One week later…

Chal trotted down the hall, getting used to the feeling of using her legs. For so long she had sat in a bed in the hospital wing, cramping her legs and still hounding her friends for homework. Well, everyone except Kate. Kate hadn't been to see her since…it happened. She trusted that her friend hadn't told anyone about the close encounter of her and Kadric, because all of her friends acted normal. Wait – Yoyo hadn't come either…oh right. That's because she was busy studying for a huge test. So really, only Tali and Danny had come to visit her, and a few other Ravenclaw's Chal knew.

Kadric hadn't come either.

I didn't expect him to, she thought miserably as she checked her watch. She had potions right now. Joy. She'd get to see Kadric. How absolutely pleasant. He probably told all of his friends about how he tricked this gullible Ravenclaw into kissing him.

Because that's what I did, Chal realized for the five hundredth time. I kissed Kadric – willingly. No, that is so wrong.

One week earlier…

"Yoyo?" The said girl sat in front of her mirror, brushing her silky black hair.

"Yea Kate?" she asked, concentrating on the task at hand.

"There's no one else in here, right?" Yoyo looked up to see her friend standing awkwardly in the entrance of their dormitory, looking around with something like a confused expression on her face. Yoyo shrugged.

"I don't think so…" she was silent. "Hey, anyone here?" she cried. No answer. "There you go," Yoyo told Kate, trying to smile; the expression on Kate's face caused her to worry though.

"Okay, good." The tall girl strode into the room, sitting down on Yoyo's bed beside the mirror. For a while she was silent, only holding her head in her hands and tapping her foot nervously. Yoyo let her think for a while. It was how Kate handled things.

"I saw something in the hospital wing that's…a bit…disturbing."

Yoyo stopped primping momentarily to blink at her friend. "Disturbing? How?"

"Well, I went to see Chal because, you know, she's been in there for so long. Anyway, the curtain was drawn, so I assumed she was asleep. I was slipping through to give her her books, and – and - ," Kate paused making random motions in the air with a helpless look on her face. "And I saw her and…and…"

She stopped. Instead, Kate sighed heavily. "Look, you probably don't care."

"No, I do!" Yoyo was sitting on the edge of her seat, waiting for the juicy gossip. "What happened?"

"There was…there was a Slytherin. You know, the bully? Kadric?"

"Yea, I do," Yoyo replied quickly, feeling her stomach tense up. Just because he had shot her down didn't mean she still didn't like him.

"Well they were - she was, I mean, he was…I don't know!" Kate threw her hands up into the air. "Do you promise not to tell?"

"Yes," Yoyo said sharply, knowing this was going in a bad direction. Hurry."

"They were…you know…it."

Yoyo sighed. "Kate, just spill it!"

"THEY WERE KISSING!" cried the frazzled girl, standing up. "Chalondra was kissing a filthy, slimy Slytherin! They HATE each other, they DO! They MUST…" Kate flopped down on the bed, unknowing to the effect her words had had on Yoyo. The Asian girl sat on her chair, stunned. Her brush fell from her grasp, and her thoughts started to fly. Is that why Chal had been so keen to keep Yoyo away from Kadric? Were they together? Why was he visiting her? How could she do this to Yoyo? She KNEW Yoyo liked him, she KNEW! Yoyo stood up angrily, fuming.

"I'll see you later, Kate," Yoyo muttered stiffly.

"Wait, you won't tell, right?" Kate asked suddenly. Yoyo shook her head.

"Of course not." How could I tell something so terrible? She asked herself. With that, she strode out of the room, trembling from head to toe.

Present…

Chalondra slipped into the potion classroom earlier than most people. The room was empty except for one or two Ravenclaw – she wasn't expecting the Slytherins to join them until just at the bell.

Chal smiled as she saw Yoyo sitting in her usual seat, writing swiftly on a piece of parchment. Her stomach twisted painfully at the sight of her friend though. She had betrayed Yoyo, and she felt terrible. Would she ever tell her, though? Probably not. No, probably not.

