It was at that moment, after the first class of Defense Against the Dark Arts, that Alicia formed a differing opinion from the others she usually agreed with. As expected, Defense Against the Dark Arts zoomed into the stratosphere and became most people's favorite class... with the exception of certain Slytherins, and one very unimpressed Alicia Spinnet. "Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy grumbled in a loud "whisper" as Professor Lupin passed. "He dresses like our old hou--" (FWACK!!) "--!!!" Alicia, passing by Malfoy in turn, sneered at him. "Blah blah blah." Her dislike of the class seemed to grow once she went to the second class and got a taste of Redcaps. These creatures, goblinlike entities that haunted places of bloodshed, briefly broke free during the class only to get a good hard look at Alicia, and promptly look as if they were about to cry (before being "caught"). "I'm not that violent." Alicia muttered, her eyes wandering over towards the rather ravenous Hermione who seemed to be more intent on eating lunch than talking. "Is it time for your flea medicine yet, Hermione dear? Otherwise your coat seems to be nice and shiny... matches your wolf-like appetite." Nothing. She continued to eat without either stopping or looking up. "Is your nose moist? You're in good health if you have a wet nose..." Silence. Nothing she said seemed to rouse the slightest reaction from Hermoine as of late, the story of Alicia's life lately it seems. When she wasn't eating she was studying like crazy, and when she wasn't studying like crazy she was sleeping or doing disappearing acts or something. Weird. She's been weird ever since she came to school this year and her oddness hasn't stopped for a single second. Disappointing. If anything the discouraging turn of events with Hermione seemed to make her hate Defense Against The Dark Arts all the more, if only to the fact that it was something that made other people happy (which she presently didn't feel like being right now). Third class didn't help her change her opinion about the class as she continued to lose interest in the class the moment she entered the third class and Kappas was the topic. Most of the class got the very normal cranky gripey pissed off reaction as the Kappa looked at them, watching each and everyone pass by with a look of total hate. But as Alicia went up to it it stopped looking cranky, and... started singing in it's mind. For a thing that enjoyed long walks on large lakesides and strangling wandering people it sure had a bad habit of latching onto the wrong people... like Alicia. "I blame Animal Crossing for it's ill attempt at courting." Alicia grumbled, knowing that she was effectively talking to herself now. Ron and Harry were reading the latest Quidditch Quarterly while they were eating, and nobdoy else was nearby to listen to her complain. How wonderous for Alicia (she said to herself). Potions was easier for her, and everyone, since Alicia had a conversation with Snape right after the whole Boggart incident. At first Snape fumed and flared at the mention of the class, but she knew he would so she went right to the throat and said "Guess having an old class bully as an associate sucks, eh?" That silenced his complaints dead on, and no more was heard from him on the topic. It was no coincidence that Lupin picked out Neville for the first go with the Boggart, or for the finale. He knew that Neville had problems with Snape (who didn't know that) and he used it just for the results that happened. "Despite the fact he is supposed to be so "mature" he still seems to get his jollies off mocking you." Alicia muttered, leaning back in the chair next to Snape's desk staring at the ceiling, "Childish, eh?" Snape did not respond, but he wasn't grumbling either now so she knew he agreed with her. "By the way got turned down for that transfer, eh? Always the birdesmaid and never the bride." "You have no idea." he finally muttered, still working on the paperwork before him. But the point was reached. Snape didn't give anyone the time of day who tried to draw him into the whole Boggart thing, and if they did they soon found themselves with sufficent "reason" to "drop it" (though nobody would say what "reasoning" Snape used to convince them of the error of their ways). ‘Just as well,' Alicia thought to herself, ‘Not interested in the inner workings of the socially insecure considering my own social life seems to be in the toilet lately.' If only Divinations was as easy.... Too bad it wasn't. Between trading an endless stream of "I know the future better than you" retorts with Trelawney, she was puzzling over the confusing and very Rube Goldberg styles of divination that Trelawney seemed to love to make them learn. Some of the girls like Parvati Patil and Lavendar Brown became