((A/N: This is where some of the warnings from last time kick in. Enjoy!!))

((Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Sadly. (For me anyway...)))

Sitting in the Great Hall, though, I decided that perhaps it might be a good year after all. Start of Term dinner was always enjoyable, whether I had to deal with Sirius Black and Melanie Jordan or whether I didn't. And today, I didn't. As it were, Melanie was sitting by Sirius about ten people away from me, flirting away. Judging by the annoyed expression on Sirius' face, she wasn't off to a good start on her master plan, which, for some reason, made my pie taste about five times better than normal.

Meanwhile, Lily, Olivia, and Mira were all chatting happily around me while I scarfed down a large slice of chocolate cream pie, chasing it down with some pumpkin juice.

"I can't believe we're here! In our seventh year, I mean. I feel like just yesterday we were all first years," Lily said.

"Yeah, this year is going to be so amazing!" Olivia squealed, earning some stares but ignoring them all.

"Remember when Peter accidentally turned James into a fish?" I laughed, the memory suddenly coming back of transfiguration a few years ago. Lily had almost peed her pants, she'd laughed so hard. I had just wished that James had been Sirius.

"Yeah, and when Professor Slughorn accidentally knocked out Sirius with that sleeping potion he thought was a Tittering Tonic?" Now that one I'd found funny, although Sirius made sure to punish me for my amusement later with jokes more ruthless than usual.

"How 'bout fifth year, when Ar knocked that Slytherin right off his broom with the quaffle? He cringed every time he saw her coming!"

"My bad," I laughed.

We went on like this for a while, bringing up the funniest, happiest memories of our Hogwarts years to reminisce about. Finally, Dumbledore stood and told us all to have a great year and to get off to bed. As if he'd spoken magic words, a great sleepiness came over me, and I lugged myself after my friends, extremely happy to find my four-poster bed warm and comfy.

For the first week, everything was completely normal, as if no animosity existed between any of us. Schedules were passed out, classes and meals were attended, students stayed up late doing absolutely nothing, even though they should have been doing their homework. The Marauders snuck out and began pulling irritating pranks, James flirted with Lily, and I argued a bit with Sirius, but everything was just as it should have been, just as it had been for the past six years.

That is, until breakfast the Monday a week after term started.

"Hey Artemis. How's it going?" Patton Lexing, a Hufflepuff, asked me casually as he passed me by in the Great Hall.

I shrugged. "Fine. You?"

"Oh, you know, good. So, uh, Slughorn sent you an invitation to his welcome back party yet?" he asked, his eyes sticking to my face like glue. I could see where this was headed, but I had no idea how to stop it, because really I'd never wanted to.

"Yeah. Friday, right?" He nodded.

"Yeah. Are you going with anyone? 'Cause if you're not, I'd love to take you." Melanie cleared her throat a few seats away, in the middle of her flirting with Sirius, whose irritated expression had darkened considerably.

"Um, I was actually just going to go alone, just hang out with my friends. Sorry." Patton's smile had dropped of his face, but I had one on mine, or at least, I had a fake one.

"Well, I'm sure your friends will forgive you. I mean, s'not like you're running off with me."

"Sorry, I already promised them."

"Come on, just ask them; I'm sure they'll be alright with it."

I glared at him and looked at my friends for help. Lily was about to say something, but Melanie interrupted, having left Sirius to come and sit next to me. "Aw, go on, Ar, we're fine with it."

Bitch. She'd even used my nickname, which, needless to say, was best friends' only.

So I turned back to Patton, who was smiling at me again.

"See, they're fine with it. So it's a date," he said, already walking away. Irritation flared, and I glared after him. Why would he just assume that just because my friends approved, I was okay with it too?

"No." Everyone stared at me, my friends shifting nervously in my seat. Well, here went the reputation that I'd worked six years to build, the image of a nice girl, despite a mostly rotten family. Well, an entirely rotten family. I tried to think of a sort of nice way to make everyone stay away from me, think that I was nice but get that I didn't want a boyfriend. I couldn't think of anything, except perhaps tell the truth, something that I already knew none of the guys would understand anyways. So I put on my best indifferent face and tried to turn him down gently. "I don't want to go to the party with you. I don't really like you much." Everyone within hearing distance had his or her mouth gaping open.

