A/N: Say it with me, altogether now: I am a horrible updater. The play ended a last weekend, and then I went and saw the musical Rent, and I got so caught up in everything else that I kinda-sorta forgot to update. I KNOW!!! Before you all decide to throw tomatoes at me, hear me out. I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry! When I first started posting, I never thought my social life would get in the way. Unfortunately, it has, but never fear, I will finish with the story, and you all will be happy!

I don't own Harry Potter. But I do own Tom Felton. He's tied to me bed. ::devilish grin::

Chapter 21: Discovery

"Draco, I don't know what to say about this. I mean I've never read up on being attacked, or in this case, killed in a dream. It's just unheard of." Alina was sitting at Draco's side. Madam Pomfrey had let her back into the hospital wing, and the two began talking about Draco's dream.

"It has to be mentioned somewhere. It's some Dark stuff." Draco was determined to find out what his father was using to get into his dreams. He wasn't convinced that it was just some whacked out nightmare. His dream was real. He knew it. Just the way his father had wrapped his hands around his neck. Draco could still feel it. It was as if his father had been standing over him, strangling him as he slept.

"I really wish I could help. Maybe I could ask Professor Lupin." Alina suggested. Draco shook his head.

"Don't get a professor involved."

"If your father is trying to hurt you, and is getting to you in your dreams, I think it's best that someone knows. You don't want to die in your sleep." Draco looked up at her. The look on his face was different. He was in deep thought. He was racking his brain for a way to find out what was wrong with him.

"The Restricted Section." Draco said after a long pregnant pause.

"The what? I've never-"

"It's in the library. You can't get there unless you have...teacher's permission. Damn." Then a thought went off in Alina's mind.

"Dra-I know a way to get in that restricted place without a teacher's consent." Alina said quickly. She was too excited that she almost couldn't speak. She really wanted to help Draco, and she hoped that maybe this could lift his spirits.

"How?" Draco straightened himself out. Alina leaned in closer, so Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear.

"Harry, he has-"

"Oh! I...I didn't mean to interrupt. I...was looking...for Penny." Hermione stood in the doorway, blushing a deep shade of red that covered all of her face.

"Penny isn't here. Why?" Alina asked, suspicious to Hermione's actions.

"Penny...well, she got a letter from Percy's girlfriend. But Penny is Percy's girlfriend. But Percy is still going out with the other Penny, Penny from Ravenclaw. She was a Prefect. So now Percy is some sort of two- timer, and I just wanted to make sure...Penny didn't...uh...hurt herself." Hermione spoke fast, and smiled sheepishly.

"I assure you that Penny is fine. I've been here all morning, and I haven't seen her swing by. If she does, I'll let her know you were looking for her." Alina said, almost signaling Hermione to leave. Hermione's face fell at that. She put her hand back on the doorknob.

"Um...okay then. I'll, uh...leave." Hermione scurried out of the room.

"Back to what I was saying. Harry has a-" There was a knock at the door. Madam Pomfrey bustled out of her office to get the door.

"Alina, you have a guest." Madam Pomfrey said. Draco and Alina exchanged glances. From behind Madam Pomfrey emerged none other than Oliver Wood. Alina inwardly groaned. Why exactly did he have to be there at that time? He always picked the best moments to do something stupid.

"Well, Draco and I were..." Alina looked from Oliver, and then back down to Draco. Draco nodded. "What?" Alina bent down and hissed so that Madam Pomfrey and Oliver couldn't hear.

"Go talk to him. Tell him to leave you alone." Draco said before giving her a little push. Alina straightened herself out and walked towards the door, where Oliver was standing. Madam Pomfrey walked back to her office, but not without looking from Alina to Oliver curiously.

Oliver held the door open for her, and led her out into the corridor. He looked around the corner to see if anyone was coming, or was within earshot. He then turned back to her.

"Alina, I wanted to ask if you're still willing to come to America with-"

"HOW DARE YOU!" Alina shrieked.

"Excuse me?" Oliver, out of instinct, took a step away from her as he spoke.

"You picked a great time to come and see me, Oliver. Yeah, you decide to come when I'm here in the hospital wing. I know how people like you think. You thought I'd be vulnerable, and automatically change my mind about all the things I had thought about you after the Ball. Think again." Alina spat.

"Just let me-"

"Listen to me, Wood, and listen well. You hurt me on the night of the Ball. You can't fix that."

"But-"

"Hey! Just because you get your centerfold in the January issue of Witch Weekly doesn't give you the right to interrupt me. Look, I don't need a boy like you. I need a real man... One that doesn't play for those rejects from Fitchburg." Alina turned on her heel and never looked back at Oliver Wood.

She shut the door behind her. Draco furrowed his eyebrows at her.

"Why are you wearing the 'I-Wanna-Kick-Myself-In-the-Arse' look?" Draco asked as she fell into the seat beside his bed. "No, don't tell me that Wood has got you whipped and you went back with him and-" Alina held her hand up, "What?"

