Annabelle's POV

"Annie wait up!" I heard Ron call me from about 40 feet away. I looked back and waited for him to catch up.

There was a bit of a smile on his face, a smile I haven't seen since summer thanks to Hermione and Fred.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Well, you know Lindsiey Gershwin?" he asked, running a hand through his hair. Ron did that when he was nervous.

"The new girl?" I asked, switching my bag over to the other shoulder.

"Yeah. Well, I met her and stuff," he said, a hint of pink swarming through his face. I smiled, knowing where this was going.

"And?" I asked, waiting for it.

"I'm going to Hogsmeade with her next weekend," he said, a smile forming onto his face. I smiled with him. When Hermione and Fred first got together, it was the beginning of August. It being the end of September, Ron had to endure watching his brother hold hands with, flirt with, and kiss the girl he's loves, for a good month and a half.

I'm glad this new Lindsiey girl got that off his mind.

"I'm happy for you. Isn't she in Hufflepuff?" I tilted my head to the side.

"Err. Yeah. That's the only problem. I'm not -" before he got a chance to continue his sentence, she came up from behind him, and held onto his arm.

"Good morning," she said walking into the middle of me and Ron, smiling.

"Morning," Ron stated. I strolled beside them like a third wheeler, awkwardly staring in front of me.

"Who's this?" she asked Ron, pointing a finger right into my face.

Speaking of rude...

"Oh, that's my best friend. Annabelle, Lindsiey; Lindsiey, Annabelle," he said, nervously watching her reaction. I held my hand out to shake hers. She looked at my hand and turned her head back in front of her to where she was walking. She sped up so she could disappear into the rest of the crowd.

"I don't think so-" I tried to say, absolutely offended at her behavior.

"She's not really like that! She's a nice person.." Ron says, scratching his head at this.

"To you, maybe." I shook my head in disapproval.

"I'll talk to her about it. Maybe she just wants a second chance," he hopefully stated. I laughed a bit at that, knowing that wasn't true.

"Sure. I mean, I'm not one to say whether or not you're allowed to go out with her, I mean, do as you wish. But I dunno," I said. "She's a bit feisty for a Hufflepuff." I walked into first period with Ron.

I sat in my regular seat beside Hermione, watching as Lindsiey strutted her little self in. She shot me a dirty look, then sat next to Ron and Harry. I rolled my eyes and smirked.

"Who's that?" Hermione asked me as she noticed Lindsiey play with Ron's fingers.

"A bitch," was all I had to say for her to understand.

Hermione and I sat there and took our test. Time and time again, we'd watch in disgust as the bitch became quite friendly to Ron.

The test was really not so difficult, so it made watching the two of them touch easier.

As soon as Hermione noticed me looking at her, she looked away from Ron, as if to make it less obvious of her disapproval. This test, (like all we've taken so far this year) was not helping us learn anything thanks to our new teacher.

#119: What year did He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named kill his first victim?

#183: What would you eat to protect against poison you've eaten?

The class soon ended. Hermione pulled me over to the side.

"We need to form our own class," she said, a sense of urgency in her voice. "I just took a test on some of the most irrelevant things in Defense Against the Dark Arts. This is ridiculous. I say just the student body, no teachers, make our own group where we can actually learn."

"Sure," I said, open to ideas at this point.

"Let Harry know, persuade him into teaching it in any way you can, and let me know what he says at dinner," she smiled at me, knowing this plan had potential as long as Harry was involved.

"I was looking for you," he said as I sat next to him on the couch in the common room. "I needed to talk to you about something."

"As do I," I said, inhaling a deep breath for my next statement. "Hermione and I were talking this morning about forming a club; a group to learn about defensive and maybe even offensive spells."

"Sure. Who's gonna teach it?" he asked.

"Well, you of course," I said pressing my lips together.

"Psh. No, no, no," he stated bluntly, resting his back against the couch.

"Why? You'd be perfect for it!" I said, realizing I was starting to beg. "Please?" I took hold of his right hand, putting it between my two hands.

"I don't even know that much- I, I couldn't-"

"Yes you could. Just try it for a month! If you end up wanting to give it up, fine. If not, those wanting to learn things for their own safety," I made sure to emphasize that word, "are free to."

He paused for a moment. I saw amusement in his eyes as I pleaded with his hand in mine.

"Fine. But just because you're making me feel guilty, I will," he said, tilting his head back.

"SCORE. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?" As I went to let go of his hand, I felt his grasping mine, as if he wasn't expecting my hand to leave... A few seconds later, I heard him start to talk again.

"Uhm. I- You look beautiful today," he said, a weak smile appearing on his face. I gave him a curious look and slowly stood up.

"Thanks. You too."

I mentally slapped myself. Yeah, Harry, you look beautiful today. Of all complements I'm dying to give you right now, that's the one.

