~*Chapter Eight*~

The Stupidity of Neville Longbottom

            Angelina awoke with a start. Feet pounded outside. She could see Alicia wake up in the darkness, sitting up in her bed. "What was that?" Katie asked, stepping into her slippers. Angelina slid out of bed and opened the door. The common room was filled and noisy. She ran down the stairs up to Oliver, who was standing by the fire.

            "Oliver!" she asked. "What's going on?"

            Oliver turned around. For a moment he looked surprised, then embarrassed. Angelina realized she was wearing her camisole tank top that she only wore to bed. She shrugged her shoulders self-consciously. Wood, the gentleman he was, didn't mention it.            

            "I don't know," he answered, looking around the common room. Angelina ran a hand through her hair as Fred Weasley came bounding down the steps.

            "Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Are we carrying on?"

            Percy followed him down the stairs, fumbling with his Head Boy badge and looking exasperated. "What's going on?" he demanded. "Everybody back upstairs, McGonagall told you to go to bed!"

            "Sirius Black!" said Ron Weasley, looking paler than usual. "Woke me up! He had a knife!"

            Percy looked like he had been slapped. "Now, Ron," he chastised his brother, "That's impossible."

            Just then, Professor McGonagall slammed through the portrait hole. "That's enough!" she shrieked. "Back to bed, all of you! Percy!" she said threateningly.

            Percy defended himself against the raging professor. She turned on the rest of the group.

            "IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE! PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME! WITH A KNIFE!" Ron shouted. Professor looked angry and confused.

            "It's impossible," she said. "He couldn't have gotten in through the portrait hole."

            "Ask Sir Cadogan!" Ron insisted. "Ask him!"

            Professor McGonagall looked torn for a moment. Then she slowly pushed her way out of the portrait hole.

            "Did you just let a man in, Sir Cadogan? Did you just let someone into the tower?"

            "Yes, my lady!" the knight replied. Angelina tightened her hold on Oliver's arm. Oliver squeezed back, scarcely breathing.

            "Did he have the password?" Professor McGonagall said incredulously.

            "Indeed, he read them off a paper!" Sir Cadogan said.

            Professor McGonagall stepped back through the portrait hole. "Which stupid, idiotic person wrote down the passwords and then lost them?"

            A third year named Neville Longbottom stepped forward, gnawing on his fingernails. Angelina sank down in a chair, Oliver sitting down on the floor next to her. Fred and George sat in the chairs next to her and Alicia and Katie remained standing. The fire crackled and a piece of wood splintered.

***

            "He's off his rocker." Fred remarked, shaking his head. Angelina stood next to him. They were watching Professor Flitwick show a large picture of Sirius Black to the two front doors.

            "Everyone's so uptight these days," Angelina said, looking a bit tense herself.

            "I know a cure for that," Fred said. He stood there for a moment, looking down at her with a mischievous look in his eyes. Then he reached down and put his arms around her waist. They stood there like that for a moment. Angelina looked up at him, her eyes narrowed. Then Fred grinned.

            "No!" Angelina shrieked as Fred tickled her. "Don't do that!"

            "Do what?" Fred asked innocently. Angelina clutched at her sides, laughing and leaning her head against Fred's chest.

            "I think you're the one that's off your rocker," Angelina said. "Tickling a lady!"

            "You're no lady."

            "Sir Cadogan thinks differently."
            "Screw Sir Cadogan."

            "I'm so glad they fired him," Angelina said as they walked back towards the Gryffindor Tower.

            "Trolls aren't much better."

            "Even trolls are better than Sir Cadogan," Angelina said, accidentally stepping on Ms. Norris's tail. The cat squealed.

            "RUN!" Fred yelled. Angelina sprinted down the hall, with Fred close behind her. They could hear Filch yelling in the distance. Angelina looked back and saw the caretaker, waving a hammer. She shrieked and laughed at the same time, panting the password to the portrait hole and jumping inside, collapsing just below the hole and laughing. Fred wiped a tear from his eye. "He'll be after us for the rest of the year," he said.

            "The rest of next year, too," Angelina laughed.

            His attention caught by the noise, Oliver strode over to them, an angry scowl on his face.

            "What's wrong with you?" Fred asked sympathetically.

            "You're late," Oliver said tersely.

            "Late for what?" asked Angelina.

            "QUIDDITCH PRACTICE!" Oliver yelled, throwing his arms up into the air.

            "We don't have practice tonight, Oliver," Fred corrected.

            "Yes, we do," Oliver said.

            "No, we don't," Fred insisted.

            "Yes, we do."

            "No"-

            "SHUT UP! Oliver's the captain, he knows when practice is and when it isn't!" Angelina shouted, exasperated. "Really, you too! But, Oliver, you never said anything about practice tonight."

            "Well, if you two hadn't been FROLICKING out in the HALLWAY then you would have been HERE to hear the ANNOUNCEMENT!" Oliver thundered.

            "What announcement?" Oliver looked infuriated.

            "WE HAVE PRACTICE TONIGHT, AND TOMORROW, AND THE NEXT DAY, AND THE NEXT DAY, AND EVERY DAY AFTER THAT!" Wood yelled.

            "But that's every night!" realized Fred.

            "And we weren't frolicking," said Angelina.

            "I don't care what you were doing," Oliver said, sounding very tired. "But the finals against Slytherin and we have to start practicing now."

            "The finals aren't until after Easter!" Fred shouted, outraged. "We just got back from Christmas!"

            "But we have to win the Cup!" Oliver yelled.

            "I think you two have to go get some sleep," Angelina said, standing up and brushing herself off.

            "But what about practice?" Oliver shouted as she walked away.

***

            Angelina pushed her way out of the portrait hole and walked up to the Owlery to visit her own owl. The owl had been a gift from her aunt, dubbed 'Pinky' by her little cousin when Angelina couldn't think of a name.

            "Pinky!" Angelina called, looking up at the walls and searching for the tawny owl. The owl came swooping down. Something fluttered behind it. "What's that, Pinky?" Angelina asked, feeling silly calling the owl 'Pinky.' But there was nothing that could be done- the owl wouldn't answer to anything else.

            Angelina pulled the piece of parchment off the owl's leg and then let her go after feeding her a treat. She walked down the hallways, looking at the note.

            Dear Angelina,

              The crystal ball has informed me that there's another Hogsmeade visit coming up…meet me in the Three Broomsticks?

       -Cedric

       Angelina folded the note, smiling in spite of herself.