ALERT: Please do not leave any comments that spoil anything in the HP Mystery game, okay? I'm only into 2nd year, and this really doesn't give anything away. I'm really only using the characters and the ships I've made so far. Nothing that you will see here is taken from the game other than the characters' dispositions and simple stuff like that. So if you are farther in the game than me, and see some inaccuracy because there's something that I don't know about that happens to one of the characters or something, please please please don't let me know! I'm just writing this to have fun and to share possible ships with the world. I love peoples' comments (for example, I would love to know if you like my ships as well or if you like the story!), but I don't want the game to be ruined for anyone! Thank you! Also, thank you to 98 for telling me that the first version of this chapter I had up was all in code. Hopefully, that is fixed!

I didn't really know where to look. Every sight seemed to bring up another unwanted memory. They were like Grindylows at the first sign of weakness, suddenly thousands of them, pulling me down into the depths of feelings that hadn't surfaced for a long time. Well, they seemed to be saying as their spiny little fingers clung to me desperately, if you won't let them come up, we'll bring you to them.

I thought my chest might explode when I saw him for the first time. All I could think of was that day in the middle of November, fifth year, when Rowan had come to me to tell me something I couldn't believe.

The First Memory:

I had been snoozing in the comfort of the Hufflepuff common room, shielding the light from my eyes with a particularly long parchment of notes for my Potions exam, when Rowan flew into the common room and plopped onto the sofa beside me.

"Mm!"

"Abigail, guess what," Rowan said, shoving the parchment off my face and onto the floor.

"The stress of OWLs has finally made you crack, you're about to go on a crusade to stop all studying," I grumbled, not pleased that she had woken me up. She rolled her eyes.

"You were napping, and everyone within earshot knows it."

I ignored the crack about my snoring.

"What's happened?" I asked instead. She looked around, satisfied herself that no one worth keeping secrets from was around (RIP, two first year boys giggling over some drawing in their transfiguration book), then turned to me, a strange half grin on her face.

"Bill Weasley's been talking about you."

I perked up immediately.

"Has he been telling people about our next duel? Oh, that idiot, he's going to be absolutely trashed in front of everyone! He does know that he's already lost like a million duels to me in the time that we've known each other, doesn't he? Oh, Merlin, Rowan, this is going to be hilarious. I will never let him live this down—"

"It's not about your duel," Rowan interrupted me, her face somewhat deflated now, as if it had had time to consider and perhaps reevaluate the emotions she had surrounding this news. I stared at her.

"Not about—well, what is it?" I tried to think of something he might be talking about with other people. I came up empty. "Have I done something to him?"

Rowan shook her head, and some of her hair fell into her face, obscuring her features. She didn't bother moving it as she answered me.

"He's been…talking about you."

"Oh…talking…" I was still slightly lost. "What were his exact words?" I asked, hoping for a clue.

"He was asking me whether I thought you would go to Hogsmeade with him."

Oh. Talking. My face became immediately a dark red. Bill Weasley talking about me.

"Oh." Then, another thought hit me. "Oh, Rowan, I'm so sorry. You've liked him since Merlin knows when. If he asks, I'll say no and maybe even suggest he ask you, if it seems, y'know, okay at the time. Are you okay?"

Rowan stared at me.

"You would do that?"

"Well. Yeah," I shrugged, though my chest was feeling strangely heavy. Rowan stared for a moment more before she punched my shoulder. "Ow! What was that for?"

"For being an idiot! I've seen how you look at him! I can find someone else—I've always known that he and I aren't compatible. We're good study buddies, and Merlin knows he's something to look at, but we aren't…we aren't like that."

It was my turn to stare, but even in my disbelief, my heart was already pounding at the thought of the possibility ahead of me.

"But…but…at all our Puff sleepovers with Penny, you always say him as your crush. Always! That's the gag. I just…" I trailed off, not sure where to go with this. Rowan blushed, and suddenly, she was looking at the floor instead of me.

"I…er…for maybe the past year, there's…been someone…that I just…I mean…" Her voice kept getting higher and higher, and I saw her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.

"Oh. My. Merlin! There's someone else! Who is he?"

Rowan blushed harder.

"No. No, not now. I—I can't. Can we just focus on your moment?"

I resisted teasing her but made her to promise to tell me later that day.

"So…" I suddenly felt myself start to blush again. I didn't like the conversation to center around my love life any more than Rowan liked it to center around hers. "What…what did you tell him?"

Rowan grinned.

"That I would send you to him in the library for you to tell him yourself."

I stared at her. Then, with a slight shriek, I took off for the library.

"Twenty points from Hufflepuff!" Madam Pince screamed as I sprinted past the front desk. I found Bill near the back, looking very restless and more than a little anxious. He was twirling his wand between his fingers, unknowingly switching up the books in the shelves behind him.

"Abigail!"

"Bill!" I blurted out, sounding ridiculously out of breath. That seemed to slightly disconcert him for a moment.

"A—Are you okay?" he asked worriedly. I nodded as I sucked in the dusty air.

"Ask me," I gasped out, motioning for him to keep going. He grinned.

"Ask you what?" he said teasingly, guessing from my state what my answer would be. I picked up the Charms book he'd been reading and whacked him upside the shoulder. "Ouch! Fine, fine, Abigail?"

"Yes, Bill?" I asked, innocently batting my eyelashes for comic effect. He laughed.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

I smirked.

"No, I don't think so." And I walked away.

"Wait, wha—ABIGAIL!"

We went to Hogsmeade together that weekend.