Opov

September went by in a blur of classwork and practices and I found myself a little relieved when the first Hogsmead weekend of the year was announced. I'd been so busy, I hadn't realized it was almost Halloween.

"You going to go with Reagan?" Alicia asked curiously as we walked back from Potions together. This was one of the few classes we didn't have with Reagan who'd taken care of magical creatures instead.

"I doubt it." I said honestly. "She's always so busy."

"That's a shame." Said Alicia with a frown. "If anyone could use a weekend off it would be her."

This was perfectly true. Reagan, who had almost daily practices, had to find time to do her school work between interviews, meetings with her foundation, games, and whatever other PR obligation Max signed her up for.

So far, in the passed month, she'd missed about a week of school from traveling to other countries to play games. I didn't know how she was still functioning. She was doing homework later in the night than anyone else, but woke up even earlier than I did to fly. It had become sort of my daily duty to wake her up at some point during class.

"You should ask her." Alicia said. Alicia had plans to go out with her boyfriend this weekend leaving me alone unless the team wanted to practice, but I was guessing considering it was supposed to be fine weather this weekend that they wouldn't. "I think she's got a by week for games, which means they're resting and not having many practices."

"Doesn't she have that meeting with the representative of the firebolt company to discuss her sponsorship?"

"I'm sure she could move it."

"Move what?" said a familiar voice and we both jumped to see Reagan walking into the entrance hall just as we'd reached the top of the steps form the dungeons.

"Perfect timing!" Alicia said excitedly. "Reagan, are you busy this weekend?"

"I'm always busy." She said frowning. "Why, what's going on?"

"It's a Hogsmead weekend." Alicia explained and she looked blankly at us.

"It's where students get to leave the school and visit the village we arrived in when we first got off the train." I continued.

"We get to leave the school?" she asked looking stunned.

"On certain weekends yeah." Alicia said. "but why are you surprised?" She asked suddenly. "You leave all the time."

"Yeah but that's for work." Reagan said as if this were obvious. "So other students get to leave too?"

"Yeah." Alicia said brightly as we walked into the Great Hall for dinner. "Hogsmead is super fun, you should go with Oliver."

"Aren't you going?" she asked frowning.

"Yeah but I'll be with Aiden." Alicia continued. "Which means he'll just end up practicing if you don't go with him." She finished gesturing towards me and rolling her eyes

"We could practice together." Reagan said looking at me excitedly. "I've been wanting to work on my right handed shots for a while but Mom says it's a waste of-"

"NO!" Alicia said so firmly we both looked at her in alarm. "Quidditch!" she said in exasperation. "Is that all you two care about?"

"Yes." We answered in unison.

"Well not this weekend." Alicia said crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at us like a mother who'd caught her children doing something wrong. "You two are going to have some fun off the pitch even if it kills you. That means you," she said looking in my direction as we sat at the Gryffindor table. "Aren't going to schedule any practices this weekend, and you," she said looking towards Reagan. "Are going to make time to go to Hogsmead? Got it?"

"Alright." We said in unison after a quick, nervous glance at each other.

"Excellent." She said reaching for a baked potato and starting to eat. "Honestly." She said between bites. "I don't know what you two would do with out me. You wouldn't have any sort of social life. All you guys would do would be locking yourselves up in a room making diagrams then going to the pitch to play quidditch."

"I don't see anything wrong with that." Reagan muttered but so only I could hear and I smiled.

"So what are you two doing today?" Reagan asked Alicia and I as she piled chicken and potatoes on to her plate.

"We've got practice." I said while Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Merlin, don't look so cheerful about it." I said looking at her reproachfully.

"I wish I had practice." She said and we both looked at her in shock.

"You don't have practice tonight?" I asked in surprise and she shook her head.

"Well what else do you have to do?" Alicia asked. Even on the nights Reagan didn't have practice, she was still usually booked with homework or other obligations.

"Nothing." She said honestly. "I don't have practice and its Friday so I'm giving myself a break from school."

