Disclaimer: I own nada. It belongs to Jo.
"Katie!" someone shouted, smacking me in the head. I glanced over at my clock to see that it was seven thirty on Saturday morning. "Are you up? God, Mum's right. You sleep like a bloody log!" Why does she always have to wake me up with abuse? Doesn't she understand that I'm young and need my sleep?
"What the hell?" I sat up, blurry eyed to barely see Amy sitting on the end of my bed, holding up a rolled up magazine. The pictures on the front looked disgruntled that their face was being bent in a weird position, though thankfully they couldn't talk. If they could they'd probably be going at my sister like a wild pair of kangaroo's. Or dingoes. Something dangerous like that.
"Did you hear?" What?
"No, but I hear ringing in my ears," I said to Amy with a glare. "Thanks to you. Why are you waking me up so early on a Saturday morning?" I flung my pillow over my head and forced my eyes shut. "It's completely insane. If the situation were reversed you'd jinx me into next year."
"Sorry," she said with a grin. "I have practice in half an hour. But did you see?" She thrust the magazine open and threw it at me. I looked up to see what was going on and it landed on my face and it was tempting to just leave it there. The light was blocked out completely and if I tried hard enough I bet I could just completely zone Amy out. "Katie! Look at it!" Nice try, Katie.
"Fine," I grumbled. I took the magazine off of my face and looked at the cover. On it was none other than Oliver Wood staring dreamy-eyed into the eyes of Maryanne Ferguson. I can honestly say that I was not expecting that. And it was just so weird so see my Quidditch captain staring "dreamy-eyed" into the eyes of someone. There was a carelessly drawn heart around them and in big bold letters, some of them mirrored, it said The Quibbler. "The Quibbler?" I asked, skeptical. This was related to me how?
"You know that it's much more reliable since they had that Harry Potter story in it from your fifth year, you twit," Amy said, plopping down next to me on my bed. How is this girl a morning person? Dad would have killed her if he ever knew. He always needed at least two cups of coffee before we were even aloud in the same room as him, let alone to have a logical conversation with him. I would say she got it from Mum, but she's still in bed. Amy's just the black sheep.
"What about it?" I asked, not all that concerned. I really just wanted to sleep. Really badly.
"Oliver Wood!" she said like I was completely mental, which I was at that hour in the morning.
"Oliver Wood…?" I do not comprehend.
"The guy you were dying to see when I brought you to my match?" Amy said. She rolled her eyes at me. "Come on, Katie. Think. I've got to leave soon!" She looked across to my clock and started tapping her foot.
"What about Oliver Wood?"
"The guy you want to marry…"
"What?!" Huh. I still do not comprehend.
Now that obviously came out of nowhere. I sure as hell wasn't expecting it.
"What what?" She raised an eyebrow.
Sometimes she can be really dumb. Book smart and Quidditch smart but boy can she lack common sense.
"Me?! Marry Oliver Wood?" She has to be insane. If I had enough energy I would have checked to see if she had a fever but I was just too damn tired.
"Katie, it's very obvious you think he's a God," she said matter-of-factly.
"He's a babe! So what?" I rolled over and out of my bed to march in front of her and look her in the eye. Okay, I didn't do that. But I glared at her from my bed.
"Don't you want to see him again?" she asked wickedly. "I could get you a ticket to his game. "Bring one of your friends. They'd be glad to see him." They would be.
And I hate to say it, but my stomach did a little flop before I opened my mouth. "No! I'm not going to another one of his games! It'd be creepy."
Amy rolled her eyes again. "It's a Quidditch match! What's creepy about that?"
"A-but I…don't know," I said with a sigh. "But I'm not going. I've got too much to do already."
"Fine, but listen kid, I've got to go. I'll see you later, okay?" She walked over and gave me a hug and then walked out of my room leaving me to flop backwards in my bed and try to figure out what Oliver could possibly see in Maryanne Ferguson.
-----
When I got to work, George was sitting on the floor in front of the front counter shooting glances between one side of the shop to the other.
