Disclaimer: I think you all get that I don't own HP =)

Chapter 11 - Fighting Like Muggles

"You're freaking me out, Sophie," Elizabeth said. "Actually, you're freaking both of us out."

"You've been grinning all day," Ali said. "If you don't stop you're face is going to freeze that way."

"Maybe it already has," Elizabeth said.

"It's better than that permanent scowl she used to have everyday," said Ali.

That snapped me out of it. I reached out and smacked her on the head. "Permanent scowl?" I asked. "Excuse me?"

"You're excused," Elizabeth said slyly.

"Hey! That's my line that I use on Destyn," I complained.

Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at me and Ali just laughed.

"Seriously, what's got you in such high spirits?" Ali asked. I hadn't told anyone about James asking me out the night before. I had myself convinced that I hadn't said anything because I was waiting for the right time. Truth is, I was just too loopy to say anything about it. My mind had been on that night for hours and I hadn't thought about sharing it with my friends. I guessed that James had already told everyone. Destyn, Fred, Lorcan, Lysander, Casey, Culley, Robby. Yep, all of them. I had no doubt that they would interrogate us about what we did last night. Guys...always got their mind on one thing.

Elizabeth waved her hand in front of my face. "Hello?" she said. "Earth to Crazy Girl!"

I swatted her hand away gently. "What?"

"What happened?" Ali asked. "You've been spacing out all day and to be honest... I think you're Tentacula's getting a bit irritated." She nodded to the Venomous Tentacula in front of me.

"Irritated?" I asked with a laugh. "It's a plant!" I reached out to get to work on trimming it's teeth. "How can a plant get irritated - OW!" The stupid Tentacula lashed out and bit me.

Elizabeth yelped and jumped up, trying to help me. She pulled the Tentacula away. Ali sighed and shook her head. "Dad!" she called, although she was supposed to call him Professor during class. "Sophie's been day dreaming and forgot to put her gloves on!"

I blushed. "Thanks for that, Ali," I said, clutching my hand as Neville hurried over to us "You couldn't at least make it sound like I was paying some attention?"

Ali shrugged. "Well, you weren't," she said. "And I do not want to lie to my dad. I'll get a talking to if I do."

"Daddy's girl," I muttered.

I walked into lunch with my hand bandaged up. Thankfully the Tentacula barely got me so I didn't get poisoned. Merlin, that would have been bad. Ali, little miss Herbology know-it-all, had just laughed at me when we realized it wasn't a bad bite. She told me I was overreacting and she had been bit by more dangerous plants and animals. Of course, this was Ali and I knew that inside she was really worried. That's what happened when she got worried. She acted like it was no big deal, kind of like me. In that way she was unlike either of her parents. They always showed when they were worried.

I sat down beside Culley, placing my injured hand on the table and glaring at it. I was still thoroughly ticked off at the stupid Tentacula. Neville had had to pull me away from it when I tried to chop off it's spiky little head with the trimmers.

"What happened to you?" Culley asked, looking at my hand and trying not to laugh.

I glared at him. "Venomous Tentacula," I said simply. "But the real question is...what happened to you?"

Culley's hair was singed a bit and there was ash smudged all over his face.

Robby barked out a laugh. "He just told me this story actually," he said. "Pretty funny to be completely honest. Sorry, Cull."

Culey scowled at Robby. "I'm not telling anyone that story again," he said. I begged him and begged him until he finally gave in. Apparently, while in Muggle Studies, which he took just for the heck of it, some Slytherin had annoyed him and he tried to hex him. Of course, since it's Culley it didn't work. He messed it up somehow and the hex split two ways. One exploded in his face, the other hit the Professor in the bum.

I burst into laughter. "Not only did you hex explode but you managed to send two way!" I said, catching my breath. "How in the world did you do that? Did you get detention for it?"

"Of course I got detention for it," he said. "I used magic in Muggle Studies and hit the Professor with it!"

I stifled my laughter. "It's okay, Culls," I said, patting him on the back. "At least you entertained some people!"

"Oh, shut it," Culley said.

"Did you just tell Sophie to shut it?" James asked, sitting down beside me. "Careful now, Culley, that's my girlfriend you're talking to like that."

Ali and Elizabeth looked at me with their jaws dropped. I shrugged at them. "What?" I asked.

"What?" Elizabeth repeated. "You are now officially dating James and all you have to say is 'what' like there isn't anything to tell us! I'm thoroughly offended." She crossed her arms and pouted.

Ali shook her head. "Sheesh, Sophie," she said, poking at her food. "When were you going to tell us?"

"In Herbology actually," I said with a shrug. "But then we had that incident. Speaking of Herbology," I glared at James. "you were supposed to be there, mister. Were you skipping?"

