Even if things had been a little tense the evening before, Aurora and Gwen were back to normal in the morning, heading to the Great Hall together. "Why do I feel so tired?" Gwen asked, yawning as they entered. "I didn't even sleep bad."

Aurora had, but she didn't tell Gwen this. Her attention was instead diverted to the Gryffindor table where Potter and Weasley were already seated by a cross-looking Granger. "Looks like they made it then," she said. "Draco will be furious."

"Don't start a fight."

"I don't start fights, Gwendolyn. When have I ever started a fight? It would be most unladylike of me."

Gwen rolled her eyes and Aurora followed her to the Slytherin table where they tucked into breakfast and were handed their schedules by a glowering Snape. "I've got my eye on you, Black."

"Thanks, Professor," she said tiredly, taking her schedule. They had History first thing today, which at least presented Aurora with an opportunity to turn her brain off for a while, before Herbology, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts later on.

"What have you done to annoy Snape?"

"Breathe, mainly," Aurora said, and Gwen laughed.

"Looks like Weasley's got a letter," she said.

Aurora glanced up, and beamed when she saw the red parchment clutched in the owl's beak. "Oh, that's not just any letter, Gwen. That's a Howler."

"What's a Howler?"

"You'll see. Well..." She smirked. "You'll hear."

A second later, an ear-splitting yell pierced the air. The noise filled the whole of the Great Hall, and Aurora burst into laughter as Weasley got an appropriate tongue-lashing from his mother - for flying a car to school. "Now I see," Gwen said, grinning, as the letter burst into flame. "That was wonderful, how do I get one?"

"You want a Howler?"

"I want to send one to Yas and scare her," Gwen clarified, laughing.

"I bet Jessie would love that."

"Oh, she would."

Though Aurora sat between Draco and Pansy in History, and shared a desk with Pansy and two Ravenclaws - the McDougal sisters, Morag and Isobel - in Herbology, by the time lunch came Gwen seemed to have collected all the school's gossip on the car incident with Potter and Weasley.

"Apparently it was their father's car that had been enchanted," she told Aurora as they journeyed outside. "I think that's pretty cool, I'd like a flying car, but Leah MacMillan thought it was weird anyone would even mess with Muggle stuff in the first place. And then they flew it into the Whomping Willow - you know, that really violent tree?" Aurora nodded, having had a few close shaves early on last year. "They said they couldn't get onto the platform, but it never occurred to them to just write a letter, so they flew it all the way from London."

"Idiots. How do you know this?"

"One of the Gryffindor first years told me, he's very excited about the whole thing. He asked me if I knew Potter and could get an autograph since he was too nervous."

Aurora snorted. "He sounds charming."

"I'm sure he's just curious. From the sounds of it he's a Muggleborn too, and while I can't say Potter was my number one interest, it kind of makes sense."

"Ugh, if you tell me you're going to start asking Potter for autographs I might be sick."

"Jessie would find it interesting."

"Right, I'm sitting next to Crabbe in Defense Against the Dark Arts now."

Gwen laughed, just as Potter and his friends emerged from the school. "Oh, here they come."

"Wonderful."

"That's the little Gryffindor," Gwen said, pointing out a sandy haired boy who was clutching a camera and looking at Potter in wide eyed amazement.

"Harry! Harry Potter!"

"Oh dear, is he going to ask for an autograph?"

"Maybe even a photo."

"What terrible times we live in."

Aurora watched the little boy ask Potter for a photo, which seemed to embarrass him greatly. She laughed at the blank expression on his face, but her laughter died when Draco came over. "This can't end well," she said to Gwen, nodding.

"You're right. Draco looks like he's going to crush that boy's hopes and dreams."

"I think that may be a bit of an exaggeration," Aurora pointed out, though she frowned at the expression on Draco's face. He looked smug, taunting.

"Potter's giving out signed photos!" Draco declared loudly to everyone in earshot, and Potter looked suitably horrified. Aurora laughed into her hand, Gwen sending her an exasperated look.

"You're just jealous!" Little Gryffindor piped up, quite brave for someone so tiny. He was already showing his house colours.

