It was a late night in the Gryffindor Tower. Cortney sat on the couch staring at the fire, she looked around to see if anyone was around. Nobody in sight, she took the family picture out of her pocket and looked at it. A small, warm smile grew upon her face. The Weasly twins, left their dorms to find Cortney on the couch. The two looked at each other with dangerous smiles. The two boys crept down the stairs and over to Cortney without making a sound. George leaped over the couch and sat next to her and put her arm around her. As Fred took the picture out of her hands.

" Give it back! " Cortney demanded standing up quickly, but George pulled her back down. At that moment, Harry and Ron came out of their dorms to see what Cortney was shouting about. They both walked down the steps and stood behind the couch.

"Let's see what we have here," Fred teased looking at the picture. His face quickly fell to confusion. " Who are these people ?" The room quickly grew quiet.

" My family," Cortney said coming out clean with the truth, but Ron didn't believe her.

" Of course it's your family," Ron said aggressively." Who's in it? Malfoy ?"

" No Malfoy. She's in the picture. Along with an older brunette man, an older red hair woman, two redhead girls, and a little brunette boy," Fred explained the picture before showing the group.

" Where are the Malfoys? " George asked.

" Or your terrifying parents, I'm sure you have a picture of them before they went to Azkaban," Ron sneered.

" I don't have a picture of them....well actually Draco gave me a picture of him and his parents for Christmas. That's about it," Cortney explained.

" Why is that? " Fred asked. Cortney grew really quiet as the atmosphere got intense.

" Well? " Ron demanded.

" My parents didn't want me. Happy? " Cortney said quietly, but truthfully.

" Didn't want you? " He asked confused. Fred handed the letter back to her, she thanked him with a nod. Cortney explained everything to Harry and the three Weasly boys, she made them swear not to tell anyone without her permission.

" Who all knows? " Harry asked.

" Hagrid, Hermione, Draco, De'lexi Martinez, Milan Saleung, and Joseph King," Cortney answered.

" You didn't tell Seamus ?" Harry gasped. " You know he's going to kill you if you don't tell him soon".

" I know, I just don't know how to tell him," Cortney sighed.

" So you really aren't-" George began.

" Planning anything evil," Fred finished. Cortney just nodded her head.

****************************

The next few days were quite peaceful, people were starting to return to school. ( By the way, Cortney didn't join Ron and Harry on the nights they went to the Mirror of Erised ).

" Cort ! " familiar voices coursed. De'lexi, Joey, and Milan came up and all grouped hugged her,

" Hello! How was your Christmas? " Cortney asked.

" Good," they chimed.

" Yours? " Joey asked.

" Peaceful," Cortney said with a light airy voice.

" That's good," De'lexi said. " Didn't you to feel all lonely or anything".

" I wasn't I stayed with the Gryffindors," Cortney confirmed.

" Good, cause I saw Seamus on the train on the rain back. He goes ' If Cortney complains about being lonely I'm going to kill her ". Milan said trying to mimic Seamus. They all laughed.

" I should go find the cousin," Cortney announced putting her hands on her hips.

" Good luck," They coursed walking away. Cortney turned around to go find her cousin, she bumped into someone, both ended up on the ground.

" We need to stop meeting like this," a familiar voice groaned.

" Seamus," Cortney she breathed sitting up.

" Hello, Cortney " he groaned sitting up. " How was Christmas ?" he asked as they both got up and began to go find others.

" Good! Yours ? " she replied.

" Pretty good, did you get lonely ? " he questioned. Cortney remembered what Milan said earlier.

" Very," she said as her eyes got darker.

" I'm going to kill you," Seamus playfully threatened. She tried to walk away, but he already licked her face. " Seamus! " She groaned wiping her cheek.

"Cortney Lestrange ! " her cousin's voice ranged, and with that Seamus was gone.

" Hello Draco," She greeted as he caught up to her. With that Cortney spent the rest of her afternoon

catching up with her friend and cousin.

**************

Authors Note: Hey, so I know I haven't been very good with updating. It's been rough these past few months. To summarize, My boyfriend broke up with me on the second-day midterms in January. He's now my ex obviously. Found out he cheated, but he denies it. Even though his best friend and the guys told me. We are not speaking terms, probably won't be anytime soon. Since school is out for the summer Thursday. I took the ACT twice and the SAT once. And I am two days from being a Senior !! Exciting times !! Lesson learned don't date swimmers from the same school. Wait till at least you're done with swimming, or give it a few years. Or don't date someone from the same team. And so the guys and girls team took my side even his friend. They were all extremely mad at them like it was quite tense at times. I went to practice cause I did not give up getting better at swim because of some stupid boy. And plus he broke up with me, the boy's team didn't. They are all still my friends. I will try updating as much as possible now, summer is coming up, I'm getting a new job hopefully soon, and I have a swim camp in the summer. But I will still have time for this. Plus I have for the first time ever have summer homework for AP U.S history. Also, I signed up for Freshmen mentoring next year to help freshmen and !! I am a co-captain for the swim team !! Senior year is going to be amazing !! Love you all !! Thank you for being super patient

- Pickles