A.N: Alright, this is going to be the longest yet! I'm spending as much time as possible on this one chapter. It's really just an introductory piece, but it's reaaaaaallly emotional and stuff. Poor Kit has to become a full-fledged Slytherin, and we all know what that means...
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Don't Look At Miss Slytherin, You'll Hurt Your Eyes
As Kit unpacked her trunk, she admired the sleek new look of her robes. Granted that she play along with this little charade, she might just be able to figure out exactly how far Draco would go (not like that, you pervs!). Maybe her short, she hoped it would be short, stay here would turn out to be tolerable.
She did have one major complaint. Whereas Gryffindor's dormitory areas were warm and comforting, the Slytherin's were definitely not. The walls were like cool marble, glittering and flashing in the firelight. There were four beds in the room, large queen-sized canopies, all with the name of it's possessor on the front of the frame. Kit's was near the door, nestled in a large inlet. She was next to Pansy, across from Nina. Millicent Bulstrode's bed was off in a secluded corner, obviously moved from it's original spot in the corner.
The room itself was not at all warmed by the fire, instead it seemed to get colder as each minute passed by, maybe it was just her, but she wasn't looking forward to sleeping here at all.
"All acquainted?" Draco asked, peering in through the door with a sinister smirk on his face.
"No, merely unpacking, not at all acquainted." Kit pulled out her tie and nestled it on top of her sweater vest that she had lain on her bed. "Could you put this in that dresser?"
Kit tossed him a long nightshirt which he tucked into the dark oak dresser that he was now leaning against, "You can't tell me that you're still loathing my existence. I thought we were friends!"
Kit rolled her eyes as he put on a dramatic pout, batting his eyelashes at her. "Friends? When did that happen, I thought we were merely forced to be in the same house, not to be friends."
"You can't be serious." It was his turn to roll his eyes.
"What if I am?"
"Oh, you know you aren't..."
"Are you so sure, Mr. Malfoy?"
Draco rolled his eyes again, sneering at her, "I knew you'd never change, you're just a stuck up little Gryff---"
Draco was forced to swallow his words as Kit jumped up and pressed her lips to his. She didn't want him to finish his sentence, because she didn't want to believe it. Thus, she opted for snogging his brains out.
Kit pulled away promptly, grinning at him, "Am I still a Gryffindork?"
He stared at her in disbelief, unable to say anything, so Kit answered for him, "I think not."
(Well, maybe this won't be so bad after all,) Kit thought as she sauntered out of the room, leaving Draco to stare after her, (Brr, his lips are cold as ice...)
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
"How," Hermione asked, sitting down at a table in Potions with Ron and Harry, "can she already be such a snob, when she's only been in Slytherin for a week?"
Ron didn't know what to think. Over the past week, as Hermione so mildly put, Kit had changed completely. When he attempted to make peace with her at the latest Patrona-Drama meeting, she just glared at him and told him it was over between them, then turned back to Draco, her new partner. He used to be her partner.
She was now holding up the ranks of being one of them. She had all the attributes of a well-bred Slytherin: an airy gait, a sharp enough wit to cut her tongue, and a smirk that seemed almost plastered to her face.
Ron looked over at her mournfully as she laughed at one of Draco's jokes, her hair shining in the dimly-lit dungeon classroom. Her laugh was just the same, like a tinkling wind chime, so melodious and care-free. She used to be like that...care-free. Now she was just another Slytherin, just another girl he couldn't have.
"Oh, Ron..." Harry said benignly, following his gaze to Kit, "She's a lost cause. She won't even talk to the twins anymore."
He sighed heavily, "I just don't get her. Before she just wanted me to talk to her, and now she ignores my existence!"
"She's Slytherin, she won't be bothered with us boring little Gryffindor's anymore." Hermione sighed heavily, "Best not to even care."
Ron's heart panged as Draco put his hand on Kit's and held it, he knew that she wasn't with him anymore, but he didn't want it to be over with so suddenly. He loved her with his heart and soul, but maybe they just weren't meant to be together anymore.
