Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter characters, Rowling has all the credit. The artists have credit for their own songs as well, I just love music.

'Italics'- thoughts

'Bold'- singing

'Bold/italicized'- just the song that goes to the chapter

'((Bold and in double parentheses))'- Singing with Siren abilities, with only one set of parentheses its talking with the ability.

Author Note: Here's yet another one lol. Now I'm going to be starting classes again soon, I'll let you guys know when, but I won't be able to update too much then, kinda like now. And sorry again but I just got two words for everyone, two puppies. Lol.

Chapter 17

Well Divination was about the most uneventful class ever created; Rose and Al kept grumbling the whole time, quite amusing really. James just kind of stared off into nothing for the most part. I took it upon myself to make rude and sarcastic remarks whenever they came to me, others around me enjoyed them; including Rose. James even joined in, floating the crystal ball whenever Professor Trelawney's back was turned then quickly dropping it back into its holder when she turned around.

As we walked to the Great Hall we listened to the boys complain about their empty stomachs. "God, if I had known I would be going this long with no food I would have packed snacks!" Al said dramatically. Rose leaned over to my ear, "Five Sickles says he don't pack snacks tomorrow." I laughed, "Like I'd bet against you on that!"

The boys looked back to us, "Bet about what?" James asked. I gave him an innocent look, "Me bet, ladies don't bet James." I smiled and walked past him to my table. James just shook his head and walked to his table. "Hey, Alexis want to meet in the Library for Study Hall?" Rose called over to me; I spun around and waved while shouting 'yea'.

I took my seat next to Scorpio and Troy, "How's classes going for you Squirt?" I asked. "Don't call me Squirt, Dad does and it annoys me… and bored, barely surviving. You?" Scorpio answered smoothly. I shrugged, "Not much better,"

"That's not what I heard Alexis, I heard you had quite a charm filled morning." Troy said chuckling. "Who told you, it will be worth the detention…" I said with a glare, Troy just laughed. 'Crap I have detention tonight…yippee'

"Well I got to go to class, bye Sis." Scorpio said standing. "That was quick, you got to go already?" I asked. "Yeah, I get out of class before you; we have different schedules you know." Scorpio said in a know-it-all tone. "Don't get smart with me PION!" I said giving him a soft swat with the back of my hand before he was out of reach.

Just then my favorite person sat down across from us; Caroline. For the rest of lunch I continued to steal Troy's attention whenever Caroline tried to talk to him; it's not much but it kept me occupied.

I walked out of the Great Hall after lunch to meet up with Rose in the library. As I walked I noticed a black head of hair down the hall from me, "James!" I shouted. He turned his head from the person he was talking to and gave a small wave. I didn't have to change my pace to much to catch up with him; when I got close I noticed who he was walking with, Ashley. I smirked and walked up to the other side of James and coiled my arm around his arm causing him to jump a bit, "Hey, are you going to the library too?"

With his other hand he ruffled his hair, "Um, yeah I asked Rose to help me on that paper for Transfiguration." "Oh, yeah I almost forgot about that…" I said with a sigh.

Ashley cleared her throat and James quickly returned his attention to her. 'God seriously, her over me, you've GOT to be kidding me James!' I noticed; however, that she would cut me small glances that said 'in-your-stuck-up-face' James was a boy and therefore didn't notice.

'Oh, it's on Gryffin-bitch'

"James," I paused so he would look at me, Ashley cut me a glare, I just smile, "It was just so great today with you as my Herbology partner, do you think you can be my partner again? I'll owe you big for it." As I asked my question I reached my hand up and brushed some of his hair out of his eyes. His cheeks took on the color of rose frosted glass and I smiled up at him, paying no mind to the creature next to him. "Um, sure I think we can work that." He gave me a small smile.

Ashley let out a loud frustrated sigh next to James, "Well, since you two seem to be cozy in this little moment I better excuse myself, I have to meet my friends anyway." James turned back to her, "Oh uh, it's not really like that Ashley, you don't have to leave. I can walk you if you'd like." Ashley considered him for a moment before looking across at me, "No that's fine James, I would hate for you to walk around with your arm-candy for longer than necessary." "Yes, so please run along." I said leaning towards her and making a shooing motion with my hand.

Ashley took a step to me and I stood up face-to-face with her, "Going to perform one of your acts-of-bravery little Gryffindor?" James slipped his arms in between us, "Come on, now is not the time for this. Ashley…" James was trying to plead with her to step back. "Yes, Ashley your friends are waiting…" I tilted my head to the side and gave her a sickly-sweet smile. A few people had stopped walking in the hall waiting to see if the sparks that had been stirred up between Slytherin and Gryffindor would ignite a house fire.

Ashley gave a loud grumble and turned to leave to go meet her 'friends'. James looked down at me, "Do you really have to start something every time you see her?" "Me? She's the one who tried to refer to me as your sad arm-candy! You think I'm just going to lie down and take it like a lion?" I said back in a heated voice. "Hey, enough with the lion bashing, I happen to be a lion too," I cut in with, "Point proven…"

He sent me the first glare I had ever seen him give; aside for Troy, "Look I'm not always a pushover okay, everyone has their breaking points. Just because I'm quite and lay back and watch things happen doesn't mean I let people walk all over me or people I care about!"

I eyes got slightly bigger because I had never heard him speak like this; not that I had know him very long but hey this was different. "Okay sorry," I said putting g my hands in front of my chest in a sign of surrender turned and started walking to the library, "I didn't mean anything by the 'lion' comment, that was just the safest thing to say; I had other words in mind would you like to hear them?"

"No." James had still in his grumpy voice.

We walked into the library and I was forced to be quite because the crude looking woman sitting at the front desk gave me the eyes as I walked in the doors. James lead the way to the table Rose where parked at, and without looking at me he sat down got out his school things and started reading.

'Geese all this over a little lion comment?' Rose noticed our change in behavior immediately and gave me a questioning eyebrow. I sat down and pulled out a piece of scroll and wrote down what happened and what I said and passed it to her. She read it and looked back up at me then over to James, she gave her head a gentle shake before writing something back.

"Don't worry about him, he'll be fine, he's just got a quick temper sometimes and he does like Ashley so maybe you should lay off her a bit."

I gave a small 'humph' at what she wrote, "Yeah…what does he see in her anyway?" I wrote back

"Well, it's hard to explain since you're a Slytherin and you haven't and won't have any good encounters with Ashley. But she's just a good Gryffindor girl, nice, friendly, and loyal. It's just; her family has always been battling with Slytherins because they think that anyone from Slytherin is distasteful." Rose slid the parchment back to me.

I nodded and wrote back, "Yeah, I think I'll miss those 'friendly encounters' what do you think those would include? Hair pulling? A good jinx? Oh! Or maybe even scratching! And Slytherin's, distasteful? She should take a look at my wardrobe and tell me who's distasteful then!"

As she read my note she chuckled quietly and shook her head then wrote back "Get to work!" I replied with a "Yes mum…" before finally getting to work.

Half way through my essay James still hadn't looked at me or in my direction. So I took out the piece of parchment Rose and I wrote on earlier, vanished the ink, wrote him a message, and slid it over to him.

"Sorry" Then below it I drew a picture of a little snake and charmed to so it would slither up under my writing and blow him a kiss; I figured it would make him smile.

When he picked it up and read it he did smile, then he looked up to me and I smirked back at him. Then he wrote a message back. "It's okay, I over reacted anyway. I'm just trying to find a happy medium between being your friend… and maybe trying to work things with Ashley…"

He slid it back to me and I read it, 'Ugh, work things out with her…seriously?' So I decided to be extra bold and write back to him. "So you're telling me all you want with me is friendship? And you really want Ashley?" I slid it over it him and he went first white then red and then looked up at me with a shy, confused, and unsure look; if there was ever one…

James wrote a quick answer and slid it back across the table to me, "I've liked Ashley for a while…" I looked over at him and his face was down in his essay and I could see the tops of his cheeks were red again. I wet my quill in ink and wrote two words back to him.

I slid it back over to him and looked up to me first but I held my face still not to give anything away, then he looked down and read it. "People change." James looked back up to me with a regretful expression? I turned down to my essay and began to write; I was almost finished when it was time for our next class, Potions…

As we walked Slytherins began to line themselves with me on one side and on my other I had Rose; she was nice to have around she actually had a brain that didn't revolve around the best shag, not that there was anything wrong with that… James didn't say a word to me and I didn't talk to him, it was awkward but then it wasn't, so that counts as awkward right?

When we walked in to class Mrs. Scarlet was leaning back against her desk waiting for all of us. "Please sit with your houses everyone." She said scanning the crowd that came in.

I heard James give a disappointed sigh from the other side of Rose I glanced over to him and he was looking at me with a sad expression, like he wanted to say something but couldn't. I moved across the room and took a seat next to Troy and Alice and waited for class to start.

Once everyone was seated Mrs. Scarlet talked again, "Good afternoon I hope everyone's day is going well. Now for today's class we'll be making a simple potion for advanced level students such as yourselves; Wartcap Powder. Now I want everyone to get in groups of three, get your supplies, and then begin making your powders." Troy, Alice and I all looked at each other then played rock-paper-scissors to see who had to go get the supplies; Alice lost.

