Disclaimer: as always - man, I'm getting tired of this - I don't own anything Harry Potter related, just my OC and the plot.

Ch 9 INFO IS THE KEY

It was an unusually sunny day, the little snow that had fallen covered the roofs and hills making them sparkle.

A really nice day Ellen thought, it was ironic that her friend had been in such an awful mood since early in the morning, and it had only gotten worse when she met James repeatedly before leaving for Hogsmeade, it seemed that just uttering a mere "Hi." was an enormous strain for both of them.

They had better do something soon.

The two girls were walking along Hogsmeade main road looking at the shop windows, or rather Minerva was pretending to look while Ellen waited for a chance to make her best friend spill her story, when Rose greeted from behind "Hello, girls!"

Ellen smiled, she liked Rose a lot, the girl not only was brilliant but also wickedly fun to be with. "Aren't you on a date with your incredibly hot boyfriend?"

Rose made a face "Apparently my incredibly hot boyfriend got roped in something by Al. You know how boys are." She winked.

"Yeah, boys and their toys." They both giggled, Evie instead was silent.

Unusually so.

They started walking again and Rose asked "So, why are you avoiding James, Evie?"

Minerva tripped and over her head Rose mouthed something to Ellen.

Just a word, "Al"

Ellen grinned, when Lily passed them by with her friends asking "How's it going with James, Evie?"and Minerva looked like someone had hit her, her smile just got wider.

Al really was a clever and ruthless ally.

"Why that smug look, Len?" growled Evie suspicious.

"Nothing, just thinking it was high time somebody pointed out the obvious." Minerva bristled, but Ellen continued "Admit it, you are in lo-!" Evie covered Ellen's mouth with her hands, effectively shutting her up, then whispered "Alright, alright! I get it, I'll talk." She looked left and right like a thief searching for an escape route and added "But not in the middle of the street."

And so they reached the Three Broomsticks, choose a table in a dark corner and sat town with their drinks before them.

After a brief silence Ellen prodded Evie "Well?"

When Minerva didn't answer but only looked a bit green, Rose asked patiently "It's not that you don't like him, is it?"

"I don't want to!" Was the sharp and clipped answer.

"I don't understand" Rose replied confused.

"Oh, I do get it" said Ellen quietely " You are in denial."

"That's not accurate" Evie spat out " I am aware of this damn thing, but it doesn't mean I like it any better!"

"You are just running away!" Ellen muttered while Rose nodded.

"Oh, I get what's your problem. I can say from experience that it's not easy to wake up one day and discover you like someone who has been your enemy for so long."

Minerva relaxed, she didn't like to talk about her feelings but it felt good to know that someone understood what she felt; and Rose should know, since Scorpius Malfoy had been her rival before they noticed they had feelings for each other.

At that thought something clicked in her mind and she remembered something Potter had said to her one evening in the library.

"We have to stop bickering! ... Every pair I know who constantly bickers has ended up together!" thinking about it she burst out laughing, she supposed that she wan't in that mess alone and Potter was surely even more freaked out than she was, when the girls in front of her started looking worried she explained "I was thinking of something Potter said some time ago, about not wanting to end up like you and Malfoy. I guess he's more shrewd than I thought, since we are in a worse spot."

It was like some heavy fog had been lifted from her head, she felt lighter and her thoughts were a lot clearer.

Now that Minerva felt better, she realized that she had behaved like an idiot, even if she didn't like her own feelings and she didn't want to act on them she couldn't ignore it, she just had to behave like usual, and everything would fall into place.

When she said as much, Ellen rolled her eyes and banged her head on the table on a display that was very unlike her, while Rose just laughed.

Minerva shrugged, it wasn't like they could do anything about it.

James had thought the trip to Hogsmeade meant peace from his meddling family and a break from his obsessive thoughts about Hill, he soon discovered that he had been dreadfully wrong.

The first to hassle him was Fred, their conversation started, predictably, with them discussing what they were going to buy at Fred's father's shop, when they got there, he suddenly blurted out: "Alright James, here's the thing: you like Hill, right? What, for Merlin's dirty socks, are you waiting for?"

James, who had been in the middle of unwrapping his last chocolate frog, let the candy escape with a pitiful jump and then looked at his cousin/best friend with eyes as wide as a galleon, then sputtered "What? What are you rambling about?!"

Fred shook his ginger head and gave James a brotherly pat on the back, then explained "Look, my beloved if slightly stupid cousin, you are acknowledged as a flirt, you have had your fair share of girlfriends and you are generally nice and charming around girls. Apart from one single exception."

His cousin stopped and put his hands on James' shoulders, looking at him dead in the eyes "That's why and how everybody knows you like Hill, even if you're going about it like a six-year-old would, and everybody realizes that you must like her very damn much to be forgetting to act like your charming self around her. We just figured that this idiocy wouldn't last long and you'd do something on your own."

Fred sighed, purposefully adding depth to his well-practiced piece "But you are just MESSING THIS WHOLE BUSINESS UP! So get off your arse and do something intelligent for once!"

James first thought was denial, deny everything, lie Fred's ears off and hope like hell he didn't call his bluff.

Then he thought Do I really want things to stay this way?

He had always believed that his constant state of annoyance around Hill was bad, but now that he knew how avoiding her like the plague felt he wasn't so sure anymore.

"I don't know what to do Fred. She's avoiding me for no other reason than the last time we met we didn't fight, and I'm doing the same because I don't know how to talk to her if we're not fighting."

"You mean when you are not hiding your feelings under a pile of insults?" said a voice behind James.

James froze, of all people why would his brother walk on him saying something so embarrassing?

"Hello Albie, don't you have something boring and bookworm-ish to do today?"

"Shut your mouth, James. You should kiss the ground I walk on, because I'm going to solve your idiotic problem." From behind a stack of fireworks boxes came another voice "Just snog her already and be done with it!" and so also Scorpius Damn Malfoy joined the conversation.

Al knocked his best friend over the head and sarcastically pointed out "While that seems to work wonders for you and Rose, I think Minerva is a bit harder to sway."

James couldn't believe that of all the beings on this earth the ones who would advise him on his love life would be his still girlfriend-less younger brother, Rose's first and only boyfriend and Fred, the same Fred who seemed to have inherited their Uncle Ron's inability to say a coherent sentence in a girl's presence during his teenage years; and most of all he couldn't believe what he said next.

"Alright mates, what do I do?"

His brother looked at him with a pained expression and just said "Wait for the chance I give you and make your move. But for crap's sake, don't mess it up."

...

Somebody please review this! PLEASE, please, PlEaSe!

Keep pushing those fav and alert buttons, people! Thank you!

anyway, I was thinking to change Minerva's name to Artemis, but I realized that is kind of a mouthful and I wasn't able to find some kind of abbreviation like Evie, so nothing will change.

To those who are asking themselves what the hell I'm rambling about, don't worry it's just some author idiotic thoughts, you don't have to read or care :)