so obsessed with the class that they spent their lunchtimes in there, but Alicia just couldn‘t see the appeal in that kind of obsessive compulsive behavior. One time Angelina & Katie said they wanted to go to these lunchtime divinations, until Alicia shook her head and said "They're not making out in class during lunch, you know. Just so you know." and that silenced that from the two. Too bad that was the only "silence" from them. Otherwise they were all about the school like newlyweds, holding hands and giggling together and sharing food and what-not. They traipsed around the school like girls in love, and yes they were girls in love... but still, that was abit much for Alicia who wished it was her on cloud 9 like they were. Now if she could only convince her "keeper" May that class wasn't for making out despite the fact she seemed to do nothing but fawn over Neville in class a lot then she‘d be happier, especially since she had no more respect for Divination than the often uptight and irritated Hermione (who had a hate of Trelawney that was even worst than Alicia's own dislike of the teacher) that would be a sense of progress for her. Anyway at least, thankfully, she wasn't Harry Potter. Trelawney keeps staring at him expecting him to drop dead at any moment... or self destruct... or drop dead and self destruct. Whatever floated her crystal ball. The most interesting class, for all the wrong reasons, was Hagrid's. It didn't rate quite as high as Defense Against the Dark Arts, but it had it's rabid followers since a certain somebody quickly moved in to keep Hagrid from becoming discouraged after the events of his first class. Somehow May convinced him to carry on, and while the class lineups sure looked interesting enough, the entire class was all smoke and mirrors with much flash and bang and no substance. The creatures now appearing in the class looked fierce enough, and for all intents and purposes they seemed hot blooded and hard core to the unknowing students... but that was all a lie. It all started with the second class and the appearance of the Greywall SaberBlades, Elfin wolves that supposidly ran into battle with battalions of elfin warriors, that the "gig" was effectively "up" for Alicia. They looked the part and were quite impressive, but were as much real wolves as Alicia was straight. The Greywall SaberBlades were, in fact, shapeshifters who performed nightly in a Edenina version of Las Vegas (based in the same location as Vegas on Terra, the Earthian dream moon). They looked cool, did their thing fine, and seemed genuine... but were faker than Malfoy‘s "personality" (which was truly fake) if only to Alicia who had actually seen their act when she was -- well, when she was her other self in the past. The rest, as expected, came from the Las Vegas Primetime Show Revue after that, totally cool to look at but with very little actual threat. Obviously this was a win-win for Hagrid : He won because the creatures were impressive and class favorites, and he won because the creatures were also quite safe to work with and guaranteed no more incidents like the first day. Nice but really... at this point Alicia almost expected May to import a batch of white tigers from the Siegfred & Roy catalog soon and pass them off as rare elfin housecats... it had to happen, especially since the last batch looked like they came from the Barnum & Bailey Dream Circus performing over at the NekoDrome nightly (thrice on weekends). At the start of October, however, Alicia began to find a new thing to trouble her already worry plagued year (if her year couldn‘t be anymore troubled than it already was). It wasn't bad enough that she was having a hard time bonding with Hermione, while runaway romance couple roommates Angelina & Katie were going all out in their romance, now something else had to bite into her time and take up more of it than she was willing to give up : Quidditch practice. The time had come for the Quidditch season to begin, and this year would be a hardship since they had a basketcase of a "fearless leader" who, after spending months stalking each and every one of them, was ready for his nervous breakdown. That day came one Thursday as he called everyone into the locker rooms on the Quidditch pitch near the school. The room was ghastly cold. It was as if the spectre of doom hovered in the room, mocking Wood, chilling him to his very soul... along with everyone else unlucky enough to be in the same room with him at that exact moment and that exact time. "Damn his Demon Lord of Terror." Alicia hissed beneath her breath, wishing she had worn her cold protected battle uniform beneath her usual robes. "I'm going to die of frostbite and haunt Wood forever." Oliver Wood, pacing about, looked like he was about to start crying. The burly 17 year old had