~whispers of the heart~

I was only shopping at Twilfitt and Tatting's because I wanted to stay out of sight. I was big and bulky, like my mother, with small, dull grey eyes and thick black hair down to my shoulders and a big nose and puffy cheeks. There were bruises on my arms from when she beat me for breaking a plate that morning, and they hurt when the stick-like assistant measured the width of my forearm, but I tried not to wince. It's not like she could see them, anyways, under the long sleeves of my too-tight robes.

There was a tinkling of the bell over the door, and I looked around, startled. A boy and his mother had walked in; they were having an argument, it seemed, because the boy was saying loudly, "I told you, Mum! I want to go to Ollivander's and get my wand! I don't care about my stupid robes!"

"Now, don't take that attitude with me, young man," his mother replied, shaking a slender finger at him. She had long, blonde hair and wore pretty blue robes; the boy had golden hair and a haughty expression, and he was wearing casual Muggle attire.

I suddenly felt very self-conscious, as the assistant was measuring my waist, and it was painfully obvious how fat I was. In a moment, they'd see me, and they'd think, 'oh, look at that girl, she needs to lose some weight'. I only had a few seconds to hide before -

Ignoring the assistant's angry exclamation, I dived behind a rack of dress robes, just as the boy and his mum turned around.

"What was that?" asked the mother suspiciously. "Was there someone else here?"

My heart thumped wildly for some reason; I prayed, hoped, wished that the assistant wouldn't give me away, while knowing at the same time that it was pointless. Why would she care about an eleven-year-old girl? And why did I care so much about not letting the boy and his mother see me?

The assistant hesitated to answer for a few seconds. A strange expression crossed her face, and she gave a ghost of a nod in my direction, before muttering "No, ma'am" and waving her wand to return the fallen tape measure to her desk at the back of the shop.

I froze in shock. Had the assistant just... helped me? But why? In any case, it didn't matter right now. I shifted my position slightly, trying to conceal my feet behind a particularly long set of robes.

"Whatever, Mum, it doesn't matter," the boy said dismissively. "Stop fussing. Anyway, if I have to get new robes, fine, but you have to make it quick because I want to make it to Ollivander's before it gets swamped with other first years."

"All right, dear. Excuse me, could you please find my son a pair of plain black robes?" the mother addressed the assistant. The woman gave a terse nod and began sifting through a rack of smaller robes next to the window. Meanwhile, the boy had a seat on the stool that I had been standing on just a minute ago, getting fitted for my own Hogwarts robes. His mother, however, headed straight for my hiding place.

In a panic, I stumbled backwards, hurrying to hide behind a different rack before she got to me. Unfortunately, my big, clumsy feet tripped over the same long robe they'd been hidden behind, and I fell with a muffled thud onto the carpeted floor.

"Who's there? Show yourselves! Are you a spy?" snapped the blonde woman, rounding the rack. As soon as she saw me, her eyes widened, and an expression of disgust crossed her face for a split second before it turned into something more neutral; but I had seen, and I understood.

"Er - I'm s-sorry, ma'am, I was just looking at dress robes over here, I didn't mean to startle y-you," I stammered, picking myself up from the floor. "Please, don't be angry..."

"What happened, Mum?" The boy's voice asked curiously as he peeked around the corner. When he caught sight of me, his face became disdainful.

"Oh," he sneered coldly. "Someone needs to lose a bit of weight."

"Zacharias!" his mother exclaimed, shocked. "Apologize to the girl at once!"

"Sorry," he muttered. "But it is true, y'know, in case no one told you before."

My cheeks burned, with shame and anger and embarrasment. I stared hard at the floor and clenched my fists behind my back, chanting to myself, don't cry don't cry don't cry -

"What is going on here?" The assistant reappeared, holding a set of black robes. "Goodness, why are you making such a fuss over the girl? She was just looking through some robes for her mother, there's no need to startle her! Come, boy, I've found some robes for you, but I need you to try them on."

"All right," Zacharias muttered. He walked away, back to the front of the shop where the stool sat. His mother followed him. I watched their shadows round the corner of the rack, and quietly wiped away the tears.

