Disclaimer: See Chapter 1…

A/N: MWHAHAHA!!! Why??? Well, because I had nothing to say other than hi and thanks to those who reviewed.  Hope you're enjoying the story and I'm sorry I haven't updated in quite the while. Ok… So, since the *checks* 30th… I've recently developed some writers block but, I do believe I was struck by an idea (and it REALLY hurt)… Well, here you go…

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My Mom Away From Home

"OW!!!"

The girls in the other beds woke up with a start. Bed drapes started being pushed open and sets of curious eyes searched the room with dazed expressions for the cause of their waking up.

"Please, just five more minutes." Sheena said sleepily, shoving her face back into the pillow.

"Am… Are you ok?" Mairan said as she figured out it was me who had yelled out in pain.

All eyes turned towards me.

"Yeah, I'm just peachy." I responded sarcastically, hunched over with my hand rubbing my lower pain.

"Well, I guess since we're up" started Penelope "and since we'd only have five more minutes to sleep anyway, we might as well get up."

"Speak for yourself, Pen." Kara's muffled response came through the drapes still around her bed.

"Alright then, I'm going to get up. I believe Amalin is as well if I'm correct." Pen stated matter-of-factly.

            Soon all were back in bed and sleep aside from Pen and me. Pen quickly got changed and I changed as quickly as my now hurt and stiff back would allow me to. We were able to sneak out quietly causing only one or two of the others to stir. We then made our way out of the Ravenclaw common and then down to the Great Hall.

            As we entered, I was glad to see that we were the first one's there. Pen seeing my eyes light up with joy gave me an odd look.

"I've just never seen the Great Hall with no one else in it. It's really pretty." I recovered.

            She gave me an awkward look and then smiled accepting my reasoning though it was in truth a lie. We walk over to the Ravenclaw table and took a seat. Almost immediately, a goblet of pumpkin juice appeared almost as if whoever or whatever had put it there had known I would be thirsty first thing in the morning. Pen and I both pulled our goblets closer to us and began to sip at it.

"So," Penny said looking into her goblet "How'd you hurt your back. Last I checked your back was just fine."

I had been in mid-sip when the question had been thrown out and I had nearly choked. "Pardon?" I questioned hoping with all hope she hadn't asked the question I thought she had. I didn't have an excuse what was I going to say.

"You're back. I saw you holding it after you yelled out in pain, waking everyone up. Naturally, I figured you hurt your back." Pen said logically.

"Oh, right… my back! Well, um… You see, I must have slept on it wrong or something because for some reason I just woke up this morning and it felt all stiff." I partially lied.

"You know, you don't have to lie." Pen said all knowingly.

"Whatever do you mean?" I answered not wanting to give too much away.

"Well, last night I was thirsty so, I snuck to the bathroom and got myself a cup of water." Pen started "I then made my way back to the dormitory. I heard you struggling with your pillow and knowing from first encounter that when you don't like something you try to change it no matter how much effort it takes, I you to take a beating out of your pillow again. Needless to say, I found it quite amusing the first time. A good amount of time passed and I heard nothing at all and realized that something was wrong and that it wasn't like you not to take another round out of it. But, that's when I heard the door click. I cautiously got out of my own bed and snuck over to yours. However, when I got there, the bed drapes were open and you were no where in sight. I decided to go back to my own bed and wait for you to come in. I went back to my bed and closed the drapes leaving only a little crack to look through."

"So, you were spying on me?" I questioned incredulously "I'd have never expected that from you Penners."

"No, it's not like that. Wait, never mind. It is like that. But, that's not what's interested me."

"Oh, please go on. I just love to hear about how interesting people think my life is when they're spying on me."

Pen let out an exasperated sigh before continuing. "What I did find interesting was that after I went back to my bed and closed the drapes, leaving only a little crack to see out of, you came back in."

"Oh, that's so interesting!" I exclaimed with my voice dripping of sarcasm.

"And you weren't alone!" she finished in an urgent type of whisper.

            I turned a ghostly shade of white and looked at her.

"Look, whatever you're thinking I did last night, I didn't."

"Am… Who was he and what were you thinking? We just got here yesterday. There's no way you could have gotten to know a guy well enough to…"

"To what?" I asked thoroughly confused and unsure of what she was getting at.

"To have… Well, to have" she moved in close and whispered. "Well, to have sleep with him."

"WHAT!?!" I asked falling backwards off the table bench. "OW!!!" I had landed back first and waves of pain were slowly taking me to the sea. Still writhing in pain I moved myself into a sitting position on the floor which in no way helped my situation. It was a slow process but, I eventually made it back up to where I had been sitting. "Penners, I didn't sleep with him. We're just friends."

"Oh really, and does your friend have a name?" she questioned.

"You sound like my mother! Wait a minute! Are you about to give me" I leaned to her so only she could hear "the Sex Talk?"

Pen blushed furiously. "Oh my God, you were!" I shouted my eyes opened wide.

"Were what?" asked one of the approaching three girls.

"Nothing" Penny quickly answered; perhaps a little too quickly.

"Nice of you girls to join us" I said, smiling my regular smart ass smile.

"Yes, well, we thought seeing as how you did us the great honor of making sure we got to class on time today Am that we would grace you with our presence." Kara said imitating my smile and making me smile even broader.

"Besides," Sheena started "now I'm glad I came. After all, you guys weren't talking about nothing. You must have been talking about something after all. Why else would Penny's cheeks be red?" Pen became even more flushed.

            The girls sat down across from Pen and I, taking note of the shade of red Pen's face had turned.

"Ok." I started with a brilliant idea. "We were just discussing the guys in our year. You know… Who's hot and who's not, that sort of thing."

"Penny must have a major crush on someone to have gone that red." exclaimed Mairan.

"heh heh…, I love you Mairan." I thought in my head as I watched Penny go even redder. I was beginning to wonder how red her face could turn before her head exploded.

"Well, you can count us in." Kara said smiling.

"In on what?" I asked.

"Well, if you're going to rate all the guys at Hogwarts, you're going to need more than the opinions of two people on the matter. So, you can count us in." Sheena explained.

"Hmm… Not my original intention but, this could work out better than I thought."  I said in my head.

"Alright, well, the Great Hall should be filled in a couple of seconds, then our candidates will be within our view and we'll be able to judge better and for the sake of keeping score I have a pad of paper right here to keep track of the scores." I said pulling out a pad with purple pages."

            The girls, surprisingly even Penny, nodded in agreement and the game began as the Great Hall began to fill up with more and more cute guys.

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A/N: See… I told you that it was… MWHAHAHA!!! So, next chapter obviously the guy rating and of course, the one and only Garrick.  :D