A week had passed since Lee and George had walked in on Ella and Fred, and the two boys were still ensuring that they maximised their chance of ridiculing the pair. The group of Gryffindors were sat at the lunch table, waiting to head off to their next lesson, which happened to be potions.

"Hey Elle," Harry smiled as he took a seat next to his sister, Hermione and Ron in tow.

"Alright then mini-Potter, just refuse to acknowledge the rest of us then," George teased the younger boy boisterously before shoveling another mouthful of his beef sandwich.

"What's with your constantly high mood at the minute," Ron glowered, rolling his eyes in his trade mark sulky fashion, adding under his breath, "toss pot,"

"Now now Ronnekins, I guess I just haven't settled down from the excitement of last week's revelation," George smirked, flicking his gaze to his twin and Ella, who'd both started to turn red, looking away in embarrassment as they simultaniously flashed back to the week before in the boys' dormitory. As embarrassing as it had been, however, it hadn't stopped them from continuing with their little 'agreement' pretty much whenever they could.

"What do you mean?" Katie piped up from the other side of Lee, looking dazed and intruiged at the same time. A look which was mirrored in the faces of the three younger students and Ginny, whilst Angelina, Ella, Fred, George and Lee all exchanged a knowing look, although Lee's and George's held a certain smugness to them that the others didn't.

"Yeah, what's he going on about?" Harry asked his sister sincerely but she just avoided eye contact, suddenly finding her old dark wooden lunch table that she'd sat at almost every day for a year, entrancing.

"Erm," She tried to think quickly, "What was the potions for homework?" She tried to change the subject, but before Angelina could answer, George had already trampled out her attempts to divert the attention.

"oh no you don't Miss Potter," He smirked wickedly, "Now you see little Potter," he said now turning to Harry.

No he wasn't, Ella glared at George desperately. He wasn't, he wasn't, he wasn't.

"Last week, I caught your sister in a rather comprimising position with my twin...in his bed...starkers..."

He was. Git.

Harry's mouth hung open, looking gawpingly at his sister, then Fred, then his sister again. This reaction of disbelief was also portrayed by Hermione, Ron and Katie.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" Katie scoffed.

Ella shrugged sheepishly, feeling bad for unintentionally excluding her friend in their little 'secret', but then again it had never meant to get out. Thanks George.

She looked at her brother, who still hadn't uttered a single word, hesitantly.

"I...I...I'm going to lessons," Harry stuttered, still looking remarkably shocked, as though she'd told him she was going to be the next queen of England or something. As much as she loved him to pieces, he was such a little moody drama queen when he wanted.

"Harry, don't. Just sit down," She spoke softly to him, knowing all too well that she was just pondering to him.

"No, I'll speak to you later," He said in such a stern voice - making him sound like a father who was preparing for the awkward talk with his daughter about not having sex with the devastatingly handsome bad boy that lived two doors down - that the second he was out of earshot, the whole of the remaining group couldn't help but laugh.

He might be a drama queen, but give Harry his due, he often provided entertainment, albeit unintentional.

~~~~~~C~~~~~

Harry still had been avoiding his sister at all costs by their next quidditch practice two days later. Ella was sat in the changing rooms with the twins and Angelina, awaiting the arrival of the rest of their teammates.

"Bets on what lengths Harry will go to avoid me, showing his upmost disaproval at me sleeping with you...again," She rolled her eyes begrudingly. They'd been amusing at first but now her brothers dramatics were becoming wearing. The boy could be more hormonal than a thirteen year old girl the week before she's due on her period.

"I reckon he might just go off flying," George mused.

"Or be wearing disguise," Fred joined in.

"Or maybe a wig, how amazing would that be,"

"Maybe he'll be brewing up polyjuice potion again,"

"Or just try and go all practise under his invisability cloak," The twins looked at each other for a moment before cracking into raucous laughter.

"Will you two pack it in, you're not helping," Angelina glowered at the two red heads authoritatively.

"That was never our intention," They said in unison, causing both girls to smile despite themselves.

Just as they began to recompose themselves, the said boy himself came walking around the corner, accompanied by the two other Weasleys and the newly appointed reserve Aaron, that made up the team. You had to admit, it was odd that over half the time were Weasleys and two of the remaining four were also siblings, leaving Angelina as the only team member with no blood relation on the team.

Just as Ella had expected, Harry had avoided all eye contact with her, taking a seat at the opposite end of the changing rooms.

"Right team," Angelina stood up to get everyone's attention, "our first match is next week and it's against Slytherin, so we need to be on top form, no excuses. This week, I want no late nights, sensible, healthy eating and no distractions," she shot a teasing glance over at her roommate. "We want to kick this season off as we mean to go on. Now that's the motivational 'we can do this' speech, let's get our arses out there in the freezing cold and work them till the point of dropping off."

