We found Rosalie the next morning as she was walking down to the dining hall, looking out of place with the wrong uniform and her face caked with makeup.

It was a blessing on her end that Marie and I were there to force her back into her dorm to change and fix her. It was for this reason that the three of us arrived later than usual to breakfast, gaining the iron glare from Madam Benoît for our tardiness. We ignored this however, as Marie and I were in an important conversation with Rosalie about the importance of wearing little makeup at school, if not none.

"You want to look like you are wearing nothing, even if you are wearing plenty of products."

"But- But you all are wearing red lipstick and-"

"Red lipstick doesn't count. It is a necessity."

Mila and Ana stood from their table as we arrived, and heared the end of our conversation as we joined the table. Immediately they understand what we were trying to do and joined in.

"If you came down with a full face of makeup on your first day, that's not so bad. You are not the first to pull that nor the last," Mila explained rationally.

"Though it looks like you did a great job with your uniform," Ana noted, checking Rosalie out thoughfully. Mila nodded along.

"Yes, even your hat is at the right angle. Good for you!"

"We had to fix her uniform," Marie explained in quick Dutch that I only guessed the meaning of. The two others gave Rosalie knowing looks as we sat down together to finish our breakfast.

"We all go through that at least once. Be happy you have us to help you along the way. Made life easier for you, right Ava?" Mila questioned me with a smile.

"I would have been fine," I said back confidently gaining eye rolls from the others. Rosalie smiled quietly to herself, something I was more used to seeing her be like at home. I watched as she twisted her hand across one of her massive pearl ear studs, before quickly dropping her hand to her tea.

"Sounds like Ava. Always wants to do things herself," She said quietly in English. The language switch took the girls a moment to respond but they all seemed to understand and agree on her end, while I only joked along further, making a tut-tut sound.

"There is nothing wrong with being confident. My mother says it's a very important skill for a witch to have currently."

"Well your mother does have a lot of confidence," Marie agreed, "Though whether it is possible to have too much confidence is another question." The girls snickered while I cast my roommate a playful glare which she egged on good naturedly.

"Looks like you two forgave each other mighty fast," Mila commented, gaining looks from both myself and Marie. I shrugged and turned back to my muffin while Marie spoke on.

"That's what happens when one receives such a sappy apology letter from this one." I could sense Rosalie looking at me as I went for my milk glass.

In truth, Marie and I did more than just forgive each other because of that one letter. After we departed from Mila and Ana late last night, I told Marie the truth about my winter break, including my father's breakdown on the house elf to the weird meetings I had shared with Draco Malfoy. It's one thing to get an apology letter from someone as stubborn as myself, but it is a whole other ordeal to have that same friend admit that they had one of their worst breaks to date and wished they spent it elsewhere.

Safe to say, that after crying out what happened to Marie, she and I seemed to get a better understanding of each other's standpoints with our parents. She knew mine were demanding on the social ladder, and I knew Marie's parents were nitpicky about everything she did.

"It's like living under a microscope. I do one thing wrong, sit slouched once, and suddenly my mother is after me," She explained that night as she sat in a ball with her pillow hugged tightly to her chest. She didn't cry like I did, but I knew we felt the same way to an extent on our emotions. She just had a better hold on when to cry, unlike myself.

"Ava told us you aren't fluent in French yet," Ana explain, breaking me from my thoughts. "Does that mean you're studying French here, or are you planning to wear those throughout your studies?" She asked, pointing to Rosalie's pearls. Rosalie brushed at her ears again before explaining how she was going to learn French here but keep a translation piece until she can learn without them.

Ah, I thought, looking at her pearls. Those must be charmed to translate every language she hears into English. What a clever way of hiding a translator.

Rosalie ended up having a different potions class than me, so she followed Mila and Ana to their level potions class when breakfast finished while I skated off to join Jacqueline and Gisele with Professeur Martin, who was very happy to see us again.

"I hope all of you got the rest you deserved over the break, as I have!" She mused as she brought the class to attention. Gisele had been showing me pictures she had taken of her and her family on her trip to Switzerland. Two adults that looked vaguely like Gisele accompanied my friend behind the backdrop of the Swiss Moutains as they waved my way.

