Between classes, homework, and studying for exams, it took Rachel and Hermione the better part of six weeks to compile their notes on Professor Lockhart. They wound up ordering copies of his autobiography and his guide to household pests since they had to turn in the copies they had borrowed from the library.

In the end, they had eighteen pages of contradictions and a color-coded timeline that showed where things overlapped and where it would have been impossible for him to do two or three things at once.

"The real problem is he's had four different editors and three different publishers. If he'd only had one they could have made sure his stories aligned," Hermione said as Theo reviewed their work.

"The real problem is that Lockhart is not only a terrible teacher, he's a liar who can't keep his stories straight," Theo said, tapping his quill on the timeline. "The question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"What can we do about it?" Rachel asked. She'd mainly been using this task as a distraction.

"Tell the Daily Prophet," Luna suggested. "Or Witch Weekly, they run articles on him quite often."

"Well, people should know, but I don't know that we have enough evidence for the Daily Prophet to believe us," Hermione said.

"Tell Professor Dumbledore," Neville said, looking up from where he was doing a detailed drawing of Abyssinian Shrivelfig in his two-way book and labeling the parts. He was borrowing Luna's colored quills while she watched him draw.

"Same thing, I don't know that we have enough evidence," Hermione said.

"You have a lot of evidence," Theo said, handing them back their notes. "You should make multiple copies of this and write it out in our two-way books so you have a back-up. I bet Lockhart wouldn't want this getting out."

"That's a good idea," Rachel said.

"You're right, we should have back-ups before we do anything," Hermione agreed. "What if we ask Professor Lockhart? Maybe he has an explanation for these things? It's probably a good idea to give him a chance to explain himself before we think about exposing him."

"He'll probably just tell you that you're being silly. That's what he told me when I asked him about how to cast the stunning spell he used on the werewolves. He said I was very unlikely to ever encounter a werewolf and that such things were best left to professionals, like himself," Ginny said, glaring at the stack of Lockhart books on the table.

"We can teach you that spell, Millie looked it up," Hermione said.

"I think it's usually taught in upper years, but we seemed to get the hang of it pretty easily. Though, we only stunned each other once, just to try it out," Millie said.

"Fortunately we looked up the reviving spell before we tried out the stunning spell," Theo said.

"I'd say we could show Professor Snape our notes on Professor Lockhart, but I don't think it will do anything. He already doesn't like Professor Lockhart," Rachel said, starting to make a second copy of their notes.

"Well. Let's try letting him explain first. We could go to his office after classes are over tomorrow and see what he has to say. Depending on what he says, we could try going to Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said.

Rachel didn't think Professor Lockhart was just going to admit that he'd lied about his books, but she supposed Hermione was right - he should have a chance to defend himself. Everyone deserved at least that much.

Rachel felt much less certain about the entire prospect the next afternoon when they were standing in front of Professor Lockhart's office door. "Are we sure we want to do this?" she asked Hermione.

"I want to hear what he has to say for himself," Hermione said with a short nod. She was holding a copy of their notes. They had another copy in the study room, a copy in their two-way books, and Rachel was carrying the originals in her bag.

Hermione knocked on the door and they waited.

Rachel was about to suggest that they come back another time when the door opened to reveal Professor Lockhart.

"Well, if it isn't my two brightest second years. Did you have a question for me? Come in, come in," he said, standing back so they could enter his office. The walls were covered in pictures of Professor Lockhart, all of them moving. It was more than a little disconcerting.

"Professor, we've been reading your books more closely and we had noticed a couple of things that confused us. We were wondering if you could explain them?" Hermione asked.

"Of course, anything I can do to help. What in particular confused you?" Professor Lockhart asked.

"Well, we noticed a few discrepancies and we were wondering how they came about, particularly in regards to the timeline of your books," Hermione said, handing Professor Lockhart their notes.

The smile faded from Professor Lockhart's face as he began to read. "Editorial errors. That's all," he said shortly.

"All of them?" Hermione asked. "But you wrote the books. Didn't you just write what happened?"

"Clearly there is much you don't understand about publishing. Things are not that straight forward," he said.

"But what about the timeline?" Rachel asked. "You couldn't have been in Albania and Tibet at the same time."

