Chapter 34 – Someone New

There's an art to life's distraction
To somehow escape the burning wait
The art of scaping through

Some like to imagine
The dark caress of someone else
I guess any thrill will do

Sam's heart involuntarily skipped a beat, and his stomach dropped to the floor. Not again, he thought in a panic. Was this really happening?

They were only into the first week of the new school year, and Rose hadn't spoken Malfoy's name in well over a year. How, how, could they possibly be together again? Had they been continuing on with this sordid romance the entire time? Sam felt betrayed. He couldn't explain why, exactly, and he knew it wasn't justified, but he felt like a shard of ice had been forced straight through his heart.

Whether they had been kissing for minutes, or seconds, or if their lips had pressed together in the instant their party had walked through the door, the redhead Sam had assumed to be Rose had just as suddenly pushed Scorpius away with shocking vigour. Half a second later, a vicious slap struck his face, leaving them all reeling with further surprised confusion.

It was then that Sam realised it wasn't Rose at all—it was Annabel, the Hufflepuff Prefect. Annabel, whose boyfriend Tom was standing beside Professor Bobbin and had just witnessed the insane whirlwind of events. Events that involved a notorious blond scumbag apparently non-consensually kissing his girlfriend whilst she innocently waited to walk back to their common room.

Sam felt now a new surge of fury. Jesus, what gave Scorpius Malfoy the insane levels of arrogance to assume he could just kiss whoever he wanted? What the hell was going on? Kissing a girl who was not only in a relationship but was literally standing there waiting for her boyfriend. Had Scorpius wanted Tom to see—to prove some kind of weird point? Was there some kind of beef between the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs that he'd never known about?

But both Ebony and Tom seemed as shocked by what they'd just stumbled upon as the rest of the party.

"I, uh, I really think we should all be returning to our respective dormitories now," Bobbin declared, cutting through the tense silence that had followed the slap.

If it was any compensation, Scorpius looked positively mortified by the audience that had gathered. Sam observed the stinging red mark on the other boy's cheek with smug satisfaction. He'd have quite liked to slap the boy across the face himself.

For a fleeting moment, Scorpius seemed to lock eyes with Sam, and the latter made sure to offer his most disgusted and condemning glare. He thought he had figured it out—what Scorpius was up to.

Why else would he have chosen to kiss a girl in a steady relationship right outside a room full of people he knew were not only close to Rose but just about to reconnect with her? If Scorpius Malfoy wanted to kiss girls, whether in relationships or not, you'd have thought he'd do it in the shadows, away from prying eyes, just like his relationship with Rose had initially been. He wasn't one to flaunt. But he had clearly chosen to do what he'd done to ensure it got back to Rose. To hurt her. Maybe he had even chosen Annabel for her striking red hair. How better to hurt Rose than to have it spread through the school that he had moved on and was kissing other redheads?

God, it was repulsive. Sam had always warned Rose about Scorpius, knew that he would break her heart in the cruellest way, but his dedication to continuously causing her pain, even a year after he'd left her, was sickening.

"I'll see you guys next week," Ebony announced, and without waiting for a response, she had briskly approached Scorpius and dragged him away from the unsuspecting Hufflepuff, and the wake of his destruction, marching him down the corridor like she was his mother rather than a friend.

They all just watched them go, nobody really sure what to say or do next.

"What… just happened?" Tom eventually asked in a daze, clearly longing for answers to a storm of questions that must be flooding his mind.

"Are you okay?" Janey asked, uncharacteristically kindly, focusing purely on Annabel.

The redhead nodded. "I think Scorpius is just… going through something," she said awkwardly.

"That's assault," Sam suddenly declared, surprising even himself. "Right?" He looked around the rest of the group for support. "He just assaulted her—can't we get him expelled?"

But when even James didn't look keen on this idea, Sam knew it was a lost cause. God, wouldn't that have been satisfying though? To have Malfoy kicked out of Hogwarts once and for all. There had been that summer he almost went to Azkaban, and that had been pretty satisfying.

