Okay, here's the next chapter. Should be wrapping up this year in the next chapter! J.K. Rowling be praised! Happy Reading!

CHAPTER SIX

I didn't get to speak with Louisa much in the next few weeks. She had landed a few more days of detention, but Harry had gotten far more. From what I could tell Harry's temper was getting more and more out of hand these days. I had noticed it when he first arrived at Grimmauld place and at first I hadn't thought much of it. He was, after all, under a lot of pressure and Harry could be a bit hot headed. It seemed different, worse, than normal though. On the other hand Louisa was steadily calming her temper, I'm sure he was feeling the injustice of it all, but she was containing herself very well. From what I could see she was the picture of a calm demeanor, but I could see the anger in her eyes as well. Suddenly she seemed so much more mature than she had before. I figured I could attribute the change more to necessity than my warnings. Louisa was probably thinking she needed to be the calm one between herself and Harry, and she was doing very well.

The first weekend in October was the first Hogsmeade weekend, so I went into town early and got a table in the corner at the Three Broomsticks. I sat sipping a butterbeer as I waited, it was about half an hour before Louisa bustled into the busy pub. She glanced around and then started to weave her way toward the table. She sat down without going to get a drink, which I thought was odd, but I decided to ignore it.

"I know your birthday was October 3rd," I told her and fished a small package out of my pocket, "Happy Birthday, from me."

She gave me a somewhat stunned look and accepted the package, "Thanks Cedric," she smiled and moved to open it, the large silver locket fell out into her hands. It was pretty simple, the locket was actually a small pocket watch on a long silver chain.

"Open it," I replied to her questioning look, the hands of the clock were actually names: Harry, Padfoot, and Cedric and instead of times around the edge of the face were: Home, Hogwarts, Traveling, Lost, and Mortal Peril. "I thought this might ease your mind a bit about Harry. This way you can keep an eye on him. I was inspired by the clock at The Burrow. You can change the names or add more if you'd like..."

Louisa closed the locket and threw her arms around my neck, "Thank you, it's great. I love it. Very clever."

When she sat back down I couldn't help feeling pretty pleased with myself, "Don't mention it. So how are things going with you guys? I noticed you've been staying out of trouble."

Her smile and turned to a mischievous one I knew, "Yes, well, actually I have to get going to the Hogs Head, or I'll miss the meeting." then she told me about Hermione's idea to get a group together to really learn Defense Against the Dark Arts. When she finished she gave me a wary look, "You won't tell any of the other Order members will you? It's important we learn."

"I won't tell," I sighed, "I think it's a good idea, but you guys have to be careful. Come on, I'll go with you."

As we walked she kept talking, "Listen, we know that you're not a student and that you need to keep out of Umbridge's way. You have so much more to lose if you got caught, so we don't expect anything from you Cedric."

"It's fine, I get it," I held the door of the Hog's Head open for her and we entered. I had never been inside this particular pub before and I was struck by it's filth and the shadiness of most of it's occupants. A large group of students were taking up several tables in the corner. It was a pretty big turn out. They all looked up at us when we entered and I caught Cho's gaze for a moment. She gave me friendly and tentative smile but didn't say anything. Some of the others were staring at me in surprise, Harry was looking annoyed so I assumed the meeting wasn't going as planned.

"So you believe him then?" Zacharias asked me suddenly.

"Yes," I said simply and moved to help Louisa pull two more chairs over by Harry.

"Why won't Cedric be teaching us?" Hannah Abbott asked.

Louisa spoke up, "Cedric would have a lot more to lose if we got caught. He wouldn't just get detention or anything like that. He could lose his job, and at the rate things are going face an investigation by the Ministry."

I nodded, "But I am here to help in what ways I can, and to assure you all that Harry is the real deal."

Several arguments later everyone was signing their names to a piece of paper, when it was passed to me Louisa took it and just signed her name last before handing it back to Hermione. No one questioned this, I guess they all trusted I would keep my mouth shut about it and they understood the reasoning for keeping my name off of the bit of parchment. I sat with Louisa while the others started to filter out, we were two of the last to leave after Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

"Have you heard from Snuffles?" I asked after a long silence.

Her expression hardened slightly at the name, "Yes. He had the nerve to compare Harry to James again," she shook her head in irritation, "I haven't spoken to him since. He was angry because Harry didn't want him to risk coming here, said James would have loved the risk of getting caught. As if Harry doesn't have enough problems. I haven't gotten a chance to yell at him yet, I just... I can't believe him."

