Thank you to everyone who review the last chapter! This story is not as popular as I would of wanted it to be but I learning to deal with it, I am currently working on three stories at the same time, something that I promised myself I would never do but it seems that I can not just leave any of them, I hate people that do that, a story needs an ending!

I DO NOT OWN IT!

Chapter Four

Your case

In the few times that my brother had talked to me he had always said that there were secrets to Hogwarts that only a hand full of people knew about and for a while I was marvelling in the fact that I was now in that hand full within my first few weeks here. I had no idea were we were but I already knew that I loved it.

The room was bigger then my room back home but small enough to still be called homely. It was painted a lovely colour of purple with silver patterns running along all of them, the two side walls on the left and right were covered with bookshelves that held more books that I could ever hope to read in my life, some of them looked old and well used while others looked so new that I wondered if they still smelled of freshly made pages. The back wall had a picture of a beautiful willow tree that strangely resembled the womping willow and each of the branches had pastures of people attacked to them and I was reminded of the family tree that my parents had placed in the dinning room back home. Some how this one managed to look brighter and more full of life while our one seemed like it was dying. The middle of the room was occupied with a long table that was made from rich dark wood, each chair around it stood tall and neatly in place and there was a larger chair at the end.

As I entered the other girls behind me followed and closed the door, I stayed were I was as they took their places and looked around awkwardly, I had no idea what I was expected to do. Every chair was soon followed and I was dismayed to see Pansy sitting at the end of the table, she really did appear to be the leader of what ever this was and I got the impression that she did not even like me. Pansy removed her wand and with one small movement a chair that was less grander then all of the others appeared at the end of the table that I was closer to.

I stood there for a second longer before she raised her eyebrows in question and I quickly took my play, a second later I wished that I had stayed standing, from here everyone was looking down at me, I felt like I was being judged some how and as I reflected on what I had already been told I thought that maybe that's what they were doing.

"Do you know why you are here?"

Pansy voice was colder then I had thought it would be and the homely room suddenly seemed like it was getting smaller and closing in on me. I took a few deep breaths and caught sight of Hermione who smiled weakly at me, it seemed that she was not happy with they way Pansy was talking to me but she was not going to do anything about it.

"No" I muttered weakly "I really do not"

Pansy nodded before turning to a Chinese girl with short black hair.

"Cho get the book and start making notes"

With one sharp nod the girl raised and walked over to the closest book shelf, it was not in till she had retrieved it, opened it half way, written a few things and nodded that Pansy carried on.

"We do something very unique here Bella, something that no one else does. We look after the girls in this school from the unthinking males that also attend here. It is something that we have done for years now and so has the women before us. Do you understand what I am saying?"

I nodded as I took everything in. I was starting to understand what she meant but there were still some questions to be answered, before I could start to form any words she had already carried on.

"There I something else that you must also understand about us" her eyes narrowed "we only take the best people here. We need people that are going to put everything else second best to this cause, family, friends and school work. This would be there life and what they breath and think about twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. You need to have something that we can use. If you have all of these things then your name appears in our book. If you do not then you are not welcome here. Yours had not"

"What?" I asked in confusion and slight anger "then why-"

"However" Pansy said like I had not even spoken "there are some cases when these rules are changed. Yours is one of these cases that I am referring to. You have been recommended by three members of the FA and therefore you are a option in becoming one of us" she smiled and I had a bad feeling about this "with conditions, of course"

"What she means to say" Hermione quickly said from her place at Pansy's side "is that we want you to be one of us but in order for that to happen we are going to have to follow the rules, its the only way to get around the book and be able to add your name to our list"

I nodded slowly, I was taking this better then I thought that I ever could.

"Alright then. But what would I have to do?"

Hermione looked slightly reluctant to carry on but as Pansy shot her a look she whispered something quickly that I did not catch.

"Excuse me?"

"A test. You will have to do a test" she must of seen the look on my face because she quickly added "nothing big though, just some small little thing"

"She is right" Pansy agreed with a sickening smile "just something that a small child like you would not even think about doing. Have fun though"

I watched as Hermione sent Pansy an annoyed look before turning back to me with a kind smile, she had been nice to me since the day that I had met her on the train and I was thankful that she was here with me.

"I am sure that whatever it is you will do fine"

I frowned.

"Do you not know what I have to do then?"

She looked awkward and I noticed that she gave a side glance to Pansy and my heart sank for the second time that night, my bad feelings were coming back to me and while I did not want this night to end I wished that it would as well. I loved the secret that I was being let in on but I hated that it was being done this way, I felt like I was about to be sentenced to death.

