Chapter Seven:

By the end of the fourth week back it seemed that everyone bar Hermione was exhausted by all of the work that the professors kept assigning out. Friday night and all of the Gryffindor sixth and seventh years could be found in differing states of lethargy, all younger years had been ordered by Hermione, in a rare bought of not encouraging further study, to go to bed. But even so, most of the older students were already in pyjamas.

Ginny, wearing a pair of brown and green checked pyjama shorts and a green t-shirt with a picture of an owl and print proclaiming "Owl always love you", was sprawled out on the sofa closest to the fire, her duckie slippered feet resting on Colin's lap as he worked on one of his assignments, wearing only a pair of grey sweats and a long sleeved red top.

"What're you doing? Transfiguration?" She asked curiously, allowing her eyes to half close in tiredness.

"Nah, Potions. I just can't think for the life of me what the fifth use of Fire Seeds are in the Erumpent Potion."

"Urgh, sounds thrilling, can't wait to start mine. And let me know that fifth use when you remember it."

"That's the spirit, Gin," came Ron's voice from behind them as he moved across the room to join them, sitting in the opposite, orange velvet armchair. Not noticing as his blue top bunched slightly, revealing just a hint of his abs above his navy blue pyjama pants. "As long as you hand something in, Snape won't kill you."

"Ron! How could you?!" Hermione's indignantly exclaimed as she sat in the chair next to Ron, trying to avert her gaze from his stomach and giving him a highly affronted look to which he just raised his eyebrows in defence. She sighed and turned back to the female red head, not noticing that Ron continued to look at her, taking in her form as she sat there in her pink, red and white polka-dot pants and red tank top. "Ginny, I realise that you're tired, everyone is, but really, you should put effort into the assignments." Here turning back to glare at Ron, "especially Snape's ones. He always expects high quality work to be handed in."

"Stop talking about Snape! I'm trying to relax!" Neville called out from the other side of the common room where he was sitting in a striped grey and yellow onesie, reading yet another Herbology book.

"S'okay, Nev," Harry, wearing a black and grey set of pyjama pants and top, called out as he face planted into the one remaining sofa. He pushed his head deep into the soft, inviting cushions. "Mm 'ake em lk but s'th sss or oo."

Silence from everyone in the room caused Harry to lift his head from the cushions, his hair a complete mess, not that anyone really cared, no one had bothered to try and change his hair for years, they had all accepted the inescapable…well except perhaps Mrs Weasley. Harry peered over in the direction Neville was, not actually able to see him as his glasses had revolted and remained somewhere in the cushions, "I'll make them talk about something else for you."

"Right," Colin said slowly, looking at Harry whilst wondering if it was the combination of everything Harry had experienced over the years, or just the workload of seventh year that resulted in the complete and utter exhaustion he was seeing. He was holding out for the lifetime experiences, not sure that he'd be able to make it to graduation alive if seventh year had that effect. "So, what's it like having classes with Sera?"

"She really isn't like any other Slytherin." Harry murmured, lying on his side and staring off into the crackling flames of the fireplace. "She's nice to everyone, to non-Slytherins."

"Yeah," Ron said, watching the firelight bounce around Hermione's curls. "I mean, she's got friends in every house; there's Ginny and Colin from Gryffindor, Luna and Jasper from Ravenclaw, and there's that little first year Hufflepuff, Justin's cousin, you know, the one that is always running over and hugging her."

"She's very smart," Hermione added, actually saying something that was in answer to Colin's question. "It's actually a bit concerning. I mean," she rushed to continue when the others gave her incredulous looks, "we've always known that Malfoy is smart. He's always been second to me in classes. And it seems that Seraphina is too. I can't actually tell, her practical skills are as good as Malfoy's but the only times she contributes to class is when called on by a teacher, I have no idea if they've topped me at anything."

Ginny raised an eye brow at this and continued to stare at the ceiling, thinking about the two Malfoy twins. Wondering just how intelligent the two of them were. Harry glanced across at Hermione who was biting her lip in worry. "Is that why you've been more anal about studying lately? Worried that you might have been knocked off your throne in something?"

"Hey!" Ron cried, flushing slightly in anger. "Hermione is the smartest witch there is! No matter how good Seraphina is, she can't be better than Hermione."

Colin threw a quill at Ron's head, "no one doubt's Hermione's brains. Harry was just pointing out the obvious." To which Ginny and Harry gave murmurs of agreement.

Hermione however was just staring at Ron, slightly startled, with her mouth slightly open and her eyes widened a fraction. As if shocked that Ron would so vehemently defend her against anyone. Ron however was completely oblivious to the attention he was now receiving from her and simply continued to sulk in his chair.

