As Harry went to the Great Hall with Hermoine and Ron, he was still upset about Clara. He didn't know what else to do, but apologize, to make her stop flirting with Malfoy. It had become too much for Harry to deal with; one of his best friends flirting with his rival. So as Harry approached the Gryffindor table, he spotted Clara and strode towards her.

"And so these are my Muggle friends that I am with and my friend who is a wizard just totally blasts them!" Clara was saying as Harry was standing beside her, waiting to apologize. She saw him and sighed, "Hello Harry," she said coldly.

"Clara, I am sorry." Harry blurted, not being able to handle her distantness.

"I bet you are," she replied, still sounding cold; this was harder then Harry thought it was going to be.

Harry pleaded with her, "I just didn't think it was my place to tell you. If you wanted to know you should have asked Hermoine, not me."

She turned towards him and stared into his eyes, as if to see if he was genuine. After a moment she seemed satisfied because she smiled and answered, "You're right, I'm sorry." She stood up to give him a hug and caught Harry a little off guard. He regained his composure as she embraced him and he could smell the sweet scent of her hair.

As she pulled away she grinned and teased, "You've got to admit though, it was hilarious seeing you get so furious when I flirted with Malfoy!" Clara laughed and Harry knew that the whole thing with Draco was nothing to worry about, which made him laugh right along with her. Harry only stayed to talk to Clara for a few more minutes before returning to his spot at the other end of the table.

As he went to go sit back down next to Hermoine, Ron snapped, "So did you and Clara have good time over there?"

Harry was so confused with this remark and could only think to respond, "What?"

"I bet you enjoyed that hug over there, huh?" Ron said accusingly.

It took a moment for Harry to really register what Ron was saying. He was jealous! Ron liked Clara and was mad that Clara hugged him. Now it all made sense to him as curiously asked, "Ron, are you jealous?"

Ron seemed a little surprised by this and didn't know what to say. He soon started sputtering nonsense like, "Well, bu—not really—it…. No!"

Hermoine seemed a little annoyed by Ron's denial and sharply said, "Stop denying it! We all know that you like her…"

Ron got a little pink as he looked down at his food and replied, "So what if I do?"

"Well, for starters, don't snap at me for hugging her when I didn't know you liked her in the first place." Harry said gently. He knew it was hard for Ron to admit these kinds of things.

"Yeah…sorry about that, mate," Ron responded grinning.

"It's all right, don't worry about it." Harry said lightheartedly while returning back to eating his food.

Ron continued staring at Harry before timidly asking, "So that hug… was it…?" he trailed off while still looking at Harry.

"Ron, she only hugged me because she's not mad at me anymore. Don't worry, she is all yours!" Harry answered with a smile. He was glad that Ron finally liked a girl, even though it was Clara. Harry wondered what Ron was going to do about his little crush too, especially because whenever he was around her, he became so unbelievably quiet. Harry just shrugged at this and continued laughing with his friends. He didn't want to have to think about this, he had a hard enough time with trying to pretend that he was happy.

That night, Harry fell asleep amazingly early considering that he hadn't slept over 7 hours during a whole entire week since Sirius died. All those nights, he had been too busy blaming himself time and again, but as he drifted off to sleep tonight however, his godfather was still fresh in his mind. Then he started to dream…

Harry was in a pitch dark room and couldn't see anything. All he could hear were soft whispers in the distance. As he slowly walked forward, a door came into focus. There was nothing extraordinary about it, but something pulled Harry to this door. Something made him want to open in.

When Harry did open the door though, the whispers turned into one shrill and deafening scream. He started to cover his ears from the scream that seemed to last for eternity, when he saw someone crumbled on the cold stone floor. Harry ran as fast as he could to this person, but as he ran he didn't seem to be getting any closer. He was pushing himself to keep going, but he was getting tired and didn't know how much longer he could run, when he saw someone pounce out from the dark.

Voldemort was the one that had popped up out of the dark and illuminated the room. He had an evil sneer on his face as he smiled at Harry. Soon Harry found out the reason for Voldemort's happiness. It was his dear godfather trembling on the ground, looking so terrible frail.

"He belongs to me now, Harry…" responded Voldemort who was looking intently at Harry's face.

Harry couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. Sirius was dead; he couldn't be under the reign of Lord Voldemort. It didn't make since.

"No! You can't have him.." Harry tried to shout, but nothing came out. He didn't know what to do because still, when he ran to his godfather's aid, he didn't come any closer to Sirius. Suddenly that familiar green flash of light bolted threw Harry's dream and caused him to awake in pure agony.