~murmurs of the soul~

"Hey, it's you again! Oh Merlin, are you actually going to eat all those sweets?"

I looked up, my eyes widening with mixed surprise and dismay as I saw who was at the doorway to my compartment. It was Zacharias, the boy from the shop.

"Er - no! I mean, no. I was saving these for a f-friend." I hated that my voice quavered at the end, but Zacharias didn't seem to notice. He smirked and went to sit down across from me, his legs sprawled on the other two seats.

"Hey, what House do you think you'll be sorted in? Me, I think I'm Ravenclaw. That's where my Mum went, and my dad was a Slytherin. But I don't think I want to be sorted in with all those purebloods, and dimwits and trolls and whoever gets stuck in there these days. I suppose you'll be going there, though, won't you? It'd fit your size." He snickered a little at the last sentence.

My eyes were starting to sting. I blinked rapidly and glared at him.

"Why are you being so rude to me?"

He shrugged. "Not rude, just honest. I bet your mum went there, too. I saw her in the robe shop, she was trying to hide, too, I think, but she was so fat that I could see her easily."

"Shut up!"

I hadn't noticed that I was on my feet until the sweets in my lap tumbled to the floor. Zacharias looked at me disinterestedly, raising an eyebrow.

"Or what?"

"Or I'll - er - I'll -" I choked on my own words. What would I do to him? With a sinking heart, I realised that the answer was absolutely nothing. If I so much as touched him, then he'd report it to a teacher as soon as we go to Hogwarts, and I could be expelled before I even got Sorted. The thought was almost too horrible to imagine.

So instead of finishing my sentence, I just sat down again and turned to stare out the window.

Bad choice. There were cows grazing on the pastures we passed, and I saw a reflection of myself in every one.

"Well, it's pretty boring to sit with you." Zacharias yawned, standing up again. "And I think I'll take one of these. You know I'm just doing you a favour." I looked over in time to see him pocket one of my Chocolate Frogs with a wink. "See you at the feast, Slytherin."

He left. I stared after him for a few moments, then looked back at the sweets scattered on the floor. My mind was made up in an instant.

Slowly, deliberately, I gathered up all the sweets in my hands, and opened the window. The train wheels rumbled like thunder, and my cat, Iris, meowed with alarm from her position on the luggage rack.

Ignoring her, I tossed the candy out the window, watching it scatter in the air and land several metres away in the long grass, propelled by the wind and the speed of the train.

Food for some lucky cow.

~dreams that fade away~

"Bulstrode, Millicent!"

I stepped out of the line of first years and walked over to the three-legged stool, where Professor McGonagall was waiting with the Sorting Hat. My fingers were trembling as I placed it carefully on my head. It balanced precariously on my ears.

Well, well, well, a little voice said inside my head. I would have jumped in alarm, if my mum hadn't told me earlier what the Sorting was like. What have we here?

My name is Millicent, I said inside my head, wondering if the Hat would hear me.

I know who you are, Millicent. I can read your thoughts, you know. And what I'm finding here is extremely... interesting.

What?

Yes. You have plenty of cunning and ambition here - you want something, and you're desperate enough to do anything to get it.

You - you mean that I want to lose weight? My internal voice was trembling.

No, I meant that you always wanted two parents who would love you and care about you, especially since your father died before you got to really know him. But that too, I guess.

Well, that was a bit awkward...

Indeed, I would place you in Slytherin right this instant, if I didn't see something that people don't usually associate with the cold-hearted Slytherins. The Hat continued as if it hadn't heard her. What I see is... a great potential for love.

Wait... what? I could almost feel the waves of confusion emanating from my brain.

You heard me. Though you've buried it deeply, I can see it in your love for your cat, and for your books. And for your mother, who raised you to care about knowledge, though in a roundabout way. Doesn't she punish you if you don't read more than fifteen hours a week?

My bottom lip trembled. The Hat was exposing my deepest secrets - for all I knew, it was saying them aloud, so the whole school could hear them... Please let this be over already, I prayed. If this didn't stop, I felt like I'd burst into tears, just from the realizations that the Hat was thrusting on me. I loved my mother? But I thought she was a horrible parent... Merlin have mercy on me...

