Beth steamed all through Arithmancy.
While Professor Vector was drawing the sine curve that described the potency of certain herbs as time passed, Beth drew up a list of why this whole "going with" someone to Hogsmeade thing was a dumb idea.
2. The more the merrier
3. You can't get a table for two in the Three Broomsticks
And so forth. The list grew longer, threatening to take up more room on the page than the actual class notes, which were becoming more and more sloppily recorded. Beth wasn't aware that she was actually scowling, and clutching her pen rather harder than necessary.
Beth stopped suddenly and stared at what she had written. That was the root of it all, wasn't it? If everyone in Hogwarts suddenly began pairing off, she would be left without a partner.
Beth hadn't spent a lot of her life to that point worrying that she didn't have a boyfriend, but loneliness crept up and crashed onto her as she sat and contemplated her own words. "It leaves me with nobody," she said to herself.
Roger Davies looked up from the seat beside her, where he had been copying the herb-potency equation. "What are you on about?" he hissed.
Beth scowled at him. "Nothing I'm going to tell you about," she said, tossing her head.
Shaking his head, Davies turned away muttering something about Slytherins being touchy.
Somehow, snapping at the Ravenclaw made Beth feel a little better. She turned the page of her notebook, effectively hiding the poisonous list. Still, as she finally started to focus in on Professor Vector's words, she thought, I won't be left behind. Surely, someone would be free to hang around with. She couldn't be left alone.
Could she?
By dinner the madness had spread. She even heard people from other houses talk about "going with" someone to Hogsmeade: Chang and Diggory, Stebbins and Fawcett, Granger and the littlest Weasley boy.
"Really, though," drawled Draco, "that's because Potter wasn't smart enough to con those Muggles he lives with into signing his form, so you can't say the Mudblood attracted him."
"Or the Weasel actually snagged her," Pansy added.
"Why didn't Potter just fake a signature?" Blaise asked, shaking her head as she looked over at the Gryffindor table. "Even a first-year Slytherin would've thought of that."
"Exactly," said Draco triumphantly. "A Gryffindor would just be too noble to have a good time."
The third-years laughed and went back to creating dirty theories about Godric Gryffindor and Professor McGonagall.
Hearing them laugh reminded Beth of the problem at hand: locating someone who wasn't already paired up for the Hogsmeade trip. Out of all of her classmates, she had already determined who would be the least likely guy to have a date.
She turned to Mervin. "Who are you going with?"
"Gina," he said, as if that should have been obvious.
Beth made a noise of impatience. "Besides your snake?"
"Why would I want to go with anyone else?" he replied blankly.
She rolled her eyes and turned away from him in disgust. "How about you?" she asked Aaron, on her other side. "You're not going to Hogsmeade with anyone, are you?"
"Sure, me and some of the Quidditch guys are going to hang out," he said, looking a little alarmed at her belligerent tone. "Why?"
"Figures," said Beth coldly, without answering his question.
Aaron looked at Mervin in bewilderment. "What'd I say?"
"I think she's jealous of Gina," said Mervin, with some superiority.
"I am not jealous of Gina," said Beth hotly, "or Mel or Antigone or Pansy or anybody else for that matter, I'm just trying to find somebody who's not going to Hogsmeade with somebody else, so I don't have to hang out in the Three Broomsticks all by myself like a complete loser!"
The sound of her voice had risen as she went on, and Beth suddenly realized that she was close to throwing a tantrum. She quieted down immediately, but not before Antigone turned away with a smug little smile.
"Cripes, Beth," said Aaron, in a tone of surprise, "why don't you just go with Bruce?"
She stared at him. Why hadn't she thought of that? He'd want to hang out with the Quidditch team, sure, but he'd leave them for her if she asked. Things looked better suddenly. "Good idea," she said to Aaron, and got up and moved down the table to where Bruce sat idly munching a corned beef sandwich.
She slid in beside him, and Bruce acknowledged her with a flick of his head.
"Going to Hogsmeade then, Bruce?" Beth asked brightly, trying to lead into it casually.
"Yeah -- have to," said Bruce uncomfortably.
Something was unsettling about the way he said it. "Why's that?" said Beth, with growing suspicion.
"Er ... Blaise asked me to go." He ducked his head, then looked up at her hopefully. "Want to come?"
Beth threw up her hands. "I can't now, you've already got a date!"
"It's not a date -- I mean how do you say no --"
"Never mind, just don't worry about it," said Beth, completely frustrated. "I'll just lurk in a corner of the Three Broomsticks by myself -- maybe hook up with some of the third-year Hufflepuffs --"
Antigone von Dervish slid into the seat beside her, lithe and smug. "You could ask Neville Longbottom," she suggested, in a tone of purest innocence. "Oh -- I'm sorry, no -- he'll be spending time with some of his Herbology friends ... That's unfortunate, isn't it? You seem to be the only one in the school without a partner. Well, perhaps when the second-years move up a grade ..."
