Hey guys, I know what you're thinking (that's right: mind reader!): Late... AGAIN! Sorry about that, by the way. And, I feel bad for admitting this to you guys but... this chapter... is kind of a... filler chapter... I worked hard on it, but it is just helping me get to this other scene that I already have written and I am so EXCITED to share with you guys! But, I can't yet. We'll see, it might fit into the next chapter... In fact, maybe for my tardiness I'll give you guys two chapters this week... we'll see. PLEASE REVIEW!

gotalife (I always feel like adding: 'You'd better believe it!' to the end of that...)

Chapter Thirteen

I pull on a pair of blue jeans and a black v-neck t-shirt after stepping out of the shower and drying off. Then, using a drought charm, I dry my hair and pull it up into a messy ponytail, and pull on my converse. In my peripheral vision, as I walk out my bedroom door, I see a clean creamy envelope with the neat, unread, scribblings of McGonagall spelling out my name- a summons, no doubt, I'm just not in the mood. I ignore it, and head down to the great hall for breakfast. I hum to myself the whole way down. I am feeling abnormally (for me) happy this morning- especially considering the letter.

I sit down between Hermione and Harry at the Gryffindor table. Across from us, Ron pauses long enough between heaping mouthfuls of food to ask, "Having a happy start to your Saturday, Andi?"

I shrug, and continue to hum as I pick out my breakfast. It has been a full week since I decided to be friends with Draco Malfoy, and it has not backfired on me- yet. We haven't actually had much time to talk lately because I was forced to pull my head out of the gutter and wonder what had happened to my Potions grade. I actually got called out of class on Wednesday to talk about it with McGonagall. She thinks that I need a tutor and I shouldn't be doing this poorly second semester considering that I did fairly well on my OWL for Potions. But, oh well. I am getting a tutor. Again, the name of my tutor is probably in the letter from her, or her summoning me so she can tell me herself.

Most people, if they knew that he is my father, would wonder why I don't just ask Snape to help me a little. The answer to that is simple: I don't like to look weak- or stupid- in front of him, plus he isn't the Potions teacher anymore..

Hermione's cough brings me back to the present, "Did you hear what Harry asked?"

I can feel my face redden as I stare at her, I quickly glance at Harry- who shrugs- and back again, "Did he say anything?"

She looks at Harry suspiciously then at me, but gives up on whatever she was after, "We are going to go down to Hagrid's today. Do you want to come or do you have tutoring sessions to fill?"

"Actually, I think I do," I say, remembering the note.

"Maybe it's time you finally read that note then, hmm?" she asks, arching her eyebrows.

"Couldn't you just tutor me?"

"Well, yes. But, only if she says it's okay. Okay? Plus, she might have other ideas."

I nod my head and start eating my toast.

"Why don't you just use my book in class?" Harry asks unexpectedly.

Hermione stops eating, and, with her eyes wide and mouth agape, peers around me to stare angrily at his offer.

I chuckle briefly, "Harry, I would never do that. What if Slughorn saw it and took it away or something? Or recognized the handwriting and knew it wasn't mine or yours?"

"We'd get it back."

"No, Harry. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll stick with the tutor."

Ron looks up from his food again, "Since when have you needed a tutor for Potions anyway, Andi? You were always second in that class only to Hermione."

"Yeah, but that's when Snape was teaching the class. Slughorn never shuts up. And, Snape never talked."

He chokes momentarily on a laugh, nods, and starts eating again.

Hermione jabs me sharply in the ribs with her elbow and jerks her head toward the teacher table where McGonagall is standing up, looking directly at me.

"You should go talk to her now."

I shake my head, "She looks really peeved."

"Only because you aren't already up there talking to her."

She gives me one of her you-should-be-grateful-for-the-opportunity glares until I hesitantly pull out of my spot between Harry and her and make my way up to where McGonagall is now waiting by the door.

"Miss Irbane, I would have expected a response from you earlier than this."

I nod my head as if pondering the idea, "Well, you see Professor, I haven't actually had the time to catch up on letters recently, so I haven't read anything that you may have sent to me," I smile sheepishly.

She snorts- a ladylike, expected-from-her-type, snort, "Miss Irbane, your tutor will be Blaise Zabini."

What? Who in Merlin's name is that?

"Who?" I ask confused.

