To nobody's surprise, Lupin quickly became one of the most popular and respected professors in the school. Of course, the only person who found something wrong with my godfather was Draco Malfoy.

He was regularly seen comparing him to a house elf, but nobody cared about that when he was one of the best defence teachers seen in years. Gennie was on cloud nine, considering people would come up to her in the corridors and say how awesome her dad was.

His next few lessons were just as interesting-we moved onto studying Red Caps, then Kappas, which were partially deadly, but just as amazing. It was safe to say I was easily passing this class.

But it was clear I was failing Divination-I now got used to daydreaming in class, trying to think of something interesting I could pretend to see in the tea. I couldn't even bunk off, because I didn't want to spend three hours with Snape cleaning cauldrons, thank you very much.

But of course, I now had something to daydream about-Quidditch. Yes, I had made it onto the Gryffindor team, as a chaser!

Since the match was fast approaching in divination, I found myself going back to the trial with a stupid proud smile on my face.

"So you're really trying out for the team?" Gennie enquired as we headed down to the pitch in the early sunlight. "I thought you just wanted to cheer me on, dealing with the new blood."

"Well, that, and--oh no." I gasped as we reached it onto the pitch. "I have no chance.

There were at least ten other people geared up ready for the chaser trials.

Gennie put her hands on my shoulders and stared at me with steely determination. "I've seen you fly Rory, you have talent! Way more than you should have, after only flying for a couple months. You can do it!"

Soon, Oliver Wood, the mildly attractive and well build Captain appeared. He blinked a few times, noticing the amount of people waiting.

"I didn't think that many people wanted to be chasers, but okay."

Soon, Oliver Wood, the well-built seventh year captain entered the pitch. He looked quite shocked at the fact of how many were trying out.

Many people murmured responses, and I twisted Kayley's friendship bracelet for luck. "Right, well grab a school broom, and fly a lap, I need to see if you can actually fly."

Two second years girls, whom didn't look at all equipped, slid off their brooms straight away. I felt bad for them, but it was less competition for me then, right?

Wood nodded at me in approval as I landed, and I felt my heart soar. I wasn't that bad then, right? "Now, I'll defend, and whoever gets the most out of ten quaffles in, will be on the team; no exceptions-okay?"

The seven of us nodded, and I tied my hair into a tight ponytail, as a way of getting prepared. I felt like I had to do this. I had to get onto the team. If not because I loved Quidditch, but for my father. He was captain at one point, and I'm sure he'd be proud.

A fifth year girl missed half of them, and she looked near tears. Two of the boys got six out of ten, another three got seven, and a sharp eyed girl called Alicia had eight out of ten.

Now it was my turn, and I felt like I was walking to my execution.

Taking a deep breath, I pretended I was going to the right, and Gennie and Katie fell for it; allowing me to go to the left easily. At break-neck speed I darted and rolled on my broomstick over to Wood, and did the fake turn so he edged towards the left, when I threw it over his right hand.

Using similar tactics and even pretending to fall before throwing a shot, I managed to get another seven shots before I missed the last two.

"Right okay, there are two obvious girls who were the best-Aurora and Alicia." Wood said, and several people huffed and walked off. "But, I believe that Aurora had the best strategy, so Alicia, you can be substitute... We don't want any other disasters of not having a player..."

"It was only twice," Harry said sheepishly, and the rest of the team laughed at him. Wait no, it was my team now.

The eight of us (including Alicia) had a group hug to celebrate, and I couldn't be happier.

About a week and a bit before the opening match of the season, Harry, Gennie and I returned to the common room with shivering bodies and mud soaked boots, but in high spirits to find the room full of excitement.

"What's going on?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione, who were sitting by the fire, completing Astronomy homework I still hadn't touched.

"First Hogsmeade weekend," said Ron, pointing at a notice that had appeared on the battered old bulletin board. "It's on Halloween."

Grinning, I pulled off my boots and laid them in front of the fire. Technically, I shouldn't be going because of the risk of Sirius Black, but no teachers had said anything to me, so why shouldn't I?

"Ah," Harry said, sounding disheartened.

"You'll be able to go next time Harry, don't worry." Gennie said, putting a hand on Harry's leg. "They're sure to catch him soon. He's been sighted already. Plus, I'm staying anyway, so you'll have me!"

