A/N: I'm baacckk! I beg your forgiveness, but I got hit by writers block and well... Combine that with learning a new language and the ability to write goes down the tubes for a while. I will do my very best to have more out soon, but I can promise nothing. Reviewer thanks are at the end! I'm sosososososososososososososo SORRY!

Disclaimer: The author, having run out of clever things to say, will now be boring and state the obvious. I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER!

Now, on to the next chapter...

Chapter Eighteen: On Potions and Love

Jessica woke late the next morning, feeling thoroughly confused. Her sleep had been filled with strange dreams in which Hermione knew everything, and was going around informing everyone of what time their death would be. She had also been reciting the formulas for math equations, which Jessica had learned the previous year in Muggle school. Except Hermione kept insisting that these equations werenot for math but how you figured out what exact time and place your death would be. Needless to say, Jessica was not feeling terribly awake as she headed down to the Great Hall.

Down in the Great Hall, Jessica gave a muttered retelling of the previous nights events, making sure she included Snape's strange reaction to the screams.

"Any ideas?" she asked Hermione when she had finished with her tale.

Hermione sat looking thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Well, I'll have to double-check of course, but it sounds to me like there's a seripharum in the Dark Forest." She looked at Jessica, Harry and Ron, and, seeing the completely blank looks on their faces she added, "The seripharum, a very distant cousin to the harpy, is a now nearly extinct creature. The seripharum is not designed for stealth and therefore it has much difficult in catching anything. This creature lures prey by screaming. To lesser animals these screams sound like the cries of offspring. To humans, both Muggle and wizard, the screams sound like those of someone the listener once held dear. Many of the Muggles who 'mysteriously' disappeared during the Middle Ages were in fact victims of the seripharum."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Hermione, just needed an explanation, not a quote from a textbook."

Hermione too rolled her eyes then said to Jessica, "I'm willing to bet that the shape you saw in the trees was the seripharum. I'll bet Snape knew what it was, which is why he was so quick to get out of the forest. And it's a good thing too. If I remember correctly, the seripharum can take several days to devour its prey."

" 'Mione," Harry said slowly, his face slightly green, "are you telling us that the seripharum eats people?"

"Weren't you listening?" Hermione asked. "Yes, that is what I'm saying. They're perpetually hungry or something. Some kind of survival instinct I believe."

"That's disgusting!" Ron exclaimed as he took another bite of bacon. "Can we please not discuss this seri-what's-it-called until after breakfast?"

"Sure, Ron," Jessica said softly, shaking her head slightly. She'd nearly been the victim of some horrible dark creature that ate people… Jessica pushed away her plate, no longer hungry. She glanced up at the High Table. Professor Snape didn't look particularly hungry either. She wondered who he had heard screaming in the forest… At least now she knew why he had been so quick to dismiss her. That scream must have dragged up memories he'd been keeping hidden from himself for a while.

Classes passes slowly and Jessica couldn't stop herself from glancing at the clock every five minutes. Because the O.W.L.'s were 'rapidly' approaching they were spending lots of time reviewing in each class. If there was one thing she hated it was reviewing. She always got so bored during reviewing and then the teachers got mad at her for not paying attention. Hey, it wasn't her fault that they always had to be so boring about the whole thing that she lost interest within 30 seconds. Jessica couldn't stop herself from making mild distractions such as spinning a knut on top of her book, tapping out the rhythms to random songs on the desk and making sound effects for everything the teacher did. She was, as she whispered to Harry, Ron and Hermione during Charms, "slowly going insane". Because of this, she almost welcomed potions, for she knew that Snape would never allow them to review in his class. If they didn't know the information well, wasn't that just too bad, they'd have to take Remedial Potions if they wanted any credit for the class. She knew that there would probably be a day in the future where she wished Snape would allow them to review but right now if anyone so much as started to say the word, Jessica thought she might scream.

She immediately changed her mind, however, when she stepped into the potions classroom and found, to her horror, that the Slytherins had been split up, so that now a Slytherin sat at ever desk.