"This is absurd. Incendio," Professor Lockhart said, tapping his wand against the sheets of parchment and dropping them in flames into his fireplace. "I don't want to hear any more of this. Being clever is not enough to get you far in this world, you'll learn that soon enough."

"Did you even do any of the things in your books?" Hermione asked, clearly upset.

"That's enough," he said, pointing his wand in Hermione's direction and beginning to move it to cast a spell.

"Run!" Rachel shouted. She grabbed Hermione's wrist and pulled her out of the way of Professor Lockhart's wand and then out the office door. She kept running down the corridor, still holding onto Hermione. "Is he coming?"

"I don't know," Hermione said, gasping as she twisted her arm out of Rachel's grasp.

"Come on," Rachel said, going down the main staircase as quickly as she could.

They made it all the way to Professor Snape's office in the dungeons. Rachel knocked once on the door and then pulled it open and hurried inside, Hermione panting for air as she followed.

"What happened?" Professor Snape asked, immediately getting to his feet and drawing his wand.

"Professor Lockhart, he just pointed his wand at Hermione," Rachel said, breathing hard from the run.

"He was going to obliviate me. He was moving his wand in a tight spiral and he had it pointed right at my head," Hermione said. "I've never been as scared as that before."

"What does obliviate do?" Rachel asked. She had never heard of the spell - she'd just seen Professor Lockhart pointing the wand at her friend and reacted.

"Obliviate is a memory charm, it erases someone's memory. It seems like this is a conversation Albus should be involved in," Professor Snape said. "First, are either of you injured? Did he cast any other spells at you?"

"No," Hermione said.

"I'm fine," Rachel said.

"Very well." Professor Snape took some floo powder off the mantle and tossed it into the fireplace. "Headmaster's office. Albus, I need to bring two students to see you."

"Come on through, Severus," Professor Dumbledore called through the fireplace.

"After you," Professor Snape said.

"What do I do?" Hermione asked.

"It's the floo. You just step into the green flames, close your eyes and hold your arms tight against your body. Don't breathe in. I'll go first so you can see," Rachel instructed, going to the fireplace and stepping inside. She held her breath through the whirling and banging sensations and stumbled out into Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Rachel. Are you well?" Professor Dumbledore asked, offering her his hand.

"Yes, sir," Rachel said, accepting his hand and getting up.

Hermione landed with a short shriek a moment later and Rachel helped her get up. "I'm not sure I want to do that again," Hermione said as she dusted herself off.

"Floo travel, much like wine, gets better with age," Professor Dumbledore said. "Or perhaps you merely get used to it."

"Yes, sir," Hermione said, blushing brightly.

Professor Snape stepped through the floo. "I believe Miss Snow and Miss Granger have something to tell you about events that just occurred," he said to Professor Dumbledore.

"Yes, please, come sit," Professor Dumbledore said. He waved his wand and a third chair appeared by the two that were in front of his desk. "Would anyone like a sherbet lemon?"

"No, thank you," Rachel said. Her stomach felt too unsettled for sweets at the moment.

Hermione shook her head and went to sit in one of the seats, Rachel sat down beside her, and Professor Snape sat down on Rachel's other side.

"Now, Severus said that something had occurred?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, sir. We were in Professor Lockhart's office. We had noticed some inconsistencies in his books. Well, and some things that couldn't possibly be true as well. And we went to ask him about them. He burned a copy of our notes and said it was just publishing errors. And then he pointed his wand at me, at my head, and moved his wand in a spiral. I'm positive he was going to obliviate me," Hermione explained in a rush.

"I see. And you were there, Rachel?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

Rachel nodded. "Yes, sir. That's exactly what happened. We ran to get Professor Snape, in case Professor Lockhart was following us."

"I'm glad that you can see the value in a strategic retreat," Professor Dumbledore said. "You said it was a copy of your notes. Do you have another set that I could see?"

"Yes, sir," Rachel said. She opened her bag and pulled out the notes and handed them to him.

Professor Dumbledore began to look through the notes, nodding to himself as he read.

"I think it's perhaps more important that he attempted to attack a student," Professor Snape said after a few minutes.

"Certainly it is. However, I think it's also important to consider the merit of Miss Snow and Miss Granger's research. Twenty five points to Gryffindor, and twenty five points to Slytherin. Do you mind if I keep these notes?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"You can keep them, sir," Hermione said. "What about Professor Lockhart? Is he still going to be our teacher?"

