Erin was planning for an afternoon nap, since there were no classes today and she was finished with her homework, when suddenly, Erin heard a click of noises from the bedside table, like someone was messing with her things. She heard the zipper of her bag go unzip. That was what all she needed to hear, to quickly get up and reach for her baseball bat over the table.

Bat on her arms ready to strike, she was surprised to see Nanny Lisa and Kristina holding a cake saying, "Happy birthday, Erin!" in unison. They must have practiced a lot.

"Posy, just stay there," Erin instructed her cat. She couldn't pay any more attention for her pet's safety because of the large trunk that she was carrying behind her, plus all those sweets and pack foods Mrs. Rhodes insisted her to bring. If only she could curse her own mother, she would willingly do. She loved the idea of having her and feeling that someone was taking care of her, but this was embarrassing. "Stay there, or I'll make you bald, you abominable cat!" Erin yelled. There, she got the attention of Posy as well as the attention of everyone.

"So Jas, what are your plans in your life now?" asked Erin's biological father while they were at the dining table sharing some bread and chicken. There were Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes, Jasmine and her son. They were all seating on a round table that goes by the window.

"I'm planning on getting a job at Diagon Alley. I heard there were openings. I'm paying a visit tomorrow," responded Jasmine. Their father never really accepted fully in his heart what happened to her older daughter. She had a child without a father.

"Just make sure that you get one soon."

Erin looked Posy straight in the eye. Her new cat values independence a lot and she couldn’t blame it. When Erin purchased the cat from the Menagerie, it was imprisoned for several years. It was already balding. All Erin needed to do was to buy it and bring it into a veterinarian. There, it was named Posy and it became healthy.

"I am warning you, Posy, if you go in there, I will never give you cereals and you'll suffer the wrath of eating flesh Kent. And you wouldn't like him. He's not delicious. He's bitter and salty, not yummy."

Erin was humming to herself when suddenly she heard murmurings from an empty classroom while she was making her way to Murdoch's Hut outside the castle. She was ready for her huge sunglasses and a blue scarf to go with the scheming. This plan was probably the most important thing right now, but she couldn't let her gossipy self to just let this one go. This was a huge opportunity to gain something no one really knew about.

Erin directed her ears towards the door of the said empty classroom. The two people inside seemed to be arguing. Someone's crying.

During her free time at weekdays, in a particular week, Erin would find herself mooching about the Forbidden Forest overseeing Murdoch's Hut from a distance. She would sometime hid behind a hill or play like she wasn't doing something every time someone gets on or off the hut. With no specific reason, Erin would find herself so much into Waylon Murdoch. It felt like, he's a villain who would eat every student he sees on his front yard. She needed to watch this guy. She needed to prove something. She was very sure that she would find something from him.

"You sound like a crazy person!" Raven called for Erin. But she was just humming, singing? Okay, she was yodeling. She turned around and saw Raven all made up.

Totally surprised, "What happened to you Raven? You look like me?" Erin asked confused. Raven wasn't the type of person who'll just do make-up and tie her hair in random. She's the simple one. The boyish one.

"Er, ask Zhenya and Desiree. They played with me and I ended up..." she looked at herself first before continuing, "...like this."

"But you look good and pretty. The smile suits you." Erin smiled.

During their summer together, Erin and Beezus with her cousin Dylan went to a beach not very far from their place. It was all Erin's treat. They were waiting for the moving staircases to bring them to their right destination.

"I miss swimming. Do you remember when we went to the beach and swim our hearts out?" Erin asked Beezus fully facing her best friend.

"I did. And remind me that we should do that again. Perhaps, at your place? I mean the new one," The Ravenclaw chuckled.

"I'll ask my parents and you'll love Jasmine. She's no like Kristina."

"Posy! What's your problem?" Erin asked the cat in an irritated tone. Ever since, they got up to the common room because of the cold weather outside, the cat kept on roaring like she wanted to go back to the place they were once situated. If only Posy could talk but she couldn't. With that, Posy plopped herself to the sofa beside Erin, feeling a little limp. Erin smiled at her cat's attitude. She was clearly upset and disappointed at her master. "Don't worry. We'll go back once the weather's good, 'mkay?" And, Erin riveted her attention to her homework.

At the Welcome Feast in Erin’s second year at Hogwarts, she met two guys who were almost opposite in personalities. The first guy, named Julien Vincenzo, was very nice and welcoming. He may be a transferee, but still a good choice for a friend. On the other hand, a Slytherin who Erin never met in her entire first term at Hogwarts seemed to oppose Erin in many sort of ways. He embarrassed the younger Ravenclaw in front of all the Snakes who were dining at the Slytherin’s house table. Soon, she found out that the boy’s name was Byron LeBlaireau.

“Sam, it’ll be your last year at Hogwarts. Who will help me in my home works now?” Erin uttered sheepishly. She liked the idea of having Sam as her pseudo brother. That day when she approached the guy while he was studying at the common room was the day Erin would never regret her whole life. She looked up at Sam and pouted.

The older Ravenclaw smiled at Erin, “I promised I’ll write to you as often as possible. And, you have your friends in here. I see you have quite a number of bestfriends. You’ll do well.” Sam assured.

Strutting her way towards Platform 9 and 3/4 to face her second year at Hogwarts, Erin pushed her trolley with a lot of confidence. "I must be oozing with beauteeeey!"she muttered to herself, most Muggles are staring at her.

"Hey Miss!" someone called onto her. "You have something on your back." The guy hurried away after saying that. Her right hand reached the small of her back and felt a paper stuck onto her dress.

--I need a boyfriend!--

That silly, annoying, brat sister of hers! Erin will tore her to pieces once school was over. She will see.

Erin was with Beezus, AGAIN, at the common room. They were just passing time, nothing much to do. “Picnic? ” Erin asked Beezus.

“Yeah. When? "The Ravenclaw shifted to face Erin.

“Tomorrow? I’ll bake.” Erin suggested cheerfully.

Beezus thought hard and long, “How about now?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. The kitchen’s open. Let’s ask help from the house elves.”

“Do you even know how to cook? I mean bake?”

“That’s why we’re asking help from the house elves. And also, we need to visit the Baby Elf, right?”

“Guess, so... I wish we could have Cass with us,” Erin uttered.

“You’re a what?” asked Erin after seeing her biological mother’s sister for the very first time. She was undeniably a different breed. When her mother was as neat, clean and casual as anyone would see, Aunt Marie seemed to be looking like she had no liking in making herself presentable to anyone. Hence, she hadn’t had any inclination to men, ever. If she were to compare her mother to Aunt Marie, the slight resemblance was there but there was no doubt Aunt Marie was prettier than her mother.

“An Animagus,” Aunt Marie uttered proudly.

“An unregistred Animagus,” Erin’s mother added.

53. Chase

When she saw him there, Erin quickly made a retreating step. But then, he called her name.

“Erin.”

Erin, with her back on him could do nothing but to turn around and face him. She threw him a big smile. She almost died when she saw him return it back. A perfect smile for a perfect guy like him.

With that, Erin turned around and ran almost danced her way to the duck pond. It was like her heart was being chased by a thousand cheetahs. And she had no choice but to run and never let them reach her.

Erin would rather prefer to live a life at a slower pace so that she’d have enough time to enjoy what was here and pick up the pieces of what were lost. She would gather every memory she needed to make her holistic self, strong. It’s been a pretty hard year for Erin losing the life she believed ever since, was hers. The one she could proudly say was her own. But life was tough. And you should go with the flow. With the faster pace of change, one should be flexible enough to face the trials along the journey.

“They’re together,” Erin mentioned to Beezus while they were doing homework at the study tables.

“Who?”

“You know, HIM and her,” uttered Erin gloomily.

Erin loved how she could tell everything to her best friend without being judged or teased or something. She always had that intuition how to act and what to act in certain situations.

But today just wasn’t the day. “Who? Him? Her?” Beezus asked with raised eyebrows, liked Erin hadn’t even told her before.

Erin gave the other Ravenclaw a sharp look and pouted.

“Chill Corny, I was only joking!” Beezus gloated hard.

“I’m not corny.”

