This is the longest chapter I've ever written. Which isn't saying much for some people who can do 11 thousand words per chapter, but since this is a little over 6 thousand, it is the longest I've ever written. Be proud.

And I suck at the British language. I know.

Chapter 6: Molesters and Forgetfulness

It wasn't hard to get back into my old routine. I had no problems keeping up in Charms or Defense, and Professor Langor, our teacher this year for Defense Against the Dark Arts, even complimented me on how well I was doing after being gone for so long.

Honestly, Professor Langor seriously creeps me out. He does for most of the other students, too, but especially me. He's somewhere in his mid-twenties, and even I have to admit that he's not bad-looking, but he tries to flirt with seventy percent of the female population at Hogwarts.

And I seem to be his main target.

At first, I thought it was normal when he flirted with me so much. Disgusting, yes, and I ignore it while I secretly thought about hexing his you-know-whats off so he couldn't rape me, but then Lily and Sirius had both pointed out how he flirted with me much more often.

I wish I could hex a teacher without getting expelled. I really do.

I'm feeling particularly violent today.

So he comes up to me on my. . . fifth day back, I think, and stands behind me, reading the essay that we're working on in class over my shoulder. I shoot Nellie, who's sitting next to me, an uncertain glance, and then do the same for Lily, who is on my other side. They both cast Langor suspicious looks, as he murmurs into my ear, "Fine work, Miss Eckhart, very fine."

And I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about my essay.

I shuddered as on of his hands found its way to my thigh as he leaned the other hand on the table. James, Sirius, and Remus, who were sitting at the table right in front of us, all turned around at the same time. I knew that my eyes were widened in alarm and that my face was probably scrunched up in disgust, and I shot them all a Help-me! glance. James and Remus looked at me, obviously confused, but Sirius seemed to understand. I saw him reaching down to get his hand, and I knew that he was planning on hexing Langor. (Whose hand was starting to go much too high to be acceptable) I widened my eyess even more and subtly shook my head. He turned around.

Fine, Black. Leave me to get molested by the creepy professor.

But then in the front of the room, Professor Langor's desk erupted in flames. He flew up and rushed over to it, frantically trying to put it out. Sirius turned around and grinned at me as I slumped back and exhaled in relief. His smug look disappeared and he looked more concerned. He opened his mouth to say something, but I shook my head and turned to Nellie.

"Do you think we could hire someone to drown him in the lake?"

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Professor Langor let us out of class ten minutes after that little incident. We still had a half hour until our next class, during which James, Sirius, Peter, Nellie, Alice and I had a free period while Remus, Mary, and Lily went to Arithmancy.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sirius murmured as he caught up to me in the corridor.

"I'm fine." I replied, then winced at my choice of words. Very fine work, Miss Eckhart.

Sirius noticed this and sighed, gripping my arm and turning me around, leading back down the corridor despite my protests. After a few minutes, I realized where he was taking me.

"The kitchens, Sirius, really? Is this part of your ploy to make me a more comfortable pillow?" I teased.

He smirked. "Maybe. Or maybe it's my way of getting you to. . . fill out." He didn't take his gaze away from my face, but I knew exactly what he meant.

I smacked the side of his face. Hard.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" He asked indignantly, rubbing the spot where I'd hit him. "That bloody hurt!"

"Good, you git!"

"Again, I repeat, what was that for?"

By now we'd stopped walking, and I stared at him in exasperated wonder. "You really don't know? Merlin, you really are a moron. That was for making not-so-subtle comments about my. . .physique. Or lack thereof. I'm tired of you talking about it, Black!" It was true, he made comments about it at least once a week. "Yes, I'm small. No, I don't have breasts or a nice arse you can stare at whenever you feel like." And then I smirked. "Doesn't seem to stop the blokes from coming, though."

His mouth dropped open, and he looked completely shocked. "I-I, you. . . That's not what I meant." He finished meekly.

