#dm fics

It was very true once they were given their leashes. Carolinha was ready to cry after the third sting on her hands. Angel wasn't able to do much with his skrewt either. Daphne was genuinely running away from her skrewt. Harry, Ron and Hermione were about the only students honestly trying their hardest to do what Hagrid asked. As much as Romina cared for them and Hagrid, she couldn't bring herself to follow.

"Ow," she flinched when a leash lightly hit her arm. She looked to her left and saw Draco spinning his leash. "Where's your skrewt?" she asked him.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said.

Romina folded her arms over her chest and gazed up ahead. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure mine's the one trying to kill Dean's skrewt over there. Poor Dean." Because Dean had just gotten a wicked burn on his wrist. Again.

"Like mother, like daughter, isn't it?" Draco snickered at his joke.

"Shut it." She shoved him to the side. "Where's yours?"

"I don't bloody care, really. I'm not looking for another burn."

Romina could agree with him on that. "Honestly, Arden's right. These things should just die before Christmas and make a lovely present."

"Oh, are you going to tell your dear Hagrid that?"

Romina rolled her eyes. "Unlike you, I do have a filter. Here." She pushed her leash into his arms. "You go get mine."

"You wish! I'm not going anywhere near those things."

"I bet you five galleons you can't get at least one of them."

"I don't need galleons, Oswell! It's frankly offensive!"

"I know that."

"Then why would I take that deal?"

Romina turned to face him. "Because I'm bored, you're bored and this is the only type of fun we can have until the class is dismissed. Need I go on?"

Draco couldn't get enough of her straightforwardness. How on earth did she get away with stuff like this? He asked that as he amended the deal. "Ten galleons."

Romina raised an eyebrow at him. "Really?"

Draco nodded. "You have enough or what?"

Romina scowled. "Really?"

"Well, do you?"

Romina raised a hand to stop whatever nonsense was about to come out of his mouth. "Fine. Ten galleons." She pointed at her leash in his hands. "Good luuuuck," she wiggled her fingers.

"The things I do for you, Oswell," Draco said with a shake of his head as he walked off. He hadn't realized what he said until he was already gone. Well, I'm not taking it back now. And why would he anyways? He didn't tell a lie. He distinctly remembered visiting that stupid park and market because of Romina.

Romina was left smiling with flushed cheeks. She watched with glee and giggles as Draco lived up to his end of the deal, though it wasn't going so well. The skrewts were creatures from hell.

By the end of the class, only a handful of students had managed to properly leash their skrewts and to Romina's genuine surprise, Draco was one of them. He stomped his way to where Romina stood and held the leash to her.

"Your damn skrewt," he spat.

Romina pursed her lips together to keep her laugh from getting out. She could see the stings and burns on his hands and with his rolled up sleeves, she saw his arms were in just as bad shape as well. "Aw, I'm sorry,"

Draco pointed a finger at her. "Ten galleons," he reminded her. "You're not getting out of it."

"Wasn't planning on it," Romina assured him. She eyed his arms again. "Okay, I really am sorry. I didn't think you would actually do it!"

"Ten galleons," Draco reiterated. Romina nodded again, promising him she would deliver. "Can you at least walk with me to the night wing?"

"Yeah, of course," Romina chuckled lightly. She motioned him to walk first, though as soon as he did he heard her quiet snickers.

~ 0 ~

By the time Draco was free from the nightwing, it was near dinner time. He went down to the Great Hall immediately; he was actually very hungry today. Chasing skrewts worked up an appetite.

"Where have you been?" Blaise asked him as soon as he'd sat down.

"Nightwing." Draco started weighing the options before him. Truthfully, everything looked delicious, which was a testament to how hungry he was. The french soup didn't smell remotely good.

Angel and Theodore looked up from their plates.

"What for?" Angel asked.

"You haven't spoken to Oswell, have you?"

"Not really, no. Why? Did something happen?"

Draco didn't bother with Angel's suspicion. He was too hungry to take it head on. "She and her ideas, you know how it goes."

"I've been learning," Theodore said, eyes widening slightly. "Arden's told me some stories."

"What the hell is going on between you and King anyways?" Blaise jumped on the opportunity to ask. "Last time we heard, you were at each other's throats."

"From what I heard, shouldn't you be directing that question to him?" Theodore flapped a hand directly at Draco.

"The fact you would even consider that King and I—"

"Not you and Arden," Theodore stopped Draco from finishing what was sure to be an exceptional threat. "You and Romina. It's the whole reason why I now know Arden in the first place."

"What's he talking about?" Angel immediately inquired, eyes flickering between the two suspiciously.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Nothing. Theo" — he spat the new nickname the brunette in question gained as of late — "is just being ridiculous."

Theodore's expression clearly indicated the contrary but since he was well aware of Angel's feelings, he said nothing more for the moment. "Where are the girls anyways?"

"Daphne was holding them hostage with dress discussions," Angel said slowly, still trying to decipher what had just happened. "It'll be a while."

"God help me," Blaise said for some reason, until it dawned on the others.

"Zabini," Draco put a hand on Blaise's arm, "Don't tell me you…"

Blaise nodded. "I asked her earlier."

"Why?"

Blaise shrugged. "Don't know. I figured I already know her and we're past all that awkwardness. It's just comfortable and easy. She agreed. Shrieked about it, actually."

"Alright Zabini," Theodore nodded. "That leaves you two then..." He looked between Draco and Angel.

"You asked someone already?" Draco raised an eyebrow at him.

"Who?" Blaise stared suspiciously at Theodore who, in return, just smirked to himself and continued asking Draco and Angel who they were thinking of going with.

"I don't think I'll be asking anyone," Angel said, ducking his head to his plate.

"What are you talking about? Romina's right there," Theodore said, completely missing Draco's irritated look. "Not literally but you know what I mean."

Angel shrugged. "I've already asked. She's going with Harry."

"Potter?" Draco spat the name out. "No she isn't."

Angel lamented the fact it was true. "She made an arrangement with him. Romina told him if he can't find a date, she would go with him."

"Oh, so it's a pity date. That makes more sense." Draco felt half of his nerves relax once he got the gist. "That's still terrible, though."

"You should still just ask her again," Theodore suggested, once more missing the irritated glare Draco sent him.

"Theodore, eat," he instructed. Beside Draco, Blaise smirked into his goblet.

"She's already got someone, there's no point," Angel shrugged. "Besides, it's Harry of all people, she's not going to say 'yes' to anybody else."

"So you're just...done, then?" Draco asked in a manner that sounded a lot like fishing. Angel nodded. "Really?"

Not a moment later did Draco feel Blaise's nudge. He was still smirking.

~0~

"This is mad," Ron's complaint didn't make it out as a whisper. It was a study session in the Great Hall but instead of actually studying, most of the students were talking about the ball.

"Ron, we're supposed to be studying," Hermione reminded him and ducked her head in her book. Snape was coming by their spot and fast.

Ron didn't notice. He was too disappointed with his lack of victory. "At this rate we'll be the only ones in our year without dates."

Snape whacked him on the head with a rolled up parchment and went on his way like nothing. Ron rubbed the back of his head while the others snickered at him.

"You had that one coming," Romina remarked in a quiet whisper.

Ron glared at her. "You're not helping!"

"I literally have no power over your lack of courage, Ron," Romina shrugged. Next to her, Hermione chuckled. "Harry, tell me you've asked someone."

Harry regretfully shook his head. "Not yet."

"'Yet' implies that you will ask someone so what's the problem?" Romina all but hissed. Sometimes Harry was very annoying with how slow he was doing things he wanted to.

"It's hard, Rom," Harry said, exchanging nods with Ron beside him.

"Yeah, I can't find one girl alone," Ron said, "At least we're not the only ones having trouble. Neville's probably in the same predicament."

Hermione tutted behind her book. "It might interest you to know that Neville's already got someone."

Ron legitimately gasped. "Who?"

"Your sister, Ron!"

"No way!" Ron immediately searched for Ginny but she was too down the table to hear. She was whispering with Luna anyways. "Now I'm really depressed."

Fred passed him a note suddenly and with despondency, Ron read it.

"Oh, that face is even worse. What's the note say?" Romina asked as Harry himself read the note out loud. "Get a move on or all the good ones will have gone!"

"You're shallow, Fred Weasley?" Romina frowned at him.

"I meant personality wise," Fred amended. "Isn't that right, George?"

"Hm? Oh yeah," George nodded. "What about you, Romina? Has anyone asked yet?"

Romina put on a sweet smile for the pair, promising a good answer. "I was waiting for a pair of redheads to get the courage to ask me already." The twirl of her hair was the perfect touch to her dramatics. It gave Harry, Ron and Hermione a good laugh.

"Ah my dear, Romina, you should have just asked," George leaned over the table, "But alas, you're too late, for I have already asked someone else." He bopped Romina's nose with his finger.

"And I'm asking Angelina," Fred said, proceeding to throw another crumpled up parchment, but this time at Angelina a few spots down the table.

The others snickered watching Fred ask Angelina to the ball with silent gestures. To his credit, he did get the date.

"You break my heart," Romina clutched her chest afterwards. The twins laughed with her, barely quieting down in time to avoid Snape's whacks.

"So funny, ha, ha," Ron mocked them. "Hey Romina, what about Arden? She's about the only Slytherin I can tolerate."

Romina deadpanned him. "Wow Ron, you have such a way with words. Not that it's any of your business, but she's already been asked and she said 'yes'.

"By who?"

"Theodore Nott."

"That git!?"

"Arden swears he's funny," Romina remarked She never spent any time with Theodore alone but from what Arden had been telling her lately, he was quiet but with much more to say than people actually thought.

Ron grumbled. After a moment or two, something new came to his mind. Harry and Romina saw it.

Ron's eyes fell over Hermione who was still reading quietly from her book. "Well Hermione, you're a girl."

"Oh well spotted," she said dryly.

Romina looked between the pair with anticipation. "Oh boy…"

Harry heard her and with a sharp look begged her not to interfere. Romina grabbed her Transfiguration book to try and distract herself.

"Come on," Ron insisted with Hermione, "It's one thing for a bloke to show up alone. For a girl it's just sad."

"He's really doing it…" Romina commented on the side, flipping a page and acting as if Harry wasn't glaring daggers at her to shut up.

Hermione put her book down to meet Ron's gaze. Her face was getting redder by the minute. "I won't be going alone because believe it or not someone's asked me. And I said yes!"

"And he did it," Romina said as Hermione got up and stormed out of the Great Hall after delivering her work to Snape.

"Bloody hell," Ron blinked rapidly, clearly having no idea what just happened.

Romina shook her head. "You're a downright idiot, Ron Weasley."

"Oh c'mon, you don't actually believe her do you?" Ron looked between Romina and Harry, both of their expressions puzzled with his question.

"I'm confused, why wouldn't we believe her?" Romina asked.

"Because it's not true!" Ron waited for Harry to chime in with his support but it never came. "Harry?"

The brunette shrugged meekly. "Hermione doesn't lie."

Romina gestured towards Harry. "Exactly."

Ron and Harry went back and forth about whether or not Hermione lied, more so Ron. Romina saw Snape coming back in their direction and dove into her book. He didn't look too happy. Ron wasn't being particularly quiet.

Snape stopped behind the two boys, his expression utterly irritated with their bumbling whispering. Romina barely hid her laugh when he pulled the sleeves of his robes and pushed both Ron's and Harry's heads down to their books.

"It's not funny," Ron hissed at her when Snape was gone. He double checked.

Romina rolled her eyes at him. "The truth of the matter is that both of you need to man up and ask whoever the hell you were planning on asking and be done with it."

Ron narrowed his eyes on her, none too pleased with her tone. "It's hard to believe no one's asked you yet, Romina."

"The answer's no if you're thinking about it," Romina said, slamming her book shut. "Good luck, Harry." She collected her things and left. She handed Snape her work and walked away. On her way past the table, she heard the twins teasing Ron.

"Shot down before you even asked. That's cold!"

Romina laughed coming into the hallway.

"What's the joke?" Rolf asked as he walked up to her.

"Ron Weasley," Romina said, thinking that was enough explanation. And it was. "You didn't need the study period?" she asked in an effort to change subjects.

Rolf shook his head. "Nah, Luna and I are going to get together later."

Romina was momentarily dumbfounded. "I'm sorry, Luna? My Luna? Quibbler Luna?"

Rolf smiled. "Yeah. Actually, can you keep a secret?"

Romina mimed a zipper across her lips. "Course!"

Rolf's face was tinted pink as he leaned closer to his cousin. "I'm going to ask her to the Yule Ball."

Romina's eyes widened to the brim. "NO WAY!" Her yell echoed down the hallway, prompting Rolf to shush her with a hand over her mouth. "Sorry," came Romina's muffled apology a moment later.

"It's okay," Rolf said, pulling his hand off her mouth. "Don't tell her please."

"I won't, I promise!" Romina said, raising a hand to show she meant business. "But...when did this happen? You two didn't even know each other up until a few weeks ago!"

"We owe it to you, I guess," Rolf shrugged. "So, thanks."

"Oooh, this is exciting!" Romina bounced in her spot. "Luna's going to say 'yes', I know it! She's going to be so happy! You know Ginny's going too so that'll be even more motivation."

"You're not going to say anything, right?" Rolf had to ask again. Romina was too excited and he was afraid that she would let something slip in her moment.

"I won't, don't worry!" Romina said, surprising him with a hug. "Good luck!"

Rolf chuckled. "Thanks. Did you get grandma's letter saying she's doing our robes?"

"Mhm! I told her she could pick whatever colors for me! What about you?"

"Same," Rolf nodded. "Grandma never disappoints, you'll see."

"I can't wait to see what she comes up with. I hope it's pretty enough to distract people from the fact I can't dance to save my life!" It terrified Romina to think that if Harry didn't find a date, she would be that partner he would open the ball with.

~0~

At the start of Potions, Romina knew there would be some heavy tension between Ron and Hermione. Harry mentioned the challenge it was becoming to deal with the two ever since Ron made his mistake in the Great Hall. Romina contemplated sitting beside Hermione to ease the tension and help Harry, but she got sucked into a conversation with Carolinha sitting in the desk in front of her and it all went downhill from there.

Now, as Carolinha gushed about the Durmstrang boy named Alec who asked her out, Romina scribbled a couple things down on a piece of actual paper with a pen. She didn't want to waste parchment on things like this, much less the ink. She promised her aunt Sage she would start writing back to get a handle on what they would need to ultimately pay grandma Abby for her designs. Though Romina was pretty sure her grandmother wouldn't allow for any type of payment.

Truthfully, Carolinha's voice had started to drift from Romina's ears. Instead of writing lists, Romina started to think of things she might like to do with her hair. Way to be a girly-girl, she told herself.

"Carolinha, I heard your chatterbox of a mouth from outside," Draco said as he slid into his seat beside Romina. Carolinha frowned at him.

"Don't mind him, Carol, he's just grumpy," Romina said without looking up from her writing. She was thinking maybe half up and half down for the moment.

"That's nothing new, it's like the only emotion he's capable of," Carolinha retorted.

Romina paused to look up, her lips pursed as a laugh threatened to come out. Carolinha rarely had comebacks. It wasn't her style. Draco thought the same which was why he stared at Carolinha for a good minute before it sunk in that she really had said something to him.

"Well, I mean…" Romin started, sticking her pen's cap between her teeth.

Draco knew he wouldn't like whatever was about to come out of her mouth next. His glare didn't deter her.

"She's not wrong."

There it was.

Carolinha smiled triumphantly.

"You're both annoying," Draco said in the end. It wasn't one of his best lines, he knew, but he had other plans.

Romina did not make things easier. And she didn't even know it. "Oh, Carol, you got him good if that's all he's going to say."

Carolinha giggled. She turned around in her seat, preferring to take her victory how it was. She was soon distracted when Daphne joined her.

Romina went back to her paper. Maybe doing a fancy ponytail would be better? Easier? Romina scrunched her nose as she scribbled over that line. What if they made her look old? Or worse, like a kid.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Romina flinched, her thoughts now fully interrupted. She glanced to her right and saw Draco staring at her paper.

"It's a list, can't you see?" Romina shrugged. She perched an elbow on the desk and rested her cheek against her left palm. "Or read, for that matter."

"It doesn't make sense." Draco could see the list consisted mainly of irrelevant things that had to do with hair.

"Because it's my list," Romina said, "I don't know how I'll be doing my hair for the Yule Ball so I decided to make a list."

"You care about that stuff?" Draco asked with genuine surprise.

Romina laughed lightly. She wrote a quick 'Low ponytail?' on the next line. "This may come as a shock to you, but I'm not all shouts and snaps. Once in a while, I like to look my best."

"You forgot incessantly competitive in there," the words tumbled out of Draco's mouth before he knew it.

Romina still smiled. "You're just mad because you lost. And I did give you the galleons so put that grumpy face away already. Sheesh, do you ever smile?"

"Sometimes…"

"Besides when you're making Harry miserable?"

Draco's eyes fell over the brunette in question up ahead. Whatever ghost of a smile that had been on his face was gone. "Don't sour the conversation, Oswell."

"I'm really not," Romina said. 'Braid crown' made it to the list. "In fact, I'm hardly in this conversation at all. I've got important things to think about after all." She tapped her pen against her paper.

"Right—hair." Draco rolled his eyes. "I heard you're going with someone."

"Ish," Romina corrected.

"Yeah, 'ish'," Draco repeated sourly. "Is it really true you're going with Potter?" Romina nodded her head. "If he can't find his own date!?"

"Yeah," Romina confirmed again. "I know you would hate that the most considering your relationship with Harry but he's my best friend."

"So what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You!" Draco didn't think he would have to actually spell it out for her. Romina was too smart for that.

Romina playfully rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a drama queen. I'm doing my list, aren't I? I'm content, Draco. I didn't think you would be so concerned."

"I'm not concerned, I'm annoyed!"

"Because it's Harry, I know."

"You're literally giving yourself up as a second choice, a pity date if you will."

"It's not that big of a deal—"

"So you admit that I'm right," Draco cut her off and motioned her to agree with him out loud.

Romina shrugged meekly. "I guess? I just don't really care. Lots of people are stressed out over these dates. I mean, I guess if I was one of the girls hoping Viktor Krum would ask me out, I could see it." Draco scoffed. "And of course there's Cedric…"

"Oh please," Draco scoffed coldly. "What the hell does Diggory have that would make you go all...you know…?"

Romina was up and ready with her list. "He's got the gorgeous hair, mesmerizing eyes, charming personality, he's tall, smart — need I go on?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "You're disappointing me, Oswell. I didn't think you would be like the other girls."

Romina giggled. "I'm not blind. But that's never happening. Cedric and I are just friends. Like Harry and I."

"Except Diggory isn't the one forcing you into a pity date."

"I've already told you that Harry's not forcing me. I just don't care."

Draco was silent for a moment. Romina was busy writing yet another possible hairdo on her paper to notice the pensive, nervous, glint in Draco's eyes.

"You don't care who you go with?" He asked a few seconds later.

Romina half shrugged. "Not really, no."

Draco shifted in his spot to face her. "Then...go with me."

Romina's laugh was expected. "Right." She didn't even bother looking up from her paper.

"I'm being serious here. Go with me," Draco said. He knew he got her attention when she finally looked up.

Her brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what on earth just happened. "What?" She put her pen down and looked around, half expecting someone to start laughing.

Draco presumed where her thoughts went. "Romina, seriously. Go with me to the Yule Ball."

It still didn't fully register with Romina. Everything was scrambling up in her head. Thankfully—for the first time in her life she was thankful—Snape finally entered the class.

Romina waited until the professor passed them to speak again and even then it was hushed and quick. "You, me, after class. Alone."

Draco nodded and faced forwards. Romina looked at the board ahead where Snape was already writing down the lesson of the day. She wouldn't be able to pay attention for sure.

~ 0 ~

Romina yanked Draco out of class before anybody had a chance to talk to either of them. In the time it took them to come up from the dungeons, Romina had thrown every possible threat at Draco if he thought he was being funny with her.

"Why on earth would you ask me?" Romina demanded. "We all know that you're taking Pansy!"

"Who the fuck said that? Because it wasn't me, I can tell you that! In fact, I'm pretty sure it was you who started that." Draco stopped walking and forced Romina to do the same.

She scoffed at him. "You are taking her!"

"No I'm not! You said that, not me!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes, you did," Draco said slowly for Romina to finally understand. "You said it a couple days ago during breakfast. Unprompted too. I have never said that I was going to ask Pansy. That was you, you bloody stubborn girl!"

Romina brought a hand to her mouth once she remembered that morning. "Oh my God...it was…Alright, I'm sorry for that one but…" she pursed her lips, her eyes flickering to the side. She saw a couple of Beauxbaton girls making way for the courtyard. "Well...how do I know you're actually serious? You go all ga-ga for the Beauxbaton girls anytime they pass by."

"I do not!" Draco nearly laughed but Romina was quite serious.

"You've blown me off twice. You literally lost all focus on me because you were staring at the Beauxbaton girls!"

Draco smirked suddenly. "Well, go to the ball with me and I will focus solely on you."

Romina became flustered on the spot. You walked into that one, she reprimanded herself. But why the hell was it making such an effect on her now? "Okay, so…" she struggled to find her words, and it irked her that in all that time, Draco just kept on smirking at her like he knew what he'd done.

And he probably did.

"You—you're actually asking me?"

"What gave it away?"

"But why?" Romina asked. "I-I've said that I'm already going with Harry—"

"As a pity date," Draco finished for her, "You shouldn't go with someone because they couldn't find a date. You should go with someone because you want to."

"Oh, and you want to go with me?" Romina raised an eyebrow at him. "Me? Don't I make things hard for you? Aren't I annoying? That's what you always say about me."

"And a living hell sometimes, yeah," Draco cracked a smile at her as if he was just coming to terms with that now. "You're fun. Your competitions, albeit annoying sometimes, are amusing. I don't ever know what's going to happen when you're around. You're a breath of fresh air and I find myself liking it more and more."

Romina gulped, feeling the same rush of heat starting in her chest. All her words were caught in her throat.

"Romina, do you want to go to the ball with me or not?"

Romina lightly flinched when he stepped closer to her. "Um...I mean...I already told Harry…"

"I heard," Draco said, "But did you hear me? You shouldn't be someone's second choice. You're certainly not mine."

Romina had no idea he was capable of saying words like that and with meaning. And yet hearing them for the first time had her heart racing. "…can I think about it?" The question left her lips before she knew it.

To her surprise (yet again), Draco nodded. "Yeah. But don't take too long, I won't be a second choice either." He stepped around her and walked off.

Romina watched after him until it dawned on her that she was staring at him. She shook her head and hurried in the opposite direction.

~ 0 ~

When Arden found Romina, the latter was on her bed with a dozen books and parchment surrounding her. However, based on the fact Romina was staring into space, Arden could bet that no work was actually getting done.

"Earth to Romina!" she called on her way to her own bed. She let her book bag unceremoniously drop on the covers. Romina startled but stayed silent. "Where'd you get to today? Luna's been looking for you. Says she has something to tell you."

"Mhm." Romina looked down at the book on her lap. She forgot she was doing her Muggle Studies essay.

"Oh, and Harry asked for you too."

Romina's head snapped up, her eyes widening in horror. "Is he mad!?"

Arden laughed. "What? No. Don't think so, anyways."

"Are you sure? What did he say?" Romina pressed for an exact answer. What if Harry already knew about Draco asking her to the Yule Ball? Oh God, what if they fight again?

"Romina, you're so pale," Arden said as soon as she noticed. "Are you feeling well?"

Romina brought her hands to her cheeks and gave them a light pat. "I'm fine," she said quickly.

"Bullshit." Arden forgot all about her bookbag and walked over to Romina's bed. "You look like hell. What's going on?"

Romina took her bottom lip with her teeth. She looked down at her book again.

"Hello?" Arden called, waving a hand. "Romina? What's going on?"

"N-nothing," Romina said weakly. She was going to burst if she didn't start talking and yet her tongue wouldn't help her out.

Arden pushed books out of her way to sit down on Romina's bed. She then pulled Romina's book on her lap, or rather she tried to because Romina gripped it. Arden's brow furrowed. "Romina, let go!"

Romina shook her head. "I have an essay to do!"

"Yeah and I can bet you're not actually reading anything! Let go!"

"No!"

"Fine." Arden suddenly let go of the book and watched Romina fall back against the headboard. Romina now had to deal with a pain in the back of her head. "Learned your lesson yet?"

Romina pouted. "Sure."

Arden sighed and reached over for the book again, this time Romina let her have it. "Thank you." Arden placed the book behind her. "Now then, what's got you all messed up?"

Romina pursed her lips. "I don't know if I should say anything."

"With that face?" Arden pointed at Romina's pale face, "You bet your ass you're going to tell me. Who did it?"

Romina eyed the door and made a quick mental note of where Carolinha and Daphne were at the moment. She didn't want either of them coming in and overhearing. Arden would keep the secret for sure. "It's Draco."

"Goddammit—what did he do this time?" Arden furiously demanded.

Romina grabbed Arden's arm when the brunette gave signs of getting up to find Draco. "It's not what you think! He…" Arden noticed the paleness in Romina's face fade away to be replaced with red. "He asked me to the Yule Ball."

Arden dropped herself back on the bed, her eyes wide with dazzlement. "No way!" she exclaimed.

Romina nodded. She put her hands together on her lap, her shoulders slumping. "He did."

"When!?"

"Today in the morning. It came out of nowhere and he's actually very serious about it. He wants me to go with him."

"So, what did you say!?" Arden was absolutely excited and Romina couldn't figure out why.

"What do you think? I said I needed to think about it."

"What?" frowned Arden. "What for!?"

"Arden! What do you mean 'what for?'?" Romina reached over to tap Arden on the forehead. "Did you listen to what happened!?"

"Yeah, did you?" Arden removed Romina's finger from her forehead. "What's the problem? He wants to go with you, you clearly want to go with him—"

"I haven't said that!" Romina exclaimed.

"I know it because I've seen you with him. Romina, you cannot sit there and tell me that everything that's happened so far this year hasn't gotten you thinking a little bit more about Draco than usual?"

Romina shook her head fervently, her cheeks puffing. "Course not!"

Arden raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, I know you, Romina Oswell. This has been going on since summer. It's been escalating without you realizing it."

Romina passed her hands down her hair and let out a big breath. "I can't...that can't be true."

"Why not?" challenged Arden.

"Because it's not possible. He's...he's him! And I'm me!"

"Yeah, and you both feed off of each other. Hence the bets and the back and forth. C'mon Romina," Arden chuckled, "Just say yes and see what happens. It doesn't have to mean anything."

"I can't go with Draco to the ball," Romina said definitively. "Can you imagine what Harry would say? Apart from the fact that I've already told Harry I'd go with him if he didn't find anybody else, he would go ballistic if I told him I was going with Draco."

Arden couldn't deny that the scene would be particularly violent. The bad blood between Harry and Draco was far too high to come back from. "Well, you know what? What they have going on is not your fault," Arden said. "If they want to kill each other, let 'em. After your date, of course."

"It's not a date!" Romina snapped. "It's so not a date and don't you dare say that again. If I were to go, it would just be a one night thing."

"So then why is it a big deal if it's just for one night?" Arden smirked knowing that she had gotten Romina with that one.

Romina ducked her head. "You know what I mean. I'm genuinely afraid that it'll make Harry angry with me forever."

"But then you do want to go with Draco?"

Romina shrugged again. "I don't know...maybe?"

Arden laughed and playfully patted Romina's knee. "I knew it! Just go for it! You deserve it."

"I think you're being biased," Romina said, meeting Arden's gaze from under her lashes. "You're my best friend. Of course you're going to forget all logic and tell me to go for it. I need some more opinions on this matter."

"I can get Carol and Daphne—"

"No!" Romina was quick to say, making Arden laugh again. "I love them but I know once I tell them, they're going to be all giggly about it. They won't be able to keep it a secret."

"Alright, who do you have in mind, then?" Arden curiously asked. If Romina was cautious telling her about the situation, who else could she want to tell?

~ 0 ~

"Malfoy asked you to the ball?" Hermione could not believe her ears. Unlike Arden, she hadn't yelled. The shock was too much.

Romina could only nod. She had managed to find Hermione on her own the next day and with luck, they took a walk through the courtyard without disturbances.

"Please don't tell Harry or Ron," she begged Hermione.

"Of course," Hermione said, much to Romina's relief. "I'm really surprised here. Pansy Parkinson is always after him, I just thought they'd…" She trailed off upon seeing the frown marking Romina's face. "But he asked you so…"

"It's okay to have no words, I sure didn't," Romina bit on her bottom lip. "I still don't. It's why I'm avoiding Draco until I have my thoughts in order."

"That can't be easy being in the same House," Hermione said. "But listen, don't take this the wrong way but, why are you telling me? I would think Arden would be above me on your list."

"I did tell her but I also know that Arden is loyal to me. She'll tell me to go for it. You don't have that problem. In fact, your loyalty is to Harry and that's okay with me!" Romina finished quickly before Hermione felt the urge to apologize to her. "I get it. So, only you can tell me if this is nonsense."

"What? You mean tell you that you shouldn't go with Draco? That's kind of a lot of pressure, Romina," Hermione said, tugging her collar for show.

Romina chuckled. "You know what I mean. Look, Draco and I went back and forth on this. Of course I warned him I'd kill him if this was a joke but he swore that it wasn't. So then I reminded him that I already told Harry I'd go with him if he didn't find somebody."

"And what did he say about that?" Hermione presumed there had been a lot of condescending words in that conversation.

"That I shouldn't go with someone as their second choice. He called it a pity date. He said…" Even now, Romina felt an annoying flutter in her heart remembering Draco's exact words, "I should go with someone because I want to go with them. The person I go with should want to go with me as well."

Hermione's eyebrows raised. That wasn't anything near what she was expecting to hear. "He said that?"

Romina nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh my god," Hermione said, suddenly stopping in her tracks.

Romina saw her rubbing her stomach. "Are you okay?" she asked with concern.

"Yeah, it's just…" Hermione's nose crinkled, "I can't believe I'm going to say this—it's probably the only time I'll ever say it—but I agree with Malfoy."

"Woah," Romina blinked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Hermione gave a small laugh. "Yes," she assured. "Harry and Ron would crucify me for what I'm saying but I think Malfoy's got a point. I think what you're doing for Harry is sweet and caring but at the end of the day, Harry doesn't actually want to go with you. He asked Cho Chang and it didn't go so well but she's the one he wanted to go with."

"Oh poor Harry," Romina said, swallowing hard. If the girl of his dreams said no to him, he was more likely to fall on her word of going with him. That was...disappointing? Oh God what is happening to me?

"He'll survive," Hermione said. "Cho's going with Cedric. If you go with Harry, you really will be his second choice."

"He would never see me like that," Romina said weakly.

"Of course," Hermione agreed. "But it's what you would be. If somebody wants to take you to the Yule Ball—if they ask you with sincerity, you have every right to say yes."

Hermione looked so sincere that it brought tears to Romina's eyes. Hermione would be okay if she decided to say yes to Draco. "Hermione, you have no idea what you're doing to me."

Hermione smiled at her. "I can make a guess," she put a hand on Romina's shoulder. "I just have one thing to ask."

"What?" Romina sniffed, clearly wiping some tears off.

"Don't ask me to tell Harry."

Despite being legitimately afraid of how that would go, Romina laughed. "Of course not." Hermione joined her soon enough.

"While we're on the subject of secret dates," Hermione started once they'd sobered from their laugh, even walking again, "Is this a two way conversation?"

Romina nodded. "Of course. Are you going to take pity on me and tell me who this mysterious date of yours is?"

Hermione had been in Romina's predicament albeit with slight differences. But, like Romina, she needed to tell someone before she burst. "It's Krum. Viktor Krum."

Romina slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent an actual shriek from getting out. Hermione was red as the color of her House. "Hermione Granger, how'd you manage to snag him!?"

Hermione burst into laughter again. "It just happened! He was in the library again and I of course turned to leave because of the group of girls he was going to attract but he stopped me and we talked. Turns out he finds them just as annoying as I do."

"Ah, and so it was love at first sight," Romina feigned dramatics with a hand over her heart.

"Don't go that far!" Hermione tried to scold but she was a laughing mess. Romina had never seen her in such a state.

"You do realize you'll be opening the ball with him, right?"

Hermione nodded. "I have given it some thought, yes. How do you think the boys will react?"

Romina's eyebrows raised as she considered how the whole ordeal would go. She brought a hand to the back of her head, fingers lightly scratching through her hair. "Umm, I think Ron will have a proper heart attack. He still thinks you're lying so this will be a good way to show him you weren't."

"I didn't do any of this just to prove him wrong," Hermione said in alarm.

"I know that," chuckled Romina. "But serves him right for what he said. You'll get him good. It'll be like a two for one thing."

Hermione smiled but it was still done nervously. "And what do you think Harry will say? Krum is someone he's competing against."

"Harry will be surprised but I think he'll ultimately remember that you're his friend and he'll get over it."

Hermione's smile softened. She nudged Romina on the side. "You should take your own advice."

"Oh no," Romina shook her head quickly, "My situation is completely different. Harry doesn't absolutely despise Krum. He hasn't nearly dueled him twice."

"No, he just competed against him," Hermione shrugged and earned a startled blink from Romina.

"Are you cracking jokes now? Impressive," Romina ultimately said, "But what I'm saying is true. Honestly, a little part of me is wondering if Draco did it to spite Harry."

Hermione bobbed her head in thought. "That does sound like something he would do."

Romina nodded. Draco had swore that it wasn't a joke but what if she wasn't supposed to figure it out? Would he lie? The mere thought of it all being a joke gave her a pang in her heart. Being aware of that pang pointed out where her stance was in the 'yes' or 'no' department.

"Romina," said Hermione, unknowingly pulling the girl out of her darkening thoughts, "Do you want to go with Draco? Forgetting everything, and I mean everything, do you want to go with him?"

"Well…"

"No," Hermione said sharply, "None of the 'wells' or the 'buts' here. It's yes or no, Romina. Pick one."

Romina started biting on her bottom lip. When it was put like that, she had to be honest with herself. "Yes." Her answer was so quiet, almost a whisper, that Hermione had barely heard.

Luckily, Hermione was a sharp listener. She patted Romina's arm comfortingly. "There you go."

"Harry's going to kill me." Because not only would Romina have to tell Harry that she would no longer go with him to the ball, but he would also learn who she decided to go with.

"Who are you going to talk to first?" Hermione asked her after a moment.

That was an easy answer. The one who wouldn't kill her on the spot.

~0~

Romina slunk down at the Great Hall table. She didn't touch her plate, her goblet, nor the various dinner choices in front of her. Her arms came together to rest on her lap.

"Took you long enough," Draco took pity on her and said. "You've been avoiding me."

Romina wouldn't deny it. If he was coming into a room, she was rushing out. "Don't suppose you want an apology…?"

Draco couldn't tell if she was joking or not. "Can we get to the point before the others start coming?" Neither would be able to say a word with their friends around. Chatterbox Carolinha would have a word or two to say, or yell.

Romina sighed. "Tell me one thing…"

"What?"

"Did you ask me just to spite Harry?"

Draco froze. He looked at Romina, initially surprised but ultimately impressed for some reason. "No, but that would've been a good idea."

Romina's head snapped up, eyebrows furrowing in annoyance. "What the hell, Draco!?"

"Again, you said it, not me," Draco laughed at her.

Romina rolled her eyes at him. "You could've bloody well said yes or no."

"Funny, I was just about to tell you the same thing." Draco reached for the platter of toast when Romina put her hand over his arm.

"Just tell me the truth please," she pleaded. There was genuine fear in her eyes and all because of that one silly thought?

"Who the hell put that thought in your head?" Draco demanded, pulling her hand off his arm. "Did you tell Potter already?"

Romina shook her head. "No. I didn't tell him and nobody put the idea in my head. I thought of it. And can you blame me? For the past 3 years, you've found every possible way to mess with Harry. I'm one of his best friends. It's not that big of a stretch."

"You're my friend," Draco snapped, sounding almost possessive. "I've told you that I'm not kidding. I don't know how else to put it. You're too smart for this, honestly."

Romina brought her hand on the table, fingers lightly tapping. Her eyes fell over her empty plate. "So...not a joke…"

"No."

"Okay," Romina paused for a minute. "...then yes."

Draco did a double-take on her. "What?"

Romina sheepishly met his eye. "Yes," she repeated, this time with flushed cheeks, "I'll go with you to the ball."

Draco didn't know he could smile so quickly until that moment. "Brilliant."

Yes, Harry had gone to Hogsmeade a few days ago. She would know, she was with him all afternoon. He was under the Invisibility Cloak the whole time. Harry hadn't wanted to deal with anybody's comments but it didn't mean he couldn't see them. Hermione had spent most of her time trying to persuade Harry to talk to either Ron or Romina, or both! But Harry mentioned that Ron hadn't even asked about him and Hogsmeade. Hermione couldn't lie there since Ron really hadn't asked about him.

So she tried with Romina. Romina had definitely asked for Harry at Hogsmeade. But then Hermione made the mistake of bringing Harry to the Three Broomsticks. They tucked themselves in a corner so nobody would accidentally sit on the invisible Harry. Romina was there with her friends Arden, Carolinha and Daphne. And for a moment, Hermione had been really close coaxing Harry out from under the cloak to go talk to Romina once and for all. But the girls were soon joined by more of their group.

Harry liked Angel, he was nice like Carolinha. Blaise and Theodore he could tolerate — they were neutral in almost every battle — but Harry couldn't stand the fact that Draco had come by with a drink for Romina. At first it looked like Romina would refuse it—she pushed the glass back to him. There was a small exchange between the two. Harry saw Romina with her defiant look (he knew that look from years ago). Draco leaned close (too close if anybody asked Harry) and said something to Romina to which she then rolled her eyes at and responded. In the end, she accepted the damn drink and looked pretty content with the situation.

Hermione had seen it as well. She had actually winced when she heard Harry's snarl. He was even less happy with Romina after that and Hermione, sworn to secrecy by the laws of friendship, was stuck in the middle again.

"I think he's over exaggerating," Romina said. "I genuinely tried fixing things by looking for him."

She had searched for Harry for so long that in the end, Arden was the angry one. She claimed Romina was wasting her time on her first trip of the year to Hogsmeade (a trip that Romina was supposed to be enjoying this year) so she dragged Romina to the Three Broomsticks where they eventually found Carolinha and Daphne. Romina admitted that she did sort of forget about her search for Harry once she and the girls started talking. She definitely forgot when they were joined by the boys and a drink was placed in front of her. Draco was smart enough to know that Romina wasn't entirely over the badges. She gave him the credit for at least being aware he wasn't in the clear yet. She then rescinded the credit when he thought she was stupid not to see what he was trying to do by buying her a drink.

"What makes you think I would even want it?" Romina raised her head defiantly, promptly waiting for the best answer he could come up with.

Draco leaned close to her, wearing a stupid smirk on his face. "Why wouldn't you want a free drink?"

Romina rolled her eyes. He was just too damn cocky. She pushed the drink back to him. "Because you could have well poisoned it," she didn't think twice in answering,

"Like I would do that in a public spot. I know how to pick my moments, Oswell."

"So then you  are  trying to poison me?"

In the end, Arden groaned beside Romina. "Just take the bloody drink already!" she hissed at Romina. "Making everything a damn challenge between you two. It's annoying!"

Arden hadn't exactly been quiet with her words. Everyone else seemed to agree with her. With a roll of her eyes, Romina accepted the drink.

"So we're good then?" Draco asked her after she took a sip of her glass.

"I guess," Romina shrugged, offering half a smile. "I look forward to seeing you screw up again. It's inevitable for guys." Romina's joke, which honestly hadn't really been a joke, was well received by the other girls. It did help lighten the mood and after that, she began to really enjoy Hogsmeade.

Romina sighed heavily. "I don't know what else to do."

"Just keep trying please," Hermione almost begged her. "I can't take the silent treatment between Harry and Ron. I'll surely lose my mind if I have to deal with the same thing between you two."

Romina felt pity for the spot that Hermione was put in. Anyone else would have surely cracked by now. "Okay, I promise."

They arrived shortly later at the library but they only lasted an hour before Viktor Krum showed up. Hermione promptly ushered them out before Krum's group of admiring giggly girls showed up.

~0~

Romina kept to her promise to Hermione and tried making amends with Harry. Whenever Romina had the opportunity to, she would try to get close to Harry to talk with him. It was fairly easy considering Ron wasn't around and Hermione tended to be in the library or studying, but even then talking to Harry wasn't an easy job either. He blew her off with such ease that Romina had to wonder if Harry had always kept this disdain against her to himself for years.

"Harry, please," she caught up with him during one of their Care of Magical Creatures lessons. He picked up his pace but Romina did her best to keep up with him even if she did have to half jog it. "Why is this such a big deal? Not even Draco gave me this much crap about it!"

"Hm," Harry curled his fists when he remembered what he saw at Hogsmeade. "Shocker."

Romina shook her head. "C'mon, we're best friends! I was just trying to help! Hermione would've done the same thing!"

Both she and Harry knew that was a lie. Hermione would've never told such a big lie to a professor, much less to Snape.

"I have a big mouth, I know, and I sometimes get riled up when I feel challenged and that's what happened back there!"

"I didn't challenge you, Romina," Harry said curtly. He stopped walking abruptly, leaving Romina a few steps ahead. "You got in the way, I would've had Malfoy this time."

"And then what?" Romina asked, exasperated that he hadn't yet thought of the aftermath of such a ridiculous duel. "Snape would've had your ass with that. I know you know that. I feel like there's more to this than you're telling me and that's not fair."

"Technically, it's what you're not telling me," Harry said.

Romina blinked. Her nose scrunched as she wondered what on earth he was talking about.

"I need to get to class," Harry said, walking hastily past her. Hagrid was grouping the class up ahead and Harry had no desire to be on Romina's side nor Ron's.

~ 0 ~

Days later, Romina communicated her latest attempt to talk to Harry with Hermione. Hermione wasn't surprised at all that Harry had said what he did to Romina. She was just perplexed why he hadn't said it more clearly. If he was that upset with those presumptions, he should have just told Romina directly.

"Hermione, at least tell me he's spoken to Sirius already?" Romina asked as an afterthought. Whatever problems she had with Harry didn't mean she wanted to see danger come his way. Speaking to Sirius was key for Harry to stay safe and well.

Hermione nodded silently. She stopped walking and reached for Romina's arm. "Yesterday night he did."

"And did it go well?" Romina suspected there was something she was missing. Hermione was gripping her arm tightly.

Hermione half shrugged. There wasn't much to report in that aspect. Harry had spoken to Sirius for all five minutes before Ron, of all people, interrupted the conversation right when Sirius was about to tell Harry the spell he needed to take down the dragon. Because oh yes, Harry had figured out the first task were dragons.

"He's going up against dragons!?" Romina half-shrieked, causing Hermione to shush her as several students walking by gave them curious looks.

"Nobody's supposed to know!" Hermione said.

"Well, how did Harry find out?"

"Hagrid showed him—it's a long story," Hermione said when Romina opened her mouth to no doubt ask how on earth Hagrid knew about the dragons. "What's worse is that Charlie, Ron's brother, is one of the wizards in charge of the dragons and Ron didn't exactly say anything."

"Well...we're assuming that Ron knew…" Romina weakly tried to say but even Hermione thought otherwise. Romina sighed. "You know, this year was supposed to be better than last year but I honestly think it's going to be worse. Much, much worse."

"Just keep trying, please," Hermione insisted, once again squeezing Romina's arm.

"Yeah, of course," Romina assured her. "But keep me in the loop about what's happening with Harry. Even if he doesn't want me helping him, I'll do it."

Hermione promised and from there, the girls split for their respective classes. Romina didn't have much of a head for Muggle Studies that day. Rolf was more talkative during the lesson, ironically, and simultaneously used that to try and cheer Romina up. Even as they left the class with an outrageous amount of homework, Rolf rambled on about something called nargles and how everybody apparently had them.

"You and Luna seemed to have hit it off," remarked Romina blankly. She was only paying half attention to the conversation.

Rolf chuckled. "She's interesting. And she does have a lot to say about you."

"Hm, she's about the only one right now with good stuff to say about me."

"Not true, and you know it." Rolf tapped the side of Romina's head. She rolled her eyes. "You're the talk for some people—rumors about the incident with Harry and Malfoy."

Romina groaned. "It came back to bite me in the ass. I'm paying big time for that one."

Not much later did she attempt to talk to Harry again, only this time he didn't even give her the opportunity to string a whole sentence.

"I need to find Hermione for something," he snapped as he strode right past her. He seemed determined and with purpose so Romina decided to call it quits for the day.

She told Arden she wasn't hungry for dinner and went straight for the common room. She decided to take on the homework she'd been assigned for Muggle Studies despite its due date being very far. If anything, she should get started on the Transfiguration work. But of course, being perfectly honest with herself, Romina knew that whatever class she decided to focus on wouldn't actually happen. There was just too much on her mind.

Later on, she heard the entrance opening up. Dinner was over and the students were retiring to their dorms. Romina wasn't sure if she was going to be able to sleep either. She started gathering her things from the couch. Sleep or not, she would be more comfortable on her bed anyways.

"Are you coming to sleep without me having to nag you?" Arden stopped by the couch.

"Yes, don't worry," Romina said. She stacked her one book over the other. "I'll be there in a bit."

Arden watched her for a few seconds as she picked up more of her things. She ultimately decided Romina was telling her the truth and headed for their room.

"So you're starving yourself now," Draco's voice came a few seconds later.

Romina shrugged as she put her roll of parchment on top of her pile. "I just wasn't hungry."

"Right. It's because of Potter, isn't it?"

Romina turned around. She didn't have to say anything. Actually, she did but for fear of making things worse, she kept her mouth tightly shut.

"Arden mentioned it," Draco went on, "You're being ridiculous. So what if he's not talking to you?"

"You got a lot of nerve considering it's your fault," Romina remarked. And so much for keeping your mouth shut.

"My fault?" Draco repeated incredulously. "I'm not the one who told that fat lie in front of the whole school."

"No, but you're the one who made those stupid badges in the first place. As if you actually gave a damn about Cedric Diggory being the champion. You just wanted to mess with Harry as usual."

All Draco did was shrug. It was more or less true.

Romina rolled her eyes. "It's great, really, because no matter how much I try, Harry won't talk to me."

"And somehow you equate that with not eating. That sure makes sense."

"I am not starving myself!"

"No, you're not." Draco reached for something under his robes and the next thing Romina knew, he was tossing her something wrapped up in a napkin.

She barely caught it with her free hand. "What is this?" she frowned. She couldn't unwrap it with her thumb as much as she tried.

"A biscuit. Can't exactly take a plate with me, right?" Draco gestured to the bread in her hand. "But eat it. I'm not going to take more if you're just going to throw it out because of Potter."

"Thank...you…?" Romina was too surprised to sound remotely close to sure.

"Eat it," Draco warned her as he went for the corridors.

Romina stayed where she was for a couple minutes. She was utterly lost but at least now she had something to eat. And it was actually good.

~0~

She might get yelled at, she might even get detention for it, but Romina would try anyway. The day of the first task had finally arrived and knowing Harry, he must be nervous out of his mind. He always said that his legs felt like marshmallows whenever he was really nervous.

"You're going to get in trouble," Hermione insisted despite hurrying along with Romina down to the champions' tent.

"That's why I have you to keep a lookout," Romina said obviously. "I have to talk to him!"

"Now?" Hermione flapped her arm in the direction of the bleachers that were almost full. Everybody was anxiously waiting for the tournament to begin. "You pick now of all times to try again!?"

"Yes!" Romina stopped once they reached the tent. "There's no better time than right now!" She peeked around the tent to make sure there were no teachers around. "Because Harry's at his worst right now and he needs all his friends. Ron's clearly not coming anywhere close here."

Hermione lamented the fact. "Alright, fine," she relented. "Go."

Romina beamed. "Thanks!" She tiptoed down the front of the tent until she reached the opening. She could hear someone walking back and forth near the entrance but she wasn't entirely sure if it was Harry.

If it's Fleur, I can get away with wishing her luck on behalf of my grandmother. If it's Krum, I'll say I was looking for Cedric. If it's Cedric...I'll say I was looking for Harry.

Romina was actually dizzy from all that logic but she went ahead and whispered to the champion inside. "Pssst! Harry? Is that you?"

To her luck, it was Harry. He didn't come out but Romina sensed he was right by the entrance. "What do you want, Romina?"

Romina sighed. "What do you think? To wish you luck."

"Really? Not here for Cedric, then?"

"Come off it, Harry. You're my best friend. And I really hate the idea of you being this angry with me while you have loads of worse things to deal with."

Well, at that, Harry could agree it wasn't fun. He didn't have Ron around nor Romina. Two of his best friends were far away and unavailable. "You'll get in trouble for being here," he said weakly. He had no idea why he even said that anyways.

"Please, remember when we snuck out of my house to go to Victoria's 10th birthday?" Romina asked.

Of course Harry remembered. It was one of the brief moments where his aunt and uncle had allowed him to go over to Romina's house for a whole afternoon under the pretense that they would actually be at Romina's house with her aunt and uncle in the house. Neither were true. Sage and Lyonel Oswell were both working and they took advantage to slip on over to their neighbor's birthday party. Dudley was not invited and Victoria would gladly keep their presence a secret. It was all gung-ho until Sage Oswell returned from work early and discovered them. She was livid but she did Harry the solid of not telling the Dursleys' about his lie. They were, however, both grounded under her roof.

"We had to do chores like crazy," Harry said, flexing his hands as if they were still aching from all the mopping and grooming he was tasked with.

Romina laughed lightly. "My hands were all pruned up for days after doing laundry and dishes."

Harry's smile slowly faded. Sometimes it was hard remembering his life before Hogwarts. Things were so much simpler and just childish for a child. "Rom, I miss you."

"I miss you too," Romina said. She turned just as Harry decided to step out of the tent. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that lie to Snape. I was mad that you and Draco were talking to me like that so I sort of went with the easiest thing I could do to get both of you back the quickest."

"Mission accomplished," Harry said with a shake of his head. He couldn't get enough teasing from the Weasley twins alone.

"Are we...are we okay, then?" Romina turned to face him completely.

Harry still thought of Hogsmeade. Maybe Hermione was right and he was just over exaggerating. Right now, at the brink of dealing with a dragon, it all seemed pointless. "Yeah, we are," he nodded.

Romina couldn't contain herself. She threw her arms around him for a hug. "Oh thank goodness! I love you, silly!"

Harry's laugh was muffled with her long hair. "Love you too, Rom."

The flash of a light stunned the two until they realized it was a camera flash.

Rita Skeeter stood a few feet from them with her cameraman beside her. "Young love!"

Romina glared then looked to the side to see Hermione apologetically smiling at her. Hermione's not the best look out, Romina concluded.

"Ohh how...stirring," Rita gushed. "If everything goes unfortunately today you might make the front page."

"How the hell did you even get down here?" Romina knew she of all people shouldn't be asking that. She snuck down too, after all.

"You have no business here." Viktor Krum had come out of the tent with the commotion. "This tent is for champions and friends."

"No matter. We've got what we wanted," Rita said triumphantly then walked off with her cameraman.

Harry could half smile at Krum's words. Friends. He glanced at Romina who was already smiling at him.

"Well alright then friend," Romina started backing away to where Hermione was, "I will be cheering you on."

Harry grinned. He hoped so!

"C'mon Hermione," Romina tugged the girl by her arm. For some reason, Hermione was looking at Krum and vice versa. "Hermione!"

"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed, having no idea what Romina had said.

"You okay there?" Romina eyes her curiously.

"Of course, yeah! Loads now that you and Harry are good again!" Hermione beamed at the idea. Now all they had to do was get Ron to join and they would all be great again.

~ 0 ~

'It seems like Mr. Potter has found love in the midst of the difficult times the Tournament brings. Longtime best friend Romina Oswell (yes, from  that  family!) Had to sneak down before the first Task to wish her boyfriend good luck. The special hugs and exchange of 'I love you' were sweet enough to make you sick! Now Mr. Potter seems to have been able to move past his girlfriend's family's dark reputation. That is what love does in the end!

Romina slammed her copy of the Daily Prophet down on the table, startling those around her having breakfast. "That cow!" She yelled enough to attract the attention of the next table, the Gryffindors.

Hermione looked back at her with her own copy. Unfortunately, Rita Skeeter hadn't stopped with Romina. Hermione was also featured further down the page. She was apparently preying after Viktor Krum of all people.

It was only a few days since the first task and already Rita had done them so dirty out of nothing! Romina was furious but, deep inside, a little impressed with the woman's speed. Still, there was another overwhelming feeling...

"I'm going to murder her," Romina declared, "The next article having to do with me will be about the tragic murder of Rita Skeeter."

Arden was drowning porridge beside her. "Big deal," she said in-between chews, "Not the first time anybody thinks that about you."

"There's a huge difference, Arden," Romina said, "We were nine back then! It wasn't serious!"

"Don't get all upset, nobody's going to take that junk seriously." No sooner had the words left Arden's mouth when Carolinha and Daphne plopped down opposite of them.

"You're dating Harry now!?" Carolinha shrieked, once more attracting unwanted attention.

Romina pointedly looked at Arden. Arden, in return, amended her words. "Fine, only idiots will believe it."

"Hey," frowned Carolinha.

"Is it true?" Daphne insisted on an answer. "I mean, I can kinda see it but still."

"Idiots," Arden reiterated before going back to her porridge.

"No, of course it's not true!" Romina exclaimed. Her eyes skipped over the pair of girls to where Harry sat. He had just smiled at somebody at the next table and spilled milk down his shirt. He had forgotten he had drunk something! "You really think I'm going to be in love with that!?" She gestured furiously at him. "He's like my brother!" Her words seemed to have only appeased them halfway. Romina groaned. "Unbelievable!"

When had she ever given any indication that she liked Harry beyond a friend? She was pretty sure she never had. But now suddenly a crappy article was enough to make many people think otherwise.

"You really know how to get your name into people's mouths, don't you?" Draco caught up with her in the hallway later in the day.

Romina was forced to stop walking. "I have History of Magic to get to. Move."

Draco unrolled his copy of the Daily Prophet and went to the exact spot featuring Romina's and Harry's story. "You do realize that Angel is working up the courage to ask you about this. Thought I'd cut out the middleman."

"How noble of you," Romina said dismissively. "And also how stupid of both of you to think this is true."

"So it's not?"

Romina clapped her hands together hard enough for the strap of her book bag to slide down to her elbow. "Let's see," she leaned towards the article in front of her, "Oh yes, because I definitely told Rita that…" she raised her finger to one line in the middle and read out loud, "'Harry's my light in this dark world that I live in.' Does that sound remotely like me?" She looked up at Draco, her expression flat again.

Draco gave it some genuine thought and the idea of Romina saying those exact words was beyond laughable.

"I assume the wheels are working in that head of yours?" Romina's finger went in circles beside her head.

"I had to ask." Draco started rolling up the pages.

"Why?"

Draco shrugged. He'd read the article earlier in the morning and as stupid as it sounded, he needed to ask Romina directly about it. He didn't quite understand where the urge came from but he didn't spend much time thinking about it either.

Romina shook her head. "How on earth could you believe in that rubbish?"

Just as Draco opened his mouth to answer, they heard the collective shouts of the Weasley twins from a distance.

"Ah! The Chosen One's girlfriend!" Fred clapped as he and George walked towards them.

Draco raised an eyebrow at Romina. That's why.

Romina pursed her lips together. "Don't say a word," she raised a finger at him.

"I don't have to—they're saying it all," Draco said wryly. He turned to leave.

"Well could you...don't say anything either!" Romina called after him. She didn't hear his laugh. Romina groaned and turned to face the approaching twins.

"There she is," George said with a big grin on his face. "The Chosen One's girlfriend! My, my, what a big secret you've been keeping from us, Camille!"

Romina could honestly strangle them right now. "Come here," she directed them with her fingers to lower down to her level.

"Another secret?" Fred said as he and George followed her finger.

Romina smiled sweetly. "Not exactly," she said just before smacking them upside their heads. Her smile dropped to be replaced with utter anger. "Why the hell are you yelling that nonsense!?"

"Because it's funny as hell," George snickered as he rubbed the side of his head.

"And not true!" Romina exclaimed.

"Well of course we know that," Fred rolled his eyes.

George snorted beside him. "Yeah, what do you think we are? Idiots?"

Romina pinched the bridge of her nose. "You're screwing me even more. Some people actually believe what Skeeter wrote."

"Yeah, I know," Fred nodded. "Harry's been red ever since breakfast."

"I need to talk to him about this," Romina said with a sigh. "It's embarrassing. I've known Harry since we were seven. He's seen me with pigtails."

The twins exchanged glances with each other.

"Can we see pictures?" they both asked with the same teasing grins.

"NO!"

~ 0 ~

By the time Romina actually got to talk to Harry, he was still red but it was mostly laughs between them. It eased Romina's nerves so much. They had just gotten back on good terms, after all. Romina wanted to take things easy. Things seemed to be just that way while Harry and Ron laughed. It was also nice to see those two finally good again. Romina joked that they all needed to get together to give Hermione a huge thank you card for dealing with all of them during their respective arguments.

Romina handed Harry their homework for their charms class. Her time was terrible as Hermione joined them on their spot on the ground of the courtyard.

"That's cheating!" She said as she dropped beside Ron, her book bag sliding down her arm in the process.

"Please," snorted Romina, "With that summoning charm he used for the task, he should be letting me copy."

The irritated look on Hermione's face was enough to make the trio giggle at her. Clearly that hadn't been what she meant.

"Speaking of, have you figured out what the golden egg is supposed to do for the next task?" Romina asked Harry partly to get Hermione off her back.

Harry shrugged carelessly. He was studying Romina's homework into his book bag. "I have until February."

"Still, time can fly pretty quickly. Can we help?"

"We're not supposed to," Hermione pointedly reminded them.

"Yeah, because that worked out for the first task," Harry snorted. "But like I said, I have until February. Right now, I just want to think of nothing but Christmas and nonsense."

"Yeah," Ron agreed and high fived with Harry. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I can actually say that sounds great," Romina said as she too raised her hand for Harry to high five. He was all too happy to do it. Romina laughed with him.

"Oh, um, Romina?" Hermione bit on her bottom lip suddenly. "Angel's looking this way and he doesn't seem very happy."

"Huh?" Romina followed Hermione's gaze to see Angel across the courtyard. He looked away as soon as Romina turned her head but it was too late by then. Romina had seen the put-out expression on his face.

"Rom, he doesn't actually believe in what that article said, right?" Harry asked, making a face as he recalled the cringy lines of the article.

Ron snorted. "Half the school does, why shouldn't he?"

Hermione whacked his arm. "Ron! People should know better!"

"Then how about what it said about you, huh?" Ron challenged. "You and Krum."

Hermione's face went pink fast. "That's utter rubbish!"

Romina waved a hand at them to shush the argument. "Every word that Rita Skeeter writes is rubbish. I'm hoping things will die down as time goes by."

"Then maybe you should clarify things for Angel," Harry said, "Because I really don't feel like getting the stink-eye again."

Romina rolled her eyes. "That's because somebody was supposed to tell him already."

"Who?" Harry blinked.

"Another idiot," Romina huffed.

~0~

Romina wouldn't waste time beating around the bush. As soon as she saw Draco in the common room, she marched right up to him.

"Hey!" she called seconds from reaching the couch.

He looked up from a book in his hands, none too pleased he'd been disturbed. "Why is it that whenever you're around, I can never have peace?"

Romina scowled at him. "First of all, as usual, that's rich coming from you. You do realize it's your fault we didn't speak for almost 2 months, right?"

"Oh this oughta be good," Draco said as he put his book down, "What do you want, Oswell?"

Romina shook her head at him, though with a struggle not to smile. "I thought you were going to tell Angel about that stupid article and that none of it was true!"

"When did I say I would do that?"

"You literally said you were cutting the middleman out! What else is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh...I don't know, I thought it would be more fun to let him squirm for a bit." Draco smirked as he picked up his book to continue where he left off.

"What?" Romina made a face. She sighed and walked around to take the seat next to him. "I'm confused…"

"There's a shocker." Draco regretted his words when Romina punched his arm. "How the hell are you so strong?"

Ronina ignored him. "Aren't you friends with Angel?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because lately it seems like you're not. Actually, if I'm getting it right, you guys have been sort of shaky ever since we saw each other during summer."

"Putting so much thought into this, Oswell. I'm touched."

Romina could do without his smirk. "I'm being serious, Draco. What's going on between you two?"

"Nothing," he said in a half laugh. "I have just said a couple things that he hasn't liked."

"Like what, exactly?"

"You really want to know?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, fine." Draco tossed the book which, now that it landed on Romina's lap, was actually a comic book, then shifted on the couch to face Romina. "I told him he needed to stop sticking his nose where it didn't belong. And before you say anything," he raised a finger at her open mouth, "he was trying to make me feel bad for not apologizing to you back then. But that's not all. I guess I was on him for not having the courage to speak up in regards to you."

"To me?" Romina made a face.

At this point, it looked like Draco was ready to smack her for being so oblivious. "He likes you, Oswell! God, how many times do I have to say that!?"

"Well...you could say it without yelling it at me," Romina said, close to pouting. Draco rolled his eyes at her. "And really, is it any of your business what Angel decides to say or not?"

"It becomes my business when he starts acting all high and mighty around me. You can say what you want about me, but I'll say whatever the hell is on my mind."

Romina had no doubt that he would. He had countless times. "Yeah, you don't have much of a filter. One of these days, though, you're going to pick the wrong person to be unfiltered with and get your ass kicked."

Draco didn't pay her any attention. "To answer your question, Angel and I are on neutral terms for now," Draco said, shrugging nonchalantly. He didn't seem very perturbed with the situation. "I didn't say anything because I thought after a while it would become obvious that it wasn't true."

"And yet you had to come ask me directly," Romina pointed out, flashing him a smile.

"Ah, see," Draco wagged a finger at her, "I asked directly. If it's on my mind, I'm going to say it." The certainty in his words made Romina roll her eyes. He was seriously too cocky and proud sometimes.

"It's never that easy, you know," she said.

"For you, I can see. You're just as terrible as Angel for not telling him it's never gonna happen."

"Oh, and why are you so sure about that?"

"Cos it's obvious. Angel's too soft."

Romina gasped in offence. "What are you trying to say about me? And I'd watch that unfiltered mouth of yours!"

Draco knew there was no way he was going to get out scot-free once he said what he had to say but in the end, the desire to see her reaction won out. "You're sweet and sour." Even with the room's dank light, he could see the pink tinge on Romina's cheeks.

"I'm what?"

"You're sweet—that's self explanatory—but then you get sour and all hell breaks loose."

Romina gaped at him. "How d-are you!?" Her voice cracked out of embarrassment.

Draco laughed. "You asked and I answered."

"With the wrong answer!"

"No, I don't think so," Draco struggled to keep his laugh from getting louder. Romina looked ready to murder him.

"I am not sour," Romina folded her arms over her chest.

"You have a knack of running your mouth whenever you feel like you've been a)—" Draco started listing off his fingers, "—challenged, b) blown off, c) just downright offended. Notice how I said 'feel' because half the time, you're just imagining stuff."

Romina rubbed the side of her neck. Okay, that may be true in some parts. "I don't like being 'sour'," she said quietly.

"It's not a bad quality but I know for a fact Angel can't handle that. He's going to coddle you and that's the last thing you need."

"And what, pray tell, do you think it is that I need?"

"A good smack," Draco didn't hesitate to answer instantly. "Among other things."

"Well!"

"Well, if you're being senseless, why on earth should you be coddled for it?" Draco waited for an answer that he knew Romina would never give. Another quality of hers was being terribly fair. He knew that she knew he was right.

"The fact that you're actually making sense is kind of scary, not going to lie," she said in the end.

"Sweet and sour is what you are and the sooner you get that, the quicker you can find a way to let Angel know the truth already." Draco grabbed his comic off her lap and flipped to the page he'd left off on.

Romina exhaled and leaned back on the couch. "I have no idea, honestly. I guess I've been putting it off."

"No," Draco said sarcastically. He flipped one more page.

"I don't want to hurt his feelings."

"You're going to do it either way."

"You're so blunt!"

"I believe it was 'unfiltered'?"

Romina turned her head at him but he was too focused on his current page to care. She leaned slightly in his proximity. "What are you reading anyways? I've never seen you read comic books."

"It's not mine—I stole it from Goyle." From the corner of his eye, Draco could see Romina's widened eyes. "Relax, I'll give it back eventually. He pissed me off so naturally I had to get him back where it hurts most."

"I don't know what's worse," Romina started with a true pensive moment, "The fact you steal so easily or the fact that I'm just now learning Goyle willingly reads. And comic books too!"

As soon as she started scooting close to him, Draco reacted. "What are you doing!?"

"I want to see!"

"No!"

"You can't tell me anything—you stole the damn thing!"

"Oswell, I swear to God, you need to back the hell up! God, don't you know anything about personal space?" He scrunched his nose when her chin came to rest on his shoulder.

"That may have been a recurring comment on my report cards in my muggle classes." And yet, Romina reached over to flip a page back.

Draco gaped at her. "Unbelievable!"

"I just want to see," Romina insisted. "What are you going to do?"

"Smack you!" Draco gave the answer almost before Romina even finished asking it. "I take it back, you're sweet, sour, and annoying."

"All I hear is that you think I'm sweet," Romina said with an annoying laugh. She flipped the page back to where Draco had originally been. "This one's kind of boring."

"Then get off me," Draco said pointedly.

"Or we could just read it together?" Romina tilted her head enough to meet his gaze. She was definitely closer than she planned on (for reasons having to do with the simple act of annoying him). She felt the familiar warmth rush up her face but even then, she couldn't pull away. Despite his snaps, she felt comfortable with him. They could go back and forth with snaps and bickering but they could also easily fall into whatever this was. Friendly and playfulness with a touch of snaps inbetween. It was just so...nice.

"You're so childish, Oswell," huffed Draco but he let things be anyways.

"Yeah, cos you're ever so mature," he heard her mumble under her breath.

For the sake of his sanity—because he was sure they could go back and forth again for the rest of the evening—he said nothing more. They read the comic together in silence but every so often, Romina had to point out things that just didn't sit well with her. Surprisingly, Draco didn't show signs of annoyance. It started getting funnier the further they went along the pages. Romina was very animated over these comics, something Draco couldn't quite get with. He really only took the comic from Goyle to get back at him. Romina took these things very seriously apparently.

"Sweet, sour, annoying and weird," he said some time later. "The list just keeps growing."

Romina had gotten tired of their earlier position and decided to rest an arm over Draco's shoulder to then rest her cheek. She didn't think she could get away with it but clearly she had and she was slightly giddy over it.

"Keep talking but all I hear is the sweet part," she said calmly as she flipped to the last page of the comic. She missed his smile.

"Of course you do," he said. He would've shaken his head if she wasn't right next to him. He could've pushed her away but that meant getting rid of her rosy scent. It seemed peculiarly stronger today and he was just fine with it.

"You keep complimenting me, it's not my fault," Romina shrugged lightly. "I have an obligation to point it out."

"You're quite insufferable, you know that?"

"That's my line."

"So you admit you say it just because?"

Romina side-glanced him with an admittedly pretty smirk. "Careful there, you almost sound like you're hopeful."

Draco rolled his eyes but with his pale skin, it was almost impossible to hide his flush. "Shut up," he said as a last resort. Romina laughed.

A few seconds later, Romina's laugh was interrupted—or rather covered—by an even louder commotion at the entrance. To their surprise, they saw Arden and Theodore coming in laughing together.

"Am I seeing right…?" Romina mumbled to Draco who was just as surprised as her.

"Bloody hell, how long have we been here?"

"Oh hey," Arden greeted them, "My, you two look cozy."

In that moment, Draco could genuinely say he hated Arden King. Romina pulled away from him as soon as the words left Arden's mouth. The air around him changed and he was no longer smelling sweet roses. (And he didn't have the warm touch either).

Romina had scooted a few inches from Draco and sent Arden a glare for her words. "What are you two up to?" She flipped the subject because she was sure that Arden would have plenty more to say if they gave her the opportunity.

"Well, Theo and I were pretty much making up crap for our Divination homework…" Arden explained and had another good laugh with Theodore. "I taught him that Trewlany pretty much buys anything you put so long as you add in 'the planets will align' and whatnot…"

'Theo?' Romina mouthed at Draco. For a moment, he thought he misheard too.

Theodore confirmed it, however, when he started listing the several ways they were supposed to die this upcoming Christmas. "I gotta say, Arden's kind of creative with these things."

"Oh, so suddenly I'm supposed to forget the last month?" Draco asked him. "You told me what I would die of if we didn't switch back."

"Yeah, you got Parkinson—I'd say that's the short end of the stick alright," shrugged Theodore. "I like my partner. At least she's funny."

Romina and Arden giggled with Draco's stunned reaction. "What?" he demanded.

"Don't tell me you actually thought you were funny?" Arden asked, nearly losing it when he raised a hand to stop her.

"Nott, you and I have some talking to do," Draco declared, getting up from the couch and tossing the comic so carelessly that it hit Romina on the side of her head.

"Hey!" she frowned. She got a hand as well. "Hey!"

"Keep the comic, Oswell." Draco motioned Theodore to walk with him to the hallway.

"It's not — it's not ours!" Romina called after him in vain. She sighed and got up with the comic in her hand. "Thanks Arden, you ruined it."

Arden turned her head slightly, her lips curving into a teasing smile. "Oh, and what exactly did I ruin?"

Romina cleared her throat awkwardly. Why the hell had she said that? She scratched her head. "Uh, I...you know what? I need to go finish homework."

"Mhm," Arden pretended to agree, "Sure."