"Hey Yoyo!" Chal greeted, sitting down beside her. Yoyo only shrugged, and continued to write. Chal watched her, brow furrowed, for a few moments, until she gave up and opened her book. She glanced back at Yoyo, and coughed to get her interest. Yoyo paused, but continued to scribble down on her parchment. Chalondra felt very uncomfortable, so she craned her neck to try and see what Yoyo was doing. "What're you writing?" she asked. Yoyo glared at her, and held her hand up like a shield against the writing.

"Stuff," she snapped back, and then scribbled furiously. Chal had a sickening feeling that Yoyo was writing something about her.

"What's stuff?" she asked pleasantly.

"You wouldn't want to know," Yoyo predicted ominously. Chal looked at her nervously, thoughts flying. Had Yoyo figured out? How? How would Yoyo…

And then it hit her. Chal felt like she was going to be sick. With a sickening sound, she stood up abruptly, her chair screeching back. Yoyo only glared at her, but Chal didn't see. Without any warning she ran out of the classroom, up the dungeon stairs and out into the Entrance Hall, heading for the main doors. She was going to faint. No, she was going to die. Yoyo know about it, and now Yoyo hated her. WHY did she let her infatuation get away with her? Why? Why? Why?

She slammed a door open, stumbling out and down the stone steps, sobbing as she tripped over her cloak. On the last step her shoe caught on the hem and she went flying in the air, screaming; only to be caught by an unsuspecting Kadric.

"Hey!" he cried, clutching onto her tightly out of instinct. "Watch it!"

But Chal didn't pay any attention. She only sobbed into his shoulder, holding onto the fabric of his cloak for dear life. "She knows!" she cried miserably, still sobbing.

Kadric glanced around hurriedly, glad to see the rest of his class had gone in already from Herbology. No one had to know he had stayed behind to find out the latest mark on his test.

"What are you talking about?" Kadric muttered through clenched teeth.

"She knows!" Chal cried again into his cloak. "Kate told…Kate told…"

Chalondra felt Kadric stiffen. "You don't mean…"

"YES!" Chal cried, suddenly realizing how hard she was gripping onto Kadric. She pulled away suddenly, shocked to feel his hands around her waist. But those snapped back almost immediately as Chal pulled away. Sniffing, Chal rubbed at her eyes.

"Look, we can't exactly have this conversation by the main doors," Kadric muttered hurriedly. "Can we maybe go somewhere else?"

"I c-c-can't skip p-p-potions!" Chal cried in horror. "Are you c-c-crazy?"

Without giving her an answer Kadric grabbed her arm, pulling her into a nearby archway that led to one of the gardens tended to by Professor Sprout. Thankfully, no one was there.

"Now," Kadric stated sternly, not even realizing his hand was still tightly holding Chal's arm. "Tell me what's going on."

Chalondra sniffed again, rubbing at her eyes before speaking. "Y-Yoyo was mad at me in potions today, and I didn't know why…"

"Wait," Kadric interrupted. "Is Yoyo that girl who likes me? Y? On the note?"

Chalondra glared at him. "Shut. Up," she ordered. Kadric shut his mouth tersely.

"So anyway, I didn't understand at first. And of course, I was all nervous because of…well, you know," Chalondra paused, blushing, then continued, "so I thought maybe she found out. And then I remembered that Kate had—er—seen it, so I'm afraid that Kate told Yoyo." Chal felt her bottom lip start to tremble again. Stay calm, she ordered mentally. Stay calm, and he can't make fun of you. Stay calm, and he can't tell you the kiss was all a joke and he was waiting for a reaction like this. Stay calm…

Kadric blanched. "You mean your friend, Kathy or whatever, told people?" he whispered hoarsely. "Like, everyone?"

Chalondra bit her lip. "I don't know…" She stopped, looking up at him suspiciously. "Wait. Why do you care who she told? Wasn't it some kind of joke you were doing so you could tell all your little friends about how you managed to trick me?"

Kadric's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?" he asked grumpily. "It wasn't a—um—joke."

Chalondra felt a mixture of relief and worry. "So you mean we…um, did that…?"

