THOxTQ: Consequence of Sounds

Yes, yes I am writing a fanfiction of a fanfiction. And yes, yes I will rename this later. -Hazel

Chapter 1
In some ways, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was just the same as it had been last year. The platform was still crowded and noisy, filled with emotional parents saying teary goodbyes to their often times embarrassed children. Plenty of students still boarded the train, saying hello to their friends and trying to find the best compartment before anyone else could take it.

Yet there was a significant dull from what it had been like in previous years. Ava remembered what it had been like her first year: brighter, more cheerful, and considerably less like a send-off to war.

Ava had hugged her mother outside of the platform. She hadn’t given her much detail on the actual war going on–there wasn’t any reason to worry her mother about a certain wizard’s view on muggles and muggle-raised witches. She pushed her way through the crowd, nodding and saying hello to familiar faces. She had gotten there just early enough to get one of the last remaining empty compartments. Quickly stepping in before anyone else could take it, she put her bags away and sat down. Michael and Kyra would not be here yet–every year since her third year, the year they had all become friends, they had arrived at the train in the exact same order: first Ava, approximately fifteen to twenty minutes until eleven o’clock. Then Michael, who would stride into the compartment just a few minutes after herself. Finally Kyra would run in minutes before departure, probably having slept in late or losing track of time at home.

As if on cue, Michael walked in. “Hey, Ava!” he said, appearing more cheerful than most of the platform outside. Michael had obviously grown another few inches over the summer, as if he weren’t already tall enough.

“Hey, Michael,” she greeted as he started putting his bags away.

“Have you seen Kyra yet?” he asked as he sat down.

“She’s probably just waking up,” Ava said, only half-joking. “Your girlfriend will be here eventually, don’t worry.”

Michael’s face went red. The two had just started dating over the summer and Ava had received letters from both of them announcing their new relationship within minutes of each other. “So, how’s Zack?”

“Haven’t you talked to him?” she asked quickly.

"Well, yeah,” he said. “Haven’t you?”

“Of course,” she said. “I was in Hogsmeade last week.” That was true; she had been to Hogsmeade last week. However, she’d only seen her boyfriend of over two years for a very short time while she was there. They’d gone to The Three Broomsticks and had a very quick drink before she’d had to leave. She’d seen him many other times over the summer, of course, but not as much as she had in previous years. She told herself it was because of time constraints, which it was, wasn’t it?

Michael nodded. “That’s good. I can’t wait for the Hogsmeade trips this year.”

“So you can go to Madam Puddifoot’s with Kyra?”

“No. I mean, if she wants, sure,” Michael stammered. “But I mean, it’s just that they’ll be fun trips, that’s all, they were last year, and–”

“Hey, guys,” Natalie Cole appeared at the door. “Have good summers?”

“Yeah,” said Michael quickly, obviously grateful for the change in topic.

Ava nodded. “Congrats on Quidditch Captain, Natalie,” she said.

“Thanks!” Natalie had been one of Gryffindor’s chasers for years and Ava guessed that she’d go down kicking and screaming before they lost the House Cup. The team had been great in the past, but last year they’d gotten a new Captain that hadn’t been as good. Sure, they’d still won, but only by a few points and a lucky catch by their Seeker. “Team’s going to be great this year, we’ve got good people lined up so far and I’ve got a good feeling about tryouts.”

“When are tryouts?” Michael asked. “Just wondering,” he quickly added.

“Friday,” she said. “If you want to try out, I’d suggest going out and practicing tomorrow before classes start up. And, Ava, make sure you’re not too rusty, you’re still going to have to try out too.”

“Not worried,” Ava said.

“Neither am I, but I don’t want to deal with some second year getting mad they didn’t get in because you missed a few bludgers and they had great flying technique or whatever. Practice. And tell Zack that he better not–”

“Hey guys!” In her normal nearly late, Kyra came to a sudden stop outside of the compartment, almost running straight into Natalie. Just then, the train began to move. Kyra grinned, blowing her long dark hair out of her face. “Made it.”

“Barely,” Ava quipped. “Sleep in late?”

“My alarm wasn’t loud enough,” she insisted, walking into the compartment. “Are you sitting with us, Natalie?”

The older girl shook her head. “No, just saying hello. See you at tryouts, Ava,” she said. Natalie gave a small wave at them and left.

Kyra started putting her stuff away, and Michael quickly stood up to help her. Maybe if Kyra hadn’t been about a foot shorter than Michael, she would’ve protested, but in reality she could barely reach the luggage shelves. They both sat down across from Ava. Kyra set an owl cage down next to her, which held a tiny little thing. It gave Ava the evil eye, and Ava returned the look.

“This year’s gonna be one for the books,” Kyra said. “I can feel it.”

“If you mean textbooks, sure,” Ava muttered. “Fifth year’s a pain.”

“I’m sure the OWLs can’t be that bad, can they?” Kyra wondered. Ava just looked at her. “Okay, fine,” she relented. “So the OWLs won’t be fun. But something big’s going to happen this year, I can feel it.”

“Something big already has happened. Read the papers. Something big happens every day,” Ava deadpanned.

Michael frowned. “The war’s got to end soon,” he’s said. “You-Know-Who’s already been going for so long, there’s no way he’ll last more than a few months, right?”

The war’s only just beginning, Ava thought, but before she had a chance to vocalize these thoughts, there was a knock at the door. She looked up.

Annie Anitho stood at the door. “Hi,” she said. “Can I sit here?”

Michael nodded. “Sure,” he said, and Annie started putting her things away. Annie was weird in an almost endearing sort of way: she wore nice clothing, had good grades, and came from a respectable pureblooded family. She also carried her wand strapped to her leg, wore tiny earrings shaped like eagles, and had a blinking, multicolored tattoo of an eye on her ankle. Annie had cut her hair short over the summer; where there used to be long and flowing dark hair was a short bob that barely went past her chin. Ava wondered if she had cut it because of her recent breakup with Malcolm Parker, but said nothing; she was one of the last people to have any right to comment on another’s relationship.

“Are you all ready for the school year?” Annie asked as she opened a cat carrier and pulled out a darkly-colored cat and set it on her lap. Ava scooted away a few inches away. “Because I’m not,” she admitted.

“No one’s ready for the school year,” Ava said, watching the cat warily, which glanced at her.

“I’m excited,” Kyra piped up.

“Yeah, because you’re mad,” Ava quickly retorted.

“You’re just a pessimist,” Kyra said flippantly. Ava shrugged.

“School won’t be that bad,” Michael muttered. “At least we’re getting a new Defense teacher.”

There was no arguing with that; the previous teacher had been absolutely crazy and had quit a month before finals because she thought the Fat Friar was out to get her. To be fair, she did have some reason to be afraid of one of Hogwarts’ dead residents, but not the Hufflepuff’s ghost. Peeves had been messing with her since the beginning of the school year and making it look like the poor fat ghost, and in return she had given the Hufflepuffs a considerably larger workload than the other houses. Professor Folle had become one of the few people to ever have been universally disliked by the Hufflepuff House.

“Thank God,” Kyra said. “Folle was awful. Any idea who the new one is?”

“I’ve heard rumors,” Annie murmured. “Supposedly it’s someone good. Then again, I don’t think Dumbledore has as many applicants as he used to.”

“Really? I wonder why. I’d be dying to apply with that job’s track record,” Kyra joked.

“Yeah, you would be dying in that job,” Ava said. “Doesn’t matter what their skill level is, anyone who takes that position is a nutter or an idiot.” There was a murmur of agreement from the others and the conversation shifted over to lighter matters.

Eventually the sweets trolley came around and they each got up to buy their pick. Kyra, as always, refused to try anything remotely weird looking and stuck with her usual Pumpkin Pasty and Cauldron Cake; Michael bought a box of moving jelly slugs; Annie bought herself a small army of Chocolate Frogs; and Ava bought several boxes of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and a few Chocolate Frogs. While she had gotten most of the Bertie Bott’s for herself, the rest was going to Zack, whom she always bought some for. She gave the trolley woman her money and stepped back inside.

Kyra’s face scrunched up at the sight of Ava’s choice. “Why do you always get those?”

“I didn’t get them for me, Kyra, I got them for you,” she replied, opening a box and picking out a yellow one. “Hm. This is either butterbeer or piss. Try it?” She offered it to Kyra, who shrunk back. Ava shrugged and popped it into her own mouth. “Nevermind, it’s rotten egg.”