"No, I do not. it's the leader of the FA's job to do things like this, so Pansy will be picking your mission. But if you complete it then that's all you have to do alone, everything else will be done with your friends by your side. You'll love it" her smile widened and I smiled back, it did sound wonderful "once you are one of us its like a family, we will look after you and you will look after us. It will seem hard but it will be worth it, I promise you"

I nodded lightly and took a deep breath before turning my gaze to Pansy, she was leaning back in her chair and smiling.

"You did what we set out to do, you humiliated Nick Thomas in front of a great number of students for the way that he was treating you, its what we like to see" she smiled at me in a way that almost seemed kind and I smiled back slightly, foolishly hoping that I had earned some points in her good books and then she carried on "but that does not mean that its over and done with, you have only done half of the job. Some things changed them and some things don't, what you did will not change him to be a better person. Keeping this in mind I am going to ask you to get a boy to do a good deed for you"

I waited for her to carry on and when she remained silent I frowned.

"What?" I asked "that's it?"

She looked amused as she nodded and I smiled in relief, it seemed like she were asking nothing of me and in return I was going to get something much better, I was going to be part of something, something that was not corrupted by evil.

"Tell me" Pansy suddenly said "have you ever had someone do something like that for you? A good deed that was thoughtless, something that they did simply because they cared enough about you to do it?"

"Of course" I automatically replied but then froze as I thought about, it had seemed so simple a moment a go but now I could think of nothing, had anyone ever done something like that for me? I did not even think that my family had ever put their necks out for me. When I did not carry on Pansy smiled with a look of satisfaction on her face.

"That's what I thought"

Then again maybe there was some evil here but I was too blind to see it.

---*---

"Where were you?" a voce demanded from behind me.

I turned around to see Dennis standing there with a look of worry on his face, I was confused for a second before I realised that I had promised to meet him out side the common room this morning, my mind had been completely occupied that I had not even thought about the fact that I was leaving him behind this morning.

"Oh god Dennis, I am so sorry I forgot" I said with a pleading look on my face, we had been meeting every morning since we met a while ago and I had never missed one before. His expression turned stern and I worried slightly that he was going to be really mad at me "Forgive me?"

His stern look stayed there for a second before it melted away and he smiled slightly as he let go of his bag and took the seat next to me.

"It's alright, I was just worried about you, I thought that you had run into Nick again or something"

I smiled at his concern, ever since Nick had taken me from Dennis company he had been feeling nothing but guiltily, he seemed to think that if he had said something then none of this would of happened. I would have to remember to thank him one day for not being brave.

"Don't worry" I said with a small smile "I don't think that we are ever going to have to worry about him again"

He frowned but did not question me, instead w sat there and simply talked about how our days had gone yesterday, I had not seen him since yesterday morning when I had run into Nick. I always enjoyed the meals here, you could sit with friends and talk about everything. It was half way threw that I felt it, the hairs on my back seemed to be standing on end and I had the weirdest feeling that I was being watched. Feeling that I could no longer ignore the feeling I turned around to see my brother sitting at his house table watching me with a scowl on his face. He was sitting next to his friends, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. It almost broke my heart to see him looking at me like that and right away I knew the meeting behind the look, I half glanced at Dennis before looking back at my brother. He must of hated the fact that I was making friends with a muggleborn, it was going against everything that my family wanted for me but I was finding it hard to care.

Little did I know that it was going to soon catch up with me.

---*---

"You have no idea how much you disappoint me, do you?"

I had no idea how I had gotten here. The day was almost over and my day had been going well. I was just on my way to the library to do some homework when he seemed to appear from no where. I was on the stair case that went from the fifth floor to the fourth and I froze. I had not spoken to my brother since my first day here and I had been hoping that I would not have to for a long time. I knew everything that he wanted to say to me and non of it would be good. I was in the wrong house, I had the wrong friends and I was nothing like a Nott should be. I held of tighter to my bag for something to do and prayed that my voice would not give away how scared I was right then.

"I think that I have some idea"

"No" he hissed in a voice that was so ful of hate that I had to take a step back "I really do not think that you do. Mother is not going to be pleased and if father could see you right now-"

"But he can not" I reminded him "and he will not be able to for some time"

"Is that so?" he asked with a light laugh "do you really think that he will never get out?"

"Do you?"

