YAAAY!! FINALLY ON TO THE FIRST DAY OF SKOOL!! YAAAAY!! *FLUFF*

KAEL:

*twitter*

*twitter*

The morning sun sprinkled through the windowshade and shone through the Hufflepuff Boy's dormitories. Kael blinked himself awake, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He attempted to get up--

*wham*

Kael was not awake enough to remember that he was, erm, tall, and had the bottom bunk.

"Aaww...That's gonna leave a mark for sure!"

Kael was now a bit more awake than what he was before. As he rightly stumbled out of bed, his reddish-brown hair in perfect dissarray, he barely noticed the other person until that person was standing right next to him...

"Morning, gorgeous" said the boy, and Kael felt air blown into his face.

The scream of a half-asleep Hufflepuff 6th-year reverberated throughout the entire Hufflepuff boy dorms.

Unbeknownst to many, Kael himself was a victim of getting teased by his friends as well..just a different kind. Kael was always especially vulnerable to their teasing in the wee hours of the morning.

"Wha-wah-wha-whaaa--what was that for, Justin??" Kael stammered at the Hufflepuff 7th-year trouble-maker.

"Nothing--just wanted to get these slugs out of bed. Unlike me, they probably need to get used to waking up early again." The boy beamed.

Kael looked around and noted the presence of boys waking up..and how scary some of his comrades looked in the morning. 'especially that scary brute over there...hum, he looks familiar..oi!' Kael remembered the friend from last night--

*flashback*

"Kael, do ya know you've got beautiful eyes?"

"Well, of course I know that Matthias, but do you really have to point that out every 3 minutes?"

*end of flashback*

"ahaha...Matthias looks funny in the morning..."

Kael then snapped his attention back to Finch-Fletchy. his eyes went into super-cute mode, and said in a mocking tone,

"that was mean..seducing me as a methods to wake everyone else up..you scoundrel!"

Then he laughed and got up from the floor (his former position) and went to retrieve his uniform.

He held it out in front of him...

But for some reason, Kael felt extremely nervous about changing into it at the moment.

'Er...'

Kael took his uniform and changed in the bathroom.

ROWENA:

The door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room swung silently open as the first students approached. Once again, the insides of the room had been redecorated to fit the tastes of the teacher. It was fairly dark, the only light coming from the candels that lined the walls. The only real light in the room seemed to be coming from the podeum at the front of the class, where Professor Xanathos stood. Her robes where simple, auster black, with her hair pulled away from her face in a thick black braid. The only ornaments she wore where a plain gold band on her finger and a Ravenclaw pin on her robes.

Behind Professor Mox stood a stunning blond woman dressed in a slightly more ornate black robe trimmed with emerald colored embrodery. The broach she wore at her throat looked more like a coiled serpant than a peice of jewelry... but it certainly seemed to fit.

"If you would take your seats, ladies and gentelmen?" Professor Mox drawled. "We have a great deal to cover, and not near as much time as I would like to cover it in."

ROWENA:

Professor Xanathos started pacing across the raised platform, regarding her students. "I'm sure you all are wondering what could have possessed me to bring Slytherin and Gryffindor into the same classroom. I assure you, I am well aware of your animosity, and I intend to take advantage of it. You will find this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts class to be a bit... different from any other year."

She stopped her pacing and looked at her students head on. "My policy is 'Know your Enemy.' We will be doing an indepth study of those creatures most likely to be a threat to you... including your fellow wizards Which brings me to the great variation. I will be teaching you to defend yourself, both with your wands, your hands, and any weapons you might be able to avail yourselves on. Every other class period will be spend outside, weather permiting, where you will learn the arts of physical combat."

Professor Mox returned to her podium. "Which brings me to the pairs. On those days that focus on combat, you will be working in them. I have already chosen your partners." She cleared her throat. "Scarborogh, Zanbini. Thomas, Davis. Potter, Goyle. Granger, Parkinson. Longbottom, Crabb. Weasley, Malfoy. Brown, Bullstrode. Patil, MacDougal. Finnigan, Moon." She went on to list the rest of the students and their pairs, but the pattern remained the same. Gryffindor paired with Slytherin. "Has everyone got that? Good. I will be posting the names of the partners on the class door... just so no one forgets." She put down the list.

"Now, I'm going to see just how good you are at cursing. When I call your names, come up to the front of the class." She glanced at the list. "Malfoy, Weasley, you're up first."

DRACO/PANSY:

"You will find this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts class to be a bit... different from any other year"

Draco, who had been drumming his fingers softly on the surface of his desk, slowly straightened and eyed Professor Xanathos with a bit more interest than he had been a moment before. He was used to Dumbledore's watered down curriculum, and didn't have much hope for the class this year, but perhaps it would be slightly different. Anything to break the monotony of teaching them how to countercurse like six year-olds.

"My policy is 'Know your Enemy.' We will be doing an indepth study of those creatures most likely to be a threat to you... including your fellow wizards Which brings me to the great variation. I will be teaching you to defend yourself, both with your wands, your hands, and any weapons you might be able to avail yourselves on. Every other class period will be spend outside, weather permiting, where you will learn the arts of physical combat."

A little more interesting indeed, Draco thought, reaching up to brush some white-blonde hair from his eyes. In his eyes, the wizarding world at large commited a great folly by merely training their children to defend themselves with their wands and not their minds and bodies. Which was why Lucius had subjected Draco to various training from a very young age.

"... Granger, Parkinson. Longbottom, Crabb. Weasley, Malfoy..." She went on to list the rest of the students and their pairs, but the pattern remained the same. Gryffindor paired with Slytherin. "Has everyone got that? Good. I will be posting the names of the partners on the class door... just so no one forgets."

Pansy couldn't suppress a small sneer as she found she was paired with Hermione, and she turned slowly, pinning Draco with one highly expressive look. His eyes flashed utter mischief at her when he heard his name, and she groaned inwardly. Why teachers persisted in pairing Draco with people like Harry Potter, who Draco was bound to provoke, or Ron Weasley, who was bound to provoke him.

"Now, I'm going to see just how good you are at cursing. When I call your names, come up to the front of the class." She glanced at the list. "Malfoy, Weasley, you're up first."

Sighing inwardly, wondering if he had a sign around his neck that said 'use me for every bloody class demonstration', Draco rose and walked swiftly up to the front of the room.

"Professor," he said, nodding once, and then asked, "Are we to pick our own or will you be assigning them?"

ROWENA:

"I want to see your best curses, Mr. Malfoy." Professor Xanthos said. "That goes for you too, Mr. Weasley. Natrually, I expect the Unforgivibles not to be used. Otherwise, it is up to you." She sat down behind her desk, the blond woman moving in behind her. "Feel free to begin at any time."

RON:

Ron had thought the teacher had her brains screwed in wrong or something, ever since he'd stepped into the classroom. Now he was certain she was screwballs.

/Malfoy? Partner with Malfoy?? Jerky Malfoy??-/ /...Must kick the living **** out of him before the blighter gets to me!!/ (ooc--return of WTKTLSOOTSM Ron!!! yaaay!!)

Ron could barely contain his sheer joy at the chance of being able to endeavour in hand-to-hand combat with Malfoy without getting detention. It was almost too good to be true...

oh yeah, Malfoy was a devious evil wizard who knew evil tricks and didn't play fair. Darn.

/grrr.../

Ron listened intently as he stood in the front of the room--in too close of peramiters to TSM (that sod malfoy) for his comfort--a bit red from being stuck in the front, too, where all eyes of the classroom were scrutinizing him.

"Otherwise, it is up to you."

A small grin began to etch its way on Ron's face.

/My BEST curses, eh?/

Ron could only think up of one that was was absolutely his own.

No one could hear, but Ron was giggling menihacly underneath his breath....

LUCRIZIA:

Lucrzia leaned over her mother's chair and whispered quietly in her ear. "That's him?" she asked, eyeing Malfoy the way a large preditor eyes a tastey snack. "He doesn't look all that impressive."

"Neither does his father. He may still prove dangerous to us, in his own way. He is one to be watched, and carefully." Rowena whispered back, before clearing her throat. "Are you two ready, gentlemen?" she asked just loudly enough to be heard by all the students.

Lucrzia stepped back from her mother's chair, still watching the blond youth. Draco Malfoy....

.... her brother.

ROSE:

She awoke to a sunny day, with light streaming throuh the curtains... and an empty room as always.

*sigh*

Rose got ready for the rest of the day.. as she brushed her hair in the mirror, her left hand would go up, down, next to her face...the marking very very clear. the scar she would never forget. and it certainly didn't help that she was left-handed.

~~Time warp!! Now rose is in class!!~~

Rose arrived at her seat 5 minutes before the bell was going to ring. Not like she minded being there at all...

"not like anyone wants to talk to me, anyways..."

She leaned over in her desk, examining her gloved hand.

GOYLE:

"Potter, Goyle."

...Could it be that that person standing up at the front of the room was insinuating something about him and potter? eew. The very idea of them knowing the other's first names was nauseating in itself, and Goyle had a reputation for being the possesor of a very nausea-resistant stomach. He was going to voice his dismay, when he saw Draco all of the sudden move up to the front of the room. "What a show-off," he felt, and presently became interested in the muffin he had hidden in his cauldron. Scarfing it down quickly, he felt no inclination to move closer to Potter--seeing as he'd forgotten what was going on already anyway.

NEVILLE:

Neville looked at his newly-chosen sparring partner, Crabbe, with a kind of new determination. Last year, even with that Umbridge walking about, Neville had discovered a new sense of self-importance. He had decided to stop letting Malfoy and his bunch continue picking on him; and that included Crabbe. When hearing the eventual goal of using physical attacks, however, Neville faltered in his thoughts, looking back at Crabbe's enormous mass. He didn't let his fear show on his face however, and when Ron was called to the front of the room, cheered for him in his thoughts. "Go get that bastard, Ron."

ANZEL:

Anzel awoke at the sound of his alarm promptly at 6:00--he liked to awaken early, and he especially wished to set a positive precedent for the rest of the year. Buttoning up his collar as he went, Anzel picked up his books and headed down towards the breakfast table, already feeling hungry. When he sat down, he immediately took to his plate enthusiastically. After eating, he took out his cauldron with the intention of studying; however, the first book he picked out of it was none other than the one Pansy had loaned him from yesterday. For perhaps the first time in his life, Anzel felt a dilemma; read the book, or study. Deciding that spending too much thought on making the decision would take away from precious reading time, and rationalizing that since he already had the book in his hand, it would be alright, Anzel picked up from where he was last, and continued to read.

CRABBE:

"Huh-huh.."

Crabbe had not really been paying attention much to the creepy new teacher standing at the front of the room, nope not one bit. He hadn't even noticed that there was someone else up there too that seemed..familiar (or, at least he would have thought that way if he had noticed her aka Lucrizia).

What ever caused this lack of attention to detail that Crabbe is sooo famous for?

*crinkle*

/Chocolate..../

The usual suspect, as always, his precious candy bar wrapper that he always has saved in food reserve pocket #3345-002. He had it in his mouth, playing with it. Crabbe found the class of DADA very much pointless indeed...why in all shine of Salazar's baldy head did he need to learn how to defend himself from magic he was..er...in the process of becoming an expert in, anyways??

"...Blah blah blah....PHYSICAL FIGHTS....blah-doo-hickey-blah blay-eroo-blarb.."(ooc--a small paraphrasing of Professor Xanthos...but i digress--bic)

Crabbe's dim-witted senses instantly perked--well, maybe not instantly, maybe about a span of several seconds--to the opportunity of fighting with the bare hands. Actually, it wasn't so much that he perked up to that part of the conversation, but 'twas the only interesting thing the teacher had been spewing the past...some span of time...the rest was all something that he could not understand.or care to understand.

"Huh-huh.." *Translation: Oh what rhapsody of delight! to be able to smash into tiny pieces that flesh of my insubordinate and presumptious peers! The threeeeeeell! The lack of challenge!! The possibility of blood loss on their part!! Oo what joy what rapture!"

"Shoo-bopp-shoo-biddy GRIFFINDOR/SLYTHERING PAIRINGS...pashnickee...doo-dah..."

"Wheh?" *...Nyarr!! Gryffie blood! I always wanted to know if their blood was as red as their banner! tra-la-la-la-laaa!!"

" Voo-Shmoovoovoo! sni-CRABBE/NEVILLE par-foom-ku-sushi..."

....

Crabbe formed a rather disturbing smile on his face--one that really,really couldn't ahve made that poor Neville feel any better if he had been looking at that smile. A smile that indicated pure elation.

"Muh." *this is going to be OooH-so-delightful!!*

"....Meh?" *and why on eerrrrrth is Draco standing in front of the room with Weasel?*

BLAISE:

I sat up in bed with a start. The sun was shining brightly through the window. The house elves must have been through already if the drapes were pulled back, the other girls wouldn't even think about doing such a thing. I rolled out of bed lazily and took a look around. Whats-her-name was grabbing her bag. Gee, thanks for waking me up. Such nice 'friends' I have. I quickly pulled my clothes out of the drawer and ran to the bathroom to get dressed.

RON:

If any one in the classroom could read auras or battle ki, they would have noticed that Ron was quite aflame with a slightly murderous light crackling aaaalll around him....

Ron had gone into hyper-drive WTKTLSOOTSM Mode...not a good sign.

Ron stepped back a few paces, and then raised his wand---

"Memoria Zamia!!!" (ooc--our 2nd book is missing!!! --' methinks the MPU *male parental unit*has it in custody, that jerk!! soo miss archiver *poster's twin* can edit it in correctly once we get the book back...arrrg...but anyways, litereally translated,that means "memory Loss"...so it should work for now...)

It almost appeared as if liquid fog squeezed out of Ron's wand as he chanted, and it slithered up to Draco's xbody-- and entered!!

*Fzark*

Of course, it couldn't be simply painless, nope! Not when Draco was involved....

ROWENA:

"Interesting choice, Mr. Weasley." Rowena murmured, she and her daughter watching the curse's effects upon Malfoy with the kind of interest a lion shows to a baby gazelle.

SAMILA:

Samila glumly sat at her breakfast table, eating only bread and water. She knew that if she ate enough at breakfast, she wouldn't need to undergo too much hunger the rest of the day, and could therefore escape having to sicken her stomach with food. Besides, out of all the foods offrered in a day, Breakfast food was usually the least nauseating. She nibbled slowly, staring off into space as she did.

DRACO + PANSY:

In the split second it took for the mist to slither from the end of Ron's wand and slide up along his pantleg, Draco's eyes narrowed to slits and he stumbled backward, robes billowing around him as the mist permeated his body and sent thousands of tiny pricks of pain along his body. His skin felt hot, impossibly hot, like someone had poured scalding water all down him and it was due to willpower alone that he merely hissed his pain through gritted teeth.

And then, suddenly, he was floating. It was a wonderful feeling. His brain felt soft and cushioned, like a baby swathed in blanket, and somehow he couldn't feel the pain that was reverberating along his skin. It was like an echo, a feeling, something that had been there once but was fast slipping away...

His head connected sharply with the stone floor, and he blanched, pain shooting up and blacking his vision briefly. It still felt so soft though, that even as the pain registered he couldn't quite recognize it for what it was.

Dimly, he recognized sounds of someone gasping and a chair overturning, but he didn't particularly care. He had the sudden sense of loss, as if something had just been cruelly snatched from him and held just above his head. It was most peculiar. He couldn't even really remember what he'd lost...

"Draco!"

Draco? Who was that? Turning, he blinked in confusion at a girl that had dropped to her knees next to him, reaching out and gathering him up into her arms. She had dark brown hair, unbound, that fell to her waist framing a round face with a slightly upturned nose. He thought she might almost be pretty if she wasn't wearing heinous amounts of make-up.

Something stirred inside of him, and he knew that he should know who this was, but for some reason he couldn't place her. It was like grasping at the threads of a tapestry that was fast being yanked out of his reach. It was there, he could see it, he could almost feel it...

"Sorry," he murmured, shifting and looking at her, eyes strangely clear but obviously confused. "Sorry, but who?"

It was most extraordiary how her entire expression crumbled then, and her arms went limp. He had to brace himself with one hand as she fell back on her legs, turning a furious gaze toward Ron.

"Weasley, you... you horrible person! You ingrate, you pathetic excuse for a wizard! How dare you--"

Gawking at her openly now, he held up a hand and asked, "Um, miss, please? What's going on? What's he done?" He could tell that she was upset on his behalf, but for the life of him he didn't know why.

Her head snapped back toward him and she stared at him for a beat, lip trembling.

Reaching up to push silver-blonde bangs from his eyes, he shifted, focusing his gaze on a tall dark-haired woman and a blonde. They were watching him most intently. As was the rest of the people there... must be a class, he realized, glancing around. They were all looking at him aghast. Suddenly, he felt his face heating despite himself; he'd done something stupid, hadn't he? Embarrassed himself in front of all these people? Certainly father would--

Father? Father... certainly he had a father. Why couldn't he bring a picture of his face to mind? Why was it so fuzzy? And his mother... he didn't know what she looked like either.

Panic seized him at once, and he stood on shaky legs, shoulders tensing up when all eyes followed him. His gaze fell on the brown haired girl again, and he said with a slight note of panic, "I would like to know where I am."

Pressing her fingers to her mouth, Pansy took a deep breath, rising slowly. She turned to the Professor, expression carefully blank, and said, "I will be escorting Draco to the infirmary. I can't believe you allowed something so reckless in your classroom," she added, disgust lacing her words. "Consider myself withdrawn from your class, Professor Mox."

Offering her hand to Draco, she waited for him to glance at it warily before sliding his own pale, thin hand into hers. She offered him a brief smile before turning and tilting her chin slightly upward, guiding him through the silent room until they reached the door.

He didn't know why, but it felt nice to have someone hold his hand and smile at him. Even if she hadn't answered his question, he could tell that this girl was a kind person, and he was glad that she seemed to care at least a little bit for him, even if he didn't know her. It must've been one of those people that he met somewhere once and then forgot about... though how he could forget about someone who was obviously so kind he didn't know.

They had almost gone through the door when he paused and glanced over his shoulder, face unguarded and a faint smile turning up his lips. "Good day..."

He felt a slight tugging on his hands, and he turned, offering the girl a somewhat shy smile as she led him down the hallway.

A few moments passed in silence before he cleared his throat and asked, "Ah, Miss..."

"Pansy," she intoned quietly, fingers still curled gently around his own. "Pansy Parkinson. And you're Draco Malfoy."

The names both sounded vaguely familiar, and he nodded. "Draco," he repeated, testing it out. "I don't like it."

She glanced over at him, curiously, but didn't say anything.

Feeling a bit of color rise to his cheeks, he explained, "It makes me think of snakes. I don't really have anything against them, but they're the symbol of evil, you know. It feels like a stigma to have that name."

Pansy was quiet for a long moment, and then said, "It is."

He glanced over as they walked. "Is it really? Is that why everyone was staring at me?"

Taking a deep breath, she said simply, "They were staring because you were attacked by a fellow classmate. Don't worry, Draco; I'll take you to the hospital wing and we'll have this sorted out."

He glanced down at their joined hands and murmured, "I don't want to go."

"What?"

"I don't like the hospital wing." He wasn't sure where it came from, but somehow he knew. "At least, I don't think I do. Must I go?"

Pansy seemed to be deliberating with herself. "That's where I told that woman I was taking you... yes, you need to," she decided, feeling strange to be instructing Draco. "It's best if we have this examined immediately and see if anything can be done."

"Ah," he returned, squeezing her hand gently. She squeezed back.

He smiled at her again, still shyly, but quite a bit wider than before. And then his eye caught someone at the end of the hall. "Pansy, who's that?"

Pansy glanced over, squinting slightly. "I can't really tell from here..."

GINNY:

Gin awoke with a cough. She panicked and looked at the clock. Oh no, she was almost late for classes! And it was the first day! She moved to the bathroom and quickly showered, brushed and changed into her uniform. She ran down to the Great Hall and grabbed some toast, being reminded of the night before when Draco acted the way he did... arrogant jerk. Then she started heading to her next class... but as soon as she reached the room, she felt nauseous. She grabbed a hold of the door and grabbed her stomach. Something must have gotten to her... she didn't know what. She turned to Professor McGonagall and said, "Uh, Professor? I don't feel well at all... I don't know what's wrong, but can I go to the Infirmary?"

