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

Disclaimer: Obviously not JKR.


India was dull. Mum dragged me from one family gathering to the next. Day in and day out.

And naturally the day we returned to England, we had to attend some society gala celebrating the appointment of some Ministry wizard.

And my best friend didn't even bother to show up.

Honestly, I was fed up with people. People just made life a lot harder. You had to talk to them, be nice to them or not be nice to them, see them, hear them. It was a lot more hassle than it was worth.

"Griffin, you need to socialize," Mum said sternly, in her almost British accent. She still held traces of her Indian origins, though it was more prominent after our vacation there.

I ignored her. "Hold on. What's going on over there?"

There was some sort of commotion with the Warringtons. I hadn't bothered greeting them. One: because I was boycotting people. Something that proved more fruitless every moment. No one seemed to notice when I glowered at them. Maybe my face just looked that way. Two: Conrad wasn't here, and I was infuriated.

Some Ministry bloke had approached the couple. As he spoke to them Mrs. Warrington's face paled and Mr. Warrington's hands clenched. Everyone was staring. Half of me thought they deserved it for not bringing my friend. Half of me sympathized. I would have hated it if I had been there in the center of attention.

"Where's Conrad?" she asked.

I shrugged.

The Warringtons left with the Ministry bloke. There was absolutely nothing interesting about the party except perhaps the existence of firewhisky. I could legally drink now. It was fucking fantastic even if Mum did frown as I downed a second glass.

That afternoon could not have passed any slower. Maybe if it was spent in the company of Binns...

I apparated to the cottage by the sea. The tall grass waved in the wind almost cheerily. It irritated me. Plus I had to deal with Lucas and Paule until Conrad showed up. His letters were worrisome, but he was my best friend. I couldn't judge him, nor could I tell.

"Hi, Griffin," Paule greeted, flipping her dark braid over her shoulder. Once she had corrected me, telling me it was a different style called a fishtail. In my opinion, it just looked stupid. What was wrong with a regular braid? I ask you.

"Hello." I grinned. At least I would be away from my crazy sisters for a week.

She turned to look over her shoulder. "Lucas! Griffin is here!"

I heard a muffled yell of assent. Not bothering to wait for him, I magicked my trunk into the room that was always mine. Then the sound of a voice that certainly wasn't Lucas Malfoy's caught my attention.

"Who's here?" It was a girl's voice. I didn't recognize it.

"Griffin," Lucas replied casually.

I returned to the hall to find Paule glowering at the wall. "Who is she?" I asked.

She continued to frown unpleasantly. In contrast to when she smiled the frowning actually made her face look.. better? Maybe just smiling looked strange on her. "Avery Nott."

"Who?"

"That girl in the year below us. She's friends with that Lynn Greengrass."

How could I forget Lynn Greengrass? She had been the longest girlfriend Conrad had ever kept. Of course when she found out he was cheating on her everything turned to shit, but he hadn't cheated for three months. A record. She must have put out well.

"She's on your quidditch team, idiot."

"Oh, yeah. The one with the plait."

She nodded. "That's the one, and she's here now apparently. No idea why."

"Conrad is going to be furious."

She groaned, running her fingers through the end of her braid. "I know. Hell is coming to the coast," she muttered, "and I'm not really sure if I want to be around for that..."

I nodded. "I know what you mean."

"Where is he anyway?"

"His parents aren't too pleased with him at the moment. He should be here soon though." I couldn't tell her the truth. I promised.

Sure enough the door swung open with a surprisingly jovial Conrad compared to the resentful letters I had been receiving for the past week. He had a large backpack under his arm as well as a trunk in the other hand. "Hope you all haven't been waiting long!"

Paule smiled, and said so only I could here, "Oh, yes. There will be hell to pay."

"Good to see you, mate," I greeted him, pulling him into one of those awkward one-armed "wizard" hugs. I didn't get them. They looked sort of stupid in my opinion. Less stupid than "witch" hugs though. Those were too bloody emotional. Well, it wasn't awkward when witches did it.

