AN: Unless my computer craps out on me again like it did last week, there will be a new chapter every week this month. I am currently writing the last chapter in this "arc," and hope to have it finished and presentable by the time I get to it.

Worry and Stress

"It has been brought to my attention that Gryffindor has the least interaction with their Head of House of any of Hogwarts Houses." Professor Mcgonagall addressed the gathered students as she held a box in her arms, "I understand that I am also the deputy headmistress, so I do have other duties to attend, but that is hardly an acceptable excuse. I cannot finagle more office hours at the moment, probably not until next term, so this comment and suggestion box will be placed next to the entry of the common room. I will be checking it weekly for your thoughts or concerns, and I hope to be able to use your suggestions and the like in improving the house."

"Professor," Percy Weasley spoke up, "I don't understand why this is necessary. We have prefects for a reason. If someone has a problem and cannot get in touch with you during your office hours they should come to us."

"Mister Longbottom," Mcgonagall called him out on the spot, "name a prefect aside from Mister Weasley."

"U-uh, I don't know ma'am." He answered after a moment, his face clearly worried that he was in trouble.

"That is another problem that will need to be addressed, Percy is the only one of you who takes your duties somewhat seriously. All prefects please stand up." Once all were on their feet, Mcgonagall continued, "Students, these are your prefects. The prefects are there for you if you have a problem that needs to be addressed right then. If your problem is personal, or you just don't want to bring it up with them, that will be a good time for the comment box; assuming you are not able to reach me during my normal hours. Prefects, the next time I ask a student to name one of you other than Percy Weasley and they can't? I'm taking your badges."

Harry overheard Percy grumbling about the new set up after Professor Mcgonagall had left the common room, "Someone just doesn't think we are good enough, I guess." He said to another prefect, "I wonder who it was? They must have complained or something for the Professor to do something like this to undermine us."

Harry just shook his head and frowned. Percy may have been the only Weasley that didn't mistreat Ron too badly at the beginning of the school year, but he was just as bad as the other Gryffindor prefects at their job. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw prefects were expected to act as tutors and guides for the younger students; and while it wasn't a requirement in Slytherin, it was still common there. Gryffindor was the only House where "prefect" meant "rule enforcer" and nothing more.

"I don't think he's actually a good prefect." Hermione whispered to Harry as they watched the redhead in question.

"Me neither." Neville added, "The only reason people know Percy is because he's always studying in the common room. He only answers questions because he's the only person around to ask, and he snaps at people that interrupt him."

"Write a note about it and put it in the box." Harry answered.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Quirinus, could we step into your office for a moment?" The headmaster asked, approaching the Defense professor with Snape following behind him, "I was wondering if I could ask you a question or two?"

"O-o-of course Headmaster." Quirrel responded, leading the pair down the corridor to the defense classroom.

"Quirinus," the Headmaster began as soon as the door was closed behind them, "the castle wards informed me of dark magic entering the school over Christmas. It had happened before, but it seemed to be stronger this time. Regardless, the signature dissipates quickly, so I cannot attempt to track it."

"Wh-wh-what d-d-do you want m-me to do?" Quirinus stuttered out, "I could m-make a rune ar-r-ray?"

"No, nothing like that my boy," Albus chuckled, "such an array would need to cover the whole school, and that would be impossible. I assumed that it was just a Slytherin from a darker family that flooed home on weekends where students were allowed to visit Hogsmeade to practice magics they really shouldn't be. At least, I did until Hagrid told me that something has been murdering unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. I have spent the month of January checking everyone who stayed in the castle over Christmas break for signs of possession, just in case. You are the last one I need to check, if you wouldn't mind?"

Almost none of that was true except for the impossibility of such a large runic array and the unicorn attacks. The wards could not detect the presence of dark spirits, only the active casting of dark magic. Unfortunately, Albus lamented, the headmaster who had altered the wards of the school to permanently allow Peeves the Poltergeist the incredible amount of freedom he enjoyed had inadvertently rendered those wards forever unable to distinguish Peeves from any other kind of malicious spirit. Even the dark magic detection was heavily compromised from generations of ultra-conservative pureblood families sitting on the board (or even in the headmaster's office) and twisting the definition of "dark;" now the sensitivity was stuck so low that very little active magic, short of the unforgivable curses, would trip the ward. But Harry was onto the trail of Snape and the stone, so it was now more important than ever that Voldemort's agent be found and neutralized.

