I apologize for how late the last chapter was once again. I had a severe case of writer's block and it won't happen again (or at least until I suffer a case of burnout). Now, before we get into this I'd like to talk about two things. To my readers and their families, I hope you're all doing well and you're safe and healthy. With this pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over 500,000 people and will claim so many more over the coming months, affecting our lives, I want you to stay as safe as possible. I unfortunately live in America, a broken nation run by a brian dead sociopathic narcissist who wants to defund testing because the numbers are making him look bad, which has politicized a national health crisis. So I can't believe I'm saying this, but if any of my readers are Republicans, please wear a mask. Just for once stop with the macho posturing or the sheep mentality and listen to actually doctors. And this goes for everybody, including my foreign readers. Wear a mask when you go out in public, wash your hands when you come home from work or shopping, shower every day, even twice a day just to be sure. If you can get them and you're not allergic, get latex gloves and wear them when you're out in public. And finally, if you can, donate to your local wellness center or health charity so that we can find a cure or develop a vaccine. These are dark times, times that we haven't experienced since the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918-1920 and with cases rising once again in the U.S., this pandemic will likely claim the lives of more than 1,000,000 people. And as for the second big thing happening recently, I openly support what's going on. I have long been a student of history, particularly of colonial history and the Civil War and Jim Crow. As a Causasin, I believe we need to atone, as much for our ancestors' past crimes as for our crimes that we committed out of negligence or consciousness. And I'm included in that, as my great grandfather wrote minstrel shows, perpetuating a harmful stereotype that reinforced racism and Jim Crow in Massachusetts, particularly in its largest city and his hometown, Boston. By tearing down statues that reinforce racism, removing the Confederate symbol from state flags and reforming the police system by rebuilding it from the ground up, we are taking steps in the right direction. But we need more, we need to fundamentally reducate ourselves by killing the myth of the Lost Cause, we need to condemn the KKK as a terrorist organization and a hate group and we need explicitly write down in law that such actions like choke holds, slamming suspects faces into the ground repeated and excessive use of force by the police is illegal. Black. Lives. Matter. They have always mattered. But for centuries, my country's police and justice have made white lives more valuable than the lives of hispanics, african americans and asian americans. Rage Against the Machine said it best when they said "Some of those that serve forces are the same that burn crosses". That must change through the law, whether it be by giving minorities similar sentencing to whites or by giving them the resources to get the same opportunities. If you are able, support the protests happening across the world. Even if you live in Europe or Asia, you'll likely find a protest nearby if you look. Donate to the NAACP, or Black Lives Matter, or the National Urban League, or the ACLU or even the Southern Poverty Law Center. Change needs to be made and I am convinced that this year is the penultimate year of our time. Let us aspire to it.

Loneliness in a crowd

"Okay, if we just need to taper down a bit more and, there." Marie and Seamus stepped back to look at their work. "Finished, and all it took us was three rolls of Spell-o tape." Marie stated, a roll held up in her right hand. She turned to Dean. "Hey, you got those balloons filled yet?" "Just about," Dean replied as he tied a balloon end next to a pile of twenty filled, lumpy red balloons. "I'm actually surprised we were able to finish this before lunch. Squeezing all that mayo in these was really difficult you know." Marie walked over and picked up one of the mayo balloons, carrying it in both hands due to its deformity. "I know, but setting up pranks is a far more complex act than filling a bucket of water and putting it above a door. You got to be willing to put in hours of work in order to get it right." "You mean like how it usually takes about four to six hours to draw a really good charcoal portrait." Marie snaps her fingers at him. "Exactly. Effort and planning is needed for whatever you set your mind too, you can't just do things on the fly or half-ass it and expect good results. Just ask Ryan Leaf." Dean and Seamus looked confused when Neville came running up the stairs. "Malfoy's coming." he breathed. "He should be here in about a minute." A devilish grin spread across Seamus's face. "Perfect. Lets see how that gelled up git will like having this is his hair."

The group scuryed over to the slingshot and prepared it to fire. The slingshot was less like a slingshot and more like a small catapult. The wood had been taken from a large tree branch that they had been lucky to come across while Marie and Dean were sketching pine cones. With a base that was about 50 centimeters diameter and two branches that curved in at a 55 degree angle, it was a perfect piece to trim the excess off of. They then raided the laundry for some extremely long and thick belts and a few G-cup bras that they lashed together for the sling. This was the culmination of more than two days of work, one final prank before the holidays truly set in.