"Silence!" Snape said, sweeping into the room, "I would like for you to all get out your wands, we are not having a Potions lesson, by Dumbledore's order."
Confused whispers ensued as they all took out their wands, wondering what could be so important as to post-pone the lesson that he had been talking about for weeks. They hushed as he moved to address the class.
"As I just said, we will not be having a normal class, but instead we will be practicing some minor defense spells. You may not have been told, but the staff has been told to warn their classes that an army of dementors are assembling a few miles from the school. And this is why you will be taught defense spells in every class you have to attend today.
"The first spell I am going to teach you is a simple deflector, or, if you must, shield charm. The incantation," He waved his wand and a spell appeared on the board, "and the instructions are on the board, you will be split into groups of four. The you have exactly half an hour to practice.
"The groups are thus: Malfoy, Clivelle, Granger, and Potter; Weasley, Patil, Snape, Zabini; Parkinson, Crabbe, Longbottom, Brown; Thomas, Kingston, Goyle, Bulstrode; Finnegan, Kingston, Nott, Holland. You may begin....now."
Snape stepped out of the room, into his office and let them start.
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
Kit and Draco smiled as their group assembled. She knew it was going to be easy to deflect their minor spells, seeing as she was now highest in her Defense class. Hermione looked at them haughtily, putting her wand to her chest. Harry did the same.
"Minor curses," Hermione said, looking at Draco warningly, "He said minor curses so we do minor curses only!"
"He just said the charm was for minor curses, he didn't say that it was all we could do." He nodded at Kit, who frowned inwardly, this was going to be very risky.
In a matter of minutes, the room filled with shouts of curses, and the sound of them bouncing off shield-charms. Kit easily evaded Harry's tickling curse, her bright covering making a ringing gong-like noise as the spell evaporated into it. She countered with a complicated teeth engorging charm quickly, almost hitting him. Draco was sending a body-bind at Hermione, who was gritting her teeth in frustration as she conjured her shield.
Kit chanced a look at Ron, who was grinning from behind his shield at an angry Nina. Kit instantly regretting looking away, because just as soon as she had, a wayward spell knocked her flat on the ground, causing her hair to grow at an alarming rate. Draco spotted her, and quickly muttered a reversal spell, making her hair shrink back to it's normal size.
Ron had seen too, because he was now looking at her in shock. She threw him a sneer and turned back to Draco, thanking him as Snape came back into the room.
"Now, we have to end early, I have a meeting I need to get to, so you may all go outside until the next class." He left them all to get their things as he swept out of the room.
In the hall, Kit met up with Nina and Blaise, who were trying to reverse some rather bad thickening charms on their eyebrows. Nina had managed to get her's down to it's normal size, but Blaise had just made his larger.
"Zabini, you idiot." Draco muttered, waving his wand carelessly at him, shrinking it back down, "It's not that hard to reverse."
"Well, fuck me then! I just got the incantation mixed up with the enhancement," Blaise snapped, his voice deep and gruff. Kit would admit that he was kind of cute, with his dark brooding eyes and spiky black hair, but his personality was warped and twisted.
Nina rolled her eyes as Draco put his arm around Kit, kissing her right in front of everyone. Kit's eyes were wide at the start, but she quickly closed them, enjoying it slightly. She pulled back gently, smirking.
"Do you realize that we're being stared at?" Kit asked sinisterly, her eyes a bright sparkling green.
"Yes, what do you think I was going for? Subtlety?" Draco smirked, backing away a little so that she could see his whole face, not just his eyes.
Kit looked around, her face set as she snuck a glance at Harry and Ron. They were both looking at her in shock and awe. She winked at Ron, who turned red. Draco grinned. Harry and Hermione were glaring at her, as were the rest of the Gryffindor's, all but Ron. He didn't seem to be able to move.
She wasn't really a Slytherin, she was pretending. Even now as she watched her house laugh at Ron's dumbfounded stare, she couldn't help but tear up. She ducked her head and let a solitary tear slide down her cheek, no one taking notice, no one but Ron himself that is.
