(A.H.P)
I had been sent back to the common room by Dumbledore and I sat nervously telling Pansy and the group what was happening very quietly as Snape was watching over us all to make sure we were using the time well. Anybody who hadn't been working well was given potions ingredients to prepare for his future classes. Snape suddenly stopped and went towards the fire grate, I watched him fearfully, in the middle of telling Pansy what I had told Dumbledore. Snape nodded at the flames and stood up straight again.
'Miss Paiper' he called to me and again I followed him to the headmaster's office.
In this meeting to be simple about it, Dumbledore took 10 points from Gryffindor but 15 from Slytherin as 'pushing is not the Hogwarts way'. This was not fair! I went to protest but he immediately spoke over me, how rude.
Scarlett and I left the office together and she began to painfully try and make friendly conversation.
'Ally, I'm really sorry that Dumbledore took five extra points off of your house, just because you pushed me over; when we all know why you did it.' Scarlett told me
'Yeah, well you never took the points away, so forget it' I said half-heartedly
'Yes, but still. I hate the fact that us two fight all the time and our houses are rivals!' she pointed out,
'They only say the houses are rivals, that doesn't mean every person has to be rivals. But its just the way we are, S we always have fought' I replied 'I mean can you name one time we actually got along?'
'When we were four' she said with a weak smile, no-one spoke for a while 'Ally? You Ok?'
'Yeah, I was just thinking of the necklace… and our great grandma's funeral…but it's okay'
'I'm so sorry about the whole Charm thing, I forgot you'd super-glued it to your neck' Scarlett said, beginning by sniffing back tears but finishing by laughing slightly.
'It's okay, Draco fixed it for me' I told her simply
'Wow... D-D-Draco's really talented isn't he' Scarlett said, blushing
'Uh... yeah I suppose' I replied awkwardly, I knew she was thinking of Draco anyway.
'Well I'm still glad Fred and George were there to save the day' she told me quickly
'Yeah... I umm... didn't hurt you, did I?' I said, still smiling but I could feel myself reddening slightly on the cheeks. I didn't really care whether I had hurt her, a part of me hoped I did as I was still annoyed but I had to move on from the twins part of the conversation.
'You? Hurt me? Nah it was just a shock that was all' Scarlett dismissed
'Ok... Good' I said, partially unhappy and partially guilty for feeling unhappy.
'Good? Did you just say good?' I asked 'what the heck has Draco done to you? Or more specifically the twins?' she asked. Oh no the conversations back.
'The - the -the twins? What do u mean?' I asked dismissively 'and no-ones done anything to me!'
'Oh come on Ally! I've seen the way you look at them, and at lunchtime yesterday! I'm your twin! I know these things!' she told me, damn it! I knew she'd seen my red face yesterday
'No, they were just being... Embarrassing' I dismissed again 'how can u hang out with them really?'
'They're funny! Make me smile and laugh, damn sight better than Malfoy and Pansy!' Scarlett told me, patronisingly.
'Oh yeah? Pansy is a fantastic friend, and I know you like Draco' I told her, yey I was back on track.
'HOW? I haven't shown any signs!' she shouted
'Oh yeah! Signs? There couldn't be more signs' what? It was true!
'Like what? Oh yeah your little stunt at break this morning was to show me up wasn't it? WELL THANKS A MILLION ALLY!' she huffed
'To teach you a lesson. You should've heard yourself in Potions! How pathetic you sounded, if you don't want the world to know then don't scream at it.' I advised her, then in an imitation of the Potions lesson speech, I added 'Draco just smiled and winked at me! How often do you see Ron or Harry do that!'
'Oh and you blushing at Fred and George wasn't as bad?' she accused me,
'You don't have a clue what they were saying! Of course I was blushing, you would've been too if you were there!' I told her angrily
'Alyce and Fred sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G! See ya loser' she told me patronisingly and ran off towards her friends. How childish!
I sat down at the Slytherin table, my friends were already here as the bell for the end of the day rang as I reached Dumbledore's office.
'how'd it go?' Pansy asked me as I sat down. I finished my story that I had started before I left the common room. She listened carefully and was a fantastic audience, she protested as I had tried to do so and told me how unfair she too found it; I hadn't even hurt Scarlett and it was totally unjustified.
