A/N: A long chapter - but a good one (I hope). Anyway reviews are like the Elixir of Life, and thank you so much to SeveralShades and . . for reviewing (nice pen name). OK, bye!

Chapter IV

I awoke very early on Saturday morning to the loud tweeting of birds outside, though I was so tired that I thought I could've slept on until midday if I'd wanted to. The previous night had been a late one; I usually found homework quite manageable, but this year's load was starting to get on top of me a bit. True, the History of Magic homework had been a little less boring with Albus there, but I'd had to do patrols afterwards, and by the time I was back in the common room Albus was nowhere to be seen, so I'd continued with the homework whilst ruefully thinking that maybe sometimes being a prefect was a burden rather than a privilege. Unfortunately I hadn't got to bed until quarter past one, when I'd finally finished my palmistry diagram for the Divination teacher, Professor Venniro, after several-crossings out to the labelled diagram of a hand (I was so tired, I kept getting my life line and heart line mixed up).

I laid in bed for a while, watching dust swirl overhead in a shaft of light coming from the dormitory window. Then, when I was sure there was no way of me getting back to sleep again, I heaved out of bed, dressed and went down to breakfast. A fair few people were there, which was surprising for an early Saturday morning, but this was, after all, a Hogsmeade weekend. I searched the table for Joe, but he was either hidden by other breakfasters or hadn't been let out of the hospital wing yet. Celeste was still asleep in the dormitory, but I was surprised to see James eating breakfast with his mouth slightly open even when he wasn't eating. His reddish-brown hair, similar in colour to mine, was stuck up in all directions as though he hadn't bothered to comb it. Suppressing a giggle, I went over to talk to him, wondering why he was up so early.

'Morning,' he said groggily, as I sat down beside him.

'Morning, James!' I said brightly, pouring myself a cup of tea. 'Lovely day.'

The ceiling above, which was enchanted to mirror the weather outside, was currently a pale, calm blue with traces of white, patchy cloud. It was a perfect late winter's day.

'How can you talk to me so cheerily this early in the morning?' James asked, disgusted. 'Here I was, thinking I could have a nice lie-in on my only two days of freedom out of a whole week...well, Krups might fly...'

'What are you talking about?' I laughed, spreading a considerable amount of marmalade on doorstep slices of toast. 'Are you going to Hogsmeade?'

'Fat chance,' James muttered. 'Nah, Spinnet wants us to do training for the whole day and most of the afternoon, for the match tomorrow. I've told her a thousand bloody times, I've told her we'll win, but she won't listen...'

My knife clattered onto my plate. 'But...the whole team? Joe, too?'

'Nah, she's let him off, hasn't she?' James replied with an airy wave. 'Because he's been in a fight so he can have a day off to relax for the match...doesn't want him to do anything excitable in case it makes him tired and messes up our chances...she'll make an excuse for him won't she? But nope...not me...still up at Merlin knows what time in the morning to do useless practice...freezing my arse off on a broom when I'm going to be on one tomorrow as well...no consideration, that girl...'

I shook my head, not really listening to James's rambling, although I did remember that Celeste was supposed to be going out with Sam Thomas, and that would have to be postponed now that the team were doing a whole day's training.

After wishing James good luck, at which he sort of gave me a hopeful grimace, I went back to the common room, given that it was not time to meet Joe yet. Once there, I found Albus sitting on a table surrounded by books; and my little brother, Hugo, a rare occurrence these days since he was a first-year and forever roaming the castle with his friends, twins Lorcan and Lysander. He was often visiting the family friend and kindly bearded giant, Hagrid, who was gamekeeper. Hagrid liked all manner of creatures, although he favoured the dangerous ones, maintaining that they were 'more interesting', and Hugo and the twins greatly enjoyed accompanying Hagrid into the Forest to see some amazing new creature he had found (when I told my mother this a few months into Hugo's first year, she gave me the strictest instructions to check with Hagrid what animal he was procuring whenever my little brother was following him, because according to her, it was more likely for it to be potentially lethal than it was for the Chudley Cannons to finish last in the Quidditch league).

'Hey, Rose,' Albus grinned when he saw me, but I did not return it.

'Where did you go last night? You had just as much homework to finish as me, and –'

'I got it all done when you were on patrols,' Albus said guiltily. 'Did you want to do the rest of it with me, too?'

'Well – I can manage on my own – but I just thought – '

'I can do homework without your help, Rose,' Albus interrupted sharply with a roll of his eyes.

'No, I wasn't saying that!' I protested. 'I thought you'd be in the common room – I thought at least with some company – '

'I was upstairs in my dormitory,' said Albus simply. 'I don't have to spend every minute with you. It's not like you do that with me.'

