Hi! So, we've hit chapter 25...I should probably throw an author's note in this story at some point, right? And 25 is a sublime number. So, hi! My name is Becca, and if you've made it this far, THANK YOU! I really appreciate all of you readers, especially those of you who have favorited/subscribed/reviewed this story. It honestly means the world to me. An important notice about this story: it is going to have a sequel. I decided this a while back, but it's only far to let y'all know, right? This story ends the day after Hogwarts Graduation. The sequel picks up about a year and a half later. Another thing, I know EXACTLY where this is going, so no matter how long it gets between updates, I SOLEMNLY SWEAR IT WILL BE FINISHED. You know...eventually. But anyways, please enjoy Chapter 25! I've rambled on long enough.

Xoxo, Becca

Dorothy woke up the next morning, still clutching the diary to her chest. Her heart stopped as she ripped it open to the page she'd written on the night before, praying she'd somehow slept through the beeping caused by a response.

The page was blank.

Dorothy choked on a sob as she slammed the book shut and threw it as hard as she could at the other side of the room. It slid beneath Fiona's bed and out of sight.

Taking a deep breath, Dorothy rose to her feet. She was not one of those weepy birds that can't function after a boy breaks their heart. It was time she stopped acting like one. She kept telling herself how she didn't need Freddie Weasley to be happy. It was about damn time she proved it.

Making her way over to the loo, Dorothy rubbed at her cheeks, erasing any signs of tears. She'd cried enough over Freddie. It was all she'd done for a month. She was done crying.

Dorothy Longbottom was done.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror. She needed a shower desperately. She heard a groan from back in the dormitory and assumed it was Hope beginning to return to the land of the living. As she stripped down to hop in the shower, Dorothy remembered that after a night with the heaviness of drinking Hope had done last night, she was going to be out of commission until around three in the afternoon.

Dorothy stepped into the shower and turned the water on to the highest heat possible. As the streams of water pounded into her back, she bowed her head and took a deep breath, allowing the scalding water to wash her of everything that was happening: her fight with Fred, her inability to open up to James, her jealousy of him and Hope.

Dorothy stood in the shower until the water began to cool on its own, then quickly scrubbed her hair and body. Stepping out, she wrapped herself in a towel and walked back into the main room of the dormitory. She peered over at Hope, who was laying with a pillow over her face, as if trying to suffocate herself. Next to her was Fiona's bed, which looked as though it had yet to be slept in. She furrowed her brow as she approached her armoire and dressed quickly. She hung her towel over a post on her four poster and sat on the trunk at the end of her bed, quickly plaiting her still wet hair.

The round door to the dormitory opened quietly, and Fiona stepped in the room, still wearing her party clothes from last night.

Dorothy smirked. "Someone's home late."

Fiona jumped, releasing a curse beneath her breath. "Merlin, Longbottom!"

"Where were you last night?" Dorothy asked suggestively, waggling her eyebrows.

Fiona blushed. "Shut up." She strode across the room and threw herself into her bunk with a loud sigh. "My bed is so much more comfortable than James's."

Dorothy raised an eyebrow. "James's? Is there something going on I should know about?"

Fiona laughed as she rolled over, then untied her boots with a wave of her wand and kicked them onto the floor. "Your boyfriend did see my bare tit, the prat," she remarked casually. "Louis picked the bed. Said James wouldn't mind, and he didn't even come up until almost five. I almost cursed his bollocks off for peeking at me."

Dorothy laughed and shook her head. "It sounds like a fair trade for shagging in his bed."

Fiona laughed loudly. "That's what Lou said too."

"He leave already?"

"Yeah," Fiona said sadly. "He had to be in at half past."

Hope let out a string of colorful curses. Fiona turned to her best friend and rolled her eyes. "She get a potion yet?"

Dorothy shook her head. "Should I get her one?"

"No," Fiona said. "If she's stupid enough to get a hangover, she can drag her sorry arse out of bed and get her own draught."

