A/N: I would like to say thank you to my faithful readers! I apologizing to you for taking a hiatus, but I am going to finish the story out now, as I am home and done with finals.

The Seventh Year

Chapter 12

The Inflation and the Dates Confirmed

They were in Charms, their last class of the day, when the girls pounced on them, even Jin.

"Is it true?" Cat whispered. "The whole Slytherin house is up in flames."

"The girls in my dorm were all complaining about Blaise no longer being available," said Luna dreamily. "It's a bit strange really, they could stop paying so much attention to my cousin and help me get rid of the Nargles."

"Blaise is your cousin, too?" Jin gasped. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Luna blinked owlishly. "I thought you knew."

"Back to Blaise being unavailable," Ginny hissed impatiently. "Isa, are you really going with him?"

"Never mind that," Cat snickered. "Erin, what about you and Draco?"

The twins were whispering to each other, eying the windows of the castle warily. Hermione was the only one who caught on to this. "What are you two doing?" she asked suspiciously.

"You don't think someone else could have gotten it again?" Marisa growled, her eyebrows knitting together.

"Not this time. Definitely not this time," Erin assured her.

Sophie hit her to get her attention. "E! Hello, we are trying to talk to you about the feast here."

"Not now," Erin waved her away impatiently.

"But there are rumors flying all over the school!" Sophie said impatiently. "Aren't you embarrassed? Or indignant? Or something?"

Marisa snorted. "When am I not indignant?"

"Guys!" Ginny wailed. "I want to know if the rumors are true or not!"

"Don't you think we would have seen her by now?" Erin muttered.

Cat was about to politely ask a question, when the door opened and Professor Sinistra was standing there with a haggard looking Katya.

"Oh, Iriny!" Flitwick tittered, falling off his stack of books. "What brings you here?"

The woman's eyes twinkled as laugh lines formed around her eyes. "Well, Professor, I was hoping you could help me out."

"Yes, yes, of course," he muttered, picking himself up amid subdued snickers from the Slytherin section. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, you know I am not known for my charm work, and it seems as though a rather complicated one was set upon one of my students," she told him.

"Oh no," Erin breathed. "Why'd she have to be in Sinistra's class? She knows everything."

"What happened?" Flitwick squeaked.

Katya was glaring at the twins from behind Sinistra, and made a "what the hell?" sort of gesture with her hands.

Erin had a completely blank, innocent face on, as Marisa very carefully studied the ceiling.

"Well, Natalie Zhu was calmly working on an assignment when all of a sudden she swelled up to at least twice her normal size and started floating around the room."

Hermione gasped. "You got that idea from Harry, didn't you?" she accused.

She got twin blank stares in response.

"Inflation?" the Charms professor raised his eyebrows. "Hmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm. Well—" shrieking could be heard faintly outside the classroom, but Flitwick didn't seem to notice, "—where is the poor girl now?"

Natalie floated past the window, yelling and screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Why, I do believe that was Natalie just now," Professor Sinistra said calmly.

"Yes, well," Flitwick waved his hand frantically. "We must go and fix this immediately. Or at least tether her. Coming, Iriny?"

"Oh yes, Flitwick, thanks very much," she said, following the minute professor out of the classroom with Katya. She turned to look at the students, "Be good in his absence children."

Then she searched the room until her eyes alighted upon the twins, who had returned to their very innocent act. "Nice work," she mouthed, and then vanished into the hallway.

The twins were both shocked for about two seconds before they both started howling in laughter. "Nice!" Erin shrieked, and they high-fived. Another for the record.

"Yes, yes, that was lovely," Sophie brushed them apart, but she was grinning. "Now will you tell us about the Halloween Feast?"

"Crazy is going with ferret-boy," Marisa sold her sister out maliciously.

"Yeah well, Benz-Deux is going with ink-arm," Erin glared.

There was a collective gasp and general clatter, before Marisa hissed, "Shut up, they're right there."

Which was unfortunately true. Erin peeked around Jin and saw the two Slytherins lounging with their usual cronies and smirking at the knot of girls. Draco winked at her and licked his lips. Erin scowled. "I hate men," she muttered to her friends.

A/N: Poor Natalie. . .lol.