Hi :)

Finally a new chapter! I know I said it was almost done, like two months ago, but I was not very happy with the chapter and to be honest, inspiration wasn't coming. Anyway I'm not entirely happy with this chapter either, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.

Chapter 13: Christmas II

Raven was staring carefully at a butterfly, which had just landed on the centre table in the Slytherin common room. She positioned herself to jump and landed on the old wooden table, making a teacup spill its contents on Melinda.

"Arrgh! You should do something about your bloody cat, Potter!"

Riley didn't bother looking up from the book she was reading, and just rolled her eyes slightly.

"It's a cat, you can't control it." She said calmly.

"Then cage it or put it outside!"

Riley set her eyes on her, before lifting her wand and cleaning Melinda's uniform with it.

"There." She looked down at her book again. They were waiting for April and Lauren to join them, so they all could have breakfast together. Riley hated being alone with Melinda and didn't care if it was rude to ignore her completely, by reading a book while waiting.

"That's not the point!" She snapped back. Riley opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it. It was best to just let it go. "Anyway, have you talked to Marcus, yet?"

"I will." Riley hadn't said anything to Marcus, despite the fact that they were getting along now, she didn't know exactly how to proceed.

"It's been three weeks already!"

Riley sighed loudly and looked at Melinda.

"Fine, I'll do it after practice today. Happy?"

Melinda didn't answer, she gave Riley her snobby look and turned her attention to the girls' dorm.

"Ah finally!"

Riley lifted her head and saw April and Melinda coming to their direction. She closed her book and got up from the couch.

"What? A girl needs time to get ready in the morning." Lauren said grinning at her friend.

"Well, apparently not all of us share this line of thought." Even if Melinda didn't look at Riley, Riley knew that this comment was addressed to her. She had never taken the time to get ready in the morning, she didn't see the point of it. Her hair was messy as always, and she didn't wear makeup, she didn't need to with her big green eyes and flawless skin. She only had lipstick on, but it was only because Lauren gave all that makeup to her and she didn't want to look ungrateful.

When Riley finished her breakfast, she went to Potions class. Snape was still acting cold towards her and she was being treated the same way as Gryffindors. Luckily enough, Snape didn't like to take points from his own house. She saw Adrian sitting next to Warrington, who was very concentrated on writing on a piece of parchment.

"Hey Riley." Adrian greeted her.

"Hey, why didn't you come to sit with us for breakfast?"

"Well, I don't think your friends like us." He said, laughing.

"What? Nonsense." She laughed back.

"Well, one of them was pretty nasty with us the last time."

"Melinda." Riley rolled her eyes. "You shouldn't worry about her, I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me either." Riley answered, making Adrian chuckle. "But April and Lauren are cool." She remembered what Lauren had said about Adrian. "They like you."

"Oh, in that case, we'll be joining you." He smiled.

"What's he doing?" She asked, nodding her head towards Warrington.

"He didn't finish the essay we had for Homework."

"And Snape will have my head if I don't give this to him today." Warrington added. "He's been in a very weird mood lately."

Riley bit her bottom lip, it was true that Snape was different from last year, but she found it hard to believe, that he would have changed that much only because of what had happened between them. Riley glanced at her own essay, she didn't want to give him any reason to give her a bad grade, so every time she had a potions homework, she did it like her life depended on it. It was exhausting, but at least she was still having good grades.

"Well, I've heard some interesting rumours about that." She heard Montague's annoying voice from behind her.

"Sod off, Montague." Adrian spat.

"Oh, don't you want to hear it? Apparently, it has something to do with a student here… A Slytherin."

Riley gulped nervously. She didn't want her housemates to blame her for Snape's behaviour.

"Who?" Warrington asked. Riley prepared herself for hearing her name, but Montague just shrugged, grinning wickedly at Riley. Then, he left to join Cora and her cronies.

"What a git." Adrian said, shaking his head in disapproval.

