Previously…

i Brethany sighed, a sudden thought striking her. "Alright, Albus, since I'm here, and since I know that everyone here knows what I'm talking about, I'm ready to ask that question." The headmaster looked at her expectantly, and she grinned slightly. "How do I become part of the Order of the Phoenix?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Remus laughed at her, shaking his head. The others, too, had similar reactions, and Brethany found herself overwhelmed with excited members of the Order.

"You've just invited yourself into the madness," Harry told her wryly. "You're about to find out just how exciting my life can be."

"As though I don't know already?" Student and teacher shared amused looks, quite aware of how much they shared due to the Occlumency lessons. /i

And Now…

"Bloody hell," Brethany sighed to herself. "If I'd known it would be all this complicated, I wouldn't have asked." She stared in dismay at the documents on her desk, then looked up at the man standing before her. "Did you have to fill all these out before you joined the order, Severus?"

"Unfortunately, yes," the Potions Master looked decidedly sour. "Albus seems to have the idea that anyone who can fill all of those out without reducing them to ashes must be a 'good person'." Brethany snorted. "And if you desire to join the Order any time soon, you may wish to begin now."

"Urg," Brethany's lip curled as she looked back down at the papers. "I may just decide I'm evil and burn them all."

"As you like," Severus spoke indifferently. "Although, perhaps the Order is in need of some fresh 'evil'."

"With Albus as the head? I think there's plenty of 'evil' there."

"Indeed."

Brethany sighed once again. "I suppose I have to fill it out." She sighed once more. "But do I have to?"

"I will leave you to your whining, Ms. Lewis." Snape moved toward the door, then paused. "For the sake of your sanity, Ms. Lewis, the answer to the question on page 4, section 2 is 'the Siamese cat'." He left before the young woman could question him.

Brethany sat there for a moment, dumbfounded, then began flipping through the pages. "Page 4, section 2… 'What is the phoenix's natural enemy?'" The teacher sat there for a moment, unsure how to react, then began laughing. "Oh, Albus…you are truly awful," she mused to herself, shaking her head. Grinning, she began filling out the paperwork, sometimes blinking in confusion at the various questions, and sometimes growling at how personal the required information was. About half-way through the papers, a welcome interruption appeared.

"Are you busy, Brethany?" Harry's voice brought her head up from the papers.

"Oh, hey, Harry," she grinned at him, happy for the break. "What can I do for ya?"

Harry looked at his teacher with a replying grin. "Sometimes I think teachers have it worse than the students, what with all that extra paperwork." Brethany rolled her eyes, just waiting for the punch line. "That's when I remember that you teachers get i paid /i for that extra paperwork." Said teacher groaned good humouredly.

"Thanks, Harry," she rolled her eyes again. "Actually, I'm not getting paid for this batch of papers, for your information. These are the papers for the Order; I have to fill them out before Albus will bring my application before the rest of the Order."

"Boring and tedious?" the teenager guessed with a grin.

" i Very /i ." Brethany told him of Snape's theory, and he chuckled. "But you didn't come to hear about my paperwork woes. So…what can I do for you?" She folded her hands and propped her feet up on the only bare space on the desk. "Are you having problems with the fan girls? Is some nasty Hufflepuff beating you up at nights? Are you suddenly finding yourself attracted to older women? Any odd dreams that you need interpreting?" It was Harry's turn to roll his eyes.

"You make a terrible shrink, Brethany."

She grinned. "I know."

"Honestly, though," the teenager shook his head. He shoved aside a pile of papers and seated himself in the blank spot. "Do you have any idea how hard it is, being a teenage boy?"

"Hormone rushes, energy spikes, untimely growth spurts, embarrassing awkwardness, bouts of brooding, swollen pride, general cluelessness, and a nearly constant state of foot-in-mouth?" Brethany offered glibly, trying not to laugh at the young man. "Harry, don't you remember how many brothers I have? Also, just in case you haven't realized it, girls go through the same thing…just a little earlier than boys do, that's all." She sat forward, to see him better. "Harry, this wouldn't have anything to do with the upcoming Yule ball, would it?" She took in his sheepish face. "You haven't worked up the courage to ask anyone?" His face showed all.