"The young man sitting at the Slytherin table right over there with Draco Malfoy."

"That's his name? I can't have a Slytherin as my tutor!"

"And why not, Miss Irbane?"

"Well... It'll ruin my rep!"

She looks at me skeptically and crosses her arms, "Miss Irbane, if you want to pass this class you are going to have to be tutored by Mister Zabini."

"But,I already know how to do the stuff, I just need catch up! Anything but this!" I clasp my hands and shake them in desperation.

She shakes her head in response, "No, you must learn the missed coursework. And, you will do that under the tutoring of Blaise Zabini. That is final," she raises her eyebrow, as if daring me to protest again, then turns back to the other professors, "Go speak to him and find a time the two of you can meet."

My jaw drops, "I have to go over to him?"

"Yes. Go. Now."

Eyes wide, jaw picked up, I shuffle hesitantly over to where he is sitting with Draco. I stop directly behind where he is sitting and wait.

After a moment of waiting, Pansy Parkinson points to me and sneers, "Blaise, I think there is someone waiting for you."

Slowly, very slowly, he turns around to see me. He takes a moment to say absolutely nothing then, "Potions section in the Library, five o'clock tonight. Do not be late."

I feel rage sweep through my body as he tells me what to do, but then glance sideway to Draco and hold it back.

I nod and march back to the Gryffindor table.

"What was that about?" Harry asks when I get back to them.

"Blaise Zabini is my tutor for Potions," I spit angrily.

"He was on the train with Malfoy! You could get information from him!"

I look seriously at Harry, "I am not doing that."

"Harry don't be ridiculous! She needs to study when she is with him!" Hermione agrees.

"I would prefer to just not go," I sit down between her and Harry to continue eating.

As much as I hate to admit it, at five o'clock I head down to the Library for my tutoring session with Zabini. I arrive at exactly five-o-five.

I find him sitting at a table at the end of one of the rows of books in the Potions section and sit down across from him.

"What's first?"

"Punctuality."

"Excuse me?"

"It is five-o-five."

"So?"

"You are wasting my time."

"You are wasting mine!"

"Just- be on time."

"Gah! Whatever!" I slap the table angrily and peer around him to the books in their shelves.

Nothing new to report among the books until I recognize a wisp of platinum blond hair peeking out from behind some of the closest books in the shelf. The hair moves and I spot the icy grey eyes peek through.

What the hell?

Zabini notices my lack of concentration, "What are you looking at?"

Right as he asks, Draco is politely asked to move by a third year and stumbles backwards into the aisle visible from where we are sitting.

"Hey, watch it!" he whispers angrily at the third year.

Zabini turns to see where I am staring and notices Draco. Very good timing, because, as he turned his head away from me, a smile breaks out on my face.

"Malfoy. What are you doing here?" Zabini asks accusingly.

I sit back in my chair and drape my arm over the back of the seat, "Yes, Malfoy, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know," he pauses and rubs the back of his neck, "Just... reading about Potions."

Zabini snorts, "Okay. Whatever."

He obviously doesn't believe anything Draco said, but turns back to me anyway.

Draco smiles mischievously at me before walking off in the opposite direction. I grin quickly, then try to hide it, and turn back to Zabini.

He notices, no doubt, but chooses to ignore it, "How much have you missed?"

"Not much," I shrug.

"That is barely an answer."

I sigh, "Just the last couple weeks. My head has been elsewhere."

"Elsewhere?" he raises his eyebrow. Obviously, he isn't completely blind.

"Whatever. Can you help me or not?"

"I'm not going to help you brew anything. Just go over with you what to do."

"Works for me."

"Good, I'll handle the distractions."

I smile innocently, "What distractions?"

"I meant Malfoy. He shouldn't be here, and I don't know why he was."

"Oh yeah, right, him. Whatever. Let's get started."

He shakes his head almost imperceptibly before opening the Potions book sitting in front of him. We sit there for awhile before he stands up and excuses himself.

I follow suit, but instead of going back to my own common room, I head out to my secluded spot by the lake.

Once I get there, I set down all of my things, take off my shoes, roll up my pants, and walk out into the cold water of the lake. I pick up a few stones to skip. A couple minutes later, I hear another pair of footsteps wading through the water out to where I am standing.

"I figured you were still in the library."