"He said yes!" I exclaimed, making sure it was just Hermione who could hear me.

"Good, good. Now, we need to find some place to hold the class in."

"We'll go out when it's light. We'll go out tomorrow morning. Since it'll be a Saturday, nobody would think it suspicious to see a few Gryffindor kids walking outside, right?" I asked, eating a few leaves of my salad.

"Right. I told Ron. He thought the idea was brilliant." she said. "And Fred will do anything I'm doing, honestly, so now we have Fred and George."

After dinner was over, I walked over to the common room, amusing myself with a hangnail on my thumb. I could feel someone sit down beside me.

"Hey there," he said with a small smile on his face. Who would've guessed...

"Hey, Harry."

"I really do need to talk to you about something else; the something I was actually getting ready to tell you a few hours ago," he said. He didn't look me directly in the eyes, he actually stared straight ahead of him into a wall.

I started to worry.

"What is it?" I asked. My eyebrows furrowed.

"Your mother. She's kind of gone off to Voldemort. Whether or not this was of her real intensions, we don't know. We just know that right now, she's with Voldemort, helping him do things that shouldn't be happening," he said. Now I knew why he didn't look me in the eyes.

It hit me like a blow in the chest. Maybe it was because I wasn't expecting it, or maybe it was because I just didn't believe that would ever happen.

"Oh. When? Why? I mean, what?" I asked, a hot tear welling up in my eye.

"The end of this summer. We don't know why. She could be under the Imperius curse for all we know. Don't- don't cry," he pulled me closer to him and put an arm around me. I put my head on his shoulder.

We sat there for a good 5 minutes. We did nothing but sit in each other's arms. I could feel the warmth of him transfer to my skin. The goose bumps I had when he first told me about this tragedy had now softened back into my skin.

"I still think you look beautiful today though," he said in reference to the thing he said earlier this evening to cover up the story about my mom.

"I still think you do too." I DID IT AGAIN. I said that stupid statement, again.

I listened to him chuckle, and felt a finger under my chin.

I was mentally slapping myself over, and over.

I couldn't do this. This was bad. This was something I should not be doing.

He slowly lifted my head toward his and pressed his lips against mine. I felt a tear fall down my cheek as Harry kissed me deeper. I kiss him back. I wanted this so bad. I wanted Harry's lips against mine like this, his body moving with mine like it did when we were still together. Both of us in love again, no guilt whatsoever coming with a kiss like this. I pushed his back down onto the couch, hesitantly crawling on top of him. I used my arms to keep me from off his body as I press my lips onto his again.

I twirled his messy black hair as our tongues wrestled for nearly a minute.

Then my conscious mind came into play. I realized what I was doing, and I realized the consequences for what I was doing.

I sat up on the couch, placed my hands into my lap, and kept my eyes peeled at the fireplace which was only a few feet away from that couch.

He slowly got up and cleared his throat. The awkward feeling at that moment was extraordinarily horrible. I pushed away another tear that was rolling down and made my way upstairs to my room.

I got on my bed, letting my hair down in frustration. I pushed the sheets out of the way, and got under them. My pillow was drenched with tears by the time five minutes passed. I couldn't tell if it was because of the news about my mom, or because of what Harry and I just did. It sparked back so many memories; so many days of being able to say I knew someone who loved me like that.

And now it was over.

For three hours, I lay there, restless over everything. A few times in those few hours, the tears would stop and I'd be able to just sit in peace, but when everything came flooding back into my mind, tears were inevitable.

When the tears finally stopped flowing for good, I heard Hermione walk upstairs with a nice giggle ringing in her voice.

"Annabelle, I- Fred and I went on a date tonight! We-" And then she saw my face.

"What happened?" she asked, forgetting about her story. She sat on the edge of my bed.

"My mother's turned to Voldemort. And let's not forget that Harry and I made out. We snogged for a good few minutes on the couch." I stopped rambling and gave her a chance to talk.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Why did she?"

"I don't know. I- I wish I did know. I think I'm gonna go look for her," I said, determination full in my voice.

"At least we can keep our minds off that with this cute little event with you and Harry," she said with a smirk.

"That just makes it worse." I shook my head.

"Why are you- why are you sad about that, Annie?" she asks.

"Because I still love him, Hermione. You know I do. I can't just brush off 9 months of my life! Help me. Please. I don't know what to do. I didn't want to admit it, because I didn't know if it was real. But now..." I paused. "And I can't get over it. No matter what I do, I can't fucking get over it."

"It looks like you need a boyfriend," she said.

"Like who?" I asked her. The idea sounded just fine to me.

"Say, Seamus perhaps? He really likes you, you know that?" she asked, not really expecting an answer back.

