After the attack on the Fat Lady, talk about Sirius Black escalated for the next few days. No matter where Aileen went, she always heard a minimum of three conversation about Sirius and how he got into the castle. After the first day, the theories on how he managed it became wilder to the point of impossibility. For example, she heard a theory from a group of Hufflepuff's saying that Black could turn into a flowering shrub. Although turning into something wasn't an impossibility, turning into a floweing shrub would mean that Black had an accomplice willing to move him about the castle and in transfigure him since he wouldn't have any conscious thought as a plant.

The canvas containing the Fat Lady was taken down so that it could be repaired. In its place was the canvas of Sir Cadogan who was normally located in the rarely used south tower, only seen by lost Divination students. Cadogan was a terrible guard for their common room and no one was happy about it because he spent most of his time challenging people to duels and he changed the password a minimum of twice a day without informing anyone. Normally the seventh year prefect set the password and it would remain for the following week or two before being changed.

"He's a complete lunatic," Seamus complained angrily to Percy, the only prefect willing to actually talk with the students, on the second day of having Cadogan as a guard. "Can't we get anyone else?"

"None of the other pictures wanted the job," Percy answered, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration as he fought off a headache. He had no doubt that there would be other students coming to complain to him but there was nothing he or the other prefects could do about it since the decision had been made and they couldn't overrule their head of house when they didn't have a solution to the problem. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer."

Unlike the rest of the house, Cadogan was the least of Aileen's annoyances and growing problems. She had been annoyed when she was punished by not being allowed to Hogsmeade, now she was beyond that and constantly trying to keep her temper as she was closely watched and followed throughout the day. Teachers who normally wouldn't look her way outside of class, were suddenly finding any excuse to walk with her in the corridors, and Percy (acting, Aileen had no doubt, on orders from his mother) followed her everywhere like a guard dog. The only reprieve she had (from Percy, at least) was at Quidditch practise because Percy trusted Fred and George to keep her – and their little sister – safe.

Too make all the ridiculousness worse, Aileen was summoned to McGonagall's office a couple of evenings after Halloween. When Aileen arrived, it was to find McGonagall sat at her desk, looking at Aileen like someone had died.

"There's no point hiding it from you any longer, Potter," she said in a very serious voice. "I know this will come as a shock to you, but Sirius Black -"

"I know he's after me," Aileen tiredly cut across her professor. She didn't know why it had taken two months and an attack for someone to decide she needed to know she was a target, but it was something she was going to bring up with the headmaster during the Christmas break and he can then bring it up with his staff if he wasn't the one to order this information silences. "I overheard a conversation while I was staying at the Leakey Cauldron."

Professor McGonagall appeared quite taken aback that Aileen was aware and hadn't shown any signs of stress or fear in the last two months. Any normal student who had been told that they were a target of a mass murderer would be seeking help from the adults around them or, at the very least, showing strain. However, Aileen wasn't normal and she had known Voldemort had been trying to kill her since the end of her first year. Even ignoring the fact that she wasn't sure Sirius was after her, she didn't see the point of worrying about adding one more person to her list of people who wanted her dead (it currently had Voldemort, most (if nor all) Death Eaters and her Uncle Zeus (even if he didn't know she existed) and most likely her uncle Hades).

"I see!" McGonagall said after a moment of observing her student. "Well, in that case, Potter, you'll understand why I don't think it's a good idea for you to be practicing Quidditch in the evenings. Out on the field with only your team members, it's very exposed, Potter -"

"Professor," Aileen cut across McGonagall once again. "During every Quidditch practice my dog, So̱ti̱ría, is there. If there was anyone there who shouldn't be, he would be able to, at the very at least, alert us. We are on brooms and I am more than capably of dodging spells. And if that isn't enough, the combined knowledge of the team will be enough to defend ourselves with until a teacher arrives." Aileen spoke calmly, not letting her anger and frustration with her teachers show since it wouldn't get her anywhere. "Besides, what are the chances that Black will actually attempt to attack me while I am flying in the air on a broom that travels at too fast a pace for a spell to hit unless he is very good which is unlikely to be the case after twelve years in Azkaban in which he would have lost much of his co-ordination without treatment?"

Professor McGonagall had no response to this.

The weather worsened steadily as the first Quidditch match drew nearer. Undaunted, the Gryffindor team was training harder than ever under the eye of Madam Hooch – who McGonagall had insisted on attending the practises once she had pulled self together after Aileen left her office. McGonagall said she felt better with one of the teachers watching the practise and not just So̱ti̱ría who was taking is guarding duty very serious (he didn't like leaving Aileen's side when she had to return to the castle).

