Chapter 7
Fred and Natalie did not address Halloween night. They continued their normal routine without a word about sleeping next to each other. George began to mess with Natalie about it until Fred gave him cross looks which made him drop the subject.
Penelope on the other hand, asked Natalie a million questions. "There is no way that was platonic." She chided her friend again as they walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts one day. "You should have seen you two. Tangled up under the stars." Her friend sighed and smiled. "It was very romantic."
Natalie lightly hit her arm. "Oh, shut up. We are just friends. Fred hasn't said anything about it and I'm not going to be the one to bring it up."
Her Slytherin friend laughed and tucked her black braid behind her shoulder. "I just want you to be happy, Natalie. But I will tease you along the way if it's a Gryffindor who brings you that happiness."
Natalie rolled her pale eyes. When they walked into Professor Lupin's room they were surprised to see their head of house, Professor Snape instead. "Professor Snape… How are you doing?" Penelope asked as she sat in their usual desk.
"Just fine, thank you for asking Miss. Goyle. Would you mind helping me pass out these non-cheating quills to each table? Professor Lupin has asked me to give you all a quiz today." Professor Snape handed Penelope a stack of Quils and Natalie a stack of no-cheating ink.
The girls handed supplies at each desk as the rest of the students funneled into the classroom. "Hello everyone, please clear off your desk and get ready for a quiz."
"Quiz?" Fred and George hissed.
"Pop quiz, Mr. and Mr. Weasley. Professor Lupin is sick, and I am filling in for him today. Now everyone sit down and get to work before I start taking points away from your respective houses."
Natalie diligently began reading and re-reading the questions. She was glad she had read ahead because it was topics that Professor Lupin had not yet taught in class. She was hopeful that she studied enough in preparation for the OWL exams to get her a good grade on this pop quiz. It took her all the way until they were dismissed to answer the test.
As they walked out of the classroom after handing in the quiz to Professor Snape, Fred and George were grumbling about how unfair the quiz was. "Every time I tried to look at your page, Natalie, my answer disappeared."
"Fred, we were handed anti-cheating quills and ink. That's why."
Fred and George groaned. "I'm talking to Lupin and telling him how unfair that quiz was. We hadn't even gone over those topics yet!" George kicked a lone pebble that was in the hallway. "Hopefully he won't include it into our marks."
Natalie sighed. "I hope Professor Lupin is okay. It's quite odd for him to be sick, don't you think?"
Fred shrugged. "Professors are human too I suppose." He laughed then. "Or maybe, Snape is trying to steal his job and has him trapped somewhere."
The Slytherin rolled her eyes. "You are so weird." She laughed while saying it.
She thought she was imagining it, but she thought she saw him blush. George chuckled to himself under his breath which made Natalie think that she genuinely saw Fred blush. She bit her bottom lip holding back her question of what the night of Halloween was. "Well I better be off! Slytherin has a meeting about Quidditch."
Natalie turned the corner to go towards the Slytherin common room and was surprised when she didn't receive any smart comment from either of them. It was very unusual, and she was beginning to think that Halloween night had made their friendship change.
Once she went into the common room, Marcus was tapping his foot. "About time, Natalie."
"Sorry!" She smiled apologetically as she sank into a green armchair. "What did I miss?"
Draco sneered. "I can't play tomorrow."
Marcus shot him a glare. "I got the game rescheduled, so tomorrow is going to be Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff instead of us. I do not want anyone to say anything. I know that Wood has been making them strategize against us. This will set them up to fail since Hufflepuff is different than our style."
She realized he was staring at her the entire time. "Well I'm not going to tell anyone." Natalie frowned and crossed her arms. "I know I'm friends with the twins but I care about winning just as much as everyone else in this room."
Malfoy scoffed. "The fact that you even associate yourself with those blood traitors is beyond me."
"Shove off, Malfoy. I'll hex you and you know I'm not afraid of your parents to do it."
He wiggled his eyebrows. "I would think about that if I were you."
"Enough both of you." Marcus roared. "I want everyone to sign this that you won't say anything. It's cursed so don't even think about telling anyone that we aren't playing tomorrow."
Everyone lined up and signed the parchment paper. Natalie shuddered thinking what Marcus could've possibly done to the parchment and the consequences of telling anyone. She figured she should go to the library, so the twins don't tempt her to breaking the vow. Besides, after the awkward day with the twins, she wanted some space with them and just work on getting her homework for the weekend done.