I snorted. "Please. Do you have any idea how many times you've joked about it? Well, guess what? I don't care what you have to say on the matter, Black, because your opinion on this subject is entirely irrelevant. And I don't even see how it matters, Black, because I'm sure you've got plenty of other whores to shag who have the right 'requirements' for you. Not that it would make a difference even if I did, because you're an arrogant man-whore who's a prat and a git and thinks of nothing other than his looks and when he's next going to get laid. And it's not going to get you anywhere, Sirius, because one day you're most likely going to fall in love with someone who won't want to be with you specifically because of the way you are now." I took a deep breath, finally done with my rant.

I thought I heard him mutter something like, "I think I already did."

I had no idea where any of that had come from. Sure, we always got into fights, that was just natural because we were both so stubborn and loud. (And sometimes stupid.) But I'd never just ranted off like that, we kept our insults to a maximum of maybe three sentences.

I backed up a little bit, blushing red. I was still mad at him, but I hadn't really intended to say something like that.

Sirius caught my elbow, effectively preventing me from backing up and running away. He sighed and looked over my head, a distant look in his eyes. I sneezed, (Great time to bloody fucking sneeze.) and he jumped and seemed to snap out of it. He looked down at me, holding my gaze.

"Daelia. . ." My eyes widened at the use of my name. "Merlin, Daelia, that's not how I meant it. I was just teasing, y'know?" He said earnestly, practically begging me to forgive him. "I like you the way you are, and it's obvious that everyone else does, too." His expression darkened a bit. "If you were any different, it would just be. . . Too odd. You know that I didn't mean it. And . . . You're right about all those things. Except I do think about more than just myself, and you know it."

I sighed. "Yeah, I. . . Er, I-I'm sorry." I mumbled the last word, making it barely audible.

He smirked and leaned down. "What was that, love?"

I looked away. "I said . . . Oh, you heard me, you prat. Don't make me say it again." I snapped.

"Alright, fine, but only because you asked so nicely." He replied sarcastically. We started walking again, but he suddenly stopped me. "You know. . . I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said something like that."
I snorted and started walking again, knowing that he would follow. "Like I'm not used to it by now."

At this point, we were at the painting to enter the kitchens. Sirius, who was still behind me, just reached over my head and tickled the pear, causing it to giggle and turn into a doorknob.

As he reached over my head, I caught a scent of cinnamon, sunflower, and rain.

Damn him for smelling like my favorite thing.

And he knows that I love it, too. Rain has been one of my favorite smells since I was a little girl. I'd gone to the neighbor's house to play, and when I'd come home, no one was there, and I was locked out. I sat outside for about ten minutes, and then it had started to pour. But the rain wasn't cold, and once I'd discovered how it tickled when it dripped down my arms, I'd never been able to stay inside when it rained.

Unless, of course, there was lots of lightening. Because lightening can kill you. And I'd rather not die.

But hey, at least he smells good, instead of smelling greasy or oily like a certain Slytherin who used to/still does have an infatuation with Lily. I thought as we sat down and waited for the house elves to bring us something. That makes the bet so much easier.

Ah, the bet! I'd almost forgotten that I was still trying to get Sirius in a relationship.

That part probably wouldn't be too hard, all I would have to do is lean over and kiss him. It was the two month part that was going to be difficult.

Oh, and the whole 'exclusive' part. Yeah. That might be a bit hard.

Oh, Merlin, why the bloody hell did I ever even agree to that stupid bet?
As if Merlin would have the answers for me.

"Eckhart?" I heard Sirius very distantly say. He snapped his fingers in front of my face.

"Hmm? Sorry. Zoned out a bit."

He chuckled and pointed at the plated in front of me.

Holy Merlin's sparkling red thong. (Note to self: Never use that saying out loud, for the fact that people will most likely call you a slag that has a thing for old dead people.)

It was a cranberry muffin.

