Chapter 22: We Burn a Deck of Cards

(Lily)

"It's so good to be back," I sighed, plopping down on my bed.

Lucy smiled and snuggled into Frank on her bed. "I know. It's a relief to get away from all that."

She didn't elaborate and she didn't have to. We were all relived to get away from home. I would miss my remaining Aunts and Uncles while I was at Hogwarts but the reminder of those we lost was too strong at home. I really couldn't stand it.

I groaned as Lucy pecked Frank on the cheek. I wasn't liking it in the dorm at the moment either. Lucy and Frank being all couple-ly was getting on my nerves. Sure they were cute together and I was glad they were happy or whatever, but did they have to sit there and rub it in our faces?

"I'll, uh, see you guys later," I mumbled to Lucy and Frank exiting the room.

I figured I'd go hang out with Hugo and Jacob. I hadn't seen them since we got off the train around an hour ago.

I reached the boys dorm and entered without knocking. Bad idea. Inside stood Jacob. With Roxanne. Very much together.

They broke apart as soon as they heard a noise and jumped towards opposite dies of the bed when they saw me standing in the doorway.

"Lily," Jacob said partially in shock and partially… was that annoyance I heard in his tone? "We-"

Tears were already forming in my eyes. "Whatever," I said quietly, maybe a little too harshly. "You can… go back to whatever that was."

And I stormed out of the room.

Tears pooled in my eyes as I raced out of the crowded Gryffindor Common Room. I heard whispers as I past but I just kept my head down and ignored them. Surely this would be in the Hogwarts News tomorrow.

How could Jacob do that to me? I had thought we were friends. He'd told me he was over Roxanne. No dating, no hooking up, until the fourth year. Was that such a hard rule to follow?

"Lily!" I heard Jacob shout.

I ignored him and continued walking.

"Lily, stop, please!"

I smiled to myself. I was furious, there was no mistaking that. But Jacob was cute when he was begging. If I was being honest I had no intention of ignoring him. I'd at least give him a chance to speak, no matter how mad I was. But I did enjoy making him work for it. He hurt me and if he wanted to talk to me, I'd at least let myself make a little game out of it. And so I only sped up my pace.

I heard his footsteps stop. "Stop playing games, Lily." I could hear the annoyance in his tone.

"I'm not the one playing games, Jacob," I said coldly, stopping but not turning around.

"Don't," Jacob said warningly.

"Don't?" I demanded, giving up the game and turning to face him. "You're telling me don't, Jacob? Really? How about you don't! Don't break our promise, don't ruin our friendship, don't snog my cousin!"

"I didn't break the promise, I'm not the one ruining our friendship and I didn't snog Roxy!" Jacob shot.

"I saw you!"

"You saw us close together on a bed. I was comforting her not snogging her."

"What's she need comforting from?"

Jacob shook his head in disbelief, I didn't understand why. "Who are you? You're not the Lily Potter I knew. The one I asked out. The one I love. She had a heart."

I unconsciously put a hand on my chest, over my heart. That hurt. A lot. Jacob seemed to realise this and opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off, "I'm not heartless. I'm not the one toying with people's emotions."

"I'm not toying with anyone's emotions."

"You can't just jump from me to Roxy, to random girls and back again, Jake! Love isn't a game!"

"I'm not jumping from girl to girl!" he yelled exasperated. "Roxy is my friend, she needed comfort and I was there to provide it. Yes, we were hugging, like friends typically do."

"It looked like more than hugging to me."

Jacob shook his head. "You're escalating this, Lily."

"I'm just saying what I saw!"

"Well, you saw wrong."

Jacob and I stood and faced each other for a while. It was like a staring contest.

After a full minute tears, not just from lack of blinking, began to form in my eyes. "I just lost my parents and one of my brothers. Don't make me lose my best friend too," I said quietly.

"Lily I… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have… I…" he stuttered moving towards me arms wide.

"It's all right," I said. "Just stay away from her and we'll be okay."

