Disclaim: Don't own.

AN: Skazzy's world is tilted, and it doesn't look like it's going to straighten soon.

Skazzy came downstairs from the library, scowling. Her brother was going to be in danger, there was a weird girl who bypassed security, and her brother was going to be in danger. Did the world have it out for him?

Harry and Sirius were waiting downstairs in front of the fireplace. This did not help Skazzy get out of the black mood the girl had put her in.

"We're flooing?" she asked, staring at Sirius. He nodded, confused.

"What's so bad about flooing?" he asked.

"I got lost last time," Harry said, giving his sister a concerned look. "Won't happen again."

"Well, ladies first?" Sirius said, indicating the fire. Skazzy sighed, and took a pinch of floo powder.

"I hate the floo," Skazzy muttered before bracing herself for the unpleasantness. "The Burrow."

Once again, she was spinning around, watching as things rushed past her. Her motion sickness got worse as she only had vision in one eye. Instead of gracefully stepping out of the fireplace or even the stumbling she had done before her first year, she ended up on the floor, breathing heavy. Amity helped her up while Harry and then Sirius came through.

"I am never, ever using the floo again. It was not designed for people like me," she informed everyone, still trying to get her bearing.

"Didn't think of that, sorry," Sirius said, wincing a bit.

"Anyway, come on," Ron said, pulling Harry towards the kitchen. "Happy birthday mate!"

Everyone followed the two into the kitchen, but Skazzy shook Amity off.

"I'll be in soon, I just need to..." she trailed off as she sat on the floor. Amity watched her with concern, but reluctantly went to the kitchen.

Skazzy held her head, feeling the beginnings of a headache. This was going to be a bad. She was angry, had a headache, and was confused. Her world was out of alignment, and she needed to fix it before she could even think of being social. Well, being social according to most people's standards. She slowly got off the floor and entered the kitchen. She made her way through the chaos to her brother, and quietly told him she would be outside. One look at her, and Harry nodded, knowing the dangers of an annoyed Skazzy around people she had problems connecting with. She headed out to the pond, not noticing the gazes that followed her.

Remus watched as Phoenix left the kitchen and headed out to the pond. Maybe now would be a good time for that conversation Sirius said they would need to have. They would be away from people overhearing, and secluded. He began to follow her, only to be stopped by Amity.

"What ever you're thinking professor, you don't want to go talk with her right now. Trust me. She'll come back when she's ready for people," Amity said, standing in front of the door.

"I'm not your professor anymore, you can call me Remus," Remus said, trying to move around her. "I just want to talk to her alone."

"She already doesn't trust you. Right now, she's in one of her darker moods. If you try to talk to her right now, you might set her off and alienate her further," Amity said, stubbornly standing in his way. "I know Nixie, Harry knows Nixie, and Nixie knows herself. Right now she's walking on an edge for some reason. It's best to not try and talk with her."

Remus looked down at the young Hufflepuff who knew his goddaughter better than him, and sighed. He turned back to Sirius, watching as Amity quietly left the house. One day, he thought, one day I'll prove to her that she can trust me, that I care.

Amity sat next to her friend of the last two years. Nixie had her eyes closed, lying on the grass facing the sky. In two years, Nixie had gotten a little better at interacting with people, but she still preferred isolation. Amity lay down next to her and watched the clouds.

The two of them made quite the pair. Amity, who their year had all agreed was the nicest person in their year, and Nixie, who hands down won the place of least liked without even trying. Amity knew that her friendship with Nixie confused the other members of her house, about as much as Nixie's placement in Hufflepuff did. How could two completely different people be friends?

Not easily. Amity had often had to make the effort to stay friends. It got tiring, and there were times she wanted to give up, but she'd get a small sign from Nixie that she cared. To most people it wouldn't be noticeable, but to someone who lived with Nixie and spent a lot of her time with her, it would be loud. And, even if her friendship with Nixie had lead to her being caught up in crazy adventures her mother would rather she didn't have, it was worth it.

If she hadn't become friends with Nixie, she wouldn't have become friends with Hermione. Or possibly Ginny her first year. After all, as a first year who wasn't constantly sitting at the Gryffindor table she probably wouldn't have noticed what Ginny was going through. Granted, she might be closer to the other Hufflepuffs in their year, but after two years with Nixie and her brother and their adventures, she sometimes found the other girls boring. Nice, but boring.

