A/N So you know, about --- words into the chapter there's use of the f-word. It's come to my attention some people don't like it when it's used, so I thought I would fore-warn. But if it's a consilation, it's Rory standing up for herself :-)

Term was in full swing now, October was already almost over. Things had changed slightly between Arthur and I since I realised I was attracted to him. I found myself noticing him more, admiring his smile and snorty giggles when he thought I wasn't looking. He made my heart ache, in a happy way.

I explained all of this to Gennie one night over a tub of ice-cream Gennie had snuck in from an illegal trip to Hogsmeade. She had been more than supportive.

"This is brilliant!" Gennie exclaimed, waving her spoon in the air. "We'll be family by marriage then! Cousin-in-laws! I doubt that's a real thing, but it's pretty cool!"

"Gennie," I groaned, flicking a cookie dough lump at her. "I'm only attracted to him, it's a tiny crush. It's not like I'm going to get married to him and have two kids and a dog with him!"

"Aw, you picked how many kids your going to have, that's cute as hell."

I flicked more ice-cream at her. "You're annoying."

"You're wasting ice-cream, you noob."

"I doubt anything will happen, I mean it's Arthur." I laughed, taking a scoop of  ice-cream from the tub. I thoughtfully looked down. "But he makes me happy. That much I know."

Bored one evening, I ended up drawing in my sketchbook on a window seat. Lately I'd been in more of a mood to draw, something that had been missing from my life for a long time. Not drawing constantly felt as if I was walking around with one shoe, so I was glad the artistic side of me was surfacing once more.

I happened to look up from an intracate drawing to see Sam scurrying down the hall. She looked worse, hair stuck up and eyes almost bloodshot. Arms around herself she was hissing to herself, "Shut up, leave me alone."

"Sam?"

She jumped at the sound of my voice. "What?" she snapped.

"Uh, you were talking to youself," I pointed out.

She looked to her left, and shook her head. "No I wasn't. Leave me alone, Potter."

She stalked off, and I couldn't help raising an eyebrow. "Potter? Huh, suppose Malfoy is influencing her."

Cole and Sam still hadn't spoken since their argument in the start of term. Gennie said they'd argued directly after the incident about Sam being stupid (which I agreed with) but not a single word had been exchanged since.

Cole had picked her bag up for her when some first year rammed into her, but he hadn't looked her in the eye once.

I just hoped they could work it out somehow.

"And on my left, I see a lone artistic genius." A fake dramatic tone came from the other side of the corridor.

I smiled into my sketchbook when I realised it was of course, Arthur. He was on break from his evening patrols he had to make almost every day. The reason I knew this was because I had Gennie find out his schedule for me, but not that I'd tell him.

It sounded vaugley stalker-ish, and that was something I wanted to avoid.

He sat on the other end of the window seat, long legs folded up under him. With a cheshire cat smile, he asked "Watcha drawing?"

I couldn't help smiling again. Nobody usually cared about what I was drawing. "You can have a look if you want."

I passed the battered book to him, and watched him admire my latest drawing, a sun and moon with words related to them scribbled within. Carefully he flipped through the pages, seeing my drawings of hearts in hands, a ginger angel with flowers in her hair and cats playing with wool.

"Well it's better than anything I could ever draw." Arthur said. "I couldn't draw if my remaining eye depended on it."

"You can draw something in there if you want," I said, squidging up close to him and passing him a pencil. "Only people I really trust get to draw in here. It's like my diary."

It was true. Hollie and Lacey had drawn in the book previously (though Lacey had been in a bad mood and just wrote all the swear words she knew in comic sans) as well as Gennie, Harry and Cole.

"Oh, this is going to be something better than Van Gogh could ever create." 

Arthur spent a full five minutes drawing, pouting whenever I tried to look. But then he placed the book on my lap, looking pleased with himself.

He'd drawn a little square house with curtains and a chimmney, on top of pointy grass underneath birds that looked like ticks and a smiling sun in the right corner.

"Cute." I said.

"Drawing's never been my forte." Arthur shrugged. "I'm more books and food. Why do you like it so much?"