Professor McGonagall scrutinized her carefully, and after deciding that she wasn't making it up, she said, "Go ahead, I'll have a classmate send you the assignments. Don't think being sick gets you out of them!"

Ginny nodded and headed down the hallway, almost jogging. She felt a bit dizzy at this point as well. She just turned the corner when she walked straight into someone heading down the same way she was about to go. She fell down and shook her head, startled, before saying, "Oh my, I'm sorry... are you all right.... Draco?"

She sat there mouth wide open, and quickly clamped it shut before staring defiantly at him and daring him to make a stupid remark...

DRACO + PANSY:

Blinking down at the red-head sprawled on the ground before him, Draco didn't even hesitate and he disengaged his hand from Pansy's and offered it to her, along with a faint smile. The smile did something to his features that was normally oppressed; there was an openness about them that made him look, strange as it was, like just a normal boy. His eyes didn't have the cool, blank look that they held, and for once his lips weren't thinned with creases at the sides.

"No, I should have been watching where I was going. I'm sorry. Here, I'll help you," he added, stretching his hand a bit farther and bending slightly for better access. "By the way, what's your name? I apologize if it seems strange, I just seem to be forgetting quite a bit lately..."

Unbeknownst to Draco, Pansy stood just a bit behind him and to the left and was currently giving Ginny an even, measured look that plainly said 'just play along'.

LUCI:

Luci looked to her mother as the overdone Slytherin girl helped Malfoy out of DADA. Rowena nodded, and the blond followed the pair. The last thing she heard as the door shut behind her was her mother calling Potter and his partner to the front of the class.

Memory charm.she thought as she followed silently behind the Slytherins. Never would have thought the boy could pull that off... And I most definatly would have thought that a Malfoy would have been able to block it... but life seems to be full of surprises.

She watched silently as a red haired girl ran into Malfoy, and he helped her up, being ever so polite. It was then that she chose to break her silent. "Miss Parkinson (I know I probably misspelled it, but I just woke up), Professor Mox requests that you return to class. I will escort Mr. Malfoy to the infirmery." Her tone conveyed a slightly harsher message. Go back to class now, or you'll be in a world of trouble.

ROWENA:

Rowena watched Pansy take Draco out of the room, and watched her daughter follow them, before returning her attention to the class. "Well done, Weasley. Ten points to Gryffindor, but you'll be serving detention with me tonight for making Malfoy miss out of class. Return to your seat... Potter! Goyle! Lets see if either of you can win points for your houses."

DRACO+PANSY:

Draco looked over his shoulder in mild surprise at the blonde woman, offering her a faint smile before turning his attentions back to the red haired girl. She still hadn't accepted his hand. He wondered why.

Appraising the blonde cooly, Pansy responded, "No, I don't think I will. I've withdrawn myself from that class. If you'll recall, I'm a seventh year, and Defense Against the Dark Arts is not required. I will speak to the Headmaster about being transferred to another class as soon as I have Draco in the infirmary."

LUCI:

Luci met Pansy's look with equal coolness. "You are not out of DADA yet, Miss Parkinson, and until you have gotten the class dropped, I am still your teacher in that regard. You are free to go speak to Professor Dumbledor. But Mr. Malfoy is still my student, and I will see him to the infirmy." Every word came out crisp and clear. "Am I understood, or shall I be speaking to the head of your house about your insubordination?"

GINNY:

Ginny's eyes widened, but that was the only indication of her surprise. She caught Pansy's intense gaze and then looked back at Draco, studying him carefully. What was with him, anyway? Why was he acting all arrogant one second and then helping her up the next? As she looked she noticed how his features softened him somewhat. He was still Draco, but now he had a simple innocence that showed his true age, and not that haughty face that made him seem like he owned the world.

She noticed another woman come up and Pansy's defensive nature and wondered who that person was, trying to take Draco to the hospital wing, but she decided to ignore it for now while she got up off of her butt by herself. She quickly glanced at the person and back to Draco, noticing some similarities of features, but she shook it off and turned towards Draco. She wasn't sure quite what to do with that hand of his, so she politely shook his hand softly and said, "That's all right. I'm Ginny Weasley. Thank you very much but I should really get to the hospital wing... I'm not feeling quite well."

DRACO+PANSY+LUCIUS:

Pansy's posture had become rigid, and she would have replied, had a man not stepped out of the shadows and offered them all an amused, cold smile. Pansy glanced at him, and her eyes widened briefly. She, of course, knew who he was.

"I don't think there will be need for that, miss," Lucius drawled, barely sparing her a glance as he turned to look at his son. "I'm certain Miss Parkinson can take him very well." She wasn't sure quite what to do with that hand of his,so she politely shook his hand softly and said,"That's all right. I'm Ginny Weasley. Thank you very much but I should really get to the >hospital wing...I'm not feeling quite well."

Pansy nodded, reaching for Draco's hand again. "Thank you, Mr. Malfoy," she whispered, grabbing Draco's hand and tugging him upward. She shot a look to Ginny that, for once, harbored something aside from dislike; it was a plea. "You'll come with us, won't you?

Draco angled his head toward Ginny, looking at her consideringly. "Yes, won't you? We're on our way as well."

His eyes strayed to the tall, regal looking man that was now glancing down at the blonde woman with amused contempt. Somehow, that man looked familiar, like he should know him. Or something. He wanted to ask about it, but Pansy was tugging on his hand now to get him to come along, and he smiled at Ginny.

"Shall we, Miss Weasley?"

Lucius watched as his son was polite with that despicable girl--a Weasley, of all things--and frowned faintly. There was obviously something wrong. Once he got this insolent chit of a girl out of his way, he would be tracking Draco down in the infirmary and finding out just what it was. For now, he didn't suppose she would just go away if he told her to.

Turning to her, he smiled coldly, saying, "I appreciate your concern for my son, but he will be better off with Miss Parkinson." He settled his gaze on her and didn't say anything else for a moment. "Now that you have nothing to do, perhaps you could escort me to a classroom?"

RON:

Ron beamed for a little bit at the teacher's praise,and his face fell at the possibility of detention.

...But it was Soooooo worth it..

/That should keep that git out of class for a bit/ he thought elatedly to himself, almost humming cheerfully as he returned to his seat. He plopped down in triumph, and grinned at a fellow Draco-hater who sat nearby. He then focused his attention to the front of the room.

/Hm? that blonde lady who was here earlier isn't threre anymore...wonder where she went and why she's here/

Ron was dissuaded from these thoughts by Harry's fight.

He gave Harry the "thumb's up" sign from his seat, grinning ear to ear.

LUCI:

Lucrizia's eyebrow rose sardonically as she regarded Lucius Malfoy. "I do not think that your presence is needed, Mr. Malfoy. Your son experianced an incident in Defense Against the Dark Arts... which I find rather odd. I thought the Malfoy's were better than that." She moved between the older man and the three students, the green and silver broach at her neck catching what little light there was in the corridor. "A matter you should take up with Professor Xanathos. Miss Parkenson, Miss... Weasley, was it? See Mr. Malfoy to the Infimery, and inform Madam Pomfry that I shall be along shortly."

She narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked the man who sired her over. Somehow, she'd really expected him to be taller.... but he was still imposing in his own way. In a way she recognized. This was a man who had power.

GOYLE:

"Well done, Weasley. Ten points to Gryffindor, but you'll be serving detention with me tonight for making Malfoy miss out of class. Return to your seat... Potter! Goyle! Lets see if either of you can win points for your houses."

'..Win?'

No matter what the prize was, Goyle always enjoyed winning. There was something satisfactory about seeing losers. Losers were always fun to push around. Other winners were fun to push around too.

Huffily, Goyle attempted to get out of his seat, but as he'd gained a little weight since he'd sat down, what with the several cupcakes he'd managed to stuff furtively in his mouth, so this task was not as easy as it is for NORMAL people. Finally, after much grunting and hitting the desk, in an entirely uncoordinated manner, he popped out from his chair, nearly falling over onto someone else's desk because of the force he had used. He wobbled up to the front of the class, failing to make any kind of connection with Draco. Where was Draco anyway? He'd seen him fall down. That was funny. Even if the weasel was still standing. He could change that after school anyway. Darn smug face.

Once at the front of the room, Goyle looked around, confusedly. Alright, why was he up here again? He thought the teacher had something about winning. or something. grar...

GINNY:

You'll come with us, won't you?"

Draco angled his head toward Ginny, looking at her consideringly. "Yes, won't you? We're on our way as well."

Ginny looked disconcertingly at Pansy, and then stared hard at Draco for a few moments. She was totally speechless.... she had thought before that this might be some game, but now she was pretty convinced that he was NOT joking and that he was really being polite. She opened her mouth to say something back when she was interrupted.

"I appreciate your concern for my son, but he will be better off with Miss Parkinson. Now that you have nothing to do, perhaps you could escort me to a classroom?"

"I do not think that your presence is needed, Mr. Malfoy... Miss Parkinson, Miss... Weasley, was it? See Mr. Malfoy to the Infimery, and inform Madam Pomfry that I shall be along shortly."

She stared confusedly at everyone. Then she nodded at the woman and faced both Pansy and Draco once more, saying, "Well, shall we go? I think we've delayed this trip far too long and staying here isn't helping.." She turned in the direction of the hospital wing and started walking.

DRACO+LUCIUS:

Why this girl kept staring at him like he was a foreign object was beyond Draco. He didn't even know who she was, aside from the fact that she was Ginny Weasley, but she certainly seemed to know who he was. But then, that was a disconcerting thought in and of itself... why didn't he know who she was, if she knew him? Why didn't he know exactly who -he- was?

"I do not think that your presence is needed, Mr. Malfoy... Miss Parkinson, Miss... Weasley, was it? See Mr. Malfoy to the Infimery, and inform Madam Pomfry that I shall be along shortly."

Lucius appraised the woman cooly, and then said finally, "No, madam, I don't think you will. I don't care a whit if you go to check on the Weasley girl, but my son is very particular and won't be seen by anyone aside from a registered mediwitch like Madam Pomfrey, or my personal doctor. I will have to ask that you leave him to his privacy."

Lucius wasn't entirely certain what it was, but he didn't want this woman near his son. She bore a startling resemblance to himself, which could only mean that they were related. But then, he was related to nearly every pureblood wizarding family in England. He could only suspect that she wanted a chance to get close to Draco and poke around at him, something that Lucius would not permit. He was deadly earnest when he said there were few people who could see Draco in a sickened state; perfect strangers were not among those.

She stared confusedly at everyone. Then she nodded at the woman and faced both Pansy and Draco once more, saying, "Well, shall we go? I think we've delayed this trip far too long and staying here isn'thelping.." She turned in thedirection of the hospital wing and started walking.

Legs unfolding quickly and with far more grace than would be expected, Draco quickly caught up to Ginny on the one side, with Pansy on the other. He frowned faintly at her, and when they were out of earshot of the adults, asked, "I beg pardon, but you seem to know me well. Can you tell me where we've met? I have the strangest feeling that I knew you quite well a while ago, but..."

LUCI:

Luci staid between Lucius and the students until they were well away. "I recomend you go about whatever business has brought you here, Mr. Malfoy. If you don't believe in the compatency of the Hogwarts staff when it comes to the care of your son, you should send him to Durmstrag. Say whatever you like..." her smile held all the warmth of an ice cube, "it is an excellent training ground." She spun on her heel and walked after the students.

GINNY:

Ginny glanced at him before looking back straight ahead. She had no idea how to answer this. Before, she'd thought it was just a ploy to fool the girl or something, but now she realized that he'd really had lost his memory, in some way or another. She contemplated what to tell him... this Draco seemed almost... nice, if she dared say it. She didn't want to ruin his first impression of her now that he'd gotten some new thoughts. She decided to keep it short and simple.

"We know each other, but we're acquaintances. You're more familiar with my brother, Ron Weasley. He's in your year and in Gryffindor. We met some time ago... but it's not really important."

She wanted to keep it as vague as she could, so as not to lie nor reveal what their "relationship" back then really was. What had they been anyway? Not acquaintances... but not mortal enemies as of the trip on the train. She pondered this while letting her feet take her where they would and trying to ignore the queasiness in her stomach. At one point, she stopped and clutched her stomach, and said, "Excuse me, but I really must find.... a bathroom....." She rushed off without notice.

RON:

Ron sat in his seat, wondering when Harry was gonna konk the lights out of his sparring partner.

/What's taking them so long?/

KAEL:

Kael blithely decided that he'd head off to class now--afterall, he WAS in school. He wasn't going to let that Finch-fletchey's comment earlier get him down today, nope! He turned--

"What class do you have next, hmm, Rose?"

ROSE:

Rose was about to get up, when Kael addressed her suddenly--

"I...I...I..."

Rose was speechless. She didn't have her schedule on her

/bother!/

SHINOBU:

Shinobu finished up her breakfast, and then made a mad dash towards her classroom--

"I AM NOT GOING TO BE LATE ON MY FIRST DAY OF CLASSS!!!"

And in running, bumped into some rather unexpected company.

CRABBE:

Crabbe continued to chew his wrapper.

*gulp*

Uh-oh.

"Haack, Haaack!!"

ANZEL:

Anzel looked down disinterestedly. Apparently a short person had run into him. She looked kinda familiar--She might be in his class, although Anzel was never really good at keeping track of names, or faces...or anything socially oriented at all.

"That's nice," he commented, cooly, "But could you try not to make anyone else late for class either?"

SHINOBU:

Shinobu rubbed her head, and quickly glared up at the boy--

"YOU! You're the brother of that boorish brat Kael, aren't you?" She nearly screamed.

She then sighed.

"How can you stand him??"

ANZEL:

Anzel was a little startled when she yelled at him, although the only way it manifested itself would have been in the slightest of twitches, only visible under a microscope. He made a little shrug, and muttered, as he walked towards his classroom, "who said anything about standing him?"

SHINOBU:

Shinobu blinked a few times, and then her face sunk into a relaxed smile.

"Well, that's a relief" she thought out loud, "He's such a brat, you know! Always picking on me because I'm short.."

She folded her arms over her chest.

SHINOBU:

Shinobu felt miffed by Anzel's brush-off. But no matter. It seemed that if one were to add the two boys together, you would come out with two relatively normal boys. But no matter.

Shinobu headed off to class, not wanting to be late...

ROSE:

Rose sighed. Kael had already forgotten her name? People were so forgetful in this day and age, especially whenever it came to her.

"R...Rose. Rose Zeller" she whispered out.

KAEL:

Kael squinted his eyes at the blonde girl.

"Okay, RrrRose Zeller" he said, finally remembering her name, but poking fun at her shyness all the same, "What class do you have first today--waitaminnit..."

Classes?????

Bollocks!

RON:

Ron eyed Draco and Pansy leaving with suspicion.

/Oh well...at least I got him out of class! Yes!/

Ron leaned back in his seat, content, and blithely ignorant of the opportunity he'd just provided Yon Draco to talk with his sister.

SAMILA:

Samila glumly finished her breakfast and headed over to her first classroom, not stopping to talk with her friends. She hadn't talked to them since the incident anyway, and she doubted they cared. The worried glances they cast in her direction, the hushed, concerned tones she heard whenever she left the room--for all she knew, they were just trying to make her think they liked her. maybe they never liked her at all. (ooc: cynical much?) She ignored them, and sat down in her classroom, staring at her class listing.

"Hmm..." she mumbled. "With RAvenclaw's first today..." That was nice, because a class with ravenclaws meant a class with people who wouldn't bug her, or be noisy, or be stupid during class. She sat with her head on her hands, and stared blankly at the teacher, waiting for class to start.

KAEL:

"Hahaa--sorry, darlin'" Kael winked at Rose, "But I must be off to--whatever class it is I'm to rot my brain in right now. Ta-tuh-tuh-TAAAHN!!" Kael busiedly clambered up from his seat and made a mad dash out of the Great Hall--

On his way to the classroom..

/Exactly what class do I have now, anyways?/

Kael, thinking whilst running (very dangerous, kiddies, don't try it at home) then saw a familiar brown head ahead of him---

"Kayla!! It's an emergency--I forgot my class again!"

ROSE:

"Oh...bye.."

Rose merely stared after him. Then she ghost-like moved from her seat, and walked out of the Great Hall towards her classroom.

CRABBE:

*HAACK!!*

*HAAAACK!!*

*CHAAA--*

*pop!*

The wrapper came out of Crabbe's mouth. It was prolly not having a jolly time stuck in Crabbe's throat.

"Phew.."

SHINOBU:

She managed to get to her class--

And she wasn't late!

/Hoorah, hoorah, and goodness/ Shinobu happily thought to herself. She didn't want to ruin it all now by being late to ONE MEASLY CLASS!

She sat at attention.

RON:

...*yawn*...

KAEL AND KAYLA:

Kayla smacked Kael upside the head--in a very, huffle-puffley friendly way. Probably still hurt a little though. Kael shouted, "lacks peppermint!" in indignation. Kayla looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Kael! You're always forgetting everything!" She teased. "It almost makes me think that if I wasnt' around, you might even forget to bother your brother!"

"You give yourself far too much credit, Kayla. I don't have to remember, as my mere PRESENCE gives him the winky-wonkies!"

Kayla laughed, and said, "sure, whatever..." She put her arm over his shoulder. "Good thing for you I was just looking at our schedule," she said. "Hey!" she shouted loudly. "Looks like we've got X(ooc: insert class here) class with the Slytherins!"

"Slytherins! Well, that should be interesting..." Kael whispered into Kayla's ear, "I bet I"LL fall asleep first!" Kayla looked back at him amused.

"A sleeping contest then? Heh; I won't wake you if you start snoring."

Kael looked insulted. "Me? Snore!? Surely you jest. I sleep like an ANGEL."

Kayla smiled. "That's what they all say..."

~~intermission~~`

Kayla and Kael (ooc: ...lol...ARG! WHY'D I MAKE HER NAME SO MUCH LIKE HIS! ...oops...)walked out of X class disgruntled.

"Smooth, Kayla," commented Kael. "Your snoring landed us BOTH a detention. Not to mention sniggers from all sides of the class."

Kayla smacked him again. "Hey! None of that!!" She said disconcerted. "It's not like I MEANT to snore!!""

Kael bitch-slapped her back. "Worst off, we got lunchtime detention, and you know what THAT means!!"

Kayla gaped at him. "How could you!? Hit a girl!? for SHAME!! Just because you don't get to bug your brother all lunch?!"

Kael put his nose up in the air. "Hey; I'm half-girl--its perfectly natural."

Kayla snorted. "Like THAT'S and excuse," she grumbled. Then her eyes lit up with inspiration.

"Hey!" she shouted in his ear.

"Ouch, what?" Kael asked.

"This could work to our advantage!" Kael's ears perked up.

"Eh? divulge, please." Kayla looked around sneakily, and cuffed her hands around his ears to whipser--"We could give him a false sense of security--make him think that we won't bug him so much this year, that way he'll be unprepared for when we launch a full-frontal attack!" Kael Grinned.

"Bloody Brilliant!" he exclaimed. "Now I have no regrets about our snooze contest."

"Except I won," gloated Kayla.

"Did not. I asked the teacher. AND you get points taken off for snoring!"

"Hey, no fair," replied Kayla. "Teacher bias!"

"All's well that ends well," gloated Kael, as they walked towards the house head's office. "Let's see what detention has in store for us, shall we?"

"You play dirty."

"Well, you bitch slap far too much." *swack on arm* "see what I mean?"

HARRY:

What a brilliant beginning to a DADA class! Harry beamed with pride for Ron. "Bloody Brilliant Ron!" Harry threw Ron a double fisted thumbs up and a wicked smile as the red-haired champion plopped triumphantly into his pre-assigned seat. Harry wanted to laugh out loud, but instead hissed a whisper to this Draconian Conqueror: "Having flashbacks to a certain DADA teacher?" Harry's face lit-up with the laughter he held inside. Oh blissful glory! haha, I hope Madam Pomphry leaves the blood-hound clueless

~~

--"Potter! Goyle! Lets see if either of you can win points for your houses." --

'Oh right, my turn.'

Scanning the room, his eyes lit upon the unfortunate sight that was Goyle. How did he get in that desk to begin with?

