The following day, Harry received a package at the breakfast table – a very long, very narrow package, with a note attached not to open it in the Great Hall. Because nobody could guess what it might be if the paper was still covering it, of course. He was sitting with Neville, while Rone kept casting them dirty looks from a few seats down. Looked like he wasn't over his perceived rejection from yesterday yet.

Donna rolled her eyes. Gryffindors were many things, but subtle was not one of them.

Hermione mumbled something next to her, casting dirty looks at the package. She didn't like flying, so it probably wasn't jealousy.

"What's got your knickers in a twist?" Donna asked her friend, bumping against her shoulder.

Hermione pointed her chin at Harry and Neville, who were taking the package somewhere – likely the dorm to open it. "They don't care that he got a reward for breaking the rules. He shouldn't have been up in the air in the first place!"

Donna studied the other girl. She was really bothered about that part of the whole incident.

"It doesn't matter to you that he broke the rules to stand up to a bully? It's not like he waited for Hooch to turn her back and then immediately took to the air, is it? I mean, he could maybe have handled it a little better, like ignoring Malfoy instead of giving in to his taunts, and I don't think a Remembrall is quite worth risking your neck for. But regardless, he did that for Neville, and that has got to be worth something.

"I do hope you're not planning on not talking to Harry for two months just because professor McGonagall doesn't know how punishments work?"

Hermione's shoulders slumped as she admitted defeat. "I guess. It's just, I've been raised to follow the rules. They make things orderly."

Donna patted her hand. "I can tell. Don't worry, though, that's a bad habit we'll soon have you cured of when you start thinking for yourself a bit. Nothing wrong with a little bit of chaos and rule-breaking, if the cause is just."

She caught the Weasley twins' eyes. They wore matching devilish grins, although they did not interrupt her with their patented twin speak. She threw them a wink before getting up.

"Let's go, we'll be late for Potions."

***DNMCY1***

The lesson went about as well as the previous ones – which was to say, disastrously. Snape continued to criticize the Gryffindors while not teaching them a thing, focusing especially on Harry and Neville, who were working together today. Donna likewise received a lion's share of the barbs, since she couldn't keep her sarcastic mouth shut. She didn't care, though, she could handle it and any time he focused on her was a moment he did not focus on her friends. She wondered if she could get Archie to arrange a tutor for her during the summer. She didn't need the best Potion Master Britain had to offer, she needed a teacher!

Eventually, the day ended, and with it the week. She and Hermione started on their homework, and they were soon joined by Neville and Harry. Ron was sitting in an armchair, glaring across the common room at them. Donna smiled at him and beckoned that he could join too if he wanted, but he flushed, crossed his arms and deliberately looked the other way. Alright then, his loss.

"W... what's that?" Neville asked when he was seated, pointing at Donna's writing utensils where she was penning down a rough draft of her Transfiguration essay. Donna looked down in confusion, until she realised these pureblood types only ever wrote with a quill. She held up both items.

"Ballpoint pen. Note block – with lined paper. No reason to make my life harder just because your society didn't receive the memo that we are nearing the 21st century. No offense."

"Uhm... is it not your society too, now?"

Donna shrugged. "Dunno yet, do I? I'm 11," give or take a few decades – "who knows how my life will turn out. I'll probably study to get my NEWTS, but after that? Go mundane with some magical help? Go full magical? Something in between? Anything could happen."

Neville nodded. "Fair enough. C...could one of you explain this Gamp's Law to me again? Professor McGonagall lost me about halfway through her explanation."

Hermione looked up from her own essay, having ignored the conversation up to now. It was like she had a sixth sense for when she could showcase her knowledge.

Donna leaned back, listening to Hermione's explanation. Then she leaned forwards again to rummage through her backpack, emerging with some extra pens and noteblocks. She had more than enough to spare, having raided a stationary's back in the summer.

She gave one set to Neville. "In case you want to take notes," she winked at him. He held the pen a bit awkwardly at first, but soon he was scribbling away. Hermione declined without pausing, but Harry looked relieved when she offered him a set as well. His handwriting improved significantly, compared to the scribbles he made on parchment. Was he a muggleborn then? Wait, no, everybody and their dog in this castle seemed to know his name, so he must come from a wizarding family. And yet he was more familiar with pen and paper than with quill and parchment. A juxtaposition, that. She couldn't remember if he'd mentioned his family before, but she'd wager, despite the aforementioned fame in the wizarding world, he was at least partially muggleraised.

