"But I learned that there's a certain character that can be built from embarrassing yourself endlessly. If you can sit happy with embarrassment, there's not much else that can really get to ya."
Christian Bale

Tuesday 23rd August, the Potter toilet

WHY DO THESE THINGS HAPPEN TO ME?

I am like a magnet to all kinds of embarrassing situations. I can't escape them. It is almost as if I had a curse put on me as a young baby that means everything I do will inevitably lead to embarrassment.

I wouldn't mind so much if it weren't for the fact that as soon as I am embarrassed I get the whole Weasley reaction: red ears, red face, red nose, red neck, shortness of breath, inability to stand and that laugh. The awkward 'woops I just embarrassed myself' laugh that I have to whip out whenever a misfortune occurs. Since, you know, I must be positive about my failings. At least, despite all my own suffering, I bring amusement to others.

Only earlier this evening I brought amusement to 'others' that under normal circumstances I would not want to bring amusement to. This would never have happened if Al had not invited all his stupid friends to his house for his birthday party. It was meant to be a FAMILY thing, since he is now 17, which is a big birthday in the magical world.

But he seemed to think that, yes, it would be a brill idea to invite all his Slytherin qudditch mates round but (and this is the worst part), he didn't even WARN me!

I am his best friend! He may say otherwise now that he is all old and stuff, but the reality of it is, we are joined by blood which as we all know by that old muggle saying is 'thicker than water', therefore we are like 'blood cousins' without the need for all that blood ceremony nonsense. We have a friendship that can't be broken that easily since we are related, and yet that IDIOT didn't even think to warn me.

The evening started just dandy. Me, my brother and my parents bounded in all happiness and smiles and got the customary greeting from each family member, which consist of:

Big hug from Grandma Weasley followed by an exclamation of how much we've grown...despite the fact she saw us last week.

Hug from Grandad Weasley, interrupted since he painfully had a plug in his pocket, "Woops, I forgot I had that in there!"

High five from Uncle George, "Remind me to send you some pranking materials!" Had to remind him, of course, that since I am now Captain of the Quidditch team a lot of responsibility rests on my weary shoulders. This earned me a punch on the arm from my cousin, Fred.

"Shut up," he said, punching me again. "Being a Captain is brilliant! You have power!"

"Power that I am NOT going to abuse," I reminded him. Since I am now an example to all the other Quidditch-loving students in the school, I can't go round pranking people!

Hug from Victoire and Dominique, both complained about the fact I wasn't wearing heels.

Teddy ruffled my hair, so I had to excuse myself so I could make sure it hadn't frizzed up in the back of a spoon.

Lily linked her arm in mine and started jabbering on about Darren McLaggen and how she was vverrrryyyy annoyed that her darling brother hadn't invited the love of her life. "I dressed up especially for him as well, look!" She pointed at her feet. "I even shrunk a pair of my mum's designer shoes." Aunty Ginny caught the end of this sentence however and Lily was left barefoot for the rest of the evening.

Uncle Harry just squinted at me. I think James stole his glasses.

James hugged the potted plant standing next to me. "Man! I don't know how my dad sees with these things on!" He turned to look at me, and the lenses had made his eyes appear about six times larger than they actually were. He looked like one of those close up pictures of a fly, but ten times scarier. "Wow...your whole head is red...it's all blurred together."

Eventually managed to escape the madman that is my cousin James and get into the garden. Since the food is always on tables on the patio in the summer, this was most definitely the place to be this fine evening.

It looked great as well, since the patio is right next to the swimming pool and the light from the moon was reflecting off the surface of the water. It was v pretty. I almost felt like writing an uplifting poem.

So there I was, standing at the buffet table, thanking my lucky stars that I was the first one to get there so had dibs over the best quiche, when suddenly I heard this odd squawking noise. For a miniscule second I was a bit worried, because you know, it did sound a little bit like an eagle so for a moment there my slice of quiche was in imminent danger of being plucked from my plate and carried off into the evening sky by a bird of prey.

