Finally at Hogwarts :3

Hope you enjoy!


The train was crowded and loud as always, it felt like too long had passed since she was last on her way to Hogwarts. Like everyone else that had set a foot anywhere near it, she has been enamored by the school from day one.

She followed the only two people who had no obligations through the trip, but to lay back, snack and enjoy the view.

Until Hermione burst her bubble into smithereens.They had apologized way too much to Harry for leaving him alone, and it felt like pity was annoying him more than the fact he hadn't been given the position himself.

"Nina, you're coming?" Asked Hermione

"Nope", she answered simply.

"You can't just flunk on being Perfect" Ginny said scoffing.

"I've already gone through the proper channels, it's not in my hands anymore", she said shrugging disinterestedly.

"Okay, that makes no sense, you haven't received a reply" she said clearly frustrated.

"Hermione, I'll deal with the consequences if there are any", answered Nina calmly.

"Hey... move along" cried a girl's voice from the other side of the train corridor. Hermione sighed and moved a confused Ron to the other end. They cleared the way, getting inside the only compartment close to empty.

She only recognized Neville Longbottom inside, the other girl was hidden behind an upside down magazine.They greeted everyone as Harry and Ginny introduced her and Longbottom to the blond girl.

Soon silence set in, and she breathed deeply. Her mind still frenzied over her lost notebook, she tried hard not to think, she really did. Distractions couldn't hold that long though, she found her heart going back to its frantic beat, it was thankfully manageable.

She was sitting at Harry's side, perfect view to the window, right in front of Luna, Ginny beside Longbottom. She stayed silent as the others had some small talk.

Her mind still plagued by the notebook thief, she couldn't focus on Prefect duties of all things, not only now but the entire year, she had another set of four Horrocruxes to kill and then Voldemort himself, and then OWLS. All this without putting the red stone in the equation, that was another can of worms entirely. Too many unanswered questions there.

She was trying so hard to keep each problem away from the other, so it wouldn't feel like a mountain and everyday it proved impossible to deal with separately. Everything was connected in some way she just didn't know how.

She tuned in to her companions conversation, when she felt Harry move and take Neville's toad from him.

"Yeah, loads of stuff", The other boy holding a Mimbulus mimbletonia said. She recognized the grey cactus because she had bought it's liquid once, but didn't know much of it. He took a quill from his bag and proceeded to poke the pulsating thing.

The explosion of liquid was immediate, instinctively she put her arm up in front of her, the glow of her runes hidden from the others but not from Harry.

Realising what she had done she quickly pulled her wand to her hand, while the other three passengers in front of her struggled with the liquid stuck to their eyes.

She looked at Harry discreetly, fear probably clear in her eyes, and saw him give a soft awkward smile. Her heart had skyrocketed at the sudden nasty plant attack, and for a second it felt like she was back at the Hunter's den.

She shook her head and a wave of self hatred hit her hard. So much for pulling her shit together, still on the train and at the verge of a panic attack from a plant.

She realized only her and Harry had escaped clean, the others had taken the full onslaught of nastiness directed at them plus the liquid she had blocked and pushed.

The smell was terrible, and Ginny looked like she wanted to smack her with the plant.

"I'll go get some paper towels", she said jumping from her seat, just as the compartment door opened and Cho Chang's face appeared, she was accompanied by her two Ravenclaw friends.

It didn't go pass her notice the up and down look Cho gave her. She was wearing a brown mid thigh high waisted skirt, a thin cream colored sweater, a black denim jacket and her trusty white sneakers. Nothing too strange from what she usually wore.

"Oh, Hi Nina... Em, I wanted to talk to you." She said as her friends giggled. "Okay" she waited for two awkward seconds for the girl to speak and continued when she didn't "Do you mean now?"

"Oh no, not now...maybe like later, oh hey Harry", she said as she looked at the others sitting inside, cheeks going red as she greeted Harry, and abruptly turning into disgust as she looked at the others covered with black sticky liquid everywhere.

"Bad timing?" She said to Ginny.

"Yeah something like that," answered the redhead sending glare Nina a glare.

"Right ... Excuse me, see you Chang", she pushed through them to get out, it looked like they weren't done gawking at Harry and didn't hear him protest, "We could just ... scourgify the... Nevermind" just as Ginny pulled her wand and made it vanish, assuring a very sorry Neville that everything was okay.