"I- Oh. Right. Yeah. Maybe. I just- I felt a spark when I kissed Harry. Like a mix of fire and ice upon my lips. Do you know what I mean?" I asked.

"Oh I know what you mean. For the past few hours, I was with Fred. That boy knows how to kiss, lemme tell you that straight," she said while she changed into her pajamas.

"I bet. You know how you're making Ron feel though?" I asked.

"He has that Lindsiey girl. He's fine," she said, waving her hand in the air as to dismiss the topic.

"I know, I know. But he really liked you." I put my head back down on the pillow.

"He'll get over it."

I pulled the covers back over myself, patiently waiting for sleep to come.

The next morning I woke up around 10. I was definitely not looking forward to this empty Saturday I had to endure. I slipped into a shirt and some shorts, not looking as I slipped my slippers on. I brushed my teeth and washed my face off.

I walked over to breakfast with my feelings as low as my head was. Lucky for me, George came up from behind me and jumped on my back. I immediately smiled and laugh.

"Why the long face?" he asked me, putting an arm around my shoulders.

"My face isn't long. See? All nice and wide." I stretched my lips out to make it look like I'm smiling. I didn't want to tell anyone about yesterday.

It hurt too badly.

"Good, good. I thought I was gonna have to sneak you a little laughing liquid into your tea." He winked, as if giving me a warning.. He ran up to some first year who looked a little down. That's why I loved Fred and George; they never failed to make me smile

When I walked into the Great Hall, I saw Hermione sitting next to Ron, who was sitting next to Harry. Between Harry and another kid was a space left for me; the space I'd sit every morning.

Instead of sitting there, I found Seamus and sat with him.

Walking from the middle of the Hufflepuff table was Lindsiey, off to go to Hogsmeade with Ron. I rolled my eyes at this and put my bags down.

"Hey, children," I joked.

"How're you, Annie?" Dean asked me.

"Quite well, thanks. How're you, Dean?" I asked in almost a joking manner to how formal we were being.

"Doing excellent." I winked at him, pulling an orange onto my plate.

"Why aren't you sitting with Potter?" Seamus asked me, a look of hatred on his face.

"I don't know," I lied. "I just wanted to sit with you a bit more often. Missed you all." I smiled. They gave me a curious smirk and raised their eyebrows up. I laughed at them to myself, peeling my orange.

"How are you and Potter?" Seamus asks, winking. I looked up from my plate in utter shock he had any idea about it.

"I'm not sure if I know what you mean."

"Well, me and Seamus may have walked in on the two of you snogging in the common room yesterday night," Dean said, a small smirk on his face.

"We made sure to leave before any clothes were taken off, because I mean, who wants to see Potter naked?" Seamus and Dean laughed. I looked at my fingers, doing my best to smile.

Seamus noticed how uncomfortable I was.

"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing, nothing." I made sure to make my smile even larger, covering up everything I longed to say. "What were you and Dean doing? Bringing a few girls up to your rooms, eh?"

"You're funny, you. Ask Dean, I'm sure he and Ginny have got plenty of stories like those. Me? I'm dateless," Seamus said, looking over at Dean.

"You're funny too, Seamus. Ginny's head over heals in love with Harry. Me and her wouldn't happen till she gets over that boy," Dean stated. My stomach flipped a few times at that sentence.

"Try to win her over, I'm sure you could do it. You're quite a charmer, you." Dean's face brightened up.

"Believe me, I will. Ah bloody hell," Dean said checking the clock. "I got detention in a minute. Switched out Snape's teacup for a nose-biting-teacup. He didn't like that," I listened to Dean chuckle a little as he finished his food and picks up his stuff. "See ya, mate. See ya Annabelle." He got up and walked to Snape's room.

After a few awkward moments with Seamus, he started to talk.

"Hey Annabelle," he spoke a bit quieter, making sure just the two of us could hear.

"You and Harry; is that really going on?" he asked, a serious look on his face.

"No. We aren't anything. I don't really know what that was yesterday. I guess it was just the spur of the moment," I lied. I didn't even know the truth at this point. He smiled. I could see a blush slowly come across his face.

"Well, since neither of us have anything to do right now, how about we go to Hogsmeade today? I think this is one of the weekends they'll let us go," he suggested. He bit his bottom lip in anticipation.

"I'd love to. When do you want to go?" I asked him, my face turning a slight shade of red as well.

"I think now would be a reasonable time, don't you think?" he joked, standing up. I picked up my purse, and watched as he held out his arm.

I linked arms with him and run my free hand through my hair.

Me and Seamus arm in arm, off to Hogsmeade.

We walked to the Three Broomsticks. I ordered a Butterbeer and as did Seamus.

Our conversations consisted of everything we would normally talk about in the years past. We sat there for a good 5 hours, doing nothing but talking.