"The dark lord is rising sister and he shall not remain there for long. The dark lord rewards his-"

"Stop" I whispered "I don't want to hear this"

"I think that you should" he said with a smirk "maybe then you would understand what your thinking about giving up"

"I don't have to think about it" I said in my strongest voice, I knew what had to be done and I was going to have to be strong "I know what I want my life to be like and it has nothing to do with you and your future master"

He was silent for a moment.

"Your going to end up dead one day if you do this" he muttered "do you understand that?"

"I know the risk"

He nodded stiffly before turning away from me and I wanted to stop him from leaving me. There was something about him that I was always going to hate but my heart would always love him, he was my brother and there was no one that could replace him.

"Wait" I said desperately "please think about this, you don't have to do this. You can make your own way in life and you don't need him." Before I could stop if my eyes were slowly filling with tears "don't leave me alone Theo. I need you and you promised remember? The summer before you came here you promised me that you would look after me, you promised!"

He had not turned around once and I watched him back, hoping that he would look at me, his hands were hanging up his side and his hands were tightly turned into fists. I had never loved him so much and needed him more then I did at that moment and then he did it.

"Your not sister of mine"

He broke my heart.

---*---

I have no idea how long I sat there on that step crying, my head was resting on my knees as I hugged myself in hope that it would make some of the pain go away. I had hated my mother and father for years now. As I slowly realised what they were my feelings for them had faded and turned into almost nothing. I understood that they were never going to be there for me anymore but with Theo it had been different.

I had always dreamed that one day he could come back to me and be the person that I loved, that he would hold me in his arms and laugh with me like the children that we once were. that's what we were after all, it seemed wrong that children had to face something so big, we were not ready yet and some of us were not going to make it.

It was fight or be killed.

And I would be fighting him in the end.

"Bella?"

I jumped slightly at the sound of a voice I hardly knew and looked up to see the last two people I would of ever expected, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, Draco looked awkward and Blaise just looked concerned.

"Are you alright?"

The second he asked I could see that he wished that he had not, the fact that I was sitting on a stair case crying should have been enough indication for him to come to the conclusion of how I was feeling himself.

"What I mean is, is there anything that we can do for you?"

With out think I nodded.

"Yeah" I said before I could stop myself "there is something that you can do for me. You can get my brother back"

Draco and Blaise looked at each other in confusion.

"But wasn't he just-"

"I mean the one that I knew, the nice one who used to play with me and put me before his silly he who must not be named lovers" they looked shocked and for some reason this made me mad "what?" I asked "we all know that that is where he is going to end up don't we? He will be one of them and forget all about…all about me"

I hated the fact that my voice kept on breaking.

"He cares for you"

I laughed slightly though the tears and rolled my eyes, it seemed funny that someone could try and tell me what my brother was feeling, I had known his my whole life and even I did not understand half of the things that he did. There had been a time when I believed that I knew everything about him but in the last few years I had been proved wrong, he had proved me wrong more times then I could count.

"If he cares for me then he could never talk to me like that. He hates me and thinks of me as nothing but some big disappointment" I replied when my voice had calmed slightly "he used to be nice" I smiled as I took up at the two boys "he used to be like you two"

Draco stiffened slightly and Blaise took a seat next to me on the stairs.

"We were not always so nice you know" Blaise said kindly "there was a time when we were just like your brother"

"What happened?"

Blaise frowned as he tried to consider this and not being able to find the right words he turned to Draco who sighed and sat on my other side.

"We started to see things from someone else's view point and things became clearer for us. What people wanted from us did not seem so important anymore. All we had to do was find someone that we cared about more then power, it took some time but we soon understood that not everything was like we had thought. Everything that our family's had told us, all of the rules that we had to followed began to mean nothing to us. It was hard to break away from those rules and our school houses but we managed it" he grimace for a second and then it was gone, Blaise did not seem to notice anything and I thought that I may of imaged the whole thing "You have a good thing going here Bella, you got put into Gryffindor and proved your family wrong, you get the head start that we never did, take advantage of it and follow what you want to do, not what others are doing"

"He is right" Blaise said and I turned to him "don't worry about your brother. He loves you and one day he is going to turn around and realise what everyone will one day. The dark lord is not going to win and when the war is over we will be standing on the right side, not matter what happens, right Draco"

"Right" Draco agreed but once again I thought that I saw something in his expression, something that did not match his bright tone of voce "we will be standing tall"

I sighed and wiped away the last of my tears, I hated crying in front of people and here I was doing it in front of people that I had only ever caught glances of when they had come to see my brother in the holidays.

"Thank you"

Hope you liked it and please review!

Haraldzidla xxx