A/N: I'M BAAAAAAAAACK!!! OMG, how long has it been? It seems like forever since I last posted. But in actuality, it was just, ACK, two weeks!!! Oh Lordy, I'll try never to keep that much of a gap in between chapters. I'm sooooo sorry about that, really, I am! It's just that with the beginning of high school, I've just had so much to do. I've got homework every night (yes, on weekends, too), and I've been greatly distracted by the inspiration to start other stories. I promise, though, cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, that I will get the next few chapters up in a jiffy, with not much of a wait in between. Once again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Anyways, high school life is slowly sinking in. There's been a lot of drama in my life, though, as of late. My best friend's parents want her to transfer schools, meaning we won't be experiencing high school together. I knew it was too good to be true in the beginning. We have lockers next to each other, and we even have the same big sister (we have a buddy system going on.) We were best friends since kindergarten, and now it's like losing a twin sister. The character Megan was made after her, and Alina is me. Just watch how their relationship progresses, and you'll probably be able to realize how hard it's been for me for the past few days.

Okay, I'll shut up now, on to chapter nine.

Chapter 9: Quidditch, Girls, Keepers, and...Did I Mention Girls?

"The nerve of her! I can't believe it!" Alina was pacing back and forth in the girls' dormitories with Megan watching her from her four- poster. Luckily, they had the dormitory to themselves because Lavender and Parvati were somewhere with their other house boyfriends, while Hermione was somewhere in the library getting lost in a book. Penelope was off with Camille, Erin, and Mikaela.

"What's up with Hermione? She...she's got problems." Megan stated. Alina stopped pacing.

"Very true. She just wants to be perfect." Alina said, almost every word dripping with the detest she felt for Hermione at the moment. "I feel so sorry for Draco. I mean did you hear how Professor McGonagall just took points away here and there. It was like she was on a spree! Draco has been telling me about how hard he works to earn his house points, and then it all gets taken away by the little Prefect prat!" Alina exclaimed.

"Look, we shouldn't be worrying about her. We've got other things to worry about..." Megan trailed as Alina caught her drift. Alina nodded.

"I know... It's sad. I bet he doesn't even know what's out after him. And my parents just wanted to let him be, without my brother's protection. He can't just go around without being protected. Keverene will go after him if he isn't properly watchful. We both know that Keverene will do anything to get back in power. And then the only way to do so is to get him. So, with my brother not watching him, who better than his own sister?" Alina asked as she flopped down on her own four-poster.

"If you're supposed to be protecting him, why don't you start now?" Megan asked. Alina sighed.

"I...I don't know. I'm not ready." Alina confessed.

"Are you scared of protecting him? There's nothing to be afraid of." Megan said.

"But what if it happens tonight, and I'm unaware. And then it happens and then he'll be gone. I'd kill him by instinct. It's similar to the way my brother died. He was unaware of what day it was, and he was in the wrong place at a very bad time. You know the rest of the story." Alina was now frantic. Megan stood up.

"If it were to happen tonight, Professor Dumbledore would've informed us and sent us to Professor Snape immediately." Megan assured.

"But Professor Snape is a frog!" Alina exclaimed. Megan rubbed her temple.

"Don't go near any windows. If you catch sight of it, then it might happen. Just.close curtains. Stay in windowless corners. It's simple." Megan said. Alina sighed again and got up.

"I'm just going to go look for the girls instead. I'll start tomorrow." Alina said, leaving Megan in the dormitory. She was surprised that Megan wasn't running after her, like she usually did. Being what she, Alina, is, it's a hard task. You have to know you're dates properly. Make charts according to the moon. And you had to keep it totally secret for the sake of your own safety.

Alina headed down to the common room and was making her way to the portrait hole when she spotted Harry sitting by the fireplace, caught up in his Divination homework. Their homework was to make a moon chart, Alina's specialty, for the coming month.

She tried to get past Harry quietly, but he seemed to sense her presence.

"Alina." Alina turned around at the sound of her name. She smiled warmly.

"Harry." Alina said, deciding that she should just go over there and get to know him. She sat down by the fire next to him. "You working on your moon chart?" Alina asked, peering over to look at his piece of parchment spread out on the table.

