Sorry I've been so bad with the updates, although I was away all last week, I was on a business course thing. Speaking of that, there was a tall, gangly, freckly, red headed 16/17 year old guy there and my head screamed HUGO when I noticed (about 2 days after knowing him...nice one, dork). Except his hair was more red than ginger but it still counts, it still counts.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

"Look mate, I know she's being a bit unreasonable at the moment, but maybe you could cut her some slack." Alex said that night when we reached our dormitory. Needless to say, the evening had been a bit tense. Between glaring at the Hufflepuff table and shooting hurt looks at Beth, there'd been little room for much else.

"Why should I? She knows that I hate Smith; she knows that he's not a good person. Why the hell should I cut her some slack?" I said angrily as I pulled my pyjamas from my trunk.

"Because she's your friend and she's not stupid."

"I know she's not stupid." I said as I began getting changed.

"Then you'll know she wouldn't just trust Smith for no reason, she's smarter than that." Alex reasoned as he too got ready for bed.

"But you and I both know that she's not the best at reading people."

"She knew I liked Lily."

"Every man and his hippogriff knew you liked Lily." I pointed out for the umpteenth time.

"Even so, I think you should trust her on this one." Alex said.

"Who's this?" Jacob Sanders asked as he and Ben Kettle entered the room.

"Beth." I told him. "She's friends with Smith."

"Liam Smith? Upturned nose, blonde, prat Smith?" Jacob asked.

"Hufflepuff prefect?" Ben added.

"The very same." I told them.

"Why?" Jacob asked.

"Because she's insane, I don't know." I said.

"Because she's spent time with him all summer and thinks he's not a bad person." Alex corrected.

"He's probably not that bad." Ben said in clearly what he thought was a fair tone; I didn't really want to hear it. "Bit arrogant, yeah, but not horrible."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Jacob said. "I was partnered with him for Herbology in fourth year. Thought he was the best and wouldn't let me do anything because I would 'ruin in completely'."

"At least you got out of the work." Alex said positively.

"Yeah, but he was still a prat." Jacob shrugged.

"Who are we talking about? Hugo is it?" Ethan Cook asked as the door opened again as he and Josh came in.

"Very funny." I rolled my eyes while Alex and Jacob laughed.

"I thought so." Ethan shrugged. "But seriously, who is it?"

"Liam Smith." I told him.

"I still think you're blowing things out of proportion." Alex said but continued when I gave him a look. "As I said on the train, I don't like him; I just don't think you're giving Beth enough credit."

"Why? Is she dating Smith?" Josh asked.

My head whipped in his direction. "No!" I exclaimed. "Definitely not."

The others all looked at me oddly.

"She's not is she?" I asked worriedly.

"Not that I'm aware of." Alex said, still looking at me weirdly.

"That's good." I nodded. "I thought them being friends was bad enough."

"I can't really see them going out." Ethan said. "He's too proud; he'd never be able to handle her sarcasm."

"She wouldn't be able handle him being a prat." Josh said. "I mean, I don't know Conner well, but she doesn't seem like the type to put up with anyone's shit."

"She's not." Alex and I said at the same time.

"Well then they won't date." Josh shrugged.

"Which is good, because he's a prat." Jacob added.

"You're just bitter over the E you and Smith got in Herbology." Ethan laughed.

"If he'd let me do any work, we would have gotten an O. I don't know why the prick wouldn't let me help." Jacob huffed.

"He's an idiot." Josh shrugged.

"I'm glad we can all agree on that. Now if we can just convince Beth..." I said.

"Not that I like Smith or anything, and I'm really going to regret asking, but why do you care so much if she's friends with him?" Ben asked me.

"Because she's my friend and I don't want her being friends with a jerk." I told him. As I looked around the room, everyone looked at me sceptically, even Alex. "What?"

After a moment of silence, Alex answered. "Nothing."

And with that, everyone got into bed and fell asleep within a few minutes.

Well I assume everyone did. By everyone I mean me.

I was asleep in 10 seconds flat. Who cares if anyone else did?

While taking a shower in the morning, I'd concluded that I'd just not mention Smith to Beth. If we didn't talk about him, surely it would be fine? It sounded good to me at any rate and great solutions always come about while showering. Or that moment between being awake and asleep. But mostly in the shower.

"When do we tell Longbottom what we want to do this year?" Alex asked me as we waited for Beth and Lily in the common room before breakfast.

"At breakfast, I think." I told him. "I'd assume so. When else would we do it?"

"I was just worried we might have missed it."

"How?" I asked him. "There's been no opportunity to do it."

"Still..." He trailed off. I grinned.

"Morning." Beth yawned as she came over to us, Lily beside her.

"Morning." We replied.

"Yeah, good morning." Lily agreed, looking really tired.