"Breaking him into tiny pieces made me think." Draco looked at her amusedly.

"Really? Gee, you're evil." Draco said, resting his hands behind his head.

"No, no, it's just that I thought of something as I.well.stepped all over his pride. I want someone that can protect me, take care of me. He ran away when I could've died." Alina said, propping her head up with her hand.

"Where are you getting with this?" Draco asked, "No...oh no... You're turning over to the wrong side on me, Li. You can't... No... Really? You can't..." Alina leaned over so she could whisper.

"Draco, he makes me feel-"

"No, I don't wanna hear this. LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, LA!!!" Draco covered his ears and began la-ing as loud as he could. Alina huffed, and leaned back into her seat. Draco stopped la-ing, and looked at her. He brought his hands away from his ears. "Well, finally you realized what everyone but you had seen before."

******

"Another meal is going to go by. Guys, I think Alina has become anorexic if she hasn't eaten since what seems like forever." Megan said, looking at Ron and Harry worriedly.

"She's making sure Draco doesn't get lonely in the hospital wing. You've got to admit that's nice of her to practically dedicate her life to him." Harry said.

"Practically? She has dedicated her life to him, and has forgotten all about herself!" Megan exclaimed.

Ron dropped his fork, and it hit the table with a clunk. His jaw fell with the fork.

"I've gone nutters." Ron said as he quickly reached for his goblet. He guzzled it down.

"What's-Oh my god." Megan looked to the doors to the Great Hall, and watched in disbelief as Alina Halliwell herself made her way to the Gryffindor table. Harry scoot over so she could get the spot next to him and Megan. Megan nudged Alina when she sat down. "Have you lost your mind? I thought you gave up eating! Draco must be getting lonely in that hospital wing!" Megan screeched as Alina reached for the dinner rolls and shoved them into her mouth.

"Pass the...pass the butter, Harry." Alina chomped on the bread as Harry passed her the butter. She grabbed a piece of chicken in her free hand, and chewed pieces of chicken after taking a piece of bread. Megan gaped at her, at a total loss of words.

"I don't think I've ever seen a girl eat so much." Ron said as he, too, reached for a dinner roll.

"She could give you a run for your money." Ron stuck his tongue out at Megan. "It's true!"

"How could you-" Alina held her hand up, stopping Ron from finishing his sentence.

"Don't interrupt her when she's eating." Megan advised.

"How was she able to bring herself away from Draco?" Harry's eyes shifted from Megan, and back to Alina.

"I don't know." Harry said, "But I'm going to find out." He thought as he got out of his seat.

"Where're you... Never mind then." Ron said as Harry kept walking without a word.

******

"What'd you do to her?" Harry asked as he pushed the door to the hospital wing open.

"What is it now, Potter?" Draco questioned cantankerously.

"What'd you do to her?" Harry repeated.

"Who's 'her'?"

"You know. She's the only girl, let alone person, that believes there's something good in you." Harry stopped at the edge of Draco's bed.

"What about Alina?"

"Ugh! What'd you do to her? She actually came to *dinner*." Harry emphasized.

"What's wrong with someone wanting to eat?"

"How can you be so thick? She's been *living* around these corridors, or stuck in her room. She hasn't been in the Great Hall since the Howler."

"You think I wasn't aware of that? I told her it'd be best if she went to eat or else she'll faint." Draco shrugged. Harry nodded. He started walking back to the doors when, "Uh, Harry." Draco said. Harry thought his ears were playing tricks on him.

"You called me 'Harry'?" it wasn't a statement. It was a question.

"It's your name. Look, I guess your house must be talking about it now. So, um, what did Hermione say when she heard I was, uh, dreaming about her?" Harry thought Madam Pomfrey had slipped a drug into the potions she had given Draco.

"Well...she wasn't grossed out. She was more shocked, and wanted to know more. Which I thought was-"

"I guess you should know the whole story." Harry really thought something was wrong with Draco now.

"You're telling me-"

"Hermione and I went out. Well, not just one date: more than once. She was just so down, and she felt like she was ignored, and we just bumped into each other once in the Astronomy Tower, and it was just so strange. She kept talking, and she didn't care who I was. She told me about how she felt that you and Weasley didn't know she existed since the new girls came along, and she had a crush on Weasley, she tried to tell you. You assumed she was worked up because of Voldemort. She hated the fact she was ignored, and she kind of confided in me. We didn't know what was happening after that, it's all a blur now. It just happened. I kissed her, and it-"

"WHAT!?" Draco and Hermione, kissing. That didn't sound right.

"Look, that doesn't matter." Draco said.

"Doesn't matter!?"

"What matters now is that I lost her because I screwed up, and I don't think she wants me back because, first off, I broke my promise of taking her to the Winter Ball. Now, she thinks I cheated on her with Alina. She won't hear me out, and it's driving me crazy. I don't-"

"Wait, wait, wait. Let's start from the beginning. But, talk slower."

