Rain hammered against the windowpane, it's dewey scent washing over the young witch. She had her head leaned against the pane of glass, a mug of rapidly cooling tea cradled in her palms as she gazed out at the grey darkening landscape.

Her eyes flicked to the book lying forgotten in her lap with its broken spine almost totally flat, showcasing heavily annotated pages.

Her eyes slid shut and with a sigh her back slid down the wall to further curl into herself, pulling her blanket tighter around her about her chest. There were very few times in the week where the Gryffindor dormitory was totally silent, and she would relish this peace for as long as possible.

As if hearing her thoughts, her ears pricking at the signs of footstep, her dorm mates burst into the room with whoops and shouts. Cringing from the noise she slid from the alcove to her bed, just narrowly avoiding bumping shoulders with a drunken Marlene as the blonde girl flung herself into her own bed.

The tall redhead rubbed the dramatic blonde's shoulder soothingly, "Come on, Marlene, he's a prat, he doesn't even deserve your tears!"

Dessie quirked a brow and in response Lily just shook her head in exasperation. 'Black,' the redhead mouthed, and Dessie rolled her eyes. Black was Marlene's on-again-off-again beau, and far more trouble than he was worth, in Dessies opinion. According to Marlene he was the sun to her stars, the bacon to her eggs, the Oberon to her Titania-

You get the point.

But if you were to ask Dessie, she would say he was a rude, self-obsessed, vain twat who valued women for nothing but the explicit purposes of stroking his ego. She had heard far too many horror stories about his and Marlene's numerous breakups- and quite frankly the young Irishwoman was getting sick of them.

They were at Hogsmeade, how on earth did they manage to stir up drama? Dessie had thought, shaking her head in astonishment. Well, according to Dorcas, Black had been in

The Broomsticks with his mates with his arm around some Hufflepuff girl-Amos Diggory's younger sister, you know, the one with the eyes too far apart?-, as he had got up to grab another round of butterbeers he had blown a cheeky kiss to the girl- a kiss, Des! Merlin, he's such a prat!- and he had walked right past Marlene afterwards- as if to rub it right in her face!

Dessie blinked. It was a rather tame scenario. From Marlene's reaction, she had expected much worse. Her eyes floated across the room to where the blonde was sobbing into her pillows, the shimmering gold of her duvet becoming dull from the wet, and she felt the corners of her mouth drag into a scowl. In her mind, she imagined stepping forward, hands on her hips, and telling off her roommate for her appalling behaviour- telling her how her disrespect towards that Diggory girl was totally uncalled for, as she had done nothing wrong, and had simply made the mistake of fancying Gryffindors resident heartthrob (a crime that 75 percent of girls in Hogwarts were guilty of, even if she didn't fully understand it). She would tell Marlene to get a grip and grow up, as there were far worse evils in the world than Sirius Black not returning her affections. She would even scold the other girls for encouraging this utterly atrocious behaviour.

Instead, the short haired ginger pursed her lips and climbed into bed, retreating behind the heavy velvet canopy curtain. She sighed as she fell backwards into the soft sheets. Throwing up a silencing spell with a flick of her fingers, she curled into her blankets, returning to her copy of Pride and Prejudice as she ignored her roommates' whispers.

The next few days were quiet- thank Merlin- But she should have known her peace would eventually run out. This happened in a rather explosive fashion- in a damned Divination class, of all things.

"Morning Des." Dessie returned the greeting, smiling at the blonde boy. Peter Pettigrew flopped into the beanbag beside her, stretching his long legs and flinging then into her lap, ignoring her disgruntled huff.

James Potter and Sirius Black collapsed around her table, taking no heed of her narrowed eyes and frown. They never normally sit with her, instead commandeering the comfortable booth at the top of the room, so this was highly suspect.

"Alright, Grey?" Sirius flicked his hair from his eyes with a pearly white grin. She surveyed him before smiling politely, returning the greeting whilst slapping Peter's bare ankle. He wasn't wearing socks again. Gross, she thought lightheartedly, pinching his ankle. He responded with a yelp and slapped her hand away, however he stubbornly didn't move.

James slung his arm over his blonde friend's shoulders and leaned across the circular table, his chest brushing the table top as he grinned at her. He rubbed his bare chin contemplatively. "Y'know Des, I don't think we've ever really talked."

"We sure haven't," She replied, raising a brow. "What's your point?"

"Well I think we should fix that!"

"Why?"

"Well, for a start, we're on the same Quidditch team, we have been since second year! We don't hang out much outside of it though, which I think is a pity!"

She stared blankly at him, totally gobsmacked.

"You just seem like a fun kind of gal," Dessie's nose wrinkled, but James ploughed on. " I'm friends with the majority of your roommates, I thought it'd be nice to get to know each other."

"Which is why, you're being invited to our Halloween afterparty!" Sirius threw in, boredly flicking through her textbook. "Wow, you're worse than Remus is, you've annotated at least half of these pages!"

"It's a lilttle more intimate than usual, just a few of us. Drinks, music, good company." Peter piped up with a grin before she could respond to his friend, nudging her stomach with his foot.

Unamused, she pushed his feet from her lap, yanking her book back with a frown. "I'm not going to be passing on a good word to Lily purely because you're being polite to me, Potter."

The bespectacled boys face crumpled comically as Peter and Black's froze. Peter guffawed awkwardly, spluttering an excuse of "No, Des, that's not what's happening here at all-" only to be shushed as their Professor arrived.