The corner of his upper lip began to turn up in disgust, It might actually be charity to put this lug out of his misery. ... then again, is he really smart enough to know his misery?

As Goyle thudded idly up to the front of the classroom, Harry turned to Ron.

"What should I do to him?" He grinned at Ron, hoping for some good old-fashioned Weasley mischief ideas.

ROWENA:

Professor Xanathos cleared her throat pointedly. "Mr. Potter, if you continue to dawdle, you will find yourself volunteered for target practice when I teach the first years basic curses." she said pointedly, drumming her long fingers on her desk. "The same goes for you, Mr. Goyle. Move it."

HARRY POTTER:

"Oof" /thanks for the push, Ron, almost tripped over my shoes. My he's gotten strong../ Harry distinctly heard snickers from various corners of the classroom.

/fine, let them laugh,... they'll be crying after they see what I do to Goyle!/

RON WEASLEY:

Ron grimaced, shrinking back into his seat.

"Something big, mate, and quick, before she beats you to it" Ron quickly advised, pushing the enthusiastic Harry foreward.

Ron beamed after him.

Harry wasn't exactly someone who was going to have problems cursing that big oaf, not after what he'd done to other greater wizards--

Ron was just a little bit worried that Harry would think of something...too dramatic for "big".

Ron wiped his face with his hand, almost regretting his advice.

/Something big eh?/ "What's bigger than Goyle?" Harry mumbled to himself, smiling at his own joke.

The two boys stood at the front of the classroom, a good twelve passes apart, glaring at each other, wands at the ready...

Somewhere in the back of the classroom, a student began singing the Jeopardy song from Muggle television: Do do do do do do do, Do do do do DO do dodododo...

ROWENA XANATOS:

Professor Xanathos leaned across her desk, her dark eyes promising that someone would be very unhappy very soon. "Your ego, aparently." she said, her voice soft, but carrying to Harry's ears. "Get on with it, Potter. What little patcience I have grows thinner by the moment, and if I do not see something interesting soon, you will find yourself vonlunteering to help the second years with their curse work as well." She slid back in her seat, a well of darkness in the room as she glowered at the two students. She well and truely wasn't in the mood... mostly because she suspected she would have to deal with Lucius again once this was through.

She had no doubt that she would also have to explain Lucrizia... something else she was most definatly not looking forward to.

HARRY POTTER:

/Right then, he's big enough, I'll make him small/

"Cresco Minutum!!!!"

With a swish and flick Harry's wand disappeared.

In the silent gasp that followed, the sound of a miniscule wooden pin clattering on the stone floor seemed monstrously loud.

GOYLE:

Goyle wondered idly what he had been doing in the front of the room. He'd forgotten that he'd trundled up there awhile ago..and now this lady was threatening stuff.

He didn't really think that was nice of the lady. It made him very angry and want to maul something.

What perfect timing. Potter was right in front of him.

"cresco minutum!"

Goyle was confused. What was that supposed to mean? and why was harry's wand looking funny? meh. it made him very annoyed. What was he thinking about before? he was mad now. Stupid brain! not revealing what it was supposed to!...Stupid Harry!!

"muaaarr!!"

Goyle surged forward to attack Harry...without a curse. After all, it wasnt' like him to pay attention to directions. Or remember them. Or care. Harry was in front of him, in class, and he thought he remembered the teacher saying something about him being able to hurt him. he took a swing.

PROFESSOR XANATOS:

Professor Xanathos was out from behind her desk and between Harry and Goyle with surprising speed. "Mr Goyle, there will be time enough for THAT in another class." she said, giving Goyle a look that he had only seen before on Professor Snape's face. "Mr. Potter, I expected better from you." she chided, not turning around to face the boy. "You ARE the same Mr. Potter who defeated Voldemort in some form or another time and time again, aren't you?"

SHINOBU:

Shinobu sighed. Class was such a lovely time! Very exciting, what with the explanation of sub-classification of the Tertius Phyla, and then there was that exciting bit in Arithmancy with expanded algorithms and fractals...

Shinobu grinned.

She entered the Great Hall, and looked around--

/Eh? No Kael?...YES!/

Shinobu happily went to a seat at the Ravenclaw table.

And took out her schedule..

That's when she blinked at a name that sounded familiar.

"Eh? Proffessor R. Xanthos-MOX???"

Shinobu couldn't beleive it.

"Rowena Mox teaches here?!?"

CRABBE:

*rolls toungue*

Crabbe then continued to roll his eyes.

And then he stuck out his tongue.

And then--gasp! He leaned back in his seat and put his feet up on the desk!

Well, he tried to anyways. His feet didn't make it that far, and even he was smart enough to realize that they would have broken the desk.

KAEL:

"Right then--ladies first, Kayla--oo, let's go in together, shall we?" Kael smiled cheerfully.

ROSE:

Class that day was...well, class.

Rose yawned as she made her way to the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall. She queitly sat down, and sighed.

'Let me see...what are my next classes...'

This time, Rose got a copy of it from her room.

Very prepared.

She stared at the parchment with interest.

GINNY:

Gin stretched. She'd had a perfectly lovely morning with no Malfoys bothering her at all... she sighed with bliss. Malfoy's were quite odd, and it was best that she stay away from them. She walked over to the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, waiting for someone to come for lunch as well. Plopping down at her seat, she scooped up some mashed potatoes and started eating- she was starving.

ANZEL:

"Rowena Mox teaches here?!?""

Attempting to sit down at a remote side of the table, Anzel gave Shinobu a cool stare. 'So, she talks to herself,' he wondered, and settling his eyes back down on the book he held in his hand, he thought bitterly, 'that explains something.' As much as he really wished he was holding the book Pansy had loaned him, he had started classes already--lunch was no time to be goofing off. 'Besides,' he thought determinedly, 'The subjects are most interesting when I focus on them.' Despite his high-minded intentions, he found his mind wander slightly. He wondered offhandedly why ..er...shortie...thought that there was reason to be shocked about the new DADA teacher's name. Looking at his assignment sheet himself, He didn't see a Rowena Mox..but a 'prof. R. Mox-Xanatos.' "Hmph," he grunted, 'she's even got the wrong person.' He then became lost in the world of Wizarding History.

KAYLA:

"Right then--ladies first, Kayla--oo, let's go in together, shall we?" Kael smiled cheerfully.

"Always the gentleman," Kayla smiled back cheerily. "But remember--" she added with a note of caution to her voice, "DONT STRAY NEAR THE RAVENCLAW TABLE. He'll take it as an agressive move. We want to remain 'undangerous.'" She could barely hold in her laugh as the words fell from her mouth. "Hey look," she spoke again, in a louder voice, "There's Prof. Sprout! I'm almost excited about this detention," she bubbled.

KAEL:

Kael grinned.

"I solemnly swear that I will do good on my mischeif--there, that work?" Kael, grinning, peered over Kayla's shoulder..

"So it is--let's confront her then! And let's not have this detention last any longer than it has to, eh?"

He winked, and waited for the approaching teacher to address them.

ROWENA:

Rowena groaned as she stretched out behind her desk. She hadn't realized herding all these children was going to be so very difficult. Not that she wasn't absolutly certain that she could handle it. But still... she wondered how Severus did it without killing anyone.

Goddess knew that she had been sorely tempted to slap the Potter boy upside the head a few times.... though seeing Lucius's son cursed with a memory charm had certainly brightened her day.

"I saw him." Luci announced, sitting on the edge of the desk. "Lucius."

"Does he know?" Rowena asked, opening one eye to look at her daughter with a frown.

"He might suspect... but I doubt it. The way you talk about him, he must have at least a half dozen bastards running around who look like him."

"Probably more." Rowena admited, standing up and brushing some invisible lint off her robe. "It's time to watch the cattle chow down. Will you be joining the rest of the staff, or do you have other plans."

Luci cocked her head to one side, thinking for a long moment. "I don't see a reason not to." she finally said, following her mother out of the DADA classroom. "Did you get things put together with Dumbledore?"

"Yeah. Nice little cottage just on the edge of the forest, well away from prying eyes... the others should be safe there."

"And Junior?"

"Will finish out the year at Salem. We'll see how things go from there." Rowena rounded the corner, then began making her decent into the dungions. "Go on ahead and save me a couple of seats. I'm going to drag Serverus out of his deep dark pit even if it kills me." the woman said, cracking her knuckles with just a hint of a grin on her face.

NEVILLE:

Neville groaned as he laid on the bed in the Hospital Wing. He winced, but tried not to show too much pain. After all, he was a 7th year...and he was resolute in his goal to be more courageous this year. But Madame Pomphrey had said that the damage to his skeletal structure would take a week to repair. He remembered how she had eyed him when he had entered the wing.

"And HOW...did this happen, Neville?" she had begun, worried. "Did you get mixed up in another one of those pranks that go inbetween the houses?"

"ER...not really," he began. She eyed him again, with a bit more suspicion. He stuttered, "Well, someone..really heavy...fell on me." He could see that she didn't believe him.

"Neville," she said, leaning in to his face so she could give him her patent 'I-Don't-believe-you-anyway-so-fess-up-now' look, "I don't think you could get these kinds of injuries by having someone fall on you." Before Neville had a chance to counter, she quickly straightened and pointedly accused, "I don't want you getting into any more FIGHTS, Neville. You're too nice of a boy to get involved in those kinds of things." Neville tried to get up to protest, but unfortunately, his mobility was hampered by his unusually high count of unbroken bones.

"OOW!"

"See what happens when you get involved in these kinds of things? I imagine that you won't be getting into any more fights for quite a while after this," she fussed, although gently bringing Neville's head back down on the pillow. After feeding him his first dosage of a nasty-tasting liquid, she hurried away to another bed, muttering, "Poor, foolish boy. With those injuries, he must've tried to fight off several people at once. Terrible thing what normal boys will do to an exceptionally nice one."

Neville rolled his eyes, and sighed. Well, he had completely managed to convince her there. He felt a little slighted. What could he have done? He bloody well wasn't EXPECTING Crabbe to just FALL on him like that. And he couldn't even perform a levitation spell to get him off, because his arm had been crushed under Crabbe's massive girth. Meh. Well...the hospital wing couldn't be all that bad. It might be a new experience. He hadn't really been here very often..just when he was visiting Harry, and that once incidence in his fifth year..that had just about been it.

He looked at the mechanized clock (ooc: since electricity doesn't work..that must be how they work..ya...)

'I hope someone visits soon,' he hoped wistfully.

SEVERUS, ROWENA AND NEVILLE:

Neville got his wish... just not exactly who he expected it to be. "Perhaps they should move you into here permanently, Longbottom." the dark, nasily voice of Professor Snape intoned with just the slightest hint of a smirk as he swept close to the bed.

"Uh...hello, P-proff-fessor Snape," NEvile stuttered. Okay, when he had hoped someone would visit him, he hadn't had the person he feared the most in mind. Even though he had stopped taking potions in his 5th year of school, the way Snape had intimidated him in class for the majority of his school life had not been erased from his memory--not in the slightest.

"Hush, Severus." Neville heard Professor Xanathos say, steping out from behind her fellow teacher and sitting on the edge of Neville's bed. She looked down at the boy and clucked her tongue. "He's going to have a hard enough time of it as is." She rested her chin on her hand. "Perhaps the curses weren't such a good idea on the first day, but yours was a rather good idea, Mr. Longbottom." Professor Xanathos said. "Though... if I were you, I'd consider specializing in things you can do far away from your opponent. I may start you off on a quarterstaff when we get to combat in the class."

"Uh....right," stumbled NEville. HE wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult.

Professor Snape snorted. "He'd probably knock himself senseless. Though that just might be an improvement over his usual fumbling."

"Severus, go see to Mr. Malfoy." Professor Xanathos said, using the kind of tone that would inform anyone that if he didn't do as she said NOW, he was going to be sorry.

Neville sighed with relief. He wondered why had Snape had bothered visiting him...After all, there were probably many more students he could enjoy torturing that weren't out of his way, in the hospital wing. Either way, he was VERY glad he was leaving.

"Err..." he began, trying to thank Professor Xanatos. "th-- thank you for visiting." HE had barely forced the words through his mouth, when it occured to him that she might have come there for some other reason. HE looked down a little shamefacedly.

ROWENA:

"You are most welcome, Mr. Longbottom." Professor Xanathos looked around. "This place hasn't changed a bit." she clucked her tongue. "I wanted to see how you were doing before I went on to lunch. And to check on Malfoy." she added as an afterthought. Neville could see her make a slight face, as if the name caused a bad taste in her mouth. "How long will you be out for?"

NEVILLE:

"Madame Pomphrey says it'll be a week," Neville replied, trying to put on a smile. "But Hermione will probably update me on all the homework--she always does," he added, in case his teacher might bug him about starting the year off behind in his schoolwork.

ROWENA:

"Feh. If Miss Granger is too much of a book worm, she may find herself in touble. The class is going to be much more hands on. I've got a lot to cram into your heads before you graduate, and most of your fellow students have never had a decent DADA teacher." She scowled. "As I understand it, the closest you've come is that... Lupin." Again, there was that face, like she was tasting something bad when she said the name.

ROSE:

Rose sighed. She wasn't really all that hungry, which wasn't exactly TOO surprising...

But altogether not exactly healthy.

Rose sighed.

"Maybe I should see Pomphrey..."(oc-yush, she's freaking out over an appetite problem. Rose is a worrywart.)

Knowing that she didn't really have all that much better to do, Rose shuffled out of her seat and made her way to the infirmary.

NEVILLE:

"Oh, without a doubt," blurted Neville without shame. "We learned loads from him. It was too bad that he had to leave, really, even if Moody wasn't really all that bad of a teacher either. You know, when Umbridge was here, we had to teach DADA to ourselves!" The words practically erupted from his mouth--he still filled up with anger whenever he thought of the injustices that she had stood for. Stupid Ministry...and their teacher the last year hadn't really been very interesting either--just a filler, he supposed, so they could keep the ministry from coming back, and until they got someone better to do the job.

ROWENA:

The world seemed to grow just a little darker as Neville rambled on (though that may just have been the new teacher's face), until the mention of the Umbridge. THAT was when the water glass by Neville's bed shattered, jarring Rowena out of her dark thoughts. "Ah. Forgive me." she said, scooping the broken shards into her hand.

"Did Longbottom drop something, Rowena?" Snape snarled, poking his head around the privacy screen with a dark glare at the Gryffindor.

"No," Rowena sighed. "I did."

The smirk just rose naturally to Severus' thin lips. "Aren't you a little old to be doing such things?" he asked, immidatly grasping the situation. While they had been in school, Rowena had broken many an object just by becoming upset.

"Mr. Longbottom was telling me about DADA with... Umbridge." The name slid off her tongue like poison, and Severus' face darkened to match Rowena's. "If I ever get my hands on that creature, it'll be her head exploding, not a glass." Rowena snarled, dumping the remains of the glass into the waste bin, along with a little blood. She glanced at Neville. "Again, I appologize. The woman and I have... a history." She did not elaborate further.

NEVILLE:

Neville jumped as his DADA professor dropped the water glass. He immediately shrunk back down, as jumping had really hurt his already-broken bones. He was even more shocked when Snape showed his head around the door (ooc: at this point, lots of lines appear across Neville's face, his mouth opens very wide and has also lines drawn inside them, and a little shock mark appears next to his head....lol...srry..off topic, i kno..newho, bic:) He curdled under his potions' teacher's glare, wondering darkly if he had actually been there the whole time.

Then Snape and Rowena exchanged words--which, for some reason, gave him the feeling that if he understood their context, would scare him a lot more than how they gave him the creeps. Especially those words about killing things. Yah, that was scary--even though he had felt quite happy when the centaurs had nearly done the job to Umbridge themselves.

"Understood," responded Neville quietly.

ROWENA:

Rowena brushed her hands down her robe. "Try to get some rest, Mr. Longbottom. I'll be sending my daughter to check on you in the morning, if you don't mind. I dislike it that there were so many injuries in my class the first day." She patted his hand and swept out of Neville's sight, followed by Professor Snape, who only gave Neville another of his withering glares before following in his fellow teacher's wake like a shadow.

ROSE:

Rose reached the Hospital Wing as she saw the two Proffessors leaving it--one she knew as Snape, and the other one the teacher who mysteriously left during the Feast...

Rose sighed, and walked foreward into the Infirmary.

She held her gloved hand tight...

"...Mister Longbottom?"

NEVILLE:

Neville watched as Professor Xanatos nearly vanished from his sight. He wondered idly why Snape seemed to be following her around, like a minion. Thinking 'Oh well,' Neville heard a quiet voice...

"...Mister Longbottom?"

He looked up, and saw Rose Zellar at his bedside.

"Oh, hi!" he said, a little pleased that he had some more pleasant company than Snape. "How did you know I was in here?"

GOYLE:

Goyle ambled out of class, and for one of the three times of day, he was completely autonomous--he needed no guidance as to where he ought to be headed next.

'FOOOOOD...' he thought with a grin. He ran through the corridors, ignoring Filch's angered roar of "NO RUNNING IN THE HALLWAY!!!"--besides, Filch fell over a few seconds later, as the magnitude of Goyle's mass in motion shook the ground--4.2.

He bounded into the Great Hall with shocking speed for one of his size, and plumped down pleasantly at his table, scarfing down whatever was there already--even the food belonging to the person next to him.

ROSE ZELLAR:

Rose stared at Neville for a bit, unblinking.

"I didn't....I was worried I was sick" she started, and walked--no, sorta glided--over to where Neville was lying (in pain).

"...Where's Madam Pomphrey, and why has she left you here, alone, Mister Longbottom?" Rose asked, her eyes covered still with a misty look.

NEVILLE:

"Errr..." Neville began, a little unnerved by the way Rose's eyes looked clouded over. "I think she's probably attenting to some of the other patients," He said, wondering if there could actually be any other patients on the first day of school.

ROSE:

Rose raised an eyebrow. She then looked around the rest of the infirmary, and then addressed Neville without looking back at him. "WHAT other patients?" she asked, quietly, without expecting an answer back.

She looked back at Neville, and then sighed. She derw a chair near his bed, and sat down looking at him. "I suppose I'll wait for her to get back, since I'm worried so....I suppose we could talk while we're waiting.."

Rose idly fingered her glove, and clasped her hands tight.

SHINOBU:

She scrunched her nose.

/This is most odd. I have her as a teacher? Mum told me tons about her.../

Shinobu shuffled the piece of paper in her robes, and got ready to eat.

/No use thinking about it right now./

KAEL:

Kael tapped Sprout on the shoulder--

"Looking for us, Proff? We're ready and waiting for the detention!" he added, almost a bit TOO cheerily..

RON:

Ron sighed as he reached the Great Hall for Lunchtime. "Sure was a weird class today in DADA, Hermione--That Xanathos-Mox lady's really quite off her rocker! But at least I got something out of it..." he snickered.

CRABBE:

Crabbe ran after Goyle

"DAAAAHH!!" *come on, now, comrade, you shall never beat me in the stuffings! We must conquer this banquet together, and plunder and pillage all the other foodstuffs, too! Whaddya say that to-day, the Hufflepuffs go Hungry?"

Crabbe was wheezing. One didn't fall over on someone everysingle day.

But it was so much fun to hear snapping underneath him...

He smiled a most disheartening smile.

ROWENA AND SEVVVY:

Severus walked beside his former classmate, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his robe, his head bent with thought. He glanced sidelong at Rowena, clearing his throat.

"Just don't, Severus." she said tiredly. "I don't need to hear it today, not until I have several shots of Scotch in me."

"As you wish it." Severus conceded, turning the corner. Rowena followed, her face dark with barely surpressed anger. The torches flickered as the pair passed.

"Was your first class... tolerable?"

"It was.... interesting. And not all that horrible. The Potter boy managed to foul things up wonderfully." Rowena's lip twitched up in something that was almost a grin, which Severus matched slyly.

AUBREY:

Aubrey sat in her first class ever in Hogwarts, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and vaugely wondered how much of the spells that would be taught she already knew. At the mention of of phsyical combat she knew she'd like the class, alot. Professor Xanathos then started naming off pairs that the class would be working with. /Zambini... I think that's that girl that had a nervous breakdown on the train... it might be hazardous if I hit her, but maybe she was just having a bad day.../

Her drifting thoughts were halted by the papable animosity between the silver-haired gorgeous dude dubbed "Malfoy" by la prof and the Ron that Harry had introduced to her last night. The charm Ron used was very unusual, she didn't remember ever hearing it before /wonder where it came from...?/ Harry's little duel with the big oaf was interesting, verging on the edge of hilarious. He had used another spell that Aubrey had never heard of /I wonder if Ron had meant to have that backfire./ She surpressed her laughter as she could see that Harry was plainly embarassed.

