Azkaban 7

Azkaban Episode 7

(NOTE - Check previous Azkaban chapters for disclaimer at start of fanfic)

The Galerian Assassin Guilder was dropping fast right at her, arms wide open to land a killing blow. Alicia was in no condition to counterattack, her body wracked with pain from her hastily cast counter to protect Hermione, as she rolled over to see -- a robed female blocking her with arms outstretched. Alicia was confused, who was it… the form was transparent so it was clearly a spell of some kind, but who… it felt so familiar, but she was trying to hard to…

A spell out of nowhere snipes the Galerian out of the air, bringing it crashing right into Hagrid’s waiting arms. He grabs it by the neck as it falls, and with one hard swing he delivers a killing blow that shatters the creatures spinal column killing it instantly. As Hagrid tosses the corpse aside Alicia tries to pull herself up, bloodsoaking now half of her body from neck to torso, the world fading about her as she felt her senses abandon her due to her blood loss. She tried to scream, but nothing would come out… she had to warn…

Another spell hit the beast in midtoss, knocking it further into the woods where it exploded, it’s internal core ruptured by it’s death going critical mass and blowing up. However Hagrid was more concerned with Alicia than himself as he scooped her up into his huge arms and carted her quickly towards the castle, muttering “Yer not dyin’ on me! Yer not dyin’ on me! Yer not dyin’…”

Optimistic to the end. That’s Hagrid for you. She was soaked halfway through with her own blood, and even her own healing factor seemed to have failed her, but he wasn’t going to give up on her yet. Those were the last thoughts she had before slipping into unconsciousness.

There was something painfully familiar about the female that saved her… something…

* * * * * *

She was surrounded by water.

She was lugging someone towards the surface, the light above that shimmered as she kicked furiously towards it… feeling as if she was almost out of time…

“…please don’t be angry…”

The light grew closer and closer as her breath trapped in her chest grew fainter.

It was so close now. She just had to power through and break into the sunlight.

“…I didn’t know it would be like this…”

Where he was waiting. She felt there was someone she had to get to.

Break free of the water, get to him fast, and kill --

“…he has feelings too… please don‘t hurt him…”

The darkness seemed comforting to her, even as she drew close to the light above.
She felt that she wasn’t going to die after all, but yet there was lots that needed answering.
How did it get so close that it could do this without…

“…but I made up my mind, and my heart… I chose…”

Then realization set in. The answer that was at the edge of her mind as the surface of the lake was at the edge of her reach.
The whole school, and for miles about, was covered in a sense of darkness.
This was a side effect of the Dementors, and there was nothing she could about it.
This veil, this darkness, was something that occurred naturally because of their “nature”.
It was like a shroud of night which obscured all mystical “sight“, and made singling out a specific source of darkness within this dark field impossible. In other words she would be operating “blind” this time out.

Sure, as she had been close to them before she had gotten used to the feel of the Dementors, and since she knew she had to “interact” with them she was prepared to shove aside their ill feeling to the point of ignoring it. She was so quickly used to blocking out the sense of darkness from them that she didn’t even think twice about the “energy” they gave off. Bad mistake.

They were there to protect the school, but instead they were creating an artificial “black out” which made it now entirely possible for anything to slip in without being detected.
In the end their help, as well meaning as it might have been, was only hurting the cause.
And, come to think of it, it was hurting right now… badly. But that was her injuries talking.

The second thing on her mind was her two “saviors”.
The female who shielded her, but who she couldn’t see clearly.
Whose voice she was certain was talking in her mind as she swam to the surface, but too faint for her to recognize to “speaker”.
Then there was the one who shot down the Galerian as it attacked, and gave Hagrid the chance to kill it. His or her identity was also shrouded in mystery.

Confusion. Riddles. It seemed that if there were answers to these two questions that they weren’t present as of yet. That’s when the darkness began to lift, and the splash of water added to the welcome taste of fresh air as she hit the surface, she woke.

“ALICIA!!”

The first sight she came to was Gryffindors around her, looking at her anxiously.
The second sight confused her, because there was a group of Slytherin also standing around her, also watching her as she came out of it.
“…I take it this isn’t the morbid curiosity of watching someone die…” she muttered.

“You going to be alright?” someone asked, and to her shock that someone was… Malfoy?
He was standing near her looking dead serious, but she couldn’t help but feel how… wrong it was. She dismissed everyone, after much hugging and gifts and words of encouragement, leaving her alone with Malfoy. She looked at him, glanced at him up and down and asked the obvious…

“He’s not here, isn’t he?”

Malfoy shrugged, shuffled his feet, and then said “A little bit of him is, but he’s in the backseat being silent after a threat of a lobotomy. Such a pain he is, but after the second time in one day he seems used to being the passenger, he even realizes he has you to thank for the fact he isn‘t dead right about now.”

A tired sigh escapes her lips as she pulls herself into a sitting position. “The last thing I need is you making things “better” by interfering, you know that.”

“C’mon,” Jack Lazarus pried, nudging Alicia from Malfoy’s body, “You can’t tell me that you weren’t the slightest bit shocked to see Malfoy over your bed being concerned!”

“Dammit I thought I was going to die and he came to gloat!” she grumbled, face scrunching up, “The least you can do is jump a cute girl’s body if you want to pay your “respects” to me.” (eyes narrow) “And speaking of that, why didn’t I feel that creature until it was practically on top of me trying to land a killing blow!”

Malfoy leans back, and looks around as if watching for prying eyes before speaking, “I felt into your mind, I know you know this answer already, but since you obviously want me to say it out loud… yes, Alicia, you’re right, there’s too many Dementors. As you have already guessed their essence is shrouding the school in a layer of darkness. Darkness so thick and so much that it’s impossible to detect any other dark entities in this “cloaking device” of shadow. That includes the would be assassin drone unit that tried to off you. One of many no doubt to come in the days left in the school year.”

“I felt that…” she noted, nodding her head, “I was hoping it was my nerves, but it seems that the Dementors are more of a menace than a help, their own presence blocking any sign of real darkness approaching until it’s too late. That’s not good. Then again it‘s not like endless hordes of evil are approaching the school so --” (blinks) “-- eh, just so I know, it WAS you who bailed me out, right? Knocked the creature into Hagrid?”

“…uh… no.” Jack/Malfoy answered truthfully. “I also noted a protective spell was cast near you, but that also wasn’t me. Somebody was doing it from the forest, or nearby somewhere… maybe from the school grounds where most of the students fled…”

“Hermione.” Alicia muttered, “Did she do that? But how…”

“Did you say something?” Jack asked with genuine curiosity.

Alicia shakes her head, blushing abit at the thought of Hermione… “Nothing, nothing. Forget it…” (silence comes between them for a minute) “…Hagrid’s in trouble, isn’t he.”

Jack/Malfoy smiled a rather awkward looking grin (since she was not at all prepared to see a genuine heartwarming grin on Malfoy‘s face) “Well, at least you can’t complain that your first day with magical creatures wasn’t interesting.” He remarked slyly, causing Alicia to pale at the remark. “Yeah. I always find near death experiences to be amongst the most interesting things I ever did on any given day. Joy. I can’t wait for it to happen again.”

“Well…” Jack motions towards the window, which was now dark, “…it’s night now and Hagrid is home. And since you already healed all the way we can do a little “swap” and you visit him while I play you for awhile. Deal?”

Alicia nods, feeling herself all healed up as she pulled the blankets away only to cover herself again. “DAMN!” she hissed, “Must they always dump me in bed naked!!”

“Maybe they get off on looking on that fine bod’ of you… and I can’t believe I just said that.” (Jack/Malfoy coughs in aggrivation before continuing) “They did have to do a lot to get you back on your feet again, so you can kinda understand about them having to disrobe you in order to save you… don’t worry, nothing of yours is missing or in the wrong hands.” (silence) “There. I shoved Malfoy into a sleep mode so I can tell you this. There’s a small amount of good in him, I can feel it, buried deep. Something, or someone, has been fostering this good in him yet I can’t seem to find out who. His or her identity he’s locked away tight…” (smirks) “…guess even a guy like Malfoy can have a little good in him.”

“Guess so.” Alicia mutters, thoughts racing. “Now are you going to get the hell out of here or are you hoping for another peek.”

Jack didn’t wait to be asked twice.

* * * * * *

As she reached the hut, she found that she was not alone.
Harry, Hermione and Ron looked as if they saw a ghost. She pointed at her wound and shrugged, “It’s nothing, forget it.” (her eyes falls onto the front door of the hut) “I’m going to take it that you’re here for the exact same reason I am, right?”

“Cheer Hagrid up?”

Alicia nods, “Then we’re on the same page, Ron. Shall we?”
When they reached the door, Ron knocked and a weary “C’min.” greeted them.
As both Hermione and Alicia reached for the door their hands met, touched briefly, and was quickly pulled away. Hermione, red faced and blushing abit, opened the door.
Hagrid, drunk out of his mind with his boarhound Fang nearby, regarded the group with a dazed stupefied look. Obviously he had found his limits in the drinking dept. that night.

“’Spect it’s a record,” he lamented, finally coming to his senses and recognizing them.
“Don’ reckon they’ve ever had a teacher who lasted on’y a day before.”

“You haven’t been fired yet, Hagrid!” Hermione gasped in indignation, the redness fading from her cheeks as she focused on Hagrid, “They can’t fire you! It wasn’t your fault!”

“Not yet, but they’re considerin’ it.” he remarked glumly, taking a slam of the strong substance in his tankard before him. “It’s only a matter o’ time, I s’pp’se, after what happened to yah’…”

“The Galerian Guilder caused more damage than Buckbeak!” Alicia complained, “And I don’t plan on causing a ruckus over this, either! Consider me silent on this point.”
Hagrid’s eyes focused dimly on her, the obvious question forming on his lips.
“I’m fine.” she assured him. “Madam Pomfrey patched me up just fine, and I’m young yet so I have quite abit of get-up and go in the healing dept. so I’m doing swell.” (‘just as long as nobody asks me to go into a gymnastics routine because I still feel rather sore in places.’ she added in her own thoughts) “Don’t worry about it. Shake it off, ‘kay?”

But it was as if Hagrid just wasn’t listening as he spoke, “School gov’nors have bin told, o’ course. They reckon I started too big. Shoulda left hippogriffs fer later… done flobberworms or summat… Jus’ thought it’d make a good firs’ lesson…. ‘S all my fault…”

“It’s all Malfoy’s fault, Hagrid!” Hermione said earnestly, “And his playacting earlier at Alicia’s bedside is an insult! What a jerk!”

‘Too bad that wasn’t Malfoy at my bedside.’ Alicia thought to herself, ‘At least not in the sense of his spirit…’ (sighs) “She’s right. You warned him they get awfully cranky when people disrespect them and he went off and disrespected them. I…” (stops) “…waitaminute…”

* * * * * *

Flashback…

Malfoy shrugged, shuffled his feet, and then said “A little bit of him is, but he’s in the backseat being silent after a threat of a lobotomy. Such a pain he is, but after the second time in one day he seems used to being the passenger, he even realizes he has you to thank for the fact he isn‘t dead right about now.”

* * * * * *

“…he wasn’t in control at that moment…” Alicia muttered, drawing curious gazes from everyone. “Nothing, nothing, don’t mind me…” she quickly replied, drifting back abit as everyone started talking again.

Alicia‘s mind buzzed furiously on the topic, ‘So he was under control of… something. Might explain his retarded arrogant act that almost got him bloodied up. But why…’

“I think you had enough to drink, Hagrid,” Hermione said sternly, pulling at Alicia’s sleeve to get her assistance in emptying the tankard. Outside she looked at Alicia with a firm expression as she asked “Are you really alright?”

“I’m a little sore here, and there, but I’ll live.” she answered truthfully. “I didn’t know you cared so much about my wellbeing.”

Hermione’s face blushes bright red once again as she nearly drops the tankard, her mouth ajar. “I care! I mean of course I care! I…” (stops) “…never mind.”

As she walks quickly back into the hut Alicia grins abit, “Guess maybe I have a chance after all with you.”

Hagrid immediately came outside as Hermione went in, and waddled over to a barrel of water where he dunked his head in to sober up. Alicia, watching him gurgle and splash his head in the water, walked up and stood nearby. As he surfaced she asked him “Think she likes me?”

Hagrid, now a little more clear headed but not by much, looked at her as if she proclaimed herself to be the re-incarnation of Cleopatra. “…never mind…” she muttered, pushing him back into the hut with a heavy sigh.

Inside he wiped his face of the excess water, muttering “Tha’s better,” shaking his head drenching them all. “Listen, it was good of yeh ter come an’ see me, I really --”
Silence. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Hagrid stopped dead in mid-sentence.
Alicia’s eyes glanced nervously around the room, waiting for someone to break the tension. The wait wasn’t long.

