A/N: I got this idea one day and decided that, well, maybe I should write it. I know it's a long chapter and all, but I hope you like it. Oh, and updates won't be happening too often. Be expecting chapters as long as this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I do own Tatiana, Sydney, Carter, Alex, Leah, Jadyn, and Lacey. Sounds like a lot of characters, aren't really when you read it. This is the disclaimer for the story unless I think of something else I own and add it.
Well…I'm going to start this off by saying that he was my best friend. You know, the one you can count on to put you in detention with him. The one who always knows how to make you laugh until you cry and your chest hurts and smile until it hurts your cheeks and you don't want to smile anymore but you can't help it.
So what if I was a year younger than him? So what if he died and I never told him I loved him?
I guess I should start at the beginning.
My name is Katie Bell, and I am a witch who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And, unfortunately, the love of my life is—was—Fred Weasley.
I think it started in my third year, his fourth. It was Quidditch practice, and he was shooting me funny faces during practice, so I kept on missing my shots and laughing at how stupid he looked.
"Katie!" Oliver yelled at me. "Stop flirting with Fred and score some goals!"
"Me? Flirting with that?" I yelled back, turning around to face him. "You've got to be out of your mind, Oliver!"
And then, before I knew what hit me, I was falling to the ground, and Fred swooped down to catch me before I broke into a million pieces.
George had accidentally hit a bludger at me.
Basically, all I can pretty much remember is being in his arms and looking into his soft, funny, light brown eyes and his many freckles that littered across his nose and both cheeks.
And then, he smiled, making his eyes shine and making me realize that I wasn't talking.
"Pay attention, Bell," said Fred, snorting a laugh. "I might not catch you next time."
And it didn't matter to me that he had laughed when he had said it, or that he had threatened me, or that he had called me by my last name. All that mattered was trying to find another way to make him hug me so I could be in his grasp once again and feel that warm, heart-lifting feeling that makes me want to just kiss him on the lips and forget everything else around me.
It's going to be a long story, in other words, so get ready.
I'm going to start with the summer before my first year.
My cousin had told me all about Hogwarts, from the Astronomy Tower, the highest point in Hogwarts, to the dangerous Forbidden Forest. In other words, I was as excited as any eleven-year-old can get.
I remember getting on the train. Perhaps it was then that I started to like Fred Weasley, perhaps not. I just remember finding a compartment and sitting in it by myself.
"Hey, newbie," someone had shouted from outside. I looked out to see a red-head standing there. "This is our compartment."
And then, he walked in with three other people, one boy, two girls.
And me, being me, couldn't move.
"George, honestly, you can be so rude sometimes," said the girl with the dark skin and dark hair.
"Oh, come on, Ange, we claimed this compartment last year so we'd always have a place to sit!" said the red-head, who I later learned to be George.
The girl rolled her eyes and looked at me. "Excuse my friend, he's being rude. I'm Angelina Johnson."
"Katie Bell," I said.
"And this guy right here is George Weasley," said Angelina. "If you know what's best for you, don't befriend him."
"Oh, come on," said George. "Who doesn't want to be my friend? I'm funny, charming, hot, sexy—"
"Unbearable, annoying, obnoxious," said the other girl, this one with blonde hair. "I'm Alicia Spinnet."
"Nice to meet you," I said.
The other boy, the one with the dark skin and dark hair, was zoning out drumming his legs until Angelina kicked him. "What?" he said.
"So you're not going to introduce yourself?" said Angelina.
"Fine, fine," said the boy. "I'm Lee Jordan."
I nodded. Just then, the trolley pulled up. And me, being hungry, stood up and made way for it, going to buy a packet of Every Flavor Beans.
"What're you doing in my compartment?" said a voice. I looked to the front of the trolley to see George.
"I'm sitting there," I said. "Remember? I was there first, George."
"What're you talking about?" said the boy. "I'm not George, I'm Fred."
I looked back into the compartment to see the other red-head who must be George laughing.
And me, being the eleven-year-old that I was, dropped my newly-bought-beans to the floor in shock.
"What, never seen twins before?" said Fred, who shoved past me and walked into the compartment.
"I'm not retarded, of course I've seen twins before!" I said, shoving my way back into the compartment. "I've just never been introduced in such a fashion."
"Did she just say 'such a fashion'?" said Lee, shaking his head in disapproval. "We are definitely going to have to work on that."
The rest of the ride was spent in conversations, including Fred and George trying to shove me out of the compartment but being unsuccessful because, in Angelina and Alicia's words, they 'needed to show more respect to the future of Hogwarts'.
All I can say is, thank God I had them on my side back then.
Anyways, I was sorted into Gryffindor that year and surprised my fellow first years by hanging out with the second years.
And, soon, Quidditch tryouts rolled around.
"We're going to try out!" Fred and George announced to me one day.
"Really?" I said. "You guys are so lucky you could bring your own brooms! Mine got confiscated by Filch!"
"You could always try out," said Angelina, walking up with Alicia next to her. "We're going to try out as well."
"Oh, good luck!" I said.
"So, are you going to try out?" said Alicia.
"First years never make the cut," I said. "It's a known fact. Maybe next year."
"Suit yourself," said George. By that time, I had learned to tell them apart. It turns out that Fred has softer and lighter colored eyes than George.
Anyways, as a supporting friend, I showed up at Quidditch tryouts anyways and sat in the stands, watching my friends try out and sitting next to Lee.
"Kate, I have decided something," said Lee.
"And what's that?" I said, smirking and leaning back in my seat to look at him.
"You need friends your own age," said Lee.
"Trying to get rid of me once again? It's not going to work, you've been unsuccessful the past forty-seven times this week."
"No, no. I'm going to try to introduce you to a first year like yourself."
"Once again, I'm not retarded. You're trying to get rid of me."
"Look," said Lee, leaning forward and looking at me. "I've known you for about three weeks. And, by now, I know that you're my best friend, which is sort of odd to say, considering that I'm a year older than you but whatever. You're in our group, and I'm pretty sure that Ange and Alicia and Fred and George feel the same way about you. I just think that you shouldn't be so lonely in all your first year classes while all of your friends are in their second year classes."
"Oh, don't feel so bad about," I said. "Besides, I have first year friends. I just don't hang out with them as much as I hang out with you guys."
"Oh," said Lee, leaning back in his chair once again. "Okay."
I nodded and continued to watch the tryouts.
"The team's going to get better in a couple of years," said Lee. "Once Fred and George's sister comes to Hogwarts."
"Fred and George have siblings?" I said, not having listened to the family gossip at my family's dinner table.
"Yeah, don't you know?" said Lee, looking at me and smirking. "They're two of seven."
"Seven?"
"Yeah. They have one brother at the school right now, a fourth year by the name of Percy Weasley, and then they have two brothers who have already graduated, Bill and Charlie, one brother coming to Hogwarts next year, Ron, and one sister coming to Hogwarts the year after, Ginny."
"Oh," I said. "How do you know their sister's good?"
"She's a pretty down-to-earth kid," said Lee, shrugging. "I hang out at their house during summer's, and one day I found her sneaking into their broom shed and stealing George's broom. I asked her what she was doing, she made me swear not to tell, I swore, and she told me that she was practicing Quidditch. I watched her. She's good."
