It had been weeks since our argument. Christmas was almost here and Harry still wouldn't talk to me. Whenever he saw me, he gave me a dirty look and then he would just walk away. Ron and Hermione made attempts to talk to me, so I just let them. I needed someone right now, really, and that was all that mattered to me.

I knew it was going to be hard with Dumbledore's Army now since Harry and I needed to work together in order to make this work. With Harry giving me the cold shoulder, he made it clear that he didn't want to have anything to do with me. I hated it when he was mad at me.

"Expelliarmus!" Neville was trying again to get the spell right, but once again, he failed.

I glanced at Harry, who sighed and continued helping everyone else.

I went over to Neville and grabbed my wand. "Follow my steps." I moved my hand and watched as Neville copied me. "Try again."

He tried again, but received another bad result. "Forget it, Max. I can't do it."

"Yes, you can." I grabbed his hand and caught a glimpse of Harry helping Cho. I knew he liked her, but she was a bitch. Harry didn't deserve her. The way they were looking at each other. I didn't like it.

"Max?" Neville snapped me out of my trance.

I looked back at Neville, quickly shaking my head. "Right, sorry about that." I went back to helping Neville.

I stayed back after the meeting was over. I had nowhere else to go, and this was where I could be alone. There was a mirror in the back of the room, where a picture of Cedric was there. I stared at the picture for a long time. Then, I heard footsteps.

"Hey." It was Ron.

"Hi," I said. "Why aren't you with Harry?"

"I wanted to see you," he replied, standing beside me. "Are you alright?"

"I've been better." I gave him a weak smile and then looked back at the picture of Cedric. "You know, last year, in the graveyard, I realized something. I realized that the people who are easy to talk to are the ones who slip away from us the easiest."

"So you're just pushing everyone away so you don't lose them?"

"That's what it seems like, huh? I'm not trying to push anyone away. But now, I have no one to talk to."

"You can always talk to me, Max." Ron grabbed my hand. "You're one of my best friends. I hope you know that I'm not taking sides, neither is Hermione."

"I know," I said. "Thanks for being there for me when I needed it."

Ron nodded and gave me an awkward smile. Suddenly, a jingling sound was coming from over our heads. We looked up to see that mistletoe had formed. Ron blushed when he looked back at me.

"We don't have to," I told him.

"I know," he said. "But I...I want to."

"Ron..." I whispered.

We were inches away from each other. Both of his hands went behind my head as he pulled me closer so that my lips were on his. I wasn't sure what to feel, what to think.

After long minutes, he pulled away. "Bloody hell."

"Wow," I said. "That was--"

"Wow," Ron repeated after me.

I couldn't help but laugh at him. "Let's...let's not do that again."

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right." He chuckled and I laughed again.

*******

It was hard for me to admit that I just kissed one of my best friends. I did find it a bit awkward, but at the same time, it wasn't so bad.

As I entered the Gryffindor Common Room, I found Harry in there. When he turned around and saw me, he gave me the dirtiest look anyone had ever given me. "Way to go, sis. Kissing my best mate, aren't you?"

"He's not just your best mate," I reminded him.

"What is he to you, then? Your little rebound because Cedric's dead and you think you can do whatever you want?"

I bit my lip, trying to hold back the tears. "No. It's not like that."

He snorted. "Do you not realize how slutty you are sometimes?"

I scoffed. "Seriously? I'm still not entirely sure why everyone is calling me a slut. It's not like I'm sleeping around with everyone at Hogwarts."

"Well, it sure seems like you want to be with every guy here, with your track record of kissing Cedric at the Quidditch World Cup last year, then Malfoy at the Yule Ball, and now Ron--"

"Cedric and I were flirting and then we dated for ten bloody months, in case you forgot, and you're aware that the kiss with Malfoy wasn't even planned by us. Now with Ron, you don't even know what you're talking about with me kissing him, anyway."

"Oh, really? Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't want to kiss Ron, that you didn't want someone to care about you for one damn moment because you have no one else."