I held the book to my chest. "It's funny, but I don't even know. Though when I was little, all I'd want to do in reception class was draw, and Kayley was the only one who'd draw with me." I sighed wistfully. "The two of us were going to do so much together with art. Get a flat together, sell paintings outside the tube stations... All of it was planned to the dot."

I opened the aged book to a drawing Kayley herself had done on the last day I ever truly saw her, that fateful day I discovered magic. She'd drawn birds escaping a cage together, telling me that was us, that one day we'd escape all the losers of our school and find our own happiness.

"I just hope I can alive long enough to live out the dreams Mark snatched away from Kayley."

I snapped the book shut, shutting away the drawer of regret and guilt I only ever peered in now. "So, moving on from my dead best friend, it's the first Hogsmeade visit this weekend."

"The first legal one." Arthur corrected. "Not that I've gone there illegally, I mean I'm head boy so I don't condone that behaviour."

"That's funny, because I swore I saw you throwing a fanged frisbee around with a first year." I smiled. "So, are you coming around with us all? We've never all gone around together, it should be fun."

Arthur started flicking his hand, something I noticed he did when he was nervous. "I was... well I was thinking, if you want to... That the two of us could possibly go together? Like alone?"

About a million thoughts whizzed through my head at the sound of that, especially considering I'd only just started to have proper gooey feelings for him. But my first reponse was, "What like a date?"

Arthur pushed his fringe over his bad eye, something else I noticed he did when nervous. It was becoming ridiculous how many tiny quirks of his I was noticing. "Only if you want it to be. Like, I'm cool with anything. I'm cool with forgetting I ever brought it up."

Smiling down at my sketchbook I nodded. "Sure." without pausing I carried on, "Well not like a serious one. Like something casual, like chilled and cool. Like, yeah."

Arthur grinned and cautiously put an arm around me to give me a side hug. "And you say I'm the awkward one."

 * * * 

I eventually trailed back up to the common room, where I found Alia curled up in a chair with a sour expression on her face as she read a book. 

"You look as if you swallowed a lemon." I giggled, sitting on the arm of her chair.

She raised an eyebrow, tossing the book to the floor and letting the spine crush in on itself. "Well you look like you sniffed something."

"I got a date," I smiled shyly. I couldn't help feel a bit of pride about it, considering for a long time I only ever thought of being with Malfoy.

"Does it happen to be with one of my family members?" Alia smirked, poking my leg.

"Yeah, I'm going out with Camille." I said sarcastically.

"Oh God no, she's a boring version of me." Alia shuddered. "She even gave me that Twilight book for me to read, so we'd have something to talk about! All I can say is that Edward is a creep staring at girls who sleep."

"So you're still not getting on with Camille? I thought you were close when you first found out she was your sister."

"I was happy I found my family, it didn't mean I liked her." Alia laughed. "But ugh she's getting up all in my business saying I should get back with Colin. Like, no."

"Why not?" I said. "You two were really cute. I think he still likes you."

I glanced in the direction of Colin and his younger brother, to see Colin giving Alia coy glances out the corner of his eye. Alia had never told me why they'd broken up, and it confused me considering Alia had seemed to like him so much.

She pulled on a strand of her hair until it came out. "He should go to my sister, she could give him what I never could."

"Alia, are you okay?"

Alia just forced a smile, and I automatically felt guilty for not realising sooner that Alia was struggling in some sort of way. "Just peachy, you know me." she paused. "Arthur's good for you. Have fun."

* * * 

After a sleepless night worrying about what was up with Alia, I ended up sneaking into the boy's dormitry. I knew exactly what I was wearing on this casual date thing, I just needed to steal a jacket from Harry to wear.

He was already awake when I sneaked in, all the other boys asleep. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed me, reading that stupid potions book. He wasn't seen without it, I was pretty sure he even slept hugged up to the book.

"Came to borrow your denim jacket." I whispered.

"It's my jacket." Harry huffed, turning a page in his book.

"Yeah, which I bought for you for our sixteenth and you only wore on your birthday."

"Point taken, it's in the bottom of my trunk." Harry nodded.