"There he is." Dean said, watching as Malfoy and his goon squad ascended from the dungeon passageway and strut towards the great hall. "He's still just walking around with just those two?" Neville asked. "You think he would've learned better after we stole his robes and replaced them with pinstripe slacks and polyester jackets." "Who cares? Neville, help us spot this thing already." Seamus called from his position with Marie at the sling. That was the problem with the slingshot. Due to its size they needed two people to get enough tension in the sling for it to work. Neville hurried over to them as they pulled back on the sling, Dean relaying Malfoy's position.

"Okay, he's stopped in front of the Great Hall. Hagrid has blocked the way with a Christmas tree. He's arguing something and...oh no." "Oh no. *grunt* Oh no what?" Seamus asked as he and Marie struggled to lower the sling to the right angle of fire. "Our dormmates are in the line of fire. And Ron is getting angry." He turned to the firing squad. "Should we abort?" "No. I am not missing this opportunity, we'll apologize later." Marie stated. Dean looked back at the Great Hall entrance, where Ron was about to explode. "Well, we better do it now then. FIRE!" Marie and Seamus released the slingshot, a loud THWACK echoing through the entrance hall as the heavy, lumpy balloon flipped end over end as it tumbled through the air before slamming into the side of Malfoy's head, splattering mayo on his hair, robes and face. If they could see his face, they would've seen his eyes widen to the size of pool balls as he was staggered by being hit by more than 2.5 kilos of mayonnaise.

When the ten to fifteen seconds of shock had worn off, the Great Hall erupted in rapturous laughter. Even Hermione had started giggling, though she tried to cover it with her hand. The four miscreants were watching the crowd with gleeful smirks. "I think that this might've been the greatest thing I've ever done in my life." Neville whispered. "Give it a few years Nev. We're going to be doing greater things than this if you stick with me." Marie stated, joy glistening in her eyes as Malfoy tried to wipe the mayo from his hair. "Hey, isn't that Snape?" Seamus asked as a familiar greasy haired professor swooped out of the entrance to the dungeons. "Oh my god it is." Marie exclaimed in glee. "Quick, load another balloon. I want to see if we can get his face." Her partners and crime quickly rushed to reload the slingshot, anticipation tingling through their bones as they prepared to fire another balloon. Snape didn't see them, too distracted trying to figure out who was responsible for the mess and with vanishing the mayo off Malfoy. As such, it was too late for him to do little more than freeze in surprise when another balloon socked him in the faee.

"Bullseye!" Dean cheered as Snape reeled from the force of the blast. "I think some of it got in his mouth!" "Hah, maybe this will get him to actually wash his hair for once." Seamus remarked with bitter vindicion. Snape wiped the mayo from his seething black eyes and spotted the quad loading up another balloon. He looked over at Harry, Ron and Hermione, spotted that Marie wasn't with them, and looked back at the group, mayo dripped down off him like melting snow. "KANKER!" "Well, he's spotted us. Looks like the fun is over." Dean remarked morosely. "Shame really, wanted to get Crabbe and Goyle as well." "We'll get them later." Seamus shouted. "Let's fire this and scaddale." Marie and Seamus fired one final balloon and fled towards the staircase, Neville and Dean following behind them. They snickered as they heard Malfoy give a surprised yelp as the balloon slammed into his face, the fading echoes of Snape shouting vitrial trailing behind them.

They stopped running when they eventually reached the fourth floor of the class, their adrenaline receding as they basked in the glow of yet another successful mission in their quest to make the lives of Malfoy and Snape miserable. For the past month ever since they made their vow on the banks of the Black Lake, the four of them had started to rival the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan in the amount of chaos they were causing throughout the school. They had so far switched the pumpkin juice for dinner with hot sauce, taught the rows of knights outside the trophy room to sing 99 bottles of beer whenever Filch was cleaning them, enraged all the females of ravenclaw house by leaving copies of Twilight on their bed pillows and inked all the telescopes in Gryffindor house so that everybody that didn't wear glasses got black rings around their eyes. But they reserved their greatest pranks and stunts for Snape and Malfoy. They painted the potions classroom bright fuschia, jinxed Malfoy so that his nose hairs grow until they were a meter in length, pantsed Crabbe and Goyle whenever Malfoy was trying to get Harry or Ron in trouble, wrote a singing letter that compared Snape to Bela Legosi and even (with Oliver Woods's help) charmed the potions room door to play the Imperial March whenever Snape entered the room and the Lollipop guild theme from Ding Dong the Witch is Dead whenever Malfoy and his fluckies entered the room. All and all, their actions have made Malfoy and Snape loathe them more than ever, if Snape's more active bullying of Neville has been any indication, as well as his more active and ridiculous point reductions. At one point he had even removed two points from Marie for breathing too loudly. But if he thought that would get them to cool off their antics, he was sadly mistaken. All it did was feed their desire to ruin as much of his day as they could.

