Mina kept Artemis hidden until after she got on the Hogwarts Express back to school. The plan was to come back in the summer and say that she got him at Hogsmeade. But there was nothing unusual about getting a cat over the Christmas break, and Artemis received a lot of attention from her fellow students.

"What a cute kitty! What's its name?"

"Artemis."

"Ooh. And she seems so well behaved."

Artemis gave a little growl that was mistaken for a pur while Mina laughed. "Actually, Artemis is a he."

"You named a boy cat Artemis?"

"I'm not his first owner. He won't respond to any other name now."

"And his first owner did that to him?" one girl asked, pointing at the crescent shaped bald spot.

"Yup."

When classes started again the first care of magical creatures lesson seemed like a good omen for the rest of the term. The students collected kindling for a bonfire full of giant salamanders, magical fire loving beasts that few of the third years had ever prepared before.

Mina wondered guiltily if the unusually good lesson had anything to do with her outburst the last time she had spoken with Hagrid. While collecting leaves for the fire she went over to Harry.

"No flobberworms today."

Harry smiled. "No flobberworms ever. They all died from eating too much lettuce."

"Oh, that's too bad." Mina said, also smiling.

After class Mina apologized to Hagrid for her behavior in November and December. Hagrid was pleased that she was speaking with him again.

"They work yeh kids too hard. I knew yeh jus' needed a vacation is all. Come on. Beaky'll be pleased the see yeh."

Sure enough, Buckbeak, still bound by the neck near Hagrid's hut, started squawking happily when she approached and let her approach without bowing first.

"You poor thing," she said as she petted him, "all tied up out here in the cold." She turned to Hagrid. "Why is he still tied up? Haven't they resolved it yet?"

Hagrid's face grew sad. "There's gonna be a hearing abou' it. Hermione's helping me research teh present a good case, but it don' look good."/

When Mina headed back into the castle and up the stairs to divination she found Harry Potter and Ron Weasely in a loud argument with their friend Hermione Granger.

"I said I wonder what's wrong with Lupin," Ron was saying, "and you-"

"Well isn't it obvious?" Hermione stated rather than asked, interrupting Ron. 'Of course the know-it-all Hermione figured it out.' Mina thought.

"If you don't want to tell us, don't."

"Fine."

Ron and Harry set off and Hermione remained behind, trying to close her book bag which was filled to overflowing. Mina walked up to her.

"You know, that moon wasn't exactly the most obvious thing. It didn't have any craters."

Hermione looked at her in surprise. "You know?"

"If you think it's so obvious your friends should get it why shouldn't I?" Mina asked angrily.

"I'm sorry. I just thought-"

"I'll have you know we Hufflepuffs are not a bunch of thick-headed trolls. And I'm not just a blonde ditz like I'm made out to be."

"I never said…" But this was one corner Hermione couldn't talk herself out of . "You're right. I shouldn't assume things."

"Good. Remember that." Mina went off to divination./

Hufflepuff had the unfortunate reputation as being the place where the rejects went, the students who didn't have the strengths of the other houses. They were supposed to lack the courage, brains, and wit which defined Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, respectively. And Mina, with mediocre grades and nothing that stood out about her other than her Quidditch skills, had gained the reputation of the stereotypical blonde by default among those who did not know her.

But that night Mina had a chance to begin to change that. For she and Artemis went to the room of requirement to begin her training in her powers as a Sailor Soldier. The sorting hat must have seen something of her past as one of the greatest warriors in history, and yet it had put her in Hufflepuff instead of Gryffindor. She could prove that a Hufflepuff could be just as brave as any Gryffindor and just as cunning as any Slytherin.

The room of requirement had the form that Artemis wanted it to have. There were full sized dummies, paper targets along the walls, bars for exercises like pull ups, and the room itself was the largest she had seen it other than the times it became the room of hidden things.

"Amazing." Artemis had been fascinated by the world of magic, and had spent the day in the library learning as much as he could, but he wanted to learn much more before considering its applications in battle against Beryl.

"All right." he said when she transformed. "This is for you. It is a powerful weapon." He presented her with a glowing, crescent shaped compact.

Mina took it with some skepticism. "Where did you keep this? In your butt?"

"It's not important." Artemis said quickly.

"Ewww."

"That's enough. Open it."

She opened the compact, and a bright light shot upwards out of it. The light hit the ceiling and began to expand in all directions in the same manner as the top of a mushroom cloud.

