A much shorter time between chapters this time! Be proud! Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter, I missed you all dearly and am glad you're still with me! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Damn.

Arra kept running. She didn't know where she was going, all she knew was that she had to get out. Had to escape.

Finally she stopped once she realized she was outside once more. The sun was just setting over the tops of the trees of the forbidden forest and the grounds were empty. Therefore, she felt perfectly fine letting out a gut wrenching scream of anger at the top of her lungs.

"Bloody hell, child! Must you yell so loud?"

Arra whipped around, realizing that she was not alone as she had previously thought. She found herself face to face with the one person she did not expect to see, but was so glad to.

"Dad," She breathed and ran at Sirius, hugging him tightly.

Surprised by her emotional greeting, Sirius stumbled a bit at her weight, but steadied himself and hugged her back. "You are one hard girl to track down," he laughed.

She pulled back, "Huh?"

He frowned, "Did you forget that you told me to meet you at the second task?"

She blanked, "Oh, shit."

Sirius shrugged, "It's not like you could have met me anyway, what with all your canoodeling in the water with one Mr. Potter."

At the memory, tears rushed back to Arra's face as she fell most ungracefully into her father's shoulder, using him as her life size tissue.

Sirius, obviously not used to dealing with crying teenage girls tentatively patted her back, "Uhhh, are you alright love?"

"No!" She sobbed, "Do I seem alright to you?!"

Sirius huffed and grabbed her shoulders, pushing her away and holding her at arm's length, frowning at her red swollen face. "You think I have much experience with this? That would be a big NO."

Arra sniffed and rubbed her sleeve on her nose, "Sorry," she muttered.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Come on," he said and led her over to a nearby bench. "Now," he said slowly, unsure of how to proceed, "are we supposed to share our feelings now or am I just supposed to buy you something?"

Arra let out a laugh, "I don't know if you really want to hear the whole story."

Sirius clapped his hands once and jumped to his feet, "Okay, so presents it is!"

She sniffed again, looking down at the ground.

Her father sighed, "Okay," he said sitting back down on the bench, "have at it, girl."

She grimaced, "You really want to know?"

He shrugged, "Well I guess so, if it's got you this upset that I, as your wonderful father, should hear about it. And then go kill it."

Arra paused, twiddling her thumbs idly in her lap, "I think I fucked up, dad."

"I'll kill that little ferret!" Sirius shouted, jumping to his feet at once when Arra finished her tale.

Arra grabbed his arm quickly and pulled him back down, "Dad, come on, did you not hear the story? This is my fault."

"Of course I heard it!" He kept shouting, "And I'm going to turn his ass into a hat!"

Arra giggled at the image in her head that her father put there.

He pointed a finger at her, "Don't you laugh! He deserves it for touching you!"

"It's my fault though! Don't you see?!"

"Of course I do! And I'm trying to be a good father and not judge you and all of your stupid decisions!"

"Can you just be a bad father for 10 seconds and yell at me for it please?! I need someone to tell me what an idiot I am, just so it all seems real!" She buried her face in her hands, crying and hiding from the world.

He sighed, rolled his eyes and placed his hand under her chin, gently forcing her face up to look at him, "You're a natural idiot, Arra. You're made from half of me, and I'm the reigning champion of stupid dumb shit."

She frowned, confused, "Thanks?"

He continued, "I can't really berate you for bad decisions, because no one's ever been around to tell you how to deal with this sort of stuff and help you make the right decisions."

"Well can you tell me what to do now?" She pleaded.

He smiled, "No."

She whined, "Why not?"

"Because that's life. You do dumb stuff and you make mistakes. You go through relationships and you get your heart broken. You go through crap that you didn't think you could possibly ever handle. You keep some great friends and you lose some bad ones. You'll love and you'll hate. You'll win battles and lose them. Life will keep you on your toes, my dear."

"Then what?" She asked.

He shrugged, "I don't know, I guess after all the crap you go through, you die."

Arra huffed and crossed her arms, "This is the most depressing pep talk of all time."

"Hey, I never said I was good at this!"

She sighed, "Can you try to be, please?"