I looked down at the floor. "Harry, stop it..."

"Do it."

I shot up with tears in my eyes. "Shut up!"

"TELL ME, MAXINE POTTER!"

I let out a small gasp, shocked that he even raised his voice at me like that. I shook my head. "Harry..."

Harry scoffed at me. "I knew you couldn't do it." With that, he stormed upstairs, leaving me alone.

What the fuck was happening to us?

After what seemed like hours of crying by the fire, I went upstairs, changed into my pajamas, and came back downstairs. If Hermione saw me crying, I knew she would ask me what was wrong, then go to Harry, who would deny everything, which would cause more problems between us.

"Max?" I looked into the fire and saw Sirius. "Why are you up this late?"

"I couldn't sleep," I replied.

"I can tell. Your eyes are red. Have you been crying?"

"Yes. Harry and I are fighting."

"I heard. Harry told me all about it. He said you were lying to him about a girl, am I right?"

"I wasn't lying," I informed him, not planning to bring up what Umbridge did to me. "Cho did slap me across the face. But Harry got upset, saying that Cho wouldn't do something like that, and he also called me a liar. Then tonight, he basically called me a slut."

"What? How long has this fight been going on?"

"A few weeks."

Sirius sighed. "I told Harry this as well, so you won't be the only one that I'm telling. As upset as I am with Harry with how he reacted, you two don't need to be fighting like this, especially when there might be a possible chance that a war is coming. He needs you and you need him. He doesn't need to be giving you the cold shoulder and you don't need to be going around kissing Ron and other guys at Hogwarts."

"He told you that?" Sirius nodded. "Well, did he also tell you that he blurted out in front of Ron and Hermione about me living with Lucius and Draco when he wasn't supposed to?"

He sighed. "Max, if you two keep on with this, your relationship with him will strain apart. One of you needs to speak up and talk about all of this."

"How? Every time he sees me, he leaves the room. What else am I supposed to do to get him to listen?"

"I don't know, Max. But if you don't hurry up, you might lose him." With that, he left me there, trying to take in what he just said.

I didn't want to lose Harry, but if he refused to talk to me, then there was nothing I could do. I would just have to wait until he decided to come to his senses and talk to me.

My eyes finally decided to give out on me and I drifted off to sleep.

*******

"Expelliarmus!"

I watched in awe as Neville finally did the spell. Everyone crowded around him as he was still shocked at what he just did. "Well done, Neville," I said. "You did it."

"Thanks to you." He smiled.

I smiled back and still couldn't believe I actually taught a student. I felt so proud of myself.

"Okay, well, I think we have more time for one last lesson," Harry announced. "I think we should start with blocking now."

Blocking. Harry promised that he would let me teach this to everyone. "Um, excuse me, brother, but I recall you telling me that I could teach this."

Harry sighed and looked at me. "Fine, then, sister. Since you're the expert, why don't you teach everyone about blocking, then?"

"Fine, I will." I retorted as I made my way to the other side of the room. "Blocking. It's not really that hard once you get used to doing it. I guarantee, if you ever encounter a Death Eater, they will use blocking. That's why most people should be taught this." I cast a spell at Harry, who blocked the spell with his wand. "As you can see, Harry managed to block a spell for once." Some of the girls snickered as I smirked at him.

But now I knew that Harry had other ideas. "Well said, Max. But she forgot to mention that there are different ways to block a spell. Like this..." Harry cast a spell at me and I blocked it with a shield. "I see you've been practicing. Funny, I thought you did other things in your spare time."

Now I was mad. "Stupefy!" I shouted at him.

But he blocked it and looked at me.

Soon, we started shouting spells at each other. Then it turned into a duel. No one stopped us as we were casting spells at each other. Harry was good, but I was better. After long minutes of dueling and blocking, we were both tired. It was obvious but neither of us were finished. He started this, so I intended to finish it.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted.

I got up against the wall and felt a new sensation enter my body. It was hatred. It was evil. It wasn't me.