For the rest of the class Aubrey concentrated on what had made her wake so suddenly this morning at the god-awful hour of 5am. She thought she had finally gotten rid of that re-occuring dream, a month worths of sleep had been stolen by the nightmare and she had been free of it for three weeks now. /Those threastrals just reminded me.../ She shook her head and focussed on a more important matter; when the hell was lunch?

KAYLA+PROF SPROUT:

Professor Sprout looked at the two with a look of dissappointment on her face. "Honestly, you two, its only the first day of school, and you're in detention already!"

"Well, someone had to take the first hit," Replied Kayla, a bit ruffled. Professor Sprout burst out laughing, much to the two youth's confusion. Regaining herself, and wiping a tear from her eye, she smiling, said, "OH...you two are just too much. One hour of detention with me in the Herbology room, and 7:00 tonight, attending to the mangrove plants." With that, the Professor walked off to some other business she had to attend to.

"Score!" shouted Kayla, without noticing whether the teacher was out of earshot or not. Turning to Kael and grabbing his hands, she whispered with happiness, "An extra Herboloby session is just about the best detention you can get! I LOVE being a Hufflepuff!!"

KAEL:

Kael grinned ear to ear

"Me too. And people say that our house bunks."

He gave her a thumb's up--

And then a thought.

"Er...hey, since the detention is at NIGHT...what should we do now?"

His eyes went slanted and perplexed.

LUCI:

Luci sat at the far end of the teacher's table, just watching the students. How different this school was from Durmstrag... it was so loud, so disorganized. It was a wonder how anyone could get anything done. Hells, even her secondary education at the Guild had been far more structured than.... this.

She saw one of the other professors looking at her askance. Her hand wandered up to her brouch, the only thing she had of her father's family. The emerald was cool to the touch, and the jade smooth. It was comforting.

KAYLA:

Kayla scrunched up her nose in thought....

"Well..." she wondered out loud. "I suppose we could put plan: "Trick Anzel into thinking we're not going to bother him" into effect....by...just hanging out at the Hufflepuff table...and actually...eating our food!" It had been a while since they had just simply done that. She was almost surprised that she still remembered all her classmate's names, even though she had gotten quite chummy with several ravenclaws...

"I'm starved!" She exclaimed, and made a beeline to the Hufflepuff table.

KAEL:

Kael nodded in approval.

"Food is a good thing to gather up your strength for teasing! Right then" he slapped Kayla's hands, and they headed off together.

"You know, you're right about not knowing enough people in our house" Kael commented as an afterthought. "Afterall, I know Shinobu's last name and her MOTHER, and I just met a 3rd year Hufflepuff today that I'm still having trouble with her name" he noted, sitting down at the table.

HARRY:

Harry elbowed Ron mockingly, "Hah, yeah you did. But look what I got!" Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his diminutive wand. It fit perfectly in the palm of his outstreatched hand. "Hah, I got a bloody palm-wand." He said with a distasteful grimace.

RON:

"Hmm" Ron noted, kinda wanting to burst into laughter, and partially wanting to sympathize with his friend's wand problems at the same time. "Surely you can fix it...right?I mean, there HAS to be a way to reverse it somewhere. Maybe you can ask McGonagall after lunch" Ron offered. "In the meantime, I'm starved. We should enjoy our lunchtime without Malfoy while we can!" And Ron headed off towards the lunch table.

LUCI, ROWENA, + SEVERUS:

Some folks might consider it an impressive event when Severus Snape swept into a room. But when he did it in the wake of another, new teacher, and the new DADA teacher no less, it became fodder for all sorts of interesting gossip. Not that either teacher really paid attention to such gossip. Both were quite used to being talked about behind their backs.

"Hi Mom. Saved you a seat." Luci said as Rowena swept closer. The new DADA teacher nodded, and Snape (ever the closet gentleman), pulled out the chair for her. Luci stood, nodding to the Potions teacher. "Professor Snape." she said politely. "Mom, if you'll excuse me... I'd like to check up on the Malfoy boy."

"Like I could stop you, Lucrizia?" Rowena asked, her tone faintly mocking. "Go on. Just don't cause any trouble."

"Me? Trouble? Never." Luci said innocently before hurrying off. Snape immidiately claimed the blonde's chair for his own.

"If she's anything like her mother, she can't help but cause trouble." the Potions master said in a voice meant for Rowena's ears only.

Meanwhile, Luci reached the infirmiry in record time, yet somehow managed not to look dishevled. Those long years at Durmstrag had taught her the importance of a proper enterance, after all.

ROWENA+SEVERUS:

"The more things change..." Rowena murmured to Severus, watching the students. "Though... I seem to recall that the Ravenclaws used to be closer to the Slytherins. What changed?"

Severus shrugged. "Slytherin has always been a very independant house. We pride ourselves on it."

"Ahhh, Slytherin pride. Just as swelled as Gryffindor pride, and just as obnoxious to everyone else." She smirked just a little as Severus bristled. "Oh calm down. You know I don't mean it. There's nothing as obnoxious as a Gryffindor."

"On that, at least, we shall always agree."

SHINOBU:

Shinobu, having finished with her lunch, was walking through the hallways. She had, in fact, left somewhere around the point where she'd seen THOSE TWO walk in. The double-trouble-Ka-people (aka Kael and Kayla). She twirled one of the curls in her hair around her finger, until the curl was tightly wrapped around it. She stared. It turned bright red, and then a brilliant golden color....

And then she chanced a look up, and saw two teachers approaching. She released the hair from her finger, watching it go back to its curly black, and kept walking.

"Good day, Proffessors" she chanced a hello to the two slightly dark-looking teachers

SNAPE:

Snape looked down his long nose at Shinobu before looking away dismissivly. Rowena arched an eyebrow at the girl before nodding and murmuring, "Hello... ah..." she cast a quick glance at Severus, hoping that he would help. He just smirked, shaking his head.

SHINOBU:

Shinobu inwardly shrugged, knowing that Snape's reaction was to be expected. And then a light clicked in her head.

"Oh, say--you're the new DADA proffessor, Mrs. Mox-Xanatos correct?" Shinobu inquired, looking up at Rowena.

NARCISSA:

Narcissa fretted with her skirts, her eyes narrowed, lips pursed.

Someone had hurt her son.

It was more than mother's intuition--her husband had been possessed by some form of compassion before he'd flown off to the school, and had alerted her through an owl.

/Someone hurt my son./

Her fingers were now clenched very, very tightly together, her silver-painted nails very close to digging into her skin.

He had not the heart, of course, to tell her exactly what happened. Which only made her worry more.

/What's taking that man so bloody long???/

Narcissa stood up in a huff, green eyes flashing. A house elf had the misfortune to stumble in--

"Miss Malfoy"

"GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

A candleabra went flying towards the house elf, who only shrieked as the snake-like silver connected with his forehead, and he went flying back out the door.

Narcissa bared her teeth.

"WHAT IN BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH MY SON??"

She grabbed up her billowing dress of white and silver hues, and didn't even wait for the house elf to get out of the way as she stormed out of the room.

"Gah..ack...m'Lady..."

The house elf, luckily for him, passed out before he could incur the wrath of the Lady of Malfoy Manor furthur.

ROWENA:

Rowena nodded, trying to keep her face solom. "That I am." Her eyes traveled up and down Shinobu, taking in all the details of the girl. "I see that you are a Ravenclaw, as I was when I was in school. I trust that you will live up to the house's high standards when we encounter eachother in the classroom, miss....?" she trailed off, waiting for the girl to give her name.

SHINOBU:

"Shinobu Behemoth, Proffessor" she piped up. "I wanted to ask you, actually, if you remmeber my mother--Miki Behemoth" she continued. "She was your underclassman" she added.

She fiddled with her hands behind her back nervously.

ROWENA+SEVERUS:

Rowena couldn't hold back the chuckle that issued forth. "How could I not remember Miki? Blessed Goddess." She ran her hand over her face, still chuckling. "She was a good girl. I liked her. How has she been?"

"Oh yes." Snape said, his voice conveying mild annoyance. "The girl who single handedly turned our potions professor's hair grey in less than a year."

"Hush, Severus."

SHINOBU:

Shinobu almost glared at Snape--except that she was well aware of the trouble-maker her mother was at school. She herself aspired to be one, as well--just slightly more efficient...

"She's alright, I suppose. She had been doing a lot of freelance work after that Kwon guy left her, but she's settled down as a management efficiencey surveilance agent. In fact, she's apparently going to be doing an evaluation on the Ministry of Magic, for about 2 months. I imagine several people there are going to get the axe, what with the whole muddle that they're in right now"

Shinobu grinned. One could see that she was awfully proud of her mother.

"Oh yeah!" Shinobu brightened, "I have a recent picture of her--" she shuffled out from her pocket a picture of a bright, short, red-headed girl. "I swear, she doesn't know how to age!"

She handed the picture to the Proffessor.

ROWENA+SEVERUS:

Rowena took the picture and looked it over. "She doesn't look like she's changed a bit." she said. "Lucky girl." She offered the picture back. "I hope you wont prove to be as stressfull a student to me as your mother was to her teachers. As good an ally as your mother was, I would rather not to have to teach someone like her."

Snape let out a disdainful snort. "We have Potter and Weasely for that." he said.

SHINOBU:

Shinobu wiped the casual grin off of her face, replacing it with one of interest.

"Oh yes, those two" she lightly said, "I don't care for their antics, if that's what you're worried about."

/Albeit, I don't really talk to them that much, anyways.../

"What brought you back to Hogwarts, Proffessor?" Shinobu asked.

ROWENA:

"All sorts of things, not the least of which was a port key." She chuckled at her own lame joke. She sobered herself just a bit. "I'm getting paid quiet a bit to pound the ability to defend yourselves into your skulls. It's a job I actually enjoy doing... and I did miss Hogwarts." Her smile was soft. "The wizarding world in the Americas is not so tight nit as it is here, and I missed that." She waved a finger at Snape. "And don't you say a word, Severus."

"I wasn't going to. I was simply trying to find a way to prevent my teeth from rotting as you waxed poetic about this place that you seemed to revile so in your youth."

"Feh." She flicked her fingers dismissivly at her fellow professor.

SHINOBU:

Shinobu was observing them the whole time.

/Mum never mentioned anything about her being close friends with Severus Snape...maybe they became friends after they graduated? But what would bring that about?/

"Mm" Shinobu noted. "Well, I'm glad. I finally get to meet you! Mum talked so well about you, after all" Shinobu continued, "especially about that DADA club you two were in, in school. I'm looking forward to being your student" Shinobu smiled. "Well, I have to see to some things--I think I have you next period, actually...Well, until then!"

ROWENA:

"Bring your best curse, and be ready to dodge." Rowena advised. "I had two seventh years sent to the infimery my first class."

SHINOBU:

Shinobu felt a shiver go up her spine.

"Really?"

/Cool!!/

"Right then, Proffessor--I'll do my best!"

One could almost visualize the clockworks in her mind humming and buzzing with indescribeable delight as she went off towards the library.

NARCISSA:

Narcissa nearly choked the family's eagle-hawk to death when she grabbed him.

"Stupid bird" she muttered to herself, "You must send this message to my husband right now." She opened up the eagle-hawk's right talon and placed the rolled-up message within. She opened the window, and let the eagle-hawk alight to the sky.

"Hmph. That'll teach him to make me fret so much" she fumed

ROWENA+SEVERUS:

"I would remember to wear armor in the classroom, where I you." Severus advised as he and Rowena watched Shinobu scamper off.

"I'd say the same to you, Sev. As I understand it, you're not exactly the most popular teacher in the school."

"I'm not being paid to be popular. I'm being paid to try and cram a little learning into these childrens' thick skulls. I do not need the added headache of coddling them."

"You stole that from Professor Romanova."

"She was right every time, you know."

"How is the old bitch, anyhow? I haven't heard anything about her since she finally retired."

"Out seeing the world with the old Cultural Majiks professor... which is why the school no longer offers the course."

"Tch. Now that's a shame. It would make things so much easier for me if these children had the basics of Cultural Majiks." Rowena sighed.

"Nobody ever said it was an easy job."

HARRY:

Harry pocketed his want again. He was distraught, embarrased and frightened. His forehead furrowed as he, Ron and Hermionie made their way to the griffindor table. The great hall was boisterously loud, the majority of the school population already half-way through lunch. Harry rubbed his temples; the noise was not helping his budding headache. He consumed himself in his own self-condemnation: /What the heck is wrong with me? I know that spell! I don't understand how it back-fired. ...Besides, if it was a back-fire, then why am I not thumbalina-sized, instead of my poor wand???/ Harry was so out of it that he almost colided with a little second year. "Hey watch it, Kid!" the second year skittered off without so much as an appology. "I swear, someone is out to get me." Harry grumbled beneath his breath.

RON:

Ron pat Harry on the back.

"We know, Harry.We know....Maybe you can ask Hermione about it, right, Hermione?" Ron noted in her direction. "Or, maybe you can ask Proffessor McGonagal...afterall, it was a form of a transfiguration curse" Ron noted. "But let's eat--I'm starved!"

Ron sat down at the Gryffindor table, and grabbed a plate...

"Gee, I sure hope Neville is okay..."

SHINOBU:

Shinobu looked at her watch.

There were about 15 minutes left for lunch.

Perfect.

She opened up the big, rather dusty book of spells, and puffed away some of the dust that had agglomerated on the pages.

Her finger traced down to one of the spells...

"Heh."

She held her arm out, wandless, and, looking at the page in the book, imitated the hand motion (wandless)

It was perfect.

RON:

Ron ripped the crust in his mouth. "So, whaddya reckon's going to happen with Quidditch this year?" Ron asked idly.

SHINOBU:

Shinobu, smiling, put the book back into the shelf, and dusted her hands.

"Ah, I better head to class! There're only 3 minutes left of lunch!"

Shinobu darted off to the room that was the realm of DADA...

CRABBE:

With the 15th breadloaf shoved down his throat, he looked around for a bit.

There were a great morass of people in the great hall at the moment, eating, happily, enjoying themselves.

Crabbe paused for a bit to observe.

And then the stuffage continued, a fork going down with another slab of meat...

TONKS:

Tonks was still pretty upset about the fight & the fact that Bill stormed out & moved back to The Burrow. She was already running behind schedule, start of term was yesterday, after all. Well, she sent word with Gemini (her owl) that she'd been unexpectedly delayed & hoped to arrive at Hogwarts in the next day or so.

She continued packing, although she still couldn't stop thinking about what they'd told her when she'd went for her physical at St. Mongo's. Well, this put her in a fine mess, didn't it? And, did she really want to tell Bill? He might think she was just making it up to win him back. But, since he'd already put in for that transfer to the Hogsmeade branch of Gringott's (he'd wanted to surprise her when she'd been asked to take over the Arthimancy classes since Professor Veclor had taken a leave of absence/sabbatical), things were gonna be awkward enough & now this. She sighed & sat down.

Topaz jumped up on the bed & began purring loudly, while licking her hand. She always did have a nack for knowing when someone was distressed, physically or emotionally & wanting to help make them feel better.

Topaz had been a gift from Bill for their last anniversary. That seemed like a decade ago.

"UGH! Why does life have to be so complicated?" Tonks moaned, to Topaz.

Topaz just meowed & purred more loudly.

Sighing, Tonks rose & resumed packing. Since school had already started, she'd have to use the fleu network to get to Hogwarts, since you couldn't apparate onto the grounds. As she packed the last of her things, she took a glance around the flat to see if she'd missed anything. Not seeing anything, she drug her trunk into the fireplace, scooped up Topaz & grabbed Gemini's cage & reaching into the fleu pot next to the fireplace, grabbed a pinch of fleu powder & tossed it into the fireplace as she stepped in & said, "HOGWARTS!"

* * * * *

She felt herself spinning around & Topaz let out a howl. Finally, they stopped spinning & found their selves in the fireplace of the Great Hall. Tonks stepped out & put Topaz down. Topaz scampered off & began sniffing everything in sight, since this was her first time here. Tonks grabbed her truck & began hauling it towards Albus Dumeldore's office so she could find out where her room was & such. Topaz scampered along behind her.

As she made her way there, she ran into Argus Filch. Even after all these years, he *still* intimidated her.

"Nymphadora Tonks? Is that you? All grown up, I see. What brings you here?"

"Hello Filch. I'm covering Professor Veclor's classes while he's on sabbatical. I'm on my way to see the headmaster to find out where I'm staying. What's his new password?"

"Aren't you arriving a bit late? Term started yesterday..." Filch looked at her suspiciously. Mrs. Norris then started sniffing Topaz & began hissing. Topaz stood her ground & hissed right back.

"Yes, I was delayed unexpectedly. I sent word with my owl, so Albus is expecting me. The password?"

"Come with me," Filch grumbled.

She followed him as he took her to the headmaster's office. When they reached the huge gargoyle, he said, "Bertie Botts." & the gargoyle slid to one side as a revolting staircase began to move. They stepped on it (Tonks left her trunk & Gemini's cage in the hallway) & it began to ascend to the headmaster's office. Finally, it stopped & they stepped into his office.

"Pardon me, sir, but Nymphadora Tonks has arrived..."

Before Filch could continue, Albus spun around in his chair & said, "Tonks! You made it! Wonderful! That will be all, Argus, I can handle it from here," he said, dismissively.

Tonks stifled a chuckle & replied, "Hello, Albus. I take it Gemini arrived okay?"

"She did. She's in the owl barn with the others. Let's get you settled in. I'll show you where you'll be staying & then I'll show you where your classroom is. Did you want to start lessons tomorrow, or did you want to wait until the beginning of next week?" Albus asked as he directed her back towards the stairwell.

"I should probably start lessons tomorrow. The students have already missed 2 days & they probably shouldn't miss anymore."

They made their way through the castle & Albus showed her to her room where they dropped off her truck & Gemini's cage. They then came back down & he showed her where her office was & where her classroom was. "I suppose you'll want to go get unpacked & settled in. Will you be joining us at dinner tonight?"

"Yes, on both accounts."

"Very good. I'll introduce you to the students then. Well, if you'll excuse me, I have some school business I need to get back too. I'll let you go get unpacked then," Albus said, as he left her.

Tonks returned to her room & began unpacking her trunk & settling in.

LUCRIZIA:

Luci let out a low growl as Pomfy practically threw her out of the hospital wing. All she'd wanted to do was see the Malfoy boy, and THIS was what she was getting! Honestly!

Her stomach informed her that is was still very much empty, and that lunch was still going on. She could join her mother and Severus in the Hall... but she didn't feel like sitting there being watched by all those students. She'd never been fond of large crowds, and the classes were barely tolerable.

She'd hated the "family gatherings" that Mother and Byron had always dragged her to. Part of it was because she'd been the only fair skinned child in a family full of swarthy greeks. She'd always stood out, and she HATED standing out like that.

At least at Durmstrag she's been surrounded by people who looked like her. It had been nice to just be one of the crowd... but even then she hadn't been. She'd been Mox, and Third generation at that.

Luci became to lost in thought that she found herself somewhere in the teachers' suites.

Luci stuck her hands into her robes as she slunk around the teachers' wing of the school, looking around. She would be living in the cottage Mother had rented, with her brothers and sisters, and her Uncle Abe. She spotted one door open, and a cat skulking around.

Luci crouched down and held a long fingered hand out, blinking her large green eyes and blowing some stray strands of blond hair out of her face. "Hullo." she said softly. "Aren't you a fine looking animal." She peered around the edge of the door and straightened when she caught sight of the woman within. Raising her hand, she knocked on the frame.

TONKS:

Tonks straightened & turned around to see a blonde woman standing in the doorway. Topaz was intertwining her marmalade furry body around the woman's ankles.

