This is one in a series of books all taking place at the same time but from different POV's.

Disclaimer: Obviously not JKR.


Two weeks before the start of term I received my Hogwarts letter. I also received my OWLS. Normal parents are happy when their children receive all O's except for one. Unfortunately I was stuck with the psychotic ones. My dad congratulated me, but Mum was a nightmare.

"It's no wonder you don't have a boyfriend."

"It's probably that Lucas girl rubbing off on you."

"Why can't you make more friends and be more like Mari?"

Mari was the perfect one. At least in my mother's eyes because she was stupid enough not to realize what was really going on. Yes, Mari had an amazing boyfriend (maybe I was a tad bit jealous) but she had a hell of a lot more problems than making friends.

She wasn't eating, and nothing I could do made any difference. To top things off when I mentioned it to Mum she said, "Oh, don't worry. Your sister could stand to lose some weight."

Too bad I wasn't allowed to perform magic outside of school. I would've relished the sight of her hair puke green colored.

I also received a letter from Logan, asking if I wanted to go to Diagon Alley with him. I really wished I could have skipped out on the society gala, but Mum would kill me. Plus Mari would've demanded to come, and well, she and boys... It just wouldn't have ended very well.

"Maya!" Mari stormed into my room. "Mum says you need to get ready to go for a dress fitting."

"Why can't I just wear one of the twenty other dresses I already have?" I moaned, lying back onto my bed.

She shrugged, twirling her pink streaked brown hair on her index finger. "Mum likes to spend Dad's money."

"We should do something worthwhile," I said, but she had already disappeared out the door.

I heard her yell, "Maya's getting ready!"

The society gala was just two days after that, and it was pretty interesting. I tried to blend in with the wall, which was pretty impressive since Mum made me wear an offensively bright pink dress. "It brings out the color in your eyes, dear," she had said, which made absolutely no sense since my eyes were brown. My hair was brown. My skin was barely darker than pale. If anything the pink would bring out the streaks in Mari's hair, but no, Mari got to pick her own dress.

"Thank goodness that nerdy friend of yours is such a shame to the family that she can't show her face at one of these," Mum said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I glared at her. "There's nothing wrong with her."

"Sure, dear. Whatever you say." She patted my shoulder absentmindedly. I couldn't stand her anymore and strode away without an explanation. Even with my back turned I could feel her razor sharp gaze on my back from her ice blue eyes.

"Hi, Maya." It was Jeremy Cook, a Ravenclaw in the year above me. His light brown bangs were flipped slightly to the side and those brown eyes sparkled. I knew Terra Finch was completely in love with him, and in that moment I could see why.

I smiled. "Hi, Jeremy. How's things?"

He shrugged. "I was made Head Boy."

"Wow. Congratulations. Who's Head Girl?" For some reason I didn't want this conversation to become awkward. Usually I didn't care much, but I had to keep it running.

"No idea. My letter didn't say."

Someone slid in next to me, wearing a far shorter dress. "So who is flirting with my sister now?" she asked, handing me a drink.

"Mari, we can't drink. We're not of age."

"Like Mum cares, and wait, since when have you cared?" she asked, essentially blocking Jeremy from the conversation.

I rolled my eyes. "Since we were in a room full of ministry wizards and adults."

"Oh. Hi, Cook. Would you like a drink?" She offered him the glass of firewhiskey. "He's of age," she pointed out to me.

"Yes, I know." He accepted the glass graciously, if not awkwardly.

"So any cute guys, you're checking out, Maya?" she asked, again forgetting completely about Jeremy standing beside us.

I laughed. "Yeah, definitely all those Slytherins."

"Mmm," she mused. "You know, Griffin Flint is looking pretty fine."

"Ew. Mari, tell me you didn't just say that. You have a boyfriend." In the midst of this conversation, Jeremy slipped away, muttering something about going to see someone.

She shrugged. "Doesn't mean I can't enjoy the sights, yeah?"

"I hate these things," I grumbled, walking toward the buffet tables, hoping to eat something. Not a minute later did I notice everyone staring in one direction. For a single heart stopping moment I thought it was me, but in truth they were staring at a couple behind me, the law abiding, pureblood-centric Warringtons.

