"What do you mean it isn't Harry Potter?!"

This was not a great way to start off the day. I hadn't even had breakfast yet and the world already seemed to want to go against me even more so than it already was. I purposely woke up early today so that I could try out my new idea on trying to return a message to Potter so that we could proceed to the next step, which was two-way communication. I had headed up to the owlry around six thirty this morning and given a message to Emerald. I would sit down in the Great Hall the rest of breakfast and see watch Potter receive her, pretending to not notice. Hopefully then, he would confess in a private manner that it was indeed him and we could get on with a fake relationship that would seem real to him. Of course, when he trusted me, I would lead him away and then he would have Potter. Simple as that.

But, unfortunately, Lilith had other plans. She had grabbed me when I was on the way down to the Great Hall, dragging me into an unused classroom and announced she wasn't in contact with Potter, which led to my outburst. I watched her reaction to my own reaction to her news. She looked a bit frightened. She should be. We both should be. If word got back to him that we hadn't had a confirmed match and wasted a month on this, he would kill us both.

I calmed down after a while. We did have a confirmed match. I was in contact with Harry Potter. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing. Sighing, I glanced towards the door. "It's okay. We knew one of us wasn't talking to him and I had a feeling it was you." Walking to the exit, I put my hand on the handle. "Now we know who has to go through this." Out of curiosity, I asked, "How did you find out?"

Even in the dark, I could see Lilith start to blush. I raised an eyebrow, awaiting her answer. "Well, I just found out. I saw him writing in class and recognized the messy writing."

"Who?"

"No one. I took care of it." Leaving it at that, I walked out of the room. I instantly wished I had forced Lilith out first.

"Taken to secret meetings early in the morning, Woodrow?" Oh Merlin, I could practically hear the smirk in his smug voice. "Who's your secret lover?"

I went on my way to the Great Hall, but Malfoy didn't let up. "Oh now, come on. Be a little fun for once. We do have to work together still." His chuckle annoyed me so much.

I hated dealing with him outside of class. Hell, I hated dealing with him in class. Unfortunately, though, he was right. The potion was only in its third week of brewing. The damned research paper was nearly done yet since Snape decided to add on to the requirements that the presentation must last at least ten minutes. It didn't help that Malfoy and I weren't working on it outside of the class. I refused to.

"Draco, leave her alone. She already has to suffer your crap in class." I felt a feminine arm loop its way through one of my own. I turned my head to meet Daphne's grin. She was saving me and she knew it. "Come on. We have to talk about this guy who's been leaving you messages."

She was the only person aside from Lilith who knew about this. The girls in the dorm could only guess why my bed was constantly covered with the blue flowers. As for the letters, they came a bit more often now, at least once every other day. I hadn't told her I knew it was Potter because there was no reason for her to find out about the plan. I wasn't going to risk her life, since she was a true friend. Lilith had been volunteered as I was, so there was nothing I could do for her. But Daphne didn't need to risk anything. With the war coming up, she would be safely tucked away with her parents behind Death Eater lines.

Interrupting my train of thought was the blond boy who just didn't seem to take a hint. "A guy's been leaving messages for Woodrow? Poor bloke must have been hexed one too many times in Charms class." Malfoy scoffed then laughed. I heard another laugh join his which meant Blaise had joined.

"Now, Draco, I don't think it's too far of a cry. She's a beautiful pureblood with money. Not too bad of a catch." Blaise smirked, taking my other arm.

Malfoy just scoffed again. "Please. A short, hot-tempered nobody? The bloke's incredibly insane."

What was this morning? Did I miss the memo where it was make Amity's day bad? Couldn't people just leave me alone? I didn't mind Daphne. Blaise I could handle. Malfoy could just sod off, though. Honestly.

"Draco, go away if you hate her so much." Daphne pulled me away as we entered the Great Hall. I silently thanked her, but sighed to myself now that it settled in my mind that Malfoy and Blaise knew about the letters.

