AN: Hello everyone and a Merry Christmas..Eve to you all! I am SO sorry I've neglected this story for a while, Blood Ties, my Young Dracula fic is being a bit easier to write at the present time so I have been paying that one a bit more attention. Never fear though, I have re-gained my writing mojo for this one so hopefully my next chapter won't be too far away. Again, sorry! I hope you can forgive me, and enjoy this chapter!

DISCLAIMER; All that is good and awesome about HP is owned by the amazing J.K. Rowling. The OC's belong to your's truly.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN; SECOND BEST

Simona nodded, not too sure what to say. She knew it was coming, but she never knew that she would feel like a dagger had ripped open her heart when Severus said it. She did know that Severus felt very strongly about Lily, that part was obvious, but she didn't know he loved her. She felt she had a chance to perhaps make him feel that way about her. She internally chided herself, she had only known Severus for a couple of months and now she was acting like a crazy person.

"And you are okay with that?" Severus asked reluctantly, after noticing that Simona had not replied.

"Yes, of course," Simona lied. Now was not the time to show her true feelings towards him.

"Good," Severus replied, feeling slightly deflated. As much as he thought it selfish, part of him wanted Simona to tell him that it was not okay, that she liked him too. Severus rolled his eyes internally 'How selfish of me' he thought. 'It's not enough that no one likes me, but I automatically assume that anyone who shows a scrap of kindness towards me is in love with me?'

"Is that all you've got to tell me?" Simona asked, hoping that there wasn't anything more to the Lily debacle.

"That is all," Severus replied. Standing up and looking back towards Hogwarts. It was getting colder outside.

"Okay," Simona said, shrugging her shoulders and standing up too.

"We should go back in, it's too cold," Severus said, shivering slightly. Simona nodded and followed him back into the dungeons.

"I'm going to bed now, I'm tired," Simona muttered to herself as she left to go up to her dorm. She walked straight up the stairs without as much as a backward glance.

Unfortunately, for the next month or so Simona and Severus had seemed to drift apart. As much as Simona tried to prevent it from happening, she couldn't get used to the fact Severus was in love with Lily. He had also become more snappy and irritable, the Gryffindors had caught on to the fact Simona and Severus were not around each other anymore and saw it as an opportunity to bully him with more venom. Simona was used to Severus' volatile attitude, but that coupled with the fact she was struggling with her unrequited feelings, she couldn't handle it.

Simona had been pushed towards the Gryffindors again, and had really striked up a friendship with Remus in particular, relations were a bit patchy between herself and James and Sirius. She felt stretched as they obviously didn't like Severus very much, and vice versa. She tried to keep a neutral stand, but at times felt herself swaying to one side.

It was a day before Hogwarts would be breaking up for Christmas and Simona was sat alone for breakfast in the Great Hall. Severus was sat with Rosier and Avery, Simona refused to look at him. The separation between Simona and Severus caused Simona to become a bit more hardened towards him.

Simona wasn't going back to her parents for Christmas, and decided that staying at Hogwarts would enable her to get more work done. Ever since she started to get better grades in her lessons, she had begun to show her true Slytherin-self. She was absolutely hell-bent on becoming the best in each of her lessons, even Transfiguration.

That night was also the Yule Ball. Simona didn't give it much thought as she was too pre-occupied with her studies and staying away from Severus. She wasn't looking forward to the event, however last week Remus asked her to accompany him, and after much consideration and encouragement from her adopted parents via owl, she agreed.

The Great Hall was buzzing with excited chatter, mainly from the female students. Professors were busily hanging up the decorations for the evening and Mr Filch was red in the face scolding a 2nd year Hufflepuff who accidentally knocked one of the decorations down.

Simona played with her food, she had lost her appetite again. After rather creatively manoeuvring the bacon to look like some sort of meaty fortress, Simona left the table to go to the library. She grabbed a table that was furthest away from the excited chatter which seemed to have followed Simona from the Great Hall.

Rolling her eyes at the girls, the majority of them from Hufflepuff she opened a large tome about Transfiguration, she was desperate to get better. She had noticed a pattern, Gryffindors were usually the best at Transfiguration, whilst Slytherins had a natural flair for Defence Against the Dark Arts. She wanted to change this. Scanning the pages closely and noting down any key ideas, Simona got caught up in the text and failed to notice several hours had past.

Rubbing her eyes and stretching in her chair, she noticed a pair of black eyes staring down at her.

"Sev," Simona said in surprise.

"Simona, I," Severus spluttered, going red in the face. Simona sat up straight in her chair and folded her arms and legs. 'This is going to be interesting' she thought.

"Well then, out with it," Simona said sharply. The Slytherin in her knew he was only here talking to her because he was after something.

"The Yule Ball," Severus started, trying to find the words.

"Yes," Simona said impatiently.