~~~~~C~~~~~

Angelina had been right, it had been bloody freezing outside when they'd been flying about the pitch, but it had been nothing than a hot mug of coco sat around the Gryffindor common room's fire couldn't solve, as they talked over their tactics for the following week's game.

"Slytherin are going to play dirty but sneaky," Ella vaguely heard Angelina warn as she absent-mindedly ran a lazy finger around the rim on her untouched mug of coco, "they're going to try and aggravate you and wind you up, but in a way that the umpires and teachers won't see, so as your responsible and fiercly competitive captain, I'm begging you, please don't give them the satisfaction of a reaction. All that it will do is distract from any wrong doing that they've done and any good playing that we've done,"

Ella loved Angelina, she really did, afterall she was the first real girl best friend she'd ever had, but she couldn't half bang on and on sometimes.

"Scared someone's spiked your coco?" Fred whispered teasingly in her ear, from where she'd be huddling into his side, like a young penguin, noticing she'd barely touched her hot chocolate.

She quickly looked up, snapping out of her daze that she hadn't realised she'd even fallen into.

"Haha, no it's just a bit hot," She smiled weakly.

"You're a witch, Elle, and a bloody good one at that so come up with a better excuse," He raised an unconvinced eyebrow, hating seeing her like this. No matter what happened between them - or how much Ella insisited that they were just having casual sex - he would always care far too much than what he ought to for her. Before he met her, he'd never felt that deep pain in his chest when he saw another person, other than George, hurting.

"I'm fine, honestly," she placed a reasurring hand over his, but Fred still wasn't convinced.

In addition, Harry's eye had caught this small act of affection, and couldn't help but grimace as his insides heaved.

It wasn't that he disliked Fred, because he didn't in the slightest. He'd actually always really liked the twins and admired their crafty pranks and determination in setting up the joke shop. He was just terrified of seeing his sister get hurt again. It had killed him to see her the way she was over summer, and even now, every so often, you could still catch a glimpse of pain in her eye, at the mention of children or Voldemort, before she covered over with a synthetic smile as she reaplied her lip gloss.

That was something Harry had noticed about his sister, whenever she was nervous or uncomfortable, the lip gloss would be reaplied as though it was her way of putting up a barrier. He'd also noticed that she'd been wearing more makeup generally since the summer, not that she looked bad because of it, she just didn't seem to have that same carefree nature the same any more. Now she felt much more fragile and damaged and less raw and genuine. But then again, she had so much she needed to put to one side and move on, or she wouldn't be able to live her life.

He felt a slight pang in his chest as he thought of what he'd gone through in the summer, after seeing Cedric die right before him like that, and could only imagine how much worse it must have been for his sister to have seen that and lost her child in the same night, because of that same man...if you could even call Voldemort a man.

When it was time for dinner, the team rose from their asumed positions on the floor, around the fire and headed off in the direction of the Great Hall. On the way there, however, Harry felt a large, lanky hand reach out and take a gentle but assertive hold of his arm.

"Harry," He turned to see Fred Weasley letting go of his arm, and fell into step next to him, "I was just wondering whether we could have a quick chat. You see, you not talking to Ella is really getting her down and she hasn't even done anything wrong mate," Fred tried to reason in as friendly a manner as possible, knowing how annoying it was when people told you how to react to your own family, like they knew them better.

"I didn't to ignore her," Harry sighed, feeling ashamed of himself to make Ella feel that way and not even notice it, "I just don't want to see her get hurt again." He looked up in alarm at Fred, realising how accusing his statement had sounded. "I didn't mean that you would intentionally - I know you wouldn't - I just know how much she cares for you, even if she doesn't admit it and I just couldn't bare to watch fall back into that shell state she was in at Grimmauld Place when I arrived and..."

