Allison Davies was becoming very popular at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but not for the usual reasons. But because she was the person who had brought everyone the most gossip in three weeks. Everyone had been talking about her when she went out with Max and upset Olive and James in the process, and now everybody was talking about her relationship with James, which had been going on for a week now.

Nearly all of the damage that had been done for had now been repaired (although Bridget had broken up with Damien, seeing as James didn't appear to be jealous). Max and James' friendship had been salvaged with only a few words, girls had stopped giving her scathing looks whenever they passed her in the corridor and even Poppy had forgiven her for hurting her sister.

So, everyone had escaped from the drama more or less unscathed. Everyone that is except for Olive. You see, James and Allison had worked out well pretty much straight away. But Olive was a bit more complex and difficult to please than James had been. Max had gone to talk to her at the same time as Allie had gone to talk to James, and it hadn't exactly gone as he'd planned.

FLASHBACK

Max walked towards the girls' staircase and then he realized that he wasn't allowed up there. As soon as he was beginning to feel stumped, he saw a little, mousy first year girl who he thought he heard someone say she was called Lucy Irving.

"Hi, Lucy is it?"

Lucy nodded anxiously.

"Can you do me a favour? Can you please get Olive Finnigan in second year? Do you know her?"

"Yeah," Lucy croaked. "She's Heidi sister, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Max said. "Thank you."

Lucy rushed up the stairs quickly. Within one minute, she was back down again.

"She's just coming," she told him.

"Thanks," he said, in slight surprise. He supposed he thought it might be a little bit harder to persuade her to come down. He waited for about ten minutes, and then he finally heard slow, quiet footsteps coming down the staircase and Olive appeared.

"Hi," he said.

"Allie's not here if that's what you were looking for," she said, coldly.

"Olive, if I wanted Allie then I would've just asked Lucy to get her. Actually, Allie and I broke up."

He didn't really know what he'd been expecting, but he hadn't expected silence. Then finally:

"What do you want, Max? I don't know what I'm meant to say."

"Well," Max continued, unabashed. "I mostly just wanted to say, that I'm sorry. For the way I treated you, everything. And I'm sorry that I led you on. But I want you to understand that I really do have feelings for you-"

"Can I just stop you there for a second? Do you just like messing with me as a sport or something? First you flirt endlessly with me and for some reason go out with someone else and then you go out with one of my best friends and the secind you break up you come back to me and tell me you have feelings for you? I mean, what is with you?"

"You want to know the truth? Olive, I was going out with Allie to make you jealous. And she was doing the same thing for James. That's the truth, I swear."

"And you think that's the answer I want to hear? That you used my best friend?"

"No, but-"

"And you think that after I hear that I'll just melt into your arms and it'll all be OK?"

"Olive, I just-"

"Well, the truth is I've never been able to get over you, Max. I still have feelings for you too. But I just can't bring myself to trust you again."

A deafening silence followed these words.

"Is that it?" she prompted. "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

"Errm yeah," Max grunted. His voice had gone very hoarse and scratchy.

"Well, I don't think that you using making my best friendAllie to make me jealous is quite good enough for me." And with that, she walked back up the girls' staircase.

Presently, Allie and James were going for a walk when they passed Hagrid's hut and the Forbidden Forest. As James automatically turned around, still holding Allie's hand, she didn't turn around with him.

"What?" he asked.

"Let's not go back to the castle," she suggested.

"Why not?"

"Do you want to go into the Forbidden Forest?"

"W-why?" James stammered.

"Aw!" Allie said, looking at him somewhat patronizingly. "James, are you scared of the Forbidden Forest?"

He scoffed. "No! Of course not! Why would you think that?"

"OK, well let's go then."

"I would but...we're going to be late for class! So, we'd better go."

"James, it's Saturday."

"I know," he replied, uncertainly.

"So come on then," Allie insisted, leading him into the dark, sinister looking forest. "James, you've been in here before, haven't you?"

"Once," he muttered, looking all around suspiciously. "I never went back after that."

"Why not? What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he shuddered.

Allie laughed. "You are such a baby!"

"I am not! I'm just safety-conscious! Is that so terrible?"

They walked on for about ten more minutes. James jumped at the slightest sound, whether it was the rustling of a leaf or the scurrying of a small animal. Then suddenly, Allison saw something that made her drop James' hand with shock slowly. She gasped.

"What?" said James, startled.

When Allison didn't answer, he prompted her.

"What?"

She still didn't answer, but walked forward instead and knelt down, apparantly in front of something. She was staring straight ahead, but when James followed her gaze, he couldn't see anything.

"Allison, what's going on? You're really freaking me out here."

She still didn't say a word, but nodded forwards.

"What are you looking at?" James asked, worriedly.

"Can you not see them?" she finally asked, her voice sounding very croaky and hoarse.

"See what?"

"Thestrals," she said simply, still staring straight ahead.

"Oh," he said, comprehension dawning at last. He knelt down beside her and rubbed her shoulder sympathetically. A couple of minutes passed, and James just watched Allie watching the Thestrals.

"Who did you see die?" he asked, gently.

"My nan," she answered. "Three years ago. Rose told me about Thestrals, but I didn't know that they were here in the castle."

"Have you never seen them before?"

She shook her head. "But I know what they look like."

"What do they look like?"

"They look like big, winged horses. They have big, white eyes, black, scaly skin and they're eating what looks like carcuses right now."

"I'm sorry about your nan, Allie."

"It's OK."

"You're an idiot!"

"Are you finished now?"

"No, one more time. You are an idiot!"

As it was a Saturday afternoon, Mat and Olive were walking around the grounds and having their usual chat. Thankfully, Olive was finally back to normal. Not too cheerful, not too sullen, just her usual, sparky self. At last. Mat was critizing her for what Olive thought was around the ninety-millionth time for turning Max down.

"Why didn't you forgive him?"

"Because, Mat, look how quickly he moved on from all the girls. Look how willing he was to just use Allie. It would be next! Give me one good reason why I should have forgiven him?"

"Because you like him," she replied, simply. "And he's crazy about you!"

"Well, he hasn't proven it yet. He hasn't proven that I'm no different to him than all the other girls."

"Oh!" Mat said, realization dawning. "So, that's what this is about!? You want him to prove his feelings for you!"

"Well.."

"Oh, Olive, why do you have to be so difficult! He's a boy! His options are pretty limited! I mean, what do you want him to do? Stand on top of the Gryffindor Table and bellow out his feelings for you?"

"If that's what it takes!"

"Oh my God! You are such a woman!"

"And you are?"

Mat sighed. "What I mean is, you are the so the complete stereotypical woman! You're making him jump through hoops!"

"So what? He should jump! He screwed me over! Right now, when I say "Jump", he should be asking "How high?"!"

"Wow, you demand a lot."

"Shut up! Just because you and your boyfriend are all happy!"

"Yeah, I know. Can you believe that Jack and I have survived this whole couple-drama thing? It's such a relief! Just watching you go through it makes me tired!"

"Thanks," Olive said, uncertainly. She groaned again as they walked past a few first years. "It's so unfair! How come none of the other years go through this couple-drama crap? Like the first years! They're drama free!"

"What did you just say?"

Olive and Mat wheeled around, making loud crunching noises on the gravel as they did so. They were facing both of their sisters with two girls that they knew were called Jules Mantle and Ruby Carlton. Apparantly, it was Heidi that had just spoken, as she was looking at her older sister with a sort of pitying expression.

"What?" Olive asked. "It's true! You guys don't have any drama what so ever!"

Jules shook her head at this and Freya laughed.

"That's what you think," said Ruby, enigmatically.