I nodded, "Well, it must be hard for him Louisa. I mean he hadn't seen Harry since he was a baby, and then suddenly he's the spitting image of the best friend he lost..."

"Yes but he's Harry's guardian! I understand all of that but..." She trailed off and shook her head, "It's so frustrating to not be seen for who you are."

I nodded slowly, "How are you doing, these days?"

"You mean am I still stressed about what Dumbledore told us?" Louisa stopped walking and so did I, "Yes, but it's more than that. I... there's more to it than that Cedric, at least on my end."

I frowned at her, "You mean there's something you aren't telling me," I said slowly, "Something else, but Dumbledore spoke to us together. Unless, he spoke with you again after..."

Louisa looked at me and I could see the struggle there, she wanted to tell me, but at the same time there was a fear there. I saw the decision as it was made, she wasn't going to tell me, at least not yet. There was something else though, something that weighing on her mind. I could see it.

"Listen, Cedric," She spoke slowly, "I've been having a thought. Harry is under so much pressure... I think I might have a way to shift focus onto me. I'm afraid, that if I go through with it, well... no one is going to look at me the same."

"What do you mean? You aren't going to do anything stupid are you?" I was alarmed by her demeanor.

"No, at least not in the way you were thinking." Louisa cleared her through lightly, "More, reveal something. I haven't decided yet though, I may not even do it. I just bring it up because we don't get to talk very often anymore and if I do it and you find out I... well, I would hate to think that you would think less of me."

I put my hands on her shoulders and tried to get her to meet my gaze. I was definitely alarmed by the way she was talking, and I couldn't imagine what she could possibly 'reveal' that would have such an impact. I mean, Rita Skeeter had already outed that Sirius was her father last year. What more could there possibly be? I realized then that as deeply as I knew Louisa, all of her expressions and moods, that I really didn't know all that much about her. There was something there, something that she was hiding, something that scared her.

"Well, this is cozy," Draco Malfoy drawled.

I dropped my hands and turned to look at him in irritation, but I didn't say anything. He eyed me skeptically for a long moment and then looked at Louisa in the same suspicious attitude. I hated that smug look on his face, and I could tell he was thinking this was some sort of triumph over us. That he had caught us in some secret lover's meeting like the twins and Sirius seemed to constantly be thinking. I almost wanted to punch him again, just to get that stupid grin to go away.

"Come on, let's just go," Louisa said to me simply and grabbed my hand as we started away. This surprised me, Louisa would usually have said something to put Malfoy in his place. Then again, she had been exercising more control lately, "Don't worry about it now. The best we can do is ignore him, I'm sure we'll get him back later."

I nodded and we walked in silence the rest of the way, I only let go of her hand when we were getting near the castle gates. I didn't dare broach the subject of our earlier conversation again. I knew she wouldn't tell me, especially not now. Louisa would keep her secret until she didn't anymore, and I had a feeling that for this secret I was no exception. This definitely left me feeling a little dejected, but I knew that the fact she had brought it up at all was a testament to how much she trusted me. Maybe it was just that I missed her, that I had to avoid her most of the time. So much of the time I would have a thought or experience in the classes and immediately think to share it with her, but I couldn't. I could imagine why Sirius had such a hard time resisting the urge to think of Harry as James. I thought back to our almost daily talks in the corridors last year, and our closeness that had developed at Grimmauld Place. I missed her, even now as I watched her speed up so that we weren't walking together anymore. I missed how easy it had been, before all the secrets and the sneaking around. We were in the same castle but we may as well have been on different continents most of the time. The absence of a best friend is deeply felt.

I only went to the first and last D.A. meetings of the terms, of course at first I didn't know that's what they were calling the secret Defense against the Dark Arts club. Partially this was because Louisa and I were late for the first one. We had to take a different route to avoid Mrs. Norris, finally we walked three times past the entrance and entered the Room of Requirement for the first time. It was great, and definitely equipped to be learning defensive spells. I smiled appreciatively around at the cushions and literature that adorned the walls and floor. We started over to where everyone had split into pairs and were practicing disarming one another. Most of them stopped to look at us when we entered and I smiled apologetically at Harry.

"Why are you two always late?" Fred asked accusingly.

"Been having secret rendezvous we need to know about?" George narrowed his eyes at me.