I opened my arms to accept Jacob's hug but he reared back like he'd been electrocuted. His face was one of disgust. "Roxy lost her parents too, you know. A long time ago actually. She never had the family you did! Her parents were drowned themselves in alcohol and lost their minds with drugs. They've tried to commit suicide before and they've finally succeeded. I can understand that!" His voice dropped and he ducked his head. "I can understand that way too well."

"Jake," I said, my voice softening. "I-"

Jacob shook his head. "Forget it, Lily. You're not the same person I used to know. Quit… quit stalking me, just leave me alone all together." He stormed off in the direction of the Astronomy Tower.

"Jacob!"

"I'm sorry it came to this, Lily," he mumbled, not turning back. "I really am."

"Me too," I whispered quietly. "Me too."

The next day at breakfast I was proved to be right; Jacob and I were featured in the Hogwarts News.

The main story was, of course, the fire where half my family died. I couldn't even bare to look at it. I got a glimpse at the headline though, AttentionSeeking Prat James Potter Does it Again. James, however, glanced at it and after few seconds stormed out of the Great Hall. I would've followed him, but he had Alice on his heels. I'm sure he'd be fine. Or as fine as an orphaned child could be.

On the inside was a very amped up dramatic version of mine and Jacob's argument. The first sentence, which described Jacob as a cry baby who couldn't take a punch and me as a stalker with bad taste, was enough to make me throw the newspaper across the Great Hall. It accidentally hit Professor Parkinson. She looked around dazed for the culprit and saw me still frozen with my arm in the air. I hastily lowered it. Detention Potter. My office five o'clock."

Great. That would probably mean I'd miss dinner. Not that I had much of an appetite anyway. I couldn't even finish the toast I'd took one bite of. I pushed my plate away from me and stood up.

The events of last night kept running through my mind. Slowly, the more I thought about it, I realised Jacob was right. Well, at least partially. I was just being jealous and petty. Of course he had the right to talk to Roxy. And of course she'd be hurting- her parents had die too. Even if I tried to sugar coat it, there was really no other way to put it, I had been stalking him.

Now all I felt was regret. Jacob had been my friend. He'd made it clear he loved me, just not as a girlfriend. And I should've been able to accept that. I was only thirteen after all, I didn't need a boyfriend. I wanted to tell Jacob this, but he'd been avoiding me. Not that I could blame him, I'd avoid me too.

I just didn't know what to do. If I kept trying to find him that would only prove the whole stalker thing to be true. But if I ignored him it'd prove was a bad friend I am.

I hadn't really realised where I was wandering to but I found myself outside. I smiled bitterly as I looked at the sky. The sun was trying to peek out from behind the dense clouds but to no avail. I was the sun and the clouds were… everything, really. Life was literally throwing every possible thing in my way. No matter how hard I tried to get past it, I couldn't succeed. There's no way I can ever get through those clouds.

"I don't care if it seems like it right now, it's going to get better."

I hadn't noticed that I'd been crying, but now I noticed my face was wet. I angrily wiped at the tears.

"It's okay to cry, Lily."

"You never do," I muttered finally turning around. Standing in front of me was Roxy. It was almost shocking to look at her. Besides with other people, this was the first conversation we'd had since last year.

"You don't know me very well then," Roxy said simply.

I sighed. "I'm sorry about that by the way. Sorry about everything."

"I accept your apology."

I waited a beat, when she didn't say anything else I added, "That's the part where you apologize too."

She shrugged and cocked her head to the side. "I have nothing to apologize for."

"Yes, but still-"

"Lily, we may not have talked much in the past year but I haven't changed." She crossed her arms stubbornly. "I've never been one to unnecessarily apologize."

I sighed. However annoying she was, she was right. It had all been my fault, our fight. If I hadn't gotten so jealous of her and Jacob, things might've turned out differently.

"It's good to know you haven't changed much."

Roxy smiled and nodded. Then she grew serious. "You on the other hand have."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, playing dumb.

Roxy wasn't buying it. "Lily," she said sternly. "Don't try to deny it."

I hung my head down defeated. "I don't know what to do anymore, Roxy."

