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I tripped as I walked down the stairs, my stuff spilling everywhere. People laughed but I ignored them as well as I could as I quickly tried to gather my stuff.
What did they know about me? Sure, they knew my name, and me to be muggle born, but that was about it. They didn't care to learn anymore. I was the mousy brown haired girl in the book, with the hidden hazel eyes, I was of no importance. See, I wasn't even that pretty; there was nothing of me that seemed to interest them.
But they didn't know that back home my family was barely making ends meet. That I was going to Hogwarts on the school fund because my family could barely feed me and my siblings, let alone send me to school – they were actually happy when they had one less mouth to feed for ten of twelve months of the year. No, they didn't care to think why my robes were oversized and second hand, why my books were kept together with tape. They didn't know that the reason I missed the last two months of school the previous year was because I'd been raped the summer before and been hiding a pregnancy from them with spells given by the teachers, that my baby boy replaced my older brother at home who'd killed the boy who'd done, in turn making my little sister try to kill herself.
No, they didn't know all that about me, they didn't care to get past the name and birth status, and even that had been forgotten by many over the years. I was just the girl in the back, always there but never seen. Laughed at when I tripped but soon forgotten once more.
I quickly finished grabbing my things, and stood up, my head down and continued on my way. Not that many were still looking. They never did.
"Oh, sorry," I said, looking at the brown haired girl I'd accidentally run into. The girl just glared at me before continuing on her way, and I looked back in shock. I stopped with my best friend Leo under a tree, still watching the girl.
"Hey, Louis," Leo started, but I cut him off pretending I'd never heard him.
"Who's that girl?" I asked, pointing to her as she sat down below a tree across the lawn. Leo knew everybody at Hogwarts, and he could name the main facts about everybody, sometimes often knowing more than he should. I really don't know how we became friends.
"Rachel Green, muggle born, fourth year Ravenclaw," Leo quickly clicked off before looking at me as though he were about to ask why I was asking. But the look on my face made him smirk. "Surprised she's in our class?"
I nodded dully, looking down at my Ravenclaw emblem. Maybe if I was a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff fourth year, but we've been having classes together since first year and I didn't know who she was. She might have had reason for the glare, after all.
"Why did you ask, anyway?" Leo asked, an eyebrow rose, as he looked back over at Rachel.
"She glared at me when I said sorry after running into her," I muttered and his eyebrows rose in shock. I shook my head to clear it before looking over at him again. "So what were you going to say before I interrupted?"
Leo glared at me as he realized I had heard him say my name. "I-Never mind," He quickly said, and I raised my eyebrow, wondering what he'd been about to say.
"Hey Louis, hey Leo," Molly said, my cousin walking over to us. "What you guys talking 'bout?" Leo quickly delved into a conversation about Quidditch (no matter how many times I told him Molly wasn't really that interested in Quidditch – after all, I should know, I had to deal with her four hour lecture on why she dearly disliked the topic of conversation, getting me to never discuss it with her again) I looked back over at Rachel who had gotten up and began to walk away.
Why had I never noticed her before? More importantly – why was she now causing me so much interest?
I may suck at the majority of my classes, but potions were the one I excelled at. It was like cooking, to me, just mixing ingredients together, sometimes even substituting one for another to make it better. I'd always been good at cooking, often being the one to cook in my house. My mom always said that that was a good quality for a mom, but never should I be just a housewife.
Today it was partner work. Our class had always been paired with the Gryffindors, making the numbers uneven. Usually, that would make a group of three, but I just ended up working by myself, not that the teacher had to worry; I was the best in the class.
"Hey, Rachel, do you, umm, want to be partners?" I looked up surprised to hear the question and wanting to see who asked it. I was even more surprised to see it was Louis Weasley – didn't I just glare at him the other day?
I looked back at the person I knew him to usually be partnered with (going unseen did have its advantages, you knew a lot about others) Leo, to see him almost torn between emotions. He seemed lost as to whether to feel abandoned since Louis left him to partner with me, or happy that in his place, Molly Weasley went to partner with him.