To make matters worse, during the final training session before the match, Oliver came barring unwanted news.

"We're not playing Slytherin!" he told them, looking very angry. "Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."

"Why?" chorused the rest of the team, they had developed their strategy to face Slytherin and not Hufflepuff who used completely different tactics. It was very underhanded for a team to pull out at the last moment since both of the teams who would then be playing would be at a disadvantage since neither team was training to face each other and in the case of the new team playing, they wouldn't have been training as hard because they weren't expected to play for another month.

"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm's still injured," said Wood, grinding his teeth furiously. "But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances..."

There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day, and as Wood spoke, they heard a distant rumble of thunder. Aileen wandered why Zeus was so angry because normally they didn't get thunder storms until mid-December. She hoped he was angry about something in their world as opposed to him learning something about her father that she knew he was keeping secret (namely her and her brother).

The day before the match, the winds reached howling point and the rain fell harder than ever. The lake turned uneasily and Aileen felt a deep pit of anger in her stomach; anger that did not belong to her. It seemed something had happened to anger her father, and because of her connection with the ocean she was getting the backlash. Her thoughts the day before seemed to be biting her in the ass – whatever had angered Zeus did indeed have something to do with her father. Hopefully that had nothing to do with her since she didn't want to die by lightening.

It was so dark inside the corridors and classrooms that extra torches and lanterns were lit. The Slytherin team was looking very smug indeed, and none more so than Malfoy. "Ah, if only my arm was feeling a bit better!" he sighed as the gale outside pounded the windows.

Oliver Wood kept hurrying up to Aileen between classes and giving her tips despite the fact that Aileen flew the Seeker position better then Wood could comprehend as he had once commented when she pulled of a diving sloth-barrel role (as the team had named the move). The third time this happened, Wood talked for so long that Aileen suddenly realized she was ten minutes late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and set off at a run with Wood shouting after her, "Diggory's got a very fast swerve, Aileen, so you might want to try looping him -"

Aileen skidded to a halt outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, pulled the door open, and walked inside.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor. I had left my defence book in the tower." Aileen spoke softly, not even faltering when she noticed it wasn't Professor Lupin who looked up at her from the teacher's desk but Professor Snape.

"This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter, five points from Gryffindor. Sit down."

"Of course, professor." Aileen quickly moved to her seat. "Will Professor Lupin be okay: did he go and see Madam Pomfrey last night?" Aileen asked as she sat down.

"It's nothing life-threatening," Professor Snape answered, looking as though he wished it were. "As I was saying before Potter interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far -"

"Please, sir, we've done Boggarts, Red Caps, Kappas, and Grindylows," said Hermione quickly, "and we're just about to start -"

"Be quiet," said Snape coldly. "I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organization."

"He's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," said Dean boldly, and there was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the class. Snape looked more menacing than ever.

"You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly overtaxing you - I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and Grindylows."

"Professor Lupin informed us that he was using the first half of the year to teach us what we had not been taught in the last two years." Aileen spoke softly. "He has notes in the top draw of his office desk but I think he keeps it locked."

Professor Snape paused and looked at Aileen with narrowed eyes. A flash of something passing before his eyes too fast for her to identify before he continued with what he had been saying. "Today we shall discuss -" He flick through the textbook, to the very back chapter, which he knew they hadn't covered yet. "- werewolves," said Snape.

"But, sir," said Hermione, seemingly unable to restrain herself, "we're not supposed to do werewolves yet, we're due to start Hinkypunks -"

"Miss Granger," said Snape in a voice of deadly calm, "I was under the impression that I am teaching this lesson, not you. And I am telling you all to turn to page 394." He glanced around again. "All of you! Now!"

With many bitter sidelong looks and some sullen muttering, the class opened their books.

"Which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?" said Snape.

Everyone sat in motionless silence; everyone except Hermione, whose hand, as it so often did, had shot straight into the air.

"Anyone?" Snape said, ignoring Hermione. Aileen raised her hand as well. Professor Snape narrowed his eyes but motioned to Aileen.

"There are many differences between the Weres and a true wolf. The first differences is that a Were will only transform the night of the full moon, otherwise they are a normal human being. While on the night of the full moon the Weres differs from the true wolf in several of their physical futures. A true wolf is similar to that of a large hound because hounds are decedents of the true wolf. However a true wolf has longer, more powerful legs, longer ears, bigger feet and a narrower chest compared to their domestic descendants. On average they range between 3-4 feet tall and from head to tail they are 4-6 feet. A Were has a long snout, small, rounded ears, golden eyes, little to no fur, broad chests and can stand up to two feet taller than their human forms. This means some Weres can reach up to 7 to 8 feet."

