I hated to admit it, but only after having started Hogwarts did I realise how much I had truly missed real social interaction. Although writing so many letters to my Durmstrang friends and keeping up with the Slytherin girls during my spare time when it was not split between doing homework and reading was definitely difficult, I found myself enjoying the challenge.

But it became apparent rather quickly that I was nowhere near the Hogwarts standard for potions, and Professor Slughorn, the potions master and my new head of house, sent me up to the Headmaster to discuss my subject combination again.

"So," said the Headmaster, staring sternly down at me. "I see that you studied at Durmstrang before this?"

I nodded.

"It is one of the finest magical institutes," said he. "No other student from Durmstrang is struggling with potions."

Indeed, Toni was often the recipient of Slughorn's booming praise.

"No sir," I replied.

"And you did not take potions at Durmstrang either, did you?"

"No sir," I replied again, sheepishly.

"Then why did you choose to take potions?" he asked, his black eyes gazing intently but almost interestedly.

I hesitated. "It seemed like the closest choice to alchemy," I answered. "The classes in Hogwarts are very different."

"Indeed," said Professor Snape. "Well, fortunately for you, I have studied alchemy before. If you wish, I could conduct those lessons with you."

"You would do that for me, sir?" I asked in surprise.

He glared sternly down at me from above his hooked nose. "Only because I have noticed that those best suited to alchemy are the far-seeing ones, and also the ones least suited to the minute details of potions. To prevent you from doing it yourself and endangering your peers, I am willing to do this for you once a week, two hour sessions. Timing to be confirmed. I will keep you apprised," he said. "Now go. I think you have Transfigurations with Professor Mcgonagall next."

I nodded, and swiftly stepped out of the headmaster's office. Before the door banged shut behind me, however, I thought I heard a deep and amused voice say: "Who knew you'd have such a kind heart, Severus?" Even though I had seen no one in the office apart from us two, and all the portraits had appeared asleep.

I hurried off to Transfigurations immediately after. We were doing advanced part human transfiguration, and I was eager to get on with learning that.

One morning from the post, the long-awaited parcel from Ilona arrived, carrying a green and mercury grey beanie. I felt the corners of my mouth twitch as I put it on, to a mixture of amusement (from my friends) and contempt (from the Gryffindors, whom I quickly learned seemed to have a grudge against all Slytherins). However, on the next morning, the Daily Prophet arrived with yet another new law that somehow made its way through the Wizengamot (something no doubt to do with the rate at which dissenters disappeared) which informed us of the people who were found to be guilty of faking their blood status. I scanned the news, and felt my stomach drop when I realised that Garrett Webb was found to have muggle blood, and was sentenced to Azkaban for the rest of his life. My stomach turned, and I put aside my food and stood.

"I'm going to pack my school things," I said shortly, leaving the other Slytherins behind, feeling numb and sickened. Only when I was safely secluded in the dormitory toilets did I feel my breakfast emptied into the deep bowl of the toilets, until I was dry heaving, and sweating furiously. Casting a bubble head charm and giving myself a moment to comfort myself, I then flushed the toilet, got rid of the bubblehead, used a breath freshener charm, washed my hands, and headed off to class. If the rest of the Slytherins wondered why my mouth smelled strongly of mint in Charms, they didn't ask, which I was grateful for.

It was about the same time when things at Hogwarts began to deteriorate, as though things that had been caught in limbo initially but were finally beginning to move as it should.

I took a total of eight NEWTs. Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Transfigurations, Charms, DADA, Alchemy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies, the last of which I would not have taken if it weren't compulsory. Alas, my judgement of the Carrow twins could not have been more accurate. Alecto Carrow was a cruel woman with flashing eyes and who enjoyed describing her muggle hunts with a great amount of gory detail. Amycus Carrow, though not nearly as descriptive, was quite as talkative, and enjoyed spending the lesson crooning over his Slytherin boys and teaching torture spells. Though even I had to admit that Amycus' Dark Arts lessons were at least partially instructive, even helping to improve on my technique - most of it I already knew, courtesy of having been educated at Durmstrang, who taught us not to fear the Dark Arts but to understand it so as not to be tempted by it. Amycus' better understanding of it, I felt, was more because he had genuine experience in torturing people, whereas I had only learnt the theory, and had never found the temptation to test it out on someone else.

But I was the only seventh year who took Care of Magical Creatures, so Hagrid individually taught me of different types of creatures. He brought a fire crab once, and showed me how to avoid the flames that came from its rear, and how to soothe an angered or threatened firecrab. He also took me to the thestral colony, and brought me around the Forbidden Forest almost as a personal assistant to help him with problems with creatures there, so I had already met the bowtruckles, nifflers, kelpie, centaurs, unicorns, hippogriffs, and even his half-giant brother, Grawp. Although he had seemed suspicious of my being a member of Slytherin house at first, our similar love of dragons and creatures finally united us, and I learned a lot of practical methods on how to handle creatures that I would not have learnt from any other teacher, nor could have learnt from books. It suited me - learning practical knowledge from the friendly half-giant, and learning factual information about their size and their habits from books, while Hagrid also benefited by having an assistant. It certainly made Care the most interesting lesson I took, since it did not involve a desk, and allowed me to gallivant about the grounds with Hagrid and his huge bloodhound, Fang. But it was also there that I had an inkling of how wide the job description of "Keeper of Keys" and "Gamekeeper" really was, and felt grateful that it was not I who was responsible for so many things all at once.