"Harry," Fred stopped the younger boy's rants, bemused at his nervous rambles, "You're right, I have absolutely no intention of hurting your sister in any way and seeing her like that again would also kill me. Never again will I let her get like that, you've got to believe me,"

"You can't say you never will though because no one can predict what's going to happen, as much as Professor Trelawney thinks she might be able to, it's just the way it is. I'm sorry but I don't like this casual agreement. There's no such thing as 'casual' when you two have been through as much as you have. Feelings can't just disapear like that,"

"and I absolutely agree with you," Fred assured, "I still love your sister more than anything,"

"then why are you okay with this casual thing?"

"Because, I know that as long as I've still got her in my life, she will one day realise that she wants more. I genuinely think she's just not ready to put herself in that position again after summer and I'm happy to wait. If nothing else, it's my way of protecting her. Do you think any other lad who wasn't there whilst she went through everything is going to understand that? Becuase I don't. But I always will wait. I'd wait till I was old and grey for her because I love her more than I can actually explain and since I've met her, I don't feel complete when she'd not around."

Harry just smiled. There was no words needed.

~~~~~~C~~~~~~

Around midnight that night, Ella was still violently tossing and turning in her suddenly uncomfy bed. In the realisation that she was getting no where, slipping on a baggy hoodie and a pair of woolen interior boots, Ella went for a walk around the frozen castle grounds.

There was something about the cold silence that refreshed and comforted her. It allowed to think clearly, away from the stuffy clammy dorm. The next days quidditch match was playing on her mind, taunting her. She kept telling herself she was going to fail. She was going to fail and let the whole team - all her friends, and even family down - when she screwed up as magnificently as she was sure to do.

However, this peace was interrupted when she heard the crunch of approaching footsteps on the frozen ground.

"Long time no see, Potter," An all too familiar voice, full of its trade mark smugness, sneered from behind.

"Malfoy," She greeted coldly. She had no interest nor desire to even acknowledge his existance after the way he'd binned her off the moment they got back to school.

Although she hated to admit it, she'd felt quite hurt when he did so. Over the summer, she'd began to think she was growing quite close the emotionally reserved boy. Over the summer, he'd opened up to her and revealed a completely different side to himself.

However, that had all vapourised the second he set foot back on the school grounds and was once again surrounded by all his equally idiotic little - or in Goyles case, not so little - friends, he morphed back into that horrible sly, smug twat she'd hated the first time she's spoken to him.

Without saying another word, he closed the small distance between them and pressed his lips roughly to hers. Once she got over the shock, she slapped him clean across the face.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" She demanded, her blood boiling in anger at the selfish git. Was this some sort of coy plan to throw her off her game for the upcoming match or did he just genuinely take pleasure in being a twat.

"Me?!" He scoffed. "What the hell are you doing slapping me? It's not like that was something that's never happened before now is it?" He raised a cocky eyebrow, earning him another quick but satisfying slap straight across the cheek.

"You make me sick," Ella spat, turning on her heel and marching towards the castle. However, due to his greater height - and therefore greater leg length - Draco caught her arm roughly and spun her around to face him.

"Don't play hard to get, that only works for the...purer, more...innocent...of girls and we all know that's not exactly your reputation now is it," HE smirked, the cool gentle breeze blowing his ungelled hair into his sapphire eyes.

"I don't think you could be more repulsive if you tried," She tried to shake off his grip, but he managed to keep a hold of her arm with relative ease.

"I think you're forgetting all the things you confided in me over summer. All the time we spent together. And what we were mainly doing in that time," His arrogant smirk once again appeared as Ella's mouth mimicked a fish's, opening and closing dumbfoundedly.

She didn't know what to say or do for the best. She didn't think she could hate the greesey git that stood in front of her much more right now, but then she couldn't risk Fred ever finding out about her and Draco.

"See, I've got you right where I want you. You know why that is? Because you're nothing but a weak, silly little girl,"

In another clean swipe, Ella brought the palm of her free hand down hard on his left cheek.

"You cunt," she swore pushing the revolting boy away from her as she stormed back to the castle, mind reeling at what had just gone on.

What if he wasn't bluffing? What if he really did tell everyone, including Fred and Harry, about what went on over summer?

Oh shit, Harry! He would flip out if he found out. Draco was as well known an enemy of Harry's as Voldemort himself.

He was bluffing, he had to be. Quickly, she ran back to dorm, where she slipped off her boots and slipped back into her bed where she was greeted with a disturbed slumber.

