This this is the bit that has been on hold for a year and I know it's absolutely dreadful and I am so sorry. It was either let it sit in my 'to do' pile for another two years until I finally got some inspiration to write it, or just post it like this. Please remember to leave any comments or critiques in the comments because Merlin knows this chapter needs all the feed back it could get.

Year 4 Part 10

Louk led the way out of the common room and up to the Great Hall. Amber was waiting outside the doors, looking more than a little annoyed. As we all walked up she made it clear with her expression she did not want me there, so I reached out and squeezed Louk's hand before walking inside.

Keeli had scooped out a large portion of cottage pie on my plate before it was eaten up by everyone else, chewing her own food as she read one of her American Transfiguration books that was propped against the pumpkin juice. I sat down and she looked up at me.

"Everything okay?"

"More or less. Just old wounds."

"They all gave Amber a talking to. Convinced her to apologize."

"From the heart, I'm sure." I muttered, looking over at the Gryffindor table where Amber had just rejoined her usual group of friends.

"We can't change everyone's minds." she reminded me of the old Ravenclaw saying.

"Yeah, well when those thoughts are held on decades of old prejudices, and effecting people who had nothing to do with their making in the first place, it's really frustrating."

"I know." she sighed, turning back to her book and flipping the page.

After dinner we left to go to the library, working on the Herbology essay we'd been given by Professor Longbottom that was due in class Wednesday. Louk had Quidditch practice and the others must have had better things to do, because only Cad and Matt joined us. We were there until curfew, yawning as we waved good night to the others. The riddle the door asked was hard (A make my home on land or sea, run as fast as you can but you'll never touch me. Underground I come up missing, but on a mountain I'm all you'll see.) and there was a gaggle of Ravenclaws standing at the door, so we joined them to sit on the cold floors until someone could come up with the answer. Finally a seventh year came by and answered (a horizon) and we gratefully went up to our beds. There was nothing new in the papers about the break in, just more of what they'd reported yesterday, so everyone took to gossiping about the crazy conspiracy theories had risen up in the vacuum of actual news, and before long you'd have thought Voldemort himself had risen from the grave to do a little light vandalism at the Ministry for old time's sake.

DADA after lunch with the Slytherins was the first time I'd really seen Louk since the night before, and I gave him a tentative smile. He returned it and I relaxed a little, whispering as I pulled my book out of my bag.

"Feeling better?"

"No, but I appreciate you checking in."

He seemed to brush his hand against mine every other second as we took notes on hex-deflection techniques, but every time I looked over at him to see if it was on purpose or accident he was diligently reading in his textbook. It started snowing outside the window during class, and I was so looking forward to a nice hot bowl of soup at dinner.

After dinner we went up to the second floor corridor with the others as it was still far too cold aside to even think of sitting by the lake. I leaned against the stone wall and Louk laid his head on my lap as usual, so I levitated my book to keep my hands free to stroke his hair. He likewise levitated his own book above himself, waving his hand every time he turned the page. As curfew neared we all dispersed to our separate common rooms, and it was a quiet walk up, the coldness between Amber and I still very much present.

We had double Transfiguration with the Gryffindors after lunch Wednesday. We were still working on Switching Spells, but now with more complicated things like rats to rabbits. As usual Cad and I worked together, and he was going a mile an hour about their Quidditch practice from the night before.

"So are you coming to my game this weekend?" he waved his wand quickly, trying to switch the rabbit in front of him for the rat in front of me. It was mostly successful but the rat now had a fluffy tail and the rabbit a long one so he had to put them back for me to try.

"Of course. Who are you playing?"

"Ravenclaw. I know, I know, they'll murder you; but I still need my good luck charm."

"You know you'll be just as good a Beater if I'm not there right?" I rolled my eyes and waved my wand at the creatures, to which nothing happened as usual.

"It's more of a waving motion, not so jabby. Like this." he grabbed my hand and moved it in the motion he was using.

"Like that will make a difference." I sighed.

He nodded and waved his wand again for the same results. "I was also thinking about going down to the shore tonight. Do you want to come?"

"Thanks, but I'm staying in Potions Club late tonight. I'm trying to finish off my Veritaserum. I'll need to do my homework tonight after dinner."

"What do you need that for?"

"You know, just in case." I smirked, waving my wand. At least this time they swapped fur color, but they were still very much their respective rodent species.

"You do know it is actually illegal to give someone Veritaserum, right?"

"Only if you get caught." I winked.

I saw him glance over at Amber as I tried putting their colors back to the way they were, clearing his throat a little.

"Um, I can't help but notice you and Amber are a little tense."

"Yeah well she was being a real-" I caught myself as he gave me a look. "I didn't like what she said to Louk, that's all."

"She apologized."

"Oh, just because you made her."

"The only reason Louk apologizes is because you make him, but we have to accept it."

I pursed my lips before sighing. "That's a good point."

"Look, I know you two will never be best friends, but maybe you could just thank her?"

"Thank her?"

"For apologizing. It's pretty hard for us red cloaks, you know." he bumped my shoulder with his. "I'll even owe you one for it."

"No, I'll do it because you're right, but don't expect me to start braiding her hair or anything."

"Hey Louk and I still don't get along, but sometimes you have to take one for the team."

"Yeah yeah. Just show me that wand motion again."

After class let out and we were headed down the stairs I swallowed my pride. "Hey, Amber?"

"Yes?" her voice was still a little cold.

"Thanks for apologizing to Louk. That was...big of you."

She just looked at me for a second, trying to assess whether I was being genuine or not, before shrugging. "It was the right thing to do."

I just nodded back and let it drop, but Cad gave me a thumbs up from behind her that made me smile. We parted ways at the bottom of the stairs as I continued down to the dungeons for Potions Club. Everyone gave each other cheery hellos before settling to their own work. I went through the next few steps on my Veritaserum, taking notes on my next potion I'd be starting once my cauldron was freed up while it stewed.

I did stay late in Potions Club, but not as late as I had originally thought. My potion turned clear a little earlier than I had anticipated, so I put it in a flask and slid it into my bag so it could mature in the safety of my dorm room. I ran into Damian and Louk, clearly headed for their dorm before dinner, and the later smiled at me.

"Hey, how was Potions Club?"

"Good. Finally finished my potion. Now just a month for it to mature."

"Can I walk you up to your common room?"

I smiled. "Sure."

"Hey." Damian said quickly as we were about to walk off. "Um, thanks for making up with Amber. It means a lot. I know you two don't get along but, well just thanks."

I shrugged. "Thank Cad. He pointed out it's hypocritical for me not to accept her apology when I always expect them to accept Louk's. And I mean he was right so."

"Still, thanks." he nodded before turning and heading down the hallway again.

"Cad talked you into making up with Amber?" Louk asked as we climbed the stairs.

"Well, more just talked me into accepting her apology. I mean like I said, he just pointed out I was a bit hypocritical and he was right."

"I haven't even really accepted her apology."

"Hey I by no means think she was right, and I will gladly tell her so, but it had to take a lot for her to even do that."

"It was barely an apology at all!" he scowled. "She didn't say sorry for what she said, just sorry it upset me. Then dipped right out to go back to dinner."

"Oh, well I didn't know that."

"You could have asked me."

"Well, you seemed fine with her after that, so I figured it was acceptable."

"Not really, but you know I'm not one to make a scene."

I giggled and he shot a scowl over at me.

"Sorry." I cleared my throat and put on a straight face. "I mean, of course you aren't. How silly of me."

"Name one time."

"That time you Petrified Cad because he wouldn't apologize to you for something he did to me."

He pursed his lips before looking ahead. "Okay fine, that one time I guess."

"And then the time you-"

"Okay I get it." he scowled again.

I bumped his arm with mine. "Don't worry, I think it's cute."

"It is not cute."

"Of course it is! My little drama dragon." I tried to tweak his nose but he caught my hand, finally cracking a smile.

"At least a dragon is a step up from a snake."

"See, there you go. You can be one of those little cute pocket dragons." I spaced my fingers apart a few centimeters. "The real small ones that think they're so vicious."

"And here I thought you were paying me a compliment."

"You should know better than that." I giggled as we started walking up the stairs.

There was a group of kids at the base of the stairs blocking the way upwards. Louk was about to shout at them to move when I heard Cad's name from one of the Gryffindors near the front. I recognized him as Charlie, Cad's roommate, and held Louk back for a second.

"Charlie? What's going on?"

He recognized me too, glancing up at Luok with a less than friendly smile, but shooting me a grin. "Just watch."

