Chapter Eleven

Bit By Bit

Stole was just putting the last of her clothes away in her Hogwarts closet when the small glass bubble on her table vibrated. She looked back at it and squealed in delight.

Shoving the garment in the closet, she snatched the bubble and took off.

Five minutes later she burst into the spare classroom. Lestat Creevey turned and caught her as she flung herself at him. "Lestat!" she crowed.

"Hey, pint sized."

She hit him gently in the arm as he set her down. "I'll have you know I've grown four inches."

It was quite true. Stole was well on her way to the classic Weasley look: tall with freckles and an overabundance of red hair. Stole stood much straighter now. She was twelve and though her hair was still more of a strawberry blonde from her time in the sun all summer, she had gathered a few freckles and (more importantly) her mother had promised to take her bra shopping over the Christmas break. Although she knew she really didn't need one yet, the very idea made Stole practically giddy. Despite herself and her tomboy tendencies, she was very excited to be becoming a woman.

"So you have," he said. "Look, Stole, can you do me a favor?"

Stole smiled at him. "Of course."

He pulled a small glass bubble out of his pocket, one almost exactly like the one she now had.

"Can you give this to Bonnie for me?"

Stole stared at the bubble and something broke in her.

In her own way, Stole had always known that Lestat wasn't for her. Likewise she had noticed the looks that Lestat gave her friend but she had chosen to ignore them. She hadn't wanted to believe.

Numbly she took the bubble and forced herself to smile at Lestat. "Sure, Les."

888

Terry wasn't paying attention terribly well which was why he ran smack into Stole. He hadn't seen her since they got off the train and that had only been fleetingly.

He caught her before she could fall and smiled at her. "Dang girl, you got taller."

She didn't meet his gaze. Without knowing how he knew, Terry knew something was troubling his friend.

He didn't stop to think and if he had, he probably would have done the same thing. He simply put his shoulder into her hips, throwing her over his shoulder.

"Terry!" she shrieked in protest. "What are you doing?"

"You need ice cream."

"I do not!"

"Well that's too bad," he continued. "Because you're going to get some."

Stole continued to issue protests but Terry could tell she didn't mean them and indeed, when he set her down in the Kitchens, she was smiling.

(A/N: Only one more chapter, my dearies. I thought about putting more in but I didn't want to beat a dead horse. I mean, we all know Stole and Terry are gonna get together, right?

To Brittany: OH MY GOODNESS! Thank you soooooo much for this! I love it! :3

To all my readers: Thank the awesome Brittany for making this http :/ www. geni . com / share ? t = 6000000011400397142
(Remove all the spaces) This is the family tree for this series! I'm super excited about it. Thanks again Brittany!