The next morning I found out why Voldemort was so happy.
We were all sat at breakfast, eating as normal with Sam latching onto us ('I have no friends in Hufflepuff yet, and I'm not being that loser on her own') and Alia telling us some stupid joke Cole had said in a letter (It was of course a pun about death, his morbid humour hadn't gone).
Then the owls descended onto us, and Alia snatched Hermione's copy of the Daily prophet and everything changed. "I want to see if the lead singer of the weird sisters is divorced or not." She whined as she struggled with Hermione over the paper.
"Alia, the lead singer is in his twenties." Hermione said. "Get over it, you're thirteen plus he doesn't know you exist."
Alia narrowed her eyes at Hermione, and slapped the back of Hermione's hand. "That is the worst thing you could ever say to a band fangirl, you peasant. Give it to me."
She snatched it fiercly, and smoothed out the paper to read the headline. Alia let out a yelp, and to my horror tears were threatening to flow.
"Alia?" Sam asked sharply, grabbing onto the younger girl's shoulder. "What is it?"
"The f-f-fucking bastard!" Alia whispered, her voice full of pain. "H-He did it."
Sam snatched the paper from Alia, and all of us leaned over to see what was so horrifying, as Gennie put a comforting arm around Alia.
MASS AZKABAN BREAKOUT--HAS BLACK INSPIRED THIS CATASTROPHE?
My heart sank in my chest. No, he couldn't have.
But as my eyes scanned the list of escapees, at the bottom was a sentence that sent chills through my spines. And the youngest escapee was Cameron Wilde, 19 sentenced last January for the use of all three unforgivable curses on his family members.
And next to the caption was a picture of Cameron's mugshot, his dark eyes hooded with bags and a dangerous smirk on his face. The kind of smirk which said, I could kill you if I wanted to.
I looked to Sam, to see that she was shaking, her eyes clenched shut and looked near tears. "Sam?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"
"I-It h-happens s-sometimes," Sam mumbled. "C-Can you t-take m-me o-out for air?"
I put an arm around her shoulders, and helped ease her out of the bench. We walked slowly but surely out of the hall, as I had a feeling Sam wouldn't want people to see her like this. We sat down in a secluded part of the corridor, where people wouldn't come down for at least half an hour.
"Shh, it's alright." I said, putting an arm around Sam. "It's okay, breathe."
"I know I have to breath." Sam snapped, sounding more like herself. "I have these a lot, you know."
She started breathing in and out slowly, and clenched and un-clenched her fists a few times. She suddenly grabbed my hand, and I made patterns on them in an attempt to calm her. I had no idea what to do in this sort of situation, so I was glad in a way Sam knew what to do.
We sat there for a further ten minutes, until Sam slumped backwards and let out a long breath. "Well that wasn't as bad as I expected."
"Do you get panic attacks a lot then?" I asked anxiously. In all the time I had known Sam, her or Cole had never brought up panic attacks or having them. But then I thought--why would they? It was a very personal and private thing to share.
Sam shrugged, and finally let go of my hand. "I used to a bit when I was little, but that was when my parents shouted at me for not working hard enough. So I got past the shouting and they went for a few years. After I was forced to join him... Well I get one at least a week, I just happened to be lucky over Christmas."
"Do you need any help for it?" I asked awkwardly. I wasn't very good at this, but it was clear that Sam had an issue.
She shrugged. "I should go see the nurse about it soon. But I've had other things on my mind recently." She paused, and a sob broke out from her. "How did he do it? How did he manage to break out?"
I'd been so concerned over Sam and Alia, I hadn't thought over the reality of the situation. Cameron had escaped. He was heading to Britain. A deep chill passed through me.
"It has to be an inside job. Eleven prisoners couldn't have escaped on their own."
"Your godfather did."
"He was a special case." I said. After a pause I asked, "Do you think Cole knows?"
"Probably." Sam said with a shaky voice, and wiped at her face aggressively. "I wish we were there with him, but I'm glad he's there. Cameron won't immediately go there to search for him."
"You really think he's coming for Cole?" I whispered, my inner panic rising.