“Disgusting,” Kyra said.

“Delicious,” Ava countered, and tried another one. “See, that one was candy floss. Don’t knock it ‘till you try it, Kyra.”

“I’ll happily knock it, thanks,” said Kyra irritably as she took a bite of her Cauldron Cake. “I’ll live not trying anything that tastes inedible. Or moves,” She added, watching the chocolate frog Annie had just opened leap across the room and closer to Ava. Annie’s cat watched it carefully and Ava quickly scooted away. She would not be mistakenly attacked by a clawed animal because of an enchanted sweet, thank you very much.

“The jelly slugs are basically gummy worms,” Michael reassured her, picking one up and offering it towards her. “And they’re so slow they barely move.”

“I’m good,” Kyra muttered, looking at the candy in a very concerned manner.

Annie caught her frog and bit off its head. She glanced at the card. “Oh, look, I got Mopsus! I haven’t gotten him before. He was a Seer,” she explained.

“He was cool,” Kyra said, glancing over at the card. “Show it to Professor Minou.”

Annie nodded. “I will,” she said, smiling.

Eventually one of the prefects came by to tell them that they would be arriving soon. They changed into their robes and grabbed their luggage as the train pulled to a stop. Annie ushered her cat back into its carrier, which Ava was immensely grateful for. Gathering their things, they exited the compartment and stepped off the train.

Chapter 2
Zack Johnson was leaning against one of the horseless carriages when the other students arrived. When he saw Ava and the others, he raised his hand in a mock wave. “Hey,” he greeted. They each offered their own greetings and proceeded to climb into the carriage.

Arthur was waiting inside. Zack and Arthur had been waiting there for about ten minutes, but when they had heard the train pull up, Zack had gotten out to wait for the others.

“How was the train?” Arthur asked.

“Good,” Michael said. “How’s Hogsmeade?”

“Eh, the usual,” Zack shrugged. “Hogsmeadey.”

“Hogsmeadey?” Annie questioned as the carriage started to move

“Yeah. Hogsmeadey, adjective. To have the quality of Hogsmeade.”

Ava rolled her eyes. “Here, take this, Hogsmeadian,” she said, shoving the sweets she’d bought at him.

“Thanks, love,” he said, grinning.

“Get a room,” Kyra quipped, something she always did whenever something even slightly romantic occurred between the two. Ava gave a very short laugh.

“You’re one to talk,” Zack retorted. “How much time did you and Michael spend together this summer, exactly?” Michael’s face went red.

“Lots,” Kyra shot back, smirking, and Michael’s complexion went from tomato to pomegranate.

“Ah, congrats, man,” Zack grinned, leaning over and clapping Michael’s shoulder. “Good job.” Michael glared at him. “Kidding, kidding. So, any bets on what crazy shit Dumbledore will say this year?”

“Something hopeful and awe-inspiring, but not too awe-inspiring,” Kyra said.

“Probably make us feel bad about ourselves,” Ava said dully. “Try to convince us all to ‘join together’ and ‘deny the evil within’ or whatever.”

“I think it’ll be a good speech,” Annie said thoughtfully. “He is a bit weird, though.”

“A bit,” Kyra laughed. “The man’s crazy. Very talented, very intelligent, would never mess with him. But he’s mad.”

“Hey, that’s not always a bad thing,” Arthur said. “Makes him more interesting, anyway.”

“He’s probably the most interesting person in the United Kingdom,” Michael said. “Have you ever read about some of his accomplishments? You could write books and books about him. Make movies about him.”

“Movies?” Annie frowned. “Like...muggles’ version of moving pictures?”

“We’ll show you some one day, Annie,” Zack said. “Star Wars is good.”

“Star Wars? The stars are fighting?” Annie asked in disbelief. “How does that work? Is it something to do with astromancy?”

“Maybe. No idea what that is,” Zack said in reference to the ‘astromancy’ word. Something to do with divination, maybe. “We’ll show it to you. No spoilers.”

“Okay,” Annie said, obviously skeptical.

The carriage pulled to a stop in front of the castle and they clambered out. Zack looked up at it; he was always astounded at how big the school was up close. The group climbed up the entrance steps and walked with the crowd of students into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall looked better than usual, as it always did at feasts. Hundreds of candles hung in the air by seemingly invisible strings. The ceiling showed the sky: almost dark, but with streaks of red still painted across. A few ghosts floated through the hall, saying hello to whichever students they liked.

Zack, Ava and Michael walked to the Gryffindor table while Annie moved to the Ravenclaws and Arthur and Kyra to the Hufflepuffs. They sat down, Zack in between them. There was still no feast on the table, unfortunately; it would only appeared after Dumbledore finished speaking.

“Look,” Michael muttered, staring up at the High Table. “The new Defense teacher.”

Zack looked over. Sitting towards the end was a tall, middle-aged man with tan skin and thick stubble. “How long until this guy bites it, you think?”

“Hm,” Ava studied him for a moment. “He might last awhile, but not forever. Spring, definitely.”

“I hope he’s good,” Michael said. “There hasn’t been a good one in...a while.”

“Here’s hoping,” Zack said, raising his empty goblet. “God knows we need one.” The other two nodded in agreement.

“Hey, guys,” Almost out of nowhere, Matt Parker sat down in front of them, his friends close behind him. He glanced up at the High Table, where they had been looking moments before. “His name’s Pyrites,” he said. “Former cursebreaker or something, I think. Apparently he isn’t incompetent, so, there’s that. So, you all have a good break?”

Matt Parker was in Zack and Ava’s year. His father was one of the school governors (probably where he had gotten this information from), he was a prefect, and he took Quidditch way too seriously. He was one of the Gryffindor team’s Chasers, and each year he made a huge bet on the Gryffindor-versus-Slytherin match with his younger brother Malcolm, the opposing team’s Keeper. Therefore, he always viewed Quidditch practice more like military training during the first couple months of the year to ensure a Gryffindor win. Zack wasn’t sure if he wanted to see what he and the new Captain Natalie would be like combined.

Michael nodded. “Yeah. A cursebreaker?”

Matt glanced up at Pyrites again. “Yeah, they work for Gringotts and break into tombs to find gold. Fairly dangerous job.”

“Yeah, he definitely picked a safe job here,” Ava muttered. Matt looked like he was about to say something, but just then, the doors opened.

In walked Professor McGonagall with the Sorting Hat and the first years. The talking quieted down and the group walked to the very front. Professor McGonagall set the Sorting Hat up on a stool, stepped back, and the hat started to sing its song.

When Zack was younger, the Hat’s songs had been mostly cheerful, talking about the different Houses and their traits (which Zack still didn’t understand the point of–couldn’t they just mix everyone up instead?). Slowly over the years, though, Zack had noticed its song becoming more somber. This year was no exception; the Hat sang about unity, optimism (even though song didn’t sound very optimistic), and strength.

After it finished, Zack applauded with everyone else. “That was uplifting,” he muttered to Ava.

“I liked it,” Ava said. “It really boosted my spirit. I feel like a new person. We should go sit over at the Slytherin table, I now have the sudden urge to be best friends with Veronica Leigh.”

Zack gave a short laugh and glanced over towards the Slytherins. “Yeah, and I’ll really hit it off with Lohse,” he said as Dumbledore stood to speak.

Dumbledore looked just as old, wise, and strange as he always did, his beard looking even longer than it had last year. “Welcome!” he said. “Before we start our ever-anticipated feast, a few short announcements. First, we are pleased to introduce Professor Pyrites, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

Pyrites nodded to the unenthusiastic applause. Zack knew the man wouldn’t be sitting there a year from now, but he hoped that, as Matt had said, he wasn't completely incompetent.

“As always,” Dumbledore continued. “The forest on the edge of the grounds is out of bounds for students...” The headmaster listed off his usual announcements, including the dates for Quidditch tryouts an almost amused warning against using magic in the corridors on Filch’s behalf. “Now,” he said. “Finally, what I know you have all been waiting for: the feast. Dig in!”

