Okay so right now I'm trying to fix a mistake in the last chapter (as in I didn't put the last chapter in). It should be good after I switch somethings around.

My breath caught in my throat and I pounced backwards, my eyes flying open.

"What the bloody-" I started to scream.

And then I saw Albus freaking Potter holding in laughter, holding a calico kitten… that he had been holding out and whose nose had brushed my lips.

"You got me a kitten?" I was in a state of shock.

"Yep." He grinned, his arms still outstretched with the kitty. "Are you going to take her?" He asked as I stared stupidly.

I took her from him and cuddled the little puff ball to my chest. "It's a girl?"

He nodded. "What are you going to name her?"

"Uh… I don't know yet. How did you get her?"

"Well, a friend of dad's from work was giving away a litter that his cat just had and so Lily wanted one, but mum said she's not mature enough to take care of a living creature. So then I suggested that we give one to you for your birthday and then we could still have a cat around the house, but Lily's not in charge of it." He shrugged.

"So it's a present from the family?" That made more sense.

"Yes, but I wanted to give it to you."

"So you could mess with me?"

"I can't believe you thought I would kiss you." He smirked.

"So it's more believable that you would lure me into the Room of Requirement, have me close my eyes, and shove a kitten in my face then kiss me?" I hissed.

"Yes." He nodded. If I wasn't holding the kitty I would have slapped him. Or cursed him.

Instead I smirked and said, "I have to go find my boyfriend." And I left him there, feeling his glare on my back.

I found Justin an hour later, after wasting an hour roaming the castle thinking about Albus kissing me… or rather, fake kissing me. The little kitty was still in my arms when I walked up to Justin.

"Hi." I tried to smile, but fell short.

"Hey, I looked for you yesterday." He wasn't smiling either.

"Sorry, it got crazy." I said. This was the slowest conversation ever.

"I didn't know you had a cat." He gave a small smile to the fuzzball in my arms.

That made me grin. "It was a birthday present from… the Potters." I stumbled over their name.

"What's his name?"

"It's a girl." I said playfully. "I haven't decided on a name yet. I only got her an hour ago."

"I wasn't able to get you a birthday present." He looked ashamed.

"You weren't the only one. Besides you didn't have to and it's not like you had another chance to get me a present. You only asked me out a few days ago. My family has no excuse though, they had all break." I teased and he laughed.

"Thanks. So when do you want to make up our date?"

"I'm not sure when the next Hogsmeade will be with everything that's going on." My mood fell again.

"Can you believe death eaters broke out of Azkaban?" He scoffed like it was something in the newspapers that was remote. Like he was watching it happen to someone else.

I could believe it. I should've expected it. Of course, my mother still had connections on the outside and of course she would break out. The only thing that surprised me was that it hadn't happened sooner.

"No." I responded dryly, rubbing my kitten behind its ear.

"I didn't even know people still believed in that." He remarked. "I wonder if they had dark marks." I wanted to gag. I thought about the ugly blackish tattoo on my forearm and almost did.

"Maybe."

"Do you want to grab lunch? We could make a picnic out of it and have our first date." Justin took my hand. I forced my mother out of my mind and willed my hair to go back to being a bright mix of blue and purple.

"That would be wonderful."

"Al, have you seen Attie?" Amanda asked, swinging her leg over the bench at the Gryffindor table.

"Not since this morning." Albus said around a mouthful of chips.

"Where did you see her?"

"Room of Requirement, but she left."

"What did you do?" Amanda asked suspiciously.

"I gave her a birthday present." He rolled his eyes.

"What?"

"Well, seeing as today is her birthday, her seventeenth in fact, I gave her a present." He said smugly.

"You gave her a present, or your parents did?"

"It was a joint present."

Amanda smirked. James ran into the Great Hall like his feet were on fire. He looked around frantically and then spotted Al and Amanda. He ran to the Gryffindor table.

"Have you seen Atria?"

"Not recently." Amanda replied.

"I need to give her a present." James swept his hair to one side.

"I thought you were going to buy her present yesterday?"

James was silent and pressed his lips together.

"Did you go to Hogsmeade?" Amanda gasped.

"Shh." James hushed her. He looked around. "Let's get out of here."

"But-"

"Let's just go." Al told Amanda.

"I can't believe you went into town." Amanda hissed once they exited the Great Hall.

"There are death eaters on the loose." Al agreed.

"Didn't Aunt Mione say they were 'magical extremists'?" James argued.

"That was before it was confirmed they had dark marks." Amanda said dryly. They began walking outside, aiming for the Black Lake.

"Oh."

"What did you get her?"

"You'll see." James told his brother.

"Lily and I got her a kitten."

"What?"

"Al don't tease him." Amanda scolded.

"I'm not." Albus said, grinning slightly.

"I think I found her." Amanda peered past Al and James. Atria was sitting on a blanket with a blonde haired boy with the Head Boy crest on his robes.

"That's Justin?" James sneered.

"How is it that you have no idea who the Head Boy is, even though you've been in school with him for seven years?" Amanda asked.

"He's so short, I probably just never saw him all the way down there." James said and Al grinned. Amanda punched his shoulder.

"He's not that short. Besides Attie's short. They're perfect for each other." Amanda said and waited for James's reaction. He only scoffed.

"We'll see. If he plans on dating her he has to get through us."

"Who's 'us'?" Amanda asked.

"All the men in our family, of course." James said as if the question was ridiculous.

"Of course."

"He's blonde." Al remarked.

"Some people like light hair."

"I think we should go introduce ourselves." James tried to strut over to them, but Amanda pulled him back.

"James, no."

