Thank you guys so much for the comments! I am glad that you are liking it so much, and yeah, Abby is definitely in a very emotionally trying situation right now. Hopefully she'll be able to keep it together.

It had been a couple of days since leaving the confines of my safe house as I had come to call it, and I still wasn't feeling much better about the situation. I could tell that Ron, Hermione, and Harry were doing everything in their power to try and make me feel better, and overall make the situation seem less daunting, but it wasn't working. In all honesty there really wasn't a way to make a situation like this better, but I appreciated that they were at least making the effort.

Our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class was difficult for me, since I hadn't seen Professor Snape since I had nearly killed him. I knew that he had made a huge step in backing me against the Death Eaters, and I knew that I owed him for it. Upon my sitting down after entering the classroom he merely looked upon me, returning a gentle incline of the head that I had given him with one of his own. Needless to say one on one meetings with Snape were not going to be happening in the future until I could get ahold of these new powers and my emotions. Secretly I had been trying to figure out how I could break the phoenix bond with my mother so that her thoughts to kill him would no longer come into my head. Of course given the complexity of the abilities phoenix animagi possessed, finding out how to do this was not discovered. It could probably also have something to do with the fact that based off of everything that I could find, no phoenix animagi pairing like this had ever existed. My mother and I were in the fact the first mother and daughter pairing to both possess phoenix animagi qualities at the same time.

I could tell that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also trying to help me with the bigger problem of phoenix binding and possibly trying to find a way to get around having to kill my mother in order to get to Voldemort. It was an effort made in vain, but it was something that they felt was at least worth trying, and after a little I even found myself trying to find information with them. Of course I kept myself from getting hopeful, feeling that doing so would ruin the mental state I had managed to get myself into in those two days in my safe house. It was during one of our usual night sessions of reading that Professor Slughorn appeared at our table, admiring the books laid out across us curiously.

"Quite the studyers aren't we?" Professor Slughorn commented with a little chuckle.

"You can never read too much," returned Hermione with an attempt at a smile.

"Well, I am sure that every now and then it is good to take a little break Miss Granger. That being said I would like to extend my warmest invitation to you, Mr. Potter and Miss Carson to attend a little party I am hosting this Saturday."

Harry and I exchanged glances before I shifted focus to Ron who I could feel was feeling incredibly left out. I couldn't say that I entirely blamed him given the fact that Professor Slughorn had gotten into a good habit of completely ignoring Ron whenever Hermione, Harry, and I were around. Apparently Ron wasn't of enough skill to catch Professor Slughorn's attention, and one of these days I was determined to address Slughorn on that matter. After all Ron was a talented wizard, he just didn't always do a great job of showing it to people.

"I expect that I shall see you all there?" Professor Slughorn asked with a warm little smile.

"Yeah, sure Professor Slughorn," Harry managed to get out for us.

"Fantastic! I shall leave you to finish your studies then!"

And with that Slughorn was waddling off, giving curious looks to a couple of students that were looking at books in the various aisles. I couldn't help my raise my eyebrows to Harry slightly at his insistence that we would be there.

"Dumbledore has asked me to be close to Slughorn, and what better way to do that than by going to a party?"

We nodded, understanding what he meant. It was in that moment that I could feel an inner struggle and conflict growing within the person next to me. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, not entirely sure as to why the conflict was there, but wanting to understand it better.

"Hermione, I think there's another book worth checking out. Come and help me find it will you?" I asked, sliding out my chair so that I could stand up.

"Of course," Hermione said, her thoughts too preoccupied to really understand what I was asking her. I guided her down the rows until I was sure we were out of ear shot, before leading her midway down the row and grabbing a random book.

"Alright, let it out."

"Let what out?" asked Hermione, slightly startled.

"Let out whatever it is that has made you so flustered. You might as well be flashing a neon sign that says help me in front of my face," I said, giving her a stern look.

"Oh, it's nothing," Hermione said with a small shake of the head.

"Obviously it is something."

Hermione looked down the aisle nervously before looking back at me and letting out a little sigh. "Oh, alright. I didn't really want to mention it, and neither did Harry since everything with your mother and that death eater business had just happened, but...well...Ron..." Hermione choked a little, like she was on the verge of tears. "Ron kissed Lavender," Hermione blurted out.

I couldn't stop my mouth from flying open like a door swinging off of its hinges. "Wait...when did this happen? And why? That girl is just...well...she's just...well you know how she is!" I replied with a furious wave of the hand, uncertain as to how to find the right words to accurately describe that weird girl.

"It was after Quidditch practice. Ron made a truly incredible save that everyone on the team was so impressed with that they decided to end the practice on that good note. As he was coming off the pitch Lavender came up gushing, you know, as she does, before she gave him a huge kiss on the lips...and...well...Ron returned it to say the least." Hermione had crossed her arms while she had been speaking, looking away from me in the hopes that I wouldn't notice the tears about to spill over her eyes.

"Listen to me Hermione, that whole thing is doomed from the start even if it does get started. Maybe right now Ron is just being a boy and enjoying the fact that a girl is throwing herself at him, but I assure you that it will not last. She will be a phase, I promise you that." Or I will make it be a phase.

"You think?" Hermione feebly muttered out.

"I know. Now...pull yourself together. We are going to get you a date to this dance that is going to make Ron realize that letting that git kiss him was the worst decision in his life."

Hermione gave a chuckle at this comment, and I pulled her into a tight hug. "No more tears over boys that are a bit slow on the uptake, yeah?" I said.

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Alright, let's go back."