I heard a group cheer at the top of the stairs, and a few seconds later about four floors up I saw what it was for. Cad was on his skateboard, riding the stairway rail all the way down from the top. The group near us cheered as they caught sight of him, and he looked up from his feet for a second to grin at us. He caught sight of me and his smile faltered. Just that second the stairway he was on decided to change. The sudden movement caused him to fumble and his board slipped from beneath his feet. He started falling down the shaft in the middle of the stairs and the group around us stopped cheering. Louk swore as he tried to pull out his wand quickly, but I only saw it out of the corner of my eye. Cad was still looking right at me, and I was reminded of when I was falling out of the DADA window. I screamed as he plummeted to the ground, and he was only a meter off the cold stone and his certain death when he froze in midair. His skateboard crashed against the stone and broke into three pieces, flying off in different directions.

Everyone was quiet for a second before breaking out into confused whispers. I looked over at Louk whose wand was out, but he just quickly shook his head to show he hadn't done it. I looked back up at Cad who was looking around confused. I saw his wand wasn't even his hand, but not half a second later he unfroze. He still hit the ground pretty hard but he didn't do more than grunt.

I stormed up to him as he jumped to his feet, one of his signature smiles already in place. "Aims, I-"

"Are you stupid?!" I shoved him in the chest. "You could have died!"

"Oh come on, y-"

"I don't want to hear it." I snapped, turning on my heel and stomping away.

I stormed down the corridor towards the clock tower, practically running down the hall past the courtyard and out towards the path to the lake. I didn't even make it out of the covered bridge when I heard puffing and heavy footsteps behind me.

"Go away." my voice broke which surprised me. I reached up and touched my cheeks which seemed to be way colder than the rest of me and felt the wetness of tears I didn't realize I'd been crying.

"Amelia." he came around me, trying to look at my face but I kept looking away. "Look, it's no big deal."

"It is a big deal, Cad!" I snapped, wiping my cheeks before finally looking up at him. "You could have died!"

"Come on that's a little dramatic." he chuckled, but I just scowled more.

"What would you have done if you hadn't stopped?"

"I don't know, but I'd be fine."

"No! You would have broken every bone in your body!"

"And we can fix that." he shrugged, trying to reach out for my arm but I jerked away.

"We won't do anything, Cad. I can't fix broken bones!"

"Amelia, please, just calm down. I'm fine so we don't have to worry, okay?"

"But I do! Because you'll just do something stupider tomorrow, and the day after that. One of these times your luck is going to run out and you're going to get hurt!"

"And that's okay. It's just pain, Amelia, and it's temporary. We only live once and I want to make the most of it."

"And making the most of it is sitting in the Hospital Wing for a week not being able to move and eating soup from a spoon because your jaw is shattered?"

"Hey, I have nothing against soup."

"Ugh!" I shouted, trying to leave but he just moved to block my way.

"Hey look, I can't be so scared of getting hurt that I don't do what I want to do."

"There is a difference between the daily risk of stuff, and doing stupid shite like that!"

"It was just a bit of fun, Aims. Just relax, okay?"

"I can't relax when I think you're about to die in front of my eyes again!" my voice caught and tears overflowed out of my eyes. I turned my head away from him again while I tried to get control of myself, and he sighed before stepping closer. He hugged me to his chest and stroked my hair.

"First the troll and the Dementors, now this, and I know it'll be something else next week. I always have to sit and watch you nearly kill yourself."

"I know." he said quietly.

"You're really stupid."

"I know that too."

"And I hate you."

He leaned back, putting his finger under my chin and tilting my face up to him. "Feel better?"

"No."

"What can I do?"

"Promise you'll never do that again."

He just smiled, eyes flicking down to my lips. He started leaning in towards me when someone loudly cleared their throat.

"Everything okay?" Louk asked.

I took a step back from Cad who dropped his arms from around me, wiping my eyes before turning to see him standing with his arms crossed in the corridor that led back to the main castle.

"Yeah." I finally answered.

"They fixed your Muggle thing." he said shortly, clearly dismissing Cad.

"Top. Don't think I'd be able to convince her to buy me another one at this rate." he smiled at me, brushing my chin with his finger before passing Louk and walking back to the castle.

Louk waited until we couldn't even hear his footsteps anymore before letting his arms down.

