So glad people are reading, I really enjoy writing this story!

Chapter Twelve

The next morning I woke up to a pounding headache. Thankfully it was only Sunday and I didn't have to rush off to any class. As I blinked my eyes opened I noticed the curtains were shut. I was dressed in the same outfit I was wearing last night. Idella was sitting on her bed next to me. "What time is it?" I muttered feeling slightly nauseous as I pulled myself up into a sitting position. I rested up against the wall.

"It's noon," she said as I widened my eyes..I never slept that late. "You missed breakfast so I grabbed something for you. I left a bit of hangover remedy for you as well."

"You're the best," I replied quickly drinking the remedy. There was an instant effect. I have never needed to take a remedy before, because I have never drank that much in my life. The nausea quickly disappeared. What a beautiful invention.

"Bradley you have no tolerance and you are such a lightweight," she laughed. "Feeling better at least?"

"Yes thank you," I answered with a sigh in relief. "Well...not really."

"What do you mean?"

"What exactly happened last night? I mean up until I met up with Selina I felt completely in control, but then everything just got...blurry, you know? I remember something...but it felt like a dream."

"You mean you kissing Kent?" she smirked.

"So it really did happen..." I said wide-eyed. "Who else saw?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah it did and he wasn't even that drunk so clearly he likes you. Only Colin saw, but obviously he won't go around saying anything if you don't want." I placed my hand on my head. How was I going to bring this up to Kent? Was Idella right, did he like me? I knew deep down that I had some feelings for him but obviously had to push them aside because of Grant. Picking up the muffin she left next to my bed I picked it apart while sitting there trying to remember everything clearly.

"So besides that, I barely remember getting back to the castle. I didn't do anything embarrassing or anything right?" I asked nervously. The teachers saw me as this bookworm student who never did anything like this, and I wanted to keep it that way.

"It was fine, that potion we gave you seemed to help. At least you acted normally and just followed us into the castle. When you got back you just fell onto your bed and went right to sleep." No wonder I was still wearing the same clothes from last night. "Trust me, you were by far not the worst one..." She shook her head. "There were a few students who forgot Tremai and the teachers quickly caught on as they were either stumbling into the castle or being obnoxious. One being Charlie. Only five students got caught though, other than that everyone else acted casually." Poor Charlie. I can't clearly remember speaking to him at the party but I remember he was worse than me at the moment. It had something to do with Selina...

"Did Selina get in trouble or anything?" I asked with a hint of hope. She always got away with everything. Of course I wasn't complaining considering the whole Kent situation, but it would be nice for her to get what she deserves for once. "Or Cole?" Idella shook her head just as annoyed.

"Of course not," Idella said. "As we were leaving she came downstairs and then was telling everyone to leave. She was calling for her House Elves to clean the entire manor. Disgusting." Idella hated when people abused the use of their House Elves. I'm sure Selina's manor was disastrous after the party.

"Typical," I said shrugging. I can't get over Selina's fascination with Cole. We all knew he was trouble. Sure he was rich and had his parents to bail him out of everything, but other than that he was only going to cause her even more problems.

"Her and Cole disappeared for a while," Idella stated raising an eyebrow. "Maybe he actually likes her."

"Yeah right," I added rolling my eyes. Cole never liked just one girl. Ever. I've seen it for years now. He was always flirting with several different girls at once and never got attached to any of them. I don't think he would ever grow out of that.

"Anyway want to go to the library or something? We can get a good start on these essays," she explained and I nodded standing up. Then she laughed, I turned to face the mirror. Same clothes, horribly messy hair, and black mascara smudged all over my face. "After you take a shower." I nodded in agreement, never again was I letting myself drink that much again.

Once I was showered we went to the library. As we were walking down the hall I noticed the Agrethance Quidditch team was coming my way. Idella stopped and looked at me, knowing who was coming my way. Kent and Grant walked in the middle of the pack. I froze as Kent and I made quick eye contact. Grant was talking to him so Kent quickly broke his eye contact and kept walking, as did I. Maybe I would catch him alone later. "He's only avoiding you because of Grant," Idella pointed out and I nodded hopefully.

Before we even reached the end of the hall to get into the library, the Irdrea Quidditch team was coming our way...this time with a fuming Charlie storming behind them. "They can't kick me off!" he screamed in anger. Andrew and Roddy were beside him in uniform nodding. "What the hell they can't do this to me!" The rest of the team kept walking as Charlie threw his broom down on the ground causing the sound to echo through the hallway. "You guys go on without me, have a great practice," he muttered bitterly to his friends. The two looked at him sympathetically but kept walking.

"Charlie," I said slowly approaching him. He finally noticed we were there.

"I was kicked off the team!" he explained loudly with his voice full of anger. "Can you believe it? Just because I got caught last night. I know it isn't a first offense, but Quidditch is my life! It's my future career. Why couldn't they just give me detention for the rest of the year," he ranted pacing back and forth.

"They kicked you off?" Idella asked in disbelief. "That is unfair, detention seems more reasonable."

"Maybe you could argue it?" I asked.