"Oh, and one more thing," Professor Scarlet added, "I will say now that I have not interest who you work with throughout the year, I will assign no permanent groups, it's your choice if you care about your grade or not."

'That's fair, and the best rule I've received from a teacher all day.' I thought thinking back to Head Mistresses class and she said we'd have to work with someone from a different house and a different person for each group activity we did.

So we all stood and began making our powders, "Why does Potty keep eyeing you Alexis? Finally realize he can't have you?" Troy said staring over at James.

I looked over my shoulder and sure enough James was staring over at us, well right now he was glaring at Troy but when I looked back he looked at me. "I don't know, why don't you go ask him if you're dying to know?" I said turning back to our potion that would soon be a powder mixture… if we got it right.

"Yeah, as if…" Troy mumbled before he turned to out potion and attempted to put in some effort.

As we left potions; my group made a prefect powder and of course Rose did as well, I let out a sigh of relief, I had made it through the day and now I could go enjoy Chorus class.

"Catch up with you later Rose!" I shouted as Al and I parted from the group and made our way to chorus. "So, what do you think we're going to do in chorus?" I asked Al as we walked through the crowds.

"Probably just get in groups, get our music, and maybe work on lines or something. She's usually not too strict on the first day." Al said pushing kids out of his way, seriously they had no idea what personal space was…

"That's good; it's been a long day…" I said letting out a loud sigh and glaring at a younger classmen who almost fell into me. "Yeah, I noticed… What happened between you and James? He started to tell me after class but we had to split up…" he said looking down at me and shrugging at the end.

I let out another breath and my bangs fluttered on my forehead, 'Just when I thought I left this with James…' "It's nothing, he was walking with Ashley when I caught him after lunch and one thing lead to another." I waved my hand a bit showing I didn't really care to talk about it, hoping he'd move on. "Oh, did I miss the showdown? Who won?" Al said laughing. I felt a slight pang after he asked who won, I wasn't use to this he was just a boy but I wanted him to be my boy. Alas in the end he chose the other girl, this blows but there are always more boys in the school *smirks*.

'Or, you could make him yours, all you have to d is sing a few notes for him…' A voice called out from the back of my head, I shook my head in an attempt to get rid of it. 'Like I would sink to that level…'

We stepped into class and Al went over to his band buddies while I found Jasmine and Crystal. "Gather 'round, gather 'round. I will be assigning songs to year's groups. Now, before we get doing too many things let me say this, we will be performing two concerts as of now before you leave for the winter holidays. First will be a children's concert; we will be visiting St. Mungo's hospital and entertaining the children there." Voices rang out in 'awes' and 'how sweet.' "Our second will be the Christmas feast before you all leave for the holidays. Now if each group could form lines then I'll be able to get these out in an orderly fashion." Mrs. Ruthford said waving her hands wide showing where she wanted the lines and we all followed suit.

"Well Alexis, you're probably going to have to memorize all of our songs since you're our secret prize," Jasmine said laughing. I smirked, "Yeah, but that's not a problem for me remember?" Crystal chuckled and Jasmine glared back at me, "I ain't singing anything for you to memorize." She said turning around and crossing her arms.

Our whole line laughed out right, the sixth years looked at us like we were crazy and the fourth years looked like they wanted to laugh just because we were. Jasmine scolded the fourth years with something and I started back at some of the sixth years, "I do pictures and autographs later, please stop staring." I said looking back ahead Mrs. Ruthford was almost at our line…I guess that's what we get for being in the middle. My little comment caused my line to laugh again and the sixth years mumbled something among themselves; who cares their not important anyway.

Then the student began passing back the book with the songs in them, it was a thin book; paper, but there was no doubt in my mind that it would take until Christmas to prefect all of these songs. After we got our books we looked around a bit then Jasmine and I looked at each other and shrugged and began to walk away to sit down, Mrs. Ruthford didn't object.

I looked through our book and read some of the song titles:

My Will

Every Heart

It Was You

So Small

The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun

Newgrange

Beyond the Sea

Caledonia

Storm

If Everyone Cared

After skimming a few I flipped to the back section of the book to read some of the Christmas songs.

Ding Dong Merry on High

O Holy Night

White Christmas

The Christmas Song

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Let it Snow

White Christmas

12 Days of Christmas

I read a few names, only I didn't know the last song but I can worry about that later. We sat around just talking and making fun of each other when the opportunity presented itself. Then I remembered, "Hey, Crystal," I dug into my bag and pulled out her iPod, "here you go I'm done with it."

"Really? Cool so you're now up to date with our music right?" Crystal asked taking back her iPod causing people to laugh. "Yes, haha, I'm all 'caught up'." I said laughing.

"Good, you won't mind proving it then," Crystal said in a challenging voice, "I'm going to do shuffle on my iPod and the first song it lands on, you have to sing it."

