Thanks for all the reviews everyone. Finished this chapter early & was like...might as well post it early.

Chapter Twelve: Hogsmeade

A month of classes had yet again passed by. Snape had seemed rather distracted for the past few months, I was surprised I was just noticing this now. He is usually very strict and picky with everything about class, but he wasn't giving out detention or taking away as many points as usual. I noticed that he and Kakaroff seemed to basically hate each other. Snape was pretty much ignoring me this year, which I did not mind at all.

Finally someone had been able to resist Moody for a few seconds, but it of course had to be Ginny Weasley, who still didn't like me. At least she finally had gotten us out of doing all of this stupid practice. Literally, I would never be able to resist anything like this and Moody new that. He always gave Eowyn and I the most embarrassing ones to do. There was something off about him. Dasha admired him and Eowyn feared him, but I didn't know how I felt about him. He looked at me oddly sometimes, like he was trying to figure something out. I just avoided him. I got a bad feeling when I was around him.

Even though a month had passed, Jake and I hadn't spoken once. I now think he was the one avoiding me. I always saw him though in his large group of friends. I was too afraid to approach them. It was intimidating approaching a large group of students much older than me. It also seemed he had moved on to a new girl. Cal who went to the Yule Ball with Monique, was now always walking around with her friend Rosaline. They seemed to have gotten very close and I saw them holding hands one day by the lake. But now it seemed as though Jake and Monique were always together. I saw them laughing and having conversations every time he passed. It seemed they were becoming more than friends. Victoria and a few of her Bulgarian friends were hanging around with them now.

Of course there had been a few awkward encounters from passing each other in the hallways, yet he always seemed to turn his head. Harry though had no problem hiding his dislike of me. I saw him in the hallways and he wouldn't turn or try to avoid me at all. He just looked at me in distaste. I always wanted to stop him but had no idea what to say, so I just continued on.

And for Draco...I still wanted to kill him. He kissed me, ruined my friendship with two people who were actually kind to me, and then pretended as though it didn't happen. I mean honestly! So I did to him what Jake and Harry were doing to me. I simply ignored him. He still made his comments at me and acted like all was well, but I ignored him and he did notice. He made comments such as, "No comeback Nyx?" And then he would laugh with his friends. Inside I wanted to yell that my last name wasn't Nyx, but I didn't know anymore. I still had no idea how I felt about that and haven't told anyone. There was no one to tell.

It seemed like time was flying by, yet nothing was getting done. I was afraid to approach these people and I know I shouldn't be, but I didn't know what to say. I seemed to be spending a lot of time in the library which was unusual for me, but I had nothing else to do.

The next morning was a Wednesday and I didn't have any early classes. I was walking down the hall when Harry was coming the opposite direction and he was alone. What the hell. Time to stop being so afraid. "Harry," I called without thinking and he still continued walking past me.

"I'm in a bit of a rush," he said dully and continued walking away. So I decided to go with him.

"Fine, I'll keep up," I said but he was walking fast. I figured now or never. "Look, I know you hate me. Okay, but you are also being very overdramatic. First of all, I didn't defend Malfoy because he is not my favorite person in this world. He's not even on the list of my top one thousand favorite people in this world." Harry gave a cold laugh at that. "Anyways, I was defending Slytherin house because if you haven't noticed I'm a Slytherin. My friends Dasha and Eowyn are Slytherin. So we aren't all bad, you just seem to think so." He didn't respond. "What you saw that night at the Yule Ball-"

"I know what I saw," Harry interrupted while taking a sharp turn.

"No you don't!" I continued not even apologizing. "I was yelling at him for following me out of the Yule Ball and because he scared off all the guys who were planning on asking me first. Then he kissed me, okay? I didn't kiss him. That's when you walked out. That's when Jake walked out." Harry didn't say anything for a while, but I still walked with him.

"Why are you telling me all this now?"

"I don't like acting like we hate each other." Again he said nothing. "Why don't you trust me? Who cares what house we're in. We've been friends for three years and you're acting like that doesn't even matter to you."

"Okay," he said actually slowing down his pace. "Look, I've just been in a bad mood and a lot of people have been giving me a hard time about being one of the champions."

"Especially the Slytherins," I added knowingly. "I tried to warn you, didn't I? And you got mad at me."

"I've had a lot on my mind. So...I'm sorry." Harry seemed as though he didn't know what to say. That was enough for me though. I finally smiled up at him, at least we seemed to be on okay terms now.