"Honestly, between you two and dad..." Louisa just rolled her eyes, "Well we've been snogging in the hallway of course."

I let out a bark-like laugh at this and shook my head, "Naturally."

"Ugh!" Marietta shot a glare at Louisa.

"Oh calm down, Cedric's still on the market," George noted.

"Yeah, when they really are snogging Louisa will deny it," Fred agreed.

"But we've got our eyes on you Diggory," George added quickly.

"All four of them... and Lee's!" Fred proclaimed and Lee Jordan nodded.

I had gotten used to their strangely protective behavior toward me and their suspicions about our relationship so I rolled my eyes, "Well I'm flattered guys, but I wish you would just ask me out already..."

This was met with a chorus of laughter and earned an appreciative smile from Louisa. We started practicing together, but I kept hearing bits and pieces of hushed conversations the others were having. I figured they needed something to gossip about and Louisa and I being in a fictitious romance was as good as anything. It was probably more fun to gossip about since I had an ex girlfriend present, little did they know Cho had predicted this. Justin was talking about how I had talked him out of asking Louisa to the ball last year, "I should have known then, you know." "They were together an awful lot last year..." "Well I don't think they're dating, it would be inappropriate." "She's pretty though, don't you think?" Zacharias noted to Ernie, "I mean, sure, her dad is Sirius Black but... she's pretty."

This made me angry so the next time he tried to cast the spell I took a page out of the twins' book and pointed my wand at his back and disarmed him before he had a chance. He shot a glare at the twins and went to pick up his wand off the floor, but Fred and George were beaming at me. Louisa frowned at me and shook her head.

"What was that for?" She asked with a laugh.

"He's kind of annoying, isn't he?" I shrugged back casually, "Don't tell the teacher though, I don't want detention."

"Detention from our fifteen year old teacher of a secret and illegal class?" Louisa was grinning widely at me.

I nodded seriously, "Can you imagine the detention for something like that?"

We snickered and goofed our way through the rest of the class. After that I didn't get to see them much, but I was filled in on all that was happening. Louisa did seek me out to make sure I told Sirius not to attempt to contact them through the floo network again, and that Hedwig had been intercepted and wounded. So I passed that along with my own owl that I figured was safe. I still wrote it cryptically, but I felt pretty confident that for the time being at least I wasn't suspected by Umbridge. In fact she had given me a glowing review after inspecting several of my classes with the younger students. She had thought I was very conscious of safety in my classes and very patient and helpful with the students. Since I knew how she treated some of the other teachers, and how she tended to be biased toward those she suspected of being close to Dumbledore, it was a safe bet that I wasn't on her radar. Hagrid had returned and it had become very clear that Umbridge had every intention of giving him a bad review, quite like her treatment of Trelawney. She seemed to like me though. This was a happy thought. The thought that some of the students were going against Umbridge and teaching themselves Defense Against the Dark Arts, and that I was a bon-a-fide member of the Order of the Pheonix all going on under her nose was amusing.

Harry's temper flared up again after the first Quidditch match of the season, he and the twins got banned for life. I didn't even know that was a thing and it made me angry. I had been a captain after all, and I had volunteered to help referee some of the matches and I had been helping Madam Hooch with her flying lessons. Quidditch meant a lot to the people at this school and I could only imagine what it must feel like to be banned from it, and so unfairly. Still, maybe this meant Hufflepuff would win the Cup this year... that would be nice. Especially since I didn't get to play my final year here.

When the final D.A. meeting before the holidays rolled around I was pleased to be able to spend some time with my friends in that secret room. Of course it was mostly Louisa and I goofing off in the corner when we were supposed to be casting spells at one another. Harry eventually split us up by asking her to partner with Neville. I hated to imagine what my grades would have been like if Louisa and I had ever had actual classes together. If this was any indication they would have been a lot of fun, but not particularly productive. I spent the rest of the time helping Harry with the class, I was a fully fledged wizard and had finished school so they all listened to me just as avidly. Harry seemed to appreciate it, I had been worried he would think I was interfering, but since I would criticize Zacharias for him he seemed to warm to the idea.

Everyone was filtering out at the end of the meeting and I pulled Louisa aside to examine a strange instrument in the far corner. It took us a few minutes before we realized that Harry and Cho were still there. They were under the mistletoe, and they were kissing. I tugged at Louisa's elbow and she turned and let out a loud gasp that made Harry and Cho both look up in surprise, both of them turning a deep shade of red.

