Annie Whistler looked out across the Great Hall from her seat at the Ravenclaw table. First she scanned over the Gryffindor table behind her. Nothing caught her interest so she skimmed her eyes over the Hufflepuff table right in front of her. Nothing again. She set her sights farther down the hall. The Slytherin table. Her eyes looked at every single person at the table but her eyes never locked with anyone else's. Until Christian Bletchley, the Slytherin Keeper. Her eyes met his and soon they were at war. Neither would look away. Call it pride, call it competition; call it what you will. Still neither wavered their gaze. They continued to keep their staring contest going even as Katie Bell sat down next to Annie. Katie was curious to see whom her friend could be staring at, so she followed her gaze to the Slytherin table. Katie then saw Bletchley's beautiful green eyes staring right back into Annie's gorgeous blue ones. Katie smirked to herself then prodded Annie on the arm. Annie jumped and looked at Katie, turning slightly pink.
"Who are you looking at?" Katie asked slyly. Annie gave her a look and scoffed.
"As if you didn't see? You've been sitting here how long now?" Annie asked, her eyebrows raised at her Gryffindor friend.
"I saw alright. I was just wondering if you knew who you were staring at," Katie explained.
"I know perfectly well who I was staring at."
"Well then I say we go off to Potions now and talk about this," Katie said mischievously.
"Why?" Annie asked, slightly suspicious of her friend's behavior.
"You aren't the only one who stares at Slytherins," Katie explained. Annie raised her eyebrows again at her friend and followed her out of the hall, but not without one last look toward the Slytherin table.
On the other side of the hall, a certain Slytherin watched as the two girls vacated the hall. His friend looked at him and followed his gaze to a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor. His friend, being ever so kind, poked him on the shoulder, causing his gaze to waver and a scowl to be imprinted upon his face.
"What?" Christian asked Adrian Pucey, a Slytherin Chaser. His friend just stared at him. "Alright, now you're creeping me out. What's going on?"
"I should ask you the same question. Since when did Annie Whistler and Katie Bell become so interesting?" Adrian asked, watching as Christian averted his wandering eyes back to the door through which the two previous subjects had left.
"Annie's always been interesting. It's just her brother and her friends that tone down the… interesting-ness," Christian finished horribly.
"Interesting-ness? Did she take your brain with her when she left?"
"So what if she did?"
"You admitted that? You admitted that? You admitted that?"
"Don't act all surprised and be quiet, people are starting to stare."
"You're caring about whether people stare or not? When before you could have stared at that girl for Merlin knows how long if she didn't leave?"
"Shut up! Let's go to Potions," Christian said, packing up. Adrian followed him with a sigh and a mutter that sounded distinctly like 'so you can stare some more?'. Christian glared at his friend and led the way to the dungeons.
"You're never going to get her," Adrian pointed out as they exited the Great Hall. Christian stopped and glared at him.
"Why not?" he asked hotly. Adrian rolled his eyes at him the only way a Slytherin knew how.
"One: she's a Ravenclaw. Two: her brother, Amos, remember him? He'll kill you. Three: her friends Rob and Roger; they'll kill you too."
"You think I don't know that?"
"You better, because I don't want a dead friend. It doesn't appeal and doesn't attract a lot of girls," Adrian said. By this time they had started walking again and were making their way into the dungeons. As they did they could hear laughing near the Potions room. They crept closer, hidden by stone walls and it was kind of dark in there. They could see Annie and Katie sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall.
"Seriously all of the players on their team are good-looking," Katie said. Annie rolled her eyes and laughed. "Just because you only think that Bletchley is doesn't mean you have to doubt the rest of the team."
"I'm not doubting the rest of the team. I just think that he's the best looking one. That's all," Annie explained.
"Is that why you stare at him from across the hall during lunch?" Katie asked. Annie mock-glared at her friend. Her glare slowly turned into an embarrassed grin.
"I hate you right now for mocking me," Annie said.
"All I'm saying is that if you want to piss off your brother and friends, go for him," Katie said with a shrug.
"Are you sure you're supposed to be in Gryffindor and not the house we are talking about?" Annie asked.
"You flatter me Annie," Katie responded. "You know who's really smashing? Adrian Pucey."
"Bletchley's best friend? Okay, I'll give you that one. What about Montague?" Annie asked.
"He's alright."
"Have you seen his stomach?" Annie asked. Katie looked at her with wide eyes.
"When did you see his stomach?" Katie asked incredulously.
"I was leaving practice early and stepped into the boys' locker room to get something from Amos' locker and Montague… stepped out of the shower with nothing… but a towel… around his waist. Needless to say both of us got really red and swore never to speak of it to each other again. By the way, have you seen Warrington's back?" Katie shook her head, her mouth still open from Annie's story. "He's got a nice back. You can see all of the muscles."
"When did you check out Warrington's back?" Katie asked; feeling severely left out of seeing all of this.
"This story's easier. So Troy was working on this potion for something after class. I had a detention from Snape because of something I said during class. Anyway I was in the same dungeon as Troy. I was cleaning out cauldrons as he was working. Well something happened and his shirt caught on fire. So he ripped it off and got the fire out. His back was to me and I heard all the commotion so I turned around and looked."
"You got detention?" Katie asked.
"Yes," Annie said. "I'm not perfect."
"Yeah, she is," Christian muttered. Adrian smirked from behind him. Katie propped her head up more to look around the dungeon, then she turned to Annie.
"Did you hear something?" she asked. Annie looked around.
"Yeah. I did," she said. "Oh well. We should probably stop talking anyway. It's almost time for class."
