Our bear hug was interrupted by the door bursting open, and we jumped, to see a breathless looking Cole.

"We're friends again!" Gennie exclaimed. "It's just so—are you okay, Cole? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Cole looked up, and he looked directly at me. "Harry. He went to Hogsmeade... Malfoy wound Ron up... Harry threw mud at him... His cloak went down and Malfoy saw him!"

Had Draco given up Harry? But from the unusually serious look on Cole's face, I knew the answer. "Who did he tell?" I said in an oddly calm voice.

"Snape," Cole spat. "We need to go now. Give him an alibi."

The three of us ran hand-in-hand as fast as the moving staircases and our feet would allow us. I just prayed that we weren't too late. I wouldn't be able to bear it if Harry was expelled.

We skidded into the entrance hall, only to come face-to-face with Remus, Ron and Harry. Harry looked relieved but anxious at the same time. Ron looked out of breath, and Remus looked extremely disappointed.

Cole swore when he saw the map in his hands.

"Gennie, I'm glad to see you're alright." Remus gave a warm smile to her. "Aurora, Cole."

"Professor, I--" My brother began desperately.

"I don't want to hear explanations," said Remus shortly. He glanced around the empty entrance hall and lowered his voice. "I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Mr. Filch many years ago. Yes, I know it's a map,"

Gennie squirmed under her father's gaze.

"I don't want to know how it fell into your possession, but I'm astounded that none of you—Genesis, in particularly didn't hand it in. We know what happened after a student left information lying around the castle before. I can't let you have this back Harry."

Harry had an accepting look on his face before speaking. "Why did Snape think I'd got it from the manufacturers?"

"Because..." Remus hesitated, "because these mapmakers would have wanted to lure you out of school. They'd think it extremely entertaining."

"Do you know them?" asked Gennie.

"We've met," he said shortly. He turned back to Harry, looking even more serious.

"Don't expect me to cover up for you again, Harry. Your parents gave their lives to keep you and your sister alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them -- gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks."

He looked at his daughter with a smile. "Call into my office for some tea tomorrow, Gennie. I believe we need to have a catch up."

Gennie nodded as her father walked off, and Harry looked disappointed at Remus' disappointment.

"It's my fault," said Ron abruptly. "I persuaded you to go. Lupin's right, it was stupid, we shouldn't've done it --"

"So what happened exactly?" Gennie spoke up.

Harry explained as the five of us walked. Draco had been talking horribly about Buckbeak and Hagrid, so Harry threw mud at him--and Crabbe and Goyle--and the cloak slipped for a second. The three Slytherins ran off, and Harry made his way back to the castle--where he ran into Snape.

"So you two are friends again?" Harry said, surveying the two of us. "It's taken forever."

"I was going to say that--" Ron began.

Hermione was walking towards us, looking like she knew exactly what had happened. Had Cole told her, or had she snitched on them?

"Come to have a good gloat?" said Ron savagely as she stopped in front of them. "Or have you just been to tell on us?"

"No," said Hermione. She was holding a letter in her hands and her lip was trembling. "I just thought you ought to know...Hagrid lost his case. Buckbeak is going to be executed."

"But, he can't!" I burst out hopefully.

"He sent me this," Hermione said sadly, holding out the letter.

Harry took it, and I peered over his shoulder. The parchment was damp, and enormous teardrops had smudged the ink so badly in places that it was very difficult to read.

Dear Hermione and Gennie,

We lost.

I'm allowed to bring him back to Hogwarts. Execution date to be fixed. Beaky has enjoyed London.

I won't forget all the help you gave us.

Hagrid

"They can't do this," Cole groaned.

"They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous." Harry said in a dead voice.

"Malfoy's dad's frightened the Committee into it," said Hermione, wiping her eyes. "You know what he's like."

"Yeah, it will," said Ron fiercely. "You won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione. I'll help."

"Oh, Ron!" Hermione flung her arms around Ron's neck and broke down completely. Ron, looking quite terrified, patted her very awkwardly on the top of the head. Finally, Hermione drew away.

"Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers..." she sobbed.

"Oh -- well -- he was old," said Ron, looking thoroughly relieved that she had let go of him. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now."

"It only took us two months to all be friends again," Cole said dryly. "I came here for less stress not more—British people. Ugh."

* * *

Even though our friendship group was stronger than ever, I hadn't talked to Draco since the Quidditch match. I hated how he treated Gennie and Harry, and the fact he hadn't stopped his father from reporting Buckbeak. How could I look him in the eye knowing all he'd done?

The weeks passed from February into March, and safety measures were growing day by day. The only time we could ever talk to Hagrid was in our lessons with him.

He seemed numb with shock at the verdict.

"S'all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh looked up fer me. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em..."

"There's still the appeal!" I told him fiercely. "Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"

We walked up to the castle with him, I noticed Draco slightly ahead, laughing with his friends.

"S'no good, Rory," said Hagrid sadly as they reached the castle steps. "That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that...."

Hagrid turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, his face buried in his handkerchief.

"Look at him blubber!" Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing just inside the castle doors, listening. "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"

The deep burning anger deep inside me roared again, and I found myself storming towards Draco before any of the boys could move and---WHACK!

I slapped Malfoy across the face with all the strength I could muster. "That's for Gennie, and Harry and Buckbeak!" I shouted, shaking. "Don't you even dare thinking of calling Hagrid pathetic, you foul, you evil bastar—"

"Aurora!" said Cole weakly, and he tried to grab my hand as I swung it back.

"Get off me, Cole Oliver Wilde!" I spat.

Cole raised his hands in defeat as I pulled out my wand, not really sure what I was planning to do. Draco stepped backward. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him for instructions, thoroughly bewildered.

"C'mon." Draco muttered rubbing the spot where I had hit him. After looking at me, almost offended by my actions, he disappeared with his friends.

"Aurora!" Harry said, sounding impressed.

"Harry, you'd better make sure he falls off his broom again in the match!" I growled, as the six of us headed off to charms.

"I'll do my best." Harry said hesitantly, seeming shocked at my anger.

"We're due in Charms," said Ron, goggling at me. "We'd better go."

They hurried up the marble staircase toward Professor Flitwick's classroom.

"You're late, boys and girls!" said Professor Flitwick reprovingly as I opened the classroom door. "Come along, quickly, wands out, we're experimenting with Cheering Charms today, we've already divided into pairs --"

Harry and Ron hurried to a desk at the back, and Gennie and I sat in front. Cole sat next to Neville. But then I noticed something.

"Where's Hermione gone?" I asked Gennie.

Gennie looked around too. Hermione hadn't entered the classroom, yet I knew she had been right next to me when I'd opened the door—she'd congratulated me on my swing.

"That's weird," said Harry, staring at Gennie. "Maybe -- maybe she went to the toilets or something?"

But Hermione didn't turn up all lesson.

"She could've done with a Cheering Charm on her too," said Ron as the class left for lunch, still grinning -- the Cheering Charms had left them with a feeling of great contentment. "She's been weird lately."

Hermione wasn't at lunch either. By the time we finished the apple pie, the after-effects of the Cheering Charms were wearing off, and we had all started to get slightly worried.

"You don't think Malfoy did something to her?" Gennie said anxiously as we hurried upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower.

Passing through the portrait hole, we were all surprised to see Hermione sitting at a table, fast asleep, her head resting on an open Arithmancy book. Harry prodded her awake.

"Wh -- what?" said Hermione, waking with a start and staring wildly around. "Is it time to go? W -- which lesson have we got now?"

"Divination, but it's not for another twenty minutes," said Harry. "Hermione, why didn't you come to Charms?"

"What? Oh no!" Hermione squeaked. "I forgot to go to Charms!"

"But how could you forget?" said Harry. "You were with us till we were right outside the classroom!"

"I don't believe it!" Hermione wailed. "Was Professor Flitwick angry? I lost track of things!"