"Yeah, did you start yours?" Harry asked. Alina tried not to laugh.

"Finished mine." Alina said, trying not to sound like she was bragging.

"Really?" Harry asked. Alina nodded.

"You need help?" Alina asked. Harry nodded a bit discreetly. She then started giving him the answers, to his great surprise. That was a very un- Hermione like thing, and he wasn't exactly used to it. Harry wasn't the one to cheat on homework, but come on; this was Divination. It's not like he hasn't done stuff similar to that in the past. "And the thirty-first will be a crescent moon." Alina finished and when Harry finished writing, he put his quill down. He nervously turned to face Alina.

"Can I ask you something?" Harry asked. Alina nodded, frowning a bit. "What school did you come here from?" Harry asked.

"I...I went to Beauxbatons Academy. I don't like to talk about that school." Alina said, hesitantly at first.

"That eliminates what I was going to ask." Harry said, looking down at his parchment.

"Oh, if you wanted to ask, I don't mind sharing, it's just that...I had a bit of bad memories there." Alina said.

"If it makes you feel uncomfortable, I won't ask." Harry said.

"No, if you want to ask why I came here, I'll tell you. If you want to ask about what happened, I don't mind. I find that curiosity is a nice thing...at times." Alina said, laughing lightly.

"So, why did you come here? Did you get kicked out?" Harry asked the last question slowly.

"Well, my family moved. We moved out of France to London. It was my Dad's decision. And he decided to move because of my rep at Beauxbatons. Don't get me wrong; I wasn't a troublemaker or anything like that. It's just that I react badly, should I say, to what people do and say. And that's how the rest of my pals and I got expelled. I...we...we kind of gave this clique of girls what was coming to them." Alina explained.

"What did they do to get you to do that?" Harry asked, really interested in what Alina was talking about.

"They didn't understand us. They misjudged us. They called us losers because we were supposedly 'not cool.' They used their supposed 'popularity' to get to me, because they didn't like me, and what was really special to me." Alina said. Somewhere along the line, she took her wand out of her robes and started levitating all the objects in her sight.

"Can I ask what it was that was special to you?" Harry whispered. He didn't know why he was whispering, but he figured it was because he didn't want to seem obnoxious and nosy and rude.

"You might think this is strange coming from a girl, but I love sports. Especially Quidditch." Alina said.

"You like Quidditch?" Harry asked.

"Girls can like sports, too-"

"No, it's just that I play Seeker for our house team." Harry interrupted.

"That's cool! I don't play Seeker. I don't think I'm built for that." Alina said, shrugging.

"Who told you that?" Harry asked, discreetly looking her over. She wasn't scrawny, and she wasn't huge or anything. To Harry, she seemed perfectly built. But being friends with a teenage witch himself has helped him realize that they're sensitive about their appearance, and so self- conscious.

At Harry's question, Alina scrunched her nose in distaste.

"Oh, they said that." Harry said, and Alina nodded.

"I was going out for the Beauxbatons girls' Quidditch team because they had just started one for girls at our school. The position didn't really matter to me at first. I just wanted to be on the team. But when everyone told me to try out for Seeker, I was determined to get that position. To my dismay, though, it turned out that one of those stuck up gits was going out for Seeker, too. She and her friends had tried everything to get me to step down from the tryouts. And trust me, they tried everything. They had tried breaking my arm, and jinxing my broom. Actually, they jinxed my broom twice because they wanted it to seem like I couldn't handle a broom. Then, they tried bribery of the judges, breaking my broom, and breaking various bones in my body. Okay, the breaking of various bones in my body was painful. I had broken toes due to the times when they stepped on my feet really hard while passing me in the halls. I also got a broken ankle. And then they tried breaking my neck. They obviously didn't succeed in that. They tried really hard to take me out, but I was simply invincible." Alina said as Harry chuckled.

