Rebecca got to her room and changed thankful that it was Saturday night and
she could sleep in. The other three girls finished getting ready and
climbed into their own bed.
"Thank you all for your hard work to get that party off," Cathrine yawned as she plopped back onto her pillows.
"Glad you liked it," stated Jacquelyn.
"You're very welcome!" Sara added.
"It was our pleasure!" Rebecca cheerful responded as she walked to her bed. She was about to climb in and turn out the last light when she saw a letter on her pillow.
Rebecca got up in her bed and ripped open the note to see that it was another was from Stacy.
Dear Rebecca,
Hey Girl! Sorry to hear about your little run in with Charlie. You must feel horrible. I was talking the whole situation over with Kerry and Kalie and we want to talk with you. Go to your fireplace Saturday night at 1 a.m. (Yes I realize that it is technically Sunday morning, but I thought it might be confusing if I said it that way). We'll talk to you then.
Later,
Stacy
Rebecca looked at her watch and say that it was getting really close to one. She grabbed her sweat shirt and headed out the door telling the others that she would be back in a bit though she was sure that they were already dozing off so didn't care that she was leaving since she shut off the lights as she left.
Just as the clock in the common room struck one, Rebecca hit the last step. She walked around the couch to get to the fireplace.
"STACY!" Rebecca exclaimed when she realized that her dear friend's head was in the fire.
"Hey, girl!" Stacy responded having a huge smile on her face. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"Oh, I'm fine. I think I finally got use to not hanging out with Colleen and Gwen."
"Oh, yeah. I am so sorry to hear that..."
"Hey don't worry about it Kerry and Kalie are awesome to hang out with and they helped me figure this whole thing out." Stacy turned her head and said "Come on guys get in here too."
"You cut your hair?!" Rebecca said since she got a good look at Stacy's black hair was about an inch above her shoulders now.
"Yeah, you like it?"
"Love it!"
"Hey Rebecca!" Kalie and Kerry said together as their heads appeared in the fire.
"Hey Kalie! Hey Kerry! How are you?"
"Oh, good other than getting ready for O.W.L.s," Kerry stated.
"Yeah. I think I am going to go bonkers trying to remember everything," added Kalie.
"So what is up with you and Charlie now?" Stacy asked.
Rebecca looked at her and after she said that everything was fine now she went into the details of their fight and everything that happened during the week to keep them from talking.
"So it took until the party for you to actually slow down enough to talk to him?" Kalie asked to clarify what she had just heard.
"Yeah, I know it sounds pathetic, but..." Rebecca started.
"But you are super busy there like you were here," Stacy finished Rebecca's sentence.
"Yeah." Rebecca slightly blushed she had forgotten how active she was when she was at Beauxbaton.
"How was the party?" Kerry asked sensing that Rebecca wanted to get the subject off of her lack of free time.
"It was a blast. Everyone enjoyed it. There were not major conflicts except..."
"What?" all three heads asked.
"Ryan and I had a bit of a run in," Rebecca started and then with one look from Stacy that told her to precede, she quickly told the whole story about what Ryan said to her.
"He's as bad as Ben!" Kalie indignantly stated as Kerry just shook her head when Rebecca finished.
This sent Stacy into a little monologue about how things were at Beauxbaton and her take on Ben's and Ryan's similarities.
"I have compared the two before," Rebecca explained as Stacy looked a little guilty. "What?"
"Ben asked about you today," was all Stacy said.
"Did you tell him that if he wanted to know he should have gotten a hold of me himself."
"No, but I'll let him know that when he trys to get information out of me again."
"What is up with guys thinking that it is cool to order girls around?"
"You never did like that," Stacy chuckled.
"We better get going," Kerry whispered to Stacy.
"Yeah, it's getting late and we are going to have to sneak back to our rooms," Kalie quietly added.
"Sorry Rebecca we do have to go," Stacy said looking really sad at the idea.
"That's okay. I need to get to sleep too. ... Can we do this again?"