A smirk grew fixed to Dessie's face as the class carried on. Divination was quite a controversial class, both muggle born and pureblood alike thought it to be a useless craft but an easy grade. The Gray's, however, went against the grain in regards to the subject. Dessie was taught to respect the naturalistic, traditional craft just as much as the practical, wand-wielding part. Her family had quite a history with that kind of magic- a history that warned them to be wary of it.

Nevertheless, she adored the class, her respect for the topic only fuelling her curiosity.

She shuffled her cards as the tea brewed, vaguely paying attention to the boys' conversation. The crystal ball glinted in the centre of the table, and Dessie's shuffle halted, her head cocked curiously as the crystal glinted again. She glanced at the still chattering boys, it seemed they hadn't taken notice. It was probably just a trick of the light.

Professor Goodfellow - a rather nervous man who's calling was most certainly not teaching, in Dessie's opinion- hushed the boys again.

Goodfellow droned on about moon phases as another glint caught her eye. This time, it originated from Black's pocket. He knocked his fisted hand against James's, discreetly passing something along the table until Peter held it. Eyeing the boy nervously, she continued her shuffle, pulling the three of cups and with a raised brow, shuffled it back in.

Peter leaned far over the tiny circular table, as he grabbed a teacup he surreptitiously dropped something into the teapot.

Her brows hiked as the tea instantly began to bubble, and then turn a bright pink colour. The three boys had grown pale, and were wildly trying to prod the pot, only to pull their hands back with a pained hiss. She grabbed Peter's wrist "What did you do?"

"It wasn't supposed to happen like that! We were just testing a new heating capsule! Its only meant to-"

The pot shattered into pieces, scattering all over the table, boiling ceramic shards falling into their laps. Apparently, that wasn't dramatic enough, as the intensity of the heat caused the crystal ball to explode.

Screeches rang out across the room- the boys leapt back, tripping over chairs but Dessie stood frozen. Scalding water soaked through her shirt. Something warm and thick dripped down her face into her gaping mouth. Blinking rapidly, she raised her suddenly trembling hand to her eye. It came away bloody.

"Miss Grey, let's get you to the Hospital wing."

She gazed blearily at Professor Goodfellow, who was now grasping her stinging pink wrist. She lurched forward, emptying the contents of her stomach onto his shoes.


Dessie loathed the Hospital Wing. It was always draughty, every little sound echoed loudly, and it didn't give any privacy at all.

The only other occupant of the large hall was Remus Lupin, who she would normally have been over the moon to interact with, as he really was such a lovely young man, but now she stubbornly ignored him just as she did his friends who now sat at the ends of their beds in transfigured armchairs.

"We are really sorry, Gray," Her jaw clenched, her eyes fixed on the boom in her lap as she ignored Potter's existence. "Mum's dabbling in the cosmetics business, we can give you something to hide the scars!"

She snapped her book shut, wincing as the cloth cover rubbed against her still raw hands. "I don't need you dabbling in anything else, thanks."

After that, she wallowed in silence, glaring across the room with her arms crossed over her chest. Yes, she was sulking, but she definitely had a right to be. Due to that exploding crystal ball, she now had a pretty sizable scar on her right eyebrow from where a piece of the crystal had been lodged, which trailed below her eye as far as her cheekbone. The rest of the boys just had small scrapes on their hands and arms from where they attempted to shield themselves, wounds which had been healed promptly. On the other hand, Madame Pomphrey had tried her best to close her scar up and make it as small and neat as she could- but wounds attained from magical objects can't be totally healed.

Muggles can transfer entire organs from one body to the next, Dessie scowled, but magic folk can't heal some damned scars?!

Professor Goodfellow entered the hall, wringing his hands behind his back he cane to a stop at the end of her cot.

"The incident that happened today was awful, and I'm very sorry it happened and that you all got hurt, however in the wreckage I found this," he opened his palm, revealing a tiny pill sized stone. "One of you slipped an enchanted heating rock into the teapot, and that is completely unacceptable. You'll all have a month of detention, three nights a week, starting tomorrow night." Dessie's mouth dropped open as he bid them all a good evening, retreating from the room. She turned her glare to the muttering boys.

"Christ, how did you all manage to do that?" Remus breathed, totally flabbergasted. Dessie felt a blush creeping up her neck as he made eye contact with her. She scowled, both at herself and at the situation, and snapped "Your genius friends here did it, keep me out of it!"

"I definitely don't envy you." The sandy haired boy shook his head, hair falling into his eyes.

"Sorry Des," Peter said sheepishly, "but it looks like we're all going down together."

"I shouldn't have to 'go down' for something I didn't do!"

"Well, look on the bright side!" James cut in, and Dessie turned her glare to him.

"What exactly is the bright side in this situation?"

James opened his mouth, then closed it. This floundering continued for a moment until Black, of all people, spoke - leaning forward to rest his arm on his knees while surveying her. He threw her a wink, a grin curling his mouth. To Dessie, is almost seemed mean.

"The bright side is that we'll be getting to know each other pretty well, Gray."

Dessie sorely wanted to wipe that smirk off his awful, stupid, handsome face. Prick.

Hi all!

I have far too many unfinished stories that I'm slowly making my way through (ADHD brain, damn you!), but here's another one! I hope you enjoy, and that you leave any thought you may have in the review box! Wishing you all health, Cai x