“WHAT D’YEH THINK YOU’RE DOIN’, EH?” he roared, so suddenly he made everyone jump, “YEH’RE NOT TO GO WANDERIN’ AROUND AFTER DARK, HARRY! AN’ YOU THREE! LETTIN’ HIM!”

Hagrid quickly strode to Harry, pulling him right away to the door. “C’mon! I’m takin’ yer all back up ter school, an’ don’ let me catch yeh walkin’ down ter see me after dark again. I’m not worth that!” The walk up was going to be rather quiet, Alicia gathered from the mood rather quickly. Turned out to be anything but.
As they exited the hut Alicia’s senses suddenly jump to attention.

“RUN!!” she cried out, spinning about to shield as a bio-bolt came down upon them, knocking her off her feet as it impacted. The sound of leaping, and claws scraping wood, echoed as she realized she was under attack once again… another Drone unit was on the offensive. The last one had to be a Drone unit, since she was now obviously under attack by another drone unit right now. This time, however, she was ready.

As Hagrid hustled Harry, Hermione and Ron to safety she pulled her wand out of her robes and tested it in her hand. The Galerian was fast, moving from tree to tree vying for a new shooting position. She hefts the wand into the air, and cries out the spell for light. As the wand bursts into life, lighting the area, the Galerian turned and fired another shot… it’s mistake. As the shot fired Alicia got it’s “location” and acted quickly, throwing herself to one side as she raised one arm up (hand out as if aiming a gun), shooting off one hard energy shot into the trees.

For the longest time she thought she missed. But seconds later she heard the solid thump, and the explosion of a detonating bio-core. She had blown it’s head off in one shot as it landed in another tree, the few seconds it needed to orient itself being enough time for the shot to carve it’s head apart as it tried to find the next tree to leap to.

However the Galerian wasn’t the only one who made a bad mistake. She had thrown herself without even thinking of how she’d land as she fell, because as she hit the ground a hard surge of pain ripped into her. She had dislocated her shoulder jumping aside, falling on the same side that was ripped into earlier that day by Buckbeak, and it was hurting like all hell as she landed on it awkwardly. She rolled on the ground, clutching her dislocated limb, deciding to wait for Hagrid to come back for her which wouldn’t be long in coming.

While she waited it gave her enough time to reconsider her “lifestyle”, and if it was worth having all this unwanted “attention” aimed at her. She didn’t have long to wait, though, as Hagrid came back quickly enough to set her right… after much yelling and cursing on her part to get him “motivated” into yanking her arm back into it’s socket. As Hagrid put her
arm back into it’s socket (at her loud and nearly threatening request) she figured it was this or she’d die of boredom.

She opted for her “status quo” life over death by boredom.

* * * * * *

Going back to class was a simple enough task once she convinced Madam Pomfrey that she wasn‘t going to break into tiny pieces if she left her care (or commit physical suicide upon herself by breakage through being alive). The arm was set nicely back into place, and as long as she didn’t stress it out she could expect it to mend in a short matter of time. Of course convincing Madam Pomfrey of her wellness was one thing, getting people to not treat her like an invalid was another thing altogether.

True, it seemingly took forever to get Madam Pomfrey to release her from the hospital ward, especially after her “escapades” the night before, but she got out eventually… with a sling for her now mending arm. That only made it all the worse for her as she’d soon find out. Indignant as all hell she walked into class looking rather bitter as she took her seat and started working on a potion she had “studied” in bed just for this class.

Still, the way everyone looked at her you would have thought she was a plague victim. It seemed that even her raven Chii gave her a dirty look as she worked. “I’m not going to turn you into a mole or anything, so stop glaring at me!” she grumbled, working hard on her ingredients with her good arm. Overall, at this point she was glad she was good with both hands since working one armed would have been a pain if she blew out her good arm.

The potion was simple enough, even for Alicia who hated potions. The potion in question was a simple Shrinking Solution. ‘If worse comes to worse I can always cheat by using my power to shrink Chii.’ Alicia thought to herself, her good hand working on the potion even as ripples of irritation from her injured arm continued to dance across her inflamed pain senses.

“Weasley, don’t just sit there looking like an inept excuse for a statue, cut up Spinnet’s roots for her before she mangles them into the magical equivelant of salad toppings.”

“I’m fine.” she spat out, “Mind your own roots.”

Ron went pale, “I can help if you…” (stops as he catches her near murderous look) “…or not.” Snape, glancing over at her work, sighed, “You’re mutilating your roots.”

“No I am not.” she hissed back. “Get off my back.”

“That won’t do. Change roots with Mr. Weas--”
Alicia’s knife slams blade down right into the table bringing the class to a halt for a second. Snape, now moving away, decided to harass someone else.
Retrieving her knife she went back to work, even more deadset on doing it herself.
Somehow it seemed as if he was being more helpful and nice to her that usual.
Most likely his way of getting on her bad side she thought to herself.

Malfoy, who seemed to have something to say, suddenly kept quiet… but his thoughts betrayed him. They were, after all, too loud. Even Alicia could hear them in this room full of noisy “thoughts”.

“No I am not going to get Hagrid fired.” Alicia grumbled, glancing back at Malfoy with murderous intent, “And if you try that I will make your life miserable.”

“It’s not his fault!”

Suddenly the all too familiar complaining voice of her elfin “keeper” snapped Alicia out of her stupor, and towards Snape‘s latest victim. May had once again found something to complain about, as she tried to shield Longbottom from Snape’s wrath. “It can be fixed.”

“It’s orange, miss, ORANGE!” said Snape in a testy voice, ladling some up to show everyone within eyesight of the concoction. “Orange. Tell me then, boy, does anything I try to teach you penetrate that thick skull of yours?”

His eyes narrowed, and nostrils flared, as he paced the two. “Didn’t you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn’t I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand my lessons, Longbottom?”

Alicia, from her spot, shook her head. He was arrogant, and rude, but he was also right.
She got the gist of the spell just from her book, and wasn’t even here for half of the verbal instructions, yet he had both to go with and still screwed it up. Clearly if May and the rest of Gryffindor wasn’t so hot on babying Neville they would realize that they were not helping him by always bailing him out of troubles he caused himself.

Neville was pink, trembling behind May as she growled at Snape. He was two seconds short of having a full on crying fit and that only irked May all the more.
“Please, sir,” Hermione said quickly, “please, I could help Neville put it…”

“NO YOU DON’T!”

The class fell silent again, but this time because of the source of the protest -- Alicia.

“Alicia!” Harry rasped, only to be glared at by her, “She’s NOT HELPING HIM if she has to constantly coddle him everytime he makes a screw up! He’s not going to learn if he’s bailed everytime he makes a mistake!”

The Slytherins started to snicker, but a harsh glance at them brought that to an end.
“Neville can be a great wizard if only he believes in himself, and his own abilities! Mark my words, there’s greatness in him if he’d only gets off his rear, stop whining and screwing up, and believes in his own ability to be great!”

The class did not protest, or mock anymore, and silence reigned in class.

It was a pity that Snape, finally, had to break the silence. He straightened himself up and said in a low tone drawling close to sarcasm “At the end of the lesson we’ll test Mr. Longbottom’s potion on his toad, and see what happens.”
And, with that, he leaves to walk the class, saying no more.
Unfortunately it seemed as if Alicia’s words went right over Neville’s head like a Concorde because he was already begging for help. With clenched teeth Alicia went back to work, trying her best to not yell at Longbottom anymore. Snape, passing nearby, whispered to her.

“It’s a shame that wisdom is wasted on the hopeless.”

“Shut up, Yoda, or I’ll cram Neville’s potion down your throat.” she snarled in response.

“Time out.”

Alicia looked up, now less angry and more confused at Snape‘s last words. “Say--”

“Time out.” he repeated without sparing a glance.

“Hey, Harry,” Seamus Finnigan started from nearby, “have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning - they reckon Sirius Black has been sight--”
Time stops for everyone except Alicia and Snape.
“You got my attention.” she grumbled, now realizing where he was heading with his request.

* * * * * *

The paper was not moving, as it should in “time out”, but the words were enough.

“Someone spotted Black less than 50 miles from here, but by the time it was called in he was gone… no doubt blazing a trail right to Hogsmeade.” Alicia noted. “To hold out until he can infiltrate the school.” Snape concluded, “Which shouldn’t be a problem for him since he never had a problem sneaking out of school.”
Alicia raised an eyebrow, “A revelation?”
“Of sorts.” Snape said off hand. “Infiltrating Hogwarts won’t be hard for a former student.”

Alicia - “And how would you know of…”

“There’s a good reason why everyone is concerned about Potter.” he remarked coldly, his dark eyes narrowing. “A very good reason.”

“And I suppose you’re not going to tell me.” Alicia countered.

For a long time the two stared at each other, until finally Snape walked back to where he was before Time Out and motioned for Alicia to go back. “Figures.”
It was time anyway. She couldn’t hold time back forever, only small intervals, and he knew she was nearing her limit and had to stop now.
Still, all in all, she wished Snape wasn’t so vague all the time. Must be from his “hatred” for her, she surmised. Still, it would have helped if she had more answers than questions.
“Why bother having a time out if you’re just going to riddle me with more questions.” she complained silently, returning time to normal.

* * * * * *

The class finally came to it’s conclusion. Even Double Potions must end eventually.
Snape quickly walked over to Neville, who was cowering behind May as he did.
“Everyone gather ‘round,” said Snape with energy in his voice, his black eyes almost glittering in his enthusiasm. “and watch what happens to Longbottom’s toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don’t doubt, he has done it…”

“Gimme!” Alicia grumbled, grabbing the potion and downing it in one gulp in front of a now very shellshocked class. Nothing. Then she nodded her head and gave a thumbs up. “You have about 10 seconds to give me the antidote before my clothes falls off and I give everyone a little flash…” (Snape couldn’t pour the antidote fast enough) “…ok… so no little nudity for the boys today… pun intended.”

The Gryffindors burst into applause, but Alicia wasn’t smiling. She simply glared at Snape who finally relented to letting them have their moment. As they left class he quickly grabbed Alicia and moved her to the back of the class, “You must have a deathwish doing that! It could have…”

“…been poison.” she remarked, shaking free of his grasp, “I thought you would have been tickled pink to have the one with your dirtiest secret dead.”

“Don’t tempt me.” he shot back, eyes narrowing as he watched her leave. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you wanted to be dead.”

“Don’t tempt me.” she remarked as she left the room.

* * * * * *

Considering she was beginning to make progress with Hermione you would have thought that she had no desire to die now… and yet there was still that urge… and remembrances of… As she stepped out of the class she ran headlong into Hermione who was panting heavily. “Wh-what?” she gasped, looking at the distressed Hermione. “What’s with you? I thought…”

“What?” she said with some confusion, looking about, “Oh, sorry, I forgot something.” she rasped, hurrying up the stairs. Alicia, looking up to watch her run into Ron/Harry, only to lose all the books from her bag as it ripped, was confused. “But I didn’t see her come back to class…” As she reached the top of the stairs she grabbed Hermione by the robes, “Riddle me this, Miss Granger, why are you carrying enough books to knock a troll into a deep coma?”

“You know how many subject I’m taking,” Hermione rasped, breath nearly gone, “Couldn’t hold these for me, cou--”

Alicia pulls one of her tesseract gems, tapping it against the books to seal the whole bundle into it, passing it off to Hermione as she did. “Done. Now what--”
Hermione, however, couldn’t wait as she pushed forward heading towards the Great Hall.
“Wait!” Alicia cried out, “10 books and all we have today is Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts?!? What--”

“Lunch! Can’t wait! Starving!” she cried, hurrying her pace.
Ron shrugged in sympathy. “Nice try, but I already went that route with her-- same results.”
Alicia stood there, dumbstruck, as she watched Hermione’s retreating head bob out of sight amidst the lunchhour crowd. “…guess lunch must be good today…”

* * * * * *

If the illogic of Hermione’s schedule baffled her, let alone how she was flustered at Alicia one moment and then ignoring her the next, the case of the missing Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher further befuddled Alicia’s already troubled mind.

Professor Lupin, it seems, was a no show. They were there, first class of the year, but their teacher was clearly not there. Not a good thing for a first class.
They all sat down, took out books and quills and parchments, and waited.
“First time I ever been to a class where the teacher decided to ditch on the students.” Alicia grumbled, her wand waving mindlessly in her good hand as she waited for something to happen. “If I knew he was going to ditch I would have done the same.“ she remarked glumly.

So, left with little choice, she sat there and waited… and waited… and talked to whoever was nearby… and waited… for sometime it seems she sat and waited until finally the doors swung open and in strode Professor Lupin.
He smiled vaguely, placing his old tatty briefcase on his desk as he regarded the class.
He didn’t seem too bad, despite the fact he was still as scruffy as ever, just abit more nourished from being fed three square meals.
“Good afternoon,” he said, glancing about the class, “Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today’s will be a practical lesson. You will need only your wands.”