Stacy's face lit up as did Kalie's and Kerry's at Rebecca's suggestion.
"We'll send you and owl to let you know when we can get it all together," Stacy replied with a tired smile.
"Wonderful! Can't wait! Thank you so much for figuring this out! Night, girls!"
"Night, Rebecca!" the three girls responded and the disappeared from the fire.
Rebecca sat there for a moment wishing that Stacy, Kalie, and Kerry were at Hogwarts with her. She loved her friends at Hogwarts, but each of her good friends were so different from each other that she couldn't help but to want to be around them all the time.
After about fifteen minutes, she got up to go to bed not realizing how tired she really was.
Rebecca got up the next morning exhausted. She looked at her clock to see that it was not quite ten.
There was a knock on the door just as Rebecca was about to drift back to sleep. None of the other girls stirred and since she was the closest to the door Rebecca got up begrudgingly, grabbed her hooded zip-up sweatshirt, and answered the door.
"Good morning, Beautiful!" Charlie said with a big smile on his face when Rebecca opened the door.
"Morning Handsome," she yawned.
"Still tired?" He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah," Rebecca started as she walked out of the room and shutting the door. She told Charlie about her surprise conversation with Stacy, Kerry and Kalie.
"That is so cool! They obviously used the floo network, but I didn't know that the school's fireplaces were connected," Charlie said as he and Rebecca headed down the steps to the common room. "Are you going to do it again?"
"Yeah, hopefully."
"Do you think that I might interrupt one time for a few minutes so that I could meet the famous Stacy?"
"Don't see why not. Stacy would love to met you and be flattered that you asked first."
"Good let me know when you want me to be around."
They both took a seat on the couch.
"So what do you want to do today?" Charlie asked as he wrapped his arms around Rebecca.
"Sit here all day," she yawned causing Charlie to chuckle at her.
"You mean that you want fall asleep on me."
"Mmm- hmmm."
Rebecca snuggled a little closer to him. Charlie looked down and saw that she was almost back to sleep.
"Becca, how about we stay like this til lunch and then we come back here and study?"
"Okay."
Charlie chortled slightly knowing that Rebecca absentmindedly respond to him.
Around lunch time, Greg and Sara came down to the common room to see Rebecca and Charlie sleeping on the couch. They smiled at each other and went to wake them up.
As they got closer they noticed another bump on the couch. It was Lauren who was sleeping on the other side of Charlie.
She had settled herself on the couch with Charlie and Rebecca shortly after Rebecca drifted off to sleep. Lauren talked to Charlie about how Harvey was acting towards her before she fell back to sleep. Charlie nodded off when both of his arms started to tinkle from lack of movement, but he thought both girls looked so sweet sleeping that he couldn't bear to do anything that might wake them up, so he rested his head on Rebecca's and went to sleep.
"Hey, mate," Greg quietly said as he pushed Charlie's head to wake him up. "Two girls?"
Charlie looked up and chuckled at him.
Deciding to ignore Greg's comment, Charlie yawned and then said, "You ever think that you would find yourself living for the little moment like this one?"
Charlie looked at Rebecca, then at Lauren and then back to Rebecca. Both looked so peaceful and it gave him a wonderful feeling that he didn't want to lose.
"Remember when the last thing we wanted to do was hang out with girls?" asked Greg with a smirk as he wrapped his arms around Sara wanting a little moment like Charlie was having, but with his girlfriend, of course.
"Yeah it was just last summer," Charlie joked causing him and Greg to bust up laughing waking Rebecca and Lauren up.
After a few minutes, five students got up headed down to lunch. Down in the great hall the talk was all about the party the night before. Lauren stuck pretty close to Charlie and Bill during the meal. Rebecca didn't realize it at the time, but Lauren was truly afraid of Harvey and didn't think he would stay way if she was with her usual friends of Aisha, Carolyn, Oliver, and Percy so she was staying as close as possible to people that the Slytherin might fear.
