The following weeks fell into a pattern for Mina. Quidditch practices were going well. She was failing potions. Hagrid continued to teach about flobberworms even though he had covered the entire subject in less than a lesson and Mina still visited Buckbeak at least once a week. Professor Trelawney continued to predict Harry Potter's death every other class. She doodled several more pictures of figures from her visions in history of magic, including one of the woman in the green and white outfit, one of an imposing man with long white hair, and another one of the evil woman. A few times Mina had nightmares in which the woman was laughing at her. After each she'd look at the pictures, as if they would give her answers.

It didn't go unnoticed that Mina had become less cheerful and obsessed with something, but there was no one, not Hannah, not any of the teachers, that she could talk to about her visions and dreams. Mina felt truly alone for the first time in her life.

Throughout September and much of October the patronus sessions did not seem to be progressing. Mina still could not make a patronus that could slow a boggart-dementor down, let alone the real thing. She had run the gamut of happy memories from birthday parties to amusement parks with no success.

She wondered if she was too nervous around Professor Lupin to concentrate on the happy memories. The last week in September Lupin had been too ill to teach and Professor Snape substituted for him. Snape insulted their proficiency, blamed Lupin, and made the class skip ahead to learning about werewolves. Having already known that Professor Lupin was afraid of the moon the realization clicked in Mina's head very quickly. It was confirmed when she checked to see that Lupin had indeed been ill the day of the full moon.

So here she was, taking extra lessons alone with a werewolf. Still, she reasoned, as long as they didn't coincide with the full moon she wasn't in any danger.

One session, after another failed attempt, Professor Lupin suggested "I think we should expand the selection of memories you are choosing from. You are picking things that made you happy at the time, but may not be strong enough to stick with you. Instead of thinking of something happy, think of something powerful. It may work better."

Mina thought for a minute. The moment in her life that she felt the most powerful was…the first time she held her wand at Ollivander's! It had been a sense of strength, of magic, that she could do anything.

"I've got it."

Professor Lupin opened the crate, releasing the boggart. The dementor advanced on Mina, who focused all she could, given the flashing images in her head, on the day she first held the very stick now in her hand.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silver smoke once again erupted from her wand, but this time it was thicker, nearly opaque, and brighter, causing Mina to squint at the light. The dementor stopped, unable to walk through it. The flashing images grew fainter, virtually ceasing. With her mind more clear Mina forced the patronus forward, thereby forcing the dementor back until it was in its crate again.

"Fantastic, Mina!"

Mina rubbed her eyes as the patronus dissolved. "That was really draining."

"Yes, but you'll get used to it if you practice more. I hope you realize what a remarkable feat for a third year you've just accomplished."/

Between the dementor lessons and her newfound fear of the nameless woman Mina had all but forgotten about Sirius Black. That is, until the first Hogsmeade weekend, which coincided with Halloween.

The village was clearly not seeing its best days. The streets were filled with litter from the sweet shops, some stores were closed down, and the only people about seemed to be Hogwarts students. It was a far cry from the beautiful, bustling town Mina had heard so much about.

The reason was obvious on every store window and lamp post. There were two signs put up all over the village. One was a picture of Sirius Black with the large words "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?" The other was a reminder that the dementors would be making random searches through Hogsmeade every night.

Mina remembered that Black was supposedly targeting Harry Potter at Hogwarts. It became obvious that the ministry expected Black to come via Hogsmeade.

But Black or no Black, Mina and Hannah had been looking forward to this day for a long time and weren't going to let anything stop them from enjoying it. They had their first ever butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks, tried many new sweets at Honeydukes, and bought a few mischievous items at Zonko's joke shop.

But by 1:00 PM Mina had to head back to the castle. Cedric Diggory had insisted on training that day in the afternoon. So she raced back to the castle, changed into her Quidditch robes, got her broom, a comet model capable of reaching speeds of more than sixty miles an hour, and ran down to the Quidditch field. She was the fifth of the seven person team to arrive.

Diggory was berating one of their new players, a second year, for not bringing his broom. The kid had apparently spent too long flying on the Quidditch field the other day and had to leave his broom in a storage space on the seventh floor that he couldn't find again on his way to class.

Diggory insisted that there was nothing in the school that matched his description and was certain that he had lost the broom, but Mina thought that she recognized the place.

Early in her second year Mina had been walking back from class on the seventh floor when she was grabbed by the Weasely twins. They had upset the caretaker, Argus Filch, by dropping a dung bomb on a staircase and Filch was going on a rampage, by punishing every student he saw. The twins were looking for a way to hide from Filch and decided to help other students escape his wrath. They pulled Mina and another student into a giant storage facility, so large that one could not see the other end, and yet filled with items left behind by students over a thousand years. There they waited until the danger from Filch had passed.

Only when she had left the room did Mina realize that it was in the exact same spot as a bathroom with chamber pots she had used in an emergency. She returned later to check a few times, and sure enough, when she had a somewhat full bladder she found the bathroom back where it had been before. She had told Hannah about the room that became whatever one needed, but Hannah hadn't believed her.

So now Mina was taking the second year there to find his broom. The way up took a long time, but once they were in the room of requirement and found the broom a passage opened up for them that led straight out of the castle, where the entire rest of the team was waiting to hear what Diggory had to say.

"Listen, our first game has been moved up. We'll be playing Gryffindor next week."

"What!" came a protest from several members. "We're not ready! How can they do that!"

"The Slytherin seeker is injured and asked for a postponement. We've been chosen to replace them."

"That's absurd!"

"Yes it is. As you said, we're not ready yet. That's why no one is going to come to practice without their brooms anymore. And that's why we're going to have practice every night for the next week."

'Oh great.' Mina thought. 'There go the lessons with Professor Lupin.'/

The school had its Halloween feast that night, and the students returned to their dormitories full and contented. Most of the Hufflepuffs had already changed into their pajamas when Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff house, ran into their dorm room.

"Up! Up! Everybody up! We're going to the great hall!"

"What's going on professor?" the student nearest her asked.

"Sirius Black has been sighted in the school. For your own safety all students are to sleep in the great hall tonight. Leave your things here. There will be sleeping bags for you in the great hall."

The shock ran through the dormitory. "Black?" "Here?" "Holy %$!"

"Prefects," Professor Sprout called, "I'm counting on you to make sure that there are no stragglers. Tonight that would be a risk we cannot take."

As they walked towards the great hall Mina worked her way to the front of the group. "Professor," she asked, very worried, "Black didn't hurt anyone, did he?"

"Unless you count the fat lady being very distressed, no."

Mina gulped. Harry was all right, but Black had tried to get into the Gryffindor dorm. He really was looking for Harry.

In the great hall there was much discussion of how black got into the castle. Someone said that he apparated, but it was pointed out that apparation is impossible at Hogwarts. Another student suggested that he could fly, but the problem with that was how he got past the dementors. It wasn't a large hole in the theory, as black had gotten past the dementos already in Azkaban.

Mina tried to sleep, but her already worried mind wouldn't let her. She dreamed that the evil woman was laughing at her and awoke with a start.

Percy Weasely, the head boy, came over to her when her head shot up. "Why aren't you asleep?" he demanded.

"I has a nightmare."

Percy nodded. "Understandable."

There was a hum of people still talking and whispering to themselves. Percy went over to the nearest offenders to tell them off, but turned away when the door creaked open. Professor Dumbledore had entered the great hall. Mina listened intently to what he said to Percy, but the truly interesting part only came when Snape arrived to give his report that Black had not been found in the castle.

"Very well," Dumbledore said. "I did not expect Black to linger."

"Have you any idea how he got into the castle?"

"A hundred, each as unlikely as the next."

"Might I remind you of the conversation we had at the start of term? It seems to me impossible that Black was able to enter the castle without inside help. If you recall, I was particularly concerned when you hired-"

"I do not believe anyone in this castle would help Black enter it." Dumbledore cut him off sharply. "If you'll excuse me, I must meet with the dementors. I promised them that I would inform them when our search is concluded."

"Didn't they want to be part of the search, sir?" Percy asked.

"Yes. They were quite eager. But no dementor will step foot in this castle as long as I am headmaster."

The professors walked off, leaving Percy to roam the hall looking for talking students and Mina to wonder.

Who could have helped Black get into Hogwarts?