I realized in my hug thought I'd lost track of the conversation, but it didn't seem I had missed much. Conrad was still beaming. He didn't know yet.

Paule yelled over her shoulder, "Lucas, Conrad is here!"

"Okay! I'll be right out!" A moment later he appeared with that Nott girl just behind him. Her hair could use brushing; It was not in the characteristic plait of hers. The images that came to mind of what they had just been doing... I stopped thinking about it.

The storm was coming. Conrad's jaw tightened as he surveyed the scene before him. "Hello, Nott," he said with surprising control, although his voice wavered a little from strain. "Are you staying the whole week?"

Her cheeks flushed at the intensity with which Conrad gazed at her, but she held her ground well. There was no denying her intelligence after her next words. "Lucas invited me." Pinning the entire situation on Lucas. Very clever. I commended her.

"Oh, how thoughtful," Conrad said in a sickly sweet voice. It was worse than him yelling. "So you decided to bring a girl to shag on our retreat?" he demanded of Lucas, still not yelling. Maybe that run in with the muggle girl had taught him some control.

I thought Lucas would deny any such thing, but once again I was wrong. "Yes, I did," he said defiantly. "I can do what I want, Warrington." The use of surnames. Dangerous territory. I so did not want to be there. Paule slipped over next to me behind Conrad. She didn't want to get in the way of the rowing, but she smirked as Conrad shouted all the profanities and expletives he could think of at Lucas.

"How long do you think before it'll get to physical contact?" she speculated. "I bet you two more minutes. A galleon."

I shook my head and murmured back, "Nah. Lucas isn't stupid. If it got down to physical, Conrad will beat the shit out of him. He'll use magic if anything."

She nodded, agreeing. "More even footing, I suppose."

Exactly as she had predicted, the shouting had turned to blows. Lucas took a swing at Conrad who ducked deftly and rammed straight through him, knocking them both to the ground. Paule raised her eyebrows at me. "Then, again, Lucas can be quite stupid on occasion," I added. "We should probably stop them."

I took a step forward, but Paule's arm caught me. "Hold on one second. Lucas should be taught a lesson." She held me back for about a minute. Blood streamed from Lucas' face. Conrad had broken the other wizard's nose. "Okay. Now's a good time."

She rushed forward with her short skirt swishing. I followed her. She took out her wand, and with a resounding bang the two boys fell apart. Nott was pressed up against a wall, staying out of the way, but she hadn't seen any need to intervene. None of us had. We were all true Slytherins.

"Let's talk about this like rational people," Paule said. "It's not like he brought a mudblood into the house."

Conrad nodded, wiping a streak of blood off his face, though he didn't appear injured in any way. It probably belonged to Lucas, who was still doubled over. He gasped, "Come on, mate. It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Conrad demanded. His hand twitched dangerously near the pocket where he kept his wand. "This is a tradition. The next thing we know you could be with a muggle." He spat on the ground.

Paule rolled her eyes. "Was that necessary? It's kind of disgusting." She turned her head away pointedly from the small puddle of spit on the hardwood floor.

Conrad ignored her, but turned when the other girl spoke. "I didn't know. I swear. He just told me I could come."

"To hell you didn't know. Of course you knew. As if you haven't heard of our retreats. As if you weren't jealous and wanted to feel exclusive."

"I can leave," she continued.

Conrad glared around. "Yes, you can."

Nott turned to go pack her things, but Lucas grabbed her shoulder. She cringed at his bloodied hand on her (probably) designer blouse. "No. You don't have to leave."

Conrad's hands clenched and unclenched, reminding me of his father the day of the gala. "Yes, she does."

Nott looked back and forth between them uncertain of her next move. She glanced at me for support, and I mentally berated myself for forgetting who she was. She played chaser even. The same position as me. Merlin, I was stupid. I shrugged, feeling slightly sorry that I could offer her no help, but there was no way I was coming between Conrad and Lucas. Avery Nott was not worth me losing my neck.

