Chapter 2 - Dangerous Visit

"She doesn't care if the coffee table is polished or not, mum," Josiah mumbled with exasperation, pointing his wand at a large wad of dust behind the television set. "She's a witch, not the Queen of England."

"I bet all the tables in her house are polished proper!" Came his mother's voice, which preceded her into the living room. She was carrying a large and rather tacky basket of frayed, pink silk flowers. Jo grimaced, then sighed heavily.

"At least you could pick out ones that match," he said under his breath, flicking his wand and turning the flowers a light periwinkle color. His mother grinned broadly, grabbing him suddenly and giving him a big kiss on the cheek.

"My JoJo," she gushed, ruffling his hair. He closed his eyes in defense, giving her an embarrassed half-smile. "We are so proud of you."

Josiah cleared his throat, trying not to betray the emotion that was clogging it. "Thanks, mum."

Dan Apparated in an empty alley in Stonehaven, Aberdeen, as recommended by Jo. She looked around anxiously, partly because she was afraid to be spotted by passing Muggles, mostly because she fully expected to see her brother – or worse, her father – coming after her.

But she was here now, and she quickly made her way to Jo's house, a cosy little building with a variety of well tended flowers hanging from the windows. A small smile curved her lips and, after another look over her shoulder to make sure she was alone, she allowed herself to relax and enjoy the moment.

Closing her hand more tightly around the handle of her small suitcase, she covered the ground separating her from the front door and gave a few shy knocks.

Jo looked up abruptly from his cleaning when he heard the knock on the door. Stuffing his wand into the back pocket of his shorts, he called out, "I've got it!"

He pulled open the door with a bit of difficulty, as the frame had settled with the house. Seeing Daniella standing there, he grinned widely and motioned her inside.

"Hey," he said, grabbing his wand and pointing it at her luggage. "Locomotor suitcase." The suitcase hovered in midair, and Jo set it to rest in the hallway in front of the stairs. "Let me know if you get too warm; our air-con's out, so I've been using a Cooling Charm every few hours." He realized this wasn't really the proper way to greet a guest, so he straightened up and ruffled his hair sheepishly.

"Good trip, then?"

"Hey," Dan replied, grinning in return, but the grin wavered as she tried to recall what 'air-con' was. "Yeah, nobody saw me." She looked over his shoulder, further into the house. "So, how is everything around here? Your mother hasn't been working too hard because of me, has she?"

"It's a big machine in the walls that takes the air… and…" Josiah trailed off, making a vague hand motion that sent a few sparks out of the end of his wand. He hurriedly put it back into his pocket. "…just let me know if you get too warm," he finished, puffing his rosy cheeks out in a deep exhale.

"Is that our guest of honor?!" Came a shrill cry from the kitchen, and Jo's mother came rushing in, arms outstretched, nearly tripping on the rug on her way to Dan. "It's been so long, dear! Far, far too long! Tell me you've been well!"

"Dan? DAN!" Came another, younger voice, and Josiah was suddenly crowded out of the circle by both his mother and his younger sister, Pearl.

"Let her catch her breath, hey?" Josiah murmured, both amused and embarrassed.

Dan slipped an arm around Jo in a quick squeeze, huffing out a chuckle. "I'll be fine, don't worry."

She turned at the sound of his mother's voice, offering the older woman a warm smile as she was pulled into another hug. "I've been great, thank you!"

"Hey, precious Pearl!" She teased when she was freed from a pair of arms only to be squeezed again by much younger arms. "I missed you! And look, I got you something." She took her wand out of her jacket's inner pocket and summoned the gift box from her suitcase, floating it in front of Jo's little sister.

Pearl let out a delighted squeal as she grabbed at the gift box floating in front of her.

"What is it?! Is it magical?!" She ripped the paper off of the box and slid it open to reveal the fake wand, and her small mouth formed a perfect, shocked 'o'.

"You should try waving it," Josiah added helpfully, and Pearl looked from her brother to Dan with wide, eager eyes. She held it in one small, delicate hand and gave it a well-practiced swish.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed, squinting at the stalk of celery she now held instead. There were a few moments of silence, then she erupted into giggles. "I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Thank you Dan, thank you thank you so much!"

