Interruptions
"Where's my Freddy boy?" Katie's eyes grew and her jaw clenched. She breathed out through her nose loudly, and George took a step back, tripping over Angelina. Katie glared at his fallen figure, before throwing her parchment onto the floor and raising to her feet. FW/KB.
Disclaimer: Disclaimed.
***
Scintillation Solution. She let out a sigh. What in the world was Scintillation Solution? Granted she did not pay much attention in Potions--even she would admit that--but she was not sure that anyone really knew. Not that she had asked, or checked the textbook, or done the assigned reading for that matter. Then again, when had she? She thanked her lucky stars that none of this would be an issue.
"Oi, Alicia, let me have your Potions essay."
Katie Bell's legs were tucked comfortably underneath her, and her torso was turned just enough so that she could lean against the back of the plush armchair while sitting up straight enough to see her parchment in the full light of the fire. She toyed with her quill while waiting for her friends completed homework.
"Katie Bell, don't you ever do your own assignments?" Katie smiled broadly, letting out a low, genuine laugh.
"Oh, just give it here." Alicia Spinnet groaned, reaching into her book bag to grab her completed essay and trudging over from the table where she had been discussing something or other with a blonde haired fourth year, whose name eluded Katie. Oh well, she probably hadn't bothered to learn it in the first place.
"I don't see why you need to copy mine, all the information you need was in the notes last week." Katie did not look up to acknowledge Alicia's unrealistic suggestion with a raised eyebrow. "But of course notes are the one thing that you don't copy."
"Ah, so you aren't thick." Katie ignored Alicia's grumbling, as she began to copy her friends essay, making sure to change the longer words into shorter ones, more suitable to her slacker-vocabulary.
"So, Katie."
"Yes, Alicia?"
"Where's Fred?" Alicia asked brightly, taking a seat on the couch across the thick-woven floor rug.
"Dunno." Katie shrugged, as she decided on a word to replace 'catastrophic.' Devastating? Horrific? Terrible? Her thoughts lulled for a moment. Very, very bad!
"Oh." Alicia sounded entirely confused, so Katie looked up. She didn't want to miss one of Alicia's moments of stupidity; they were few and far between, and must be milked at every teasing opportunity for weeks to follow. Her expression certainly matched her tone, but Katie was not sure why. "Really?" Alicia suddenly asked for clarification.
"What do you mean 'really'?" Katie asked, as puzzled by Alicia's response as Alicia had apparently been by hers.
"You really don't know where Fred is?"
"Uh, no." Katie made a face at her friend before returning to her homework.
Five minutes later, as Katie began her fifth inch, Lee Jordan came through the portrait hole holding a bag of Peppermint Humbugs. He quickly scanned the common room, before heading towards the spot next to Alicia on the couch.
"Hello Lee," Alicia greeted happily.
"Alicia," he nodded in her direction, holding his bag of candy towards her. She took one with a grin. "Humbug, Katie?" Katie looked up, having not even realized Lee's appearance, and stared at his offered bag stupidly. "Katie?" he asked again.
"Oh, right. Thanks." She took one and popped it into her mouth, before continuing on a sentence about the bizarre effects of Scintillation Solution on an unsuspecting wizard.
Lee and Alicia began an idle conversation as Alicia helped herself to more than her fair share of Lee's confections. At a pause in the exchange, Lee turned to an oblivious Katie.
"Hey, Bell," Lee said simply. Katie looked up at the sound of her last name, with one eyebrow quirked in the slightest of annoyance.
"What, Jordan?" she responded dully.
"Where's Fred at?"
"I don't know," she said, a hint of snappiness in her tone. Lee's face contorted in immediate confusion, and Katie raised her eyebrow even higher.
"Attractive expression, Lee," she told him before dropping her head once more. Lee returned to Alicia. "Doesn't know," he muttered, shaking his head slightly. Katie looked at him from under her lashes, and a sound emitted from the back of her throat, something which he took to mean 'be quiet, please.' Although truthfully, the use of manners was probably a rather hopeful assumption.
"Spinnet, Bell, dawn practice tomorrow." Alicia groaned as Oliver Wood made his succinct announcement immediately upon his entrance to the common room. Katie ignored him determinedly. She would not spend another moment relinquishing her attention to an unimportant distraction if she had dawn practice to contend with now, too. "Bell, where's Weasley?" Her eyes finally dragged away her parchment at an intimidating slow pace, and Katie raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her captain.
"Wood, there are an undeniable abundance of 'Weasley's' you could be referring to right now. I'm going to need some clarification if you expect an answer that doesn't involve a subtly snappy, sarcastic undertone. Like that one, for example." She glared at a calm Oliver.
"Fred." Not entirely surprised, she released an irate sigh and returned to her essay. "Don't know." Oliver glanced at Lee and Alicia questioningly, but they both just shrugged and he walked away.