It took several weeks, but eventually Rebecca noticed then she and Charlie were down at the library studying and Lauren ran over to them and started on her homework. It was actually the fact that Lauren didn't ask for help all night that what made Rebecca pull her aside when they were walking up to Gryffindor Tower.
"He just has no fear about coming around me," complained Lauren. "Harvey has tried to drag me aside when I was walking with Percy and when I was going to lunch with Oliver. I won't go around Sean, because Harvey walks over and Sean disappears leaving me to fend for myself."
"Oh, sweetie, I am so sorry to hear about that. Don't worry we only have a couple more weeks of school and then your will get a break from him," Rebecca comfortingly stated, but Lauren didn't look too convinced so Rebecca continued, "but until then stay close to one of the guys and they watch over you."
"Are you sure?"
"Oh, yeah. I'll talk to them about it. We might have to figure something out though, with Bill having NEWTs and then us will OWLs we might have to do shift, but don't worry you'll be fine."
Rebecca plopped down on the couch as Lauren said thank you and went up to bed.
A.J. showed up a minute later and Rebecca set out to get him to help Lauren out. Instantly, A.J. took over he went off to organize the older guys of Gryffindor and to work out a schedule for his idea of someone walking Lauren to and from class.
As she went back to the couch to sit with Charlie, Rebecca couldn't help but laugh at A.J.
"What's so funny?" Charlie asked when Rebecca nestled into his arms still chuckling.
Rebecca explained about A.J. and then said, "I may be really tired, but the way he just took over was hilarious. I think I might have created a monster."
"Well, we will find out, won't we?" Charlie said starting to laugh.
"So when is Stacy and the others suppose to show up in the fire tonight?"
"Around midnight," Rebecca responded as Anna walked in and plopped in a chair by the two.
"How's studying going?" Charlie asked.
"It's going. ... Have you seen A.J.?" Anna asked tiredly.
"Um," Rebecca almost started laughing again. "Sorry, but I talked to A.J. about a problem Lauren was having and he just took over. He is gathering up recruits to help her out."
Anna just sweetly smiled hearing of her boyfriend's good deed and said, "Gotta love him. ... I am going go find him and then go to bed. ... Night, you two."
"Night, Anna," Charlie and Rebecca said together.
As Anna got up, Rebecca started to yawn.
"You going to make it to make it to midnight?" Charlie asked pulling her even closer to him.
"Tonight, yes, but closer to OWLs maybe not."
Charlie laughed and the two continued to talk until Stacy appeared and squealed, "You must be Charlie!"
Rebecca and Charlie instantly jumped up and settled by the fire as Kalie and Kerry came into view. Charlie stayed for about ten minutes and then left the girls to talk by themselves.
This became the routine for when ever the girls planned to talk. Rebecca was thankful that Charlie stayed up with her, because there were nights when she didn't think she could make it to the appointed hour when she would feed off of the adrehline she felt when she was talking to her Beauxbatons friends, but with Charlie she always did.
Then two nights before OWLs were to begin, when she and Charlie were waiting to talk to Stacy, Kerry, and Kalie, Rebecca fell asleep on the couch studying.
Charlie decided to let her sleep and wake her up when the girls showed up. What he didn't count on was that he, himself, would drift off while reading up on the Care of Magical Creatures.
Bill came downstairs about a quarter til midnight to see Rebecca curled up down at one end of the couch and Charlie sprawled out on the other end with one of his hands on Rebecca's socked feet and a book on his chest.
"Charlie? Becca?"
He nudged both of them trying to get them a wake. Finally after several minutes, he picked Rebecca up and tried to wake Charlie up again.
When Charlie only murmured something incoherently, Bill said more to himself than anyone else, "Come on Becca, let's put you into bed and then I will get Charlie up and moving."
Charlie woke up a few moments later very confused on when he looked over to see Rebecca had disappeared.
"Hey Charlie!" he heard from the fire.
"Oh hey, Stacy. Um, I don't know where Becca went."