The feast and all of its glory appeared. Zack immediately began piling on more roast beef, potatoes, and trifle than he probably should be able to eat, but easily could. As they ate, he looked around the Hall and noticed a few missing faces. Students such as Calvin Rains from Ravenclaw and Listera Jones of Hufflepuff were nowhere to seen. Zack thought for a moment; he hadn’t seen anything in the papers about them and was sure he would have heard about any sort of attack or fatality of a Hogwarts student or their family. Whenever something like that happened (the numbers had been slowly increasing over the years), everyone knew about it, whether it be during school or during break. He decided that they must have pulled out of Hogwarts. Pretty stupid, he thought. Hogwarts is one of the safest places in the country now. He didn’t worry over it, though–if these students’ parents wanted to pull them out, then it was their problem, not his.

Chapter 3
When Annie finally woke up, she was the last one in her dorm.

Forcing herself to sit up, she sighed. She had tried to get up earlier, she really had. At least she hadn’t completely slept in–Annie figured if she hadn’t asked Stella to wake her when before she went down to breakfast (something she only vaguely remembered the girl doing), she would still be asleep.

Annie stood up and stretched. Mornings were one of the worst parts about Hogwarts and she could only hope that her schedule allowed her some extra time to sleep in this year. She brushed her teeth, combed out her hair, got dressed, and finally trudged through the Ravenclaw Tower and down the spiral staircase to get to the Great Hall, where she happily sat down across from Stella Lohse.

“Morning, Annie,” she said. It looked like she had just finished eating. “I’ve got your schedule–here,” she handed a piece of paper to her. “You missed the owl post, too, so here’s this,” she handed her a small, emerald envelope. “Slug Club invite.”

Annie took the two items and nodded. “Thanks, Stella,” she said and started filling her plate for breakfast.

The Lohses were, in short, a well-known influential family full of absolute assholes. The family had been around for centuries and several members of the family were unafraid to use their name to make their position in society very clear to those around them. Stella and her older brother Lucian were the two eldest children of a Mister Pavor Lohse, a rather intimidating high-ranking ministry official, and a Misses Anne Lohse,  who though was less intimidating, seemed to have the same “holier than thou” aura as her husband. Given this prior knowledge, at a person’s first glance they may get the impression that tall, handsome and brooding Lucian was just as domineering as his father and that beautiful, blonde, and somewhat reserved Stella was just as haughty as her mother. Even after this first impression, some people are still led to these same opinions.

Annie liked Stella, though. She wasn’t the most open person in the world and wasn’t very easy to get to know, but Annie thought she still had a good heart. For example, during last year’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Professor Folle, the teacher had mistreated one of the Hufflepuffs in their class so badly the girl had run out of the room crying. Stella had gotten so angry that she had stood up and called the woman “a repugnant banshee without the possibility of a dream of marrying or even courting anyone short of a retired, alcoholic Gringotts goblin” straight to her face. Stella had gotten two weeks worth of detention, sure, but she had earned the title of Unofficial Favorite Ravenclaw by the Hufflepuffs.

Annie started eating, glanced at her timetable, and gave a small sigh. There was only one weekday where she had first period free. Oh, well–maybe this would be the year she’d start a real morning routine.

She then opened the familiar green letter from Slughorn. It was the invitation to Slughorn’s annual start-of-the-year dinner, taking place this Saturday night in his office. She had been invited to the “Slug Club” since she was a first year–probably because of her family’s name and status, but she liked to think it was because of her skills in Potions class, too.

Annie looked up and around the room. While most students had obviously eaten by now, there were still more people in the Hall than there usually would be at this time–everyone else was suffering the same case of tired as Annie was.

“Annie!” A voice called out. She looked up to see Rachel Hughes sit across from her and next to Stella.

“Hi, Rachel,” she said and smiled. “Sleep well?”

Rachel nodded. “Yeah, still tired though. I can never adjust to school schedules well,” she sighed. “Did you?”

“I’d hope so,” Stella said. “Took you long enough to wake up.”

Annie shrugged. “Bed’s just comfy, I suppose.”

“I’d hope so, you’ve got to sleep there almost ten out of twelve months of the year,” Rachel said. She glanced down at the letter still in Annie’s hands and grinned. “I can’t wait for Slug Club this year. I love Professor Slughorn.”

“He’s such a kiss-ass,” Stella murmured while taking a sip of her tea.

“Oh, definitely,” Rachel agreed. “But he’s great to talk to. I hope he doesn’t leave while we’re still here. I’d hate to get some asshole or something. Potions can be hard enough.”

“I like Potions,” Annie said. “It’s fun.”

“Because you’re so good at it, show off,” Rachel said and flicked a crumb at her.

“Not really. And you’re both good at Potions,” Annie insisted.

Stella laughed. “That’s hilarious. I hate Potions.”

“You hate most of your classes,” Rachel reminded her.

“True,” Stella admitted. “I’m incredibly grateful it’s Sunday today.”

“I’m sure you are,” Rachel said, suddenly grinning.

Stella rolled her eyes and glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to go. See you,” she said, stood up, and walked.

Annie looked at Rachel, raising an eyebrow in obvious bemusement. “She’s got a date,” Rachel explained, smirking. “Except she’s denying it’s a date, even though it’s a scheduled meetup initially asked by someone of the opposite sex, so don’t tell her I said she was going on one.”

“With who?” Annie asked, taking a final bite of her toast.

Rachel frowned a little, looking thoughtful. “I’m not totally sure,” she admitted. “She told me in passing last night after the feast and I couldn’t get a name out of her. I’ve got a few ideas, though. We’ll see. Want to go out to the lake?”

Annie nodded. “Sure,” she said.

Rachel stood up and Annie followed her. They walked out of the Great Hall and through the Entrance Hall, but as they went to turn into the courtyard, Annie walked straight into someone and stumbled back.

“Sorry,” she apologized, regaining her footing. She looked up. “Are you alright–?” She stopped as soon as she saw the person’s face. Malcolm Parker stood in front of her.

Malcolm had grown over the summer, but not by much. His hair was a little longer and his skin had a deeper tan to it. He looked good–much better than the last time she had seen or even talked to him, which had been in May. Annie felt like someone had dug their hand through her and twisted her insides. Her heart hurt.

“Fine,” he said. He didn’t quite meet her eyes, but he also didn’t avoid them. “Are you?” She nodded.

“Hey, Malcolm,” Rachel said rather quickly. Annie immediately turned to her, grateful for the excuse (or was it more of a distraction?) to look away. “Sleep well?”

“Yeah,” he said. “The dungeons are just as homey as always.”

“Glad to hear,” Rachel said. “I’d hate for you Slytherins to get too homesick. Hufflepuff’s just horrible, you know.”

Malcolm scoffed. “I’m sure. What a horrible house to be in,” he rolled his eyes.

“It is,” Rachel said. “Well, Annie and I are going to the lake, and you’re not invited, sorry.”

“Don’t get pulled in by the giant squid,” he joked. He glanced at Annie, gave a small half-smile, and then looked back at Rachel. “See you,” he said and walked away.

Rachel looked at Annie and smiled at her, but Annie could see the traces of sympathy in her eyes. “Come on, let’s go to the lake,” she said. Rachel linked arms with her and started walking.

Annie was quiet. It was stupid, really; she shouldn’t feel this sad. It had been months since she and Malcolm had broken up. She should have moved on a long time ago. Maybe it was because of the summer break–had she not been around Malcolm for a long enough period of time after the breakup to truly move on? Maybe. It seemed like he had moved on, though. He looked much happier than he had last spring.

Either way, she shouldn’t be feeling the way she did. Annie had been the one to break up with him, afterall.

Chapter 4
On Monday morning, Ava couldn’t force herself to be in a good mood if she tried. It had taken her hours to fall asleep, and when she had finally succeeded it was restless and uncomfortable. Naturally, of course, this led her to waking up late, giving her only enough time to grab a few of the last remaining pieces of toasts from the Great Hall as she walked to her first class.

Ava was in her sixth year at Hogwarts, having taken the OWLs the previous year. She’d done well on them for the most part and had gotten into the classes recommended to become an Auror. Well, aside from Herbology anyway–she could pretty much kill any plant by coming within a few inches of it. That was okay, though, she had reasoned–Herbology was only recommended, not required, and she was taking Alchemy this year to make up for it. Surely Alchemy could replace a stupid subject like plant-growing, right?

She was sure, nearly positive in fact, that she wanted to become an Auror. The job sounded right up her alley. Her best class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, even with Hogwarts’ inability to keep the same professor for more than a year. Ava had even gotten an O in the subject on her O.W.L. She wanted to help people and stop dark wizards and witches like Voldemort.

