A/N: Read and review! Thank you to the reviewers from the last chapter. I'll list you at the bottom! Please acknowledge (big word here… ) that while favoriting or alerting my story is awesome and makes me positively thrilled, a review would also be cool, so that I know what I'm doing wrong.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter does NOT belong to me. (Yet…..: D) The only people that belong to me, are those who you will NOT find in the Harry Potter books, and obviously the owl….

Previous Chapter Summary: ( I've decided to put this on here, since I don't update enough for you to remember… frowns) This starts out on the first day of school, and Scarlett and Mafalda are bickering at breakfast, about when the twins would wake up. Scarlett threatened to color them with Sharpie, so she could tell them apart more easily, and then they got schedules. Basically, the usual. Afterward, later, Scarlett got called to Dumbledore's office to receive some dreadful news… well, read the last chapter.

~passes around pita chips (I'm getting hungrier whenever I write this) ~

Chapter 10: GAH!

I could feel the metal clang underneath my tongue. Cold metal made up the braces that suddenly felt so tight. I eyed Dumbledore, nervously; remembering something Fred and George had told me. Dumbledore was known to be a bit crazy and enjoyed making unusual jokes, right? It was one of the reasons the twins actually listened to his speeches at the beginning of term feast. Maybe this was secretly just a joke.

What's it going to be next, a conspiracy theory? A plot to assassinate you? Huh?

Looking up again at the headmaster, I suddenly felt very small, and most of all- helpless. My heart was pounding fast, even though I had not been running. I was anxious, but why? It wasn't like anything could get any worse than it was. I didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be true. It wasn't true. It wasn't true. Memories flooding into my head, I remembered that as a toddler, my mum always told me that the best way to accept something was to face it, and learn more. I wonder whether she would say that now. They couldn't be dead. Not the siblings that had always bossed me around, teased me, but had, like my stepfather, always really loved me. No, it was too foolish to even ponder about. Dumbledore was playing some kind of sick joke, right? I looked up at him, hopeful. The last glimmer of hope was shredded, hopelessly, by Dumbledore's eyes. I stood up. I wanted out. I wanted to know the answer to helpless questions. Who? Why? What? And even though it sickened me… how?

Eww! It might be more helpful to NOT know ANY of those things. Just saying… I'm just worried about you.

Oh great, starting with the matron attitude now! Sod off, subconscious mother! At least my mum- ignore it. Stay calm, Scarlett! You're safe. Nothing's wrong. This is ALL a dream!

"Would you like to be excused from the rest of your classes this week, Miss Winterbourne?" Professor Dumbledore inquired, breaking my thoughts. I looked at him, feeling like a small helpless puppy, muted and nodded. He smiled at me and did the most unexpected thing. He stood up from his comfy armchair, walked over to me and hugged me. It was thoroughly bewildering, but I was so glad he did it. The few tears slipping down my cheeks were muffled. Finally, when Dumbledore seemed happy with a calmer me, he sat down again. I turned to him and opened my mouth to speak.

"How…. Umm…. Who killed them?" I croaked out, cringing under the sickening image of my family dead. Dumbledore gazed at me, understanding. Why would he understand? Was Dumbledore married? Did he have children? Suddenly, I became all too aware about how little I knew about Dumbledore's family? But, still, how had mine been killed? Why would they want to? My family was an ordinary, run of the mill, family. Sure, we had our quirks, our fights and were definitely not lacking in either, but my family was kind, why would anyone want to kill them? Sick people.

"You family members were shot in an attempted break in. The burglars were not local people, but perhaps visitors from London. I do not believe that they were wizards, but as of yet, your mother is in too much of a depressive state of shock, to really be able to tell. Here, you can look at this," he handed me the newspaper. I read it, feeling sick to my stomach as the black and white words confirmed my fears. I pinched myself, hoping that maybe I would wake up from this horrible dream, this nightmare. To no surprise, it didn't help at all. If anything it made everything so much worse.

Asking to be dismissed, I stood up, and half running, went out of Dumbledore's office. He all but shouted after me to come into his office the next morning. I didn't care! I really didn't care! I didn't, I didn't, I didn't! My adrenaline rushing, I kept running till I bumped into someone. Well, more like fell-onto-guy-got-pumpkin-juice-spilled-on-me-began-sort-of-hyperventilating style bumping.

"Sod off! You guys, I REALLY don't have time for this! I'm not was kidding! Shit! Let me go! Bloody hell! I don't have time for whatever practical joke you need to pull on me!" I hissed at the boy, letting out another stream of swear words before realizing that the person in front of me was not Fred or George. The boy stood there, silently grinning. I blushed. Then, back to business, I narrowed my eyes, trying to find some recognition, but little crossed me. He was in Ravenclaw, I could tell by his robes, and he had blond curly hair and dark blue eyes. What the heck?

"Jeez, I'm sorry. My name is Robert. I just came over here to ask you something, because my best friend doesn't have the guts to ask you to the dance. I'm really just doing him a favor," the boy snapped at me, shaking his head as if I were a small child. I used the sleeves of my robes to brush of the tears on my face and looked at him quizzically.

"So, this isn't some stupid prank the stupid Weasley twins stupidly hired you to do? And you're not some randomly STUPID creep?" I asked, trying to appear as calm and kind as possible, while my temper elevated, I was still shaking with despair and fury. Robert shook his head. I had an idea. "Then, who is the guy?" Aha! I had him cornered at last. "Wait, there's a dance? Uggh! So NOT going!"

You idiot! He isn't lying!

"Quincy Adler. Apparently, you bumped into him earlier. He's had a crush on you since last year. He's a second year. He's so stupid and shy sometimes! I really don't know any more than that," Robert said, rolling his eyes at his friend. "And it isn't like you're amazingly hot or appealing. You're just you." He looked me up and down, checking me out.

