Thanks to all reviewers!

Here's the next part…a little shorter, but all the same.

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TWO

I have never been a morning person.

Unlike Tess who was bouncing on the end of my bed getting steadily more frustrated as I told her to go away.

"Five minutes, please! Lessons don't start for another hour!" I groaned, rolling over and pulling the blanket over my head.

She hit my exposed feet with her hairbrush.

"Get up already! Everyone else has already left."

I sat up and rubbed my eyes as I scanned the room.

She was right, the other three girls had already gone. If they were all awake, then I had no excuse to still be snuggled under my covers.

With a yawn, I kicked my legs off my bed and then leant forward to rummage through my trunk to find my uniform.

"I hope we have a free this morning. We do still get them in sixth year don't we?" Tess said whilst applying a layer of mascara to her upper lashes using a hand held mirror which she had levitated to be at eye level.

"As far as I know we still get them. Why wouldn't we?" I replied, pulling my skirt over my hips and yanking on my jumper.

"They were thinking of scrapping them last year. That's what Al told me anyway," she said absentmindedly.

"I wouldn't believe what Al said. He probably made that up to get you worried or something." I straightened out the prefect badge on my chest. "Talking of Al, he'll probably be playing that prank on you today won't he?"

Tess spun round and looked at me, her horror evident.

"Crap! Can you protect me?"

Protect her?

Me?

"How? I'm useless," I said as she gave me puppy dog eyes.

That is not going to work Miss Tess Taylor.

I will not fall for your puppy look.

"But you're a prefect, he wouldn't dare do something with a prefect watching," she said, as if she was stating the obvious.

Tess is clearly forgetting something.

Namely that Al is my cousin. A prefect badge is not going to stop him from pulling a prank when I'm watching.

Well, it sure hasn't stopped him in the past.

"We're talking about Al here, Tess, not some kind of suck-up first year," I said.

"Ah…but if you watch then you can write to his mum. He would get a howler as punishment…pleaseeee!" she said, kneeling down on the floor and practically begging.

"Well seeing as you asked so nicely," I said sarcastically, "I will. But I'm not protecting you, I'll just follow you around so I can give him a detention."

She gave me a toothy grin.

"Thank you Rosieee!"

Eurgh.

I hate it when people call me that.

I glared at her, and she put her hand over her mouth.

"Sorry…I meant Rose!" I rolled my eyes as I picked up my schoolbag and we walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

When we got down to the hall Al had already scoffed his breakfast and he was reading his timetable as he waited for us.

We sat down and he pushed two pieces of paper towards us.

"Your timetables, ladies," he said with his most charming smile.

Which is very charming, I might add, as it has hordes of girls swooning over him.

"Thanks," I said, peering down at my timetable.

I had Transfiguration first with the Slytherins.

What luck. Note the sarcasm.

I groaned.

"What's up?" Tess asked.

"Transfiguration- "

"But you like Transfiguration," she interrupted looking at me with confusion marring her face.

"-with the Slytherins." I finished.

Her mouth formed an 'O' of surprise.

Then she grinned.

"Boy, am I glad I didn't take that subject! I have divination first," she said looking relieved.

"No worries, Rose, I have transfiguration too," Al piped up, tucking into another slice of toast when he'd already finished eating his breakfast.

Both me and Al have always been the greedy pigs of the family. We each eat more than both our mum's put together.

Which is a lot by the way.

"Good. At least I'll have someone, I swear practically no one from Gryffindor is taking it this year," I wondered aloud.

"True. But like all the Slytherins are taking it," Al said with a hint of disgust barely concealed in his tone of voice.

All the Slytherins?

But that means…

Malfoy.

I shuddered.

The last thing I need is another lesson for that stupid arrogant blonde to purposefully ignore me.

Or worse, sneer at me like all the time.

I followed Al to the Transfiguration classroom dragging my heels.

Al picked up on my miserable mood.

