Classes started back up and everything went on as usual. There was nothing
exciting happen in January. Rebecca started back up her studying for the
O.W.L.S. but not as rigorously. She found herself getting distracted easily
by Charlie, Bill, or one of her other Gryffindor friends.
Cathrine and Colin had come up with several plots to get Charlie and Rebecca together, but Greg would dash their hopes to set their plans in motion by pointing out that Charlie and Rebecca were around each other a lot.
"But he doesn't hold her hand and she talks to everyone in the whole school," Colin said one day in late January trying to reason with Greg to go along with the latest plan.
"Colin, let them alone," Greg said.
"Why do you always say that?" asked Cathrine
"Why do you always come to me with your plans?" Greg asked back.
"Well, because we need you to help us get Charlie into position just like we need Sara for Rebecca. All our plans won't work if you too aren't in on it," explained Colin.
"Well I think they need to have some more time. I have to say your plans are great especially since you guys have stayed out of detention lately, but it is not a good time to trick them together. So, why don't you guys use some of that energy and do your homework instead of coming up with plans," Sara stated.
"Oh won't that be fun," Cathrine sarcastically said walking away.
"You know Rebecca is around Flint just as much as she is around Charlie," Colin protested. He thought he finally found an argument that neither Greg nor Sara could find fault in, but he underestimated Sara.
She looked him straight in the eye and said, "I know. I guess they talked a lot over break and I am sure she is sitting in the library with him right now. Every time I go to talk to her in the library he either comes over or is already there. And yes, after a while, it does lead you to wonder, but if you watch carefully you'd notice she doesn't act as comfortable with Russel as she does with Charlie. She'll actually seek Charlie out to talk to him about something. Rebecca never approaches Russel to talk. He always comes to her. Also, she describes them differently. Charlie is a great guy while Russel is a good guy. There is nothing to worry about there. . Besides, you're forgetting about Kirsta. Rebecca knows just like everyone else that Russel and Kirsta have something going on."
"Oh, yeah," Colin muttered disappointed as he walked off to join Cathrine to work on their homework.
Sara and Greg looked at each other and sighed. They had diverted another week's plot and were wondering when they could stop their vigilance of them.
January ended and February started. It seemed this month was going to be just as predictable as the last until one night at dinner Dumbledore stood up and announced, "I would like to announce that the faculty and I have decided there will be a Valentine's Ball this year. It will be open to all students so I hope everyone will come and enjoy the dance."
'Great, I guess that I can find a 1st year that might go with me,' Rebecca thought to herself. She didn't know who would ask her otherwise. Charlie and Bill were the only single guys she really talked to on a regular basis and they talked to a lot of different girls and several of them were single. Rebecca doubted either one of them would ask her, because she always had in the back of her mind that they only paid attention to her since she was the new kid and she had all those headaches.
She was still thinking to herself about her date prospects when Dumbledore finished announcements and Charlie turned and looked at Rebecca. They exchanged smile but didn't really say anything.
Rebecca turned back to her plate and saw Ryan looking at her intensely from the Slytherin table. Rebecca stared back until Cassie took the seat in front of Ryan blocking his view of Rebecca.
'She probably is talking obsessively about the dance,' Rebecca thought smiling to herself. Of course all the other students were talking about the dance. Rebecca was the only one that seemed wasn't.
Charlie had been talking to his friends, but eventually slipped out of the conversation when Sara started in on what she was wearing. He took this opportunity to lean over towards Rebecca and whisper, "I guess I better ask you to the ball before someone else gets the nerve to do it."
Rebecca's jaw dropped. She looked at him and was about to answer when he said, "Well how about it? Will you go to the dance with me?" Before Rebecca had another chance to answer he added, "I'll get down on one knee and beg if that is what it takes."
Rebecca laughed and finally said, "Yes." She leaned over and kissed Charlie on the cheek.
It seemed that no one had noticed the kiss, since everyone was too excited to note what had been announced. However, Russel had been staring at Rebecca trying to get her attention so that he could ask her to the dance when he saw her lean over to kiss Charlie. His hopes were dashed and he looked down his table to see if there was someone else to ask.
Charlie and Rebecca smiled at each other through out the rest of the meal. Rebecca was so happy, because Charlie was absolutely the first person that came to her mind when Dumbledore announced the ball. She however always thought too much and made herself think that Charlie had someone else to ask, even though everything that happened since she met him told her he wouldn't.
The excitement of the ball got more and more intense each day. Each day details about the dance were discussed. Often there were groups of girls talking about the color of their dress robes or how the were going to do their hair in the halls. There were discussions of who was going with whom, which was a favorite topic among both the boys and girls of the school. Greg and Sara were happy that Charlie had asked Rebecca when he did, because they didn't have hear about any pranks from Colin and Cathrine since the two were content that Rebecca and Charlie were together.
Finally, it was the Saturday of the dance. The student body buzzed at breakfast with not only talk of the dance, but also of the trip to Hogsmeade. After breakfast the students that were permitted to go into the village went to get their cloaks.
Rebecca had gotten hers and was headed down the stairs towards the entrance where she was to meet Charlie and his friends. On the stairway she ran into Ryan and his friends.
"Hey Rebecca, are you going to Hogsmeade today?" he said with a smile.
"Yeah, it should be fun," Rebecca said with a smile.
At that moment Greg walked down the stairs and said to Rebecca, "Hey, Sara will be right down and then we can start out."
"Sounds good," replied Rebecca with a bigger smile than she had given Ryan.
"You're going with Weasley and his group, aren't you?" Ryan about shouted at Rebecca when Greg was out of sight.
Rebecca looked at him shocked and simply answered, "Yes."
"Why don't you ever go with me and my friends?"
"You never ask," Rebecca quickly retorted and hurried off to catch up with the other Gryffindors so she wouldn't get yelled at again. Sara joined the group a few moments later and they were off.
At Hogsmeade, the Gryffindor group walked through streets laughing and window shopping. The guys disappeared for a short time and showed back up acting mysterious. They wouldn't even give a short answer to where when the girls asked. The girls just rolled their eyes and the group continued their way through the village.
Unbeknownst to the group, Ryan and his friends were always peering around looking at them to find proof that Rebecca and Charlie were dating. There was a problem though. The Gryffindors were always in different pairings, so Ryan couldn't even tell who was dating who. He saw Rebecca with James at the music store discussing different types of music. Greg had his arm resting on Rebecca's shoulders while they looked around the quidditch shop as Charlie talked to Cathrine in a different part of the store. Colin and Rebecca walked around the candy store together when Ryan was in there.
'You would think that they would stay with their girlfriends or boyfriends if they were really dating,' he thought to himself as Cassie dragged him into another store away from Rebecca and her group. Ryan didn't see Rebecca again until it was time to go back to the castle. He saw that the Gryffindors had finally properly paired back up and that the boyfriends and girlfriends were holding hands. The path back to the castle was not as slippery as it was in December so Charlie and Rebecca were not holding hands. Ryan noted this and once again decided that there was nothing between the two so he was just being paranoid.
Back at the castle there was an announcement that there would be an early dinner and refreshment would be served at the dance. "Oh, good they are going to give us plenty of time to get ready," said Sara.
"How long does it take to get ready?" questioned Colin then jokingly added, "You take out your dress robe, throw it on, and BAM, you're done in five minutes tops."
Sara rolled her eyes at him and headed into the great hall. The other girls followed Sara while the guys stood there a moment laughing.
After dinner, everyone headed up to get ready for the dance. Most of the guys had Colin's philosophy and relaxed down in the common room while the girls rushed around in their rooms getting ready. Rebecca would have probably have sat down by the fire and read for a while before she got dressed, except she promised to do Lauren, Carolyn and Aisha's make up. She ended up doing not only their make up, but also the other first years' make up plus some other second years.
When she finished with them and sent them to Jacquelyn to get their hair done, Rebecca took a shower. She took a pretty long one trying to get herself settled down. She was very excited about the dance and was dying to see Charlie in his dress robes.
When she finally got out of the shower, she had a half an hour to do her hair and makeup and get dressed. Her hair had formed some loose curls from the steam in the shower so Rebecca took two hair combs and arranged her hair so that her hair was parted on the side and halfway up with some light bangs that curled tightly around her hair line. Rebecca then did her makeup using mostly neutral tones so that it was understated giving her a porcelain look.
She now only had to get dressed and she could go down and meet Charlie. Rebecca picked up her scarlet dress robe and put it on. She then grabbed her dress heels out of her trunk. Once she had them on she took at moment to look at herself in the mirror.
'I hope he likes how I look,' she thought as she turned and walked out of the room.
Rebecca walked down the stairs slowly. She was excited and nervous all at the same time and felt like she could fall at any second because of it. Cathrine, Jacquelyn, and Sara had already gone downstairs and had probably made their way to the ball with Colin, James, and Greg.
Charlie was the only one in the common room when Rebecca appeared on the stairs. Charlie's jaw dropped when he saw her. He always thought she was pretty before, but the way she looked right then was stunning.
"Wow," he whispered as she walked closer. Rebecca smiled sweetly at him. His black dress robe looked great on him. It appeared from its style to be an older dress robe, but Rebecca loved its classic look.
"Hey, handsome," she said when she reached him.
"You look beautiful," Charlie said smiling at her. They stood there just smiling at each other for a while and then Charlie finally said, "Are you ready to go to the ball?" He offered Rebecca his arm as he said this. Rebecca smiled at him as she took his arm and they headed out of the room.
As Charlie and Rebecca made their way down the stairs towards the Great Hall, they saw a sea of colors. They spotted Sara in her baby blue robe with Greg in his royal blue robe. Rebecca pointed out Cathrine in her silver-blue robe being lead by Colin in his royal purple robe. Jacquelyn in her light purple robe following close behind James in his emerald green robe were seen as Charlie and Rebecca made their way to the hall.
The hallway was packed full of students so Charlie took Rebecca hand and lead her into the dance passing Ryan and Cassie who were both wearing Slytherin green dress robes. Ryan was shocked not only that Rebecca was Charlie's date and that they were holding hands, but at how beautiful she looked and how happy she seemed with Charlie. Cassie wasn't shocked. She actually infuriated Ryan when she said that Charlie and Rebecca looked cute together. Ryan kept his cool on the outside but hastily took Cassie's hand and followed Rebecca and Charlie into the Great Hall.
There was a slow song starting when they all entered the room. Charlie lead Rebecca right onto the dance floor and faced her. He put his free arm on her waist as Rebecca put her free hand on his shoulder. They smiled and began to dance.
Though the dance floor was crowded, the normally claustrophobic Rebecca felt as though they were the only ones on the floor when she looked into his eyes. In the middle of the song A.J. accidentally bumped into Rebecca causing her to fall into Charlie.
Rebecca and Charlie were up right against each other now and neither of them were willing to back up. Charlie wrapped his arms around Rebecca's waist and they began to dance again.
The song ended and Charlie was tapped on the shoulder. It was Ryan who was looking sort of ill.
"Mind if I cut in for the next dance?" he asked looking at Rebecca first and then at Charlie.
"Oh, sure. I'll just go find Cassie to dance with her. You guys have fun," Rebecca responded laughing at the end. Charlie joined into the laughter.