"Hmm," I said, getting distracted by the Quidditch going on. The Quidditch Captain, Oliver Wood, had set up boxes of keep-away and was having the Chaser's try out. If they dropped the Quaffle, they had to leave. Angelina and Alicia didn't drop it once.
They had seven Chasers left, so they all started taking shots on Oliver. They each had three shots. If they made two or more of the shots, they were going to head to the right side of the goal posts. If they made one goal or less, they were going to head to the left side of the goal posts.
Angelina was up first. She easily made all three goals. Some other girl went up next, only made one. It went on until Alicia was up, who made two of the three goals.
There were three girls and one boy who made two or more. The other three had to leave. One of the girls was seventh year, as was the boy. Angelina and Alicia were the only second years.
After some talking, it seemed that Oliver decided to have them take shots on him until they missed. If they missed, they were cut. Angelina was up first once again, faked Oliver out, and scored. The two seventh years went and scored. Alicia went and scored.
It went on five times until, unfortunately, Alicia missed. Angelina and the two seventh years were on the team.
They both came up to the stands and sat next to me and Lee, both dripping with sweat and Alicia with a big scratch on her shoulder.
"Some girl decided to get intense," she said. "I was reaching for the Quaffle and so was she, I got it, she missed, then got pissed, then tried to slap me by sort of missed, resulting in this disgusting, bleeding scratch."
I shrugged and turned to Angelina. "What about you, Angelina? Any interesting Quidditch injuries happen to you during tryouts?"
"None that I recall," said Angelina. "Took a Quaffle to the head, but that's about it."
"Oliver seemed to really like me, though," said Alicia, smiling even though she wasn't on the team. "He said that he thought I could be better and that I should work on my Quidditch a bit more. So, he's going to have me practice with the team at every practice. I'm going to be the reserve Chaser!"
"That's great!" Lee and I said.
Soon, the Beater tryouts were going on. Fred and George were smiling the entire time, and I could tell that they were doing this for fun and not to be serious. I mean, they were Fred and George, they were never serious. Everyone knew it. So, I watched.
And they were good, laughing when they hit the other Beaters that were trying out off of their brooms and high-fiving each other once Oliver complimented them.
In other words, they were on the team, much to the consent of others who thought Oliver was only putting them on the team because they were related to Charlie who, from what Lee told me, was the best Seeker Gryffindor had had in ages.
So, once Fred and George rejoined our group, we walked up to Hogwarts.
"That's so cool that we're all going on the team together!" said Angelina.
"Well, except for me, Alicia, and little Katie here," said Lee, putting his arm around my shoulder.
"Hey, I'm not little," I said fiercely, shoving his arm off of my shoulder. "Don't call me that."
And after that, it became everyone's goal in that group to call me Little Katie at least seven times a day, and it became a pet peeve of mine.
One day, as I was walking out of class next to Leanne, my closest first year friend, I was grabbed on both sides of me and picked up.
"Excuse us," said the one on my right, Fred. "We just need to take Little Katie here with us somewhere."
"Fred! George! Put me down!" I yelled, struggling to get out of their grasp.
"And why would we put you down?" said George. "You might run away."
"Or yell at us and then run away."
"Or yell at us, run away, and then tell McGonagall what we did."
"UGH!" I groaned.
"Well…see you later, Katie," Leanne said awkwardly as she walked away and Fred and George walked away carrying me between them.
"Thanks a lot, guys," I said. "You just scared my friend."
"Oh, well," said Fred.
"You have another seven years to become her friend again," said George.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked wearily once they walked me out the Hogwarts doors.
"Quidditch pitch," they answered in unison.
"Why?"
"You keep on talking about how you love Quidditch," said Fred.
"And how you're ever so good at it," said George.
"Anyways, we need to practice," said Fred. "Will you help us?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"No."
"Fine, I'll help you."
Once at the Quidditch pitch, they handed me a school broom and I jumped on with ease and flew around the pitch, happy to be back on a broom, even if it was a school broom.
"And why didn't you try out?" said Fred. "You're a natural on a broom!"
I shrugged. "First years don't make the cut."
"You might have," said George.
I shrugged again. "So…what do you need help with?"
"Wood wants us to improve our eyesight," said George. "Said we needed to practice hitting smaller objects so we can hit the bludger every time."
"At least you don't need a target," I said. Fred and George laughed.
Anyways, it became sort of like a tradition, coming out on the pitch every Friday to practice Quidditch with Fred and George. Sometimes Angelina and Alicia would join, but mostly it was just us three.
Soon, the first Quidditch game of the season arrived in October. I would have sat next to Lee, but he was chosen as the announcer this year. So, I was sitting next to Leanne and a couple of her friends named Tatiana, Sydney, Carter, and Alex. They were most of the first year class of Gryffindor. And the only reason I wasn't sitting next to Alicia was because she was in the Gryffindor changing room, as Oliver had told her that the team will need her strength and support to let them know that they're a good team and can win.
And, typical, I know, Gryffindor was playing Slytherin.
I was wearing my Gryffindor scarf, ready for the big match. As an avid Quidditch fan, I had been to a couple professional Quidditch games. This, however, was different. I was rooting for a team that I guess I could sort of call my own, and it was a rivalry. Gryffindor needed to beat Slytherin.
"Why are you making me go to this stupid match?" Leanne had said earlier as I dragged her up to the pitch with me and, Leanne, being Leanne, dragged her circle of friends with her.
"Because, it's Quidditch!" I tried explaining. Leanne wasn't too fond of Quidditch. Apparently, when she was younger, her parents had brought her to a Quidditch game and one of the bludgers was accidentally hit at her face. Since then, she's never seen a Quidditch match.
"And what's so special about it?" Leanne groaned.
"It's—oh, for goodness sake!" I yelled up at the castle ceiling. We had still been inside the castle at that time. "What's the use of being a witch at Hogwarts if you don't root your house team on to win?"
"Quite frankly, I don't care if we win or lose," Leanne muttered.
Me, Tatiana, Sydney, Carter, and Alex stopped in our footsteps to look at Leanne.
"What do you mean, you don't care if we win or lose?" said Alex. He had grown up like me, obsessed with Quidditch. "It's Quidditch! If we win, we get a whole lot of house points and a better chance to win the Quidditch cup!"
"So?" Leanne said quietly.
"What's wrong with you!" Alex screamed.
"Al, relax," said Tatiana. She was Muggleborn and didn't quite get Quidditch. "It's just Quidditch."
"Just Quidditch! Ugh! You guys don't get anything!"
From that point on, I knew that I would get along with Alex really well.
Anyways, the argument went on until we went down to the pitch and took our seats. I sort of wished that I was sitting with Lee in the announcers box, so I'd feel more comfortable. I don't really know this group of friends too well yet, and Lee did admit that I was his best friend. But I wouldn't be able to sit in the box with him anyways, McGonagall was sitting with him, as were all the teachers. It made me laugh when I saw him and he saw me and waved. I think the only other time anyone would ever see him near teachers would be when he gets into trouble.
Anyways, Alex and I forced Leanne into a seat and started to watch the game.