"You... don't like me?" Patton had a confused and hurt look on his face; I tried to keep the guilt from welling up and coming out.

"No. Sorry." As if sorry could repair the damage I'd just done to his psyche.

"Right... er, sorry to bother you then." Patton turned and didn't look back, but no one else turned away, staring at me like I was some sort of freak show.

I might have left it out earlier, but I'd never turned anyone down before. I'd always given people a chance before dumping them, perhaps out of some sort of vain hope that someone out there would actually care about me. The guilt welled up again, threatening my sanity, so I grabbed my stuff, whispered a quiet "See you in class" to my friends, and rushed out of the Hall. No one followed, but I still felt like everyone was watching me; I could still see the shocked and hurt look on Patton's face.

Huh. I'd never thought I'd say this, but Sirius was right.

I was a bitch.

***~~~***

"What the hell was that all about?" Sirius asked Mira as they exited the Great Hall. Mira gave him a flustered look.

"Er, uh, nothing. She just, erm, isn't feeling well, I think."

"Then why doesn't she just go see Madam Pomfrey?" James asked from Mira's other side.

"How should I know? I'm her best friend, not her mother." Mira snapped. She hurried off before James or Sirius could ask her any more questions, increasing the suspicion the two already felt.

Sirius spent his whole day carefully watching the girls seventh, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get any clues, because once again, everything was going back to normal, besides the fact that everyone now saw just how much of a bitch Artemis was.

James, however, was even more curious than Sirius, because out of the girls seventh, Lily seemed as confused about the goings on as James and Sirius were. Whatever Lily didn't know couldn't hurt her, that much was true, but that just meant that it was trouble. But just how to go along figuring out what sort of trouble? It was completely obvious that Artemis had something to do with it, and Melanie knew something about it too; but what the hell was it?

***~~~***

Lily was right in the middle of interrogating me when James slipped into the common room. Neither of us really noticed him, though. After all, when Lily got going with the questions, she was rather hard to ignore.

"Come on, Artemis, I know you're not sick! Not even a little cold! Tell me what's going on!"

"Lily, I mean it, I'm just tired is all. Didn't get much sleep last night."

"Don't give me that crap! I know for a fact you were out before I was."

"How do you know I wasn't pretending? It's really quite easy to pretend to be asleep."

"It's true," James interrupted, pushing his glasses up his nose as he joined us. Lily gave him one of her trademark death glares. James seemed to falter a little, but picked himself up like any man would do. "Artemis, I need to talk to you."

"We're in the middle of something, Potter!" Lily snapped, grabbing my arm and starting to pull me away.

"But, Evans, wait! It's about Quidditch!" Lily ignored him, only pausing and scowling back at James when I dug my heels into the floor and forced her to.

"It's about Quidditch? Oh, my bad," she said scathingly. "Sorry I care more about the well-being of my friend than about your stupid Quidditch!"

"Er, don't I get a say?" I asked, but they both ignored me.

"Please, Lily? Just a few seconds? I just need to talk to her for a few seconds." Lily's rock hard countenance wasn't crumbling. James sighed, taking on Quidditch captain role. "Out in the hallway, Gaunt!" he yelled, just like he did at practice. I tried to obey, just like I always did, but Lily wouldn't release my arm.

"Lily, come on. I promise it'll take like three seconds, then I'll come up to the dorm with a reason for my misbehavior, 'kay?" I begged. Lily shook her head, but her grip lessened and I took the opportunity to get out of her fingers and shot out the portrait hole. "Sorry, Lily!" I yelled over my shoulder, just hoping that James could keep up with me.

When I stopped a few minutes later, James was barely behind me, panting for breath with his hands on his knees. I rolled my eyes at him, waiting for him to recover from our mad sprint.

"You know," he gasped, leaning against the wall for support, "sometimes I wonder if you aren't a genetically mutated freak."

I grimaced. "Who the hell—oh, never mind, I know who." James looked at me guiltily.

"Sorry... you know he's my best mate. Usually, we rag on Snape, but sometimes he slips and starts on you."