Maybe part of her motivation to become an Auror was really because of Voldemort and the Death Eaters–had she taken offense at their actions on a personal level? Yes. How dare they try to insinuate that Ava didn’t belong in this world! Just because she hadn’t grown up exposed to magic didn’t mean she didn’t have the power to blow them up with it if she wanted to. While it was true that the Death Eaters’ aim was more directed towards muggleborns (Ava had no idea whether she was muggleborn or half-blood–her father had left them when she was a baby), she might as well be one. And the muggles? If any of them ever tried to hurt her mother, she’d walk straight up to Voldemort and punch him in his stupid, ugly face.

Ava stuffed the last bite of toast into her mouth and walked into the new Professor Pyrites’ room. She sat down next to Zack, who was sitting at a table near the back.

“Hey,” he said. “Wake up late?” She shot him a rather angry look. “So, yes,” he confirmed. She nodded. “Did you get breakfast?”

“Barely,” she deadpanned.

“Let’s go down to the kitchens after this, you’ll probably get a way better breakfast down there anyway.”

Ava nodded. “Sure,” she said as the door to the Professor’s office opened and Pyrites stepped out.

Ava could get a better look at him now. Pyrites was a handsome man with well-combed hair and very dark brown eyes. He wore nice but simple black robes and white gloves.

“Good morning, class,” he greeted, stepping to the front of the room. A few mumbled “good mornings” were returned to him. The man raised an eyebrow, but said nothing of the unenthusiastic reply. “You are here, I would hope, because you want to be. I understand that your previous instructors in this subject have not always found it in themselves to be able to properly teach you–” there was some snickering across the room from several students, “–but considering that you have all achieved at least an ‘Exceeds Expectations’ on your O.W.L., I trust that you will not need to rely solely on myself to prepare yourself for your N.E.W.T. You will use this class period to review the first chapter of your textbook. It should be a fair amount of review, so I hope it won’t take up too much of your valuable time. You will answer these questions,” he motioned to the chalkboard, where a long list of numbers was written. “at the end of the chapter and have them complete by time you return to this classroom. Yes, I understand that you have no desire to do this,” he said at the class’ immediate unhappy muttering. “I assure you I have no desire to check these papers. However, as soon as we finish up this chapter–which I hope very much to be this week–we will move onto bigger, better, and more exciting things. Work quietly.”

With that, Professor Pyrites turned around, sat at his desk, began to read a very thick, musty, old looking book, and did not look back up at the class. Even so, Ava had a feeling the man could still closely observe the entire room with ease.

Zack sighed and muttered something under his breath that while Ava could not hear, could easily understand the meaning of. She nodded and pulled out her textbook, parchment, and quill. Ava couldn’t tell if Pyrites was going to be her new favorite or most hated teacher, but she was sure he was going to make a strong impression on herself and the student body.

Ava skimmed through the chapter and started working on the questions. It was mostly review, thankfully, and she finished a good amount of the questions by the time the bell rang to signal the next period.

Ava shoved her things in her bag and stood up. Zack stood, stretching. “Kitchens?” he asked.

She nodded. “Kitchens,” she agreed.

They walked down the stairs and through the basement corridor to the kitchens, passing a few Hufflepuffs that gave them questioning but friendly looks and a hallway of unused rooms. Finally they reached the large painting of a bowl of fruit that covered the entrance to the kitchens. Zack reached up, tickled one of the pears in the picture, and the canvas swung open to reveal the kitchen.

They walked in and were immediately greeted by a dozen house elves.

“What would you like, sir and miss?” squeaked one of them.

Zack looked to Ava. She shrugged. “Uh...well, I didn’t get breakfast, so maybe bac–”

Almost immediately they were brought two chairs, a small table, and pitchers of juice. Quickly following were about a dozen plates full of toast, eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, fruit, doughnuts, and as she had been just about to say, bacon.

“Thanks,” she said, impressed. She sat down.

Zack grinned and sat. “I love house elves,” he said as he began to serve himself.

Ava nodded and started to eat. “Didn’t you already eat?”

“Yeah,” Zack said. “This is second breakfast.”

Ava rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky your broom can still carry you with the way you eat.”

“I’m all muscle, love,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “It’s why I’m the Number One Beater in the Hogwarts Quidditch League.”

“You’re the Number One Beater?” Ava asked, scandalized. “That’s me, I think. You get too many penalties fighting with Lucian.”

“Hey,” he said, pointing a piece of bacon at her and scowling. “Those are on him, the git. Not me.”

“You tried to hit him in the head with your bat last year.”

“Yeah, because he tried to knock me off my broom with his,” he argued.

“You’re both equally bad,” Ava said. “The only person more violent than the two of you is Veronica Leigh, and even she manages not to get as many penalties as the two of you.”

Lucian Lohse was one of the Slytherin Quidditch team’s Beaters; Ava and Zack were Gryffindor’s. Zack and Lucian had been rivals since their very first match against each other. No one was quite sure how exactly it was started–everyone told the story differently, even the students that had been at the match that had no bias to either team. Whatever had happened, the two now tried nothing short of nearly killing each other at each match. It made the already intense Gryffindor versus Slytherin games even more brutal than they already were.

Veronica Leigh was the Slytherin team’s other Beater. While it was true Zack and Lucian were considerably more motivated to succeed in their role as Beater than Veronica, Veronica didn’t need any motivation; she had violence in her blood. Veronica was a seventh year and Ava couldn’t help but wonder if she had a mug or t-shirt somewhere that read ‘JUNIOR DEATH EATER LEAGUE’. Veronica’s favorite pastimes included harassing muggleborns, setting weird spells on helpless small animals, and practicing her Beater skills to get her aim just right so that she could hit other players in the back of the skull.

“At least we don’t send every player on the opposite team to the hospital wing,” Zack protested.

Ava smirked. “Are you defending Lucian, now?”

Zack’s eyes widened for a moment before he scowled deeply. “No,” he said and took an angry bite of toast.

“Oh, don’t take your denial out on the toast, Zack,” Ava said. “It hasn’t done anything to you.”

“It hasn’t,” he agreed. “Lucian has.”

“You’re such a boy,” Ava said, shaking her head but with a small, affectionate smile on her face. She took a final bite of her food and pushed the plate away. “Come on, let’s go back to the common room.”

“But I’m not done eating,” Zack said, looking down at his half-empty plate.

“You already ate,” Ava reminded him. She stood up and looked towards the house elves. “Thanks for the food,” she said. They nodded eagerly and started to clean up the table.

“Anything for the miss and sir!” one of them said happily.

Zack stood up. “Ready to go?” Ava asked.

“Well, I am now,” Zack muttered, but took her arm and started walking.

“You’ll survive until lunch,” she teased as they left the kitchen and returned to the empty basement hallway.

“Doubtful,” Zack said. “I’ll starve to death before next period.”

“How sad,” Ava sighed. “Oh well.”

“Oh well?”

“Yeah. I think I’ll be able to move on.”

“Really?” Zack stopped.

“Yeah,” she said and looked over at him. “Pretty sure.”

He stepped closer to her and wrapped his hands around her back. “Positive?”

“Yeah,” Ava said, and her breath hitched a little. Her chest suddenly felt much tighter. “Positive.”

He kissed her. “I’m kind of hurt.”

“You should be,” she replied quickly.

Zack kissed her again and this time did not stop. Ava kissed him back, like she had done so many times before. But something felt...off. Why? It should have felt just the same as it always did, and in some ways, it did. Yet, there was something that felt incredibly...wrong about the whole thing. Zack’s hands started to slip lower and her chest twisted itself into a very tight knot. She stepped back, pulling away from his arms. “Want to go to the library?” she asked. “I think I need to check something out to answer one of the questions on Pyrites’ assignment–the textbook wasn’t very descriptive.”

Zack blinked, obviously surprised, and Ava felt a surge of guilt go through her. “Sure,” he said. “If you want.”

She nodded and started to walk again. Ava heard Zack’s footsteps begin to follow her after a few seconds, but she did not look back at him. Ava didn’t want to think about what she had just felt, and if that meant a long walk of silence to the library, then so be it.

Chapter 5
Kat walked out of her common room with a look of utter smugness–a dangerous but well deserved move on the muggleborn’s part.

Chaser–Katherine Murray. She had made the Quidditch team! After two years of disappointment, the third time really was a charm.