"Cameron will go after who hurt him the most. There's me, and Cole. But of course, he always knows how good I am at evading him. He'll draw out finding me, kill me slow for the fun of it..."
"Don't say that!" I yelled, and felt angry all of a sudden. "He isn't going to kill you, and he isn't going to kill Cole, or Elena, or Camille or Alia or anybody ever. I won't let him."
Sam laughed, but there was no emotion in her eyes. "You don't get it do you? He's killed people before know--it was all in the prophet after his sentencing. He killed half of his cousins and Maxwell's other brother just because of that stupid fake curse. One fifteen year old won't stop him."
"Well this fifteen year old has escaped Voldemort two times already, I can escape one little psychopath."
Sam sat in silence for a few seconds, twiddling her thumbs. "There's another reason I had an attack."
"Why?"
"I had a letter from Jia this morning." Sam said, not looking at me as tears began to glitter on the corners of her eyelids.
"Jia? Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow. I thought I'd seen Sam looking agitated as the post first came for her, but I didn't even think of it at the time... "What the hell does she want after almost a year of not talking?"
"She wants to meet me in Hogsmeade." Sam said through gritted teeth. "She wrote a letter a few months ago, asking where I was. I told her Scotland, and she has seemed to assume I'm up at Hogwarts."
"Are you going to go?" I asked, faintly being reminded of Cole acting the same way about meeting Sam in Hogsmeade a few months ago.
"I suppose I'll have to. Jia is very forceful when she wants to be." Sam chuckled darkly. "So listen, Rory... I know it's Valentine's Day and you want to spend the day with your ferret boyfriend but---"
"I'll come with you if you want." I interrupted, getting what she was getting at. "You haven't seen her for a year, plus she might still be a death eater.... You aren't going alone to see her."
Sam reached out and grabbed my hand. "You're a real good friend, you know that Rory?"
"I try." I smiled.
"I'm sorry for all the tall jokes when we met."
"I'm sorry for repeatidly calling you a midgit towards Gennie."
"Okay well that is slightly accurate," Sam chuckled. "I'm sixteen and the size of a house elf."
"Don't say that." I nudged her shoulder. "House elves are taller than you."
"Shut up, you heterosexual." Sam stuck out her tongue at me, a smile starting to creep onto her face.
"That's a lame insult." I snorted.
"Well you can't call me gay, that's deemed as an offensive joke." Sam said, sticking out her chin and starting to smirk.
"I hate you sometimes."
"Don't worry, I hate myself sometimes too."
* * * *
The weeks passed, and everybody suddenly increased their work intake in D.A. Nobody was more fierce than Neville, who had gathered a steel like determination with all his spells, not speaking to anyone as he did so. He hadn't mentioned to anybody about his parents on the ward, so we just left him to it, though I couldn't help encourage him with his spell work.
However, Neville's frenzied attempt was nothing compared to Sam's dictator approach to teaching Alia. They weren't the closest, which of course didn't help matters when Sam was screaming at Alia to concentrate harder.
You could tell Sam was starting to fall apart at the seams, and was focusing all her energy onto helping Alia. She was jumping at every sudden noise and begging Alia not to go to Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day with Colin--a true sign of how afraid Sam really was of Cameron.
But soon time was passing, and Valentine's day had arrived. I was finishing applying my eyeliner when Gennie came out of the bathroom. "What do you think?"
I looked up from my mirror to look at her. Her hair was even curlier than usual, her fading blue and pinks streaks standing out with the white flower attached to it. She had on a Minnie Mouse t-shirt, with my plaid skirt and a pair of converse.
"Very pretty." I approved. "So, you sure Cole can come out for this afternoon?"
When we'd visited Cole last week at the rehab centre, he'd told the four of us that he was being allowed a day out to Hogsmeade on good behavior. He seemed happier and more at ease of himself last weekend, something I was very pleased with.
His eyes were happier without bags underneath them, and they shone as he spoke of stories inside the rehab centre. He spoke of the stupid art classes he had to do for extra-curricular, and about the friends he'd made in his study sessions.
"Yess," Gennie drawled happily as she walked across the room, and picked a bag out from underneath the bed. "Just for today. They don't know about the other two days."
