After break Rebecca, Hermione, Harry and Ron all wandered off to Potions. They arrived to find Professor Slughorn bustling everyone into the classroom like a shepherd. They were slightly disheartened to discover that Gryffindors shared this class with Slytherins. They followed the new Professor in and closed the door behind them.

Harry had met Professor Slughorn prior to the commencement of term, and had filled Hermione, Ron and Rebecca in on the way to their first Potions class. Apparently he was a very friendly and welcoming fellow who had been a Professor at Hogwarts many years ago. Rebecca recalled approaching him with Draco, who seemed to know him, and remembered how cheery he was. Rebecca couldn't help but feel that he was slightly unreliable after the slight potion complication she had experienced.

The four of them occupied a table near the front of the room. All the other tables around the room were full, and Rebecca noticed Draco seated at one on the other side of the room with Blaise Zabini. Rebecca and Draco both missed majority of the first lesson, and so avoided the useless time Slughorn would have spent introducing himself and explaining potions to a near sleeping class.

"Okay now, today you all will be receiving your assignments." Slughorn said cheerily and the majority of the class groaned.

"This time, however, you will be doing it with a partner." He continued, and many of the students started talking amongst themselves and choosing partners.

"Now, now, you will not be choosing your partners. I have already written down who your partners are to be. This is because I would generally like to mix up the class; you can make more friends, get to know each other better!" He smiled broadly as the class stared back at him in horror. He continued with reading out the names he had matched on a sheet of organised parchment. Nearly everyone was paired up with someone who would have most likely been the last one on their own list. When Slughorn read out the names Malfoy and Whyte together, Rebecca almost dared not move. She slowly felt her cheeks heat up and buried her face in her hands. She couldn't believe how unfortunate her luck had become so early in the year. After Slughorn had finished pairing everyone up he told them to go and sit with their partner.

Rebecca looked over her shoulder to see Draco looking at her blankly, perhaps just as horrified. He definitely wasn't going to move. Rebecca sighed and got up, and unhappily slumped into the chair next to him.

"Whyte." He greeted her the same way he had always done. Rebecca didn't say anything, but looked at him as though she was acknowledging his presence. They then both turned to face Slughorn when he started to explain the assignment.

"Now as you know, at the moment we are looking at the topic 'potions, symptoms and cures'. I assume that you all remember the four potions we discussed in our very first class this year?" And Hermione's hand was in the air within the second.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Veritaserum, Polyjuice potion, Amortentia and Felix Felicis."

"That's absolutely right, well done! Now this assignment will be worth half of your final mark, and all together will take around eight months, because in your pairs you will be making each of these potions. Yes, for each one you will have to brew the potion, sample it and recognize the symptoms, and then find an antidote. You will have to turn in a final report together at the due date. Your report will include the ingredients used, methods and results. Simple, everybody understand?" Most of the class was just finishing writing down the notes they were taking. Slughorn continued, "You will have two months for each potion, but there are set dates, so don't worry about getting your timing right too much." He laughed, alone. "The first potion you will be making is Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world. For this one you must remember, and include this in your report, Amortentia does not create love, nor does any other potion, but it will only create a strong obsession.

"Your final report will be due two months from today, and we will not be doing anything of the sort in class. However, I am giving you the rest of this lesson to start planning, so use it well. Go on, then. Off you go!" Slughorn finished. Now all Rebecca could think, over and over again, was that she would be doing an eight month project with Draco. She would be spending eight months with Draco. The only positive objective she could find in this situation was that at least they weren't physically stuck together.

"When are we going to do this?" Draco interrupted Rebecca's repetitive thoughts.

"Um," She tried gathering her thoughts. He gave her a questionable look, suggesting that it was up to her when and where they were going to do this project.

"W-well we could go to the library two or three times a week after school?" She stuttered, scared for the fact that they were being forced to talk to one another.

"Fine. What days?"

"How's Monday, Wednesday, Friday?" She suggested, giving a shrug. He agreed, and for the rest of the period they studied the potion from the same text book.

Just as the class was dismissed, Draco tapped Rebecca on the shoulder.

"Today is Wednesday. Will I meet you in the library after school?" He asked incredibly plainly.

"Uh, yes." She nodded. He nodded once and left without another word, leaving her frowning.

She wondered what was going through his head. He was acting so simple, almost as though they had never interacted in their life and he was prepared for business only. Even though the rest of the day flew by, it seemed as though every five minutes Rebecca found herself thinking about Draco.

