DISCLAIMER: Refer to previous disclaimers.

I'm terrible for not updating! Everyone who has this story on story alert has probably forgotten the whole plot and completely lost interest. You might need to reread the previous chapters. –cringes- I'm so sorry! I can feel the subscriptions dwindling away already.

Hufflepuffs on Firebolts

Chapter 4

FIREWHISKEY FOR FIREBOLTS!

SUPPORT UNDERAGE DRINKING! SUPPORT YOUR QUIDDITCH TEAM!

FIREWHISKEY: THE NEW WATER!

I was proud of these signs. Each slogan was neatly written across pitch black posters in yellow letters. Susan had even gotten fancy with her sign and made scratch-'n-sniff stickers of firewhiskey bottles to border her lettering with. And, hopefully no one had noticed the sarcasm in Eloise's 'SUPPORT UNDERAGE DRINKING! SUPPORT YOUR QUIDDITCH TEAM!' motto. I stuck a few of Susan's stickers on this poster so that, hopefully, most of our customers would be too preoccupied with the scent to worry about reading everything.

Justin and Ernie had teamed up to make sure that adults and people from other Houses couldn't read the posters. In the end, Susan had to help them with that. To anyone other than Hufflepuff students the signs read:

A CLEAN DORMITORY LEADS TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE!

JOIN THE INQUISITORIAL SQUAD TODAY!

SKIRTS THAT DO NOT REACH MID-THIGH ARE HEREBY BANNED, ELOISE MIDGEN!

If any teenage Hufflepuff boys could read that last sign, there would be a lot more staring at Eloise. Luckily, they couldn't and Eloise was blissfully unaware of what any professors would see if they wandered into the Hufflepuff common room.

Even since that last encounter with the Weasley twins, things were still going well. But I was worried about that last threat.

"Never mess with the Weasley Twins."

ooooooo

My sweet sixteen was normal so far. Normal could be good sometimes. There can be no disasters that you are unaware of and that can be comforting. But normal means that there are no surprising surprises. Normal is boring.

As usual, I woke up to the clatter of dishes being broken as Ernie tried to bring me a tray of breakfast. It seems like every year he's so excited for my birthday that he forgets about the stairs and goes sliding down. It has become something of a sport for all of the girls in our House to watch and taunt him. Some of them wait in the common room to get a better view of his arse, while others like to see his startled face as he claws at the smooth surface.

Justin came in right on time with his own tray. He had one of the Ernie Eyers carry the tray up to me as I yelled my thanks to both of them.

Susan was the first person to give me my present. Every year Eloise vows to beat her, but she can sleep through anything – even the sounds of girls jeering at Ernie.

Susan hopped onto the edge of my bed, sitting upright, as if there were a stick down her back, and handed me two neatly wrapped boxes. She shifted nervously, watching as I opened them. Inside the first was a small dark blue purse filled with a few Galleons. "It can be yours to spend or you can donate it towards getting those Firebolts."

At first, I thought the second box might contain a book. It was actually a photo album bound in black dragon hide. She had owled my parents for some pictures of me growing up and got some photos of Susan, Eloise, and me together.

I almost didn't see it at first, but when I lifted out the photo album, I saw that beneath it was another photo album. It wasn't bound in the same fancy black leather, but I smiled when I read the cover.

A Yearbook

Or…

Embarassing Photos of People

"I got Colin Creevy to cough up some pretty fantastic pictures. This is definitely blackmail-worthy stuff right here."

"You are eviler than I give you credit for," I replied, raising an eyebrow.

She glowed with my praise and stopped fidgeting.

After I ate my breakfast, Eloise finally woke up and got her present out from under her bed.

"Someday I should just get it out from under there while you're asleep. You have bad hiding places," I informed her as I buttered a slice of toast.

"You won't be able to rip the wrapping paper open without me. It's a Semi-Permanent Sticking Charm that only I can remove," she bragged.

I opened the card first. It was awkwardly-written, as always, but very sweet. "Y'know, you don't really have to write a card. Susie never does."

She shrugged.

There were two packages, stacked on top of each other. The first package held at least fifty chocolate frogs that I shared with the two of them (but I forced them to hand over any chocolate frog cards that I didn't have). I barely remembered to rip open the second package.

It was a mini model of a Firebolt with a little figure sitting atop it. The person turned sharply, blond hair whipping in her face. It was me. All of her features were almost precisely mine. I almost gasped when I saw it.

Justin got me a gift card to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. It was obvious that he and Ernie had no clue what to get me, but it was the thought that counted.

Ernie claimed that he wanted to get me a locket with a bit of Umbridge's hair in it, but he couldn't get close enough to her and he thought buying me just a locket would make me think he was a prat. Instead, he gave me a copy of What in Merlin's Name are Girls Thinking?! as a joke and some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

As it was every year just after I received my birthday presents, everyone left to go eat breakfast and I, who had already eaten, was left in the girl's dormitory. I stood up and crossed the room, about to go meet them in the Great Hall. The reflection in a mirror caught my interest and I stopped.