"All on our own?" Kadric finished, his ears turning red. "Yea, 'fraid so."

"Oh great," Chalondra moaned, stamping her foot. "Just great. My one friend hates me, the other thinks I'm crazy, and I kissed a Slytherin voluntarily!" Chal threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. "Could this day possibly get any worse?" She rounded on Kadric. "Don't you answer that," she snapped.

Kadric held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I wasn't going to. I would much rather pretend it didn't happen and go on hating you with ease."

"But—what—you did it before!" Chalondra hissed, standing up so she was within two inches of his face. "You did it before all on your own! Why do you care about this one?"

Kadric sighed and stuck out his hand, counting off on his fingers. "One, no one was there the first time. Two, it was just to shut you up. How long will it take you to realize that? Why are you even in Ravenclaw?"

Chalondra started to stammer and stutter in anger. Kadric hurried on.

"THREE," he said loudly to drown out Chalondra's angry spurtings in Spanish, "Your nice little friend is going to tell everyone, which will cause me to lose my popularity drastically, and four…" his sentence trailed off and he gazed over at the wall behind Chalondra so he wouldn't have to look at her. "Four," he repeated quietly, "I actually—er—kissed you. You know, in a non-evil way."

Chalondra's jaw dropped. "Okay, so you have some reasons. But they all stink. Except for the last one, because I don't understand that either!" Chal moaned, hiding her face in her hands. "What is going on?" she asked the air. Kadric sighed heavily.

"I was hoping you'd tell me, what with your overly large brain and all."

"Kadric!" Chal cried angrily.

"All right! All right! Your somewhat overly large brain."

Chalondra groaned. "I have to face Kate tonight. She'll ask me about it. Yoyo will write things about it." Chal managed to look at him in the face. "Face it," she told him, "people are going to find out."

Kadric felt his insides shrivel. "Do they have to?"

"No," Chal replied. "But they're going to anyway."

Chalondra paced the Ravenclaw common room nervously, tapping her fingernails together as she thought. "Okay," she began. "I skipped potions to talk to a Slytherin, my best friend thinks I'm psycho, my other best friend hates me, and I kissed a Slytherin. It's not THAT bad, right?" she asked herself, laughing at the idea of it not being that bad. "Oooh, it's terrible!"

Chal looked at the clock. Still dinner time. Everyone would be back soon though. Then she would have to face everyone.

"Excuse me…"

Chalondra whipped around to see a familiar, young girl with nervous hands and downcast eyes. Chalondra felt her stomach heave. No God, please not her. She had enough to deal with already…

"What?" she snapped.

"He—He wants to see you again. In the same place."

With a cry of aggravation, Chalondra threw a dirty look at the young girl, who took a frightened step backwards. Not even realizing how mean she had just been, Chal stomped over to the exit, slamming the door behind her.

Chalondra saw the tapestry from a long ways away. She paused, remembering this was where she had collapsed. Where Kadric had saved her. A blush rose to her cheeks and Chalondra hurried on, her hands shaking nervously inside the pockets of her robes.

She stood outside the tapestry awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Finally, the voice answered for her.

"Glad to see you've made it," it stated coldly. "Now get in."

Chalondra pulled back the tapestry and stepped in lightly, feeling slightly ill at the familiar sight of the man cloaked in black.

"So…tell me, Ravenclaw. I have heard you had a slight…interruption in our plans?"

"Thanks to you," Chal said automatically.

"Oh really?" he asked stiffly. "How so?"

"You pressured me. I exploded," Chalondra snapped. "Now look, if you want more information on Kadric--,"

"Actually, I do," he said darkly. "Do tell."

"I have none," Chal stated hurriedly. "None whatsoever, I mean I've been in the hospital wing nearly this whole time--,"

"Tell me what you know so FAR," the voice hissed, and Chalondra stooped low, feeling her body tremble again. This was bad for Kadric, she just knew it. But why did she care? Well, she liked him, but not THAT much. But did she hate him enough to risk his life?

