AR/DM: He-ey!!! Sry that I haven't updated in 4ever (not that any1 cares. I have like no reviews. L). I haven't had time. But now that it's summer break I hope to change that. Plus, the third movie has come out so now maybe more ppl will b interested in my story. Thnx 4 the 4 reviews! Btw, this story follows the book and not the movie. And this chapter is all full of random happenings that go on in the story. Soon I will get to the end. Just a little FYI. Love ya!

I couldn't believe it. Granger had smacked my cousin! All because he had been insulting that gigantic brute of a professor, Hagrid.

Beside me, Alice chuckled. She had been growing friendlier toward me recently, and I was pretty sure she was going to become one of my best friends once again. One could never be sure with her. I looked over at her, and she exchanged the gesture.

"Desemay," she said as Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle scurried down the stone steps and then the passageway to the dungeons, "Your cousin is an absolute ass."

I smiled. I didn't care what people said about Draco. He enjoyed being seen as a stuck up prat. "I know. Isn't it wonderful?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed, "Very. It makes him splendid company."

I was about to reply when the idiot pureblood Weasley cut in, "Alice, come on. We're late for Charms."

"Coming," Alice called to him as she waved to me, "I'll see you at dinner Des."

I waved and turned to follow my cousin and his friends. But, just before I disappeared down the hall, I saw Potter out of the corner of my eye, glaring at me warningly.

"Harry, you're going to do fine," I said, straightening his Quidditch robes slightly so that they sat perfectly on his shoulders. Harry didn't seem to be able to say anything. "Honestly, Harry," I cooed, "You're the best seeker I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that."

"Thanks," Harry managed to croak and grin sheepishly at me.

I smiled back at him and tried to figure out another way to comfort him. He always got so tense before the matches and it worried me. I knew it was only nerves, but he needed to learn to calm down.

"Harry, come on," Wood called.

Harry began to walk out. But before he left, I called for him to wait and ran up to him. I had just had the perfect idea. Quickly, so that no one would see, I leaned in, hugged him, and placed a light kiss on his cheek. "Good luck," I whispered in his ear just as Wood rushed him out of the Great Hall.

"Good luck Harry!" Cho Chang called to him and Harry blushed slightly. I glared at her. I had a feeling she was the one Harry had wanted to have kiss him. The twit!

Ron and Hermione were starring at me oddly, but they brushed it off as I took my regular seat next to them.

"Oh, we have to win today!" Hermione said.

I burst into the girls dormitories, crying. Alice was sitting on her bed, writing in her diary with Snow in her lap. She looked up, startled, and immediately set her diary down. Snow hoped over to her dresser so that Alice could move closer to where I had collapsed on my bed and was sobbing. She came over and stroked my hair like she always did when I was feeling alone.

"Merlin's beard, Hermione! What's wrong?" she cooed.

I sat up and she hugged me, still smoothing my hair. I sobbed into her shoulder like a child would with its mother. "Ron and Harry are being absolutely awful to me. First they blamed me because I told Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. Then they blamed Crookshanks for 'killing' Scabbers. And now Harry's planning to go to Hogsmeade again, and I think it's too dangerous. Plus, school work is just becoming too much!" My throat seized up and I went back to crying hysterically crying into her shoulder.

Alice patted my back and shushed my softly, "There there. I'll talk to the guys. I'm sure they'll see things our way," she stood up and smiled at me reassuringly, "I'll be back soon!"

Five minutes later she came back, fuming as only she could. I could almost see steam coming out of her ears and flames in her jade eyes. It was a good thing she could control at least a bit of her magic, or things probably would have been flying through the room.

Even though I knew the answer to my question, I asked it anyway, "How'd it go?"

Alice glared at me with misdirected anger, "Those two! They're so selfish and arrogant. I don't know how you put up with them for two years, Hermione. How could they?"

"What did they say?"

Alice plopped down next to me, sighing in aggravation, "Well, I told them that they should stop being jerks about a stupid broomstick and a rat. Then Ron got all scandalized and said that a Firebolt wasn't a stupid broomstick and you should have been more careful with Crookshanks. I said that the Firebolt was nothing more than a branch, some twigs, and a little magic. Plus, you couldn't help what Crookshanks did because cats are more independent and harder to keep than rats.

Then Harry came in and told me that I was only defending you because I have a cat too. I said that if Crookshanks hadn't gotten Scabbers then Snow would have. That left both of them speechless, so I came back up here."

I beamed at the shorter girl, "Alice, you are the best friends I've ever had."

"I'm not surprised," she snorted, "Seeing the people that you have to be with.

I laughed and hugged her and she squeezed me lightly back. Then she jumped off the bed we were both sitting on and rummaged through her things. At long last she pulled out something covered in a royal blue cloth. I looked at her, confused.

"Tada!" she whisked off the cover with a flourish, revealing a whole package of chocolate frogs and a new book of spells.

"Merlin's beard!" I gasped, staring at the various items, "Alice, what is all this?"

She was beaming again, this time at my bemused expression. "All of this is for you, for being the greatest friend I've ever had and hopefully ever have. If everyone in the world abandoned you, I will still be there."

"I feel the same way, Alice."

It may have just been my imagination, but as I said that I thought I saw her smile waver.