"I think I assaulted him more than he assaulted me," Annabel pointed out, and Sam wanted to argue but he knew he was the only one who was willing to die on this hill.

"Still, what a creep."

"Guys, I really don't want to have to say it again but we are now getting dangerously close to curfew and after that, ah, excitement, I think you all need to be well-rested for the week ahead."

"Can we at least strip him of his title?" Sam suggested, eager for one last attempt at comeuppance.

"No, Sam," Bobbin sighed. "I will speak to Scorpius tomorrow."

"I just think, mental breakdown or not, you can't go around kissing girls without consent, and—"

"What a noble feminist you've become in the last five minutes," Janey interrupted, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Sam was about to engage with confrontational vigour at her barb, but something stopped him. He remembered how quiet she had fallen after he'd called her a bitch. How uncharacteristically un-Janey-like she had been. And suddenly, it didn't seem worth it.

"Go to bed," Bobbin instructed wearily. "All of you. Please."

"We're going." It was James who made the announcement, and who took the lead, directing Sam and Janey towards the corridor that led to the Gryffindor Tower. "Thanks for a fun-filled first meeting, Professor," he called out cheerily. "Can't wait for the next one!"

Sam could feel Bobbin sigh even from half a corridor away.

The three of them walked briskly. Thirty seconds of silence passed.

"We're not telling Rose," James announced matter-of-factly, none of them breaking pace.

"Agreed," Janey said.

Sam was perplexed. "Wait, wait, wait—why not?"

The thought of telling Rose about what they'd just witnessed had filled Sam with an overwhelming, giddy satisfaction. He already knew she reviled him, but this was certain to discourage any semblance of a kind thought or a future longing to reconnect with Scorpius, and Sam so wanted to be the one who delivered it.

Since Ebony, Scorpius had not dated. At least not publically. And Sam felt confident that if he had then Janey would have known, and she'd never have been able to keep it to herself. So the fact that he was now kissing other girls out in the corridors, seemingly with little thought to whether or not they were already in a relationship, was huge. If he was finally happy to move on, maybe that would encourage Rose to do the same.

Janey looked at Sam with disgust.

"Why shouldn't Rose know?" Sam demanded. "He's making out with girls out in the corridors, it's not like he's trying to keep it a secret? She can finally move on!"

James now looked at Sam with equal disgust. All three of them continued moving in sync through the castle.

"We're not telling Rose," James said firmly, and when Janey made no attempts to counter this either, Sam gave up. Perhaps he wasn't holding Rose's best interests at heart, he realised. Perhaps hearing that her ex had shared a bizarre kiss with another redhead wouldn't encourage her to move on at all but break her heart into a million tiny pieces all over again. Sam realised he was being selfish. James and Janey were trying to protect their friend, and given how much they both loved to hate Scorpius Malfoy (and loved to spread gossip), it said a lot that they were insistent on keeping this between the three of them.

Whatever the Slytherin's intentions were, whether to hurt Rose or to genuinely try and move on, Sam owed it to his friend to protect her.

It didn't make him any less sulky though. Or pissed off.

He remained in a foul mood all the way back to the common room. Without thinking, he and Janey both tried to go through the portrait hole at the same time. She looked confrontational, but then just as suddenly, exhausted by it all.

"You go first," Sam insisted. He had meant to be chivalrous, but it came out agitated.

Even still, Janey didn't need telling twice. She clambered through the opening with a feline ease, Sam following suit, James just behind. As it was so late, the common room was almost abandoned, with no signs of any of their friends in sight, and the flames in the fireplace flickering direly, almost fully extinguished.

Sam never really knew what to say to Janey whenever they returned to the common room together, and after the evening they'd had, wasn't sure feeble niceties would cut it. Maybe he should apologise, he considered, as she had seemed genuinely hurt by his words.

