The next morning I woke up, and found I was surprisingly refreshed and awake; which I was pretty sure was a first, especially on a Thursday morning. I could hear Katie and Angelina in their beds tossing and turning trying to ignore the fact that they had to get up at 6:30 in the morning, while I could hear Alicia get up and make her way to the bathroom, and into one of the four showers; which were charmed so that you couldn't see anything from the outside. Let me tell you that came in handy when all four of us were in there and needed to shower, there are just some things that you really don't want to see that early in the morning. Plus, there was even a little locker to put our towels and dry clothes in so that they wouldn't get wet. But enough about the showers, I really needed to get up. So I rolled, yes I actually rolled (I said I was refreshed, not that I was happy to be up this early), out of bed and landed not so gracefully on the floor with a thump. Groaning I sat up and started to think about what I was going to wear that day (aka, I was procrastinating having to start moving), at least I was until I remembered that I had class today and therefore needed to wear my uniform. I stood up and walked over to where my truck was at the end of my four-poster bed and opened it, digging through it to find my bra and underwear. The ones I picked were red (Gryffindor spirit for the first day of class and all), then grabbing a towel I made my way over to the bathroom and got into the shower that I had claimed as mine in first year, it was the one on the end, closest to the door (and let me tell you, I really had to fight Alicia for it). Katie and Angelina soon entered the bathroom, grumbled a good morning before they got into their showers.
After about a twenty-minute shower I turned off the warm water and dried off, before putting on my undies and making my way out of the bathroom and towards my trunk to find my school uniform. This was not an easy task, as I had just thrown everything in there when I was packing. Eventually I found my skirt, then the white blouse, the black cloak and finally the red and gold tie. I quickly put on my uniform and looked in the mirror, before running back to my trunk and grabbing my white socks.
I shook my head at the overly baggy blouse and the way-too-long skirt, and started the annual uniform adjustments; Alicia was next to me doing the same thing. I made my skirt shorter, but only to a few inches above my knee, and then I tightened my blouse a little to show off my features. Okay to show off my bust…not that it was completely possible in these hideous shirts. Next I tied my tie loosely around my neck and made my way back into the steamy bathroom to fix my hair and do my make-up.
I quickly outlined my green eyes with a little black liner, then added a little gloss and reached for a hair band.
"Leave your hair down," Alicia ordered, walking into the bathroom.
"Fine," I said, but still pulling back my bangs (I was not taking a risk that they would actually dry how I wanted them too).
Soon we were all ready looking cute and ready for a first day of class, we had even finished packing our bags, before we remembered that we need to figure out what shoes to put on, which was surprisingly hard to do (we might have a slight shoe problem in our room).
"Red and gold?" I asked Katie, and she nodded.
Both of us made our way towards out trunk and I pulled out my red pair of converse while she pulled out her gold pair, and then we swapped one for one, happy that we had the same shoe size. Everyone always found this surprising though, considering I was short and Katie was a normal height. Luckily for me though, she had small feet. Alicia and Angelina ended up doing the exact same thing (Alicia with the red pair and Angelina with the gold) we had each gotten the last year for house pride; and it didn't help that all four of us had a thing for converse.
We all quickly made our way to the table, sitting down next to Fred and George.
"You are all matching…" said Fred, laughing at us, "Seriously?"
"It's the first day of class, we need to show our house pride!" Angelina argued, and we all nodded in agreement.
The boys just rolled their eyes, but we were spared a response because Professor McGonagall was walking around and passing out our timetables. Once we all received ours, we immediately started to compare and trying to figure out who we were suffering through our classes with.
"On Monday I have double Potions first, then I have Care of Magical Creatures, then lunch, and afterwards I have double Charms. On Tuesday I have Transfiguration, then free period, lunch and then I have DADA and then another free period. On Wednesday I have Care of Magical Creatures first, and then I have double Transfiguration, and a free afternoon, until Astronomy later that night. Thursday I have double Potions, Transfiguration, lunch Charms and DADA and Friday I have Potions then Care of Magical Creatures and I'm done," I said, slightly out of breath at the end.
