Author's note: Just a quick thank you to those of you who have been consistently reading and reviewing. I appreciate your thoughts and interest in the story, and apologize for the delay in updates. Between work and lessons I type these chapters mostly on my cellphone, which can get complicated and time consuming. But I will try to update more quickly in the future. And again, thanks for reading.

After treating her nosebleed, Madam Pomfrey allowed Avery to walk herself back to her dormitory, but not before Avery made a mental note about the tonic Pomfrey had used to treat her so that she could incorporate it into the antidote portion of their nosebleed nougat.
Avery had hoped she might bump into Cedric making his rounds on her way back, but to her dismay the only person she encountered was Filch, who insisted upon seeing a note from the Hospital Wing verifying her story.

"I've seen you with those Weasleys," he commented, as he reluctantly handed back her note from Madam Pomfrey, clearly crestfallen he couldn't dole out a detention.
"I talk to them occasionally, yes," she said slowly, squinting at him, pretending she didn't know where the conversation was leading.
"Those twins are trouble, and that's makes anyone who associates with them trouble in my book" he said viciously. He was quite a sight in the dimly lit corridor, one finger pointing at her threateningly, the other hand holding an oil lamp, which cast a light that exaggerated every crease and crinkle of his aged face, not to mention the scraggly cat winding it's way around his ankles, occasionally meowing it's agreement.
"That must make you a lot of friends" Avery muttered while she looked down at Mrs. Norris.
"What? What was that?" Filch snarled.
"I-I like your friend," Avery sputtered, pointing to his cat. She was a terrible liar, but all Filch did was sneer and head down the passage past her, the cat scurrying along after him.
She crawled into her bed shortly after and fell into a deep sleep. She slept so deeply, in fact, she didn't hear her alarm a few hours later and awoke with a start only ten minutes before the start of History of Magic.
"Bollocks!" She cried, throwing off her covers and rushing to her dresser, pulling on her uniform, cursing underneath her breath the entire time. As she pulled on her shoes she changed her hair to jet black, made herself six inches shorter, and willed her skin to be three shades lighter than normal. Grabbing her bag, she raced out of her dorm, through the common room, and up the stairs towards her class.
She noticed a few people snickering in the halls as she ran passed, and she was grateful she thought to disguise herself so when they made fun of her later to their friends, they wouldn't know it was actually Avery Stone that was running to class like it meant her life.
By the time she reached Professor Binn's classroom she was out of breath, flushed, and tired, but only two minutes late. She thought for a moment and changed herself back to her normal height, complexion, and features, except for her hair, which she made elbow length, wavy, and sandy colored before stepping inside. Once she did, Professor Bin's became quiet and gave her a dark look, as she had interrupted his monologue on Grindelwald. Mouthing an apology, so searched the room for an open seat, and the only one available was next to a familiar Hufflepuff with dark hair and a smattering of freckles. She had been avoiding sitting with Marilyn in classes since they had their disagreement in the Great Hall, but it was apparent it would be a bad time to squabble over seating as Binns was eying her impatiently, so she took the aisle seat next to Marilyn, careful to avoid her eye.

"As I was saying, the defeat of Grindelwald took place in-"

Marilyn slid a piece of parchment down the desk until it rested in front of Avery and then went back to taking notes. Avery took a quick glance down and saw Marilyn had written "still mad at me?" Avery's initial thought was that the answer should be quite obvious from the way she refused to look at Marilyn and was hanging off her seat and into the aisle, distancing herself as far as possible from the girl who had been her best friend since their first year. However, the more she thought about it the less angry she felt. More than anything she was bruised over the fact that Marilyn couldn't see why what she said had been hurtful and hadn't properly apologized.
Pulling some parchment, a quill, and ink out of her bag, Avery began to take notes on the lecture, but not before scribbling a hasty "talk after" on Marilyn's note and shoving it back towards her. When the professor dismissed them, the two rose out of their chairs with their classmates, but instead of rushing out with them, the two hung back and waited for the room to become a little clearer before speaking.
"I'm not mad, really. You said something that may have been well intended, but it came out as very insensitive and then you refused to acknowledge why it upset me and then didn't give me a proper apology, so I'm just a bit hurt I suppose," Avery explained, hitching her bag higher up on to her shoulder, trying to appear nonchalant. Marilyn nodded along as Avery spoke.
"Well I am very sorry," she replied simply. Avery wasn't sure if she was unsatisfied with the apology because she was being bitter and irrational or if it was because it seemed a bit short and insincere. Chewing her lip for moment, she decided to give Marilyn the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to bitterness.
"Thank you. I'm sorry for being so upset over it," Avery replied, although she wasn't quite sure that she really was.
"So we can walk to classes together and talk again?" Marilyn asked, and Avery nodded, willing herself to treat Marilyn no different than she would have been their fight had began, which got easier as the day wore on and lessons distracted them from any lingering tension. And if lessons weren't enough, in Charms class Seamus Finnegan caught his own robes on fire, which they thoroughly enjoyed laughing about together once he was extinguished. In fact, it wasn't until dinner time and she had sat down with Marilyn at the Hufflepuff table that Avery remembered what it felt like to have tension between them, and it all started with an innocent, "want to study together after dinner?"