Dorothy looked at Fiona curiously, who normally retrieved things for Hope without question. "Payback?" she asked.

Fiona shrugged. "Not even. It's Hope's own stupid rule."

Hope called Fiona something unintelligible, but Fiona laughed anyway. "You've brought this upon yourself!"

Hours later, Hope was finally out of bed and trudging to the Great Hall. The draught was working its way through her system and her head had finally cleared, but she still felt slow and her limbs heavy. She hadn't even bothered to change into real clothes, simply pulled on a pair of scarlet boxer shorts that had a dragon breathing fire across her arse beneath the blue jumper she didn't recognize, but decided she was definitely keeping.

She squeezed her toes in her Hippogriff slippers as she finally turned into the hall, smiling as the mingled scents of great food assaulted her nose. Rather than heading straight to the Hufflepuff table to search for her friends, Hope turned instead to Gryffindor and made her way towards a cluster of ginger heads.

"Morning," Hope said, catching Rose's attention.

"It's three in the afternoon," she replied, a smirk dancing on her lips.

Hope shrugged. "Have you seen Albus, per chance?"

"You called?"

Hope turned quickly in surprise to see Albus standing beside her, flanked by some other sixth year Gryffindors she didn't know the names of. "Great timing, Potter," she said.

"You always want me when you're dressed for bed...should I be taking a hint here, Jacobs?"

Hope laughed. "Maybe you should, eh?" Albus waggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed again. "I just wanted to thank you for last night."

"If I had a Sickle—"

"Will you hush, I'm trying to be nice here," Hope said, trying not to laugh. "Hanging with you is the last thing I remember, so I assume you got me home safe, and I appreciate it."

"Oh," Albus said, suddenly serious. "Yeah, of course. We definitely weren't going to send you by yourself—"

"Which is wonderfully sweet," Hope said, waving at James over his shoulder, who was staring over at her curiously from where he sat with Lily, a textbook between them.

"It really wasn't a problem, I didn't—"

"It was though, I'm a terror once I've blacked out. So, thanks," Hope said, stepping towards him. "By the way, I'm keeping your jumper."

"It's not—" Hope interrupted him by placing a chaste kiss on his lips. A cup broke in the background.

"You're the sweetest, Al."

"A lap dance yesterday, a kiss today? I should hang around you more often, Jacobs."

Behind them, James was on his feet. As he was about to say something to rip his brother off of that high horse he was sitting on, there was a gentle tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw Dorothy standing there, her teeth gnawing on her lower lip. "Can we talk?"

Although torn between disemboweling his brother that was still flirting with Hope Jacobs and following his girlfriend, he nodded.

Once outside the Great Hall, Dorothy turned to look at James. The tension from their fight last night hung heavily between them as James waited for her to start talking. She'd had this whole speech prepared about how she would try and be a better girlfriend, how he deserved someone better than her, everything she knew he wanted to hear. But what came out was, "Whittle cleared me for flying this morning."

James nodded. "That's, uh, that's good."

"Yeah, I'm pretty excited. I haven't told anyone yet, I wanted you to be the first to know." She stared at him, praying he would pick up on what she was trying to say. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

James gave her a funny look and replied, "Okay."

They stood in awkward silence for a moment. Dorothy then blurted out, "Valentine's is Saturday."

James nodded. "I know."

"Are we, uh, are we doing anything?" Are we okay? Do you still love me?

James sighed, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. "Well, yeah. I thought so. It's a Hogsmeade weekend, I figured we'd do something nice."

Dorothy stepped forward and laid her lips gently on his. Neither one was smiling when she pulled back, and she bit down hard on her lip again. "Okay."

"Okay."

Freddie sat in an empty Potions classroom, throwing ingredients into a cauldron before him, taking notes in a book beside him. "Hey, nerd."

Freddie jumped and turned to see Fiona standing in the doorway. "What do you want, Little?"