Luckily, it was only my dorm-mate (and best friend), Natalia Zabini's owl and it was carrying quite a bulky letter – not unusual for Natalia since she does like to write a lot of gibberish in her letters. Anyway, this one was likely to be longer than usual since she had just been on holiday with her father and some of his business partners and their families and there was quite obviously going to be several amusing stories about her travels to the South of France...

...BUT, the stupid bird wasn't going to let me take the letter that easily, so carried on squawking and flying too high up for me to reach it. So I thought, using the mind I inherited from my mother, that I would try lure down the irritating creature with some food.

Of course, I don't know about you, but I am not exactly well versed in what foods owls that sound like eagles like to eat, so I waved a bit of bread near its beak, but it just squawked a bit. Then I grabbed my plate of quiche and thought, 'I may as well sacrifice this piece of lovely quiche for the greater good' and the owl swooped down a little bit so I managed to jump up – being a chaser has made me very athletic – and grab the letter from its leg.

Only, it wasn't too happy about the quiche jumping around everywhere so flapped its wings very frantically causing me to drop the plate, making an almighty clatter so no doubt drew attention to the event to the rest of the Weasley-Potter mob, and then I slipped over and landed slap on my bum.

But it didn't end there. Of course it didn't. Any embarrassment that involves me has to last at least twenty minutes – this is just the way it works.

I finally managed to get myself up and put the letter on the table so that I could start to clean up the plate that I managed to drop, and noticed that a bit of the plate had slid over to the edge of the pool. I went over to pick it up, then CRACK!

Some BUFFOON decided to apparate exactly where I was standing so that BOTH of us ended up tumbling into the swimming pool with such a massive splash that Lily, who had come outside to see what all the noise was about got splashed.

"OH MY GOD!" she shrieked, clutching the hem of her dress in horror. I bobbed about in the water trying to find the idiot that had landed on top of me, whilst simultaneously noticing that Lily only had the tiniest splashmark on her dress.

Err, HELLO? Compare that to ME who is wet all over!

"You have ruined my dress! What am I going to do if Darren turns up now? I have no shoes and I look like I've wet myself!"

Al, who must have just apparated as well, looked at his sister in surprise. "Darren? Darren McLaggen? Why would he be coming?"

"Whose fallen in the pool?" Uncle Harry poked his head round the door. "Oh Rose, I should have known." He started laughing.

SEE. Everyone knows that it is always me that ends up in these ghastly predicaments.

"It's not my fault! Some idiot apparated on top of me!" I replied, shivering slightly. Honestly, you'd think that as wizards they would at least know a spell to warm up their pool. Apparently not.

"Not on purpose, trust me," came the drawl from behind me. I splashed about in the water attempting to turn around.

I had recognised the voice, but of course I needed to face him so that I could splash water in his face, which was what I had planned on doing since the threat of drowning had died down.

"YOU?" I splashed water up into his face and he blinked rapidly. "Why are you here? You're not family?"

He shook his head like a dog, making water splash into my eye.

"Maybe one day, eh?" he winked.

WINKED. See, first I had this embarrassment of actually falling into a pool. Add to that the entire family is watching me, then add on top of that a sodden Scorpius Malfoy winking at me whilst I am treading water in the deep end of a pool, then really...is it any wonder that my face turned as bright red as a fresh tomato?

I splashed him in the face again.

"What was that for?" He demanded icily, his soaking blonde hair having lost any of its excessive product, flopped across his eyes.

"That was for apparating on top of me without looking where you were going," I snapped back.

He scoffed. "How do you 'look where you're going' when you're apparating? It's IMPOSSIBLE." He punctuated his last word with a splash in my direction.

"Well you should have done. Honestly, how long have you been legally allowed to apparate? You should know these things!" I splashed right back.

He flicked his head so that his fringe stops dripping in his eye. "I did NOT choose to apparate on top of you! If you want to blame anyone, blame your cousin who told me to apparate next to the pool since he thought no one would be there!"

We both turned to look at Al who was standing next to the edge of the pool with a suspicious looking grin on his face. I turned to Scorpius, and even though neither of us like each other that much, since I think he is an arrogant prat and he has told me on more than one occasion that I am prudish geek, we both made a silent agreement sealed with a soggy nod, that if WE are going to be wet...then so should Al.

