Disclaimer: If you didn't realize it yet, I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER. Friggin idiots! (He he. I don't own Napoleon Dynamite either.)

Warning: A little OOC-ness! (Haley and Alex)

A/N: This was going to be two chapters. But it's not. So wa. Enjoy…

Chapter Five

Halia went back to school feeling odd, and she didn't know why. Maybe it was the fact that Luna was pregnant; maybe it was because she was one of the first ones to know; maybe it was because she just felt odd in an undetectable way.

She waved to Sherry as she entered the portrait hole with her luggage on Tuesday morning, the morning they got back. The common room was almost empty, except for a first year sitting in the very corner. Everyone must have been still sleeping. She trudged up the stairs to the dorm, opened the door, and placed the suitcase and backpack at the end of her four-poster as quiet as she could. Seeing as class didn't start for an hour, Haley put her books in her messenger bag and went back down to the common room.

She was about to push open the door when the redhead she had seen with Alex earlier came out of the 2nd year dorm, fully dressed but without a backpack. She walked the length of the balcony with ease, and made her way down the steps. Faintly Haley heard the boy's 3rd year dorm door open; she jerked her head over there and saw with a pain in her side that it was Alex, walking downstairs toward the redhead. Next thing she knew, they were three inches to the left of her, giggling and whispering as if she wasn't there.

"Ahem," she said loudly. Alex looked up.

"Oh, Haley! Hi! You're back from the break!" he said, frowning a bit. Halia grinned falsely. "Oh. This is…err…Erica. My-my girlfriend. Erica, this is Haley, one of my really close friends." He said 'really close friend' in a hurried tone.

"Hi Erica. How terr- I mean what a pleasure it is to meet you," Haley forced herself to say as Erica stretched out her hand.

"It's nice to meet you too. Well, we'd better go. We were planning an early breakfast," Haley winced as Erica dug her nails into the skin on her hand, and then dropped it. Alex looked Haley in the eyes.

"You can come with us if you want to," he said. Halia thought it over. If she got a chance to ruin the couple's relationship, this was it.

"Okay, sure," she replied. Alex grinned and went out the portrait hole. Erica looked at Haley with narrowed eyes, and followed Alex out. Haley went last, behind her. This was going to be a good breakfast.

They got to the Ravenclaw table. There were a few people already at the there. Immediately Haley sat next to Alex before Erica could say "Haley, you suck at Quidditch." Okay, she didn't really say that. She looked at her, and back at Alex.

"Um…Erica, you can sit across from me if you'd like…" he sounded amused. Erica frowned. She crossed her arms and walked all the way to the front of the table and back, then sat down across from him. Halia grinned a full of herself smile.

She grabbed a pan of hash browns and put some on her plate.

"So, Alex, how was your break?" Haley asked him as if Erica wasn't there.

"Oh, it was fine. They allowed us to go to Hogsmeude, and I got a bunch of candy…Erica just got back from her brother's house last night." He glanced at her and took some eggs. "How was yours?"

"Very excitable. I went to my sister's flat in London and we found out that one of her friends is going to have a baby," she said. Alex nodded. Haley heard a slam come from across the table.

"Hello. I'm still here," it was Erica. Haley looked at her.

"Oh, yes. You are." Haley turned back to her food, picked up her fork, and dipped a piece of an egg in ketchup. Looking up, she stuck the fork in her mouth and glanced at Erica then Alex. After she finished chewing through the silence, someone yelled Haley's name. She looked over at the doors to the hall and saw Sherry walking towards her.

"Oh, well, I'd better go. Oh, and Erica, you have something down your front," she said as she grabbed her backpack and got up. "Good luck getting it off." Erica looked down.

"I don't have anything down my front!"

Haley was prepared for this. She drew out her wand, with her left hand opened the bottle of ketchup, said "Windgardeuim Leviosa" and next thing she knew, the ketchup had spilled down the front of Erica.

"Now you do!" And as she walked away, happy with herself, she heard Alex go into a laughing fit.

"Oh my God, you did what?" was Marina's expression when Haley told her what had happened.

"Mars, your Leavless Tree is walking away," Haley replied to her, and pointed at the leaf-less plant with legs that was inching away from the table they were sitting at. It was first hour, and they were in Herbology.

Marina got up to get the plant that was all the way down by a different table. Haley looked down the row of students and saw Mathoy and his girlfriend playing with their Leavless Trees; just across from them was Elizabeth Mathoy, and in her oh-so-blondeness she was looking at the hands of her Leavless Tree and looked confused as to why it wasn't walking. Marina came and sat next to her again.

The bell rang, and Haley was out of there like a Firebolt during the World Cup. Marina was lagging behind.

"Hal, you go ahead! Save me a spot in DADA!" she shouted. Haley turned around and waved an okay. She turned around again, and to her surprise she found Alex standing there.

"Alex, you scared me!" she exclaimed. He smiled and they started walking up to the castle.

"I'm single again…" he said.

"You broke off with her?" Haley tried to hide the joyfulness in her voice.

"Nope, she broke off with me."

"Mmm. Mind if I ask why?"

"Because I laughed at her after the ketchup incident…to tell you the truth, I never really liked her. I just…" he paused for a second and opened the entrance hall doors for her. "Don't even know why I said yes to her in the first place."

Haley nodded as the two of them made there way through a group of 6th years going up the stairs. Alex was on the rebound. Should she ask him yet? No, because you need at least a week before he got of the rebound.

"And I was wondering…there's um…a Hogsmeude visit on Halloween in a couple weeks…do you want to come with me?" This was Alex speaking, not Haley. She immediately felt her cheeks turn red, and she had no clue why. She stopped, dead on the staircase. Both because she was shocked he asked her out, and because she was on one of the trick steps and couldn't move. Alex grabbed her elbow and pulled her out so she was standing on a good step. They started walking again.

"So…will you?" Alex said.

"Yes."