It was suppertime in the Great Hall, but Chalondra could barely eat more than a nibble of chicken. It was that accursed Kadric and his stupid mind games. He hadn't shown up for supper, and she hadn't seen him around the school like usual. And it was really unnerving, knowing she had caused him to commit suicide or something, for all she knew.

He was just hoping for her to feel guilty, probably. Well, if that was what he wanted, it was working.

But I hate him! HATE. HIM. How can I possibly care?

"Chal? CHAL!" Yoyo's high-pitched voice brought her back to the Great Hall with a thump.

"Huh?" She looked over at her friends, bewildered. The three others giggled, even Tali.

"What?" Snapped Chal, suddenly feeling very violated without knowing why or how.

"We just heard from—from Danny—" Kate blushed as she said this "that you know that Slytherin you were stuck with? Kadric what's his face? Well, he reeks in potions!"

They burst into giggles, even Yoyo.

She can't truly like him if she laughs at his loser qualities. Chal thought, and then felt very mean. After all, she too had her pathetic subject.

"How d'you know?" Chal asked, suddenly losing her appetite.

"Well, Danny said he overheard the Slytherin behind him saying Kadric was down in Snape's dungeon room thing, trying to get better at potions." Kate grinned at Chal. "Looks like you worked him over hard in class today, so everyone in Slytherin was teasing him."

"He SO deserves it!" Yoyo put in. Chal gave her a questioning, annoyed sort of look. She just shrugged helplessly, and Chal let out a sigh.

Great. I got him teased? I know how THAT feels, and it's not pretty…

"Chal? Don't you think it's funny?" Tali asked suddenly. Chal looked over at her silent friend, alarmed.

"Huh? Oh…yea…hilarious…" She gave them a weak smile. "Look, guys, I really need to go study for that Herbology test…"

"But we were gonna have a game of wizard's chess!" Kate said with a slight pout on her face. Chalondra just kind of shrugged.

"Sorry Kate, but I'm freakishly attached to my schoolwork." She ducked down, grabbed her bag, and then stood up. "See ya later guys." She tromped out of the Great Hall, grumbling to herself for being so stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid…

But she was smart enough to know that apologies came before studies.

Kadric sat in a desk in the potions room, thoroughly relieved that Snape wasn't here. If it was a teacher he hated, it was Snape. All because he favored Malfoy, favored the good potion-makers, what a pompous, big-mouth, greasy haired little—

The creaking of the large metal door caused him to nearly hit the roof with his head. He whirled around, eyes wide. "Who the—"

There, standing in the doorway, was that Ravenclaw girl. The girl that started up all the teasings again. Just when he thought they'd be able to handle it that he wasn't perfect at everything, and then she comes along and blows up in his face. And what did he do? STAND THERE. He felt stupid enough already, let alone her lecturing him in front of everyone. And did he always have to turn into a bloody lamb everytime someone brought up his potions disability?!

"Whaddya want?" He asked grouchily, turning around, seating himself in a chair and flipping through the potions book that lay flat in front of him.

He didn't hear her come closer. Kadric guessed she was still in the door. Why couldn't she just leave? He didn't want another lecture about how he nearly burned her whole hand off…not that it would've been a bad thing…

She was completely silent. Okay, Kadric had never known silence to be so irritating.

"I'm not going to end up biting you."

Oh shoot, she's going to have the perfect comeback…

"Maybe not, but you'll probably end up burning me."

He sighed. Yea, he'd gotten that one on the dot. "Okay, okay, you beat me." He turned around with aforced smile on his face. "Now, will you tell me what you want and then get out of my sight? You're burning my retina's."

Ouch. Cold. He thought, yet with some grim pleasure.

She humphed and started to walk slowly up the aisle. He noticed her hand was still wrapped in a stupid Ravenclaw tie. Stupid colors, stupid meaning, stupid smartness in every bloody subject…

Wow, his mind seemed to drift a lot.

"I heard about the-er-not so nice antics of your fellow Slytherin's."

He snorted in disgust as he turned back around so he didn't have to look at her blushing, genius head that probably had a brain the size of Europe in it…

"You know, I could care less if you called them selfish little gits who have no life of their own and tease other people for no reason whatsoever."

Chalondra gave something that resembled a giggle…or a chuckle. Then he heard her sitting down beside him. But he still wouldn't look at the person who had just made him the laughing stock of the Slytherin's for years to come.

"Sounds almost like what you did to me, hm?"

Kadric felt his stomach plummet to new depths. Okay, so he hadn't been expecting that…

"That was all in good fun." He decided firmly, knowing he had just sounded like some fancy-pants snobby rich freak.

