Trish walked slowly over to where Mandy and Jess were sitting. She wasn't sure if she was still blushing from what happened earlier in the afternoon, but it seemed that now, by dinnertime, a fair amount of people had heard about it, judging on the glances she was getting. She scanned the tables for any sign of Tom Garwin, but it seemed that he as well as his brother were no where to be seen.

"Hi," she mumbled in greeting, taking a seat next to Mandy at the Slytherin table.

"Hello," Mandy greeted her, perfectly chipper. "What's wrong with you?"

Trish groaned, the blush coming back again. "I think I've gone insane," she told her friends.

Jess snorted. "Oh, you mean the scene with Garwin and his little brother?" At Trish's mortified face, Jess snickered and continued, "Great job, man. I was on the edge of my seat."

"Shut up," Trish groaned, putting her face in her hands.

"Wait, what scene with Garwin? Tom Garwin?" Mandy asked, confused.

"You haven't heard?" Mandy shook her head and Jess continued with a wicked grin on her face, "Trish over here decided to go up to Tom Garwin and his little brother and ask, point blank, if Tom would like to skinny dip with her."

Trish groaned again. Mandy had a sympathetic face border lining with humor as she rubbed Trish's back in comfort.

"So, Tom's all, 'no, dude,' and gets up with his brother and leaves, who is looking a bit peaky, mind you. And Trish starts screaming at his back about how she didn't want to skinny dip with him anyways and how he's ugly and it was a joke and all that."

Trish, by now, had her face in the crook of her arm on the table, attempting to beat the memory out of her head with her fist. Mandy was trying her best not to chuckle as she tried to help Trish feel more comfortable.

"And then his brother throws up!" Jess said in amusement. "And Trish is all, was that my fault? And he throws up again!" She fell into laughter, wiping tears from her eyes. "You should have seen it. It was classic."

"I don't think I'm hungry anymore," Trish said, pulling herself away from the table and stomping her way out of the Great Hall.

"Aw, c'mon, T!" Jess yelled after her, still laughing. "I was just telling her what happened! No need to be embarrassed."

The doors slammed shut behind Trish. Mandy looked back over at Jess, shaking her head. There was silence for a few seconds before she asked, "So...where's E?"

—x—

The next morning dawned too early for Eliza. Her roommates, after hearing about what had happened yesterday with Robert, had asked her about it multiple times. Her pride ran too high so she grumbled and yelled at them for a little bit before shutting herself off in her bed and moping for the next hours. Eventually, she fell into a light sleep where she dreamed that everything she thought was spewed out of her lips, and everything had to do with Robert and he was standing right in front of her through a glass window, hearing everything but out of reach, and he was laughing at her.

She could hear the commotion outside of her bed as her roommates started getting ready for the day. Taking a deep breath, she threw her curtains open.

Movement stopped, as did the casual conversation.

Needless to say, she got ready quickly and accidently put on two different pairs of shoes on her feet. And again, her pride, so she bit her lip and continued down to the Great Hall with her different shoed feet.

Her friends were already there at the Ravenclaw table without her. She slid into a seat next to Trish and loaded her plate up quickly.

"Hi to you too," Mandy said wryly, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"I had a bad night," Eliza informed them, "Sorry if I'm tense."

"Tense, you're like a brick wall," Jess commented, poking at Eliza's tightened arm muscles.

"Yes, well, that's what happens when you yell things that don't make any sense at the boy you're supposed to eventually do the dirty with and everyone in your house hears you," she said, concentrating on her eggs.

"Well, if it helps any, Sirius thinks one of you are in love with him," Mandy fessed up.

"Paul is hopelessly in love with Alice," Jess put in.

"I yelled at Tom Garwin about skinny dipping and his brother threw up all over the place," Trish mumbled.

All of three girls winced and looked over at her. "You win," they said.

Trish snorted. "Yeah." She glanced around her and saw people shooting looks at her before looking away as fast as they could. "And everyone knows about it, too."

"Well, on the bright side, people know you're on the market for skinny dipping," Mandy said.

Trish only grumbled.

"Hey, Eliza?" a new voice asked from behind Jess and Eliza. Eliza froze, recognizing the voice as Jess turned and grinned at him. Trish and Mandy looked up from their food eagerly and watched to see what was about to happen.

"Yes, Robert?" Eliza mumbled, barely audible.

"Hi, I'm Jess," Jess introduced herself, putting her hand out for Robert to shake. He did so and smiled kind of awkwardly. "I'm best friends with Eliza here. Sorry for what she did yesterday. It was really, really quite–"

Eliza elbowed her in the side and Jess shut up, rubbing her ribs and scowling.

"Well," Robert started, "I just came over here to ask Eliza if I could talk to her."