***DNMCY1***

On Saturday she met with Harry, Neville and Hermione in the Common Room. Ron had originally agreed to the exploration, but the boys reported him either fast asleep or refusing to come out, they couldn't see which with his bed hangings closed. Harry in particular, unsurprisingly, was hurt by the obvious rejection, but she was proud of him for choosing to stand by his decision. The worst thing was, Ron probably didn't see the difference between avoiding Harry at all cost, and Harry choosing to visit Neville instead of automatically picking Ron over everyone else. He was just lashing out, and it might grow worse before it could get better, but she hoped he'd get over it sooner rather than later. Otherwise, his reaction now might just cost him this friendship.

"Alright, so which way do we go?" asked Hermione when they'd climbed out of the portrait hole.

Donna laughed. "That's the beauty of it: it doesn't matter! The trick to a really good exploration is to get lost as thoroughly as you can. And the best part is, we're not even in mortal danger! Hooray!"

The other three looked at her oddly, but she didn't care. She was in high spirits. This was almost like old times.

"Nevermind. Come on!" She linked her arm with Harry's and Hermione's and started walking. At the first junction, she looked both ways. Right led straight to the Great Hall (or as straight as you got in Hogwarts) so left they went.

Soon they came to a set of stairs. "Alright, I chose last time. Harry's turn! Up or down?"

Harry peered both ways. "I don't know, how do you choose?"

"If you know where one direction leads, you pick the other one. If you don't know either way, it doesn't matter. Don't think about it too much."

"Oh, ok. Down."

They amused themselves like that, each in turn picking a direction until they'd well and truly got lost. They peeked into classrooms, dusty and abandoned, wandered through corridors where it seemed nobody had been in a long time.

At one point they were in the middle of a staircase when it started moving, causing them to nearly fall down. They found two suits of armour that seemed to be crooning love songs at each other.

"That's Celestina Warbeck," Neville supplied. "My Gran disapproves of her officially, but I think she secretly likes her. I hear her songs playing sometimes back at the Manor."

They talked about their families back home a bit, but not very much at all. Donna had told them her mum had died the previous year, and that she'd been living with her 'uncle' Jack ever since. The story gave her an age range to pick anecdotes from, but also an excuse not to say too much. She noticed that the other three, for whatever reason, likewise didn't volunteer much information, and she didn't like it. It could be a coincidence, but her gut told her that she should pay close attention to anything the others did say.

Eventually they started getting hungry. Just as she suggested trying to find their way back to the Great Hall, her hand encountered a gap. It had been trailing along a tapestry depicting a field of blue flowers with a group of (presumably) virgins dancing with unicorns, and it just boggled the mind that the images were moving. She prodded the tapestry experimentally without encountering the expected resistance of the wall.

"What's this?" she asked, while lifting the tapestry out of the way.

"Looks like a passage," Hermione answered, peering inside.

"A s... secret passage," Neville added. "Th... the castle's supposed to be full of them."

"Anyone up for one last exploration before lunch?" Donna asked. They all agreed, and moved into the passageway, which was just big enough to walk in single file. There was a soft light coming from... somewhere, but no torches were burning. God, she loved magic!

When they emerged from behind another tapestry – this one with a knight on a prancing horse – they looked around curiously.

"I know where we are!" Hermione said. "That way is the library, which means we're very close to the Great Hall!"

"Oh, g... good. Shall we go and have lunch?" Neville asked. The others eagerly agreed.

Donna kept her suspicions to herself. She was not a big believer in coincidence, especially where magic was involved. Nothing could be taken at face value.

The way they'd just ended up more or less where they wanted to go reminded her how the TARDIS layout seemed to change depending on your mood (or more accurately, the Doctor's mood). She patted one of the stone walls. "Thank you, lovely lady."

She didn't get an answer, but then she hadn't expected one. She resolved to treat the castle much the same as she would the TARDIS.