Chapter Three: An Extra Quill

Once the house elves took our orders for a couple of glasses of pumpkin juice and some lemon squares, we noticed that we weren't alone. There was a boy that had jet black hair sitting at the Gryffindor table. I gave Gemma a look, thinking that it was James. However, when he turned his head to see us approaching we realized that it was actually Albus. Gemma and I hesitated and exchanged looks, but when Gemma shrugged and began to lead the way over to him I found myself wanting to make some excuse to leave. I didn't know Albus that well, but after dealing with his older brother for so long I wasn't sure if I wanted to, just in case the two of them were eerily similar.

"Hello," Gemma greeted Al as we reached the table, "Do you mind if we sit here?"

I saw Albus take in the Slytherin badges on our robes, but it didn't seem to faze him too much. "Sure," he shrugged.

"You're Al Potter, aren't you?" Gemma asked as the house elves brought our pumpkin juice and lemon squares.

Albus was eyeing our lemon squares with his green eyes as he nodded. Glancing back up at Gemma and I, he asked, "Er, who are you two, exactly?"

Smiling, Gemma replied, "I'm Gemma, and this is Rainee."

Then Albus looked at me curiously, "You're not Rainee as in Rainee Montague, are you?"

Slowly, I nodded, "Yes..."

He seemed to laugh, "Well, Rainee, on behalf of the Potter family, I am truly very sorry about my brother. He seems to think he's God's gift to the world or something."

I could see Gemma looking at me cautiously out of the corner of my eye. She was probably afraid that I'd react the same way to Albus that I normally did to James. However, it seemed to me that Albus was at least sincere with his apology, despite the fact that he was smiling as he said it. A smile formed on my lips as I said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think one apology can cover everything your brother has done in the last seven years."

Then he laughed and shook his head, "No, probably not. Do you mind if I have a lemon square?"

When Gemma and I shook our heads he took one and then rose from the table, "Well, it was nice meeting you two, but I've got to go. Good luck with my brother."

Gemma called after him, "Bye Albus!"

Once he was gone I turned to her, "Do you think it's weird that he knows who I am?"

She frowned, "A little bit. I mean, the only person that would've told him about you would probably have been James. It's not like Emmy has ever had anything to say about you."

I put down the lemon square I had been working on and announced that I wasn't hungry anymore. Then I started to swing my leg over the bench as Gemma asked, "Where are you going?"

"Outside," I said as I got to my feet and began to leave the kitchens. I heard Gemma rise abruptly behind me.

"Rainee!" She called, sounding annoyed, "Rainee, wait!"

I only slowed my pace a little, and she reached me just as I was walking back out of the portrait hole. Once we were in the corridors, Gemma finished the square she had been eating, "Rainee, what are you doing?"

"I told you," I said quickly, a little annoyed, "I'm going to the grounds."

"You really hate James, don't you?" She almost sounded surprised.

I slowed my pace and looked at her as we walked, "I guess you could say that, but it's not like I wouldn't have reason to."

"What has he ever done to you, though? I mean, I understand that the way he acts pisses you off, but he's never done anything to you personally. Or did something happen that you haven't told me about?"

"No," I huffed, "He hasn't done much to me. We have gotten into plenty of rows, however, and he's apparently been telling his brother what a bitch I am."

Gemma was annoyed, "So now you're going to go have another row with him, aren't you? Rainee, he's your Potions partner now, you should be trying to get along with him."

"Well," I said as we stepped out into the courtyard, "I don't give a damn."

Of course, James was right where I thought he would be. He was sitting on his usual bench in the courtyard between his cousins, Louis and Fred, and the three of them were surrounded by a group of Hufflepuff girls. It seemed as though the boys had just told a joke because the girls were giggling, except for one. The one that wasn't laughing was a redhead, and James seemed to be talking directly to her. She didn't look particularly comfortable, but he did manage to make her smile occasionally. It was when Gemma and I stood there, not too far off, that I realized I couldn't just walk up into the middle of that crowd. However, when Louis Weasley looked up, spotted us and called, "Hey Gemma!" I knew that the crowd would possibly move closer to us anyway.

"Er, hi Louis!" Gemma called back. When she did, Louis got up from the bench and walked through the girls toward us.