Dan laughed with the girl's excitement. Ruffling her hair teasingly, she attempted a serious face, ruined slightly by the smirk on her lips. "I'm glad you like it, but you need to be careful. You know how Jo couldn't do magic at home all these years? You can't show your new wand to anyone, alright?"

Resting a hand on Pearl's shoulder, she looked back at Jo's mother. "Thank you for having me. I hope it's not too much trouble."

"Oh, no, love, it's no trouble at all! Pearl and June have friends over all the time, but Jo… well, you know, most magical folk don't feel very comfortable just showing up on the doorstep of a Muggle house like ours these days!" She let out a strained laugh, patting Pearl on her other shoulder.

"Pea, why don't you run along and put that in your drawer with all the nice things you have from Jo? I'm sure Dan's had a long trip. You can talk to her more at dinner."

Josiah took this as the cue to take out his wand and pick up Dan's suitcase again and begin leading it up the stairs.

Dan looked away at those words, not wasting time before following Jo up the stairs. Maybe it was selfish, but she hoped Jo hadn't told his parents about what had happened in Diagon Alley. They always treated her so nicely, she didn't want to disappoint them.

"I love the smell of your house," she said, quite suddenly, surprising even herself. She almost hoped he hadn't heard.

Josiah turned around a little in the cramped staircase at her confession, then took several deep, pointed sniffs.

"Huh," he said, grinning. "I guess I'm too used to it to notice. What's it smell like to you?" He pushed open the door to June's room with his foot and set her suitcase on the bed with a soft thump.

"Mum said you can use June's room, since it's more 'comfortable for a woman' or something," he informed her, scratching his scalp. "Sorry, I didn't have the heart to tell her you don't really fancy pink."

Daniella shrugged, breathing in deeply. "It smells of salt and wood and… cake. It always smells of something delicious when I come. I would be so fat if I lived here!"

She entered June's bedroom and looked around a bit sheepishly, but smiled at his last comment. "It won't be a problem. I'll be very comfortable here. Are you sure June won't mind?"

"I would be too, if I stayed here all year round," he mumbled, laughing. "Nah, June won't be fussed about it. She away at uni, and won't be home until Christmas."

He stretched and yawned a little; he was stiff from cleaning all day.

"We can hang out in my room until dinner, though. Or we could go down to the water, if you like. It shouldn't be crowded at this hour."

"I'd like to go out! And you can tell me what's new in your life!" Dan said lightly, moving to the door. She stopped and took a better look at him. "You look tired… What have you been up to?"

Josiah chuckled at this, not able to help himself.

"Charming the silk flowers to match the carpet," he said sarcastically. "And various other household 'necessities.'" He led the way back down the staircase, pausing in front of the door to call out, "We're going down to the harbor, mum!"

"And you went through all that work for me," Dan teased, leaving the house after him. "Such a dedicated friend I've got!"

She had always thought it was impossible to be in a bad mood in a place like Stonehaven. The harbor, the boats, the people… everything there was nice,carefree and easy going. "Is your father out fishing?"

Jo laughed good-naturedly, inhaling the warm, watery air.

"Aye, until sunset," he confirmed, squinting out over the water, although his father's ship was nowhere in sight. It was a quick walk down to the pier, and he sat down on the edge, his bare feet barely skimming the water.

"Did they give you trouble about coming?"

Daniella didn't answer immediately. She took her time taking off her sandals and sitting next to Jo, looking away from him. But he had asked.

"They… think I'm somewhere else," she answered in a low voice.

Josiah made a contemplative noise in the back of his throat, leaning back and closing his eyes against the sunlight.

"Well, after this year, we'll be out on our own, hey? We can hang out whenever we want."

Dan pulled her legs up and hugged her knees. "I can't wait! Not sure my parents will let me off the hook quite that easily, but I'll figure out what to do when the time comes."

She rested the side of her face on her knee to look down at him curiously. "Where do you want to go and can't yet?"

Jo snorted, opening one eye to look back at her.

"Is this a trick question?" He asked, sighing a little. "I dunno. I guess it's not as much somewhere I want to go as… you know, things I want to do." He flushed a little at this thought as a particular face flashed into his mind.

Daniella's dark eyes narrowed slightly. "It'll definitely be easier to do whatever we want, then. But we'll need to find jobs first."

"I dunno – I've heard the entrance tests are tough for St. Mungo's, but I really, really want to be a Healer, and that's the best place to be. You know?"

