"Ron, watch where you're going," I heard Harry say as we turned to walk up the staircase, the most direct route to the Gryffindor common room. Before I had time to react, I felt myself running into another being, and watched as quills, parchment, and ink spilt in every direction. I fell on my tailbone, and a shock of pain ran up my spine.
"Ouch," I said, rubbing my back.
I heard Harry chuckle. "Ron, are you alright?" he asked, offering me his hand. I took hold of it and he helped me back up onto my feet.
"I'm fine," I said, dusting off my robes. I felt something hit my shoe, and looked down; it was a quill. I bent over and picked it up, and examined it.
"Next time you should watch where you're going." A hand reached out and plucked the quill from my grasp. Only then did I notice her, the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I felt my ears turn pink and I could tell my face was blushing a light pink. "Well?" she asked, raising one of her perfectly arched eyebrows. "What are you looking at? Do I have something in my teeth?" She quickly pulled out a compact mirror and examined her teeth. Of course, nothing was there, but there was no use in explaining.
"No," Harry said, holding up a hand quickly. "There's nothing in your teeth." She looked up from her mirror suspiciously at the two of us. "Honest," Harry said.
Her face softened, and she clicked the compact shut. "Very well then," she said, bending down again to pick up the rest of the things she had dropped. I quickly bent down to help her, and we bumped heads. "Ouch!" she said, looking up at me and glaring.
"Sorry," I said quickly, rummaging together some piece of parchment and handing them to her. "Sorry."
She stood up and raised her eyebrow again. "At least you apologized that time," she said, taking the parchment from me and shoving it in her overstuffed bag. Then she offered her hand. "I'm Shelli."
"Shelli," I repeated, getting lost in her deep brown eyes. She looked bizarrely at me, then glanced at Harry.
"I guess he hit his head a little too hard," he said grabbing my arm and starting down the corridor again.
"But, he didn't even hit his head," I heard Shelli mumble as we left.
As soon as Shelli was out of earshot, Harry let go of my arm. "I'm telling you," he said, shaking his head, "as soon as you see a pretty girl, you go loony."
"I *do not* go loony," I said stubbornly.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Right," he said, disbelieving. "I'm surprised that you even managed to say 'sorry' to her. You were blubbering all over the place."
"I *was not*!" I protested as we neared the portrait of the fat lady.
He shook his head again. "Oddsbodikins," he said to the fat lady, who looked at the two of us and smiled before she swung herself open to let us through. We were met by a frantic Hermione.
She ran up to us and grabbed hold of the arms of our robes, pulling us through the portrait hole and toward an empty table in the back, where loads of her school books and papers were thrown about. When we finally sat down, she was out of breath, and hurriedly tried to explain. "Did…you…Did you hear?" she asked, panting.
"Hear what?" Harry asked. I, meanwhile, picked up a piece of Hermione's homework and looked over it.
"What does 'new age computirs' mean?" I asked, reading it out loud. Hermione glared at me. "What?" I asked, putting down the parchment and crossing my arms across my chest. "Just asking…"
She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Harry. She had caught her breath now so it was easier for her to talk. "Did you hear about the new student?" she asked. "Her name is Shelli Bayre…"
"Shelli!" I exclaimed, recognizing the name right away from the pretty girl I had run into in the hall. Almost the whole common room turned around to look at me. I blushed.
"So you have heard of her?" Hermione asked, annoyed.
"Ron ran into her in the hall," Harry said, shoving his thumb over at me. Hermione raised her eyebrows at me.
"What?" I asked. "It was an accident. I didn't see her…"
"What about her, Hermione," Harry asked.
Hermione cleared her throat. "She's supposedly from Beauxbatton and she…"
"That would explain it," I said thoughtfully.
"Explain what?" Hermione asked curtly, obviously annoyed with the fact that I kept interrupting her sentences.
"It would explain why I was 'blubbering' over her," I said, looking directly at Harry. "She was a veilla, no doubt."
"She *is not* a veilla, Ron," Hermione emphasized.
"How do you know?" I asked defiantly. I watched as Hermione's face reddened and her brown knitted.
"She's my cousin."
"You're joking!!" I exclaimed, causing everyone to look back at us again. "She's *your* cousin? You're telling me the two of you are *related*? That's impossible!"
Hermione's face grew even redder. "Why's that so impossible?" she asked, staring at me. If looks could kill, I'm sure that the one she was throwing at me would've.
Without thinking, I said, "Look at her, Hermione! She's gorgeous!"
Hermione reached across the table and a sharp slap across my face plummeted me back into reality. Harry was staring at me, open mouthed, and Hermione was near tears. She pushed her chair back from the table and quickly ran up the stairs towards her dormitory.
"Now you did it," Harry said. "She's really peeved this time." He shook his head and chuckled. "You don't think before you speak, you do?"
"Not half the time," I said, grinning.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That night at dinner, all talk was about Shelli Bayre. Hermione was still locked up in her room and refused to come down. She said that she was sick of hearing about Shelli Bayre. She couldn't see what was so good about Shelli Bayre. Well, Shelli Bayre was something special.
"Just look at her, Harry," I said, pointing my fork in her direction. She was surrounded by the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, with Fred and George, my twin brothers, cracking jokes, making her laugh. Alicia and Angelina sat on either side of her, making Shelli feel at home. "She's definitely the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
I heard Harry laugh, but didn't even dare to defend myself.
"I didn't think that those kind came to Hogwarts," I said, stilling drooling over her.
"They don't, Ron," Harry said, shoving a piece of ham into his mouth. "Don't you remember, she's from Beauxbatton."
"Right," I said, swishing a hand at him. "But still, the best girl that we've got here is probably…" but I stopped short of my sentence. "Is probably…is…is probab…is probably…"
Harry kicked my shin. "What's wrong with you?"
But at that second, I watched as Shelli got up and walked over to where Harry and I were sitting. Still stuttering, I watched as she came closer to us, looking directly at me. When she finally did reach our table, she simply smiled at me and said, "Are you going to eat those?" and she pointed to the candied yams.
"Huh?" I asked dumbfounded.
"Sorry, we're all out down at our end," she said, reaching for the bowl. "Are you going to eat them?" I stared at her, my mouth probably hanging open. She hadn't left my gaze since she had come down here. "What?" she asked frantically. "Do I have something on my face?"
"No," Harry said. "We're done with them. Take them." She smiled sweetly at us and picked up the large bowl.
"Shelli," Fred said, running up to her side and taking the bowl from her. "Allow me to assist you with those." She smiled sweetly and the two retreated back to their end of the table. I watched Angelina scowling at Shelli when they returned, but Shelli didn't seem to mind.
"You're a blubbering git, Ron," Harry said, stuffing his face once more full of ham.