~~~~~~C~~~~~~

When Ella awoke, the rest of her dormitory was still snoring in deep slumbers. And no wonder, when she looked at her bedside alarm clock it showed it was only 5:45am. Even Angelina's ridiculous training schedule didn't ever have them up at this time but today was the day of the first match of the season, which just so happened to also be the most competitive - and therefore violent- match of the season, being Gryffindor vs Slytherin.

Ella was petrified, to say the least. Her first match would have been daunting enough, but the fact that it was against the sometimes no less than cruel Slytherins and included Draco Malfoy, who'd she'd barely said two words to since she'd broke things off with them, made her feel as though she was about to throw up.

She slipped out the room quietly, grabbing her towels, clothes and wash bag on the way to the adjoining bathroom. She shrugged off her scruffy checkered pyjama bottoms and plain white vest top, before stepping under the warm shower which generously cascaded down on her, as though responding kindly to her tense mood.

As she rinsed through her hair again, her mind reeling, her thoughts landed upon the younger Slytherin boy with platinum blonde hair and an arrogant smirk that even the bloody Cheshire cat could be proud of. She wondered whether he really was the friend she'd thought of him as all summer, until he'd become such as arse hole.

Finally, she climbed from the comforting warmth of the shower, in contrast to the cold winter air that flooded the bathroom and, with a shaking hand, she slipped on the pair of leggings that she'd picked up along with a plain long sleeved t shirt, which she wore under her quidditch jersey of red and gold. She magically dried her hair before pulling it back into a simple, single braid at the back of her head.

She stared hard at her reflection for a long time. Not out of vanity, but because something didn't fit; it was her. She didn't fit. She wasn't supposed to be here, surrounded by loving friends and family. What had she done that was so great that she deserved all this?

She shook her head. She knew she was being stupid and paranoid again but she couldn't help it. So, instead she decided that this feeling of incomplete emptiness was due to the lack of house colours she was supporting and, after rubbing in a light layer of foundation and trailing a quick lazy line of eyeliner over her upperlid, Ella used her makeup to give her skin a sort of gold glow before finishing the look with a dusting of scarlet red eye shadow and carmine lipstick, eccentuating her already full lips.

When she reentered the dormitory, she realised she'd managed to spend well over an hour in the bathroom, meaning the other girls were all just beginning to stir. It was a good job she had woken up when she had because Ella was fairly certain that had she spent that long in the bathroom when not only were all the girls trying to get ready but under a time pressure, she was pretty sure her bloody and battered corpse would be plastered all over the front of the Daily Prophet once her roommates were done with her.

The Great Hall was nearly empty when Ella started ladling porridge and red berries into her bowl. Yet, despite her earliness, she was still pushing her food around her bowl - barely having had two mouthfuls - when the twins, Harry, Katie and Angelina joined her.

"You look ill Ella. You coming down with something?" George remarked, earning himself a stern glare from Angelina.

"You don't look ill," Fred jumped in, "Just a bit pale that's all," He added, also glaring at his twin for his bluntness. Despite looking marginally terrified, Fred noticed how pretty she looked with her hair pulled back in the simple yet already fairly messy style and her high cheek bones highlighted with the golden bronzer. His eyes then lazily wandered to her irresistible carmine red lips, that were puckered with nerves as she continued to push her formly porridge sludge around her bowl. It wasn't until she began to speak that he snapped out of his trance.

"I'm just a bit nervous, y'know with it being my first match and all, that's all," She smiled weakly before resuming her sludge mushing.

Angelina and Fred exchanged an apprehensive look.

"Right," He pulled the bowl of sludge away from her destructive spoon and instead placed a large clean plate in front of her, "You're new to this, so you won't know, but matches are a lot more testing and consuming than practises," Fred told her.

"Oh great, thanks for the confidence boost," She rolled her eyes, seriously debating whether it was too late to pull out.

"Just be quiet for a minute will you," he raised a single eyebrow at her, "now if you'll let me continue; matches take a lot more energy, meaning you need to eat a lot more,"

And with that he began piling her plate with sunshine yellow fried eggs, golden sausages, cherry red tomatoes, crispy bacon and herby mushrooms.

"I can't eat that!" She exclaimed. "Are you trying to make me fat?" She scoffed at her heaped plate.