"Ooh, what did they do?" Mari whispered to me, covering her mouth and practically owling to the entire room that she was talking about the couple.

I shrugged and continued to watch a prominent member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Mr. Wales, approach them. He whispered something to them, and Mrs. Warrington turned paper white. She looked like a throw back to Victorian times with all the fainting society women.

"Where's Warrington?" Mari asked, and I knew that she wasn't speaking of the couple with clenched jaws in front of us, but of their son, Conrad.

I rolled my eyes. "How should I know?"

"Ooh. Maybe he did something," she speculated, swirling her glass with a toothpick that certainly hadn't been there a minute ago. Soon the fascinating sight departed along with a poker-straight Mr. Wales. His robes looked like he had used an ironing charm repeatedly.

"Well, why don't we wait to find out?"

She pouted. "But that's no fun."

Mum waved at us emphatically to join her next to the Harpers. Leanna looked bored as ever, twirling her blond hair through her fingers. I accompanied Mari, trudging back over to our psychotic mother. I muttered again, "I really hate these things," and Mari laughed, playing the perfect society daughter as usual.

Life was pretty uneventful after the gala, not that I thought the gala was that interesting. I wrote to people, received letters, yelled at Mum, slept, and ate. Life was good.

And then I remembered the bucket load of homework my professors had assigned, and being my crazy anal self I immediately started work. I finished in about two days. Mari thought I was psychotic. She still hadn't started.

"Are you girls ready?" Mum yelled up the stairs. "The Flints could arrive any minute!"

And then we had a family dinner with the Flints. There was nothing wrong with Brie. In fact she was in the same house as me, but the other two... Well, I had to suppress a shiver just thinking about it. While I'd never seen either of them actually hex a person, Tara's sharp tongue was legendary and her gossip never failed to spread around in less than a day, and Griffin was a member of the infamous Slytherin Quartet. Not to mention they were both Slytherins. I couldn't stand the lot of them.

"I'm not coming!" Mari shouted back, slamming her door shut.

"Maya!"

"That was Mari!" I hollered back, smoothing my blue dress. Per my mother's instructions it fell no farther than my knees, quite the opposite in fact. It was my shortest dress and strapless.

I heard her sigh. "Get her to come down now!"

I myself sighed then, resigned to bridging the ever growing gap of mutual hatred between Gryffindors and Slytherins. walked over to Mari's room and knocked lightly on the door. "Hey, Mar, let me in."
"I will not sit with them. They're all awful, horrible people."

I leaned against the doorframe, sure that this would be a long discussion. "Oh, come on. Brie's not that bad."

She huffed, and by the sound of her voice, I could tell she was just on the other side of the door. "But she has their blood." She paused. "It's all bad blood."

"Then we probably have some of it."

"What? Why?"

"Our own mother's not much better than them. Why do you think they're coming over?"

She opened the door a crack, so I could see her face. "That's a good point, but Mum means well. She just wants what's best for us."

"To marry rich and be popular. That's important." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, to each his own, right?"

I shrugged. "It's warped and archaic thinking."

She gave me a confused look. "Archaic?"

"Old."

"Oh. I knew that."

"Sure you did."

"I did!" she protested.

I smiled. "And since you think to each his own, why don't you indulge Mum her fantasies of riches and exclusivity and join us for dinner?"

Her brow furrowed. "Well, I suppose if you think of it that way..."

"You wouldn't leave me to suffer on my own, would you?"

A doorbell rang loudly, and Mum's face appeared at the top of the stairs a few meters away from where I stood in front of Mari's vividly red door. "You two had better be down here by the time that door opens, or there will be some severe consequences."

"Sure, Mum," I said. "Mari's just finishing up," but she had already disappeared down the stairs without waiting for a response. I turned to Mari. "So, in this together?"

She nodded, and slipped her arm through mine.

Rita Flint was the first through the door. Somehow despite being at least as old as my mother she didn't look a day over thirty. Mum claimed it was some sort of Indian magic that was illegal here, but honestly she probably just aged well. (and used something special). "Maya. Mari," she cried, beaming. She pulled us each into a hug. "It's so nice to see you."

