Chapter 7

"Mattie, wait up!" Harry ran up to Mattie, she had been totally silent during Potions. She hadn't so much as glanced at any of them. Furthermore, she had been the first one out of the classroom when Snape dismissed them. Harry and Mattie had History of Magic together next. "Let's walk together, we're going to the same place."

"Oh ... fine," Mattie said softly as she started walking again.

"Hey, I'm sorry about Sunday ... I was really unfair ... I don't really know why I said that." Mattie looked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment and then, apparently, remembered.

"That's alright, Harry. I've been out of shape anyways ... I should run more often than I do."

If that were out of shape, I'd love to see in shape, thought Harry. He immediately scolded himself about having his mind in the gutter. They walked in silence for a few minutes. "Mattie?"

"Yes, Harry." Her voice sounded faraway and had a very sad tone to it. It reminded Harry of Professor Trelawney when she had seen the Grim in his tea leaves last year.

"What's wrong?" Mattie stopped walking, suddenly and stared into Harry's eyes.

She turned away from him, started walking again, and said, "Nothing ... nothing Harry."

"I know something's wrong ... I – er everyone hates to see you like this. I'm – er we're all worried about you." They stopped outside their classroom.

"I ..." Mattie sighed and looked as though she were about to cry. "Thank you, Harry. But I hate to burden you with my own problems ..."

"You won't be. It's a fair exchange to see you happy again."

Mattie smiled weakly. "Well I don't know if that's possible any time soon, but I'd really appreciate it if I had someone to talk to."

"Okay, let's go down to the lake instead of going to lunch."

"Thanks, Harry." Mattie smiled half-heartedly and she and Harry went to History of Magic.

"Now class, your term papers are due very soon. I trust you have all started yours. If you have any problems, do not hesitate to ask me." Professor Binns glared at them, as if daring anyone to ask a question. He had spent the first two weeks of classes discussing term papers and didn't want to waste one more minute on them. "No questions? Okay, class dismissed." Everyone got up quickly and headed to the Great Hall for lunch, everyone except Mattie and Harry of course.

"I want to drop off my stuff in my dormitory." Harry nodded silently and followed Mattie to the Gryffindor Common Room. He sat down in the couch and waited for her to come back down from her dormitory.

She emerged a few moments later and they started downstairs. They walked in silence down the stairs. Somewhere along the way, Mattie had slipped her arm into Harry's. He felt as if his stomach had disappeared, but quickly reminded himself of the situation. For whatever reason, Mattie felt safer when Harry was around. Now, as they walked towards the lake, she was comforted by his presence. The only thing keeping her on her feet, quite literally, was the fact that her arm was intertwined with Harry and he was supporting her.

They sat down underneath a tree near the lake. Harry wrapped his arm around Mattie's shoulders as tears welled up in her eyes. "I thought I had cried myself out." She glanced at Harry, who was looking extremely worried. "I guess I'll have to explain some things before I tell you what happened." She took a deep breath, fighting back tears as she thought about it all. Harry squeezed her shoulder and she continued shakily, "I trust you Harry, I really do. But I can't tell you everything ... it would put everyone, even you, in more danger than we are already."

"Mattie ... did something happen to your parents?"

"My parents have been gone for 13 years, Harry." She was surprised to find herself wanting to cry, she hadn't cried about her parents in a very long time.

"Oh ... I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay, Harry ... I never knew them. When I was little, I was passed around between so many different relatives. But, Uncle – well he's not really my uncle. He was one of my father's best friends, they came here together and they were friends up until ... well until the end. He went to the Ministry and got legal custody of me. So I've lived with him since before I can remember. He taught me everything ... Quidditch, Potions, everything." Mattie's voice cracked and she buried her head in her hands. Harry hugged her tightly and stroked her hair. After a few moments, she seemed to regain her composure and started talking again. "Then, last year, things started happening. He had to go away ... an old friend ... needed his help, that's what he told me."

Harry looked at Mattie worriedly, "You don't have to go on, you know."

"I have to tell someone, Harry. I feel like I'll explode if I don't ... so he left to help his friend and I came here. Somehow he knew he would be gone for a while, so he asked Dumbledore to let me come here." Mattie sighed, that seemed like so long ago, but in all reality it was only a few months past.