"I will have a conversation with Gilderoy. If what you have said proves to be true, I'm afraid I'll have little choice but to ask him to step down," Professor Dumbledore said.

"You don't believe us?" Rachel asked.

Professor Dumbledore adjusted his glasses to look at Rachel. "I do. However, there is a proverb in Russian that I quite like. Translated, it says 'trust, but verify'."

"But how can you do that? It will be a professor's word against ours," Hermione said.

"I have ways of knowing when people are lying to me," Professor Dumbledore said. "Was there anything else you'd like to tell me?"

Rachel and Hermione both shook their heads.

"Thank you, Albus," Professor Snape said as he stood. "Why don't we take the stairs down."

Rachel and Hermione followed Professor Snape out the door to Professor Dumbledore's office and they went down the rotating staircase that led back into the second floor corridor.

"I will speak with Albus later and confirm what is happening," Professor Snape said before either of them could speak.

"Will he really have Professor Lockhart leave Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"I believe so, yes. If he doesn't, I will raise the issue again," Professor Snape said. "You both did well to escape and come to me."

Rachel didn't know what to say to that. Running away didn't seem particularly brave and they would have been in trouble if Professor Lockhart had come after them. She supposed it was better than standing still and letting him obliviate them though.

"Thank you, sir," Hermione said.

"I will see you in the Great Hall for dinner, unless there's anything else?" Professor Snape said.

"We're okay," Rachel said.

"I'll be in my office until dinner if you need me," he said and then walked away.

"I can't believe he tried to obliviate me. Right before final exams!" Hermione said as they started walking back to their study room.

"I can't believe Professor Dumbledore gave us points for that," Rachel said, though she was glad Professor Lockhart hadn't obliviated Hermione. Surely he would have obliviated Rachel next and who knows how much she would have lost. Some things she wouldn't have minded losing though.

Rachel, Hermione, Luna, and Ginny had just entered the library the next afternoon when an upper year Ravenclaw approached them.

"How did you get rid of Lockhart?" she asked Rachel. "Rumor going around says that you dueled him and he lost."

"Hermione and I approached him about some inconsistencies in his books and he tried to obliviate Hermione," Rachel said, wondering how the rumor mill had gone from book inconsistencies to dueling in the course of twenty four hours.

"Oh," the girl said, sounding disappointed. "Couldn't you have done that sooner? He was useless. At least we have a month free of him."

"Honestly," Hermione said quietly as the girl walked away. "This morning Fred and George congratulated me on getting rid of Lockhart."

"At least they're not coming up to me saying I'm opening the Chamber of Secrets, that was awful," Rachel said. She was also glad they'd stopped talking about Leander too.

To her surprise Ginny started to sniffle and wipe at her eyes.

"Ginny? Are you okay?" Hermione asked.

Ginny nodded but continued to cry.

"Let's go back to the study room," Rachel said, not wanting to draw attention to their group.

Hermione looked torn for a moment but nodded. "Yes, let's. We can come back to the library in a little bit. Come on, Ginny. It's okay."

They made their way back to the study room, walking slowly because Ginny had covered her face with her hands.

"That was fast," Theo said as he looked up. "What happened? Did something happen?"

"We're not quite sure," Hermione said, her hand on Ginny's shoulder.

"It's my fault," Ginny managed to say through her tears.

Hermione guided Ginny to a chair and sat down next to her. "What do you mean?"

"You have to promise not to tell anyone," Ginny said, wiping at her face.

"Are you being hurt? Or is someone else being hurt?" Millie asked, her brow creased with worry. "We can't promise not to tell if someone's getting hurt."

"No one is getting hurt, not anymore," Ginny said.

Rachel bit her lip, wondering if they should still promise not to tell anyone. If it was like Leander, someone might be hurting other people even if Ginny wasn't being hurt.

"Is it why you were so sad this year?" Luna asked.

Ginny sniffled and wiped her eyes again. "Yes. I didn't know anyone had noticed."

"We noticed, we just didn't know what to do to help other than including you in our group," Neville said. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"We want to help," Hermione said.

"I was the one opening the Chamber of Secrets," Ginny said before breaking down into renewed sobs.