My cousin led me over to a tree near the lake. We sat down and she put her arm around me, protectively. I remembered years ago when we were in Muggle school she would protect me and Hugo and Lucy from any bullies or teachers who picked on us. I missed that protectiveness. It felt… right for her to be here by my side, comforting me.

"Sometimes it's okay not to know," Roxy said. "Sometimes we just have to keep on going."

"How do you keep going when you don't know where you're going or how to get there?"

She thought about that for a moment. "Do you know what you want in life, Lily?"

The question caught me off guard. Did I know what I wanted? "I… I'm not quite sure."

"It doesn't have to be specific or complicated, but you should know it."

"I… I want to be happy and I want my family to be happy," I finally decided.

"Then focus on that. Never forget that. Don't let that thought leave your head. Let it guide you."

"But it's too late!" I shouted. "Half my family is already dead!"

Roxy gave me a moment to calm down before continuing. "That doesn't mean you can't be happy ever again, Lily."

"When's it going to go away?" I muttered.

"Sometimes you think depression is going to last forever. Like you'll never stop wallowing in sadness. Like you're going to drown in it."

"I am drowning in it, Roxy. I'm drowning and there's no way out."

"The most painful part drowning is trying to kick your way back up to the surface. Trying to convince yourself to not let that breath in that you know will end your suffering, along with your life."

I frowned, confused. "So you're saying I should just… give up? Let the sadness consume me?"

Roxy shook her head. "I'm saying that you haven't yet. You know it'd be easier to take in that breath of water. To finally give up. And you haven't done it yet. Why do you think that is?"

"I… I don't know."

"It's because you're stronger than that! It's because you're not ready to give up and you'd rather die fighting then end the pain right now. Because that's the type of person you are Lily. You're a fighter! You're not going to give up, even when it's the easier choice, because you are not a quitter!"

"I… I guess?" I said, not totally convinced.

"Yeah, well I know. You are a fighter. You're going to keep fighting. You're kicking in every direction and your lungs are screaming for air, but you're not going to stop no matter how tired you get. Let that fighting spirit guide you to the top, Lils."

"You want me to just keep kicking, keep fighting until I find the top? What if I never do?"

"If you keep fighting you'll find your way out, Lily. You have to." At this point she seemed like she was trying to convince me as well as herself.

And for some reason that helped. To know, to see, Roxy going through the same thing. I grabbed my cousin's hand. "We'll get through this," I insisted. "Together. You're a fighter too, Roxy. We can do this, I know we can."

"We can," she repeated, again trying to convince herself.

"We can," I said a third time. "Just hold on a little longer."

Roxy smiled. "Can we forget our stupid feud? Jacob loves us both and it doesn't matter who, if either of us, ends up dating him."

"Yes, it's over. It's done."

"So we're friends again?"

"We never stopped being friends, Roxy. We just stopped talking. No matter what you'll always be my friend."

"And you mine."

(James)

It was my first morning in over a week that I'd spent with my family. The second I sat down at the Gryffindor table I was surrounded by Alice, Fred, Albus, Dom, Molly and all my other cousins. The only two who seemed to be missing were Roxy and Lily, but I didn't know why.

Everyone talked like nothing was wrong. I appreciated the fact that nobody asked if I was okay, or how I was doing. I supposed they finally learned that was only going to make me feel worse.

After talking to Marlo I had felt better. But like I'd told him, I didn't return home. I hung out with Alice for a bit after that and explained that I just couldn't go home yet and I needed her to tell everyone that I was okay and I'd see them at Hogwarts. She had done that and now here I was.

I still wasn't back to my old self, though. I still felt like I was made of guilt. All I could think about was the fire. All the lives I'd taken. And the Prophecy. The Prophecy that had come true. Suddenly I knew what I had to do.

I shoved two whole pieces of toast in my mouth and muttered something about having to finish an essay, though probably no one could understand me.

I'd taken all of two steps when I felt a hand on both my shoulders. On one side of me was Fred, on the other was Alice.