Janey seemed to be feeling the awkward tension between them too. She was avoiding looking at Sam directly, but he could tell she didn't want to leave without some kind of formal dismissal. Would a simple 'goodnight' cut it? But even then, that seemed too intimate for the likes of their relationship.

James resolved all anxieties by slapping an outstretched arm around each of their shoulders, bringing the three together in some kind of weird group hug. "Well, goodnight, young ones," he declared. "Must be getting to bed now. Head Boy's orders."

"And what are you planning on doing?" Sam asked suspiciously. He was grateful for the fact that Scorpius had diverted James' attention away from disapproving of Sam. He certainly had not wanted to remain any longer on the receiving end of James' wrath. All traces of anger seemed to have disappeared in that regard.

"Oh, I'm going to bed too, don't you worry. Malfoy has thoroughly ruined my evening."

"How so?"

"Well, I was going to meet up with Ebony for a late-night rendezvous, if you know what I mean. But now she's dealing with whatever the hell's going on there."

"How'd you figure that?" Sam asked, genuinely confused.

James looked at Sam like he was dumb, arms still casually flung around both him and Janey. "She gave me the eyes."

"The—what?"

"The eyes. The let's-meet-in-the-usual-spot eyes."

"There's a usual spot?"

"Always. I've got a reputation to uphold now, you know. Can't be seen getting frisky out in the open. Look what happened to Malfoy."

Sam blushed. He could only imagine what kind of 'friskiness' James and Ebony engaged in wherever the hell their usual spot was.

"But then she gave me the I-have-to-deal-with-this-arsehole-now-so-the-plan-is-off eyes."

"Ah," Sam said wisely. "Of course."

"Well," James declared, finally unwinding his arms. "Goodnight, kids." And he was gone, headed towards the boys' dorms.

Sam realised half a second too late that he should have followed James, because now he was standing awkwardly with Janey, unsure how to depart. He didn't think 'goodnight' would really resolve anything—not after the evening they'd had—but he couldn't just silently ditch her.

But it turned out it didn't matter, because Janey took the lead. When she spoke, she purposefully made sure she never looked directly at Sam, the pair of them just two awkward teens standing shoulder to shoulder and desperately wishing they could be anywhere else. An uncomfortable tension had crept back into the room now that the lack of James' presence could be felt.

"I'm going to bed," Janey announced.

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, me too…"

For a few awful seconds, the two continued to stand there, neither of them looking directly at the other, unsure who should make the first move and if anything more needed to be said.

"Right," Janey mumbled.

"Okay," Sam gulped.

One more second passed, and then Janey had turned on her heel and walked towards her own dorm room. Sam remained, and after he could be sure she wouldn't look back, he allowed his eyes to fall on her retreating back. He felt all the tension in his body evaporate, relaxing his shoulders, and exhaling a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

Her blonde head of hair disappeared from view, and Sam lingered for a few cathartic seconds before he turned on his heel and headed up the stairs himself. He couldn't wait to settle onto the four-poster bed and drift off to sleep after a very eventful first meeting. He decided, as he climbed the stairs, that he would dream of Isabella, until the moment he could look into her midnight blue eyes once more.

Janey was sitting with the Gryffin-Girls, having breakfast in the Great Hall, reflecting on the previous school year. It had been one of their most tumultuous yet, and she wondered how their Sixth Year would fare in comparison. Granted, a lot of it had been because of their entanglement with the Slytherins, whom they had now firmly distanced themselves from. Janey had rather enjoyed their rivalry, but since Rose and Scorpius had very determinedly split with no further chance of reconciliation, there had been no competition to invest themselves in any longer. And even more so since Ebony and James had started seeing each other.

Janey didn't dislike Ebony at all, and actually really liked the dynamic she and James shared, but for Rose's sake, she never outwardly showed it. Rose had fallen out of bitter rivalry anyway, and more into fierce intolerance. They were a lot more dignified towards each other than they once had been, but Janey wasn't sure Rose would ever be truly able to forgive her.