As soon as Rebecca was dismissed from her final lesson of the day, she gathered the necessary books and slowly made her way to the library. She entered the library and sat at an empty desk, and began revising all the notes she had taken in the Potions lesson earlier today. She could hear the clock ticking by, and glanced at it from time to time.

As minute after minute went by, she soon realised she had been sitting all by herself for almost forty-five minutes. She decided to look over the potion once more in the text book.

She looked over at the clock once again. She had now been there for an hour, and she wasn't going to wait any longer. She honestly would have had better things to be doing than memorizing a bloody love potion, of all things.

She gathered her things from the table and left the library. About half way on her journey back to Gryffindor tower, she heard fast footsteps. She wasn't entirely sure of where they were coming from. Just as she was stepped into a cross section in the corridor, she figured out a little too late where the footsteps were coming from.

"Woah!" Was all she heard before a larger body crashed into hers, sending the both of them rebounding off of each other. Books and parchment were strewn everywhere.

"Whyte!" She sat herself up to see Draco sitting on the floor across from her, looking a little dazed and dreary, and awfully tired.

"About time you decided to show up." Rebecca mumbled, very annoyed.

"Where are you going?" Malfoy asked, appearing a little confused.

"Common Room. You?" She retorted as though it was obvious.

"Well, the library. Isn't that where you're meant to be?"

"It's where you were meant to be an hour ago." Rebecca answered smartly, and started crawling around and picking up any books and parchment within her reach.

"I know, I was held up." He replied, taking notice of what Rebecca was doing and began to pick things up as well.

"Held up doing what?" She asked angrily.

"I was just… held up." He sounded very hesitant.

"You already said that!" She started raising my voice, sick of Draco's unclear answers already.

"It was just Snape, that's all!" He snapped, slamming a book down on top of a pile he had made on the floor.

"Well the least you could have done was let me know! It is a project we are supposed to be doing together." Rebecca shouted, copying Draco's actions.

"Well, I'm sorry! Okay? It wasn't that important anyway." He said, slumping back onto the floor and rubbing his eyes. Rebecca scooped up the last of the parchment from the floor and retreated back to sit by her own pile.

"Are…are you okay?" She asked quietly, half hoping he didn't hear her.

"Fine." He snapped, letting out a sigh. He sat with his arms wrapped around his knees, staring at the floor. As Rebecca looked at him a little closer in the fading light, she noticed the deep bags under his eyes, and his eyes looked glazed over as though he had been upset. He looked vulnerable, sitting in the middle of an empty corridor the way he was.

"What did Snape want?" Rebecca asked in a gentle voice, almost empathetic. Draco looked up at her from under his eyelashes.

"It… It doesn't matter." He tried reassuring her.

"You don't have me convinced." Rebecca said, folding her arms. He looked up at her properly, and Rebecca was sure he had been upset. This left her dumbfounded.

Draco could see the surprise in her face. He could hear the concern in her voice. He could feel the way that she knew him now. This made him forget, and it made him a little bit happier that he thought someone outside his world might care without knowing.

"Will we go to the library tomorrow afternoon instead?" He asked, raising his eyebrows in fear that she would reject him.

"Sorry, I can't. The Gryffindor quidditch try outs are tomorrow." She informed him, sending him a small smile when she remembered how he had once encouraged her to try out.

"Oh, right. Good luck, I suppose. You'll probably make it anyway if Potter's the captain." He answered dully, feeling a little let down.

"Thanks?" Rebecca wasn't sure if he had meant to compliment her or not. Draco pressed his lips into a thin line, unsure of what he had meant either and hoped he hadn't offended her. Rebecca turned back to the pile of books and parchment she had constructed and sorted the ones that belonged to her from his. She stood up and handed him his things and he returned hers.

"I'll see you in the library on Friday then." He said.

"No excuses." Rebecca said firmly, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. He nodded and they walked their separate ways without another word.

Rebecca didn't tell anyone about Draco's slip, and the next day was gone in a blink of the eye. Rebecca had just entered the Gryffindor Common Room, set out for her quidditch gear. She quickly got changed, grabbed her old broomstick and headed down to the quidditch pitch. By the time she got there, there was already quite a few Gryffindors ranging from second year to seventh, and an audience in the stands.

In all honesty, the try outs were hardly bearable. Half the second years were terrible flyers, the seventh years nearly seemed to kill themselves, and to top it all off there were even girls from the other houses. Harry was struggling with all the 'Chosen One' business. It took all afternoon, and by the time it was all over Rebecca felt badly for poor Harry.

As the afternoon came to an end, the audience in the stands slowly faded away. Rebecca would have liked to have thought it was because of the slight chill that had started to set in, but she opted for their boredom, and giving up themselves instead.