"I—I know he likes Herbology," she mumbled. "And he…he doesn't like people to know private things…"

"Like what?"

"I don't know," Chalondra mumbled, wringing her hands nervously. Like kissing? She asked herself, but stayed silent.

"Tell me girl!" the man roared. Chalondra cringed.

"Like what he does in his private time! What do you care anyway?" Chalondra cried equally as loud. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

"No," he said coolly. "In fact, you're the only one who can tell me anything at all."
"And why's that?" Chal asked stubbornly. The right hand of the cloaked man suddenly poked out of the robes, cupping her chin as the cloak came closer. Chalondra grimaced at the hand; it was pale, thin, and scaly. She wanted to gag, but her thoughts were interrupted by his voice.

"Because you know him best," he growled, and Chal smelled something rank from beneath the hood.

"I barely know him!"

"Oh, I think not," he whispered, withdrawing his hand back into the cloak and taking a step away, much to the relief of Chalondra. "I think you know him…rather well."

Gee, does everyone know about the kiss? Chalondra asked herself nervously.

"Look," she began, "I can maybe find out his schedule or something, but I'm a little busy right now. Could you wait…"

"No!" The man hissed. "I cannot wait! I need information immediately! I need to know about this Kadric! He is powerful, is he not?"

"Er—I don't know!" Chal cried suspiciously. "WHY do you care?"

The man fell silent, as if he were thinking out his next words. "We—I—need him for something. Something very important. And only you can inform me. But if you mess up in any way, any way at all, I swear I will come back to haunt you."

Chal's bottom lip trembled. "Mess up? How?"

"Trying to tell him," the voice rumbled quietly. "Trying to let him know he isn't safe. I will know. And I will send you both to be killed. And your little friends too. But," the man suddenly said in mock thought, "you're not exactly close with your friends right now, are you?"

Chalondra gave a cry of anguish and finally pulled back the tapestry, bolting out and running down the corridor, her whole body shaking dangerously. How did he know? HOW did he know? That was just creepy; insane.

"You can come back next week," the voice called eerily from behind Chalondra. She tried to shut it down, but nothing happened. "I'll send for you."

Chalondra had managed to get to the common room before dinner was over and scuttle back to the dormitory to mull things over. But she didn't have much time and fell into a painful, nightmare-ridden sleep.

The next morning she trudged off to Defense Against the Dark Arts, where Kate would surely start to interrogate her. With a heavy sigh Chalondra walked into the classroom to see it already bustling with students and Professor Windex at the front, shuffling papers with his white hands.

Chalondra trudged to the front desk where she usually sat, between Kate and Yoyo. She saw Yoyo was sitting in the back today, and Kate was sitting nervously, tapping her foot in an impatient sort of way. Chalondra tried her hardest to sit in her desk quietly, but Kate immediately heard her and whirled around.

"Chalondra, what is wrong with you? Did I see what I really think? Yoyo's fuming now, she told me all about it and how you knew. How COULD you Chalondra? Since when are you and Kadric on speaking terms anyway?"

"Kate," Chalondra started in a warning voice. "Don't even talk about it, all right?"

Kate was about to argue back, when quiet Professor Windex called the class to attention.

"All right class," he began in his timid, frail voice. "I have your previous exams right here. Mister Callahan, if you please…?"

A boy stood up in the back to pass out the tests, and Chalondra thought about her tutoring that she would have to attend later that evening. She wasn't looking forward to it.

Soon, the class had their exams, and everyone was comparing scores. But Chalondra had nothing in front of her. With a resigned sigh Chalondra stood up and headed to Professor Windex's desk.

"Excuse me, Professor?" she asked politely, hoping to get his attention away from what he was writing on the board.

"Oh!" he cried, turning around and giving her a timid smile. "Yes?"

"I was wondering what happening to my exam?"

"Ah. Yours was at the bottom of the pile. I'm afraid I had no time to mark it, as I just did it this morning." He checked a little book on his desk suddenly. "But I have—ah—some appointments this week so I'm a little busy." He gave her a small, worried smile, and Chalondra couldn't help but smile back, although she really wanted her test score and was slightly frustrated at his lack of motivation.