Curious glances were exchanged as books went bye-bye, and wands here held tightly by now anxious students.

“Right then,” Lupin proudly exclaimed, once everyone was ready, “If you’d follow me.”
Curious and puzzled by all this, the class got to it’s feet and followed Lupin out of the class. He lead them along the now deserted corridor and around a corner, where the first thing they saw was a most curious sight. Peeves the Poltergeist was up to his old tricks.

But that didn’t concern Alicia. She saw something else that was far more interesting.
As the class became entranced by the exchange between Lupin and Peeves, Alicia moved back to a dark corner where she saw a familiar “face”.
There, hiding in the shadows, was a very uptight Moaning Myrtle.
That in itself was odd since she never left the bathroom she haunted.
Alicia tried to grab Myrtle as she shrunk back into the darkness, “What’s wrong?”
Myrtle first vanished without stopping, only to reappear after a few seconds and say in a direct manner “It’s too dark. Everything is too dark. The mood. The “light”. Everything.” she glared at Alicia, “And it’s your fault bringing them here. The hooded things that reek of living death. The loud clammoring lizard monsters that walk like ape people. The disorderly one. I liked it better when it was quiet, and brighter.”
And, with that, she vanished.

Thankfully Lupin got the class moving again before anyone noticed she was missing.
Whatever she missed seemed to have changed the mood with the class.
They now looked on at Lupin with a greater sense of respect, yet she didn’t know why.
Maybe the first lesson will shed light on that, Alicia thought, as they entered a new room.

This was the staffroom, where teachers hung out between classes. It was a long paneled room full of old, rather mismatched chairs. The room was empty except for one teacher, which was the one Alicia actually wanted to see : Snape. He was sitting in a low armchair, and looked around as the class filled in. Before he could speak Alicia “mind-jammed” him and simply said “Stay.” But as Lupin came in, Snape stood up and said “Leave it open, Lupin. I’d rather not witness this.”

He got to his feet and strode past the class, his eyes locked on Alicia as he did.
‘You saw Myrtle, haven’t you.’ he thought in his mind. ‘You already know what she means without having to ask me about it.’

‘I know who the hooded one bearing living death is, and I know about the lizard monsters, but who is the “disorderly one”.’ Alicia demanded in her thoughts.

At the doorway he turned on his heel and said, “Possibly no one’s warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear, being disorderly in the process.”

Alicia’s jaw nearly dropped open at the implication, but Snape ignored her as he left.

Professor Lupin, however, raised his eyebrows at the remark.
“I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation, and I am sure he will perform it most admirably.”
Neville paled, but not as much as Alicia who did everything she could to keep from screaming. Snape shrugged, “As you wish, Lupin, after all it’s your TIME.” he said with a flourish in the last word as he left.

Time? What does time have to do with anything? Is he just pulling her chain to see if she’d jump? No, no, Snape was really being on the level about the “disorderly one” so… what the hell does that mean about Hermione?

“Now, then,” Professor Lupin beckoned, at the same time a pulling in her mind told her that the Dementors were also beckoning. Great, just great, another curtain call.
They had a report so she allowed them to drift her mentally to their “location” for them to speak to her, as she stood in “class” watching and “listening”.
The Dementors, rounded in a circle about her, reported.

Their suspicions were dead on right, on more than one count.
Black was indeed very close now, the Dementors could feel it.
However that is all they could do. They couldn’t localize the “feeling”, nor could they find the “source” of the feeling. Black was near, just they didn’t know how near.

And the Dementors had at last realized that they had let something else slip in. That thing, of course, being the Assassin Guilder and his drone units… fat lot of good that revelation did however. As far as the Dementors were concerned only Black meant anything to them. It seemed that Black was the one and only fixation on their “mind”, so to speak.

No amount of “derailment” tactics from Alicia could get them to focus resources to hunt her “assassin”, since they were only interested in Black. Just as well, she surmised, since it was her fight in the first place. Best to be left to her.

As she focused back on class she realized everyone had moved to near the end of the room, near an old wardrobe filled with spare robes. However, as the class neared, something inside the wardrobe hissed and shook the huge piece of furniture as if to frighten them.

“Nothing to worry about,” Professor Lupin announced quite casually, as he motioned for those who jumped back to step forward again, “There’s a boggart in there.”

Alicia, eyebrow raised in her usual skeptical manner, could only stare at the now fidgety cabinet as it clacked and rattled in disbelief. A “boggart”, eh? What’s that?
Neville seemed to cling onto May just that much tighter as he stared, while Finnigan gave the whole scene a rather apprehensive look. Lupin continued. “Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces. Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks -- I’ve even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock.”

“Try the living the next time you look for new friends.” Alicia quipped, staring at the rattling piece of cabinetry with abit of disdain. “At least dead things that are friendlier.”

Lupin shrugged, “And it just arrived yesterday to be our “friend” too.”

The class chuckled at his counter-quip, bringing a bit of a frown to Alicia’s lips as he went on about the Boggart. “It moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice. So, first question we must ask ourselves is this - What is a boggart?”

Hermione, like clockwork, had her hand up quickly.

“It’s a shape-shifter,” she said in a matter of fact tone, “It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most.”

Lupin, smiling from ear to ear, slaps a hand down on his thigh and quickly points right at Hermione in a triumphant manner, “EXCELLENT! Couldn’t have put it better myself!” Lupin praised, bringing a bright glow to Hermione’s cheeks.
This clearly didn’t impress Alicia at all, who sulked in her spot and thought nasty things about the new teacher. ‘Bet he likes ‘em young.’ she thought spitefully, ‘Kiss up.’

“So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. It does not yet know what will frighten the person on the opposite side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when it is alone, but when I let it out…’

* * * * * *

The sky was eternal night, even in the middle of the day.
The city was destroyed. Hulking wrecks of buildings reached into the dead sky above as she walked along the huge open courtyard towards her destination.
She was one of a dozen Ravens performing recovery duties for the living in this ruined city, but finding the living wasn’t easy since the living was “frozen” in cryotubes for “later useage”. As she walked towards the door, her hand already motioning to pull the door open via the use of her power, she heard a faint shriek from within. Before she could stop herself she had begun to pull the door open only to release a half crazed Dark Lunaris creature, the half frost bitten monster falling to it’s side on the cold dead earth shrieking madly as it flailed about in madness.

The corridor beyond was cold, as cold as the world about her and the sight before her.
Cold… and dead.

* * * * * *

“Er -- because there are so many of us, it won’t know what shape it should be?”
As she snapped out of it she realized Harry, not Hermione, was talking.
“Precisely.” Lupin said in praise, as Hermione dropped her hand looking a tad disappointed. “It’s always best to have company when you’re dealing with a boggart. It becomes confused when confronted by two different fears. Which should it become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug. I once saw--”

‘Oh for goddess’ sake, not another “I once saw” story.’ Alicia sighed, eyes straying about as she waited for the real lesson to begin. ‘Cut to the chase and tell me how to beat it.’
As if reading her mind, Lupin did exactly that.

“The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a boggart is a simple emotion -- laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find most amusing.”

“And that’s it?”

“That’s it, Miss Spinnet.” Lupin answered, “We will practice the charm without wands first, to get the wrist motions down. Now, repeat after me please -- riddikulus!”

“Riddikulus!” the class pronounced together, wrists in motion to mimic the spell motions.

‘That’s what this class is -- “riddikulus”.’ Alicia thought to herself.

“Good, very very good.” Lupin praised. “But that was the easy part, I’m afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough. And that, Neville, is where you come into the lesson.”

Neville looked as if he was about to have a seizure as Lupin led him forward towards the closet, the shaking increasing as he drew closer and closer.
May wasn’t far off from having her own seizure at Lupin’s boldness with Neville, fidgeting as she watched as if she was worried Neville was seconds away from losing a limb or three.

With a dissatisfied sigh she pulled a few candy bars from a hidden tesseract pouch, and began eating mindlessly as she watched with little interest.
“Not going anywhere for awhile? Hell yeah…” she muttered.
To Be Continued

Azkaban 6

Azkaban 6
(NOTE - Disclaimer time once again ladies and gentlemen! Harry Potter and all related characters are the property of the one and only J.K. Rowlings.)

A feeling of darkness overshadowed Alicia's thoughts in her sleep. She was right on the money when she told Snape that every Dementor within a thousand miles was there. Within 10 miles of Hogwarts the entire host of Dementors in this part of the world were gathered. A high number of them to be certain, all here apparently for Black.

They must have numbered in the hundreds, maybe even the thousands, yet for the most part they kept behaved from what she could feel. No large scale psionic screams of pain and panic, no rampages of terror… yet.
Of course, as the saying went, there was a first time for everything.

Still, despite the fact that they were there for a good thing, it was not a good thing to have so many of these dark things gathered so tightly together. The chance of the things running rampant and out of control was just too great to risk such a thing happening. No matter what assurances the Ministry of Magic made on their behalf it was clear that the chances of them slipping "off the wagon", and following their inner demons over their duty was too great. In short things were going to be quite interesting this year.

But then again she didn't need Dementors to make life "interesting" for her. At times the living did more than an adequate job of that. At breakfast in the Great Hall, it seemed that Malfoy was up to his old tricks again. He was entertaining a large group of Slytherins with a "funny" story, accentuated by him doing a ridiculous impression of a swooning fit, obviously "fainting" like Potter. Alicia didn't speak to him. She merely walked pass him, grabbed his arm, and "fed" him what Potter was fed by the Dementor, bringing the entire room to silence as Malfoy began screaming horrifically. He had to be rushed to Madame Pomfrey, but the point was clear, at least to her in any case.

The rest of the Slytherins avoided her, giving her a wide berth as she walked over and started eating. Finally, after much staring, she stood up and said "He wanted to know why Potter fainted. That's why. At least Potter was a man, and was only subdued by the Dementor's dark aura, Malfoy couldn't even take half of what they did without screaming like a baby. So don't go staring at me like that. He wanted it, after all."
She let her words drift off as the Slytherins turned away from her, fear radiating from them. Good. At least they'll remain behaved for awhile, except she shook up everyone else in the room. Eventually the room returned to normal, but the remembrance of what she did remained. It took a clean sweep mindwipe spell to get the room completely back to normal.

'Not even past day 1 and already I'm mindwiping short term memories.' she lamented, feeling abit uneasy for having to have done such an "easy out" so quickly. But even then it wasn't perfect. Not by a long shot. The only ones who weren't touched by this was Malfoy and his personal "fan club" of goons and supporters, who went with him to Madame Pomfrey. But they won't give her problems now, at least, she hoped they wouldn't. "You're in a mood, and it's only Day 1." George reminded her, passing her schedule as he did. He didn't need a memory of what she did to see that she was not in a good mood.
"Not in the mood." she retorted. "Thinking of the Dementors." she half lied. "I know." George said, the memory of it still sticking in his craw, "They're horrible things, those Dementors."

"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" said Fred.

"You didn't show him, what it did to…" Harry stumbled, Alicia's eyebrow going up as she realized he still remembered what she did. Shaking it off quickly she merely replied "Let it go, Harry. He got only what was close to his own "heart", not what is close to yours."

The topic steered quickly to that of Azkaban, giving Alicia a "out" from having to explain further what she did to Malfoy, for now at any rate. But Potter stuck in her craw. Mainly how did he avoid having his memories retooled when she nailed everyone in the room with one shot? For a quick diversion, Alicia grabbed Hermione's schedule to compare notes. That's when she was hit with shock #2 of the day. Well, shock #3. Shock #1 came when she woke up with her fellow Chasers in her bed looking even more mischievous than usual ever since they became an item. And since that was a length of only hours for Alicia, this didn't bode well for her. "It's way too early for me to even humor this." she grumbled. "Isn't there two lesbian spirits over in the girl's bathroom on the fifth floor? Go bother them, they have all eternity to teach you the lesbian lifestyle, I don't."

They wouldn't take no for an answer. So she finally pushed them out of her bed and crawled out, running a hand through her unkempt hair as she grabbed her robes. "I hate my life." This situation reminded her of the awkwardness of that other situation, only worse. The paper seemed right except for the fact that the schedule seemed rather impossible. "You've got to be kidding me." she rasped, holding the paper up as Hermione tried to grab it back from her, "You're down for TEN subjects a day?!? No way! You crazy or something??"

"I'll manage." she gasped, finally taking her schedule back, "I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."

"Then I hope she plans to start cloning you because this is impossible!" Alicia shot back, "You're down for Muggle Studies, Arithmancy AND Divination at 9'o clock alone!! No way you'll be doing all THREE at once, unless you have two evil twins you never told us about." (Alicia's eyebrow raises in a bit of a Vulcan like manner) "Or are you the evil twin you never told us about."