"And they're off," I heard Lee's voice say, magnified around the stadium. "Seventh year Chaser Leah Pullman with the Quaffle. She's pretty good-looking if I say so myself, however I'm way too young for her, I'm only a second year—"
"Jordan!" McGonagall yelled.
"Sorry Professor, couldn't help myself. Her dark hair hypnotized me. Anyways, Pullman dodges the bludger hit by Slytherin Beater Francis Perry—keeps on going towards the goal—OH, COME ON, MADAM HOOCH! THAT WAS A FOUL!"
It was a foul, I swear.
"Anyways," said Lee, after he had taken some breaths. "Slytherin Chaser Flint went head-on into Pullman, almost knocked her off her broom, that dirty, filthy—"
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry, sorry. Anyways, foul wasn't called—Slytherin in possession—Gryffindor Beater Weasley—they're twins, don't know which one—hits a bludger at Flint—hits him in the back of the head! The Quaffle's falling—caught by Gryffindor Chaser Angelina Johnson, one of my good friends. Johnson does an excellent fake and passes to the other seventh year Chaser Jadyn Hayes—Hayes takes it up—dodges Slytherin Chaser Adrian Pucey—Hayes shoots—Bletchley attempts to catch it—GRYFFINDOR SCORES! THE QUAFFLE WENT THROUGH BLETCHLEY'S ARMS!"
Everyone cheered, and I was very happy.
However, that was the only point in the game that I was happy. We ended up losing, 370-10.
And I had had a feeling that Oliver was pissed.
Anyways, Tatiana ended up being the only one out of herself and Leanne that was happy they had gone to the game.
"It's so intense!" Tatiana had said. "It's really fascinating!"
Lee and I met up and went to wait outside of the Gryffindor locker room for Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia.
"Good announcing," I said.
"McGonagall kept on nudging me," said Lee. "She kept on thinking I was going to say something really inappropriate. And Snape was sitting right behind me, he was no help either. He acted as if he wanted to hit me because my comments about Slytherin weren't as nice as my comments about Gryffindor. I swear, Snape is a git!"
I laughed. "What do you expect? He's Head of Slytherin."
"Yeah, well…he should be nice to everyone! I mean, come on, isn't he for world peace?"
I laughed again. "Guess not."
Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia eventually came out. Angelina had a frown on her face and wasn't meeting anyone's eye. That happens to be the only time I had ever seen Angelina upset and not talking to anyone. Every other time I had seen her she had been laughing, talking, or yelling. She's Angelina Johnson, she can pull of those things.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks, nothing too exciting happened. And then, late one December night, I was sitting in the common room with my group of second year friends, talking about everything. And then, they all left and me, being me, decided to take out my book and do some reading. So, I started to read. And then, someone tapped on my shoulder.
"Hey, Katie?"
I turned around. It was Alex. He looked sort of shy and confused for the first time in his life. His soft blue eyes weren't meeting mine, and it looked as if he had worked really hard to get his brown hair to get that look that he hadn't worked on it at all.
"Hey, Alex," I said. "What's up?"
"Um…I wanted to talk to you," he said.
"Okay," I said. "You can sit down, you know."
"Yeah…" said Alex, and he took the seat next to me.
"So…what's up?"
"Um…I've been thinking lately and…well…I…I think I…"
"You think you…?"
Finally, he raised his eyes and looked into mine. "I think I like you as more than a friend. And…well…I wanted to know if you…you know…wanted to go out with me?"
"I'll think about it," I finally said. Alex smiled, wished me a goodnight, and walked back up to his dormitory. I tried to go back to reading but couldn't concentrate, so I barged into Fred, George, and Lee's dormitory and turned on the light. They were the only third year boys.
"Wake up!" I shouted. "I need to talk to you!"
"We've only been asleep for an hour!" said George. "Go away, you midget!"
He covered his head with his pillow. I took the pillow off of his head and started hitting him with it.
"Wake—up!" I said. "I—need—to—talk—to—you!"
"What is it, then?" Fred yelled, sitting up straight in bed. I could easily tell that he was pissed at me. And it sort of made me feel like shrinking back.
"Sorry," I said quietly. "I'll go find Angelina and Alicia—talk to them or something—"
And just as I put my hand on the doorknob, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Fred had put his hand on my shoulder. I turned around. "No. You can stay. What is it?"
And I explained everything. First, I started off by saying that Alex had asked me out, and then I explained who Alex was and how he might have started to like me.
"Wow," Lee said when I was finished. "The drama of an eleven-year-old."
"Shut up!" I said. "I just want to know if you guys think I should go out with him or not?"
"Maybe I should've let you talk to Angelina and Alicia," said Fred, smirking at how confused I was with this.
"Oh, come on," I said desperately. "I need to know what I should do!"
George shrugged and laid back down in his bed. "I don't know. I'm going back to sleep."
"Fine!" I said.
"Look, Katie," said Fred. "If you think you like this Alex dude or whatever, go for it. See what happens. See if you like him. It's not up to me and it's not up to George and it's not up to Lee. If you think you could be a good couple, then go be a good couple."
"You asked Fred, George, and Lee for boy advice?"
Angelina and Alicia were astounded the next morning when I told them what had happened.
"Are you out of your mind?" Alicia shouted. "They're nitwits!"
I shrugged.
"What, are you saying they gave good advice?" said Alicia, laughing.
"Well…yeah, actually," I said, confusing myself in the process. "They sort of did."
And so, later that day, I told Alex that I agreed. And, that Friday, we took a walk along the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"It's so beautiful," said Alex. "As if danger could pop out at any minute."
Honestly, I had been bored. And then, we got into a stupid fight over Quidditch teams. And then, he told me that I was stupid to be a Puddlemere United fan, so I told him that he was stupid to be an Ireland fan. And then, the fight got more and more intense, with each of us flinging dirty words and comments at the other, until Alex finally said, "You know what? I don't even know why I asked you out! You're such a bitch!"
And he started walking up towards the castle.
"You bastard!" I yelled after him. Even as a first year, I had expanded my vocabulary…not too much for the benefit of my parents, but they didn't have to know.
"Alex is such an ass!" I barged into Angelina and Alicia's dorm room, as I could tell that they had been waiting all night to get a report from me. They had even kicked their other dorm mates out.
"What happened?" Angelina asked, silently begging me to tell her everything.
"Well, we got into a fight over Quidditch teams. At first, it started out really stupid, like, 'Oh, Ireland's got so-and-so and who has Puddlemere United got?' and stuff like that! And then, he started saying things like, 'Katie, you're so stupid to cheer them on' and 'Oh, Katie, they're never going to win. You're stupid to think they're going to win' and it kept on going on and on until we started fighting with just each other and calling each other names. And then, he told me that he wished he had never asked me out because I was a bitch! And then he ditched me and I yelled after him that he was a bastard and I hate him! I hate his ass! I hate his ugly ass!"
And so the rest of the night was spent with Angelina and Alicia trying to calm me down because, as I had learned that week, when you really start to think about someone, the more and more you think about them, the more you want to be with them. And that's what happened with Alex. I contemplated over him so much that he became my first crush!
However, the next morning, Alex and I talked and made up, however we weren't going to be a couple anymore. We were just going to be friends.
