Author's Notes: Oh my goodness, so many reviews…you all are wonderful! Big thanks to All-American Vampire, Laochra, blueforest, Maelys, lilith, Wren, LovinLovegood1, Larken27, iloveme2815, Nosilla, Lovin' it, and aarzu. I just can't believe the response.

Ah yes, and fresh baked cookies for the following: All-American Vampire, Laochra, lilith, and Nosilla…yes, Matthew Hopkins was the witch-finder general in the 1640s, during the East Anglian witch hunts. He was directly responsible for the hanging deaths of over 300 women, and was a bit of a nasty character. And lilith, great verses from Samuel Butler! Hopkins met his end in 1647, and died either by consumption (tuberculosis) or, there is a story that he was himself hanged for witchcraft in that year. I rather hope it was the latter, as that would be comically ironic, and I appreciate irony in all its forms.

On to the new chapter…please, no flames for anti-American sentiment – it's more an antipathy toward politicians in general! And I apologise for a lack of Tom Riddle in this chapter, it's mostly transition. However, after this, take my word for it: it's all Tom, all the time, right up until the end.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Harry Potter universe; JK Rowling does.

Chapter 15

Secrets and Changes

Unfortunately, Tom Riddle's bad attitude did not change as the weeks went by. He attended the weekly meetings with Dippet, which were always a bore (Dippet never had anything important to say) and occasionally did the night patrols with Honora. He never made conversation, however; he seemed to want nothing to do with her.

Honora was beginning to think that she would have to resort to simply killing him one of these days, and blaming it on a poltergeist.

The rest of her life was going well, however; she went to the Ravenclaw Quidditch matches with her friends, and played cards in the common room with Ash and Lawrence. Since Tom hardly ever spent time in the Head common room, Honora and her friends started using it to have gatherings and play Wizard's Dare. The latter was always risky; one night Honora had found herself forced to run into the freezing-cold lake wearing nought but her nightgown. It had been highly embarrassing.

She had also kept in mind that the Slytherin common room had windows into the lake.

One night in October, right before the first Slug Club meeting, Honora decided to follow up on her pillow-party idea and invited Damaris, Kay, Willow, and Lucy to her room. As Head Girl, Honora could go anywhere in the castle she liked at any time, so she made a run to the kitchens for some cheese, crackers, chocolate, and six bottles of wine. She levitated the heavy tray carefully as she snuck back down the corridors; even if she was Head Girl it would not look good for her to appear alcoholic. She got back to her room without anyone seeing her, however, and at eleven the other girls showed up in their nightgowns and slippers, all giggling uncontrollably.

'Leave it to you to abuse your privileges, Honora,' Kay teased.

'I'm glad she is the way she is,' Willow declared. 'You're so much more fun than last year's Head Girl. She was a right stickler for rules.'

'Oh, I believe strongly in rules…for everyone else!' Honora finished. It was mostly true; Honora was not a big rule-breaker at Hogwarts, certainly not like the Gryffindors. Last year she had never broken curfew, skipped classes (aside from that time in Herbology), or done anything very wrong; mostly she was terrified of being expelled. This year, however, she had a little more license to have some fun.

Damaris uncorked the wine and conjured some glasses, pouring generously. 'Ladies, a toast,' she said. 'To the benefactress of this debacle we are prepared to embark on, in the name of feminine solidarity everywhere. Girls, we can do it! We can out-drink the boys!'

'Here, here!' they all echoed, clinking their glasses together.

The cheese went well with the wine, and an hour later the room was getting very raucous. Lucy and Damaris were prancing around in feather boas they had glamoured for themselves; and Kay was breathlessly telling Willow and Honora about what she and John Parrish had really done after the Salvation Ball.

Damaris collapsed into giggles after tripping over her boa, making it disappear in a 'pop!' and poured the girls their third glasses of wine.

'Let's play Secrets!' she suggested loudly.

'You've been missing out, Kay's already told us hers,' Honora hooted. Kay hit her with a pillow, causing her wine to slosh.

'Come on, girls, in a circle,' Willow said.

They arranged themselves in a circle on the floor, sitting criss-cross. None could hold in their laughter at any one time. Willow brought out her miniature game Sneakoscope to get the game going.