"You ok?" Alex asked her, taking her hand.

"Yeah, just tired." She gave him a small smile and he grinned back at her. He looked like the happiest guy in the world. It was kind of nice to know Lily had that effect on him. Let's just hope they don't break up. I'm pretty sure that would shatter his whole world. But no pressure, Lily.

"Let's go to breakfast, then." Beth said and with that we walked out of the common room.

"Transfiguration, Defence, Charms and Potions, all good marks, I see. You're fine to do them." Professor Longbottom told Alex, looking at the notes in his hands. "Herbology as well." He added with a slight smirk. "I have to say, Alex, I'm extremely proud of the work you put in to achieve this mark and I really hope you continue to do so for the next two years."

"I will, sir," Alex grinned, "don't worry about that!"

"Good, here's your timetable." He said, handing Alex a blank piece of parchment and then taping it with his wand so that Alex's timetable appeared. "Now Hugo..." He said, rummaging through his notes for the ones on me, presumably.

"Failed everything, has to go home." Beth shook her head pityingly at me.

"Thanks, Beth." I rolled my eyes.

Longbottom chuckled. "No, no, you can still definitely stay. So Defence, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Charms are all good. Ancient Runes being your best, Professor Babbling is delighted to have you back in her class."

I blushed at the compliment but couldn't help feeling pleased.

"Arithmancy as well?" Longbottom raised his eyebrow.

"Don't want to limit my options." I mumbled. I also don't want to look like an idiot next to Rose's marks, was the other, unspoken reason.

"Alright then." He said, surveying me with quite a hard stare, and giving me my timetable. "You have Ancient Runes in 10 minutes; I'd get going if I was you."

And with that, he left to talk to Ashley Rivers about her A in Potions (nice try Ashley but you're not going to get in).

"You better get going." Beth said, munching on some toast. "You know Babbling will kill you if you're late."

"Believe me, I know." There was this...incident in fourth year where I found out just how mad Babbling could get on a bad day. "I still can't believe you're not doing Ancient Runes, you got an O."

"Too much work. I, unlike you, don't have an older sister to look up to, so I only have to do 6 subjects." Beth smirked.

"Whatever." I sighed. "I'll see you guys in Charms."

"See you!" Beth called; Alex and Lily were talking and didn't notice me leaving. Bloody typical of them.

Ancient Runes was a small class. Before O. W. Ls there had only been 15 of us that took it (three Gryffindors, four Hufflepuffs, five Ravenclaws and three Slytherins), now there were eight of us; Alan Griffiths, Liam Smith, Alastair Walton, Jeremy Boot, Jasmine Wang, Patrick Lewis, Isla Rosier and me.

"Welcome to N.E.W.T Ancient Runes." Professor Babbling welcomed the class. "All of you passed your exams with at least Exceeds Expectations so I have no doubt that you will be able to keep up with the class work." Her tone had a very or else feel at the end of it.

"As you all know, we have mainly covered the actual rune translations in class. However, this year we will also be focusing on the history of Runes. Why they were used, when were they used, what circumstances were they used for? I would now like you to turn to page 5 of your text books and read the first few pages on the Germanic origins of the runes."

We all sat in silence for the next few minutes, each of us reading the pages of our textbooks. I finished quite quickly and spent the time surveying the rest of the class reading; most had utterly gormless looks on their faces. Alastair Walton scratched his nose with the end of his quill next to me as he turned a page and Jasmine Wang coughed loudly, but basically nothing happened. Actually, nothing happened all lesson, we just learnt more about the history of the Runes. Of course, then we got a mountain of homework from Professor Babbling, it'll be a miracle if I finish it all before Friday.

The bell rang outside the classroom just as I finished copying down the subject for this week's essay. I had just left the classroom when someone called my name.

"Oi, Weasley!" Liam Smith called as he caught up to me.

"What?" I snapped.

"I need to talk to you." He said, looking at me passively.

"About what?" I asked him angrily.

"Beth." He said simply.

"What about her?" I asked.

"If I can talk to you, then you'll know." Smith smirked.

"Fine." I agreed irritably and we moved to the side of the corridor so people could still walk past.

"You know that me and Beth are friends, right?" He started.

"I've been told." I said coldly.

"Yeah, well we spent a lot of time together over the summer." He said. I felt my blood boil, hadn't Beth said that they were just colleagues? "And I really like her."

"So?"

"Well, I asked her out and-" He started.

"You what?" I shouted.

"I asked her out." He replied, looking at me oddly. "I thought that part was pretty clear, but then again, you always were a bit slow, must be-"

"Don't start with me, Smith." I snapped, cutting him off. "What did she say?"

"No, obviously." Smith rolled his eyes. "Do you really think we'd be having this conversation if she said yes?"

No, I'd most likely be hexing your arse off, not much room for conversation.