"I have all the same classes accept for Astronomy," Alicia said, grinning at me.
"I do too, but I have Divination on Tuesday before lunch, and Wednesday after lunch," Angelina said.
"Same only instead of Divination I have Arithmancy, why on earth did you continue to take that class? It might actually be the most pointless class you are ever going to take…" Katie trailed off.
"Because she amuses me with her craziness!" Angelina said, laughing.
"Well I have the same classes as you do Talli, so does Georgey boy over here," Fred said, "What about you Lee?"
"I have the same as Katie and Ang, except I took Muggle Studies instead," Lee said grinning, "It's such an easy class…"
"Well I would hope so considering you're Muggle born!" George said laughing at Lee's antics.
Lee just glared at his friend jokingly in response.
"I suppose we better go to Potions, I don't fancy having a detention on the first day back," I say with a sigh, everyone else nodding.
As we made our way slowly down to Potions and I prepared myself for this worst, knowing that Snape would make this year hell. I kept telling myself that if I possibly wanted to be an Auror (read if I didn't play Quidditch professionally) I needed Potions, sadly.
"Why did I take this class again?" Katie grumbled, taking her seat next to me in the dimly lit room.
"Because you want to be a healer, so you need it," I said, chuckling as she glared at me.
"It was a rhetorical question…you were not supposed to answer!" she teased.
Shortly after that Snape walked into the classroom, and sucked all of the happiness out of the room. His typical black cloak was billowing behind him, and I could have sworn I saw his disgustingly greasy black hair move in the wind.
"When I tell you, you are to move to your seat with your partner," he said in his monotone voice, "Don't try to switch partners, it won't work, you will be partners all year (the smirk he had on his face really frightened me) Mr. Weasly (he glared at Fred, indicating he was talking to him) you will be partnered with Miss Flint, and you will sit in the front right two desks, Mr. Weasly you will be partnered with Mr. Rowle and you will be in the front left two desks, behind them will be Mr. Lee and Miss Johnson, and across from them will be Miss Prince and Mr. Nott, behind them will be Mr. Rosier and Miss Spinet, and across from them will be Miss Bell and Miss Yaxley. Now, look up at the board for your notes, you have the rest of the class to finish your potion. I will not be as much of a help this year (I had to hold back a snort, since when was he a help?). This is a NEWT level class, and how some of you (cue glare at all the Gryffindors) got into this class I will never know, but I assure you if you fall behind this year you will not be allowed back into this class next year. Now get to work."
You could hear audible groans from around the class, and I could have sworn I saw Snape smirk (he really did get joy out of this).
I made my way slowly to my seat, hardly picking my feet up off of the floor, I could tell Wes was just as thrilled to be working with me, you see we absolutely hated each other. I hated him more than I hated Wood, and that was saying something (reading saying a lot). The reason behind this immense dislike? He was the Slytherin Seeker (aka my rival).
He just grunted as I sat down, and I just glared, before I started taking notes. We were making the Draught of Living Death. Nott sat there and did absolutely nothing.
"Are you going to get the ingredients?" I asked, knowing what the answer would be.
He just sneered at me so I got up and made my way to the back of the room, I knew that this potion was going to be on me, and if I didn't need to do well in this class I would have enjoyed watching him fail.
At the end of class Snape walked around, criticizing everyone's potions, I was immensely curious about what he would say about mine seeing as it was the right color, black. I honestly couldn't think about what he could tell me to change…but I knew he would think of something.
"Five points from Gryffindor," he said, and I could have sworn I saw him smirk again.
"Why?" I asked, trying not to glare.
"You didn't allow Mr. Nott help with the brewing of the potion, there is no need to show off," he said, and he most definitely smirked then.
You would think being distantly related to someone would make them somewhat like you, but that was not the case between Snape and me, in fact he hated me. And let me tell you, the feeling was definitely mutual.
