Well, it's back to school tomorrow :(. At least I had a good vacation. I went to Disney World and Universal! The Harry Potter ride was nothing short of EPIC!

killerpizza505: Don't worry, I'm not mad :)

darklilyofthevalley: Hmm. . . good idea!

Meagan Snow: I was thinking the same thing. I assume you're referring to his OCD in the Atlantic Complex? He actually mentions that four sounds similar to the Chinese word for death. Tetraphobia is actually not uncommon in those areas. Some of their buildings don't even have a fourth floor (similar to many buildings skipping the thirteenth floor in Western societies)!

Malfoyforever: Thank you. Good connection with the Zellers and the Goldsteins, you'll find out in future chapters :). (Now it looks like my smiley face has a mole!) And, yes, I did make up the TV time.

Note: A couple chapters back I replied to a review that asked me where I got the fact about baby platypuses. I answered, but it was cut off (fanfiction does that sometimes with super long words) what I wrote was: "animal_" (without the spaces)

Vaisey woke up the next day horrified. Annabeth was coming back today, what would he tell her? The Slytherin didn't like to admit it, but he was actually a bit scared of the American. He could only imagine what she would do to him when she found out that he had sold out their secret to Harper. Perhaps he could catch her in a good mood.

Ronald Weasley was used to the unexpected. He was bet friends with Harry Potter, after all. But it came to him as more than a shock when a small Slytherin approached him during his free period.

Ron groped for his wand, holding at the ready in case the kid tried anything. Once the boy was in hearing range, he shouted, "What do you want?"

The boy looked down at the ground and muttered something unintelligible.

"What?" Ron gripped his wand a little tighter, going over all of the defense spells he knew in his head. The boy didn't appear very threatening, but with Slytherins one could never know.

The kid swallowed his pride and forced himself to look Weasley in the eye, although it seemed that was the very last thing he wanted to do. "On behalf of me and my House," he said slowly, "I humbly apologize for my inappropriate behavior during the Quidditch match against Gryffindor." The boy looked absolutely disgusted with himself.

Ron was in shock. Although the words were clearly rehearsed, hearing them come out of a Slytherin's mouth was almost too much to bear. Suddenly, he began laughing. It was just too absurd. "Which professor made you do it?" he demanded.

"Nobody made me do anything, Weasley. I'm trying to do something nice here, so can you just accept my apology so we can both go on with our lives?"

Ron snorted. Did he really expect him to fall for that load of rubbish? "That's a lie and you know it!" he accused. "Slytherins don't do anything nice unless there's something for them in it!"

"We're not all like that," the little boy said. His voice was quiet, but filled with indignation. "Besides, it's not like you Gryffindors are such saints yourselves! Can you honestly say that you've never insulted a Slytherin's family?"

"That's because you're all gits who work for You-Know-Who!" he redhead retorted.

That did it. Aleron slugged Ron across the face as hard as he could. How dare he make such a blunt statement like that! His sister had been killed by Death Eaters! The nerve of him to stereotype people like that!

Ron, who had not been expecting the blow, stumbled backwards slightly, regaining his balance just before falling over. "I can give you detention for that, you know," he said, "I'm a prefect."

Aleron rolled his eyes. "Yes, I am soooo incredibly terrified."

"Anyway," said Ron, ignoring the other boy's comment, "if it wasn't for your stupid song, Fred, George, and Harry would still be on the team."

"Oh please," he waved his hand dismissively, "they did that to themselves. If you Gryffindors could just learn to control your tempers . . . "

"That's it! Five points from Slytherin!"

"You're a prefect, Weasley, not the headmaster. If you want to be able to take away House points, join the Industrial Squad. I'm sure Umbridge would be thrilled to have you." Then he ran before another word could be exchanged.

Aleron dashed down the corridor, not daring to slow down. If Weasley caught him, he'd get detention for sure. And something told him that Annabeth would not be thrilled if that was the outcome of his apology. Yet again, this way wasn't exactly much better either, but at least he had made an attempt. Surely it counted for something.

