Thanks for the review, Sweet Petit! :) And lenokiie, don't worry, Oliver won't be getting very far ;)

After dinner I was walking back up to the common room with the twins when I felt a hand grab my elbow. I looked back to be met with the eyes of Oliver.

"May I speak with you?"

I was a bit confused but said, "Yeah, sure Oliver. What's up?"

He looked at Fred and George, who had stopped when I had. I realized he wanted to talk to me alone so I said, "You boys go ahead up to the common room. I'll meet you there in a minute."

The nodded and left, but not before giving me identical winks paired with smirks. I raised an eyebrow at them, but they'd already turned around. I looked up at Oliver, waiting for him to speak, as students and teachers continued to walk by. I met eyes with Lupin briefly before looking back at Oliver.

"So, as you know, the first Hogsmeade weekend is coming up in a few weeks." he said while I nodded. Oh no. It suddenly hit me what Oliver was about to do. Please, please don't be what I think it is. I can't stand awkward situations. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he'll tell me he can't go due to quidditch and ask me to pick him up some candy from Honeydukes or something. Right? Okay, even I know that sounds farfetched.

"I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me. As in, ya know, a date." Aaaaand there it is. He blushed and glanced down, awaiting my answer.

It's true that I did used to have a crush on Oliver, but that was a couple of years ago. I now felt nothing but friendship towards him. Uggggh, what am I supposed to say, I hate hurting people's feelings.

I was suddenly hit with an idea. "I'm sorry Oliver, but I don't think that's such a good idea. It's just that I know how much winning the quidditch cup this year means to you, and if we were to…date, it would only serve as a distraction. I just don't think it'd be fair to you. If you ended up losing the cup, it might hurt your chances of ending up on a pro team. I got high hopes for you, kid." I finished with a smile.

He smiled lightly. Yes, he bought it. "You know what, you're right Ella. I can't afford any distractions this year. Thanks." he gave me another smile as he walked away up the stairs.

Damn, I'm good. I just turned him down and he ended up thanking me.

I made my way up to the common room and plopped between Fred and George.

"So," Fred began.

"Should we plan on spending the first Hogsmeade visit without you?" George finished.

"Nah, I turned him down."

They looked at me, equal looks of surprise on their faces. "I thought you liked him?"

"Yeah, like two years ago. You and I both know that if I dated him the only thing he'd ever talk to me about would be quidditch. As lovely as the sport is, I just don't think I could handle it." They nodded in understanding.

"How'd you guys know anyway?" I asked.

"He's been asking about you constantly,"

"A bit annoying, actually."

"We figured he must fancy you,"

"Why else would he have taken such an interest?"

I rolled my eyes, but nodded all the same.

It was Sunday and I was currently pacing outside Professor Lupin's office. He hadn't been in class on Friday, Snape had said he was "under the weather." As you can imagine, DADA class with Snape was awful. He made us learn about werewolves, even though multiple people told him we'd already learned all about them in third year.

I shivered lightly in the cold, damp hallway. I was wearing white skinny jeans, a plain v-neck green tee, and matching green converse. I'd learned ages ago how to bewitch my shoes to change to whatever color I wanted them to. It's quite handy, if I do say so myself.

I wanted to check on Lupin, to see if he was feeling any better, but I didn't know if that would be too weird. I shook it off and finally got up the courage to knock on the door lightly three times.

"Come in."

I turned the door handle and walked inside. He looked up at me with a soft smile. "Ella, what can I do for you?" I noticed he was paler than usual. Snape had definitely not been lying about him being sick.

I suddenly got a nervous knot in my stomach. "Well, you weren't in class Friday. Professor Snape said you were ill. I just came to see if you were feeling any better."

He gave me a gentle smile, "I'm feeling much better, thank you. Take a seat." He pointed to the desk directly in front of his desk.

I walked over to it and sat down. He stood up, "Tea?" he asked.

I made a face, I'd never been much for tea. "No thank you."

He chuckled, noticing the face I'd made. "Coffee?" I made another face and shook my head.

"I know," he began with a smile, "How about some hot chocolate?"

I grinned. Now that, I liked. "That would be great, thank you."

He got to work preparing my drink, and I looked around his office. "How was Professor Snape?"

I snorted. "How do you think he was? He took a million points from Gryffindor and made us relearn a bunch of stuff we already knew."

He laughed as he handed me my drink. "Severus is quite the character, isn't he?"

"You're telling me," I replied as I took a sip of my drink. It seemed to warm my whole body, and I made an involuntary "mmmm" sound.

"I've noticed your accent. You're American?" he asked.

"Yep. I moved to England in May when I was 11. I got my Hogwarts letter the day of my 12th birthday, in June. The Salem Institute of Magic doesn't accept students until they're 12, so I hadn't had any proper training, therefore I had to start in first year. So I'm actually 16, a year older than everybody else." I explained.

He nodded, seemingly contemplating something as he took a sip of the tea he'd made himself. "You and the twins seem to be good friends."

"The best."

"I've heard from the other professors that you three cause quite a bit of mischief around here," he stated with a smirk.

I shot him a smirk of my own, "Why sir, I have no idea what you're talking about. We're model students."

He laughed, "You know, I used to be quite the troublemaker myself when I was in school."

"You? No way." I answered, trying to picture Lupin putting a spell on all the Slytherins to turn their hair pink or something.

"Well, it was mostly my two friends, but I always went along with it. And I helped quite extensively with the planning," he told me.

"Well, well, well. Who would've thought? Our own little Lupin was a mischief maker in his heyday." I grinned as he laughed. I found that I really liked his laugh, and I liked it even better when I was the cause of it.

"Now don't go telling everybody about it. Can't have them not taking me seriously as a professor." he smiled to let me know he was joking.

"Your secret's safe with me, sir." I grinned. He returned it, but I could tell he was still very tired. I figured he was probably too nice to just kick me out. I took the last couple sips of my drink and stood up. "I'd better get back before the twins finish their game of exploding snap and realize I'm gone."

He chuckled lightly. "Of course."

I made my way to the door and turned back to him. "Thanks for the hot chocolate. And the conversation."

"You're quite welcome, Ella. Come see me anytime." he smiled gently.

I smiled back before walking through the door, shutting it securely behind me.