Albus patiently studied the professor's reaction to his assertions; he had dropped the information about the dead unicorns hoping to get a rise from the man, who had to be suffering the effects of the creatures' blood curse by now. Strangely, Quirrel made no reaction other than to be suitably disgusted at the thought of someone killing an animal of such purity.

"I will submit to be t-t-t-tested for possession, Headmaster." Quirrel stated, clearly fighting not to stutter, "Is S-snape here in case I am?"

"Yes, that is correct." Albus answered as he raised his wand, "This should only take a moment. I will simply verify that there is only one soul in your body, and that there isn't a foreign spirit riding it."

Two minutes later, the headmaster and potions professor left the defense classroom after offering heartfelt apologies for subjecting a colleague to such indignity.

"I could have sworn, headmaster." Snape hissed as they walked, "Every time I've been in a room alone with him, the Mark has twinged, except this time. I don't understand."

"I truly think we are on the right track with Quirinius." Albus sighed, "Though I don't know how, I believe we have been played for fools today."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Quirinus Quirrell watched in silence as a person with his exact likeness slowly morphed back into the form of a seventh year Slytherin student. Once the transformation was complete, the defense professor stepped forward and removed a pair of cloudy contacts from the unresponsive student's eyes.

"Obliviate," he intoned with a casual gesture of his wand at the student's head, before flicking his wand again and saying, "Memento Falsus, you spent the last hour studying alone in a classroom. You did this to escape the stink of blood traitor in the Noble House of Slytherin."

"I spent the last hour studying alone in a classroom to escape the stink of blood traitor in the common room." The student repeated in his own words.

Quirinus grinned as he pushed the student out into the hall and released the Imperius that was controlling him. A final Confundus had the poor boy heading dazedly towards the Great Hall for dinner.

Despite the fact that there was nobody else in the room, Quirrel could hear his master laughing.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Two Days Before

"Harry, I assure you, Professor Snape has my utmost confidence. Professor Quirrell is a long time friend as well. They are both trustworthy." Dumbledore answered with his strongest grandfatherly twinkle. Why in the world did Remus tell the boy about Severus! At least he had waited until after the session to bring up his suspicions.

"Albus, I assure you, I asked you not to call me that." Harry hissed back.

"Harry, that was just rude." Hermione chided him.

"Indeed Mister Potter, that was not called for. A point from Gryffindor." Professor Mcgonagall concurred before glancing back at Dumbledore, the lack of substantial punishment saying as much as she did, "You owe the Headmaster respect just as you ask for it yourself."

"I'm sorry sir, I guess I am just a little emotional right now." Harry bit out, "But how can you risk it? He's a Death Eater, what if he takes the Stone for Voldemort?"

The Headmaster sighed, once again lamenting Harry Potter's inquisitiveness (and Hagrid's lack of subtlety) that allowed the boy to figure out what was on the third floor, "People can change, Mister Potter, Professor Snape has a very compelling reason to despise Voldemort. Almost as strongly as you, I would suspect. Now, if we are done here, I believe you two should go to lunch, though not before I remind you once again that these matters should not be spoken of outside of this room."

Harry bristled at that, but held his tongue. Dumbledore had not refuted Harry's assertion that Voldemort might still be active. In fact, he seemed to confirm it.

"Was there anything else?" The Headmaster asked when the two students didn't move.

"Actually sir, I was wondering when you thought we could begin working on the shrinking spell itself? Najash and I only need about half a minute to open the link now, and I think it's as strong as it will get for a while. We haven't really been getting any faster."

"Hmm." Dumbledore stroked his long beard as he thought, "I think you might be correct. If Professor Mcgonagall believes that you are skilled enough in her class, then she could begin working with you on the theory behind the spell in the next week or two. Then we could begin working on casting it through the link. I daresay you might prefer the opportunity to take these classes without my presence for a while."

"That sounds good sir." Harry said before he and Hermione preceded the transfiguration professor out of the office.

"Professor, could I ask you about something first?" Hermione asked when Mcgonagall began to break away from them to head to her office.

"Of course, is something wrong?"

"I was curious. Did you know that all three other Houses have a way for students to communicate with their Head of House outside of office hours?"

"Even Slytherin?"

