February rolled in with more snowstorms and dark, dreary days, and Lia was happy that she hadn't run into Theodore Nott for an entire week. The evening after the library incident, Lia had stayed in her bed and started sketching out ideas for Dumbledore's painting, determined to stay as far away from the greenhouse as possible. She'd done the same for the six remaining days of that week, but, once her four roommates had started curiously asking her what it was that she sketched every night under her covers, Lia realized that she'd have to find a new place to work on the painting. Dumbledore had asked her to keep it a secret at all costs.

Of course, she'd seen Nott a few times in the corridors, during meals, and in classes, but she'd made sure to avoid any and all eye contact. On Monday, she'd passed him on the second floor corridor between classes, walking with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and another Slytherin named Blaise Zabini, who had all been engrossed in a conversation that sounded like it was about Quid ditch. Lia had quickened her pace as soon as she'd seen them, but luckily they didn't seem to have noticed her. Nott however had made a strange movement that seemed like he was deciding whether or not to wave at her.

Then, during the very difficult Ancient Runes exam on Thursday, Lia had had a cold and was forced to look up several times during the test to blow her nose; she had spotted Theodore Nott looking at her during each of these nose-blowing sessions. She was sure he was getting annoyed at the unnecessary noise, but every time, she had quickly looked away before she could discern his _expression.

She was walking out of the Great Hall on Monday night, headed for her bedroom for some sketching, when she heard someone call her name.

"Lianna!" said a male voice. Whirling around, Lia saw Justin Finch-Fletchley dodging in between the throng of people leaving the Great Hall, to catch up with her.

"Hi, Justin," she said, wondering why he was rushing to talk to her.

"Hi...ouch! Er - maybe we should move out of the stampede..."

"Yeah, good idea," laughed Lia.

They hurried over to the wall that displayed the four huge hourglasses displaying the House Points.

"So, how was your day?" asked Justin, his face red from all the running.

"It was good, thanks," said Lia. "And how was your day, Justin?" she asked jokingly.

Justin didn't smile back, but instead gazed at a spot above Lia's head, leaning casually against the wall. "It was quite good, thanks."

"So...what did you want to talk about?"

"Nothing, really..." he said, still staring off into space.

"Okay..."

"Well, see you later, Lianna," said Justin, and dashed off towards Hufflepuff Hall.

Lia stared after him, completely nonplussed. What was that all about?

She stood there for a moment, trying to decide whether to go to her dormitory and start on some sketches for the painting or venture into the library and beg Madame Pince to let her sit there (and sketch). Since last week, all the students who'd been there during the showdown had been officially banned from coming within twenty feet of the library, and Lia did not enjoy thinking of what the _expression on Madame Pince's face would be when she saw Lia.

"Lost, Miss Moon?" said a kind voice. Lia looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore standing there and smiling benignly, the silvery stars on his brilliant purple robes glimmering.

Lia smiled and shook her head. "No, sir...I was just deciding where I should go-" she lowered her voice to a whisper, "to work on you-know-what."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Well, in that case, you might want to give Greenhouse # 1 a go."

Lia turned white. He knows I've been sneaking out there!

"Good evening, Miss Moon," said a still-smiling Dumbledore, and walked off towards the Great Hall.

Lia bit her lip and glanced around the emptying Entrance Hall. I really, really need to get started on this painting-Professor Dumbledore is counting on me. But I can't go down to the greenhouses, not with the risk of Theodore Nott showing up there...but I seriously doubt he will be. How he acted in the library proved that he wants nothing to do with me. I have to listen to Professor Dumbledore, and start this painting, and the only place that will do is the greenhouse.

She adjusted her bag on her shoulders and marched out the doors of the Entrance Hall, eager to carry out Dumbledore's request and completely certain that Nott would most definitely be nowhere near the greenhouse. The air was bitingly cold, and Lia had to rub her gloved hands together to keep them from going numb. She reached the greenhouse entrance, took out her wand, and opened the door - only to see Theodore Nott leaning casually against the tabletop of the bench.

Lia stopped in her tracks and turned abruptly around, half-running out the greenhouse door.

"Wait!" Nott caught up to her and grabbed her wrist, forcing her to whirl around to face him.

"Let go of me!"

