They're coming. Oh so slowly, the chapters are coming. Please please please, review, I love hearing from you all.

"Come on, Nym, let's go," Mandy pleaded, practically hopping in frustration. Nym gazed levelly at her friend, then very slowly and deliberately took a bite of her sausage.

"It's a village, Mandy. It will still be there waiting when I'm done breakfast."

"But aren't you excited? Our first Hogsmeade visit! And just in time for Halloween! Oh, I can't wait!"

In fact, Nym was anything but excited. If asked, she might have said (if she felt like being honest) that she was dreading it. She liked - no, loved - Hogsmeade, but no one there knew her. They just knew Minetta. If they had ever met Nym, it was as a clumsy little girl at the Potters' wedding. She really wished it hadn't been necessary to disguise herself that first trip with Remus, that somehow it had been possible to go as herself.

Rick appeared as if by magic when Nym finally pushed her plate away. "Fine, Mandy. I don't know why I let you talk me into this. Oh, Rick, don't tell me you were in on this too."

"Of course, my fair darling," Rick proclaimed, sweeping a bow that truly would have put Lucius to shame. "It brings me untold joy to be able to share this day with you."

Sensing Mandy's suddenly sour mood, Nym knew she shouldn't have taken the arm Rick offered her, but with a delicate cursty, she did so anyway. Ever the gallant one, Rick offered Mandy his other arm, which she declined with a sneer.

As the trio made their way down to the village, Nym reflected on her friends' relationship. It seemed to her that, despite their frequent quarrels, Mandy and Rick were, well, interested in one another, to put it in a way that avoided all those stupid, empty-headed phrases that her roommates used. Mandy, from reading her teen magazines (why were they teen magazines? Nym found herself wondering. Only girls read them) had probably convinced herself she either loved Rick - in which case he was the one true love of her life - or she hated him absolutely. Well, it was obvious Mandy like Rick. But did he return the interest? Nym watched her friend sidelong. Perhaps. He didn't act any different towards Mandy than he ever had. She did wonder, however, what had turned the normally pragmatic Rick into this garishly outgoing young man she had been subjected to over the last two months. When they talked, he was still the thoughtful, insightful boy who had first befriended her, which made his dramatic little episodes all the stranger.

"What can I show you lovely ladies today?" Rick asked when they reached the village. "Hogsmeade is truly a wonderus place for two beauties such as yourselves." Mandy glared at him. Nym rolled her eyes.

"Why don't we just work our way along the main street?" Nym suggested. There were all sorts of interesting nooks and cranies in Hogsmeade, but she doubted very much that Rick knew about them. After all, he didn't have the Marauders for brothers.

So Rick, playing the part of tour guide, took them along the main street, starting at the Shrieking Shack and working their way down. Mandy looked a little skeptically at the decrepit old house when Rick told them stories about it that he swore were true. Nym, again, just rolled her eyes and kept silent. She'd had the full story of the Shack from her brothers, and in a way it was more terrifying than any of the children's tales Rick was telling, if only because it affected someone so close to her. Really, though, she had to wonder what could possibly have scared a wizarding community about the house so badly. Haunted? Hogwarts had more than its share of ghosts, and a poltergeist to boot. Perhaps it was only because Dumbledore had warned them away from it. If Dumbledore warned her away from something, Nym figured she'd probably do her best to avoid it. Or would at least arm up considerably before disobeying him.

When Rick and Mandy decided to finish up the day with a bottle of butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, Nym made her excuses and headed back up the street and ducked into a dark alley. A few words conjured a mirror and, moments later, Min walked out. Nym wished she could have done something about her school robes, but she didn't know any spells for clothing, so she contented herself with hiding the Gryffindor crest on her robes. Far from ideal, but it would do.

People that had watched her without any recognition as she walked along between Mandy and Rick now came up to greet her, and ask after her summer. Almost all the residents of the village knew little Minetta, with her pretty golden hair and big eyes. Not so little now, some of the women clucked approvingly, but growing into a beautiful young woman, just you watch out for those young men, missy. Mrs. Honeyduke slipped her a piece of fudge when she stopped by the sweet shop, and Mr. Goodewin at the quidditch shop took her back to see the new racing brooms that hadn't even been unpacked yet. Nym stroked them with reverent fingers: Malfoy Manor didn't even have one of these beauties yet.

She was waving goodbye to Mr. Goodewin, promising to bully her brothers into writing the cheery man, when she walked straight into a wall. Or not a wall at all, she found as she collapsed in a heap of arms and legs, but a handsome and well built young man. Seeing who it was, Nym flushed crimson, and scrambled to get to her feet and away from Zack as fast as she could. Even as she hurried to try and get away, he was there, helping her to her feet and making sure she was alright.

"It's Minetta, isn't it? I don't know if you remember, I'm Zack. We met at the Potter's wedding."

Why had he been there in there in the first place? Nym wondered. Zack had never been close to any of her brothers; he had sort of worshiped them from afar, as so many of the younger kids had, but had been too in awe to get close enough to meet them. Rather than expressing any of this, she settled for saying, "I remember."

"I'm so sorry. Can I take you to the Broomsticks to make up for it?" Who uses a line like that? Nym wondered, and it was quickly followed by another thought: Is Zack asking me out? One part of Nym was thrilled, but she shoved it down. It wasn't her Zack was asking out, it was Minetta. And Zack hardly knew Minetta. All the same… she shoved the thought away forcefully.

"Thank you. Some other time, perhaps? I really need to get going."

"Are you sure…?"

"I'll see you around," she promised. Now why did I promise him that? She wondered as she hurried away through the village, irrational fear making her take every back alley and twist she knew, as though to throw off pursuit. As far as she was concerned, Minetta died today, and would never walk in Hogsmeade again. Why did it bother her so much that Zack had looked so upset when she brushed him off and hurried away?

It was a very gloomy Nym that trudged back up to the castle. She had had fun with Rick and Mandy, even with the two of them constantly at each other's throats. And she had enjoyed seeing all her old friends, well, Minetta's friends, in Hogsmeade. But that run in with Zack… she just barely suppressed a groan. Why did being a teenager have to be so complicated? She'd only turned thirteen a few months ago, and already she wished for the simplicity of being a child. Mandy seemed to almost enjoy the headache that went along with raging hormones and unrequited crushes; Nym just wished it would happen to someone else so she could get on with life in peace. Or even that she could have a nice, simple relationship like the muggle teens had. After all, if she wasn't a witch, she would never be at risk of ending up in a love triangle where she played the part of both the girls.

What was the problem? Nym asked herself as she walked. She wanted Zack to notice her as a girl, rather than a little sister sort of friend. And he had. But it's me I want him to notice, she thought fiercely. Not some snooty little princess like Minetta. Minetta Nigellus is the perfect little pure-blood: she wouldn't give a muggle-born like Zack Smith the time of day. Why did it have to work out this way? she thought sullenly. Why couldn't it have been, I don't know, somehow different. Easier. She kicked a piece of gravel irritably. Right then, she just wanted to grab them all, Zack, Mandy and Rick, and smack their heads together for making her life so confusing. With a groan she turned away from the castle and made her way to the broomsheds, hoping that some time in the air would clear her head of the cobwebs that her friends seemed to be stuffing in there.