I smiled back. "Yeah. How were your holidays in India?"

"Oh, they were grand. Thank you." She looked over her shoulder, noticing that the rest of her party had failed to make it past the entryway. "Liam," she said sternly, "now is not the time to be admiring the house's architectural merits.

Rita was an intelligent woman. There was no way she believed her husband to be admiring the "architectural merits" of our house. Like most purebloods he was too proud to enter our house. Perhaps things were different in India, since I was certain Rita was also pureblooded.

"Hi, Maya," Brie greeted me warmly. "Can't wait for the next season of quidditch. Do you know who the captain is?"

I smiled at her. "Actually, yes. It's Nick."

"Wow. No way. That's really cool. Hopefully I'll make the team this year." Her excitement was unnerving.

"I'm sorry Griffin isn't here. He should be arriving shortly. He's on a little getaway with some of his friends," Rita apologized profusely. Mari strained to stop herself from saying it was better that way, but thankfully she managed to get ahold of herself.

Twenty minutes into our three course dinner, courtesy of our two house elves, Griffin decided to grace us with his presence.

"Sorry, Mum," he said, sliding into the seat next to me. Mari mimed gagging from behind me. Thankfully no one else noticed. His dark hair looked windswept, but he placed his napkin on his lap and held his utensils with the grace of one raised to perfection. I hated him.

"So what did you two receive in terms of OWLS?" Rita asked, politely making conversation as usual.

"Well, Mari received eight E's out of her nine classes," Mum bragged, "and Maya, well, she's just a genius." The last bit was not said with much enthusiasm.

"I got nine O's," I said spitefully, glaring at my mother.

She frowned. "Now, now, dear. Let's not brag. No one will want to marry the girl who is smarter than them," she joked, but underneath I knew she was completely serious.

"Oh, I'm sure Griffin could handle that," Rita said jovially.

The next two courses were a nightmare. The only redeeming thing was the treacle tart, and even that seemed tasteless compared to the constant nonsense passing between my mother and Rita. Hardly anyone spoke other than them.

"See you at school, Maya, Mari." Griffin threw us his casual, glittering smile, and I just scowled in response. "Oh perk up, Maya."

And then they were thankfully gone.

"Why is there a goddamn muggle telephone in this house?" Mum screeched. I heard her pick it up and promptly drop it.

I jumped up from bed and ran down the stairs, although not two at a time since I would most likely trip and end up taking an unnecessary trip to St. Mungo's. "I'll get it!"

Somehow in her fight with the telephone, it was Mum who looked the worse for wear. "Here. Take it. I can't deal with this right now." She threw up her hands and walked to the kitchen to make herself some tea.

"Hello?"

"Maya!" It was Logan.

"Hey," I replied. "What's up?" I made my way back to my room.

"I'm surprised your parents haven't thrown this thing out yet," he commented, obviously skirting around the topic of his call.

I laughed. "Me too. My mum is going crazy though. Not that she wasn't before."

"Yeah. Well, my dad doesn't like the owls that much. Thank goodness you got a phone. It makes life so much easier."

"But didn't you owl me the other week about Diagon Alley?"

"Oh, yeah, but I was with my mum then. She obviously doesn't mind what with her own torrent of owls each morning."

I wondered why he was avoiding the reason he called. "So why did you call?"

"Oh, um, well..."

I rolled my eyes at the ceiling. "Spit it out already. I haven't got all day, you know."

He hesitated, and then very quickly said, "Nick and I are planning a party at his house. Will you help?"

I sighed and joked, "You two are trying to get me into trouble."

"No," he protested. "It's going to be an awesome end of summer bash."

"Bash?"

"Party. You're such a loser sometimes, you know?"

"Yes, I do thanks," I replied. "So this party... Who's invited?"

"All of sixth year, though I bet a bunch of fifth years will crash."

"Hmm. Alcohol?" I asked.

"Naturally."

The door of my room flew open, and Mari bounded in. "Did I hear someone say alcohol?"

"What? No. Go away," I said, pushing her off my bed, but she stayed firmly in place.

Logan's voice issued from the phone again, "You're not telling me you're against alcohol now, are you?"