Several seagulls flew overhead, crying loudly. The sun was beginning to set, and the reflections on the water changed from blinding, sparkling white to a fiery orange.

"I know you'll make it. You're smart enough and determined enough to do it." She shifted her gaze back to the sunset. It left her a little breathless to see something so beautiful. Magical on its own, and available equally for everyone, wizards and Muggles.

Her thoughts wandered to the career pamphlets she'd been studying since the previous school year. She still wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but she had wanted to keep her options open. She knew what her parents wanted her to do. But that was not the future she wanted for herself.

"Plus, if you can't make it into St. Mungus, then there's definitely no hope for me anywhere," she added in a lower voice, as if to not disturb the sunset.

Josiah flushed at the compliment, giving his friend a small half-smile.

"We'll both make it," he said confidently, before a puttering sound in the distance broke his concentration. "Ah, that'll be dad, then." He squinted at the tiny boat skipping along the water towards them, and waved one arm lazily in its direction.

"We better, or life will be boring after Hogwarts…" Dan said. She looked over in the direction of the sound.

The shape of the boat outlined up against the sunset, grew bigger as the noise became louder. At times like this it was easier to imagine how overwhelmed Jo must have been when he first went to Hogwarts. Probably as much as she'd felt when she visited him the first time. But at least she had spent enough time in the Muggle world to not look embarrassingly lost all the time.

"So, we're having fish tonight…" She commented, thinking of Pearl. "Well, most of us."

"Nah, we're not," Jo told her, grinning still. "We have fish all the time; mum said it's a special occasion, so we're having roast tonight instead." He paused. "Most of us."

The boat pulled up to the dock and the engine turned over slowly a few times before coming to a complete stop. Josiah's father emerged from below deck, dressed from head to toe in a denim ensemble with a bright red hat that covered his messy, dark blond hair.

Jo's dad was a stocky, muscular man, with a constantly red complexion that evidenced how much time he spent out on the water. He grinned at the teenagers, exposing some white (albeit slightly crooked) teeth, and called out to them.

"Wotcher, you two! Staying out of trouble, I hope?" Jo gave his dad an uncertain half-smile as he watched the older man fuss with the rope on the deck.

"Don't suppose you could, Jo…" he mumbled out of the side of his mouth, still grinning sheepishly. Jo pulled out his wand and the rope tied itself neatly to the dock. "Atta boy. Wonderful son, you are."

Daniella rose to her feet to greet Jo's father and to peek into the boat. One of the things on her bucket list was succeed in using those instruments to catch a fish.

"Hello!" She grinned. "Did you catch anything interesting today?"

"Aye, I surely did," Cole replied proudly, directing her attention to a wiggling sack behind the large stack of fish. "Found a big fat eel, I did. Seems he's far away from home, dunnit?" Josiah peeked over at the eel, which was wriggling madly, and wrinkled his nose.

"What are you going to do with it?" He asked, looking up at his father. "You're not going to make us eat it, are you?"

Daniella eyed the eel with a mix of disgust and fascination. She liked odd looking animals, true, but she had no desire of eating that thing. "I might just become a vegetarian as well…" She murmured, so only Jo could hear it.

"Well, we have a roast waiting for us, right?" She asked lightly, out loud.

"Thankfully," Josiah said jokingly, turning away from the boat and heading towards the small beach at the head of the pier. They all walked back towards the small row of houses together; it might have been Jo's imagination, but he thought he could smell roast already. He had forgotten how hungry he was.

...

It didn't take Logan as long as he'd thought to find the place. He turned his nose at the strong smells of salt and oil at the pier. It was difficult to figure out which house his sister was in either. He could see her with those people at the table, eating with them, laughing with them.

Anger and jealousy bubbled up inside him. It took effort to keep from barging in there and dragging her out, teaching those nosy Muggles a lesson. But that wouldn't solve anything. Dany still had another year at Hogwarts, close to that Mudblood kid.

He had to go to the source of the problem. If he couldn't get her away from him, he would have a little chat with him instead. Having made up his mind, he allowed himself a lopsided smile and settled around the corner to wait until it was dark.

An hour later, the street was desert, everyone having gone home already, so no one saw him approach the pitiful house and take out his wand. He placed a Disillusionment Charm over himself, then reached for the first window at the back, unlocking it with a lazy flick of his wand. He silently made his way inside.

