"I want to die," groaned Ron from his bunk. Harry was entering the room, having finally gotten out of the shower.

"It wasn't that bad," said Harry, disbelieving what he was saying as he ran the towel through his hair. Every part of his body ached.

"She wanted to kill us!"

"If she wanted to do that, she'd have done it," said Harry, falling onto his own bunk.

"She's insane!"

"She's teaching us how to fight," said Harry.

"You don't teach someone how to fight by trying to kill them!"

"I don't know, it's always been a good teacher for me," grumbled Harry. "When are quidditch tryouts?" he asked, shoving the conversation in an entirely different direction.

"End of the week," said Ron.

"Then we also need you to practice for Keeper."

"You think I could pull it off?" asked Ron.

"I know you can pull it off. You just have to do it."

"How do you manage to keep up on homework?" asked Harry, collapsed at one end of a destroyed Room of Requirement.

"By being smarter than you," replied Etna, tapping her foot on the obsidian floor. "I thought that was obvious. Come on, I want you to cast that other shield charm I taught you."

"What, the bunker shield?" He waved his wand, not bothering to stand up, muttered the incantation under his breath and a column of blue light formed a few feet away. A sickly yellow bolt of power splashed through it, and Harry screamed in pain.

He jumped to his feet.

"What the bloody hell was that?"

"Shieldbreaker's curse. Pretty specialized charm for hurting someone hiding behind a shield charm."

Harry glanced at his bunker, realizing it was just as solid as before.

"What does it do?"

"It hurts whoever set up the shield charm. Voldemort isn't one for casting shields, but it'll cause pain in a priori incantatem if you want to go for one."

"How do you know these things?" asked Harry, practicing the wand motion he had seen Etna make.

"My boss's wife taught me. She was a witch, and she wanted to pass on what she knew. Even made me my wand. Enough of the ancient history, though. Try it out."

"What's the incantation?" asked Harry.

Etna shrugged.

"Intent's more important, anyways." She threw up a bunker shield. "So go on, I know you want to hurt me after the amount of shit I've done to you," she said with a smile.

Harry went through the wand motions, focusing his intent on making the spell happen. A faint yellow splotch lept from his wand to the shield.

Etna glared at him, then made two quick slashes with her wand.

Harry promptly fell to the ground, trying not to scream.

"Try again."

"That was a bloody crucio!"

"Yeah, so? Now cast the shield breaker, or it's only going to get more painful."

Harry made the wand motions again, the sickly yellow curse leapt from his wand and slammed into the bunker shield. Etna twitched.

"Much better!" said Etna. "Congratulations, your first bit of silent magic! Just to warn you, from here on out, I expect everything to be silent."

The blood drained from Harry's face as Etna pulled out a piece of tape, and banished it across Harry's face. While he clawed at it, Etna conjured a firewhip. He deemed it smarter to just run for it.

Harry held the letter in his hands, having taken a more roundabout route at Nearly-Headless Nick's advice. It had taken him quite a while to write it, and he had gone over it in his head a few times just in case.

Dear Snuffles,

Hope you're okay, the first week back here's been terrible, I'm really glad it's the weekend.

Our new friend is nearly as nice as your mum when it comes to teaching. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night. Our new friend was watching, and noticed immediately, and after I explained what I wrote you last summer, our new friend became rather quiet. Do you have any thoughts as to why?

We're all missing our biggest friend, we hope he'll be back soon.

Best,

Harry

Harry called down Hedwig, and gave her the letter. He stood at the windows, watching Hedwig fly off into the distance, and just feeling better at the day. He had a better Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Etna wouldn't try to kill him until Tuesday evening, and it was beautiful Quidditch weather. Then he saw it rise out of the trees.

The zombie horse Etna had joked about, and Luna had, apparently, also seen.

It soared in a wide circle over the trees, then dived back into them. Gone before he could do anything, think anything, but just go into shock at having once more seen one.

The Owlery door opened behind him, and he jumped and quickly spun around, seeing Cho holding a parcel and letter.

"Hi," said Harry.

"Oh… hi," she said. "I didn't think anyone would be up here this early… I only remembered five minutes ago, it's my mum's birthday." She held up the parcel as evidence.

"Right," said Harry. His brain attempted to catch up with his mouth, attempting to find something suitably witty to remark upon, but there had been a zombie horse. His brain failed.

"Nice day," he said, gesturing at the windows. His brain smacked his mouth upside the head while screaming The weather? You idiot! in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Etna's.

