A/N: I know what you're thinking. "A week, huh." Sigh I'm horrible aren't I? Well lets go through my lists of excuses, shall we? Hmm...Well I got really, really ill. Then the computer died and it took like a week to get fixed.Then school, dance and a social life.Still that explains what...three weeks? Maybe four? Well I was waiting for my editor (i.e. my sister) to edit and add and tweek. Which she never did. So sorry for the wait, and sorryfor thesucky chapter you are about to read. Iwon't make any promises, but I sincerly hope that the next chapter will take a lot less time to update. As for now, just enjoy! I love you all for reading, and please don't forget to review!

SMS

Chapter Twenty Two

As I re-entered the common room I glanced over at Harry. I tried to pretend that it didn't bother me when as soon as he noticed me, he stood up and left, followed closely by Ron, who was sitting next to him. I sighed and walked over to the fire where my present was supposed to appear at seven o'clock.About ten minutes laterHermione walked over to me.

"I'm going to find Harry and Ron. I'll see you later. We are going to talk about this." She said.

"Yeah. See you." As the portrait closed behind her, I checked my watch. 7:01.

"Late as always guy—Ahhh!" I shrieked. Sara came shooting out of the fireplace.

"Sara!" I said in an unusually high pitched voice.

"Skylar!" She squealed. "Come here!" I ran into her open arms and hugged her tightly.

"Tommy and—" she started.

"Pete!" I moved from Sara to Pete and embraced him too. It was then that Tommy shot out of the fireplace.

"Tommy!" It was his turn for a hug. "How did you…how did you do this?"

"You know how Tommy and Pete were both sent to that school back in the US?" Sara started.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Well we had be talking through the fireplaces illegally all year." Tommy put in.

"And you didn't let me in on it?" I said.

"I know, we're such horrible friends aren't we."

"Yes you are! Now continue."

"So anyway, a few weeks ago we were talking about how we'd be sad inside if we couldn't spend Christmas with each other. And you." Sara said.

"And we couldn't because Sara's parents are going on cruise for the holidays, and I don't really know what yours are up to, but they told Sara's parents you weren't coming home." Pete said.

"Yeah. Why they didn't want me home, I don't even know." I said.

"Anyway," Tommy said. "We all sent letters to our parents expressing the sadness we had inside."

"Right. So our parents all wrote to the Headmaster slash mistress who wrote to your headmaster who gave us permission to spend the break here!" Pete finished.

"You guys are nuts." I praised.

"I know we are. Now tell me Skylar," Sara said slyly. "How's the lover boy." I sighed. Why did she have to bring Harry up? I had momentarily forgotten.

"You mean Harry?" I asked dully.

"Duh!" she said eagerly.

"Harry's fine. But don't refer to him as 'the lover boy'. We broke up." Sara's sly smile turned into a frown. As did Tommy and Pete's smirks.

"He dumped you?"

"I dumped him."

"You—why?" Sara asked, bewildered.

"He was about to brake up with me." I lied, not meeting her eyes. I couldn't tell her the truth. I couldn't tell anyone the truth.

"How can you tell?"

"Oh, well um, you know, the whole 'we need to talk' thing and he seemed really awkward and stuff so I dumped him before he had a chance to brake up with me."

"Sky, I'm sorry I brought it up."

"Nah, I was just about to tell you anyway."

"When did this happen?" Tommy asked.

"About a half hour ago. But it's okay. Now I can go after my true love. Henry." It was then that Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the tower. Harry seemed to have cheered up considerably, as he was smiling and laughing with Ron and Hermione, though he was determinedly refusing to look at me.

"Hey guys." I said, trying to lighten the sudden awkward mood.

"Hi." Hermione said brightly. "You must be Skylar's, 'special early Christmas present'?" Tommy was looking at her with great interest.

"That we are." He said flashing her his flirtatious, toothy smile and running a hand through his carefully messed up hair. "Hi. I'm Tomas. And you are?"

"Well uh, Tomas," I said, trying to hold back laughter. Tommy only seemed to be attracted people who were unavailable.

"That's Hermione Granger and her boyfriend Ron Weasley."

"Oh." Tommy muttered.

"And that's Harry." I finished. Sara shot him a dirty look, though he didn't seem to notice.

"I'm going to go to bed." Harry said vaguely. And without another word he headed up to his dormitory.

"It's only seven o'clock, Harry." Ron called after him. Harry ignored him. I looked at the ground. Ron sighed.

"Don't worry, Skylar. He'll come around." Hermione said.

"Yeah, Sky. It'll only be like this for a little while. Don't you remember when you and me broke up?" Tommy said.

"Yeah." I muttered.

XXXX

Hermione, Sara and I stayed up all night talking, and woke up very late the next morning.

"What time is it?" Sara groaned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Eleven thirty." Hermione said briskly. "I've been up for an hour."

"Why didn't you wake us?" I scolded.

"Sky, did you just say 'why didn't you wake us'?" Sara asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes…" Sara burst out laughing.

"What?" I said, a slight grin playing at my lips. Sara calmed down.

"You have been spending way too much time with British people." She said, a wide smile across her face.

"What does that mean?" I questioned.

"Nothing. Hermione, why didn't you wake us?" She mocked.

"Hang on." Hermione said. "Why—"

"Just answer her Hermione. She's not going to tell us. Ignore her and pretend she didn't say anything at all. So why didn't you wake us?" Sara let another laugh-snort, but Hermione did as I said and ignored her.

"Because I saw no need. And this gave me a good chance to get some school work done."

"Hermione, I thought you did all your homework already." I said.

"Oh I did. This is just some extra reading. And it'll get me extra credit too."

"Of course, of course. I should have known." I said, nodding.

"You're an odd person, Hermione." Sara said bluntly.

"I'm odd?" Hermione said incredulously.

"Yes. Wildly odd." Hermione gave up.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" She questioned, her eyebrows raised.

"I haven't decided yet."

"Don't worry, Hermione. It's usually a good thing." I said reassuringly. "Unless your Daisy Lovens." Sara and I started to laugh.

"I don't even want to know."

XXXX

I walked down into the common room and saw Harry sitting by the fire.

"Hey Harry." I said cheerily, trying to hide my true feelings of awkwardness and guilt.

"Hey, Skylar." He said, grinning a little too brightly to be entirely natural. "What's up?"

"Oh you know. Not much."

"Yeah."

"So...you went to bed really early last night." I stated, after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah I was…I wasn't feeling very good. Still not as a matter of fact." Subtext noted. I thought to myselfI knew it because of me that he didn't "feel very good". I groaned, my insides burning with guilt.

"Huh?" Harry said, replying to my groan.

"Nothing Harry. I just…" I didn't finish the sentence.

We sat there for ten more minutes, out hearts beating, the silence pressing loudly against our ears.

"Well I'm going to go get lunch now." I said braking the awkward silence.

"Okay. See you later then."

"Yeah. Bye."