FRED'S POV:
Breakfast was almost normal, except for the fact that every guy in the school was fawning all over Koti. Again.
She didn't look like she was even really enjoying the attention that much. Like it was boring. That seemed to be the only expression she ever had. I only ever saw her bored when she wasn't offering up fake smiles to her admirers. They were too blinded by her beauty to see the smiles' fakeness, though.
A guy that was sitting next to her was talking animatedly and gesturing to his bag beneath the bench.
She nodded and smiled enthusiastically. Another fake. When he turned and searched his bag for whatever it was he was going to show her, she frowned and was back to being bored. But this time it was more than bored. It was almost sad.
I frowned, too, unhappy because she was unhappy.
She probably felt me watching her from down the table because she looked up at me then. She gave me a half-smile and waved, mouthing, "Hi."
I smiled and tilted my head down, looking up at her from under my short hair. "You okay?" I mouthed.
She looked shocked, like she was surprised that I had been able to see through her façade. Before she could respond, the guy brought out something in his hand and her attention was required once more.
I gathered my things and stood from the table, walking out. As I turned the corner outside the door, I saw her frowning after me out of the corner of my eye.
Classes were just as boring as usual and since it was the first day of school, we didn't have to do any work. Lucky me, I had tons of free time to think and make my already pounding headache worse.
In Snape's class I was assigned detention for trying to sleep in class (even though we weren't doing anything else). It was only because I was in Gryffindor, but I had nothing better to do besides think, so I didn't even argue that cleaning cauldrons was a waste of my time.
When all of my classes were over, I made my way back to Snape's classroom and pulled all of the cauldrons out. Snape was nowhere to be seen (thank all that is holy). I wasn't sure I could deal with him any more than absolutely necessary.
I heard a bunch of footsteps out in the hall. I went to the door and cautiously put my ear to it, listening for whoever it was. No student would be caught dead down here with classes out.
I heard a vaguely familiar voice say, "Yeah, I'll be right there!"
The footsteps got louder as they approached the door. Koti.
I ran back to the cauldrons and got to scrubbing, trying to seem natural.
The door opened and she slid in, quickly closing the door behind her. She slowly turned with her eyes closed and sighed.
"Something the matter?" I asked, the washcloth still in my hand.
She opened her eyes wide, startled. I waved. "Sorry, I didn't know anyone was in-"
"You running from someone?" I interrupted.
She opened her mouth and started to shake her head like she was going to say no, then seemed to decide against it. She nodded.
"Ah… Tired of your stalkers already?" I teased.
"Yes." she said, no trace of joking. "They never leave me alone. I cant believe most girls actually want this. All the attention is killing me and I don't know how to break it to them." She was getting more and more emotional. She smiled apologetically after a moment of silence.
"You're too nice." I commented, scrubbing some unidentifiable muck out of the bottom of a cauldron.
"I'm what now?" Apparently this had made her angry. I heard her use the same angry Irish tone Seamus always used when he was riled up.
"Nice. You cant tell them because you're afraid of hurting someone. But if you ever want to get left alone, you're going to have to break some hearts, princess." I said, not looking at her and pushing the cloth into the cauldron over and over, trying to get that green goop out. 'How are these already dirty? it's the first day of school!' I thought.
I looked up, expecting her to be mad still, but she seemed to be contemplating my suggestion. "Maybe you're right," she admitted, sounding defeated.
"You gave up awfully easy. Not very much like your brother, are you?" I noted.
She cocked a brow.
"Seamus never gives up a fight." I began scrubbing another cauldron.
"I don't either. But Seamus is about as stubborn as a mule. He's always looking for something to fight about. I swear, he would argue with a stop sign." She rolled her eyes and walked forward. "So what are you in for?" she asked, gesturing to the pile of cauldrons and holding her chin in her hand.
"Sleeping in class." I said monotonously, trying not to look up from the crusty red stuff in the bottom of the cauldron and into her eyes.
She made a disinterested, "Ah" noise. She sat and watched me struggling with the same cauldron for a few minutes before saying, "Look, you're not even doing that right. Give it to me."
I gave her a confused look but relinquished my supplies. She made a deep hacking sound in the back of her throat and spit noisily into the cauldron. I moved closer, peering over her shoulder at her pooled saliva in the bottom of the cauldron.
"See? Now if you scrub it…" she started scrubbing. "It comes right out."
She turned her head, thinking I was still farther back. But when she saw that my face was only inches away, she paused and looked down to my mouth then her eyes darted back up to my eyes. "Um…" she said softly. Then she seemed to snap out of it. She set the pot down hastily and handed me the rag. Then she moved to the other side of the table.
I blushed, realizing how close things had gotten just then.
She walked to the door and put her ear up against it. "I think they're gone." she whispered.
She turned, dusting her hands off on each other. "Anyways, thanks for the pep talk." and with that she turned and left the room, the door slamming shut behind her.
"No problem. See you." I said, barely able to get it out before she was gone completely.
I took a long considering look at the bottom of the next cauldron and then spit into it, preparing to scrub until nightfall.