Harry's scar seemed like it was bursting, just like every other time he had a dream of the "green light". It was like someone had dropped 20 bricks on his head and burst it straight open. He continually rubbed his lightening shaped scar as he pondered the dream. Harry shook his head as he was trying to process it in his mind. The last time I took a dream seriously, Sirius wound up dead…He angrily thought to himself.

Harry found that he was being stupid. Dreams were dreams and they don't mean anything. Dreams are only the way your mind tries to work through your problems and it didn't take a genius to know that Sirius dying and Voldemort being insane were a constant problem on Harry's weighing mind. He was just trying to deal with these problems subconsciously, that's all.

Harry cringed as he tried to convince himself of this. He didn't want to believe the dream, but he had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he should. For the first time in his life though, Harry ignored that sick feeling. He continued rubbing his scar as he was lying in bed and didn't understand why the pain wasn't going away as quickly as usual. Harry rolled over and tried to ignore the simmering pain, but it just wouldn't go away. After what seemed like hours, Harry gave up trying to sleep. He got dressed quickly and headed down the staircase.

He was surprised to see that the fire was still going, but that was probably because a lot of the first years liked to stay up real late. Harry thought that this was stupid because they had school the next day, but the first years would learn soon enough. As Harry approached the couch in front of the fire, he heard a whimpering noise.

Harry slowed his pace to a more quiet one, as he shuffled closer towards the sofa, but as he rounded the corner, he was shocked at what he saw.

Clara was there, wrapped in a little ball on the couch crying her eyes out while staring at a piece of paper. She didn't even notice Harry as she mindlessly blinked at the paper and let the tears roll freely down her face.

Harry didn't know what to do as he stared at her. Even when she was crying, she was still simply breathtaking. Her hair had a soft glow in the firelight and had a natural and irresistible curl to it. The way she titled her head gave Clara a playful look about her, even though she was reduced to tears. Her blue eyes were magically bluer with the watery tears spilling out of them and Harry couldn't speak. When Harry noticed her outfit, how it was a white silky dress sort of thing, he felt guilty for staring at her. He blushed and as he backed up, Clara noticed the movement in the corner of her eye and turned her attentions his way.

"Harry" she stuttered breathlessly. She knew that Harry had seen her crying, but she still didn't want to appear as if she was. She bowed her head quickly to wipe away the tears as she carelessly added, "I'm sorry, I was just—"

"Er, no I'm sorry I couldn't sleep so I came down. I, I didn't know…" Harry replied uncomfortably and avoiding eye contact.

"Yeah" she answered while looking into the fire. The way Clara looked so sadly into the blazing fire, she seemed so hurt and hopeless that Harry felt the desperate need to help this girl. He wanted to be the one to make her feel better.

"Er…Clara, are you alright?" Harry asked awkwardly. He was never any good at comforting people or anything like that, but Harry wanted to be good at it now.

She sighed as she wiped away another tear that leaked out of her still watery eyes as she replied, "You know I'm not, Harry. It's just…I got this letter and it's not…not very good news." Clara said this like she had difficulty accepting it and putting whatever happened into words. She looked down at the paper and placed it into Harry's hands, as he was about to open his mouth to question. "Read it," she said barely above a whisper.

My Dear Clara,

We have all missed you here back in California, but we hope you are having the best time in London! I personally am glad to see you out of the house, and living your life.

I know that you are probably having a wonderful time over there, but I am afraid I have to be the barer of bad news. Your mother, as we all know, hasn't been…well over these past few years. I took your mother to a doctor last week and he told us that she wasn't going to get any worse. That she would just stay how she is because the potion had reached its full effect. However, the doctor was wrong, my darling.

I am so sorry to have to tell you this, but your mother fell desperately ill yesterday and just a mere hour ago, I found her dead. She was lying sweetly in her bed, and finally… she seemed at peace. I know that I should be there in person to tell you this, but I had to stay and work things out. I am so sorry, Clara. You have to know though, you lost your mother a long time ago. Ever since the potion started taking effect her soul seemed to be gone and she was no longer dear Genevieve. Now, she will no longer have to live a life full of the utter most pain and for that, you should be thankful. I have written to your headmaster, Dumbledor. I have met him before in my life, and he is a wise and compassionate man; he will make your life easier. Since I cannot be there for you Clara, I am sending some of your friends over there to help you threw this. Please write me back as soon as you see this so that I know you are all right.

With All the Love in the World,

Aunt Rosalind

As Harry remained staring at the gripping letter that he had just finished, his heart was aching. He could not believe that this was happening to playful and bubbly Clara. Harry looked up to see his dear friend and could see that she had let more tears roam down her flawless face.