"Yeah," said Cho, looking for an owl. "Good Quidditch conditions. I haven't been out all week, have you?"

"I was for tryouts," said Harry.

Cho picked one of the school barn owls. She coaxed it down onto her arm, where it held out a leg for the parcel.

"Hey, has Gryffindor got a new Keeper yet?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Harry. "It's my friend Ron Weasley, d'you know him?"

"The Tornado-hater?" said Cho. "Is he any good?"

"Yeah," said Harry, remembering the tryout itself. "He needs a bit of work, though," thinking of just how nervous Ron had been the entire time. It didn't help when the pain lanced across his scar. Etna had been watching the practice, stating she was under orders from the Hufflepuff captain, since she was "friends" with Harry.

Of course she had noticed it. She'd pumped him for information afterward.

"You'll have to forgive me when I say I hope he stays nervous."

Harry smiled.

"I'll try."

"I- er- I heard about what happened with Umbridge," said Cho. "Putting you in detention, and doing- doing what you had to do for telling how- how he died."

"It was mostly Etna," said Harry, looking at his feet. "Getting her fired, and all."

"You stood up to her, anyways," said Cho. "You were really brave for doing that."

Harry's brain near melted at that, thoughts tumbling through it as he ran on automatic, helping Cho with tying the parcel to the owl.

"I couldn't help it," said Harry, as they watched the school owl take flight out the window. "Just what she was saying, I had to say it. It couldn't not be said. I was there, I watched- I watched it happen. And she was saying it didn't, even though Cedric was dead."

Cho smiled at that, and Harry knew he'd said the right thing as they left the owlery.

Etna yawned as Snape talked about the various properties of Moonstones.

"Is the subject matter to uninteresting to hold you attention, Miss de Malebolge?"

"Yes, actually. It's moonstone. It's a sodium-potassium-aluminum silicate. It's not interesting to look at. Ground up, it's even less interesting to look at. It's uses in potion-making are even less interesting than that."

The Ravenclaws were all deathly silent. A few of the Hufflepuffs were shaking in their seats as Snape glowered at Etna. Etna grinned.

"Miss de Malebolge, we will speak with the Headmaster after class."

The rest of class passed, Etna smirking in her seat, while the other students were worried for her sanity. Then again, she was both a Yankee, and friends with Harry Potter. It was par for the course.

When the bell rang, Etna remained in her seat, while the rest of the class filed out like a funeral procession.

"Your Occlumency is impressive," said Snape.

"You don't get to my age without learning a few tricks," replied Etna.

Snape was unimpressed, then with a swirl of his cape, stalked out of the potions classroom. Etna followed behind, bag over her shoulder. It was a short hike to the Headmaster's office, and Etna wondered just how mad Albus was to use "Mars Bar" as the gargoyle's password, but didn't comment.

"Ah, Miss de Malebolge, so pleasant to see you," said Albus, unfazed.

"I'm sure. So when were you going to tell me that Harry needed to die so Voldemort could?"

"Ah," replied Albus. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably, Etna tapping her foot on the stone floor. "I was unaware."

"Albus, I'm a demon. You can't lay the bullshit thick enough with me."

"Potter has to die?" asked Snape.

"They can get into each other's head for a reason, you idiot. Doesn't anybody here know anything about horcruxes, let alone a living horcrux?"

"I had guessed it was such a thing, but to have confirmation… they share souls?"

"Yeah. Pieces of them, anyways. But Harry doesn't have the sort of power to- wait, Sirius said it went Avada Ke-doink. Did he mean the spell bounced?"

"Correct."

Etna muttered something incomprehensible, then flopped into one of the Headmaster's chairs. She stared at Fawkes, who stared back at her, annoyed to be in the presence of a creature so unrepentantly dark.

"His mother sacrificed herself for Harry, didn't she? I mean, actively stood in front of Voldemort and said, 'take me, not him,' right?"

"Correct," said Albus, Severus blanching at the Dark Lord's name.

Etna rubbed her temples.

"Blood magic," muttered Etna. "Always comes back to blood. He doesn't have the knowledge to survive." She stared at Fawkes another moment, before nodding to herself.

"What are you planning?" asked Albus.

"Blood is the life," Etna quoted to herself. "Another mother's sacrifice. Typical," she muttered. "Albus, just so we understand each other, if you think I'm going to go quietly, you can think again. And if you think that kid can go dark? Given how he was raised, there's no way. If he hasn't lost the plot already, he isn't going to lose it ever."

"It's only going to end in heartbreak and misery," said Etna, looking down the corridor at Harry chatting with Cho.

"And what do you know?" asked Ginny.

"Harry's thick as this rockpile's walls, while Cho is whiney, needy, and looking for a good rebound guy. I give it two months before they actually try to date, when we show up, and watch them wallow in the misery of being with each other."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"How did you react to me?" asked Etna, still staring as Harry wandered away from Cho, the pair of them splitting, heading off to classes.

"What, when Harry and Ron and Hermione lead you down to breakfast? The way they just knew Mum was going to scream at them?"

Etna nodded.

"It was hilarious," said Ginny, giggling as she remembered it.

"You know I'm training Harry, right?"

"I figured."

"I want to see how well you can do," said Etna. "Alongside Harry."

"Really?"

The spear came from nowhere, shattering the pillar between Ginny and Harry. Shards of obsidian dug into their sides as they both leapt away. Harry sent some blue-green curse at Etna's blood wolf, while Ginny scrambled to her feet, sending a bat-bogey hex at Etna.

The mucus bat attempted to claw at Etna's face, but she just reached out and crushed it with her bare hand, a spray of mucus splashing across the ground.

The wolf was coming apart all along its left side, chunks of fur and flesh falling off and melting into the shadow beneath the creature, but it limped after Harry. He cut his own hand, and his own blood wolf, barely half the size of Etna's, leapt from the floor and launched into a rolling brawl.

Harry was terrified.

He'd never seen Etna so calm, before. Normally, she taunted, teased, and cackled as they trained. Instead, she was silent, precise, methodical. Flames were contained, controlled cones rather than the wild sprays she usually sent. The curses she sent were painful, nothing murderous, but still horrifying in the amount of power behind them. Poisoned flames, cursed winds all spread through the room. Half the time, Harry had no idea what Etna even cast, let alone how to counter it. Only once did she speak an incantation for a spell, and Harry wasn't even sure if she was using a human language when she spoke it. Etna coughed and sputtered, her voice screeching through whatever madness her throat attempted to produce, and there was a blast of flame in a color that Harry wasn't sure existed. It enveloped the pillar he had just run from, crackling obsidian tentacles splaying off it, attempting to reach for him and grab him with it's glass clutches.

He and Ginny had sent three blasting curses each into that pillar.

It wasn't long, though, before Ginny climbed the stairs and collapsed next to Ron, watching Harry and Etna sling spells back and forth in their dueling pit.

"Don't want to be down there?" she asked between gasps.

"Made that mistake once," said Ron. "Now we make the room with an observation platform."

Hermione was silent, watching in awe as Etna cast spell after spell, never repeating herself, barely making the wand motions, and never uttering a word.

"What's gotten into her, you think?" asked Ron.

"What, she's not usually like this?" asked Ginny.

"Nah, usually she has more fun with it," said Ron. "Maybe she's just having a bad day? Hermione, do demon's have that time of the month?"

Hermione turned to glare at Ron, and a wave of orange hit the observation deck, knocking Ron back against the wall.

"You think she heard?" asked Ginny, shaking her head at her brother's stupidity, only to find Hermione already turned back to the fight beneath them. Harry had just caught some magenta hex in the leg, tripping over himself as a turquoise bolt hit him, sending him across the room and smashing into a pillar.

"Get up," said Etna.

Harry dragged himself to his feet, wand shaking in his hand as he pulled himself to his feet.

"We're done. Go get some rest."

Harry frowned, but let it go. He limped to the stairs to the observation box, pulling up his pants leg. His entire calf was steadily purpling from a bruise. He watched Etna leave as Hermione started with some basic first aid charms, reducing the size of the bruise to merely a quaffle.

"So what's got your panties in a twist?" asked Ginny.

Etna was silent as Ginny followed her down the hall.

"No, really. Yesterday was horrible. Ron said usually you're vaguely nice. Granted, Ron's also an idiot, but generally if he says you're vaguely nice, that means you aren't Snape."

Etna stopped, and stared out the window. Ginny gave her a minute, frowned, then tried a different tactic.

"So I was trying to cast that spell you and Harry used. The wolf spell."

"Didn't work?" asked Etna, still staring out the window.

"No, it didn't. I was wondering why?"

"You have to watch someone die, first."

Ginny turned white.

"I've got to get to class," said Etna. "I'll see you at lunch, alright?"