Hey lovlies!

Another quick chapter. It is so much easier writing than my other ones. Just FYI, Ti is an exaggerated me. I'm not that bitchy, honest xD Ask Maya! Actually, don't... Hehe.

Enjoy!

Ooh, and please review. Me and Maya will be uber happy if you do.

We may even give you a cyber cookie. They're tasty.

Tielle, xx

The next day came quite quickly, and Ti found Maya at the Ravenclaw table. They had Charms first, and had already planned to walk together.

Lining up outside the classroom patiently, Tielle was still thinking about Albus, like she had been all night. She stifled a yawn.

"Tired?" Maya asked sarcastically.

She nodded. "Didn't get much sleep last night. I was thinking about Al..." She cut off quickly, thinking of the first thing that came into her head. "Aluminium foil... I was thinking about... Aluminium foil?"

"Right..." Maya said, dragging the word out to show her confusion.

There were footsteps from down the hall, and Ti looked around, her mouth hanging open slightly as she saw Professor Hayes sauntering casually towards them.

"In you go." He said with a slight smile, unlocking the door with a flick of his wand and waiting for the students to file in before himself. Tielle and Maya, who were at the back of the line as usual, were stopped by Hayes's hand before they could step into the classroom. "I wanted to have a word with you both." He said, closing the classroom door quickly and looking at the two girls. "Maya, I wanted to personally congratulate you for getting full marks in your O.W.L.S exam. You and Ming Lei were the only people in the whole year to get one hundred percent." He grinned and dismissed her back into the classroom.

He turned to Tielle and frowned slightly. She closed her mouth, realising it was still open and carried on staring at him as he opened his mouth to speak. "I was a little disappointed with your charms grade." He told her truthfully, "But I'm willing to spend some extra time with you. One on one tutoring, we'll call it." He smiled slightly.

"O-one on one t-tutoring?" She stuttered, mentally kicking herself for sounding like an idiot.

"Yes. You only just scraped an 'Acceptable' by one mark, I'm afraid. But I'm willing to give you all the extra help you need to get that grade up." He finished with a flattering smile, making Ti purse her lips together tightly.

"Mmhm..." She mumbled, not trusting herself to speak. She could see his abs through his shirt. Why was he doing this to her?

"In you go." He smiled and opened the door for her. She giggled slightly and took a seat next to Maya, automatically whispering the whole thing to her, then giggling again.

After lunch, Tielle walked down the transfiguration corridor, pulling her timetable from her bag and sighing deeply when she realised that transfiguration in fact wasn't her next lesson, and that she had Ancient Runes on the other side of the castle.

She turned around and started walking quickly. She didn't want to be late for her first lesson of the year. Professor Pennington already hated her for absolutely no reason. She was pretty much screwed.

Turning down the corridor to her right, she bumped straight into somebody, making her loose balance and almost fall over. She re-aligned her bag on her shoulder. "Nice going captai..." She trailed off when she saw that it was James Potter, smirking at her and looking smug. "Oh, it's you."

"I do believe we had a deal, Ms. Zabini." He said, with a feigned smile.

Tielle rolled her eyes and stepped to walk around him. He was obviously expecting this and took a step too, blocking her from going anywhere. "If you want me to tell the whole school you've been playing tonsil hockey with my brother, then by all means, walk away."

She faked a laugh and moved to step around him, but was blocked again. "Trying to walk here..." She said, gesturing the corridor ahead of her with her arms.

"No deal, no walk." He shrugged. "Simple."

"Why are you doing this?" She asked angrily, giving him such a dirty glare, he moved back a couple of inches. He bounced back pretty quickly, though.

"Because it's what I do, honey." When she continued glaring at him without saying a word, he sighed deeply and added, "Look, I'm happy Al's happy. I'm glad he's found someone, even if it is a Zabini, okay?"

"Then why are you being such a sadistic moron about it?"

James pushed her against the wall, making her back slam into it rather hard. "I don't think we'll be having any problems, do you?" He asked, pointedly.

Not able to move, Ti struggled to get away, but he was just too strong. "Get off of me." She said through gritted teeth, acting fiercer than she felt.

"Just answer my question."

"Fine. The answer is yes. We will have problems." She grinned and rammed her knee hard between his legs, making him back off and double over, taking in a sharp breath.

"That's the spirit." She grinned and started walking away, calling, "Later, Potter" over her shoulder.

Ti tucked some hair behind her ear and huffed after she'd left the scene. She was really late now. Her day was just getting better and better.

Being half an hour late didn't go down so well with Professor Pennington.

Ti opened the door quietly, closing it behind her and walking on her tiptoes to her seat. He had his back turned, and was writing something on the board. Just as she sat down next to Maya and placed her bag under the table, he said, "Nice of you to join us, Miss Zabini. Five points from Slytherin and you can make up for lost time after class."

Her mouth opened disbelievingly, looking around expecting to see some kind of camera. That was the thing about Pennington: It was like he had eyes in the back of his head. "But sir, that's not fair..." She said, feeling picked on already.

He turned around, stopping what he was doing. "I think you'll find I am the professor here, young lady. You will do as you're told and you'll do it without question. Understand?"

Tielle gritted her teeth. She knew answering back would get her in more trouble, but she was still really annoyed about James blackmailing her and wasn't in a good mood. "No. I do not understand." She replied angrily, earning herself a painful kick under the table from Maya.

Pennington sighed deeply and pulled the chair out from under his desk, seating himself in it comfortably and pulling a piece of parchment from his draw. He sent a quick glare in Tielle's direction and started scratching his quill along it noisily, occasionally dipping the nib in his little bottle of ink. She had a gut feeling that what he was writing wouldn't be good; it never was.

He folded the parchment, tapped it with his wand and stood. "Miss Zabini, please take this to your head of year. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you again."

She snatched the parchment from him, giving him a glare of her own and stomped out of the classroom, slamming the door so hard behind her, the noise made her jump.

Muttering under her breath, she made her bag strap more comfortable on her shoulder, and set off for Professor Spence's (The Head of Slytherin House's) office. When she got there, she knocked a couple of times on the door and waited for him to respond before entering.

"Good Afternoon, Tielle." He smiled slightly, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Giving him a guilty smile, she walked towards his desk and handed him the folded parchment.

He opened it and scanned through the words, not really looking surprised at all. "Take a seat."

She slumped in one of the chairs, crossing her arms over her chest. "Professor, could I just say, in my defence..." She stopped. What could she say to improve the situation? Oh, yeah. My boyfriend's brother is blackmailing me and my back hurts from when he slammed me against a wall. That would go down so well. "I'm sorry. I'm having a bad day and I just... Snapped."

"Care to adapt?" He asked calmly.

"It's a long story. I'd rather just get back to class if that's alright with you, sir."

"Of course. You're excused."

Ti smiled at him and stood up, opening the door to leave.

"Oh, and Ti?" He asked.

"Yes, sir?"

"My door is always open."

She half-smiled at him. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." She walked from the room, closing the door quietly behind her, glad she wasn't in trouble.

That evening at dinner, Tielle spotted Albus on the Gryffindor table. He was deep in conversation with his brother, and it looked pretty serious. She was snapped out of her thoughts when someone in the direction she was looking in started waving. Realising it was Maya, she laughed slightly and smiled, giving her a little wave back.

Ti didn't see what Maya mouthed to her, because just then, Albus yelled "FINE." At James and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Not wanting to look suspicious, she quickly took another mouthful of her dinner and swallowed before leaving, too. She knew exactly where he'd be. He'd be where he always went when he wanted to cool off.

"Hey." She whispered, sitting beside him and looking out at the lake. It was dark, and the moon was reflecting in the water which was rippling under the light breeze. She let out a small shiver, and rubbed her arms.

"You're cold?" He asked.

"Nah, I'm fine." She half smiled and turned serious. "What was that all about, in the Hall back there?"

"You saw that, huh?" He let out a humourless laugh and picked up a stick beside him, snapping in different sized pieces and throwing them individually into the lake before answering. "James still doesn't like the idea of... Us."

"I kind of got that much." She nodded and moved closer to him, hoping to steal some of his body heat. That boy was like a furnace. Thankfully, he got her silent hint and pulled her into a wonderfully warm hug.

The silence was broken when Al let out a small laugh.

Looking up with slight confusion, Ti asked, "What's funny?"

