A/N: I have been so busy with writing, I really didn't expect to even WANT to continue with work I can't claim as my own but I'm focusing all my energies on writing at the moment so I suppose it was only natural something would come out of it for "Simple to Complex". This is an odd little chapter but I finished it in only a few hours of eager writing, I have a feeling there's more coming. Part of what I've been doing with my writing is a couple of "journal" blog type things which include news on my fanfictions , that's on deviantART.

[ www. . com ] Now the reason I'm telling you guys is because on my deviantART I have two fanfictions - to do with "Sand to Snow"/"Simple to Complex" - and I will be uploading more. One is in fact about Freddy and another that is going up within the space of a week is about James and Lily (the first).

Another thing I would like to add is that any beta readers who are interested in fixing up any of my works including Sand to Snow / Simple to Complex please let me know. Adieu! BellatrixisFred.

Time Passes… September/October

September 2nd

School began but nothing was quite as James remembered, not even Ruby. It wasn't that his girlfriend had changed, it was just now her uniform was a little different with a shiny gold "Head Girl" badge pinned to it, Reid had a matching one proclaiming him as "Head Boy" and the pair of them had an office that made a useful and warm area for their group to spend breaks and free periods in. Everything was different and everyone - with an exception of Ruby - was behaving Ruby was the steadiest thing in his life and James found himself relying more and more on his girlfriend's support. From the start it was clear things were different, Nate sat with Erin on the train ride, at meals, during breaks and spent as much time with her as possible. The old Nate hadn't returned with the school year. So everything was just a little bit different and James had to remind himself a dozen times a day that Nate wasn't their friend anymore, or at the moment it didn't matter. What did was that he wasn't there as James turned to tell him something, to point something out, make a joke and generally talk in the way he only could with Nate. It was in this that Ruby was trying to help by being there when Nate wasn't, James noticed that and was thankful for her efforts but still it wasn't quite the same.

"JAMES POTTER WILL YOU PAY ATTENTION!" Professor Bryant yelled, breaking through James' thoughts.

"I am, was, Sir." James assured the Professor hurriedly.

"What were we discussing then Mr Potter?"

"The Patronus Charm Sir." James answered.

"Excellent and by any chance might you be able to name a famous user of the Patronus Charm Mr Potter?"

"Harry Potter Sir."

"And as he is your father I am presuming you can show us all how it is done."

"Certainly Sir."

And as James summoned a memory of snowball fights with Ruby to mind, thoughts of Nate were, for the moment at least, forgotten.

September 9th

Ruby held onto her crying friend tightly.

"Lilah, it's going to be alright." Abbey said in a soothing voice. Delilah looked up at Abbey, eyes noticeably puffy showing just how much she had been crying. Normally Delilah's dark skin hid all signs of tears but not today.

"But how do you know? Today marks a month since that last fight, a month since Nate last spoke to me and two months since he started seeing Erin." Delilah demanded before dissolving in tears again.

"Lilah, Nate will get over it. You know he will." Ruby said, trying to reassure her distraught friend.

"And how do you know that?"

"Delilah eet iz nothing other zhan infatuation or Erin would not make such demands of 'im and you know it. Zhey won't last when Erin realizes zhat without 'is parents Nate iz penniless, Erin knows she 'as alie - al -" Marie' floundered struggling over the difficult word.

"Alienated." Wendy supplied.

"Wee, ali-en-a-ted, Nate from 'is family. Erin knows zis and she will be leaving 'im. Eet iz only a matter of time." Marie' finished.

"May-y-be so but but - how am I meant to last between now and when that happens? Erin could decide to keep Nate until such time as a richer candidate comes along. That could be all y-y-ea-r!" Delilah burst out, tear more of frustration then of sadness spilling down her cheeks.

"Nate is far smarter than that Delilah. He will realize after the first infatuation fades that she is playing him and I seriously doubt Nate will allow himself to be played." Wendy said in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's not in his character."

"You think?" Delilah asked, drying her eyes on Abbey's pale blue sheets and leaving mascara marks all over them.

"What I think is that wiping your face on my sheets is gross." Abbey objected.

"I agree with Abbey, who knows what she and Reid have done in there." Ruby said with a grin at her blonde haired friend.

"Gross!" Delilah moaned jumping off Abbey's bed with more agility then Ruby had ever seen her display before.