Ryan eventually joined in, but not until he said, "I wanted to dance with you, Rebecca."
Charlie really didn't want to give up the dance but Rebecca was being so lighthearted about it that he allowed Ryan to cut in.
The next song started and Ryan and Rebecca started to dance. "Do you remember how we use to dance?" Ryan asked.
Rebecca smiled at Ryan's question and replied, "How could I forget? I was taking ballroom dancing lessons and I used you as my partner when I needed to practice whether you liked it or not." Ryan smiled at her recollection and started to lead her in some of the steps she had taught him so long ago. Rebecca smiled, happy that he remembered so much.
With in moments they were completely in sync with each other. Many people were looking at them just watching them danced. Rebecca noticed even though Ryan didn't seem to. He did notice that Rebecca was looking over at Charlie who was dancing with a fifth year girl from Hufflepuff.
"So what's up with you and Charlie?" Ryan asked staring at Rebecca.
"Oh, nothing really. . I really like him. . He is such a really great person, probably the greatest guy I have ever known. . It seems that I can always count on him," Rebecca admitted. She didn't mean to hurt Ryan's feeling with what she said, but she was speaking from her heart as she always had with her childhood friend.
Ryan's face went a shade lighter when he heard what Rebecca said. "I don't think you should be getting any hopes up for Weasley. Being his friend may not be in your best interest, either," Ryan stated.
They continued to dance, but Rebecca took as step away from him and said, "Yes, well dear 'cousin' thank you for your concern, but I'll make my own decisions about what is and what isn't in my best interest."
Rebecca was livid at Ryan trying to tell her who she should be friends with. Ryan could tell she was annoyed by the way she looked at him, but he made the serious mistake of trying to guess why she was angry at him. "Cousin? You're mad about that, aren't you?"
When the question came out, Rebecca decided she was fed up and it was time to tell him what she really thought about the cousin lie.
"Actually, the truth is I am not," Rebecca soberly said looking him straight in the eyes. "Think about it Ryan. What in our history would tell you that I wouldn't say anything when it first started? Why would I wait this long to say something? I was never like that when we younger. I never go along with anything I don't want. I let you get away with it. I didn't care."
When Rebecca finished, Ryan just stared at her. He was shocked, but he should have known. Everything added up to Rebecca not seeing him ever as anything more than her old childhood friend.
"Just so, you know. Cassie was the first one to call you my cousin. I was going to tell her but she was persistent about it and it was just easier to go along with her at first," Ryan confessed.
"I figured as much," Rebecca coldly responded as the song came to an end. Rebecca started to walk away when several students surrounded her and Ryan telling them how great their dancing was. Aisha was in the crowd. "Could you teach how to dance like that some time?"
"Of course," Rebecca responded with a smile.
There were several other Gryffindors with the same request that she agreed to as well. Rebecca made it back to Charlie as a new song started and they began to dance together. Cassie found Ryan and they began to dance.
'I should have been honest from the get go. Cassie would have gotten over the threat. Rebecca may never get over this. . Of course, I hadn't gotten anything right with Rebecca this year so there may still be hope,' he thought as he danced away from Rebecca with Cassie in his arms. Cassie was nagging him about never dancing with her like he had with Rebecca. The song ended and Dumbledore walked on to the stage.
"Good evening, everyone and welcome to the Valentine's Ball. It appears that everyone has arrived, so it is time for this evening's surprise," he announced. The students murmured about what the surprise could be. The rest of their group near the stage joined Rebecca and Charlie. The guys stood behind the girls waiting to hear what was going to happen.
After a moment of suspense, Dumbledore said, "It is my pleasure to introduce Lauren Kimmel." Lauren walked nervously on the stage, but felt more confident when she saw Rebecca and everyone else smiling at her.
As the music started back up, Rebecca heard Cathrine whisper, "Did Lauren come with anyone?"
Jacquelyn had the answer, "Sean O'Donnell asked her."
"Really? Where is he?" Sara asked looking around. Jacquelyn pointed out boy with short curly black hair standing next to Carolyn, Aisha, and their dates.
"He's cute," slipped out of Rebecca's mouth.
Everyone looked at Rebecca for a moment and then laughed.
Rebecca was waiting for someone to poke fun at her when Lauren started to sing:
The sunlight on my shoulders
The smile on my face
My secret weapon, my favorite place
The reason my heart skips a beat
The broom that sweeps me off my feet
Lauren's voice was amazing no one would have guessed that she was only eleven after hearing her sing. Rebecca was memorized by Lauren. In fact, none of the group took their eyes off of Lauren while she was singing.
A gentle inspiration
My weary soul's salvation
The half that makes me whole
The gravity that grounds me
The arms I want around me
Never letting go
Charlie put his arms around Rebecca and they started to sway to the music. The other guys followed suit putting their arms around their girlfriends and in a matter of moment they were all absorbed into the music.
I've lived
I've lived enough
To know what is
And what's not
You are-you are
Rebecca leaned back against Charlie as she just stared at Lauren still swaying to the music. Charlie tilted his head so that it rested against Rebecca's with a smile his face.
All the love I wanna make
Every breath I wanna take
The rush that's running down my spine
The touch that takes me every time
An innocent seduction
Oh I can't get enough and
I can't help but let it show
I lose all my composure
I'm totally exposed and
The reason I let go
Is....
I've lived
I've lived enough
I know what is
And what's not
You are-you are
Sara looked over at Rebecca and Charlie and smiled. Greg looked down at Sara and saw she was looking away from the stage. He glanced in the direction she was looking at and saw how Rebecca and Charlie were content to be that close to each other. He turned back to watching Lauren with a big grin on his face. It looked like soon he and Sara could give up their vigilance against Colin and Cathrine trying to prank the two into dating.
My every hope
My every dream
You are my everything
I've lived yeah
I've lived enough
I know what is
And what's not
You are-you are-you are
The sunlight on my shoulders
The smile on my face
My secret weapon
My favorite place
(Carolyn Dawn Johnson's You Are)
When the song ended, all the students cheered really loud for Lauren. She smile, took a quick bow, and headed off the stage and walked up to the group.
"That was amazing," Rebecca started.
"Why didn't you tell us you could sing like that?" questioned James.
"You sung beautiful, Lauren," added Charlie.
Jacquelyn asked, "Are you going to sing anymore?"
"I hope so," Cathrine said.
Greg piped in, "Lauren that was the best surprise."
"I don't think anyone could top it," Colin stated.
Lauren smiled at all of them and when they all finished bombarding her with their praises, "Thanks guys. I'm glad you liked it. I am going to go find Sean now."
With that she left still smiling. Lauren didn't walk away that far when she was surrounded by a lot of students praising her singing.
A new song started and Lauren found Sean to dance with. Rebecca and Charlie danced together for that song.
On the next dance, Bill cut in and danced with Rebecca. Greg asked to dance with Rebecca on another song a while later as did Colin after that.
Rebecca was having a great time. She felt more and more like she was one of the gang with each dance. The guys acted like she was actually their friend and not a person they were being nice to because she talked to Charlie and was friends with their girlfriends.
A.J. also danced with Rebecca so that he could apologize for bumping into her earlier that night and not saying sorry earlier. Rebecca laughed, accepted it, and changed the subject to how he liked the dance not wanting to admit that she was really glad that he had bumped into her.
By the mid point of the dance, she had danced with all the guys from the group except James. Rebecca was about to start dancing with Charlie when she saw James whisper something into Jacquelyn's ear. Jacquelyn smiled and nodded.
As a new song began, Jacquelyn walked over, tapped Rebecca on the shoulder, and said, "Mind if I cut in." Rebecca smiled and stepped away from Charlie to let Jacquelyn step in.
As Charlie and Jacquelyn started to dance, James came up and stated, "Looks like we lost our partners."
Rebecca started to giggle and said, "Yeah. . But it was about time that someone asked me to cut in."
"You want to dance?" Rebecca nodded and turned towards James. They started to dance and Rebecca noticed something.
She looked at James surprised and said, "You've taken dancing lessons, haven't you?"
"Yeah, when I was younger, my parents made me. I find it's more useful now than it was then. Of course, young muggles usually don't dance like this so I guess that explains that."
"You're parents are muggles?"
"Yeah, I guess we never said anything about that to you. After a certain point it really doesn't matter to most."
"Yeah, I guess if it really mattered I would have found out along time ago then."
"Well just for your information, Charlie, Colin, Sara, and Jacquelyn are from pure blood wizard families. Cathrine is a mixture, but there isn't a drop of muggle blood in her. Greg is half and half, but grew up mostly around magic and doesn't have much experience with muggle things. Yours truly is the only muggle born in the lot." Rebecca laughed as James twirled around her so that she could see everyone else.
As James led her through some fancy footsteps, her eyes wandered around. First she noticed Marcus dancing with Alannah. Then she saw Aisha dancing with Percy and Carolyn dancing with Sean. Greg was dancing with Cathrine while Sara was trying hard to dance with Colin, but he had her laughing so hard that she wasn't really succeeding.
Rebecca smiled as she saw everyone until her eyes landed on Lauren. She was on the other side of the dance floor and dancing with Harvey. Lauren didn't look ecstatic about the situation, so Rebecca leaned in and whispered to James what she saw. James looked over and saw the same thing.
Without saying another word, James and Rebecca started to dance over towards them inconspicuously. After a few dance steps Rebecca and James were close enough to Lauren for Rebecca get Lauren's attention and give her a look to ask Lauren if she was okay. Lauren looked at Rebecca and then moved her eyes in a different direction.
Rebecca's eyes followed trying to see what Lauren saw. She found Russel, who was dancing with Kirsta, was staring at Harvey and Lauren. Russel glanced over at Rebecca and nodded at her to let her know he was keeping his eye on Harvey's action.
Rebecca smiled to tell him thanks and leaned in to whisper to James that Russel had everything under control. Rebecca and James continued dancing close to Lauren so that if Harvey upset her they could get to her quickly while Russel dealt with the boy.
When the song end, Sean walked over and led Lauren away. Alannah walked over to Harvey to dance with him as James headed back to Jacquelyn for the next dance. Rebecca started to walked away to find Charlie, but was stopped when someone grabbed her hand.
She turned around to see that Russel had a hold of her. The next song started it and Russel asked, "May I have this dance?"
It was a slow song and Rebecca really wanted to go find Charlie to dance with him, but Russel had been so protective of Lauren that she couldn't tell him no. She nodded and Russel kissed her hand. He pulled her in close. A lot closer than Rebecca wanted to be. She tried to pull away but he held her tight.
Russel placed Rebecca's hand on his shoulder and put his hand on her waist and they started to dance. Rebecca looked around to see if she could see anyone that might help her out since there was no way that she could out muscle Russel herself. She spotted Charlie who was dancing with a girl with dirty blonde hair from Ravenclaw not that far away. Charlie was talking to the girl, but glanced up a couple of time to look at Rebecca.
Russel saw Charlie looking at them and started to causally lead Rebecca away from him. After about a minute, they were far enough away from Charlie for Russel and he asked, "So, are you enjoying the ball?"