"I thought you were coming?" I frowned. As much as I loved Ron and Hermione as friends, I was much closer to Gennie.

"I want to spend some time with my dad, we haven't had chance to talk for ages." Gennie shrugged, but I suspected she had ultereior motives to get Harry alone.

"You can't be the only third year left behind." Ron said to Harry. "Ask McGonagall."

"Yeah, I think I will," said Harry, instantly.

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but at that moment Crookshanks leapt lightly onto her lap. A large, dead spider was dangling from his mouth.

"Does he have to eat that in front of us?" said Ron, scowling.

"Clever Crookshanks, did you catch that all by yourself?" said Hermione, seeming very proud of her surprisingly cute cat.

Crookshanks; slowly and deliberately chewed up the spider, his yellow eyes fixed insolently on Ron; as if he knew it would annoy Ron.

"You hate spiders Ron, he's doing you a favour," I piped up, getting a glare from Ron.

* * * * * * *

Of course the evening didn't end the best when Crookshanks nearly ate Scabbers, so of course Ron was ignoring Hermione all the way through herbology.

When we arrived in the line for transfiguration, I was surprised to hear somebody sobbing furiously. Curious, we went to see what was wrong.

Lavender was sobbing, while Parvati had an arm around her, explaining something to Seamus and Dean.

"What's the matter, Lavender?" said Hermione anxiously.

"She got a letter from home this morning," Parvati whispered. "It's her rabbit, Binky. He's been killed by a fox."

"Oh," I said. "That's sad. My little sister had puppy for her birthday but it got hit by a car."

"I should have known!" said Lavender tragically. "You know what day it is?"

"Uh...."

"The sixteenth of October! 'That thing you're dreading, it will happen on the sixteenth of October!' Remember? She was right, she was right!"

Okay, maybe Trelawney wasn't entirely crazy. At her words, the whole class gathered around Lavender.

Hermione hesitated; then she said, "You - you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?"

"Well, not necessarily by a fox," said Lavender, looking up at Hermione with streaming eyes, "but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't I?"

"Oh," said Hermione. She paused again.

"Was Binky an old rabbit?" Gennie asked in a soft voice.

"N - no!" sobbed Lavender. "H - he was only a baby!" Parvati tightened her arm around Lavender's shoulders.

"But then, why would you dread him dying?" said Hermione.

"Hermione, stop talking," I hissed, but she ignored me.

"Well, look at it logically," said Hermione, turning to the rest of the group. "I mean, Binky didn't even die today, did he? Lavender just got the news today -" Lavender wailed loudly. "and she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock -"

"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender," said Ron loudly, "she doesn't think other people's pets matter very much."

Well the shit just hit the metaphorical fan.

Professor McGonagall opened the classroom door at that moment, which was perhaps lucky; Hermione and Ron looked ready to kill each other. The lesson went through quite awkwardly, especially since Ron and Hermione sat Harry in-between them.

"One moment, please!" McGonagall called at the end of the lesson as we went to leave. "As you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Halloween. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"

Neville put up his hand. "Please, Professor, I - I think I've lost -"

"Your grandmother sent yours to me directly, Longbottom," said Professor McGonagall. "She seemed to think it was safer. Well, that's all, you may leave."

"Ask her now," Ron hissed at Harry.

"Oh. but -" Hermione began.

"Go for it, Harry," Gennie said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Harry waited for the rest of the class to disappear, then headed nervously for Professor McGonagall's desk. We waited in the hall, practically squished against the wall as a tide of people went against us.

"She won't let me go." Harry sighed when he reappeared a couple minutes later.

Ron called McGonagall a lot of rude names, Hermione assumed an 'all-for-the-best' expression, I offered to stay behind (which Harry refused me to do) and Gennie tried to make it seem positive that she was staying behind as well.

"There's always the feast," said Ron, in an effort to cheer Harry up. "You know, the Halloween feast, in the evening."

"Yeah," said Harry gloomily, "just great."

The Halloween feast was apparently always good, but it would probably taste a lot better if you were coming back to it after a day of exploring. Harry seemed to sink into a sad mood, nothing nobody could say could cheer him up.

Naturally, Percy had the best advice.