this rather obvious (though still creepily silent) desperation about him as he paced about like a caged animal, his voice strained a little as he finally addressed everyone in the chilled room (the light from outside fading fast as night began to fall over the land). "This is our last chance -- my last chance -- to win the Quidditch Cup," he told them, pacing up and down in front of them nervously, "I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it." An errie silence fillled the room briefly as he gathered his thoughts, before forging forward with his pre-prepared and pre-rehearsed speech (that Alicia has already been victimzed by four hours prior as he had caught her in an empty class and made her listen to it). "Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years running. Seven years... sure, we've had the worst damnable luck in the world it seems, what with injuries and the tournament being called off due to the whole thing over the Basilisk..." Wood spoke, swallowing hard as he remembered that incident with particular bitterness. "But despite all that we also know that we've got the best -- damn -- ruddy -- team -- in -- the -- whole school!" he hissed, forcing each words from his lips one at a time, swinging his fist hard punching it into his open hand, as if to punctuate that statement. "We've got three superb Chasers." Alicia nodded absently, her eyes glancing over towards the attentive Angelina & Katie, almost muttering "Two lovesick Chasers" but thinking better of it. "We've got two unbeatable Beaters." "Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us!" Fred and George chorous together, to which Alicia almost wanted to hiss "Not likely." "And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" Finally Alicia's eyes spun to Harry, who sat attentive without any remarks like the Weasley brothers. "And me," Wood finally completed, almost as an afterthought. "We think you're very good too, Oliver." George said, finally focusing on someone other than himself. "Spanking good Keeper," Fred chimed in. "The point is," Oliver continued, not wanting for a second to be thrown from his speech (as if he was afraid he would not be able to continue if he stopped even for a second), "the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing..." ‘Sure it's not going to be just your and Harry's name on it?' Alicia thought to herself, almost sighing as she leaned back, hands automatically rubbing to keep herself warm. * * * * * * At that the team started training three evenings a week. The weather only got worst. It got colder and colder, and wetter and wetter, with the evenings growing darker and darker... and yet that didn't stop them from training three days a week, even if it killed Alicia (which it didn't). While the mud, wind, or rain didn't diminish some of their dreams of the cup, Alicia didn't seem particularly hot on it despite the fact she was giving her 100% every practice. And so Alicia returned to the Common Room one night wasted, eyes abit bleary as she stumbled in only to find everyone up and excited over something. Barely falling into the couch near the two fireside chairs now occupied by Ron and Hermione (nearly missing Harry as she did), Alicia flopped over the side of the couch and muttered "What's up..." ""First Hogsmeade weekend coming up," Ron said excitedly, trying to copy Hermione's Astronomy chart whenever she turned her back to talk to Harry (only to get his hand smacked everytime he tried). "End of October. Halloween." "Excellent," Fred said as he filed in seconds after Alicia, "I need to visit Zonko's. I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets." "You stink enough on your own." Alicia muttered, feeling the depression only growing at the announcement. So it had finally come, the trip to Hogsmeade, wonderous. She couldn't get her paper signed and had dreaded this moment that was to come... and now it has come. That means Hemione would be able to go, which means she would FINALLY get out of study mode... which Alicia couldn't exploit since she couldn't go with her... talk about a disappointing turn of events! Hermione, misreading Alicia's glum features, said "Alicia, I'm sure you'll be able to go next time." Talk about being the queen of wishful thinking... waitaminute! "I think I got an idea." Alicia muttered, eyes glittering abit as a thought occurred to her. A nasty wonderful brilliant little thought. Suddenly, before Hermione could inquire, Crookshank appeared and leaped on her lap, a dead spider dangling from it's weird little mouth. That was gross. "Does he have to eat that in front of us?" Ron muttered, scowling. "Clever Crookshanks, did you catch that all by yourself?" said Hermione, almost cooing over the gigantic furball sitting on her lap. "I'm going to throw up all over it's fur." Alicia