"You won't believe what I just heard in the girls' bathroom on the fourth floor," Rebecca gushed, barging into their room.

Leila barely looked up from the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. "Yes, because any story starting with "what I heard in the girls' bathroom" is worthy of the front page in the Daily Prophet," she drawled.

"Screw you," Rebecca answered without malice. She sat excitedly by the foot of Alex's bed, her body bouncing with excitement. "So? Guess."

Leila heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Filch was discovered doing unspeakable things to Mrs. Norris?"

"What? No! Ew!" Rebecca shook her head, as though she needed to physically rid herself of the disturbing image.

"You asked," Leila said good-naturedly. Rebecca rolled her eyes and turned toward Alex.

"Well?"

"Erm," said Alex, not used to being asked anything by Rebecca. "Flitwick's going to cancel the quiz we have tomorrow at the last minute?"

"Noooooo," Rebecca whined. "Merlin, why can't you two be more normal, like everyone else?"

"Trust me, darling," Leila monotoned, "we wonder that about you every day."

To be truthful it wasn't that Alex had absolutely no idea what Rebecca was going to talk about. They had heard the same conversation starting with the same line several times in the last few weeks; Rebecca always arrived agitated and excited about half an hour after dinner, her eyes shining and her cheeks rosy. The subject of the conversation was always the same. But Leila was obviously not in the mood to play along (or she pretended not to—it was always difficult to tell with her) and Alex wished that there was something else that they could talk about. But alas, that was not her luck tonight.

"Alright," Rebecca said. "I'll just tell you."

"As we predicted," Leila grunted. Rebecca pretended not to hear this.

"So guess who's the new Beater on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team?"

"Really, haven't we already established that we suck at guessing?" Leila exclaimed exasperatedly, finally looked up from her textbook. Rebecca stuck her tongue out at her.

"Henryk!" Rebecca bubbled excitedly. "Isn't this great?"

"Really, I could've told you that and saved you a trip to the bathroom," Leila said. Alex looked curiously at her.

"How?" she asked.

"I'm the Quidditch commentator—I make it my business to be at every tryout, every practice, and every game that I can attend. It's my job."

"I think it's also called spying," Alex said. "Are people from other houses allowed to watch Quidditch practices?"

Leila shrugged. "Wouldn't know," she said. "I usually hide behind the banners."

Rebecca huffed impatiently. "Well, then, Quiddich commentator," she said sarcastically, "do you know how Henryk did?"

Leila now looked highly insulted. "Of course I know," she said. "He slipped by in Q-A, beat two successful E-3's before going back to B-q—"

"Okay, none of that jargon," Rebecca said. "If I may say so, he was amazing."

"You weren't even there," Leila pointed out.

"Whatever," Rebecca said. Alex looked skeptically at her own textbook.

Over the past few weeks Rebecca had uncovered many details about the new student. He was eighteen; his birthday was not due for at least two seasons; he had gone to a school in Bulgaria, but was homeschooled for some time in his life; he was currently taking classes with fifth years because he wasn't familiar with some materials and wanted to "practice his English." All these details had been carefully unearthed by the enthusiastic admirers who had found to their delight that Lee was amenable to questions and casual conversation. Alex supposed that there was no reason that she should mind anything about him at all—indeed, it wasn't as if he had done her harm. Regulus certainly seemed to breath more easily under the knowledge that Rebecca's interests for him were entirely diverted, even though he would never admit this out loud.

So Alex was quite certain that she was being paranoid when she said that she was wary of him.

But she had a feeling—and it was just a vague feeling—that he was watching her. Not even in a creepy, stalker kind of a way—just watching her. Silently gauging and reevaluating what she was doing. He made absolutely no overtures to get to know her—in fact, it sometimes felt like he was intentionally making sure that there was enough distance between them so that he would not be seen—but she still felt that he was nonetheless watching. She had wondered if she was simply flattering herself by imagining that a rather good-looking boy was taking an interest in her, but the look in his eyes, whenever their eyes met (which was seldom) was more scientific than romantic.

"… the first game, Alex?"

Alex shook herself out of the reverie. "Sorry, what?"

"Are you going to the first Quidditch game?" Rebecca repeated. "It's against the Hufflepuffs, I heard."

Alex frowned. "Don't we still have two months?"

"Does it even matter?" Leila said, sounding bored. "She has to be there, or she'll have to hear an earful from someone."

Alex rolled her eyes. "And who might that be?"