I delved into his messy trunk, sifting through six years of junk and probably dirty underwear to find the jacket I'd bought Harry. Holding the jacket against my frame, I nodded. There were advantages of being near the same height as my brother.

I stood up to leave, when out of nowhere Ron was dangling up-side down by his ankle in mid-air. He was screaming, while all the other boys had woken up and were laughing at him. Cole actually fell out of bed, clutching his sides.

"Sorry!" Harry shouted, while I couldn't help laughing as Ron tried grasping onto the bed frame to get down. "I'll get you down now. Wait--Libracorpus!"

Ron fell onto the bed in a heap, and we all carried on laughing. He looked up from the mess of his sheets. "Next time, I'd rather if you used an alarm clock."

I got dressed once I recovered from laughing, wearing a black skirt with Gennie's knee length boots and Arthur's Joy Division jumper I'd yet to return. With a slick of wobbly eyeliner wings and dark red lipstick coating my lips, I felt badass and pretty at the same time.

Grabbing my scarf and beanie hat, I headed down for breakfast with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Spotting Arthur across the hall I waved at him and he gave a little smile and wave before blushing and pulling a beanie over his face in embarassment.

Still smiling fondly, I carried on with my breakfast as Ron told Hermione about the incident in the dorms. Hermione just stared at him. "Did this spell come from the potion book?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So you just decided to try out an unknown, handwritten incantation and see what would happen?"

"Actually, that does sound dodgy when said like that." I pointed out. "Actually, the whole Half-Blood Prince thing is dodgy."

"It's just a laugh! You two are taking it too seriously!" Ron scoffed.

"My dad used this spell," said Harry. "I--Lupin told me."

I felt uncomfortable remembering my dad hoisting Snape up in the air by his ankle. I lovbut it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth when I remembered he was once a bully.

"In case you've forgotten, we've seen this before. Dangling people in the air. Making them float along, asleep, helpless."

I remembered the Quidditch world cup and shuddered at the thought of how crazy that night had turned out.

"Maybe he was a death eater, the prince." I pointed out. "It'd make sense."

 "If he'd been a budding Death Eater he wouldn't have been boasting about being 'half-blood,' would he?" Harry snapped.

"The Death Eaters can't all be pure-blood, there aren't enough pure-blood wizards left," said Hermione stubbornly. "I expect most of them are half-bloods pretending to be pure. Sam said to me before she's only half-blood, her mother was a muggle. It's only Muggle-borns they hate, they'd be quite happy to let you two and Ron join up."

"There is no way they'd let me be a Death Eater!" said Ron."My whole family are blood traitors! That's as bad as Muggle-borns to Death Eaters!"

"I could have been a death eater wife," I said dryly. "Hand around dark cupcakes to Malfoy's co-workers."

"And they'd love to have me," said Harry sarcastically. "We'd be best pals if they didn't keep trying to do me in."

I met Arthur in the entrance hall, after Harry told him to 'be nice to me or else'.  "Can I kiss you on the cheek?" Arthur asked shyly.

"You don't need to ask," I smiled, though I felt very shy now. Arthur quickly pecked a kiss on my cheek, and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. "You ready to go?"

We linked hands, and Arthur shoved his hand into his pocket. "Yeah--oh shit. I left my wallet in the dorms. I'll be back, please, please don't run off, I'll be a sec." He kissed me quickly on the cheek again and rushed off in the direction of the common room.

I leaned against a wall, playing with the frayed piece of material that was Sirius'. I was more nervous than I thought. I wanted to move on from Malfoy, I know our relationship wasn't the healthiest--especially considering the whole thing was fake. But he still had his talons dug into my heart, and they were still stuck there.

"Well who are you all dolled up for then?" I almost screamed. Malfoy had appeared in front of me with his signature smirk.

My hands fumbled for the material, shaking, not sure what to do. I hadn't talked to him in so long, and there was so much, so much I wanted to say to him.

But anger took over all my other emotions, and I spat out, "Fuck off Malfoy, I'm dressed nicely for me, not anyone else."

He laughed. "Wow, you've changed."