I looked up at him in wonder and he gave me an amused look as I started to shovel down the muffin. "You know," He mused, "I would be much more upset about you ignoring me if it weren't for the fact that you look so cute when you're shoveling muffin down your throat."

I smiled, as I had just finished my muffin. "Yes, well, you'd never guess, but this annoying arrogant git that I know once gave me a nickname because I love muffins so much . . ."

"Oh, really? Hmm, I must meet this annoying arrogant git. He sounds like a very striking, ravishing, sexy young bloke."

"Well, I guess he is." I said with a smirk as I saw a bit of surprise flash in his eyes, though it quickly disappeared. "But he's also an arse, and that sort of overshadows the ravishingly handsome part. And then there's this little thing he's got . . . He's quite the dog, that one."

Sirius smirked, too. "Oh? And what did he decide to name this dog?" Ever since I found out that he was an animagus, which was right in the beginning of fifth year when I'd accidentally seen it happen, I'd been coming up with ridiculous names for it.

"I have a final name for it." I said nonchalantly. "I've decided to call that mangy mutt Snuffles."

"Snuffles?" Sirius guffawed. "No way in bloody hell, Eckhart. You can not call my animagus from 'Snuffles.'"

My smirk became more prominent. "Oh, no vetoes, Black. Snuffles. And that's final." He glared at me so I pouted and gave him puppy-dog eyes. (Hmm. Ironic.) "Come on, please? I've been trying to come up with a name for a year, now. Just let me have this one."

He sighed and looked away, fidgeting. "Damn you and your stupid big adorable eyes." I grinned, knowing I had won. My green-gray eyes were quite useful sometimes. He sighed again. "Alright. Fine. Snuffles it is, then."

My grin widened and, on impulse, I reached over and hugged him. I wasn't thinking about the bet when I first did it, though I had to admit that as he laughed into my ear and put his arms around me, I thought about how since I had until the end of seventh year, I could slowly but surely start dropping hints that I 'liked' him. (= Insert shudder here.)

But he was warm, and after about two seconds I completely forgot about the bet. He tightened his arms and murmured in my ear, "You know, I don't think that you've ever hugged me before."

"Sure I did. Third year, remember?"

He snorted, his breath moving a few strands of my hair. "Yeah, that was only because you'd just accidentally hit me with a bludger and you were happy that you weren't a murderer."

I pulled back, keeping my arms around his neck while he kept his around my lower back, and smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, well . . . I didn't much fancy getting sent to Azkaban." He raised an eyebrow. "And I guess I didn't want James to be mad at me for killing his best friend . . ." I added playfully. He pouted. I mockingly sighed. "Okay, and I guess I didn't want you dead, either. 'Cos then James would start coming to me with all of his pranks, and I get enough detention as it is."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You're impossible, woman. I don't know how I put up with you."

I smirked. "Well, I'm just too pretty for you to get rid of. And besides, if I wasn't around, you'd never have any fun. No one to challenge you."

"Too true, Muffin. Too true."

We grinned at each other for a second before I realized that we were entirely too close to be acceptable.

And then I realized that this could be quite useful for the bet.

Now, I don't blush very often, but I'm quite the actor. Nellie has often told me that my lying skills are actually kind of scary, and that no one can ever be sure if I'm telling the truth or not.

If you can fake blush, that's what I did. I pulled back and looked to the side, trying to look embarrassed, while Sirius shot me a cocky grin. I stopped myself from hexing him by gritting my teeth. "I have to go find Lil . . . Remus," I muttered quickly, making it sound like an excuse. "We have to work on our Ancient Runes essay."

And he bought it, thinking that I was all flustered. His cocky grin widened as we walked out of the kitchens.

I'd originally wanted to say that I was meeting Lily, but then I'd thought, Remus is my tutor, it would be obvious for me to meet him. And Sirius was one of his best friends, so it was likely that Sirius would find out that I wasn't meeting Remus.

Ah, the beauty of my acting skills.

