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Sorry this chapter is short, but I couldn't find anywhere else to add words.

'He likes her?'

'Yes!'

'Are you sure?'

'Yes!'

'But… but… how do you know?'

'When he came over to talk to Lily and me, it was so obvious he likes her.'

'He came over? I didn't even notice.'

'It was while you were talking to Lupin. Anyway, what are we going to do about it?'

'About what?' interrupted Suzie.

Looking tired and pale, she entered the bathroom. Sarah and Caroline, from their position on the floor, looked up guiltily.

'Suzie!' exclaimed Caroline. 'What are you doing up?'

'I have a cold. This doesn't restrict the use of my legs,' said Suzie, stepping over them and taking out her toothbrush. 'So who likes who?'

'Uh… um…'

Sarah blustered for a while, to the point that Suzie had finished brushing her teeth. Caroline finally blurted out,

'James likes Lily!'

Suzie rolled her eyes. 'If you don't want to tell me, then fine.'

'Why are you mad at us? James likes Lily!'

'Yes, I know. You both know. Sarah wouldn't just be finding out now, nor would she be surprised about it.'

'Suzie, don't be like this,' said Sarah.

Suzie ran her fingers through her hair, and looked at it, contemplative.

'You know what?' she said, 'Although I feel terrible, I'm going to class today because I really need to try out that hair goop I was planning to make.'

She left, closing the door behind her. She could hear that Caroline and Sarah were silent, except for the sound of one of them rifling through the medicine cabinet. Suzie left, her bag still lying on her bed. After she'd gone down the stairs, she realised she had done this, and returned to the room quietly. Sarah and Caroline were talking again.

'I hope she's not mad at us,' Sarah was saying. 'It's awful when she's mad. It doesn't happen often, but she goes all quiet and tries to ignore us the best she can. It's not like we can tell her!'

Suzie swung her bag onto her right shoulder, and went to the door. As she left, she heard Caroline say one last thing.

'Yeah. Mmm… I wonder how she would react if she knew Pettigrew liked her.'

Feeling shell-shocked, Suzie sat down beside Lily, staring ahead of her unseeing.

'What's up with you?' asked Lily, 'You look like you've seen a ghost. Well, not a ghost, we see ghosts all the time, so it wouldn't shock you; it's just a Muggle expression, seeing as they don't often see ghosts… I'll shut up now.'

This rambling brought Suzie back down to earth.

'Why are you so happy? You're never in this good a mood this early,' she said, frowning.

'I'm not in a good mood,' said Lily, with a bright smile. 'Caroline cast a Cheering Charm on me when I snapped at her for squeezing my toothpaste from the middle of the tube. When it wears off, I'm going to kill her.'

'How are you going to kill her?'

'I don't know, haven't decided… maybe I'll cast a Cheering Charm on her so that she's grinning when she tells Professor Slughorn she hasn't done the homework.'

'She didn't do it last night?'

'No, she couldn't be bothered. She went to the kitchens only a few minutes after you went to bed, and then she went back to the dorm straight away.'

'Oh. What potion is she going to make then?'

'She's written down the most random ingredients and is going to see if they cause an explosion when combined.'

Suzie nodded thoughtfully, and then caught sight of Peter sitting a bit further down with the other Marauders. She blushed and looked down into her empty bowl.

'D'you want the cereal?' asked Lily, wafting the box of cornflakes around Suzie's face.

'Um, yes, thanks,' Suzie mumbled, taking the box.

As she ate her cereal, she glanced periodically at Peter. Surely Caroline was mistaken? Surely he didn't like her? He never looked up at her – wouldn't he do that if he liked her?

As she thought this, Peter's head turned and his eyes met hers. He smiled warmly, and got up, walking towards her. Suzie knocked over the milk pitcher.

'Suzie!' cried Lily, looking down at her wet robes, 'I thought Sarah was the clumsy one!'

Irritated, she started siphoning the milk away with her wand. Suzie blushed, mumbled her apologies, and started doing the same, but, distracted, instead of getting rid of the milk, she was adding more.

'Need help with that?' said Peter, laughing quietly. Suzie blushed and looked down.

'Um… yes please,' she replied. Peter joined Lily in Vanishing the milk, and Suzie started mopping it up the Muggle way, with a towel. Once they had finished, and Lily had gone to change robes, Suzie found sitting there alone with Peter.

'You feeling better?' he asked.

'What?' she replied, caught off guard.

'Your friends told me you felt ill.'

'Oh, um, not much. Better, I mean. But I wanted to go to Potions and make my custom potion to keep my braids in place. What are you making?'

'Huh, that's funny; I'm making a potion to keep my hair from getting so messy in the evenings.'

'Oh, it looks nice in the evenings,' said Suzie absently, before realising what she'd said, and blushed.

'Thanks,' muttered Peter in reply.

They both looked away from each other as silence crept over them. After a short while, she looked up at Peter, who smiled awkwardly, before starting to walk away.

'Hope you feel better soon,' he said, waving. Suzie smiled back, mirroring his awkward smile. As she prodded her now soggy cornflakes with her spoon, she wondered for what seemed like the thousandth time of the past fifteen minutes – was what Caroline said true?

Finally onto the main plot. Woot.

Hepsa