"Oh, hello. I see Topaz has brought a stray home. She tends to do that." Walking over to Topaz, Tonks bent down to pick her up. Topaz playfully extended a paw towards her new "friend". "I'm sorry dear, but we can't keep her, I'm sure she already has a home," Tonks said to Topaz & took her over to the bed & put her down. Turning she said, "I'm Nymphadora Tonks, but please call me Tonks. I don't know what possessed my mother to name me Nymphadora. I'll be filling in for Professor Veclor who's on sabbatical, teaching Arthimancy. Are you a teacher too?" In the meantime, Topaz had returned to rubbing up against the woman's legs, purring loudly.

LUCI:

Luci scratched the cat behind its ears with a chuckle. "I'm Lucrizia Mox. I'm the Assistant Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." she said. "I know exactly what possessed my mother to grant me such a name. Pure hatred for the man who sired me. You can call me Luci."

TONKS:

"I see," Tonks said, extending a hand to Luci in greeting. Tonks then surveyed the room which looked like a tornado had touched down & the room was it's casualty. "Sorry 'bout the mess, but I'm still trying to get unpacked. I arrived late since I had an unexpected delay. I don't recognize you...did you attend a different school than Hogwarts? We look to be about the same age & all."

LUCI:

"I went to Durmstrag." the American said, blowing a few more blond hairs out of her face. "And the Guild of Truthseekers and Enlightenment after I graduated." She tapped the guild pin on her robe, the scythe and wand. "Dumbledore felt that it made me "uniquely qualified", so he allowed me to become the assistant when Mother asked."

TONKS:

"Ah. That explains it," Tonks stated. She then began twirling a lock of her hair, which she began absentmindedly changing colors. "Do you know if they're still serving lunch? I'm absolutely famished & I forgot to eat before I came!"

LUCI:

"I think they still are, but probably not for much longer." Luci leaned against the door frame. "So you'd know all the important stuff around here, right? How about I treat you to lunch while you fill me in? I doubt anyone would begrudge you the chance to get something in your stomach before dealing with the Orcish hords we teach." She gave the other woman a charming smile.

TONKS:

"Sounds like a plan. Bring Topaz, I forgot to fed her this morning & she loves table scraps. I can finish up in here later," Tonks stated

LUCI:

"Gladly." Luci picked up Topaz and began to promptly lavish the kitty with attention. "I was never allowed to have cats at home, but I love them so much." She nuzzled the cat. "Aren't you a fine creature? Yes, you are. I just wanna hug you and squeeze you..."

KAEL:

Kael sighed, wiping his face with a napkin. "Wonder what that new DADA teacher is gonna be like...hmm? Kayla, you've got a spot on your kercheif."

RON:

Ron looked at the Great Hall clock--

And grimmaced.

"Harry, hope your mood gets better sometime soon" he said, "'cuz a trip to Snape's class is coming up in a few minutes.."

SHINOBU:

Shinobu just brushed off excess dirt from her skirt, and walked down the hallway, an expression of suspiciously high spirits on her face.

She could barely wait for the class to start...

And she heard voices from a door...

"Ara?"

NARCISSA:

Narcissa tapped her fingers against the table.

Sewing hadn't helped her frustration, as she only had succeeded in spiking her pinkie finger about 5 dozen times.

And kicking house elves had never been her thing. Lucius and Draco did enough of that.

She sighed (how uncharacteristic!), and got up from her chair.

"Anything yet?"

"No, m'lady" the house elf replied, "no new owls."

"Feh. The brute."

"Ah, beggin' me pardon--"

Narcissa merely cast the house elf a cold glare.

He dashed off.

She snarled.

/I'm going to kill him someday/ she thought to herself, a thought she had repeatedly played within her mind about her husband for ages.

TONKS:

Tonks watched as Luci began to lavish Topaz with attention. Topaz began to soak it in, until Luci began using the "baby talk" voice. Then, Topaz began to squirm, growl & hiss. "Oh, she loves the attention, but talk to her normally. She doesn't go for the 'baby talk' nonsense & if you don't stop it, she's liable to scratch you or worst!"

ROWENA+SNAPE:

Snape tapped Rowena's shoulder and gestured towards the clock. "Oh, and it was shaping up to be such a pleasent afternoon, too." Rowena sighed. "I've got sixth years next."

"I've got Potter." Snape growled back. "Which is not conductive to good digestion." He stood up, and Rowena followed suit. Both swept out of the Hall in a swirl of black robes before splitting to go to their respective class rooms.

LUCI:

Luci made a face at Topaz. "If you're going to be prissy, I wont pet you." she said in all seriousness. "Where's a good place to eat around here, anyway? I only got here yesterday, myself."

TONKS:

Tonks chuckled softly. "Well, I assumed we'd be going downstairs to the Great Hall. Otherwise, I suppose we could go into Hogsmeade, but that's going to take some time & I assume you have a class coming up," Tonks stated.

LUCI:

"I think I can safely bug off a class." She glanced at her watch, a small magical contrivance that had been given to her upon graduating Durmstrag. "Which I'd have to do anyway to get a proper lunch in. Classes start in ten."

SHINOBU:

Shinobu peeked into the door.

"Ah, hello!" she said softly. "You're one of Mrs. Mox-Xanathos' children, aren't you?"

She cast a look at the other person, whom she didn't recognize.

And then the next second, still didn't recognize her face...but recongized her power.

/Uwah! Another metamorphagus?/

TONKS:

"Hello. I'm Nymphadora Tonks, But, please, I prefer to be called 'Tonks', since I'm not quite sure what possessed my dear 'ole mum to name me Nymphadora," Tonks introduced herself, extending her hand in greeting. "We were about to head to Hogsmeade for a bit of lunch...would you care to join us?"

LUCI:

"Mrs. Mox-Xanathos would be my mother." Luci said. "Shouldn't you be heading to class?" she eyed the girl, a small smirk tugging at her lips. "And not wandering around the professor's quarters?"

TONKS:

Tonks stepped back into her room, wanting to grab her money pouch. She also dug around for Topaz's harness & leash. Returning to the open doorway, she spoke, "Here, I need to put Topaz's harness & leash on. She's generally pretty good about sticking close to me, but with all these new smells & surroundings for her to investigate, I don't want to take my chances."

SHINOBU:

Shinobu paused.

"Er, no, I ate--"

"Shouldn't you be getting off to class and not wandering around the teacher's quarters?"

Shinobu flushed.

"Ah, yes! I was just on my way...Just...the door was open, and I heard stuff--"

Tonks had disappeared from sight.

Shinobu's eyes followed after where she had gone... Another metamorphagus...

Shinobu had never met another one before.

"Ah, tell Ma'am Tonks that I went off--Thank you!"

Shinobu, a bit flustered, then walked off.

Another metamorphagus! Imagine that!

Shinobu blinked.

"The DADA classroom is that way...right."

She corrected her direction, and went onward.

LUCI:

Luci shook her head as she watched the girl go. "I don't think I'll ever get used to the freedoms these students have." she said. "When I was in school..." She sighed, shaking her head again. "Shall we be off?"

TONKS: Tonks finished putting the leash on Topaz & said, "Yes, let's." As she left the room, she pulled the door closed & waved her wand to secure it.

TONKS+LUCI:

Luci headed off down the corridor, trying to think of a way to make conversation. Idle chitchat. Something.

"Sooo... have you met the Potter boy?"

"Harry? Oh yeah, loads of times. He's best friends with....." Tonks trailed off, as a tear ran down her cheek as she thought about Bill.

"Ah, you're friends with him? I must assume that he is more compitant than he showed himself to be in class..." She looked at Tonks, her eyebrows coming together. "Is something wrong?"

RON:

Ron lazily glanced up at the Halll clock.

His eyes bulged.

"Bollucks!" he cursed, "we'd better get going if we're going to avoid annoying Snape this year" he started. He grabbed Hermione's hand--

"Come on, let's go!"

And then--

Realization came over.

And people of the day were able to witness the...10th..wonder of the world (aka Ron's blush power)

SHINOBU:

Shinobu found the classroom.

Her eyes slitted.

Still empty, from the looks of it.

She grinned.

No way was she going to be late for Mox-Xanathos's class!!

She happily sat herself in one of the seats in the front row.

TONKS+LUCI:

"Ah, no...it's nothing," Tonks said, wiping her face on the sleeve of her robes. "So, where would you like to eat? The Three Broomsticks or The Hog's Head?" she said, trying to change the subject. She did not want to talk about Bill right now; the subject was just too painful right now...especially now.

"Mm... the Three Brooksticks sounds good." Luci decided. "Last time I ate at a place called the Hog's Head, I regretted it for a loooong time."

Tonks nodded. She really wasn't looking forward to going to Hogsmeade, of *all* places, but hopefully, Bill had already taken his lunch break & would be back at Gringott's. 'All I have to do is steer clear of there.'

"So, what's Hogwarts like? As a school, I mean. Is there anything I need to know about? I wasn't given much in the way of information when I got here, but my mother went here when she was in school."

SEVERUS SNAPE:

Severus Snape stood behind his desk, watching the students file in with a sharp expression. He was not particularly eager to start the class, but start it he must. He had a duty to do, so do it he would.

ROWENA MOX-XANATHOS:

Rowena frowned at the empty seat that should have held her daughter. Luci SHOULD have been back by now... but she wasn't. Rowena would simply have to deal. It wasn't like she couldn't after all. They were just sixth years, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. This would be easy.

TONKS+LUCI:

Tonks raised an eyebrow speculatively. Is wasn't common practice for wizards to not attend the school their parents had, except in the case of muggle borns. "Hogwarts is wonderful. Um, I'm not quite sure what you're asking, since I've never been to Drumstrang or anything."

"Durmstrag was very... strict. Rules and order was everything. Speak only when spoken to. Strive to achieve your best, or face the consequences... and the consequences were terrible. Step out of line, and suffer." She gestured. "And Durmstrag didn't have staircases and wings that moved around at random." she said, grabbing hold of a rail as the stair shifted.

"Why did you go there & not Hogwarts? Normally, students' who's parents attended Hogwarts attend here as well, save for the muggle borns, of course," Tonks stated.

"My paternal grandmother went to Durmstrag. She was one of the top graduates to ever come out of the school in its whole history. She died when I was very young, and I never got to meet her." Luci explained. "Part of it was I wanted to get a bit closer to my heratage." She touched the emerald broach as her throat. "Part of it was Mother not wanting me near where my father might find out about me. He's on the board of Trustees."

"Why didn't your mum go to Drumstrang?" �My maternal grandfather." Luci said with a snort. "He's the wizard parent. He didn't know Mother existed until the day she was accepted into the Salem school... she was born and raised in the States. But the day she was accepted, Gramps found out about her, and whisked her off to Hogwarts." She chose to leave out the part about her mother also dying that day... and dropping a double wide trailer on the head of a boy from the town. Neither were particularly important to the story. "Gramp didn't go to Hogwarts either. He was Guild trained from the start."

That in itself would have been highly unusual, had Gramps been anyone but Corpus Mox. But Corpus was a law unto himself, as were many of the Guild.

HARRY POTTER:

Harry shuffled his food aimlessly with his fork. His head proped up by his elbow, he looked like he was ready to throw up or fall asleep, or both.

"I don't know ron. Aren't you Captain this year? Shouldn't you be telling me what's going on in quidich?" Harry didn't mean to sound so bittingly snappish, but he couldn't help it. His wand felt heavy in his pocket, despite it's current size.

"And as for Snape's class, I don't think I'm going." Dropping his fork and pushing his plate away, he stood up rather abruptly.

"I'm not going to Snape's class. He hates me anyway, I bet he has some kind of curse of me, you watch he's trying to get me killed! What am I supposed to do with a toothpick wand!?" Harry's voice was getting louder as he began to rage out of control. "He doesn't understand what it's like to be under so much pressure! I hate him! I hate him! I hate everyone else too!!!" Tears of rage welled up in his eyes. A blue light began to hover around his body. The room had grown silent, and the entire hall was fixated on the famous Harry Potter. He turned to run out of the hall, tripped over the bench, fell flat on his face. The room was silent. Not a soul laughed. At this point harry could not hold the tears back anymore. His sobs echoed in the great hall as he lifted himself from the ground and staggered out of the hall, the blue glow faltering, and glowing, and faltering again.

RON:

Ron gulped, as he found a seat...conviniently located near the back. Was it just him, or did Snape look...in an especially awful mood today? He always looked sour, so Ron couldn't really say, but... He couldn't help thinking that Snape was going to give them a pop quiz on the first day

KAEL:

Kael sighed to himself as he found a seat in the DADA class. A very, very wary look around the room. And then-- Plop! His bum found its place. "Shinny!" he pat the head of the girl who was sitting in front of him. Shinobu.

SHINOBU:

"Kael, do you mind? This is class" she gritted between her teeth, trying to keep her voice to a whisper.

CRABBE:

Crabbe trundled to class, still shoving in that last bread loaf before entering.

His cheeks were notably stuffed. Well, more stuffed than they usually were, anyways.

He frowned, and sat down in a chair...

Surrounded by 7th year Hufflepuffs.

Why, horror of horrors, was yon Crabbe not within the ever considerate care *cough cough* of his house master, the revered Severus Snape?

Crabbe waffled through his pocket, and took out his candy wrapper again, and started chewing.

Even Snape is not so forgiving as to let a complete imbecile into his advanced potions class.

He frowned, and then looked at the board, where read the word, "Herbology".

ROWENA MOX-XANATHOS:

"Yes." Rowena said cooly, looking at the two Ravenclaws. "You are. And I expect you to behave yourselves while you are in my class. After all, you're Ravenclaws."

TONKS+LUCI:

didn't trust. She wasn't sure *what*, but the feeling was there. And, she was rarely wrong. 'It's like she's pumping me for info...& like she's feigning friendship to get me to let my guard down so I'll 'spill the beans'...but, what info is she seeking? Maybe I need to take this to Professor Dumbeldore...,' Tonks thought.

"So... do you know anything about the Malfoys?" Luci asked, cracking her knuckles as she walked.

"Other than Lucius is a Deatheater & is unfortunately married to one my cousins?" Tonks stated. Then, she began to recall Luci's previous statement about why her mother had named her what she had & noticed the similarity between the two names. 'My, my...has Lucious been busy in more ways than one? I bet Cousin Narcissa would just *love* to get wind of that!'

"Ah. You're one of the Blacks, then?" Luci pushed a bit of stray blonde hair back behind her ear. "I'd heard the family had all but died out.�

"Yes, on my mum's side. Dad was a muggle, much to the chagrin of my grandparents. Mum was even disowned from the family after she married Dad. About the only family who really recognized us was dear 'ole Cousin Sirius...." Tonks voice trailed off & another tear ran down her cheek.

"Sirus Black? The one who escaped Azkabam?" Luci blinked. "He's lucky to have escaped when he did, before the Dementors left. He would not have done well under the new regime. The Guild is using the prisoners for training the new apprentices in the Arts."

Tonks began to feel a rage building within her. Even though she realized Luci could not possibly know the *truth*, she couldn't help but lose her temper, shouting, "Cousin Sirius was NOT guilty! He was FRAMED by that worthless, traitoress, scum bag Peter Pettigrew who became You Know Who's errand boy! He even sold out his friends, the Potters! That's why he was able to find them & killed them! Peter was *suppose* to be their secret keeper! Some secret keeper, the rat! Cousin Sirius was a wonderful man & an exceptional wizard & I will NOT tolerate hearing ANYONE speak ill of him, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!?"

"Excuse me? Did I say he was?" Luci asked, maintaining her cool. "Nor do I recall speaking ill of him. I did say he was lucky he escaped, did I not?" Her tone remained perfectly calm. "I have little faith in the Ministry of Magic and its judgements in general. They did put the Dementors in charge of that prison."

Tonks took a few deep breaths trying to calm down, "I apologize. I'm just use to most folks believing the hype & the lies surrounding his arrest & incarceration at Azkaban. And, before he had a chance to clear his good name, he was....he was....." Tonks explained, trailing off, as the tears came again.

SHINOBU+KAEL:

Shinobu yanked her hair from Kael's grip.

"Yes, Mrs. Mox-Xanathos" she replied, and cast a death glare in Kael's direction.

Kael only grinned, and started to twirl his hair.

RON:

Ron sighed.

/Poor Harry...I can't believe I'm stuck here without him./

He glanced over at where Hermione was sitting and sighed.

NARCISSA MALFOY:

Meanwhile, somewhere off in Malfoy Manor, Narcissa sneezed.

'Horrid, drafty thing, this manor..'

ROSE ZELLER:

Rose sat calmly in her class, and listened to the lesson...

It had been rather sad to leave Mister Neville all by himself in the infirmary, but...

This was class. Not that she liked class, in particular. But she had to prepare for her future...

Not that she liked the way that was going, either, but...

Rose felt her stomach clench.

TONKS+lUCI:

"Many more will die before its all over." Luci said, putting a hand on Tonk's shoulder. Her eyes softened just a bit. "The Deatheaters killed my stepfather. Nobody cared because he wasn't a wizard, or even a human by their standards, and he espoused a rather unfashionable viewpoint in the magical communities." Her hand tightened unconciously. "The Ministry is filled with fools at best."

Tonks tried to regain her composure, wiping her eyes on the back of her robes' sleeve. "I know, but it's still hard." "It's never going to get easier. All we can do is carry on with our lives, and try to finish what they started." Her hand slipped off Tonks' shoulder, her lips tightening a bit. "And avenge their deaths in the slowest, most painful way possible."

"I know.... that's what the other OotP members keep saying....," Tonks said, pausing to try & compose herself, "Remus has tried filling the void, since he was one of Sirius' best friends, but it's just not the same. What hurts most of all is witch who's responsible for his death was never caught, but even if she had been, I'm sure she still wouldn't have been punished, since Fudge had already turned Sirius into 'Public Enemy #1' by then & he never had a chance to clear his good name! If I ever met her in a cold, dark alleyway, so help me....."

Luci produced a hankerchief from her robe and offered it to Tonks. "Remus... Remus Lupin? The werewolf who used to teach DADA?" she asked. "Mother was in school with him."

NARCISSA+MIKI:

Narcissa, quite frustrated with staring in the fire, wondered *fondly* if Lucius had yet recieved her Howler. Oh pleasant joy.

Just then, a house elf ran into the door.

"M'lady! Someone from the ministry of magic here to see the master!"

Narcissa fumed.

"Tell them that he is not here." she icily remarked, and stood up from her seat--

"But, m'lady--"

"I said, go tell the blighter that the 'master' is not home!!"

"But--"

"What??" Narcissa fumed, glaring at the incompetent house elf.

"...she wants to talk to you, too."

Narcissa drew a blank.

What would a female worker from the ministry want with her husband--her?

Not knowing what else to do, Narcissa regained a composure of the lady of the house, and apparated to the door, which she summoned open....

And there, in the doorway, stood an altogether strange sight.

"Ah, Miss Narcissa Malfoy, aren't you?--Yes! I recognize you!"

Naricissa paled.

There stood a young girl with bright red hair. Unmistakeably, she HAD to be one of those annoying Weasley blood traitors. She showed no sign of disgust, though, and merely wondered why their parents let them play these silly pranks.

"Yes, I am--though, I don't believe I have any business with you. Shouldn't you be in school?"

The girl suddenly scowled.

"I'm 32, Narcissa. I went to school with you, albeit you were several years ahead of me. I can assure you right now, that I DO have business with you."

Narcissa was in complete shock.

"Since you seem to have forgotten me, I am Miki Behemoth...I'm currently employed by the ministry high office as a company consultant to evaluate the lives and working ethic of the officers of the ministry."

"What does that have to do with me?" Narcissa inquired, a vague recollection floating to her mind of who this girl was...

"Well, you are a part of the life of your husband, are you not?" Miki stated. "Plus, you control most of the finances of your house. I have to inspect that too."

Narcissa instantly felt a click in the back of her brain as face met with memories...

"But...what is the need for all this investigation?" she asked. "Isn't this an...unnesessary infringement of the privacy of the workers?"

This is when a rather uncanny grin spread upon the woman's altogether too child-like features, making her resemble quite the imp. Narcissa felt a strange urge to curse her on the spot.

"That's because too much of the ministry work has been linked to death eater related activity, you know. This is to clean the reputation of the ministry."

Miki's voice was calm and cool...but her face betrayed another message. You can't hide behind your prestiege anymore.

"I felt I would come by today, just to inform you that I am putting you and members of your family directly linked to ministry work underneath strict supervision to ensure your commitment to the well-being of the wizarding society. Thank you, and good day!" the girl...woman...then disapparated with a flourish.

