Jamia sat with her head in Frank's lap as he stroked her hair. Hayley was chatting happily with Tyler across the common room. Recollection of the events during the defense against the dark arts class were nonexistent in her mind, leaving her no anger to feel.

On the other hand, Jamia's guts were wrenching. She felt horrible for what she had done and what she was still doing. She was only fifteen; she should be enjoying her time at school, not tormenting over decisions she felt forced into. She turned her head so that she was hiding her face in Frank's lower torso.

"Anything wrong?" Frank asked, looking down at her.

"Everything wrong." She muttered before sitting up. Frank tilted his head curiously at her as she pushed her hair back. "Why couldn't I be born into something other than what I am?.." She shook her head, hiding her face in her hands.

"Jamia, please don't cry." Frank scooted over to her and pulled her close, "Your family can't do anything to you here."

"My family has done everything to me here." She sniffled, wiping her eyes as she pulled away from Frank's grasp. "If I hadn't of made it in Slytherin, maybe I would of been spared what I was told to do because they would of disowned me."

Frank frowned at her. He reached out and held onto her hand. "You're worth more than your house."

Jamia shook her head, shutting her eyes tightly at his words. "You wouldn't even say that if you knew what I've done..." She opened her eyes to be greeted by the faux amour laced in Frank's expression. She felt her gut wrench, but she was distracted from saying another word by a scuffle across the room.

Hayley was being held by a large older student while another sneered at Tyler, pointing his wand right in the intimidated fourth year's face. Tyler's wand was rolling on the table he had been sitting at with Hayley.

"I heard you're a good dueler, mudblood." The older student taunted, enjoying Tyler's nervousness.

"He earned our house points." Hayley spat viciously at the older student, "More than you've done for us, Adams."

The older student's expression slipped to anger. "Shove a sock in it." He said, flicking his wand towards her, sending a piece of tape from its tip to cover her mouth. She struggled against the boy holding her as Adams turned back to Tyler.

"Leave her alone!" Tyler yelled, letting his hands ball into fists at his sides.

Adams just laughed with the flick of his wand, sending Tyler spinning to hang upside down in midair. "What are you gunna do, mudblood?" He taunted with his laughter. He swiped Tyler's wand from off the table and dangled it in front of him, "I got your wand."

Jamia turned to Frank. "Aren't you going to do something?" She asked when he simply smiled dumbly back at her.

His brow furrowed in a slight confusion. "Why?"

"Because he's you friend!" Jamia exclaimed in a hushed tone, "Don't you remember how you stuck up for him first year? Every year?"

Frank blinked at her. "I'd hate to miss a moment with you." He finally replied with a whisp of pink trailing over his eyes.

Jamia felt heartbreak and frustration fill her at the same time. She ripped her hand out of Frank's and masterfully slid her wand out of her sleeve. "Furnuneulus!" She yelled once her wand had locked onto the older student.

Adams cried out, dropping his and Tyler's wands and covering his face with his hands. Tyler dropped with a dull thud, quickly scrambling up to get his wand. The older Slytherin's skin was bubbling up with boils. Hayley was shoved forward as Adams' friend hurried over to him.

"Dude, what's going on?!"

"Just help me to the hospital wing, you idiot!"

The two shuffled off as Tyler pointed his wand at the binding on Hayley's mouth, whispering a counter spell. Jamia looked back at Frank, not sure why at all she expected anything more than a love lust expression.

"You're such a rad spell caster. A rad girl, too..." He said, making her cry out in frustration.

"NO I'M NOT!" She screamed at the top of her lungs before jumping up and rushing to the girls dorms.

Frank looked after her with a complete lack of understanding. What had he said? She had done such a rad thing to help...

In time, Frank found himself entering his own dorm room. It was empty except for Brendon, who was sleeping uneasily, and Spencer, who was working on a foot of parchment for an assignment. Spencer glanced up, but his eyes were almost instantly back on his paper. Frank paid it no mind as he walked over to his bed. He pulled his blankets back and was surprised to see a small box wrapped in golden paper with black ribbon accents. It looked so familiar...

Frank shook his head as his thinking process seemed to cloud for a moment. He reached over to the drawer next to his bed and pulled it open. He pulled out a liquorice wand and bit into it before reaching for the box on his bed. The wrapped gift made its way in his drawer before Frank shut it without a second thought.