"What?" Stacy started to laugh.
"I lost her when I fell asleep. I am sure she will be back. So, what going on?"
Charlie watched as Stacy abruptly left the fire.
"Stacy?!"
Suddenly a head of a white blonde guy came into view.
"Who are you?" the boy forcefully asked.
"I'm Charlie, and you are?" Charlie coolly responded. He had an inkling of who the intruder was, but didn't want to jump to conclusions.
"I am Ben. Where is Becky?"
"Well, as I was telling Stacy before you so rudely interrupted, I don't know."
"Some boyfriend you are," Ben scoffed with an evil smirk on his face.
"'Bout time you got up you lazy bum!"
Charlie quickly glanced at the stairs to see Bill walking towards him and then back at the blonde that was giving him the evil eye.
"Do you know where Becca is?" Charlie asked as he heard Stacy say, "Ben, get out! I was talking with Charlie."
"Yeah, I took her up to bed. I couldn't get either of you to respond so I got her first. ... Who's that?"
"Ben..."
"Ben, get out of the fire!"
For an instant Ben disappeared. When he got back he had foul scowl on his face. Both Bill and Charlie looked at each other wondering why the guy had left.
"Um, can I talk to Stacy?" Charlie finally asked.
"She's indisposed at the moment. Can I talk to Becky?"
Charlie was about to tell Ben that Rebecca was indisposed, when he heard, "How did I get in my bed?"
Bill, Charlie and Ben's head turned toward the steps to see Rebecca coming down the steps.
"My bad, Becca I didn't know what you were up to and I thought I would be nice and not wake you," Bill quickly explained.
Rebecca sweetly smiled at him trying to relieve him from feeling to guilty. It was a very sweet thing to do even if it didn't have the best timing this time around.
"Becky!" Ben called to her as Rebecca walked over to Charlie.
"Ben?"
"Yeah! Hey kid how are you doing?"
Rebecca didn't even think to answer him; she found her self quizzing him.
"What are you doing?"
"Stacy said that she had talked to you by fire."
"Where's Stacy?"
Ben gave her a harsh look, but refused to say anything else. Rebecca turned and looked at Bill and Charlie.
The look on their face told her something had happened to Stacy. If she could get off the right questions, Rebecca knew that she could get what the boys knew without them blurting it out and getting Ben mad at them.
She knew Ben wouldn't like it if the guys told on him, and likewise Ben knew that Rebecca expected honesty out of her friends and probably had a higher standard for her boyfriend.
Before Rebecca could get a question off, Ben reached up from the fire and grabbed Rebecca's hand and pulled her into the fire.
"Ben!" Rebecca cried as she fell into the fire.
Luckily Charlie and Bill managed to grab onto her legs and kept her from crashing into the common room where Ben and Stacy were. Rebecca tried to twist her arm out of Ben's grip, but he grabbed her other arm.
"What are you doing?" she finally yelled at him.
"You need to get back here and act normal," Ben screamed back.
"How would you know how I act? You have never written or talked to me since I left."
Rebecca caught sight of Stacy's black hair as she struggled to get free. She scanned down to see that her friend appeared to be unconscious.
Immediately she stopped almost dead in her tracks.
"W-what did you do to Stacy?" Rebecca's voice was very shaky.
Ben's face softened slightly.
"I just did the sleeping spell on her. She'll be fine."
Rebecca felt Charlie grab around her waist as Bill took a hold of both of her legs.
"Don't you ever do that again!" Rebecca warned Ben as she twisted her arm free as Bill and Charlie pulled her back into the Gryffindor common room. The three crashed into the couch.
"Becca, you okay?" Charlie and Bill asked in unison.
Rebecca didn't say anything. She looked at the fire, grabbed the boy's hands and started to drag them quickly up the steps. She didn't want to be there if Ben tried to go back into the fire.
When they were half way up the steps, Rebecca broke down and sat on the steps telling Charlie and Bill what she saw and what Ben said. After a half an hour, the three finally went to their own rooms, thankful that they could sleep in the next day.
