"Hey, Oliver," I said, throwing myself onto the sofa he was sitting on. I sighed, rubbing my temples with my fingers.

He looked up from his book, grinning. "Bad day?"

I shook my head. "Just confusing, I suppose. I mean the whole thing with Jimmy earlier..."

"Not to mention the entire Teddy incident," he added. "Don't worry about it too much, Tori. At least try not to. I mean yeah, what happened between you and Teddy obviously impacted him in a negative way, but worse stuff has been done to him, mostly by your doing..."

"Oliver!"

He grinned and continued, "Teddy has a tough skin. He can take care of himself. It might take him a few, er, years to completely get over you but he eventually will. It really sucks when you like someone who doesn't like you back."

"I doubt you would know anything about that, Oliver." I rolled my eyes.

"What makes you think that?" He asked. "For your information, I go through life every day wanting a girl, one specific girl, who will never go with me. Ever. I just hide my feelings better than Teddy."

"Definitely better than Teddy."

"But I don't bother myself with it too much," he continued. "With the girl, I mean. I've liked her for almost three years now and I'm fine. I date other girls and I'm okay with that."

I clicked my tongue. "Oliver, that's terrible! You go out with all those girlfriends while you're still in love with that one specific girl?"

Oliver laughed. "You make me sound like such a girl, Tori! No I'm not 'in love' with her, I just fancy her, that's all. I've just fancied her for a long time."

"Three years is an exceptionally long time," I commented. "But Teddy does beat you out there. He's been fully 'in love' with me for over a decade."

"That's a title he can keep," Oliver replied, smiling.

I sat up on my knees, grinning at him. "So who's the girl?"

"What?"

"This girl you've liked for so long. Who is she?"

He closed his book, placing his quill inside to mark his place, and laughed. "I'm not about to tell you!"

"Why not?"

"Because I just know you'll go to my ever-annoying sister and spill it out to her, giving her license to mock me about it for the rest of my life!"

"I wouldn't tell Nell!" I exclaimed. "I don't tell Nell stuff like that. She's far too talkative. But don't tell her I said that..."

"I won't," Oliver assured me. "You can tell her yourself." He demurely nodded his head to the right, where Nell was coming from the portrait hole looking particularly pissed.

"Where were you at dinner?" she accused me, coming straight over to the pair of us. She stood there, hands on hips, tapping her foot. "Neither you or Imoen were there and I had to sit with Katy and Liz. Katy and Liz! I mean they're nice girls and our roommates and all but to sit and eat with them? Torture. Complete torture."

"Katy Sumpter is a perfectly sweet girl. And Liz Richert is just...congenial."

"Katy Sumpter..." repeated Oliver slowly. I don't even want to think about what was going on in his twisted mind at that moment.

"Girls like Katy Sumpter are the reason why I have silencing charms placed all around my bed in our dorm," smirked Nell. "And to block out the noise of Imoen's little pet."

"Where is Imoen?" asked Oliver.

Nell shrugged, "I wouldn't know, maybe in her dorm. Anyways, at least Katy and Liz left after a little while to go talk to Schleitzer Markov. Apparently he had some hot gossip. Jimmy Mayer apparently kissed some girl in front of a large portion of the school or something like that." She laughed sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

But her laugh was majorly overpowered by Oliver's. He burst out in a gut-wrenching guffaw at this comment, his entire body shaking. I elbowed him in the side but he just continued before standing and laughing out, "This is my cue to leave. I have to go, er, study. See you all later," and running up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

Nell rolled her eyes and smirked. "He's such a moron. Sometimes I can't even believe we're related, not to mention twins." She sat down on the sofa, taking Oliver's place. "So where were you and Imoen? Not hungry?"

"We started to come," I began, "we wanted to, but we just couldn't."

"Why?"

"I don't know...we just walked in and saw Jimmy and Oliver standing right close to the door and then it just didn't seem like such a good idea...it might have been really awkward."

"Why would it have been awkward? It's never been before..." Nell was smiling confusedly but then a sudden look of realization came over her face. "Oh Merlin, Tori...you're not saying that you and Jimmy..."

"It really was nothing, Nell. I mean, it didn't mean anything. One moment we were just walking along talking about Teddy Lupin and the next he was kissing me..."

