All Aboard

I walked into Potions class, Draco already seated. "No, absolutely not" I told him slamming the letter on his desk.

"Tammie, don't be—"

"No! I am going home and resting and not having any communication with you" I told him as other kids starting coming in.

"You're coming to my house. This wasn't my decision, I mean, not that I don't disagree, but..." he clenched his teeth. "Can you just do something I ask for once? We don't need to butt heads all the time. I don't hate you, why do you hate me?" He asked as I felt an ounce of guilt. I didn't know that was how he felt and looking at him his perspective Melinda was right, I was really awful to him. Yes he wasn't very nice to anyone in my house but he was alright to me.

"You're right, I'm sorry" I said with a heavy sigh. I had a feeling I was going to regret this later. "And yes, I'll hang out with you over holidays."

"Thank you" he said with a faint smile as Professor Snape walked in and started going through today's lesson.

"Did I hear you correctly?" Ron said later at lunch as we all sat at the table, George, Lee and Fred even joining us.

"What's that?" I asked as Fred picked some carrots off my plate.

"In Potions today" he said as I felt myself stiffen.

"Whatever you heard was really no one of your business" I told him, not really feeling bad about the agreement with Draco but just the fact that I knew the Weasleys didn't care for his family and I didn't want Fred to blow it out of proportion. There wasn't anything to read into. "It's nothing, I gotta see Melinda, I'll talk to you later" I got up and left, spotting Melinda going up another staircase, thankfully it looked like she was parting from her group. "Hey!" I shouted as she waved and waited. I hurriedly ran up the steps, taking two at a time.

"What's up?" She asked seemingly rather content.

"What are you doing for holiday break?" I asked, wondering if maybe I could get Melinda an invite. If I had to suffer maybe I could bring a friend to make it a little more enjoyable.

"Going home of course, aren't you?" She asked as I shook my head.

"I wish, but, Draco wanted extended an invitation to his house, my mom is supposed to come too" I explained as she started to cross her arms over her chest. "It's not what you think, granted I still don't know what it is, but, he said he wanted to talk to me, or something, he also wanted to make sure I told you right away. Guess he doesn't want any wires getting crossed either huh?" Melinda continued staring at me, either thinking I was lying or that this was all insane. Not that I blamed her, this was all very insane."Congratulations on making Seeker by the way, I heard you're a great threat" she smiled and nodded.

"Thanks" she said cheerfully. "Did Professor Barrass talk to your class?" I nodded, "what did you think about Professor Burnner? I don't know what it is, but I just got this feeling, like..." she shivered.

"Yeah, me too, weird right?"

"I'm sure we can ask about it when he gets back" I suggested.

"Yeah, hey, wanna come up to the library with me for a bit of studying?" She asked. I started to reply no thank you but I realized I hadn't spent that much with Melinda and her friends and thought it would be nice to get to know them.

"Sure" I said happily as we headed to the library together.

The night before break I packed my things and went down to the common room to read. Lavender and her friends had taken to gossiping in the bedroom and it was impossible to read without thinking they weren't talking about someone I knew. Of course downstairs was no better. Lee, Fred and George were playing quite loudly, most of the common room cheering them. I had wanted to take a walk with Fred but he claimed he was too tired. Didn't look like it now though. "No walk tonight?" Oliver asked as he sat on the couch next to me.

"He's tired" I said as I tried not to look over at the boys cheering having beat Lee and Ron in another match of wizard's chess.

"Doesn't sound tired" Oliver said as I pulled my knees up and ignored him. "Sure you don't want some company?" He asked sliding a magazine off the table. "We could take one of those totally not accurate quizzes" he said flipping through it. I glanced over at Fred, feeling hurt that he wasn't even looking in my direction. And was that Charity leaning on his shoulder? Did Ron tell them what happened in Potions? If so why hadn't Fred told me?

"I'm actually getting kind of tired myself, I'll see you tomorrow, Oliver" I said as he patted my shoulder and got up. I heavily sighed, looked over at Fred but realizing he wasn't even going to budge I headed up to my room.

I woke up before my alarm, having been awake all night. I had peeked downstairs a few times but Fred was never alone or it seemed not worth the attempt to interrupt him. Oliver offered to deliver a message, twice, but I declined and continued hiding in my room. Ginny had come up, letting me know she didn't care for Charity and not to feel challenged about my relationship with her brother. I wish it had reassured me like I told her it did.

"Hey" I called to Fred as I spotted him and his brother in the common room, their suitcases in tow. "Can I have a hand?" the brothers exchanged looks but Fred nodded for his brother to go ahead.

"Mornin" he said with a smile I was only to grateful to see.

"Fred!" I said throwing my arms around him and squeezing probably a little too hard. "I thought you were mad at me or something" I said feeling like the type of clingy girlfriend I hated seeing.

"Why would I be mad at you?" He asked as I let go, though he sounded a little suspicious.

"What are you doing for the holidays? I want to visit."

"Visit? Won't you be in America?" He asked, this time I knew he knew more than he was letting on, his tone alone suggested he knew more.

"Okay, don't read into it, but, Draco kinda invited my mom and myself to his house for a couple of nights" I told him, my mind anxiously awaiting his response.

"And why's that? I thought you and Melinda were all sorted out?"

"We are, I don't know why he invited me, but it's my mom too so it can't be that big of a deal, right?" He searched my face.

"Do you have any idea what he might want or is thinking?" I shook my head.

"I wish, but as soon as I do I'll let you know...maybe when I visit?" He rolled his eyes but I could see him crack a smile.

"Fine, fine, a few hours won't hurt anyone" he said as I nodded and he hugged me. "You knew he invited me, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I thought maybe I missed something and you had asked him or I dunno maybe he did like you or you liked him or—"

"This might sound crazy, but, hear me out, I like you, you're my boyfriend" I told him as he laughed and kissed me, my whole body tingling.

"I'll let my mom know, now c'mon, we gotta get good seats, maybe we can get a little bit of private time, I gotta make up for yesterday don't I?" I laughed as he kissed me again and then took our bags.

The whole way back to the station we didn't get a moment's private time. George kept interrupting at the most inconvenient times and then Charity kept coming in to see if Fred was less busy; eventually Fred told her he was going to be preoccupied as long as the train was moving and shut the door in her face. Next was my turn. Melinda walked in first, completely accidentally as her cheeks blushed as she squeaked an apology and quickly left. Draco was a little less subtle about his apology. He had yanked the door open, opened his mouth to say something, summed up the scene pretty quickly and disappeared, his whole face red. It took about five minutes to stop laughing. Lee came in after that to wish us happy holidays since we were almost there; Oliver had come in to do the same.

"Hey guys" Ron said bursting in as Fred flailed his hands in annoyance

"Oh for fu—"

"Hey Ron, what's up?" I interrupted, covering Fred's mouth.

"So it's true then, you're really going to the Malfoys?" He asked.

"I am, yes, and I don't appreciate you telling everyone" I said with a glare as his cheeks went a tad pink.

"Wasn't like the whole class heard or anything" he replied sarcastically as I gritted my teeth, tempted to shove him out of the room.

"Anyway, what's it to you?"

"Do you know why you're invited?" He asked as Melinda peeked, checking to make sure it was safe first.

"No, no idea Ron, I honestly don't even wanna go" I said sadly.

"You wouldn't have guessed that from Anna's reenactment" Melinda said with a roll of the eyes. "I hope you don't mind, I told Holly." I nodded, it was fine with me, Holly seemed cool. "And Anna overheard us, so by time we were leaving she was telling anyone that would listen and she made it seem like you were overjoyed to be going."

"Again, who's Anna?" I asked.

"Anna Romania?" Fred asked as he got up to move his stuff from the opposite seat, making room for Hermione and Harry to sit down as the both came in.

"Yeah, her" Melinda grumbled.

"Who?" I asked again.

"A friend of Charity's, she's in Ravenclaw, didn't think she was part of your crowd" Fred answered as Melinda vigorous shook her head.

"She's not, she just has a big mouth and is really annoying, I supposedly took the potential Prefect opportunity away from her with my good grades" Melinda explained as I looked at the others. "Anyway, I was going to tell you earlier but you were, er, um, busy..." her cheeks flushed pink.

"Busy doing what?" Ron asked quiet stupidly as Hermione jabbed him.

"We can come back later" Hermione offered but Fred swung his legs off mine and got up.

"Nah, I'm gonna go find the boys for a minute, I'll see you before we stop" he said as I nodded and we said our see you laters, Ron grimacing at his brother's interactions. I rolled my eyes as the others took a seat,

"So it's really true then?" Ron asked eagerly.

"Yes, we already established that."

"And you really said yes?" He asked again, this time Hermione nudging him.

"Yes, because he also invited my mom so clearly we have to be polite and accept, I'm sure it's nothing big, maybe something about laws or whatever" I explained, mostly trying to explain to myself why Draco and his parents would want us anywhere near them.

"We're here" Hermione said glancing out the window, the train just starting to pull into King's Cross.

"I'll let you know how it goes" I told the others as I jumped up, grabbed my things and hurried to try and find Fred.

"Tammie! Tammie!" I skidded to a stop, how my mom saw me so quickly in the windows was beyond me, but I couldn't ignore her; not when she looked so excited. I went to the front, and meet her just off the side of the stairs, "hey sweetheart!" She exclaimed wrapping her arms around me.

"Mom..." I shrugged out of her grip, knowing she was holding tighter on purpose. I glanced back at the train but saw Draco walking over.

"Mrs. Allen?" He said, my mom now wearing her serious adult face. "Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy" he said as I glanced from one to the other, Draco's hand outstretched, "my parents have set up a route for us to get home, if you'd just follow me" he started to walk away.

"Mom, I'll be right there, I just need to say something to Fred" I turned to move but she had firm grip on my arm.

"You can talk to him later, I feel like this is something we shouldn't be late or loose with" she said as I stuttered on my words, trying to find a way to tell her I just needed a moment and Draco wouldn't actually leave us. "We can see him afterwards, besides, I'd like to officially meet him" she said as I stopped trying to fight her grip as she half pulled me along. As we walked I caught a glimpse of red hair but couldn't tell which one it was.