I stared, a little hurt. 'Oh,' I said in a small voice. 'Well – well what are you doing with all the books and things, then, if you finished your homework last night?'

'He's helping me with mine,' Hugo put in cheerily, grinning up at me with a smear of dirt on his nose and his red hair dishevelled.

'Hugo, what on earth have you been doing?' I asked, too startled by his appearance that I forgot about Albus's recent nettling words.

'I've been with Hagrid,' said Hugo, predictably. 'I was helping him hollow out the trees to find the Glumbumbles.'

'The – the what?'

'Glumbumbles,' Hugo repeated gleefully. 'They're like furry flying insects – '

'Furry flying insects?' I repeated hoarsely, a lump forming in my throat. That didn't seem too good. 'But – no – I remember reading about them in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them! They're not dangerous, are they?'

'Not really,' shrugged Hugo. 'I only saw a few, there are loads, Hagrid says, but they flew away. Anyway, Hagrid says we need them in the grounds because they produce this treacle or something, and it makes you really calm and Madam Pomfrey needs it for antidotes – look!' he whispered, and took something out of his bag. Moments later it was revealed to be a glass jar with a small creature inside it, evidently a Glumbumble. It was a little larger than an average bumblebee, but it was grey and, just as Hugo had said, furry-bodied. The wings were thick and silvery-blue. At the bottom was a thin layer of a thick, coral-coloured liquid which I supposed was the treacle.

'Hugo, let that out of the jar right now,' I instructed firmly.

'Why?' he whined.

'Because it could be dangerous and you'd probably get into trouble for keeping one,' I said sternly. 'Go on.'

Hugo gave me a look which plainly said he much regretted having me as an older sister, but crossed the common room to the window and let it out of the jar all the same. He gave the Glumbumble a look of longing as it flew away into the February sky.

'It took me ages to catch that,' he muttered regretfully. 'And I had to do it when Hagrid wasn't looking.'

'Oh, poor you,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'Go and wash your hands, as well. You might have gotten treacle on it or something and it could be poisonous.'

Hugo opened his mouth in protest, but knew he was fighting a losing battle and sloped off to the bathroom.

Albus regarded me with a disapproving frown when I turned back around.

'Hugo loves magical creatures, he was so proud he'd caught that, you know, he was showing me and telling me all about it – '

'I'm sorry, Al, but it was for his own good!' I said defensively. 'He'll probably get in trouble for carrying it around with him, you know a teacher's going to find out somehow with the way he was showing it off – '

'He was having fun! And what does it matter if he's not supposed to have it, it didn't look dangerous to me – '

'The Ministry gave it a three-x rating!' I said, as though this justified it. 'That means "competent wizard should cope", and Hugo's hardly a competent wizard, is he?'

'Don't start talking textbook again,' Hugo snapped. 'Just because it's in writing, doesn't mean it's some solid proof – I don't care what some book or the Ministry says about a little grey insect, alright, and neither does Hagrid – '

'Hagrid can't have thought Hugo catching a Glumbumble was acceptable, or he wouldn't've had to do it when he wasn't looking! Listen, Al, I know you think you're right but I'm his sister and I know better than you do that if I hadn't intervened, Hugo would have probably been bitten by that stupid thing and suddenly it'll be all my fault for not taking care of him – '

'Yeah, bring this all back to you, I knew you would,' Albus said angrily. 'Well if you want to talk about you, why don't we talk about the fact that Hugo couldn't even come to his own sister for help with his homework?'

I stopped and blinked, taken aback. We'd never argued like this before – and the worst thing was, it had started over something so petty. But I felt sick and ashamed. Albus was right.

Suddenly not wanting to look at him anymore, for fear of tears pricking my eyes, I turned away and headed for the portrait hole.

'Rosie!'

Celeste was approaching from the girls' staircase. She looked happy to see me, but a little confused. 'I heard you shouting. Are you okay?'

'Yeah, let's go,' I said quickly, wanting to be as far away from Albus as possible. The common room, already littered with people who were not ready to go down to breakfast, was awkwardly quiet after what had just happened, and I hated it.

I explained everything to her as we were walking down to breakfast. She looked shocked.

'But you and Albus never argue,' she said slowly.

'I know,' I replied gloomily, 'and when we do, it's not a massive argument, it'll be about something stupid like who gets the last Cauldron Cake in the box – and even then we always laugh about it. We're so close that we just don't argue like that.'

'Well...you're not that close...any more, are you?' Celeste said uncomfortably, taking a seat at the more crowded Gryffindor table.

'What do you mean?'

