As murmurs rippled through the room, Len cursed her stupidity, of course she would be included in the Slytherin list. Slipping out of the portrait, she caught many eyes. "I don't recall Dumbledore saying I was as good as a Slytherin. I was under the impression that I was to share points and a schedule with Slytherins, and that, officially I'm in Black."

Snape's eyes narrowed, and he hissed, "I spoke with the headmaster. He has concluded that you are to, in all aspects, be considered a Slytherin, and the fact that you were put in Black will only be acknowledged on papers for the Ministry."

Many Slytherins unconsciously leaned back, away from Snape's rage, but Len was unaffected. "I was uninformed. My apologies." Len made to go back to the portrait, and was stopped by a well aimed spell.

Len turned back around, though the spell sent at her was meant to paralyze. Snape sneered, "And where are you going? You claim to be blind, yet you very ungratefully tell Mr. Malfoy and Miss. Greengrass that their services are unnecessary, and then you don't even go to your dorm the normal way, but you have to make it look fancy. The truth, Miss. Faellae."

Looking in the direction Snape's voice came from, Len once again enlarged her staff. She thumped it against the floor, and in the silence, navigated to Snape, thumping the staff inhumanly fast against the floor. Barely moving her lips, Len hissed, "Look in my eyes, and tell me that it is possible, in anyway, to use them to see. Please, I would absolutely love to know how I can stop using tricks to get around."

Snape looked Len in the eye, and said, "How in Merlin's name did you manage to do that to yourself?"

"What? Get Cruciatus spell fragments permanently lodged in my eyes? Oh, maybe I was fighting someone? How else?" Len drawled, all traces of the formality and proper language that she'd used on the train had gone. "Was I experimenting in a mad wizard's laboratory with Unforgiveables? Please, humor me, don't sugar coat anything, don't baby me, and don't treat me any different from Draco Malfoy over there."

Len's staff had begun to attract a lot of attention as it began to glow. It was gold, inlaid with two vines, starting at the base and curving around the handle in opposite directions. Thorns were carved on the vine, protruding where it turned around the staff. At the top was a large emerald fused with an onyx and a ruby. It was the stone that glowed the most, and it was held in place by strange and ancient magic, floating above the end of the staff itself, which curved in on itself and twisted to form a snake's body coiled, head up, and jaw opened wide, so that if the stone was lowered, then snake's fangs would hold the stone neatly in place.

At Len' s attitude, Snape was offended, but when he gave the staff a second run over with his eyes, his eyebrows went up. "The Staff of Angels," he murmured, "May I?" Visibly making an effort to remove the glow, Len handed the staff to Snape. "The legends are true, then?"

In response, Len nodded, and several Slytherins who also recognized the staff bowed or curtseyed. Malfoy, however, sneered, "What penniless dabbling wizard did you buy that off? Everyone knows that those are just stories told to scare little children. Don't tell me you people actually buy her story? She fought someone years ago, and a Cruciatus curse shattered and embedded itself in her eyes, and she has an Angelic Staff. How plausible does that sound? Is anyone else not convinced?"

Snape handed back the staff, and beckoned Malfoy forward. "Mr. Malfoy, look at her eyes, and look at that staff, carefully. Then tell me what isn't possible. No matter how she got them, she has them."

The boy sneered, but examined Len's eyes, and then the staff. Though slightly shaken at the look in Len's eyes, he nodded and said, "Yes, however it happened, it is true. But now, if you can't see, how do you get around?"

Len took back her staff, and replied, "I never said I couldn't see. I can't use my eyes, yes; but I can see. How I can, is none of your business. Now excuse me, I'm going to my quarters." Len went through the portrait, and then exited the castle from a room that had a door that you could use to exit through every door and portrait on the grounds, including Hogsmede. Len didn't sleep or eat, unless she was mortally injured, and she had incredible endurance. Removing her shoes, Len sent a silent call into the forest, and a pair of thestrals trotted over, nuzzling her and licking her. "Hello there. Yes, it's good to be back. Did you miss flying me all over the place? I don't think you did, how about we visit the centaurs, and let them know I'm back, huh?"