"So, what-"

"I'm not done, Harry. You see, after they couldn't do any of the following to me, they realized that getting to me physically wasn't the trick. They decided to get in my brain and make it eat me up alive. With all the social power they had, they were finally getting to me. They had people come up to me and tell me I'm fat, and that I could break my broom, or smash a Golden Snitch in my bare hands. They'd say the air couldn't support my weight, and even the greatest warlock would never be able to levitate such a person of my size." Alina explained, rolling her eyes.

"That's stupid. That's not even possible." Harry said.

"I know, it isn't. But I let them get to me. I let it affect me, and that affected my game. I never made it onto the team, and that is why I'll never be fit for a Seeker, or any other position on a Quidditch team because I am fat." Alina said dully.

Harry was trying to work the nerve to say something to her, maybe something like, "Oh Alina, you're not fat." But Harry knew perfectly well that if he tried to say that, it would come out horribly wrong and sound something like, "You're as fat as my cousin Dudley, and that's fat" or something else very degrading.

"How did you get expelled?" Harry asked curiously, instead of showing pity for her. Alina looked him in the eyes and could swear he felt the blood rush to his cheeks the second their eyes locked. She smiled a crooked grin.

"You're full of questions, Mr. Potter." Harry, being the fifteen-year- old boy he is, felt his hormones racing when Alina had addressed him as "Mr. Potter." Harry shook away the thoughts of all the naughty things he had been thinking when Alina had just used that simple address. "Well, the girls and I got them back. We got them back good. The girl that beat me out for Seeker had always treasured her hair. Every girl, and some boys, envied her for having such nice volume (at that Alina rolled her eyes.) So, we snuck into her dorm and switched all her hair shampoo and conditioner and stuff to Balding Potion, and after she took a whiff of that stuff, she was as bald as a mountain troll!" Alina exclaimed as Harry's jaw dropped.

"What!?" Harry questioned in shock.

"You heard me right, Harry. She was hairless. Now, she was envying every witch or wizard that had hair at the top of their heads." Alina explained as Harry gaped at her. If Harry had learned of a Balding Potion earlier, he was sure he and Ron would've used it on Malfoy for any stupid reason. "As for the other girls, they were breaking out in hives, boils, and bad cases of pimples, parts of their bodies would balloon, girls were burping up slugs-"

"Ron started burping up slugs once." Harry interrupted.

"No way." Alina said.

"Yes, seriously." he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Malfoy had called Hermione a 'Mudblood,' and Ron stood up for her and tried hexing Malfoy. But at the time, Ron's wand was going completely haywire, and he ended up hitting himself with the hex, and that's how it happened." Harry explained.

"Why was he sticking up for Hermione?" Alina said quietly.

"What was that?" Harry asked. Alina looked up and clamped a hand over her mouth quickly.

"Oh my god, I didn't mean to say that aloud. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say that. I...I've just had a bad time trying to accept Hermione ever since the whole thing in Potions happened. I guess you could say that's because I care about Draco, and I couldn't bear to see Professor McGonagall take all those points from Slytherin, all because of Hermione." Alina explained, saying Hermione's name in an undertone.

At her mention of Malfoy, Harry remembered what had been bothering him before.

"Can I ask you something? It's kind of personal, but it's been...the talk between some people lately. I just wanted to clear some things up, and if you told me, then I'd be able to do so. But I don't want you to think I'm intruding in your personal-"

"Harry, you're rambling." Alina said between giggles.

"Oh...um...what I was going to ask is: are you and Malfoy an item? You know, like a couple? Dating? Engaged? Are you possibly betrothed to Malfoy? Or are you pregnant with Malfoy's child? Are you already mar-"

"You're rambling again." Alina said.

"I'm sorry Alina, it's just I-"

"Don't speak. Let me answer. Look, Draco and I are not dating. We're no couple. I'm not his fiancé. I'm not set to marry him. I am DEFINITELY not pregnant with his child! That's absurd! And we're not married! Harry, you've got everything all wrong. Draco and I are just good friends. Yes, it's very common for people to say that when they're trying to cover up a relationship. But believe me when I say that Draco and I are not dating. He told me you asked him that at Potions. You could believe him. He's not really the one to lie when asked a question. He'll give an honest answer." Alina said as the two of them heard the portrait swing shut and footsteps approaching the common room. It was Ron.