"He still wonders if you've opened it, you know." Spencer spoke up from his bed, never bothering to look up from his assignment.

Frank looked at his friend. "What do you mean?"

Spencer stopped writing on the parchment. He was still for a moment before he set his quill down gently ontop of the assignment and turned to look at Frank. "Gerard still wonders if you ever opened his gift."

Frank said nothing as he thought about the name. Gerard. Clouded memories played in the background of his mind with muffled audio, but nothing coherent. It couldn't be that important if he couldn't fully remember.

"Have you even seen him recently?" Spencer asked, growing visibly irritated by the minute. "Your change caused him to change. You really fucked him up, Frank."

"I haven't done anything to him." Frank responded, already feeling distant from the conversation as his mind drifted to the girl just a dorm away.

"You tried to continue a duel that had already been ended!" Spencer shot back, "You refuse to talk to him, and you give no explanation as to why you abandoned him for some prissy girl that you hardly liked in the first place-"

"Don't talk about her like that." Frank growled, feeling an overwhelming sense of anger overtake him. The pink haze over his thoughts shifted to red as Spencer continued.

"Listen, I get that people can change, and that she was really the worst in first year, but you can't just leave a person high and dry like you did Gerard." Spencer turned to face Frank, "You really fucking hurt him."

"He needs to move on." Frank spoke nonchalantly, feeling his anger ease for some reason.

"You need to give him explanation!" Spencer shot back.

"I don't need to do anything."

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Frank!?" Spencer yelled, causing Brendon to jolt up from sleep. "Did he just not mean anything!?"

"I don't know!" Frank yelled back. His brain was swimming with haze and loving thoughts for Jamia. It was all becoming a bit confusing to understand. "I don't..."

"Piss off." Spencer huffed, pushing himself off the bed and storming out of the room. The door slammed behind him, causing Frank to flinch.

"Whatsssgoinon?" Brendon slurred tiredly from his bed, barely pushed up from the sheets.

Frank stood silently. His mind almost seemed to be rewiring itself after Spencer's words. It didn't make sense why everyone was angry with him... He hadn't done anything, had he?

With the lack of Frank's response, Brendon let himself fall back to the bedsheets with a soft plop and quickly fell asleep again.

---

Melanie sat worriedly next to Patrick and Max. Gerard had gone straight into his dorm and refused to come out, let alone speak to anyone. Both Patrick and Max had tried, but to no avail.

"His hair's grown out and changed color." Patrick said as he nervously pulled at his sweater sleeves, "Maybe we should get our head of house involved."

"I don't know if we should go that far, yet." Max spoke up softly, "They say not to bother the head of house unless it's something really bad. Professor Lester would understand, but I don't want to get Gerard in some kind of trouble."

Melanie shook her head, "He already is in trouble. We need to be there for him."

"How are we supposed to help?" Patrick asked with an unsure expression, "I've seen him sad before, but it was nothing like this..."

"Everyone experiences and goes through things differently." Melanie whispered, letting her eyes trail over to the boys dorms. She looked like she wanted to say more, but everyone jumped at the sound of Jon's voice.

"Melanie," He spoke as he floated up through the center of the table the small group was sitting around, "there's a Slytherin in the hall for you."

Melanie smiled at him, "Thank you, Jon! Sit tight, boys." She tapped the table before jumping to her feet. Jon gave her a small salute as she hurried to the entranceway. When she emerged from the common room, she was greeted by Spencer leaning against the wall opposite from the entrance.

She smiled before rushing over and engulfing him in a tight hug. She buried her face in his chest as his arms wrapped around her. "Could you get through to him?"

Spencer sighed, entangling his fingers in her color shifting hair. "I tried, Mels... I slipped the present under his blankets, I tried to tell him about Gerard..."

Melanie pulled away from Spencer to look up at his disheartened expression. She reached up and allowed her fingertips to dance down his cheek. "You tried, that's all we can ask." She smiled, trying to persuade a similar response from Spencer. "Thank you for that."

She popped up to her toes to peck at his lips. She smiled when she pulled away, but he still had a slight frown. "He's so different, I don't understand what happened."

