Okay, so I lied about publishing a lot over the summer. Sorry about that. Maybe a long chapter will make it up to you?

Three weeks nearly flashed by. Each Sunday night, at eleven-thirty since we knew Damien went out at midnight, Lanie, Shawnee and I snuck out and hid in the entrance corridor he used to get to the Forbidden Forest. Headmaster Damien's friend- Julian, we'd heard him be called- grew increasingly worried about his 'suppliers', but each time Damien was able to placate him and convince him to bring more food the following week. Also each week, we strained to hear the counter-curse Damien whispered to Vanish a part of the barrier. One week Shawnee was sure she'd heard Turbo Silencio, the next week I was one hundred percent positive that the commander had said Furrowless Sando.

Finally it was February 28th- the Sunday before the celebration, which was set for the following Friday. Lanie, Shawnee and I trudged back to Ravenclaw Tower after yet another unsuccessful night of listening to Julian gripe about how at least he didn't have to worry about supplying enough food for Damien's 'blasted birthday party' after that night.

"Maybe we can sneak out to the barrier tomorrow during a free period and try out all of the different spells we've been hearing?" Lanie suggested softly.

"If Aly's right, and the counter-curse is just two counter-curses mixed together, we could decide which counter-curse that we think we've heard sounds the most like the counter-curse you found in the book," Shawnee mused. "What was it? Termino something?"

"Terminus Abolescus," I chimed in.

All Shawnee needed was a reminder of the counter-curse, and I could hear her mumbling "Terminus Abolescus. Termino Abole… Terminus…" over and over across the room as I got into bed ten minutes later. It was a rhythmic murmur that eventually lulled me into a dreamless sleep. At least one of my New Year's wishes had worked out pretty nicely.

Friday came quicker than expected. All classes were canceled that day, and I organized all thirty of my fellow Damien-followers to wake up two hours before breakfast so we could decorate the Great Hall. Three of them- a sixth-year Hufflepuff, a third-year Gryffindor, and Sara- slept in a little late, so while I sent Sami, Lachlan and Katy to retrieve them, the other twenty-five of us hoisted banners into place and threw streamers around the Hall.

There were some issues.

For one, Eve-Charlotte was having a field day with the streamers. She wove some of them into a bright carrot-colored crown, which clashed horribly with her red hair when she placed it atop her head and crowned herself Queen of Streamers. Five minutes later, she was tying streamers around Peggy like an old-fashioned mummy, inhibiting my fellow Ravenclaw girl's ability to walk, talk, or really do anything except for fall flat on her face. Who knew that flirty, sly Eve-Charlotte liked streamers so much? I'd always known that Eve-Charlotte acted catlike, but this was just going too far.

For another, three of the banners had been painted over with Eat Dung instead of Happy Birthday, making each of them read Eat Dung, Commander Damien. I stifled a smile when I noticed, because I had a pretty good idea of who had done it. Maile, on the other hand, pitched a fit.

"Now the banners won't be symmetrical!" she wailed. "We don't know how to remove the paint, and there's no time to make more!"

Finally, two seventh-year Slytherins- the two who had levitated the corpses of Carter, Sophie, and Lindsey in the month of November so long ago- managed to make the banners' graffiti disappear, therefore calming Maile, and I managed to get Eve-Charlotte under control.

Commander Damien was a very good actor, as he proved when he walked into the Great Hall for breakfast that morning to find all students sitting in a festive room and clapped a hand to his chest. "Why, how did you all know that it was my birthday?"

I stood and easily lied, "It was in some old yearbooks, Commander. I made the decision to celebrate this momentous day, your first birthday as our great and powerful leader." The lie came easier than most of my other untruths had this year, meaning it didn't taste like ash in my mouth. "Do you like the decorations? Katy and Maile-" I gestured to my two Slytherin friends- "were in charge of making the banners, and Peggy-" I pointed to the girl who had been wrapped up like a Christmas present just an hour before- "distracted you while we created them."

Headmaster Damien clapped his hands like a four-year-old instead of a thirty-nine-year-old. "Excellent work, my dearest protégé! I expect you are looking forward to the day when your school shall throw you a gigantic birthday party…" He grinned. "But today is all about me!"

