Everyone stayed down in the common room the rest of that night. Harper and I had sat in one of the little alcoves that had a window overlooking the dark grounds. Ryker had shown up at some point, taking up residence in Harper's lap while staring out the window with highly alert eyes.

The morning after, everyone was exhausted, and almost everyone was on edge. The professors had spent nearly the whole night improving the protective spells surrounding the castle. Then there was poor Neville. He had been given so much punishment, and that just added to the awful mood that I was stuck in. When the mail came in two days later, a bright red envelope landed in front of him, and he bolted from the hall before it could open in front of everyone. Sadly that didn't help much. I shot glares that shut up a few Slytherin's as they laughed. Suddenly, a woman's voice that I could only guess was Neville's gran, burst through the quiet from the entrance hall, and was shrieking some of the most hurtful things at the poor boy.

My blood was boiling by the time the voice stopped talking. I knew for a fact that Neville was a great wizard, he was just insecure, and now I knew one of the reasons why. "She's supposed to be his family! Bloody bint, calling him a disgrace." I all but growled as I stabbed at the fruit on my plate. "If anything, she's the ruddy disgrace to the Longbottom name. I'm sure his parents would be furious if they had heard what she said about him."

Harper sighed, twisting her dark-brown hair into a braid that reached just under her shoulders. "I get stuff like that all the time from my extended family. I don't let it get to me, though. I could talk to him about it, if you think he'd be alright with it."

"I'm not sure, Harper." I started, the angry look finally fading from my face. "You see how upset he is over this whole ordeal, now may not be the best time. I wish I could do something about it, though. He's so nice, he doesn't deserve this."

"You're right," She paused, looking over at the entrance hall. "I think I'll just offer a listening ear if he ever needs it." She gave me a grin as she stood, then headed the direction Neville had rushed off in.

After she had turned the corner, I turned to look up at the professors' table. What Fred had said last night was still clear in my mind, but I didn't know how to bring it up to Remus. 'Hey, the twins found the map you, your two deceased friends, and one Azkaban escapee made while you were students yourselves.' I shook my head, looking back down at my almost empty plate. That would just make for an extremely awkward time. He did need to know, though...eventually.

With that in mind, I took one last drink of pumpkin juice, picked up my bag, and went to my first class, mentally preparing myself for the onslaught of information I would have to memorize to prepare for the exams.

.

.

The Hogsmeade visit this weekend had nearly everyone unconsciously on eggshells. Everyone was wanting to have a good time, but also the thought of Black being able to get into the school was fresh in the students' minds. Harper was as carefree as always, but I could also tell she was acutely aware of what was going on around us.

I wasn't faring so well, though. I hadn't been able to hide that I was exhausted that morning, and it wasn't only from studying so much the night before.

I had the dream with the werewolf and the massive dog again, only this time, I didn't run from them. Standing out in the open lawn between the lake and the Quidditch pitch, I just watched as the oddly familiar werewolf bounded down the slight hill. For some reason, the big dog was just a blurry mass off to the side, being mostly ignored by my subconscious. This time I was able to figure out why the rampaging wolf seemed familiar to me, though. Just as it launched itself at me, I saw its eyes.

The eyes that had always promised me no harm, the eyes that had always gazed so warmly at me, the hazel eyes that now showed nothing but blind rage.

The dream had me jerking awake with a pained scream, shaken so badly that Harper had dragged me to Pomfrey for a calming draught. After telling her it was just a bad dream brought on by all this Sirius Black nonsense, she agreed to not worry Remus over it, though I could tell that the mediwitch didn't fully believe me. There was absolutely no way that I was bringing this dream up to him. It would do nothing but cause him to worry more than ever about something he had absolutely no control over.

The twins were awaiting us on the other side of the doors as I was released from Pomfrey's ever-watchful eye. They had asked what happened, clearly not appeased by my vague "bad dream" excuse, and the fact that they seemed to be able to see through my lies almost as easily as Remus, was slightly unsettling. They didn't question it after taking in my tired expression, though, and left it at that.

After a brief breakfast with me still in my pajamas, which were thankfully just an oversized tee and sweat pants, Harper and I had parted ways with the boys so that I could change into more suitable clothes.

"So, Delly," Harper's voice brought me abruptly back to the present, "Are you going to be getting anyone a Valentine's gift? It is coming up rather quickly."

I stared at her suspiciously, knowing she was up to something. "What are you on about? Don't even bother telling me 'nothing' because I know how you are when you're insinuating something. Your southern accent disappears almost completely when you are."

She huffed indignantly. "Alright, miss grumpy Gus, I was just sayin', you are spendin' a lot more of your spare time with the twins, and you and George seem to be gettin' mighty friendly."

