The quidditch match against Ravenclaw is scheduled for October 8th, giving the Hufflepuff team exactly one week to train for the match. If Diggory's practices were brutal before, these past few practices are intense. Diggory had even managed to convince McGonagall to let them reserve the pitch for two a days, as long as they didn't overlap or interrupt with the other houses.

Amelia finds herself standing with her teammates, rubbing sleepy eyes as the sun is just beginning to rise. She shivers-her feet are already wet with dew as the chill of autumn has sunk in, the tree's leaves turning to fire.

"The hell is wrong with you, Diggory. It's too early for this mess." Rolanda complains.

"We have the pitch for an hour before the Gryffindors can have it. Potter beat me to the later slot. It was sunrise or during dinner, I figured you would rather eat." Amos snaps back. Just like a majority of his teammates, Diggory is not a morning person.

Amelia yawns and brushes a strand of hair from her face, too tired to deal with this argument. Her Dark Mark had been burning off and on for most of the night, causing her to get no sleep. She is dreading what she was going to read in the Daily Prophet today. "Can we just get this over with?"

To her relief Amos and Rolanda stop their arguing.

"Alright squad," he pauses and waves his wand through the air, a series of colored hoops appear all over the pitch. They range in sizes and colors- the largest a bright yellow and about six feet across. The colors change as the hoops grow smaller and smaller, the smallest slightly wider than Amelia's shoulders. "The hoops are made of chalk, meaning I will be able to tell who misses and who makes it. The goal is for every member of the team to be able to make it through every hoop. Now the blokes might not be able to fit through the smallest hoops, looks like those might be for our female members. But I want you all to do your best."

Amelia sighs before taking the lead and kicking off the ground, she hears her teammates follow suit as they begin to fly through the rings. She winces at the way that the cold air stings her cheeks and eyes as she flies through the rings. She brushes a red hoop with her left shoulder and misses the smallest dark purple hoop completely.

"Focus Amelia." Amos shouts.

Amelia resists the urge to give Amos the middle finger, but complies and continues. Her team is moving through the hoops in a baby duck mama duck formation, following each other around, above, through the stands, and even outside of the pitch. High, low, sharp turns, wide turns, dives, climbs- Amelia has to admit that Amos really did think of everything when it came to planning this particular practice.

She feels the wave of relief and promise of a hot shower run through her veins when Amos blows his whistle, signaling to the team that practice is over. The team lands gratefully, every member with different colors of chalk streaked on a part of their body. Rolanda is next to her, the left side of her body covered in purple chalk, orange on her face and the top of her head smudged with red. Amelia herself knows that she had blue chalk on her leg, purple on the left side of her face, and green on her right shoulder.

"Nice work, squad. Especially towards the end. I need my beaters to be able to make those sharper turns smaller hoops. Chasers, those ups, dives, and climbs. Amelia." he pauses when he says her name. "Stay focused. We can't have you zoning out during the matches."

Amelia feels blood rush to her face.

"Oi. Diggory! You done? It's our turn on the pitch." James Potter cries as the rest of the Gryffindor team approaches.

"We just finished, Potter." Amos snaps.

Amelia catches Sirius's eye. He looks as tired as she had been when she first got on the pitch. However, he quirks his eyebrow in both a questioning and amused look to see the team covered in colored chalk.

"As I was saying. Hit the showers team, I'll see you all at four." Amos turns his attention to Potter.

Amelia and the rest of the team don't even try to hide their annoyance at the two-a-days practices that Diggory had managed to set.


The Daily Prophet reports exactly what Amelia fears. A train in muggle London had been derailed, killing at least eight people, three of whom had been muggle born witches and wizards. Another report mentioned that there was a murder in Knockturn Ally, although the causes were unknown, Amelia has a feeling that it was a Deatheater who killed them.

"More murders?" Helen asks as she sits down next to Amelia.

"Looks like it." Amelia has suddenly lost her appetite.

Helen releases a sigh. "Something is happening."

"Something bad." unable to deal with the reports in the paper, as well as the thought of food, Amelia grabs her book bag and walks out the Great Hall, muttering something to Helen about forgetting to do her homework.


"Looks like a certain blonde Hufflepuff is coming your way." Prongs nudges his elbow.

Sirius turns away from his conversation with Wormtail to look up, seeing Malfoy turn the corner.

"Go away." he shoves Wormtail away.

"Damn. What ever happened to this 'Bros before Hoes' statement you're always going on about?" Moony smirks.

Sirius rolls his eyes. "Just get out of here."

He can hear his friends snicker as they walk away and Sirius leans against the brick wall of the hallway, waiting for Amelia to pass.

"Wotcher, Malfoy."

She stops and turns in a few directions before finally finding him. "Hi Black, how did your practice go?"

"Alright. Why was the team covered in colored chalk?"

"Some type of training to work on our flying skills. Fly through the hoops if you get the chalk on yourself, Diggory can yell at you for missing or hitting hoops."

"That's a hell of a clever way to train."

"Definitely something different."

A silence falls between the two and Sirius finds himself struggling to find something to say, anything to keep the beautiful girl from walking away. "You eat already? What's got you in such a rush?"

"I forgot to finish a Potions essay. Gotta head to the library to finish it." Sirius can tell that she is lying; with the way that she avoids his eyes and twirls that gold ring on her thumb.

"That sucks." he answers.

"I should go. I only have a half an hour and let's be realistic, Slubhorn likes a well written essay."

