Author's Note: An extra long chapter just for you! Please review, because I really want to know who reads this. This chapter is mainly blah-blah, but I have to establish a few things about my characters before I start my story. Well, this is the story, but you get the point. Review, even if it's just to leave a name. Peace out!

Revenge Of The Misfits

Chapter 5

Sarah silently followed her red haired friend down to the dungeons, growing colder with every step. She really loved the gargoyles decorationg every hallway, she reminded herself to take a Muggle picture and send it to her aunt. She mentioned this to her friend, and Ron looked puzzled.

"You're Muggle-born?" he curiously asked. Sarah nodded.

"Not a lot of people know that. Like I was said, I was home-schooled by my friend, James, and his father, while I lived with my Aunt Martha." Ron nodded, but Sarah could still tell he was confused. She had a uncanny ability to answer un-asked questions, which she used in this instance. "She knows about the wizarding world, but Marty's crazy anyways. She'd really love this, when I told her about my being a witch, she was so excited! We were never very well off, so I wanted to stop school once James moved, but Marty told me that she never finished high school, and missed out on a lot of oppertunities because of it." Sarah paused. "She wanted me to come here and have fun for her, to graduate and be sucessful."

Ron smiled. "What's high school?"

Sarah groaned. "Uh...I'll tell you later. Or ask Hermione, or something." Ron looked disappointed, and Sarah rolled her eyes. "It's where Muggle children our age go to learn. When they're little, they go to elementary school until they're about eleven. Then they go to junior high for three years, and then to high school until they're eighteen."

"Just like us, only it's all split up!" Ron excitadely gasped in realization. Sarah was amused on how he found this perfectly normal thing so exciting. Weird. Finally they reached a door, where several students were hovering outside talking in quiet whispers. Ron took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The room was dark, and made of stone. There were shelves of odd eyeballs, creatures, shrivled organs, and potion ingrediants decorating the walls, and seveal large cupboards lined the walls. In another corner there was a fountain of water jetting from a gargoyle's mouth, where Sarah guessed they were to wash their hands. In the middle of the room, cauldrons were set up in rows with stools sitting behind them next to small tables. If it got any colder, they would have been able to see their breaths, and Sarah was suddenly grateful for her thick wool sweater.

The door banged open, and all the students rushed to chairs, stacking their supplies on the tables. Ron grabbed Sarah's elbow and dragged her to a table where another boy and girl were sitting. She was pushed on to the stool roughly, and opened her mouth in protest, but the blonde-haired girl with pigtails motioned for her to be silent. A fat, swarthy man walked down the aisle, smiling at the students. He had twinkling green eyes, and was mostly bald. He was also wearing mis-matched purple and green robes, and stopped at their table, staring at Sarah through small round glasses.

"And who might you be?" he asked, leaning a bit too close to Sarah, causing her to lean backwards. She squirmed when he kept leaning foward, and leaned back foward, and the chair shifted, and Sarah fell off the back!

"Arg!" The classroom roared with laughter, and Sarah rubbed her elbow where it had hit the floor, her pale cheeks rapidly turning pink. The teacher richly chuckled, and held out a hand to help her up. Sarah got up on her own, and stayed standing. She must have been two feet taller than the fat professor.

"I am Professor Slughorn!" he told her. "You must be Sarah Turner. Welcome to Advanced Potions! I see you've met Mister Weasley, you have a good taste in friends." He said, winking at them.

"I remember you," Sarah stated.

"Do you?" Slughorn asked.

"Actually I don't, I just like saying that." Sarah sheepishly answered. "If you would mind stepping away, I'd like to sit down now." Slughorn grinned widely, marching to the front of the room.

"Might you be descended from the great Matthew Turner, inventor of Chocolate Frogs?" he asked cheerfully. Ron groaned, he was trying to get her into the Slug Club. All his favorite students, and those who were famous or showed potential, or were children of or related to famous people.