Leila's eyes widened in fake innocence. "Why, me, of course," she said. "I would be very upset if you missed my excellent commentary."

"Right," Alex said, pulling herself out of the bed. "Well, I've got to go. Prefect rounds." No one said anything—presumably Rebecca was too busy writing everything down that she had heard about Henryk into her "book" and Leila was attempting to understand why Defense Against the Dark Arts was worth her time.

Her prefect duties suited her poorly—or, Alex thought glumly as she stepped outside of the Slytherin common room, she suited her duties poorly. There was, as she had predicted, nothing prefect-y about her—she disliked command in general (it put her in the spotlight), she had to deal with people and persuade them to abide by the rules (she couldn't push herself to care that much about everybody), and she was taken out of her comfortable bed in order to do rounds around the castle—which might have been romantic, she supposed, had it not been for the fact that the weather was quickly growing cold.

"Remus," she said as a greeting.

"Alex," Remus answered. "Hopefully nothing will happen tonight."

Alex raised her eyebrows skeptically. Remus sighed.

Remus Lupin was possibly the only person who was worse at his job than Alex was, quite possibly because his best friends were the prefects' worst enemies, but Alex thought that Remus just disliked the idea of enforcing rules in general. He was awfully nice to younger students—even the Slytherin second-years at least pretended to listen when he was talking—and he seemed to have a knack for saying what the students wanted to hear. Something that Alex quite envied in Remus—and Regulus as well, although he was never very inclined to make others feel better about themselves.

Regulus had taken to his prefect position quite naturally, which made Alex more sour than ever. The Slytherins had already been looking up to him because he was "the Black Prince," but now it seemed as if they held his position and power as an immutable fact. Regulus himself showed no consciousness of this, but Alex suspected that it was an intentional effort at naturalness more than actual ignorance. She had heard enough of what he had said about Lucius Malfoy as a prefect to know his feelings on the matter.

"What do you think?" Remus said, nodding at the end of the corridor. Alex squinted.

"A light?" she said. "But not from the castle. Maybe from a wand."

"Maybe we should look into it." Remus's voice had grown quiet.

"Maybe—hold on." Alex squinted harder. "What's that?"

"Another light," Remus said. "And—oh, Merlin." He suppressed his groan and Alex shared the sentiment. The lights were beginning to move into two opposite directions.

"I'll go after the one on the right," Alex muttered. "You go after the left one. If we find anyone, we meet at Entrance hall."

"Alright," Remus whispered. "I hope it's just a practical joke."

Alex didn't have the heart to tell him that practical jokes had to have some kind of a target and comedy. Two moving wand lights just seemed to indicate two students out of bed after curfew. She shook her head. Why couldn't they just use the Calico charm, which gave them ability to sense some things in the dark? Why go for the obvious lumos?

She took after the light.

It moved slowly, almost leisurely, slowly climbing up the moving staircases. Gryffindor? Alex wondered, but dismissed the idea. They were going in the other direction—this wasn't where the Gryffindor tower was—

She froze. But it couldn't be.

Remus' comment about practical joke came back to her mind. Halloween—wasn't very far away. At least, her fear-addled mind seemed convinced that Halloween, which was more than six weeks away, was near. She was transported back to four years ago, a fresh first-year, having discovered some little thing in the library, so scared, so alone, so cold, the night had been so cold…

She tried to pull herself together. No one knew about the incident except for Regulus, and he would never try to recreate the situation as a joke. Regulus—Regulus who wasn't here. She cursed the head boy and girl for changing the round schedule at the last moment. Usually Regulus would be here beside her. But he was in the Common Room, oblivious to what was happening with her right now, working on his Potions essay no doubt—she had even waved at him as she went out…

The light hovered by the staircase, as though it was waiting for her. She swallowed and tightened her grip on her wand. She wasn't twelve anymore. The light began to move again and Alex followed.

Then it reached the Owlery and disappeared.

Alex looked around, her breath coming out in short gasps. Her body was reacting to the trepidation regardless of her mind's attempt to reject it. She felt her lips tremble.

"Show yourself," she said. Her voice cracked. She tried to swallow.

"Now." Her voice sounded slightly more confident, but it still felt weak to her ears. The fear…

"Hello," the voice was familiar. She had heard it somewhere before—in class—

"Lee?" Alex said incredulously. But there was no one in the Owlery. "Where are you?"

"In the dark," Lee responded as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "Don't you know that darkness is the best place to hide?" Alex swore under her breath.

"Stop hiding," she spat out. Her wand hand began to shake. "I don't have time for this."

