"Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge!!!"

Luke shot past me, and the group I was with, on a broom and slammed into a couple snogging against the wall. They were both sent sprawling as Luke zipped away. The disgruntled couple both got to their feet and ran off, presumedly to tell a teacher.

We couldn't hold back the laughter that followed the event for when they were out of earshot.

"I can't believe Dell did that!" Ariel Bane snorted, waving her hand in the direction Luke had flown off in.

"The look-," Kat Gilbert wiped a tear from her eye as she attempted to stop laughing. "The look on their faces!"

Sydney pinches his nose and closed his mouth tightly in an attempt to quiet his hiccupy laugh.

"Especially for a Ravenclaw." Ariel took a breath to calm herself down but then looked at me and I started to giggle sending her into another bout of laughter.

I had made new friends now that it was two months into the semester. It didn't seem to matter to them that I had been a person running from the law for about a year. In fact, I think that's why a few of them wanted to get to know me.

I was finally... normal. Well, as normal as a wizard can be. On top of it all, the girl in my head had been silent for a few weeks.

"Hey, Z!" Millie and a group of Hufflepuffs raced by us. They must be late to class.

"Hi, Mil!" I called after her.

Quinn and Matt walked up behind me. I could hear his brace making his steps uneven. "I wonder if they realized they just passed the hall that leads to their next class."

Matt didn't blame me for his hurt leg and, to my surprise, still wanted to be my friend.

I looked back and smirked.

"Who knows."

"Do they know that class isn't for another ten minutes?" Sydney inquired.

"I think so," Kat said. "They're headed towards the kitchen. Their cookie supply must be low."

Quinn nodded. "Understandable."

"Should we get to class?" Ariel asked, nodding towards the closest door.

We followed her to the door and into the room. We took our seats and talked until our bouncy teacher with coke bottle glasses Professor Corry skipped to the front and without a pause launched into a lecture about dragons.

I half listened and doodled on the paper that was supposed to have my notes with my good hand. I'd learned all this from a book I'd read before I left Hogwarts.

Towards the end Professor Corry danced excitedly on the balls of her feet (everyone already knew she was a crackpot so it didn't surprise us) and said something that caught my attention.

"Tomorrow, after school, for all those who want extra credit we are going to go into the forbidden forest and observe the magical creatures!" She beamed at us and waited for a reaction from her students.

The room was silent for a second and then an excited buzz snaked through the room. I turned around in my seat to look at Matt who was sitting behind me. He looked at me and kept his facial expression even as he shrugged.

I turned myself forward as Professor Corry dismissed us. I quickly packed my bag and caught up with Matt, who was leaving the room.

"Thoughts?" I asked, not looking at him.

He shrugged again. "I'm gonna do it. I mean, extra credit, why not?"

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye.

"Okay."

After school Millie found me alone at a table in the library.

"Hey." She plopped down next to me.

I moved my fingers in acknowledgment.

"Are you going to the forbidden forest tomorrow?" She pulled out her book and pretended to start reading.

I tapped my finger against the table thrice in answer.

"Why?" She asked, obviously surprised.

"Matt is, so why shouldn't I?" I finally talked.

"Because... I don't know. That kinda set off your whole criminal thing."

Without lifting my head I looked at her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked.

I shrugged and went back to reading.

Before she could say anything else Tru and Luke found us.

"Hey, guys. Are you going to the forbidden forest tomorrow?" Tru asked.

"Heck, yeah," Millie answered.

I gave her a quizzical look. She raised her eyebrow like "who else is gonna keep you guys in line".

"Cool!" Luke gushed. "Lucy bets at least a quarter of the kids will get scared. I bet everyone is gonna leave the forest in a panic."

"The whole group?" Tru asked.

Luke shrugged happily.

Tru and Luke had become buddies. Tru was the brains in the pranks and Luke carried everything out.

"Hope you aren't betting much," I said.

Luke's smile wavered and he shrugged again.

"Do you know if Ludiker is coming?" Tru asked.

"He is," I answered.

Lucy suddenly appeared from behind a book shelf and dug her hand into Luke's pocket.

"Oui!" Luke shouted, earning a "shhh!" from the librarian. He attempted to get Lucy away but she persisted.

"You owe me ten!" Lucy said. "Ludiker is going into the forbidden forest!"

"You owe me from the dementor bet!"

"No, I don't!"

We ended up getting shooed from the library so Tru, Luke, and Lucy ran off to perfect a prank that they were going to do the next day, leaving me and Millie to wander the castle and try to figure what to do besides homework, because... homework sucks.

"So," Millie said as we walked past a picture of a boy chewing on an apple. "What's up?"

"Hm?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's been going on with you? Anythin' happening?"

"Um." I was trying to fold an origami bird but it was a little hard with my hurt hand. "I got a letter from my birth Father."

"What did he say?"

"He was wondering if I wanted to spend Christmas with him."

Millie gave me a guarded look. "What did you say?"

"I didn't." I folded a smaller fold and frowned at how crooked it was. It would be easier to do if I was sitting down.

"What?"

"You act like I have a choice."

"Don't you?"

I finally looked at her.

"Pfft! I wish! I'm Cosmo Whitehurst's birth son. Now that he's dropped in on my life he won't let me leave," I began to rant, "And you want to know what else he dropped? A bombshell! He told me THAT MY MUGGLE MOM IS NOT ACTUALLY MY BIRTH MOM!"

Millie stares at me, shocked.

I continued. "YEAH! TURNS OUT MY BIRTH MOM DIED DO HE DECIDED WHAT WOULD BE BEST FOR ME IS TO PUT ME IN A MUGGLE HOME AS FAR AWAY FROM HIM AS HE COULD GET ME!"

Millie just blinked. I knew I was being unfair. I had just dumped all that emotional baggage on her and now she knew she had to say something, but wasn't sure what.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"Do you want to see them again?" She asked.

I blinked. "Who?"

"Your muggle family."

I ran my good hand through my hair while my bad hand clutched the crumpled, unfinished origami bird.

"Yeah," I finally said "I do. They're my real family. I wish I was a mudblood."

Millie raised an eyebrow. "I've never heard that from a wizard."

"Maybe I also wish I wasn't a wizard."

Millie paused and said quietly, as if trying to tiptoe around a subject, "Then you never would have met me."

I pondered this for a second and suddenly guilt rushed out of nowhere.

"It might have been better that way."

Millie tried to hide her hurt expression.

"No! Not like that!" I moved my hand towards her but didn't touch her, getting the feeling that, for once, she wouldn't like it. "I mean, your family! It's my fault that they..."

Millie gave me a quizzical look.

"No, it's not."

"Yes."

"Um, how?"

"I..." I thought about it. "I could have done something!"

"What?" Millie asked skeptically.

"I..."

"It's not really your fault," she paused. "Is it?"

I wondered why I was feeling like this. "No," I finally decided.

"Then you don't need to blame yourself."

There was awkward silence for a moment.

"I need to go." Millie turned around and rushed away.

I stared after her retreating figure and realized I had hurt her deeply.

I sighed and turned the messed up origami into a real bird and let it fly away before I went back to the Slytherin common room.

A/n: Whooo! It's been so long since I've updated! Thank you for sticking through this book!

So, I've decided to make the book shorter then planned because otherwise it would be loooooooooooooooooooooooong and I have other books to write. Which means there is gonna be a lot happening in the next chapter, so, stay tuned. I swear I will not take six months to update, this time. I will start working on it the second I publish this chapter.

Also, shout out to Lumina_Rose14 for Ariel Bane and SalltherinMissy for Kat Gilbert. Sorry it took so long to put them in... and sorry if you don't remember making them for me.