Amelie happily welcomed Polly and Riyan back when they returned just after New Years Day. For Christmas she had given Polly a fancy broom-maintenance set and Riyan a popular book, 'Rockets and Radio - The Life and Times of Modern Muggles'.
"I figured it might help you understand a bit more about the stuff Polly talks about sometimes," she confessed.
The girl in question scoffed and brushed off her new Holyhead Harpies scarf. "So what else did you get?"
Amelie held up The Tales of Beedle the Bard, with her bookmark sticking out.
"Wait, are those wizard fairy tales?" Polly asked, squinting at the cover.
Riyan shook his head. "I don't remember there being fairies in any of them."
He turned to Amelie and explained, "My mum used to read those to me when I was young. Same as pretty much every witch and wizard in Britain. Everyone knows Babbity Rabbity or the Three Brothers."
"They certainly helped make the last couple of days pass a lot quicker. Thanks, Riyan."
Having Polly and Riyan back wasn't the only thing Amelie had been looking forward to. While her friends were busy unpacking, she went looking for Hannah and found her chatting to Susan and Justin in the common room.
"Hey, Happy New Year. Uhm, Hannah? I was wondering if you have an owl-post catalogue for Magical Menagerie, or any of the other pet-stores, I could borrow."
The blonde third year nodded. "Sure, come with me and I'll go and fetch it from the dorm."
Amelie followed along, keeping the next steps of what she had planned in mind. It was time to lay a trap.
There weren't that many to choose from, but eventually Amelie found something close to what she had been looking for. The cage was essentially a cube, about one and a half hand spans across, but most importantly it had a handle at the top.
She quickly penned a letter to the store and returned the catalogue to Hannah, just in time to join the others for the first meal with everyone back at school.
Amelie wanted badly to tell Polly and Riyan about her endeavour, but there was still doubt gnawing at her core. What if she was wrong about the rat? What if she got caught?
Going through with what she had in mind would definitely violate several school-rules. On top of it all, there would be no way she would be able to keep her friends from wanting to help.
For the rest of the evening, she put the plan out of her mind. Both Polly and Riyan had brought photos from their holidays and she was eager to find out, later in the common room, what they had been up to.
Classes resumed on Monday and with them the final sprint towards their exams in June.
The notice pinned up in the common room also announced the next Charms Club meeting that afternoon, where Penelope explained that, from now on, she would only show up if she had the time to spare.
Organising everything would be left to Eddie and Natalie, who had the most experience of the remaining students.
"They'll also be taking over after the summer holidays," Penelope said. "Once my N.E.W.T.s are through, well, that's it for me."
"What are you going to do once you've graduated?" Amelie wondered.
"I have an internship at the Ministry ready to go. Experimental Magic Division," she replied proudly.
Graduating Hogwarts had seemed a lifetime away for Amelie when she started her first year. She could remember at most bits and pieces of what she had been doing six years ago back in London.
How much would things change another six in the future? And even if she could manage to keep her secret for that long, what then?
For a moment Amelie wished she could ask Penelope what chances people had who weren't human. She wanted to kick herself for how long it took her to think of the obvious: Professor Lupin!
And so, after their next Defence lesson, Amelie made an excuse to Riyan and Polly to hang back and ask her teacher for another chat.
"Hmm, I do have a bit of free time tomorrow afternoon," Lupin muttered, "Well then. Come to my office at seven."
The next day, after telling her friends she would be meeting Penelope for Charms Club preparations, she sneaked over to the Faculty Tower.
Professor Lupin was in the process of closing the fasteners on a large packing case. The piece of luggage shook ominously as Amelie walked through the door.
"Hello, professor. Uhm... everything alright?"
"Sure, sure," Lupin replied, nodding towards the chair in front of his desk, "take a seat, I'm almost done."
As she sat down, he touched the case with his wand, mumbling an incantation, and the shaking stopped.
Amelie asked, "What was that?"
"A Boggart. I have another practice session later and this," he tapped the luggage, "will come in handy."
Lupin dusted off his hands and sank into his desk-chair.
"You're not the only student who could use some help," he explained with a mischievous smile. "With all this counselling, I should ask the headmaster for a raise."
He folded his hands and rested them on his desk, before saying, "So. It sounded like you had something particular in mind you wanted to talk about."
