Ch.25

Stephanie had to practically run after Draco to keep up with his long strides. A tiny voice in her head was telling her that perhaps she should let Draco cool off a bit but another was telling her that that might be a bad idea, that the extra time would only give him longer to brood and get himself worked up.

"Draco! Stop!", Stephanie shouted, a hint of desperation tingeing her voice.

Draco stopped and turned abruptly, catching Stephanie off guard. She skittered into him and bounced off landing on the stone floor. 'He's like a brick wall. A very attractive brick wall, but ya know'

"What?", Draco questioned darkly, his eyes a cold emotionless surface.

For the first time since she had met Draco, she finally saw the cold side of him that made the first years skitter away from him. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she understood that this was a very delicate situation. She stood up clumsily, almost falling over and noticed that when she almost did Draco didn't move to catch her like he normally would have.

"Draco," she reached for his hand but he jerked away, "why are you so upset?"

"Why am I upset? Oh I wonder. 'Oh what a doll! oh look, he's smiling at me, let me grin at him like a bloody idiot and wave like an adoring fan girl!' Bah! Makes me sick!", Draco sniped.

"I was making him feel welcome!" Stephanie argued.

"Why don't you just open your legs?" Draco said bitterly.

Stephanie hauled her hand back and the smack resounded in the empty hallway as her hand made contact with the left side of his face. Tears pricked angrily at her eyes.

"How dare you. How fucking dare you!" Stephanie turned on her heal and left Draco standing unmoving, his head still cocked to the side from the momentum of the hit.

Stephanie was so upset that she literally couldn't see straight. It was like she was in a daze as she made her way to the Slytherin commons. Her magic aura lay thickly about her, so strong that it almost felt like it was stifling her. At least since it was a Sunday she didn't have to contend with classes today.

When she arrived at the commons she took a seat on one of the sofas and curled up into herself to try and calm down. A few moments later Blaise came into the room and he went over to Stephanie's side.

"Hey Stephie", Blaise said in a voice softer than his normally boisterous tone and crouched down next to where stephanie lay on the sofa. He gently pushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

"H-hey."

"Come here.", Blaise said as he lifted her and lay down behind her on the sofa, cradling her in his arms, "Everything's going to work itself out, just settle down."

Around an hour or two later Draco made his way into the commons. Blaise' head rested on top of Stephanie's as the two slept peacefully on the green velvet sofa. As Draco stood and watched Stephanie sleep he felt his heart clench. He had pretty much regretted what he said to her as soon as the words left his mouth. He thought about saying something but decided that they needed some space.

The following day Blaise and Stephanie went out on the grounds to enjoy the random day of warm weather in the fall.

They walked, arms linked, at a smooth pace. The breeze gently fluffed their hair as they made their way to a tree. They sat in the sun speckled shade, leaning against the large trunk, and just sat beside each other soaking in the sounds of nature and laughter from their classmates.

"Remember...when things used to be so simple? When the most we had to worry about was staying out after it got dark?" Blaise said after a moment.

"Yeah, it was nice. Now we have another dark war upon us and our emotions run rampant."

"I bet it's the hormones."

Stephanie looked at him and blinked a couple times before laughing, Blaise joining in.

She looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time in a long time.

His brown hair moved in the breeze, hinted with shades of gold. She remembered when it was cut short and darker.

His brown eyes shining amber in the sunlight, a beautiful color that she hadn't noticed before.

The round face that he had as a child was now sharper and more pronounced and his golden skin contrasted with his white-toothed smile.

He had grown up and she didn't even realize it.

"Stephanie?"

She flushed as she realized that she had been staring at him and thinking about him in ways that did not read as 'friend'.

"Are you okay?", he asked, the smile dropped from his face as it filled with concern.

"I-I'm fine! I gotta go! Sorry!", she blurted out before she quickly stood up, stumbled a bit, and then ran back to the castle.

Blaise reached out to her about to say as she was leaving, but then withdrew with a grimace. He sighed and leaned back against the tree, resting his head against the strong trunk. He laid his left hand on his upraised leg, his eyes half closed glittering slits. He let out another sigh and gently bumped his head against the trunk before closing his eyes to think better.