"If you want to see Trelawney we're coming with you," Fred said matter-of-factly.

"How… how did you know?" I asked baffled. I hadn't told them and I hadn't said anything out loud.

"Please, James, we know you better than you know yourself," Fred replied dismissively. "Now, are you sure you want to do this?"

I opened my mouth to say yes and then realised… maybe I wasn't. I really wasn't sure I'd be able to take whatever answer she gave me. What if she told me the only way I could save my family was to die? What if she spouted another prophecy? Or worst of all… what if she told me I'd been right, that the only way to keep everyone safe was to banish myself and never see them again?

Despite the fact that I'd been prepared to do just that, I wasn't really sure I could anymore. My talk with Marlo and another deep talk with Alice afterwards, proved that I couldn't live without my family. I knew that if it came down to their safety of having me in their lives, they'd chose not to turn their backs on me. Because that's what my family stood for. Loyalty. And if they wouldn't cast me aside, it'd be up to me to do it myself. I wasn't sure I was strong enough to do it alone.

I stared at the ladder that led up to the Divination classroom and Trelawney's office. It looked so intimidating. It always had since the day she first spouted the Prophecy.

"James, whatever she says, we'll be right here with you," Alice promised. "We won't abandon you."

"I know you won't," I grumbled. "And that's exactly the problem."

"Jamie, how can that be a problem?"

"Because I could kill you!" I shouted. I took a calming breath. "I won't… I can't… I can't bear the thought that I might hurt you."

"You won't, Prongs," Fred assured me. "I won't let you hurt me or Ally or anyone else."

I smiled grateful for the attempt but it didn't do anything to assure me. "Can you promise me something?"

Appose to answering how she usually would, with an 'Of course, anything', Alice narrowed her eyes and said, "No matter what the circumstance I will not stop being your friend. I will not give up on you, James."

Fred shook his head. "We're with you until the end, mate."

I looked down and in a quiet voice said, "I wasn't going to ask you to not be with me until the end… I was going to ask you to help me get to the end."

At first Alice frowned at me confused. For once Fred understood before she did. His hand raised and whacked me across the temple. It hurt, but I didn't really react.

"What the hell are you thinking?!" he shouted.

"I'm thinking that I can trust my two best friends more than anyone in the world," I mumbled, still not looking at either of them.

Finally it dawned on Alice. I could hear the tears in her voice when she spoke, which truly broke my heart because Alice never cried. "We're not going to kill you. Under any circumstances. Ever."

Finally I looked up, tears pooling in my eyes. "What if I'm about to kill Roxy?" I asked Fred. "Or Frank?" I added to Alice. "Even then you won't think it's better to end my life than for me to end theirs?"

"I can usually deal with your craziness, but this is just ridiculous, Jamie!" Alice yelled. I winced a little. I don't think she'd ever really yelled at me before.

"James, you can't think like that. Everything's going to be fine. We'll make sure it's fine."

"You can't promise that, though," I insisted. "What if things go wrong and I lose myself? What if I'm not even me, but some monster wearing my skin? I'm not asking you to kill me, I could never ask that. If a situation like this happens I'll be long gone, it won't even be me anymore."

"Whether it's you or not James, it's still your body, which is technically you," Fred reasoned. "There's no way that either of could muster up the ability to do something like that, not to our best friend."

"Then can you make me a different promise?" I asked.

"Possibly," Alice said, her voice full of suspicion.

But I had no intention of being deceitful. I'd made my plea and they denied. I couldn't really blame them. I highly doubt I'd be able to kill anything that looked like Fred or Alice, even if it was like an evil twin or something. What I'd asked of them was impossible, but I'd still hoped. I just wanted to die without hurting any more innocent people. I wanted that to be able to happen. But alas, it couldn't. If I wanted to die as myself, without killing anyone else, I'd have to fight for it. I'd have to make sure there was no possible way that Code or his sister or anyone could change who I was. I wouldn't let them.

No my question was of a much different context. "Promise me," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, "That you'll stay with me until the end. That you won't give up on me."