I turned back to Louis and just shrugged. Louis sat down with a hesitant smile, and I got up and walked away. I don't know how long it took him to realize that I was just going back to get the ingredients we would need, but by the time I got back his expression had gone back to normal instead of the shocked one I'd left it at. On my way though I'd gotten many a jealous look from girls, after all, Louis was one-eighth veela, a fact that seemed to attract girls. I don't see why it got to so many of them.
"So, you're muggle born? My Grandpa's obsessed with muggle stuff. How much do you find it different then here?" Louis asked as we began. Instead of answering his question I reached over and grabbed his wrist to stop him from putting the wrong ingredient in and messing up the potion. "Oh, sorry," He said, blushing slightly.
"Why don't I do the potion?" I said as I noticed him starting to tear up the belladonna instead of crushing out its essence. He nodded sheepishly as he realized what he was doing and pushed the ingredients to my side. Then he seemed to realize I'd avoided his question, something done on purpose.
"So, you have any siblings?" He asked a totally different question. I thought about it for a second as I stirred clockwise twice, paused, and then counter clockwise.
"An older brother and younger sister," I decided to say as I concentrated on the potion. I thought about my brother who was in jail (a fact I decided not to mention) and the smallest of smiles appeared on my face. This seemed to encourage Louis.
"Really? They must be really proud of you for ending up here," He said knowing I was muggle born, and I just shrugged though my smile grew as I remembered my family's excitement when they heard where I was heading.
The conversation seemed to end there as I wasn't able to get my mind off of my brother. When the class ended I quickly scooped up a sample of our potion and was out of the room before many had even finished bringing up their samples.
I watched as Rachel quickly left the room, and making a quick decision, I stuffed my bag, and ran after her, ignoring the calls of Leo and Molly.
Out of breath I saw her in the Front Hall. "Rachel," I said, and she looked around, a surprised look appearing on her face as she saw me there behind her. I really wanted to know what went on in that girls head to cause her that surprise.
She waited for me to catch up, and looked at me with confusion as she saw me breathing heavily. "Yes?" She finally asked when I didn't answer her, as I was still attempting to catch my breath.
"Well, I was wondering – since you're so good in potions – I was wondering if you could tutor me in it?" I asked, not exactly sure where that came from. What I really wanted to know, though, was why she was always so surprised. She seemed surprised just by the fact that I was talking to her. Then again, a few days ago I didn't even know her name. Finally she shrugged.
"Great! Meet you in the library tomorrow at six?" I asked and she just nodded her head, the confusion still plain on her face before she turned around and walked away to who knows where.
"What was that?" I looked up startled to see my cousin Roxanne standing there, eyebrows raised, a knowing look on her face.
"What was what?" I asked casually, making sure to look anywhere but at her.
"I saw you talking to that girl," She said. God, did Slytherins have to be in everything? I just shrugged though I made sure to shoot Roxanne a dirty look.
"I was just asking her to tutor me in potions," I said casually, though the way Roxanne's eyebrows seemed to disappear into her hair made me suspicious.
"Why did you run away so fast?" Molly wheezed as her and Leo finally caught up. I looked around at my two friends to see them glaring at me.
"Well, I needed to talk to Rachel, and she was out of the room before half of the class was even finished bringing their samples up," I said, and they just glared at me before Molly went off to have lunch with her friends at the Gryffindor table and Leo walked with me. Roxanne still hadn't left.
"Oh, and Louis," Roxanne said as she turned around and stopped. "Don't kid yourself. You're the best person in the family at potions, and that's saying something next to Al. You don't need tutoring." With that she walked off leaving me to be questioned by Leo. Did I mention that I hate Slytherins?
I sat in the library with Louis, getting very annoyed, and I had every reason to be. After all, after going through a lot of things with him, I'd figured something out.
"You don't need tutoring," I said, snapping the book closed, and glaring over at Louis. This had to be some joke or something – setting me up for some Weasley prank.
