Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Treasure sat blearily in the cafeteria of the Salem Institute of the Magical Arts; it was seven o' clock in the morning and she only had four days left before she would be returning to Manhattan. With a sigh, she shifted her food around her plate and took a sip of orange juice. The noisy, pristine cafeteria in Salem was nothing like that huge Great Hall at Hogwarts. For one thing, the cafeteria had a plain low ceiling instead of the bewitched ceiling at Hogwarts. There were pillars made of tiny white mosaic tiles depicting centaurs and mermaids, who amused themselves by moving around the walls in an almost dizzying way. The lighting consisted of chandeliers in which resided tiny pixies who would dance and visit each other at their own will.

It was pretty, but it wasn't home.

Treasure was counting down the days until she would be heading back to Hogwarts. There were four days left in her seminar here in Salem, and then about three weeks until school started again. Treasure didn't know what she was going to do for three weeks but she would have to make due, as Lily hadn't invited her over to spend some time together before going back for their sixth year.

Treasure sighed again and poured out more ketchup onto her plate, ignoring the disdainful look that one of the nearest mermaids gave her. She was sitting by herself closest to a large, ornately decorated pillar, and the mermaid that called the pillar home seemed insulted that Treasure had ordered salmon for breakfast.

"Is that salmon, or are you making a soup?"

Treasure looked up to see Brent and smiled weakly, although not particularly thrilled to see him. "Hey, Brent," she said wearily, yawning widely and wishing that the four days were up so she could get back to moping full time in her room.

"Why so glum, Tres?" Brent asked. Treasure tried to shake herself out of her bad mood. After all, Brent was a relatively good looking boy. He was tall and had broad shoulders, probably from working on that farm of his. He had curly red-brown hair and freckles spattered so frequently across his skin that if gave him a healthy burnished look of someone used to spending more time outside than inside. His best feature was, undoubtedly, his clear blue eyes which Treasure met now; they were glittering with concern. Treasure and Brent had become fast friends over the course of ten days, and it was a good thing too; as partners for the seminar, they had to spend nearly every waking minute with each other. If he had turned out to be less than the great guy he was, Treasure wasn't sure she would have made it through the first three days at Salem. As it was, she still was moping around even though she had made a new friend.

The only problem with Brent was that he wasn't a rich, annoyingly arrogant dark-haired, grey-eyed wizard from Britain who hadn't bothered to respond to her letters for the past two weeks.

"Nothing, I'm just kind of tired is all," Treasure said quietly. Brent sat down opposite her and tried to get her to meet his eyes.

"I think you're lying to me, Tres."

"I'm not," Treasure said angrily, glaring at him from across the table and shoving her plate away. She made to stand up, but in that instant a fluttering of wings announced the arrival of mail. Out of instinct and against her better judgment, Treasure looked up. Thousands of pigeons were flying in through the wide open windows, fluttering with letters, sweets, and the occasional Howler for the students of Salem Institute. Brent suddenly got an annoyingly smug look on his face, one that reminded Treasure all too well of another smug wizard who quite frequently drove her insane.

"Waiting for a letter, I see," he said.

"No," Treasure said stoutly, crossing her arms over her chest and looking pointedly away from the pigeons, her skin on edge with anticipation that one of them would be coming from her. She'd sent Sirius a total of three letters, each one dallying on longer than the last about what a wonderful time she was having at Salem. Sirius hadn't even bothered to answer one, not even when Treasure made sure to write about how incredibly witty and attractive Brent was as a partner. It seemed Sirius didn't even care if she found another boy to flirt with.

Treasure was beginning to despise Salem and all its attributes.

"Tell you what, Tres. The past ten days you've been looking worse and worse for wear, and this Transfiguration calls is a load of fertilizer anyway. I snuck in some Floo powder -"

"Just what are you getting at, Brent?" Treasure asked distractedly, watching as the last few pigeons flew into the cafeteria and weren't headed at all in her direction.

"You city girls are so uptight. You need some time away from all this," he said, gesturing to the mild chaos of the cafeteria. "Meet me in front of the fireplace in the library at midnight, and you can come to the farm with me," Brent said, chucking Treasure under the chin and getting up to walk away.

Treasure bit her lip and glared as a spare feather floated down onto her robes. Not a single letter from Sirius this whole time, she thought dejectedly. She stared across the cafeteria to where Brent was laughing with a few of his friends. Pushing back her messy hair hastily and running back up to her dorm, Treasure began to gather her things from all the corners where they'd managed to end up.

To Georgia, then.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Treasure mumbled under her breath as Brent handed her some Floo powder. They had conjured a respectable fire in the fireplace fairly quickly after Brent had helped Treasure haul her heavy trunk into the room.

"Shut up and get in," Brent said amiably, tossing a bit of powder on the flames so that they glowed green. Treasure grinned at him and stalked over to the fireplace. "Templeton farm, Georgia!" she cried, and in a haze of emerald flames and soot, she went off spinning. It had been a while since Treasure traveled by Floo powder, and so it seemed longer than usual but after a while she felt herself falling out of the fireplace and onto a cold stone floor.

"Damn you, Brent, why didn't you warn me I'd end up in a cellar?" Treasure muttered, picking herself and her trunk off the floor. Moments later, Brent came stumbling out of the fireplace with his own trunk, and shot a sooty grin her way.