"Yes, sir. I talked to Penelope Clearwater earlier. I'm helping her with organising the Charms Club and she spoke about taking her final exams and graduating this year. And I've been wondering, well... what's going to happen when I finish Hogwarts."
"That's quite a topic, Amelie. Your head of house, Professor Sprout, will talk to each of you in a few years about your career prospects."
"Yes, but she-"
"-doesn't know what it'll be like for someone non-human," Lupin cut in. He took a deep breath. "So you're asking what my experience was."
Amelie nodded, hands folded in her lap. This was once again very personal territory and she didn't want to come across as too nosy.
For a moment, Lupin seemed to be thinking, rubbing his chin and running his fingers through his greying beard.
"Well, I suppose that depends on what you wish to do. Some vampires might have jobs and earn a living, but how they got there I couldn't say. I'm sure the people from your coven might be able to answer that. A lot of Hogwarts graduates do end up working for the Ministry."
"Penelope said she'll have an, uhm... internship there, inventing new spells and such," Amelie pointed out.
Lupin nodded. "That's the way things usually go. People start learning on the job and then get hired. Are you wondering if you could do the same?"
"Maybe..." she admitted. The thought had been exciting, working to find new magic the likes of which nobody had seen before.
Leaning forward, Lupin slowly exhaled. He had an almost sad look on his face.
"You need to understand that simply looking human on the outside won't work anymore," he explained quietly. "You would be revealed immediately, which only leaves you with applying as, well, yourself."
Amelie lightly chewed on her lip before asking, "Did people know you were a werewolf when you tried to find work after Hogwarts?"
"Yes," Lupin replied soberly, "there was no point pretending otherwise. I had been registered since I was a child and, by the time the next full moon came around, anyone would've noticed."
He seemed to think for a moment.
"I will be honest, Amelie, things were-... are complicated. Before Dumbledore gave me this job, I took work where I could find it. Odd jobs here and there, maybe something for a year or two. Even those who were sympathetic would only keep me around for a while.
I'm not saying it would be remotely like this for you. Werewolves and vampires get treated quite differently after all."
Lupin let out a small sigh.
"But you should be aware that people out there can be very pigheaded and close-minded once they think they have a reason to see you as different.
Perhaps... you should keep in the back of your mind that what matters is what you want and not what you think is expected of you."
"Not to mention," he added with a smile, "unlike us short-lived mortals, you'll have all the time in the world to figure out what that is."
Amelie listened quietly, taking it all in. Even as he tried to be optimistic, she could still see how tired Professor Lupin looked as he explained what he had gone through.
Before she had the chance to think of something else to say, a small, round clock on Lupin's desk began buzzing.
"Ah, I'm afraid that's all the time I have." He stood up and patted the luggage with the 'Boggart'. "Don't want to keep Harry waiting."
Rising from the chair, Amelie paused and asked, "You're meeting Harry? Harry Potter?"
Lupin grimaced uncomfortably and mumbled, "Uhm, just forget I said anything, if you'd be so kind."
He gave Amelie an appraising look. "You know him?"
"A bit. We've talked a few times and we helped him and Ron find the Chamber of Secrets last year."
"That's... a bit more than what Dumbledore told us about what happened," Lupin confessed, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, at any rate. I've still got some work to do. In the end, Amelie, don't fret too much about all this," he offered kindly.
"Enjoy your time at school. Enjoy the friends you have they... they might be the most valuable thing you'll find in this place."
She nodded. "Thank you, professor."
The new year seemed to serve as the collective starting-shot for every teacher to upend buckets of homework over their heads. Even Polly had to reluctantly accept that there were more pressing matters than Quidditch, when Cedric cancelled their extra training sessions.
"I'm sure we could've fit in another afternoon per week," she complained as they were sitting in the common room and scribbling their Potions essays about the Swelling Solution.
"Well," Riyan mumbled, "you're not the one taking O.W.L.s this year, but half the team is."
There hadn't been any further sign of the rat Animagus in the corridors or Ron's pockets. The idea that she might have to go looking for it conjured a twisting knot in Amelie's stomach.
It would mean somehow getting into the Gryffindor dorms undetected. There was no way she could just ask Ron, nor Ginny or Colin really, without revealing how she knew that the rat was actually Sirius Black.
As proposed by the older students, and reluctantly agreed to by the first to third years, the Charms Club would only meet once per week until the end of exams.
