This is my first fan-fiction, so it might not be that great. I'm really sorry!!

A/N: This fan-fiction will NOT be canon, and it is going to be written as though Voldemort never existed. i might include some of the characters in the Harry Potter books, but not to any extent.

Disclaimer: Some of these lovely characters (such as Dumbledore) belong to J.K. Rowling. I am only using them for this story and do not own them.

Also, i happen to have terrible grammar, and if you spot any extremely obvious mistakes, please tell me in the feedback thread which I am going to make.

CHAPTER 1 - LOVE:

Dea was walking through the crowded hall to Transfiguration, her favorite class. As she walked she passed many people, including her worst enemy, Emily. She glared as she passed, and Emily glared right back. Then she spotted her best friend, Lila, ahead of her. She ran to catch up.

"Hey Lila!! Did you get any homework in Potions?" She said.

"Of course. Did you get any in Ancient Runes?" Lila replied.

"Well, duh."

It was their 6th year at Hogwarts and their teachers were piling on homework like crazy.

"John got an O on his Essence of Euphoria, and my Amortentia only got an A!! Amortentia is definitely past N.E.W.T. grade level, and any fool could make Essence of Euphoria!!! Why does Slughorn favor John so much??!! It's not like he even knows anyone famous!!" Lila was ranting about John again. Lila was the best in her potions class aside from him, and they were extremely competitive.

"I bet you would love to get John drink your Amortentia wouldn't you?" Dea teased, grinning.

"Oh, shut up Dea!! Can't you see i hate him?"

"Oh, come on. You know that Snape always thought you were better, who cares what Slughorn thinks?"

"I do!!" Obviously Dea was not succeeding in comforting Lila.

"Well, hopefully your love can survive your competitive nature towards each other."

"I do not love him!!!" Lila was hopelessly in love with John, but she wouldn't admit it. It all seemed very silly to Dea.

"Of course you do, would you just adm - " Dea had just seen Marco, the boy she had been crushing on for 3 years straight. As soon as she had that thought, however, she thought 'I do not have a crush on him!! I do not, I can not, I will not, I REFUSE to!!!' She could be such a hypocrite sometimes.

"What? Ooohh. I see," Lila said, looking towards Marco.

"For the last time, i do not like him!!!"

"Suurrreee," Lila said, drawing out the word to make it clear she did not believe Dea one bit. Dea glared. Friends could be so annoying sometimes.

"Oh no, we're going to be late to Transfiguration!!" The two friends ran to get to class on time, and just barely made it. Although, knowing McGonagall, they would probably be counted as late any way. And they were.

"Oh my god!!" said Lila, who was obviously very stressed, "I've never been late to a class before!!!" She was pacing back and forth in the Hufflepuff common room.

"It's no big deal, Lila!!" Dea was totally calm, except for the fact that she still had an essay for History of Magic and half a book to read for Ancient Runes. She had been late to classes many, many times before.

"Yes it is!!" cried Lila hysterically, "My mum's going to kill me!!!"

"So don't tell her!!" Dea was in an irritable mood; she had nearly bumped into Marco earlier while he was talking to Melanie, the girl he likes. He had hardly noticed her, but he still turned and called an insult after her. Dea and Marco were pretty much friends, but they definitely acted like enemies, in a joking sort of way. Normally this did not bother Dea, but today she was very overwhelmed - she had lots of homework, she had Quidditch practice which had gone very badly (she played Seeker), and one of her good friends, Rose, was having a fight with her best friend (who she also had a crush on) while Dea was playing the go-between. And on top of all that, it had been while Marco was talking to Melanie.

"What's with you?!" Lila asked, obviously hurt.

"Sorry," Dea mumbled, "I'm having a bad day."

"I can tell!!"

"I said sorry!" Lila looked away, embarrassed at her attitude. The two friends had been having a lot of fights lately, but they made up easily. "It's no big deal," Dea was very upset by these fights and always tried her best to get herself and Lila to make up as fast as possible, "I'm really cranky today, but I still should bite your head off like that." The girls smiled at each other and hugged.

"Well, Ashley has really been bothering me lately. She keeps on saying I like Marco right in front of him, even though she knows very well that I don't!!" Ashley was another one of Dea's friends, and she was always teasing her about Marco, not that anyone knew that Dea actually did like him, but everyone said she did.

"But you do..."

"I do not!!! For the last time!!"

"But you do..."

"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!!!" But Lila just laughed, "Squally!!!" shouted Dea. That shut Lila up. She glared at Dea. Squally was what Dea and Jennie (Dea and Lila's other best friend) called John. His last name was actually Swally, but Jennie had just started calling him Squally one day and it stuck.

"I'm going up to bed," Said Lila.

"Yeah, me too," Dea decided.

They walked up the stairs to the dormitory together and got in bed. Within seconds, Dea could hear Lila snoring, but she herself lay awake for hours, thinking about Marco, trying to convince herself she didn't actually love him, but to no avail.
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CHAPTER 2 - JEALOUSY:
"Hey Dea!!" Dea spun around at hearing this lighthearted, carefree voice call her.

"Oh, Hi Melanie."

"Listen, could i ask you something?" Melanie wanted to ask her something?

"Uh, sure...What is it?"

"Well, I've heard some people saying that Marco likes me. Is that true?"

"Yeah. Yeah he does." Dea mumbled, and was aware of the heat rising to her face. She could feel her insides turn to slop with jealousy, and thought for a moment that she was going to be sick. 'Why am I jealous?' She thought, in another wasted attempt at convincing herself that she did not love Marco with all her heart.

"Oh," said Melanie, slightly taken aback, "I thought you would know, since you know him so well. Well, I hope you don't mind."

"What? Of course i don't mind, me and him are just friends!!" Obviously Melanie had noticed her blushing.

"OK. I believe you," said Melanie innocently, although Dea could tell that she did not.

"Good. Because I do not like him." Dea always got a bit defensive when the subject of Marco was brought up.

"OK. Thanks for answering me!" and with that, Melanie walked away. Dea stood there for a moment after she had gone, thinking about what Melanie had said. When Melanie said "I hope you don't mind", did she mean that she likes Marco?! 'What do i care if Melanie and Marco start going out?' But even at the thought of that happening, she started to feel a bit sick again...
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"Do you think she likes him?" Dea was saying to Lila and Jennie back in the Hufflepuff common room.

"Why do you care so much?" said Jennie, who was Dea's only friend who actually didn't believe her about Marco, instead of just teasing her.

"I'm just curious!!" said Dea, jumping to the defensive side.

"Well," said Lila ponderously, "I don't think that Melanie likes Marco. I think she just meant that she was sorry that he likes her instead of you."

"Really?" Dea was hopeful.

"Hey you guys!!!" Rose was walking into the common room, and she looked very pleased.

"Hey Rose, what's up?"

"Well, I just made up with Joe!!!!"

"Oh great!! So he's not at all mad at you anymore?"

"Nope! And he agreed to give all of us more respect!" Rose was grinning like an idiot, and Dea was glad too.

"Cool," commented Jennie, "We were just talking about how jealous Dea is of Melanie."

"I am not jealous!!" 'Yes you are,' she thought, "I'm not!!"

"Whatever Dea. Hey look, it's Lane!!" Jennie and Lane had been best friends since before Dea met either of them, but Dea was squeezing into the group quite nicely.

"Hey Laney!!!" This was what Jennie always called Lane, and it really bothered her, but she could not get Jennie to stop.

"Hi," said Lane in her always soft, quiet voice. Lane was a very soft-spoken person.

"Oh my god, Lila, Rose, we forgot Quidditch practice!!! It starts in like two minutes!!" Dea suddenly remembered.

"Uh-oh!!" said Rose

"Well if only one of us were captain," Lila said sarcastically. She had been awarded the captain's badge over the summer.

