Chapter 2

September 29th

Sitting alone in the library wasn't something new for Sophie, she was a Ravenclaw after all, but having a bunch of annoying Slytherins hovering around her was not something out of the usual.

"Oh come on Soph, I know you still want it. It's not like you were able to go without it for long earlier." The expression on Mark's face made her nauseated and that together with the hollering his little buddies were making made her want to die.

"Mark, just please leave me alone. You were the one to break it off so please just leave it." He was playing with her hair, tugging it slightly- just as he would have done if they'd been studying together as they'd usually had been before.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before reaching for her wand, only to get interrupted by Mark's earlier so playful hand. Grabbing her wand and forcing her head back so her eyes met his.

"Seriously Soph, you really don't have much choice. Either you'll stay my playmate or we will just have to teach you a little lesson, don't we boys?" He sneered at her and she could actually feel her heart break once again, remembering the soft moments they'd shared, how his eyes were filled with love rather than angry lust. She realized that she was terrified, like a deer in headlights.

"Oi Greengrass! Let her go you wanker or I'll hex you ever uglier than you are right now."

Charlie had had a wonderful start of his last year of Hogwarts. The stories about how he saved a damsel in distress had made him even more popular amongst the ladies and Tonks had easily slipped into his bed on the first evening of school- nose changed from the hilarious pig snout to her usual slightly crooked nose. It had of course been a brilliant night and ever since then his days seemed brighter and his classes a fair bit easier to go through with.

Or would have been if he hadn't ended up in all of the advanced classes this year. He would have expected his OWL score being far too bad, ending up barely getting E's, to even be asked wether or not he wanted to attend the advanced classes- but he'd been hit with a strike of luck and was now eligible to apply for his dream job after Hogwarts.

If he passed of course.

On this beautiful Sunday he'd already been at quidditch practice, catching the snitch after barely ten minutes making Xander yell profanities at him as he hurried away from the pitch. Apparently ending the first practice of the year before the other players had even started had been an awful idea. So, long story short, he was now hurrying up towards the library to finish off both his advanced transfiguration essay and his care of magical creatures essay before lunch. Otherwise he'd be stuck with four essays to do this evening and Lucinda Rodriguez had promised him a long overdue back rub- in private of course.

Walking towards the back corner of the library, after having sent a wink towards the notorious Madam Pince that earned him a blush, he stepped past a few bookshelves before stopping dead on his feet.

Mark Greengrass, towering over Sophie Watts, although Charlie only could hear the last piece of their conversation being Mark's threatening her he made a rushed decision, puling his wand and screaming at the other boy.

Greengrass startled before pointing his own wand at Charlie, letting Sophie go.

"Oh isn't it the ugly weasel? Did your captain finally kick you off the team? Or are you actually trying to read a book weasel? Well, you'd be fine in here I guess. Your kind are quite used to hand-me-downs aren't you?"

Charlie was a pureblooded Gryffindor. All the boys in his family, the girls too to be perfectly honest, were pureblooded Gryffindors. Which probably was why he threw a hex straight in the face on the other boy, making him stumble backwards and hit a shelf making it fall over and alerting Madam Pince to the situation at hand.

"DIRTY CHILDREN RUINING MY LIBRARY. WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Shit. Sophie, quick grab your stuff." The Ravenclaw girl stared at him, gaping, for a split second before grabbing her satchel and wand. Carlie grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the library, leaving the Slytherins with the very much crazy librarian.

Once well away from the library, the couple turned towards each other- both gasping for air.

"Sorry girl, you alright?" Charlie's hair was messy and his face red from their run and Sophie couldn't help herself but to start giggling- making the boy smile too.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Good lord that was a brilliant hex! Who taught you that? His face looked like-like it was turning putrid or something!" Her brown eyes were shining and her teeth flashed as she laughed and Charlie couldn't help himself but to admire her beauty. She was usually quite uptight replying to questions in class and rarely talking to anyone but her ex-boyfriend and her best friend. This was a completely new side of her that he truly enjoyed seeing.

"Ah, to be perfectly honest, no laughing at this!" She was still giggling madly as she supported herself up against the wall next to the grand staircase but as he spoke she tried to keep a straight face before nodding for him to continue. "It was actually my younger brothers who taught me that one, you know, the Gryffindor pranksters?" Her smile fell and she looked slightly annoyed.