Tryouts had been last Friday and it was now Tuesday. Kat was not a patient person and the waiting had practically been torture. Running down to the common room to check the notice board for the list had been the first thing she’d done that morning. And there, right there, was her very own name.

She had wanted to play Quidditch since the first time she saw a game at the age of ten. All of the players had been no more than the age of fourteen, the brooms had been ancient and slow, and they hadn’t had a real snitch or bludgers, but it had been wonderful! Kat had been nowhere near good enough to get on the team when she was younger, but during her third year she had been confident she would be taken on as a backup player. No such luck then or the year afterwards. They had a new Captain this year, though–Lucian was finally replacing the awful purist boy that had graduated the previous spring. And now she was on the team! Kat wondered briefly if she would have made it on earlier if Lucian had been Captain before, but didn’t dwell on it. She was on the team now and that was all that mattered.

Kat strided into the Great Hall with a skip in her step and sat down across from Malcolm. “Morning,” she chirped, reaching for the toast and marmalade.

“Hey,” he said, looking up from his Arithmancy textbook. “Congrats on Chaser.”

“Thanks,” she smiled. “Congrats on Keeper, again,”

“Thanks,” he said. “Lucian will be a good Captain, probably. Hopefully we get the Quidditch Cup this year.”

“We will,” Kat said confidently. “We’ve got a good team.”

Malcolm nodded. “We almost won last year,” he said. He looked over to the other side of the room at the Gryffindor table and scowled. Kat followed his glare and thought she saw him looking at his brother. She turned back to him and grinned. “Still bitter over that bet, huh?”

“Yes,” he muttered. “We were so damn close.”

“This year,” Kat said brightly and took a bite of her toast. “Have you figured out the wager for this year yet?” Malcolm shook his head. “Well, you better hurry,” she said seriously. “There’s barely over two months left. Can’t wait long for those kinds of things, you know–”

Kat felt a very sudden shove at her back and her ribs hit the side of the table. Ow, she thought, and turned to see what had happened.

Veronica Leigh and a few of her equally awful friends were a few feet away, walking towards the doors of the Great Hall and laughing. Veronica looked at her. “Sorry, mudsy,” she sneered. “Saw you actually got onto the team–what’d you have to do, shag Lohse?”

Kat’s face flushed red with anger. “No, I got on because I can play. He got Captain because he’s good, too. You, though–I bet you couldn’t get Captain even after trying to ride Slughorn, though, right?”

Veronica’s grin faded quickly into a look of hatred. “How dare you, you filthy–”

“Veronica,” Malcolm interrupted. “I hate to interrupt what were probably some very wise, sophisticated words, but I think I just heard Slughorn calling for you out in the hallway,” he said, pointing to the doors.

Veronica fixed her glare to Malcolm for a moment, looked back at Kat, and then turned around and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Kat turned to Malcolm and started laughing, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “That felt good.”

Malcolm grinned. “That was brilliant, Kat,” he said.

“She’s going to hate me now,” Kat said, feeling a bit of worry in her chest, but couldn’t help from smiling. “You, too, probably.”

He shrugged. “She already hated both of us.”

“True,” Kat agreed. “Mudbloods and blood traitors, right?”

“Exactly. The best kinds of wizards and witches,” he said, nodding.

“Who are?” Arcanna Phan asked as she sat down next to Malcolm. Kat noticed him quickly close his Arithmancy book and shove it in his bag as he scooted over to make room for her. “Not you, I’d hope. I’d lose hope in wizardkind.”

“Both Kat and I, actually,” Malcolm said. “Mudbloods and blood traitors.”

“Oh, right,” Arcanna said, rolling her eyes and pushing a strand of her long shiny dark brown hair behind her ear. “I forgot, you guys are right at the top of the food chain, aren’t you?”

Kat nodded. “Most definitely. We’re ruling over everyone, especially families like the Leighs.”

“Oh, the Leighs, how unworthy are they to even set foot in your presence,” Arcanna said, voice practically dripping in sarcasm as she scooped a serving of scrambled eggs onto her plate. “Please, accept me as worthy enough to even grovel before you.”

“Eh. I guess,” Malcolm said.

“Thanks,” Arcanna said as she took a bite of eggs. “Appreciate it.”

Malcolm grinned. “No problem, Canna.”

Kat quickly looked between the two and then glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to go talk to McGonagall before class, need to make sure I did the assignment right.” She stood and shifted her bag onto her shoulder. “See you Malcolm, Arcanna,”

“See you,” they both chorused simultaneously.

Kat smiled and walked away. This is going to be a good year, she decided. She walked out of the Great Hall thinking of Quidditch and of her friends and of school, any concerns of Veronica Leigh disappearing from her thoughts.

Chapter 6
Over three weeks had passed since the start of school and September was coming to a close. Zack thought the teachers were trying to kill them with work–even with the extra free periods there was barely enough time to get it all done. Did Zack enjoy his classes? Yes, of course, especially now that he was able to get rid of unwanted core classes such as Potions. Did Zack sometimes hate his professors, the ungodly amount of homework they assigned, and the large amount of studying and practicing that came with it? Hell yes.

It probably didn’t help that Zack spent a good amount of time thinking about Ava. What had happened? It had seemed fine, it had been fine, for over nearly three years! Now, was he just imagining it or was it really true that it seemed she could barely look at him?

Had he done something? Zack couldn’t think of anything that might upset Ava. Had Ava done something? Ava wouldn’t cheat, would she? Of course she wouldn’t. So what was wrong?

As Zack walked back from the Great Hall to his dormitory after dinner, he was so lost in his thoughts that he nearly missed the two obviously upset girls walking quickly past him, one talking quickly and quietly to the other.

Yet, he didn’t. Zack turned. “Rachel? Annie? What’s wrong?”

The two girls turned. Annie’s arms were wrapped tightly around herself and her eyes were red and puffy from crying. Rachel had one of her arms linked with Annie’s and her eyes were tinged red as well.

Annie covered her mouth with her hand and held back a sob. “Z-Zia t-tried to kill-kill herself,” she choked out.

Oh. Zack immediately stepped forward and hugged her. Annie sobbed again. He had to think for a moment–who was Zia again? The image of a short, brown haired Ravenclaw girl appeared in his mind. She was in Annie and Rachel’s year, wasn’t she? Annie and Zia must have been roommates.

“They-they found her an hour ago,” Annie muttered. “She..she was...they brought-brought her to the infirmary.”

“I’m sorry,” Zack said. “She’ll be okay, though. They’ve got magic.”

Annie gave a small nod and stepped back from him, wiping at her eyes. “It-it’s just...she seemed so happy. It didn’t...I don’t know why...it doesn’t make sense.”

Zack nodded. “She’ll get help,” he said. “Is she still in the infirmary?”

Annie shook her head. “I don’t know,” she mumbled. “They might’ve taken her to St. Mungo’s,” she said, referring to the wizarding hospital in London.

Zack nodded and hugged her again. “She’ll be alright,” he reassured her. Annie nodded, hugged him, and stepped back. Zack looked over to Rachel, who stood off to the side. She looked up from the ground and to the two of them. She gave a small smile.

“She will, Annie,” Rachel said. “You know Zia. She’ll make it out of this.”

Annie nodded. “Yeah,” she said quietly. She looked up at Zack. “Thank you,” she said, managing a weak smile.

“Of course,” Zack said sincerely. “If you want to talk, then just come find me.”

She nodded again. “Let’s go,” she muttered to Rachel and started walking away.

Rachel nodded and looked over to Zack. “Library tomorrow?” she asked quietly.

Zack nodded. They had a lot to talk about.

***

Word of Zia and her attempted suicide spread through the school like wildfire–Zack had barely walked into his common room when he heard conversation of it. Zack didn’t bother partaking in it, instead opting to go up to his dorm instead. Still, he worried about the girl and decided that, if she were in the infirmary and taking visitors, he would go and talk to her the next day.

So that next morning, Zack went to the infirmary right after breakfast, it being a Saturday and therefore having no worries on Madam Pomfrey dismissing him due to his missing class or studying. Even so, when he walked in, the matron still sent him off.

“She’s not taking any visitors today, sorry,” the nurse said.

“Will she be soon?” he asked.

The nurse shook her head. “She’s not decided yet. I’m sure you’ll hear from one of the many students that have tried getting in here half a dozen times today when she’s taking visitors.”

Madam Pomfrey went back to her work and Zack turned and walked away, passing a couple of Ravenclaws carrying flowers as he left the infirmary.