Al laughed some more, shaking his head. "I can't believe you kneed him in the balls..." He tightened his grip around her, and laughed a bit more.

She rolled her eyes. "It's not that funny! I could have just ruined your chance of ever having nieces or nephews..."

This, if anything, made Albus laugh even more. "Ah, you're funny." He grinned and stood up, brushing off his jeans and holding out a hand to help her up.

Taking his hand, she stood up, keeping hold onto it and slotting her fingers between his.

"Fancy a walk?" He asked.

"Even have to ask?" She answered, accompanying it with a small laugh.

They walked quietly together for a while around the lake. "So... When do you think we should start telling people about us?" Albus asked quietly, but clearly.

Ti froze. She honestly really wanted people to know they were together. She was sick of desperate girls rushing up to him in corridors and asking him to go out with them. She wanted to stop pretending that she didn't know him, and even sometimes have to ignore him when they were around other people. But she cared too much about the shit Albus would get for it. For dating her; a Slytherin. A Zabini.

"You know we can't do that..." She said quietly.

"What? So we'll just keep it a secret forever?"

"No... I never said that..."

"Is it because you're ashamed? Ashamed that you're going out with a Gryffindor?" He asked angrily, letting go of her hand.

"No! It's nothing like that!" She stepped back a bit, looking at him in shock at his sudden outburst.

He shook his head. "Whatever. I'm going back. See you later."

And he walked off. Just like that.

Tielle watched him go. She half wanted to chase after him, but she couldn't move. She was completely frozen to the spot in shock.

She sighed deeply and started walking back a few minutes later. If he was going to be like that, then so was she.

Ti didn't sleep well again that night. Although this time it was for completely different reasons.

She pulled herself out of bed, not bothering to dress properly: Just putting on a pair of old jeans and a jacket over her night top, and not bothering to even brush her hair. She dragged her feet into the Great Hall and spotted Albus straight away. He didn't look so well-kempt either. Sighing slightly, she averted her gaze and found Maya on the Ravenclaw table and walked over to her slowly.

"What in the name of Merlin happened to you?" Maya asked, looking at her like she'd just done something completely absurd.

"Doesn't matter."

"It obviously does." She rolled her eyes, not believing her. "Look, we're best friends, Tielle. Were not meant to keep things from each other."

Sarah scoffed at this and Ti, who was in a very foul mood, shot her a murderous glare. "Problem?" She asked loudly.

Maya bit her lip. "Ti, not here..." She begged.

Ignoring her, Ti added, "Because if you've got a problem, trust me; I'd love to hear it."

Sarah mumbled something about, "Doesn't matter..." And looked down at the book she was reading, her face bright red.

Maya gave Ti a furious look of her own. "What is with you lately?" She snapped, gathering up her work, standing up. She pushed past her shoulder and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Great. Now I've pissed her off too, Ti thought with a huff, standing there awkwardly for a while before leaving also.

"Ti!" Someone called from behind her. She knew who it was, and she really wasn't in the mood to talk to him.

"I have nothing to say to you right now." She told Albus, turning to face him. "Please, just leave me alone for a while."

He frowned and looked at his feet.

Ti rolled her eyes and turned to walk off again.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" He called after her.

Luckily, most people were either still in bed or in the Great Hall, so the corridor was completely deserted besides Ti and Al.

She sighed deeply and turned around to look at him. "Albus, please. Not here."

It was Ti's turn to look at the ground as he walked over to her. Lifting her chin with his thumb and forefinger, he kissed her lightly and bit his lip after he'd pulled back.

"If you think kissing me is going to solve anything..." She was cut off by him kissing her again. She kept her mouth closed firmly, forcing herself not to give in.

But Al wasn't giving up.

"Albus, don't..." She mumbled, crossing her arms stubbornly and turning her face away from him.

He just smirked and carried on, and eventually Ti gave in.

"Am I forgiven?" He pulled away to ask.

She rolled her eyes. "You're forgiven." Ti smiled and placed another kiss on his lips, knowing she could never stay mad at him for long.

There was the sound of a door closing and faint footsteps. Ti's eyes widened and she leapt back from Albus just as Maya came into view.

Looking between the two guilty faces, she asked, "What's going on here?"