The words on the page were linked in such a way that one explained the meaning of the other, ultimately creating a whole. Every word a different syllable, a different sound, but with meaning the sentence existed. Language, in all its rich complexity, was the last thing in the world that should make intuitive sense. However did we grasp it as quickly as we did? How did we remember it all? But most importantly; what in Merlin's name was I thinking when I put my name down for an extra course in Goblin Accountancy?

I held the book in my hand, my quill brushing against my lips as my eyes looked up to follow the raindrops on the window against the dark background.

"You look like you're either in great pain, or you finally decided to open Economics A Goblin's Anthology."

"Both." I smiled, thankful for the distraction.

Nell pulled up her legs, smiling like a Cheshire cat. "I'm happy you're interested in the well-being and economic stability of our country. At least when Quidditch doesn't work out, you'll have a plan B."

I blinked once, twice, then nodded slowly. "I love Quidditch, but I wasn't planning on making a living out of it anyway."

Nell shrugged. "You'll figure it out, graduation is still a year and 9 months away."

"You're one to talk miss I-have-it-all-figured-out. You better defend my case when I get send to the ministry for drunk flying and failed Gringotts robbery attempts, because you know, that'll be my life when I find nothing."

Nell chuckled but kept quiet after that. Her eyes were still on me when I focused back on my book and as I looked back, the smile was still plastered on her face.

"What?"

She shrugged. "Nothing, it's just… you seem a bit out of it today."

I frowned at my friend. "What do you mean?"

"You barely touched your pizza at dinner and Merlin knows that's your favorite food. You only made one snarky remark about professor Rowell's teaching skills. And now you're sitting here literally staring into the darkness. What's up?"

I thought about it for a few seconds, watching the fog on the window grow. "It's this season. It's so peaceful and quiet. You know, the chill in the post-dawn air hinting that winter isn't far behind. The air so cold, yet the trees are on fire, scarlet and gold licking at the dark sky, invisible clouds covering the world in a safety blanket." I shrugged and followed a raindrop until it disappeared. "It's the most beautiful time of the year."

"It could be because of that." Nell nodded her head in agreement, her eyes wandering off to the fireplace far behind us. "Or it could have something to do with James asking if you could be friends."

My eyes shot up to meet hers. "How did you-"

"You talk in your sleep."

I gaped at her.

She waved her hand around casually, as if it wasn't the most chocking thing I'd heard all day. "I normally don't listen because you're mostly on about food, but last night I heard his name. Which caught my attention."

I still gaped at her.

"Don't worry, I only heard you say 'don't want your friendship' and his name a couple times. But it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together." She shrugged, ignoring the fact that she could probably see the few bits of pizza I had for dinner with my jaw touching the floor and all.

I sighed. "Actually, I wasn't thinking about him until you mentioned it." I paused. "But yes, it has been on my mind. A lot. And I don't know why."

I looked at my friend, and her face was still trapped in this ridicules smile. "Did Cole put something in your drink? I knew you shouldn't have trusted that guy."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "No. It's just… I'm happy you can finally talk to me about this

"About Potter?" She nodded her head. "Yea, well, you have finally come to your senses and are over the git. Which makes talking a lot more less uncomfortable."

"I have, but I still don't believe him to be as bad as you portray him to be, Ali."

"He told your boyfriend, aka one of his best friends, to piss off! And did I tell you I caught him snogging Tamara Bennet late at night? And some other girl right before the game?"

"Cole is not my boyfriend." She blushed, and I rolled my eyes at her ignorance. The boy had snogged her against a wall, under a three for everyone to see and in the Astronomy tower on a starry night. Sure, he wasn't her boyfriend.

She cleared her throat before I could say anything about it. "Who was the other girl?"

I stared at her. "I don't know. I didn't actually see her-"

"Then how do you know it's not the same girl? Maybe James was with Tamara again."

"So?" I glanced at her sideways, the book in my lap screaming for my attention. "Even if it was the same girl it doesn't take away the fact that he's a manwhore."

She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't. But still… he's not that bad. Remember that day when you got Andrew's letter?"

I stiffened. This was not something I wanted to talk about. And my friends knew that.

"James was the one who ran after you because neither of us knew what to do. He said he'd make sure you were okay. He cares about you, Ali. Maybe he does just want to be your friend."

"You and I both know Potter doesn't have platonic girlfriends." I snapped.

She shrugged. "Well, maybe you're different to him."

I closed Economics A Goblin's Anthology and turned my full attention on my friend. "Look, Nell, I appreciate your help but, and I mean this in the kindest way possible; I don't think you should be the one to give me advise about boys."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Because I'm dating Cole?"