"No. Of course not. Mari's being a pig. Hold on."

She tried to grab the phone from me. "Ooh. Are you using the teleyphone?"

"It's a telephone, and you're talking into the wrong end." I sighed. Why was I cursed with such a meddling sister? At least when we returned to school she'd be confined to meddling with Gryffindors for the most part.

"Oh." She flipped the phone the other way. "Hello?"

I didn't hear what Logan said on the other end, but Mari looked indignant. "Well, if that's so, never call this teleyphone again!"

I could just imagine Logan's peels of laughter at this. "Give it back, Mari."

She raised a finger. "Hold on." Then she continued, but not to me, "Oh, so this party. Hmm. Alcohol. Scandalous." She paused. "Well, if you insist. I suppose I can force my loser sister to grace you with her presence." She handed me back the phone. "You're welcome."

As she flounced from the room, I asked Logan, "What did she do?"

"Nothing," he said, concealing something.

"What?" I asked again.

"Fine. Nothing you wouldn't have consented to in the first place."

"Which is?"

"You're going to help with the party!" He sounded like such a girl.

"Fine. When should I show up?"

He pondered it for a moment. "Floo to Nick's around six. The party shouldn't start until eight. We can catch up as we set up."

"Fine. See you then." I hung up before he could rope me into anything else.

"So you see," I was saying to Abby. "You have to come to the party."

She made a face. "I don't see why. It's not like they want me there anyway."

"What are you talking about? Everyone likes you," I insisted semi-truthfully.

"But I don't want to go."

"But Abby," I whined.

We were in Diagon Alley, and even though Abby had already picked up all her school things the week before, I had dragged her down from the confines of her Warrington-invaded home to go shopping with me. I had just finished detailing the plans for the party and the reasons she should come, but she wouldn't hear of it.

"You never do anything fun," I complained.

She rolled her eyes. "I do plenty of fun things."

"Studying doesn't count."

Abby frowned. "I wasn't going to say that."

"So will you come?" I pestered.

She sighed. "No."

"It's not like you have anything better to do. You might as well," I persisted, dragging her into Flourish and Blotts. Maybe I could bribe her with a book.

Finally after painstaking efforts she picked the right book after going on and on about the muggle books in the shop her sister worked at. Honestly those muggles were awful. How could anyone fathom a game about children fighting to the death? It sounded like something Lord Voldemort would think up. I shivered at the thought, though I had never known his reign of terror.

"So you'll come to the party?" I asked once again, as we left the shop and winded our way to the apothecary.

She sighed. "Well, Conrad is being his usual jerkish self which is mostly why I agreed to come with you."

"Exactly. You can get away from him and party with me. It'll take your mind off of it."

She glared at me. "You know I don't drink, Maya."

"There's always a first time for everything," I assured her.

"When you're of age."

I shrugged. "To each his own, but promise you'll come to the party on Saturday?"

She made a gagging noise of disgust. "Fine, but only for an hour."

"Unless of course you want to stay longer," I added hopefully.

Her dark eyes revealed no amusement. "One hour."

I flooed to Nick's two hours before the party was planned to start, though most people wouldn't come until much later.

"There's my favorite girl." An arm fell around my shoulders as I spun onto the hearth, nearly losing my balance. The boy who caught me had tan skin and short dark brown hair. His white teeth sparkled as he helped me to my feet.

"Well, that was embarrassing," I said, blushing slightly and stepping out of Logan's arms. I looked to the taller boy next to him, dressed in muggle shorts and a Falmouth Falcons T-shirt.

"Hi, Nick." I gave him a quick hug. "So what's with this party?"

He grinned, "We wanted an excuse for drinking. That's about the extent of it."

"Of course you did," I said, rolling my eyes. "So what do you plan on actually setting up?"

Logan shrugged. "Not sure. Alcohol. Maybe a punch bowl."

I wondered where we could buy it. The closest place was the Leaky Cauldron, but one of our Professors lived there during the summer. "The Leaky won't sell to us though." I frowned. I had no idea.

"That's why we have the Hog's Head. The bartender there doesn't ask any questions, and he said he'd deliver," Nick said, crossing the room to look out the window, but there was only a dimly lit street. "He said he'd be here soon."

"Sounds good. You know, I've never actually been there."

"It's great to get a drink at when Rosmerta's in a bad mood," Logan informed me knowledgably.

Nick rolled his own eyes. "Since when is Rosmerta ever in a bad mood? She adores you," he said with mock jealousy. At least I thought it was mock jealousy.

Logan shrugged nonchalantly, and I said, "Everyone adores Logan."

"Oh, thanks." Nick raised his eyebrows.

"Everyone loves you too, Nick," I assured him.

There was an moment of semi-awkward silence before Logan stood, brushing off his pants. "Right, let's get to it." Then he headed down the carpeted stairs.

The second the back of Logan's head disappeared, Nick turned to me and gave me a knowing smile. "So what's up with you two?"

"What? Who two?" He didn't mean me and Jeremy. He couldn't know that I talked to him a lot this year.

"Never mind," he said, grinning smugly. "How was your summer?"

"Same old. Same old. Mum dragged us to some society gala a couple weeks ago, and Mari won't shut up about her boyfriend." I had to admit Xavier was definitely her best boyfriend by far.

"Is she coming tonight?" he asked curiously.

"Mari, pass up alcohol? I can't even imagine it. Yeah, she overheard me when Logan called."

"You have a phone?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I convinced Dad to buy me one to "test" out. I really only use it to call Logan when he's at his dad's."

"I never thought your mum would allow that kind of "Muggle crap" into her house."

"I know. I was surprised she allowed it, you know."

"Still being insufferable?"

"How could she not be?" I moaned.

"But she must have been proud of your marks. By the way, what'd you get?" he asked, running a hand along the wall.

"Are you kidding? I got nine O's, but she's still trying to marry me off. She thinks that I've lost all future proposals by receiving good marks."

He smirked. "I assume Mari's future will be perfect, then?"

I looked away and after a few seconds replied quietly, "Yeah. She's perfect alright."

Right at eight some people showed up, a boy and a girl. They looked slightly younger than us and both had brown colored hair. I'd never seen them before, but they introduced themselves as Mark and Jenna and seemed to know Nick already.

While Logan was finishing locking the Davies' room door, I chatted with Jenna. She was really sweet, though the fact that she couldn't see out of one eye was a little unsettling. There wasn't anything wrong with it of course, and as she told me about how she played Quidditch at her old school in Salem or some other American place, I was amazed at how she could do that. Flying alone took a lot of concentration, not to mention goal scoring with poor three dimensional vision.

People slowly came in and helped themselves to drinks. About half an hour in people really started showing up. Mari must have told a lot of her friends. She came in with her boyfriend, Xavier Louis, and I spotted a group of her Gryffindor friends in a corner, laughing about something or another.

I got to meet Nick's new girlfriend, though Logan said he was going to break up with her soon. I had to admit Chloe Hill, while ignorantly nice, was not very intriguing. She was very shallow. I didn't think there was much past her blond hair and blue eyes.

"Did you hear that Rachel Prince is dating Farley Corner?" she asked me, as if we were bosom friends. I had a feeling it had to do with the alcohol.

I shook my head, but I wasn't really interested in what the Slytherin prefect decided to do with her love life. "Really? Wow. I didn't even know they knew each other."

Chloe nodded, understanding, her blond curls bouncing. "I know. He's kind of stuck up though, isn't he?"

I shrugged. "A bit."

"Yeah. I've never really spoken to him. Just seen him around, you know?"

"Yeah." Then I spotted a familiar dark-haired head near the doorway, wearing my black dress. "Abby!" I dashed away from Chloe thankful for the excuse to leave her company. I wasn't sure I could stand pretending to be best friends a moment longer. "Do you want something to drink?" I asked, taking a sip from my own glass.

She shook her head. "I don't fancy being arrested, thanks."

Brianna Clearwater emerged through the door, unaccompanied. She greeted me. "I heard Davies got captain. Jeremy's going to be pissed."

"Well, he's Head Boy. He's got enough on his plate," I replied.

"True. True. I should go congratulate them. See you." She patted me on the shoulder before disappearing into the ever growing crowd.

I turned back to Abby. "What exactly am I doing here?" she asked grumpily.

I beamed. "Having fun!" I dragged her after me. Hopefully if I could get her to talk to a few people that she liked, or at least tolerated, she might stay longer.

A little while later I said to her, "Abby, you need to loosen up."

"I am loose," she replied, but her arms were crossed over her shoulders tightly.

I raised an eyebrow, but was distracted before I could prove to her just how wrong she was. A tall boy with brown hair approached us with a drink in hand. "Hi, Jeremy." I grinned, probably blushing slightly. Thank goodness Nick had made the lighting dim.

"Hi," he replied, smiling awkwardly.

"See, Abby. Jeremy won't get arrested." She rolled her eyes, continuing to cross her arms. "Abby, this is Jeremy. Jeremy this is Abby. Jeremy's Head Boy," I said, hoping to impress her.

"I know who he is," she replied, annoyed. "Congratulations."

His mouth twitched. "Thanks. So how has your summer been?"

I laughed. "Other than society galas to celebrate some bloke's promotion at the Ministry you mean?"

"Yes, other than that."

"Mari and I practiced Quidditch. My mum is mad. She took us to some other pureblood gathering, which is weird because we're not pureblood."

He laughed, showing his pearly white teeth. Yes, I could definitely see why Terra Finch fancied him. "Yeah, mine was mostly the same."

Just as we were having a pleasant, non-awkward conversation someone had to come barging in, someone with identical stature as me and pink streaks in her hair. "Hey, guys!" she wobbled slightly on her heels. "How's things?"

"Great," I replied dully. Jeremy shifted awkwardly, taking another deep swig from his glass, and Abby surveyed Mari's low cut dress with disdain. I had to admit that Mari would have done better to cover up, but she wasn't the type to react well to advice. If I suggested she wear something slightly more modest to the party, she probably would've appeared stark naked. Well, maybe not that extreme, but she would have done everything the opposite.

"Have any of you seen Xavier?" she asked, looking around hopefully. "He went to get drinks, but I haven't seen him since."

"Nope," I said.

"Louis?" Jeremy asked. "No." He paused, craning his neck over the crowd. "Isn't that him?"

Mari looked around. "Oh, no. That's just Finn."

Some seventh year sucked Jeremy into a conversation with her, making my blood boil for some inexplicable reason. Okay, maybe it was explainable, but I didn't want to think about it. I was sure Nick wouldn't approve of inter-team relationships anyway, and there was no way Jeremy wouldn't make the team, even if Nick didn't enjoy his company.

"Mari, why did you come over here?" I asked her angrily.

She gave me her innocent look. "What do you mean? I wanted to talk to you."

I sighed. "You ruin everything."

"What do you-?" She looked on the verge of tears, and then she took a deep breath, still glancing around. "Oh," she said, following my gaze to rest on Jeremy. "Oh, him. Aww, Maya, you have a crush."

"Shove off. Go snog your boyfriend," I said, pushing her away.

She shrugged. "Very well. I'll do it very publicly too, since I know you enjoy that so much."

"You hate PDA," Abby commented.

"I know. She likes to annoy everyone." I looked at Abby, who still looked bored and a bit out of place. The dress looked fantastic on her. For once you could see her legs and they didn't look half bad, but her stature and her facial expression clearly stated that she was bookish. You couldn't throw a nerdy girl into a party dress and expect her to transform, but I just wanted her to have a bit of fun and relax for once.

"Let's get more drinks," I suggested, taking her arm and leading her toward the stairs and around to the drinks table.

"You can get more drinks. I am perfectly content with remaining sober, thank you."

"Oh, get off your high horse, Lucas, and have some fun," and although I had been about to say similar words to her, they didn't issue from my mouth. Logan walked down the stairs, grinning from ear to ear.

"You look very pleased with yourself," I said, raising my eyebrows. "Who did you shag?"

He looked confused. "What? Why? No one."

"Okay. Then why are you so smug?"

He rested a hand on my shoulder as if to tell me something very serious. "Because I just planned the best party ever."

"You and Nick planned it," I corrected.