"Dumbledore was a good friend of his, so I was allowed to come even though I would be a fourth year. I stayed here for the remainder of the summer because ..." Her voice cracked again, but this time she just kept going. Tears were streaming down her face. Harry felt very helpless; he wanted to do something, but he didn't know what.

"I got an owl ... they said he's missing ... they can't find him anywhere. No owls can locate him, they're assuming he's ... oh god I can't say it!" She burst into tears and buried her head in Harry's shoulder.

"Shh, it's all going to be fine." Harry hoped he sounded comforting. "He probably doesn't want anyone to find him ... I mean if his friend is in trouble. From what he's taught you, he must be an extraordinary wizard. I'm sure he could make it so no one would be able to locate him."

"I hope you're right, Harry." They sat there, underneath the tree, for a very long time without saying anything. Mattie continued to cry, nearly silently, and Harry stroked her hair.

Harry glanced at his watch; they needed to go to class soon. Mattie had stopped crying; she was sitting there with her head on his shoulder, trying not to think about anything. "Come on, we'll go up to the Dormitories and you can wash your face ... and then we'll go to class. Okay?"

"Mm-hm." Harry rose and helped Mattie up. She slipped her arm into his, once again, and they started back towards the school.

Hermione and Ron saw them as they passed the Great Hall, but stayed where they were after receiving a warning glance from Harry. They walked slowly up the stairs and finally reached the Common Room. Mattie seemed reluctant to leave Harry, but started up the stairs to her Dormitory, nonetheless.

Suddenly, she stopped and turned around. She walked back down the stairs and threw her arms around Harry's neck. He hugged her close. "You'll never know how much this meant to me Harry ... thank you so very much."

"I'm always here ... you know that."

Mattie pulled back and nodded. "I don't think I'm going to our next class ... I haven't slept since Saturday night ... I feel much better now, I think I'll be able to sleep."

"Promise me you'll eat something? You weren't at breakfast and we just missed lunch."

"Okay, Harry." She smiled, her first real smile in a while, and turned and walked up to her room.

"Harry! What's going on?" Hermione and Ron were standing just outside the portrait hole, waiting for Harry and Mattie.

"Where's Mattie?" Ron looked behind Harry, as if expecting her to be hiding behind him.

"She's not feeling well, she's not coming to Defense Against the Dark Arts." Harry started walking towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and Hermione and Ron followed.

"Why was she crying? What's wrong?"

"Stuff ... bloody bad stuff ... is going on with her family. Her uncle ... well he's not really her uncle but her surrogate father, is missing. They're assuming he's dead." Hermione gasped. "There's a lot more to it than that, but we don't really have time for a heart to heart, we have class."

"Right, are you sure she's okay, Harry?"

"Yeah, I hope so. She said she hadn't slept since Saturday night, no wonder she failed the Potions test. She was going to get some sleep." Hermione and Ron glanced nervously at each other. Harry looked bad, but only half as bad as Mattie. They could tell he was extremely worried. Hermione wondered if he would sleep tonight. They had three more classes left to survive; Defense Against the Dark Arts with Slytherin, Divination with Ravenclaw, and Transfiguration with Slytherin.

Defense Against the Dark Arts when by uneventfully, Malfoy was uncharacteristically subdued. Someone was whispering about Mattie telling him off, Hermione hoped it was true. But then again, that meant more stress for Mattie, which was definitely not what she needed.

Divination was turned into a Study Hall because Professor Trelawney had gone wandering about the castle and had yet to be found. Hermione and Ron tried to get Harry to explain what had happened at lunch but he just shook his head saying, "I don't want to talk about it ... when Mattie wants you to know, she will tell you."

Transfiguration, on the other hand, went terribly for everyone. Professor McGonagall gave them all a pop quiz; Harry and Ron had been so wrapped up in Quidditch all weekend that they hadn't studied any of the material covered last week. They were supposed to turn their quills into arrows. Hermione's ended up fine, although it did have a few stray wisps of feather sticking out at random places. Harry's only got longer and skinnier; it remained, very distinctly, a feather quill. Ron's ended up worst of all; it exploded, spewing strange purple goo all over the classroom. McGonagall took 5 points from Gryffindor and made Ron clean up the mess. Harry and Hermione stayed after class to help him. The only consolation was that no one in all of Slytherin had passed the test either; Malfoy's quill had just rolled over onto its side.