"You never said what happened between the two of you." Riley asked, eyeing Montague.

"Oh," Riley noticed that Adrian blushed a bit. "Well, after I started being friends with you again, he started saying awful things about you, and he said that I'd have to choose between you and him, so…"

Riley was surprised, and at the same time touched by that.

"So you chose me?!" She asked smiling a bit. Adrian looked at her, his cheeks pink.

"You know like sometimes, you think that you have a lot in common with someone but then realise that it isn't true?"

Riley glanced at Fred, who was laughing at something with George and Lee.

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

When Potions class was over, Riley, who had finished her potion 10 minutes in advance, grabbed her stuff and quickly turned to the classroom exit, but froze when she heard Professor Snape's voice.

"A moment please, Miss Potter."

Turning around, she saw that Snape wasn't looking at her, instead he had his eyes on some parchments on his desk. What Snape could possibly want with her? Feeling rather nervous, she took a few steps towards his desk. She watched her classmates rushing out of the class to have lunch. When the last one had finally left the classroom, she turned her head back to her Professor, who still wasn't looking at her.

"Professor Dumbledore wishes to see you." He said nonchalantly. Riley remained silent for a few moments. "You can go now Miss Potter. Password is Acid Pops." She opened her mouth to reply, but then decided against it.

She left the classroom and glanced at her watch, it was past midday. Since Snape didn't gave her more information, she didn't know when Dumbledore was expecting to see her, she thought that it would be best not to make him wait.

She decided to go directly to the Headmaster's tower and said the password when she was in front of the Gargoyle statue. The staircase started moving and Riley quickly stepped on it. She reached the office door and knocked.

"Come on in." The Headmaster's voice came from the other side of the door. Riley opened the heavy door and stepped inside.

"Ah Miss Potter." He frowned, gently. "I wasn't expecting you this early. Have you already eaten?"

"I'm not hungry." She lied.

"Very well. Have a seat." He indicated the chair in front of his desk. "So, you must be wondering why I called you here." She nodded. "I want to talk to you about what happened at the last Quidditch match."

Riley averted her eyes from his, as if she was afraid he would read her mind. She really didn't want to talk about it.

"I fell." She answered quickly.

"I'm aware." He smiled gently. "My question is why?"

Riley looked back at him and saw his small blue eyes staring at her.

"I-I," She stammered and sighed deeply. "I'm not sure. Everything went black and I fell."

"Is that all?" He asked, as if he already knew the answer.

"Well…" She started saying. "I also saw something." She added warily. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"My dream." She said at once.

"Your dream?"

"Yes, the cemetery." She lowered her eyes to her hands. "Only this time, it was more clear and…" She hesitated.

"And?"

She looked up and met his eyes again.

"And I saw Voldemort coming back to life."

"What did Dumbledore want?" Adrian asked her, while they were in the Locker room after Quidditch practice.

"He wants me to take Divination class next year."

"Divination? With that old bat?" Bole, who had been eavesdropping, said.

"This is a private conversation." Adrian retorted, mildly annoyed.

"What do you mean?" Riley asked, not seeming to mind this intrusion.

"Trelawney is nuts." He sneered. "My father said that she isn't even gifted, that she's just some sort of charlatan."

"So why do you take divination?" Bletchley asked, being the second one to intrude.

"Because people told me it was an easy class." He said casually. "It is, though."

Riley pondered for a moment, she wasn't sure why Dumbledore wanted her to take that class specifically. It couldn't possibly be a vision what she had, could it?

"I'm starving." Adrian said as he grabbed his stuff. "I promised Cassius that I'd meet him before dinner, are you coming?" He asked Riley.

Remembering that she had to speak with Flint about something, she shook her head.

"Don't wait for me, I need to do some things first."

Adrian shrugged. "As you wish." He left the Locker room, being followed by the other players. There was no one else but Riley and Marcus left, he grabbed his broom and was about to leave when Riley called his name, he turned around and frowned slightly.