All eyes were on me, "Fine." Then Crystal pressed the shuffle button, she looked down at the screen and almost fell back laughing. She threw her iPod at me and I read the screen, it was Sir Mix-A lot, Can't Touch This… I glared at her, "Okay, I'll sing the first one that comes up that I can sing." Crystal laughed again, "What, you can't sing that?" I just threw back her iPod as my answer.

"Okay, okay," she picked it up and hit the button a second time. "Here you go," she said flashing me the screen. It was Cascada, Love Again. I smirked, "Okay, just find someone to do the music." I said standing.

Crystal also stood, "Marcus! Hey we need you!" she shouted across the room and I turned to look to who she was speaking to. A dark boy stood up, "With what?" he shouted back.

"Testing our new singer," Crystal shouted back. "How 'bout you come over here and stop the shouting match? I'm pretty sure Crystal would win anyway." I shouted over to the boy and he moved over towards us with some of his friends following.

Then Al, Trent, and David also walked over, "Their testing you? Haha stupid ideas, if it's singing you're going to pass." Al said chuckling. "Yeah, but we're testing her to see if she's caught up with our age of singing." Crystal said before turning to Marcus. "So, we need you to amp up the music behind a song but fade out the words, can you handle it?"

The boy Marcus laughed, "Please, girl. Just give me the song." And she did. I made a shooing motion with my hands for everyone to back up and give me space and the music began playing.

I can see it in your eyes,
No more tears, no alibis,
I'm still in love with you,

I stretched my hand towards the group and made my voice ring loud since I didn't have a mike; not that I really needed one I usually just made my voice louder anyway.
There's so much I gotta show,
I will never let you go,
But still I know for sure,
Come take me by the hand,

I curled my fingers into my palm and brought it to my chest and began to bob my head to the thumping beat of the song.
This summer never ends,

And I want to know that you believe in love again,
Please tell me now it's not the end,
'Cause this I promise you so true,
The summer belongs to you,

I gave a wink to Chris and he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows at me, he must have been trying to get me to mess up.
Could you believe in love again?
How can I make you understand?
But this I promise you so true,
The summer belongs to you.
Other people had begun moving to the beat of the song in step with me 'Like stealing candy from a baby,' I thought.
The summer belongs to you.
I walked up to Chris and rested my hand on the side of his face as I sang.
Would you catch me if I fall?
Crash and burn and lose it all,
Tell me what to do,

I stepped back out into the opening the group had formed.
'Cause I need you night and day,
Will you ever run away?
Just one more thing to say
I held up one finger with my hand motioning with the song.
Come take me by the hand,
This summer never ends,
I bobbed my head in time with the music like before; talk about asking for a head rush.
And I want to know that you believe in love again,
Please tell me now it's not the end,
'Cause this I promise you so true,
The summer belongs to you,
Could you believe in love again?
How can I make you understand?
But this I promise you so true,
The summer belongs to you.
Then I began jumping in time with the music and other joined in; mostly guys because they were acting like idiots…
The summer belongs to you

I caught my breath, "There, satisfied?" I said putting my hands on my hips. Jasmine wiped a fake tear away and Crystal leaned into her pretending to cry, "We did it Jas, she's finally one of us now…" and she turned her head into Jasmine's shoulder and pretended to cry. Jasmine sniffled, "I know, I'm just so happy and proud…" and she clung to Crystal crying too.

"Oh, god you two are idiots…" I said rolling my eyes. "Oh, come on girl. That's a huge step up from what you were listening to when you got here!" Jasmine said shaking Crystal off, gently, and putting her hands on her hips. "Yeah, yeah," I waved them off, "So was it good?" I asked raising a brow. Jasmine, Crystal, Al, and Chris all looked at me like I was dumb, "Of Course," "Yeah," "Duh," "I knew you wanted me." Was what I got in response, all at once. I took all of them in but then paused and the 'wanting' one, I looked at Chris and he was smiling. I laughed and gave him a half hug then we all just made jokes about me and Chris actually hooking up and how I'd probably kill him for being such a joker.

Then the bell rang and it was THE END OF THE DAY! HURRAH! We all gathered our things and bolted, but Mrs. Ruthford shouted at us as we tried to make our break, "HANG ON EVERYONE! THE BOOK YOU WILL NEED FOR THE VISIT TO ST. MUNGOS WILL BE AT THE BOOK STORE IN HOG'S MEAD. SO I ADVISE YOU TO GET IT WHEN YOU GO IN TWO WEEKS!"

I mumbled, "Who knew she had it in her…" Jasmine and Chris laughed because they were closest, then we all continued our stampede out of the classroom and onto free time to do whatever!