaw had a mostly intact team from last year, with only Morag coming in from the reserves. They likely had the best Chaser trio and they certainly had the best Seeker in Helen. Their defense was the second best after Gryffindor's with a talented and experienced Keeper and Beater set. Overall, they had a very balanced team and could use multiple strategies to approach the game, depending on the oppositions and their weaknesses.

For example, for their first game, against Hufflepuff, they were planning to play a very fast and aggressive game to unnerve the new players and take advantage of the lack of cohesion to make a lot of interceptions and blocks. In all, they thought that this was their year and were going to work hard and smart to get their hands on the cup at the end of the year.

XXXXX

That Sunday Helen redid the two repeatable rituals from last year, the Sumerian magical channels ritual and the Akkadian magical capacity ritual. This time she had let the Sumerian ritual go on for much longer due to her increased tolerance to pain and a determination to improve herself beyond the normal limits. The results were phenomenal as her magical channels were wider and smoother than ever and her magical usage efficiency was staggering.

She had been performing the Akkadian ritual regularly at safe intervals throughout the previous year, which, compounded by her rigorous magical practice sessions, had made a significant increase in her magical capacity.

Next Saturday, Helen helped Padma perform the modified Chanakya's immunity ritual and took care of her friend after the ritual was done. Padma's ritual had also gone smoothly with minimal mess, as Helen had allowed her to eat only fruits and vegetables for the whole week and had allowed only water for the last day before the ritual. Despite that, Padma had taken the whole next day to recover because she didn't have the fortitude Helen had.

Helen had started spending a lot of time in Snape's office, mostly while he was present as well. Her reason for doing so was to advance her knowledge in Potions and in turn Alchemy. Snape had been a great help in this regard and with his help she was now much advanced in the subject. According to him, she could write her OWLs right now and would get a perfect score in them. She reckoned that by the end of the year she would be beyond even NEWT level and weighed up whether she should give the exams a shot and start working on Potion mastery, or if she should remain obscure. She would ask Snape for his recommendations as he was smart enough to understand the advantages and disadvantages of both the paths.

Apart from potions, she had started working extra hard to advance her transfiguration knowledge. She especially focused on inanimate to inanimate transfiguration for now, to understand the change in the physical chemistry of the object as it went through the transformation. This was necessary because most basic alchemy focused on inanimate objects.

She practiced on a single object, changing its form multiple times and studied the effects of such transformations on the molecular structure of the object. She would make slight variations at every step in her experiments to compare the results. Once that was done, she started changing the base object and bringing in further variations. At times, she would use the same object over multiple experiments to study the residual effects of the previous experiments on the object.

The end result of all her work was that by the end of September Helen was ready to properly start her basic Alchemy studies, something that was used to be offered to only the best 6th years in Hogwarts, back when Dumbledore was still in school. She had found the proper books in the Room of Requirement and had started studying the subject. The very first transformation was turning soil into rock. On paper it seemed simple enough, as there was no change in state of the matter, as both were solids, neither was there any change in the chemical composition. The only thing to change was the molecular structure and the bonding between different molecular groups.

So far, Helen had failed to make even a pebble, let alone a stone or a rock. She knew what she had to do, and how to do it. It was the execution that was eluding her for the past several hours. The visualization techniques of transfiguration had utterly failed her and she could not fathom how to proceed.

So for now, she set the topic aside and started working on the other thing that had caught her interest. She had known for a while now that her animagus form was a bird from the Corvus genus and she had been meditating on finding out which species, so that she could start working on the actual transformation. She sat done on the ground, Indian style, and closed her eyes to start her meditation. An hour later she opened her eyes with a satisfied smile on her face. She was a Raven.

It was rather fitting, she thought to herself, as Ravens were clever, opportunistic, extremely versatile and intelligent. They were aggressive when they had to be and while they mostly bonded for life, they were not monogamous. She felt the common Raven suited her perfectly and got up to inform Padma of her discovery. Padma was at the other end of the room, which had a sound barrier in the middle, so that they both were not disturbed by the other's activity. She was currently practicing hexes and curses that Helen had insisted she learn. Based on the broken dummies lying around, she was making good progress.

"It's a Raven," Helen said, after crossing the sound barrier.

"Hmm, it suits you," Padma replied wiping sweat off her brow, "Intelligent, smart and aggressive. Just like you."

XXXXX

They celebrated Hermione's birthday in the second year Ravenclaw oval, as it was more convenient because Hermione's friend circle consisted mostly of the Ravenclaws. Susan, Hannah, Daphne and Tracey had the permission to attend the party from their respective heads of the houses while Hermione even had permission to stay overnight. The party was different from most of Ravenclaw's parties as it was a much more private affair, and resembled a slumber party more than anything else. Everyone was in nightclothes and they had cake and dinner in the oval itself.

After food came presents, Helen had gotten Hermione a necklace, a pair of earrings, both made with diamonds, and a ruby drop done in silver. She had it custom made especially for Hermione and had specifically asked for Silver, not Platinum which was usually used in such sets. The reason for that was the enchanting she wanted to do on it and platinum was a poor magic holder metal, unlike gold and silver which worked very well with magic. It was the reason most magical jewelry was made of those two metals.

The precious stones were the best naturally existing materials for enchantments, and Helen made use of them to put in as much as she could without compromising the power. The set was of simple design but elegant, something that could be worn everyday and to formal events. Helen had the former in mind so that Hermione could have some protection all the time. The left earring was enchanted to detect poisons and mind altering potions. She had left the right earring empty for installing a communication enchantment once she developed it. The necklace had two separate enchantments on it. First was a shielding enchantment that would activate only for dark curses and was capable of providing some protection against them. The second was a protection from the elements which would keep her comfortable in extreme weather.

There was also a subtle notice-me-not enchantment woven in the chain of the necklace which allowed Hermione to hide the jewelry set from curious eyes.

Once everyone started heading for bed, Helen had explained to Hermione all the extra enchantments she had added to the set. Once she explained the enchantments she explained her reasoning, "I'm constantly worried about you being alone in your house, especially if someone targeted you because of your association with me. Same goes for when you go back to the muggle world for the holidays. These will keep you safe from the dark curses and potions. I would like it if you would wear them daily."

Helen held Hermione's hand as she said the last sentence, beseeching her to agree with her. She needn't have to, as Hermione engulfed her in a tight hug saying a heartfelt 'Thank You'. She released her after a minute and busied herself in wearing the jewelry. Once she was done she showed them to Helen, who commented that she looked beautiful in them, making her blush.

Soon everyone went to their sleeping bags and were quickly asleep.

XXXXX

Helen was quite fascinated with the mobile phone technology that the muggles had developed. She had been working on making a similar device using her enchanting skill. So far she had made a pair of connected mirrors using her enchanting and runes skill, similar to the monitoring device she had made last year for the forbidden corridor, but unlike the monitoring device this could transmit signals both ways.

In a way it was better than the mobile phones as one could talk face to face, however there was a limitation as it worked only in pairs, so far. She would have to come up with different enchantments and rune schematic to enable mass communication. If she was able to successfully do what she sought out to do, she could revolutionize the wizarding world's communication and maybe even entertainment systems.

But that was for later as her mind came back to the present, when she felt Chester's hands on the waist of her skirt, asking permission to remove the article. She nodded giving her consent while thinking about how they reached this moment.

*Flashback*

She had known since last year that Chester White was attracted to her. She had seen him sneaking glances at her during Quidditch practices, while they were in the common room and had felt his attraction whenever she had danced with him at house parties. Foreseeing a solution for her needs, she had acted. Yesterday she had confronted him late in the common room, when there were only a few students left. She had pulled him into a secluded corner and had given him his wish, sort of. She had kissed the surprised boy heatedly, making sure her intentions were conveyed. Then she had left him there dry and hard, saying that if he wanted more, he would have to do a few things for her.

He had immediately capitulated and had asked her what she wished. She had then produced a magical agreement, which without signing he wouldn't even get a peck on cheek. The agreement stipulated that they will become sort of friends-with-benefits and only Helen could decide what they would do or not, sexually. In addition there was a discretion clause in it, which stated that he could not disclose to anyone about their carnal activities or the status of their relationship or anything else he learned about Helen or her activities during such times. This discretion would remain, even if their mutual arrangement ended.

He had read the agreement a few times and was reluctant to sign such a constricting agreement but had relented when Helen had given him a sultry look while leaning forward giving him a glorious view down her nightgown, showing him what he would be missing if he didn't sign it. After he had signed the agreement, Helen had given her new boy-toy a peek on his cheek and left for the night, leaving him confused and aroused.

Today after Quidditch practice and showers, she had held him back and after the coast was clear they had proceeded to old staff quarters on the third floor. She had cleaned up the room early in the morning as she didn't want to waste time when they arrived.