He paused for a moment, thinking, "All you can do now, love, is just try to make things right. You royally messed stuff up, but it doesn't change who you are or who you're going to be. As long as you don't let it change you, that is."

"So you think I should tell Harry?"

"Mmm, I didn't say that."

She frowned, "So you don't think I should tell him?"

He smiled mischievously, "I didn't say that either."

She sniffed once more, wiping the remaining tears off her face, "Like I said: worst pep talk ever," she laughed.

"But it still counts as a pep talk, right?" He added hopefully.

Arra laughed, "I guess."

Sirius nodded, proud of himself. "Excellent. I can cross pep talk off the 'Good Father Bucket List' now."

She looked at him, smirking, "Good for you."

He smiled back, "Yes, it is good for me. Now stop crying dear, you look like someone's version of a boggart."

She scoffed, "Love you too, Dad,"

He pulled her in for a hug, kissing the top of her head. "Always here for honesty, Arra….and I'm still going to kill the ferret."

As the month of April approached, it had been a month since the second task and the incident with Malfoy. Arra had done everything in her power to avoid him and all of his advances. She had hoped that her ignorance would have sent the message that she was done with the relationship, but Draco wasn't having it. She received an owl at least once a week asking her to meet him, and he tried to time their meetings in the hallways perfectly. Thankfully, Arra had studied the Marauder's Map enough to know the passageways to avoid him.

Since her talk with her father, Arra had decided against telling anyone about her and Malfoy. To her, it was a stupid decision and she would much rather just forget about it. Her and Harry hadn't become any closer than they were, as it had become a silent agreement that just getting through this year and the tournament were their biggest goals at this point. Someone was still out to get Harry, as they had not figured out who had put his name in the cup yet.

"I don't want to go to Divination," Ron groaned, chomping on his toast sadly as they sat in the Great Hall. It was Monday morning, a terrible time for most students, but Ron Weasley took it to a new level of sadness.

"I don't know why the three of you signed up for it anyway," Hermione said chipper as always once school was in session again. Two days off during the weekend of overachieving and Hermione started to get a bit cranky. The bushy haired girl always functioned better with a couple of Outstanding marks under her belt.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," Arra sighed. She too affected by the Monday morning blues.

"Ancient Ruins is a good idea," Hermione chimed, going through her notes from the previous week, preparing for the day's lessons.

"I'd rather take on that dragon again than take that, Hermione," Harry said truthfully, to which Ron and Arra nodded in agreement.

"Speaking of that," Arra said, "Have you heard anything new about the third task?"

Harry shook his head, "No, just that it's going to happen on June 24th and that we should be prepared for anything."

"How does one become prepared for anything?" Ron asked, his mouth full sausages, "I mean, I feel like that's impossible."

Hermione shut her book and stuffed it in her bag, "It just means that Harry should be practicing. Have you?" She rounded on Harry.

He faltered, "Yeah a bit I guess. Some stunning and disarming and such."

She sighed, getting up from the table and slinging her bag across her shoulder, "Harry, you're going up against 7th years, it really wouldn't hurt to try some more advanced stuff."

"She's probably right," Ron muttered as he watched Hermione walk out of the Great Hall.

Harry nodded, "Yeah I know. I was actually talking to Sirius about it in my latest letter and he suggested," Harry leaned across the table so that he could talk to Arra in a whisper, "that I ask you about it."

Arra flushed, confused at what Harry and her father were talking about. Malfoy. "What?" She squeaked nervously.

Harry spoke quietly, "He said that I should ask you to teach me some stuff to help me in the task. Like stuff that the average fourth year good student doesn't know," the way he strained his words made Arra frown.

"Like dark stuff?" She whispered.

He grimaced, "Not super dark, no. But growing up in the Lestrange house, we all know that you know some more advanced stuff than us. Just some hexes and stuff, in case something bad pops up in the task, I want to be able to get rid of it better than just disarming it, you know?"

Arra sighed, relieved that the topic was safe…well safer than she anticipated, "Yeah, of course. I don't know a whole lot, but I know some hexes. Stronger than the jinxes we learn in class, but not as strong as a curse. It'll probably give you an edge in the competition if you've got a few in your back pocket."