Eddie, Natalie and Penelope were spending increasing amounts of time looking through their notes, often leaving the presentation to Amelie and sometimes Terry.
She was grateful for his help, especially as he was the only one who could reliably make Michael shut up when he was uncaringly talking to Anthony while Amelie was speaking.
"You know, with Penelope leaving in June, should we look at recruiting more people?" Colin asked as they were cleaning up.
"Hmm, maybe," Amelie replied, mulling the idea over, "but I don't think there's anyone left we haven't asked yet."
Colin perked up and snapped his fingers. "What about Slytherin? We haven't put up a notice there yet, right?"
Amelie could see Cecilia flinch, almost dropping her school-bag. It was true that they hadn't tried getting anyone to spread word to wherever in the dungeons the Slytherin common room was.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Cecilia mumbled, "I don't think the others are really into clubs."
As they were getting ready to leave, Amelie watched Ginny and Colin walking over to Neville. She casually pretended to be putting away her notes, while listening in on the Gryffindors.
"New one is 'Chivalry', by the way. He changed it again after breakfast this morning."
"Oh, that's alright Ginny, I already know. I asked him for all the next passwords," Neville replied happily.
Carefully peeking over her shoulder, Amelie saw him holding up a small piece of parchment, before stuffing it back into a pocket on his robes.
"Hey Amelie, are you ready to go?" Hannah called from the door, making her nearly jump out of her skin.
"Ah, right. Coming!"
As before, Cecilia walked with them in the same direction, since the wine-cellar hiding the Hufflepuff common room and the dungeons were close. The Slytherin still hadn't said a word since the end of the meeting.
"Everything alright?" Amelie asked, slowing her steps to let the other Hufflepuffs move ahead without them.
Cecilia nodded.
"I know Colin gets a bit too excited about his ideas," Amelie began, "but maybe he actually has a point. Are you really sure nobody else from Slytherin would want to join?"
"I don't know," she admitted, "There's someone in Lucian's year playing Gobstones, I think, but other than that nobody really talks about that stuff except when it's the Quidditch team."
"Maybe there's someone I could ask directly. What about the girls in your dorm?"
There was a pained expression on Cecilia's face as she mumbled, "I really don't think you should try talking to any of them. I mean... Astoria isn't so bad. Even if she acts like she's better than everyone else."
Amelie wisely kept her mouth shut, even as she could all but hear the sarcastic comment Polly would have blurted out immediately.
"The others are just nasty," Cecilia went on.
They were almost back at the base of the Moving Staircase. Amelie could see the paths up ahead, one leading to the dungeons, the other to her common room.
"Hmm, what about the boys?"
Rolling her eyes, Cecilia scoffed. "The only one who isn't trying to cosy up to Harper all the time is Frederick Sallow. And he seems like he's more interested in Thestrals and Dugbogs than people."
Reaching the fork in the corridor, Amelie turned to her with a smile.
"Well, that already sounds like two, doesn't it? Good night, Cecilia."
As it turned out, the students had brought more than their Christmas presents and happy memories back from their holidays.
A plethora of colds, sniffles, coughs and headaches were tearing through the castle, turning the Hospital Wing into a fifth dorm and leaving Madam Pomfrey under siege.
For once happy about her status as a 'Living Dead', Amelie was blissfully unaffected by the ailments, much to the chagrin of Riyan, who briefly developed a curious case of purple spots.
Her mood dropped considerably, when she opened the cabin under her nightstand one morning and found that her reserves of Sanguinaris Potion had been all but drained. Only about half a bottle was left.
Mentioning this to Riyan and Polly, during a moment when they had their common room corner to themselves, prompted a few nervous looks in her direction.
"Uhm, but it's not that urgent, right?" Riyan asked, giving her a sideway glance.
"Probably."
Polly lowered her Transfiguration text-book. "'Probably'?"
"Alright, alright. I'll go and see if I can ask Madam Pomfrey to fill one bottle at least," Amelie replied.
Near the end of lunch-time, she made her way to the dorms and up the stairs to their room, but Amelie was surprised to find that she was not alone.
Standing by her bed was a small, skinny creature with pinkish skin and large, bat-like ears. It was clad in what looked like a toga made out of a tea-towel, though there was a large patch with the four-sided Hogwarts coat-of-arms sewn on.
