Daphne remained pissed at Emma for the next few days and it left great disappointment as she, Emma, had really liked her. She didn't know how long it would last...the rumours...the leering...the bullying...none of it. Even Pansy had turned against her, ever since the night of their celebration in the common room. Now all Emma had was Sabrina and the few Gryffindors. She didn't see Seth very often as she understood he'd finally made his own friends. At least, though, Harry had accepted her request on joining his Defence group called 'Dumbledore's Army,' which now made sense whenever Fred and George had whispered 'D.A' in front of her.

Hermione gave her her very own fake Galleon to give her the date and time of the next meeting in what was called 'The Room of Requirement', whatever that was. Hermione said that she or Ginny would escort her to their next meeting.

"Just don't mix it up with any real Galleons," Hermione reminded her sternly the day she handed the Galleon over.

 Emma found herself checking the Galleon every hour or so, excited for her very first D.A meeting that she could not help but bug Harry about it whenever she spotted him trying to avoid her in the corridors or in class. And upon seeing these things happen, Draco had gotten worse. His comments on Emma and Harry 'sitting in the tree' wasn't exactly making fun of them, it was more, to his unknowing, grossing them out.

 And as time went on, Sabrina's odd behavior became much more noticable, and Emma was worried. She thought more into when she first found out about being Harry's sister and thought that, even against Sirius's word, that if both Harry's friends were allowed to know about them being related, Emma should have the permission to tell one of hers.

Sabrina's sadness left her immediately and she was mildly interested in Emma's story, eyes popping and questions leaving her unstoppably. When Sabrina asked Emma how she knew they were related and where she had gotten the information from, Emma forced the topic to transistion into something far different, such as their O.W.L's. And even after the day Emma had revealed her secret, Sabrina had become, yet again, sad and distant and barely spoke a word to anybody.

The fear of her O.W.L's as they neared seemed to press into Emma, even as her eyes raked over the notice board one morning upon making her way down to breakfast.

"There's a Hogsmeade trip in a month," a voice drawled from beside her, causing her to flinch and lose focus on the notice board.

Shaking her head in annoyance, Emma accepted Draco's presence as he, too, was reading the notice board, and said, "I know, Draco, I can read."

"It's the first one, and - oh would you look at that? It's even on Valentine's day. It's like fate is trying to speak, isn't it?"

Emma laughed. "You're weird."

"Go on a date with me."

Her lips went dry and she furthered her bag strap up onto her shoulder. The only thing her hesitation appeared to be doing was giving Draco more and more satisfaction.

"And why would I want to do that? You're arrogant, you're a bully, and you're just horrid," Emma reminded him, trying her best to sound harsh but she didn't have the effort.

"Your reluctance tends to say otherwise," Draco smirked. "I know you want to give me a shot."

"No," Emma said, turning away from him and instead staring at the notice board again. "I'm ignoring you for the rest of my life. Go away."

"Oh come on, just one date and if you don't like it, I won't ask you out ever again," Draco promised, and the sincerity in his tone forced Emma to finally look at him again, the desperation in his voice matched his expression. "I'll promise you that."

"Oh, yeah?" Emma said, fake-amusement in her voice. "Just like you promised you wouldn't try anything when we were playing Truth or Dare? Your promises aren't as well known as what your reputation is, you know. So I think I'll pass this, if you don't mind."

She left the notice board and headed out the portrait with Draco treading right at the back of her heels.

"Please, Emma," he pleaded, wrapping a firm hand around her wrist to stop her from walking. Annoyingly, she turned to look at him with a blank look. "Please."

Well, thought Emma. This would be the best opportunity to test it out...

"All right, we're ready now," said George, poking his head out his bedroom door to peek at Emma who was waiting patiently outside. "Come in."

The first thing her eyes excitedly fell upon was a simple glass vial with what looked like purple water on the inside. Fred was smirking.

"This is our darkest invention, yet," he cried happily, throwing it in the air and catching it again. Emma's stomach lurched when he did it again, fearing it would fall on the wooden floor and smash.

"What'll it do?" she asked curiously, sitting beside Fred and carefully taking the vial out of his hands to observe it.

"It'll give Malfoy nightmares for ages, and he'll be crying uncontrollably throughout the day. The tears won't stop till he stops bothering you," George answered. "Just pour it into his drink."

Emma thought for a moment, biting her lip, wondering if the substance really was as bad as kicking Draco in the balls.

"All right," she finally decided, feeling her throat go dry, as though it had turned against her while believing she would deny. "Fine. One date and if I don't like it, you really really can't ask me out again."

"And if you do like it?" Draco asked hopefully. "Then what?"

"Then we'll go again," she smiled, turning away while chuckling mischievously.

Draco joined Emma at the Slytherin table in quite the cheerful mood, and he didn't once comment on her appearance, reach over toward her hand, nor did he flirt, thankfully. Maybe it was a good idea to go on this date after all...because if she didn't like it, and if Draco stuck by his promise, it'd be like this all the time.

All sorts of owls came swooping into the Great Hall carrying letters and daily prophets, where one dropped directly in front of Draco, and he allowed Emma to lean over to read with him.

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS 'RALLYING POINT' FOR OLD DEATH EATERS.

The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there has been a mass break out from Azkaban. Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornellius Fudge, Minister for Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the danerous nature of these individuals.

'We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped,' said Fudge last night. 'Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We are, howver doing all we can to round up the criminals, and as we beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached.'

"Wait, Bellatrix Lestrange...thats -?"

"Sabrina's mother, yeah," Draco answered, ignoring the heading 'TRAGIC DEMISE OF MINISTRY OF MAGIC WORKER.'

"She's Sirius Black's cousin, I didn't know that."

And upon mentioning Sirius Black, it was silly of the Ministry to be blaming it on him, still, even after all this time. He's been locked up in Grimmauld Place and hasn't been spotted for ages. She couldn't even understand why Dumbledore and Harry didn't just go to the Ministry and call for a trial, defend Sirius and declare him innocent. There was so much evidence, and she was convinced the night she first met him just from listening to Ginny.

 Emma turned to put herself a meal just as Daphne, Astoria and Pansy drifted into the hall, sending very dirty looks her way as they passed and saying nasty things aloud when they were right behind her. Emma's eyes flickered down at the table, and her hand left the pancakes she was reaching for.

Draco sent her a reassuring look, or what he thought to be reassuring. "Don't worry about it."

It was easy for him to say, he was the reason Pansy hated Emma to begin with. It was understandable for Daphne and Astoria to have hated her, but Pansy hated her all because of Draco.