No sooner had winter break arrived, and, though I was excited see my family for the first time in almost four months, I was very upset to leave my friends. They had become just like my family.
"Oh, come on, Katie, it'll be fine," said Lee as we were exiting off the train.
"I know, I know," I said. I wasn't crying, and my face was probably red, but whatever. I was fine.
"Awe, Little Katie's upset," said George, pinching my cheek.
"Hey, cut it out!" I said, swatting his hand away from my face.
Well, I was soon bombarded by my family, who started squeezing me to death, and, after hugging my friends' goodbye and making them promise to write (even though it's only a two-week vacation), I left with my family.
"Were those the Weasley twins?" my father asked. He worked in the ministry, and, as I later found out, had known Arthur Weasley since I was two.
"Yeah," I said, shrugging. "Why?"
"Aren't they a year older than you?"
"Yeah. So?"
"Why aren't you hanging around students your own age?"
"I hang around students my own age. Fred and George are just my best friends."
And that was that. Christmas was really big that year, though. Since my father was friends with Mr. Weasley, he decided that we should invite their family over for Christmas.
Their whole family. Along with my mum's side of the family.
In other words, it was a full house.
I had already opened my presents that my parents had deemed "From Santa" and had gotten ready in some new clothes that "Santa" bought for me. My make-up was on (even though I had never really worn make-up before Hogwarts, Alicia and Angelina helped me make a habit of wearing it every day) and my hair was done. And, soon, the doorbell had rung.
I ignored it. Mum would probably get it, anyways. And, besides, she always liked to be the first to greet our cousins. That just meant that I shouldn't be expecting a visit in my room for a while, since I was too busy reading my Teen Witch magazine and my mum's older sister, Aunt Carol, was always the first to visit. She was single. Of course, she always had love stories to tell me, such as the time she had first fallen in love and how that man had broken her heart.
And, as she would always end every tragic romance story, "…which is why, Katie, you should never love a man."
Like I would have ever taken that into consideration before my third year.
But, no sooner than the doorbell had rung, was I attacked on my bed by two red-headed twin boys who were both wearing hand-made sweatshirts, one with a large F, and the other with a large G.
"Merry Christmas!" they shouted as they started tickling me.
"Hey—hey—stop it!" I managed to say between fits of laughter. "I can't breath!"
They eventually stopped, and we talked for a while, and then George caught sight of my Teen Witch magazine.
"Aha! What's this?" said George, picking it up but holding it with only his thumb and fore-finger as if it were poisonous. Then, he fake-screamed and threw the magazine across the room. "It's a girl magazine!"
"Back away! Back away!" Fred shouted. "It probably tells them what brand of tampons they should buy!"
"I'm surprised you even know what tampons are," I said, standing up to pick up my magazine that George had thrown and putting it on my desk.
No sooner had I been grabbed by Fred and George, just like that fateful day when they had wanted me to practice Quidditch with them, and they started to walk me downstairs.
"Come on," said George. "Meet the rest of our family!"
"That's Ron," said Fred, pointing at a red-head with freckles and a Weasley sweatshirt with an R on it. "Don't talk to him, he's weird."
"Hey!" said Ron.
"That's Ginny," George continued, pointing to the youngest of the Weasley clan. She, too, had too many freckles to count and, as usual, the Weasley red hair. "Don't set her off, she's got a temper, she has."
"Shut up, George!" said Ginny, walking over and kicking him in the shin. George let go of me and grabbed his shin, causing me to fall to the floor, although Fred tried to keep me up.
"George! Where's your manners?" called another person, with the same red hair but not too many freckles. He seemed older, but not old enough to be the father. He was tall, his hair was long and in a pony-tail, and he had an earring with a fang dangling from it. He offered me his hand, I took it, and he helped me up. He was wearing a Weasley sweatshirt with a B on it.
"I'm Bill, by the way," he said, smiling charmingly. Back then, as an eleven-year-old, I thought he was pretty cute. Back then, I wouldn't have minded if he had swept me up as if I was a damsel in distress and kissed me passionately on the lips.
But that was back then.
"Katie," I said.
"Ah, you're Katie," said Bill. "Fred and George haven't been able to shut up about you all break."
"Well, you haven't been able to shut up about that girl from your work all break," said George.
"'Her hair's so blonde and soft, like silk, and her smile warms every heart she flashes it at,'" Fred mimicked. I laughed while Bill blushed.
Fred and George continued on their journey with me, acting as if it was a dangerous escapade and embarrassing me in front of my parents and their family.
I shrugged it off, though. That was simply Fred and George.
So, I met Charlie, as he was the last to meet. I had already met Percy at school, as he had tried to tell me that I shouldn't set off a dung bomb with Fred and George in McGonagall's classroom one time. I did so anyways, and Fred and George and I laughed at our recklessness.
My cousins soon arrived, and as Fred and George quickly tried to sweet-talk my French cousin, Giselle, I went to hang out with Ron and Ginny.
"Like making trouble, I suspect?" said Ginny, smirking as we reached my room. She saw my copy of Teen Witch, picked it up, and asked, "Can I look through this?"
I shrugged. "Sure," I said.
"So," said Ron. "Do you like making trouble?"
"Only sometimes," I said. "On the occasional Fred and George escapade."
"Whoa!" said Ginny, walking over to the other side of my room where my broom was. "You have a Cleansweep?"
"Whoa," said Ron, noticing it.
"Yeah," I said.
"Could I ride it sometime?" said Ginny.
"Yeah, right," said Ron. "Why would she let you ride a broom? You don't even know how to!"
Remembering what Lee had told me, I had wanted to back Ginny up, but her brothers didn't know about her sneaking into the broom shed, so I kept quiet as Ginny shoved Ron and then kicked him in an unspeakable area.
Needless to say, it was sibling rivalry at its best.
"We got you a Christmas present."
That night, as I was opening the presents from my relatives and giving the Weasley's their presents that I had picked out and hoped they liked, Fred and George walked over to my falling-asleep figure on the couch (I get tired on holidays) and presented a wrapped gift to me.
"You did?" I said, tired but excited. "You didn't have to."
"We wanted to," said Fred, shrugging and…was that a blush? I looked at the card, which was addressed to Little Katie. I laughed and then continued to open it.
It was a bottle of invisible ink and a sugar quill.
"So you can pass notes to your friends and your teacher won't be able to read them," said George. "The ink is only visible if you rub it."
I got up and hugged them. "Thank you guys so much!" I said. "I got you guys something too."
We walked up to my room, where I had hidden the presents for them in case their parents wondered what they were or my parents wondered what they were.
Anyways, I handed each one of them a separate box. They looked at the names and switched boxes with each other. Then, they switched back, smirking at me.
"Twin joke," they said in unison.
"I've seen it before," I said, laughing.
Anyways, they opened it and were both smiling as they looked down at their boxes of pranks I had gotten them, which was filled with dung bombs and other stuff that I found in the joke shop. I had even gotten them some Muggle pranks. And then, I had also given them both some homemade peppermint bark.
They hugged me. "Thanks, Katie," they said in unison.
I shrugged, biting back that cheesy line that was forming in my head that they said in every book and movie. You know, the one that says, "What are friends for?"
Instead, I shrugged. "I know what you like."