"Oh yeah..."

They walked down to the Quidditch pitch with their brooms under their arms, and they say the rest of the Hufflepuff team standing there. The Hufflepuff team was as follows:
Chasers: Lila, Joe, Maria; Beaters: Isaiah, Max; Keeper: Rose; Seeker: Dea. The captain of the team was Lila.

Lila addressed the team, "Alright everybody, sorry I'm late, I know that the captain is not supposed to be. Here's our new training schedule..." But at this point, Dea tuned out Lila and looked up towards the Owlery. She saw a boy's face looking out the window, with a thoughtful look on his face. It was Marco. Dea's imagination whirled into overdrive.

"OW!!" She felt a sharp, throbbing pain in the back of her head, and looked around to see Lila, in the air, looking as though she had just thrown something.

"Pay attention!!"

"Sorry!!! You didn't have to kill my head!!" She looked back up at Marco very quickly. He still had that thoughtful, sweet look on his face, but now he also looked very happy. 'He's probably thinking about Melanie...' she thought. Her stomach churned with jealousy as she took off on her broom. Marco would never like her.
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CHAPTER 3 - MARCO

"You guys, I have something to tell you." Dea was sitting next to Lila, Jennie, Lane, and Rose after just having made the biggest decision of her 16-year-life. Everything had always been easy for her. Nothing had involved much thinking or planning. Everything had come to her, just like that. She had gotten everything she wanted as a kid but was not spoiled. She had never had anything to worry about. That is, before she began liking Marco.

"What is it?" said Lila, sounding slightly worried about her friend. She could always recognize when Dea was being serious, which was not very often.

Dea buried her face in her hands and said in a muffled voice, "Ay lic Maro."

"What?" said Jennie, having not understood Dea through her hands.

Dea lifted her head just slightly and looked up at them. "I like Marco."

"YOU LIKE MARCO??!!!" shouted Lila, very surprised.

"Shut up Lila!! Do you want the whole school to know?!!"

"Sorry," Lila whispered, "You like Marco?!" she shouted very, very quietly.

"Yes. I do. I think i love him."

"Oh my god!! Why didn't you tell us that before?!?"

"Well, I didn't tell myself until yesterday, really. I've been trying to convince myself that I don't for three years."

"Three years??!!" Jennie put in.

"Yeah. I met him seven years ago, before he came to Hogwarts, and I've had a crush on him for three."

"Wow. How did you meet him?" asked Rose. She had been silently observing for the majority of their conversation, with wide eyes and gasps.

"Well, seven years ago..." her imagination whirled up again, and she saw the scene she was describing clearly in her mind's eye.

It was a bright day, and a small girl of maybe 9 or 10 years was sitting high in a tree, holding a raw egg and eating a sandwich. She had hazel eyes, only they were not the same color as other hazel eyes. They were green on the outer edge of her irises, and very light brown around her pupils. She also had waist-length auburn-brown hair. She was looking around, hidden by the cover of the leaves. Suddenly, a boy of about the same age appeared out of nowhere. He too looked around, and when he looked at the tree, he started. The girl saw him and an adorable little grin crept up her face. She held the egg aloft and waited for the boy to come near. He grinned and realized what was going to happen. But he did not resist. He walked straight up to the tree and leaned against the trunk, as though he did not know that a girl was about to drop an egg on his head. The young girl let go of the egg. As it fell, the boy made the quick decision to please the girl, and he looked straight up at the egg. He must have been a very good actor, because the girl did not find out until years later that the boy had known her plan all along. The egg hit the boy in the face, and as soon as that happened, the girl dropped her sandwich and began roaring with laughter. She was laughing so hard that she fell backward off of the branch. She stopped laughing and screamed. She was very high in the tree. The boy saw this and rushed to catch her. He barely made it in time, and she was barley 3 inches above the ground when she landed in his arms, and her eyes were wide. She was still screaming, even though she was not longer falling, and it took her a moment to quiet. She looked up at him and a shy smile lit her lips. He looked back down and grinned broadly. Then she said, "I hit you with an egg!!!" and roared.

Dea told the story just like this, as though she had not been the little girl who sat in a tree dropping eggs on complete strangers. Not that you couldn't tell just by looking at her - her eye color was indeed very distinct. And her hair was still the same color, but she had had it cut so it was now parted on the side and down to her shoulders. She smiled as she told this story, and laughed at some points. It was definitely her favorite memory.

"Awww! That is so sweet!! Why are you guys so rude to each other now?" Rose asked.

"Well, when he switched to Hogwarts in second year, everyone thought we had crushes on each other because we hung out so much. So we started insulting each other whenever other people were around just to throw off suspicion. We were always joking with these insults, and when not too many people were around we could just hang out, especially over the summer. And we're still best friends, just not when other people are there. Over the summer we hang out way too much." She grinned.

"So you started liking him in third year?" Rose had a lot of questions.

"Yeah, when you guys all started saying i had a crush on him, i sort of started to."

"Wow. Wow."

"Yeah..." Dea sighed. Her life was spinning out of control right now.
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CHAPTER 4 - TEARS FALLING FAST

Dea was sitting by the fire in the common room, and everyone else was down at dinner. She had skipped all her classes today, which was unusual for her, as she was very intelligent and academic. At first, she had paced up and down, practically crying. Then she had sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs, and looked up at the ceiling with thoughts racing through her head. At about 10 o' clock, she gave this up and stared at the fire, her mind totally blank, sleeping while awake, hearing the roar of the fire and the conversations of those nearby, but not processing. This was as she still was, nine hours later, in the exact same position. She was depressed. Marco and her were drifting apart. They were no longer the best friends they used to be.

"Dea!! Oh my god, what are you doing over here??!! We were so worried about you!!! Why weren't you in class today??!" said a voice behind her. She did not look up, but she knew without thought that it was Jennie. Dea felt a lump in her throat. Her friends cared about her. 'No they don't. The weren't really worried. They were just pretending.'

"Dea?! Are you OK?!!" Jennie's voice sounded scared. THAT was not pretending. Tears started to form in Dea's eyes. Having felt terrible all day, just knowing the simple fact that her friends were actually real friends was enough to make her cry. In a good way.

She made a strangled noise and looked up at Jennie's face. Seeing Jennie's worried, caring face, she felt her heart swell inside her chest. She felt hot, heavy, silent tears streaming down her cheeks and buried her face in her hands. Jennie stopped asking questions and sat down on the chairs arm with her hand on Dea's back. This made her cry her harder.

"It's OK." Jennie whispered. Dea could hear in her voice that she was hiding something. She looked up calmly, with the hot tears still pouring down her face.

"What is it?"

"Huh?" said Jennie, knowing what she meant but still trying to hide it.

"What are you not telling me?"

"Nothing. Why do you think I'm not telling you something?"

"Because you aren't. I can tell."

"I - Well...I don't think you'll want to hear this..." Jennie said, giving in. She was clearly stressed and unsure of whether or not to tell Dea what it was.

"I'm sure I don't. Tell me anyway." Dea tried desperately to slow her tears. She succeeded...somewhat.

"Erm...Never mind. It's not important."

"Jennie." Dea said, straightening up and wiping her eyes. She looked straight into Jennie's eyes and stared. Jennie had beautiful, dark brown eyes. She was an Asian girl, born in China. She had long black hair that went down to halfway up her torso. She had high brows and light red lips, a color all sorts of lipsticks try to achieve. She had long arms and legs, but was not tall; she was about 5 feet tall, just shorter that Dea.

Jennie looked away from Dea's gaze and said, "Fine. But you won't like it..."

"I know."

"Well...Marco asked Melanie out."

"Oh. I don't care. I didn't care the first nine times either."

"And she said yes."