muttered, closing her eyes tight. As if to end the night Ron did the taboo thing of offering to allow Harry and Alicia to copy his already partially copied star chart, and then the fuss he kicked up when Crookshanks tried to add Scabbers to the menu as an after dinner snack... spider and rat, not yummy. Obviously Alicia didn't have much of an appetite for chocolate after watching that. * * * * * * It was bad enough that Ron and Hermione seperated on a bad mood last night. Ron, true to form, clung onto his bad mood as he would a prized Quidditch collectible when the sun rose on a brand new day, chosing to wallow in his own bitterness rather than even try to get over last night. The bitter little pill was a pain during Herbology, which was a pain since he, Hermione and Harry were working together to take care of the same Puffapod. Alicia fared no better since she got stuck with Quidditch teammates Angelina and Katie as partners. Angelina sighed a near breathless giggle, her finger deftly tickling the top of Katie's hand as they slowly worked on pulling the stripped fat pink pods from the puffapods. Katie smirked and returned the motion, alternating between playing finger tag and pulling pods. Alicia, the very visage of annoyance, pulled her pods mindlessly as she worked. "Can you at least wait until lunch before you two make out?" "We're not making out." Angelina muttered, her goofy grin never leaving her face once. "Careful, Weasley, careful!" Professor Sprout cried from behind, nearly causing Alicia to spill her beans onto the floor (adding to the mess already caused by Ron). "...I need my very own sexfriend." The rest of the class was spent in moody silence, stuck with watching her teammates make goggily eyes. "P.S." Alicia muttered, "My practice Quaffle isn't your sexaide, please stop tribading with it..." (silence) "...at least pay me rent for it everytime you mount it dammit... or make me a home vid sphere for private use... something." Transfiguration was boring, especially since Alicia's plan had nothing to do with Professor McGonagall. She waited for Potions, because her plan was to go straight to Snape and get him to do the deed for her. A good idea, especially since she had sufficent "pull" to get him to bend... didn't she? The moment she had a free chance to grab him she did just that. She quickly went straight to Snape, jumping into his free chair as she looked at him intently. "I need you to forge me a permission form." Snape, barely looking up from his work, narrowed his eyes abit at the thought. "I didn't think you were so hot and bothered to go to a place like Hogsmeade." "What can I say, my love life is dead (you know THAT situation all too well don‘t you)." she answered honestly, "Gimme a break." His pen began scratching on the parchment he had before him, slowly writing on it as he barely glanced up at Alicia, "I'm afraid not, Spinnet. Maybe you should have spent more time "buttering" up the head of your own house if you were planning on using your "charms" to gain favors, because I can't help you since you are not of my own house." "Never stopped you before from meddling in the affairs of other houses." Alicia shot halfheartedly, trying to widdle away at his iron clad defense, realizing immediately that she really wasn't as interested in Hogsmeade as in just finding time to get close to Hermione. "The form clearly states that only a parent or a guardian may give permission, and I am most certainly neither of those." Snape remarked coldly, continuing to write as he spoke. "But leaving the castle should be no real problem for you. All you have to do, after all, is have your Dementor friends cover your retreat." "Which leaves me screwed when I get back though." Alicia countered. "Ah..." Snape hissed in a rather unpleasant way, "...my point exactly." She hated it when he was so damn smug. Though, for once, she conceited that he had a reason to be so. She sucked sinking this low even if it was for her waning love life. * * * * * * And that, as they say, was that. Deciding to call it a failure, Alicia conceited that she wouldn't be going to Hogsmeade this year and thought it was (after all) for the best. "Not like I can't go to London if I really really need something." she noted, which she (in fact) could (secretly of course). "So I'm not exactly missing out." Ron, however, didn't take the news of Harry's failing so well. In fact he kind of lost it. He began to call Professor McGonagall everything under the sun and stars that he could think of, and when pressed to "duty" it seemed that he was capable of thinking of quite a few unpleasant things to say (half of which met with great displeasure from Hermione). Hermione, in her even toned way, assumed that this was all "for the best" which, well, really didn't do anything to cheer up either Harry or Alicia in the slightest bit. Ron, as expected, got only angrier at Hermione's easy going attitude... all the while Harry & Alicia had to endure the endless rattling on from classmates about their well-laid plans for Hogsmeade weekend. "The best laid plans of overplanning people." Alicia sighed, not caring anymore to count the amount of people who were going to go into a sugar induced coma while in Hogsmeade as compared to the people who were going to try and "score" while away from school. "There's always the feast," Ron said cheerily, trying to muster his own level of even going attitude in light of the dim chance of McGonagall changing her mind about Harry (or Alicia though he labored in misconception about Alicia asking her in the first place). "You know, the Halloween feast, in the evening." "Thank you ever so you great glowing sun of conformity." Alicia muttered, staring blankly at Ron. "I think I liked you better when you were ranting like a lunatic." ‘Face it.' Alicia thought as she leaned back in her seat, ‘I have about as much interest in Hogsmeade as I do in working at the local SpellMart as a greeter.' (bleah) ‘I just want to be near Hermione the moment she snaps out of her study fixation and becomes normal again... if such a thing was inhumanly possible.' Dean Thomas, who was good with quill and hand, offered to forge Uncle Vernon's name and the name of Alicia's parents, but it was way too late for that by now... pity he didn't offer that a month ago. Ron tried to suggest the invisibility cloak only to be reminded about the Dem-- suddenly Ron jumped at Alicia and tried to make her "escort" Harry through the Dementors only for her to shoot it down right off. "They're hot on Potter for some ungodly reason." she noted with a slight bit of irritation in her voice, "They'll be drawn to him like flies to liquid sugar! We wouldn't get five feet outside of the school before they rush him, which would end in a failing firefight running battle right back to the school in defeat!" Percy, bless his evil soul, had the worst thing to say to them when he said "They make a fuss about Hogsmeade, but I assure you two that it's not all it's cracked up be..." (then he stopped) "...alright, there is the sweetshop which is rather spot on good, then there's Zonko's Joke Shop (which I introduced Fred & George too no matter what they say), and yes, the Shrieking Shack's always worth a visit, but--" Alicia clamps her hand onto Percy's mouth to silence him. "Please stop. We can't take anymore good cheer and positive commentary from you." * * * * * * Finally the day came. Halloween day. On Halloween morning Alicia slowly dragged herself out of bed, abit worst for wear all things considered. ‘Well,' she silently mused, ‘It's not like I have any reason to wake up early today.' So, with that she decided to stay in bed (after going down for food and packing enough in one of her tesseract jewels to keep to the room all day). Hermione made a promise to deliver sweets to her and Harry, which kind of cheered her up... though not really since she was only beginning to thaw from her relentless bookworminess, with the full meltdown happening out of her range. Bummer. She didn't accompany them to the entrance, but eventually she did leave the girl's quarters to wander the school if only to stretch her legs from her longer than normal bedstay. It was during this wandering that she ran into Flitch abruptly, who regarded her with a strange expression. He didn't say a word, but he seemed to have something on the tip of his tongue that he wouldn't... or couldn't... spit out. "Whatever." she sighed in resentment, waving him off as she walked off. "Life sucks for us misfit humans." So intent on getting away from Flitch, she wandered aimlessly until he walked right into the opening door of the last person she wanted to see at that moment... Lupin. Shocked, he nearly stumbled out of the doorway towards the now stunned Alicia, who took the door full on in her face and was now on her butt looking about in a confused manner. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. What are you doing here?