Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own my unstable OCs.

So, this chapter is in Phoenix's point of view, and it's kind of short but it's because I wasn't actually going to do one, but Lily's been giving me trouble lately so I thought Phoenix would fill in for her while I try to get Lily under control.

And thank you all for the reviews, they are amazing and a literally squeal happily when I see that I have one. Enjoy!

XxXxX

Phoenix dragged Rosalie along behind her, through several inches of snow that had been falling nonstop over the past four days. Rosalie had wanted to stay up in the castle for the spare period that they had that morning, but Phoenix had known exactly who had which class at the same time. Darren had Care of Magical Creatures down at Hagrid's hut, where Professor Scarta was always known to teach. Phoenix could already see the small class of sixth years from where she and Rosalie were now standing behind the greenhouses. Lily's flaming red hair stood out amongst the snowy grounds, standing between the tall forms of Hunter and Jacob, who made her seem twice as small.

Professor Scarta stood in front of the class, a thick leather glove extending all the way up past his elbow and a bright, beautiful bird on his forearm. Phoenix was easily able to recognize it as her namesake with its bright red and gold plumage and large body. Phoenix never understood why her parents named her after a bird, of all things.

"Come on, Feens," Rosalie sighed. "Why the hell are we here? How is this going to help you at all?"

Phoenix looked over her shoulder at Rosalie, with her long blonde hair tied back from her face and her silver eyes surrounded in dark liner, and made a shushing noise. "Be quiet! I'm collecting information. You want me to win this bet, don't you?"

"Obviously," Rosalie said. "Which you only have a little over a month left to accomplish. If you fail me, I will take you off my list of friends. Louis as well. If I win though, Louis and you are going to be at the very top."

"Why will Louis be?"

"Because there are just some things that you can't go through without calling someone one of your best friends. Like running naked through a school with pink hair, for example."

"Yeah, okay," Phoenix said, trying to keep herself from snorting as she looked back at the class by Hagrid's. Darren was standing beside Jacob, the back of him unmistakable because of his head of extremely curly black hair. Phoenix didn't know what it was about his hair, for his curls were tight and unruly, but she loved how it looked. His hair was unique but also completely adorable.

Phoenix blinked quickly. Since when did she think of someone as adorable? Yes, she'd call her friends it affectionately, or call a piece of clothing it, but when it came to her conquests they always had a classification. There were the ones that were under the Bloody Gorgeous category, then there were the Sexy and the Maybe Longer Than Two Weeks ones, but they were extremely rare. Never had she ever classified anyone under the Adorable category. She didn't even know that she had an Adorable category. She didn't even know how high on the rating the Adorables were. She had a feeling that they outranked all the other ones, and that worried her.

"So, what's your plan of attack?" Rosalie suddenly asked.

Phoenix scrunched up her nose, an annoying habit that she had since she was little and couldn't stop doing, no matter what. Her mother called it her thinking face.

"Well, I'm basically considered his friend," Phoenix explained. "Maybe if I abstain – Merlin help me – from any relationships, then that will convince him that I've changed and he'll give me a shot. I mean, he has to know by now that I like him, right? I've made it pretty obvious. I just have to have…" Phoenix cringed. "I just have to have some patience."

The sigh that Rosalie let out sounded both annoyed and defeated.

"Rosie?" Phoenix asked, turning to look at her friend.

Rosalie was now leaning against the greenhouse, her hand rubbing her forehead. Her eyes were scrunched shut, her mouth parted a little, foggy breath escaping.

"You're his friend?" Rosalie asked.

Phoenix nodded. "Why? What's wrong with being his friend?"

Rosalie shook her head, her hand dropping from her forehead to twist the fringes of her Gryffindor scarf around her fingers. "Being a guy's friend isn't always the greatest thing if you're hoping that he might date you later on. Believe me. Boys can be so blind sometimes, especially when they consider a girl to be their friend. Normally, that's how they stay – just their friend. It's frustrating. It's so annoying because no matter what you do, they still don't see it." Rosalie groaned loudly. "Even when I turn my Veela powers on full blast, he still just sees me as Rosalie! No, all I'll ever be to him is the only girl who ever takes on his challenges, but he doesn't realize that I just do that so he'll notice me!"

Phoenix felt her eyes grow wide. When Rosalie looked up at Phoenix and caught her eyes, her cheeks turned bright red. If Rosalie's rant hadn't hinted to Phoenix that something was wrong, then the blush definitely would have.

