Chapter 14

I was simply too furious for words.

How could they- my supposed friends- follow me on my date? Rose and James… I would have to do something to them. Preferably something involving their pain. I mean, if that wasn't a blatant invasion of privacy, I don't know what would be.

On the bright side, Dimitri and I were getting along really well. After leaving those immature jerks behind, we stopped by Honeydukes and he bought me an edible Gryffindor scarf (according to the advertisement, it was the best way to "Show your House pride in a tasteful new way!"), which pretty much made me forget about what had happened before. We basked in the sugary sweet air for a bit longer and then went to the Three Broomsticks where we both got butterbeers and talked to Scorpius for a bit. By the time we were heading back to Hogwarts, the sky was a brilliant tie-dye of orange, pink, purple, and the last tendrils of blue, and I was in a great mood. The first snap of autumn, only detectable after the sun was nearly gone, made me wish my jacket was a bit thicker, although I had had no need for it during the afternoon. Dimitri, noticing that I was shivering, took off his jacket and draped it carefully over my shoulders.

"Thanks," I said, enjoying its warmth. "Are you sure you're okay without it?"

"I am fine," he said, sounding a little embarrassed. "I am used to much colder temperatures at Durmstrang."

"Alright," I said, smiling. "Y'know, I had a lot of fun today. Thanks."

"You are velcome," he said, smiling slightly. "So vould you like to accompany me to the next Hogsmeade trip?"

Butterflies erupted in my chest and I smiled again. "Yes, I'd love to."

We had almost reached the castle before he spoke again. "Ah, look, Allie… Erm, I am not familiar vith British customs, so… does this mean ve are boyfriend and girlfriend?"

I blushed. "Er, if you want us to be."

"Vell, do you vant us to be?"

I turned to look at him, meeting his dark eyes, and took a deep breath. "Yes."

He grinned suddenly, probably the happiest I'd ever seen him. "Vunderful." He caught me in a one-armed hug that was both awkward and sweet at the same time. "I vill see you later, then."

"Yeah, see you."

And with that we parted ways, I headed for the Gryffindor tower and he for the Slytherin dungeons.

I was passing through the Common Room and was about to go up to my dorm when I realized that there was someone else in the room.

"Hey, Hugo." His curly red head turned around, and he spotted me over the edge of the couch he was sitting on.

"Hi Allie," he said. "How was Hogsmeade?"

I grinned foolishly and plopped down next to him. "It was great!"

He smiled. "That's good."

"D'you know if your sister's back yet?"

"Rose? I don't think so; I haven't seen her."
"Okay, thanks. So what have you been doing all day?"

He shrugged. "Homework, mostly. Me and Lily hung out earlier, but she had to go help her friend with some project or something."

"Oh, that's too bad."

"Yeah. Hang on, you had a date, didn't you? Dimitri, was it?"

I blushed a little. "Yeah, how did you hear?"

Counting on his fingers, he said, "Charlotte told Will who told James who told Albus who told Lily who told me."

"Okay… I think I'll just pretend I understood what you said."

He grinned. "Trust me, it's much easier that way." We made small talk for a few more minutes before something occurred to me.

"Hey Hugo, I don't mean to pry, but… well, you know when you were being Sorted? I kinda noticed that the hat took a long time on you, and you looked kind of freaked out when you sat down. What… er, what exactly happened?"

He sighed and put his chin in his hands. "The hat- it- well, it wanted to put me in Hufflepuff."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that; Hufflepuff's not so bad. People only say that the Hufflepuffs are all a bunch of duffers, really. They're all hardworking and fair and nice and all."

He scowled. "But it seriously wanted to put me in Hufflepuff! The only reason it didn't was 'cause I practically begged to be in Gryffindor. It said something like 'Well, you're brave enough, but I really think you'd be happier in Hufflepuff… more people like you there…'" He finished and looked at his knees dejectedly.