"Don't be silly!" Hermione quickly replied, "Of course I won't be in three classes at once." "Well, then how?" Ron started, only to be shot down when Hermione asked for the marmalade. A minute later Hermione said "Oh, Ron, stop pouting! What's it to you if my schedule's abit full?"

"We care about you dammit!!" Alicia snapped back, causing Hermione to blush from Alicia's sudden surge of emotion. "…Alicia!"

"What! Is it wrong to care about you?!? I…" Hermione puts a finger to Alicia's mouth, bringing her to silence as she looked at her in awe. Alicia simply fell silent at this, and looked at her, face burning as she blushed. Hermione smiles, and whispers "I told you I got this fixed with Professor McGonagall. Trust me."

Alicia didn't know what to do, so she simply leaned forward quickly and kissed the tip of Hermione's finger bringing an deep red blush to Hermione's face. The two stared at each other, unable to speak as they tried to recover from what happened. Hermione blushed, then began to say something… slowly… as if she wanted to say… Just then, as if to break the tension between the two, Hagrid entered the Great Hall absentmindedly swinging a dead polecat from one of his hands.

Alicia turned, looked at him, and said "No thanks, I already ate."

"Eh? Oh?" (looks at polecat) "…right. Sorry about that." (puts polecat out of sight as he addresses them) "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five getting' everythin' ready?" (blushes) "…hope it's OK… me, a teacher… hones'ly…"

"Just as long as you don't bring a female werewolf to class I think you'll do fine."
Hagrid, grinning broadly at them (the blush still covering his face, no doubt from a memory of his predecessor and his predecessor's new wife) quickly retreated to the Staff Table. "Wonder what he's been getting ready…" Ron mused out loud, abit of anxiety in his voice. "Probably something fun… or dangerous… or both." Alicia remarked, "Take your pick." Everyone was beginning to head out to class, and so they had to head out as well. First class of the day was Divination (and Muggle Studies + Arithimancy if you were Hermione).

* * * * * *

The journey to the North Tower (where Divination was being held) was in itself an adventure. Mostly because they ended up becoming rather lost while looking for class. That's because they've been through a lot of the school, but never been to the North Tower before. Never. "There's --" (Ron gasped as he trudged up stairs #7) "-- got --" (long spiraling stairs #7) "-- to -- be -- a -- shortcut!" he rasped, the four finally emptying out into another unfamiliar landing. "Well sure there is but it could get us killed." Alicia remarked, all eyes turning onto her. "I could teleport us up, but since I don't know where we're teleporting we could end up inside a wall and… yeah… be "Terminated"… as it were."

Nobody took her up on the teleportation offer after that explanation. "I think it's that way." Hermione remarked, pointing off in one direction, bringing out a "Can't be," from Ron. "That's south, look, you can see a bit of the lake out of the window…"

"Behave you two or I'll teleport you both into the lake, I can see that just fi--" (Alicia stops as she notices Harry watching something) "…what are you…"
A strange sight greeted them as something approached them from inside the painting. A strange female in a red riding outfit stumbled onto the picture, looking about left and right for something. "Last time I go through THAT painting! Damn people nearly gave me a fright and…" (she stops as she regards the four staring at her) "Ah! Right. Hi there?" (blinks) "Uh-huh." They watched, in amazement, as the little female rider turned and whistled, waiting in vain for something to show up. "It's never around when I need…" (stops, turns to look at her "guests" watching her from outside the painting) "Oh, bother."

"Are you missing something?" Harry asked, moving closer to the painting only to be stopped by the small female who said "Not so close!" (Harry apologized as he stopped) "Remember my comfort zone, please! Thanks."

Finally a broom flew into the picture and ran the small female over, knocking her to the ground as it passed by, turning to stop just above her hovering. With a sad groan she pulls herself to her feet and grasp the broom, "I wish they drew me with something other than a mischievous broom for a "ride"!"

"Excuse us," Harry said, taking advantage of her presence there, "We're looking for the North Tower. You don't happen to know the way, do you?"

"Oh, sure, I live up there. Come on." she motions, climbing on her broom -- stopping only to ask "Can you see my arse? I didn't rip my riding pants again, did I?" (everyone shakes their head in the negative) "I hate it when that happens."
It didn't take long to find the class, the four of them chasing after the small female on the broom as she led them from painting to painting. One painting in particular she zoomed past a group of females so fast she flipped their long skirts up as she flew by. This caused Herimone to grab Ron to drag him past as he ogled their panties. As they reached the class the female on the broom did an abrupt u-turn and sped off leaving them behind without so much as leaving a name. Just as well since they were almost late. Still, Alicia mused, she had to know who the strange little female was. Maybe a little research?

They quickly climbed the last few steps and came upon most of the class, but there was no doors off of this landing (hence why everyone was still there). Ron nudged Harry and pointing towards the ceiling. There, where a circular trapdoor sat, was a brass plaque that read "Sibyll Trelawney, Divination teacher". "Right. How are we getting up there?" Ron asked. The trapdoor opening, and a silvery ladder coming down pretty much answered that question. As Alicia entered the "class", she found herself surrounded by the strangest looking classroom she had ever wandered into.

It was abit like a cross between some quaint little fancy tea shop, and somebody's old attic. The room was filled with 20 small circular tables, while seating was provided by odd looking armchairs and little poufs. The entire room was lit by dim crimson lighting, and the room was dark since the curtains around them were drawn tightly closed. There were lamps in the room, but they all were shrouded by red scarves which gave the room a reddish glow to it. It was very warm in the class, and it smelled like the inside of a honeycomb since a strong sickly sweet perfume smell filled the airspace about them. The shelves were stacked to capacity with dusty looking feathers, a ton of candle stubs, packs upon packs of old tattered playing cards and countless crystal balls and a huge array of teacups. "Is she a fortune teller or a packrat." Alicia grumbled, eyes taking in everything about her. "Where is she?" Ron asked. The voice that spoke next answered that question right away, since the voice could only be that of the professor herself. "Welcome. How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

Alicia groaned, already sensing a bad experience from this class without even having been in said class for not even one minute. As Professor Trelawney moved into the light, Alicia looked at her with disdain. She was very thin, wearing huge glasses that magnified her eyes several times to an almost comical size, and she was draped in the most unnerving outfit of a spangled shawl, many chains and beads, and a ton of bangles and rings. She must be setting off metal detectors miles away from them even as they looked at her. "Sit, my children, sit." she said with a slight wave of her arms, everyone moving to sit on one of the awkward seating arrangements, Alicia taking one of the armchairs around the same table as Ron, Harry and Hermione.

"Welcome to Divination." she started, eyes already panning about at her class sizing them up. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."

"Then you should go see an Inner Eye Doctor." Alicia snipped back without missing a beat. Professor Trelawney, not affected by Alicia's remark, continued. "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts."

"It's a mandatory class. No actual decision making required." Alicia remarked bluntly, bringing Trelawney's big eyed gaze onto her for a second before she continued, trying not to let Alicia's remarks throw her timing. "I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can only take you so far in this field." Hermione didn't seem too pleased to hear THAT, groaning silently as she clutched her book. "Many witches and wizards, talented though they may be in the art of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future."

'Like you can.' Alicia thought to herself, becoming already annoyed with this teacher. "It is a Gift granted to a few. You, boy," (her attention falling on Neville and his girlfriend May who barely manages to keep Neville from falling off his pouf at the sudden attention) "Is your grandmother well?"

"I think so," said Nevelle tremulously. "I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear." Trelawney said snidely, bringing an angry protest from May. Alicia merely shrugged and said "Tell her in your next letter to have a little spell on hand for heartburn. Her next experiment with mexican cuisine will not go well. Trust me."

At this Neville nods his head furiously, taking Alicia's words to heart. Trelawney, not thrown by Alicia's counter, turned her attention to the others. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," (she turns suddenly on Parvati Patil) "beware a red-haired man." Alicia quickly peeked ahead, and nodded her head.

"Not Ron." she said (noting Patil's odd expression towards Ron) "You're going to be approached by a tall red haired man looking for his puppy during the Christmas holiday in Hogsmeade. Simply point at him and scream "PERVERT" and he'll be caught by Hogsmeade' Police and arrested for several charges of indecent exposure. Of course it could be worse. He could have been looking for Mr. Pus--" (silence) "--never mind."

"In the second term--" Trelawney was back on it again, trying to shake Alicia's so far seemingly good "record" of countering every prediction of her’s. It didn't help that Alicia was far more informative about her predictions, and far more confident about her predictions to boot. "We shall progress to the crystal ball -- if we have finished with fire omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu."

"I'll order flu shots for everyone before December." Alicia countered.

"I myself will lose my voice."

Alicia - "Not if I can help it. One good dose of throat medicine for you before Christmas should handle that just fine."

"…and around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."

"Make it two and you got yourself a "deal"."
A tense silence fell on the class as the two "future seers" regarded each other.
Trelawney, it seemed, was not going to have an easy time with one of her new students. In fact it looked like a long drawn out battle was going to take place until Easter at least. Trelawney suddenly derailed the silence by asking for a silvery teapot. Lavender, who was asked, retrieved the item and gave it to her with a bit of relief on her face. That didn't last long. "That you, my dear. Incidentally?" Alicia beat her to the punch. "Keep your rabbit indoors on October 16th, and have someone call Animal Control to pick up a wild animal that'll wander onto your property during the lunch hour."

"Now I want you all to divide into pairs." Trelawney announced, once again ignoring Alicia's counter predictions with a determination to steer the class her way. "I want you all to divide up into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me."
Alicia drowned out the rest. She already knew what to do so she went to doing it, taking Hermione as a partner. She did stop, however, to calm May down after Trelawney went after Neville (again) with her predictions. Once Alicia did what she had to do, she exchanged samples with Hermione and stared into it intensely. "What can you see?" Hermione asked. "I see a very good reason why I never drink tea in the first place. This stuff is majorly disgusting." Alicia remarked sadly. "And people actually set time aside for this? Ewww."

This time it was her turn to be thrown off her "game" as it were, mostly thanks to the thick layer of perfume "air" that was around her. It could have been that, or maybe it was the stomach wrenching stuff sitting before her. One or the other, take your pick, was messing her up. Then again maybe it was the fact that she was disturbed by this future seeing stuff. She could, in fact, see Hermione's future if she wanted to. Hence the problem she faced. She could see her future, but she simply did NOT want to! She didn't want to use her own flawless skill, and end up seeing too much of Hermione's future, especially if it meant they had no future together.

Dammit! She grumbled, slamming her fists down, why did she go with her first compulsion to pair up with Hermione?!? That was such a mistake! Briefly a thought crossed her mind. Her hand pushing aside the teacups, the other grasping Hermione to pull her forward, "I see a very beautiful future in store for us." she whispers as their lips touch, Hermione's eyes fluttering close as they kissed deeply…

"What do you see?" Hermione asked again, bringing a distasteful expression to Alicia's face. "Alright, alright. Hold your broomstick, Hawkins." (examines cup) "According to this disgusting crap in my cup it looks like you'll be majorly stressed from the bigger work schedule, so you'll need to probably grab as much down time here and there as humanly possible." (blinks) "Hello? you're going to have quite abit on your plate, and more to come but the specifics seems to be rather shaky? Time will be your friend and your enemy at the same time…“ (frowns) “What the hell is that supposed to mean. Oh, and you'll also find true love where you least expect it…" (stops and steers the topic elsewhere) "You'll have…" (stops) "What the… here's a sign of trials and hardships, but this -- is that an insect? Looks like there’s a bug connected to these trials and hardships in your future… what the…" (shakes head) "Never mind. Forget I said that. Something about a bug causing hardships but really, a bug. What the hell does THAT mean anyway!" (sighs) "Ok, my future sight sucks. Humor me. What does my tea mish-mash say beside "recycle me"?"

Hermione focuses on Alicia's cup, eyes glancing back and forth from the cup to her book, checking everything over and over again before speaking. "The sign of an enemy nearby. A foe you must deal with."

'No mystery there.' Alicia thought to herself. 'Must mean Black.'

"Signs of trials and tribulations… tasks ahead of you… and a choice that leads to happiness. And then…" Hermione suddenly stops, turning the cup back and forth regarding the next "image". However it was the last "prediction" that caught Alicia's attention the most. 'A choice that leads to?' (Alicia's eyes widen) 'Waitaminute, do I make my choice about…' Suddenly Trelawney bustled past them to grab Ron's cup that he was reading for Harry.

That's when the world flips over and changes. She was now outside on the Quidditch field, and the Dementors were gathering. They were all agitated about something, and it was making them rather fussy. They drifted about in a frustrated state, tension and dark aura spilling all over the place. Before Alicia could ask one thing floated to the top of their "minds", and stuck there for what seemed like forever… before she found herself back in class as it wrapped up with everyone heading out, flustered over something.

She missed the fireworks of Harry's reading, but it seemed worth it from what happened outside. One thing came up in the Dementors' "minds" over and over again, and were still going on even now from what she could feel… one word… "Diggory". Now if she only knew what a Diggory was, let alone why they were all flustered she'd be ahead of the game, as it were. Whatever that "game" was with the Dementors that is.