"I don't think I've seen you since we got back, how was your summer?" He asked, seeming to be ignoring my presence completely. When he did I rolled my eyes and started to walk away toward the bridge. Just last year, Louis had hardly paid any attention to Gemma, either. But over the summer she had discovered how to tame her wildly curly hair and suddenly she was gorgeous enough to meet Louis' standards. It was truly amazing how important looks were to these boys.

Then, of course, my heart nearly stopped beating when I finished crossing the bridge. Possibly the most gorgeous boy in Hogwarts was just to my left, and he was walking in my direction. His name was Logan Daames, and he was in my house, in my year, and I had had a crush on him since fifth year. He was about six feet tall, so he had about a foot on me, he had these amazing eyes that were either blue or green depending on the light, and he had reddish-brown hair. He was possibly one of the smartest and kindest guys in our year. Unlike some of the other Slytherin's, he didn't hold any kind of prejudice and, unlike James Potter, he didn't have the ego the size of the Quidditch pitch.

I froze as he approached, not knowing what to do with myself, and he smiled at me. "Hey Rainee," he greeted me, blinking in the sun.

"Er, hi Logan," I said back, thinking that I sounded an awful lot like Gemma had only a few minutes ago when Louis had greeted her, "How are you?"

"I'm all right," Logan's grin remained on his face as he stopped in front of me, "What about you? How have you been, Rainee?"

"I've been well," I hoped that I didn't sound as nervous as I felt, and I managed to keep smiling at him.

"Well uh, that's good. I was just down by the lake, actually. The breeze coming off the water is particularly nice today. Er, anyway, I guess I'll just be going," then he added with a smile as he started to walk past me, "I'll see you later, Rainee."

"Er, okay!" I called back, waving at him. Then, of course, I lowered my hand when he turned around before putting my palm to my face. I had probably looked like an idiot when I stood there waving at him. When I removed my hand from my face I saw Gemma emerge from the bridge, and she looked rather annoyed when she saw me standing there.

"Way to leave me alone with him! What kind of best friend are you, anyway?"

"Well," I thought for a moment, and then a smirk formed on my face, "Maybe not the 'best' kind."

"Rainee, no – the boomslang skin goes in later," James said as he pushed by hand away from the cauldron the next week. We were working on the Polyjuice potion, and, surprisingly, ours was the best-looking one in the classroom thus far. Of course, it would take a month before it would be finished, but even on the days we weren't adding anything to it or stirring it we would still take it out of the cupboards to check on it.

I glared at him intensely as he stirred in a small vial of dark liquid. When he was finished, he grinned before turning to look at me. Upon seeing my glare, however, his smile faded, "What's wrong now?"

"Nothing," I spat quickly. Seeing as we weren't currently in class, but just checking on the potion during a free period, I rose to my feet and put the boomslang skin back into its place. The less time I had to spend with him the better.

When I turned around, James was standing maybe two feet away from me. This was entirely too close for my comfort, especially when we were the only ones in the room. I couldn't read the expression on his face, but I guessed it was something between guilt and frustration.

"What?" I asked when he just continued to stare at me without saying another word.

I didn't expect what he asked next, "What are you doing on Saturday?"

"Studying, I guess," it took a moment for it to occur to me that he was possibly asking me if I wanted to do something with him. This confused me, of course, but for some reason it also made my cheeks warm, "Why?"

When he shrugged, I breathed a breath of relief. But then he said, "I was thinking that if you were free it might not be a bad idea for us to hang out."

"Hang out?" I nearly choked on the words, "hang out?"

Then he shrugged again, and I was screaming at him internally for shrugging like it was no big deal.

"What do you mean by 'hang out'?" I reiterated when he didn't say anything.

"I mean hang out like people tend to do when they want to get to know one another better," James said simply. I still didn't understand why he was asking – surely it had crossed his mind that the last thing I wanted to do was spend time with him. It further confused me that he wasn't smirking at me. For some reason, he didn't find me amusing this time and that was just so wrong that I didn't know what to make of it.

"Why?"

At this, James rolled his eyes impatiently, "I was thinking that it might help us to work together more efficiently. But, if you don't want to try it, then that's fine."

My brows furrowed together, "I don't think that will help at all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find Gemma."

Without another word, I pushed past him and started out the door. To my surprise, he didn't say anything else to me as I left.