"Of course," Alice said at the same time Fred said, "Yes."

They both reached in to put their arms around me. And for the first time since the incident I accepted and returned the hug. It felt nice and I suddenly realised how much strength you could get, just from the support of people who love you.

Several minutes later we were up in Trelawney's office sipping tea. Her office wasn't much. It was messy, tarot cards laying everywhere. She had a crystal ball in the center of the desk that stood between her and Alice, Fred and I. She pushed it to the side so she could see us clearly.

"I can understand your problem and concerns," Trelawney said, after a long pause that followed me explaining my situation to her. "But I cannot just spout a Prophecy. That's not how it works, James."

"But it has to work that way!" I snapped. "I need answers."

"Well, I suppose we could try an ulterior method she said gesturing to the many future-predicting knick-knacks around the room."

I didn't really believe in that junk, but at this point I was desperate. "I'll try it," I muttered.

For an hour we went through different methods of future-telling. And for some reason nothing had a result on me. It was like my future was blocked, in Trelawney's words.

"Why would my future be blocked?" I asked. "How is that even possible?"

Trelawney paused tapping her fingers against each other as she thought. Finally she said, "It's rumored that no method of future telling will work on someone who'd part of a true destiny."

"Destiny?" Fred repeated, disbelievingly.

Trelawney nodded. "I know it sounds slightly farfetched but it's the only thing I can think of." She turned to looked directly at me. Her gaze was so intense I thought she might spout another Prophecy. "Whatever the future holds for you, it's important. It's destined."

I gulped, trying to swallow down my fear. "Is there anything that might work? Anything at all?

"There's one thing we haven't tried," she muttered, picking up what looked like a normal deck of cards.

"And those are?" I asked.

"They're Futurom cards," she replied. Invented by Latin wizards. It was more like a joke than an actual method of predicting the future. I'm not sure if they even work…"

"I don't care, I'll try anything," I said, somewhat desperately.

"Even if they do end up working by some miracle they won't give us much information. The answers you'll get will be so… broad that mot of anything I can predict will be guess work." She began shuffling the cards. "There's eight suites, five cards of each suite. Hearts, swords, clovers, sun, moon, flowers and tombstones. The heart represent love, swords fighting, clovers luck, sun goodness and light, moon darkness and evil, flowers growth and tombstones, uh, death."

I nodded. "So what I just pick a card?" I asked reaching my hand towards the deck.

"No, not at all," she said pulling the cards away from me. "We burn them."

She walked over to the little fireplace in her office and lit it.

I glanced at Alice. She shrugged.

After a brief pause Trelawney answered my unasked question, "You burn them and the ones that don't burn predict your future. If you have one of something that means you shouldn't worry about it, if you have five of something it will play an important part in your future."

She threw the card onto the fire. It turned blue, then green, then died all together leaving only around a dozen and a half out of the original forty cards.

She picked them up and placed them on the table.

There were four hearts, four swords, four tombstones, three suns, three moons and no clovers or flowers."

What does that mean?" Alice asked because I couldn't voice the words.

She stared at us all grimly. "It means nothing more than you already knew, war is coming and there will be death. It will be a battle of both good and evil. And it seems there's no hint as to which side will prevail."There was nothing really that could be said. Alice and Fred both silently gave their condolences but neither of them spoke. There was no words to speak.

Trelawney had just confirmed my worst fears, there was going to be a fight and many would die, including loved ones. I almost wished I had never gone to see her. If I hadn't I would've been able to ignore the truth for just a little bit longer. Pretend the worst wasn't necessarily going to happen. Pretend there was still a chance. But maybe it was better to have that naive dream crushed. At least now there was no pretending. There was no false hope. I knew what was going to happen and the death of everyone I loved – and possibly myself- would still be unbearably painful but at least it wouldn't be a surprise.

"Do you want to talk, Jamie?" Alice asked, breaking m train of thought.

That's when I remembered something. "Absolutely."

"Okay," she began, "I know you-"

I cut her off. "I don' want to talk about me," I said. "I want to talk about you." I turned to Fred. "And you."