"Alright, well I'll let you get back to where you were rushing too," I told him. Harry nodded and then finished rushing down the hallway. I smiled to myself. See, that wasn't so hard now was it? Hopefully we could get back to the way we used to be over time. I missed them. I walked back towards the dungeons.

Our first and only trip to Hogsmeade this Sunday. It was already way past half the year and we were just having our first trip now. It was because of the craziness of the tournament that they hadn't had time to have a trip. They wanted the international students to get the opportunity to see Hogsmeade at least once, so they were offering this just once. Still, I had yet to have the form signed...when it hit me, damn! I could have done what Harry had done. I could have asked Giles to sign it like Harry had Sirius. Of course my parents wouldn't sign it, so Giles would have had to have counted for something.

I guess I had to stick to the old way, through the basement of Honeydukes. I pulled on a jacket with a hood over my shirt and zipped it up. I went down the passageway and through the unlit walkways. It was creepy as hell down here. The only thing allowing me to see any light was the tip of my wand. I don't remember it being this bad last time but then again I was with Harry last time. Once I made it into the basement I made sure to look around before creeping up the stairs and into the main shop. I planned on meeting Dasha and Eowyn there, which I did.

"Wow Carlie, you were right!" Eowyn said when we finally met up.

"I can't believe I didn't read about these passageways in Hogwarts a History..." Dasha said, mainly to herself.

"That's because they're secret," I told her. I laughed and then we walked outside. I made sure to pull on the hood once more because I knew that if I bumped into any teacher they would send me back and who knows how much trouble I'd get in. We first stopped at Tomes and Scrolls, where Dasha had bought herself a new set of books to read and a couple of new Quills. They always offered to buy me supplies, because they knew my family of course gave me nothing, but I always denied. My family was very rich, but did I ever get any of that money? No. Though apparently I have my own now that I had never knew about. It by far wasn't as much as what my other siblings had, but it was more than enough for me.

I think they were shocked when I picked out a book about Vampire Culture and two new Quills to pay for myself. Normally, I didn't buy anything ever. They didn't say anything, but they of course did wonder. Then we stopped at Gladrag's Wizardwear where I bought two new shirts. I didn't want to push it, but it was rare for me to buy anything and I was just excited. After today though I probably wouldn't use the money until I got out of Hogwarts. I wanted to save it all until I was seventeen and could get away from my family.  "Carlie, did you fix things up with your family over break or something?" Eowyn asked me after I checked out.

"Eowyn..." Dasha again whispered.

"What Dasha!" Eowyn said. "I just noticed that Carlie was buying stuff and she never buys anything, even when we went to Diagon Alley she bought nothing."

"It's fine," I said to Dasha with a laugh, though how do I explain this to them without saying the actual story. "No, I just found some money back home that's all." They didn't ask any further questions. Technically, I wasn't even lying. We sat down at a quiet table in the Three Broomsticks and ordered three butterbeers which were delicious. I didn't keep my hood on, but I turned my back to the doors. Hogsmeade was packed due to the large amount of students in the area so I doubt any teacher would notice me. I looked out the window and noticed Malfoy's crowd was walking in. He spotted me and a devious smile spread across his face.

"Kill me now," I whispered to Dasha and Eowyn.

"Ah, Nyx, sneak out once more again I see?" his cold voice said from behind me. Why did he have to do this to me? Why couldn't he just walk in and sit down at a table without worrying about what I was up too.

"Go away," I said dully. Dasha and Eowyn were silent as they looked up at him.

His friends all gathered at a booth to themselves right near us, while making a bunch of Hufflepuff third years scramble from their seats. "I think I may need to report this to a Professor, unless you have some time to complete my Potions essay before tomorrow." I glared up at him, really? We were back to this again because I had thought we were past this phase.

Turning to face him I said, "Sure, but let me just go tell Parkinson that you left her to kiss me on the night of the Yule Ball." Eowyn gasped a bit while Dasha shook her head at me. His smug look faded right off his face into a glare.

"Please, they wouldn't believe you."

"True," I said. "But if Harry Potter were to speak up about what he saw then I'm sure everyone in the school would know by tomorrow. Especially coming from someone as popular as him." He glared at me for the last part. I knew he hated the fact that Harry was usually the center of attention no matter where we went.

He scoffed, "You two aren't even on speaking terms anymore."

"Well according to yesterday morning, I believe we are. Harry realized that I would never sink that low." Draco gave me one last glare before turning away and heading back to his table. I turned and Dasha and Eowyn, who both looked as though they were holding back laughs. I just shook my head and continued drinking the rest of my butterbeer.