"Why don't we compromise?" Paule suggested. Both their head whipped toward her and the dark-haired boy as well as the fair-haired one glared at her. Neither was willing to give in. "Well, if we don't I say all three of you leave because this is not how our retreats are supposed to work. Griffin and I will have a lovely time without the rest of you ruining it."

Conrad's expression hardened, but I knew he would rather have the girl in the house than have to leave himself. Lucas, in turn, appeared triumphant. He had come to the same conclusion as I had.

"No. No," Nott insisted. "I can leave."

Conrad's jaw twitchd, but he managed to smile, though it resembled a grimace. "It's alright. You can stay. Lucas can keep his shag buddy," he spat the last part at Lucas before storming off to his room.

Paule sighed, rolling her eyes. "You were a great help," she said to me. She then turned to Lucas, "And you, what the fuck were you thinking bringing her along?"

As she berated him in a much less violent manner, I spoke to Nott. "Sorry about all this. Obviously not your fault."

She gave me a watery smile. "Yeah, well, Warrington is sort of right though. It was nice to feel special, but he honestly invited me. I had no idea that the rest of you didn't know. I expect Warrington will be bringing along his own girl soon enough."

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if he did," I replied, before walking outside.

"I can't believe you have to leave tonight," Conrad said resentfully, swinging his legs off the edge of the ledge overlooking the shore.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, mate, but Mum would kill me if I didn't go."

He nodded. "Yeah, same with the Lucases next week, but I'll try to get out as much as possible. Merlin, I can't stand Abigail. She's just so- She's just so...muggle," he decided on.

"We can always do the bonfire tomorrow night," I said.

"Nott had better stay in Malfoy's room for it. Better yet they both stay in his room," he grumbled darkly.

I pressed my palms into the hard rock. "Sorry, mate. He really had no right to bring her. This is a tradition after all."

His face lit up. He'd had an idea. "You should bring someone, someone to spite him."

"Why don't you?" I countered. I didn't want to go bringing slags to our tradition. I didn't want to deal with one either, and there were still four more days of us together that I would have to deal with whoever the bird was.

He sighed. "I would, but after that, er, muggle girl stuff, I really can't risk it."

He reminded me of that strange sensation I had felt in the pit of my stomach when I'd read his first letter about it. Now I realized for once what my best friend was capable of, what he would do to protect himself and the purebloods. I, for one, wasn't sure about what he was prepared to do. It didn't sit right, and for the first time, I felt nervous around my friend, not because of some secret or anything, but because he was dangerous. Something I never really registered before now.

"I get it, mate," I replied, lying through my teeth.

"You could bring that Harper girl. She's a good shag, or the Gold girl." Then he grinned. "Better yet one of the Woods. That would really get on Malfoy's nerves."

I laughed. "As if I would do anything with either of them."

"Well, Malfoy needn't know you didn't do anything."

"They wouldn't agree anyway."

He shrugged. "Think about it." His eyes were alight with a manic gleam, but perhaps he would wait because as everyone knows revenge is a dish best served cold.

Dinner at the Woods' was no exciting affair. I was twenty minutes late because I got caught in another Lucas and Conrad stare down.

As I took the only remaining seat next to Maya, she ignored me, and Mari made a gagging gesture. It was nice to know how desirable I was. At least I was pretty sure the one with the pink streaks was Mari, and after all they seemed to be wearing their house colors. Not that it really mattered which was which. I didn't plan on speaking to either one of them, at least not politely.

"Griffin received three O's," Mum said, after Maya had blurted out her perfect Ravenclaw scores. I nodded, but continued to eat silently. Maya relaxed slightly. At her mother's previous comment about her grades, she'd tensed as if ready for a fight. It didn't make any sense for a mother to want her daughter to be more stupid.

Well, the Woods were crazy. At least Carrie Wood was. Maya was smart. Mari was hostile. Everything was as it should be, and Trent Wood did nothing to upset his wife. After the three course meal, Mrs. Wood escorted us to their parlor for tea.