"Ron says that Professor Snape does bed checks every night." Hermione answered, ignoring Harry's scowl at the potions professor's name, "It doesn't stop someone from leaving after he's done, but I can't remember the last time I saw you in the common room besides that time the Weasley twins tried to sneak into the girls' dorms."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Tina Polkiss put her wand back in its case and returned it to the "Portkey Room" as she'd begun calling the small storage room her parents had set up for magical travel, as well as all her own magic things when she wasn't using them. She'd been working at the "wand bonding" exercises that Hermione's book described for about an hour, but Tina wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing with them. She could already feel her magic react to picking up the wand, which is what the book was supposed to be teaching her, from the very beginning. Her problem wasn't her magic, or her ability to feel it, her problem was her wand.

Tina returned to her room with a sandwich for dinner, her parents were at some function with their friends that she didn't want to attend (Aunt Petunia was only a few doors down and a phone call away if she needed her), and thought about what she could do to keep working on magic. It had been two weeks since she'd been to Potter Isle and tried using her wand for the first time, two whole weeks where she had been very, very careful to cast no wandless magic so that she could try and get used to the feel of her wand. Which was hard since Uncle Moony only had a couple days a week where he could take her to Poter Isle after she finished school.

"It isn't working," the eleven year old grumbled aloud as she finished her sandwich and looked at the plate in her hands. My wand is plenty far away, she thought to herself as she stared. With a final resolute intake of breath she closed her eyes and smashed the plate onto her bedside table.

Tina instantly realized her mistake. She intended to fix the broken plate with magic the way she'd seen Uncle Moony do it to reattach the handle of a teacup, but she wasn't sure how she was going to put all the tiny pieces from the middle of plate the together. She was only planning on it breaking into a few big pieces, not this!

"Come on. Come on." She chanted to herself as she held the two largest pieces against each other. She couldn't remember the words he had used anymore either, it sounded like 'repair,' but there was no way it was just an English word. Fix it! Fix it! She practically shouted at her magic, pushing the tingling feeling of power into her hands and the plate.

"Yes!" Tina yelled when she saw that the edges of the broken plate had sealed together, the two pieces she was holding anyways. It took her until just before her parents got home, but Tina was able to put the plate back together one piece at a time. The much smaller giblets from the middle of the plate were hard, but she focused really hard and made it work a little at a time.

Her parents called her name when they came in the door so she stood up to go greet them… and promptly fainted, thankfully not hitting anything on her way down. Downstairs, the lights began blinking as the furniture and doors began to shake and rattle loudly immediately after a dull thump was heard from upstairs. Angela raced upstairs to their daughter while Timothy ran for the phone to call Petunia for help.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Uncle Padfoot, this is Najash." Harry said as he lowered the mirror so that his godfather could see the familiar draped over his shoulders. Najash raised his head to make eye contact with the wizard; who shuddered once, but suppressed any other reaction to the serpent.

"Good colours." He finally managed to answer, which drew a chuckle out of Harry.

Harry had put off introducing Padfoot to Najash until he could remember the snake beforehand. He definitely didn't think that surprising his godfather with that over the mirror would have been a good idea. But Moony mentioned it again earlier that week and Sirius had apparently remembered all on his own today, which prompted Harry to ask something else. Something he really should have thought to ask Aunt Andi before now. At least it was still early in the day, Sirius wouldn't be too tired to think about the question.

"Uh, is Uncle Moony there with you?" On getting an affirmative, he went on, "Could you ask the healer to step outside for just a second? I want to ask you two something personal."

"What's up cub?" Moony asked, apparently standing just behind the mirror, "He heard you and agreed to wait in the corridor for a minute."

"I was wondering if parseltongue was a Black Family trait or something?" Harry asked after the mirror they were using was positioned so that he could see both of his honorary uncles, "You said that it wasn't in the Potter Family, but my great grandmother was a Black. Could I have inherited it from there?"

Harry didn't get to hear what was said at first, as the mirror was dropped onto its face on the hospital bed. The voices of the two on the other side were muffled, but after a few seconds of back-and-forth they picked the mirror back up.

"I think it used to be one of our family traits." Sirius said at last, "Throughout the twelve to seventeen hundreds my ancestors tried to purchase marriages with any pureblood family that possessed a blood gift. I have a cousin a few years older than you that's a metamorphmagus, her ability entered the Black Family that way. I don't remember any parselmouths recently though, but I could just be forgetting."

"That metamorphmagus would be Andromeda's daughter," Remus added, "your aunt and uncle met her on Halloween."