"HAHAHAHA Oh Merlin did you see his face?" Seamus roared as he leaned against the wall to remain upright. "Which you, the one of Malfoy looking like a drowned hamster or Snape looking like he was boiling an egg on his head?" Dean asked between chuckles. "BOTH!" Seamus exclaimed, finally losing the battle as he collapsed on the floor guffawing. Neville was laughing so hard that he was clutching his ribs unable to speak and Marie was snorting as she slammed her fist into the castle wall. "Oh man, I wonder how long it will take Malfoy to redo his hair." Marie uttered between snorts. "Probably three hours, seeing how long it takes for that git to do his hair." Seamus stated as he got off from the floor, a beaming grin on his face. "I know we're going to get so much crap for this." Dean said before a massive smile spread on his face. "But that was so worth it." Marie chuckled into her hand as she started to bring her exubulation under control. "As it should." She draped her arms over her friends, pulling all three of them in. "Another success prank. Man, if we were all older, I would buy us all a round of drinks to celebrate."

The four of them chuckled as their exuberance started to wear off, their minds saving that memory in a file, and cataloging it in cabinet space. They sighed as they released it, their smiles disappearing as they calmed down. Neville released himself from Marie's embrace, scratching his ear as a more negative emotion passed over his face. The other three grew concerned. "Hey Nev, you alright?" Dean asked. Neville turned to them, looking rather unsure. "Oh it's nothing." None of them were convinced. "Nothing." Marie stated. Neville nodded. "Nothing." Seamus rolled his eyes. "Neville, we won't be able to do anything if you tell us nothing. Speak again." Neville grimaced, but he spoke. "Well, it's just that I was thinking that maybe we could tone down the amount of pranks we were doing." The other three looked at him in surprise. "Not that I think they're not fun or anything, it's just." "Just what?" Dean asked stoically. "All the planning, all the preparation, it's cutting into my study time and I'm really struggling in, well, almost everything." He looked away, afraid that he would be reprimanded. It didn't come.

"Hey Nev," Marie stated, placing her hand on his shoulder. "It's fine. We can half, even quarter the number of pranks that we pull each month if needed. If you want to only take part in the execution of the pranks and not the planning and prep work, we'll do that as well." Neville looked up at her and then at the others. "Really?" Seamus rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. Honestly, I was about to suggest this as well." "Really? Why?" Dean asked. "Well, I wanted to practice my charm work more often. I keep setting things on fire, no matter what spell I do." The other three winced. They remembered one particular incident the other day when Professor Flitwick was having them learn Diffindo, the cutting spell, on pieces of carpet. While Seamus had succeeded in casting the spell, the edges of the carpet that had been cut had caught fire, as if they had been cut by a flaming sword.

"Yeah, probably should work on that, otherwise your school year photo will have 'Most likely to become an arsonist' underneath it." Marie stated, a slightly worried look on her face. Dean looked at Neville. "Does this school even have year books?" Neville shrugged. Dean looked over at Seamus. "Tell you what, you help me with my History of Magic homework and help with the spell casting." Seamus smiled. "Thanks man, but I didn't know you were struggling with this stuff." "Hey, give me some slack. I didn't grow up with this stuff. I'm muggleborn, I spent my grammar school days learning about the accomplishments of the British Empire. I didn't come from a family whose ancestors fought on the frontlines of the goblin wars like yours did." "Awe come on man." He gestured to Marie. "Marie had almost the same education you did and she's acing every class, while she's still doing work for that muggle school she's still registered for. I bet she's not even struggling with anything right now." Marie bit her lips. "That's not entirely true." The other three looked at her in surprise. Marie sighed and licked her palms. She rubbed her eyes, and looked at them, revealing that she had two centimeters of light purple bags under her eyes. The three looked at her in concern. She smiled. "You got to be willing to put in the work to get in right."

