A/N:

Hi, new chapter!

You can expect a new one every 2 weeks ish, unless I hit a stride and start getting them finished earlier.

Thanks so much for reading :)

Harry slithered around on an unfamiliar floor, his tongue darting out to taste the air. He wasn't in control of his body, but he could still feel every movement as if it were his own.

He soon realized he was traversing a mysterious hallway of some sort, the black tile lining the floors and walls giving the illusion of an impossible vastness. He knew he was looking for something, but he didn't know what. Something that he needed - that they needed - so desperately no cost was too great to acquire it.

There was an indescribable wrongness in Harry's heart as he continued on his path, and a rage that was not his own filled every thought. He tried to break free, but he was inexorably attached to this form, his existence slowly merging-

Harry woke from his dream with a start as he felt his bed shake. Grateful for whatever disturbance had freed him from that horrible nightmare, he took a moment to recover. As he felt another shake from his bed he squinted into the dark, feeling around groggily for his glasses.

"Good morning, sunshine!" a cheery voice said from the gloom.

He panicked as he heard the voice, quickly putting on his glasses and scrambling for his wand. He pointed it towards the sound, and as his eyes adjusted, he made out a familiar form sitting at the end of his bed.

"Gabrielle!?"

"It's not actually morning yet," she giggled, twirling a strand of hair on her finger. "But I've always wanted to say that to you."

"What the hell are you doing here!?"

She frowned, looking down at him. "You seem to be saying that a lot lately."

"Maybe because you keep showing up in places you're not supposed to be!"

"You mean I'm not supposed to sneak into the boys' dorm at night?" she asked sweetly.

"Of course not!"

"Oops? Silly me. Sometimes I tune out when people start listing rules."

Harry shook his head angrily. "Anyway, just get out of here before anyone notices!"

While the curtains around his bed were drawn, he was sincerely hoping the commotion hadn't already woken anyone up. The last thing he needed right now was to be caught with a girl in his bed after hours.

"Don't worry," she smiled, noticing his apprehension. "I cast some privacy charms around your bed before you woke up – we can be as loud as we want and no one will hear us."

Harry narrowed his eyes at her, tightening his grip on his wand. "Hear what?"

Gabrielle felt her knees go weak; Harry's innocence was intoxicating. She looked around his bed for some kind of excuse, and eventually settled on picking up one of his pillows.

"We could have a pillow fight?" she suggested.

"We're not having a pillow fight! Just get out of my room!"

She pouted, putting the pillow back down. "But if someone saw me leave your bed, we'd both get into trouble. It's only my first day here, so I'm trying to stay out of detention…"

"Then you can sneak out!" Harry insisted.

He briefly considered lending her his invisibility cloak so she could leave undetected, but decided an instant later that Gabrielle with an invisibility cloak was not a combination he ever wanted to see.

"But I don't want to leave," she whined. "I couldn't sleep and I wanted to come talk to you."

"This is my bed, so I get to decide who stays in it. Now leave or I'll throw you out myself!"

She shivered under his glare. Angry Harry was doing things to her.

"Hm," she mused, looking around his bed. "If I dropped the privacy charms right now and screamed, what do you think would happen?"

Harry's jaw dropped. "Are you threatening me?"

"No, just trying to convince you that getting rid of me would be more trouble than it's worth."

Before Harry could reply, he heard a shifting from outside his curtains. Both him and Gabrielle quieted down, straining their ears to listen. There was the squeak of a chair, and a moment later two hushed voices engaged in conversation.

"Well, it looks like some of our roommates couldn't sleep either," Gabrielle said cheerily. "I sure can't leave now!"

Harry sighed bitterly, putting his wand back on his bedside table. As unpleasant as her presence in his four-poster was, he at least knew he wasn't in danger.

For now, anyway.

His heart rate was only just starting to slow down when it shot back up again, his eyes adjusting the rest of the way to the dark and giving him a glimpse of what Gabrielle was wearing. Far from his shapeless pajamas, the girl was wearing a silky negligee that would've looked out of place on someone their age if it weren't for her stunning good looks. He quickly turned away, deciding he might be in some kind of danger after all.

"The second they go back to sleep, you're gone, alright?" Harry said eventually.

"Deal!" she promised. "In the meantime, do you want to talk about our favorite hobbies? I like making dolls-"

"Gabrielle," he interrupted. "We're not friends. You're going to leave when the room is clear, but we're not going to have a casual chat until then. You killed my uncle."

The girl heaved a dramatic sigh and flopped down onto the bed, much too close to Harry for his comfort.