"You're always together. Whenever I can't find you, it's because you're with him! Not to mention the fact you lie to me about where you are." Romina jumped on the chance to remind Arden that she'd lied about being in the Astronomy tower and she knew it because Harry, Ron and Hermione had seen her in the library with Draco.

"Okay, that one's true," Arden conceded, making Romina hum in agreement. "But that's about it. Nothing else is true!"

Romina scoffed. "Right!"

"It's not!"

"Arden, c'mon, I'm your best friend!" Romina jumped to her feet. "I know. It's obvious!"

"Why on earth would you think it's obvious!?" Arden grimaced. "When have I ever given any indication that I liked Draco?"

Romina folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "Well, why else would he do you the favor of taking Pansy off your hands as a partner?"

"For you!" Arden exclaimed more to the point of yelling. Startled, Romina's arms came undone. "God—for you Romina!" Arden groaned. "It's all for you! We meet in secret to talk about you and how the hell he can fix things with you! One of my conditions to agree to help him was for him to switch Divination partners, hence taking Pansy."

There was too much to process in such a short period. Romina heard Arden, she heard Arden clearly, but it...it was making her utterly confused. "What…?"

Arden groaned again. "Okay, I am going to walk you through this because if not, I'm genuinely afraid of what you'll believe in next." She took Romina's hands, squeezing them tight to make sure Romina was paying attention. "Listen to me well, Romina. Are you listening?" Romina nodded silently. "Okay. Draco and I are not dating. That will never happen. Literally — not even in a parallel world! The reason we've been seeing each other is to come up with a way for him to talk to you. He wanted to fix things but given his male nature, he's an idiot. I agreed to help him and that's it. There is nothing else, do you understand?"

Well, with that slowness and clarity, all Romina could do was bashfully nod her head.

"Okay then," Arden exhaled and let go of Romina's hands. "No more confusion, right?"

Romina shook her head. Arden was satisfied to see Romina's face slowly turning red. Served her right for thinking such a thing.

"So...he did all that for me?" Romina finally mustered the courage to ask.

Arden laughed lightly. "Yes, Romina. All for you. Who else?"

Romina may have forgotten how to breathe properly. A funny little feeling started blooming in her chest. She didn't know what to do with herself nor with the information she now had.

Good thing she had Arden back now.

Arden moved to stand beside Romina. "So, now that we have the correct information, I'm thinking it's time to finally clear the air with Draco. I will give him points for trying this time. He's been trying for a while, actually."

Romina flushed. "I remember." More like she realized. The last times she had spoken with Draco, he had mentioned he wanted to talk to her but she'd been so bothered by what she thought he and Arden were hiding that she didn't give him the opportunity. "He's actually been trying…"

"Miserably," Arden added with another laugh.

Romina side-glanced Arden, the red from her face barely beginning to fade. "He really worked with you? Willingly."

"It was either me or Harry since we're the ones who know you best. But we know that's never going to happen so...he got me instead." Arden pointed at herself with the most innocent of smiles.

Romina half smiled. "He had no idea what he was getting into, huh?"

Arden snorted. "None." They laughed together and suddenly it was like old times again.

"I'm sorry, Arden," Romina said when it was all that was left to say. "I-I thought…"

"Yeah." Arden shuddered. "That's never happening. But c'mon, you should go talk to him."

"I think I'm the last person he wants to talk to right now, " Romina said. "After what Moody put him through…"

"Yeah, that one's going to go down in the books," Arden said, barely able to hold in her laugh.

"Arden, it's not funny. That was actually very cruel."

"Not like he didn't have it coming for years worth of stuff he's done. Just ask Harry."

Romina sighed. That was a fair point. "Still, I think a professor shouldn't do things like that. I'm glad to have found McGonagall in time."

"That was you?" Arden shook her head and laughed. "Don't tell Harry. He'll crucify you for cutting the entertainment short."

"Arden."

Arden raised her hands in front of her. "Alright, alright, go on then."

Romina nodded. "Right. Um, what do I say?"

Arden looked at her like she was crazy. "You just...I thought you had a whole thing planned out? That's what you were yelling out all the time before you stopped talking to me! How could you forget?"

Romina fiddled with her fingers in front of her. "I sort of forgot," she admitted. Her brain was a bit compressed with the clarifications and what had happened outside in the courtyard. It was natural to lose her train of thought.

Arden didn't seem to agree. She raised an eyebrow at Romina. "You okay there?"

"Um, yeah, yeah…" Romina pressed her hands to her sides, smoothing her skirt out. "Just a bit rattled."

"Sure that's it?"

"Yup."

Arden tilted her head at Romina, eyes squinting in suspicion. Romina didn't say anything else. She was too busy thinking of what she would say to Draco when she found him. She only made it a few steps away from Arden when someone called her name.

"Miss Oswell!" Mcgonagall stood not too far behind Arden. Romina paused and looked back as did Arden. McGonagall was staring directly at Romina. "A word please?" The question was rhetorical, of course. Romina had no choice but to follow McGonagall.

~0~

Arden had to control herself when she saw Draco for the first time after the courtyard fiasco. Carolinha may have called her rude several times but Daphne was just as giggly as Arden was.

"You have the Divination homework," she dropped into the empty spot beside Draco on the couch. She was pretty sure he wasn't really doing the homework. After what happened that day, she wouldn't have much of a head for anything.

"No," Draco responded in a low mutter. "Leave me the hell alone, King."

As expected, Arden thought. "I'm not saying anything—"

"Then leave," Draco snapped. He only afforded her a small glance but that was all Arden needed to see the full rage still in his eyes.

"I'd listen to him, Arden," Blaise called from a nearby table. He was in the middle of a card game with Theodore. "Sent Crabb and Goyle running for their lives half an hour ago."

"No doubt about that," Arden said, "But listen, about Romina—"

"Don't," Draco warned, "I don't want to hear anything about anybody. Besides, she skipped out of dinner pretty fast anyways. I get the feeling she didn't want to speak either."

Arden rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, she was worried about you, you know."

"Mhm, sure. Haven't seen her at all and she didn't exactly talk to me during dinner. Seriously, can you leave me the hell alone already?"

Arden shook her head. She pulled his parchment out from under his hands and hid it behind her back.

"ARDEN!" Draco shouted, ignoring the looks he got from the rest of the students in the common room. He didn't care about anything that night.

"You're on a short fuse today—I understand why—but you really need to listen to me!" Arden exclaimed, genuinely fearing for her life at that moment.

"I don't want to! Give me my homework back or I'll—"

"Please just talk to Romina—"

"I don't give a fuck about anything, much less having one stupid conversation with a girl who doesn't even care!"

"She does," Arden decided to speak calmly in hopes of lessening his anger. "Oh my god, she really does. She was going to talk to you today in the afternoon but—"

"Let me guess, Potter got in the way as usual? No," Draco gasped sarcastically, "I know who—Angel. Cos it's always someone with her. I don't care anymore, alright? I've had it with this stupid game."

"She has detention, Draco, that's why she's not here!" Arden groaned. "McGonagall gave her detention right after dinner. She's there right now!"

"And why should I give a damn about that piece of information?"

"She got detention because of you, dumbass! Who do you think went to get McGonagall in the first place?"

"That was her?"

"Yes!"

"Why is she in detention?"

"Because McGonagall couldn't let it slide that Romina yanked her down the hallway to save your ass! Apparently, and I quote, 'it is simply inappropriate behavior of a young witch'," Arden mimicked McGonagall's tone.

"Bullshit," the word tumbled out of Draco's mouth before he even thought of it. Romina had never gotten a detention in the four years she'd been at Hogwarts.

Arden shoved his parchment to his chest. "Do your homework but don't you dare forget what my best friend did for you. As far as I know, you absolutely got what was coming to you and I definitely wouldn't have tried saving your ass. Shooting someone on the back is just lazy."

Draco let her go despite her comment. He could care less what she had to say. All he could think of at that moment was Romina. Goddammit, he thought when he concluded what he was going to do next.

~0~

Romina came out of the Transfiguration class shaking her hands and flexing her fingers. She heard McGonagall's goodbye but the door "accidentally" closed' before Romina was able to say goodbye back. She had no desire to see the woman for the rest of the month. It was too bad that she has Transfiguration first thing tomorrow.

Restraining herself from yelling—because that was exactly what got her into this situation in the first place—Romina started heading for the dungeon. She wanted nothing more than to see her bed.

"Oswell!"

Romina stopped abruptly with a flinch. She soon saw Draco approaching her. "Don't do that!" she hissed at him.

"Not afraid of the dark, are we?" he smirked.

"What are you doing here? Don't tell me you have detention too." Romina leaned closer a bit to whisper; her eyes did a quick scan of the hallway to make sure it was empty. "Was it Moody?"

Clearly the mention of Moody's name still had an effect on Draco. He cleared his throat and shook his head fervently. "No!"

Romina leaned back, eyes now suspiciously looking him over. "Then why are you here?"

"Arden talked to me, she told me what happened…"

Immediately Romina tensed. Had Arden told Draco everything? Her heart raced. He would be angry as hell if he ever found out what she'd thought. "What...what did she say?"

"You dragged McGonagall down the hallways, yelling and everything. That's what earned you detention with her." Draco made a nod for McGonagall's classroom.

"Is that all she said?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason!" Romina turned her head away to hide her relief. Arden did her a solid.

"I'm sorry you got detention because of me. I can walk you back to the common room..." Draco stopped when Romina's head snapped in his direction and revealed her wide eyes. "What?" He frowned.

"You never apologized, I know that," Romina said, her widened eyes narrowing so he knew exactly what she meant. "Is that all you have to be sorry for?"

Draco rolled his eyes. He should've known better than to think she wouldn't bring that up. "I would rather not fight right now."

"Too damn bad," Romina said, "Arden said you've been working together for a while now all to come talk to me so let's hear it. What do you have to say?"

"I won't be talking to you if you're going to give me that look," Draco warned, gesturing to her current stance. She had her arms crossed and an expectant raised eyebrow waiting for him.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?"

Draco's eyes widened incredulously. "Me? Why are you so damn difficult!?"

"I'm sorry if you think I'm difficult because I'm not letting your terrible vocabulary against my friends slide by!"

"Oh c'mon! This was months ago! And I always call Granger that!"

"This was different, Draco and you know it!" Romina leaned towards him. "You were okay letting her die and for what? Because she's a muggleborn? Do you know how stupid that is? You are so smart and yet you choose to believe this pureblood nonsense! By your logic, I should be dead too!"

"NO!" Draco cut in with an unexpected urgency that even surprised him.

"Why not?" Romina challenged him. "I live like a muggle. When I go home, I have to do things as if I wasn't a witch. I go to violin classes, I go to the park, I go to farmers' markets—something you actually liked if you care to remember—"

"SHUSH!" Draco clapped a hand over Romina's mouth, eyes sharp with anger. "You promised you'd never mention that here!"

Romina pushed his hand off her. "I'm making a point!"

"To what? To get me in trouble? My father would kill me if he ever found out I went to that place with you." As much anger as Draco intended on showing, Romina easily saw there was genuine fear in his eyes. "Maybe you're right, you do live more like a muggle at home. My home is very different too, you know. There are certain things I am expected to do, to say and show. And if I don't do any of them…" Draco didn't seem to know how to finish that sentence. He shifted on his feet, eyes not quite meeting Romina's.

"It's hard to be honest with your parents," Romina said, "I get that. I mean, I don't have parents but I get that."

Draco half smiled at her. "Seriously, Oswell?"

"I do," she insisted. "My aunt and my uncle—it's hard sometimes being honest with them. I don't always agree with them and I'm scared of what the consequences would be if they found out. For example, they would absolutely kill me if they found out that I lied and brought you to the, uh, place…"

"Believe me, between them and my parents, I'd hit the grave long before you do," Draco said. Romina nodded. She had no doubt about that.

"But my point stands, you came over and you enjoyed yourself. The people there, would you really let all of them die just because they're Muggles?"

For a moment, it seemed like Draco would answer her question but at the last moment, something different came out instead. "Why is this so important to you?"

"Why is it so hard for you to just answer me?" Romina cleverly said. "I mean, okay, you don't like Hermione. But it's different to hate her because of some stupid notion that she's different."

"She's annoying and a know-it-all," Draco easily said.

Romina tilted her head. "Okay, debatable—"

"Not."

Romina groaned. "Okay fine! What about Arden?"

"What the hell does she have to do with this now?"

"You've been working with her, willingly. You guys are friends whether you want to admit it or not. She's helped you with your Charms homework, probably Divination, and, really, you guys go back and forth like friends. Would you let Arden die because she's a muggleborn?"

Draco couldn't believe where the conversation had gone. Of all the things they could've talked about, they were going to talk about Arden King?

"Draco, c'mon!" Romina insisted, nearly shaking out of frustration. "Arden—our friend! Would you let her die?"

Arden King was downright annoying. Draco would never hesitate to say it out loud or even in front of Arden herself. On occasion, she needed to be aware. But it was at that moment, that Draco also had to be aware of the things that Arden had done for his sake. The latest one was her assistance in handling his problems with Romina. She stuck by him even when they argued a lot. In Divination, before they switched partners, it was always amusing watching her irritate the hell out of Pansy. Draco knew of Pansy's reputation amongst the other Slytherin girls. Not many people had the guts to mess with her as much as Arden did, especially because she was a muggleborn. Romina, as much as she lived like a Muggle, would never have to deal with Pansy's wrath against muggleborns. Besides, between the rest of their mutual friends (Arden, Carolinha and Daphne), Arden was the only one Draco could say was the most tolerable. Carolinha was squeaky and Daphne was squeamish.

"No, I wouldn't," Draco said with a long sigh. It was freaky the way Romina's face just lit up in a minute. "Oswell, stop looking at me like that. Now!"

Romina smiled so widely it could've cracked her face in half. "Finally. Was that so hard to admit?"

"I don't know, you can answer that. Are we good now?" Draco pointed between them. God, were they finally good now?

Romina gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't know…"

Draco deadpanned her. "What more do you want from me!?"

"Dunno, it's just pretty fun to mess with you." Romina giggled.

Draco paused, head turning slightly as Romina's giggles filled the air around them. It was the first time in a long time that she laughed with him. She'd been laughing and giggling with Angel far too much for his liking.

"We should go," Romina said, casting a glance in the direction of McGonagall's classroom. "Before she opens that door and tells me I missed a stupid cup."

"What did she make you do?" Draco asked her. He watched her flex her hands several times.

"I had to scrub the objects we use for Transfiguration. They're a lot more dirty than you think," Romina's nose crinkled at the reminder. "Now my hands hurt."

"Can't be that bad…" Draco trailed off once Romina fixated a deep glare on him. Backtrack, backtrack, backtrack. "Alright, let's see the damage, shall we?" He took Romina's hands in his and raised them for a better look.

Romina watched him with curious eyes as he gingerly dragged his thumbs over her palms. She could feel an insane amount of heat coming over her entire body this time. He never touched anybody, not if he didn't have to. And yet right now, Romina could feel his skin against hers—soft and warm—and his slightly strong grip. Actually, it wasn't 'slightly', it was unmistakably strong.

"I see now," Draco's mumble startled Romina out of her thoughts (thoughts she probably shouldn't even be thinking about).

"S-see what?" she asked, swallowing hard.

Draco looked down to meet her eyes. "That you're an absolute princess when it comes to hard work. Or should I say, Princess Bride?"

Any wrong thought was shoved out of the way. Romina yanked her hands out of his then pushed him away. He laughed at her.

"That's rich coming from you," Romina laughed dryly. "If anybody's a princess here, it's you. Bet you've never washed your own dishes."

"Now why the hell would I ever do that?" A real look of horror crossed Draco's face at the idea.

"I rest my case," Romina gestured towards him. "Now let's go, please. I'm beyond tired."

"Yeah, alright," Draco agreed. He motioned her to start walking. He took it as a sure win when Romina smiled at him on her way past him.

~ 0 ~

Romina silently slid a small box over to Arden beside her just as they'd begun eating breakfast. Surprised, Arden glanced at Romina to question her over the box but Romina merely gestured to Arden to open it.

"Please don't tell me this is one of those tricks from the Weasley twins," Arden said as she started unwrapping the bow on top.

Romina chuckled. "I would never do that to you, Arden."

"Mm…" Arden still cautiously pulled the bow and lifted the lid slowly to peek inside. To her delight, and relief, she found nice assorted chocolates inside.

"They're from home, by the way," Romina said when Arden started picking through the boxes. "I know they're your favorite."

"What's this for?" Arden chuckled. "Not my birthday and it's too early for a Christmas present."

"It's my way of apologizing for the...incident that occurred a few days ago," Romina spoke hushed and with very much caution as more Slytherins started sitting for breakfast.

"Oh," Arden said, a smirk tugging at her lips, "You mean when you ridiculously thought that…" she shuddered just like she did each time she thought about it, "When you thought that Draco and I were dating. Gross!"

Romina flushed with embarrassment. "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. I was just…" She didn't actually know what came over her. "I'm sorry, Arden. And I owe you big time for not telling him about that."

"Are you mad? He'd hurt me, badly, if he ever found out about that," Arden said.

"No, he wouldn't," Romina said calmly but with a strange smile on her face. Arden got the gist she was missing out on something.

Romina cleared her throat suddenly. A moment later, Draco was taking a seat on Romina's other side. With him came Blaise and a slightly begrudged Theodore.

"What's his deal?" Romina soon asked Draco, nodding over to Theodore.

"Told him he can't be my partner," Draco shrugged. "Apparently, I'm just that good of a partner."

Arden nearly lost it on Romina's other side, so much that she almost choked on her chocolate. "Wow, somebody's ego is extra inflated this morning."

"I can't make this up," Draco insisted as Theodore very much grumbled to Blaise.

"More like Arden is a big talker," Romina presumed, ignoring Arden's brief glare. "Theodore told me that last week. Arden, this is exactly why Mrs. Mace moved your seat in the fifth grade."

"I hated that bitch," Arden scrunched her face at the reminder of the reprimanding woman.

"My point is," Draco started again, slightly louder to wash out whatever Arden was going to say (her mouth was opening already), "Oswell, we have Potions today."

"I'm aware," Romina said as she reached for a scoop of fruit. "I know how to read."

Draco deadpanned her for a second. Why couldn't she make this easier? He'd been thinking of how to put it casually and here she was being sarcastic. "I can't imagine your current seating arrangement trumps getting high marks from Snape."

Romina felt a little fuzzy realizing what he was trying to get at. Still, she couldn't for the life of her be serious because that would mean ignoring a warmth on her cheeks. "I'll have you know that I'm good at Potions too."

"Oh, no one is debating that, but I think we both know who's the best between us." It was like Draco couldn't stop smirking whenever Romina was clearly irritated with him. It just provided a rush that he couldn't describe.

Romina upheld his look until the urge to roll her eyes won over. "You're annoying."

"I'm not hearing a 'no'..."

That's because Romina knew he was right. She was pretty good at Potions but he just understood everything. And with such ease too.

"Okay, fine," she raised her hands in front of her, "Whatever. We can be partners again."

"Admit it, you missed me," Draco said, nudging her side.

"No, I didn't," Romina was quick to say. On her right, she swore she heard Arden mumble 'yes you did' before stuffing another chocolate into her mouth. Romina glared at her. "Who's side are you on now?" She was careful to whisper. Arden shrugged in response.

After breakfast was done, Romina and Arden got up first to head for their History of Magic class.

"I'll save you a seat later," Draco said, still wearing his usual smirk.

Romina shot him a look. "You know, it sounds like you missed me."

"Maybe I just missed seeing you mess up so much, ever thought about that?"

"I don't mess up!"

Draco stopped eating altogether to turn in his seat. He raised an eyebrow at her, silently waiting for her to admit the truth.

"Sometimes," Romina hissed. "Sometimes I mess up but you know what? You don't do so well in Hagrid's class."

"That's not even a class by my standards," he retorted.

"Romina, c'mon, we're going to be late," Arden tugged her friend's arm. "You'll have plenty of time to bicker in Potions. Angel can't save seats forever."

"He's saving you seats?" Draco asked with the hint that he knew something more about that precise action. "Course he is."

"He's nice like that," Romina snapped, "Something you might want to pick up."

Beside Draco, Blaise and Theodore both snorted. "That'll be the day," one of them said. Romina was too amused to pay attention to who said it.

Draco ignored them (though with a big struggle) to look at Romina directly. "Open your eyes, Oswell. You know why he's so nice to you."

"Because he's my friend—I'm not doing this," Romina wagged a finger at him. She turned quickly with Arden and hurried off together.

"I kinda have to agree with him there," Arden admitted once they were out in the hallway.

"Ugh, look at you," Romina crinkled her nose. "You work with him for a few weeks and suddenly you're all partners and whatnot. Look how far you've gone, Arden."

Arden playfully rolled her eyes. "Ha, ha." She ignored Romina's laugh.

As expected, Angel was already in class when the girls arrived. Arden slipped into the desk behind them while Romina took the seat next to Angel.

"Didn't you eat breakfast today?" Arden asked Angel as she started pulling her things out of her bag.

"I did, but I had a ton of things to review before class," Angel said. "I'm falling a bit behind. My mother's not too happy about it."

"You were stupid enough to tell her?" Arden nearly laughed.

"Arden, be nice," Romina shook her head.

"It wasn't me. Carol did it," Angel said with a frown. "My sister can really be mean, you know."

"Pretty sure that was because you stole her ink," Romina reminded him.

"That didn't equate the retaliation!"

"Guys are just mean and then expect girls not to retaliate," Romina said with frank bemusement.

"Ain't that the truth," Arden said and reached over the desk to high-five Romina. "Oh, dammit!" Romina and Angel turned to see her searching through her bag. "I don't have my book!"

"How do you forget your book?" Romina made a face.

"I just did! I'll be back!" Arden scrambled up from her seat and rushed out.

"No way she'll make it," Angel said to Romina as soon as Arden was out.

"No," agreed Romina. "Especially if she'll bump into Pansy later."

"Oh yeah." Angel's eyes widened at the idea.

"Or Theodore for that matter, they're not on the best of terms right now," Romina added as an afterthought.

Angel hummed. "I heard about that. I also heard you and Malfoy are good now. That true?"

Romina nodded. "I guess. I figured I should probably move on because sooner or later he's going to screw up again." All lies but she would rather say that than ever let it spill the conversation she and Draco had.

"You don't have to tolerate anything you don't like," Angel said, "We both know how he can get."

"I'm not the type to let things slide if I don't like them, no matter who it is," Romina eyed her friend sharply, slightly indignant Angel would think otherwise.

"I'm not saying you are but Draco's smart enough to twist his words around. Make them in his favor. I wouldn't want you to get caught up in them."

Romina's face scrunched. She couldn't figure out where these words were coming from and she honestly didn't want to. "Can we not talk about this anymore? Sorry, it's just...I want to move on." That's what she and Draco had agreed on anyway. She didn't see any reason to discuss it further, especially with Angel of all people.

Fortunately, Angel desisted as soon as she requested. "Of course. Actually, I was meaning to ask you something."

Romina was all too happy to move onto something else. "Shoot!"

"You know Hogsmeade visits are coming up soon now and I was wondering if you were going this time?"

Romina didn't think twice in nodding her head. She knew exactly what he meant. She'd wasted her previous year grieving over her similarities with her parents to think about anything else. The few times she did go to Hogsmeade were done because 1) Draco practically blackmailed her and 2) Arden practically did the same thing. This year, Romina wanted to take full advantage of everything that Hogsmeade had to offer.

"I am! I am so ready to actually enjoy it!" She said with a chuckle.

"That's great!" Angel beamed. "Do you want to go together?"

"Of course!" Romina said, tucking her curls behind her ears. "Gosh, I really want to go with you and the others this year. It'll be so much fun!" She was too excited at the prospect to notice that the beam on Angel's face had faltered.

"Yeah, with the others," he agreed with a sigh. His plastered smile tricked Romina into believing him. He didn't say much for the rest of the class.

~0~

Romina could only endure Arden's grumbles for so long. They were heading down to the dungeons for Potions but Arden couldn't get past the reprimand she'd received in History of Magic. Professor Binns hadn't been at all pleased that she'd been late.

"He was exaggerating," Arden said with such a hard scoff that Romina wondered if it had hurt her throat.

"I'm no genius, but I'm pretty sure it being the third time you're late because you forgot your book isn't exaggerating," Romina said.

Arden frowned. "Who's side are you on?"

"I believe it was you who said…" Romina made a show of shrugging just like Arden had done to her at breakfast.

Arden rolled her eyes. "Funny."

"I am."

"You know I was right, though…"

Now it was Romina rolling her eyes. "I'm not talking about that." She picked up her pace. The last class she ever wanted to be late to was Snape's. Being a Slytherin could only get you so far in the end.

When they arrived, they saw the whole class still waiting outside but a good part of them were laughing. And hard.

"What joke did we miss?" Arden made a face. "And how can I get in on it?"

Romina didn't have the same desire as Arden. She spotted Harry and Draco at the center of it all. "Of course," she muttered.

"What are those?" she heard Arden ask. Looking back, she saw Arden pointed at a badge on a Slytherin girl's chest.

The badge flashed 'Support Cedric Diggory-the REAL Hogwarts Champion!' in bright red letters. Of course after one push, the words changed and the red turned to bright green. 'Potter stinks!'.

"Oh for the love of God!" Romina groaned. "See what I mean? He was just going to screw up later anyways."

Arden had no idea what she was talking about but she got the gist when she saw where Romina was headed. "Of bloody course," she said with a sigh before following Romina.

Harry and Draco were going back and forth with snaps and insults. Romina wasn't surprised in the least. She did note that it was only Hermione standing on Harry's side throughout it all. Ron was with Seamus and Dean to the side, none too pleased with the happenings but not that displeased to put aside his differences with Harry to help.

Romina snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Hermione's loud yelp at Harry. Romina soon understood why. Harry had pulled his wand out.

"Harry!" Hermione insisted for him to put it away. Snape was due at any moment and they all knew if something actually happened, Harry (and the Gryffindors) would pay for it.

"Go on then," Draco taunted Harry; he'd taken his own wand out as well. Everybody around them had taken a good cautious step away from the pair. "Moody's not here to look after you now. Do it if you have the guts."

'This is the last thing we need!' Romina inwardly groaned. She had no idea what she was doing but suddenly her hands had clamped down over the tips of the two wands. Everyone watched carefully. If someone were to fire, Romina would get the full hit. It was why Romina heard Arden's quiet hiss asking her what the hell she was doing.

Romina was more preoccupied with the scene before her. "You two are beyond stupid!" she exclaimed.

"Romina, this doesn't concern you," Harry said, eyes locked with Draco's.

"The one thing he has a point on," agreed Draco. "Hands off, Oswell."

"Harry, you're going to get in trouble for this! Put the wand away now!" Romina hissed. "And you," she snapped at Draco, "I presume the badges are your doing?"

The only confirmation Romina needed was Draco's proud smirk. "I'm slightly offended you even have to ask."

Romina gripped his wand tighter. "You're a pesk. Both of you need to put the wands down!"

"We can't do that if you don't let go," Draco said, pointing it out.

"I need to hear you both say you'll put 'em down. Harry?"

Harry's eyes briefly met Romina's and it genuinely startled her to see he had no intention of doing it. She was hoping that he would come to his senses like he always did and not take Draco's bluff. He wasn't. Even Hermione was surprised.

"Harry c'mon," Romina pleaded.

Everything was finally coming down on Harry to be level headed this time. His name being put into the Goblet, being forced to participate in a deadly tournament, dealing with Rita Skeeter's articles, handling the fact most of the school hated him again—no he was not going to put his wand down. Why did he have to calm down when the whole school kept pushing him every which way?

"Sorry Rom, but it's like I said: it doesn't concern you," Harry said, shaking his wand a bit to get her hand off.

"Harry!" Romina frowned. She gripped his wand tighter.

"You heard him, Oswell. Get your paws off." Draco followed in Harry's suit and shook his wand.

Romina was downright offended that both of them were blowing her off like that. "You know what—"

"What is going on?" Snape's voice startled Romina, and everyone else for that matter. The professor moved forwards, the students all making a path by backing away as quickly as possible.

Romina had no idea how she was going to finish her sentence but now Snape had given her the perfect idea to get back at her two idiot friends. She eyed Harry and Draco with a small smirk. Draco had once seen that same expression 2 months ago.

He barely had time to dread before Romina let go of their wands.

"To put it simply, professor," she turned to face Snape, "They were fighting over me." Their reactions couldn't have been any better than she imagined.

"Rom!" Harry cried at the same time Draco did.

"Oswell!"

She shot them both a wider smirk. Served them right.

The only one not amused was Snape. His dark eyes swept over the trio silently. For a moment, Romina considered the possibility that she may have gotten all three of them detention. That was certainly the expression Arden was giving her.

Totally worth it, Romina decided.

"I will not have this foolishness in my class," Snape finally spoke. "Hex yourselves outside if you want to. The rest of you, inside!" Everyone broke into a scurry to get inside the classroom.

"I can't believe you did that," Harry whispered on their way in. "You know I'm a rumor magnet right now!"

"Then next time think before you talk to me the way you did back there," Romina hissed. She stopped to meet Harry's glare, she wasn't backing down anytime soon and they both knew it.

"C'mon Harry," Hermione ushered him to their seats. She cast a grateful smile in Romina's direction. She knew that Romina, albeit with her unorthodox ways, had helped Harry avoid what would've been a promising lengthy detention.

Well at least someone gets it, Romina thought.

"Funny joke you played back there." Draco took hold of Romina's arm and dragged her with him to her old seat with him.

"Ow, that hurts," Romina glared at him. His grip was tightening. His steps were big, making Romina have to half sprint to stay on her feet.

"Let me be clear," Draco shoved her into her seat then moved around for his spot. "Don't you ever do that again, got it?" He sat down and met her eye. She stared at him for a full minute before she punched his arm. "Ow!" Draco clapped his hand over his arm.

"Don't you talk to me like that," she snapped, ignoring the snickers around them. "I did all that because of the way you and Harry talked to me. Plus, you should be thankful. I just saved your ass from a good detention."

Draco scoffed. "I wouldn't have gotten detention."

Romina hated his certainty. "Oh, so I was just supposed to let you make Harry get detention?"

Draco bobbed his head and so Romina threatened to punch him again. "Okay, fine," he said with hands raised in defeat. "Just stop hitting me already!"

"Why even bother to make the stupid badges?" Romina barely got the question out when Arden, who had taken a seat in front of them, snorted.

"Because he has no self control."

Draco glared at the back of her head. "Shut it, King."

"She's right," Romina said. She shushed him when Snape started the class. She had no mood to continue what would be a pointless conversation anyways. Besides, she was a little more concerned with the way Harry was looking at her now. Hermione was failing making him see what Romina had done for him.

As soon as Snape let them go pick out their ingredients for today's lesson, Romina jumped on the opportunity. She maneuvered through the crowd of students to get to Harry. He was looking between two admittedly similar plants.

"Harry," she whispered. Snape wasn't saying anything but he was sure looking at all of them.

"What?" he hissed. "Come to help out again?"

Romina sighed. "You know I had to do something. You were fully prepared to do something stupid."

"Maybe I was just done with the way people have been treating me lately."

"That's a fair sentiment but not when it's in Snape's class."

"What's it to you? You're back there sitting with Malfoy anyways?"

"That's not the point—"

"Yes it is," snapped Harry. He had no idea what he was even looking at so he put one plant down and hoped for the best. "I thought you weren't talking to him."

"We figured it out," Romina said weakly. Harry was the last person who needed to know how things were fixed between her and Draco. "Back to the actual thing here—I'm sorry if I went too far but I was just trying to keep you out of trouble."

"Do me the favor of not butting in, then," Harry muttered, turning to leave without giving Romina the chance to say anything back.

"Harry," Romina called as loud as she could without drawing attention, which wasn't much. Harry moved in a haste to get back to his seat beside Hermione.

"You just love being the center of attention, don't you?" Pansy said, making Romina turn to see the dark-haired girl right in front of her. Much like Harry, Pansy wore a scowl on her face.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure you don't have anything to do with me today," Romina said, attempting to walk around her but Pansy grabbed her arm.

"You used to cry over the rumors and whispers about you and now you're the one creating them." Pansy gritted her teeth together as she leaned close to Romina's face. "Putting yourself between Malfoy and Potter like that? You're not that slick."

Romina had never seen such contempt on Pansy's face. "I just didn't want them to do something stupid," she said.

"Really? Or did you just want to be between them? Don't think I haven't noticed," Pansy said, letting go of Romina's arm.

"Noticed what…?" Romina said slowly, pulling her arms behind her back. She wasn't taking her eyes off Pansy for anything. She was unusually serious. Typically it was all snide remarks and snickers but this time around, Pansy was dead serious and angry.

Pansy raised her head; Romina was slightly taller than her. "Don't play stupid. I'm watching you."

"For what?" Romina insisted on an answer. Whatever the hell had Pansy acting like that, she would gladly stop. It was too freaky.

Pansy rolled her eyes. "That's fine, you don't have to admit it here, but I know." She pushed past Romina, leaving her to think.

"Peanut butter and jelly," Romina said, surprised that she had to even explain that.

"What have you dressed up as, Romina?" Angel curiously asked, though with a hint of a flush. He thought she probably looked adorable in whatever costumes she'd picked in the earlier years.

Romina was none the wiser as she thought back to the years before Hogwarts. "I was Tinkerbell the last year I went to my muggle school. That's the little fairy in Peter Pan with the green dress, doesn't talk." All three of her friends gave her the same blank stare. "Not ringing any bells? No, of course it wouldn't be. Before that, I was a witch of course. Couldn't help myself with that one. I've also been a vampire slayer, a cheerleader, and queen."

"Way to be on the nose," Angel remarked, making Romina laugh. "Witch, vampire slayer and a bloody queen? Really?"

Romina flushed pink with embarrassment. "I thought I was being cool about it."

Angel leaned forwards, resting his arms over the table. "More like blatantly obvious."

"What? That was I queen?" Romina pushed her hair behind her shoulders. "Why yes, that is blatantly obvious." Carolinha and Daphne both snorted. "Thanks for pointing that out."

Angel playfully rolled his eyes. "Sure, you're the queen."

"Say it again!"

Angel wasn't even surprised anymore. "You're the queen, Romina." It was all worth it when he heard Romina's giggle. That was what Draco and Arden saw when they emerged from the corridor.

"Trying to be a little more obvious there, Angel?" Draco made the call before he even finished thinking it. Soon as it left his mouth though, Arden shoved her elbow into his side. "Ow!" He threw her a glare.

Arden upheld his glare with her own, silently reminding him about what they'd just talked about. "Maybe we should go," she 'suggested'.

"Go where?" Romina asked them, forgetting the conversation altogether. She had begun understanding what Theodore meant the last time they talked. It seemed like she was never able to find either Arden or Draco alone. They were either gone or together. It was beyond strange and kind of irking her.

"None of your business, Oswell," Draco muttered and started walking for the entry door.

Arden groaned as she hurried after him. "We just talked about this!"