She sighed tiredly, dragging her hand through her hair. "I honestly can't wait for the holidays to get started. I want to be able to sleep in again." Seamus smirked. "I hear that. Unfortunately, I don't think my parents will allow me to do that." "Really? Is your mom that strict?" Dean asked. "Nah, nah." Seamus stated. "It's just that my folks and I are going to be hiking through the southwest country during holiday. They're going to make me get up early just so that we can get as much distance as we can before we stop at a hotel. Least we'll be spending a few days in Galway before I head back." Marie was feeling rather tense, though she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

"If you want, I can get you some blister cream while I'm in France." "You're vacationing in France?" Neville asked. "Paris more specifically. My folks will probably have us go up to Caen, Reims and Chartres for a bit, go see the churches and the beaches. Really looking forward to going to the Louvre, see all those baroque paintings and Charlemagne's sword." "I thought it was really difficult to see anything in there, because of all the crowds." Marie said, a silent hint of bitterness seeping into her voice. "Ah." Dean conveyed, wagging his finger at her knowingly. "But you see, nobody wants to vacation in Europe during winter unless they want to go skiing. This is practically the perfect time to see anything at the Louvre. Less people to get in your way." Seamus smirked. "Smart." Marie was starting to get really annoyed with what they were talking about. 'Shut up. Shut up.'

"What about you Nev, you going anywhere during holiday?" Dean asked. "No, I'm going to be staying back home with gran. She wants to have Christmas with the family this year. We haven't done it since I was eight." "Isn't that when your Great Uncle dropped you out of a four story window?" Seamus asked. "Yeah, Gran wasn't happy when she found out about that. She's mainly doing this because Great Aunt Willis won't stop badgering her about letting him come back." "So the entire thing is out of annoyance." Seamus remarked. "Sort of. But honestly, I think gran would've done it on her own within a few more years. Uncle Algie is her brother after all, and it was an accident. Last time I got a letter from her she mentioned that he's done stupider things." Marie was now trying really hard not to scowl. 'Stupider, yeah right. If he hadn't awoken his magic then, his Uncle would've killed him because of his negligence.' "You alright Marie?" Marie shoke out of her thoughts and saw that her friends were looking at her with concern. "Oh yeah, I'm just really hungry right now." Dean looked at her confusingly. "Didn't you eat before we set up the prank?" Marie laughed loudly and put her hand behind her head. "Yeah, I just have a really big appetite you know." Seamus snorted. "Tell me about it, you can't seem to get enough of the ribs that are served at dinner." "Pretty sure the first time I heard you eat them I thought a wild animal had escaped from the forest and crashed into the hall." Dean snarked. Marie pouted, causing the other three to laugh.

"Oh come on Marie, you know we're just messing with you. You're like a sister to us." Dean said good naturedly. Unseen by them, Marie winced at that. "Speaking of sisters, you have two of them over in the States don't ya? What are you going to do with them over the holidays?" Marie froze. "Um...well." 'Come on Marie, you've gotten out of trickier situations than this. Just give something plausible.' "Well, all those prank supplies, the paint, the fifty tubes of mayo, the polyester suit that cost 4000 pounds and a lot of the other stuff really cut into my budget and I'm not going to get my allowance till next month, so I'm currently unable to purchase a plane ticket. She tried her best to look disappointed at that fact. Seamus and Dean seemed to buy it, but Neville looked a lot more sceptical. "But hey, reducing the number of pranks should save me money for a ticket home for next time." She grinned, hoping that it didn't look forced. Neville however wasn't willing to relinquish the issue. "Why didn't you ask me for funds? I come from an old family, we have more than enough." "I'm sorry, did I just hear you volunteer to ask your grandmother for prank money?" Neville shivered. "Nevermind."