I almost split my eyeliner onto my legs. "What now?"
"We may have had Lacey book plan tickets for us to Paris, to go to Disneyland for the weekend." Gennie said sheepishly, throwing her rucksack over her shoulder. "We may also be using Sam's phoenix to get to the airport, and I may have used my savings on a hotel room."
"You realise that you could get both of you in trouble with the authorities, and have Cole staying longer at the institute, right?"
"I know, I know," Gennie sighed, and she sat on the end of my bed. "He's really stressed at the moment, what with Cameron out and everything... He, he told me that he's not coping with it." She bit down on her lip. "And his therapist keeps wanting him to talk about Cameron, and he just wants a break from the questions, so I suggested we take a trip. And he said he always wanted to go to Disneyland... So yeah. I'm trying to help him."
"I understand." I said, squeezing her hand. "I just want you guys to be safe, okay? And have fun, because Mark never took us to Disney, the bastard."
Gennie smiled, and squeezed my hand. "Don't worry, I'll take care of him, and he'll take care of me. It's always like that."
* * *
I met Draco outside the castle, and he was wearing his usual combination of jumper and black jeans. "You really love jumpers, don't you?"
"Hey, they make me look cute. You said that like months ago." Draco rolled his eyes, before giving me a cautious kiss on the cheek. "You look nice. Different. I like it."
I had opted for a different look than usual, wearing a black and white polka dot dress with my black converse and my hair loose with lots of eyeliner. I felt like I was wearing an armor; which was maybe why I liked it so much.
We headed off after exchanging valentine's cards, something we surprisingly hadn't done before. Cautiously holding hands we walked down the path to Hogsmeade, which was cluttered with couples snogging and holding hands.
"So what are our plans for today?" I asked Draco, running a finger over the palm of his hand.
"Well you want to see Cole first, don't you--he's in town, right?" Draco asked.
"I'll only see him for a few minutes, him and Gennie are having a romantic getaway to Disneyland Paris."
"Is that the place with the castle and giant demonic mouse?" Draco asked, looking confused.
"I've said it before, I'll say it again. I need to educate you on the muggle ways." I chuckled. "And Sam's ex girlfriend has appeared out of the blue, so I need to go with Sam for support after our date."
"That's fine, I've heard that Jia Holloway is quite manipulative." Draco said. I raised an eyebrow. "My parents are still in touch with their old death eaters buddies, so I met her once."
"Ah." I nodded. "So what are we going to do?"
"I booked us into a cafe," Draco said. "It's meant to be nice there. Madam Puddifoots, that one at the top of the hill?"
"Well then, we shall go and be a normal cute couple." I giggled, in what seemed like the first time in ages.
"Oh the horror of normality," Draco smirked, and with that, he pulled me up the hill.
We made it onto the square of Hogsmeade, to find Alia, Sam and Gennie stood with Cole. He looked up when he saw us coming, waving widely.
"Oh wow!" He exclaimed, running to us and hugging us both tightly at the same time. "You guys back together as well? This is a fabulous day."
"It is a fabulous day, Cole." I grinned, so happy that he was here. I'd seen him almost every weekend at rehab visits, but there was something much different about him being in a familiar territory rather than the hospital.
His hair had gotten cut and framed his face better than before, but he had stubble growing freely as well. Dressed in a thick hoodie and band shirt, he almost looked normal. It was only the hospital band around his wrist and the nervous twitch in his hand that showed that he was still healing.
"So are you all seeing us off? Wow, I got some pretty awesome friends, and I have a Draco Malfoy as well."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Great to see you're back to yourself, Cole."
"As my therapist would say, I found myself inside." Cole drawled, pounding a hand on his chest. "Or as my friend Riley would say, the pills pulled at me until I hit the bottom of the cliff.."
"He sounds like a great friend." Alia rolled her eyes. "The same morbid sense of humour."
"Don't use the 'he' pronoun, she doesn't like it." Cole frowned. He clapped his hands together, and put an arm around Gennie's waist, who looked happier than I'd seen her in weeks. "Right, well we should be off."