Rachel was certain that her face mirrored the shocked expressions she was seeing all around the table.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"I didn't mean to. I didn't even know I was doing it at first. I would just wake up in weird places, and there was paint and chicken feathers, and then I realized what had been happening," Ginny said through her tears.

"Possession. You had the diary," Theo said, his eyes growing wide with realization.

"Diary?" Neville asked.

"Millie and I found a diary in the girls bathroom and Theo figured out that it was cursed. We brought it to Professor Snape," Rachel explained.

"I tried to flush it down the toilet," Ginny said.

"Well that's one method of dealing with cursed objects, I suppose," Millie said. "I get why you didn't tell us. That's scary."

"I feel so stupid," Ginny said, her shoulders slumped. "It was my fault, and people were blaming Rachel and I didn't do anything about it."

"It's okay," Rachel said, hesitating. She had promised Professor Snape she wouldn't tell anyone, but it seemed necessary. "What I'm about to tell you can't leave this room, okay? We can't even write about it in our books."

"Rachel?" Hermione asked.

"You'll understand why in a moment. Do you promise?" Rachel asked.

Everyone nodded or said "yes" or "I promise".

"Professor Snape took the diary to Professor Dumbledore and they examined it. You wrote with Tom in the diary, right?" Rachel asked Ginny.

Ginny nodded.

"Tom Riddle is actually the Dark Lord. The diary was his memories when he was a student here," Rachel explained.

There was a moment of shocked silence before almost everyone started speaking at once.

"Wait!" Hermione said loudly. When everyone had stopped she continued. "Let's do this one at a time."

"I think that explains a lot. That diary did things it shouldn't have been able to do," Theo said. "The Dark Lord is a great wizard."

"A great wizard?" Hermione asked sharply.

"Great in terms of what he's able to do with magic, not in terms of morality," Theo clarified.

"My father says he can do things that no other wizard in our time can do, with the exception of Professor Dumbledore," Luna added.

"My Gran says that too. That's how he got so powerful. Very few people were willing to go up against him," Neville said.

"And he fooled a lot of people, you're not the only one, Ginny," Theo said.

"He was really nice to me," Ginny said. "It took me a long time to realize that the diary was connected to my blackouts. Too long."

"Not too long. Mrs. Norris and Justin are okay now," Millie said. "Are you okay after that?"

"I get weird nightmares sometimes, but not as often now," Ginny said.

"How did you get the diary?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"It was in my school things when my family came home from shopping at Diagon Alley. I thought my mom had gotten me a second hand one, since it hadn't been written in. She's told me before that she kept a diary while she was at Hogwarts. She read me some of the entries where she met my dad," Ginny explained.

"It's kind of terrifying to think of something like that hanging around in a bookshop," Neville said.

"I wonder if there are others like it," Rachel said. "If the Dark Lord's goal was to open the Chamber of Secrets again, then it would make sense to have multiple books that could do it."

"Memories are funny things. I would imagine he would have had to put his memories directly into the book for it to work," Luna said.

"Maybe. Dark magic usually requires a sacrifice of some sort. It's possible the Dark Lord now doesn't remember the memories he put in the diary," Theo said. "Just in case though, it might be worth Rachel talking to Professor Snape and asking if it's possible."

"Don't tell him about me, please," Ginny said.

"I don't think you'll be in trouble. It wasn't your fault, Ginny. You didn't know what the diary was doing to you. And when you did realize, you made it stop," Hermione said.

Ginny looked down. "But my parents will be so disappointed in me."

Rachel understood. "I'll ask him about the possibility of there being more books, but I won't say anything about you."

"Thanks," Ginny said quietly.

"But if you do need something, tell us," Hermione said. "We're your friends. At least, I hope you can see us as friends."

"I do," Ginny said, blushing. "I don't think I could have told you otherwise."

"I'm glad you did," Neville said.

Rachel was too, though she could understand why Ginny was embarrassed. In some ways it was hard having people know things about you.

"Okay. If there are no other earth shaking revelations, I'm going back to the library," Hermione said, pausing before she stood up.

"I need books too," Ginny said.

"Okay. To the library," Hermione said.

Rachel joined them, trying to remember what book she'd been looking for before all this had happened.

"I can't believe our forms are due tomorrow," Hermione said. She was surrounded by a pile of books and looked more stressed than Rachel had ever seen her.

"I can't believe you haven't filled it out yet," Theo said. "We've had them for a month."

