❝ To be soft is to be powerful. ❞ — Rupi Kaur, milk and honey

Madame Pomfrey allowed me to leave the Hospital Wing the next day at exactly 6 pm, but not before forcing me to drink two glasses of the disgusting juice. I tired to tell her that now I felt perfectly fine and my head wasn't hurting anymore, but she insisted, so after some futile attempts at protesting, I gave in and gulped down two glasses of the goo-like liquid.

I couldn't believe that someone had aggressively smashed a Bludger against my head and cracked my skull, and it was even more unimaginable how all the pain had healed in just three days.

Madame Pomfrey told me to take a shower before leaving and that was exactly what I needed right now. A hot, long shower. The nurse handed me my school robes — all clean and ironed — and when I was finally clean and dressed, I left the infirmary feeling better than ever.

I joined my friends in the Gryffindor table that night for dinner and they were glad to see that I was doing fine, even after what I had just been through. My Quidditch teammates started briskly applauding when I entered the Great Hall, which caused me to blush copiously, but I couldn't hide the triumph I was feeling inside.

I glanced over to the Hufflepuff table. The Beater who had nearly killed me with that goddamn Bludger, a tall and heavily built boy with bushy eyebrows, was sitting at the far end of the table on his own, eating in silence. Exactly what I probably looked like that summer when Mike had offered me to spend the night at his house, and I refused to meet mr. June's eyes as we were all sitting on the table.

"Thanks for saving my life, Polly," Mike said as I sat down next to him, Sibi opposite us, pecking on her food without making a sound.

Suddenly, I realized that she hadn't even turned her head to see me when I entered the hall. This made me wrinkle my brows in confusion but I decided to shrug it off for now.

"No need to thank me at all, Mike," I answered, looking away from Sibi and to my best friend sitting next to me with a grateful expression on his face. "You did the same for me that summer night. I'll never forget that."

We started eating and my Gryffindor friends and teammates kept bombarding me with questions about my wellbeing, concerned about how I was feeling and if my head hurt anymore. They also informed me about what had been going on at Hogwarts while I was unconscious, although Sibi had told me most of it when she visited me in the infirmary the other day.

"That Hufflepuff Beater was sacked from the team," Christine told me. "Everybody's bloody mad at him."

"Completely understandable," I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

My eyes started analyzing the Great Hall, which was stunningly decorated with magical floating pumpkins, moving skeletons and other glittering Halloween adornments. A rush of excitement travelled through my body when I realized that only two weeks kept us from this festive day.

As my eyes were taking in the sight of the hall, the teachers and all the students around, they somehow ended up landing on Alex, who was cracking jokes with some of his friends. My thoughts instantly went to what Sibi had told me about him the other day, about the sudden change in his demeanor and everything else.

Had he really visited me in the Hospital Wing? Why would he do that?

Lost in my thoughts, I completely forgot that I was still staring at him stupidly and when I snapped out of my daze, he was staring back at me, his bluish-grey eyes twinkling with amusement. The blood immediately rushed to my cheeks in embarrassment.

"Hey there," he greeted me from the other side of the table, his usual smirk visible on his face. "I'm glad to see you're out and about now. Did that Quaffle give you amnesia and now you're trying to remember my name? I'm giving you a hint: it starts with Alex."

His words were followed by several chuckles from his group of friends, as well as one of his own, which made me roll my eyes.

"Gee, thanks for the info," I answered back. "Now if I ever go looking for a self-centered douche, I'll know where to find him."

As soon as the words left my mouth, Alex's group of friends broke into a fit of laughter louder than the first, an utter of 'oohs' reaching my ears. I gave him a triumphant smirk of my own before turning my back on him and carrying on with my dinner.

Ten minutes or so later, we were all done eating but before we were sent to our dormitories to sleep, it was time for the late evening mail to arrive. The great oak doors opened wide, allowing a flock of owls to burst inside, dropping packages and letters to their respective owners before resting on the table to peck on some leftovers.

