A/N: Omg, wowww. I officially suck at updating.

Chapter 13

I smiled at my father as I stood by the fireplace. "Of course I will come over. I love you guys, and you are still my parents to me, whether I have Sasha or not." I decided not to reveal that I had started to call Sasha 'mum'. I figured it would hurt their feelings, and that was the last thing I wanted to do, considering how they were already worried that I would forget about them. "I just was overwhelmed with... everything." I hugged my mum, and then my dad, squeezing for just a moment. I had always been slightly closer to my father, and we often had father/daughter days.

I pulled away and smiled. "I really must be going. It's getting late." I peeked at the grandfather clock behind them. "Love you." I stepped into the fire and waved through the flames.

I appeared in the dining room, and then tiptoed across the floor to the staircase. The house was quiet, and I wasn't sure if anyone was awake, even though it was only the measly hour of nine o'clock. I had been at my parents for three hours, and I hadn't even realized. I stepped up the stairs, grateful that they weren't creaky. I walked into my room and closed my door, changing into comfortable pajamas and slippers. The hot chocolate that I had woke me up, so I was wide awake with nothing to do.

So I padded down to the kitchen to find Blaise sitting on the counter, eating a bowl of ice cream. Draco was sitting at one of the chairs, eating ice cream, and Pansy was leaning against the counter, near the sink, eating - what else? - ice cream.

I peeked my head in the door and smiled, interrupting their conversation of whose ice cream is better.

"Hey, Mia!" Blaise said, smiling and raising his spoon as if to propose a toast - of, er, ice cream.

"Hi, Blaise. How's the ice cream?"

"Delicious. We were actually just talking about that," Pansy said, shoveling another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

"There's more in the freezer."

"Yeah, Mia, what kind of ice cream do you like?" Draco asked as I walked to the freezer.

I considered for a moment. "Soft chocolate with hot fudge in a waffle cone."

"Hey! You have almost the same exact kind as Draco!" exclaimed Blaise.

"Yeah, but I add a spoonful of caramel and sprinkles," Draco protested.

"I love caramel and sprinkles. Particularly the rainbow kind. I was just never allowed to have them because my parents always thought that that was too many sweets." I added caramel and sprinkles to my pile of ice cream and I went to sit by Draco. "Its been decided, then. Our ice cream is better." I smirked at Blaise, who stopped with a spoonful of ice cream halfway to his mouth.

"How so?"

"Its two against one against one." I shrugged and smirked. Bumping shoulders with Draco, I couldn't help but feel fireworks pass through me, and no doubt him, too.

Those damned sparks again.

I laughed lightly and, having proved my point, I sat on the island counter that was right above my previous seat. Draco smirked at me, then turned to do the same to the others.

We made easy conversation after that, eating our ice cream and smiling and laughing. I went to bed happy and tired, exhausted from the day's events.

I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I bolted up from my pillow. I had been having a great dream, but something nagging at my stomach woke me. I narrowed my eyes and listened closely, but I couldn't hear anything.

I reached over and clicked my light on. I grabbed my wand that was beside it, and I opened the door. First I stopped, remembering if there were any creaks on the floor. Despite the old age, the manor had no groans. I stepped across the top of the staircase and headed towards Blaise's room.

Nudging open the door, I peeked into the room. It was neat, like it was when I first saw it, with posters all over the walls and the bed pushed into the far corner. Blaise's head was sticking out of the blankets. I stepped into the room a bit, only to find nothing out of place. I shook my head and left.

Heading next door, I saw a small light coming from the bottom of it. I opened it, holding my wand out, and was surprised to see what was in the room.

Draco was on the floor, clutching his ears. His eyes were wide, and I could hear the loud, uneven breaths coming from his mouth. He was shaking like mad, and I quickly jumped into action.

I shot over to him and dropped my wand. I had to be as little as a threat possible, especially when his eyes were trained on me. Like now. I dropped down next to him and spoke in a soft voice.

"Draco? Are you okay?" He only managed to shake his head. "Come here." I held him close, and, to my great surprise he didn't flinch back, like most people did. I whispered soothing words in his ear. I leaned my forehead against his soft hair, stroking it. I brought my other hand to his back, rubbing up and down. Soon, he stopped shaking, and only seconds after that, his breathing returned to normal. I looked at him, and his ears were uncovered.

