Fred would have said that as a Weasley there wasn't much that could really shock him. Sure when Ava Love had said yes when he had asked her to Hogsmeade it had surprised him but not much could make his jaw drop. Of course the last year at Hogwarts hadn't been a normal one so far at all and it had been pretty jaw dropping but nothing shocked Fred as much as what happened to James after Olly's revelation. Now Fred, Sage along with him, had expected James to be miserable. They had expected to have to put up with a James more miserable than if he had lost a game of Quidditch. After all they were certain that he was in love with Olly and the fact that she was now dating Machali Caruso was bound to cause him all the pain and grief of a fourteen-year-old girl who had just had her heart broken. They couldn't have been more wrong and they found it positively scary.

James was cheerful. He was more than cheerful. He quite literally spent most of his days walking around with a stupid grin on his face or bouncing on the balls of his feet. This caused Fred and Sage to doubt their deep rooted assumptions that James was in love with Olly. Surely if he really was in love with her he wouldn't be so happy after she had just revealed that she was going on a date with another guy. Yet James' happy mood continued without a break and he didn't even seem mind when he caught sight of Olly snogging Mac in the corridors the night she was released from the hospital wing. Fred had thought that if there was anything that could have got to James it would have been that. Fred found it torture to even think about Ava snogging another guy. He had found it difficult enough not to punch Mac for snogging Olly. James hadn't even accompanied them to the "break her heart and we'll kill you" talk which was more than strange because if James loved her then surely he'd want to make sure that Mac knew he'd be dead if he hurt her. Even if James wasn't in love with Olly it was odd that he wouldn't go with them for that particular chat. Olly was one of his best friends after all and he was fiercely protective of her.

'I just don't understand it,' said Fred to Sage one afternoon as they were sitting in the common room by the fire watching James chat away happily to Olly who was trying to teach him about the Blood Replenishing Potion.

'What is it?' asked Sage immediately looking over at the essay in Fred's hand. 'What don't you understand?'

Fred rolled his eyes a little as Sage completely misread what he was saying.

'I don't understand why James is so damn happy,' he said glancing over at James and Olly again.

Sage frowned.

'No neither do I,' he admitted distracted from his own essay as he looked over to where James was beaming at Olly. 'It doesn't make sense that he would be this happy if he was in love with her. Maybe we were wrong.'

'I thought that as well,' said Fred frowning as he chewed on the end of his sugar quill, 'but the way he acted when Olly was in her coma would suggest something different.'

Sage looked at Fred for a long moment considering which made Fred squirm a little.

'What?' he asked uncomfortably.

'I'm just wondering,' said Sage slowly, 'where you managed to find observation skills over the summer.'

'Ha ha,' said Fred sarcastically. 'The stupid joke is getting old real fast.'

Sage grinned at him for a moment before he turned his attention back to his other best friend who was making Olly laugh at something he was saying. Sage found it puzzling that James was acting so cheerful. He honestly didn't seem to have a bad word to say about anyone including Olly's new boyfriend. Sage liked Machali Caruso. He was an all right guy really but that didn't mean he liked him dating Olly when he was so sure that James was in love with her.

'I was so sure he was in love with Olly,' Sage said scratching his chin.

'He is,' said a familiar voice causing the two boys to look round.

James' little sister, Lily, was curled up on the couch next to them clutching a rather large book and looking over at her brother. Her red hair was glinting in the light from the fireplace and she had a superior look on her face that they two boys knew meant that she knew something that they didn't.

'Well why is he so cheerful when he should be miserable because Olly's dating Caruso?' asked Fred.

'Come on you two,' said Lily rolling her eyes like it was plain obvious, 'you've known my brother since you were all born. Can you not think why James is acting so cheerful?'

Sage and Fred shook their head simultaneously. It was just plain puzzling to them why James was acting that way.

'He's putting on an act,' Lily told them in an exasperated tone. 'He's pretending that he's happy about it because he doesn't want it to hurt. James is in love with Olly as plainly as the grass is green but he doesn't want you two to know it and even more so he doesn't want Olly to guess either. He's acting so cheerful to stop himself hurting.'

'But we know anyway so why is he bothering to act in front of us?' asked Sage glancing back at James who was pointing something out to Olly in the book in front of them.

'Just trust me,' she said with a rather evil grin, 'James is miserable inside.'

Armed with Lily's certainty Sage and Fred decided to confront James on the matter later that night when they were up in their dorm room. They didn't want Olly to hear them and the dorm seemed like the best place for that chat even if Wood and Finnegan were going to be there. It wasn't like they had been oblivious to their previous attempts to get James to admit that he was in love with Olly. In fact the two of them were now also convinced that James harboured non-platonic feelings for her. Fred and Sage were sure that they would back them up.