"Well her being here has certainly made the rest of the Slytherins more bearable this year." Ginny pointed out. "I mean, Malfoy smiles these days. It certainly makes him seem more… sociable."

"Ergh, Gin!" Ron groaned, shutting his eyes. "He may be more human-like, less like the spawn of satan, or demonic, but he is not 'sociable'. Not even slightly."

Harry, whose thoughts had now taken to daydreaming about having picnics with a pretty blond who smiled lovingly up at him, was becoming slightly disturbed by these thoughts. No matter how kind, pretty and generous she might be, Seraphina was a Slytherin. She was a Malfoy. There was no getting around that. And he pushed those thoughts away, determined to keep them at a distance. "First Quidditch match is soon, us versus Ravenclaw. We need to start practicing."

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Ginny hurtled through the air, feeling as at ease on her broomstick as she did on the ground. But up here in the air she was free to turn in any direction she wanted, diagonals, verticals, and even fling herself upside-down. All very useful moves for when one needs to get out of the way of Bludgers shooting towards one's head. But she never lost her focus, the three hoops up ahead. Ginny only registered Ron, flying as Keeper in front of the hoops, as a minor factor, instead zeroing in until all she knew was the weight of the Quaffle under her arm, the hoops, the keeper, and herself. She picked up almost all the minute movements of Ron, his muscles tensed on the left, where her was expecting her to shoot for. And then she flung her arm out, the Quaffle shooting like a rocket towards the middle hoop which it passed through with Ron's gloved fingers just managing to brush it.

"Damn!" Ron panted, slightly red in the face. But when he turned and she could see his eyes, Ginny saw an excited glint in them. "Nice work Gin! Keep that up and we'll have no trouble come the match."

The siblings looked around at their other team members, all flying round the pitch in the Saturday afternoon light. Harry had had them up in the air since mid-morning, a few hours ago, and the whole team looked as if they could do with showers and food right then. Luckily Harry seemed to have had the same thought and signalled the team to gather on the grounds near the locker rooms. They had a good team this year: Harry was captain and Seeker; Ron was Keeper; Ginny was Chaser along with fourth year Jasmine Kong, a bubbly, short plump girl who was surprisingly nimble in the air despite not having the typical build and a long fringe that Harry kept threatening to cut off if he was given any reason to think that it was impeding on her sight, and fifth year Grace Stewart, an all-round athletic tom-boy with blonde hair styled into a pixie cut with red and purple streaks in it; and they had the Creevey brothers as their Beaters, Colin having decided that year to finally stop taking pictures of the sport and to give it a try himself, only to have him end up as a great team with his younger brother. Not that they were anywhere near the natural skill and synchronicity as Fred and George had been, but they were decent.

"Good work, everyone." Harry said with a smile for his sweaty, tired team. "We've got an unbroken Quidditch Cup winning streak to uphold so let's not disappoint the house on the first match. We want the first match to be a blow-over, let everyone know that they'll be up for a fight if they think they can beat us."

"Especially Slytherin." Ron said, "you can bet that they'll fight tooth and nail to get the trophy this year. It's Malfoy's last year and their last chance."

"Hey guys, what position does Sera play?" Colin asked his teammates as they walked over to the change rooms. The rest stopped and stared at him for a moment, each realising that no one actually knew what position she held.

"Dunno," Ginny eventually said. "None of the Slytherins have been talking. But that's not surprising, they're always tight-lipped about their team until the first game. I suppose since Malfoy's seeker, Zabini's keeper and Parkinson's Chaser, Sera'd be either chaser or beater. But I can't imagine her as a beater."

"Yeah, that girl doesn't have enough arm muscles to swing a bat well." Ron added.

"She's got great arms!" Harry protested, and then blushed when everyone turned to stare at him. "I- I just- I mean, she's got the body to suit a chaser. Anyway, it's not important. No matter what she plays, they aren't a match for us. And we'll find out soon enough, just need to focus on Ravenclaw for now."

Ron sent a last curious look at Harry before proceeding with the team to the showers, and Harry let out a slight sigh of relief. That was close. He didn't want anyone to realise his growing feelings for the intriguing blond Slytherin.

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Sitting up in the Slytherin stands I adjusted my scarf against the biting wind that had been blowing all morning. The Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match had been going for about 15 minutes now and so far, neither team was proving to be very surprising. They were each sticking to old, known patterns so far.

Being the faithful Slytherins we are, sworn rivals to Gryffindorks, Blaise, Pansy, Sera and myself were sitting in the Slytherin stands wearing green but supporting blue flags. Rah Rah Ravenclaw!

