Always Watching

Chapter One

Lizzie was in her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and was easily the prettiest girl in the entire school. She had long dark red hair, a slim, hourglass figure, pale skin, and liquid topaz colored eyes. Nearly all of the boys in the school wanted to date her, and all the girls wanted to be exactly like her.

One boy that took an interest in her, was Cormac McLaggen. He first caught sight on Lizzie when she was working a shift at the popular wizarding pub The Three Broomsticks.

Lizzie had been working at the bar inside the pub when she took notice that Cormac had been staring at her for quite some time. He still hadn't left when the pub was getting ready to close. Lizzie walked over to the table that he was sitting at alone, and tapped the tabletop with one of her long fingernails. "Um, excuse me?"

"Yeah?" asked Cormac, looking up. "We're getting ready to close up, and don't you have a curfew?"

Cormac smiled. "I'll be okay," he said as Lizzie picked up his empty bottle of butterbeer. "I'm Lizzie by the way," said Lizzie, smiling a breathtakingly beautiful smile at Cormac.

Cormac smiled back. "Cormac McLaggen," he said, reaching out his hand to shake hers. "Didn't you try out for Gryffindor Keeper in the Quidditch tryouts last week?" asked Lizzie as she sat down. "Yeah," said Cormac. "But Weasley got it," "You mean, Ron," said Lizzie a little coolly. "He's one of my best friends,"

"Ah," said Cormac. Lizzie stared at her watch and gazed apologetically at Cormac for cutting their conversation short. "I'd better go," she said. "I'll walk with you!" Cormac offered enthusiastically.

"You shouldn't be walking alone at night," he said, getting up from the table and following Lizzie out the door. "Heh, you're right about that," Lizzie said laughing slightly.

As they walked down the road back toward the castle, they continued to chat. Lizzie explained that she had just recently broken up with Harry Potter, who for three years had been in a relationship with her until last summer, although she didn't go into details as to why they broke up.

"What about you?" asked Lizzie curiously. "You seeing anyone?" Cormac smiled. "Not at the moment, no," he said.

They continued to walk, and continued to chat. He seemed to be a pleasant individual, and had a feeling that they would get along very well.

But as the old saying goes: 'First impressions can often be entirely wrong.'

When they got to the Gryffindor common room, Lizzie turned back to Cormac as she made her way up the staircase to the girls' dormitories. "Hey, Cormac, would you like to go out for coffee sometime?"

Cormac's face brightened at this invitation and nodded eagerly. "Sure! I'd love to!" he said happily. "Good," said Lizzie, flashing another brilliantly dazzling smile. "How about this weekend – I'm off on Saturday,"

"Sure!" Cormac said again. Lizzie smile widened. "Good, 'till then!" she said as she walked up the staircase and closed the door.

Lizzie woke on Saturday to sunlight pouring through her window, and the sounds of birds chirping happily. She yawned, stretched and reached for her glasses that were sitting on her bedside table, and put them on before getting out of bed, and began to get dressed before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast with her friend, Hermione Granger. "I saw you with Cormac last night," she commented as they walked down the moving staircase. "Oh," said Lizzie. "Stay away from him," Hermione warned. "Why? He seems nice," said Lizzie. "He's not! He's vile!" said Hermione pulling a disgusted expression as she spoke.

Lizzie shrugged. She had no idea why Hermione was making such a big deal with her friendship with Cormac. He was after all, in Gryffindor, so why should she stay away from him?

As Lizzie was pouring herself some pumpkin juice as she sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall five minutes later, she was passed a note, by a fellow Gryffindor.

It read:

Lizzie,
How does quarter to twelve at Madame Puddifoot's Tea Shoppe sound? Let me know,

Cormac

Lizzie borrowed Hermione's quill and scribbled on the back of the note, 'Sounds good! See you then!' and passed it to the girl who had passed it to her, and whispered for her to give it to Cormac.

After breakfast, Lizzie returned to her dormitory to work on some homework. When eleven-thirty came along, she got re-dressed and applied makeup before going out to meet Cormac.

She walked into the tea shop and immediately spotted Cormac sitting in a booth nearest to the door. As she sat down across from him she smiled. "You're early," Cormac said.

"Better to be early than late," said Lizzie. Cormac smiled and reached across the table and held onto Lizzie's hand. This caught her off-guard and she tried to tug it away, but Cormac maintained a tight grip on her hand. "What are you doing?" asked Lizzie. "I love you, Lizzie," he said. "What?" asked Lizzie, looking slightly repulsed. "I can't stop thinking about you, and…." He leaned close and whispered in Lizzie's ear that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her.

This unnerved Lizzie so much that she immediately stood up, looking disgusted. "I'm out of here!" she said, as she grabbed her purse and made to leave the shop, but Cormac was right behind her. "Just leave me alone Cormac!" Lizzie said as she continued to walk.

Outside, Cormac finally stopped her, by grabbing her wrist. "Let me go!" she growled while attempting to wrestle her arm out of Cormac's grip. But Cormac held tight to her arm. "Please, Lizzie," he begged. "No!" said Lizzie. "Just – stay away from me!"

She wrestled her wrist out of Cormac's grip as he scowled at her. "Fine then," he said coldly. "But if I go now, I'll never come back."

"I think I'll survive," said Lizzie icily as Cormac scowled at her again before turning on his heel and walking away angrily.