Hearing her step into the room, the startled creature turned around and fixated her with its large eyes.
"Eeek!"
There was the clink of glass and Amelie saw that the little creature was holding a box with several familiar-looking bottles, filled with a light, red potion.
"Hello," Amelie said quietly.
The creature's eyes widened and its whole body began shaking, its skinny knees knocking together.
"B-Babsy brought-... brought for m-m-mistress... t-the p-p-potion..." it stammered in a high-pitched voice, holding out the box like a shield between itself and Amelie.
"Oh," Amelie exclaimed and walked closer.
The creature's eyes widened even further and it looked like it might faint at any moment. Through it all, it kept a hold of the wildly shaking box with Sanguinaris Potion bottles.
Reaching out, Amelie carefully took the box from its hands. She gave the unknown little creature a smile and added, "Thank you."
Staring at her, still wide-eyed but with a lot less shivering, the creature only gave a tiny nod, before raising one of its hands and snapping its fingers.
There was a loud crack and it disappeared, leaving Amelie blinking in surprise. She carefully stashed the bottles in the now-empty place under her nightstand and went back to the common room.
Walking quickly, she linked up with Polly and Riyan as they made their way to their first lesson.
"I just saw the strangest thing," Amelie reported, before leaning closer and lowering her voice. "There was a small, thin... well, I don't know what it was... in our dorm-room. It brought me a fresh batch of potions and then disappeared."
Polly looked as clueless as Amelie, but Riyan exclaimed, "Ah. Must've been a house-elf. Looked a bit like a goblin, but skinnier and less wrinkly, right? Really big ears?"
"Yes, exactly. Do they live here in the castle? I've never seen one before."
He shrugged and said, "Probably. I heard they prefer to stay out of sight and spend most of their time in the kitchens and laundry rooms. The whole place would fall apart within a day if it wasn't for them."
"I don't suppose you can hire them to take home, right?" Polly asked, "Mum already threatened to have me help her with her next stupid gardening project over the summer holidays."
Riyan shook his head. "Nah. They're somehow bound to the place or family that they serve."
'Serve'? Amelie raised an eyebrow, but didn't dig further. Much more interesting to her had been the reaction when the house-elf had spotted her.
"For some reason it seemed really scared when it saw me," she muttered.
"I can think of a reason," Polly said, grinning and taking a careful look around to make sure they were alone, "the poor thing was just sent into a vampire's lair after all."
Amelie heaved a sigh, rolling her eyes for good measure.
All thoughts of snarky comebacks vanished when she saw an owl with a package flying straight at her during lunch-time. She caught the cage, fully wrapped in simple, brown paper, and discreetly placed it under the table by her feet.
"More books? At this point you're practically starting your own private library," Riyan quipped.
Amelie mockingly held a finger up to her lips and shushed him, giving an acceptable impression of Madam Pince. Underneath the humour, she felt nervous, her gut clenching. Having the cage in her hands made what she planned all the more real. She swallowed nervously.
It was time for the next step.
Amelie leaned over the empty page, hand loosely holding her quill as she tried to keep her thoughts tethered to the essay she was supposed to write for Professor McGonagall.
The assignment for the head of Gryffindor house brought with it the uncomfortable reminder that the next part of her plan to corner Sirius Black would leave her on the clock.
If she followed through, there would be no going back.
Concentrating on her school-work instead, Amelie managed to put off the decision for days, until a comment from Polly brought it right back.
"...understand that we have exams, of course, but the match against Ravenclaw is next Saturday! And if we win that we can actually take the cup this year!" Polly groaned, glaring at her unfinished homework.
"Besides, the whole school's going to be there this time."
Amelie perked up. "Hm?"
"Yup!" Polly replied, grinning from ear to ear, "The odds really shifted after we whopped Slytherin's butts. I mean, yeah, Ravenclaw isn't going to be as much of a pushover, but we trained really hard."
She mumbled, lost in thought, "Oh, yeah, definitely..."
The whole school was going to be there. A chill went up Amelie's spine. There was not going to be another opportunity as good as this until the end of the school-year. If she wanted to get into the Gryffindor common room, she would have to do it then.
Next Thursday, during their only Charms Club meeting that week, she could barely concentrate on what Eddie was telling them about the Softening Charm.
