Chapter 6: Return to the Chamber

After another trying Potions class, Tracey bumped into Holly after they left the classroom.

"You ready?" she muttered.

Holly nodded in silence.

But as they walked towards Myrtle's bathroom, Ron caught up with them. "Holly, where are you going? Great Hall's that way."

She turned to him with a smile. "Oh, Tracey and I have to take care of something. I'll meet you before Defence, okay?"

"Davis?" asked Ron warily, his gaze fixed on Tracey's Slytherin crest.

Tracey caught his stare and shot him a mischievous grin. "It's rude to stare at my chest, you know."

Ron's face turned beet red. "I-I wasn't... I mean, I wasn't staring. I was just... looking... um, nowhere in particular."

Tracey laughed lightly; Holly snorted in amusement. "Ron, this is Tracey Davis. Tracey, meet Ron Weasley, one of my best friends," Holly introduced.

They shook hands, and Ron's expression shifted from embarrassment to concern. "Holly," began Ron, "I don't like the idea of you going alone with a Slytherin anywhere."

Tracey raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, Weasley. Not all Slytherins are evil, you know."

Ron looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry. It's just that Malfoy..."

Holly reached up to put a hand on Ron's shoulder. "Don't worry, Ron. I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine. It's really nothing to worry about."

"Fine," Ron relented. "But I'm going with you."

Holly raised an eyebrow playfully. "Even at the cost of lunch?"

At his unamused look, Holly shot Tracey a glance, but Tracey shrugged. "It's your call, Potter."

She looked at an unwavering Ron and sighed. "Fine. Let's go."

As they walked towards Myrtle's bathroom, Holly's curiosity about Hermione's whereabouts got the better of her, and she asked Ron again, "Where's Hermione? She vanished again after class."

Ron shrugged. "I wish I knew. I've tried asking, but she's already bit my head off today. I reckon she'll tell us when she's ready."

"Hmm." Having been out for part of the previous week, she hadn't paid much attention to Hermione's workload, but now that she thought about it, why was she allowed to take all five electives? Holly decided not to press further in front of Tracey.

Silence resumed as the three of them headed in the opposite direction that most others were going, their footsteps echoing in the empty corridor. Tracey spoke up, trying to break the tension. "So, how are you two doing?"

Still suspicious, Ron replied with a simple: "Fine."

Holly, eager to keep a conversation going, brought up a topic. "Do you know Colin Creevey?"

"The second year that followed you around like a lovesick puppy last year?" asked Tracey teasingly.

"Anyway, he was working on this project over the summer, trying to create magical pictures with sound, sort of like a video clip."

Tracey's eyes lit up with interest. "Oh, that sounds cool! Like capturing a moment with all its sounds and movements?"

Holly nodded. "Exactly! He wanted to make some magical yearbook project for his final year once he works out the issues."

"What's a yearbook?" asked Ron.

"It's sort of a picture book that covers all the events of what happened during the school year," Tracey explained. "Things like clubs and Quidditch and the like."

"Muggle schools put one out at the end of each year so people can look back on them years later," added Holly.

Ron nodded in thought. "That sounds like something my dad would love to see. If Colin manages to get it to work, it could be used for Quidditch matches and other events."

Tracey grinned. "Oh, like those taped Muggle football matches played later to look them over?"

Ron nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly! Dean mentioned something like that once."

They continued their lively conversation until they reached Myrtle's bathroom. Holly pushed the door open, and they entered, greeted by the sounds of Myrtle's sobbing.

"Here we are," said Holly. She looked under the stalls—while Myrtle's bathroom was generally abandoned, Holly wanted to make sure.

Tracey looked around curiously. "So, where's the entrance to the Chamber?"

"The Chamber?" asked Ron in alarm. "Holly, why are you—"

Holly walked over to the sink Mrytle had pointed at just a few months prior, ensuring the tap didn't work. "Right here." Once she saw the snake scratched on the side of one of the copper taps, Holly looked back at the snake, willing herself to believe it was alive.

"Open up."

The tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. The sink began moving out of sight, exposing a large pipe. Just like the last time it was opened, it was covered in slime and smelled awful.

"How did you even find that?" asked Tracey in disbelief.

Holly smirked and tapped her nose. "Trade secret." She turned to Ron. "Ron, Tracey and I came to an…agreement of sorts over the summer. She's helping me harvest the basilisk for some extra money."

A flash of jealousy appeared in his eyes. "Why do you need money?" he wanted to know.

