When all of the classes are finally out, I head to the Great Hall for dinner with Malfoy and Crabbe. We reach the open doors and I suddenly exclaim, “Oh! I left my cauldron cakes in Professor Snape’s dungeon. I’ll be back soon.”

Malfoy rolls his eyes. “Goyle, you big fat prune, we’re fixing to eat.”

I shrug. “But I want them now.”

“Fine, go, but don’t be gone for too long. I need to talk to you about our next ... job.”

I nod, and they walk of. I head over to the dungeons and then duck underneath the stairs. All is dark, and I wait. There is a slight tug at my sleeve and I turn. My eyes are starting to adjust to the overwhelming blackness and I see a small outline. “Janie?”

She wraps her arms around me and I can’t help but to feel right.

“How are you?” she whispers, and before she can say anything else, I kiss her.

I pull back, and shock was etched all through my face. I’m sure it was on hers, too. It was our first kiss, and I didn’t mean to do it.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I .. it was an accident.”

I hear sarcasm come into her voice. “What, did you trip and accidentally fall on my lips?”

I open my mouth to speak again, but before I even notice, she kisses me. It is short, but I like it, so I hug her again.

I can tell she’s smiling, and she talks again after a couple of moments. “Did you have anything particular you needed to talk to me about, Greg?”

She knows that Draco dislikes her, but I want to tell her about how awful he’s been lately. She will get bothered by it, though, so I keep my mouth closed. I also want to tell her about our potential job we have coming, but she knows nothing about my life outside of Hogwarts. She can’t.

Finally, I shake my head ‘no.’ “I just wanted to see you.”

“Tomorrow we’ll have been together two months,” she points out. “And still no one knows, except Crabbe and Malfoy.”

I think she’s hinting at wanting to tell people. To get off the subject, I say, “I have a surprise for you.”

“Really? What?”

“I’ll give it to you tomorrow, all right?” I ask.

“Fine,” she sighs jokingly.

We know we both need to go to dinner, so I leave first. I pull a pack of cauldron cakes out of my robes and go to sit at the Slytherin table.

Fifteen minutes later, Janie walks in. Malfoy watches her as she sits at the Ravenclaw table. He turns to me. “I don’t want to hear about it. Tomorrow, we need to leave after lunch. He needs us.”

I protest. “I can’t! Tomorrow is-”

“Tomorrow is when we’re leaving,” Draco finishes my sentence. “So what ever you have planned, I don’t care. This is more important.”

The bench suddenly feels uncomfortable. I stand up. “I’m going to the common room. I’ll see you guys later.”

I hope that Janie will see me leave and follow. I made it to our house without any tugs on my sleeve, though, so I go to my dorm and open my bag. I scribble down a note for Janie, send it out with Crabbe’s owl, and lay down to think about her some.