My eyes searched frantically for my barn owl, Greg, but he was nowhere to be seen. Sighing deeply in both frustration and anxiety, I got up from my table to leave the hall together with Sibi and Mike who both hadn't received any mail as well.

All of a sudden, I felt movement to my right. Breeze McBon was standing next to me, clad in dark witch's robes with her sapphire blue hair tied back into a small ponytail. A look of unease was written all over her face and her greenish-brown eyes glistened with worry.

"I need to see you in my office," she leaned it yo whisper, grabbing my arm without waiting for a response.

Before I could react, she started dragging me — not aggressively, but with clear urgency — out of the hall from the back door. My heart began pounding, though I tried to remain and appear calm. I glanced back at my friends who were still sitting at the Gryffindor table, dumbfounded looks plastered on their faces as they watched me and Breeze walk away.

"Breeze, what—"

She silenced me and continued to drag me down the wide corridors, thrusting her way through the overpacked crowd of students.

"No explanations here," she murmured.

We hied over to the gargoyle statue that led the way to Breeze's and Headmaster Dashawn's offices. As we frantically walked forward in big rapid steps, my mind calculated the possibilities of what could have happened that caused Breeze such panic for her to want to see me at this moment in time.

It took me every ounce of willpower to not ask more questions, although curiosity and panic were eating up at my insides.

"Take a seat," Breeze gestured once we entered her office.

"What was all this about?" I blurted out, curiosity getting the best of me. "Is everything okay, Breeze?"

She didn't reply. Instead, she thrusted her hand in one of the large pockets of her gray robe and pulled out a newspaper, handing it to me. I grabbed it and started reading the article that she pointed at.

Two Dolphinuses found at Durmstrang Institute

The last two days, the head of the Magical Law Enforcement, Jeff Willard, together with his colleague, Bernard Dawson — Dolphinuses' executioner — went for a quick examining to Durmstrang Institute.

Although the headmaster of the school, Taison Orin, proclaimed that his school was free of these bloodthirsty murderers, it came as a complete shock to him when two of them were found.

One of them was an eighteen year old boy named Grozdan Beron and the other one was a fourth-year named Vladimir Shuleva.

The undesirable species were instantly sent to Azkaban prison for a minimum of five years. Willard and Dawson gave the confirmation that their next stop would be Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

I finished reading, feeling a tightness in my chest and a swirl of nausea on my stomach. So this was it? They were coming for me?

"What are we going to do?" I asked Breeze. My voice came out more hopeless than I intended.

What bothered me the most was the way The Prophet had called Dolphinuses "undesirable species", as if we were some three-headed monsters who fed on humans' brains instead of plain individuals who were kind of different from the rest. The words themselves indicated that the journalist was definitely brainwashed by the Ministry's anti-Dolphinus propaganda. Well, as was the rest of the wizarding population.

"I tried contacting Zico Peterson. He's the Minister of Magic," Breeze started, pronouncing each word slowly. "Tried to ask him to give us more time because this is the period that sixth-years prepare for their Appearation exams. He said he'd consider it and give me an answer as soon as he made up his mind. Our only hope is that he'll agree and that the Ministry people will come after the Christmas holidays."

"Okay."

I swallowed, trying to calm down, although my heart kept racing like a wild animal. After Christmas. It still wasn't much time, but it would do. And it was, however, much better than anytime soon. Our only hope was Peterson's positive response.

"Okay," Breeze repeated and stood up from her desk. She sounded more relaxed now and the worry had vanished from her face. "Sorry for causing you to panic. But when I received the evening mail at dinner and read the article . . . I had to warn you as fast as possible. Kind of rash on my part, so I apologize for that."

"I understand," I replied, though my stress hadn't faded away completely. "Thanks for letting me know, Breeze."

"Anytime," she replied, her voice flat. "How's the plan going, by the way? How many people have already joined the group?"