Louisa cleared her throat uncomfortably, "Sorry... this is awkward... would it be less awkward if we kissed?"

"I think that would definitely help," I said and cringed under a glare from Harry whose protective brotherly instinct seemed to have kicked in, "Or... you know... not."

Louisa was struggling to contain her laughter at the absurdity of it all, I made the mistake of looking at her. Her face was carefully blank but the corners of her mouth were trembling slightly with the effort and her eyes were sparkling with it. I chortled lightly and clapped a hand over my own mouth. We would have been terrible classmates. It was definitely a good thing we were two years apart.

"We are going to leave now," Louisa said in a strained voice.

"Flee, more like," I agreed and grabbed her hand to start toward the door quickly, "Sorry!"

"Carry on!" Louisa added as the door closed behind us and disappeared into a plain wall.

In the safety of the hallway we let all of the laughter out. For a few gleeful moments we forgot we were supposed to be hiding. At the sound of footsteps hurrying down the hall we were jogged back into reality and ended up sprinting down the corridor, splitting up when she turned to head to Gryffindor tower. When I got back to my chambers I was panting and still stifling back laughs. Being so close to getting in trouble was kind of fun actually. I tried not to think of the awkward encounter with Harry and Cho, I hoped we hadn't made it too awful for them.

That was the least of my worries when was woken up by McGonagall banging on the door at around four in the morning. I stumbled blearily out of bed and pulled on my dressing gown before I opened my door, "Minerva? What's wrong?"

"I must speak quickly, I'm distracting Umbridge. Potter had a vision that Arthur was attacked by a snake, it was true and he's alive and at St. Mungo's now. The Weasley children and Harry have already been relocated to headquarters. I wanted to you to remain up to date but it is important that you remain here for now. Umbridge doesn't seem to suspect you yet and we need to keep it that way."

Shortly after she was gone and I was left to worry on my own. Attacked by a snake? Harry had a vision about it? I shook my head and sat down, I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. I was trying to make sense of all of it and I knew Louisa would be panicked. Especially being left behind and not informed about what was going on straight away. So when it was time to leave for break I rode with her on the Hogwart's Express. Hermione had to go about her prefect duties and with most of the others gone we had the compartment mostly to ourselves, and Neville and Luna. So I didn't get to speak to her, mostly I pretended to read while watching her out of the corner of my eye. She had changed immediately into less conspicuous clothing, eager to get to headquarters as soon as possible. I quite liked wearing Muggle clothes, there was a lot less fabric involved than with robes. Louisa seemed to favor them as well, but she had mentioned that her Aunt had raised her to blend in and not count out the Muggle way of doing things so it made sense.

We left the train and all three of us went out to the street, we walked a ways away from the station to avoid notice when I flagged down the Knight Bus. We loaded in all of the trunks and took our seats for the relatively short drive to where we had asked to go. I had given them an address a block away from Grimmauld place. I figured it would be better this way, just to be safe. Soon we were all filing into the house and setting our trunks down with a thump. It turned out Harry had been hiding out in his room for the past few days, and when I heard what he had overheard I couldn't have blamed him. Louisa left her things on the floor and just hurried up the stairs to go talk to him, I wouldn't see her again until much later. I figured after my last encounter with Harry my presence wouldn't exactly be a comfort for him. I made myself at home in my parlor again, setting up my little cot.

Christmas was actually quite cheerful, we visited Mr. Weasley often and he seemed to be improving greatly, despite his run in with Muggle medicine that hadn't quite worked out. Mrs. Weasley had been kind enough to make me a jumper along with everyone else, I actually quite liked it, it was a grayish blue color that she said brought out my eyes. It seemed like I was part of the family now and I put it on immediately at her urging. I spent that evening with my parents, though my father was very silent toward me. I knew he was probably still sore about my visit to the ministry over the summer. Mom was pleasant enough though so it was all in all a great Christmas.

After it was over however Sirius seemed to sink back into a depressive state that was infectious. I couldn't blame him, he wasn't allowed to leave and had so few visitors. He continued to be very cold toward me, especially when Louisa and I sat together or spoke to each other. If I laughed at something she said over dinner, or if I looked at her for too long. Otherwise he spent any time he wasn't moping in Buckbeak's room with Harry. I found that odd, Louisa was his daughter, maybe she had a point about him trying to turn Harry into another James Potter. I wasn't exactly on the best terms with my dad these days but this was different. She had gone thirteen years without seeing him and then they are reunited and he seemed more interested in his godson than her.

