On Monday, when I looked in a mirror again, the scars on my face were indeed disappearing. I looked at the balm that Toni had given me thoughtfully, and decided that I had to buy more, and perhaps return her the money for that bottle, too.

I left a note beneath Toni's alarm clock explaining my whereabouts before I set off from the dormitory with my navy and yellow school bag. I was wandering about the school slightly aimlessly, purely for the pleasure of a walk on the quiet empty corridors, completely devoid of people, when three people who had not been there a few seconds ago suddenly appeared, looming before me. The last three people I would ever have thought to be morning people.

I worried for a moment that they had figured out my animagus secret, but then Neville said: "Can you talk?"

And pushed me into an empty classroom.

Not the response I was expecting.

"So," Neville said slowly. "I've seen that the Carrows are always picking on you. But your duelling is superb."

"I was from Durmstrang," I said with a shrug. "I probably have more practice, that's all."

"Well, seeing as the Carrows hate you, I'm assuming you're not a follower of You-Know-Who?" Neville asked.

"The Dark Lord? No way. I'm half-blood," I said with a wince. "Well, a quarter muggle, anyway. You have to be married three generations into a pureblood family to be considered pure again. So no, I'm not his supporter. I'm stigmatised in the Dark Lord's world."

The three relaxed. "So you would be willing to do something against You-Know-Who? Against the Carrows? Against Snape?"

I paused. "Whatever your problem with Snape is, leave me out of it. He's nice to me. But I'll do anything to get against the Dark Lord and against the terrible twins."

"Snape is a murderer!" exclaimed the Weasley girl, her face reddening furiously. "I told you she wasn't trustworthy."

I sighed. "Look, when I was here, Amycus almost killed me by trying to get break into my head with legilimency. Snape put a stop to it. I know he killed your previous Headmaster, but he's never done anything to me but help me, so I won't directly target him. You can do whatever, I won't stop you. But I won't work with you against him, either. So if that's what you wanted me to do, you can stop thinking about it."

The three exchanged looks again. At last, Neville spoke. "Well, we still want your help with something. Two years ago, Harry Potter set up a special club against the forces of you-know-who-"

"Dumbledore's army. Yes, I know," I said. "I read it in the news."

"Anyway, we've been trying to continue it, but none of us are as brilliant at teaching and defence as Harry was. I mean, Ginny's a dab hand at hexes and jinxes, but I mean real duelling, and you look like you have real experience. I mean, you took down Malfoy and Zabini together, and they weren't exactly idiots, either."

I paused. "You're fairly good yourself though, Longbottom," I said slowly. "I've seen you against Draco."

"I lost to him," Neville spat, looking upset. "You won him and Blaise together."

I hesitated. "I didn't win them, it was just a tie. And besides, you...flourish your wand too much. Too many unnecessary movements that slow your duelling speed. Draco had a dancing master, so it wasn't a fair fight."

"Dancing master?" Ginny repeated with a frown.

"Private duelling tutor," I said. "Unfortunately for him, that style's also outdated. He sticks to the rules too much. I'm fairly certain, Neville, once you tidy up your wand movement, you'll be more than a match for him, because you don't stick to rules. You're unpredictable. I can't speak for the rest of you, though. I've never seen you guys fight."

"Well, you can teach us then, can't you?" Neville asked hopefully. "Then I can take down Malfoy, and the rest of the DA will get stronger?"

"She's a Slytherin," Ginny spat. "How do we know she won't go to Snape the moment we allow her into the DA?"

"Because of this," I said. "Luna. Do you think it's a good idea for me to join the DA?"

Luna looked at me, her blue eyes faraway, before finally focusing on me again, and I knew, somehow, she also knew I was the wolf.

"I think you will like it," she said thoughtfully. "It'll challenge you."

I nodded. "Very well."

I directed the tip of my wand down the fleshy part of my palm. A cut formed, blood welled, and I heard a gasp from the others around me. Then I slid my wand into my robes and clasped my hands together, letting the blood weld my two hands tightly. "I will not betray the DA in this life or the next, and I will keep their secrets in war and strife until I reach the grave."