I guess that I should feel guilty, except it's Sirius Black, so I really don't. In his long line of past/future broken hearts, what are a few white lies going to hurt him? Besides, he likes to act like nothing fazes him. He's the almighty Sirius Black, who thinks that while he's at Hogwarts, nothing can go wrong for him. He deserves to be taken down a few notches. And I'd love to be the one to do it.

. . .

Okay, who am I kidding? No matter what I do, no matter what anyone does, that will never happen. If someone upsets him, then he'll just go find some slag to shag. (Hehe, I rhymed unintentionally. That always amuses me.)

Although, he'd seemed genuinely upset when I'd ranted at him earlier. So. . .Gasp. . .Maybe he really does have a soul?

. . .

Okay. Yes. I know he was a soul. But I'd be surprised if he actually cared about what I thought.

Hmm. That would be quite amusing. I would go and voice my scenarios to Alice and Lily, but they would start going on and on about how much they hate him but how he does care. . .

Insane people, they are.

Then again, the fact that I agreed to this stupid bet proves that I'm just as insane as they are.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

When I got back to the common room, Lily told me that she thinks I'm bipolar.

I told her that I agree with her.

I mean, really, I was never this insane or scatterbrained. And I was never so sadistic or violent.

Okay. So maybe I was.

But really, one minute I'm yelling at Black about him being a man-whore and the next I'm hugging him!

Even if it was for a, erm . . . bet.

But really, I've got to get a better hold on myself before they all decide to send me to the mental ward at St. Mungos.

"Oh, we're already sending you there, love." I jumped as I heard Sirius' voice. I looked up to see him sitting next to me on the couch.

Sad, really, that I didn't even notice that he sat down.

"Yeah, we're just waiting for all that bloody paperwork to get through." A voice said from my left. I whipped my head to the other side (Ow!) to see James.

I scowled and looked at Lily, only to discover that she was gone.

Stupid James and his stupid stalkerish tendencies.

"But why is Lily saying you should go there this time, Muffin?"

I sighed. "Bipolar. I think I really am. Especially when it comes to you two."

"No, just especially when it comes to Padfoot. And he's pretty bipolar about you, too." James said, giving Sirius a pointed look. "Well, not so much anymore. Seems he's deiced that-"

"Shut up, Prongs!" Sirius hissed over my head.

I looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment, then said, "No. I'm not even going to ask. I'm too tired."

Sirius looked down at me, his eyes amused.

Hmm. Maybe he is bipolar too. "Doing something you shouldn't be, Muffin?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. In the ten minutes it's been since I last saw you, I decided to go and find Lanron Libyin so we could go have some fun in a broom closet." I said sarcastically.

"Hey, better watch out there, Daelia, or you might make Sirius jealous." James teased.

I rolled my eyes again. "Yeah. Okay. Sure. I'm going to go to bed now, alright? You two keep thinking your insane and disgustingly perverted thoughts. See you in the morning."

If I'm lucky, I won't.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

I wasn't lucky. I never am. The day started with me tripping down the last few stairs, which is actually a normal occurrence, only this time Elvora just happened to be standing at the bottom of them.

"Ready to quit and fall at my feet already, Daelia?" She sneered.

I glared at her as I tried (And failed) to stand up. She snickered as I put my hand on my ankle, just laughing harder when I yelped in pain. I was just starting to get my wand out (to, er, fix my ankle. Not hex her. No. . . *gazes shiftily around* never hex her. . .) when a cold voice said, "Go upstairs, Hardsgrove, and leave her alone."

And guess who it was?

That git that I practically had to call a knight-in-shining-armor now.

Elvora immediately turned her glare away from me and sweetly said, "Oh, Siri, I didn't know you were there!" She giggled.
Creeeeepy.

Sirius glared cooly at her as I smirked, glad to be able to focus on this instead of the aching pain in my ankle. (That was twisted at a not-so-good angle. . .) "Leave her alone, Hardsgrove. And leave me alone, too."