"They make a fuss about Hogsmeade, but I assure you, Harry, it's not all it's cracked up to be," he said seriously. "All right, the sweetshop's rather good, and Zonko's Joke Shop's frankly dangerous, and yes, the Shrieking Shack's always worth a visit, but really, Harry, apart from that, you're not missing anything."

Harry didn't look convinced.

* * * *

Since we couldn't usually wear normal clothes, I made an effort for our escape, wearing a long checked shirt and a cute pair of boots Jenna had bought me for Christmas.

After a quick breakfast, we headed to the entrance hall; ready to go, and I was buzzing from excitement.

"We'll bring you lots of sweets back from Honeydukes, for both of you" said Hermione, looking sorry for Harry.

"Yeah, loads," said Ron. He and Hermione had finally forgotten their squabble about Crookshanks in the face of Harry's difficulties.

"We'll even bag air from Hogsmeade if you want," I said, trying to stay positive.

"Don't worry about me. Have fun." Harry said, trying to sound positive, but it sounded really forced.

Filch, the caretaker, was standing inside the front doors, checking off names against a long list, peering suspiciously at everyone. Worried he was going to refuse me as he stared my form a few times, I almost cheered as he nodded.

"Staying here, Potter?" shouted Malfoy at Harry. "Scared of passing the Dementors?"

"Says the one who practically wet himself!" I shouted back, and Malfoy flushed red.

Hermione, Ron and I headed up the twisted path on the route to Hogsmeade, talking excitedly. "So, do you think Gennie's going to make a move on Harry today?" I asked Hermione and Ron.

Ron gave me an odd look. "Gennie likes Harry?"

"It's pretty obvious Ron, if you look and see how she acts around him!" Hermione laughed.

"Oh," Ron said. "I never noticed."

"So where should we look around?" I asked them, practically bouncing with excitement.

"Everywhere," Ron grinned.

We reached the top of a hill, and now we were looking over the top of Hogsmeade. It was a small village, lined with houses and shops that were bustling with students who's coloured clothes looked like jewels from a distance. Scarlet, golden and orange leaves dusted the ground, the sound of laugher and chatter giving a very excitable mood over the place.

"Oi, Oswin!" An arrogant, familiar voice called.

Turning around, I was more than surprised to see Draco Malfoy approaching us, dressed in a fancy looking green jumper and smart black jeans. With his hair still partially gelled back, he looked like a class A snob.

"Piss off, Malfoy. Go bother somebody else for once!" I shouted.

Turning away, the three of us carried on walking, until Malfoy grabbed my forearm, a weird tingling feeling going through me as I felt his fingers brush my wrist.

"Let go of me you weirdo!" I shouted, pulling my arm from his grasp, my arm still tingling.

"What do you want?" Ron sneered.

Malfoy glared at Ron. "Nothing to do with you." He turned to me with a deep sigh. "McGonagall saw you leaving and told me to come and get you, otherwise I'd have detention."

"Great, now she decides to say I can't go!" I groaned. "Malfoy, can't you pretend you couldn't find me?"

"Do I have to throw you over my shoulder?" He said, impatient. "I have better things to do."

"Ughhhhh," I groaned. Sighing, I turned to Hermione and Ron. "I guess I'll see you both later, then."

"We'll bring you loads of sweets back." Hermione promised.

"Thanks," I gave her a smile, and with a sigh, turned around and began to storm up back to the direction of Hogwarts. But a few moments later, I heard footsteps only to see Malfoy was following me.

"Leave me alone, you prat!" I shouted, but all I heard was more footsteps and moments later he was walking side-by-side with me.

"Well I have better things to be doing, trust me."

"Of course," I said sarcastically, folding my arms over my chest. "Admiring yourself in the mirror? Practicing your drama skills with that cast?"

"No, I actually have friends and a social life to go back to, unlike you."

"I have friends!"

"Yeah, you have friends. Friends that you inherited from your stupid brother." He snorted.

"I will push you down this hill." I said threateningly.

But instead, Malfoy laughed. "You really aren't that bad, considering you're Potter's sister. You've got a sense of humour, and speak your mind. You could be a Slytherin."

I snorted. "Wow, Buckbeak must have kicked you in the head."

He was silent.

"You know who I really am," I stated. "Why haven't you spread it around the school?"

Malfoy paused for a few seconds. "Well you have a reason for not saying, you aren't flaunting it like your brother does. I know you were almost a Slytherin too, you kept looking over at our table in the sorting."