I narrowed my eyes at him, not sure what the hell he was actually doing. "Having your whole world shaken up does that."

His smirk faltered for a second. "You wear that lipstick on dates."

I snorted. "Surprised you bothered to remember considering you didn't even care about me."

He groaned, pulling at his tie. "It wasn't like that--Ugh, I can't explain it to you properly, Sam took that away from me. You wouldn't believe me anyway."

Clenching my fists I looked him directly in those grey eyes I used to love. "Just fuck off Malfoy, just fuck off. I can't be dealing with all your mysterious vague bullshit today--I already guessed you sent that letter about Sam to me, I recognise your wording--." I took a bold step closer to him. "You can't just come back into my life when it bloody well suits you, because I needed you for months but you weren't there. Arthur was. Where were you Malfoy? Where the hell were you?"

Malfoy looked as if I'd slapped him and took a step back. "Aurora--"

"No!" I shouted. "You lost all right to call me that, or Rory, or even by my last name the bloody second you told me it wasn't real!"

"Um, is everything okay?" Arthur had appeared behind Malfoy, clutching his wallet. Malfoy looked him up and down. Arthur narrowed his eyes and tried to put on an intimidating stance.

Malfoy snorted. "You downgraded from me to him? How rich."

"Fuck off Malfoy." I hissed, taking Arthur's hand confidently in mine. "And stay the fuck away from Sam, or so help me."

Arthur and I didn't speak until we'd left the school, even though our hands were still interlocked. I ran a finger down Arthur's palm. "It's funny when you try to be intimidating. You're just a kitten."

"And you're a lion. A very angry lion." Arthur paused. "Do you want to talk about that cactus, or nah?"

I stopped in the middle of the path, and kissed his cheek. "I'd rather the two of us just enjoy our date."

We ended up going into the Three Broomsticks and getting Butterbeer and sharing a slice of chocolate cake. It was all relaxed and carefree, especially when Arthur suggested we play with pokemon trading cards because we were both such nerds.

The only date-like thing about it was that we ended up sharing lame pick-up lines and the winner of the trading card game got a kiss on the cheek. Arthur could clearly see I wanted to go slowly with whatever this was, and I respected him for that.

I couldn't help notice in my almost empty butterbeer mug how awful my hair was looking. I hadn't dyed it in weeks, and a lot of black was coming through. "God, my hair looks so bad. I blame Harry with his levitating spells." I shuddered, dealing a Charizard card.

"It looks pretty like you." Arthur said casually. I snorted. "It does though. It's all wavy and the faded bits at the bottom look like all flames. And since I only have half my vision, whatever my eye will actually let me see is pretty. So you're pretty. Hell, if you were a steak I'd find you pretty."

"Arthur, you're a vegetarian."

"You're not getting the point," Arthur whined. "I think you're really pretty, and considering I'm half-blind, I find you even more pretty because there could be a chance I might never see things again. Plus, if the fading out dye bothers you, I could help you dye it."

"That could be our second date."

"Oh, there's a second date, is there?" Arthur said shyly, coyly looking over his stack of cards.

"Well we'll have to wait and see, won't we?" I laughed. "Ha! Charizon beats Flaeron! Give it over!"

We spent a couple more hours in the three broomsticks, playing several more games and purposely sitting on Arthur's lap to annoy Harry who was clearly creeping on my date, and also Dean and Ginny's. But I highly suspected he was interested in Ginny's date for a very different reason to mine.

And then because we were both childish, Arthur decided to give me a piggy-back on the way back to the castle. My arms were wrapped around his neck, and while I knew we looked ridiculous, it was worth it to have some normal stupid fun.

"I swear, this is a lot different from giving Cole piggy backs everywhere." Arthur said in a strained voice, struggling under my weight. "He wasn't trying to choke me."

"You liar, I'm not trying to choke you!" I laughed, moving my cold hands forwards to pat Arthur's jawline. 

"Agh, your so cold, I--Ahh!" Arthur of course, tripped over a stone and fell down, and I ended up sprawled across his back.

"You okay?" I giggled, climbing off him.

