The next big event of the year was fast approaching, and for a few extra stressed students the return from the Christmas break meant jumping headfirst back into Quidditch training. Bellamy had spent the majority of his time following New Year's day working on his plans of attack, and Nina had been more than willing to help out, meaning I'd had to occupy myself.
This time had been spent in a few different ways, first being tagging along with Harry, Ron and Hermione on their ramblingsaround the school. Considering the fact that Ron strongly disliked me, I strongly disliked Hermione in large doses, and Harry definitely had a crush on me, I'd quickly removed myself from this group, seeking something to do elsewhere.
As usual, this had led me to the twins, who ended up spending far too much of our time together laughing about the pranks they'd pulled over the break. I had to admit, charming snowballs to continuously hit Professor Quirrell on the back of his head was amusing, but it wasn't exactly genius. Once I'd had enough of their nonsense, I'd opted to spend some time on my own, exploring the castle and its grounds.
It was a beautiful place, I had to admit, and I wondered why I hadn't explored it more before. The hallways were a bit of a maze, twisting and turning this way and that, and there were a few times when I had ended up completely lost. I found my way back eventually, thanks to a helpful portrait, and finally ended up at the foot of a towering staircase. Craning my neck, I looked up at the stone steps, which led high into the tower above.
"Fancy seeing you here," I whipped my head around, lips pulling into a smile as I realised who it was.
"Are you stalking me? Because if you want to hang out with me you just need to ask." Zachary Leiring was an interesting boy. He was kind, that much was obvious, though there was another side of him that I hadn't quite pinned down yet. But I was going to.
"Well you're the one creeping up on me, so I'd question which one of us is the stalker." He raised a brow, folding his arms over his chest and resting against the stone wall.
"You're hanging about outside my common room and you think I'm the stalker?" I glanced back at the stairs, mouth forming a small 'O' as I realised where I was.
"So this is there the Ravenclaw common room is… hm." It was useful information to know, and I'd be relaying the location to Nina the next time I saw her. There was bound to be a prank we could play on a few stuffy Ravenclaws.
"Don't even think about it, Cavett." I turned back to him with an innocent smile, shrugging my shoulders. "Keep your Slytherin deviousness away from my common room.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Yeah yeah, the whole school knows what you and those Weasley twins get up to. I'd quite like my skin to remain a normal colour if that's quite alright."
"Consider yourself exempt from any and all pranks. Scouts honour." I drew a cross over my heart to seal my promise, though he screwed his nose up with a furrowed brow.
"Whats' honour...?"
"Oh nevermind, just trust me. Ok?" Despite his narrowed eyes, he accepted my words. Instead of responding, he stepped forward, slipping his hand into mine and nodding towards the door.
"I was actually hoping to bump into you… come on." I followed without question, allowing him to lead me away from the common room entrance and back into the hallways. It was clear eventually where we were headed, and he waved away my questioning frown as we entered the doors into the library.
"Why have you brought me to the library? Really perpetuating that Ravenclaw stereotype aren't you?" He frowned, releasing my hand and weaving through the tables to the back of the room, my footsteps close behind.
"That scowl on your face is really perpetuating your Slytherin stereotype." I gawped, scoffing at his comment yet continuing to follow. "Plus, I remember commenting on how pretty your smile is, where did it go?"
I narrowed my eyes as he stopped in front of a particularly dusty looking book case, scanning the worn spines with the tip of his finger before he found what he was looking for. The book was slightly decrepit, the cover worn and fraying, though the pages were practically untouched. He turned to me with a quirk of a smile, holding the book out towards me expectantly.
The faded gold lettering on the front read: Grimms Fairy Stories. It was a book I recognised, and had spent a fair amount of my childhood reading. In fact, it was one of my favourites.
"There it is." His voice was quiet as he watched me, commenting on the way he had, once again, managed to coax from me one of my most genuine smiles. My gaze met his for a moment before returning to the book, silence falling between us as I flicked through the pages.
"It's a-um… muggle book I think. Fairytales and stuff. I thought you'd like it. No one ever touches it so I figure Madam Pince won't notice if you take it." I nodded, sweeping past and gesturing for him to follow as I moved further to the back of the aisle, successfully hiding us from the rest of the library.
"I know, my mama used to read these to me every night when I was little. They're a bit unsuitable for children really, but I love them." I dropped to the floor, folding my legs and settling the book into my lap, flicking through the pages aimlessly.
"Read one." I peered up through my lashes, brow furrowed slightly at his request.
"Read one?"
"Yeah, read me one of the stories. Which one is your favourite?" I shrugged, flipping to the contents and running my finger down the page.
"The story is called Rumplestiltskin."
"Rumple-what-now? Is that supposed to be a name or-" I cut him off with narrowed eyes.
