“And first on our agenda today…ah, our very own Head of House.  What’ve you got, Gin?”

“McGonagall.”

“Ah.  Harry’s nemesis.  At least among the teachers.”

“Who is it among the students?” asked Mika, poking at his breakfast.

“Not Malfoy, that’s for sure,” growled Niamh.  “The bastard killed Hedwig and he’s chumming with him!”

“Forgive and forget, Ni,” said Mika, brushing his white hair back from his forehead.

Blue eyes met brown hard.

“Since when were you the voice of reason, Mik?”

“Since the rest of you all got horrible tempers,” quipped the boy as he finally picked up a biscuit and a piece of cheese.  “Where is our grand Lord Hex anyway?”

“Don’t ask me,” said Ginny.  “I don’t room with him.  Ni generally waked him up.”

“I tried,” said the other girl.  “He was already gone by the time I got into his dorm.  The two lumps shrieked at me again – like little girls – and I had to hex Zabini.  That twit can’t stop goggling at me anytime I enter a room.”

“I think he likes you,” said Mika with a wry grin.

Niamh looked revolted and muttered, “Merlin, the Founders, and God forbid.”

“You’d have to kill yourself, wouldn’t you?” said Ginny with a grin.

“Or kill him.  Whichever is easier.”

The three of them looked at each other then all said at the same time, “Kill him.”

“Oh, are we going to off someone today?”

Mika and Ginny looked up at Harry while Niamh craned her head back and peered at him upside down.

“Well.  Good morning, sunshine.  Where’ve you been?”

“Thinking on some things.  And who are you three planning to off today?”

“Zabini,” declared Mika.

“Oh, that’s a waster of effort.  Eventually Amanda will kill him.  He’s been badmouthing Neville.”

“That’ll bring him to a sticky end, no doubt,” said Ginny.

Harry nodded and sat down beside Niamh, reaching for the pitcher of orange juice.  As he poured it into a goblet, Ginny peered curiously at his face.

“Harry?”

“Mmm?” was the response around a forkful of eggs.

“Are you growing a beard?”

Niamh’s eyes flashed to her friends face and saw that there was indeed a vague shadow on his chin.

Harry swallowed the mouthful of eggs and replied, “No, Gin.  I’m growing a cat on my face.”

Ginny wrinkled her nose and snapped, “What crawled into your bed this morning?”

“Generally its O’Feir.”

Harry forked up another mouthful of eggs and didn’t look behind him as he said, “How dreadful to see you’re still alive, Zabini.  I was so certain Amanda was going to deprive us of the misery of seeing your ugly mug every morning.”

“How very smooth, Potter,” spat Blaise.  “And how is O’Feir, by the way?  Or did Diggory rack her first?”

Niamh had her wand out before anyone could blink but Harry acted far faster than that.  He had moved in a blur out of his seat and had thrown Blaise to the stone floor; his fist cocked back as the other gripped the boy’s shirt collar, a fierce glint in his eyes.

“Get the hell off of me, Potter!” screamed Blaise, shoving at Harry’s waist.

Harry looked coldly down at him, arm cocking back as it to punch downward, and everyone in the Hall held their breath.  Then Harry let go of Blaise and moved off of the other boy, crouching beside him.

“You’re not worth it, Zabini,” he said in a casual tone as if he hadn’t been about to punch the other boy a moment before.  “You’re not worth the bloodied knuckles.  And you’re certainly not worth getting a sure detention.

“But,” said Harry in a softer voice so only Blaise could hear, “if you ever say something nasty about Niamh or Cedric within my hearing again, I won’t hold back next time.”

With that he was gone, stalking out of the Great Hall.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

“Son of a bitch.  How dare he talk about Niamh and Cedric like that!”

“Don’t let him get to you,” hissed Hedwig.  “That’s what they’ve all been trying to do since the dragon became civil.”

Harry snorted then look down at the snake curled up on his bed oddly.

“Dragon?  You mean Draco?”

“Yes.  The dragon.”

Harry gave a little nod then remembered a conversation with the snake the year before.

“Hed?”

“Yes, Harry?”

“If Draco is the dragon, who is the fox?  The one you said you talked to?  I thought I was the only Parselmouth in the school.”

If it were possible for a snake to look nervous, Hedwig did now.

“Er,” she said.

“Who is it, Hed?”

“I can’t say!”

“Ah-hah,” said Harry slowly.  “Sworn to secrecy?”

Hedwig nodded slowly and the teen smiled.

“S’okay, Hed.  We all have secrets.”

“Some more than others.”

“Yeah.”

Harry sighed and pillowed his head on his arms as he rolled over onto his stomach, stretching out his right leg until his toes touch the headboard of the bed.  Hedwig look at him for a long moment as he did this then asked a question.

“Are you ever going to tell the others about Argil?”

Harry’s head came up and he snapped, “Why?”

“Because the memory weighs heavily on your heart.  Not healthy.”

Harry laughed.

“Hed, I’m surprised I’m still alive after my childhood.  I think I can handle something like - ”

“Murder?” spat Hedwig in an accusing tone.

Harry’s eyes flashed darkly and he spat, “He killed Tyls!  And then he tried to kill me!  Self-defense, Hed.”

