She huffed softly. "I'm not afraid of that pansy blond.. besides.. I've got Mel to protect me." She threw her arms around her friend and nuzzled her cheek.

"I'm sorry, did I miss something? Neither of you have wands, and you think you can defend yourselves against spells just like that?"

"Well it's a bit more complicated then that, but yes..." She smiled. "I'll spare you the details but it's nothing to worry about, really..." She darted up the stairs to the secret door and got her books for the next three classes to avoid needing to come back to the room before Lunch break.

He sighed softly and shook his head, relaxing a bit when they were in the clear. He gathered his things and waited for the others in the common room. This year was going to be interesting to say the least.

"I'd never let anyone hurt my friends." Mel grinned nuzzling her back. She rubbed the back of her head and chuckled a bit. "I'm sure people will find out eventually..." She coughed mumbling quietly.

Ron raised his eyebrow. "Those two are strange..." Could they honestly defend themselves against a wand when they didn't have one?

"They may be a little crazy."

"But they certain stood up to Malfoy and that was really funny."

"The look on his face was priceless. Wish we could have done that."

She laughed softly. "Hnn.. now I want a big captain hat.. with a couple big feathers in it...." She nodded "and a fake hook hand... and maybe an eye patch...."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Huh? oh it doesn't.. I just think it would look cool..." She grinned and skipped out of the common room.

He scratched his head slightly, unsure if he should be confused or concerned for the well being of his other classmates.

"That wasn't random at all~" Mel rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Weirdo~" She picked up her books and followed the group out of the common room. "Oh goodie...Snape's class."

"Just try not to get on his bad side right away." Ron frowned opening the door to the class and move to the seats they usually sat in.

She followed everyone to the tables and sat down shifting a bit. She just had a bad feeling about today. She raised her eyebrow feeling something rub against her leg. She looked down and spotted Lilly. "There you are..."

She purred crawling onto her lap and placed her front paws on the table. "Interesting class..." She purred into her ear as her tail swayed.

Snape stood behind his desk watching the students pile into the classroom. He sighed to himself. He saw the same faces everyday. He had been told about the new students not that he actually cared or was interested. Just more faces to teach. The only rumor going around was they were Dumbledore's nieces though to him they were just more students to teach. His eyes watched the clock until it was time to start class. He closed a book rather loudly as the class fell quiet. "If everyone is done." He eyed the room before he stepped around his desk standing in front of the class. "Today we will be making a...love potion." Snape curled his lip hissing the last part of the sentence out. "It's going to be deluded so don't bother trying to take some back to the common room and try your luck."

She smiled softly and closed her eyes, rolling them under the lids so not to be caught rolling them outright in front of the professor. She reached over stroking the top of Lily's head gently. "Stay out of sight.." She murmured softly. "Can't have the professor have a reason to single us out aside from the fact that we're new..." She folded her hands in her lap, waiting quietly for a moment before turning the pages in her book to find the potion they were suppose to be making. She shook her head slightly, trying to stop herself at laughing. Anyone who needs to use this must be desperate... She ran her finger down the list of ingredients, pausing for a moment, looking to Harry.

He smiled slightly and nodded his head getting up and making his way over to the cupboard with the ingredients, D trailing behind him. the two of them getting the ingredients they needed, other students waiting behind them. he headed back to his seat, trying to keep his face blank to not spurn any unwanted attention from Snape.

She sat down placing the ingredients down on the table top, glancing at Mel quietly before looking towards Snape, wondering if they were going to be given any more instruction or dialogue to listen to his bored and annoyed tone.

Mel sat quietly listening to him say they're going to make a love potion. That wasn't weird at all. She chuckled to herself before she looked over at her book and opened to the love potion page. "Hmm ingredients are...Ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, peppermint and moonstone." Mel lifted her eyes up a bit and watched Harry and D get what they needed. "This should be interesting.." Mel blinked.

Ron sighed not having much luck with love potions in the past so he wasn't a huge fan of making one now.

"We're not going to have to try it to see if it works...right..?"

"That would be unconventional, all be it.. interesting.." She smirked softly. "Take someone's potion and slip it to Malfoy and see what happens?" She giggled softly and looked over the ingredients and read through the directions, "Seems easy enough.. I guess..." She murmured and read the instructions step by step, repeating them back to Mel as they slowly but surely got through the potion.