We moved to the edge quickly and grabbed an ankle each, yanking him into the water.

He splashed up to the surface and his immediate words were, "I hate you both."

Anyway, thanks to that whole falling in the swimming pool fiasco, I now have the following problems:

a) a private letter to me from my dearest bestie mate, Natalia, is sitting on the buffet table, and there is an entire hoarde of nosy family members nearby it who would love to steal it.

b) my clothes are wet and I tried to do a drying charm on them, but they shrunk so now I have to borrow Al's clothes since Lily has locked herself in her room after the whole 'drop of water on her dress' incident.

c) Al's clothes are ugly and since I am flat chested I now definitely look like a boy. Just with long hair.

d) Scorpius, annoying git, keeps banging on the door to make me hurry up since he needs to get changed too (I shrunk his clothes along with mine and Al's too). Also he is in a right rage since he lost all his hair product in the water, and Al doesn't use any so his head is going to have to go au-naturelle tonight.

I think the last time his hair had zero-product in it was when he came out of the womb.

Al's clothes really are awful. I suppose they look bearable on him, since he is a boy, but they really are not suited for girls at all. At least the jeans fit. Thankfully I left my spare pair here last year and forgot to pick them up, so only have to borrow Al's awful Chudley Cannons t-shirt.

It is orange.

My hair is orange.

Do the maths.

Later, the cupboard under the stairs in the Potter house

I do not know how my uncle grew up in one of these cupboards. They are so small! I may only be five foot two, but even I am struggling to fit myself in here.

I have hidden here, in any case, so that I can read my letter in peace. I arrived downstairs a while back just in time to hear several of my relations debating on whether they should have a peek to see at least who the letter I had received was from.

I was all willing to let them know, before I marched off with it to read it in privacy, but then they caught a glimpse of me with an orange t-shirt and orange hair and they started laughing. So I told them that it was a love letter from my fiancé and marched off to read it. At the end of the day, this may work to my disadvantage, but it was worth it to see them recoil in horror.

The letter was pretty standard Natalia. Apparently she is suffering greatly because her twin brother, Nicco, has befriended the son of this diplomat she is holidaying with who apparently goes to Durmstrang and is absurdly good looking, but Nicco caught wind of them liking each other and has decided to divide their love by telling this Durmstrang boy stories of their childhood, like the time Natalia sat on their owl (this may explain the squawking) and the time when she was 5 and she ran around naked in front of the minister for Magic.

I think it is very cruel that Nicco is manipulating them. What if they were true loves and he had stopped them from being together?

But actually, it may be a true test of their one day enduring love, since I think that if that silly Durmstrang boy is put off by silly stories like Natalia jumping round naked at the age of 5, then surely he does not deserve her.

She is a very sweet person and from my excessive reading of muggle romances I have learnt that sweet girls must not date boys that can't deal with a bit of nakedness. End of.

Wednesday 24th August, my bed

When I woke up this morning my throat really hurt and my eyes were itchy as hell. So I coughed for a bit, because I thought I might have the start of a cold and everyone knows if you cough you can shift the germs from your lungs and it stops you sneezing or something.

Anyway, all this coughing just made my voice go all croaky and made me unable to talk.

So, when my mother came into my room all joyfully, I was not in a right mind to see her. Unlike me, she had had a lovely time last night socialising with all her lovely school friends from millions of years ago, and unlike me, she didn't FALL IN A POOL.

"Cup of tea, Rosie?" She asked me, not noticing that my eyes were blotchy and red. I noticed this when I looked in the mirror just now. It is horrific. First my hair is ugly and now this.

Then she told me that I should be getting packed for school. Even though it is a week till we start.

So I just croaked a bit in her direction. Even to me it sounded unintelligible, though I knew that I was trying to say something along the lines of 'tea would be lovely, thanks mum'. What came out was more along the lines of, "UURU UMVY, UAK UUM."

At this she put her hand on my head, "You're feeling rather warm, dear. Are you feeling alright?"

Deciding that it was better to signal rather than try to talk again, I shook my head and pouted miserably.