"Oh, Harry," Brethany couldn't help but laugh. "You're always so bummed out that you've not had a normal life…and now you hate what's normal for a teenage guy to go through?"

He looked sheepish. "Hey, I never claimed I was consistent." His teacher snorted her amusement. "But what do I do? At the last ball, Ron and I took the Patil twins…it didn't turn out so great," he admitted. "Neither of us knew how to dance, and we both liked other girls…" Brethany's eyebrow went up, and he confessed, "We kinda took them as last resorts. All the other girls were taken," the teenage boy mumbled.

"So…you want my help in finding you a date?"

"No! Not…not that." Harry looked vaguely horrified. "I need you to teach me how to dance…." Brethany swallowed a laugh. "Could you? Would you? Please?" The teenager began using his puppy eyes. "Pleeeaaassse?"

"You've been working on the puppy eyes, haven't you," the young woman asked dryly, smothering her grin as Harry added a pout to the picture. "Remus has been teaching you that look, hasn't he?" The teenager laughed. "Ok, so, you need dancing lessons…why me? What makes you think I can teach you how to dance?"

For a moment, Harry looked stumped. "Er…I kinda…just assumed…"

Brethany decided to cut him some slack. "Well, fortunately for you, I do. Unfortunately for you, it's not something I've done a lot of, so we'll need another guy to help demonstrate." She frowned in thought. "I wonder if Professor Snape would help…" A strangled sound of protest caused her to grin. "Fine, fine; I won't ask i him /i . Hm…there's not a lot of options for eligible men here at Hogwarts, is there?"

Over the next hour, they ran through a list of names of the older boys who knew how to dance, and finally narrowed it down to a handful that Harry trusted to be both good dancers and good sports. After a few minutes of thinking, the teenager finally agreed on Neville Longbottom, surprising Brethany. That awkward, easily flustered teenage boy, a good dancer? Maybe she wasn't seeing her students as clearly as she thought. Speaking of which…

"Hey, Harry, what do you have planned for Halloween?" The teenager looked up from his inspection of a book on wands. "Do the Gryffindors have their own party in the dorms?" Brethany hid her grin as a tell-tale flush rose on Harry's neck. "You probably sit around playing checkers, and bobbing for apples, and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey…Gryffindors are such good little lions. I've heard that the Hufflepuffs get up to all kinds of things in their dorms. I've had to confiscate at least ten liters of Ogden's Finest Firewhiskey, not to mention several grams of hallucinogenic powders, from the Hufflepuffs alone. The Ravenclaws are almost as bad," she mused aloud. "They know how to keep the noise of the music from escaping their Common Room. The number of times I've had to crash their parties at two, three in the morning…" Brethany shook her head in mock disapproval. "As for the Slytherins, well, they're entirely too cunning to let any outsiders know what they do down in the dungeons…I should dearly love to find out, though. Slytherins must have the i most /i fun…"

Her musing was cut short when Harry finally figured out she was teasing him, and threw several scrolls at her head. A small scuffle broke out, which resulted in ink being spilt across papers, Harry sporting a bright blue beard, and Brethany with the bill of a duck. When their laughter finally died, papers were smoothed out and cleaned, chairs turned right side up, and the office put back to rights.

"Honestly, though, Halloween would be rather boring if it weren't for the required costumes this year," Harry finally admitted, twirling a quill between his fingers. "Other years, it's just been a feast, although no one complains."

"What are you going as?"

"A Deatheater," the teenager answered glibly, waiting for a reaction. Brethany did not disappoint.

"A i Death /i -" the young woman choked with sudden laughter. "If you really do dress up as a Deatheater, you have to make sure I see everyone's reactions."

Harry laughed. "It i would /i be amusing to see the reactions. No, but I'm actually going as a centaur…Luna's going as a unicorn, so we'll sort of be a matching pair." He flushed under the teacher's knowing grin. "She was happy to go with me," the teenager grinned goofily, embarrassed happiness shining in his eyes.

"Told ya so," Brethany laughed.

"Oh, shut up," Harry struggled to glower at her, but couldn't stop smiling.

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