"What's up?" I asked as I slid down next to him. "Are you afraid that the windows are going to join forces and close in on you?"
He shot me a look and then one to the left. "Not until now, thanks." Now to the right. "It's Fred-" to the left- "and Chloe-" another to the right. "They're acting all… self-conscious."
I took a chance to glance at Chloe and found her fixing her short choppy brown hair with the reflection in the mirror. Then I looked over to Fred who was smoothing out the sleeves of his shirt. "Weird," I commented, before looking back to George.
"And all last night he was going on about how great she was." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "If they get serious, I don't know what I'll do. Remember how he was when he was hung up on Angelina in school?" I nodded. "I can guarantee you that this could get ten times worse."
I sighed and leaned my head against the counter.
"So this is bad?" I asked, gaining a raised eyebrow from George. "Right. Of course it's bad." I stared for a second. "You know, Angelina wasn't happy when she found out. At the party-" he cringed- "she had a near anxiety attack when she found out. Oh you can't still be mad about the decorations!"
He ignored my last comment. "Was she?" I nodded. "Well, my dear Katie lets let the pieces fall as they may." He hopped up and extended a hand. I accepted and he pulled me onto my feet. I don't remember drama being like this. Not even in Hogwarts.
"And if someone gets hurt?" I asked, an eyebrow raised.
"We fire Fred." He grinned and I laughed.
"So what's going on in the wonderful world of George Weasley?" I asked. Now I was looking in between Fred and Chloe. It's like eating a potato chip. Once you pop, the fun don't stop. Well, you get what I mean.
"Nothing fantastic," George replied nonchalantly.
"Well, you're boring."
"I am not. I'm just not interesting today."
"Oh."
And that's when the conversation died. I went to the back of the store to stock Drunken Socks (Put them on your feet and it'll be like you just drank eight bottles of firewhiskey! A GREAT gift for the parents!). They were new and we were releasing them in two days.
-----
When I got back to the house later that night, I found Amy waiting for me impatiently on the living room couch. She had her legs crossed, one foot tapping uncontrollably. She was fidgeting from left to right and the sleeves to her shirt were twisted around. The couch cushion had an indent in it on the left and right of her, showing how much she moved, and the pillows were all crooked.
"What have you been doing?" I asked. I shut the door quietly behind me.
Amy jumped up off the couch and ran over to me. "Come sit down. I've got news for you!"
"What kind of news? Is it about you and David?" I asked, rolling my eyes. I love my sister. I really do. But if I hear one more rant about how good of a kisser he is I might have to gouge her eyes out with a spoon.
"No. It's about you."
"Me?"
"Well, not directly about you. Guess who I talked to today?"
"Who?"
"Guess!"
"I don't know."
"Come on, guess."
"The Pope?"
"Don't be ridiculous! I'm trying to tell you something here!"
"Just tell me then!"
Gosh.
"Maryanne!"
"And I'm supposed to be surprised by this? You two are on the same Quidditch team."
"About her and Oliver! You're slow today, Katie."
"Funny. Her and Oliver? What about her and Oliver?" I looked over at her, suddenly more interested than I should be.
"Oh," Amy said casually. "She was just telling me about how involved they are." There was a singsong tone in her voice.
"Oh?"
"And she would not stop talking about how fantastic he is. And how sexy his accent is. And how nice his abs is. And how soft his hair is. And how much his eyes-"
"Shush!" I said, rolling my own eyes. "So what?"
"What? You don't like him?"
"Of course I like him. But not like that. Not only is he my old Quidditch captain, he's also a Quidditch star. And you know how it is. Even if I did like him -which I don't, this is all hypothetical- he would only date Quidditch stars. I mean, look how you're all pairing off!"
"That's not true!" Amy protested.
"It is too true! There's you and David, Oliver and Maryanne. Who's it going to be next? Tulip and Kyle? That'd be laugh. She'd beat the hell out of him."