"What do you want, Antigone?" Beth broke in angrily.
Antigone's pretty eyes narrowed. "Only to say that I may not be a potions expert like you, but I can at least get a date." She got up and strode away, hips swinging haughtily.
Beth watched her go. "Some good Potions is doing me," she said to herself, in disgust.
"I mean it, Beth, I can skip out on Blaise if you want --"
"Oh, go away, Bruce."
She got up and stormed out of the Great Hall. She had never imagined that going to Hogsmeade -- the happiest place on earth, for heaven's sake -- would be this much of a trial. She stalked past a pair of Ravenclaws, a portrait which quailed under her glare, and Mervin, who had skipped out of dinner early to help his pet snake hunt down mice.
Mervin!
It was time for desperate measures. Beth turned on her heel, grabbed the red-haired boy by the front of the shirt, and slammed him against the wall.
"You are coming with me to Hogsmeade," she snarled.
To Beth's slight discomfort, the terror in Mervin's eyes didn't fade much. "Uh -- okay."
She let go of him. "Thanks." She turned and started to leave.
He called after her: "So is it ... like a date?"
"I don't care," she roared over her shoulder, and went back to dinner.
The third-years were all excited about their first trip to Hogsmeade Village. Beth was slightly irritated.
For one thing, Mervin paid a lot more attention to his pet snake Gina than to her. For another, everyone they passed kept giving them knowing looks, which infuriated Beth and which Mervin did not notice. Finally, it turned out that all Mervin had really wanted to do was study in the Three Broomsticks, so she endured several hours of talk about Ancient Runes and numerous winks and nudges from the Weasley twins, who could not keep their freckled noses out of anyone else's business.
The end of the day didn't come soon enough, and Beth was just about to write off the day as a wasted one when Bruce came panting up.
"Finally shook off Blaise," he grinned. "Come on, let's go back and dig into that Halloween feast!" And he clambered into the coach beside them.
Not two minutes later, Melissa dashed up and climbed in with them. "I left Galen with his friends," she confessed. "You don't mind if I ride back with you?"
Beth was too glad to see her to hold a grudge.
The Halloween Feast was every bit as good as it had been previously. Happy and tired from the Hogsmeade visit, the fifth-years finished up the day by stuffing themselves with food and throwing things at the Hufflepuff table when no one was looking. Aaron Pucey, with his uninjured arm, was able to get half of a crumpet to stick to Cedric Diggory's hat, and for that he became the hero of the evening.
The entertainment that year was given by the ghosts of the castle -- with the notable exceptions of Peeves, who had been forbidden from attending for the seventeenth year running, and the Bloody Baron, who merely loomed near the Slytherin table and made everyone nervous. The partially-decapitated Gryffindor ghost, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, got wild applause with a stage production of his own death.
"Nearly Headless Nick's all right," muttered Bruce, as Sir Nicholas bludgeoned himself with a ghostly axe, "but what I'd really pay to see is Completely Headless Potter."
Beth had to put her head down in her arms, she laughed so hard.
All too soon, the feast was over, and students began to filter back to their dormitories. Beth said goodnight to Bruce in the common room and went upstairs with Melissa. Despite all her worries about Hogsmeade, it had ended up being a pretty good day.
"You know, it's been a while since we had a nice, quiet Halloween," said Melissa, as they were getting ready for bed. "Last year with the whole Chamber of Secrets thing, and before that, with the --" she looked around to make sure Antigone wasn't listening too closely "-- the forbidden corridor, and the troll. I feel like we ought to get attacked, or something."
"Something dramatic," Beth agreed cheerfully. "I dunno, it's kind of nice to have a relaxing Halloween for once." She climbed into bed. "See you tomorrow."
She drew the curtains around her four-poster and lay down sleepily. Before long, the lights were shut off and silence descended on the room as all three of them slowly began to slip away into tired, happy dreams. It had been a long day -- a good one, by the time it ended, but a long and tiring one, to be sure --
There was a piercing shriek.
At first Beth thought it was the screaming woman again; she almost fell out of bed before she realized it was Antigone, sitting up in bed with the covers clutched around her. The lights snapped on.
There stood Richard, looked embarrassed but intent in a pair of striped pajamas and a purple dressing gown. He had his prefect badge in one hand.
"Snape says we've all got to go to the Great Hall immediately," he said, his voice urgent but apologetic. "Dumbledore's orders. Just come as you are." He left, then poked his head back in the doorway. "Better bring your pillows."
