Disclaimer: Don't own it, wish I did.
Chapter Four:
The Trouble With Pretty-Boy Ravenclaws
"Euugh!"
Angelina had to duck as a glob of bubotuber pus swelled out from the slug-like plant and burst, nearly striking her left shoulder. With a gloved hand, she gripped the black wriggling plant, desperately attempting to push it back down into its new pot.
"Get down- You stupid- You nasty- Yuck, yuck, yuck!" The smell of petrol engulfed her protesting nostrils as another squirt of yellow secretion splattered across her safety goggles. Wondering for the millionth time if bubotuber plants could actually be classified as vegetation and not giant zombie earthworms, Angelina wiped her forehead with the only pus-free portion of her sleeve, sweating profusely.
"Now, children, make sure to firmly bury your bubotubers with soil. We wouldn't want any to wiggle out onto the floor for someone to step on!" Professor Sprout chortled, looking far too happy for someone surrounded by so much foul, smelly projectile.
"Honestly, who would voluntarily pick this as a career?" a boy muttered from across the greenhouse table, mirroring her exact thoughts.
About to make a sarcastic reply, Angelina glanced up to the owner of the voice, and was a bit surprised to find Daniel Marques shoving a squirming plant into a mound of dirt. She had almost forgotten he shared this class with her, which was strange, especially considering he had been her Charms partner that same day.
Daniel looked up suddenly, catching her staring at him, and flashed her a quick, dazzling grin. Merlin, his teeth are so white. Flushing, she ducked her head down, but immediately regretted it when a swelling on her plant exploded and smacked her squarely in the chest. Luckily, the Ravenclaw didn't seem to notice because he continued to smile unwaveringly.
Angelina felt her cheeks heating to a deep umber. She secretly marveled that the dark-eyed boy managed to look like he had just stepped off the cover of Teen Witch even though he was cramped in a humid, stinking greenhouse. She made a vain attempt to wipe off the slick mess that clung to her apron, lapsing into uncharacteristic self-consciousness.
"So, what was up with you and Katie today? You seemed rather angry with each other in Flitwick's." Well, the boy certainly had a knack for understatements.
"Oh, uh, just girl stuff, you know."
Her tongue was sticking to the roof of her mouth. Her hands trembled a bit. Her fingers clutched her spade a little tighter. Katie? She knew someone named Katie? She could only vaguely recall...
Daniel frowned pensively, peering down at his slimy gloves as though trying to puzzle something out. Unexpectedly, he met her eyes with shrewd scrutiny.
"It wasn't over some boy, I hope?" he piped casually.
In a flash, the familiar image of a ginger haired boy swam to the forefront of Angelina's mind, the picture conjuring up that strange feeling between her ribcage again. It was almost as if a clod of bubotuber pus had sunk beneath her skin and was causing her internal organs to erupt in painful boils. But the fight wasn't about Fred, Angelina told herself unconvincingly. It was about her friends ignoring her.
There wasn't even the tiniest fraction of jealousy inside of her as she watched Fred's arm crook around her friend's slim waist, not even the smallest amount of sadness when their lips met by the fire in the common room...
She became acutely aware that Daniel was watching her carefully, and that she had not answered him. Uncomfortably, she coughed to clear her throat, and not quite trusting the steadiness of her voice she shook her head.
He broke into yet another grin, a slight dusky red glowing beneath his olive skin.
"Then I don't suppose you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?"
Angelina balked, but only for a moment. It wasn't out of surprise that he had asked her, although there was that. Sure, this boy was gorgeous, smart, and friendly, but why did she feel like she would be somehow betraying Fred if she accepted? With a mental shake, the Gryffindor reminded herself that Fred was with Katie, Katie was with Fred, and that she hadn't had a date in a long time. She deserved to have a little fun.
"Um, that would be... nice," she stammered nervously. Daniel looked rather pleased with himself.
"See you Saturday, then."
"Yeah, right."
There was an awkward pause, which was interrupted by the bell signifying the end of class. Students abandoned their stations around the greenhouse table, ripping off their aprons and tossing their gloves into bins.
"Walk you to your next class?" He inquired confidently.
"Actually, no." A sudden urge to flee the sweltering nursery flooded through Angelina, who felt inexplicably dismayed at the new arrangement. "I mean- I mean- that's alright. I think I need a bit of fresh air. You know, alone. Those bubotuber fumes must have gone to my brain."