"We're not all pairing off! And anyway, Tulip's dating her brother's friend! But you know who's oddly jealous of this whole Oliver Maryanne situation?" Amy gossiped.
"Who?" She is more reliable than the tabloids.
"Chris."
"Caroli?"
"Mhmm."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Weird."
"Yeah."
There was silence for a few minutes.
"So what else did she say about her and Oliver?" It was just curiosity. And I'd rather hear it from a reliable source as apposed to a tabloid.
"She just said that they've been trying their best to avoid the tabloids so that they don't get a bunch of pictures of them going at it." She smirked.
"Gross! That's my Quidditch captain you're talking about!"
"Who happens to be gorgeous!"
"That's not the point!"
"Sure, Katie. Sure."
"Where's Mum?" I asked. I didn't really care, but normally she's home. It's not like her to be out and about.
"She's on a date," Amy replied, not looking me in the eye.
"What?!"
Now that was a shocker. Mum hasn't been out on a date since before her and Dad got married. And it's been five years since he died. Why does she decide now that she needs to go on a date? I honestly didn't think she ever would again and that she'd keep worshipping the shrine of pictures of him that are on her bureau. There's at least her and it's a variety of just him, me and him, Amy and him, her and him, and a combination of all of us together.
"Yeah," Amy said. She frowned. "I didn't catch his name but I saw a glimpse of him at the door when he came to pick her up. A muggle. He has a goatee and an earring. I honestly don't know what Mum's thinking." She shook her head. "Her first date in years and he's completely insane."
"Maybe it's a midlife crisis," I offered. "Mum's on a date. This is too weird. I think I need coffee. Or sleep."
Amy nodded. "I told her it was weird when she was looking for something to wear."
"What'd she end up choosing?" I asked. Please, oh please let it be something conservative.
"A long red dress with pearls. It looks really pretty on her," Amy commented.
"The clingy red dress?" I asked, shocked. The only red dress I remember of my mum's is one that she wore when I was six for Halloween. She was only around thirty I think. She's a young mum. But the top is super low cut. It was… different.
"No, not the clingy dress. It was one of her Mum dresses. Apparently they were going to some fancy muggle restaurant and she wanted to look nice," Amy said with a shrug.
"This is too weird."
----
"You've got the day off today, Katie," George said to me when I walked into work three minutes late.
"What do you mean? I'm only three minutes late! You can't possibly fire me for three minutes!" I complained. Hey, it was still early in the morning and I didn't have my usual intake of caffeine.
"You have the day of! You're not fired! Alicia and Angelina want to spend the day with you and they shrunk my shoes because at first I said no because I didn't want to be left alone with the love birds." He held up his feet, which were only wearing socks. "So I had to agree to let them kidnap you today or else I wouldn't get my shoes back."
"Don't you have more pairs of shoes?"
"Of course. I just like those the best."
"I thought your favorite ones were the autographed by Victor Krum ones…"
"Well don't tell them that! They've just been shrunken!" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "How do you think that makes them feel?"
I just shook my head. "So when am I getting out of this joint?"
"In half an hour. So until then, get to work, kid." He grinned and tossed me a clipboard. I grinned and looked down. There was no paper, no nothing on this clipboard.
"George! What do I do with this?" I asked, walking behind him quickly like a little intern.
"Smack some sense into my brother, please," he replied. I could tell by his tone that he rolled his eyes.
"Gladly."
I walked over to Fred and was raising my arm to swing (not hard, mind you, but more like a tap) when he turned around, a huge grin plastered on his face.
"KATIE!" he bellowed. I screamed in shock. "Did I scare you?" He laughed.
"Jesus!"
"Sorry. What are you doing with that clipboard?"
"Nothing!" I squeaked. I quickly and stealthily slipped it behind my back. "Just came to talk to you. I have the day off today."
"You do?" he asked shocked. "I forget people can take the day off. As a matter of fact, I don't think any of us has ever done that. Bizarre. I know Chloe hasn't. And George never has…"
"Oh, well then. I should get a plaque or something."