Holly felt her face heat up. She didn't think Ron would ask her that. "I just do, okay? I don't want to get into it now." She gestured to the open hole. "Are you coming with us or not?"

Ron reluctantly nodded.

Tracey wrinkled her nose. "Did you just slide down the tube last time?"

"No," said Holly, thinking fast. Tracey didn't know about Dobby's assistance. "I just asked for stairs ."

They appeared to her surprise and relief, albeit still covered with slime.

Ron waved his wand. "Scourgify!"

A burst of light shot from his wand onto the stairs; the grime on part of the stone vanished, leaving grey rock behind.

Then, making a last-minute decision to take extra precautions, Holly held up a hand. "One second." She pointed her wand at the bathroom door. "Colloportus!"

The door locked itself.

"It probably won't keep anyone but the firsties out, but the older years don't really come over here anyway," said Tracey before casting another Cleaning spell.

Armed with the glow of their Lumos spells, the trio began their descent into the depths of the Chamber of Secrets. The air was chilly, and the darkness seemed to press in on them as they made their way down the winding staircase.

Moving in silence, they continued for what felt like an eternity. It took them about twenty minutes to finally reach the bottom of the staircase. When they arrived, they sent about twenty globes of light soaring towards the high ceilings of the vast chamber. Slowly, the darkness receded, and they could now see their surroundings clearly.

Now that she could focus on the destination, The Chamber of Secrets was a rather impressive sight. The stone walls were etched with ancient symbols and carvings, and the cold, damp air gave the chamber an eerie atmosphere. The echoes of their footsteps reverberated through the space, making it seem even more mysterious.

"Here we are," she said, rather anticlimactically after she opened the statues.

"Woah." Tracey stared at the basilisk corpse. "You faced that a few months ago? And lived to tell the tale?"

"Yeah," said Holly, feeling out of sorts. "What do you think it's worth?"

Tracey blinked in disbelief. "Holy shit. Well, wow. I thought you were exaggerating, to be honest with you, Potter. Wish I'd brought a camera."

"One more thing," said Holly as she tapped Ron, who started at her touch. "You're getting part of the profit. And don't try to deny it, Ron, because then I'd have to take it up with your mum."

Ron looked torn between annoyance, shame, and fear. "Bloody hell. Reckon I don't have a choice, now do I?"

"Nope," replied Holly cheerfully.

Tracey opened her bag. "Luckily, I came prepared." She took out several vials and jars.

"Wait, right now ?"

"Well we've just come from Potions," reasoned Tracey. "Might as well."

"Where do you reckon we should start?" asked Ron. He seemed to have gotten past some of his fear.

Tracey slapped the hide of the basilisk. "With the scales, of course."

She took out a tool that looked like a small chisel but with a little curl to the edge that acted like a delicate pry bar. Not having one of their own, Holly roughly Transfigured two for her and Ron from rocks. Once they had one ready, Tracey showed them how it would be futile to attempt to pry loose scales from the torso immediately because they overlapped in a way that prevented them. Instead, she began at the underside of the jaw, where the softest and loosest scales were, and started the slow process of detaching the scales one by one from the fleshy skin beneath.

"A bit like plucking a chicken," noted Ron as he pried one scale down. It fell with an echo. Holly and Tracey gave him questioning looks. "What?"

"You've plucked chickens before, Weasley?" asked Tracey.

Ron shrugged. "Well, yeah. Haven't you?"

Holly and Tracey shook their heads. "The supermarket chickens sell them cut and pre-plucked."

"Eh, my dad prefers the fully cooked ones," said Tracey with a shrug. Another scale fell.

"But then you can't season it the way you want!" said Ron, aghast. "How're you supposed to know if the flavour is good or not?"

"They have different ones, Ron. I think they have taste testers that choose three or four popular flavours that most people will like and go from there."

Ron shook his head at Holly's reply. "Muggles are weird!"

The work and conversation continued, and they began to make progress. As Holly worked, she pictured all the good these scales would do in the Wizarding community. They would be used in old potions, new potions, medicines, experiments, and more. Basilisks had always been a rare breed, and so knowledge about their uses in potions and alchemy was as limited as the number of parts researchers could get their hands on. There was no telling what kind of information and insight might be gleaned from the scales alone.

Plus, she thought, people will pay top Galleon for these scales, which means more money for Eternal Elixirs.

It wasn't until they decided to take a break that Tracey asked what time it was.

