Chapter 21.

Magnolia was sat at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall the morning after Malfoy had offered to teach her Occlumency, holding a cup of tea close to her chest. Tracey was glaring at her as she sat down opposite Magnolia and Pansy. Magnolia smiled nervously and flicked her wand to the cup in front of Tracey, filling it with coffee.

"This," Tracey said, picking up the strong drink, "does not make up for last night."

Beside her, Pansy chuckled, she'd already made Magnolia beg for forgiveness on her hands and knees. Daphne was yet to make it out of bed. None of the girls had slept well the night before, Magnolia had woken them all up by screaming and thrashing around on her bed. Pansy had had to cast a spell so she wouldn't throw herself off.

Luckily, the Slytherin dorms were all soundproof otherwise the rest of the House would have heard Magnolia's nightmare. Something that Daphne had been quick to point out when Magnolia had eventually woken up. Magnolia couldn't even remember what her dream had actually been about.

"Mags."

The Slytherins around Magnolia looked up in confusion as Harry approached the table. In all the years they had been at the school, Harry had never approached the table, it was always Magnolia going to him. Magnolia took in her brothers dishevelled appearance and frowned.

"I need to talk to you. Now."

Magnolia nodded and stood up from the table, taking her tea with her. She said goodbye to her friends, telling them she'd meet them in their first class, before following her brother out of the Great Hall. He took her into an empty room not far away and handed her a letter.

'Harry and Maggie,

I'm flying north immediately. This news about Harry's scar is the latest in a series of strange rumours that have reached me here. If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore. They're saying he's got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is.

Keep each other close and look out for each other.

I'll be in touch soon. My best to Ron and Hermione. Keep your eyes open.'

"Coming north? He can't be thinking about coming here, can he!?" Magnolia cried as she finished reading.

"We shouldn't have told him." Harry spat, "He thinks he has to come back because you told me to tell him about the scar! I should have just kept it to myself."

"We just need to write back and tell him it was nothing, that you're fine and that he doesn't need to come back." Magnolia replied, defensively.

"I already have." Harry grunted as he turned to the door, "If he gets caught, it's on you."

Magnolia was frozen where she stood. Harry had left her in the classroom, alone with her thoughts and Sirius' letter. He had never spoken to her like that, she wasn't sure Sirius coming back was entirely her fault, he had said that there were other rumours he had heard. But what rumours?

She couldn't send him a letter to ask, Harry had already sent one and it would look too suspicious for multiple owls to go to the same place. She would just have to wait. She still felt uneasy though.

That feeling of unease didn't go away over the next few weeks. Harry hadn't received a reply from Sirius and was taking out all his anger on Magnolia. The Slytherin Common Room had begun to get less crowded as Harry's vendetta against Magnolia continued as the Slytherin students had taken it upon themselves to defend Magnolia in the way of hexes and jinxes aimed at her brother.

Malfoy had been distracting Magnolia from her worry with Occlumency. He had caught her before she made it to their Common Room that evening and told her to meet him in the Room of Requirement. When she had turned up an hour later, Malfoy was already sat on one of the sofas. The room looked exactly as it had when they were last in it.

"What's this all about, Malfoy?"

"I told you we needed to train you in Occlumency." He shrugged.

"You also told me it's incredibly difficult, how are you going to teach me?"

"Because I can do it."

Magnolia gasped, she had had a quick read about Occlumency after Malfoy had told her about it the previous day and she didn't think that he could already have mastered it enough to teach her.

"Just, trust me ok?" He huffed, "I know I'm not your boyfriend, but you can at least trust me enough to help you keep Mad-Eye out of your head, right?"

Magnolia frowned at Malfoys tone; she didn't understand what she had done to make him angry. He motioned to the chair opposite him and Magnolia quickly took the hint and sat down.

"So first, the main thing you need to do is make your mind completely empty and calm, you need to control your emotions."

Magnolia nodded, that didn't sound too difficult. Although, she could be hot-headed. Magnolia frowned and heard Malfoy chuckle. She snapped her eyes to his, it wasn't often that Malfoy laughed.