Rebecca tried to push away from him again as she responded, "It was fine until about a minute ago."
Her hands were on his chest still trying to push away from him when Russel used his strength to drawl her to him closer than before.
"Oh, I suppose you would prefer to dance with that loser Weasley rather than a real man like me."
Russel moved closer to the edge of the dance floor as Rebecca stared him straight in the eyes and defiantly stated, "Charlie is more of a man than you will ever be."
Enraged, Russel said, "Is that what you think? Would he do this?"
He pulled the struggling Rebecca off of the dance floor and through a door. Russel pinned Rebecca up against a wall just inside the door.
"What are you doing?" Rebecca asked frantically eyeing the open door to her right.
"I've been trying to get you into my arms all year," Russel replied.
Rebecca was still struggling when she looked at him and said, "What?!"
"I was the one that was supposed to catch you passed out, but no Weasley always had to be right there. I don't even know where he came from half of the times."
Rebecca stopped struggling and couldn't move. She had remembered what Madame Pompfrey said when she left the infirmary in December. Her mind flashed back to the moments before each time she had passed out. She then realized something that she hadn't before. Each time she got a headache she had been near Russel and he had been muttering to himself every single time. It wasn't relevant to her then so she didn't think anything about it, but now it was.
"You. You cursed me," stuttered Rebecca finally.
Russel looked at her, touched her hair, and admitted, "Yeah, I did. . I decided I better stop using the spell when you fell down the stairs. I didn't need to send you into Weasley's arms any faster than you were already going. . Everything made him look better than he is. I thought maybe you would see him for what he really is a loser and it would be my turn then."
He put his right hand up against the wall beside Rebecca's head. Russel began to lean in for a kiss, but Rebecca regained movement to duck and move left, away from Russel. He grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Let go of me," Rebecca shouted as she slapped him across the face. Russel dropped her arm, but started walking towards her causing her to back into a corner.
"Come on Rebecca, it won't hurt, just give me a little kiss," he said as he walked right up against her.
Rebecca was about to pass out from being trapped when Charlie grabbed Russel and threw him out of the way. Rebecca fell to her knees, but Charlie caught her before she completely collapsed onto the floor.
Russel was furious and was about to hit Charlie from behind when Ryan stepped between the two and told Russel to get out of the room. Russel stared at Ryan for a moment and then left in a huff.
Charlie wasn't paying to much attention, because he was more concerned about Rebecca.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I just need some air." Rebecca said.
She was really dizzy and about fell again when she tried to walk. Charlie picked her up and carried her out of the room leaving Ryan in there by himself.
Charlie walked along the edge of the dance and right out the door of the Great Hall. Lauren was up on the stage singing again so no one noticed him walking out with Rebecca in his arms.
He walked out into the court yard and set Rebecca gently on a bench. Rebecca had some tears rolling down her face.
"Are you okay, Rebecca?" Charlie asked as he sat down next to her and wipe away her tears. "What happened? One moment I saw you dancing with Flint, the next you disappeared, and then I found you in that room."
Rebecca burst into tears as she thought of what happened. Charlie put his arms around her to comfort her.
"I was going to find you for the next dance when Russel grabbed my hand. He had been watching out for Lauren so I decided it would be okay to dance with him," Rebecca sobbed as she rested her head on Charlie's shoulder. "He pulled me off the dance floor and into that room. He was trying to kiss me when you found us, but before that he told me that all those headaches I had in November and December were from him."
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Charlie grasping her shoulders and pushing her up so that he could see her face.
"He cursed me so that I would faint and he would catch me," sniffed Rebecca looking Charlie straight in the eyes.
"I'll kill him!" shouted Charlie standing up from the bench.
He was about to turn to walk in and beat up Russel when Rebecca grabbed his arm to stop him. She practically threw herself into his arm as she begged, "Please, just hold me right now. Don't leave me."
Charlie could tell from the tone in her voice she was scared so he sat back down and wrapped his arms around her.
Rebecca put her head on his shoulder and thought to herself, 'I can't believe that I thought Russel was a nice guy that I could become friends with. What would have happened if Charlie hadn't have been watching out for me and didn't show up when he did? Russel had been putting that spell on me. There is no telling what he would have done. Thank goodness, Charlie showed up. He is so great and I feel so safe around him. As long as I am around him, I'll be safe from Russel.'
Charlie and Rebecca sat in silence for a while as Rebecca calmed down. It wasn't until Rebecca shivered that Charlie spoke again.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly taking a hold of her hand.
Rebecca sat up a little straighter and quietly said, "Yeah, I think so."
She was staring down at their hands as Charlie said, "Well do you want to stay out here, go back to the ball, or we can go up to the common room."
He ran his fingers through Rebecca's hair as she thought for a moment. She really didn't want Charlie to stop holding her, but she was a little cold so staying outside wasn't going to be an option. Going back to the dance scared her to death since Russel may still be around.
"Let's go back to the Common Room," Rebecca finally said.
"Okay, let's go," Charlie said standing up. He took Rebecca by the hand and helped her up.
They walked back into the castle hand in hand and were almost past the doors to the great hall and to the stairs when Russel appeared.
He was glaring at Charlie and not paying attention to Rebecca, but she was still scared. She took a half of a step behind Charlie, squeezed his hand she was holding and grabbed his arm with her free hand. Charlie squeezed her hand back to let her know everything would be okay and stared back at Russel.
"This isn't over," Russel fiercely said. Charlie didn't say anything but just stared back giving Russel a 'Are you sure you want to go there?' look. The two boys stared down each other until Ryan appeared behind Rebecca and Russel walked away.
Charlie and Rebecca started to walk up the steps, when Ryan timidly asks, "Rebecca, are you okay?"
Rebecca was still a slight bit upset with him from their conversation early that night and the fact that Russel was his friend didn't help anything, so she coldly answered, "Yes, I am fine, thanks to Charlie."
She was frowning at Ryan as she said this, which shocked Ryan, because she usually didn't frown at anyone even when she was upset about something. Desperate to make a mends, Ryan eyed Charlie, then Rebecca, and asked, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Rebecca looked at him a moment and said, "Yes, there is one thing you can do for me."
"What?!" Ryan asked as he took a step closer.
"You can keep your CREEP of a friend away from me," Rebecca said raising her voice and then turned to continue up the stairs with Charlie.
Ryan was shocked. He stood on the stairs by himself staring at where Rebecca was and replaying the events in his head until Dan came up to him to say Cassie was looking for him. Ryan turned and headed back into the dance for the last song.
The ball ended and the students start to go back to their respective houses. When Greg, Sara, James, Jacquelyn, Colin, and Cathrine entered the portrait, they found Charlie and Rebecca sitting in the middle of the couch by the fire. They all thought something was up, because they noticed Rebecca disappear and saw Charlie leave. When neither returned by the end of the dance they knew something was up. The looks on Charlie and Rebecca's faces confirmed that intuition.
The girls walked over and sat by Rebecca and started to talk to her about the events of the nights. The guys walked over to Charlie to get information from him. When Rebecca finished telling a short version of the events of the night, the girls looked horrified.
Sara finally said, "You are so lucky Charlie found you when he did."
"Yeah, who knows what Russel would have done especially since he didn't have any problems casting that spell on you. Even I wouldn't go that far even for a good prank," added Cathrine.
Jacquelyn piped in, "Good thing Charlie was watching."
"Yeah, I am really lucky he came to my rescue," Rebecca said turning to look at Charlie who was talking to the guys. "He is a really great guy."
As she whispered the last statement, Rebecca realized how great Charlie treated her and that she really did like him a lot. 'I'll never be able to tell him how great he is,' she thought turning back towards the girls.
The girls decided to go up stairs and got to bed, though Sara sat on Rebecca's bed talking about everything that happened and what was running through Rebecca's head. The fact that Russel been the person Rebecca talked to over Christmas about her slight problem and had really helped her out came up. Rebecca couldn't help but think that he had been up to something even then and Sara agreed with her.
As the two girls talked about what happened at the ball more in depth upstairs, the guys were talking about the same thing.
"I don't want Rebecca to go through anything like that again," Charlie flat out stated when he finished telling the guys the story.
Greg shook his head, "Either do I."
"Did he really say 'This isn't over' to you?" asked James seriously.
"Yeah I think he was mad that I threw him off of Rebecca. Heck he probably still is," Charlie responded.
"He isn't stupid enough to think he could fight you. He'll probably try to curse you next and Rebecca will have to catch you every time she turns around," Colin said trying to be serious, but being the class clown he couldn't keep a straight face.
The other guys smiled at him as Charlie said, "Well I guess we will just have to keep our eyes open for Russel." Greg, James, and Colin nodded their heads in agreement and went up to bed.
That night, Rebecca tried to sleep but found herself still think of everything that happened. The thought of waking Sara up to talk some more came to Rebecca's head, but she didn't want Sara to be mad at her for doing it since it was really late. Finally she got up and walked down to the common room with some paper, ink, and a quill.
She sat down and wrote Stacy a letter telling her of everything that happened that night. She included every detail in hopes that she would get it out of her head and be able to sleep. When she finished, Rebecca added a post script to tell Stacy that she just need to get everything out, she was really okay, and she had people that would watch out for her at Hogwarts.
Writing the letter did not seem to help every much. Rebecca still saw everything when she closed her eyes. Eventually her tiredness over came her and Rebecca drifted off to a restless sleep.
The next morning Rebecca awoke dreading anything that would make her have to walk out of the portrait. She had enough homework that she could stay in Gryffindor all day, but she need to eat and had to go downstairs for that.
Rebecca got dressed and walked down to the common room. Charlie and the rest of the group were waiting for Rebecca when she walked down the steps. Rebecca gave out a sigh of relief at the sight of everyone.
Without a word everyone started heading towards the great hall. It seemed that everyone had the same idea that morning. The guys surrounded Rebecca and kept their eyes open for Russel while Rebecca purposely walked beside Charlie so that if anything happened she would be protected, since Russel had already proven that he was physically stronger than her.
When they finally made it to the Gryffindor table, they sat so that Rebecca was in the middle of the group. Everyone felt more comfortable sitting there in front of the teacher's and so their conversation drifted to more interesting and funny topics. It didn't take long before Colin had them laughing so hard they were crying.
Ryan had walked up to talk to Rebecca, but the whole group had their heads down and were laughing so loud that no one heard him say anything. He stood by them for a while waiting for someone to look at him. Every once in a while some one's head might move in his direction, but always stop before that person looked directly at him.
Hans walked up to get Ryan to sit down and get breakfast, but failed at his mission. Cassie finally walked into the Great Hall and walked over to Ryan. She smiled at the Gryffindors and took Ryan's hand and led him to the Slytherin table.
He sat down and stared at Rebecca. She was laughing so hard that he could tell that her sides were starting to hurt. 'What is up with that group? Last night I thought Rebecca would never smile again and here she is laughing like nothing happened at all,' Ryan thought to himself.
When Rebecca and the rest of the group got up from breakfast, Ryan got up to intercept her at the door so he could talk to her. He got to the door and was about to get Rebecca's attention when Cathrine said something to Rebecca. Cathrine was on the opposite side of Rebecca so Rebecca turned her head away from Ryan and walked out the door not knowing he was even there. Ryan watched as the group walked up the stairs still laughing and carrying on.