"Thank you all for your hard work to get that party off," Cathrine yawned as she plopped back onto her pillows.
"Glad you liked it," stated Jacquelyn.
"You're very welcome!" Sara added.
"It was our pleasure!" Rebecca cheerful responded as she walked to her bed. She was about to climb in and turn out the last light when she saw a letter on her pillow.
Rebecca got up in her bed and ripped open the note to see that it was another was from Stacy.
Dear Rebecca,
Hey Girl! Sorry to hear about your little run in with Charlie. You must feel horrible. I was talking the whole situation over with Kerry and Kalie and we want to talk with you. Go to your fireplace Saturday night at 1 a.m. (Yes I realize that it is technically Sunday morning, but I thought it might be confusing if I said it that way). We'll talk to you then.
Later,
Stacy
Rebecca looked at her watch and say that it was getting really close to one. She grabbed her sweat shirt and headed out the door telling the others that she would be back in a bit though she was sure that they were already dozing off so didn't care that she was leaving since she shut off the lights as she left.
Just as the clock in the common room struck one, Rebecca hit the last step. She walked around the couch to get to the fireplace.
"STACY!" Rebecca exclaimed when she realized that her dear friend's head was in the fire.
"Hey, girl!" Stacy responded having a huge smile on her face. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"Oh, I'm fine. I think I finally got use to not hanging out with Colleen and Gwen."
"Oh, yeah. I am so sorry to hear that..."
"Hey don't worry about it Kerry and Kalie are awesome to hang out with and they helped me figure this whole thing out." Stacy turned her head and said "Come on guys get in here too."
"You cut your hair?!" Rebecca said since she got a good look at Stacy's black hair was about an inch above her shoulders now.
"Yeah, you like it?"
"Love it!"
"Hey Rebecca!" Kalie and Kerry said together as their heads appeared in the fire.
"Hey Kalie! Hey Kerry! How are you?"
"Oh, good other than getting ready for O.W.L.s," Kerry stated.
"Yeah. I think I am going to go bonkers trying to remember everything," added Kalie.
"So what is up with you and Charlie now?" Stacy asked.
Rebecca looked at her and after she said that everything was fine now she went into the details of their fight and everything that happened during the week to keep them from talking.
"So it took until the party for you to actually slow down enough to talk to him?" Kalie asked to clarify what she had just heard.
"Yeah, I know it sounds pathetic, but..." Rebecca started.
"But you are super busy there like you were here," Stacy finished Rebecca's sentence.
"Yeah." Rebecca slightly blushed she had forgotten how active she was when she was at Beauxbaton.
"How was the party?" Kerry asked sensing that Rebecca wanted to get the subject off of her lack of free time.
"It was a blast. Everyone enjoyed it. There were not major conflicts except..."
"What?" all three heads asked.
"Ryan and I had a bit of a run in," Rebecca started and then with one look from Stacy that told her to precede, she quickly told the whole story about what Ryan said to her.
"He's as bad as Ben!" Kalie indignantly stated as Kerry just shook her head when Rebecca finished.
This sent Stacy into a little monologue about how things were at Beauxbaton and her take on Ben's and Ryan's similarities.
"I have compared the two before," Rebecca explained as Stacy looked a little guilty. "What?"
"Ben asked about you today," was all Stacy said.
"Did you tell him that if he wanted to know he should have gotten a hold of me himself."
"No, but I'll let him know that when he trys to get information out of me again."
"What is up with guys thinking that it is cool to order girls around?"
"You never did like that," Stacy chuckled.
"We better get going," Kerry whispered to Stacy.
"Yeah, it's getting late and we are going to have to sneak back to our rooms," Kalie quietly added.
"Sorry Rebecca we do have to go," Stacy said looking really sad at the idea.
"That's okay. I need to get to sleep too. ... Can we do this again?"
Stacy's face lit up as did Kalie's and Kerry's at Rebecca's suggestion.