"Who doesn't know who they are? They turned my hair orange once and called me a fake Slytherin. I do however think I hit them with a fairly decent bat-bogey hex to make them regret their choice of victim." Charlie started laughing manically at that making Sophie frown:

"That, that was you? Oh Merlin it was brilliant! You know it didn't actually stop before about ten minutes after they had gotten back to the Gryffindor tower. They looked perfectly haunted from that experience, mumbling about girls and hexes for months." Still laughing he flung his arm around her shoulders and started to walk towards the great hall. "Since we probably won't be able to go back to the library for a while, whatcha saying about lunch? I heard the house-elves are preparing some kind of preparation feast before Halloween."

Not able to say no after him saving her from a fairly horrible fate she smiled up to him and nodded before stepping away from his arm.

"Yes, if you're fine sitting with us Ravenclaws. I still have an essay to finish and if I'm not done by twelve o'clock I'll have a billion things to do later this afternoon."

Four hours later and Charlie felt like he had been hit by an angry ogre. Sure, Sophie had helped him finish all of his essays. But to what cost? He was fairly sure neither his brain nor his right hand would ever feel normal again- and Sophie was still going. Sorting through her large stack of essays had barely broken a sweat on her slightly creased forehead and now she was bringing out massive volumes dedicated to healing potions and spells and Charlie just felt like he wanted to die.

"How can you keep going? Aren't your brain as dead as mine?" She raised an eyebrow at the book before writing something down on the new roll of parchment next to her. "Hello? Sophie? You there?" Waving his hand in front of her face earned him a glare and a huff.

"What is it?"

"Are you seriously going to continue studying after four hours of essays? Seriously? What are you?" She shook her head at his antics, before replying in an annoyed voice.

"Well, if you didn't know already I'm a muggleborn, which basically means that I'll have to have perfect scores both on my OWL's, NEWT's and my healer introductory exams. If I had still been dating Mark however, or had your last name, I wouldn't even have to do these stupid exams that I am spending basically all of my time studying for. Do you understand or should I create a thinking chart for you?" All of that flowing out of her mouth rapidly as she continued taking notes on the book laying in front of her.

"Wait, what? Are you serious? That's not right! You're way smarter and better on like everything than all of the kids from the sacred 28 so why is it that you have to do the exams and not them?" His head was swimming with information and just basic tiredness- last night had been a long one after all.

"Charlie, I am muggleborn. My blood is not accepted, what if I am actually just a squib taking some amazing pureblooded waifs place? You know, I might have fooled the whole schooling system." The sarcasm in her voice was not even hidden and Charlie felt stupid, he knew about the structured blood-thinking that was so ingrained into the magical society that no one even thought about it. Or, well, no pureblood ever thought about it.

"Yeah, uh, I'm sorry." She looked up at him, brown eyes meeting blue ones and she gave him a crooked smile.

"Yah, you're fine. I'm just so tired of having to double up my studying to become what I dream of being you know?" Charlie nodded, as if he understood what she meant perfectly- when he in fact did not. As he felt his face redden of the shame he felt about it he rose:

"Ah, I think my brain needs a break. I'll be going outside, you ok with that?" She just waved her hand in his general direction, forehead creased as she wrote down her notes.

Sophie knew she shouldn't be annoyed with him, but everything would have been so simple if she was a pureblood- or just if she still and been Mark's girlfriend. No extra exams, no scary threats and most specifically: No broken heart.

The parchment in front of her was suddenly starting to get wet, large blotches of water hitting it repeatedly. She looked up, expecting to find it raining outside but ending up with realizing that it was still a beautifully sunny day, not a cloud on the sky.

"Oh Chaaarlie! I've been looking for you all day, Xander told me you left your practice early to study but then you just completely disappeared!" Lucinda Rodriguez was standing in front of him, pouting while batting her eyelashes at him and he couldn't help but smile at her as he stepped around her. "I promised you a back rub earlier, and I always keep my word." She was practically purring but somehow Charlie couldn't relax, it was as if something was keeping him in a small bubble of thinking of social issues and why the Ministry of Magic should, quite honestly, do something about it.

"Yeah Lucy, I'm just a bit tired ya know? Kinda wanna go to bed. Alone." Adding the last part was necessary since she was already starting to walk towards his dorm. "But I'll definitely grab a rain check from you, you know I love those hands of yours." He winked at her which changed her face from obvious disappointment to smiling.

"Of course Charlie, see you at breakfast." She blew a kiss at him that he caught and pretended to eat before walking up the stairs to the dorm he shared with the other seventh year Gryffindor males.

Throwing himself on his bed and closing his eyes, falling asleep to the soft rhythm of boys getting ready for bed and the picture of a frazzled girl laughing her head off in the entrance hall.

Hm,hm,hm. Slightly shorter but still: Tell me what you are thinking.

xoxoxox