"You alright?"

"No."

"Makes two of us." he stepped aside in the doorway. "Come on, I'll walk you back to your common room. Unless you're hungry."

"Not really." I moved to follow him down the corridor.

The crowd of people in the stairwell were gone, probably off to dinner, but we were still quiet the entire way up to the sixth floor corridor. We stopped just outside the door because I knew he was wanting to say something, but he seemed reluctant to start.

"You know it's fine."

He took me off guard, and I blinked once. "What's fine?"

"If you and Cad...I mean, it wouldn't be fine, but it's fine."

"We're not."

He just looked at me in pity, like I was too stupid to understand something, before turning back down the corridor to head down the stairs. I just sighed and knocked on the knocker, thinking of nothing but my bed.

Now that the holidays were over, all anyone could talk about was the House Cup and Quidditch. It was a tight race this year, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Slytherin had won both cups last year, but they were neck-and-neck in both House points and Quidditch standing. It seemed like it was impossible to see us all together as between Quidditch practice and gluing ourselves to our books kept us pretty occupied.

It wasn't to mean it didn't have it's fun moments. Professor Shortwood had gotten us to the Fwoopers portion of Care of Magical Creatures, and one of our double lessons was spent learning how to harvest their tail feathers. Cad was particularly good at it (shocker), but even better was when Amber scared one of them and it pooped in her hand. I'd never seen a more disgusted look on her face and we were all rolling laughter as she swore at. I didn't know she even knew that many swear words, it was enough to make a sailor blush, and Professor Shortwood even took a point away from Gryffindor for her cursing out a bird. She just Vanished the mess and stomped back up the castle halfway through the lesson.

Then in Potions the week after that Cad successfully brewed the Dogbreath Potion he'd been working on, his pride suddenly cut short as he blew purple flames around the potions room. He lit three workbenches on fire before I was able to stop laughing long enough to give him the antidote.

Easter was almost a welcome change of pace, spending it again with Keeli and her family. Her Mum made it a point to take us out in the afternoons to different educational places, as she felt we weren't learning 'all a young lady should know'. It was pretty neat to go around to London's museums, aquariums, and art displays. She even took us on a day trip to France to visit the Louvre and I had to be dragged away from every single painting because I was gawking too much. Even though Muggle art didn't move, some of the works were so masterfully painted you could almost trick yourself into thinking they could.

Our mornings were still devoted to studying, as was every spare minute we had once we went back to school. I was trying my hardest to focus more on my wand-centric classes where I knew I needed the most help but I always found myself running out to the greenhouses to check on my plants or losing myself in a potions textbook.

The Quidditch Cup match was a full-fledged fanfare between the two Houses, so much so I even left my Gryffindor scarf in my trunk so no one was thinking I was choosing favorites. Cad and his fellow Beater (his roommate Oliver) were positive windmills on the pitch, sending so many Bludgers to the other team that both Seekers were having a hard time spotting the Snitch. Louk had taken to following Amber around on the pitch, so at least they had to risk taking out their own Seeker any time they aimed at him, but it didn't pay off. Two hours in and she saw the Snitch, shooting across the field in half a second to win the match before the announcer could even call out that she'd seen it. There was lots of jumping about and cheering, even from those who had been rooting for Slytherin. It had been a pretty good game and Marcus Obtorn (a seventh year Hufflepuff Prefect) on the mic made sure to congratulate both houses that had played.

Then we were on the train ride back, Amber and Cad not shutting up about the game and Damian doing his best to finally beat Louk in a chess match. It didn't work of course but at least it kept them quiet and mostly ignoring the Gryffindors, which I knew was the real purpose in it. Keeli's parents had invited me to spend the summer holidays with them and I was busy planning out every weekend with her, to experience as much of the Muggle world I hadn't yet. Her list of movies I needed to watch was nearly as long as I was and I knew we couldn't possibly finish them all, but I didn't particularly care.

Once we got to the train we put our trunks on trollies and spent ten minutes bidding each other goodbye. Louk actually gave me a hug with a whispered promise to write me every night in his special journal, and Cad's hug was so tight I felt like he'd punctured a rib. We all promised to write each other and were already making plans for our trip to Diagon Alley in three months before we waved each other off, Keeli and I weaving through the crowd to find her parents.