I thought it would feel great to be getting out of the castle and into Hogsmeade for the first time this school year. After getting past the barrier of Filch checking our names off the list and jabbing us extra-good with the Secrecy Sensor, we were allowed to enter the village. There was sleet falling outside and the cold and wind immediately made my eyes sting and my face numb, making me think this wouldn't be so great after all.

The village had changed a lot. A few shops had been closed down, including Zonko's joke shop. It wasn't unlike Diagon Alley.

I went into the Three Broomsticks, hoping it wasn't overcrowded. I knew it was destined to be, however, because everybody wanted to warm up. But the thought of warm butterbeer led me onward towards the pub.

I was about to find an empty table when I heard someone call my name. I looked around and saw, much to my surprise, Dora. She was walked right towards me, smiling for once.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi! Hey, follow me. I have a table."

I followed her to an empty table and we ordered our butterbeers. Immediately I noticed that she seemed much happier than the last time I saw her. Only now, her hair was totally brown.

"Dora," I said, "have you been able to change your appearance lately?"

She sighed and said, "No. I've tried, I really have, but ... nothing. Well, how have things been?"

I stared into my butterbeer and swirled it around with a stirrer. Without looking at her, I said, "Okay. I've been in detention a lot."

"With Snape?"

"Yes," I said with shame. "I keep blowing up at him."

"It's okay. You're going through a difficult time. We all are."

I continued to stir my butterbeer as I said, "So ... anything new with you? Has Remus - I mean, have you talked to him at all?"

I looked up at her and saw sadness in her face and immediately regretted mentioning him.

"No," she said. "I tried to talk to him again, but ... " She didn't say anything else. I quickly changed the subject.

"So uh ... the Order? How are things with them?"

She sighed again. "Well, Remus is working underground with a bunch of other werewolves ... "

Well, I'd tried to change the subject.

"Well ... er ... then how are things at home? Have you visited Andromeda and Ted?"

"A bit," she said. "Things are as normal as can be."

I took a sip of my butterbeer when the door to the pub opened and Theodore Nott came in. I had no idea what happened next but I was gripped by some weird, sudden urge to rush out the door into the cold, so I said, "Dora, I have to go."

She looked at me, alarm in her face. "Why?"

"I just do," I said. "I told ... uh, Hermione that I would meet her at Honeydukes."

She gave me a perplexed look but didn't argue when I stood up, said, "Thanks for buying my butterbeer," and rushed out the door.

Once outside, I found myself blushing hotly in the cold wind. Why had I acted like that? It was total lunacy. I thought nothing of Theodore Nott, the arrogant Slytherin (although maybe not as arrogant as Draco Malfoy).

But my mind drifted back to my encounter with him the other night. He had said he felt connected to me. It was probably true. I didn't always fit in as a Gryffindor, no matter what I insisted. And he didn't belong in Slytherin. We both had Death Eaters for parents ...

That didn't mean anything, though. None of it did. We were two separate people with completely different lives.

As I thought about these things over and over, I found myself walking down the High Street and toward the Shrieking Shack. I leaned over the fence and stared at it, thinking about what had happened there not so long ago ...

"There she is!" I heard. I turned around. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle behind him, were coming toward me. Crabbe and Goyle laughed, but Malfoy looked stern.

"What do you want?" I asked coldly, but beneath it was obvious exasperation.

"I want to know what's between you and Nott," Malfoy demanded.

I felt myself growing hot with embarrassment again, but I said, "There's nothing going on between us."

"Well, he told me he met you on the grounds the other night. I just want you to know that there better not be anything going on, because everybody knows Gryffindors and Slytherins don't mix."

"He ... he told you?" I asked. At that moment, any feelings I had were replaced by disappointment. I had trusted him not to say a thing.

"Yeah," Malfoy said. "Well ... actually I forced him to tell me once he got back to the dormitory. He didn't exactly want to."

"Oh," I said, feeling slightly more pleased. "Well, in that case - "

"I have to go," Malfoy interrupted. "Important business. Remember what I said. Anyway, must go ... but I'll have some fun first. Petrificus Totalus!"

I fell to the ground, immobilized as Malfoy laughed and stalked off. I cursed in my head. I was completely helpless. There was no way I could get myself out of this one. I was stuck until someone came along and assisted me.

I lay there pathetically in the cold. I felt my body going numb and my eyes streaming from the wind. How long had I been there?

It seemed too soon that I heard the voice - all-too-familiar - say, "Who did this?"

The person moved closer. Of course - Theodore Nott. My stomach lurched and my face burned. Did he have to be the one to find me like this?

He muttered the countercurse under his breath before repeating his question.

"Malfoy," I muttered, sitting up and looking away, trying to hide my face. "He thought he'd have some fun."