"You'd better send that bird back with all it's feathers, or I'll kill you." Sam said sternly. She was trying to look tough, but she kept scratching at her palms, a nervous habit I noticed she had.
"Come on, nobody can kill me, I couldn't even do it!" Cole exclaimed. Everybody starting groaning at once, so he rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll knock it off."
"There is one thing that confuses me." Draco spoke up. Everybody looked at him.
"Yes, please enlighten us." Gennie said. "Not like we have a plane to catch or anything."
"Well Cole is only allowed to be out for today--what do you do for the other two days when he's classed as missing?"
"Very good question, I'll give you credit there." Cole nodded. "Well my friend Riley is going to cover my tracks. She's a metamorphagus like Tonks, and she's going to turn into me during medicine and therapy sessions. She's great."
"Cole, we kinda have to get going now." Gennie tugged at his sleeve, and Cole grinned at her and nodded. "Right well I'll see you all Monday."
"You'll see me in the papers if I die on the plane." Cole said. "Metal tube of flying death and destruction."
"Honestly, they aren't that bad, you moron." Alia rolled her eyes. "You'll love plane food and the views from fifty thousand feet up in the air."
"Oh ha ha." Cole rolled his eyes. "Goodbye everyone!"
Sam let Beaky envelope the two of them, and we all waved as the two of them disappeared in flames and smoke. We all stared at where they'd disappeared for a few moments, until Alia sighed loudly.
"Now we've watched the happy couple soar off to France, I have to meet Colin." she started to walk off, before she turned to Sam. "Oh hey look, Sam! My homicidal brother hasn't snatched me from an alley! Wow! It's almost like he doesn't care about me!"
Sam raised her middle finger to Alia, and Alia rolled her eyes and carried on walking. "Idiot." Sam muttered. "I was just thinking of her, but nooo I'm the bad guy for hoping she doesn't get murdered." She shut her eyes and shook her head. "I'll meet you three in the Three Broomsticks, okay? I need to actually have my Valentines' date now."
"Same." I said, swinging our hands back and for. "Bye, Sam!"
"See you later, lovebirds." Sam rolled her eyes, and headed off in the direction of Mira, who was leaning against the three broomsticks.
"Right," Draco said, taking out a deep breath. "Shall we go be an annoyingly normal couple?"
"Yes, yes we shall."
* * * *
As it turned out, being a normal couple wasn't as fun as everybody made it out to be. We got to Madam Pudditfoots, only to find that not only was it overly cheesy and commercialised for Valentine's Day, but about half the couples from Hogwarts were packed inside.
Everything was decorated in frills and bows, with cherubs hovering above every table adorned with cofetti. Draco and I were both staring at the over-the-top decorations in disgust.
"I swear, when I booked a table here, it looked much nicer without the pink fluffy crap." Draco said, raising his hands in defence.
"Well since we're here, we might as well exchange presents and have something to drink." I said. "And then we could go to the three broomsticks and get butterbeer."
"Oh my god, you are the best girlfriend ever." Draco said, leaning over and squeezing my hand. "Can I call you that again? Or nah? You didn't correct Cole, so..."
"Draco, you're babbling." I laughed. "But... If you want to. You can... boyfriend."
Draco flushed pink, and ducked his head. "Uh, so should we exchange presents?"
I nodded, and got his present out of my coat pocket, and Draco did the same with his. The packages were of similar size, and I stared at them, wondering if we'd bought each other the same thing.
"We haven't got matching presents, have we?" Draco said, narrowing his eyes at the boxes.
"Well there's only one way to see." I smirked, and took the parcel from his hands.
I tore into the paper, to find that yes, Draco and I had gone for unintentional matching presents. Draco had given me a silver ring that had a pattern of silver and green gems running along the silver. Draco had the same, only his was larger and had only a couple of gems (and they were on the underside).
"Well it looks like we're one of those couples now." Draco rolled his eyes, and slipped his ring onto his finger. "I'll have to buy you lots of my jumpers now."
"The day we wear matching jumpers is the day I turn into somebody else." I rolled my eyes. "Can I guess you got me this ring for the same reason I got you yours?"
