CHAPTER 4

We walked through the foyer and then the doorway opposite the front doors, and stepped into the great hall. I gestured to the huge door on the left.

"Mess Hall. You've been and seen." To the right. "Down this hall is the gym. Boy's lockers on the left, girl's on the right. Storage room through the doors and to the right." I pointed up and said, "If you look up, you can see the balcony of each floor. 15 floors in all, no 13th."

"Of course," said James and I smiled. We stood there for a second or two, looking at people walking by on each of the balconies, and then at the towering ceiling, fixed with an enormous, gothic chandelier that hung down menacingly.

I walked forward and pointed to the row of fireplaces lining the wall opposite us, separated by an enormous staircase. "Main transport, Floo powder. I, however, prefer the stairs."

"I've noticed," groaned James.

I ignored him and continued. "There is a basement, but all it contains is the boiler room and Mr Harris' office. He's the janitor," I added.

"That's it? In a huge basement, that's all you have?"

I nodded. "It's only accessible by Floo powder, and as far as anyone knows that's all that's down there. Mr Harris always mutters about 'dragon dung' however, so we're not too sure…" I pointed to the stairs. "Shall we?"

James groaned again and I poked him in the ribs. We reached the second floor and I pointed down the hall.

"Muggle Studies classroom is the 3rd on the left. Each floor has bathrooms, but they move around randomly and I don't feel like finding them to show you." I turned to him and saw a puzzled look on his face. "I'm not sure why or how, so don't ask. But I can tell you it really sucks to come out of the bathroom after it's moved and have no idea where the hell in the school you are." He laughed.

"I think the Terre Wing entrance is somewhere on this floor, but each house's Wing entrance is hidden, so I couldn't show you where it was if I wanted to."

"Terre?" asked James. "That's a house? What's Terre mean?"

I sighed. "Well, we are in Canada, so everything is bilingual. Even at a wizarding school. You see," I explained, "Each house is named after some sort of element. Terre is 'Earth' in French. Then there's Glacier- "

"That's ours!" beamed James.

"Yeah," I smiled. "Glacier means 'Ice', and that's why our colours are silver and light blue. There's Terre, who are green and brown; Nuage - 'Cloud' - is blue and black; and Chaleur - 'Heat,'" I grimaced. "They are red and 'burnt' gold."

"I take it you don't like them?" said James sarcastically.

"Gee, how can you tell?" I muttered as I began to climb the stairs again.

I stopped at the top of the flight and said "3rd floor. Ancient Runes is the 5th class on the left. Bathrooms are elsewhere." I went forward to the next flight, but stopped when I noticed James wasn't following me anymore. "Yes?" I asked without turning around.

"How can there be only one class and bathrooms on the whole floor?" he asked.

I turned. "Well, there are more rooms, but I'm just telling you all the important ones that you need to know. The rest are either just spare classrooms, storage rooms, janitor closets or 1st to 4th year classes that we don't need to take anymore."

We continued on with the tour, me leading and unceremoniously pointing to the classes and James nodding and commenting.

"4th floor. Owlery. Bathrooms."

"5th floor. Library at the end of the hall on the right. Nuage Wing entrance somewhere, I think."

"6th floor. History of Magic, 2nd door on the right."

"7th floor. Potions at the end of the hall on our right."

"8th floor. Our Wing. You've been through the entrance. Transfiguration on the left. The teacher is Mr MacDougall, he's also the head of Glacier House."

"10th floor- "

"What happened to the 9th?"

"Oh, nothing. Just nothing you need to know about it."

"Oh."

"10th floor. Arithmancy. 5th door on the left. 11th floor. Charms in 3rd door to your right. 12th floor… nothing of interest."

"And there's no 13th right?"

"Correct. That means we have to Floo-it to the 14th."

"What? No more stairs?"

I laughed. "Well, unless you feel like trying to climb thin air to reach the 14th floor, be my guest. Notice how the stairs go no further now?"

James looked confused. "So there's actually no 13th floor? You don't just call the 13th the 14th to avoid bad luck?"

"Nope. If you look at the school from a distance, you can see the gap where the 13th floor should be."

James looked impressed, and I laughed again, heading for the fireplace. "We'll do the rest of the tour with Floo powder," I said. "You're looking a little faint."

James smiled and nodded. "Thank God."

We appeared on the next level. "14th floor. Defence Against the Dark Arts 2nd door to the right. I have reason to believe the Chaleur Wing is somewhere up here."

"And finally, the 15th floor. Divination room is the 10th to the left. I have no idea what the hell could be in so many other classrooms, but whatever. Principal Rousseau's office is through the huge arch on our right. You need permission from a teacher and a special password to get through there, or those guys," I pointed to the lion statues on either side of the arch, "act as very well-trained security guards." James shuddered.

"Yeah," I said. "Not pretty."

"So we're done?" he said hopefully.

I cackled evilly. "Not yet. Roof and then… the grounds."

James groaned. "I'm dying! I can't walk the whole grounds!"

I sighed dramatically. "Fine. I guess I could just point everything out to you from the roof."

We Flooed-it to the roof, where I pointed to a shack-type thing. "That's the Astrology tent. Very handy when it's raining up here, but not so safe in a wind storm."