My face was kind of pink, but had now lost the rest of the babyish roundness. I was kind of average looking. My hair was still blond, just a slightly darker shade, and would remain that color unless I got a sudden urge dye it to green for Slytherin pride or something. Familiar pigtails held my long hair away from my face. Unlike my hairstyle, my personality had changed a lot. I had been a timid, naïve, chocolate-frog-card-collecting girl. Now I was just a slightly abnormal chocolate-frog-card-collecting girl. I think it must have been the constant "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" shouts from the fake Moody.

"Are you really leaving your hair like that?" said the mirror in an extremely reedy voice, quite like Hermione Granger's (except way more fashion-conscious).

I ignored it, sighing and left to meet up with my friends in the Great Hall.

ooooooo

Was that a bottle I saw that little Gryffindor first year swigging from? I swear I saw a fourth year sipping from a flask.

Whenever I saw Fred and George they were encompassed by an entourage of Gryffindors of all ages with grins on their faces and a metallic clinking emanating from them. I saw hands full of gold slipping into jingling pockets and I actually heard George whistling – WHISTLING – as I passed.

I asked a third year Hufflepuff if he would like a bottle of firewhiskey and he said that he was already well-stocked, then stumbled away, obviously intoxicated. What kind of fourteen-year-old doesn't want more alcohol? I was almost considering finally giving out free samples to lure them over.

"Fred, George, I have to talk to you two," I muttered to them once their cloud of followers had floated away.

"Time is Galleons," George said jauntily, shaking his pockets, making the coins inside jingle annoyingly.

"Have you or have you not been stealing our customers?" I asked accusingly.

"Miss Abbott, how could you ask such a thing?" he said, mock-scandalized.

"There's been a lot of evidence," I said, grinding my teeth. How DARE they steal my idea?!

George sighed. "We've been selling firewhiskey, just like you – only at nine Galleons per bottle."

"I can't believe you did this," I murmured, trying to calm myself.

"Yes you can." Fred beamed at me widely and I wanted to smack his face really hard.

I clenched my fists and waited for the two of them to finish gloating.

"You didn't want to become business partners, so Fred and I decided that we would start our own business. We've made more than a thousand Galleons so far, thanks to you. We would never have thought of this without you." George blew me a kiss and the two of them started to swagger away.

"Wait!" I said quickly, thinking fast. They stopped and came back. "This is for a really good cause. You have to understand."

"Explain the cause and we might," Fred said, voice infuriatingly smooth.

"I can't," I blurted before I could stop myself. Great. Now their interest would be perked and they would find out. "But would you like to give me a birthday present?" It was an abrupt change in subject, and I hoped they wouldn't notice.

"We aren't going to donate to a cause we don't even know about," George laughed. "We may not be geniuses, but that doesn't mean we're completely thick."

"Today's my sweet sixteen and I haven't gotten any presents yet," I lied, hoping they'd forget about the firewhiskey.

"Well then, happy birthday," Fred said dismissively, flopping his hand in my general direction.

"I think that Hannah deserves more than just a 'Happy Birthday,'" George said suddenly. "After all, a sweet sixteen isn't JUST a birthday." He was standing right in front of me, face close to mine. A mixture of dread – and possibly something else that frightened me even more - filled me up, practically seeping out of my pores. "How about a sweet sixteen kiss?" His voice was low and gravelly and the warmth of his breath mingling with mine felt nice.

His lips brushed against mine, tingly and gentle. Before I could stop myself, I had tried to push him away and shouted, "NO!"

He looked a little surprised (I don't know if it was at me or at himself), but sniggered, giving me one last amused glance as he and his brother sauntered away.

I took long breaths, steadying myself. Yes, I had been a bit dramatic with the "NO!" (it was barely a peck, after all) but I didn't want to be kissed right there with his brother watching. The way he sniggered afterward made me feel like I had just taken some sort of cruel test. That he was willing to give away a kiss so easily annoyed me. It WAS NOT okay to go around kissing girls and making them all confused like this. I had been kissed before, but Ernie's lips had been hard and pressuring. At least George's were soft.

I suddenly felt disgusted with myself.

Look at me, Hannah Abbott, judging people based on their lips.

I'm horrible for not updating for so long. And this chapter kind of sucks. Definitely my least favorite so far. You may now use Caps Lock to yell at me.

Anyway, I was thinking that the Puff Girls should get used Firebolts. But I guess if I want this story to be compatible with OotP, the Hufflepuffs won't get ANY brooms. What do you think? I'm stuck. I should have thought the plot out better.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed so far! Silverbirch, froggyparty96, bizarreee, TheFictionGeeksOfDoom, rowan-greenleaf, Winney492 (you should get a fanfiction account), wordpainter007, superstarsvtn, I Dance Alone, IH8Abbreviations, and MidnightxRed. Your reviews make me laugh and smile.