"And I'm guessing you and her didn't really start things right that day, huh?" I asked in reference to Shelby Plywood, a girl he dated over the summer.

"Not at all." I sipped the last of my Butterbeer and put it down.

"Listen, Annabelle, is this what it feels like? Because if it's just a friendship, I- I want to know that before I get my hopes up," he said. His eyes were pressed to the table.

I gave myself a quick minute to think about what to say.

"This can be anything you want it to be." I switched the question around on him. He took my hand and put it in his.

"Would you like this to be a bit more than friends, Annie?" he asked, a cute little smile on his face.

"I'd like for nothing more," I gave him another little smile and he gripped my hand tighter.

He let out a small laugh. After he paid for the two of us he lead me outside.

He picked me up by the waist and twirled me around like a child. He then hugged me for a good few seconds, shifting our weight from one side to the other. I giggled and linked my hand into his.

"Where to?" he asked. It was 5:15.

"Honeydukes?" I suggested, walking across the street to the shop of sweets. We entered into the store of many colors and looked around for a while.

About 45 minutes later, I pulled a chocolate frog from off the shelf, and walked to the register. Seamus was looking at some enchanted toffee on the other side of the store.

"It'll be 3.49 please," the cashier says, bagging up the frog. As I dug through my purse for money, I noticed Seamus dive through the crowd of people and make his way up, holding a 20 galleon bill up to the cashier.

I watched the cashier put a smile on her face as she saw Seamus pay for me like that. He put his left hand on the small of my back as he got the change back from the cashier. My stomach fluttered with butterflies all around over. I put my arm around his waist too, connecting the two of us.

The sun was slowly starting to set, making the sky a beautiful peach color. I saw Ron and Lindsiey kissing behind Zonko's, embracing each other. Seamus and I both let out a laugh or two, and walked into the other direction.

"Who's that?" he asked, referring to the girl whose lips were attached to Ron's.

"A Hufflepuff. She's quite the bitch," I stated. He lets out a chuckle.

"A Hufflepuff can be a bitch? That's a surprise..." Seamus said.

"That's what I thought."

We both laughed and joked some more on our walk back to Hogwarts. We kept a firm grip on each other by the waist.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" I asked as we started to walk inside the school.

"Well, I was thinking we could go one more place before we part ways," he said as he lead me towards some stairs I recognized to lead up to the Astronomy Tower. It was almost 7:00. The sun was just about gone and the moon was glowing like there wasn't gonna be a tomorrow.

He pulled me up the many stairs with him until we reached the roof. At this roof we both felt a breeze every few seconds. It was beautiful.

The two of us stood there, leaning against the balcony. His arm was curled around my waist and his hand on the front of my stomach.

He saved me. Seamus Finnegan saved me from feeling the shit I would be feeling about Harry if I wasn't with him. If he didn't ask me to Hogsmeade this morning, I'd be curled up in my bed, probably reading that romance novel of mine.

I'm now saved from the heartache, the guilt, and the embarrassment. He made everything better. Just beingwith Seamus has made me happy in the years past, but actually being with him made me rejoice in my head.

"You know I've had feelings for you since third year?" he asked, finding my hand with his.

"I do now. I have too. I just recently discovered in what way the feelings were pointing toward," I mentioned while my index finger slipped between his middle and index finger.

"I just thought you were with Potter, and I'd assumed, since you two were kissing yesterday, that you still felt for him. I was planning out this day since the middle of last year. I really like you, Annie." He pulled me closer to him. "And I knew Harry had feelings for that Cho girl last year, I just didn't want to mention it to you. Then he bloody broke you and your heart. It hurt like hell to watch you cry over that guy. Because I knew you should've been happy with someone you deserved. Someone that wouldn't hurt you like that," he said, whispering the end. I felt the wind flowing through my hair. He pulled me close so that I'm only inches away from his face. His hands were on my elbow and shoulder. "I knew you should've been with me."

As soon as I realized what he was doing, I leaned toward him, touching our lips. I tilted my head to the side, causing the kiss to be even more dramatic than it already was. I put one of my hands on his chest, and the other on the back of his head, pushing his face closer toward mine. The kiss lasted a good ten seconds before it ended.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push you into that or anything- B-Because I know it's just our first date- and we've only been dating for half a day-" he said, looking down at his feet. Before he had time to finish, I pulled him into an embrace, an insanely tight embrace I loved. I kissed his lips one last time just to let him know he didn't pressure me into anything at all.

The feel of his lips on mine was addicting. It was like a drug I needed to have; a drug I've been craving for that I didn't know I wanted.

"I ought to get to sleep, Seamus. Thank you for tonight."

I walked downstairs with a glowing smile on my face. If there was one most accomplished day of my life, I know which day I'd choose.

Today.

New Boyfriend? Check.

First Kiss with Seamus? Check.

Happiness? Check.