Dea felt her heart shatter, but kept her cool, "Oh." This was worse than just Marco never liking her, or being in love with Melanie. She knew he couldn't control his feelings. No, this was much worse. Marco had almost been joking the other times he asked Melanie out. But this time, he must have been serious. Or else Melanie, beautiful Melanie, with her long blonde hair and deep periwinkle eyes, would never have said yes. And this went much deeper than hurting her love for him. This was hurting their friendship even more - he knew that Dea did not particularly like Melanie, and that the two of them never got along. He knew that by going out with Melanie, he would be sacrificing a large, very large piece of their friendship. Which meant he was putting Melanie, beautiful Melanie, the love of all the boys, above Dea, horribly ugly Dea, his best friend. It felt terrible. Stupid, rude, "sexy" Melanie above brilliant, kind, butt-ugly Dea.

She walked up to her room silently, telling Jennie she was tired ("After sitting in an armchair all day?!" said Jennie jokingly), and lay down in bed to mull on her own terrible life, the life in which she had just been given second place to Melanie by her very best friend in the whole world.
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CHAPTER 5 - THE PUREBLOOD BOYS

There was a group of boys at Hogwarts who called themselves "The Pureblood Boys." They were all purebloods (of course) and were all Slytherins (also of course). They hated muggle borns ("mudbloods") and "blood traitors." Their fathers were all terrible people, as were their mothers. The types of people who would torture just for fun and kill the people they hated. And since they hated muggle borns and blood traitors, this made Dea and Marco two of the perfect targets, as Dea was a perfectly filthy blood traitor and Marco a muggle born. This of course meant that “The Pureblood Boys” hated them.
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Dea was sitting in History of Magic, more than half asleep, when she suddenly heard a noise above her head and sat straight up. Everyone was in class, so whose footsteps were these?

“Did you hear that?” she whispered to Ashley, who was fiddling with a quill and chewing a lock her curly black hair.

“Hear what?”

“Never mind…” obviously Ashley had not heard. But Dea was sure she had heard something…

THUNK. Dea heard another noise from the next floor up. She looked around. No one else seemed to be paying attention – no one ever paid attention to Mr. Binns, the ghost teacher.

“Mr. Binns?” Dea said loudly, standing up.

“Wha-?” said Mr. Binns, startled.

“Can I be excused? I – I need to use the bathroom.”

“Well…Of course, Delilah.”

She walked through the room of sleeping students to the door. When she got out into the hall, however, she did not head to the bathroom, on the floor below, but instead she went up the stairs.

After having almost forgotten to jump the vanishing step, she began to feel a bit shaky and sick. She was continually hearing noises and voices from just beyond the corner, and they did not sound like the type of people she usually mingled with. Yet she continued up the stairs.

When she reached the top of the stairwell and turned the corner, however, she saw no one. She heard nothing. Then there was a loud bang from right in front of her, and someone yelled, “OUCH!! F---ING WALL!!!”

Dea froze, mid-step. There was someone there!! Someone…yet she could see no one… ‘An invisible person?’ She wondered. Did they perhaps have an invisibility cloak?

“Shut your mouth, Goyle!! Do you want us to get discovered?!”

“Of course not, Master Lucius,” said the first voice with a mocking tone. Lucius…the name sounded strangely familiar…

“First names only, you idiot!!”

“I’m terribly sorry, Malfoy.”

Malfoy? Lucius Malfoy? Dea definitely recognized this name, but she wasn’t sure where from. She made a quiet, “Hmm…” as she thought.

“What was that?!” A third voice. Someone had heard her. She ducked behind a suit of armor.

“It’s just your imagination, overactive as usual,” said a fourth voice. Just how many people were there? What was this? So far, all of the voices had been male.

Of course, as soon as she thought this, Dea heard another voice, a woman’s voice, say, “Shut it, you four! And Avery, don’t you start talking either, you chatterbox. If you keep this up, we’ll be found!!”

“Oh, come off it Bella. You really think we’re going to be found by some snot-nosed little twerp? There aren’t any classes on this floor anyway,” said a drawling woman’s voice that sounded very much like a certain seventh year student’s did, one of “The Pureblood Boys,” a pale boy named Draco Malfoy.

That was where she had heard the name before!! Lucius Malfoy was Draco Malfoy’s father!

“Of course not, Cissy!! But you forget, Albus Dumbledore is headmaster of this school, he will easily find us!” said the woman called Bella.

“Oh, I don’t think he will,” said yet another voice, this time one that Dea easily recognized. “I had that pleasure first,” said Professor Sprout. Relief washed over Dea, who had still not been spotted. Professor Sprout was tough. She would take care of these intruders.

Suddenly, one of the voices shouted, “Crucio!!” and Professor Sprout was yelling, screaming with pain. Dea looked away, unable to bear it.

As the screaming stopped, Dea bolted back down to her class, and ran into a room thrown into confusion by the unexpected screaming from above. She tried breathlessly to explain in as little words as possible what she had just witnessed, then rushed on to other classrooms to warn them as well. Before she even reached all of the classrooms, she had many other students helping her to explain. There were no classrooms on the floor on which “The Pureblood Boys” families were, and all of the students on this floor went down to the next, warned them, and went further down. Dea glimpsed Marco heading for the stairs…The wrong stairs!!

“Marco!” she called frantically, and raced after him. But he only sped up in his climb. “Marco!!” she called again, this time even more panicked.

“Stay back, Dea!” He said roughly.

Close to tears now, Dea had no other choice but to watch pleadingly as Marco ran up the stairs.

“Stupefy! Expelliarmus!!” she heard him cry, among a number of other spells. She heard a cold laugh, definitely not Marco.

“Silly boy. Crucio!” She saw Marco writhe in agony and shrieked as though she herself were being tortured.

“MARCO!!” she screamed through the tears that she had not even noticed coming. “MARCO!!!” His dark brown hair fell in front of his eyes, and Dea could no longer see them, no longer see either the pain in them or the life. “Marco!” for the third time, but this time she did not scream, she simply wept.

It seemed like an eternity that he was under the horrible curse, and it was indeed a very long time. When the curse was lifted, Marco slumped to the floor and attempted to push himself up. Was the idiot really going to try to fight more?!

But again, the voice laughed. Suddenly, and without any words uttered from the invisible mouth, Marco rose into the air. He fell back down with a thump. Again and again this motion was repeated, and each time he rose higher. Eventually, Marco bounced between the ceiling and the floor with growing speed, as Dea wept and pleaded with the invisible man to stop. No one was even coming to help as Marco was bounced and curses were thrown from the other invisible people toward him, many hitting their target. Dea began shooting every curse, jinx, or hex that came to her mind, and tried very carefully not to hit Marco, although this was difficult through her thick tears. After a while, one of the voices said, “Leave the mudblood. We’ve taken care of him. There are others to worry about.”

Dea saw Marco fall to the ground one last time, and felt feet trampling over her legs. She looked at Marco for a moment and her lip trembled. She longed to help him, to hold him, but she thought of all the other innocent students and left Marco – she could help him later.

She raced down the stairs before the invisible torturers, and began attempting to stop them. She got all but two stunned – Bella and Lucius, judging by their voices. As they got past Dea, they hurried down many flights of stairs, and Dea bolted after them. She saw Professor Dumbledore, hi eyes blazing behind his half-moon spectacles, and shot her spells in the same direction as his. Her aim was good, and she heard the thud of a body hitting the ground, closer than the others. She was sure this was Bella, as she heard Lucius say something soon after; his words were undistinguishable over the screaming of every student in the crowded hall, but his voice was easily recognized. Suddenly, Dea felt herself hit the floor and all went black. The last thing she saw, although it may have been her imagination, was Madam Pomfrey carrying Marco’s bleeding and unconscious (hopefully, considering the alternative) body down the stairs…
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This is my longest chapter yet!!! Please leave feedback!!

