After the excitement of starting a new school year classes were all too soon beginning to feel very routine. Students began to get in the flow of things and fifth years were adapting to the mountains of homework assigned every night. Well, almost everyone….

"Danny, where are you going? You promised that you would get an early start on your Potions essay due Tuesday, remember? We have to get to the library." Alice looked at Danny imploringly.

"Riiiight… Well, um, actually, I have detention." Danny grinned sheepishly at Alice and hoped she wasn't about to receive another lecture.

"Again?? With who? What did you do?"

"Forgot some homework, was a disturbance to class, screwed up some potions, skipped a few classes….." Danny mumbled then smiled up at Alice.

"So you're with Professor Slughorn then? Great. I have some things I need you to ask for me about that essay he assigned……"

After Alice finished listing the things Danny should ask Professor Slughorn she left to the library and left Danny alone in the dormitory. She had about ten minutes before she had leave to detention. As Danny changed out of her clothes- it had gotten dirty in Herbology- she mulled over her new found friendship in Alice; she could be so serious sometimes! But for some reason, more than Lily or Gia, she clicked with Alice. Who would've thought? Probably because when Alice let loose she was an evil genius and fun to boot; and Alice found Danny amusing. Realizing the time, Danny dashed out the door, as she was already four minutes late.

Danny walked into the Potions class drenched in sweat and eight minutes late. Even as Professor Slughorn began lecturing and told her to take a seat and pull out a sheet and a quill, her eyes were immediately drawn to the one other boy there, already in his seat and writing lines. Severus Snape. At that moment Danny thanked her lucky stars and grinned at the deathly pale boy who looked up to scowl at her.

0o0o0o

Meanwhile Lexi was at Quiddich practice and her sister Rissa was watching in the stands, also working on some homework. It seemed that Rissa was the only one in the girls dormitory keeping up with the homework. She had been sitting there for close to an hour, but despite herself she was feeling slightly lonely. Lily and Gia were decorating for Halloween, Alice was studying for an essay Rissa had already written, Danny had detention, Lexi, James, and Sirius were at Quiddich practice, and she just couldn't find the nerve to hang out with Remus. She knew what topic would inevitably come up, and every time she thought of what she wanted to say to him her stomach invariably twisted up into knots.

Unfortunately for Rissa Remus had found the nerve to come and talk with Rissa, because when Rissa next looked up from her charms' book, there was Remus coming up the stairs and heading right towards her.

0o0o0o

"Lily, what do you think I should put here? Another floating jack-o-lantern or maybe some wall decorations?"

"Oh! What? Um, whatever you think, I'm sure it will look fine." Lily said distractedly.

"Lily, why have you been day dreaming so much? All these past few weeks; it's like you're suddenly from another planet. What's wrong with you?" Gia turned to look Lily straight in the face, and her face demanded an answer. It was the same face she used on her little sisters and brothers when she knows they've done something.

"It's just," Suddenly her face crumpled and she looked like she might at any moment cry, but taking a shaky breath she drove on with her story, "It's my mother. Something's wrong with her. She's sick. She's been getting these weird headaches all summer long. Horrible headaches! She can't move for hours because when she does the pain becomes unbearable. The doctors don't even know what's wrong with her!" Before Gia could offer comments or sympathies, Lily took a hasty breath and began talking again; after weeks of secret keeping, she had absolutely no intention of being interrupted, for fear that if she didn't tell someone everything she might implode, or she might loose her nerve, and say nothing at all. "Her blood pressure's dropped so low we had to rush her to the hospital. Twice! And my sister is as bratty as ever, the only thing she's concerned about is whether or not Mum will be able to come to Mother Daughter Activity Day at her stupid pratty Debutante school and the only thing that's upsetting her is the fact that she now has to do her own laundry because Mum is too sick to even leave bed! To top it all off my dad has spent the last three months basically living in his office and when he is home he just walks around like a zombie!! My poor mom…" Though her voice had been increasing in volume throughout her laments, at the end her voice dropped to a whisper and her face pinched in an effort not to cry.

Then just as suddenly as her fervency had come, it left her. Her energy was spent and Lily sank to the floor in emotional exhaustion and had a distinct feeling of defeat. Before she could begin to feel sorry for herself though, or to retreat into a state of pleasant numbness, Gia's arms wrapped around Lily, and she felt her mood lift slightly.

"Why didn't you tell us what was going on?? Alice and I were so worried about you; you've been acting so strange lately. No wonder!" Gia sat facing Lily and her face was a mixture of anxiety and anger and sadness.

