Author's Note: This entry is dedicated to Lorna, who begged me (to no
avail) to try and get this up before she went home for the semester holiday
to an internet-free house. Sorry babe, at least it will be waiting for you
when you come back. I also must apologise for the amount of Hufflepuff
jokes in this entry. I quite like them but Nat and Roger clearly don't.
After much deliberation I have also decided to make this a "R" rating. I don't think it's as full-on as some other "Rs" out there, but just to be safe. I've also majorly screwed up on some dates for previous entries. Entry 14 is October 24/25, Entry 15 is October 25 and Entry 16 is October 28/November 1. I'll correct the dates eventually.
# # # # # # # # #
Chapter Seventeen: Oh Captain, My Captain!
In which Natalia, with a little help from a friend/foe/freak, makes a startling discovery about herself...
11:07 AM, November 7th
Weird random with Katie "Moo" Bell after Potions just now. Got stuck behind her massive, well, behind on way out of dungeon and was about to ask her to "mooooooooove" it when turned around and said, "Oh, good luck for the game tomorrow, Natalia."
"Wha'?" I blinked.
"Good luck tomorrow," Moo repeated, smiling tentatively. "You know, I always thought it would be between us and you guys, since we're the teams with the most women on them and women are just so much better at multi- tasking than men, but for what it's worth, I hope you win tomorrow." She smiled again and walked off down the hall.
Okay, I know I drive men crazy, but this is getting out of hand. I mean, last week a Mary Sue popped up claiming she was "my" girlfriend. Now Katie wants to make the "mooooooves" on me. Yeech.
5:46 PM
"So how's that special move with Malfoy coming along?" Roger asked me. "And Natalia, I really hope it won't be the same as the one used with Potter last weekend. If you get us any more detentions there'll be a house with less points than Hufflepuff for only the second time in the entire history of Hogwarts."
Had just finished our final practice before big crunch with Slytherin tomorrow and were heading back to unfortunately separate showers. "Unfortunate" because since Luc wimped out - er, flooed back - to Beauxbatons, is by far hottest guy on team. Even is captain. Oh dear god, must remember that is captain. Oh captain, my captain...SHUT UP NATALIA!
"Nat?" Roger staring at me. I was expected to answer that question?
"Oh." I tried to round up my thoughts. "Yeah. Great. Really great."
"I know that it's something just you and Cho have been working on," Roger continued, "and I respect that. But I must say I'm a little concerned, given that you say the move involves Cho, Malfoy and yourself, yet I've only ever seen the two of you working together without a third person, and you won't tell me what it's all about."
"What you don't know won't hurt you," I muttered.
Roger gave me sharp look. "What you're doing "is" legal, isn't it?" he asked.
"Yeah," I shrugged. "Perfectly. You know the drill. If we don't get caught, we didn't do it."
"I don't like the sound of that, Nat," Roger warned.
"You don't have to," I told him. "You just have to like what it does to his face. Actually, now that I think about it, he's so ugly that I may actually be doing him a favour."
"Perhaps you should just abandon the move then," Roger suggested eagerly. "You know what they say about Slytherins. It's never good to do them a favour. Give them an inch of Floo Powder and they'll run off to Calcutta with your money and your girlfriend."
"Or your boyfriend," I echoed. "You know, I still can't believe him. Saying he wants more space and that he wanted to drop things with us because we're getting too serious and he has a girlfriend back home, and then shagging Zoe Zabini. What's she got that I haven't got?"
"At the moment, Luc's saliva," Roger replied. Were both silent for a moment, walking back towards the school in the bright sun. The bare sky was that deep clear blue that you only usually get in the middle of summer on a cloudless day, not when it is late October in Scotland and you are facing the meanest team in the school the next day. Come to think of it, sky the same colour as Quidditch robes. Hope it is omen. Then Roger took me by the arm, stopping me in my tracks. "I want you to know," he said, "that just because Luc is through with you, it doesn't mean that everyone else wants to be. And just because he thought your body was the best thing about you, it doesn't mean that everyone else thinks it is. And just because he only wanted you for the sex, it doesn't mean that it's all anyone else will ever want from you. I just wanted you to know that."