I took the seat next to Brie, who was chattering away to Maya about some Ravenclaw prank the previous year just before the seventh years left the walls of the castle for the last time. Maya seemed just as engaged, but Mari continued to glare at the wall. It was quite amusing really. The Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry had never really bothered me before. I stayed away from them, and for the most part they stayed away from me. Really the only time we had contact was in class or if Conrad or Lucas decided it was time to get them back for one thing or another.

As I sat there silently observing the proceedings, I thought of what Conrad or Lucas would do in this situation. Conrad would probably jeer or else try to get into one of their pants, and Lucas would probably do the same. They were more alike than either of them wanted to admit.

"It's been such a pleasure having all of you over," Mrs. Wood gushed, hugging my mum tightly. "I hope to have you over again soon."

Mum smiled back. "Oh, but next time we won't be intruding into your home. You must dine with us."

"Oh, we will." Her eyes had lit up at the prospect of being invited to our mansion of a house. The social ladder climbing woman sort of disgusted me, and surprisingly enough, I could tell Maya felt the same way.

I bid the twins goodbye, thoroughly annoying the pair of them. Smirking, I followed Mum and the rest out the door. After being put through a long telling off from both my parents, I departed for the house on the coast. Will hadn't shown up at all, but he got off because he was actually working.

"Where have you been?" Avery wanted to know when I returned. None of the others were in sight. I wondered where they'd gotten to.

"Family dinner."

She raised her eyebrows. "Isn't that breaking tradition?"

I shrugged. "Less so than you. No offense," I added.

She nodded, understanding. "I thought you might bring someone back since it seemed the plan between you and Warrington."

"Too much hassle," I replied, wishing I could find the others.

"Maya and Mari not good enough for you?"

I leaned against the wall casually. "Well, there's a mutual hatred there."

She nodded again. "They don't like me much either." She appeared to be picking at her nails, an unattractive habit.

Three figures emerged from the hallway. "You're back!" Conrad exclaimed.

"Come on, Avery. Don't monopolize Griffin's company," Lucas said, pulling her away with him. More like he wanted to monopolize hers. Not that I cared much. Avery wasn't my type. I wasn't quite sure what my type was though.

"Oh come on, Griffin. You can get over a girl like that," Paule teased, slipping her arm through mine.

"We can still do the bonfire," I suggested.

Conrad grinned. "Yeah. That would be brill."

"Lucas!" Paule called after him in a sing-song voice. "Before you go off to shag your girlfriend again, we're doing the bonfire."

At this Conrad's expression darkened. "She can't come."

Lucas didn't debate this. After asking Avery to stay inside and entertain herself, he followed us out. Apparently there were some traditions he wouldn't destroy.

We shared stories of the summer by the fire. I looked across the flames at Conrad, giving him a meaningful look, but he ignored me. He wasn't going to tell his story.

"And then the first bloke gets up again and punches his friend because he's so drunk," Lucas continued laughing and taking another swig of ale, "and the whole place was brawling in two minutes."

"So that's how the Leaky Caldron brawl happened," Paule mused, holding her own bottle close to her chest. "I didn't know you were there."

He tipped an invisible hat to her. "There are many mysterious things about me, Miss Rosier."

She made a face at him. "Alright. My turn. Got your eye on any girls, Griff?" she gave me a knowing look, but I had no idea what her point was.

I shook my head. "Nope. They all look the same to me." She huffed indignantly. "Except of course you who shines brighter than the sun in the middle of summer."

She smiled. "Go on. Tell me more about myself."

"Sod off," I replied.

She hit me. "That's no way to talk to a lady."

"You're no lady, Paule," Lucas said. "Not even a virgin."

She rolled her eyes. "As if any of you are."

The rest of the night went on much like that. I sort of felt bad for Avery. Lucas had forgotten all about her.

"I'm going to die."

"Stop being so dramatic."

"I'm going to die."

"Honestly."

"I'm going to die."

"She's just a girl, not the plague."

"I'm going to die, Griffin. I know it," Conrad groaned.

"It's just for a week. Apparate to my house when you can. You can make fun of my parents."

