Disclaimer: don't own anything you recognize from the books…
A/N: thanks for all my great reviews…any hoo I won't be able to update for about two weeks cos I'm going on a holiday and won't be back for ten days…..but hopefully you like this chapter…
Alex sat on the end of her bed in her dorm. The room was empty, except for her, as the other girls were at the meeting about the trip to Hogwarts that was going to take place in a few days. Opening the purple journal, Alex laid it flat open, turning to the second page, willing the words to come out her. A few minutes later the only thing on the paper was a large black ink spot, sighing, she closed the book and threw it against the wall. When they were talking about she had been fine, even excited about returning to Hogwarts, but now that it was happening, Alex was scared that everything would go haywire again.
Quickly exiting her dorm and common room, Alex made her way towards the headmaster's office. Stopping infront of a statue of two dueling wizards, Alex repeated the password and watched as they disappeared to reveal the waiting area for the office.
As Alex stepped into the small room, she heard the now familiar sound of the statues reappearing. Gently she knocked against the dark purple door and waited for Professor Dokoft to reply.
The door was opened in a matter of seconds.
"Alex, dear, what's wrong?" the blonde witch said, allowing her entry into the office.
Alex sat on the black chair that faced the headmaster's desk as she sat on the other side.
"Nothing's wrong," Alex said confidently, trying to make herself believe it.
"Then what do I owe this earlier visit to, usually you don't come in until after dinner," the professor smiled, placing her hands on the table.
"I just wanted…." Alex trailed off.
"You know you can tell me," Professor Dokoft paused, "Why didn't you go to the meeting?"
Alex looked up at the teacher.
"I can't go back…not yet," She swallowed hard, "I need more time…if I go back now then everything will fall to pieces again…"
The blonde witch nodded, "I understand Alex, and I have already talked to Professor Dumbledore about…your situation and he has agreed with me, in that we don't think now is the right time for you to go back to Hogwarts yet. Perhaps you'll be ready for the end of year trip, I men we can't leave you here by yourself can we?"
Alex nodded, before breathing a sigh of relief.
"What should I tell my Mum and Dad though?" Alex asked suddenly.
"I think you should tell them the truth," Professor Dokoft told her, "or I could talk to them if you like,"
"No, I can do it," Alex answered, standing up.
The blonde witch returned to the papers that were on her desk as Alex exited the office.
"Thanks, Professor,"
"Anytime, dear," the professor responded, carefully placing the letter from Dumbledore about the recent attack in her waste bin.
Logan sat in the small classroom, listening to the teacher at the front drone to the house about what was expected of them as Fascino Quas students and the reputation they had to keep up at Hogwarts.
He yawned and began to search the room for his sister and Alex. Georgie was sitting across the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, he eyes were closed and her blonde curls were slightly covering her face. He looked to the left and right to her but only found some first year boy who was actually taking notes and a girl who was picking her nails.
He continued to look around the room in search for Alex, but did not find her. Then finally the meeting finished, in a flash Georgie's eyes were open and she was at the door. Logan followed with the other students and began to walk down the hallway toward his common room.
"Hey," Alex's voice filled the corridor, "how boring was that meeting,"
"How would you know," Logan said slightly irritated, "you weren't even there,"
"I know," Alex said seriously, but didn't elaborate.
They continued walking, this time going straight past their common room and up the stairs, where Georgie's footsteps could be heard.
"So where were you?" Logan finally asked.
"With Professor Dokoft," Alex paused, "Logan, I'm not going back, not yet anyway,"
"Oh," was Logan's only reply as they finally reached the door, which just closed behind Georgie.
He opened the door and waited for Alex to enter before he did, the door clicked shut behind him.
Brian was re-tuning his guitar, with headphones on, while Georgie and Charlie were talking on the couch. Kimmie was nowhere to be seen and Charlie winced as Logan glanced at him.
"So…um did you still want me to help with that stuff," Logan said turning back to Alex, who had sat down at the table.
"Um…no, not at the moment, I have to write to my parents first," Alex said vaguely, looking down at the piece of parchment she had infront of her, "Maybe later,"
Blaise lay in bed as Hermione tossed and turned next to him. It was a warm night and the small stuffy room just kept the air in, plus with Hermione not being able to keep still, Blaise had any wonder as to why he had thought he could sleep at all.
"Blaise?" Hermione's voice was soft, as if she actually believe he might have been asleep.
"Mmm?" he mumbled.
"I can't sleep," she said sitting up, pushing the bed sheet off of them.
"I know," Blaise replied, "Can't you just pretend to sleep though?"
"Blaise," Hermione whined
"Alright, alright," Blaise moaned and sat up aswell, flicking the light beside his bed on, "Why can't you sleep?"
"I was thinking about the wedding," Hermione said as if it explained everything.
