Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, Hogwarts or anything else linked to the books. They all belong to J. K. Rowling. I'm just borrowing them to mess around with. Vincent and Damon both belong to me, I think…

Chapter 4

Looking back, it was a stupid thing to do and it hurt us both, but I decided that if I was no longer friends with Vincent, if I ignored him completely, my feelings might disappear. I wasn't thinking straight and it seemed the logical thing to do at the time. How I was going to avoid him when we were on the same Quidditch team, had lessons together and shared a dorm didn't quite cross my mind immediately. At that point, the most important thing was to stop him guessing how I felt.

When we got up the next morning, I ignored him from the start. When he tried to talk to me, I blanked him completely and started to talk to Percy. Vincent looked completely bewildered, especially when we went down to breakfast and I planted myself between Percy and Damon, leaving Vincent to sit next to the twins. He tried to talk to me several times while we were eating, then finally realised that it was a waste of time and gave up. All through our morning lessons, he tried again, and again I ignored him, trying to block his voice from my head and concentrate on my work at the same time. When the bell rang, I quickly gathered my things and hurried from the room, but Vincent caught up with me and grabbed my arm.

"What is wrong with you today, Oliver?" he demanded. "Have I done something to upset you? You've been ignoring me all morning and I'm getting a little worried"

"Look, I'm getting sick of you going on at me" I snapped, pulling my arm from his grip. "Stop acting like you care"

"But I do care about you" he protested. "Why are you being like this, Oliver?"

"Well maybe I don't care about you" I said shortly, beginning to walk away. "I don't want your sympathy and I don't want your friendship. So just leave me alone"

As soon as the words had left my mouth, I wished I could take them back. Vincent looked devastated, as he turned on his heels and walked off in the direction of the main exit. I really wanted to go after him and tell him that I was sorry, that I hadn't meant any of it. I was more confused than ever, everything was turning out to be such a big mess and I had no idea how to put things right.

I didn't go to lunch. I went up to my dorm, got my things for my afternoon lessons and my diary and went to the library. I know it's a bit strange, not many guys I know keep a diary, but I like writing things down. It helped me a lot when my depression was bad and it helped me now. It was the one thing I could be totally honest with and I wrote down everything that had happened that day and how bad it had made me feel. When I had finished, I read through the most recent entries. Most of them were just about Vincent and how I felt about him, just mindless rambling. I'd also written down a couple of dreams I'd had about him too, nothing explicit, but still fairly detailed.

After lunch, I hurried to Potions and sat in my usual place. Vincent came in late with Professor Snape, who had a comforting hand on his shoulder. He sat beside me without a word, not even looking at me. I couldn't blame him, I'd hurt him very badly, and I knew that.

Snape asked us to get out our Guide to Making Advanced Potions book. Looking at the two books I had picked up, I realised that I had accidentally picked up the book I had got from the library for Care of Magical Creatures class instead. I knew that Snape would give me a row, he hates students forgetting their books, and with Flint grinning away four seats away from me, it was the last thing I needed right then. But just as I was about to put up my hand, Vincent shot me a brief look and pushed his book over to me.

"Professor" he said quickly, not giving me a chance to refuse. "I am so sorry, but I have forgotten my book. I honestly didn't mean to, I'm really sorry…"

"Don't worry yourself about it" Snape said at once, much to everyone's amazement. "I have no spare copies at the moment however, so you will have to share. You can move if you wish" He glared at me, leaving me in no doubt that Vincent had told him about our argument. Vincent however, shook his head.

"I'll sit here, sir," he said quietly. "But thank you anyway"

"Thank you" I whispered, once the lesson had begun. I knew why he had done it, because Snape loves scolding students, humiliating them and taking points from their houses. Even some Slytherin's get the treatment, although usually they have to do something really bad first. But Snape really has a soft spot for Vincent, his foster son, even to the point where he took twenty points from the Slytherin House after Flint played dirty and knocked Vincent off his broomstick. Completely unlike Snape, but he wouldn't scold Vincent for something as minor as forgetting a book and Vincent knew it. Even after I had upset him, he was still willing to get me out of trouble. He just looked down at the table and didn't reply, not that I actually expected him too.

After Potions, we had Care of Magical Creatures and at the end, I noticed Vincent say a few words to Hagrid, whistle to his wolf cub and walked off, obviously wanting to be alone.

He didn't come in to dinner that night. Damon told me that he hadn't come in for lunch either and asked if I knew what was wrong with him. I just shook my head and started to push my food around my plate. Damon seemed to realise that I didn't want to talk about it, so he began to talk to Percy and the Weasley twins. I could hear my name and Vincent's name being mentioned in several conversations. It seemed like everyone knew that we had had an argument, and from the sound of things, many of them blamed me. I was hardly surprised; Vincent is pretty popular amongst the students, even if he does have a reputation for being a bit strange.

After dinner, I went straight up to my dormitory, knowing that there probably wouldn't be anyone there and I could have some much needed time alone. There was just one person up there, a guy named Joe, who I didn't know very well but who I certainly didn't like. Although he was in Gryffindor, he was good friends with a few Hufflepuffs and a handful of Slytherins, including Marcus Flint. Anyone who wants to be friends with Marcus Flint is bad news as far as I'm concerned.

Joe had my diary in his hand and when he saw me, he looked guilty and held it out to me.

"Sorry Oliver" he said quickly. "I was walking past your bed and I knocked your books off, so I was just picking them up for you"

"Thanks" I said curtly, snatching it from him and collapsing on my bed. It didn't cross my mind that Joe might have been lying. After all, what would anyone want with my diary? Most people in Hogwarts respect each other's privacy and so on. As it turned out, that was a big mistake.

Damon came in a while later, shortly followed by Percy. Joe came in about half an hour later, a smirk on his face, but even when I finally fell asleep, there was no sign of Vincent anywhere. When I woke up the next morning, his bed had already been made; the only clue that he had been there was that some of his books had gone. He wasn't at breakfast either, but as we were lining up to go into Potions, I saw him coming along with professor Snape. He looked completely exhausted and I felt another pang of guilt, knowing that I was the one who had caused him so much distress. I tried to tell myself that it was better this way, but I didn't really believe it.

About half way through the lesson, while we were making our potions, Flint walked past and smirked at me. Before I had time to wonder what he was up to, he produced a piece of paper from his pocket. I recognized it immediately, it was one of the pages from my diary, and I could only assume that it was a recent page.

"Hey Vincent" Flint sounded perfectly friendly as he smiled at my old best friend. "I think perhaps you should read this. After this you might not want that freak for a friend after all"

Vincent glared at him and snatched the paper from his hand. This was my worst nightmare come true and all I could do was watch while he read it, wondering what he would say…