"You look concerned. I know controlling your emotions is not something you're usually very adept at. In light of that, we're going to meet here, every evening, to meditate."

"Meditate!?"

"Yes. Meditation is the best way to empty your mind and learn to control your emotions."

"And we're going to do that every evening?"

"Yes. Unless your more worried about missing your precious dates then having someone read your mind?" Malfoy sneered, "It's not just Moody. Do you know the Dark Lord was one of the most accomplished Legilimens of all time? If you don't have control over your mind, he will invade it and you wouldn't even know."

After that, Magnolia had relented and sat in perfect silence as Malfoy took her through her first ever meditation. She had told her friends that she was meeting different Gryffindors each night, Hermione, Ron, Fred or George, Ginny.

They didn't ask questions if they thought Magnolia was hanging out with them. She had to be careful to say she was spending time with George and Fred at the same time though, she had made the mistake of saying just George once and Pansy hadn't stopped quizzing her.

She had spent some time with George, not as late as their first meeting though. The evenings were drawing in quicker, and Magnolia was conscious of Malfoy waiting for her. He was always grumpier when she was late.

Defence Against the Dark Arts remained Magnolia's least favourite lesson. Malfoy had made Daphne move so he could sit next to Magnolia in the class. When Moody had told the class that he would be casting the Imperius Curse on each of the students, Magnolia had thought he'd gone mad.

He had gone through a few members of class, all of whom had not been able to resist the curse, until he got to Harry. Magnolia watched as her brother stepped in front of Moody. She tensed as Moody cast the Curse and watched as Harry slammed into Moody's desk.

"Now, that's more like it!" Moody practically cheered. "Let's see if you sister can fight it like you tried!"

Magnolia's eyes widened as the class turned to her. Reluctantly, she stood from her chair and walked to the front of the class, passing her brother as he sat back down. She stood in front of Moody, her heart pounding and her breath panting out of her as she began to panic.

She heard a small cough come from the back of the class, and quickly glanced over to see Malfoy watching her intently. She fixed her gaze back on Moody, remembering what Malfoy had told her in their Occlumency lessons. Magnolia focussed on clearing her mind, emptying it like she did when they were meditating.

Magnolia felt as the spell was cast over her, it was a slimy and unwelcomed feeling.

Do a cartwheel…

Magnolia blinked, a cartwheel? She focussed her gaze back on the man who had put her under the curse and glowered at him.

"No."

The class gasped, and Magnolia felt the horrible feeling disappear. Moody was looking at her like she had grown two heads, before he seemed to realise what he was doing and clapped his hands together.

"Excellent!" He applauded, "First time and you resisted it all together! Very good, Miss Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you."

He called Harry back up to the front then, to use him as an example of how to fight the spell. By the end of the lesson he had also managed to resist the spell, but Magnolia was sure he'd have bruises on his knees from the amount of times he had slammed into the desk edge.

Magnolia was relieved when she walked out of the Defence classroom with her friends, although she did hope that they would stop badgering her with questions about how she resisted the curse. Theo had convinced himself that Magnolia was a Dark Magic repellent, whilst Blaise thought that Moody had gone easy on her. She shook her head as her friend's theories became more and more ridiculous.

When they sat down for lunch, Magnolia dropped her bag to the floor with a sigh. The Professors had increased the student's workload massively in preparation for their O.W.L's the following year. Everything was becoming harder, Magnolia and her fellow Slytherins were now found studying more often in their Common Room. She was glad that her last lesson of the day, Double Care of Magical Creatures, was outside in the fresh air.

Magnolia had barely made it out of the Castle with her classmates before she heard her name being called from across the Grounds. She glanced over and saw George jogging towards her, a smile on his face. She smiled back as the jolly boy approached her.

"I heard you had quite an interesting class with Professor Moody."

Magnolia groaned, "How did you heard about that?"

"It's all over the school. Everyone is talking about it."

"Everyone!?"

"Yep." George threw his arm over Magnolia's shoulders, "Who would have thought my girl could fight off an Unforgivable Curse."