I shook my head no, but then stopped, because yes, it was sort of about her dating Cole. It was about her dating anyone that wasn't Louis Weasley.

"I know you know, Nell. You're not fooling me."

She blinked a couple times, confusion written all over her face. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're lying to yourself. At least I'm being honest to myself, I actually don't like Potter, and if because of some horrific, crazy twist of faith, that day somehow does come… I will try to deal with it. Because I don't lie, Nell."

She stayed quiet, no more looking like a Cheshire cat.

"I still don't know what you mean." She whispered, sounding like a little first year who'd just been caught doing something bad.

I sighed. "A flower for everyday he sees you for the first time? Staying up all night to help you write an essay? Going to a costume party despite hating to dress up? Learning you how to play Quidditch? Smiling every time he-"

"Stop it." she snapped.

"But why?" I shrieked. "How long are you planning on ignoring what is right in front of you? Nell, it's Louis!"

Nell looked up, and to my complete horror, her eyes were wet, tears threatening to spill at the end of her lashes. "What are you talking ab-"

I scoffed. "Oh please, don't even try. I know you're not that naive. I know you know he's in lo-"

"Stop! Stop, okay, just stop!" Nell's legs shot out from under her and she stood up straight, catching unwanted attention from many students nearby.

I tried to calm her down by reaching out to her and pulling her back down, but she didn't want to.

"Just tell me why you're ignoring the facts."

Nell took a deep breath and after looking around to see if anyone was listening in on the conversation, she sat back down. "Because I'm scared. " she whispered.

"Of what?" I huffed.

"Of hurting him." she answered almost immediately.

I frowned at her. "Why would you hurt him?"

And when the tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks and dripped from her chin, too sad to cry out or wail, sitting there as still as a statue, I realized what it was.

"You don't feel the same way." I whispered.

Nell shook her head no, and my heart fell into my stomach.

"I love him, but not like that." she sobbed. "And I don't want too loose him, Ali. He means the world to me. I just hope that one day he will realize and move on."

"Don't you think he deserves to hear you say that, though?"

"He knows I'm dating someone now. He'll get over it." she whispered.

Well, shit. This was not the outcome I was hoping for. I thought she'd be happy, and that instead of tears in her eyes there would be a light – love for the boy she now knew loved her. And right when she would hug me and tell me that she'd had a secret crush on him for years, Louis would walk down the stairs, looking all hot and beautiful like always, and she'd jump in his arms and they'd live happily ever after.

But this was not a Muggle love story. This was real life.

In fact, being a lovesick teenager was just a waste of time. You see, the whole "teen experience" was one of the most storied of all time, and it came with a massive set of expectations and myths about what it meant to be a teenager. After 4 years and 10 months of experience I could tell you this; being in love was not like a random Taylor Swift song or a cliché teen-centric movie; you won't bump into your soul mate on your way to Transfigurations class, you won't drop your books in front of him and he sure as hell won't help you pick them up.

He would probably keep running because he's late for class.

The truth was, like most things in life, being in love was probably nothing like you imagined it would be. It came with a massive set of heartbreak, mistakes and sometimes even unwanted pregnancies.

It had been the second time this week I'd seen the one friend who was always happy and a bundle of joy this sad, and I didn't like it. So I grabbed Nell by the hand and said the one thing that always made me happy; "Let's go get some ice cream."

゚.*・。゚

"Ali, wake up."

I muttered, turning away from the voice dragging me from a deep and much needed sleep. "Leave me alone, Rose."

"Erm… it's not Rose. Ali, come on. It's practice time."

"Whut?" I slurred and opened my eyes to slits and squinted at the girl in front of me. "Alice?"

"Yup. It's me. James sent me to come and get you. Practice starts in 15 minutes."

I looked at the clock with sleepy eyes and groaned as it showed me it was only 5 in the morning. "You can't be serious."

Alice shrugged, and then I realized how serious this must be. Alice was a year above me, she wouldn't be here if it wasn't urgent.

"Alright. I'm coming. Despite the fact that my foot is still hurting." I grumbled, pushing my comfortable duvet back and shivering in the morning chill that filled the dorm room.

Alice gave me a quick once over, her gaze stopping at the bandage around my ankle. "Oh, right. I forgot about that." her brown eyes shot up to meet mine again. "How…. Are you?"

Oh, so now she cared? Really? Did she suddenly feel bad for talking behind my back an hour before I landed in the hospital? I hadn't forgotten about the conversation I had overheard between her and Spencer. I tried not to think about it, or them, or the fact that I'd taken a Bludger to the ribs to save on of them. I guessed I could only avoid them for so long. Quidditch practice was bound to start again anyway. I just didn't realize it would be this soon.