Unsure how exactly to console a younger kid considering I myself was the youngest sibling in my family, I asked another question. "Well, are you happy in Gryffindor?"

He looked up at this. "Yeah! I've made loads of friends and I get to hang out with Lily a lot… she's always been my best friend before Hogwarts. Plus I know my dad really wanted me to be Gryffindor. But I just keep thinking what if I was in Hufflepuff? Like, would I actually be happier there?"

"Well, I can't really answer that as I'm not the Sorting hat, but you can't really do anything about it now, so why worry about it? It won't do anything for you." I then added, "And besides, I personally think you're a brilliant Gryffindor."

He smiled. "Thanks, Allie. It makes more sense when you say it than it does in my head."

I smiled too. "No problem. I'm gonna go get ready for dinner now, if you don't mind."

"Sure. See ya."

I returned to the third year dorm where I said hello to Roxanne and then quickly changed for dinner. When I went through the Common Room again, Hugo was gone and I guessed that he was already down at the Great Hall.

When I got to the Gryffindor table, I made sure to steer clear of the general Weasley/Potter area and instead went to sit with Lorcan and Lysander and, when she later joined us, Roxanne (admittedly, she was a Weasley, but not involved in the whole thing this afternoon, so…)

"Hey," she said as she slid in next to me on the bench.

"Hi," we all said in somewhat unison.

"Sooooo how was your date?" she asked me in a singsong voice, grinning.

"What date?" asked Lorcan, his normally dazed look replaced by one of alert interest.

"Allie had a date with a bloke from Durmstrang," she said, still smiling.

Each twin cocked an eyebrow in unison. "Durmstrang?"

I said very slowly and carefully, as if speaking to a small child, "Yes, Durmstrang. You know, that school that's been staying with us for the past three weeks or so?"

Lysander aimed a mock slap at me. "Well of course we know what Durmstrang is. The school that's most famous for producing Dark wizards."

"Oh, give her a break," said Roxanne. "I've met the guy, Dimitri; he seems pretty nice." After a moment, she added, "Are you two together, then?"

"Er, yeah," I said, blushing.

"Oooooooooo!" she squealed, hugging me. "Congratulations! If that's the right sentiment…" Then, smirking evilly, she added, "So have you kissed yet?"

I choked on my pumpkin juice and Louis Weasley, who was sitting nearby, pounded me on the back a few times. "Thanks," I managed to get out to him, eyes streaming.

Roxanne snickered. "Guess I should've waited till your mouth wasn't full."

I glared at her. "Yes, you should've." I coughed again and wiped my eyes.

"So…. have you?"

I looked at Lorcan and Lysander, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to hide their laughter behind their hands.

"Not that it's any of your business," I said, alternating my glares between the twins and Roxanne, "But no. Godric, it's only our first date! And we're only third years, honestly!"

All three groaned. "And that would've been such a good bit of gossip," said Roxanne disappointedly.

I rolled my eyes. "Better luck next time."

Afterwards, the twins tried to explain to us about something called white-banded spockalumps, but we both sort of tuned out when they started getting too technical. After dinner was over, Roxanne and I walked back to the Common Room together. We worked on History of Magic (my worst subject) together, and at around ten o' clock I went upstairs and she went to return something to one of her Ravenclaw friends. I got ready for bed, pointedly ignoring the other members of my dorm, climbed into bed, and flicked my curtains shut.

The next day, Sunday, I worked on homework under the shade of a tree next to the lake for the better part of the morning, finally finishing my last assignment, a nasty little diagram (in full color!) of a puffapod for Herbology, right before noon.

After lunch, I decided to send a letter to my parents, which I hadn't gotten a chance to do yet even though I'd had it written and ready for a while. I managed to find the owlery without getting lost too many times and gingerly picked my way across the dropping covered floor. There must have been hundreds of owls, all nestled together and hooting softly.