Her eyes kept drifting over to Neville, who was merrily taking notes and tracing the wand-movement with his hand. The pocket on his robes was awfully exposed and she could even see a glint of the parchment he kept inside. It was frankly a miracle he hadn't dropped it somewhere else already.
She was so engrossed in her planning that she didn't even notice when Cecilia sat down beside her.
"So, I... I talked to Astoria yesterday."
Amelie flinched, dribbling a bit of ink onto her text-book. "Uh, yeah? You, uh... oh, right. Did you ask her about joining the club?"
Cecilia rather visibly tried not to wring her hands or look away, as she would usually do, when she replied, "No, we just... talked a little."
"How did it go?"
She shrugged and idly scratched her cheek. "It was alright. She mostly complained about her sister."
Amelie nodded and quietly considered that maybe being an only-child wasn't so bad after all.
"I guess you have that in common," she offered, shooting Cecilia a grin. "You don't have to pester her about the club. I can imagine it's not easy striking up a conversation out of the blue."
"How-" Cecilia began, "how do you usually do that? I mean, just... talking."
"Well, it doesn't have to be anything important all the time. Pretty often we just sit and do homework or hang out in the common room."
"That doesn't sound too hard," Cecilia admitted, fidgeting with her wand. Although her attention didn't seem to be with the Charms text-book.
"Just give it a try, if you want. There's really nothing to it," Amelie replied, giving what she hoped was an encouraging look.
For a moment, she wondered what would have happened if she had been sent to Slytherin instead. Without the other Hufflepuffs sweeping her along, would she have been alone, too? Well, at least Cecilia would've been there.
With Penelope absent and their fifth year members having mostly their exams on their minds, they ended the meeting early. While everyone was busy packing, Amelie steeled herself and got up.
Holding her book, she briskly walked just past where Neville sat and, at the right time, made herself trip over someone's school-bag. Stumbling, she fell right into Neville, who let out a startled yelp; trying and failing to keep himself from falling over as well.
They tumbled to the ground and as she braced herself, Amelie quickly slid her hand into his pocket and closed her fist around the parchment.
"Oh no! Neville, I'm so sorry!" she gasped, scrambling to her feet and awkwardly holding out her other hand.
"'s alright, Amelie," he stuttered while giving her an awkward smile, "Usually I'm the one running into people."
She helped him back up and apologised once more. Holding her breath, Amelie waited to see if he would check his pockets, but thankfully Neville only went back and stashed his books.
Trying, as best as she could, to look inconspicuous, Amelie slipped the note with the Gryffindor common room passwords into her bag.
All throughout the day, Amelie could feel the parchment weighing her down like a piece of lead. Sneaking into the bathrooms, she locked herself into a stall and lit up her wand to take a closer look.
Neville's untidy scrawl was hard to make out, but knowing Sir Cadogan's craving for grandiose words, she was able to guess what the small list of chicken-scratches spelled out.
Amelie could barely keep her mind on her lessons and for once, between the two of them, it was Cecilia who spoke the most during Astronomy.
"Could you pass me the ruler?"
"Hmm?" Amelie mumbled, "oh, sure."
She handed it over and Cecilia carefully measured the distances between the stars she was drawing into the chart. Their project was in its last stages and, from the looks of things, it was shaping up to be one of the best in the combined class.
Cecilia put away her quill and asked, "Are you worried about the game tomorrow?"
"A bit, maybe," Amelie replied, "Polly's been crawling up the walls with how nervous she is, but she was the same before the last match too."
"I see. Lucian actually joked about getting himself a Hufflepuff scarf, just to mess with Flint."
"Ha, that would be the day," she retorted, before turning to Cecilia and asking, "Have you ever played Quidditch?"
Her partner shrugged. "Once or twice when Lucian and I were younger. You?"
"Uh, the first time I sat on a broom I crashed into the castle wall and landed in the Hospital Wing," Amelie mumbled.
Cecilia raised her eyebrows. "That was you? I'd heard there had been an accident back at the start of first year."
"First year kind of had its ups and downs for me," she confessed awkwardly. "Flying lessons and then the whole thing with the Basilisk."
"Yeah, I can imagine."
Amelie rested her arm on their desk and let her gaze wander outward from the Astronomy Tower and across the hills, glowing with the faint light of the moon and stars.
It was a beautiful night, but for some reason she couldn't shake the feeling it might be her last like this.