"What did you spend your break on, Professeur?" Jacqueline asked innocently. I had a hidden suspicion that she was trying to keep the Professeur talking and avoid any new lesson for the class.

If anyone could do it, it was Jacqueline. And lucky for her, Professeur Martin liked Jacqueline.

So, instead of critiquing her student, Professeur Martin leaned on the front of her own desk and went into a lengthy story about how she and her husband went out of their way to Germany to see some of the festivals happening in the wizarding market streets.

Then, because Jacqueline felt obligated to keep going, she invited the teacher to ask the students what they all did for break because, "We are important too."

And to Gisele and my surprise, Professeur Martin allowed it, grinning madly as she pointed down the line for girls to explain what they did in a five-sentence summary.

I was having a hard time coming up of what to say when my thoughts stopped dead at the sound of one of the student's reflections.

Isabeau Jérôme, one of the few students I could not stand in our year, started to talk, but unlike the rest of the students who went into detail about spending time with their families at home or overseas, Isabeau had to ruin all of it with something dreary.

"I actually had to cancel my vacation with the family because of a certain mass murderer escaping Azkaban!" She began harshly, causing all the light humor in the room to drop in an instant. Only the sounds of bubbling cauldrons could be heard in the room. Oh, and Isabeau's annoying voice as she went on.

"You see, my father is from the UK and so he usually brings us to visit my grandparents once a year. This year we were to spend Christmas with them in Hogsmead. Sadly, we had to cancel because Hogwarts, the school that borders that village, became overrun by dementors to stop Sirius Black who entered the school sometime in November. So no, I had a terrible holiday. Now, can we get back to potions class? Because otherwise I'm leaving," Isabeau said strictly, crossing her arms.

Everyone was gawking at the girl, including me.

Sirius Black got into Hogwarts? If this happened before Christmas, why didn't I hear anything about it from the family or even Draco?

Maybe it was just a rumor meant to get the potions class back in order. Isabeau did seem the type to pull something like that. I was almost sure of it, but as our class resumed and my idle gaze went from my book to Isabeau from across the room angrily chopping up spider legs, a seed of doubt crossed my mind.

Even for Isabeau, that was a lot to lie about.

I found Rosalie in my fencing class after leaving potions. I ended up spending most of the first class back helping her along the general rules of fencing before she called me out on how distant I was currently acting.

"You look upset. Even after not seeing you for so long I can tell as much. What happened in potions?"

I lowered my saber and quickly explained through the whole ordeal only to find she too was frowning at the news.

"I never heard about any Sirius Black. But then again, I don't read the newspapers that much."

Her words helped lessen the annoying tug I felt in my gut about the subject. But it still lingered in my mind, even after witnessing Rosalie hit our fencing coach, Monsieur Bernard, in the chin with her saber on accident when he tried to assist her, acting overly flamboyant as usual.

"See me after class, if you please, Mademoiselle Tripe," Bernard said with injured pride leaking in his voice as he dabbed the mark on his chin with a doted handkerchief. Rosalie was horrified. Everyone else was bursting a stitch, laughing at how the new student managed to make the teacher look like a fool on the first day back.

By lunch time there was much to discuss with the rest of the girls. After letting Mila poke fun at the idea of injuring Monsieur Bernard's fat ego, I managed to bring up what was really bothering me that day.

"Sirius Black infiltrating Hogwarts? Is that possible?" Mila asked, turning her attention to Gisele, who we all knew read the newspaper more often than anyone else at the table. She was frowning, at my words but nodded all the same.

"You knew? And didn't say anything?" I asked outraged.

"Calm down, American. She isn't required to announce anything," Jacqueline cut in promptly making me bite into my baguette venomously as Gisele spoke up.

"I didn't say anything because it was said that the whole ordeal was a false alarm. No sight of him was seen in the castle after slashing a portrait."

"Slashing a portrait?" Ana repeated. "Why would someone do that? And why frame it on Black?" Gisele waved her hand as if trying to weigh her reasoning.