"I'm sorry, I just, I felt that if I didn't talk about it, it wouldn't be real. Talking about it seemed like a sort of betrayal to Mum. I'm so sorry." Despite her earlier thoughts, Lily actually felt slightly better after talking to Gia. She felt tears threaten her again, but she fought them off and smiled at Gia, so grateful that Gia was her friend. She still felt exhausted, but she also felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her chest.

"Come on, let's leave these decorations for tomorrow and go join Alice in the library." Gia said as she stood up, sensing that the subject was closed for now.

0o0o0o

Danny took a seat next to Severus and began writing the lines that Professor Slughorn had written on the board. On the side of her paper she wrote him hi, but he did not glance at her, even when she rather painfully jabbed him in the side. After half an hour of being ignored, Danny was getting rather antsy. Thank goodness Professor Slughorn decided to intervene before Danny did something really stupid.

"Students, you can put down your quills now, I have decided on some other form of punishment for your unruly behavior. You seem to be getting rather fidgety," He looked at Danny, " so instead of writing lines you can clean all of the pots in the classroom. No using magic, and believe me if you do I shall know, and you can leave when every single pot is so clean I could see my reflection in it. I have better things to do than baby-sit you, but believe me when I say that I have eyes everywhere." Professor Slughorn then gathered his things, and without a backward glance left the classroom.

"Well, you heard him, let's start cleaning these pots!" Danny looked all too happy for someone who had just been told to spend the next few hours cleaning incredibly odorous pots, but she couldn't help but be pleased at the fact that she could finally talk to the mysterious loner, Severus Snape.

Still scowling, Snape went to the closet to receive scrub brushes and a bucket. It was not hard to see that he was thoroughly displeased with this arrangement.

"So, what did you do to land yourself in detention?"

"You were there when it happened!" For some reason, this innocent question just pushed him over the deep end, and he was seeing red. "Don't you remember your stupid boyfriend dumping stuff into my pot?? Dragon blood, no less, my pot exploded and I spent the day in the infirmary being treated for first degree burns, and then Professor Slughorn gave me detention for three nights in a row!! While you stupid boyfriend spent the day laughing about it!" Severus actually had a flush to his cheeks and his voice was at a volume considered yelling. He had at some point stood up and was now glaring maliciously down at poor Danny, who looked stunned.

"First of all, Sirius Black is not my boyfriend." Danny was very sure to enunciate each word and her voice was a low whisper, which seemed wrong to Severus somehow, because Danny was always very loud. "Second of all, I was in fact not there when this happened; I was playing hooky. So don't yell at me Severus, I didn't do anything." Her face was hard and angry, but she wasn't actually that angry with Severus…

For a while neither one of them said anything to each other. Then something amazing happened.

"So what did you do to get detention?"

0o0o0o0

Even though his stomach was twisting and turning Remus nevertheless did not falter even when Rissa finally noticed him and her face twisted to one of panic or of a trapped animal. God, and even now Remus couldn't help notice how adorable she looked all bundled up in her jacket. There were a few other aspects he also couldn't help but notice.

"Hi." Rissa said as she scooted over and Remus sat down next to her.

"Hi Rissa." Remus said almost shyly. "I figure we need to eventually talk about, you know, that night and all…"

"Yeah, sure, eventually. You know, maybe in a few hundred years or so." Rissa smiled weakly at her own joke, but it looked sickly.

"Look, I know how you feel about the um kiss and all."

Rissa felt her face flush and sweat suddenly dripped down her face as she vainly tried to prepare herself for rejection. Her stomach dropped and she felt faintly nauseous, somewhere in the back of her mind she was telling herself that she was over reacting and that he was just a boy anyways, but it was a very small voice.

Remus bravely went on, " I know it was just an accident, don't worry about it, it didn't mean anything. We can still be friends. Strong emotions and all…" Remus trailed off nervously.

Rissa knew her body had just gone unnaturally stiff, that her face was frozen solid, so it came as a surprise when she immediately replied and reassured him. "Yeah, yeah, good, of course we can still be friends, it was just a mistake after all." She was pretty sure her voice had cracked on "mistake" but she still forced a smile out of her frozen lips and began gathering her stuff, certain that at any moment she would start crying.

Remus had of course noticed the crack in her voice and her stiff frame, but didn't know what to make of it. He saw her gather up her stuff and decided that now would be a good time to go down and wait for James and Sirius, considering Quiddich practice was almost over.

"Well, I'm gonna go wait down there for James and Sirius. See you later."

As soon as Remus was out of hearing distance Rissa got up and stole down the stairs, but instead of waiting for Lexi she turned towards the Forbidden Forest and spent a good hour or so crying on the outskirts of the forest, and in total disbelief that she could feel so strongly for a boy she barely knew.