"I don't know what to do! What classes we take affect our whole future. How can I possibly choose a career when I'm thirteen?" Hermione asked.

"You don't have to," Luna said. "Pick whatever leaves the most options open."

Hermione blinked. "That's not unreasonable."

"Professor Snape told me not to bother with Divination. He said it was a waste of time," Rachel said. She had her own form in front of her as she'd also been putting off making her choices. She'd put a check mark next to Care of Magical Creatures, because that sounded interesting. She also knew she wasn't taking either Divination or Muggle Studies - Divination because of Professor Snape's advice, and Muggle Studies because she'd already lived with muggles and felt she hardly needed to know more.

"And you don't need Muggle Studies either, Hermione," Millie said.

"Though it would be interesting to hear about it from a wizarding perspective," Hermione hedged.

"Professor Snape also said the maximum number of electives you should consider is three," Rachel pointed out, tapping the end of the quill on her form. They'd all looked at books from the library on all the elective subjects and while some of it had been useful a lot of it had been over their heads.

"From a career perspective, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy are your best bet. I went with both of those, plus Care of Magical Creatures," Theo said.

"Three more classes is a lot though," Millie said.

Neville nodded in agreement.

"I think we could handle it. We do very well in our current classes. And it will give us the most options when it comes to choosing classes after taking our OWLs," Hermione said.

"I wish we could take the electives next year too," Ginny said as she looked up from where she'd borrowed Hermione's book about Ancient Runes.

"I'd like to start taking Care of Magical Creatures," Luna said.

Rachel hesitated and then put check marks next to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. She could handle three more classes, couldn't she?

"Oh, I guess," Millie said, looking at Rachel's form before making the same selections herself.

"You don't have to take the same ones if you don't want to," Rachel said.

"I know. But if Professor Snape says Divination is rubbish then I'm not going to take it, and I do want to take Care of Magical Creatures. And Arithmancy looks interesting enough. I just don't know how well I'll do with Ancient Runes. My mom tried to teach me French when I was little and I was terrible at it," Millie explained.

"Well, we'll be able to study and practice together. Ancient Runes and Arithmancy are definitely in for me. And Care of Magical Creatures, because that sounds useful," Hermione said, her quill wavering over her choices.

"Well, if you all think we can manage three more classes, then I'll do it too," Neville said, even though he sounded a little nervous.

"It will be fine, Hermione. You can't take everything," Theo said.

"But what if I make the wrong choice now?" Hermione asked.

"The only career that requires an OWL or a NEWT in Divination is to be a Seer, and Seers tend to run in families and you would already know by now if you were one," Theo explained. "And you already have all the qualifications you need for any career that deals with muggles. So really, these three classes leave all your options open until you decide what to take after your OWLs."

"I suppose," Hermione said. She exhaled heavily and made her marks on Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy. "Okay, can we study now?"

"Yes, though you do realize that we are overprepared?" Theo asked.

"Good. We're all going to get Outstandings on our exams then," Hermione said with a nod.

Rachel thought they likely were - they'd been deep in exam preparation since the start of April.

"We'll do fine," Neville said. "Even I think we'll do fine."

Final exams started the second week of June, with Potions being their first exam on Monday morning. The classroom was silent as they brewed Sleeping Draughts. Rachel was glad to see that everyone in their study group had dark purple potions at the end, just like they were supposed to.

In Transfiguration they did a written exam while Professor McGonagall called them up one by one to turn a porcupine into a pin cushion. Rachel was relieved when her pin cushion did not curl up with fright when she took out one of the pins and put it back in again.

In Charms they also had a written exam and Professor Flitwick called them up and put a privacy ward so they couldn't hear the incantations other students were doing. Rachel easily performed a Shrinking charm, an Engorgement charm, a Freezing charm, and then used Finite Incantatem to end the Freezing charm. "Very good, full marks," Professor Flitwick told Rachel when she was finished.

For Herbology they wrote short essays about Mandrakes and Leaping Toadstools, and then correctly harvested Fluxweed. It was another very easy exam and Rachel was starting to think they had very much overprepared.

They answered questions and wrote essays for History of Magic, mostly centering around the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards. For Astronomy they went up to the Astronomy Tower at midnight on Thursday and filled out star charts in more depth than they'd been able to do for the final exam in their first year, marking constellations, planetary bodies, and naming individual stars.