Avery, without thinking, had hastily responded, "I can't, I have plans."

"Oh, what are you going to do?" Marilyn asked, helping herself to a roll from the basket in front of them. Avery quickly realized she couldn't very well tell Marilyn that she was helping the twins invent and manufacture a line of candies that helped students miss classes since she approved of neither the twins nor her pretending to be classmates for money, at least not without causing another rift between them.

"I'm tutoring someone," Avery blurted out and hurriedly taking the biggest bite she could out her chicken leg, chewing slowly, stalling for time to answer the question she knew would come next.

"Who?"

Avery pointed to her mouth, indicating she would answer after she was finished chewing. While she did, she scanned the Great Hall quickly, looking for a scapegoat. The chicken in her mouth was quickly becoming mush as she gnawed, eyes finally falling on Neville Longbottom, who she knew was notoriously bad at potions. Swallowing, she told Marilyn she would be helping the Gryffindor with his essay on girding potion in the library.

"Oh, well that's certainly nice of you. How did that happen?" Marilyn asked interestedly, buttering her bread.

"Well, I've been spending a lot of time studying, um, in the library lately, and he approached me and we started talking and I told him I am pretty good round a cauldron and so I've been tutoring him for a bit," Avery said, hoping her lie sounded a lot smoother than it felt. Marilyn frowned.

"And you're just doing this out of the goodness of your heart, or is he paying you?"

"No, actually he's been helping me with Herbology. You know, so I become a little less dependent on the plant life," Avery said, nodding.

"Oh. Well, that's good. Friends helping friends," Marilyn said, nodding also and turning back towards her plate. "Unless you're more than friends or something," she added, finally biting into her roll. Avery turned to look at the Gryiffindor table, where Neville was listening in on Dean and Seamus' conversation, eyes blank, and mouth partially open.

"Definitely not," Avery said, rolling her eyes and going back to her meal.

After dinner, Marilyn and Avery bade each other goodnight, Avery throwing in another quick lie about meeting Neville at the library, before taking off up the staircase and to the Room of Requirement, where the twins were already waiting.

"Noticed you having dinner with Marilyn. Friends again?" Fred asked by way of greeting. He was hunched over a potions book, no doubt looking for new ideas on how to make the nosebleed nougat work. George was searching the shelves and pulling down more books, his arms piled high with them.

"She apologized this morning, but that doesn't matter because I know the solution to our problem," Avery said in a singsong voice, pulling the revised recipe for nosebleed nougat out of her bag and holding it under Fred's nose. He grabbed it from her and read it quickly. George had also dropped his books, ran to the table, and began reading over Fred's shoulder.

"What makes you so sure this will work?" Fred asked, turning to face her.

"After I left last night I broke into a nosebleed just outside the common room. It was just a delayed reaction, so if we add some Dragonfly thorax, that should speed up the reactions. I also wrote down the name of the tonic Madam Pomfrey gave me to stop mine. We could easily incorporate it into the antidote side of the candy," Avery said proudly.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get started!" George exclaimed, grabbing a cauldron from one of the supply cabinets. As each of them worked on a variation of the nougat, each containing different amounts of dragonfly thorax to determine what was most effective, Avery told them all about her nosebleed from the night before.

"It just came out of nowhere. I had no idea. All the sudden, Cedric's eyes just went wide like I'd told him I had leg hair as long as Merlin's beard or something-"

"Wait, Cedric? Diggory?" George asked, looking up from his potion. "You didn't mention you were with him."

"I bumped into him outside the common room. He took me to the hospital wing."

"Can't understand why all the girls fancy him. He's a bit of a git, actually," Fred chimed in just as he was adding his dragonfly thorax.

"What makes you say that?" Avery asked, trying not to feel ruffled. She told herself the reason Fred's assessment of Cedric hurt was because your house is your family while you're at Hogwarts and she didn't like anyone calling any of her housemates a git, although it easily could have been because she was one of the silly girls who fancied him.

"Well he's just a bit proud, isn't he? He knows the girls think he's handsome and he walks about like he owns the place. Reminds me a bit of Percy, really. Strutting around like he's above everyone."

"That's not true. Cedric is very humble. I mean, I've been in the same house with him for three years and I've never once seen him 'strut'," Avery replied as she stirred, trying to keep her voice even and seem disinterested. Neither Fred nor George replied, but shared a knowing look, before turning back to their potions, stirring and staring down into their cauldrons.

"What?" Avery asked, her brows pinching together as she concentrated on dicing her dittany, which was the next ingredient the nougat required.

"You've got it for Diggory," they said in unison, also chopping their dittany.

"You know I hate it when you do that," Avery said.

"You mean when we speak in sync, or when we accurately guess who you fancy?" George said, chuckling with his twin.

"Both," Avery muttered, before adding the dittany to her concoction. While stirring, Fred had rested his hand a little too close to the flame and singed it. After Avery treated it with some of the reserves in the medicine cabinet, the subject changed, and an hour later they had each finished their variation of the nosebleed nougat. Again, they tasted the treats in turn while the other two studied the reactions. Avery's variation caused her nose to spew blood only seconds after she bit into it, while conversely George's took around five minutes to take effect. Fred's however took around thirty seconds, and the three agreed it was the perfect amount of time. They also tried the antidote portion of the candy which contained some of the same tonic Madam Pomfrey had used (an entire bottle of which Avery happened to find in the medicine cabinet,) in different amounts and found that Fred's also proved to be the most effective, stopping the nosebleed within five seconds of ingestion.

"This is fantastic!" George exclaimed, posting the finalized recipe for their first candy on the bulletin board near the bookcase. The three of the them stood there together for a few moments, smiling on their achievement. "One down, and who knows how many more to go," Fred added, elbowing George playfully.

They left the Room of Requirement in great spirits that night, quietly discussing whether or not they should go to the kitchens to see if they could scrounge up some celebratory butterbeer. Checking the marauders map and finding no one in their immediate path, they decided they would, especially since Avery had to find her way back to her common room in the basement anyway.

They found the way clear until they reached the fourth floor landing, where George threw an arm out in from of Avery to keep her from proceeding down the third floor.

"Looks like Filch nabbed Cho Chang, he whispered, gabbing the back of Avery's robes and pulling her back away from the staircase and half behind a suit of armor, where Fred joined them, checking his watch.

"What could she be doing out this late? It's half-past one."

The sound of distant voices were echoing their way up the stairs. She could hear Filch's gravelly drawl and Cho's high voice, seeming to be pleading, but for what Avery couldn't distinguish.

"They're moving this way," George whispered before muttering a quick "mischief managed," pulling Avery further behind the suit of armor. Fred followed so that they were all pressed together, hidden in the shadows. Avery listened closely as Filch and Cho made their way up the stairs, trying not to breathe, paranoid Filch or his cat would notice them. Through the bend in the suit of armor's arm, Avery could see Filch and Cho coming up the staircase, Filch holding his lantern out in front of him, his other hand firmly clasping the back of Cho's robes, practically dragging her forward, Mrs. Norris hot on his heels. Cho looked a mess; her hair was untidy and she was quite wan, eyes beginning to water.

"Please Mr. Filch! I just need to find my notes! My essay is due in the morning, and I won't be able to complete it without them. If you could just let me into the library for one-"

"Rubbish! Headed for the Restricted section, no doubt. Rotten children, absolutely no respect-"

"Mr. Filch, please!"

They continued up the stairs, bickering back and forth, Cho's voice becoming more like a whimper with each new argument, and Filch becoming shriller and shriller. When they were out of sight, George opened the map again, swore he was up to no good, and checked to see where Filch and Cho had gone.

