"Finally!" Polly exclaimed two weeks later, as she looked at the notice board in the Gryffindor common room with Dominique. "The first Hogsmeade weekend! I've been craving a visit to Honeydukes since we came back!"

"Did someone say something about a Hogsmeade weekend?" Victoire called, stepping in through the portrait hole and into the common room, finishing a slice of toast daintily.

"Yeah, it's this weekend!" Polly said, excitedly.

"Just two days!" Dominique exclaimed.

"I wish we could go," Olive sighed to Gemma. "I need to buy a birthday present for Poppy."

"When's her birthday?" Gemma asked.

"Next Thursday."

"Oh, right. Why don't you ask someone in one of the older years to get it for you? You have loads of family friends, don't you?"

"Yeah I do. Well, I suppose I could ask Dominique or Victoire. Or Polly."

"Yeah," Gemma agreed. "Or Molly. She's Lucy's older sister, isn't she?"

"Yeah. I'll ask Victoire," Olive called.

Her auburn (with a glint of silver) haired, part-Veela cousin turned her head.

"Do you think you could please do me a favour and buy Poppy a birthday present when you're in Hogsmeade? I'll give you the money."

"I'm sorry," Victoire answered, in her strange half-French half-English accent. "But I promised Teddy that I'd spend my next Hogsmeade weekend with him. So, I'll be with him the entire time. I'm really sorry. I would, but I can't. I actually don't know when I'll be able to buy my present for Poppy."

"It's OK," Olive said. "Don't worry about it."

"Olive, I can get it for you if you want," Dominique offered. "And I'll get yours for her as well, Vic."

"Oh thanks so much, Dominique!" Olive exclaimed.

"Yeah, thanks!" Victoire added. "That would be really useful!"

"It's alright," Dominiqe said, modestly.

"OK," Olive said to Gemma. "Now that that's sorted out, we'd better go."

"Why are you so eager to get to Potions?" Gemma asked, suspiciously. "You hate Potions."

"I'm not eager," Olive said, turning red.

"Why are you blushing?" Gemma asked, promptly.

"I'm not!" Olive insisted, turning a more violent shade of red. "What's with the third degree?"

"Well, I'm just wondering why you want to leave ten minutes early for Potions. You're usually ten minutes late."

"Maybe I just want to turn over a new leaf."

"This wouldn't be a ploy to run into Max, would it?" Gemma asked, narrowing her eyes.

"No!" Gemma said, as indignantly as she could manage with a scarlet face. "Of course not!"

"Olive, you are a terrible liar."

"Hi!" Rosie and Mat came over from across the corridor.

"Olive, why did you leave like ten minutes early for Potions?" Mat asked.

"OK, maybe I just like being prompt!" Olive exclaimed.

"You?" Rosie asked. "Prompt?"

"She's trying to run into Max on purpose," Mat explained.

"What?" Olive tried to look innocent.

"Olive, I know you. Don't try and lie."

"OK, fine, maybe I was hoping to see him. We've been flirting for the past couple of weeks! I think it's going somewhere!"

"That's great!" Rosie said. They got into the Potion dungeons, which once belonged to Professor Snape as Rosie's parents had told her, but now belonged to Professor Stuart, who was liked by all the students. He was perfectly pleasant to all his students, except Olive. Olive did all the things that Professor Stuart didn't like. She talked in class, she passed notes, she came late and she never did her homework. She wasn't trying to act out, she just wasn't the ideal student for Professor Stuart. She wasn't bad in the other classes, but she really didn't like Potions.

Olive took a seat beside Rosie and Gemma at the back. Mat sat at the front with Victoria. The reason why she sat there was so that she could easily and flirt with Jack Martin, who sat in the front as well. Rosie and Gemma started chatting about what they were going to do for Christmas, which was about three weeks away. Olive sat and drew another heart on her wrist. The one from yesterday had faded.

"My mum's making all of us go skiing this year," Rosie said.

"I love skiing!" Gemma said. "You know what that is, don't you?"

"My mother is Muggle born, Gem. Don't worry, you don't have to explain things to me. Mum was trying to make us go two years ago, but Dad surprisingly convinced her to let us do it another time. Well, now is another time."

"Well, don't worry. Skiing is fun. We go a lot. But, we're not this year. We're going to Poland."

"Poland?"

"Yeah, Warsaw. You know because it's not cold enough in London at Christmas. Let's just go somewhere colder! My mum's big on travelling. She likes us to go places we haven't been to before."

"That's pretty exciting!" Rosie said. "Olive, what are you doing?"

"Nothing," Olive said quickly, dropping her quill and shoving her shirt sleeve over her wrist as she raised her head. "Oh no," she said. "This is going to be a train wreck."

"What?" Gemma asked, as she and Rosie followed her gaze towards the door. Katie Wilson strutted into the dungeon with Michelle Adams, another Slythering girl. She looked around the room and clapped eyes on Mat and Jack, who were now engrossed in what appeared to be a hilarious conversation. She smiled maliciously, and went to sit on Jack's other side. She tapped his shoulder softly and batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously.

"Oh dear," Rosie said. "I know how Mat feels." But Jack didn't seem very interested in Katie. He had a blank expression as she spoke, then turned around to face Mat again, who wiped the disgusted expression on her face as she looked at her. Jack had completely closed Katie out of the conversation. Her pale skin flushed, making her look slightly less attractive somehow.

"See, at least when I go red it works," Olive stated. "Serves her right."

"By the way, how's the plan going?" Gemma asked.

"Not so well actually," Olive answered. "Chrissie confiscated the Dungbombs that Millie, Daph and I were planning on using."

"Can't Millie just get them back?" Rosie asked. "She got her Fanged-Frisbee back."

"She was planning to," Olive explained. "But Chrissie's already given them to Caretaker Burrows. And he's a bit harder to work on. We need a Plan B. Daph's working on it."

Then, Proessor Stuart walked in and the class began.

After a particularly difficult lesson on trying to prepare the Draught of the Living Death, the students all trooped out of the morbid dungeon. Mat rushe over to Olive, Rosie and Gemma.

"How's Jack?" Olive asked, cheekily.

"He's fine," Mat said. "Did you guys see what happened with Katie."

"Yeah, we did!" Rosie said. "It was brilliant! Her face was priceless! I wish I had a camera."

"Yeah, and we've already established that she cannot pull off blushing," Olive said. Mat laughed, but then her expression seemed to fade.

"Livs," she said, cautiously. "I have to tell you something."

"What?" Olive asked, anxiously.

"Max is going out with Angelina Watson in third year," she said, slowly. "I'm really sorry." Olive felt something heavy plunge into the pit of her stomach.

"How do you know that?" she asked, quietly. She felt a huge lump in her throat.

"Jack told me in Potions."

"Oh."

"I'm so sorry, Livs," Mat said, putting an arm around her.

"It's OK," she said, trying to muster up a smile. She finally did, but it wasn't her usually sparky smile. "It's fine! It's no big deal!"

"Olive, he led you on," Gemma said. "Like you said, he's been flirting with you for the past two weeks!"

"Yeah, but it's just flirting, isn't it?"

"Yeah but Olive-"

"Sorry guys, I appreciate all your help, I really do, but I think I just need to be alone for a little while." And with that, she walked speedily across the corridor. But sadly, she didn't leave her great amount of sadness and bitter disappointment behind her.