I felt my cheeks heat up the tiniest bit as I looked at her bewildered. "What do you mean? I hardly think I'm spending a lot of time with them considering all the work we have for the OWLs, and both of the boys are just friends of mine."

She only grinned at me with this supposedly knowing look. "Ok, ok, but this isn't over 'til you admit how ya feel."

"There's nothing to admit, honestly!" I laughed, turning to continue on. "Can we get to Honeydukes now? I need some more sweets if I'm ever going to survive this year."

A large bag of sweets, a few treats for Ryker - since he was beginning to grow on me, a new book, and a hungry rush down the lane found us at the Three Broomsticks. It was still decently cold outside, even though the snow was starting to melt, so as soon as the inn's warmth embraced us we both breathed a sigh of relief.

"The freaking temperature is one thing that I will never get used to here!" Harper complained.

I chuckled, "It's not even that cold out."

"Cold enough!" She huffed indignantly before instructing me to go get the butterbeers this time.

As I was reaching the counter, Rosmerta had just vanished into the doorway behind the bar, presumably to get something for restocking, so I leaned against the bar to wait.

"You're Deliah, right?" A voice asked from my left.

I turned to see a slightly familiar face. "Ah, you're Ginny's friend Keegan!" I smiled.

He gave a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, I dunno about friends. All I seem to be able to do is irritate her."

"Really?" I couldn't help the confusion that graced my tone. "Why would you aim to irritate her?"

"Oh no, it's not like that! I don't aim to irritate her." He looked down at his hands, and I noted the way he scratched lightly at the wooden counter on the bar. "I dunno...for some reason, no matter what I say, it just always seems to be the wrong thing to say. My sense of humor doesn't seem to be very funny to her either."

"Well, I think you're talking rather well with me right now," I said kindly, "So, how is your day going so far?"

Shoving aside his earlier nervous attitude, Keegan grinned. "It has been great. I swung by Zonko's and got to talk to the Weasley twins for a bit, I wish I could prank people as well as they do. After a while in there, I grabbed a few things from Honeydukes, and then got my mum a present for her birthday."

"That sounds almost like my day," I chuckled lightly. "When is your mother's birthday?"

"Oh, the next couple of days. She doesn't really do much for herself, so I used a good amount of my pocket money to get her an old Charms book I found in the bookstore here. The owner of the store was very helpful with helping me find something," Keegan gushed about this gift and seemed so very excited about his mother's reaction. His energy was slightly infectious, but it also brought me a bit of sorrow as I wondered what my mother might have liked as a birthday gift.

Biting a tiny bit of my lip to bring my focus back to the present, I tried to seem unaffected. "I love visiting Tomes and Scrolls. The people that work there and the owners are so very nice."

Just as he opened his mouth to say something else, a body slid in between us to lean against the bar with their back.

"Well, if it isn't Delly-kins!" I looked up to Fred's dark brown eyes that glinted with his mischievous intentions, whatever they were.

I couldn't help but pull my brows together in light frustration. "Yes, it's me, but I was having a conversation, Fred."

He turned to look at Keegan and looked as if he was going to say something to the boy, only for someone to call out Keegan's name from across the inn.

The poor, younger boy grinned at me then stood to leave. "It was nice talking to you, Deliah."

"I hope your mother enjoys her gift." I offered him a smile, then turned back to Fred, who had seated himself where Keegan had just left from. I raised my brow at him. "What was that about?"

"I can't just come to talk to a friend?" He asked innocently. I was not buying it.

"Not without rudely interrupting, apparently," I huffed. He was acting off, and I didn't like it. He did have the decency to at least look a tiny bit regretful.

"Anyone needing anything?" Suddenly, Rosmerta's cheerful voice cut through the noise as she stopped on the other side of the bar from us.

Giving Fred another pointed look, I turned to her. "Yes, two butterbeers, if it's no trouble, ma'am." She smiled warmly at me then turned to make the drinks, so I turned back to Fred. "So?"

He looked at me confused. "So...what?"

I sighed impatiently. "You said you came over here to talk to me. I was wondering what it was that you were going to say."

"Ah, yes…" He looked away for half a second, but then his gaze landed back on me. "I was wondering if you had notes for potions."

"That was what you wanted to talk about?" I couldn't help but look at him incredulously. When he nodded with a grin, I just shook my head. "Well, yes, but you'll have to wait for me to get back to the dormitories since I don't carry my school notes with me to Hogsmeade."

At that moment, Rosmerta returned with the butterbeers I had ordered. "Alright, thank you, Delly!" He said cheerfully, turning to walk away to the mass of tables filled with students.

"That was strange," I mumbled before turning to get the drinks, only to grab at thin air. "Hey!" My gaze whipped around to see Fred and George both lifting a mug of butterbeer to me from across the inn. Their matching grins as they both took a swig of my drinks, made me groan in frustration.

"Madame Rosmerta," I called out just loud enough for her to hear from down the bar. When I had her attention, I sighed, "I need two more Butterbeers, please."

After telling Harper what took me so long to get our drinks, she promptly laughed right as she went to take a drink, which blew a blob of the foam at me. She apparently thought it was funny just like they did, though she also thought Fred's behavior about Keegan was strange. She seemed to read more into it than I did, though, and was determined it was because he thought the younger boy was flirting with me.

"Oh, honestly, Harper, there is absolutely nothing going on with me and the twins," I groaned as we walked back to the castle. I was more than ready to get to dinner.

"While you may be right 'bout that, I never said that was what I meant." Harper smiled smugly at me, then looked back to the path in front of us as we climbed the steps to the Entrance hall. "What I meant, was that maybe they're actually treatin' you like they would treat Ginny. Ya know, like a sister."

"Huh.." Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more that kind of made sense. We had built up more of a friendship, and they had said that I was now an 'honorary Weasley'. Maybe they did see me as a sister, meaning they felt the need to be overprotective of me. "Well, that does make a little bit of sense, but he was still being weird."

She just shook her head at me but changed subject anyways. "So, do you want to put this stuff in the dormitories, before we go to eat?"

"Yeah, sure." I shrugged at her, then we turned to head to Gryffindor tower, only for the two of us to nearly collide with the one person that I really didn't want to run into after this morning.

"Oh, my apologies girls." Remus half-heartedly grinned at us, holding a folded-up bundle of old-looking parchment out like he was about to slide it into his coat pocket.

My head tilted to the side slightly as I regarded him curiously. The way he was acting recently was off. Why was everyone acting strangely? "Are you alright, Remus?"

Something about the look in his eye lead me to believe that he was clearly not alright, but that stubborn composure kept him from actually telling me, at least in front of Harper. "I will be fine once I reach my office, Deliah. I believe I just need some rest." Resting his empty hand on my shoulder for a moment, he smiled again, and again it was a ghost of a smile. Something was definitely wrong. When he moved around and continued on past us, Harper and I shared worried and confused looks, before continuing our journey to the tower.

.

.

"Hermione?!" I gasped in disbelief for the fourth time. "I mean – we are talking about the same person here, right? The same Hermione that hangs out with Harry and Ron, right?"

This morning had rapidly become an interesting one. I had sluggishly dragged myself down to breakfast only to be bombarded with the twins telling me the extraordinary tale that Ron had told them: Hermione had punched Malfoy, then drew her wand with intent to – well, intent to do something unpleasant, I'm sure. Then, to make matters even more insane sounding, she had not only made fun of Trelawney, but also stormed out of the class saying she quit.

"Yes! The one and only!" George chuckled from my left.

Fred, who was seated on the other side of his brother, nodded along excitedly. "Blew our minds as well! Might be sorting out to be a true Gryffindor, that Hermione."

I laughed feeling still shocked but also a little energized. "Wow!" I just happened to notice that the said girl had just sat at the table about five seats down. "Hermione! The girl of the hour! I've just heard of your achievements." Tipping my goblet of pumpkin juice to her, I smiled at her suddenly bright red face.

I turned back to George suddenly and gave he and Fred a glare each. "By the way, someone owes me two butterbeers from this past weekend." Looking to Fred specifically next, "And would you care to tell me why you were being so strange about me talking to Keegan?"

Fred puffed up the tiniest bit and turned to his food. "I was simply talking to my friend is all."

"About potions notes," I added.

He nodded his head for a moment.

"That you never came to get from me." At that comment, he hesitated for a split second. 'Caught you!' I thought.

Fred looked at George with a look that, to me, screamed 'A little help here?!' then looked back to his plate. "Well, actually, it turned out that Georgie had the notes, and I decided to copy from him. Didn't want to get our little Dellykins into trouble!"

"Get me into trouble? Oh, honestly, I think I could do that myself if I truly wanted to." My frown became the slightest bit of a smirk as my ego got the better of me. "Then again, I know better than to get myself caught."

George, who had happened to be taking a drink at that exact moment, sputtered and coughed, then looked over at me indignantly. "Well, we have gotten better about that. Also, it's not like we meant to get caught in our younger days."

I rolled my eyes at him, though I was still grinning a bit, at least for the moment. Turning my attention back to Fred, that grin disappeared. "So, are you going to tell me why you're being strange?"

"Ah, but Delly," This time, it was him smirking at me, "I've always been pretty strange."

I groaned, before turning to stand from the table, and leave these two…strange ginger boys to their strange-ness.

.

.

**edited**