She is about to leave, but Sirius pushes himself off the wall. "Hey Malfoy."

She turns towards him.

He moves forward, he can tell that she wants to back away from him. He finds himself feeling a flash of hurt and curiosity- why would she flinch away?

"You've got a smudge of purple on your face, love." he doesn't wait for a response, instead he steps forward and runs his thumb along her high cheekbone. Feeling bold he doesn't stop the motion until his fingers just brush through her champagne locks.

"There." he drops his hand.

Amelia opens her mouth to reply, closes it, then opens it again; words finally tumble out. "Thank you." she backs away from him two steps then turns and disappears in a wave of Ravenclaws walking in the direction of the Great Hall.

He smiles softly to himself- there hadn't been anything on her face.

"What was that?" the voice of his current 'girlfriend' demands from a few feet away.

"Just chatting with Malfoy."

"That didn't look like chatting."

Sirius closed the distance between the two and wraps an arm around Mary MacDonald's shoulders.

"Like I said, love. Just chatting."


It is common knowledge among the Deatheaters the Voldemort is a Legilimen; Amelia never knew how powerful, invasive, and terrifying the skill of legilimancy is until Voldemort continuously used it on her.

Most of the visions were those of her brother- the blond man bowing and taking orders from the Dark Lord. She received many simply showing the Dark Mark in the sky (along with the stinging pain of the Dark Mark) as if to remind her and show her that he wants her and is also displeased with her for not attending the meetings.

To her terror the most recent one involved her.

"How is the lovely Amelia?" Voldemort inquires during a meeting with all the Death Eaters.

"She is doing well at school. She has been passing most of her classes with flying colors." Abraxas Malfoy answers.

"Most?" Voldemort tilts his head. "Do not keep secrets from me."

"She still struggles with Transfiguration and Charms. Transfiguration being her worst subject. Charms she manages to get by..but Transfiguration…" Abraxas replies hesitantly.

The other Deatheaters snicker, their own children excelling in those two subjects.

Voldemort makes a look of disappointment at the news. "That is unfortunate. How is she doing in Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures?"

At this Abraxas and many of the other Deatheaters make disgusted faces. "Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology are her best subjects. She has always been top of her class."

"That is what I was hoping to hear. Those skills will come in handy with what I have planned for her future."

"My Lord?"

"All will be revealed in good time, Abraxas."

Amelia feels as if she is slammed back into her body, and as it turns out, she was. Her body is against the brick wall and she slides down it until she is in a sitting position, and leans her head back. She rolls up her sleeve for just a moment, the Dark Mark throbbing.

"So it's true." a voice drawls slowly.

Amelia quickly rolls down her looks up to see Severus Snape looming over her, pushing his long greasy hair behind his ears.

"It's nothing." she replies quickly.

"Doesn't look like nothing, Malfoy. Tell me, how did you manage to get a pretty new tattoo?" he asks.

"Does it matter, Snape?" she tries to spit out, but it comes out as less of a threat and more of a whimper.

"Looks like it hurts." he replies as he kneels before her.

"Like a bitch."

"When?"

"This past summer."

"I heard he doesn't allow students to join until they graduate."

"He doesn't. Looks like I'm a special case."

"Avery, Mulciber, All of the Blacks, LeStrange, Rosier, Wilkes, myself are all planning on joining. Did your brother join?"

"You're an idiot. There is no way that the Dark Lord will allow a half-blood to join."

Snape bristles at the comment, his fingers twitching towards his wand.

"Lily Evans will never love you."

At this Snape draws his wand, but Amelia is faster "Expliarmus."

Despite their proximity, Snape instantly holds his hands in a surrender position, both wands are pointed at him.

"This is a rumor. Tell all your friends that is exactly what it is. I'm a Deatheater now, Snape. I have already killed once and I will not hesitate to kill you if you do not keep this a secret. And I highly doubt Voldemort will allow traitors in his ranks. Remember that."

At first Snape rolls his eyes; but upon looking at Amelia's determined face, he realizes that she is telling the truth.

"I didn't know you had it in you, Malfoy."

She pauses, her eyes questioning.

"I never thought I'd see the day that the beautiful, kind, and loyal, Amelia Malfoy was capable of cruelty."

This causes Amelia to pause. She slowly stands, using the wall as support. Mutely she hands Serverus his wand. "Not a word, Snape."

"Wouldn't dream of it." he says as he begins to walk down the hallway. He pauses and calls over his shoulder. "You better figure out a damn good concealment charm."

"A concealment charm? For what, Malfoy?" Regulus Black is standing a few feet behind her.

"Merlin's Beard! What is with all you damn Slytherins and lurking around the hallway. Can a girl not have a moment's peace or let alone a conversation without one of you sneaky snakes slithering about!" Amelia rants as she shoves herself off the wall and glares at the unsuspecting Black boy.

Regulus looks taken aback by her outburst, it wasn't every day that Amelia Malfoy looses her cool.

"I was about to start patrol and just wanted to tell you it's curfew." Regulus explains.

Amelia drops her crossed arms, her anger instantly turning into embarrassment as her cheeks begin to flush. "I am so sorry, Regulus." she quickly apologizes.

"Sounds like you and Snape were going at it."

"It's all under control. Nothing that you need to worry about." Amelia answers.

"If you say so."

"Have a good night, Black." she waves and does her best not to run back to the Hufflepuff common room.