"We'll send you and owl to let you know when we can get it all together," Stacy replied with a tired smile.
"Wonderful! Can't wait! Thank you so much for figuring this out! Night, girls!"
"Night, Rebecca!" the three girls responded and the disappeared from the fire.
Rebecca sat there for a moment wishing that Stacy, Kalie, and Kerry were at Hogwarts with her. She loved her friends at Hogwarts, but each of her good friends were so different from each other that she couldn't help but to want to be around them all the time.
After about fifteen minutes, she got up to go to bed not realizing how tired she really was.
Rebecca got up the next morning exhausted. She looked at her clock to see that it was not quite ten.
There was a knock on the door just as Rebecca was about to drift back to sleep. None of the other girls stirred and since she was the closest to the door Rebecca got up begrudgingly, grabbed her hooded zip-up sweatshirt, and answered the door.
"Good morning, Beautiful!" Charlie said with a big smile on his face when Rebecca opened the door.
"Morning Handsome," she yawned.
"Still tired?" He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah," Rebecca started as she walked out of the room and shutting the door. She told Charlie about her surprise conversation with Stacy, Kerry and Kalie.
"That is so cool! They obviously used the floo network, but I didn't know that the school's fireplaces were connected," Charlie said as he and Rebecca headed down the steps to the common room. "Are you going to do it again?"
"Yeah, hopefully."
"Do you think that I might interrupt one time for a few minutes so that I could meet the famous Stacy?"
"Don't see why not. Stacy would love to met you and be flattered that you asked first."
"Good let me know when you want me to be around."
They both took a seat on the couch.
"So what do you want to do today?" Charlie asked as he wrapped his arms around Rebecca.
"Sit here all day," she yawned causing Charlie to chuckle at her.
"You mean that you want fall asleep on me."
"Mmm- hmmm."
Rebecca snuggled a little closer to him. Charlie looked down and saw that she was almost back to sleep.
"Becca, how about we stay like this til lunch and then we come back here and study?"
"Okay."
Charlie chortled slightly knowing that Rebecca absentmindedly respond to him.
Around lunch time, Greg and Sara came down to the common room to see Rebecca and Charlie sleeping on the couch. They smiled at each other and went to wake them up.
As they got closer they noticed another bump on the couch. It was Lauren who was sleeping on the other side of Charlie.
She had settled herself on the couch with Charlie and Rebecca shortly after Rebecca drifted off to sleep. Lauren talked to Charlie about how Harvey was acting towards her before she fell back to sleep. Charlie nodded off when both of his arms started to tinkle from lack of movement, but he thought both girls looked so sweet sleeping that he couldn't bear to do anything that might wake them up, so he rested his head on Rebecca's and went to sleep.
"Hey, mate," Greg quietly said as he pushed Charlie's head to wake him up. "Two girls?"
Charlie looked up and chuckled at him.
Deciding to ignore Greg's comment, Charlie yawned and then said, "You ever think that you would find yourself living for the little moment like this one?"
Charlie looked at Rebecca, then at Lauren and then back to Rebecca. Both looked so peaceful and it gave him a wonderful feeling that he didn't want to lose.
"Remember when the last thing we wanted to do was hang out with girls?" asked Greg with a smirk as he wrapped his arms around Sara wanting a little moment like Charlie was having, but with his girlfriend, of course.
"Yeah it was just last summer," Charlie joked causing him and Greg to bust up laughing waking Rebecca and Lauren up.
After a few minutes, five students got up headed down to lunch. Down in the great hall the talk was all about the party the night before. Lauren stuck pretty close to Charlie and Bill during the meal. Rebecca didn't realize it at the time, but Lauren was truly afraid of Harvey and didn't think he would stay way if she was with her usual friends of Aisha, Carolyn, Oliver, and Percy so she was staying as close as possible to people that the Slytherin might fear.