"Close it!" As it shut the light lingered for an unusually long time. "That light has certain healing properties. It can drive evil influences away. However the compact only has a limited amount of power and can only be charged by the light of the full moon. It also has an offensive capability." As Artemis spoke three of the dummies moved to the center of the room, twenty-five meters away from Mina. "Throw it at the middle dummy."

Mina complied, throwing it with all her might. Mina was not used to throwing weapons, and her aim was not as good as it was with large balls like the Quaffle. The compact struck the dummy a half-meter to the left of the one she was aiming for, cutting its arm off completely and leaving a charred shoulder. It then arced around behind the dummies, flying in a circle that ended back at Mina's hand.

"Hm. That could have been better. Lets try it a few more times and see if you can improve. You don't have to throw it so hard at things so close. You can make it easier to catch again by holding back a little more."

Each time Mina threw the compact it circled back to her hand. By her fourth throw she had gotten it through the chest of the center dummy, leaving a large, smoldering hole.

"That's good, but I think it'll be enough for today with the compact. It'll start to run out of power soon. You will really want to keep it charged, as you can use it even without transforming if you're in a pinch. Its light should keep dementors away too."

"So what powers do I have myself?"

"You can charge a beam of focused energy through your pointer finger. The key is to focus your strength into your finger while pointing. At this stage saying the words "crescent beam" would be extremely helpful."

As he spoke many paper targets replaced the three dummies twenty-five meters away. Mina picked one and slowly aimed at it with her finger, hr right arm fully outstretched and held in place by her left.

"Crescent beam!"

A thin beam of energy shot out of the tip of her finger and burned through the target. It continued into the wall behind., leaving a deep hole.

"Wow." Mina stared at her hand. 'So much power,' she thought, 'just in my finger!'

"Try aiming faster now. In a fight the enemy won't let you delicately line up your shots."

"Right." She began firing off crescent beams more quickly, missing the targets as often as she hit them because she was not aiming as carefully. Whether she hit or missed she was creating new holes in the wall.

When she thought she was done Artemis yelled "behind!" Mina turned around and shot quickly at a final target that had moved behind her. Though it was only fifteen meters away she still missed do to her having not finished turning when she fired. On her second shot she destroyed the target.

Mina stared at the wall behind the targets. It now looked like swiss cheese.

"I'm not paying for that."

"You've got the natural coordination needed, but we'll have to work on that aim. There was one last thing I wanted to see tonight. Your fighting skills."

One of the remaining dummies moved right in front of Mina. Its arms and legs shifted into a fighting stance.

"Fighting skills?"

"Hand to hand combat was often more useful that energy against Beryl's monsters. If what you've told me about this room is true, then these dummies should be good sparring partners. When you're ready it'll start fighting you."

"Ok." Mina gulped and took the best approximation of a fighting stance she could. Artemis immediately began to correct her. She hadn't moved her legs far apart enough, she hadn't bent her knees enough. She hadn't turned her body enough. And she was blocking too much of her vision with one of her hands.

When she had gotten the stance perfect Artemis had her hold it for a while, until she started to get sore from standing so still. She then practiced getting into that exact stance several times, doing a good enough job to satisfy Artemis.

"All right. Now try to fight. The dummy should go easy on you."

"Thanks." she muttered, wondering if the blasted cat realized how insulting that last sentenced sounded. She slipped back into the stance.

'Now.' she thought.

In a blur the dummies back hand shot forward. Mina had no time to react as it hit her squarely in the nose. She fell straight back, her head luckily landing on a pillow the room had just conjured for her.

As Artemis put a paw to his face Mina sat up, holding her bleeding nose.

"Owwww."

"Are you all right?"

"Other than a broken nose, yeah."

"It didn't hit you hard enough to break your nose."

"Well it still really hurts."

"If you want to train to be Sailor Venus you're going to have to learn to take hits like that. Otherwise all the training with the compact and the crescent beam won't mean a thing in actual combat. You have to decide. Do you want to continue or not?"

Mina thought again about the dementors. About Harry and Sirius Black. There was no way she could stop now.

As she got up and faced the dummy again, she knew that that night and the rest of the semester would be filled with bruises./

As I already showed Sailor Venus killing Queen Beryl in the first chapter like she did in the manga and then looking at the battle like it was over it seems logical that she would have survived that particular battle. It doesn't mean that she survived the assault of Mettalia, however.

I have long since decided how any romance in this story would play out. I don't want to give it away, but I think certain things can already be inferred about Mina's feelings.