"Shh, shh, hey, it's okay, it's okay." A rough, husky voice was rasping in my ear as I woke, feeling the whimpers die. "You're safe now, baby, you're safe... I'm here..."

The last fleeting images of my nightmare slipped away as I blinked my eyes open fully, taking in a deep breath. Fred was petting my hair as he propped himself up, eyes half closed. I swallowed, sending him a smile in thanks for waking me, but I wasn't sure he saw it. I glanced at the clock across the dorm; it was two in the morning.

I sighed, sending a fond look at my boyfriend as he sagged slowly back onto his pillow, his eyelashes fluttering, and a second later he was out cold again. George was snoring softly on my other side; I glanced back and forth between them then at the clock again. Two a.m. This was the ideal time, and there was no way I was getting back to sleep after what I knew I'd just dreamed about.

I carefully slid out of bed, trying not to wake either of them, and made my way down the spiral staircase, through the common room and portrait hole, quietly closing the snoozing Fat Lady closed behind me. I crept towards the library, tugging the Invisibility Cloak tighter about me as I passed Mrs Norris, and as I reached it I silently slid the volume I had been studying for the past few weeks off of its shelf and hurried for the second floor girls' bathroom with it under my arm.

From there what I did was almost mechanical, like automatic as if from memory. I nodded in greeting to Moaning Myrtle, hissed to the tap with the snake etched on it, stood back as the sink sank into the ground, and hopped down the slide-like pipe into the chamber below. I crunched through the bones of mice and rats and the old snakeskin that was almost dust at this point until I reached the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, turning my wedding ring over and over in my fingers. I gazed around the eerily silent Chamber, leaning briefly against the wall as I forced myself to breathe: in, out. In, out.

"Hello, my love."

"Tommy." I said, turning. I had been expecting him. "How are you?"

Riddle glided towards me from a pipe to my right, folding his arms as he came to a stop in front of me. "I am doing average, considering. I -"

"Mate, I hate to interrupt you, but it was a pleasantry." I said, striding away from him as he followed. "I don't actually care."

Riddle huffed behind me. "That was quite rude and rather unnecessary."

"Good."

I crouched down beside the very same bench Riddle had laid me on in second year. I set the book down onto it, opening it and flicking through the pages to get to the bit I was interested in. I tried to ignore the memories forcing their way into the front of my mind as I read over the words again, tried my best not to shiver at the memory of Riddle leaning down over me on this very bench, whispering and murmuring as he tried to steal my Grace, his handsome eyes gazing down at me... I traced my finger over the paragraph I needed, shaking my head slightly as I tried to rid it of the niggling little spark of fear I always got inside me when I remembered how he had tried to hurt me that day so long ago... and how, despite this, I was still attracted to him.

"What is this all about, my love?" Riddle purred suddenly, making me jump. He drifted down onto the bench before me, phasing through the book to perch on the smooth stone surface beneath it; I sighed in frustration, sitting back on my haunches. "An unexpected visit late at night... a secretive rendezvous between two previous lovers, whose marriage -"

"Shut up." I said. "I need you for a spell. You still hate Floppy, right?"

Riddle cocked his head at me. I rolled my eyes.

"Felix Malfoy. The demon."

"Oh." Riddle drawled, leaning back. He tilted his head back to the ceiling, his sharp jawline emphasised, his hands splayed out on the bench as his ghostly shirt spread around his chest, the three buttons undone at the top showing off the skin underneath, and my eyes widened involuntarily as I repeated, 'no, no, no,' in my mind, no you CANNOT find him hot, especially not after you've killed the man! "Well, of course, my Daisy. He brutally raped you. It is a husband's duty, that if any man harms his lady in this way, to find him and unleash upon him a fate far worse than what she endured."

"A long-winded way to say 'yes,' but I'll take it." I shrugged, holding up the wedding ring. "I need to tie you to this."

Riddle's eyes glinted. "Would you not rather me tie you to something? I recall certain times when you quite enjoyed it, actually..."

