Prologue
Ice Queen. Yup, that summed her up. Or, at least, that's how she was this year. It was her sixth year as a Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had spent her first four years as a happy-go-lucky, smart, brave Gryffindor … exactly what was expected of her. But last year … last year was different, and this year was the same kind of different. And no one, save a few, quite knew why.
Nonetheless, she was the Ice Queen of Hogwarts. She was, frankly, a bitch to most people. She had a 'holier-than-thou' attitude towards most of the girls, well the ones that threw themselves at men anyways. And she ignored most of the guys; they were crude, rude, immature and, most importantly, not worth her time. The guys pined for her and the girls admired her.
The majority of the guys at Hogwarts, spent at least some time, wishing that she was theirs. She was stunningly beautiful when she wanted to be. She had long, dark brown hair that came to the middle of her back and hung in soft waves. Her chocolate brown eyes could entrance nearly anyone, but they were usually hard and obstinate. She was on the House Quidditch team, so her figure was desirable to say the least. She was extremely toned and looked good in almost anything. In addition to all this, she used to have one of the most contagiously bubbly personalities in all of Hogwarts. She rarely got angry and when she did, she worked it out with whomever she was angry at within a day or two. This really made her the perfect girlfriend, as Roger Davies could attest to.
He'd been her last serious boyfriend before … before the big change from happy, young Gryffindor to bitter, mature Ice Queen. They'd been pretty close; their relationship had started in second year as just good friends. Then, at the beginning of fourth year, it progressed to boyfriend/girlfriend level. And lastly, it all came to a screeching halt on the last day of fourth year. Before they had left Platform 9 ¾ for home, she had come up to him and said, "Roger, I don't think we should be together anymore. This just isn't working". Roger was shocked beyond belief. Just the day before they had been talking about their future; moving to London, her coming back to Hogwarts to teach, him playing for Puddlemere United. And all the while, them still being together. He'd sent her hundreds of letters throughout the summer, begging her to just talk to him, but to no avail. He wasn't even sure she had read them, as he'd never gotten any response. When school started up again, he tried to talk to her, but that was even worse than the unreturned letters. She was unbelievably cold to him. Hell, that was an understatement. She would barely even look at him, let alone acknowledge his presence.
But it didn't matter anymore; apparently, she had moved on and it didn't take Roger long to follow suit, despite how much it hurt him to do so.
Then there were the girls; they were in absolute awe of her. They admired everything about her, down to the fact that she had never substituted a salad for a meal in her entire life. She was everything they wanted to be, but couldn't. Even the Slytherin girls admired her, despite the fact that they tried to deny it. Besides, most of the Slytherins thought she should be one of them, anyways, well … after the change at least.
Yet, her demeanor before 'the change' was almost completely forgotten by everyone. Except for two people.
But nonetheless, the girls loved the person she had become … the Ice Queen she had become. They adored her because she never let a guy break her heart; in the few relationships she had had after Roger Davies, she had been the one to end it. And the guy had always been crushed. Furthermore, she never went out of her way to impress guys. When she dressed up, it was because she wanted to. And, more importantly, she had a good many days where she wore a shapeless sweatshirt and baggy pants, simply because she wanted to be comfortable. She ate what she wanted to and didn't fret about coming back to school all sweaty after Quidditch practice. She never let guys push her around. In her relationships before fifth year, it had been an equal balance of power, which is part of what made things work so well with Roger. But after 'the change', it was no longer equal. She was the dominant one in the relationship, no questions about it. And then there was the fact that she never, ever, ever swooned. No guy in Hogwarts (or maybe even the world) could have that affect on her. Even if there were a guy that could possibly make her swoon, she would never let herself get to that point. She had seen too many women have their hearts broken; she wasn't about to let herself wander down that same path.
Yet this made her all the more desirable; after all, guys want the one thing they can't have.
So the guys wanted her, the girls admired her; the teachers were baffled by her, and only two people in all of Hogwarts truly knew her. In the current Hogwarts community, she melted her heart for two, and only two, people; Fred and George Weasley.