There was no one else around. Just the grass, the sky like a dome above us and me and Roger, and Roger holding my arm. It felt like we were the only living things in one of those snowcones with the flakes and the stupid smiling plastic snowman in it, but there was no snow and no snowman, just Roger and I, and Roger holding my arm. I suddenly felt as though I had too many secrets to keep from him, and yet none at all. "Uh, thank you," I said, pulling my arm away. "I have to go shower now. I'll see you at dinner." I turned around and walked away, my footsteps going torturously slowly across the grass and not far away from him quickly enough.
Usually this calls for a cold shower. But I think even that would only scratch the surface of my problems when it comes to Roger.
6:53 PM
Arrived at dinner an hour later and in no mood for a conversation, but Adrian had other ideas. And when a Slytherin has other ideas, well, sucks to be you. "If we win tomorrow, will you have sex with Warrington?" he asked me, propping himself up on his elbow next to me.
"No."
"So you think that there's a likelihood that you won't win tomorrow?"
"No."
Adrian grinned like a fox, then plunged right in. "So, then, you claim to believe that you have it in the bag, and you obviously don't want to sleep with Warrington. Yet when I propose a bet on the results of tomorrow's game which would involve you sleeping with Warrington, you seem too afraid to take the chance. Which would then lead me to believe that you think there is a chance you could lose tomorrow. Am I right?"
Could only scowl at him. Most Slytherins are pretty cunning, but absolutely hate the few that actually have the intelligence to go with that cunning.
"Now we've established that," Adrian continued without even bothering to wait for an answer (there wasn't one I could give him), "who are you talking to the Winter's Eve Ball next weekend?"
"I haven't really thought about it yet," I said, leaping onto the change of topic. "To be honest with you, I've been going through an anti-male phase after the whole Luc debacle. Well, even more of an anti-male phase than usual," I amended myself at Adrian's raised eyebrow. "I just have no interest in them right now."
"So you're not taking anyone?" Adrian asked me.
"Looks like it," I replied. "I guess I'll have to find someone eventually though."
"Of course you do," Adrian said. "You have the best breasts in the school. It will upset the natural order if you don't take a date."
"Wonderbra has the best breasts in the school," I corrected him.
"I won't tell," Adrian shrugged. "And the only other person who knows is Lucy, and if he tells it won't make it look as good on his part. Your secret's safe with us. Anyway, if you don't have anyone in mind I would really appreciate it if you took Cedric. See, I'm going stag and Daddy would flip out if he knew his son favoured the "out" door over the "in" door, if you get what I mean."
"Unfortunately I do," I said. "And I just consumed about a pint of grease with these fries. If you want me to hear you out continue with a PG rating."
"Sorry. Forgot how prudish people get after a breakup, and they're no longer getting regular sex but everyone else still is-"
"Adrian-"
"Alright, alright, don't get your g-string in a knot," Adrian held up both hands. "Personally I think you should have moved on by now. It's been two weeks and the bastard isn't worth a millisecond of your time. But if you want to wallow - which is terrible for the complexion, incidentally, just take Cedric. He's a Hufflepuff. He's good with wallowers. They're the only ones that have patience for them."
"I was actually assuming that I'd go with Roger," I said. I don't want to be anyone's pity date. "You know, we're both single and best friends and wanted by everyone else in the school; it's the perfect match."
"That's a reasonable assumption," Adrian said. "But you're wrong."
"How so?" I demanded.
"Well, at least Roger seems to think you're wrong," Adrian continued. "He's going to the ball with Katie Bell."
My mouth dropped open. Adrian observed me calmly, almost nonchalantly. Little bastard. "Roger asked Moo to the ball?" I finally managed.
"Nope," Adrian shrugged.
"But they're going to the ball as a-as a couple," I persisted.
"Yep," Adrian responded.
"Adrian, will you stop being so damn vague and tell me what this is all about?" I snapped.
"Temper, temper," Adrian drawled, coolly raising one eyebrow. "What are you so mad about anyway?"
"I'm not mad," I frowned.
"Sorry. It must have only been one of those voices in my head that yelled at me just seconds ago. Use your brain, Natalia. Roger is going to the ball with Katie, yet he did not ask her to go. The only other possibility is that she invited him. I would have thought that you out of all girls with your libido - er, "liberated" nature - would have stumbled upon that possibility."
