IT HAD BEEN a great and exciting day for Colin Creevey.

First, Harry Potter had said hi to her and she had gotten a picture of him waving in her direction while he was in his Quidditch Robes. Then she had watched as her house had won even as Harry heroically dodged the blunder that was coming for him, she had found it rather exciting until somebody had happened to mention bludgers don't normally target people and then she had been terrified but luckily it was Harry Potter being targeted so, of course, he went away unscathed!

Well, mostly. His arm had gotten hurt. Then Lockhart, her favorite teacher, had made a small error and now Harry was in the hospital wing.

"Ooo, I can't go up to take a picture!" she said to herself frowning hovering on the edge of the Gryffindor common room trying to decide whether or not she could risk it, "I want to ask him if he's okay too but…"

She said this out loud to herself as she wrote her worries to Tom. As she watched, her words faded away becoming replaced by new writing in a much more elegant scrawl.

No...I do not think you should go, but maybe you should ask that boy you said keeps waving to you in the hallways. The one who said he liked your camera. He's in your year, isn't he?

Oh, no, Colina began to write hastily, I couldn't just intrude on his-

But you/I want this, don't I/you? Her mind asked her as she got up, feeling a bit weird even as she went over smiling to the sandy-haired boy, a first year named Erwin, so go ahead, achieve what you want…

"Erwin, I wanted to take a picture of Harry and his arm in the infirmary but I'm no good at being all secretive-" Colina heard herself say, her words sounding sweet on her tongue as though she'd mistakenly doused them with syrup. Erwin didn't seem to notice it as she continued, "-So would you please please please take the picture? I don't think it would be good for me to go up myself too, since I'm a girl."

"Oh, uh, sure!" Erwin smiled at her, shrugging as he got up and held his hands out for the camera. "I mean, especially now, us muggle-born friends have to stick together, right?"

It had been an awful and the most irritating day for Draco Malfoy.

"Flint, I know you're my captain and you had the right to tell me my mistake on the snitch at least once," Malfoy snarled as he passed the upperclassmen in the chairs of the common room and he saw Marcus Flint open his mouth at the corner of his eye, "But as with me being a Malfoy, I think you should keep your criticizing to be only said once...don't you?"

Flint, who knew he was being made to agree, turned scarlet and looked away. Malfoy smirked, aware of the awed stares of his House as he made his way from the common room and began exiting.

"Draki! Draki, where are you going?"

"Out, Parkinson." Draco said with a roll of his eyes and a lazy wave back, "Don't wait up."

"But the curf-'

He shut the door quietly behind him, drowning her out as he began to walk. Luckily his secret spot wasn't far from his common room, so it didn't take a lot of sneaking and dodging to get to his area. He'd just been about to pass the OUT OF ORDER door to get there when he heard a familiar flapping. It was the sound of large ears moving when their owner walked.

Blinking, Draco turned, and his brows furrowed as he looked into familiar golf-ball-sized eyes. "Dobs?"

His house elf, Dobby, was standing there wide-eyed as he looked around frantically.

"Dobs?" Draco started crouching down, a habit from always making the attempt to meet the elf's eyes. "Dobs, why are you-"

"Go back to your common room, Master Draco. Go now." Dobby said looking around still as if waiting for something.

"Why-"

"PLEASE, MASTER DRACO," Dobby said, his eyes watering as he twisted his ears, his voice in a whispering howl. "RUN. It shouldn't hurt you, but you shouldn't see it when it hurts!"

You don't need to go being involved with their problem, his father had said, but if you see it, close your eyes.

"Go back home Dobs, that's an order," said Draco quickly before he turned away, his moment of peace at his spot ruined as he ran.

Knowing there would be danger in these halls tonight.

Tom?

Tom, it's about Erwin. The nice boy who went to go get my picture of Harry, remember? Tom, he was attacked. I shouldn't have asked him to go!

Tom, I don't remember last night very well either. I told myself I'd stay awake until he came back up in my dormitory, but I fell asleep.

Tom, what's worse is that I was asleep in the common room. I wasn't in the common room, I was in my dormitory, so why would I be in the common room?

Tom?

Tom, why won't you answer me?

A tear splattered onto the journal, fading into the pages as Colina stared at the writing that came after all that. But it was just Tom again reassuring her that things were alright...that things were okay...that it wasn't her fault…

When did his sweet words sound much too sweet in my mind? Colina questioned as she looked down at his ongoing writing of 'it'll be fine feeling sick.

Ah, Tom. Please let the suspicions rising in me be false...

You can't be a bad guy.

You're my best friend.