"Jealous?" Draco called, laughing. "Of what? I don't want a big ugly scar across my forehead thank you very much! I don't think getting your head cut open makes you all that special. What do you think Aurora?"

She grinned as she marched over. "Oh, you couldn't get me to take a photo of Potter if you paid me. The sight of it would be horrifying."

Draco snickered and Gwen rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Who are you?" the little Gryffindor asked, standing in front of Potter defensively. It would have been cute if it wasn't so pathetic.

"Black," Potter said tightly, giving her a confused sort of glare. She sneered in response.

"Black?" Gryffindor squeaked. "Like the murderer?"

She turned her coldest glare on him. "Like your eye if you don't get out of my face, firstie."

"Oi!" Weasley said. "He's only being nice, Black! Don't bloody threaten him!"

She laughed sneeringly and was about to make a nasty retort when she saw Gilderoy Lockhart sweeping over the grounds towards them. Aurora had no desire to see him cozying up to Potter, and so she tried to make her exit, but Lockhart appeared to have caught sight of her. He stared as he caught up to them, mouth frozen as he tried to form a sentence, and then stared some more. She glared back, putting on her coldest expression to tell him to stop it. "Professor?"

"Forgive me, you look an awful lot like - but of course, you couldn't be his - oh, no." All pretense of coldness was gone.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing, my dear girl, nothing. Ah, Mr Potter!" He gave Aurora a nervous look and she wrinkled her nose at him before turning on her heel and hurrying off towards the castle with Gwen.

"What was that about?"

"I don't know," Aurora said, throwing a cold look over her shoulder at Lockhart. "But if he looks like that when he sees me, I dread to think what he actually did when he encountered a vampire."

"You think he's scared of you?"

"I think he thought I looked like my father. Which means he must have known my father." She glared back at him. He seemed to now be educating Potter on fame. "We've got him next, haven't we?"

"With Gryffindor."

Aurora groaned. "Merlin and Morgana, give me strength."

The pair of them wandered for a little while before running into Pansy, Daphne and Lucille, who eyed Gwen interestedly but didn't mention her presence. "What do you think of Professor Lockhart?" Pansy whispered excitedly in Aurora's ear. "His hair's even lovelier in person."

"I do think it's a little too golden to be his true colour," Daphne said with a sniff. "Clearly he charms it that way - like sunlight."

"Oh, his hair is nice," Lucille said, and looked at Aurora, "but I said I thought he was just a little bit too charming, if you know what I mean. Too charming to be elegant."

"I quite agree," Aurora said. "I'm not a fan yet though, his books didn't interest me much."

"Oh, but they're wonderful!" Daphne cried indignantly. "I must have read Voyaging with Vampires at least five times!"

"Really?" Gwen asked, laughing.

"Yes, really," Daphne said primly. "I happen to think vampires are very interesting."

"Five times is a bit excessive, don't you think?"

"At least Daphne is prepared," Pansy said, with a cold glance at Gwen. "Now, hurry up, I don't know where Millicent's gotten to, but I don't want to be late for Lockhart's class, otherwise we'll never get seats near him."

When they arrived, Potter was already in the classroom with Lockhart, looking very uncomfortable. He looked to them too quickly, and his face fell when he realised who had walked in. Aurora turned a cool gaze on Lockhart, and he smiled thinly, a little bit shakily, and let Potter go to a seat while he sought out the class register. Aurora smirked at Potter, and mouthed tauntingly, "You're welcome," before taking a seat between Pansy and Gwen.

"Not there, Daphne," Pansy scolded, gesturing to the seat beside her. "That's where Draco's going to sit."

Daphne pulled a face only Aurora and Lucille could see, and sat in the row behind them, leaving a space open on Lucille's other side for Millicent. The Slytherins arrived before the Gryffindors - barring Granger and Weasley - and the room quickly filled up. Robin Oliphant slipped into the seat behind Gwen, grinning as he maintained a loud conversation about Gobstones with Leah MacMillan.