They trudged down to the Great Hall, arriving after dinner had already started. They were startled to see Mattie sitting across from Fred and George at the Gryffindor table. She looked tired and weak, but she was laughing at something. Fred saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they entered the Great Hall. He waved them over as Mattie turned to see who he was looking at. She immediately smiled and walked over to them.

"How're you feeling?" Hermione asked as she hugged Mattie tightly.

"Um ... okay I guess." Ron and Harry both hugged her and the four went back to the table.

"I can't believe you missed it; Ron's quill exploded in Transfiguration!" Ron blushed and everyone laughed. "Mine didn't turn out so well either ..."

"Harry, your quill didn't do anything!" Hermione laughed as Harry shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"We have practice today, don't be late." Harry smiled and Mattie laughed. They were sitting in at the Gryffindor Table, eating breakfast.

"Right, captain!" Hermione and Ron were surprised to see her laughing at Harry's comment, happily surprised. Despite everything that was going on and the mountains of homework in every subject, everyone was in an excellent mood.

"I never did ask, how did dress-hunting go last weekend?" Harry was really looking forward to the Halloween Ball, tomorrow. He couldn't stop thinking about dancing with Mattie.

Mattie smiled, "Wonderfully successful." Ron suddenly regretted not asking Hermione, but he didn't think she would have said yes anyways. He admitted to himself that he doubted he would have ever got up enough courage to ask her.

"Well ...?"

"Oh, we're not going to tell you!" Hermione smiled as she and Mattie burst out laughing.

"You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them!" Mattie glanced at her watch. "Oh, we have to get to Care of Magical Creatures. Come on, Hermione!"

"We'll see you in Potions, then."

"Bye!" Mattie and Hermione waved as they walked quickly out of the Great Hall and down to Hagrid's cabin. The new teacher was still not here and Hagrid was filling in until he arrived. Harry and Ron finished off their breakfast and headed out of the Great Hall, to see Malfoy, Mattie, Hermione, Crabbe, and Goyle standing in the entrance hall. Malfoy was holding Mattie's wrist tightly and Crabbe was holding Hermione back. Mattie was trying to walk away from him, but he wouldn't let her go. Harry vaguely noticed that Malfoy was saying something to her and that Ron was trying to restrain him. His blood was absolutely boiling, how dare Malfoy lay a hand on her?

Harry stormed up to Malfoy and whipped out his wand. He pointed it at Malfoy's exposed neck. "Let her go." Malfoy immediately released Mattie's arm. She put a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Nothing happened, Harry. Let him go."

"Why should I?" Malfoy sat there cowering; praying that Mattie could come up with some reason Harry should let him go. Harry noticed that Crabbe and Goyle had released Ron and Hermione.

"Please Harry." Harry wordlessly placed his wand back in his robes and Malfoy scurried off, followed by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Are you okay?" Harry's eyes flashed to the bruise that was beginning to form on Mattie's wrist. "Go see Madame Pomfrey about your wrist, before practice today." He was beginning to calm down.

"I'm fine Harry. I'll go see her as soon as I can."

"Before practice, Mattie." Mattie was about to protest, but saw only genuine worry in his eyes and decided against it. They walked their separate ways; Mattie and Hermione to Care of Magical Creatures and Ron and Harry to Potions.

"I'm afraid of what he might do if I tell him that Draco tried to kiss me." Mattie cast a worried glance over her shoulder.

"Someone needs to do something about him! After the incident in the Library and now this ... what's that smile supposed to mean?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at Mattie who was smiling wistfully.

"Oh, nothing ... remind me to thank Harry later." Hermione laughed and shook her head.

"I'm sure."

A/N: I know this is long ... I just got caught up in it and couldn't stop! As you can tell, I really don't like Malfoy in this. It's all leading up to something very big between Harry and Mattie and Draco. Stay tuned to find out what it is! Please r/r! I love to hear what you all think! KiWi! Thank u thank u thank u! Like I said, Draco will return ... shortly (chapter 9 has something with him, hehe) I've been updating a lot lately, bc the plotbunny has been visiting me, but sadly only concerning this story! tear I'm starting to run out of steam, I think, but I promise I won't stop until this is all done; it's a three part series w/ a whole bunch of other stories that go with it. Glad you liked it, please r/r!!

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is Mattie, everything else belongs to the great JK Rowling!