She lost track of the time while she was staring at the clouds, but a sigh from Nixie brought her back to the ground.

"Better?" Amity asked, still looking at the sky. From the corner of her eye she saw Nixie nod. "Want to go back?"

"Not really. Back means talking to the ex-professor. I promised Harry I'd be nice, but I'm not sure how long I'd be able to manage it right now," Nixie said, staring at the sky.

"At some point you'll have to," Amity pointed out, and Nixie scowled.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it. And today has been… weird," Nixie said, relaxing a bit.

"Can I give you your gift, since someone seemed to have forgotten to mention her birthday for the past two years?" Amity asked.

"We were busy," Nixie defended herself, but she nodded. Amity smiled and ran up to the kitchen to get the gift.

"Here, Mom said they'd be useful," she said, handing the package over. Nixie unwrapped the present, hesitantly. She pulled out two books.

"Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms, and The Decline of Pagan Magic? I get the first one, but not the second," Nixie said, looking at the book in surprise. Amity shrugged.

"Mom took Ancient Runes and said that it should be a required text," she explained. Nixie shrugged, putting both the books down.

"How much longer?" she asked.

"How much longer can you stay out here, or until the party is over? I think Mrs. Weasley is planning on feeding us," Amity said, thinking.

"Of course she is," Nixie groaned. Amity poked her.

"Be nice, she doesn't have to," Amity pointed out.

"I meant it in a nice way, you know, she never lets anyone leave without eating," Nixie defended herself lazily.

"Come on, time for food," Amity said, jumping up and waiting for Nixie to get up and grab her books. "You might want to keep the second book out of Hermione's sight for a little while. I don't think she's read it..."

Nixie smiled, a tired smile that barely showed in her eye. "Don't want her to steal it, or ask me a bunch of questions about it."

"Exactly."

Dinner at the Weasleys was chaotic, as anyone who had ever met the twins would have realized. Skazzy, in an attempt to avoid Lupin, had managed to place herself next to Percy. Percy then proceeded to tell her about all of the fascinating things he was doing at the Ministry. Harry had simply laughed when she turned to him for help. Amity found it funny as well. But when Percy began talking about standardizing cauldron thickness, Skazzy managed rendered everyone at the table quiet.

"When you say standardizing cauldron thickness, do you mean in general across all types, or for particular ones? Does a pewter cauldron have to be the same thickness as a copper one? Wouldn't it make sense to standardize based on the material instead of a general standard that may be overkill?"

Everyone stared at her, surprised that she spoke and that she had actually asked Percy a legitimate question about his work.

"I… hadn't thought about that. So far everything about the subject I've been given has just mentioned standardizing cauldrons, not specifying anything about materials..." Percy trailed off, thinking. Everyone continued to stare at her.

"What?" Skazzy asked defensively, crossing her arms.

"You...talked. To Percy. Seriously," one of the twins said.

"Are you sick?" the other one asked.

"Not that I'm aware of. Hey!" Skazzy fought off the twins as they tried to see if she was sick. "I'm fine!"

"She might be contagious!" One of the twins said to the other, and the two of them ran to the other end of the table, yelling that they didn't want to be infected with prefectitis.

"...That's not a disease, right?" Skazzy asked, as the twins cowered in mock terror behind her brother.

"No, I just don't think anyone expected you to be interested in Percy's work," Mrs. Weasley said, glaring at the twins.

"Cauldrons I get. Besides, it's a serious problem when your working with acidic ingredients like bulbadox juice and syrup of hellebore. If you aren't careful, they'll melt the cauldron," Skazzy said, slinking down in her seat. "Cauldrons also don't stare."

That brought everyone out of their stupor, and talk around the table resumed, although the twins stayed far away from Skazzy for the rest of the night. Seeing as people who were near them kept inexplicably turning into canaries, she was okay with that.

Mrs. Weasley seemed to have a problem after Ron had been changed into a canary for the third time, grabbing the twins and sending them up to their room. Percy excused himself, muttering something about work, and soon Sirius stood up.

"Thank you for hosting the party, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," he said politely. "I believe it's time we left."

"I'm not taking the floo," Skazzy said immediately.

