Disclaimer: See first chapter. Sorry, it was short... and random. It seems shallow now, but it gets deeper. Keep reading and you'll get the picture.

Marina opened her eyes sleepily, and felt the cool breeze from the open window across her face. She yawned, stretched, and looked over to Katarina's bed, which was already empty. Looking around, she spotted a note on the foot of her green and silver-trimmed bedspread. Marina reached down and picked it up, noticed there was no name visible, and called out to her other roommate, "Oi! Ivy! What's this from?"

"Eh? Oh, you're finally awake! Kat left that for you this morning, she said it was important," Ivy shrugged, and turned back to the mirror to brush her hair.

Intrigued, Marina unfolded the crisp parchment, and saw a few lines of Katarina's neat handwriting.

Sorry, mate, but I got a call from the Ministry this morning, while you were still asleep. I have to go meet up with some important guy, I don't know why yet, though. But I just wanted to remind you that Tobias and Jeremy still want to meet at the Three Broomsticks, at two. Don't keep them waiting!

Kat

Marina felt a pang of nerves as she thought of facing those two alone. She turned to look at the clock on the wall across from her. Its hands seemed to be mocking her, the short one already nearing the brass two. Hurriedly she jumped out of bed and ran to her trunk, pulling out all sorts of clothes. Instead of worrying about what to wear, she blindly pulled on a maroon sweater and mismatched socks. Marina completely forgot about the pants factor: she was still wearing her striped pyjama pants. She ran down the spiral staircase, leaving clothes strewn all over the floor.

"Wait, Marina!" Ivy called from their room, but it was too late. Marina was well on her way to humiliation.

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Marina ran into the Great Hall, and had not encountered anyone on her way down. However, as she yanked the door open and rushed in, looking bedraggled, the few scattered people started to snigger. Confused, Marina proceeded to walk to the Slytherin table, with a slight gimp as her body was not fully awake yet. She sat down across from Tom, who was looking intently at an old book and picking at his food.

"Hi, Tom," she breathed, reaching for a plate of scones.

Tom looked up, surveyed her, and chose not to reply. He tilted the book he was holding so she couldn't see what was written in it. Not like she was looking at it, though.

"Uh, ok... So! Why aren't you at Hogsmeade?" Marina continued, a feeble attempt at conversation.

Tom heaved a sigh, slammed the book closed, and glared at Marina like he had murder on his mind. "Are you going to keep talking to me until I answer?" he shot at her.

"UH..." Marina was extremely apprehensive. "I was just trying to be friendly..."

To her surprise, Tom let out a short laugh. "It's ok. I'm just... I don't know. I was testing you." He shrugged.

"Oh, right then, nice to know that you're being honest with me and all," she said.

"Yeah, anytime. Say, you going to finish your crumpet?" He reached out a thin, pale hand and took it before she could answer, then started to get up. His book was not on the table, nor was it anywhere on his person.

"Hey, I was eating that! Wait, do you want to go down to Hogsmeade with me?" It was a perfect opportunity to get to know a guy. He seemed all right, this Tom fellow.

A pained expression crossed his features, but he regained composure and replied, "Sure, I'd like that. But you have to buy me a butterbeer!" It sounded like he truly wanted to go, and seeing as they were both young with a whole afternoon ahead of them, it would be fun.

"Let's go!" She jumped up and started to drag him out of the Great Hall, crumpet and all.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Tobias looked out the window for what seemed like the thousandth time. Where is she? She said she'd be here, but it was already 3:47 and she was nowhere in sight. Jeremy didn't seem to have noticed though. He just kept flipping his shaggy dark brown bangs out of his eyes and laughing at his own jokes.

"Hey, listen to this one, Tobe. Two atoms walked into a bar. One looked sad, so the other asked, 'what's wrong?' and the other atom said, 'I'm missing an electron! I can't find it anywhere!' and the first one asked it, 'are you sure?' and the other one replied, 'I'm positive!' HAHAHAHA! Isn't that a good one?" Jeremy proceeded to laugh at his own cleverness, ignoring Tobias's complete silence. He shook his head, successfully keeping his hair out of his eyes for about 10 seconds.

It started to rain outside, the wind picked up and was blowing everything hither and thither. Maybe she forgot... The weather seemed to mirror Tobias's mood, getting more depressed as time went on. "Hey, we don't want to get stuck here when the storm gets worse. Maybe we should go back to Hogwarts."

Jeremy looked as if he'd rather die than be caught in school on a Saturday afternoon. "Don't worry. Let's have another butterbeer!"

"Ok, sure," Tobias replied without much enthusiasm as Madame Rosmerta brought another round to their table.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"No way!" gushed Marina in response to one of Tom's many fantastic stories. He claimed to have traveled around the world, meeting witches and wizards in the jungles of the Amazon, the deserts of Swaziland, and the tropics of Asia. Although Marina suspected vaguely that these tales couldn't possibly be true, Tom had an aptitude for being very persuasive, and anyway, those doubts were tucked into the farthest corner of her mind. "You really went to Mongolia and conjured a truckload of gnomes to help with their out-of-control zebra population?"

Tom looked somewhat embarrassed. "Well, it was more like a bushel really," he said.

Suddenly, as they were passing Honeyduke's, the rain started to pour down upon them in buckets.

"C'mon, hurry! Let's get inside!" Tom urged as they pushed past the crowd of people all clamoring to go in. Marina almost knocked down an old hag, and she got twice as soaked as she already was to help her inside, apologizing profusely.

"Oh, let me help you! Please, is there anything I can do?" Marina asked with guilt in her voice.

"No. Get away," replied the hag in a raspy voice, who was wrapped tightly in black fabric that covered all of her features except her eyes, which were bright green.

"Um, I think you should leave her alone," whispered Tom, and she turned to face him. They were startlingly close, and were jostled from all sides by the wet bodies pushing to make room for more people. The air in the room was excruciatingly humid, especially in a maroon sweater.

"Maybe we should move away from the door," Marina suggested, and she led Tom over to the checkout counter. Behind it was a door left ajar. Seeing as the room was filling up quickly, Tom motioned to Marina, and pointed to the door. They looked around for a clerk, but he was over by the candy trying to make sure nobody was stealing anything. After seeing the coast was clear, they snuck in and closed the door. Immediately they both started to laugh in relief at the mission they accomplished.

"What do we do now?" Tom whispered in an effort not to be heard by anyone in the store. However, she needn't have bothered, there was enough noise out there to drown out an atomic war.

"I guess we just wait until the rain stops," said Marina, sighing.

"Fun," said Marina as she slid to the floor. He looked up at Marina expectantly. "Sit," he said, and patted the ground next to him. Marina hesitated.

"I want to tell you another story," he said.

"Oh, ok..." she said, and quite clumsily tripped over her pyjama pants trying to get to where he was. She laughed nervously and looked into his eyes, now at his level. They were a cold steel grey, very pensive and deep. Marina blushed and looked down. Tom, however, was still gazing at her intently. Trying to ignore this, she started to speak. "So, about that story..."

"Yeah, let me tell you..." He inched closer, and Marina's heart beat with incredible speed. Their lips touched for a few moments, then she pulled back to look at him. His face was so reassuring and calm in the dim light, so she threw all common sense to the wind and leaned towards him.

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[A/N:] bhwahahahhaha!! Sexual tension! What will happen?!