Annie stood and then helped up Katie. They straightened their skirts and picked up their books. They walked into the classroom and sat at their places. Katie took her seat near the back and next to Alicia Spinnet, who had yet to arrive. Annie moved up the same column of desks to near the front of the room. She sat in her seat, the second row from the front and next to Kate Monroe, her roommate and Keeper of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Adrian and Christian walked in shortly after the girls and took their seats, next to each other, one row up from Katie and one column over. Annie looked back to the door as other students arrived. She greeted her twin brother Amos and Roger Davies as they sat in front of her. She waved to Rob Connolly and James Dahl as they sat in the column of desks next to Katie and Alicia (who also had shown up). Annie talked with Roger and Amos as Kate and David Bradley walked into the room. Nearly the entire Ravenclaw Quidditch team was in the room, except of course for Cho Chang, who was a sixth year and wouldn't be in a class with all seventh years.
Annie looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Katie as Troy Warrington and Brian Montague entered the room and sat next to each other, two desks up from Rob and James. She had always felt it a little unnerving that the four Ravenclaws in the front were almost surrounded by Slytherins, but after about a week into the class the feeling went away. The feeling was replaced by wanting to be the two Ravenclaws sitting next to Adrian and Christian. Annie's thoughts were stolen from her as the rest of the students entered the classroom, followed by the teacher.
"Today class," Professor Snape began. "We will be dealing with the Wolfsbane Potion. It is a very complicated potion and requires complete concentration. Everything is detail in this potion. One wrong move or ingredient and it will become fatal. I trust that you will be able to handle this, as you are seventh years in a NEWT Potions class. But then again, I always get surprises. The instructions are on the board; follow them precisely. Begin."
Annie looked at the board. She scanned over the ingredients and the procedure. After she took a couple of minutes to think about them. In those couple of minutes an idea struck her and she grabbed a spare bit of parchment. She made some calculations and a grin spread across her face.
Christian watched as Annie raised her hand and called Professor Snape over. He went over and looked down at her. She explained a few things to him and showed him a bit of parchment, presumably with calculations of some sort on it. Snape took the paper and looked at it closely. He seemed to be pondering what was written on the paper with what his student had told him. He gave the paper back to Annie and told her to work on it. He also told her it could be a breakthrough. A breakthrough? What kind of breakthrough? What did the genius come up with now? Apparently Snape is pleased though. Christian turned his attention back to his potion, but his gaze would vary every now and then. From his potion in front of him to the genius in the front of the class.
Adrian was busy looking around the classroom, waiting the seven minutes he was supposed to for the potion to simmer. While looking he caught the eye of none other than Katie Bell. He kept the eye contact and winked. He laughed inwardly as he saw her eyes go wide and shift their gaze to the genius. She grabbed a flagon and poured some potion in it. She took it up to the front of the room and placed it on Snape's desk. On her way back she stopped at Annie's desk. She talked to her all the while shooting glances in Adrian's direction. He saw Annie's head snap up to look at Katie and then saw Katie nod. Annie grabbed a piece of parchment, scribbled something on it and gave it to Katie while talking to her. Katie made her way back to her desk but not before giving Adrian, himself, the piece of parchment. Adrian took it and opened it.
Adrian,
How much did you hear?
Annie
Adrian grinned to himself before writing back his response.
Annie,
Enough to know that you and Miss Bell stare way too much at my friends and me. But you're not in vain.
Adrian
He floated the parchment over to Annie and she took it. After reading it she wrote back her own response.
Adrian,
Not in vain? Care to explain or elaborate? That would be nice to know about.
Annie
Adrian read her response and grinned. This is going to be a lot of fun, he thought to himself.
Annie,
Your efforts are not in vain. I repeat. They are not in vain. Someone's looking at you too. Only they're frightened of your friends, as he should be.
Adrian
Annie read the note and furrowed her brow in confusion. 'What?' she mouthed to herself. She wrote back.
Adrian,
Who's he? Christian?
Annie
Adrian grinned once more as he read the note. Not bad, little genius. He quickly responded.
Annie,
What gave you that idea, my dear? Why would you not ask if it was myself? It's not. I'm just un-flattered. You should be a Seer.
Adrian
Annie read the note and growled softly. I'm going to kill him, she thought.
Adrian,
Dammit! Stop messing with my head! Who is it? Tell me or I'll find a potion to destroy your reputation. Read: I'll make you ugly! You know I can, my dear.
Annie
Adrian laughed as he finished reading her response and thanked Merlin for a friend like Troy (he and Annie were tied for first in Potions).
Annie,
No need to use threats. Although Troy could find a counter potion. But to save you trouble, I will tell you. It is, in fact, Mr. Bletchley. Now, if you could help me with Miss Bell that would be much appreciated.
Adrian
Annie scoffed and shook her head as she read what Adrian had written. Figures, she thought.
Adrian,
I'm sure that would be appreciated. Are we partners in crime? You help me? I help you?
Annie
Adrian looked up at Annie and wasn't surprised to meet her eyes. He mouthed 'Deal' and all was agreed to. When he looked back, Christian was looking at him.
"What was that about?" he asked Adrian.
"Nothing," Adrian replied. "Nothing at all." Inwardly Adrian was feeling too Slytherin for his own good. He was involved in a great thing. A great plan, beyond one he could ever dream up on his own. He knew why Annie was doing this, well besides the fact that she really did like Christian. He had seen Annie look at his best friend. He knew that she liked him more than she would ever admit to. She had another motive, one she would let herself be taken over by. She was ready to piss off her brother and her friends; the people that had protected her too much over her childhood and even into her teenage years. She was getting back at them, and loving every minute of it.