She went into the bathroom trying to calm herself down. Her stay at Grimmauld Place was rather peaceful, taking into account she had survived a Massacre, the same week she had her death vision, she hadn't experienced great anxiety from it.

It made her sick to realize she had a full blown panick attack from losing her fucking notebook and not the days post Massacre. She hadn't sobbed in misery, she hadn't screamed or raged, nothing.

Sirius and Remus called it shock, but she wasn't so sure, shock had left the building a while ago now.

And now a squirting nasty grey cactus made her go onto defense mode quicker than the day of the Massacre.

She breathed deeply several times, splashed some cold water on her face, and realized after a few seconds in front of the mirror, that she was looking for something wrong with her which Cho could have noticed. She cursed herself and practically ripped a few paper towels from it's metallic box.

Going back in, she found Ron and Hermione had come back from their duties. Ron had taken her seat near the windows, and Hermione sat next to Harry. She pushed the other two boys to make room for her as she looked at her in disapproval.

She went red in embarrassment when she realized the mess had been magicked away of course. Neville, bless his heart, took the paper towels and told her he'd save it for later.

She smiled gratefully and sat next to Hermione, avoiding eye contact with anyone. God, she could be thick sometimes. The heat on her face grew enough to require taking off her denim jacket as Hermione called out the names of Prefects in their year.

She had forgotten Cedric Diggory would be Head boy this year and that meant he was directly above Perfects. Which meant she should have sent him a letter notice of her refusal to the bloody Prefect position.

Hermione looked like she was reading her mind or something because the girl turned to her and announced, "Cedric Diggory asked for you by the way, we told him you refused the position, and he said he kind of expected it. Ernie Macmillan looked pissed though."

The others snickered as she went even redder. Stupid Diggory, could just shut it. "Wait what? Ernie Macmillan is Prefect?" She asked, fully scandalized now. That just took off all her embarrassment and chucked it out the window.

"I'm definitely glad I refused, then."

Only Harry and Ron snickered this time.

Macmillan had proven to be a right git when it came to Quidditch, he was the bully of Hufflepuff house. It didn't reach the sadistic levels of Gryffindors or Slytherins but he had traumatised several first years in his days.

He had taken to calling her a squib that first year, and several Slytherins had taken the mantel as well. It was at her third year when her core was successfully stabilized that she started shutting their mouths even before they started speaking. After that they stayed away from her.

The door to the compartment opened again and this time a silver blond appeared surrounded by his goons, just staring at Harry.

She saw Harry about to lose his shit and do exactly what Malfoy expected, and acted before she had to listen to extra shit for the day. He turned to her, looking her up and down as she spoke as if just noticing her, probably not even remembering who she was.

"Hello Malfoy, goodbye Malfoy" she waved her hand clutching her wand for show and pushed the compartment close in his face, as three voices cursed from the other side of the compartment trying to open the thing by force.

They stopped only when they heard the compartment erupt in laughter.

Harry and Ron looked pleased with the turn of events, it was only when Neville and Ginny had gone to change into their uniforms that the compartment opened a third time and in came the person she dreaded to look at. He smiled and greeted everyone in the room but Harry. He sent him a hateful glare instead, and turned to her.

"Well?" He said

"Well what?" She answered idiotically

"I have no notice of you refusing the position and clearly Professor Dumbledore hasn't answered you yet, did he?" He said rather patiently.

"And your point is?" She continued stubbornly as a mule.

"Nina you can't just get out of doing stuff cause you don't want to." He admonished with a very serious older brother look he had mastered to a T. She didn't know if it was his voice or the gentle way he always spoke to her, even when annoyed. But he always managed to make her feel like shit, for not being up to Hufflepuff standards. The boy was a bloody saint, everyone knew that, and it only drove deeper the idea that she should socialize more, make more friends, save more puppies, be kind, study more. She wanted to hit him sometimes.

She groaned deeply and rubbed her forehead in pure frustration. "Fine" she practically exhaled "What do I have to do?"

He told her to patrol the Hallways from time to time, help lost firsties and that she could punish them if and only if she saw it was needed. That last part he said with an 'I know you' look.

"Okay got it" she said.

"Nina, I mean it," he said sternly.

"I said I got it" she looked as convincing as possible.