CHAPTER 6 - DREAMS COME TRUE

Dea was walking through the crowded halls of Hogwarts, heading for a wall at the other end. She saw the usual throngs of people in front of her. She felt a hand slide into her own, and looked to the side. There was Marco, smiling at her. Next to him was Jennie and Lila. On her other side was Rose, Lane, and Ashley. Dea smiled and looked forward again. Her friends were with her.

Suddenly, everyone in front of her disappeared. She felt Marco's hand slip out of her's, and when she looked to the side, her friends were no longer there. They had left her. Dea could not stop her feet from walking down the empty hall, which seemed much wider now that everyone had gone. She did not want to reach the end of the hall anymore, but she still could not stop or turn around. The wall was getting closer, even as she fought to stay away. Then, just as Dea's hand reaches out against her will to touch the wall, it disappears. Dea find's herself falling through darkness.

Dea sat bolt upright with a start. She was sweating and shivering with fear from her horrible dream. Marco's lifeless body was lying on the bed next to her in the hospital wing. Then she realized that that her dream was reality. She was completely, horrifyingly, terribly alone.
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Lol, first a really long chapter, then a really short one =] Feedback anyway please!!

CHAPTER 7: UNEXPECTED

It had been nearly 3 weeks since the Liberators (this was what the Pureblood Boys fathers called themselves) had attacked the school, and Marco was still not better. He had just woken up for the first time, and Madam Pomfrey was having a look at him before he saw his friends.

Suddenly, he burst out of Madam Pomfreys office, looked over at Dea, and a huge smile broke out on his face. He almost ran over towards her with his arms wide open. Dea thought that he was going to hug her, but instead he walked past her to Melanie and kissed her, right on the lips. Dea looked down at her feet and walked out of the hospital wing dejectedly.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??!!!" Lila shouted at him, "SHE SAVED YOUR LIFE!!! IF SHE HADN'T DISTRACTED THOSE LIBERATORS, YOU WOULD HAVE DIED!!!! AND YOU REPAY HER BY KISSING MELANIE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER??!!! SHE'S IN LOVE WITH YOU!!!"

"What?" asked Marco with a disbelieving look on his face, "She's in love with me?? Oh no. Oh no please god no!"

"What? What's so bad about that?" Jennie stepped in.

"No time to explain!! I have to go sort this out!!" and he ran from the room.

"What was that all about?" asked Rose, and Melanie began to explain...
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Dea was walking down the hall with tears falling from her eyes. How could Marco have kissed Melanie right in front of her?? How could he be so inconsiderate? This was not the Marco Dea knew. The Marco she knew would never have kissed anyone she hated, or at least not let her know about it. What was going on with him? He had been acting strange ever since he first started dating Melanie.

Dea was paying so little attention to where she was going that she bumped into a suit of armor, causing the whole thing to fall on top of her.

"Owwwww," she moaned.

"Hello?" she heard a voice say, "Who was that?"

"Down here!" she said as loud as the armor squishing her would allow.

John Swally's pale round face lowered to the level of hers. He looked slightly startled, probably from hearing a voice coming from a suit of armor. But as soon as he saw her laying there he straightened up to lift the armor off of her. She stood up when he succeeded and shook off.

"Thanks," she said with a grin. And they began to walk back towards the Hufflepuff common room, talking as they walked. When they reached the entrance, John stopped (he was a Ravenclaw) and turned. But then he turned back around again.

"Listen, Dea...Do you want to..." he said slowly, ponderously, "Go out with me?"

Dea was stunned. This was not something she had expected, not in the least. "I - well, I - What I mean to say is...I - you know, I...huh," This was also not the answer she had expected to give, "I'll have to get back to you on that."

"Alright," replied Squally, not looking the least bit downcast. And he began to walk away.

Dea was about to walk into the common room, but instead made a sudden turn, which was definitely not what her brain was saying to do. But her body seemed to be acting on it's own whim...

"John!!" he turned to look at her. "Sounds like fun. Trust me, it'll last at least a week." Dea smiled sweetly at him. John got a huge grin on his face and said, "Alright then. I guess I'll see you later, Dea."

Wow, Dea thought, I'm going out with Squally. How unexpected.

"Dea!!" She spun around to see Marco racing towards her.

"Oh, hi Marco."

"Look, Dea...I'm in love with you. Would you go out with me?"

"What??" she said, more than a little surprised. "Why could you not have told me this ten minutes ago??!!!!"

"What's wrong? Your friends said that you were in love with me, too!!"

Dea laughed a hollow laugh. "I am!! But of course, right before you tell me about the 'too' part, I agree to go out with Squally!!"

"You're going out with Squally?? Why?!" Marco looked a little angry.

"How dare you insult my boyfriend! Look, I don't know why. But I can't go out with you!! I don't break my promises. I guess you'll have to wait. A week won't kill you, will it?"

"I've waited 4 years for you. I can wait a little longer." So Marco has liked me even longer than I've liked him. Irony is a terrible thing, isn't it?

"What about Melanie?" Dea asked.

"I only went out with her to get you jealous, and she knew it."

"I liked you long before then!! I'm sorry, but I really don't want to let John down so fast. I actually might like him a little!" Dea was being honest - about a year ago she had thought that she might have the smallest of crushes on John, and her out-of-control, accidental actions a few moments ago showed that maybe she had been right when she thought that.

And she walked away, leaving Marco staring after her, a curious and confused look on his face.
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CHAPTER 8 - MARCO

Girls made no sense at all. Marco was brooding in the Gryffindoor common room. How could she have turned him down like that if she truly was in love with him?? It just didn't make any sense. And how could she be going out with Squally??!!! Marco was much more jealous than Dea had been about him and Melanie. And he had been so close!! He told Melanie what had happened, and they were no longer going out, as Dea didn't need to be made jealous anymore.

He had to get Dea to break up with John, or the other way around. He had to at least try. He could not live if they were going out. He would wait a week, since that was how long Dea said they would be going out, at the least. If they hadn't broken up by then, he would have to befriend John Swally and persuade him a little (tell him how Dea was only using him, and things like that).

This was a terrible situation. Marco had never really appreciated irony before...
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Mod Edit: You don't need to have so many __________ at the end of a chapter as they broke the page. I deleted most of them. Also excessive characters are not permitted, ie !!!!!!!!!!!, please keep them to a minimum of 5. I deleted most of them too.

CHAPTER 9 - LIFE GOES ON

"Hey there!" It had been nearly two months since Dea had started going out with John, much longer than she had expected. Although she was still in love with Marco, she had begun to like John nearly as much. And yet, even after so long, they had not yet kissed once.

"Hello Dea," John said, grinning up at her as she sat on the arm of the chair he was sitting in. He kissed her on the cheek.

"How's it going?" she asked him, somewhat flirty, as she twirled a small lock of his hair. When she and John had first gotten serious, her friends looked away during this gushy behavior, but by now they had gotten used to it.

"Getting better," he replied and kissed her again, this time on the forehead. They chatted and flirted a while longer while John was finishing his homework (Dea had done hers early so that she would have more time with John, but he had much more than her), and when he was done they sat down next to each other and talked some more with Dea's friends. They talked about the first Triwizard Tournament event, which was coming up in a few days. This was the first Triwizard Tournament in a really long time and everyone was looking forward to it.

"I just hope that the new girl doesn't miss it because she's too busy getting caught up or something..." That was John for you, always thinking of other people. But wait...Dea didn't know about any new girl...

"New girl?" Rose took the words right out of Dea's mouth.

"Yeah, what new girl?" Dea asked.

"Her name is Olivia. She's a Ravenclaw, so you probably won't know about her," John told them.

"You have to introduce me to her!" Dea begged him.