She stared for a few seconds and then turned around, fuming. I shot her a smug look as she stomped up the stairs and Sirius leaned down to me, sighing.

"Well, love, you know I can fix bones, but this doesn't look so good. We should probably take you to the Hospital Wing."

I groaned and he grinned at me, picking me up bridal style. A few people stared, but by now, most were used to this. I was carried to the Hospital Wing quite frequently.

"You know, one would think that you would have learned to do your own healing spells by now, you need them so often." He commented as we walked down the third floor corridor.

"But that's why I have you." I smiled.

He looked down at me and rolled his eyes. "You're completely bonkers, you know that?"

I finished at the Hospital Wing very quickly. Madam Pomfrey didn't even warn me about being careful, she knows it's useless. Sirius had already left so I made my way back up to the common room on my own, where I found absolutely no one.

Oh. Right. Class. I was supposed to be in Charms right now.

I grabbed my bag and ran out, tripping out the portrait hole.

And the, of course, I end up getting stuck because the stupid staircase decided that it wanted to move, leaving me no way to get to Charms other than a few secret passages, none of which I could remember the locations of.

So I sat there. And waited for that bloody staircase to come back. And when I assumed that it had been about twenty minutes, a stern voice said, "Miss Eckhart, what in the world are you doing?"

I twisted around to see Professor McGonagall and I smiled sheepishly. "Waiting for the staircase to come back."

I could have sworn that she almost rolled her eyes. "Well, Miss Eckhart, if you had gone to the Great Hall you could have used the staircases that are right to the left of it!"

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open in shock.

Wow. I really am an imbecile.

Which doesn't make me feel very good, considering James and Sirius are complete imbeciles, and I would really prefer not to be categorized with them.

"Oh, uh, er . . . I guess I sort of forgot about that."

She raised a thin eyebrow at me and said, "Well, you best be getting to your class now. Charms, isn't it?"

I nodded and stood up, murmuring a "Thank you" as I rushed past her, grateful that she hadn't given me detention.

Which is a bit scary, because she's McGonagall. She gives everyone detention.

I opened the door to the Charms room, trying to do it as quietly as possible. Unfortunately, luck was not with me, and that damn door made the loudest squeak possible. Almost simultaneously, the class whipped around. I would have laughed, if not for the fact that I had every sixth year Gryffindor and almost every sixth year Hufflepuff staring at me.

"Er, professor, I'm sorry, but-"

"Quite alright, Miss Eckhart, Mr. Black told me all about you landed yourself in the Hospital Wing. . . Again. Just go take your seat, child."

I scanned the room to see that the only seat open was next to Sirius, with James and Peter at the table. Of course, I hadn't thought about it, but it must have been the full moon.

One thing I may not have mentioned? Remus is a werewolf. I figured it out towards the end of fourth year. He always told us that he was going to visit his sick grandmother, but after a while, I'd stopped believing him. I mean, honestly, if your grandmother is so sick that you have to visit her every month, then after four years, she should be dead. Harsh, but entirely true. And then I'd started doing a bit of investigating, noticing when he left and when he came back. After not too long, I noticed that it was always at the full moon. And then I noticed that Sirius, James, and Peter always seemed to be exhausted the next day . . .

I'd thought about asking one of them to confirm it, but I knew that they'd never say anything. So, being the imbecile that I am, I followed them one night. I'd planned on staying right on the edge of the forest so that they couldn't see me, just so I would know if I was right, but then they decided to go down that stupid tunnel that I'd discovered in second year in the Whomping Willow, and I really had no choice but to follow. I cast a Disillusionment charm on myself so that they wouldn't see me, and we ended up in the Shrieking Shack. Remus had started to transform, it was horrible, and then . . . then James turned into a deer (Okay, so it was a stag, but I like to tease him and say he's a deer) Sirius had turned into a big black shaggy dog, and then Peter turned into a . . . (Drum roll please) . . . a rat.