Why did he have to find out about seating charts? she thought dismally as she stepped further into the classroom and peered at the blackboard, where the seating chart had been drawn. Her heart sank even further as she noticed that she was seated next to the one and only Pansy Parkinson.

Harry and Ron, who were right behind her and when she glanced back at them, their jaws were hanging open in disbelief. She might have laughed, if the situation hadn't affected her as well, because they looked stupid.

"Potter! Weasley!" Snape's voice rang out, annoyance in it. "Stop doing impressions of frogs and take your seats!" Harry and Ron closed their mouths and quickly studied the diagram on the blackboard. Unfortunately, they didn't study it as quickly as Snape apparently wanted. He snapped out, "Ten points from Gryffindor! Now move!"

Jessica walked over to the table in the back left corner of the room, noticing that Snape had put Ron, Harry, Hermione and herself in the four corners of the room, so that it was utterly impossible for them to talk to one another. She dropped her bookbag down onto the table with a loud thump and sat down, ignored Pansy and glared up at the front of the classroom at Snape thinking, Jerk.

"You should have noticed the new seating arrangements," Snape said, his lip curling derisively as he scanned over the desks. "In an attempt to assure myself that some of you are not complete dunderheads, and at the headmaster's 'insistance', I am giving you a partnered project which will also serve as an evaluation if you are ready for the O.W.L.'s yet." Jessica bit back a groan. Even Snape was mentioning the O.W.L.'s now she was really going to go insane. Evidently Snape heard her, for he glared at her before continuing. "You will be expected to create a potion. The headmaster-" Jessica almost smirked as she noticed the annoyance and derision in the word headmaster. "-has selected your partners for you, and he has informed me that no changes will be considered. He has also informed me that there will be no independent grading on this project, cooperation will be necessary." Jessica noted with irony how he sneered when he said the word cooperation. "You will have exactly one month to complete the project. That will be on April 3rd, for those of you too stupid to do the math." His cold eyes swept across the classroom. "You will be expected to brew a bottle of your potion, as well as provide a step by step recipe of how to make it. Your recipe may be based off of an existing one, but it must be unique in the end. You will also be expected to demonstrate how your potion works. As of now you have the rest of the class to decide what your potion will be. Do not waste time on frivolous conversation. Once you have decided I will take down what potion you will be making I will take it down. Once I have taken down your potion you will not be allowed to change it. Choose wisely. Begin."

Jessica turned to Pansy, not bothering to hide the dislike on her face. Jessica noticed her own feelings were mirrored rather strongly in Pansy's expression. They glared at each other for a minute before Jessica spoke.

"So, Parkinson, what should we do?" she asked.

"Why don't you tell me, if you think you're so great?" Pansy sniffed.

"Fine then. How about a healing potion?"

Pansy laughed derisively. "How boring can you get?"

"Well, have you got a better idea?"

Her eyes glimmered eagerly as she said, "A Lust potion."

"No way! One, that's even more common than a healing potion, two, I am not going to stand up in front of the class to demonstrate!" Honestly, Jessica thought, can't the girl at least be original if she's going to just dismiss my ideas like that? Pansy merely smirked. No doubt she was imagining the humiliation she could cause the whole of Gryffindor house if she made such a potion.

"What about a truth potion?" Jessica suggested again, more out of a need to say something rather than just sit there watching Pansy's annoying smirk.

"In case you haven't noticed, we've already got Verituserum." Pansy's voice was derisive. "Poison detection maybe?"

Jessica, who had been about to dismiss Pansy's suggestion out of pure spite, paused. That was actually a rather interesting idea. Already her mind began racing thinking of ways that they could do this. They would need to figure out how to get the potion to cause some kind of reaction… A color change maybe…

"Well?" Pansy demanded.

"All right," she said, surprising both herself and Pansy. "Just a general poison detection or did you have something specific in mind?"