It took several weeks, but eventually Rebecca noticed then she and Charlie were down at the library studying and Lauren ran over to them and started on her homework. It was actually the fact that Lauren didn't ask for help all night that what made Rebecca pull her aside when they were walking up to Gryffindor Tower.
"He just has no fear about coming around me," complained Lauren. "Harvey has tried to drag me aside when I was walking with Percy and when I was going to lunch with Oliver. I won't go around Sean, because Harvey walks over and Sean disappears leaving me to fend for myself."
"Oh, sweetie, I am so sorry to hear about that. Don't worry we only have a couple more weeks of school and then your will get a break from him," Rebecca comfortingly stated, but Lauren didn't look too convinced so Rebecca continued, "but until then stay close to one of the guys and they watch over you."
"Are you sure?"
"Oh, yeah. I'll talk to them about it. We might have to figure something out though, with Bill having NEWTs and then us will OWLs we might have to do shift, but don't worry you'll be fine."
Rebecca plopped down on the couch as Lauren said thank you and went up to bed.
A.J. showed up a minute later and Rebecca set out to get him to help Lauren out. Instantly, A.J. took over he went off to organize the older guys of Gryffindor and to work out a schedule for his idea of someone walking Lauren to and from class.
As she went back to the couch to sit with Charlie, Rebecca couldn't help but laugh at A.J.
"What's so funny?" Charlie asked when Rebecca nestled into his arms still chuckling.
Rebecca explained about A.J. and then said, "I may be really tired, but the way he just took over was hilarious. I think I might have created a monster."
"Well, we will find out, won't we?" Charlie said starting to laugh.
"So when is Stacy and the others suppose to show up in the fire tonight?"
"Around midnight," Rebecca responded as Anna walked in and plopped in a chair by the two.
"How's studying going?" Charlie asked.
"It's going. ... Have you seen A.J.?" Anna asked tiredly.
"Um," Rebecca almost started laughing again. "Sorry, but I talked to A.J. about a problem Lauren was having and he just took over. He is gathering up recruits to help her out."
Anna just sweetly smiled hearing of her boyfriend's good deed and said, "Gotta love him. ... I am going go find him and then go to bed. ... Night, you two."
"Night, Anna," Charlie and Rebecca said together.
As Anna got up, Rebecca started to yawn.
"You going to make it to make it to midnight?" Charlie asked pulling her even closer to him.
"Tonight, yes, but closer to OWLs maybe not."
Charlie laughed and the two continued to talk until Stacy appeared and squealed, "You must be Charlie!"
Rebecca and Charlie instantly jumped up and settled by the fire as Kalie and Kerry came into view. Charlie stayed for about ten minutes and then left the girls to talk by themselves.
This became the routine for when ever the girls planned to talk. Rebecca was thankful that Charlie stayed up with her, because there were nights when she didn't think she could make it to the appointed hour when she would feed off of the adrehline she felt when she was talking to her Beauxbatons friends, but with Charlie she always did.
Then two nights before OWLs were to begin, when she and Charlie were waiting to talk to Stacy, Kerry, and Kalie, Rebecca fell asleep on the couch studying.
Charlie decided to let her sleep and wake her up when the girls showed up. What he didn't count on was that he, himself, would drift off while reading up on the Care of Magical Creatures.
Bill came downstairs about a quarter til midnight to see Rebecca curled up down at one end of the couch and Charlie sprawled out on the other end with one of his hands on Rebecca's socked feet and a book on his chest.
"Charlie? Becca?"
He nudged both of them trying to get them a wake. Finally after several minutes, he picked Rebecca up and tried to wake Charlie up again.
When Charlie only murmured something incoherently, Bill said more to himself than anyone else, "Come on Becca, let's put you into bed and then I will get Charlie up and moving."
Charlie woke up a few moments later very confused on when he looked over to see Rebecca had disappeared.
"Hey Charlie!" he heard from the fire.
"Oh hey, Stacy. Um, I don't know where Becca went."
"What?" Stacy started to laugh.
