It seemed that he was woken up every morning by Maurice bouncing up and down on his bed. And it was a Saturday, too. Roger was thankful for the inevitable shoe from Harold. "What do you want this time, Maurice?" Roger asked, yawning and propping himself up on his elbows.

"It's Jack that wants you this time!" Maurice said, throwing the shoe back to Harold and rubbing the side of his head where the shoe had hit him. Harold had gotten better aim as the days went on. It was nearly Halloween. They'd been at Hogwarts for nearly two whole months.

This news was mind-boggling to Roger, especially since he actually had a few friends. There was Maurice, of course, and then Jack… if he was to be so bold as to call Jack his friend. And if Jack was the one who 'wanted him this time', then maybe Jack was his friend. This thought made Roger smile.

Maurice looked at him. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah," Roger said, shaking his head free of those weird thoughts of friendship and getting out of bed. He shivered as his bare feet touched the floor. It was incredibly freezing cold, as usual.

"Get dressed!" Maurice commanded. "Jack needs you now! I'll tie your tie because you suck at it!"

"Why do I need my tie? There's no classes-"

"Slytherin pride! Jack said to wear a shirt, pants, shoes, and your tie," Maurice said, nodding and holding out his own tie. Roger sighed and got dressed, Maurice tying the tie. They were uncomfortably close for that minute or so – as much as Maurice complained at Roger's lack of tie-tying skills, he was pretty bad himself – and then they headed downstairs. Jack was there, finishing wrapping a scarf around his neck.

"It's cold today," he informed them. Maurice shrugged.

"I like the cold," he said. Roger kept quiet. He didn't have a scarf, and he'd dealt with the cold before, so he would pretend he was like Maurice. Or at least, that's what he told himself until Jack looked at him for an explination.

"I don't have a scarf or anything like that. Well, I have a winter cloak, but other than that…" Roger said, shrugging. Draco Malfoy, who was passing them on his way to an early breakfast, entered their conversation for a moment.

"I'll get you one for Christmas. I get all of my scarves hand-made and imported, just like all of my other clothes," he said, sticking his nose in the air and sauntering away. Roger blinked. That was possibly the weirdest thing he'd ever seen.

"Anyway, let's go," Jack said. "The Gryffindors have a really early Quidditch practice, and we're going to go turn some of Roemers's stuff Slytherin colors."

Roger kind of wondered why Jack had decided on taking him and Maurice instead of, say, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini, but he didn't question anything. Roger had realized long ago that everything was much simpler if you didn't question anything.

"That's simple and not very fun," Maurice observed. Jack's eyes narrowed a fraction.

"Oh, it'll be very fun," he said, his voice dangerously fun. "We will make it fun. We will have fun in that changing room, you hear?"

"Uh… okay…" Maurice said, dropping back to walk beside Roger. "He's kind of freaking me out."

Roger shrugged. He had a feeling that Jack could hear every word they were saying, and while Jack was acting a little different than usual, there was nothing wrong with him. Probably.

Eventually, they made it to the Gryffindor changing room. It was unlocked. As soon as they stepped inside, Jack began going through all of the clothes strewn on the floor.

There were lockers, and Roger suspected that the girls on the Gryffindor Quidditch team were the ones to fold their clothes and put them in there, but most of the clothes were just on the floor. Roger seriously had no idea how Jack was planning on telling Ralph's clothes apart from, say, Harry Potter's.

Roger mostly stayed by the door while Maurice poked random things with his wand and Jack worked at turning Ralph's – and probably Potter's, too – clothing green. It was calm for a while. And then all hell broke loose when Maurice said, "Hey, what does this button do?"

With far less drama than it should have had, a bludger rocketed out of its place and began to knock around the room. Maurice hid under a bench. Jack stood there, frozen, as the bludger sped at his face.

Roger grabbed a spare Beater's bat and whacked it away from Jack. This happened a few more times, until it shot out the door just as the Gryffindor Quidditch team came back. Lucky for them, none of them got hit on the bludger's way out.

Oliver Wood took one look at the Slytherins and exploded. Obviously seeing Roger as the biggest threat – no surprise there, seeing as Maurice was cowering under a bench, Jack was paper-white and pressed against a wall, and Roger was deadly calm and holding a Beater's bat – he went for the first year, grabbing him by the front of the shirt.

"Who are you, why are you here-" The bludger came back then, hitting one of the orange-haired twins in the back of the head with a thunk! "And what did you just do to my beater?"

Roger swallowed and dropped the bat. Harry Potter and one of the girls wrestled the bludger back into its box. The other orange-haired twin cried out and knelt beside his brother. Oliver Wood glared down at Roger, demanding an answer. Roger swallowed and dropped the Beater's bat.

"Uh-um…" he said. "I…"

Weirdly enough, he was rescued by Ralph Roemers. The blond jogged into the changing room, Quaffle under his arm. "Hey guys, I found the- Merridew."

Jack, who had gotten some of his color back, managed to spit back a "Roemers."

Wood, clearly confused, glanced at each of the second years in turn. "You two know each other?" he asked Roemers. Roemers nodded. Jack muttered 'unfortunately' under his breath. Wood rolled his eyes and turned his gaze back to Roger.

"Who are you?"

"R-roger."

"Year? You're tiny, you must be a first year. Why are you here?"

"Um…" Roger glanced at Jack, who shrugged. "I'm…"

"Wood, we need to get him to the Hospital Wing," one of the girls said. Wood glanced at the conscious twin and then to Maurice, who was still cowering.

"Weasley, you and… this kid take your brother to the Hospital Wing," he said. Maurice swallowed and stood up, banging his head on the underside of the bench. Roger rolled his eyes and the two left, carting the Gryffindor between them.

"So now what?" Jack asked, getting over the whole bludger incident. "I don't have all day."

Wood let go of Roger and turned on Jack. "It's your fault you're here!"

Jack swallowed and nodded. "We'll just be going now. Come on, Roger," Jack said, slipping through the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Roger followed, 'accidentally' ramming into Ralph on his way out. For some reason – and not Jack's reason, he didn't give a damn if the boy was attractive – he really didn't like Ralph. At all.

Roger, uncommunicative by nature, said nothing. Jack was quiet for a while, and then began to rant about Ralph Roemers. "I don't believe it! He's on the Quidditch team? I doubt he's even good! I bet they just used him because… because…"

They were saved by Maurice, who looked to have sprinted down from the Hospital Wing. "I… am tired," he gasped. "At least Halloween's soon, right? I can't wait for that-"

"Shut up Maurice," Jack said, sighing. He stalked away from them, muttering something about how, 'Draco gets stupid minions, why do I get the creepy one and the one that never shuts up?'

"I call never shuts up," Maurice said once Jack was out of earshot. Roger rolled his eyes again. "Hey, do you wanna see if Luna and Simon are busy? Maybe we could hang out with them! I kind of like them – Luna's kinda pretty, don't you think?"

Roger flushed. "I… I don't think about that sort of thing," he said, staring at his shoes. It was true; he didn't really think about the attractiveness of people. But when Maurice mentioned it, it made him feel uncomfortable.

When he looked up again Maurice was grinning the grin he always grinned when he thought he was right. Roger rolled his eyes and pushed past his friend toward the Slytherin common room. He had some homework he needed to finish.

But of course everything had to be against him. He ran into – literally ran into – Luna Lovegood on his way back to the common room. They both fell down, landing in a very awkward position. Roger caught himself with his hands on either side of her head and flushed. She just looked up at him in that dreamy way of hers, and he scrambled off, grabbed his books, and left as quickly as he could.

Once again, thanks for all the reviews and such. :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter.