I'm baaaack with another chapter really quickly! You'll notice my posting times is irregular :) And thank you all for the plentiful lovely reviews of last chapter! :D

"I think you need some prompting." Annabelle didn't look away from the mirrors as Sam spoke.

"Last time you said that, Kenzie ended up wearing a skirt the size of a tissue," she pointed out evenly. Kenzie flushed at the memory but didn't intervene, and Sam simply brushed away the accusation.

"It was for her own good. Besides, it ended with Draco leaving feeling rather awkward, and not the hateful kind of awkward, if you catch my drift," she replied. Eryn, who was sitting on the counter, swinging her legs idly, gave the brunette a strange look.

"How do you know? As far as we've heard, he only spoke to Kenzie." Sam dramatically tossed some curls over her shoulder.

"A girl knows these things," she sighed, one hand going to her forehead as she leaned back a bit. Kenzie snickered and rolled her blue eyes.

"Dammit!" Annabelle shrieked. "I can't get my Goddamn hair to stay the way I want it!" She furiously pulled off the headband and ponytail and started from scratch. In the mirror, all her friends could see her begin to screw up her face the way she did when studying her appearance.

"You're making faces again," Rose pointed out dully. Annabelle shot her a spiteful glance but didn't stop. It wasn't harming anyone.

"So, will you let me prompt your and Blaise's situation?" Sam put extreme emphasis and air quotes around the last word. Annabelle looked pained, pulling her curls over so they lay on her shoulder.

"I'm not entirely sure I trust you," she murmured. Sam brightened.

"You don't have to trust me! Just…do as I say without question!" A worried glance passed through the remaining four friends before Annabelle groaned a bit and nodded her consent. Sam fist-pumped the air. Kenzie face-palmed her forehead.

"Good luck," Kenzie whispered, but Sam took no notice. Her eyes were alight with excitement and brewing ideas.

"I've got a perfect plan!" A collective moan of chagrin, which she again ignored. "We'll make you and Blaise accidentally run into each other after Potions today! You have Potions with the Slytherin's last today, right?" Annabelle nodded, and Sam grinned wider. "Excellent!"

Quiet came over the group as Sam washed her hands and Annabelle fussed over her makeup and hair. The other three were staring at their feet or scrutinizing themselves in the mirror silently. Except Rose looked even more aggravated than usual. Eryn was the first to notice.

"Are you alright?" Eryn asked tentatively. All eyes went to Rose at the sudden break in the hazy silence, and she felt her cheeks grow slightly warmer at the attention. But that blush only made her think of the night before. She shrugged in what she hoped looked like a nonchalant fashion.

"Fine," she managed to squeak. None of them bought it. She cleared her throat. "I'm fine. Really. I just didn't get as much…practice in last night as I had hoped." Her stomach churned as dirty versions of the term practice marched through her head.

Thankfully, her friends bought it, though still looked a bit concerned. Rose tried to shrug it off and take her mind off of Ron.

It didn't really work.

"Splendid work, Mr. Zabini! I have never laid eyes on a finer rendition of the Hammerhead Shark Concoction!" Blaise bowed his dark head at Slughorn's approval, and Annabelle watched him with interest.

He wasn't cocky like Draco was, or stupid like Crabbe and Goyle, or overbearing and trying-way-to-hard-to-be-sexy like Pansy. He was his own type of Slytherin. And that was one of the things that Annabelle decided she liked about him.

Of course, she couldn't be sure if her theories were correct, as she had yet to actually speak to him. That was to happen in less than two minutes, when Sam's plan began. She would go to the front to ask Slughorn something – though he would've left, but she wouldn't notice till she was there – and swing her bag so it knocked over Blaise's knapsack and they'd be forced to clean it up and chat a bit. She had yet to find a hitch in that plan, as after several small studies of her prey, she noticed that he liked to hang back after everyone and slowly put away his things. Another trait she quite enjoyed.

The bell rang loud and true, and everyone shuffled out, save for Blaise and Annabelle. The latter got up and made her way to the front, where Slughorn was tugging his briefcase and going out the teacher's door. As he shut it, an echo rang and only Blaise and Annabelle remained.

She spun around at the lack of sight of her teacher, her bag moving in rhythmic time. However, she didn't realize how close she actually was to Blaise. And instead of getting his bag, she caught him in the eye.

With the corner of a textbook.

"Shit!" Annabelle cried as Blaise let out a groan of pain and held his eye tenderly. She dropped her satchel to the ground and knelt down next to him, although this made him quite a bit taller than her, just like in real life (which meant he was quite tall, as Annabelle was of reasonable height herself.)

"I am so sorry," she emphasized, not acting whatsoever now. She was genuinely apologetic that she had hit this poor stranger that she was going to attempt to seduce in a few moments. That latter thought was rushed out of her head, however, when he gently removed his hand from his left eye.

And she was caught completely off-guard.