"Okay, I believe you then," he smiled.

He wished her a good trip and said that they'd talk later.

The deep puff of air she let out of her lungs could have killed a small fire. The compartment was left in silence again, only broken by Luna.

"I didn't know you were friends with Cedric Diggory, he seems nice."

"Very nice" whispered Hermione. To which Ron, Harry and herself turned to the now pink cheeked girl.

"We're not friends friends, he just ... Uh... We talk, ... And he helps me with Transfiguration,... and charms, yeah That's it", she answered awkwardly.

"I think that qualifies as friendship, it sounds nice, I'd like to have that someday." Answered Luna dreamily.

"I'm sure you will," answered Hermione hurriedly to stop the awkwardness.

Soon after Ginny came back, Nina practically ran to the door with her bag of clothes. God she never had such an awkward trip back to the castle, what the hell was happening.

The last four years she had sat down somewhere, opened a book, answered some questions whenever they were directed at her, asked questions to be polite and that was it.

She changed into her uniform and walked up and down on Patrol, the train corridor was calm, quiet and empty, probably someone was dishing punishments left and right.

She only met two first year students, and reminded them to put on their uniforms.

She walked slowly, down the empty corridor deep in thought, enjoying the quiet for a change.

It was near the front part of the train when a voice called her attention.

"Detention Morgenstern, for disrespecting your superiors", announced Malfoy, mighty pleased with himself.

"Not happening blondie" she said smiling.

"My name is not Blondie, and if you haven't noticed...I'm Prefect now." He said disgruntled at the moniker she used on him.

"Oh really, then you should know by now, Perfects aren't allowed to give detention to other fellow Perfects" she said, with big innocent eyes.

He stumbled with his words, and looked like his brain was about to fart.

"Macmillan said the squib Nina was made Prefect."Motherfucking Macmillan was going to get mysteriously pushed down the divination tower stairs any day now.

The nasty smile that took over her face looked like it wasn't the proper response for a Hufflepuff nobody, and her response seemed to disturb him. Hand splayed for a shake

"Nina Morgenstern, nice to meet you."

He looked ready to bolt, but manners were instilled in him like the proper pureblood he was and he took it like a champ thinking really hard.

"You're Halfblood" he said as he let her hand go. That surprised her more than anything, and frankly freaked her out. She didn't dare ask how he knew. But it looked like it was enough for him to continue. He looked surprised himself.

"Morgenstern is a very old pureblood name." He continued.

"Mm... Have a nice trip Malfoy '' she gave him a fake smile, not answering his obvious curiosity and went on her way.

She knew nothing of the Morgenstern name, she didn't even know she had it until her Hogwarts letter came. It was addressed to a Nina Morgenstern, and her name was Nina Salazar Azhar, her mother had almost closed the door to Dumbledore's face and called the police, paranoid that it was some sort of scheme from her father to take her away, even though he never showed any interest.

Later that day Dumbledore had explained that her Grandmother had received her father's estate and basically everything to the deceased man's name, after her only brother had died. Her late Grandmother wanted nothing to do with it, so it automatically passed to her son. Nina's father.

What she did instead was state a will which secured a spot at Hogwarts and the Morgenstern name for whoever next in line with magic.

She didn't understand the logic in it, her father disinherited her, didn't even allow her to take his name, she had to use her mother's maiden name Salazar, and she wanted to make sure her father's name lived on. It was just a name, but damn it all, just on principal, let the stupid name rot.

She had tried to keep her original name, Salazar for her father and Azhar for her mother, according to spanish law. It was a deal breaker though, Hogwarts reservation was named after a Nina Morgenstern and only someone with that name could be accepted. She never wanted to have anything to do with that, her fucking life was already a right mess, she didn't need some 60 years old family drama to deal with.

No thank you.

She stopped at the end of the corridor, her back on the wall hitting her head to the wall in pure frustration, as she realized she had been patrolling for thirty minutes, and still they weren't there yet.


He took a quick look at the person passing in front of their compartment door, and went back to his tense position, when he didn't see the outline of a brunette ponytail. It looked like he was doing a shit job at being discreet because Ron and Hermione kept giving him the 'what the hell is wrong with you look'.