"It's hard to say what happened." Melanie said, leaning against Spencer as the lighter side of her hair faded to a soft gray. "It's easy to be there for Gerard, though. Let's just focus on that if we can't get through to Frank." She leaned back and smiled up at him, "Let me go work my own magic."

Spencer finally let a smile break on his face with a soft laugh. "You're absolutely magic, Melanie."

Melanie squeezed his torso before hurrying back across the hall. She gave Spencer a final wave before she slipped into her common room. She ran past the boys at the table, but haulted when she reached the boys and girl's dorm split.

"I know I'm equipped a different way, but I need to see my friend in the boys dormitory." She spoke clearly to the open air in front of her as she swung her body from side to side, "Promise I won't be long."

She waited a moment before stepping forward. The usual magic barrier that prevented girls and boys from entering each other's dorms laxed for her, although she still felt its presence. She had learned (after she had been subjected to forced monthly pains and needed someone to bring her some bitterroot balm to soothe her) that if you had a good enough reason and asked politely for entering the opposite sex's dorm you would be let through. Granted, Patrick had entered the dorm with his hands covering his eyes, but he had still polited his way through.

Melanie stepped up to the boy's dorm door and knocked on it lightly. "Gerard? May I come in?"

There was no response, but the door swung open for her. She stepped back at first, but hesitantly stepped forward. The dorm room was dark. Melanie pulled out her wand and whispered, "Lumos" before stepping into the room.

"Gerard?" She looked over the beds until her eyes landed on one with a human shaped lump under the covers. She walked over with the tilt of her head, "Gerard, hey, are you up?"

The figure under the covers stayed relatively still, except for the small movement at the end nearest to the pillows. Melanie reached out to where the covers moved, slowly letting her hand set down on top of the spot. With a similarly slow speed, she grabbed hold of the cover before pulling it back.

Gerard shut his eyes at the sudden light cast over him from Melanie's wand tip. His newly dark hair fell in his face, helping to cover his eyes and the dark bags underneath.

"Oh, Gerard, what happened to your snowy hair?" Melanie asked as she reached out to push some of the longer strands away from his face. "The new color does look good, but your natural hair was so unique."

"Unique is just a nice way of saying freakish..." Gerard mumbled, shifting his arm to hide his eyes.

"Not true." Melanie frowned. She sat down on the ground before resting on her knees. She leaned against Gerard's bed and tilted her head at him. "Unique is hardly like any other. It's uncommon, but that doesn't make it freakish. It was beautiful in its own way, whether you see it or not... Did you not like your hair?"

Gerard was still. He didn't respond to Melanie's words until, after a short silence, he moved his arm down to rest in front of them. "It wasn't normal..." He spoke with the opening of his eyes. The usually bright hazel seemed dull and faded, but that may have been due to the lighting.

"What even is normal?" Melanie moved so that her head was upright, "Everyone has a different definition of the word. That was your normal, and it was pretty brilliant." She reached out and set her hand gently on his arm, "Is there another reason you changed it?"

Gerard avoided her eye. His legs bent up as he curled up just slightly with the question. "Maybe..." He whispered.

"Do you want to talk about him?" Melanie asked, "Or would you rather like to talk about the upcoming trip to hogsmeade tomorrow?" She offered him a smile.

"Is there a trip?" Gerard asked, moving his arm to wipe at his eye. "I had forgotten..."

"Good time for a snack restock." Melanie nodded. She was thinking of something else to say when she caught sight of the silent tears streaming from Gerard's face. "Gee-"

"I don't understand what I did so wrong!" Gerard cried out, using his arm to hide his eyes again. "J-just a reason, that would be enough..."

"Oh, Gerard." Melanie stood up before sitting on the mattress next to him. She hugged him tightly as he shook from soft sobs. "It's okay, it's understandable..."

"I shouldn't cry..." Gerard's words were shakey as his breath caught, "I tried so hard."

"It's okay to cry. Cry a river if you need to." Melanie soothed, rubbing Gerard's back. "Cry if it helps you get through even just a bit of what you're feeling."

Gerard followed Melanie's advice, letting the warm tears continue to stream down his face. He just wanted to understand what was happening. He just wanted to get his emotions under control. He just wished this wasn't affecting him like this...