"I'm fine." I answered and hobbled around her towards the bathroom. I splashed some water on my face and brushed my teeth. My face stared back at me through the mirror. Pale skin and dark smudges under my lifeless, blue eyes. Yes, you guessed it, I was not a morning person. I grimaced at the unruly mop of hair that stuck up every which way and tried to fix some of it with my hands, having no time whatsoever to look for a brush.

After getting dressed and fishing my broom from under my bed, I threw an envious look at Rose and Nell, still peacefully asleep in their warm beds, and dragged myself down the stairs. Well, I was more skipping down the stairs on one leg.

I found Damian, Alice and Chris waiting downstairs. Damian and Chris muttered a 'morning' and I joined them in waiting for the others to arrive, including our captain.

My eyes widened, a rush going through me that made me physically shiver. I hadn't spoken to Potter since our last -very confusing- encounter. So far avoiding him was going pretty great. But the strange thing was, usually Potter had no trouble finding me, even when I tried so hard to avoid him. This time it was as if he didn't even try to bother me. Almost like he'd been keeping a distance.

"James!" Damian called when Potter jogged down the stairs, Spencer closely behind him.

I bet she was enjoying the view.

Not that I was implying that Potter had a nice… you know.

He had. But that was beside the point.

I glanced at Potter and made a small noise when I understood Spencer's shameless staring. Potter was wearing his running gear. Which meant he was wearing the neon-blue sports shorts that for some reason made all the girls go crazy when he wore them. To me, they were just plain Muggle-brand shorts that fell a little below his knees and okay, maybe they were a little tighter in the area Spencer just kept staring at, and, oh look – now Alice was shamelessly glancing too.

Merlin's beard, only Potter could make the least sexy piece of clothing attractive.

"You better have a bloody good reason for waking us up this early." Damian yawned loudly.

Potter greeted his friend with a quick head nod. "Oh yes I do. The next match against Ravenclaw is only two months away, you know that, and from what I've seen last time-" his eyes quickly met mine, but the connection only lasted a second. "You need all the practice you can get. And, we have to win all three remaining matches if we want to win this year. It's my time and I'm not going to let a little sleep destroy my last chance ever for the cup."

"You mean our time." Chris corrected him.

Potter blinked. "Right. Whatever helps you from keeping the balls out of our goals, mate."

Chris just rolled his eyes and crawled out of the portrait hole. Yawning and slouching, the rest of the team followed behind him as we sleepwalked down to the Quidditch pitch together. On our way exiting the castle, I kept staring at the back of Spencer's head, wishing she'd just turn around and say something. Maybe a little thank you for saving her arse last Friday. Because I was concentrating so hard on staring, whilst trying to keep up with the rest with my injured foot, Freddy only just saved me from stupidly walking into a suit of armor, by grabbing me forcefully by my shirt.

"Remind me to kick your arse next time you make us wake up this early." Fred shot at his cousin.

"Yea well, then you can try tomorrow morning at six o'clock."

We all groaned.

"You're going to kill us, Potter." Chris grunted, and he grabbed Damian's arm just as he was about to blindly go down a staircase, steering him back into the right direction.

"Yea, well," Potter said, stopping at the castle's main entrance. "Better me now than Ravenclaw in two months."

Everybody groaned again when we glanced outside, taking in the depressing state of the weather. It was still pitch black and the sun was not even near rising. The rain steadily fell from the sky, making me wish I was still safely tucked away under my warm duvet. We glanced miserably at each other behind Potter's back, who just zipped up his hoodie and jogged towards the pitch, expecting we'd follow.

Which we did. Because we didn't really have a say. I hobbled behind my teammates onto the muddy path until we finally reached the Quidditch pitch.

"Great. I spent 20 minutes on my hair for nothing." Spencer mumbled under her breath

"Not that anyone noticed." Damian said, making me bite my tongue to prevent a loud laugh from escaping between my lips.

"What was that, Andersons?" she shot back

"That was me making a snarky remark about you. Because let's face it, you deserve it." Damian's eyes narrowed at her while she shoved a wet piece of brown hair behind her ear.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she hissed.

"You put my friend in the fucking hospital, you bit-"

"Damian." Alice stopped him, and I was somewhat glad she did, before Spencer would blow up in our faces for being called the B-word. She did tend to be over-dramatic sometimes. Example: at the beginning of this schoolyear Nelly Lamarck, our school's photographer, needed a picture of this year's Gryffindor Quidditch team. And since Drama Queen didn't like the way she looked in the first five, we had to retake it another three times until she was happy about it.

Yea, she was that girl.

"Oh. That." she finally looked at me, and then at the dirty bandage around my foot. The added material made it possible for me to walk around without a crutch, but the extra weight was making it so hard for me to walk normally, and I felt ridiculous.