* * * * * *

It didn't take Alicia long to find out why everyone was jumpier than usual. In fact all she had to do was go to her next class, Transfiguration, for that answer. Usually she was the only was who was completely jaded to Professor McGonagall's animorphic antics, which sort of hinted to Alicia at a whimsical childish side to her ultra serious demeanor. Today, however, she didn't seem to be the only one unimpressed by her shapeshifting and it seemed to stick in her craw as she regarded the entire class.
"Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformations not got applause from this class past Miss Spinnet."

Everyone looked over the Potter, and Alicia instantly knew it had to do with what she missed back in Divinations. However nobody wanted to say what it was, that is until Hermione spoke. "Please, Professsor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves, and --"

'The urge to bake scones and criticize BBC programming overcame us.' Alicia thought to herself in disdain.

"Ah, of course." Professor McGonagall noted, frowning her usual frown as she did, "There is no need to say anymore, Miss Granger." she sighed, looking as if she's gone this route before. And, in truth, she probably has. "Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"

Everyone stared right at her, but more from the fear of looking towards the "soon to be deceased" than a desire to stare at her. Potter finally confirmed that he was the "victim".
"I see," McGonagall grumbled, looking as if she was five seconds away from storming over to Divinations just to slap Trelawney upside her head. "Then you should know, Potter, that Sibyll Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class into her field of expertise."

"They do offer therapy for that kind of obsessive compulsive behavior." Alicia noted. At first she thought she made a mistake, and McGonagall would jump down her throat for that comment, but she merely shook her head and said "She thinks it grabs everyone's attention, and it seems to do just that." before falling silent. For a bit she simply stood there, eyes dark, before she finished by saying "If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues -- I would have crossed words to say of her."

Her nostrils flared, and her mood darkened even more. "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not lie to you and proclaim respect for an art that I have no respect for, and less patience in tolerating such "antics" from a fellow teacher. True Seers are extremely rare, and Professor Trelawney is --" She falls silent, and then -- her mood flipped. Suddenly out of nowhere she tried to achieve a very uncharacteristic smile and remarked "You look in excellent health to me, Mr. Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that, if you do die, you need not hand it in."

The tension vanished, and everyone relaxed and laughed. But Alicia seemed abit concerned. Out of nowhere McGonagall's mood did a 360 flip and she became -- cheery. What was with that? Not everyone was convinced though. Ron was still the perfect image of worry as he remarked "But what about Neville's cup?"

"Power of suggestion." Alicia shot, turning her gaze to Ron quickly, "She simply marked him right off the bat as the class' weakest link and worked him like a drum. Nothing too spectacular there." The lunchtime crowd in the Great Hall looked pretty lively, and the food looked good too, but still the specter of Divination class seemed to hang over them, even in a small way. "Cheer up, Ron!" Hermione yawned, shoving beef stew towards him, "You heard Professor McGonagall, now eat your lunch." Ron dished himself the beef stew, but still wasn't entirely convinced. "Harry, you haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah, I have." he admitted honestly, "I saw one the night I felt the Dursleys'."
Ron dropped his fork, but Alicia was on it quickly as her hand scooped it up. "Black dogs are a dime a dozen in London. Walk anywhere and you could fall over the damn things, unless you think the entire city of London is doomed that is." Ron looked at Alicia as if she had grown wings and proclaimed herself the living embodiment of Buffalo Wings. "ALICIA! If Harry's seen a Grim then -- then -- well that's not a good thing!" he sputtered, growing red with each second, "My -- my uncle Bilius? He saw one and -- well he died twenty-four hours later! That's bad!"

"Mere coincidence." Hermione remarked without much interest, waving her head at the topic as if it meant nothing to her. "It's all in their heads. They see a "Grim", and drop dead. Completely psychological without any basis in fact. And Harry's smarter than that!"
Ron wanted to say something, but kept his "thoughts" to himself. Though even if he wanted to say something it seemed Hermione had already drowned out the world and focused on eating and looking at her books. She pulled her new Arithmancy book out, propping it open again a juice jug as she ate. "I think Divinations is very wooly. A lot of guesswork if you ask me on the whole sorry subject."

"That's because Divination by it's very nature IS guesswork." Alicia noted, everyone's attention turning to her as she took her direction and ran with it. "Divination is the foretelling of future events, but the future is always fluidic, and never set in stone. Hence Divination is mostly the forecasting of the future as it might transpire, not as it will transpire since it‘s never stable enough to properly predict. It’s much like forecasting the weather, which is pretty good but not 100% infallible even with the best magicks employed."

Ron stared with "But what about…" only for Alicia to grab Ron's cup and throws the contents onto the ground a distance from her as someone passes her, distracted as they talked to someone. "I predict a fall is about to occur."
Ron, panicked, jumps up and yells "HEY WATCH IT!!" bringing the person to a stop, and bringing their attention to the spilled liquid on the ground, which causes him to bring his arm about which hit another student in the back of the head by accident (but not to any harm to said student). At this she points at Ron, "Unknown variable."

"What are you going on about! That person almost fell and hurt himself!" Ron spat. Alicia merely shrugged and pointed at the glass, which was still full. "Slipped on what?" Sure enough the "liquid" on the ground vanished. "There are a great deal of unknown variables that could change any event seen in the future, changing the dynamics of the event, or even neutralize said event altogether or spawn new "sub-events" of greater danger than the original event." (points back to "spill") "He might have slipped. Then again he might have not. He might have hurt that person he bumped into because Ron caused him to spin, or the person he bumped may have dropped hot food on someone else. Anything could have happened, but the exact order cannot be predicted since the variables of the said event are too great to predict with any accuracy. Got me?"

"Uh? No." Ron answered truthfully. "Yeah. Well I don't get it much either but it's the best answer I got, so there." And, with that, Alicia went back to eating. Hermione, who seemed to have absorbed the whole spiel with some understanding, merely shrugged at it and said "If being good at Divination means I have to pretend to see death omens to get a buzz out of people then I'm not sure I'll be studying it much longer!"

"You won't be.” Alicia admitted, “That person leaving in Easter is you. I'll join you, by the way, hence making it two as I predicted."

"Well that's no fun if you spoil the surprise in advance." Ron grumbled, to which Alicia countered "You're a sad, sad human being. At least the rest of the classes are better."

Hermione - "Agreed. That lesson was worthless next to what I learned in Arithmancy today." She snatched her bag up, finished eating, and stalked off. Alicia sighed. "Don't need to be lying just because your cranky. Especially since you didn't even take Arithmancy today."

"So I noticed." Ron said to Harry.

* * * * * *

The next class was outside, which suited Alicia just fine. The sky was clear with a hint of gray, and the grass was rather springy with a hint of moisture remaining from the heavy rain yesterday. This was going to be the Care of Magical Creatures class. Alicia's worst class. If anything she didn't like the idea of having to raise anything living other than herself or another human being, so she knew she was going to be so terrible at this class. Ron and Hermione wasn't speaking to each other, which suited her fine since she could hang near Hermione and not have Ron interrupt them as they talked. But it seemed she was acting more as the "go between" for them than anything else since they insisted on using her to relay messages to each other.

That, of course, didn't sit well with her. And, of course Slytherin class had to be there. It couldn't have been Ravenclaw, oh no, it simply had to be Slytherin, meaning Malfoy had to be there. 'Wondrous.' Alicia grumbled to herself. Hagrid was waiting for them at the door of his hut, standing in his moleskin overcoat with Fang at his side. He seemed rather impatient to start the class, so something had to have been up. "C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as everyone approached him, "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

The first thought that popped into Alicia's head was that they were going to take a trip right into the forest, which didn't suit her well. She wasn't there when Ron and Harry took the trip into the forest to find Aragon (who turned out to be a rather large mutant spider with a murderous kin that Alicia only had glimpses on while they were fleeing on the as-of-yet still MIA Weasley car after she teleported back to them only to land on said car's roof seconds before the chase), but she figured one brief encounter with them was plenty for her. However, much to everyone's relief, they skirted the outer area of the forest for about five minutes until they came to a rather large paddock, no doubt for containing whatever large beast they were going to be dealing with in class. At the moment, though, the paddock was empty. "Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it -- make sure yeh can see -- now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books --" Which everyone did. Alicia sighs inwardly as she rubs her chest, face flustered and blushing bright red, "I need to find a better way to docilize mad biting books?"

"-- oh, good, you got it right. That's good." Hagrid noted, looking more surprised than anyone else that the books were now completely docile. "Very good, oh-kay, then, movin' on now yeh need the Magical Creatures… yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on a sec." He quickly strolled away, still confused by the turn of events, straight into the forest. "God, this place is going to the d-- ACK!!" Malfoy's book jumped for a second, snapping once and falling silent, promptly silencing Malfoy at the same time. He looked at it as if it was about to come to life again, as Alicia lowered her hand which she just used to briefly animate the book.

Figures. Malfoy bought his book from the stock of pre-dociled books that Alicia calmed, so he didn't know they could do that. Oh, well. She couldn't reverse the spell, that was locked in, but at least she could "play" with him. Lavender Brown looks at her own book, and blinks, "Maybe it's hungry… OOOOoooo!!" she suddenly squealed, her eyes darting up as she pointed towards the opposite end of the paddock. Trotting towards them were a dozen of the strangest creatures Alicia had ever run across, but their identity was clear to her since she had heard of them.

They had the bodies, hind legs and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings and heads of birds (in this case gigantic eagles). Their beaks were large, menacing, and steel colored as if made of metal. Their eyes flashed a bright, sharp orange tint which made them appear that much more menacing (if that was possible for such a beast)! Each of these beasts, in turn, wore thick leather collars which were attached to long chains which Hagrid had a tight grip on. He came jogging in behind them like Siegfred or Roy during a Las Vegas show, bringing the tigers out for everyone to see. "Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains masterfully as he urged the creatures towards the fence where the class stood. Everyone except Alicia drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them, tethering the creatures quickly to the sturdy fence before them.

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, to which Alicia shot back "I know we are, but what of it." The class chuckled nervously, unlike McGonagall's quip this didn't have the effect of calming everyone's nerves, and with these huge beasts it's no wonder it failed as it did. "Beau'iful, aren' they!" Alicia nodded her head slowly, as did Harry. Despite their menacing size they were, in fact, quite a sight to behold. With their gleaming shimmering coats of hair/feathers, and the variety of colors that stretched the spectrum of the rainbow, they did indeed embody a wild beastly beauty. "So, if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer--"
Nobody seemed all that willing to take Hagrid up on the offer. Even Alicia, who didn't back away at first, wasn't coming any closer either. The hippogriffs were big, large creatures -- but for a creature so big their "mental" profile was blank. They were like large voids of silence which unnerved Alicia. She couldn't sense their feelings, thoughts, or even what was rattling through their heads at that moment. Something was making them "silent" to her and she didn't know if it was the hippogriffs themselves or…

Suddenly she noticed that Harry, Ron and Hermione were already in motion stepping up next to her, coming closer to the fence. Hagrid, taking this as a good sign, went on. "Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is, they're proud, easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."
'Yeah, now there's a vote of confidence in my future plans to raise hippogriffs.' Alicia sighed inwardly. However it seemed the "Three Stooges" of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle weren't paying attention. In fact they were talking as if they had no intention of paying enough attention to the class to pick up something that might save their lives. "Yes always wait fer the hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid went on to say, "It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh--"

Something off to one side catches Alicia's eye. A quick movement. Something in the trees. It looks like her "stalker" may have made it to Hogwarts after all, despite the large force of Dementors protecting the school. But, then again, they were after Sirius Black, not an unknown Animorph that was only a danger to their new "mistress" and no one else.
"Right -- who wants to go first?"

At the mere mention of someone actually going "first" it seemed as if the rest of the class had taken that chance to put even more distance between themselves and the hippogriffs. Even Ron, Hermione and Harry seemed to have misgivings about the whole thing, with only Alicia standing her ground, but probably less from enthusiasm than a fear that they'd charge at her if she made any quick movements. And, with the hippogriffs making a rather aggressive showing as they tossed their heads back and forth while flexing their powerful wings, it didn't seem that anyone would take the "plunge" into hippogriff bonding anytime soon. Hagrid, almost pleading, asked "No one?"

'Make them stop doing that and I'll maybe risk my life at it.' Alicia thought to herself. Harry steps forward, giving Alicia her excuse not to step forward. "I'll do it." It seemed as if half the class suddenly sucked in air hard, their fears rising as Harry stepped forward. "Oooh, no! Harry! Remember your tea leaves!"