It wasn't the first time he broke into a house, even if that wasn't common knowledge. Muggles were so easy to fool, it was ridiculous! Everyone was still gathered on the other side of the house, oblivious to the intrusion, so he climbed up the stairs, snuck into the only bedroom that was clearly a boy's room and waited.

Josiah pushed his plate toward the center of the table, stretching his arms out to the sides and leaning back slightly in his chair. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten a dinner that big at home. It had probably cost his mum a fortune; he wondered if she had chipped into her emergency savings to pay for it.

Drawing his mind away from this uncomfortable thought, he grinned around at his family and best friend, murmuring, "S'pose I'll put on my pajamas, then I'll be back down."

He walked up the stairs, carefree and content. He threw open his door unceremoniously and flicked on the light. He knew something was wrong as soon as he took the first step; he fumbled quickly for his wand, finally getting a shaky grip on it and pointing it uncertainly in several directions.

Logan's smirk became smug at the sight of Josiah. And alone, as he had hoped for. Such a helpful boy. His low chuckle filled the room as he took down his Disillusionment Charm, showing himself.

"Careful not to poke yourself with that… Josiah," he mocked, his voice filled with disdain as he pronounced the Mudblood's name.

"I… that's not even…" Josiah began in a strangled whisper in two pitches higher than normal. He then wondered briefly to himself why he was whispering; it was HIS house, after all. "What are you doing here?" He tried to sound authoritative.

"I was looking for you." Logan took a step closer to Josiah. "You see, you took something from me. Or rather, someone." He took another step, raising his hand, wand pointed at Josiah's chest, enjoying the fear in the boy's eyes. "I've come to take her back. And to warn you."

Jo gripped his wand so tightly that his knuckles paled, and several hot, gold sparks crackled out of the end involuntarily.

"I'm a wizard proper, Logan, same as you. And I'm not going to let you d-do anything to Dan, do you hear? She has… she has dreams and hopes and things, and I won't let you lot ruin her life s-smothering her all the time, so…."

Logan raised his eyebrows for a moment, amused, then his chuckle grew a little louder. "So feisty," he mocked. "So… what?" The smirk vanished abruptly, his expression hardened. "How dare you compare yourself to me?! What do you think you can possibly do against me?"

He took one last step that placed his wand only a few inches away from Josiah's chest. "I'm not here to debate what's best for my sister with you. I am her brother and you… you are nothing."

The Ravenclaw in Josiah was calculating the pros and cons of this situation faster than Hagrid the Gamekeeper could inhale a plate full of food at dinner. He grit his teeth; Logan was older, more experienced, and more confident than he was. The odds were not in his favor.

"Say what you have to say and get out," he said softly, lowering his wand.

Logan watched him lower his hand. His own didn't move an inch. "Oh, it's very simple. These are dangerous times, you do not want to mess with the wrong people. Tread very softly, boy, or I might have to show you a few of the spells I've learned recently."

He let the silence linger for a long moment. "I want you as far from my sister as Hogwarts will let you be. I won't take her today, but you will tell her you don't want to be with her ever again and you will send her back home first thing in the morning." His voice became more menacing. "I really don't want to have a reason to come to this stinking place again."

He gave Josiah one last hard look, then quietly turned around and made his way out of the room, down the stairs.

Josiah could feel his heart hammering against his ribcage a million times per minute. The fear that had overcome him earlier turned to adrenaline as he saw Logan approach the downstairs corridor. Approach his family.

He held out his wand again, determined to do something, anything, to protect his family. He shouted a nonverbal incantation inside of his mind and received… sparks. Received nothing.

Logan's footsteps faded softly down the corridor and Josiah's cheeks burned horribly as he thought of what he could possibly say to anyone else.

Logan made his way down the stairs, setting the Charm over himself once more, then stopped just outside of the room where everyone else was gathered. His lips curled in disgust at the sight of Daniella among those people. It pained him to see her smiling like that and not realizing how much danger she was putting herself in by hanging out with that kind.

Still, he resisted the urge to take her right now by the ear. She would just turn against him. Better let the Muggles throw her out and be home when she got there, to welcome her. She would see things more clearly, with time.

Dany moved then, suddenly, her dark eyes turning in his direction. Logan froze for a moment, wondering if she had seen him, but then the moment passed. He slipped out of the house.

