This chapter is dedicated to Josh Groban. Josh, where ever you are, you make me melt when I hear you sing. Let’s go on a date ;)

Andrea was trying to practice the organizational charm Flitwick had begun teaching them that day in class. She’d dumped out the contents of her school bag on a table in the corner of the Gryffindor common room. The only one who’d ventured coming near her in the past hour was her fairy, Flet, who was zooming about erratically, mirroring how frustrated Andrea was at the moment. She threw her potions book at the wall in frustration.

Some second years studying a short distance away hurriedly picked up their assignments and moved to the far side of the room, worried that things would soon be flying at them in Andrea’s anger.

She hadn’t made any progress in the past hour and a half, and was at her wit's end. “Having a bit of trouble?” someone said behind her.

She turned around to see Neal standing there, a smug look on his face. She glared at him, and he tried to wipe the smirk off his face. “Charms has never been your best subject. Care for a bit of help?” he asked, not a hint of arrogance or rudeness in his voice.

“Actually, yes. I don’t think I can get any worse.”

Neal was a member of the Hogwarts Charms club and had always excelled in the subject. He sat down in the chair next to her.

“Organizational charms won’t work unless you’re in a calm and collected state of mind. You can’t very well be organized on the outside if you aren’t organized on the inside. So, take a couple of deep breaths and try to clear your head. Think of something that you’re really good at, that you can do without thinking to much about its execution.”

Andrea smiled, that was easy enough to think of, flying. She inhaled and exhaled, concentrating on flying. It did help to relax her.

“Now, you don’t want to take on too much at once.” Neal slid all but three of her things to the side, out of the way. “Just concentrate on something small at first.”

One by one, Neal added objects to the pile as Andrea got better and better. An hour later, her school bag was in perfect organization, and she closed the flap, letting out a deep sigh of relief. She and Neal smiled at each other.

“Hey, I was wondering if maybe, since you’re really good at charms, and I’m, well, dismal at times, if-”

“If I could tutor you now and then like I did last year?”

“Er, yeah. You know the tricks and just what to tell me. Flitwick’s a brilliant professor, but I just need a little more coaching than he can give me during class when there are others around he has to help.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’d just appreciate if you could proofread my essays.”

“A galleon’s a galleon,” she smiled.

“All right then. Thursdays?”

“After dinner works.”

“You up for a game of chess?”

“You know I’m terrible!” she joked. The truth is that Neal had never bested her in a game since last February, when she let him win, for his birthday. “Accio Wizard Chess,” she summoned the game set into her hands and they settled over onto the only empty spot around the fire, a couch with a table in front of it. They sat next to each other and began duking it out over the chess board. Between the help Neal gave her with charms, and the chess game, their laughter and their conversation, it seemed as if almost no time had passed since last spring. Andrea was really happy that things were going so well, because the truth was that Neal really was one of her closest friends.

One thing that was actually a benefit now over last year was that she no longer worried about romantic feelings toward him. It relieved so much pressure. Things had always been easy between them, but now it was even more so. Neal noticed as well.

“I like you like this,” he said as their respective pieces set up for another round of chess.

“Like what?”

“Just, like this, just Andrea, no reservations.”

“It’s nice for things to be normal between us,” she smiled. “Knight to E5.”

Pretty soon after that a lot of their fellow Gryffindors went off to their dormitories. Fred and George entered through the portrait hole, behind a large group of first years who had almost assuredly been playing guinea pig to the next Weasley invention. As they walked past, George seemed deep in conversation with Lee over something, but Fred winked and said, “Careful Neal, this one’s got a temper. She’s liable to hit you if you cross her.”

Andrea rolled her eyes but laughed along with Fred and Neal and a couple of people around who’d heard the comment.

By the time they finished their last round of chess, no one else was left in the room with them. Neal turned toward her on the couch. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Go ahead,” she played with the fringe on one of the squishy couch pillows that she’d set on her lap.

“Have you and Malfoy set a date for the wedding yet?”

“Not funny!” she stated through her laughter as she hit him with afore mentioned pillow.

“Ow! Ow! All right, enough!” She stopped hitting him with the pillow and focused her attention on the fire, smiling. “I was only joking. He’s a great prat. You know, he might leave you alone if you weren’t so available.”

“What do you mean. It’s not like I’m walking about with a sign asking for someone to date me.”