The rest of the day passed relatively slow though. I instantly knew that I was going to be begging Katie to help me in Transfiguration, and that I was going to beg Angelina or one of the twins for help in Potions (I could brew the Potions, but for the life of me I could not write the essays). Yes, surprisingly the twins were amazing at Potions; they just never showed it in class, because they could be put onto Snape's good side (if Gryffindors could be on his good side-I really doubted that was possible), I snorted at the idea of that happening. I was thankful that I was good at Charms, and Defense; we had finally gotten another professor, who seemed like he might do a good job! We hadn't had one for two years, and I was excited to actually learn something that might be useful! Professor Lupin was going to be good though, I could just tell. I knew he would actually help me learn something in that class.
Friday's classes were good too (other than Potions first, but that is a given; that class was never enjoyable). Care of Magical Creatures was a blast with Hagrid! That afternoon I was able to finish all of my homework for the weekend; and it was the weekend, so you could say I was greatly looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday (I am not a fan of getting up early for classes). But that of course would have been too easy.
I was happily sitting and eating a peaceful dinner with the girls, the twins and Lee, when Wood showed up, I should have known that was not a good sign. He had a smile on his face that simply screamed 'I am about to ruin Talli's life'.
"We are practicing tomorrow morning at 7," he said, sitting down across from me.
"Why?" Alicia said, looking out raged, "What happened to a week?!"
"The Slytherins have already started practicing, we can't let them get too far ahead of us!" he said, trying to rationalize it.
"Why does it have to be at 7 in the bloody morning?" I asked, glaring, I hated morning practices.
"Because, the pitch is booked for the Hufflepuff try outs tomorrow, they start at nine," he said, "But I would gladly start earlier if you would like."
And then he smirked and I glared, while Angelina said, "Hell no!"
"Hey Fred," George said, grinning like an idiot, "Pay up…"
Fred groaned and pulled out the moneybag from the train ride and handed it to George.
"Talli, Angelina WAKE UP!" Alicia said, Katie had just been reluctantly pulled out of bed by her feet.
"Why?" Angelina grumbled, "It's too early. The sun is barely up yet…"
"We have practice in a half an hour, and it takes ten minutes to get down to the pitch!" Alicia said, frustrated with our inability to get up.
I groaned and all of a sudden I was hit with water. And let me tell you, it was not warm water, or even cold water for that matter, it was right about freezing!
"ALICIA!" I shrieked, jumping out of bed, now fully awake.
"Yes?" she asked sweetly, as she pointed her wand at Angelina to give her the same treatment.
"I FUCKING HATE YOU!" Angelina yelled, throwing off her covers, yeah she was definitely a cheerful person in the morning can you tell?
After we were all dressed, in our shorts and tank tops, we made our way to the pitch, carrying our brooms. When we got out to the pitch we found everyone else was already there, and Wood was tapping his foot impatiently on the ground.
"You guys are-" he started, but I cut him off.
"Right on time."
He looked down at his watch and glared at me, knowing I was right, it was now my turn to smirk.
"Okay, let's start by running around the pitch twice, then we'll start with some practice drills," he said, and we all nodded.
And all of us (including Wood) started jogging and I knew this was going to be a long ass practice.
We ended up practicing until the Hufflepuffs showed up, kicking us off of the field. We then made our way to the Black Lake, and swam. Yes we swam in our clothes. This happens more often than not. We were normally too lazy to go back up to the dorm and change, and it was much too nice of a day not to swim.
So that was how we spent the rest of our Saturday. Jumping in and out of the lake, playing chicken and having different competitions. When we weren't in the water we were sitting under the tree and simply catching up and talking about nothing.
After a long day of swimming we made our way to our dormitories, showered and collapsed onto our beds, tired from the day of practice and swimming. I was quite proud of myself; I managed not to make sarcastic comments to everything Wood said (only some things). Which happens to be a first since our little issue at the end of sixth year.