Jo, hands shaking violently, tried to get a good grip on his wand and summon his pajamas from their place in his closet. There was a loud bang, and he jumped nearly a mile high. Everyone downstairs had definitely heard that.

Tears welling up in his eyes, he rushed over to his closet to retrieve his clothes manually; he stopped, however, when he heard something rustling behind his school robes. Wand still outstretched, he lifted up the corner of one robe cautiously and then jumped back at the sight of a pair of inquisitive eyes.

He had turned his pajamas into a chicken.

Daniella's gaze shifted to the entrance, but she dismissed the strange feeling in her chest; she didn't want to look like she wasn't paying attention to the conversation. But Jo was taking too long, wasn't-

Everyone fell quiet at the same time at the unexpected bang, all heads turning up to the ceiling, as if they could see through it. She couldn't dismiss that feeling anymore. She offered everyone a weak smile. "Jo's probably experimenting something he shouldn't be yet… I'll check on him, don't worry."

With that, she excused herself and quickly made her way up the stairs and to his room. "Jo?" She called, approaching the open door cautiously. Jo was standing in front of his closet, staring at… was that a-

"Jo, what are you up to?"

Jo wiped his eyes on the back of his arm, plopping down on his bed.

"Waiting for my pajamas to lay eggs," he mumbled, somewhat bitterly.

Daniella pressed her lips together at the unhelpful reply, then stared at the chicken, trying to figure out what had happened. But Jo was crying, so she stepped into the room and sat next to him on the bed. "Jo, what happened? What's wrong?" She asked in a low, worried voice.

The chicken poked its head out of the closet and began cautiously scratching at Jo's carpet. "Petrificus Totalus," he murmured, and the chicken fell over with a twitch. "Mum just replaced that carpet last autumn; she'd have my head on a plate."

Taking a deep breath, he looked seriously into Dan's eyes. He kept hearing Logan's words in his head over and over again, but he couldn't just turn his back on his friend like that.

"You have to leave tomorrow," he said quietly, looking stern. "Your brother came. He said he would let you stay tonight, as long as I made you leave tomorrow." He didn't want to wait for her angry reaction.

"But I have an idea, and I'm going to need your help."

Watching the poor chicken fall over made a giggle bubble up inside Dan, but his words drained it away along with all the blood in her face. "He what?" she mumbled weakly. "No… He- He doesn't know…" Logan wouldn't do that… would he?

She shot out of the bed. "Would 'let me'? How dared he-?" Too many thoughts crossed her mind and she couldn't pause long enough to focus on any of them. She shook her head. "I'm going to kill him!" She closed her hands into fists and started pacing restlessly.

She turned to Jo, then, and her thoughts shifted to him and his family. This was all her fault; her responsibility. She'd put them in danger coming here like that. She opened her mouth, but the words got stuck. She tried again. "I'll go. I'll go…" She sat on the edge of the bed. "I shouldn't have come, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Jo…"

"You can't leave now," Josiah said firmly; it wasn't a suggestion. "If you leave now, he'll know that I told you. He can't know that I told you." He furrowed his brows in thought. Rowena Ravenclaw would have been proud in that moment, he figured.

"All he said was that I had to stay far away from you. It doesn't mean we can't talk. We just have to know – to know who is keeping an eye on us. I'll need your help for that. And we'll need a way to communicate that doesn't involve owls or Floo. Preferably instant." The wheels in his mind began to turn; the chicken's eyes looked around the room pitifully.

Daniella looked away. It seemed like everyone was going to have a say on what she had to do, except her. "So, I'm supposed to look at him tomorrow and-" The words got stuck again, but she couldn't find the energy to oppose Josiah. She'd caused enough problems as it was. "…And pretend."

She looked at the chicken, popped out of who knows where, stuck in a petrified body, and a surge of pity overwhelmed her. She knew exactly how the poor animal felt. She held her wand, aiming at the chicken. "Finite Incantatem," she whispered.

Then, she managed to grab the animal, walked out of the room, down the stairs and gave it to Pearl, telling the girl it was a gift.

When she came back upstairs, she said, "I know who his friends are in Hogwarts," she said quietly. "But if we can't talk and we can't send owls… I don't have access to one of those phone things…"

"I don't think you'd have a place to hook up a telephone in Hogwarts anyhow," Josiah mused, the gears in his mind turning at full force. He barely noticed the missing chicken or his friend's growing unease. "I've been perfecting my Protean Charms." The silence after this statement disappointed Jo a bit.