"Talked about what?" Romina never got her answer. Arden disappeared with Draco once again. Romina scowled. "What the hell is going on?"

"Romina, don't even worry yourself with Draco," Angel said, leading to a very huffy response.

"I am not worried," Romina said, "I would never be worried about him."

"Well good because you shouldn't be," Angel said, "I've noticed that you're not arguing with him a lot anymore."

"Oh, we've noticed that too and thank god because it was getting annoying," Daphne remarked. She'd gone back to the flipping through the magazine with Carolinha.

Romina shook her head. "We haven't stopped, he's just…not doing a lot anymore."

"Isn't that good?" Carolinha made a face because the way Romina had spoken led to believe that she was annoyed.

"Yeah, course it is," Romina scratched behind her ear. She wasn't going to admit that it was somehow leaving her a little disheartened inside. If Draco had lost interest, then it meant he had no intention of fixing things with her. He was ready to leave things as they were.

"Romina, are you okay?" Angel asked after silence stretched between them for too long.

Once again, Romina had to shake herself out of her thoughts. She needed to stop thinking so much about things. But then there's Arden…

"Actually, I forgot I have to finish some homework," she ultimately decided to say. She got up from the floor and went straight for her dorm. She would bury her face in homework if it meant warring off thoughts for a while.

~ 0 ~

"I told you not to say anything if it was going to be mean, sour or downright snappy," Arden reprimanded Draco once they were far away from the common room. They walked together down the hallway.

"It's Angel who's doing it," Draco snapped. "You know he's pulling all this crap to finally make a move on Oswell, right?"

"So?" Arden snapped, thumping him on the side of his head. "That's none of our concern!"

He smacked her hand away from him. "Don't touch me!"

"Then stop being an idiot! Who cares what Angel's doing? At the rate you're going, Romina's never going to speak to you again. Isn't that what you should be more concerned about?"

Draco didn't say anything but the huff he gave was answer enough. Arden picked up on the fact he used that as an admittance to something he didn't want to say out loud.

"Just take my advice already and talk to her," Arden said for what she was sure was the millionth time.

"It's hard."

"How?"

"She infuriates me!" And that was the nicest way Draco could put it. He wasn't sure if Romina had always been like that but lately she was annoying him in every way possible. She never let go of the stupid war she started with him. For every thing he said, she had something to quip back. He liked a challenge but why did she have to constantly be in a battle with him while others like Angel got all the playful banter, the nice eyes and giggles—

He stopped walking abruptly. Unwelcomed heat rushed up the back of his neck and face.

Arden was a few steps ahead before she noticed Draco was no longer with her. She looked back at him and wondered what the hell he was frozen for. "What are you doing?" She raised an eyebrow at him. She swore she saw him jump.

"Nothing!" he said quickly. He pushed away all thoughts concerning Romina and her giggles. In fact, he shoved them to the deepest part of his mind. He had no business thinking about that.

"Okay, are you going to do what I'm telling you to or are you going to drag this out for another month?" Arden asked, "Because we've been at this all October."

"I just need more time," Draco said. Arden blinked in surprise. That was a different answer than the previous times. The first time he had said some not so nice words to her for "talking to him like that" and whatnot. He was thinking about talking which, in fairness, was a step up. He was thinking how best to approach the subject with Romina.

So Arden would take it.

~0~

"My dear Aline!" Romina had heard Fred's call from a good distance. She tried her best to escape down the hallway but in the end, the Weasley twins captured her by the arms and lifted her up to then carry her.

"When will you stop doing this!?" Romina groaned, her legs swinging back and forth in her attempts to get down.

"When you grow some more," George said then shares a snort with his brother.

"You jerks!" Romina exclaimed.

"Calm down, Aline," Fred said once they put her down. They had carried her all the way to the courtyard. "We just wanted to discuss some things with you."

"And for that you had to carry me through the whole school?" Romina fixed her shirt that had ridden up a little on the ride. "Can't you be normal?"

"We have style," George said proudly, flicking the collars of his shirt. Fred did the same.

"You have something alright — nerve," Romina shook her head. Both twins laughed in agreement. "So what do you want?"

"We were just wondering what ideas you had for Halloween this year," Fred said.

"Right." Romina crossed her arms over her chest.

"Any new Muggle tricks you learned for us?" Fred wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Ron said you watched some new muggle Halloween movies during summer. Anything we can use?"

"That depends, do you guys do musicals?" Romina smirked. "Cos the Nightmare Before Christmas had some good songs."

"I'm not sure singing is where our talents lay," George said, "But you're more than welcome to join us."

"Yeah, my thing's the violin. Arden does the singing."

"Arden?" Harry heard the last thing Romina had said. He, Ron and Hermione were walking up to the trio. "If she doesn't watch out, she's going to get hexed."

Before Romina could ask what he meant, Ron answered it. "We just saw her with Malfoy in the library."

"Again?" Romina said a tad softly. Last time she heard, Arden said she was heading for the astronomy tower to work on a project.

"Again?" Ron made a face. "You mean she's willingly spending time with Malfoy?"

"Maybe they were working on a project," Hermione said with a groan. "We shouldn't be getting into anyone's business, even if it is someone like Malfoy."

"I care for Arden only," Harry clarified. "She's our neighbor and friend, right Romina?"

Romina nodded silently. She was more preoccupied wondering why the hell Arden lied to her earlier. Theodore is right. He has to be. Except it absolutely irked her that he was right.

"Well if he gets smart with Arden, Georgie and I are more than happy to help out with some tricks," Fred said, swinging a shoulder around Romina. "We have an insider in the Slytherin House." Romina felt his subtle nudge and as much as she wanted to smile, it wasn't wide enough.

"Romina, we were going to go visit Hagrid, if you wanted to come," Harry said, eyeing her strangely.

"Um, yeah, that would be nice," Romina said, deciding that she needed to stop thinking so much about business that wasn't anything to do with her. Hermione was right.

"What about our tricks, Romina?" George asked, feigning offence that they were being forgotten.

Romina playfully rolled her eyes. "I'll make a list of all the cool things I saw in the last Halloween movies."

"There's our partner in crime!" Fred gave her a big hug from the side and followed it with a sloppy kiss on her cheek.

"Ah! Fred!" Romina exclaimed, swatting him away from her.

"Off we go, George!" Fred announced as he took off in a sprint.

"Agreed!" George nodded. He made to leave but at the last second, he dove for Romina and kissed her other cheek.

"GUYS!" Romina yelled after the pair who couldn't have run any faster. "Ron, your brothers are insufferable!"

"Which ones," Ron said, causing a round of snickers.

"C'mon Rom," Harry slid his arm around Romina's shoulders.

"Just don't kiss my cheek," she warned as they started down for Hagrid's hut.

"Kiss the spots where Fred and George kissed you? Yeah, I'll pass," Harry said, crinkling his nose at the thought. "Maybe later."

"Jerk," Romina chuckled.

~0~

As it turned out, Romina remembered exactly what had soured her mood before visiting Hagrid. Seeing Arden in the Great Hall reminded Romina. Looking around to make sure that no one else (specifically a blonde) was around, Romina headed for their table.

"Oh hey," Arden greeted Romina when she sat down beside her. "I was wondering where you went."

"I went with Harry, Ron and Hermione to visit Hagrid." Romina started going through their dinner options on the table.

"How nice!"

"Mhm…" Romina watched her friend pick up her goblet to drink.

Arden noticed it soon enough and cut her drink short. "What?"

Romina ducked her head; she swallowed hard. She was itching to bring up the subject but she had no idea how.

Thankfully, Arden had known Romina for such a long time now. She knew Romina like the back of her hand. "What is it?" Arden asked her. "Something's on your mind."

"N-no…"

"Romina, I can see it. Come out with it," Arden motioned. "Afraid I'll bite or what? C'mon." Arden nudged her on the side until Romina ended up smiling. "What's the secret?"

It's yours, Romina sourly thought. "Arden, you would...you would tell me if something big happened in your life, right?"

Arden snorted. "Yeah, just as soon as something happens."

Romina sighed in annoyance. She left her plate and shifted to face Arden. "You know that in this entire world, you and Harry are my best friends." Arden nodded. "You two are the people I most trust. You've been with me way before Hogwarts. I love you guys."

"Me too, Romina," Arden agreed. "And I'm sure Harry feels the same way. Why are you talking like this?"

Romina was frustrated. She was frustrated with Arden for not telling her the big secret about her and Draco. She was frustrated with herself for not being able to directly ask Arden about it.

"Romina, what is it?" Arden pressed for the answer. Whatever was nagging at Romina's mind had to be big to make her act like this.

"Arden, you would tell me if you were seeing someone right?" Romina finally asked. "Whoever it was...right?"

Arden had no idea where the question had come from but if it was bothering Romina so much, she would just answer it. "Yes, of course."

Romina nodded, staying silent to give Arden the chance to speak. Except, Arden didn't. She didn't know what else she was supposed to say. "You would tell me, right!?" Romina asked again, nodding at Arden to speak.

"I already said yes," Arden said, making a face of confusion. "Why, is anyone interested? Oh! Is it that cute Durmstrang boy Blaise talks to? Cos he is cute!"

"Arden!" Romina snapped, startling the brunette. "Aren't you—is there something you want to tell me?"

"Not really, no," Arden answered slowly, eyeing Romina with concern. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Romina couldn't believe her ears. "Me!?" she said incredulously.

"Yeah, what is it with you lately?" Arden genuinely wanted to know. "Is it this Draco thing that's finally getting to you?"

Romina wanted to tell. She wanted to yell so badly. She swallowed it down, slamming her hands on the table as she stood up.

"Romina, what's happening?" Arden stood up with Romina but the latter was storming away before Arden even touched her. "Romina!"

"Leave me alone!"

~0~

Romina did not speak to Arden for the rest of the week. She found it incredibly hard to get over the fact Arden lied to her face. Romina felt like she needed time to get rid of her anger before she could talk to Arden again.

Meanwhile, Arden was going crazy trying to figure out why on Earth Romina was so upset with her. As much as she thought, she couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation. She even got the others in their group to try and help her out but they were just as lost as she was.

"I'm turning into you," she told Draco before their Divination class was to begin. "She's not talking to me."

"Sounds to me like she just came to her senses," Draco remarked, smirking at Arden's scowling reaction. "All this time, you've been nagging me about screwing up. Now look where you are."

"Why the hell do I even talk to you?" Arden muttered.

"Because I made my payment," Draco was happy to respond with. It was hilarious reminding Arden that she was basically in debt with him until further notice. Course then Pansy showed up to claim her seat next to him and reminded him exactly how big his payment had been. And Romina had yet to direct a word to him.

"What do you want, King?" Pansy demanded.

Arden didn't even bother with her. She locked eyes with Draco and pointed a finger at him. "Talk to her now."

Draco would've liked to demand how the hell he was supposed to do that when Romina made it her personal mission to stay clear of them both. He ended up thinking about some ways during class. Trewlany never had anything interesting to say anyways. Plus, Pansy would take care of the work for him. (It was the only good thing that came out of the exchange).

After class, Arden made sure to remind him to go find Romina. He had to shake Pansy off him, literally—she was clinging to his arm—to go search for the stubborn girl. Whether it was lucky or not, he spotted Romina sitting by herself in the courtyard. She held a book in her hands, muggle by the looks of it.

"'Princess Bride'?" He asked in bemusement when he sat down beside her.

Romina silently flipped the page. She should've known better than to pick a public spot for reading. Hermione Granger owed her for such stupid advice. This was supposed to calm me down...

"Gotta say, Oswell, I didn't take you for the princess or bride type," Draco remarked. He smirked when Romina met his eye.

"I can like many things," she said with no emotion whatsoever, "But don't get it confused. It's not your typical princess story."

"Does it have a prince?"

"Yes but—" Romina was quick to say when she saw Draco opening his mouth, "—he's actually the evil one. It's the masked man in black who gets the girl."

Draco snorted. "Seriously? I didn't know you were that type!"

Romina scowled at him. "Shut it! Can't you go somewhere else? Bother some poor first year or something!?"

"I needed to talk to you!"

Romina scoffed. "Now you want to talk to me?"

"Hey, I've been trying to find you but you keep hiding or something!"

"I am not hiding from anybody." Lies. Romina was definitely doing her best to avoid him and Arden. It was easier with Draco because they didn't share a dorm. "If I was hiding, would I really come out to read here of all places? Use your brain, if you have one of course."

"You didn't have any doubts when we were partners in Potions," Draco reminded her with a smug smile. "You were definitely happy with the results."

Romina rolled her eyes. "You love the attention you get from your class partners, don't you? Heard you specifically switched Theodore for Pansy of all people. I know Divination isn't all that hard but...even then..."

Whatever smugness Draco had vanished. "I did not ask for Pansy."

Romina scoffed. "Right." She turned the page of her book.

"I didn't!"

"Then why did you switch partners?"

"Why are you so interested?"

"Because Theodore's came up to me about three times to complain about you and Arden blowing him off. Honestly, whatever you two have going on, do me the favor and leave me out of them."

"Going on…? What the hell are you talking about?"

Romina finally stopped pretending to read—she had been looking at the same sentence over and over for minutes now—and looked at Draco. Her eyes had widened to make her point that this was Draco's moment to tell her the truth. Given that Draco had no idea what this truth was, he could only stare back. The blank stare was Romina's final straw.

She smacked his shoulder with her book. "You're insufferable!"

"What did I do now!?" Draco was sure he was going to lose count on how many times Romina had hit him with something.

"And you've got some nerve!" Romina exclaimed, smacking him again with her book.

"Can I at least know what I had the nerve of this time!?"

Romina's answer came in the form of another smack. "Like you don't know!"

"I don't!" Draco saw the next smack coming when Romina raised her book again. He caught it before it hit him on the head. "Stop hitting me!"

Romina held onto her book tightly and tried pulling it out of Draco's hands. "Let go!"

"Why? So you can go ahead and 'lightly tap' me again?" Draco would never forget the poor excuse she gave him the last time she decided to get violent with him. Romina should count her lucky stars he didn't retaliate for that one. Anyone else who dared to hit him on the head in front of a whole crowd would've been hexed.

"If you don't let go of my book right now, you're going to wish all I did was 'tap' you!"" Romina pulled on her book again. Draco was surprisingly stronger than he looked. Her pull did almost nothing. She could feel his fingers touching hers each time she pulled. It shouldn't be causing her any type of sensation. The same went for the stupid smirk on his face.

"Got lost in my eyes there?" Draco made the question just as soon as it'd come to mind. It was too hard to resist.

"You wish," Romina said, releasing her book in the process. She laughed when he nearly fell back from the sudden loss of her pull.

"Oh, that was funny?" Draco released a breath once he'd reclaimed his balance on the bench.

Romina nodded, the ghost of her laugh still playing at her lips. "Mhm, yeah."

Draco mocked her for a brief second before whacking her on the head with her own book. It wiped any trace of a smile and laugh from her.

"You hit me!" Romina said, eyes wide and mouth in a gape.

"You hit me like 10 times already!"

Even though that was very true, Romina wouldn't admit it. "Give me that!" She snatched her book from him. "Go find Arden or Pansy or whoever the hell you're talking to these days!" She jumped from the bench and glared.

"I'm talking to you right now but I frankly don't understand what's going on." This was nowhere near what Draco envisioned when he thought of talking to Romina...but she always had a way of changing things around him. He got up as well and faced Romina. "Why are you so...grumpy lately?"

"I am not grumpy!"

"Yeah, you are. It's adorable up to a certain point…" Draco said, trailing off when he noticed the fluster on Romina's face. He smirked. "Alright there, Oswell?"

Romina couldn't stand his smirk. "I hate you!" She gave him one more smack with her book then stormed off.

"Don't think you do!" Draco called after her in an almost sing-song manner.

She absolutely hated him.

~ 0 ~

The Halloween feast was, as usual, delicious. The Great Hall was filled with floating candles and pumpkins but what really took the attention was the Goblet of Fire's new place at the head of the room. Tonight, the three champions would finally be announced. Everybody was jittery, to say the least. Even Romina was excited despite the fact that Mr. Crouch was back in the school. She had done her due diligence of not looking his way. She was having a much better time with Angel, Carolinha and Daphne anyways.

"'I myself am strange and unusual'," she mimicked Lydia Deetz after gushing about the character in her latest line of favorite Halloween movies. "She's who I would've gone as for Halloween this year."

"That movie just sounds weird," Daphne said, shaking her head.

"I think it's funny weird," Carolinha shrugged her shoulders. "Definitely haven't heard something else like that. Muggles are creative."

"It was such a good movie but remember—don't say Beetlejuice three times!" Romina warned with a playful finger.

"Yeah, that guy just...he doesn't sound too nice," Angel said with a grimace. "Why'd you like the movie again?"

"Because it's funny," Romina chuckled. "Our favorite part was the singing."

"And when you say 'our' you mean Arden…?" Angel watched Romina sober from her laugh at the mention of her best friend she currently wasn't speaking to.

Arden currently sat with the Carrol twins a bit further down the table, unsurprisingly (in Romina's mind anyways) not too far from where Draco was sitting with Blaise. Romina didn't even look in their direction.

"Don't start, Angel," she warned quietly.

"You've never gotten into a fight with Arden," Angel said. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Romina insisted. She grabbed one of the pumpkin pastries on her left. She would rather not think about the fact her best friend refused to tell her about her ongoing dating. She was thankful that the feast was done a few minutes later. She would much rather focus on the champions that were going to be called.

Dumbledore had risen from his seat, commanding the silence of the entire room. "And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the champions selection!" He approached the Goblet whose flames were beginning to glow red. Soon, it shot into the air to spit out a piece of parchment.

Dumbledore caught it and unfolded it to read the first champion's name. "The Durmstrang champion is ... Viktor Krum!"

Everybody burst into cheers and applause as the Krum got up from the Slytherin table to walk up to Dumbledore. He shook hands with the headmaster then followed Crouch and Lugo Bagman towards a door behind them.

The Goblet soon spit out another name. The parchment was baby blue and perhaps laced?

"The champion from Beauxbatons... Fleur Delacour!"

A girl with near silver blonde hair rose from the Ravenclaw table. Romina recognized her as the girl Ron often fawned over. And by the looks of it, all the rest of the boys fawned over her too.

"Look, the other students aren't that happy," Carolinha remarked about the rest of the Beauxbatons students at the Ravenclaw table.

"Seriously," Romina said after shifting in her seat to get a better look. Some of them were actually crying. "Where's the solidarity my grandmother spoke of?"

Fleur soon disappeared along with Krum and now the final name had been released from the red flames. Excitement increased tenfold as they waited to hear who would be the Hogwarts champion.

"The Hogwarts champion... Cedric Diggory!"

The entirety of the Hufflepuff table jumped from their seats to cheer Cedric on. He was perhaps the most cheered for champion. Romina was no exception to the cheering.

"I know one of the champions!" She clapped excitedly.

"Excellent! We now have our three champions!" Dumbledore said once the applause had finally died down. "But in the end only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory the tri-wizard cup!"

But before he could say more, the Goblet hissed as its flames once more turned red. Confusion spread in the room as the flames released another piece of parchment.

Equally confused, Dumbledore reached for the fluttering parchment in the air. There was a long moment of awkward silence before Dumbledore finally read the name on the parchment. "...Harry Potter."

Silence.

Even Dumbledore seemed like he didn't believe what he had read. Gazing down at the parchment again, he repeated the name written down. "Harry...Harry Potter!"

Romina nearly keeled over. Her head flipped in the Gryffindor table's direction and saw Harry was frozen in his spot. All eyes were on him. Some students were even standing up just to stare at him better.

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore called again, lowering the parchment in his hand to spot the brunette.

"Go on Harry. Harry for goodness sake," Hermione urged Harry. It had to be better than just sitting there waiting for the vultures to come for him because oh they were going to come. Hermione saw at least a handful of angry eyes on Harry.

Harry was numb but his legs seemed to do him the grace of letting him stand up.

"He's a cheat! He's not even seventeen yet!" He heard someone say as he slowly walked up to the head of the room.

"What is he doing?" Carolinha whispered to Romina. "What on Earth does he think he's doing?"

Romina could only shake her head. There was no way in hell that Harry had figured out a way to slip his name into the Goblet. Better men had tried. So how the hell did his name end up in the Goblet?

~ 0 ~

It was absolute chaos in the Slytherin common room that night and the following morning. There wasn't a single soul who believed that Harry had not willingly put his name into the Goblet of Fire.

"Please, half of you didn't even like Cedric Diggory before tonight," Romina spat at a grumbling group of fifth years near the fireplace. "You all wanted a Slytherin champion so don't for a second say you loved Cedric."

"C'mon Oswell, you can't defend Potter for this one," Draco called. He, Blaise, Theodore and Angel were huddled at one of the tables. "He just wants the attention."

"Harry wouldn't be stupid enough to put his name into the Goblet, much less for attention," snapped Romina. "You're the one giving him the attention if we're being technical." She went straight for the dorms that night. She could very well pick a fight with everyone and she would if they asked for it.

"C'mon Romina," Carolinha watched Romina sulk on her bed later in the evening. "You really don't think Harry may have just gotten smart like the Weasley twins tried to a while back?"

"He wouldn't do it, Carol," Romina insisted. "God! Haven't any of you paid attention so far!? Harry doesn't seek attention! He doesn't put himself in mortal danger for fun!"

"Harry's not like that," Arden spoke quietly and avoided Romina's look. She was as unwelcomed as any other time but she would be damned if she listened to someone else claim that Harry put his name into the Goblet.

Romina did look in her direction but she didn't snap. For a moment, there was solidarity between them. Truthfully, Romina missed that.

"Then how did his name get in there?" Daphne curiously asked. "Because out there," she made a nod for the common room, "there's a lot of nasty rumors going around."

"They're just that, Daphne, rumors," Romina said sharply. "I beg you guys not to believe in them. I know Harry, okay? I have all my life. He did not do this." Carolinha and Daphne ultimately nodded but there was still a hint of doubt. Romina didn't waste the night arguing with them. She had a feeling there would be plenty of unconvinced people to deal with in the days to come.

~0~

Romina was able to find Harry the next morning but was surprised to find out that Ron was one of the people who firmly believed Harry put his name into the Goblet.

"He's finally lost it," Romina whispered after hearing Harry's moment with Ron the previous night.

"I tried telling Harry it's more jealousy than anything else. It's always Harry getting the attention whether or not he wants it." Hermione seemed torn between both sides. Romina understood her. It wouldn't be easy handling both boys for the time being.

"I don't," Harry practically snarled. He was just as furious as Ron was with him. He expected his best friends to believe him! Two out of three did!

"Really, try to understand him," Hermione insisted. "Ron's got all these brothers to compete against at home and you're his best friend and you're really famous…"

Romina made a cutting motion across her neck. Harry could give a damn about anything else right now.

"Great, really great," huffed Harry, "Tell him from me I'll swap any time he wants. Tell him from me he's welcome to it. People gasping at my forehead everywhere I go…"

"I'm not telling him anything," Hermione snapped. She didn't deserve any of his attitude, that much she was sure of. "Tell him yourself. It's the only way to sort this out."

"She's right on that, Harry," Romina remarked only to earn a deep scoff from Harry in return.

"You haven't spoken to Arden in how many weeks now?"

Romina blinked. Fair point.

"I'm not running after him trying to make him grow up!" Harry continued. "Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself when I've got all my neck broken or—"

"That is nowhere near funny," Hermione scolded him.

"Bad joke indeed," Romina said, "At least tell me you've already written to Sirius about this?"

"I told him earlier," Hermione informed.

"And let me guess, he hasn't?"

"Not that I know of!"

"I'm right here!" Harry snapped at the pair. "And I'm not doing it. He came back to the country just because my scar twinged! He'll probably come bursting into the castle if I tell him that someone entered me in the Triwizard Tournament!"

"Doesn't matter, he would want to know," Hermione said sternly.

"He's going to find out anyways, Harry, might as well cut out the middle man," Romina patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"How?" He asked, clearly unconvinced.

"It's called the frikin media, Harry! The Daily Prophet is guaranteed to be covering this and given that you're 14...I'm pretty sure it's going to be some big news."

Harry stayed quiet, and pensive. That did make sense. Sirius was in hiding but he didn't live under a rock. "Fine," he sighed. "I'll write."

"Thank you," Romina said, voicing Hermione's relief as well.

The two girls personally accompanied Harry to the owlery to witness the letter being written. They couldn't take the chance of Harry backing out at the last minute.

~ 0 ~

The days that came after were no better for Harry. Romina didn't have to be in Gryffindor to know that. In fact, it was probably better that she was in another House. She saw things perfectly.

The Hufflepuffs were absolutely livid with him. None of them were talking to the Gryffindors. Even the Ravenclaws were doing their best to avoid the Gryffindors. Romina didn't bother much with her own House. The Slytherins were split in three. One side was just as livid as the Hufflepuffs, the second side were genuinely interested to see how the hell fourth year Harry Potter was going to compete against the more advanced students and the last side simply didn't care.

"I don't think we should be splitting our loyalties between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory," Luna Lovegood shared her unique opinion with Romina one afternoon. The two girls had found a comfortable spot in the courtyard where Luna could show Romina the latest edition of the Quibbler.

Romina smiled to herself. Luna never had one bad thing to say about anyone, not even one bad thought. "I wholeheartedly agree, Luna."

Luna shrugged slightly. "Hogwarts has two champions. We're fortunate, really."

"I don't think Harry sees it that way," Romina said with a light sigh. She leaned on Luna's side to get a glimpse of the next page of the Quibbler. "He's scared. He's got less years of experience and the fact that most of the school hates him doesn't help either."

"I'll cheer for him," Luna said, making Romina smile. Luna hadn't even properly met Harry. She just knew him through Romina and Ginny Weasley.

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that," Romina said.

"Romina," she heard Rolf call. He was approaching the two girls. "Hey!"

"Hi Rolf," Romina smiled at him. "Luna, this is my cousin, Rolf Scamander." The bright blonde girl wiggled her fingers at Rolf. "Rolf, this is my friend, Luna Lovegood."

"Yeah," Rolf nodded. Romina guessed that he knew much of Luna's quirky reputation like the rest of the school. "Hey," he smiled at Luna. "You reading the Quibbler?"

"Luna shows me the editions every month," Romina said.

"My father's the editor," Luna explained.

"Oh, that's cool!" Rolf exclaimed. Luna beamed. It wasn't often that people said things like that to her.

Romina looked between the pair with a small smile. "You want to read it with us?" she asked Rolf, figuring Luna would be more than happy to share with another person. Romina didn't think anyone else really read the Quibbler, much less with Luna herself.

"Sure!" Rolf said, making way for Luna's other side on the bench. "Oh, I almost forgot. Romina, I just ran into Arden King—she was asking for you."

Romina's eyes lowered to the Quibbler's pages. She had no idea why turnips were supposed to be lucky but she would rather read that than deal with this conversation.

Luna, however, had no idea that Romina wasn't on speaking terms with Arden. "Arden is your friend, isn't she?"

"Was," Romina whispered before clearing her throat. She looked up and happened to see Harry walking from the opposite end. "You know what? I forgot I have to go talk to Harry about something. Rolf, you want to read the Quibbler with Luna?"

"Umm…yeah, but what about Arden?"

"I'll see her later," Romina said, promptly getting up from her seat. "I'll see you guys later." She hurried away before either Luna or Rolf said something else about Arden.

Unsurprisingly, Harry was alone when Romina walked up to him. Hermione was off in the library and he just couldn't stand spending so much time there.

"Not like Ron, huh?" Romina giggled.

Harry's expression soured at the mention of Ron. "Not at all but you know what? At least Hermione believed me."

"He'll come around, Harry, I know it," Romina assured. "Has, um, has Sirius written back yet?"

"Yeah, yesterday. He wants to talk face to face."

Romina stopped walking, widened eyes meeting Harry's. "How's that going to work?"

"I'm sure Sirius has a way. He told me this Saturday at one o'clock in the morning."

"Tell him everything, Harry, got it?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I know—"

"I mean it, Harry Potter. Everything," Romina pointed at him. She knew exactly how Harry was. He would try to hide things from Sirius no matter how dangerous it got.

"Yes, I promise, sheesh!" Harry exclaimed. "Get off my back, will you? It's not been a lovely week."

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry," Romina said. "I did get to read Rita Skeeter's article about you—erm, you didn't tell her that you cry at nights, right?" Harry deadpanned her until she answered herself. "Right, course…"

"Everything in that article was lies," Harry huffed. "I didn't say any of that stuff."

"It's like Hollywood," Romina said.

They started walking again, albeit slowly as they continued to discuss the lies that were sure to come in future articles if Rita Skeeter was the author.

"But listen, Harry, just know that I'll be cheering for you. In fact, even Luna Lovegood is on your side!"

"The only Ravenclaw," Harry mumbled.

"Well, I know that Angel, Carolinha and even Daphne are rooting for you. Just, um, don't be surprised if you hear the girls gushing about Cedric too."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Is it just them gushing over Cedric? I seem to recall you doing the same thing at one point."

Romina's face turned a bright red. "Shut up he's cute,," she promptly said, making Harry chuckle. "You know I'm your number one supporter!"

"Right. Hey, what does Arden say about this?" Harry had to ask. He'd been trying to broach the subject but lately his days were consumed by his own problems.

"I don't know what she says these days," Romina shrugged.

"Rom, why are you two fighting? You never fight."

"I abhor lies, Harry, you know that. And right now, Arden is lying to me. I know she is and she knows it too but she doesn't admit to it."

"I really can't see Arden lying to you of all people," Harry said, even making a face at how absurd that was. He'd known both Romina and Arden since before Hogwarts and if there was one person Arden King could never lie to, it was Romina. Romina was Arden's confidant for everything. It was vice versa.

"Well she has now," Romina said quietly, "And it hurts. I thought we were best friends."

"Just talk to her, Rom," Harry insisted and heard Romina's loud groan.

She picked up her pace, leaving Harry to trail after her. "No!" she yelled. "I've given her ample time to come clean! I'm not going after her for anything!"

"Oh, so you're so keen to tell me to talk to Ron but you won't take your own advice?"

"That's different!"

"How!?"

Romina whirled around, coming face to face with Harry. They bore the same challenging glares. Ironically it was something that Arden used to point out whenever they got into moments like these. Unfortunately, Arden was nowhere near to help ease the tension, neither was Hermione for that matter. The only person nearby wasn't quite interested in helping them out.

"Why so tense Potter?" They heard Draco's voice somewhere nearby.

Romina and Harry tore their eyes from each other to face Draco, only that took a moment seeing as they couldn't actually find him. Romina happened to look up and found the blonde perched up on a tree. Her face scrunched up in utter confusion. "What the fuck are you doing up on a tree?" Harry followed her gaze up and frowned.

"Gotta see the sights, Oswell," Draco remarked, "You know you spent about an hour with Looney Lovegood over there? How interesting can that really be?"

"You spy on me now?" Romina raised an eyebrow. "Are you that bored? Or just that creepy?"

"Rom, let's just go," Harry reached for Romina's arm. He had absolutely no mood to deal with Draco today.

"Don't go so quickly, Potter," Draco called, stopping the pair in their tracks. "You know, my father and I have a bet going on. I don't think you're gonna last ten minutes in this tournament. He disagrees. He thinks you won't last five."

Now it was Romina trying to tug Harry away.

"I don't give a damn what you or your father thinks Malfoy," he snapped, "He's vile and cruel, and you're just pathetic. Let's go, Rom!" He turned right on his feet and strode away, leaving Romina to scurry after him.

Neither saw Draco jump from his spot on the tree, hand whipping out his wand to aim on Harry's back. The loud bang stopped Harry and Romina in their tracks, but neither understood where it came from, nor why several students had yelled. They turned around and saw Moody not too far from them with his wand out and levitating a...white ferret?

"I'll teach you to cast when someone's back is turned!" growled Moody apparently at the creature. It bounced in the air, going zig-zag all around.

"I'm so confused," Romina whispered to Harry, both of them in a trance much like the growing crowd around them.

"I'm not," Harry said, his eyes widening as he started making the connections. Romina saw the odd smile on his face. "That's Malfoy, ha!"

"What?" Romina hissed.

"Didn't get you, did he?" called Moody over to Harry. Harry shook his head, his grin might as well be glued on by this point. Moody forced the ferret into a smack against the ground.

Romina flinched. She actually heard the smack. "Make him stop!" She tugged on Harry's arm but he was frozen and not out of horror. "Harry!"

"What's going on?" Romina then heard Arden's voice through the crowd. The brunette pushed her way through the crowd until she was close enough to be pulled by Romina. "Romina, what's—"

"That's Draco!"

"What?" Arden's eyes widened and her mouth pursed together to hold back a laugh. Moody was now punctuating his reprimands by smacking the ferret against the ground, the tree and even a stone bench.

Romina groaned. "Arden! Do something! That's your boyfriend!"

"HE'S MY WHAT?" Arden's scream could have rivaled the growing laughter from the crowd. She was absolutely affronted with the confident claim.

Romina frantically pushed Arden out of her way to run through the crowd. She shoved whoever was in her way until she was on the other side. She had no idea where she was going but she had a good idea of the people she was looking for.

She found McGonagall in the hallway and without thinking, Romina yelled her name until she had run up to the professor.

"Miss Oswell!" McGonagall naturally reprimanded her. "That is no way to address somebody!"

Romina was out of breath from running and yelling. "Professor — outside — Professor Moody — and Draco! He's a...!" Romina had to hold her knees to keep herself standing. She was a blundering mess and she knew it.

McGonagall was downright appalled with what she was seeing. "Miss Oswell, calm yourself down and then find me. Perhaps with a little bit more etiquette."

"But Professor!"

"Keep this going and I will take points from Slytherin!"

"I don't care!" Romina snapped frantically.

McGonagall couldn't look any more irritated. "Alright, that's 50 points from Slyth—MISS OSWELL!" McGonagall yelled when Romina yanked her by the hand. "This is highly inappropriate! Let go now!"

Romina did no such thing. "It's Professor Moody! Please!" She insisted, running quicker and holding McGonagall's hand tight. "He's done something terrible!" Romina wasn't sure if McGonagall had said anything, or yelled for that matter, during their run. Romina felt her ears ringing and her heart pounding. She didn't care if she lost the entire points Slytherin had racked up so far. She just needed to get McGonagall to the courtyard so she could see—

"MOVE!" She screamed at the crowd in her way. She did hear when McGonagall scolded her again for squeezing them through the crowd.

Moody was still holding the ferret captive. It certainly got McGonagall's attention off Romina. "Professor Moody what are you doing?" She asked him.

Moody was absolutely calm as he moved the ferret from one point to the next. "Teaching."

It took only a second for McGonagall to realize why Romina had been so frantic. "Is that a student?" she looked back at the young girl who nodded. Romina was still horrified and frankly pleaded for Mcgonagall to do something.

"Technically it's a ferret," Moody answered. He shoved the ferret down Crabb's pant leg, causing a whole roar of laughter, including Harry's and Arden's.