"What, looking at me, were you?" I teased.

"No, ew, of course not! It was the only place to look." Malfoy shuddered.

"Why are you even talking to me normally? You hate me! I hate you!"

Malfoy said nothing, just cleared his throat. "We're at the castle Rory."

I was halfway up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower when I realised he had called me Rory.

* * * * *

"There you go," said Ron. "We got as much as we could carry."

The most beautiful shower of colourful sweets fell into my lap, and I almost cried from how beautiful it looked. Ron and Hermione had just appeared from Hogsmeade, looking like they'd had the best time of their lives.

I'd ended up spending the afternoon attempting to do my homework, before giving up and listening to Quidditch matches on the radio, before Harry and Gennie turned up hours later-Gennie suspiciously quickly.

"Thanks," Harry said, stealing a sweet from my bag, and I slapped his hand away, and he shot me a friendly glare. He'd been really awkward the afternoon, but I wasn't sure why. "What was it like? Where did you go?"

From the sound of it, they did go everywhere. They went to all the shops, and even stopped in the pub for foaming mugs of Butterbeer, honey flavoured drinks with the slightest bit of alcohol.

"Wish we could have brought you some butterbeer, really warms you up -" Hermione trailed off. "So what did you all do, did you get any work done?"

"No, I might as well drop out at Astronomy, I suck that bad at it." I sighed, resting my head on my hand.

"No, we didn't get anything done..." Harry trailed off, and he glanced at Gennie, who avoided his gaze, looking tense. What was going on there?

"We did go see my dad," Gennie said, trying to sound more upbeat.

"But Snape came in and gave him a potion to drink-and he drank it!" Harry exclaimed sounding worried.

I raised an eyebrow at Gennie, but she pulled on her earlobe-a sign to say it was wolfsbane, the very potion which could stop Remus from getting out of control.

"Why aren't you worried?" Ron said to Gennie, who looked as cool as a cucumber.

"We'd better go down to the feast, it starts soon." Gennie said in an attempt of a breezy voice, and for once she didn't wait for Harry, sashaying ahead of him with Hermione.

"What happened with you two?" I nudged Harry as we hurried down to the hall.

"It doesn't matter..." Harry trailed off, but the tone of his voice said that yes, it did matter.

Thoughts of Harry and Gennie went away when we reached the hall. The hall had been decorated with hundreds of pumpkins, and web resembling streamers hung from the floating candles.

The food was the best it'd ever been, and everybody had second helpings-and soon I was pretty sure I'd burst if I ate anything else.

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the ghosts. They did a re-enactment of a beheading, which Alia thought was the best thing ever, being one of the only ones who didn't scream.

How the girl managed to be scared of dementors but not of a beheading, I wasn't sure.

The evening was set to be a wonderful one, until Malfoy shouted out, "The dementors send their love, Potter!"

Noticing he didn't insult me, I raised an eyebrow. He must have been hit in the head, if he'd gone an entire day without insulting me.

Shrugging off thoughts of that odd boy, the six of us trailed up to Gryffindor tower, laughing and joking, only to be stopped by a huge crowd of students.

"Rory, why isn't anybody going in?" Alia demanded.

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well I'm like under five foot, check." Alia said urgently.

Rolling my eyes I went on my toes to see the portrait looked blocked off-or the fat lady may have left? I made an unsure gesture at Alia, and she tapped her foot, looking frustrated.

"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "You can't all have forgotten the password - excuse me, I'm Head Boy -"

And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, and it travelled back, so infectious that even I felt frozen solid. "Get Professor Dumbldore, quick!" Percy shouted.

A moment later, Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; we squeezed together to let him through, and pulling Alia to my side, we burrowed forward to see what was wrong.

"Oh my god...." Alia whispered, and now she sounded scared.

The fat lady had vanished, the portrait slashed so furiously that canvas littered the floor. It looked like an animal had gotten to her.

"We need to find her," Dumbledore announced. "Professor McGonagall go find Filch, tell him we need to find the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.

It was Peeves, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore said calmly.

Peeves' grin faded. "She's ashamed. She doesn't want to be seen--she's a horrible mess."

"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.

"Oh yes, Professor-head," said Peeves, sounding almost excited. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

My blood ran cold. He was here?