Stephanie was still running to the castle when she heard someone say something about 'a fight going down in the pitch'. Curiosity got the best of Stephanie and she ran past the castle to the field. She made her way through the crowd and gaped at the scene in front of her.

Draco and Vincent rolled around on the ground throwing punches at each other. Vincent finally managed to grab Draco's wrists and pin him down. Vincent looked up and spotted Stephanie.

"Don't just stand there!"

"Draco! What the hell are you doing?! You jealous twit!"

At those words all the fight went out of him and he sent Vincent a glare, signaling that he wouldn't do anything more.

"Promise me you won't do anything like this again.", Stephanie said, an angry glint in her eyes.

"Fine. As long as he doesn't try anything funny with you."

Vincent gaped at the remark and then started laughing, the sound making the ladies swoon.

Draco glared at him.

"What the bloody hell is so funny?"

When Vincent's laughter finally died down he said with the laughter still in his eyes "I would be more apt to try something funny with you."

"...wut?"

Ch.X

Due to high levels of stress in the students and teachers, Dumbledore decided to have the teachers and students write down how their lives have been of late and have a few counselors analyze them.

When the papers arrived the counselors began to make their ways through the large stacks and every so often would come across a rather interesting entry.

Sanya Silvant Slytherine-Romaine

Honestly, when I heard of this I could not help but think 'What? You want me to write a bloody encyclopedia?' because lately I feel…a bit fed up.

It's not that anything…particularly horrible is going on in my life at the moment, just many MANY annoying things. Besides, you know your life is heading in a strange direction when you can have a conversation like this:

"Ya know aunt Sanya, I think you and I are a lot alike when it comes to relationships."

"What? You have a werewolf lusting after you too?"

"Uhhhh, no."

I suppose I'm glad that my niece doesn't have a werewolf trying to…well, I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to do, but point being, my niece is perfectly normal.

Not only is there the werewolf issue, but I think I'm falling for an ass-hat. Really, all we do is bicker it seems. Does this make me a masochist? But he's incredibly intelligent and, despite my personality, I find myself liking the dark kind of look. But again, I somewhat feel like my logic has been tossed out the window. On another note, I hardly know anything about him and yet he knows my deepest darkest secret….well, my second deepest secret.

I feel like I keep babbling but it's just like I'm overflowing with random junk.

Despite my being here for a few months already, I have yet to organize all my potions and ingredients.

Also, oh joyous day, I seem to have lost Monty. This is unfortunate. I hope he's still in my room but I don't believe he is because I've called out for him but I did not receive an answer. I hope he doesn't get hurt by a student. Don't be alarmed, Monty isn't a person or anything, he's just my pet python.

The counselor looked up from the scroll and blinked a few times. Then he looked down around his feet and on the floor for an aforementioned pet escapee and relaxed upon seeing it was clear of any reptiles. He then proceeded to pick up the next scroll.

Severus Tobias Snape

I do not enjoy complaining to others about my life. That being said, there is a woman who is absolutely driving me batty. I think, and therein lies the problem. In a strange way I enjoy the bickering matches we have. I suppose that's my sadistic side showing through. She is rather intelligent however. Though I tend to be skeptical when it comes to the character of people, I find myself envious of her. But I can't feel that there is a side of her that I am missing.

The counselor, once again, looked up and blinked a few times, then snickered to his self.

Stephanie Sorza Slytherine-Romaine

I have never once thought that I had a boring life. From the crazy antics of my aunt, to my crazy best friend, to my crazy fortune, but then I came to this school. Turns out that I didn't know what crazy was. But I guess it's a good kind of crazy.

I have a wonderful boyfriend. Most of the time. He's a bit possessive, but then again, so am I. That's about the only normal thing that I have going on in my life.

I went through a rather crazy scene with a nasty little…witch, and went through a rough patch.

My best friend has been acting a little off lately. Things that other people wouldn't notice, but things that I do. I've known him since we were babies, so go figure. It bothers me but he's nothing if not tough, so I'm sure that whatever it is he'll make it through.

Blaise Zambini-

The counselor read the one solitary line-

I'm a freak.