Well. I said on "In the Shadow of a Hero" that I'd update this story by the end of the week, and look! I do it the next day./

"They can't do this!" Harry said angrily. "Buckbeak isn't dangerous!"

"Yeah," Mina agreed. "Malfoy doesn't pay attention in class and it's Buckbeak that gets punished? Where's the justice in that?"

"Malfoy's dad frightened the committee into it." Hermione said, crying. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools and they're scared. There'll be an appeal though. There always is. "/

Hagrid was a broken man at their next care of magical creatures class. Everything he said was punctuated by sobs, and by snickers from Malfoy and his cronies.

"Harry," Mina whispered. "You beat Slytherin this Saturday, you hear?"

"You bet."/

The Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin was a short one. The moment it became apparent that Gryffindor could not take the sort of commanding lead required to advance to the finals Harry resolved himself to denying Malfoy a victory. He pointed at the snitch the moment he saw it to let Malfoy know where it was and even gave Malfoy a head start in flying towards it. When he overshot Malfoy with the superior speed of the firebolt he achieved his desired result, the humiliation of Draco Malfoy.

Gryfindor won by less than 150 points and was therefore still only third in the league. Hufflepuff would face Slytherin in the Quidditch final just the following week. Hufflepuff had a two hundred point advantage over Slytherin and would win the cup even if they lost as long as it was by less than that amount.

But that did not satisfy Cedric Diggory. He and the rest of the Hufflepuff team knew that they had over performed so far that year and that they still could not compete with the Slytherin team's Nimbus 2001s. He scheduled practices every hour the field was not booked by the Slytherin team.

Mina had almost made her way to the Quidditch pitch for the first practice when Harry Potter stopped her.

"Take this." he said, handing her the firebolt.

"What? That's your broom! I can't take that!"

"Listen. Neither of us wants Slytherin to win. With this you can fly rings around Malfoy."

"Right." Mina hesitantly took the broom.

"Keep it safe. I'll want it back after the cup is over."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Good luck."/

Mina caused quite a commotion when she showed up with the firebolt. After she explained how Harry had given it to her and his reasons Diggory looked thoughtfully at the legendary broom for a full minute before walking Mina to the other end of the pitch where they could talk privately.

"For this game you're team seeker."

"What?"

"The important thing in the match is the snitch. I'm not beating a Nimbus 2001 with my broom, and a single firebolt would be wasted on a single chaser when all our other brooms are so outmatched. I'm really tempted to take the firebolt myself, but I suspect that Potter might not want me to use it after our last match, and you can fly about as well as I can. So you practice seeking with that and I'll get used to chasing again. I can't wait to see Flint's expression when he finds out he's going up against this again."/

When word got out that Mina now had the firebolt she became the target of many hexes from the Slytherin house. She took to carrying Artemis on her shoulder, who watched for trouble and whispered "duck" in her ear whenever he spotted it. She always reacted fast enough that the spells sailed over her head, causing varying amounts of damage.

The larger a group of people the more superstitious they become, and Mina's repeated narrow escapes earned her a reputation among the Slytherins as being untouchable.

It was a term that Mina only wished truly applied to her. That week she had only time for one training session, and Artemis was making sure that it would be enough to suffice for a whole week.

"Mina," he said as she held her forearms in front of her to shield her body and block the ferocious assault of the dummy she was fighting, "you seem somewhat…obsessed with this Quidditch thing."

"It's the championship." Mina said. She had progressed to the point where she talk to Artemis and concentrate on the enemy in front of her at the same time. Sooner or later it's flurry of attacks would stop and she'd have a brief opening to retaliate.

"Yes, but you all you think about now is beating this Malfoy character. It seems like you've forgotten about Sirius Black.

"I haven't forgotten. I just can't do anything about Black right now. Malfoy is evil too, and I can do something about him."

"By beating him at a game?"

"Well I-" The dummy stopped it's attacks and Mina took the opportunity to try to punch it, but before she could it stuck out its leg and swept her feet out from under her.

She hit the ground hard. "You see? You need to pay more attention." Artemis said.

"Oh, shut up." Mina grumbled.

She rose and took out all her frustration on the dummy, in a sweeping roundhouse kick that knocked its head completely off.

"Holy-"Artemis gasped. Mina stared at her handiwork in surprise. "You can break through walls with that kick!"

Mina took another kick at the dummy, this time her foot going through its chest and out of its back. 'Wow.' she thought. 'I didn't think this training had this much of an effect'

She sat down and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Look. With the Fat Lady back Black can't get into Gryffindor tower again even with the passwords. And with the security being upgraded all the time it's too risky for him to stay so near the castle. You haven't found a trace of him. He probably left because he's so scared of that dementor's kiss thing the Daily Prophet was talking about."

Artemis shuddered.

"What is a dementor's kiss anyway? Is it that bad?"

"Yes. The dementor's kiss.. sucks out a person's soul."

"So it's how dementor's kill people?"

"No. It's much worse. You remain alive, but your being is gone, and it cannot move on even once your body dies."

"Yeesh. And they really think that Black deserves that. He must be one bad dude."

"Mina, I'm really worried. Have you considered that Black may come back in spite of everything? The man is not supposed to be rational."

Mina sighed. "Hey. I'm still going to these sessions, aren't I? I still mean to be prepared for him."/

The funny thing is the focus of this chapter was originally supposed to be on the Quidditch final, and then I didn't even include the game here. Things get away sometimes. Oh well, next time.

We're coming to the end of this school year, but that's where the plot really happens in the Harry Potter books.