Janey still took great delight in sparring with Jinx Capella every now and again though, and felt she always would. There were just some people who would always grate on your nerves.

Speaking of which, she side-eyed Sam as he entered the hall. She hated the weird swagger in his step and the irritating grin slapped across his face, and she wondered what, exactly, could be making him so happy. It had been several days since their first Prefect meeting, and she hadn't spoken to him since—nor did she have any intentions to.

Janey had been called a bitch many times before and had barely flinched, but something about him saying it to her had struck her deeply. She felt it was probably because, despite their own hostile relationship, Sam was a nice person. Oh, he had called her names, surely, but she had often called him far worse, and overall, he was very reserved and very respectful, and she had never seen him quite lose his cool like that with anyone.

There had been something venomous in his tone and similarly glinting in his eye that left her body feeling cold. She would have felt it if James had called her the same too—it was so unexpected and hurtful coming from within your inner circle.

"Janey, who's that guy?"

Janey was so taken by surprise by Gwen's question that she did a double-take at Sam, wondering if she had been staring at someone completely different. But it was surely him; she'd know him anywhere, forced to spend as much time in his company as she had.

"Who?" she asked, confused. But looking to Gwen, who was sitting opposite her, Janey realised the other girl was peering over Janey's shoulder, towards the Hufflepuff table and not towards Sam at all.

Janey craned her neck to peer behind her and see who Gwen was referring to.

"No, don't look!" Taylor hissed. She was sitting beside Gwen, also peering at the mystery guy.

Janey rolled her eyes. "Well, how the hell am I supposed to know who you're talking about?"

Rose, who was sitting beside Janey, now also looked intrigued, but deigned from turning her head also.

Gwen and Taylor were still staring intently.

"He keeps looking at you," Gwen explained. "I think he's in the year above."

Janey felt her heartbeat pick up but she remained outwardly cool. "Yeah?"

She had been deprived of male attention all summer, and, actually, for quite a while before that. The four of them had made a pact at the start of the calendar year to eschew boys and dating whilst they focused on their studies, opting to all remain single, partially in solidarity with Rose who was still struggling with her breakup from Scorpius, and partially so they could dedicate all their energy and attention to getting through their OWL examinations.

And they had all succeeded, even Janey. Since she'd set foot in Hogwarts, she'd never gone that long without casually seeing someone. God, it had been ages since she'd had a really good snog. Her heart still twinged when she thought of her last.

Janey, in truth, felt a little burned from her last attempt at a relationship. She had levels, you see, tiers of 'dating', that ranged from casual snogging partners, to guys she was 'seeing', and then the rare few who earned the title of 'boyfriend'. It all depended on what she was feeling like at the time.

Her last entanglement had been with Deneb Jacobson, a Slytherin Quidditch player in the year above who had a not-so-sage reputation for dating around too. Janey wasn't sure what had prompted it, but perhaps seeing how (at one point at least) Rose had been with Scorpius, she'd come to realise that she might just want to experience that too. Not all the drama, but the core relationship at the heart of it all. Rose had been truly smitten—and so committed to Scorpius—and Janey had wondered why she'd never thought to pursue something like that herself.

Yes, she had entertained several boyfriends throughout her first five years at the school, but none of them had lasted more than a few months—all by Janey's own doing, of course. Janey liked it when boys liked her. And she liked it when they fought for her when she left them. And she liked the exciting rush of pursuing something new with someone she hadn't before. And so, she'd never stayed for long.

And yet, struck by how deeply committed Rose and Scorpius had once been to each other, Janey thought she'd try something new, just as she'd happened to finally be sucked into Deneb's orbit.

Obviously, she knew all about him, and she had flirted with him frequently whenever they had happened to overlap, but like herself, he had always seemed to be in the midst of some other situationship. Until finally, one day near the start of her fifth year, he in his sixth, they had both happened to find themselves single at the same time.