'Well, you were like brother and sister pretty much ever since you started here,' Celeste explained, grabbing a bacon sandwich. 'And now we're in fifth year, you've sort of...drifted apart.'

'I suppose,' I said lamely.

'Actually, I think it was before that when you stopped spending so much time together,' Celeste said thoughtfully. 'It happens all the time to boy-girl friendships,' she added wisely. 'Being friends with a boy doesn't matter so much when you're younger. But, you know, you'll be friends soon, I know you will.'

She smiled and I managed a half-smile in return.

'Try to forget about it. You're seeing Joe today!'

My insides swelled with happiness; it was going to be a good day. And if I got upset, I could tell Joe, and he would understand. No, maybe he'd think I was using him as someone to go to whenever I wanted to complain...or that I was trying to make him jealous...

I watched Celeste eating for a while, deep in thought, and then I remembered to tell her about the team's whole-day practice, which meant she wouldn't be seeing Sam Thomas (at which she looked thoroughly disheartened).

'There's always tomorrow,' I reminded her, as I stood up to leave at five to ten.

'Yes, but...James is going out with Genevieve, and I don't like her, and James'll just make fun of me...anyway, see you later! Maybe I'll come too, with Selina!'

I nodded, and made my way slightly nervously to the Entrance Hall. It was empty except for a line of students waiting to be signed out by the caretaker, Mildewe, an old, hunchbacked man who according to my dad was no better than his predecessor. I leaned against the Gryffindor hourglass, trying to look nonchalant, although inwardly panicking that Joe had set me up somehow. It was only a couple of minutes afterwards that Joe came bounding down the marble staircase, looking a little unsteady on his feet but nonetheless enthusiastic.

'Hi!' he said, and then coughed, possibly fearing he'd sounded too excited. I giggled.

'Hello,' I said, and then, 'You look much better!'

'Thanks,' he replied, as we joined the queue. He did indeed look restored to full health; there was no longer bruising around his eye and his nose was normal-sized again, although perhaps it was redder than usual. 'I thought Madam Pomfrey was going to make me stay another night, but she seemed to think I was okay, thankfully.'

'Maybelle doesn't, though,' I chuckled, referring to the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. 'Sounds as though you got lucky.'

'Yeah, Sam came to tell me about it this morning,' Joe grinned. 'He seemed dead depressed that he's got to do training while I get to go to Hogsmeade...I guess getting into a fight does have its advantages.'

'It'll increase the chances of us winning, though, won't it?' I asked.

'I suppose, if the team don't kill Maybelle today for making them practice,' Joe shrugged.

Mildewe eyed us suspiciously, and then checked our names on the long piece of parchment held in front of his small, beady eyes.

'Parrus...Parrus...right, there you are...and let's see...Weasley...'

We waited awkwardly, and then Mildewe deemed us fit to leave the castle. It was a pleasant day, just as the ceiling had shown; perhaps not hot enough to wear a t-shirt, but warm all the same. As we walked down the long, sloping drive to the village, shouts and the piercing sound of a whistle could be heard from the Quidditch pitch to my left. I looked and saw six blurs on brooms, zooming around the length of the pitch and yelling incoherently to each other.

'I suppose you'd rather be up there, wouldn't you?' I asked feebly, looking at Joe watch his team fly around passing a small red blur to each other (evidently the Quaffle) with what I thought was a trace of wistfulness in his expression. He looked at me, startled.

'No, of course not!' he assured me. 'I really like hanging around with you, Rose.'

Silently thinking that we'd never really 'hung around' before, I smiled and said, 'oh, well, me, too.'

We entered Hogsmeade after some time, which was rife with villagers doing their shopping or Hogwarts students looking to buy some chocolate from Honeydukes.

'So, where did you say we were going to go first?' I said knowingly, raising my eyebrows.

Joe grinned sheepishly. 'We can go wherever you want,' he said.

But I was too nervous to suggest anywhere, so I asked him where he wanted to go instead.

'Well, I wanted to send a letter to my Uncle Escalus,' Joe said. 'Do you mind if we go to the Post Office?'

I didn't mind, so we entered the Post Office to the sound of soft, doleful hooting, repeated on all sides. I admired a sweet little Scops owl whilst Joe chose a large eagle owl to send his letter, and then we exited and resumed our slow walk down the High Street.

'Do you have an owl of your own?' I asked curiously.

'Yes, but he's off sending a letter home,' Joe explained. 'And I know there's the Owlery, but my uncle lives in Italy, and I thought using an owl which has been specially trained for long journeys would be better.'

'Your uncle lives in Italy?' I gasped.

'Yeah,' he smiled, 'and we visit him in the holidays as well. He's loaded – he owns some of the shares in the Firebolt enterprise.'

