Chapter 16

Dimitri was kissing me, and it was sweet and warm and happy when… "Allie?" We broke apart, and I began to blush profusely when I saw who it was.

"J-James, what are you doing here?" He, too, was blushing, shuffling from one foot to another.

"I, erm, was trying to get into the prefects' bathroom." Seeing our confused looks, he added, "My cousin Dominique gave me the password. I- er, I'll just go…" He started to back away.

"Wait one minute," I hissed, latching onto his arm. "This does not get back to my brother. D'you understand?"

He gulped visibly. "Yeah, sure." Then he turned and practically sprinted away.

I turned back to Dimitri, my face heating up even more. "I'm really sorry about that."

He smiled, looking only a little embarrassed. "It is alright. It vas not your fault." He stole a quick look at his watch. "Ve had probably better get back; it is almost dinnertime." I nodded. "Vould you like me to valk you there?" I nodded again, blushing a little more this time.

We started towards the Great Hall, and somewhere along the way, his hand found mine, sending nervous butterflies erupting in my chest. The first few minutes were rather awkward, but after a bit I asked him about his friends whom I had met briefly on our way to Hogsmeade, and he told me all about sweet but sometimes ridiculously protective Nadia and funny, easygoing Cristian and wicked smart Stefan who happened to love to use his brains to pull pranks. Hearing about all of their escapades and how normal they sounded got me thinking: I really didn't know much about any of Charlotte's or Kailey's friends from their respective schools. I'll be sure to ask them about them sometime, I resolved to myself.

A short while later, we had arrived at the Great Hall entrance.

"Thanks again for the gift, Dimitri," I said, smiling. "It really means a lot to me." I couldn't keep my mind from going back to the other part of the afternoon, and for about the millionth time, I felt a flush creeping up my cheeks.

"It is no problem; I am glad you liked it." He kissed my cheek, making me both embarrassed and pleased, and headed inside towards the Slytherin table.

I had to take a minute to compose myself before walking in; the afternoon had been so overwhelming! But Will couldn't know… I had to force myself to stop smiling and tried to arrange my face into a semblance of normalcy. I pushed the door open and headed for the Gryffindors, sliding into an empty seat next to Kailey.

"Where've you been?" she hissed. "Rose and Charlotte and I have been looking everywhere!"

"Later," I muttered, glancing a few seats down to where Will and James were exchanging jokes. I saw that Rose and Charlotte had leaned in, seeming to think that I was saying something important. "I said later!"

"What're you all talking about?" asked Will, leaning forward to get a good view of us.

"Nothing!" we chorused, and I silently gave thanks that my friends knew me well enough to be able to pull these kinds of things off. Will shot me a disbelieving look but returned to his conversation with James.

"Thanks," I breathed.

"Sure," replied Rose just as quietly, spooning some stewed black beans onto her plate.

"So, Charlotte, Kailey," I started, turning towards them. "I was thinking, and I realized I don't- er, I mean- well, I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't really know who your friends are in your own school. I mean, you've been spending a lot of time with us Hogwarts students since you arrived- not that I don't like it, of course, 'cause I do, but… do you follow me?"

Charlotte tilted her head back and laughed. "Yes, I understand you. I theenk Kailey does, too." Kailey nodded. "Do you weesh for me to tell you about my friends at Beauxbatons?" Rose and I nodded eagerly. "Okay. Well, zere eez Jessamine; you see down zere at ze Hufflepuff table? Ze one weet ze very curly blonde 'air?" I craned my neck and indeed caught a glimpse of Jessamine. "She eez one of my closer friends. Very… how do you say… not strange, but… I believe eet starts weeth an 'e'…"

"Eccentric?" offered Rose, and Charlotte nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, zat eez eet. Eccentreec. She loves Muggle music, especially American bands. Zere eez one zat she likes in particular, but I cannot remember… I theenk eet eez called Bird City."

"Uh, you don't mean Owl City, do you?" asked Kailey.

"Oh, yes, zat one. And zere eez also Mimi and Nicolette, at ze Ravenclaw table, and you see Cody next to Jessamine? Zey are dating…" She cut herself off. "Sorry, I am babbling."

"No, it's fine," I assured her. "They sound nice."

"What about you, Kailey?" asked Rose.

"Well, there's Carolina sitting down there next to Clarice Longbottom. See, with the reddish-brown hair? She and I are pretty good friends, and we're both obsessed with Bones-"

Rose interrupted, staring at Kailey. "You're obsessed with bones? As in human bones?"