As soon as the door was locked and sound proofed, Helen attacked his mouth and started making out passionately for several minutes, all the while tearing off his robes and shirt. She pushed him on the bed and climbed on top of him, landing kisses over his muscular chest, which he had gotten by a workout regime set for the beaters to give them superior upper body strength. She sucked and nibbled at his nipples, making him groan and trailed her mouth down over his abs. Once his belt was unbuckled, she dragged his trousers down along with his shoes and socks, leaving him only in his underpants, which were tented due to his extremely aroused state.

Helen had started her upward journey again, caressing him from knees to thighs, her palm brushing teasingly over the head of his covered erection before gliding across his belly. Every muscle there clenched, and he inhaled a sharp breath. She laid over his body, trapping him between her legs and joined her lips to his, while their tongues battled for dominance.

He had then suddenly flipped her onto her back on the bed and got over her, keeping their mouths attached while displaying his physical strength. His mouth then started a downward descent, taking advantage of her wide neck top to kiss and lick at her neck and collarbone, while his hands felt her breasts over her top. He had then skipped her whole upper body and had gone to her ankles to remove her flats and had started moving up with his lips and tongue exploring her long and shapely legs, making her sigh in pleasure.

*End Flashback*

Right now he was unzipping her skirt after asking her permission and she raised her hips slightly so that the article could be removed easily. When he was done, he moved upwards, raising the hem of her top with his hands, while his mouth followed creating a wet path over her flat abdomen as it moved northwards. Soon, his hands reached the bottom of her breasts and he looked at her seeking approval. 'Cute' Helen thought to herself, considering she was already only in her thong from below the waist.

Nonetheless, she answered by raising her upper body and let him remove her top while she unhooked her bra. She slowly and seductively removed the cups of her cotton bra, while looking at him with smoky eyes and a luscious look. He was transfixed by the mesmerizing view of her perfectly shaped breasts. He just sat there for a while looking at the symmetric round mounds with pink peaks that were hard as diamonds and waiting to be worshiped. And worship he did, as he brought his mouth around her left nipple and started sucking at it while his left hand went to fondle her right breast.

Helen laid back down to enjoy the sensations he was producing with his tongue, lips and fingers. She arched her back to further press her breasts into his face while keeping his head in place by lightly gripping his hair with her left hand. Her right hand explored the wide expanse of his muscular back as he switched his mouth to her other breasts. At one moment he buried his face into her cleavage and growled his satisfaction, causing her amusement at the typical male reaction. She had a mini orgasm after a few minutes of attention to her breasts and her hands silently coaxed him to go lower and he complied.

As he reached her panties, he hooked his thumbs into the sides and this time started tugging without asking. She raised her hips to ease his job and soon was completely bare to his visual pleasure. He didn't waste time as he started kissing her inner thighs from her knees and slowly moved upwards. She opened her legs to welcome him to the ultimate target. He paused just below the junction of her legs and looked directly at her hairless core with wonder.

She didn't let him stare for long and lightly urged him towards it with her hands in his hair. He tentatively started kissing her outer lips and she relaxed into the mattress, giving herself to the pleasure. Soon, however, she realized that Chester had no experience with pleasing a woman so she started guiding him in the proper way to do so by either making appropriate sound cues conveying her approval or displeasure with his actions or by outrightly telling him what to do.

He proved to be a good Ravenclaw as soon after he had her getting excited. She stopped talking then and gave herself to the sensations, while her hands started fondling her breasts. He started with his tongue flicking rapidly on her nub while his fingers caressed her folds and gently entered inside, massaging just inside her entrance, causing her great pleasure evidenced by the liquid on his fingers. A few minutes later he switched positions with his tongue now aggressively prodding her while he used his thumb and fingers to tease, pinch and flick her nub, intensifying her arousal and bringing her close to an orgasm. Minutes later he brought her to a screaming orgasm that left her in a boneless bliss. He came up with a masculine satisfied smirk on his face that men only got when they knew they had thoroughly satisfied a woman.

She looked up at him with enticing eyes and pulled him down onto her to give him a fervent hot kiss, tasting herself on his lips. His hands started exploring her body with abandon and she felt his hardness poking in between her legs. She slowly rolled them over so that she was on the top and he took advantage of her more exposed body to explore even further. His hands rested on her hips and squeezed, making her moan into his mouth. He pressed her down so that his covered hardness poked right at her core.