Zack wasn’t surprised–he had figured that Zia wouldn’t be accepting visitors, but had wanted to try anyway. He would try again, later, but for now he headed to the library. It was earlier than his and Rachel’s usual meeting time, but that was fine; he needed to work on his Transfiguration paper, anyway.

Zack walked up to the library and took a seat at one of the tables near the back of the library. He pulled out his books and essay and started to work, but couldn’t will himself to concentrate enough to write more than a few sentences. He had barely gotten two lines down when Veronica, Adriane, and Daman sat down on the other side of the room.

Oh, great, he thought. These assholes.

Veronica alone was bad enough, but Adriane Smythe and Daman Jolicoeur completed the Holy Trio of Shitty Human Beings. Adriane was the Queen Bee of the less-than-kind students of Slytherin House, Veronica and Daman being her two main Worker Bees, Daman especially. While Zack had had as little interaction with the them as possible, even he knew Daman followed Adriane around like a lost puppy, following her every wish and command. Even so, Daman was a very talented wizard had injured many students through various spells. Sure, some of these were unproven, but everyone knew it led back to Daman and the trio.

Zack ignored them, not in the mood to deal with the three of them. He tried shift his focus back onto the paper, but only minutes had passed when he noticed the three of them glancing over at him. They were speaking with each other, too quietly and too far away for Zack to hear anything, but he could’ve sworn he saw them look at him. If they wanted to start something with him, then fine, he was game.

Daman stood up and stretched. Zack reached towards his wand. Daman started walking in his direction. Zack tensed, ready to fight–

“Hey,” Rachel suddenly sat down in front of him. Her curly hair was disheveled and the bags under her eyes were worse than usual. “You’re early, usually I’m here first. Then again, I just woke up.”

Zack glanced between her and Daman, who was now looking through one of the book shelves. Had Rachel disrupted Daman’s plan of attack, or was Zack just paranoid?

“Yeah,” he said, looking back to her. “Needed to work on Transfiguration homework. Didn’t sleep well?”

Zack and Rachel had basically grown up together–both thrown into the Ministry’s version of a foster home for Hogwarts students in Hogsmeade at around the same time and neither actually being old enough to attend Hogwarts. Now, it being almost seven years later, the two were practically siblings. Even though Zack was a year ahead of her and in a different house, they were both still close and met at the library on a regular basis to talk.

Rachel sighed. “Not at all,” she said. “Did you?”

“Eh.”

She nodded. “At least it’s Saturday,” she muttered. “No class. How’s your homework going?”

“It’s not.”

“You’ve got time. Weekends exist for a reason,” she said, giving a reassuring smile before her tone turned more serious. “How are you?”

“Fine,” he responded truthfully. “Just..it’s disturbing. How’s Annie?”

“Yeah,” she said. “She’s just shaken up. Zia’s one of her roommate, afterall.”

“‘Course,” he said. “Are you?”

Rachel nodded. “It’s just...I don’t know her very well, but she seemed very happy. I know that sounds pretty cliché, but..it’s true,” Rachel frowned and looked around the library. “Anyone else been in here, aside from them?” She nodded over towards the group of Slytherins.

Zack shook his head. “No,” he said. “Why?”

Rachel lowered her voice. “Apparently one of the second years fell off of the moving staircases.”

“What?” Zack looked at her, surprised. “A first year, maybe, but a second year?”

“Yeah,” Rachel nodded. “I guess his friends didn’t even see him fall–one minute he was right behind him, the next the next he was gone. I understand it’s easy to trip on those things, but to just fall off? That...well, it’s a feat.”

Zack frowned, thinking. “Do you think he fell on purpose?”

Now it was Rachel’s turn to look surprised. “I’d doubt it,” she said. “I mean, I think his friends were right there. Then again, you can’t really trust anything you hear at Hogwarts.”

“Maybe,” he muttered. “I guess.”

Rachel looked down at the table, thoughtful. “It is weird, though,” she admitted. “Two serious things like that happening with students so soon together. Of course, the moving staircases aren’t exactly safe, but...Well, he’s going to be okay, anyway, from what I’ve heard.”

“That’s good,” Zack said. “He’s in the infirmary?”

Rachel nodded. “I think so. I hope they didn’t have to bring him to Saint Mungo’s, that’d be awful. Madam Pomfrey is good, though.”

“The best, she is,” Zack agreed. “Listen...can I get advice?”

“Sure,” she said, frowning a little. “What is it?”

“It’s about Ava,” he said. “She’s acting...different. Everything seemed fine, but out of nowhere she started acting just...different. She won’t talk to me as much, she won’t kiss me, she won’t be alone with me, it’s like she’s going out of her way to avoid me. But I didn’t do anything. It was like...everything was great one moment, and literally a second later she can barely look at me,” he said miserably.

Rachel frowned, thinking. “You’ve tried to talk to her about it?”

“She changes the topic, if I even get the chance to ask her.”

She was silent for a moment. “...You’re sure everything was good before?”

He thought for a moment. “I guess we didn’t spend as much time together last summer as we usually do...but that was her call, not mine.” As he said it, he realized that maybe things hadn’t been perfect before. Ava had always said she was busy or unable to travel to Hogsmeade over the summer–had that really been true?

Rachel nodded. “Does she act this way with anyone else?”

“No.”

“Well...I don’t know, Zack, I’m sorry. She might just be stressed out right now and wants to focus on things like school over relationships and isn’t handling it well. How long has this been going?”

“Almost three weeks,” he muttered.

Rachel was silent for a moment, thinking. “Okay. Try to reach out to her, but if she doesn’t respond, give it another week or two. It’s still the first month back into school–she might not be dealing with it well. I can’t see Ava acting that way for much longer than that without actually saying something about it or going back to normal. You’re sure you didn’t do anything?”

“Positive,” Zack said to Rachel’s somewhat skeptical look, but she nodded.

“Just give her some time and space,” she said, smiling a little. “She’ll figure it out.”

He nodded, still unconvinced. “Yeah,” he muttered.

Zack looked up at the sound of footsteps. Malcolm Parker came walking quickly over to them. He was pale and looked nearly sick. “Rachel,” he said quickly. “Prefects’ meeting, now.”

Rachel’s expression immediately turned to one of concern. “What happened?” she asked.

“It’s Kat,” Malcolm said, face almost expressionless but his voice very dark. “She tried to jump off the Bell Tower.”

Chapter 7
The next few days at Hogwarts were some of the strangest Michael had ever seen. The mood of everyone around him was much duller than it had been just the week before. And after what had happened, what else could be expected?

Not only this, but the Ministry had gotten involved at Hogwarts. Afterall, three students dying in less than twenty-four hours, at least two of them with definite suicidal intentions? Even for Hogwarts it was a little too out out there.

Kat, Zia, and the boy that had fallen, a second year Hufflepuff named Caden, were all supposed to be fine, but would not be back in class until next week. Michael was relieved, especially about Kat. He hadn’t visited her yet, but he would soon–Madam Pomfrey had said she could start taking visitors tonight at the earliest, and Michael was headed straight to the infirmary right after dinner.

As Michael sat through History of Magic, he couldn’t help but think of everything that had happened. Michael didn’t get it. Why had Kat done it? There was no reason for Kat to try to jump off the Bell Tower. He had talked to her just hours before it had happened and she had seemed just fine. Michael wondered if he had missed something, something she might have said or done, that would have alerted him to her future plans. Could he have stopped her from trying? Could anyone have stopped her? It made him feel sick just to think about it. He could only be thankful that there were spells placed around the towers as a precaution against falling students–whether it be on accident or on purpose.

The sound of a bell interrupted his thoughts, signaling the end of the class period and the beginning of lunch hour. Oh, no, he thought, looking up at Professor Binns and the rest of the class. He had completely zoned out and had absolutely no idea what the ghost had been talking about. History of Magic was truly one of his favorite and best classes, something his friends thought he was crazy for, and he had missed every word his teacher had said. Sure, that was what almost everyone else in the class went through every day, but Michael refused to lower his standard. Michael quickly stood and walked over to Eve Zycia, a very smart, blonde Hufflepuff girl that could only be described as “bubbly.” Eve, like Michael, actually enjoyed and paid attention to History of Magic.

“Hey, Eve,” he said. “Could I borrow your notes? I’ll get them right back to you–I kind of zoned out in class,” he admitted.