"You feeling better then Lilah?" WEndy asked a little anxiously. Delilah nodded her assent and Wendy breathed a sigh of relief. "Good because we all have two essays due tomorrow."

September 13th

It had been nearly two weeks since Lily had been able to sneak off with Chase. Two painfully slow weeks. The pair of them had expected spending time together to be easier but it was the complete opposite. Lily supposed it wouldn't be hard for them to sneak off of an evening, they could perhaps use the Room of Requirement - but the main problem preventing the two of them meeting up was finding a way to communicate a place to meet up without anyone else suspecting a thing. The amount of time spent apart was starting to make Lily wonder if Chase was having second thoughts, she knew it was probably stupid but she was very insecure about their relationship, why would he want to date a girl three years his junior and with far less experience? When Lily looked at people three years her junior, she saw second years and that wasn't at all appealing, romantically speaking.

So it came as something of a surprise when she sat down to another boring History of Magic lesson, opened up her notebook and found Chase's handwriting scrawled on what should have been the next blank page - the first page, Lily never took notes in History of Magic.

Lils,

You left this in the common room - silly Lils. As I'm not sure when you next have History of Magic I know I'm going to have to give a little time between now and when you next open this book, because clearly you don't use it much. This is the first page! Meet me on the 15th at midnight in the Room of Requirement, so we can catch up on lost time. We'll figure out a way to communicate then. Let me know if you can make it by leaving this book on the little table beside "Freddy's chair" if you can't I'm free every day except when I have Quiddich training (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) and would skip out on Quiddich training except for the fact that James would want to know why. And I'm not game to tell him. See you soon.

Chase

Lily re-read the letter twice, practically bouncing up and down in her seat with excitement as she pulled out a quill and some ink to write her answer.

Make it tonight!

September 19th

James crushed his lips against Ruby's, the stack of books on charms work in her lap tumbling to the ground as she drew him on top of her pressing their bodies closer together. There had been little opportunity for time alone and all of it had so far been spent on homework, the most the pair of the could exchange were fairly chaste kisses which were not nearly as satisfying as the kind of intense snogging that they were participating in now. James felt Ruby's small hands slide under his shirt while he busied himself with tangling his fingers in her beautiful dark red hair.

Two years together had taught the pair of them exactly how to best please each other and Ruby had already anticipated James' wish to touch her hair and held her head slightly off the couch, correspondingly James had lifted himself slightly off her to allow Ruby to touch his chest. James tingled everywhere Ruby's skin touched his, heat flushing through his body. Vaguely James realized that this kiss was getting far to intense for the common room, regardless of the late hour, but his common sense was overridden by his desire for Ruby. Someone else's wasn't though.

"Uh James - Ruby, this is really not the best place."

Ruby cursed as James, reluctantly drew his lips of hers.

"Seriously Neville? Right now? Do you have any idea how hard it is to have any time alone with James during NEWT's year?" She demanded of their herbology professor.

"Hannah and I managed it around Death Eaters - I feel absolutely no sympathy for you." Neville said smiling in the face of what James thought to be a pretty terrifying glare from Ruby.

"No one is here except you, who's going to care?"

"Well Professor McGonagall comes to mind straight away but I imagine there would be others who use this couch regularly." Neville said mildly. "Ruby you as Head Girl have your private office which if I recall is shared with a friend, a friend who would allow the pair of you to use it in exchange for the same thing. James you as Quiddich Captain have your own office - you have plenty of places to go. Do not use the common room."

"Yes Neville." The pair of them said in unison, both grinning because they hadn't considered using their offices for that use before.

"Good, I'll make sure the teachers know to avoid your offices like plague." Neville said shaking his head as he left the common room.

"So recess tomorrow?" James asked of his girlfriend.

"Hell yes."

September 30th

The great hall hadn't changed, it was just like he remembered it, full of shouting, laughter, the screech of owls, the sound of cutely scrapping against china and newspapers being unfolded. The sky above was picturesque, a very pale blue with the wintery sun lighting up the grounds and sparkling as it hit the lake's surface. The chamber itself was still magnificently carved marble and heavy, well-crafted wooden furniture, scattered with girls talking at unbelievable speeds attempting to cover all the gossip the weekend's party had produced and boys grinning at each other discussing plans for pranks for checking out said girls, depending not their age. Yes the great hall and it's atmosphere hadn't changed.