I felt someone lean into my side, bringing their lips close to my head. The scent that filled my nose telling me it was Seraphina. "Unless I'm missing something, there's nothing surprising here." She said, her voice loud enough to be heard over the yells of the crowd.

"Nope," I said, keeping my eyes on the game. Smith, their 6th year captain had just passed the quaffle to Kendell, only to have had it intercepted mid-air by Kong, Gryffindor's new, fourth year chaser. I kept my eyes on the girl for a bit. It was surprising just how nimble she was considering the amount of hair in her eyes and her build. "They are both proving themselves to be as unoriginal as can be. I'm surprised at Ravenclaw. You'd have thought that they'd have tried to come up with strategies to counter the mighty lions. It's good for our plan. But both have new players that show some interesting qualities."

"Yeah, have you seen that Kong girl?" Blaise said from my right, leaning forward and studying the chaser combinations of each team. He'd be facing them in the upcoming matches and wanted to be as prepared as possible. "If I didn't see it myself, I never would have believed she could pull-off such a steal."

A mitten hitting my head brought my attention to my left where Sera and Pans were sitting next to each other. Pansy was looking at me with a fake-innocent smile plastered on her face, "Pass the omnoculors, would you Drakey-poo-poo?"

I chucked them at her head, over Sera's back as she was bent in double laughing. Unfortunately, Pansy had the good reflexes needed of a chaser and caught them easily. "Thanks, hun."

Sparing a glare for her, I turned to my traitorous sister, a raised eyebrow and an unamused expression. "What are you laughing at? Need I remind you that I can easily start calling you 'share-a-finger' if I so desire?"

That shut her up.

But also earned me a solid punch in the arm. Dang that girl's got strength. I couldn't help but mutter under my breath, "You should've been a beater."

Before Sera could reply however, our attention was drawn back to the game as the commentator announced that Ravenclaw scored another goal. Their victory was short-lived however as Weasley passed the quaffle to his red-haired sister. The girl-Weasley rocketed off down the pitch. I was amazed to see how she dodged the bludgers that snuck past the Creevey brothers and evaded Ravenclaw's attempts of getting the ball back all single-handedly. And then threw the quaffle with such a strong arm that it pushed Nightingale (Ravenclaw's keeper) through the hoop, earning another 10 points to Gryffindor despite his catch.

Damn she's good.

Blaise, Sera and Pansy all turned to look at me with curious expressions. Crud. I said that out loud didn't I?

"You mean Ginny?" Seraphina asked with a hint of a smirk upon her lips. Honestly, I'm not all that surprised to hear her call the girl-Weasley by her first name. She seems quite fond of her.

"Yes. Didn't you see what she just did?" A few younger Slytherins glanced at us for a moment before turning back to their own conversations. I suppose it would be a bit surprising for them to hear me compliment a Weasley. But who cares? It was the truth.

"Do you like her?" Pansy asked.

"No." I automatically responded, without needing much consideration. "She's certainly interesting enough, considering she's a Gryffindor and a Weasley. But I don't like her. Not the way you mean."

"So you do like her? But in a non-like her way?" Pansy pushed.

"She's interesting. Now shut up and watch the game." I said sending them a mock glare. Oh dear. Pansy and Sera have the same look on their faces as the time when they were planning April Fools Pranks on Blaise and I. This can't be good. I let my attention be drawn back to the field, and saw that Weasley had just made another save, they were in the lead 70-40.

"Just saying, hypothetically of course," Pansy said in a conversational tone "but if any of us ever wanted to date a muggleborn, or someone who wasn't an upper class, wealthy pureblood with good connections, I would totally not have any problem with that."

"That's very understanding and accepting of you, Pansy. I'd have to say that if that, hypothetical case ever did happen, I'd feel the same way. After all we have always said that we're not going to be the same prejudiced bastards that our fathers were." Despite keeping my gaze on the game, I could still see the large, evil, smirk on Blaise's face from the corner of my eye as he said all this.

We all stood up silently with the rest of the Slytherins, not bothering to clap Gryffindor's win. No surprise in Potter's catch being as showy as possible. As we were making our way down the stairs to the ground, I found myself watching the back of the girl-Weasley, the sunlight shining off her hair making a bright firey shade of red. Hmm; Red. Maybe I'll call her that from now on.

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Looksy here! I've updated in a relatively short time frame!

Question to all my readers: how do you react when you realise that you like someone? I'm trying to get ideas on how to write the next part of the story where there may a bit of development on the relationship side of things *wink wink, nudge nudge* (Yes, that is a Monty Python reference).

Anywhoo, hope you're all having great days/nights! :D