Voldemort had struck and unfortunately Jim had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd been killed by Bellatrix Lestrange. All of them were devastated and none of them really wanted to go to school but they knew they had to. When September 1st, came they went to the station and Susan and Emma put their stuff in the same carriage. As they left they said goodbye to Ingrid.

"Bye Mum." said Hannah with a quick hug.

"I love you, Mum." said Susan with a longer hug.

Emma surprised them all. "Bye Mum, I love you." It was the first time she'd called Ingrid, Mum. She'd told her she loved her one night when she realized how much her parents meant to her after Jim died.

Susan and Emma were pretty quiet after that, at least until Hannah's best friend and boyfriend came in.

"Hallo Susan and Emma, how are you two holding up?" said Susan Bones.

"Not great, Suzie." said Susan. She'd said they could call her Suzie since it was confusing with them both being called Susan.

"I get it." said Neville. "My parents were both tortured to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange. My mum can still walk but she has to be in a permanent care ward at St Mungo's and she doesn't even know I'm her son."

"I'm so sorry, Neville." said Emma.

"It's ok, I just understand what it's like to lose a parent." Susan had lost hers too so they had a rather depressing albeit helpful discussion on the way up to the school.

When they got to school they were surprised to see that Snape was teaching DADA and there was a new teacher teaching potions. Emma hoped he'd be alright. She quite liked Snape.

She was pleasantly surprised with the teacher. He seemed like he's play favourites but he knew what he was talking about and he was a good teacher. Her initial suspicion was confirmed at the end of class.

"Miss Misthaven! That was an excellent potion you brewed today. 10 points to Hufflepuff. Also, would you be interested in coming to a social gathering later this month?"

"Sounds great, thank you, sir."

Her next class was DADA.

"Hello Professor Snape, how was your summer?"

"Very nice, thank you, Miss Misthaven, how was yours?"

"Great, thanks, sir."

After a much harder class than the previous year, Emma was glad she'd been part of the DA.

"Very well, you're all hopeless but I suppose that's to be expected with your lack of proper instruction last year. Goodbye. Wait, Miss Misthaven!"

"Yes, sir?"

"I have a proposal for you and I hope you'll take me up on it as it's very rare that I offer it. I was wondering if you'd be interested in more advanced private lessons with me in potions and DADA. From what I know, they're your two best subjects and they happen to be the two that I can teach. And, well, you remind me of someone who I cared about but wronged. Her two best were potions and DADA too, though she was also quite good at charms. Anyway, what do you think?"

"Thank you so much, Professor! That sounds great!"

"Very well, Miss Misthaven, are you available after dinner today? Come meet me in my office."

"Sounds good, sir, thank you!"

Right before dinner Emma had time to jot a letter down for her mum.

Dear Mum,

I hope you're doing ok back home. I've had a really great time back at school. I never realized how bad our DADA classes until Snape taught us a proper one. For potions, our new teacher's name is Professor Slughorn. He seems pretty good and he's invited me to a social gathering later this month. The best part about it all though is that Professor Snape has offered me advanced lessons in DADA and Potions. I have that after dinner and I can't wait! I hope you're doing well.

Love,

Emma

Dinner was amazing as always but Emma couldn't wait for her lessons. Finally, she could head down to his office.

"Hello Professor!"

"Good evening Miss Misthaven. Tonight we're going to work on the Polyjuice Potion. Technically, this is an extremely difficult potion but I've known second year students to do it before. With my supervision, you should do just fine."

We worked for an hour on the first few steps before it was time for me to go.

"Goodbye, thank you Professor!"

"You're welcome, Miss Misthaven, you did well today, 10 points to Hufflepuff."

"Thank you."

I fell asleep exhausted and stressed for Quidditch tryouts the next day.

Morning came around and I couldn't wait! Especially since Susan was trying out too. She was a better flyer than me but I hoped we'd both make it. It would be something fun for us to do since our best subjects were opposites. She was best at herbology and transfiguration.

I was shaking as I went up for my tryout. Luckily, practice makes confidence and even though it wasn't perfect it was the best I could've done.

"Excellent." Now this year's team is:

Chasers:

Thomas Cadwallader - C

Zacharias Smith

Susan Abbott

Beaters:

Sam Rickett

Evan Jones

Keeper:

Emma Misthaven

Seeker:

David Summerby