But Nate didn't feel the same. He felt alone, alone in a place where there had always been friendship and laughter for him, but then again at the moment he was alone. Erin was a girl and no girl stood with their boyfriend when her friend's stood so close by, fit to burst with something they must share. Nate didn't blame her but all the same there was nothing for him to do, because his friends were no longer talking to him. Nate frowned for a moment wondering why he had chosen Erin over his friends, normally it seemed so obvious but right now it completely eluded him -

"Nate darling! Come on or we won't get a carriage to ourselves!" Erin's voice penetrated Nate's reverie and all thought processes stopped.

October 4th

"We should go to Hogsmeade together more often." Clarisse commented to Louis a couple of days after the first Hogmeade trip of the year.

"I've never met a girl who I could sleep with and had a sense of humor." Louis agreed.

"But we're not -" Clarisse began.

"I don't want to - do you?" Louis asked seriously, he didn't want a girlfriend. He wanted a fuck-buddy who was also a friend, there was a fine line between that person and a girlfriend and the main thing was the feelings involved. Sure Louis liked Clarisse, a lot but he wasn't in love with her and he doubted he would ever be in love with her. Besides that he didn't really want an actual girlfriend.

"I - sort of." Clarisse admitted. "I know where you stand already, so it's not that and I'm definitely sure I'm not in love with you but I do rather like having a boyfriend to buy me things, take me out - you know boyfriend stuff. With you right now I have Louis my friend and Louis the guy I sleep with."

"So you want a boyfriend but not necessarily me." Louis clarified somewhat relieved.

"I do, so I hope you don't mind when I tell you that I'm going to start looking for someone to be my boyfriend and because of that -"

"We need to stop sleeping together?" Louis asked, feeling a strange sort of disappointment. His involvement with Clarisse had been the longest he had ever had and over the summer had developed into something almost like a relationship. What had started as a casual shag had turned into something much `

"Starting tomorrow." Clarisse agreed with sultry smile and a glint in her eyes that Louis recognized from a summer spent in her company.

"Go out with a bang shall we?"

"Sounds great." Clarisse said drawing Louis to her and finding absolutely no resistance there.

October 12th

Nate sat outside waiting for Erin who by not being present helped him to think. These days whenever Erin was out of Nate's presence his brain functions returned to normal, rational human being. And as soon as Erin's spell was off him Nate began to think about Delilah. He had couldn't feel her in his mind anymore, couldn't sense her presence - at times when he wasn't concentrating the lack of her presence would cause him to panic until he remembered. She was blocking him.

As the days since they returned to Hogwarts became greeter in number Nate became less and less able to function. At first when he had started to date Erin he would think about her constantly, now the minute she left she was gone from his thoughts to be replaced by his twin sister.

But whenever Erin was around Nate's panic at being so removed from Delilah made him rely to her all the more, even though he knew that it drew him away from Delilah, Nate's state of mental and emotional turmoil meant that all of his thought processes were spent merely completing his NEWT's work. He had nothing left to make a single decision in his life.

Rejuvenated from a day spent without homework, Nate felt something like normal and could think things through properly. Erin was clinging tightly to him, as if sensing the romantic feeling between them had almost completely dissipated. Erin was a clingy, jealous type of girl and that was okay with Nate - for the moment - in fact it was a good thing. It meant that Nate, who was exhausting himself with NEWT's and the constant battle to stop himself tilting over the edge and having a full-scale panic attack, could hand over all the decisions in his life to her. She chose what he ate, when he would do it, when they would study, what they would study, she chose what he wore everyday, who he talked to, where they went and even chose what books he read.

It made his life easier, he had someone to rely on, someone to keep his life moving properly and he could keep himself above water in studies as well as stopping those stupid panic attacks. If he still liked her it would even be perfect. However having someone else rule his life was only good when he and Delilah were at odds and Nate didn't want to be at odds with his sister. He wanted to talk to her again and have her presence in his mind again so he could function properly, but to get her back meant dumping Erin and inevitably there would be a period between dumping Erin and reconciling Delilah.

It was that period that worried him.

October 21st

"And she is completely controlling right - you'd expect him to complain I'd complain but he just like looks at her and he looks tired you know what I mean yeah? Well anyway he looks tiredly at her and nods like he doesn't even have the energy to argue although that's not surprising seeing as how much homework we're getting. If this is OWL's imagine NEWT's? It's completely mental!" Sherri Attar, a fifth year Hufflepuff and Hogwart's biggest gossip was saying to her best friend whom everybody knew as Drizzle for no particular reason.

