A/N: Thanks for reading everyone. Here's the next chapter. It's shorter, but it was too long as one chapter. So this one's shorter and the next one is pretty long.

Disclaimer: I own only the OCs. JK Rowling owns Harry Potter

Chapter 3
Summer had not been a fun experience for Lauren. She was in the foster home for the entire summer and it had been brutal. She had gone to Kings Cross Station very early so that she could fix herself up magically. Her bruises were not going to go away easily, even with magic. The best she could do was cover them and hope no one would notice.

But, luck was not on her side. She had been sitting in the compartment when James had come to the door, looking for a compartment. She turned when she heard the door open.

He took one look at her. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Nothing." She mumbled. She was concerned. She hadn't even told her friends about the abuse and now James was trying to guess what was wrong.

"Bull shit." He said. "You've got bruises all over. You're trying to cover them, but sweetheart, they're too bad to do anything."

"You know what, Potter?" She said, her voice getting louder. "You don't care about me. I don't care about you. I'm still alive. I'm fine. Let it go and leave me ALONE!"

James glared at her. "I don't know what happened to you, but I'm sorry I asked."

"Then next time, don't." Lauren said coldly. She was not in the mood for James' crap.

"Fine!" James said. "Next time, I WON'T!"

"GOOD!" Lauren shouted.

"GREAT!" James shouted even louder.

They stared at each other, and for a second, Lauren saw a plethora of emotions rushing through his hazel eyes before they were void of all emotion. He turned around and walked out with his trunk.

She sat back against her seat, upset. If James noticed, then surely everyone else would too.

But she was wrong. Or if they did notice, no one said anything about it. Andrea was the first in the compartment. She said nothing about any bruises. Natasha was next, her best friend Ravenclaw Kristen Davies with her. Lauren liked Kristen. She was pretty nice.

Rose was next. She didn't say anything except hello. And finally, Alicia ran in just seconds before the train was due to leave, as per usual. She asked about summers, but nothing about Lauren's bruises.

Which left Lauren to wonder just why James, who she didn't even like or care for, noticed something that the people she was closest to in the world didn't.

The bruises faded easily over the next two weeks and soon Lauren was back to looking normal. School was much easier this year than last year, although she didn't get to see all of her friends as much (different career paths and everything). But they still hung out whenever they could and always had a good time.

After the incident on the train, Lauren hadn't spoken to James again. Their groups of friends would hang out together, but the two would not speak to each other. No one commented on it.

She had begun to date a seventh year Slytherin the name of Murphy McElroy. He was really sweet and kind, and even if the boys did tease her (except James, who just gave dark looks. He and McElroy had never gotten along), she was happy with her latest relationship.

Or at least she had been happy with her relationship. She realized now that there were some things that she had…er…overlooked.

But you know, looking back, she should have realized something would go wrong. Because her life was never quiet.

The day had started off bad. She had woken up late. Only Alicia was left in the room by the time she had woken up. And even she was already almost ready to go.

So she had jumped up, pulled her clothes out of her trunk, and threw them on the bed. She had quickly changed her undergarments and then had grabbed her skirt.

But of course, it was laundry day. Natasha, who had a free period first, had taken all the laundry down to be washed (a new thing Hogwarts was trying out, to prepare everyone for later in life), and Lauren had been left with an old skirt from third year, which only hit a little lower than mid-thigh.

And then she had lost her shirt. She wasn't sure how, but she could not find it. So after searching for a little, she just reached in her trunk for a new one. Except it was laundry day. So she had no more shirts left.

Alicia offered her one of hers. Lauren grabbed it and threw it on. Buttoning it as she ran out the door with her books, realizing only too late that, while the two girls were the same height (coming in at a whopping 5'3, shortest of all their friends), Alicia's chest was a bit smaller than hers, and Lauren felt like the shirt was smothering her.

As a result, all throughout Arithmancy (Alicia wanted to go into Curse Breaking and Lauren was going to be a Recovery Healer, which was like a Physical Therapist. She wasn't sure why she needed it but it was required), Lauren was fidgeting in the shirt.

She was groaning all throughout the walk to Advanced Charms, and they met Rose, who was walking toward the classroom.

"Thank God." Lauren muttered as Rose approached. Alicia laughed. Rose looked confused. "I need a shirt of yours."

"Why?"

"Because I lost mine this morning, so I'm wearing Alicia's but she's too flat so I can't breathe in here and I just really need a shirt, so if you can't give me one then just find someone who can." Lauren spoke very quickly.