We were in my parlor looking through a copy of The Quibbler curiously, I had it open on my knees and she was leaning against my side to read along. We were quite curious to find out what exactly nargles were, seeing as (according to Luna) they often infested mistletoe and we had been around quite a bit of that over the holidays. Hermione poked her head in to inform us that Snape was here and was meeting with Harry in the kitchen. Louisa was instantly concerned. She waited only a few minutes before she got up and went down. I sighed and followed her a few minutes later, I only made it to the front hall when Mr. Weasley was brought in and suddenly everyone was around to congratulate him on being cured. This was all cut short by a shout from the kitchen, I recognized Louisa's tone and so I turned and started in quickly.

The sight I was met with was insane, Snape and Serious appeared to be in a face off with Harry between them and their wands out. However, they seemed to have completely forgotten each other and were staring at Louisa in astonishment. She stood with her hands balled into fists and glared at them with those steely eyes.

"You are two despicable men!" She snapped at them and her eyes focused on Snape, "You! Harry has never done anything to you that wasn't provoked, he is not James! Harry is kind, humble, noble, and compassionate. When he breaks the rules he does it to save lives! Get over yourself Snape!" Sirius was giving Severus a smug look when she rounded on him, "And you! Harry is NOT James! You are too busy trying to turn him into your best friend that you forget that you are his parent now! How can you be parent to someone that you REFUSE to know! You think acting insanely protective and buying expensive gifts balances it out? It doesn't Sirius! You have to be a parent to him, to US!"

Sirius straightened defiantly, "If this is about Diggory then..."

"This is about HARRY!" She nearly screamed at him, "And maybe a little bit about me, but Harry needs you more than I do. So please, please let this be the last time I have to remind you who and what he is to you." With that she turned and stormed out of the room, angry tears streaming down her cheeks, no one dared to try and stop her.

I moved out of her way, feeling shaken and took a breath before I made a move to start after her. Sirius grabbed my arm and just shook his head, he definitely looked odd. He just started out of the room quickly, and the others parted to make way for him as well. After that we tried to go about dinner as normally as possible, it was a while before Sirius and Louisa joined us. They sat down to eat and both seemed to be in much better moods. It took a while before she would meet my eye but when she did she gave a small smile that reassured me she was doing okay.

"He just apologized," She told me softly when everyone else had fallen back into their own conversations, "Said it wasn't fair that I was having to look after both of them. That I was right about all of it, and he would try to do better. He... he said he was proud of me, for being better at looking after Harry than he was and for standing up to him."

I smiled and nodded, "Good, that's good. I'm happy that things are going to get better for you guys."

The news about Harry's private lessons in Occlumency was daunting, I hoped Dumbledore was right, and I hoped it helped Harry block out Voldemort. Still, I wasn't sure that putting the already stressed out kid in a room with someone determined to hate him and make him miserable was really going to be helpful. I wasn't looking forward to going back to Hogwarts, to seeing Louisa every few weeks if I was lucky, to worrying constantly and being cut off from the rest of the Order. Still, it was better than being cooped up in a house like Sirius was.

The next trip to Hogsmeade was Valentine's day and so I made my way there, I hadn't spoken much to any of the others since returning from Christmas break. Again, we were back to trying to keep a low profile and that meant I would mostly just see them in passing in the corridors. How as I walked down toward the gates of Hogwarts Louisa ran to catch up with me, she had a strange smile on her face.

"Cho and Harry are going to Hogsmeade together," She told me, "He has no idea what he's getting into." She turned to look back at where the two were walking together not far behind us.

"Stop it, we already ruined their... moment, in the Room of Requirement," I scolded with a laugh.

"Is this weird for you? I mean I know you dated her."

"You know I dated her? You almost made yourself a part of our relationship," I rolled my eyes at her, and she was partially the reason Cho and I broke up, but she didn't need to know that.

"Oh I wasn't that bad," Louisa waved her hand dismissively, "Sort of a rainy day isn't it?"

"Yep, romantic," I laughed.

"Hermione's cooked up some plan later at the Three Broomsticks, want to come with me to see what it is?"

"We need to be careful..." I started to object as a group of Slytherin girls were coming up behind us.