She had no trouble with her potion, as perusal. she watched the other students quietly, watching their mistakes and wincing at them.

He nudged Ron. "Come on, we've got to finish this before class is over.. no one is going to have you test them.." He laughed softly and went through the instructions, glancing at Herimone for help to get Ron working.

She nudged Ron with her elbow. "If you get the potion right I'll reward you for it..." She smiled softly. Of course she meant helping him with his homework, but Ron being a male would probably jump to his own conclusions.

"I guess that would be interesting..." Mel blinked and shook her head. "I don't think I'd want to torture the one person we pick." She smiled looking over the book and to back to the potion. "Well the picture says we did it right." She blinked looking between the two things.

"You know how much I hate love potions." Ron sighed and shook his head. He looked over at Hermione and blinked. "Really?!" He grinned before he turned back to Harry. "Come on Harry we have a love potion to make." He grinned.

Snape walked around the room watching the students work. He knew his Slytherin students would do fine along with the one girl from Gryffindor Hermione. He watched the two new students for a moment. At least they weren't loud. He sighed before turning back to the clock waiting for the time to be up. Once time was up he lifted his hand. "Enough. Times up."

After the class handed in their potions to be graded, the rest of the day went by rather slowly. Herbology was just a lecture, and during charms the girls mysteriously got lost and didn't show up. Lunch was a bit bumpy, Malfoy glared at them for a full ten minutes before D decided enough was enough and voted to bring their food to the common room, which they did to avoid starting any trouble. During Defense Against the Dark Arts, the girls were summoned to Dumbledore's office where they spend most of the hour chatting with their 'uncle' and playing with Fawks and Lilly. They found Harry, Ron and Hermione in the hall and went to Devinations where they learned to read tarot cards, and then headed outside to care of Magical creatures, which D was surprisingly good at, considering an unruly Pegasus was causing trouble for her group and a soft. 'knock it off' was all it took to calm it down.

Then it was time for Dueling, which Harry had promised all they had to do was watch. They were joined once more by the twins, and unfortunately once more by everyone's favorite teacher, Snape, with Lupin on the other side.

"Alright, well, shall we start then?" He looked at a bit of Parchment. "Ah, it's Draco's turn to start off today's first match. Who would you like to duel?"

He sneered and pointed to D. "The new girl."

She blinked, putting on her best astonished face. "Me? But I haven't got a wand... I couldn't possibly duel."

"Ah, that does pose a bit of a problem doesn't it, I'm afraid you'll have to pick another student Draco-"

"No, I want to duel her.. I have a score to settle..." He glared at her again. "Crabbe.... give her your wand..." He hissed looking at the round boy who blinked confused, putting a protective hand on his wand. With a nod to Goyle, Crabbe was separated from his wand and it was exchanging hands from Lupin to D. He smirked.

She gulped looking to Mel. There was no way this was going to end well, but she shook her head. "Don't do anything stupid..." She walked up the small set of steps to the platform, watching Draco quietly, standing with her hands at her side. She looked at Lupin helplessly.

He set a hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly and showed her the starting position. "Don't worry, he cant do anything too bad without being expelled.."

"Yes, that's very encouraging professor.." She mumbled and got into the starting position watching Malfoy.

"You may begin."

"Stupefy!" He shifted flicking his wand, grinning, confident.

She knew that spell, She watched the red light fly towards her, unable to defend herself. She squeezed her eyes shut, expecting to fall unconscious at any moment. She felt an odd tingling sensation and opened her eyes. She was still standing, and aside from the pins and needles feeling as if her arm had gone to sleep she was fine. She flexed her hand a bit and smirked looking to Draco, pocketing the wand. She wouldn't be needing it. She took a step forward.

He watched, wide eyed, she should have been flat on her back and utterly humiliated when she awoke, but she didn't even twitch. "Impedimenta!" That should stop her... It didn't she was still coming at him. "Impedimenta! Impedimenta! Impedimenta!"

She laughed, already halfway there, the tingling lessening. She knew she should have been frozen, or pushed back, but it had no effect. She smirked and ran the last half of the stage area and snatched Draco's wand from him. "You lose..."