He smiled, leaning back into his seat, "Great. I don't want to go down dark wizard path or anything, but your dad explained it like that too, and he said I should ask for your help."

She smiled, "Well of course not, we can't have the Great Harry Potter being affiliated with dark magic. Might ruin your golden boy image. And speaking of, we actually can't have you being affiliated with it in the castle. If we get caught…well it won't be pretty."

"The room of requirement then?"

She frowned and shook her head, "No, I'd rather not be in the castle at all honestly…but we'll need some living things to practice on. Other than each other."

"So we should bring Malfoy?" Ron supplied.

Arra couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, right. No, I would say that our best bet is to head out to the forest. We'll be out far enough that no one will see or hear us, and we can maybe catch some rats to practice on our something."

"Sounds good," Harry and Ron agreed as the three of them gathered their bags and headed for Divination.

"The Forest?!" Hermione screeched at Arra, "They call it the Forbidden Forest for a reason!"

They were in the girl's dormitory just after dinner. Arra was standing by her bed, gathering supplies and stuffing them into a bag which Hermione had put an extension charm on her for her. She glanced out the window, noticing the sun had just set, meaning that they could head out to the forest shortly.

Arra grabbed her cloak and slung it around her shoulders, "Well you don't have to come then, Hermione."

Hermione stood up quickly, pouting, "Of course I'm coming. I just hope you know how stupid and dangerous this is."

Arra shrugged, "Yes. So?"

Hermione walked over to Arra, keeping her voice low, "We're not going to kill anything, are we?"

Arra playfully shoved her friend a bit, "Jeez Hermione! What do you think I learned when I lived with Bellatrix?!"

Hermione blanched, "Well it's not like I think you're a murderer or anything! I just know that when we first met you, you weren't really the perfect model of an upstanding wizarding citizen, you know?"

Arra raised her eyebrows, "I'm aware of my past, Hermione. I promise we're not going to do anything that will get you sent to Azkaban, okay? Maybe a few sacrifices and raising of the dead, but nothing serious."

Hermione's eyes widened and she made a sound similar to a squeak of fear.

Arra laughed and pushed her a little, "I'm totally messing with you! Come on," she grabbed her bag and headed out the door, "Let's go."

Bounding down the steps they reached the common room, where Ron and Harry were waiting in a nearby corner.

"Hermione," Ron asked, "You're coming with?"

"Yes," Her eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms, "is that a problem, Ronald?"

He raised his eyebrows, "No, just surprised that's all. I would have thought you'd be berating all of us for going out after curfew and messing around with dark magic."

She pointed a finger, "Don't think I won't be. I'm just going to make sure you all don't accidentally kill each other."

Arra leaned over to talk to Harry in hushed tones, "Something tells me we shouldn't have invited Mom and Dad."

"We really can't get away with anything with them around, huh?" He agreed.

"You two," Hermione rounded on them, "come on, let's get this over with," and she led them all through the portrait hole, leaving anger in her wake.

As soon as they were out of sight of anyone and in a deserted corridor, they slung the invisibility cloak over all of them and made their way out of the castle via one of the secret passageways. Once out in the open of the fields surrounding Hogwarts, sure that nobody was around, they took the cloak off and walked freely. Ron and Harry sped up a bit, talking excitedly about what they might learn tonight. Arra and Hermione hung back about ten feet, talking amongst themselves.

"Arra?" Hermione asked, taking Arra's attention off of watching a certain dark haired boy walk in front of her.

"Hmm?"

"I've been meaning to ask you something," she said quietly, setting the tone for the conversation, not wanting to be overheard by the boys.

"Yes?" Arra whispered.

"What ever happened with your feelings for Malfoy?" She said quickly, as if the thought repulsed her. It likely did.

Arra was surprised, "Oh," she said, "well there may or may not have been some sort of return of feelings from him…"

Hermione looked disgusted, "Arra!"

"But it's over now!" Arra assured her quickly, "I realize now what a bloody idiot I was and whatever the hell it was, it's over now."

"You're sure? Because you and Harry looked awfully cozy in the lake last month at the second task," She said accusingly.