He kept hold of her wrist, but loosened his grip a little. Staring down at her, his _expression was unreadable and his usually pale face red from the biting cold.

"LET GO OF ME!" shouted Lia, angry tears stinging her eyes. She had no idea what to do - she was now stranded far from the safety of the castle, near a greenhouse with a nasty Slytherin cornering her.

"Keep your voice down, Moon!" he hissed. "Listen, I just want to talk! Can't you calm down for a bit?"

"I don't want to talk to you!"

He glared at her, his pale eyes narrow. "You haven't been coming to the greenhouse lately," he muttered.

Lia laughed hollowly. "Fancy observing that! If you don't know why, I'll tell you! I refuse to sit and draw in a room with someone who gangs up on me in the library and insults me in every possible way!"

He stared down at his feet, his dark hair falling over his face and obscuring his _expression from view. His hand was beginning to feel uncomfortably cold, clamped around Lia's wrist. She tried to wrench free, but failed.

Then he said something that Lia couldn't hear, what with the gusty wind combined with his strangled sort of voice.

"What?" Lia demanded.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, still staring fixedly at the ground. "Now will you come inside? It's freezing out here," he said tersely.

Lia bit her lip. She needed to start on this painting as soon as possible, and there really was no proper place to do it than the greenhouse. She would just sit at the opposite end from Nott and try her best to ignore him.

"Fine."

He let go of her wrist and they walked into the greenhouse. It was thankfully and surprisingly warm, considering that the magical hearth at the other end of the room wasn't lit.

Lia marched over to the far end of the table and sat down. Nott sat at the other end, where his bag, cloak, and scarf lay. She wondered why he'd removed his cloak and scarf - he must have been sitting there for awhile before she arrived.

"How's your picture coming along?" he said from the other end of the table.

For a second, Lia panicked, but then she realized that he was only talking about the picture of Griselda the Green. Then, a worse thought occurred to her. She wouldn't be able to start her painting of Caradoc Dearborn in here if Nott was sitting at the very same table! Where was she to go?

"It's coming along fine," she said curtly, taking out her picture of Griselda. Maybe she could get a bit of that done now, and then she'd head up to the dormitory after a while. Hopefully the other girls would be asleep...

Lia set up her oil pastels and got to work, slowly losing herself in the depths of her picture. Neither she nor Nott said anything for over an hour, and Lia preferred it this way. For a minute, she questioned herself about whether she was doing the right thing by agreeing to stay in the greenhouse rather than go off and find another place to draw. After all, he'd completely betrayed her a week ago, by openly taunting her with his cronies. But why should he have stuck up for me anyway? It's not as if he needs to express any loyalty me...I'm not even his friend. Lia frowned. Why am I even surprised? He's just a typical Slytherin, anyway. I can't expect anything else.

For some reason, Nott had left his seat and was now pacing all over the room. He stopped at the hearth, took out his wand, and then seemed to change his mind and put the wand away. Then, he strolled by the mandrake plants set out for the second years, his nose wrinkling in disgust at their rather pungent smell. Suddenly he stopped, facing Lia, a frustrated frown on his face.

"Look, I know that it's not the same with us - I mean, we're not behaving in the same way that we were before what happened in the library - but you have to know, I had reasons for it! - I'm really not like them - but you won't ever believe me..."

Lia stared blankly at him, her hand holding the green oil-pastel frozen in midair.

He continued in a manner that was more controlled and bordering on brusque. "I saw you sitting there as soon as I walked in, but I didn't come say hello or whatnot, because everyone would've seen. Then Draco and the others showed up and sat plum down with me. I was hoping you wouldn't try anything foolish, but you had to come flouncing by, making yourself prime bait for Malfoy."

"I was getting a book from a shelf!" said Lia indignantly. "It's wasn't my fault that Malfoy went for me!"

"And then you had to go and get them fired up, didn't you?" Nott continued, ignoring Lia. "I told you to keep quiet, but you went on, and they got huffy and whipped out their wands. They would've hexed you halfway to London if it hadn't been for your self-righteous little army of rescuers."

Lia's mouth dropped open. He was blaming her for what had happened at the library! And to top it off, he was totally disregarding her having stood up for herself!

"Then you go and stop coming to the greenhouse all last week - not that I cared, I had better things to do - but yes, you stopped coming, and I knew you were upset."