Maybe that was when I first realized there was a difference between them. Fred seemed to be the kinder, more resistant, better behaved twin while George was just as wild as he was at school. Fred would never act any different at school, but, before that day, I don't think I had ever expected Fred to have a softer heart than he showed. However, he wasn't the kind of guy that wore his heart on his sleeve.
But, either way, they were Fred and George. That was the way they were, causing chaos and letting everyone think that they were wild beings and whatnot. And I guess that's why I liked them.
But the difference presented itself to me along with their present.
School started up again fast, and as I walked through the barrier, I raced towards my compartment, eager to see my friends once again and ignoring my parents cries of "Katie! Wait up!"
I, like the first time, was the first to the compartment. I put my luggage up on the luggage rack, as to claim the compartment, and walked out of the compartment to say goodbye to my parents, as they were probably pissed at my display.
We hugged goodbye, they left, and I walked into the compartment.
Angelina and Lee had arrived.
"Little Katie!" Lee shouted, tackling me with a hug.
"Lee!" I said, laughing. "Get off me, I'm a witch, I need to breath."
Lee let go and I took my seat in the compartment, but not before hugging Angelina.
"Good to see you again," she said. "Meet any hot guys in your neighborhood?"
"I wish," I said, remembering Bill but not mentioning him. After all, I had considered it one of those childish crushes that was going to go away in due time, just like those children that are in love with the celebrities. "What about you?"
"My break was dull," said Angelina, sticking her tongue out for demonstration. "Did nothing. Went no where. Saw no one."
"Ah," I said, giggling. Angelina smirked.
We were soon joined by Fred, George, and Alicia, and then the rest of the ride was spent in conversations.
"We went over to Katie's house for Christmas," said Fred.
"You should've seen her face when she met Bill," said George, smirking at me. "Priceless. As if she wanted him to kiss her."
And then the whole compartment began teasing me for my love of another Weasley.
We couldn't have gotten to Hogwarts sooner.
"How was your break?" Leanne asked me as we were getting ready for bed that evening.
"Fun," I said. "Yours?"
"Eh," said Leanne, signaling that it was the same-old-same-old.
"Not as good as it could have been?"
"Well…" Leanne started. "You see…I met this guy over winter break when my parents took me skiing."
"Was he hot?"
"He was gorgeous!"
And the rest of that night was spent talking about hot guys. Soon, Tatiana and Sydney joined in. And, as they continued to talk, I realized I couldn't keep my eyes open for another minute and I found myself falling asleep.
Two weeks later, I found myself running down the halls with Fred and George. You see, Filch was after us. Fred and George walked into Hogwarts dripping mud everywhere from Quidditch and I had met up with them. Angelina and Alicia were still trying to clean themselves off in the locker room.
Anyways, a thought had popped into my mind when Filch came over and started yelling at Fred and George. I get these weird inspirational moments sometimes, but it's not my fault that I end up listening to all of my inspirational moments.
So, since I listened to this inspirational moments, and since I was standing behind Filch while Fred and George were in front of him (Filch hadn't noticed me), I took out a dung bomb from my school bag (I had always carried them handy) and quietly slipped the dung bomb into the hood of Filch's cloak, setting it off in the process.
Fred and George had seen me do it and it took all of their energy not to laugh while Filch was yelling, "I have to clean this up, you know! You could've cleaned yourselves off in the locker room!"
And that was when Filch sniffed. Then sniffed again, and again, and again. Just as he had realized what I had done, I started running and Fred and George started running behind me, catching up to me in the process.
"Nice one, Kates!" Fred yelled while we were running, holding out a hand for me to slap, which I did.
"We've taught you well," said George, laughing.
We continued running until we reached the fifth floor and were waiting for one of the stairs to move our way so we could continue upstairs.
"Damn!" I heard George say. Fred and I turned around to see a cat…Mrs. Norris.
"Come on, come on!" I started saying. The stairs moved and we started running up them before it even came to a complete stop. And then, we ran all the way up to the seventh floor and into the Gryffindor common room.
Filch ended up telling McGonagall anyways and all three of us ended up in detention with Hagrid for that Friday night.
I had always liked Hagrid. He was fun to be around and always a joy to talk to. His interest in dangerous animals had always fascinated me, and the fact that he was so huge was so interesting that I found myself wanting to talk to him all the time. He couldn't speak as proper as everyone else but he was as nice, if not nicer, as any person I had ever met.
"Come on, into the forest," said Hagrid as Filch brought us down to his hut (I swear, Filch had been glaring at me the whole walk down there…and he still smelled of dung, he must not have known how to take a shower).
So, we walked into the forest.
"Don' let the other teachers know I said this," said Hagrid. "Good one, Katie. Always knew yeh had it in yeh."
I shrugged. People had been congratulating me all week. I was the "First Year Genius", as Lee put it. That name had even gotten spread around, so everyone in Gryffindor knew it and some of them would even point at me and say, "That's Katie Bell, the First Year Genius." Either that or they would say, "There's Little Katie," as Lee had spread that name around as well.
I had a feeling I would never get rid of that name.
Detention was normal, and so were the next couple of weeks until February, when I was practicing with Fred and George on Friday, as usual.
I was throwing them tennis balls and they were hitting them with their bats into the hoops, practicing their eye coordination and their aiming.
"Hey, George, get in goal," Fred said suddenly.
"Fred, what are you doing?" I asked.
"Oh, come on," said Fred. "You're always talking about how you're a Chaser and whatnot. Take some shots on George. Bill and Charlie used to put him as Keeper when they practiced at home."
George levitated a Quaffle up from the ground and into my hands. I got it easily and marked myself at a penalty point. I took a shot and missed at first.
"Haha!" said George, taunting me. "Little Katie will never get it past me, the Fantastic George!"
I smirked at him, faked to the left and shot to the right. George dived to the left while the Quaffle went right through the right hoop.
"Beginners luck," said George.
Fred flew down to get the Quaffle and threw it back to me. Once again, I faked left, faked right, and shot in the middle. It went through.
"Okay, this is too easy," said George. "Fred, you get up there and block her."
"All right," said Fred, shrugging. I knew Fred, and he wasn't about to take it easy on me just because I was a girl. He was going to work hard to try to stop me, even though he was no Chaser.
"No bats allowed," I said instantly.
"I won't need that to stop you, anyways," said Fred.
I smirked. Fred started in the middle of the field and I started at the end. I started flying slowly, my key plan. He started coming towards me. I faked left with my broom, did a 360 turn-around, not a flip, and went right. Fred was right on me, and I stopped in midair while he kept on flying. He turned around to face me, as we were only twenty yards from the goal. Then, he flew right at me, and I flipped upside down while he flew right over me, went right to goal, and scored in the left hoop.
"Impressive," I heard a voice say. I looked down to see Oliver Wood standing right there, gracing me with his Quidditch Captain presence.
Fred and George flew down and I flew down after them.
"What's your name?" asked Oliver.
"This, Oliver, is Little Katie Bell," said Fred.
"You probably know her as the First Year Genius who put a dung bomb in Filch's hood," said George,
"Ah, I heard about you," said Oliver. "You're pretty good at Quidditch."
"Thanks," I said, smiling.
"How long have you played Quidditch?"