Yes, it was true that they had a reputation of being carefree pranksters that could never act serious … but she knew a different side of them, just as they knew a different side of her. A good amount of time, she even spent the night in their room or vice versa. No, no, it's not what you're thinking. They had no romantic tendencies towards each other whatsoever. It was more of a sibling relationship. Seeing that Ginny, the twins' sister, didn't like them all that much (not as much as she liked Bill anyways) and wasn't very close to them, she was like the sister they never had. They'd stay up all night sometimes talking, which is usually how she ended up in their room. Besides, she didn't like her dorm mates anyways and theirs were perfectly fine with having her sleep in their dormitory. But any hopes of hitting on her were gone a long time ago, when Fred and George had beat up Ken Towler (one of their dorm mates) for just that, at the beginning of fifth year. But Ken was the only one that had ever tried anything; Lee was too good of friends with the twins to even make an attempt (knowing full well what they would do to him), and there were no other Gryffindor boys in their year.
Now that's not to say that they didn't want to hit on her. But they were also a lot smarter than the rest of the boys at Hogwarts, in one way at least; they knew that they would only end up discarded like all the others. So Ken and Lee were comfortable with her as a 'friend', so to speak. They knew her better than everyone else in Hogwarts, but not nearly as well as Fred and George. Occasionally, when the day had gone particularly well, Lee and Ken would catch a glimpse of the real person behind the Ice Queen. Granted, it was only a glimpse, but it was more than anyone else (save the twins) got.
Fred and George were a different story. She was rarely without them; they had all the same classes and were all on the Quidditch team. Despite what everyone thought, the twins were actually extremely smart. They were brilliant in potions and, with her help, had started to do a lot better in all of their classes. Not that they really needed her help, as they had been a little above average before, but they always appreciated it. They lived thirty minutes walking distance away from each other, so the majority of the summer was either spent at the Burrow or at her house.
They knew everything about her, down to the smallest details. And she knew everything about each of them. There wasn't much that surprised them about each other anymore, but that's exactly the way they liked it. There was enough excitement in the world without having to wonder about what your best friends were going to do next.
Unbeknownst to the majority of Hogwarts, Fred and George were extremely protective of her, and she of them. They kept tabs on all of her boyfriends and weren't totally innocent when it came to the pranks that would mysteriously befall them. Similarly, she 'observed' the few girls that the twins went out with. Very few girls in Hogwarts could put up with their prankster personalities. Deep down, while they still loved to have fun, they were much more serious. But that didn't really matter seeing as the only personality any of their girlfriends were ever going to see would be their prankster facades. Nonetheless, she always made sure they weren't doing anything … unacceptable. None of the girls they dated really lived up to her standards. Granted, her standards were high, but Fred and George meant the world to her. She wasn't about to let them get caught up with some girl that didn't deserve them. Frankly, in her opinion, no woman in the world would ever deserve one of the Weasley twins, but she thought they could come a lot closer than in the past.
The same was true for the twins' opinion of her and her boyfriends. But they were a little less critical than she was, because they knew that she wouldn't let herself fall in love, whereas the twins were capable of getting caught up in the moment and forgetting themselves. They didn't need to worry though; they had her to keep them in line, after all.
Some would have called it a lonely existence, having no significant other and not much family to speak of. But she had the twins, and that was all that mattered to her. She got perfect grades and probably would be Head Girl next year, except for the whole being a bitch to everyone thing. Yet it worked for her.
That life worked for Katherine Anastasia Bell; Hogwarts' own Ice Queen Extraordinaire.
A/N: This is Pia O'Leary here ... Q's not available at the moment, so I'll be writing this A/N. I hope you all enjoyed the Prologue. I know it's a bit slow, especially considering the lack of dialogue. But the next chapter really picks up, I promise. Q and I are currently working on Chapter 2; it's undergoing editing at the moment. It should be up by next weekend, but I make no promises considering my schedule. Please review!