And as he'd charmed her and she knew it was inevitable that their time was finally here, Janey considered what it might be like to… stay a little longer. She thought, for once, she might allow the relationship to play out naturally, to not just run after the first six weeks of passion expired. Unfortunately, Deneb clearly had other plans.

He hadn't cheated on her; she hadn't allowed it to get that far before she'd called things off with him. But he had certainly implied to Rose that he would be more than willing to see her on the side should she feel so inclined. Obviously, Rose hadn't gone for it. She hadn't even known Janey was the girl Deneb was seeing, but she'd known he had a girlfriend, and having been stung by the pain of a cheating partner herself, she would never have put another girl, any girl, in that position.

And Janey had known, if it hadn't been Rose, it would have been someone else.

It had been stupid of her really, Janey thought bitterly once it was all over, to have made this decision with Deneb of all people. He had never been faithful, had never stuck around with anyone much longer than she ever had herself. God, one of the most notorious things all the students seemed to know about him was that he'd simultaneously dated a pair of twins without either of them knowing! He was nothing more than a sleazy, heartbreaking user, and Janey should have known better.

And it wasn't him who her heart ached for when she hesitantly thought back to her blunder of last year, but more so her sense of confidence. It was what he represented. It was the courage of trying something out of her comfort zone and being immediately rejected, immediately hurt when she was at her most vulnerable and finally allowing herself to open up to something new emotionally.

Well, Janey thought bitterly, she wouldn't be making that mistake again. But, she thought gleefully, she wouldn't mind reintroducing a casual snogging hook-up back into her life.

"Is he cute?" she asked eagerly.

"Dreamy," Taylor said sarcastically.

"No, he is," Gwen clarified when Janey shot daggers in Taylor's direction.

"He looks a bit like Professor Roberts actually," Taylor said, finally being helpful.

Janey's heart rate definitely picked up again. Professor Roberts was by far the hottest (and youngest) member of the Hogwarts faculty, and she was often saddened (though she really shouldn't have been) that he wasn't the kind of creep to get involved with a student. In fact, she was pretty sure he was shagging the Headmistress anyway. Or, at least, that they very much both wanted to—it was so obvious.

"Okay, I have to see," Rose declared, and she too snuck a subtle glance behind Janey's back.

"Hey!" Janey hissed. "You can't all three just start staring at him."

"It's fine," Gwen dismissed, though she averted her eyes.

Rose turned back to the group eagerly. "He looks just like him," she confirmed. "Does he have a son?"

"More like a younger brother," Taylor said. "He's only twenty-nine!"

"He could have knocked someone up as a teen," Janey pointed out, disguising how excited she was by the prospect of a Professor Roberts lookalike taking an interest in her. "Although, if you really think this guy is in the year above us then Roberts would have to have been at least"—she quickly did the maths—"twelve," she finished distastefully.

"Ew," Gwen said on all of their behalves. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a moment, frowning in disgust. "He's probably not his son."

"Or his brother," Rose pointed out. She smiled at Janey. "Just a dreamy-looking Hufflepuff who's got his eye on Janey Davington."

Janey felt her face blush ever so slightly. "When is it my turn to actually look at him?" she demanded. "And how can you be sure he's even looking at me?"

"It's definitely you," Gwen confirmed. "I noticed it a while ago, but he keeps staring up at you. It's like he's waiting to catch your eye."

Janey could not deny the thrill of excitement that shot through her. This was exactly why she loved starting so many different flings. There was nothing better than the rush of a new interest in your life. That tantalising dance of flirtation, where everything was new, and fun, and exciting. After a while, when it steadied out a bit more, that rush of emotions seemed to die out. And there was always someone else for her to start the cycle with all over again.

Janey formed a plan. "Is he sitting facing me or away from me?"

"Why?" Taylor asked.

"Just answer the question."

"Facing you," Rose answered instead. And then, because she couldn't help herself either, "Why?"

"Tell me when he next looks up."

Gwen opened her mouth, presumably to also enquire "Why?" but Janey snapped at her before she had the chance. "Just do it."

