A/N: Another one down, and I'm already getting ideas for the next. (: I feel like the drama gets more and more intense with each chapter! Once again, I've left you with a lot of loose ends, all of which will be tied up in the next installment. Also, don't fret if you weren't in this chapter, you'll definitely be in the next. (:

"Why is everyone looking at me funny, Lav?," Aly asked in a hushed tone as she set her breakfast tray down on the table. Lavender glanced up at her and shrugged, returning to putting on her DiorKiss lip gloss. Aly groaned lightly, pushing a hand through her wavy locks in exasperation. "Come on, I know you know. Now tell me. Do I have something in my teeth? Is my skirt stuck in my underwear? Tell me." She really hoped it wasn't her skirt, because it was her favourite high-waisted teal jersey knit from American Apparel.

"No, you look fine," Lavender said lightly, uninterestedly. Aly sighed, placing both of her hands flat on the table.

"If you're not going to tell me, I'll ask Seamus. He certainly has no problem with being brutally honest." Standing up from where she sat, Aly walked to where Seamus was hurriedly finishing a homework assignment, bravely ignoring the stares, catcalls and whispers.

"Seamus, hi," she began, smiling brightly. "Mind telling me what's wrong with me? Why is everyone staring at me like I've grown another head? Lav wouldn't say anything, but do I have something in my teeth?" She bared her teeth, nose scrunched as she smiled widely.

"That would be the least of your worries, m'love," Seamus said, giving Aly a look of sympathy.

"What? My skirt's not stuck in my underwear, I checked." Self-consciously, Aly slid a hand underneath of herself, making sure for a second time that her skirt wasn't stuck.

"Could be the fact that you had sex on the radio last night," Seamus relayed to her, for once no amusement in his voice. "But that's just a thought." Aly frowned. What was he talking about?

"What are you talking about?," she asked, voicing her thoughts. She'd been in the studio last night, with Lee, that much was true, but she didn't have sex on the air!

"Last night," Seamus repeated with a sigh. "No one would've known it was you, but Lavender seemed too happy to tell everyone." Aly was still staring at him, clueless. "Aly, last night, I don't know what you were doing, but it was broadcasted over the school's radio station. The noises of you, well, you know…"

Heart dropping to somewhere near her feet, Aly could feel her breath catch. After a moment, she gasped for air, not realizing that she'd been holding her breath. This just wasn't possible. He was lying, right? It was all a joke, wasn't it?

Oh fuck.

"I take it I missed something pretty big last night?," Sara asked as Audrey took a seat next to her in Art History. After a moment of no response, Sara repeated her question. Audrey blinked, hearing her for the first time.

"Sorry, I'm exhausted," Audrey breathed, resting her chin in both hands. "And if you missed it, I did too. I was cutting Becca's hair." Audrey grimaced. "If she ever asks you to do it, tell her no."

Chuckling, Sara popped a stick of gum into her mouth. "Gum?" Audrey shook her head, yawning into her closed fist. "Can I talk to you about something?" Smiling politely, Audrey nodded, when all she wanted was to roll her eyes. Since when had she become everyone's therapist? Last night, she'd been up until three fixing Becca's hair. She'd added it up; Audrey had had a total of five hours of sleep in the past two days.

As if that wasn't enough, Fred had sent her a particularly confusing text message around two in the morning. All it said was, "We need to talk." Words that usually meant something Audrey didn't even want to think about, lest she jinx herself.

"… but he has a girlfriend. Who has made it quite clear that she doesn't mind physically defending him. I mean, I can kick her ass once, but you know how people can be once they've lost. They come back with a vengeance…"

Audrey realized she had no idea who Sara was talking about.

"Fred! What are you doing here?" Abby had been on her way to Chemistry when she'd seen a familiar redhead coming down the hallway, a visitors badge slapped onto his shirt. She'd become friends with him around the same time she'd started dating Lee, but she hadn't seen him in about a month.

Fred grinned, wrapping his arms around Abby in a friendly, familial hug – the normal Weasley way of greeting. Abby inhaled slowly, hugging him in an almost desperate way, finding it comforting to have someone so close after the tumultuous two days she'd had.

"I'm here to see someone," Fred explained, his bright smile dimming for a moment. "And to visit Ron and Ginny, of course. I hear Ginny has a lovely black eye." Abby snorted.

"I wasn't there," she said, holding her hands up. "Or else I would've done something, you know that." Fred raised an eyebrow and Abby braced herself for the retort she knew was coming.

"I'm sure you weren't, you naughty girl. Not with Lee here, anyway. I'm sure your nights are busy," Fred teased, nudging Abby with his elbow. She sunk her teeth into her tongue, trying her hardest not to burst into tears on the spot.

"Actually, Lee and I aren't really together anymore." She exhaled harshly. It felt so much better to get it out, to just say it.

Fred looked like he hadn't heard her, and asked, "What?"

"Yeah, we decided it'd just be too complicated. So, I'm single again." This time, the tears did burn in Abby's eyes, but she didn't let them fall. She was sure Fred wouldn't care if she did cry, but she cared, and she knew she was stronger than she felt.

Fred sighed. "Well, we might be in the same boat sooner than you think."

"I- I'm a virgin," Claire said in one breath, causing Blaise to lift his head from where he was laving her neck with kisses and love bites. Chuckling, he sat up, moving his hands off of her.