The rest of the day went by like normal. Unfortunately, each time the owls came, Emerald was nowhere to be seen. Aside from that, nothing abnormal happened. Malfoy and I ignored each other for the most part in Defense as well as in History. He bugged me about the Forget-Me-Nots that had become a permanent fixture of my hair now, placing a few into the potion. The classes we shared that led up to dinner was normal. Daphne proceeded to take my attention all night before Astronomy started at midnight. She wanted to find out who the man was and I had to pretend like I was truly interested in that.

As soon as Astronomy was over at one, she and I were walking down the tower and headed back to the dorm when Emerald decided to finally make an appearance. She landed on the staircase railing and held out her leg. The rolled up parchment was there, but it wasn't the same one I had tied to her earlier that morning. Untying it, she flew away before I had the chance to even pet her. Daphne squealed and jumped for joy, quite literally.

"Oh my Merlin! Amity, look! Another letter! Open it now!"

I knew if I hadn't had opened it then, she would have easily made me deaf with pleads the rest of the way down to the dorms. We were only on the sixth floor. I wasn't willing to lose my hearing.

I was wondering when you were going to try that.

One Liner

"You tried what?" Of course she was reading over my shoulder. In all honesty, I saw that coming. She wouldn't be Daphne Greengrass if she wasn't nosey and invading someone's personal space.

Shrugging, I replied, "I tried to use Emerald to send a message to him this morning. I didn't see her deliver it, though."

Squealing again, the other blonde grinned. "What'd you say?!"

Continuing my way down the stairs, I sighed. "All I asked was if we could meet up somewhere." Which was completely true. If he was using one lines, so would I. I wanted to see if Potter was willing to show his face to me one on one. But somehow he had seen this coming. He had known that I was going to try to figure him out. I bet that mudblood was helping him. Damn.

I listened to Daphne drone on about dates and such, not really paying attention. She didn't really regain my full focus until she decided to let out another blood curdling squeal. Pulling me back into reality, I glanced around and noticed we were back in our dorm. Her scream had awoken Parkinson, Lilith, and Bulstrode, whom we have shared the dorm with for years.

I looked at Daphne and watched her run over to my bed. Upon seeing what she saw, my eyes widened. The other girls sighed and Parkinson was the only one who spoke up out of those three. "Woodrow, if you can't control the damned surprises left for you, stop Daphne from screaming. Some of us want our beauty sleep."

"You need more than beauty sleep, Parkinson." I couldn't help it. I was tired, too, and now there were more than flowers on my bed. There was a gift on my bed that I knew I would have to open, otherwise Daphne would rip it open herself as I slept and wake me up before I had the chance to sleep properly.

Apparently Parkinson had ignored my response and fallen back to sleep, along with the other two. Daphne held up my present and gave me a look that could rival a child on Christmas. Sighing for the umpteenth time today, I walked over, sat down beside her on my bed, and began to unwrap the box. As I slipped the lid off, I saw a note on top of a blank sheet of parchment, bottled black ink, and a brand new peacock quill. I picked up the note and read it.

I was saving these for Christmas. I hope you enjoy them. Try out the parchment. It's enchanted so that only you and I can write on it. I have my own. I could tell you've been dying to talk to me. The ink will disappear as soon as the other reads it. You can use any ink or any quill, but I thought you could use some more since we'll be talking a lot, I presume.

It wasn't signed, but it was quite obvious that it was from Potter. The same penmanship was used. Daphne noted that, too. She was even more excited now that she confirmed that the gift was from the note man. I couldn't help but to smile at her reaction. Daphne might have been a Slytherin, but she was a hopeless romantic and I thought that was great. I wish I could have been like her sometimes, but I'm not as free as she was.

She quietly smiled and said we'd talk in the morning about this before she went to her own bed. I placed the lid back on the box and slid it under my bed. I would test it in the morning to satisfy Daphne's overgrowing curiosity. As well as my own.