"Fine," he grinned at her.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Lila walked down from the girls dormitory, and Dea stepped away from John a little. Lila was really jealous of Dea and John, and when Dea found out, she tried to stop seeming so close to him when Lila was around. At first John had thought that something was wrong, but Dea explained to him that Lila didn't like their sappy behavior, although she didn't say why exactly.

"John is going to introduce us to the new girl!" Dea told her excitedly. Dea always loved meeting new people.

"Her name is Olivia," John reminded her.

"Well, I'm sorry. How new is she?"

"She's been here about two days, but she hasn't been to any classes yet because she's had to get caught up in her studies."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go meet her!" The group walked out of the Hufflepuff common room (John was a Ravenclaw, but he still went with Dea and her friends into their common room), chatting about Olivia for a while before moving back to the Triwizard Tournament. When they got to the Ravenclaw common room, John answered the question to get inside and they walked in. Since boys were not allowed in the girls dormitories and none of her friends were brave enough to go up the stairs to an unfamiliar room, Dea was sent to go find Olivia. She walked up the stairs shaking her head at her friends incredible shyness (and Dea had always thought she was the shy one!), and took a deep breath before walking into the room. Dea had never been good at small talk, especially with people she didn't know. and she never knew how to begin a conversation. But she walked in anyway, because her friends would kill her if she chickened.

There was a girl sitting in the middle of the room, facing a window which was looking out at one of the magnificent towers of the school, one that had a bell in it. It was a wonderful view, and the girl was looking down at a small yellow sketchbook she held in one hand, with a pencil sticking out of her mouth. On the page her sketchbook was open to was an amazing drawing of the tower, that looked just like the real thing only was a little different...It took Dea a moment's thought to realize that the difference was that the girl had drawn the tower as though the setting sun were casting a sideways light on it. It was really beautiful drawing, and the girl must have been an extremely skilled artist to draw something like that!

Dea strode towards the girl and said, "Hello Olivia."

Olivia turned her head to face Dea, very calmly, not at all startled. She smiled the sweetest smile Dea had ever seen and said, "Hello. And may I ask your name?"

Dea's face broke out into a wide grin. "I'm Dea," she said.

"Dea...That's an interesting name...were you named after anyone?"

Dea had had people make fun of her name before, but never think about it quite the way that Olivia did. Or at all. "No, but it does mean goddess in Italian."

"Wow. I love Italian. It's a beautiful language, and it comes from a beautiful country. I went there over the summer. Want to see some of my drawings from when I was there?"

"Sure!" Dea had always loved Italy, and she could think of nothing that would make her happier than seeing Olivia's drawings of the country she so often dreamed of visiting.

Olivia opened her sketchbook to about halfway through to an amazing drawing of a sky, a sky that Dea immediately recognized as a Tuscan sky. Tuscany was one of the most beautiful places in all the world, and the sky was very distinct. Olivia flipped the page to a drawing of a river with docks and houses all around it; obviously a "street" in Venice. She showed Dea pictures of churches, of mountains, of lakes, and of villas. Dea was captivated by the wonderful drawings, and when she had seen all that were of Italy she asked Olivia to show her some of her other pictures. Olivia laughed and said, "Maybe some other time. Shouldn't we go downstairs right now? Your friends are still waiting, I believe." Dea jumped as she remembered her friends in the common room. How did Olivia know? Of course - she must have heard them arguing about who should go up. Dea laughed and turned toward the grinning face of Olivia to say, "Yeah, let's go." And the two soon-to-be friends walked back down.
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Dea and Olivia hit it off right away. They became best friends right away, and Dea was Olivia's first friend at Hogwarts. Dea could talk to Olivia about anything, and vice versa. They talked about drawing, books, Italy (Olivia even taught Dea some Italian), magic, and boys (of course - what 16 year old girls didn't?). Dea's friends were all friends with Olivia too, but none of them were nearly as close to her as Dea. Olivia was the friend Dea had always dreamed of having, someone who Dea could talk to and not be self-conscious around, someone who could help Dea not be so shy, who was obviously smarter and prettier than Dea, but not so much that Dea was jealous. The two friends were so similar that sometimes they would say what the other person was thinking. Of course, when this happened they would both burst out laughing. They even tried to finish each other's sentences sometimes - they were better at that then most people. For once, everything was turning out just fine.
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[url=http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23534]So toss me your feedback home skillets, do you feel what I'm putting down? Get my jive? So get in the rhythm my peeps, and comment my junk!!

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CHAPTER 10 - DREAMING WISHES[u]

Dea is standing near greenhouse 3, looking out at the Forbidden Forest. Professor Sprout is standing at the front of the class announcing that they were going into the forest to find the rare plant, the Alchinostis. Dea sees Marco walking out of the forest with the other group of students, the group that went in with Hagrid. He smiles over at her, then glances at Hagrid. When he sees that Hagrid's back is turned, he walks casually over towards Dea. He sits cross-legged on the ground and Dea slides down next to him.

"Hey," he says (no one is paying any attention to Professor Sprout).

Dea grins at him. "Hey," she replies.

"I think I'll go into the forest with your class too. Beats McGonagall," he says with a dimpled smile and a wink. Dea giggles (something which she does often).

"Come on everyone!" Professor Sprout calls from the head of the clump. The class (and Marco) walks to the forest, and Dea starts to shiver. This has nothing to do with the temperature, of course. Marco sees that Dea is afraid and puts his arm around her. Dea feels unexpected tingles running down her arm from the small portion of skin on her shoulder that Marco touches. That's odd... she thinks.

"It's not too bad in there," he whispers into her ear, "Trust me, you'll be fine."

As they walk on, Marco kept his arm around Dea, continually whispered words of wisdom in her ear. Something that he said reminded Dea of her favorite song, And I Love Her, and she giggles and begins singing it. Marco joins in, and they begin singing louder and louder. Dea completely forgets her fear, and when they were finished with the song, they started laughing and falling all over each other. They grinned at each other for a moment, and finally got over their giggles. Suddenly, however, Dea heard the silence again. Marco saw the smile fall off her face and put his arm back around her shoulders.

"Don't worry," he whispers, "I'm here." He rests his chin on the top of her head and puts his other arm around her. He lifts his head, looks down at her, and kisses the top of her head. Shivers run down Dea's spine and she suddenly feels tingles all over. Her eyes grow wide and she can't stop the smile from lighting her face. Marco kisses her head again, and Dea has the same sensation, joined with butterflies in her stomach. She looks up at him, and he kisses her forehead. They continue walking along, Marco's arm around Dea's shoulders and Dea's arm around his waist. Marco looks down at her, and he looks as though he's amazed at something.

Dea looks questioningly at him. "What?" she asks smiling slightly.

"You're so beautiful," he breathes, and he pulls Dea into his arms and kisses her, right on the lips.
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Dea woke with a start. That dream...it had seemed so vivid...Over that past few nights, she had had dreams about Marco. In the first one, it was only that someone had mentioned him. The second night she dreamed that she had been showing off for him. The next dream was that John broke up with her and Marco comforted her. Now this...What did it mean? She thought she had been pretty much over Marco. Obviously her subconscious knew otherwise...Dea was confused and worried. She needed help.
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There was a knock on the dormitory door. Olivia, who was drawing, set down her sketchbook and walked over to open the door. Dea was standing there, looking somewhat flustered. Olivia ushered her into the dormitory which she shared with no one, since she came so late into the year.

"What's wrong?!" she asked urgently.

"Well, I had a dream..." Dea replied.

"What did you dream?"

"Well, I dreamed that..." she hesitated. "I dreamed that...John broke up with me." This was the first time that Dea had lied to Olivia, and she didn't even know why she did.

Olivia let her breath out. "That could never happen. He is so in love with you!" However, far from cheering her up, this only made Dea feel worse.