Narcissa paled with anger.

"...Cocky...Mudblood..."

MIKI BEHEMOTH:

Miki apparated at a local store near the area.

"Hohoho, I haven't seen her in years!" she piped, and took a glass of tea. "Hmmm...wonder how Rowena-sempai has been doing since the last time I saw her..."

Miki then blew across her tea.

"I think I'll write to her-I'll find her listing in the directory at the ministry..."

ROSE ZELLER:

Rose looked up at the proffessor.

"Ah...proffessor...I feel...ugh.."

The teacher looked at her.

"What was that? (ooc-she's a third year, so she's not in DADA right now)

"Ugh..."

The teacher had quite the concerned look on his face. "Right then" Flitwick said, "off to the infirmary with you. So many students in one day!"

Rose got up from her seat, clutching her stomach.

TONKS+LUCI:

"Thanks," Tonks said, taking the handkerchief. She blew her nose & continued, "Yes, that's him. I'll buy you a new hanky once we get to Hogsmeade."

"Is he around? Here, I mean? The AWCRO has been trying to get ahold of him ever since he was fired. They think they can make a good case to get him reinstated, if they can find a way around the Umbridge laws." Luci looked around, then pointed. "I must assume THAT is the Three Broomsticks."

"Oh, he's around, he's just been keeping a low profile due to Umbridge. Because of her, he hasn't been able to find work & it's been really hard on him. The Order has tried to help out when they can & Albus even said he can stay at headquarters. Yes, it is. Best butter beer other than The Leaky Cauldron," Tonks said, stepping inside. Looking around, she found an empty table in the corner & went over to it, sitting down. Luci followed. Soon, a big woman wearing a flowing skirt came over.

"Hello, Madame Rozmerta. How's business?"

"Lo Tonks! I haven't seen you in here since you graduated! How long has it been now? Still working for the Ministry as an Auror?"

"No, actually, Albus asked me to come teach Arithmancy this year while Veclor is on sabbatical. We'll have 2 butter beers & menus. This is Luci, she's the assistant to the new DADA teacher this year."

"Yeah, I heard about her...Rowena Mox, isn't it? I remember when she was a student here as well. So, you're Rowena's daughter, eh?"

"So they tell me." Luci said, her eyes wandering to an all to familiar band of swarthy young folks having what appeared to be a mini-party in the other corner. "I see my darling siblings have found this place." she sighed. "They aren't causing trouble are they?"

"No more than the students do." Rozmerta assured the woman quickly. "It's good to have customers with such healthy apitites."

"... could you start a tab for me? Just put whatever they order on it." Luci said, letting out a soft groan as she watched the twins chug down stiens of butter beer, being cheered on by Uncle Abe.

mU>MIKI BEHEMOTH:

Miki sipped the last of her tea, and chanced a look through the window of the shop to look into the window on the other side, to the Three Broomsticks.

She grinned, and cracked her knuckles.

"I should prolly take a swig of Butterbeer before I get back to work again" she said aloud (to no one in particular), "I have to go visit that crazy woman, Dolores...Umbilge? Something unpleasant..." (ooc--bilge is water that runs underneath a bridge, usually has a negative connotation to it when in reference to people bic)

Miki stretched her arms out, and yawned. She'd been to 4 wizarding households today!

The waiter came by, and Miki called out--

"Here, my coins"

The waiter regarded her suspiciously, but accepted the money

And with that, Miki Behemoth rose up, gathered up her bag, currently stuffed with a sneakoscope, some odds and ends, a protractor, quills, and papers. Tons of papers.

Once after exiting the door, she made her way across to the Three Broomsticks...

"Ah! Rosmerta!" She called out at the entrance.

TONKS+LUCI:

Sure," Rozmerta said, turning & returning to the bar to get their drinks & menus.

When she returned, Tonks asked, "Can you please bring me a saucer of milk for Topaz? And, do you have any scraps I might be able to feed her? I forgot to feed her before we left the flat today & I know she's just famished."

"Sure thing, Tonks. She sure is a pretty little thing," Rozmerta replied. At that, Topaz rubbed up against the woman's legs & began purring.

"Yes & she's also a suck up! But, I love her anyways!" Tonks replied, laughing.

The cat suddenly stopped purring as one of the swarthy Greeks Luci called 'brother' approached. "Luci!" he said cheerfully, ignoring the displeasure of both cat and woman. He moved behind her and put his arms around her shoulders in a hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. The look on Luci's face was one of cool annoyance. "Going to introduce me to your new friend?" he asked.

"Tonks, this idiot is my younger brother. Idiot younger brother, this is one of my co-workers." Without batting an eye, Tonks looked up from the menu & said, "Hello, Idiot," & resumed looking the menu over.

"Here we go, little darling," Rozmerta said as she bought the saucer of milk over & sat the dish on the floor. Topaz went to it, keeping one eye on the Greek. "Doug said he'd see about getting together some scraps for her & I'll bring them out with your meals, okay?"

"Thanks so much, Rozmerta. I think I'll have the shepard's pie. Luci? Do you know what you want?" Shepard's pie and a butterbeer sound really good." Luci said, with her younger brother's chin still resting on her head. "Agler, if you don't bug off RIGHT NOW, I'll do something you'll regret." she pointed out in a calm, resonable voice. Agler immidatly backed off, much to the obvious relief of Topaz. He retreated all the way to the table across the room. "I don't suppose you'd be interested in buying one of my brothers?" "No, that's quite all right, I've got enough problems on my plate right now, thanks," Tonks said, taking a sip of her butter beer.

MIKI BEHEMOTH:

Miki walked up to the counter, and climbed up one of the stools. She leaned over the counter, and looked around for Rosmerta. She saw her waiting at one of the tables.

Hm.

Oddly enough, both of the faces seemed familiar--

No, one of the faces was definitely familiar.

/Isn't that Nymphadora Tonks?/ she thought to herself, looking through her bag to make sure that she had enough money for this butterbeer.

The other face--

Well, she knew she hadn't exactly seen it before.

But it looked like some faces she knew.

Where...

She looked over at one of the other tables, where a man (Abe) and some kids were horsing around--

*click*

"She must be related to Rowena!" she noted to herself. There was no doubt of that in her mind. But how?

Miki clapped her arms hands together.

"Questions are good things." Traditional Ravenclaw maxim.

She settled her stuff on the counter, all packed away and sealed with a very elaborate charm, and she (with great effort) got down off the high stool and, once Rosmerta had gone off .

"Good afternoon!" she piped. "I reckon I've seen you before--you're Miss Tonks, aren't you?"

LUCI, TONKS, MIKI:

"Figured it was worth a shot." She looked up at the bright looking young woman who approached them and called Tonks by name

Tonks looked up, startled. "Um, yes.....please forgive me, but I'm not recalling who you are..."

"Oh, that's alright" she chirped. "I've been forgotten before. I'm Miki Behemoth" she said, holding out her hand in a gesture of friendliness. "I'm reviewing the ministry of magic's proceedings this month, and you were on the 'temporary leave' list" she noted.

Tonks extended her hand & shook Miki's. "I see. Yes, that's right. Professor Veclor went on a sabbatical, so Albus contacted me about covering his class. This is Luci, the assistant DADA teacher this year. Would you like to join us for lunch, or do you have more interviews to conduct?"

Luci offered her hand to Miki. "Lucrizia Mox." she said. "A pleasure to meet you. I have a Behemoth in one of the classes, I think. Ravenclaw... Sixth year? Any relation?"

"Only a few more today, and I'd rather have a good time before I have to talk to this one in particular" she noted.

She then, upon hearing Lucrizia's name, very enthusiastically grabbed it.

"Oh yes! Shinobu's my daughter! Rather fun girl, isn't she? And you must be Rowena's daughter!!" Miki excitedly squeaked. She then sat down, knowing very well that her bags were in good care with their charms all spelled all over them.

"How is your mother doing, anyways? I haven't been able to talk to her in such a long time!"

Somewhere, near Miki's bags, a hand reached out and touched the bag. A muffled squeal came from their mouth, as the words "naughty thief" inscribed themselves upon their hands.

�Mother is as well as she ever is. She's teaching DADA... I'm just her assistant. I have yet to meet your daughter. If I recall the schedule correctly, her class should be getting partnered up right now. I wonder if anyone will manage a curse as good as what the Weasely boy did to Draco Malfoy. Or as titanic a blunder as Potter's attempt."

Miki listened intently, as a child listening to their mother tell them fairytales.

"Well, I hope Shinobu won't dissappoint you--she's a rather headstrong girl, if I say so" she added. "Oh, hey" she tagged the waiter passing by, "Might I have a butterbeer?"

"Sure thing", and he headed off.

Miki then turned back to Luci.

"What's it like, Hogwarts, right now? It's been through quite a lot since I graduated" she asked. "Scars healing from that..oo, what's her name, Umbrick lady? She's my next interviewee."

"Ah. Wouldn't be Dolores Umbridge you're avoiding, would it?" Tonks stated as she exchanged a knowing glance with Luci.

Just then Rozmerta returned with their meals. "Miki! How are you? What can I get ya?"

The look in Luci's eyes promised unholy malic. "I don't suppose I could convince you to let me go along on that interview? I'm told I can be very persuasive when it comes to getting answers. I'll even clean up the mess afterwards."

Tonks began eating her shepard's pie quietly while the two ladies spoke, sounding like two long lost chums catching up on old times.

SEVERUS SNAPE:

Snape looked down his long nose at a glaringly empty seat. "Twenty from Gryffindor. Were is Potter?"

RON WEASLEY:

Ron squirmed in his seat.

He had no bloody idea where Harry had gotten himself off to like that, bursting into histerics all the sudden...very strange.

He raised his hand, knowing very well that speaking without permission would dock another, oh, 50 points from his house.

SEVERUS SNAPE:

"Of course. Mr. Weasely. Well, where is your partner in crime?"

MIKI, LUCI:

Miki grinned.

"No, I'm afraid clean-up duty is my responsibility" Miki joked. "Afterall, you have a more important job--to prevent the creation of other Umbrigges."

The waiter came back with a butterbeer--

"Oh! Thank you--here" she scuffled in one of her pockets, and grabbed out some knuts. She put them in his hand, and then took up her butterbeer.

"We can hope. But these students seem particularly hard headed. Especially that... Goyle fellow." the blond wrinkled her nose. "Nasty, brutish sort. Hardly a brain in his head. I don't think he even got a curse off when we were testing them."

RON WEASLEY:

Ron slowly put down his hand. Snape always made him nervous.

"The last time I saw Harry, he was, er, running off somewhere. I think he's in the bathroom" Ron offered.

/Please Hermione, say something better!/ he thought, doing his best to keep his eyes forward and yet try and signal to Hermione.

MIKI, TONKS, LUCI:

"Hmm...too bad...nothing like the good days, hmm?" Miki replied, and took another swig.

"Aaah, this is just what I need" she smiled to herself, and then placed the jug down.

"Anyways, Tonks" she said, looking to the other lady, "For what did you say Vector was on leave again? I find it a bit strange that he's got an auror doing a mathematician's job, no offense intended"

Tonks continued eating, "Well, to be honest, I scored rather high on both my OWLS & my NEWTS Arithmancy exams, so I suspect that's why Albus contacted me to cover for Vector," she stated simply.

Rozmerta came bussling over then & asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Rozmerta. Can I have a refill?" Tonks said, lifting her empty mug.

"Certianly, certainly!" Rozmerta said, "Anybody else want anything? Miki, do you need a menu, or do you know what you want?"

Miki nodded in understanding to Tonks, and then looked at Rozmerta and held up her jug--

"Don't worry about me, I'm set" she replied. "And soon, I'll be off to purge the government! Cheers to that, eh?"

"I don't suppose you'll be ridding us of that incompatant waste of flesh Fudge?" Luci said wistfully. "How a man so very stupid managed to get as far as he did is beyond me. In Grandfather's day, he'd have been killed for such stupidity by now."

Miki nodded her head in understanding, knowing full well (of course) that "Back in Grandfather's day" covered a rather extensive period of time.

"I will be evaluating him, yes" Miki replied. "And if I see that there needs to be something done about his position, I will make a firm advisory that either his head shape up or they get someone else. It's a bit tricky, though, since he's the head; I have to be a bit careful around that particular job.." She took another swig of butterbeer. It was about halfway gone by this point.

Tonks finished eating her shepard's pie & asked Rozmerta for some trifle.

"Oh, he probably bribed someone, or many his family was owed a favor or something," Tonks said jovially.

GINNY WEASLEY:

A new day, a fresh start at Hogwarts. The previous day had been a tad bit weird for Gin, and she decided to shake those thoughts from her head. Dwelling on evil enemies would not be a great way to start a day....

So she went through her classes, had more homework piled up than she could have ever imagined, and went back to the common room absolutely exhausted. There was just no way she could do this... but somehow, she'd get through this year. She got through O.W.L.s year in one piece... she could get through this one.....

Coming out from the portrait, she stumbled into a hard body and fell hard on her rump (hahahaha rump.... sorry...) Looking up, her eyes widened as she recognized the face of dearest Harry... "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.... Harry?"

TONKS, MIKI, LUCI:

"When were you appointed? I mean, I don't recall your position from last year..." Tonks questioned, trailing off.

Rozmerta returned then with Tonks' trifle.

Miki blinked.

"Oh! I see" she replied, "Well, actually, my old job--you remember my old job, right? Documentation on fluctuations and otherwise association with foreign ministries, that rot. Well, I heard through some people that my frank and honest mediations between the ministries was a little...they wanted someone else to do it. I was furious, of course, because they were undergoing a reassignment of duties, and my job was going to that Percy Weasley brat. Pah! He worships that Fudge, he does, and of course I was furious. I knew exactly what he'd do--forget to integrate all the factors, report only what Fudge wanted to be known, etc, etc. On the verge of getting my job reassigned, I made an appeal to an outside organization on where to put to use my analytical thinking, and they suggested a business efficiency counselor. I was thrilled, and quit that job--let that whippet have it, if he wants it so badly--and got to work on my independent business counsuling career. Next thing I know, I'm getting asked to review the ministry! Rather fine luck, at that, eh?" Miki piped, and took another swig at her butterbeer.

Tonks soon regretted asking the question. Apparently, Miki was one of those who could rattled on & on about everything & nothing. Sighing, she excused herself while she went to the restroom, hoping Miki would be done with her long narrative by the time she returned.

Luci rested her chin on her hand and smiled. "Now that I have you to myself..." she said to Miki, "I want you to dish on every one of Mother's dirty little secrets from school."

Miki looked a bit confused when Tonks excused herself, but then her attention was drawn back to Luci. She grinned.

"WELL...there was this one time where we formed a DADA club at Hogwarts, and she brought in one of her nephews in to do a Dementor impression. Very funny--oh! Did she ever tell you about 'the big prank'?" Miki inquired, a very happy spark in her eye.

She had been very proud of that prank.

"Mother has been rather close mouthed about her adventures here at Hogwarts." Luci said. "Tell me about this prank."

Miki grinned.

"Well, there was a group of Gryffindor trouble-makers back then--Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin--well, they seemed to have a vendetta against Severus. Neither your mother nor I really believed it was fair for four young boys to be attacking another classmate, who had much better things to do than prank them back. The two of us, by chance, met on the train one year, and started talking about it" Miki recalled, remembering how she'd been dragged into that spacious trunk of Rowena's. "It was a brilliant plot! Lost of codes, traps, and trouble for them in every corner...it was a pity that some of that fun was spoiled, though, by this one boor named Avery....something. Fah! Baka yaro" she mumbled, and finished off her butterbeer.

She then looked up and saw Rosmerta

Tonks returned to the table & found Miki & Luci deep in conversation about Miki's times at Hogwarts with Rowena. 'Oh gees, I was really hoping she'd be quiet by now, but I see Luci is encouraging her! UGH! Well, maybe I should just finish my trifle & return to the castle & finish unpacking since I don't want to risk running into Bill while in town!' Tonks sat back down & resumed eating her trifle. Rozmerta came over & asked, "Everything okay, ladies?"

"Everything's fine, Rozmerta. Can you bring me my bill when it's convenient for ya, dear?"

"Sure thing," Rozmerta said as she tapped her wand on the bill pad & said, "Totalius!" Then, ripped a piece of parchment from the pad & placed it face down on the table. "What about you, Luci? Are you ready for your bill yet?"

Luci glanced at the table with her siblings and sighed. "Dreading it, actually. Might as well see it now."

Rozmerta nodded sypathetically, but she still produced a bill that made the pale blond blanch for a moment. With another sigh, she produced a heavey looking pouch. "Just... start me a balance, alright? And cut them off. No more for them."

"I'm sure they can start paying for themselves." Rozmerta said as she took the pouch.

Miki smiled.

"Well, it was a pleasure to see you two" she began, and summoned over her bags. She fettered around with some of the pockets, oblivious to some of the parchments that were spilling about.

"Here"

She held out the knuts in her hand that paid for the butterbeer in her outstretched palm, using the other one to sift through the bag. About half of the parchments had slipped out by now.

One in particular fell and spread out on the floor--but there seemed to be nothing written on it. It was mysteriously blank.

"Ah" Miki affirmed, and dug out a piece of yellow tattered parchment. She laid it out on the table, and scribbled with her (bizzarely shaped) quill (it looked like a compass) some scrawl. She then finished one last letter--

"Here--you give this to your mother, alright?" Miki asked, holding it in front of Lucrizia. It also was mysteriously empty.

"It was nice meeting you, Miki. Luci, did you want to return to the castle with me, or do you have business here in Hogsmeade?" Tonks said as Topaz began getting antsy. "Ah, do you need to take care of your business? Rozmerta, is it okay if I take her out back? She needs to..."

"Sure, sure. Here, let me get you a bag."

"No need, I have my wand," Tonks said as she took Topaz out back. After Topaz finished, Tonks pointed her wand towards the area of dirt & said, "Scrudgify!"

Returning inside, she sat back down to finish her butter beer & waited for Luci to answer her inquiry.

"Yes, ma'm." Luci said, taking to paper and sticking it into her robes

"Pleasure to talk to you too, Miss Tonks" Miki said to the new teacher. "I'm going to be off--AAH!"

She bent down on the floor and hurriedly picked up the empty scroll.

She looked around suspiciously.

"No one...no one read that, right?"

Tonks looked at Miki oddly, "Um, since it was blank, i don't think so."

Turning to Luci she spoke, "Luci, you coming? Or, do you have business here in town?"

Miki stared.

"Oh. Blank, right. How easily I forget" she mutters, and continued to gather up her things.

Most of the other parchments, in fact, were blank, too.

"Uwa...folding time"

Miki proceeded to play Origami with her papers.

Luci nodded, standing. "Its been a pleasure, Miki. Tonks, I need to hit the bank and make sure everything got transfered properly. I'll see you later, 'kay?" She headed for the door with a small wave.

"See you later then," Tonks said to Luci as she left. Turning she asked

MIki, "Are you going my way?"

MIKI+TONKS:

Miki looked up from her big oragami bird.

"Ah?"

She scratched her head.

"Which way are you going? I have 40 minutes before my scheduled appearance in Umbilly's office" she said. "But I suppose I have time to spare...she doesn't have any apparation zoning restrictions set up for her." She held up her bag, and tapped the Oragami bird, transfiguring it into a bright, Madagascar parrot (the red kind--it matched her hair!). She then held up a bundle of papers tied up toghether, and let the bird grab onto it.

"Well, I'm headed back to the castle...need to finish unpacking & getting my lesson plans in order for the next few days," Tonks said. Just then Topaz caught sight of the transfigured origami & began trying to jump at it. "Oh, I really wish you hadn't done that," Tonks moaned at Miki about the bird.

Miki looked over, her expression seemingly blank.

"I see. Well, we can't have your kitty eating my security reports" she affirmed to herself (aloud, amazingly enough), and then started cawing to the Macaw. It blinked, flapped, and Miki lifted it as it alighted into the air.

"She knows where to go" she told Tonks. "It's a part of her, afterall"

Tonks shook her head in bewilderment & she approached Rozmerta to settle her bill. "Let's get going then. I do want to stop by Honeyduke's briefly, I need to restock on chocolate frogs & Bertie Bot's Beans," Tonks said as she tried to keep Topaz from jumping the colorful bird.