"But-"

"It's her birthday and it hasn't been a pleasant one." Amanda pleaded with him, making him look into her eyes. "Just let her have one date without you barging in. Speak with them tomorrow. It would mean the world to her." James avoided looking directly into her eyes, knowing he would cave.

"Fine. But I'm talking to him tomorrow."

"Do what you will tomorrow."

Albus watched his brother tilt his head back and fold his arms, Amanda standing in front of him, rolling her eyes.

"You got her a kitten?"

"Yea-"

"Amanda!"

They all turned around to see Lily flying towards them. "New, gorgeous, Italian…" Lily gasped for breaths.

"What?"

"There is a new student!" She grabbed Amanda by the arms. "He's the most gorgeous thing I have ever laid my eyes on." Lily began to pull Amanda back towards the castle.

"Hey!" Albus protested.

"You're my brother." Lily made a disgusted face.

"Right." James nodded and turned to Amanda. "You'll to go check out the foreign bloke and then report back to us on how much better looking we are than him."

"And if he's nicer to look at?" Amanda teased. James huffed.

"As if."

Lily and Amanda giggled. "Come on. He and Rosie are talking down by Hagrid's hut."

"Traitor cousins." James muttered.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the boys, Amanda started speaking.

"Is Rose actually talking to this boy? Is he even real or were you just messing with your brothers?" Amanda asked.

"No, he's real." Lily said cheerfully. "And he's beautiful. Although Rose has been stealing all his attention. I haven't gotten to speak with him at all."

"And you just happened to find me with James and Al?"

"I may have seen you talking with them and thought it was the perfect opportunity to mess with them." Lily grinned evilly.

"So why is he transferring in the middle of the year?"

"I don't know. I didn't get to speak with him."

And as they approach Hagrid's hut, Amanda could see why Lily was so adamant to get her to look. He was tall, although not as tall as Al, with dark and wavy hair. His skin was a tanned olive color and his features were strong and broad, not as defined as the boys in Lily's family however.

"Wow." Amanda said.

"And he has the most compelling brown eyes you will ever see."

"Hey Amanda." Rose greeted.

"Hello." The boy said with a slight accent.

"Sal, this is my friend my friend Amanda." Rose motioned between the two.

"My name is Salvatore Aros. I arrived this morning." He smiled, showing his brilliant white teeth.

"Why are you transferring mid-year?" Amanda asked.

"I was home-schooled-"

"I didn't know you had that option." Rose said curiously.

"My parents got special permission to train me at home. I had visits once a month from a ministry employee to discern how my learning was advancing. But with the escape of the death eaters, the ministry is insisting that all those still of schooling age actually attend a school. So I was brought here to continue my training." Sal explained.

"So will you be behind, then?" Lily asked.

Sal chuckled. "No. Because my home is school, I was always learning. I am probably a bit ahead of the other students in sixth year because I was schooled year-round." He said but not arrogantly.

"Rose is top of the class." Amanda nudged her proudly. Rose blushed.

"I am not. Attie is."

"Atria doesn't count." Amanda waved her off.

"Who is this?" Sal asked.

"A friend of ours. She was also home-schooled until fourth year. Her specialty is potions and charms. She's not that great at Defense Against the Darks though." Amanda said.

"She's taking so many N.E.W.T.'s. Although I think she decided to split them between this year and next, so she's only taking six this year and five next year." Rose said, twirling her hair around her finger. Amanda and Lily did not miss this sign of flirtation. "Where is she? You would really get along with her." She told Sal.

"She's on a date with our esteemed Head Boy." Amanda said slyly.

"Did you give her your present?" Rose asked. "The boys were planning on shopping yesterday. They should really plan ahead."

"I don't think anyone planned for yesterday's events." Sal said softly.

"Not just yesterday. In general, they should expect things to go wrong at the last minute."

"It's alright, Rosie." Lily said cheerfully. "Besides she Albus was supposed to give her a kitten today."

"What?"

"Someone's cat had a litter and I thought it would be a good idea to give one to Attie. So Albus and I convinced our parents to get her one as a present." Lily explained, leaving out the part where she wanted to kitten, but her parents didn't think she was responsible enough.

"And I gave her a charm bracelet. She'll have your present." Amanda told Rose. "And I convinced James not to barge in on her date. We can celebrate her birthday this whole week. Freddie and James will figure out a way to get firewhiskey and we can have a party!"

"Rose," Lily addressed her cousin, "You and Amanda should go find the boys and plan something. I'll keep Sal company." Rose rolled her eyes and turned to Sal.

"She's right though. We do have things to catch up on. We'll see you in the Great Hall for dinner." Rose said as she and Amanda began walking away.

"He's watching you." Amanda muttered as she glanced back to find Sal staring at Rose's retreating figure.

Rose blushed. "Let's go find Scorpius. I hope he's not with Jenny."

"I didn't think you minded her."

"She acts like she's Head Girl. I don't dislike her, I just don't think she's good for Scorpius."

"She'll be leaving so we won't have to deal with her for long."

"Still another four months before the seventh years leave. And I doubt they'll even last that long." Rose muttered.

"Sal's nice looking." Amanda said after a few moments.

"He has nice... " Rose thought about it. "Everything."

Amanda laughed. "Are you going to snog him or shall I?"

"You can have him." Rose said quickly. "I'm not ready to date yet."

"You're almost seventeen."

"I hardly know anything about him. I think if I were to date him, we would have to be friends first. Not that we will date!"

"But then he might think he's stuck in the friend zone."

"Or he might think I'm sensible for not jumping into a relationship with someone that I barely know. We should go to the Room of Requirement, I bet that's where James and Freddie are planning the party." Rose said, ending the discussion. Amanda sighed.

"Alright. We really shouldn't leave them alone together, especially when planning is involved. So many things could go wrong."