"Um, ya," Louis said, his cheeks tinting pink, "My cousin was kind enough to point that out after I asked you." I glared at him, not believing he hadn't realized he didn't need tutoring before he asked me.
"Well, um, supers almost over," Louis said, and I sighed, beginning to pack up, realizing that of course he was going to ditch me if he didn't need my help. Why he asked me in the first place I still couldn't figure out. "We could probably catch the end, and there won't be many people there, if you want to?"
I stopped and looked up at Louis in surprise. I had to stop doing that, but I couldn't help it, the boy seemed to be full of surprises, at least he was surprising me a lot. I just looked at him before quietly saying, "OK," An unusual occurrence for me, as my usual response was non verbal, a shrug, or something of the sort.
"Great," Louis said, his face brightening up as he quickly packed up his things and I finished doing the same. Before I knew it, I was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, in a seat across from Louis Weasley.
"So," Louis said, obviously trying to start a conversation. "What's your favourite subject?" I couldn't help a smile coming to my lips. At least he hadn't asked about the weather.
"Potions, no question," Was my immediate response. After all, it was the only subject I was any good at.
"Why?" Louis asked seemingly truly interested. I shrugged.
"It's the only subject I have any real talent in, I guess. Plus, it's like cooking, and I've always enjoyed that," I said with a smile. "When I was home, I'd always be the one to cook, because mom and dad were working, and I'd enjoy it so much, but my brother would have to watch me when I used the stove." I rambled on, realizing that that was probably the longest conversation I've had with a person at Hogwarts.
"Hmm, I've never heard it compared to cooking before. I guess I can see the resemblance," Louis said with a smile.
"How 'bout you?" I decided to ask.
"Potions," Louis said, looking down at his plate. "It's my best subject too." Before I could comment an interruption came.
"Hey Louis, how'd the tutoring go?" I turned to see Louis' cousin Roxanne laugh as she grabbed the obviously confused Scamander twins from their seats as Louis just glared at her.
"She the one who remind you that you don't need the tutoring?" I asked as I turned back to Louis. He nodded mutely, as a slight blush appeared on his cheeks. "Then why'd you ask?" I asked, truly curious.
Louis' face turned as red as his cousins hair as he looked at me and said, "So I could have an excuse to spend time with you." I stared at him.
"Why'd you say that to Louis?" Lorcan asked and I just rolled my eyes.
"You guys are so oblivious," I muttered under my breath as I hit the identical twins, and my two best friends, why I couldn't remember, upside the head.
"I'm not going to disagree with you, but why are they?" Molly asked as she walked down the stairs and appeared at my side with Leo.
I looked at the two, my eyes landing on Leo. "Who's Rachel?" I asked finally, knowing that if Molly didn't know (though if Louis was hanging out with her she probably would) Leo would. He knew everybody.
"Excuse us," Lysander said, looking annoyed. "I didn't even say anything!"
"Thanks for abandoning me bro," Lorcan said, rolling his eyes.
Leo looked at the two amused for a few seconds, having never really hung out with them before, before answering my question. "The Rachel Louis ditched me to be partners with in potions the other day?" He asked. I nodded, but before he could respond Molly interrupted.
"What? I'm not good enough?" Molly asked, arms crossed and I closed my eyes knowing that though Molly was named the nicest of the lot, when she got mad, her temper was the closest one to match mine, which they said beat Grandma Weasley's.
"No, no, I was ecstatic when you partnered with me," Leo said trying to do damage control. Molly looked at him with surprise and interest.
"Really?" She asked, and even I was looking at the boy with a new light. If he was implying what I thought he was...boy, I doubt that boy was going to keep his status as Louis' best friend.
"Oh god, I did not just say that!" Leo said, covering his mouth. "I so meant to talk with Louis about this, but the past few days his attention hasn't moved from Rachel."
"Speaking of that," I pointed into the Great Hall, specifically to where Louis and Rachel sat.
"Oh my god, his face is redder than your hair, Roxanne, and that's hard to beat," Lorcan said, causing me to roll my eyes.