"Right, of course!" Miki beamed, tying up her bag, her eyeline tracing the bird in the sky.

"Honeydukes...Hm."

She scratched her head, silently pondering when she'd been there last.

She couldn't recall.

Hmm.

"I better get a chocolate frog before seeing Umbriggand, too."

"Right. Oh, Rozmerta, could I have a tankard of butter beer to go?"

"Certainly, be back in a jiffy!" Rozmerta said, as she disappeared to the back to get another patron's order. After taking them their meal, she returned & filled a tankard & handed it to me. "That will be 5 knutts," she said, handing it to me. Tonks dug around in her coin purse & handed her 5 coins. "Well, then, let's be on our way!" she said, turning towards Miki.

They left the tavern & made their way towards the sweets' store. Entering the store, Tonks picked up a basket & made her way over to the chocolates section where she began to load up on chocolate frogs. Then, she went over to another shelf & picked up a couple boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Then she grabbed a bag of ginger candy & some red licorice quills.

Miki eagerly followed. She snagged herself a bag of chocolate frogs, and then paid it in full to the register.

"Aah, my lovelies" she crooned. "You will help me deal with a most unpleasant person. You are doing the wizarding world a great service."

She turned to Tonks, and gaped at her supply.

"Filling up? Or will those be for the students?"

HARRY POTTER:

Harry ran from the great hall in shame. His vision blured from the tears, and as he stumbled through the halls he pulled off his glasses to wipe his face with his sleve. His mind had gone blank except for an emotional blurr of rage, fear, and pain. Before he could regain his composure, he found himself standing before the portrait gaurding the Griffindor commons.

The portrait subject exited frame-left and sped from portrait to portrait, upsetting sleeping wizards and alerting those joined in the SPS (Secret Portrait Surveylance). The portrait was traveling in the direction of the Headmaster's office.

Harry blinked stupidly while regaurding the blank portrait. "Well bloody horned toads, How am I going to get in now?"

Just then the portrait swung open. Startled, Harry staggered and nearly fell, dizzy from his tears. Having nearly missed being hit by the portrait, he was doubbly shocked to be nearly run-over by a younger Griffindor. That shock was the straw following the last. Harry burst anew into tears.

>>>>>

Looking up, her eyes widened as she recognized the face of dearest Harry... "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.... Harry?"

>>>>>

/Ginny?/ Harry sniffled and looked down at his friend strewn upon the floor. "Oh Ginny!... I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry," Again he wiped his face on his sleeve. "Oh my gosh, Ginny, let me help you." He stretched both hands to her aid. (Neither of which held his glasses that were not on his face.)

TONKS+MIKI:

"STUDENTS! Right! I almost forgot!" Tonks said as she rushed over & grabbed a bag of rock candy sticks, 4 more bags of chocolate frogs, 4 boxes of Bertie Bot's (with the individual serving boxes inside), a bag of fizzing sticks (you stick them into a glass of pumpkin juice or butter beer & it makes the drink all fizzy!). "There, that should hold me until the next time I can get back here!" She took her basket of goodies to the counter & proceeded to check out.

Miki stared open-eyed, taking in all the candy that Tonks was buying.

/She must love candy/ she thought to herself, and stood by the door.

She couldn't help but think 'twas a bit suspicious, so much candy for one person.

/A party, maybe?/

She shrugged, and shifted her position.

Paying, Tonks grabbed the bags of candy & turned towards her companion.

"Well, shall we go?"

Miki nodded.

"Indeed", and she gathered herself together again, then followed behind Tonks.

"You must really like sweets, to buy so many for yourself" Miki noted, opening up her bag of chocolate frogs. They were luckily individually wrapped inside.

RON WEASLEY:

Ron sighed.

The lesson had been...painful. Especially since Harry's whereabouts were unknown.

Then again, it was most likely for the best that he'd skipped out. If he was feeling that cruddy, Snape's scowling expression would have most certainly made things worse. Much, much worse. Indefinitely worse.

Ron sighed, and flicked a stray curl away from his eyes.

TONKS+MIKI:

Tonks reached in & opened her own bag of frogs & opened it. "Who did you get? I got....damn, Hufflepuff. I must have 4 of those!" Tonks opened another, "UGH! Fudge!"

Miki scrabbled around inside the bag, not looking where she was going. She unwrapped the frog, and popped it in her mouth. She looked at the card--

"Ah! I got Morgana!"

She tapped the edges covetously.

"This one's really rare!"

And then, Miki walked into a streetpole.

She rubbed her face.

"Uuuu..."

NARCISSA MALFOY:

Narcissa stood in the foyer, rather frustrated.

"Uuugh, the impertinence!! Damn the ministry! Damn the lot of them!! And damn Lucius, too, the brute!!"

She stormed away from foyer with a vengence.

"That's it! I'm going to the school! I must see my Draco!" And with that, she bundled herself up (damn british weather!), then made for the portkey.

KAEL TIER:

Kael stared up at the teacher in the front of the classroom. She sure was different, wasn't she? Especially in comparison to all the others. He blinked. /Come to think of it, she's the first woman in this post, isn't she? I mean, other than that nasty lady/ Kael thought. In his opinion, Umbridge had never truly held the position of DADA Proffessor.

SHINOBU:

Shinobu clutched the wand in her pocket with great anxiety.

GINNY WEASLEY:

Ginny tentatively looked up at the distressed and.. 'crying? Harry never cries...' boy. She took his hand and looked around for his glasses, noticing them just a few feet away from her. "Here, Harry... now, what's wrong? Why are you here in the middle of the day crying?" She thought she'd seen her fill of unusual things. She was wrong, of course...

She tried to remember why she was there in the middle of the day as well.... then she shook her head to clear her thoughts. Stupid prat... she probably wouldn't see him again.

TONKS+MIKI:

"You really ought to look where you're going!" Tonks said, "Wow, Morgana, really? I don't think I've ever seen her!"

Miki sighed.

"Maybe the reason they don't put her in too often is because of this...?"

The Morgana picture, at the present time, was having a tissy fit with her cauldron.

"Hm..."

She rubbed her forehead.

"Perhaps. Hey, aren't you gonna be late for your meeting with her royal hatefulness?" Tonks said & she opened her box of Bertie Bot's Beans & began searching for the various green ones & tossing them down to Topaz.

"They actually make grass & catnip flavored ones! Can you imagine!?"

"Well" Miki began, "they are of every flavor" she said. "Though it is funny--I certainly thought so, too, when I had my first every-flavored bean--it was candle wax" she grimaced.

"Ah, true then" Miki noted. "I hope I will be able to see you again? Can't have Umbilge waiting..."

"Ewww! My bo... a friend of mine said his brothers once got vomit, boogie & ear wax! Can you imagine? Yeah, I'll be around....but mostly at the castle. Okay, I'll see you around then!" & with a wave, Tonks continued ahead towards the castle with Topaz in tow.

MIKI BEHEMOTH:

"Alright!" Miki called back, and stared at Tonks walking off.

Strange.

What would she have said if she hadn't changed mid-word?

"Hm...prolly something I'm not to bother about" she muttered, and apparated.

And she arrived at a very annoying frivolous door.

She pinched her lips in disgust, but bit her lip, and grabbed (hesitantly, of course) the ribboned knocker.

"Hello? Madam Um--" she took out a card from a pocket on her vest--"Madam Umbridge?"

/So that's what it is? Feh./

UMBRIDGE:A woman wearing a hideous pink (the shade of Pepto Bismo!) sweater over lavender robes answered the door. "Yes? And, you are?" she asked, looking down her nose at the redhead.

MIKI BEHEMOUTH:

Miki surpressed a gag.

Still keeping her smile on (though definitely not as vibrant as when she'd had the pleasure of shocking Narcissa out of her boots), Miki addressed the woman.

"I'm Miki Behemoth--the appointed management efficiency surveilance agent--I'm sure that you've been told about me?" Miki inquired.

RON:

Ron surpressed a yawn.

/Where in blazes is Harry, anyways?/

Suddenly, he felt a chill down his spine.

/What was that??/

Ron had no idea of what was currently conspiring between his best friend and Ginny at the moment...

But for some reason, Ron felt especially irate.

/It must be Snape getting on my nerves/ he inwardly grumbled.

UMBRIDGE:

"I most certainly was not! But, do come in, come in. Can I get you something to drink? Tea? Butter beer? Pumpkin juice?"

MIKI BEHEMOUTH:

Miki denied the offer with her hand--

"It's alright, I had a drink before I came" she replied.

Miki followed in, and set down her bag.

"Well, anyways, to explain myself--The management efficiency surveilance counselor, the position I've been hired out for" she began, "gives me rights to screen all current members of the Ministry of Magic--their work jobs, as well as their personal lifestyles--to see if they are fit members for the ministry. Naturally, I don't start for a while--I'm just on my rounds to inform the workers ahead of time. Afterall", she put in a final tone, "we can't have ministry members reporting me for suspicious and stalker-like behaviours when that's what I've been hired to do, afterall!"

SHE-DEVIL:

"I see. Well, I don't think I understand why you're here, exactly, since I report directly to Cornelius, I'm more than likely exempt from such surveillance," Dolores said, smiling sweetly.

MIKI BEHEMOUTH:

Miki then shuffled for a piece of paper within her bag, and said--

"Oh, quite on the contrary, Madam. You see, even Mister Fudge himself is under my inspection--why would you fail to fit the requirements?"

Miki then took out a roll of paper from her bag, and unfurled it.

"I, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, give my consent to the employed, Miki Behemoth, to do as she sees fit to evaluate and judge the current members of the ministry. I fear that I, as the leading executive, have failed in my duty to root out corruption from this establishment. Miki Behemoth has supreme authority in this matter, and I myself am subject to what she sees fit. Ensigned, the aforementioned" Miki concluded, and wrapped up the scroll. It was one of the other scrolls which, to any other eye, was completely blank.

EVILLE DENIZEN OF THE MACROCOSM:

Sighing, Dolores said, "I see. Well, do come in & make yourself at home. I feel like a spot of tea, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put the kettle on." Turning, she bustled out.

The living room was a quaint one, filled with a couple overstuffed pink chairs, couch & ottoman. The chairs & couch were adorned with frilly lavender doilies. The walls were decorated with various pictures of kittens frolicking together.

MIKI:

Miki sat down, uneasily.

/She sure has a odd taste, doesn't she?/ she pondered, and looked to Dolores making tea.

/Hm. So, she's the DADA teacher Shinobu reviled so much.../

She folded her right foot over her left, and held her bag close--making her look very much like a child indeed.

SPAWN OF THE UNDERWORLD:

Dolores returned to the living room with a plate of finger sandwiches.

"We can chat while I wait for the kettle. Feel free to help yourself," Dolores said, gesturing to the plate. "Now, what would you like to know? Behemoth, Behemoth...." Dolores said, tapping a finger against her chin. "AH! Shinobu! Is she your daughter, perhaps?" Dolores leaned over & picked up a sandwich & began nibbling like a little mouse.

MIKI:

Miki felt a sense of pride that her daughter had a name to this person--and a bit annoyed, as well. Was there something she wanted to say?

"Why, yes, Miss Umbridge" she noted. "Shinobu is my daughter." She looked at Dolores from over her bag.

FROG-FACE:

"Well, she's quite....enthusiastic, isn't she?" Dolores said, smiling coyly, just as the kettle began to whistle. Dolores hopped up & bustled into the kitchen before Miki had a chance to respond.

MIKI:

Miki, of course, noted the tone of her voice.

"That's my daughter, allright" she countered cheerfully, "always wanting to expand her mind."

PAIN:

Dolores came back in with a tray that had a teapot, 2 cups, a bowl of sugar cubes & a tiny pitcher. "Just in case you change your mind, dear." Dolores then went about making herself a cup of tea. Taking a sip, she smiled. "Now, enough with the pleasantries & small talk, I say. Why don't we get down to brass tacks about what brings you here today, shall we?"

MIKI:

Miki gave an equally cheerful--and dry--smile, her eyebrows knitted together.

"Ma'am, I do believe I have already stated my business here. I am informing all current members who fill positions as members of the Ministry of Magic that as of today, they will be under scrutiny by the"--

She waved her hands--

"Efficiency consultant, integrity browser, company management adviser, whatever word you have for it. Otherwise, me."

/It's a warning./

BIOTCH FROM THE BLACK LAGOON:

Dolores took another sip of tea & smiled sweetly, "Okay, perhaps you did not understand my question. You came, you informed me.....WHY are you still here? Was there something else you needed?"

MIKI:

Miki just smiled, and took out the scroll from earlier that was--well, blank to anyone else's eye.

"Oh, just for chit-chat" Miki began.

/As if the real reason could be mentioned/ she thought to herself.

She caught a glance at the scroll, which (as we've said before, to anyone else's eyes is invisible) was scattered with little dots everywhere. It was a rather large scroll of course. The whole thing was, actually, a map of the houses she'd visited. There were various little dots moving around indicating none other than the people she was watching. On the side, there was a noticeable margin (that is, if other people could notice it.)

She tapped the dot that indicated "Umbridge"

Instantly, the dot widened open on the margin, and revealed a sketchy view of the scene that was occuring--her talking to Umbridge.

"Just a percusory look around, you know. Shall I be off, then?"

SHE-WHO-WE-ALL-LOVE-TO-DETEST:

"Feel free. Oh, & by the way, I'd appreciate it in future if you could do me the courtesy of contacting me in advance & making an appointment for future meetings. I don't like being dropped in on spur of the moment," Dolores stated.

MIKI:

Miki stared.

"Oh, this was no spur, I assure you of that" she replied. "I just believed that it would be more personal for me to deliver the information personally, rather than have some off-handed message come through owl. You understand, of course" she added cordially.

UGHH...BRIDGE:

"Yes, dear, but what I'm getting at is, when you show up, unannounced, you could find yourself knocking on an empty house. I could be away, visiting Hogsmeade perhaps, or a friend. Or, I could even be at the Ministry. That's why I'm saying in future it would be best for you to contact me ahead of time & make an appointment. It's not like I sit around the house all day, waiting for someone to come visit me, that's all. As it is, I just happened to take a sick day today, otherwise I would have been at the Ministry," Dolores said, sipping her tea.

MIKI:

"Yes, I knew this" Miki replied. "I have, as part of my job, access to the Ministry roster, afterall, and knew you'd be here."

She then dusted off her lap, and stood up, rolling up the parchment.

"Well, I'll make sure to have an appointment the next time I intend to meet up with you" Miki replied in an almost perfunctory manner. She knew, of course, that the only time she would actually be formally meeting with Umbridge again would be when she told her if she was fit for her job.

"I must be on my way--so many of you ministry members!"

TONKS:

Tonks & Topaz finally returned to Hogwarts & she made her way back to the Professor's wing to finish unpacking.

ICKY DENIZEN OF THE WIZARD REALM...

"That's all I ask!" Dolores said, sipping more tea.

MIKI:

"I hope that our next meeting will be agreeable for both of us" Miki consented, and, after sucessfully gathering all of her things together, exited the front door--

And disapparated.

It wasn't as if Umbridge was a woman who bespelled her own house with anti-apparating charms.

GIN:

Gin left Harry in his misery, as he seemed unwilling to speak at the moment. She wandered around the castle, just enjoying the magic feelings all around, when she bumped into Tonks.

"Oh, hello Tonks.... or rather, Professor" she smiled. Tonks was one of her most favorite people.

TONKS:

"Hi Ginny. How have you been?" Tonks asked, trying to remain composed & not burst into tears over seeing one of Bill's siblings. Topaz ran over to her & began purring & rubbing up against her legs, demanding to be petted.

GIN:

Ginny looked down at the adorable Kneazle and pet her, while looking up and saying, "I'm all right myself, but the real question should be, how have YOU been?" Ginny was in her own turmoil, but it looked as if the Professor was in a much greater turmoil than herself.

TONKS:

Tonks looked at Ginny, confused. She thought sure she would have known by now, especially since when Bill stormed out after their row, he went back to the Burrow to stay at his parents. "Didn't Bill explain why he returned to the Burrow? Or, was he pretending to just be visiting?"

GIN:

"Sorry, I wasn't there when Bill came back to the Burrow... I was off at a friends house, staying for a bit. Did something happen between the two of you?" Gin was puzzled... Bill hadn't told her anything of this...

TONKS:

"Well, after Professor Dumbeldore offered me the teaching job, Bill decided to surprise me with getting transferred to the Hogsmeade branch of Gringott's. I asked him, what, didn't he trust me to stay faithful to him? And, he said, no, he just didn't want us to have to relay on weekends & such to see each other. Well, we ended up having this big row & ultimately, he stormed out & went back to the Burrow," Tonks explained, as Topaz demanded for some more affection, pawing at Ginny's leg.

BILL + LUCI:

Bill flipped his hair over his shoulder with a muffled sigh before grabbing the box and his feet and lifting it, handing it off to the goblin perched on the ladder above him. When he'd accepted the job, he'd definatly not expected to be doing... well. Grunt work. At least it was almost time for him to flee. Back to the outside world, with fresh air, and light, and reletivly few goblins ordering him about.

He bolted out of the mostly filled vault like a bat out of hell when the quiet chiming of bells (that sounded suspiciously like the clinking of gold coins) let it be known that the shift was done. He was so intent upon his escape that he didn't notice the woman walking down the steps until about three seconds to late.

Both ended up in a tangle of arms, legs, and hair. Bill let out a rather ungentlemanlike exclaimation as he untangled himself, followed by a "Sorry, my fault."

"Indeed." the woman said dryly. An American, by the accent. Pretty. Blond hair, green eyes... she looked oddly familiar. She stood up and dusted herself off, which was when Bill noticed the badges pinned to her lapel. One of them was a Hogwarts crest.

"New teacher?" he asked, holding out his hand. "I'm Bill. Bill Weasely. Two of my sibs go to Hogwarts."

"Luci." the woman said. "I teach DADA. Any relation to Ron Weasely?"

"My little brother. Not causing trouble, is he?"

"Not in the least."

"Sorry about..." he gestured towards the bank. "How about I buy you some lunch to make up for it?" He favored her with his most charming smile. It would be good to have lunch with a pretty woman. Get back on the horse, as it were.

She hesistated a moment, then nodded. "Alright."

GIN:

Gin looked up in shock... she didn't know that Bill and Tonks had broken off... she asked in wonder, "When did this happen? I thought Bill would have told me... oh I'm so sorry Tonks. I hope you've recovered... that's horrible."

Gin thought back... she had no recollection of Bill telling her anything of the sort... she wondered why she hadn't been entrusted with the knowledge... she was a bit angry, since she was close to Bill...

TONKS:

"About two months ago. I'm surprised he didn't say anything either, but maybe he didn't know how to...you know how much your mum adores me. I mean, he hasn't so much as sent me an owl since he left. The only reason I knew he returned to the Burrow was our clock. I'm doing okay, I suppose. I mean, I'd love to try & work things out, but like I said, he hasn't even so much as sent me an owl since he left, so I don't know if he'd even be open to the idea," Tonks said as she walked over to the door to her room, waved her wand to disarm the unauthorized access wards & entered. "So, what brings you to this wing of the castle & why aren't you in class? I never knew you to be one to skip," Tonks said, eying Ginny curiously.

GIN:

"Well, I was talking to Harry a bit ago, and I hadn't been feeling well, so I was on my way to the hospital wing." She added carefully, "I do hope that you and Bill work things out... it's certainly not comfortable ending on a bad note..."

Secretly, Gin wished that they'd get together in the most romantic fashion, Bill sweeping her off her feet, and living happily ever after.... but that just happened in fairy tales. People did not get a perfect beginning or ending in real life...

TONKS:

"Ah," Tonks said, "well, you better get a move on before Filtch or that evil sack of bones he calls a cat comes along." Digging into her bag of goodies, she extended a handful of chocolate frogs, "Here, maybe when you're feeling a bit better."

GIN:

Gin felt a bit bad about the lie, but she really had a lot to think about... and she hadn't felt too well since that morning anyway. Deciding to head on to the hospital wing anyway, she rounded the corner and made her way there... not contemplating the fact that another individual might be residing there... someone she didn't quite want to talk to at the moment...

SHINOBU:

Shinobu stretched her hands to the air, yawning.