"Actually, I'm Muggle-born." Sarah boldly answered, causing several of the Slytherin students to mutter to each other. She even heard Draco call her a rude name under his breath to his girlfriend, who giggled madly. "Care to say that a bit louder, Malfoy?" she loudly called to him, glaring daggers. Draco shook his head, not wanting another scene like on the train in front of Pansy. Slughorn looked slightly uncomfortable, but liked that this girl had the nerve to talk back to a Malfoy.

"Well, today we will begin a project that will take up a month of our lessons. We will be preparing a Felix Fecies potion. Does anybody know what that is?"

Sarah's hand shot up. "A luck potion. But it's highly dangerous when taken too often."

Slughorn smiled. "Right you are! If taken too often, Felix Fecies causes giddiness, or recklesness. I have taken it twice, once when I was twenty, again when I was sixty. Two of the best days of my life!" he smiled fondly in memory. "Well, the method is on pages 100-128 in your textbooks, and I have all the ingredients in the cupboards. Begin, and try not to screw up too horribly. You may pick your own partners, within reason."

Sarah blinked, and gloomily tugged out her textbook. She hated partner projects, no one ever liked working with her. "Sarah?" She slowly looked up, Ron was sitting in front of her. "Wanna be my partner?"

She grinned. "Yes!" And hurried off to gather the first day's worth of potion ingredients. Most of their time was consumed by chopping up the mandrake root, which was extremely tough when using plastic knives. They both were bored after an hour, and decided to start sword fighting with their utiensels. Sarah chopped high, and Ron blocked the blow, poking at her wrist. Sarah whacked his hand with her left one.

"No fair! That's a foul!"

"Whatever!" Sarah laughed back at him, and someone cleared their throat behind them. Both of the teens looked up to see Slughorn.

"Sorry sir." Ron muttered, going back to chopping up the roots. As soon as he left, they both burst into giggles for no obvious reason. The rest of the period went fairly well, they finished chopping the roots and added the first ingredients. So far, the potion was normal. Sarah was almost sorry when the bell rang, she loved Potions now. Ron seemed to make everything a lot more fun.

"What's next?" Ron asked while sucking on a Sugar Quill, heading up a staircase. Sarah looked down at the schedule.

"Dark Arts." She answered, and tucked it back into her bag. Ron turned through a large door, and started up a huge staircase. Sarah looked up in wonder, the stairs went up forever! There was floor after floor after floor, it was truly amazing. Eventually, they faded to darkness because the light simply couldn't reach that far anymore. Sarah was breathtaken by this, and wanted more than anything to explore and find every hallway, every window, every room, but knew that it would take three lifetimes to accomplish that. But she could still dream, right?

"I wonder who we have this year." Ron asked. "People say the job's cursed, no one's lasted longer than a year."

"Yeah, I heard what happened last year." Sarah remarked, remembering the shocking headlines on the Daily Prophet. She also remembered James had come up from France that year to be sure that it was right, and had never seen him cry before when Dumbledore died. Sarah had felt like it all was over, that the Death Eaters won the war, but Marty told the two teens that even though the darkness is always there, it only takes a candle to keep it at bay. That woman and her metaphors! Sarah thought.

Finally, they reached the third floor, which was richly carpeted and lit by torches. They stepped through the door, to see the room was full of a mixture of Houses, many people had dropped out in fear of the class. Sarah stalked foward, and boldly took the seat directly in front of the teacher's desk, and Ron heasitently sat beside her. The bell rang, and everyone curiously watched the door, looking foward to meeting their new teacher.

The door banged open, and a man dressed in faded jeans, flip flops, and a 'The Cursed' t-shirt stode foward, grinning madly at them all. "Happy Hannaukah, all!" he shouted in an un-mistakably Aussie accent. Sarah's face lit up when he passed by, he had this happy-go lucky aura radiating from him that made everybody smile in spite of themselves. "I am Professor Gregory Salotti! I am here in the hope that you will draw some new knowlage from this class, but don't come crying to me if you don't."