Marie' just looked at Abbey who stood beside her and Abbey shook her head. Whoever the poor guy was he was clearly stuck with an obsessive girlfriend and couldn't be bothered dumping her.

"NEWT's suck big time." Abbey said to her friend. "It's a good thing we have scheduled meals or I would forget to eat."

"Me too." Marie' commented frowning, the thought of food made her suddenly hungry, when was her last meal? She hadn't woken up in time for breakfast and she'd skipped lunch to proof-read that charms essay and hadn't made it to dinner yet. The day before she had eaten breakfast skipped lunch again and dinner? She didn't even - How often have I been skipping meal? Marie' asked herself. It wasn't purposeful she just had so much to do and she rarely felt hunger pangs to remind her nor had she really eaten much at all for quite a while.

Marie' swallowed her fears, it wouldn't happen again. She was so sure of herself now and when she looked in the mirror she liked what she saw. What had that muggle doctor said to avoid? Stress. He had said that stress would often kill appetite and once she got out of the habit of eating again…

"Marie' are you alright?" Abbey asked. "You look odd."

"Eet's that patronus charm - you know I've been 'avenge trouble getting eet to full corporeal form." Marie' said only half-lying.

"I hate to say it Marie' but the problem is probably that you're not very happy at the moment. You're stressed and upset about your parents, it's not the best time to be producing a charm that relies on a happy memory is it?" Abbey said in a soothing tone of voice.

"I suppose not but eets still annoying."

"Lilah hasn't got it either." Abbey said as if trying to reconcile her by the fact she wasn't alone. When had that ever worked?

"Lilah's a Gryffindor." Marie' pointed out and Abbey laughed.

"Yes but so was Hermione Granger."

"Zhat is not the point." Marie' said heatedly, forgetting momentarily about her worries of a relapse.

"You just don't like to be bad at something." Abbey jibbed at her.

"Exactly!" Marie' exclaimed, her eyesight going blurry for a moment, but went away after a few seconds of furious blinking.

"Marie'?" Abbey asked looking at her with growing concern. Marie' tried to reply but she had forgotten where her voice was and her eyesight was starting to darken so that she couldn't focus properly on her friend's voice, the darkness suddenly rushed at Marie' and as it hit her she lost all consciousness.

~DIVIDER~

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked gasping for air as she reached the closed hospital wing doors to find all of her friends gathered in front of them.

"She blacked out." James said unhelpfully.

"I know that, what I want to know is why." Ruby snapped and immediately felt bad for it. "Sorry James, I'm worried." She told him, her words were received with a smile.

"We all are Rubes." He said before coming over to wrap his arms around her comfortingly.

"Madam Pomfrey thinks she has been stinting herself." Wendy said after a moment.

"As in not eating?" Ruby asked with a frown.

"Exactly so, she thinks Marie' may have been doing it on purpose - to lose weight." Reid added, looking unusually drawn.

"But why - I mean, Marie's beautiful and she knows it -" Ruby began.

"She does but stress can trigger those sort of insecurities." Wendy said with a sigh.

"According to Madam Pomfrey's records Marie' has been told to avoid stress at all costs because it may cause a relapse of her anorexia." Abbey said quietly.

"Her what?" James and Ruby said together.

"Anorexia?" Louis asked eyes widening.

"You're kidding." Chase said in disbelief.

"Bullshit." That was Freddy.

"She put them beside Marie' before she ordered me out and apparently Marie' had a bad case of anorexia as a child which was deemed 'completely cured'. There was not a trace of it left but apparently stress and unhappiness can

trigger those sort of disorders." Abbey said with a sad smile. "And Marie's had plenty to be unhappy about the last few months.

"I don't think she's been doing it on purpose." Delilah said quietly.

"Well in the case of anorexia a relapse can start with lack of appetite, that's why stress and depression can be triggers. They make you lose appetite and as the ex-sufferer eats less and less they lose the nutrients which help tell their brain they're healthy, the brain tells Marie's conscious she's unhealthy and she could start believing she is getting overweight." Wendy said with a shrug. "It's highly unlikely she's reached that stage but the earlier ones, it could very well be the case."

"Whatever it is we aren't finding out until tomorrow. Madam Pomfrey was very clear on that much and I think we can brood just as well somewhere a little warmer." Reid suggested tentatively.

"You're right." Wendy said and slowly they all moved back to their common rooms.