"Fuck you, Miss Slytherin," Ron hissed, turning and walking out of the hall and up the stairs, Hermione and Harry racing after.
"What have I done..." Kit whispered, burying her face in her hands. She was thankful that the Slytherins were to busy cackling about Ron to notice her.
And in that moment, she was Miss Slytherin. A sadistic girl with no heart. She had humiliated him, humiliated the one person that she truly cared for, just so she wouldn't look like a Gryffindor. Maybe she was a Slytherin at heart. Maybe her mother had known that, and that's why she was in this mess in the first place. She looked up, her face dry, to find Draco looking at her with a glimmer in his eyes. She didn't love him...she'd never love him.
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
Ron looked at George and Katie Bell. They were laughing about something, an odd glimmer in her eyes. George looked like he always did when he told a joke, just trying to make someone laugh. But Katie...she looked at him with the same look that Kit used to give Ron. A gentle and sweet stare, showing all the love she felt for him. She was in love with George, but he was either oblivious, or he just didn't feel the same.
He shifted in his chair, turning away from the two to gaze into the common room fire. He felt as if his world was worthless. A big empty void in his heart as he went back through what had happened in the dungeon hall three days ago. Ron remembered thinking that maybe she was just putting up a wall between herself and her past, trying to please her mother by tolerating being a Slytherin, when Draco had kissed her. He had seen him kiss her before, the night of the Sorting Ceremony, but this was different.
She had enjoyed it. Kit had let him kiss her, even kissed back. And then she turned to Ron, her eyes twinkling as she smirked at him, winking. He knew that she couldn't love him after that. Ron knew.
"Budge up, you great lump!" Fred exclaimed, trying to get his attention. "You shouldn't be so gloomy, we just won against Ravenclaw! And you even came out of it in one piece!"
Ron vaguely remembered the game. He was so distracted the whole time that it was wonder that he had blocked anything but wind. All he remembered was his first four saves, but the rest of the game was a blur. He had spotted Kit with Draco in the stands, holding his hand and whispering in his ear, a wide smile on his face. Harry had told him earlier not to look over there, but he couldn't help himself. She even booed when he made his first save...
"Cheer up, it's not the end of the world! And besides," Fred grinned, "you have a letter!"
Ron looked up at him placidly. He was gripping a hooting Pig, his other hand dangling a roll of parchment. He recognized the seal instantly.
"It's from her!" Ron gasped, snatching at the letter, but Fred took it away.
"Sorry, little Ronnie, but George and I would like to read it with you, along with a few others, seeing as it's to all of us," Fred grinned, "Well, you, me, George, Ginny, and Harry."
Ron's heart fell. It wasn't just to himself, it wasn't special. It was probably just a stupid letter telling them how she wasn't ever going to talk to them again, and that she was disowning Harry or something.
Fred saluted him sarcastically and went to round up everyone while Ron sulked. He spotted Hermione, sitting with Seamus, working on a bathroom chart for February. He suddenly had a fleeting feeling of dread. Valentine's Day was coming up soon, and he didn't have anyone. It wasn't as if he had had anyone before, but now it felt so horrible not to. Kit had someone else. She had Draco. Even Hermione had someone this year...she was still with Terry Boot, and they were spending most of their free time together.
Even Ginny had someone, well not really someone, but she did have a reciprocated love, whether she knew it or not. She didn't see Harry staring at her, and she didn't see Derek Kingston looking at her. She had more admirers than she thought, but she only liked one of them. Ginny would probably die of shock if she knew.
Now he was all alone. Granted, yes he did have his friends, but that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted someone to love, he wanted a person that cared about him. He wanted to be in love.
"Are you ready?" George asked, the group of people that Fred listed earlier assembling around them. Ron sat up eargerly.
"Let me read it," Ron said, holding out his hand for the parchment, "It came with my owl."
"Since when do you claim Pig?" Ginny asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes as he was passed the letter.
"Shut up, I want to hear this!" Harry said, ignoring the hurt look on her face, "Hurry up!"