"SLYTHERIN!"

I jumped from the shock of hearing the Hat yell my new House out to the Great Hall. There was scattered applause; a great many people seemed to have drifted off into conversations, but I didn't care right now. I handed the hat to Professor McGonagall and quickly descended to the Slytherin table.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. I glanced up to the line again, and saw Zacharias giving me a shadow of a grin.

~stories left untold~

To my surprise, I managed to find friends within the first week of school, which was very new to me. A pretty, blonde girl with a pug-like face that was certainly cuter than my own, a girl named Pansy Parkinson, invited me into her new clique of "popular pureblooded girls", as she called it. She introduced me to Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass, and Valerie Hornby, a quiet girl with glasses whom I instantly took a liking to. She wasn't too attractive either, although she was underweight rather than fat, and she was really nice to me. We quickly became best friends.

In the flurry of lessons, schedules, meals, dramas, cliques, and flying lessons (which I failed at miserably), I managed to forget all about Zacharias. In fact, I didn't see him for several months, until Christmas break; Slytherins had no lessons with Hufflepuffs. He waved me over in a hallway one day after class, and I was too surprised to refuse.

"Hey, Slytherin," he said, smirking. "How's your life in the House of trolls?"

The self-confidence I had gained about myself immediately withered and died. My bottom lip trembled, and I bit it, furious with myself. Why did I always feel like I wanted to cry in his presence?

"It's g-great, especially without seeing you," I managed to stammer.

He only laughed. "An insult, finally. Took you long enough. By the way, may I suggest eating fewer cookies during break? Maybe you'll lose a pound or two, I wouldn't know, I've never been fat..."

"Why are you talking to me? Are you getting pleasure from tormenting me?" I whispered. "Please, just stop... I don't want to be fat, I can't help being who I am..."

"Yes, you can. I told you; stop eating so many sweets, and it'll help tremendously. Tell your mum, too, while you're at it."

"Wait - how do you know how many sweets I eat?" I demanded.

Zacharias' expression suddenly became closed off. "It doesn't matter. Have a nice Christmas, Slytherin." He turned away and started to walk off.

"Hey! Wait! You didn't answer my question!" I wasn't sure why it was so important for me to find out the answer, but it didn't matter, anyway. I lost him in the crowd within seconds.

And that concluded our conversations for a long, long time.

~ghosts of the past~

The years moved along. I passed some exams, failed others. Same with him. For some reason, since that time in first year when I realised he'd actually been watching me, looking out for me during mealtimes... I had fallen into the bad habit of watching him back. Not that he noticed, of course, but it gave me a lot of insights into his life. It also taught me how different Zacharias was from me, and left me wondering: why did I keep coming back to him, looking for him during Arithmancy, even though he'd already hurt me so much?

I slowly fell out of favour with Pansy Parkinson and her clique. They started caring more about boys and makeup and Draco Malfoy in particular, while I had known from the start that no one would ever fall for me. It didn't hurt me much, for some reason. After spending some time observing all the boys Daphne had labelled as "hot", I decided that I didn't really want them to like me, anyway. They were all stupid, or annoying, or just full of themselves. I made the mistake of expressing those opinions, though, and Pansy just sneered at me and said, "You're too fat to get a boyfriend anyway, Millicent, so just shut up." I didn't hang around them anymore. Only Valerie remained my steadfast friend.

Throughout all of that, I even managed to lose some weight. I was now 55 kilograms, instead of 70. But it was still too much. I was still plumper than the rest of the girls, and I still felt that sick, hollow, empty feeling in my chest whenever I saw Zacharias and thought of those hateful things he'd said to me, about how I was a dull and dim-witted troll.

To my mum's surprise, and my pleasure, I managed to pass all my fourth year exams, which were structured similarly to the OWLs: my highest grade was an O in Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, and my lowest was an A in History of Magic and Charms. I also got an E in Potions, which was strange because I usually got a P in Snape's classes. He didn't favour me as much as Crabbe or Goyle, it seemed, because they always got at least an A, even when their cauldrons exploded.

But then things took a quite abrupt turn for the worse.

"Hey, you! Ugly!"