Katie was almost finished the first paragraph on mis-brewed Scintillation Solution and it's unfortunate spot in history when Angelina Johnson came down the stairs from the girls dorms. "Lee, can I knick one o' them off you?" she asked as she noticed his bag. He nodded, tossing one towards her. She caught it with ease, making use of years of Quidditch-induced agility. "Thanks. Hullo Alicia, Katie." Alicia smiled, saying hello back. Katie's quill hesitated for a moment, before she decided not to let herself get off track again, and merely grunted in response. Angelina sat cross legged, her back to the fire and her front to her friends on the couch. As they all laughed about one of the predictions Trelawney had made and was traveling around the hallways, Katie flexed her left fist, blocking out their noise.
"Kate!" Angelina called loudly all of a sudden, causing Katie to jerk her arm. Her teeth clenched as she observed the large scratch of ink across her work. She muttered under her breath, waving away the thick black line with her wand.
"What?" she asked, tersely.
"Where's Fred?"
"No clue, Ange," Katie forced between her teeth.
"Pardon?"
"I don't know!" Katie yelled loudly. Students around the room turned to look at the screaming fifth year, wide-eyed and snickering. Katie sank down in her chair, feeling her face redden.
"Oh, okay." Katie hid her blushing face by refocusing on her essay, but not before taking note of Angelina's doubtful expression.
Scintillation Solution is by far, one of the most--
"Katie!" Katie almost screamed again before catching herself.
"What, George? What in Godric's name do you want?" she demanded, her voice laced with exhaustion.
"Where's my Freddy boy?" Katie's eyes grew and her jaw clenched. She breathed out through her nose loudly, and George took a step back, tripping over Angelina. Katie glared at his fallen figure, before throwing her parchment onto the floor and raising to her feet.
"Excuse me," she called out to the common room. "Hello, everyone. I would just like to let you all know, that I am writing a potions essay that is due tomorrow. As in, it must be handed in to Snape, the day after today. So, just because the lot of you seem to be worrying ceaselessly about the whereabouts of one of our resident trouble-makers, I would like to say, I do not know where Fred Weasley is, I will not suddenly realize where Fred Weasley is, and I don't particularly care where Fred Weasley is. So, please, if you could leave me be!"
"I'm sorry, Katie--" George began, as the rest of the group nodded in agreement, murmuring their own apologies.
"Yes, I'm sure you're all sorry," she cut him off. "About as sorry as I'm going to be when I don't have an essay to hand in by morning, but probably not nearly as sorry as you'll be when I send you to the hospital wing by way of your own Beater's bat!" She sat down, picking up her parchment and placing it on her lap gingerly, before re-inking her quill and scratching it across the paper innocently, as though nothing had happened. The stunned common watched, jaws dropped and eyes widened, as their tiny Chaser finished her oral assault on them all and resumed her homework as though she had actually been sitting there silently the entire time.
"I don't know why everyone keeps asking me anyway," she muttered to herself.
"Well, you are best friends. You're always together," Alicia suggested quietly, hiding behind Lee. Katie shot a look in her direction, and her friends were quickly quiet.
"I really am sorry Katie." Except George. "But I was only wondering if he had told you he loves you yet He was planning it all morning, it seemed as though it were a safe assumption to make that he'd done it by now, eh? Figured you'd be off having a mad snog, to tell you the truth. Was a bit surprised to find you here at all. But that was insensitive of me. Forgive me, I beg you." This time Katie was the one who looked on, slack-jawed and bewildered. It was a few long moments before her eyes returned to their previously narrowed state.
"Shut the sodding Hell up, George. I'm not going to say it again. Can you not see I'm nearly finished?" George crossed his arms over his chest. "So touchy," he mumbled.
Katie Bell's legs were no longer tucked underneath her comfortably, and her torso was twisted in a position that pinched her spine. Her hand was cramped up, and the essay before her was only three quarters as long as it should be. Scintillation Solution seemed to be rather pointless thus far, and she was sure that she hadn't changed enough of Alicia's words to escape detention. Her friends were finally keeping their talking to a low whisper, but it was a lost gesture to the already-fuming Katie.
"Katie-Kates," came a soft but insistent call from beside her. Her muscles grew stiff, her breath caught in her throat, and she nearly shrieked right then. She heard her friends whispers halt quickly. She turned her face slowly, her face hot with anger. Sure enough, the ever-sought-after Fred Weasley came into view. "Hello everyone," he greeted them politely, his focus returning to her. "Katie, I was wondering if we could have a quick chat, you know--away from this lot." He motioned to their group of now intently staring friends.
"Oh-"
"Sorry brother," George interjected quickly. "She has a potions essay to finish there, and she's requested not to be disturbed. Yes, yes, quite publicly, quite seriously, sorry you missed it. Anyway, you might as well just go about your business, Katie has no time for your little chat tonight." The quick-speaking Weasley twin winked at Katie, as if to say 'your welcome' in the most irritating of ways, but Katie did not catch this gesture, as she was smiling broadly at Fred.
"Don't be silly, George. I'm sure the essay can wait."