There was a flash of red, and I knew it had worked when I glanced at my palm, and the blood was gone, the cut crudely stitched together.

"What did you do?" asked Ginny suspiciously.

"Blood bond," Luna said cheerfully. "That's clever. No one will be able to prise information of the DA out of you even if you were tortured. The perfect seal."

"Not that I would've told anyone anyway," I said lightly. "I'm not a snitch. But you know, always good to have precautions."

Neville turned triumphantly in Ginny, and Ginny rolled her eyes. "On the seventh floor, in front of Barnabus the Barmy, there is a wall. Walk before it three times, back and forth, and think of the DA. The next session is on Thursday, five, right before dinner. I'll introduce you then."

The three wandered away, and I paused, inclining my head as I thought about what I had done. Then, shrugging, I rose to my feet. That was what I had wanted all along, after all.

I headed down to the Great Hall. The other Slytherins were now awake, and Tracey waved me down to where they sat, slurping pumpkin juice and consuming eggs and bacon and waffles and toast and cheeri-owls.

"We were just talking about you," revealed Tracey. "We were thinking of what to do over Hogsmeade this weekend. How about visiting Honeydukes, Zonko's, and then the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer?"

"I need Scrivenshaft's," said Daphne. "My quills are almost all broken except the one."

"Excellent. I need more parchment," said Millie, though I personally thought the gleam in her eye had more to do with the books she would see than the parchment.

"I'll come along," I said. "Count me in."

The Slytherins cheered, and I felt a happy feeling of kinship and a tight bond between us that warmed my heart.

But that quickly vanished in the first period.

"Today, class, we will be viewing the Unforgiveables," said Amycus with a nasty grin. "Or, more specifically, the cruciatus. Crabbe come on up. Show us how the cruciatus should be cast. And hmm...let's see...Yes, how about Miss Burke?" His voice, turned softer, was no less unpleasant and grating. I set my jaw and strode up to him, in front of Crabbe. "Now, Crabbe, you know the words, don't you? Make sure you mean it. You mean to hurt her. You want it to be painful."

Crabbe pointed his wand at me, leering, and I knew it was retribution for having taken him down in the duel previously.

"Crucio," he said, his voice even, but the glee evident in his eyes. In an instant, I forced myself to not reach for my wand, to block, and felt the spell hit me on the arm, felt the pain like a thousand nerve endings throbbing and shivering and screaming for help. I felt my knees bend without warning, felt myself fall, but before I could even register it I had hit the ground. The pain was excruciating, the result of multiplying the pain of frostbite, dislocated arm, my worst headaches, papercuts, and stinging alcohol all melting into one, and I was writhing on the ground, my hands scrabbling anxiously on the stone floor. It was all I could do to focus on that one thought - don't scream. Don't scream. Don't scream.

Then the pain stopped. My nerve ends felt short-circuited, and I could feel the shaking in my arm. But I ignored all the pain, focused on my mind, on my heart, on my wolf, and I rose, meeting Crabbe's eyes squarely. I could see the surprise in his eyes, his sudden terror that the cruciatus had not reduced me to nothing. But, with the cruciatus stopped, I suddenly felt braver, bolder, as though my body was already forgetting what it was like to feel pain. Pain was only pain when you were suffering through it. Once that was over, the memory faded. You move on.

Anyway, I knew the mechanics behind the spell. The cruciatus was not real pain, which was why it left no scar on your skin. It was the worst pain you could ever envision, triggered by activating all the nerves in the body, the ones that sent the pain signals to your brain. When you encountered real pain, the body tended to shut down the nerve senses to protect you from it, but the cruciatus curse hurt precisely because it did the very opposite - simulate real pain by cheating your nerves. Knowing the mechanics made me feel better about it. I could tell myself, over and over again, that it was my nerves, that no harm was done to my body, it was a trick. I could endure tricks. I can endure pain.

Then came the soft leer. "Again."