"Carlie," Dasha said as we walked out. "I think Eowyn and I are going to head back to Hogwarts now. I know you can't go back that way, so we'll walk with you back to Honeydukes if you'd like."

"I'll be fine," I said as I started backing down the road. "We still have a few hours so I want to walk around a bit. See you back at school." We said our goodbyes as we headed off in separate directions.

When I passed back by the clothing store I noticed Monique and all of her friends were shopping in there, which meant Jake and his friends were not with them. I even passed by the Quidditch store but I only saw Gabe and a few of the Bulgarian students. Victoria was walking around with Krum. I simply waved to her but we didn't stop to talk. I noticed Nico was in the book shop with Colette and Cal was walking around with Rosaline. Which meant Jake was alone. I then decided to find him and had a feeling where he would be.

Once I got to the end of the pathway the only thing in front of me was the Shrieking Shack, which I now knew wasn't haunted. It was Lupin who had caused all that catastrophes that had started the rumors. But that wasn't what I was here for, it was for Jake who was sitting on the rock. Quietly I approached him. "Hey," I said slowly, afraid of his reaction. I hated that he hated me.

"Hey," he responded lifelessly.

"Weird how everyone thinks the Shrieking Shack was haunted, when it was only Lupin," I said hoping he would have a conversation with me, but he continued sitting there in silence. So I sat down on the rock next to him without facing him. "Jake, I know you hate me right now..."

"I could never hate you," he said quietly. That made me feel a whole lot better, but it wasn't the same between us.

"But you're mad, and I'm sorry, but I swear Draco kissed me. He caught me off guard," I said and honestly couldn't find any more words. I didn't know what else to say to him and I surely didn't want to start crying again.

"I know, I was there."

"Then why..." I was confused, if he was there then why did he get so angry? He saw Draco kiss me, it wasn't the other way around.

"I was there before Harry," he said. "I saw him kiss you but you didn't respond in the way I expected. You didn't push him off like I would have imagined you doing. You did nothing."

"Jake..."I said not being able to find the words. "I know and I'm so sorry. He's a complete jerk and I don't know why I didn't do anything. I think I was just really surprised that I froze. Please, I'd hate if we weren't friends anymore." He didn't respond and I knew I was on the verge of tears once more which I hated. Though I didn't let them fall and turned my head. He was right though, I didn't push him off. How could I have been so stupid?

"I liked you," Jake said, hence the word liked. That only meant he no longer liked me. "That's why I asked you and said no to all of those other girls." It was strange hearing it come from him. I had a feeling he liked me but now I knew. I couldn't have been more stupid.

"You don't know how sorry I am," I said truthfully. "If I could take it all back I would. I don't want to lose you as a friend." He was one of my greatest friends I had here at Hogwarts. He was the first person I've ever met aside from Silvius that had been nice to me. Of course I never got out much before that, but even back then he defended me and against Malfoy when I first bumped into him on the train. How could I have ever let what happen that night happen.

"You didn't," he said to the 'losing him as a friend' comment. Though that meant he would only ever like me as a friend. I knew it would take time to get back to the friendship we had before, and I knew that he would never ever like me the way he did before the Yule Ball. But I was glad to hear he didn't hate me. It hurt to know he would never like me that way again. I only hoped we would be back to our old friendship in no time, but I had a feeling it would take a while. It would be worth it. I didn't want to lose him as a friend. Even if I had to stay away from Malfoy forever. I would do it just to be his friend.

After leaving him and going back to Hogwarts, I felt better that night than I had in a long time. I seemed to be putting some pieces back together and that was enough for me. A few weeks passed and Jake and I were back on speaking terms. I had short conversations with him in the hallway and I even hung out with him in the courtyard, but it wasn't the same. He would have been the first one I would have told about my father if it was back in December, but I still haven't said anything.

Harry was never around, but it was nice to smile at him in the hallway even when Ginny still hated me. Ron and Hermione seemed to come around when Harry did and returned the friendliness as well. It wasn't hard avoided Malfoy because he seemed to be the one avoiding me. One day during our dinner feast, Harry walked in, and I waved at him which he once again returned.

That was proof to Draco that we were back to being friendly. He then glared at me and turned back towards his friends. They all were muttering words to each other and glaring at me. I didn't even care. They weren't my friends so in the end it didn't matter. I was just glad to have the few friends I did have back, and right before the beginning of the third task.