"Absolutely not!" James said, acting offended. "What reason would I have to skip -?"

"We're geniuses!" Fred exclaimed, sliding onto the seat between Ali and Elizabeth. "Skipping class to set of dungbombs in Professor Ell's classroom! Awesome!" He reached over and gave James a high five. I raised an eyebrow at James.

"Okay, so maybe I skipped," he said. "I hate Tentaculas. And for good reason." He reached over and held my bandaged hand lightly in his. "Like this. Of course, only a fool would go near a Tentacula without gloves on their hands."

I smacked him with my good hand. "Shut it," I said and then a realization hit me. "Oh no! Destyn's going to kill me if my hand isn't better by Saturday!"

Culley, Robby, Fred, James, and Lorcan, who had just showed up out of nowhere, all froze and looked at me, wide-eyed. "We should hide her before he gets here," Culley suggested. "That way we don't have to here him freaking out about it."

"Oh, too late," Lorcan said, looking at the entrance to the Great Hall. We all groaned as Destyn reached us. He looked down at my hand, puzzled.

"Here it goes," Robby muttered.

Destyn's eyes popped when he realized what had happened. "What the h -!"

After Destyn had freaked out about me hurting my hand he sent me straight to the Hospital Wing to make sure it would get better before our Quidditch match. James, Fred, Ali, and Culley had accompanied me. We had just exitted the school when it happened. The two Flints, Uriah and Montgomery, stepped in our way. Uriah was a year older than Montgomery, but you couldn't really tell. They looked the same age. They weren't the only ones there, though. Warrington and Vaisey and Crabbe (ew!) were there as well. Along with that one weird Slytherin girl, who's name I didn't care to remember.

Delilah and her Bitch Crew were standing a little ways away from us, watching with beady little eyes. No doubt they put these guys up to this. Now they were just going to stand by and watch, pretending that they had nothing to do with it.

"What do you want?" James asked them coldly. The anger in his voice was clear and I'm sure he meant for it to be. James can get pretty scary when he's angry, just saying.

This didn't make them back down though. Uriah Flint, who was standing in front of the other like some important leader, crossed his arms and looked down at James. Now, James isn't short in any way at all. He's at least 6'0 but Uriah... Yikes! He was like the tallest guy ever! He towered over James.

"Heard you've been getting around lately," Uriah said to James, smirking. "First it's Thompson," he jerked his head toward Delilah, "and now Wood." He peered down at me and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Who's next? Is it going to be Longbottom?" He glanced at Ali, who got all tense all of a sudden. Ali was awesome in every single way but when it came to Slytherins, especially the big ones, she got kind of freaked out. She had a bad experience with them in her first year. She was the target of all their bullying back then.

"Shut up, Flint," I said. "From what I hear, you get around quite a lot. But I just gotta say, the girls you get with must be blind because," I looked him up and down and wrinkled my nose in disgust, "hm, yikes. Need I say more?" I noticed Ali's lip twitch into a small smile.

"Like you have any room to talk, Wood," he said. I clenched my fists. Oh, he did not just insult my looks did he! ? "I'm sure you'd throw yourself at any guy who looked at you. That's how you got this one, isn't it?" He gestured at James.

He's going down now!

Fred stepped forward. "I think you're getting Sophie mixed up with someone else," he said calmly. He made an obvious glance at Delilah. "Because I know of a different girl who throws herself at guys all the time. That's how she got with you, isn't it?"

James blinked. I'd forgotten that he didn't know about Delilah and Flint. It had to suck for him to find out this way.

Flint, this time it was Montgomery, spoke up. It seemed that Fred had stumped Uriah for a little while. "What would you know, Weasel?" Montgomery asked, sneering at Fred. "You're always too busy chasing after something you know you can't have."

Fred froze. It looked like he was chewing on the inside of his cheek as he stared at Flint. "Not sure what you mean by that, Flint," he said, recovering finally. "Then again, you never make much sense. That big head of yours doesn't hold much of a brain, does it?"

I stifled a laugh as Montgomery's face twisted up with anger. By Merlin, it made him look hideous. Though I have to admit, he was a right side better looking than his brother. Still, ugly. I glanced at all the faces of the Slytherins. They were grimacing at us, knowing that they were currently losing this arguement. The only one that wasn't grimacing was the girl... What was her name? Elly? No. But it was similar. Whatever.

She was the only one who had a somewhat normal expression on her face. It was a mixture of curiousity and disgust. I noticed that she was looking to my left side. I glanced and realized that it was Culley, who was looking at the ground. I couldn't see the expression on his face, but he seemed to be avoiding eye contact with the girl.

