Disclaimer: I own no rights to HP, just my personal characters.

Note: SOOOOOO happy to see this is getting read and even happier to see SiobhanPhelps still commenting. Hopefully your comments encourage others to comment! You are amazing and I'm glad you're liking this story so far. I hope the visuals helped you guys out (who I imagined the characters to be) Hint-Courtney. bad. Matt. Double trouble. As I saw with any of my stories, always feel free to throw your thoughts out there, it's always wonderfully hearing from other fans.

Rise and Shine

"Well, here we are" I said as we entered the Great Hall. "Do you want to sit with us?" I asked nodding at the table where Harry and the others were.

"I'll come join you guys in a few minutes, but, I wanna see someone first" he said as he looked over at the Slytherin table.

Oh, um, okay" I said as he nodded a goodbye and went off.

"What's his problem?" Ron asked with a mouth full of food as I sat down.

"Nothing," I replied. "Where are the twins?" I asked but Ron merely shrugged. Of course he didn't know, I thought to myself with a roll of the eyes. I looked around, spotting Draco first, he was talking with his usual crowd, a few feet away from sat Courtney, she was conversation with Matt who kept glancing over at me. "Hermione," I started as I turned around ask her a question but noticed she wasn't there. "Seriously? It's the first day, would she possibly have to look for in the library?" I asked but shook my head and waved a hand. "Nevermind" I said.

"What did you want to know?" Harry asked.

"If she's ever heard of something called an Alternate Seer" I said but he shrugged. I didn't except him to know. Maybe Melinda would, I thought to myself as I realized Matt had gotten up and was starting back toward our table. I started to smile and warmly welcome him when I realized his sister was trailing behind him.

"Good morning everyone" she said brightly as I looked at Ron and Harry, both of them practically drooling.

"Morning Courtney, er, how did you sleep?" I asked. She smiled even wider, and giggled a bit as if I had some absurd question. Did she always act like this? I wondered trying not to wrinkle my nose at her.

"I sleep very well thank you" she said as she looked over at Ron and Harry, as if just noticing them. "You're Harry Potter then?" she asked pointing to his scar. Harry shook himself to attention, trying to brush his hair over his scar. "No, no, please, a real wizard wears his scars for enemies to see" she said as I raised an eyebrow up at her. "You know," she started looking over at me, a look of annoyance rising on her face. "So they know you've survived other attacks, you're not afraid to take them" she said. I looked at the others, to see if they noticed Courtney's tone, but I figured not, why did she sound so annoyed at me? What had I done to her? I didn't even know her.

"Some people don't like to brag about their accomplishments Courtney" Matt said, though not as gentle as I would've expected from a brother.

"So, do you have any classes with us?" I asked trying to get the two to stop giving each other looks.

"I'm a fourth year," Courtney said with a grin.

"Really? You look so much older" Ron blurted out as tried giving him a look to be quiet but he didn't even notice.

"Thank you" she said with a wink. I rolled my eyes as Ron sort of started dazing off. "I think I should be headed off though Matthew" she said turning to her brother who was trying not to seem too happy she decided to leave.

"Okay" he said. "I can walk you—"

"I can manage, I've made a few friends. Even got Draco to say hello" she said shooting me a look. I gave her one back, why should I care what Draco said or didn't say? He wasn't my responsibility.

"Alright, well, I'll see you later" Matt replied as Courtney smiled, waved at each of us individually and headed off.

"Ron, if you would please stop staring at my sister's backside I would greatly appreciate it" Matt said as he sat at the table. Ron, who had quite obviously been staring turned a pale color and drew his eyes back to his food.

"Is she one too?" I asked as Matt grabbed a few strawberries and shook his head. "Huh," I said as I started at the spot where Courtney had been. "She just seems so coy and—"

"Forward?" Matt finished as I nodded. "I think your friend is calling you" he said picking at his second strawberry. I looked over my shoulder, sure enough Melinda was looking over, though it didn't seem like she wanted my attention, just wanted to watch what I was doing.

"I'll see you in class" I said as Matt nodded but continued picking at his strawberry. "Are you okay? Courtney didn't say anything weird? I swear when I bumped into her I didn't mean to" I told him as he finally looked up.

"Just thinking" he said with a hesitant smile before looking back down at his strawberry. I stood up, though didn't move right away, but I didn't know what else to say to him, why did he sound so, hesitant? "Harry, Ron" I said nodding at them and then nodding at Matt. "This is Matt, talk to him" I said as I pushed my plate across the table to him before walking over to the Ravenclaw's table. I looked back in time see Matt giving me a subtle smile. Thankfulness? Surely he could introduce himself to people, I thought.

"Hey" Melinda said bringing my attention to her.

"Hey—" I started but noticed a badge on her black cloak. I felt my face go a little pale and then red. "How long have you had that?" I asked as she looked down at her badge, grinned and then looked at it again.

"What, this old Prefect badge?" she asked casually.

"I did not notice that before" I said slowly, feeling even guiltier.

"Did you know Draco has one too?" she asked, again my face heated.

"And Hermione of course" I said as she nodded. "But, who else?" I asked looking over my shoulder at the table I had just came from.

"Harry" we both said in unison as the light hit his badge. "I should've been paying better attention" I told her as she laughed but didn't disagree.