"You can come back next week," he suddenly said, his voice a little louder and deeper than normal. Chalondra felt her body numb. That sentence…that sentence and that…that voice… "I'll send for you."

Chalondra let her mouth drop open. The Professor smiled at her in a normal way, then stopped at the look on her face. "Er—you better sit down," he told her politely, and Chalondra nodded like a stiff board. Turning around, she sat down at her desk; hard.

Professor Windex had just said the same sentence that had haunted her down the corridor.

"You can come back next week…I'll send for you."

Chalondra sat numbly at the Herbology table, listening to Kadric drone on and on about some plant or other Chal could really care less about at the moment.

"Kadric?" she suddenly asked, coming out of her stupor. Kadric looked up from his paper.

"Yea?"

"I thought you said notes were useless," she said, pointing at the paper he held that was covered in notes that he was reading. "Didn't you say you were a hands on sort of person?"

Kadric shrugged airily. "Oh—well—I just thought notes were a little safer, you know?"

"Kadric, seeing a plant isn't going to send me into shock again or anything!"

"You think I'm talking about you?" Kadric asked. "I was talking about me. I mean, don't you remember that Devil's Snare accident?"

Chalondra rolled her eyes and set her head in her hands, falling into the familiar feeling of zoning out at Kadric's monotonous voice. This is so boring, she told herself. And I guess I'll need to ask him some questions soon. But I don't want to!

"Chalondra? Chalondra!" A hand shaking her arm jerked Chalondra back into reality.

"What?" she asked stupidly, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"You just fell asleep! That's not something you normally do."

Chalondra shrugged. "Since when do you care?" she asked rather sloppily. She looked over to see Kadric looking at her with something like…concern? No way. Now he was just watching her in an amused sort of way.

"Since when do you judge?" he asked quietly. Chalondra felt stupid at his statement and blushed.

"Uh—sorry. I just, I don't know. I'm tired. Tired, tired, tired," she moaned, hoping he wouldn't get suspicious. "And you're a very boring reader."

"What?" Kadric asked, feigning shock. "My reading skills are enough to excite an audience of ten thousand, thank you!"

Chalondra snorted. "Okay," she gave in, not wanting to start one of their usual arguments. "Just…just give a sheet or something to work on."

Kadric nodded slightly, gazing at her curiously. As Chalondra reached across the table for a quill, her hand was stopped by Kadric's. Immediately her entire face grew as red as a tomato, and her gaze was stuck stupidly on Kadric's hand on top of hers.

"Chalondra," he began quietly, forcing her to look into his eyes, which were startlingly close, "what's wrong?"

Chalondra could tell he was actually worried, or else he wouldn't have grabbed her crawling hand like that. Blushing, she mumbled something incoherent. He frowned.

"What?"

"Er—you don't need to worry. Friend problems, you know…"

Kadric suddenly sat back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "Is it because of…"

"Yea," Chal said hurriedly. "But don't--,"

"I hate to admit it, but…" Kadric grew slightly pink. "I feel like it's almost my fault."

"YOUR fault?" Chalondra asked rather loudly. "Are you crazy? It was both of us! Don't worry about it! Just, look, where's that sheet?" Chalondra fumbled around for a few moments, feeling terribly slow under Kadric's gaze.

"What?" she finally snapped at him, finding the quill and pulling it towards her.

"Nothing," Kadric said quietly. But Chal knew something was wrong, and she hated to think Kadric was actually worried about her. Kadric didn't worry about her. He didn't care about her. And Chalondra wanted it to stay that way. Most definitely.

But as she set to work on the sheet of questions Kadric had given her, Chalondra felt her face warm up again for no apparent reason. She was remembering the feeling of when Kadric's hand had been on top of hers, and he hadn't even cared. He didn't seem to worry that he had just touched a Ravenclaw after a very awkward kiss. That warm, fluttery feeling overtook Chalondra again, and at the same time of wishing he would hate her forever, Chalondra also wished he wouldn't.