I made the mistake of looking around. A group of seventh year Gryffindors were sneering at me from the other side of the courtyard; one of them had their wand out. I gulped and gripped my bag more tightly, wondering what they wanted from me. I was walking to Potions, and I needed to be there on time, as Professor Snape would be going over Draught of Peace, and he'd hinted that it would be on the OWLs.

"Wh-what do you want?" I mumbled, not really expecting them to hear me.

Unfortunately, the tallest boy, who had jet-black hair and cold blue eyes, started walking towards me. "Why are you making others look at your ugly ass?" he snarled at me, once he was within five metres of me.

I took a step back. The courtyard was rapidly growing empty as students hurried to their lessons. There would be no one around to help me if they tried to hurt me... my heart started beating faster. "I-I'm not doing anything!"

The other three boys approached, letting their leader stay in front. "Oh yeah?" one of the asked. "So what do you call that, fattie?" He pointed at something behind me.

Like the stupid girl I was, I looked around. And received a pinch to my bum.

"Hey!" I jumped back, my arms windmilling wildly as I tried to keep my balance, and my bag almost slipped from my shoulder. "Stop it!"

The Gryffindors exploded in laughter. "You're so stupid, you can't even come up with a proper insult!" the tall boy jeered. "Why don't you go crawl into a hole and die, fattie?"

"You can't bully me! I-I'll report you!" I hated how weak and whiny my voice sounded. "I'm serious!"

"Oooh, look, Jen, she's serious," a brown-haired boy said in mock alarm to his friend. "We should run away now, before she gets a teacher!"

"Hem-hem," a prim little voice said from behind the gang.

The four boys jumped as if someone had electrocuted them. "Uh-uh-uh... Professor Umbridge! We were just going to class, honest! Don't take any points away!" Jen pleaded.

"Five points from Gryffindor for bullying an innocent fifth year," Professor Umbridge said silkily. "Don't let me see you again."

"Y-yes, ma'am!" the leader jerked his head for the others to follow him. As they left, I clearly heard one of them say, "Toad." But Umbridge acted like she hadn't heard.

"I'm sorry that they were bothering you," she said to me in a disgustingly sweet voice. "Would you like me to report them?"

"No, it's fine," I muttered, brushing my robes off to avoid looking in her no doubt sympathetic face. "I'm late for Potions..."

"Oh, it's fine, Millicent dear. If Severus asks, tell him that I held you up," Umbridge reassured me. "Run along now, sweetie, I'm sure you don't want to miss his class any longer!"

"Yes, ma'am, thank you, ma'am," I murmured, ducking past her.

Behind me, Umbridge gave a simpering laugh.

~echoes of a song~

The next day, I was trying to break through a crowd in a second floor hallway; I was late, once again, to a class, though this time it was Transfiguration instead of Potions.

As I struggled through a knot of particularly stubborn fourth year girls, one of whom seemed to be holding a picture of Harry Potter, someone rammed into me from behind. I winced and looked around, half-expecting to see one of the seventh year bullies from yesterday. But no, it was a sixth year Hufflepuff. The boy gave me an ugly leer before ducking away between two seventh years. The throbbing of my shoulder was the only indication that he'd been there.

Not a moment later, there was another shove, but from the opposite direction. This time, it was Jen. He pushed me so hard that I actually fell over, my bag spilling its contents on the floor; within moments, I expected them to get trampled.

"Will you stop it!" I cried out, but Jen had disappeared. Already, my copy of Defensive Magical Theory got stepped on by a large boot. I hurriedly started trying to gather up my things, but it was pointless; they were too far scattered, and the crowd was too thick.

Suddenly, my things started moving of their own accord. The sealed bottle of ink I was holding zoomed out of my hands and back into my bag; Defensive Magical Theory magically wiped itself clean of the bootprint and soared into a neat stack with my other spellbooks, which calmly inserted themselves into my bag, in the exact order in which I had placed them.

I looked up, not sure whom I was expecting to see, but certainly not him.

"What are you doing?" I gasped.

