-The Good, the Bad, and Everything In between ch. 6

"The fire crab…is the only animal that's fire can reach 1500 degrees…" Rae said out loud to herself while scribbling the answer onto her test packet.

"Done!" She cried happily as she handed in her last final exam. She ran out of the classroom shouting and whooping happily! "FINALLY! DONE!" No more tests! No more classes, this was her last night at Hogwarts and then she would be going home tomorrow. Rae thought about her mother and father. She couldn't wait to see them…she hoped they weren't too mad about her new friends.

Rae saw Pansy in the hall in front of her. "I finished!" She yelled to her friend. "I'm done!" Pansy grinned and gave her a short hug. "How'd it go?" Rae shrugged.

"Not bad I guess."

Pansy smiled. "Great! Then lets head up to the dormitories so we can pack up!" Rae ran to catch up with Pansy who had already sprinted down three staircases.

Laughing and joking, both girls bust open the door to the girl's dorms. Pansy panted and Rae laughed at her. "I can't believe we're leaving tomorrow!"

Pansy looked saddened. "Yeah…and I won't be able to see you until September!" Rae looked sorrowful. "Can you visit during the summer?"

"Don't think so. My dad is taking my family on a vacation to Austria!"

"Wow cool!" Rae exclaimed. "Any particular reason?"

Pansy shrugged. "My dad is really into dragons and they have a showing there when we're going." Rae nodded.

"So I guess I'll see you next year, right?" Pansy grinned. "Sure."

The rest of the day was a blur of packing, crying, laughing and goodbyes. The feast in the Great Hall was wonderful, as always. Rae ate until she thought she was going to burst, but then so did everyone else. At night, she could barely sleep and finally managed to fall into her dreams that involved Pansy getting eaten by a dragon, Ron and Chase getting attacked by owls, and Draco getting coal for his birthday.

Rae woke up asking Alyssa which hospital Pansy had been put in. Alyssa giggled until all the first year girls were up and finally crying. All but Rae, that is.

"Guys…it's not that sad! We'll all be here next year, right?" Everyone nodded, and past conflicts between them were gone. Rae received and gave more hugs out then she had ever before.

Before she knew it they were on the platform, waving goodbye to the professors and friends.

Rae was desperately searching to find Harry, Ron, Hermione and Chase, because she couldn't fine them anywhere. Then, above the heads of everyone else, she saw one tall head of red hair poking through the crowd. She hurried over to where she saw the speck of red, but saw neither Chase, nor Ron. Disappointed, she headed back towards the compartment on the train she was going to share with some Slytherins.

"Though I'd let you leave without a goodbye?' Ra turned. Chase was standing behind her, red head gleaming and a smile on hi broad face. Rae smiled sheepishly as she gave Chase a quick goodbye hug.
"Where's Ron and everyone?" she asked, not wanting to forget them too. But she needn't have worried, Harry and Ron can running towards them with Hermione close behind.

"Oh, we thought we wouldn't get to say goodbye to our favorite Slytherin." Harry added with a small grin. Rae smiled back. "See you Harry, Hermione!" She beamed at both of them.

Ron stepped forward. "You uh…uh have a nice summer." He extended a hand awkwardly. Rae shook her head and gave him a quick hug to. Ron looked as though he had been confounded, but slowly (after a round of laughter from the others) grinned back.

"See you in 3 months!" Rae called behind her, stepping onto the train. Rae hurried to find the compartment Pansy and Draco were in before the train started to move. She finally found the compartment and swung the door wide open.

"Where were you?" Draco asked irritably.

"Saying goodbye to some friends." Rae said proudly. She smiled sweetly at her brother, who went to the corner of the compartment to sulk for the remainder of the ride.

Pansy shook her head, but said nothing. She smiled at Rae, but Rae still felt something between them had been broken.

She tried to forget it, she was probably imagining it, and besides, it was the first day of summer!

The ride was fine, but without much talk in between. Stepping off the Hogwarts Express, she had Draco bid goodbye to Pansy, Melody, Alex, Alyssa, Crabbe, and Goyle.

Rae cocked her head to the side and searched the crowd for her parents. She looked around with Draco and finally spotted them, in the side of platform 9 ¾. Her mother was dressed elegantly in green and her father in black. She ran up and beamed at both of them.

They returned this with blank stares. Draco caught up and hugged his mother and shook hands with his father. Rae did neither. She felt like they were blocking her out.

Finally her father looked down. "Rae we have to talk."

Rae grimaced,

"Why…is something wrong?"