With a few large, bounding steps and a huge leap, he crashed into his chair, put his feet up onto the table, and smiled that toothy hunter's smile. "Let my birthday begin!"

As if by- well, magic- food appeared on the tables. I noticed lots of orange-flavored food on each of the tables- orange zest muffins, orange pastries, orange puffs with cranberries or cinnamon, and even orange juice. I smiled (although I'm sure my grin wasn't as predatory as my Headmaster's behind me). Good! The note I left out for Bekka in the common room on Wednesday got delivered to her, and she made sure to make extra-orangey foods for breakfast. I can't wait to see what she comes up with for lunch.

The orange-and-cranberry pastries were really very good, and I found myself scoffing down four of them before deciding that I would burst if I ate another bite. As it was, I wrapped up two of them and stuck them in my schoolbag, which I'd taken with me to breakfast out of habit. Oops.

When all of the food had disappeared from the tables, I turned around to find Headmaster Damien raising an eyebrow at me. "So, Alyssa," he boomed. "What fabulous entertainment do you have planned for my birthday? I'm sure you've gathered together some form of amusement?"

I consulted a list. Easily a hundred and fifty students had signed up to entertain our leader, possibly hoping they could gain some favor with him and not be killed next time he went on a rampage. It was a good strategy, but that many entertainers could easily mean we'd all be here until after lunch. "Yes, Commander, I have. First is your captain Katy, reciting a poem she wrote for you called…"

"It's called The Life and Times of our Most Glorious Headmaster and Commander, The First True Leader of Hogwarts, His Honor Sir Damien Kayash," Katy interrupted, springing up from her chair and producing her own scroll of parchment. She cleared her throat. "Here goes:

Our Glorious Headmaster Kayash was born

On a cold March day in the town of Lisburn;

Little did his mother and father know

That he would be illustrious and famous when grown.

At Hogwarts he was a Slytherin, the best House of all,

'Til he finally made the old Hogwarts regime fall.

Now he's our leader, great and true,

Happy birthday, Commander Damien, we wish to you."

"Wow," Peggy mumbled to me as Katy reclaimed her seat. "The title was almost as long as the poem itself."

I stifled a giggle before moving on to the next name on the list. All of the Damien-followers went first- Finley challenged Headmaster Damien to a game of Gobstones, since he led the club; Lachlan did a funny sort of Scottish dance; Sara sang a song she'd composed in our leader's honor. Only six Damien-followers, myself included, performed no entertainment for our illustrious Headmaster. I'd felt that it was all right to leave my name off the list, since I had no particular talents- the only dancing I could even manage to do was either wild or crazy or ballroom dancing, and my singing voice sounded like a frog's croak- and I'd organized the entire party anyway.

Once Sami had presented some sort of Muggle magic, where she Vanished objects and reappeared them without actually using magic, all of the Damien-followers had gone, and I started to call names of normal people. Some were even rebels. Two Hufflepuff first-years told jokes that had Headmaster Damien roaring with laughter, Lynne played the cello so beautifully- although where had she gotten the cello?- that the commander was nearly in tears, and all seven of the Gryffindor seventh-year girls did some kind of tumbling routine that was so impressive that they had the entire Great Hall up on their feet and clapping by the time it was only halfway finished.

I was wrong- we finished with all of the acts just before lunch, and once we had eaten orange chicken stir-fry and salads with orange vinaigrette, it was time for my greatest surprise. I'd been planning this since the very moment that I had read in an old yearbook in preparation for the celebration that Damien Kayash had been the first student ever to not only catch the giant squid of the lake, but to release it because he "just liked fishing". It had taken me ages to figure out how to get fish into the lake. Eventually I just asked for live fish from Julian in one of the many lists I provided Damien, and although Damien's friend had grumbled about transporting 50 live fish as well as worms for bait into Hogwarts two weeks prior, he'd done it. Somehow. A particularly brave Lea had donned a swimsuit and jumped into the freezing cold water of the lake to ask the creatures that lived in it if they could keep the fish close to the surface for the celebration, when boats appeared on the water. The mermaids didn't seem particularly helpful, but a few kind sea serpents agreed to the task. Lea had been fished out of the lake with a cut on her forehead from the mermaids, but she had been grinning.

Just like that day, the water had a terrible chill to it, so no one risked sitting close enough to the lake on the shore to get splashed by it. Instead, half of the teachers, all of the Damien-followers (excluding me), and the commander himself crowded into the tiny boats used to transport first-years across the lake on September 1st each year. Each student offered up a possession that they didn't particularly care about to Professor Descoteaux, who Transfigured it each item into a fishing rod. (The teachers did theirs themselves.)

I was there to send off the boats, and as I pushed each one off from shore with the help of my dorm-mates, I smiled fondly at Headmaster Damien. His line was already into the water, and he was grinning from ear to ear like an innocent child. It was the most excited I'd ever seen him, and the most human I'd seen him be all year. It made me sort of like him. Our Commander wasn't totally evil. There was still some good left in him, in the innocent things, like fishing.

Finley had just hooked the first fish- there were 5 different species of fish, and the Slytherin seventh-year caught the first trout- when Lanie, Shawnee, Millie, Helen, Lynne and I turned and went back inside. Polly was still in the hospital wing, as far as I knew. I hoped desperately that she hadn't died, whether at the hands of Damien or due to the dragon pox. Polly had never been quite as strong or healthy as the rest of us even without catching one of the Wizarding world's most terrible diseases.

"We really ought to start studying for exams," Millie sighed as we trudged back up to the common room. "It's early March- during a normal year we'd be preparing by now."

Helen spoke the obvious. "It isn't a normal year, Millie."

Our dark-haired friend nodded. "Well, yes, I know that… but I just think we ought to take Cadogan's pony and do the best we can."

I laughed quietly. The Wizarding saying I'll take Cadogan's pony meant to salvage the best you could out of a bad situation, and it kind of perfectly described this year at Hogwarts.

In the fairly empty common room, we chose a clump of armchairs and rearranged them so we could all sit in a circle. Millie and Helen took turns throwing minor curses like the Disarming Charm at Lynne, who practiced deflecting them with a Shield Charm. Lanie hunched over her copy of Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger, testing herself on the ingredients of a Wit-Sharpening Potion. Shawnee dipped the quill Polly-Eli had given her for Christmas- a short, fat dark red feather- into a pot of Lanie's ink and began to scrawl out the assignment that Professor Maduthy had assigned us on the previous Monday, a theoretical essay on why we thought unicorns were only attracted to females.

That left just me. Professor Descoteaux had left us only one piece of homework the day before, and that was to practice the Doubling Charm. Flicking my wand at the scrap of parchment hanging out of Lynne's bag, I said clearly, "Geminio."

Nothing happened.

I tried again. "Geminio."

Still nothing.

Frustrated, I leveled my wand at the paper and basically yelled, "Geminio!"

Just then, a loud burst of laughter startled us all, making us jump in our seats. Helen had cast a Tickling Charm that had soared right past Lynne's fragile Shield Charm, shattering it to pieces, and hit our French friend square in the chest. Lynne was now convulsing with giggles, thrashing about on her armchair helplessly.

My wand flicked up as the last bit of the word Geminio left my mouth. The curse soared toward the chandelier and hit the tip of its iron frame.

Suddenly there were two chandeliers above us- but only one was connected to the ceiling. As if in slow motion, my chandelier spiraled toward Helen, who had leapt up to administer the counter-spell to Lynne.

I squeezed my eyes tight, completely useless.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

There was no crash of glass against floor, no scream as Helen was trapped underneath the light fixture. Slowly, I opened my eyes to find Zach grinning down at me, holding his wand out at the chandelier, which was floating in midair a foot above Helen's head.

"Aly, what have we told you about killing friends?"

"We kind of meant on the Quidditch pitch," Reuben's nasally accent joined in as the American boy stepped out from behind Zach, "but really, a falling chandelier? How tacky."

"Boys," reprimanded Kitty, who was sitting on the other side of the room, "don't tease her. It was an innocent mistake."