She was starting to shake uncontrollably as she managed to sniffle, "She's…gone. I've known she was going to for so long, but now that she is…I can't—" Harry never discover what Clara couldn't do because she was never able to finish her sentence. Harry didn't know how to comfort his friend, but as she leaned her head on his shoulder to cry on, all he could think to do was wrap his arms around her.

Harry didn't know how long he had to cradle Clara in his arms before she stopped her sobbing. Even when she was done crying she still rested her head on his shoulder and he wished she wouldn't. Harry didn't like how he enjoyed having her soft head on his shoulder. He didn't WANT to think she was pretty or like the way she laughed. Harry didn't want to, but he did.

With Clara's head still lingering near his should she turned so she could look him in the eye. Harry noticed how close her face was to his and he could also notice that she had cute and tiny freckles across her nose. She was still beautiful even from close up, especially from close up actually. Clara looked at Harry and asked sincerely, "Why are you so nice to me Harry?"

Harry was slightly taken aback. Why wouldn't he be nice to her? There was nothing about Clara that would make him be anything but nice to her. As he took a minute to ponder she searched in his eyes for an answer until Harry spoke what he was thinking, "I don't know if anyone would be able to be mean to you Clara." He returned her gaze as she gave a sheepish sort of smile.

"Plenty of people are able…" she whispered more to herself then Harry before she added, "Thank you…for staying with me you know." She gave him a forced smile to show her appreciation, then, went back to resting her head on his shoulder. She didn't cry, like Harry thought she was going to. All she did was stare at the floor… it seemed as if she couldn't cry any longer. Clara was so overcome with sadness that Harry didn't know how to make her feel better. He wanted to, so much, but since he had had the same situation with Sirius, he knew that there was no way to ease her pain. "You know, when my godfather died, I felt like I was hopeless. He was the closest thing I ever had to a parent and then one day, I was an idiot and he ended up dying because of that." Harry didn't know why he was telling her this, especially since she didn't even know the story or even who his godfather was, but he wanted her to know that he knew how she felt.

She turned her head once again to look him in the eye as she replied, "I'm sorry…how did you get over it?"

"I didn't, he died just before the summer started." Harry responded looking down. He didn't want her to ask him how Sirius died; he didn't want to know what a moron he was and how he had put all of his friends in danger. Luckily she didn't ask anything more as she continued to look at him.

Harry now again noticed how close her face was to his, and how his arms fit perfectly around her small figure. He gave a slight smile as he sighed and looked away from her. He couldn't look at her anymore, their faces were too close. Clara took her hand and turned Harry's face back towards her as she looked into his eyes.

Then, it was weird how it happened. Suddenly Clara had leaned in and Harry had been there to meet her halfway. First, their kiss was just soft and playful, just like Clara, then, it progressed into a deeper and more passionate kiss. Harry knew that this was why he had to look away in the first place, because he wanted to do this so bad. He loved to finally be able to freely run his hands through her gorgeous blonde hair; he enjoyed so much to be able to finally kiss the one girl that he wanted. It felt to Harry, like time stopped, in those long minutes that they sat there sharing a heartfelt kiss. That kiss, was so filled with emotion that it took Harry a minute to realize what he was doing.

He quickly pulled away and stammered, "No!"

Clara appeared slightly hurt as she looked into his eyes with her piercing stare. She still had her hand on Harry's cheek and he didn't know if he could say no if her touch was still upon him. So he quickly pushed her hand away from his face, afraid that he might kiss her again. "Harry, did I do something wrong?" Clara asked with an upset expression.

"No, its just—I can't…Ron, he, he likes you Clara—I just can't do that," Harry replied franticly while getting up. He had to get away from her, Harry couldn't stand having to hurt her, but Ron was his best friend. He had actually told Ron that "she was all his"! How could he betray his friend that was always there for him when he needed someone? No, he wasn't going to let this ruin his friendship, as much as he liked Clara, he couldn't lose Ron as a friend. Plus, maybe Ron's crush on her would go away and then Harry could be with Clara, but for right now Harry couldn't do that. He had to be a good friend to Ron, and to be a good friend, he just couldn't be making out on the couch with Clara!

As Harry started walking as fast as he could for the boys dormitories Clara shouted out, "Harry?" he kept on running up the stairs two at a time, "We have to talk about this!" when he was about to close the door he heard her say weakly, "Harry…." It pained him beyond words, but Harry shut the door, regardless of her pleas to stay.