Harry nodded but didn't say anything about the holiday, they had agreed to wait until Sirius was out of the hospital before they told him about the troll, or the attempt to curse his broom. No need to give him anything more to stress about than he already did. Especially with the Wizengamot apparently arguing about the state of the Black seat with Sirius bedridden.

"It sounds like there's more to this snake than just a strange pet, Harry." Sirius said as he processed that Harry somehow possessed one of the rarest blood gifts in all of England, "It may take a few sessions, I'm not sure how long I have today after a shock like that, but I want to hear the whole story from the beginning."

So Harry began by telling him about the Brazilian constrictor that he spoke to at the zoo just before his eighth birthday.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I don't understand what I'm seeing here Mister Lupin." Healer Fawley shook his head as he read over the results of his diagnostic scan of one Tina Polkiss, "It looks like her magic has been stressed for months, recently more heavily so. Was she in some Wild Magic area for an extended period of time or something?"

"No, nothing like that." Remus answered, "She lives in a muggle neighborhood. She visited a wizarding home for the first time recently…" He looked up from the floor as he continued.

"Confidentiality?" He asked.

"Nothing you say leaves the room," Fawley responded immediately, "unless it's a danger to the Statute of Secrecy, since she's a muggleborn."

"Tina Polkiss is a friend of Harry Potter." Remus explained, "In my capacity as the Potter Steward, I have been tutoring her since just after Harry and his cousin went to Hogwarts. She can use wandless magic like them, and she needed someone to help her control it since telling a child to wait until September would be pointless. Technically it was slightly illegal to teach her before she turned eleven, but she was too quick to learn to just put her aside."

"So you're where that came from? Impressive."

"No sir. Harry and his friends pretty much learned on their own, Tina as well. I had to teach myself how to do a little wandless magic to help Tina get proficient and try to make sure she didn't hurt herself." Remus sighed at that, "She started with levitation, so I felt it was important that she learns how to control her output. If this is just magical stress, will it get better if she stops using wandless magic? Could that have been the cause of it?"

"I don't think so. If casting wandless magic did this then there would be no wandless users in the world. Her magic is under so much stress it's close to being damaged, sir."

What? How is that possible? Remus shook the panic away and asked what needed to be known, "Do you know how this happened? And what can we do in the interim? Her parents are beside themselves. They'll be here soon actually, they're arriving the muggle way."

"I'll send a message to the front desk in a moment to send them up here. I don't know enough about this to know how it happened. This usually occurs when young muggleborn try to suppress their magic. Are her parents not accepting?"

"Her mother is over the moon at her skills." Remus answered, "Her father took a little talking to, he's the religious sort, but he came around and now he's just as proud of her as her mother."

"So that isn't it." Healer Fawley muttered to himself, "That's actually good, parents that don't accept magic isn't something we can fix. I might need to ask for help if we can't figure out what is wrong by talking to her and her family. Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick are the country's leading practitioners of wandless magic that I know of, and dismissing out of hand that this girl uses wandless casting as much as you say would be a mistake."

"Professor Flitwick has worked with those at Hogwarts on wandless casting, I actually wrote him a week ago about a problem Tina has been having with her magic. But I suppose he hasn't had time to respond."

"What kind of problem is she having?" Healer Fawley pressed, "Anything you can tell me could be helpful, and I really want to be able to help a friend of Mister Potter after I was almost so rude to him before."

"Since getting effective at speed and precision, she has found that she can't cast at multiple things at once." Remus explained as he glanced at the sleeping girl and quickly thought of an example, "Did you see the article the Potter Family put out in the Daily Prophet? Where Harry and his cousin lifted a whole seated party along with the table between them? Tina couldn't have lifted but one thing at a time, granted there would have been much less wobbling. That is what I contacted Professor Flitwick about."

"Hmm." Fawley turned pensive, "Perhaps that should take place here, after Miss Polkiss has undergone the standard treatment for enhanced magical stress that is. If it's all the same, I'd like to go over the treatments with her parents present. Saves time not having to repeat myself, and it will be best for her to be awake at that point as well."

Fifteen minutes later, the Polkiss family were escorted into the room alongside Petunia Dursley, an arrival that did not go unnoticed within the hospital.

"Could you please explain what 'magical stress' means? Is there some non magical analogue you could use to describe it?" Petunia asked Healer Fawley after recognizing him from Harry's visit to see Sirius and thanking him again for his help then.

Tina mumbled something and her parents leaned closer to hear her better, "I just feel tired." She said, "I fixed a plate that I broke, I'm just tired after doing something new. Uncle Moony has only shown me like four spells so far."