I stuck my tongue out at him, lacking all maturity and elbowed him, hard. He smiled, adopting a teasing grin, in the likeness of Fred and George or my step brothers. At least, the way they had been. I sighed, depressed.

Gosh! You're way too young for this! Pull yourself together. Run away! For all you care, he could have been a homicidal maniac.

But he's not! Besides, he made you smile.

"Robert, is she gone? Professor Snape passed a while ago, so the coast is clear" I heard a dreamy voice ask, as a short wavy black haired girl peered round the corner."Oh, whoops. Sorry, I thought you were gone. So, are you going with him then?"

I sighed, and saw two hopeful green eyes, probably Quincy's, looking around the corner at me. "Can I think about it? I'm actually going to be gone the next week. It's a family thing. Okay?" I eyed the three nervously, and then, ducked out of the broom cupboard and half running, half skipping, went back up to Gryffindor Tower. But only two footsteps on my way there, I turned around and did something that even now I can't really explain. I turned around, went back to the hallway with the broom cupboard, and went over to Robert.

"Thanks a bunch," I whispered to Robert. His two friends, Nina and Quincy, were staring at me, slightly dumbstruck. I kissed Robert on the cheek lightly, hugged Nina who was looking extremely confused and Quincy, and then turned around. I walked away, slowly. Why did I kiss and hug them? I did it, because in all reality, he had made me feel happy, despite the teasing comments and the whole dragging me into a broom cupboard incident. I guess he had reminded me, what it felt like to have friends. He had reminded me, of Fred and George, my best friends. Still devasted, but nevertheless lighter in spirit, I walked up to the Gryffindor Tower.

I walked into the common room, busy looking for Stella or George. Professor Binns's class should have ended a while ago. I thought I should tell them about the murders first. They had always been the most sympathetic of my friends. I saw Stella, sitting at a desk in the corner of the common room, busy writing some sort of essay or other. I decided it wasn't wisest to disturb her, unless I had a serious death wish. Death by multiple quill stabs. Stella was already freaking out about the whole exam thing, even though it was still months away. So, I sought George. The twin was sitting on the couch, reading Quidditch Through the Ages, and was very deeply absorbed with it, when I plopped myself next to him. His face and neck were completely unmarked, so I waited for him to talk.

"Hey, Scarlett. What happened?" He asked, closing his book and flinging it onto the ground. "Oh bloody hell. What's wrong?" George inquired, seriously worried now. I must have looked exactly how I felt, like a walking zombie. Shit. I frowned at this and then told him hurriedly. He listened avidly. I tried to smile at him, but my muscles felt frozen, and to my utmost delight, the tears were coming, too. George pulled me closer and hugged me.

"Hey, Scarlett! Where have you been?" Fred asked, coming in and looked at me and George in our sort of embrace. Something about his facial expressions changed and as he smiled again, it looked sort of forced. Whatever. I wiped my eyes, and turned around to tell him, when a depressingly too familiar voice came out from behind him. Narrowing, my eyes I saw it was Mafalda. She smirked, rudely, and slung her arm around Fred's waist. Ignore it, Scarlett. Ignore it. Biting my lip, I started to talk.

"Well, I went to Dumbledore's office and then he told me-"

"-oh, save it!" Mafalda cut in with a tone that was all business. I looked at her puzzled, as she went on. "I've already told Fred. I saw you snogging someone in the hallway to the common rooms. We DON'T want to know what else you did. Don't even start with your excuses. Fred was the one who wanted to see what they were. "

"What, Scarlett?" George turned and looked at me, evidently baffled, but unsure. I could feel my throat get dry and it almost clogged up entirely.

"I don't know what they're talking about."I whispered to him, hurriedly, a nagging suspicion in the back of my head.

" Shut up. We bloody well know what you've been doing. You've been acting like the slut you are, and you've been snogging the living daylights out of some Ravenclaw." Mafalda shot at me, an evil smile frozen on her face. I opened my mouth in outrage and stood up. Boy, if that girl wanted a piece of my mind, she was getting it! The first year and second years around looked scared and scurried together into corners.

Scarlett! Just run up and leave till this cools down. It will eventually.

"My whole family just-"

"- I don't give a damn!" Fred added in, and glared at me with fury and a little something else gleaming in his eyes. I wanted to cry.

"Gee thanks! So, you don't give a damn that my whole family was murdered, and my mother is the only one who is unharmed, and she's on some sort of anti-depressive drug that won't be able to help her ever recall why? No, Fred, of course you don't!" I all but screamed at him loudly. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut in. "And I wasn't snogging him, it was a peck on the cheek. ONCE! Why do you give a damn? I've never had anything against you kissing all the girls in the school, if you wanted to!" I ran away to the very top step to the girl's dormitory.

" What's a drug?" Fred asked me.

"Why don't you ask Mafalda, now that you're so bloody close?" I ran into the dormitory and shut the door behind me. I fell onto the bed, feeling more like shit by the minute. And to add to my burden, I still had to pack. GAH!

A/N: Five reviews, and I'll update! Do you: like it, love it, hate it? What should I do next? Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter:

Kukaberry: YAY! You found out! Anyway the Fred action will probably happen soon. Fred/Scarlett action will happen later, though. I have a very complicated story plot in mind. I'm still not entirely sure about it…. Sorry about the long wait.

Mille55: YAY! Now you know. Did you like it?

Miriflowers: AHH! No more death threats! Am I safe? Or should I hurry up with the net one? Not taking any chances!

THANKS for the reviews! Review! I appreciate suggestions!

~bluebookbutterfly