Thanks again to Luci for looking over this chapter for me.

"Your late Mr. Potter," the tiny man on the table at the front of the room said.

"Sorry, Professor," Harry replied as he walked to his seat next to Hermione. Professor Flitwick finished his short lecture and allowed them to begin their practice.

"You were late," Hermione said in a disapproving tone as she perfectly charmed the baby chick on her desk invisible and back again.

"I know," Harry replied as he scooped up his chick who had decided it wanted to see what it was like to fly by taking a nose dive off of the desk.

"You and Gin have fun?" she inquired. A sleep deprived Ron sent her a glare at which she smiled.

"No," he started and considered leaving it at that, but they were going to find out soon enough. He petted the tiny bird in his hand, completely ignoring the assignment. "We broke up," he finished simply.

In a matter of seconds Ron's wand was no longer aimed at the chick, but at his best friend's forehead. "What did you do?" he hissed.

"Nothing. Will you put your wand down, you big nutter?" Harry asked, looking at Ron and wondering when the boy had lost his mind.

"Nothing? You think breaking my little sister's heart is nothing? How dare you!" Ron's voice carried across the room and the majority of the class had stopped working to listen in. Professor Flitwick was making his way to their table, asking Ron to put down his wand along the way.

Harry rose from his seat and grabbed his bag. "She dumped me, Ron. Thanks for being so discrete about it. I really do appreciate that." He walked out of the classroom and into the hall. He walked hard and fast, not wanting to be followed.

Once outside, Harry looked down at his hands. One was still white-knuckled around his wand, but in the other a bright yellow ball of fluff with a beak chirped up at him. He sat down against the stone wall of the castle and placed the chick on the ground. It looked up and him and chirped and flapped its wings. He laughed slightly at it as continued in its odd off-rhythm little dance.

"Aww... Isn't that cute?" a voice from the stairs unenthusiastically snarled.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked too tired for a fight. His day was getting worse by the minute.

"Sorry," Malfoy replied. "Didn't know you had reserved the sulking spot for the day." He sat down on the castle steps and leaned his head back to take in the graying sky.

"Well, I did. So kindly wait your turn," Harry replied, continuing to watch his chick.

"What are you sulking about, Potter?"

"Hangnail," Harry answered. It really wasn't any of Malfoy's business what was the matter with him.

"Oh, well then I win." Harry looked over at him. Something was very wrong here. Malfoy wasn't insulting him. He was almost friendly. Harry shuddered at the thought. "Blister," he said as he held up an unblemished finger for effect.

"How would you get a blister? It's not like you ever do any work," Harry tried to keep the grin off of his face as he said it. He wasn't supposed to enjoy talking to Malfoy.

"Terrible Quidditch injury," Malfoy replied. It was rare to hear true mirth in his voice, but Harry could swear it was there.

"McGonagall is seriously ready to rip off your head, love," a female voice said from the doors behind them. "We should get going before she finds us."

Malfoy stood and dusted off his robes. Harry turn to find Pansy Parkinson giving him an odd look before turning to her house mate with a questioning stare. He ushered her into the entrance hall, and Harry turned back to stare up at the sky.

Several hours later Harry awoke with a sharp pain in the side of his neck. Water hit his face with a slow and annoying drip. It was raining, not hard, but still raining. From the looks of it though it was bound to get bad soon.

"Morning, sleepy head," a familiar voice said from a spot somewhere off to his right. Harry sat up and rubbed at his neck, pushing his glasses up his nose to look over at Ginny.

"Time is it?" Harry mumbled.

"Dinner is just starting," she supplied as she moved to sit behind him. He looked over his shoulder at her and winced slightly at the pull on his neck. She gently pushed on his chin to make him face forward, and began kneading his neck.

His eyes drifted closed. He loved her hands. They were so small and so soft. He loved the way they felt against his skin. He opened his eyes and turned to look back at her.

"Not the best idea, Gin," he said solemnly, recalling the events of the morning.

"Your still my friend, Harry. It's not like this isn't allowed anymore. We're not doing anything wrong," she said exasperated.

"It kind of isn't allowed. If Michael finds us, do you think he's going to be happy about it? Just lay off for a while. You broke up with me not ten hours ago. Maybe later we can go on like nothing ever happened, but I think that this is just a little much right now," Harry explained.