"Well, I was wondering,"

"Go on,"

"If you would go,"

"Yes."

"To the Yule Ball with me," Severus finally spluttered out, his eyes avoided Simona's.

"What?" Simona asked in shock.

"You know I don't like repeating myself," Severus muttered.

Simona rolled her eyes and stood up. She knew exactly why he asked her, she heard he had already asked Lily, James told her.

"Last resort am I?" Simona hissed.

"What- I?" Severus replied in confusion.

"I know that you got turned down by Lily. How she told you she was already going with James," Simona said angrily.

"That's not."

"Don't lie to me," Simona said tersely, her irises become as black as Severus'.

"Well I-"

"James told me, Sev. Do you honestly believe I am that stupid?"

"No I-"

"Go away Sev, I'm going with Remus if you didn't know already. At least he actually wanted to go with me,"

"I do Simona I just-"

"I don't want to hear it. Just leave me alone," Simona snarled, before storming out of the library.

"Simona!" Severus shouted after her, cursing inwardly Severus slumped down in the chair Simona had just sat on. He ran a hand through his jet-black hair. 'Damn' he thought.

As disbelieving as it seemed, Severus did genuinely want to take Simona to the ball. Granted, he should not have asked Lily first, but he didn't want to waste the opportunity to do so, lest she agreed. He knew that himself and Simona were not on the best of terms, that was partly his fault, but he thought that if he went to the Yule Ball with her they would be friends again. As much as he despised to show any signs of what he believed to be weakness, he knew Simona and Lily were his only friends. Now that he had lost Simona, he wasn't too sure what to do anymore. He was terrified of losing Lily, although part of him knew that was imminent. Keeping Simona as his friend was the best shot he had.

Simona sprinted out of the library and sat by herself on the seventh floor, she wasn't too sure why she had settled there, but she was out of breath and still very angry. 'How dare he make me feel like I'm second best,' she thought angrily to herself. 'He probably only asked me because Lily said no,' she thought.

After sitting in silence for at least half an hour, Simona decided she should start getting ready for the ball. She walked back to the Slytherin dorms and laid her formal robes out on her bed. They were emerald green and silver, her parents bought her them out of excitement. They thought the colour suited her, and were unaware they were Slytherin's house colours. 'Great' she thought as she looked at them, 'I couldn't look any more Slytherin if I tried. That's going to go down well with a Gryffindor.'

She grabbed a towel and took a quick shower, all whilst ignoring her still-scowling dorm mates. She had to admit she was impressed at how long they could keep a grudge. After the shower she padded back into the dorm after drying her hair and body by magic.

Simona twisted her hair up into a formal bun, and after battling with her unruly hair to cooperate she pulled on her robes and collapsed on to her bed in exhaustion. She wasn't in the mood to go to the Yule Ball now, however she didn't want to let down Remus.

After trying to apply a conservative amount of make-up and choking on her mum's perfume, Simona was ready. She was about to walk out of the dorm when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Celestica, Romagna and Vicky looking back at her.

"Simona we-" Vicky started.

"We're sorry, I guess we shouldn't have stayed mad at you for so long," Celestica said, finishing Vicky's sentence. Simona heaved a sigh of relief, she wanted to mend the feud they had for a long time, but didn't know how to start.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have said what I did to you Vicky," Simona said apologetically. Vicky beamed and enveloped Simona in an airway restricting embrace.

"Sembri davvero bella, Simona," (You look really nice, Simona) Romagna said happily. Simona smiled back. It felt nice to have her dorm mates as friends again.

"Grazie a voi, anche voi fate," (Thank you, you do too) Simona replied giving Romagna a hug. Romagna looked very Italian with her ruby red robes which suited her olive complexion and dark hair which was down and looked natural.

"Shall we go down then , our dates must be waiting for us," Celestica said excitedly. Simona smiled weakly.

"I can't believe Ian Bradley is taking me!" Vicky said beaming. Ian Bradley was a 5th Year Slytherin, and was part of the Quidditch team.

"I know, and Tyson Hathorn said yes to me," Celestica replied with as much gusto as she linked arms with Vicky. Tyson was a 6th Year Slytherin, who was also part of the Quidditch Team.

"Chi stai andando con?" (Who are you going with?) Simona asked Romagna.

"Grant Peterson," Romagna replied with a twinkle in her eyes. Grant was a 7th Year Slytherin, who was captain of the Slytherin Quidditch Team. Vicky and Celestica both looked at Romagna with a smidgen of jealousy in their eyes. Obviously they wanted to be asked by Grant.

"Who are you going with Simona?" Vicky asked expectantly as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Remus Lupin," Simona replied with a soft smile.

AN; I hope you enjoyed this chapter, thank you to everyone who has supported me, not only on this fanfic but my others; Dylan, Blood Ties, This Feeling and Time Doesn't Always Heal Wounds. You guys kick ass! xox