'What?' I spluttered.

'More than half, actually,' said Joe coolly. 'But don't go spreading that around. It's not something I tell people.'

'I don't blame you,' I muttered; having someone as rich as that in the family would certainly be hard to hide, but then again, it would attract lots of unwanted attention.

Joe laughed, clearly amused at my astonishment.

'So that's why you've got a Firebolt Two-Point-Eight?' I asked wonderingly. It was the latest model in the Firebolt series and the best in the world; nearly every Quidditch team played on them. Not that I was all too interested in Quidditch, of course; I'd just heard it from James once when he was poring over Which Broomstick?

'Yep,' he nodded modestly. 'Although – don't tell anyone – the Two-Point-Nine's nearly complete in three months, so I'm getting one, although it doesn't come out for sale to the public until next year.'

I laughed and tried to look as though this was serious news, although the chances of me considering this a classified, top-secret piece of information were less than zero.

'Speaking of Quidditch,' said Joe, 'er...would you mind if we went into Spintwitches?' He cast me a guilty look. 'It's just – I wanted to see if they had some Handle Polish and I could do with buying the new edition of Top One Hundred Quidditch Players of the Twentieth Century – my old one's past it...'

Refraining from rolling my eyes, but smiling obligingly, I allowed him to lead me inside. I sat on a rickety leather chair and leafed through Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland whilst he selected a small circular tin of Handle Polish ('it's for Sam's birthday', he assured me) and a glossy blue book which he took from the shelf with a triumphant grin. After he had paid for his buys, we continued ambling across the cobbles.

'Sorry, let's go somewhere you want to go,' Joe said firmly.

'Well, there – there isn't anywhere I'd like to go,' I said, thinking hard.

'How about that Transfiguration book?' Joe asked cunningly, waggling his eyebrows.

'If you bring that up one more time - '

'Okay, sorry, sorry!' he said hurriedly, quelling under my glowering glare.

'Well, actually,' I said pleasantly, 'I did want to buy a book. It's called House-Elves & Self-Hatred, I don't know whether –?'

'It's called what?' said Joe, who had to work hard to suppress a snort of laughter.

'I – well – it's a book about house-elves, and – ' I felt myself going pink, ' – well, I'm sort of interested in elf rights, I mean – my mum told me - '

I felt silly trying to explain myself, and a little annoyed with Joe, whom I had expected to understand. My cousins all thought my ideas ridiculous, of course, but after I had learned that house-elves live and work at Hogwarts without pay, I shared my mother's view that this was totally unfair and unjust. So, I was reading into it.

Joe still couldn't stop laughing when I walked into Tomes & Scrolls, the quiet little bookshop on the High Street, and I shot him several filthy looks whilst I was paying for the book, watching him laugh to himself beside a spindly table with a pile of books stacking themselves neatly into a pile on top of it. I was still quite huffy with him afterwards, but decided to let it drop.

'There's nothing else left to buy now,' Joe said cheerily, 'so it's just a bit of fun shopping, now, I suppose, isn't it?'

It wasn't really shopping at all, since we didn't buy anything, though I did have fun. We went into Gladrags Wizardwear, and tried on all manner of ridiculous hats until the fake banana, nestled among a selection of other fake fruits on one hat, screeched, 'This is a woman's hat, you blithering idiot!' Joe snatched it off his head, embarassed, and we left quickly.

Next, we ventured into Dervish & Banges, and peered at the broken assortment of objects flittering around of their own accord inside. This visit was short-lived, however, as I tapped a pair of broken scales curiously and they chased after me instead, creaking and clashing, and we were sent out by the shop owner although we both found the matter rather funny.

'The way they just went for you!' Joe remarked.

'It wasn't my fault, I was just – inspecting them,' I giggled.

'Come on, let's go to Honeydukes, we haven't been there yet,' said Joe enthusiastically, and we followed the sweet, warm chocolate smell to the confectionary shop crammed, as always, with students wanting to try a free sample.

Joe did indeed buy me chocolate, something which I regarded with a mixture of gratefulness and embarrassment, because it seemed such a typically romantic thing to do. We walked out of the shop with our pockets full of sweets, and me carrying a large strawberry dipped in melted chocolate on a stick, my gift from Joe. We sat on a bench for a while, watching the other Hogwarts students and talking about nothing in particular. I was rather glad to have my strawberry to eat.

'Want to go and find somewhere to chat for a bit?' Joe suggested.

'Okay.' I said. We were sat opposite Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.

'How about in there?' Joe asked, but I turned to him with a grimace, and I was relieved to see he had one too.