"Sure," Jess said.

"Alone," he amended.

There was a tense silence as everyone watched Eliza's reaction. Slowly, without turning around, she got up and walked out of the hall, Robert following her diligently. Once they were in the hall, Eliza turned to face him, avoiding his eyes, and crossed her arms. "What'd you want to talk about?" she asked grudgingly.

"Um, well," he said, scratching at the back of his neck, still being awkward. "I was wondering...why you yelled at me yesterday in the Common Room."

"Oh, well, you know..." she mumbled. "Just 'cause."

"Just because?" he asked, stepping closer to her. "That doesn't make much sense." He took another step towards her, and even though there was clearly at least five feet in between them, Eliza backed herself away into a wall.

"Stop getting so close to me!" she yelled at him. "Jeez, ever heard of a personal bubble before? God."

"Sorry," he apologized, and stopped moving closer. "I was just curious."

"Yeah, well, don't be," she snapped. "For all you know, I could heave tourettes and that's why I was yelling at you! Do you have any sympathy whatsoever?"

Now he was the one backing up. "Sure, Eliza."

"Good!" she barked. She started walking down the hall, away from him, yelling loudly about "stupid boys" and "how dare you?"

—x—

Jess watched Paul in the one class she had with him. He was, of course, sitting next to his perfect little girlfriend, Alice, as the two of them were partners for the Potions experiment they were doing.

Jess slammed the spoon down on the table, spraying the potion she was making across the floor, causing it to sizzle and bubble a bit. "What does she have that I don't?" she demanded of her partner, a shy Hufflepuff named Lucy Wooder.

"I–I," Lucy stuttered. "Who?"

A boy slipped on the spilled potion on the floor. He writhed in pain, yelling, "My back, it's burning!"

"Oh, walk it off, you baby," Jess barked, before turning back to Lucy and continuing their conversation. "Alice! What does Paul see in her? What does she have that I don't?"

"Well..." Lucy started. "She–"

"Oh, don't even finish that sentence. I know I won't like it."

Lucy was instantly quiet, but a plan was quickly formulating in Jess's mind.

Abruptly, she stood from her seat. Ignoring Slughorn' concerns as to where she was going, she swayed her way over to where Paul and Alice were sitting. She stopped right in front of them and jutted out one of her hips, a beautiful and malicious grin already plastered onto her face.

They did not look up.

She cleared her throat, barking, "Hello!"

Their heads snapped to attention. Taking note of who was in front of them, Paul turned a light shade of red while Alice awkwardly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear."Hello," she answered.

The grin was back on Jess's face full force. "Hi, Paul," she purred.

"Um, hi, Jess," he replied, looking back down to concentrate on the roots he was cutting.

Jess leaned over, making sure that her boobs were easily on display. "How are you doing?"

He didn't look up from his roots. "Just fine, thanks for asking," he told her while Alice cleared her throat loudly.

"I'm sure I could make you better than 'just fine'..." Jess suggested.

Alice made a squeak while Paul coughed loudly, as if choking. Jess grinned, thinking her plan was working, before Slughorn came up behind her.

"Miss Morgan, I suggest you get back to your seat," he said.

She started to sashay her way away, making sure to shoot Paul a grin before she turned around, but when she turned back around she saw their hands linked together and Paul whispering while Alice grinned.

Time for a new plan.

—x—

"I need you to help me get into Paul's room."

Mandy struggled against Jess's clutches on her arm. "Jesus, Jess, have you been working out?" she asked, finally prying her arm away and almost falling on her butt.

"That's not the point," Jess snapped, "I need to get into Paul's room. I need you to help me."

Mandy was still rubbing her arm. "I don't even want to know why you need to get into Paul's room because I know I'll have to wash my ears out afterwards, but why do you need my help? I'm a Gryffindor. Ask Trish."

"Oh, yes," Jess commented wryly. "Let me just go up to Trish and ask her if she could happen to let me in so I can lay naked on Paul's bed–"

"I said I didn't want to know!" Mandy yelped, covering her ears against more offensive comments.

Jess sighed and pulled Mandy's hands away so she could listen. "The point is that Trish isn't enough of a horn-dog."

"And I am?" Mandy asked incredulously.

"Well, you're a Gryffindor. You're supposed to be brave and stuff."

"Why can't you just do it yourself?"

"Because," Jess stressed. "I need a right hand man. And you, my friend, are perfect for the job."

Mandy sighed, crossing her arms in a pout.

"So, M? Will you help me?"

"I suppose..." she agreed grudgingly.

And thus was born the worst plan ever thought of.