"Does Patil know you're stealing her supplies?" she asked as she wandered into the room and slid onto the stool beside him.

"I'm not stealing her supplies," Freddie said, stirring the potion three times clockwise and once counterclockwise. "Patil and I have a deal."

"Which is?" Fiona pestered.

Freddie shot her a look of annoyance over his cauldron. "Ever since she took on training Professor McCain, she has a lot less time to make and supply potions needed around the castle. So, in exchange for access in her private stores for experimentation, I'm responsible for helping her keep up with demands."

"Such as?"

"Well, right now, I'm working on new fertilizer for Hagrid."

Fiona leaned forward onto the desk and placed her chin on her fist as she let out a coo of interest. "How exciting. Fertilizer."

Freddie couldn't help but chuckle. "It's a home recipe, Little. It gives me an opportunity to see how different ingredients interact under different circumstances."

"Wow, you are the biggest nerd I've ever met."

Freddie laughed. "What are you doing down here, anyway?"

"Are we not friends?"

"Uh, I guess we are," Freddie said as he sprinkled a white power into the cauldron and it released a red poof of smoke. "But aren't you best friends with Dor?"

"That doesn't mean I stop being friends with you, Weasley."

"Doesn't it?"

"Jeez, for a Gryffindor, you really don't understand loyalty, huh?" Freddie stared at her. "Anyway, you've been moping around more than usual today, so I figured you could use a friend."

"You have a way with words, Little."

"It's a gift. Now teach me more potions crap, I want it to poof again."

As the days passed, James felt his heart weighing heavier and heavier in his chest. He and Dorothy talked even less now than they did before, and now Al and Hope had this new weird flirty friendship...thing that ended up with her on his lap way more often than James cared to see.

He was so...confused.

He'd really give anything to talk to Fred right now, but any time the two boys were in the same room together, Freddie's face got all scrunched up and he would storm out. Probably to go find Fiona or something, who he'd been spending an unusual amount of time with.

James thought of talking to Louis, but the two of them had never really been that close with things like this. "James!"

James looked up to see Hope coming towards where he was sitting and smiled. "Hey, Jacobs."

"What's going on? Did you get lost in here?" she asked, gesturing to the library he'd asked her to meet him in.

James laughed and shook his head. "Very funny, Hope."

She smirked at him as she sat down in a chair next to him. "So what's up, Potter? You have my full attention."

"You know how you said a while back that I was a good teacher?"

Hope looked at him curiously, wondering where this was going. "Yeah, so?"

"Well, I've been tutoring Lily a lot more lately, and Professor Drexel asked her what she was doing differently studying-wise, so she told him about it. And he called me into his office this morning, and said that he was looking for a replacement in the next few years."

"Drexel is a dinosaur," Hope commented.

"Hope," James said seriously. "He offered me an internship to work beneath him as his assistant for three years. After that, all my family members will have graduated and he'll retire and the job is mine. Apparently McGonagall approved it and everything."

Hope's eyes grew large. "What'd you say?"

"I accepted it."

Hope jumped from her chair and on top of him with a screech. "That's amazing! I'm so happy for you!"

James wrapped his arms tightly around Hope as his heart quickened beneath her. "Thank you."

"I knew you didn't want to be an Auror," she teased.

"I never even submitted an application," James admitted.

Hope pulled out of the embrace, but remained sitting on his knee. "Merlin, this is amazing, James. The opportunity of a lifetime. Are they giving you a stipend?"

"Yeah, Drexel said he and McGonagall needed to sit down and work out the details, but they wanted to know if I was interested before they made any real plans."

"This is so cool. What'd Dora say when you told her?"

James paled slightly. "I haven't."

"You haven't?"

"I haven't told anyone...well, except you."

Hope smiled at him, then hugged him tightly again. "Stop worrying. You're going to be a great professor." She hopped to her feet, and said, "I've got to run though, Quidditch. Write your dad a letter, yeah? He'll be happy for you!"