"I had a dream too..." Olivia said excitedly, her eyes lighting up. Even though they were alone in the room, she lowered her voice to a whisper so that Dea had to lean in to hear her, "Well, I don't know if you know him, but there's this boy. His name is Marco Janella. Do you know who that is?"

Dea felt a feeling of dread. Olivia liked Marco?! "Yeah, I know him..." she said, "He's been my best friends since we were 9 years old."

"Really?!" This news seemed to make Olivia happy. "Well, I had a dream about him. I think I like him!" Oh no, Dea thought, This was not good.

"Really?" Dea said, trying to play it cool.

"Yeah! If you're friends with him...Do you think you could put in a good word for me?"

Dea didn't know what to say. Olivia seemed so eager, and if Dea said no then she would surely know why. "Sure," she replied weakly.

"Yay! Thank you so much!"

"No problem," Dea tried to grin.

Big problem.
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Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky. I know this love of mine will never die.
Love for feedback!! So leave some!![/url]

CHAPTER 11 - BEFORE THE TASK

It was a week away from the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, and Marco was getting nervous. He was the Hogwarts champion, and everyone was encouraging. Unfortunately, this only made him more nervous. He was continually going to Dea for help learning new spells, asking her how to block magical and non-magical attacks, how to transfigure a living creature, and all sorts of things that he should have known how to do but forgot in his anxiousness. Dea would help him with the spells, but each time he came to her, she grew more agitated until she was just as nervous as him. She started snapping at everyone who tried to talk to her, and was doing more work that Marco himself. Neither of them had any idea what the task was going to be, although they had a faint feeling that the other champions knew exactly what they were up against.

Dea and Marco were walking down the corridor to Potions; they had all classes together aside from Transfiguration and Herbology. Dea was talking Marco through how to do another simple spell when they heard a voice coming from behind them.

"Hey Janella!" the voice said. Marco sighed and turned around expectantly, thinking this was another "prayer for his health," or worse, actual encouragement. But it wasn't. It was Olivia. Marco suddenly got very quiet, and Dea looked at him in puzzlement. He just looked away, but Dea thought she detected a hint of a blush creeping up his neck.

"Hey Dea!" Olivia said and flung her arms around Dea's neck in a large hug. Dea was used to Olivia's bear hugs by now, although at first she had found it slightly hard to breathe in the middle of one. When she let go, she nudged Dea in the rib and looked excitedly over at Marco. Dea grinned nervously. She shouldn't be nervous about this!! She was going out with John, she was over Marco!!

"Hi...?" Marco said to Olivia.

"Oh! you don't know each other, do you?! Marco, this is Olivia," - gesturing towards Olivia - "Olivia, this is Marco" - gesturing towards Marco - "Olivia, this is Dea, Dea, this is Olivia, Marco, this is Dea, Dea this is Marco. There we go. Introductions done."

Olivia and Marco both laughed at Dea's introductions. Olivia jumped in front of Marco and held out her hand. Marco shook it, and Olivia bent in a small curtsy.

"Nice to meet you, Marco." She said, with a polite smile on her face. Then she gave a little giggle and bit her lip. Marco and Olivia looked at each other a moment, in silence. Dea was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable...

"So, Olivia, did you know that Marco is the Hogwarts champion?" Dea interrupted the silence.

"Oh! that is so cool!" Olivia cried.

"Well, it's a bit nerve-racking, actually..." Marco grinned sheepishly.

"I can imagine!" Olivia agreed. "Do you have any idea at all what the first task is going to be?"

"Not a bit. Dea is helping to prepare me though, just with little defensive spells and everything else that might be useful. I'm getting awful grades in every class as well. I can hardly remember how to do anything other than the spells I'm learning for the task." Marco replied. Olivia laughed.

"Well, if you ever need any more help on those defensive spells, or any help in your classes, I'm always here to help," Olivia said, and gave him a coy smile.

Marco hesitated for a moment, his mouth slightly open. "Uh...Yeah! That would be great!" he said.

"Perfect." Olivia smiled and gave her shoulders a little shrug. She turned toward Dea and said, "Well, I'm off to class!" She gave Dea another hug, then kissed Marco on the cheek. This was how she greeted or said goodbye to anyone of the opposite gender, at least anyone who she knew. Marco had a slightly strange reaction to it though, and he reached up to touch his cheek as Olivia walked away with a bounce in her step.

"Wow..." he said softly.

"Oh! come on!" Dea said.

"She's...wow..." Marco struggled to find an adjective for Olivia.

"Marco! Wow is not an adjective! And don't you dare talk that way about Olivia! She's my best friend. I'm going to have to tell her you said that," Dea warned.

"Dea! Don't be that way! She's so...wow!" Marco was getting into using the word wow so many times. Dea gave him her "you've got to be kidding me" look.

"But Dea, she's just..." He sighed.

"Yeah, and she knows adjectives," Dea said sarcastically, stealing the line from Aladdin.

Marco grinned. Then the smile ran away from his face. "Look, I'm sorry, but I've never felt this way before!" he replied.

"Well, my apologies," Dea said coldly, and stalked off. She was angry. She began to sing to herself, she sang Cool from West Side Story. This was how she calmed down whenever she was angry. She had seen muggle movies because her family lived like muggles, and she quoted or sang songs from her favorite movies often. She was angry because Olivia was her best friend, and Marco couldn't feel that way about her. But...it was more than that. She had thought that Marco felt that way about her, and it was the first time other than John that anyone had liked her that way. But, apparently Marco hadn't. She knew she shouldn't be angry about this, but she was. 'No, no, I can't be angry. I don't feel that way about anyone other than John, so why do I care if anyone other than John felt that way about her? I don't,' she thought. 'I'm only angry because I'm protective of Olivia.'

Dea walked on to Potions, singing Cool to herself on the way. By the time she got there, she was calmed down enough. She walked in, planning to apologize to Marco. But when she stepped through the door, Marco rushed up to her immediately and started talking.

"Dea, I'm really sorry about before. I was being really inconsiderate," he said.

"It's fine. I was going to apologize for freaking out like that." Dea gave him a warm smile, and Marco gave a sigh of relief.

"Great," he said. "I thought you were going to be mad at me. Well, if we're cool..."

"We definitely are," Dea cut in.

"Well...I guess I can tell you then...I asked Olivia out. And she said yes!" Marco told her excitedly.

"Oh...That's...great!" Dea was faking a smile, but inside, her stomach was churning. "I'm so happy for you guys," she said, trying to seem sincere.
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That evening, Dea was sitting cross-legged by the fire in a comfortable armchair. John was sitting in the armchair across from her, his head on resting on his chest which was slowly and evenly rising and falling as he slept. She was certain she loved him. But what was that feeling she had had when Marco told her that he and Olivia were together? She was also certain that that was jealousy. Did one not only experience jealousy when they were in love? Could one heart love two boys? If it was possible, this was what was happening to Dea.

John awoke with a start. His head jerked up and his eyes jerked open. Dea started laughing at this involuntary action, and John grinned at her.

"Were you watching me while I slept?" he asked Dea.

"Maybe..." Dea looked away sheepishly, blushing furiously. John smiled sweetly.

"That's awfully sweet of you," he said.

"Well, thank you, John dearest," Dea said jokingly.

John yawned and got up from his seat by the fire. "I should be getting back to my own common room," he said. "We wouldn't want Filch to catch me out of bed after hours, now would we?"

"Why, of course not!" Dea smiled at him.

He walked around her armchair and put his arms around her from behind. He held her for a moment, then kissed the top of her head.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear. Dea's chest was rising up and down very quickly. She turned around to look up at him, her eyes wide, but he only kissed her forehead and walked out of the common room, smiling. Dea looked down at her legs, looking but not really seeing. She could not believe that John had just said that...She was pretty sure that she loved him back...But did she? They had been going out for nearly four months. That was surely long enough to fall in love. But...What about Marco?