James nodded thoughtfully. We walked to the edge of the roof and I pointed to everything I could see on the grounds.

"There's the Quidditch Pitch… the Greenhouse - Herbology class… There's the shed where the 1st years store their brooms for Flying Lessons… and the surrounding forest, the lake and the base of Mount Trudeau is used for the Care of Magical Creatures class. You can see the shack if you look hard enough through the trees there," I said and leaned close to James trying to show him by pointing.

"What? Where?" he said.

I leaned closer and closed one eye. "Right there. Beside that boulder… see? Look through the trees."

We leaned even closer, until I was aware that my cheek was touching his. I snapped backwards, and turned to hide my blushing face.

"So, uh… yeah. That's about it. The whole school," I stammered. I turned around again once I had regained control of the blood in my head. James was standing there looking awkward.

"Uh, thanks for the tour," he said and smiled.

I grinned back. "Not too bad, eh?" He laughed.

"What?"

He chortled a bit more, then managed to say, "You just said 'eh.'"

I tried to look unimpressed with him, but couldn't help but smile. "Well, I am Canadian, what did you expect? At least I don't say 'noo doot aboot it.'"

He laughed again and nodded. "I'm afraid I wouldn't hang out with you if you did," he admitted. I punched his shoulder playfully and then sat on the edge of the roof with my legs dangling over the edge.

"Hey, shouldn't you maybe, you know, sit back a little?" said James nervously.

"Don't worry, there's a charm on the building to prevent any 'mishaps.' I could jump off holding a 200 pound weight and still land softly without a scratch on me."

James shrugged and sat down next to me. We sat in silence for a while, admiring the sunset over the mountains, the reflection of the beautiful colours on the lake, and the soft shadows of the trees beginning to grow. I sighed and closed my eyes. "I love this view. It's so amazing. And you can smell the forest from here," I said, and took a deep breath of the piny scent that the soft breeze was carrying. I opened my eyes again. "Isn't it beautiful?"

James was quiet for a minute. "Yeah. It's gorgeous," he said softly. I turned slowly to watch his face react to the view, but caught him looking at me. We looked into each other's eyes for a minute, and I noticed how gorgeous his were… so deep and blue… then I noticed we were leaning in towards each other slowly. It felt like an eternity. We came closer, and closer, still looking into each other's eyes. Then I noticed something like a shade go over his, and he blinked. The moment was gone. He leaned back and cleared his throat, blushing slightly. I froze, not moving from my incline. What just happened? Then, unbelievably, he stood up and brushed off his jeans.

"Umm, Adrien?" he muttered.

I could not believe what had just happened. I felt so stupid. And so hurt. I coughed forcedly and rose to my feet, looking at my shoes. I felt horrible, but I couldn't let him see that. Maybe it was my imagination. Maybe there was no 'moment' there. But deep inside, I knew that he had broken that moment on purpose.

"Okay!" I said I little too loudly and cheerfully, making myself wince inside. "Let's head 'er back to the dining hall. I'm sure supper will start any minute!" I practically ran to the fireplace.

When James got in beside me, I noticed the hurt expression on his face. Serves him right, I thought. But I felt sorry anyway. We went straight to the main floor, and walked to the dining hall together, in an awkward, pregnant silence. Supper was just about to begin, and rushed to get a seat between Scott and Chris.

I laughed overly loudly at everything during the meal; even at things that weren't funny. James didn't once look up from his plate, and only said "Pass the salt, please," throughout the whole meal.

Just as we were finishing, I saw Scott, Chris and Ryan studying me suspiciously. I pushed my seat out from the table and took my last gulp of juice. "Well, ladies and gents," I said. "It's been a fine dinner, but I must excuse myself. I have some homework to do before I hit the sack early. I want to get a fresh start on the day tomorrow."

With that I escaped from the table and the curious stares I was getting from all my friends and housemates. I ran straight to the fireplaces and Flooed to the 8th floor. I didn't even check to see if anyone was coming down the hall, and went through the 'window.'

For the first time in my 5 years at TIMM's, I couldn't care less how 'cool' the window felt. All I could feel right then was embarrassment, shame and regret. I was also confused beyond words.

As I dashed through the common room, Jenna said something to me that I didn't understand. I replied with an "Uh-huh," and flew up the stairs to my room. I crashed onto my bed and shuddered with all of the emotions whirling around inside me.

I didn't cry, I rarely do, but I felt then the saddest I had for a very long time, and above anything in the world, I wanted Gwyn to be there with me. I needed my friend. And she probably had forgotten about me completely.

I put my pyjamas on and climbed into bed. I drew the curtains about the bed and pulled out my favourite book. When I heard James come in about a half hour later, I pretended to be asleep and snored lightly. I'm sure he knew I was faking, but he left again anyway; to hang out with the guys in the common room, I assumed. He didn't come back until much later, and I heard him get changed and draw the curtains around his bed.

We lay in silence most of the night, and I could feel that he was awake too. I wondered what he was thinking, and secretly hoped he wasn't regretting coming to TIMM's.

I slept without my snow that night, and had a short, troublesome sleep. The entire time I thought about how much James had hurt me and wondered if he really didn't like me at all.

I never knew that he was thinking about me the entire time, and wondering about whether he should tell me about his girlfriend in Chicago.