"What the hell are you telling me this for?" I asked him, ignoring the question.

"Because," Smith said in a condescending tone that made me want to punch him, "she might say yes if you were okay with it."

"What? She doesn't like you!" I told him.

"How do you know?" Smith smirked.

"Because she's my best friend!" I exclaimed. "I'd know."

"Whatever, could you just tell her that you don't mind her going out with me?" Smith asked, turning around and walking towards the marble staircase.

"But what if I mind?" I called after him.

"Then ask yourself: is your selfishness really worth her happiness?" Smith called back and walked out of sight.

What. The. Fuck.

I barely made it to the next lesson. My talk with Smith had caused me to skip break and I made it to the Charms classroom just as the bell was ringing.

"Where were you at break?" Beth asked me as we filed into the room. "Surely Babbling didn't keep you overtime."

"No, I was just talking with someone." I said, my head still ringing from my conversation with Smith.

I asked her out.

She might say yes if you were okay with it.

Is your selfishness really worth her happiness?

"Who?" Beth asked curiously.

"Doesn't matter." I said quietly as we sat down. She raised her eyebrow at me. "Seriously, it's not relevant."

I spent a lot of the lesson not listening to what Flitwick was saying. Something about non-verbal spells. I think. Maybe. It didn't really matter, what was I going to do about Smith? He liked Beth, or did he? That was what was so confusing. Surely he wouldn't go to all this trouble if he didn't like Beth, would he? I can't really see him doing that. He's a prick, sure, but he's not that cruel, I can't see him using someone like that. But I still don't think he should go out with Beth. He may not be using her, but he's not exactly running for bloke-of-the-year award. He's arrogant, selfish and condescending; he's not worth Beth's time. Yeah, I should definitely not talk to her about it. Or maybe I should, just so she knows he's trying to talk me into getting her to like him. Yeah, because she doesn't even like him, she's said no, why doesn't he get that?

"Hugo, are you evening listening?" Beth asked from beside me.

"What? No." I said honestly.

"Must have been some pretty gorgeous girl you were talking to for you to be so spaced out." She muttered.

"What?" I yelled, absolutely horrified. The whole class turned around to look at me. My face went red.

"Mr Weasley, please do not shout in my classroom." Professor Flitwick squeaked. "5 points from Gryffindor."

"Yes, sorry, Sir." I nodded guiltily. The rest of the class turned back to listening to Professor Flitwick.

"Who were you talking to then?" Beth muttered.

"Smith." I whispered back.

"Right, I take back my earlier comment." Beth grinned.

"Thanks, because that gave me really bad mental images." I told her.

"Ew, Hugo!" Beth gave me a disgusted look.

"You started it!" I retorted.

"You didn't need to finish it!" She pointed out but we were both smiling. "We should probably continue listening to Flitwick."

"Probably a good idea." I conceded, although still thinking a bit about my conversation with Smith.

After the lesson, Beth cornered me on it too. It was lunch and we were at the Gryffindor table eating our lunch. As she put some steak and kidney pie on her plate, she turned to look at me.

"So what were you and Liam talking about?" She asked me, Lily and Alex looked at me interestedly too. "Because you know you can't stop me being friends with him." So it's Liam now is it?

"Oh, he told me that he asked you out." I tried to say nonchalantly, I don't think it came out like that.

Beth's fork fell to her plate with a cluck and her mouth formed a perfect 'O' shape.

"Smith asked you out?" Alex asked her. "When did this happen?"

"In the summer," Beth said, her face going a bit pink, "one day after work. I said no, though."

"Why did he-?" Alex started but Lily cut across him.

"Don't pester her about it," Lily said. "It's not a big deal."

"It is a bit of a big deal." I countered. "Why did you say no?"

"Because I don't like him like that." Beth said simply, her face regaining its normal colour. "He's a friend, sure, not a really good one, but a friend. I do not see him in a dating scenario."

I nodded. At least that was good.

"It would also be completely disloyal to you. I know I'm pushing it, being friends with him, but he is actually nice. But I know that if I went out with him, it would be completely breaking the line, forget crossing it." Beth added.

"I've told you that we have no control over who you date." Lily told her. "If you want to date Smith, no one should stop you."

"It's seriously okay, Lils." Beth said. "I don't like him like that at all."

"You know, Lily's right." I said. The other three stared at me. I have to say I was surprised at my own words. "If you really do like Smith, you should be able to go out with him."

"I'm telling you again," Beth said simply, "I don't like him like that. I'm not going to go out with him."

I admit, hearing that made me feel a million times better inside.

Author's note: Thanks for all your lovely reviews! I really appreciate them. I'll try and get the next update out soon. I know I say this every time, but I'll really try this time.

TTFN

Dork-with-glasses

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