"Do you want me to read it to you or not?" His hands shot up in surrender, fingers miming zipping his lips shut before he scooted closer, leaning against the wall beside me and settling in.
"There was once a poor Miller who had a beautiful daughter," I peered at the boy beside me, momentarily meeting his eye as he offered a kind smile. "and one day, having to go to speak with the King, he said, in order to make himself appear of consequence, that he had a daughter who could spin straw into gold…"
Somehow, I had ended up spending the rest of the day huddled in that little corner of the library, reciting stories and laughing at the oddity of their endings with a dark haired boy who had managed to worm his way into my life. He'd been incredibly amused and confused by the story of Rumpelstiltskin, though strangely finding more of a problem with the hay-into-gold part than the Rumpelstiltskin-spontaneously-tearing-himself-in-half part.
He'd insisted that I take the book, shoving it into my satchel before I could protest and pulling me up from the floor after a glance at his watch told us it was time for dinner. I'd ignored the curious stares we'd received as we entered the Great Hall together, muttering our goodbyes before settling in at our respective tables.
"Where have you been all day?" Nina quizzed between bites of her food.
"All over, really. But mostly the library." My response was simple and truthful as I busied myself filling my plate.
"With Zach?" The twitch of her lips and the tone of her voice betrayed her interest, though as much as I wanted to, I couldn't fight the ghost of a smile.
"Yes… with Zach." She remained silent for a moment, watching me with intense scrutiny before turning back to her plate.
"Interesting. You know Weasley is staring at you, right?" I furrowed my brow, resting my fork against my plate and peering over my shoulder.
She was right. Fred's eyes were trained on me, a look of thought behind them that I couldn't quite work out, though as he realised I'd caught him staring he hurriedly shifted his gaze. I noted the way his eyes shifted over towards Zach, lips pulled into a tight line before he seemed to shake off whatever was bothering him, quirking a quick smile and winking in my direction before turning back to his table.
"What an odd boy." I muttered, stabbing a potato onto my fork and shrugging as I took a bite
"Hmm. Not a clue why he would be staring..." I didn't miss the fact that there was some kind of note behind her words, but at this point I was far too hungry to care enough to ask. And honestly, I probably didn't want to know.
"It's a sure win, I'm not worried. There's no way that we can lose against Ravenclaw… I mean come on."
Nina had been chatting non stop all morning, flicking between insulting the Ravenclaw team and gushing over the Slytherin players. It was true, Slytherin had better players and had a much better chance at coming out on top of this game than Ravenclaw did, but that didn't mean we should get cocky.
"Especially with Bell in charge… he's a really good captain so it makes sense that he got captain in his sthird year. It's pretty cool though, isn't it? Like, it's impressive for a third year to get quidditch captain, though after his performance second year it only made sense."
I narrowed my eyes, taking a large bite of my apple and crunching on it as I watched her. She'd been doing this more and more recently, especially since she'd started helping my brother with his game tactics.
"Yeah I suppose it's kinda cool… but you know, he's still my idiot big brother so I don't think anything he does is cool." I shrugged, sinking back into the common room armchair, content on letting her continue her gushing without question. To me he was a gross boy, the big brother who pushed me out of a tree when I was four and broke my arm. But I suppose to non-relatives, he had redeeming qualities.
The weather was cold and miserable today, frost nipping at any exposed skin and rain dampening everything except the students spirits. We'd made sure to wrap up warm, tugging hats onto our heads and covering our cold fingers with gloves. I'd swiped Bellamy's old quidditch jersey once again, huddling into the cosy fabric in the hopes it would keep me from the chill as I trudged out towards the Quidditch pitch behind Nina. Of course, she was still singing the Slytherin team's praises, pausing only to jeer at a couple of Ravenclaw students as we passed.
"Mia!" Nina rolled her eyes as we spotted a blue gloved hand waving towards us through the crowd of students, a mop of curly black hair and a wide grin accompanying it.
"Hey Zach!" I cut through the crowd, apologising to an upper year student and glaring at a fellow first year in the process before reaching him, accepting the warm hug he pulled me into.
"Excited for the game?" He questioned, holding up a little blue and silver flag and waving it excitedly.
"Excited to see my brother kick Ravenclaw's ass." He frowned, cocking his head with an exaggerated eye roll.
"That's not very 'school spirit' of you, Amelia." I shrugged, stuffing my hands into my pockets with a hum.
"No but it's very 'house spirit' of me, Zachary." He grimaced at my use of his full name, though it turned into a smile when I poked my tongue out with a giggle.
"Amelia Marceline Cavett! Stop flirting with Zachary Leiring and get back over here!" A few students paused to see what was going on, glancing between Nina's amused yet stern glare and Zach and I's red cheeks.
"Your middle name is Marceline?"
"Tell anyone, and you're dead." He held his hands up in surrender, drawing a cross over his heart before leaning forward to whisper in my ear.