"Potter and Chang!" Pansy Parkinson was screeching unpleasantly, "Urgh, Chang, I don't think much of your taste... at least Diggory is good-looking!"

This was met with a chorus of laughter eerily similar to hyenas from her friends and they sped toward us. Louisa was rolling her eyes, too busy looking back to make sure Harry and Cho would recover to notice that they had locked their sights on us.

"Diggory and Black!" Pansy laughed, "Oh, the scandal! Wait until everyone hears you two spent Valentine's Day together!"

Louisa just shook her head and we let them hurry past us, cackling as they went. We walked the rest of the way in silence, and after entering the town we were thankfully able to separate ourselves from Harry and Cho who kept pointedly not looking at us. After that the awkwardness faded and we were able to fall back into comfortable conversation. After our encounter with Pansy and her herd I wasn't too worried about us being seen together. It wasn't like we were doing anything that they could say was inappropriate, we were looking around in the shops and discussing the break out quietly.

"Have you heard anything about that?" Louisa asked as we passed another shop window with the headline screaming it at us again.

"They are looking into it but..." I shook my head, "It doesn't really matter how, we assume it's because the Dementors have chosen to side with Voldemort, as Dumbledore feared."

"Safe assumption since two of them attacked Harry over the summer," Louisa noted drily, "They can't deny this happened though, and their cover story is ridiculous. At least people may actually start listening to Dumbledore and Harry now and take precautions."

I shrugged, "Still, this means that Death Eaters have grown in numbers. We aren't quite as evenly matched anymore."

"Fred and George will definitely join, and I will as soon as I turn seventeen next year if we need to," Louisa sighed, "We just need to be given a chance. They let you join right out of school!"

"Well..." I sighed, "Dumbledore put in a good word for me, and I'm not very high ranking. We shouldn't be talking about this now, it's not safe."

She conceded and we started toward the Three Broomsticks a while later, I was talking about a funny incident in flying class the other day when she grabbed my arm and stopped me suddenly. Pointing across the street where Cho was leaving Madame Puddifit's shop looking angry. A few minutes later Harry came out looking irritated and confused, "Women!" He grumbled and just walked toward the three broomsticks.

"Told you he had no idea what he was getting himself into," Louisa shook her head, "Clueless about girls."

I nodded, "Apparently... think we could skip the Three Broomsticks, I don't think he'd be happy to see me after he just had a bad date with my ex."

"Good point," Louisa shrugged, "Let's get some coffee then. I've never been in there before." Before I could stop her Louisa was crossing the street and entering Madame Puddifit's. I had been there once with Cho last year, so I knew what to expect and when I entered after her it was just as awkward as I remembered.

Louisa hesitated for about half a second before she rolled her eyes and sat down at a freshly cleaned table next to Roger Davies, the Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and a blond girl who were staring into each other's eyes intensely. Louisa was too stubborn to just turn around and walk out, she did not cower in the face of cheesy Valentine's Day Decor. I sat down across from her and brushed some heart shaped confetti off of my shoulder. We just looked at each other in repressed laughter for a moment before her amused look turned accusing.

"You knew about this didn't you?" She said after we had ordered two cups of coffee.

I chuckled, "I tried to warn you but... you're fast, we could have just left you know."

"That would have looked even worse than sitting down," Louisa sipped at her coffee and glanced at Roger Davies and his date who had noticed us and were clearly listening, "Shouldn't you two be trying to suck each others faces off?"

The girl blushed and Roger just glared at her before they paid and started to leave. I laughed and started to drink my own coffee shaking some confetti out of my hair. We finished our drinks and then paid before leaving, this seemed to suit Louisa just fine to be getting out of what she described as being eerily similar to Umbridge's office. Back out in the street she took a moment to make sure all traces of the confetti were brushed off before we started walking again. We ended up sitting at a table in the corner of the Three Broomsticks until we finally started back to the school. This had been a pretty fun trip to Hogsmeade, and spending time with Louisa again was definitely nice. I was feeling lonely having to avoid my friends all the time.

While I ate my dinner in the Great Hall I was in a very good mood, it had been a great day. I wasn't thinking about how risky it had been to spend the day with Louisa. I didn't think about how Pansy, Roger, and a lot of other people had seen us. It didn't matter. I was a in a good mood and I wasn't going to let anything spoil it. That didn't mean that outside forces wouldn't spoil it for me.