I'd seen enough; All I'd wanted to know was if I was right in thinking that Remus was a werewolf. I backed out slowly, and none of them ever saw me. Of course, I ended up feeling very guilty, so two weeks later, I fessed up. James was just shocked, but Sirius yelled at me, saying that I could have gotten hurt, and that Remus would feel guilty if that happened, and all this other crap . . . I wasn't exactly paying too much attention. Eventually, he stopped yelling when he realized that I wasn't arguing, and I guess he understood that I felt bad about what I'd done. I begged Remus to forgive me, and he'd seemed so sad. It took me a few minutes to figure out that he thought I would treat him differently now that I knew. It took me hours to convince him that I wouldn't.

Anyways, off track there . . .

Charms passed without incident. Black didn't even try to annoy me, we all succeeded with our charms, (except Peter) and then it was over.

Well, no. My horrible luck was not over, because as soon as lunch rolled around, I ended up dumping my pumpkin juice all over Shannen. I apologized profusely, and she honestly didn't seem to mind much, but Elvora blew up at me, screaming about how we weren't allowed to sabotage. The Marauders stared curiously, but I was too bust focusing on not hexing the life out of Elvora to come up with a good excuse. When Lily finally threatened Elvora with detention, her and Shannen left.

Ah, bless Lily and her prefect-ness.

The rest of classes were completely normal, although I expected something to blow up in my face.

And then, at dinner, it really did blow up. I mean, not literally, but close enough.

First, when I waked in with Nellie and Alice, Lily was nowhere to be found. And then I heard Nellie gasp and followed her eyes, where I saw a black head sitting on Sirius' lap, practically eating his face off. (Well . . . at least she found something new for dinner?) His arms were around her, obviously not trying to push her off, and only when I looked closer did I see who it was.

Elvora.

Elvora bloody Hardsgrove.

And this is the part where I start to reconsider that hiring someone to strangle her idea . . .

Nellie grabbed my arm and steered me to the other end of the table, as far as we could get from them.

"Hey, you haven't lost yet, Dae. She's still got to get him in a relationship. And he has to stay faithful, too."

I nodded numbly, trying as hard as I could not to look at them. Honestly, I was used to seeing Sirius with a new toy every week. but this year had been a little different. I hadn't seen him randomly snogging someone or pulling anyone into any broom closets. And I was used to seeing him snogging at dinner, but that didn't make it any less disturbing.

Just goes to show that no matter how much you want someone to, they're not going to change. Especially if they are roguishly handsome and go by the name of Sirius Black.

"Honestly, you'd think they'd have some class. It's disgusting; we're all trying to eat." I heard someone, otherwise known as James Potter, say from above my head. He sat down next to me, Remus following suite on my other side while Peter sat across from me with Nellie and Alice. We were right at the edge of the table, close to the teachers, which I found a bit creepy.

"Well, Potter, I guess if you had Lily you'd be doing the same thing." I said monotonously.

James frowned, probably a little upset at the fact that I had used his surname. "No, Elvora isn't to Sirius what Lily is to me. Really, Sirius is only using her to make-"

"Hey, look! Dumbledore is getting up." Remus said sharply, giving James a pointed look. James just grinned while we all looked up to Dumbledore, who was standing at the podium.

"Good evening, students! Now, as today is December ninth, I though I would warn you about the Christmas Ball that we will be having on the twenty-second, the day before most of you leave for holiday." I groaned audibly and most of the Gryffindors turned to look at me. Many people had already tuned out, giggling excitedly at the prospect of a ball. "Now, there will be a Hogsmeade trip next weekend so you can all go buy your dress robes, as this is a formal affair. The ball is for everyone fourth year and above, unless, of course, you choose to invite someone from one of the years below. The ball will go from seven to midnight. And now that that announcement is done, back to your food, children! You need to be well fed for lessons tomorrow!"