"Of course you do," Lee's voice was still gratingly calm. "It's your job to go after errant students, right? As a prefect, I mean."

"You," Alex said, "have a light. That's not errant—that's a poor trick."

"Really?" Lee said. He sounded almost amused. "Do you even know what that light is?"

"Lumos," Alex gritted her teeth.

"Hardly," he replied. "If it had been lumos than you should have been able to see things around it. Were you?"

Alex stared into the darkness save the blinking eyes of the owls, feeling almost helpless. This was beginning to uncannily resemble what had happened four years ago. The power play—he knew more than he let on, and she was supposed to be helpless, armed or not. "I'm leaving," she whispered. "Find someone else to lecture."

"Come on," Lee said. Taunting. He was now actually taunting. "Are you going to just give up, like you did four years ago? Wait for Black to save you?"

Alex froze.

"How do you know about that?" she said calmly. Too calmly. She didn't understand it herself.

"I have my ways."

"I—" Alex frowned. She didn't have to explain anything to him. Nothing at all. "I didn't give up," she said anyway.

"What did you do?" there was actual curiosity in his voice.

"Tried to fight back," Alex said. The memories were coming back again, but the calmness that had settled over her remained with her. Her mind was whirling at a thousand miles per second, going over each possibilities. How could he know? Regulus had reported the incident to McGonagall, who notified Dumbledore. So if he had read about it—she couldn't imagine any of the professors divulging the information freely—then he would've had to snuck in to one of their offices. Break some kind of protective charm that sealed the parchment in the cabinet—they wouldn't have left it lying around willy-nilly. So Lee had already broken some rules… but for what? All because of her?

"I didn't have a wand," Alex went on. "And I was outnumbered by sixth-years who were much bigger than me. But you already know all about that, don't you?"

A pause. "And if I do?"

"Why?" Alex said. There was now a strength in her voice. "Why?"

Lee didn't say anything.

"You just came to this school," Alex went on. "From Bulgaria. You couldn't draw the most remote connection between me and Bulgaria. To study. But it's odd, isn't it? Every magical community outside Britain has been avoiding us for the past decade, treating Britain like a bomb that's just about to go off. That's what Daily Prophet says, anyway. You must've heard about the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters." Alex looked around in the dark. Was it just her, or was her surrounding getting lighter? "And no offense, but you're far too old to be in fifth year. Even McGonagall thinks that you're not being challenged academically. So why are you here?" No answer came.

"Lee!" she shouted. Still nothing. Alex growled.

"Lumos maximus!" she cried, and a momentary flash lighted every corner of the Owlery. Owls hooted resentfully from their coves, as though the intrusion of the light into their dark habitat was a moral offense that they could not endure. Even Alex's favorite school owl hooted dolefully. But all of this was lost on Alex as her eyes scanned every inch of the room with alertness that she didn't realize she possessed.

There was no one.

"Lupin!" Alex shouted as she ran down the stairs. "Lupin! Are you all rig—"

"Merlin, Alex!" Remus whispered from the Entrance Hall. "You'll wake up Mrs. Norris!" Mrs. Norris, sadly for her, was despised even by prefects who benefited from her constant vigilance against rule breaking and mischief making.

"Remus," Alex panted. "The light, the light that you were following—"

"It came to a dead end," Remus shook his head. "Just a joke played by James and Sirius, I reckon. They like to do that." Alex frowned. She suspected that the light that Remus followed was more of a diversion than anything else. But didn't Lee have to be there physically to keep the light going? What—

"Do they do that often?" her mouth was forming the words before Alex could register what she was saying.

"Sometimes," Remus admitted. "They think the position of the prefect is funny. Well, Sirius does, anyway, especially because Regulus is a prefect. James is going along for the ride, I think."

"Huh," Alex said, her mind still a whirlwind of thoughts. "Sorry."

Remus shrugged. "We should probably go back," he said. "It's past midnight."

Alex nodded. Remus patted her on the back and turned to leave.

"Wait," Remus said, frowning. "I'm forgetting something. The light. Did James and Sirius do anything to you? I mean, I don't mind it when they do it to me, but to you—"

"No," Alex replied quickly. "Nothing happened. Just another dead end."