When the Gryffindors entered the common room, they were still laughing. Rebecca felt more relaxed than she did when she first got up. It wasn't until she saw Bill studying at one of the tables that she remembered all the homework she had to do. Charlie seemed to have the same thought and he said, "I guess it is time to do some homework."
Rebecca nodded and headed to get her books. She came back to the common room and found a free seat next to Charlie. He looked up from his books and asked, "What are you going to study?"
Rebecca looked at her stack of books and said, "I don't know. You know how much work we are supposed to do and I always start with my favorite subjects and barely touch anything else."
"It's the same with me. Its like I can't focus on it if I don't like the subject."
"Yeah. What I need is someone to make me focus on the ones I don't like."
"Hey, that's an idea."
"What?"
"Studying with someone to get focused on our weak subjects. Do you want to try to study with me and see if we can get each other to study the subjects we usually leave behind?"
"Um, sure, what is the worse thing that could happen?" Rebecca said with a smile.
They started to work with each other only taking breaks for lunch and dinner where they laughed as much as they had in breakfast and then returning to studying. Their strategy of studying worked out better than either of them imagined. Rebecca helped Charlie in Potions and Defense against the dark arts and Charlie helped her in Care of Magical Beasts and Charms. Other than Herbology and History, Rebecca and Charlie didn't really need each other for the rest of the subjects, but neither of them let the other one know that. Their biggest surprise came when they had finished with the last subject they had to study.
"Wow. I never thought I would get Herbology," Rebecca said placing the book on her other books and looked at them like she had conquered a mountain.
"Me, too," Charlie stated amazed at all he understood now. He looked at Rebecca and asked, "Do you think we could do this again? I really think we could help each other out in class."
Rebecca thought for a moment, turned towards Charlie, and said, "That's a good idea."
They exchanged smiles and then got up from the table. They gathered up their books, said good night, and headed up to bed. Rebecca fell asleep happy that Charlie asked her to be his study partner.
The next morning had many interesting surprises to it. Ryan got the first one when he walked to potions early and didn't find Rebecca there. They had a difficult potion to do that day and he thought that she would be down in the room trying to get prepared for it. He took his seat and eventually more and more students came in.
Hans, Dan, and Sam came in with Cassie who immediately headed to see why Ryan had missed breakfast. Russel showed up a little later and took his usual seat. He looked around and noticed there was a void of students where Rebecca usually sat. Russel hadn't talked to Ryan very much since the ball and really didn't want to until he talked to Rebecca first.
He wouldn't get his chance before classes though, because Rebecca didn't show up until shortly before the class was about to start. She walked in talking with Charlie and his gang. After they took their seats, Snape walked in and started giving instructions.
"Get with a partner and start working on the rainbow potion," Russel and Ryan both tried to get Rebecca's attention but she was already talking to Charlie about the rainbow potion and didn't notice them. Cassie of course got Ryan as a partner and Russel was left with Sam.
Snape had not overstated when he said that it was a difficult potion they were learning. He wouldn't tell them exactly what the potion did at first, but he said it was important for them to learn how to make it first and then learn what it was for.
Rebecca, who was by far the best student in the class, was just as nervous about it as everyone else. She and Charlie worked careful and following all the instruction even the ones that seemed insignificant.
At the end of the period when it was time to test the potion. If the potions were done correctly, every drop put on a piece of paper would change a different distinct color.
Practical everyone's potion changed colors at first, but the next drop did not come as distinct as the first. Some people had each drop change color but the order the colors appeared did not please Snape.
Finally, he walked over to Rebecca and Charlie's cauldron and started to test the potion. One drop produced a brilliant red color. The drop put on top of that made it change into an orange color and the next dropped faded into a yellow. Snapes started to smile and adding the drops quicker. Green, Blue, and Violet appeared from the subsequent drops.
Snape smiled at Rebecca and said, "Congratulations, this is the best rainbow potion that I have seen out of fifth years. 10-points a piece to Gryffindor."
He walked away leaving the two in shock as he explained that a properly prepared potion would make its drinker into a chameleon changing into what ever color is needed to blend into the surroundings.
Charlie turned to Rebecca and they smiled at each other. The whole class was looking at them in disbelief not paying any attention to what the professor was telling them. Rebecca getting points from Snape wasn't a new thing, but Charlie Weasley getting points was amazing.
At the end of the period, everyone gathered up their stuff and walked out the door. Ryan saw this as another opportunity to try to talk to Rebecca. He almost had her attention, but Carolyn came running up to Rebecca very upset.
"What's the matter?" Rebecca asked Carolyn as Charlie and Greg came walking up behind Rebecca to see what was amidst.
"Lauren needs help," Carolyn said gasping for air.
"Where is she?" asked Charlie and Greg in unison.
"I'll show you." Carolyn ran off closely followed by Rebecca, Charlie, and Greg. They turned the corner close to the great hall and found Lauren standing in the middle of Harvey, Alannah, Marcus, and some other Slytherin first years.
Luckily, when Charlie, Greg, and Rebecca appeared, the group disbursed. Lauren looked over relieved to see them.
"I don't know what happened," she started to say obviously flustered by what happened. "One moment I was walking with Sean and the next I know Alannah was trying to pick a fight with me and then the guys surrounded me."
"Where's Sean at?" Rebecca asked looking around concerned that something bad may have happened to him. Just then Sean ran from around the corner with Bill following.
"Hey," Bill said looking at the other Gryffindors.
Sean walked over to Lauren and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you but I couldn't fight all those guys at once."
"I know. At least you went to find someone to help," Lauren responded taking his hand. They walked off together, leaving Rebecca and the guys in the hall.
"Well, it's a good thing you guys showed up when you did," Bill finally said.
"I wonder why they surrounded her?" Rebecca asked watching Lauren walk away.
"Who know? We better get to class," Charlie said taking her arm and leading her to Herbology.
As they walked to class James, Jacquelyn, Colin, Cathrine, and Sara joined them and asked where they disappeared. What happened to Lauren was the talk of the next class until Professor Sprout announced a pop quiz. Everyone groaned as she started to ask question.
At the end the class went over the answers. While walking out to go to lunch, Rebecca and Charlie compared what they had gotten on the quiz. To each of their surprise, they both got a perfect score. Rebecca was so excited that she threw her arms around Charlie and gave him a huge hug in the middle of the hall. They then headed off to lunch happy and contented that their studying paid off.
During lunch the whole school seemed to be buzzing about what happened to Lauren and Sean. Details came out that Harvey had shoved Sean into a wall and that Harvey's goons had a stare down with Sean before he went to get Bill. Lauren said that Harvey keep calling her 'songbird' and asking her to sing, which he had started doing when they had danced together at the call. Charlie and Rebecca exchanged puzzled looks over the table at each new detail.
Rebecca finally asked what she had wanted to know. "Lauren, why were you dancing with Harvey that night?"
"I don't know. I saw when Sean went to get punch for us after I had sung, Harvey whisper something to Sean, but I don't know what it was. Harvey then came up and tapped Sean on the shoulder and Sean just stepped aside without saying a word. Before I could refuse he started dancing me away from Sean. When I saw Russel, I figured I was safe so I could handle dancing with him, but know I really wished I hadn't evened tried," Lauren responded looking at Rebecca.
Rebecca shook her head and turned back to her food. She hadn't told Lauren what had happened the night of the ball and didn't know whether she should. She remained quiet the rest of lunch as did the rest of the group. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing. Russel had been protective of Lauren because he wanted to be close to Rebecca, but would he be now or was it all an act for Rebecca. If it was, then maybe Lauren should know what occurred between Rebecca and Russel so that she didn't run to him for help.
Sara finally commented as they all got up to go to class, "It seems that the Slytherin students are out of control." Everyone nodded their head in agreement and walked out of the Great Hall.
The afternoon classes found Charlie and Rebecca having more success from their studying. By the end of the day they had gotten a few more points for Gryffindor.
Of course, after the talk about Lauren's situation cooled down, the points given to them by Snape became the talk of dinner that night at the Gryffindor table. Rebecca and Charlie sat very quiet giving each other smiles as the others along the table talked about the miracle.
Bill sat next to Charlie and asked, "So is it true? Did my brother actually get Snape give him points instead of getting them taken away?"
Charlie smiled and nodded his head. Bill laughed as he slapped Charlie on the back, told him congratulations, and then started to eat.
Rebecca was sitting on the other side of the table and was smiling at Charlie and Bill's brotherly interplay when she Ryan caught her eye. He was staring at her. She stared back and continued to eat. Ryan subtle gestured to let her know that he wanted to talk to her when she and the rest of the group were done.
At the end of dinner Rebecca got up and met Ryan outside of the Great Hall. Charlie and his friends started to walk up the stairs to go back to Gryffindor Tower. Ryan walked up to Rebecca timidly smiling.
"Yes?" Rebecca asked him as he stopped next to her.
"I have been trying to talk to you for two day," He started. Rebecca was surprised she had no clue he had even been around her other than in usual classes.
"Really?! About what?" she asked with a tone in her voice that let Ryan know that she hadn't purposely been avoiding him.
"About the dance. . I just wanted to say how sorry I was about what happened."
Rebecca only heard part of what he said, because Russel walked up to her staring. Rebecca and Russel locked eyes and she said with a raised voice, "I told you to keep that CREEP away from me!"
She turned around and ran up the stairs to catch up with the group. Russel tried to grab her hand as she turned to stop her from leaving, but Rebecca slipped her hand out of his grip and didn't look back.
Rebecca headed straight up to her room and grabbed her books. She headed back down to common room to study. Charlie joined her at the table and looked at her.
"Everything okay?" he finally asked.
Rebecca looked up from her books at him and said, "Yeah, I just wish Russel would leave me alone."
"WHAT?!"
'I am going to beat that guy up. He needs to leave her alone!' Charlie thought as Rebecca explained, "Ryan wanted to talk to me and Russel showed up. I don't know what he is going to do and so I can't consciously make myself stand there while he stares at me. His reasoning makes no sense and."
She went on for a few minutes on everything she was feeling. When Rebecca finally finished her ranting on Russel being around, she looked at him, put her hand on top of his hand that was resting on the table, and said, "Sorry I just need to get it all out."
"That's okay. I'm just glad that you feel comfortable talking to me about it," Charlie quietly said tucking a stand of hair behind her ear, then placing his hand back on top of Rebecca's, and giving it a little comforting squeeze.
Rebecca smiled and looked back at her books thinking, 'I am so lucky he is my friend.'
"You ready to study?" Charlie asked. Rebecca shook her head yes and they started what would become their routine.
Every night, they studied the subjects they needed to and some that they didn't. The next day they would see their rewards from their hard work and sometimes getting a few surprises. The teachers were impressed about their performance. Snape's was surprised when Charlie raised his hand and answered a question correctly before Rebecca did.
Both Charlie and Rebecca were ecstatic by their progress in their weak subjects and each secretly glad that they were getting to know each other better than they ever imagined. Rebecca was also happy, because she has been able to keep herself distracted enough to ignore Russel situation and to not mind Ryan hadn't tried to talk to her since the after dinner confrontation, which would have probably devastated her when they were younger.