I put my head down on my arms and groaned again. "Something wrong, Daelia?" James said, his voice full of amusement.

I brought my head up a bit. "A ball, James! A bloody freaking Christmas Ball! What is this place turning into? And now it's going to be all the girls in this school will talk about. Who they're going with, what color their dress is going to be, when they're going to buy it, how much it's going cost . . ." I trailed off and groaned again while James laughed.

"I take it that means you're not going?" He asked rather loudly.

"Oh, I'll be going, but only because I'll be getting dragged there." I looked up again and glared at Nellie and Alice, and if Lily was here I'd be glaring at her, too.

Alice suddenly jumped up. "Oh! I have to go find Frank."

I stared after her as she ran off, utterly confused. "When did those two finally get together?"

"Oh, I think it was two weeks ago. He finally got up the courage to ask her out."

Frank Longbottom was in the year above us, a seventh year, and him and Alice had liked each other somewhere around our fourth year. I was glad that he'd finally decided to ask her out, it was about time.

"Huh."

"Now, Daelia, do you think if I ask Lily tomorrow morning . . ."

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Over the next week and a half or so, Lily and I got bombarded by invites to the ball. Between that and homework, I almost didn't notice the fact that Black and Elvora were sucking each others' faces off every night in the common room.

Almost.

But I am determined to call him Black all the time now. Especially considering I know it would annoy him, if he knew that I was calling him it. Which he doesn't, because he hasn't talked to me once since he got together with Elvora.

Yes, Elvora announced it that night when she got up to the dormitory. I stayed on my bed, barely sparing her a glance, while Lily and Nellie pointed out that it doesn't mean she's won the bet yet. I wholeheartedly agree, of course, but I didn't plan on saying that.

After all, I'd never thought that he'd agree to get back together with her. So who knows? Maybe she was going to win the bet, too.

. . .

Oh, Merlin. I really am losing it.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

In the end, three days before the dance, I ended up agreeing to go with Zane Johnston, a seventh year Ravenclaw. I was very surprised when he asked me, he's well known and very . . . good-looking.

Okay. So he's hot.

Lily was sitting next to me, and she elbowed my ribcage when he asked. I'd said no to all the people that had asked me, even though most of them weren't entirely horrible. But I knew that if I didn't say yes to Zane, Lily would have my head for it later. And besides, from the few times I'd talked to him, he was entirely kind and very funny, too.

So I was going with Zane, Alice was going with Frank, Mary was going with Chase Thomas, fifth year Gryffindor boy, (Gah! Remus! Why didn't you ask her?) Nellie was going with Kyle Shenang, and Lily had finally decided to go with Tyler Carmichael.

Lily was amazed, though. James had only asked her to go to the ball once, and he hadn't even donw it in an arrogant way.

Of course, he'd only asked her once because I'd told him that asking her any more times would just annoy her.

"Just . . . I don't think she totally hates you anymore, James. But if you keep bugging her, she's going to hate you again."

He looked so sad that I almost wanted to go up to the dormitory and order Lily to go out with him. "Daelia . . . Do you think that I'm ever going to have a chance?"

I smiled softly. "Honestly, James? Yeah. I do. She'll come around eventually, but not with you attacking her all the time. Just give her some breathing space. When it comes to you, James, well. . . You can make people claustrophobic." For once, I wasn't even thinking about the bet we had on when they would get together. I was thinking about the fact that James and Lily were going to end up together, whether Lily would admit it or not.

And of course, Elvora was going with Sirius. How . . . nice.

Yes. Asylum time.

I'm seriously starting to wonder which would be better for me; A muggle asylum or the mental ward at St. Mungos.

And just the fact that I'm even wondering that proves that I belong in one of them.

Yeah, so . . . There you go. Next chapter is the Christmas Ball, and I'm hoping that it's different from most people's. It's . . . Dramatic, to say the least. Go and review, please. I don't get nearly enough. But thank you to those who have reviewed, or put this on story alert or favorites.