'You don't want to go in either?' I said, eyeing with distaste the frilly, fussy curtains and the way the colour scheme was a sickly pink.

'Nope. I just asked because I thought you wanted to go in. I hate it in there!' he laughed.

'I've never been – the way people talk about it has always put me off.'

We settled for the Three Broomsticks instead. When we arrived, Joe opening the door for me courteously, it was just as full as Honeydukes, except clusters of old warlocks and witches were there, too. We were lucky; a group of gossipy middle-aged women left their table by the fire just as we entered, so I was able to save it whilst Joe got the drinks.

'So are you coming to the Quidditch match tomorrow?' he asked eagerly, sitting down beside me and passing me a foaming tankard of Butterbeer.

It was the second time someone had asked me that question; the first had been Albus. Suddenly remembering my argument with him that morning, I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wondered if he was in Hogsmeade, too – my eyes quickly scanned the homely pub, but I couldn't see his spiky black hair or the glint of his round glasses.

'Rose?'

'Hm? Oh...thanks. Yes, I'm coming,' I sighed.

'You don't sound too happy about it,' Joe remarked light-heartedly. 'That much confidence in the team, eh?'

'No, it's not that,' I said absent-mindedly, smiling at him over the rim of my tankard. I was on the verge of telling him all about what Albus had said, and how hurt I felt, when I stopped and closed my mouth. Suddenly, without knowing how I knew it, I knew he wouldn't understand. And then, without warning, a great longing to be with Albus instead of Joe rolled over me like some giant tidal wave. After all the time I'd spent getting excited for my date with Joe, and wondering obsessively what to wear and what to talk about, I found that he wasn't as good as I'd thought. Of course I liked him a lot, but spending the whole day with him had turned out to be tiring and a little boring. He was funny but there was just something about the two of us as a couple...we didn't fit. And now, more than anything in the world, I wished I was with my cousin, laughing and joking and talking about homework or...or anything.

'Well, you'd better get a good seat, anyway,' Joe said, bringing me out of my reverie, and smiling, 'because the game is going to be amazing. We'll crush Slytherin. I mean, we haven't lost a match yet this year...true, we've only played one...but the one against Hufflepuff was easy as anything...and Ravenclaw'll be easy too, after this one...'

Was there anything else boys talked about, except Quidditch?

'...their Chaser is seriously thick...but their Seeker's quite nimble, so he'll be fast...I like a challenge though...'

He was starting to remind me of some awful person my mum had told me about going out with in her sixth year, called McLaggen.

'But I think if you're there I'll have loads more confidence,' Joe said firmly, nodding. 'You being my number one fan, of course.' He flashed me a grin and then suddenly took hold of my hand. 'It means a lot to me, Rose. Your support.'

I don't know whether it was because I'd already had an argument that morning and was feeling irritable already, but something about the way he was holding my hand and expecting me to simper at him sent me over the edge.

'Well, I hope not, otherwise you might find you've lost the game tomorrow!' I said angrily, and flung my hand away from him.

'Wait – what – Rose - ' Joe spluttered in complete astonishment.

'You think I'm going to just sit at your feet like you're some hero?' I asked sceptically.

'No – oh, Rose, I'm such an idiot, I didn't mean it the way it came out – all I meant was - '

'I don't really have time to listen to your excuses, okay, Joe, I'm in a bad mood already,' I snapped, and got up from the table.

'Rose, please don't go, I thought we were having a nice time!' Joe protested, his eyes wide and hopeful, and for a fraction of a second I wondered whether to sit back down and continue talking after all.

'Look,' I said, more calmly. 'I really want you to do well, and I like you, but I don't think I can see us going out. It's probably not your fault, what with the match tomorrow, but you just didn't seem to be paying attention to me, talking about Quidditch all the time, and that sounds self-centred but – well – I don't know, I just – '

'You should have said something. I had no idea that you were unhappy,' Joe said sadly. 'I was rambling on, alright, I was trying to impress you, I always feel stupid when I'm around you.'

'But you should have realised,' I pointed out gently. 'I don't want to have an argument, with you, okay? I still want us to be on good terms. But I just don't want to go out with you again.'

'I feel a complete prick, going and ruining everything for you,' Joe muttered, shame-faced.

'You didn't!' I insisted, not quite truthfully. 'I still had a good time!'

'Yeah,' said Joe sullenly, who wasn't meeting my eyes. 'Okay.'

I stood awkwardly above him in desperation, wanting nothing more than to leave, but now I felt awful inflicting the misery upon him.

'Good luck for tomorrow,' I said quietly. 'I'll still be there, rooting for you.'

He didn't say anything, so I rushed off feeling guiltier than ever.