"Draco," Pansy called, gesturing for him to join them. She messed with his hair, which was very strange. Aurora raised her eyebrows, catching Draco's eye, and he immediately shrugged Pansy off, scribbling down the date on his parchment. She'd rubbed off on him; he was already preparing to make notes on their lesson.

But Professor Lockhart didn't seemed all that interested in lecturing them or giving them notes. He started the class off with a pop quiz about his textbooks, which Aurora was very excited about, as she had already read and taken notes on almost all of them. Daphne also looked very pleased; her five reads of Voyaging with Vampires was going to pay off. Aurora was surprised, however, when she saw the content of the quiz. It was about fifty questions long, but they did not align with anything she had taken notes on - not the use of silver when dealing with werewolves, or his handy idea to use his wand as a temporary stake for a vampire. No, all of the questions were about him.

Number one: what is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?

"How are we expected to know that?" Pansy whispered. "I don't care about him that much, goodness!"

"It's lilac," Draco whispered back along at them, and Aurora tried to cover her laugh with a cough. He flushed. "Mother likes him, and she made me read everything twice over the holidays."

"What's his secret ambition then?"

"To impress Narcissa, of course."

"Shut up," Draco hissed at them, face glowing an impressive shade of scarlet.

Aurora filled out the quiz to the best of her ability, finding that even reading for different purposes than learning Lockhart's favourite flavour of ice cream helped her somewhat. Gwen looked to be struggling, so Aurora subtly slid her completed quiz to her five minutes before their time was up and let her scribble down hasty answers.

When Lockhart collected the quizzes in, he looked very disappointed by his response. Aurora had seen a couple of rather nasty answers on Robin Oliphant's test when he'd passed it over. "Hardly any of you remember my favourite colour is lilac," he complained, and Aurora had to muffle a laugh when she looked at Draco, who was again rather pink. "And a few of you need to read Wandering with Werewolves more carefully. I state very clearly in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between magical and non-magical beings." Pansy snorted, and Aurora bit back a laugh - it was exactly the sort of thing someone would write to make themselves look morally superior to others.

"Now Miss Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair care Potions!" Aurora couldn't stop herself from laughing this time, and both Draco and Pansy were doing the same. She caught Pansy's eye and started giggling again, much to the aggravation of the rest of the class. Lockhart steadfastly ignored her, tossing his hair, which only made her laugh harder. "In fact, full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?" Now Gwen looked on the verge of laughing too: Granger had gotten full marks on the test? "Excellent, quite excellent! Ten points to Gryffindor!" That was enough to sober Draco and Pansy up, though Aurora was still giggling into her hand, shoulders shaking silently.

"Now," Lockhart said, seeming quite cheerful considering half the class was laughing at him, "on to the fun part! Defense!" He whirled his robes around so extravagantly Aurora thought they might smack Seamus Finnigan in the face, and it was great effort that she stopped herself from bursting out laughing again. "Be warned, children. It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind!" Aurora straightened up a little to get a look at the covered cage he had on his desk. "You may find yourself facing your worst fears in this room. All I can ask is that you... remain... calm."

For all his build up, Aurora thought Lockhart might unleash a baby Minotaur on them. That would be fun to watch. "I must ask you not to scream. It might - provoke them!"

He whipped the cloth off of the cage and Aurora stared in disbelief at the little electric blue creatures inside, and then burst out laughing. "Cornish pixies?" Seamus Finnigan asked loudly, finding this just as amusing.

"Freshly caught Cornish pixies! Oh, you may laugh, Mr Finnigan," Lockhart said. "But they're nasty little blighters." There had been many hidden in Arcturus' old manor gardens, and Aurora had had great fun chasing them up trees, though she got a few pinches on the arm for her trouble. Even so, Arcturus had taught her how to capture them - they liked tulips - and they were hardly the foulest creatures known to wizardkind.

"They're hardly dangerous," Aurora said, smirking.

"Really. Then, let's see what you make of them!"