Keeping secrets from them burnt him, he felt bad, and it felt like everyday his secrets grew and grew out of his control. He had been very attentive through the whole trip to keep her near,

but then Ron had to ruin it and take the seat he had so painstakingly made sure she'd use, he even boxed her in with his arms so awkwardly, pretending to let the others pass first.

It didn't go past his notice, the way her muscles locked, her face flinching in terror when the plant hissed an angry sound and something black came flying towards them.

He understood now why Moody and Remus had insisted on how well she had done the night of the Massacre. She was fast, her magic formed the barrier faster than it would have taken anyone to cast a Shield, even wordlessly. it was impressive.

The move had been instinctive, it saved them both from some nasty smells and he was grateful, but her face didn't look pleased with herself at all. She held her wand quickly pretending it had been spell work.

He saw that look before, he had seen it in himself. The shame. It took him some time to stop flinching at Uncle Vernon's raised arm, even after a beating what bothered him most was not the pain or the unfairness, he was used to that. The flinch his body made in instinct though. It was weak, it felt like bearing his fears, like showing his weaknesses to be used. Like admitting his Uncle had power over him.

He watched as she curled on herself, and avoided eye contact, he wanted to hold her and tell her she was safe, she was strong, and she was here, away from death eaters.

Instead she flew to the door like a scared little bird, Cho coming to say Hi did nothing to stop her.

He sat back down when his protests went unheard, and resigned himself to waiting. It was a few minutes later that she came back to a full compartment.

Confused and still frazzled, completely forgetting the mess could have been simply vanished, he suspected her first priority was to leave the room as soon as possible, not the paper towels.

He wanted to hold her in his arms and take away the fear, as much as scream at her to tell him the whole truth.

Everyday he learned more about her, the feeling of being close to answers grew in him, it felt like being close to achieving something important, and he didn't know where that came from. It couldn't be because he liked her, he liked Cho too. Liking her didn't drive him to steal her diary; or make sure she was near him; or want to scream at Hermione for mentioning bloody Cedric, turning Nina into a bright and pretty red tomato; or sneaking into her room with the invisibility cloak.

He was filled with worry, and guilt and anger and he couldn't talk it out with anyone. Sirius would be disappointed, he'd probably make him sneak into Hufflepuff and take the notebook back to Nina's trunk. Hermione's choice would be more along the lines of, give it back to her, apologize and explain yourself.

None of those options were viable.

It was too much already, he didn't know how to even start.

He had followed the girl to her room after they agreed on a party for his successful trial and new Perfects.

He had been watching her, trying to guess if she had noticed the notebook missing, and his curiosity drove him to follow along when he noticed the girl excuse herself to go pack.

The others were busy gushing about their Prefect badges, it was perfect timing.He went to his room, put his invisibility cloak on and went to her room. He opened the door slowly and to his immense luck she had her back to him.

She was folding clothes neatly and placing them in her trunk, he stayed still and quiet in the corner. His heart beating frantically, he was aware this was absolutely wrong, but he needed to know more, he needed to.

She left her books last and Merlin's beard, he could swear his heart had literally dropped the second her hand came to the compartment where her notebook was supposed to be.

He never saw her like that, and he never wanted to do so again.

The desperation and utter fear on her face was scary, he wanted the floor to open and swallow him whole. The girl's tears came down in silence, frantically moving books and undoing everything she packed, when she found nothing, her hand came into a fist to muffle her scream.

At some point he had closed his eyes to not see her face anymore, only to hear her breath start to hitch and hitch, until it sounded like her lungs didn't work anymore.

He was paralyzed, he was supposed to go to Sirius, come clean, tell him what was happening, calm her down before she hurt herself, give her the notebook back. He was paralyzed though.

She ran to the bathroom and he heard her heave, sobbing as silently as she could, and trying to get her breath in order. He came near the door, maybe if he'd pretend he just came in and found her like that he could help, he could pretend he didn't know anything.

Instead he ran back to his room.

He was disgusted with himself, scared that something would happen to her, yet still unable to go and fix it the only way possible. So much for being brave.

He had been a nerve wreck until he saw her come down the stairs in her pretty black dress.

She looked like nothing ever happened, he almost thought he had imagined it all.

There was no sign she had been crying, her face looked clear with a healthy flush, the hair she pulled at in frustration earlier was put in a side bun, small tendrils of hair framing her face. Her long black and red flowers dress hugged her waist perfectly and flowed down to her mid calf.