"I think Marceline is very pretty." I felt my cheeks flush, averting my eyes to my shoes as he took a small step back. His smile was soft, yet genuine.
"Enjoy the game." He'd already turned on his heel by the time I managed to choke out 'and you', disappearing into the crowd and leaving me to return to an impatient Nina.
"You two are a cute couple." I swatted her arm, ignoring her protests as she almost dropped the sugar wand she'd been enjoying.
"Say that again, and I'll put itching powder in your sheets." If she was worried, she didn't let it show, merely smiling innocently.
"My lips are sealed".
The match, thankfully for my sanity, went our way. I don't think I could have coped with having to listen to Nina's complaints and theories of Ravenclaw being cheaters had we lost. However, the win did mean I'd have to endure a common room party for the rest of the evening, and likely most of the night.
"Well done, loser." I nudged Bellamy's arm with my shoulder, stuffing the remainder of a pumpkin pasty into my mouth as he draped an arm around me.
"I think you mean 'winner'... Thanks little bear, we played a damn good match." I nodded, wrapping an arm around his waist and settling against him as a group of 5th years passed by, patting him on the shoulder with congratulations.
"Maybe it was Nina's tactics that helped?" I suggested, a smile playing on my lips.
"Yeah, you know what I should probably thank her, she was really helpful." His gaze swept the room, seeking out my friend who I knew was currently sneakily passing out bottles of fire-whiskey.
"She would love that. Go check over by the drinks." He thanked me with a kiss on my head before disappearing into the crowds, leaving me to sink into the sofa with a sigh.
I was only rewarded a few moments of peace before I was accosted by three people I really didn't have the mental capacity to chat to right now; Pansy, Cressida and Sally-Anne.
"So, what's this we hear about you and that Ravenclaw boy, Zach?!" Pansy jumped straight in without so much as a hello, eyes wide with excitement.
"He's kinda cute, are you two dating? You should date." Cressida cut in, looping an arm through mine and leaning comfortably against my shoulder. I shrugged with an awkward smile, cheeks flushing pink at the idea.
"We're not dating, we're just friends… he's nice to talk to, I suppose."
"He is a Ravenclaw though." Sally-Anne pointed out the obvious, and to my surprise the rest of the girls nodded thoughtfully with hums of agreement.
"Better than a Gryffindor! Merlin, Amelia, if you ever dated a Gryffindor…" She pretended to gag, sending the other two into a fit of giggles and eliciting no more than a weak laugh from me.
I understood, I did, but that didn't mean I accepted it. I had friends who were Gryffindors, Harry, Ron and Hermione, while not my favourite of people, were great company. Even that odd boy Neville Longbottom was good conversation when he wasn't awkwardly stumbling over his words. And the twins… those two were the best Gryffindors I knew and if I was being honest, it had never really occurred to me that they were any different because of their house.
I wasn't oblivious, I knew that people had the same amount of prejudice against Slytherins as we did against other houses, but I didn't have to agree with it. Thankfully, they dispersed fairly quickly after that, and I managed to make a few excuses before slipping away up to my dorm.
With everyone else still down in the common room, I was awarded peace and quiet to shower and get ready for bed, sinking into my sheets and pulling the blankets right up to my chin. I reached into my bag which was lying beside the bed, pulling out the frayed book and running my fingers over the title, embossed in gold lettering on the front.
For some reason, no matter how I tried I couldn't get Zach out of my head. Perhaps it was the book I held in my hands, or maybe it was the conversation I'd been forced into by the girls, but whichever it was, his stupid black curls and lopsided grin were etched into my mind with no sign of departure.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Through the gap in the deep green curtains that surrounded my bed, Nina watched me curiously.
"They're worth at least a few galleons." She shrugged, pulling the curtain aside and clambering across the blankets to settle on the cushions beside me.
"I don't know the conversion rate." I choked out a laugh, dropping the book onto my lap with a sigh.
"I don't want to date anyone…" I confessed, chewing at my lip and keeping my eyes on the cover of the book.
"Then don't." She responded as if it were the simplest thing.
"But Zach clearly likes me, what if he asks me out?!" As much as I appreciated her advice, she didn't have a boy flirting with her so how could she know. "I'm only eleven, I shouldn't even talk to boys!"
"Did your dad tell you that?" I nodded with a smirk, "Okay well if he asks you out tell him you can't, because your dad said you're not allowed to date until you're at least eighteen. That'll get rid of him."
"But I don't want to get rid of him…" She quirked a brow, prodding me in the tummy with a grin.
"You have a crush on him, don't you?" I batted her hand away with a grimace, though not saying a word in my defence. "Knew it."
"Bugger off and let me sleep." I shoved her away, sending her toppling onto the floor with a shriek just as the rest of the girls entered the dorm, all of us dissolving into fits of giggles. Who needed boys.