Harry had set up a few simple trials such as flying around the pitch, for starters. The chasers had to split into teams and get the quaffle from one end of the pitch to the other, while dodging bludgers. This ruled out the majority of the more inexperienced people within a short time.

The beaters had to hit the bludgers at targets and practice by going up and down the pitch, and the keepers of course had to block any goals. Both of these trials ruled out a lot of people on the signup sheet.

In the end Harry had finally found himself the new Gryffindor quidditch team; Harry himself as the seeker, Ron Weasley was very surprised to find himself as the keeper, Fred and George as the beaters and Katie Bell, Demelza Robins and Rebecca as the chasers.

Harry was quite pleased with his new team. They were going to have a lot of fun, and it was very exciting for Rebecca because it was her first time representing Gryffindor in the sport.

When the new Gryffindor quidditch team reached the Common Room after a long afternoon, they were all swamped by spectators from earlier and friends alike, receiving slaps on the back and many congratulations. The evening was full of celebration and lots of confetti, but it all ended quite soon when everyone had to leave for dinner. After that it was just a casual evening like any other day.

Rebecca had a dream that night. She wasn't sure if it was good or bad, or if it meant anything or not. It was quite simple, almost like a still picture. It was on the quidditch pitch, and she remembered there being herself and the rest of the new Gryffindor team. They were playing Slytherin, although she couldn't say who the team members were. She knew for sure who the one was flying around the pitch besides Harry. It was Draco.

It was an ordinary quidditch match, the sun shining high in the sky and the crowd cheering for their chosen teams. It seemed as though they were about half way through the match, and as Rebecca passed off the quaffle to one of her fellow team mates, it seemed as though she was forced to make eye contact with Draco. They were hovering on the same level, although he was about halfway down the pitch. His face was plastered with an unreadable expression while all the buzz and excitement of her surroundings slowly faded away and Draco was all she could see.

All of a sudden Rebecca's surroundings returned when she heard numerous voices yell out her name in what sounded like fear, and maybe even a scream or two as the emotion on Malfoy's face turned into panic. She felt as though she was slipping away.

Rebecca sat up straight away, quite startled with the impression that she was falling. She held her breath for a moment, realised she had woken up and then breathed out heavily. She looked around the dorm. She was the last one there. She slid out of bed and got dressed. She skipped down the stairs two at a time, glorious as the excitement of her new hobby hadn't worn off yet, and just as she landed in the Common Room,

"BOO!" She screamed and quickly slapped her hands over her mouth. The Weasley twins had been standing on either side of the bottom of the stairs, behind the wall so she couldn't see them, waiting for her. They were laughing.

"That was not funny." Rebecca demanded, her heart racing as she stepped on one of their feet.

"Hey!" Fred yelped as he pulled his foot out from under hers. They joked as the three of them left for breakfast in the Great Hall.

They walked through the giant oak doors to see owls flying around the huge room delivering letters, parcels and newspapers. As they were making their way to the Gryffindor table they heard a loud screech. All of a sudden Rebecca felt something small but hard hit her in the back of the head. She turned around to see a couple of letters at her feet, as well as an extremely small, ordinary grey owl. It was Lucy.

Lucy was Rebecca's mother's very young Scops Owl, still in the process of being trained. It had only just begun to get the mail where it was supposed to go. At least it wasn't as bad as the Weasleys' owl, Errol. Errol was surely the most stupid owl on record. Errol had followed Lucy into the back of George.

Amidst the small amount of laughter around them, Fred, George and Rebecca picked up their mail. George picked up Errol and Lucy, unprofessionally, ran along the ground behind Rebecca. This was why Rebecca liked the owl so much.

They continued to the Gryffindor table and sat amongst their friends. Lucy then decided to fly up and sit in front of Rebecca, demanding some toast. Rebecca fed her as she sorted through her mail.

She had received two letters this morning. One was from her mother of course, and the second was from within Hogwarts. She opened the one from her mother first. It was just the same as any other letter anyone would receive from their mother, saying 'how are you?', 'did you settle in alright?', 'how was the trip?', 'how are all your friends?' and all the other stuff she could cram into one letter. Rebecca would write back later on.

She then looked at the second envelope that wasn't very identifiable. She opened it to find an invitation to a school ball. As she looked up with question, she noticed that everyone else had also received one. It read:

Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore

and

Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall

would like to request your presence,

accompanied by a partner,

for the

'Springtide' Ball

September 30th, Great Hall, 6:30pm

It was unusual for Hogwarts to hold a ball so early in the year, though hardly anyone was complaining. And it was only one week away.