"Any way," Marie stated. "I need to get to the library. I got a potions essay on a frostbite treating potion that I haven't started yet that I need to do before tomorrow." "Wait, I thought you would've done that by now." Dean said. "Yeah, you always have your stuff done days before class and you're always riding us to get ours done before we could do prank planning." Seamus declared with annoyance. Marie smirked. "Come on guys, do you really think I'll put that much effort into Snape's class. What should I give him the benefit of knowing I care?" "After what we did, I'd expect not." Seamus snarked. "But I thought you were hungry?" Neville said. "Eh, I'll just ask the twins to get me something from the kitchen, they do that all the time. I'll see you guys in Transfiguration alright?" "Yeah, see ya there." Dean said. "Hey Seamus, Nev, want to play some Blackjack?" Seamus nodded while Neville looked confused. "Blackjack? What's that?" "Right, you grew up in a wizarding household." Dean remarked as he drew out a pack of cards. "Well, the game goes like this, you have two players and a dealer"

Marie watched as her friends left, introducing Neville to the world of gambling, smiling at them as they headed down the hallway. When they turned the corner, her smile quickly disappeared. She sighed as she walked off in the opposite direction. 'Should probably get to the library, if just to get affirmation from witnesses should they ask.' As she walked along the corridor, her thoughts started to drift towards the past conversation. 'Why was I so uncomfortable back there? It's not like I felt that way whenever I heard Ovenmitt or Kevin or any of the other kids back at Peach Creek Elementary talk about what they were going to do over vacation. I know it's not like I was jealous of them going to exotic places, I have more than enough money to afford a round the world trip when I'm old enough, all while staying at the most high end hotels in the world. If anything I got more angry when Neville was talking about spending time with his family...oh.'

She leaned her head against a wall, a small headache starting to form. 'Stop thinking about them, stop thinking about them. They do not deserve to be thought about and you are better off without them.' Unfortunately for her, while she was good at lying to others, she was terrible when it came to lying to herself. Ever since the troll attack and Snape's murder attempt at the Quidditch match, shes realized that her problems with her older sister and especially her mother are small potatoes when she's constantly expecting her potions professor to stop holding back and just flood her potions class with chlorine gas and lock the door (and she was convinced that the only reason he hasn't done this yet is because he would also have to kill the Slytherin's in the class as well. She wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or angry that the lives of the students in his own house are worth more to him than a chance to kill Harry in his home territory). In addition, all the pranking that she had done with Dean, Seamus, Neville, Fred, George and Lee, her homework sessions with Hermione, playing wizard's chess with Ron, learning about Quidditch from Harry, even trading barbs with Daphne had made realize one thing; her mother had been complete right in sending her here and that this was probably the best thing that could've happened to her.

Unfortunately, that realization had two catches to it. The first was that it has caused her to start to question if Lee had a toxic influence on her, and the second was that it still didn't make up for the fact that her mother had lied to her for most of her life. While Lee was certainly a problem she would need to get to, what her mother did had been worse. She had trusted her mother more than any other person in the world, she was her rock no matter what happened to her and now she couldn't trust her. That was the bridge that had thoroughly burned and she had no idea how to even start rebuilding it, or if she even wanted to.

'No, she needs to be the one to apologize first, not you. You are a Kanker sister, and a Kanker sister doesn't. Show. Weakness.' She entered the library and headed towards an empty work table near the center of the room. 'I'm in the right.' she thought as she withdrew from her bag a roll of parchment, a bottle of black ink and two crow feather quills. 'It doesn't matter that she was sorry about what she did, or that she was sad when I had to leave, she knew what she was doing for years and she did it anyway. Far as I'm concerned she can stew in her own misery for as long as I want.' She unfurled the scroll and pinned the bottom section to the desk pins, seemingly resolute in her decision. She then looked down at the parchment, staring down at the mostly completed essay. 'Why am I doing this again?'

In all honesty, she didn't really want to do the essay. She could finish this tonight if needed, but she didn't even want to do that. In fact, she was struggling to do much of anything recently. She was struggling to go through the motions of getting up in the morning, she had to force herself to go to class and the food in the Great Hall, once so delicious, now tasted like sand in her mouth. Even the mayonnaise balloon prank had been difficult to actually do. Half the time she had considered scrapping the plan all together. Just this morning she actually considered that showering wasn't worth the effort. And the worst part was that it was getting harder to resist the temptation to just spend the day in bed with the lights off and the curtains drawn with every successive day. She didn't understand why, though she suspected that it had a little bit to do with homesickness. 'But why? I know I miss May, but I've been getting enough letters from her. And I guess I miss Lee, but do I really miss her?'