"Um," I said, thinking hard. "Since I was old enough to ride a broom, I think."
"Seen any professional games?"
"My dad used to have season tickets to see Puddlemere United when I was seven."
"Hmm." It looked like Oliver was thinking hard on something. "Katie, I think you're a good player, but it's too late in the season to bring any players in. I already have my starting lineup anyways. But, I want you to practice a bit with us. I think you'll have a good chance of making the team next year."
I was smiling really wide, not believing what I was hearing. "Really?"
"Yeah," said Oliver. "We'll see how good you get, and if you're much better by the end of the season, you can count on a spot on the team next year."
"Okay," I said, managing to at least say something. "Thank you so much!"
"It's no problem," said Oliver, shrugging. "If you keep getting better, then there was no time wasted in having you come to the practices."
I could hardly contain my excitement as we walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.
"He thinks I'm good at Quidditch!" I said, practically yelling as we walked into the common room. Angelina and Alicia were ecstatic for me, as was Lee
My first Quidditch practice with the team was exciting. I could tell the seventh years didn't think much of me at first, as I was a puny first year practicing with the team. Angelina and Alicia, however, made sure that my talent was shown by passing me the ball whenever I was open and letting me shine.
The seventh years, who were named Leah Pullman and Jadyn Hayes, knew by the end of the first practice that I was a good Quidditch player and that they should play me the ball more so I could get better for the future of this Quidditch team.
The rest of the practices went good, and on Saturday there was a Quidditch match against Ravenclaw.
"Katie," said Oliver, coming up to me at the end of practice as I was wiping the sweat off of me with a towel. "I want you to stay in the locker room with Alicia to root us on."
"Sure," I said, shrugging.
We beat Ravenclaw by a lucky ten points. Our Seeker, who was a seventh year by the name of Lacey Callaghan, caught the Snitch on a lucky breakaway. Honestly, she's not too good of a Seeker, but it's hard to find good Seekers nowadays.
It wasn't until the middle of March, though, that something interesting happened to me.
It was Quidditch practice, and I was flying around on my broom. All of the Chasers were joking around, and since I was the littlest one, it was a keep away game from me. Oliver approved of it, as it was good practice, but I was getting very pissed off.
I looked up to the seventh years as my older siblings. They were protective of me and the team (me and Alicia included) were always hanging out to become closer to one another. I found that, since I'm the youngest, littlest and lightest, and also feistiest was always teased, just like the little sister in a family of nine.
Anyways, I was in the middle and had sort of made a weird dive towards the Quaffle as if I was a Keeper.
Honestly, I don't know what happened, but I woke up in a heap on the Quidditch pitch grass. I thought that the entire day had been a dream, and I had been too lazy to wake up.
I even remember thinking, Oh, great, I have to get up for school, don't I?
Anyways, I opened my eyes and saw the three tall hoops towering over me.
"Katie? Katie, are you okay?"
And then, the next thing that popped into my mind: Oh, crap.
People kept on repeating my name and I got up.
"Katie, are you all right?" Alicia asked. I was sitting on the floor still.
"Y-yeah," I had said, stuttering. I was sort of scared and felt like crying, but no way in hell was I about to cry. I was going to be tough. "Y-yeah, I'm fine."
Fred took my hands and lifted me to my feet, where I stumbled for a second but regained my balance.
"Take her to the hospital wing," said Oliver instantly.
"No!" I said fiercely. "Oliver, I'm fine! I can practice!"
"You have a fat lip! You're not going to practice!"
I felt my lip and, sure enough, it felt bigger than normal, as if a bubble was forming on the inside.
"Fine," I said.
"Alicia, take her to the hospital wing," said Oliver.
On the way up, Alicia asked, "Katie, what happened?"
I still felt like crying, I was so scared. "I-I don't know," I said.
"You're bleeding," she said.
"What?"
"On your lip. Here."
She handed me a bottle of water. I took a sip, rinsed my mouth out, and spit out the water on the grass (we hadn't reached the castle yet). The water was a little redder.
"Do you know what happened?" I asked as we walked into the castle and started walking up some stairs. I felt light-headed, as if I was going to faint, but I wasn't going to let myself faint. I was going to be fine. I was Katie Bell! Of course I was going to be fine.
"Well, you were diving for the Quaffle, and you hit Jadyn's broomstick with your lips and then he was reaching out to catch it and his hands accidentally hit you in the back of the head, from what it looked like."
"It was weird," I said. "It was like I had…had blacked out or something. Ah! My head hurts!"
I put a hand to my head to see if it was hot, which it was. I had the biggest headache.
"You blacked out?" Alicia asked in shock.
"Yeah…I guess I had."
It freaked Alicia out and we finally reached the hospital wing.
"I don't think anything's remotely wrong with her," said Madam Pomfrey. "The fat lip will go away."
"Can't you give me a potion to make it go away?" I asked.
"No, no," said Madam Pomfrey. "It's best to let things like that heal on their own. But, however, I think it would be best if we took a brain scan of your head."
She took a scan of my head and, as I had thought, I was fine. No internal bleeding or anything else that could have been bad. Madam Pomfrey gave me a potion to take to cure my headache and, after that, I was sent up to my dormitory to go to sleep. It was late, anyways. Or, at least, it seemed late to me. It was nine o'clock. Madam Pomfrey, however, had told me to go to bed straight away and get some rest.
"Wow, you're lucky we don't have school tomorrow," said Angelina once I had arrived.
"Is my lip that huge?" I asked, trying to press my upper lip against my teeth to see. It felt as if the bubble inside of it had grown.
"Yeah," said Angelina.
"It doesn't matter that tomorrow's Saturday," I said, in a way pouting. "I see everyone anyways! This just had to be a boarding school!"
And I walked up to my dorm and fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning at seven. I mean, if I went to bed early, I was bound to wake up early. And I even got about ten hours of sleep, more than I had gotten in a while.
Anyways, I got up and looked into the bathroom mirror.
My lip was huge. And chapped. And blue. Well, just the bloated part of the lip.
Either way, I still looked ugly as hell.
"Come on, Katie!" said Angelina later that day as I was hiding under my covers. "It can't be that bad!"
"It is, trust me!" I yelled back through my covers.
"Oh, come on," said Alicia.
"What's going on?" Leanne had apparently shown up. She knew Alicia and Angelina since I had introduced them, but she wasn't as close to them as I was.
"Katie here won't get out of bed," said Alicia.
"And for good reason!" I yelled back.
"Why not?" asked Leanne.
"She got a fat lip at practice yesterday," said Alicia.
"Well, it can't be that bad, can it?" said Leanne.
"It is!" I said. "I'm not leaving this dormitory and you can't make me! Bring everyone else up here if it's so important for all of us to hang out!"
"Katie," said Leanne. "Get out of bed. Stop acting like a two-year-old."
"I'll act like a two-year-old for as long as my lip is the size it is!"
My lip probably weighs two pounds by now.
"That's it," said Angelina. She pulled back the covers and took my pillow from me. Then, she gasped, as did Alicia and Leanne.
"You see?" I said. I took the pillow back from Angelina and pulled the covers back over my head. "I'm not leaving this room."
