'I am not in love with Ginny, Tony!'

'Yes you are, Mike! Even I can see it in the way you look at her-'

'-I haven't even known her a month-'

'-You've loved girls you've only known for days. Or even ones that you don't know at all-'

'-That's not true-'

'-You don't know someone just because they asked you to pass the stew!'

Michael blushed.

Anthony grinned.

Terry raised an eyebrow.

'This is an interesting reversal of roles.'

The three boys continued to walk towards Ravenclaw Tower.

Terry suddenly stopped in front of a window.

'Mike, Tony, you should see this.'

He pointed outside.

They could make out Padma sitting alone on a bench.

'She looks rather sad...'

'I'm going to kill that French git!'

'Mike, murder won't solve anything.'

Michael stormed off.

Terry's words were ignored.

'Err, Terry...I'm not really much good at comforting people...'

'You go after Mike, Tony. I'll go talk to Pad.'

'It's too cold to be sitting out here without your winter cloak, Pad.'

He cast a Warming Charm.

She smiled wanly up at him.

'Thanks, Terry. How'd you know I'd be out here?'

'Mike, Tony and I saw you out the window.'

They sat in silence for a moment.

'Terry, am I a bad person?'

'No. It is not good for your mental wellbeing to think that you are, Pad.'

She sighed.

'I know...but looking back, I think I might be. I was rather rude to Ron Weasley at the Ball...and I was all sulky...and I stormed off...but worst of all, I was rather disproving of his robes, and you know the Weasleys are rather poor, and he probably couldn't afford anything better...and now I just feel terrible!'

'He was just as rude to you, Pad. Neither of you wanted to go to the Ball with each other. And your reaction to his robes was a perfectly normal one, so don't think that makes you a bad person. And you must admit, his Severing Charm was rather terribly executed.'

She smiled slightly.

'True. But even so...well, I told Gilbert that I didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with him again...and that made me think of what I told Mike, about not loving him, or falling for him...and that made me wonder, was I just using him? I mean, I sort-of went with him just to see what it would be like, you see...does that make me a bad person? Stringing him along like that?'

'No. It was one date, Pad. Just one. The two of you barely know each other; it was more of an occasion to get more acquainted. You weren't stringing him along. If it was more dates, or you knew each other relatively well beforehand, then yes, you would be, but that would not make you a terrible person. It would just mean that you were a generally good person who'd done something wrong. People do that. Besides, I doubt he was deeply emotionally attached to you.'

She smiled, fully this time.

'Very true.'

'Being told you're pretty gets old. Or so I'm told, given that I've never been told I'm pretty.'

She laughed.

'It does.'

'I'd take brains over brawn and beauty any day.'

She nodded.

'Same. Thanks, Terry.'

He smiled.

'No problem. I'm glad you're feeling better. We should head back up to the Tower. You need to warm up, and I need to make sure that Tony managed to stop Mike from killing Gilbert.'

She clapped a hand over her mouth.

'He's not going to...he'll get in so much trouble-'

'-I'm sure he didn't actually kill him. In fact, I'm pretty sure Tony would have been able to stop Mike before he did anything too stupid.'

She nodded slowly, and they hurried back to the Tower.

Anthony guided Michael to an armchair in front of the fire.

The dark-haired boy appeared to be in agony.

Padma's eyes darted over him, searching for a wound.

'Mike, what happened to you?'

He groaned.

'I don't want to talk about it.'

Anthony shook his head.

'He asked out Fleur Delacour.'