He had watched her the entire night just waiting for her to lose it again, or give any hint to what happened. She never did. Meanwhile his guilt and worry ate at him.

She had dinner, she laughed, she danced and she smiled.

It made him want to throttle her and scream at her what was she doing. It disturbed him, how many things could she hide just like she did today.

She surprised him again, the next morning, when she asked him to help with Sirius's disguise.

He was thrilled at the idea of having his godfather take him to the station himself. It felt like having his parents accompany him like he had dreamed all these years. Still, he kept an eye on Nina, through it all.

It was only when he, Ron and Hermione were finally left alone that he felt comfortable enough to ask the question that plagued him for some time now.

He turned to his female friend and asked. "Have you ever come upon anything about death Magick in your reading, Hermione?"

she looked like she understood why he was asking, but didn't want to comment just yet, it suited him just fine. He wasn't ready to talk about anything regarding Nina that weren't answers to his questions.

"I've come upon Death Magick one time, it's an ancient branch of magic, also known as nature magic, understandable I mean death is a part of nature, an essential part of life, it's very taboo though, you'd probably only find more in the restricted section." She said.

"Why do you want to know about Dark magic mate?" Asked Ron.

He was saved from answering by Hermione. "It's not dark magic Ron, it's natural."

"But it's in the restricted section isn't it?" He Insisted.

"The restricted section isn't only reserved to dark magic Ron, it's also magic that's too dangerous to be used without supervision."

"You said it was taboo?" Harry asked.

"Well ... everything related to death is taboo, even for muggles. This line of study is specifically known to turn on its researchers."

"Turn on them how?" He asked at the edge of his seat.

"They go insane. Obsessed enough to take their research to the last step." She continued uncomfortable.

"What's that?" Asked Ron.

"The Experimental part."

"How though?" He asked cautious

"Summoning death" she whispered.

"I'm guessing that entails killing?" He asked to make sure he was on the right track.

She looked at him and sighed. "Yes, they usually kill themselves."

He put his hands to his face to quell the bile coming up his throat. He felt sick.

Why the fuck would Sirius give her a book like that? Did he lose his mind?

Hermione's voice came before his anxiety would spike.

"Harry don't be ridiculous, Nina is not going to go insane and kill herself because she happened to read a book." She said strongly.

"Wait what? Nina is researching death?" Asked Ron green in the face.

They completely ignored him as they continued heatedly.

"Hermione you just said..." He was cut off as she continued.

" I said researchers lost their minds after decades obsessing over the study of death. Meditating for months on end, summoning spirits, visiting sites so that their core imbibes with the energy it leaves behind, and so many other obscure practices, probably not even documented. It doesn't take reading one book, it's a lifetime of trying to get closer to death"

He didn't look all that convinced.

She scoffed at him, "Frankly I'm very surprised that you think she would get into something like that."

"You don't know her Hermione, no one does" he said laying back on his seat done with the conversation.

"Well if you'd talk to her, you'd realize she's actually smarter and more mature than she lets on."

"What do you mean I don't... We do talk"

Ron laughed. "Come on mate, it's more like you admire from afar".

His glower made the laughter stop and Hermione sighed.

"Harry, she is fine, and I'm sure she would love to talk to you more, trust me, I know." She smiled encouragingly.


She never went back to the others, the idea of silence through the ride back to Hogwarts sounded like a blessing.

She waited until she spotted them outside and then went to collect her small carry-on.

She walked as fast as possible, evading firsties, and slow walkers, to get to any carriage where she'd know virtually no one, and fortunately she succeeded.

Her ride to the castle was quiet and peaceful.

The sorting came and went, the introduction to new professors as well. Her speech sounded foreboding as all hell, and she had to resist the urge to plant her face on the table and groan loudly. Professor Dumbledore was losing power by the day, and the clock to lose Hogwarts had started ticking.

She was exhausted even before dessert had started, counting seconds and minutes, until Professor Dumbledore's booming voice announced his "chop chop off you go"

The two girls she was friendly with were very used to her silence, and she was truly grateful they just took her weirdness in strides.

Soon after, she was tucked in bed, Mr Potato at her bedside table making soft cooing noises. She had asked him to stay in Hogwarts after delivering her refusal to Dumbledore, and the little guy looked like he was still a bit touchy about being left behind at home.