"Yup. Everyone will remember this forever," he said. "Or at least they'll remember something happened. I'm not sure Jessica will." He nodded to where Jessica sat, leaning against a wall and passed out on an unfamiliar boy's shoulder.

"Well, at least she's not sleeping with him."

Logan shrugged. "Why does it matter?"

"Self respect for one thing," I chided. "Just because you're a bloke doesn't mean you have to be insensitive."

"You mean I don't have to be a prick?"

"No, you don't," I assured him, taking another sip of firewhisky.

He made a sad face. "But it's so much fun."

"Oh, bugger off. You're just trying to pretend that you're not a sweetheart."

"I most certainly am not," he blustered indignantly. "I'm very badass. See. I threw this party."

"At your best friend's house," I added.

He waved the comment away, saying, "Details. Details."

"You're a prefect, you've never skipped class once, and all the teachers adore you," I continued.

"No, they don't. Once I set Vincent Mulciber's hair on fire in Defense."

"By accident."

He ignored me. "Professor Chambers was very upset."

"He was laughing the entire time, you dolt."

"Fine. Ruin my life, Maya. Why don't you?"

I patted his arm gently. "I'm sorry, Logan. From now on I'll indulge all your fantasies. I'll even let you try out for Quidditch and let you get hit by another three bludgers, if it'll make you happy."

He glared at me. I smiled back sweetly. "Hey, look at Nick being the perfect host." Logan nodded over to where the drinks were. "He's talking to Lucas."

I realized she hadn't been next to us the whole time and felt awful. This party was about her enjoying herself, not me ignoring her. "Um, Logan, I'm not sure what you're definition of perfect host is, but I don't think grabbing a guest's arm is falls under that category."

"Well, he's talking to her."

"Arguing now."

He turned my head with his hand. "Stop looking. They're looking this way." Nick approached us, having left Abby by the drinks and probably looking for his dull girlfriend. "The gala must have been really boring," Logan said.

"Yeah, it was. I was stuck with my crazy mum for hours and all the pureblood maniacs." Paule, the only female member of the infamous Slytherin quartet, glared at me, but continued her conversation with some Slytherin bloke.

Nick passed by us, and I smiled at him, debating about calling over to him. Then I saw a familiar head moving through the crowd toward the door. "Abby!" I called out to her and chased her down to meet her at the door. "Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving," she said somewhat angrily.

"Why? It hasn't been an hour yet."

"It's been fifty nine minutes," she replied, showing me her watch. Of course she had worn a watch with her dress. Like I said, some things could not be changed.

"But we were having so much fun," I tried, even though I knew it was a lie.

She sighed, brushing a stray hair behind her ear. She didn't seem angry anymore though. "No, Maya, you were having fun, and that's fine. You should have fun."

"You should have fun too."

"This just isn't my version of fun."

I gave her a smile smile. "I know."

"It's been an hour now."

"Bye."

The rest of the party passed in a blur. I probably drank too much, but not nearly as much as other people. I saw Logan performing several replenishing charms. Hopefully, no one cared about the Trace.

Around one the party was still in full tilt, but I had had my fill. I found Nick by himself, standing near the drinks and surveying the crowd. He looked just like Logan, pleased with his work.

"Hey. I think I'm taking off. It's getting pretty late."

"So early?" he quipped.

"It's one, Nick. Some of us are normal enough to not be completely sleepless in the morning, on top of being hung over." I yawned.

He grinned. "Sleep. So unnecessary. Are you taking that sister of yours with you?"

We both looked to where she was sitting on the floor somewhat tangled with her boyfriend. They weren't putting on a display though. She might have passed out from how much she had to drink, seeing the several bottles littered around the floor near her. Those easily could've been from other people though.

"I wouldn't trust her to floo by herself in that state, and Mum would have kittens if Mari slept over at her halfblood boyfriend's house." She would, but not because of the sleeping over but because Xavier wasn't as high up as she wanted her daughter to get. Honestly, there was more to life than marrying up.

He laughed, indulging my feeble attempt at humor. "Okay, well, see you on the train?"

"Of course." I smiled, giving him a quick hug. "See you."

"Bye."