Ron checked his watch. "Twenty minutes before lunch ends," he said.

"We should head back. Defence is next and I don't want to be late," said Holly.

"When should we meet again?" asked Tracey as she gathered the scales into an enlarged vial.

"We—"

"Let's meet after you sell what we've gotten so far," said Holly, eyeing the vial filled with scales. "Then, once I get my cut, we can set up another meeting time."

Tracey looked nonplussed for a moment before smirking. "Fair enough."

~•~

Third year had proceeded with gusto. Once the introductions and reunions were out of the way, the Professors dived into their subject matter. As third years they expected them to know the basics of magic in their core classes, and as such there was little coddling. The only exception was their new electives.

Professor Babbling's class was equal parts lecture and practice, much like McGonagall's. Once they took notes from the lecture and done the textbook exercises, everything was reviewed as a class before they moved on to practical. Their block had become more proficient in properly drawing the Latin and Elder runes, and their homework was always a precursor to the next lesson.

Care of Magical Creatures, on the other hand, had gone downhill. After the first lesson where Holly got hurt by Buckbeak, it seemed like Hagrid had made a one-eighty, as it were. There were no more dangerous or even remotely exciting creatures. For the last three lessons, they had been caring for flobberworms, something so harmless that even Neville was bored.

Amalgamated with her Muggle coursework, it wasn't until that Friday during her after-lunch free period that she could catch up with Alex.

"How are the new classes?" Alex asked video call.

Holly shrugged as she bottled some dittany. "It's going okay. Runes are my favourite so far. I can't wait for the more complex stuff. It's right up there with Potions and Charms. Economics and Physics are interesting enough too. I never knew engines could run on vegetable oil, of all things!"

"Well yeah. You can burn any organic matter. Water, carbon, leaves, spices..."

Holly rose an eyebrow. "Spices? Really? You're having me on."

"No, really. Mussolini made the trains run on thyme," he replied with a straight face.

She blinked. "...That was terrible."

Alex burst out laughing. "No it wasn't, you should have seen your face!"

Holly shook her head. "Well if anyone can come up with something that corny, you definitely can."

There was a moment of silence.

"That pun was bad, and you should feel bad."

"Well, I'm afraid I can't do anything about it," said Holly, breaking into a grin.

"Ugh!"

"Remember, you started it," Holly said while Alex messaged his temples. "How are your classes going?"

"They're going well. I read ahead for Business, naturally—"

"Naturally."

"And saw something on small businesses and I found which employees we'll have to hire. We'll hold top positions like CEO, COO, VP and CFO until we can get a magical contract set up, but the positions we can delegate are an Operations Manager, Quality control, shipping and receiving, purchasing an accountant."

"It would be nice to have someone take care of the purchasing and quality control," Holly mused. "I know your mom doesn't want to get into contact with other Squibs, but maybe we could find some disillusioned Muggle-borns and their siblings and parents. People who are already aware of the Wizarding World, like from Avempace. Until then, I can handle the rest," said Holly.

"Are you sure? We don't want to overwork you."

"Yes, that's why I stepped up production this summer," said Holly before she put down a formerly amber bottle. "So what's with these new bottles?"

"Just something new we're trying out," said Alex in a very nonchalant manner.

"Is this some new UV coating? I can't see inside."

"Er, something like that. We were wondering if you could charm the bottles Unbreakable?"

"That's a fourth-year spell, I think. I'll ask Hermione if she knows it." It might even let Holly see her for more than a few seconds.

"Cool," said Alex with an appropriate amount of awe. "That'd make shipping a whole lot easier."

Holly nodded. "And Tracey got back to us with the money." Even though she split it fifty-fifty with Ron, two-hundred sixty Galleons was nothing to scoff at. "Has Justin's family gotten back to you yet?"

Alex snapped his fingers. "Yes, they did. And they loved the dittany and burn-healing samples! They're discussing it, but we can expect an order within the next few weeks. Isn't this great? Our first customer!"

Holly, however, was less enthusiastic. "Yeah, it's great." While she was happy Eternal Elixirs was finally taking off, a hint of anxiety filled her. She had to make everything perfect now. It wouldn't be like making potions for Dudley or the Kanns, where the risks were somewhat lower if something went wrong. Things were serious now. She would need to make her brewing room as clean and free from residual magic as possible.

"Hey, Alex, can you buy a couple jars of Mrs Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover?"

"That stuff that smells like a hospital? Why?"