Completely against my will, memories flashed in my mind. I forced them out as quickly as they arrived, but it was too late. He had seen. A tiny smirk played on his lips as I scowled at him.

"No."

"No matter. I am quite intrigued to see what will happen once you tie me down to something. I am sure I will enjoy it, even if it means giving up a minuscule piece of power to you, my beautiful wife..."

"Technically I'm a widow." I said, letting go of the ring and using my Grace to make it hover in the air between us. "So, not anyone's wife. Anyway. I don't mean anything kinky, though I'm sure you already knew that. I mean I need to magically bind you to this ring so that I can take you places with me."

Riddle ran a hand through his hair, which was slightly messier than he had kept it when he was alive. Death must be taking its toll on him. I almost snorted as I remembered that death was the thing he feared the most in this world. "And why should you want to do that?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Didn't I just basically tell you?"

The smirk that had been teasing at the corners of his mouth widened. "Of course I shall allow you to borrow me, my love. I, too, will stop at nothing to see this vermin vanquished, and suffer a magnitude more than you have at his hands."

Even though a small part of me always knew, and sort of hated, that Riddle had loved me, I was always still thrown every time he showed it. I still felt that little jerk of surprise inside when I watched him tighten his jaw in determination, his handsome eyes meet mine with an understanding passing between us both.