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice, "Where are Ron & Hermione?" "Don't you want to know where Harry is?" she asked, to which he said "Harry told me they went to Hogsmeade." "If you knew that already..." Alicia hissed in response, "...don't ask me what you already know." And, with that, she pulled herself to her feet as Lupin looked on, "I was only trying to...uh..." (slight sigh) "How about a drink? I just got a grindylow for our next lesson, maybe you'd like to see it." ‘Maybe it'd like to see me more like it.' Alicia pondered silently, but relented to being taken in. As she followed Lupin into the office she noticed the gigantic water tank, and the sickly green creature staring at her from inside the tank. The creature, with sharp little horns, had it's face pressed tightly against the glass of the tank, making faces and flexing it's long long fingers... until Alicia bolted forward and nearly slammed her face into the tank, giving the creature a dreadful fright and sending it flying into the weeds in the corner of the tank. "Uh... that might be a water demon, but you don't need to give it a heart attack." Lupin remarked, motioning towards the tank as he passed Alicia. "You really shouldn't have much difficulty with him, not after tha kap--" (Alicia's face turns ashen) "--oh, right, the amorous Kappa. Uh... anyway --" (cough cough) "-- the trick is to break it's grip, it's fingers is very long but also very brittle... see?" (motions to his hands now filled) "Cup of tea?" "No thanks." Alicia declined, "I'm set." she said as she pulled a bottle of soda from a tessaract. "By the way, just out of curiousity..." Lupin asked, fishing... "About your Boggart confrontation..." "Fear of being alone." Alicia responded, getting a bit of a nod from Lupin, who said no more on it. An awkward silence filled the room between them as Lupin struggled to find a common ground with the morbidly silent Spinnet. "I better get going." Alicia announced suddenly, standing up. As she did she noticed the strange smoking potion on Lupin's desk, "You're taking up liquid pot smoking these days?" "It's from Severus... Professor Snape." Lupin answered, pulling another long (distasteful) drink from the goblet as he spoke, "I have never been much of a potion brewer, and this one is particularly complex." Alicia - "Yeah, it must suck that the only person capable of making it is the guy you treated like shit when you were both schoolmates, eh?" Lupin's eyes narrowed, his face froze, and not a word came from his lips. "Your silence speaks volumes." Alicia finished, walking out without another word, leaving Lupin alone. "Apparently so." * * * * * * "There you go!" Ron cried out, shoving a giant goody bag into Alicia's arms as she returned to the common room, nearly knocking her over as she returned. Apparently they all returned while she was spending "quality" time with Lupin in his office. "We got as much as we could carry." Alicia reached into her robes and pulled out a fistful of gold, giving it over to Ron in turn, "Thanks." (Hermione tried to make Ron return the gold, but Alicia sternly refused to the point that Ron accepted happily... if only not to get on Alicia's bad side as opposed to getting on Hermione‘s bad side). After that it was off to the verbal races as everyone told their tales as quickly (and as loud) as they could. With everyone going on it was no problem for Alicia to find a quiet spot in the room, sit down, and quietly pursue her bag of goodies while casually listening to the others talk. So much for warming Hermione up, as she was already going back to her uber talkative focused self already. Eventually it was time to head down to the meal, Alicia tagging along at the rear of the line as they all headed down towards the Great Hall (their small group growing larger as they picked up other groups of students on their march to the Great Hall). Once there Alicia's mood improved, especially once they began to eat. Maybe it was the décor, what with the hundreds and hundreds of pumpkins filled with burning candles (which somehow prompted Alicia to mumble the lyrics to Disco Inferno for some odd reason). Maybe it was the strange cloud of live bats (thoughts of Batman occasionally poked into her mind). Maybe it was the flaming orange streamers (thoughts of fire code violations also poked into her mind should the flaming pumpkins and the many streamers meet) which set the "sky" ablaze in color even as it was cloaked in darkness as a storm raged about the castle even as they sat down to eat. But still, something about that night made the food just taste that much better for some reason. The food was delicious, the company was pleasant, and even those who gorged on sweets from town managed to find room to eat... still, Alicia pondered, she wondered if there would be enough bathrooms on campus to handle several hundred chocolate overdosed hyperactive kids with bladder problems... she thought it best not to ponder it any further than that one inquiry, and to leave it to "nature" to sort out. Professor Lupin looked his usual cheery self, a departure from his sudden moody swing as they talked earlier in the day. He was having a lively conversation with Professor Flitwick from Charms, who hopefully wasn't one of his confidantes in teasing Snape when they were younger. ‘Does the headmaster ALWAYS like to put volitale teachers together in the same school...' Alicia thought briefly, pondering why these two former enemies were