"Yeah…so?" Blaise muttered.
"Well I thought it would be nice if we had it in the garden of Grimmuld Place, I've talked to Harry about it and he said the yard is quite beautiful now the plants have been properly maintained," Hermione told him.
"I thought you wanted it in the great hall?" Blaise asked her.
She frowned at him, a few brown curls falling over her dark brown eyes.
"I thought it would be more meaningful at Grimmuld Place, since that was where we first became friends," Hermione began.
"It's also the place where you left me," Blaise spoke, wishing he hadn't said anything.
Hermione's eyes darkened, but she didn't say anything.
"But if that's where you want it then we'll have it there," Blaise said quickly, as Hermione turned her back on him and laid back down on the bed.
"No, your right, it would be much better if we just had it here," Her voice was muffled through her pillow.
"Hermione," Blaise said.
"Just turn the light off, Blaise," Hermione told him.
in the corner of the class room, Ron yawned as he watched Hermione teach the seventh year some charm on how to make an apple tree sprout blue apples.
Like any one would eat them, he thought to himself miserably. The novelty of following Hermione around day and night had finally worn off, and although Ron would be the last person to admit it, he actually missed teaching his classes.
"Just practice on your model trees," Hermione told the class, before sitting at her own desk, as Ron looked on.
Yawning again, he turned back to the daily prophet he had on his desk, unaware that Hermione had stood up from her desk and was opening the closet window.
Finally as the owl entered the classroom, along with the loud outbursts from the students, Ron looked up again. The small owl smoothly landed on Hermione's shoulder and she reached up to untie the note.
"Hermione don't," Ron shouted, causing the classroom to go silent.
"What's wrong Professor Weasley," Hermione said slowly, glancing at her students.
"Uh, nothing, just…here let me take that owl out into the hall for you," Ron said carefully, knowing that the students had no idea why he had been in their classes the last couple of weeks.
Hermione sighed and carefully placed the owl on Ron's shoulder, following him out of the classroom.
"Students, back to your work," she told them as the closed the door behind her.
"Ron, what do you think your doing," Hermione said loudly.
He ignored her, choosing to inspect the piece of parchment that was still tied to the owls leg.
Unmarked, tied with a blue leather strap, the owl is a soft caramel color, he mentally noted.
"Ron!" Hermione's stern voice broke him from his thoughts.
"Hermione, what? I'm trying to concentrate," He told her angrily, as he began to untie the letter off the owl.
"Since when have you hade the right to take my mail," Hermione said just as angrily.
Ron looked at her, as if the reason was obvious, "just since my best friend and her family is being targeted by some lunatic," he hissed at her as she snatched the rolled up parchment away.
"Oh," Hermione replied, her cheeks going slightly red, "sorry," she handed the unopened parchment back to him.
"Hermione, are you alright?" Ron asked, taking the parchment, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"I'm fine," Her voice squeaked, "Now would you just open it and see who it's from,"
Ron looked down at the piece of parchment and tapped it with his wand. Nothing happened. Carefully he undid the seal and unraveled the piece of parchment, only to be greeted with his goddaughter's curly scrawl.
"It's from Alex," He said reading the letter.
Hermione frowned, "What does it say,"
Ron lowered the piece of parchment and looked at his best friend, "uh…if I tell you, you have to promise not to take it out on me,"
"What?" Hermione asked confused, grabbing the letter from Ron's hands.
Her eyes quickly scanned the letter from her daughter.
Mum & Dad,
Well I guess now is a good time to tell you, since if I don't turn up it might be worse. Anyway, I've decided not to come back to Hogwarts yet, I want to wait until the end of year trip with the rest of the school. Hopefully you'll understand.
Love Alex
Riley woke with a start, and reached out for his glasses. Screams filled the boys dormitory and bodies jumping out of their beds moved across to the far side of the room.
Riley too, climbed out of his own bed and moved to the bed that was opposite his, the bed where Dougie slept. The Australian boy tossed and turned in his bed, the sheets twisting around his legs like tentacles pulling him down. A scream filled the air again and Nick grabbed his arms, preventing the boy from moving again.
"Somebody get Professor Morris," He said urgently. None o f the boys moved, "now," he screamed.
Riley took a step back away from the bed, before turning and running out of the room.
Finally racing their head's door, he began to bang loudly on the door.
"Professor Morris," he shouted when no reply came.
Finally the door was flung open and the startled teacher looked at the boy.
"What is it Mr. Potter?" the teacher asked him.
"it's Dougie, something's happened to him," Riley said breathlessly, turning back toward the dorm, the teacher quick on his heals.
When they arrived, the lights were on in the room and most of the boys were still huddled around the Australian's bed. Dougie, his eyes still closed, was trying to break free from Nick's grasp, when another scream escaped from his lips.
"Move," the teacher told the boys and they all took a step back.
He touched the boy on the head carefully as another scream came.
"Douglas," he said loudly, sitting the boy up. Then in an instant, he stopped moving and slumped against the teacher.
"Dougie," Nick said this time, stepping toward the bed.
Professor Morris held his hand up, signaling for the boy to stand back.
"Dougie," he repeated, laying the bay back against his pillow. Slowly the blonde boy's eyes opened.
"Professor, it was awful," he whispered, his voice raspy from the screaming.
"What was awful? What happened?" the teacher asked him.
"The girl crying, a man next to her dead" he stopped, taking a breathe, "she wouldn't stop crying and calling for help. Then a man came and he just laughed at as she cried,"
"Who was it? Who was the girl?" Professor Morris pushed the boy. (A/N: not literally)
"it wa- it was," Dougie began to sob now.
"Who?" the teacher prodded impatiently.
"Riley, it was her" he whispered, "it was Alex,"
At that moment, Riley felt the color drain from his face, as every pair of eyes in the room turned to look at him.
"Who's Alex?" one of the boy's asked him.
Professor Morris stood and Riley ignored the boy, "Mr. Furno, take Douglas to see Madame Hamilton," he told Nick, before turning toward Riley.
"Mr. Potter, I think you need to come with me," he said softly. Riley nodded and continued to ignore the stares of the other boys.
Alex pushed a stray hair out of her face, as she dipped her brush into the dark blue paint. She was surprised as to how much she had actually missed her art classes while she was Hogwarts, although she was never really good at it, she enjoyed letting her emotions out on paper, especially since her writing was not allowing her to do that at the moment.
Next to her, Georgie had painted a large pink heart in the middle of her page, and was carefully painting GM 4 CL in black paint in the middle. Logan was glaring at her from her other side as the music played softly in the background.
Alex turned back to her painting. It hadn't turned out like she had planned, but nothing ever did when she was in art. Instead of a landscape view of the sun setting on the beach, she had ended up painting something, which resembled the Hogwarts crest, and she had no idea how she went from the first to second.
"Aah, Miss Granger, wonderful," Her teachers soft voice blended into the music, "Perhaps you could take it to Hogwarts with you tomorrow,"
Alex merely nodded, before dipping her brush into the gold paint, she carefully signed her name at the bottom of the picture. Lifting her brush off the easel, Alex frowned at the letters she had just placed there. A. Granger. Then with a swish of her brush, the name was extended.
A. Granger-Zabini.
Satisfied with her work, Alex placed her brush down and watched the clock as it ticked toward the end of the lesson.
"Blaise, how could she not come back," Hermione whined to him as they sat down at the great hall.
The letter had arrived yesterday and Hermione was still complaining about it, although it hadn't really come as a surprise to Blaise.
"She'll come back when she's ready," Blaise said tiredly, taking a bread roll fro the middle of the table as Harryand Ron finally sat down.
"But she knew how much I wanted to see her," Hermione exclaimed.
"Hermione, please," Blaise said, rubbing his temple, "we need to give her time, or else she might not come back at all."
"What?" Hermione said, her voice rising. Harry and Ron both stopped talking and turned to look at the couple. "What do you mean she might not come back?"
"I just meant that she might stay in the Us once her school is finished," Blaise tried to explain.
"you think she's going to do something stupid, don't you?" Hermione said , tears welling up in her eyes.
"no-" Blaise began.
Hermione pushed her chair away from the table, and got up.
"Mione? Where you going?" Ron said, standing up too, "Blaise didn't mean that,"
Harry and Blaise watched as Ron followed her out past the students and down the corridor.
Blaise slammed his fist against the table.
"Calm down," Harry muttered.
"Everything I do Harry, everything" Blaise said looking at the man, "she's never satisfied. Everything's my fault and she's blaming me in every possible way she can,"
"Blaise," Harry began
"What Harry, are you going to tell me that 's what life is like, everyone gets blamed for other people's bloody mistakes, but if she keeps on acting like this then I don't know what I'll do," Blaise growled back.
"Blaise!" Harry tried again.
"What?" Blaise said, finally breaking out of his little rant.
"um…well…you see the thing is….Ginny said….maybe it's not all this that's causing her to act like this, maybe it's a completely different reason," Harry said awkwardly, "Maybe it's hormonal"
"Oh….oooh" Blaise said, finally getting the picture, "no, wait that can't be right…she-"
"Blaise!" Harry said again, "as much as I love her, I don't want to hear about that kind of stuff about my best female friend,"
"oh right," Blaise said vaguely, getting lost in his own thoughts.
Riley sat in the headmaster's office. Dougie, now awake, although still quite pale sat in the chair nest to him. Professor Morris was talking quite animatedly with the Headmaster.