"Don't worry," said Angelina, and I could tell she was on the verge of laughter. "We're all for it. We won't let you get embarrassed."
I swear, that day, I applied chapped-stick to my lips thirty or forty times. My lips hurt like hell, and it wouldn't stop, either.
The next day, my lip was shrinking a tiny bit, but was still big and blue. In other words, it was another boring day stuck inside my dormitory.
There was a knock on the door, and I pulled up the hood of my jacket in an attempt to hide my lips. "Come in."
Oliver Wood came in, and I was in shock.
"How did you get in here?" I asked. "Isn't there a charm on the staircase or whatever?"
Oliver smirked and raised his wand. "It's called magic. Levitation. You should've had your lesson on it already."
"Oh," I said.
"How's your lip?" asked Oliver.
"Big and blue," I answered honestly.
"Well," said Oliver. "The Quidditch team is hanging out today on the Quidditch stands. You want to come? We're your team, so don't worry, we won't laugh at the size of your lips."
"Okay," I said. He was the captain, after all. I pulled the hood down and, although I could tell he wanted to laugh, he didn't. "Just let me get ready. Are we meeting in the common room?"
"Yeah," said Oliver. "Be there in five minutes."
"Okay."
So I put on a pair of Muggle jeans and a sweatshirt (it was cold) and met my team. I still had my hood pulled up as to spare me of embarrassment in front of my fellow Gryffindors.
The only ones still in the common room were Angelina and Alicia.
"The rest of the team walked down already," Angelina said. "We're going to meet them."
I nodded and we walked down. Once at the stands I sat down at the bottom of the group so I could look up and listen to the conversations.
"Hey, Katie," said Fred. I hadn't seen him, George, Lee, or hardly anyone else on the team since Friday. "How's your lip?"
I pulled my hood down and he gasped.
"Oh no, can it be?" he asked George in one of those fake-worry voices.
"I think it is," said George in one of those tones as well. "Attack of the fat lips! Hers has already turned blue!"
"It's the disease!"
"She'll surely die!"
"Shut up," said Leah. "You gonna be okay, kid?"
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that name to you guys as well. I've been called kid, squirt, newbie, Little Katie, the First Year Genius, shrimp, and so forth.
"Yeah, I think so," I said.
"Well, by the looks of it, it will be gone by tomorrow," said Jadyn. "Be lucky there's no school."
"Believe me, I'm relying on my luck by now," I said. Jadyn laughed.
"Are you going to practice with us tomorrow?" asked Lacey.
"Why wouldn't I?" I asked. "It's only a fat lip."
"Okay," said Lacey. "Just wondering."
The rest of the time spent with the team went well. Eventually, we all got hungry, and, since I was the youngest, I was sent to get everyone a sandwich from the Great Hall.
"Wait," Fred had said before I left. I turned around. "Do you take special orders?"
"Oh, and what would you like on your sandwich, sir?" I asked mockingly.
"Peanut butter and chocolate!" said Fred.
"That sounds disgusting," I said before I left.
I was getting six turkey and cheese sandwiches and three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I returned with said sandwiches and we all ate.
"So," said Oliver. We all turned to him, as everyone knew he had a reason for letting us do some team bonding. "Let's talk Quidditch."
"Oh, boy," said Jadyn, and we all laughed.
"I'm serious," said Oliver. "I thought of a new game strategy last night."
And so he went on explaining it. Then, Leah looked at it and discovered a mistake, so Oliver fixed it. Then, Jadyn said he didn't know how to do one of the moves in the strategy, and Oliver got confused.
"Jadyn," he said. "You've been on the team for two years and you've been playing Quidditch since you were seven. How can you not know how to do this?"
"What move is it?" I asked, looking at the sheet of paper Oliver was jabbing at.
"It's a flip," said Oliver.
"Jadyn, you don't know how to do a flip?" I asked.
Jadyn shrugged. "Hey, it's not my fault."
"Katie can do a flip!" George yelled out.
"You can?" said Jadyn, shocked.
"It's not that hard," I said, almost blushing but trying to control the amount of blood flowing to my face.
And then, Leah started laughing. "You're scared of heights, aren't you, Jadyn?"
It was Jadyn's turn to blush. "No, I'm not! If I was scared of heights, would I be playing Quidditch?"
"You're blushing," Leah pointed out.
"It's not my fault I'm scared to fall off my broom!" said Jadyn. "Look at Katie! She has a fat lip and was knocked unconscious!"
Well, it went on, until finally Oliver told me that it was my job to teach Jadyn how to do a flip by the end of the week.
I didn't exactly know how to do a flip, honestly. I've always just…you know…been able to do it. It's been easy. Ever since I first stepped onto a broom, I've been able to do any move I ever tried.
Anyways, the only way I could think of teaching Jadyn how to do a flip was having him roll around on the ground. And, honestly, I didn't know what else to do. He was a seventh year, and I was a first. He had just turned eighteen, and I was eleven until May.
"You want me to roll around on the ground?" said Jadyn in shock.
"I don't know," I said, sort of nervous. I mean, he's an upperclassman! I'm a tiny, not-even-on-the-team first year.
"I'm not going to roll around on the ground," said Jadyn.
Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. First year or not, I knew how to do something he didn't. "Look, Jadyn, with all due respect, you're going to need to know how to do this flip. You do it in the same motion as rolling around on the ground. I'll even do it with you.
So, I got down on the ground and started rolling around. Jadyn finally gave in and started rolling too.
"Here," I said, handing him a broom. "Keep rolling on the ground, but as if you were on your broom."
Jadyn was embarrassed, I could tell.
It took him until Wednesday to learn how to do it. By then, he acted as if he could have done it all along.
"Ms. Bell? Bell, are you still with us?"
I opened my eyes. I was in class, in McGonagall's class, and I had been dozing off.
"Sorry, Professor," I said. "What was the question?"
The Slytherins in the class snickered into their hands, and I shot a dirty look at the first one to catch my eye.
"That won't be necessary, Ms. Bell," said McGonagall. "I asked you for the proper wand-waving motion to turn a matchstick into a needle."
So I demonstrated the wand movement, and tried not to fall asleep again.
"Why'd you fall asleep?" asked Leanne as we walked out.
"It's not my fault," I said. "I was practicing with the team until five yesterday, and then I had to do all of my homework, but Fred and George and Lee wouldn't stop bugging me. I was up until midnight!"
Leanne smirked as if to say, "You chose them as friends."
Actually, that wasn't the complete truth. While being with the team, we all accidentally skived dinner. So, I was doing my homework and Fred and George had been bugging me so, finally, at eleven, we had decided to go down to the kitchen to get something to eat.
On the way down to the kitchen we almost ran into Snape. It was honestly lucky that there were shadows at Hogwarts. We all crouched down low in the corner of the hallway and stayed there until Snape was gone.
Then, Fred and George got that look in their eyes and I knew what was about to happen. So, naturally, I wanted in.
One of George's specialties was levitation. However, that didn't come in until the end. At first, I gave Fred a tennis ball which we threw at the back of Snape.
He had stopped in his steps and looked back. We were hiding in the shadows and George had levitated the ball back to us.
"Whoever threw that, come out now!" said Snape. It took all of our self-control to not laugh. Eventually, Snape started walking again.