"Harry, Fred told me to tell you that Madame Hooch said that Quidditch practices could begin as soon as next Sunday. She also said that you could post the announcement about Keeper tryouts on the notice board-" Ron stopped abruptly when he saw who was sitting with Harry. His eyes widened, and then his face turned scarlet when he realized his reaction. "Um...uh... Hi Alina! Gee, I...you know...um..."

"Come on Ron, you want to sit and join us?" Harry asked, his eyes pleading with him. Ron nodded and took a seat beside Alina.

"There'll be Keeper tryouts?" Alina asked, turning away from Harry to face Ron.

"Yeah. Our Gryffindor team needs a new Keeper ever since our last Keeper graduated. He was some Keeper. We need someone to continue the Oliver Wood legacy. He really knew how to keep those knuckle balls from getting past him." Ron said. Alina snapped her head back to Harry, whipping Ron's face with some strands of her hair.

"You're on the team, right?" Alina asked. Harry nodded slowly. "Well, do you know who's in charge of the tryouts?" Harry looked past Alina to Ron, who obviously had more information about the tryouts than he does. Ron cleared his throat and Alina snapped back to Ron.

"It's up to the team. The team will watch them, and how they play, and they will determine whether that person will be a good addition to their team. I think that I would be a-"

"Oh Harry, you know how much I love Quidditch! And you know that I would want nothing else if I made the house team! Harry, would you please put a good say in for me? You could ask any of the girls, and they'll tell you I'm quite good at Quidditch. Please! Let me try out! If you put me on the team I swear I won't let you down! Please! Just give me a chance to show you I can do-"

"Who's the one rambling now?" Harry asked as Alina blushed.

"But will you?" Alina asked.

"I can't guarantee anything. But I will guarantee you a spot for tryouts." Harry reasoned. Alina knew she had hoped too high, and nodded.

"Lina, I thought you were heading out." Alina looked back to see Megan heading for the portrait hole.

"What?" Alina asked.

"I was just about to look for you. You said you were going to look for the rest of the girls." Megan said.

"Oh, well, change of plans." Alina said, trying to point to Harry with her eyes so the boys wouldn't see.

"Ohhhh...um, well...I just thought you wanted to go see the other girls... But it's okay, if you're busy you don't have to come alo-"

"I was just about to head up to the dormitories anyway. I finished my homework, and I was going to tell Alina that I was going to turn in." Harry said, and Alina looked back at him.

"So this is it for tonight?" Alina asked. Harry nodded. Alina got up, and smiled warmly down at Harry and Ron. "It was nice talking to you, Harry. The same goes for you, Ron. I'll see the both of you around tomorrow." Alina said before catching up with Megan. The two of them headed to the portrait hole, and the two boys watched them until the portrait swung shut.

"You and Alina!" Ron exclaimed as he smacked Harry on the arm.

"What was that for?" Harry asked.

"Did you get the dirt? Is she going out with Malfoy?" Ron questioned.

"Nope, she made it clear." Harry said, shrugging.

"And what's this about Quidditch. You're gonna make me Keeper, right?" Ron asked. Harry's heart sank.

"I...I can't guarantee anything. But I will guarantee you a spot for tryouts." Harry said.

A/N: Before I go and wallow in self-pity once again, I'd like to give a shout out to Rosh. I'm telling ya, girl, we were separated at birth!!! Okay, I'm SO not writing Jeff into my story. Actually, I told him to bugger off just recently. Get this, he IM-ed me once (when my Away Message was on, how stupid is that?) and I told him coolly, calmly, and collectively (heehee, that's my new thing) that whenever he IM's me, he has nothing interesting to say. And that he was boring, and I'd like him to stop bothering me. I told him that he's a bugaboo, and if he didn't know what that meant, I told him to look it up. Then, I blocked him off, and haven't heard from him since. Muahahahahahahaha!!!!! Oh, and about Draco and Alina. Look, he can't leave Alina alone! He's in this story, and he's STAYING!!! -Gryffindor Heiress