So I punched James Potter today. Twice. In the face.

And, yes, I realise that I'm supposed to open with the customary apology for writing to you only once a month, or once in two months, or for my general lack of regularity when it comes to diary-keeping. I am sorry, really. But that just seemed like the better opener.

So, back to the subject at hand. I have punched Potter down in the common room about 15 minutes ago. Twice, as you might have heard (or read? How do I put it, actually?). Lily hasn't taken any points off or anything and Lupin hasn't either, even though I half expected him to, given that I punched his best mate. Twice. How did I come to do this, you ask? ( you didn't, I know, shut up now) Well I might have done something exceptionally stupid (other than punching a student notorious for playing merciless pranks on people even when he hasn't been punched by them). The long and short of it is that they pranked me (Potter and Black and co., that is) earlier today and then Potter had the audacity to taunt me in the common room after school, and then I lost my temper, and I punched him in the face. Actually, that's just the short of it, I guess.

Well, it all actually started on the train. So, as I do every year, I found an empty compartment because Lily always sits with Snape and talks mostly to him (now that I think of it, she was made prefect, so she wouldn't have been there anyway). And Mary and Alice usually sat with the Ravenclaws and I'm not really friends with them. (Yes, I'm still anti-social. What's your point?) So I found this empty compartment near the end and made myself comfortable and did magic (wandlessly). I was making these little glowy orbs dance around the compartment, knowing full well that the food trolley wouldn't come by for another half-hour when the door slammed open and Potter and co. stood there, staring at me. I made the orbs disappear and tried to look unperturbed. I presume that I did not succeed, because… well, you'll see. ( or read, or….oh dang it) Potter elbowed Lupin and he said, "Lily's looking for you. She's up at the front." And I, being a dutiful friend, and also being very eager to avoid potential detection of my freakishness, left the compartment in search of Lily. Their gang promptly entered the compartment and shut the door. On locating Lily I found that, she had, in fact, not been looking for me and wanting to avoid Potter, Black and co. I located Mary and Alice and spent the rest of the train ride smiling awkwardly at other people's conversations. If you ask me, there was no reason for those idiots to be suspicious of me. I could have taken out my wand, conjured up a few orbs (although I have no idea how to accomplish that), and tucked my wand back in. Although it doesn't explain how the orbs disappeared. Concealed wand, instead of tucked in? Why on earth would I, an underage witch, know how to do wandless magic? Granted I am good at lessons but I am most definitely not brilliant. That should have been the logical conclusion. Apparently not. Because a week later, I was in the library calmly doing my work. My calmness was bolstered by the fact that my unperturbed expression had probably effectively countered any suspicion the concerned parties might have felt on witnessing that particular scene on the train. Then Potter and Black slid into the bench next to me.

"So." Said Potter. Rather haughtily, I might add. Who does he think he is?

"Hi?" I said, taking care to sound confused. In retrospect, I might not have succeeded there, either.

Then he said "I know you can do wandless magic."

I, of course, duly registered my protest with a series of sputters, and would have continued to do so more eloquently, if Black hadn't cut in with "Look, we have ways of spying on people and we saw everything you did before we commandeered your compartment. Can't believe you fell for that, by the way." And then he smirked.

Him and his stupid smirk. I almost wish I'd punched him instead of Potter. Well as it may be, I had no good defence after that and resorted to, well, saying nothing. Impressive, I know. So then Potter ordered, ordered, mind you, not asked, me to meet them in an abandoned classroom on the third floor to teach them (on Friday). And I managed to sputter out an "I can't!", because, honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing with my magic and I certainly couldn't teach anyone how to do that but also because I am severely disinclined to cooperate with those idiots. But then Black went "Why, do you have somewhere else to be?", and then they left, laughing like it was the biggest joke anyone's ever heard.