'he always did prefer the Gryffindors' Pansy told me snootily.
'that pile of hippogriff dung!' Draco said, I looked at Pansy to confirm I'd heard him right… Draco doesn't like hippogriffs? 'I know what'll cheer you up Alyce' he continued
'yeah?' I asked, now picking at my dinner.
'yeah. Come with me to quidditch tryouts in half an hour - it's okay u can just watch if you'd prefer - and then after you can use my broom to go flying, when you see it you wont be able to say no.'
'what is it?' I asked him interested
'no, no, don't want to ruin the surprise now, do we?' he told me 'you'll have to come along and see.'
'okay' I smiled slightly at him to let him know the effort was appreciated.
Half an hour later I separated myself from Draco to find a good seat in the stands as he went to change. I found a seat level with the hoops and in the centre of the pitch so I could see all the action around me. I wasn't the only one there but I never planned on mingling much; especially as many had picked up on it being my fault for the loss of, lets face it: a small amount of almost completely insignificant points and had taken the opportunity to let me know how they felt about it. A few others had also decided to drag up my unfortunate encounter with Snape after the trashing of the common room - and Draco's hair.
Soon, as I managed to blank out the jeers from the other Slytherins around me, the current Slytherin quidditch team followed by many other Slytherin members from a range of year groups all dressed in similar build outfits, though many failed massively at looking like the quidditch uniform. Draco seemed to have brought a proper uniform, just not the entire uniform yet. None of my year had even attempted to get in and only 2 girls were there, looking rather weak compared to all of the boys, even the youngest ones, yet neither were of a seeker build either and so looked rather out of place and useless to the team.
Each of the people gave an interesting performance in their tasks, many a good effort, but others the complete opposite. Draco was one of the good people in the running, as I saw it he only had one competition and that was Sebastian King. He was the sort of boy who wasn't afraid to knock anyone off of their brooms and although being very tall he could stay so low on his broom to keep a fast speed and was still able to keep even the school brooms on an obedient roll. However Draco seemed unperturbed at the competition as if - and I reminded myself, it was probably true - he had something up his sleeve. As I expected when Draco left the sky he made a deal of asking who had got the place as seeker, only to be told to be quiet and to 'get out of the way so I can get on with it' by Flint, who had a badly hidden smirk on his face. I was tempted to go down to the pitch to talk to Draco after his go but settled with sending him a thumbs up and a grin. I still hadn't been able to see Draco's broom properly but at least I knew it was fast, since it was always a blur.
Soon Flint cleared away everything and everybody on the pitch - except Draco and myself, saying that he'd pin the team members name's onto the notice board tomorrow. I made my way down to Draco and as soon as I reached him I checked out his broom: A nimbus 2001. WOW! I wanted this broom so badly, but knew by the end of the year, something better may have come to the shops for me to beg my dad for. Flint said goodbye to us and left the pitch too leaving me with Draco, staring at his broom.
At first Draco gave me the impression he was worried about my flying ability before going up on his broom and I had to fly the slow school brooms to show him I could fly while he zoomed around at twice the speed. That show off! Haha. I leant flat into the school broom allowing me to catch up with the rather relaxed Draco, who glided along as if it were a slow speed. After 5 minutes of messing with me Draco allowed me onto his broom, now taking the school broom to fly with me. As soon as kicking off of the ground I let the broom take me faster and higher than I had ever flown, not to Draco's amusement at all but a definite mood raiser for me.
We continued flying until it was getting difficult to see each other. I wanted very much to fly back to the common room and enter through the window but Draco wouldn't let me with his new broom, even though he liked the idea too.
Ten minutes later, after Draco had changed from his try out uniform and he had practically wrestled me off of his nimbus we were walking towards our common room together, still talking about flying and quidditch - one of the few things we had in common. He was still making notions to tell me he liked me - less subtly than I'm sure he meant them to but I remembered his words from lunchtime ('Well she is very good looking') and couldn't help but feel distanced more from him even more so than before. Was he just flirting with me because I look like her? Or maybe he liked me and I took a compliment the wrong way, he was coming on rather strong - he always did, even before seeing her. My eyes were staring into his awkwardly. I don't even like Draco so I don't know why I'm getting so obsessed with him liking her but it bugs me still, she bugs me, he bugs me… especially when I'm sent mixed signals like this. We walked back into the common room, and for once we were both more than happy to see Pansy in the corner with Draco's owl.