"Why the long face?" he asked, hitching his bag another inch up his shoulder.

"Transfiguration…" he nodded his head urging me to go on, "with the Slytherins."

I gave him a look.

"Oh…Malfoy…right." He looked a little anxious. "Just sit next to me, and you can be my partner."

As much as working with Al wouldn't exactly be too beneficial to my grade, it was better than working with bloody Malfoy or one his hideously conceited cronies.

In fact, I would take working with Miranda over a Slytherin any day.

Not that I'm biased against the slimy snakes or anything.

Well, I am.

But with reason, I mean they are all stuck-up.

As soon as McGonagall let us into the classroom, I nabbed Al and I a desk at the front.

Al groaned as he swung his bag onto the desk.

"Why the front?" he asked with a whiny voice.

"Because, unlike you, I want to pass this class," I replied giving him a prod.

"I want to pass the class, I just don't want to sit on the front. McGonagall will always pick on me and I don't memorise the textbooks like you," he said miserably.

I rolled my eyes.

"Maybe if you paid attention…" I said smirking humorously at him.

"I doooo…well I don't, but I can't sleep when I'm sitting under bloody McGonagall's nose," he said but resigned himself to sitting in the empty seat next to me.

The rest of the class filed in chattering away.

Luckily, Malfoy was seated as far away from me as possible – he was sitting right at the back of the classroom next to Leo Zabini.

The ever-so-charming Leo was flicking bits of paper at Ben Nott who was sitting in front of him.

And people wonder why they are considered the idiots of our year.

McGonagall looked quite surprised to have Al sitting right at the front of the class and she paused a second to give him a strange look before starting the lesson.

Al elbowed me, "I hate you. She's giving me weird looks."

I chuckled under my breath and got out some paper to write some notes.

Al snorted as I started to scribble down the stuff about switching spells McGonagall was dictating.

Ok, there is no way he is borrowing my notes to revise from this year.

"Zabini!" McGonagall screeched halfway through her lecture. "Zabini, stop flicking that parchment at Nott. Perhaps we should move you…"

I spun round with a triumphant grin and noticed Zabini looking extremely sheepish.

"Let's have you at the front where I can see you." McGonagall lowered her voice to speak to me as the rest of the class broke out into conversation. "Miss Weasley, I think I can trust you at the back of the classroom, would you mind swapping."

Oh god.

You have got to be kidding me.

There is no way that I am sitting next to...that…that…

Mind you, if we take the last two years by example, he might not actually talk to me.

Even so, I did not want to spend the rest of the hour breathing in the same air as Malfoy.

I gave McGonagall a nod and a half-hearted attempt at a smile as Zabini appeared next to me with his shiny teeth glinting as he smiled at me.

"Sorry, Weasley. Maybe I could make it up to you, fancy going into Hogsmeade with me sometime?" he said waggling his eyebrows suggestively and still revealing his white pearly teeth to me.

"No, not really," I said, trying to sound as polite as possible.

You know, it's quite hard to be polite when you're rejecting someone.

However, Zabini didn't seem to mind. His smile didn't even falter.

"If you change your mind, come find me," he said as he sat down next to Al who was looking up at him a little confused.

To be honest, I was a little puzzled myself.

I mean, we're talking about a guy who, along with his best mate, has denied my existence for the past several years. And now is asking me out.

Maybe someone spiked the pumpkin juice this morning.

In a befuddled state I lugged my heavy bag to the back of the classroom and slid onto the desk, trying to keep to my side of the desk.

Malfoy looked at me with an amused expression pasted over his face.

"I'm not poisonous you know," he drawled.

I tucked a fallen auburn ringlet behind my ear and looked at him confused, for about the fiftieth time that day.

He spoke to me.

As in, Malfoy spoke to me.

Malfoy.

Is this the same person?

I raised one eyebrow as I scanned his pale face.

"I never said you were," I said emotionlessly.