She started her downwards trek after giving him a lingering kiss and licked and nibbled her way down. She left a few love bites on his chest and made way further down, gently biting each of his abs before reaching the waistband of his pants. She tugged it down, finally releasing him from the confines of the underwear. He was above average in length, easily over six inches and had a nice girth as well. His hair was trimmed to a few millimeters, leaving him completely unhidden. He was uncircumcised and his head was wider than the rest of him.

She removed his underwear and went back to his hardness, bending over it while kneeling between his legs. Her hand wrapped around him, sliding up his shaft with a firm, confident stroke. Chester arched his back and groaned. He gasped and made to sit up when she ran her tongue along his length from base to tip. The shock of that caress, the intensity of pleasure sent bolts of sensation firing through every part of his body having never felt like this before.

"Helen," he said between strangled breaths.

Helen paused to lift her head, and he made a frustrated moan. Her eyes shone lustrous in the semi-darkness of the room, and there was a rose tint on her face. Her lips were full, red and damp. "Do you want me to do that again, Chester?" she asked in a soft voice.

"Yes," he whimpered.

She traced spirals with her fingers around his navel before journeying up his torso to tease his nipple while her other hand encircled the base of his cock. "What was it? I couldn't hear," she asked with a cruel smirk.

"Yes, Merlin, yes," he groaned loudly between clenched teeth, the words guttural and deep as his hips lifted to thrust against her grip.

"Good, because I want to please you." Once more she stroked him, this time her grip firmer, the caress faster.

She could hear his heart hammering as he said an incoherent, "Please."

As a reward for the please, she slid her tongue along the same path as her hand, ending at the tip, where she sucked the head of his hardness gently into her mouth. Her caresses grew bolder as she drew him ever deeper into her mouth. Her tongue seemed to wrap serpentine around his sensitive flesh, and he shivered at the faintest scrape of her teeth on him. The contours of her mouth shaped around him as she sucked harder, moving slowly up and down his length. He uttered her name amidst a long groan and buried his hands in her hair to cup her head.

His hips rose to match the rhythm she set, as did his moans of encouragement. "Ah gods, Helen. It's...it's." Helen sensed him reaching close, so she increased her pace, drawing ever harder on him, sucking him in deeper until he cried out a wordless plea.

"Stop," he shouted. "I'm going to come in your mouth if you don't stop." knowing that it was bad if he did so without warning. Helen appreciated the warning and completely ignored it as she was also quite aroused and wanted to taste him.

He came explosively in her mouth screaming her name and she immediately started swallowing. He was warm and tasted salty. He fell back onto the bed after a few moments completely spent while Helen milked the last of the seed from his softening hardness, enjoying her first blowjob. When there was no more left she released him with a gentle kiss. The bed creaked slightly as she joined him to cuddle in a post orgasmic bliss.

They relaxed for a while and talked about nonsensical things as their hands gently caressed each other's body. Soon, however, Helen felt him harden again and with a smirk again got on top of him, this time facing away, with her moist core right over his face. He got the idea and reached up with his tongue and lips just as she wrapped his hardness with her tongue.

It was almost an hour later when they finally got up from the bed, both completely satisfied.

XXXXX

Helen joined her friends for lunch, after a shower, completely satisfied for the first time in a long time. Poor Chester had no energy left and had gone for a nap after their fun. This let Helen know that while he was a good start, Chester himself wouldn't be enough to satisfy her needs and she would have to look for more partners.

She had also refrained from actual intercourse, as she was saving herself for a special occasion. She didn't want to be her first to be just 'taking care of her needs'. No, she wanted it to be special and had an idea about how she wanted it. For now though, she started eating and looked around to make her now almost daily observations.

As she had promised to herself, she had kept an eye on all the Weasley children in Hogwarts. She had staged a random meet with Percy in the library, where she asked him about OWLs and other academic topics, while she lightly touched his mind with Legilimency. On finding nothing out of order in his surface thoughts, she had tentatively prodded into his mind and had confirmed her suspicion that he wasn't the one carrying the diary.

That had left the twins and Ginerva, with the only Weasley girl as the prime suspect. The girl was quiet and would look away whenever Helen would look her way, creating further suspicion in Helen's mind. She was almost certain it wasn't the twins as change in either one would have been immediately noticed by the other. She would soon make sure about them and then focus on the real culprit or rather the victim.

She knew for certain it wasn't Ronald, based on his idiotic behavior throughout this month. Helen had hoped that crashing a car into Whomping Willow and landing his parents in trouble might have straightened him out but he had immediately proven her hopes false, as only after a few days of the car incident, he had started bothering her again, about being dark and how she should become his friend, while he guided her back to 'light'.