"HUGO!" she shouted. "WILL YOU MAKE YOUR SISTER SOME SOUP?"

Great, now my eardrums are burst. Now I can add that to my list of symptoms.

Later, still in my bed, still dying of unidentified illness

On reflection I have decided that it must have been the fall into the pool that has made me deathly ill. Therefore, I can blame that Slytherin dunce for it.

He was clearly trying to sabotage my first week as Captain of the Gryffindor Quiddtich team.

THAT'S IT.

He wants to win the cup this year, so by making me bed-ridden and potentially dying, my team is left without a leader and then he has the opportunity to prance in there with his ugly broom and beat us.

Well, I won't have it.

TO DO:

Pack for school – don't forget socks.

Write letter to St Mungos just to check I am not dying/dead.

Find Captain badge

Remember parchment

Write to Al to tell him his pool is infected

Thursday 25th August, bedridden

Ode to the view outside my window

Oh, blue skies why are you hidden,

Behind this cloud.

The wind, it whirls, and swirls the tops of trees,

So birds go fluttering off into the sky.

A solitary pigeon rests on a TV aerial,

And...

HOORAH! AN OWL! I HAVE POST!

Dear Rose,

I tried to visit you the other day but your parents were out and your brother said you were lying in bed dying of a mysterious illness and that Mungo's had put up a lockdown round your house so no one else would get infected.

I guessed he was lying, but I was just popping round to give you your present, so I thought I'd come back when your parents were in.

PRESENT! Damn you, Hugo. You stripped me of my holiday presents and all because of my 'fragile state'. Curse my sickly immune system. And my snotty nose. I need another tissue.

Anyway, I hope you are well! I heard you got Quidditch Captain as well, so CONGRATULATIONS. I'm not too sure who got Head Girl, but I'm a Senior Prefect and as is Natalia's brother, apparently, something which she isn't too happy about.

Hopefully see you on Sunday in Diagon Alley? I need to get some new Dress Robes so I need your advice. Well, I need Natalia's advice, but you can come along too because I love you so much.

LOVE ISLA F XXX

Isla...what a charmer she is. Honestly, I know I wore a hideous t-shirt the other night, but that was through no choice of my own. I really do have more fashion sense than that usually.

I hope I get better in time for school, because although the lessons are a bore, I can't wait to play Quidditch again with proper opponents (Hugo is useless) and I can't wait to see my best friends and dorm-mates, Isla and Natalia, again.

Isla Finnegan is a family friend so I knew her before Hogwarts, since her dad and my parents went to school together, but she lives in the Republic of Ireland so it's hard to get an apparition permit to go over there to visit her, so in the holidays letters are our only communication. As for Natalia, her dad always drags her on these ghastly-sounding holidays with all these families of his colleagues – which makes our camping trips to the New Forest sound delightful.

Either way, I would rather be trapped in the remote wilds of County Killarney or hanging round with Durmstrang students on a fancy yacht, than laying sprawled over my bed at home trying to entertain myself.

At the moment I'm playing makeshift Quidditch...With scrunched up pieces of paper as quaffles and my open window as a hoop...

GOAL! TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR! WOOP WOOP!

NOTE TO SELF: Clean broom.

Sunday 28th August, Madame Malkins

Oh, my life is misery. Can things get any WORSE?

No, don't answer that. The worst is yet to come.

Malfoy is such a conniving little git.

But, on the bright side...PAHAHAAAA! His plan backfired!

Just bumped into Scorpius Malfoy in Diagon Alley and suffice to say that either he did NOT plot to make me ill so I couldn't coach my team, or his plan was an utter fail, since he was looking even more sickly than I am right now!

To be fair to him, at least his red nose doesn't clash with his hair, but this is the downside of being a Weasley.

Anyway, I saw him standing outside the Quidditch shop and I had to go in anyway because I was planning on buying some new winter gloves with extra grip. I also wanted to check out the new broom that has just been released: The Lightning II.

Phwoar.

That broom is a beauty. It's all sleek twigs, shiny handle and glittering golden lettering. Shame the price tag is the same as a large house, really.

