Secrets and Lies

Ginny ran back to Hogwarts after Matthew, but she failed to notice Megan or Harry. Nor did she notice Colin Creevey, who spun around to try and follow her but instead crashed into the mud.

And so poor Colin Creevey found himself face down in the dirt. His camera was probably broken, his forehead was bleeding slightly and he was covered from head to toe in the mud. For a long time he just lay there with the horrible feeling that if he got up things would only get worse.

Life was not good for Colin. His best friend, Dennis, had started hanging around with people his own age, which left Colin suddenly friendless. The boys in his dormitory weren't exactly sympathetic about it either. But Colin had thought everything would be alright because Ginny, who had always been so nice to him, would still be his friend. But she was more interested in Harry.

Harry. He had been the unknowing object of Colin's affections for so long, but Colin had lately found himself more and more drawn towards Ginny. So here he was, lying in the mud torn between his eternal love for Ginny Weasley and his crush on Harry Potter.

This was how Romilda Vane found him. At first Colin assumed it was someone there to laugh at his unfortunate predicament.

"Are you alright Colin?" she asked. Colin tried to shake his head, but found that that only furthered the spread of mud across his face. Suddenly he felt someone grabbing his shoulders and trying to pull him up. Sadly she lacked the strength to haul Colin to his feet by herself, so she wound up in the mud beside him.

"Are you alright?" he asked, raising his head.

"I've been better," Romilda replied, examining her ruined cloak. "Shall we help each other up?" Colin nodded, and then scrambled onto his knees. Then Romilda grabbed his shoulders to steady herself as she rose to her feet, but she only got halfway there.

Colin swore loudly and more viciously than he'd ever done before as Romilda slipped and came crashing down on top of him. Just as Colin thought things couldn't get any worse, he noticed the boys from his dormitory coming towards him, while he lay in the mud with a girl on top of him.

"Romilda, we have to get up!" Colin hissed. "The boys from our year are coming this way!"

"Let them come, I'm fine right here," Romilda said raising her eyebrows. Then she leant over to kiss him.

"My first kiss!" Colin thought frantically. "Well... my first kiss with a girl," he added, remembering that fateful night with Anthony Goldstein. And to tell the truth it wasn't that bad... as a matter of fact she was a much better kisser than Anthony.

Just as he was thinking that he could very much get used to this, Romilda drew back, and clambered off him. Then, with a lot more grace than she'd displayed a moment ago, she rose to her feet.

"Shall we?" she asked, extending her hand. Colin scrambled to his feet, and clasped her hand in his. Then they walked past their fellow Gryffindors, who were staring at them open mouthed. Colin tried not to give a rude sign at them... he really tried.

Even if he didn't try that hard.

###

Draco found himself hiding just around the corner from where he knew the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room to be. The problem was that the Marauder's Map didn't recognise the passwords for the various Common Rooms, even though it displayed clearly what was going on inside them. Draco found himself pondering the reason for this when Zabini and Pansy arrived outside the entrance, laughing. Apparently Pansy had a taste for gorgeous Slytherins.

Well, he'd earlier concluded that it was only he and Zabini.

"Polyjuice Potion," Zabini said, and suddenly a door sprang out from what had been before a completely bare wall. Pansy and Zabini walked through the door, and Draco took his chance by ducking in the door behind him.

"Hello my fellow Slytherins!" Draco shouted out. Sadly the grand entrance he'd planned was ruined by Zabini, who had always been a bit jittery, turning around to curse whatever was shouting behind him. Draco only just dodged out of the way of a jet of green light.

"WHAT IN THE BLAZES ARE YOU DOING?" Draco roared. "I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED YOU IDIOT!" Draco was only stopped from launching himself at Zabini by a Slytherin girl leaping straight at him and hugging him tightly.

"Draco!" Pansy sobbed. "We thought you were dead." Pansy continued sobbing into Draco's chest. This subdued Draco's attitude, as well as serving to visibly unsettle Zabini.

Whenever Pansy had calmed down slightly the three made their way through a crowd of gathered Slytherins. Several reached out to shake Draco's hand and pat his back. Draco could make out several familiar faces. There was Nott, whose father was a Death Eater, looking deathly pale. There were Millicent and Daphne, who were watching him with mild interest. And finally there were Crabbe and Goyle, who looked as lost as ever.

"Harper, get us some Firewhiskey," Zabini snapped at the tiny Slytherin. He squeaked, before disappearing into the dormitories. Zabini, Pansy and Draco took up the best seats beside the fire. Moments later Harper returned with a bottle of Firewhiskey and several glasses. Draco didn't notice because he was more transfixed on Crabbe and Goyle, who were standing over him with odd looks on their faces.

"DRACO!" they both hollered at once. Then Draco suddenly felt himself being lifted off the seat and crushed between the two large Slytherins, who were crying rather a lot.

"Crabbe...Goyle... You're choking me," Draco gasped. The two gorillas eventually set him down, and Draco took a moment to catch his breath before accepting the drink Zabini was offering him. He took it, before shooting a look at Harper, as if to say his presence wasn't wanted.

Harper scrambled over a series of chairs to the far corner of the room, where he merely sat and stared at Draco. Draco scowled and glanced around the room, where everyone was pretending not to be interested in what was happening beside the fire, when really they were all casting glances over that direction every few seconds.

"So where have you been?" Zabini asked, settling into his role of top dog. It was an unwritten rule of the Slytherin house that the seventh year with the most respected family was in charge of the Common Room. This basically meant that the seventh years got the best seats in the Common Room, and generally would boss a couple of the younger Slytherins (like Harper) around a bit. In Draco's absence, Zabini was obviously in charge... and Pansy was all over him.

