A/n: Here it is, very late!

Discalimer: J.k. Rowling owns just about everything and I think she has better things to do than sue me. The song is by Dashboard Confessional (and no the chapter is not as depressing as the song.)


This Ruined Puzzle

By Dashboard Confessional

I've hidden a note,
it's pressed between pages that you've marked to find your way back.
It says, "Does he ever get the girl?"
But what if the pages stay pressed,
the chapters unfinished,
the storied too dull to unfold?
Does he ever get the girl?


It was Halloween. Mounds of food covered the tables and the students ate, talked, and laughed, filled with the light, cheerful mood of the holiday. At Gryffindor table, a sixth year Ravenclaw girl was trying a bit too hard to impress a certain Charlie Weasley. Charlie, desperate to get away but not wanting to be rude, resorted to desperate measures. He furrowed his brow, then raised his eyebrows and jerked his head to one side. Dora saw him, and recognizing the signal that she had made up, excused herself from her conversation with Nearly Headless Nick and Rusty and slid into the seat next to Charlie.

"Hey sweetie," she said kissing him on the cheek. The girl looked confused. Had she been a Gryffindor she would have known about "The Secret Signal." When Charlie or Rusty performed the signal Charlie had just used, one of the girls would come to rescue them from whatever romantic predicament they had gotten themselves into. Likewise, Charlie and Rusty were sworn to save Millie or Dora if they made the signal. Gryffindors generally heard of or figured out the system fairly early on but the rest of the school remained oblivious and excessively confused about the relationships concerning the four.

After a few confused blinks, the girl continued to talk. Rolling her eyes and wondering how the kid had ever made it into Ravenclaw, Dora kissed Charlie again, this time on the lips. The girl jumped up and hurried back to her own table, hurt and humiliated.

"Cruel but effective," Rusty noted to Nick.


Later that night, Dora and her friends took a midnight stroll.

"Dora" whined Millie, "What do we need to go to Hogsmeade for? We'll get detention."

"Aw c'mon," said Dora, "we haven't snuck out in ages."

She led the way to a statue of a hunched, one-eyed witch.

"What's this? What about the mirror?" asked Charlie. They always used a passage behind a huge mirror on the fourth floor when they snuck out to Hogsmeade. Dora had discovered that passage at the beginning of their second year and it hadn't failed them yet.

"Fred and George told me about this one."

"My brothers?"

"Yeah. Get this, it leads straight to Honeydukes!"

"Honeydukes! Merlin Dora! The owners of Honeydukes live right above the shop, they'll catch us," hissed Millie.

Dora ignored her. She tapped the witch and whispered "Dissendium."

The witch's hump opened and Dora hopped in without hesitation. The others followed grudgingly. They ran for miles through the tunnel, emerging in the Honeydukes storeroom. They crept up the steps single file. Once they were in the store, all doubts left them and soon all four students had filled their pockets and bags with Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, chocolate frogs, chatter cakes, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, and vast variety of other sweets. They had just begun to file back into the storeroom when Dora stopped them. She turned, walked to the counter, and proceeded to pay for everything she had just took. Her friends stared at her like she was crazy. "The fun of this particular excursion, " she explained, "was being here in the middle of the night. We can shoplift anytime we want but we can't do two dishonest things at once, it's wrong."

Instead of pointing out that sneaking into a store in the middle of the night was wrong in and of itself, Millie and Rusty each plopped a few Galleons onto the counter. Charlie meanwhile dug through his pockets, discovering only a few Knuts. He was about to add these to the pile when Dora stopped him and put four Galleons on the table to cover the cost of his candy. Charlie opened his mouth to protest but Dora clapped a hand over his mouth. She stood perfectly for a moment, listening. Her friends heard it too, footsteps. They stood frozen for a moment. Then, simultaneously, they fled the crime scene.

Millie reached the trapdoor first. She wrenched it open and dove in. Rusty followed. Charlie was next. He had one foot through when a man's voice came from the store above; "Who's there? Who's there." Charlie froze, Dora gave him a shove and he slipped into the passage. The door to the storeroom opened. Dora clambered though the door and down the steps, closing the trapdoor moments before the light of a wand filled the room they had just left.

A half an hour later, the four students collapsed in the common room, laughing.


The rest of November passed slowly and rather uneventfully. Late in the month, Dora sat up late with her friends eating eclairs and pistachio nuts they'd nicked from the kitchens.

"I'm gonna grab some more food," said Dora.

"Need a hand?" asked Charlie.

"Sure," was the response from his friend, who was already halfway through the portrait hole. Charlie ran after her. After retrieving heaps of pastries and other random foodstuffs including a large jar of peanut butter, they began the trek back to the common room.

"You know, it's been six years since the four of us became friends," said Dora.

Charlie nodded. "Starting when we met in the kitchens," he reminded her.

"In detention," she added, grinning up at him.

"The first of… how many have we had together?"

"Sixty-four, plus I've had at least fifty alone."

He whistled and they walked in silence for awhile.

"Hey Dora," said Charlie as the approached the common room.

"Hmm?"

He stopped and she followed his lead, turning to face him.

"Hogsmeade is coming up in a couple of weeks isn't it?"

She nodded, unsure of where this was going.

"Do you…er…do you want to go with me?"

"Well we always…oh!" The color rose in both their faces as she realized what he meant. She looked down. "I don't think so Charlie, it would be…weird." She looked up and watched his face.

He nodded, "Yeah…yeah it would…just never mind." He murmured the password to the fat lady and walked in. Dora watched him go then sighed and followed.

A few days passed. Charlie didn't bring up Hogsmeade again and Dora didn't either, she didn't even tell Millie that he'd asked. She was sure she had been right to refuse. It would have been too awkward. Not that it wasn't awkward now anyway. More than once Dora silently cursed Charlie for bringing it up in the first place. If he wasn't one of my best friends I would have said yes, she thought, maybe… but she shook the thought off. Still, when Cohen Mallows, the attractive captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, asked her to Hogsmeade, she refused.

The problem was, Dora's feelings toward Charlie had changed, whether she accepted it or not. She found herself watching him, thinking of him, all the while trying not to.

On Saturday, Dora and her friends set off toward the town. Three of the four were wrapped in their warmest cloaks, scarves and hats.

"Uh, Dora," said Millie, "you forgot your cloak."

Dora looked down, "Oh damn! You guys go ahead, I'll catch up." She turned and dashed back up the stairs to the dormitory. She grabbed her cloak from her trunk and started toward the door of the room. Passing the window, Dora glimpsed Rusty, Millie, and Charlie walking across the snowy grounds. She stared for a minute then ran out of the dormitory and common room, throwing on her cloak as she went. She reached the grounds running, "Hey," she screamed. "Hey Charlie!"

He turned and cocked his head to the side inquisitively. She slowed as she reached him stopping when her toes were just inches from his. She grinned then stood on her toes and kissed him on the mouth. He was shocked for a moment, then kissed her back.

The students around them burst into applause.

When they broke away, Charlie said, "But I thought—"

"I changed my mind."

"So then…does this…" he stammered.

She shrugged and he grinned and kissed her.

A few feet away stood Russle Grant, staring and confused. He looked at Millie. She laughed at look on his face and pulled him away.


A/n: There. Hope it was worth the wait. It was so incredibly hard to write.

Review!