Their last exam was in Defense, which was being supervised by Professor Dumbledore. It was entirely a written exam, which Rachel thought was a little unfortunate because their study group had spent quite a bit of time looking up and learning spells that Lockhart had claimed to use in his books. The exam itself though was a little bit more in depth than what could be found in Lockhart's books and Rachel was glad that Millie had been so dedicated to making up for their lack of a proper Defense teacher.

"Professor, sir. These exams were hardly fair. Lockhart didn't teach us a lot of this stuff," Ron Weasley said to Professor Dumbledore as they were handing their exams in.

"Fear not, Mr. Weasley, I will be grading on a curve," Professor Dumbledore said with a smile.

For some reason Hermione made a slightly strangled sounding noise and put her hand over her mouth as she ducked to the back of the group of students.

Rachel handed in her own exam and then stood to the side, out of the way, but watching to see if Hermione was okay. When Hermione handed her exam in last she looked more composed, but the edge of her mouth was twitching slightly.

"Are you okay?" she asked Hermione as soon as they were in the hallway.

Hermione burst out laughing, leaning against the wall. "He's grading on a curve."

"What does that mean?" Neville asked.

"It means it's relative grading. He'll make the highest test scores into the highest grades, and then grade down from there. But I just answered all the questions on that test correctly and I'm sure you all did as well," Hermione said, grinning.

Rachel nodded, she felt she had answered everything correctly, and noticed the others nodding as well.

"Which means, our scores will be at the top, and everyone else will be judged compared to that. If we hadn't studied, and if Millie hadn't looked up all the extra materials on Defense, our scores would be lower, which means everyone else would have gotten a better grade," Hermione explained. "I'm sure he won't fail them, that'd hardly be fair given the professor we had, but I'm glad we did well."

"And, we're done!" Millie said. "Let's do something outside of the study room. Let's go to the lake."

"Alright, but let's leave a note for Luna and Ginny so they know where to find us," Theo said.

"Yes, alright, let's go to the lake," Hermione agreed. "We could use a break."

They spent the next two weeks relaxing and enjoying the library and the outside. They still had classes, but they were mostly doing practical reviews and they weren't assigned any homework. Rachel thought it was very nice to take a break from exam preparation, though now that she'd taken the exams she did worry a little bit about her own assessment of how well she'd done. She thought she had done well, but it was hard to know for sure until she saw her grades.

When she tried to explain that to Professor Snape he had told her not to worry about her grades. Rachel thought that he must have forgotten how it felt to be a student if he thought she could simply not worry about her grades.

She'd also raised the possibility with him that there might be more books that allowed the Chamber of Secrets to be opened. Professor Snape had assured her that the magic that had been done on the book would be very difficult to replicate and that there was almost undoubtedly only one book. Rachel had passed that information on to the rest of the group so they wouldn't worry as much.

It was almost strange to be looking forward to the summer. Rachel was looking forward to spending some time just sitting around Professor Snape's house reading and going flying in the backyard. Having nothing to do sounded incredibly enticing after all the studying they'd done. She also wanted to develop her film now that she'd used an entire roll. She'd taken her last picture outside a few days before they were ready to go home, asking an upper year if they'd take a picture of their entire group.

On Thursday afternoon, the day before the Leaving Feast, Rachel was sitting in the study room with Millie, Theo, and Luna, and was watching Luna make an animated drawing by using spells on different lines as she worked.

"Books are here," Hermione said as she came into the study room with Neville and Ginny. "Just in time too, if they'd waited any longer I would have had to mail them."

"We should put passwords on these, so they only open if you say the word they're keyed to," Theo said as he accepted the new two-way book Hermione had passed him.

"Good idea. Keeps out siblings, parents, and roommates," Millie said.

Rachel nodded, though she didn't expect that Professor Snape would be interested in her two-way book. "I'm going to put our birthday list on the front page," she said, pulling out their old two-way book that had just about run out of pages entirely.

"Yes, that way it's easier to keep track," Neville said.

"For us too?" Ginny asked, when Hermione had passed her and Luna a book.

"Of course, you're in our study group, aren't you?" Hermione asked.

"We're friends," Luna said.

"Exactly," Millie said. "And friends need a good way to communicate over the summer."