Go on, Maxine. You know the spell. Something was whispering in my ear. Do it.

I started panting. My blood started to boil. I wanted to kill him, torture him. At this point, I didn't care if he was my own brother. Something was telling me that I wanted him dead.

Finally, I snapped. "CRUCIO!" I yelled with all my might with my wand pointed right at my brother.

He blocked the spell, stumbling backwards, and looked at me in shock.

The whole room went silent as I felt everyone's eyes go to me.

I came back to myself and gasped, covering my mouth. I tried to hurt my brother.

I ran out of the room and down the empty hallway. I heard Harry run after me. "Max! Max, wait! Max!"

"Go away, Harry," I told him when he finally caught up with me. "Leave me alone."

"No. I think I've done enough of that already. Let's talk about this."

"No! I don't want to talk to you!" I ran away from him again, crying my eyes out.

There was no way he could forgive me for what I just did.

*******

The rest of the day was horrible for me. There were no more lessons until after Christmas was over. At least that was what I heard from Ginny. I was glad about that. I didn't want to face anyone from Dumbledore's Army after what just happened. I almost did the unthinkable to my own brother. What was going on with me? If he ever decided to forgive me, I didn't know how he would manage to do it.

That night, when I entered the Gryffindor Common Room, I saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry stopped smiling when he saw me. "Max?"

I quickly went up the stairs and slammed the door shut. I plopped onto my bed and silently cried to myself. If anyone asked me about today, I wasn't planning on telling them anything. There was nothing to tell. I just lost control. No wait, I didn't. It was all me. I had total control on what I was doing. It was my fault.

"Max?" I heard Hermione's voice as she came in, shutting the door behind her. "Can we talk?"

"I don't want to talk," I replied coldly.

"About what happened--"

"Go away, Hermione," I snapped.

She sighed in disappointment and left the dorms. I got into my pajamas and fell asleep.

*******

I ended up waking up in the middle of the night. It was around two in the morning when I went into the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and I didn't see Maxine Lillian Potter. I saw a demon. An evil, sinister demon, who almost hurt someone that was close to her today. I hated myself for it. I told myself over and over that it was all for revenge. But I knew that it wasn't. I did it out of pure spite.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain come from my neck. I tried moving it around to see if the pain would go away. It didn't. Instead, a face appeared in the mirror. It wasn't my reflection. It was his. It was Voldemort's face.

"Look at me," I said in his voice. "I was born to be this way. A murderer. I attempted to hurt my own brother. I'm nothing to him now."

I screamed out loud and started punching the mirror. Tears were streaming down my face as I kept punching it with my bloody hand. I slid down the wall and continued crying from the pain that came to my hand and my head. I was fucked up. I really was. There was no denying that now. I covered up my ears in order to get Voldemort's voice out of my head.

The door flew open and Hermione came in. "Max!" She came running to me. "Max, calm down. It's okay. It's just me."

"I...want...Harry," I managed to spill out between tears.

"What's going on?" Ron came in.

"Go get Harry," she demanded. "Now."

Ron ran out to go get my brother as I stayed in the bathroom with Hermione, continuing to cry and covering my ears. When Harry saw me, he looked like he was about to cry, too.

He bent down and sat in front of me, pulling me into his arms. "Oh, Max...I'm so sorry..."

"No, I'm sorry," I told him. "I...I didn't mean to--"

"I know, it's okay." He stroked my hair, trying to calm me down a little bit.

"You shouldn't forgive me."

"Of course I should. I can't stand being mad at you." Harry helped me up and sighed. "Let me fix that," he said, pointing at my bloody hand. He grabbed a wet cloth and gently dabbed at my wound. I hissed at the pain, but didn't complain for Harry's sake. He wrapped some gauze on my hand. "Better?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yes." We headed downstairs and sat on the couch. "Where do I start?"

"Anywhere. I'm here to listen," he said.

So I spilled everything and he listened.