"Keep your balance better next time, Slytherin," Zacharias sneered at me. He picked up my bag and shoved it into my arms; for a moment, our eyes met, and I felt dizzy when his brown eyes bored into my grey ones. But I blinked, and he had already almost disappeared - only his sleeve was visible. A flash of golden hair, and he was gone.

"Why?" I murmured to no one in particular.

~this one is my last~

"Quick! After them!" Umbridge shrieked at the Inquisitorial Squad, pointing to the rebel group members scattering throughout the seventh floor hallway.

Already, Malfoy, Pansy, Tracey, and Goyle were chasing after the fleeing students. I hesitated, not knowing whom to chase. There were just so many, and they were running all over the place -

My eye caught a flash of gold, rounding the corner. Before I knew what I was doing, I was following whoever it was, although my heart was already shouting the answer.

I sprinted down the hallway, my breath coming in rasps - five more steps to the corner, three, one... I turned left into the next hallway and froze.

He was there, not even trying to run, just a couple metres away from me. His eyes were sparking with anger, I noticed, and he didn't have his wand out.

"You're caught. Come with me." My voice shook slightly, and so did my arm as I leveled my own wand at him.

"Millicent." It was the first time he'd ever used my first name. "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping that old hag? She's a monster! She's not even trying to teach us Defense against the Dark Arts, she's only trying to make our lives miserable!"

"She saved me that one day. When the bullies were going to hurt me, she saved me," I murmured. I wasn't sure why I was telling him this, but I felt like he deserved an explanation. My defensive barriers were immediately going up. "She's never done anything wrong to me, and I don't know why you're blaming her!"

Zacharias took a step forward, not taking his eyes from my face. "You - you can't be serious. Can't you see out of those tiny eyes of yours? She's a menace, a troll, why are you standing up for her?!"

I felt anger inside of me, at his cruel taunt, just thrown into conversation like it was nothing. "I'm standing up for her because she's the teacher, she's the authority! It's you lot who are running around, breaking the rules like it's nothing, and now you're expecting me to not turn you in? I'm not letting you change my loyalties so quickly!"

"Why not?" Another step forward. I steadied my hand, so that it pointed straight at where his heart would be - if he even had one.

"Because that's not what Sl-" I stopped. Slytherins did change their loyalties all the time - in fact, they were renown for always taking what they saw as the winning side. It was Hufflepuffs like Zacharias who were supposed to be the loyal ones. Yet here he was, urging me to join a rebel group, against a teacher who had never done a single thing against me. "What's in it for me? Are you really sure that your side is going to win?" My voice was almost a whisper.

He nodded. "We're learning to fight, because You-Know-Who is back. I believe Potter, and so does everyone else in Dumbledore's Army - the Ministry, and Umbridge, have got it all wrong, they're just denying the truth, sooner or later everyone'll realise that we were right all along, and they'll come begging for Potter's forgiveness." There was bitterness in his tone.

"Dumbledore's Army?" I asked curiously. "Is that what you've called yourselves?"

Zacharias looked like he wanted to smack himself. "I mean - well - I didn't want to say that," he said finally. "But - yeah, we're Dumbledore's Army. It's a long story."

I nodded, only half-listening. I was thinking about what he'd just said - about the Dark Lord coming back, and that the Ministry would believe Potter, eventually. I wasn't really sure about how I felt on that count. On one hand, the idea of him being back seemed, well, terrifying. My father had been against the Dark Lord, and that's how he got killed - Mum always claimed he was a "filthy Mudblood" and that's why she'd left him, just months before the Death Eaters got him. Mum, however, had always been on the Dark Lord's side, although she didn't let her true colours show until my dad left, when I was barely five years old. She wasn't a Death Eater, but that's 'cause she's a lazy bum. But she told me the stories about how he'd tried to purge the wizarding world of Mudbloods, and the stories were so horrifying that they'd made me shudder.

On the other hand, Potter and Zacharias seemed awfully certain that he was back. I remembered that Potter had claimed he'd seen the Dark Lord return, on the night that Diggory died, and at first everyone believed him; that's what Dumbledore had told us, after all, and while the old man was crazy, he was pretty smart, too. If they were all right, I didn't want to be on the wrong side once it all came out.