So I went over there and walked past him into the shop, having a quick peek at his VERY red nose as I walked past. He was looking at the broom, and I could tell he was pretty amazed by it too. No true Quidditch lover could not be impressed by the marvellous beauty of this broom, I am telling you.

But anyway, his nose was SERIOUSLY red. Redder than mine, even. I almost felt sorry for the poor boy, since his looks are far more important to him than anyone else I've ever met in the world.

Since I was feeling particularly kindly (will never make the mistake of being kindly again to Malfoy, for future reference), I thought I would go over and strike up conversation about the broom, then he could see my nose and realise that he is not the only Rudolph walking among wizards in Diagon Alley this fine day.

So on my way out, I stopped by the window next to him and gasped admiringly over the broom.

"Oh," he said, looking surprised. "Are you looking at my reflection in the window too?"

After that I decided that he wasn't worthy of my company, but I couldn't just walk away because Al had just clocked us and he would have a go at me later for being 'rude' to one of his friends. Even though his friends are more often than not the ones being rude to ME.

"I wasn't actually, I was looking at the broom," I replied, just as Al came up behind us.

"That old thing? My dad's already got hold of the Lightning III for me," he said smugly.

WHAT?

Albus gasped in surprise. "NO WAY! He must have got it directly from the manufacturer! It must have cost a BOMB!"

Hiding my jealousy, I smirked. "All that golden lettering is just going to weigh you down, I'll still beat you on my Cleansweep 13."

He snorted. Well, we both knew that was a lie. If he had a Lightning III (which I wasn't even aware was available for public sale yet) then there was no way I could even come close to beating him. That broom would make me look like I was sitting on a fallen branch which I had levitated into the air.

"Dream on. You're going DOWN, Weasley..." He paused dramatically and then grinned rakishly. "Most probably literally."

"Are you implying I'm going to fall off my broom?"

He shrugged. "You are pretty clumsy. However, if you decide to not be clumsy on the day of the Slytherin Gryffindor match, then I'm sure I can order my team to knock you off."

HAHA! Empty threat! He has no power among the Slytherins! The days of Malfoys being the leading men of the world are LONG gone.

"As if they'd listen to you!"

He frowned. "They have to. I'm Captain."

I let out a strangled cry at that point, which was not particularly attractive, on reflection, but what was I supposed to do?

Not only do I have the possibility of Gryffindor winning the House Cup on my shoulders which hasn't happened for Godric knows how many years, but now my biggest rival in the whole school is SCORPIUS MALFOY. Which I wouldn't mind normally, since I could easily beat him in a duel, but he has a Lightning III.

So, basically, we are all doomed.

Is there any point in my going to school any more?

To make matters worse, when I arrived in Madame Malkins to meet up with Natalia and Isla, they immediately shoved me in a changing room because apparently there is some goofy dance coming up at school soon that they completely decided not to tell me about.

Of all the things that I have in this world to worry about like global warming, making sure my socks aren't odd and the fact that my hair is a wild bush, I now have to add the following to the list:

The fact that Malfoy is Slytherin Quidditch Captain and made a passing comment that suggested he was planning to knock me off my broom.

The fact that we have a school dance and that my hair will in no way be in any fit state to be paraded about to the world.

My nose is still red.

TO DO:

Make serious war plans for quidditch team

Learn spells to repel bludgers

Tuesday August 31st, the Weasley abode

My mother should know better than to insult Hugo's fashion sense.

"I just think that maybe you should wear a white shirt instead of black."

"Why does it matter? It's under my robes anyway, no one can see it.

"It's just not regulation school uniform."

"So...No one cares any more."

"I CARE, HUGO WEASLEY. And I am your MOTHER."

"I'm not wearing a white shirt."

"YES YOU ARE. RONALD, TELL HIM!"

"Your mother is probably right, Hughie, you might get into trouble." PAH! As if my father cares about that nonsense. He just doesn't want to cross mum!

"I'll be the laughing stock if I don't wear black. Everyone wears black now!" They don't. Only Hugo and his strange goth-like friends who like to dress up as Vampires on Halloween and read the Quibbler every week wear black shirts.