"I'm so old," Arthur whined, sitting up as I knelt beside him. "I tripped over a stone, who even does that?"

"Cute idiots who go around in pokemon hats." I giggled, pulling on the tassel of Arthur's pikachu hat.

Arthur smiled, and it was different from all the other smiles I'd gotten from him. He slowly pushed a piece of hair behind my ear, and held out his hand. "You had a leaf in your hair."

"Right." I was aware of how close we were, and I could feel a buzzing feeling in my stomach, and I couldn't help leaning in, and then Arthur followed suit, and I was ready but then---a scream.

We pulled apart automatically, both looking embarassed for a second until we registered what was happening. We both jumped up and followed the sound hand-in-hand.

We found Harry, Ron, Hermione and a girl I knew as Leanne standing together further up the path. I was confused for a moment until I noticed what they were looking at.

Katie Bell was suspended six feet in the air, arms spread outwards as if to fly. But her face was blank and eyes empty as she started to scream. Whatever it was, it wasn't natural.

Harry and Arthur rushed over to try and grab her ankles, and as soon as they touched her legs she fell on top of them, screaming and writihing so much Arthur could barely hold her. He lowered her on the ground and she writhed again, not seeming to recognise any of us. 

"Stay here!" Harry shouted at us all. "I'm going to get help!"

I knelt by Katie's side, unsure what to do as she writhed more. "Katie," I said, trying to stay calm. "You're okay. You're here, all of us are here. Please, snap out of it!"

"Get back!" shouted Hagrid, appearing with Harry. "Lemme see her!"

"Something's happened to her!" sobbed Leanne. "I don't know what --"

Hagrid stared at Katie for a second, then without a word, bent down, scooped her into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. 

Hermione hurried over to Katie's wailing friend and put an arm around her.

"Did it just happen all of a sudden, or--?"

"It was when that package tore," sobbed Leanne, pointing at a package on the ground, which had split open to reveal a greenish glitter. Ron bent down, his hand outstretched, but Harry seized his arm and pulled him back.

"Don't touch it!"

It was an ornate necklace, looki oddly harmless.

"I've seen that before," said Harry, staring at the thing. "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said it was cursed. Katie must have touched it." He looked up at Leanne, who had started to shake uncontrollably. "How did Katie get hold of this?"

"Well, that's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it, said it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it. She looked all funny when she said it... Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!"

Leanne shook with renewed sobs. Hermione patted her shoulder gently.

"She didn't say who'd given it to her, Leanne?"

"No... she wouldn't tell me... and I said she was being stupid and not to take it up to school, but she just wouldn't listen and... and then I tried to grab it from her... and -- and --"

Leanne let out a wail of despair.

"We'd better get up to school," said Hermione, her arm still around Leanne. "We'll be able to find out how she is. Come on..."

Arthur hesitated, and took his pokemon hat on, and covered the necklace with it, picking it up. "Arthur--" I began.

"It's fine, it's wrapped up." He said soothingly. "We need to show Madam Pomfrey."

We all hurried back to the school, only to find McGonagall hurrying down the steps to meet us. 

"Hagrid says you six saw what happened to Katie Bell--upstairs to my office at once, please! What's that you're holding,Wilde?"

"It's the thing she touched," Arthur explained.

"Good Lord," said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she took the necklace from Arthur. "No, no, Filch, they're with me!" she added hastily, as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the entrance hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft. "Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in thehat!"

We followed McGonagall into her office, and she faced us. "Well, what happened?"

Leanne explained, but she was so upset she could barely speak by the end of her explanation.

"All right," said Professor McGonagall, not unkindly, "go up to the hospital wing, please, Leanne, and get Madam Pomfrey to give you something for shock."

When she left she turned to us. "What happened when Katie touched the necklace?"

"She rose up in the air," said Harry, before either Ron or Hermione could speak, "and then began to scream, and collapsed. Professor, can I see Professor Dumbledore, please?"

"The Headmaster is away until Monday, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, looking surprised.

"Away?" Harry repeated angrily.

"Yes, Potter, away!" said Professor McGonagall tartly. "But anything you have to say about this horrible business can be said to me, I'm sure!"