Kailey laughed. "No, not human bones. It's this Muggle TV show. You know what a TV show is, right?" Rose looked offended, and Kailey hurriedly continued. "Just making sure! Anyway, it's awesome! It's about this Muggle scientist named Dr. Temperance Brennan-" I made a face. "-Yeah, I know, it's an awful name. But this FBI- Muggle Auror- guy that she works with, his name's Seeley Booth, calls her Bones 'cause she's a forensic anthropologist, which means she looks at human remains to determine cause of death and when they died and stuff." All three of us were staring at her. "What? It's a good show! Here," she said, grabbing her purse from under the table and pulling out her key ring. Attached to it, in addition to a library card and about five keys, was a white plastic keychain with the word Bones written in angular letters.

"Merlin, you're obsessed," muttered Rose. Kailey blushed a little, grumbling about how she was going to make Rose watch an episode if it killed her. Charlotte and I exchanged amused glances.

Back in the dorm a few hours later, Rose, Kailey and I were waiting for our turns in the bathroom while Charlotte washed up when Rose motioned for me and Kailey to come to her bed. We did, leaning in as she whispered, "We need to do something about Will and Charlotte."

Kailey grinned. "Ooh, matchmaking!"

Rose smiled back. "Exactly. Now, what we need is a plan. Obviously Allie's going to be important- don't even bother complaining, he's your brother! Now, I don't have anything definite yet, but everyone brainstorm and tomorrow night when Charlotte's in the bathroom we can-"

"We can what?" asked Charlotte, stepping out of the bathroom.

Rose looked around, panicked. "Er, we can… Well, we were just saying that when you got out of the bathroom, we could… er… ask Allie about where she was this afternoon!" I glared at Rose, although it was admittedly a pretty smooth cover-up.

Charlotte bought into it immediately. "Oh yes, Allie! Where were you zis afternoon?"

"Ugh, you aren't going to leave me alone until you find out, are you?" They all shook their heads. "Fine, but it's not that big of a deal. I was with Dimitri-" Kailey squealed. "-because he wanted to give me my present." I fingered the necklace, which Rose didn't miss.

"Ooohh," she sighed, reaching out to examine it. "It's beautiful!"

"Yeah," I said, smiling.

"You know, it kinda looks like your owl!" said Kailey, studying the pendant.

"Mhm."

"But wait. Why'd it take so long?"

"Well he asked me to meet him on the fifth floor, and I was coming from the dungeons, so it took a rather long time to get there to begin with, and then we were there for a bit, y'know, 'cause he gave it to me and I was thanking him and all, and then we had to walk all the way to the Great Hall, and of course we were talking that whole time, so it's not as though we were exactly sprinting there, and-"

"He kissed you, didn't he?" asked Rose.

I blushed furiously. "Maybe…" Kailey squealed again, only this time it sounded more like a scream, which got us some funny looks from Emily and Arianne, so I slapped a hand over her mouth. "Shut it!" She stopped, but her eyes still sparkled with excitement.

"He kissed you, he kissed you," sang Kailey under her breath as Charlotte giggled and Rose beamed and gave me a huge hug.

"How was eet?" asked Charlotte between laughs.

I was sure my face was about to catch fire. "Erm, nice?"

All three girls groaned. "No, give us details! What exactly happened?" demanded Kailey. I was forced to recount the whole thing for them, interrupted by their sighs and squeaks.

"…and then James popped out of nowhere-"

"What?" said Rose.

"Yeah, he said something about the prefects' bathroom and how his cousin… I think it was Dominic or something… gave him the password."

Rose looked thoughtful. "Well, it's true, Dominique's a Hufflepuff prefect, but it doesn't seem like her at all to give him that password. She knows he'd abuse it." She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, I made him promise not to tell Will, but I don't know how good his word is. He ran off to who knows where, and then Dimitri said something like 'It's almost dinnertime, so we should get down to the Great Hall', so we walked down there. And that's all." They all groaned.

"But-" began Rose.

"I'm tired, and I'm going to get ready for bed," I announced.

"I was going to say that I think it's weird that James was hanging around."

"Oh. Well, it's not that big of a deal." And I darted into the bathroom, smirking as I closed the door on Rose and Kailey's complaints, Charlotte's laughter, and Emily's request for them to please either cast a Muffliato charm or shut up.