Everyone else wears normal regular white shirts.

"Your sister doesn't!"

"My sister is a freak! She doesn't even know who The Forbidden Trio Of Darkness are!" The silence that follows suggests that neither do my parents. "THEY'RE A BAND! MERLIN! I grow up in a house of freaks!"

"You're grounded Hugo!"

"MUM!"

Who needs Marvin the Madd Muggle comics when you have quality entertainment like this to liven up your life.

NOTE TO SELF: Need to decide whether or not to paint nails for journey tomorrow. If I am wearing flip flops they need painting.

Oop... Looks like its raining. I'll wear my trainers and skip the paint.

Hoorah! This saves on time.

Wednesday September 1st, the Hogwarts Express – CAPTAINS CABIN!

I am going UP in the world!

As a quidditch captain I get my own cabin!

Only downside...I have to share with all the other Captains. Which of course means Lorcan Scamander – generally an alright bloke, but barely speaks a word, Darren McLaggen – Godric knows why this idiot is a Ravenclaw and, of course, the biggest prat you will ever meet.

Scorpius Malfoy.

It is painful to thing that I am the only female captain really. Let's face it, there are quite a few female quidditch players on the house teams, but for some reason I am the only one that is picked as a Captain. This is very mysterious.

Perhaps I have some unknown leadership quality that the school's management has seen in me and they have decided to give me a shot... Perhaps I am cut out to one day be Minister for Magic.

Who knows...

Oh. Wait.

I am the only female seventh year Quidditch player. That would explain it.

Never mind, at least I am the only Potter/Weasley Captain this year. Last year we had two – Fred for Hufflepuff and James for Gryffindor.

It was horrific. The match was bloodthirsty.

Mind you, I think it may be even more bloodthirsty with myself and grumpy guts over there.

"What are you doing?" I ask him nicely. I have decided to be polite and engage in lovely conversation to show that I am a mature sensible being worthy of being in a role of responsibility, despite my history of getting into trouble.

"Why are you so interested?" he snaps back.

I do not deem this response worthy of a polite reply. Please excuse me while I converse with him.

Later, still in the Captain's compartment

So, as we remember, I was being very polite and asked him what he was doing, then he practically growled at me: "Why are you so interested?"

I thought this was a very rude reply to what I had considered a perfectly respectable question, and so did McLaggen since he threw me a rather surprised and apologetic look.

He may be rather dense, but that boy KNOWS how to be nice to a lady.

Perhaps he is alright for Lily, I shall observe the matter more closely and decide in due course.

"I'm not, really. I just thought I would try be friendly."

He smirked and looked a little disbelieving. "Now? You decide to start being friendly NOW in our last year of Hogwarts?"

I don't see what is so shocking about this. I mean, I know we have not been friendly before now, but we have never really crossed paths enough to want to.

Admittedly, Al has been on my back about it for the past couple of years, saying that I should try harder with him since he wants his two best friends to be friends too, but it's not just ME who carries on this animosity!

For fear of sounding like a child:

HE STARTED IT!

In first year, he started it.

So I don't see how I can really be blamed for continuing it, when really I had no choice. If I had attempted to be nice in first year or whatever, I doubt he'd have taken me seriously and most likely he would have just laughed at me.

And yet NOW, he is annoyed that I'm waiting until now to extend the polite hand of friendship.

Not that I am sure I am really doing that. I just don't want him to knock me off my broom.

"There comes a time, Scorpius," I said his first name with emphasis. I'm making a point seeing as all these years we've just referred to each other with our last names. "When we have to be adult about these things." I paused. "And this is me, being adult."

He raised his left eyebrow in scepticism. "Adult?"

I coughed. "Yes. It's what we call that phase of life in between grumpy teenager and withered old biddy." I straightened out my shirt. "But it seems that you are still firmly stuck in your 'grumpy' years."

"Grumpy?" He snorted and then grinned this kind of sneaky Slytherin smirky-grin.

You know which one I mean, the one they always use just as their about to say something that they construe as particularly witty.