"You know what, Hermione?" said Ron, looking down at the enormous Arithmancy book Hermione had been using as a pillow. "I reckon you're cracking up."

"What he means is," Cole said, "You're trying to do too much."

"No, I'm not!" said Hermione, brushing her hair out of her eyes and staring hopelessly around for her bag. "I just made a mistake, that's all! I'd better go and see Professor Flitwick and say sorry ... I'll see you in Divination!"

Hermione joined us at the foot of the ladder to Professor Trelawney's classroom twenty minutes later, looking extremely harassed.

"I can't believe I missed Cheering Charms! And I bet they come up in our exams; Professor Flitwick hinted they might!"

Making our way into the muggy classroom, Cole, Gennie and I sat around a rickety table next to the others.

"I thought we weren't starting crystal balls until next term," Cole muttered, casting a wary eye around for Professor Trelawney, noticing the crystal ball on our table.

"Don't complain, this means we've finished palmistry," Gennie muttered back.

"I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands, I mean I know I have bad nails..." I said, and everybody laughed.

"Good day to you!" said the familiar, misty voice, and Professor Trelawney made her usual dramatic entrance out of the shadows. "I'm introducing the crystal ball earlier. The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."

Hermione snorted. "Well, honestly...'the fates have informed her'. Who sets the exam? She does! What an amazing prediction!" she said, not troubling to keep her voice low.

"Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art," she said dreamily. "I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb's infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes -"

Again, I felt really stupid. And I couldn't keep my mind empty when thoughts like this is stupid or what shall I have for dinner kept floating into my mind. Cole and Gennie kept giggling and prodding each other which was extremely distracting, plus Hermione was complaining.

"Seen anything yet?" I asked them after a quarter of an hour's quiet crystal gazing.

"Yeah, there's a burn on this table," said Cole, pointing. "Someone's spilled their candle."

"That was you, you idiot." Gennie giggled.

"I want to sleep." I groaned, putting my head on the table.

"If you do, I'm drawing a moustache on your face." Cole said, leaning towards me, before lowering his voice. "In permanent marker."

"You wouldn't." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You'll go through life being laughed at... Your kid's mates will call you Madam Mustache--"

"I get the point Cole." I rolled my eyes as Gennie laughed.

Professor Trelawney rustled past our table. "Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents within their Orb?" she murmured over the clinking of her bangles.

"I don't need help," Ron whispered loudly. "It's obvious what this means. There's going to be loads of fog tonight."

We all burst into laughter.

"Now, really!" said Professor Trelawney as everyone's heads turned in their direction. "You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!"

"The only vibration is from stomach," Cole said, longingly looking at his watch.

"There is something here!" Professor Trelawney whispered, lowering her face to Harry's crystal ball, so that it was reflected twice. "Something moving... but what is it?"

I was prepared to bet everything I owned, including my Nimbus that it wasn't good news, whatever it was. And sure enough --

"My dear," Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing up at Harry. "It is here, plainer than ever before... my dear, stalking toward you, growing ever closer... the Gr --"

"Oh, for goodness' sake!" said Hermione loudly. "Not that ridiculous Grim again!"

Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Hermione's face, looking angry.

"I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don't remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane."

There was a moment's silence. Then --

"Fine!" said Hermione suddenly, getting up and cramming her book back into her bag. "Fine!" she repeated, swinging the bag over her shoulder and almost knocking Ron off his chair. "I give up! I'm leaving!"

And to the whole class's amazement, Hermione strode over to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and climbed down the ladder out of sight.

It took a few minutes for the class to settle down again. Professor Trelawney seemed to have forgotten all about the Grim. She turned abruptly from Harry and Ron's table, breathing rather heavily as she tugged her gauzy shawl more closely to her.

"Ooooo!" said Lavender suddenly, making everyone start. "Ooooo, Professor Trelawney, I've just remembered! You saw her leaving, didn't you? Didn't you, Professor? 'Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever!' You said it ages ago, Professor!"