“I know you’re not. You’ve never been like that, which is also appealing to most guys. No one wants a girl who is going to follow them about like a new puppy. Guys are just naturally drawn to girls who are independent, and you are. You’re independent and fun, and smart and beautiful.”

Andrea turned her head to look at him, wanting to thank him for the compliment, but was thoroughly surprised to find that his face was right there, and the next moment he was kissing her. She abruptly stood up, breaking the kiss.

“Neal, I can’t do this,” she said.

“Why not? I thought things were going well enough between us.”

“They are, but as friends!”

He stood as well, to face her straight on. “But I thought earlier when you said you liked that things were normal between us that maybe you meant normal as in the way they were last year.”

“No,” she said, tears of frustration beginning to well up in her eyes. “No, I mean normal as in not awkward. There is no way, and I told you that the first night back. I like you as a friend, and you mean a lot to me, but we can never have a relationship that is romantic. I just can’t do that again!”

She ran up the stairs and straight into her room, past Lavender and Parvati who were trying new charms for their hair in front of the mirror, and past Sophie and Hermione who were going over star charts on the couch. She closed the door to the room shut behind her, hopped onto her bed and pulled the curtains closed around her four-poster.

She touched her lips where Neal had just kissed her. If this had happened six months ago, she would have been elated. Now she just wanted to forget the whole thing. She’d been spending a fun evening that had been ruined by one rash moment.

She was very glad that Hermione and Sophie waited to come in, giving her time to fall asleep before they came to bed. Perhaps things would be better in the morning.

~*~*~

Things were much better the next morning. Nothing was resolved, and she still had mountains of homework, and Potions as well as Umbridge to look forward to, but with the new day, her spirits were lifted and she knew she’d be able to handle it all.

Breakfast was normal.

History of Magic was boring as usual. Sophie took notes, Seamus dozed off, and Andrea played a bit of hangman with Dean.

Potions was dreadful, but no more so than any other lesson they’d had with Snape.

Lunch brought an interesting occurrence.

Andrea was sitting at the house table next to Edward and Roderick when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see a Weasley twin, She thought it was George at first, but quickly realized it was Fred.

“Hi Fred,” she said, a bit puzzled at his serious expression, mind you it wasn’t gravely serious, just more serious than most people ever saw on a Trouble Twin's face.

“Can I speak with you privately for a moment?”

“Er, yeah, of course.” She got up and followed him out of the Great Hall and continued to follow him until they were completely out of anyone’s way.

“I wanted to talk to you about George.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Have you noticed anything different about him this year as opposed to last year?”

“Er, I don’t know. Not really I guess, I haven’t spoken to him as much this year as last. You two are always pretty busy with your business it seems, I guess that’s why we haven’t talked as much, not to mention I’m always studying. . .” she realized she was babbling. “Sorry, more information than necessary.”

Fred smiled, “Don’t sweat it. It is like you said, we’re always busy. He’s been a bit different though ever since we left school for the summer holidays though.”

“How so?”

“Well, I couldn’t really figure it out at first. It wasn’t that perceptible, but I’m his twin. I just know when something is different, and like I said, there was a bit of a change about him.”

Andrea nodded and Fred went on.

“So I thought about it for about six weeks, and I realized he must have feelings for a girl.”

“Oh,” Andrea tried to keep her appearance nonchalant and unaffected by this, though she was hoping it was her.

“And do you know who it is?”

“Well, no.”

“Well, I didn’t know either. Of course there was no way to tell who it was during the holiday because the only girl around was Hermione Granger, and I knew it wasn’t her of course; and it wasn’t like he was corresponding by owl with anyone either. So I had to wait until we came back to Hogwarts naturally.”

“Naturally,” Andrea agreed.

“So once we got back I started to observe George and his interactions with all females around us, minus our sister and Hermione. The list started to dwindle, and I whittled it down to just a few people.”

Fred paused, and Andrea merely waited for him to continue.

“Well, eventually, by the end of the first week, I had it down to two people, but in reality I already knew it was you.”

“Me?” Andrea was glad to hear it, but still was floored.

“Yes. The first night in the common room, you went and talked with Neal Thatcher privately in the corner. George, Lee and I were in the middle of a discussion, and when you walked past our table, George looked up, and he kept glancing to where you were sitting with Thatcher. Finally he just got up and stalked off to the dormitory.

“Then,” he plodded on with his evidence, “next morning, he insists that we walk you to class, remember, after we knocked you over. Completely opposite form the direction we needed to go. Nearly got us landed in detention for being late to McGonagall’s class.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Andrea protested. “It was the least you could do for knocking me over.”