"Are you actually going to write something or are you going to keep flicking your parchment up the desk?" Marie jumped in surprise, banging her knee harshly against the bottom of the desk. She bit her lip as she gave a closed scream in pain as her body contorted in pain. She looked up with tear filled angry eyes at Hermione, who was standing there was a pile of several thick tomes in her hands staring down at her emotionlessly. "God damn it Hermione, at least let somebody know that you're there before talking to them." Hermione rolled her eyes as she dumped the books down on the table. "Like you would've reacted any differently if I had just tapped your shoulder. You've been doing nothing but staring down at the desk blurily while lazily rolling and unrolling a 36 centimeter roll of parchment for the last five minutes. What are you even doing anyway?" Marie looked down at the parchment, which was still pinned to just the bottom of the desk, unrolled, and back up to Hermione. "Procrastinating." Hermione gave her an annoyed look before releasing a tired sigh. "Any reason why you're procrastinating on doing your school work, again." Marie shrugged disinterestedly. "Don't know. I know I need to finish this. I know I should finish it, but I can't even bring myself to write utter nonsense on it."

She shouldn't have said that. Hermione was now looking at her with concern swimming in her eyes. She scooted into a seat close to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" "What, yeah. Yeah I'm fine." Marie lied. Hermione stared at her with scepticism, pursing her lips together in frustration. "Fine then, if you are well then that means you can help me find out who Nicholas Flamel is." Hermione grabbed one book from the stack and started leafing through it, the title Developments in Modern Charm work embossed in gold lettering on the cover seen from the corner of Marie's vision. "Hermione, you've searched practically half the library by now. I don't think we're going to find anything here." Hermione glared at her as she flicked through the pages. "Oh like you've been much help." "I am. It's just taking a long time for my informant to get back to me." Hermione stopped flipping and looked at Marie in alarm. "An informant?! You told someone?! Why on earth did you tell someone?!" she exclaimed, panic seeping out of every word. "Hey don't worry, I didn't tell him why we were doing this, just that I needed help on a history paper. Guy's a sucker for helping others with school work." This didn't placate Hermione a bit. "And you never thought that he would tell someone, like Madam Pince, or Flitwick, or heaven's forbid, MCGONAGALL?" Marie scoffed. "Who on earth is he going to tell? It's not like he goes here?"

She really shouldn't have said that. Hermione's eyes had widened in shock for about ten seconds as she let that little detail set in, but now her eyes were trying to set Marie's hair on fire. "Why? Why doesn't he go here? And more importantly, how do you know him?" Marie gulped, a bead of sweat going down her face. "Well, to answer the first question, he is a muggle." If Hermione had earlier been trying to set fire to her hair, now her eyes were trying to melt her face. "A muggle!" she growled, sparks flying from her teeth as she ground them together. "You asked a muggle to help find out information about a wizard!" *SMACK* Hermione squeaked in pain as she was hit by a floating ruler. The two girls looked over to the hawk like Madam Pince, her parchment yellow face cressed with an angry snarl, her ink black eyes boring into them as if trying to destroy their souls. This combined with her Wicked Witch of the West hat and cloak gave the impression of a greater evil that Voldemort could barely hope to achieve.

"You asked a muggle! Why did you even think that that was a good idea?" Hermione angrily whispered. Marie absentmindedly scratched her ear. "Well I was looking at some chocolate frog cards that Ron's collecting the other day and both Circe and Merlin were on there and I thought 'Hey, muggles have heard of these guys in fantasy. Maybe Nicolas Flamel is similar'." This did not assure Hermione at all. "And what happens if they don't?" "Then I'll say that you were right and help you search this parchment jungle for our guy."

Hermione let go of Marie's collar, rubbing her eyes in tired exasperation. "Okay, fine. You asked a muggle to get information about someone that had no part in muggle society, fine. When did you send a letter?" "I sent out after the Quidditch match." Hermione glared at Marie again. "And why is it taking so long for him to get back to us?" Marie now looked very skittish, avoiding Hermione's eyes as her own flitted across the room. "Well, you know that it takes awhile for people to find things. I mean, we've been here for more than a month we're no closer to finding out who Flamel is than when we started." "Oh don't give me that nonsense!" Hermione spat. "You and I both know that we're facing different circumstances than your friend. We can't ask Pince about Flamel because she might tell McGonagall or Snape, something your friend can do with his local librarian. And even if that library had nothing on Flamel, he has the internet. If he has a personal computer, he can practically look it up at home. So why is it taking him so long?!" "Okay, you want to know why he's taking so long?" Marie stated scathingly, barely restraining herself from shouting. "It's because the owl's resting, and the reason the owl's resting is because it had to fly all the way across the Atlantic to deliver it. So we're not going to get an answer back from him until Christmas at the earliest, in fact we should probably expect to not get a reply back from him until next year."