"Just general," Pansy said, her voice surprisingly lacking in venom. Jessica briefly realized that, being in Slytherin as she was, Pansy probably needed something like a poison detection potion. She felt a momentary flash of pity for Pansy. But that faded quickly as Pansy's voice returned to its normal, annoying, derisive tone and she said, "How do we start then, miss smarty-pants?"

Jessica glared at Pansy a moment, then said, "Look, Snape may be running the class but we all know that Snape is not really the one who's in charge with this project." Slowly, reluctantly, and glaring, Pansy nodded. "So that means that if we want to pass, we both have to do the work here, and that means getting along. Truce?" Jessica stuck out her hand.

Pansy glanced around to ensure that no one else was watching and then briefly shook Jessica's hand. She nodded.

Jessica let out a sigh of relief. Well, that was one problem solved, though, she was certain there would be more, the worst was, hopefully out of the way.

In a few minutes they had their textbooks open and were checking through the potions for anything remotely similar to their idea. While there was nothing for poison detection, there were things for other detection, and Jessica was trying to figure out what they had in common, if anything, when Snape's shadow fell over their desk. Jessica looked up a moment, as Snape's cold eyes surveyed what little work they had done so far.

"And what will you be attempting?" he finally asked his voice filled with it's standard measure of coldness.

"Poison detection sir," Pansy answered. After scanning over their work a moment more, Snape scribbled it down on his parchment and moved on.

They were not allowed out of the classroom, so the little amount of work done was all they could do. Jessica was tempted to suggest a trip to the library after supper, but then decided against it. She would research on her own, and ask Pansy to do the same. They could compare notes for the next class. Jessica didn't want to push the truce too far, plus, she didn't want to know about whatever resources Pansy might have.

At the end of the class she sauntered out, somehow feeling calm. Even if it was a hard project, they did have a whole month to do it. And it would actually be a bit fun. The whole thing reminded Jessica of the science projects she had done when she had gone to Muggle school.

But her friends had a different view on it. Hermione had been paired with Millcent Bulstrode, Harry had been paired with Crabbe and Ron had been paired with Draco, who still hadn't returned. So Jessica should have expected Ron's reaction to her statement that that this project could actually be fun.

"Are you nutters!" Ron demanded as they headed up to the Gryffindor common room. "Fun? You do realize that Snape is cutting Malfoy slack for not being here, and I have to do this all by myself!"

Jessica winced at the loudness of his voice, then said, "I meant fun for me."

Ron just threw her a look that said, "duh" and rolled his eyes, somehow, still managing to look terribly annoyed.

"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Jessica muttered under her breath. Hermione heard her and Jessica could tell that she was fighting the urge to laugh.

They reached the Common Room in relative silence and Jessica sighed. She seemed to say a lot of things to annoy Ron these days… If he had been a girl she would have suspected he was PMSing… She snickered to herself at that thought. Harry shot her a funny look, then shook his head saying, "I probably don't even want to know." They pulled out homework and sat down together. Ron and Hermione moved off to the corner to study, as they had gotten back into the habit of doing. Jessica glanced after them and smiled slightly to herself.

"What is it?" Harry asked as he looked at her smiling face.

"They make a good couple don't they?" She asked, doing her best to keep sadness out of her voice. It seemed to her that a boyfriend, a steady boyfriend, was out of the question now.

"Yeah, when they don't fight, they do make a pretty good couple." Harry was not looking at Ron and Hermione though; he was looking at her. She could feel his eyes on her, as though he were attempting to read her thoughts. She had to struggle to keep the smile on her face now. It was hard to smile and to know that she could not date Harry any more.

"Jessica?" Harry asked finally. Jessica, no longer having a proper excuse not to, looked at him, and met his eyes. Immediately she felt panic rushing up. He was going to ask her out again or he was going to ask her something regarding dating. But he didn't. Instead, the words which came out of his mouth were, "Do you wanna go for a walk or something? I can't do homework right now."