"Rosie? What's going on, Rosie? Who are you talking about?"

Rosalie shook her head again. "I'm being silly," she said quickly. "I'm just worried about you. Darren doesn't seem like he's going to agree to go out with you anytime soon."

Phoenix moved towards Rosalie, glancing over her shoulder to see that the Care of Magical Creatures class was now ending, all the students heading towards the school. She looked back at Rosalie, knowing that she could get information on Darren anytime, but Rosalie was sure to pretend like this never happened later on. She placed her hands on Rosalie's cheeks, making the blonde look at her.

"Don't try to pass this off," Phoenix said gently. "Now tell me, who is this about?"

Rosalie's silver eyes shifted everywhere. Up and down, from side to side, until they finally came to rest of Phoenix's and she reluctantly admitted, "Hunter…"

Phoenix tried to hide her shock, but she knew some of it managed to show, for Rosalie frowned. "Hunter," Phoenix breathed out, as if the name was suddenly foreign to her, a new taste in her mouth. "Blimey Rosie. How long has this been going on for?"

Rosalie's hands lifted and pulled Phoenix's hands away from her face. She held Phoenix's wrists lightly, as if worried that she might break her. "Since fourth year," she admitted.

"Fourth year was when you dated Jacob…" Phoenix's sentence trailed off, but Rosalie nodded, confirming what Phoenix hadn't been able to say. Fourth year was when she had dated Jacob, but yet she had liked Hunter then too. Phoenix was easily able to piece everything together. Rosalie had dated Jacob to see if she could make Hunter jealous, but after three weeks of nothing…Phoenix had always wondered why Rosalie and Jacob had seemed so friendly just an hour after their breakup. Did Jacob know that Rosalie liked Hunter?

Rosalie flung herself at Phoenix and buried her head against her shoulder. Phoenix numbly held Rosalie, feeling her hot tears hitting her neck. She was surprised – shocked really – that Rosalie had hidden this for so long, from any of them. Then she wondered if Lily knew. But no, seeing the way that Rosalie was acting now, Phoenix could tell that no one had known about Rosalie's secret.

XxXxX

Phoenix leaned against the back of the greenhouse long after Rosalie had returned to the school. The snow had begun to seep through her shoes, soaking her toes with cold water until they were numb. Phoenix only sighed and dropped her head back against the greenhouse.

She couldn't believe that she had been blind to see how much Rosalie was hurting. She obviously really liked Hunter, which was probably the only reason that they had ever done that stupid thing in November when they had gone into the freezing cold lake. She couldn't help but think about all the crazy things Rosalie had done over the past two years, analyze them and notice how each thing had included Hunter in some way, whether he was giving her the challenge or participating in a challenge himself from another person, and Rosalie eagerly volunteering to go with him.

How could she and Lily both have possibly missed it?

"Uhhh…what are you doing?"

Phoenix jumped and let out a surprised shriek.

Darren stared at her from around the side of the greenhouse, now an amused look plastered on his face. He came around and leaned against the greenhouse beside her, looking around as if it was a new surrounding.

"Why are you just standing here alone?" he asked.

Phoenix kicked some snow off of her shoe. "I'm just…thinking, really."

"You had a really concentrated look on your face before I scared you," he said with a smile. "Your nose was wrinkled and everything. Whatever you were thinking about must have been seriously important if you just tuned out the rest of the world."

"Do you think I'm selfish?" she asked him.

Darren's mouth opened, then closed again. Finally, he said, "To be honest, I haven't really known you long enough to determine if you are or not. From what I've seen though, you don't seem selfish."

"Then how do I not notice that one of my best friends is in love with my other friend?"

Darren's face registered shock.

Welcome to my world, she thought dryly.

"Jacob and Lily?" he asked, his voice low.

She started. "What? No!" Then she found herself laughing. Darren had somehow, with those three words had made her feel so much better, for if Phoenix had noticed anything over the past few years, it was Lily and Jacob. Darren watched her silently, his arms crossed over his chest. But Phoenix was relieved. She had at least been able to notice what had been going on with one of her best friends, but Rosalie had always been better at hiding things then Lily had been. And Lily had never noticed that Rosalie liked Hunter either, which didn't make Phoenix such an awful witch after all. but then again, Lily never noticed a lot of things. Obliviousness had to run in the Weasley/Potter genes.

Darren uncrossed his arms and moved to stand in front of Phoenix. "I've think you might have caught hypothermia or something because you've lost it." He extended his hand to her. "Come on, let's get you inside."

