Blaise and I had decided to meet in the Great Hall at 1:30 for our first Hogsmeade trip together. I tried to convince myself not to go, because I knew it was going to be an incredibly awkward afternoon. Padma, however, had different plans for me. She made me borrow an outfit, a pair of shoes, and even a matching purse.

"A matching purse?" I gaped at her as she handed it over to me. "Are you serious?"

Padma rolled her eyes as she shoved the bag into my hands. "Just take it, you big baby," she teased me, "it's just a purse."

I eyed it as if it could blow up at any minute. "Matching purses just are not my thing," I added on hastily as I tried to give it back, but she was not having it.

"This is the most exciting date of my life," she hissed at me threateningly, "and if you ruin it for me, I will ruin you."

I nodded quickly; shocked that she was so intense about a date that she wasn't even going on. She smiled sweetly at my silent response before pointing out that it was 1:15 and that I should probably make my way down to the Great Hall.

I scurried away from her, not bothering to look back. She probably had some gawky jewelry for me to put on and that would have been the end of the road for me.

Blaise stood outside the hall, fidgeting nervously with the edge of his black jacket. I smiled to myself. Thank Merlin I wasn't the only one anxious for this date. I made my way over to him, weaving through the large crowd of students trying to fight their way past Filch.

He grinned when he saw me approach, dropping the edge of his jacket as he did so.

"I was thinking that you had decided not to come," he said as we took our spot in the long line of students. "You look really nice, by the way."

"I thought about it and thank you," I said playfully. We were silent for another moment as the line moved forward. I couldn't think of what to say. Did he like quidditch? No, I didn't know enough about quidditch to carry on a conversation. What about school subjects? I grimaced internally. That would be a romantic topic to pursue.

An awkward silence fell between us as we waited for Filch to check our names on the list. It was too late for me to turn back when Filch let us both through the front doors. The leaves on the trees were turning bright shades of red, orange, and yellow. They rustled in the breeze. Some fell from the trees and spun to the ground.

"So, Malfoy was kind of making fun of me after I asked you," Blaise said a few minutes later. The castle was fading in the distance behind us as we made our way through the trail toward Hogsmeade. "I guess you both have had a rocky relationship the past few years."

I jumped at the chance to start a conversation with him...but why was the conversation leading to Malfoy? He had been everywhere in my life the past few weeks and I was starting to get tired of it. I took the bait anyways.

"Yeah, Malfoy and I have definitely had our differences," I laughed. The sign that welcomed us to Hogsmeade Village appeared just around the corner. I sighed in relief, grateful that we could find something to do instead of talk.

"I remember in fourth year you dumped a pot of color changing ink onto his head after chasing the rabbit he was supposed to turn into a hat out of the Transfiguration classroom." I glanced up at him to see that he was smiling down playfully at me.

I grinned at the old memory. "Well, that's only because the week before he charmed my potions book to give me the directions in reverse order, resulting in an explosion and failing potion grade for that day."

Blaise laughed. I was slightly surprised how warm and inviting it was. I didn't think any Slytherin besides myself was capable of anything except a sneer.

"How about we make our way to the Three Broomsticks? The wind is kicking up and I'm sure Madam Rosmerta has some butterbeers that we could take for the road."

I agreed, silently thanking him for reading my mind. The sharp, fall wind was starting to bite my fingers. I regretted not grabbing a scarf or pair of gloves on my way out of the dormitories this morning.

Blaise opened up the door to the pub, gesturing for me to go in first. I grabbed a table as he made his way to the bar.

"Katie! Where did you get that?" A shrill voice hissed behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see two seventh year girls engaged in what seemed to be an argument.

"It's nothing," the other girl replied, almost robotically, "just something I have to deliver."

I turned away from their conversation to see Blaise heading toward me, a to-go cup of butterbeer in each hand. I smiled at his generosity. "Thanks!" I said to him as he handed me one of the cups. I brought it to my lips, enjoying the warm steam rolling out of the lid.

The two girls who had been bickering a minute ago were headed out of the pub. I noticed that the taller of the two, the one holding the package, was Katie Bell. She had been playing on the Gryffindor quidditch team for as long as I had been going to Hogwarts.

I turned back to Blaise, who had lifted the cup of hot liquid to his mouth and was taking small sips.

"Well, did you want to head to Zonko's or Honeyduke's?" I suggested as I hopped off a bar stool that was positioned next to the table I had reserved. He agreed with me quickly. He took my hand and led me out of the now-crowded pub as more and more students filed in, trying to get away from the cold.