'Draco I think it's your dad's letter' she told us as we reached her 'the owl wont let me anywhere near it's leg so I'm certain of it!' Draco took the letter easily from the owl's leg, without saying a word to Pansy and read the parchment to himself as we watched him. Soon he folded the letter away into his pocket.
'he said he'll ask… if I make it onto the quidditch team.' He told us, almost solemnly 'more was riding on tonight than I thought'
'it's okay, it's okay' I told him 'you done brilliantly tonight and Flint obviously thought u were better than that Seb King guy.'
'thanks' he told me unconvinced 'I'm going to bed, night' and with that he left. Neither of us were sure of how we felt but soon made our own ways up our separate staircase.
That night I had a nightmare about Draco, he fell off his broom and got kicked off of the quidditch team and pitch - literally. Then his father waiting outside was there to hit him for it and took away Draco's broom so he never had a chance to disappoint him again. I woke up with a pang of horror, poor Draco, was his father like that really? Today I had woken up at a normal time, I went downstairs and immediately checked the notice board, no quidditch notice was yet up.
I waited in the common room, on the arm of the chair, swaying backwards and forwards until I heard large feet on the boy's staircase. I stood up as the male came into view. Flint.
'It's you!' I said loudly, uncontrollably. He looked at me but barely saw me 'Have you decided the quidditch team yet?' I asked him urgently
'what's it to you? Did you want to try out? 'Cus I think what you're looking for is the shrinking potions club' he told me, I was on the edge of my nerve as it was
'no. I wanted to know if Draco got in.' I told him 'he needs this more than you'd realise'
'what's in it for you?' he asked suspiciously
'Draco's my friend' I told him, now very annoyed. He kept looking at me suspiciously, I went to the final straw 'please let him on the team! I'll do anything'
'woah kid!' he stopped me 'you really want this? Malfoy's not going to seem like someone that would use the kids to get ahead- no, Malfoy's already on the team. I've got the list here. He's the best man for the job.' he lifted his hand revealing a scroll in his hand, how had I not noticed that? I grinned back at him.
'Malfoy knew he was on the team ages ago. If you're really that closer mates he would've told you. I mean we all saw you try to knock him out and destroy the common room in one go yesterday but patience child. Now why don't you run off to confirm it with him.' he suggested, as he had suggested I left the common room in a rush to tell Draco, and to pretend I never knew that he'd known before hand. A celebration breakfast was in order.
(S.V.P)
I reached breakfast on a high, having a shower at 7AM strangely made me happy, I saw the faces of my friends and realised that I was a little crazy to be so awake!
'Good morning sleepy heads! Why do you all look so depressed? Ginny we have Transfiguration and Charms for our first two lessons be happy!'
'I'm glad you're really happy and all Scarlett but my dear brother here (pointing at Ron) has just had a HUGE go at me for nothing!'
I suddenly snapped out of my mood and turned to face all of my friends, but I focused more on Ron.
'Erm… Ron? Why did you snap at Gin? Bad mark in Potions? Hermione getting to you again?'
His head snapped up at me; he looked like he was about to hex me into the middle of next year… (Ohmigosh he knows!)
'Scarlett! YOU BLOODY IDIOT! Why did you have to go and lose us 10 points? We were soooo close to winning the house cup and now? Well we have better chance of Snape actually liking us!'
I flinched at his outburst even though I knew I deserved every word of it… I happened to catch the rest of my friend's eyes and they all looked so disappointed in me! But hang on; Alyce lost 15 points from Slytherin so in theory we're still in the lead by five points… So with that I opened my mouth and rebuked him:
'Ronald Weasley! I'll have you know that my sister lost her house 15 points! (I turned round and looked Draco straight in the eye) Yeah! That's right Malfoy 15 points! So would you please mind shutting up and doing what you do best – eating so that Ginny and I can go off to Transfiguration? Thank you very much!' With that I sat down and tucked into my breakfast of porridge with maple syrup all over it – yummy!