Holly eyed the Hideaway, noting the cobwebs forming in various corners. "Let's just say I have some cleaning to do."

~•~

Each Ancient Runes lesson made it clear that Ron was an absolute savant at the subject.

"It's not a big deal, really," he would say. "Mum said I was always pretty good at those rune block toys when I was little."

Apparently, instead of matching shapes and colours, like Muggle toys, if rune blocks were arranged in a certain order, interesting effects would happen, from loud noises to glowing lights and even floating.

He'd taken to the class with gusto. More often than not, he was the first to finish and even got good enough to help others during class. And whenever Ron would point out an interesting new theory, or correct their homework translations, Hermione would give a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Their latest returned assignment—a large essay—seemed to be the driving force in Hermione's annoyance. They had had several smaller assignments before, but now that they had covered Elder Futhark's primary runic meanings, they had started working on the secondary ones. Holly's notes and marks made her feel like she was floating.

The real surprise, though, was Ron's grade. He got a perfect score, even better than Hermione's.

She hadn't been pleased.

When Holly asked Hermione about it after dinner in the Common Room, her response surprised her.

"Well, the only reason why Ron's doing better than me—well, us—is because he has an unfair advantage," said Hermione.

"An unfair advantage?" repeated Holly.

"Yes! His brother's a curse-breaker, so of course he can write him for his old notes! Percy is in NEWT-level Runes, too, so he can also get help from him."

This was precisely why Ron didn't always show Hermione the full extent of his knowledge. "Hermione, I'm sure Ron wouldn't mind sharing his notes with you. And Percy is always there if you need help," she said. Though, Percy's explanations left a lot to be desired. The one time she went to him for clarification, Holly had left more confused than she was to begin with.

Hermione sighed, still looking quite put out. "I just don't understand. Even with notes and help, he shouldn't be this good. I know that you helped him cast non-verbally last year, so it wasn't that surprising, but we all really should be on an even keel."

"Ron's wizard-born, Hermione. Of course he has some extra advantages." Apart from Bill and Percy, Ron's paternal grandparents had had an Enchanters' shop before they retired, and his grandmother—a disowned Black—had decades, if not centuries of research on the topic.

"So are you and half the others in our class, and you're not doing half as well as he is."

"Well, it's not as though I really got to experience the benefits of growing up with magical parents," said Holly, faintly annoyed. There was a difference between knowing you have magic versus actually growing up as a witch. Everyone seemed to forget she was Muggle-raised.

Hermione quickly apologised. "Still, it's almost as though he's...a prodigy." She whispered it as if saying it any louder would make it come true.

"And so what if he is? Ron's allowed to be good at something, just like anyone else." Did Hermione not see how often Ron stayed after with Babbling to discuss Advanced Rune theories or the extra work he got?

Before Hermione could respond, Ron came out of the portrait hole. "Lo, you two," he said brightly when he reached their table.

"Interesting discussion with Professor Babbling?" asked Holly as he sat.

"Yeah, we were going over the last assignment she gave back to us. I had a few questions about some of the translations. Whenever Percy helps me, he's more by the book, but Bill always points out that different words have different connotations and how I need to watch out for that."

"Not to mention the secondary meanings of Runes," said Hermione loftily. "You need to consider that as well. It's no wonder you're having difficulty in that case."

Ron's smile widened. "Less difficulty than you ."

Holly winced. Here we go…

Several unpleasant minutes later, they were both storming from the table to opposite dorm staircases.

And there they go. Holly closed her eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh. She should have nipped the argument in the bud; since she didn't, she'd definitely have a week of damage control to do. As she returned to her work, Holly wondered why Ron was so invested in Ancient Runes. Was it their talk last year? Was it the diary's influence? Or was it the money for the slayed basilisk they recently received? Whichever it was, Holly knew that he was determined to prove something to Hermione and, by proxy, prove something to himself.

Neither of them was talking by the time Hermione's birthday arrived.

"What?" Ron had asked that morning after yet another quiet breakfast that Saturday. "It's not my fault she's jealous!"

"You don't have to instigate her, either! We're third years now, so can we get past all the petty arguments already?" asked Holly.

"I will if she does."

Holly sighed. Good enough, I suppose.

Still, together they got her a custom-made magical binder that kept all the user's notes organized and ready to withdraw at a moment's notice.

~•~

Cleaning the Hideaway in preparation for their first order wasn't a one-and-done affair. No, Alex wanted to know how it was cleaned, how long the mess remover remained on surfaces, and how often she would clean the space.