James nodded and watched her run from the library. He sunk back into the seat he was in and took a deep breath. He needed to write a letter, but it wasn't to his dad. It was to the person he feared may have been right all along.

The Hufflepuff Quidditch team was a chorus of groans as the seven members held their planks in the center of the pitch. "Please say it's been two minutes," Jesse begged, lifting his head with a grimace as his arms shook violently.

"Twenty more seconds, come on guys, we're almost there!" Hope called through her own gritted teeth.

"Think of the abs, Jesse!" Marcus shouted at him.

"The abs aren't worth the pain!" Jesse shot back.

"Think of the look on James Potter's face!" Greg suggested.

"Ooh, that's worth it," Jesse said with a chuckle.

"Seven, six, five," Hope counted out loud. "Four, three, two, one!"

All seven players hit the ground, groaning in relief. "Oh, it hurts," Kyle moaned.

"Hope, I hate this circuit," Fiona snapped, curling into the dirt.

"You'll thank me later," Hope said, catching her breath. "Come on, lemon squeezers!"

"I've been cleared for flying for three days, you'd think I'd have gotten to touch a broom," Dorothy mumbled as she sat next to Fiona and the two of them began the exercise.

"Good things come to those who wait," she said. "But hey, I got it back from Freddie yesterday, so that's something."

Dorothy didn't reply for a moment. "How, uh, how is he?"

Fiona looked over at her friend, then said, "He's alright."

Dorothy nodded. "That's good." Quickly changing the subject, she asked, "Is Lou meeting you for Valentine's?"

Fiona smiled. "Yes, he is. James taking you out?"

"Uh, yeah."

"You guys still having issues?"

Dorothy laughed a little. "Yeah."

Later that night, Dorothy was alone in the dormitory when an owl pecked loudly against the window. Dragging her sore body from her bed, she yanked open the window to reveal a dishevelled looking Hector. "What are you doing here?" Dorothy asked the owl. She hurried over to Fiona's dresser and pulled out one of Hibou's treats to give to Hector, which he took gratefully.

Dorothy pulled the letter from his leg, seeing the name "Teddy" sprawled across it in James's handwriting. "I'm not Teddy!" she said, glaring at the bird. "Give me that treat back!"

With an indignant hoot, he flew back out the window and out of sight. Dorothy sighed and shut the window against the chilly February breeze. She wandered back to her four poster and sat, holding the letter in her hand, deciding whether or not to open it. She knew if James was writing Ted that it was probably something important. It was probably none of her business. But James was her boyfriend. He would tell her the contents of the letter eventually anyway, right? So really she wasn't harming anyone by reading it…

She ripped the letter open and hastily began to read.

Ted-

Look, I really need someone to talk to. Fred won't look at me, and Merlin forbid I talk to Al. You know how he gets when he's right. And I guess this is where I should really be starting this letter: You were right. Happy?

Look, mate...I don't know what to do. Dorothy is...well...Dorothy. She's sweet and kind and beautiful and I love her. Well, I think I love her.

Because of Dorothy's best friend, Hope. Circe, Ted, I can't even begin to tell you how amazing this bird is. She's all I can think about all the time. She drives me absolutely mad, and we can talk about anything. She's the first person I want to go to with everything. She makes me happier than I ever remember being.

But there's Dorothy. I don't know what to do with Dorothy. She's one of my oldest mates, and I'm supposed to love her and I want to love her. She and I have been through so much to be together.

But Hope...mate, you've got to meet this girl. She makes all that destiny crud Al's always spewing make sense.

Please tell me what to do. I promise I'll listen this time.

James

Swallowing thickly, Dorothy set the letter down beside her on her bed. That qualified as something important, didn't it.

LOOK TWO WHOLE AUTHOR'S NOTES! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please leave me a review, I love to hear what y'all think!