"He likes her," I said, stating the obvious. "Why else would he ask her to tutor him in his best subject?"
"She's the only one in class that beats him," Molly admitted, her attention derived from Leo for a second, making him visibly relax. "Don't think we aren't talking later," She added to him, making him tense again.
"That's weird though," Leo said, and I looked at him in confusion, wondering why he said that.
"I mean, just a few days ago, he didn't even know who she was. He was surprised when I told him she was in our class. I just thought he was trying to figure out why he hadn't known who she was." Leo shrugged, and I looked at Molly.
"Did you know who she was?" I asked, looking into my cousin eyes.
"Not until Louis partnered with her," Molly said, looking modestly embarrassed. "But hey, at least I'm not in the same house!"
"Well, there's no doubt he likes her, I mean, look at him," The others nodded. Then, I saw her, Rachel, get up.
"Wait, she's leaving, why's she leaving!" I asked, panicking. One may ask why I had such interest in my cousin's life, but Louis is my favourite cousin. I mean, next to Fred, but he was my brother, so I couldn't count him, nor could I act like I liked him as much as I did, siblings weren't supposed to get along as well as I could with my brother. But where as I grew up around boys – what, with Fred always having James come over, then always getting thrown together with the Scamander's because of the same age, and becoming such good friends with them, I became such a tomboy. Then Louis, with two older sisters, he grew up around girls. The opposite, but yet, such the same situation, I just wanted to make sure it didn't have the same effect on him as it did him. Thank god he made guy friends as soon as he made it too school. Plus, Louis was probably the nicest guy around, and never even thought of the little amount of veela powers he had at his use, which many a boy would. (Such as James.)
Rachel came and walked by us. She looked up at us as she walked by, her eyes widening, before she quickly walked away.
"What happened?" I asked, as I watched her walk away.
"I think I can take a hit," Lysander said as he looked at a defeated looking Louis sitting alone at the table, and anger roared up inside of me. Our male cousins always made a defence against any boy that we started dating for if they hurt us – maybe it was about time us girls did the same for the guys.
I sat curled up in a ball in the astronomy tower, starring at the wall opposite of me. Louis had not technically said he liked me, but it had been implied – and I'd walked away. The last guy who'd said he liked me had raped me, and now I had a son at home with my mother, and my brother was in jail.
It wasn't as though I thought Louis would do those things – it was Hogwarts after all – but neither had I thought the other boy would. It was all oh so confusing. Life was confusing. What was I to do?
I looked up as someone walked into the Astronomy tower. It was Albus Potter.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't know somebody was already here, I'll just go," He said turning around about to go down the million of stars that led up. He stopped, hesitating for a second, looking at me. "Are you OK?" He finally asked concern in his voice.
I reached a hand up to my face and realized it was wet. I'd been crying without realizing it. I just shrugged – my normal response – before pulling myself into a tighter ball. Albus hesitated before going and sitting a few feet away from me, leaning against the wall.
"What's wrong?" He asked quietly, and I just pulled myself into a tighter ball, not saying anything. The silence went on for several painful minutes before I finally couldn't stand it along with him being there.
"What do you care?" I whispered, surprised to see he wasn't surprised to hear me talk. Oh god, I was even surprised that somebody wasn't surprised, spending time with Louis was getting to me.
"You remind me a bit of my cousin Lucy," He said, and I just looked at him. "You even look like her a bit." There I look confused. "Oh yes, you'll be old enough to have seen her here in her last years. You'll have to be younger than me, so, what, third year? Fourth?" He saw me nod at fourth year and smiled. "Well, she looked different in her younger years."
"Actually, early on, none of us we ever very fond of her, no, not even Dominique. We actually all tried to avoid her. She was always yelling. I know she did it here a lot too, but even more so when she was younger. She never got along with her sister, Molly, though Molly seemed to love her older sister, why, none could imagine. Oh, and her and Victoire, it was like a cat fight, Dominique would get pretty mad, said it should be her fighting with her sister."