"It is definitely more than just being tired Miss Polkiss." Fawley replied as he thought of how to explain, "Magic is very much like a muscle, it can be overworked and require time to rest. Normally a good night's sleep is enough, but it seems like you've been somehow overworking your magic regularly for months. Basically, it causes degradation, like if you overuse a muscle over and over and then it doesn't heal back properly."

"But we don't do anything overly taxing." Remus protested, "For the first couple months we mostly worked on levitation and lighting charms, just simple things so that she could understand what her magic felt like while turning it into a game. The most stressful things we've done, to my knowledge, were when she tried to turn her light charm green, and whenever we attempt to spread her magic to multiple subjects; and those things should be more mentally taxing than magically."

"Miss Polkiss, do you often do things like try to fix broken plates unsupervised?"

"No sir," Tina assured the healer, "this was the first time. I saw Uncle Moony fix a teacup once and thought I could do it."

"Ah, the Reparo spell?" Remus asked, "When did I show you that?"

"You fixed one of Aunt Petunia's teacups, one that Uncle Vernon had dropped." Tina explained, "Is that really the spell? That's what I thought you said, but I didn't think it would be so… normal, I did it silently since I thought I didn't remember the word right."

"You cast new spells silently too?" Fawley asked, "That rules out my other top theory, that you are actually below average in magical strength and are reaching the edge of your abilities. If you cast silently, especially spells you've never cast before, then you can't be magically weak as well."

"I think asking Professor Flitwick if he knows some way that wandless magic could do this is a good idea." The healer said after a few moments of silence, "There is a standard treatment for magical stress that we can start immediately, but if we don't know what caused it, then she will end up in this state again."

"And what would that treatment be?" Timothy Polkiss asked before apologizing for his tone.

"It's alright sir," Fawley waved him off, "there are rune bands that she will need to wear for a day or two. They function similar to a wand in that they guide magical energy, but these bands will nudge her magic to flow freely from one to the other and back again. In muggle terms it would be like a massage on a sore muscle. The trouble is that since you live in a muggle home she will have to remain here while she wears them. There is a short term residency ward meant for cases like this, you or your wife will be welcome to stay here with her as well."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Oh my gosh, Harry, look at this!" Hermione hissed as she shoved the Daily Prophet into her friend's hands and pointed at a side article on the second page, "This must have happened right after you finished talking on the mirror yesterday!"

The Potter-Werewolf Conspiracy: Fact or Fiction?

Late last night, Steward of the Potter Family and known werewolf, Remus Lupin was seen rushing through the apparition point at St. Mungo's Hospital carrying a small girl who he identified as "Christine Polkiss" when he checked her into the first response ward. It is currently unknown exactly what her condition or injury was; but considering the nature of the man who brought her in, as well as the fact that it was only two nights distant from the full moon, one is left to wonder if earlier worries of the dangers of allowing a werewolf to be around children were well founded.

Shortly after Miss Polkiss was admitted, none other than Petunia Dursley, aunt of the Boy-Who-Lived, accompanied by a couple that was identified as Timothy and Angela Polkiss, entered and demanded to be shown to the room where the young girl was recovering.

This reporter has heard the name "Angela" around the Potter Family before. In fact it was a woman by that name, the self-claimed mother of a muggleborn daughter even, who provided the space where the now famous interview with the reclusive family took place. Could this be the same "Angela?" If so, what does this mean that the Potter Family Steward seems to have harmed her daughter?

Loyal readers will remember that the previously mentioned interview with the Potter Family was organized in response to accusations from the Wizengamot that they were involved in potentially giving Dark aspects of society, particularly Dark Creatures, a more powerful voice in the highest forum in our country. At the time, Remus Lupin's involvement with the Potter family was ultimately written off as simply a continuation of friendship with the late Lord and Lady Potter. But last night's events should inspire the wizarding world to reexamine just how much power a werewolf Steward could potentially wield in our society.

Will St. Mungo's have a new werewolf to contain tomorrow night? Or could there be some other, more mysterious reason that the Potter Family's unorthodox Steward was in a position to bring in the girl. Rest assured, this reporter will not stop until she has uncovered the truth.

When Harry pulled his eyes away from the article he found several other students in the school were eyeing him with a mixture of distrust and fear. He could hardly believe that the Prophet was allowed to print stuff like this. They even had Tina's last name in the paper! Even with the typo on her first name, that would probably be enough to find out where they lived.