She did not sleep well that night. In her dreams she kept going back to the Owlery, except that she couldn't see a thing and Lee's voice, magnified and strengthened thousand times by her unconsciousness, echoed endlessly in the tiny room. What did you do, the voice echoed again and again. What did you do, what did you do, what did you do…

Suddenly the Owlery began to grow visible. It wasn't the sun, and it wasn't any form of magic that Alex knew of. Slowly the light began to grow and his father was standing there in front of her with a cruel expression that she couldn't fathom. Why would he—

"Don't you know, Alex?" he said mockingly. "Darkness is the best place to hide." Alex tried to say something, but it seemed that she didn't have a body, much less a voice, in the dream. She tried to step back, but this was impossible, as well.

"Hide in the dark, Alex," her father whispered menacingly. "That's the only place to go. Hide in the dark…."

Her eyes opened wildly to find the dim light of the lake flooding into the dormitory. Her breath came out in rough gasps. She was drenched in sweat.

She got up from the bed mechanically, feeling her way through the room before locking herself up in the bathroom. Shower, probably. Robes. She trudged into the common room, not feeling much better but feeling that she didn't really have a choice. She sank into the armchair and closed her eyes, waiting for the sun to come up. All was so quiet.

"Alex?" a curious voice said from above her. "You're never up this early." Their eyes slowly met.

Impulsively, she reached out to him and pulled him down to the armchair with her, feeling his body fall on top of hers with a soft oof. Regulus was already dressed for class and the heavy book bag landed on one side of her arm, but she didn't care. Her arms hesitantly wound themselves around his torso and Regulus stilled.

"Alex," he said, sounding strained, "what's wrong?"

Lee's words came back to her mind—Wait for Black to save you?—and Alex hated how he still seemed to be in her mind, even in her dreams. Hated him for affecting her answer to Regulus' question right now. "Nothing," she said, burying her face into his shoulder. This seemed to alarm Regulus more than anything.

"Alex," he said gently, "something is wrong. You normally never let me touch you."

Alex frowned. "That's not true," she protested. Regulus sighed.

"Really," he said. "How do you feel right now?" Then he proceeded to place his hands on either sides of her waist and lean his face closer to hers. She froze. She could feel his breath coming out of his nose blow on her cheeks. Alex didn't say anything.

"You don't like this," Regulus said, and Alex couldn't tell if he was being accusatory or simply matter-of-fact. "So what's wrong?" At his question her arms automatically tightened around him.

"Maybe I just missed you." The words were not what she had planned to say, but Alex was surprised at the truth in them.

Regulus didn't say anything for a while, and Alex was too nervous to turn to see what kind of expression he had on his face.

"Okay," he said eventually.

"And—and it's not that I don't like it," Alex continued. "When you—err—try to get closer. It's not you. It really isn't."

"What is it, then?" Regulus asked, for some reason sounding vulnerable. Alex swallowed.

"It's just that I keep thinking about Flannigan—"

"Alex," Regulus said. "You know I'm not like that—"

"Of course I know," Alex said reassuringly. "I know that. It's not something against you. It's just—" Alex frowned, struggling.

"You don't trust boys?" Regulus suggested, sounding—unfathomable. Alex couldn't tell what he was feeling.

"I trust you," Alex said defensively. She thought she could hear him smile a little.

"Okay," Regulus replied and remained still. Slowly she snuggled into him, finding a position that felt less forced than before. Regulus shifted his body somewhat so that they could both fit in the armchair, but Alex noticed that while he let her tighten her arms around him he himself remained still, trying to—make her more comfortable, she realized. They lay in that position for a while, and Alex wondered if the drumming that she heard was her own heartbeat or his.

Eventually, voices came from the dormitory and they broke away.

"Shall we?" Regulus asked, gallantly offering her his hand. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Right," she said, pushing herself off the armchair. They went to breakfast.

The classes seem to roll by smoothly. Double Potions with Ravenclaws went by without a hitch, and even Slughorn seemed to be in bad enough spirit that he didn't boom to Snape and Regulus his typical m'boys every few seconds. Lunch passed by again without anything happening, and Alex almost forgot what had made her grab Regulus like that in the morning when the reason appeared at the entryway of the Great Hall, silently listening to several Hufflepuffs chatting about something. Her grip on her fork automatically tightened, and Alex felt the unfamiliar urge to hurl the fork in his direction. She frowned. There was no need to go overboard…

"You alright?" Leila asked, her mouth half-full with mashed potatoes and something else that seemed to bother Rosier.

Alex came to her senses and looked around. She realized that she had stood up without noticing, and even Rebecca was looking at her with an odd look.

"'Course I am," she said, shaking her head bemusedly. She was still clutching her fork like a javelin. "Sorry for the alarm."

