CHAPTER TEN: The End of the Holiday

James had felt obliged to go to the Gryffindor common room when he first got back to Hogwarts. He'd stayed there for a while, sharing a few jokes with Martin and Albus, but as soon as he felt he could get away with it he'd made himself scarce and headed out through the portrait. After all, the person he really wanted to see wasn't in there.

After that, his plan seemed to consist of wandering the corridors aimlessly, in the hope of accidentally bumping into a certain person. He was well aware that it wasn't the most scientific of methods. But then, it wasn't like he had a map telling him where everyone was.

Fortunately, about five minutes into his wandering the corridors, he saw a familiar blonde-haired figure sat on a bench in one of the quadrangles. "Emily!"he called out, hurrying towards her. He stopped in front of her… and then realised he didn't know what to say next.

Emily looked up at him and gave one of those smiles which seemed to give him butterflies. "Hello, James. How was your Christmas?"

James nodded. "Good, yeah. What about yours?"

"Mum took us to Gran Canaria because she'd heard there were heliopaths hiding in the caves there. We didn't find any but we did have a nice holiday."

James was silent for a long while before he realised Emily was expecting him to say something back. "We played Quidditch,"he managed at last.

"Oh, you're lucky being able to play during the holidays. I can only practise when we're here. Mind you, Kamal's making the team do extra practise every week now." She gave a sudden smile. "Don't tell him I said that, will you? He'll think you're a Gryffindor spy."

"Of course not,"James answered, whilst some part of his brain made a note to let Damon know as soon as possible.

Emily checked her watch. "I'd better go, I've got Transfiguration in five minutes."

As she gathered up her books and headed towards the entrance to one of the corridors, James cursed the fact that once more he was no closer to asking her out. If only he could think of some reason, some event… "Valentine's Day!" The idea was so obvious when it hit him that he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.

Then he realised that Emily, and everyone in the quadrangle, was looking at him and realised he'd spoken out loud.

"What?"Emily asked.

"Valentine's Day,"he replied, deciding to make a virtue of it now he'd opened his mouth. "We've got a free day at Hogsmeade then."

"Yes, I know we have."

"The Hog's Head is offering free meals for couples. I was wondering if you fancy going." James worried suddenly he was being a bit forward. "I mean, it's free food…"

"I'd like that,"Emily confirmed. She gave him an amused look. "You do know it's a month until Valentine's Day?"

James flushed slightly. "I just thought we'd be better off making plans now."

Scorpius was sitting in the library, peering over the top of his book surreptitiously, casting his eyes around the various students who were selecting books from the shelves. "What are you doing?"Rose asked from behind him.

Scorpius shot her an annoyed look. "What James said. Keeping an eye out for strange goings on."

"I hardly think someone's going to suddenly metamorphose in the middle of the library."

Scorpius shrugged. "Thought it was worth a chance."

Rose sat down at the table with him. "How was Christmas?"

"Okay. I spent it with Mum's family."

"Hugo and I were with Dad's family. We went to Mum and Uncle Harry for New Year. We're going to spend Easter with them then go to Dad afterwards."

"Oh." Scorpius lowered his eyes slightly.

"Is something wrong with that?"

"No. Nothing wrong." Scorpius picked up his books. "You're right, I'm wasting my time here. I'll go and study in the common room."

Harry cleared his throat before addressing the members of the Order that had managed to make the inprompru meeting he'd called: Ron, Hermione, Luna, Seamus, Parvati, Padma, George, Percy, Oliver, Angelina, Katie, Hannah, Cho and Michael. "Well, we've all had a break over Christmas and the world hasn't ended yet, which is good. So, has anyone got anything to report?"

He looked around the crowd hopefully. Most of them just shuffled their feet and looked downwards. "We've been looking for weird stuff,"Seamus said at last. "But we haven't seen any."

"You didn't exactly give us the easiest brief, Harry,"Oliver pointed out. "We're basically looking for people who could look like anyone."

"They could be one of us,"Hannah added, before shooting a nervous look around the group.

"We didn't even find any heliopaths,"Luna noted sadly. Harry decided not to ask.

"The Ministry's setting up all sort of anti-intruder stuff,"Ron revealed. "It's all a bit hush-hush."

"That's a good start,"Harry agreed.

"We've been keeping an eye on the news,"Padma added. "But there haven't been any disappearances reported."

"Or any more attacks,"Cho put in.

Harry sighed. "Okay, well, I guess all I can say is that you should just keep on doing what you're doing."

"There is someone who might know something,"Hermione pointed out.

"Who's that?"Harry asked, eager for any clue.

"The Death Eaters."

There was a general feeling of this being a let down. "So how does that help?"George asked. "You think we should go and see them and ask what their evil plan is?"

"Why not?" Hermione looked at Harry. "I can think of one of them who might talk to you."

Harry had asked the warders at Azkaban for a private meeting. The usual visiting area was empty aside from Harry and two guards, wands at their ready but a discreet distance away, as Romilda Vane was brought in. She smiled as she saw him. "Hello, Harry."

Harry forced himself to return the smile. "Hello, Romilda."

She took the seat opposite him. "I'm surprised you came to see me."

He gently stroked her hand, ignoring the slight twist in his stomach as he did so. "I thought maybe you could help me."

"Well, how can I do that?"

"Do you speak much to the Death Eaters who were captured with you?"

Romilda tried to look innocent. "Well, I never really liked them. I only joined up with them because you never paid any attention to me."

"Oh, that's a shame." Harry tried to keep his tone light and flirtatious. "I thought maybe you could tell me what they were talking about."

"Well what do you want to know?"

"Whether they're in contact with anyone on the outside, whether they're involved in anything." Sometimes you had to be direct. "Whether they're planning to escape."

Romilda laughed. "Come on, Harry, everyone knows Azkaban's escape proof. None of us can use magic. The only way we could get out is if someone opened the doors and let us go."

Her words should have reassured Harry. But something about the way she said them meant that he was suddenly even more worried.