He gave me a confused look. "Why would I want to do that?"

I shrugged. "They're pretty weird." I supposed they weren't to Conrad though. Dad was just like him. Brie told me about how he almost refused to go into the Woods' house for dinner.

"Well, I guess I can always see how it goes with Tara. She's pretty fit," he said absentmindedly.

I punched him, not too hard. "That's my sister you're talking about, you git."

"I was kidding." I wasn't sure if he had been.

"What's going on boys?" A lilting Southern drawl approached us. It was Paule.

Conrad gave her a scathing look. "Do you want to sound like an idiot?"

She rolled her eyes, reverting back to her normal accent. "I'm practicing."

"For what?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Life."

"And how in the hell is learning to speak like some American idiot going to help you in life?"

She merely shrugged again, taking a seat on the arm of my chair. "Who knows what life will bring? Maybe someday I'll have to pretend to be an idiot."

"You wouldn't need to pretend," Conrad muttered.

She glared at him. "This is why Griffin's my favorite." She ran a hand over my shoulder. "He's nice."

"Oh, that's only because he wants to get into your robes." As if.

"You know nothing about anything, Conrad Warrington," and with that statement she stalked off, nearly tripping in those ridiculously high shoes of hers.

"I hope you're packed!" he called after her. "You have to get out today!"

"I'll leave whenever the hell I want!" she yelled back, slamming the door behind her. From the living room we could hear her trying to smother her giggles.

"You guys are so weird," I commented.

Conrad sighed. "She's weird, Griffin. She's the weird one."

I didn't feel like mustering the energy to contradict him.

My trunk was all packed except for the clothes I planned on wearing the next day on the train. I expected nothing exciting to happen. Merlin was I wrong because at 8:30 someone rang our doorbell. I leaned back into my bed, resigned for a boring night. The doorbell rang again.

"Griffin, you're so lazy. You're the one closest to the door," Tara hissed, as she walked past my open bedroom door. I ignored her. The doorbell rang again before she opened it, and I heard her faint, "Bloody hell. Learn some damn patience." I considered telling her off for her language, but it wasn't like I was any better. Maybe a little.

She spoke to whoever it was at the door for a few seconds, but I'd passed caring who it was.

"Griffin, get your sodding arse over here! Your friend would like to speak with you!" she screeched. Good thing Mum was working overtime tonight and Dad was out gambling. They would have murdered her otherwise for "disturbing the peace." Apparently there's a law about it.

I groaned and stood, brushing my muggle jeans. "Who is it?"

"Conrad Bloody Warrington," she replied. "He thinks he's fucking fantastic."

"Wash your mouth," I said, swatting at her, but her Quidditch training helped her dodge out of the way. She stuck her tongue out at me childishly, but surprisingly didn't leave.

"Hey, mate. There's this party down at some sixth year's house. Davies or something. I need to get sloshed." He certainly looked it. His dark hair stuck up in strange places and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked like a madman.

Tara grabbed my right arm, her long nails digging into my skin. "Can I come?" she asked, though it came out more like a demand.

"What? Of course not," I said. "I can't be bringing my sister to a party." She pouted. "You need to stay home with Brie."

A younger girl's voice echoed down the hallway, "I'm thirteen years old! I can stay home alone!"

Tara grinned. "It's settled."

"No," I said firmly. "Conrad and I are going to the party now without you." She began to protest, but I continued over her voice, "But if someone were to say sneak out of the house without her brother's permission, I wouldn't know anything about it."

She smiled wickedly before dashing off.

"She'd have to find her own way there!" I yelled after her.

"I have my ways, Griffin!" I didn't want to know.

I threw my arm around Conrad's shoulders, and we turned on the spot disappearing from sight. We appeared in front of a house in a muggle neighborhood. It wasn't a particularly interesting house. It looked just like the others next to it, insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Well, any individual thing was insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps the Hogwarts founders weren't, but pretty much anyone or anything else was. Though who's to say that another group of wizards wouldn't have built their own school of magic around the same time if Hogwarts hadn't already existed.

