𝐌𝐢𝐚 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐞 - 𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝐟𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

Mom and Dad,

How are you both doing? Probably great. Now you may ask how I am doing. Well the answer to that is Terrible. Do I blame you guys? yes. Now this is the part where you ask why. Well that's because all of a sudden I got news that I wasn't going to Hogsmeade. Now i'm stuck here writing :) I would ask why that is, but you both will probably ignore that question so i'm not going to ask. Anyways do you guys know the new professor? Professor Lupin. I'm convinced he knew my parents. I'll try to get some information from him since NO ONE ELSE WILL. *Cough Cough* You know life here is miserable. I can't even walk anywhere without someone following me. And now I got to go because I hear greasy's footsteps coming in the library and you know how he is. Anyways tell Dora that I DON'T miss her. Bye!

Mia quickly folded the letter and got up from the chair she was sitting on.

"Well, Well, Well," Professor Snape said, "You better not be plotting something Tonks, such a shame you and potter are stuck here at school, while everyone else is having fun."

"Yeah whatever," Mia said as she got her stuff and walked towards the exit.

Mia decided it was probably best to go to the Owlery and delivered her letter now then later. By tomorrow morning she will get a response back from her parents. It all fit in perfectly.

As she made her way up and started calling out Cheyenne's name, she heard someone else's voice coming from the far back. As she made her way there, the voice became more clearer and recognizable.

"You know we gotta stop bumping into each other," Mia said as she gave Cheyenne the letter.

Harry suddenly turned to see who was talking to him.

"Are you out of friends or something," Mia went on, "talking to an owl in your free time.

"I can say the same to you," Harry replied, "I'm not "Miss Popular" so I get a free pass."

"Says the one who defeated Voldemort, plus i'm not here to talk to Cheyenne. I'm sending a letter."

Harry got up from his spot and walked to where Mia was standing.

"Hey, What's going on?" Harry worried, " First you get up early and leave us wondering where you went, then you walked out on us in the great hall, which by the way I didn't say a thing about the map, lastly you walk out on professor Lupin."

"Nothing, I know you didn't say anything , but it seemed like a good way to end the conversation," Mia said as she started to smile. "Anyways they should be getting back now, we might as well wait for them in the common room."

.....

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

A shower of brilliantly colored sweets fell into Harry's lap. It was dusk, and Ron and Hermione had just turned up in the common room, pink-faced from the cold wind and looking as though they'd had the time of their lives.

"Thanks," said Harry, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. "What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?"

By the sound of it — everywhere. Dervish and Banges, the wizarding equipment shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, into the Three Broomsticks for foaming mugs of hot butterbeer, and many places besides.

"The post office! About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, all color-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there!"

"Honeydukes has got a new kind of fudge; they were giving out free samples, there's a bit, look —"

"We think we saw an ogre, honestly, they get all sorts at the Three Broomsticks —"

"Wish we could have brought you both some butterbeer, really warms you up —"

"What did you do?" said Hermione, looking anxious. "Did any of you get any work done?"

"No," said Mia. "We had better things to do then doing work."

Hermione checked her watch.

"We'd better go down, you know, the feast'll be starting in five minutes."

They hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd, discussing what Mia and Harry did.

The Great Hall had been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats, and many flaming orange streamers, which were swimming lazily across the stormy ceiling like brilliant watersnakes.

The food was delicious; even Hermione and Ron, who were full to bursting with Honeydukes sweets, managed second helpings of everything.

Mia kept glancing at the Hufflepuff table. There he was being cheerful with his group of friends. From what Hermione said, he was sitting in a near table by them in Three Broomsticks and she heard them mentioning Mia's name in the conversation.

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a bit of formation gliding; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had a great success with a reenactment of his own botched beheading.

.....

Harry, Ron, Mia, and Hermione followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path to Gryffindor Tower, but when they reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, they found it jammed with students.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" said Ron curiously.

Mia peered over the heads in front of her. The portrait seemed to be closed.

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

And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. They heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe. "What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived.

A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Ron, Mia, and Hermione moved closer to see what the trouble was.

"Oh, my —" Hermione grabbed Harry's arm.

The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely. Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore.

"Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

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

It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little.

He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle. "Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily.

"Poor thing." he added unconvincingly.

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

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms.

"He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."