"I won't think about it," Dea whispered to herself, alone in the common room. "Problems are never as bad if you don't think about them."
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How about some feedback peoples?! I know, I haven't posted in FOREVER. But now forever is over and I've posted some more!! So, please leave feedback!!

CHAPTER 12 - BEFORE THE TASK (PART II)

It was the day before the task. The lives of Dea and her friends, all of whom were helping Marco, had been messes a few weeks. Rose, Lila, Lane, and Jennie were constantly looking up spells that Marco might be able to use during the task, while Dea and Olivia were coaching Marco, who was cramming like nobody's business. Joe started out helping Rose, Lila, Lane, and Jennie, but then joined John, who had the job of securing empty classrooms for Marco to practice in after he and Rose got in a huge fight - again. It was, again, over something completely pointless, but they were both unwilling to admit that they were wrong. Dea had given up trying to get them to "kiss and make up," and Olivia had taken a surprising interest in sorting out their problem. And yet, even she, with her supreme people skills, did not succeed.

Marco had learned spells to block, to move, to injure, to heal, to summon, to banish, to stop movement, to slow movement, and to do pretty much every other imaginable thing. He still had no idea what the task was, although he now knew that his opponents were quite informed in this area. Dea had overheard the Durmstrang champion talking about it with his girlfriend, a fourth year from Hogwarts. After Dea heard this, she and Olivia began eavesdropping on the Beauxbatons champion. For a few days, their spying was to no avail - They discovered nothing other than the fact that she was entirely insufferable. They were considering giving up and supposing But then, two days before the task, Olivia saw one of her friends walking up to a friend of the Durmstrang champion, whispering in his ear and kissing him on the cheek. Olivia reported that the Durmstrang boy then whispered into the ear of the Beauxbatons girl, who then walked away and spoke excitedly to Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons champion. From this, the group of friends made the assumption that Fleur now knew as well what the task was.

Marco, Olivia, Rose, Lila, Lane, Jennie, Joe, John, and Dea were collected by the fire in the Hufflepuff common room, their chosen post for the day, since their group contained people from each of the four houses other than Slytherin, they chose a common room to spend the day in each day. Jennie, Lane, and Lila was sitting in a small circle of armchairs, conversing about a boy, as always. Dea was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her back against the feet of John, who was sitting in a comfortable armchair stroking Dea's hair. Olivia was laying on a maroon loveseat with her head rested on Marco lap. The two couples were having a calm conversation about Rose and Joe's argument. Speaking of which, Rose and Joe were both standing nearby, yelling at each other. Dea had suggested that they work out their problem by talking about it, but obviously they had misinterpreted this and taken it to mean work out their problem by yelling about it. Apparently, Joe had told Rose that he had gotten a P on a paper that he had actually gotten on an E on to make Rose feel better because she had gotten an A on. Rose found out, and got angry because Joe had lied to her, but Joe thought that he was justified because he didn't want to embarrass Rose. All of their friends thought that they should just suck it up and get over it.

"Hey!" Olivia cried over to them, sitting up. "You two need to either make up, or go fight somewhere else! You're disturbing the peace."

"Fine," said Rose. "Let's bring this upstairs, Joe."

Joe and Rose walked up the stairs to the girls dormitory, arguing as they walked.

"Great," Dea said sarcastically. "Now we can't go to bed until they come back." John, Olivia, and Marco laughed at this, and they started talking about the task the next day.

Two hours later, it was midnight and everyone was getting a bit tired.

"Are Joe and Rose still arguing?" John asked, yawning.

"Huh, you know, I could hear them up until about fifty minutes ago..." Dea said, contemplating what could have happened.

"Who cares," Olivia said, laughing. She was a little tired - she had never stayed up past eleven before.

"Oh my god!!!" Marco cried, jumping up and making Olivia jerk upright. "What time is it??!" And without waiting for an answer, "I have to go learn another spell!!"

"Oh yeah, tomorrow's the task," John said as Marco ran out of the common room.

"That's right! I totally forgot!" Olivia exclaimed. "I'd better go get some sleep. I want to be well-rested tomorrow!"

"Bye!" Dea called as Olivia opened walked out the portrait hole.

"Hey..." John said to Dea. "We're all alone."

"Really?" Dea replied. "When did Jennie and Lane and Lila go up?"

"They didn't," John said, gesturing over to the sleeping trio and grinning. Dea giggled a little.

"So..." Dea said, getting up on the couch beside John and turning toward him.

"So..." John repeated, a little smile on his face. "You know, you really are beautiful." His voice was much lower when he said this, and he was looking in Dea's eyes as though he couldn't bare to look away. Dea remembered how much of a nerd she had thought he was before they were together, but she was wrong. He was actually very romantic and really sweet and funny.

John's face seemed to be getting closer and closer to hers. She couldn't help but stare into his eyes, and suddenly her heart was beating faster and her palms were sweating. Breathing was somewhat harder than usual. John's hand reached up to her face and stroked her cheek. Time seemed to be going slower than normal...Suddenly John's lips were on hers, and Dea didn't know what to do. She wasn't ready for this. But she couldn't just push John away. She had feelings for him! She couldn't do this yet, though.

She pushed John away and stood up. She stood there for a moment, breathing hard. John looked up at her and swallowed. He then got up and walked silently toward the portrait hole. He turned around.

"Goodbye, Dea," he said to her evenly, with a tone of finality in his voice.

"Are we - " Dea asked, her voice cracking. "Over?"

John looked down and gave a small nod. "Goodbye," he said to her, his voice hard.

Dea gave a small sob as John walked out of the common room. She looked over at Lila, Lane, and Jennie, who were still sleeping by the fire. She had that strange, empty feeling. She wasn't really even sad. At least, not what she could call sad. It was odd - she had often thought when she had her huge crush on Marco that having a crush was worse than having been dumped. She had thought this because when you were dumped, you knew that you were sad, whereas when you had a crush on someone, you had no idea what you felt and were completely and utterly confused about how you felt. But, apparently, at least for Dea, the same could be said about being dumped. Dea felt hot, pulsing tears running down her face, but then they were gone after only a short moment.

She slowly walked up the stairs to the dormitory, her legs shaking. She took a deep breath and opened the door, expecting Rose and Joe to have made up and to be talking. She took a step inside, and a strange and surprising scene met her eyes. Rose and Joe were laying on the bed, their mouths pressed against one another's faces, really eating face. Dea's jaw dropped as she backed out of the dormitory. She closed the door as quietly as she could, and stood for a moment with her back pressed against the door.

"Well, they made up alright," she whispered to herself.
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Hey, really drama-packed chapter for ya there, huh?!! Anyway, please comment!!

CHAPTER 13 - THE FIRST TASK

"Dea!!! Wake up!!! It's almost time for the first task!!!" Dea opened her eyes a little bit, and she could see a patch of yellow fabric. She had her arms around her legs and was curled up in a ball on one of the comfortable armchairs in the common room. 'Why am I not upstairs?' she thought. Suddenly, the events of the night before came flooding back to her. She stood up slowly.

"I - I don't think I'll go to the task," she told Rose, who had come to wake her.

"What?? Why on Earth wouldn't you?!" Rose exclaimed. "Did something happen?"

"I - No, nothing. You know what, forget it. I'll come. Marco would be mad if I didn't," Dea replied, not wanting to get into it right at the moment. "Let's go."

Rose didn't sense that there was something wrong, probably because she was a little preoccupied with what had happened last night. At least, the part of the night she knew about. She had a large smile on her face as they began walking.

"Rose...I came up last night. While you and Joe were up there," Dea said, deciding to be honest about one thing. Rose's face turned bright pink, but she grinned widely.