Cathrine and Colin had come up with several plots to get Charlie and Rebecca together, but Greg would dash their hopes to set their plans in motion by pointing out that Charlie and Rebecca were around each other a lot.
"But he doesn't hold her hand and she talks to everyone in the whole school," Colin said one day in late January trying to reason with Greg to go along with the latest plan.
"Colin, let them alone," Greg said.
"Why do you always say that?" asked Cathrine
"Why do you always come to me with your plans?" Greg asked back.
"Well, because we need you to help us get Charlie into position just like we need Sara for Rebecca. All our plans won't work if you too aren't in on it," explained Colin.
"Well I think they need to have some more time. I have to say your plans are great especially since you guys have stayed out of detention lately, but it is not a good time to trick them together. So, why don't you guys use some of that energy and do your homework instead of coming up with plans," Sara stated.
"Oh won't that be fun," Cathrine sarcastically said walking away.
"You know Rebecca is around Flint just as much as she is around Charlie," Colin protested. He thought he finally found an argument that neither Greg nor Sara could find fault in, but he underestimated Sara.
She looked him straight in the eye and said, "I know. I guess they talked a lot over break and I am sure she is sitting in the library with him right now. Every time I go to talk to her in the library he either comes over or is already there. And yes, after a while, it does lead you to wonder, but if you watch carefully you'd notice she doesn't act as comfortable with Russel as she does with Charlie. She'll actually seek Charlie out to talk to him about something. Rebecca never approaches Russel to talk. He always comes to her. Also, she describes them differently. Charlie is a great guy while Russel is a good guy. There is nothing to worry about there. . Besides, you're forgetting about Kirsta. Rebecca knows just like everyone else that Russel and Kirsta have something going on."
"Oh, yeah," Colin muttered disappointed as he walked off to join Cathrine to work on their homework.
Sara and Greg looked at each other and sighed. They had diverted another week's plot and were wondering when they could stop their vigilance of them.
January ended and February started. It seemed this month was going to be just as predictable as the last until one night at dinner Dumbledore stood up and announced, "I would like to announce that the faculty and I have decided there will be a Valentine's Ball this year. It will be open to all students so I hope everyone will come and enjoy the dance."
'Great, I guess that I can find a 1st year that might go with me,' Rebecca thought to herself. She didn't know who would ask her otherwise. Charlie and Bill were the only single guys she really talked to on a regular basis and they talked to a lot of different girls and several of them were single. Rebecca doubted either one of them would ask her, because she always had in the back of her mind that they only paid attention to her since she was the new kid and she had all those headaches.
She was still thinking to herself about her date prospects when Dumbledore finished announcements and Charlie turned and looked at Rebecca. They exchanged smile but didn't really say anything.
Rebecca turned back to her plate and saw Ryan looking at her intensely from the Slytherin table. Rebecca stared back until Cassie took the seat in front of Ryan blocking his view of Rebecca.
'She probably is talking obsessively about the dance,' Rebecca thought smiling to herself. Of course all the other students were talking about the dance. Rebecca was the only one that seemed wasn't.
Charlie had been talking to his friends, but eventually slipped out of the conversation when Sara started in on what she was wearing. He took this opportunity to lean over towards Rebecca and whisper, "I guess I better ask you to the ball before someone else gets the nerve to do it."
Rebecca's jaw dropped. She looked at him and was about to answer when he said, "Well how about it? Will you go to the dance with me?" Before Rebecca had another chance to answer he added, "I'll get down on one knee and beg if that is what it takes."
Rebecca laughed and finally said, "Yes." She leaned over and kissed Charlie on the cheek.
It seemed that no one had noticed the kiss, since everyone was too excited to note what had been announced. However, Russel had been staring at Rebecca trying to get her attention so that he could ask her to the dance when he saw her lean over to kiss Charlie. His hopes were dashed and he looked down his table to see if there was someone else to ask.
Charlie and Rebecca smiled at each other through out the rest of the meal. Rebecca was so happy, because Charlie was absolutely the first person that came to her mind when Dumbledore announced the ball. She however always thought too much and made herself think that Charlie had someone else to ask, even though everything that happened since she met him told her he wouldn't.
The excitement of the ball got more and more intense each day. Each day details about the dance were discussed. Often there were groups of girls talking about the color of their dress robes or how the were going to do their hair in the halls. There were discussions of who was going with whom, which was a favorite topic among both the boys and girls of the school. Greg and Sara were happy that Charlie had asked Rebecca when he did, because they didn't have hear about any pranks from Colin and Cathrine since the two were content that Rebecca and Charlie were together.
Finally, it was the Saturday of the dance. The student body buzzed at breakfast with not only talk of the dance, but also of the trip to Hogsmeade. After breakfast the students that were permitted to go into the village went to get their cloaks.
Rebecca had gotten hers and was headed down the stairs towards the entrance where she was to meet Charlie and his friends. On the stairway she ran into Ryan and his friends.
"Hey Rebecca, are you going to Hogsmeade today?" he said with a smile.
"Yeah, it should be fun," Rebecca said with a smile.
At that moment Greg walked down the stairs and said to Rebecca, "Hey, Sara will be right down and then we can start out."
"Sounds good," replied Rebecca with a bigger smile than she had given Ryan.
"You're going with Weasley and his group, aren't you?" Ryan about shouted at Rebecca when Greg was out of sight.
Rebecca looked at him shocked and simply answered, "Yes."
"Why don't you ever go with me and my friends?"
"You never ask," Rebecca quickly retorted and hurried off to catch up with the other Gryffindors so she wouldn't get yelled at again. Sara joined the group a few moments later and they were off.
At Hogsmeade, the Gryffindor group walked through streets laughing and window shopping. The guys disappeared for a short time and showed back up acting mysterious. They wouldn't even give a short answer to where when the girls asked. The girls just rolled their eyes and the group continued their way through the village.
Unbeknownst to the group, Ryan and his friends were always peering around looking at them to find proof that Rebecca and Charlie were dating. There was a problem though. The Gryffindors were always in different pairings, so Ryan couldn't even tell who was dating who. He saw Rebecca with James at the music store discussing different types of music. Greg had his arm resting on Rebecca's shoulders while they looked around the quidditch shop as Charlie talked to Cathrine in a different part of the store. Colin and Rebecca walked around the candy store together when Ryan was in there.
'You would think that they would stay with their girlfriends or boyfriends if they were really dating,' he thought to himself as Cassie dragged him into another store away from Rebecca and her group. Ryan didn't see Rebecca again until it was time to go back to the castle. He saw that the Gryffindors had finally properly paired back up and that the boyfriends and girlfriends were holding hands. The path back to the castle was not as slippery as it was in December so Charlie and Rebecca were not holding hands. Ryan noted this and once again decided that there was nothing between the two so he was just being paranoid.
Back at the castle there was an announcement that there would be an early dinner and refreshment would be served at the dance. "Oh, good they are going to give us plenty of time to get ready," said Sara.
"How long does it take to get ready?" questioned Colin then jokingly added, "You take out your dress robe, throw it on, and BAM, you're done in five minutes tops."
Sara rolled her eyes at him and headed into the great hall. The other girls followed Sara while the guys stood there a moment laughing.
After dinner, everyone headed up to get ready for the dance. Most of the guys had Colin's philosophy and relaxed down in the common room while the girls rushed around in their rooms getting ready. Rebecca would have probably have sat down by the fire and read for a while before she got dressed, except she promised to do Lauren, Carolyn and Aisha's make up. She ended up doing not only their make up, but also the other first years' make up plus some other second years.
When she finished with them and sent them to Jacquelyn to get their hair done, Rebecca took a shower. She took a pretty long one trying to get herself settled down. She was very excited about the dance and was dying to see Charlie in his dress robes.
When she finally got out of the shower, she had a half an hour to do her hair and makeup and get dressed. Her hair had formed some loose curls from the steam in the shower so Rebecca took two hair combs and arranged her hair so that her hair was parted on the side and halfway up with some light bangs that curled tightly around her hair line. Rebecca then did her makeup using mostly neutral tones so that it was understated giving her a porcelain look.
She now only had to get dressed and she could go down and meet Charlie. Rebecca picked up her scarlet dress robe and put it on. She then grabbed her dress heels out of her trunk. Once she had them on she took at moment to look at herself in the mirror.
'I hope he likes how I look,' she thought as she turned and walked out of the room.
Rebecca walked down the stairs slowly. She was excited and nervous all at the same time and felt like she could fall at any second because of it. Cathrine, Jacquelyn, and Sara had already gone downstairs and had probably made their way to the ball with Colin, James, and Greg.
Charlie was the only one in the common room when Rebecca appeared on the stairs. Charlie's jaw dropped when he saw her. He always thought she was pretty before, but the way she looked right then was stunning.
"Wow," he whispered as she walked closer. Rebecca smiled sweetly at him. His black dress robe looked great on him. It appeared from its style to be an older dress robe, but Rebecca loved its classic look.
"Hey, handsome," she said when she reached him.
"You look beautiful," Charlie said smiling at her. They stood there just smiling at each other for a while and then Charlie finally said, "Are you ready to go to the ball?" He offered Rebecca his arm as he said this. Rebecca smiled at him as she took his arm and they headed out of the room.
As Charlie and Rebecca made their way down the stairs towards the Great Hall, they saw a sea of colors. They spotted Sara in her baby blue robe with Greg in his royal blue robe. Rebecca pointed out Cathrine in her silver-blue robe being lead by Colin in his royal purple robe. Jacquelyn in her light purple robe following close behind James in his emerald green robe were seen as Charlie and Rebecca made their way to the hall.
The hallway was packed full of students so Charlie took Rebecca hand and lead her into the dance passing Ryan and Cassie who were both wearing Slytherin green dress robes. Ryan was shocked not only that Rebecca was Charlie's date and that they were holding hands, but at how beautiful she looked and how happy she seemed with Charlie. Cassie wasn't shocked. She actually infuriated Ryan when she said that Charlie and Rebecca looked cute together. Ryan kept his cool on the outside but hastily took Cassie's hand and followed Rebecca and Charlie into the Great Hall.
There was a slow song starting when they all entered the room. Charlie lead Rebecca right onto the dance floor and faced her. He put his free arm on her waist as Rebecca put her free hand on his shoulder. They smiled and began to dance.
Though the dance floor was crowded, the normally claustrophobic Rebecca felt as though they were the only ones on the floor when she looked into his eyes. In the middle of the song A.J. accidentally bumped into Rebecca causing her to fall into Charlie.
Rebecca and Charlie were up right against each other now and neither of them were willing to back up. Charlie wrapped his arms around Rebecca's waist and they began to dance again.
The song ended and Charlie was tapped on the shoulder. It was Ryan who was looking sort of ill.
"Mind if I cut in for the next dance?" he asked looking at Rebecca first and then at Charlie.
"Oh, sure. I'll just go find Cassie to dance with her. You guys have fun," Rebecca responded laughing at the end. Charlie joined into the laughter.
Ryan eventually joined in, but not until he said, "I wanted to dance with you, Rebecca."