"Looks like he's taking her back to Ravenclaw tower," George said, scanning the map, "I think we're clear to head for the kitchens."

"Alright," Avery began, as they untangled themselves from behind the armor, "but can we make a stop at the Library first?"

"What? You want to get her notes for her?"

"Precisely. Did you see how distraught she was? If it were me I would want someone to help if they were able," Avery said, but she could tell the twins were reluctant. They shared a look with one another and rolled their eyes, as if silently communicating that she were a dunderhead for wanting to help. She didn't know Cho very well at all. She had only talked to her maybe twice, in fact, but she had always seemed very nice, and judging by how upset she was, it must be an important essay that was do.

"Well I'll just go along without you then," Avery said, turning on her heel and marching down the stairs as quietly as she could. After a brief pause, she could hear the twins' footfalls behind her. She half expected them to continue down to the kitchens without her, but to her surprise, when she veered off onto the third floor, they were right behind her. Silently, with George monitoring the map, they pushed the door open and tip-toed their way in. Luckily Cho had left her notes on top of a table not too far from the entrance and Fred spotted them within a minute or two of being there. He quickly snatched them and passed them off to Avery.

"There. We're even now," he whispered gruffly. Avery gave him a puzzled look, unsure of what debt they had to settle, but she didn't bother to question him in that moment. George was standing near the door, ushering them out, mouthing 'Percy.' They dodged out of the room, down the corridor, and down the stairs as quickly and quietly as they could, narrowly avoiding Percy in the corridor, who was making his rounds as prefect. Flushed, they reached the ground floor, where Avery thanked them for helping her retrieve the notes.

"I appreciate it, and I'm sure Cho will, too. I'm going to owl them to her right now."

"Come and have a butterbeer first," George began.

"That was the whole reason we were coming down here anyway, remember?" Fred added, looking a little sullen. Weighing the options in her mind, she decided Cho would be happy to have them a little later than not at all, and stopped by the kitchen for a quick drink with the twins. She meant to ask Fred what he meant by what he said in the Library, but she became distracted by all the elves shoving bottles at her and even moreso when the twins began smiling and laughing loudly, cheering their success. And she had never seen the twins happier than when they toasted to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and their first completed product; nosebleed nougat.

The following morning, Avery poured herself a very large cup of coffee to drink while she quickly wrote out the paper on boggarts Professor Lupin had asked for, which she had been putting off. Since she had been helping the twins, she wasn't getting much sleep, or doing much homework for that matter. She vowed that she would set aside more time for herself from now on and certainly no more two a.m. butterbeers with the twins. Marilyn, on the other hand, seemed perfectly rested and was quietly reading the paper beside her when Cho Chang came to the table, cleared her throat, causing Avery to look up, bleary eyed, at her.

"I got your owl," she said, fidgeting. Then, finally seeming to decide something, she sat down across from Avery. "I'm very pleased and grateful, mind you," she whispered across the platter of eggs between them, "but... how?"

Suddenly, Marilyn didn't seem so interested in The Prophet and their latest assessment of where Sirus Black might be. She had folded her and paper and was listening to their conversation with her brow furrowing, clearly curious about what Cho could be so confused about. Avery was almost too tired to care whether or not Marilyn found out exactly what had happened the night before and who she was with, so she said the vaguest thing she could think of and hoped for the best.

"I noticed them on a table in the library. Thought you might need them," she said, finishing her sentence with a yawn and huge gulp of coffee. Cho gave her a puzzled look, but luckily before she could speak, something else more interesting seemed to catch Marilyn's eye, because she was cramming her paper into her bag and jumping out of her seat, hurriedly telling Avery she would see her in class before practically running out of the Great hall. Avery stared after her, the wheels turning so slowly in her mind she didn't even hear Cho talking to her again.

"Huh? What was that?" Avery asked sleepily, turning back to the Ravenclaw before dipping her quill in her ink and blotting a period at the end of her conclusion.

"I said the library is closed by nine-thirty. Why did you wait till two a.m. to send them if you found them while you were in library?"