We had just started to head down the main street, where most of the stores were located, when I heard a bone-chilling scream erupt from behind me. Blaise and I looked at each other with startled expressions on our faces and we whipped around to look down the long, narrow road.

My eyes landed on a large figure, floating in the air as if attached to puppet strings. She fell to the ground hard, a sickening thud issued through the now-quiet street.

Harry Potter rushed over to Katie, sliding by her now hysterical friend as he went. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger looked onto the scene in shock.

"I'm going to get help!" Harry yelled as he took off down the lane, returning a few short minutes later with Hagrid.

The gamekeeper didn't say anything to the four students standing around Katie, but scooped her up into his strong arms, jogging back up to the castle as the others stared on after him.

"Wow," I heard Blaise mutter as he let go of my hand, "that was about the strangest thing I ever saw."

The door to The Three Broomsticks opened with a ding. I glanced to my left to see Pansy Parkinson slip through it, apparently in a very bitter mood. She sent Blaise a short, but meaningful, look before taking the road that led back up to the castle.

Blaise obviously didn't notice that I noticed Parkinson's meaningful expression to him, but I didn't mention it either way.

The rest of the afternoon went quite strangely and I was very anxious to get back up to the castle to debrief the Katie Bell incident with Padma. Blaise and I made our way through the small shops. He ended up buying me a fake wand from Zonko's along with a box of dungbombs.

"I can use these to torture Malfoy with," I grinned at Blaise as we left the shop. He just sent me a humorless smile. I faltered after that, making a quick excuse to get back up to the castle. He shrugged and left me standing in the middle of the street.

I thought his behavior after the Katie Bell incident was very strange indeed, but I didn't want to push it. I slowly made my way up to the castle, knowing that Padma and a few of her Ravenclaw friends hadn't quite made it back from the small village yet.

The few hours until dinner started seemed to fly by. I walked up the stairs from the Slytherin common room toward the Great Hall, where Padma was nervously waiting by the large double doors. I hustled over to her, wanting to hear her side of the Katie Bell situation.

"Oh, thank Merlin," she sighed quickly as she pulled me off to the side, "I want to hear about your entire afternoon." She grimaced. "That sounds very bad considering what happened to Katie. The rumors are spreading like wildfire around here."

"Have you heard anything?" I whispered to her as we snuck into a small alcove off the main hallway.

Her eyes sparkled with tears. "It was just awful," she started as she sniffed loudly, trying to get a hold of herself. "I was with Parvati and Lavender in that q-quill shop when we heard the s-scream. We rushed out af-after that to see what had happened." She paused and took a deep breath. "Parvati and Lavender were friends with K-Katie Bell and they were v-very upset when they saw it was her that had s-screamed. Once H-Harry had taken the th-thing that Katie was c-carrying off the ground, th-they left to go back to sch-school."

I rubbed her arm consolingly, as by this point she was getting incredibly upset.

"We started talking to L-Leanne, the girl that was wi-with Katie. Evidently, s-she said that Katie came out of the b-bathroom with this p-package and she t-tried to get K-Katie to take it back. Anyways, L-Leanne tried to g-grab the package when they left the p-pub, but it ripped and Katie b-bent down to grab it. The m-moment she t-touched it, s-she went berserk!"

I wrinkled my brow in confusion. "She just touched the package? But, she was carrying it the whole time. How did it not get her before then?"

Padma shook her head quickly. "N-No, the package r-ripped. S-she touched what was in-inside it."

"Do you know what was inside it?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "L-Leanne said it looked like an o-opal necklace, b-but she wasn't q-quite sure."

I felt my heart stutter in my chest. "You said an opal necklace?"

Padma nodded, confused at my sudden realization. "Yeah, but like I s-said, Leanna wasn't sure if that's r-really what it was. W-why?"

My mind wandered back to the note Draco had written himself. It was probably at the bottom of my book bag, forgotten until now. I summarized Malfoy's note to Padma, whose eyes were wide by the time I finished.

"So you think that Malfoy gave Katie the necklace?" she asked, the stuttering now gone from her speech. "You think they had a date or something and he gave her the necklace, not knowing it was cursed?"

I shrugged my shoulders, leaning against the stone wall that enclosed the alcove. "It is pretty fishy to me, at least. Malfoy writes himself a note about some opal piece and after Katie is thrown six feet in the air, an opal necklace just so happens to be found inside a package she was carrying."