"This isn't the time for a refreshing drink." Alicia snipped, trying not to worry Harry too much. Harry, ignoring the worrywarts behind him, climbed over the paddock fence and into the area with the hippogriffs. Hagrid seemed most pleased with this, his hands already moving to untie one of the smaller hippogriffs. "Good man, Harry! Right then -- let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak." The one in question, Buckbeak, was a gray hippogriff that was abit smaller than the bigger hippogriffs in the paddock. Only the Slytherins seemed uninterested in Harry's fate as he neared the huge beasts. Hagrid, however, was concerned. "Easy now, Harry." Hagrid whispered near silently, he hands tensing as he watched with great interest. "Yeh've got eye contact, so try not to blink too much… Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much…"

'Words to live (and die) by.' Alicia chided in her mind as she watched Harry slowly draw closer to Buckbeak. "That's it." Hagrid whispered, his eyes focused on the act, "That's it, Harry. now--" And once again the world went upside down.

* * * * * *

The Dementors… shadows… something lurking in the distance, but a clear and present threat. The coming of something powerful. A war. And the truth that would set all free, and bring either the promise of life, or death.

* * * * * *

The class broke into applause, breaking Alicia's concentration as she focused on her thoughts. Harry did it, and Alicia was zoning out when he did it. Considering the events of the day it seemed to have fit all things considered. "Righ' then, Harry. I reckon he might' let yeh ride him!"

Sure enough he did, but it was the emotions felt in this moment that touched Alicia. It seemed so intense, and pure… is this what it's like to feel the energy of feelings from the source? The curiosity of it all. Sure, while Buckbeak was no Nimbus 2000, he was still flyable even by Alicia's standards. Watching Harry slowly get the hang of flight with the hippogriff got Alicia's mind to wandering… "Your mind seems busy." The voice called from a great distance. "But aren't you forgetting…?"

"Forgetting?" she muttered. "It's still there, watching you… just over there, moving as it watches… waiting for it's moment."

"?!?" Alicia snaps to it, 'That's right!' she thinks quickly, 'It's still here!!'
"Good work, Harry!" roared Hagrid, the flight obviously being over with, as everyone cheered, everyone except Malfoy and his flunkies that is. "Okay, who else wants a go!"
As the class slowly moved forward, emboldened by Harry's success, Alicia continued to scan the treeline, looking for her target only to notice it was indeed in motion, staying one step ahead of her eyes as it scanned for it. Stepping towards the hippogriffs her eyes continued to scan, looking in vain for her one target. "Shouldn't have been distracted…" she grumbled to herself, causing Ron to ask her what she said, "Nothing. Never mind."

Neville at first tried to back away from his since it didn't want to bend down, but May would have none of it. She strode forward despite everyone's protests and began to yell at the hippogriff in elvish! It was a short rant, not enough to get Hagrid over to her to yank her away before she strode away, but the hippogriff apparently knew something of the elvish language and finally bowed to Neville. As he was dragged to the hippogriff by May, Alicia couldn’t help but notice how strangely sympathetic the Hippogriff had suddenly become. As May shoved the two together the look on his face was almost as if it wanted to put the freaked out Neville at ease. “Must have a bossy mate itself,“ Alicia thought, her eyes casually glancing at how Hermione was doing.

She seemed to have better luck as she and Ron both were petting a huge chestnut colored one, as Harry watched from nearby. Malfoy, it seemed, had hit it off with Buckbeak (the one Harry had rode) and Alicia walked over to check it out as he petted the huge hippogriff with a careful touch. Oddly enough it seemed that he did, indeed, have a delicate touch despite his acidic attitude to everyone. 'Maybe the good mood only comes out at home.' she mused, watching him pet the beast. That good mood didn't last long, though, as his face turned disdainful. "This is very easy, I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it." he drawled on like an idiot, not realizing how close he was bringing himself to danger. "I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you? Are you, you great ugly br--"

Alicia didn't wait any longer. She grabbed Malfoy and threw him backwards, and was rewarded for her effort with a sharp pain as Buckbeak's claw dug into her shoulder. She clenched her teeth as the pain ripped through her, the world spinning abit as she felt Hagrid rush between them to wrestle Buckbeak back. She felt the hot flow of blood pouring over herself and knew it was a serious wound, but not so that she couldn't heal it -- that's when she saw the flash of light. She could barely cast "Displacer" to push everyone around her out of ground zero before the bioblast ripped into her. The shot threw her twenty feet slamming her hard into the ground, sending her rolling side over side as she felt her damaged arm wretch up in pain from the impact.

Everyone was scattering, and May was already barking orders to the hippogriffs in elvish getting them to move in an orderly manner to shield the students. But for Alicia there was no shield. As long as the "stalker" kept moving, and kept firing off "breath cannon" shots at her she didn't dare take cover behind a student or a hippogriff lest she put them at risk.

So she pulled herself to her feet, one hand grabbing her wound as she struggled to get moving. As she did so another shot fired at her, only to be reflected by a hastily cast "Novashield" spell which protected her. But it wouldn't last forever. With her arm damaged it was nearly impossible to continue to cast defensive spells, and offensive magic was now impossible if she couldn't focus energy into both arms. Added to that the large amount of "non-targets" scattered about the field that could fall prey to a counterattack cast in haste she had pretty much no options open to her as her enemy took advantage of her situation to the fullest.

She saw the next shot fire off, this time at Hermione who was moving with the other students behind the cover of a hippogriff. Her heart seemed to stop at the sight, her voice silenced that she couldn't even scream a warning if she wanted to. Slamming both arms forward out of panic she cast a blaster bolt that reflected the shot, but regretted it immediately. The action worsened the injury to her arm, and brought her to her knees as the spell shot off. Now crumpled onto the ground she was defenseless against further attack.

No longer waiting, her Galerian assassin was already in motion, the Velociraptor like being taking the long leap from the trees, it’s claws scraping the bark as it nimbly left from tree to tree, barreling in from the sky towards her with claws extended and it's raptor-jaw wide open for the kill.

To Be Continued

Azkaban Chapter 5

Azkaban Chapter 5 (June 8th 2008)

(NOTE - Disclaimer time once again ladies and gentlemen! Harry Potter and all related characters are the property of the one and only J.K. Rowlings. One book to completion of her series, three movies to go (with Order of the Phoenix coming in Summer of 2007). By the way, that means she only has until… hmm… I’d say we’ll see Harry Potter Year 7 the Movie by Summer 2010 if things go the way they do, so Rowlings will have to answer whether she’ll do anything with the Potter franchise past the last book of the series by then. Don’t envy her, by the way, when she finally makes her announcement if she hadn’t already.)

Dinner that night was a fairly enjoyable affair by Alicia’s accounting.
Tom the innkeeper put three of the tables together in the parlor, and the seven Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione ate their way through five delicious courses.
As for Alicia? She ate surely enough, but still she seemed a little preoccupied. Thoughts of Black kept coming back to her over and over again. ‘I’m a Raven.’ she thought to herself, ‘Isn’t it my duty as a Raven to hunt down these sort of people? I feel like I’m neglecting my duties by ignoring this Black fellow. Still…’

“How’re we getting to King’s Cross tomorrow, Dad?” Fred asked, rousing Alicia out of her deep thoughts and back to the conversations going on around her. They were presently eating chocolate pudding, which was quite good as a matter of fact. At Fred’s questioning everyone looked up at Mr. Weasley, who seemed to turn abit red around the ears at the attention. “The Ministry’s providing a couple of cars,” he said simply, but that only seemed to fuel everyone’s curiosity. “Why?” Percy asked. “It’s because of you, Perce.” George replied with an almost too good to be believed serious expression on his face. “And there’ll be little flags on the hoods, with HB on them---”

“---for Humongous Bighead,” said Fred, concluding George’s “witty” remark. Everyone it seemed, except for Percy (of course) and Mrs. Weasley snorted into their puddings. Oh, Alicia didn’t do it either but moreso from the fact that she found Fred/George to be rather dry witted for her taste. “Why are the Ministry providing cars, Father?” Percy asked again, in a rather dignified voice. “Well, as we haven’t got one anymore, and as I work there, they’re doing me a favor…” His voice seemed rather casual, but his thoughts said differently. All of a sudden it was as if he was thinking up of everything possible to occupy his mind with. The uppermost “level” of thoughts suddenly became rather cluttered with needless (and a few personal) thoughts. Alicia quickly decided not to peer anymore at his top thoughts since some of those thoughts were rather private memories of him and Mrs. Weasley… nuff said’.

“Anyway it’s a good thing, too,” Mrs. Weasley remarked briskly, “Do you realize how much luggage you’ve all got between you? A nice sight you’d be on the Muggle Underground… You are all packed, aren’t you?”

“Ron hasn’t put all his new things in his trunk yet,” said Percy, in a long-suffering voice. “He’s dumped them on my bed.”

“And I have to go give Ron and Hermione the books I got them.” Alicia added. “You’d better go and pack properly, Ron, because we won’t have much time in the morning,” Mrs. Weasley called down the table at Ron, who was now scowling rather fiercely at Percy. As dinner broke up Alicia went to gather the books and give them out. As everyone made their way one by one upstairs to their rooms, Alicia felt a slight chill run down her spine. She stopped, and thought for a second, “…nothing…”

Sure enough as she did a quick “touchy-feely” of all things around her with a brief sweep of her powers she found nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was where it should have been, yet still she felt as if something dreadful passed near her mind’s eye. Something in the distance, yet close all the same. Nothing. One more check and once again she came up blank. “Must be nerves.” It was, however, just as she was putting Ron and Hermione’s books together to deliver, that’s when she heard the ruckus coming from Ron/Percy’s room. As she walked towards the door she passed Harry (heading downstairs) as she entered. “What’s all the ruckus about.”

“My Head Boy badge is gone!” Percy growled, looking quite frustrated as he stormed about the room looking for his “precious” badge in such a dreadful state. Alicia could only shrug in a slight bit of sympathy to Ron’s plight (who was also looking though not as enthusiastically) as she tossed his books onto his bed and motioned to them, “Your books I got you. It’s all there---” (almost immediately Percy looked under the books as if the badge had suddenly taken refuge beneath them, before turning his attention back to other parts of the room that he already searched a few times over) “---oh-kay. I’ll be going now.”

“Did you see Fred & George?” Ron suddenly asked, his mind no doubt thinking the same thing that just crossed Alicia’s mind, “I’m betting there’s a good reason why I should have seen them, right?”

“Hum.” Ron grunted, looking about for the badge a little bit more, if only to satisfy his dominating older brother. “I have to pack my stuff.”

“Help me find my badge!” Percy shouted, which triggered a yelling match between the two. Dazed and confused, Alicia barely had the chance to retreat out the door as the two went at it. She delivered Hermione’s books (blushing abit as she realized she caught Hermione in her pajamas getting ready for bed), and quickly headed back to her room. Once inside the room she collapsed on the bed and sighed miserably. “I’m never going to make it through this school year.” With that she drifted off to sleep, her blankets pulled up abit as she whimpered abit (still not quite over her “run-in” with Hermione in her jammies’). As she slept she dreamed…

* * * * * *

She was standing on one of the towers of Hogwarts, looking out towards the lake near the school. She could sense she was waiting for something to happen, yet she didn’t know what. She felt as if she wasn’t alone -- someone was behind her.
It was a female presence, that much she knew -- and moreso she felt comfortable in her being this close to her. Unbidden, two female arms wrapped around her waist, and drew her close. She felt her breath against the back of her neck, and was in heaven. It must be… could only be her… she then drew in breath and began to whisper…

* * * * * *

Alicia woke up with a start, staring right at Percy who was looking at her with an anxiousness over her bed. With a tired grunt she rolled over face down on the bed. “G’way. I’m too sober to even think of shagging you.” However he did not go, he simply rolled Alicia over and asked her to fix something. “Go spade and neuter your own kin.” she grumbled, “I’m not a vet.”

“It’s my picture…” he showed a rather blank picture with the top of a familiar head poking from the picture frame. “…Ron spilled tea on it and…”
With a tired rasping grunt Alicia snatches the picture away, and rolls back onto her face to cover her work. With a few seconds worth of magic she fixes the picture and hands it back. “Loser.”

Percy - “We have to go, it’s breakfast time and then we’re heading to the train station.”

Two bleary eyes stared up from the bed at him, “Penelope encourages your need to look at naked women other than herself often?”

“No.” he answered honestly. “Then get out of my face so I can actually get up.”
Five minutes later she was dressed in her school uniform robes and downstairs for breakfast. The copy of the Daily Prophet was there, and once again it was fixated on the manhunt for Sirius. Mrs. Weasley was telling Hermione and Ginny about a love potion she made as a young girl, the three being rather giggly. Alicia simply ate silently and looked about the table, still only half awake after being roused from such an interesting dream.
She didn’t even get to see who was behind her -- and she knew in her heart that she wanted to know who it was -- had to know, to be more precise. But, for now, thoughts of that had to be shelved since the day’s events were ahead of her and her dream -- just like the girl in said dream -- were behind her.