"Jeez, will you ever let that drop?" she asked. "I kill one abusive uncle you don't even care about, and you're still nagging me about it over a month later."

He looked at her incredulously. "I won't let it drop because it's murder," he hissed. "You killed someone in cold blood, and I will see you punished for it."

She bit her lip flirtatiously. "Oh, really? Tell me more…"

Harry moved to clarify, flustered and disgusted in equal measure, but she waved a hand and spoke over him.

"Listen, Harry. I know you better than you think I do, and if you really cared that I killed Vernon you'd have done something about it by now." She shifted her position on Harry's bed so they were sitting directly across from each other. "I know you want to be mad at me, but you're not actually; you're mad at yourself for not caring. For the record though, you shouldn't be. Your uncle was an execrable bully and he got what he deserved."

Harry's eye twitched.

"That's not the point," he said harshly. "This isn't about him, it's about you. I can't allow you to walk free, let alone stay at Hogwarts; how can I trust you around my friends - or anyone for that matter - when I know you might kill someone?"

Gabrielle gave him a sad look. "Harry, we all have the capacity to kill someone; it's just about finding the right person at the right time. But please don't ever think that I'm a danger to you or your friends. I only killed your uncle because he was one poorly placed kick away from killing you."

Harry spent a few seconds digesting that, not really believing her but still being forced to consider her words. She looked earnest, and for a second he almost mistook her for a perfectly normal teenage girl.

Then he remembered that she snuck into his bed in the middle of the night and the illusion broke.

"You need help," Harry said, shaking the rogue thoughts from his head. "You go too far, and you act on impulses that you shouldn't. I mean, you transferred schools and moved halfway across the continent just because I saved you from a lake back in February? It's not normal…"

"It wasn't just for you," she protested, fidgeting. "I had other reasons to come to Hogwarts as well."

"Like what?"

She shrugged. "Everyone at Beauxbatons knew me as 'Fleur's little sister', and all of my accomplishments were invariably compared to her own. It was hard to make friends while I was stuck looking like a child, and their attention when I became pretty felt insincere. I wanted a fresh start, and you being at Hogwarts simply gave me the motivation I needed to come look for it here."

They stared at each other for a while, and that traitorous thought that Gabrielle was a perfectly normal girl creeped back into Harry's head.

"If you wanted a fresh start, you shouldn't have committed first-degree murder before classes started," he said eventually.

"I'm sorry," Gabrielle sighed, shifting a little closer to Harry on his bed. "I really am. If I promise to be a good girl from now on, will you be willing to overlook my past transgressions?"

"No."

Her lower lip extended in a cute pout, and she draped herself across Harry's lap before he could push her away.

"Pretty please?" she asked, looking up at him. "Come on Harry, no one likes a boy who can't put the past behind him."

Harry bucked her off his lap with more force than he was normally comfortable using on a girl, and she gave a shriek that sounded suspiciously pleased as she fell off his bed and clattered to the floor.

"I think everyone's back in bed by now," he said coldly. "Now you have to leave, as promised."

"Ugh, fine. Can I get a goodnight kiss before I go?"

"No!"

Harry woke up the next morning feeling alarmingly well-rested. He had been plagued by nightmares almost every night since the graveyard, but he slept straight through until morning after Gabrielle's departure the previous night. He didn't read too much into that, but the uncommonly sharp state of his mind did help him feel like he could tackle the challenges of the day.

He made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, passively surprised that Gabrielle hadn't been waiting for him in the common room. He made his way to his usual spot in the center of the table with Ron and Hermione, and all three sat down together.

"Have either of you seen Gabrielle this morning?" Harry asked, looking around but still not catching a glimpse of the girl.

Hermione shook her head. "Not yet. Come to think of it, we probably should've waited for her so she didn't get lost in the hallways…"

Harry glanced around the hall one last time before giving both of his friends significant looks. Noticing his expression for what it was, they leaned in closer.

"What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked.

He paused for a moment, wondering how to phrase what he was about to say.

"There's something I have to tell you," he started, "but I'm not sure if you're going to believe me."

Ron scrunched his face in confusion. "We're your best mates – of course we'll believe you. Just tell us what's going on."

Hermione nodded in agreement, and Harry felt a surge of hope in his chest.

"It's Gabrielle, she-"

As if on cue, the girl in question burst through the doors to the Great Hall, striding confidently down the rows of tables and towards the group. She wore her uniform modestly with her silver hair tied in a high ponytail, looking every part the perfect school girl; a sharp contrast to her attire in Harry's room the previous night.