Zach ruffled my hair anyway and, with a flick of his wand, Vanished the chandelier. "Nice spellwork, though. Have you managed to talk to Damien about Quidditch?"

I slapped a palm against my forehead. "No. I'll see if I can bring it up today after supper. With luck, next year we'll be able to play Quidditch again!"

"With luck, next year I won't be here," Zach grunted.

Then Reuben tugged him away, saying, "Come on, mate, we have to study for N.E.W.T.S!"

Zach's words echoed in my ears for hours until supper.

With luck, next year I won't be here.

Why had I assumed so quickly that we would be here next year? Was I giving up, giving in to Damien's rule?

That was haunting me even at the beginning of supper, when foods like spinach and orange couscous and orangey pasta appeared on the table. I had barely taken my first bite when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

Zach, that idiot, had stood.

"Hey, Headmaster!" he called up to the table behind me.

Instantly, all clinks of silverware against plates and all friendly chatter between the two high tables stopped.

"What is it, Mr. Henson?" growled Commander Damien from behind us.

Zach cleared his throat and plastered an obviously fake smile upon his face. "I just wanted to say, on behalf of all of the students here… happy birthday."

I turned to see Damien's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Well, I'm glad you're finally conforming to-"

"I wonder, how does it feel," Zach interrupted, "to know you'll never make it to forty?"

With that, there was an uproar. Headmaster Damien stood, but all of the students sitting at the regular tables had already jumped to their feet and were running from the Hall. I squeezed my hands into fists at my side. What was happening? Had Lanie planned another revolution? Why was everyone leaving? They knew they couldn't make it past the barrier!

"Have fun running a dictatorship," yelled a voice from the crowd, "when you've got no students to rule over!"

It was Zach again. Did he just not know when to quit?

"Avada Kedavra!" roared Headmaster Damien.

A bolt of green light flew into the crowd, and I jumped to standing. A body thudded to the ground, but in the crush of fleeing students, I couldn't see who it was.

And then they were all gone.

Every student, from the tiniest of first years to the tallest of seventh-years, had vanished out the doors.

What did Zach mean- have fun running a dictatorship when you've got no students to rule over?

Were they all going to run to the barrier?

Were they all going to die?

I poised myself to run after my fellow students, to scream and yell and stop them from dying, but for the second time that day a laugh startled me. Only this time, it was Damien.

The Commander laughed maniacally, his cackling echoing through the silent Great Hall, as he stood over the dead body of Zachary Henson. "You've annoyed me for far too long, boy," he crowed with delight. "Ah, that felt good."

My knees went weak. No.

Not Zach, whose first interaction with me had been a grunt during tryouts my second year.

Not Zach, who had turned out to be the sweetest guy, and had been like an older brother to me.

Not Zach, whose little sister Annie would be devastated to learn he was gone.

Not Zach, whom everyone knew would probably end up marrying Kitty someday.

Not Zach, the Keeper-turned-Chaser who had been the glue of the entire team last year.

Not Zach, who only hours before had been laughing and joking with me.

"No," I whispered, my voice trembling. "Not Zach…"

Damien turned his icy eyes on the forty-one of us Damien-followers. Throughout the past month, our numbers had steadily increased from thirty-one to forty-one as we added two new Gryffindors, three new Slytherins, two new Hufflepuffs and three new Ravenclaws to our ranks. Even though there were more of us, though, most of us still looked petrified by that stare.

"What are you waiting for?" he roared at us. "Go find them!"

"Of course, Commander!" Around me my fellow Damien-lackeys scrambled from their chairs and ran off into the dark corridors of Hogwarts. I heard the five captains shouting orders. "Peggy's team, dungeons and ground floor!" "Finley's team, third and fourth floors!" "Katy's team, towers!"

I did not follow. Instead, while Headmaster Damien escorted all of the teachers out, I stepped off the dais and crossed to Zach's fallen body. He was smiling peacefully, teeth white against golden-brown skin, his shaggy blond hair falling over his wide-open blue eyes.

I brushed my fingertips over his eyelids, and they slid closed.