"What?"

"I want to ask you something."

"Spill it out."

"Are you seeing someone at the moment?"

Flint's slight frown turned into a confused face.

"Huh… Potter I don't what you're doing right now, but you're too young for me."

"What?" Riley widened her eyes. "No, no, no! I'm not asking for me!"

"Oh." He seemed to relax a bit. "Who then?"

"Melinda."

"Who?"

"Melinda Rowle." Seeing that Flint was still confused she added. "One of the girls that are always with me. The one who greeted you in the hospital wing the other day. She's a third year but she's already fourteen."

"Oh right."

"Anyway, she has a crush on you, and I'm supposed to tell you this, so do whatever you want with this information, I don't care."

With that Riley grabbed her things and left the Locker room.

The last weekend before Christmas was Hogsmead visit day. Riley was having breakfast with Lauren, April and Melinda. She listened bored, as Melinda talked about her date with Marcus Flint.

"Do you think he'll like my dress?" Melinda asked. Riley glanced at her, she was wearing a strapless blue dress. She was also wearing black tights underneath.

"Aren't you going to be cold?" April asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, then he can warm me up." She winked at April. Riley rolled her eyes, she was almost relieved that she wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmead.

"Would you please stop talking about him, it's getting annoying!" Lauren said, bored. Melinda blushed and lowered her eyes to her plate. Lauren was apparently the one person who could put Melinda in her place. Even though, Lauren had always been nice to Riley, she sometimes felt a little intimidated by her. One thing she knew for sure was that she didn't ever want to be on her bad side.

"What are you going to do today?" April asked Riley. Riley noticed that even if the question was directed to her. April quickly glanced at Lauren, probably wanting to know if this new subject was approved by her. But when Lauren glanced at Riley waiting for an answer, she seemed to relax a bit.

"I haven't planned anything yet." Riley said, shrugging. "Maybe I'll just do my homework."

"It's really too bad that you can't come with us." Lauren smiled at Riley. "We'd have so much fun."

Riley noticed Melinda wincing, even if the other two didn't. Although, she didn't know if it was because she didn't think that they would have fun together or if it was because Lauren was being way nicer to Riley than to her.

"Yeah, too bad." Riley agreed.

They finished their breakfast and Riley accompanied the girls outside the castle, where Professor McGonagall was waiting for the students. She waved them goodbye and went back inside the castle. Then she headed to the Slytherin common room to grab her books and went to the library.

The library was almost empty, with the exception of some seventh-year Ravenclaws who seemed to have skipped Hogsmead visit to study for their NEWTS. Riley sat down at a table next to the window where she could see the snow falling down. She opened her Potions book and started doing her homework. She always did Potions first, always wanting it to be perfect.

She was trying really hard to concentrate, but some boys were talking and laughing behind the bookcase next to her. She kept on glaring at the bookcase as if they could see through it. After five minutes, she couldn't take it anymore, she abruptly got up from her seat and went towards where the voices where coming from.

"Would you please keep your mouths shu- " She immediately stopped talking when she saw who was there. Fred and George were sitting on the floor whispering to each other, next to them was an open book, but she couldn't read it. "So-rry." She stammered. Fred and Riley stared at each other for a moment, without saying anything.

"Sorry, are we being too loud?" George was the one who asked. Riley looked at him.

"Huh, yeah a little." She gave him a small smile. "Could you please talk more quietly?"

"Sure." He answered. Riley glanced at Fred, who hadn't said a thing. Then, she turned around to leave. A few seconds after she sat back down at her table, Fred appeared next to her and sat down in front of her. Riley looked at him surprised and the frowned slightly.

"Yes?" She asked, before starting to read her book again.

"I just want to talk." He said, shyly. Riley looked up from her book and stared at his eyes.

"What about?"

"Well, I want to apologize to you."