"So that's why she was so nice to me in Transfig today," I mused. "I thought she just wanted to wish me luck for tomorrow when all along she was blotted to steal my boyf- my best friend. That bitch!"
"I thought she was a cow," Adrian observed. "One of the worst traits in a woman is indecisiveness. Do make up your mind, Natalia."
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I growled.
"Why would I be enjoying this?" Adrian asked.
"Don't answer a question with a question," I glowered across the table at him.
"I'm a Slytherin. Rules don't apply to me," Adrian returned my stare levelly. "The only way I would be enjoying this is if you were infatuated with Roger, which you clearly aren't, being far too original to go for a bloke who is not only - strike one: your prefect - strike two: your captain, but - strike three: your best friend - and you are OUT, of love, girlfriend!"
"I am going to tell the entire Slytherin team about how you watch Muggle sports," I threatened him.
"Well, I'm not watching the "game," per se, unless you take the second of the double meaning of the word "game"," Adrian smirked. "Quidditch players just don't wear those arse-groping white pants. So I assume that you're taking Cedric to the ball?" I didn't reply. "Splendid! I'm going stag, so I'll want him for later. Just don't teach him any bad habits in the meantime. It took me months to stop him from shoving his tongue into my mouth the instant our lips made contact as if my mouth was an *ahem* and his tongue was an *ahem*-"
"I SAID I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW!"
"So it's a date then?" Adrian reacted as though had merely inquired after weather and not leaned across table to scream in his face. "Wonderful! And dearest, sleep well tonight." He rose to his feet and sashayed out of the Great Hall.
10:51 PM
Oooooh those bloody Slytherins! Damn the whole lot of them to detention with Snape and dinner with a Blast-Ended Skrewt after a mass consumption of onions and hard-boiled eggs! Hate it when they're OBNOXIOUS! Hate it when they're SMIRKING! Hate it when they're TOO DAMN SMART FOR THEIR OWN GOOD!
Hate it when they're right.
# # # # # # # # # #
Well, as you may have noticed, no Ravenclaw/Slytherin game like I promised! That's because this one reached a natural closure and I thought, why keep people waiting while I comb through the sludge that is my brain matter for Quidditch match inspiration when this will suffice as an entry in itself? So, Raven/Slyth game should be up in a matter of hours. Until then, enjoy!
After much deliberation I have also decided to make this a "R" rating. I don't think it's as full-on as some other "Rs" out there, but just to be safe. I've also majorly screwed up on some dates for previous entries. Entry 14 is October 24/25, Entry 15 is October 25 and Entry 16 is October 28/November 1. I'll correct the dates eventually.
# # # # # # # # #
Chapter Seventeen: Oh Captain, My Captain!
In which Natalia, with a little help from a friend/foe/freak, makes a startling discovery about herself...
11:07 AM, November 7th
Weird random with Katie "Moo" Bell after Potions just now. Got stuck behind her massive, well, behind on way out of dungeon and was about to ask her to "mooooooooove" it when turned around and said, "Oh, good luck for the game tomorrow, Natalia."
"Wha'?" I blinked.
"Good luck tomorrow," Moo repeated, smiling tentatively. "You know, I always thought it would be between us and you guys, since we're the teams with the most women on them and women are just so much better at multi- tasking than men, but for what it's worth, I hope you win tomorrow." She smiled again and walked off down the hall.
Okay, I know I drive men crazy, but this is getting out of hand. I mean, last week a Mary Sue popped up claiming she was "my" girlfriend. Now Katie wants to make the "mooooooves" on me. Yeech.
5:46 PM
"So how's that special move with Malfoy coming along?" Roger asked me. "And Natalia, I really hope it won't be the same as the one used with Potter last weekend. If you get us any more detentions there'll be a house with less points than Hufflepuff for only the second time in the entire history of Hogwarts."
Had just finished our final practice before big crunch with Slytherin tomorrow and were heading back to unfortunately separate showers. "Unfortunate" because since Luc wimped out - er, flooed back - to Beauxbatons, is by far hottest guy on team. Even is captain. Oh dear god, must remember that is captain. Oh captain, my captain...SHUT UP NATALIA!
"Nat?" Roger staring at me. I was expected to answer that question?
"Oh." I tried to round up my thoughts. "Yeah. Great. Really great."