Well, it was kind of obvious, what he'd implied (that I would certainly have no plans for Friday.). And even though it is true, that doesn't mean that they get to order me about. Pompous fools. Ugh. And what was all that about spying on people? I hope their spying doesn't extend to unsavoury places. Like the girls' washroom, for example. They don't seem like the type, though. Anyway, like any self-respecting individual, I decided not to comply with their order. But I was significantly angrier then and I wanted to be petty because I have some pride, damn you. So when opportunity presented itself to me in the form of a certain Slytherin not having a Potions partner due to the absence of Lily, I took it. The opportunity, I mean. So on Thursday, Lily was sick and decided to skip the classes after noon, and I befriended Snape. Well, befriended is a strong word. I settled down next to him in class and he looked at me like I'd grown an extra head or something. I smiled. He did not smile back. So I decided to cut straight to the chase.

"Potter needs something from me. And I want to annoy him and not give.. the thing that he needs… to him." I said.

Silence. He said nothing. So I continued with my Draught of Peace, and he with his.

"What does he want?" Snape said in an indubitably calm voice. Maybe I should take lessons from him.

"A spell." I said hastily. "He saw me do a spell on the train." Rather clever of me, if I do say so myself.

The potion had turned orange when he asked his next question. "What spell?"

"Well, I don't know exactly. That's part of the problem. I just did it, you know. I don't know the words or anything."

A pause. "It has to do with glowy orbs." I supplied helpfully. I honestly thought his interest would abate after that. He doesn't really seem like the sort to be interested in glowy orbs. But surprisingly his next words were "Will you show me?" he even added a please. It was then that I got my brilliant idea. I told him to meet me in the far corner of the library on Friday. He agreed. In case you were wondering, I am aware that that was a stupid move.

So by Friday night, I'd figured out a way to do the glowy orb thing with my wand. I still didn't have any accompanying words but overall, I was pretty confident that the whole thing would end tonight. But Snape was surprisingly civil and actually offered me advice on spell making. He didn't smile or laugh or make jokes or anything. He's very sarcastic, though, and it's almost funny sometimes. He even showed me a spell of his own, that I'm not going to write down here, because there is always the possibility that someone might steal my diary, and while that's a risk I'm willing to take, I'm not sure he will. So don't be mad at me. I will tell you that it involves floating.

So anyway Friday and the rest of the weekend passed uneventfully. I miraculously managed to avoid Potter and Black and was lulled into a false sense of security by Monday. I mean maybe they decided to pull back. Or they decided it wasn't worth their time. Either way, I was feeling pretty safe. Then they pranked me. As far as pranks go, it wasn't their most horrible one yet, or anything. But it was the most horrible one I'd been subjected to. So, I'll get it over with. They charmed my skirt to turn green and sing "Snivelly's Girl!" in a very high-pitched, very loud voice. It was humiliating. I was in the Charms corridor and everyone heard. Ughhhhhh. I fled the humiliation and got to charms fifteen minutes late because I had to go back and change my skirt, and I lost five points. I've never lost housepoints before! The only reason I didn't just burst into tears right there was because I didn't have the time to what with the classwork and the notes. And I also have some pride, of course. Charms was, rather conveniently, the last lesson.

I skipped dinner and went out to hide in the library and wonder how the bloody hell they'd managed to find out about Snape. They weren't in the library and I didn't see them all weekend. I didn't tell anybody else about Snape, but Lily knew because Snape told her. And she wouldn't rat me out to Potter if her life depended on it. Then I remembered the whole "spying" bit. That reallu got on my nervous(still does). Anyway, I returned to the common room about fifteen minutes before curfew and was trying to make my way up to the dorms unnoticed when Potter stood up and said, "Well, if it isn't Snivelly's girl."

God, you could hear the smirk in his voice. And there was laughter all around. I ignored him and continued toward my destination despite my rising anger.

"Gave him a goodnight snog, did you?" Well, that did it. For reasons I cannot even contemplate, that stupid line, and everyone's laughter just snapped me, and I turned around (it was more of an impressive whirl. Or so I'd like to think.), marched up to him, and punched him in the face.

Potter looked absolutely flummoxed as he stood there clutching his jaw. I waited for him to recover because I thought it was only fair to give him a chance to punch me back (I'm stupidly noble that way). Then he said "Wait till tomorrow." Rather darkly, I might add.

And that was how I came to punch Potter twice.