"You devilish little wanker! How in the bloody name of the bloody sodding Baron did you manage to get my king? Tosser!" Mandy said, absolutely fuming as she was disbelievingly looking at her king. "Enough of the language mate; I have skill, talent…" Cho teasingly chimed as her friend was growing red across the table, her king demolished into tiny little pieces.
"I thought I had you… ah well… nice game anyway. Well played." Mandy encouragingly smiled at her friend. Despite Mandy's anger-lapses, she always managed to recuperate herself. Some would call this "mood swings" or "bipolar."
"And to you as well Manders." At this, Mandy felt a firm grip on her shoulder. "Yes Manders, I wanted to know if I could have a quick word with you." Mandy looked up into the deep blue eyes of Roger Davies, Quidditch captain and fellow chaser. "Roger…" Mandy began as she gently lifted Roger's hand from her shoulder. "You know how I don't like that little nick name." Roger grinned like a mad man despite Mandy's remark.
"Alright then, do you mind a quick moment alone then?" Mandy sighed. "No I suppose not, I'll be right back Cho." Cho nodded her head with a small smile as Mandy got up from her chair and followed Roger into an intimate corner in the common room. "I actually have two things to discuss with you." Roger said while focusing his gaze on Mandy's eyes, which happened to be concentrated on the wall paper pattern behind Roger's head.
He continued, "I have a new idea for a manoeuvre for Quidditch which I think will really help us out in our match against Gryffindor next weekend. It's called the "Porskoff Ploy," where one of us makes as if to dart upward with the Quaffle, into turn drawing the opposing chaser upwards, and then dropping to another Chaser… it's extremely effective, Bulgaria used it quite often in the World Cup.
Another is called the Woollongong Shimmy... I quite like that one. But I'll tell you more about that on our practice Monday night. "
Mandy attempted to look as interested as possible in what her captain was saying, but she kept her a buzzing sound in her head.
"So anyway, what I really wanted to discuss with you was Hogsmeade tomorrow." At the mention of Hogsmeade, Mandy looked from the wall paper to the eyes of Roger. "I don't know if you have plans…" he continued. "But I wanted to know if you would like to accompany me perhaps?" Mandy noticed the red creeping up Roger's neck.
A sympathetic smile played on Mandy's face. "I'm sorry Roger, but I'm already going with someone else. Perhaps next time though?" Roger's eyes dropped, "yea yea, that would be good. Well, I'll see you around Chambers."
And at that Roger turned and made his way to his dormitory. Mandy sighed and made her way to Cho. "So… what happened?" Cho inquired. "Roger asked me to Hogsmeade."
Cho's facial expression turned to one of question to concerned. "Oh no! I'm sorry you could've said yes, I could've found someone else to go with me to Hogsmeade!" "Hey, don't worry about it. I don't fancy Roger anymore. I kind of got over him a while back. I thought we established a plain friendship. Ah well. You always want what you can't have and you never want what you have." Mandy said thoughtfully.
"Well said mate, well said." Cho responded. Silence fell upon the two friends, until a "LUNCH TIME LASSIES GET YOUR ARSES TO THE DINING HALL!" Erupted from Mandy's wrist.
Her brother bought her an "Interactive wrist watch which tells time and shouts at you!" watch thing. Mandy had been too lazy to replace the watch with another which didn't shout insults at her constantly.
"Well." Cho said, getting up from her chair. "I think we should listen to your watch and make our way to the dining hall… I'm famished!" Mandy nodded her head. "I concur." And with that they left for the dining hall.
They entered through the large doors and made their way to the Ravenclaw table, placing themselves among their peers. They immediately dug into the chicken dinner lying on the table.
"I'm so excited for tomorrow!" Cho exclaimed. "Meee twoo" Mandy nodded in response, with a mouth full of bangers and mash. "Ew. You are a gross little woman aren't you? I wish your parents taught you better table manners when you were younger, maybe you'd have more dinner requests if you weren't such a lad." Cho said, with a wrinkled nose and a disgusted look upon her face. Mandy swallowed. "I resent that." Mandy said whilst mocking Cho's posture.