Sarah snickered at this slightly, and admired the new man. He had messy light brown hair that fell into his hazel eyes, and was fairly tall. His skin was slightly tanned, and his arms well muscled. Sarah had to say she admired his taste in music too, she loved 'The Cursed!'

"Now, I'd like you all to say your names, and what flavor of jelly bean is your favorite." the teacher said like this was the most normal thing in the world.

"Sarah Turner!" Sarah brightly said, the teacher looking directly at her. Gregory felt slightly uncomfortable when she stared at him, it was like she was staring right through him and into his mind. "And I like the black licorice ones."

"Oh, those ones are wicked!" he blurted back right at her. "But the tutti-frutti ones are the best." Sarah made a face.

"Those ones are icky! How could you like those?" she gushed, not missing a beat.

"How could you not!" Professor Salotti gasped in shock, and the rest of the class stared as they babbled on about nothing, going into their own little world. A Ravenclaw girl cleared her throat, and the new aquaintences stopped talking about how awesome the latest 'Emerald Victory' concert was since they were both there live!

"Aren't you going to teach class?" she asked, and also said her name was Amanda.

"Oh, yes! Education, the establishment of our future, and passing on our great and rare knowlage to young minds, who will one day replace us. Ah, the might of intelligence. I was a Ravenclaw too, you know!" he said in a dramatic voice, then whipped out his wand. "Wands out! CONSTANT VIGALANCE!" he roared, then burst into laughter.

"We will be praticing Stunning spells today. Partner off, and begin!" then he proceded to number them off into ones and twos, and Sarah was left as the odd number. "You get to pratice with me!" the teacher excitadely shouted over the shouts of 'Stupefy!'

Sarah nodded nervously. She had never really attempted a stunning spell before, and doubted she could do it to a real person. Sure, she stunned that annoying bird right off the telephone line, but that was different! "Stupefy!" she yelled, pointing her wand at the professor. Red light shot from the wand, and he made a sweeping motion, yelling "Projecto!" and shooting the spell back to her. Sarah dodged it, and it hit Neville in the back of the head instead.

"Nice job! Try again, try to get me off guard." the professor told her eagerly, and the lesson continued on. Sarah had managed to stun the professor three times, though she was stunned far more from rebounded spells. She was again sorry when the class ended, but was happy when it was time for lunch.

"No homework for tonight, I entrust it to you to study hard for your N.E.W.T.s! Class dismissed!" Professor Salotti called over their heads as everybody ran to the door, causing a small crowd before filtering out.

"That was wicked!" Sarah ranted to Ron, who whole-heartedly agreed. Sure, the Australian was crazy, but he knew how to throw a cool lesson! They both briefly stopped in the Gryffindor tower to drop off their books before heading down to the Great Hall for lunch. Harry and Hermione were sitting there already, waiting for them.

"How was your day?" Hermione asked eagarly, wanting to hear all about the new professor.

"Bloody brilliant!" Sarah answered. "We get to make Felix Fecies with Slughorn, and Greg's the coolest! He listens to 'The Cursed' and 'Emerald Victory!" Sarah raved, and Ron went on to tell all about the lesson and the weird converstation and how hilarious the teacher's antics were.

"He's crazy, but he's brilliant!" Ron happily told his friends.

"How often do those two traits coincide..." Sarah mused, and Harry laughed. Afterwards, they wandered around the grounds, relaxing and laying out on the soft green grass. They all watched the puffy white clouds race across the skies, and Sarah taught them all how to play B.S. She was happy to head back into the castle though, Sarah loved Hogwarts that much.

"Anybody have Divination?" she asked when they all entered the front hall.