"How'd they become such good friends?" I asked, unintentionally becoming interested, remembering the two girls that rarely went unseen without the other.
"I think I'm one of the few that know. One day the two just came up from the basement, and they were the best of friends. It wasn't until my third year that I found out. I come up here to think a lot, and in my third year I found Lucy up here, crying. We ended up talking, stayed out for the whole night. I think I don't even know Rose as much. She just hated being the odd one out – after all, she was so different. Sometimes she was afraid she'd turn out like her dad – she'd been told so many times that she was like him. Plus, she was the only one in the family with brown hair – I never much figured how that came into play, but I guess with everybody having red hair, then there were two with blond and two with black. I guess it made sense. She was so mean to her sister because she had the traditional Weasley hair, plus she was she much like a 'traditional Weasley'. Then Victoire because she was so pretty, and everybody just loved her. The day after that was the first day I really stood up to James and told him to leave Lucy alone. I think Dominique knew we'd talked."
I starred at Albus. Even in normal family's they had problems. Maybe not the problems like mine, but still, problems. The type one never saw one sitting around, thinking everything was perfectly fine. But they were there under the interior.
"You come up here to think?" I asked looking at him with an interest.
"What, you don't think guys like me need quiet places to think about stuff sometimes?" He asked with a slight smile, and I couldn't help but look slightly abashed.
"So, is it...." Albus hesitated, "...boy problems?" I could tell he felt awkward talking about such things, but he just wanted to help. I could tell he just wanted to help. So I slowly nodded, deciding I wouldn't mention the specific boy or else it would just make things more awkward.
"I find it better to talk about things, if you have someone willing to listen, at least," He said, and I couldn't help but smile slightly.
"A boy told me he liked me. Well, he didn't say it exactly, but he implied it. I asked him why he asked me to tutor him when it was bluntly obvious he didn't need it, and he said so he could have an excuse to spend time with me," I said, looking at Albus who seemed slightly confused.
"I didn't see where the problem stands. A boy told you he liked you, unless you already have a boyfriend, and you like both guys..." He looked at me waiting for an answer.
I took a deep breath unsure of why I was about to tell these things I hadn't told anybody at Hogwarts to Albus Potter. "The last boy who told me he liked me raped me. Now I have a baby boy back home and my brothers in jail for man slaughter."
"Oh," Was Albus' oh so intelligent response. And he was supposed to be the smart Potter. Then again, I hadn't met the other two. "Well, do you think this boy would do the same thing to you?" He asked.
"No, but I didn't the other either. I guess this one's a bit more trustworthy than the other, and having gone to school with him for four years, I know a bit more about him, but I still don't really know him." I shrugged, looking down at my hands.
"Well, having never been in a situation even close to this, I can't say I can compare, or tell you what to do. All I can really say is you can't make all your decisions on what happened to you once. Plus, if you trusted this boy enough to hang out with him, what says you can't trust him a little more in a place where there is a professor or student around every corner?" I had to smile at that one slightly, but I did take his advice to heart. I'd end up old and alone if I never trusted a boy again because of that one boy.
"Well, I should be going," Albus said, standing up, "Think about what I said." I nodded my head as I watched him walk to the door. He paused at the door, and looked back at me curiously. "Who is the boy, if you don't mind my asking?"
I looked up at him and couldn't help smiling at the irony of it all. "Louis Weasley." He left with a shocked expression on his face.
As I passed the Ravenclaw table I paused as I saw Louis looking down. I watched as Rachel came up the row and smiled slightly.
"May I sit here?" She asked quietly, pointing to the seat next to him. He looked up in surprise before his face lit up and he quickly nodded his head, pushing Leo over.
"Hmm, Rachel looked pretty upset yesterday when she left," I heard Molly say just as I took a seat at the Gryffindor table.
"That would be my handy work." I said with a smug smile, looking around at my cousins.
"What? What are you guys talking about?" James asked, not knowing who we were talking about.