I really needed to find something better to do with my time.

"What are you doing here?" someone said distastefully. Said someone had long straight brown hair with weird pink streaks in them and really needed to cover up a bit more.

I was about to reply with something witty when Conrad pushed her out of the way in search of the beer. Not that I really had anything witty to say.

"Griffin!" It was Paule. "I didn't know you guys were coming!"

I smiled. "I didn't either until about twenty minutes ago. That bastard showed up on my doorstep and said he wanted to get drunk." I nodded to where Conrad was filling a glass.

She nodded. "Yeah, I heard about it from Rebecca. She's such a gossip."

I rolled my eyes. "You are such a hypocrite."

"Am not!" she protested. "Anyway, don't you want to get drunk?"
"I need to be able to apparate," I reasoned.

"One drink won't kill you, loser." She dragged me to where Conrad was drinking who knew how much firewhisky and shoved a cup into my hands. "Drink it."

I accepted it and downed it quickly. "As if I wouldn't drink."

"Ooh, bad ass are we?"

"I'd be careful if I were you. Who knows? My hand just might slip and spray this bottle at you."

She jumped back and glared. "Fine. I'll go find someone more interesting to talk to."

I turned back to Conrad, but once having ascertained that he would be in no shape to converse with, I moved on to hopefully find Lucas. "Hey, Griffin," a sultry voice came from behind me, as a hand was placed on my shoulder. I turned around to find Rebecca Gold, smiling at me.

"Hi, Gold."

She wobbled a bit, using my shoulder to steady herself. "We're not friendly enough to go by first names?" she pouted.

Out of the crowd appeared her best friend. In contrast to Rebecca, Leanna Harper was fair but not pale and had straight blond hair. There were no streaks of color; That was for lesser beings. "Oh, hi, guys." She grinned. She looked buzzed, but definitely not so much as Rebecca who was gripping me rather tightly now. "I thought you were looking for that Gryffindor keeper," she addressed her friend.

"I was," she slurred, "but Griffin will do."

I looked at them confused. "Will do for what?"

Leanna sighed. "Rebecca is a slag."

"Am not!" she protested feebly.

Seeing that I was still confused, Leanna added, "She wants to shag someone, and now she's decided that will be you."

"Um," I said hesitantly. It wasn't that I was inexperienced. I just wasn't used to girls throwing themselves at me. It had happened before, but it didn't make me feel any less uncomfortable.

"Becca, honey," Leanna addressed her friend, "he doesn't want to shag you. Go find the Gryffindor again. He was pretty willing."

Rebecca sighed, "You're going to regret that, Griffin Flint. I'm an amazing shag."

Leanna rolled her eyes and pushed her friend away. "She's not that bad really."

I grinned. "I know. This is the second time she's come up to me piss drunk."

Leanna laughed, throwing back her head slightly. The light glinted off her hair. It looked almost as if it were glowing. "I know. She's weird when she's drunk."

"Conrad's not much better." I nodded to where he was slumped against the wall, humming to himself. He looked like his best friend just died, which I knew didn't happen. I was standing right here, being alive.

"Well, you've got to make allowances for your friends," she said. "Do you want to get out of here?" she asked, referring to the melee of people crushing us from all sides.

"Definitely." I followed her into a smaller room that looked like a dining room. There were fewer people here. A couple in the corner that I really didn't want to look at.

"How was your summer?" she asked. "I heard there was an incident at the retreat."

I nodded. "Yeah, Lucas brought Avery Nott, and Conrad was, well, Conrad."

She nodded. "Of course."

I sighed. "I really shouldn't have had that drink. I'm already feeling a bit buzzed, and I should apparate home soon."

"Just stay a little longer," she pleaded, her hands creeping up my chest. "I'll make it worth your while." She was drunk, no doubt about it. She gave me big puppy dog eyes, so I decided to give in.

"Okay," I said. "I think the Davies' have rooms upstairs." She laughed and pulled me up the stairs.