Her furry alarm woke her up as usual, butting his little beak on her cheek, it made her smile even on bad days, his stern little face looking down at her like it had been another owl that woke her so gently.

She could trust Mr Potato to make her start the day with a genuine smile. He always woke he before the others did. She liked going from breakfast to the hall, bright and early, before it was packed with overexcited kids talking over each other, it was too early to listen to everyone's tales of summer. She showered, put her hair in a bun and quietly put on her uniform. Her house was so very quiet, for hard workers they were the most laid back bunch in the whole school, she loved it.

Hufflepuff's philosophy was the following, if something is truly to your interest, you'll give it all your attention and effort, most times that was just fine, because it entailed loving something enough to feel accomplishment after many many headaches. If you didn't find something interesting, exerting just the right amount of effort to pass, was perfectly fine. Competitiveness was not on a grand scale level like she had observed in other houses.

Of course there were the usual two students who bickered and fought to get to the top, but even those relaxed tremendously when it came to subjects they just didn't like.

In exam seasons they were the least stressed in the whole school. She loved it.

As always the staff's table only housed the usual early risers, one of them was Professor Snape. His hawk eyes locked to hers as she entered and she smiled awkwardly, not knowing what kind of protocol she should follow.

She sat down and had some rustic bread with tomato and olive oil, coffee just like she liked it. You had to love food at Hogwarts, the deligency of it's elfs was more than impressive. They only needed to know the nationality of someone to put a whole selection of typical dishes from their country. She proved last year that this practise was usual to all newcomers, when they were visited by Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

Finishing her breakfast she pulled out Sirius's gift and went back to the chapter she was currently at. She had made sure to change the cover this morning to not tempt anyone into stealing it, she was now paranoid about leaving her possessions in a room where other four girls lived. One of the first things she was going to do in her free time was finding a book on securing valuables.

Several students started to take place in the big hall, ready for the day, the younger they were the more energetic. She smiled at the couple of young nervous Hufflepuff, as they greeted each other.

She was sitting sideways on the bench holding the book up, looking at the firsties take place further down and her eyes caught one stern face directly looking at her. Severus Snape had his eyes on her book, utter destate clear on his face.

For a second she thought the charm had fallen off the damn book, she abruptly looked at the cover and realized the man was making faces at the title Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It dawned on her, that he wouldn't have reacted at all if he didn't know of the muggle author. She could only pretend and fail miserably to cough as she laughed alone like an idiot.

Soon after Laurel and Dalia came to the table and joined others for breakfast. They chatted for a bit about the new Professors as the hall was submerged in a mess of flying owls, one of them planted itself right in front of her and she looked at it frowning in confusion, she took the letter from the owl and gave it a few pets as she turned the thing and remembered Dumbledore was supposed to answer her refusal.

Her heart jumped and she opened it in a hurry. It read as follows.

'Dear Ms Morgenstern,

I must refuse your refusal to the Prefect position. Although I understand it is a rather stressing important year, I cannot in good conscience deprive Hufflepuff from an attentive, kind and very resourceful Prefect.

I wish you the best in your endeavors.

Sincerely, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

She'd pull him from his stupid beard if she could get away with it.

Refuse her refusal, the cheeky bastard. And what the hell was he talking about, kind, attentive and resourceful, my ass.

Her morning had just soured to epic proportions, the thought of sharing patrols with fucking Macmillan alone was bound to end in murder.

She put the thing away quickly, lest anyone else notices and questions started to flutter around. She glared heatedly at the large majestic chair where the old man sat. He must have felt her murderous intentions in the air because just then he waved at her smiling, exactly the way she did when she wanted to piss someone off. She scoffed sending her loose tendrils up. It didn't feel so good when others did the same.

After a few moments trying to get her head around the idea of being Perfect, Professor Sprout handed them their absolutely hellish schedule. Perpetually bad Mondays were hellish, most of her year mates had sour looks on their faces, because, Divination, double Potions, History of Magic, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts all in one day was a schedule made nowhere but the fiery pit.

She stood up as the bell rang and just as she went to clap her hands to grab the attention of the firsties. A grating voice loud enough to turn heads from several tables, turned her face to disgust.