"Manufacturing locations must follow a standard cleaning procedure before and after they make something," said Alex. "If something goes wrong, we need to be able to trace it accurately."

Easy for you to say, she thought, when you aren't the one cleaning.

They settled on mandatory cleaning before and after each batch. Fortunately, Alex would be responsible for ensuring the sanitisation of bottles, droppers, and other packaging materials as he had the equipment to do so. Meanwhile, they would research how to create a sterile bubble that Holly could be in when bottling the product. Afterwards, she would send the vials into the two-way box, and Alex would ship them from there.

"Our deadline is November 15th," he said over voice call the following Wednesday. "Gives us some time to break into the market before the holidays. Has Tracey gotten back to you about the venom?"

Holly rubbed at her eyes. "Yeah, yesterday."

The turnaround for the basilisk scales and venom was surprisingly quick, and after splitting her cut with Ron Holly had a tidy profit.

"Three-hundred and twenty-five Galleons?" asked Alex after Holly explained the sixty-five percent profit and subsequent split. "That covers a lot of ingredient expenses. By the way, Justin's contacts came through. They finally decided on their orders of Dittany, Mane-Gro, and Burn-healing. Well, our rebranding of them, at least."

Holly grinned despite herself. "How much do they want?"

"Fifty."

"Total?"

"Each."

Holly quickly did the maths. "One cauldron of Dittany costs twenty Sickles to make, I'll need twelve for Burn-Healing, and Mane-Gro will need three galleons. It's an expensive potion," she added, knowing how Alex would react. "I'll need to make two cauldrons of burn-healing and mane-gro to complete the order. Dittany should be fine with one."

"That's… one-hundred forty-six Sickles, which means it's about one hundred seventy-two pounds."

"Yeah, nine galleons should cover the ingredient cost. Do you have the Muggle prices sorted out? What did Justin's family agree to pay?"

Tapping sounds were the response. "I just sent them to you. Do they look reasonable?"

Holly looked over the spreadsheet on her laptop. One bottle of Dittany (WoundRepair) was set at seventy pounds, Burn-Healing (ThirdDegree) at forty, and Mane-Gro (now named Terrific Tresses) at one-fifty. "I don't know. It's not as though I purchase potions regularly. When do they want it?"

"October 20th."

That gave her less than a month. Holly sighed. "Alright then." She started typing her production schedule. "Here's what I was thinking we could set up so that we don't get overwhelmed. We could start on Friday afternoon to prepare…"

~•~

It was unfortunate that the Quidditch season had started shortly after, because this had left Holly with little free time between classes, Muggle schooling, brewing, and keeping the peace between her friends. As October continued, the nights got colder and darker; after one such night, Holly and the rest of the team—some of whom could barely contain their shivers—stumbled back into the Common Room.

"Rough night, I reckon?" asked Ron, who was reading a Runes textbook on the sofa as the others went up their respective staircases.

"Yeah, really windy out, but Oliver thinks it's good practice for the game with Slytherin," said Holly as she sat by the vacant chair by the fire, basking in its warmth. "Where's Hermione?" she asked after a few minutes.

Ron shrugged, turning back to his textbook. "She probably went up to bed. Haven't seen her since class."

"Speaking of…" she gestured for her bag, which he'd agreed to look after when she went to practice. Ron took it from next to his and gave it to her. "I haven't finished my runes work. Would you mind helping me?"

"Sure. What exactly are you having issues with?"

Holly moved to sit next to him. "The secondary meanings of this rune here," she pointed at Dagaz while she dug in her bag for a fountain pen. "It's not making a lot of sense to me. The primary one is pretty straightforward, but some of the secondary ones are going over my head. How do you get 'hope' from it?"

"Dagaz means dawn, right? Dawn's the start of a new day. Mum always wakes up at dawn during the summer because the window in Mum and Dad's bedroom faces east, and the light hits her face."

Holly nodded. "Okay, that fits for Awakening and Illumination. But what about Certainty, Completion, and Hope?"

"Well, the sun always rises and sets. That's pretty certain if you ask me. Dawn marks the completion of the night and darkness. If you draw the rune upright, it sort of looks like an hourglass. When the hourglass is empty on one side, you turn it over to repeat the cycle. As for Hope…" he trailed off.

The scribble of Holly's pen was the only sound for a few moments. "For hope?" prompted Holly.