Charlie really didn't want to give up the dance but Rebecca was being so lighthearted about it that he allowed Ryan to cut in.
The next song started and Ryan and Rebecca started to dance. "Do you remember how we use to dance?" Ryan asked.
Rebecca smiled at Ryan's question and replied, "How could I forget? I was taking ballroom dancing lessons and I used you as my partner when I needed to practice whether you liked it or not." Ryan smiled at her recollection and started to lead her in some of the steps she had taught him so long ago. Rebecca smiled, happy that he remembered so much.
With in moments they were completely in sync with each other. Many people were looking at them just watching them danced. Rebecca noticed even though Ryan didn't seem to. He did notice that Rebecca was looking over at Charlie who was dancing with a fifth year girl from Hufflepuff.
"So what's up with you and Charlie?" Ryan asked staring at Rebecca.
"Oh, nothing really. . I really like him. . He is such a really great person, probably the greatest guy I have ever known. . It seems that I can always count on him," Rebecca admitted. She didn't mean to hurt Ryan's feeling with what she said, but she was speaking from her heart as she always had with her childhood friend.
Ryan's face went a shade lighter when he heard what Rebecca said. "I don't think you should be getting any hopes up for Weasley. Being his friend may not be in your best interest, either," Ryan stated.
They continued to dance, but Rebecca took as step away from him and said, "Yes, well dear 'cousin' thank you for your concern, but I'll make my own decisions about what is and what isn't in my best interest."
Rebecca was livid at Ryan trying to tell her who she should be friends with. Ryan could tell she was annoyed by the way she looked at him, but he made the serious mistake of trying to guess why she was angry at him. "Cousin? You're mad about that, aren't you?"
When the question came out, Rebecca decided she was fed up and it was time to tell him what she really thought about the cousin lie.
"Actually, the truth is I am not," Rebecca soberly said looking him straight in the eyes. "Think about it Ryan. What in our history would tell you that I wouldn't say anything when it first started? Why would I wait this long to say something? I was never like that when we younger. I never go along with anything I don't want. I let you get away with it. I didn't care."
When Rebecca finished, Ryan just stared at her. He was shocked, but he should have known. Everything added up to Rebecca not seeing him ever as anything more than her old childhood friend.
"Just so, you know. Cassie was the first one to call you my cousin. I was going to tell her but she was persistent about it and it was just easier to go along with her at first," Ryan confessed.
"I figured as much," Rebecca coldly responded as the song came to an end. Rebecca started to walk away when several students surrounded her and Ryan telling them how great their dancing was. Aisha was in the crowd. "Could you teach how to dance like that some time?"
"Of course," Rebecca responded with a smile.
There were several other Gryffindors with the same request that she agreed to as well. Rebecca made it back to Charlie as a new song started and they began to dance together. Cassie found Ryan and they began to dance.
'I should have been honest from the get go. Cassie would have gotten over the threat. Rebecca may never get over this. . Of course, I hadn't gotten anything right with Rebecca this year so there may still be hope,' he thought as he danced away from Rebecca with Cassie in his arms. Cassie was nagging him about never dancing with her like he had with Rebecca. The song ended and Dumbledore walked on to the stage.
"Good evening, everyone and welcome to the Valentine's Ball. It appears that everyone has arrived, so it is time for this evening's surprise," he announced. The students murmured about what the surprise could be. The rest of their group near the stage joined Rebecca and Charlie. The guys stood behind the girls waiting to hear what was going to happen.
After a moment of suspense, Dumbledore said, "It is my pleasure to introduce Lauren Kimmel." Lauren walked nervously on the stage, but felt more confident when she saw Rebecca and everyone else smiling at her.
As the music started back up, Rebecca heard Cathrine whisper, "Did Lauren come with anyone?"
Jacquelyn had the answer, "Sean O'Donnell asked her."
"Really? Where is he?" Sara asked looking around. Jacquelyn pointed out boy with short curly black hair standing next to Carolyn, Aisha, and their dates.
"He's cute," slipped out of Rebecca's mouth.
Everyone looked at Rebecca for a moment and then laughed.
Rebecca was waiting for someone to poke fun at her when Lauren started to sing:
The sunlight on my shoulders
The smile on my face
My secret weapon, my favorite place
The reason my heart skips a beat
The broom that sweeps me off my feet
Lauren's voice was amazing no one would have guessed that she was only eleven after hearing her sing. Rebecca was memorized by Lauren. In fact, none of the group took their eyes off of Lauren while she was singing.
A gentle inspiration
My weary soul's salvation
The half that makes me whole
The gravity that grounds me
The arms I want around me
Never letting go
Charlie put his arms around Rebecca and they started to sway to the music. The other guys followed suit putting their arms around their girlfriends and in a matter of moment they were all absorbed into the music.
I've lived
I've lived enough
To know what is
And what's not
You are-you are
Rebecca leaned back against Charlie as she just stared at Lauren still swaying to the music. Charlie tilted his head so that it rested against Rebecca's with a smile his face.
All the love I wanna make
Every breath I wanna take
The rush that's running down my spine
The touch that takes me every time
An innocent seduction
Oh I can't get enough and
I can't help but let it show
I lose all my composure
I'm totally exposed and
The reason I let go
Is....
I've lived
I've lived enough
I know what is
And what's not
You are-you are
Sara looked over at Rebecca and Charlie and smiled. Greg looked down at Sara and saw she was looking away from the stage. He glanced in the direction she was looking at and saw how Rebecca and Charlie were content to be that close to each other. He turned back to watching Lauren with a big grin on his face. It looked like soon he and Sara could give up their vigilance against Colin and Cathrine trying to prank the two into dating.
My every hope
My every dream
You are my everything
I've lived yeah
I've lived enough
I know what is
And what's not
You are-you are-you are
The sunlight on my shoulders
The smile on my face
My secret weapon
My favorite place
(Carolyn Dawn Johnson's You Are)
When the song ended, all the students cheered really loud for Lauren. She smile, took a quick bow, and headed off the stage and walked up to the group.
"That was amazing," Rebecca started.
"Why didn't you tell us you could sing like that?" questioned James.
"You sung beautiful, Lauren," added Charlie.
Jacquelyn asked, "Are you going to sing anymore?"
"I hope so," Cathrine said.
Greg piped in, "Lauren that was the best surprise."
"I don't think anyone could top it," Colin stated.
Lauren smiled at all of them and when they all finished bombarding her with their praises, "Thanks guys. I'm glad you liked it. I am going to go find Sean now."
With that she left still smiling. Lauren didn't walk away that far when she was surrounded by a lot of students praising her singing.
A new song started and Lauren found Sean to dance with. Rebecca and Charlie danced together for that song.
On the next dance, Bill cut in and danced with Rebecca. Greg asked to dance with Rebecca on another song a while later as did Colin after that.
Rebecca was having a great time. She felt more and more like she was one of the gang with each dance. The guys acted like she was actually their friend and not a person they were being nice to because she talked to Charlie and was friends with their girlfriends.
A.J. also danced with Rebecca so that he could apologize for bumping into her earlier that night and not saying sorry earlier. Rebecca laughed, accepted it, and changed the subject to how he liked the dance not wanting to admit that she was really glad that he had bumped into her.
By the mid point of the dance, she had danced with all the guys from the group except James. Rebecca was about to start dancing with Charlie when she saw James whisper something into Jacquelyn's ear. Jacquelyn smiled and nodded.
As a new song began, Jacquelyn walked over, tapped Rebecca on the shoulder, and said, "Mind if I cut in." Rebecca smiled and stepped away from Charlie to let Jacquelyn step in.
As Charlie and Jacquelyn started to dance, James came up and stated, "Looks like we lost our partners."
Rebecca started to giggle and said, "Yeah. . But it was about time that someone asked me to cut in."
"You want to dance?" Rebecca nodded and turned towards James. They started to dance and Rebecca noticed something.
She looked at James surprised and said, "You've taken dancing lessons, haven't you?"
"Yeah, when I was younger, my parents made me. I find it's more useful now than it was then. Of course, young muggles usually don't dance like this so I guess that explains that."
"You're parents are muggles?"
"Yeah, I guess we never said anything about that to you. After a certain point it really doesn't matter to most."
"Yeah, I guess if it really mattered I would have found out along time ago then."
"Well just for your information, Charlie, Colin, Sara, and Jacquelyn are from pure blood wizard families. Cathrine is a mixture, but there isn't a drop of muggle blood in her. Greg is half and half, but grew up mostly around magic and doesn't have much experience with muggle things. Yours truly is the only muggle born in the lot." Rebecca laughed as James twirled around her so that she could see everyone else.
As James led her through some fancy footsteps, her eyes wandered around. First she noticed Marcus dancing with Alannah. Then she saw Aisha dancing with Percy and Carolyn dancing with Sean. Greg was dancing with Cathrine while Sara was trying hard to dance with Colin, but he had her laughing so hard that she wasn't really succeeding.
Rebecca smiled as she saw everyone until her eyes landed on Lauren. She was on the other side of the dance floor and dancing with Harvey. Lauren didn't look ecstatic about the situation, so Rebecca leaned in and whispered to James what she saw. James looked over and saw the same thing.
Without saying another word, James and Rebecca started to dance over towards them inconspicuously. After a few dance steps Rebecca and James were close enough to Lauren for Rebecca get Lauren's attention and give her a look to ask Lauren if she was okay. Lauren looked at Rebecca and then moved her eyes in a different direction.
Rebecca's eyes followed trying to see what Lauren saw. She found Russel, who was dancing with Kirsta, was staring at Harvey and Lauren. Russel glanced over at Rebecca and nodded at her to let her know he was keeping his eye on Harvey's action.
Rebecca smiled to tell him thanks and leaned in to whisper to James that Russel had everything under control. Rebecca and James continued dancing close to Lauren so that if Harvey upset her they could get to her quickly while Russel dealt with the boy.
When the song end, Sean walked over and led Lauren away. Alannah walked over to Harvey to dance with him as James headed back to Jacquelyn for the next dance. Rebecca started to walked away to find Charlie, but was stopped when someone grabbed her hand.
She turned around to see that Russel had a hold of her. The next song started it and Russel asked, "May I have this dance?"
It was a slow song and Rebecca really wanted to go find Charlie to dance with him, but Russel had been so protective of Lauren that she couldn't tell him no. She nodded and Russel kissed her hand. He pulled her in close. A lot closer than Rebecca wanted to be. She tried to pull away but he held her tight.
Russel placed Rebecca's hand on his shoulder and put his hand on her waist and they started to dance. Rebecca looked around to see if she could see anyone that might help her out since there was no way that she could out muscle Russel herself. She spotted Charlie who was dancing with a girl with dirty blonde hair from Ravenclaw not that far away. Charlie was talking to the girl, but glanced up a couple of time to look at Rebecca.
Russel saw Charlie looking at them and started to causally lead Rebecca away from him. After about a minute, they were far enough away from Charlie for Russel and he asked, "So, are you enjoying the ball?"
Rebecca tried to push away from him again as she responded, "It was fine until about a minute ago."
Her hands were on his chest still trying to push away from him when Russel used his strength to drawl her to him closer than before.