He unlocked the cage and the squabbling pixies surged free before anyone could protest. Pansy shrieked and grabbed a book, trying to swat at the pixie that had just grabbed ahold of her hair and was trying to pull her out of her seat. Aurora ducked under the table, pulling Gwen down with her as the pixies shrieked around them. Draco had ran to hide behind Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom stared gormlessly at the pixies.

One of them grabbed Aurora's robe sleeve, trying to yank her out from underneath her desk. She looked up just in time to see Weasley getting an ink pot launched at his head, and laughed just a second before a book landed on her shoulder. "Hey!"

She stood up and swatted the pixies away, snatching her wand from one of them, which blew a raspberry at her and swept down to pull her nose. "Get off! Get off!"

She wished she had some tulips. "Behave yourself!"

The pixie cackled and tried to jam its foot up her nose. Aurora sighed out of it loudly and the pixie went flying backwards, cackling as it soared to land on top of Finnigan's head. Professor Lockhart was doing absolutely nothing as the pixies smashed through the windows and cartwheeled through the sky outside. One had taken up a piece of chalk and was drawing a moustache on Lockhart's portrait, which Aurora quite enjoyed, except she then had to duck down because the pixie had seen her looking and appeared to be intent on giving her a moustache, too. She grabbed the pixie around the middle and whispered, "The boy with the glasses would look great with a pink beard." The pixie cackled and dove off to harass Potter, who was scrambling around with Granger trying to protect her books from getting shredded by the rest of the pixies.

Taking her opportunity again, Aurora ducked down and rolled under her desk, next to where Gwen and now Robin were sheltering.

"Aurora!" Draco's voice yelled, sounding quite frantic. "Get the pixies!"

She shook her head and poked her head back up, only to pull Draco down to sit with her. "Just keep away," she whispered. "I can't wait to see what they do to Potter."

She pressed a finger to her lips to stop Gwen and Robin making a sound, and made sure she was firmly under her desk. "I'm quite enjoying this," Robin said.

"Pixies are annoying," Aurora whispered. "But they can be quite useful when they're not annoying you."

"Like Peeves," Gwen said, nodding sagely.

One pixie dove down to their desk and cackled, but Aurora went a very quick Freezing Charm in its direction. It fell to the floor. "It's cute when it isn't doing anything," Gwen said.

The bell rang and the four of them got quickly to their feet, grabbing their books and stuffing them in their bags before running out of the room with everyone else. Once they were safely on their way back to the dungeons, Aurora broke into peals of laughter. "That was wonderful!" she cried. "Oh, Lockhart's an idiot!"

"I thought you'd be more concerned than this," Gwen said, frowning. "He seems a worse teacher than Quirrel."

"Yeah," Robin said, laughing loudly with Aurora, "but he's great entertainment value, isn't he? Oh God, I actually want to read his books now! That's what you call a plot twist!"

That set Aurora off giggling again, and she didn't stop until they got back to their common room, where their yearmates were clustered and talking about the lesson. Aurora tried to keep a straight face as she joined the other girls, but it proved impossible the moment she caught Daphne's eye. "Did you see Potter when that pixie got bogeys on his hair?"

"Oh, I think that was my fault."

"Pansy, you screamed like you were dying."

"I did not, Millicent, it was for dramatic effect only!" That set Aurora off again; she hiccuped, eyes smarting with tears of laughter.

"Did you hear Draco yelling?" Lucille said, and Draco glared over at them. "Aurora, come and save me!"

Aurora spluttered, laughing. "I haven't enjoyed Defense Against the Dark Arts that much ever."

"It's all very easy to laugh at when you weren't hauled into the air by your hair," Pansy said primly. "My life could have been in danger!"

"From pixies?" Daphne shook her head, eyes bright from laughter. "You're just upset because your hair's a mess. And did you see Professor Lockhart? So much for bravery, he didn't do anything."

"Perhaps he wanted to give us some hands on experience," Pansy suggested, cheeks flushing.

"Yeah," Gwen said, "or he's an idiot."

"Oh, he's an idiot alright," Millicent said, covering her mouth as she laughed. Pansy glared at her. "An idiot with great hair."

"Still an idiot," Daphne said, and they all laughed, even Pansy.