"Are you sure this isn't about something else, Weasley?" He shrugged. "Like, I don't know, your worry that I'm going to tell my team to knock you off your broom."

McLaggen's ears perked up at this and he looks between Malfoy and myself with a look that I think may have been shock. It is hard to tell with him. However, he chose the moment to stand up and depart from the room with his only chosen words being, "I have to go somewhere."

Perhaps he thought we were going to have one of our legendary fourth year fights?

You see, there was this phase in fourth year, and I'm not even sure how it came about but it involved a lot of very verbal fights in corridors about, now that I think about it, pointless things. We were quite dorky now that I think about it... arguing about the politics of the Ministry, and whether the Chudley Cannons were going to the relegated.

These fights often descended into a light bit of hexing.

I say 'light' since we only ended up in the hospital wing a couple of times.

But, Darren must have thought we were going to have a bit of a hexing battle, especially since Malfoy had been implying a bit of bodily harm, and with no Scamander to back him up he decided to scarper. A wise move indeed.

"Knock me off my broom, eh? You try, Malfoy, I'll order my team to snap your fancy new broom in half." Internally I started feeling a bit jealous again at the fact that he had such a fantastic broom.

And also a bit worried. Since there was no way we stood a chance against him now, at all.

If he's the Keeper and he's on that broom we won't be able to get a single quaffle past him. We're going to have to seriously train this year.

"You're mad, Weasley," Malfoy said, shaking his head.

"ME? I'm mad? I'm not the one threatening to knock someone off their broom for no reason whatsoever." I thought this was a perfectly valid observation.

So much for trying to be friendly.

I give up. We shall just fight like cat and dog for the rest of the year, just like we have since forever.

Malfoy shrugged his shoulders, looking slightly more serious. "I wouldn't say it was no reason whatsoever."

PAH! I knew it! He is trying to cause me bodily harm so that I can't lead my team into victory!

And... to think I was going to let him off because he had a snuffily nose and I felt sorry for him.

That was the last time I will be so weak.

From now on I shall be strong and not have him pull on my heartstrings by looking all forlorn and ill. Especially when he is only checking himself out in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

"What reason do you have then for such violence?" I demand.

"Oh come on, Weasley," he groaned. He was looking thoroughly annoyed by the argument and actually I was quite shocked.

Usually, he has this air where you can tell that even though he has this appearance of getting angry, he's actually secretly laughing at the fact that I am getting annoyed. That is the thing, more than anything else, that annoys me about him.

And yet, this time, he genuinely looks a little frustrated.

"Come on. You have to know that you're the best bloody player on that team. No offence, but if you're team loses you then it's a lost cause."

I was gobsmacked.

Literally, I sat there looking like I was trying to catch flies with my jaw dropped, practically scraping along the dirty compartment floor.

Was that...Was that a COMPLIMENT?

"I would never plot to chuck you off your broom, but you have to know that if we want to win it's you we have to get past. You're the only chaser in the damn school who can get a goal past me when I'm on form." He stopped and his eyes bored into me. For a tiny split second I saw what every other admiring teenage girl in the school saw when he looked at them.

Those eyes.

"The only one."

Then he left.

It was very dramatic really. Of course, it would have probably been far more dramatic had I gone running after him akin to some girl in a teenage romance novel, but even so. And it was only once he had left and I was sitting in the compartment on my own, that I realised that that was the first time that I'd ever been on my own with him before.

You would have thought that in seven years we would have had an argument without anyone else there before, but we just hadn't. There was always someone there: usually Natalia or Isla and most often Al.

I just thought it was strange that the one time we had been alone was the one time he was different.

Maybe there's more to that boy than meets the eye.

NOTE TO SELF: consult Al about Malfoy.

A/N: Please let me know what you think! I'm really thinking of continuing this and making it a beast of a multi-chaptered fic, so I would be glad for any constructive criticism you have now to help me on my way.

The writing style, by the way, it courtesy of Meg Cabot in the Princess Diaries. I was having a read through the other day and was really inspired because I like the way her diary format really gives a voice to the character...I hope it's working!

Thanks for reading! Until next time...

Gco.