Padma shook her head quickly, obviously not wanting to hear it. "I think you are very imaginative, Nat. But, for one, Katie has a boyfriend. I heard her and Parvati talking about it last week, so I highly doubt she was on a date with Malfoy. For two, Malfoy had detention with Professor McGonagall today. She gave it to him earlier this week after he forgot to do his homework."

"Maybe he came to Hogsmeade after the detention was over-," I rushed in, but her head shake cut me off.

"He was still in detention when I left the school at two. There was no way he could have left detention, met with Katie without Leanne knowing, gave her the necklace, and cursed her within the twenty minutes it all happened."

I must have looked crestfallen, because Padma returned the favor by rubbing my arm soothingly.

"Look, I can tell that something else is upsetting you. Why don't we just grab some food and sit on the stairs to talk?"

I agreed quickly, wanting to get the Blaise situation off my chest. She ran into the Great Hall for a few minutes, coming back out with two steaming plates of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I followed her over to an inconspicuous staircase that was right near the alcove we had been talking in previously.

"So tell me," she said finally as we had settled in, making sure not to sit on the vanishing step, "What happened?"

I spilled it to her like a faucet with constant running water. I told her how awkward the date was because we had only had two conversations previously, how all we really talked about was Malfoy, how weird his behavior had turned once the Katie Bell situation happened.

She listened with undivided attention, making inappropriate comments about Blaise at all the right parts.

"And now I have no idea what the hell is going on, because he just stormed off down the street after I told him that I had to get back to the castle," I finished in a very whiney voice that sounded very much unlike my own.

"Well," Padma said slowly, obviously unsure of what to say at that point, "I'll just have to kill him then."

I snorted into my mashed potatoes. That was the last thing I had expected her to say. She leaned over and bumped me with her shoulder.

"Hey, things will look up from here. It was only one date, after all. Seems like you're the only person in Slytherin that isn't a complete prick."

"I completely resent that, Patil."

We whipped around to see Draco Malfoy coming down the staircase that we were currently sitting on. I couldn't help but notice that he looked quite different on the weekends. Jeans and a long sleeve black shirt in place of black robes and the Slytherin tie.

"Garcia, I have to talk to you a minute."

I rolled my eyes at Padma, who had started to stand up from her position on the stairs. She wasn't as willing to stand up to the Slytherin Prince as I was. After she had walked away, he took her place sitting next to me on the staircase.

"You were in Hogsmeade today," Malfoy began quietly, "Maybe you can tell me what happened."

I looked over at him. His face was a mere foot from mine. His leg lightly brushed mine as he shifted; causing light tingles to rush where he touched. My heart rate started to race.

"It doesn't even matter," I said slowly, "it was crazy scary and very creepy, but just another day at Hogwarts I guess you could say."

He looked at me for a moment, but I kept my eyes on the empty plate in front of me.

"I thought we were friends, Garcia," he said finally as he perched his arms on the stair directly behind him, "I thought we could tell each other everything."

I let out a short, hollow laugh. "You thought we were friends? Merlin, that is the best joke I have heard all year."

Malfoy didn't smirk or sneer, his face stayed completely neutral. The smile slid off my face quickly. "Geeze, you were serious, weren't you?"

He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "I can come to you for any type of advice and you'll tell me anything, even if I don't want to hear it. Isn't that what friends do?"

I gaped at him for a moment, surprised that we were even having this conversation. "Ummm…yes and no. Friends do that, but friends also don't spread nasty rumors and insult each other at every waking moment of the day. Besides, don't you have your own friends?"

"I have Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy. All three who do whatever I ask them to, whenever I ask them to." He smirked. "That's the kind of relationship I like to have with people." He looked back over to me. "But that isn't the case with you."

I stood up from my position on the stairs, swinging Padma's matching purse over my shoulder as I did so.

"Malfoy, I have one friend in this entire school, so maybe asking my advice isn't the way you should go. But if it's friendship you are looking for and you consider friendship ordering people around, then I'm definitely not interested."

He grabbed my hand as I started to walk down the stairs, sending shivers up my spine. "Wait, but I just said that isn't the kind of relationship I want with you."

I narrowed my eyes. "Maybe you should reevaluate and check back later, because as of right now, all the nasty, insulting things you have done in the past five years are playing over and over in my mind."

I had walked down the rest of the staircase before he had spoken up again. I turned back to look at him, only to see him sitting in the same position I had left him in.

"Just, don't go out with Blaise again. Even if he asks you," he said quietly as he got up from the stairs and walked back up them.