Hogwarts was a magical place during Christmastime, and this is exactly why Angelina was one of the few students who had chosen to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays. She had never had this much free time in the castle, she still wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do with it all. She figured she could catch up on homework, and hang out with her friend Wenda, they could explore the castle together. However, there really wasn't all that much homework and Wenda would have really loved to go home and was kind of depressing to be around right now. Her parents were in Germany for the Christmas season. Angelina couldn't believe her parents would want to spend Christmas without her, but she didn't ask too many questions when very little information was offered up.
Angelina sat in front of the roaring fire in Gryffindor Common Room. She started to doze off as she stared in the flame when she felt a warm hand squeeze her shoulder.
Please don't let it be Lee, she silently pleaded. He had been pestering her since the beginning of the semester and it was driving her mental, trying to get her to try Fred and George's new products. While they were fun to watch the effects of she wasn't so sure about putting herself through them. And it wasn't Lee Jordan.
"Hey Ange," the voice of Saverio said quietly from right behind her ear. "How many students, total, do you think are in Hogwarts right now?"
"At least thirty, maybe more," she answered.
"Fifteen, twenty tops," he countered. "What do you say, you and I do a bit of… exploring?" he suggested, seductively into her ear. While Angelina did want to explore the castle, she was pretty sure that Saverio had a bit of a different idea of exploring than her.
"Can't, promised I would meet Wenda at," she looked down at her wrist, thankfully she was actually wearing a watch, "well, what do you know, I'm late," she lied and went bolting to the portrait hole, stealing a quick glance back to see a very disgruntled looking Saverio.
"Well that rules that out," Wenda sighed. She and Angelina were sitting in the library, Wenda trying to come up with different relatives she could go visit and devising schemes to get there. Angelina was pretending to help, but really she was driving her mad. She had been grateful for the escape from Saverio, but now she was starting to think that even "exploring the castle" with Saverio would have been better than this.
"Urgh, I know this is stupid and pointless and I'm wallowing, let's just go play some Quidditch."
"Since when has Quidditch ever interested you, Wenda?" Angelina asked, quite surprised, though her heart leaping dramatically at the thought of actually getting to do something fun with Wenda.
"Um, well, it's not like one of my main interests or anything but I was thinking, maybe you could teach me some stuff?" Wenda asked hopefully.
"Of course."
"Well, it's settled then," Wenda stated, "We'll play at about twelve?"
"Um, Wenda…" Angelina said looking at her watch. "It's twelve now and I'm getting a bit peckish, why don't we grab so lunch first?"
The friends made their way down the stairs to the Great Hall, Angelina trying to teach Wenda what she could about Quidditch before she got on the pitch when she literally ran into a bloke she wanted to see even less than Saverio, Marcus Flint.
"Bloody hell," Angelina muttered as she recovered from the blow, thankful that she had least managed to stay on her feet.
"Watch your language little girl, I don't think Gryffindors are allowed to swear," he guffawed.
"Oh piss off," she told him glaring at him before attempting to stalk around him and continue on her way before he got her into trouble.
"Not so fast," he stepped to the side to move in front of her, blocking her way. "I don' think we're done here, you see I was ju-"
"Hey!" A voice said from behind Flint and his gang of Slytherin friends, cutting him off.
"What do you want Weasleys?" he Flint asked, turning around to face none other than Fred and George Weasley.
"What do we want?" Fred repeated.
"Well, to crush your head in of course," George answered.
"But you most likely were wonder what we are actually planning on doing," Fred corrected him.
Flint made a sort of growling noise and glared at him.
"We're here to escort these fine young ladies to lunch," George returned Flint's glare with a smile.
"Poor bloke can't even remember how to speak, it's no wonder he has to repeat seventh year," Fred shook his head in mock solemnness and Flint continued to glare at them.
"That is it Weasley, you've crossed the line," he yelled, stamping his foot.
"Uh oh, he's about to throw a tantrum, we better clear the way before he starts to cry," George smirked and offered his arm chivalrously to Wenda as Fred offered his to Angelina and they marched off to the great hall together.
"I thought you were gone for the Christmas break?" Angelina asked Fred and George as they sat down at the Gryffindor table together.
"We are," Fred answered.
"We apparated to Hogsmeade, and snuck in," George told her matter of factly as though this was normal. Then again for the Weasley twins, I guess it was normal.
"Our Dad's been hurt, he's in St. Mungos, everything is really tense right now," Fred told her.
"Yeah plus we're staying at Gr-"
"Grandma's house," Fred finished, knowing George had been about to say Grimmauld place. "And we can't even play Quidditch there to blow off some steam."
"Hey! Wenda and I are going out for some Quidditch after lunch! You should join us," Angelina smiled. The twins turned toward Wenda looking incredulous. George mimed cleaning out his ear and looked at her funny.
"Sorry, I thought you said Wenda and Quidditch in the same sentence,"
"Say that again?"
"Yes, yes I did, so are you coming or not."
The pair grinned mischievously, "Oh we'll be there," George told her.
If Wenda didn't like Quidditch before this afternoon, it was nothing to how she felt about it now. 'If I even want to scare her, I'll just wave a broom in front of her,' Angelina thought as they climbed the stair to Gryffindor tower. The twins had certainly got a chance to "blow off some steam". Angelina was pretty sure they were having a competition to see who could pull more pranks on the poor girl. They had helped her a bit too though, she was now able to catch a Quaffle sometimes, but unfortunately the first one she caught was actually a water balloon magicked to look like a Quaffle. But that bit of water was forgotten after poor Wenda had zoomed into the Hogwarts lake when she noticed her broom tail was smoking. Turns out it wasn't on fire, just Fred and George's prank device that created smoke.
Fred and George departed for Hosmeade right after Quidditch, fearing they had already been noticed missing, while the girls headed up to the Gryffindor common room to warm up.
"You finally decide to show interest in Quidditch and it just has to be in the middle of December?" Angelina grumbled as she pulled off her mitts and scarf in the common room and lays them over the arm of the couch.
"Yeah well, the rest of the year there are plenty of other things to do," Wenda argued.
"Oh no," Angelina groaned.
"Sure there are,"
"No, not that, look behind you," she told her friend as she pointedly turned her face toward the fire and away from the entrance hole in which Saverio was currently climbing through.
"Oh," Wenda giggled. She was quite amused watching him pursue her friend. He heard the sound coming from their corner and upon taking notice of the girls, wasted no time in making his way over.
"I'll leave you guys to it then shall I?" Wenda teased as she got up and inched toward the stairs that lead to the girls dormitory. She smiled sweetly as Angelina gave her the death stare, Saverio taking no notice of these interactions happily took Wenda's place beside Angelina and smiled at her.
"What do you want Saverio?" she asked when Wenda's face and finally fully disappeared and she could hear the girl's footsteps on the stairs.
"You," Saverio grinned at her. Angelina was used to such blunt answers and just rolled her eyes and turned away toward the fire. He scooted closer.
"Saverio, I'm not interested, give it a rest."
"Are you sure about that?" he wiggled his eyebrows.
"Yes I'm sure. That kiss was a mistake, forget it ever happened and bugger off." Angelina told him with so much venom and finality that even he couldn't ignore it.
"Ok, I understand," his demeanour changing in a split second.
Saverio took his leave, and for the first time since she had arrived in the common room, Angelina was alone. She put her head in her hands and breathed in. Again she found herself wondering what was wrong with her. All her friends had been encouraging her to accept his advances so he couldn't be that bad could he? So why did she have zero interest in him?