"Okay," Gwen murmured, keeping her eyes trained on the target,

"But you can't all be staring at him too," Janey pointed out as Taylor and Rose continued to unashamedly stare in his direction.

In response, they awkwardly looked away.

"Okay," Gwen repeated in a low voice, clearly waiting for the perfect moment. "Okay… he's looking… now!"

As casually and effortlessly as she could, Janey tossed her hair to the side like she had done a thousand times before. As her head swung around, she allowed her eyes to drift to the Hufflepuff table where, sure enough, an attractive older guy had just happened to look up. She acted as though her eyes had fallen on him by happenstance, and once he realised their sights had accidentally locked on each other, he broke out into a shy smile, which Janey coyly returned.

They held each other's gaze for only a few seconds—just enough time for Janey to drink in every detail of his appearance that she could from that distance—before she dragged her eyes away and settled them back onto her group of embarrassingly eager friends.

"Well?" Taylor demanded.

Janey smirked. "That's Roman Valentine. He's the Hufflepuff Keeper." As they all stared at her, seemingly waiting with bated breath for her to reveal anything more, Janey took great delight in tucking into her breakfast—an assorted berry granola with honey yoghurt and chia seeds.

"And?" Rose prompted, all of them growing impatient.

Janey just continued to smirk. "And what?"

"Do you think he's cute?" Gwen asked.

Janey considered the question posed to her. "Yeah, of course he is. Maybe not quite Professor Roberts-level cute though," she teased, "but I can see the attraction."

Rose decided to avoid beating around the bush. "So are you going to go out with him?"

Janey's heart fluttered at the thought. She knew everybody on the Quidditch teams; she had a certain proclivity for Quidditch players, it seemed, and Roman was no exception. She hadn't really overlapped with him much, but he had a good reputation. He was kind, charming, good at his sport, and he'd been in several pretty long-term relationships throughout his time at the school. He was, above all, loyal. Which is probably why there had never been anything between them before, Janey considered.

But he must be single now, and ready for something new, she realised with that familiar rush of excitement. And even though Roman was the kind of guy who liked to be in a relationship, there had to be a reason he was now taking an interest in Janey. Maybe he was looking for a rebound snog, she thought, more than eager to fulfil that role. And even if there was any chance he was the kind of guy who might be interested in locking her down, Janey felt comforted by the fact that he would only be here for this final year. She had a get-out-of-jail-free card should he happen to get too attached. The old 'Oh, I couldn't possibly commit when you'll be leaving at the end of the year, it would be too hard, and I couldn't bear to do long distance.'

But none of that mattered anyway, Janey realised, and her heart sank ever so slightly.

"Of course not," Janey said, answering Rose's question and continuing to spoon her yoghurt.

"What?" They all three seemingly asked at the same time.

"Why not?" Taylor demanded, apparently furious. "He's gorgeous!"

"I thought Professor Longbottom was more your type than Professor Roberts."

"He's looking at you again," Gwen notified Janey, cutting off a now-blushing Taylor who had been on the verge of protesting Janey's comment.

It was as though Janey could feel the heat of his dreamy gaze locking onto her back, and she could only hope that her hair looked cute from behind. "We made a pact, didn't we?" Janey reminded them all. "And I've honoured it so far, and I'm going to keep honouring it.

Her heart was thumping. It was a little cruel of them to egg her on when they knew she couldn't act on it, after all. But she too was a loyal friend, and she wasn't going to turn her back on her girls.

The three of them looked at each other, as though a silent understanding was passing between them. It was Rose who spoke up, offering Janey an encouraging smile. "Janey, I think we're all pretty impressed with how well you've honoured our pact. And I don't think any of us would hold it against you if you wanted to dip your toes back into the dating pool."

"Or your tongue," Gwen said wickedly, and then they all four of them snorted so loudly that several people further down the Gryffindor table looked at them sharply, and no doubt Roman's attention had been drawn to them once more.

