Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter *points at J.K. Rowling* she does.

Sorry I haven't been updating. I haven't had much time for writing. It was a really busy week. But, I've got something now, so, continue.

Also, I found that I've been spelling metamorphmagus wrong. Sorry.

(by the way, this takes place in the fifth book)

"To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world" -Brandi Snyder

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become" -Charles DuBois

"People change and forget to tell each other" -Lillian Hellman

She went through her drawers, digging through the untidy wads of clothing. She took something out and momentarily examined it.

"This is stupid," she thought as she threw the blue T-shirt into the trunk sitting by her bed.

Her room was as messy as ever. Not that it wasn't always untidy, but right then, it looked as though a hurricane had unleashed its wrath upon the place. She never had the urge to clean it (not that most people her age did).

She strode across the room and back. She stubbed her toe against her bed post and cursed. You'd think she would have seen that, right? She otherwise would have thought so, too. At the moment, though, her mind was too tired to notice any acute details.

Nearly every surface of the room was covered in some sort of clutter. She had various possessions laid out across the floor and her bed. Most of her drawers were left open and some shelves were even pulled out onto the floor.

She had a well-averaged sized room. Her unmade bed was pushed against the wall. She had a wooden wardrobe, a desk, a wooden dresser, a wooden nightstand, and a rocking chair. The rocking chair was, as she was told, the same one that her parents had often rocked her in when she was a baby and they just couldn't bear to get rid of it.

She had a window right by her bed, out of which she would look down to the street only a story below. From her bed she could see all the muggles going places, walking or driving. She liked how at night, when she sat in her bed, unable to sleep, she could just stare up at the glistening stars.

At the moment, it was well early in the morning. Had it been her choice, she wouldn't even be up at this insane hour. The late morning, almost noon, hour was her wake-up time preference. For whatever reason, certain parentage traits or perhaps just a teenager thing, she found that she had developed a more nocturnal sleeping schedule. She would go to bed at a late hour and arise at a late hour.

It was summer anyway, so normally she would be able to do that.

But no, not today. Today, she and her parents had to live somewhere else for a while. From what they said, they would have to live at the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters, wherever that was.

She knew perfectly well what the Order of the Phoenix was, the organization that had gone against Voldemort during the first war- both of her parents had been part of the original group. They were reorganizing again because of Voldemort's recent return.

"Not like the ministry could care less, anyway," she murmured to herself, tossing in a pair of socks. No, more specifically, the ever so wonderful Minister, Cornelius Fudge, couldn't care less- Corny Fudge, as she called him. That power-corrupt idiot could be witnessing the entire wizarding world burning in front of him, and he'd still only care about his job and reputation.

Not to mention former death eaters that were particularly close to the old Fudge-brain. Who knew what they were up to.

What did that have to do with her? Simple. Her father was a werewolf, who were hated by the ministry (for being 'dangerous' and 'below humans') and death eaters (for being 'half-breeds). Lately, the ministry has been suspicious of everyone, to the point of paranoia. Death eaters were trying to convince werewolves to join their ranks, making false promises of a better life to them.

As they explained it, it was probably best if they were "out of plain sight" until things simmered down. Not to mention her parents would have to be ready to be at a meeting on a moment's notice, and they supposedly lived far away from this "meeting place."

She had thought that it would feel more normal. It'd been a while, but they'd moved quite a bit when she was younger. Mainly it was because of the whole job situation. Her mother had just recently quit her job, which had required them to move around a lot and her not to spend as much time as she would have liked to with her family.

Her father was able to get jobs in the muggle world- one reason that they lived on a street mostly consisting of muggles. But, every once in a while, when he was lucky, he'd land a job in the wizarding world- mostly with her mother's help.

Their financial situation wasn't as bad as one might expect at first. Her mother had come from a very financially balanced family and inherited mostly enough money to keep them going when they needed. They would be pretty well safe for a while if it was absolutely necessary.