"I, what, but.. how? I don't.. "

He blinked a bit and clapped his hands. "Very well done..." I think...? "She's correct Draco, she disarmed you so she won the duel. and without throwing a single spell, very impressive indeed." he chuckled. "But I would expect no less from the headmaster's niece."

"Have to say this has been the most interesting school I've been too." Mel raised her eyebrow placing her hands behind her back as they walked to where the dueling would take place. "This should be fun to watch. Make sure you guys don't hurt yourself. Promise?"

"Can't promise."

"Someone could die if someone else gets carried away."

"W-What?" Mel frowned. "No one better die."

Snape stood a bit behind Lupin watching the students.

Mel stood next to D when Lupin told Malfoy he could start. When she heard him pick his opponent she blinked a few times. "What! No!" She stepped forward. "Fight me!" She tightened her fists and growled. Her knuckles where white. "He's crazy!" She watched D step forward. "Are you kidding? What are you doing! He'd hurt you!" She shook her head. "I...I won't do anything stupid...unless he hurts you.." Mel glared at Malfoy twitching slightly. I'd kill him. I'm ready if you need me. Mel nodded to herself watching the stage intently. Mel watched the flash of light not really wanting to watch but she had to. Malfoy would be dead if something bad happened. "W-What...just..happened? Did she just turn magic off?" Mel was a bit confused there. "Yay! You won!" She jumped up and down.

"That was bloody amazing!" Ron stared a bit dumbfounded. "I don't know how that happened but that was awesome!" He laughed.

"Wow. I wasn't expecting that at all..."

"Oh! Let us go next!"

The two didn't wait. Once Draco and D were off the platform the twins walked onto it and pulled out their wands."Stupefy!" The two wands erupted with the spell before colliding in the air. They both smirked before posing the same. "This is going to take forever..." "It is."

She frowned. "That wasn't magically possible...?"

"Didn't stop it from happening."

"But.. it's not... there's no way she should have..." She fumed slightly. "He did the spells right, there's no way she could have remained standing. He hit her, you saw it..."

"I did, but you also need to remember.. we've done loads of things we shouldn't have been able to, this shouldn't really come to a surprise to you, they are related to Dumbledore."

She sighed softly sliding off the stage and smiled to Mel. "See? nothing to worry about.." She wrinkled her nose shaking out her arm. "Tingly...." She looked over to the twins and smacked her forehead. "You two... seriously..?" She scowled softly and crossed her arms, thinking for a moment. "Loser has to sit next to Ron..." She called out smirking. Maybe that would speed things up a bit.

"Yeah but Harry...that was something she shouldn't have been able to do."

Mel frowned. "I know but..." She looked over at Draco and glared. "He shouldn't have picked you. He could have hurt you...I know what those spells were..." She grumbled. "He should have picked me.."

"Aww you'd really make us sit next to Ron?"

"Why am I being used to help? I wouldn't want to be stuck with either of them."

"We don't want to sit next to him." The two laughed before they went back to their duel. It took them quiet a while but they actually ended up knocking each other out.

"That only took forever." Ron shook his head.

"No, you can't expose yourself like that.. Lupin would have stepped in immediately.. and I'm sure... Snape would have joined in helping eventually..." She rolled her eyes and smirked. "Looks like they're both sitting next to you Ron.." She called and went over to Fred and poked him. "Hello~ Wakey wakey...."

He chuckled softly and helped both boys off the platform, calling up the next student and the duels continued.

He sighed and shook his head. "I've learned to not question anything here at Hogwarts since I arrived here...."

"I know." Mel sighed. "But I don't like having you in positions like that." She crossed her arms and tilted her head staring up at the ceiling. "He's on my list." She crossed her arms and nodded.

Fred shook his head and opened his eyes sitting up. "We knocked each other out again didn't we?"

"We did.."

"I guess that's expected. He looked over at D and grinned. "Here I was thinking I died and woke up to an angel."

Mel placed her arms behind her back and made her way to the back of the crowd finding a chair and sat down. She placed her hands on her lap before spotting Lilly and smiled. Mel picked her up and nuzzled her a bit.

She rolled her eyes and flicked his forehead. "If you start with 'So you come here often?' and 'Where have you been all my life?' I may just have to have Hermione jinx you for me..." She stuck out her tongue and smirked. "Glad you're okay at least, but, since you both lost, it looks like you'll both be sitting with Ron for dinner..." She skipped off to join Mel waiting for the rest of the duels to be over. She had a feeling this was her first and last dueling club meeting.