Arra smiled fondly at the memory, "Yeah. It was stupid—the whole thing with Malfoy, I mean. It's truly over. No feelings whatsoever. In fact," she supplied happily, "I have stronger feelings for the scum on the bottom of my shoe!"

Hermione laughed, "Okay good. Because I'm not going to lie, it was really hard being your friend knowing that you had romantic feelings for a ferret," she said, smiling.

"Well thankfully," Arra grinned, "my infatuation with rodents is now over. A short lived attraction, but the good folks down at Awkward Attractions Anonymous straightened me out."

At this point, they had entered the forest, trees surrounding them on all sides, concealing them from the outside world.

"Okay," Arra said, loud enough for everyone to hear, and speeding up a bit to cover the ground between them and the boys, "we should look for some sort of a clearing so we can do some spells without trees getting in the way."

"What about things we should hex?" Ron asked.

"Hmm," Arra thought, "why don't you and Hermione go and find some birds or something we can practice on?"

"Are we going to hurt them?" Hermione asked.

"No, we can put a charm on them first so they don't feel pain and then hex them. But if something goes wrong, I would much rather have put permanent antlers on a bird rather than one of you."

"Valid point. Come on Ron, let's go. You two head that way and look for a clearing. Harry can send us a patronus once you've found a good spot." Hermione said, leading Ron into the darkness opposite Harry and Arra.

As soon as the red head and the bushy haired girl were gone, Harry spoke up immediately, "I think I know a spot we can go. It's this way," he said, turning the opposite direction and taking off into the darkness.

They walked a few paces in silence before Arra asked, "Harry, how are you doing?"

He frowned a bit, "Fine. Why?"

She shook her head, "Not like that. I mean, how're you doing with all of this?" She gestured to nothing in particular around her, but Harry understood that she was referring to life at this point in time. The tournament in particular.

"Oh," he said, "I'm good."

Arra gave him a shove, "Come on, Scarface. You don't need to be all strong and mighty for me, talk to me."

Harry smirked a bit and kicked a rock in his path, "It's hard. I don't know what to do with these tasks, and we're still no closer to finding out who put my name in the goblet in the first place."

Arra nodded, "Well, the most we can do is be prepared, which we're doing now."

He sighed, "I don't know how much we can do to prepare me for my untimely doom."

Arra stopped walking and grabbed Harry's shoulder in front of her, turning him around to face her, "Don't talk like that."

He shook his head, "I'm sorry, it's just a lot to deal with."

Arra moved her hand from his shoulder up to his cheek, stroking his face gently, trying to pour all of her feelings into a single touch, "I know. But just remember, you're not alone in this. I'll always be with you."

Harry reached up and took her hand from his face, but didn't let it go. Instead, he held it in front of him, entangling his fingers with hers, "I don't want you to get hurt."

Arra paused, taken aback by the sudden emotion in Harry's words. "I-I-I'll be fine," she stuttered, "you don't need to worry about me."

Harry smiled, still playing with her fingers, "I'll always worry about you, Arra."

Arra blushed, "Well then maybe you should just be with me all the time so then you can keep an eye on my troublesome self."

Harry looked up from her hand, staring into her dark eyes, "I don't think I would be opposed to that," he whispered, slowly moving his face closer to hers.

Arra's breath hitched in her throat as Harry began to close the gap between them. In response, her eyes fluttered shut and she inched her lips towards the ones she had been longing to kiss. Without opening her eyes she could tell that Harry was just centimeters away, his sweet breath caressing her face with each exhale…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH H!"

A blood curdling scream ripped through the silence, piercing the ears of the two young lovers. Both their eyes snapped open as fear replaced their previous lust.

Arra's heart dropped through her stomach as she heard her best friend scream again.

"HEEEEEEEEELP!"

"That's Hermione!" Harry said, grabbing Arra's hand quickly and taking off at a sprint through the forest, leaving their romantic moment behind in the darkness.

OOOooooOOOOOoooo! Excitement! Review and you shall have cookies! I found girl scout cookies in my freezer so I've been pigging out to the max. It's wonderful!