Her education had been complicated. When she had been younger, she had attended a muggle elementary school. By the time she had reached fifth grade, she had been kicked out of his school for certain reasons. Since then, she had been home-schooled and tutored, on muggle subjects as well as magic ones. "It's good to know," her dad would often say.

Though she never attended it as a student, she had seen Hogwarts before, briefly. It was when her father was teaching- she was 13- that she and her mother visited him during Christmas break for two days. It was only two days because of her mother's busy work schedule.

Like most people, she had been amazed at Hogwarts, even though she had barely seen any of it. She'd also met Harry Potter and his friends. It was a brief meeting, but just long enough to get onto the right foot as friends- something her father was glad of.

Also, during the beginning of last year, she'd met Sirius Black. Her mother and father had invited him to stay with them temporarily while he was in hiding. He stayed for nearly two weeks until he started heading back because of the incident with the Triwizard Tournament. But even during that short space of time, they'd become good friends and Sirius even tried teaching her the ways of a marauder- much to her mother and father's amusement.

She heard a knock on her door. She opened it and saw her father.

She seldom ever saw him look the way he did at that moment. The scars that slashed across looked more pronounced, he had a few pre-mature gray hairs here and there, and he looked immensely tired and worn, not to mention stressed.

But he still wore a small smile for his daughter.

"You almost done?" he asked.

"Um, yeah, almost," she answered. She was supposed to have begun packing yesterday, but she had put it off expecting- if not hoping- that something would change.

She saw him glance past her at the ridiculously cluttered room. "Well," he said, "Just let me know when you are."

She put on a smile and he left.

She glanced over to her half-packed trunk, dropping the smile. It was just so frustrating. She didn't have the slightest idea of where they were going, other than that it was Order of the Phoenix Headquarters. All that was going on outside was overwhelming, too.

Worst of all, she had to hide her fiery temper because she couldn't bring herself to cause her parents more pain. They were already worried enough with what was going on. That worry was rubbing off on her.

I HATE THIS! She just wanted to scream it to the world. She wished she could punch something, just to relieve some of the emotions she had.

But that would just get her into trouble. Her infamous temper, it always landed her deep in over her head.

She leaned against the desk. There were various papers spread out, several quill pens, a couple of textbooks, and an ink bottle.

Without thinking, she lashed her hand out at the ink bottle. It knocked over and broke, drenching her hand in the black ink and bleeding through several unimportant papers.

She had only felt a split second of relief, which was soon overcast by her annoyance. Her annoyance of how she would have to clean up the mess, and annoyance at herself for not being able to have controlled the impulse.

She proceeded to the bathroom and grabbed an old, ratty towel. She returned to the mess and used the towel to soak up most of the ink and brush away the ruined ink bottle.

She returned to the bathroom, tossed the soiled towel into the wastebasket, and went to the sink to wash her hands.

As the warm water ran along her hands, she glanced at her reflection. Her face was just as she liked it, average. Being a metamorphmagus, she could have changed it, but she never had the desire to. Her eyes were just as brown as they had been the majority of her life- the same as her father's. She never changed them on a 'permanent' basis.

Her hair, on the other hand, was a different story. When she was younger, she practically changed it everyday- it was one of the reasons she had been bullied. It had always been an unusual color, too- green, pink, electric orange. Her mother had always suggested that she wear a normal-looking color, her father had always told her to be as and who she was and not to listen to anyone who would have her otherwise.

Right now, her hair was a dark violet that just reached below her shoulders. It was what she like best, and how she had it almost always.

That's not to say she didn't mess around with her appearance when she was particularly bored, though.

She was wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. It was practically her uniform. She couldn't stand wearing skirts, high heels, pink, or anything that would give her the impression of being 'overly feminine.'

She turned away from the mirror and went back to her room.

An hour went by before she was adequately packed. She grabbed the trunk from her bedside and headed out the door.

She took one last glance at her room. She tried to convince herself that she would be back soon- but she honestly didn't know, and that was unnerving.

She left her room to join her parents downstairs.