The thestrals flanked Len, and led her into the Forbidden Forest. Once deep enough, a centaur guard surrounded them, "Witches and wizards are not welcome in the forest, go back now, while we'll let you!" One of the guard called.

Unaffected, Len sent the thestrals away, "When did you reach this level of hospitality, Star Gazer?"

Bane, the centaur who had warned Len, bowed, "My apologies, Dark Fire, Mars has been unusually bright, and Venus has been much dimmed. Please, there is no need to brighten Mercury's light, come and feast with us."

Bowing from the waist, Len replied, "Mercury shall not endure out feet forever, let us dine then, and make Venus the brighter." Bane, knowing of Len's eyes, trotted over, and placed a hand on her shoulder, gently guiding her to the centaur's clearing.

At the fire, Bane presented Len, and the current Lord, Jarsak, greeted her, "Welcome, Dark Fire, please, join us, and tell us of you path beneath Pluto."

Responding in kind, as was custom, Len replied, "Pluto is seen bright enough this night, I wish to know what my noble kin have seen written for us tonight. Let us feast beneath Venus and make her shine ever brighter."

The group of centaurs agreed, and they feasted, all the while talking in riddles about what was going on in the forest. It was generally agreed, "That Mars is unusually bright every night this season." As Bane escorted her back to the edge of the forest, and they exchanged pleasantries, Len began to mentally translate the talk of the night. As she went back to Salazar's rooms, shoes reclaimed, Len muttered to herself, "So, a few of the people here stirred up the forest because of the war they're having, and the centaurs are getting ready to choose sides, they only hope not too many will die. What a wonderful outlook. We all know why I'm not just dropping by to say hello. This is just a pleasant end to an even more pleasant day! Dumbledore..."

Len used the all purpose door to go straight to the headmaster's office, where she demanded, "Dumbledore, explain!"

The old man innocently responded, "I have no clue as to what you are talking about, my dear, and it's uncharacteristically rude of you not to knock, wear a skirt or curtsy. Whatever happened to the manners you used to display? Such a nice girl..."

"Don't play games with me, Albus, I don't care how old you are, I was here when they borrowed my magic to put this castle up, and I'll be here when they take it down. Now, if you doubt that I helped raise the pyramids, I still have the sand stuck in places you wouldn't think you could get sand in! Out with it!" Len demanded. Far away, a storm began to rumble, and lightening flashed, "Now look, you've frustrated me, and that storm will never make it to Kent! You do realize they have a drought... Now I'll have to send it back, and they won't be happy!"

The clouds began to recede quickly as Dumbledore explained, "Alright Aunt Lennae, but it was all entirely unintentional, I promise! It started when Harry Potter went in there for a detention, and he stumbled into Voldemort on the back of one of my professor's head."

"Go on, Albus..." growled Len.

The old man seemed like a child caught stealing cookies, "Firenze saved him, then Hagrid brought his younger half brother, who's a giant to the forest, because he was getting picked on by the bigger giants, so that got them all frustrated because he made a big fuss. Then there was Aragog and his family chasing Potter and his friend before that, and then two years ago Potter and his other friend used the centaurs to dispose of the defense teacher, and of course there was the matter of the flying car and Firenze teaching at the school-"\

Len cut him off, "In other words Albus, you utterly and royally screwed up. I swear, you and your ex-boyfriend, you and your ex-student, you and your ex-allies, in your life time I've been busier than I've been since Arthur started all that Camelot nonsense, and I had to set up Avalon to counter. The only times before that was the burning at Alexandria, the Crusades, and the Hebrews from Egypt. Honestly, three wars in a life time Albus, you are a far too busy man. Pick one, war or school, then pick between that and politics. Do it tonight, I'll bring in replacements. Let me know first thing in the morning, and there will be no negotiating. I mean it."