After we'd eaten, in silence, Ginny and I skipped off to Transfiguration arm in arm having totally forgotten my outburst at Ron. In Transfiguration we were repeating the last few lessons work; I loved Transfiguration I really did but did McGonagall have to make us repeat the same spell over and over again? I poked Ginny on the elbow,
'Hey Gin? I'm really sorry that Ron took the 10 points loss thing out on you… I have no idea how he found out though. Maybe he isn't quite as dumb as we think he is, eh?'
She turned to look at me and chuckled a little
'Yeah! That's a revelation in itself. But hey Scarlett? Cheer up Ron's just annoyed that together him, Harry and now you have lost Gryffindor a total of 110 points, so yeah it's a touchy subject'
After hearing what she had just said to me I almost fell on the floor in shock, instead however, I burst into tears
"Ginny I am so sorry what with Fred and George clocking up losses for Gryffindor and now you're best mate! I really don't mind if you never want to speak to me again, I honestly mean that!' I said whilst wiping my nose and eyes on the sleeve of my cloak. Ginny eventually took pity on me and gave me a packet of tissues whilst consoling me,
'Scarlett, hey, calm down it's not all bad… Ron and Harry did deserve those point deductions they flew a flippin' car to school! As for your point loss well sibling rivalry is bound to happen round here, just look at me and my brothers for an indication, but I can understand why Dumbledore deducted 10 points for charming Alyce's hand… but why did she get 15 deducted; not that I'm complaining just curious?'
'She got 15 deducted because she pushed me over, whilst she never actually caused me any harm, and it's not the Hogwarts way apparently.'
'Ohh yes that does make much more sense now' she replied, by this time we were out of the classroom on our way to Charms.
On the way there I happened to spot Fred and George huddled in a corner looking as if they had just pranked someone so with that I promptly walked over to them and squeezed between them,
"Hello you two! Why do you look like cat's that have got the cream?" I looked up into Fred's beautiful blue eyes and saw that he was smirking down at me
"Now, now that would be telling wouldn't it?" He replied…. He was very annoying sometimes!
"Pretty please Fred?" the only person I ever begged was Mummy and that was only when she wouldn't let me take Bicky outside to play in the garden when I was six.
He gestured towards the Charms classroom "haven't you and Ginny got a lesson to be getting to? Go on get to it toodle pip!" With that he and his twin had disappeared behind a column and Ginny and I were left to trundle into our second lesson.
Once inside the Charms classroom Ginny and I flopped down into our usual desk off to the right of where Professor Flitwick was. We then spent the next hour perfecting 'Spongify' I kept blushing all the while remembering what had happened to my sister when I was practicing it yesterday lunchtime…. The lesson finally ended and we were dismissed and told to continue practicing the charm – I'm convinced I saw Professor Flitwick wink at me – so without any hesitation Ginny and I raced from the classroom towards the lake.
When we reached the spot that our friends were sitting down at Ginny and I ran the rest of the way to them and dropped our bags and laid out on the grass breathing heavily and we just happened to look up when we saw 5 pairs of eyes looking at us totally confused
"You two OK down there?" Harry asked – I went a light pink at hearing his voice for the first time today….
"Err…. Yeah fine thanks Harry…." Ginny replied – she was a lot redder then me!
"Well, well Scarlett you do seem to get yourself into a few weird positions don't you?" I gulped and looked up into the smirking face of Fred Weasley – from this angle I could understand (yes you did hear that right) why Alyce found him fanciable! "C'mon let's get you back to a sitting position shall we?" There he was holding out both of his hands expecting me to put my hands into them so that he could pull me up…. Instead all I could do was nod furiously until such times as Ginny poked me, hard, in the ribs so just like that I took Fred's hands and hauled myself up into a sitting position and grinned back at him
"Thank you!"
"You're very welcome Miss Paiper"
Ginny groaned from behind us "haven't you got some people to go and prank or, Merlin forbid, homework to be doing?"
With that Fred's head turned to his little sister's "I do, but seeing as you're not mum I'm not going to listen to you." And just like that he plonked himself down next to me and Ron and putting his hands onto the grass stared out over the lake.
I, on the other hand, started to frantically rummage through my bag so that I could make a start on my Transfiguration homework; I was rummaging so hard that I knocked into Hermione's elbow with my own
"Ohh sorry 'Mione! I totally forgot you were sitting there!"