So that night the three boys said goodnight to Olly and climbed the stairs to the dormitory. James still had a stupid grin on his face and it was really beginning to get on Fred's nerves. He would rather put up with an overly miserable James than with a James pretending to be cheerful when he was really miserable underneath. That was such a girl thing to do.

'So,' Sage began as soon as the door was shut behind them.

'So what?' asked James as he moved over to his bed and began to get changed.

'So what's with the overly cheerful act?' asked Fred sitting himself down on his own bed.

'What do you mean?' James said looking bemused.

'We mean this stupid act you've got on,' Sage explained as he took a seat on James' bed. 'We know that you are in love with Olly so there is no need to pretend to us that you are happy about her dating Caruso. We know that somewhere underneath all the stupid, happy grins that you are miserable inside.'

'Why would I be miserable about Olly and Caruso?' James asked looking between his two best friends. 'It's up to Olly who she dates and Caruso is a nice guy.'

'That's just it,' Fred exclaimed in frustration. 'You never think any guy that Olly dates is a nice guy. Even if you liked him before the moment he started dating Olly he became a jerk and that was when you were just friends.'

'We are just friends.'

'No you're not,' said Sage with a sigh. 'You are in love with her James. Please just admit it and save yourself the embarrassment of the whole school taking bets.'

'Sage and I could give pretty good odds on whether you marry and a bludger or Olly,' Fred told him. 'Right now I think most of the school would bet on you and Olly getting married.'

James didn't answer but just glared at the floor. Sage and Fred watched him careful looking for some signing that he was wavering in his resolve to remain cheerful. They didn't want him to put on an act. Sure they wanted to know, know for certain, that they were right about James being in love with Olly but it wasn't just about that. They didn't want James to have to hide things from them. He had never had secrets from them before and it didn't seem like a good time to start.

'Come on, mate,' said Fred quietly. 'Just tell us.'

James took a deep breath but didn't look up.

'Okay,' he said. 'I'm in love with Olly and it's killing me. Is that what you wanted to hear?'

He stood up abruptly and walked over to the window where he glared out over the dark grounds. It would be Christmas soon and the next weekend was the last Hogsmeade weekend before they went home for the holidays. James couldn't stand the thought of Olly introducing Caruso to her family or him having Christmas dinner at White Hall or Olly asking his grandparents if Caruso could come over to the Burrow on Boxing Day.

Behind him Sage and Fred exchanged triumphant but worried looks. Sage got up off the bed and went over to stand next to James at the window.

'I want nothing more than to break his nose,' James growled a little. 'I mean who does he think he is snogging Olly in the middle of the corridor like that as though she was some common whore?'

'Are you trying to tell us that if you were going out with Olly you wouldn't snog her in the middle of a corridor?' asked Fred with a snigger.

James blushed a little.

'Well that's different,' said James. 'I love her. I'm not just trying to get into her knickers.'

'Who is saying that Caruso is just trying to get into Olly's knickers?' asked Sage with a bemused expression.

'Who isn't trying to get into Olly's knickers?' asked Fred rolling his eyes.

'Well you and me for a start,' said Sage, 'most of your family and Malfoy considering that we're sure he's trying to get into Rose's knickers.'

'Can we stop talking about people trying to get into Olly's knickers?' asked James.

'Hey mate you brought it up.'

James laughed a little.

'I suppose I did.'

Silence fell over them for a few minutes as James continued to stare out the window trying not to see the image of Olly dancing around in his head. Unfortunately it was replaced with the image of Olly snogging Caruso. It made James grind his teeth together in anger. He turned from the window and went back over to his bed which he flung himself on closing his eyes. He had been acting so cheerful so as to push out all his negative thoughts and it had been working. Now he had let misery get to him it seemed to engulf him.

'You need to tell her,' said Sage suddenly and James opened his eyes to see Sage standing over him. 'I'm sure she loves you too James.'

James shook his head.

'You're not sure at all that Olly loves me as anything more than a friend,' James told them. 'I can't tell her that I'm in love with her. It would just be awkward if she didn't love me back and anyway she really likes Caruso. She was telling me about it earlier.'

He sighed a little. He had found it difficult to listen to Olly saying that she was so surprised and pleased that Caruso had asked her out. He was one of the best looking blokes she had ever seen, she had said and that had felt a little bit like a poisoned dart striking him in the heart. He had remained cheerful though telling Olly that he was an all right guy and that he hoped that he treated her right. It was even worse when she had hugged him and thanked him for being so laid back about it.

'What are you going to do about Hogsmeade?' asked Fred eventually.

James shrugged.

'I don't know.'

The Hogsmeade weekend was upon them before they knew it and James woke up feeling thoroughly miserably as he looked forward to the first time of not going to Hogsmeade with his three best friends. Sage would be with Roxanne, Fred would be making Ava laugh and Caruso would be charming Olly. James was wondering whether he should even bother going. After all it wasn't like he had a date and he would just end up wandering around Hogsmeade on his own like an idiot. Fred had offered for him to tag along with him and Ava but James was determined not to be a third wheel on his date.