Sam, Janey noticed, was one such person. He was sat halfway down with James, Mason, and Albus. For an uncomfortable second or two, their eyes locked across the elongated table, before Sam hurriedly looked away. Janey's stomach twisted into knots, a weird sadness hanging over her as she recalled the vitriol he'd spat at her over the whole Isabella mess.

And then something else bubbled up inside Janey—a seething anger from deep within her core, fuelled by the hostility that had glinted in Sam's eyes that night, and the smug irritability that the stupid, brunette Ravenclaw had incited within her.

"Okay," Janey said firmly. "I'll give Roman a chance. If he's, err, interested."

The others looked thrilled. They should really get some dates of their own, Janey thought, rather than meddling in her dating life, but who was she to deny their excitement on her behalf?

"Oh, he's definitely interested," Gwen emphasised. "Literally, I think he thinks that if he stares at you enough you'll realise and actually turn and look at him."

In response, Janey turned her head. Sure enough, her eyes locked onto his golden brown ones. He dropped his gaze immediately, like he hadn't meant to look at her at all, but Janey had seen this ploy a thousand times. She held her gaze steadfast until, unable to fight the temptation, Roman looked up again. As he did so, Janey offered him her most flattering smile, which he eagerly returned. And then she turned back to her friends once more. She had laid the trap, and now the games began.

She took a sip of her orange juice, proud of the groundwork she'd just laid.

"Why don't you go talk to him?" Rose suggested.

"Oh, God, no," Janey said quickly.

Poor, naive Rose. She didn't know how this game worked at all.

"No, no, no," Janey ruminated. "I've done my part. It's his move now."

"Huh?"

"Just wait and see," Janey said in response to Taylor's question. And then, startling them all, she finished the dregs of her orange juice and made to stand up from the table.

"Where are you going?" Taylor hissed, at the same time as Rose said, "Are you seriously not going to talk to him at all?"

"No," Janey said with a little laugh, fully standing up. She made a point of brushing down her robes, ensuring Roman's panicked eyes were surely focused on her. "Now I ignore him," she explained.

"I thought you wanted to go out with him?" Gwen queried.

"Mhmm," Janey agreed, "but he'll come to me now."

"How can you be so sure?" Rose asked suspiciously.

"Oh, he will." This wasn't the first time Janey had played this game. They were always the same, and she had it down to a fine art. "Anyway," she announced. "I'll see you guys in Potions."

Before they could protest or delay her with any more questions, Janey began to make her departure from the Great Hall. She swept alongside the Gryffindor table, never once allowing her eyes to drift anywhere remotely near the Hufflepuff table. Out of her periphery, she thought she saw Sam look at her sharply as she passed, but if he did, she ignored him. If he had anything to say to her then he could do it on his own terms; she wasn't going to be the one to speak to him first.

Just as Janey approached the large doors that exited to the corridor, she felt a presence behind her, just as surely as she could feel the Gryffin-Girls' looks of pure disbelief watching the scene unfold. Janey mentally composed herself, arranging her face into an expression of polite charm and cool calmness.

Within seconds, Roman's tall frame was strolling alongside her, matching her pace. "Hey," he said nervously, and Janey turned her head with an air of polite intrigue. He had a nice voice, deep and soothing.

"Oh, hi," she said in her sweetest voice, feigning surprise at his sudden appearance beside her.

"Janey?" he asked.

"Yeah," Janey replied, smiling coyly.

He really was very attractive. With wavy chestnut hair and eyes that looked somewhere between tree bark and melted honeycomb. The bridge of his nose was long and straight, like it was carved from marble, and he had the slightest spattering of freckles strewn across his cheeks, which were almost concealed by the tan he had obviously accrued over the summer.

"I'm Roman," he introduced himself, and it was endearing that he thought he had to.