Daniel looked a bit put-out, but he nodded understandingly and waved goodbye, a bit of a strut to his step as he made his way out onto the grounds. Throwing back her head, she let out a self-pitying moan. What was wrong with her?
"Boy troubles, dear?" Professor Sprout asked kindly, her squashing her little triangular hat securely onto her gray curls. Boys,Angelina thought despairingly. Why did it always have to be boys?
---
By the time Angelina ambled down to the Great Hall for lunch from another inspiring History of Magic lecture, it seemed that half the school knew about her imminent date with the alluring Ravenclaw. Random girls kept approaching her to give her high fives, and a few shot nasty glares at her.
She bumped into Lee as she rounded a corner, who gave her a wink that seemed to say, Why you saucy tart, I knew you had it in you. Rolling her eyes as he gave her arm a tiny pinch, Angelina readjusted the bag on her shoulder and continued her way down the corridor.
"Heard about your latest conquest." Lee made disgusting kissing noises and a few rather crude remarks that made her cringe. "Glad to see you aren't still sulking over a certain someone."
Angelina winced, and her dreadlocked friend cast her a look of disbelief.
"So, you are still sulking?"
"Oh, shut your gob."
"Is this just a desperate attempt to avoid owning up to the fact that you're mooning over Fred Weasley?"
"I thought I told you to shut it," she hissed, her eyes darting nervously around the deserted hall as though the twin might come leaping out from a suit of armor.
"I'm beginning to think your fixation is a little more than just-"
"Leonard Patrick Jordan, would you shut the hell up?!"
Lee held up his hands in mock surrender.
"Geez, woman, I was just trying to help."
Angelina was just about to make a snide remark about the exact location that Lee could stick a bubotuber plant when angry voices began to filter down the corridor, making several of the portraits clamp their hands over their ears and grumble in protest. Exchanging a quick look, the two Gryffindors increased their pace, instantly recognizing the voices of the people engaged in a shouting match.
They bounded down the hallway, almost toppling over a spiky, rather dodgy looking shrub in the process, anxious to see what was happening. And sure enough, as they passed the bend in the wall, they saw Katie Bell and Marcus Flint at each other's throats at the foot of some moving stairs.
Although only about 7 stone when sopping wet, the brown haired girl's malice made up for it tenfold. She had her wand whipped out and pointed dangerously between Flint's surprised eyes, and she looked ready to hex the skin straight off his bones.
"I'm gonna say this once, and only once. If you ever insult my friend again, I'll have your ugly head sprouting leeks for the rest of your life."
Angelina was totally caught off guard. Surely, Katie wasn't defending her? This morning, she had seemed ready to strike her over the head with a pot of boiling hot gravy. She started forward, but Lee grabbed her by the collar and held her back.
Looking a bit less bold than usual, Flint hesitated before twisting his scarred mouth into a grimace.
"Who, Johnson?" he scoffed. "A halfblood is a halfblood is a halfblood, which is something you Gryffindors don't seem to get. It'll get you into trouble with our side, one of these days."
Even from where Lee and Angelina stood, it was easy to see the acidity of Katie's stare as her eyes bored into the Slytherin's.
"That's it!" Katie spat venomously before hurdling one of the best Bat-Bogey hexes either of them had ever had the glory of witnessing.
With enormous and perhaps sadistic satisfaction written clearly upon her face, she stepped back and crossed her arms, watching with delight as Flint's bogies sprouted wings and began attacking his own squashed face.
They stared in awed silence as Flint began shrieking like a nine year old and darted like mad past them, hands clawing blindly. The brunette's haughty gaze followed him, but her smirk wavered when she found Angelina and Lee gaping at her, the latter still with a fistful of his companion's collar, both appearing highly impressed. Katie turned away, looking annoyed and even a little abashed at having been caught defending her friend-turned-foe.
The knotty haired boy was the first to return to Earth, and he shoved the suddenly shy Angelina forward by the scruff of her neck. Remembering her promise to apologize, she stumbled towards her defender, who was gazing coldly at a portrait of Haggas the Happy Hiccupper.
"Katie," she whispered, fiddling with the strap on her book bag and swallowing her pride. "Look, I- I'm sorry about the whole thing with, well, you know. I didn't mean anything I said." She faltered as Katie swiveled around, her expression unreadable. "You were right. I was jealous. I mean, not of you and F-Fred of course, but that everyone else seemed to be in a relationship." Angelina gave a crooked half-smile and stuck out her hand bravely. "Forgive me?"