"Oh, I suppose you would prefer to dance with that loser Weasley rather than a real man like me."
Russel moved closer to the edge of the dance floor as Rebecca stared him straight in the eyes and defiantly stated, "Charlie is more of a man than you will ever be."
Enraged, Russel said, "Is that what you think? Would he do this?"
He pulled the struggling Rebecca off of the dance floor and through a door. Russel pinned Rebecca up against a wall just inside the door.
"What are you doing?" Rebecca asked frantically eyeing the open door to her right.
"I've been trying to get you into my arms all year," Russel replied.
Rebecca was still struggling when she looked at him and said, "What?!"
"I was the one that was supposed to catch you passed out, but no Weasley always had to be right there. I don't even know where he came from half of the times."
Rebecca stopped struggling and couldn't move. She had remembered what Madame Pompfrey said when she left the infirmary in December. Her mind flashed back to the moments before each time she had passed out. She then realized something that she hadn't before. Each time she got a headache she had been near Russel and he had been muttering to himself every single time. It wasn't relevant to her then so she didn't think anything about it, but now it was.
"You. You cursed me," stuttered Rebecca finally.
Russel looked at her, touched her hair, and admitted, "Yeah, I did. . I decided I better stop using the spell when you fell down the stairs. I didn't need to send you into Weasley's arms any faster than you were already going. . Everything made him look better than he is. I thought maybe you would see him for what he really is a loser and it would be my turn then."
He put his right hand up against the wall beside Rebecca's head. Russel began to lean in for a kiss, but Rebecca regained movement to duck and move left, away from Russel. He grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Let go of me," Rebecca shouted as she slapped him across the face. Russel dropped her arm, but started walking towards her causing her to back into a corner.
"Come on Rebecca, it won't hurt, just give me a little kiss," he said as he walked right up against her.
Rebecca was about to pass out from being trapped when Charlie grabbed Russel and threw him out of the way. Rebecca fell to her knees, but Charlie caught her before she completely collapsed onto the floor.
Russel was furious and was about to hit Charlie from behind when Ryan stepped between the two and told Russel to get out of the room. Russel stared at Ryan for a moment and then left in a huff.
Charlie wasn't paying to much attention, because he was more concerned about Rebecca.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I just need some air." Rebecca said.
She was really dizzy and about fell again when she tried to walk. Charlie picked her up and carried her out of the room leaving Ryan in there by himself.
Charlie walked along the edge of the dance and right out the door of the Great Hall. Lauren was up on the stage singing again so no one noticed him walking out with Rebecca in his arms.
He walked out into the court yard and set Rebecca gently on a bench. Rebecca had some tears rolling down her face.
"Are you okay, Rebecca?" Charlie asked as he sat down next to her and wipe away her tears. "What happened? One moment I saw you dancing with Flint, the next you disappeared, and then I found you in that room."
Rebecca burst into tears as she thought of what happened. Charlie put his arms around her to comfort her.
"I was going to find you for the next dance when Russel grabbed my hand. He had been watching out for Lauren so I decided it would be okay to dance with him," Rebecca sobbed as she rested her head on Charlie's shoulder. "He pulled me off the dance floor and into that room. He was trying to kiss me when you found us, but before that he told me that all those headaches I had in November and December were from him."
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Charlie grasping her shoulders and pushing her up so that he could see her face.
"He cursed me so that I would faint and he would catch me," sniffed Rebecca looking Charlie straight in the eyes.
"I'll kill him!" shouted Charlie standing up from the bench.
He was about to turn to walk in and beat up Russel when Rebecca grabbed his arm to stop him. She practically threw herself into his arm as she begged, "Please, just hold me right now. Don't leave me."
Charlie could tell from the tone in her voice she was scared so he sat back down and wrapped his arms around her.
Rebecca put her head on his shoulder and thought to herself, 'I can't believe that I thought Russel was a nice guy that I could become friends with. What would have happened if Charlie hadn't have been watching out for me and didn't show up when he did? Russel had been putting that spell on me. There is no telling what he would have done. Thank goodness, Charlie showed up. He is so great and I feel so safe around him. As long as I am around him, I'll be safe from Russel.'
Charlie and Rebecca sat in silence for a while as Rebecca calmed down. It wasn't until Rebecca shivered that Charlie spoke again.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly taking a hold of her hand.
Rebecca sat up a little straighter and quietly said, "Yeah, I think so."
She was staring down at their hands as Charlie said, "Well do you want to stay out here, go back to the ball, or we can go up to the common room."
He ran his fingers through Rebecca's hair as she thought for a moment. She really didn't want Charlie to stop holding her, but she was a little cold so staying outside wasn't going to be an option. Going back to the dance scared her to death since Russel may still be around.
"Let's go back to the Common Room," Rebecca finally said.
"Okay, let's go," Charlie said standing up. He took Rebecca by the hand and helped her up.
They walked back into the castle hand in hand and were almost past the doors to the great hall and to the stairs when Russel appeared.
He was glaring at Charlie and not paying attention to Rebecca, but she was still scared. She took a half of a step behind Charlie, squeezed his hand she was holding and grabbed his arm with her free hand. Charlie squeezed her hand back to let her know everything would be okay and stared back at Russel.
"This isn't over," Russel fiercely said. Charlie didn't say anything but just stared back giving Russel a 'Are you sure you want to go there?' look. The two boys stared down each other until Ryan appeared behind Rebecca and Russel walked away.
Charlie and Rebecca started to walk up the steps, when Ryan timidly asks, "Rebecca, are you okay?"
Rebecca was still a slight bit upset with him from their conversation early that night and the fact that Russel was his friend didn't help anything, so she coldly answered, "Yes, I am fine, thanks to Charlie."
She was frowning at Ryan as she said this, which shocked Ryan, because she usually didn't frown at anyone even when she was upset about something. Desperate to make a mends, Ryan eyed Charlie, then Rebecca, and asked, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Rebecca looked at him a moment and said, "Yes, there is one thing you can do for me."
"What?!" Ryan asked as he took a step closer.
"You can keep your CREEP of a friend away from me," Rebecca said raising her voice and then turned to continue up the stairs with Charlie.
Ryan was shocked. He stood on the stairs by himself staring at where Rebecca was and replaying the events in his head until Dan came up to him to say Cassie was looking for him. Ryan turned and headed back into the dance for the last song.
The ball ended and the students start to go back to their respective houses. When Greg, Sara, James, Jacquelyn, Colin, and Cathrine entered the portrait, they found Charlie and Rebecca sitting in the middle of the couch by the fire. They all thought something was up, because they noticed Rebecca disappear and saw Charlie leave. When neither returned by the end of the dance they knew something was up. The looks on Charlie and Rebecca's faces confirmed that intuition.
The girls walked over and sat by Rebecca and started to talk to her about the events of the nights. The guys walked over to Charlie to get information from him. When Rebecca finished telling a short version of the events of the night, the girls looked horrified.
Sara finally said, "You are so lucky Charlie found you when he did."
"Yeah, who knows what Russel would have done especially since he didn't have any problems casting that spell on you. Even I wouldn't go that far even for a good prank," added Cathrine.
Jacquelyn piped in, "Good thing Charlie was watching."
"Yeah, I am really lucky he came to my rescue," Rebecca said turning to look at Charlie who was talking to the guys. "He is a really great guy."
As she whispered the last statement, Rebecca realized how great Charlie treated her and that she really did like him a lot. 'I'll never be able to tell him how great he is,' she thought turning back towards the girls.
The girls decided to go up stairs and got to bed, though Sara sat on Rebecca's bed talking about everything that happened and what was running through Rebecca's head. The fact that Russel been the person Rebecca talked to over Christmas about her slight problem and had really helped her out came up. Rebecca couldn't help but think that he had been up to something even then and Sara agreed with her.
As the two girls talked about what happened at the ball more in depth upstairs, the guys were talking about the same thing.
"I don't want Rebecca to go through anything like that again," Charlie flat out stated when he finished telling the guys the story.
Greg shook his head, "Either do I."
"Did he really say 'This isn't over' to you?" asked James seriously.
"Yeah I think he was mad that I threw him off of Rebecca. Heck he probably still is," Charlie responded.
"He isn't stupid enough to think he could fight you. He'll probably try to curse you next and Rebecca will have to catch you every time she turns around," Colin said trying to be serious, but being the class clown he couldn't keep a straight face.
The other guys smiled at him as Charlie said, "Well I guess we will just have to keep our eyes open for Russel." Greg, James, and Colin nodded their heads in agreement and went up to bed.
That night, Rebecca tried to sleep but found herself still think of everything that happened. The thought of waking Sara up to talk some more came to Rebecca's head, but she didn't want Sara to be mad at her for doing it since it was really late. Finally she got up and walked down to the common room with some paper, ink, and a quill.
She sat down and wrote Stacy a letter telling her of everything that happened that night. She included every detail in hopes that she would get it out of her head and be able to sleep. When she finished, Rebecca added a post script to tell Stacy that she just need to get everything out, she was really okay, and she had people that would watch out for her at Hogwarts.
Writing the letter did not seem to help every much. Rebecca still saw everything when she closed her eyes. Eventually her tiredness over came her and Rebecca drifted off to a restless sleep.
The next morning Rebecca awoke dreading anything that would make her have to walk out of the portrait. She had enough homework that she could stay in Gryffindor all day, but she need to eat and had to go downstairs for that.
Rebecca got dressed and walked down to the common room. Charlie and the rest of the group were waiting for Rebecca when she walked down the steps. Rebecca gave out a sigh of relief at the sight of everyone.
Without a word everyone started heading towards the great hall. It seemed that everyone had the same idea that morning. The guys surrounded Rebecca and kept their eyes open for Russel while Rebecca purposely walked beside Charlie so that if anything happened she would be protected, since Russel had already proven that he was physically stronger than her.
When they finally made it to the Gryffindor table, they sat so that Rebecca was in the middle of the group. Everyone felt more comfortable sitting there in front of the teacher's and so their conversation drifted to more interesting and funny topics. It didn't take long before Colin had them laughing so hard they were crying.
Ryan had walked up to talk to Rebecca, but the whole group had their heads down and were laughing so loud that no one heard him say anything. He stood by them for a while waiting for someone to look at him. Every once in a while some one's head might move in his direction, but always stop before that person looked directly at him.
Hans walked up to get Ryan to sit down and get breakfast, but failed at his mission. Cassie finally walked into the Great Hall and walked over to Ryan. She smiled at the Gryffindors and took Ryan's hand and led him to the Slytherin table.
He sat down and stared at Rebecca. She was laughing so hard that he could tell that her sides were starting to hurt. 'What is up with that group? Last night I thought Rebecca would never smile again and here she is laughing like nothing happened at all,' Ryan thought to himself.
When Rebecca and the rest of the group got up from breakfast, Ryan got up to intercept her at the door so he could talk to her. He got to the door and was about to get Rebecca's attention when Cathrine said something to Rebecca. Cathrine was on the opposite side of Rebecca so Rebecca turned her head away from Ryan and walked out the door not knowing he was even there. Ryan watched as the group walked up the stairs still laughing and carrying on.