He smirked, "You kind of implied it, I mean you're practically falling off the edge of the desk."

I sneered at him and glanced down at my workspace.

Sure enough, I had about an inch of desk that I had claimed, otherwise I was literally hanging off the edge of the wooden table.

But I didn't move any closer to him.

I choose no workspace over Malfoy-infested-workspace.

"Well, would you look at that…" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Malfoy smiled then turned to look at the board.

I faced the front as well, my mind reeling.

So, he ignores me for ages then when forced to sit next to me engages me in almost civilized conversation.

Sometimes the workings of the male mind are mysterious.

Ok, all the time to me.

I spent the rest of the lesson absent-mindedly taking notes and staring at the clock waiting for the lesson to end already.

I swear, when you watch clocks they go slower than they normally do.

Finally, when the clock struck ten o clock, I swept my books into my bag and shoved my quill in as well, before hauling it onto my shoulder.

Zabini walked past just as I was about to leave. He gave me a long slow wink.

Oh my god.

What exactly is going on with the world?

My jaw dropped almost to the floor as I watched Zabini's retreating back. Al grabbed my arm and steered me out of the classroom.

"Uh, Rose?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did Zabini just wink at you?" He smirked evilly.

Clearly he was contemplating the exact sentiment that I was.

Did Zabini seriously just wink at me?

I better let McGonagall know that the House Elves are putting something in the drinks.

"I think so," I said anxiously.

Al burst out into hysterical peals of laughter.

Until I stepped angrily on his foot.

"Owww!" he exclaimed, clutching his left foot.

"It's not funny," I said through a clenched jaw.

Luckily we had a free lesson then, so me and Al went to the Gryffindor common room to find Tess. We found her sitting next to the fire writing answers to some questions from her Divination textbook. She looked up when we came in.

"Zabini winked at Rose!"

Those were the words that Al greeted her with.

Al cracked up laughing, and was rolling around on the hearthrug. Tess gave him an exasperated look and turned to me.

"Seriously?" she said with a sneaky grin.

I nodded with a disgust etched all over my freckly face.

Al pointed at me clutching his stomach in laughter.

I sat down on the sofa opposite Tess.

"He must have been drunk or something," I concluded after a few minutes of sitting in silence.

Tess gave me the same look she had just given Al.

"No, moron, I'd imagine that it's because he likes you," she said, as if she was stating the obvious.

Right…

Personally, I find the drunk conclusion much more believable.

"Don't be so stupid, I mean, come on, I'm dorky Rose!" I exclaimed. Al coughed loudly.

"Well, you used to be," he said raising his eyebrows and smiling.

"I think what Al is trying to say," Tess said, giving Al a disapproving look, "is that over the summer, you kind of…"

"Got much prettier." I glared at him and he looked sheepish. "By accident, I'm sure."

"Not that you weren't pretty before," Tess interjected.

I gave her a disbelieving look.

"I appreciate you guys trying to be nice, but let's face it, I am fairly hideous," I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes and clamped her hand to her forehead.

"For a clever person, you are really stupid," Al said trying to replicate Tess's exasperated look.

"I give up on you," Tess said dramatically and returned to her work.

"You have work already?" Al asked her in horror.

"Yep, and I'm getting it done now, it's not too long," she said frantically scribbling away.

"McGonagall didn't give us any," Al announced sounding surprisingly like a toddler flaunting a chocolate bar in front of a younger sibling.

"Bully for her," Tess replied without even looking up from her work.

Al bounced up to his feet.

"Well, I'm going to love you and leave you, girlies," he said, giving us a quick wave and then casually walking out of the common room.

No doubt he was off to the kitchen's to steal some food.

It wouldn't be anything new.

As he left the room, I noticed Tess glance up and give him a little wave. Her eyes lingered on the portrait hole for a couple of seconds after it had closed.

I looked back at her and she was smiling to herself as she was doing her work.

Hmmm….interesting…