The smaller girl glanced at Angelina's outstretched palm, to her face, and back at her hand again. Then, she burst out laughing.
"It's about bloody time you apologized!" she choked through bouts of laughter. "I was starting to think I'd have to dump a bucketful of porridge on your head next breakfast or something." Beaming at Katie's practically telepathic comment, Angelina promptly forgot about the handshake and enveloped her friend into a hug.
After a while (and a bit of Lee coughing awkwardly), Katie drew back and grew serious.
"I guess I owe you an apology, too. Maybe I shouldn't have said those things last night. And I definitely should have said something this morning with that stupid git in your face." She paused and then continued lightly, "But you don't have to worry about pretending you don't like Fred anymore. We've broken up."
Angelina's mouth dropped open and her facial muscles seemed to collapse as though she was experiencing a stroke. She was so stupefied, in fact, that she forgot to deny having a crush on Fred.
"What? Why? The two of you seemed so... cozy last night!"
Katie blushed a furious tomato-red, spluttering.
"Er, well. Fred and I... We both sort of came to the conclusion that we're better off friends. Snogging him was just... weird. And don't think I'm a total minx or anything, but I was really just trying to make this- this other guy jealous."
For reasons that Angelina could not fathom, Katie flashed a mortified look over to where Lee was stood bumbling about, his eyes lifted upwards to the ceiling as though pretending not to be listening. Raking a few slim fingers through her brown bangs in huffy annoyance, Katie glowered.
"It doesn't appear to have worked, however."
Comprehension dawned over Angelina like a candle being lit.
"Wait, wait. You and L- Mmmph!" Katie had smothered her next words with a frantic hand, regarding Lee suspiciously.
Lee had the grace to continue staring ignorantly up at the stone ceiling, and was now whistling something that most nearly resembled "It's Starting to Look a lot like Christmas."
With a giggle, Angelina peeled her the pincer-like grip of her friend's hand from her lips.
"I hope you know that your case is totally hopeless."
Guffawing without any trace of her trademark elegance, Katie muttered, "You know, I sorta figured." And the two waltzed off to eat their lunch peaceably for the first time in what seemed like ages, the moplike head of Lee Jordan waggling along after them.
---
Angelina spent a great deal of the remaining day dodging her earnest beau in the halls. He seemed to be tracking her down like a man possessed, but for whatever reason, she didn't feel prepared to talk to him yet. Being around Daniel made her feel inadequate, almost out of her league, and she wasn't in the mood to putter around like a nervous first year. Just thinking about Hogsmeade was making her rather sick to her stomach.
Every corner she turned, he popped up out of nowhere as if he had apparated, and she found herself making excuses for abrupt trips to the library, the bathroom, to common room, anywhere.
So, it wasn't much later when she hurried out to the courtyard, a clammy sweat breaking out across her brow from tramping about so quickly. Despite her raised temperature, she tightened her scarlet and gold scarf around her long neck as the damp October chill hit her.
She trodded along a gravel path, her trainers grinding pleasantly against the rocks, thinking about what had happened at lunch a few hours ago. When Alicia and the twins saw that she and Katie had made up, they all made an obvious effort to pretend like nothing had ever occurred, an attitude they had adopted long ago for circumstances like these.
Being around Fred, however, was still a bit perplexing. All throughout her meal, she had felt Fred cast searching looks in her direction, but she kept her eyes fixed on her steamed broccoli. The tension just seemed to increase when Katie and Alicia started to squeal over Daniel Marques, forcing her to dish out the entire tale of herbology. Once or twice, she swore she saw Fred's hand tighten convulsively around his goblet out of the corner of her eye. When she reached the part about her date for Hogsmeade, she thought she spotted him tearing his napkin to bits sulkily, but maybe it was only a trick of the light.
Angelina was completely clueless as to why her friend, who had never suggested anything but a strictly platonic relationship, seemed offended at the idea of her dating some Ravenclaw. He probably knew the bloke and didn't like him, she told herself as she breathed in the moist autumn air.
It only took a few minutes before she stumbled upon two very familiar, very identical heads bowed together over a single scrap of parchment. The Weasley twins were perched eagerly upon a wooden bench, their brown eyes glinting maniacally. It was as obvious to Angelina as it would be to anyone: Fred and George were plotting something.
Ducking behind some rather advantageously placed foliage, she cocked her head, trying to catch a fragment of the conversation.
"-And what about adding some Snidget claws, that would add a nice bang to it."