"I'll apparate you back," Lupin offered.

Skazzy was still debating whether it was worth getting sick to avoid the professor when he grabbed her and apparated out.

"Not okay," Skazzy said, twisting out of his grip as soon as she could and putting a chair between them.

"You said you didn't want to floo..." Lupin said, sounding confused.

"I didn't say I wanted to apparate," she said sullenly. When Lupin opened his mouth to say something, Skazzy claimed she was tired and was going to bed.

Harry came into the bedroom several minutes later and threw her two new books at her.

"Forgot these," Harry said, sitting on his bed and watching his sister.

"Not my fault," grumbled Skazzy.

"You said you'd try," Harry reminded her.

"I said I'd be polite," Skazzy corrected. "I was in the middle of deciding whether to take him up on his offer when he grabbed me. That's not polite."

"Give him a break?" Harry asked, lying down on his bed.

"Why?" she asked, opening one of the books and just staring at the words.

"He's nice, his life has been rough," Harry started.

"He's a hypocrite, he wasn't there, he's always watching me," Skazzy countered.

"The whole wizarding world watches me, and you don't see me treating it badly," Harry pointed out.

"Maybe you should. I mean, first year? Come on, this world is only slightly better than the muggle one. At least in the muggle world, they don't expect anything from you," Skazzy said. Harry sighed and turned on his side.

"Good night Skaz," he said. Skazzy waited for him to doze off before slipping out of the room and heading to the library.

She had some books to examine, and a girl to interrogate.

Downstairs, Sirius was watching his friend sit with his face downcast.

"I'm a failure as a godfather," Remus said miserably.

"I was in prison, that isn't exactly a stellar performance there," Sirius countered.

"She hates me," Remus continued, not listening.

"Harry likes you," Sirius offered. "She hates most people?"

"James and Lily..."

"Aren't here, are they? Look Remus, as much as we both don't like it, this is our life. James and Lily would be devastated about how their youngest has been behaving, but if she grew up with them, who knows what she'd be like. When can't focus on what might have been. We're stuck with this," Sirius sighed. "You made a mistake, I made giant mistakes, Skazzy and Harry make mistakes. Give it time, don't rush things."

"What if she never likes me?"

"Well, I'll share godfather responsibilities with you for Harry," Sirius said, closing his eyes. "Face it, she's her own person."

"But she trusts you," Remus said, coming back to his one sore point with his friend. Well, besides the fact that Sirius thought he was the traitor.

"After an entire year, several incidents which involved her getting into trouble, and I wasn't assigning homework," Sirius said. "Even now, I think it's more that she thinks I'm the lesser of two evils. So, not exactly a relationship built on trust. She just didn't see that you cared."

"I stayed with her in the hospital wing and at Saint Mungo's," Remus said, frowning.

"Did she see you? Going out on a limb here, but she was really unaware of what was going on around her at Christmas. Perhaps she didn't see?" Sirius asked.

"That's a valid point," Remus agreed slowly.

"Look, it's late, your tired, I'm tired. We'll deal with this tomorrow, or a different day, alright?" Sirius said, yawning. Remus nodded, and stood up to apparate home. "Crash here for tonight."

Later that night, Sirius woke up from a nightmare about Azkaban. While he was better, Azkaban was something that would never really go away. He went to check on Harry and Skazzy, make sure they were sleeping and reassure himself that everything was real. Harry was sleeping, spread out on his bed, but his sister was missing.

Sirius began to check the other rooms on the floor, as well as the downstairs, wondering if she had woken up and forgotten where she was or went to get food. When he couldn't find her downstairs, he remembered she had been interested in the library earlier. He quietly went up there to check, and she was curled up in a chair, sleeping. She looked much more vulnerable when she was sleeping, not keeping up the tough exterior that she had on during the day. He gently shook her awake.

"Hey kid, a bed might be a better place to spend the night," he said, helping her up. She nodded and wandered out of the library.

Sirius watched her go before frowning and looking at the chair she had been in. There were no books around the chair, so it didn't look like she had read anything. Maybe she felt safe with lots of books? He shrugged and went downstairs to make sure Skazzy had made it to her room. She had, curled up in a corner of her bed.

Sirius went back to sleep and forgot about it in the morning.