"Ok." Jessica let out a mental sigh of relief and stood, leaving her homework spread out on the table with Harry's. Hopefully, the first years would take a hint and deduce that someone was sitting there.

As they headed out of the Common Room he asked, "Where do you wanna walk to?"

"Well, it's a bit cold to head outside," she answered. "How about we just wander the third floor corridors for a while?"

"Fine with me," he answered.

They didn't speak much. They didn't seem to speak very much at all these days. Not that their conversations had been all that interesting when they had been having them, but still…

Jessica shot a sideways glance at Harry. He seemed to be distracted by something, lost in thought, because he saw the hallway without really seeing it. As she studied him, she was strongly reminded of the whole reason she had ended up liking him in the first place. Those eyes. His emerald green eyes, which said so much about him, if only you learned how to listen, and were willing to hear the answer. She had been dazzled by his eyes the moment she saw them, when she'd looked up from that Ben Smith book in that bookstore.

Harry's eyes refocused and he turned to look at her. She felt her heart speed up under his gaze, and felt a slight blush rise in her cheeks. She looked away, hoping he hadn't noticed. She couldn't let him know that she still cared for him. He couldn't know.

"Jessica." Harry paused, glanced up and down the hallway, then took a deep breath and spoke again. The note of hesitancy which had been in his voice before faded as he said, "We can't get back together Jessica."

The words, so far from what she had been expecting, shocked her. She stared stupidly at him, as she tried to process what he had just said.

Harry, mistaking her shocked silence for a hurt one, plunged forward. "It's not that I don't like you! I do! And I know you didn't really mean to break up with me before – and that it was Voldemort's fault – but that's just it – he's after me and he'll hurt anyone I care about and I just can't – "

Here Jessica recovered from her silence, finally understanding. He'd thought the situation through and come to the same conclusions she had.

"It's all right, Harry," she interrupted.

He stared at her nervously as he said, "It is? Are you sure? I don't want to upset you – "

"To be honest," she said, cutting him off again, "I had come to the same conclusion as you, but I couldn't think how I was going to break it to you."

"You did?"

"Yes. You're right, if we date, Voldemort will just try to use me to hurt you."

Harry sighed. "I was afraid you wouldn't understand and you'd be mad at me again."

Jessica shook her head. "I wouldn't do that to you, Harry. Not after what happened before."

A sound up the corridor grabbed Jessica's attention. A group of Slytherins had appeared at the far end of the hallway.

"Come on," Harry said. "I'd rather not have a nice friendly chat with the Slytherins right now." He headed down the hallway away from the approaching group of Slytherins and Jessica followed. Well, it was done. Harry knew that they couldn't get back together. She wouldn't have to worry about that any more.

And yet, as the two of them left the hallway and headed back towards the common room, she couldn't help but continue to think about it. And something occurred to her. Voldemort now knew that she loved Harry, but what he didn't know was whether or not Harry loved her. So she and Harry were right. They couldn't get back together, because once Voldemort found out about that, he'd know that Harry could be hurt through Jessica.

She sighed to herself as they re-entered the Common Room and headed back over to the table to work on home work.

I hate my life.

And, as promised...

Reviewer Thanks:

MooseDeEvita: Considering the fact that I am horrible at putting chapters up, I am just thankful you are back. You are entirely forgiven. I'm glad you think this is a good story, even if it is outdated big time by now... I hope you like this chapter.

Bewitched-Babe: Thank you! I'm really glad to know you love the story. I hope you haven't abandoned me... If you haven't, I look forward to hearing whatyou think of this chapter.

Trinka: You are absolutely right, he did say that he would tell her about it when they got back tothe castle. I realized that right after I read your review. I hope you can forgive my mistake. Let's just say he was so rattled by what he'd heard that he forgot, and Jessica didn't want to risk his wrath... Or something. I hope you can find time in your busy life to read and review for this chapter.

I know I said it before but I am so so so so so so so sorry that this has taken me so long to get out. Please don't kill me...