"I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor."

Ron looked embarssed, Hermione and Arthur shocked. Even I couldn't help raise an eyebrow.

"That is a very serious accusation, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, after a shocked pause. "Do you have any proof?"

"No," said Harry, "but..." and he told her about following Malfoy to Borgin and Burkes and the conversation they had overheard between him and Mr. Borgin.

When he had finished speaking, Professor McGonagall looked slightly confused.

"Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?"

"No, Professor, he just wanted Borgin to tell him how to mend something, he didn't have it with him. But that's not the point, the thing is that he bought something at the same time, and I think it was that necklace --"

"You saw Malfoy leaving the shop with a similar package?"

"No, Professor, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him --"

"But Harry," I interrupted, "Borgin asked him if he wanted to take it with him, and Malfoy said no --"

"Because he didn't want to touch it, obviously!" said Harry angrily.

"What he actually said was, 'How would I look carrying that down the street?'" said Hermione.

"Well, he would look a bit of a prat carrying a necklace," interjected Ron.

"Oh, Ron," said Hermione despairingly, "it would be all wrapped up, so he wouldn't have to touch it, and quite easy to hide inside a cloak, so nobody would see it! Not to mention Sam was with him! I think whatever he reserved at Borgin and Burkes was noisy or bulky, something he knew would draw attention to him if he carried it down the street--and in any case," she pressed on loudly, before Harry could interrupt, "I asked Borgin about the necklace, don't you remember? When I went in to try and find out what Malfoy had asked him to keep, I saw it there. And Borgin just told me the price, he didn't say it was already sold or anything --"

"Well, you were being really obvious, he realized what you were up to within about five seconds, of course he wasn't going to tell you--anyway, Malfoy could've sent off for it since --"

"That's enough!" said Professor McGonagall, as Hermione opened her mouth to retort, looking furious. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people-- and in any case, we have put stringent security measures in place this year. I do not believe that necklace can possibly have entered this school without our knowledge --"

"But --"

"He wasn't in Hogsmeade today." I interupted. "We got into an argument, and Arthur and I didn't see him once there."

"And he was completing detention with me as well today." McGonagall added. "Thank you for telling me Potter, but I must go to the hospital wing now. Good day." 

After hugging Arthur goodbye, I followed the others to the common room.

"So who do you reckon Katie was supposed to give the necklace to?" asked Ron, as they climbed the stairs to the common room.

I felt a sense of deja-vu, as if I knew the answer. But of course I didn't. I always made sure I saved my memories, anything I would know about the necklace or Malfoy would be in my head.

"It could've been meant for loads of people," said Harry. "Dumbledore--the Death Eaters would love to get rid of him, he must be one of their top targets. Or Slughorn -- Dumbledore reckons Voldemort really wanted him and they can't be pleased that he's sided with Dumbledore. Or Sam, because the death eaters hate her. Or--"

"Or you and Rory," said Hermione, looking troubled.

"Couldn't have been," said Harry, "or Katie would've just turned around in the lane and given it to me, wouldn't she?  I wonder why Malfoy told her to take it into the castle?"

"He wasn't in Hogsmeade, Arthur, McGonagall and I all saw him!" I shouted. "Can't you let it go?"

"He must have used an accomplice, then," said Harry. "Crabbe or Goyle--or, come to think of it, maybe Sam or another death eater..."

Harry carried on for the rest of the evening, but my mind was a jumble of thoughts. Of Arthur and near-kisses, Malfoy trying to talk to me out of the blue, and Sam being so suspicious about everything...

What was happening to the world?

- - - - - - 

A/N I updated very quick, yay! :D

Explanation for why Draco was so blunt/came out of the blue: He thought if he tried to be rude with a streak of 'I care about you' the memories Rory had might surface, or they would repeat the cycle that lead them to be in a relationship in the first place.

There will be explanations about Alia and Sam soon, just wait.

And sorry for all the pokemon references, but it was my childhood, especially before I found Harry Potter lol.

And apparently Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them starts filming this year, and I really can't wait for 2016 when it's out!! Anybody else just as excited?