And that was what I could use to defeat Floppy. Me, the Chosen One. Him, the most powerful man the wizarding world had known. And the one weapon I had used to defeat him - love.

~~~

"Right, class, today we're going to just be going over the theory of Pr- what is that on everyone's faces?"

Professor Soot had strolled in to the next Transfiguration class only to be greeted by his sooty students. We all beamed at him through the black dust, Lavender and Parvati collapsing into sniggers in the corner, and our teacher shook his head in disbelief.

"Can everyone please clean themselves up? You'll all just distract me because of how ridiculous you look."

"Right away, sir!" Terry said enthusiastically, immediately stripping off, as I said, "Are you sure that's the only reason you'll be distracted today, sir?"

Professor Soot followed my pointed gaze as I handed my Gryffindor cardigan to Terry, and our professor sighed. He sadly trudged over to his desk and began picking off all the slices of bread that we'd nailed to everything he owned. Terry bundled the grinning twins' cardigans and ties into the washing machine behind our desks, beckoning for Harry, Ron, Kylie, Seamus, and Dean to give him their soot-covered clothes too, hissing, "Come on, I'm putting it on a quick spin cycle. If you want your laundry dry and warm you'd better hurry or else we won't have time for them to go in the dryer!"

"Mama Hopper." I said affectionately, reaching out to pet his hair from behind. Terry flashed me a grin, wiggling his eyebrows, then tossed Ernie MacMillan's cloak into the washing machine.

I was already dressed sluttily for class because of number 88 on the list, but now without my cardigan you could see the outline of my black bra through my sheer, tight shirt. I rolled my eyes as I saw Riddle's ghost phase through the wall slightly, his eyes on my chest; I discreetly pretended to throw the ring into the washing machine and he shook his head desperately, backing away through the wall and out of sight.

The twins were also checking me out, Fred's eyes on my chest too, George's on my mostly bare legs under my extremely short skirt. The two boys exchanged a glance as I leaned forward over my desk, eyeing Professor Soot up flirtily, and high-fived each other, chorusing, "Nice."

Professor Soot choked as he started to say something, cleared his throat, and choked again. I grinned as he turned away, tearing his gaze from me in order to compose himself.

It didn't help matters that the whole class had been invited to the Room of Requirement before our double period, courtesy of number 81 on the list, and got completely hammered. You could smell alcohol off everyone's breaths, even Hermione's, who'd only taken a single shot (or a double shot, which I might have accidentally poured her) of Firewhiskey, and the classroom was filled with the cheerful energy of your local uni bar. Fred, always the promiscuous one when drunk, placed his hand on my bare thigh, and I giggled woozily into my pencilcase as his fingers teased underneath my skirt.

"Professor?" I raised my hand. "Ooh a woo, ooh a woo, beeee my baby, and I'll look after you."

"Erm," Professor Soot blinked at me, "okay, Daisy - right, then, class, shall we get started -"

"Professor?" I said again. "Mean this sincerely, dude, are you okay?"

Professor Soot ignored me, writing up the aims for today's class on the blackboard.

"Imma keep it simple with a verse. I wanna put myself inside a hearse."

"We will be focusing on revision of these bullet points for today, class."

"I know you're the same height, but he's got a couple inches on you. I think I'm gonna fuck your brother. If I've got time I'll fuck your mother." I said. "Boy, ain't that a motherfucker."

"Stop quoting songs at me, Daisy."

I raised an eyebrow. "Uh, how do you know they're song lyrics?"

"Yeah, like, does he listen to those songs?" Ginny hissed across the room to me. "Honestly, that's king behaviour. They all kinda fucking slap."

"True dat." I said. "I like a man with good music taste. Hey, sir, could this be anything more after I leave school, do you think?"

Professor Soot visibly grit his teeth. He turned to lower himself into his chair; Terry, Fred, George, and I held our breath; the loud 'PHUT' of the whoopee cushion echoed around the classroom and I snorted equally as loud into my hand.

I waited until Fred's hand was very noticeably way up my skirt, then I stumbled up and swayed towards Professor Soot's desk, giggling. "Hey, sir. Could I get a selfie, pretty pretty please?"

Professor Soot placed a hand on his forehead, dragged it down his face. "Fucking - fine. You know what, fine."

I span around, holding my phone high in the air and throwing a peace sign at my phone's camera, bursting out laughing as I zoomed in at the result, of my professor's tired and lined face.

"I'll wank off to it every day, sir."

"Detention, Miss Potter."

"Heh. I know what that means." I winked at him as the class 'oooh'd rather immaturely.

I made my way back to my seat, unsteady on my feet, as Terry dumped the chemistry set from his bag onto my desk. I dropped into my chair as Professor Soot's voice resumed, chattering with my best friend as the two of us started mixing cocktails at the back of the class.

"Say, sir," I said conversationally as I shook the strawberry daiquiri, "why don't you mix business with pleasure?"

He ignored me.

"Sir, you should watch my next livestream."

I got ignored again in favour of the chalk scratching the blackboard.

"Sir, I got you some merch. It's on your desk."

Professor Soot broke; he glanced over, saw the Why Don't We t-shirt, mug, and tote bag I'd left on the edge of his desk on top of someone's terrible (according to the large red 'D' grade scrawled on the front) essay.

"Eurgh, not those little bastards." Professor Soot Vanished the merch.

"Aw. I paid top dollar for that." I pouted.