“No witnesses.”

“Baxter.  And no one else was there.”  That suddenly made Harry remember when he had seen Abram before term had started.  And the gibberish the older boy had been spouting.  Man, actually, as Abram was over twenty.

“No guarantee he’s not as soon turn you in.”

Harry shook his head.

“No.  No, Abram, wouldn’t.  He – he found me.  He’s the one that kept me from dying in an alleyway, Hed.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Matters to him.  And it matters to me.  He saved me, Hed.  Maybe not from Argil, but from Death himself.”

The snake snorted and spat, “Still don’t trust him.”

Harry smiled and stroked the snake’s head affectionately.

“You don’t trust anyone but me after that incident with Fred and George.”

“Damn right!”

Harry laughed at that.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

Harry was passing through the entrance hall later that day, alone and late to supper, with Hedwig in one of the inner pockets of his cloak, when he heard the knock.  It was a great booming noise that would have made anyone else jump and runaway in terror.

But Harry had stolen from hardened thugs, wrestled with gangs, and stood up to the cold fury of Argil (not to mention Voldemort four separate times).  All that knock did was make him halt in midstep and peer curiously at the great oaken doors.

There was another boom, louder, that made the doors shiver.

Another, louder still, that made the doors shake.

“What is that?” asked Hedwig, poking her triangular head out of the dark pocket.

“I don’t know,” replied Harry, tucking the snake back down into his pocket and took a few steps forward.

Whatever it was hit the oak doors with all the force of a battering ram and the doors not only shook.  They rattled.

Harry had just reached up his sleeve for his wand, the tips of his fingers touching the smooth holly just so, when there was a huge resounding band and the doors were thrown open, cracking loudly against the stones.  As this happened, an invisible force shot into the entranceway, the doors no longer there to stop it.  It struck Harry in the chest and threw him off of his feet.  He flew backwards, twisting in midair, trying to get his feet under him.

He didn’t make it.

Halfway around, Harry dropped.  Right onto the marble staircase.  He hit the tip of the steps on his right side – hard.  There were several audible snaps as he hit, followed by a sudden pain in his chest and right leg.  His head slammed against the marble at what seemed to be the speed of light, causing his teeth to rattle and his eyes to cross.

“Are you alright?” hissed Hedwig in a worried tone from her pocket.  “Harry, are you okay?  I heard bone break.”

Harry couldn’t answer.  His vision was going dark and already he couldn’t feel his leg.  But he managed to tilt his head and get a short glimpse at the blond-haired assailant before he blacked out.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

Niamh knew something was wrong.  How she didn’t know, but she knew something was off in the castle and had felt so since lunch.

And generally when something was off in the castle, Harry was a part of it.

So Niamh rose and began to walk towards Snape, who was poking idly at his potato.

Just before she reached him, her senses were flooded with an intense pain.  It took her a moment to figure out whose pain it was and she gasped.

“Harry,” she whispered as Snape darted around the Head Table and knelt beside her.

“Miss O’Feir?”

Niamh looked up, teeth bared against the pain in her head, ribs, and leg.

“It’s Harry, sir.  He’s hurt.”

Snape’s eyes widened and he grabbed her shoulder, growling, “Where?”

“I…” began Niamh but was cut off by a blood-curling screech.  It wasn’t a student; it was Jardin.  The raven dove down into the Hall, his golden eyes bright.  He made a single round of the Hall then shot out the door into the entrance hall.  The moment he was gone, the pain Niamh felt dulled and she staggered to her feet, eyes wide as fear coursed through her.  That sudden lack of emotion was a bad sign.  She couldn’t sense Harry’s thoughts either.  Which meant he was…  No!  She wouldn’t think like that!

The dark-haired girl darted into the entrance hall and stopped dead in her tracks.  Standing in the middle of the open doorway was a person she’d never thought she’d see alive again.

Snape hurried around her and rushed up the marble stairs to where his son lay motionless.  He knelt, checked for a pulse, then yelled at a Prefect who had tailed him out of the Hall.

“Debbins!  Go get Madam Pomfrey!  Move, boy!”

Debbins gave a sharp nod and took off as other students crowded into the entrance hall to see what was going on as the teachers tried to herd them back.  Niamh stood stock still during all of this, staring at the unnoticed figure in the doorway.

Ginny and Mika suddenly appeared at Niamh’s side, Mika jostled into her by a second year.  Hermione and Ron, followed by Dumbledore, headed up the marble stairs to kneel down beside Harry.

Madam Pomfrey appeared then, Debbins trailing behind her.  When she saw Harry’s still form, she immediately charged up the steps and took charge of him, carefully levitating him then bustling off.  Hermione followed as Ron headed back down the steps and shoved his way over to where Mika and Ginny stood around Niamh.

“What happened?” he asked the dark-haired girl.  Getting no response, he followed her gaze and added, “And who is that?”

Snape and Dumbledore were beside them now and McGonagall and Flitwick flanked them.

“Tyls,” whispered Niamh, eyes wide.  “It’s Tyls.”

The tall, lanky, blond-haired boy stepped forward, dark brown eyes on Niamh

“’Lo, Little Niamh,” he said.

Immediately after that Niamh faint dead away into Ron and Mika’s arms.