Fred smiled but Alice frowned and her brow crinkled. Merlin, she looked cute when she was confused. "About me? Why?"

"Because I never pay attention to you. It's always about me, me, me. Well let's make it about you for once."

She smiled. "Okay, what about me?"

I decided to start with something simple. "How are NEWT classes?" I asked.

She sighed. "Transfiguration is a slight pain. Potions is always work with Parkinson. Charms, DADA, Ancient Runes, Divination, Herbology, Muggle Studies, and Care of Creatures are all good." She took a well needed deep breath after naming all those subjects. "What about you?"

I shook my head. "We're not talking about me." I turned to my cousin. "What about you Fred?"

"I'm acing most of my classes. O in Charms and Creatures. E in DADA and Muggle Studies. G in Transfiguration and History. P in Potions. My average is a 72%, an E."

"Nice," I said, genuinely impressed with my cousins. "Especially in History. I don't know how you can listen to him drone on and on like that."

Fred shrugged. "It's a talent, I guess."

There was a pause in conversation and the mood grew solemn. I know which question I wanted to ask next, but I wasn't sure if I was going to like the answer. After almost a full minute of silence I mustered up the courage, "How are you doing, after the fire?"

Fred sighed loudly. He seemed to have known this question was coming. He sat down on the stairs twiddling his thumb, not looking at either me or Alice. "I'm fine," he said after a while. "Really. In fact the only problem is I feel like I should feel more. But I don't."

He paused to look up at us. Then quickly looked back down as if ashamed. "Is that bad?" he asked.

I wasn't really sure how to answer. Of course there was something wrong with it, to an extent at least. But there was nothing we could do to change that fact. And it wasn't his fault even. If his parents had showed him the type of affection he'd needed as a child he would feel more for them.

Without either of us answering Fred continued, "It's not like I don't love them. I do. And I miss them. But… I don't wish they were here with me." Fred clenched his fist. I wasn't sure what he was going to do with it but in fear that he might try to hurt himself I grabbed his hand in both of mine and slowly lowered it. "Fred." It was just a single word. Just his name. It really wouldn't mean anything to anyone else. But it wasn't the word that held meaning. It was the way I'd said it. Through that single word I'd conveyed every emotion I possibly could. I'd told him my feelings without actually having to say them out loud. I told him how sorry I was, that this was my fault not his. I told him I was just as angry with his parents as he was and that that was okay. I told him I'd miss them too, and my parents and our aunts and uncles. And most importantly I told him I was there for him. Whatever he needed, whenever he needed it, I'd always be there for him.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen Fred cry. Probably when we were five or so. And he wasn't exactly crying now either, more sobbing, but there were no tears and no sadness. It was an expression of relief and thanks towards me. I pulled him close to me and hugged him, not for too long, because we were men and that would be weird, but for long enough.

When we broke apart Fred wiped his eyes with his sleeve, even though there were no tears there. "I feel like they're happier now. I mean after all, they did choose it." He tried to keep his voice calm and even, but I could hear the disgust masked in his tone.

Alice nodded putting her arm around Fred but I just stared confused. "What are you talking about? They chose what?"

Fred looked at me a slight frown on his face. "You didn't know? They jumped into the fire. They used it as an excuse to commit suicide, something they've wanted for so long."

Perhaps that should've made me feel better. After all I took two less lives than I thought, in a way. They had wanted to die, would've done so anyway without my help. Perhaps that was a selfish way of thinking- no, not perhaps, it was- but it made what I did easier to live with. On the other hand, however, it made it more painful. I didn't know how to describe it really. It was like… like I gave them to opportunity to do that horrible thing that they've failed so many times. I had helped two people commit suicide. In a way it almost sounded worse than to say I murdered six people… I helped my Aunt and Uncle commit suicide. The thought made me nauseous.

Fred seemed to notice this and changed the subject. "So, Alice, now that he's finally ready to listen, why don't you tell James the problem you're having?"