Zacharias took another cautious step forward, breaking me out of my thoughts. My wand hand had lowered slightly, and I pointed it at him again.

"So if I let you go, that means I'm on your side?" I asked him.

"Well..." He tilted his head, considering. His brown eyes appraised me thoughtfully, without the usual anger or contempt. "I'd certainly appreciate it. In fact, I'd be so grateful that I'll make sure you don't get punished or anything, once Dumbledore's Army gets on top and starts taking their anger out on all you Slytherins."

I smiled a little, and lowered my wand. "Go ahead."

He gave me a little smile in return, but then it all went wrong.

"RUNAWAY!" Pansy Parkinson shrieked as she appeared at the far end of the hallway. "RUNAWAY IN THE HALLWAY, AND BULSTRODE ISN'T -"

With a movement that was almost too fast to see, Zacharias spun around and cast a Silencing Charm on her. At the same time, I cast a Trip Jinx, making her fall to the floor so that she couldn't run back to grab Umbridge. But it was too late.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Daphne ran from around the same corner, their smirks visible even from where I was standing, over ten metres away. "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy shouted. Both my wand and Zacharias' soared through the air, and he caught them deftly in his left hand. "Well, well, well," he sneered, stepping over Pansy like she was a rock in the way. "Look what we've found here: Bulstrode and a little Hufflepuff having a rendezvous in the hallway. I wonder what Umbridge will think of this?"

"Run," I heard Zacharias whisper. I almost did, too, but something stopped me.

Slytherins weren't known for being loyal, but I felt like I couldn't move, couldn't leave with Zacharias still in trouble. After he'd helped me, converted me to his side, even, I couldn't just betray him and run away. But what else could I do?

My indecision cost me dearly, as Malfoy cast a Full Body-Bind Curse on both me and Zacharias.

"Let's go find out, shall we?"

~loved you all along~

I had fallen out of Umbridge's favour. Before, she was nice to me, if a bit condescending; now, she got this ugly look on her face whenever she saw me. This might be in part because of how Dumbledore escaped right under the nose of Fudge, Kingsley, Dawlish, and her; I didn't know the details, but I heard about it from Daphne. She's always been pretty reliable when it came to school-wide rumours, like in third year when that hippogriff escaped Macnair himself.

Anyways, my life got progressively worse as one by one, the professors stopped "supporting" me, so to speak. Sprout, Flitwick, and especially McGonagall gave me cold looks whenever they saw the Inquisitorial Squad badge on my chest. Sinistra avoided speaking to me directly during lessons. Snape refused to look me in the eye. I had half a mind - more like 99 percent of it, actually - to curse the stupid badge into oblivion, because hadn't I switched to Dumbledore's side? What was left for me with Umbridge? But things were so confusing, I had no chance to prove to anyone who I was for. I just did my homework and kept my head down, hiding my face behind my bangs, keeping a low profile while things sorted themselves out.

A few days later, I was walking out of Charms, trying to cram an inkwell into my overstuffed bag.

"Hey, Slytherin."

I screamed and dropped everything, ink spilling out of the bottle and splashing all over my books and clothes. Furious, I whipped around to face Zacharias, who was casually leaning against a pillar, just a few metres away.

"Why did you do that?!" I demanded angrily, waving my wand to Vanish the ink.

Zacharias raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "You know how to do nonverbal spells?"

My cheeks grew hot. "I practice in my free time," I muttered.

He laughed easily. "Oh, that's right, because you have no friends to hang out with. Is that why you're so good at Potions and Transfiguration?"

"Au contraire, I have a friend - Valerie Hornby!" I shot back. "We study together!"

"She's your only friend, though, isn't she?" he pointed out.

"Well..." I was reluctant to admit it, but it was true. Pansy and her gang had pretty much ditched me entirely, and it wasn't like I had friends in any other Houses. "Not exactly."

"Oh? Care to explain?"

"No." I was about to wave my wand to return everything to my bag, but realised that it would be showing off my non-verbal spells. Instead, I bent down to gather up my books. I was not a show-off.

There were a few moments of silence. I glanced around surreptitiously, checking to see if there was anyone else was around, but it seemed like we were alone.

"Want help with that?"