In fact, she saw him approaching her right now, with the new Griffindor Seeker, Dean Thomas and another of their dorm-mate Seamus Finnigan in tow. As soon as he was within a few feet of her, he started sprouting his usual tirade of her being dark and evil, which she ignored as usual. However, this time he started targeting her Slytherin friends, with whom she was currently sitting and started calling derogatory terms to Daphne, Tracey and Blaise, causing Helen's temper to flare.

She spoke in a low controlled tone, without looking up from her plate, "You should be careful with your words, Weasley. And watch where you speak them."

He looked around at the hostile looks he was getting from the rest of the Green and Silver House, and for a change, did the smart thing to stop targeting the Slytherin second years. However, instead of leaving, he again rounded up at Helen, this time going on about her clothings.

Since it was the weekend and was still warm enough, Helen had opted to wear a pair of skin tight black jeans and a lopsided crop top which left one of her shoulders bare and displayed a few inches of her abdomen and waist.

He raved furiously "Why do you dress like that? Your parents would be ashamed of you. You have been corrupted by those around you. And now you dress like a... like a... Scarlet Woman!"

Helen lost her control then. She had been feeling light and relieved today after a long time and he had to come and ruin it for her. She was pissed and enraged. Who the fuck does he think he was, to judge her? She whipped out her wand and sent him crashing into the wall behind, where he banged his head, slid down and did not move further.

"Miss Potter!" McGonagall's voice loomed, as she quickly approached the scene and started checking on the fallen boy, "We do not tolerate violent behavior in Hogwarts, even if it is provoked." At Helen's surprised look, she continued, "Yes, I'm aware that Mr. Weasley here provoked you by using several derogatory comments. In fact, I was already approaching to reprehend him when you acted. However, that does not allow you to take violent actions against fellow students. You should have continued to ignore him and should have approached a prefect or a teacher with a complaint about his actions."

She directed a nearby prefect to take Weasley, who seemed to have a concussion, to the Hospital wing and turned to Helen. "Now, Mr. Weasley will be disciplined when he is conscious again. For your actions, though, let's see, 30 points from Ravenclaw and a Detention. You've been given a light punishment due to the fact that you were provoked, however, any more violence, provoked or not, will be met with a far more severe penalty. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Professor," Helen replied with a bowed head. She really should have had better control over her emotions. She guessed the constant worry about the diary, her extremely packed schedule with all her extra work, and her sexual frustration had finally come to boil. Even the little relief she had in the morning wasn't enough and she should lighten up or else she might snap again sometime.


AN: Please R&R.

Editing by 1saaa. Thank you dude, you're a lifesaver.

A few of you have asked about Luna. I like Luna quite a bit as a character however there are a few problems. First, I'm finding it difficult to write her quirky nature. Second, Helen is not a charitable person, and I can't let her use Luna like she would do if I wasn't controlling her ;)

So, in this story she will play only a minor role. She will be present but she will be sidelined and will have very less screen time so to speak.

Next topic: Relationships

I'm planning on 2 or max 3 actual relationships for Helen, all of whom I've hinted very heavily. But she will have a lot more bed partners, to satisfy her needs as a consequence of her modified ritual, like in this chapter. Mostly will be male, but a few would be female so there will be some Fem!slash in future.

Next, Helen might have been alive for only 14 years, but that is not her age mentally or physically. Mentally, she is much much older due to LV's soul being incorporated into her and physically she's about 16 and growing much faster than normal till adulthood.

Lastly, something about me. I don't remember if I've mentioned it before, I'm a girl. Yes, get over it. And stop calling me dude! :D

I'm in my 20s, and from the UK. I work in management of a firm, so there will be times when the updates will have long intervals and might be disjointed, as I tend to travel a lot.

Now, some flames are going on and on about ethics and morals, let me tell you that 14-15 yrs old teens are sexually active in these parts, I should know as I was one too. I'm not promoting underage sex, but I'm saying that everyone's choice is their own. No one forced me to do the stuff I did when I was that age, I did them because I liked it, and didn't feel anything wrong about it at that time or now. Similarly no one is forcing anyone to read this story, don't like it, don't read it. Simple.

A lot of lemons in this fic will have something real it was based on. So, stop b*tching about it if you want to read or simply close the tab (Which you should have done at the starting of the first chapter while reading the disclaimer. So who should be ashamed really, hmm?)