His eyes were hauntingly beautiful. The most agonizingly enthralling irises she had ever seen. They were dark, empty, unfathomable. She could probably lean in and see all the way down into his soul if she wished. Yet something was lurking behind the black curtain he had hung to shadow a secret. Something she wished to find out.

"You okay there?"

Annabelle shook her head to wake up, feeling her face heat up a tad, but ignored it. It was the first time she had heard Blaise speak, and his voice was deep, gravelly, almost the way she had imagined. She cleared her throat.

"Yeah, fine. How 'bout you? How's your eye?" She fought the urge to reach out and touch the blossoming bruise to see if it hurt. He shrugged.

"Same. But…are you able to maybe heal it some? I don't wanna look like Draco had after Thorne knocked his lights out." She let out a strangled laugh but nodded nonetheless and took out her wand.

"Episkey?" she asked. He nodded and she steadied her breathing, praying that that A she'd gotten in Charms was just a fluke. Taking a deep breath, she pointed her wand tip at the bruise and said confidently, "Episkey!"

"Shit!" For a moment, Blaise looked in pain, and Annabelle began to panic. But the short-lived discomfort was soon taken over by what looked like tranquility. She watched as the purple mark slowly dissolve into nothing before her eyes. He gingerly touched the spot where she'd wounded him.

"Does it look any better?" he asked cautiously, and Annabelle nodded, proud of herself.

"It's gone! I did it!" Without thinking, she leaned in and wrapped her arms around his slender neck. She felt him stiffen at the contact, and hurriedly realized what she'd done, ready to pull away. But his own arms around her replaced fear with comfort.

"Thanks," he mumbled into her shoulder. She nodded.

"Anytime."

Then, rising and picking up her bag, she backed away and let him finish stuffing paper and quills into his. Together, they left the dungeons, headed for the Great Hall and dinner.

The Gryffindor common room's normal buzz of talking students simmered down to a bare hum as the evening went on. After dinner, many students had retired to their common rooms to get started on the massive amount of homework teachers had assigned. And since many started early, they finished early, too. So by ten 'o' clock, the only people left were Rose, Annabelle, Kenzie, Sam, and Eryn, all of whom were attempting to study.

"A potion consisting of crushed Boomslang skin and –"

"Polyjuice Potion!" Kenzie cut over Sam's talking. Rose gave her a look.

"You should really wait until the question is finished being asked before shouting out an answer," Rose reprimanded her friend. Kenzie flushed but didn't look displeased.

It was at that precise moment that noise came from the boy's dormitories, and down clambered Harry and Ron, both clad in pajamas and hair mussed a bit. Ron yawned widely, but stopped midway when he saw Rose curled up in the corner of the sofa, reading away, attempting to become invisible. He kept his gaze blank and simply finished his yawn.

"I'm getting a midnight snack," he informed Harry.

"Even though it's only ten?" Sam chuckled. Ron shrugged and left, and Rose unfurled herself a bit, stretching her legs out. Kenzie moved her own so they were between Rose's legs and the back of the couch.

"What's up, Harry?" Annabelle asked curiously, noticing he hadn't left with Ron. Obviously, there was a motive behind their sudden appearance.

Harry turned slightly pink and embarrassed. "I wanted to talk to Eryn," he mumbled. All her friends eyed the pair and kept down the urge to making ooooooooh-ing noises. Eryn set her book down.

"Yes?" she asked, trying to mask her interest and hope. Harry nervously eyed all her friends, to which she waved a hand. "They'll keep quiet. There's a good chance they'll find out what you're going to say anyway."

Even Harry couldn't deny that one. With a bit of a grin, he knelt down next to Eryn and put his hands on the arm of the chair.

"About…the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts –"

"Did I not thank you?" she cut over. "Because if I didn't, then thanks. Thanks so much."

He chuckled. "You have, actually. Numerous times. So no, that's not what I was going to say. Um…well, I wanted to ask you if you'd…gowimetoHogsm…" She gave him an odd look.

"I'm sorry?" He turned the color of strawberries.

"Will you…go with me…to Hogsmeade? On Halloween?"

Eryn nearly fell out of her chair, as did all of her friends (except for Kenzie, who was too far gone in her book to hear a thing.) Without seeming too desperate, Eryn nodded, biting back the world's most excited grin.

Her smile was only rivalled by his. He looked like a child who had just gotten Christmas, his birthday, and Easter all in one. He stood up, but didn't leave just yet. One hand went to Eryn's curls, and he slowly lowered himself to her.

They were half an inch apart when something interrupted them.

"Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me, oooooh!" Kenzie sang loudly, making every head turn in her direction. She looked up curiously from her book. "What?" she muttered innocently. Harry awkwardly backed away and simply patted Eryn on the head before leaving.

Kenzie immediately got numerous slaps to the arm, a scoop or two to the ass and her boobs, and then got kicked out a few minutes before Eryn and Sam left as well.

Another almost-kiss! :D YAY! I don't have much on Eryn/Harry or Blaise/Annabelle so I figured, what the hell? ;) More Neville/Sam next chappie! I'm super psyched to write it!

Review, s'il vous plait! :)