"Great," Ginny replied with tears in her eyes. "That's just great, Harry. Weren't you the one that said just this morning that you and I would always be friends?"

"And we will be, but for at least couple of days we need to not do this," Harry tried to calm the little redhead down, but she wouldn't let him. She was upset with herself for breaking up with him, and had to have someone to be angry with.

"Fine. That's fine. I'll just talk to you later then, okay?" she huffed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She raised herself up from the ground and walking quickly back into the castle.

Harry sigh and stood. "It just keeps getting better and better," he mumbled picking up his bag. He put his hands in the pockets of his robes and let out a small smile at what his right had encountered. Apparently the little chick did like to sleep in the rain.

"She dumped you, huh?" Ron asked from his spot leaning against the doors to the castle. Harry rolled his eyes. Every now and then Ron became this crazy snobbish holier-than-thou version of his friend, and it drove Harry nuts. "Is that why your out here having a great time, and I just saw her run by crying from this direction?"

"Yes, Ron, it is," he said patiently. He walked past Ron and into the castle. The smell of food called to Harry from the great hall. He hadn't eaten all day. He walked in, fully expecting to continue the argument all through dinner, but Ron never came in.

Sitting down at the Gryffindor table, Harry began filling his plate. He sat at the end of the table near Dean Thomas who was quite absorbed in his potion's book, and so he ate alone. Hermione was nowhere to be found either. He hoped she was with Ron though. Maybe she could talk some sense into him.

Harry felt eyes on him. He couldn't recall doing anything heroic enough to get him stares lately, so he looked up. Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy were staring at him from across the room. Draco looked over and said something to his friend and went back to eating, but Pansy kept on. This was definitely not a normal day.

In a room locked off from the rest of the school.

"I'm bored," Lily complained. They had spent all day taking turns playing chess and exploding snap, two game that are entertaining enough, but a whole day of them was a little redundant. The highlight of her day had been asking the house elf that brought lunch if he could find some clothes for her so that she didn't have to spend the whole day in her night dress. She loved blue jeans.

She was laying on the couch with her feet over the back and her hair dragging the ground. James was taking up the rest of the couch, using her stomach as a pillow. They had made up before breakfast that morning. It seemed that no matter what he did, Lily always forgave him. She still hadn't figured out why.

Remus was curled up into a tiny ball in the armchair next to the fire, and a big black dog was laying on the hearth rug snoozing. They had explained Harry's moon comment to Lily earlier too. She took it quite well. James and Sirius had gotten a small lecture about doing such dangerous magic unsupervised and for not being registered, while Remus had gotten a big hug.

"Everyone's bored, Lil. What do you want us to do about it?" James asked.

"I don't know. Do a little dance for me or something. I need entertainment," she said.

"I don't feel like dancing. You dance. That should entertain everyone," James offered, for which she flicked his ear. He rubbed his ear and glared at her.

"They look lively," a voice said from the direction of the stonewall entrance. It wasn't a voice that the recognized, but the next one was.

"They've been locked in a room all day with nothing to do. Wouldn't you be?" Ron countered. James sat up and looked over to the still snoozing dog by the fire. He ran through every lie they had ever come up with in regards to their animagus forms. None of them fit.

"Hey," he said nervously, and the girl with Ron followed his nervous gaze.

"We know he's a dog. We've seen him like that before," she said comfortingly.

"Right," James sighed. "You're friends with my son. Of course you would know."

"Hermione, this is James," James smiled, "Lily," Lily waved happily from her still inverted position, "Remus," the boy in the chair opened one eye and waved lazily, "and, of course, Sirius," the dog snored on, "Everybody, this is my girlfriend, another of Harry's friends, Hermione," Ron finished.

"Nice to meet you," Lily said, righting herself at last. She stood and walked over to them, shaking Hermione's hand.

"We thought that we would come down and eat dinner with you guys, if you don't mind the company," Ron offered.

"And Harry?" Lily asked hopefully.

"Umm..." Ron looked anywhere but at her.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It will take Harry a while to get used to this. Knowing that your parent's were once teenagers is one thing, but actually seeing it has got to be odd. He and Ron got into a bit of an argument, so Ron wanted to be the one place Harry was sure to not be, because he's a big baby," she said, staring intently at Ron towards the end of her rant.

"So... food, huh?" James said, successfully attempting to break up the glares.

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