A/N- Hey all of yall wonderful beyond reason readers. Its Jmac. I hopeyou like this chapter, and please dont forget to reveiw, sowe will know what we need to improve upon. LOL.

Chapter 11-Nikki: Is it just me, or is everyone this Layer-ey?

September 22nd 2004, Lunch in the Great Hall.

My head hurts so unbelievably bad. Apparently chocolate has bad effects if you consume truckloads of it after midnight. Someone should have warned me. I wished I could say that last night was the last was the last of Sara's Hunter era, but Id be lying if I did. She tries her best to hide things from me, but I know better. I could still see the love burning somewhere deep in her eyes last night as she rambled on about "Girl Power". Wait. Maybe it was "World Domination", who really knows, and what's more who cares? It kills me to see her like I did last night ,all hurting and miserable. When I see her like that I feel all hollowed out, like the sun will never reach me again, like all happiness has been sucked out of the world in one sweeping motion.

I miss MY Sara, the happy- go- lucky, sunshine-aint-got-a-thing-on-me Sara. I wonder if she knows I cried myself to sleep last night? Probably not, I made sure she was asleep before I let myself fall apart again. That's me, the "layer-ey" chick who cries at night because of her Best Friend's broken heart, the girl who has the "tough girl" image, but's really only strong on the outside where the world can see. Meet the Real Nikki Campbell. Shocked? Well, don't be.

I lost all sense of time somewhere between yesterday morning and now and as I sit here in the great hall, my mind wonders back to the conversation with Harry. He had seemed so sincere, so gentle, like he'd been to the point where his whole life crumbled and he was dead set on keeping me from crashing and burning alongside him. Then it hit me. Harry's not a hero, he's just like the rest of us. Well, Except for the fact that destiny decided to hit him a whole hell of a lot harder than usual. See? That's the problem with Mr. Destiny. He's Vengeful and Jealous. If he doesn't like you, he just smacks you in the face with shit you don't deserve. He should be Fired. Crap. You cant fire Destiny.

God, Im falling so hard for Harry, rather I want to or not.

> > > > > >

September 23, two AM, My bed, Gryffondor Girls Dormitory.

Its two a.m. and I have been struck "up" with a horrible case of insomnia. I can hear Sara's slow even breathing in the next bed over, and Ginny Weasley's loud snoring is probably being detected by NASA at this very moment. Its colder than the west slope of the french alp's in this room, and if I don't get some warmth soon ill be frozen too the bed when everybody wakes up in the morning... ER. When everybody wakes up today. I got up slowly so as to not wake up the entire planet, wrapped the comforter from off my bed as tight as it would possibly go around my shivering body, grabbed the book from my bedside table, and headed to the common room for a good read by the fire.

> > > > > > >

I couldn't be more grateful for the heat that radiated from the dancing fire before me, and thankful though I was, It was the beauty of it that captivated me. Orange and blue ribbons swirling in a million different patterns against the backdrop of the dark wood sucked me in and refused to let me tear my eyes away. It was useless, a force to be reckoned with. I just sat their motionless, powerless and silent watching for what could've been a lifetime. Than all at once I noticed Harry's graceful figure standing directly behind my right shoulder, his eyes too held prisoner by the mystical flames.

He was the first to break the comfortable silence that surrounded us, and I unwillingly made my eyes shift from the fire to his handsome face.

" What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep. Gee Potter you look Stressed, Worry Much?" I followed him over to the couch and took a seat facing him cross-legged, waiting patently for him to respond.

"Its a bit hard to relax when you've got the most powerful wizard in the world trying to kill you every minute of your life." He looked over at me with a mix of sorrow and anger clear in his expression, but was soon gone with no more difficulty than if it had been the breeze blowing across the shiny surface of the lake. "Enough about me though, Are you still in as much denial as you where last night?"

"Im beginning to see the light now thanks to you, but im not there yet."

I placed a pillow in my lap and motioned for him to lean back. My hands shook uncontrollably and my heart raced out of control from the sheer feel of his body weight on top of mine. His beautiful emerald eyes where closed and shadowed by dark circles, his muscles rigid and tense from long days of worry brought on by being "The-Boy-Who-Lived." I let my hands run through the mass of black hair gently, soothingly, and after a while his muscles started to loosen ,he began to relax and I too stopped trembling. For a long while my eyes lingered on the thin scar given to him from the very threshold of evil. My heart broke at the very thought of that fateful night, the night the stars fell forever from the sky above Harry James Potter.

"Does it hurt?" I asked as I traced the line with my index finger.

"No, and be glad it doesn't."

I dropped the subject quickly sensing the pain hidden just below the surface of his words. I realized too late that my hand had migrated just far enough south to intertwine my fingers with his, but he only held it tighter, and pulled the blanket that lay forgotten on the floor back over us. I had been so immersed in being with him that I hadn't noticed I had resumed my shivering.

> > > > > > > >

September 23rd , 5:30am.

The first rays of morning sun kissed my cheek in a wonderful greeting that allowed a few moments of bliss before my senses and panic took over. I was still in the gryffondor common room, on the couch with Harry. His head still lay in my lap, and our hands where still tangled together. It made a perfect picture actually, but now wasn't the time for delicate things. I hated the very thought of waking him up when he looked so peaceful but if I didn't and McGonagall found us their would be hell to pay.

"Harry" I whispered "Harry, wake up." his eyes fluttered open slowly, and he smiled a smile that made me weak in the knees. He didn't give me the time to respond though, because in the time it took for me to blink he had sat up and proceeded to gaze at me with the same look of utter panic written in his expression.

" We had better get back upstairs before someone sees us." I gathered my books and blanket, and turned to go my separate way, but his hand in mine stopped me.

"Nik"

"Yeah?"

"Thank You"

"Anytime" I smiled a sleepy smile, and it was returned without a moments hesitation. "but Harry."

"Yeah?"

"Im officially unavailable from now own between the hours of Midnight and Six"

I crept back into the dorm and slipped between the cool sheets of my four poster, without a sound. Harry's intoxicating scent lingered in the air around me, and it wasn't long before it lulled me back to sleep, an untroubled beautiful sleep filled with dreams of the two of us together.

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