So, I'm alive. Yep. I know. Calm down. I recently got back into fanfiction, and I figure i'll just pick up where I left off? Check out my Profile for updates on story progress and what not. Also, I'm renaming the story. Just fyi. (It was: How You Drive Me Crazy)
Chapter Two
"Hows that morning sickness, Miss Brantly? Treating you kindly?" Madame Pomfrey inquired, handing me a cup of some sort of herbs mixed in with teas. To sooth my stomach, she had explained.
"Not so kindly, Madame Pomfrey." I mumbled down into my cup. Hell, if earlier wasn't a good example, then I don't know what was. After the mortification of vomiting in front of a couple hundred kids had worn off, I quickly mumbled something about a fever and ran up to hide in Madame Pomfrey's lair. Me and her had been tight since first year, when I had faked stomach illnesses just to hide from the Slytherin girls in my Potions class. She, along with the teachers, all knew about my little...situation.
"It'll get better dear. In a few months. Until then, this should help." She gestured to the herb tea, before adjusting the headdress and walking back into her office. I sighed contentedly, chugging the drink and placing the tea-cup on the side table. Pushing myself of the side of the bed, I slipped my back pack over my shoulder and placed my wand back in the waist of my skirt.
"Leaving already?" Madame Pomfrey asked, poking her head out of her office.
"I have my Alchemy class. I don't want to be late."
"Well, Mister Phillips was just going their himself. Why don't you walk Miss Brantly to class." She gestured at a boy whose left arm was in a sling. He had waited in her office when I had burst in earlier, but I hadn't got a good look at him until now as he was waiting by the door. He was a little taller than me, with short, spiked brown hair and dark green eyes. A small patch of freckles laid under his eyes and his mouth was pulled into a cute, polite smile.
"Sure, I can do that." He nodded. His voice was pleasant and warm. He was a nice, kind person. I could sense it.
Madame Pomfrey smiled, well she never really smiled but over the years I had taken to referring to that twitch of her lips as a smile, pulling her head back into the room and shutting the door with a flick of her wand.
The boy smiled at me, and offered me his free hand. He had long, skinny fingers, and a scar ran acrossed the back of it. "Hi. I'm Benjamin Phillips. Call me Ben."
With a nervous smile, I took his hand in mine. "I'm Joy Brantly. Call me Joy, I guess. I think I've seen you around before."
He gestured toward the door with his head, and we started to walk slowly. "You better have. We've been going to the same school for, like, 6 years. And, you know, we're in the same house." He gestured down to his robes. Sure enough, they had the Hufflepuff symbol on them.
"7 now." I pipped in. He smiled and we continued walking. A silence fell over us, and my stomach rolled in nervous. I never knew what to say. My brain wracked for something, but in all the books I've ever read and essay's I've ever written, but none had ever discussed what to say to a teenage boy.
He cleared his throat after a few moments. "Sorry I have nothing to say. I'm usually the person that rehearses what i'm going to say. I even do it when I'm at restaurants. And I just can't think of anything to say."
"I'm the same way. It's just hard you know? Senseless chatter."
Ben smiled that cute, polite smile. "I don't think anything you have to say is senseless chatter."
My face flashed red, and in an attempt to change the subject, I inquired about his arm.
"I have 4 older sisters." He sighed. "And they are all Quidditch maniacs. We were having a good romp before I left for school, and one of them dove right into me. She knocked me right off my broom. I'm such a clumsy git."
"Ouch."
"Yeah, major ouch. Don't tell anyone. But, I actually cried." He whispered, then winked. His deep green eyes sparkled excitedly. I liked this boy, I decided at that very moment. He was funny, sweet, and kind. Unlike some of the boys who were presently in my life. He even made me forget for a split second, my life at the current moment just because of that cute smile of his. Yes, lets not forget that he was incredibly attractive.
"I think it might just be a sister thing. I broke my older brothers nose once."
He raised a thin brown eyebrow at me. A smile tugging at the corner of his lip. He had a dimple.
"We we're wrestling for the remote. An elbow to his nose declared me the winner, but also declared me grounded for like, a week."
He smiled widely at me. Showing me his white teeth. "Your a real pip, Joy. I think I might keep you around. You know. To carry my bags and books. I am disabled, after all." He gestured to him arm that was in the sling. "Oh, here we are. I think." He tugged the door open with one arm, gesturing me me. At the desk in the front, the professor raised an eye. He was a small man, with a potbelly and long grey hair. His eyebrows were the size of caterpillars, and his mouth reminded me distinctly of a trout.
Ben held up the pink slip, and with a flip of his wand, the slip was flying out of his hand toward the professor. After a second, he nodded, and Ben gestured us towards the last two free seats. He pulled my chair out, and with a gracious smile, I slid into it. After placing my bag onto the floor, I gazed around the class room. It was full, almost to the brim. And since it was an elective, it was a mixture of all the houses. And right infront of me. sitting stiffer that ever, was the boy I hated the most.
Weasley.
"So, you have a brother?" Ben whispered to me after he had struggled to pull out his Alchemy for 7th Years book. "Did you hear me?" He whispered again.