Skazzy woke up to sunlight in her eye. It took her a few minutes to figure out why there was sun in her eye. Her bed at the Dursley's wasn't near a window, and her dorm was underground. But, she remembered, Harry and she had been sprung from the Dursleys and were now living with Sirius. Accepting that, she pulled the pillow over her head to try and get more sleep.

Until she remembered that she didn't remember going back down to the room. She had been up in the library, reading Curses and Counter-Curses as well as briefly looking at some of the other books the girl had pointed her to, like Beginnings of Nightmares, an introduction into the Dark Arts. Skazzy had been waiting to see if the girl would show up again, but apparently she didn't feel the need to return since warning her. She looked around the bedroom.

Harry was already gone, and it didn't look like anyone was waiting to yell at her for reading a book she shouldn't. She cautiously got out of bed, just in case someone was lurking around waiting for a sign she was awake. Unfortunately, she stubbed her toe on her trunk and had to stifle her swears as she glared at the offending piece of furniture.

But Sirius had conjured her bed over her trunk. It shouldn't have been poking out from underneath just waiting for an unsuspecting victim. Carefully pulling the trunk out, so that no one snuck up on her, Skazzy opened it slowly.

There, on top of her clothes, was Beginnings of Nightmares, looking up at her innocently. Quietly shutting the trunk, Skazzy quickly went to the doorway to make sure no one was around. Then she closed the door and reopened the trunk.

Carefully turning the book over in her hands, having already learned the hard way that it needed human blood to open she wondered how it had gotten in her trunk. Who ever had found her in the library wasn't likely to want her to be reading the book, so it wouldn't make sense to put the book in her trunk. Skazzy noticed a note taped to the back of the book.

You know, the best way to make sure no one prevents you from doing your job is to make sure you don't fall asleep while reading books like this. At least, not without using magic so that people don't know what book you're really reading. Keep acting stupid like this, and you definitely won't be able to protect your brother. Pull it together, it's only been one day in the house. Don't go getting soft and trusting.

Remember:

You can't trust people

You can't trust animals

You most certainly can't trust me to fix all your mistakes

Genny

Skazzy placed the book back in her trunk, carefully closing the lid and pushing it back under her bed while glaring at the note. The only person she could think of who would have written it was the girl with the golden hair who was complicating her life. Making good points, but complicating her life nonetheless. She scowled, and thought she heard a snort of laughter behind her, but there was no one there.

"Just wait, I'll find a way to get back at you," she muttered under her breath.

"And when you do, I'll be laughing and you'll be angry," a voice came in her ear. She turned around again, glaring at...absolutely nothing. "Careful at the World Cup."

Skazzy just stood in the room for a few minutes, her hands flexing into fists as she imagined being able to hit the annoying girl, this...Genny. She whirled around when the door opened, ready to attack Genny. Instead, she surprised her brother.

"You okay?" he asked, looking at her in concern.

"Nightmare," she said shortly. Harry nodded, and indicated the note.

"And that?"

"A prank from the twins. I guess I left my books unattended for too long yesterday," she lied, putting it on her bed.

"Breakfast is ready," Harry said, turning to leave. Skazzy watched him go.

She had told him last year no more secrets. But explaining the girl… mentioning how she had gotten in despite the safety measures taken… the fact that the note proved she wasn't hallucinating it and everything that had happened the night they discovered the truth about Sirius… the girl's warning… her suggestions…

The girl raised an excellent point, she needed to know what she was up against. She needed to be able to use everything in her power to protect her brother. It didn't matter if what saved him was dark or light, as long as it worked. Skazzy sighed, and slipped the note in one of her books.

There were some things better left unsaid.

She felt a tiny pang at going back on her words from last year.

She ignored it. She was getting good at that.

Genny appeared on the bed after the two Potters had left the room.

She was satisfied that Skazzy was angry at her. The angrier she was, the more likely she would be to try and find her own solution.

She had Skazzy hook, line and sinker. Skazzy didn't trust her, but would never consciously ignore someone who could give her information about possible trials that lay before her brother. All she had to do was point, and Skazzy would go in that direction and learn whatever she could. And the sooner she learned so called Dark Magic, the safer Harry would be.

Genny didn't even think about how this would effect Skazzy and her relationships with people.

After all, people can't be trusted.