Professor Trelawney gave her a dewy smile. "Yes, my dear, I did indeed know that Miss Granger would be leaving us. One hopes, however, that one might have mistaken the Signs...The Inner Eye can be a burden, you know..."

Lavender and Parvati looked deeply impressed, and moved over so that Professor Trelawney could join their table instead.

"She's having a badass day," Cole said, still in shock. "She bunks off charms, and now walks out!"

"Hmm...." I said, not really listening.

Had Professor Trelawney really seen the Grim again for Harry? Would he get hurt? The last thing my brother needed was another near-fatal accident, with the Quidditch final drawing ever nearer.

* * *

The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. We had so much homework, everybody was having miniature mental breakdowns.

But nobody had as much to do as Hermione. Even without Divination, she was taking more subjects than anybody else. She was usually last to leave the common room at night, first to arrive at the library the next morning.

Ron had taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal. When he wasn't doing his own work, he was poring over enormously thick volumes.

Somehow, the three of us had to fit infinite Quidditch practice in every day around the mountains of homework, and soon enough I was just falling asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

Slytherin was leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points. This meant we needed to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup. It also meant that the burden of winning fell largely on Harry.

"So you must catch it only if we're more than fifty points up," Wood told Harry constantly. "Only if we're more than fifty points up, Harry, or we win the match but lose the Cup. You've got that, Haven't you? You must catch the Snitch only if we're --"

"I KNOW, OLIVER!" Harry yelled. He was annoyed as Wood repeated this phrase over and over again.

The whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley (Ron's second oldest brother) had been Seeker.

But I doubted whether any of them, even Wood, wanted to win as much as I did. The hostility I had for Malfoy (as I didn't consider him my friend anymore) was at its highest point ever.

Malfoy was still smarting about the mud-throwing incident in Hogsmeade and was even more furious that Harry had somehow wormed his way out of punishment.

But I hadn't forgotten Malfoy's attempt to sabotage Harry in the match against Ravenclaw, but it was the matter of Buckbeak and Gennie that made me most determined to beat Malfoy in front of the entire school.

By the time the holidays were over, tension between the two teams and their Houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which Cole got into a fist-fight with a Slytherin chaser who said demeaning things about Gennie, Katie and me.

Harry was having a particularly bad time of it. He couldn't walk to class without Slytherins sticking out their legs and trying to trip him up.

All usual pursuits were abandoned in the Gryffindor common room the night before the match. Even Hermione had put down her books.

"I can't work, I can't concentrate," she said nervously.

There was a great deal of noise. Fred and George were dealing with the pressure by being louder than ever, swinging Alia around like she was a hammock.

"You're going to be fine little Aurora-Purora," Cole told me with a lopsided grin, poking my cheek. Once again Cole had gone over the edge with the butterbeers, but he was an immensely cute drunk thankfully.

"You've got a Nimbus that a dragon slash snake gave you!" Cole slurred.

"Yeah ..." I told him with a faint smile, my stomach writhing.

It came as a relief when Wood suddenly stood up and yelled, "Team! Bed!"

I climbed into my bed, and pulled the covers right up to my neck. The soft covers embraced me in a hug, and drowsiness overcame me, thoughts of Draco and Quiddich melting together.

Somehow, I was in a forest, bristling grass under my feet, dark trees forming a leafed prison around me.

Draco was in front of me, dressed all in white, a smirk on his face. He was walking towards me, and I tried shoving him away as his hands went around my wrists.

"Get off!" I shouted. "Let me go!"

"No, look," he whispered, his voice as sharp as a whip.

The mist from my previous dreams was heading towards me again. It was Obliviate, the one thing I feared most in the world.

"Draco!" I yelled, struggling under his touch, his touch hurting me. "Please, I need to run from it!"

But he pressed his lips to my cheek and then whispered in my ear. "You can't run from the past Aurora. It will always find you, and when it does--you have no choice but to embrace it."

a