"Oh, I know," Janey said coyly, making sure to glance down slightly before she looked into his eyes, so he would definitely notice how long her eyelashes were. It seemed to work, because he looked entranced by her, and Janey adored the flattery. Why would anybody want to be in a committed relationship when this was the best part of it? The flirtation. The fresh, new, excitement of falling for a total stranger.

"Oh, you know?" he asked playfully, grinning broadly.

Janey was delighted to see the dimples that formed on either side of his cupid-bow lips when he smiled. He did look almost like a knock-off Professor Roberts. Just more age-appropriate.

"Quidditch," Janey explained.

"Ah." Roman nodded in understanding, but Janey detected a slight sense of disappointment in his tone, like he'd wanted her to have known who he was for other reasons.

"I guess we'll be playing each other soon," Janey said brightly. She couldn't recall the specifics of any matches against the Hufflepuffs since she'd joined the Gryffindor team herself, but she was sure they must have already overlapped on the pitch in the past year. It was likely the Gryffindors had won—the Hufflepuff team wasn't very competitive.

"I, ah, I'll have to brush up on my tactics," Roman mused. "To beat a team like yours."

"I'd wish you good luck," Janey said with a playful lilt, "but we really are quite unstoppable, so there wouldn't be much point."

"Annoyingly so," Roman agreed.

For a few moments, they continued down the corridor in silence, matching pace. Janey knew he would break it first, and he did.

"So, ah, where are you headed?" Roman asked politely.

"Potions," Janey told him. "I wanted to get a good seat, so I decided to head down early," she lied. She had left the hall when she had purely so he would pursue her. Janey couldn't have cared less where she sat, and her friends would have reserved her a seat anyway.

"Oh, cool, I was actually heading down to the dungeons myself. I could, err, I could walk you to your classroom?" he offered, and he was so charmingly sweet that it made Janey feel all the more endeared to him.

But she was also feeling playful.

"Yeah?" she asked, refusing to believe the coincidence. "What brings you to the dungeons?" After all, the only things down there were the Potions classrooms and the Slytherin Common Room, and given that the sixth-years were about to have a Potions lesson, Janey knew the Hufflepuff couldn't be headed down for the same reason.

Roman's face fell. "I'm meeting somebody," he made up, lacking any enthusiastic conviction.

"Your girlfriend?" Janey couldn't help but ask.

"No," Roman said quickly, eyes wide in shock. "No," he repeated, trying to sound a bit calmer. "I'm, ah, single," he assured her, looking at her meaningfully.

Janey held his gaze, smiling back. "Me too," she emphasised.

Roman looked relieved. Before they could say much else, they had reached the door of Janey's classroom. As she'd known she would be, she was the only one there. It was one of the rare occasions on which she had ever been early to anything.

"I, ah, I don't know what your schedule is like," Janey said coyly, leaning up against the wall of the corridor, "but I have a free period later. I was going to use it to study in the library," she lied.

Roman looked impressed and eager by her unspoken suggestion. "Wow," he said with a flattering grin, "we're only three days into the new school year and you're already studying? That's commitment."

"What can I say," Janey said sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes as she did so, "I just really want to get a headstart."

Roman looked thrilled by her suggestion. He had subconsciously been leaning in towards her, but at this point he straightened up and cleared his throat, clearly going for a casual, 'I couldn't care either way' sort of approach. "Maybe I'll stop by," he said with a forced air of mystery, but Janey knew she had him right where she wanted him.

"Maybe I'll see you there," Janey confirmed.

Roman offered her one final smile as well as a polite nod of his head. "Well," he announced, clearly intending to depart, "I hope you enjoy your class."

"Thanks," Janey replied. "Have a nice time with your friend."

Roman looked momentarily puzzled, and then seemed to remember the impulsive lie he'd fed her. "Oh," he laughed nervously. "Yeah, of course. I'll see you around." He departed, but not before Janey clocked the slight pink flush of his cheeks.

Right where I want you, she thought wickedly.

Author's Note: Title and epigraph inspired by Hozier's 'Someone New'