Author's Note: Have you been reviewing? Truthfully? I could care less if you didn't review during the story. It's at then end that you need to review and tell me what you think, and if you don't... there will be consquenses*. Grrr...

*First Person*

The first week of school wasn't too bad in all but definitely harder than before. Now that we were NEWT students we were expected to use non-verbal spells in all our lessons which was not easy; Professor McGonagall certainly expected us to do so. The lessons themselves were getting harder to understand even for Hermione which was something, however Potions still remained easy enough for me, though Harry always seemed to be one step ahead which made me frustrated to no end until I found out his secret. His potions book had been previously owned, and had been marked in a fair bit, helping him out. I didn't mind that much, but it was still annoying considering I was trying hard and he was barely trying.

Dean and I were now officially 'going out' whatever that meant and we spent a lot of time together. We'd talk about random things like the weather or lessons or Quidditch during walks from class to class and sometimes at meals. Sometimes I'd hang out with him in the common room as well, but it was hard since I wanted to also spend time Harry, Ron and Hermione while not letting my grades go sky diving.

Now, on the weekend, when I could have been inside studying or reading or doing something far more important than this… I was sitting out in the could, next to Hermione, watching the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dean had made me, since Harry was captain this year, Ron and Dean were trying out and Hermione was going. So I sat watching tiredly as Harry and Ginny yelled at the group before a boy a year up from us looked over at Hermione and smiled cockily at her, making the two of us roll our eyes.

By the time tryouts were over, Harry had a new team picked out. They were better than last year, for sure. Cormac had tried out for Keeper, and he was bloody good, but Ron managed to block one more shot than him. Although it wasn't with grace, it justified Harry's biased decision. It's not like there was any foul play, I mean, Ron did block more than Cormac. If only.

Hermione and I were walking off the stands and back to the common room to wait for the boys when I nudged her playfully, making her look over at me confused.

"What?"

"You used Confundus on Cormac," I told her nonchalantly, smiling.

"It's not like it was a game or anything. They're only tryouts!" she began to panic, obviously thinking I was going to rat her out or something.

"Calm down, Hermione," I grinned.

She relaxed when she saw that I wasn't going to tell. "Merlin, Rebecca!" she tried to control her breathing. I stifled a laugh, seeing her control her reaction to cheating- something she didn't take lightly.

"It's cute that you like Ron enough to help him out a bit," I commented.

"I like what?" Hermione asked.

"You like Ron," I smiled. "Why else would you, of all people, cheat?" I asked.

"Your mad," she told me, though I could tell she knew I was telling the truth.

"Whatever," I smiled.

Later that night, we four were sitting around the fire in the common room, Dean having to catch up on some work and then had gone off to bed. Ron was sitting on the couch above Harry and Hermione while I was sitting in a near by chair, curled up and reading a bit of my book, though I wasn't really paying attention.

"I have to admit, I did think I was going to miss that last one," Ron commented. "I hope Cormac isn't taking it too hard,"

Hermione and I gave each other a look before Hermione looked back down at her newspaper nervously.

"He's got a bit of a thing for you Hermione. Cormac,"

This caused Hermione to look up at Ron in surprise. "He's vile," was all she said before we all got quiet again.

"Have you two ever heard this spell?" Harry asked, making me look up at his marked in Potions book. "Sectumsempra?"

"No, I haven't!" Hermione exclaimed, making Harry jump back a bit. "And if you had a shred of self respect you'd hand that book in!" she added.

"Not bloody likely," Ron smirked. "He's top of the class. He's even better than you, Rebecca. Slughorn thinks he's a genius,"

It was probably the fact that the word genius had been used and Hermione's name hadn't even been mentioned that made her jump up and reach her hand out toward Harry's potion's book. "I'd like to know whose that book was. Let's have a look, shall we?"

"No," Harry said quickly, holding the book possessively, standing up to escape her reach.

"Why not?" she mirrored his movements, even more eager to see now that he resisted.

"The binding is fragile," he defended. It was at that moment that I rose to my feet and made my way around the couch to wait for him to back up towards me.

"The binding is fragile?" she scoffed, her eyes glancing in my direction. As he retreated, his eyes on Hermione, he backed toward me slowly until…

"Got it," I smiled as I grabbed it out of Harry's hands, jumping away from him and back into my seat, opening it up and glancing through it before opening it to the inside of the front cover. "Who's the Half-blood Prince?" I asked, reading the name scrawled inside the cover.

"Who?" Hermione asked back, confused as well.

"That's what it says, right here. This book is property of the Half-blood Prince," I read it before my eyes lifted to Harry's. I quickly handed it back to him carefully, his eyes never leaving mine. "It's still all right," I told him before grabbing my own book and heading to bed.

That night, I was awoke when Hermione's voice swept through my consciousness. Was it a bad thing that I wanted to punch her at this moment?

"Rebecca… Rebecca…"

"What is it?" I whined as I rolled away from her.

"I can't sleep, I have to know," she told me quickly, pulling at my arm until I sat up in my bed with a grunt, opening my eyes.

"Alright," I whined again as I got up, rubbing my eyes. I slowly and hesitantly lifted myself from my beds warming comfort and put a sweater and some jeans on before following her out. It was rather early, I concluded, when I figured breakfast hadn't started yet. Could it be we were out before hours?

I followed her to the library and watched her dive into the shelves of books in search of a Half-blood Prince. After a dozen books of failure, I realized no one else was in the library. Not that many people came to read up on their studies in the morning, aside from us.

Seizing the moment, I began to move towards the restricted section. After unlocking the door and sliding in, I immediately noticed a change of temperature. I got the chills as I ran my finger down the binding of the books, searching for anything mentioning a Half-blood Prince.

"Rebecca!" Hermione appeared in the doorway.

"Merlin, Hermione! Ever heard of knocking?"

"Get out of there, someone's in here with us," she grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the secret room and shutting the door behind us. We hurried as quietly as we could and left the Library.

"So, find anything?" I asked as we began to take a more casual pace to our steps.

"Well… sort of," she started. "I found a student that used to go hear with the last name Prince. But the book was published after she went here," she sighed before looking back up at me hopefully. "Did you find anything?"

"No,"

There was a moment of silence while we accepted our failure which was when I heard footsteps traveling down the hall. I looked up as a flash of platinum blond hair moved down the hall. It was Malfoy, walking down the corridors, looking just as suspicious as when he had been in Diagon Alley with his mum.

"Rebecca?" Hermione asked, stopping beside me. I quickly put a hand over her mouth before I started to follow Malfoy without hesitation. I followed him as silently as possible before I lost him at the turn of a corridor. I could no longer hear his footsteps and gave up on figuring which way to go.

"What was that about?" Hermione whispered eyes were wide, her hair disheveled, as she tried to make sense of it all while trying to breathe.

"Nothing," I told her.

Why was Malfoy suddenly all suspicious and paranoid looking?

Author's Note: Can anyone say foreshadowing?