"Good-bye, Zach," I murmured, choking back a sob. Then I stepped back and pointed my wand, swished, and flicked. "Wingardium L-Leviosa."

Despite my hiccup, the spell worked, and Zach's body floated into the air.

Out to the gardens I carried him. The doors were still unlocked from the fishing expedition, so it was quite easy to get out there. On the lawn, I found a forget-me-not plant covered in tiny blue buds, and I dug out a small plot in front of it with my wand, then lowered Zach into it and covered him up. There were plenty of stones nearby, so in absence of a real headstone I took one and painstakingly carved into it with my wand.

Zachary Henson, Ravenclaw. Born June 11 2026, died March 4 2044. Beloved son, brother, Keeper, and friend.

I paused a moment, then added one of my favorite Albus Dumbledore quotes from the history books.

It is our choices that show what we truly are.

It was not nearly strong enough of an eulogy to contain Zach's personality, his bravery, his intelligence, his wit; but it would have to do until we could transfer him to a more appropriate resting place and a better grave.

I let a single tear drip down my cheek. I had to show Annie her brother's temporary resting place. But in order to show Annie, I had to find her- and the rest of the missing students- first.

I wasn't alerted about this plan, I thought. They don't want anyone to know where they are. But why? Do they think I'll rat them out to Damien? I bet it was Nathan.

I stood, casting one more look at Zach's grave before I went back inside and headed toward the Great Hall.

There's only one person who will know exactly where everyone went.

I turned down a corridor and waited for a staircase to make its way toward me.

Er, well, I shouldn't say person, should I?

Bekka somehow knew I was coming, because she was waiting for me just inside the entrance to the kitchens with a cold slice of chocolate gateau. As I ate, she watched me with a detached air, as if she was physically there but mentally she was somewhere else, in the company of someone else.

She did not answer my question until I had cleaned the last lick of crumbs from the plate. Even with me sitting and her standing, she was still shorter than me. Only when I had completely finished her creation, in her high and squeaky voice, she whispered, "Hogwarts has a secret store of food. Able to feed all of Hogwarts for a month, perhaps two if Bekka rations. Bekka can feed them, Bekka can hide them, but not for long."

I knew she wasn't quite ready to tell me, but I asked again anyway. "Where are they, Bekka? Where are my friends?"

She reached up and rested a slim, tiny brown hand on my cheek. "Alyssa must save them. Alyssa must break the spell and free them."

Her motherly softness made tears well up in my eyes. "What if I can't, Bekka? What if I fail and I can't save them or break the spell? What if I have to pretend I adore Damien Kayash for the rest of my life? What if I'm forced to marry Finley Denton and praise a cruel dictator for who knows how long?" I choked back a sob. "I can't do that, Bekka. I'm just not strong enough."

Bekka reached up, and with one knobby finger, she wiped the tears from my face. "Alyssa is not strong," she agreed warmly. "That is Nicholas's job. But Alyssa is smart and clever. She can save Nicholas and Nathan and all the rest, and she will free them. Alyssa will not fail."

Another elf approached carrying a pot of steaming tea and a mug. Bekka poured me a mug of tea- it was mint, which I neither hated nor loved- and I sipped at it gratefully. Tears splashed from my chin into the tea, adding a slightly salty tang to the liquid.

"Bekka knows it only as the Come-and-Go Room," Bekka said finally. "But when Nicholas told Bekka his plan, he called it the Room of-"

The Room of Requirement.

Of course.

I swept Bekka up into a hug as I leapt to my feet, interrupting the rest of her sentence. "Thank you Bekka, I have to go make sure the patrols don't get in. I'll come visit again soon, I promise!"

I set the tiny house-elf down and dashed off through the secret door as she called after me, "Bekka will be waiting with chocolate gateau when Alyssa returns!"

Eve-Charlotte and her group of seven arrived on the seventh floor at about the same time I did. Eve-Charlotte, picture-perfect as ever, raised a slim red eyebrow. "Aly? Where have you been?"

"I've been checking on the other groups," I lied, trying to conceal my panting from my mad dash up from the kitchens. "I take it you haven't found the runaways?"