Romina would have yelled at McGonagall to act if her status at Hogwarts wasn't already in danger for the way she dragged the professor there. Fortunately, McGonagall snapped out of her own trance. When Moody pulled the ferret out of Crabbe's pants, McGonagall took the opportunity to point her wand ahead and turn Draco back to normal.

He was, understandably, all out of sorts. His robes were askew and his hair was sticking up in all kinds of directions. He twitched, his eyes flickering from one side to the other as if Moody were about to hit him with another spell. "My father will hear about this!" He yelled, but soon regretted it when Moody stepped forwards.

"Is that a threat?"

Draco chose to run away there and then.

"I could tell you stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair boy! It doesn't end here!"

"Professor Moody!" McGonagall had to shout over the laughing crowd of students. "We never use transfiguration as a punishment, surely Dumbledore told you that."

Moody didn't look abashed in the slightest. "He might've mentioned it…"

"Well you will do well to remember it." McGonagall turned to the crowd of students, eyes sharp and blazed with irritation. "The rest of you—don't you have studying to do?"

Students went every which way except for Romina. For when she turned around, she came face to face with Arden.

"I think she's better in Ancient Runes," Carolinha said, finally giving up the magazine in her hands. "I ask her for help all the time in that class. I gotta say, she was better than any of the private tutors Mum and Dad hired for us before coming to school."

"You guys had private tutors?" Romina said, making a face and glancing over her shoulder to Arden. "They had private tutors, Ard..."

"Of course," Arden did a fake curtsy for the twins.

"What a shocker," Romina said right before flicking her paper ball. It hit Angel between the eyes.

"Hey!" He frowned.

Romina giggled. "That counts as a goal."

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't…" Angel's head turned in Arden's direction, "Does it?"

Arden rolled her eyes. "Romina, quit being mean."

"Arden's right guys, why don't we go outside?" Carolinha suggested, finally putting down her magazine. "Or we could go see if anybody else is putting their name into the Goblet?" The room of the Goblet of Fire was a hot spot and it would continue to be one until Halloween night when the champions' names were called.

"What for? I already got my fill when Fred and George did their little aging number," Romina said, resting her palms on the table. Angel called quits on their game. Ten to 2 was something to ponder for him.

"Then let's go to the lake! Oh!" Carolinha hopped off the couch with a lit up face. "You can show us that violin of yours!"

"You brought it?" Angel asked Romina, fairly curious as his sister had been when she first saw the instrument.

Romina nodded. "I thought it would be nice if it didn't collect dust this year."

"Let's do that!" Carolinha exclaimed. "Can we, Romina? Please?"

Romina shrugged. "I guess. But I stand by my warning that I only know muggle tunes. It's a muggle class."

"Something different," Angel smiled. "We'll love it, I'm sure."

Romina flushed. "Alright then. Be back in a bit." She pushed herself up from the ground and headed for the hallway.

"And I guess I'm off to Divination," Arden said, making a face. "Will you guys still be there afterwards?"

"Yeah," Angel nodded. "I want to listen to as many tunes Romina can play."

Arden smirked knowingly. "Oh, I bet you do."

"Arden," Romina's call was sharp and full of warning. Arden decided to hurry along for her Divination book in her room.

"So, Romina, are we doing it?" Carolinha eagerly asked.

"Yeah, why not," Romina started pulling herself up from the floor. "I win, Angel."

Angel sighed. "Not much of a game if one of the players doesn't know how to play."

Romina pushed her hair behind her shoulders, smiling smugly. "Doesn't mean anything." She started for the hallway.

"Pretty sure it means everything!" Angel called after her, making her laugh.

~ 0 ~

The lake wasn't that crowded given that classes had only started a couple weeks back. Students were still grappling to their new schedules. Those lucky enough to enjoy some time off, like Romina, Carolinha and Angel, had found ample space to relax in.

Romina had been shy carrying her violin all the way down to the lake. Several students had given her strange looks for owning the instrument in the first place. The Beauxbaton girls were the only students who seemed slightly impressed...as if no Hogwart student could be graceful enough to use the instrument correctly.

"That looks new," Carolinha remarked as they sat down on the mushy grass. She and Angel sat opposite of Romina.

"It sort of is," Romina said, placing the violin over her lap, "My aunt and uncle bought it for me last year as a Christmas present. I've only ever really played it during last summer."

"Arden said you were taking classes, right?" Angel asked. "Or that you had started it up again?"

Romina nodded. "Before coming to Hogwarts, I took violin classes after school. You could say that the violins have grown with me."

"That's cute," Carolinha giggled. "Poetic."

"Yeah, that's about the only poetic thing about me," Romina said, sharing a laugh with her afterwards. "But in all seriousness, I do love this thing so much. I may be a loud mouth, impulsive, and my character could use some more ladylike traits but when I play the violin...I feel like I'm truly elegant and graceful."

"You can be those things when you want to be," Angel said, "And even if you aren't, who cares? You're still great."

Romina smiled sweetly at him. "Thanks."

Carolina cleared her throat with purpose. She was beginning to think her brother was going a little overboard with his crush. Annoying was crossed a long time ago. "Anyways," she said, throwing her brother a look for him to calm himself, "I want to hear something."

"Well," Romina said, pausing to think for a second, "Before we came back to Hogwarts, Arden and I were practicing this cover of Halloween muggle movie we watched."

"What was it?" both Carolinha and Angel inquired, even sharing the same curiosity that only twins could.

Romina was shy when she answered in a whisper. "Hocus Pocus…"

"Hocus what?" Carolinha lifted an eyebrow at her. "That sounds weird, even for Muggles."

"It's a Halloween movie. A comedic Halloween movie," Romina reminded them, "It's about 3 witches who come back to life after being lynched in the Salem Witch Trials—"

"That's supposed to be a comedy?" Angel made a face. "The Salem Witch trials are terrible, Romina. Nothing funny can be made out of it."

Romina sighed. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that even the twins didn't understand her muggle ways sometimes. "It's supposed to be fake, guys," she said quietly.

"But it's not," Carolinha said adamantly, "Witches and wizards used to be hunted down for real until we decided to go underground."

"I get that but this is just a movie and you know what?" Romina frowned at the pair of siblings. "If we're going to be on the honesty part—those witches deserved it. If anybody's stealing youth and killing children, then they should be killed." She opened her arms to wait for a counterargument from either sibling.

Of course, there was none.

"Thank you," Romina said, rolling her eyes, "Now then, would you like to hear the version of the song they used for the movie? It's catchy, I swear. And the title…?"

"Yeah, I guess," Angel nodded, slowly. He could see where Romina's annoyance stemmed from and over a movie. Maybe he and Carolinha were over-exaggerating a little bit. There was no way Romina would ever be okay with the Salem Witch Trials.

"The song's called 'I Put a Spell on You'," Romina said, earning a combined laugh.

"Of course it is," Carolinha shook her head. "Okay, maybe it's not that bad."

"The way Winnie sings it is hilarious," Romina continued with more giddiness now that they were focusing on the 'it's a movie' part. "She makes the humans dance. But the actual song is a little bit more...sensual, I think."

"Oooh," Carolinha's eyes widened, her lips curling into a smirk. "Now I definitely want to hear it."

"I'm not sure I want to anymore," Angel muttered. Carolinha promptly elbowed him on his side. "I'm just saying!"

Romina laughed. "You should hear Arden sing it. She's actually really good. If this whole witch thing doesn't turn out, we might go into show business. Arden sings and I play the violin."

"I'll pay for the tickets!" Carolinha quickly volunteered.

"Oh alright, can we just hear it?" Angel asked, preferring to get it out of the way before Carolinha started going on in a ramble.

Romina thought the same. "Okay." She pulled her violin over her left collarbone. It took some adjusting but she'd remembered everything Mrs. Vale had taught her. She'd only been going to Mrs. Vale's class since forever. Soon, she was delicately moving the bow over the strings to create—to the best of her ability—the melody of the song. To help the twins imagine the song better, she decided to hum along.

Whatever qualms and annoyances that had occurred were forgotten in a matter of seconds. The twins were dazzled with Romina's talent. The melody truly did sound like it was trying to tempt you into something, taunting even. Carolinha swayed her head, imagining what it would sound with even more instruments. Angel listened as well but he was more focused on Romina. It looked like she had forgotten they were even there. Her hums grew louder yet remained soft to stay between them.

"Sing," Angel suddenly requested. He had done so breathlessly that Carolinha sent him another 'calm down' glance.

Romina's eyes flickered to the twins, smiling lightly. "I'm not much of a singer," she reminded them. She continued to play without the humming. "Maybe when Arden gets out of class, she can help."

"You're playing amazingly," Angel said.

"You really are," agreed Carolinha.

Romina was flushed with embarrassment. "Thanks guys," she said. "You want to hear more? I've got Disney classics under my belt."

"Disney?" Both twins chorused with the same confusion.

Romina laughed. "Oh dear, I've got to catch you up."

~ 0 ~

Divination could not have ended any slower. Arden was ready to leave, especially today. Trewlany had, had some crazy ideas and suggestions about rearranging seats for the class and Arden wasn't very content with her new partner. The only thing that they could agree on was that neither one wanted the other for a partner.

"Hey King!" she heard the call from the steps above.

"No," Arden said sharply when she turned to Draco coming down the stairs.

"I haven't said anything," the blonde said with a frown.

"I don't care," Arden snapped. "You saw who I got stuck with as a partner!" She flapped her arm in the direction of their class. "You really think that after sitting next to Pansy for what seemed like an eternity, that I would have the energy to handle whatever the hell you're going to send my way?"

"Kinda weak there," Draco remarked, smirking when he could practically see the fumes coming out of Arden's ears. "I was just going to ask if you had any idea where Oswell would be right now? I have something...fun to show her."

"Oh, I bet," Arden rolled her eyes. She was also in no mood to handle the petty war between the two. "She's at the lake. I sincerely hope she'll shove you into the water. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the library to get a headstart on that homework Trewlany assigned. Fancy making predictions?"

"Not unless they include me winning," Draco was quick to answer with. He moved around her and went on his way.

Arden went in the opposite way for the library.

~ 0 ~

Maybe it was a little late to enact another round of retaliation but after thinking about it during Divination class—because Draco pretty much thought about anything but the actual class—he decided that he earned some fun times. Trewlany made time go so unbearingly slow.

"Remind me again why we can't go back to the Common Room after a long day?" Blaise asked him as they trudged down towards the lake. Like Draco, and Arden for that matter, Divination had sucked the life out of him.

"Because you can never miss an opportunity to stick it to Oswell," Draco answered automatically.

"On the contrary," said Theodore, rolling his eyes, "I don't think any of us care enough like you do. Is it really that important?"

"Absolutely," Draco said confidently. He was sure that if Romina had thought of the same thing he had, she wouldn't waste a second in enacting it.

"And why are we here again?" Blaise asked with a sigh.

"Because I require an audience and you two have nothing better to do."

"...fair."

Draco thought as much. He picked up his pace, leaving Blaise and Theodore to do the same. The closer they got, the more they started hearing what sounded like music. It took them a short moment to realize it wasn't exactly music but a product of a violin. And with that violin came the giggles of familiar girls.

Draco immediately picked out Romina's from Carolinha's, the latter having a more squeakish type of giggle. He soon spotted the pair sitting on the ground and, unsurprisingly, it was Romina who had been playing the violin. Then Draco saw Angel sitting a bit too close to Romina. In fact, during her fit of giggles (apparently over something Angel was proudly saying), Romina occasionally let her head fall over his shoulder. And of course Angel lived for it. Of course he did. Draco knew he did.

"Are you going or not?" Blaise demanded beside Draco, very much tired.

"Seriously," Theodore threw his head back impatiently.

Draco continued to watch in silence for a few more minutes. He knew he got angry a lot—it was part of his personality—but he couldn't ever remember a moment where he felt this type of anger. It was an unjustified anger—he could admit that to himself and only to himself—and it consumed him in under a minute. A record time; something else he was aware of but would only admit it to himself.

"Look, she's clearly not even thinking about your stupid war—can we go now?" Blaise said, despite already turning away. Theodore was doing the same thing.

No, Romina clearly wasn't thinking about anything else that didn't have to do with that violin of hers and Angel sitting perhaps but a centimeter from her. Draco had never turned so fast, that Blaise could ascertain, considering he was shoved to the side.

"Hey!" Blaise called after him but Draco was too far ahead to notice or hear anything, not that he would even if he had been close.

"What the hell is his problem?" Theodore rolled his eyes and got started walking back to the castle.

~ 0 ~

Arden lowered her parchment to see both Harry and Ron staring at her with wide blinking eyes. They'd been working quietly in the library since they'd found each other. They were also taking Divination which led to a lot of common ground between them, mostly questions about how to do the assignment. Arden had long lost patience and when Ron suggested they just start making up their predictions for the month, Arden went right with it. Now she was done and she was ready to present her homework to them.

"Erm…Arden…" Harry said a minute later, he and Ron both looking at her chart, "You wrote down that you're going to get run over."

"Yeah," Arden shrugged. "So what?"

"Getting run over implies cars and...there's no cars at Hogwarts," Harry said, pressing his lips into a thin line.

"Huh, you're right." Arden planted her arms on the table and thought for a second. "Oh!" She snapped her fingers. "I can get trampled over! She can't question that with the Beauxbatons' horses out there."

"Sounds good," Harry snickered as he handed her parchment back.

"I hope she buys it though—Trewlaney," Arden said.

"She will as long as we put ruddy stuff like the 'planets aligned'," Ron mimicked their professor's tone, causing a fit of snickers amongst them.

"King!"

Arden groaned. "Not again," she whispered just as Draco strode up to the table. "I thought you were going to the la—"

"We need to talk, now," Draco declared, "Get your stuff and let's go!"

Arden raised an eyebrow at him. "Excuse me?"

"Now!"

"You can't talk to her like that," frowned Harry.

"For once in your lifetime, Potter, stay out of it," snapped Draco without so much of a glance in Harry's direction. His eyes were glued on Arden as he waited for her to pack her stuff up.

"That's rich coming from you," Harry scoffed.

Draco paid his remark no attention. "King, let's go!"

Ron looked between Arden and Harry, sharing the same surprise and genuine curiosity. It wasn't every day that Draco Malfoy ignored them. They wished that would happen more often but sadly reality wasn't that kind to them...which begged the question of what had caused such a phenomenon in the first place.

"I will get your stuff and shove into the bag," Draco warned Arden, "and whatever homework you got done—"

"I get it," Arden said, raising a hand to keep him right where he was. "Sheesh, what the hell got into you?" She started rolling up her parchment. She packed up quicker just out of sheer curiosity. "I guess I'll see you two later—ah!" Draco had yanked her away from the table before she could finish saying goodbye to Harry and Ron. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Arden exclaimed against his hard grip around her arm.

Madame Pince shot them both a look for the disturbance but since they were on their way out anyways, she didn't bother with anything else.

"Would you let go of me? Since when do you touch me anyways!?" Arden wrestled out of Draco's grip. "And how can I make that never happen again!?"

"Shut it!" He snapped. "And listen!"

"Not like I have much of a choice," Arden muttered as she rubbed her arm. "What's gotten into you?"

"You...you were right," Draco said after much struggle, "I...I think I need to fix things with Romina."

Arden paused, her head turning slightly. "Oh, you're serious." He huffed. "You used her first name. How'd that happen in the course of an hour?"

"Doesn't matter," Draco said, "I just need...some...help." The struggle to admit any of that was enough to send him to the nightwing with stomach pains.

Arden's eyebrows raised. "Oh? My help?"

Draco nodded. "Unfortunately, the only people who really know Oswell are you and Potter. And I will die before I ever ask him for help."

"Yeah, yeah you would," Arden agreed. "And you're in luck, Harry lives a few houses down from Romina but I live right next door to her."

"I know, that's a torture I don't even want to imagine...for her, you know."

"You want my help or not?"

"...yes," Draco admitted.

Arden tilted her head. "Say it completely. I require a full admission before I offer my services."

"Seriously?"

"Mhm. You fucked it up, therefore you gotta work for it."

"Oh I bet," Draco grumbled. He had thought long and hard before coming to Arden and as such, he expected a couple things. "Fine," he relented, "I need your help. What's it going to cost from you?"

Arden grinned. "Two things," she said, much too quickly...almost as if she'd expected this situation to happen. "One," —she raised a finger—, "you have trade Divination partners with me."

Draco's face filled with horror. "You want me to take Parkinson!?"

Arden nodded. "Absolutely."

"No, no, anything else!"

"That's one of my prices!"

"Nott doesn't even like you!"

"Not my problem, I'd rather work with him instead."

"NO!"

Arden crossed her arms. "Why not? She's like in love with you so you could get her to do your work."

"It's not worth it!" Draco said far too quickly for Arden not to laugh on the spot. "I mean it!"

"That's part one of my deal," Arden said, "Take it."

Draco passed a hand over his face, groaning, "Fine! How will you explain that to Trewlany anyways?"

Arden cleared her throat and proceeded to answer in the voice of their professor, "Because my birth planet would be out of its orbit if I was next to Parkinson." She laughed shortly afterwards.

"What else?" demanded Draco before he truly lost it.

"I've seen you talking to Viktor Krum—I want an autograph."

"You don't even like Quidditch, why would you want an autograph from him?"

"Because then I'm going to sell that for a couple galleons," Arden answered matter-of-factly. "I can definitely start a schoolwide bidding for it," she smirked.

Draco paused and looked at her. "I am...very tempted to say I like your style."

Arden nodded. "We can work well together."

"Fine, I will switch partners with you and get the stupid autograph. Will you help me fix things with Romina?"

Arden held her hand out to shake with him. "Done deal."

Draco begrudgingly shook hands with her. "Not a word to anyone," he warned. "That's my end of the deal."

"I don't think they'd believe me anyways," Arden pointed out.

In that, Draco could relax but everything else...it seemed impossible. He had yet to flush out the anger he felt from the lake.

~ 0 ~

"I'm so tired," Arden said as she and Romina made it into the courtyard, "And you Romina, you look so…" Arden finished her sentence cautiously when Romina threw her a glare.

They had just finished a Care of Magical Creatures class and the skrewts were getting too big for either girl's liking. They were burning more. Romina had marks on her arms to prove it. "I love Hagrid but I'm afraid he's going to kill us," she said on their way to Great Hall.

Arden laughed. "I know."

"The only good thing is that it wasn't just me who looks like this," Romina held her arms out for Arden to see. "Draco had the lovely idea to say I should connect the dots with them as if he didn't have a big mark on his neck."

Arden snorted. It was actually a fairly funny joke. "I mean…"

"Shut it!" Romina snapped. "I'm going to get him back for that one too."

"Again with that? Aren't you getting tired of that?"

"It's like you don't know me at all."

"I'm just saying…" Arden wouldn't say that she was saying it in the first place because of the deal she'd made with Draco a few days back, "Don't you think it's kinda childish?"

"Maybe," shrugged Romina, "But it's also kind of fun."

Arden took note of the smirk on her friend's face. "It's more like weird flirting, you know."

The smirk dropped right off Romina's face. "I will punch you if you ever say that again to me."

Now it was Arden who was smirking. "Why? Cause it's true?" Romina said nothing before punching Arden's arm. "OW!" Arden yelped, hand clapping over her arm.

"I warned you," Romina said, entering the Great Hall. She was extra hungry after dealing with burning Skrewts.

"I was just saying—" Arden stopped altogether when Romina's fist raised again. "I meant maybe you should call it a truce already."

"Why would I ever do that?" Romina found an empty spot at their table. "It's not like Draco will."

"You never know," Arden said, taking a seat beside her. "You could try talking to him."

"Why bother? What I really want to hear from him will not be coming out of his mouth anytime soon." Romina reached for the bowl of peas. "I think he's forgotten the reason why we're in this in the first place."

"You mean because of what he said at the World Cup?"

Romina nodded. "Yes. Until he shows me a shred of decency, I can't forgive him."

"But...even Hermione doesn't seem that mad about it anymore and it was directed at her," Arden reminded. She'd done her due diligence and fished it out of Hermione herself. If anything, Hermione was more concerned that Romina would end up pushing Draco too far and would get hurt because of it.

"It doesn't matter," Romina snapped, "It's what he implied for the rest of muggles. I have to be honest, I still think that maybe, just maybe, he didn't mean it."

A silver lining. Arden jumped on it. "So use that and go talk to him!"

Romina shook her head. "No way. He'd laugh in my face for sure. He doesn't want to talk to me."

Arden cocked her head to the side, lips pursing as she mumbled under her breath. "You'd be surprised."

"Did you say something?"

"Huh?" Arden jumped. "Nope! Well, I was just curious…"

"About what?"

"Well, look, I'm kind of tired of this bullshit so excuse my curiosity. What do you really want Draco to do?"

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes!"

Romina side-glanced her friend with some suspicion but given that Arden was pretty much everywhere, Romina decided not to think about it so much. "I guess...I just want him to be honest. Mainly, I'd like to know that he's not as terrible as everybody says he is. Human decency, you know? He's not willing to let somebody die." Romina stopped eating altogether. She hadn't meant to be so specific. It was almost like she'd been thinking about it nonstop—which she hadn't. "I need to go change."

"What?" Arden frowned when Romina started getting up. "But we just sat down. You said you were starving!"

"I had my fill," Romina said quickly before rushing off.

"With what?" Arden was left calling. She took a look at Romina's plate and saw it was still pretty heavy on the load.

Half an hour later, Arden was relaying the conversation with Draco. They walked alongside each other down the bridge

"So basically you have nothing for me," Draco said sourly, shooting Arden a glare. Arden rolled her eyes in return. "I've already paid you but I will take my partner back."

Arden snorted. "No way in hell I'm giving Nott back. He's actually not that bad." Somewhere in the distance, she was sure Theodore would be hexing both her and Draco for using him like that. "And calm down, drama queen, I'm doing the best I can but you sincerely fucked it up."

"Wipe that smile off your face," Draco snapped as soon as he saw Arden close to laughing. "You said you were going to help me. Deal's a deal, King."

"Yeah, yeah," Arden waved him off. "I am. I had to do some fishing before I could actually help."

"That implies you've figured it out, then?"

"Mhm." Arden came to a stop, prompting Draco to do the same. "You want to fix things? You need to man up and go talk to Romina—and listen extra close for this one—without any tricks and jokes. No more retaliations, no more tricks. You need to be serious for once in your life."

"I thought I gave the implication that I was very serious when I agreed to take Parkinson off your hands," Draco reminded her.

Arden would bobbed her head. "Yeah, okay." That was a sacrifice all on its own. "But I meant what I said. Honestly, you just need to talk. I can help arrange that."

"No," Draco flatout said.

"Why not?"

"Because…" Draco struggled to come up with a decent answer and it was simply irritating Arden to no end. It was like he was purposely sabotaging his own attempts.

"I'm calling the shots now," she decided and took off for the courtyard.

"What—get the hell back here!" Draco rushed after her. Arden was surprisingly fast for someone petite like her. "That's not what we agreed on!"

"We agreed that I would help you and if I have to drag you there myself, I'll do it," Arden said, making the motion that she was more than willing to pinch him by the ear if she had to. "I have a younger sister and brother, you know. I'll do it for sure."

"Malfoy?" The pair stopped at the call. Theodore was coming up to them with a fairly confused face. "What are you doing with King of all people?"

Arden audibly groaned. "Dating—is it any of your business?"

Draco could have strangled her at that moment. He cast a deep glare in her direction but Arden was long used to the looks Pansy always sent her.

"Seriously, think about it. Talking is the way to go," she warned him before taking off.

"What the hell was that?" Theodore asked, or rather demanded, from Draco when Arden was gone. "First, you make me switch partners and now you're spending time with her? Dude, what the hell is going on?"

"None of your business," snapped Draco before he, too, took off. He had to consider his very few options before Arden decided to follow through with her threat to arrange things.

~ 0 ~

Romina felt like she was being watched in a way. She had no idea what it was, nor who it was, but she felt the presence of someone's eyes on her. She wouldn't realize it until a couple of Beauxbatons girls came up to her one day with the message that their headmistress—Madame Maxim—was waiting for her in the courtyard.

"But why is she looking for me?" Romina dumbly asked the seventh year girl who'd relayed the message. Don't be stupid, you know why, she reprimanded herself. She'd been wondering how long she could put that awkward conversation off.

The answer was a month.

So, after getting herself a little more ready for the meet—because she couldn't meet Madame Maxim without making herself a little more presentable—Romina went to go find the woman in the courtyard. Sure enough, there she was with a couple of her students.

Romina cleared her throat the closer she got. One of the girls informed Maxime about her presence and were promptly shooed as Romina arrived.

"Ah, bonjour Miss Oswell," she greeted cordially.

"Hello," Romina said, feeling like she probably should have said something else, something fancy.

"It's very nice to meet you," Madame Maxime said, smiling politely and cordially. "I believe your grandmother talked about us? The Beauxbatons Academy?"

Romina nodded. She sincerely hoped that her grandmother hadn't mentioned the big time gap since she first requested she (and Rolf for that matter) speak to her old headmistress.

"Abigail Gejél was one of my prized students back in the day," Madame Maxime remarked, her expression growing distant as she thought of the past. "I had just become the headmistress of the academy. Your grandmother, bless her heart, made my job a lot easier."

"I get the idea that she does that a lot," Romina said. It was embarrassing to admit that she didn't yet know her grandmother like a true granddaughter should.

Madame Maxime made a gesture for Romina to walk with her. "Oh yes, as a young girl, Abigail showed clear signs that she was poised and disciplined like a young lady should be."

Back in the day, Romina sourly thought. They were talking about the early 20th century of course. She, however, was not as "poised and disciplined" as her grandmother. She doubted she ever would be.

"She grew up to be a prized example of what all Beauxbatons students should be like," Madame Maxime said. She brought Romina to an empty bench where the two could sit together. "And she brought more recognition and pride after her work against Grindelwald."

"Who?" Romina asked, making a face. She regretted it the moment Madame Maxime looked at her crazily.

"You do not know of your grandmother—your grandparents'—history in the wizarding world?"

"Um...I have a complicated past myself," Romina said, biting her lip. "I only just discovered that Abigail was my grandmother. I heard a few things about a war but...I don't really know the exact details."

"This is an important history. Your grandmother fought to keep everybody safe, she helped fight one of the most powerful wizards apart from You-Know-Who."

"I didn't know," Romina admitted with shame. Maybe she should spend a little more time with history books rather than play tricks on people.

"I suppose Abigail didn't want to talk about the dark past with her grandchildren," Madame Maxime said, shrugging her shoulders.

Romina had to wonder if Rolf knew about this. Of course he has to. He's known grandma forever. Romina could feel a sting in her heart. What if her grandmother hadn't said anything because she didn't want to? Maybe she doesn't trust me enough.

"How old are you, Romina?" Madame Maxime inquired as she looked Romina over to calculate her own answer.

"Fourteen," Romina said.

"Ah, prime year to get ready for your exams the following year," nodded Madame Maxime. "As I have told Abigail time after time, the doors of the Beauxbaton academy are always open for her family."

Romina's eyes widened slightly at the idea of her actually attending Beauxbaton Academy instead of Hogwarts. It was terrifying to say the least.

"She's never taken my offer, though," Madame Maxime lamented, "She and her husband decided to send their kids to Hogwarts." She made a weak gesture towards the school. "I deeply respect Dumbledore but I must admit I have a little sore spot when it comes to my alumni."

Romina could smile at that. "I'm sure my grandmother doesn't think any less of your school. There's just something about Hogwarts, I guess. My father's family is originally from Columbia and they emigrated a long time ago to England just for the school."

Madame Maxime eyed Romina with genuine surprise. "Really?"

"Mhm," Romina nodded. ""Long time ago. Whole generation of Oswells have been coming here..."

"Well," Madame Maxime said with a huffy sigh, "I suppose I still have a chance of nabbing another Gejel when you and your cousin grow up."

Romina laughed for sheer embarrassment at the implication. "I'm fourteen, Madame!"

"Right now you are, but don't forget about Beauxbaton when you have your little ones, alright?" The woman winked at Romina and chuckled when she saw the bright blush on the girl's face.

~ 0 ~

It would be days before Romina could even glance in Madame Maxime's direction during meals in the Great Hall. Even then, Romina preferred to mostly focus on her meals. She did, however, nab the first opportunity to speak with Rolf later that week.

"She got to you too then, huh?" Rolf was shaking his head when Romina finished telling him the awkward conversation she had with the Madame. "I love grandma Abby, but that Madame is a little weird." Rolf hopped onto one of the windowsills for a seat. "And very obsessed with having more Gejéls at her school."

"Oh God, did she talk about that with you too?" Romina now felt mortified for the two.

"My future kids and whatnot! Lady, I'm 14!"

"And a guy, for that matter," Romina added, nearly snorting when Rolf went with a sharp 'yeah!'. "You're a scaredy cat."

"Oh come off it, you thinking about your future children already?" Rolf shot her a look.

"Of course not," Romina crossed her arms over her chest, "It's just not as terrifying as it probably is for you guys. Women are just inherently braver, hence the reason we're the ones who have kids."

"Whatever," Rolf said, rolling his eyes. "At least we got that stupid conversation over with. Now we can report back to grandma and that'll be that."

"Yeah, about that...Madame Maxime taoked a lot about grandma's history?" Romina decided to take a seat beside her cousin. "She was talking about these important battles that Grandma supposedly fought in the past? And I had no idea what she was talking about. Grindelwald?"

Rolf nodded. "Yeah, both grandma and grandpa had to do their share of fighting against that guy. He was almost as bad as You-know-who."

"Powerful — that's what Madame Maxime said about him," Romina remembered. "How come grandma hasn't told me about it?"

"Probably didn't want to talk about that the first time she met you," Rolf shrugged. "Not exactly the most cheery way to greet your granddaughter for the first time."

"But them afterwards? Not even grandpa said anything."

"To be fair, grandpa never likes talking about that dark period. He's more shut off about it than grandma."

"It just feels like they don't really trust me," Romina admitted.

"Don't go there, Romina," Rolf warned.

"Why not?" Romina huffed.

"Because it's not true?" Rolf said in a manner that expressed this was logical thinking. "You have no idea how much everyone lamented that they couldn't meet you, but no one more than our grandparents."

"Then why didn't they tell me any of this stuff?"

"Because it's full of darkness, of-of endless fighting. They didn't want that story to be the first thing you heard of them. Do you know how long it took me to hear the story? Ages."

"It's not like I haven't heard worse," Romina said quietly.

Rolf stayed silent. He knew exactly what she was talking about, ironically the other reason why their grandparents hadn't said anything either. They knew Romina's past already held much more darkness than any fourteen year old's past should.

"Romina," Rolf reached for his cousin's arm, gently squeezing it, "They love you. Don't you dare think otherwise. It's not fair to either side."

Romina could agree with that sentiment. Her grandparents had shown nothing but deep affection for her since the moment they met. She shouldn't start doubting them after one conversation with a woman she barely knew.

"You're right, I'm being stupid," Ronina shook her head. She felt silly now that she thought about it.

"I wouldn't go that far," Rolf said with a light chuckle and pat on her arm. He slid off the windowsill. "Now c'mon, we have Muggle Studies today."

Romina agreed and moved to slide off the windowsill as well until she heard her name. To her surprise it was Theodore approaching her.

"What's up Nott?" Romina raised an eyebrow at him.

"You tell me," he responded rather sourly, something that Romina and Rolf exchanged glances for. "Since you seem to be besties with Arden."

"I don't 'seem to be', I am," Romina corrected. "Have you not being paying attention for the past 4 years?"

Theodore rolled his eyes at her. "Where the hell is she? I can't find her."

"Why are you of all people looking for Arden?"

"Well, I've been trying to get a word with Draco but he keeps blowing me off!"

"And the connection between that and Arden would be…?" Romina made a gesture with her hand for Theodore to get on with it. Beside her, Rolf wanted to laugh at how his cousin was handling things. She just had a way, didn't she?

"I was partners with Draco in Divination and then suddenly he says he's taking Parkinson instead and that I have to be Arden's partner now."

Romina paused just to replay Theodore's words in her head and make sure she heard right. "Sorry, you said…"

"No explanation whatsoever and whenever I try to ask about it, turns out neither Draco more Arden can be found!" Theodore scowled. "And the moments that I've caught them, they're always together."

At that, Romina had to laugh. "Yeah right!" Theodore wasn't laughing. He stared at Romina long and hard until she got the message. "Oh, you weren't kidding…" She blinked. "That makes zero sense. They couldn't stop complaining last year that they were stuck as each other's partners for Divination. In fact, the only thing they could both agree on is that this year it would be better because they wouldn't be partners anymore. Why would they be doing favors for each other?"

"Really Oswell? You can't figure it out?" Theodore snapped.

"Figure what out?" Romina made a face. She glanced at Rolf and saw that he was more or less agreeing with Theodore. "What? What am I missing?"

"They're either together or nowhere to be found, which is really just the former," Theodore said, "They're seeing each other in secret. They're dating — which is disgusting!"

"They so gotta be," Rolf agreed, crossing his arms and nodding his head.

Theodore gave him a grateful gesture for seeing it his way. "Right? Thanks, Gyrffindor."

"My name is Rolf."

Theodore ignored him in favor of Romina who had yet to say anything. "Well, Oswell, Arden's your friend. Get her to leave my things alone and by that, I mean keep her paws off—"

"No," Romina spat, her nose crinkling.

"Romina, just use your connections—"

"No!" Romina yelled with a sudden rush of anger. "You're mad if you think you're right!"

"No I'm not," frowned Theodore, "I've been chasing them down for a whole week. I have eyes, Romina. They're always together!"

"NO!" Romina's anger kept rising like bile in her throat. "That's not true! They're not dating!"

"Romina," Rolf gently called to calm her down. He didn't think she'd want the attention from others in the hallway.

Romina drew her arm away when Rolf attempted to touch her. "He's being stupid, Rolf," she said in reference to Theodore, "The last people who would ever date each other in this world are Draco and Arden!"

"Then how do you explain the switcheroo Draco pulled on me?" Theodore challenged her. "Unless he did it to spend time with Pansy—"

"NO!" Romina said just as loudly as before. Neither option settled well in her stomach.

"God, Romina, why are you so mad with me?" Theodore made a face, genuinely insulted that somehow he was on the receiving end of her wrath. "I'm just as lost. If you see either of them, send 'em my way will you?"

Romina's entire face scrunched with anger. With no words to describe her emotions, she settled for attempting to shove Theodore.

"Woah!" Rolf quickly reached out for his cousin and grabbed her arms.

"Dammit Romina, you're mad!" Theodore took several cautious steps back from her.

"And you're a liar!" Romina snapped. She wanted to free herself of Rolf's grip but he was surprisingly strong.

"I will leave her with you," Theodore said to Rolf. His eyes flickered back to Romina. "Talk to me when you don't have flames bursting from your head."

Romina glared daggers after him. "He's lying, he's got to be," she said. "Arden would never!"

"Romina, calm down," Rolf urged her. "Why are you so mad?"

"Because Theodore's making up lies about my best friend, Arden!" Romina wrestled free from his grip even when it ended up hurting her elbow a bit.