For the rest of the week, I pretended that James didn't exist. This wasn't entirely possible to do during Potions, or when we went to check on our cauldron again on Friday, of course. But he resigned to only speaking to me if he needed me to hand him something. In fact, he didn't even look at me if he could help it. It was actually kind of nice, not having to deal with him smirking at me all the time anymore, but at the same time I couldn't help but wonder if I had offended him.

At first, the idea made me feel a little guilty. But the reality was that I didn't want to spend time with him, considering what a prat he was. Then, of course, it wasn't my fault that he was such a prat. So, really, why should I have felt guilty anyway?

I guess it shouldn't have surprised me when James approached me in the library on Saturday anyway. I was trying to finish up an essay for Transfiguration when I peered over my book and saw him peeking from around a bookshelf at me. At first, I thought I was imagining seeing someone there. But when I did a double-take and let the book fall flat onto the table I knew there was no mistake. James was definitely there, and he was definitely spying on me while I read.

I took a moment to rub my tired face before looking back over to the shelf he was hiding behind. "I know you're there," I called in something that was a mix between a whisper and a yell.

When James stuck his head out from behind the bookshelf again, and saw me looking at him impatiently, he tried to offer me a grin. Stepping out from behind it, he approached the table with his bookbag slung over his shoulder. I frowned as I realized he was going to sit with me, regardless of whether I liked it or not.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked as he sat down, not bothering to wait for my answer.

"Yes, I do," I said, pulling myself and my things away from him as if he carried a disease.

I knew he heard what I said, but he just grinned coyly and said, "Great, thanks." Then he started to pull some parchment as well as a text from his bag. Seeming to not be able to find something, he looked to me and asked, "You don't happen to have an extra quill, do you?"

I raised a brow, "Seriously?"

"Seriously, Rain. Do you have one or not?"

I gaped at him – nobody has ever called me Rain before unless they had a death wish. He didn't seem to notice though as he opened his text, thumbing through the pages until he came to the right one. Rolling my eyes dramatically, I answered, "Yeah, I have an extra quill," before pulling one out of a pouch on my own bag and throwing it at him.

Impressively, he caught it just before it would have hit him in the face. Damn his Quidditch skills. He smiled at me again as he said thanks before starting to take notes on the text he was reading.

I honestly tried to focus on my Transfiguraton essay again, but couldn't help glancing up at him every few moments. I didn't know what to expect from James anymore, considering all that had happened in the last few weeks. First, he volunteered to be my damned Potions partner. Then, seemingly on a whim, he works up the nerve to ask me to hang out with him. And then, even after I tell him no, he stalks me in the library before inviting himself to my table.

After several minutes, he noticed me glancing up at him cautiously. "Yes?" He asked, looking at me curiously.

I looked around, wondering if anyone else in the library had seemed to notice. But, considering we were surrounded by nothing other than bookshelves, there was nobody there that didn't have their nose buried in a book. Looking back to James, I sighed, "What are you playing at?"

"Playing?" He smirked, "I'm not playing anything. I'm just trying to study with my favorite Potions partner."

"That's not funny," I stated simply, "In fact, you're just being a total prat and it's very irritating."

"Oh come on," James laughed quietly, "I'm just teasing at all."

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not finding it amusing."

"Do you find anything amusing?"

I looked at him, shocked and very clearly offended, "Do what?"

He looked very serious as he re-phrased, "I was just asking if you find anything amusing. You know, anything – anything at all?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I find many things amusing!" I raised my voice, temporarily forgetting that I was in the library, "Actually, I would find it amusing if you fell down a flight of stairs!"

Before he could say anything else, Madam Pince appeared out of nowhere. Before she could tell me to leave though, I said to her, "Don't worry, I'm leaving now anyway!"

Quickly, I shoved all of my things into my bag before slinging it over my shoulder and hurrying from the library. Thoroughly angry at this point, I stormed through a corridor flat-footed, scaring everyone I passed into pressing themselves up against the walls. It wasn't until I reached the dungeons that I realized James still had my extra quill. Instead of going back to get it from him, I huffed angrily as I passed through the common room and then proceeded to throw myself down onto my four-poster when I reached the girls' dormitory.

A/N: Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Not sure when I'll update again, but it shouldn't be a three month wait like it was between this and the last chapter. heheh. Anyway, leave me reviews please. :)