Eve smiled and nodded. “Sure!” she said and handing him her notebook. “Don’t worry, it was kind of boring today–you didn’t miss too much.”

“Thanks, Eve,” he said, smiled.

“You’re welcome! See you, Michael,” she gathered her things and left the classroom.

Michael went back to his chair, set his own things in his bag, and started walking to lunch, flipping through Eve’s notebook on his way. Today’s lessons had been over the goblin rebellions. While Michael was disappointed he hadn’t listened to everything Binns had said, as he found the rebellions very interesting, he was relieved it had only been over some of the causes and not the battles themselves. Eve had taken good notes, though–he would be fine for the next test.

Michael entered the Great Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table. He served himself a cheese sandwich and started copying Eve’s notes over to his own notebook. By the time he was nearly finished writing, Zack sat down next to him and started to eat.

“Hi,” Michael said, looking up.

“Hey,” he muttered back.

Michael closed the notebooks and put them back into his bag. “How was, uh...Care for Magical Creatures?”

Zack shrugged. “It was okay,” he said. “Learned about Glumbumbles, but it was kind of boring. Didn’t really pay attention.”

Michael wondered briefly what a Glumbumble was, but didn’t ask. “It’s okay, I didn’t pay attention during History of Magic.”

“Wow, I wonder how why,” Zack said, rolling his eyes. “Glad I got out of that class.”

“It’s interesting,” Michael defended one of his favorite classes. “You just have to get past the way Professor Binn’s talks, that’s all. I wish I paid attention. I just...couldn’t.” Michael frowned, thinking. “Do you want to go try to visit Kat with me after supper? Madam Pomfrey said she might be able take visitors tonight.”

Zack nodded. “Sure,” he said.

Michael nodded and stood. “I’m going to ask Arthur–he’ll want to, they’re really good friends.” He turned around and walked over to the Hufflepuff table, where Arthur sat near Kyra. “Hey,” he said, sitting down.

Arthur looked over at him. “Hey,” he greeted. “How’re you?”

“Good,” Michael said. “You?”

“Pretty good,” Arthur said, smiling. “Good day so far. Lunch is great, you try one of these biscuits?” he asked, holding up said dessert.

Michael shook his head. “No, not yet. Hey, you want to go visit Kat with me later? Madam Pomfrey said she might be able to take visitors after supper.”

Arthur’s face fell, portraying an emotion Michael couldn’t quite figure out. “Why do you want to visit her?”

Michael blinked, taken aback. “Well...she’s in the hospital wing. And..I mean, she probably wants to see her friends–”

“She’s fine,” Arthur said, turning away from Michael and back to his food. “I know everyone says she tried to jump off the Bell Tower, but that's just a rumor. There's no way she’d do that. You know her, Michael–Pomfrey’s probably just being strict about her release from the infirmary because of Zia and Caden. Kat’s fine.”

Michael frowned. “Arthur, she’ll want to see you, probably more than anyone else. You’re one of her best friends. She needs you.”

“No, she doesn’t,” he snapped. “It was just an accident, what happened. I’ll see her when Pomfrey decides to finally release her.” Arthur stood up and grabbed his bag. “I need to get to class. Bye, Michael,” he said, turned around, and walked out of the Great Hall.

Michael stared after him. What had just happened? Why was Arthur acting like this? Kat and the Bell Tower hadn’t been an accident, Arthur knew that. How could he be in denial, four days later?

“Michael?” Kyra’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to see her giving a small, reassuring smile. “He’s just upset, don’t take it personally. He’s just in denial about it. You know it’s gotta be hard on him, with his family and all.”

Arthur’s parents and brother had been killed two summers ago. While the Daily Prophet had called it a “freak accident”, in reality they had been murdered by some of You-Know-Who’s Death Eaters, his father being a muggle and his mother being a witch whose brave words of pro-muggle support had been spoken too well. While Arthur seemed to have moved on since then, his best friend nearly dying by her own choice couldn’t have been easy on him.

Michael nodded. “Do you want to go?” he asked her. “Zack is going, too.”

Kyra nodded and smiled. “Sure,” she said. “After supper?” Michael nodded. “Okay. If she isn’t, we’ll just try again later. I’m sure she’ll want to see her friends by now, it’s been days.” Kyra frowned. “You know...it’s all very weird. Why do you think she...you know, did it?”

Michael shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I have no idea.”

“Neither do I, and it’s awful,” Kyra said sadly. “We just need to be there for her.” Michael nodded, looking down at the table. “It’ll be okay, Michael,” she reassured him. “I’m sure it will be.”

“Yeah,” he muttered. He stood up. “See you, Kyra,” he said.

“Bye, Michael,” she said, smiling at him.

Michael turned and went back to sit at the Gryffindor table. Zack looked over at him. “What the hell happened to you?” he asked, seeing Michael’s very put out expression.

“Arthur won’t go,” Michael explained. “He’s...in denial or something about what Kat did.”

Zack frowned, looking thoughtful. “He’s been through a lot, Michael,” he said. “He probably doesn’t want to believe what happened. We’ll go visit Kat tonight and after we talk to her, maybe he’ll change his mind.”

“Yeah,” Michael said, nodding.

“Zack!” Natalie Cole came walking up to them. “Practice is being moved up from tomorrow to tonight, same time.”

“What?” Zack scowled. “Why?”

“Slytherin wanted to change times–don’t give me that look, Zack, it isn’t Lucian’s personal attack against you–so I told him we could do it. Tell Ava.”

“You tell her,” he said irritability, turning away from her and back to his plate, stabbing a piece of turkey with his fork.

Natalie raised an eyebrow. “Fine,” she said. “I expect the both of you to be playing to your best.”

The older girl turned and walked off to tell Ava, who was sitting farther down the table.

“Can’t go see Kat tonight, then,” Zack said after a moment, looking up at Michael. “Sorry,” he apologized. “Tomorrow.”

“It’s okay,” Michael said, smiling a little but feeling the opposite on the inside.. “So, how’s Quidditch going?”

“Good,” he muttered. “Prepping for the match against Slytherin next month. Of course, Slytherin’s got a great lineup this year, so Matt’s treating it all like a damn boot camp before heading to war, of course.”

Michael nodded. “I’m sure you guys will do great...Uh...will there be any empty spaces next year?”

Zack looked over at him. “You want to be on the team?”

“Yeah,” Michael admitted. “Just..I’m not very good at Quidditch. Haven’t played it that much.”

“I’ll train you,” Zack offered. “You’ve got the build of a Keeper, maybe a Chaser...I could see you being a Seeker...we’ll see what you do best in.”

Michael nodded eagerly. He’d wanted to be on the Quidditch team since his first year, particularly as the Gryffindor Seeker. Maybe next year would finally be his chance. “Thanks,” he said.

“Sure,” Zack shrugged. “We’ll start...I don’t know. This weekend?” Michael nodded. “Great. This weekend, you start your training.” Zack stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Gotta go. See you, Michael.”

“See you,” he said, waving after him. The thought of Kat disappeared from his mind, however briefly, and instead was replaced with the excitement of Quidditch.

***

After dinner that night, Michael met Kyra at the entrance to the Great Hall.

“Hi,” he said, walking up to her.

Kyra smiled. “Hi! Let’s go, I don’t want to deal with a bunch of other people in the infirmary and maybe there won’t be so many now.” Kyra grabbed his hand and they started walking to the hospital wing.

“Should we, uh, bring anything?” he asked, thinking.

“I don’t think so. We already left her cards earlier this week, and what else is there to bring, homework? She probably already has that...I would not want to be getting caught up on school in there...do you think they’re making her work on school?”

“Maybe.”

Kyra shook her head. “Teachers will stop at nothing to enforce their lessons. I mean, look at Binns, he’s dead and he’s still teaching!”

“I like Professor Binns,” Michael protested.

“I know, but you’re crazy,” Kyra teased as they walked up the stairs to the first floor. “The rest of us are sane enough not to be able to tolerate his class. I can’t wait until I can drop it next year. I’m going to completely fail the History of Magic O.W.L. Could you help me study?”

“Sure, but I’m a year behind you,” Michael reminded her.

“Yeah, but you still probably know everything better than me. I barely remember what we studied last year–something about the dwarf wars?”

“Goblin rebellions.”

“Right. That. Yeah, you have to help me study.”

Michael nodded. “Sure,” he said.