"Silver and green, just about the same eye colours as us both. Links us together and stuff. Plus they look good together."
"We look quite good together." I agreed.
"Yeah, we're so much better than all of this lot." Draco said, waving a hand around him at all the other couples.
Soon we ordered hot chocolates and a slice of cake to share, and we were back into our comfortable little bubble that we'd had in fourth year when we first got together. We laughed, we kissed, we fought over the last piece of cake... It was totally normal.
Draco suddenly sniggered, and I frowned. "What?"
"I just noticed. Your brother is in here with Cho Chang."
I span around, to see Draco was right. Harry and Cho were in the back of the cafe, looking uncomfortable and slightly awkward. Harry was trying to maneuver his hand towards Cho's, but she pulled away at the last minute, leaving him fondling the menu.
I cringed. I should have prepared Harry for this date, taught him what not to do. "Oh, this is a train wreck." I groaned, covering my face with my hands.
"Oh wait, no they're talking now." Draco said, craning his neck to look across the room. "Oh no.. She's starting to cry now. Bloody hell, what did your brother do to traumatise her?"
I looked behind me to see Cho was in fact crying, and Harry looked dazed and slightly frightened. His eyes widened when he saw me, and his eyes seemed to scream 'HELP ME'.
'Oh, you'll talk to Hermione Granger!' Cho cried shrilly, her face now shining with tears. Several more kissing couples broke apart to stare at the train wreck of a date. .
"But you won't talk to me! P - perhaps it would be best if we just . . . just p - paid and you went and met up with Hermione G - Granger, like you obviously want to!"
"Cho?" he said weakly, looking like he wished we'd all stop staring at him.
"Go on, leave!" she said, now crying into the napkin. "I don't know why you asked me out in the first place if you're going to make arrangements to meet other girls right after me . . . how many ere you meeting after Hermione?"
"It's not like that!" said Harry, and made the mistake of laughing--probably at how ridiculous the idea of him and Hermione together was.
Cho sprang to her feet. The whole tearoom was quiet and everybody was watching them now. "I'll see you around, Harry," she said dramatically, and hiccoughing slightly she dashed to the door, wrenched it open and hurried off into the pouring rain.
"Cho!" Harry called after her, but the door had already swung shut behind her with a tuneful tinkle. There was total silence within the teashop. Every eye was on Harry. He threw a Galleon down on to the table, shook pink confetti out of his hair, and followed Cho out of the door.
"Well," Draco said. "That was dramatic."
"Come on," I said, rising to my feet. "I need to see what happened. Plus we can get butterbeer."
Draco threw down some money on the table, and we dashed out with our hands intertwined into the rain to find Harry moping around outside. He clearly knew I would follow.
"What's up with you?" I asked, as he didn't look terrified, he looked angry.
"Women!" He said angrily, throwing his hands up into the air. "Why did she want to talk about Cedric? Why does she always want to drag up a subject that makes her act like a human hosepipe?"
Draco snorted. I shot him a look. "Okay, inappropriate time to laugh I see.. Awkward."
"So you going to the three broomsticks for that interview for the quibbler?" I asked Harry as Draco rolled his eyes. "We're heading there for a drink."
"Yeah, I wanted Cho to come with me, but.... That didn't work out." Harry sighed, and the three of us started to walk. "You sure you don't want to be interviewed?"
I snorted. Luna had offered for me to be interviewed by Skeeter as well, but I didn't want to ever be interviewed again by that foul woman. Especially since I'd be twisted into some depressed maniac most likely. "No bloody way."
We soon reached the three broomsticks, and separated off. Draco and I got into a booth, and quickly ordered butterbeers. Once they arrived we drank them in a comfortable silence, arms wrapped around each other.
"Well this has been a relatively calm day for us." Draco smiled, running his fingers up and down my arm playfully. "Nobody died, nobody was set on fire... Great."
"We should have more days like this, before it's too late." I agreed, resting my head onto his chest.
Draco took a sharp intake of air. "What do you mean by that?"