"So you've mentioned. Twice in the past ten minutes, I think." He ran a hand through his hair, letting out a gush of breath. "And I've told you, we don't have to have sex. We didn't Sunday night, did we?"

Claire blushed red as she remembered the night of the party. "Why… why are you doing this with me?" She had been dying to know since the party, but too afraid to ask until now. Blaise looked at her, blue eyes drifting up her body, disheveled as she was. His eyes paused on her uniform skirt, pushed up around her waist, her cotton briefs pristinely white.

"You don't know?," Blaise asked with a smirk, his voice low and predatory. He moved over her again, his much larger body looming over hers. He could practically smell her fear, and it was intoxicating. Claire shook her head, her cheeks impossibly redder as she stared up at him with wide eyes, fighting the urge to squirm away. He leaned towards her and she closed her eyes impulsively, her lips parting in expectation. Blaise didn't kiss her, though, only leaned down until his lips were brushing against the lobe of her ear.

"How 'bout I show you every reason why, bella?"

Her dorm was eerily quiet as she entered it and Kat made a beeline for her desk, picking up her purple Chloé Ethel tote and emptying its contents onto her bed. She grabbed the Louis Vuitton cigarette case and the gold metal lighter, sighing in relief. Pausing, she looked around the room warily. Something didn't feel right.

Backpedaling as quickly as she could manage without dropping her cigarettes, Kat headed to the door, grabbing her key from where she'd left it in the lock and left hurriedly. Not paying attention to where she was going in her need to feed her addiction, she crashed into a very solid body on the stairwell.

"-the fuck?," she yelped, pushing away from the body, finding warm, grey eyes glaring back at her. Draco. Of course.

"We need to stop meeting like this," he joked lamely. Kat couldn't help but notice that his white tee shirt was soaked through with sweat, sticking to the muscles of his chest and stomach. He must be on his way in from a run. She gulped, blinking hard.

"Why didn't you defend me?," she blurted out in an exact contradiction of what she wanted to say. Kat hadn't ever planned on expressing her feelings about what had happened between her and Pansy, but her mouth seemed to have other ideas.

"What are you talking about?," Draco asked with a frown. "Oh- that."

"Yes – that," Kat said, nodding. "You could've said something you know. It was… humiliating. I walked all the way back to our dorm in my underwear. Which I really don't give a fuck about, but you should feel like shit for not making her at least give me the chance to put my skirt back on. I mean, I thought… I thought we were cool?" Draco stared at Kat, his eyes locked on her own brown ones. She felt uncomfortable and she shifted subconsciously, trying to escape his gaze.

"You done?" Kat nodded. "I'm sorry." She was surprised, to say the least. He didn't seem like the type to apologise. "You're right, I should've said something. But she's my girlfriend. That'd be putting me between a rock and a hard place. You understand, right?"

Looking away, Kat said nothing. She fingered her lighter, needing that cigarette now more than ever. "I need a smoke," she voiced, pushing past him and continuing down the stairs and straight out the door.

"Text me later, alright?," Theo said, leaning down to kiss Helena lingeringly. He pulled away, pecking her cheek before moving onto the other waiting mouth, belonging to Maddiy. Smiling, he pulled away from her, as well. "Be good." Both girls smiled at his words, before glancing at each other, sharing a look. They scurried away and Theo shut the door to his dorm, heading in the direction of the bathrooms. He slowed to a halt when he noticed Railey walking towards him.

"You know," she spoke up, "if you combine their ages together, they're actually legal." She didn't bother hiding the bitterness in her tone.

"Don't start, Railey," Theo said through gritted teeth. She shook her head.

"You know, maybe I was wrong. I don't see what one fourteen-year-old has over me, but I can definitely see what two have. If only I could grow another vagina. Maybe things would've worked out then." Unnoticed, Railey's hands balled into fists at her sides. There was something to be said about her redhead's temper.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Theo bit out dangerously, defensively.

Railey laughed, a strange sound, high and slightly off-kilter. "You're right, Theo. I don't. Explain it to me. Please fucking explain it to me, because I'm dying to know. I want to know what's wrong with me. What did I do to make you do this?"

Railey saw red when Theo used the oldest line in the book. "It's not you, Rai, it's me."

"Where have you been, miss?," Emilie asked the moment Claire cracked the door to their dorm open. She'd stayed with Blaise for another hour before being kicked out when Draco returned. She was still pondering over Blaise's words when Draco came through the door: "We're only studying." Was he ashamed of her? Why would he care if his best friend knew? It's not like he'd tell.

"Studying," Claire replied softly, setting her Coach messenger bag on the ground. She stepped out of her uniform, slipping into her conservative pyjamas.

"You think Blaise will text me?," Emilie asked offhandedly. "I mean, it's been days since Sunday, and he's yet to say anything. You know I gave my number to him at that party?"

"Yeah, I know, Emilie." Claire forced a hopeful smile. "I think tonight's the night. He'll text you." She made a mental note to mention Emilie to Blaise the next time she was with him. He should text her, just to be polite.

"He's so yummy, don't you think?" Claire's eyes widened at Emilie's words and she didn't reply. Emilie mistook her silence for embarrassment and chuckled. "It's okay, Clairey, you're allowed to think he's cute, as well."

Claire sighed. If only Emilie knew…