No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. They knew that the castle was being searched again, and the whole House stayed awake in the common room, waiting to hear whether Black had been caught. Professor McGonagall came back at dawn, to tell them that he had again escaped.

Throughout the day, everywhere they went they saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Sirius Black; Filch was suddenly bustling up and down the corridors, boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the walls to mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been fired. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

Ron had become an instant celebrity. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention to him than to Harry, and it was clear that Ron was rather enjoying the experience. Though still severely shaken by the night's events, he was happy to tell anyone who asked what had happened, with a wealth of detail.

"… I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draft… I woke up and one side of the hangings on my bed had been pulled down… I rolled over… and I saw him standing over me… like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair… holding this great long knife, must've been twelve inches… and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I yelled, and he scampered.

Neville was in total disgrace. Professor McGonagall was so furious with him she had banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits, given him a detention, and forbidden anyone to give him the password into the tower. Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common room every night for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him. None of these punishments, however, came close to matching the one his grandmother had in store for him. Two days after Black's break-in, she sent Neville the very worst thing a Hogwarts student could receive over breakfast… a Howler.

The school owls swooped into the Great Hall carrying the mail as usual, and Neville choked as a huge barn owl landed in front of him, a scarlet envelope clutched in its beak. Harry and Ron, who were sitting opposite him, recognized the letter as a Howler at once, Ron had got one from his mother the year before.

"Run for it, Neville," Ron advised.

Neville didn't need telling twice. He seized the envelope, and holding it before him like a bomb, sprinted out of the hall, while the Slytherin table exploded with laughter at the sight of him. They heard the Howler go off in the entrance hall. Neville's grandmother's voice, magically magnified to a hundred times its usual volume, shrieking about how he had brought shame on the whole family.

Harry was too busy feeling sorry for Neville to notice immediately that he had a letter too. Hedwig got his attention by nipping him sharply on the wrist.

"Ouch! Oh, thanks, Hedwig."

Harry tore open the envelope while Hedwig helped herself to some of Neville's cornflakes.

Malfoy's owl, Aries as Bree had learned its name was, strode over to Hedwig a preceded to do what Bree assumed was an owl's version of flirting. Minutes later he went back over to Bree, head hung low, apparently having been rejected. Bree patted him on the head.

"There, there. I still think you're great." she said.

A Hogsmade weekend was coming up. Bree had given up her plan to irreparably mentally scar the Slytherins in favor of tormenting Ron. She had yet to do anything to him yet, but that was only because she hadn't been able to get onto the school grounds in order to collect the worms she needed. On Saturday she made sure that everyone who had to remain at school would think she had gone to Hogsmade and everyone who was going to Hogsmade would think she was at school.

Bree asked the house-elves to make her a lunch, saying that there food was far better then anything in Hogsmade. The house elves gave her four turkey sandwiches and a slice of apple pie.

Bree snuck out to the forbidden forest, only going in deep enough to hide from anyone who might happen to look out a window. After a couple of hours she had dug up quite a few worms, but not exactly the number she was hoping for. The she heard something. It was the familiar sound of the bell on her cat Muffin's collar. Bree turned and spotted Muffin who was following the much larger Crookshanks and both felines were headed… right for the Whomping Willow!

Bree quickly took off after both felines, the willow's branches began swaying in warning. Crookshanks quickly darted forward and pressed a knot on the trunk of the willow. The tree instantly went still. Both cats disappeared down a hole at the base of the tree. Bree ran up to the edge of it and stared into the darkness. She could faintly hear the ringing of the bell on Muffin's collar. Feeling a bit like Alice at the edge of the rabbit hole, Bree followed the cats into the hole. She found herself in a tunnel. Bree cast a quick Lumos spell in order to allow herself to see.

Bree quickly began walking through the tunnel, careful not to trip on any roots or stones. All the while she could hear the bell in the distance. At one point the ringing stopped. A few minutes later Bree found out why. On the floor of the tunnel was Muffin's collar, it had gotten caught on a root and Muffin must have wriggled out of it. Bree picked it up and continued down the tunnel. The bell on the collar ringing with every step she took.

She soon found herself inside a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up. The room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. Wandered around the building, peering out the cracks between the boards that covered the windows, trying to figure out where she was. At one point she found herself looking at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle being pelted with mud thrown by an unknown assailant.

At one point Crabbe tripped, and suddenly Harry's head appeared floating in midair. Malfoy screamed and ran. Bree drew away from the window.

"Well that was interesting." she murmured. She turned around and found herself looking at a large dog with shaggy black fur. The dog was emaciated. Bones were clearly visible beneath its skin. Bree could've counted every rib if she wanted to. Crookshanks and Muffin sat on either side of the dog.