"Thanks. But if you hadn't done that, Lover Boy over there would have caught the Snitch and we'd have won." She nodded in Potter's direction. He was facing us with his back, looking up at the goals he'd charmed to light up in the dark. "So I don't even know if I should be thanking you."

I stared at her. "You would've possibly died of a head injury."

"It would've been a risk I was willing to take for my team."

"Oh that's bullshit and you know it!" I screamed, capturing the attention of our captain as he turned around to look at the person who just yelled. Who happened to be me.

Soon everybody was all too soaked to even care that we were wet, and kicked off into the sky, except for Potter and I. His stare glued me to the ground.

"You're soaking." He said.

"I know." I shrugged, raindrops falling down my face. "I didn't have time to grab a hoodie like you did."

Potter just stared. Right when I was certain he was going to open his mouth to make a sexist remark about the white shirt that started to stick to my body and reveal the black bra I was wearing underneath… he didn't. His eyes lingered a second too long on my chest but snapped back up when I crossed my arms and cleared my throat.

He shook his head, smiling. "Here." Potter took a step closer and unzipped his hoodie. "Take this. You're the only one stupid enough not to bring something to protect you from the rain."

"I don't need your hoodie." I stopped him before he could wrap it around me. "I can just summon a jacket here."

He rolled his eyes and continued wrapping me in the warm clothing. "Don't be ridiculous. I can't just let you freeze to death. It'll take a while before it arrives. I think my body can handle the cold a bit better." He chuckled.

That chuckling sound was for some reason way too adorable on him, and combined with the warmth that was basically Potter's body heath; it made my stomach clench. And I was not happy to admit in a good way.

I glance at his now naked arms and realized that indeed, his body was probably stronger than mine. There was no denying that.

I looked back at his face and saw him still smiling, which was for some reason even worse than his trademark smirk. "Did you fell of your broomstick a few days ago?"

Potter frowned at me, but the smile never leaving. "No, why?"

"Because… why are you giving me your clothes?"

"Because you were cold and soaking, I thought we established that?"

I shook my head no. "See, that's not what James Potter would've said to me a few days ago. He would've said something like… 'I'm too hot to wear clothes anyway, wanna make out?' or you would've at least asked me to Hogsmeade once by now."

The frown deepened as he took his bottom lip into his mouth. "Do you want me to ask you?"

"No."

He raised his arms at his sides and dropped them back down."Then I won't."

I unintentionally tightened the hoodie around me. It strangely felt like what I would imagine a hug from Potter would smell like. Fresh, strong and so captivating. I shook my head to snap out of it. I narrowed my eyes at him. "This is weird. You're being nice."

He sighed, his breath turning white in the darkness as he exhaled. "I told you I want to start over."

I gulped. So he was serious about that.

I exhaled, Potter and I were never going to be friends. I didn't like him being this friendly. It only made things worse. I didn't want to risk end up liking the guy, and then what would happen? I'd maybe, perhaps… fall for the sod? Let him play with my emotions for a few days and then just toss me aside like he was used to doing?

No. We both knew it wasn't friendship he was after.

"Look, Potter." I sighed, shaking my head. "As much as I want to believe you can be a friend, I just can't believe you. I don't want to put effort in something that's hopeless." I whispered, ignoring the look in his eyes that seemed to scream the secret he didn't want to say aloud, the one I'd seen only two times before.

Against my now warm body's wishes, I unzipped his hoodie and pushed it in his chest, fighting the little piece inside of me that was screaming I was doing the wrong thing.

Luckily, it had stopped raining, and the early morning sun was starting to raise. "Let's just focus on the match, and maybe next time not lose it."

Potter just stared at me. And after watching the color in his eyes change aproximatly three times, he shook his head, sighing. "Stop saying things you don't mean, Aaliyah."

My heart jumped when he used my full name. I didn't like it when people did that, and almost nobody did, but for some reason, Potter was the only one who sometimes called me Aaliyah. And when he did, it was usually serious.

He placed his broom between his legs, ready to kick off. "You and I both know you're lying to yourself."

And with one last glance in my direction, he kicked off high into the morning sun.

A.N.: Hi there. Glad I'm back with a new chapter? Did ya like it, did ya hate it? let me knooow!

I don't know if any of you realize this but the reason why I upload more frequently lately is because of your reviews, so, if you want more chapters just keep them coming. I especially love it when some of you tell me your own theories about this story, what you think might happen or what you want to happen :) that always makes my day! Haha

Until next time lovelies xo

P.S.: Thank you Justin Bieber for making the sentence 'what do you mean' an odd one to write. (love the song tho!)