"Yes, well, we'll look into it." He winked. "So what are you doing today?"
An old woman walked into the store. She was short and wearing a purple poncho and a long flared green skirt that went down to her shoes. She first saw Chloe and walked directly over to her. I turned back to Fred.
"Alicia and Angelina are kidnapping me," I said simply, my hands in my pockets.
"Ah yes, kidnapping," he said wisely. "I've been kidnapped by them. Once was last year by Alicia to find out what to get George for his –our- birthday. And once by Angelina for a rampage in a broom closet." His ears went red as he grinned. "Then once by both of them together after the Yule ball because they wanted pictures." He shook his head. "You three can be such girls some times."
"Well that does happen. Just ask Mark," I said with a grin. Fred almost snapped his neck when he turned to look at me. "He did call me very much of a girl the other night." I laughed, a mischievous little grin on my face. Torturing people who protect me just makes life worth living.
"Katie!" he said, astounded. "Are you insane? You're only eighteen!" Whoops. Didn't mean to make him freak out like that. Not that I was expecting it. Fred isn't a freaker outer. Apparently he cares about if I get knocked up or not.
"Fred! Do I even know a Mark?" I asked, trying so hard not to laugh and failing miserably.
"Well apparently you know a Mark very well!" he shouted at me.
"I was kidding! Jeez, and you were the one going on and on about your rampages in a broom closet!" I said, still laughing as Fred looked at me horrified. But he wasn't looking directly at me. Of course he wasn't. He was looking just over my shoulder.
I spun around.
"Um, Fred," Chloe said uncertainly, he arm linked with the purple ponchoed lady. "This is my Grandma Gwen."
My face went redder than red as did Fred's.
"Grandma Gwen!" He regained dignity faster than I did. "How are you? Could I interest you in some 'bubble gum'? Give it to old Grandpa Pat and his nose will blow bubbles!"
"Fred! Stop trying to sell stuff to my grandmother!" Chloe cried, looking at him. He grinned and held out his hand.
"You taking care of my granddaughter?" she asked, looking him deathly in the eye.
He recoiled a bit. "Yes ma'am, I am." She held his hand in both of hers and patted the top of it.
"That's a good boy. Now give me a hug." Fred looked confused for a second but he gave Grandma Gwen a hug. She rubbed his back. "I like this boy," she said to Chloe when Fred pulled back. "He's a strong one. Nice back, he has."
Chloe grinned. "Yeah, I think I like him too." I rolled my eyes at the cute moment and walked over to George.
"George," I sighed, looking up at him. "You're brother sucks." It's not fair that Fred, Fred, has someone and I don't. This hadn't even occurred to me until now about relationships outside of Hogwarts. Well, of course, when Amy was convinced that I was going to marry Oliver Wood, but that's a completely different thing.
"Tell me about it. Percy's been driving us crazy for years though. That one time in, I think it was my fifth year or summer before, when we tried to lock him in a pyramid in Egypt I still don't understand why Mum wouldn't let us. It might have been menopause messing up her mind; I'm not quite sure. Dad was close though, believe me."
"Not him!" I laughed. "Fred."
"Why?"
"Because he's got a girlfriend."
"Would you like one too, Katie?" George asked, a smile on his face.
"Pig," I said, picking up a stray paper and throwing it at his head. "No, you know what I mean."
"Do you want me to pity you?" George asked, confused. He wasn't the best person in touch with his feminine side. I should just talk to Angelina and Alicia about this later. Though, I can't because they'd asked why I thought this and I'd have to talk about Fred and Chloe in front of Angelina. She might kill me if I do that. And I would feel bad.
"No, I just want…I don't know what it is I want. Okay, I want someone."
"Katie," George cooed. "Do you want me to be your boyfriend?" He stuck his tongue out at me.
"Gross, no. Alicia wouldn't like that," I grinned. "Got any friends that are babes?"
He pondered for a moment. "Lee Jordan!"