"I know that it's something just you and Cho have been working on," Roger continued, "and I respect that. But I must say I'm a little concerned, given that you say the move involves Cho, Malfoy and yourself, yet I've only ever seen the two of you working together without a third person, and you won't tell me what it's all about."
"What you don't know won't hurt you," I muttered.
Roger gave me sharp look. "What you're doing "is" legal, isn't it?" he asked.
"Yeah," I shrugged. "Perfectly. You know the drill. If we don't get caught, we didn't do it."
"I don't like the sound of that, Nat," Roger warned.
"You don't have to," I told him. "You just have to like what it does to his face. Actually, now that I think about it, he's so ugly that I may actually be doing him a favour."
"Perhaps you should just abandon the move then," Roger suggested eagerly. "You know what they say about Slytherins. It's never good to do them a favour. Give them an inch of Floo Powder and they'll run off to Calcutta with your money and your girlfriend."
"Or your boyfriend," I echoed. "You know, I still can't believe him. Saying he wants more space and that he wanted to drop things with us because we're getting too serious and he has a girlfriend back home, and then shagging Zoe Zabini. What's she got that I haven't got?"
"At the moment, Luc's saliva," Roger replied. Were both silent for a moment, walking back towards the school in the bright sun. The bare sky was that deep clear blue that you only usually get in the middle of summer on a cloudless day, not when it is late October in Scotland and you are facing the meanest team in the school the next day. Come to think of it, sky the same colour as Quidditch robes. Hope it is omen. Then Roger took me by the arm, stopping me in my tracks. "I want you to know," he said, "that just because Luc is through with you, it doesn't mean that everyone else wants to be. And just because he thought your body was the best thing about you, it doesn't mean that everyone else thinks it is. And just because he only wanted you for the sex, it doesn't mean that it's all anyone else will ever want from you. I just wanted you to know that."
There was no one else around. Just the grass, the sky like a dome above us and me and Roger, and Roger holding my arm. It felt like we were the only living things in one of those snowcones with the flakes and the stupid smiling plastic snowman in it, but there was no snow and no snowman, just Roger and I, and Roger holding my arm. I suddenly felt as though I had too many secrets to keep from him, and yet none at all. "Uh, thank you," I said, pulling my arm away. "I have to go shower now. I'll see you at dinner." I turned around and walked away, my footsteps going torturously slowly across the grass and not far away from him quickly enough.
Usually this calls for a cold shower. But I think even that would only scratch the surface of my problems when it comes to Roger.
6:53 PM
Arrived at dinner an hour later and in no mood for a conversation, but Adrian had other ideas. And when a Slytherin has other ideas, well, sucks to be you. "If we win tomorrow, will you have sex with Warrington?" he asked me, propping himself up on his elbow next to me.
"No."
"So you think that there's a likelihood that you won't win tomorrow?"
"No."
Adrian grinned like a fox, then plunged right in. "So, then, you claim to believe that you have it in the bag, and you obviously don't want to sleep with Warrington. Yet when I propose a bet on the results of tomorrow's game which would involve you sleeping with Warrington, you seem too afraid to take the chance. Which would then lead me to believe that you think there is a chance you could lose tomorrow. Am I right?"
Could only scowl at him. Most Slytherins are pretty cunning, but absolutely hate the few that actually have the intelligence to go with that cunning.
"Now we've established that," Adrian continued without even bothering to wait for an answer (there wasn't one I could give him), "who are you talking to the Winter's Eve Ball next weekend?"
"I haven't really thought about it yet," I said, leaping onto the change of topic. "To be honest with you, I've been going through an anti-male phase after the whole Luc debacle. Well, even more of an anti-male phase than usual," I amended myself at Adrian's raised eyebrow. "I just have no interest in them right now."
"So you're not taking anyone?" Adrian asked me.
"Looks like it," I replied. "I guess I'll have to find someone eventually though."
"Of course you do," Adrian said. "You have the best breasts in the school. It will upset the natural order if you don't take a date."
"Wonderbra has the best breasts in the school," I corrected him.
"I won't tell," Adrian shrugged. "And the only other person who knows is Lucy, and if he tells it won't make it look as good on his part. Your secret's safe with us. Anyway, if you don't have anyone in mind I would really appreciate it if you took Cedric. See, I'm going stag and Daddy would flip out if he knew his son favoured the "out" door over the "in" door, if you get what I mean."