put into this situation in the first place. Snape, as par the course, was always glancing at Lupin. That didn't surprise Alicia in the slightest, after all they had history so it's no question that Snape still fostered lots of pent up aggrivation towards him (and for good reason no doubt since she didn't know the details of his past with Snape). The feast came to an end with entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts, but that was all the entertainment Alicia was in the mood for as she silently sneaked out without a word to anyone. On the walk up to Gryffindor Tower she had time to ponder what was going on. She was being slowly stalked by an Assassin Guilder for reasons only he/it knew, which probably had to do with her ascension in power last year after claiming herself a new amulet and Heart core to channel her powers through. She had these ghastly Dementor things who occasionally reported in to her as if she was their den mother or leader or whatever, which didn't look good for her seeing how the school's headmaster had a mad-on against the whole Dementor thing. And she had to complete the year while trying to salvage any attempt at a romantic relationship with the intellectually burdened Hermione who seemed to only loosen up in Hogsmeade (which did Alicia no good because she couldn't access Hogsmeade because she couldn't get her paper signed)! This was nothing but bad news for her. It got worst when she approached the portrait of the Fat Lady and heard a scream. She went into a quick run right away, ignoring all common sense as she ran right towards the sound of the scream without a second thought. There, she was quickly confronted by a looming figure of a man, cutting impliment in hand as he angrily slashed as the portrait trying to gain entry. The painting was torn open, and the barrier beyond was superficially damaged with the decorative wood broken apart and sticking out like a sharp wooden barrier against intrusion (the solid spell enhanced door itself standing fully intact from the assault). As she stared at him something perculiar happened... she hesistated, allowing him enough time to move first. He quickly turned, and charged at her bringing her senses back into action. She dodged to one side, aiming up to fire at him, but he was too quick. Grabbing her outstreched hands he quickly swung her about, sending her flying into the damaged painting. Her body was wracked with terrible sharp violating pain as she slammed headlong into the barrier blocking the entryway into the tower, a loud reverberating through her body as she hit with force into the obstruction. Her mind struggled to pull herself together as she felt him quickly rush her. Blood must have been coming from her head as she felt a hot wetness, but she was certain it also came from her body as well. Did she get impaled with wood shards? It felt as if her body was wracked with a terrible pain which was robing her of her senses, and perhaps even her life. A new scream filled her pained ears, but this time it wasn't a woman's... it was a man's, and it sounded as if he was panicked about something. But this was a minor thing to the all consuming pain that enveloped Alicia's being. She struggled to stay awake, but the pain was too much for her to bear, the warmth of her own blood seemingly coaxing her body shutting down as every sense failed her. A few seconds passed, and then her mind and body betrayed her, shutting down from the excruciating pain that beat into her skull relentlessly. The last thing she remembers is the figure on top of her, and being held in his arms as he wretched her robes open. * * * * * * Harry, Ron and Hermione followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path to the Tower, being the tail end of a long chain of students, 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?" Ron asked, curiousity tinging his voice as he strained to look over the traffic jam of people that piled up ahead of them. Harry, also curious, peered over the heads in front of him, as of to confirm with his own eyes that the portrait was indeed closed (which it was). Percy, pushing his way past, began to forge his way forward into the group in abit of a huff, "Let me through here, please," he called out, pushing and shoving his way past, an air of self imposed "importance" beaming from him as he made his way through, "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password -- excuse me, I'm Head Boy, excuse me..." As he reached the front, however, silence reigned once again. Even his demanding voice ceased once he came to the sight that everyone beheld at the head of the line. Suddenly Percy screamed "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore, QUICKLY!!" Everyone's heads turned, as if waiting for the person behind them to do the deed, but