—x—

Mandy sat quietly in the library after classes were over. She had figured that she could go there for a little peace and quiet, but it seemed that the Marauders thought the library to be a playground for they were as loud as you could be without getting thrown out of the place. Lily Evans was sitting at the table next to her, sighing exasperadly every now and then and shooting the Marauders angry looks.

She tapped her quill against her parchment, not bothering to care about the splotches of ink that were being splattered all over her page. Today had been boring, save for Jess's crazy plan to break into Paul's room. They were going to execute it the next time, because Jess needed 'time to prepare,' whatever that meant.

"Are they annoying you as much as they're annoying me?" Lily asked her.

Mandy looked over at her and grinned. "I'm attempting to tune them out," she replied.

"Is that even possible?" Lily grumbled. "I've been thinking about throwing my History of Magic textbook at them for the past twenty minutes."

"If anything I think that would cause more noise," Mandy said, chuckling appreciatively.

"Whatever," Lily mumbled. "I mean, what are they even doing in here? They aren't studying, I know that."

Mandy surveyed them. It seemed that Peter was attempting to shove as many flavored beans up his nose as possible while the other boys cheered him on. "Definitely not," she agreed.

Peter seemed to have reached his limit and sneezed all of the beans out of his nose. James, Sirius and Remus boo-ed appropriately.

"Hey, fellas," Lily called to them. "Some of us are trying to study." She signaled to the books in front of her. "Mind taking your circus somewhere else?"

"Why, Lily!" James cried. "I didn't even see you there!"

Lily sighed, rubbing her eyelids.

"You set yourself up for that one, mate," Mandy muttered to her. Lily nodded her head wearily.

"Yes, well, now that you have, could you boys go to the Common Room or stop being so loud?" she asked politely. "Please?"

James leapt closer to her. "Are you sure you don't want any help with your studies, madam?"

Lily slammed her book closed and shoved it into her bag. "You know what? I think I'll leave." She swiftly started walking out of the library, James hot on her trail.

"Oh, Lily, I didn't mean to push you out of the library," James was saying as he followed her. "Please, let me make it up to you..."

"One of the beans is stuck," Peter whined. Sirius clapped him on the back and shook his head while they followed after James and Lily. Remus gave her a polite nod while Sirius didn't even notice her.

This was going to be harder than she thought.

—x—

Trish was sick and tired of this day. During the entire thing, snickers and catcalls followed her around. One ballsy guy even came up to her and said, "So, did you want to skinny dip with Tom or his brother?"

Needless to say, not a good day. All that was keeping her from banging her head against the stone wall was that the day was almost over and all she had to do was go to dinner and then go to bed. It was a small piece of heaven in her day from hell.

She met up with the rest of the girls at the Gryffindor table. Jess and Mandy seemed to be having a hushed conversation while Eliza sat quietly with a pout on her face while she pushed her food around on her plate.

None of the girls looked up when she sat down next to Eliza.

"Hey, guys," she said, a small and failing attempt to be cheerful.

Mandy and Jess continued with their conversation. Eliza huffed and mumbled a hello under her breath.

"What's with you?"

"Nothing," Eliza answered, slamming her fork down on the table and pushing her plate away from her. "I'm not hungry anymore."

Trish nodded to Mandy and Jess. "What are they doing?"

Eliza shrugged. "Who knows?" she asked. "They've been like that since I got here."

"Hey, guys," Trish called, snapping her fingers across the table to Jess and Mandy. "Guys!"

Jess turned her head to the other two girls. "What?" she snapped.

"What are you guys cooking up?" Trish asked.

Mandy shrugged. "Not much, just a little undercover work that is going to be done."

"Wanna fill us in?" Eliza asked morosely.

"Can't," Jess answered, grabbing her stuff and pulling Mandy up with her. "We gotta jet. We'll fill you gals in later, alright? See you."

With that, Mandy and Jess shuffled quickly out of the Great Hall, whispering the entire way. Eliza and Trish watched them go; Trish curiously, Eliza just because she didn't feel like moving her eyes.

"So, really," Trish said, turning to Eliza. "What's wrong with you?"

Eliza sighed loudly. "Robert now thinks that I have tourettes," she confessed.

If she had been drinking something, Trish was sure she would have spit it all out. "What?" she asked incredulously. "Why?"

"I kind of insinuated it this morning when we were talking. I didn't mean to, but he was pestering me and I was angry." Eliza sighed loudly again, picking up her satchel and standing up. "I think I'll go to bed now. I don't want to think about it anymore. Bye."

"Bye," Trish called after Eliza.

It was now suddenly very quiet without her friends around her. She couldn't remember the last time that she hadn't had at least one of them around her.

She shook her head at herself and began loading her plate up with food. It looked like she'd be eating alone tonight.