"Mostly correct however your description is not complete."

Aileen got very little sleep that night. She spent it sat on the window sill listening to the sounds of the thunder rumbling overhead, the pounding of the wind against the castle walls, and the distant creaking of the trees in the Forbidden Forest. Aileen knew better than to think the match would be cancelled; Quidditch matches weren't called off for trifles like thunderstorms. Nevertheless, she was starting to feel very apprehensive.

At about six o'clock she showered and changed before heading down to breakfast. Aileen had just started on her second cup of tea when the rest of the team had turned up.

"It's going to be a tough one," said Wood, who wasn't eating anything.

"Stop worrying, Oliver," said Alicia soothingly, "we don't mind a bit of rain."

But it was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the Quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went.

The team changed into their scarlet robes (Aileen made sure that she had her wand and dagger secured to her person and that her glasses were spelled to repel the water) and waited for Wood's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly.

Seeing that Oliver wasn't going to say anything and the rest of the team looked nervous Aileen took it upon herself to help motivate the team. "Guys, we are facing the Hufflepuffs. They have probably been training to face the Ravenclaws and not the Gryffindors and since their first match isn't until January they probably weren't training as hard as we were. We've been out on that pitch nearly every day for the last two months no matter the weather. We couldn't be more prepared if we tried. We are good. We've got some of the most well organised and synchronized Chaser that I have ever seen. Beaters that don't miss their mark. A keeper who's probably a shoe in for the professional league. I've not lost a Snitch yet, and I don't plan on starting now. So stand proud because we are going to go out there and beat the Hufflepuffs. Who's with me?"

"We are!" the team cheered and Oliver gave her a thankful smile before beckoning everyone to follow him.

The wind was so strong that they staggered sideways as they walked out onto the field. If the crowd was cheering, they couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder. Much to Aileen's relief that was no lightening in the sky – not yet anyway.

The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary-yellow robes and looking as nervous about this game as the Gryffindors had done in the changing rooms. The Captains walked up to each other and shook hands; Diggory smiled at Wood but Wood now looked as though he had lockjaw and merely nodded. Aileen saw Madam Hooch's mouth form the words, "Mount your brooms." Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant - they were off.

Aileen rose fast, but her Nimbus was swerving slightly with the wind – her slight form acting against her in such ferocious winds. Cedric would have the advantage in this whether since he was larger than her, and a decent weight while she was small and underweight.

Within five minutes everyone was soaked to their skin and frozen. Aileen flew around the pitch, keeping an eye out for the snitch through the heavy rain while trying to learn the pull of the wind so she could fly with it, as opposed to against it. She lost track of time. It was getting harder and harder to keep a secure grip on her broom as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped some more.

With the first flash of lightning came the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle; Aileen could just see the outline of Wood through the thick rain, gesturing her to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the mud

"I called for time-out!" Wood roared at his team. "Come on, under here –

They huddled at the edge of the field under a large umbrella.

"What's the score?" Aileen asked having missed most of the game.

"We're fifty points up," said Wood, "but unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."

"I'm not as heavy as Diggory – this wind has nearly unseated me a couple of times." Aileen explained. "But I'll see what I can do."

"Okay, team, let's go for it!"

Aileen took to the air once again. She needed to be even more careful now because lightning had started flashing across the sky. Luckily for her, it did not appear to be targeted which meant Zeus was not aware of her presents in his domain. Her father had most likely reported about what had angered him the night before or they were arguing it out.

Aileen had just turned to head down to Wood's side of the pitch when a flash of lightning illuminated the snitch. Quickly, without even thinking to look where Diggory was, Aileen shot forward, her Nimbus responding to her touch. She was within five feet of it when the Snitch shot up and she followed, Diggory joining the chase. Together they darted across the pitch, doggedly following the snitch.

Aileen finally pulled ahead of Diggory just enough to stretch out her hand and capture the snitch. However the moment the snitch was safely within her hand something caught her notice. Something that made her blood run cold.

"DEMENTORS!" Aileen shouted, hoping to warn the teachers of their presence. Aileen noticed Diggory pull back and fly towards the teacher's stand while Aileen turned and flew towards the teams who had continued playing. However the Dementors where swarming in the hundreds and many of them split and flew towards her and Aileen was forced to swerve and go the other way in an attempt to lead the Dementors away from her friends. Her vision had started to go black, she could hear screaming in her ears and not even the rain that surrounded her could help.