Then came the fun part. We had stopped by in the kitchen, but it wasn't for food (although we were starving). We had stopped by for a cold bucket of water.
George started levitating it. And soon, it was over Snape's head. Then, George made the bucket of water turn upside down and it poured onto Snape's head, soaking him to the skin!
Since the bucket was already upside down, George just stopped the spell and let it fall onto Snape's head, covering his face so we could make our quick escape.
However, our escape wasn't too quick, because Snape was hot on our trails. We had to keep on cutting left and right, almost getting lost in the process, but making it back to the Gryffindor common room by at least one thirty.
And that was how I had spent my Thursday night.
Anyways, it was the beginning of April. Oliver had us practicing almost every night of the week. We had already played Hufflepuff and beat them, luckily too. So, we were going to play Slytherin once again to see who would win the house cup.
During every practice, I had had the feeling that Oliver wanted to take Jadyn out of the upcoming game and put me or Alicia in, but wouldn't do that since Jadyn was in his last year of Hogwarts and hadn't even been awarded captain.
Anyways, the game came and, unfortunately, it was raining. Alicia and I were watching from right outside the locker room door, shivering. Since we had to support Gryffindor, we were both wearing a pair of extra Quidditch robes we had found (with about three layers under to try to keep us warm. We also had on Gryffindor scarves and Gryffindor beanies. None of us had any make-up on, as the rain would probably ruin it, and we were going to try extra hard to pump up our team if they came back into the locker room.
Oliver finally called a time-out. The team marched in, sopping wet and miserable.
"You guys are doing great," Alicia gushed.
I nodded. "Yeah, we can beat them."
"Lacey," said Oliver finally. "Catch the snitch. We actually made it to the finals this year, and I want to win! We want to win! We're a team, and this is a team effort! If we win, I promise I'll…I'll take us all to Diagon Alley over the summer or Hogsmeade and buy everyone ice cream! Or I'll order us a new set of Quidditch robes for next year! Come on, let's win! Angelina, try passing the ball more."
"Oliver, it's not my fault," said Angelina. "I can barely see anyone."
"Just try, okay?" said Oliver. Angelina nodded. "Fred, George—hit more bludgers at the other team. Try to get the Keeper unconscious or their Seeker. Got it?" Fred and George nodded. "Jadyn and Leah, score some more goals. It won't be as bad of a game as it was last time, we've already scored more goals then last time. Everyone work and everyone try hard! Let's do this!"
Everyone cheered and went out onto the field.
I can honestly say that, to this day, it was an exciting match. There was this one awesome goal that Jadyn made, where he went straight towards a player and used the flip move that I taught him, then scored.
However, we lost. 460-70. Slytherin won the Quidditch Cup yet again.
I was glum. I had wanted to win, even though I wasn't even on the team. I was mad that the Chasers couldn't score any more goals then they already had, I was made that Lacey didn't catch the snitch, and I was mad that Oliver didn't stop all of the goals that were shot at him.
However, on my way out of the locker room with an angry-at-the-world face on, Oliver took my shoulder and led me back into the locker room. Alicia was there too, sitting. So, I sat next to her.
"I'm going to talk to you two about next year," he said. He wasn't too happy either, and I was glad that he wasn't yelling. "Next year, we're not going to have a Seeker. But, I have most of my starting lineup. What I wanted to tell you two is that there is a definite spot for both of you on the team as starting Chasers."
"Thanks, Oliver," we both managed to say.
Leaving, Alicia and I were the only people who walked into the Gryffindor common room that were happy. We were on the team next year, no doubts about it!
May came, and I was as excited as could be. My birthday was coming up! It was going to be on Saturday, May 17. I was going to be twelve.
I walked down into the common room the day of my birthday, tired and yawning, when all of a sudden people shouted out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!"
I blinked hard and then looked. Fred, George, Lee, Angelina, Alicia, Leanne, Tatiana, Sydney, Carter, Alex, Oliver, Leah, Jadyn, and Lacey were all there. Gryffindor-colored balloons filled the room, as well as a stack of pancakes with my name written on it with whipped cream sitting on the over-stuffed couch.
I went down and hugged everybody.
"Are you going to eat all those pancakes?" Lee asked.
"It's my birthday, why not?" I said.
"Wait, wait, we have to put the candles in them first!" said Angelina. She put two candles onto the top pancake and lit them with a match.
Everyone started singing:
"Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Little Katie
Happy birthday to you."
I blew out the candles, and then Fred, George, and Lee started singing:
"And many more
On channel four
And Scooby Doo
On channel two
And the big fat lady
On channel eighty."
I broke out laughing. "What is that?"
"Some Muggle birthday song," said Lee, shrugging. "That girl, Tatiana, she told us about it."
I laughed and looked at Tatiana, who laughed and shrugged.
I ate my pancakes with pleasure while we all talked. Then, a box was brought out wrapped in striped wrapping paper.
"What's that?" I asked excitedly.
"A present for you," said Angelina, stretching out the word 'you'.
Trying to contain my excitement once she set it down on my lap, I opened the card first. It said:
So it's your birthday. Give it a rest, your nothing special. Happy birthday anyways.
I laughed, figuring that Fred and George had probably picked it out. Everyone signed it.
"Open it, open it!" Fred and George started chanting. Lee soon joined in, followed by Alex, then Carter, then Angelina and Alicia, and then everybody joined in on the chanting.
I opened it up. Inside the box was a pair of Chaser gloves, my first pair ever. And they were the national ones, too, the ones that cost at least thirty or forty galleons! My eyes were open in shock, and as I stared at them, Oliver said, "Be sure to practice a lot over the summer, okay?"
I hugged absolutely everyone at least five times.
It was a good birthday, and it was going to be a good year.
Finals came and passed, and I passed every final. Soon, it was time to go home.
We snagged the same compartment we did every time and I was surprisingly quiet the rest of the ride home.
Leah, Jadyn, and Lacey stopped by in our compartment to tell us goodbye and good luck for next year. We all hugged them, telling them that Quidditch won't be the same without them.
The train slowed to a stop, and I felt like crying. I wasn't going to see my friends for two whole months! That's over forty-six days without any friends to cheer me up!
"Don't worry, Little Katie," Lee had said.
"By next year, you won't be able to call me Little Katie," I said.
"Oh," said Fred, coming up and hugging my side, "we'll always be able to call you Little Katie! You are our Little Katie, after all."
"Yeah," said George, coming up to my other side. "Hogwarts wouldn't be Hogwarts if we couldn't call you Little Katie."
I rolled my eyes and hugged them both. We started getting off the train as a group.
"There's my mum," said Angelina. "I'll see you guys next year…maybe over the summer, eh?"
I hugged her, as did everyone else. I could spot my parents in the crowd unfortunately.
"Well…looks like I've got to go, too," I said. I hugged everyone. Alicia…Lee…Fred, George. "You all need to write or else I'll be pestering you with owls until you do."
"Wow, attack of the killer Katie owls," said George.
"Sounds like fun," said Lee. We all laughed.
"Bye," I said, taking my luggage over to my parents. They hugged me and we walked out the station, them pestering me all about Hogwarts and how it was and everything while I wanted to be quiet for once.
After all, I had to save my voice for next year.