It was also during these lessons that I came up with an idea.

"Hagrid," I said slowly. "Are there any other dangerous creatures who live in the forest?"

I had noticed that he consistently avoided a certain part of the forest. We were tending to a griffin family that day, greeting them, grooming them, which left plenty of time for me to talk to him.

"Well," he said slowly, hesitantly. I suppose it might be hard for him to decide what was "dangerous" because he loved so many, and the more dangerous, the more he adored them. "I s'pose since you're out here so regularly with me, I might as well tell ya. There's an acromantula colony in that side of the forest." He waved a hand in the direction that I had noticed he avoided.

"Acromantula!" I exclaimed in surprise and horror. Even my love of creatures did not extend to the acromantula, with their huge hairy legs and large pincers and venom waiting to be injected into the unwary.

"They are the sons o' my old pet, Aragog," Hagrid said mournfully, still shaking off fleas from the tail of a large, full-grown griffin. "Now they won't let me go anywhere near 'em. Said they only tolerated me because of my friendship with Aragog."

I nodded slowly. That part of the forest I would make sure to avoid - I was not keen on being acromantula fodder. "Anywhere else?" I asked, even as I slowly parted the bruised feathers on the young griffin who had bumped into a tree, taking care to do it gently and in the right direction so that the griffin did not attack. Thankfully, he seemed more interested in the hunk of rabbit that I had summoned for him than in my tender ministrations that are liable of being misunderstood.

"Well, I don't think so," said Hagrid, slapping a huge hand on the rump of the griffin. It seemed testament to his kind heart and his diligent, regular care for them that the griffin did not instantly tear after his heart, because from the looks of it that slap did not look gentle at all, and the sound still rang in my ears.

"Alrigh', I think we've done enough. Yer might be needin' to head off to class now," said Hagrid cheerfully.

I nodded, and made my way back. After a few lessons, he had begun to simply tell me to head back on my own. He spent more time in the forest than in his own cabin, after all.

I was heading back when I was accosted by a group of centaurs. The was a palomino one, and a chestnut coloured one, a black one, and a grey. I recognised them quite easily as Ronan, Bane, Kurtis and Lance.

"Hey," I said colloquially, only to be fixed with a glittery look from Bane.

"Watch your step," it was not Bane who spoke, but Ronan. "Mercury will be big tonight."

I barely nodded before the centaurs suddenly retreated back into the forest, and disappeared. Wondering about their strange comment, that seemed specially for me, I headed back into the castle, and headed straight for the Headmaster's office, knocking.

"Come in," said he, and I entered. Sure enough, on the table were a whole set of different transmogrification scrolls and different types of mutable metals and materials. This was the lesson that came a close second behind Care when ranking my favourite subjects, possibly only because of the teacher who taught it. Indeed, Professor Snape stood with a straight back and an aloof expression, looking down imperiously at me. "What do you know of each of these materials?"

I went over their characteristics quickly, remembering them easily.

"Good. What can you tell me about how to change each of them?"

Once again, I was quick to answer, going over the variety of methods possible to reach the end result, which was my goal.

"Well, how about water? Can you change water into any of those?"

I had never been taught water's alchemical functions and its level of mutability.

Professor Snape then began to show me how he changed the water, and the methods he took, the difference between water and other materials. Halfway through our lesson, however, I was displeased to hear a banging on the door, which I thought rather rude, but Professor Snape flicked his wand, and the door was pulled open, to reveal Amycus Carrow, who nearly tipped over as he attempted to bang down the door again.

"Amycus," said Professor Snape coolly. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Amycus' eyes widened and grinned as he saw me. "Ah-hah! So Crabbe was right after all. You really are doing something with the Burke girl. Tell me, Severus, aren't you supposed to be working on the Dark Lord's missions."

"Amycus!" snapped Professor Snape angrily. "You will watch your mouth when talking about Him, and to you, I am Professor Snape, or Headmaster, if you will."

Amycus leered, revealing crooked teeth. "The Dark Lord will be displeased to learn that you have been doing something secret with another student."

Professor Snape looked furious, his onyx eyes glittering, before suddenly a cool mask slid over his face. He glanced at me. "My apologies for the shortened lesson, Miss Burke. We shall continue this next week. In the meantime, do think about the difference between ordinary transmogrification and that of a lodestone, a space material. Five feet, if you will."

Well aware that this was a bad time, I gathered my equipment and was about to head out past Amycus Carrow when he suddenly lifted his wand and yelled "Legilimens."

He was a crude, terrible legilimens. I could feel the moment his brain smashed against mine like a sledgehammer, heavy, unsubtle, direct. But even the hardest stone can be eroded by the river, and with ease, I pushed him out of my mind, knowing full well that without my prior training his methods would have left me without a brain at all in his attempt to view my mind.

"AMYCUS!" Professor Snape roared angrily, taking his wand and firing a spell at the man that caused him to be slammed backwards into the corridor. He motioned me out of the office before he summoned the man back, with the man looking dazed, and though Carrow would have come close to ending my life I felt sorry for the man when the office door slammed shut, knowing full well the dangers of an angry Professor Snape.

The gargoyles jumped aside, looking shaken, and I winced in sympathy. "Your job doesn't seem easy," I told them.

The gargoyles groaned. "It isn't."

With a commiserating smile, I headed off to the empty classroom I had very early on claimed as my own, determined to get at least some work done before my next lesson started.