"Here," he said. I looked over and saw that he was offering his hand. I took it (feeling more embarrassed) and said, "You don't have to help me."

He pulled me to my feet and said, "Don't worry about it. Come with me."

He began to walk me to the Three Broomsticks. He opened the door and found an empty table for us in the back. I didn't see Dora anywhere, so I assumed she had left. That was good; I really didn't want her to see me like this. I sat down, my face still red from cold and embarrassment as Nott ordered each of us a butterbeer.

"So," he said, "what were you doing talking to Draco Malfoy?"

"I wasn't," I told him. "He just came over and attacked me."

He rolled his eyes. "Sounds like him."

"I don't understand how you can be friends with someone like that," I said.

"Friends?" he asked. "We're not friends, we just share a dormitory."

"Then what about that day in Potions?" I asked. "You seem like you're friends."

"We're just acquaintances," he said, shrugging. "I don't know why it matters, anyway. Lately he's been hiding something. I don't know what it is. He refuses to talk about it."

"Well, he's not the only one who hides things from certain people," I said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm still confused," I replied. "I still don't get why you told me all that stuff the other day. It's hard to believe I'm the only one who knows any of it."

He shrugged again. "You were the right person to tell."

"How can you be so casual about it?" I exclaimed furiously. "Becoming a - " I lowered my voice to a whisper - "Death Eater is serious business! Besides, you don't even know me, so why would you tell me your darkest secret?"

"I know about you," he said. "I know who you are. I know you're drawn to trouble. That, or trouble always finds you."

"Yes," I said, blushing scarlet and forgetting everything else. "Why is it that every time you find me, I'm in some sort of stupid, humiliating predicament?"

"Why does it matter to you?" he asked casually. "You don't like me, do you?"

I didn't answer.

"Are you finished with that?" he asked, motioning at my half-empty butterbeer.

"Yes," I answered. "Er ... thanks for buying it."

I sat up and hurried out of the pub, wanting nothing more than to leave at that moment. However, the overcrowded tables made that a difficult task.

"Wait," I heard Nott say. "Lyra, wait!"

I was just outside the door when he grabbed me and turned me around. He said, "Why did you run off like that?"

"I wanted to ... go to Honeydukes," I said, thinking of the first excuse that came to mind. "I hear they have Deluxe Sugar Quills now."

He smiled smugly at me. "Deluxe Sugar Quills, eh? Guess I can't compete with that."

He raised an eyebrow, and I said, "What do you want?"

Continuing to give me that mocking look, he said, "I'm no Hermione Granger, Lyra, but it doesn't really take a genius to figure out what's going on."

"What, then? What's going on?" I was getting angrier by the second.

"All right, listen. Like I've said before, I feel we have a lot of similarities. A connection. And I think, unless I'm much mistaken, that you're feeling a connection too."

I gaped at him. "That is not ... that's not ... I don't ... you must be much mistaken, then! How can you think ... ?"

He raised his eyebrow again, and I was forced to admit to myself that it was true for the first time: I was totally falling for him.

"Then what do you want?" I snarled.

His face lost the smug look. "Well, I'll be straightforward. Would you like to come with me to Hogsmeade on the next trip? We could go on another date."

"Another? Another? We haven't been on a date, you idiot!"

"Sure we have. Just now."

"That was not a date!"

He gave me that smile again, causing me to secretly admit defeat. Did he always have to be right? As he continued to give me that look, I stared at the ground and thought. Did I want him? Well, sure. I'd just told myself that much. Did he want me? Well, he wasn't exactly being elusive. So why was I so determined to fight against what I felt?

The answer came to me: because of who I was. All my life I was so convinced that I would never be able to have a boyfriend. The fact that I could now hadn't crossed my mind at all since my identity revelation because so many other things had taken place.

But the fact that I could now scared me. I'd hardly even been noticed before, let alone asked out. And he was a Slytherin on top of being good-looking and fairly well-known, despite being a loner.

What did it matter? This was my chance.

"So?" Nott asked. "It's a simple yes or no question." For once, he sounded serious, not casual or smug. He really wanted an answer, so ...

I looked up at him and forced out the words: "Okay. I'll go to Hogsmeade with you next trip." After all, it wasn't for a few weeks, so I could put it to the back of my mind until the time came.

"Great!" he said, looking truly happy. "So, uh ... Deluxe Sugar Quills? Shall we go to Honeydukes?"

Well, I guess there was still this Hogsmeade trip to finish. I had just agreed, so there was no way out.

I walked next to him down the street awkwardly and somewhat reluctantly. Immediately I regretted ever agreeing to go out with him. After all, every bond I had shared with someone ended up in heartbreak and depression. Sirius was dead, Dora was out of it, and things were only growing worse. It seemed I always lost everyone I loved.

Maybe going out with Theodore wasn't such a great idea. But it was too late to take it back.