Riley kept on staring at him, not knowing what to say. Apologize to what? Not coming to visit her in the Hospital wing? Acting like a jerk? "Okay." She simply said.

"I mean it. I was just… mad."

"Mad?" She raised an eyebrow. "Because I made the team?"

"No! Not that. I mean, I'm glad you made the team, but well, you never said thank you."

"Thank you?" She repeated, almost laughing.

"Well yeah, it's kind of because of us if Montague was unable to play!"

Riley narrowed her eyes and then nodded. "Thank you." She said, sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm trying to apologize here! Why are you being so difficult?"

"Well, let's see." Riley put her hand on her chin as if she was trying to think. "It didn't matter to you that I almost died, you were too mad at me to come to visit and ensure that I was okay." She looked straight at his eyes, defiantly.

"What? I did come to visit you! But then your precious friends told me that I shouldn't be there and that you didn't want to see me!" He said, almost desperate.

"And you believed them?" She asked, stunned.

"Well, I don't know…"

"You didn't think that you should have talked to me before cutting me out of your life?"

Fred sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. But like I said, I was mad." He stared at her and Riley could almost see the pain in his eyes. "It's just hard you know, being friends with a Slytherin."

Riley felt her heart heavier. "Well, maybe we shouldn't be friends then!"

"No that's not what I want. I-" Before he could continue, Riley raised her hand cutting him off.

"Look Fred. I understand that's difficult, but the truth is that you're never going to like my friends and I'm never going to like yours. And I know that it's a silly reason to stop being friends with someone, but there's too much rivalry between the two houses and in the end, we're both going to take their sides."

Fred lowered his gaze. "So, that's it? We're agreeing on not being friends anymore."

Riley looked at him sad. It pained her to say that, but it was too complicated. "Well we're not enemies, we can still say hello to each other and be nice to each other, but… yeah that's it."

Fred nodded and then got up from his seat, still avoiding to look at her. Riley watched him leave and for a second she wasn't sure if it was the best idea, but then she remembered what Flint had said to her and sighed. Gryffindors and Slytherins couldn't be friends.

When Christmas break arrived, Riley was staying at Hogwarts since Remus and Lyall were out of the country. Everyone she knew was going back home, everyone except for Marcus Flint. Therefore, they both ate together and spent an amount of time together as well. Sometimes Flint would disappear for a couple of hours, but Riley didn't mind, she liked spending some time alone.

When they were together, not even once, Marcus had mentioned Melinda. Which was weird because when Melinda got back from Hogsmead, she was extremely happy, saying that it went very well and that after Christmas they were going on another date together. So, one evening when they were having dinner in the Great Hall, Riley decided to ask him about it.

"So, how was your date with Melinda?" She asked, trying to sound casual.

Marcus who was reading the sport section of the Daily Prophet, just shrugged. "Fine."

"She told me it went very well, that you're going on a second date too."

"Yeah." He said, not taking his eyes from the paper.

Riley nodded. "That's good."

"Sure."

"Chatty boy." She mumbled to herself, but Flint didn't seem to have heard her. At first she didn't really care if it was going to work between Melinda and him, but now she was starting to think that maybe Melinda would come to appreciate her and stop being mean to her, after all she was the one who was responsible for Melinda's happiness. She liked that idea.

The next day, Riley had lunch alone. She didn't know where Flint was. After, she decided to go flying for a little bit. It had finally stopped snowing, so the weather was perfect for a winter day. She grabbed her Nimbus 2000 and went to the Quidditch Pitch.

She flew for almost an hour before it started snowing again. She decided to go to the Slytherin locker room and wait, she was really enjoying being there and didn't want to stop flying.

When she got there, she heard weird noises and some girl giggling. Frowning, she stepped forward to see who it was and stopped abruptly. Marcus Flint was there, shirtless, snogging some Ravenclaw girl.

Riley closed her eyes and sighed. "Oh boy."