Phoenix stared at his hand, biting her lip. She slowly took his hand, expecting him to pull it away before she got a grip, but he only smiled and began to lead her up towards the school. The smile made her purse her lips. So that was the reason why she called him adorable. That smile of his, the upturn of one corner of his mouth that displayed only his upper teeth which made him look half sheepish and half amused.

"If not Lily and Jacob," Darren began as they continued up to the school, "then who? Hugo and Katrina? That's not really a surprise though, considering they told us they were dating a few weeks ago."

Phoenix shook her head. "No." She hesitated for a moment before she told him, "It's Rosalie and Hunter. Rosie's liked Hunter since our fourth year and I just found out now, which made me feel like a horrible friend because it took me two years."

Darren looked at her and cocked his head. Another adorable look.

"Now that I think about it, I guess I could see the two of them," he said. His hand squeezed hers slightly. "But if you didn't know about it beforehand, then it would be hard to pick up on. Like us right now. People would get the wrong impression with this –" He held up their linked hands "- when we know that it's only friendly. It would be the exact opposite with them. People see them as just being friendly with the way they act, but only they – or just Rosalie, I guess – would know any differently."

Right then, Phoenix wanted to yell out to him that it wasn't just friendly for her, but like she had told Rosalie earlier, she needed to have patience. She was making a lot of headway if he was willingly holding her hand.

Instead, Phoenix nodded and smiled. "You're right. Thanks, Darren. You really made me feel a lot better."

They stopped just inside the Entrance Hall, Phoenix reluctantly dropping his hand.

"You can always talk to me, Phoenix." He smiled again. "I hear I'm a good listener."

She laughed. "I'll see you at dinner. I need to go up to change into some dryer clothes." Just as she was about to turn, a strong sense of Gryffindor bravery came over her and she looked at him again. They were already pushing boundaries today with him holding her hand, so she leant forwards and kissed his cheek quickly. When she pulled back, she tried to find something – some sort of hint or clue as to what he felt about her kiss but there was nothing.

Phoenix turned away again, heading towards the staircase, defeated.

Did she push things too far?

She was surprised for the thousandth time that hour by Darren's hand catching her wrist and turning her back to him. She was hoping for some big declaration of love like she had seen in the movies she watched with Lily and Rosalie on the nights they gathered together in the summer at Lily's house (the only one of their houses with a Muggle television), but Darren only nodded towards the staircase.

"We have about three hours until dinner," he said. "I'm craving some hot chocolate, so how about you go change and I'll meet you down in the kitchens?"

"You know how to get to the kitchen?"

He nodded. "The guys took me last week. But how about it? Do you want to join me?"

Phoenix felt a full blown smile light her face. "Yeah, yes! I'll be back down in a few minutes."

"Hurry then," Darren said, then turned away and began descending the nearest set of stairs that Phoenix knew led down to the Hufflepuff common room and the kitchens.

Phoenix turned towards the staircase again, giddier than before. Maybe she hadn't pushed things too far with that kiss. However, just as she put her foot on the first stair, she saw a head of black hair out of the corner of her eye. Thinking it was Darren coming back, she turned and looked, but the hair was straight and not curly. The same set of ochre eyes stared at her from the dungeons staircase.

Willow Clowes smiled shyly at Phoenix. She glanced around her, saw that they were alone in the Entrance Hall, then gave Phoenix a larger smile, the same one that Darren had given her.

In the next second, Willow disappeared down the staircase, presumably back to the Slytherin common room with her friends.

Phoenix couldn't help but laugh.

I think I just got Willow Clowes's approval, she thought.

XxXxX

Heading up into the sixth year girls dorm, Phoenix knew that there was a stupid, pathetic, dorky smile on her face. She had received enough looks in the common room to tell that she wasn't the only person who noticed her smile. But she couldn't get rid of it. Phoenix Blair did not go all giddy over a love interest. Never. Yet, she really wanted to gather Lily, Rosalie, Alice and Katrina in their dorm, move all their blankets and pillows on the ground, surround themselves with enough junk food to make a fat man jealous and rant for hours about how adorable Darren was with his curly hair and his ochre eyes and his sweet personality.

And then Phoenix wanted to hit herself. Really badly. She did not act like this!

In the dorm, Rosalie was lying on her back on her bad, blonde hair dangling over the end. Phoenix paused when she saw that her Veela friend was flipping through Lily's photo album. She didn't even realize that Lily had brought the book this year.