When the Gryffindors entered the common room, they were still laughing. Rebecca felt more relaxed than she did when she first got up. It wasn't until she saw Bill studying at one of the tables that she remembered all the homework she had to do. Charlie seemed to have the same thought and he said, "I guess it is time to do some homework."
Rebecca nodded and headed to get her books. She came back to the common room and found a free seat next to Charlie. He looked up from his books and asked, "What are you going to study?"
Rebecca looked at her stack of books and said, "I don't know. You know how much work we are supposed to do and I always start with my favorite subjects and barely touch anything else."
"It's the same with me. Its like I can't focus on it if I don't like the subject."
"Yeah. What I need is someone to make me focus on the ones I don't like."
"Hey, that's an idea."
"What?"
"Studying with someone to get focused on our weak subjects. Do you want to try to study with me and see if we can get each other to study the subjects we usually leave behind?"
"Um, sure, what is the worse thing that could happen?" Rebecca said with a smile.
They started to work with each other only taking breaks for lunch and dinner where they laughed as much as they had in breakfast and then returning to studying. Their strategy of studying worked out better than either of them imagined. Rebecca helped Charlie in Potions and Defense against the dark arts and Charlie helped her in Care of Magical Beasts and Charms. Other than Herbology and History, Rebecca and Charlie didn't really need each other for the rest of the subjects, but neither of them let the other one know that. Their biggest surprise came when they had finished with the last subject they had to study.
"Wow. I never thought I would get Herbology," Rebecca said placing the book on her other books and looked at them like she had conquered a mountain.
"Me, too," Charlie stated amazed at all he understood now. He looked at Rebecca and asked, "Do you think we could do this again? I really think we could help each other out in class."
Rebecca thought for a moment, turned towards Charlie, and said, "That's a good idea."
They exchanged smiles and then got up from the table. They gathered up their books, said good night, and headed up to bed. Rebecca fell asleep happy that Charlie asked her to be his study partner.
The next morning had many interesting surprises to it. Ryan got the first one when he walked to potions early and didn't find Rebecca there. They had a difficult potion to do that day and he thought that she would be down in the room trying to get prepared for it. He took his seat and eventually more and more students came in.
Hans, Dan, and Sam came in with Cassie who immediately headed to see why Ryan had missed breakfast. Russel showed up a little later and took his usual seat. He looked around and noticed there was a void of students where Rebecca usually sat. Russel hadn't talked to Ryan very much since the ball and really didn't want to until he talked to Rebecca first.
He wouldn't get his chance before classes though, because Rebecca didn't show up until shortly before the class was about to start. She walked in talking with Charlie and his gang. After they took their seats, Snape walked in and started giving instructions.
"Get with a partner and start working on the rainbow potion," Russel and Ryan both tried to get Rebecca's attention but she was already talking to Charlie about the rainbow potion and didn't notice them. Cassie of course got Ryan as a partner and Russel was left with Sam.
Snape had not overstated when he said that it was a difficult potion they were learning. He wouldn't tell them exactly what the potion did at first, but he said it was important for them to learn how to make it first and then learn what it was for.
Rebecca, who was by far the best student in the class, was just as nervous about it as everyone else. She and Charlie worked careful and following all the instruction even the ones that seemed insignificant.
At the end of the period when it was time to test the potion. If the potions were done correctly, every drop put on a piece of paper would change a different distinct color.
Practical everyone's potion changed colors at first, but the next drop did not come as distinct as the first. Some people had each drop change color but the order the colors appeared did not please Snape.
Finally, he walked over to Rebecca and Charlie's cauldron and started to test the potion. One drop produced a brilliant red color. The drop put on top of that made it change into an orange color and the next dropped faded into a yellow. Snapes started to smile and adding the drops quicker. Green, Blue, and Violet appeared from the subsequent drops.
Snape smiled at Rebecca and said, "Congratulations, this is the best rainbow potion that I have seen out of fifth years. 10-points a piece to Gryffindor."
He walked away leaving the two in shock as he explained that a properly prepared potion would make its drinker into a chameleon changing into what ever color is needed to blend into the surroundings.
Charlie turned to Rebecca and they smiled at each other. The whole class was looking at them in disbelief not paying any attention to what the professor was telling them. Rebecca getting points from Snape wasn't a new thing, but Charlie Weasley getting points was amazing.
At the end of the period, everyone gathered up their stuff and walked out the door. Ryan saw this as another opportunity to try to talk to Rebecca. He almost had her attention, but Carolyn came running up to Rebecca very upset.
"What's the matter?" Rebecca asked Carolyn as Charlie and Greg came walking up behind Rebecca to see what was amidst.
"Lauren needs help," Carolyn said gasping for air.
"Where is she?" asked Charlie and Greg in unison.
"I'll show you." Carolyn ran off closely followed by Rebecca, Charlie, and Greg. They turned the corner close to the great hall and found Lauren standing in the middle of Harvey, Alannah, Marcus, and some other Slytherin first years.
Luckily, when Charlie, Greg, and Rebecca appeared, the group disbursed. Lauren looked over relieved to see them.
"I don't know what happened," she started to say obviously flustered by what happened. "One moment I was walking with Sean and the next I know Alannah was trying to pick a fight with me and then the guys surrounded me."
"Where's Sean at?" Rebecca asked looking around concerned that something bad may have happened to him. Just then Sean ran from around the corner with Bill following.
"Hey," Bill said looking at the other Gryffindors.
Sean walked over to Lauren and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you but I couldn't fight all those guys at once."
"I know. At least you went to find someone to help," Lauren responded taking his hand. They walked off together, leaving Rebecca and the guys in the hall.
"Well, it's a good thing you guys showed up when you did," Bill finally said.
"I wonder why they surrounded her?" Rebecca asked watching Lauren walk away.
"Who know? We better get to class," Charlie said taking her arm and leading her to Herbology.
As they walked to class James, Jacquelyn, Colin, Cathrine, and Sara joined them and asked where they disappeared. What happened to Lauren was the talk of the next class until Professor Sprout announced a pop quiz. Everyone groaned as she started to ask question.
At the end the class went over the answers. While walking out to go to lunch, Rebecca and Charlie compared what they had gotten on the quiz. To each of their surprise, they both got a perfect score. Rebecca was so excited that she threw her arms around Charlie and gave him a huge hug in the middle of the hall. They then headed off to lunch happy and contented that their studying paid off.
During lunch the whole school seemed to be buzzing about what happened to Lauren and Sean. Details came out that Harvey had shoved Sean into a wall and that Harvey's goons had a stare down with Sean before he went to get Bill. Lauren said that Harvey keep calling her 'songbird' and asking her to sing, which he had started doing when they had danced together at the call. Charlie and Rebecca exchanged puzzled looks over the table at each new detail.
Rebecca finally asked what she had wanted to know. "Lauren, why were you dancing with Harvey that night?"
"I don't know. I saw when Sean went to get punch for us after I had sung, Harvey whisper something to Sean, but I don't know what it was. Harvey then came up and tapped Sean on the shoulder and Sean just stepped aside without saying a word. Before I could refuse he started dancing me away from Sean. When I saw Russel, I figured I was safe so I could handle dancing with him, but know I really wished I hadn't evened tried," Lauren responded looking at Rebecca.
Rebecca shook her head and turned back to her food. She hadn't told Lauren what had happened the night of the ball and didn't know whether she should. She remained quiet the rest of lunch as did the rest of the group. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing. Russel had been protective of Lauren because he wanted to be close to Rebecca, but would he be now or was it all an act for Rebecca. If it was, then maybe Lauren should know what occurred between Rebecca and Russel so that she didn't run to him for help.
Sara finally commented as they all got up to go to class, "It seems that the Slytherin students are out of control." Everyone nodded their head in agreement and walked out of the Great Hall.
The afternoon classes found Charlie and Rebecca having more success from their studying. By the end of the day they had gotten a few more points for Gryffindor.
Of course, after the talk about Lauren's situation cooled down, the points given to them by Snape became the talk of dinner that night at the Gryffindor table. Rebecca and Charlie sat very quiet giving each other smiles as the others along the table talked about the miracle.
Bill sat next to Charlie and asked, "So is it true? Did my brother actually get Snape give him points instead of getting them taken away?"
Charlie smiled and nodded his head. Bill laughed as he slapped Charlie on the back, told him congratulations, and then started to eat.
Rebecca was sitting on the other side of the table and was smiling at Charlie and Bill's brotherly interplay when she Ryan caught her eye. He was staring at her. She stared back and continued to eat. Ryan subtle gestured to let her know that he wanted to talk to her when she and the rest of the group were done.
At the end of dinner Rebecca got up and met Ryan outside of the Great Hall. Charlie and his friends started to walk up the stairs to go back to Gryffindor Tower. Ryan walked up to Rebecca timidly smiling.
"Yes?" Rebecca asked him as he stopped next to her.
"I have been trying to talk to you for two day," He started. Rebecca was surprised she had no clue he had even been around her other than in usual classes.
"Really?! About what?" she asked with a tone in her voice that let Ryan know that she hadn't purposely been avoiding him.
"About the dance. . I just wanted to say how sorry I was about what happened."
Rebecca only heard part of what he said, because Russel walked up to her staring. Rebecca and Russel locked eyes and she said with a raised voice, "I told you to keep that CREEP away from me!"
She turned around and ran up the stairs to catch up with the group. Russel tried to grab her hand as she turned to stop her from leaving, but Rebecca slipped her hand out of his grip and didn't look back.
Rebecca headed straight up to her room and grabbed her books. She headed back down to common room to study. Charlie joined her at the table and looked at her.
"Everything okay?" he finally asked.
Rebecca looked up from her books at him and said, "Yeah, I just wish Russel would leave me alone."
"WHAT?!"
'I am going to beat that guy up. He needs to leave her alone!' Charlie thought as Rebecca explained, "Ryan wanted to talk to me and Russel showed up. I don't know what he is going to do and so I can't consciously make myself stand there while he stares at me. His reasoning makes no sense and."
She went on for a few minutes on everything she was feeling. When Rebecca finally finished her ranting on Russel being around, she looked at him, put her hand on top of his hand that was resting on the table, and said, "Sorry I just need to get it all out."
"That's okay. I'm just glad that you feel comfortable talking to me about it," Charlie quietly said tucking a stand of hair behind her ear, then placing his hand back on top of Rebecca's, and giving it a little comforting squeeze.
Rebecca smiled and looked back at her books thinking, 'I am so lucky he is my friend.'
"You ready to study?" Charlie asked. Rebecca shook her head yes and they started what would become their routine.
Every night, they studied the subjects they needed to and some that they didn't. The next day they would see their rewards from their hard work and sometimes getting a few surprises. The teachers were impressed about their performance. Snape's was surprised when Charlie raised his hand and answered a question correctly before Rebecca did.
Both Charlie and Rebecca were ecstatic by their progress in their weak subjects and each secretly glad that they were getting to know each other better than they ever imagined. Rebecca was also happy, because she has been able to keep herself distracted enough to ignore Russel situation and to not mind Ryan hadn't tried to talk to her since the after dinner confrontation, which would have probably devastated her when they were younger.