The process of lugging down their luggage to the cars to take the trip to the station, and waiting for said cars to arrive, did nothing to improve her lackluster mood. Once again coming face to face with the large furball that was Hermione’s cat didn’t do much to improve her already dismal attitude. “It’s all right, Crookshanks,” Hermione cooed in such a soft way, “I’ll let you out on the train.”

“Oh no you don’t!” Ron snapped, trying to grab Alicia’s arm to pull her into the debate, “Tell her she can’t do it! What about poor Scabbers!! Doesn’t she have any consideration for him!!” (pointing at his chest as he spoke, the large lump in his pocket no doubt Scabbers.) At that moment, before the conversation could degrade further, the cars finally arrived. They were huge old-fashioned dark green cars, each of which was driven by a wizard wearing a very snappy velvety emerald colored suit. “Like getting taxi service from the Wizard of Oz.” Alicia remarked, loading her stuff into one of the vehicle’s trunks.
Alicia got into a car with Harry, Hermione and Ron, and the trip went smoothly.

Too smoothly. In fact it was rather uneventful. Maybe it was Alicia’s mood but nobody seemed willing to talk about much past the mild conversations about the new school year, Quidditch, and who was going to do well in the Quidditch World Cup tournament. Alicia had her favorites, like everyone else, and rooted for England to win -- mostly because she had a bit of a fascination for the team’s female Seeker who she had seen images of (in both full dress and a few naughty images from a popular erotic publication). As they neared the station, Alicia began to feel the stronger and stronger presence of Cho Chang.

She was already there, no doubt, and her aura stood out the most since Alicia has been seeking it out for weeks now. She was so focused she barely noticed their arrival at King’s Cross, and how quickly the drivers found them trolleys for their baggage and were on their way quickly. Her thoughts were focused. In fact she was so focused she went through the barrier between platforms nine and ten without even waiting for instructions, coming onto the platform for 9 ¾ looking rather vacant as she scanned the area for Cho.

She knew that Cho would sit with friends from Ravenclaw, but she just wanted to glance at her once before boarding. Someone taps Alicia on the shoulder, bringing her about to face -- Olivier Wood. Quite annoyed that it wasn’t Cho, Alicia turned to continue scanning the platform. “You already missed her. She’s onboard.”

Alicia gritted her teeth, and narrowed her eyes. It was as if he knew EXACTLY what she was up to, and no doubt he did… the smug bastard. Alicia huffed her breath and pushed her cart towards the train, “Don’t be getting all uppity with me, Wood.” she grumbled irritably. “Have you looked over some of the plans I sent you…”

“Yes, yes, I have.” Alicia spat out in a foul mood, “We can talk about it at school, or do you plan to torment me all the way to Hogwarts with your…”

“I just want to be ready for the year, that’s all. After all it’s my -- I mean --”
Alicia knew where he was going. “I know. I know. Give me a break. We’ll get it this year. Now get on board and let’s just get there with some of my sanity intact before you beat Quidditch into my skull.” With that Olivier left her be. Once he was gone she had her stuff stowed onto the train and made her way to her usual place on the train. However, before she could get into the train she was tapped on the shoulder by a familiar face.
“Mind if we chat abit?”

Following the dark haired asian woman’s motion, she followed the 7th Judgement to one of the pillars as they talked. “Maniac obsessive behavior does not suit you.” Alicia snipped.

“You know about Sirius Black, right?” she asked. “What’s with everyone’s obsession with Black? Next you’ll be wondering if I remembered that the thing that killed those guys was a Galerian that seems to be stalking me.” Keiko facefaults, but quickly recovers, “Uh -- yeah. See you got that down pat.”

“So…” Alicia asked, “…is there a change in plans? Do I hunt Black or not?”
At that Keiko turned grim, “Don’t worry. Black will find you.” and at that she leaves.

* * * * * *

Alicia shared a compartment with her Quidditch partners on the trips to Hogwarts.
Of course, the first time she took the ride she rode with Harry but after she got to know a few people herself she looked forward to riding with them. Angelina and Katie seemed to be abit more off than usual. They just sat next to Alicia grinning like crazy, and she didn’t know why. Of course it didn’t take long for them to say why, but just looking at their wide grins even for a few minutes made the revelation that much better as long as they stopped looking so darn smug!

“We did it!” Katie pronounced proudly, smiling right into Alicia’s face as if she was supposed to know what that was supposed to mean. “We did it, we ARE doing it, and we’ll be the first!” Angelica jumped in. All of this was quite exciting to the two, but Alicia was in the dark. “Ok.” she replied deadpan style. “For an instant now, pretend I have no idea what you’re talking about … because I don’t … and tell me again what you did … if possible.”

The two exchanged grins, and then said in unison “We’re going to become an item!”
Silence. Long silence. Alicia didn’t know what to make of it… because she still didn’t know what they were driving at. “Try that again. That last shot went over the top of the train.” Katie nudged Angelica, “We’re coming out!”

“… is this your haphazard way of telling me that last year’s Halloween screw up actually fostered some feeling in those one track minds of yours? If not I’m completely clueless…” The two nodded their heads furiously. Wouldn’t you know it. One simple screw up turns into love… how strange is that.

When they were trying to find out about whether or not bad old Malfoy was the “Heir of Slytherin” they were going to use a potion (Polyjuice potion) to impersonate Malfoy’s henchgoons. Alicia, however, wanted to use a strong lust potion to get them into a rather nasty “position” and kill two dragons with one lance, so to speak. The trio shot her plan down, and she ditched her potion laced cupcakes in her room since nobody would let her use them. When the two took Hermione (after her cat-astrophe with the Polyjuice potion) to Madame Pomfrey she went back to the dorm only to find that somebody had already eaten her laced cupcakes and were passed out on one of the beds tangled together panting and gasping. One thing led to another, and when they left at the end of the year they were already talking about a possible relationship. That was sometime ago, this is now.

“Got any good advice?” Katie asked, “I wanted to go to Hogsmeade and pick up a naughty little toy or two but Angelica said we should take it slow and work through our relationship both emotionally and sexually before we go into heavy sex play.”

“Smart girl.” Alicia agreed, “Stick to oral and fingers for now.” And, at that, Alicia rolled over in her seat and tried to fall asleep. Angelica put a stop to that 30 minutes into the ride. “…no I don’t want to do a threesome… (and lord knows how wasted I must be to even think of turning that kind of offer down)… so go ‘way.” Alicia grumbled irritably. “Actually we just heard about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.” she told Alicia. Alicia wearily opened her eyes, and looked at the two, “You can’t be lesbians if you thump him. That‘s an unspoken rule or something. Now shut up and --”

“No, no, I mean we heard he’s nearby! Next compartment over as a matter of fact!”
With a tired sigh, Alicia pulls herself back into a half awake state and stares at the two, “And this would be so important because of -- what.”

“He looks rather -- off.” Katie remarked with a suspicious look on her face. This didn‘t interest Alicia in the slightest. “Snape‘s rather off and I don‘t see you whining about him, so what‘s the big deal of working at Hogwarts and being a “little off“ anyway.”

“He’s wearing a very shabby set of robes, looks rather under the weather, and though he’s rather young he acts like he’s an old man since he’s collapsed in that room as if he was…”

“Don’t say it.” Alicia warned, regarding the two with a severe glance. “He probably traveled a long way to catch this train and it wore him out. Nothing overtly suspicious about that is there?”

“But… he hasn’t moved since we started this trip and I don’t remember seeing him board this train at King’s Cross either!” Angelica complained, bringing Alicia’s severe gaze unto her next. “For god’s sake give it a rest.” she grumbled, “Change the channel, this topic is boring.” Silence reigned for a few minutes, which allowed Alicia to grab a few minutes shuteye. However the silence did only last for a few minutes. “How you think he got out?” Katie asked, eyes staring upwards at the ceiling, “No one really knows how he got out of Azkaban, you know. No one’s ever done it before, and he was one of their top security prisoners too!”

“So you didn’t watch last night’s episode of “Sex and the Witch” did you.” Alicia remarked blandly, trying one more time to derail the topic to something she actually felt like talking about. Suddenly a strange feeling overcame her. She stiffened abit as she turned her head slightly, eyes widening. “Alicia? What’s up? Alicia?”

A soothing “thought” was brushing against the edge of her mind’s eye. The feeling was from the next room over, where Potter and -- this Professor Lupin were, and was focused on the only mind she never felt before… this having to have been Lupin‘s mind since he was new to her. He was sleeping, she could sense that much, and the thoughts at the top of his mind was so tranquil -- to the point of being relentlessly tranquil. Odd. It was as if he simply HAD to be at peace, forging through force of will this “quiet place” in his mind that he used to bring himself to peace. Then again “bring” seemed inappropriate. More like forced. Now mind you that in itself was not unusual, but the way he made this “world” through sheer force of will was something else entirely. Almost unnatural even.

However in any case Alicia finally decided to ignore his “thoughts” and leave him be. Just as well since Hermione and Ron’s thoughts were now cluttering the space in the next compartment, the topic being quite obvious to the point that she didn‘t need to even bother peeking. Hermione’s cat was looking at Scabbers again as a form of nourishment. Not good. By 1PM Alicia was more than glad that the trolley with food came about because she had her fill of playing referee to Hermione/Ron in the next room over, and finally just shut them out of her mind so she could relax. The first thing Angelica asked was about Professor Lupin, to which the attendant handing out the food simply replied “He’s alright, just sleeping.”

This of course brought forth a debate that it was some sort of spell or sleeping sickness, which Alicia shot down with a “Oh for goddess’ sake why don’t you two just eat each other out if it’d keep you “quiet” (relatively speaking) for the rest of the damn trip!”
That ended the topic concerning Professor Lupin rather quickly.

However it didn’t end the talking in the room. Five minutes later Oliver Wood popped in to talk Quidditch, only to be chased out five more minutes later by a rather pissy Alicia who only wanted to eat her meal in peace and quiet. She didn’t mind him talking the game. She DID mind him shoving his diagrams and plans into her lap disrupting her attempts to eat a meal in peace and quiet. Malfoy tried to drop in. Mind you he “tried”, but the instant the door opened Alicia mistook him for Wood and screamed death threats at the door… which shut quickly sending a rather disturbed Malfoy and his now shaking and shivering cohorts into Potter’s area.

An hour later the topic of Hogsmeade came up. “Do you two plan to talk me to death, or is this a scheme to deprive me of rest.” Alicia griped, finally waking up for good. “Ok. Ok. I’m up. So what…”

“Do you know much about Hogsmeade?” Angelica asked. “Not really.”
True. Alicia had in fact heard nothing about Hogsmeade. “I heard it’s the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain --” Katie remarked, suddenly catching Alicia’s disapproving gaze. “I mean non-Mug-- non-magical human…”

“What age did you lose your humanity again?” Alicia sneered. “You know I disapprove of this Muggle nonsense. Last I checked you had as much red blood and human DNA as a normal non-magically inclined human being so give me a break with this Muggle nonsense willya!” And, to accentuate her point, she drops her head back and stares listlessly at the ceiling. “So what else is there in Hogsmeade besides normal-phobics.”

“…Honeydukes?” The word alone brought a warming little smile over Alicia’s face. “Uh--” (Katie stumbled, uncertain why Alicia started grinning) “-- it’s a sweetshop and it’s got a whole bunch of great stuff in it… lots of treats like… like… why are you doing that?” Alicia, not realizing she was being spoken to, sighed. “Sweet.”

“Alicia? Alicia…” (tap tap) “…Alicia…” Quickly she snaps out of her deep thoughts and sits upright quickly. “Nothing. Nothing. So score me some goodies when you go, huh? I’m treating.” Confusion reigned. “What do you mean by that?” Angelica asked, “Aren’t you coming?”

“Can’t. I couldn’t get my form signed so I’m just out of luck.” For some inexplicable reason a look of total fear and shock came over the two. “What. What.” Alicia demanded, “You two look like I just admitted to having an affair with Snape! What is it!”

“WHATTYA MEAN YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO COME!! BUT -- WHO’LL BUY MY FIRST STRAP--” (Angelica shuts Katie’s mouth before she screams out every sorrid detail of her sexual life in the tight confines of the train) “I’m sure you’ll do fine without me.” Alicia assured her. “Girl’s gotta pick the… (ahem)… tool that is right for her anyway. You’ll do fine without me (just don‘t get that organic sprout stuff they‘re pushing now, it‘s too disturbing for words… believe me, I know).”

Slowly, but surely, it began to rain. But even with it raining that didn’t help Alicia to sleep. Mostly because the two wanted to ask the school’s lesbian in residence about 101 questions about their relationship, but not all at once. She was woken up again, and again, and again, and again with every sort of imaginable (and sometimes unimaginable) question until finally she demanded they write it all down in the form of a quiz that she PROMISED she’ll fill out AFTER she settled in at Hogwarts.