Ron cleared his throat and read,
"Dear 'Friends',
I'm am sorry, but the fact of the matter is thus; I cannot speak with you or be in contact personally, so I have to write letters. I have heard about McGonagall's rule, and I must concur. She knows that if anything odd or hateful would be sent to me, you would be facing a lot of opposition. So, I am forced to tell you my finding in a letter, instead, as I would have wished, in person.
I have spent the past month looking over the letter that my mother sent me, and I have concluded that it is not from her. You see, my mother told me in her last letter that she would be using her maiden name, and nothing but, and that I should stay with Clivelle. So, as I suspect, the letter isn't from her, but from another. Another female, yes, but I don't think you'd believe me if I told you who I thought it was.
But, that is a risk I am willing to take. I believe that a certain Narcissa Malfoy wrote the letter. You see, there are other things that seem odd now that I read it over, the part where she says, 'She was to be left in their [the Malfoys] care at the age of twelve...' This is not true. My mother told me in her last letter, and Ron should remember, that I was going to be left with Rosmerta, not the Malfoys.
Well, I should finish now, I hear footsteps, but I want you all to know that whatever I may say, or whatever I may do...it is a charade, don't take it seriously!
Katherine Amelia Clivelle"
"Well, I think that she should have told Dumbledore this instead of us!" Harry hissed, looking at them all with a worried expression, "He'd be able to find out."
Ginny shook her head, "She's not that close with him, she probably thinks that he wouldn't understand, that he'd just send her off for lying. She told me that the only teacher she could ever talk to was Miss Figg, but I'm not too sure if she was being serious or not."
Ron shook his head too, "No, she was joking, because she said none of the teachers here understood her."
"Well, she'll come around," George assured them, "She's just a little out of it, I'm sure of that."
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
A/N: Is this long enough? It's the longest of all, so that's long enough for me! Hope you all enjoy, and yes, in the next chapter I will be explaining a bit more, and I'll do the whole Valentine's surprise event. Haven't heard about it? Well, you should enjoy it! *Ron looks surreptitiously at the empty spot on the couch, where Kit liked to sit. She wasn't there anymore* Oh, save it for the next chapter... *Ginny looks at Harry, but turns away just as he looks at her* That's been going on for some time... BYE!
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Don't Look At Miss Slytherin, You'll Hurt Your Eyes
As Kit unpacked her trunk, she admired the sleek new look of her robes. Granted that she play along with this little charade, she might just be able to figure out exactly how far Draco would go (not like that, you pervs!). Maybe her short, she hoped it would be short, stay here would turn out to be tolerable.
She did have one major complaint. Whereas Gryffindor's dormitory areas were warm and comforting, the Slytherin's were definitely not. The walls were like cool marble, glittering and flashing in the firelight. There were four beds in the room, large queen-sized canopies, all with the name of it's possessor on the front of the frame. Kit's was near the door, nestled in a large inlet. She was next to Pansy, across from Nina. Millicent Bulstrode's bed was off in a secluded corner, obviously moved from it's original spot in the corner.
The room itself was not at all warmed by the fire, instead it seemed to get colder as each minute passed by, maybe it was just her, but she wasn't looking forward to sleeping here at all.
"All acquainted?" Draco asked, peering in through the door with a sinister smirk on his face.
"No, merely unpacking, not at all acquainted." Kit pulled out her tie and nestled it on top of her sweater vest that she had lain on her bed. "Could you put this in that dresser?"
Kit tossed him a long nightshirt which he tucked into the dark oak dresser that he was now leaning against, "You can't tell me that you're still loathing my existence. I thought we were friends!"
Kit rolled her eyes as he put on a dramatic pout, batting his eyelashes at her. "Friends? When did that happen, I thought we were merely forced to be in the same house, not to be friends."
"You can't be serious." It was his turn to roll his eyes.
"What if I am?"
"Oh, you know you aren't..."
"Are you so sure, Mr. Malfoy?"
Draco rolled his eyes again, sneering at her, "I knew you'd never change, you're just a stuck up little Gryff---"
Draco was forced to swallow his words as Kit jumped up and pressed her lips to his. She didn't want him to finish his sentence, because she didn't want to believe it. Thus, she opted for snogging his brains out.