"Muffin, you naughty kitty. You nearly gave me a heart attack when I saw you going toward the willow." Bree said as she walked over to her cat and picked her up. She quickly put her collar on and then set her down. She turned back to the dog. Bree sat down on the floor and put the bag she had been carrying in her lap so she could have better access to it. She pulled out one of the sandwiches that the house elves had given to her. She unwrapped it set in down in front of the dog. The dog looked at Bree then the sandwich and back.

"Well go on. I have more, after you eat that one we'll see if you can stomach another." Bree said encouragingly.

The dog began eating and Bree pulled out another sandwich for herself. After both Bree and the dog had finished eating scratched the dog behind the ears and between the shoulders, before checking her watch.

"Damn it. It's later then I thought, I've got to get going, everyone will be back soon!" Bree exclaimed. She quickly pulled out the last two sandwiches and set them on the floor along with the piece of apple pie the elves had given her, said a quick goodbye to the dog, then rushed back to the tunnel.

Bree rushed back to the school, her cat on her heels. Once inside Bree picked Muffin up and walked calmly down the hall.

She passed by Professor Lupin, who seemed to sniff the air before stopping her.

"How was Hogsmade, Miss Smith?" he asked.

"Ah, it was fine, I didn't really feel like being around people today so I stayed to myself." Bree responded.

Lupin seemed to hesitate for a moment before asking "Did you run into any dogs?"

Bree blinked in surprise. "No. Why?" she replied, pulling Muffin closer to her chest.

"I've heard that there's been a bit of a problem with strays recently." Lupin answered.

"I see. Well I have to get going, see you later Professor." Bree said before continuing down the hall.

Bree found out later that Lupin had confiscated the map from Harry. Hermione and Ron had finally made up, so Bree decided not to put the worms she had collected in his bed, or clothes, or food.

Hermione wasn't in charms class on Monday. They were experimenting with Cheering Charms. Bree didn't really like them. Bree didn't really want to be that happy at that particular moment, and, after a while, smiling hurts. Hermione wasn't at lunch either.

She did turn up for divination, but she looked rather stressed. Glowing on every little table in the classroom was a crystal ball full of pearly white mist. Bree settled in a large armchair in the back and glared at anyone who came near. She was very unhappy. The cheering charms had unsettled her. She didn't like feeling emotions that weren't hers.

"Good day to you!" said the familiar, misty voice, and Professor Trelawney made her usual dramatic entrance out of the shadows. Parvati and Lavender quivered with excitement, their faces lit by the milky glow of their crystal ball.

"I have decided to introduce the crystal ball a little earlier than I had planned," said Professor Trelawney, sitting with her back to the fire and gazing around. "The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."

Hermione snorted.

"Well, honestly… 'the fates have informed her'. Who sets the exam? She does! What an amazing prediction!" she said, not troubling to keep her voice low. Harry and Ron choked back laughs.

It was hard to tell whether Professor Trelawney had heard them as her face was hidden in shadow. She continued, however, as though she had not.

"Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art," she said dreamily. "I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb's infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes" Ron began to snigger uncontrollably and had to stuff his fist in his mouth to stifle the noise, "so as to clear the Inner Eye and the super conscious. Perhaps, if we are lucky, some of you will see before the end of the class."

Bree didn't really have a problem with this lesson. She was actually pretty good at tuning out the world around her. It was a skill she had developed on long flights in order to pass the time when she couldn't sleep in the plane. This handy skill allowed her to space out within a few minutes. She stared blankly at the crystal ball with nothing on her mind. She wasn't really aware of anything else in the classroom until Harry and Hermione burst out laughing.

"Now, really!" said Professor Trelawney as everyone's heads turned in their direction. Parvati and Lavender were looking scandalized. "You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!" She approached their table and peered into their crystal ball.

There is something here!" Professor Trelawney whispered, lowering her face to the ball, so that it was reflected twice in her huge glasses. "Something moving… but what is it?"

"My dear," Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing up at Harry. "It is here, plainer than ever before… my dear, stalking toward you, growing ever closer… the Gr"

"Oh, for goodness' sake!" said Hermione loudly. "Not that ridiculous Grim again!"

Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Hermione's face. Parvati whispered something to Lavender, and they both glared at Hermione too. Professor Trelawney stood up, surveying Hermione with unmistakable anger.

"I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don't remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane."

There was a moment's silence. Then…

"Fine!" said Hermione suddenly, getting up and cramming Unfogging the Future back into her bag. "Fine!" she repeated, swinging the bag over her shoulder and almost knocking Ron off his chair. "I give up! I'm leaving!"

And to the whole class's amazement, Hermione strode over to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and climbed down the ladder out of sight.

It took a few minutes for the class to settle down again. Professor Trelawney seemed to have forgotten all about the Grim. She turned abruptly from Harry and Ron's table, breathing rather heavily as she tugged her gauzy shawl more closely to her.

"Ooooo!" said Lavender suddenly, making everyone start. "Ooooo, Professor Trelawney, I've just remembered! You saw her leaving, didn't you? Didn't you, Professor? 'Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever!' You said it ages ago, Professor!"