So as the others departed the common room James sat down by the fire and stared at the flames. The common room was full of first and second years but the rest of the Gryffindor students had already departed for Hogsmeade. He couldn't stand it having to sit there and listen to all the youngsters messing around so he decided to go for a walk.

He wandered through the corridors feeling thoroughly sorry for himself. He should have told Olly that he was in love with her as soon as he had known about it but then if she didn't love him back it would have been awkward. Still he was finding it very difficult to just accept that she was on a date with someone else. What if she decided to get married to Caruso? James couldn't stand the idea of being there at Olly's wedding watching her smile at Caruso as she said "I do". There was nothing he could do about it though except tell her that he loved her but he didn't know if he was brave enough.

'Hey Rose, Hey Scorpius,' he said distracted as he passed a snogging couple in one of the corridors. He just didn't understand how he was going to ... Hey wait a moment!

He turned round to see his little cousin Rose bright red in the face clutched in Scorpius Malfoy's arms. Scorpius was also a little pink and they were both staring at James in horror as he stared back in disbelief. He blinked but the couple before him didn't disappear and instead Rose's blush seemed to intensify.

'When in the name of Merlin did this happen?' James practically shouted when he had recovered himself.

Neither Rose nor Scorpius answered. In fact they seemed like they had permanently frozen in place. James looked between the two of them feeling rather amused and triumphant but under that the feeling of protectiveness was welling inside him.

'Malfoy,' he said in a low voice curling his hands into fists, 'you'd better run.'

Scorpius took one look at James and decided that his assertion was correct. He gave Rose a quick peck on the cheek and then bolted down the corridor, robes flying out behind him. James waited until he had turned the corner before he relaxed his hands and then began to laugh. Rose just stood there staring at him.

'We so knew that was going to happen,' James said once he had calmed down a bit.

'You're not going to kill him, are you?' Rose asked hesitantly her blush beginning to subside.

James rolled his eyes.

'I won't kill him unless he hurts you, Rose,' he told her. 'Of course he will need the usual talk that we like to give to boyfriends but I suppose I'd better ask Hugo if we would like to do the honours since you are his sister.'

'Don't tell anyone,' she said earnestly. 'It's a secret just now. I haven't even told Al yet.'

'Well you'd better tell him,' James said with an evil grin on his face, 'because I have to tell people why I'm closing the betting pool. Uncle Ron is going to flip.'

Rose paled slightly.

'Please don't tell dad,' she pleaded.

'I won't tell him,' he said with a grin, 'but his reaction is going to be classic. I doubt Scorpius' parents are going to be thrilled about it, their precious pureblood son dating the daughter of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.'

Rose grimaced a little as she pushed her red curls back from her face. James looked at her for a moment. She looked nervous and her eyes were darting from the window to him constantly. He wondered briefly how it had happened but decided that there was no point in asking since she was unlikely to tell him.

'Are you going to tell my parents?' she asked.

'Rose, I'm your cousin,' he said patiently. 'You've known me for year. Am I the kind of person that tells tales?'

'No,' she replied with a smile when she realised that he wouldn't tell her parents.

'How are you going to tell them?' he asked curiously.

'I thought I'd just tell them at the end of term,' Rose said quietly. 'I suppose I could do it over the holidays. I could just slip it into the conversation.'

'I'd like to see that escape Uncle Ron's attention,' said James with a grin. 'Remember you have till the end of the day to tell Al or else he'll be finding out from someone else.'

'Thanks James.'

Rose turned to leave when James thought of something else.

'Where is Al anyway?' he called after her.

Rose turned round and grinned mischievously.

'Oh he's in Hogsmeade on a date,' she told him.

'With who?'

'Alice. Who else?'

When Fred, Olly and Sage arrived back at the common room, Sage's arm wrapped around Roxanne's shoulders, they were surprised to find an oddly cheerful James sitting on the couch literally beaming at them. Fred and Sage exchanged a look of horror. Surely after their talk last night James wasn't going to continue his extremely happy facade.

'Did you have a nice time?' he asked them the grin not moving from his face as Olly, Fred and Sage all sat down around him nodding. 'Well I have some rather interesting news for you all.'

Okay well that chapter offically sucked.
But I had to do something.
After today I'm working eight days in a row so won't have much time for writing.
I'm thinking that the next chapter will be home for Christmas.
What do you think?
Then we can maybe have some James/Olly.
Some Sage/Roxanne.
Then back to school where Olly can find out who her brother is.
After that I'm think of having her mother and father meeting again.
Please let me know what you think.
&& what you would like the outcome to be.

Kerr X.