"I'm gonna mirror call Aunt Petunia after we finish breakfast." Harry said as he put the paper down, "Hopefully she just fell off a broom or something and she'll be good as new by now."

Twenty minutes later Harry, Hermione, and Dudley found a secluded area of the library and called Aunt Petunia's mirror. When she didn't answer they decided to call Sirius instead, and received quite a shock when an unexpected face greeted them on the other side.

"Hi Harry." Tina said with a meek smile, "How are you?"

"Tina!" Dudley shouted first before being elbowed by Hermione to quiet down, "Holy crap, how are you? Why are you in the hospital?"

"The doctors-er, healers, aren't sure yet." She answered, "They said they know what's wrong, but not why. I'm supposed to stay here for a few days until they figure that out, and I have to wear these armband things. I hate them."

She held up a hand to show them the four inch wide band wrapped around her forearm. It was thick, at least an inch and a half, and carved with runes that glowed softly with a rhythmic pulse.

"Until then she gets to tell me embarrassing stories about you, pup." Sirius called from outside the mirror's field of view, causing Harry to grimace in fake horror and Tina to giggle, "Moony is supposed to be meeting with Flitwick about coming for a consultation, you might catch him there if you look."

"But what is wrong? Can you tell us?" Harry pressed.

"The healer said my magic is stressed." Tina answered with a shrug, "I don't know, I've just felt tired recently."

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked, "I've heard of magically exhausted, but how can magic be stressed?"

"Can I tell you about it when I'm better and understand it?" Tina grinned sheepishly.

"Ron?" Dudley asked, looking the other way from everyone else, "Everything alright?"

"Yeah, uh," Ron stuffed his hands in his pockets, "I was just wondering if Tina was alright? Skeeter's article didn't say."

"I'm okay Ron, thanks for asking." Tina said through the mirror.

"That's good." Ron sighed, "Uh, don't take this the wrong way but, Mister Lupin didn't hurt you did he?"

Harry and Hermione glared at Ron, but Tina couldn't see their faces so she simply answered, "No, I did it to myself. I fixed a plate I broke last night and fell down after."

"I need to tell Greengrass and Davis that." Ron said, holding his hands up defensively against the two Gryffindor's heated stares, "Their parents have been asking them to find out stuff about you guys since term started. I've just told them the stuff everyone knew anyways, like how you're friends with Mister Lupin and Lord Black is your godfather and stuff. But I have a feeling their families will want to know what happened last night since I think they were planning to try and start talks with your family until then. Don't know for sure though."

Harry and Hermione's stares slowly morphed from angry to flabbergasted. As normal, Hermione found her words first, "Ronald, just what goes on in your common room? Do you really sit around talking politics as first years?"

"A lot of Slytherins are from big name families, Hermione." Ron explained, "Most are only kids too, so their parents make them learn House business early. Greengrass has a younger sister, but she says that she's still had politics and etiquette tutors since she was seven."

"I'm sorry if I caused you any problems Harry." Tina added, "I'll be more careful from now on."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Dudley, can I ask you a question." Cedric called out to the first year as soon as he saw the younger boy enter the common room, "Over there?" He pointed to one of the only empty areas of the room.

"What's up?" Dudley asked once they were relatively alone, though he had an idea that he knew what Cedric wanted.

"Is that girl okay?" The third year asked, genuinely concerned, "I thought I recognized that name. It's the girl that lives in your neighborhood, right?"

"Yeah," Dudley nodded, slightly suspicious of why Cedric was asking him, "she wasn't hurt by Mister Lupin by the way. The healers apparently don't know why, but her magic got stressed and that's why she had to go to the hospital. My mum called Mister Lupin to take her because he has a telephone and she can't apparate."

"Whoah, whoah." Cedric said defensively, "I didn't mean anything by it. Sure, my dad said a lot against werewolves over the break. I just wanted to be able to tell him that Skeeter was way off here. But really, magical stress? How does a muggleborn who's not even in school have that?"

"No idea." Dudley shrugged, "She said the healers couldn't figure out why it happened, but they were calling in Professor Flitwick as a specialist or something."

"Right," Cedric nodded, "well let me know when she's better alright? From what you've told me she's fifty-fifty for Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw."

"Something tells me she's gonna be a 'Claw." Dudley answered with a laugh, "She's a lot more intense now than she was before we came to Hogwarts."