"Well I didn't say I was in the library during open hours," Avery chuckled. She rubbed her eyes and told Cho what had happened; she was out late wandering the castle with some friends (whose names she conveniently left out) when she overheard her and Filch's encounter, so she snuck into the Library to find her notes. When she was finished, Cho's mouth was slightly open, her hand to her temple.

"I can't believe you did that. Thank you so much. I-I have no idea what to say. I was able to finish my essay thanks to you. I really owe you." Avery waved off her acknowledgment.

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad we could help," she rolled up her essay and tucked it into her bag.

"I also have a favor to ask..." Cho went on, twisting a lock of her now neatly-combed hair around her finger.

"Um, I'm not sure if anyone's ever told you this, Cho, but usually you don't repay someone who just did you a tremendous favor by asking them for another one," Avery laughed, downing the rest of her coffee and rubbing her eyes again.

"I know. It's just that I have detention with Snape tonight, and I'm already very behind in my schoolwork, which, I'm sure you could guess by the way I tried to sneak into the library last night, and how I was carrying on with Filch... And, well, Dennis told me what you do..."

Avery snapped to attention and looked carefully at Cho.

"I swear, I won't tell a soul," She said, holding up her hands, as if to say, "don't shoot."

"And so you want me to cover your detention this evening?"

"Yes. Please. I'm going mad with all this work, and with quidditch, and I just need the night free to catch up. I promise your secret is safe with me."

Avery sighed deeply and checked her watch. She had another thirty minutes before her first lesson began, so she pulled out some fresh parchment and dipped her quill in the ink again.

"My fee is seven galleons, and I'll need some of your robes, which I'll return later. Stay still, I need to write down your features." Cho said nothing in response and stayed still while Avery stared at her and jotted down characteristics, noticing more and more the longer she stared the unevenness of her complexion.

That evening, after she had successfully completed Cho's detention, she climbed the stairs out of the dungeon, still disguised as Cho, flexing her arm. She had been made to scrub all the tables, chairs, and floors of Snape's classroom, without magic of course. It had taken quite a while to scrape the frog spawn from the floor, so it was nearly eleven o'clock by the time she reached the entrance hall. She was hoping the hall would be empty so she could hurry her way to her dormitory and fall asleep, still exhausted from the night before. However, upon reaching the hall, she saw Cedric Diggory starting up the stairs and stopping when she emerged from the corridor.

"Cho? What are you doing out?" he asked. Luckily, Avery was a little more adapt at imitating female voices, so she felt comfortable using words sparingly.

"Detention," she replied simply, solemnly, digging her note out of her book bag and holding it out to Cedric, who took it in his hands and looked it over, before looking back at her.

"It's not like you to be out wandering at night," he commented, handing the note back. Avery's instinct was to make some sort of quip and hopefully make him laugh, but she just shrugged in response; she may have been confident in imitating Cho's voice, but she had no idea how good of friends she and Cedric were and so she didn't want to comment too much when it wasn't absolutely necessary.

"Come on, I'll walk you back to your tower," Cedric offered, holding out his arm for her to lead the way. In no mood to climb all the way to the tower, only to have to come back down, she declined.

"T-That's alright. It's a long way and aren't you supposed to stay down here outside of emergencies?" she replied.

"Well, yes, actually. I just wanted to walk with you and talk to you," he explained, his hands in his pockets now, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Oh?" Avery asked, not having to feign her interest. What business could Cedric and Cho have? She had never seen them together, so she assumed they weren't very close.

"Yes, well, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmede together. I know it's not for another few weekends, but I wanted to ask you early. You know, before someone else did," he said with a smile, the one Avery normally couldn't help but imitate. But this time she had no desire to smile for a few reasons. The first being, of course, she had hoped he might ask her to visit Hogsmede with him. She knew it hadn't been a likely thing to happen, but she had hoped all the same and it was a bit deflating to discover that she had not only imagined their moment before he nosebleed, but that he was also romantically interested in someone other than her (she couldn't deny selfishly imagining that he either had eyes for her or no one at all). The second was she did not know Cho very well and was completely unequipped to answer this question.

She fidgeted a bit with her bag, and then her hair, remembering that Cho had done the same thing this morning. She was taking too long, and Cedric was looking at her too hopefully. She needed to give him an answer, and quickly. She looked everywhere but at Cedric and bit her lip before blurting out yes, and rushing up the stairs before Cedric could either respond or catch up.