"That there's a war coming, and we won't have time to be together like this all the time." I said softly, raising my head to see panic in his eyes. "What did you think I meant?"
He shook his head, and cut me off with a quick kiss on the lips. "Don't worry about it, Rory. It's just... Remember that I love you no matter what, okay?"
"Very ironic."
"Oh ha ha, Miss Sarcasm." Draco rolled his eyes. "But just hold onto that, okay?"
"Right, I'll hold onto it, you worry wart." I smiled. "And remember that I'll always love you, okay?"
"Always is a pretty big word." Draco said, biting down on his lip.
"Don't stress, because we've gotten through worse things than immanent war. We could do it." I said softly, and gripping the side of his face, I slowly kissed the side of his mouth.
Draco turned his head a few degrees, and then we were properly kissing, slowly and softly and all at once. It was much more gentle than some of our past kisses, but it calmed the both of us down after the fragility of the past conversation we'd had.
It seemed like we'd sat there for hours kissing, when it could have been only a few minutes. It was only when somebody flicked me on the side of the head that I stopped kissing Draco.
It was Sam, looking incredibly nervous in a red plaid shirt, her sleeves pulled right down over her hands. "Sorry to interrupt the tonsil tennis, but Jia kinda just arrived."
"Ah," I said. I turned to Draco, and kissed him quickly. "I have to go now, but I'll meet you later when you have prefect duty, alright?"
He nodded, and intertwined our hands quickly. "Sure, that sounds great. Love you."
"Love you too." I rolled my eyes, and smoothed down my skirts as I stood up.
Then with one last wave in Draco's direction, I headed after Sam. "So, are you nervous about seeing her?" I asked.
Sam shrugged. "Let's talk about something else, something less hard core."
"Right, so what was Cole on about earlier, the 'he' pronoun?" I asked as it'd confused me all afternoon.
"Well his friend Riley was born male, but identifies as female. As she keeps changing herself to female with her metamorphagus powers, her parents sent her to rehab for identity therapy. What the hell that means I'll never know."
"You seem to know her well." I nudged her, and Sam rolled her eyes.
"Well it turns out that she was that girl with biploar disorder I hooked up with over the summer. Turns out after her parents found out she spent the night with me, she was sent off to rehab."
"That sucks. Nobody can help what they identify as." I said. "But if she's helping Cole, and uh hooked up with you, she must be a good person."
"She was. That much I remember." Sam said, and as we passed another booth, Sam froze.
A girl had risen from a booth, looking nervous and tough at the same time. She was of average height, and was very beautiful. She was clearly of Asian descent, with glossy black hair pulled into a braid and sharp grey-blue eyes.
"Samantha," she exclaimed. "You came."
"Clearly Jia, or you would be a loner, wouldn't you?" Sam said crisply, and avoided Jia's open arms to sit down at the booth. I slid in next to her, feeling extremely awkward.
"So, who are you?" Jia asked, eyeing me up. I felt even more awkward when I realised Jia might assume I was Sam's new girlfriend.
"Just a friend, Aurora." Sam said curtly to Jia. "And it wouldn't matter if she's more, because we aren't dating anymore."
"Not Aurora Potter?" Jia exclaimed, and her eyes widened.
"Yeah, I'm hanging out with the girl who survived, big whoop." Sam rolled her eyes. "She can protect me if you decide to kidnap me and take me to your master."
"That's why you think I'm here." Jia said flatly. "To turn you in? Goodness, Sam. I wanted to spend Valentine's day with you, is that so hard to believe?"
Feeling more awkward, I shuffled to the edge of the booth.
"Well it is actually, considering you haven't spoken to me in over a year." Sam hissed. "There were complications, I couldn't contact you."
"Yeah, well you only made the effort now on a stupid commercialized holiday to find me. Not when I actually needed you when I wanted to get out of his ranks."
"We had to stay, we had no choice." Jia hissed, lowering her voice.
"There was a choice." Sam said, her eyes brimming with angry tears. "There was a choice that night in the graveyard. I made my choice. Where were you?"