I looked up, startled, just in time to see Zacharias crouch down next to me. He began to gather together loose papers and quills, seemingly at ease to be helping me, like it was no trouble at all. I found this somewhat funny, as he'd been the one who made me drop everything in the first place.

After a moment, he noticed that I'd stopped helping and frowned at me. "Why are you smiling?"

I hadn't realised I was grinning slightly at the irony, and quickly rearranged my face into a more neutral expression. "No reason."

"Aw, come on," he teased. "Is it my good looks? My charming personality? My many amazing qualities? My -"

"NO!" I yelled. "Just - just - no! You're so infuriating! Go away!"

He didn't seem at all fazed by my words. "Easy, Slytherin," Zacharias said. "Don't want to make the teachers come running."

I rolled my eyes and stuffed the last stray paper into my bag. "Whatever. I have to go to lunch."

"Wait..." I didn't stop to listen to what he wanted to say; as quickly as possible, I hooked the strap of my bag over my shoulder and hurried off in the opposite direction. But this didn't block out his last parting words.

"Meet me in the Room of Requirement at midnight!"

~and even the stars, they burn~

Of course, despite my belief that this was a very bad idea, I was waiting next to the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy precisely one minute before midnight.

Somewhere in one of the towers - probably the West one - a clock boomed. A split-second later, another one joined in. They created a cacophony of gongs, almost but not perfectly synchronized, echoing through the castle like a mournful song. I slumped against the wall, suddenly feeling extremely tired. It was like the twelve chimes of midnight reminded my body just how late it was, and the weight of the day's stress seemed to press down on me like a mountain. OWLs were coming in less that two months, and I had been studying until eleven, reviewing ruthlessly.

The last gong faded away into the eerie silence, and I heard footsteps coming from the next hallway.

"Morning, Slytherin."

"Morning?" I repeated, confused. "But it's - oh. Right."

Zacharias laughed a little, striding towards me with confident, purposeful steps. "Good job, Slytherin. I see your brain finally started picking up the pace a bit."

And of course, like every time he'd made one of his awful comments, my heart hurt and my stomach dropped down to my toes.

"What did you want?" I asked icily.

"Oh. Right, about that..." He ran a hand through his messy golden hair, looking awkward. "Um, I just wanted to thank you for, y'know, letting me go when Umbridge was raiding the DA. I know you got into trouble for that, and I got caught anyway, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been. So, er, thanks."

I raised an eyebrow, trying not to let my shock at his apology show. "You're welcome?"

"Yeah... I wanted to tell you this morning, but you ran off too fast." He chuckled. "So I had to meet you here."

"I see." Somehow, his apology seemed to cancel out his hurtful jibe at my intelligence, and my spirits lifted a little despite my exhaustion. "Well, thanks for the apology."

Zacharias shrugged. There was a tense, awkward silence, and the air was so thick I thought I could cut it with a knife.

"Well, I have to go, or I think someone will notice I'm gone," I said eventually. "So, good night?"

"Yeah, good night, Slytherin." He seemed a little distracted, lost in his own thoughts. I nodded quickly and turned tail, trying not to walk too fast.

"Oh, and Millicent?" His use of my real name made me look around as I was about to round the corner. "About those things I always say to you..." I saw him take a deep breath, his amber eyes piercing my own, even from ten metres away. "I was lying, really, you know? I'm just a selfish jerk like that sometimes. Don't listen to me."

Despite my efforts, a grin broke out on my face. So he didn't really think I'm a troll, or I'm stupid, or ugly? "Okay. That's, er, great!" Merlin, could I sound any more stupid?

Zacharias took another deep breath, and blushed a little. "And I think you're actually very pretty."

"Oh!" Not knowing how to react, I just stared at him for a few moments. When I realised he was done with his shocking revelations, I quickly mumbled a "thank you", turned, and practically bolted from that fateful corridor.

As I ran, though, my cheeks flushed, my eyes strangely bright, I couldn't help a full grin creep onto my face. Zacharias Smith, my secret crush for five years, had actually called me pretty.

I've been meaning to finish this for a while, but somehow I never did... review please?

~Eagle, proud supporter of Millicent/Zacharias