Kit pulled away promptly, grinning at him, "Am I still a Gryffindork?"
He stared at her in disbelief, unable to say anything, so Kit answered for him, "I think not."
(Well, maybe this won't be so bad after all,) Kit thought as she sauntered out of the room, leaving Draco to stare after her, (Brr, his lips are cold as ice...)
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
"How," Hermione asked, sitting down at a table in Potions with Ron and Harry, "can she already be such a snob, when she's only been in Slytherin for a week?"
Ron didn't know what to think. Over the past week, as Hermione so mildly put, Kit had changed completely. When he attempted to make peace with her at the latest Patrona-Drama meeting, she just glared at him and told him it was over between them, then turned back to Draco, her new partner. He used to be her partner.
She was now holding up the ranks of being one of them. She had all the attributes of a well-bred Slytherin: an airy gait, a sharp enough wit to cut her tongue, and a smirk that seemed almost plastered to her face.
Ron looked over at her mournfully as she laughed at one of Draco's jokes, her hair shining in the dimly-lit dungeon classroom. Her laugh was just the same, like a tinkling wind chime, so melodious and care-free. She used to be like that...care-free. Now she was just another Slytherin, just another girl he couldn't have.
"Oh, Ron..." Harry said benignly, following his gaze to Kit, "She's a lost cause. She won't even talk to the twins anymore."
He sighed heavily, "I just don't get her. Before she just wanted me to talk to her, and now she ignores my existence!"
"She's Slytherin, she won't be bothered with us boring little Gryffindor's anymore." Hermione sighed heavily, "Best not to even care."
Ron's heart panged as Draco put his hand on Kit's and held it, he knew that she wasn't with him anymore, but he didn't want it to be over with so suddenly. He loved her with his heart and soul, but maybe they just weren't meant to be together anymore.
"Silence!" Snape said, sweeping into the room, "I would like for you to all get out your wands, we are not having a Potions lesson, by Dumbledore's order."
Confused whispers ensued as they all took out their wands, wondering what could be so important as to post-pone the lesson that he had been talking about for weeks. They hushed as he moved to address the class.
"As I just said, we will not be having a normal class, but instead we will be practicing some minor defense spells. You may not have been told, but the staff has been told to warn their classes that an army of dementors are assembling a few miles from the school. And this is why you will be taught defense spells in every class you have to attend today.
"The first spell I am going to teach you is a simple deflector, or, if you must, shield charm. The incantation," He waved his wand and a spell appeared on the board, "and the instructions are on the board, you will be split into groups of four. The you have exactly half an hour to practice.
"The groups are thus: Malfoy, Clivelle, Granger, and Potter; Weasley, Patil, Snape, Zabini; Parkinson, Crabbe, Longbottom, Brown; Thomas, Kingston, Goyle, Bulstrode; Finnegan, Kingston, Nott, Holland. You may begin....now."
Snape stepped out of the room, into his office and let them start.
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
Kit and Draco smiled as their group assembled. She knew it was going to be easy to deflect their minor spells, seeing as she was now highest in her Defense class. Hermione looked at them haughtily, putting her wand to her chest. Harry did the same.
"Minor curses," Hermione said, looking at Draco warningly, "He said minor curses so we do minor curses only!"
"He just said the charm was for minor curses, he didn't say that it was all we could do." He nodded at Kit, who frowned inwardly, this was going to be very risky.
In a matter of minutes, the room filled with shouts of curses, and the sound of them bouncing off shield-charms. Kit easily evaded Harry's tickling curse, her bright covering making a ringing gong-like noise as the spell evaporated into it. She countered with a complicated teeth engorging charm quickly, almost hitting him. Draco was sending a body-bind at Hermione, who was gritting her teeth in frustration as she conjured her shield.
Kit chanced a look at Ron, who was grinning from behind his shield at an angry Nina. Kit instantly regretting looking away, because just as soon as she had, a wayward spell knocked her flat on the ground, causing her hair to grow at an alarming rate. Draco spotted her, and quickly muttered a reversal spell, making her hair shrink back to it's normal size.