"Really Alex, I realize that Henryk is rather desirable, but there's no need to get up whenever he comes into the room," Rebecca said spottily. "Especially when you already have one." The implied relationship was not lost on Regulus, who pretended not to have heard anything. Meanwhile, Lee had found a seat by the Hufflepuff table and was calmly pouring himself a glass of water, not once looking at her direction. Alex gritted her teeth. So he was going to act as if nothing had happened, was he?

"Wilson," Leila leaned toward her and whispered, "even I wouldn't recommend staring at another bloke when your prince is present."

"It's nothing like that," Alex bit out. Leila shrugged.

"Sure looks like it," she said.

After lunch Regulus headed toward Muggle Studies, looking as unperturbed as ever, but Alex had seen his left eyebrow twitch sporadically during the meal, asking Alex silent questions that she couldn't answer. She had merely shaken her head, feeling a bit apologetic about not telling him everything, but things were not what he was suspecting and she knew that she didn't have anything to feel guilty about. She followed him out of the Great Hall soon after and stood idly by the entrance, pretending to be absorbed in her textbook. Soon they emerged, making jokes, small talk—even Lee seemed amused by something that Abbott was saying. Alex disengaged from the wall and began to follow them a few paces behind.

"Listen, I've got to go to the library..." Lee said at the foot of the staircase, and the rest of them nodded.

"See you later, then..." the group said, hands waving, nodding to the different direction. Alex quickened her pace to catch up.

"We need to talk," she said almost casually, looking in front of her as if nothing was the matter. Lee, not much to her surprise, responded in a similar kind.

"Who are you?" he asked instead, looking quizzically at her, but not enough to show that he was actually interested. Alex resisted the urge to thump him painfully on the head.

"You know who I am," she answered quietly. "I'm in your year."

Lee smiled ironically. "Sorry," he said. "I'm afraid that I haven't gotten to memorizing all the names yet."

"Really?" Alex said. "Then care to explain what you were doing last night in the Owlery?"

The confusion on his face grew more pronounced, and for a second Alex doubted herself. Had she imagined everything after all? Remus for one had not discovered anything by following the light, and she herself had not found anyone once she had looked around the Owlery. The owls, for one, seemed to have been disturbed by her presence, and no one else's. Perhaps the lights had been just a practical joke pulled by Potter and Black, and she had, in a fit of fright and trauma, imagined the whole episode in her head. But it still didn't explain why it had been Lee, of all people, whose voice she had heard. If anything it should have been the perpetrators from her first year…

While all these thoughts were running through her head she saw a spasm on his face.

It was so small that she could have imagined it as well, but it happened again—on the right side of the face, a spasm seemed to take place involuntarily before Lee quickly schooled his expression. Alex frowned, feeling the traces of doubts vanish.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said calmly. Alex waited for another spasm, but it didn't come.

"You created two lights and led Remus down to the dungeons," Alex said, feeling childish in her accusation despite her knowledge that she was right and he was lying. "And you led me to the Owlery."

Lee scoffed. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about," he said, making a move to enter the library. "And I certainly don't have time for this. I have an essay due tomorrow..." But Alex lost her patience and grabbed him by the arm. Lee froze in his place, looking incredulously at her.

"Yes, you do know what I'm talking about." Her voice grew higher and higher hysterically despite her certainty. Lee merely gazed back at her cooly.

"No, I don't," he said, and gave her such a withering look that Alex felt mortified. She swallowed with difficulty.

"Besides," he went on, "why on Merlin would do anything so pointless as that? It's not as if I have the remotest interest in talking to you alone." His eyes narrowed. "You don't have an interest in me, do you?" Alex couldn't tell if this rudeness was common throughout Bulgaria or just unique to Lee. Probably the former. She felt her cheeks heat up despite her answer.

"Hardly," she retorted. "In fact, I—"

"Well, then," Lee interrupted. "Keep it that way. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get to my assignment." Without sparing her another glance Lee turned around and began to walk briskly into the library. Alex stared after him, outraged and speechless. Around her a few people seemed to be giggling, having witness what they considered a first unsuccessful attempt at asking out the new exchange student.

"Wymond." Lee stopped in his track.

Words came out of her mouth without her thinking. "The Wymonds. Does the name mean anything to you?" He didn't turn around.

"Why are you asking me?"