Lia surveyed him. His hands were in his trouser pockets and his eyes were boring deeply into hers, as if trying to delve into the mysteries of her mind. She couldn't let him succeed - she had to keep her guard up.

"I wasn't upset. It's just common knowledge that people who - that people who've been starting to develop a friendship stick up for each other when one of them is getting attacked by bullies," she said coldly. "I'm a Hufflepuff, and we're like that."

"And I'm a Slytherin," said Nott, just as coldly. "We don't operate like that."

"Well, then enlighten me, Theodore - how do you wonderful Slytherins operate?"

He looked startled for a moment, then recovered quickly, starting to pace again. "We have pride and unity, but not for trivial values such as friendship. We know what we should really be proud of, and we take it seriously." As he said this, he stared determinedly at his hands, avoiding Lia's eyes. "You shouldn't have provoked Malfoy and the others, because it's natural for them to single you out - and hate you."

"I have never once done anything to make them hate me!" cried Lia.

"It's who you are!" said Nott, glowering at her. "You and your kind don't belong here, or anywhere in the wizarding world-"

"I'm not going to leave!" Lia found herself shouting.

"I don't want you to!" Nott bellowed. "I mean, er, you shouldn't have to, and all that. I don't believe in eliminating your kind. Law-enforced separation would be better."

Lia glared at him. "Well, thanks for that generous allowance. Why can't you Purebloods just get over yourself? Why can't we all just live together in peace?"

"We don't need to get over ourselves," said Nott testily, his pale blue eyes flashing.

Lia sighed and turned back to her picture. They're all the same. Even the seemingly decent ones.

He sat down across from her, glancing around the room shiftily. "Look, I agree that we've been starting to - to see each other around more often, and - I'm sorry I didn't defend you in the library. It's not as simple as you may think," he added, his face darkening. "I prefer not to call attention to myself, and defending you would've immediately alerted Malfoy and the others. They would've known that we - know each other."

"And what's so wrong with knowing me?" asked Lia quietly.

"My kind don't generally associate with yours," said Nott shortly. "If you haven't noticed, I'm a Slytherin and you're a Mud- a Muggle-born."

"Then how come you're talking to me?"

He looked slightly uneasy and stared down at his hands. "You're not so bad," he said with a shrug, his ears a bit red.

The next two hours passed surprisingly quickly; Lia found herself almost done with Griselda's face and figure, and was ready to begin working on the background - the shimmering, effervescent, underwater world Griselda called home. Nott had gone back to his side of the bench and resumed his painting, which, Lia found out after asking, was of the Scottish moors. Their conversation was sparse, but for some reason, Lia found herself feeling surprisingly comfortable sitting there, listening to the gusty wind blowing fiercely against the greenhouse walls.

At ten minutes till nine, they'd packed up their things and left the greenhouse, Lia casting the counterspell to turn off the greenhouse light. As she pulled out her wand from her cloak pocket, her hand-knitted mittens fell out, fluttering away in the billowing wind.

"Oh, bollocks!" she cried, setting her things down and starting after the mittens, which were flying off - in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

But Nott acted more quickly, breathing shallowly as he walked back from the far side of the grassy knoll near the Forest. "Here," he said, handing her the mittens.

"Thanks," said Lia, grinning in relief as she put them safely away in her backpack and tightened her scarf around her neck, not wanting that too to fly off. "I really should've been more careful..."

"It's okay," he said. He picked up his bag, brushed it off, put it on his shoulders, and then stood there, staring at Lia expectantly.

"Oh - er - I just have to make sure I've all my things...you don't have to wait for me," she said uncertainly.

"It's dark," he said, and left it at that.

After five minutes, they'd reached the empty, quiet Entrance Hall, grateful to shut the huge doors behind them and escape the biting February night air.

"So, er...same time tomorrow evening?" said Nott, his hands in his pockets and his over-long, windswept hair falling in his eyes.

Lia gave a small smile and nodded.

"Good, then," he said, grinning for the first time since Lia had met him. "Er - 'night, Lianna."

"'Night - Theodore," said Lia, grinning back.

"Er, it's Theo – my real name's too formal."

"And it's Lia, mine is much too formal too," she said, grinning.

They turned and walked off in the direction of their respective dormitories, their footsteps resounding in the cavernously empty Entrance Hall.