“Thanks,” Kyra said, leaning up on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek as they reached the entrance to the hospital wing. Michael felt his face turn a slightly redder shade.

They walked inside and Madam Pomfrey came out of her office. “Here to see Kat?” she asked.

Michael nodded. “Please.”

She nodded and led them to a curtained off bed at the end of the room, walking past two other curtained off areas on their way which could only have held Caden and Zia. “You have visitors, Kat,” Madam Pomfrey said and walked away, leaving them to talk.

Kat was laying in her bed, reading what looked like a textbook for Charms. Her long black hair was pulled into a very messy bun and she wore her pajamas. While she seemed a little paler and more tired than usual, she looked fairly normal, as if she were just doing her usual nightly studying. She looked up at them and smiled. “Hi, guys,” she said, putting her book aside. “Miss me? Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t let me have any visitors. It’s been so boring with just her, Caden, and Zia.”

Michael and Kyra sat down in chairs next to the bed. Kyra smiled. “We did miss you. We were just about to break you out, actually. We were starting to go through Kat-withdrawal,” she said seriously.

Kat laughed, rolling her eyes. “Right, I’m sure. Kat-withdrawal. Funniest thing I’ve heard all day.”

“It is,” Kyra laughed, and then her expression turned more serious. “How are you? We really have all missed you.”

Kat’s eyebrows scrunched up a bit. “I’m fine,” she said. “Really, aside from being stuck in here for days, I’m good. Trust me, I’ve been psychoanalyzed about a dozen times since Saturday.”

“Then what happened?” Michael asked in disbelief. “Why...why are you here in the first place?”

Kat frowned and looked down. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I mean...I do know. I tried to jump off the Bell Tower, I did try to kill myself, I’m sure everyone in the entire school has heard it. But...I don’t know. I just got so sad on Saturday. It was like...I didn’t think I could ever be happy again. There was no point to anything. It was miserable. And I was coming back from Herbology, and those thoughts wouldn’t stop, and there was the Bell Tower right there, and it just...made sense to go up there and, you know, end it.” Kat gave a shaky laugh. “Thank God for those safety spells, huh?”

“It just hit you out of nowhere?” Kyra asked, frowning. “The sadness?”

“Sort of,” Kat nodded. “Sort of gradual, but...very sudden, yeah. The same thing happened with Caden and Zia, I guess,” she said. “And all of us, we still felt it for about a day afterwards. I think they had to sedate Zia...Caden broke his leg and bruised up some bones, so he couldn’t do too much else...I was the good one, of course, though I think I might’ve cursed out Dumbledore when he suggested I might be given a sedative, too. Maybe they did give me a sedative, actually.”

“So you’re okay now?” Michael asked for reassurance. “You are happy?”

Kat nodded. “Of course! I can’t wait to get back to class. Do you really think I’d try to off myself after finally making that Quidditch team? No way. It’s just, Saturday...Honestly? It feels like a dream.”

Kyra stared at the wall, obviously deep in thought. “Do you know if the staff’s got any idea what happened to you?”

Kat shook her head. “They won’t say,” she said. She lowered her voice. “I think they think it’s to do with the Dark Arts, though...they brought in the Ministry, did you see that?” Kyra and Michael both nodded. “Yeah. No idea how someone could get away with so much dark magic inside Hogwarts. I’m sure if it is that, they’ll be caught...Maybe it was an accident or something, I don’t know.”

“Why would someone want to hurt you, though, Kat?” Michael asked.

Kat laughed. “I’m a Slytherin mudblood, Michael,” she said. “Not exactly the most popular among certain people throughout the school.”

Michael’s eyes widened, something suddenly clicking, but before he could say anything, Madam Pomfrey appeared.

“Alright, that’s enough for one night,” she said quickly. “Back to your dorms, curfew is soon.”

“But they just got here!” Kat protested.

“I don’t care, you need to sleep, Katherine,” Madam Pomfrey said. “You’ve spent all day with your face in your books.” She turned to Michael and Kyra. “You can come back later this week,” she said. “Now, go back to your dorms.”

Kat sighed. “See you, guys,” she muttered. “Come back soon.”

Kyra smiled at her. “We’ll be back, Kat,” she reassured her. “Kat-withdrawal, remember?”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed, though his mind was only focusing partially on the conversation. “Kat-withdrawal. We’ll be back.”

Kyra and Michael left the infirmary. As soon as they were in the hallway, Michael turned to her and started speaking in a quiet, rushed tone. “I think she kicked us out because she heard our conversation.”

“Well, yeah, that makes sense,” Kyra muttered. “Don’t want us talking about it. Stupid, though, it’s not like it’s that big of a deal.”

“No, it is,” Michael said. “Do you know what Zia and Caden’s blood statuses are?”

Kyra’s eyes widened. “Zia’s muggleborn,” she whispered. “And Caden...isn’t he–?”

Michael nodded. “Yeah. All three of them are muggleborn. All three of them had the sudden urge to kill themselves, with seemingly no explanation, within twenty-four hours of each other.”

Kyra stopped, staring at him, horrified. “Michael...you don’t think that...You-Know-Who has anything to do with this, do you?”

“I do,” he said. “Maybe not directly, but yeah. Supporters of him.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered, staring into space. Michael knew that she must have been thinking of her own family, all of them muggles. “That means it’s possible that...that..."

“The Death Eaters have gotten into Hogwarts,” Michael finished for her, and as he said it, it was like a weight was crushing into his chest as the realization set in. “And they nearly killed our friend.”

Chapter 8
Ava’s long walk from the Gryffindor common room to the dungeons for biweekly Alchemy had become one of her favorite pastimes.

The class was small and was only offered every other year. Slughorn taught it, as there was no reason to hire an extra teacher for a class that only met twice a week. While Ava didn’t care for the man, she still loved the class. She did very well in it, much better than she had expected. She enjoyed the people in the class, too, for the most part. That was lucky, considering there weren’t even a dozen of them in it.

The walk to class was solitary and gave her the time to think or not think–whatever she felt like, really. Ava didn’t have to worry about homework, because there was no reasonable way to do her homework while walking down the many stairs leading to the dungeons. She didn’t usually have to worry about people getting in her away, as not many people took the same path as her to get to the dungeons during that particular passing period. And she didn’t have to worry about avoiding Zack, because right then, there was no reason for Zack to be anywhere near her for her to avoid.

Ava knew it was ridiculous, avoiding Zack. She didn’t know what to do, though. She didn’t even know how she felt. She didn’t want to break up with Zack, she cared about him deeply. He was one of her best friends! Yet...something felt so wrong about their relationship...And whenever she thought about it enough to get near to figuring out what was wrong, the thoughts she had she didn’t like, and so Ava stopped thinking about them. Childish, yes, but it seemed to be working well enough for now. Still, though, it was only working for now, and even then, was it really working?

Ava sighed, stepped down onto the first floor, and starting making her way to the dungeon staircase. Maybe she should just stop avoiding Zack and try everything again. This was probably just some weird phase she was in, right? She and Zack just needed to interact again for a little while and then maybe everything would go back to normal. That day in the dungeons had just been an off day. It had been the first day of school, afterall. The first day of school was always a strange day.

That was a month ago today, Ava thought with a pang of surprise. It’s been a month since we’ve had a real conversation.

Yes, Ava decided then, she would try to reconnect with Zack. It had been a month. Surely that was enough time to get over whatever she had been feeling.

“Hey, Ava,” a voice said, and Ava looked up to see Matt Parker walking next to her. “Ready to learn about Paracelcus and his contributions to modern day muggle and wizarding medicine through his work with alchemy?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she muttered. “Don’t like the history aspect of alchemy as much as the practical.”

“Neither do I,” he said, sighing. “We got out of History of Magic for a reason, Slughorn should understand this.”

“Didn’t Slughorn have Binns as a Professor? You’d think he’d know,” Ava replied. “Of course, Slughorn might be old as dirt.”

“Yeah, but Binns is dead. He’s older than dirt,” Matt reminded her. Ava gave a short laugh.

“Probably why he’s so boring,” she commented as they walked down the stairs and over to the Professor Slughorn’s classroom. They walked into room and sat at their table together.

Matt and Ava had never been close, despite being in the same Year and House. While they had gotten along, they had never truly been friends until this year through Alchemy class. They sat next to each other and helped each other study, as well as made fun of strange drawings of historically significant Alchemists in their textbooks and poked fun at Slughorn’s kiss-ass personality.