She carried a few textbooks in her arms, and dropped them onto their table with a crash as she sat. As before, she squeezed in next to Harry, making a little more physical contact with him than was strictly necessary.

"Good morning!" she said cheerily, eyeing both the trio and the array of breakfast foods at the center of the table. "This all looks delicious!"

Ron and Hermione returned her greeting, while Harry stayed silent, wondering if her timing was entirely a coincidence.

"You didn't have trouble finding the hall, did you?" Hermione asked as Gabrielle started filling her plate. "It didn't strike me to show you around until just before you arrived."

"Oh, it was no trouble at all," she replied, smiling at Hermione. "I wanted to explore a bit before breakfast, so I left the common room quite early this morning. I don't think anyone else was awake at the time."

"Where did you go?"

Gabrielle blinked at Harry, as if surprised he was talking to her in public, but a moment later a smile spread across her face.

"Oh, here and there," she said casually, taking a sip of her orange juice. "I wandered the halls for a while, and took a walk around the courtyard…"

Ron nodded appreciatively, his mouth full of food as he spoke. "You a morning person, Gabby?"

Harry braced himself at the sudden and rather forward use of a nickname for the girl, and Hermione gave Ron an incredulous look, but Gabrielle didn't seem to mind.

"I just don't need very much sleep," she replied. "I like to wake up early, and I have a rather bad habit of staying up too late." She reached over and pinched Harry's leg at that last part, and he jumped a few inches off his seat in surprise, hitting his knee on the bottom of the table.

"Ow!"

"Harry?" Hermione asked, giving him a strange look. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," he said, trying to resist the urge to glare at Gabrielle. "My leg cramped up is all."

He gave the girl a covert kick under the table, and she gave him a sly smirk in return. Hermione pursed her lips as she watched them.

Not long after, and as more students started to filter into the Great Hall for breakfast, a sixth year Gryffindor with a familiar face but an elusive name approached them. He sidled up close enough to their group to speak, but far enough from Harry that he felt safe.

"Hey…Gabrielle?" the boy said, a little nervously. "Do you want to come sit with us…?"

He gestured to a group of students that sat a ways down the table, watching the interaction expectantly.

"I'm fine where I am, thank you," she replied.

She gave the boy a pleasant smile of dismissal but he didn't budge. Instead, he cast another wary glance at Harry before continuing.

"I know you're from France, so you might not have heard the news…but you should stay away from Potter. He's suspected of murder, and everyone around him gets in trouble. He's dangerous," the boy finished, gulping as Ron and Hermione glared at him.

Harry watched Gabrielle for a reaction, but her face was as cool and placid as a lake. Under the table, however, he noticed her fists clenching and unclenching, leaving bloody nail marks in her palm.

"I know danger when I see it," Gabrielle replied smoothly, surprising Harry with her composure. "unlike the rest of this country, apparently. Now go back to your friends and resume your banal gossip while you wait for Harry to save your hides again; you better pray his patience doesn't run out before Voldemort's does."

The boy slunk back to his friends with only a single regretful look back at Gabrielle. Through the noise of the hall, Harry could just barely make out the words 'too late', 'got to her', and 'imperius?' as the student sat down to debrief his friends.

"Wicked," Ron said with a smile, turning his attention back to Gabrielle. "You told him off hard. I just knew we were going to like you."

"And does that mean you believe us about you-know-who?" Hermione asked, her voice lowered to avoid attracting more attention than was necessary.

"Of course. Harry said he was back, did he not?"

"Well, yeah," Ron said, "but you can see how many people choose not to believe him." He gestured around the hall, where even now students sat whispering and pointing accusatory fingers in their direction.

"Most people choose to believe what is easy rather than what is right," Gabrielle said distinctly. "However, I strive to never become one of those people myself."

Harry glanced at her, wondering if those words were meant for him. Regardless of how he felt about the girl, he had to admit, being stood up for like that by someone that wasn't Hermione or Ron felt pretty nice.

On a whim, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at Gabrielle's palms. With a softly muttered spell, the broken skin stitched itself back together, leaving no sign of the self-inflicted damage behind.

She looked up at him then, and the expression she wore made his breath catch in his throat.

As the group finished breakfast and headed to their first class of the day, Hermione dragged behind with Harry.

"You never told us what you had to say this morning," she whispered, leaning in so only he could hear. "Something about Gabrielle?"

He stole another glance at the girl, who was chatting pleasantly with Ron a few meters ahead of them, and sighed.

"I guess it isn't important," he said eventually. "I'll tell you some other time."