not one moved from their spot. "What's going on?" somebody (Ginny) asked as she joined Harry, Ron and Hermione. Several long moments passed until somebody finally managed to get Professor Dumbledore, his robes sweeping dramatically as a "hole" was cleared into the crowd to allow him access. As everyone quickly moved to either side of the corridor to allow him access, the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione moved forward to get a better look. "Oh, no!" Hermione choked, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked towards the painting. The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed viciously to the point that "debris" of the painting lied scattered about. The decorative door covering was broken and shattered, with several shards of it lying about the floor. But it was the floor that drew the most attention. There, lying on top of her own robes, was Alicia Spinnet. Her body was face down, legs spread and arms sprawled up as if she was on all fours and fell over in a heap. Her back was scarred with several large wounds (magically healing as they watched), with several wooden fragment to one side stained in her blood. Her breathing was slow, labored but slow. She was in no pain now it seemed, and her wounds seemed to have been cared for as she was in no immediate danger of dying. Still, the condition she was left in left little to the imagination. Dumbledore quickly took her into his arms, pulling her robes over her body as he held her tightly in his strong grasp. His eyes somberly turned towards the approaching Professors McGonagall, Lupin and Snape as they hurried towards him. Snape, at first stone face, went pale as he saw her in his arms. "We need to find the Fat Lady," Dumbledore said gravely. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Flich at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady." "A wasted effort." a dark grim voice called out. All heads quickly looked towards the end of the corridor to notice that they were being watched by a reptilian thing with shiny metal technology grafted to it's head and spine. It stared at them with it's emotionless face, silence reigning as they watched him... until a burst of robes whirled past Harry, Ron and Hermione with a yell of "KILL IT!!" Spell shots rang out, hitting the reptilian dead on, only to cause it no damage. It flickered, showing a glowing sphere within the translucent "form" of the creature. "If you are quite done..." Dumbledore grabbed ahold of Snape, pulling him back as the Galerian watched them. Several students, who pulled their wands at the cry of "KILL IT" slowly put their wands back, looking awkward. "With all of you spell throwers I had to adjust my tactics in an environment like this. This holo-drone usit is now protected against energy attacks -- it's only weakness being a pure all out physical assault on the "heart" which, I am assure you, none of you are capable of delivering. Now, if we are done flinging power shots about... you are looking for the amply built fascimile woman known rather non P.C. as The Fat Lady, I take it." Silence. He knew they were all paying attention to him, and he was carefully and skillfully working the crowd to his advantage. "She is abit... distressed. She doesn't want to be seen, oh no, she's in quite a bit of a mess she is. Last I saw of her she was running through the landscapes on the fourth floor of this complex, dodging between the fascimile trees as she did. She was..." (it spreads it's claws outwards drawing his already rapt audience's attention tighter onto him) "...crying something fierce. Very emotional for a faux humanoid most certainly." (No attempts by Ron to get Hermione to tell him what "fascimile" and "faux" was seemed to work.) "Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore asked quietly, his eyes boring down solidly on the Galerian. "Oh yes, I did see that seeing how it was my drone unit who saw her just minutes ago, while I myself witnessed the whole affair down here..." (motioning towards Alicia) "...he did get quite angry when the Fat Lady refused him entry, but I guess prison life made him hungry for the finer things in life since he did take time after saving her to... "save" her." The Galerian holo-image began to back away, towards the exit, never looking away for an instance from it's audience. "But I guess prison life does that to people like Sirius Black... now, if you'll..." It said no more. A large hand grabbed it, and crushed the protective shell shield about the holosphere shattering it in his hand. Hagrid, brushing the metallic remains from his hand, looked at the crowd with a bit of a frown marring his usually jovial features. "Guess being all muscles have it's advantages now and again, eh?"
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