"That's it?" Rolf asked cautiously but still ended up getting a crazed look from Romina anyways.

"What do you mean 'that's it?'?" She frowned. "Of course it is! What else is there?"

Rolf seemed like he wanted to answer that but for safety reasons, he decided to hold his tongue. "You know we're family right?"

"Obviously!" Romina exclaimed, exasperated.

"So you know I'd never say anything, right?"

"The hell are you talking about?"

"Nothing," Rolf said, shrugging his shoulders. "Just a reminder. Let's go to Muggle Studies, yeah? Calm down a bit?"

Romina nodded slowly. Her heart was beating too fast like it would implode any moment. That wasn't healthy.

"You want to come into the Gryffindor common room?" Rolf asked, grinning.

"I can't do that, Rolf…"

"Yes you can. There's no rules about it in any of the books."

For the first time since Theodore had shown up, Romina managed to smile. "Who are you, Hermione Granger?"

Rolf laughed. "That's my cousin. C'mon." He came up beside her and slung his arm around her shoulders.

"Oh yeah," Arden nodded. "Carolinha and Daphne are quiet sleepers, unlike you and Millicent. And the twins had no problem switching with us either, so..."

Pansy was unconvinced. "You're making it up! I'm still telling Snape!"

"Go for it, I'm sure he would love to be bothered by something as petty—and rule abiding—as dorm switching." Romina patted Pansy's shoulder. "You were right, this is the perfect way to start the school year." Whatever trace of the sweet smile Romina had vanished. "Because I learned my lesson, Parkinson. I am not taking your bullshit anymore. Sure, you might get under my skin every once in a while but I'll be damned if I let you ridicule me in front of the school again."

Pansy couldn't fume any more than she already was. "We'll see," she said as a last resort to keep her standing...somewhat.

"Goodbye!" Romina waved and turned with Arden, both striding off for the Great Hall.

"How great did that feel?" Arden asked Romina as they headed for their table.

"So good!" Romina laughed.

When the two girls finally reached their table, they noticed that the Durmstrang boys had for some reason chosen their table as their permanent choice for the rest of the year.

"Not that it's much of a sacrifice, you know," Daphne said with a dreamy sigh, her spoon making languid circles in her porridge bowl.

"Ditto," Arden said, her eyebrows raised as she "studied" one of the Durmstrang boys closest to them.

"I kinda wish the Beauxbatons had been here, honestly," Romina said, surprising the girls. "They look more approachable."

"Really? You'd rather them after dinner last night?" Carolinha mused. "You weren't exactly approachable either."

Romina knew exactly what they were talking about and preferred to shove a spoonful of porridge into her mouth.

"Can't help but notice you're short one charmed headband," Arden said, humming innocently.

"You'll be one mouth short if you keep talking," Romina muttered. She had practically threatened Draco with what he would die of if he didn't take the headband back last night. "I meant because my grandmother went to Beauxbatons Academy. I'd like to start picking up on my French side, you know. Besides, these boys were idiots last night anyways."

"She's got a point there," Carolinha said, glancing towards the entrance to see her brother coming in along with Draco, Theodore and Blaise. "I bet they're missing like half the brain, you know?"

They snickered until they were joined by those missing half their brains.

"What's so funny?" Angel eyed his sister curiously as he slid in beside her.

"Oh, nothing," Carolinha waved him off. "Just talking."

"Oswell," Draco regarded as he sat down opposite her next to Carolinha.

"Morning," Romina greeted then, because he had given her an odd look for that greeting, she added, "I'm mad, not rude. I can be civil."

"They're still here," Blaise remarked when he saw the Durmstrang boys at the edge of their table.

"What? Were you wishing for the Beauxbatons too?" Daphne called. "Can always try to go find a spot at the Ravenclaws' table."

As they had breakfast, the owls poured into the room. Romina was surprised when she had an owl that didn't belong to her. It wasn't a stranger, however. She took the folded letter from the warm brown owl with a soft 'thanks' and started opening it.

"Who's that from?" Daphne startled Romina. She was leaning on Romina to see the letter.

"God—Daphne! Could you be a little nosier!?" Romina shifted slightly. Daphne shrugged and continued to eat breakfast.

"Anything good?" Arden asked Romina once she skimmed the letter.

"It's from my grandmother," Romina smiled broadly, clearing her throat to read (to the best of her ability):

'Ma douce Romina, I am ecstatic to know that Hogwarts will be playing host to the Beauxbaton Academy. Madam Maxime was an incredible headmistress during my time. Superbe. I have already written to her about mes petits-enfants who attend Hogwarts. Say bonjour to her for me, please! And also take care. We are aware of how dangerous the Tri-wizard tournament can be so please, don't attempt to go around the rules to enter.

Take care,

Grand-mère Abigail.

P.S. Do not worry about your dress robes, I have already spoken to your aunt and uncle about it. I will send them to you later in the year, along with Rolf's.

"No way—the Abigail Gejel wrote to you!?" Daphne snatched the parchment out of Romina's hands, leaving her stunned in place for a second. "You're so lucky, Romina!"

Romina snapped out of her moment to snatch her letter back. "It's Abigail Scamander, for your information! Gejel is her maiden name! And she's my grandmother, of course she would write to me! Though…" she gave the letter another perusing, "I don't really understand what she meant by 'dress robes'."

"You could have just asked," Draco said, "But you're too stubborn."

"Oh, not this again!" She frowned. "If you're just dying to tell me, go for it!"

"No, no, you're upset." He raised his hands in front of him. "But it must be getting annoying that everyone knows what's going on except for you."

"I still don't know," Arden reminded him.

He looked at her as if he was considering telling her just to spite Romina. At the last moment, however, he decided against it. "And if anybody else decides to spill—Angel—" he made a point of stating the brunette's name, "—you'll take it up with me."

Angel sighed. "Come off it, Malfoy. Don't you think it's going too far?"

"Not at all," Draco said plainly, He pointedly ignored Romina's flaming glare on him. "If it's the game Oswell wants to play, then game on."

"Oh God, not another competition," Arden shook her head. "You guys are way too competitive, you know that?"

"Fine," Romina decided, pushing herself up from her seat to leave. She'd lost most of her appetite anyways. "Just remember, we still have Care of Magical Creatures class together and I've learned a few things about creatures this summer from the expert, aka my grandfather Newt Scamander. Look him up."

Unfazed, Draco responded, "Yeah, and we're still Potions partners. I'd watch what you touch."

"Unbelievable," Arden mumbled to the others. They were more startled than anything else. Where did the sudden drive to be competitive with each other come from?

~ 0 ~

Romina was very much disappointed to find out Hermione dropped Muggle Studies. It left the little trio that she, Hermione and Rolf had created in the class as a duo instead.

"I don't blame her, though, I thought she was taking a workload," Rolf remarked in a quiet whisper during class. "I don't know how she managed to handle all of her classes."

"You don't even want to know," Romina said, eyebrows raised at the reminder of all the classes Hermione had been taking the previous year. She was glad that Hermione was de-stressing this year with the normal amount of classes.

"So did you get a letter from grandma too?" asked Rolf, ducking his head suddenly when the professor happened to look their way.

"The one where she said we should talk to Maxime? Yeah. Are you going to do it?"

Rolf's snort was answer enough. "What do I have to talk about with that woman? Not like my interests are going to match with hers."

Romina had to cover her mouth before her giggles became too loud. Sitting in the back didn't always shield them from getting caught.

"Are you going to talk to her?" Rolf asked a moment later. The professor had started talking about their plans for the first term, something about a project.

"Dunno," Romina shrugged. "I'm actually a little afraid that she'll know more about grandma than I will, and of course she will."

"That's not your fault, Romina," Rolf reminded, sending his cousin a soft smile. "And the important part is that you're with us now."

"But still, what if she asks me stuff and I have to tell her who I am—my name."

"Romina, when are you going to drop the stuff with your name?"

Romina pursed her lips. "It's a work in progress, trust me."

"Fair enough. Talk to her if you'd like, but grandma Abby won't be mad if you don't do it."

That, Romina knew was true. She focused on the class, the first time since it began, in hopes of calming her nerves. There were plenty of things to think about suddenly, and not all were good.

"Alright," the professor said, clapping her hands together, "This project—does anybody have any suggestions or—"

Romina's hand shot up in the air, so fast that she almost left her chair in the process. "Oh I do! I do! Professor—I've got ideas!"

Rolf looked at his cousin, deadpanning her, "Maybe it won't feel like Hermione really left the class..."

Romina's head snapped in his direction, brows furrowed and lips curled into a frown.

~ 0 ~

"Bubotubers," Professor Sprout announced to the fourth years as soon as class began. She was so excited which deeply contrasted the rest of the class when she said they would be squeezing to extract pus.

Carolinha's nose crinkled at the plants in front of her and Romina. On the other side of the table, Arden and Angel were looking more or less the same. Daphne was already refusing to do such a thing.

"These things are already so ugly, you're telling me they have pus inside them?" Carolinha could've whined if Pansy hadn't beaten her to it.

"Ew! I don't want to touch them, much less squeeze them!" she exclaimed.

Romina hated that she actually agreed with Pansy. The plants were gross, for a lack of a better word. They were thick, black and kind of sluggy. Each time they squirmed, they gave sight of their shiny swellings that were indeed full of liquid.

"The pus is extremely valuable so don't waste," Sprout warned them, "You'll collect it in those bottles in front of you. Wear you dragon-hide gloves, please. It can do funny things to the skin when undiluted."

"How is this not a crime?" Romina blurted, causing a streak of snickers amongst the others.

Sprout was one of the most lenient professors, definitely light-hearted with her own humor, so she cracked a smile. "Miss Oswell, there are worse things to do, trust me."

"Yes, but...couldn't we just learn, I don't know, the theoretical side of it?"

Sprout chuckled. "You can always write me an essay to turn in by the next class time. Is that appealing?"

Romina shook her head. "No, not really."

"Grab your gloves, Miss Oswell."

"Yes, ma'am." Romina dejectedly reached for her gloves and met Arden's snickering face. "Shut up, Arden."

"At least she tried getting us out of this," Angel shuddered as he slipped the gloves on.

"Ready, Carol?" Romina checked on the squeaking brunette beside her. Carolinha looked ready to pass out as she watched Daphne and Theodore squeeze the pus out of their plant. Romina sighed. "Guess not."

Her gaze fell on Arden and Angel who were having enough trouble finding their balance. Romina loved Arden but she was too brusque sometimes and that simply wasn't in Angel's character.

"Arden, not so hard!"

"Just hold the dang bottle!"

Romina laughed shortly and only because a stream of pus squirted right past her face. Startled, she stumbled back a step with wide blinking eyes.

"Oh my God!" Carolinha screeched when the pus splattered on the table in front of her.

"Oops," Pansy said, smiling far too sweetly for anybody to believe her.

Romina's surprise immediately vanished to be replaced with anger. "Parkinson!"

"It was an accident," Pansy said, raising her gloved hands. "Isn't that right Millicent?"

"Course," Millicent nodded.

"Don't get upset, Oswell, she was just getting a headstart for you," Draco remarked. He seemed to be doing good on his plant, though Romina wondered how long it would last since Crabb's hands were massive for the little bottle.

Romina scowled. "Siding with Parkinson now? Why am I not surprised?"

Pansy certainly was and she basked in it. Her heavy giggles were irritating enough, but to handle that for the rest of the class period? That was just cruel.

"Romina—eek!—could you not squeeze so hard?" Carolinha squeaked when some of the pus landed near her foot.

Romina was gripping the poor plant between her gloved hands. "I'm—agh!—not!" She groaned. She was also definitely not listening to Pansy gushing over whatever the hell Draco was doing either. Her back was to them for the very same reason.

"I'm actually concerned for the plant at this point," Arden said.

"Shut up!" Romina promptly snapped and squeezed the plant at the same time.

Carolinha whimpered. "R-Romina, how about we switch places? Angel—you want to take my place?"

Angel shook his head. "No, no, I'm good this time around."

Arden snorted. "Wuss." Later on, she would offer Carolinha to switch places. She had a better handle on Romina anyways.

When class was over, Romina, not quite discreetly, chucked her gloves in Pansy's direction. When Pansy shrieked, Romina sent her the same sweet smile Pansy had before. "Oops, honest mistake."

Arden quickly got Romina out of there before Pansy decided to retaliate. Neither girl should be anywhere near dangerous undiluted Bubotuber pus.

~ 0 ~

For some reason, the professors of that day had decided to start out with odd and potentially scary creatures for the first lessons. For Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid had chosen Blast-Ended Skrewts.

"Why does everything have slime today!?" Romina shuddered. She stared at the lobster-like creatures in the cages. They didn't have the shells, though, which took away a good part of the lobster-esque appearance. The legs sprouting from every angle and the lack of head also helped with that.

"And it smells bad too," Arden said, her nose scrunched.

"What did you guys do today?" Harry sent the pair of girls bemused looks.

"What, you mean Herbology wasn't enough for you today?" Romina said, still shuddering from the ungodly amount of pus they had seen.

Harry chuckled. "Yeah, it was funny watching Ron squeeze it out. But why are you in such a foul mood today?"

"Oh, don't get her started, Harry, please," Arden said quickly and ushered them forwards.

Hermione was calling for Hagrid ahead of them. "What are we waiting for, Hagrid?"

"For the rest of the class o' course!" Hagrid exclaimed. His eyes swept over the Gryffindor class and Romina and Arden. "Yo'r early!"

"No, Carolinha refused to go anywhere without changing first," Arden said. "And then went double for Daphne."

"Um, excuse me?" they heard Angel's call. The rest of the class was finally arriving. "Professor, what are those?" Angel pointed a finger at the cages.

Hagrid was happy to repeat and finally begin the lesson. "On'y jus' hatched! So yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yourselves! Though we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

"And why on Earth would we want to raise them?" demanded Draco from behind. He was just as disgusted as the rest of the class.

Romina sighed beside Arden. At Arden's glance, Romina confided a secret. "I hate that I agree with him." Arden shook her head but smiled silently. The creatures weren't appealing in the slightest.

"I mean, what do they do? What is the point of them?" Draco insisted.

"Tha's next lesson, Malfoy!" Hagrid said, "Yer jus' feedin' 'em today! Yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things! I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer—I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake. Just try 'em out with a bit of each."

"Why?" Pansy groaned.

"Oh just pipe down and do it, Parkinson!" Arden snapped. She had no desire to do it but if Pansy hated it then she would gladly do it.

"They're just creatures, guys," Rolf said. He was about the only one out of the entire class eager to discover what the creatures would like to eat. "Don't hurt 'em and they won't hurt you."

"Rom, tell your cousin we still don't want to do it," Harry stepped beside Romina. She chuckled.

"I don't think he'll listen to my words right now. This is nothing compared to what our grandfather has told us."

"Would you like to take it first, then?" Harry stepped back purposely, gesturing towards the cages. Rolf was already reaching inside the cages to take out a skrewt.

Romina scrunched her face. "Not really. I vote we let Ron go first."

"What!?" screeched the redhead. "I don't want to do it!"

Hermione tutted at them. "C'mon, Hagrid looks really excited. We don't want to disappoint."

Indeed Hagrid did look very excited. He watched as each of his students took a skrewt out of the cage and attempted to feed them.

Dean Thomas yelped at one point, angrily waving his burned thumb. "Its end exploded!"

"Ah yea, that can happen when they blast off," Hagrid said. Behind him, Angel and Arden exchanged wide eyed glances then took a careful step away from their skrewts.

"Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?" Lavender Brown asked, sounding far too much like Pansy at that moment. Romina almost felt sorry for even thinking about it.

"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," Hagrid explained rather excitedly, "I reckon they're the males. The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies. I think they might be ter suck blood."

"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," Draco said with a loud huff to attract several gazes, including Romina's, "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting and bite all at once?"

"Gonna call your father to have them killed too?" Romina snapped. Beside her, Harry was really wishing that, for once, nobody said anything to Draco. He didn't want to see Hagrid carrying yet more bad weight because of Draco.

Draco gave a bob of his head. "Wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Right," Romina rolled her eyes, "Cos you and your dad agree on everything, don't you? Such hard headed people."

Draco snorted at her. "And you're stubborn."

"That's the same thing, genius!"

Harry felt a light tug on his arm and found Arden standing some inches behind him. She made a motion for him to scoot back with her.

"That's been going all day," she informed him, discreetly pointing over to Romina and Draco who, in their bickering, had taken several steps towards each other.

"I've never seen Rom so animated, so...big on hating…" Harry remarked. Part of him was guilty for feeling relief. It wasn't very long ago that he had stupidly asked Romina if there was ever anything between her and Malfoy. Stupid indeed. "What's she so mad about anyways?"

"Oh no, I'm not getting into that." Arden raised her hands in front of her. "Rom would kill me. You can ask Hermione though. She probably already figured it out."

Harry's brow furrowed. "Hermione?" He frowned. What could Hermione possibly know that happened between Romina and Draco?

~ 0 ~

"Romina, what is that?" Carolinha had noticed the oddly shaped box peeking out from under Romina's bed. She and Daphne had been watching their newest roommates finish unpacking and settling in their dormitory.

Romina stopped rummaging through her small accessory box to see what Carolinha was pointing at. "Huh? Oh, that's my violin case!"

"You brought that here?" Arden snorted from her bed. She slammed her trunk shut and walked over to Romina to see for herself.

"Yeah, I figured I might have some time to practice," Romina shrugged. "Plus, it was getting kinda dusty back home. I don't want it to stop working because I don't use it."

"You actually play that?" Daphne crawled to the foot of her bed to get a better look at the box.

Romina stepped back and bent down to pull the box out completely. "Of course. One of my more calm habits." She unblocked the box and popped it open to reveal a deep mahogany violin. "Keeps me relaxed."

"Looks pretty," Carolinha remarked. "I've seen those be played but I think I wouldn't get it. I'm too impatient for that kind of stuff."

"Same—I'd rather see someone else play it," Daphne said.

"Maybe you could play something later," Arden suggested, clapping a hand over Romina's shoulder.

"What?" Romina laughed, her face flushed with embarrassment. "No, no, nobody wants to hear—"

"We do!" Carolinha and Daphne said, both of them even raising a hand high in the air.

Arden held a thumbs up at them. "The lake seems like a good place!"

"You guys really want to hear me?" Romina made a face. "I'm not...I mean I've learned it the muggle way, remember?"

"So?" Carolinha and Daphne asked.

"Stop doing that," Romina pointed at the pair. "And what I mean is, all the songs that I know, the tunes—it's from muggles. As in classical muggle music, pop muggle music...all that stuff."

"Then it'll make things more interesting," Carolinha shrugged, "Angel and I have never heard muggle music before."

"Well, alright, I guess. When we have free time, then," Romina said. She closed the lid and locked it.

"Locking it?" Arden snorted as she headed back to her bed. "Afraid I'll go picking it or something?"

"Not you, Pansy," Romina said ever so casually, and it was. She'd come back to school with the mentality that she should never be surprised with anything that Pansy does. She shouldn't underestimate Pansy at all.

"But she's in a different dorm," Carolinha said, "You really think she'd come picking through your stuff all the way here?"

This time, both Romina and Arden snorted.

"You have met Pansy Parkinson, right?" Arden asked, flopping down on her bed. "She already did it once."

"She's not that bad…" Daphne said, keeping true to her mediator kind of ways.

"Have you forgotten everything she did last year to Rom?" Arden pointed over to Romina who'd taken a seat on her bed again. She still had one last small box to go through before she was officially done unpacking.

"Of course not," Daphne puffed. "I just don't like the constant arguing between people I know. And I've known Pansy my whole life. She's never acted like that with anyone, I swear."

"Then I must be exceptionally special in her eyes," Romina said bitterly. Heavy silence fell in the room. Romina made herself busy with her last accessories but there was no doubt that she was thinking about the series of troubles she'd gone through because of Pansy.

"Why don't we go get dinner?" asked Arden, feeling like the silence was just growing more and more uncomfortable. "I'm sure that Angel's saving us seats. Rom?"

Romina nodded. She put a planet-shaped pin in her hair to keep it off her face. She then slipped her box under her bed as well and followed the girls out of the dorm.

"What do you guys think we're going to do for Transfiguration this year?" Daphne asked on their way up to the main corridor. "I heard McGonagall is going to go all out for our O.W.L.'s"

"What?" Arden scrunched her face. "But we won't take those until next year!"

"But we should still start preparing early," Romina said, prompting Arden to scoff.

"Oh please, you're like a genius in that class so you'll be totally fine!"

Their entry to the Great Hall would take a bit longer than they had anticipated. There was a great big crowd right outside of the entrance and in the center was the whole reason why. Draco had the latest Daily Prophet in his position and it apparently featured Ron's father. Ron, Harry and Hermione were amongst the group listening.

Mr. Weasley had apparently ensued a fight with the muggle policemen, resulting in the several modified memories to cover up what Mad-Eye-Moody had swore was a true emergency. It was all a false alarm and it'd basically blown up in their faces.

"Well that's just terrible," Arden mumbled to the girls, "Why aren't they bothering Mad-Eye Moody about this? He's the one who raised the alarm, after all."

"Doesn't matter, Rita Skeeter always looks for a story to tell even if it's from the wrong angle," Daphne remarked.

"Who's Rita Skeeter?" Arden asked.

"The worst reporter in the wizarding world," Carolinha sighed. "She's a liar, manipulative, and unfortunately for some reason, people still hang onto her every word."

"Not much of a mystery why," Romina muttered. "People thrive on rumors."

"This looks bad..." Carolinha said as the tension ahead grew worse.

"MOVE IT!" Romina's sudden roar had most of the crowd flinching, all except for Arden and Harry who'd heard it many times before. "GO!" The crowd started rushing inside the Great Hall, most of them anyways. Romina pushed her way through the remaining people, including Harry. "You just couldn't help yourself, could you?" She stopped in front of Draco.

"Hey, I just read what was on the article," he said, raising his hands in defense. Behind them, they heard Ron snort and mutter 'Fat chance!'.

Romina snatched the paper from him, rolling it up fast to then smack him over the head with it. "You're not actually dumb but I guess today you're striving to prove me wrong!"

Draco was momentarily stunned, his eyes wide. "Did you just…?" Romina raised an eyebrow at him, confirming his unfinished question. "You're off your rocker, Oswell!" He huffed, snatching the rolled up paper from her.

"Not as much as you are! Rita Skeeter of all people? Seriously?" Romina pushed past him into the Great Hall. She wasn't very hungry anymore but it beat staying where she was. She went directly for the Slytherins' table and plopped down beside Angel, startling him in the process.

"Uh, hey Romina," he greeted kindly as was his usual style, "You okay?"

"Peachy." Romina started grabbing different meals, though her hand stopped halfway to a bowl with something creamy inside. "Is that fish stew?"

"Yeah, the Beauxbatons are already eyeing it," Angel said, making a nod towards the Ravenclaw table. Several blue robed students were glancing their way. "I'm just waiting for them to come get the thing. It stinks."

Romina agreed. She gathered more things on her plate and began eating at once. Little by little, the rest of their group started joining them. From the corner of her eye, Romina saw Draco take a seat further down the table with Crabb, Goyle and (unfortunately) Pansy.

That's fine. She met Arden's face which was smiling for some reason. "What?"

"You smacked Draco Malfoy in public with a rolled up Daily Prophet and got away with it."

Angel nearly choked on his pumpkin juice. "You did what?"

"Ron sends his eternal gratitude," Arden went on, reaching for some mashed potatoes, "I think he'll be building you a shrine now."

They all laughed.

"You need to control your temper before you get into actual trouble, though," Daphne warned, "Draco has his own temper too and you know what he's like with Harry. I wouldn't want to see that become your problem too."

"Oh, he's not doing that with me," Romina said with absolute certainty.

Angel eyed her curiously. "And how do you know?"

Romina stopped to think. She didn't know why she said it so surely but she just knew. Maybe it was their past coming into play. "I just...do," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, maybe it's not him you need to worry about," Carolinha said, earning Romina's strange glance. "Pansy's giving you the stink eye."

Romina looked past Carolinha down the table to meet Pansy's death glare. No doubt she'd learned about the incident. "They're a bit cozy," she remarked suddenly.

"She's a piranha looking for opportunities and you're handing them to her on a silver platter," Arden said.

Romina snorted. "Bloody how?"

For her own safety, Arden kept quiet and switched topics instead.

~ 0 ~

Later in the week, Romina managed to find some time alone with Harry to talk. They'd been slightly missing each other in school for whatever reason, even when they shared some of their classes. They walked along the bridge in the afternoon.

"Is Ron's Dad really okay, though?" Romina was wondering. She didn't have the nerve to ask Ron directly. After the fiasco with the article, Romina assumed he wanted to forget and move on.

"Yeah, yeah, just a big misunderstanding," Harry said. Like Romina, he didn't really discuss the matter with Ron.

"Arden made a good point, she said why wasn't Moody getting his spotlight for starting the problem in the first place."

Harry half smiled. That sounded like Arden. "I don't think the Ministry wants to further the issue. They want whatever that woman wrote to die along with the problem."

"Makes sense," Romina shrugged. "Kinda like Hollywood, huh?"

Harry laughed. "Yeah, like that." He side-glanced Romina with another smile. "I missed you, you know."

"I know, me too," she sighed. "I thought we were going to be able to hang out during summer but I guess that didn't happen much, right?"

Harry shook his head. "You got a new family and...I got the Dursleys'."

Romina patted his shoulders. "You are always welcome to move in with me."

Harry laughed at the idea. "That ought to give your aunt and uncle a heart attack or something."

"At the very least, it would take some of the attention off of me," Romina said, bringing a hand to her chest. "Because after the World Cup incident, they watched me like a hawk. Speaking of, how are we doing with you and your scar?"

Harry shrugged. "Hasn't hurt anymore."

"And did you actually write to Sirius?"

"I did…"

Romina stopped walking to eye her friend suspiciously. "Why am I getting the feeling there's a 'but' coming?" Harry pursed his lips and turned his head away. Romina swore he mumbled something else. "What was that?"

With a sigh, Harry repeated himself and louder. "I may have written a second letter telling him I made a mistake and my scar hadn't really hurt."

Romina's eyes widened. "Harry Potter!"

"I had to, Rom! He was flying north to be near me!"

"So!?"

"So?" Harry frowned. "Did you forget that the Ministry is still looking for him? I don't want him to get caught because he was trying to be near me! It doesn't even matter though, he didn't believe me."

"Good," Romina said, ignoring his incredulous face. "He's learned who you are, that'll be good for the future."

"Romima!"

Romina shook her head. "Harry, I'm really sorry for how this is going to sound but...Sirius is the only adult in your family who actually cares for you!" She winced at her own words. That really did sound terrible. It was even more terrible that it was true. "Please don't under-appreciate the fact."

"I'm not, I'm really not," promised Harry. "I know my reality and that's why I didn't want Sirius coming anywhere near here."

"But he is and the best thing you can do, the fair thing, is to be honest with him."

Harry gave a small nod of his head. "Yeah, I know. Don't really have much of a choice, do I? Seeing as he didn't even believe me anyways."

Romina laughed. "He knows you enough."

"C'mon, we should get going. We have our first session of potions today." Harry reluctantly turned back, and so did Romina. "It should be interesting with Snape given how sure he is that I helped Sirius escape."

"Harry, you did help him escape," Romina reminded him.

"Ha, ha," Harry bobbed his head. "So did you. I wonder what your head of House would say about it?"

"Hasn't said anything about it, actually."

Harry snorted. "Wonder why, Slytherin. You know you guys are immune to his wrath."

Romina chuckled. "C'mon Harry, neither of us will be immune if we're late! Let's go!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards the castle.

~0~

Upon entering Snape's class, the professor immediately threw a hard look in Harry's direction. Harry was sure that both Ron and Hermione had received the same looks too.

"Coming to sit with us, then?" Harry mumbled to Romina as they took slow steps towards the seats. They'd managed to get to class with minutes to spare.

"To be frank, I'm not sure," Romina said, eyes falling on the empty seat beside Draco. Harry recognized the look on her face; she was calculating.

"Rom? C'mon," Harry pulled her arm forwards, "He's not worth it." As much as he would love to see to what extent Romina could get away with in the eyes of her head of House, he would rather not see it happen because of Malfoy.

Romina easily got out of Harry's grip. "Give me a second, I want to see something." She stopped walking altogether, forcing Harry to stop as well.

"See what?" Harry dreaded to know. Romina half smirked as she backtracked. Harry sighed. Romina was kind until someone poked her wrong side, then she was mischievous. He genuinely worried for her. "Rom, he can hurt you," he hissed.

Romina's expression was a clear indication of what she believed. "He's not going to hurt me," she waved him off. She turned on her heels and walked back to what used to be (or, depending on the situation, what could still be) her seat.

Whether or not Draco had been watching wasn't clear for her. He was scribbling over a piece of parchment. "Gotta say, thought you'd take a seat beside Potter. Or Angel for that matter."

"What? So my seat is still open then?" Romina looked around the classroom. "I thought you'd be saving it for Parkinson." Pansy had yet to show up to the class.

Draco snorted. He finally put down his things and looked up at her, his expression sour. "She's terrible at Potions. I'm not sacrificing my grades for her."

Romina's eyebrows raised. "Mm, so that means you're willing to do other stuff for her."

"Why's that any concern to you? Last time I heard, Angel's willing to do a lot for you. You know he's not talking to me because of you?"

"How is that my fault?"

"Really?" Draco tilted his head at her. Romina rolled her eyes and sat down beside him. "When are you finally going to tell him to get lost?"

"I'm not talking about that with you," she promptly said, eyes looking directly ahead. She could feel Harry's eyes burning on her. Clearly he didn't like where she'd chosen to sit.

When class finally started, Snape was even less than pleasant with the class. He left the assignment pretty early into the session, making it clear that he had very little faith they would be able to produce exactly what he asked for.

Romina put all her attention on the ingredients they needed and the best way to introduce them to the mixture.

"You're being ridiculous you know," Draco remarked halfway through class. Granted it had been a quiet remark so only they were in on the conversation.

Romina was looking over the passage of their concoction; she had very little interest in what it would even be in the end. "Me? Seriously?"

"Who's the one who's been violent?" Draco pointedly reminded her. "You've punched me and smacked me."

"I did not 'smack', I...lightly tapped." Romina flinched at Draco's hard snort.

"What? And I suppose the punch was a tap as well?"

"Mm, no, that was a punch." Romina looked up with a wide smile. "And you had that coming."

"Then I guess you have things coming too."

"What, you'll hit me back?"

"I don't 'hit', Oswell. That's beneath me. I have...other means of retaliation." Draco handed her the missing piece of her herb.

"What?" Romina took the herb into her fingers. "Couple jinxes?"

Draco shook his head. "No."

Romina rolled her eyes and dumped the piece into the cauldron. As soon as it landed, the contents gurgled and squirted against Romina's hand. She hissed at the contact, drawing her hand back and shaking it until the burning sensation died down. She met Draco's smirking, very pleased, face and immediately scowled. "You're a jerk!"

"I've heard worse," Draco shrugged.

Romina took in a deep breath. Yelling in Snape's class would automatically earn her detention, even if she was a Slytherin. And besides, being stuck in detention meant she couldn't possibly get Draco back. It was a lose, lose situation. She would hold her tongue for the rest of the class, but that didn't mean she let Draco go completely.

Maybe her elbow slipped on his side.

And, apparently, maybe his foot happened to be near her ankle when she got up.

With a growl, she slammed her book over his hand. (Snape may have yelled at Dean Thomas in front of them for that one).

"Maybe I will take Parkinson over you as a partner," Draco spat on their way out of class. "She's got to be less annoying than you at this point."

Romina scoffed. "Please. You just want someone who gushes at everything you do!"

"Potions is where I excel," he said smugly. The worst part was that he was right. He was a genius in Potions; Romina had always praised him for it. "It would be nice to hear someone give me credit."

"I'm sure she'll have no problem with that," Romina said with a huff and marched on.

~ 0 ~

When Hermione plopped down in the seat opposite to Romina in the library, the latter flinched but kept on writing. "You've got homework already?" Hermione asked quietly.

"That is why I'm in the library, Hermione," Romina replied in the same hushed tone. She looked up briefly to send a smile to the brunette. "That why you're here already? During dinner I should add."

Hermione bobbed her head. "Not...exactly. Let's just say I'm doing some research."

Romina chuckled very lightly. She couldn't afford another warning from Madame Pince. Arden had been with her earlier and they hadn't exactly been the quietest.

"What about you? You're here doing an essay during dinner?" Hermione asked curiously. "We didn't see you at your table."

"How could you—the Durmstrang kids are huge," Romina's remark caused a mutual snicker. "Girls and boys."

"Least you don't get the stink eye from the Beauxbatons, some of them are quite judgy," Hermione said, scrunching her face.

"Maybe it's cos they're older. They are 17, remember?"

Hermione shrugged. "Who knows. So, what's the essay you're working on?"

"Snape's," Romina muttered. "Liking him a little less today."

"Welcome to the club."

Romina half smiled. "Anyways, I'm almost done with it if you wanted help on whatever you're researching."

"You're not eating tonight, then?" Hermione asked, a look of concern crossing her face.

"Not very hungry." Romina reached for a book. "Besides, this essay's a little trickier than I thought. Ironic considering it's about the calming draught."

"What's that on your fingers?" Hermione's eyes had widened when she spotted the faint red tint on Romina's right hand fingers.

"Huh?" Romina followed Hermione's gaze to her hand. "Oh," she set her book down on the table, "Funny little trick from Draco in the last class. Gave me a bigger slice of an herb to put into the cauldron—that git. But it doesn't hurt. I'm sure it'll go away soon."

"That's terrible," Hermione said, reaching over for Romina's hand. "Romina, maybe you should drop it."

"Drop what?"

Hermione's expression sharpened. "I know what this is all about. I haven't told Harry or Ron, if you're wondering, but I can't just stand on the side knowing the whole reason you're going head to head with Draco is because of what he said about me. If anything, it's my battle and I'm not interested in fighting it so you shouldn't be either."

"No," Romina shook her head. "Hermione, it's not your fault."

"It is," Hermione bit on her bottom lip, "I'm afraid of what could happen if this escalates. It's all well for Harry, Ron and myself. We're not in the same House as Malfoy. We just go up to the Tower and we're done with him, but you? He could hurt you."

Romina groaned. "How many times do I have to say that he won't!?" She and Hermione both flinched when Madame Pince shushed them from her desk.

"How can you be so sure?" Hermione asked when the coast was clear.

"Because…" Romina shrugged several times as nothing else came to mind.

"Well?"

"Because I just know, okay? I just do."

Hermione wasn't sure whether to be concerned over the war she knew she helped start or rather be concerned over Romina's certainty.

A/N:

They are actual teenagers in this chapter I swear xD.

"I wasn't talking about academic stress, Romina," Angel said and gave her a sharp side-eye. She knew what he meant and sighed. He had been present last night when she and Pansy had a row about the dumbest thing. "You really should try to just, I don't know, ignore her or something," Angel said.