Hermione at this point was practically seething. "If you knew that, why didn't you just wait until when you returned home for Christmas break to ask him directly?" Marie quirked an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about? I'm staying here for the holidays." Hermione's hands trembled. "Why?" "Well, all the money I spent on prank materials made it so that I was unable to afford a ticket, so I can't go home." Hermione slammed her hands upon the table. "That's a lie and you know it! If you knew that you were running out of money so that you wouldn't afford a plane ticket, then you wouldn't have bought that 4,500 pound suit. You have more than enough money to buy a plane ticket. So why are you staying here." Marie glared crossly down at the table, refusing to look at Hermione's scathing glare. "I don't want to be with my mom right now alright. I'm currently having a bit of an issue with her right now and I don't want to be in the same country as her right now." "Why? Why do you not want to be with your family right now?" Marie gave no answer. "I know that you've been writing letters to your younger sister for months now, even using multiple owls to keep sending letters back and forth so that you can keep updating each other in real time. What on earth could your mother have done that was so bad to you that you wouldn't even see HER for Christmas?"

*SNAP* The sound of cracking wood resounded throughout the library. A large chunk of wood snapped from the desk Marie had working on, tearing the bottom part off of it. Her hands were clenched tightly around the destroyed piece of desk, cracks radiating out from her fingers as they left imprints in the wood. A dark shadow fell across her eyes, masking her expression. A cold wind blew in from the hallway sending a tingle up Hermione's back. She couldn't tell if it was from cold or from nervous terror.

"Have you ever been lied to?" Hermione almost didn't hear her, the question coming out in almost a whisper. "Of course I have. Everyone has." Hermione replied nervously. The cracks in the wood started to spread as Marie's hand clenched tighter. "Have you ever been lied to by someone you trusted?" She asked, her voice louder, more trembly. "Well, my parents did lie to me about where kids came from, that was a disturbing thing to find out when I read that anatomy textbook." The cracks spread further. "Have you ever been lied to for your entire life?" This brought Hermione up short, as the crack spreading was once again becoming audible. "How would you feel if that came from someone you trusted, someone who you loved so much that you shared your most intimate moments with them? Someone who was there when you were at your lowest and celebrated with you when you were at your heights?" She was getting louder with each sentence and Hermione saw that there were tears running down her cheeks. "How would you feel if the lie was about who you were? About who your parent was, about what you were?" Hermione realized where this was going, and she did not like it. "Um, no. My parents are muggles." Marie stayed quiet. "Is that what your mother did? Not tell you you were a wizard?"

"She knew." Marie answered as coldly as Snape. "She knew for eleven years, and she lied to my face. I trusted her and SHE LIED TO MY FACE!" The plank of wood shattered, her scroll falling to the floor. She whirled to Hermione, causing her to gasp in shock. Marie's eyes were glaring at her, anger and loathing mixed in with bloodshot eyes that gushed tears out of them like a waterfall. Her teeth were clenched in a near feral snarl. Her breathing was ragged, almost as if she were gasping the words out. She grabbed Hermione's arms, causing her to let at a gasp of pain as Marie grasped them so hard that she nearly frackered them. "SHE KNEW I WAS GOING TO FIND OUT EVENTUALLY! SHE KNEW THAT I WAS GOING TO GET MY LETTER WHEN I TURNED ELEVEN! SHE KNEW THAT I WAS GOING TO GO TO A WIZARD SCHOOL, IF NOT HERE THEN BACK IN THE STATES, AND YET SHE STILL TELL ME ABOUT WHO I WAS, ABOUT WHAT I WAS! SO TELL ME HERMIONE, HOW CAN I GO HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS WHEN I WANT TO SHOVE MY WAND DOWNHER %&$# &% THROAT UNTIL SHE CHOKES! SO TELL ME HERMIONE! TELL ME HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU WERE IN THE SAME POSITION I'M IN RIGHT NOW! TELL ME!"

