"Smart and handsome; you're the perfect package Lupin."

"You know," he remarked casually, reaching out for his glass, "normally a girl would appreciate such an offer, especially from her crush." Fuck.

"Tell me the truth," he said quietly, standing in front of me and carefully looping his scarf around my neck. He peered down at me, meeting my eyes head on and I swallowed nervously at the blatant fear in his eyes, "are you ill?" "No," I whispered truthfully.

"You should probably get going then," he said with a sigh, leaning back against the pillow. "Merlin knows you're the only thing keeping me insane in this hospital wing." There were identical shouts of protest from the other three Gryffindors in the hospital wing.

"Blaise?" Draco called out to the boy who walked into the common room. At the call of his name, Blaise made his way towards the sofas. "Why does Pucey want to hex you? What happened during your detention." "We got another one," he announced casually, tucking his hands into his pockets, "because Pucey couldn't keep her hands to herself."

"If only you weren't a Potter," he said part teasing, part serious as he pressed his forehead to mine, "we could have told everyone about this a long time ago."

"Don't worry Mrs Ward," James said from behind me, "I'll look after her." "Look after me, my foot," I muttered, brushing past him without a second glance. "Who's going to look after you?" "You are, Ward," he said with a grin, finding an empty carriage and entering it.

"Abraxas." The name was enough to send my stomach swooping. Surely, I wasn't – there was no way – "What year is it?" "1944," he answered after a short pause, bringing his wand back to his side and stepping away from me. His features evened out and I could breathe more evenly. "Put away your wand little Malfoy. I have no plans of harming Abraxas' granddaughter."

"Well maybe you need to get better taste in girls," I muttered. "I don't know about that." He reached out to tuck some of my hair behind my ear, fingers brushing against my cheek as he brought his hand back to his side. "I happen to think that I have pretty good taste." Colour rushed to my cheeks and I turned away from him to hide it as I murmured, "Well, you would."

He held out a folded piece of parchment out for me to take, "You dropped this." I took the parchment from him suspiciously. Clearing my throat, I turned to walk away from him. He called out after me, "You've been thrown away by your family too, huh?" I looked back to him, steps slowing as I spoke quietly, "You read it."

"I'm going to need you to be a bit more specific," he said slowly, sounding very confused. Narrowing my eyes at him, I asked slowly so he'd understand, "You rejected me, right? So why on earth are you chasing after me now?" Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "Do you not want me to?"

When the hell did my feelings for Justin begin to wane and why had I not noticed it? The more important question was, when did those feelings grow for his bloody best friend?

"That," I muttered dryly, "was karma." "Karma?" she frowned, taking a hold of my arm when I turned my attention away from her, "Karma for what?" "I stood him up once," I said plainly, "and now having to deal with him and be so close to him is my bad luck. Hence, karma."

"It doesn't." he confirmed, "Especially when the proposal was brought forward because I asked my parents to arranged it." "Why?" I demanded, in shock as I stepped away from him. "Because I wanted you."

"Fine," he agreed before adding hastily, "The favours can't be anything outrageous – there's a line that they can't cross. And only five favours otherwise you'll be asking for a favour all the time." "You're saying that as if even you think that I'm going to win," I chimed in.

"Maybe I shouldn't have pretended not to remember," he said quietly. "But, really, I knew things would get this awkward if you found out and I don't see why it's such a big deal." "Well it's a big deal to me," I cut in, trying not to seem hurt that my feelings weren't a 'big deal' to him. "Look Harry, what's it going to take for you to forget what I'd said?"

"What do you want?" I demanded, stopping in my step to glare at the younger boy. The shorter boy looked up at me with a small smile; why was he always smiling? "Well?" "I wanted to talk to you about something," he explained. "Since when were we friends?"

"There's something important that I need to tell you." I trailed off slowly, biting my bottom lip. He nodded encouragingly and I decided that it was better to get this over with quickly. So, I took one last deep breath before admitting quietly, "I'm pregnant Fred. Two months along." There was complete and utter silence.

"Why the hell would you make something like that?" I demanded, pulling away from Fred's arms. Running a distressed hand through my hair I whined, "Do you even know what you've done? I'm going to have a 15-year-old chasing after me until this thing wears off."

"You seem to be mistaken," Zabini informed me, straightening up to his full height before he leaned in closer to me. Without realising it I took a step closer to Justin and Zabini's eyes narrowed at the action. Speaking quietly, he asked, "Why in Salazar's name would I bother caring about who you're friends with?"