I shrugged. "It's fine. We're basically arch-enemies, so what can you expect, right?" James slowly nodded.

"Yeah, guess so. Anyways, I just wanted to ask you something. About breakfast."

"Oh," I said, not bothering to keep the disappointment out of my voice. "For some reason, I was thinking more along the lines of Quidditch practice."

"Well, yeah, that too. Why don't we switch, then? You tell me, then I'll tell you."

"Tell you what?" I asked, trying out the play-dumb routine.

"Tell me what happened at breakfast."

"What happened at breakfast?" He gave me a don't-be-a-prat look. I sighed. "Nothing happened, I just didn't want to go out with him."

"Well, yeah, that much was obvious." I scowled at him. "I was just wondering why? You realize that's the first time you've ever turned someone down? Everyone thinks the world might be ending."

"What the hell does it have to do with you?" I snapped, losing my temper at all the questions. It was getting old. James glared at me.

"Right, I just thought you'd like to know when practice was, but if you'd rather be in the dark..."

My mouth dropped open. "You can't be serious? That's not fair, Potter!"

"Life's not fair. I'm your team captain, and obviously something's wrong with you. I need to know what it is; I don't want it to affect our game." He paused, giving me an apologetic look. "That and I care about you. If something's wrong, I want to know."

I sighed and looked away. Obviously a simple lie wasn't going to get me out of this big mess I'd made myself. "I'm just... being stupid is all."

"What d'you mean?" James gave me his best Head Boy look. "What did you do?" he asked in a severe voice.

"I just, I don't know, I just don't want to go out with guys anymore." James stared at me in shock, probably jumping to weird conclusions. "I mean, not girls either! I'm not going to go out with anyone. I thought being a little harsher than normal might make it clear. Obviously not." James had gotten a slightly relieved expression on his face, but he was obviously still surprised.

"What brought that on?" I shuffled me feet and shrugged. Didn't really want to answer that one. James glared at me suspiciously, but then sighed. "Well, then. Guess that's good enough for now. Practice tomorrow night, before dinner. Don't be late." I stared after him for a few minutes after he'd left before I realized that I'd overlooked something.

Like Sirius.

Of course, I didn't realize this until he was standing right behind me, tugging my waist-length black hair playfully. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked, not bothering to turn around.

"I was just congratulating you on your fabulous humiliation of Lexing this morning, and I wanted to thank you for proving that you are a bitch. I always love being proven right." Without another word, he passed me by, probably headed to the common room, and just like that, any bit of comfort I'd managed to give myself vanished. My gaze dropped to the ground, but had I been looking up, I would have seen an unusual expression on Sirius' face as he glanced back at me.

A few minutes later, I found myself being lectured once again by Lily; despite the fact that I was now more in the mood for a long nap, I listened to her talk and answered some of her questions, though I didn't answer any questions that might send me into a heap of trouble. I basically told her what I told James, just what I'd said on the train. No boyfriends for me.

"Well, yeah, but did you have to be so mean about it? I'm sure there was a better way to do that." I glared at her.

"You do the same thing to James all the time." That caught her off guard and made her face flush red.

"That's not the same thing! I've told him no multiple times, he just doesn't listen! And he's an arrogant little berk, and I don't like him at all! Why are you saying this stuff, Artemis?"

"I didn't say anything, Lily." I smiled at her, face the same color as her hair. She glared at me. "And besides, I told him no, like five times. It's not my fault he was basically trying to force me to go on a date with him."

I could swear that Lily was starting to puff up like some sort of giant red balloon. "That's beside the point! There were better ways to do that than to humiliate him completely in front of the entire school! You say sorry to him!" I stared at her. What was up with people today? They were obviously intent on making me pissed off and depressed. And it was working, a bad, bad sign.

"Butt out, Lily. It's none of your business. I'm going to go take a shower," I added, ignoring the fact that her mouth was wide open. She continued to stare at me as I gathered my stuff and headed to the bathroom. Funny, though, how when my razor slipped, cutting my knee and letting my blood flow, it only made me feel better.

((A/N: Reviews are appreciated!))