Aileen dodged around a group of Dementors that had flown in front of her but suddenly there was a flash of lightning right in front of her. Her broom caught fire and she was sent flying, towards the ground and the Dementors that waited hungrily for her. Aileen's vision went completely black, not able to cope with the pain, shock and memories.

"Not Aileen, not Aileen, please not Aileen!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl...stand aside, now..."

"Not Aileen, please no, take me, kill me instead -"

"I told you to stand aside…"

"Not Aileen! Please...have mercy...have mercy..."

A shrill voice was laughing, the woman was screaming….

"Lucky someone was able to catch her."

"I thought she was dead for sure."

"But she didn't even break her glasses."

Aileen started to become aware of her surrounding's, there were voices talking. Close by from the sounds of it. Her body ached like she was healing from a particularly severe beating and her head felt all fuzzy.

"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."

Aileen's eyes snapped open. She was lying in the hospital wing. The Gryffindor Quidditch team, spattered with mud from head to foot, was gathered around her bed. Ron and Hermione were also there, looking as though they'd just climbed out of a swimming pool.

"Aileen!" said Fred, who looked extremely white underneath, the mud. "How're you feeling?"

"What happened?" Aileen asked, slowly pulling herself up.

"The Dementors kept following you, and then just as Dumbledore cast a spell…" Fred said looking extremely worried.

"Your broom got struck by lightning," George picked up the explanation. "You fell what must've been - what - fifty feet?"

"We thought you'd died," said Alicia, who was shaking.

"Someone must have cast a spell to slow you down," Angelina said.

"But no one saw who did it, the teachers were too busy trying to get rid of the Dementors and get the students inside." Ginny spoke up from where she was being hugged by Percy. Both of them looked extremely pale.

Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were extremely bloodshot.

Aileen frowned at that. If she had fallen fifty feet then she should have died, the impact with the ground shattering her bones and possibly pulverising her organs.

"Where's Oliver?" Aileen asked, blinking as she looked around her friends to find the captain missing.

"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."

"Why?" Aileen asked confused.

"Because this is the second time you have been injured and still captured the snitch. However, this time, you could have died." Katie spoke up.

"Fred, George, since I'm going to be hospital bound for a few days, would you mind pranking him from his funk?" Aileen asked, turning her attention to the twins who both smirked and saluted her.

"Most gladly." They said together.

After ten minutes or so, Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave her in peace.

"We'll come and see you later," Fred promised her. "Tell you everything we have lined up for Oliver."

The team and Percy trooped out, trailing mud behind them. Madam Pomfrey shut the door behind them, looking disapproving. Ron and Hermione moved nearer to Aileen's bed.

"Dumbledore was really angry," Hermione said in a quaking voice. "I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field just before you fell. He whirled his wand at the Dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away...He was furious they'd come onto the grounds. We heard him -"

"Then he magicked you onto a stretcher," said Ron. "And walked up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were..."

His voice faded, Ron and Hermione looking at her anxiously.

"I'm alright," Aileen said smiling softly at her friends. "Although I would like to know who caught me so that I might be able to thank them." Aileen added as an afterthought.

They sat in silence for a minute before Hermione spoke. "Aileen, the lightning strike didn't actually hit your broom… but…when you fell off, it got blown away," said Hermione hesitantly. "And it hit - it hit - oh, Aileen - it hit the Whomping Willow."

Aileen's eyes widened at that. She had hoped that there might be a chance her broom had survived, but if it hit the Whomping willow then the broom did not stand a chance – despite the protective magic she had coated it in as well as what came standard with a broom (she was paranoid after her first game).

"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," said Hermione in a very small voice.

Slowly, she reached down for a bag at her feet, turned it upside down, and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed. From what she could see there were several pieces of lightly scorched wood but because it had not been hit directly the broom would have survived the lightning – although she imagined the spell integrity would have been damaged.

Madam Pomfrey insisted on keeping Aileen in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend. Aileen spent her time putting her broom back together and reading. She knew that she should have just let Madam Pomfrey throw the broom away but it was the first boom she ever had – it was a symbol of the first time she felt free – and although it was broken she wanted to keep it. In memory of those times.

She had a stream of visitors, all intent on cheering her up. Hagrid sent her a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages, and Ginny Weasley turned up with a get-well card she had made herself, which sang shrilly unless Aileen kept it shut under her bowl of fruit. The Gryffindor team visited again on Sunday morning, this time accompanied by Wood, who had been turned orange with green hair. Ron and Hermione left Aileen's bedside only at night and for lessons.