Ok." Rose said, somehow managing to comprehend her friend's statement. "I'll work on it. Go in the bathroom. I'll come in with a shirt in a minute."

"Thank you thank you thank you." Lauren hugged her friend quickly, gave her bag to Alicia to bring in the classroom, and skipped down the hallway to the bathroom.

Only to find herself drenched before she even made it there from a water balloon dropped by Peeves. She glared, cursed him off verbally, and ran the rest of the way to the bathroom.

Minutes later, Rose came in, a crisp white button-down in hand. Lauren reached for it, but Rose pulled it back. "Now you don't care where I got this from, right?"

Lauren shook her head. "Just give me the damn shirt."

Rose handed it to her. "Ok, good. It's James'." Lauren stopped buttoning for a second, quickly weighing pros and cons of borrowing James' shirts. In the end, she decided she would like to be able to breathe again, so she continued buttoning.

The two walked back into class, just as the bell rang. And as Lauren slid into her seat, ignoring the snicker from James, she thought to herself, 'God, could this day get any worse?'

So, of course, it did.

Professor Flitwick assigned three essays at the end of class. She got to lunch and ended up spilling her Pumpkin juice all over her shirt (Rose had used a charm to get the stain out). James was being his usual James self and came right up in the beginning of lunch to tell her that she looked good in his shirts and asked if she wanted to see how she looked in his pants next. She had flipped her middle finger off at him, just in time for McGonagall to walk past and assign her detention tonight with Professor Meka. She groaned and hit her head against the table repeatedly as James laughed and sat down next to Scorpius, who was across from Rose.

After lunch was a free period. Lauren, Alicia, and Rose spent it working on homework, and finished one of their three essays. In the process, Lauren had spilled a bottle of ink of her skirt. Rose tried not to laugh as she pointed her wand at the ink to make it disappear.

She arrived at Transfiguration early and felt immensely proud of herself as she sat down in her usual seat.

Except Professor Meka decided that he didn't like the seats they were in and he was going to change them. Now, instead of sitting next to Rose, she was sitting next to James.

James, of course, was absolutely ecstatic (insert eye roll here) about sitting next to her and throughout class was continuously making comments to her. She had finally snapped at him and shouted "shut up Potter" loud enough for her to get more lines in detention tonight and him to join her for 'causing a disturbance'.

So after dinner, at 6:00, Lauren made her way down to Professor Meka's room, just in time. Meka handed her a quill and some paper and she got to work.

James arrived to detention 20 minutes late. Evidently, this was a habit of his because Professor Meka just rolled his eyes and pointed to the paper and quill he left out for James, and then at the board, where the words 'I will not disrupt class' were written.

James sat down, pulled out his own quill and ink, and grinned. "Hey Laur, how're you doing?"

She ignored him. He grinned.

"Mr. Potter, what is wrong with the quill and ink I gave you?" Meka called from across the room.

James grinned. "Sorry. No offense or anything but I only use my own quills and ink when I write lines." He laughed, and Lauren wondered about his strange habit for just a moment before continuing her lines.

James seemed to realize that she wasn't going to talk during this detention and both got to work on their lines.

Lauren finished before him. She handed Professor Meka her parchment, grabbed her things, and left without a word to James.

She walked down the halls, until she bumped into someone. "Sorry." She said. "Oh hey." It was Murphy.

"Hi." He grinned at her and then kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

"Come here." He pulled her into an empty classroom and shut the door. He turned around, pulled her bag out of her arms and put it on the ground, and then tried to kiss her. It was then that she realized it.

"Have you been…drinking?" She asked.

He shrugged. "Only a bit." But then he kissed her again. She sighed slightly and kissed him back. It was only a bit and he certainly wasn't drunk. What harm could it do?

Until his hands went to the buttons on James' shirt. She removed them and told him, "no". Seconds later they were there again. "No." she said again, a bit more forcefully.

"Come on, Lauren." He said.

"No!" She cried. He forcefully grabbed her and kissed her again. His hands moved to the buttons and he succeeded in unbuttoning the top few. She wished for her wand, and remembered it was in her bag.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She screamed. Murphy's hand covered her mouth quickly, but it was enough. The door burst open and a tall figure stood there.

The figure shouted out a spell and Murphy flew away from her. Lauren ran over to a desk, sat on top of it, and allowed tears her tears to fall.

A/N: So, what do we think??