Hermione froze up, inwardly panicking as she tried to focus on Marie's furious face and not on the fact that she was starting to hear her bones in her arms snap. She desperately tried to come up with an answer so that her friend wouldn't try to strangle her. She then noticed Marie's eyes, really noticed. The storm that was brewing in her eyes had caused them to take on a darker gray, almost as dark as coal. Anger was flowing out with every tear, releasing months of pain that had been bottled up and releasing with the force of soda combined with mentos. Then, still looked closer and saw something that she didn't expect. Desperation. As if she didn't know how she was supposed to act. Hermione's eyes widened in understanding. She wasn't demanding an answer out of spite and frustration, she was begging for one because she didn't have one. At that moment, any sense of fear, any feeling of anxiety, even the sharp stabs of pain that jolted up her arms disappeared. All she felt now was a swath of pity and empathy.

"How you feel right now." Hermione answered, sadness and sympathy flowing from her mouth with every breath. "Hurt. Betrayed. Angry. Resentful. Depressed. Honestly I'm surprised that you've been holding up as well as you have. I probably would've been staying up at night, staring up at the ceiling, clutching a pillow to my chest with tears in my eyes." Hermione blinked, her eyes getting moist. "And there would be one single word trapped circling inside my head, 'Why?'"

Marie lost her anger over the course of Hermione's answer. As Hermione looked at her now, she saw a mess. She was close to breaking and they both knew it. Marie closed her eyes in a vain attempt to keep herself together. She knew that it would be better for them both if they just left the library and returned to the common room. But there was still something she needed to ask. Hermione was the smartest person in school, surely she had an answer for this as well, right?

"And how would you feel," she blubbered, barely able to get the words coherently out of her mouth. "If despite all of that, you still love them. That you know they were just as hurt by what they did, that they knew what they did was wrong and that they wanted to make up for what they did?" She opened up her eyes and looked back up into Hermione's. "How do you even try to start repairing the relationship?" Hermione looked at her with regret. "I...I don't know." She said reluctantly.

Something shattered in Marie. She didn't know when she started sobbing but she did feel Hermione wrap her arms around her as she clung to her chest like a lifeline. Hermione rubbed her back as a few tears came down from her eyes. This was the strongest person that she knew in her arms, a girl that could stare down Snape's darkest glare and laugh at him, a girl that was able to juggle work from two schools and still rank as one of the top 5 students in her class for both schools, collapsing under her own emotional strain and she couldn't do anything to help her. All she could do was stand there, holding her while trying to keep her from falling to the floor. And she would've, except for one thing. Madam Pince, who had been conspicuous by her absence, had returned with Harry in tow and was now giving them the greatest evil eye she had ever seen. Her eyes were now a blood red, and a black ethereal aura was radiating out behind her with such intensity that it framed her body. Hermione looked over at the shattered remains of the desk, her face quickly turning as white as ash.

"Hey Harry, can you collect my things? In fact get Marie's as well while you're at it." Harry, seeing that Madam Pince's eyes were now glowing, quickly scrambled to get everything in their bags. Once he was done, he dashed out of the library as fast as he could. Hermione meanwhile gave a shaky smile to Madam Pince "So, I guess you want us to leave." Madam Pince pointed a sharp talon at Hermione and the still sobbing Marie (who didn't notice what was going on) and let out a screech that was eerily similar to Donald Sutherland's in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hermione also saw that Pince's upper canines were sharp and a good seven centimeters long. "Right, understood. Come on Marie, let's get you back to the Gryffindor common room." She said panically as she dragged her friend out of the library, Marie's bawls still resounding through the halls.

I don't think that this was a very good ending, but this was the best way I could think off without it feeling melodramatic or awkward. I will admit that I'm now looking forward to working with this interpretation of Madam Pince, as I'm now planning to watch some episodes of the new Ducktales series to get some inspiration for her. As for the story, it may come out a bit slow. I'm currently on a big Oblivion run and I probably won't finish it until the end of the month, but I am getting close (I've completed both the Knights of the Nine storyline and the Mages Guild storyline and am nearly done the Dark Brotherhood, the Fighters Guild and the Thieves Guild) and it's just getting better and better as it goes along. Don't worry though, my brother currently regulates the Xbox 1 so I doubt I'll lose too much time. So I guess this is goodbye. Stay healthy, stay safe and listen to your local health organization. See you next time.