'Okay, since everyone needs to hear this, I choose…Kay, to tell us the truth about John Parrish.'

'Willow!' Kay protested.

'It's not hard, you just told us!' Honora teased.

'All right, all right. So, after the Salvation Ball, like I said, John and I went for a walk in the gardens…well, it was February and awfully cold so we found this spot out of the wind and, and, um, he kissed me!' Kay was smiling now.

'Oooh!' all the girls squealed.

'That's not all,' Honora reminded. Kay glared good-naturedly at her. 'This is Secrets, remember?'

'Fine, we kissed and kissed for half an hour. And then, er, a little bit more,' Kay finished in a mortified whisper.

'Ahhhh!' the girls screamed in unison. The Sneakoscope whirred a happy clear green; Kay was telling the truth.

'Shh! Everyone! Someone will hear us!' Lucy hissed in a loud whisper. They muffled their laughter with pillows.

'Oh, Kay, that's not so bad! If you want to keep a boy, you have to throw him something once in awhile,' Damaris encouraged her.

'Really, Damaris? All right, then,' Kay grinned at her friend. 'In the game of Secrets, I choose…Damaris, to tell us what's really going on between her and Lawrence Carter.'

Damaris looked horrified. The girls stared in anticipation. Damaris took a deep breath and blurted it out. 'We're going to get engaged!' she said in a high voice.

The room pounded. Lucy's eyes bugged out of her head; Willow pretended to go into a faint. Kay laughed wickedly and Honora slammed her hands to her mouth.

'Are you really?' Lucy squealed.

'Mmhmm,' Damaris nodded fervently. 'We talked about it a few nights ago. I would have said something, but—I just couldn't! I had to relish it for a tiny while.'

'Oh, Damaris!' Willow gave her a hug, prompting all the other girls to do the same.

'Yeah, congratulations,' said Honora, smiling at her friend. She hoped that no one saw the tears glistening in her eyes. Stupid wine, she thought. It was making her emotional, and she remembered Freya and Jasper in Polaris, and how she was supposed to marry Marlow Woden. It now felt like years ago to her. She was happy for Damaris, but maybe a little jealous, too. She could not help but think that the tall, handsome Quidditch captain could have been hers if she had tried…If she had not had to focus on stupid Tom Riddle.

Honora tried to shake off the ill feeling and brought her attention back to her friends. 'Well,' she said, 'I don't think any of us can top that one!'

'Not so fast,' Damaris said with a grin. 'I choose…Honora, to tell us what she really thinks of our Head Boy.'

'Ohhh, good one, Damaris!' Kay said approvingly.

'Yes, tell us,' said Willow. 'Tell us how handsome Tom Riddle is up close.'

'Very funny,' Honora said. Inside she was cross at Damaris for bringing up Tom at that moment. She could lie as an Occlumens, and in her daily life, but could she fool a Sneakoscope? She would have to just tell part of the truth. 'Right. Riddle is…handsome, yes, but I think he is a cold and calculating prat. A typical Slytherin who thinks he can order anyone around, and in my opinion he thinks far too highly of himself.'

The Sneakoscope, thankfully, seemed satisfied with her answer.

'Ouch!' Kay said.

'You really don't like him, do you?' Willow asked, her eyes wide with wonder.

'Now, don't tell anyone I said all of that, right, girls?' Honora said firmly. 'I don't want some Slytherin hexing me in the halls!'

'Don't worry, that's part of the rules for Secrets,' Lucy assured her.

They stayed in Honora's room until the wee hours of the morning, discussing the new developments, until 3:30 when Willow, a notorious lightweight, passed out and the other girls had to Levitate her back to their own dorm room. Honora left the mess for the house-elves and crawled into bed, head spinning. Thank heaven she did not have an early morning class the next day.

The Slug Club met in full force that Friday, and as promised, the American Connor Coppertone was there. Honora immediately distrusted the man. He was unnaturally tanned, with a shock of coiffed white hair and matching white teeth that were a little too perfect. He smiled a lot, at nothing in particular. Slughorn, however, extended a warm and boisterous greeting to Coppertone and spoke at length about the American Department of Magic and their various shared contacts there.