"Excellent idea, dear brother of mine."
"Why thank you, Fred."
"You're welcome. And then some Nogtail noses, I suppose?"
"But not too many, we don't want to kill anyone-"
"OK, then. Small concentration of nogtail nose... Right." The scribbling scratch of quill on paper could be heard.
"What do you think boomslang skin would do?"
"That would probably give the user an added side effect gangrene, George."
A brief pause, and then from both:
"Wicked."
Not really wanting to know what they were concocting, Angelina cleared her throat loudly and stepped out into the clearing.
"How much of that did you hear?" George questioned instantly, but Angelina's gaze was drawn to Fred's magnetically, and the two began an intense staring contest.
"That was top secret Wizard Wheezes business, that was," he continued, his brow crinkling when neither of the two spared him a glance.
"Are we going to have to Obliviate you, Angelina?" George gave a feeble laugh at his pathetic attempt at humor, but stopped short when he realized he was being left behind entirely.
"Fine then," he muttered under his breath, "Way to make a bloke feel like a friendless flobberworm."
Rolling up the mysterious piece of parchment with a snap and tucking his quill roughly into a pocket, he trudged away, looking back curiously a few times at Angelina and his twin.
Angelina was seriously beginning to doubt that either of them would ever break the silence. She briefly rummaged through every word in her vocabulary, trying to come up with anything to say. Whatever Fred seemed to want to tell her, she sorely hoped he'd spit it out soon, as her eyes were beginning to water and a twitch was developing in her right cheek.
A fat bird twittered nosily overhead...
Tree frogs croaked rhythmically...
A snail creeped by...
The giant squid let out a mournful wail...
And then finally-
"So."
Not quite the words she was hoping for, but she had long since learned to lower her standards for the Weasley twins.
"Yes, Fred?" she simpered, fighting the urge to laugh at the befuddlement stamped across his features.
"Do you really think I'm a halfbaked dog?"
"Do you really think I'm miserable?" she shot back, but a smile floated beneath her defensiveness.
"Course not, Angie," came his uncharacteristically soft response, the premature lines at the corners of his eyes unfurling into smoothness once more. His head of red hair dropped unanticipatedly towards his knees, and Angelina could only watch, unsettled, as he pressed the heels of his palms into the space between his thick lashes and heavy brows.
Hoping to strike up a conversation so that things could finally return to normal, she plopped down onto the bench beside him. Her curling scarf brushed up against his arm like a whisper, and he bristled, standing up as if doused with cold water. Angelina scowled as he began to pace across the path, pebbles crunching with every step he took. For Merlin's' sake, she wished he would stop acting so odd. She waited in silence.
Then, as though he had suddenly reached a decision, Fred stopped his pacing and pivoted on the spot to face her.
"Angie, look, you know that I'm your friend. You know that. But-" He broke off, leaving his sentence fragment trailing into the distant denseness of the air like a solemn balloon.
Angelina stood stock still, forgetting how to breath, and in fact, forgetting entirely about the existence of oxygen. He gave a futile gesture, throwing a slender arm up as if he could catch the right words.
"But I think maybe it's time I told you-"
"Angelina, there you are! I've been looking for you everywhere!" A breathless Daniel Marques jogged over, looking absolutely ecstatic. The ebony skinned Gryffindor could barely contain her glare when he sauntered up to her, and he in turn became a bit miffed when Fred groaned in exasperation and stamped off.
"What, Daniel?" She snapped, her tone more curt than she intended. What had Fred been just about to tell her?
If Daniel noticed her agitation, he didn't show it.
"I'd rather you call me Dan, actually. Daniel's my father. Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me with that Charms essay that's due tomorrow? That is, if you're not busy," he said in one gulp.
"Well, since you asked politely," she grumbled, and stalked back up to the castle, jerking her hand away moodily when Daniel tried to capture it in his own. Not being deterred in the slightest, he slung a muscled arm around her shoulder, which Angelina was too distracted to shrug off.
---
A bit of a note because some of you who have been asking- yes, this is an AU story. I've switched around some of the years of students/events just to make things more convenient to the plot (or maybe the words "random, unrelated string of events" is more fitting). I've added it to the summary just to lessen the confusion.
And now another big "thank you" to my reviewers: Brigs, ninjaxxpirate, keisha.cl/coni, Akkiejj, fiona, kaypgirl, and kindastared. You guys rock!
A fresh batch of Hagrid's tasty rock cakes for anyone who wants to review.