Written for Freya-Rhianna's Under-Appreciated Couples Challenge.

I got Katie and Cormac. Hah.

Review please. x

Just

It was a thing of little words.

Of little touch, too.

It wasn't like Alicia and Lee, who would nip out of classes for a romp in the broom-cupboard.

It wasn't like Fred and Angelina, who would never shut up.

It was just him. And just her. And their stubborn, utterly un-sentimental ways.

'Come to the ball with me,' he told her.

She had shrugged. 'Bring fire-whiskey?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, alright then.'

And it had begun like that. He had asked because she had a Quidditch-toned body; she had accepted because she was bored.

'He's a moron,' Fred and George had exclaimed when she told them, sitting down by the lake, passing around a bottle and taking discreet swigs (as they had done at any chance at sixteen-years-old).

'He's so gross, Katie,' moaned Alicia, sitting in the V on Lee's legs.

'Remember when he knocked George off his broom at try-outs last year, because he said George hadn't aimed the Quaffle well enough?' Angelina told her seriously.

'And you should see the state of his socks, Katie,' Lee told her.

She had shrugged under the five pairs of skeptical eyes, taking an extra long swig of the fire-whiskey. 'At least it won't be boring,' she said. 'He's getting me fire-whiskey.'

'Ah, what a gentleman,' sighed Fred scathingly.

'Says you,' snapped Angelina.

'What's that supposed to mean?' cried Fred indignantly, Lee and George sniggering at him.

And Katie stopped listening gratefully, as the topic had drifted off Cormac. But just because her fellow Quidditch players moved on to critique Fred, Leanne presented in the same way as they had.

'He smells weird, Kat,' Leanne insisted, one night as she plaited Katie's hair.

'It's because he doesn't shower,' said Katie simply.

Leanne had shuddered. 'Why do this to yourself? Go with George. We love George.'

'George is going with that Hufflepuff one; the chaser,' she informed Leanne. 'Big tits.'

Leanne sighed. 'Merlin, I swear. I will never understand how her broom gets off the ground.'

'Not to mention they'd put her totally off balance,' agreed Katie.

And with that, Leanne had gone onto a long ramble about sizable breasts. And so the lead up to Christmas had experienced little turbulence, apart from Leanne's dismal shakes of her head when they had classes with Cormas, and the odd snide remark from Fred and George.

Cormac had met her at the bottom of the marble staircase on Christmas night. Her dress was green; his robes had red trimmings.

'Here,' he said, thrusting the bottle of fire-whiskey out to her, as next to them Fleur Delacour was presented with a bouquet of roses from Roger Davies.

'Thanks,' she said disinterestedly. 'It's not very big,' she remarked, tucking the bottle into her bra for safe-keeping.

'Well, you didn't get me anything,' he grumbled.

"Whatever,' she said, shrugging. 'Let's go eat.'

They had sat at one of the back tables for the entire night, passing back and forth the bottle. Leanne steered well clear of them, sneering at Cormac. Fred and George had dropped in once or twice to sip their fire-whiskey and to antagonize Cormac (not that he realized), before Angelina would come over and drag Fred back onto the dance floor, grinding against each other as Lee and Alicia did all night long. And then George would return to the Hufflepuff's side, grinning teasingly at her as she batted her eyelids.

Katie ignored all of them. Sitting with Cormac was nice.

'That one,' Katie would say every so often. 'In the purple dress. Her legs or amazing.'

'What, Krum's girl?' Cormac would scoff. 'Not enough meat on her.

Or:

'I like the red dress,' Cormac would say, pointing at a Beauxbatons girl. 'Why didn't you wear red?'

'Wouldn't we look sophisticated, idiot,' she would snap at him. 'You've got red on. We'd look like total prats.'

'Good point,' he would reply, passing her the bottle.

At the end of the night they stood at the portrait-hole, herself, Cormac, and her three friends waiting for George's date to finally let go of him so they could enter together (none of them, except George apparently, could remember the password in their current states of mind).

Fred had Angelina pinned against the wall. Lee and Alicia were wrapped around each other. George's hands were creeping up the Hufflepuff's dress.

'I'm tired,' Cormac had remarked.

'Mmm,' she muttered in agreement. 'Where'd you get the drinks from?'

'The Hogs Head doesn't care if you're from the school,' Cormac explained.

'Good,' said Katie.

'Want to get more tomorrow?'

'Sure.'

'Can we go inside yet? I want to get my robes off, they're chafing.'

'Okay.' She left Cormac's side, marched to George and pulled him off the Hufflepuff. 'He had a lovely night,' she told her. 'Now George, if you would mind terribly to open the fucking portrait-hole.'

And the six of them had traipsed back into the common room, Lee passing out on the couch in an instant.

'Night,' grunted Cormac, turning into the boys' dormitories.

'Yep,' she said, turning into the girls' dormitories.

'Lee would not leave me alone for one second,' snapped Alicia, as the three girls climbed the stairs to the older students' dormitories.

'Fred was grinding me in front of McGonagall,' hissed Angelina.

'I need to drop him,' sighed Alicia.

'I'm thinking along those lines,' groaned Angelina.

'Oh, we shouldn't be complaining, Ange. So tell us, Kat, was Cormac awful?'

Katie shrugged.

And as Angelina and Alicia continued to list all the many flaws in Lee and Fred, Katie drifted off into her own thoughts. It wasn't much of a thing; it was just them. Just Cormac and just Katie. And there was nothing she would have changed.

I'm sorry to advertise, but if anyone, like me, has a passion for the underappreciated students of Hogwarts, then I recently started a collection of one-shots on my other account, Tomiko Lou, called The Irrelevant Ones. I would really, really love reviews!

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