Alex quickly thought. "They're a family based in Eastern Europe," she said quietly. "You're from Bulgaria. Was wondering if you're familiar with the name." The image of her father in her dream sprang up in her mind again, his voice hissing ever so softly, hide in the dark, Alex…

Lee slowly turned around. "Listen," he said. "You seem to have some misguided idea that I know something. I don't. At all. And whatever you say won't change that. So please leave me alone." He turned and left again. The students were now giggling at full force, and some were even pointing their fingers at her. But none of these things were noticed by Alex, whose mind was whirling. She'd seen the left side of his face twitch again.

The rest of the day passed by without any other incident. Too tired by the afternoon, Alex only half paid attention in her Charms class and resulted in setting a practice jar of water on fire (this apparently was harder to accomplish than most people thought). Leila was looking at her oddly but didn't say anything, and Regulus sighed quietly before helping her pick up her books on the way to Ancient Runes. He didn't say anything during the class or dinner, and Alex was too preoccupied with her thoughts (or lack of them, since she didn't even know what she should be thinking) to realize that he was frustrated until he pulled her into a small alcove on their way back to common room from dinner.

"Alex," he said, sounding stern. "Something's wrong, and you're not telling me."

"Nothing's wrong," Alex insisted, resisting the urge to yawn. She was so tired…

"Then why do I keep hearing about—" there he stopped, struggling. Alex frowned.

"What?"

"About you and Lee," Regulus said. "Apparently you two had a nasty bit of a spat in front of the library."

"So? It wasn't anything."

"They said you two got together last night."

Alex began to understand where this was going, and she didn't like it one bit. "Merlin, Reg," she said. "Just what are you trying to say?"

"I'm not trying to say anything," Regulus said defensively. "But people are convinced that you were fairly adamant about you two having met last night."

"If you heard the gossip, then you would probably know that he denied it as well," Alex said, annoyed. Regulus' face hardened.

"So you did say that," he said. Alex felt her irritation rise—not at Regulus, she knew, but at Lee, and people who always had to nose into what others were doing, but Regulus was the only person in front of her bringing everything up again, her embarrassment, her frustration, and the fright that last night raised in her. But Regulus knew none of those things and she should have been able to tell him, but Lee's words—Wait for Black to save you?—came back to her with a vicious bite and Alex growled in her position.

"Reg, just let it go," she said impatiently. "Lee's obviously just a prick and I don't care for your accusations. Nothing happened. Why can't you just accept that?"

"Alright," Regulus said, his patience wearing thin as well. "Then riddle me this. What kind of a girlfriend says things like 'I trust you' and cuddles, of all things, with you in the morning and have a row with another bloke in the afternoon about their rendez-vous the night before?" Alex stared at his face incomprehensibly for a few seconds.

"I'm your girlfriend?" she asked in her dumbfounded state.

Clearly, this was not the right thing to say.

"Forget it," he snapped and stalked away, leaving her in the dark alcove. Alex blinked, trying to understand what had just happened in her sleepy state.

She knew that Regulus had a problem with jealousy. She suspected that growing up with Sirius had something to do with it, but Regulus usually was usually aware of his feelings better than most people and tried to discourage the negative effects of these feelings within himself. It was on the other hand difficult to understand why he would ever have to feel jealous because of her. When it came to him there could never be a competition for her—he was the only one she had or ever wanted, and he should have known that. She, on the other hand, didn't have much to offer compared to what he could offer her—if anything she should have been more jealous of every other girl like Rebecca. Alex shook her head. She was far too tired to think about any of these things.

"Where were you?" Leila asked irritatedly when she finally came back to the dorm. Simultaneously, Rebecca bounced from her bed and exclaimed excitedly, "Guess what?"

"Walking," she said to Leila before turning to Rebecca. "If it's about Lee having a spat with me, then I already know."

Rebecca's eyes widened. "You had a spat with Henryk?" Alex cursed under her breath.

"Prefect duties," she said ambiguously. "He was out past curfew last night."

Rebecca waved her hand dismissively. "That's not very interesting," she said. "No, what I was going to say was that someone had seen Henryk after the Quidditch practice as he was changing… quite a catch, I've been told… Well I really have no doubt about that…"

Alex closed her eyes lying on her bed, only half listening to Rebecca's excited voice or Leila's amused comments. Exhaustion came over her—come to think of it, she had not slept all that much the night before. Groaning, she forced herself to get up and brush her teeth before trudging to bed. The last thing she remembered before losing unconsciousness in the dim light of her bedside lantern was an ironic thought that both she and Lee had not been very forthcoming to their respective accusers.