Coppertone, with his brash American accent, talked about his school days as Class President at the Salem Institute of Witchcraft and kept flashing smiles at the females in attendance. He also bragged about the superiority of American Auror training over their British counterparts.

'You know, we require an additional two years of training before operational status,' Coppertone said confidingly. 'And with a war on, it's best to have the best. I say, the fight against Grindelwald's forces simply did not take off until we Americans arrived on the scene.'

Honora felt a niggle of anger at this. She remembered her history. Where were the Americans during the wars with Voldemort? They had let things go too long, just as they had with Grindelwald.

She decided to speak up. 'Excuse me, sir, but it's my understanding that American Aurors did not appear in Europe to fight Grindelwald until this year past. Perhaps while they were undertaking their additional training, they should have been fighting to stop the German threat before it got so out of control?' Honora made her point with a sweet, too-innocent smile.

Slughorn coughed uncomfortably. 'Er, what our dear Head Girl means, Connor, is…'

'It's all right, Sluggy,' Coppertone seemed unfazed. 'The girl has pride in her country, it's quite understandable. Cute. But, Miss--?'

'Crowley,' Honora said imperiously.

'—Miss Crowley, the fact remains that American wizards have always been the best at taking what the rest of the world does, and making it simply better.' Coppertone grinned at the end of his sentence, making it sound like a campaign speech.

'I see what you are saying, Mr. Coppertone,' Honora said. 'Yes, American wizards have always been on the cutting edge of magic essential to our existence. Skin-tanning complexion charms, for instance. Americans are great at those.'

There were gasps of horror? mirth? around the table. Honora heard a little choking noise coming from Tom Riddle's direction. She glanced at him and was surprised to see him holding back a laugh. His dark eyes twinkled at her.

Slughorn looked alarmed. 'More butterbeer, anyone?' he asked desperately. 'Connor, I'm sure the table would love to hear that wonderfully funny story of yours about the Romanian Minister for Magic and the vampire…'

Honora excused herself from the room as soon as the guests stood up from dinner and milled around, talking. The Weasley blood in her felt inordinately pleased at standing up to the American politician. She also felt warm at the thought that she had made Riddle laugh, though she did not want to contemplate why his opinion mattered so much to her.

Later that night in the Ravenclaw common room, Honora was recounting the incident to Kay and Ash when Damaris burst in.

'Honora! I can't believe you said that!' She was laughing.

'Yeah, she's been telling us,' Ash said.

'I couldn't just let that…that pompous prig just get away with what he was saying!' Honora was laughing too. 'It was my duty to defend Britain.'

'You have some nerve, you know,' Kay said. 'The Undersecretary of Magic!'

Honora felt proud.

'Slughorn had to tell him you were just upset about Grindelwald's continued existence,' Damaris said. 'To be honest, I don't think Coppertone even fully understood your reference.'

'Pompous and stupid,' Honora smirked. 'No wonder he's a politician.'

'Yeah, our Ministry aren't much better most of the time,' Ash agreed.

Honora bid them goodnight and was halfway up the stairs to her room when Damaris came up after her.

'Oh, Honora, I thought you should know,' Damaris began.

'Hmm?'

'I don't believe Tom Riddle thinks as badly of you as you do of him,' she said, looking meaningfully at Honora.

'What do you mean?' Honora scowled, even as her heart did a little flip.

'After you left, I overheard that nasty Slytherin, Avery, saying something really rude about you. I wasn't sure exactly what, but…anyway, Riddle really had a go at him for it. He told Avery to shut up about things he didn't know, and that he should keep his opinions to himself if he wanted to stay in one piece. Riddle sounded really frightening saying it. If he hadn't been defending you, Honora, I'd have been scared.'

Honora stared at Damaris. 'Are you serious? He stood up for me to one of his little Death Eater friends?'

Damaris nodded. 'So, see? He's not all bad.' She winked. 'Sweet dreams, Honora.'

'Thanks,' Honora said weakly, 'you too.'

A/N: Next update will be Friday the 13th…dun dun dun…my favourite day of the calendar.