"I apologise for not being a posh prude like yourself. Or Draco Malfoy." Mandy said while shifting her gaze from her friend to a certain albino-looking boy across the room who was surrounded by his cronies, a sneer permanently glued to his face. Mandy involuntarily shook her head with pity. Cho smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"So you guys excited for our first Hogsmeade visit tomorrow or what?" Justin Finch-Fletchley inquired from across the table. "Ah yes, Hogsmeade. A time for Quintapeds to migrate from Isle of Drear to feast upon the wizarding race." The group of Ravenclaws went silent and shifted their eyes to a small, crazy looking third year. Mandy recognised her as "Loony Lovegood."
Mandy decided to break the awkward silence. "All the way from the Isle of Drear eh?" "Indeed." Luna replied, gazing knowingly into a far-off distance, her glasses successfully making her look like a mad person. "Well, as far as I know, the Isle of Drear is un-plottable, so surely the… Quintapeds? Won't be able to actually reach us. Well, besides the unplottability, we're also a couple hundred miles away from the Isle of Drear." Mandy said. "You poor, poor girl" Luna said, placing her palm on Mandy's cheek.
"If you only knew. But you have to be so ignorant, don't you… don't you?" Mandy stared blankly at Luna for a little while, wondering when she was going to remove her hand from Mandy's face. The rest of the group were either attempting to suppress their giggles or were too dumbfounded by this lunatic (hehe no pun intended) to actually express emotion. Luckily Luna removed her hand and returned it to the pages of The Quibbler.
"So…" Justin continued. "Hogsmeade?" "Yea! Cedric, Landon, Mandy and I are going to go together. A double-date if you will." Cho said excitedly. Mandy groaned. "Sounds like a fantastic time!" Justin responded. "Oh, oh boy will it be a fantastic time. A day full of ego…. Joy!" Mandy said sarcastically. Justin laughed, and Cho rolled her eyes.
"So what are your plans Justin?" Cho inquired whilst lifting her fork full of mashers into her mouth. "I'm going with Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein, should be fun I'm thinking." Cho and Mandy nodded their heads.
The group finished their meal, and began to leave the table. Before Mandy and Cho were able to climb the stairs to their common room, a booming "Cho!" was heard from behind them. They both turned and laid their eyes on Cedric Diggory, whose cheeks were pinkish and chest heaving. He obviously had sprinted to catch up to them.
"We're still on for tomorrow?" He inquired with a goofy grin on his face. Cho returned the grin. "Of course!" He met them at the bottom of the stairs. "Oh! Cedric this is Mandy Chambers, a good friend of mine who's going to be accompanying us tomorrow."
Cedric adjusted his gaze from Cho to Mandy. Cedric politely smiled and held out his hand. Mandy obligingly shook it. "Ah yes! I recognise you. A chaser correct? Well done last match against Slytherin! I'm looking forward to next weekends match against Gryffindor. Should be pretty good." Mandy grinned, despite her modesty, she loved praises.
"Yea, I'm really looking forward to it." Cedric held his gaze for a little while longer before turning back to Cho. "Well, I best be off, I'll see you to lasses at 11 in the courtyard. Cho nodded her head excitedly. Cedric gave the two girls one last of his signature grins and headed down the hall.
"He's fantastic isn't he?" Cho asked, a goofy grin still playing on her face. "I wouldn't go to that extreme. He seems alright I suppose." Cho sighed in exasperation. "We sure have a huge difference in our preferences for boys don't we?" Mandy smiled. "Yes, we really do. I go for boys who focus on studies, not boys who focus on their hair longer than I do." Cho laughed. "Mandy, you never spend more than a minute on your hair in the morning. Did you even brush it this morning?" Mandy laughed. "I can't remember if I did actually." Cho shook her head as the two girls walked through the entryway into their common room and up the stairs to their dormitory.
The rest of the day consisted on finishing up their homework and goofing around, eager for the next day. Well, Cho more than Mandy, but they were still quite eager.