"And Max didn't book anything?"

"Weird right?" she asked. "I guess he thinks I could use some time off."

"What are you going to do?" I asked curiously. I was very interested to know what Reagan did in her free time.

"I honestly have no idea." She said and I found myself wondering if she'd ever had any before. "I might just sleep."

"On your night off?" Alicia asked incredulously. "That is unacceptable!"

"Why?" Reagan asked a little alarmed.

"Because you finally have sometimes for yourself!" Alicia said in wide eyed exasperation. "You know what. Why don't you and I have a girls night?" she asked.

"A girls night?" Reagan asked skeptically. I could tell by her tone she wasn't very excited. It seemed missed on Alicia though.

"Yeah, you know. Like sleep overs when we were little, paint our nails, talk about boys. Eat junk food all night."

"I thought people only did that in movies…" Reagan muttered.

"You've never had a sleep over?" Alicia asked her eyes even wider now and Reagan shook her head. "But how is that possible?"

Reagan made a non committal noise, and I remembered her saying that she hadn't had friends back in the U.S. For some reason that picture of her when she was younger and those two other girls came to the front of my mind.

"It's settled then." Alicia said. "We're having a girls night. I'll invite Angelina and Katie and get Fred and George to sneak us some snacks from the kitchens."

"Alright." Reagan said warily.

"Great! I'll go tell them now." She said and with that, she stood up and bustled down the table to find our teammates.

"You know I can't really picture you having a girls night." I said looking at Reagan who watched Alicia a little apprehensively as she found Angelina who was sitting with Fred and George.

"Me either." Reagan said glancing at me. "I'd feel much better if you were going to be there."

"Oh no." I said with a grin. "I will not be participating in the mud masks and boy talk thank you very much."

"Oh you think I want to?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"You could have said no." I pointed out.

"I'm not so sure I could have," she muttered and I knew exactly what she meant.

I liked Alicia very much, but she did tend to get carried away sometimes with her ideas. She wasn't the kind of person it was easy to say 'no' to.

"It's only one night." I said fairly.

"Then why don't you do it?"

"I'm not a girl."

"I'm barely one." She pointed out and I gave her a strange look.

"What?" she asked.

"Why do you think you're barely a girl?" I asked her curiously.

"I love sports." She said. "I barely wear make up. All my time goes in to playing quidditch, I hate boy talk, I've never painted my nails, and my idea of a good time is getting dirty and tossing the quaffle around."

"That doesn't mean you're not a girl."

"I've never even had a boyfriend." She said raising an eyebrow. "So what am I supposed to talk about?"

"Well you could talk about the magnificent Drake Dennings." I said sarcastically and she grinned. "He seems to like you."

"I did have a stalker once." She mused.

"I think I read about that." I said my eyes going wide. "Didn't he break into your hotel room back when you were like fifteen?"

"Yeah." She said. "He was lucky it was me getting my firebolt and not Max. Max might have killed him."

"See." I said with a grin. "You've got plenty to talk about."

"I still think it would be much more fun to play quidditch." She said mutinously and turning back to her potatoes.

"Yes well we both know that quidditch beats everything." I said and she smiled. "But we also have to deal with the confused lesser mortals of the world who think you should have a life outside of quidditch."

"But I don't." she said with a laugh.

"That doesn't mean Alicia isn't going to try to make you have one."

"I wish more people could be like you." She said with a sigh suddenly her face falling into a slightly disheartened expression. "You get it. You don't want me to change."

"Of course I don't want you to change." I said incredulously. "You're awesome."

Her smile returned.

I couldn't help but think she looked extremely pretty, even though she looked like she did every other day. But she was always pretty. How on earth could she think that she was barely a girl?

"What?" she asked and I realized I was staring at her.