Once the club finished their matches everyone bustled into the Great Hall for dinner. No doubt her little duel would spread like wildfire now, she'd have to talk with Dumbledore soon. Though as hungry as she was, she was probably looking forward to the bath most of all. She sat down at the table, sitting herself next to Mel, petting Lilly gently. She cooed softly with a slight smile. "Lilly... I think you need a bath too after dinner...."

He laughed. "You bathe your cat? Doesn't she... you know, wash herself..?"

"She does, but you try getting the smell of dead rodent out of fur.. it's easier to wash it out with shampoo then to have her gradually clean it out... besides.. she likes the water.. it's the soap she's not too fond of..."

Fred chuckled a bit before he raised his eyebrow. "Aww I had a few more to think of."

"I was going to use 'come here often' " George chuckled and shook his head.

"Geez D...twins? Lucky you~" Mel smirked a bit. Once they were in the dinning hall Mel had a pile of food on her plate hanging Lilly a large piece of chicken. "Its like a holiday meal everyday." She smiled.

"Well they have to feed all the students."

Lilly's ears twitched grabbing the chicken and laid down across the bench as she ate.

"Yeah...you bring out soap and then her claws come out." Mel blinked holding up her hands like claws. "I had marks across my face for a while..." Dinner had gone well. The staring had gone down to only most of the students instead of all of them. Mel stretched out on the couch looking down at Lilly. "Bath time?"

She nodded, picking up the feline. "Come on Lils... you know it's for your own good... you're going to sit there an like it, understand?" She frowned at the striped cat heading off towards her room. "We'll at least let you swim around a bit before we wash you.." She smiled. "The bathroom is big enough." She winked playfully before slipping into her room, grabbing her bedclothes and heading into the bathroom. She hummed setting Lilly down and hung up her things.

"Americans are bloody weird..." He mumbled watching the girls exit to their room shaking his head. "Giving a cat a bath? It's just unnatural..."

"Can't I just swim? It's in water....I don't see why I need soap too~" She sighed and shook her head. "This is animal cruelty."

Mel started up the stairs before she stopped in front of the door before she turned around and walked back down at stairs quickly. "Hey~ Hermione! If the girls bathroom is ever to crowded you're always welcome to use ours." She smiled turning around before heading back up the stairs. "See the rest of you guys after bath time~" Once she got into the room she collected her things for bed and walked into the bathroom. "I really like this room~"

She blinked a bit an nodded. "A-alright...."

He laughed softly and shook his head opening one of his books, doing the assigned reading.

She laughed softly and nodded, getting undressed and sliding into the bath, a soft sigh coming from her as she smiled. "Hnn, nice and warm...." She giggled and pushed off the fall, treading water towards the middle of the bath area. "Come on Lilly, you can't stretch your muscles in that form..." She smiled softly. "I'll even let you pick out what scent you want to smell like..."

Mel sat down next to the pool and undressed before she slipped into the water. "Nice and warm..." She smiled.

Lilly shook her head and chuckled a little before she stepped forward shifting into her larger form before she roared playfully and jumped into the water.

"Ack!" Mel rubbed her face. "No splashing!"

"My bad." She chuckled swimming around in the large tub. It was more like a pool actually. "I do like it here. As long as you two don't kicked out.."

"I told Hermione if she ever wanted to use our baths she could." Mel nodded. "It's the least we could do." She smiled.

She smiled softly scratching her cheek. "Well that's good..." She giggled splashing Lilly back before wading over to the shampoos. She hummed as she washed her hair and rinsed it out, looking over the different soaps she smiled and looked over to Lilly. "Come here and pick one so we can wash you Lilly..."

Lilly huffed a bit before swimming over towards the soaps sniffing them. "Hmm..." Her ears twitched before she nudged one with her nose. "This one smells the best."

Mel chuckled a bit and shook her head. "Silly cat~" She smirked. Once bath time was over the to were able to dry off and then they worked on drying off the large tiger. They then got ready for bed. A few weeks had past and they had gotten used to where to go and only got lost a few times. They'd also hear the teachers speak of something going on in the woods and a few students had gone missing. When he rumors first started they didn't think anything of it until they realized they weren't going away. Then one Saturday they decided to go find out what the heck was going on.

Mel raised her eyebrow looking around the common room. Everyone had gone to dinner. Mel had grabbed herself a plate before hand and got back to the common room. She'd need a full stomach for her idea. "We'll have to make sure the others don't know. I don't want them following us." Mel snorted. "If they die I'd revive them then kill them for dying."

She wrinkled her nose slightly. "A bit hard when I have twins shadowing my every move... " She sighed shaking her head sitting on one of the plush couches empty handed. "I only got away because I said I had to use the bathroom.. the only place they can't follow me into.. then I used the secret passage in there to go through a different hallway and came here." She rubbed her forehead and sighed softly. "If we're dealing with an animal, We'll have the upper hand.. but if it's a monster.. I don't think I can ask it to stop stealing students.. or.. whatever.... it's doing to them.." She shuddered at the thought. Of course Mel would be doing most of the hard work, she was just tagging along for moral support... and making sure things didn't get too out of hand. She reached over stroking Lilly's back. Of course she'd be coming along too, even if they told her to stay, she'd lurk in the shadows and step in just as they needed her. She glanced nervously at the portrait entrance. "We need to hurry before they realize I escaped their notice using one of their own tricks.... I have no doubt they'll tell the others that we're up to something...."

Back in the Great Hall, Harry pushed around bits of his food. D had told them Mel wasn't feeling good earlier, though she'd never admit it to any of them, so she was going to eat back in the common room in case she got sick. he had told them to go to the Infirmary, but D waved her hand and said Mel wasn't a big fan of doctors and shrugged it off saying it was a bug and it would pass. Now she was gone too, going to the bathroom, but that was fifteen minutes ago. "Maybe she got sick too?" he mumbled, hoping that the two of them weren't going to do something stupid like his friends and himself tended to do whenever trouble peeks it's ugly head.

"Well they are rooming together, so it's possible." She frowned. "But they both looked fine, muggle or magical illness, they didn't look sick... and if Fred or George heard her wreching in the bathroom, you'd think one of them would have come to tell us something was wrong."

"I can get us out with no one noticing..." Mel placed her plate on her lap as she began eating. "That's not something I'm worried about." She already had an idea of what to do. She just had to figure out what they were up against before she had a finished game plan. "We have to hurry though. You've been gone for fifteen minutes and I'm supposed to be sick." She shook her head before finishing what was on her plate.

Lilly stretched out clawing at the couch as her ears twitched. "Our best bet would be to go now...everyone is at dinner."

"Let's get doing. The more time we waste means the more time we can get caught." Mel nodded. "Now...we just have to find one of the twins passage ways."

"If they're both sick they'd probably just go back to the common room and lay down."

"I hope they don't feel to bad then."

"I'm sure it's some sort of bug." Fred shrugged a bit. "They wouldn't be doing anything stupid like sneaking out and going into the woods."

He stayed quiet for a minute before the two twins thought for a moment.

"Oh bloody hell." Ron groaned. "They wouldn't...?"

"I think they would." Fred frowned. "But they'd get killed that way...we should probably try and stop them.."

"Or at least join in the fun!" George grinned as the two stood up after finishing their meals before the quickly moved out of the Dining Hall.

"I know which one to use." She smiled and headed out of the common room, pushing aside a torch which opened the passage way. "Lets hope we don't get caught..."

He nodded and stood up, exiting the great hall, making his way towards the secret passage that would most likely have been their escape route since the front door wouldn't be open. heading to the exit of the joined passage way he heard foot steps echoing down the secret hall and let out a soft sigh of relief, they hadn't missed them yet.

She blinked a bit pausing mid-step as she looked up at them. "Uh.. heh heh.. hi guys..." Busted... She smiled sweetly, folding her hands behind her back. "We were just going out for a walk.. fresh air is suppose to be good for you when you're sick right..?" She shifted her weight a bit, trying to look as natural as possible.

"You two were going into the woods to find what's taking the students...."

"Us? No, that's a silly thought. Why would we, two defenseless ladies, wander willingly into the forest knowing there was a creature taking students...?"

"Same reason we'd go In I suppose..." He smirked. "To find what's doing it an put a stop to it..."

"Yeah, but...."

"You said so yourself that you two are defenseless, so if you're going, we are too."

Crap.....