"Well well well, look who's decided to grace us with her presence at last, Nina Skkk..." Her hand made no abrupt movements, a simple twist under her robes was enough to activate her runes, and as her middle finger touched her thumb the boy's jaw closed shut. Her face was set in a smile of innocence and confusion at the clearly struggling moron.

She came closer, as if to inspect him of anything wrong, "What's that Macmillan, are you okay?".

Her hand hidden under her robes, she took a step further and leaned to whisper, "Did you think I just forgot how to do that?", and then continued with her normal tone, "Let me help you, sometimes you just have to cough, you know", as she gave him a rather strong hit to the back, her hidden fingers letting go, the same time her fingers let go.

She turned to the Hufflepuff table, as he coughed trying to collect himself.

"Okay firsties, up up up, follow me in an orderly line and no wondering." She said as she clapped.

She took them to their first class at the Astronomy tower wished them a good day, and went straight to divination.

The class was boring and stupid at best. The woman's talent in divination was utterly dorment, she could feel a little something in her signature, but it was so very small that it felt like a tiny black dot in a large pool of milk.

Not even with her freaking visions could she predict someone's future with coffee remains, so instead she learned to read the things the woman wanted them to, and write what she would want her to, of course that was the plan of the entire school. Only a small portion of students truly liked the subject and appreciated the woman's teachings.

She went in a blind hurry to the dungeons and just as she rounded the corner, she heard Cho Chang's voice, she had absolutely no wish to speak to her right now. The day had started horrendously. Her eyes were too busy following Cho Chang's figure trying to remain silent to avoid having The talk, she didn't notice the tall boy come in front of her until she attempted to evade him.

"Hey, Nina... We didn't see you take the carriage, where did you go?" He said as he tried stepping in front of her again.

She didn't have any time to get her bearings, to get interrogated by bloody Potter of all people. He had proven along the years to be one of those people stubborn enough to follow whatever latest idea they had to whatever end.

She smiled "Oh nowhere, I must have gotten into the earlier carriage."

"Your things were still in the compartment when we left, though" he insisted.

Now she was just annoyed "Must have taken the next one, then. Oh Snape's coming" She left as he looked about to say something more.

To her immense relief she found a spot beside a Slytherin girl who was rather quiet, and took it with no questions asked. Rather rude, but he'll if she was going to subject herself to a Potions class beside Potter as he glared and continued with his interrogation.

Professor Snape took back attention to himself as everyone settled by his presence alone and began his first class of the year speech.

It was rather expected, the man was very careful even if he made it look like he was dissing people's effort. He wouldn't dare let anyone near N.E.W.T.S. level potions if they had messed an O.W.L.S. one.

The kinds of disaster that could bring. She shuddered.

They were left with the ingredients, modus of preparation on the blackboard and an hour time to prepare the Draught of Peace. She pulled her personal Potion's Notebook open into the fifth year section and charmed her quill to write down the ingredients and preparation while she read it in whispers. It had been working for her this way for years, not once did she mess a potion so terribly that it was absolutely unsavable.

She felt it was much like cooking, the only difference was, most ingredients were deadly if mishandled. She liked potions very much, it required extra work but it was genuinely interesting. She wasn't as good as remembering every single ingredient and it's uses only by reading about them, but she had made the effort to make her own little cheat Notebook, where every ingredient she had ever used or read about was carefully noted down, explained and organized as she saw fit.

The hour passed as many other Potion classes, several burning cauldrons, sneers towards Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom.

Ten minutes from the hour, Snape walked between tables watching like a hawk everyone's work.

She usually did a good job and still got nervous everytime he was about to inspect her work.

He passed her table and seemed to look at the quiet Slytherin at her and back at their cauldrons. The girls looked at each other confused as the man arched his eyebrow dramatically, no words were needed, their Potions were giving off the silvery grey mist it was supposed to.

When the class was coming to an end she made sure to get out of there before Harry decided to interrogate her a little more.

She realized she was falling back to old ways, that she could try harder to keep close at least to Harry and his friends. The boy was directly connected to Voldemort and if she had any intention to kill the madman, she had to be friends with him, or at least, someone he would trust when shit hits the fan. Unwanted social interaction sucked the life out of her, she realized how selfish that was, only tolerating people when she pleased, sometimes it felt like she had gone too long doing the wrong thing, and having it work just fine, to try a better way.