"Nothing." I said looking down and taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

I couldn't help but notice that the smile she'd given me wasn't like the one she wore in the papers. It was pretty yes, but some how different, maybe genuine was the right word. Anyways, I'd notice she smiled like that at me a lot. Only at me around here. It was the same smile she wore in the pictures with her past team mates. I wasn't sure why it was only me, perhaps because like she said I understood her. Or maybe it was just because I was the person she spent the most time with, but either way, I hoped that it meant something.

Rpov

"Alright, Alright, it's Alicia's turn." Katie said excitedly while I tore opened my fifth pumpkin pastie.

We were all in our pajamas in Katie's dormitory. The only other girl who lived with her was in the hospital wing tonight so we had the room to ourselves, and I had to admit, I wasn't having such a bad time. Of course if given the choice I'd still rather be playing quidditch, but we'd eaten lots of junk food, charmed our hair into braids and Alicia had painted my nails a pretty blue that I knew would match my team robes if I put them on. Personally, I didn't know why she'd bothered, it was just going to chip off by my next game, but now we were playing some sort of question game where we each had to answer questions about the boys we'd dated truthfully. It was like an extremely personal interview but for once, I got to ask some of the questions.

"Who was the first boy you ever said I love you too?" Angelina asked. "Excluding family."

"Aiden." She said blushing as Angelina smirked at her and Katie giggled.

"Who said it first?" Katie said with interested and Angelina nodded.

"He did." She said still blushing. "But it took him long enough. We'd been dating for almost three months."

"Is that long?" I asked curiously.

"Long to say I love you!" Alicia protested and the other girls nodded.

"Oh…" I said. I didn't really know about the rules of love. I always thought if you liked someone and they liked you then you were together and it was as simple as that, but apparently I was wrong. After all the constant chatter about boys tonight, I learned there was a lot to dating that I'd never even thought of. How you were supposed to act around someone apparently changed when you started dating them, what you said, what you laughed at, even what sort of things you did together. It all seemed crazy and confusing. Why couldn't you just say you liked someone and just keep doing what your doing but just be boyfriend a girlfriend? Did it really have to be so hard?

"Where'd you guys first kiss?" Katie asked eagerly while I wondered why that should matter.

"The astronomy tower." She said. "We had a late night class and well… it just sort of happened under the stars."

"That's so romantic." Angelina said.

"Aiden is so sweet," Katie said enviously. "He's such a great guy."

"I know." Alicia sighed happily but I didn't say anything.

I felt a little awkward knowing how Oliver felt about her and being the only one in this room that didn't think Aiden was so amazing. I mean sure he was nice enough. I'd met him a few times and he'd seemed ok, but he didn't even play quidditch and didn't seem to like to talk about it much. He was smart, but a little arrogant about it and had laughed at me when I'd made the chair explode in charms. I couldn't help but think Oliver was a lot nicer than he was. Then again, maybe that was because I was the only one who knew about Oliver's feelings for her, so as his friend I was automatically in his corner.

But Alicia seemed to like him and I guess that was all that mattered.

"Was he the first boy you kissed?" Angelina asked interestedly.

"No." Alicia said shaking her head.

"Who was it?"

"Isn't it Reagan's turn?" she said uncomfortably.

"Well not now it's so obvious you don't want to tell us." Katie said with a smug look. "So who was it?"

"I don't want to talk about this." She said stubbornly.

"You don't have to want to talk about it." Angelina said with a laugh. "But you still have to do it."

"Fine." She said. "But you can't laugh at me."

"Why would we laugh at you?" I asked frowning.

"Because it was Oliver." She said.

"No my god!" Angelina said loudly while Katie's eyes went wide and Alicia went bright red.

"Really?" Katie asked in shock while I frowned.

"What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" Katie asked while Angelina continued to stare at Alicia. "Reagan what do you mean what's the big deal? They're best friends!"

"So?"

"So that makes things totally weird!" Angelina said.

"Was he a good kisser?" Katie asked with interested apparently getting over the shock as her curiosity about Oliver won out.

"I don't want to talk about it." Alicia said burying her face in her hands.

"You have to!" Angelina protested. "You can't just tell us something like THAT and not give us details."