"I hope you told your mother you'd be bringing a girl home," Treasure said, brushing ashes off the front of her robes and making to lug her trunk up the stairs to whatever room she'd be staying in.

"Leave it, I'll bring it up later," Brent said, grabbing her hand and leading her up the stairs. It was just past midnight, so Treasure didn't know where he thought they'd be going together, but she followed anyway. She had her wand clutched in her pocket anyway, just incase this nice Georgian farm boy got any ideas. Treasure was a city girl and she knew pretty well how to defend herself - even better since Lily got her that book of jinxes - but she hoped she wouldn't have to all the same. You never could tell with boys, though, Treasure thought hopelessly. They really were so stupid.

"You can stay here," Brent said, opening up a door to a rather small room that was filled almost entirely with a large four poster bed. The linens were red, a dark maroon red so reminiscent of Hogwarts that Treasure felt a homesickness so acute she would have Apparated to the Gryffindor Common Room if she could and it were possible.

The rest of the room consisted of wooden panels on the walls and a warm rug on the floor, as well as two large windows facing the east. "The drapes are pretty thick so just pull them closed if you want to sleep in," Brent said, squeezing her hand and vanishing to his own room.

"Well, this wasn't spontaneous at all," Treasure said to herself, closing the door and leaning against it. She didn't want to think of the Howlers she'd get - one from her parents and one from Lily - when they found out that she'd skipped the rest of the seminar and dashed off to Georgia.

"Good morning, Mrs. Templeton," Treasure said uneasily as she headed into the kitchen. Brent's mother was tall and sturdily built, with nearly as many freckles as her son if not more. She had the same red-brown hair, but had big, kind brown eyes instead of her son's captivating blue. All the same, Treasure felt slightly awkward walking into the kitchen of a woman she'd never met before and explaining that her son had invited her to stay.

"Well, you must be Treasure! You certainly are pretty, but my Brent does know how to pick 'em. Why, just last year -"

"Morning, Mama," Brent said, walking into the kitchen in a pair of sweats and a T-shirt that looked to Treasure to be a bit too small for him, the way it was stretching over this broad shoulders. They certainly don't make them like that in the city, Treasure thought, coughing over her mug of coffee. Brent grinned roguishly, and Treasure felt supremely uncomfortable.

"Your hospitality is greatly appreciated, Mrs. Templeton, but I'm afraid I can't stay here. My parents are going to kill me when they find out I've ditched Salem -"

"Brent tells me that you go to Hogwarts?" Mrs. Templeton interrupted.

"Yeah…" Treasure said, blinking.

"Why, that's a great sight farther than Georgia. Are you sure you can't stay?"

"Very. I'm going to write to my mother now, if you don't mind. Or maybe you could take me back to Salem now, Brent?"

"Oh, come on, Belle…"

"Belle?" Mrs. Templeton said suddenly, a smile on her face. "Treasure Belle? Is Louis Belle your father?" Treasure blinked again, wondering if she'd overslept in Salem and this was some superbly strange dream she was having.

"Yeah, yeah he is."

"Oh, Louis! I knew him. We were a bit of an item at Salem years ago, before he met your mother. Lucky woman, huh?" Brent's mother laughed so jovially that Treasure could only shake her head in amazement.

"I'm sure you can stay now, I'll just go talk to him now and you sit and eat your breakfast." Mrs. Templeton was out the door in a flash, leaving Treasure quite stupefied and staring at where the woman had just been sitting.

"What in the world is going on?" she asked Brent, who grinned and pulled on a his robe.

"You looked so miserable at Salem, I thought you might need a break. You'll probably stay here until you have to go back to school. I thought it might take your mind off whoever is making you so depressed."

"No one is making me depressed, Brent!" Treasure lied.

"If you say so," Brent said, his blue eyes twinkling annoyingly and his voice so offhand that Treasure thought of Sirius again. She swore under her breath and gulped down her coffee, praying that her mother at least would have the good sense to forbid her from staying her a moment longer.

"Oh, its wonderful! Louis says he's surprised to hear from me, and Dana thinks its just a great big coincidence that you ended up here. They are a bit disappointed that Salem didn't thrill you, but they think that by staying here you'll have a chance a great new experience. A 'new door to open in the magical world,' I think was what your mother said," Mrs. Templeton said eagerly. They were sitting around the table and it was nearly 10:30 in the morning, the rest of Brent's family having just woken up and joined them. He had three younger sisters and two older brothers, all of them with a random assortment of chestnut hair and blue or brown eyes.

Liam was the oldest at nineteen and Treasure found herself being heartily distracted by him. She thought she was being discreet about it, but Brent was the first to notice and he seemed extremely amused. Taking his friend's mind off of whatever English bloke had her preoccupied was going to be easier than he thought.

"I guess it wouldn't be so bad," she said, smirking to herself. Take this, Sirius. Until now, Treasure hadn't realized just how insane her parents were. It was one thing to let your daughter take place in an exchange program and go to England for school. It was quite another to let her Floo powder herself to a farm in Georgia on whim and not berate her for it.

"Right, well you can work in the greenhouse with Brent or the stables with Liam," Mrs. Templeton said, her dark brown eyes glinting mischievously. Treasure dimpled.

"I don't have much of a green thumb," she said apologetically to Brent, who shrugged.

"Alright, Belle, let's go," Liam said, getting up from the table and walking out the door to the stables. Treasure followed, thinking that perhaps her summer vacation would start to look up after all.