"Scammed." George told me, and I shrugged.

The washing machine beeped as we finished mixing our cocktails, and Terry began tipping everyone's sopping wet clothes out into a wicker basket as I stuck a straw into my daiquiri and sipped.

As all the owls I'd scheduled to fly into the classroom with the chain letters I'd written for Professor Soot, I pretended to faint and slumped off my chair to the ground. He gaped at all the owls, taking a letter off one's leg, and stared down at the contents.

"Oh, no, professor!" Draco called to the front of the room dramatically. "Daisy's fainted!"

Professor Soot wheeled around. "Er -"

"I'm all good." I opened my eyes and got back up, beaming. "Anyway, while I'm on my feet, I thought I might as well give my presentation!"

"What presentation, Miss Potter?" Professor Soot asked wearily.

"I'm glad you asked, big boy." I winked at him as I strode to the front of the class again, wobbling on my feet. I opened my laptop and placed it on Hermione's desk, clicking through to the PowerPoint presentation I'd made. The class all craned their necks to see it.

Professor Soot had collapsed into his chair again, on top of the whoopee cushion, and was facepalming. I grinned, using my Grace to project my PowerPoint onto the wall behind me.

"So this is my presentation: 'What it's like Living with Dementia.'" I announced. I turned and clicked through to the next slide, which was just the previous slide going through a funky transition into itself. "This is my presentation: 'What it's like Living with Dementia.'" Another click. "This is my presentation: 'What it's like Living with Dementia.'"

The whole class was in an uproar of laughter.

"Okay, but seriously, guys, I do have an actual presentation to give you!" I clicked out of my Dementia PowerPoint and into my serious one. "Alright, so this is my presentation: 'Why Big Professor Sexy should take us on a School Trip!'"

"Waheeeey!" The twins exclaimed in the back row, and the class started applauding me, whistling and whooping in excitement. Professor Soot stared at me with a haunted look in his eyes.

I paced back and forth in front of the class as I gave the presentation, going through the slides and expanding on them all and explaining why I thought our Transfiguration class should be taken to Egypt to 'view curse-breaking up close' as I clicked on the images of Egypt I had added, making them go through transitions such as disintegrating, slowly rolling down off the screen like credits on a movie, or crumpling up into a paper ball and tossing itself off the screen. When I finished the class gave me a standing ovation. Terry had been the first to stand up and start slow-clapping me, then everyone followed suit; I spread my arms wide and beamed at them all, bowing deeply.

"Fine." Professor Soot snapped. "Fucking fine, I'll take you to Egypt. This is only because the lot of you saved us from You-Know-Who, by the way, so don't think anything of it."

I did an excited little happy dance on the spot, before checking my drunken self as I careened into the side of Kylie's desk.

Fred, George, Terry, and I all took a piece of sweet from a Skiving Snackbox we'd brought, and Professor Soot had put his face in his hands before sending us vomiting, bleeding, swooning, and sweating out to Madam Pomfrey.

We turned up at the next class with a very large clock, the four of us staggering under its weight. We laid it against his desk as our professor stared at us, his hair unusually unkempt and the dark circles under his eyes more pronounced. The loud 'tick's of the hands on the clock echoed around the classroom as the rest of the class filed in, sniggering, and I rifled through my bag.

"Ooh, Daze, what are tho- eurgh!" Lavender exclaimed as I handed her the printout of Professor Soot with a weird alien Instagram filter over his face.

"It's his true form." I explained. "Here, have more. Spread the truth."

Lavender turned and distributed the pages I'd given her to the other girls in the class. I snorted and handed out more freshly printed pictures to Dean, Seamus, Ginny, Colin, and Louis.

"It's Soot's true form." I told them as they grinned down at the sheets.

"Daisy, come on. Please." Professor Soot said. I heard the pleading note in his voice. "Let me teach."

I went to my seat and swung it back on two legs, grinning at him as I popped a piece of bubblegum into my mouth. "Only after you tell us about this school trip we're taking."

Professor Soot sighed. "Fine. FINE. Alright, everyone, listen up. As you are all aware, I'm sure, I promised to take you lot on a school trip."

Susan Bones, Luna, Theo, and Harry all turned to their respective desk neighbours and started whispering excitedly. Terry and Fred leaned forward, breaths held. Our teacher rolled his eyes before continuing.

"I will... regrettably, I suspect... take you all on a several day trip to Egypt, with permission from Professor McGonagall, two days after you have all finished your exams."

The classroom exploded. I knew everyone was thinking of the golden beaches, the coral reefs, the shitty waterparks, and heated pools with free - incredibly alcoholic and terribly made - cocktails that I'd put pictures of up on the screen in my presentation the previous Transfiguration class.

And I myself was excited at this prospect too. A week away with my friends all together in this banterful country, all of us wreaking havoc, Fred and George and probably Professor Soot admiring me in my bikini in the pool, admiring THEM and their shirtless bodies tanning in the 30 degree heat, seeing the colourful fishes in the sea, going on the water slides with Terry, the two of us getting harassed by the salesmen then messing with them, the likelihood that the twins would get absolutely hammered off of those shitty cocktails and taking me back to our hotel room...

Godric, I was actually looking forward to doing my exams! I never thought I'd say it.