"Well it wasn't fun for me."

Silence.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop teasing you. Will you just go now?!"

But she didn't leave. Instead, she sat there in her chair, and he knew she was trying to see what he was reading. Kadric was like that…it was almost like he had eyes in the back of his head, which would be kind of gross, so he never liked to bring up a thought like that.

"What're you looking at?" She finally asked.

"A book." He snapped.

"What book?"

"One you wouldn't need."

"And why not?" She asked in a sort of huffy tone.

"Because you've already read the whole library, where I got this."

"That's not what I meant."

"All right, it's a book on potions. Yea, potions, because you know what?!" He whirled around to glare at her. "I stink at it! Yea! I'm bloody terrible at potions, and I can't make one for a single sickle, OKAY?!"

Chalondra bit her bottom lip, almost as if she were trying hard not to laugh.

"It's not funny." Kadric growled, slamming his hand down on the book as he turned another page so forcefully it ripping the paper. And just to exasperate him even more, Chalondra began to 'tsk tsk' him.

"What is so funny?!" Kadric asked, really rather tired of her stupid mind games. "Oh—right. You think it's just high-LARIOUS that I can't make a potion, eh? Because it's a 'Slytherin subject'? Well, you're a biased little freak if you think that."

Chalondra sucked in some air, and Kadric knew he had gone just a wee bit too far.

"Actually, I think I would know a little something about being teased because of biased thoughts."

Kadric suddenly thought about all the times he had called her snobby little genius, or said her brain was huge, or that she knew everything, or that she had read the whole library…

And this little statement made a sort of little connection between the two. Both had been teased due to the thoughts and biased opinions of others. This was the one think that, oddly enough, calmed Kadric down enough to speak properly.

"So what were you laughing about?"

"That you were getting yourself so worked up over a little thing that you shouldn't even care about."

"I'm nearly failing potions! Of course I'm going to care!"

Chalondra just shook her head in disappointment, and Kadric just noticed how creepily glossy it was. Like, glossy that he always saw in those stupid little ads about 'the best shampoo potion ever' and all that junk.

"I'm just saying…if you calm down and learn one step at a time, it'll be easier for you."

Kadric snorted. Easier? Since when had anything in his life gotten easier? "Sorry Ravenclaw, but it just doesn't work like that."

There was a silence, in which Kadric flipped through the book, feeling his brain nearly explode with all the information it was processing. Gillyweed? Three quarters of a cup of chopped flobberworm? And since when did they rip hairs off of unicorn's to stick in a useless potion?!

"I'm sorry."

Kadric continued to flip through the book, until the meaning of the words hit him full-force in the face. He turned to face Chalondra, who was playing with the tie that secured her burnt up hand.

"Huh?"

Oh, very intelligent. His mind chided.

"I'm sorry about getting you teased by the Slytherin's, and I'm sorry that I totally freaked out in class."

Kadric just shrugged, when deep down he was in total shock. No one had ever apologized to him before…only because everyone thought of him as the cool one. The one without a heart that didn't have any feelings of the sort.

"Okay, whatever." He drawled, flipping some more pages.

"Well…um…that's all I really had to say." He glanced over to see her getting out of the chair and pushing it back into the desk. "And you're not the only one who has a bad subject."

Kadric couldn't help but let out a fake sort of chuckle. "Are you saying you have a screwy subject?"

He saw a frown grow on her already blushing face as he continued to smirk up at her. Oh, yes, getting people angry was so fun…

"I don't think you deserve to know." She sniffed, whirling around and walking down the aisle.

"Aw, are you leaving the fun already?" Kadric asked after her, but she didn't answer, just continued towards the door. He sighed heavily, that stupid thing called a conscious chiding him for a being an immoral moran.

"Hey—Chalondra!" He called after her, realizing how stupid her name sounded when it came out of his mouth. She would probably take it offensively. The girl stopped and turned around, a curious expression on her face.

"What?"

"I suggest you have that hand looked at by Madame Pomfry." He said with a smirk. "Wouldn't want it to mutate now, would we?"

Chalondra just blushed once more. "Who knows what was in that vial." She said, painfully reminding him of the moment where his brain had decided to fizz out on him.

But then—she smiled. Smiled. After he had been an insufferable little jerk her whole time at Hogwarts.

"But thanks, Slytherin—it's good to know you care."

And with those words, she left the dungeon, closing the door behind her, and leaving a shocked-into-silence Kadric.

And then his brain started to whirr and click furiously, until his mouth uttered words he knew were already too late to catch up with her.

"I do NOT care, you bloody genius!"