"It's OK Scarlett; you look a little bit stressed anything I can help you with?" She asked me kindly
"You would be a total life-saver! We were set some Transfiguration homework first lesson but I really don't want it hanging over my head; would you mind helping me?" I looked at her with pleading eyes
"Of course I will; but not right this second as lessons are starting in ten minutes. Don't you think you should be grabbing your stuff?"
With that I bolted from the grass, leaving my bag behind, and raced up to the common room to grab my books for History of Magic and then legged it back down the seven flights of stairs – this is a day when I needed the twins piggy backs again – I reached the bottom panting like a dog and had my bag flung over my arm by who I can only assume was Ginny who then gently tugged me towards our History of Magic classroom where I could finally get my breathing back to normal whilst I listened to Professor Binns drone on and on….
Once that lesson was over we headed to the flying pitch for, you guessed it, our fourth lesson of the day! This plus our last lesson were the two I had been dreading all day… As we reached the quidditch pitch there were a line of Slytherins opposite the Gryffindors as usual, almost a symbolism of the rivalry between houses. I noticed that my twin wasn't there, I barely had a second to consider where she was before Ginny was pulling me into the line-up enthusiastically as instructed by Madam Hooch. I wanted the lesson to speed up, get it over with, but for now I was happy to have my feet fixed on the ground. Naturally, since I said this, we were ordered into the air to practise our turning, my sister still wasn't here - of all lessons for her to miss, I would have thought she'd want to be here. I attempted to talk to Ginny as we flew but she was too interested in the lesson and on every corner I'd spin out slightly so it was almost impossible to keep up with her.
Suddenly I spotted my sister run onto the pitch below us, Madam Hooch landed her broom beside Alyce as she stopped. I slowed my broom down and drew to a halt a little out of Madam Hooch's view. Alyce spotted me though, she looked up and sent me an unjustified look of disgust. I felt the same to her, but I wondered how many points she'd lose her house. I'm sure Ron would be happy if I tell him about that, it would definitely redeem myself from earlier. I felt some air move behind me, and turned slightly to see Ginny.
'Come on Scarlett, what are you waiting for?' she asked
'Shh' I hushed her, she looked towards Alyce too
'oh,' she whispered at me, I never turned this time 'I think I heard the twins mention earlier that she has been late to all of her lessons today. How many points do you think she's lost just today?' I kept watching Madam Pomfrey, my sister worked her way out of losing points (sending me a smirk as she did so, I hate her) and Madam Hooch turned to me and Ginny
'shows over girls' she told us, we started flying again.
'I hope she lost hundreds' I said sourly to Ginny as we flew back into the circle of flyers together. Something touched the back of my broom and I turned to see Colin Creevey, a boy from Gryffindor, veer of course directly into the wall of the castle. I gasped,
'did I do that?' I asked Ginny, I rushed to the ground, hitting my feet hard on the ground as I landed, but happy to be on the ground nonetheless. With a simple swish from the pitch, we were left standing around waiting for the teacher to return from the hospital wing. I had a chance to talk to Ginny properly at last. Once Madam Hooch had returned from the hospital wing we only had 15 minutes of the lesson left, and we had to do the dreaded suggested races.
My race was between Ginny, a boy from Slytherin, Alyce and myself. When we started I was unsurprised to see Ginny and Alyce pulling completely ahead of us, leaving me in particular behind. I leant into my broom as much as I could but the fear of falling and my bad turns made it near impossible to even stay in sight of the others. I kept looking up, watching Ginny's and Alyce's race in front of me. Ginny took over noticeably several times before my sister closed the gap and occasionally even took over herself. At the time they finished they were at the point that the gap was so incredibly close nobody could tell who had finished first. I sped up a little, not worrying too much about the last bend and as the others ahead of me drew to a firm stop I reached the final inches and pulled myself to a steadier stop, and congratulated Ginny. At least this was the end of it, we could leave at last!
After that dreadful, on my part, flying lesson I was pretty hungry so after dumping my History of Magic books, and picking up my things for Transfiguration, I followed Ginny out of the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall to see what gorgeous food awaited us for our lunch. As soon as we reached the hall I scanned it for Harry, Ron, Hermione and the twins; I could only find the 'golden trio' so I was about to open my mouth and ask Ron where Fred and George had gotten to when I heard something that made my spine shiver…