Eve-Charlotte's dark blue eyes darkened. "No. But they can't hide forever. While you were dumping the body of that rebel somewhere or other, Damien gave us some new orders. We can now kill rebels on sight. I assume this means we'll start learning Unforgivable Curses in classes next week, and we'd best enjoy this coming weekend while we can because once we know how to kill and maim we'll be searching during all of our free time."

"You know it," muttered one of her lackeys.

I winced with the excitement and hate I saw in Eve-Charlotte's beautiful face. "What about, I don't know…" I searched for a lighter topic, something, anything. "Sleeping arrangements? Surely the rebels won't return to their House dormitories to sleep, and forty-one of us scattered across eight dormitories with seven rooms each doesn't sound too fun."

Eve-Charlotte brightened. "You're right, Aly! I say we gather everyone in the Great Hall at, say-"

"Eight," I suggested firmly. "You four-" I pointed at the four closest of Eve-Charlotte's team- Lachlan, a Gryffindor third-year girl, a Ravenclaw fifth-year boy and a Slytherin second-year girl that I recognized as a friend of Sara's- "go find the leaders of the other four teams and tell them to meet in the Great Hall at eight o'clock on my orders."

If I can get all of Eve-Charlotte's team off this floor, I can easily distract Eve-Charlotte herself and get into the Room of Requirement.

The four I'd gestured to scurried off, and I pointed to the remaining three. "Did you check the… er… fifth-floor hospital tower corridor?"

One of them, a little blond Gryffindor boy who couldn't be older than a second-year, shook his head. "It's a tower. Katy's team has towers," he said with the air of repeating something for the trillionth time to someone completely stupid.

I glared down my nose at him until he looked properly cowed. "You are not to speak to me that way," I snapped, channeling my mother as best I could. "Or else I'll suggest you to Professor Damien as practice for those Unforgivable Curses Eve-Charlotte was talking about just a moment ago."

Eve-Charlotte, probably against her will, looked impressed.

The boy blanched. "I'll… go… check that… then." He power-sprinted away.

I turned to the other two, a Slytherin boy and a Gryffindor girl of about Eve-Charlotte's age, but at that moment they both seemed to remember places that they had forgotten to check. They bounded away after the boy, and Eve-Charlotte trailed away behind them.

"Where are you going?" I called after her. "The seventh floor is still unsearched!"

She half-turned and wouldn't look directly at me. "My whole team is now off doing other things. When they're done, then we'll search the seventh floor."

I tried my best to look crestfallen. "Oh. Okay. I was going to help you search, but I guess I'll just go help… Katy's team… get into Ravenclaw Tower or… something."

She smiled a little. "See you at eight, Aly."

I waited until she was definitely gone, then I pretended to search around the seventh-floor corridor for another five minutes in case I was being watched before I slipped into the Room of Requirement.

Unsurprisingly, there were screams when I opened the door and stepped in. A Stunning Spell slammed into me from the side, and I crumpled to the floor, helpless. The door closed behind me, and out of the corner of my vision I saw another spell, red as well, arc toward me.

A flash of scarlet light burst in front of me as I regained control of my limbs. Two pairs of arms pulled me to my feet, and three faces grinned at me- Brooklyn, Lanie, and Nick.

Brooklyn and Lanie helped me regain my balance as Nick dispelled his Shield Charm. "This is Alyssa Salinger," he announced to terrified faces. "And she's on our side."

"No, she's not!" someone screamed out. It was Nellie, who was hugging Annie Henson along with Raj and Sunny. "Because of her, Annie's brother is dead!"

I approached the four second-years, hands out in a peaceful, placating gesture. In an instant, Raj was up and he threw a punch that glanced off of my cheekbone. Pain burst on my cheek and I clutched it in discomfort.

"Get away from her!" Raj yelled in my face, shoving me away. (He was so small and slight that I didn't even stumble.) "You've done quite enough already, Aly!"

His face was streaked with tears, although not so much as Annie's. I reached out to wipe one away and was able to duck the resulting punch.