Rom and Hermione stayed so that they could cheer her up but they did not know the actually reason she was worried. The Dementors had come near her twice and this time she had nearly died. She didn't know why they seemed fixated on her but she needed to find a way of fighting them. She did not like the weak, overwhelmed feeling she felt every time she was around them. She vowed to find Professor Lupin and ask him to teach her the spell he used to repel the Dementors.

It was a relief to return to the noise and bustle of the main school on Monday, where she was forced to think about other things, even if she had to endure Malfoy's taunting. Malfoy was almost beside himself with glee at Aileen fainting and spending a week in the infirmary. He had finally taken off his bandages, and celebrated having the full use of both arms again by doing spirited imitations of Aileen falling off her broom (conveniently forgetting the lightning) until he was caught doing so by a teacher and given detention and lose of house points. That same afternoon was their defence class.

"If Snape's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I'm skiving off," said Ron as they headed toward Lupin's classroom after lunch; he had gotten in trouble for punching Malfoy moments before Professor Flitwick had stepped in and given Malfoy detention for bullying. He had had enough of dealing with Slytherins that day and wanted to avoid Snape after punching 'his favourite student' as Ron put it. "Check who's in there, Hermione."

Hermione peered around the classroom door.

"It's okay!"

Professor Lupin was back at work. Aileen frowned in worry when she took in his appearance. There had been two incidents in the last two months where he had come to lesson pale and with bags under his eyes, but that was nothing to his appearance now. His robes were hanging from his frame a bit more than normal, like he had hardly eaten in the last week and he had deep shadows beneath his eyes.

Despite how his health was still obviously suffering, he smiled in greeting as the class took their seats. The third years took this as their cue to explode into a jumbled mess of complaints about Professor Snape and his behaviour over the two lessons he had covered while Professor Lupin was recovering.

"It's not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?"

"We don't know anything about werewolves -"

"-Or Vampires -"

"- two rolls of parchment!"

"Did you tell Professor Snape we haven't covered them yet?" Lupin asked, frowning slightly as he picked up that the class was taught vampires and werewolves in the classes that Professor Snape had covered.

The babble broke out again.

"Yes, but he said we were really behind -"

"- he wouldn't listen -"

"- two rolls of parchment!"

Professor Lupin smiled at the look of indignation on every face, particularly the student who was horrified about the amount of homework that professor Snape had assigned.

"Don't worry. I'll speak to Professor Snape. You don't have to do the essay on vampires and I will ask for the one on werewolves to make sure it is marked fairly considering your lake of foreknowledge of the subject."

"Oh no," said Hermione, looking very disappointed. "I've already finished it!"

They had a very enjoyable lesson. Professor Lupin had brought along a glass box containing a Hinkypunk, a little one-legged creature who looked as though he were made of wisps of smoke, rather frail and harmless looking.

When the bell rang, everyone gathered up their things and headed for the door, Aileen among them, but –

"Wait a moment, Aileen," Lupin called. "I'd like a word."

Aileen doubled back and watched Professor Lupin covering the Hinkypunk's box with a cloth.

"I heard about the match," said Lupin, turning back to his desk and starting to pile books into his briefcase, "and I'm sorry about your broomstick. Is there any chance of fixing it?"

"I can put it back together but the damage was too extensive, even if the tree hadn't broken it to pieces. My broom won't be able to take to the skies again."

Lupin sighed. "They planted the Whomping Willow the same year that I arrived at Hogwarts. People used to play a game, trying to get near enough to touch the trunk. In the end, a boy called Davey Gudgeon nearly lost an eye, and we were forbidden to go near it. No broomstick would have a chance."

"Professor, the Dementors appeared at the match," Aileen began.

Lupin looked at her quickly. "Yes, I know. I don't think any of us have seen Professor Dumbledore that angry. They have been growing restless for some time...furious at his refusal to let them inside the grounds...I suppose they were the reason you fell?"

"No, I nearly got hit by lightning, but I doubted I would have been able to hold on much longer, they had been closing in on me when the lightning hit. But Professor, I was wondering if you could teach me how to fight them?"

"I don't pretend to be an expert at fighting Dementors, Aileen - quite the contrary..."

"Please professor, I could barely stay conscious when one Dementor was near me and I nearly died during that Quidditch match. I can't keep going like this – not if they continue to guard the school."

Lupin looked into Aileen's determined face, hesitated, then said, "Well...all right. I'll try and help. But it'll have to wait until next term, I'm afraid. I have a lot to do before the holidays. I chose a very inconvenient time to fall ill."

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Edited: 06/05/2020