I landed and ran towards him, giving him a huge hug! I could not believe we just won, we really did it! He picked me up and swung me around, laughing in celebration, before we walked towards the changing rooms hand in hand.
I honestly could not believe that we had hated each other for four years, especially now that he was one of my best friends! After changing quickly out of our robes and back into normal clothes we walked back to the common room where we parted ways to get ready for the party that Fred and George had planned for it we going to won the Quidditch cup (again).
I got ready fairly quickly, picking out a cute summer dress to wear to the party before straightening my curly blonde hair. I quickly put up some make up on before I made my way down to the common room to look for Oliver. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, excited for the night ahead, and the dance. My eyes scanned the room for him; and ohhh did I find him. Of course, when I spotted him, he had some seventh year blonde bimbo on his lap who was sucking his face like it was the last thing she was ever going to do. I blinked back the tears and went over to the refreshments table where grabbed a fire whiskey bottle and took a huge swig of it, before walking over to Wood and dumping my drink 'accidentally' all over them.
Oliver looked up and glared at me and I just smiled my sweet little smile.
"Sorry, I didn't see you there," I said, feigning innocence.
"Really Prince?" he said, glaring at me, the bimbo just sat there grinning happily.
"Really Wood, why on earth would I dump a perfectly good fire whisky on you? It would be a complete waste," I asked, cocking my eyebrow at him.
"Because you're jealous," he state, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Definitely not. What is there to be jealous of?"
"Yes you are, don't even deny it. You're jealous of Marianna here because it's her who I'm making out with; not you."
"Where the hell did you get that assumption?"
"Because you thought that we were dating, but honestly I was just making the team better. You couldn't catch the snitch while you were sulking over that loser Chris. I couldn't let that effect the team, so I decided to cheer you up. There really was no better way to do it, then to be 'in a relationship' with you."
I just pretended to laugh, but inside it hurt like a bitch, "Really though, where'd you pull that assumption out of? Your ass? You were really just a 'friend' with benefits to me."
So that might have been a lie, but really, he never had to know that. I turned and walked away before he could respond.
I was livid. I was not one to let anyone walk all over me, particularly some stupid guy. So I decided, I needed to get even. I scoped out the room, looking for no one in particular, and when my eyes found Chris' an idea hit me. I knew it was too good not to do, which was probably not a good sign... I knew that Chris was angry at me, but I knew we had one major thing in common, we both hated Wood, that was part of the reason we had started dating in the first place. Chris still held a grudge over Wood from when he beat him for the spot on the Quidditch team, in his third year and Oliver's second. It sort of damaged his ego. So when I started to 'date' Wood I could tell it just killed him, but Wood had seemed nice, and Chris had cheated, so I figured it wouldn't matter. But now I knew he would help me.
"Hey Chris," I said sweetly.
"Hi Talli," he said, looking at me funny, maybe I had said that a little to sweetly...
"Want to do me a favor?" I asked, still in that sickly sweet tone.
"What do you want?" he asked, slightly curious about what I wanted, I could tell because he got that same glint in his ocean blue eyes whenever we talked about something he was interested in, "What can I do for you that Wood can't? He is your boyfriend, after all."
"Woods not my boyfriend, and you can help me get back at him," I said, seductively.
"How?" he said, stepping closer to me.
And then I kissed him, and hard. I put all of my anger and frustration towards Wood into that one kiss, and let me tell you there was quite a bit of that. When we broke apart gasping for air, I turned and caught a glimpse of Wood, with some unknown emotion in his eyes. I wondered what it was briefly before turning back to Chris.
"Let's dance," I said, not leaving his side all night.
Chris and I ended up dating into part of the summer until we decided we no longer had much in common, other than our hatred towards Wood so we broke it off, staying friends. And with that bittersweet memory I fell into a deep slumber. Having weird dreams about Wood (yuck!), Chris (weird), Viktor Krum (very random, but enjoyed, haha) and Quidditch.