History of Magic with Ravenclaw was next and again she made sure to avoid Cho Chang's eyes.

The class was as deadly boring as always, her attention lasted her a total of twenty minutes, and then her mind flew back to what the hell was she going to do to get her Notebook back, without knowing who took it.

Time flew as she obsessed on what ifs, and soon enough she was practically power walking the longer path to Defense class. She paid for it dearly when she got there and the only seat not taken was beside Potter, she literally stopped at the door and stared at the stupid empty seat.

She breathed in for dear life and then sat down trying as much as possible to seem casual.

She smiled as he looked at her with a slight stubborn frown. What the hell was his problem?

Umbridge came in and she started her presenting speech, the woman's magic felt nasty, even Malfoy's, as arseholish as he could be, didn't give off an undercurrent of sadism.

A few moments later they were left to read the first chapter of the very useless book. Her speech at the feast and the book on her hands were enough to make her understand, the Ministry was screwing them over on their O.W.L.S to give them another reason to take away the school from Dumbledore. Even if the Board of Governors wasn't swayed by the Ministry's latest bout of idiocy, they would have to do something if O.W.L.S resulted in a right disaster Minister's fault or not. He would pay. They were cornering him.

Unfortunately Hermione's priority was learning and so her biting questions had been concerned only about the lack of anything useful in the carcass of paper that was their new Defense books.

Nina wanted to chuck it at her head, the last thing they needed was for the crazy bitch to have their entire class under a damn microscope or worse.

The conversation went on and several other incredulous students joined in, worry clouding their brains, but then only a fatalist would see the tiny pink bitch as proof of war against the entirety of Hogwarts. She wanted nothing but for this train of conversation to stop, she was getting tense by the second feeling Harry getting riled up at her side. She tried catching his eye when he butted in, "And what good's theory going to be in the real world?"

Her heart sank, that was it, the idiot wouldn't stop until he dug himself and everyone in the room a nice pink infested little hole.

She didn't stop to think much about it, or she'd lose the courage to, her middle finger and her thumb connected and she felt Harry's jaw lock down as the woman answered.

"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter." she said saccharine smile, ugly as ever.

Harry looked like he knew perfectly what was happening, even some Hufflepuffs knew the signs. The bitch didn't, she kept his jaws locked and directed the attention at herself as harmlessly as possible.

Hand raised, Umbridge turned to her.

"Nina Morgenstern"

"Yes, Ms Morgenstern ?"

"Would it be possible, perhaps safer for us, if you'd demonstrate yourself, the correct way of use just to avoid any mishandling on our O.W.L.S?"

She asked as serenely as possible, heart a mile a minute, praying to God Harry wouldn't make a scene or hex her right the fuck there.

" I understand your worry Ms Morgenstern, but I repeat as long as you have studied the theory hard enough, you will have no problems. Your exams will be closely supervised by well trained Aurors, your safety will always come first."

She fake smiled in understanding, and didn't even flinch as Potter pinched her arm. Her fingers were pressed down so hard they were left numb, it wasn't until the bell rang that she let go.

Her fingers locked in a painful arc, she tried to not look at him, he had spent the rest of class looking at her sideways murderously.

So much for making friends with him, Holy shit.

She practically ran from the fucking class, caught Dalia's questioning look right before she bolted, dear God did everyone but Umbridge notice what she had done?

She went back from the long path she had taken form History of Magic, since it would be empty and didn't hear anything until a hand pulled her arm and pushed her on the wall, hitting the back of her head to the wall, her sight blurred a bit.

She was about to push whoever the fuck it was to the damn ceiling until she heard more steps. A hand clutched at her cheeks like Voldemort had done and a familiar voice hissed "Don't you ever shut my mouth..."

"Harry stop" screamed Hermione

Harry's hand and weight pressing on her to the wall lifted "Mate you need to calm down, just calm down".

"Don't fucking touch me, did you see what she did? Huh? No one ... Isn't that what you do Nina? Everything's fucking secret, you don't want anyone to know the truth huh?" He hissed as he struggled on Ron's taller grip.

"Truth? The nerve of you, Potter... The only truth is that you don't know shit about that night... Stop acting like you're the only one who'll be burnt by Voldemort, we're all fair game. "

She collected her things and moved to the girl's bathrooms on the next floor.

She was so fucking done with today.