"So, Rachel's her name? We never really got to names when we were talking last night, though I'm pretty sure she knew who I was," I said casually as I buttered a piece of toast.
"Hold on, did I just hear what I think I did? Was perfect Al cheating on his girlfriend last night?" James asked, making Molly hit him from beside him, while I kicked him from across as I rolled my eyes. Fred just snorted.
"Ya, right, Al cheat, that's a good one," Fred said as Hugo laughed behind his newspaper.
"You see that brown haired girl sitting beside Louis that's making his smile bigger than Hagrid is and his face light up like his house when Aunt Fleur's sister sends her a new shipment of French candles? Ya, that's Rachel," I said, making all the cousins that didn't know her crane their necks to get a look.
"Whoa, he likes her big time," Hugo said, raising his eyebrows.
"Poor boy's got it bad," Fred said shaking his head as he continued eating.
"So, you talked to her? Why'd she run off?" Molly asked wanting to make sure Rachel had a legit reason for crushing Louis' heart.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, knowing I'm not supposed to say. "Umm, let's just say, the last guy to tell her that he liked her, she got the bad end of the stick when it was over and done with, and that part wasn't her choice," Molly just nodded, and I knew she knew I was hiding something, but I always kept peoples secrets, and Rachel didn't want people to know.
"So, anyways I guess I'm the official matchmaker of the family," I said with a smug look, making everybody groan. "What? I got Rose and Scorpius together-"
"Dad is still trying to figure out the best way to kill you for that without Uncle Harry or Aunt Ginny hating him," Hugo said from behind his newspaper making me flush and a few of the others snicker.
"Hey, she seriously liked him, even though she wouldn't admit it, and I could not stand another day of hearing complaints about Scorpius," I said defensively before continuing. "Anyways, I finally got Dominique's and Paul Longbottom's on again off again streak to stay on-"
"I still say that wasn't thanks to you, it just happened to happen when you interfered, and would have whether you did or not," James said, getting me to glare at him.
"It so was me. Anyways, and now I've got Louis and that Rachel girl together, and you can't not give me credit for that, or put anything against that," I said, waiting for somebody to deny the fact.
"Not saying a word, that was defiantly good," Molly said, looking at me, a certain interest see able in her eyes.
"Now I'm working on getting Roxanne and Lysander together – I think I'm this close to getting him to ask her out," I said, as I looked at Fred warily – if anyone was the overprotective brother, it was defiantly Fred.
"If you can get that to happen it'll defiantly be a miracle, and I'll give you full credit for all the matches you claim to have made," Fred said. When he realized everybody was staring at him, he asked "What? Even I agree the two should be together. There...'dance', if you'll call it, has been going on too long." Everybody looked away rather impressed at Fred's calmness to his sister with a boy.
"Hey, Al," Molly whispered as everybody else got into their other conversations.
"Ya," I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Think you can talk to Leo, Louis' friend? He accidentally let it slip yesterday he likes me, and apparently he's been meaning to talk to Louis but Louis has been too caught up in Rachel these past few days...anyways, he won't talk to me, and won't listen to hear me tell him that I like him too. Even if he did know that I still think he'd want to hear what Louis had to say first, but this Rachel stuff might give me an edge. So, talk to him, will you?" I couldn't help but feel like my cousin wasn't as much like her namesake as thought, and maybe had a bit of her sister in her as well.
I raised an eyebrow and she blushed slightly, realizing she was taking advantage of the situation but she raised an eyebrow back, asking if I'd do as she asked. I couldn't help but smile as I nodded.
Yep, I was defiantly the matchmaker.
So...this just came. Well, Rachel came. I had the first part, and I just had to write it, I've had it for days, didn't even had a name, wasn't even sure if she was going to get one. Then when I continued on with it, when Louis asked her name was when she got one. I had all the rest planned out, what was going to happen, the Astronomy tower, Al laying claim to a bunch of math ups, but I still didn't have her name. Then I got Rachel and I couldn't change it if I tried.
Anyways, what do you guys think?