"Probably" she said after a minute. "Andrew is one too, we got our badges with our letters" she happily said as I felt a little wave annoyance.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Why didn't you ask?" she countered. I shifted a little. Just because the competition was over didn't mean we were best mates again. It wasn't a smooth ride to get to the top and both of us had said and heard some pretty negative things about and to us. It wasn't something that could be fixed with a trip to America or some time at the Burrow.

"I should've," I decided on saying as she nodded. We didn't say anything for another moment but finally she shrugged and looked over at my table.

"Matthew, right?" she asked nodding at him. I nodded, not even needing to look. She nodded and continued looking at him.

"He can do I what I do" I said, not meaning for it to come as soon as it did. Yes I wanted to tell her, but, I also didn't want to tell her for a while. "He's a Seer" I continued, shrugging to myself. "He called himself an Alternate Seer, whatever that is," I said with a shrug.

"I'll have to look it up" she said, her voice flat. I looked up from the grapes I was eating to see what brought on her tone. She didn't look annoyed or even surprised, but, almost like she expected me to have some news about Matt. And instead of looking at me she was still looking at our table so I glanced over to see Matt looking back at her. He looked between curious and worried.

"He seems strange" I said which seemed to bring her eyes back to me. "You know, nervous and uncertain" I told her. "His sister though, she seems—"

"Bitchy?" Melinda interrupted quickly and with a snort.

"I was going to say self-assured and overly confident but whatever works for you…" I half teased.

"She followed the twins in this morning, George came over to say hi to me and Fred went to say something to Ginny and he went to leave and nearly walked into Courtney. She was so smug about it" she said shaking her head.

"What did Fred do?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Nothing really, apologized, asked how she liked the Slytherin common room, she just kept smiling at him, you know, like she wanted to see if she could get him" she explained.

"What does that mean?" I asked as Melinda rolled her eyes.

"You know, you flirt with someone but you don't really have interest in them, you just wanna see if they flirt back" she said as I frowned. No, no I did not know that feeling.

"So, did he flirt back?" I asked, which was the real question.

"Not really, I mean, he smiled and his ears got pink, but, he wasn't really looking at her, he was looking around, told her he had to go when Professor Madison came in. He talked to Hermione for a quick minute and then the two of them left together" she explained. I slowly nodded.

"Well, that explains everything" I said though I was more so telling myself. She looked at me questionably. I started to respond but that would mean I'd have to tell her about Madison being Burnner and I couldn't do that just yet. Not until I sounded a little less crazy.

"Thanks, I'll see you later, okay?" I started as I hopped up but then noticed George wasn't sitting at the table. "Where did George go? I was just about to ask him where Fred could've gone off to" I said with a frown. Melinda looked around, just noticing her boyfriend was missing.

"Maybe he left when you came over" she suggested.

"Yes, because I thought we were passed that" I said sarcastically. "Okay, well, I'm going to check the common room for them" I said with a sigh.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked with a grin. I looked around, trying to think of what I brought over for her to see but nothing came to mind, and I had already mentioned the Prefect badge.

"No?" I said questionably as she laughed and handed over a folded up piece of paper. Right, our schedules, I reminded myself. "So I see you made note that we have Transfiguration first?" I asked as she smiled proudly.

"Yeah, double lessons actually, and we also have Potions together along with the Slytherins but you have double Herbology with Hufflepuff, a 'simple' schedule is on the back" she said as I gave her a full smile.

"Thank you" I said as she pretended like it was nothing.

"Go, go, find Fred" she said shooing me off.

I had only gotten just pass the entrance to the Great Hall when I saw Matt sitting on the steps looking at his schedule. "If you need help Melinda's excellent at explanations" I told him waving my schedule a little.

"I'll just assume my classes are the same as the other Gryffindors" he said as I tried not to sound dishearten about his disinterest in talking with Melinda. "She's brilliant you know" I said as I stood in front of him. He squinted his eyes and looked up at me. I felt a little fidgety. Why did he look at me like that? Why was he so attractive? Why did he look so hesitant and unsure?

"Well, she is a Prefect" he said with a smile. Great, even he had already known, I thought to myself.

"Let me guess you had a vision of her with the badge on?" I asked placing my hands on my hips but he shook his head and smiled a little.

"No, I walked into her yesterday, her friend made some comment about them being able to take away points" he said as I rolled my eyes.

"So, er, Transfiguration first?" I asked, unable to move away from him. He was attractive but there was also something else. Something that made me feel safe but intrigued but also, nervous. What was that?

"Yep, do you wanna head up there?" he asked as he stood up and thumbed toward the top of the stairs.

"Sure, I just wanna stop by the common room, I haven't seen my boyfriend yet" I said not really sure why I needed to say boyfriend instead of Fred. Still, it seemed to have some kind of effect on Matt. He dropped eye contact for second, his body language seemed to be, let down? Tense up? I shook my head, I had to be imagining it.

"Lead the way" he said cheerfully though once again, I noticed there lacked sincerity but still he followed, neither of us saying anything—not that we needed too, the silence was comforting—until we got into the common room. I had almost wished I decided to go to straight to class, I wouldn't have been so surprised and slightly terrified of what I saw around me.