Moment of Impact

A/N: For your convenience (and due to my short attention span) I started writing this chapter before I finished chapter 6, while I was on a writer's block for what was going to happen next in that chapter. Sooo it'll be up even sooner! (Although by the time you read this, it will already be up. Hello, readers from the future!)

That's what I wrote some million years ago. Now I know that even that didn't help…it's been ages since I posted a new chapter. What else is new, huh? But just so you all know, even if it takes me a really long time to finish a chapter, I'll still keep working on it! I don't plan to give up on this fanfiction, ever! So don't give up on me:D

HOLY CRAP I GOT A LOT OF REVIEWS ON THIS CHAPTER! Seriously, I posted it, then like in two days I had ten new reviews. I love you guys.

NazgulGirl­- And it makes it very hard to think of any way to end this freaking thing (eventually).

doublelily- Yeah, I feel sort of bad for her, too...

100-percent-Harry-Potter-obsessed- Sankyousankyousankyou.

FanFicFanatick- Whoops, a slip of the tongue? And yeah, I know what you mean. I'd be like, "I'm sorry, did you say you were Irish? ...maybe we should go somewhere a little more private."

sunsun- You make me happy with your nice review :D

Lilybet Edyvean- She is a real meanie sometimes, mainly when she's overcompensating for her inner niceness that she won't admit is there. To make up for it, she acts extra-rude. Buuut now that she's starting to feel guilty she'll take it down a notch :3

BunnyT- And re-enact you did. It went something like, "Eeeeee!!"

Secca Irises- Raiding my house sounds like a bad idea.

anonymous- Thanks :)

Miss-Swissy- I'll try he's not in this chapter, though.

Elolinone- I hope you enjoy

----------

"Oh, Daphne, it's just so great," Seiko chirped happily as the two walked through the halls. "Love is such a wonderful thing, Daphne."

"Seiko, you've been dating him - no, not even, you've been helping him cheat for only a few days now. That's hardly enough time to fall in love."

Seiko shook her head, laughing slightly, and gave Daphne a knowing look. "Daphne, trust me, I know. This is love. He's all I think about."

"I know. He's all you talk about."

"I'm a strong believer in love at first sight, Daphne. At least, I am now."

This had been the general direction of the pair's conversations for a day or two now. Daphne was getting sick of it, and fast. "When you get bored of him and dump him, Seiko, remind me to laugh at you."

"Not going to happen. Someday, Daphne, you'll fall in love, and you'll know how wonderful it is."

Daphne gritted her teeth. Not only was she almost positive that Seiko had no idea what she was talking about, but she couldn't stand how condescending Seiko was acting.

"And then I'll tell you that I-"

"Seiko, Draco and I slept together last night," Daphne announced, slowing her pace.

Seiko stopped dead. "What!? Really?!"

"No, not really, but it was the only thing I could think of that would shut you up," Daphne replied, rolling her eyes and continuing to walk as Seiko scoffed and hurried to catch up.

"Speaking of shutting people up," Seiko began innocently, "I kind of need you to talk to Jillian again."

"Seiko, no. I'm not lying to her again."

"You don't have to, this time! Just talk to her during Herbology, distract her for a while. Blaise and I are going to make some plans and that's the only chance we're going to get."

"Seiko..."

"Please? You're not doing anything dishonest."

Daphne sighed, shaking her head. Seiko knew as well as Daphne did that no matter how much Daphne complained, she would still do it. "Assisting a criminal is dishonest," she muttered under her breath, kicking a rock towards the greenhouse as they walked up. She shivered a bit, looking up at the sky. "Summer's ending too quickly," she complained, opening the door and stepping into the warm Herbology classroom.

Her own personal issues came flying back onto her mental radar of concerns as she saw Seamus shoot her a dirty look and turn away. "Bloody hell. That's right. I forgot about Seamus," she hissed quietly to Seiko.

"Handle it like a Slytherin," Seiko replied with a wink as the two took their seats.

I don't think most Slytherins find themselves in this situation, Daphne thought as she rested her face in her hands. Having to deal with an Herbology partner whose love proclamation you blew off the day before. She smiled to herself as she continued her mental monologue. Actually, a lot of Slytherins probably find themselves in that position. What's rare is that the partner's a Gryffindor, and that I happened to have a fling with him... before I knew he was a Gryffindor, she defended.

Done talking to herself in her head, Daphne looked around the classroom a bit. Nothing exciting was going on, and much to her annoyance, there were no conversations going on around her. Bloody silences.

"The essay is due tomorrow, right?" she asked nonchalantly.

Seamus didn't answer.

"Finnigan?"

Didn't answer.

"Hello-o?"

Still no answer. Seamus was ignoring her.

Daphne hated being ignored. Partially because she didn't like when people were mad enough to ignore her, and partially because of the silences it led to.

And she still felt bad about the whole thing, and didn't like this blatant reminder that she was the bad guy in this scenario. She didn't like that she was the one to blame here, and she didn't like that she still felt guilty about it.

Why do I feel so bad, anyway? He's a Gryffindor! I take pleasure in their pain! It doesn't make sense! Daphne shook the idea out of her head and got the required work done in the class. Seiko caught her eye a few minutes later, gesturing with a tilt of her head towards Jillian.

Right. How did she manage to always forget that? Daphne stood up and headed over to Jillian. "Hey, Jillian?" she asked, tapping the redhead on the shoulder. Suddenly she realized she had no idea what she was going to say. Time to improvise.

"Hi, Daphne!"

Daphne saw Seiko stand up behind Jillian's head and walk over to Blaise. Mind racing to think of a conversation starter, Daphne took a seat to stall. "Um, I have a question for you!"

"For me? Sure, go ahead!"

"Do you..." Daphne paused, trying to figure out something to say. "Do you...know the school policy regarding scarves?" she asked. Scarves!? What the hell!?

Jillian's reaction seemed to agree with Daphne's internal comment. "...scarves?"

"Yeah! You know, because over vacation I bought this really cute green scarf, right, and I want to wear it. But obviously, it's not my school uniform scarf...and I was wondering if you would know what the policy was about that? I mean, do you think I could wear it?"

"Oh, I see," nodded Jillian. "I mean, I think that if it was like, a Christmas scarf or something...or maybe a blue one...they probably wouldn't be so cool with it, but if it's green, then it's like, house colors, right?"

"Right! You know, so I was thinking that exact thing, and I mean, do you think they'd mind? It looks like a cuter version of the house scarves." Daphne realized she was largely just repeating Jillian, but she was only trying to waste time anyway.

Jillian shook her head. "You know, I really don't see why not. At the very least, you should try it one day and just see if anyone complains."

Seiko smiled at Blaise and winked at Daphne, turning away. Daphne nodded. "Alright, sounds like a plan," she agreed. "Thank you!"

Jillian nodded also. "Welcome!"

Daphne headed back to her seat, shooting Seiko a look as she did so. Seiko leaned in and smiled. "Sorry about that, Daph."

Daphne rolled her eyes, scowling. "You owe me big time," she replied, turning to face the front of the class.

"Well, now! Sorry, I was a bit preoccupied. Gave you longer than I meant to for that assignment," Professor Sprout announced, her voice unnecessarily loud to call the students' attention. "Anyway, I realized the paper I had you writing was a bit much to be due so soon, what with having homework in so many other classes…and, more importantly," she added, winking, "A Quidditch game tonight. However, the way I've got my days planned, I can't give you all an extension… instead, I'll be giving you the rest of the period to work on it." She smiled. "That said…get to work!"

As the professor returned to her desk and the students all resumed their conversations with their friends, Daphne pulled a pile of parchment out of the bag she'd carried. "I finished up the paragraphs I'd been working on," she said, not planning to give Seamus a chance to respond if he wasn't going to. "I wasn't sure if you were going to write the conclusion or if I was supposed to, so I wrote it anyway. I'm pretty sure it's absolute shit, so if you did happen to write one, that might be the one to go with." She nudged a scrawled paragraph towards him.

Seamus was silent, staring towards the front of the room as if he hadn't heard her.

Daphne scowled. "But in the off-chance that it's not absolute shit, you probably should read it," she added, her voice tinged with annoyance.

Seamus didn't even blink.

Rolling her eyes, Daphne poked him in the arm with the paragraph and huffed, "Or, in the off-chance that I didn't even write anything, and I'm currently poking you with a blank sheet, you should probably actually look at it."

Seamus turned his head ever-so-slightly and gave Daphne a glare so intense that it could…well, shut up a Slytherin, for one thing. Daphne bit her lip as Seamus returned his gaze to the front of the room.

"It's not blank, though," Daphne concluded lamely, setting the sheet on top of her pile and leaning her head in her hands. This was quickly turning out to be her least favorite Herbology class to date. Her stomach was starting to hurt a bit, just from her feeling upset.

Why do I feel that bad? She asked herself. Why am I that upset? It's not my problem! I mean, the silence is, and the horribly-written conclusion is, but other than that, I'm not the one with troubles here! I shouldn't feel like this!

If she couldn't work on the assignment with her partner (not that anyone else was), she figured she may as well get to the bottom of her bad mood. She had a sinking feeling that it was going to take her somewhere she didn't want to go…but she was going to have to do this sooner or later. It was what she did when she had a problem she needed to sort out…she started with her problem, and just kept asking why.

It was like talking to some obnoxiously curious little kid, but it was the easiest way to answer her questions. Generally she had Seiko sit down with her and ask her, but right now it looked like both Seiko and her partner were rushing to write the essay they had both completely forgotten.

So let's see, she began. Why am I upset?

She shook her head. That wasn't going to work…she didn't know. That was the question she was trying to figure out.

Something else, then…what do I want?

Well, I want Seamus to quit ignoring me.

Now she was getting somewhere. Why?

Because I want to talk to him.

Why?

Well…because I like talking to him.

The next question was one that she couldn't believe she'd thought of as it popped into her mind.

Do you like teasing him? Or do you want to actually talk to him, like you used to?

Daphne found her reaction guarded at first, as if afraid that someone would overhear her, or possibly that somehow someone could find out just by her thinking about it.

Or, more likely, as if admitting it to herself would mean admitting that she was wrong about a lot of things.

But she knew the answer.

I want to talk to him like I did in Ireland, she thought, stopping to make sure her external expression wasn't revealing her internal surprise at her own honesty.

Why?

It was all Daphne could do to keep herself from lying, to simply end the one-person conversation there. She knew, though, that she'd gone too far to turn back now.

Because I still have feelings for him.

She felt like banging her head against the wall, but settled for just letting out a groan and laying her head facedown on her crossed arms

She still liked Seamus.

Shit.

----------

A/N: "Alright, I'm going to go play the Sims 2," I told myself. "I'll close all my windows." So I close the internet and there's this thing, sitting there and glaring at me…So I figured I'd finish up the chapter.

Daphne is conflicted :)