"Ack, no!" I said, recalling a very awkward memory of me, Lee Jordan, and his first kiss. But we don't like to talk about that.
"Fred?"
I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Right. Um, can't your sister get you some Quidditch hunk?" he asked, wincing as he said it.
"Yeah, right. She's convinced I'm going to marry Oliver Wood."
George started to laugh loudly.
"Nice, really nice," I said, rolling my eyes but laughing at the same time.
"That's priceless!" George said, wiping away an imaginary tear. "Your kids would be mutants!"
"Hey!" I shouted, glaring at him.
"Katie, think about it." He slung an arm around my shoulder. "Little Scottish Quidditch obsessed klutzy Nazis."
"Huh…" I said, looking off into the distance. "You have a point."
"I know I do," he said, still laughing.
"Okay, shush now." He kept laughing. "George!"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm done. I'm done."
"Obnoxious," I muttered. He just grinned.
The bell on the door jingled and Angelina walked in with Alicia at her side. "Katie Bell?" she called through the shop. "Where are you?"
"Over here!" I called, jogging in between shelves to meet up with her and Alicia. "Hi, guys. Nice of you to tell me you were kidnapping me today." I grinned.
"You like surprises," Alicia shrugged. "Anyway, we're off. We'll see you lot later!"
Alicia took my hand and dragged me out of the shop and we were at least ten paces behind Angelina who slipped out without notice. She was walking briskly and from the looks of it, staring straight ahead.
"What's up with her?" I asked, tearing my arm away and catching in step with Alicia.
"What do you think?" She rolled her eyes.
"Her owl didn't die, did it?" I asked, horrified, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Of course not! She's upset about Fred and Chloe. Gosh Katie!" She laughed at my ridiculousness and continued walking. "Do you get it?"
"So Mercutio is still alive?" Mercutio is her owl. She read Romeo and Juliet once in third year and became absolutely obsessed with Mercutio. She never ever fell for the main characters in books and it annoyed Alicia and I, who always loved the hero, to no end. We couldn't figure Angelina out at all.
"Yes, Mercutio is still alive!" She sped up the pace to keep up with Angelina. "Why do you think she fled out of there so quickly?"
"I didn't even notice to be honest with you."
"Oh, well what do you think this day was about?"
"Hey! I thought it was because you wanted to spend the day with me." I grinned, looking as innocent as can be.
"Do you think living with you for six years hasn't made that innocent act ineffective?" Alicia asked with a laugh.
"Hey, obviously you don't love me. If you did you would have told me about you and George," I grumbled, crossing my arms.
"Katie, shush. It was an innocent mistake."
"'Don't tell the minor,'" I whined, imitating Alicia's voice badly. "'She'll never know.'" I jogged up to Angelina. "Good friend."
"What?"
"Never mind. So why'd you run off so quickly?"
"This is what lunch is for." She turned into a mini restaurant. I took a sharp turn and caught up with her. Not before long, Alicia was at my side.
Angelina already had a table reserved and our preferred drinks were there. I was impressed, as I've never heard of this place in my life. She was already sitting down when we met up with her. I've never seen her walk that fast in my life.
"God, walk fast enough?" I asked, sitting down to her left.
She just shrugged.
"Now tell us what's wrong," Alicia encouraged.
"Chloe? Chloe?" Angelina spat out, not making eye contact with either of us but glaring at an unexciting spot just in the middle of us.
"Chloe?" I repeated.
"Why Chloe? Isn't there something against dating coworkers?" she asked, looking at Alicia like she would know all the answers.
"I don't think so," I replied, being the one who worked there. "Though George did threaten me with sexual harassment charges. Or was it Fred? It was one of them. So I'm not sure."
Alicia glared at me.
"I just hugged him!" I said defensively.
"I don't understand though! Why Chloe? It's my personality. It sucks, doesn't it?"
I've never seen here this unconfident before. She's normally the one boasting around about a job she just landed or a guy who asked her out. Never in my life have I seen her this out of it, lacking so much self-esteem. It's horrible. Her face was flushed with anger and her fists were in balls. She looked so…so depressed.