"You actually took that?" Hermione asked in disbelief. Ron and Harry shook their heads, and after bidding goodbye and giving detailed directions, Sarah headed up to the North Tower alone. The temperature rapidly grew warmer, and became stifling as Sarah crawled through the trapdoor to the classroom, if you could call it that.

The room was lined with pillows and overstuffed armchairs, with many blankets and throws everywhere. Tiny mahogany tables adorned the room, and a fire crackeled merrily. Sarah felt as if she would faint from the heat, and immediately pulled off her robes and the heavy wool sweater. She also tore off the red and gold tie, and unbuttoned her shirt down as far as she could without being obscene. She then took the seat closest to the window, and started fumbling with the latch, trying desperately to open it up. The classroom gradually filled, and Sarah recognized Lavandar and Pavarti, and a few other people by sight. Most of the students were younger than her, in their sixth years. No one wanted to sit next to her, and she was ignored from the clique's conversations. Whatever.

She closed her eyes, and tried to block it all out. "Class!" A mystical voice called out from the armchair closest to the fire. "I am Professor Trelawny...a Seer...Today we begin with looking into the tea leaves, please refer to your books for the meaning of your signs..."

The trapdoor banged open again, interrupting her speech. A familiar blonde head climbed through, the ever-popular Draco Malfoy. His blonde hair was tousled, and he was panting slightly having obviously run to class. His sleeves were rolled up, and looked revolted at the perfumed scent of the classroom.

"Mr. Malfoy...How nice of you to join us...please take a seat..." Draco looked around the room for an empty chair, finding none but next to his favorite witch near the window, which was conviently open so a draft blew on to her. He groaned, and stomped over, flopping into the chair. Sarah grinned widely, baring her teeth to him. Draco crossed his arms, scowling.

"I'm not afraid of you." he snarled to her, and Sarah ceased grinning so only a small smile lit her beautiful face. Her eyes didn't show any hate, that all the other Gryffindors showed to him, which surprised Draco since she had to know what he had done. If only she knew the whole story...

"Neither am I." Sarah confidently and steadily told him, staring right into his gray eyes with her brown ones. Neither could look away, and stared right into each other's souls. Strangely, neither felt hate toward the other, though they were so different. But are we so different afterall? Draco thought, and shoved that away immediately, breaking the stare. Sarah continued to follow him with her eyes, and Draco wished she'd stop.

"We're doing tea leaves today. Go get some cups and a kettle." Sarah told him, her face expressing a strange emotion. Draco walked over, shoving a Huffelpuff away from the cabinet on the way, returning after mixing the tea. Both of them stared at the disgusting substance, and Sarah pinched her nose, and threw her head back and gulped down the tea. Draco followed suit, fighting the urge to vomit since it tasted so horrid.

"All right, what d'you got?" he asked her, and traded cups, swirling it about.

Sarah stared at it, rotating it. "Well, it's sorta a bird, or is it a fish? Er, what the hell does that mean?"

"Probably that I'll be devoured by a giant marshmellow or something stupid," Malfoy muttered to his partner, and Sarah chuckled. Draco blinked, why was she happy with being with him? Gryffindors were supposed to hate him, especially Potter's friends. The rest of the period was relatively easy, and they concluded they were both going to die gruesome deaths after valiant torture for valuable information, that they would bravely not give up. It was amazing what the old bat would believe, and she even praised them and gave them the highest marks of the class. Laughing about it, the two descended the winding staircase together, forgetting for a moment that Death Eaters and whatever Sarah was weren't supposed to be nice to each other.

Draco stopped suddenly, remembering this. "Why don't you hate me?" he slowly asked her, with a hollow voice. Sarah felt a pang of sadness for the man, trying to think of how to explain this.

"Because... Because in the end, it doesn't even matter, who we are, or what we are. Eventually, we all face judgement, and then we're all equal, and it doesn't matter who done what anymore. I hate that people think that it matters for some reason, that they judge us when they don't really know us at all." Sarah slowly responded, walking to his side. "I think, or I hope, that what we've both done before in our lives doesn't matter to you."