"Alright fine." She said looking up from her hands. "Yes he was a good kisser."

Angelina and Katie collapsed into a fit of giggles.

"Better than Aiden?" I asked curiously feeling like I was finally interested in one of the topics, and both Angelina and Katie went silent suddenly, apparently so eager to hear her opinion that the giggling could wait.

Alicia paused for a moment clearly debating on if she wanted to admit what she was about to say.

"Yes." She said eventually as the other two continued their crazy fit of giggles. "He was a better kisser than Aiden."

'Well at least you got that going for you Oliver.' I thought dryly as Angelina recovered but Katie continued to snicker.

"How did this even happen?" she asked curiously.

"I dunno." She said eventually. "It just did. It was in fourth year I'd just broken up with Jackson at the time and I was crying and… I kissed him."

"You kissed him?" Katie asked in amazement.

Alicia nodded.

"He was really good about it." She said. "Said that I shouldn't be kissing people until I got over Jackson and he was right. It's so embarrassing. I haven't even told Aiden."

"He probably wouldn't like that." I said privately thinking she made the right choice.

"But anyways, enough about me." She said grinning and looking at me. "It's your turn now Reagan."

"I don't know what you're expecting." I said shrugging. "I've never had a boyfriend."

"Have you even kissed a boy?" Katie asked curiously.

"No." I said honestly.

"Why not?" Angelina asked as if this were something she just couldn't quite believe.

"I went to an all girls school." I said. "And then all my team mates were older than me. There just wasn't a lot of opportunity."

"Speaking of teammates." Alicia said suddenly with an impish grin. "What about Jason Styles. He's pretty cute."

"And off limits."

"That doesn't make it hot." Katie said sarcastically and I felt an eyebrow raise.

"I'm serious." I said.

"You're no fun." Angelina said sounding disappointed.

"My team is like my family." I insisted. "It would be like dating my brother."

"Gross." Katie said frowning.

"Yeah," I said looking at her with mild appreciation. "Thank you, someone gets it."

"But what about Drake Dennings?" Alicia asked and I felt my cheeks go red. "He really seems to like you."

"You know Drake Dennings?" Katie asked her eyes wide and I nodded.

"Wow," she said looking at me with some sort of reverence but Angelina cut over her and said. "Is it true their latest song is about you?"

"It is." Alicia answered for me then when she caught my expression she said. "What? Jason told me. It's not exactly a secret anyways. They announced it at your signing party, I read about it in the celebrity gossip column in 'the Prophet'."

"So do you like him?" Katie asked with what I considered to be far too much interest as she glanced at me.

"I dunno." I said shrugging.

"That can't be all you have to say about it." Angelina said impatiently.

"Why?" I asked indignantly.

"Because it's Drake Dennings!" she continued as if this were obvious. "He's the lead singer of spellbound, they're really famous."

"So?"

"So?" Alicia said. "Doesn't that count for anything?"

"And he's gorgeous." Katie added matter of factly.

"But what does that have to do with him as a person?" I asked and they looked at me blankly. "So what if he's famous? We don't have hardly anything in common."

But I could tell from their expressions they didn't care about this. All they cared about was their interesting celebrity couple they wanted to force together like the rest of the world. Maybe Drake wasn't lying when he said he hated having to deal with publicity. I'm sure this happened to him all the time.

"So, there's no one you want to go out with?" Katie asked dissapointedly.

"No." I said but it felt like a lie. I couldn't help but thinking of the night I'd fallen asleep with Oliver outside my apartment. I'd woken up in my own bed, he must have brought me back inside, but before that… I don't know. It was just nice.

It wasn't a lie though… right? He wasn't interested in me. He was in love with someone else, and I certainly didn't want to date someone who was pining after another girl.

"No." I said again more certainly this time. "There's no one I want to date."

"You're so boring." Angelina said with a laugh. "I thought someone like you would be beating away guys with your broom."

"I only have to do that when they get passed security." I said shrugging and to my surprise they laughed.