"Ang?" I asked softly. "Are you okay?"
She just looked up at my, confused like she was wondering what the hell I was doing here while she was wallowing in self-pity.
"You're much prettier than her," Alicia reassured her. "With a great personality. And you like Quidditch. Fred is just going through a phase. Don't worry. He's a man. He doesn't know what he's doing."
"Yeah," I agreed. "Boys are stupid."
Angelina smiled. "I still don't understand it. He's nineteen! She's twenty-four. How does that work?"
"He's a man?" I asked, looking at her. It was obvious. Any man would take an older girl compared to someone they've known for years. Except for the nice ones. But we don't see many of those any more. And I wasn't about to say that to Angelina.
By the time lunch was over, Angelina had ranted for an hour. She was one of the types of people who, when something annoyed her, she wouldn't shut up about it. At around seven thirty I managed to escape with the excuse that my mom was home alone because Amy had a date, which was a lie because she just recently had a date with David the other night. But honestly, and I know this might sound horribly, if I hear any more about how gorgeous Fred is (gag) or how funny he is (we all know him and George are funny) I think I might have imploded. Because there are just some things you don't want to know about your friends.
When I got home, it was like in one of those movies where the teenager gets home late and comes to find her parental units standing in the dark living room and flicking the light on right when she thinks she made it in without being caught. The only different thing here was that my mom had the lights on and she was sitting on the chair with her arms crossed. Oh, and I wasn't trying to sneak in. I was merely casually walking in and jumping about forty feet in the air when I saw her sitting there.
"Merlin, Mum! You scared the hell out of me!" She glared at my vernacular.
"Where have you been?" she asked, not in so much of a suspicious voice as a creepy one.
"Um, I took the day off to spend some time with Angelina and Alicia. Angelina's been going through some problems and she needed a girls day out." There was no way I was going to explain why to my mother. That's what Amy is for.
"Really?" Now she was suspicious. "I called the bookstore Katie. They said they had no idea where you were. Actually, they don't know who you are." I started panicking.
"Was it a guy or a girl on the phone?" I asked, holding onto the lamppost thing next to me so that I wouldn't topple over. That'd just be a little suspicious. And not to mention bad. She'd probably think I was toppling in drunk. That I didn't really have a job. That I was just a slacker and that I'd be living off of her for the rest of my life.
Yeah right.
"A man. Why?" She raised a think black eyebrow at me. Frightening? You bet.
Think of a name, Katie. Think of a name. "That was um, Bruce. He likes to pretend he doesn't know me. Thinks that I'm an embarrassment actually." Bruce? What the hell? She doesn't know who Bruce is, right?
"Bruce? Bruce Whiskey?" Mum asked me, a smile going on her face.
"No, no, not him. Another Bruce. I don't know his last name. I ignore him as much as possible." This was a horrible, horrible lie.
"Well, that's not nice, Katie. I think you should apologize to him." Go figure.
"I'll get right on that, Mum. I'm going to go up to bed now. I'm exhausted." Before she could call me back down, I dashed up the stairs and into my room, locking the door behind me.
That was close. I think she may possibly be getting suspicious of my job. At least I'm not a stripper or something. I think then she might just be a little more than disappointed. Though I bet I'd get good tips or something.
A/n: Alright, throw the fruit and the nasty vegetables. I'm so sorry that I haven't updated. It's the end of the school year so I've been swamped with review classes, homework, finals and all that stuff. I've got three next week so there might be another delay and I wont have time to write this weekend (my birthday) because I'm going to this concert and I have the Relay for Life so I'll be completely swamped. But fear not, for I will update soon.
I'm glad to see that more reviews are coming and that more people are reading and liking this story. I like it for the most part. I just feel horrible that I have no time to write. But don't worry, this summer should be full of updates.
Review and I hope you liked the chapter!!
-Siriusly Klutzy