"Making sure he didn't find you!" Jia cried, and several people looked around. She lowered her head down, and looked directly into Sam's eyes. "After you ran it was pandemonium, Sam. He was so angry somebody had betrayed him... He was searching everybody's minds for your location! And of course, everybody knew exactly who you were closest to."
Jia pushed down the shoulder of her fitted black top, to reveal several long scars, that seemed to curl and twist to go down the length of her spine.
"Never say I didn't do anything for you, Samantha. He questioned me for days, weeks about where you went. He cut into my skin with spells, and I didn't speak. Not a single word. How do you think nobody found you? It was because of me."
Jia roughly shoved the fabric back into place, her face impassive. Sam bit down on her lip, and slowly picked up Jia's hand. "I... I didn't know."
"Well of course you wouldn't, you've been helping the good guys out." Jia said, a smile playing on her lips as she intertwined her fingers with Sam.
"She has, I can vouch for that." I piped up, and they both stared at me. "Never mind, I'll shut up."
"I'll leave him for you, Sammy." Jia whispered. "I know how to get away now... The next time he has a field mission assigned to me, I can run. I know how to escape capture after a few failed attempts, and I'll run straight to you."
Sam squeezed her eyes shut. "But that's exactly what I want to hear you say." she shook her head. "Remember? You told me one day you'd turn up with a diamond ring with my name on it and a plane ticket and we could run away? Well I don't want to run anymore, Jia. I'm tired. I want normality."
"I want you." Jia said, not flinching once. "There is nothing more I'm certain of. My parents might have disowned me for being a lesbian, the death eaters might call me homophobic slurs, but you're worth it all. I want you Samantha Lockwood, is that so hard to believe?"
"Yes, actually." Sam said, though her eyes were once again filling with tears and a tender look I'd never seen from her before. "How do I know you're not lying to me, or spying on me for him?"
"You could ask her something only you and her know." I piped up, and Jia glared at me.
"Why is she still here? This is a private conversation."
"Well if I leave, you might kidnap me." Sam said shortly. "I can't trust that you're not under the imperius curse."
"Ask me what only you and Cole know about me." Sam said, gripping Jia's hand. "If you answer correctly, I swear to Lucifer I'll listen to you."
"Lucifer? But he's the devil?" I asked, confused.
"Honey, the stuff I've done, I've got better hope praying to a demon than God." Sam said, not taking her eyes off Jia. "Well?"
"In second year before we started dating, you told me in the girl's bathroom on the third floor of Durmstrang that you kissed Cole to see if you liked boys. And you said that it was 'disgusting, especially when Cole got excited and tried to ram his tongue into your mouth.'"
"No wonder he had a mild obsession over you in fourth year." I muttered.
Sam ignored me, and her mouth dropped open. "It really is you. You said that exactly as I told you." "That's what I've been trying to--"
But Jia was cut off as Sam grabbed Jia's face and pressed her lips against hers. They kissed intensely, and while it was cute, it was uncomfortable as I casually third-wheeled their reunion.
When Sam and Jia finally pulled away, Sam stared at Jia. "I-I can't do this. I have Mira."
And she got up, and ran out of the pub without a look back in our direction. "Mira?" Jia said. "Who the hell is that?"
"Her girlfriend, or ex I'm not sure which." I said honestly. "My friend Arthur said he heard Sam and Mira in a screaming match the other week."
"I feel goddamn awful now, letting her kiss me." Jia sighed, pulling on her nails. "But I missed her. So much that it hurt."
"Jia..." I asked quietly. "You seem to love Sam a lot. Why did you let her believe you'd given up on her?"
Jia smiled, and it made her look much older than she actually was. "Sometimes you have to hurt the one you love to protect them from yourself."
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A/N Everything is starting to come together. Cameron on the loose, Jia back into the picture, Cole starting to piece himself together again, Rory and Draco happy....
As you can see, I mentioned Cole's transgendered friend Riley in this chapter. She's going to pop up a couple of times, but she's more important in Cole's recovery within the rehab centre itself (and I will write a one-shot about it in the future). P.s My hair is slightly pink because of hair chalk my friend Cassie ambushed me with P.p.s Updates may come quicker now, I'm allowed on the computers in school on my free periods :)