"Rosalie?" Phoenix asked, moving into the room and sitting down on the bed beside Rosalie. Rosalie turned her head and grinned at Phoenix. The grin made Phoenix feel slightly unsettled. "Rosalie, about earlier..."

"Look how little we all are," Rosalie said absently, turning onto her side to show Phoenix the picture she was pointing to. It was one of the five girls all crowded together on one bed in the exact same dorm they were in now, dressed in pajamas decorated with animals and their hair all in ponytails, pigtails or braids. Phoenix could tell that they were all in second year.

Phoenix knew that Rosalie was trying to avoid talking about what happened earlier, for the Veela was not one to show weakness and hated it when she did. Phoenix decided to humour her friend. "Except you," she said, pointing to the white-blonde head in the moving photo. "You've always been tall and leggy."

"Veela traits," Rosalie shrugged. Rolling onto her stomach, she flipped to near the end of the album, where there were still a few empty pages. Reaching over the end of her bed and into her open trunk, Rosalie drew out the small clutch that Phoenix recognized to be the one she had during the masquerade. "Hey, you need to see these pictures I found," she said, flicking open the clutch. She held them face down against her chest so Phoenix couldn't see the photos. "I was honestly shocked. I didn't even remember taking them either."

Phoenix rolled her eyes. "Show me the pictures, Rosie, and then we need to talk about this problem you have."

"I don't have a problem," Rosalie said casually, "but anyways, shut up and look. But don't tell anyone!"

As soon as Rosalie laid down the pictures in front of Phoenix, every thought was pushed out of her mind; the revelation of Rosalie liking Hunter, Darren inviting Phoenix down to the kitchens for hot chocolate, Willow grinning at her and the fact that Blanca was rubbing insistently against her leg, mewling loudly for attention.

"Holy mother of Merlin," Phoenix breathed out, picking up one of the picture.

Rosalie grinned maniacally. "I know!"

The photos were clearly from the night of the masquerade, for Phoenix remembered that red dress of Lily's and the fiery curls that took her an hour to do. The thing that made Phoenix breathless in shock was that it was a photo of Lily and Jacob sitting together on a bench under a tree - a very romantic setting, Phoenix noted - and attached at the lips in what looked to be a very heated snog. Placing down the photo she held, she looked through the other ones. But they were all the same, except for one where Lily was clutching almost desperately onto the lapels of Jacob's jacket, her head turned to the side and Jacob's face against her neck. Phoenix couldn't even describe the look on Lily's face. It was like she was in pain, but pleasurable pain - if that was even possible.

"How -"

Rosalie shrugged again. "I must have taken them when I was drunk or something because I really don't remember ever seeing this." She gestured wildly at the pictures.

"Has Lily seen them?"

"No, I tried to tell her about them," Rosalie explained, "the day that we went into the lake - like a week after the ball, but we were interrupted. I haven't tried again since because...well, you've seen her lately. Plus, she and Jacob are finally making up! Becoming friends again. I don't want to show her these pictures and end up ruining that. I just needed to show someone."

Phoenix bit her lip. "We should really show Lily these."

"No, Feens," Rosalie said firmly. "Just forget about these, okay. I just needed to tell someone."

"Fine," Phoenix huffed. "But if we're not going to tell Lily about those, then we need to figure out what we're going to do with your problem."

"I don't have a problem!" Rosalie snapped, losing patience.

Phoenix didn't flinch. Rosalie's anger had never scared Phoenix before, despite how everyone else reacted when Rosalie got pissed. They always seemed to think that she would go all Veela on their asses and start throwing fireballs from her hands.

"Rosalie -"

"Go away, Phoenix!" Rosalie commanded angrily. She looked away from Phoenix and slammed shut the photo album, throwing it onto Lily's bed and snatching up the incriminating pictures of Lily. "I don't need your help, or your pity, or anything else you have to offer! I can deal with this myself. I have been for years now!"

Phoenix knew that there was no way to get through to Rosalie once she had lost her head. Instead of arguing with her further, Phoenix threw her hands up in exasperation and stalked over to her trunk. In silence, she changed into a dry pair of clothes and left the room. She wasn't going to bother calming Rosalie down. She just needed time alone, like always when she was angry.

And Anyways, Phoenix had an adorable boy waiting for her down in the kitchens.

XxXxX

Ta da! There you have it - the inner workings of Phoenix Blair's mind.

Anyways, review please!