Dinner came and went and at around eight Poppet was sat cross legged on her bed skim reading 'Hogwarts: A History'. Rose had recommended the book and James had solidified her desire to read it by telling her that the author, Bathilda Bagshot, had once had a snake fly out of her throat to attack his dad. As far-fetched as this seemed, Poppet wanted to read it, especially as this was a special edition that had an extra chapter added about the life of the now dead author. Nobody else was in the dorm room. The Wotters, as Poppet was now going to be calling them, were downstairs in the common room but Poppet had excused herself because she was tired. In all honesty, she just wanted to peace and quiet. Now with James back on the scene, quiet moments were few and far between.

"Pop?" Florence popped her head around the door, "Are you alone?"

"Yeah, I am," Poppet said, closing the book and laying it down beside her. "What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Roxanne. And why I think she's been acting weird around James," Florence said. Poppet had forgotten about the promise of information from Florence.

Florence sat down on her own bed which was next to Poppet's. She was a tall girl, probably about 3 or 4 inches taller than Poppet. She dwarfed the other girls when she stood next to them. The only person taller than her in the group of Wotters was James, who was about an inch or so taller than her. Her brown eyes were always hidden behind glasses with chunky brown frames. Florence was smart. She didn't always show it but she was smarter than Poppet, Roxanne and Jocelyn. Poppet often wondered to herself why Florence wasn't in Ravenclaw. Poppet wasn't threateningly intelligent but had managed to get nearly all Exceeds Expectations in her OWLs, apart from Divination where she got Acceptable and Care Of Magical Creatures which she got Outstanding. Florence had shared her OWL results with Poppet in a late night whispering session, which the two girls seemed to have a lot lately. She had got nearly all Outstandings with the exception of History of Magic in which she got an Exceeds Expectations, and Transfiguration where she got an Acceptable.

"Last summer, I spent three weeks at Roxy's house with Jocelyn. Last but one summer they stayed at my house, the summer before we stayed at Jocelyn's," Florence explained, "We stayed mostly with her mum, dad and very attractive older brother but on the last week, OWL result week, we stayed with their entire family at The Burrow, where Roxy's grandparents live. It was great fun, and like a giant sleepover. We played Quidditch during the long summer days and had amazing feasts and night and everyone got on so well and it was so fun."

"Sounds really nice," said Poppet, dreamily.

Florence smiled, "I had the best time. Until our OWL results arrived. We were eating breakfast in the garden when they the owls arrived with our results. I was so nervous and then elated when I opened the letter, as I think everyone was. We all did the best we could, I think, and that was nice. That evening, we had a celebration. Jocelyn went home because her parents wanted to celebrate with her, so that just left Roxy, James and I who had our results. At dinner, a speech was made to congratulate us by James' dad, Harry Potter."

Poppet was impressed. To have your OWL results celebrated by Harry Potter seemed really cool. He was wizarding royalty. Everyone knew who he was and everyone adored him, because without him it is likely many people would have died.

Florence obviously noticed Poppet's expression of awe, "It sounds impressive but it was kind of weird. He was obviously proud of his son but in his speech, he kind of added her as an afterthought. It was like he was singing James' praises for 10 minutes and then suddenly remembered Roxanne existed. And then it sort of occurred to me that was what had happened all week. James seemed to be taking up everyone's attention and everyone else was sort of pushed to the side. It was probably not intentional on their parts but I could tell it made Roxanne upset. She went to the bathroom after the speech and didn't come out for ages. She wouldn't even let me in. It sucks because she did well too and nobody acknowledged it."

"Why didn't her parents make a speech?" Poppet asked, quietly.

"I don't know," Florence replied honestly, "I think it was general thought that Harry had covered all bases. It wasn't really even the speech. It was just how upset Roxanne got that made me realise that maybe she feels like she lives in James' shadow."

Poppet nodded. "So you think Roxanne is jealous of all the attention James gets?"

"I think so. He's the oldest Potter and he loves that, really laps it up. I bet you've heard him go off on one at school. He does that at home too. He gets all the attention here because he's Harry Potter's son and that's really bloody cool. It's kind of like everyone forgets that other people had a big part in the downfall of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, because Rose and Hugo's mum and dad had a huge part, and Roxanne's dad's twin brother died but everyone just remembers Harry Potter, I suppose," Florence explained.

"But what about Albus and Lily? They're Harry's kids too. Don't they get special treatment?" Poppet hadn't noticed Roxanne resenting them, and surely they got the same special treatment.

"I think it's James' attitude. They don't push for the attention. They're quite happy just bumbling along," Florence said, "James is, I'm afraid to say, an attention seeker."

Poppet nodded. It made sense. James got all the attention at school, at home, everywhere! He was the 'golden boy'. Roxanne obviously felt like she was always in the shadow of her Quidditch captain, very handsome and intelligent cousin. But Poppet was still having a hard time understanding one other crucial detail. "I still don't understand this whole Jeanette thing. Why'd she stop being friends with her?"