"Quicksilver," I called, extending my arm. With a flurry of feathers and a screech of protest from a neighboring owl, my tawny owl swooped off of his perch and landed on my outstretched arm, gently pecking my ear. "Hey 'Silver," I murmured, petting him affectionately. "Long time no see, huh?" He hooted softly by way of response. "I'm sorry. Look, I've got a message for you to deliver. You up to it?" He turned his big dark eyes on me indignantly. "Okay," I said, taking an owl treat from the pocket of my jacket and offering it to him. "Just checking." After he had finished the treat, I pulled the letter out from my purse. "Get this to Mum and Dad, okay? Number 8, Channings Lane." He gave a last hoot and soared out of the window.

The rest of the day was uneventful, my afternoon spent with Lily and Clarice and my evening spent in a book.

Monday morning was also without incident, although it was a bit uncomfortable when I realized that I had no one to pass notes with in History of Magic. In Defense Against the Dark Arts I realized how difficult it could be to do a project on hinkypunks if one wasn't speaking to her partner, and by Ancient Runes, which was my last class before lunch, I was downright lonely. I suppose that was one of the disadvantages of hanging out mostly with only one group of people. And then fighting with them.

After lunch was Potions, which went by without a hitch. I was just walking out at the end of class when someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around, thinking that it was probably Lysander telling me I'd left my essence of belladonna behind again, but instead I found a freckled face framed by carroty hair staring back at me, flanked by a blonde and a brunette.

"What do you want, Rose?"

"We," she said, gesturing to Charlotte and Kailey, "want to apologize."

"Oh, really," I said, putting all my resentment and annoyance with them into those two words.

"Yes, really," said Rose, not backing down. "Look, we know it was really awful of us to follow you, and we're sorry. James is too… you seriously have no idea… he's been mopey all weekend, and even you ought to know that James is never mopey. Or sorry. Anyway, you had a right to act the way you did; I would've done the same. But can't you please forgive us?"

"Why should I? You were horrible and mean and you completely invaded my privacy, and Rose, you knew exactly how nervous I was for that date! Why did you even follow me to begin with?"

"I dunno… to make sure you were okay… to spy a little…"

"See?"

"Well, the spying part was wrong, but can you blame me for wanting to make sure that one of my best friends was okay?"

"You weren't acting like you were my best friend," I said accusingly, but I knew that I was wearing down.

Apparently Charlotte knew too, because she said, "Please, Allie?"

"Ugh!" I said, kicking out at the wall. "Why can't I even stay mad at you guys?"

"So you forgive us?" said Rose carefully, hope glimmering in her eyes.

"Fine," I grumbled.

"Yay!" said Kailey, pulling all of us into a hug. "Now c'mon, we're already late for Transfiguration."

At dinner, I remembered that I had one last piece of unfinished business. I sat in between Rose and Kailey, who politely pretended to be absorbed in their meals, and across from him.

"Hey, James," I said tentatively. He looked up, surprised.

"Oh! Uh, hi Allie."

"How are you?" Awkward, awkward, awkward…

"Er, I'm fine, thanks. How 'bout you?"

"Good." Even more awkward.

James groaned, ran his hand through his hair, and voiced my thoughts by saying, "Well this is awkward."

I smiled. "Yeah, it is, but it makes it less awkward when you say it out loud."

"Yeah, I guess it does. Allie, are you still mad at me? I really am sorry-"

I cut him off. "No, James, I'm not mad anymore. And please, save the speech. I've already heard it from Rose."

His shoulders sagged in relief. "Thanks."

"No problem. Besides, I know you were only doing it for Will."

"Yeah. For Will." He blushed, which I had hardly ever seen him do.

"You all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He paused, then added, "But please don't take it out on your brother. He means well, and he was only trying to protect you." I opened my mouth, but before I could speak he said, "Yeah, yeah, I know you don't need protecting, but he doesn't, so… just don't be mad at him."

"Alright," I said, frowning. "But you'd better know that I'm only doing this for your sake."

He smirked, getting back to his old self. "Of course."