It darkened outside, and yet the two didn’t stop waking Alicia up. Finally she gave up trying to rest and decided to just stay up until bedtime that night. “Unless you two plan to talk me to death this year.” Alicia grumbled, pulling a sip from a soda she brought to keep her up “just in case” something like this happened. Suddenly the train started to slow down. “Well we’re here now so let’s get going! I’m st--” Alicia thrust her hand up, stopping Angelica in mid sentence. “No way. It’s too soon. We’re not there yet.”

“So why are we stopping?”

The train was slowing, but Alicia’s mind was already drowning that out as she reached out to feel the whole lay of the land about her. Everybody was understandably confused, and it showed in their thoughts. In fact the entire train had become a “pool” of confusion and conjecture as to the reason behind the stoppage. Even though the wind and the rain grew louder in noise, that didn’t stop everyone from conversing over what was going on.
They simply spoke louder. However, for Alicia, it was their thoughts that “spoke” the loudest. Fear, confusion, conjecture and speculation, a whole range of thoughts and feelings. The train lurched finally to a halt, as luggage came loose from racks to come banging down with thumps and bangs which sent tendrils of fear and shock through those closest to the noise. That’s when the new thoughts came into range.

Silent. Nearly empty if not for the driving obsessive “thought” that drove them.
Two thoughts in actuality. One was hunger, but the other screamed louder and overdrove even the need to feed.

“FIND SIRIUS BLACK!!”

That thought screamed in a hollow raspy tone outside, from more than one “target”.

“FIND SIRIUS BLACK!!”

The feeling of hunger was there, but that urge overrode even that. An obsessive urge.

“FIND SIRIUS BLACK!!”

She knew they were here, and she was compelled to go to them. Telling her companions to stay put, she quietly moved out of the compartment and walked down the corridor towards the source of the thought. She didn’t have to go far though… they were coming towards her. So she stopped, and stood her ground, waiting.

The voices about her became concerned, and panicked. Fear and confusion was so thick it acted like a sea of “emotions” which flooded the whole train. Just as well since as long as she kept her own emotions “subdued” she was effectively “invisible” in this sea of high level emotions that masked her own emotions in turn.

For the longest time nothing. But then, finally, the first Dementor scrapped it’s way towards her. That’s when she realized they were coming at her from behind as well. Cursing herself for missing the other batch coming through the front of the train she held the first she saw in her gaze, not wavering as she waited for it.

The other Dementors were all searching the train, no doubt for Black since their thoughts were dead set on that one task. That’s when the feeling of intense cold hit. Coming from the Dementors, it was the “aura” of dark despair they were soaked in. She felt this when she visited Azkaban that one time and was prepared for it. Before, when she went to Azkaban, she only had willpower and some of her old energy to fall back on, but now that she had her full measure of energy again she used it.

Digging in deep she drew forth her aura which powered herself up. And, while not visible to the naked eye, it shone like a bright beacon against the darkness surrounding the Dementors. The creatures hesitated before her, then simply asked her in her head for Sirius Black. “Not here.” she replied honestly. “You’re just plain out of…”

Somebody screamed. A horrific, terrible terrifying scream. Pleading. Pure terror. Then it happened again. Distant. Hollow. Almost as if she was feeling emotions second hand instead of from the source. But she couldn’t-- that’s when she realized one of the screams was coming from the Dementor in front of her. She focused on it, causing it to drift back from her abit… as if it felt her probing it and didn’t like having it’s own “medicine” fed back to it. Seconds passed. Then everything became clear. Alicia’s aura dimmed, and darkness reigned once again. Before everything went white as she lashed out.

* * * * * *

“Harry! Harry! Are you all right?” (slap slap --) “Would you stop that? I said wake him, not beat him silly!”

Harry, groggy and wasted, slowly woke from his stupor. Lanterns were above him, providing illumination as people looked over him. The train was moving, obviously, since it was shaking, and the lights had come back on. He was on the floor as Ron, Hermione and Alicia looked over him. Alicia seemed abit haggard but fine as she tended to him.
Behind them he could see Neville and Professor Lupin watching them.

“You OK? You look abit green.” Surely enough he felt abit green too. A feeling of sickness overwhelming him. When Alicia helped him with his glasses he felt a cold sweat on his face. Slowly Ron and Hermione heaved him up and back into his seat. “You OK?” Ron asked with concern. “Yeah, I guess.” said Harry, his gaze turning towards the now empty doorway. The Dementor that visited their cabin was long gone. “What happened? Where’s that -- that thing? Who screamed?”

“No one screamed,” said Ron, but Alicia suddenly interrupted saying “So it was from you.” Everyone turned towards her for an explanation, but she simply shrugged their gazes off and went back to her cabin without uttering another word. Before she could leave, however, Professor Lupin shoved a large block of chocolate into her hand and told her to share it with her companions in her compartment. Nodding her head, she went back and did exactly that. Still. What happened…

* * * * * *

It tried to shield it’s thoughts of it’s last meal from her, but failed.
Enroute to this spot it ran into a couple. A young male and an older woman. It fed from them and left them a heap on the ground, holding each other desperately trying to stave off the cold as they held onto their love as the last bit of warmth left after…
Her light dimmed, and her eyes burned red. Hate and anger filled her and her aura burst into bright rage as she lashed out without a second thought. Nothing destructive or dangerous, but in her condition she was instinct and rage alone.

With a single motion she “dismantled” it from the inside out and turned it to dust, leaving it’s psionic “scream” as it died horribly. The scream silenced the entire train’s emotional ocean. It’s depth and pain so strong it could be felt by all about her, even if they didn‘t understand what they were feeling. But it also stopped the Dementors in their tracks and turned their gaze onto her all together. That’s when things went weird. Instead of attacking they simply marshaled to her side… and bowed. They all turned their hollow gaze to her and -- waited. For a few seconds she had nothing to say but soon she began “barking” out orders. Reprimanding them and sending them back to Hogwarts to form a defensive barrier.

In truth she felt that they had wasted their time. Spreading their number across such a large distance in an attempt to find Black left too many gaps and holes on the “road” to Hogwarts, and for one as cunning as Black must have been it would have been child’s play to go around the Dementors spaced out in such a way. They had to remass, and take defensive position about Hogwarts to insure Black didn’t get any closer. They dropped the ball in her opinion, pure and simple, and somebody had to pick it up. She didn’t know much of what happened, but she knew one thing. They stopped screaming in their “minds” “FIND SIRIUS BLACK!!” and now were focused on something else… her. It was as if she had, by accident, killed their “Alpha” and she was now the “Alpha”.

“How many years do you get for killing something already dead…” she whispered.
Neither Angelica nor Katie felt like prodding her for an explanation This lingering thought would go with her all the way to the stop, and onto the carriages for the ride over to Hogwarts. In fact she was so focused on the Dementors that, when she got out, she barely bothered with Malfoy. Barely. A drawling, quite delighted with himself voice came out of nowhere. “You FAINTED, Potter? Is Longbottom telling the truth? You---” Alicia grabbed his arm, twisted it hard, and silenced him. “Shut up.” And, with that, she threw him aside and stormed Hogwarts without another word.

* * * * * *

Lupin was right behind her as she walked. “Is something wrong? You seem rather off.”

“I get cranky around feeding time.” she snapped off at him without bothering to stop. She walked, stormed more likely, all the way into the cavernous entrance hall and up the marble staircase towards the Great Hall. However, before she could reach the doors she heard an old familiar voice call out to her, “Having a bad night, are we?” Alicia didn’t need to turn to know who was addressing her. “No arrogant superiority complex, Professor Snape? It seems I’m not the only one whose having a bad night.”
Snape didn’t remark, or even try to shoot back, he merely motioned for her to follow him which she did. As they reached his office he seemed abit concerned. “I heard there was trouble on board the train tonight.”

“So you say.” Alicia replied, abit off about him knowing about the circumstances of the happenings on the train. Suddenly Snape pulled chocolate from his robes and thrusts it at her. “Sorry, mum warned me against taking candy from strangers… and you’re “stranger” than anyone else I ever met here.”

“You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.” he remarked, urging her to take the chocolate until she finally did, taking a big hunk off in one bite. “So enlighten me, then.”

Snape - “Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead to say that Potter was taken ill on the train. Two minutes later I receive an owl stating that all the Dementors were suddenly on the move, no longer seeking out Black but racing here… any reason why?”

“I told them to marshal their forces here in defensive position.” Alicia answered truthfully, Snape‘s face twisting into complete shock at this announcement before he regained his composure to return to his normal dreary appearance. “They were wasting their time spread so far apart. They need to focus a tight defensive parameter around the “target” before Black gets too close and axes Potter.”

“I didn’t know you cared so much about Potter.” Snape hissed, his temper rising. “Too bad I can’t say the same about your lack of care about Potter.” she countered. A few tense seconds passed before Snape spoke again, “Professor Dumbledore is not pleased at all with their presence here.”

“I don’t blame him. They’re not a particularly positive element to have near a school like this. Anyway the only reason Potter fainted is because the Dementors dredged up bad memories…” (stops to ponder what she felt) “…probably a memory of the death of his mum. More than enough to take a lot out of even the strongest of males….” (stops, chewing on her chocolate abit before speaking again) “…speaking of strong, I heard you’re once again passed up for the Defense opening. That isn’t going to make you anymore vindictive than usual, now will it?” Snape motions for Alicia to follow him back to the Great Hall without another word.

* * * * * *

By the time Alicia and Snape rejoined everyone, separately of course to not give off an impression they were friendly (in a sense) with each other, the sorting of that year’s new students was over. But it wasn’t over yet, as Professor Dumbledore stood up to address all in the room. “Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!” Dumbledore said with great pride, beaming with energy as he spoke. “I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast…”

‘No surprise what that topic is going to be.’ Alicia thought to herself. “As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host…” (a sense of reluctance and bitterness etches into his voice, only to fade as he continues) “…to some of the dementors of Azkaban Prison, who are here on Ministry of Magic business.” He paused, and Alicia knew he was doing a poor job hiding his hate of the Dementors. “They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds. And while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises -- or even Invisibility Cloaks.” he added, obviously being in the know about Harry invisibility cloak. “It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors.” he concluded. Percy seemed quite charged up by this part of the speech, puffing his chest up in a show of ego.

“On a happier note,” Dumbledore went on to say, “I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year. First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.” Approval of Mr. Lupin seemed lukewarm at best… but all he needed was a few days to get to know the students better before the big payout. And, considering how shabby Lupin looked, it was little wonder why he got such a lukewarm reply. Snape, fuming in his chair, turned his gaze towards Lupin and sneered an expression best known with contempt and loathing than enthusiastic approval. Dumbledore continued. “As to our second new appointment, well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs.”

‘Bull.’ Alicia thought to herself, smirking abit as she remembered the circumstances of his “retirement”. Seems one day he brought in that special magical creature that moved the Earth for him. A female shape shifting werewolf… though he didn’t know it was the kind that became human at will. Sufficient to say it only took one incident of catching the two in the woods “mating” to get him thrown off the staff. In fact she still had the moving photos she took of their wedding since he invited her last year, after she got to know him since she spent abit of time hiding out at his place just to avoid seeing her own classmates when suspicions fell on her as a possible “Heir of Slytherin” (herself and Harry were the ones singled out as candidates for various reasons).

So wrapped up in these memories she was that she almost missed the announcement. Almost. The applause Hagrid got as new teacher for Care of Magical Creatures outdistanced the lukewarm reply that Lupin received. For his part he seemed quite taken back by the applause, blushing furiously under the intense “approval” everyone was showing. “We’ve should’ve known!” Ron yelled over the applause, pounding the table in an enthusiastic show of support. “Who else would have assigned us a biting book?” Ron, apparently, had looked at someone else’s book on the trip and it bit him. Alicia ended up having to settle down 5 dozen more books on the trip, mostly to keep the panicked yelps and pain “emotions” out of the air so she could have a moment’s rest… or at least TRY to rest between the endless inquiries by Katie and Angelica, which didn‘t work out the way she wanted it to.

The feast started soon after. Alicia went up during the feast to speak to Hagrid. Nobody seemed to mind, and the usually bossy Snape was in fact rather silent when she approached, as if waiting to speak to her. She didn’t disappoint. To Hagrid she said “Well done, Hagrid. You’re moving up in the world.”

“I had a little help from me friends.” he said humbly, “Great man, Dumbledore…” Alicia turned her thoughts to Snape. “He doesn’t know, does he? Dumbledore I mean.”

“What are you thinking?” Snape responded in thought, trying not to distract Alicia too much from her “conversation” between herself and Hagrid. “He said some of the Dementors were here…” Suddenly Hagrid burst into tears and Alicia found herself being shooed away by McGonagall. As she turned to leave, however, she thought one last thing to Snape. “They’re all here. Every last Dementor within 1000 miles… they’re here.”

To Be Continued…