"Well, it's the hope that things will change," he said, subdued. "I mean, if something bloody terrible happened to you one day, you could have hope that things will be fixed the next day.

Holly looked at him, hoping her worry wasn't showing. Did something happen again?

But before she could ask, Ron pointed at her parchment. "See? You've got it now," he said with a grin.

That snapped her out of it. Holly jotted down the last bit with a flourish. "Thanks, Ron."

"You're welcome," he said, packing away his books.

Letting out a yawn, Holly extended her arms above her head. "What time is it, do you know?"

"Pretty late," said Ron. "Everyone's gone to bed."

It was true. The Common Room had emptied sometime while they were working, and now they were by themselves. For some reason, Holly felt all funny inside.

"Yeah," she said, looking into the fire behind Ron.

"You all right?"

She waved off his concern. "Yeah. So, how's your packet coming along?"

"I've finished it, to tell you the truth. Babbling and her Reader have been giving me some extra work, but it feels a bit too easy most of the time. Bill's already covered this with me over the summer."

"Huh," said Holly, feeling oddly proud. "Looks like you've found your strength."

Ron's ears turned a distinctive shade of red, and for the first time, Holly couldn't help but think it was a funny place to blush. "Come off it. It's thanks to you that I even chose it."

Holly felt herself grow warm. "I might have suggested it, but the work is yours. You could ask Babbling if you can skip a year."

"Skip a year? Me?" asked Ron, flabbergasted. "Is that a Muggle thing?"

"Sometimes." Holly shrugged. "Some students skip a year in a subject, and others skip the entire year altogether. It depends on how advanced they are. Why?"

"That's not really done in wizarding schools. At least not for a long time. It must have been centuries since the last time that's happened."

"Well, ask. It couldn't hurt, especially if you've finished the homework packet almost a month early."

"D'you really think I could skip an entire year in Runes?" he asked hesitantly.

Her response was simple: "Who better?"

The redhead looked right chuffed at that, and leaned back into the corner of the sofa with a pensive yet happy look. Holly tucked her feet underneath her and relaxed too, watching the crackling of the dwindling flames in the fireplace.

Yawning again, Holly absentmindedly let her head fall on Ron's shoulder. "Can't wait for the weekend," she muttered sleepily.

Ron shifted. "Er, yeah, weekend's good."

"Hmm."

They sat in silence. As the minutes passed and the flames dwindled, Ron shrugged.

"Oh, sorry!" said Holly, jerked her head up. "I was just tired."

Ron looked embarrassed and something else. "It's fine, just… maybe not on my shoulder? Your head's heavy."

Normally she would make one comment or another to leave after such an awkward moment, but there was something about Ron that all of a sudden became appealing. Against her better judgement, she asked, "How's this?" and leaned on his chest.

Feeling his arms around hers as Holly pressed her head further into his warm chest, she couldn't help but appreciate how nice it felt. Almost as if it was comfortable. She could even feel his arms pulling her tighter as all thoughts of Black and her recent troubles disappeared from her mind. The pair sat there, each holding on to each other until Ron gently pushed her away from his chest. Merely inches from his face, Holly could see the tiny freckles across his nose as his beautiful blue eyes glistened back at her. Holly could feel her cheeks burning slightly as she noted how the tips of his ears also turned pink.

She licked her lips. "It's late. We should go to bed."

Ron's cheeks went tomato red, and Holly immediately understood her unintended entendre.

"Separately!" she blurted out, jumping back. "I meant separately!"

Nodding quickly and still bright red in the near-gone firelight, Ron bid a hasty goodnight and went up the boys' staircase.

Ten minutes later, Holly stared at the canopy of her four-poster and thought about what had happened. She wasn't particularly good at admitting her own emotions—at least, when it came to things like this. Sure, she mildly fancied Justin the year before, but it was mostly forced, and whatever they had ended before it even began.

It was the Dursleys' fault. Any emotion she showed that wasn't snark was thrown back in her face sooner or later, and it took a long time for her to adjust her mindset at the Kanns. Ron, she knew, would understand. Fred and George were closer to bullies than he would admit to and were the cause of his once-fear of spiders.

Were these the "teenage hormones" Ms Kann was talking about? If so, she could understand the new 'open-door' policy, even if the thought of Alex and her together was…

Holly grimaced. Eww.

Was this what she would have to deal with for the rest of her life? Would it taper off at some point? Would it get worse? Merlin, she hoped not, because this was already confusing enough as it was.

She turned to her side and shut her eyes.