"Hey, why don't you guys run back to your little hidey-hole in the dungeons now, hm?" said James. "We can continue this later. On the pitch."

Uriah let out a disgusted laugh. "If you want to wait to be creamed, Potter," he said, "then by all means, leave."

"Actually, we were hoping you would be smart enough to realize that you need to go," said Fred, "before you got creamed. We're saving you from humiliation here. At least until Quidditch."

"Keeping talking, Weasel," said Montgomery, "and you'll get yourself into trouble."

"Are you threatening me?" Fred asked calmly, but his eyes burned with anger.

Montgomery opened his mouth to speak but Uriah interrupted. "Hey, Weasley," he took a stop closer to Fred and leaned forward a bit. He said something that no one else could here and then leaned back. Fred's face was red with anger, his fists were clenched at his sides, and he was gritting his teeth together. "Think about that for a little while."

I almost missed what happened next because it happened so fast. Uriah was about to turn and walk away when Fred pulled his fist back and struck him right in the jaw. Uriah stumbled back, startled. Fred took this chance to attack. He jumped Uriah, knocking him onto the ground, and striking him in the face again and again. Montgomery jumped forward and tried to pull Fred off but James stopped him, shoving him aside.

People had gathered around us and Fred and Uriah rolled around the ground, punching each other in the face. There were cheers of 'Go, Uriah' from the Slytherins and 'Get him, Fred!' from our fellow Gryffindors and even some Hufflepuffs.

"Guys, stop it!" Ali said. "Stop it! Now!" But her cries went unheard, the cheering and yelling drowning them out.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion and everyone froze. Crabbe had a hold of Fred. James and Culley were holding Uriah back. They let go of him, shoving him towards his brother as Crabbe release Fred. We looked around for the source of the explosion. The Slytherin girl had her wand raised. She was glaring around at everyone, including the other Slytherins.

"Enough," she said, lowering her wand. "Fighting like muggles. Aren't you above that, Uriah?" She turned her gaze to him as she spoke.

Uriah sputtered. "Ashlee," he said. Ah, that was her name! Wolfe, Ashlee Wolfe. Now I remember. "The Weasel started it!" At this, Fred tried to jump him again but James caught hold of him. Uriah flinched away, afraid of getting hit again.

"And you would sink to his level?" Ashlee asked. James had to tighten his grip on Fred. Ashlee glanced at Fred, her expression calm, and then turned her gaze back to Uriah before continuing, "Don't embarass yourself further, Uriah. We should go."

I shivered. Her voice had this creepy emptiness to it. It freaked me out. I watched as she caught hold of Uriah's arm, moving him swiftly through the crowd. She called to the other Slytherins, and they all followed her inside. Probably heading to the Hospital Wing. I noticed Culley fidgeting beside me. I looked at him as he watched the Slytherins disappear. His face was a mixture of concern, disappointment, and...sadness?

Fred glared at the Slytherins as he wiped some blood off his lip.

"You're going to get in huge trouble for that, you know," Ali said quietly. "Someone's bound to tell a Professor."

"I don't care," Fred said, frowning. "It was worth it."

"What did he say to you?" James asked.

"Something he shouldn't know," Fred said. For a second I thought I saw tears welling up in his eyes but I had to have been imagining it. Fred wouldn't cry and when I looked harder, there were no signs of tears.

"We should get you to the Hospital Wing," I said, taking Fred's arm.

"No," he said, jerking away from me. "That's where they are."

"Oh, grow up!" I said, grabbing hold of him again. "You need to get this," I gestured at his injuries, "taken care of! Who cares if they're there? Just ignore them, they won't try to start a fight there."

"I don't care," he said. "I don't want to go." He pulled away from me again but James caught him.

"Come on, Freddie," James said, dragging Fred inside. Ali followed. I shook my head and turned to say something to Culley, but he wasn't there. He was nowhere in sight. Which was kind of weird since I'd just seen him about two seconds before.

Shrugging, I turned away, catching Delilah's eye. She was glaring at me so I glared back before walking into the castle to find the others. Something told me that this wasn't the end of things. This was only the first of many arguements and fights to come.

Delilah wasn't going to give up.

But neither was I.

Ooooh! And the tension with the Slytherins begins! :D I got all excited writing about Fred punching Uriah right in the face! He totally deserved it. :)

Anyway, thank you for the reviews! :) I've been thinking and I have some ideas for pairings, but I'm not telling who... Not yet!

Oh! Next chapter is... Quidditch! Yaaaaay!

Wooo! Two chapters in one day! :D So, next chapter will be up in a day or two! There might be a delay... Tomorrow I have to get back to decorating my school... *sigh* Keep up with the great reviews and I'm glad you're enjoying my story! :D