"I thought you hated him," Nell said. "You've always said you hated him."

"I do!" I insisted. I looked down at my skirt. "I did..."

"So that one little kiss changed everything, did it?" Nell asked.

I laughed a bit. "I wouldn't exactly call it little."

Nell rolled her eyes and scoffed in the most sarcastic manner that she could pull off. "This is so typical of you, Tor. You complain about someone for years, you make me and Imoen listen to your whining, and then you just go back on everything you said."

"That is so not true, Nell."

"You know it is," she replied coldly. She shook her head and looked up at the ceiling. "Do you like him or what?" When I didn't immediately reply she asked, "Victoire, do you like him?"

"No!" I exclaimed. "I told you it was nothing! It was all because of Teddy Lupin! He made me incredibly upset after class today! Remember that note that we were passing--"

"Oh, it always comes back to Teddy Lupin, doesn't it?" Nell gave a short, heartless laugh. "Everything is always because of Teddy Lupin. He affects everything: your friends, your love life, your grades, and you just sit there and lap it all up so you can have something to whine about to Imoen and me and Oliver. And another thing," she added, standing up and looking down at me, "don't think I don't realize that you press all your worries onto Oliver just to get closer to him. You've fancied him for years and you just display it by cozying up to him and getting sympathy."

"That is completely untrue and you know it!"

"Victoire!" Nell exclaimed, gesturing wildly with her hands. "I just came in through the portrait hole and the very first thing I see is you sitting two inches away from my brother, your bare skin practically pressed onto him. And it's honestly really pathetic to see you throwing yourself in front of the three guys who can't have you."

"I don't throw myself at Oliver. I don't like Oliver like that. He likes someone else, anyways."

"That's what all of your boys say, don't they?" Nell raised an eyebrow. "Oliver dates other people. Jimmy does. Even Teddy goes out with other girls. It's all to try and prove that you don't control them, have you ever thought about that? And it's so ridiculous how you try and tempt them by hugging all over them when you'll just pull away when they try to hug you back."

"I don't even hug Teddy! Or Jimmy!"

"You will though," Nell nodded. "You're already getting over your hatred of Jimmy because he kissed you and watch, the same exact thing will happen with Teddy. Just watch. But in time, Victoire, they'll find out that you're just a selfish, unremarkable tease. It's a good thing I already know or I might have actually trusted you."

With that, she stormed away.

"Merlin, Teddy! I know you're mad but did you really have to wreck the entire room? It's going to take me at least ten minutes to shove all this back under my bed." Damian Gray kicked his way into the dorm he shared with Teddy, slowly navigating his way through the mess he had made.

"Shut up, Damian," Teddy muttered. He sat on his four-poster bed playing around with a practice snitch Harry had gotten him for his last birthday.

"Touchy," Damian commented, throwing himself onto his own bed and levitating his clothing from the floor to into his trunk with his wand. "Do you want to go play a scrimmage on the pitch? Or get something to eat?"

"No."

Damian grinned slyly and sat up on his bed. "So did you hear that Jimmy Mayer snogged Victoire Weasley?" He only barely managed to duck as the enchanted snitch began to beat him about the head. "Call it off, Teddy! It was just a joke!"

Teddy took the enchantment off and sat back. "Well it wasn't funny. Don't consider going into comedy anytime soon."

"Thanks," remarked Damian. He was quiet for a moment before saying, "This is gonna sound really strange and random, Teddy, but I think it's kind of cool what you're doing for Victoire."

"For Victoire?" Teddy scoffed. "Lately I feel like I'm doing something to her."

Damian shrugged. "Well, you are. But she's never gonna find another guy who'll fall all over her like you do. I mean, I definitely wouldn't." He got up and began to leave the room. "Keep trying. She'll come around."

As the door clicked close, Teddy smirked and thought to himself, Yeah. Or she won't.


Yes, I know that this is a long-awaited and short chapter but life has been so busy lately. I really wanted to get this chapter out though because I think it gives a lot of clues as to who the characters really are...what you might not see at first glance. Please give feedback on what you think of the characters--what you like and don't like. It's hard for me to judge them, as their creator. Just a quick reminder: REVIEW! (: