Classes the next morning made Katie want to bash her head against a desk. Three days in and there was already nothing to do. Her situation wasn't helped by the fact that every time she stopped having coursework-related things to think about her head filled with images of George and the looks he had been shooting her the whole night before. For someone who was generally inordinately cheery, he had not been in a good mood after hearing that Cormac McLaggen was in the process of spiriting her away. Not even recruiting young children to use as lab rats had helped with his sudden bout of grouchiness.

Which made his large smile at lunch even more surprising. Not even Cormac walking by and slapping her on the arse as she was sitting down made it disappear. George did, however, raise an eyebrow and mouth "charmer" at her from across the table.

Alicia sat directly next to her and was barely fazed by the whole borderline harassment thing. She was too busy picking wilted lettuce from her salad. Actually, Katie noted with some amusement, none of the pieces she had taken out were actually wilted, just a darker colour. Or spinach, maybe. She didn't spend enough time examining greens to be able to spot the difference.

When George and Fred started consulting with a third year about an unfortunate facial rash brought about by one of their candies, Alicia looked up from her little health project and said, "He asked me on a date this morning."

Clearly, Katie's mouthful of chips was impeding her hearing, because Alicia's casual comment hadn't made any sense at all. Her slightly stunned silence seemed to encourage Alicia to continue.

"In the middle of Potions he leaned over and said, 'Oi, Alicia,'" she briefly examined a carrot before continuing. "And then I answered, 'What George?' And he goes, 'How would you like to meet me in the Astronomy tower tonight?' And I said, 'You don't take Astronomy and I don't have it tonight.' And he said, 'Learning was not my intention,' which I answered with, 'Ew.' And then the bell rang."

Katie stared blankly at her for a few seconds. "You are the worst storyteller ever."

Before Alicia could start with her clearly offended answer, Angelina leaned forward so she could see Katie around the indignant blonde girl between them and assured her, "That's not actually what he said, just so you know."

"Oh," said Katie. She took a brief glance at the ketchup she had spilled on the linen during Alicia's tale and decided not to do anything about it. "Good."

"Although he did use an Astronomy tower line."

"Told you!"Alicia cut in.

"But it wasn't that terrible," finished Angelina. She glanced at the back of Fred's head - he was now having an animated conversation with Lee - clearly thinking that she had the suaver twin. Not that Katie had the other one. All that much.

"Whatever," said Alicia flatly. She returned to sorting her salad, now taking out little purple and and white things that Katie vaguely recognized as radishes. "The point is that he was hitting on me." After finding and eating a satisfactory radish, she added, "And then on Marietta Edgecombe after class, which actually worked. She agreed to let him in her pants for the low, low price of him being his very vaguely attractive self and her being a whore."

Katie took a deep breath through her nose. "Fine. Cormac's been after me since last winter, so George is perfectly welcome to go for anyone he wants to."

"Except for Alicia," Angelina corrected her. "Because it's kind of creepy."

Alicia perked up and said, "Besides, I'm with Oliver."

"Not really," said Katie. "Hasn't he been shagging Penelope Clearwater since she and Percy broke up?"

"Shh," said Alicia, putting her finger against Katie's lips and pinning them closed. "True love can't be stopped by blonde slags who throw themselves on professional Quidditch players."

Angelina looked skeptical. "When he told us the story, it didn't really sound like-" She was cut off mid-sentence by the index finger of Alicia's other hand.

Alicia probably would have gone off on the downsides of people with curly hair had Lee not turned around and noticed their odd positions. "The hell are you doing?"

"Talking about true love," answered Alicia, deadpan.

Fred and George turned around as well. They looked more amused than anything else. Katie made a point not to look at the older of the two. The one she could bear the sight of grinned and guessed, "Woody?"

"Oliver," corrected Alicia hotly, pressing harder into the other girls' lips. Angelina grabbed onto her thin wrist and put it forcibly back onto the table.

"Woody seems more appropriate," said Fred.

George smirked and added, "Considering he came onto you-"

"In the locker room after practice-"

"Even though he was naked-"

"And you were on your way to the shower."

Katie swallowed the last bite of her chips. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of Lee trying yet again to force the image of a naked Oliver Wood out of his head. He'd always had a very overactive imagination. His smirk a little larger, George said, "Good old Woody. He always thought with his brain on the pitch and his prick everywhere else."

"Which is something you know all about," said Katie offhandedly. She was now taking about as much interest in her food as Alicia was.

Fred answered before George got a chance to. "Woody's sexual proclivities? I'm not sure who you heard that from, though it was probably Lee here, but I assure you that we deal exclusively with the fairer sex."

As always, Katie was subtle as a brick. Without looking up, she said, "Such as Marietta Edgecombe?"

"I have never so much as snogged Marietta," said Fred, crossing his heart with a finger.

Lee amended, "For too long." He became quiet and very invested in his sandwich shortly after Angelina shot him a look that could only be described as terrifying.

"I have," said George. Voluntarily and for the first time since she had sat down, Katie looked directly at him. There was an innocent smile fit for a young nun about his lips. "And we were neither inebriated nor at a celebration of any sort, least of all Quidditch."

Katie's jaw clenched. Her grip on her glass of water tightened. Alicia looked on wide-eyed, much more interested in the brewing argument than in the piles of vegetables before her.

As calmly as she could manage, Katie said, "Get bent."

Normally, George would have answered, With pleasure. This time, however, he went with, "I would, but that might make you even more jealous."

Katie slammed her glass down, slopping water onto the linen to go with the ketchup. "I wouldn't be jealous if you were the centre of an eightsome on the front lawn."

"I'll take that as yes, it would," George grinned.

Without acknowledging that last comment, Katie got up, slung her bag over her shoulder, and left the Great Hall like she was off to murder someone. As she went, she heard Angelina say brightly to George, "You're an idiot!"

Thank you again for reading! A new chapter will be up... when I figure out how best to portray Cormac... Yes.