Professor Trelawney gave her a dewy smile.

"Yes, my dear, I did indeed know that Miss Granger would be leaving us. One hopes, however, that one might have mistaken the Signs… The Inner Eye can be a burden, you know…"

Lavender and Parvati looked deeply impressed, and moved over so that Professor Trelawney could join their table instead.

Bree tuned out again until the end of class.

The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. The third years had never had so much homework. Neville Longbottom seemed close to a nervous collapse, and he wasn't the only one.

"Call this a holiday!" Seamus Finnigan roared at the common room one afternoon. "The exams are ages away, what're they playing at?"

But nobody had as much to do as Hermione. Even without Divination, she was taking more subjects than anybody else. She was usually last to leave the common room at night, first to arrive at the library the next morning; she had shadows like Lupin's under her eyes, and seemed constantly close to tears.

One day Bree had had enough and grabbed Hermione by the wrist and dragged her to McGonagall's office.

"Look at her!" Bree exclaimed, shoving the bushy haired girl toward her Head of House.

"She's a mess." the blond continued. She glared at McGonagall. "You're our Head of House, she's your responsibility, fix her!" Bree shouted before storming out of the room.

It would at this point be pertinent to mention that Bree was becoming increasingly stressed due to her inability to freely wander the castle grounds. The lack of privacy that dorm life provided and the fact the she was now thirteen year old hormonal teenager, also served to increase her daily amount of stress. Bree felt this stress the most in the mornings, which led to Bree behaving rather hostilely at breakfast.

"Excuse me. Move it or lose it. Out of the way shorty." Bree snapped at some first years who were blocking Bree progress to the Great Hall. Several Hufflepuffs had burst into tears due to some other insults that shouldn't be repeated in polite company.


311. Just because I'm not a morning person, doesn't mean I can make the first years cry.


Bree spat out a couple of death threats before Professor Lupin reprimanded her. His words didn't really register beyond "Someone's talking to me and their in my way."

"Bite me!" Bree snarled before stalking into the Great Hall, leaving Professor Lupin gaping in shock.


66. Telling Professor Lupin to "Bite Me" is wrong.


Bree was given detention. She knew she deserved it. She should have tried to control her temper better… but damn if it wasn't fun to see Slytherin first years scatter at the sight of her.

The Gryffindor-Slytherin match would take place on the first Saturday after the Easter holidays. Slytherin was leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points. This meant (as Wood constantly reminded his team) that they needed to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup. It also meant that the burden of winning fell largely on Harry, because capturing the Snitch was worth one hundred and fifty points.

"So you must catch it only if we're more than fifty points up," Wood told Harry constantly. "Only if we're more than fifty points up, Harry, or we win the match but lose the Cup. You've got that, Haven't you? You must catch the Snitch only if we're —"

"I KNOW, OLIVER!" Harry yelled.

The whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley (Ron's second oldest brother) had been Seeker.

Never, in anyone's memory, had a match approached in such a highly charged atmosphere. By the time the holidays were over, tension between the two teams and their Houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a Gryffindor fourth year and a Slytherin sixth year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.

Harry was having a particularly bad time of it. He couldn't walk to class without Slytherins sticking out their legs and trying to trip him up; Crabbe and Goyle kept popping up wherever he went, and slouching away looking disappointed when they saw him surrounded by people. Wood had given instructions that Harry should be accompanied everywhere he went, in case the Slytherins tried to put him out of action.

The whole of Gryffindor House took up the challenge enthusiastically, so that it was impossible for Harry to get to classes on time because he was surrounded by a vast, chattering crowd. Harry was more concerned for his Firebolt's safety than his own. When he wasn't flying it, he locked it securely in his trunk and frequently dashed back up to Gryffindor Tower at break times to check that it was still there.

All usual pursuits were abandoned in the Gryffindor common room the night before the match. Even Hermione had put down her books.

"I can't work, I can't concentrate," she said nervously.

There was a great deal of noise. Fred and George Weasley were dealing with the pressure by being louder and more exuberant than ever. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were laughing at Fred's and George's jokes. Harry was sitting with Ron and Hermione, removed from the center of things. Oliver Wood was crouched over a model of a Quidditch field in the corner, prodding little figures across it with his wand and muttering to himself.

"Talking to yourself is one of the first signs that you're going completely mad." Bree said to him, causing him to stare at her. Bree grinned. "It's not that bad, being mad. After all… we're all mad here." she stated.

Wood suddenly stood up and yelled, "Team! Bed!"

"What do you think that was about?" Bree said in the direction of her right shoulder.

"I don't know." Bree responded, addressing the direction of her left shoulder. "What do you think Hermione?" she asked with a maniac grin.

"I think you need to go to bed." Hermione answered.

Bree nodded. "Good idea. I do tend to act a bit off when I'm tired." she said before heading up to the common room.

The next day Gryffindor won the match, and the cup. Naturally there was a party to top all other parties.