"It's not as easy as you think. She's everywhere. I literally changed dorms to get away from her!"

"Yeah, Carol was really happy about the switch too. She'd never say it but she's kind of scared of Pansy, always has been growing up."

Romina snorted. "Nobody should ever be afraid of Pansy. I'm not scared of her, she just aggravates me."

They entered the Great Hall and went straight to the Slytherin table where their friends were sitting.

"I need some dark roast coffee stat," Romina said as they sat down together.

"You drink dark roast coffee for breakfast?" Angel chuckled.

"Sometimes," Romina shrugged. She had to pause to cover her yawn.

"Oooh, did somebody not get enough sleep last night?" Pansy's voice stopped the pair. She had come along with Millicent, the two going straight for the open seats near Draco, Crabb and Goyle.

Romina lamented that her bad morning was even worse now. "I'm not—Parkinson, keep it to yourself. I'm too tired to deal with you today." She should have at least a few hours to really wake up before she had to insult someone.

"I know," Pansy said, far too sure of what she was saying. "You know, I figured that since you keep ruining Draco's day, somebody should ruin your nights."

"What…? What did you do to me?" Romina left her breakfast as it was. Her eyes flickered between Pansy and Draco, expecting one of them to give her an explanation. Had she been less focused on the shock, she would've realized the flash of confusion on Draco's face.

"Simple nightmare potion," Pansy explained. The malicious glint in her eyes was strong and proud. "Even an idiot could make it."

"And an idiot did," Angel said, earning a brief glare from Pansy in return. "That is very low of you, Pansy. What were you thinking?"

Romina was flabbergasted. Her mind spun to think of when Pansy had slipped that potion to her. It was infuriating not knowing. "So this was some revenge ploy? A sleepless night?" She scoffed. "And really, Draco? Getting Parkinson to do it on your behalf? Beyond lazy!"

Draco glared and pointed his fork at her. "Would you stop calling me 'lazy'? I didn't ask anybody to—"

Romina rolled her eyes, not wanting to hear a word from him. "You're just pathetic. Instead of just apologizing for such a horrendous act, you make it even bigger!" She glared over at Pansy; the latter couldn't be any happier with the results.

"Better luck next time, I suppose," Pansy shrugged, her tone ever so calm.

Romina barely resisted the urge to throw her goblet upside Pansy's head. She pushed herself up from her seat and stormed away. It's too early, it's too early...

"Oswell!" She heard Draco's call not too far behind her.

Oh, God no. She picked up her pace in the hallway, deciding to head back to the common room instead. "Leave me alone!" She yelled back. "Go back and sit with your dear partner in crime!"

"I didn't ask Parkinson to do anything for me!" Draco expected the hard scoff Romina sent his way. It was the only place he could start. "It wasn't my idea!"

"Oh please!" Romina whirled around, finding he was closer to her than she thought. "You expect me to believe that?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

Draco's face expression was nothing if not incredulous. "Because I didn't do anything?" He was sure that was the best reason he could offer. "I'm guilty of many things, Oswell, but of this? No."

Romina still seemed mighty unconvinced. She folded her arms. "Yeah right! I just want to know when Pansy slipped it in. Was it while we were arguing last night?"

"Ask her! I didn't do it!"

Romina started backtracking from him. "Forget it, I don't believe you! Just know that I will get you back for this."

"Oswell, if you would just—"

"No! Don't say another word to me!"

Draco rolled his eyes at her. She had no idea. "But listen—"

"Not another word!"

"You don't want me to say anything else?"

"Exactly!"

"Even if it's actually important?"

"Yes!"

"Okay. I won't say anything else then," Draco promptly said. His small smile was confusing but Romina didn't want to give him any more of her time.

She turned around to continue on her way but the moment her foot stepped forwards, she found the ground wasn't there. She was at the staircase. She flailed and fell forwards—she never made it down. A strong tug on her arm yanked her back before she slid off.

Next thing Romina knew, she was looking at a smug-faced Draco right in front of her. "Didn't know you'd be falling for me, Oswell," he said. He really couldn't help it. It was too big of an opportunity to let pass.

Romina's scowl was imminent. "I...hate you! You saw me about to fall!"

"You told me not to say another word," Draco reminded her. He laughed when Romina tried to smack him, or at the very least "tap him" as she'd claimed she'd done the last time. She was locked between his arms no matter how much she attempted to free herself.

"You're an absolute jerk!" And perhaps a strong one at that. Romina groaned at her failed attempts. "Let me go before I punch you!"

"What? Not comfy?" Draco was clearly enjoying the moment. He could smell her rosy scent perfectly. Now he wondered if it was her hair or her perfume. Did she wear perfume?

"I am very prepared to throw both of us down these stairs," Romina declared.

Draco laughed earnestly for the first time in a long time. "You are very competitive, Oswell. Gotta say, I like it. You're making my days fun."

Romina scoffed, head turning away. "Please. Couple days ago you said I was being ridiculous."

"And I stand by it but you're funny when you're plotting. And kinda cute."

Romina's head snapped back in his direction, tilting up to meet his gaze. His silver-blue eyes were already on her, filled with nothing but confidence.

"That a bother?" he asked her.

Before Romina knew it, she was shaking her head slowly. Speak! She blinked at her own stupidity. Warmth flourished up her neck and face within seconds. SPEAK! "You…" This wasn't working—holy shit this wasn't working! She shoved Draco far away from her. "Stay away from me!"

Draco laughed and by God it was a graceful laugh too. Romina wanted to shove him down the stairs.

"C'mon Oswell, can't we call it a truce?" He asked, sending her a smug smile. "I think it would be better if we plotted together."

"In your dreams," Romina spat and went down the steps.

Draco would take it as a win that she hadn't yelled this time. Piece by piece. He just had to put those pieces together. He turned to head back for the Great Hall.

"Where'd Romina go?" Angel bumped into him under the threshold. "Did you say something to her?"

"Sod off, Angel," Draco snapped. "This is none of your business."

"It is when you're continuously messing with Romina. I just went over this with Pansy back there and I'll tell you the same thing: back off."

"Yeah, you're not as threatening as you think you are," Draco said. "But I suppose I can give you points for effort."

Angel glared at him. "I mean it. Romina's taken enough crap these past years. You're supposed to be her friend—Pansy was supposed to be her friend — but you keep trying to make her life miserable."

"I am, but she's being a little difficult right now. Just a bump in the road, certainly nothing you need to stick your nose into. I mean seriously, are you trying to be overly blatant with that crush? It's been almost four years, Angel. Remember what I told you during our second year?"

Angel rolled his eyes. "No."

When Draco smirked, Angel knew that whatever was about to come out of his mouth was going to be infuriating.

Draco was happy to repeat himself. "The sad part is, she's never going to notice you." He clapped Angel on the shoulder. "And I was right. Four years." He wiggled four of his fingers and laughed on his way into the Great Hall.

Angel drew in a deep breath, a very deep breath, and balled his hands into tight fists. He had to calm himself before he did something he would regret, and worst of all do something that could hurt Romina along the way.

~ 0 ~

Romina had found small ways to appease her desire for revenge. Pansy Parkinson would not be making a move against her for a good while, not when she had undiluted bubotousse pus to deal with. Romina thanked Madame Pomfrey for the second lesson and the glorious opportunity she unknowingly provided. Pansy couldn't prove that the accidental squirt of pus wasn't accidental at all. She could complain all she wanted up in the hospital wing. That Thursday, Romina would focus solely on the double session of DADA, their first session of the term. It had been pushed back for some reason, though allowing for the extra Herbology lesson.

Romina sat down beside Hermione and was surprised to see that the girl wasn't there yet. She looked back at Harry and Ron who sat in the desk behind them. "I'll bite, where's Granger? She's never late and much less for the first class of the year."

Both Harry and Ron shrugged their shoulders, equally confused.

"She's been zooming through meals," Ron said. "Dunno where she gets into lately."

"Yeah, I've noticed," Romina remarked. "She seems kinda upset, though. Did you two do something?"

"That's offensive," Ron said sourly, glancing at Harry for some help.

Harry was frowning. "Of course not, Rom. Whatever Hermione's up to, we'll end up learning about it soon enough. Like the Time Turner."

Romina had to give him the point. Just as she was turning to face forwards again, she caught sight of the bushy haired Hermione zipping into the classroom.

"Made it!" Hermione said in utter relief when she plonked down beside Romina.

Romina eyed her friend curiously and slightly concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Course! Yeah! Why do you ask?" Hermione eagerly started pulling out her book and quill and parchment and everything else they would probably need for the class.

Romina still watched her strangely. "Just...curious…"

Shortly afterwards, Moody finally entered the classroom. He made his way up to the front, commanding silence with his bare walk. "You can put those away—those books," he started, his gruff tone startling the class, "You won't need them."

Hermione was deeply disappointed unlike Ron who couldn't put his book away quick enough.

"I'm here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?" Moody didn't exactly wait for any hands to raise. "When it comes to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?"

Unsurprisingly, Hermione's hand was the first one in the air. Moody gave her the nod to answer. "Three sir."

"And they are so named?"

"Because they are unforgivable. Use of any one of them will…"

"Will earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban. Correct. Now the ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. I say different!" Moody said with a particular snap in his tone. "You need to know what you're up against, you need to be prepared, you need to find somewhere else to put your chewing gum other than the underside of your desk Mr Finnigan!"

Finnigan jumped at the sudden call of his name, all heads turning his way while Moody went up to the chalkboard.

"Aw no way, the old codger can see out the back of his head," Finnigan murmured to his partner.

Moody threw a piece of chalk in his direction but went on with the class as if nothing happened. "So, which curse shall we see first? WEASLEY!"

Ron jumped. "Y-yes?"

"Give us a curse!"

"Well, my dad did tell me about one...the imperious curse."

"Ahhh yes, your father would know all about that. Gave the ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why." Moody opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out a jar with a spider inside it. As soon as Ron saw it, he leaned away as if the spider was about to come his way. "Hello. What a little beauty. Imperio!" Moody raised the spider into the air with his wand. "Don't worry. Completely harmless."

The class watched as the spider went side to side, up and down, in circles. Snickers started erupting when the spider was sent over the tops of several students and soon enough most of them were laughing. Ron certainly didn't laugh when the spider danced over his head.

"Get it off! Get it off!" He slapped his own head in an attempt to rid himself of the spider. The class roared with laughter.

"What are you laughing at?" Moody chose Draco to silence amongst the class by sending the spider to his nose.

Much like Ron, Draco swatted his hands over his face to throw the spider off. There may have been some extra laughing with the sight.

Mad-Eye sends the spider onto Draco's face.

"Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only do did you-know-whose bidding under the influence of the imperious curse," Moody explained, "But here's the rub, how do we sort out the liars? Another.. Another…" His gaze swept over the class for another volunteering hand and to everyone's surprise, Neville did it. "Longbottom is it?" Neville nodded silently. "What is it?"

"There's the um...the Cruciatus Curse," Neville responded, gaze slightly downfallen.

"Correct! Correct! Particularly nasty. The torture curse. Crucio!" Moody said, and suddenly the spider was writhing. Its legs were twisting and turning in angles that it shouldn't be.

Romina's face twisted with fright. She really wished she wasn't sitting upfront. What was more odd, at least to her, was that it seemed Moody was lost in the spell, focused solely on the pained spider. "Professor?" she decided to call, though not sufficiently loud enough.

"STOP IT! Can't you see it's bothering him, stop it!" Hermione yelled suddenly, Everyone near her looked at her but realized she was looking not at Moody but at Neville who couldn't be more positively disturbed.

Moody gave the spider a break and looked at Hermione. "Perhaps you could give us the last unforgivable curse Miss Granger."

Hermione shook her head defiantly, a very surprising move for the other students.

Romina then raised her hand, expression emotionless. For a fourteen year old girl, it should be rare to know it but she wasn't exactly raised like the rest of her companions.

"Oswell," Moody gave her the nod. Romina swore that he knew, and why wouldn't he?

"The murder curse," Romina said, hands balling into fists over the desk.

"The killing curse," Moody corrected for technicalities.

"Is it not the same thing?" Romina challenged and earned a small smirk from the man. "Avada Kedavra," she said slowly and clearly.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody's wand emanated a green flash of light that instantly stilled the spider in the air, Romina and Hermione flinching when it landed on their desk. "There is no countercourse for this, no blocking either. Only one known person has ever survived it and he's sitting in this room."

It was fairly quick how Harry's excitement for the class vanished in a matter of seconds. He couldn't wait to see the end of the session so he could hide under a rock from all the looks.

"I can't believe he actually used those curses," Hermioe muttered when they were finally free. Moody took a head start out of the class, ironically, as if he had somewhere else to be.

Romina slid out of her seat and cast a wary look at the chalkboard that was full of notes on said curses. She had to admit that Moody's teachings were very different from their previous professors' styles. "We can only hope this was the worst lesson to learn."

"Fat chance," Ron said, nearly exclaiming. He was the only student who remained excited about the lessons.

"Harry, you alright?" Romina asked, noticing how quiet their friend was as he put away his roll of parchment. She had a pretty good idea what he was thinking about. The last unforgivable curse was the reason he was an orphan.

"Yeah, course," Harry said quickly, even throwing on a fake smile for show.

"Neville's not," Hermione said, watching as Neville walked out of the classroom in a sort of haze. Hermione was quick to follow, prompting the others to then follow her.

"Oswell," Draco called, standing up from his seat when Romina was to walk by. "I heard what you did to Parkinson…"

Romina had long ago mastered her innocent expressions, even in the face of accusers (Draco) and the suspicious (Hermione). The latter had figured it out a while ago and wasn't backing down despite Romina's assurances that she didn't do anything.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Romina said, shrugging her shoulders.

Draco tilted his head at her, eyes narrowing on her with a small smile. "Yeah, sure." Romina shrugged, truly committed to her role of innocence.

"Rom!" Harry called by the doorway. Thinking it wasn't enough, he marched over to grab Romina's arm. "Whatever he's saying, don't even bother responding!"

"Even if she did, she knows she's lying," Draco said, eyes still glued on Romina. "Isn't that right?"

Romina opened her mouth to shoot down such accusations but Harry never gave her the chance. He yanked her away.

"Rom, I've told you not to provoke him!" He began to say once they were out in the hallways.

"I didn't!" Romina exclaimed in a mix of laughter and incredulity. "Why does everyone think I'm doing it?

Hermione heard the last question and had the answer up and ready. "Because you are doing things. Did he accuse you of hurting Parkinson? Because if he did, I hate that I agree with him."

"Hermione!" Ron was horrified. "How could you ever agree with Malfoy of all people?"

Hermione gestured towards Romina. "Because she is doing that stuff and one of these days, you're going to push too hard, Romina, and you'll get really hurt."

Romina scoffed, entirely unconvinced. "C'mon, Neville looks terrible right now." She walked towards the boy who had become like a statue in the hallway, staring endlessly out the window. "Neville?" Romina approached him slowly and cautiously.

"Oh, hello," he cleared his throat to say. He turned away from the window, looking as if he was trying to wake up from a dream, probably a bad dream. " interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm-I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Neville, are you alright?" Hermione asked him despite the answer being clear as day.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," Neville said, his tone just a pitch too high, "Very interesting dinner—I mean lesson. What's for eating?"

Neville didn't always make sense but this was too strange even for him. Concern filled each of the other students as Neville continued his efforts to make a coherent conversation.

"Um, Neville…" Harry had started when Moody of all people was returning.

"It's alright, sonny," the professor put a hand over Neville's shoulder, "Why don't you come up to my office? I have some books that might interest you." Neville didn't exactly look eager to go with Moody but since no one said anything, he had no choice but to walk.

"What was that about?" Ron asked as soon as they were alone.

"Something we don't know, clearly," Romina said, watching after Neville and Moody. "The way Neville acted...there's something on his mind."

"Some lesson, though, eh?" Ron cracked a smile. "Fred and George were right! Moody really knows his stuff, huh?"

"I'm pretty sure what he taught us wasn't supposed to be on the syllabus," Romina shook her head. Hermione agreed.

~ 0 ~

Romina was acutely aware of Pansy's dirty looks in the days after her unfortunate puss mess had been cleared. There was nothing Pansy could do to prove that anything malicious had been done to her and it was just infuriating, Romina knew it and she was proud of herself.

Now as the drawing of the Goblet of Fire was nearing, many students of all ages had taken a liking to hanging in the very room where it was being kept to watch those potential candidates drop their names inside the goblet. Romina came in that afternoon and immediately spotted Hermione sitting at the bleachers with a book in her hands. She was a little wary to greet Hermione due to the matter with the SPEW stuff.

Romina, much like everyone else that she knew of in Gryffindor, were all a little tired of hearing Hermione's badgering to join her elf welfare club. Romina admired Hermione for taking such an initiative but she really doubted that it would go anywhere. She saw Harry and Ron milling around the Goblet, as much as they could anyways. There was a circle barring anybody from getting too close to it.

"Whatcha doing?" Romina startled the pair of boys behind them. She smirked when they jumped and turned her way.

"You know, just looking," Ron said, shrugging casually even though his eyes were sparkling with yearning for the Goblet.

"Mhm," Romina nodded sarcastically, "And I suppose neither of you have attempted to put your name in there?"

"We can't, Rom," Harry said, "Not of age."

"Has anybody come to put their name in?" Romina curiously asked. She gave the room another look and saw that Carolinha had come in and had made the mistake of starting up a conversation with Hermione. No doubt the Gryffindor would be pulling out one of her SPEW badges.

"Angelina from our Quidditch team did half an hour ago," Ron said, giving a big thumbs up. "Oh, and I heard Cedric Diggory did too."

"Really?" Romina raised an eyebrow, absolutely dazzled with the idea.

"Not you too, Rom," Harry rolled his eyes.

Romina giggled. "He's just cute. And mysterious. And polite." Ron made a yapping motion with his hand, making Harry snicker and Romina frown. She smacked Ron's hand down. She was about to scold him for that bit when she heard familiar voices entering the room. Looking back, she saw Draco, Crabb and Goyle laughing about something.

"Oh great," Harry muttered and soon Ron was donning the same face.

"You know I heard that Warrington from the Slytherin's Quidditch team put his name in," Ron remarked, shaking his head. "Can you imagine if we had a Slytherin champion?"

"Well," Romina's tone was sharp enough to have both him and Harry wincing. She folded her arms over her chest. "You guys are sure making me feel welcomed."

"You know we don't mean that about you, Rom," Harry was cautious when he patted her arm.

"So, everyone else, then?" Romina tilted her head. "My friend over there, Carolinha," she pointed over to the brunette speaking with Hermione, "She's pretty great. I'm sure Hermione is talking her ears off right now but my girl Carol is too sweet to cut anybody off. And her brother? He's the same. Harry, you know Arden since we were dumb kids. Are we calling her bad too?"

"No, of course not," Harry shook his head. "Sorry." He did have the decency to look a little sorry which was why Romina elected to move on from there.

"Were there any Ravenclaws who put their names in?"

"We're not—"

"We've done it!" They heard the voices of Fred and George announcing. They hopped up to the first bleacher, looking mighty happy about something. They commanded the attention of the whole room with it.

"Thank you, thank you, well lads we've done it!" George exclaimed.

"Done what?" called Romina, fairly curious of what they were cooking up now.

"The Aging Potion my dear Ali—"

Romina caught the first part of her nickname and immediately glowered until they fixed it.

"My dear Romina," Fred began anew, "It is the Aging Potion! One drop each. We only need to be a few months older."

"You can't possibly think that'll work," Hermione said, shaking her head. The twins rapidly came up to her seat, forcing Carolinha to scoot away a bit so they could lean on both Hermione's sides. "Dumbledore drew the age line himself." She made a nod towards the circle around the flaming Goblet.

"So?" challenged George.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "So, a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by something pathetically dimwitted such as an age potion."

"That's why it's so brilliant!" Fred exclaimed, straightening up along with George.

"I mean...they could be onto something," Romina whispered to Harry and Ron who both chuckled with her. Sometimes, you don't need to think so much. The solution was simple and straightforward.

"Ready George?"

"Ready, Fred!"

Both twins interlocked their arms with each other and drank their potions. They then hopped off the last bleacher and walked up to the Age Line. They paused for a moment before taking synced steps forwards. And they made it through.

Everybody cheered for them—mostly everybody—as they walked confidently up to the Goblet of Fire and dumped their names inside. They high-fived each other as the flames ignited behind them. But, just like that, the flames exploded and threw the pair out. Smoke covered them and most of the room for a few seconds.

When it cleared up and the twins sat upright, they were sporting heavily long beards that matched their new set of grey hair.

"You said.." George pointed at his brother.

"You said," accused Fred.

They lunged at each other. Most of the room cheered as they rolled and fought each other, including Ron himself.

"I stand corrected," Romina shrugged to Harry. "Point to Hermione."

"Yeah," Harry said, unable to hold his laughter in.

Romina had to move carefully around the groups of students lest she wanted to be caught up. Some people were really into the growing fight. Among those were even Crabb and Goyle, something Draco wasn't too pleased with.

"That's what you get for hanging out with idiots," she told him. "Blaise, Theodore, and Angel busy or something?"

"Zabini and Nott have zero interest in this until names are actually drawn," he retorted. "And as if you don't know that Angel has newfound animosity towards me."

Romina paused and looked at him. "What? What did you do?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Like you don't know."

"I don't. Usually, you do something."

A loud bang startled the pair. Karkaraoff was leading the Durmstrang boys into the room, forcing the crowd to separate. Even the twins had finally given up trying to kill each other. Romina was sure that most of the attention was going towards Victor Krum, the star of that school. She was absolutely dumbfounded when he and Draco exchanged nods.

"Since when do you know Krum?" she had to ask. It was a force beyond her, honestly.

Draco smiled smugly. "I do know how to expand my networks, Oswell. One of the many talents instilled in me."

"The others being…?" Romina made a gesture for him to list them specifically. She doubted the list would be long.

The Durmstrang boys were on their way out of the room, each of them having slipped their names inside the Goblet.

"Show off," Romina huffed at Draco after he'd waved at Krum.

"Me? Never," he smirked.

Romina shook her head at him. "I'm surprised you haven't bragged about this. I would've expected the whole school to know about it, actually."

"Stories about me get told anyways, Oswell. You wouldn't believe the ones I've heard." The way he smiled ever-so-widely warned Romina those stories had to be ego-inflating.

"Yeah, not interested."

"Oh, c'mon, you'd…" Draco trailed off when Madame Maxime led her Beauxbaton students in.

Romina rolled her eyes heavily enough to make her feel twinges of pain. "Are you going to finish that sentence?"

"Mhm," Draco nodded, but no actual words came out afterwards.

"Seriously!?" Romina huffed and looked away, soon noticing that the same thing was happening to every other male student in the room. "For the love of God!"

The Beauxbatons each dropped their names inside the Goblet and turned, in a neat line, after Madame Maxime who promptly led them back out. By the time Draco came to, Romina was long gone.

~ 0 ~

Arden was nose deep into her Unfogging the Future book before class when she heard the noise of someone dropping into the seat beside her. She looked up and frowned. "You're not Parkinson. I can't decide if that's better or worse."

"I've got a problem, King," Draco said, frowning when she snorted in return.

"No, you've got many problems but there's not enough time in the world for me to list them."

He decided to ignore Arden's little jab. "It's Oswell."

"Shocker."

"She's continuously pissing me off and I would rather fix it before this becomes permanent."

Arden put her book down on the table, now deeply interested in where the conversation was going. "You actually want to fix things?"

Draco nodded. "It's got to be better than having to look twice when she's around. Her apt for retaliation is commendable but also a growing pain in the ass."

"Fair," Arden agreed. "But you do know what you have to do, right?"

"If I knew that, I would not be here, would I?" Draco gestured to his current seat. He had managed to shake off being Arden's partner this year and he would like to keep it that way. She got stuck with Pansy which was a win for him. The never ending jabs at each other were hilarious to watch and hear.

"I know what happened in the forest," Arden said, keeping her voice low, "And you were out of line. That's what Romina's upset about. And instead of apologizing, you made it worse by turning it into a game of tricks."

"She started it," Draco drowned. "Have you met her?"

"Yes," Arden said slowly, "Since I was seven. And you're right to be wary of her when she's in this mood. Back in our muggle school, this girl basically did the same thing to Romina and it did not end until Romina was suspended from school for a whole week."

"What she do?" Draco curiously asked. Being a troublemaker wasn't really part of Romina's personality. Mischievous was, but a full on troublemaker wasn't.

"She grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the girl's hair in one snip." Arden could still vividly remember the screaming she and the rest of her family had heard coming from the Oswell residence next door that same night. She didn't see Romina for a full month after that.

Draco was frankly bemused and stunned with what he heard. "She did not," he said, barely holding his laugh in.

Arden nodded earnestly. "She did. I love my best friend but she has a nasty temper when things get too much. If you don't want to end up like Gale Perry, apologize now."

"I will do no such thing," Draco said, shaking his head. "I want to see how far Oswell will go with this."

"That wasn't the point of my story!"

"Yeah, and it was better. Thanks King, you actually can help sometimes." Draco promptly got up from his seat and moved on up the steps towards his actual spot.

Arden made a face, her teeth gritting together as she realized the conversation did not go the way it probably should have. She had the feeling Romina would kill her if she found out that she'd basically spurred the games on.

~0~

A few days later would have Angel finding an empty spot with Draco, Theodore and Blaise at their table in the Great Hall. It was a study session, the first one of the year.

"Didn't expect you to sit anywhere near here," Draco spoked quietly as Snape was making his rounds.

Angel shook his head. "I've been thinking. What you said a couple days back?"

"I say a lot of things, you'll have to be more specific."

"Stop acting dumb!"

"It's not an act, mate," Blaise remarked, snickering with Theodore when both Draco and Angel sent them the same glares.

"I'm being serious," Angel said.

"So was I," Blaise said.

"Eyes on the essay, Zabini," warned Draco. Blaise shrugged and continued to scribble over his parchment. "And as for you—" Draco glanced at Angel beside him, "—what the hell are you talking about?"

"In your own fantastically mean way, you've pushed me to act with Romina," Angel said, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess tough love really does work."

"No," Draco said sharply, "I did not do 'tough love'. I don't do 'tough love'. I didn't do anything."

"More like he never does anything anyways," mumbled Theodore which, once again, sent him and Blaise into another fit of snickers.

"This time you did," Angel insisted. "I mean, it's been almost 4 years and I should, logically, be able to do something. So, I thought I'd maybe ask Romina if she wanted to go together on the first Hogsmeade trip that's scheduled."

"It's funny…" Draco said slowly, eyes flickering to the side, "I don't remember…"

Angel made a face at him. "What?"

"I don't remember...asking to hear this conversation."

Blaise and Theodore laughed and eventually had to duck their heads to keep it covered before Snape heard. Angel deadpanned the two; they could never take anything serious.

"You can't stop being sarcastic for a minute, can you?"

"Oh, I wasn't being sarcastic. I was being honest," Draco clarified, "Because I'm pretty sure nowhere in my previous conversation with you did I give you the idea that I would want to talk about this."

"I was just letting you know—"

"Why?"

"Because you and Romina have entered this little war with each other and since you're both my friends I would rather you put an end to it already."

"Yeah, I spoke to King about that and it's not happening. Did you know that Oswell had a record? I'm talking about a serious record." Days after talking with Arden, Draco was still impressed with the story. He would've given anything to see Romina cut that muggle girl's hair.

"Draco, c'mon," Angel said, "It's been—what?—two weeks since this started? It's getting tiring. She did not appreciate the exploding ink bottle you left for her, by the way."

Draco's smirk didn't express disappointment. "I sure enjoyed it."

"I'm just telling you to back off already. It's not funny anymore."

"On the contrary, I think it's quite fun," Draco shrugged. "You're just boring, Angel. That's going to have to change if you're actually going to do something for the future."

Angel would've liked to strangle him at that point. "You just can't take things seriously!"

They heard the heavy footsteps of Snape nearing them, cutting the conversation short.

~0~

Romina had just finished dotting her last 'i' on her letter she was sending to her grandmother when she heard somebody coming into the common room. She looked up briefly to catch sight of Blaise walking in, shaking his head about something that seemed funny.

"Never thought I'd see the day when Blaise Zabini laughed," she called from her spot. She'd recused herself to one of the individual tables by the wall to complete her homework.

Blaise stopped in the middle of the room to scoff. "You're not funny, but I will admit that what you're doing is rather amusing."

Romina made a face as her eyes landed on her letter still in her hands. "Writing a letter to my grandmother is funny to you? That's a sad sense of humor you got there, Blaise…"

"I meant with Malfoy and Paes! You know they're arguing over you, right?"

Now Romina was the one laughing. "What? Last time I heard, they weren't exactly on speaking terms."

"Yeah, because of you," Blaise pointed. "It's funny as hell but I'm also a little concerned they're going to end up hurting each other."

Romina stopped to seemingly ponder. "Well...are they still arguing right now? Think I can catch them?"

Blaise shook his head at her. "Great, you can't take things seriously either!"

"I can too!" Romina said, but her lips were already curving into a smile that would no doubt turn into a laugh if she pushed it. "I just...like fun stuff. What exactly are they arguing about anyways?"

"Well…" Blaise swayed his head, "Angel is demanding that Draco apologize to you for whatever he did to piss you off."

"I like Angel," Romina nodded, "Everybody should listen to Angel when he says that I'm right."

"He didn't say that—"

"That's what I heard, Blaise."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Can you just fix it, please? It's bad enough that I have to hear Draco complain about your incessant retaliations. I don't want to hear him bickering with Angel too over you. You are not that special."

Romina raised a hand to her chest, feigning offence. "How rude. But I commend your bluntness. I'll talk to Angel."

"Wouldn't it just be easier to fix things with Draco already?"

"Yeah, if you want me to take the loser's path." Romina snorted and went back to folding her letter nice and perfectly. "Losing's not my style, Blaise. I'm talking to Angel. She smiled to herself when Blaise groaned and headed for the hallway.

Later on, Romina gathered her things to bring them into her dorm. There was still enough time to get her letter to the owlery before dinner. She was coming out of the common room altogether when she saw Angel coming down the stairs.

"Hey!" He greeted her with his typical cheery smile. "Not getting dinner already, are you?"

"No, I've got a letter to send to my grandma," Romina waved her envelope in front of her. "Wanna come with me?"

"Yeah!" Angel nodded, turning on his heels to walk with her. "Everything good in that letter? I mean—your grandmother's okay?"

Romina chuckled. "Yeah, I'm just letting her know that I haven't really gotten a chance to talk with Madam Maxime yet."

Angel snorted into a laugh. "Why would you want to talk to her?"

"Apparently, she was the headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy when my grandmother went there. They're close, I guess."

"Oh boy. What would you even talk about?"

Romina laughed and shook her head. "I have no bloody idea! As far as I can tell, my grandmother was this pristine young woman back in her day and I—" she put a hand on her chest, "—don't have a lick of pristineness in me. I've heard rumors that I have a big mouth, actually. And by 'rumors', I mean Arden."

"You're just fine," Angel patted her arm. "Perfect, actually."

Romina smiled shyly. "You're too sweet." She led the way up the stairs in silence until they reached the last one. "So, Blaise and I were talking earlier…"

"Really?" Angel's heavy disbelief was simply too amusing not to laugh at.

"We can talk civilly sometimes," Romina said, sobering from her laugh. "And he was saying that you and Draco have been arguing. Angel, you don't have to fight anyone on my behalf. I think I can handle it on my own."

"I can't help it, Romina," Angel shrugged. "I don't like seeing you get hurt and I definitely don't like it if someone's doing it for fun."

"Draco's not hurting me, first of all," Romina said, shaking her head. "It's harmless jokes that I willingly participate in. In fact, I'm pretty sure I started it."

"Yeah, but only because you're upset. I know it, I see it." Angel stopped walking in the middle of the hallway, forcing Romina to do the same. He turned to face her and looked directly into her dark eyes. "You're laughing and smirking but I know that Draco did something really bad to hurt you."

Romina absolutely didn't like the way he read her with ease. She wanted to avoid Angel's gaze. "He didn't hurt me."

"Not physically, that much I know for sure," Angel said. "But he did something to...to deeply upset you."

"He disappointed me and when he didn't apologize, he pissed me off." Romina shook her head. She started walking quicker than before. She was not going to show any tears, no sir.

"And that's why I'm demanding that he apologizes," Angel was quick to follow after her.

"You're wasting your time, Angel, he's not going to do it anytime soon!" Perhaps that was what hurt Romina the most. "And I don't want him to do it because somebody demands him to. It wouldn't change anything."

"Hey," Angel grabbed Romina's arm to stop her altogether, "See this is what I mean."

"It's not your fault," Romina said, gently taking his hand off her. "Ironically, I suppose it's not completely Draco's fault either."

"What? You just said—"

"Sometimes I can't help wondering who I would have turned out to be if my parents had raised me," Romina said quietly. "If I had lived with everybody who thought as twisted as they did." She genuinely shuddered at the idea each time she thought of it. "I got lucky. My parents are murderers. Under their influence...I don't know who I would've become."

"Your situation is not the same though," Angel gently pointed out.

"I know, but our parents...Angel, they ingrain stuff. Their past can very well be our future."

"Romina…"

"I understand myself, Angel," Romina cut him off before he said anything else, "And I may be daft but last year was terrible for me and, as surprising as it may sound, Draco actually helped me. People thought the worst of me but he didn't. He never did. Somewhere inside him there has to be a shred of genuine guilt and if I have to annoy him until we graduate for him to finally own up to it, I will."

"So, when are you leaving then?" Arden said as she peeked inside Romina's suitcase. "Are you and Harry going together to Ron's?"

"Er, no," Romina gave a shake of her head. She left her packing and walked over to her window that gave a view into the street. She couldn't of course get a good sight of Harry's house but she still tried. "Ron's dad is coming to pick him up at the Dursleys'."

"What?" Arden made a face, confused. "Why?"

"Well, the Dursleys are already on the fence about all the magic stuff so aunt Sage and aunt Lyonel want to stay out of it. Better for me to quietly make my way to the Weasleys'."

"Guess that makes sense," shrugged Arden.

"So I'll be leaving tomorrow morning instead, stay with them for a few days and then come back home. Harry'll stay at the Burrow until school starts again."

"Oh, good for him," Arden nodded. "Make sure to tell me how it goes then."

"Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Nah! Just have fun and definitely stay away from Pansy Parkinson if you see her."

Romina laughed.

~ 0 ~

It was too early. Way too damn early.

Why'd I even say I was coming? The same thoughts ran through Romina's head while she mindlessly ate her breakfast at the crack of dawn. You don't even like Quidditch that much! Why'd you say you were coming? She barely registered aunt Sage telling her to be on her best behavior before she was shuffled into the fireplace. It was just so early.

Yawning and with her eyes half shut, she stepped into the Weasley's overwhelming living room and right into another mess of people being woken up and yelled at by Mrs. Weasley. Apparently, a lot of the others were thinking like her in that it was too early to be doing anything. It also sounded like the twins were already up to something.