Alice sighed and momentarily glared at Fred. Finally she turned to me. "I'm not having a problem."

Fred rolled his eyes and I stared at Alice. "Are you serious?" I demanded. "I've literally poured my heart out to you on many different occasions. You've seen me at my worst, nothing more than an empty sobbing shell of who I usually am. And you think you have to the right to say you don't have any problems when you clearly do?"

To anyone else it would've sounded harsh. I almost regretted the words after I uttered them, except I had a policy not to regret anything. But Alice knew what I meant. She knew I hadn't meant it to offend her but that I really meant she could tell me anything and everything. I just had a funny way of saying it.

"My parents are getting divorced," she mumbled. I could hear the confusion, the sadness, the anger and the understanding all wrapped up in her voice. I was heartbreaking. I was supposed to sound like that, not Alice.

Had this side of Alice always been there? I kind of just assumed she had no problems in her life, she never acted like she did. I suddenly felt like the worst best friend in history of the world. I'd killed my best friends suicidal parents and been ignoring the problems and need of my other best friend. Maybe Code was right- I didn't deserve to live. Not if this was the way I treated two of the people I supposedly loved most. But I masked those feelings because I knew if Alice saw them on my face she'd immediately feel the need to comfort me and it was my turn to comfort her.

And so that's exactly what I did. Fred, Alice and I sat there in the corridor outside Trelawney's office for hours- I can't even say how many, two, three?- and just talked. Comforted each other in ways that were much needed. It was the most at peace I'd felt in years.

The next day I was wandering around the school aimlessly when I ran in Cassidy.

"What… what are you doing here?" I asked her, slightly confused.

She pulled me into an unexpected hug. "What, are you not happy to see me?"

"No, I am," I assured her. "I'm just surprised… I mean don't you have class right now?"

"I'm just going to the loo," she replied.

"Well, in that case I'm glad I decided to ditch Muggle Studies today," I responded with a smile.

"I'm glad you did too," she said. "I've actually been meaning to talk to you, but I've just been so busy."

"What are you busy with?" I asked her.

"Well, I've been working on this potion project for extra credit. I have to brew a complex potion. It's more difficult than I thought it'd be and some of the ingredients are really hard to find."

"What kind of ingredients do you have to get?"

"Tons. Like… I have to get unicorn poop. I don't know how I'm supposed to find that."

"There's some in the Forbidden Forest," I said, maybe a little too eagerly. Trying to be cooler I added, "I could get it for you if you want…"

"Really, Chip?" I smiled at the use of old nickname. "You're the best!" And she gave me another hug.

With a wave she left, heading towards the loo. As soon as she turned her back I bolted towards the forest.

A/N: Hey guys! I got more writing in than I thought I would, so here's the update :) I was a little worried I'd be late.

1: I'm finally done school! Whoo, grade nine officially over. I'm a quarter way done high-school, which is kind of scary. But it means that it's summer now and I should have more time to write! Yay! Speaking of writing the book is almost over. Probably like 3-5 chapters left. Should be done by the end of summer. Then unfortunately there will most likely be a hiatus. Like a month or so. Hopefully not longer.

2: I'm going away for a week so the next update won't be until July 4th the earliest. Between July 4th and July 9th.

3: QotC This I kind of random but if you could have one "fictional" creature (I put fictional in brackets because I am one to believe in magic and such) like a dragon or a unicorn as a pet what would it be? I think a dragon would be cool, but not a big one. A smaller one that was friendly. But could still be fierce if it had to protecting me.

Why is Lily so jealous of Lucy and Frank? Why does she always assume the worst of Jacob and Roxy? What will happen now that they've fought? Will they make up? Did Jacob make a good decision walking away from Lily? Did that decision finally make Lily mature? How long will it take James to recover? Will he recover? Will he be able to fight long enough to stay himself, or will he die a monster? Who else is part of James' supposed destiny? What kind of potion is Cassidy making?

"When your going through hell, keep going," Winston Churchill/ Mrs. Morrell, Teen Wolf, 2.11.

-Monkeywoman14