Ron had seen too, because he was now looking at her in shock. She threw him a sneer and turned back to Draco, thanking him as Snape came back into the room.
"Now, we have to end early, I have a meeting I need to get to, so you may all go outside until the next class." He left them all to get their things as he swept out of the room.
In the hall, Kit met up with Nina and Blaise, who were trying to reverse some rather bad thickening charms on their eyebrows. Nina had managed to get her's down to it's normal size, but Blaise had just made his larger.
"Zabini, you idiot." Draco muttered, waving his wand carelessly at him, shrinking it back down, "It's not that hard to reverse."
"Well, fuck me then! I just got the incantation mixed up with the enhancement," Blaise snapped, his voice deep and gruff. Kit would admit that he was kind of cute, with his dark brooding eyes and spiky black hair, but his personality was warped and twisted.
Nina rolled her eyes as Draco put his arm around Kit, kissing her right in front of everyone. Kit's eyes were wide at the start, but she quickly closed them, enjoying it slightly. She pulled back gently, smirking.
"Do you realize that we're being stared at?" Kit asked sinisterly, her eyes a bright sparkling green.
"Yes, what do you think I was going for? Subtlety?" Draco smirked, backing away a little so that she could see his whole face, not just his eyes.
Kit looked around, her face set as she snuck a glance at Harry and Ron. They were both looking at her in shock and awe. She winked at Ron, who turned red. Draco grinned. Harry and Hermione were glaring at her, as were the rest of the Gryffindor's, all but Ron. He didn't seem to be able to move.
She wasn't really a Slytherin, she was pretending. Even now as she watched her house laugh at Ron's dumbfounded stare, she couldn't help but tear up. She ducked her head and let a solitary tear slide down her cheek, no one taking notice, no one but Ron himself that is.
"Fuck you, Miss Slytherin," Ron hissed, turning and walking out of the hall and up the stairs, Hermione and Harry racing after.
"What have I done..." Kit whispered, burying her face in her hands. She was thankful that the Slytherins were to busy cackling about Ron to notice her.
And in that moment, she was Miss Slytherin. A sadistic girl with no heart. She had humiliated him, humiliated the one person that she truly cared for, just so she wouldn't look like a Gryffindor. Maybe she was a Slytherin at heart. Maybe her mother had known that, and that's why she was in this mess in the first place. She looked up, her face dry, to find Draco looking at her with a glimmer in his eyes. She didn't love him...she'd never love him.
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
Ron looked at George and Katie Bell. They were laughing about something, an odd glimmer in her eyes. George looked like he always did when he told a joke, just trying to make someone laugh. But Katie...she looked at him with the same look that Kit used to give Ron. A gentle and sweet stare, showing all the love she felt for him. She was in love with George, but he was either oblivious, or he just didn't feel the same.
He shifted in his chair, turning away from the two to gaze into the common room fire. He felt as if his world was worthless. A big empty void in his heart as he went back through what had happened in the dungeon hall three days ago. Ron remembered thinking that maybe she was just putting up a wall between herself and her past, trying to please her mother by tolerating being a Slytherin, when Draco had kissed her. He had seen him kiss her before, the night of the Sorting Ceremony, but this was different.
She had enjoyed it. Kit had let him kiss her, even kissed back. And then she turned to Ron, her eyes twinkling as she smirked at him, winking. He knew that she couldn't love him after that. Ron knew.
"Budge up, you great lump!" Fred exclaimed, trying to get his attention. "You shouldn't be so gloomy, we just won against Ravenclaw! And you even came out of it in one piece!"
Ron vaguely remembered the game. He was so distracted the whole time that it was wonder that he had blocked anything but wind. All he remembered was his first four saves, but the rest of the game was a blur. He had spotted Kit with Draco in the stands, holding his hand and whispering in his ear, a wide smile on his face. Harry had told him earlier not to look over there, but he couldn't help himself. She even booed when he made his first save...
"Cheer up, it's not the end of the world! And besides," Fred grinned, "you have a letter!"