I jumped. Blinking at Ben slowly. "Brother?" I was too uncomfortable. To focused on my hate for the dungball infront of me to properly pay attention to him.
"Yeah, you said you had a brother." He prompted again, raising that thin eyebrow.
"Oh, I have two. An older brother, Jason, and a younger brother, Dominic. Jason finished schooling last year, and Dom is a first year." And both wont really even look at me, I added in my brain. "What about you? Four older sisters. Must be pure chaos."
He sniffled a chuckle, quickly glancing up to see that the Professor was still absorbed in what was on his desk.
"Only half the time. Sara's married and lives with her husband, Clara's engaged and lives in Paris with the bloke, and Cora's away at a Muggle Theater college. Only Nora is left, and she's pretty quite. She works at a bakery in Diagon Alley most of the time, and the rest she's with her boyfriend, Jay. Though, when we were younger it was basically a circus. My mom is such a strong woman."
"Wow, I can't even imagine being the youngest of five."
With a shrug, he flipped a page in the book. "It's not so bad. I was the boy they'd always wanted. I was spoiled with treats and toys. That is, until Da' found out was complete rubbish when it came to sports."
"I doubt you're that bad."
He smirked, his eyes darting down to his injured arm.
"Okay, I take that back bu-"
Suddenly, infront of us, Weasley cleared his throat. He turned around, narrowing his brown eyes. "Some of us are trying to learn."
With a snort, I leaned forward. "Learning is by far what you've come here for. You've come to ruin lives."
Next to me, Ben shifted in his seat uncomfortably. But me and Weasley's eye battle continued on.
"Excuse me, what are you two doing?" The professor asked. He had stood up at his desk, peering uncomfortably at us.
"Just informing Miss Brantly what page we were on." Weasley said, before turning around.
"Oh, very well then. Back to work."
The rest of my classes flew by in the way they had in years earlier. And when the bell rang and dismissed students, we all scattered, hurrying to our dorms outside, to enjoy the last month of warmth before the cold autumn and even harsher winter.
Vinny was waiting for me at the edge of the lake, his hair a crazy mess. If I had a hundred knuts to bet, I would bet he had tugged at it during class, from stress.
"Hey, brat. How was your day?" I inquired, sitting down next to him, comfortable in my shorts and baggy shirt.
He sighed dramatically, throwing his arms around me and burying his face into my shoulder. "Why does school have to be so hard?"
"Because life is a drastic pile of dragon dung."
"That's deep, Joy." He pulled his arm away, leaning back and gazing at me. "How was your day?"
"I met someone."
"Ohhh?" If a person could resemble an animal, Vinny definitely resembled a cat. Sly and sneaky, as always.
"Yeah, his name is Ben. Now tell me what you know!"
"Only the second day and Ben is already showing balls. Only took him 6 years."
"Huh?"
"Oh come on. This boy has had the feels for you since day one!"
I blinked. "I'd never even meet him until today."
He tsked at me. "Poor boy doesn't stand a chance against my dense Joy."
I frowned, looking toward the lake. Kids were jumping of the docks and into the shimmering, warm water. Laughter filled the air around us like a drug, and I knew, that tonight, in the Room of Requirement, the 7th years would be celebrating the ruling of their new kingdom.
"Are you going? To the party tonight?" Vinny asked suddenly, my eyes flicked over to him, a brown eyebrow lifting up.
"I'm pregnant, you idiot. Does it look like I can go to a party?"
"Just asking, brat. Geez, what a way to spend your 7th year. Moody, chunky, and unable to celebrate."
I punched him in the shoulder. "Don't call me chunky, you jerk."
He smiled at me sweetly. "I love you, brat."
"I love you too, even though you're making fun of my weight. I'm going back to the castle now. 'Its' got me craving crazy things. I wanted to eat a banana covered in pickles earlier. I wonder if I can convince a house elf to give me some. God, I feel like I'm doing an illegal drug trade." I shoved myself off the ground, dusting my bottom off before walking away.
"See you at dinner!"
I waved a hand in acknowledgement.
I had made it five steps into the corridors past The Great Hall before running into a lovers quarrel.
Casey, a pretty, perky, snotty, Gryfindor, was fighting with Satan himself. It was a well-known and gossiped fact that Weasley and Casey had been off and on since 5th year.
Which made me feel even stupider, thinking I had won him over last year.
"Do you know what they're doing to say, Fred? They're going to say that its yours! Do you know what that'll make me sound like! An IDIOT."
"Well if the shoe fit-"
"What are you looking at, slut!" Casey yelled. I blinked, looking around.
"Huh?" I said dumbly, looking around. Then it hit me like a brick. It was directed at me. Of course it was directed at me. I was the only one in the freaking corridor.
"You heard me. Stay out of my way, you idiot." She snarled, and then stormed down the hallway, her hand gripped tight around Fred's. He didn't even bother to look at me. Just continued to walk. Well, what could I say after what had happened earlier. I didn't expect him to come to my rescue, even if I had his baby in the making.
My stomach gave a sorrowful grown.