Magnolia cringed; she didn't want the school talking about her, especially not about Moody's class. People still looked at her and whispered as she walked by after the school found out she had been scratched by Professor Lupin when he was a Werewolf.

"Well, erm… we should get to class. Those Blast-Ended Skrewts aren't going to care for themselves."

Magnolia sent a small smile to George and joined her friends to walk down to their class. She could hear the small bangs of the creatures they were learning about before they had even made it to the paddock they were in now.

The class passed quickly, and Magnolia left it with more burns then usual; the Blast-Ended Skrewts were larger now and the explosions went further. Magnolia had also been very distracted the entire lesson. The other students had been talking about their experience with the Imperius Curse, they had described it as a feeling of utter wonder, they had wanted to do what they were told. For Magnolia it had been the complete opposite.

It wasn't just the curse that had her thinking, something else George had said was stuck in her mind and she didn't know how she felt about it. They had only been on a few dates, and they mainly consisted of the pair eating dessert together. Yet, he had so easily called her his girl. Magnolia scrunched up her face, she had told herself that she wasn't going to focus on boys this year.

Magnolia saw a large group of students standing in the Entrance Hall, excited chatter coursing through them all. Pansy grabbed Magnolia's hand and pulled her through the large group until they saw what everyone else had been looking at. The two other schools that were taking part in the Triwizard Tournament would be arriving the following week.

At dinner, the entire school was talking about the Tournament again and the new arrivals Hogwarts would be having in a just a matter of days. Magnolia was caught up in the excitement, it would be nice to get to know witches and wizards from other countries.

Realising the time, Magnolia bid farewell to her friends and made her way to the Room of Requirement for her daily meditation with Malfoy. When she arrived, she frowned in confusion. Malfoy was always here before she was, and she hadn't seen him at dinner, but he wasn't in the Room.

Sighing, Magnolia made her way to the sofa she usually sat on, listening to the crackling fire, and settled down. When Malfoy still hadn't arrived ten minutes later, she wandered over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book on Occlumency, before she sat back down on her chair to read until Malfoy showed up.

An hour later, Magnolia was still waiting. Now though, she was annoyed. Malfoy had made her feel so guilty whenever she was late and here he was bailing completely without telling her. She threw the book aside with a huff and stormed out of the Room, angry at wasting her evening.

As she was walking to her Common Room, she heard a chuckle and turned to see Cassius Warrington and Graham Montague, two of the Slytherin Quidditch team members. They were both leaning against the hallway wall, glowering at Magnolia.

"Well, well, well." Warrington began, pushing himself off the wall, "If it isn't our resident Wolf-girl."

Magnolia rolled her eyes and turned away from them, she was already angry and Malfoy and didn't want to deal with those two, suddenly she felt a hand grab her arm and pull her back. She frowned, fighting to rip her arm out of the boy's grip. Montague's hand was digging into her skin as he held her still. Her breath became ragged as she had flashback of her second year.

The difference was, she hadn't felt in danger when Tom Riddle was holding her. His eyes hadn't had the menacing glare that Montague and Warrington were shooting at her.

"Let go of me, Montague." She snarled.

"Why, what are you going to do? Wolf out on me?" Magnolia groaned as he pulled her closer to him, "I'd like to see how that would go."

Magnolia could feel Montague's breath on her face and reached for her wand in her robe pocket.

"Expelliarmus!"

Magnolia cursed as Warrington caught her wand mind air before she could hex him or Montague. She quickly brought her leg up, resorting to Muggle tactics to get Montague off of her, but was instead spun around until her back hit the wall, causing her to groan in pain.

"We heard what you did in Defence class." Warrington said casually, leaning beside her on the wall, "Don't think your little mind tricks will protect you against real Dark Wizards."

Magnolia frowned; this was because she could resist the Curse? She wiggled, trying to get away from the two older students, but was held firmly against the wall. She grunted as she tried to move, only for Montague to move one of his hands from her arm to her neck.

"Maggie!?"