"I tried everything," he replied leaning against the wall looking defeated. A look I have seen a few times. "What am I going to do?"

"At least you're smart and have good grades. You could get practically any job," Idella said.

"But I wanted to play Professional Quidditch," Charlie responded in sadness. He pushed off from the wall. "I'll see you two around." He slowly walked down the rest of the hall. I felt horrible leaving him, but there was nothing left to say.

My essay outline was finished before Idella's and I was starving from barely eating that muffin earlier. Idella was planning on skipping lunch to keep working but my stomach was growling. After leaving, the halls were empty. Lunch began twenty minutes ago so most people were already there. Taking a shortcut I walked quickly down the hall until I heard screaming. "HOW DARE YOU? YOU ARE BEYOND GROUNDED. YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE OVER BREAK. HOW DARE YOU EMBARRASS US LIKE THIS." A Howler. "NO MORE ACCESS TO OUR VAULT. YOU CAN LAST ON WHAT MONEY YOU HAVE LEFT!" I peered around the corner and it was just who I imaged into to be from that last sentence alone, Selina. She stood there looking horrified and pissed all at the same time. "YOU'RE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO-"

"Incendio," Selina muttered furiously setting the Howler on fire and watching the ashes fall to the ground. Her blonde head snapped around in my direction. "I heard you coming," she spat and I stepped around the corner. "Only you?" She crossed her arms looking around me. "Enjoy the show?"

"Your mother's furious," I said.

"Wow, no wonder you're in Irdrea. Nothing gets by you," she replied sarcastically. Selina still looked a bit rough. I would have assumed if anyone had a remedy it would be her.

"Ha ha," I replied dryly. "Well was it worth it?"

"Of course it was worth it," Selina answered. "I threw the best Halloween party ever."

"All to impress Cole," I pointed out. "You two went missing for sometime," I added with a knowing glance.

"Well clearly I didn't need to throw a party to impress a boy then did I?" she replied with a smirk pushing past me.

Charlie was at lunch but wasn't touching his food. I felt horrible for him. It was bad luck. Everyone else practically got away with it. A few owls entered into the room carrying letters and one dropped in front of me. It was my father's owl. The letter was thick and I opened it up interested to see what it could possibly be. Was it something from the Department of Mysteries about my condition? Did they find a cure? I hadn't noticed anything lately, but it did seem to get worse over time. I was horrified another horrible incident would happen. I unfolded the page, there was another letter attached but I read the one written by my father first.

Dear Bradley,

Hope all is well back at school. I hope everything is better now and that you have caught up with your classes. I am sure you have. Your Grandmother and I had dinner together last night. She wanted to talk about our Thanksgiving plans. I know it's usually small, but this year your Grandmother wanted something bigger. Great Grandmother Lucille is unfortunately very ill. This could possibly be her last Thanksgiving and she would love for the entire family to get together. The Beckinghams have offered to host. I know you probably do not like the sound of that, but I told your Grandmother the two of us will attend for Great Grandmother Lucille. No need to travel all the way here. Selina will be owled as well, the two of you are to head straight to the Beckinghams and I will meet you there. See you very soon.

Love,

Dad

The letter was bittersweet. I felt horrible Great Grandmother Lucille was ill, even if she was around a hundred and ten years old. Lucille is both Selina and I's Great Grandmother which is why the Beckinghams have probably offered to host. It was definitely going to be rough spending Thanksgiving with them but it was all for Lucille. Later that night I walked around the castle hoping to find Kent alone, but no luck. I suppose we would just have to see each other in class. There wasn't much to talk about, I just wanted to get the first few sentences over with so we could go back to being friendly. Who knows what was going to happen between the two of us.

The next day I entered into Medical Approaches and saw that Kent was there early. Taking a deep breath I walked over and sat next to him. "Hi," I said as normally as I possibly could.

"Hey," he replied. "I have been hoping to see you around. Sorry about yesterday, I didn't want to look too friendly in front of Grant." I nodded understanding.

"Don't worry about it," I said shaking my head with a smile. He smiled back, but it wasn't his normal friendly smile.

"About Halloween..." he said. I didn't like the tone of his voice, it sounded almost regretful. Maybe Idella was wrong. From the look on his face I could tell he regretted kissing me and my stomach twisted in knots. I tried not to show any emotion on my face. "I had a lot to drink." No you didn't! I wanted to yell. Idella even pointed out that he was pretty much fine that night. Why was he lying? "So did you. We got caught up in the moment." He regretted kissing me? I felt the flames burning inside me once more and clenched my hands together. "I'm sorry, I don't want to ruin our friendship."

What friendship? I wanted to scream. Our secret 'friendship' where you are only nice to me when no one else is around and then go on ignoring me. The one where you won't even smile at me if your best friend is around. The one where you kiss me.  There was so much I wanted to say but instead I responded with, "That's fine." Maybe he was just as bad as Grant all along. Professor Sheringham arrived and luckily called me over to talk about my mid-term proposal. I couldn't wait for the next week and a half to hurry up. I needed a break from this school.