"I've been hiding," Draco told him. "In Gryffindor," he added. Zabini blinked at him.

"I thought there was something odd about that Matthew Baird one," Zabini said, as if it was a completely unrelated topic. "He's got a shady past if you ask me."

"I didn't," Draco replied with a grin. "I've been taking Polyjuice Potion that Slughorn has been providing, the only problem is that my hipflask... ran out," he finished lamely. Pansy giggled, before leaning over to whisper something in Zabini's ear. Zabini smirked at him.

"I am reliably informed that you had a date today," Zabini said. "Is it perhaps that you were so nervous about your date that you forgot to bring enough of the potion?"

"It wasn't a date," Draco replied calmly, determined not to rise to Zabini's bait. "Anyway, I took special care to refill my hipflask... I merely misplaced it."

"As long as you didn't drop it while you were kissing her," Zabini tried to say offhandedly, but Draco could see he was more interested in gauging Draco's answer.

"This is all irrelevant," Draco said, giving Zabini none of the reaction he was looking for. "The point is that I need to stay here for a while... at least until I can get someone to fetch my potion."

"So, the great Draco Malfoy needs humble Blaise's help?" Zabini asked with a smirk, although he was clearly disappointed Draco hadn't risen to his bait. "Well, he shall have to ask more politely if he wishes to stay here." Zabini leaned back and placed his arms behind his head. Draco's hand brushed over his wand for a second.

"Zabini, did you have an accident?" Draco asked with an even bigger smirk than Zabini's. Zabini looked down at his robes, where a large wet patch appeared.

"Don't worry Blaise it happens to me all the time!" Goyle cried out. "It's alright. You can't control yourself!" Zabini swore loudly, before jumping up and running out of the room. As soon as he was gone the entire Common Room erupted into laughter. Draco helped himself to more Firewhiskey.

###

Harry was furious, and he had every right to be. Only a few hours ago he'd seen his girlfriend kissing his roommate. Then whenever Harry tried to talk to her she ran from him. Harry had turned around and Megan had disappeared as well. So Harry had stormed up to the castle.

Now he was trying to find Ginny, but she didn't seem to be anywhere. He'd asked Lavender to check the girls' dormitories, but according to her there was no one up there. He'd checked his own dormitories for Matthew but he wasn't there either. Normally he would have gone straight for the Marauder's Map, but he'd given it to Hermione and she was in Hogsmeade with Ron.

So Harry decided to go survey the school alone. Of course Hogwarts is a big place, and his search was made even more difficult due to most of the castle was opposed to staying still for long periods of time.

Seven angry couples, four shouting fits from teachers and one visit to Moaning Myrtles bathroom (she remained convinced that he had attempted to murder Draco Malfoy a year and a half earlier, so she did a lot of screaming) Harry was walking down the Charms' corridor, fully convinced that his search was useless whenever he heard sobbing from one of the broom cupboards. Thinking it was Ginny, he threw open the door.

"Oh," he said. "Hi Katie, I thought it was Ginny."

"It's Megan!" the girl sobbed at him. "You were talking to me like three hours ago!"

"Sorry," Harry mumbled. He was about to turn to leave when curiosity got the better of him. "Why are you crying?" Megan gave a loud false laugh.

"I believe I told you this three hours and five minutes ago," she replied. "Perfect Ginny Weasley, who all the boys want to kiss. Nobody cares about poor little Megan." She glared at him. "And you are the worst of all. You can't even get my name right."

"I know your name, it's Miranda," Harry said with a grin. Megan looked like she was just deciding whether to kill him or herself when he added, "It was a joke. You're Megan."

"Well it wasn't a very good joke was it?" she hissed.

"So what, are you just going to sit in a broom cupboard all day crying?" he asked.

"I can think of a lot worse things to do right now."

"Like what?"

Megan stared at him through narrowed eyes for a moment. "I could be talking to Ginny," she said coldly.

"Why would that be so bad?" Harry asked trying to sound casual. He had a sneaking suspicion he failed.

"She's gone too far this time," Megan growled. "I'm sick of spending my life in Ginny's shadow. All my life the boys saw straight through me to her. Colin... Seamus... You... Malfoy..."

"Malfoy?" Harry interrupted. "What about Malfoy?" Megan's eyes suddenly widened, as if she'd said something she shouldn't have.

"Nothing," she muttered, looking away from him. "It's just... he's always shown a lot more interest in Ginny than me... and I was hoping..."

"Is Malfoy here?" Harry demanded, pointing downwards. "Is he in this school? Right now?"

"I think he left."

"Oh?"

"I don't think he wants you to know."

"Really?" Harry snapped. Then a thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Is there any connection with Matthew and Malfoy?" Megan refused to meet his gaze.

"No."

"You mentioned me in that little rant," Harry pointed out. "Any particular reason for that?"

"Oh come on Potter. You know half the school fancies you. And not all that half is female." She smiled. "Ginny and I used to talk about it..." she trailed off and stared at the side of the cupboard.

"So Ginny then?" Harry said, raising an eyebrow. "She kissed Matthew, but she wouldn't want me kissing another girl would she?" He grinned. "And you want to kiss me?"

"Maybe a little," Megan replied with a sly smile.

"Only a little," he whispered. He gently leaned forward into her and was about to take his lips in hers when he felt something move suddenly up his leg.

And then there was pain.

"Ginny is still my friend!" Megan spat at him. "And I would never do anything to compromise our friendship!" She stormed off, leaving him there in the corridor, clutching the unfortunate source of pain.

"Bitch," he mumbled after her.