"and your sure this as the girl in your dreams?" the headmaster pointed to the picture Riley had retrieved from his locker.
Dougie nodded slowly, looking apologetic at Riley.
"And who is this girl?" the headmster looked at Riley.
Riley swallowed hard.
"Her named is Alexandria Granger, she used to attend Hogwarts, but after some family problems she transferred back to Fascino Quas in the states," Riley said clearly.
"I see," th eheadmaster said, "What kind of family problems?"
"Her mother is being stalked," Professor Morris interrupted.
"and when was the last time you spoke to Alexandria," the headmaster turned back to Riley.
"Once, a couple of weeks ago," Riley answered, "other wise it was before she left, just before I came here"
The headmaster nodded, "and Mr. Potter, do you think it is wise if we contact Albus Dumbledore?"
Riley simply nodded, "but I don't think you should tell her parents,"
"Why not?"
"Beca- because, the man Dougie described sounded like her father, Blaise Zabini," Riley responded.
"You two may go back to your dorm," the headmaster told the boys.
Professor Morris turned to talk to the headmaster as the two boys silently stood up.
"Sir," Dougie's quiet voice interrupted the two teachers, "make sure Dumbledore keeps her safe,"
Riley's eyes began to sting as he quickened his pace, heading in the direction of the dorms.
"Riley," Dougie said, trying to catch up with him.
Riley continued to walk and roughly opened the door. Nick and two other boys were waiting for them.
"Riley, I'm sorry," Dougie said as he caught up with the boy as he stood not moving in the middle of the doorframe. His glasses began to fog up and suddenly Riley couldn't see anything.
"Ril-" Nick's voice was blocked out as Riley's head hit the cold, hard floor.
Dear Alex,
Well, your mother wasn't too happy with your last letter. I just ask that if you're to do that again, write to me first and I'll let her down lightly. She misses you, as do I, and we were both looking forward to seeing you again.
This being said, however, I do understand how you might not be ready to come back just yet. Just don't stay away for too long, and if you don't come back at the end of the year I swear I might not be able to restrain your mother from flooing over there and dragging you back.
Anyway, how are things going? I hope you've been continuing your meeting with Professor Dokoft. Well I hope to see you soon. Say hello to the twins for me.
Love Always, Dad
Alex stuffed the letter back into her purple school robes as Charlie and Brian rushed past her.
"Come on, Lex," Charlie called to her, "Logan said 2:30,"
"Alright, I'm coming," Alex, said, following the two boys as they practically ran up the stairs. She didn't know what they were so excited about, Logan and Georgie were just going to Hogwarts, it wasn't like they were leaving forever.
Finally she same to the practice room door and she opened it carefully. The five people already in the room were almost silent, but not because she just entered. Brian and Kimmie each stood on separate sides of the room glaring at each other, why Logan hummed loudly to himself as Georgie and Charlie were whispering to each other.
Pulling her purple school robes, Alex looked at her friends.
"So, when do you leave?" she asked.
"Soon," Logan told her, "Are you sure you don't want to come?"
"Some, one's got to keep these three out of trouble," Alex joked, avoiding eye contact with the boy.
"Tell Nikki I miss her, will you," Alex requested.
Logan nodded and glanced at his watched.
"Come on Georgie," he spoke loudly, "we should go to the ballroom now,"
Georgie hugged Charlie one last time, before turning to hug Alex.
"See you all soon," She said and bounced out of the room behind her brother.
"Hermione," Blaise said quietly.
"What is it Blaise," Hermione said impatiently as she tried to comb her hair.
"I think we need to talk," he spoke clearly.
"About what?" she said, "and you better make it quick the students will be arriving soon,"
"the last time we…you know…did you use that charm?" Blaise asked, not getting anything out the way he had planned.
Hermione turned to face him, her face quite pale, "I can't remember…I'm just hoping that I did," she spoke softly.
Blaise nodded, "I mean it would be nice, wouldn't it?"
Hermione sat down on the bed. "A baby's not supposed to be nice Blaise, it's supposed to be a magical experience. I know from when I had Alex, I was so scared, but then the first time I held her in my arms, I knew she was perfect."
"What are we going to do?" Blaise asked slowly.
Hermione was slightly startled by this question.
"Do you want a baby Blaise?" she asked him, avoiding his gaze.
"I don't know," he said more loudly than he intended, "I thought that I lost that chance when I couldn't find you. But then you came back with Alex, and yet sometimes, for the smallest of moments, I still feel like I'm missing out on something,"
Hermione squeezed his hand, "How about if tomorrow we go for a visit to the hospital wing?"
A/N: okay I probably would have liked that a bit longer but what can I say, everything's falling into place nicely…anyway like I said I won't be able to update for about two weeks cos I'm going away…. but please please review!
Luv emgurl