"I lost her when I fell asleep. I am sure she will be back. So, what going on?"
Charlie watched as Stacy abruptly left the fire.
"Stacy?!"
Suddenly a head of a white blonde guy came into view.
"Who are you?" the boy forcefully asked.
"I'm Charlie, and you are?" Charlie coolly responded. He had an inkling of who the intruder was, but didn't want to jump to conclusions.
"I am Ben. Where is Becky?"
"Well, as I was telling Stacy before you so rudely interrupted, I don't know."
"Some boyfriend you are," Ben scoffed with an evil smirk on his face.
"'Bout time you got up you lazy bum!"
Charlie quickly glanced at the stairs to see Bill walking towards him and then back at the blonde that was giving him the evil eye.
"Do you know where Becca is?" Charlie asked as he heard Stacy say, "Ben, get out! I was talking with Charlie."
"Yeah, I took her up to bed. I couldn't get either of you to respond so I got her first. ... Who's that?"
"Ben..."
"Ben, get out of the fire!"
For an instant Ben disappeared. When he got back he had foul scowl on his face. Both Bill and Charlie looked at each other wondering why the guy had left.
"Um, can I talk to Stacy?" Charlie finally asked.
"She's indisposed at the moment. Can I talk to Becky?"
Charlie was about to tell Ben that Rebecca was indisposed, when he heard, "How did I get in my bed?"
Bill, Charlie and Ben's head turned toward the steps to see Rebecca coming down the steps.
"My bad, Becca I didn't know what you were up to and I thought I would be nice and not wake you," Bill quickly explained.
Rebecca sweetly smiled at him trying to relieve him from feeling to guilty. It was a very sweet thing to do even if it didn't have the best timing this time around.
"Becky!" Ben called to her as Rebecca walked over to Charlie.
"Ben?"
"Yeah! Hey kid how are you doing?"
Rebecca didn't even think to answer him; she found her self quizzing him.
"What are you doing?"
"Stacy said that she had talked to you by fire."
"Where's Stacy?"
Ben gave her a harsh look, but refused to say anything else. Rebecca turned and looked at Bill and Charlie.
The look on their face told her something had happened to Stacy. If she could get off the right questions, Rebecca knew that she could get what the boys knew without them blurting it out and getting Ben mad at them.
She knew Ben wouldn't like it if the guys told on him, and likewise Ben knew that Rebecca expected honesty out of her friends and probably had a higher standard for her boyfriend.
Before Rebecca could get a question off, Ben reached up from the fire and grabbed Rebecca's hand and pulled her into the fire.
"Ben!" Rebecca cried as she fell into the fire.
Luckily Charlie and Bill managed to grab onto her legs and kept her from crashing into the common room where Ben and Stacy were. Rebecca tried to twist her arm out of Ben's grip, but he grabbed her other arm.
"What are you doing?" she finally yelled at him.
"You need to get back here and act normal," Ben screamed back.
"How would you know how I act? You have never written or talked to me since I left."
Rebecca caught sight of Stacy's black hair as she struggled to get free. She scanned down to see that her friend appeared to be unconscious.
Immediately she stopped almost dead in her tracks.
"W-what did you do to Stacy?" Rebecca's voice was very shaky.
Ben's face softened slightly.
"I just did the sleeping spell on her. She'll be fine."
Rebecca felt Charlie grab around her waist as Bill took a hold of both of her legs.
"Don't you ever do that again!" Rebecca warned Ben as she twisted her arm free as Bill and Charlie pulled her back into the Gryffindor common room. The three crashed into the couch.
"Becca, you okay?" Charlie and Bill asked in unison.
Rebecca didn't say anything. She looked at the fire, grabbed the boy's hands and started to drag them quickly up the steps. She didn't want to be there if Ben tried to go back into the fire.
When they were half way up the steps, Rebecca broke down and sat on the steps telling Charlie and Bill what she saw and what Ben said. After a half an hour, the three finally went to their own rooms, thankful that they could sleep in the next day.