“Fine, I can see you aren’t going to buy my evidence. Down to the point, do you fancy my brother?”

“What?”

“Well, I know my brother well enough to know that he likes you, but I don’t know you well enough, and you’re hard to read.”

“Who says you even know your brother well enough? Maybe he’s just different because of something else. I mean, you have different experiences because you aren’t together all of the time. Just look, right now you aren’t together, so he’s having a different experience than you are, which will make him a little bit different than the last time you were with him.”

“No it won’t. And no, he’s not different for some other reason. He’s my twin, I would be the expert about knowing things when it comes to being a twin, not you my dear.”

“You might be surprised,” she mumbled.

“What? Don’t try and change the subject with ludicrous statements. Do you fancy my brother? It’s a simple question.”

“It is a simple question. Let’s say, for the sake of the question, that your assumptions about how your brother feels are correct. Do you think I would actually answer your question?”

“So, you do like him!” Fred said triumphantly.

“I didn’t give you an answer, and I don’t plan on it. You have no business asking me.”

“The fact that you won’t answer tells me everything, and it is my business because he is my twin.”

“I won’t answer because if I do like him, you don’t need to know. If I don’t like him, you especially don’t need to know. Feelings between me and George are between me and George. It’s not between you, me and George.”

Fred still had a smug look on his face, though he said, “Don’t tell me if you don’t want to, but you don’t need to, I have my information.”

“Good, because I need to get to finishing my Arithmancy for next hour. To satisfy your curiosity, I would venture to guess that George and I are only friends and that things aren’t likely to change. Make of it what you will.”

She left Fred, who still had a smug look on his face, and she hoped that she had been able to say something that wasn’t stupid. She didn’t know whether or not she really wanted Fred to know the truth. And did George really like her?

“Andrea!” someone called as she walked past the Great Hall. “Do you know where I can find my twin?” It was George, smiling as he strode towards her. “He looks like me in just about every way, though he’s not quite as smart,” Andrea laughed at this. “I heard that he was with you.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. I think he’s down that way, if he’s still in the place we were talking.”

“Was he pestering you?”

“Actually, yes, a bit,” she laughed.

“Did you punch him?” George asked excitedly.

“No! You’re never going to forget I hit Potter, are you?” she groaned.

“The chances are slim to none. What was he pestering you about?”

“Oh, well, er,” she didn’t really know what to say.

“Come on, just tell me.”

“Well, the topic of conversation was that you and I evidently have feelings for each other, or at least we do according to Fred,” she explained all of this very quickly.

George just looked at her for a moment. Then he laughed, “He’s a bit mental that one, like I said, not quite as smart as me.”

“I told him he was off the mark, that we’re only friends,” she smiled. She was disappointed that he didn’t appear to fancy her in any way, but she still enjoyed him and he always made her smile. “I’ve got to get to the library though, last minute Arithmancy.”

“Good luck on that,” he called as she turned and made her way up the stairs.

Sitting in the library, she couldn’t really concentrate on her assignment until she thought about what had just happened. She didn’t know quite what to think at first. So George didn’t like her, but it was evident that Fred absolutely was positive that he did. She looked around the library, and then gasped when she saw Neal coming into the library. She quickly put her head down and sunk lower into her chair, hoping that he wouldn’t see her. She wasn’t quite ready to speak to him yet.

He didn’t seem to notice her. Seeing Neal did make her contemplate a bit more though. Did she even want a relationship after everything that had happened, and was still happening, with Neal? No. Not right now. Perhaps George not liking her was the best thing for the time being. Perhaps the best thing right now was just to have a harmless little crush on George Weasley and nothing more. It would be nice and drama free. After all, she had other boys to worry about, Neal, Draco, and Harry to be exact. Andrea had no sisters, but she did have a cousin about four years older than herself that she was close to. She would write to Penelope and ask her for a bit of advice. First, however, she would finish her Arithmancy.

~*~*~

“Fred, what’s in your head? Talking to Andrea about us liking each other! It’s absurd!”

“No, I’m afraid it’s quite obvious that you do like each other, dear brother.”

“Well, it’s news to me,” George shrugged. He and Fred both let the subject drop. Did he like Andrea? She was beautiful, no doubt about that. She was also smart and interesting to talk to. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least intrigued by her. He had been intrigued ever since the last of term the previous year. But did he actually fancy her?