"Which reminds me, use the book, don't send me letters or packages or anything," Theo said.

Rachel looked up from where she was copying down the birthday list. It wasn't that she'd forgotten what Theo was going home to, she just hated thinking about it. She was sure Theo hated living it. "Ginny, when's your birthday and what's your favorite dessert food?"

"August 11th, and anything chocolate. I'll ask my mom if I can have you all over on my birthday," Ginny said.

"Why can't we send things to you?" Luna asked Theo.

"Because my father is a staunch blood purist and I can't let him think this is anything more than a study group to me. As far as he knows, I'm friends with Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle," Theo explained.

"He must not know you very well," Luna said.

"It's better that he doesn't, at least not until I'm of age and have finished at Hogwarts," Theo said.

"Will you be okay this summer?" Hermione asked.

"I'll be fine. I have you all for company through the book and my father's library to keep me occupied. Don't worry about me," Theo said.

Rachel couldn't help but worry anyway.

"Well, it's only two months, right?" Millie pointed out.

"Right," Hermione said. "And then we can come back and start new classes."

"Always looking on the bright side," Theo said, shaking his head slightly, though he was smiling.

Rachel smiled back. Both of them were right. They had all summer to look forward to and then back for a whole new set of classes. It would be fine.

Severus sat in his place at the staff table, sitting in between Minerva and Filius. Once again the Great Hall was decked out in Slytherin colors. They'd won both the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup, and yet he didn't feel the urge to gloat to Minerva. It had been a difficult term and the knowledge of what Leander had done had cast a pall over the celebration, at least for him.

Minerva seemed to understand his mood because she didn't engage in any of their traditional rivalries either. "How are they doing, Severus?" she asked, clearly following his gaze to where he was looking at where Rachel was sitting with the rest of the Slytherin second years.

"As well as can be expected," he said. He'd managed to convince Abigail Pugh's and Agnes Monkleigh's parents to take them to counseling over the summer. The letter he'd sent to Tracey Nettlebed's father had gone unanswered.

Rachel wouldn't talk about what had happened to her, at least not with him. He had expressed his concern to Torey, who had told him that Rachel simply wasn't ready yet and pressuring her to speak about it would only make things worse. Her advice was to give Rachel the opportunity to speak if she wished, and that she would work through things in her own time.

"And Rachel?" Minerva asked.

"Rachel is concerned about her grades, though I told her she needn't be," Severus said, setting down his fork and picking up his goblet of wine. He wished for something stronger, though he certainly wouldn't have imbibed at the staff table even if he'd had some Firewhiskey at his disposal.

"She did very well in my class," Minerva said. "I imagine she wishes to do well to impress you. You do place very high expectations on your students in your classroom."

"No higher than yours," Severus said, knowing full well from his time as a student at Hogwarts that Minerva ran a tight classroom.

"But I'm not her father. She needs to hear that you won't reject her regardless of her grades, even her grades in Potions," Minerva said.

"Children often need that reassurance," Filius chimed in.

Severus internally sighed. He had told Rachel as much before and he would do so again, though he didn't know how to get Rachel to believe it. He would settle for her not spending all her time studying. He never thought he'd need to convince a child to study less.

"What are your plans for this summer?" Minerva asked.

"Plant a garden with some hardier herbs and set up a potions laboratory," Severus said. He was actually looking forward to returning to Fallow Farm. It would do Rachel good to be away from Hogwarts for a while. "And you?"

"I'll be visiting my brother and his children for at least part of the time," Minerva said. "What about you, Filius?"

"Traveling down to Amsterdam to visit a good friend of mine. He's retiring from the dueling circuit and I thought I'd attend his last match," Filius said.

Severus looked back out over the Great Hall, his eyes traveling to Rachel once again. It was a little odd to realize that he would be spending the summer with family as well. He'd found himself more attached to her than he'd expected, more than just her being Lily's child would account for. He wondered when that had happened.

"It will be alright, Severus," Minerva said.

Severus turned to Minerva, wondering if he really appeared so grim that she felt the need to reassure him. "It will," he agreed. He would do everything within his power to ensure that it was. No one had been there to save him, but he could save Rachel. He had to.

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Book 3, Snow in the Moonlight, will start posting next Saturday. If you want to be notified, I recommend subscribing to me as an author. Thanks again!