"Annie," I said instead, focusing my attention on Zach's sister. Raj stilled in front of me, still on the defense, and Annie sniffled, pushing a strand of her dirty blonde hair from her face. "Zach didn't deserve to die. He was a revolutionary, and casualties do happen during revolutions. I'm so sorry."

I realized too late that the words may have sounded insensitive, but Annie reacted to them positively. She smiled a wan, tearful smile up at me. "Are you a spy?"

Nodding, I agreed, "And I have been since day one."

A thoughtful expression crossed her face that was so much like Zach's, and everyone was silent for a few moments- almost as if they were going through each of my actions from all year, trying to see if I was indeed telling the truth- before Raj broke into a wide grin. Seeing his trademark toothy smile made relief wash over me in great waves of emotion. "It's true! You are on our side!" he cried, grabbing me in a quick side hug. He was so short that his face only went into my shoulder. "I can't believe we didn't see it before. You're trying to save everyone!"

I nodded, then moved to kneel beside Annie, Nellie, and Sunny. This time, Raj let me pass, although Nellie didn't look too thrilled. "I couldn't save Zach. I'm sorry, Annie. But I've buried him in the gardens, under a bunch of forget-me-nots. When I figure out how to get rid of the barrier, and Damien is in a cell in Azkaban for crimes against wizardkind, we can move him to somewhere more appropriate. Do you have a family plot?"

Annie sniffled and shook her head, then added, "Zach loved Hogwarts. He would-" Her voice broke. "He would've wanted to be buried here."

"Ash too," Nellie chimed in, looking me straight in the face. Her eyes were darker than her brother's had been, both in color and in demeanor, and I was shocked by the hardness I found there. Nellie was such a sweet little thing. Where had she learned such anger? "Where is Ash, anyway? Have you buried him too, or is he just rotting somewhere?"

I closed my eyes. I hated to do this, but I couldn't very well lie. She would want to see his grave, or otherwise see proof of it. "As far as I know, only Zach has been buried. I have yet to find the bodies of Arthur, Sophie, Lisa, Margaret, Vincent, Liana, Lindsey, Ash, Carter, Alexei and Camellia."

There was an instant uproar. Two second-year Gryffindor boys, no doubt Alexei's friends, shouted at me that Alexei deserved a real resting place. Austin and Tommy Wood were standing, racked with sobs, as they begged me to find their dead younger brother. Even Lyndsay, who had been rather quiet in the two months since her brother's death, appeared at my side mumbling about Vince's corpse turning into a skeleton.

I raised my hands. "I'm sorry," I pleaded, and most of the hundreds of students in the spacious room quieted. Two Hufflepuff first-years- I vaguely remembered them as Thaddeus and Lionel from the Sorting, although I had no idea what their last names were- huddled together near me, clutching each other fearfully. "I have a meeting scheduled at eight o'clock-" by the clock on the wall, that was coming up in only an hour- "but I promise that after that, I will go out and search for your dead. I will not sleep tonight until I have found them, and I will bury them all tomorrow."

Nick took my arm then among satisfied whispers and the odd cheer, and he guided me towards an eerily empty corner, pulling me behind some sort of divider. Chatter resumed at a normal volume throughout the room, and the Gryffindor boy- who was quite obviously one of if not the self-proclaimed leader of the student body- seized my shoulders. "Aly, what are you doing here? They must be looking for us, and if they find you here- actually, for that matter, how did you find us?"

I saw real fear in his eyes and almost laughed deliriously from exhaustion. He was not afraid of me, he was not afraid for me- he must have been afraid for himself, yes, that was it. "Bekka. I asked Bekka. And don't worry, I led them away from you. You'll all be safe here."

For a moment he looked uncertain, but then the fear melted from his eyes and he gathered me up into a strong, warm hug. "We'd all be dead thrice over without you, Aly, you know that?"

I froze for a second before melting into his friendly embrace. "Yeah. And you better remember it, Justice."

Now that I'm back in school, I have quite a bit more motivation to get this done before the workload really starts piling up. I'm about halfway through Chapter 21, and I have the rest of the storyline completely mapped out. I thank you guys for your patience! Please R&R!