"I had it down as betrayal," Florence said, "you know, she was upset that her friend suddenly went off with James and didn't really spend that much time with Rox anymore."

Now this all made sense. She felt a pang of sympathy in her gut for Roxanne. She could see that James would be the type to steal the limelight. "I feel sorry for her."

"Me too, but I don't think she helps herself. She's going about it the wrong way. None of the other kids have let it get to them but Roxanne uses every opportunity she can get to turn James' family against him. I personally don't think it's fair on James. He does play up to the attention he gets, but at the end of the day he can't really help who he is," Florence smiled sadly.

Before Poppet had time to reply, Roxanne and Jocelyn burst into the dorm room, laughing loudly and obnoxiously. Poppet and Florence exchanged a look. Poppet knew what she had to do.

"Rox?" she said, softly.

"Yeah?" Roxanne sounded mildly irritated.

"You don't have to make up with James. I'm sorry I tried to make you," Poppet's voice was calm and even. Florence gave her a weak smile.

Roxanne sighed, her expression softening, "No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said you were up James' ass. That was wrong of me."

Relief flooded over Poppet and she could tell a wave of relief was settling over Florence as well, as she relaxed and unfolded her arms. Jocelyn looked around at all of them, a huge smile plastered on her face. Poppet guessed she felt awkward about there being a small rift in the group and was now relieved she wouldn't be forced to pick sides.

Poppet stood up and held out her arms. Smiling, Roxanne accepted and the two girls hugged tightly for a moment.

"Well, thank god!" Jocelyn said, finally.

The girls all laughed.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to James," Roxanne declared, clearly thinking she was being the bigger person and taking the high road. She looked very pleased with herself. Poppet smiled and the girls changed for bed, gossiping about Blane who had apparently told James that he quite fancied Florence.

The lights went out at nine thirty and Poppet decided to write her mum and dad a letter. She quietly pulled out parchment and a quill and huddled herself under her duvet, writing a letter by wandlight explaining that her first Quidditch match was in two weeks time and parents were allowed to come and watch and she'd be delighted if they both came. She thought they would both like to come back to Hogwarts, after all it was where they met and where they fell in love. Her dad had been in Hufflepuff and her mum in Gryffindor and her mum was delighted that Poppet was also in Gryffindor. She had asked them in a letter if they knew any of her friends' parents while she was at school and they told her they were the same year as Percy Weasley, who apparently was a sibling of Roxanne's dad.

She finished her letter and whispered "nox". Around the room, she could hear the soft snores of her friends. "Flo?"

"Yeah?" Florence whispered back. She was glad their beds were next to each other, otherwise these nightly chats would be non-existent. According to Florence, Roxanne was an extremely light sleeper and therefore they had to be as quiet as possible.

"Everything's back to normal," Poppet breathed.

"I wonder how long it'll last," Florence replied in an undertone.

"Hopefully forever," Poppet whispered pensively.

"That's unlikely," Florence sighed.

"I spoke to Jeanette today," Poppet said, moving the subject matter along.

"Oh, really?" You could tell that Florence admired Jeanette. Poppet wondered if it was because of her beauty or her academic achievement. She couldn't help but notice Jeanette's name on many academic trophies in the trophy cabinet on the way to dinner tonight. She had nearly as many as Hermione Granger, who Rose proudly pointed out was her mum, and Rose herself. Florence had one or two, but nowhere near as many as Jeanette.

"You didn't tell me she was part veela," Poppet said.

"Oh – didn't I? Yeah, she is. How did you know?" Florence asked.

"I worked it out. A few girls at Beauxbatons were part veela," Poppet said, simply.

"Dominique, Roxanne's cousin in Ravenclaw, is part veela too. But I think only an eighth, whereas I think Jeanette is a quarter," Florence yawned.

Stirring from Jocelyn's bed caused Poppet to jump, but she was merely rolling over. A loud snore confirmed the fact that she was still asleep. "Interesting."

"I've always found veelas interesting," Florence said, sleepily.

"Mmm," Poppet could feel herself drifting off to sleep. The beds in this dorm were just so damn comfy.

Florence could clearly tell this was the case, or was tired herself because with a final yawn she said "I'll see you in the morning."

Poppet murmured a reply, rolled over and fell fast asleep.

AN: Sorry this chapter was a lot of chat and no action. I just want to let you know that if you think this story will be turning to incest, you are very wrong. Inter-Weasley breeding is not on the agenda for this story. I also just wanted to address that the way I am characterising people is down to me. Harry might not fit your idea of book Harry but this is how I am going to potray him for the sake of the story. I also hope this chapter makes sense. It was meant to serve as an explanation to why Roxanne doesn't like James that much. It's because, in simple terms, he's a good student, good at Quiddicth and he steals all the attention. The OWL anecdote was the story of how Florence realised this. I am NOT saying that it's wrong of Harry to be proud of his son. I'm saying that Florence realised that Roxanne's achievements are often pushed aside in their family setting as James steals the attention all the time. Hopefully Florence managed to shed some light onto the situation. Next chapter: Quidditch! Keep letting me know what you think!