Ron looked up at him placidly. He was gripping a hooting Pig, his other hand dangling a roll of parchment. He recognized the seal instantly.
"It's from her!" Ron gasped, snatching at the letter, but Fred took it away.
"Sorry, little Ronnie, but George and I would like to read it with you, along with a few others, seeing as it's to all of us," Fred grinned, "Well, you, me, George, Ginny, and Harry."
Ron's heart fell. It wasn't just to himself, it wasn't special. It was probably just a stupid letter telling them how she wasn't ever going to talk to them again, and that she was disowning Harry or something.
Fred saluted him sarcastically and went to round up everyone while Ron sulked. He spotted Hermione, sitting with Seamus, working on a bathroom chart for February. He suddenly had a fleeting feeling of dread. Valentine's Day was coming up soon, and he didn't have anyone. It wasn't as if he had had anyone before, but now it felt so horrible not to. Kit had someone else. She had Draco. Even Hermione had someone this year...she was still with Terry Boot, and they were spending most of their free time together.
Even Ginny had someone, well not really someone, but she did have a reciprocated love, whether she knew it or not. She didn't see Harry staring at her, and she didn't see Derek Kingston looking at her. She had more admirers than she thought, but she only liked one of them. Ginny would probably die of shock if she knew.
Now he was all alone. Granted, yes he did have his friends, but that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted someone to love, he wanted a person that cared about him. He wanted to be in love.
"Are you ready?" George asked, the group of people that Fred listed earlier assembling around them. Ron sat up eargerly.
"Let me read it," Ron said, holding out his hand for the parchment, "It came with my owl."
"Since when do you claim Pig?" Ginny asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes as he was passed the letter.
"Shut up, I want to hear this!" Harry said, ignoring the hurt look on her face, "Hurry up!"
Ron cleared his throat and read,
"Dear 'Friends',
I'm am sorry, but the fact of the matter is thus; I cannot speak with you or be in contact personally, so I have to write letters. I have heard about McGonagall's rule, and I must concur. She knows that if anything odd or hateful would be sent to me, you would be facing a lot of opposition. So, I am forced to tell you my finding in a letter, instead, as I would have wished, in person.
I have spent the past month looking over the letter that my mother sent me, and I have concluded that it is not from her. You see, my mother told me in her last letter that she would be using her maiden name, and nothing but, and that I should stay with Clivelle. So, as I suspect, the letter isn't from her, but from another. Another female, yes, but I don't think you'd believe me if I told you who I thought it was.
But, that is a risk I am willing to take. I believe that a certain Narcissa Malfoy wrote the letter. You see, there are other things that seem odd now that I read it over, the part where she says, 'She was to be left in their [the Malfoys] care at the age of twelve...' This is not true. My mother told me in her last letter, and Ron should remember, that I was going to be left with Rosmerta, not the Malfoys.
Well, I should finish now, I hear footsteps, but I want you all to know that whatever I may say, or whatever I may do...it is a charade, don't take it seriously!
Katherine Amelia Clivelle"
"Well, I think that she should have told Dumbledore this instead of us!" Harry hissed, looking at them all with a worried expression, "He'd be able to find out."
Ginny shook her head, "She's not that close with him, she probably thinks that he wouldn't understand, that he'd just send her off for lying. She told me that the only teacher she could ever talk to was Miss Figg, but I'm not too sure if she was being serious or not."
Ron shook his head too, "No, she was joking, because she said none of the teachers here understood her."
"Well, she'll come around," George assured them, "She's just a little out of it, I'm sure of that."
*§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§**§~~§*&~*§*~&*§~~§*
A/N: Is this long enough? It's the longest of all, so that's long enough for me! Hope you all enjoy, and yes, in the next chapter I will be explaining a bit more, and I'll do the whole Valentine's surprise event. Haven't heard about it? Well, you should enjoy it! *Ron looks surreptitiously at the empty spot on the couch, where Kit liked to sit. She wasn't there anymore* Oh, save it for the next chapter... *Ginny looks at Harry, but turns away just as he looks at her* That's been going on for some time... BYE!