"Oh, you did, did you?" Draco asks doubtingly.

I turn around to face him, "Yeah. I did. And, I was right. Wasn't I?"

"Yeah," he nods and picks up a few rocks of his own.

I skip a rock, then watch him attempt to do the same. His rock just splashes into the water.

I laugh, "Did you think you could just pick up a rock and know how to do it?"

"One can assume that is how one can learn," he smiles. He holds out his handful of rocks.

I take a look at his rocks, "You won't be able to skip wit any of those, none of them are flat. You need a flat rock."

He rolls his eyes, "Flat shaped rock."

He attempts to skip another one of his round rocks, once again it just splashes once.

"Okay, master of rock skipping, what do I do?"

"Well, first you need a flat rock," I hand him one of my rocks.

He takes my rock, "Next."

"Stand with your non-dominant side to the direction you are throwing. Then, flick your wrist. And, voi la."

He tries it as I told him to and still fails miserably. Turning to me, he rolls his eyes, "If I didn't know any better I would say you are purposely being a horrible teacher."

"What can I say?" I ask grinning and shrug my shoulders.

He looks at me seriously for a moment before an evil grin crosses his face.

He only gives me a second to recognize the look before splashing toward me and knocking me down into the water. His arms wrapped around my waist, as I sink below the water, I pull him down with me and we both end up completely submerged.

I come up splashing and gasping for air. He follows a moment later.

"What the hell was that for!" I yell before flicking some water in his face.

"That hardly makes a difference now," he laughs.

I roll my eyes, get up and walk over to a fallen branch sprouting out above the water. Big enough to sit on, I sit at the top of the arch, which is high enough that my legs are hanging in air.

Draco picks himself up out of the water and makes his way over to the same branch. His feet can touch the water.

"You know," I say after awhile of swinging my legs back and forth while sitting next to Draco on the log, "When I was little, before Austin was born, my mum and I would go down to this lake that was a while away from where we live. She taught me how to skip stones and then we would play around in the water until it got dark and she would make us walk home in the moonlight dripping wet."

He sits there awkwardly for a moment, "You know, I would say something about my family in response. But, I don't have many warm and fuzzy memories of those people."

"Make up a story then."

He sits and thinks for a minute, "So, there's this boy- he has very blond hair and grey eyes- and there's this girl- she has raven black hair and green eyes with some flecks of blue. These kids are friends, but no one but them knows. And, they do things together. Like this one time, the boy was unhappy and drank too many butterbeers on Christmas. The girl came and found him in the pub and took him back to his room, when he asked her to stay she left. Another time the girl- who never told the boy why, by the way- was very drunk and the boy took care of her, she kissed him but it was sloppy and smelled of firewhiskey. Another time, the girl was standing out in the hallway, instead of in the party, and the boy found her, he kissed her when midnight came around. Then she went back to her party and undoubtedly kissed many other, much more drunk, boys. And, on the night of this girls birthday, they did some things. Then she was kidnapped and the boy sent her uncle to save her. Then the girl said some things to a friend when the friend saw the two secret-friendshippers together in the same pub as everything else. The boy was very upset, he threw himself back into his work and refused to talk to the girl. But, then she told him a story from her past and he told her their past. The end," he finishes.

"You left out some things."

"I know. Is that the first thing you are going to say about my wonderful story? It is twice as long as yours, by the way."

"Right, well, I have another one. Here's how it goes: There was this girl and this boy and we've already heard what they look like. They were sitting on this branch above a lake and the girl was telling a story when she suddenly gets the idea to push the boy off the branch into the water for telling her a story she already knew. The end," I finish and push him off the branch into the water.

"P.S. He gets wet," I whisper when Draco gets back to his feet, his hair dripping from the renewed soaking.

"Obviously," he holds out his hand.

"Um, no. I will get off this branch by myself," I rebuke as I attempt to squirm off the branch. My foot slips and I fall into the water below, soaking myself again in the process.

He starts laughing and offers me his hand again, this time I take it and pull him down as I attempt to stand up. I march out of the water over to the stuff I left by the tree trunk. Pulling out my wand, I use the drought spell to dry myself off a bit. By this time, he has walked out of the water after me and is now soaking my bag from the water running off of his body and dripping down. I roll my eyes at him and dry him off as well.