Without looking where he was going, Vaisey accidentally crashed into Laura Madley, a Hufflepuff second-year, carrying her cat. He muttered an apology and stood up, before she stopped him.

"Vaisey, wait!" she called. There was a look of extreme panic in her eyes. "I need your help."

Aleron groaned. Two good deeds in one day. This was becoming quite a burden.

Vaisey didn't know what he was expecting, but the words that came out of her mouth nearly sent him into shock. "Where's the Room of Requirement?"

"How did you . . . ?" then it dawned on him, "Harper," he growled. He turned back to Laura. "What will it take to get you keep your mouth shut about this, Madley?"

"I need somewhere to keep Cookie," she said, gesturing to the large Manx in her arms. She appeared a bit nervous at first to be talking to a Slytherin, but slowly her confidence rose. "He scratched Umbridge, and now the toad lady's after her! Harper said there was a place were I could hide him. He said that you were keeping your dog there. All I needed to do was to give pay him two galleons a week. It sounded like a fair deal, so I - -"

"He did WHAT?" Vaisey began breathing heavily. "I'm going to kill him!"

"Oh lighten up, would you?" Harper said, when Vaisey approached him later that day. "It's a great deal. Here," he pulled a handful of coins out of his pocket, "you can have fifty percent of the outcome."

Vaisey snatched the money, but did not lower his gaze. "Do you realize what you've done?" he cried.

"Of course I do. I devised a plan that will make us rich. RICH! We'll have more money than the Malfoys!"

"You idiot. Annabeth's going to skin both of us alive before we can get enough money to buy ourselves a pair of shoes! By the way, exactly how many pets are we looking after?"

Forrest shrugged. "A few. Ah, here we are." He opened the door to the Room of Requirement and Vaisey nearly fainted.

The chamber was filled with pets of all sizes. Dogs, cats, snakes, birds, toads, and rabbits. Vaisey stood there in awe for a couple of moments, before regaining his composure. He glared at the other boy. "And how do you suppose we are going to care for all of these animals?"

"Don't worry. I got it covered." Harper clapped his hands and a small girl came up to him. "Branstone, how are the animals doing?"

"Good," the girl replied. "I was having a bit of trouble with Spike, but I got him to calm down."

"Excellent," he pulled out a galleon and gave it to her, before shooing the girl off. "See? I got it all under control."

Vaisey couldn't believe it. Harper was PAYING other students to take care of the animals. It was . . . it was BLOODY BRILLIANT! However, he couldn't let the other boy know he was impressed. "I'd just like to know why people can't take care of their own pets. I mean, at least I had a valid reason for keeping Canis here."

"I dunno. I suppose they think their animals get bored. Can you really blame them? Other than owls, the animals just sit around all day doing nothing. The dogs don't even get to see their owners most of the year!"

Aleron, who knew that Harper had never owned a pet in his life, rolled his eyes. "And you honestly expect me to believe that you care? If it wasn't for the money, you wouldn't be in this business at all! Besides, I don't have time for this. I have to deal with my own dog. So get these animals out of here!"

Harper put on a pouty-face that was truly pathetic. "Oh, come on, Vaisey. Think about the children."

"The children should be able to take care of their own animals," he retorted. "I trusted you and you let me down, although I don't know why I'm surprised."

Just then the doors opened and a very angry Annabeth stormed in. "VAISEEEEY!"

Note: The last line was based off of a famous line in The Simpson when Superintendent Chalmers yells "SKINNEEER!".

HP fact: HP WORLD IN UNIVERSAL IN AWESOME! (that is a fact!)

Actual HP Fact: Both of Molly Weasley's brothers, Fabian and Gideon, were killed in the first war against Voldemort.

Random fact: Mohammed, the famous Muslim prophet, is currently the most popular name in the world.