Draco stared at her, wondering how she could be able to say that. "Please forgive me..." he said, unaware that tears were filling his eyes. Sarah looked straight at him, eyes piercing his soul.

"I know of nothing to forgive." And then she walked down the stairs, not looking back. Draco silently thanked her, because no one else had ever spoken to him like a real person before. Unknowingly, his life was saved. Then Draco turned behind a tapestry, and vanished to the dungeons.

Sarah continued down the stairs at a steady pace, shoes clunking on the stone stairs. She knew that Malfoy needed a friend, and knew suddenly that he was a good person. He was just...tainted. Like her. She slowly stopped at the next classes door, taking a deep breath to steady and calm herself, and pushed open the door.

Ancient runes was a good choice of a class, it was to the point, and Professor Vector was a good and intersting teacher. For once in her life, Sarah was attentive and didn't try to pull anything. Something told her that this teacher would slap her senseless if she put so much as a toe out of line. She was first lectured on the importance of N.E.W.T.s, and then on the rules of the class. Then, after explaining the dangers of the runes like every other magic, Professor Vector went on with the lesson. When she left the room, Sarah felt as if her head was about to explode from all the new information. She also had a lot of homework from that class, but didn't mind because Sarah felt that it was worth it.

Sarah wandered down to dinner, which was delicious pasta and treacle tart for dessert. Afterwards, Sarah had never felt so content in her life as she watched the boys argue about whether the Chudley Cannons or the Applebee Arrows were better. Later, Sarah followed Dean and Seamus whom she had just met, back up to the common room, and headed immediately up to her dorm, ignoring Hermione's nagging about starting her Runes homework. Sarah threw on a long violet nightgown that billowed down to the floor, took her hair down, and curled up in front of the window in the dormitory. She watched the sunset, knowing she wasn't alone any longer.

(Flashback)

"Please, don't go!" A young girl of all the years of thirteen cried, running down a driveway after a boy of her own age. He had tousled mouse brown hair, earrings, and grey eyes. He also wore an eyebrow ring, with ripped jeans and a black t-shirt. The boy too was crying, and hugged his best friend tightly.

"I don't want to!" he sobbed to her, and they both hugged tightly. The neighbor hood was a trailer park, with a dirt road. Sarah was wearing a white tank top with black paint splattered across it, and a long navy blue crinkle skirt.

"James! Hurry up, we need to leave to make our portkey!" The man, James' father, knew the risk of yelling such a thing in a Muggle populated place, but they needed to go! The two teens cried in each other's arms, not wanting to go. James was leaving for France with his father, who had gotten a job with the Ministry there. He knew they had to go, but he couldn't leave Sarah behind!

"We'll see each other all the time still!" Sarah told him inbetween hiccups. James nodded, but it wouldn't be the same, not living next door in the same trailer park. His father beeped the pick-up's horn, and Sarah's aunt watched them from the porch of the trailer across the street. James took a shuddering breath, and stood up straight.

"Every night, I'm gonna watch the sunset, and you are too." he said confidently. Sarah looked up at him, mascara streaming down both their faces. "So no matter where we are, or what we're doing, we both are watching the same sunset. And then we're never alone." The friends hugged one last time, and the pick-up rolled away from them. Sarah walked out into the middle of the dirt road, and James looked out the back window, and they looked back at each other and waved until they couldn't see each other anymore. Sarah was welcomed back inside by Marty, who comforted her niece. That night, Sarah watched the sunset. It was orange and white, and red, with black clouds and a blood red sun. It was the most beautiful thing that James and Sarah had ever seen. And they were together again.

(End Flashback)

The sky faded to a pitch black, with little diamond stars twinkling down at Sarah. She smiled briefly, and the rest of the girls came back up, getting ready for bed. Sarah curled up under the garnet covers, happily exausted and sleeping peacefully.