******

Megan sat on a couch in the common room. Ron was sound asleep with his head on her shoulder. Megan was caught in a crisis, and she didn't know what to do about it. Tomorrow would be her and Ron's two-month anniversary, and Ron was planning something special for the two of them. Sounds simple, right? But, tomorrow would be a full moon, and Megan would have to go to the Shrieking Shack. She didn't know what to tell Ron because there was just no good excuse to use in her predicament. The only thing left for her to do was to tell him, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to. She was afraid that if she did tell him the truth, he'd leave her because he was scared of her.

Megan shifted a bit on the couch, and accidentally nudged Ron ever so slightly, but still causing a little commotion out of him.

"Mm...I'm coming, Gin. Five more minutes." Megan giggled. Ron frowned, his eyes still closed. This caused Megan to laugh out loud. Ron finally forced his eyes open, and he glared at her for waking him up.

"Good morning, sunshine of my life." Megan said with false cheer.

"Shut up." Ron groaned, and then he decided to rest his head in her lap.

"Ron, I have to talk to you, but I think you should sit up for this." Ron did as told. Megan looked around the common room. Students were scattered around, either doing assignments or talking to each other. "You know what, let's go up to my room." Megan took his hand and led him up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

"Hey! No boys in the girls' dormitories!" Lavender screamed as Parvati made a mad dash for the bathroom.

"He doesn't have cooties. Besides, he's not here to see you two anyway. We'll be in my four-poster." Megan said, leading Ron over to her bed at the far end of the dormitory. "In." Megan ordered. Ron went and sat on the bed, and Megan went and pulled the covers over on all sides of the bed.

"You have no shame." Lavender said in utter disgust.

"Ew, get your head examined, you pervert!" Megan called out to Lavender. Megan pulled the last cover over, and looked at Ron whom sat on her bed, looking a little uncomfortable. Megan pulled her wand out of robes and said the Silencing Charm under her breath. "Are you okay?" Ron gulped loudly. "I think you're taking this the wrong way. Look, I just needed to tell you something. It's really important, and it may change what happens tomorrow.

"Ron, I don't know how to put this any other way, but...I'm a werewolf." Ron didn't seem fazed when she had said that, "Okay, that's a good thing. I guess. Why isn't he saying anything? Now, I have to give him the whole story. I hope the other girls don't think I'm horrible for doing this." She thought.

"Are all of you werewolves?" he asked, seemingly interested with the subject.

"Yeah-"

"How'd you all end up at Hogwarts? Did Alina really get expelled or something like that?"

"Look, there's more to the story. Okay, Alina's brother, he's a werewolf, too, has been watching over Harry for quite some time. You see, Keverene, he's like this strong werewolf, almost all wolf, some people say. Anyways, Keverene was after Harry. After hearing how Harry banished the Dark Lord, he wanted Harry's blood so he could be unstoppable. Something like that, I only heard bits and pieces of the story from Alina. But then Keverene killed her brother, and Alina really wanted to take her brother's place. Her parents weren't for it. They thought she'd get hurt. Alina, though, didn't want Harry to get hurt, so she found a way to get herself into Hogwarts. Thus, getting all of us expelled and off to Hogwarts with her."

"Just out of curiosity, now that I'm hearing this all at once, did you all really come from Beauxbatons?"

"Wolfsbane Witchcraft Institution for Girls. Now, Wolfsbane is in America, so you would've never heard of us. Wolfsbane is a school for werewolves, well, just girl werewolves. It's strange because female werewolves happen to be very common in the US. You can imagine how angry our parents were when they found out that we'd gotten ourselves a new spot in a school in the UK. They flipped their lids." Megan said, chuckling.

"But, the accent? Were you ever planning on telling me this?" Ron asked.

"You'd be surprised at how we Americans are good at mimicking accents. And, I wasn't sure. I was afraid you'd be scared off, and I didn't want to risk that because...I really like you." Megan said, flushing. Ron grinned.

"I would never be scared off. You're such an amazing person, and I don't care if you're a werewolf, or even some sort of banshee. And besides, Professor Lupin is a werewolf, and he's a good chap. I don't feel threatened by him, or scared of him, because I know what kind of person he is when he isn't a 'monster.' I wished you would've told me about this sooner, but at least you told me, so it's okay. But, one more question, why did you decide to tell me now?" Megan tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Well, you see, tomorrow is a full moon-"

"You're kidding!" Ron interrupted. Megan shook her head.

"I'm not." Megan said unhappily.

"So, what are we gonna do now?"

"Good question." Megan sat there, thinking of possible ways for them to celebrate their anniversary, but not on the date of their anniversary. A devilish grin spread over Megan's face. "Why don't we start the party now?"

A/N: 'Ickle Ronniekins is such a BAD BOY!!! Haha. I should get to the other chapters now, the thank you's will be included in the next A/N. So long for now. -Gryffindor Heiress.