I let go of him, backing away a bit. He shook a bit more, but then he shook his head and blinked. Draco grabbed his bed and pulled himself up, standing. I stood too, still cautious. But nonetheless, I grabbed my wand and straightened my back. "Are you okay?" I asked, trying to meet his eyes.

He hesitated, breathing deeply, and then looked up from the floor. When I finally met his eyes, I was met with steely gray orbs. I couldn't look away from his gaze - no, glare - no matter how hard I tried. "What makes you think you have the right to come in here, and - and do what you did?" he said, his voice rising a bit.

I widened my eyes, not expecting his reaction. "I - I'm sorry. I ju- just thought you were hurt. I'm sorry..." I trailed off, realizing that I was babbling.

He bent his brows down, took a deep breath while still glaring at me, and then shook his head. "Get out."

I gaped, still slightly surprised at the reaction he had given. "Wh- what?"

"I said, out. Now." He glared at me, but I refused to back down, a flame suddenly ignited in me.

"No. I came in here to help you. And I did. And now you're being rude to me? Who do you think you are?" I stood there, my hands splayed out as if it would show my point. "I didn't mean to do anything that would aggravate you- in fact, if it wasn't for me, you probably would have still been sitting on the floor right now!" I fumed, glaring, and when he didn't answer, I stalked out the door and through the hallway.

I paused in the hallway, thinking of apologizing, but then stormed off as I thought of his eyes. Ugh! He was so aggravating!

That night, I fell asleep thinking of Draco Malfoy, never once considering forgiving him.

I woke to sunlight filtering in through the window and I sat up and stretched. I was usually an early bird, but the wrist watch I take off when I sleep said that it was 10.03. I sighed and flopped back down on the covers. Even now, I wanted to go back to sleep.

I sighed at the smell of bacon below, though, so I got out of bed and threw on a robe, walking down the steps. I walked into the kitchen, where there were people everywhere. Ginny was by the stove, talking to Mum, and Harry was behind her, adding his input every now and then. Blaise was in the fridge, seeming to be hunting for food before breakfast was done, and Nott was by it, talking about one time he had killed a Death Water in the war. Pansy and - oh, Merlin- Draco were closest to the doorway, talking so quietly that I couldn't hear them, though they were closest to me.

Draco was leaning on the wall with his back to me, and Pansy was doing the same thing, but she was facing the opposite way. She saw me and waved. Draco turned and, for some odd reason, I wished that I had gotten dressed. But he smiled anyway, and I started to smile back before I remembered what had happened the night before.

Angrily, I turned and stalked over to my friends. "Hello, guys. Why are you here so early?" Ginny hugged me while Harry answered.

"Well, we though we'd surprise you, but when we got her, you were still sleeping. Your mother," Harry smiled at my mum, "invited us to stay because you were probably going to wake up soon." I couldn't help but smile, and then I hugged Harry, kissed Mum on the cheek.

"Okay. Well, thank you," I said before I rounded them and headed toward Blaise, who was now tossing a cube of cheese between his two hands. When I was about four feet from him, he smiled devilishly and held up the cheese.

"Think fast, Mia," and then he quite literally threw the cube of cheese at me. I jumped, and on a rush if adrenaline, stuck my hands up to catch the food. Surprising even myself, I caught the cheese perfectly with my right hand. I stared at it for a moment before looking up at Blaise and smiling.

"Ha!" And I laughed, along with everyone else, who had stopped to watch the scene. I walked over to Blaise and hugged his bare torso. It seemed that he liked to sleep bare chested. Even though I had caught the cheese, my heart had jumped in that one moment, so I pressed the cheese into the small of his back and he yelped at the sudden cold that found his way up and then down his spine, pushing me away. I was smirking, holding the cheese in front of him.

"Never underestimate a Gryffindor!" And then I walked over to Harry and Ginny, giving them high-fives before I laughed and bumped shoulders with Mum, who just rolled her eyes.

She muttered something under her breath that sounded something suspiciously like "Children," but she was smiling nonetheless.

Only moments later, Mum announced that breakfast was done, and she shooed us into the dining room, insisting that the house elves would bring it to us. I was such a good mood that I only protested a bit.

The elves, as promised, brought the food to us, which was two heaping plates of bacon, and other heaping plate stacked high with pancakes, and then another with waffles.

Mum had cooked enough for an army, and it seemed we wouldn't eat it all.

But the boys devoured more than three quarters of the meal in only twenty minutes.

We laughed, talked, joked, and teased, and I had to say that I couldn't have had a better morning since the war started.