“Erin?” asked Mrs. Rhodes. After the emotional incident of Erin being reunited with her biological family and leaving the adoptive ones, it had been such a hard time to cope with the situation and the different environment. Erin was sent into a private wizarding school where she continued her magical studies from Hogwarts.

“Mother,” Erin managed to speak up. She was too tired and upset to even argue about Hogwarts to her real mother.

“What seems to be the problem? You look… vexed.”

Erin looked her mother in the eye, “I wanna go back to Hogwarts,” Erin uttered with conviction.

In History of Magic class, everyone was seemingly quiet and behaved. No one interrupts Professor Scabior’s discussion which was a rather weird situation inside this classroom. Most of the time, many students would raise their hands to respond to the professor’s inquiries. Erin would sometimes give an opinion or two as well. But now, it seemed like, Professor Scabior wasn’t in his right mood. He just read and read and read. He would reach for his wand a quarter hour or half to write something on the board.

Shift to the side.

To the right…and left.

Twiddle with her quill.

“I was running swiftly so that the vampire won’t reach me. I ran so fast. I ran for my life. When I reach the house, the vampire almost caught me. He caught my neck, like this…” Erin demonstrated how the vampire held her neck, ready to cut through her veins and drain her system of blood. “…I was scared to death, Lily. And then…” Erin paused catching up her breath, “ZAP!”

“Aaaaaah!” Lily quickly jolted. “What? Are you a vampire now? Tell me!” Lily shook her friend so hard.

“Who knows? I was bitten.” With that, Erin laughed so hard.

10. Arithmancy

Another lesson for Arithmancy.

Over the years, Erin grew deep in interest towards the subject. She was truly a late bloomer mathematician. She could now say that Arithmancy was her favorite subject. Upon entering the lovely classroom, greeting Professor Hadley, she immediately looked for Tiffany who Erin promised to sit with.

“Erin!” Tiffany waved her hand so that Erin would see where she was sitting. “Here,” the Gryffindor removed her bag from the empty seat reserved for the Ravenclaw. “Orange?” Tiffany offered.

“In Arithmancy? Seriously Tiff, you can be that tangy in Arithmancy?” How could she? It’s a difficult subject!

Erin was with Jasmine at the Magical Menagerie to purchase a new pet. She’d already lost Laila from Enya but she had fully understood her shortcomings and she’s all fine with the older Ravenclaw. Ely, Jasmine’s four year old son was tagging along with them.

“Mum! I want a kneazle!” Ely demanded.

“Ely, don’t you know how a kneazle looks like?” Erin mentioned to her nephew. He didn’t know what he was putting himself into.

“Why? They’re cats, right? My friends tell me that I should get one.”

“They’re small tigers. Rawrrrr!” Erin said scaring her nephew. Oh, innocent Ely.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

29. Pensieve

Erin could smell the lovely flowers of springtime, the freshly mowed grass; she could feel the swaying and dancing of the trees with its new leaves. And she loved every bit of it.

She was enjoying the lovely weather when suddenly someone patted her on the back. It was Scott, her fellow Ravenclaw. Erin suddenly remembered that she made him a promise to come with him at Tate’s office for the Pensieve.

“Hey! I was looking for you.”

“Yeah, I was just preparing,” Erin smiled. She just LIED. “Come on!” Erin hoisted her bag towards her shoulder.

“Where?” Eh, Scott?

GRINGOTTS MONEY

57. Goblin

Walking at the aisle of Gringotts with the little scary persons busy and deep in their work, Erin was bothered that they might just attack her and she would never get back to Hogwarts again. She'd been here once with her father who exchanged Muggle money for wizarding ones. But, today was different she was here alone. Her biological parents weren't like her previous Dad who would worry about her safety in the wizarding world. Her real parents trust each and every goblin for they already trust them for their money over decades and centuries. Frightened, she bowed, walking onwards.

Erin was amazed while walking at the pitch to witness for the very first time an actual Quidditch game. They were high on the ground in order to fully view the happenings of the game. She was with Katrina and they were hoping for their own houses to win. Ravenclaw for Erin and Slytherin for Katrina.

"Remind me again why did I go with you?" Erin asked while the game was just starting. With Kat screaming her heart out as the Slytherin team went out one by one, she could not take it any longer. Erin exchanged seats from Orr.