"Wait here a tick."

Daniella stared blankly at him for a minute. Did he really mean... "Protean…?" But he was far too into whatever idea he was working on for her to stop him now.

She dropped herself to the ground, sitting against the side of his bed. No matter how he phrased it, it sounded like they wouldn't be able to see each other anymore. And he wouldn't let her do anything about it. "What exactly do you have in mind?" She asked when he returned.

Josiah returned to the room with a Muggle notebook in each hand. He looked at his friend blankly.

"Did you even crack open this year's Charms book?" He asked with a mumble, laying the notebooks side-by-side on the bed.

He had obviously gotten them from his little sister; they were both a startling shade of pink. He tapped them both with his wand and turned them a more conservative black color.

"The Protean Charm, also known as the item-linking charm," Jo said definitively. "Meaning we don't have to be seen with each other to talk to each other."

Daniella simply raised an eyebrow at his question. "When have I ever done that before?" To Charm's books, anyway. She'd read her Care of Magical Creatures and taken a good look at her Potions books.

"Oh, I've definitely heard of that before…" She looked from the notebooks back to Josiah, trying to offer him an encouraging smile. She looked back down at the wand she still held, twirling it between her fingers. "If we can still talk, that's alright."

"You thought I would be this calm if I thought we wouldn't still be able to talk?" Jo said in his melodic Scottish lilt, giving her a pointed look. He pulled out his own wand, looking at both notebooks with fierce concentration, then waving it over them slowly. They glowed yellow-orange for a moment, as though hot, then returned to normal.

"Okay," he pulled a self-inking quill out of his nearby schoolbag. "Write something in yours."

Taking one of the notebooks and the quill, Daniella opened it and looked at the blank page for a moment, then wrote, "Logan's a big pile of dragon poop!"

Then she gave Josiah an expectant look.

Josiah opened his own notebook, staring intently at the first page; his face was blank for several moments after Dan's writing had shown up. He cleared his throat, trying not to laugh.

"I think it's working," he said solemnly, then his façade broke and he began to giggle silently.

Daniella closed her notebook. "Good. I wouldn't want my insults to go unnoticed," she said too seriously.

She sighed, resigned. "For how long do you want us to do this? Hogwarts will bore me to tears if we can't hang out."

Josiah shifted a little uncomfortably, laying back on his pillow and giving the ceiling a good stare.

"I don't know, I'll… have to think about it longer. I mean, you know… my family… and…." These new thoughts were beginning to make him positively miserable. Logan was definitely a big pile of dragon poop.

Daniella shifted closer to him and rested her head on his leg, wondering when they would have another chance to actually spend time together. She would miss him, no matter how much they wrote to each other.

"I have no intention of hurting your family in any way," she said. "But I'll do some brainstorming on my own. There's no way I'm going to let my brother decide what I do or with whom I hang out. All we need to do is find his spy and stop him from being nosy, right?"

"Right," Josiah confirmed, trying to let her words comfort him. He was still lost in thought, though, and upset with himself for not thinking of any better solutions.

"Well, we have tonight, anyway," he said with a small grin. "We ought not spend it moping about, hey?"

Daniella didn't answer for a while, sorting through her memories, chasing a sneaky thought that had crossed her mind. "I know his friends. They're all Slytherin. I could give them a potion of some sort," she mused, more amused with the thought than she would let him know. "But that's a short-term solution... I could use some spell, maybe," she continued, waving her wand off-mindedly, gazing at the random sparkles she created.

Josiah pondered this for a while, slightly uncomfortable at the thought of slipping someone a potion. Admittedly, though, his ideas weren't any better.

"That could work," he conceded. "I was thinking about doing about a Memory Charm, but that could get me expelled if anybody found out…." He curled the edge of the paper on his notebook absentmindedly.

Daniella narrowed her eyes. A Memory Charm might work. At least until she figured out a better way to keep the spy quiet. And that might not take long; Logan's old gang wasn't known for following the rules very often, maybe she could use that to her advantage.

"Teach me." Daniella looked up at Josiah. It wasn't a request. "I'll do it. I have easier access in Slytherin's common room." And it's my responsibility, she thought to herself.