"So I don't have to tell you what happened? Good. It would be pretty...embarrassing, if I did. Isn't it great?! I'm so happy that he and I are together! Now we both have boyfriends, and so does Olivia! Jennie and Lane and Lila can just deal with it, they're boy crazy enough without boyfriends. But we're lucky!" Rose said excitedly, thinking that this was why Dea had said that she didn't want to go to the task. She was completely unaware of the truth.

Dea smiled weakly. "Yeah," she said. "We're lucky enough to have great boyfriends." 'D---- it!' she thought. 'I've already learned that it's not a good idea to keep secrets from friends! Why am I not telling her?!' She made a silent vow to tell Rose about her breakup the next time that it wouldn't seem too weird.

"Speaking of last night and boyfriends, what happened after Joe and I went up? And speaking of Joe and I going up...Have you and John had your first kiss yet? I mean, you two have been going out a lot longer than Joe and I," Rose asked. 'Now, I guess...' Dea thought.

"Nothing really happened last night. Marco and Olivia left at about midnight, and John and I...John left soon after," Dea said.

“Alright, alright, I get it. You’re not one to ‘kiss and tell,’” Rose teased. “But if you won’t share…I will. I’ll tell you about it after the task,” she added, grinning.
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The two girls arrived on the grounds to see a large enclosure surrounded by bleachers. They climbed up the seats to where the rest of their group was sitting. They all greeted each other and when asked why she slept so late, Dea pretended she had not heard.

"What do you think the task is going to be?" she asked one of the times she was asked this question ("You know, for someone who usually wakes at five o' clock every morning (which, by the way, is very annoying), noon is a little late to sleep in, don't you think? Why so late, Dea?" Lila had said, looking at Dea curiously.) Everyone answered with differing opinions, some saying that the champions would have to retrieve something and some saying that they would have to perform some complicated string of spells. The only person who did not give their prediction on the task was was Joe, who was looking off into the sky with a smile on his face and a strange twinkle in his eye.

"Joe?" Rose called, amused. "You okay, sweetie?" Joe started at hearing his name and turned bright pink at being called "sweetie" by Rose.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he replied, somewhat discombobulated. Rose gave a small giggle and scooted closer to her new boyfriend.

"Joey, darlin', you don't have to be so stiff about it," she said with laughter in her eyes. "I've already told everyone here what happened. That's just the way girls work," she added, shrugging, at his startled expression.

"Er..." he "replied."

"Hey, it's okay, you're among friends! You don't have to pretend you weren't thinking Rose just then, with that little smile on your face," Jennie teased him.

"Well, I - I -" he stuttered, trying to come up with something to say.

"Niiiiice comeback!" Dea said. Everyone laughed while Joe glared at her. "Payback. I can keep a grudge."

"Payback for what??" Joe cried.

"You know, I can't really remember why I was mad at you..." she said slowly, faking thinking about it, "Oh well! I know you did something, so I might as well get revenge," she said cheerily, with a large grin on her face. However, the grin faded very quickly when she looked down at the grounds.

"Hey look, it's John! I'll call him up. Maybe he'll disclose what happened last night," Rose said, looking down to see what Dea was looking at. She started to stand up to get his attention so he would come up and sit with them, but Dea grabbed her arm to stop her.

"What?" Rose asked.

Uh-oh. Time to improvise. "He spends too much time with us, he should hang out with his other friends some," she said, desperately using the first thought that popped into her head.

"Okay..." Rose said, stretching out the "ay" and squinting at Dea questioningly. Dea gulped and ignored this, looking back down at John. She could feel a tear rising in her eye, but she blinked it away and it didn't come back, which was how crying usually worked for her. She took a deep breath and faked a smile, looking around at her friends, all of whom were looking at her as though worried about her.

"SO..." she said, pretending to be just as happy as always. "I really hope that Marco wins this task, don't you guys?" Lila was the first to stop giving her that look, and the first to realize that Dea didn't want to talk about it. She spoke hesitantly after putting her hand over the mouth of Jennie, who was about to ask if Dea and John had had a fight.

"Yeah, but even if he doesn't, he still has just as much chance of winning. In fact, from what I've heard about the Triwizard Tournament that took place three years ago, the first two tasks mean nothing except for how late you get to start in the third task. Although I suppose this year's task will be different from that one. I'm surprised that they're having it at Hogwarts again. Usually they would have it at Durmstrang this year," she said, trying to distract everyone from the topic of Dea's relationship.

"I'm sure that there was some reason that they couldn't have it there. Then good ol' Dumbledore probably offered up our humble abode to hold the event - He wouldn't care that it took place here last time. And I'm sure it won't be too different this time. Probably just the actual tasks. And I'm willing to bet anything that the third task is exactly the same - from the outside at least, only the champions know what's inside," Rose said, catching on.

"What could need a cage that big?" Lane wondered, pointing at a huge cage at the edge of the enclosure that none of the others had noticed before.

"Whoa!!" Dea exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the cage. "That's ginormous!!! How did I not notice that before??"

"I didn't notice it either! That is huge!" Joe cried. "I can't think of anything that big, except maybe..." He trailed off.

"Except maybe...what?" Jennie asked him excitedly.

"Well...There's this really really REALLY rare creature, you probably haven't heard of it, it's called a - " Joe was cut off by a roar from the "ginormous" cage as the first champion walked into the enclosure - the Beauxbatons champion, a small, dark-skinned girl named Clarisse Moreau. The cage door was blasted open by a wizard standing just outside the enclosure. And from the cage emerged -

"What is that?? It's tiny!" Lila exclaimed.

"Uh-oh..." Joe muttered. "I was right..."

"You were right?? But that thing is tiny! It couldn't do any harm!!" Jennie cried.

"You'd be surprised," Joe said solemnly, a grim look on his face.

"What does it do?" Rose asked incredulously.

"You'll see," Joe replied.

Dea was leaning very far over the seat, enraptured by what was occurring below. What was happening was this:

Clarisse Moreau was walking slowly up to the creature, which Joe called an Absconditus. She was looking at it as though very confused. She kept her distance from it, even though it was surely completely harmless. It was minuscule; the size of a small puppy, and its huge eyes gave it a very innocent appeal. It had soft white fur and a quivering nose. It looked a little like a rabbit, only with Cindy-Lou Who's antennae instead of long ears, more round than a rabbit, and it stood on two feet. Clarisse walked around the Absconditus very carefully, watching it warily. She got around behind it, and reached out her hand. The creature was watching her with a small smile on its face, its head cocked. When her hand reached the small box behind it, the antennaed rabbit’s smile disappeared immediately. As soon as Clarisse touched the box, the Absconditus grew to a size more than twice as big as dragon – it seemed amazing that the creature fit in the large cage. It took less than a second for the transformation to occur, and Clarisse stood in awe, staring at the giant creature roaring at her. She seemed frozen in shock. The creature abruptly stopped roaring and also froze, staring right back at Clarisse. The two stood for a moment, staring straight into each other’s eyes. All of a sudden, Clarisse opened her mouth as though screaming, although for a while, nothing came out. Then she began screaming. It was a blood-curdling, piercing scream which sent shivers up the spine of every member of the audience. The monster was not touching her, was doing nothing to her, but she seemed in extreme pain. She held her high shriek for nearly two whole minutes, until she stopped just as abruptly as she had begun, swayed little, and crumpled to the ground.
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[url=http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23534]
Yes, I know I mentioned Cindy-Lou Who, from How The Grinch Stole Christmas. And I mean the Cindy-Lou Who in the original movie, not in the book or in the Jim Carey remake.

Please leave feedback!!!! I know it's been a while since I posted last, but that's more reason to post feedback (I don't really know how, but oh well)!!!!!!![/url]