That certainly had been a wonderful class!

She'd been able to use a simple silencing charm to keep her opponent (Kael, oddly enough) from casting a spell on her. She congradulated herself on a tidy job, and flipped open her textbook for Potions.

Shinobu was currently lying on the bed in her room, which she shared with two other Ravenclaw girls. Current positions unknown.

"Hmm-hmm, answer to number 35 is '3 over 20, multiplied by converting factor S, then adding 2 teaspoons of mugroot!" she cheerily recorded down, making sure to not forget that calorimetry factor (ooc--potions is most likely a lot like chemistry in some ways. *loves chemistry*)

There was a knock on her door--

"Ah! Come in!"

KAEL:

Kael frowned.

He sat downstairs in the Hufflepuff common room, with one of the other hufflepuff boys laughing his head off.

"A silencing charm??Ohoho, that is wicked!"

"Yes, very" he curtly replied, and continued to sulk.

RON + HERMIONE:

Ron sat down in one of the big, puffy cushioned chairs that were in the Gryffindor Common Room.

Still no sign of Harry.

"Bloody..." he cursed, wondering if his friend hadn't been spirited off by gnomes when no one was looking. He knew Harry was moody and emotional at times, but this was ridiculous!

He looked up from his chair as another person came into the Common Room--

"Hullo, Ron--goodness! Harry's still not here?" Hermione exclaimed, the worry coming through her voice.

"Nope. Not even a bloody black hair to be seen" Ron sulked. "Where could he have gotten off to?"

Hermione sighed, and walked over to Ron.

"Nevermind that, Ron. You've got to cheer up, too! What kind of friend are you, if whenever Harry does manage to get back here, you can't give him a smiling face?" she scolded.

"Speak for yourself" he smirked.

"Hmph" Hermione retorted. "Anyways, since he missed Potions, we might as well get together our notes for him, so he can get his assignments turned in."

"Noo, anything but that" Ron groaned, head still sore from all the blabbing Snape had done earlier that day.

Hermione frowned.

Force was obviously necessary.

"Come on--up you go!" she grabbed his hand, and tried pulling Ron out of that chair. Honestly, those chairs did not encourage good study habits.

Ron did not want to be pulled from his chair.

"You'll have to fight me for it" he shouted, firmly rooting his bum into the seat.

"Ron! This is studying!"

"Hermione! This is my chair!"

The two continued in this manner for about 1 whole minute.

Ron happened to be the one who had stronger arms.

Inadvertedly, Hermione gave up her arm strength (it was no use fighting with that boy!), but Ron didn't let go at the same time--

"AAH!" they both screamed, as Ron's leftover strength pulled Hermione forward--

"Oop."

"Uh. Well..."

"E-e-e-excuse me" *blush*

"Oh, no, it's just fine!" *blush*

"I mean--" *more blushing*

"Nothing!--"*blushing some more*

"Er.." *blush blush blush*

"Ah! Potions notes!!" Hermione squeaked, getting herself out of that entanglement.

Ron, surprisingly enough, sprung up too. The shock must have riveted his brains.

"R-r-right...Potions...notes.."

"It's good manners." Hermione blurted out, barely making any more sense to herself than anyone else.

"Uhh...sure..."

They stood there for about 3 seconds, then busied themselves with gathering their studying materials. They finally got them all sprawled out on one of the tables.

"...Ron, your handwriting stinks."

"Shut up!" *blush*

NARCISSA:

Narcissa smiled.

Her bird had come back just 20 minutes ago.

It wasn't armed with a response, but to her it meant one thing:

He'd received the Howler.

She sank into her seat, pleased. She then began to nibble on her roast beef.

MIKI:

Miki wiped the sweat off of her forehead.

10 houses! What a nightmare...

She settled herself into her house--more of a hole than anything else--and threw away her other business-related items. She simply rolled the scroll out in front of her, and watched.

/Hmm. Lucius has been out of his house for a while. Suspcious/ she noted, scribbling that down.

Lucky enough for her, all actions that were noted on that sheet were magically being recorded on her second scroll. Investigation, spying, incrimination--that was the name of the job.

She pushed away part of the scroll, and cleared a space on her work table;

Dear Rowena Mox-Xanathos:

Goodness, how long it's been! I just saw your daughter, Luci today, at Rosmerta's place. She's quite the admirable young lady! It made me want to see you. We do have a lot to catch up on, ever since school ended. I hope that we can arrange to meet sometime, when you're not overly busy, maybe?

Sincerely,

Miki Behemoth

p.s.: I hope my own daughter has not been too much trouble! She's a good spirit, just like me in so many ways.

Then she dotted the ink.

The special ink that she had created when she was in high school.

/There! No sneak is going to be able to read her mail/ she victoriously chimed inside.

Miki's jealous paranoia had not been cured since her highschool days.

CRABBE:

Crabbe dozed.

He didn't take notice of the fact that Draco didn't come in to break him away from his dreams of sugarplums and demand obedience. He was actually able to eat 50 of them this time--he usually only got to number 43. Crabbe had a very nice nap.

ROSE:

Rose sat in the infirmary with Neville Longbottom on one side, and Draco Malfoy on the other.

It was a rather interesting experience.

Neville had been glad to see her, of course, in his resigned way.

Draco, on the other hand, had kept on asking her strange questions.

One such as, "What's your name?"

He'd never asked her that one before. In fact, Draco asking her questions was an occurence completely new to her entirely.

He'd actually been asking everyone questions.

"Where am I? Who are you? What's my name again? What's this? What's my favorite color?"

Very strange questions, indeed.

Rose just stared at him.

"Er...Malfoy?"

ROWENA:

Rowena looked at the letter, a slightly amused experssion crossing her features for a moment. Miki... Blessed Goddess, how long had it been since she's actually seen her henchwoman and friend. At least since before Luci had been born. The amused expression turned into a grin, and she dashed off a quick reply.

Meet me at the 3 Broomsticks in 20 min. R

LUCI:

Luci practiacally skipped her way back up to the castle. If she weren't a Guildmember, she might have done just that. But guild members simply didn't skip, no matter how happy they were. And Luci was happy. VERY happy. She had enjoyed the company of a handsom red head (oh that hair! How she wanted to spend a night just running her hands through it!), made a friend, and found someone to dish on the bad things her mother used to do as a student.

Things were definatly looking up as slipped into the castle, towards the teachers quarters.

MIKI:

Miki was just drying her long red hair when the owl came in.

"Mm? Oo, a reply already!" she excitedly squealed, and opened up the note.

"Hmm. Let's see--an owl from Hogwarts, traveling at a velocity of 25/mph, then factor in the distance--this was sent about 10 minutes ago. Goodness! I better get ready" she flustered, and tied up the long, red, vibrant hair in a low ponytail in the back.

Miki ran up to her room, and grabbed out a blue robe with silver buttons, complete with a brown vest over it.

"Hai, hai" she muttered in a approval, and grabbed up her wand (you never knew, what with these days being so hectic, what you might find out there), and she disapparated from her house.

ROWENAA:

Rowena kept a cautious eye on her celebrating offspring off in their corner, and another cautious eye on the door, as she sat in a cozy nook of the Three Broomsticks and waited for Miki. Rosemerta had been good enough to bring by a mug of butter beer before hurrying off to deal with her spawn. She would have to have a talk with them later.

LUCI:

Luci rounded a couner and nearly ran head first into a student. Thankfully this time, she wasn't knocked over, but it did take her a bit by surprise. She admonished herself silently for allowing herself to be taken unaware, using a moment to study the student. Female, red hair, pretty... Gyrffindor going by the colors. Looked vaugly familiar. "My appologies." Luci said.

GIN:

Gin looked up to see a blond-haired woman in front of her, and stumbled back a bit. She thought she'd seen the face somewhere else. "That's okay, I'm so sorry I stumbled into you, I wasn't looking to see where I was going... and do I know you?" Gin didn't want to be rude, but the woman looked very familiar.

MIKI:

Miki Behemoth stepped into the Three Broomsticks.

Her head nearly swiveled on a pivot, obviously looking for someone--

"Oh? Oh! Rowena!" Miki swept over in a bustle, and sat down.

"Goodness! It's been so long, I almost didn're recognize you! How have you been doing?" Miki cheerfully began, blue eyes beaming with excitement.

LUCI:

"Lucrezia Mox. I'm the new Assistant DADA teacher." She patted an errant strand of pale hair back into place. "You probably had a class with my mother earlier today, If I'm judging your year and house correctly miss....?" She trailed off, waiting for the girl to supply a name.

ROWENA:

"Engaged, separated, married, widowed, hired to teach. I somehow mothered an unruley army inbetween those events." Rowena said. "You haven't changed a bit, Miki. I could envy you, if it weren't for the fact that you probably get carded whenever you go into a bar or try to work magic." She took a long pull from her drink. "So. You met Luci."

GIN:

"Weasley. Ginny Weasley." Suddenly, it hit her. "I escorted Mr. Malfoy to the hospital wing yesterday... and I think you were the one who asked me to do that." Gin felt relieved. She wondered how Malfoy was doing, losing his memory and all that. She hoped he really wouldn't regain his distaste for her, since he really wasn't as bad with no memory...

She shook her head and replied, "No, I haven't had any classes in DADA yet. I really can't wait to see how the new DADA teacher is handling the class... from what I've been hearing, Ron's had a class there."

LUCI:

"Oh yes. Ron Weasely. He's the one who put the curse on Mr. Malfoy." A slight grin tugged at Luci's lips. "Wonderful peice of work, that one. He'll go far if he can pull more like that out. "I trust you'll live up to the example he's set." Luci cocked her head to one side. "I don't suppose you could direct me towards the dining room? I seem to have gotten myself rather lost. In trade, I'll tell you what I can of the new DADA curiculam."

DRACO:

His head hurt. He was very much aware of that. It was one of the few things that still made any sense to him. He let out a small groan and reached up to run a hand through his hair. His fingers caught a few of the pale strands, with his inspected with a kind of detached interest. A corner of his mind found itself wandering back over to yesterday (the last day he had any truely clear memories of), and the girls who had brought him here.

He decided that he liked red hair. He wasn't entierly sure were that decision came from or why, but it seemed right enough, so why not?

They kept telling him his name was Draco, and he supposed it was as good a name as any. It sort of seemed right, but it kept sliding out of his mind like eggs off a teflon coated frying pan.

With a sigh, the boy rolled on to his side and frowned. Strange things kept popping into his mind at odd times. Memories, he supposed. He didn't particularly like most of them, or the conclusions they lead him towards. He started to suspect it was for the best that they wouldn't stay in place very long.

MIKI:

Miki nodded her head as Rowena made her history brief. Brevity was a word that seemed to only describe Rowena in her words--everything else was elongated.

"Yes", Miki replied, "yes, I did--Luci's such a beautiful young woman! Though, she doesn't seem to look that much like you. I mean, there are some traits in her face that are of your family", Miki hastily added, "but the overall effect...goodness! Very different."

She then scrubbed one of her fingernails--

"And, some of your other children were there too", Miki nodded, remembering when Luci was receiving the bill from Rosmerta. "She was very different-looking from them, too. Did she have a different father?" Miki inquired, unsure of if this was good ground.

ROSE:

Rose looked queasily at the blonde just beginning to stir.

He must have been delirious earlier.

"Ah...er."

Rose muffled her voice.

What was she doing, trying to talk to Draco Malfoy? Certainly, she felt like she had to answer all those bizzarre questions he was asking earlier. But...

Rose merely played with her fingernails.

(ooc--I'm assuming he's still in the hospital wing. That means, Draco's there, Rose is there, and Neville is there. Tra-la.)

ROWENA:

"Luci is the best thing to come out of my ill fated romance with Lucius Malfoy." Rowena said, folding her hands. "Not that Lucius knows about her yet. I'm truely looking forward to seeing the look on his face when he finds out." She looked in the corner where her children continued to celebrate. "The rest were fathered by my Byron, Goddess grant him rest. A grand total of twelve in all. My youngest is at Salem right now, but I hauled the rest along with me when Professor Dumbledor gave me the job. Speaking of children, I noticed that I'm teaching one of yours. Pretty girl. Much nicer than we were." Rowena smirked a bit.

DRACO:

Draco blinked and looked up at the girl, a slightly puzzled frown playing across his fine features. "Hello. Do I know you?" he asked.

MIKI:

Miki laughed.

"Yes, Shinobu is my treasure" she assured. "Got all my best traits--and then some" she added. "She's very apt, though sometimes a bit free with her shape-changing, if you ask me" Miki said, some bit quieter than she'd mentioned the first bit.

"Now...Lucius?" Miki asked, a confused look on her face.

ROSE:

Rose was a bit shocked. Yet another strange question.

"No, sir" she shakily replied.

Well. That seemed an honest and fair enough answer. He really didn't.

ROWENA:

"I plead temporary insanity." Rowena said, shaking her head. "I was dazzled by all the pretty things he had to offer and didn't see that he was such a weasel until later. His grandmother actually tried to talk me into staying after I decided to leave, but I wasn't about to put up with Lord Malfoy another moment." She wrinkled her nose and took another drink. "Let Narcissa have him, and with my blessing. Those two deserve eachother."

DRACO:

Oh." Draco sat up and offered his hand to Rose. "I'm Draco. Its nice to meet you."

MIKI:

Miki nodded in agreement.

"Speaking of Narcissa, I saw her earlier today. Part of my job, if you haven't heard about that. She didn't recognize me at all! I was definitely shocked, what with all the trouble I caused her in school" she snorted, just a bit too proudly.

ROSE:

Rose flubbed.

"Ah...m-my name's Rose" she quietly assented, and lightly touched the outstretched hand, as if she were testing it, like water.

RON + HERMIONE:

Ron groaned.

"Bubberpuss...added to roundworm.."

"Rootworm" Hermione corrected. "Roundworm gives you hives."

"Right" Ron replied, shaking his head, not really getting it. "Say, when's dinner again?"

Hermione looked at him a bit crossly.

"At six, of course, like it always--"

There faces were about 5 inches apart.

"is" she murmured, and turned back to her paper. "Don't change the subject!!"

"Ri-right" Ron flubbered again.

/Goodness, Hermione! That was too close! Potions! Potions!/ she chided herself

/I never knew Hermione had that mole right next to her eye/ Ron pondered. /Kinda cute-looking--whoooa, what was that?/

Ron blinked.

"Hey, Hermione" he asked, "what potion was this for again?"

"The infatuation potion, Ron" Hermione corrected, and then blushed.

They were silent for about two seconds.

"Um, can we skip to the next one, at least until Harry comes back? It's rather hard," Ron continued, "a-and Harry might want a better explanation of it."

"Y-you're right" Hermione conceded.

"What's the next one?"

"Truth innoculation"

"That sounds good--wait, what?" Ron blurted.

"Oh, it's just a small version of what's known as 'Truth serum'", Hermione continued. "You administer it to someone, and for about a minute they express their true feelings."

"Ah."

*blush*

ROWENA:

Rowena chuckled. "You have to have working brain cells in order to remember anything, and I maintain that beneath all that hair, Narcissa Black doesn't have a brain in her head. I think it may be all the inbreeding. That family bred for 'pretty', and look where it got them! Not a one left alive except for Sirius." The name dripped off Rowena's tongue with disdain. She had had no love for that scion of the house of Black when they had been at school... and it still wasn't public knowledge that he was dead. "Although, I will admit I'm surprised at how he turned out. Never would have figured him for one to turn on Potter."

DRACO:

Draco shook her hand cautiously before releasing it. "Its very nice to meet you, Rose."

DEAN:

Dean held his sketchbook over his shoulder as he tramped down the boys' dorm stairs, stretching his free arm. Afternoon naps were wonderful things, but it was hard to shake off that drowsy feeling after waking up. He could still probably sit in the window shelf of the common room and sketch before dinner, though.

The common room was full of bubbling voices and laughter, and the warmth in the air sprung from both the fire and the company. Dean sat next to the window and decided to look inside for his newest inspiration.

Pencil hit paper, and Dean flew off into his own little universe, referencing his subject every few seconds.

GIN:

"Sure, although you don't really need to... Did Ron reallly put that curse on Malfoy? I'm surprised... I'm usually the one who's better at curses... The dining room is over this way, and I'll take you there since I was just going to the hospital wing anyway..."

LUCI:

"Going to check on the boy from your house that got sent there?" Luci asked. "The Longbottom boy? Or are you going to check on Mr. Malfoy?" She arched an eyebrow slightly and cocked her head to one side as she walked beside the girl.

"I hope you don't think me rude, but so much of what occures here seem to be centered on the shifting relationships of the people, and I remain very much the newcomer."

GIN:

Gin almost gaped at the woman. She caught herself and quickly said, "For a newcomer, you're quite observant and well-informed... I was checking up on Malfoy, to see if I'd have to endure some taunting or not, but I guess I'll visit Neville along the way. I didn't know he'd been injured... will you be all set getting to the Great Hall?"

LUCI:

"I'm Guild." Luci said, tapping the crossed Scythe and Wand badge pinned to her shirt. "And Durmstrag trained. I have to be observant." She cocked her head to one side. "Mr. Longbottom, unfortunatly, was crushed beneath the weight of his opponont while pracitcing curses in DADA. Hopefully, the next class will suffer fewer casualties."

Luci thought for a moment, then said, "Would you mind terribly if I accompanied you towards the medical wing? I should check on Mr. Malfoy himself... if for no other reason than to make sure that his father isn't going to get me fired."

ROSE:

Rose blinked."Uh...ah...yes...nice to meet you too" she squeaked, barely audible.

Even though she personally didn't know the boy, she knew that something was very, very wrong with him.

Or right.

Depended on how you approached the situation.

MIKI:

Miki nodded her head--

"Even brainless life-forms are capable of reacting to threats, and record behaviors" she dully remarked. "Narcissa is just plain arrogant...as for that boy..."

Miki frowned.

(ooc-but, by this time, Harry Potter's story was published in the Quibbler about his story and seeing Voldermort during the Triwizard championships, so people know that Peter Pettigrew is still alive)

"But then there's that whole issue with Pettigrew not being dead" she pointed out. "I can't say I know the whole story, but Shinobu told me about it--Harry Potter's meeting with Pettigrew down underground" she referenced. "That James...he could have picked better friends."

DRACO:

Draco looked at the celing for a long moment, trying to think of something to say. Finally, he offered a tentitive, "Nice weather we're having."

ROWENA:

"I could have told anyone that. Hells bells, do you remember the time Pettigrew nearly got you eaten by poor Lupin? In fact, as I recall it, he managed to get me rather torn up, and Lupin was a wreck for weeks afterwards. Not that either of us were much help with that." Rowena said, remembering the events of... had it been her fifth year, or her sixth? She couldn't really remember.

RON:

Ron, feeling the urge to distract himself from the very distracting Potions note-taking (Harry would forgive him for it, wouldn't he?) he got up--

"'Scuz me, Hermione--I--er--I think I have a headache."

"Right then" she excused him, not even bothering to bug him if it was true or not. She felt strangely relieved that he wasn't there in her embarrassment. Ron, knowing that he full-well did not have a headache, didn't know what to do with himself.

"Er.."

He walked over to Dean--

"Hey! What're you drawing?" he asked, trying to get his mind all cleared up.

MIKI:

Miki cringed. "Uurg. How could I forget something like that?" she shuddered. "Almost as clearly as I remember your first death" she remarked. "Grr. Incorrigible brute. But at least, from what I've heard, Lupin seems to have come up in the world" she remarked. "Much better than that petty Pettigrew has."

ROSE:

Rose stared, unblinking.

"Is it?"

She never really paid attention to these sorts of things.

"Er...why are you in the Hospital wing, anyways?" she timidly inquired.

GIN:

"I see... and poor Neville. He was getting so much better too. If you'd like to, I wouldn't mind having someone come along with me. How do you know Lucius Malfoy? Former acquaintance?" Gin asked a bit curiously, but she wasn't sure if it was a bad experience or not.... her own experience with him was quite bad...

POMPHERY:

Just then, Madam Pomphrey interrupted the conversation--

"Goodness, Malfoy! Zeller! You two should be getting your rest!" she scolded. She then bustled over to check up on the young Neville--

"Still sleeping? Well, that's good for him!" she congradulated. "That bone-repairing is setting to work, alright."

The schoolnurse then bustled herself about the room.

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