"Firstly, you'll never need to worry about your weight," He almost scolded her, before softening his tone, "and secondly, you'll need all the energy you can get out there so eat up."

~~~~~C~~~~~

The weather conditions were positively wild out on the pitch. The harsh cold winter's wind whipped around the players in an attempt to throw them off their brooms, as the Baltic rain lashed down forcefully on both players and spectators alike.

In addition to the terrible weather, just as expected, Slytherin were playing nasty. Ten minutes into the game, Katie had been sent flying off her broom when a bludger was belted into her back from far closer than should have been allowed. However, as always, the Slytherins were sneaky and didn't get caught, but fortunately for Katie, the umpire had been vigilant in spotting her as she fell, so she could break it before any real harm was caused.

However, unfortunately for the Gryffindor team, the bludger had left Katie unable to continue play for the day, and with their substitute off ill in the hospital wing, they were a player down and the score was thirty all.

At hearing someone yell her name, Ella whipped around to see Angelina toss the quaffle to her as two slytherins had begun to gravitate threateningly close to her.

Swiftly, the two Slytherin chasers that had been pursuing Angelina, flew to either side of Ella, blocking her in so they complete control on what direction she moved in.

She felt herself begin to panic as they closed in on her. This wasn't the type of situation she'd ever practiced with the team or with Krum.

Her shoulder began to throb as one of them knocked roughly into her, the impact only increased by the high speed at which they were shooting through the air.

A fierce bludger came whizzing out of nowhere, hitting the Slytherin who was blocking Ella to the inside, sqaure in the back, causing them to drop back and curse, "I'll get that Fred Weasley,"

Despite the high pressure situation and the fact she really had much more important things to be concentrating on, Ella felt her heart swell as she thought of the redhead trying to protect her. She was being stupid, once again. He was a beater, it was his job to protect her.

Just as quickly as one of the Slytherin chasers dropped back, another took its position. Shit.

Finally - after flying round aimlessly, the opposing chasers getting increasingly physical, for at least a couple of laps of the pitch - Ella finally decided she needed to do something. Thinking quickly, she began to jib side to side, up and down, throwing the chasers off slightly.

Suddenly, she pulled her broom upwards, soaring further and further up, losing the pair of Slytherins that had been blocking her. The second she was high enough, she pulled her broom around so she was now shooting through the air, like a bullet, towards to goal posts.

Sure enough, with her agile speed, Ella launched the quaffle towards the goal and got it in first time, making the score Gryffindor 40, Slytherin 20.

It was obvious from the start that this game was going to be tight, but not many of the Gryffindors estimated just how tight it was going to be.

After over an hour of exhausting play, the game finally drew to an incredibly tight close at 80 all, before Harry beat Draco to catching the snitch.

The whole stadium - other than the single tower of green glad spectators - erupted into victorious cheers of celebration.

Ella quickly dismounted her broom to run over to where her brother was standing and leapt on him, along with a few other members of their team.

"You did it Harry!" Angelina clapped the younger boy on the back, her face mirroring the huge grin that the rest of the team were also sporting.

Their exchanging hugs and congratulations with each other was interrupted when a familiar pair of identical came bounding over like a pair of young Labradors that had grown too quickly for the mind to realise the length of their limbs.

"WE DID IT!" They both chimed as George picked up Angelina and spun her around, and Fred dashed over to Ella.

Ella opened her mouth to congratulate him, but before she had chance Fred had bent down and captured her lips in a searing, passionate kiss. Just as quickly as the kiss had happened, it stopped.

"Shit, I'm sorry it was just impulse," He rambled quickly, not quite sure what had possessed to make such a public display of affection when they'd agreed to keep their what-you-want-to-call-it on the down low. He waited for her to get angry with and start shouting, but she just shook her head softly, letting a low chuckle before jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist and resuming the kiss.

Soon, the rest of the team had noticed this and began to cheer and wolf whistle.

"Oh get a room," Ella's blood ran cold as she heard an all too familiar voice sneer behind her. Her face drained of all colour as she unraveled her legs from Fred's waist and turned to face to smirking Slytherin.

"Malfoy," Fred sneered boldly, his dis-contempt apparent.

"Fred, it's fine. Come on," Ella pleaded, gripping onto Fred's upper arm desperately trying to pull him away, but it was little use.

"Yes Freddie, go with the nice little girl now," Draco sneered, "So I don't have to watch you two fornicating in the middle of the pitch," He feigned a wretch.

Ella's heart whirred ten to the dozen. He couldn't actually say anything; they'd gotten too close over the summer. He couldn't. He couldn't.

"I mean what's the point in watching something, when you've already experienced it,"

He could.