When Mrs. Weasley saw Romina standing in front of the fireplace half asleep, she greeted the girl with a tight hug and guided her to the kitchen where the others were.

"When'd you get here!?" Harry said excitedly.

"Uuh, couple...minutes ago..." Romina yawned and languidly sat down in an empty chair. "Remind me again why we have to be awake so early? I hate you for making me come."

Across the table, the twins scoffed and reminded her that she'd chosen to come.

"Shut up," Romina then said and thanked Mr. Weasley, who sat at the head of the table, for inviting her over. "I just don't like mornings...or dawn..." She said after, making the adults chuckle.

Since she had already eaten breakfast, she got to lay her head on the table and take a short nap while the others finished. She was rudely awoken when Mrs. Weasley started yelling at the twins again about some things she pulled out of them with her wand.

"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted indignantly as the little things, which looked a lot like candy to Romina, went flying straight into the trash bin.

"Oh a fine way to spend six months!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. "No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"

"I'm confused, what were those?" Romina said, standing up as the others were doing the same around the table.

"We'll tell you later," Hermione said as she quickly pulled Romina with her.

They grabbed their rucksacks and headed out. Romina tugged her sweater closer around her because the air was still ever so cold. They had just made it over the crest of a hill when someone called for Mr. Weasley.

"Arthur! It's about time, son!"

"Amos!" Mr. Weasley greeted as he led the group towards another man waving at them. "This is Amos Diggory, everyone. He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric, right?"

"Hi," Cedric greeted them all with a kind smile. His eyes landed on Romina specifically, to which the girl smiled right back. She still remembered his kind words about her from the last time they'd spoken. Unlike the rest of the school, he didn't look at her name, just her.

"Long walk, Arthur?" Mr. Diggory asked as Mr. Weasley.

"Not too bad," said Mr. Weasley. "We live just on the other side of the village there. You?"

"Had to get up at two, didn't we, Ced? I tell you, I'll be glad when he's got his Apparition test. Still . . . not complaining . . . Quidditch World Cup, wouldn't miss it for a sackful of Galleons — and the tickets cost about that. Mind you, looks like I got off easy. . . ." Mr. Diggory took a look at the crowd of teenagers around Mr. Weasley. "All these yours, Arthur?"

"Oh no, only the redheads," said Mr. Weasley, pointing out his children. "This is Hermione and Romina, friends of Ron's — and Harry, another friend—"

"Merlin's beard," Mr. Diggory's eyes widened as they landed on the brunette in question. "Harry? Harry Potter?"

"Er — yeah," said Harry, shifting on his feet. Oh, how he adored being the center of everyone's attention...

"Ced's talked about you, of course. Told us all about playing against you last year. . . . I said to him, I said — Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that will. ... You beat Harry Potter!"

"Harry fell off his broom, Dad," said Cedric, who looked slightly embarrassed. "I told you...it was an accident..."

"Yes, but you didn't fall off, did you? Always modest, our Ced, always the gentleman . . . but the best man won, I'm sure Harry'd say the same, wouldn't you, eh? One falls off his broom, one stays on, you don't need to be a genius to tell which one's the better flier!"

Cedric looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here right now.

"Think we should keep going or something," Romina cut into the conversation and tapped a finger against her non-existing watch on her wrist. It prompted the two grown men to keep leading them towards the portkey.

"Life saver," Cedric mumbled to her as he walked alongside her.

"You're welcome. You can pay me back later," she chuckled.

They eventually came to the spot of the portkey, which turned out to be an old boot.

"You just need to touch the Portkey, that's all, a finger will do—" Mr. Weasley started explaining to them as they gathered around it.

Even then, with all the focus in the world, their landings were less than graceful. A full cake of grass met most of their faces. But, at last, they were a massive field that stretched God knew how long. Tents by the thousands were already standing in place.

"You alright?" Cedric, who had landed on the ground perfectly like his father and Mr. Weasley, held a hand out to Romina on the ground.

"Oh yeah, no way better to start the day than with a face full of dirt..." Romina grabbed Cedric's hand and was promptly pulled up to her feet. "Does wonders for my skin. Muggles pay for that, you know."

Cedric chuckled. "No they don't."

"Yes, they do. It's called a mud mask."

Their conversation was cut short as they were once again shuffled towards some way by the adults. As they reached some cottage, the Diggorys parted ways with them. It was then that Hermione and Ginny came to flank Romina.

"Uuh, when and how did you manage to pull that?" Ginny's voice was sharp with curiosity as they watched the Diggorys' figures disappear in the distance.

"Excuse you, he's like 4 years older than you," Romina snorted. "Down, Ginny." The redhead rolled her eyes. "And it's not like that. Cedric's very nice and he was still like that while almost everyone else was making fun of me for my name."

"Yeah, but I bet it's always a pleasure to spend time with a guy like that," Hermione smirked. "You were walking very close to each other, and the whole time too!"

Romina rolled her eyes. "You couldn't be more wrong. He's cute but that's about it."

"Oh please," they heard one of the twins scoff up ahead.

"Don't start," Ginny warned them, "You're just mad that Cedric beat Harry in that Quidditch game at school."

"It wasn't a clear win and everybody knows it!" George said with a huff.

"Well, as long as you're not bitter about it," Romina muttered.

After meeting with some poor obliviated Muggle by the name of Mr. Roberts, they were set to find their rented tent in the fields. Everyone who was already there was clearly in the party mood. Music played loudly in the air, people flew back and forth above them on brooms, and there was a strong scent of various foods being prepared.

The inside of their tent turned out to be far bigger than what it appeared on the outside. It was a splash of color everywhere, almost like the entire rainbow had thrown up inside. Mismatched furniture adorned the area but it all looked incredibly comfortable.

"Girls. Choose a bunk and unpack," Mr. Weasley instructed them. "Ron, get out of the kitchen we're all hungry!"

The twins had made themselves comfortable at the kitchen table, feet propped up and arms behind their heads. "Yeah get out of the kitchen Ron!" They chorused together.

Mr. Weasley walked past them, motioning to their feet. "Feet off the table!"

"Feet off the table!" They repeated, pulling their feet off until their father left.

"I love magic," Harry remarked with a light chuckle.

"Harry!" Ron called as he made his way to the other side of the tent. "You can sleep over here!"

Harry nodded and made his way to the bunk to unpack what he had brought. From their spot, he and Ron could hear the endless giggles of the girls not too far from them.

"Listen to them," Ron said, crinkling his nose, "Bet they're going on about Diggory."

"Sheesh, Ron, didn't know you could be that jealous..." Romina had come out of their side to smirk at the ginger.

"It's not jealousy, it's annoyance," said Ron in a mutter.

"Don't know about what since Cedric's literally never done anything to you. Is there any dinner yet? I'm starving!" And with that, Romina headed into the kitchen.

In the next half hour, the rest of them came to join for some makeshift dinner. It was there that they decided to nitpick the latest news they had discovered, which, unfortunately, meant Romina had to answer a lot more questions about her new family.

"So does this mean you're going to get snooty now that you have more class, Aline?" Fred asked and before Romina knew it,George was at her side, feigning a dramatic bow.

Romina sighed heavily. "Knock it off!" She shoved George away from her and ignored their collective laugh."Shut it, both of you," Ginny told the twins and ordered them to sit down already.

"In reality, we're very happy for you, Romina," Hermione smiled at the girl. "It must be wonderful to have more family. You even have cousins now!"

"Yeah, Rolf is really great," Romina nodded. "I'm excited for this year. We get to see each other all the time and we might even make plans to visit each other at our homes. Rolf wants to see the neighborhood."

"Just keep him away from our block," warned Harry. "Dudley's a menace."

"Yeah, well, I'm a bigger one," Romina said promptly and with a wide smirk. "Besides, maybe with a little help from two certain entrepreneurs, I might get my hands on some enlargement toffees or something...?"

The twins smirked on the spot and declared that it would be their pleasure to assist her in any future plans she had.

~ 0 ~

Many things had happened by the next day's morning. For one, they had all met Ludo Bagman, aka the man who had given Mr. Weasley the extra tickets that allowed them to come. He wasn't very impressive, at least not to the girls who thought it was a waste of time placing bets and all on the outcome of the game. Since the twins had placed almost, if not all, their winnings, they promptly told the girls to mind their business. Ron's older brothers had come to join them by lunchtime. Bill and Charlie were very much cool and fascinating to the teenagers, save for Percy of course. He was still a stickler as ever.

They had also met Barty Crouch, Percy's boss. Harry had quietly made the joke to the others that Mr. Crouch looked like his uncle Vernon in the suit he was in. Before Percy could get at any of them, Mr. Crouch had called him forward, albeit by the name of Weatherby, which then made all of them, but no one more than the twins, cackle.

Once it was finally time to go, the group got themselves ready and headed out. Every other wizard on site was heading in the same direction, making an absolute chaos. The closer they got to the stadium, the more excitement could be felt in the air. Wizards were laughing, joking, and cheering all around.

Romina was momentarily drawn to the pretty lights in the air that, if anyone asked her, resembled a lot like the twins' fireworks they had talked about earlier. She wondered if they had managed to sneak those in from home. In her distraction, she'd been bumped into by several of the other guests.

"Eughl, watch it!" she scowled at the rude group of teenage girls who, as pretty as they were, seemed like the biggest bunch of—

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?"

Romina recognized the voice before she turned around. She couldn't miss the bright blonde hair hair in the midst of the crowd. "Hey," she greeted Draco with a deadpanning look.

"Lost, Oswell?"

"I know exactly where I am, thank you very much. I'm at the World Cup, aren't I?"

Draco rolled his eyes but he still had a cocky little smile on his face. "I see we're still a little, uh, pressed about that thing that happened?"

"No, I'm totally fine. I was actually heading up with my friends—"

"What a coincidence, so was I," Draco said and a few seconds later, Romina heard someone else through the crowd.

"Malfoy, what the fuck? You left me behind and for what?" Theodore Nott was quite literally pushing his way through the crowd until he spotted Draco and Romina. "Oh, Oswell, what a surprise."

"Hi," Romina gave him a weak wave. She hadn't seen him at all through break but like the rest of the boys, he'd also grown several inches over the break. "Am I to expect Blaise and Angel too?"

"Nah, Angel's gone for Brazil and Blaise couldn't come," said Theodore. "Our families were invited by Cornelius Fudge," he gestured between himself and Draco.

"Congrats?" Romina said questioningly.

"Don't be sarcastic now, I'm not your enemy," Theodore said with a smug smirk.

Romina figured Draco must have already told everyone by know about their second bet.

"But trust me, I'm your biggest fan," Theodore said, bringing a hand over his chest. "Getting Malfoy over here to actually go to your muggle neighborhood was gold. Truly never letting that go."

And just like that, Romina liked Theodore again. "Well, it was one of my finest moments..."

Draco glared at them both. "Shut it," he ordered them. "Before my parents hear—"

But just like before, Romina couldn't not spot the same bright blondes in the crowd growing closer. "If you want things to stay quiet I suggest you stop talking," she told Draco quickly before his parents caught up with them. It wasn't just them, though. Romina spotted another man walking with them — tall and with a familiar complexion. It had to be Theodore's father.

"There you are," a woman whom Romina presumed was Draco's mother said to him and Theodore. "You got too far ahead."

"Sorry mother, we just saw a friend of ours," Draco said and motioned to Romina who, for some reason, was flushing. He gave her an odd look for it but didn't point it out.

"Hello," Romina greeted the woman, and the rest of the adults for that matter. "Romina Oswell, nice to meet you, ma'am." Her eyes flickered to Theodore's father and gave him an acknowledging nod.

"Yes, we've of course heard of you," Draco's mother smiled politely at the girl. "Narcissa Malfoy, my husband Lucius and our good friend Mr. Theodore Nott."

Romina's eyebrows raised at young Theodore and just as her lips quirked upwards, she felt the subtle nudge of Draco's elbow beside her. Better not make a comment, she reminded herself. At least not until we're alone. "It's very nice to meet you."

"Nice to see you again as well," said Mr. Malfoy, with a strange smile. "I heard you're associating yourself with a new family? We didn't know you were part of the Scamander family."

"Truthfully, neither did I," Romina said nervously. She wondered exactly how far this news was reaching.

"Well, a word of advice, I would be careful where you shop," Mr. Malfoy's strange smile grew wider. "The Scamander family is renowned for its heroic acts. Unfortunately, I don't believe they would be as understanding as we are."

"Definitely not," agreed Mr. Nott. "It's about agility, Miss Oswell. Something you have yet to master."

Romina couldn't help but gulp. She looked at Draco accusingly.

Mrs. Malfoy suggested they start heading up towards the stairs with the rest of the crowd. While the adults took the lead, the teenagers lingered a few feet behind them.

Romina could only wait so long before she threw her accusations out loud. "You git—you told?"

"Don't look at me Oswell," Draco was quick to say. "I didn't know you decided to make conversation with the actual owners of Borgin and Burkes! Who does that?"

Romina pursed her lips. That may have not been her best idea, she could see that now. "But you didn't have to tell!"

"I didn't!"

"Nobody had to," Theodore said, making Romina's head flip in his direction. "Our parents do trade with the owner. He's a chatty old man."

"So he's blabbing that I went in!?"

"Well, it's not like any of your crew ever go in there, right? Nobody's ever gonna know."

"Yeah, lighten up, Oswell," said Draco. "Everyone upheld their end of the deal. Enjoy the game already. Even from where you're probably gonna watch it. You know you could've just asked, right?"

Romina didn't care much for his smirk and picked up her pace. "I've actually got a great seat. And I should catch up; I've wasted enough of my time with the likes of you." With a huff and her nose in the air, she walked faster up ahead until she was lost in the crowd.

"Does she even know where she's going?" asked Theodore curiously. "I doubt she's ever been to something like this."

Draco shrugged. "Let her get lost."

"Oh, please," scoffed Theodore, "I'm sure there'll be somebody more than willing to help her find her way again." At Draco's questioning glance, Theodore just shrugged. "She looks different, don't you think?"

"I think she looks the bloody same," Draco said flatly. "Definitely the same type of annoying."

"Well, I think Angel would agree with me," Theodore said with a knowing laugh.

Draco did not laugh, nor did he say anything else on the matter.

~ 0 ~

When Romina caught up with the rest of her friends, they were already sitting down on the first row of the top box. Mr. Weasley expressed his concern for her lack of prescence when they had first arrived, and she apologized for getting distracted.

"Please just make sure to stick with one of us, alright?" he made her promise that she would for future moments.

She scooted towards the end where Harry, Hermione and Ron were. They were as concerned as Mr. Weasley had been, curious of where she'd gotten to. Romina glossed over it and soon noticed that there was another house elf sitting at the top of the box with her hands covering her face. It sure helped move things along because Hermione started raging again about how insensitive it was to force a house elf afraid of heights to sit on the highest box in the stadium. Winky, was the elf's name, and she was adamant that she was a good elf who followed orders, unlike one Dobby who, apparently, was demanding he be paid for his service. Romina thought it was funny but didn't dare say it out loud in front of Hermione.

The box was nearly filled, amongst them with the Minister of Magic himself Cornelius Fudge, and the Bulgarian minister as well (who didn't speak English). Romina soon saw problems when the Malfoys and Notts arrived at the same box. It seemed like Fudge was oblivious to the tension between Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy as he addressed them both in casual greetings.

It was a tense stand-off between them as Fudge showed them to their seats which, of course, happened to be behind theirs. Romina looked over her shoulder as both Draco and Theodore sat down behind her.

"This is going to be a long night," she murmured.

"I'll say, your big head's in the way," she heard Theodore remark behind her, followed by the distinctive sound of Draco snickering.

She shot them both a contemptuous look then flipped her head again to face the field. She felt Hermione's hand come over hers on her lap; she was offering Romina a kind smile. It definitely helped.

The game started promptly with Ludo Bagman's arrival. The whole stadium erupted at his introduction, making it a colorful array of flags throughout the whole place. ""And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce . . . the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

"I wonder what they've brought," Mr. Weasley wondered curiously and leaned forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly pulled off his glasses and gave them a good polish with his robes. "Veela!"

At his exclaim, the teenagers saw what seemed like a hundred of these "veela" glide out into the field. Most of them had never seen "veela" before but they turned out to be very pretty women with white-gold hair and shining skin. A sweet melody started playing with their entrance.

"Woah, what the fuck are you doing, Harry Potter?" Romina didn't hesitate to rip the brunette away from the wall of the box and right back into his seat. He seemed to be transfixed by the sight of the dancing veela.

"They're so pretty Rom..." He said much too eagerly.

Romina exchanged glances with Hermione and Ginny who seemed about the only ones out of their group not to be losing their minds. Ron looked ready to make a dive into the field as well. The twins had the same stupid dreamy grins on their faces. Romina looked back at Draco and Theodore and saw them leaned forward with similar dazed faces.

"Honestly!" Hermione shook her head at them all.

Romina decided to flip her hair over her shoulders in such a dramatic way that it slapped both Draco and Theodore in their faces. "Oops!"

"What was that for?" Theodore leaned back in his seat with the biggest scowl on his face.

"Oswell being dramatic, I'm sure," Draco said and matched Romina's glare with his own. "We were having a good time, you know."

"Oh, we know," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Idiots, all of you," she murmured and fixed herself in her seat. She was very glad when the veela left the field.

"And now, kindly put your wands in the air . . . for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

Fortunately, the Irish did not have any Veela as part of their introductions. They had lovely green and gold comets zooming around the stadium that hurtled towards the goal posts. A rainbow appared to connect them and soon disappeared, leaving a great shimmering shamrock in the sky.

"Excellent!" Ron cried as the shamrock rained gold coins down on them.

The closer the shamrock was to them, the more clearly they could see that it was actually comprised of leprechauns. Everyone around the stadium scrambled to pick up the golden coins being left behind, including Ron who gave Harry a fistful of them and cried about a christmas present or something.

"Here Oswell," Draco dropped some of the coins over Romina's shoulder. "Maybe you could buy yourself one of those little dried fruits you like so much. Or maybe you could buy one for your Weasley group. They might need it more."

Romina grabbed the coin and tossed it over her shoulder, hitting him in the face with it. She could hear Harry and Ron snickering beside her. "I think I only need one coin to make 'em laugh, so thanks. Theodore, you want one too?"

"I'm good, thanks," said Theodore with his hands in front of him.

"Smart." Romina then held up another coin for Draco to see and raised an eyebrow, silently asking if he wanted another one to his face.

His response was a deep glare.

Ludo started introducing the Bulgarian team now. Ron was very happy about his favorite player, Viktor Krum. He was over the moon really. After the Irish team was brought on, Ludo introduced the referee who then officially started the game.

Though Romina wasn't a huge fan of the sport, she knew a good game when she saw one. These players were clearly professionals as they literally zoomed by after the balls, dodging them and throwing them. They were fast.

The Irish made a goal first. The leprechauns happily rose into the air again and formed a glittering shamrock for their team.

Later, the Iris had made two more goals, leaving the Bulgarians to race to catch up. And soon, they scored their own goal too.

"Fingers in your ears!" Mr. Weasley warned the group as the veela started to dance in the air.

This time, most of the boys stayed bright as ever now that they knew the veelas' tricks. Romina laughed as Harry re-opened his eyes; she supposed it was a good way to ensure that he didn't fall under the veelas' charms.

The bulgarians stayed in control of the quaffle, but now it seemed like the teams' seekers had spotted the snitch. Krum and Lynch zoomed after it like they were diving. Hermione screamed that they were going to crash down on the field. Krum pulled out at the last second, but Lynch went straight down.

It's time-out!" yelled Bagman over the stadium, "as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"

It was a lot of back and forth for a while, with many more fast-paced tricks from both teams. It got to the point where the referee intervened, which then caused more problems that brought on both sides' mascots. A battle enraged between them involving not so kind words from the leprechauns and more charming dances from the veela.

Romina and Hermione, and Ginny, were not impressed by the sight.

When the game was finally started again, the teams were more furious than ever with their attempts to score. Romina was sure there was a lot more foul play now than anything else. The mascots started again, with the leprechauns forming one giant hand that was very keen on showiing its middle finger.

This time, Romina couldn't help but laugh.

The veelas lost it and went straight for the attack, throwing fire at the leprechauns. Their beautiful figures morphed into very nonhuman features with cruel-beaked bird heads and scaly wings bursting from their shoulders.

While Ministry wizards tried breaking apart the mascot fight below, the game was still going on above. Back and forth went the quaffle, scores being made on both sides. However, with more foul play, one bludge slamming right into Krum's face and breaking his nose. Even then, the game still went on. At some point, the irish seeker Lynch had spotted the snitch and took a nose dive for it. Krum went after him and somehow, Lynch managed to crash into the field yet again only this time since the Veela were still around, they stampeded around him. Krum took possession of the Snitch, but the Irish had still won the game.

"KRUM GETS THE SNITCH — BUT IRELAND WINS — good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!" Bagman said what most of them were thinking.

"What did he catch the Snitch for?" Ron said in the midst of his excited bouncing with applause. "He ended it when Ireland were a hundred and sixty points ahead, the idiot!"

"He knew they were never going to catch up!" Harry had to shout to be heard amongst the applause of the stadium. "The Irish Chasers were too good...he wanted to end it on his terms, that's all!"

"He was very brave, wasn't he?" Hermione leaned forward and watched Krum land to be surrounded by mediwizards. "He looks a terrible mess. . . ."

"This was the most chaotic game I have ever seen," Romina remarked with all the tude of someone unimpressed.

"It's the only game you've seen," came Draco's remark from behind.

Romina spun around that time and swiped some golden coins off the ground to chuck at his face. With all the buzz and excitement of cheers, nobody really noticed her antics. It wasn't until Bagman started re-introducing the teams that Romina gave up and turned back with her friends to continue clapping.

And of course, once the game was truly over, and Bagman was no longer talking to the stadium, Fred and George Weasley were scrambling to his seat with wiggling fingers and wide grins.

~ 0 ~

Later on in the evening, celebrations were still going strong in almost every part of the tents. In the Weasley Tent, the twins were dancing ridiculously in the middle while Ron went on about Krum to the others.

"There's no one like Krum. He's like a bird the way he rides the wind. He's more than an athlete, he's an artist!"

"Think you're in love Ron?" Ginny snickered when Ron hopped onto a chair to make his words better heard.

The twins started mocking him with their version of a song. "Viktor I love you! Viktor!" Even Harry joined in.

"When we're apart my heart beats only for youuu!"

Hermione and Romina shook their heads disapprovingly but nobody could take away their laughter, not when Ron looked so heated.

"Sounds like the irish have got their pride on," Fred remarked after a particularly loud burst from outside.

Mr. Weasley suddenly came running into the tent looking quite frantic. "Stop! Stop it. It's not the irish. We've gotta get out of here. Now!"

The group all looked at each other in concern and with a bit of fright. What could be happening at a time like this? The more they listened, the clearer things got. It no longer sounded like cheering and singing outside. Romina heard distinct sounds of horrific screaming.

Mr. Weasley was quick to get everyone out as he threw out a handful of instructions. "Stick together. Fred, George...Ginny is your responsibility!"

"But what's happening!?" Each of them would ask until they were shoved outside and could see for themselves.

The air was filled with smoke from ongoing fires. People were running all over the place, screaming, as one identifiable group in pointed hoods and flaming torches wrecked the place.

"What are they doing?" Romina was horrified when she saw four bodies in the air being controlled by the same group. She recognized the man as the same muggle they encountered yesterday — Mr. Roberts. With him was a woman and two small children, all with the same terrified faces.

Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie and Percy emerged behind them from the tent, wands at the ready. "We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley told the teenagers. "You lot — get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

"Romina, let's go!" Hermione called frantically, trying to tug Romina's arm.

"But—it's a family!" Romina bit on her bottom lip so hard she drew blood in a matter of seconds. The family were muggles, so the hooded group had to be…

"ROMINA!" Hermione finally screamed and yanked Romina with her in a hasty run.

Romina swallowed hard and focused on the rhythm of her running. She couldn't afford to fall and get trampled on. But with so many people doing the same thing, she was bumped and crashed into so many times it was a miracle she hadn't already fallen. She grew alarmed when she no longer saw bright red hair ahead of her anymore.

"Hermione, where are the others!?" she shrieked.

Hermione seemed to be making the same realizations as her face grew more and more pale. "I don't know!"

"What about Harry and Ron? Where are they!?"

"I don't know!"

"Great! So we don't know anything!"

"I know one thing—we need to get out of here!"

Romina would give her that point. They ran into the closest opening of the forest they could find. At least there they would have a chance of hiding and thinking of where to find the others. Though with the darkness around them, it would be hard finding anybody.

"Crazy to think that right now I would really rather be feeding my grandfather's graphorn right now," Romina said to Hermione. With the darkness, she couldn't see the odd look Hermione was sending her.

"Why? So you can complain about it later on like before?" drawled a familiar voice behind the pair.

Romina could laugh at the dumb luck they had. "Oh for God's sake—Lumos!" Her wand illuminated the immediate area and when she, and Hermione, turned around they saw Draco and Theodore leaning against a tree opposite of them. "Bit calm there, aren't we?"

They were pretty much relaxed when there was literal chaos in the area. Draco shrugged, leaning off the tree. "Not sure you're making the right choice again, Oswell. Out of everybody you've ran off with, you chose her." He made a nod in Hermione's direction.

The brunette, in return, glared. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Have you taken a look out there, Granger? Those are Muggles. What do you think I meant?"

Romina peered around the tree. She swallowed hard. The field was much too crowded to identify anyone but she could definitely see the figures in the air. She felt sick to her stomach. "They're...they're death eaters, aren't they?" Her voice shook a bit.

"Yes," Theodore answered her, making her look back at them. "So the smart choice would be to ditch your little friend before you get caught up in this mess."

"Bet you're a little happy you didn't bring King along, though," Draco said, knowing that despite her heavy annoyance she knew that he had a point. He smirked.

Romina air strangled him with her free hand. "Where the hell are your parents?"

"I got a feeling I know where," she heard Hermione mumble.

"Lost them in the run," Draco said quite calmly. "What about you? Weasleys leave you to your own luck?"

"No," Hermione snapped. "We got split up but don't worry, we'll be finding them." She grabbed hold of Romina's arm, dragging the dark haired girl a few steps away when a strong explosion rocked them all on their feet.

"Might be a little hard, Hermione," Romina admitted.

"You're better off splitting up, Oswell!" Draco called to them.

"Shut it!" Romina snapped. She racked her mind for some good options which, admittedly, weren't very many. "Draco," she called suddenly, "Where were you guys going to go?"

"What?" Both he and Hermione sent her the exact same horrific looks.

Theodore looked between with bemusement. "We're not bringing you anywhere."

"Oh, be quiet, Nott," Romina waved him off, "And get real. You two were definitely going to go somewhere—where?"

Even Hermione wasn't all for Romina's plan. She would much rather take her chances in the forest. "Romina, we don't need them!"

"Right now, we need to take anything we can get," Romina said sharply and faced the boys again, more precisely Draco. "C'mon," she sighed, putting her hands together as she walked up to Draco, "For once, just stop being a jerk and help us out. We could die out here. Would you really let that happen?"

"Not you," Draco said with all the ease in the world.

Romina glared incredulously at him. "Oh, how special I feel right now! You idiot!" Without warning, she punched his arm with all her might.

Hermione blinked in surprise while Draco stumbled back, arm clutching what was sure to be bruised later on. Theodore's eyes widened as well but he downright laughed.

"Shut the fuck up, Nott!" Draco said lividly before his eyes landed on Romina. "Who the hell do you think you are—?"

Romina had enough and shoved him away from her. "I can't believe I ever thought you had a shred of decency! Don't you ever talk to me again!" She yelled furiously at him then ran back to where Hermione was, grabbing her hand, and continuing their run together.

Neither girl wanted to admit that they had no idea where they were going but they did agree (silently) that it was going to be better than the field. They held onto each other's hands as tightly as possible because the last thing they were going to do was lose each other amongst the chaos. They bumped into all sorts of people running as well, among those Beauxbaton students who didn't speak a drop of English. They even caught Ludo Bagman who, up until that moment, had no idea what was going on out in the campsite.

Eventually, fate took pity on them and they found—crashed face first—with Harry and Ron.

"What happened to you two!?" Harry hugged Romina tightly. "We were going mad trying to find you!"

"Yeah, where'd you get into!?" Ron was about to hug Hermione but for some reason he decided not to in the end.

"Got lost, that's all," Romina said quickly, making it clear to Hermione that they were going to leave out the small moment they had with Draco. That was fine with Hermione.

"Where are the twins and Ginny?" Hermione asked, looking around the immediate area. There was no one else but them.

"Got the foggiest," Ron said. "We're hoping we can find them when this dies down."

"How is this ever going to die down?" Romina made a gesture towards the noise of the field. "The entire Ministry is probably out there trying to get this—"

They stopped when a particular noise was just too close to them. Uneven steps were definitely close to their area. It turned out to be Winky who, despite wanting to escape the chaos, seemed to be struggling greatly to do so. It got Hermione riled up again about house elves again. They kept running, although Harry was a little slower on account of him trying to find his missing wand. They came to a small clearing that for the time being seemed safe. It was very shortlived as they thought they heard more steps.

"Who's there?" Harry called, bringing both Romina and Hermione behind him and Ron.

Nobody answered him directly. Instead, they all heard a loud scream ring through the clearing. "MORSMORDRE!"

A streak of green energy beamed to the sky. It seemed to glitter in the sky when it exploded to create a shape. They were like dancing emerald stars forming a serpent protruding from its mouth.

"What the hell…?" Romina gulped, taking a step back as if the serpent would come down for them at that very moment.

New screams erupted from the forest. Wherever it was that people had been hiding themselves was gone now.

"What? What is it!? What's going on now?" Harry looked around to make sure his friends were still with him. They were. And they were just as frightened as the others.

"Harry, it's the Dark Mark!" Hermione exclaimed. "You Know Who's sign!"

"RUN! RUN!" was all Ron's head could think of so it was the first thing that came out of his mouth. 'It didn't help that wizards were apparating only a short distance from them, each one with their wand out and aimed right at them.

Harry cried 'duck!' seconds before the wizards yelled 'stupifey!'.

Lights flashed above them, ricocheting from every angle—how none of them had yet to be struck by the lights was beyond Harry.

"STOP! That's my son!"

At the voice of Mr. Weasley, the firing stopped. The man emerged from group of wizards, looking worse for wear as he came up to group to make sure they were alright.

"Out of the way, Arthur," Barty Crouch strode up to them, wand still clasped in his hand. "Which one of you did it?" He demanded from them. "Which one of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"You're joking!" Romina snapped out of her fear-induced trance. "We were running for our lives and you think we did that!?" She raised a finger high above her head to point at the sky. "You're out of your mind!"

"Do not lie!" Crouch said, eyes blazing with anger for the lack of the response he was searching for and for being spoken to like that by a young girl. "You've been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"Where did the Mark come from, you four?" Mr. Weasley asked much gentler, and of course without the intention of blaming them.

"Over there!" Hermione pointed to their left. "There was someone behind the trees! They're the ones who shouted an-an incantation!"

Mr. Crouch still wasn't convinced. However, he was the only one because the group of wizards behind him didn't exactly believe four fourteen year old kids were responsible for the massive mark tainting their sky.

"You know who did it,' Romina spoke again, ignoring Mr. Weasley's look that practically begged her not to keep going. "We all do."

Crouch met her eye with nothing but disdain for her. "Oh, really?"

"I would know what that mark is—my parents had it. That's the mark of the Death Eaters. They're responsible for it, not some Hogwarts students." Romina folded her arms, mustering enough courage to keep staring at the man until he either agreed and let them go...

She would waver from a lot of things but not this. There were many pictures of Elora and Caplan around and in many of them they had the same mark tattooed on their arms. Whoever was behind all this was a Death Eater wearing the same damn mark.

The stand-off was interrupted by Cedric's father, Mr. Diggory, who in a matter of minutes managed to acquire a stunned "culprit" not too far from them. Of course when he returned with the culprit, things made even less sense. It was Winky, Mr. Crouch's house elf. And to top it off, she had a wand.

After being brought back, Mr. Diggory started questioning her.

"I — I — I is not doing it, sir!" Winky said. "I is not knowing how, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" Mr. Diggory held the wand in question at her.

"Hey," frowned Harry as he recognized the wand, "That's mine!"

Everything stopped. All eyes turned on him.

"I dropped it!" Harry said.

"You dropped it?" Mr. Diggory said in disbelief. "Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?"

"Amos, think who you're talking to!" Mr. Weasley cut in angrily. "Is Harry Potter likely to conjure the Dark Mark?"

Thankfully, Mr. Diggory gathered his bearings and realized how unlikely that was. "Er — of course not. Sorry . . . carried away . . ."

"I didn't drop it there, anyway," Harry said, jerking his thumb behind them. "I missed it right after we got into the wood."

So," Mr. Diggory, turned to look at Winky again, "You found this wand, eh, elf ? And you picked it up and thought you'd have some fun with it, did you?"

"We're not really thinking the elf did it, are we?" Romina was not quiet at all with her scoff. "Look at her! She's scared out of her wits!"

"Winky's got a squeaky little voice, and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!" Hermione added for support. "It was a human voice."

"And a man too," Romina crossed her arms. "A grown man."

Mr. Diggory didn't look very impressed by the two girls. "Well, we'll soon see. There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?"

"Oh, for the love of..." Romina shook her head, "Guess Cedric didn't get his smarts from his dad..." She mumbled under her breath.

Mr. Diggory performed the spell on Harry's wand and to everyone's shock, the same skull from the sky billowed out from Harry's wand like a ghost.

"I is not doing it!" Winky cried with absolute terror. "I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is a good elf, I isn't using wands, I isn't knowing how!"

"You've been caught red-handed, elf !" Mr. Diggory roared. "Caught with the guilty wand in your hand!"

Winky cried about her innocence until Mr. Crouch stepped in and twisted the accusation. If Winky was the accused, then so was he and that could not be. Mr. Diggory had no choice but to let go of his accusation. Winky told the group where she had found Harry's wand which wasn't too far from them. They soon believed that whoever had used the wand had merely found it like Winky had and took advantage of it.

Mr. Crouch requested he be the one to punish Winky for her "crimes", which was not following his orders. "Winky has behaved tonight in a manner I would not have believed possible. I told her to remain in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes."

Winky started sobbing.

"But she was frightened!" Hermione said angrily at the same time Romina said, in a calmer manner, 'You're so delusional'.

While Mr. Crouch wasn't that bothered by Hermione's outburst, he threw a hard look in Romina's direction. "Watch your language, young lady."

"But she was literally stuck in the middle of an attack and you want to fire her?" Romina scowled. "If she had stayed back there, she would've been killed. So a dead house elf is better than this?"

"I have no use for a house-elf who disobeys me," he said coldly.

"Romina's right! You'd rather a dead house elf!" Hermione exclaimed. "Your elf 's scared of heights, and those wizards in masks were levitating people! You can't blame her for wanting to get out of their way!"