"It's hard to explain. I guess they found the woman in the portrait had escaped and she blamed it on him. It was said that all the students were put into the same room for the night and were monitored while the rest of the school was checked by teachers and dementors."

"Can you imagine that happening here? So scary..." Ana mused while the other girls nodded glumly.

"I'm sure you're glad you switched schools now, Ava?" The girls had turned on me as I started to pick at my food.

"It doesn't matter. I'm just angry none of my friends or family said anything about it. It's like they're trying to keep me in the dark." My friends didn't seem to know how to respond to this but I caught Marie's gaze just as Rosalie entered the dining hall and caught our friends' eyes.

"Ah! Here's our fencing prodigy!" Jacqueline gushed, patting a seat next to her for Rosalie to join. She was blushing furiously but managed a smile as Jacqueline, who was overly friendly as always to new people, asked for her to repeat what happened.

"He gave me detention. I can't believe that on my first day here, I already have detention! My mom is going to kill me."

"Detention?" Marianna asked, appearing behind Jacqueline from a neighboring table.

"The American got detention? I did not peg Ava as the type to-"

"No Bella, wrong American," Jacqueline explained as she gave a grumbling Rosalie a pat on the head.

"New American?" Suddenly Marianna was sitting on Jacqueline's lap and reaching a hand out to a baffled Rosalie.

"You speak English then?" She asked, flipping to her accented English. Immediately Rosalie seemed to relax as she nodded and explained her story while Marianna listened attentively.

"Oh this is perfect! We can all help you learn French. I'm amazing at it and I'm not even native!" Jacqueline and Gisele, the only two native French speakers present, managed to roll their eyes simultaneously at this news.

"I saw that," Marianna called out, locking eyes at a smirking Gisele as she reached for a cucumber wedge. Suddenly Jacqueline's eyes brightened and she started poking at Marianna until the young witch jumped off her friend in a hurry.

"What are you doing?!" She cried, rounding on her friend while Rosalie watched like a wide-eyed puppy.

Part of me was happy to no longer be the adoring pet of Jacqueline anymore. It was fun watching her come up with shenanigans for other people while I watched from the sidelines.

"We should teach her French during detention! Bernard will probably just have her writing lines in an empty classroom anyway!" Marianna, cut from the same cloth, lit up immediately to the idea and the pair of them started to eagerly come up with a plan as to how they were going to get detention before tonight while Rosalie urged them not to bother.

Mila, Ana, Marie and myself on the other hand sat back and watched the spectacle with humorous glances at one another.

"Shouldn't we tell them that they could just sneak into detention rather then get in trouble?" I asked Marie helplessly only to get the rest of the blondes to shake their heads quickly.

"Let's not spoil their fun. Nor ours."

So, we spent the rest of lunch listening to the two crazy girls scheming while Rosalie tried repeatedly to make them not do anything stupid while the rest of us were the happy peanut gallery.

And lucky for Marianna and Jacqueline, they were able to get a detention with ease, as Jacqueline managed light a cigarette and pass it to Marianna right as Madam Benoît was passing our table.

"And to think I was making an impression on you girls! Detention to the pair of you! Tonight, in my office." The two girls started to mutter out explanations about helping a friend but they were silenced with a stroke of Madam Benoît's hand as her gaze went from their distilled faces to Marie who was sadly, slouching once again.

"I swear if I don't have the best possible posture by the end of my years here, I will sue this school for all its worth," Marie commented darkly after escaping the lecture with me by her side and Rosalie on the other.

"Not all the teachers can comment on our postures, right?" Rosalie asked nervously, causing our walk to Charms to be nothing but what the purpose of Madam Benoît was to have in this school.

Naturally, Rosalie was not pleased by this news, as was anyone.

When classes had finished for the day and I had time before dinner to spare, I raced to the Owlery outside the gardens, passed the fountains and near the start of the mountain edge. Girls were walking in huddles down the paths, some on their lonesome, walking back from sending their own letters.

I had written to letters, expecting at least one to send me answers on the Black scandal. Call me curious, but I couldn't help it. I didn't like being kept in the dark.

Maybe it was for this reason that I acted so rashly and sent those two letters. One of Theo, and one to Draco Malfoy.