Disclaimer: They all belong to J.K. Rowling.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are you all right?" he asks.

I'm tired, she wants to say, I haven't been sleeping. The OWLs are coming and I have to pass, but I'm so stupid I won't even scrape by unless I study 'til I drop but even then it's no good. I'll fail them all and I'll never get a job so I'll have to marry a rich man and be a housewitch except I won't even make it there. I'll never pass and I'm so tired but I can't sleep or ten years from now you'll see me still sleeping in my parents' house and never amounting to anything or ever doing anything remotely useful.

I'm worried, she wants to say, actually scared is the word but I'll say worried because it sounds less frightening. You've been listening to Potter and don't try to deny it even though they say he's crazy, addled by that scar of his and saying terrible things about You-Know-Who coming back. He always made me nervous, surviving things that no one should have survived and they never did explain what happened with the Chamber of Secrets, but now he looks like he wants to kill something and I'm scared, Ernie, I'm scared that you'll let Potter's cause burn you up. Or worse if he's right, if You-Know-Who's back and you'll ride off into the sunset to fight Death Eaters only to come back as part of a body count.

I'm confused, she wants to say, I don't know why you're even asking. I don't know what you want with a fat clumsy stupid girl like me. You tell me that I'm pretty but the girl I see in the mirror has acne and awful stringy hair and too-large everything. You say that I'm not stupid but I can't believe that when I've messed up so many times in front of you. I don't understand why you want me when you could be chasing after Susan, or anyone but me. I don't understand why you act like you like me when I'm just second best.

"I'm fine," she says. "Why?"