"Uh, we're still seven-ish." I rubbed the back of my head. "But we've become close friends. Really close. I can trust them."

"Well, even seven is better than none," said Breeze. "Have you read anything from the book I gave you? I told you it would give answers to all your questions."

Oh right. The book. How could it have slipped my mind? I still had no idea why Dolphinuses were considered dangerous, why the Ministry feared and hated them, when and how it had all started and much more. Without knowing the answers to these questions, it wasn't completely fair of me to judge whether what the Ministry was doing was right or wrong.

Although it was wrong indeed and this I knew, I should have been more eager and determined about wanting to know more. The Quidditch match and the plan of getting close to as many people as possible had both distracted me from my main aim.

"No, Breeze," I murmured, feeling the heat on my cheeks increasing in shame. "I-I'm sorry. I swear I'll open it as soon as I go back to my dorm room tonight."

"Polly, I want you to understand how important our plan is," Breeze said, giving me a serious look, which made me feel even more guilty. "We're standing up for our own rights. We're standing up against injustice and unfairness. Do you want more innocent lives to be taken, more innocent blood to be spilled? Do you want the population to continue bowing down to the Ministry in fear of getting executed as well, although what they do is cruel and not right?"

"No, Breeze, no! I want this all to end!" I protested, my tone of voice rising desperately because of Breeze's accusation.

Although she was just trying to emphasize the true importance of our plan, phrasing it like that made me want to punch myself for having been so nonchalant towards such a serious matter.

"I know," she spoke, her voice gentler this time.

She grabbed hold of both of my shoulders, making me look into her greenish-brown eyes. The corners of her mouth rose a bit, but not enough to form a smile. Just enough to cast her face in a softer expression to show me that she wasn't exactly mad at me.  Only trying to tell me that this wasn't all just a game.

And that I had realized only the previous morning when I woke up in the infirmary and Sibi and I promised to protect each-other till the end.

"You will have my full support on every step you take," Breeze said. "But just so you know, there's not much time."

"I know."

"Very well then," Breeze said, walking away from me sitting down on her chair behind the desk. "You may go now. Good night."

"Good night," I responded in a barely audible mumble.

"Oh, and Polly?" Breeze spoke just as I had reached for the doorknob.

I turned. "Yes?"

Breeze smiled at me — truly smiled this time, and said, "I really admire what you did in the Quidditch pitch that day. You do have the heart of a true Gryffindor."

"Thanks, Breeze," I said, managing to smile back. Then I pushed the door open and left her office.

I hadn't even reached the end of the stairway yet, when someone's hurried footsteps rushing forward made me stop dead in my tracks.

"Polly! Polly!"

Mike. I could recognize my best friend's voice anywhere. The urgency and panic in it made my stomach drop for the second time that night.

"Mike, what's wrong?"

I hastened to make my way over to my friend who was trying to catch his breath after all the frantic running he had done.

"Sibi . . . she's not well . . . She ran . . . into the forest . . . lost control . . ." Mike choked out in between breaths. I frowned.

"What are you trying to say?" My heart began to race. "Sibi lost her control and ran into the forest? In the middle of the night?"

I noticed that she had been oddly quiet while we were eating, like something was troubling her inside, but what Mike was saying made absolutely no sense.

"It's my fault," Mike groaned, grabbing fistfuls of his hair. Tears were leaking out of his eyes and I could do nothing but stare at him in shock. This was the first time I was seeing Mike cry. "I should've checked the lunar calendar. I totally forgot that tonight was a full moon. Her doze of potion had already run out while you were in the infirmary. I should've gotten her some more, I should —"

"Whoa, whoa . . . Wait a minute," I cut him off, my mind spinning around. "What are you trying to say? Doze of potion? Full moon? Mike, tell me what's wrong."

"Sibi's wrong, Polly!" Mike finally blurted out, despair and panic spilling from every note of his voice. He looked at me desperately, beads of sweat trickling down his face. "She's a werewolf. She's a bloody werewolf!"