"Unfortunately I do," I said. "And I just consumed about a pint of grease with these fries. If you want me to hear you out continue with a PG rating."
"Sorry. Forgot how prudish people get after a breakup, and they're no longer getting regular sex but everyone else still is-"
"Adrian-"
"Alright, alright, don't get your g-string in a knot," Adrian held up both hands. "Personally I think you should have moved on by now. It's been two weeks and the bastard isn't worth a millisecond of your time. But if you want to wallow - which is terrible for the complexion, incidentally, just take Cedric. He's a Hufflepuff. He's good with wallowers. They're the only ones that have patience for them."
"I was actually assuming that I'd go with Roger," I said. I don't want to be anyone's pity date. "You know, we're both single and best friends and wanted by everyone else in the school; it's the perfect match."
"That's a reasonable assumption," Adrian said. "But you're wrong."
"How so?" I demanded.
"Well, at least Roger seems to think you're wrong," Adrian continued. "He's going to the ball with Katie Bell."
My mouth dropped open. Adrian observed me calmly, almost nonchalantly. Little bastard. "Roger asked Moo to the ball?" I finally managed.
"Nope," Adrian shrugged.
"But they're going to the ball as a-as a couple," I persisted.
"Yep," Adrian responded.
"Adrian, will you stop being so damn vague and tell me what this is all about?" I snapped.
"Temper, temper," Adrian drawled, coolly raising one eyebrow. "What are you so mad about anyway?"
"I'm not mad," I frowned.
"Sorry. It must have only been one of those voices in my head that yelled at me just seconds ago. Use your brain, Natalia. Roger is going to the ball with Katie, yet he did not ask her to go. The only other possibility is that she invited him. I would have thought that you out of all girls with your libido - er, "liberated" nature - would have stumbled upon that possibility."
"So that's why she was so nice to me in Transfig today," I mused. "I thought she just wanted to wish me luck for tomorrow when all along she was blotted to steal my boyf- my best friend. That bitch!"
"I thought she was a cow," Adrian observed. "One of the worst traits in a woman is indecisiveness. Do make up your mind, Natalia."
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I growled.
"Why would I be enjoying this?" Adrian asked.
"Don't answer a question with a question," I glowered across the table at him.
"I'm a Slytherin. Rules don't apply to me," Adrian returned my stare levelly. "The only way I would be enjoying this is if you were infatuated with Roger, which you clearly aren't, being far too original to go for a bloke who is not only - strike one: your prefect - strike two: your captain, but - strike three: your best friend - and you are OUT, of love, girlfriend!"
"I am going to tell the entire Slytherin team about how you watch Muggle sports," I threatened him.
"Well, I'm not watching the "game," per se, unless you take the second of the double meaning of the word "game"," Adrian smirked. "Quidditch players just don't wear those arse-groping white pants. So I assume that you're taking Cedric to the ball?" I didn't reply. "Splendid! I'm going stag, so I'll want him for later. Just don't teach him any bad habits in the meantime. It took me months to stop him from shoving his tongue into my mouth the instant our lips made contact as if my mouth was an *ahem* and his tongue was an *ahem*-"
"I SAID I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW!"
"So it's a date then?" Adrian reacted as though had merely inquired after weather and not leaned across table to scream in his face. "Wonderful! And dearest, sleep well tonight." He rose to his feet and sashayed out of the Great Hall.
10:51 PM
Oooooh those bloody Slytherins! Damn the whole lot of them to detention with Snape and dinner with a Blast-Ended Skrewt after a mass consumption of onions and hard-boiled eggs! Hate it when they're OBNOXIOUS! Hate it when they're SMIRKING! Hate it when they're TOO DAMN SMART FOR THEIR OWN GOOD!
Hate it when they're right.
# # # # # # # # # #
Well, as you may have noticed, no Ravenclaw/Slytherin game like I promised! That's because this one reached a natural closure and I thought, why keep people waiting while I comb through the sludge that is my brain matter for Quidditch match inspiration when this will suffice as an entry in itself? So, Raven/Slyth game should be up in a matter of hours. Until then, enjoy!