Chapter 7: The Aftermath
"Well, I don't know about that anymore. She might be slipping, seeing as she forgot to do her homework a couple of days ago." –Monica Lanches
When I woke up, everything was white. Well it was at first, and then the white slowly blended into different shades of the Hospital Wing. I blinked a couple of times, and turned my head painfully. I was sore all over.
"Oh good, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey said as she ushered me into a sitting position.
"Wha happened?" I asked sleepily.
"Something attack your and Mr. Weasley's carriage. You were the lucky one, you just passed out, probably from hitting your head on something extremely hard. Mr. Weasley sustained injuries, none of them too serious." She replied, setting up a food tray next to me.
"Charlie's hurt?" I asked panicked. Oh no! Charlie's hurt, that can't be good! Ohnoohnoohonohonohonohono…
"Sit down girl! You just woke up and you're already out of bed! I suppose you're well enough to leave, but at least have some lunch first," Madam Pomfrey commanded. I nodded and sat down on the bed and had a really bad hospital lunch.
That's one of my pet peeves. Bad hospital food. You'd think they'd give you good tasting food, seeing as you're sick and good food would lift you up. But noooo, they have to give you this crap mush that looks like it has been regurgitated. Hello! I am not a cow! I don't throw up my food and eat it! It seriously looks like someone did that first step for me.
I looked around for a trash can, and luckily there was one close by. When Madam Pomfrey's back was turned, I slipped the stuff into the trash.
"Mmmm, that was good Madam Pomfrey, can I go?" I asked, showing her my empty plate. She looked at me suspiciously and nodded her head.
On the way, I glanced over at Charlie and made a small wish that he would be okay. I mean Madam Pomfrey said he would be, but still, I was worried.
Geez, I'm turning into a bigger worrywart than Hannah. I'll bet you a galleon that the first thing out of her mouth will be 'Oh my god! Are you okay? I was so worried about you!' It's so funny sometimes to watch her. Like the time Monica had too much of the punch that I had spiked without telling anyone. She had a really bad hangover the next day and kept walking into things. Hannah was on worry overload. She was convinced Monica had some dangerous disease that would kill her in a matter of hours and kept trying to send her to St. Mungos.
I walked up to the Ravenclaw dorm, and I saw the three of them in the common room. They immediately ran over to me.
"Ashley! Oh my God! Are you okay? I was so worried about you!" Hannah said as soon as she came into hearing range. See I told you. She's the worrywart. I grinned at her.
"How did I know you were going to say that?" I asked her. She glared at me.
"But, yea we were really worried about you," Monica said and she smiled weakly.
"Yea, I think I was the one that was better off, Charlie still had injuries and I don't think he's woken up yet. By the way do you know what happened?" I asked.
"Dumbledore said something about a baby Unicorn that was frightened by something and ran out onto the road and really freaked out the Threshals. I guess they bolted and caused the carriage to swerve and jolt after every bump, and you know how bumpy that road is. I dunno why a Unicorn would freak out a Threshal though," Monica explained.
"A Threshal is an animal of the dead, only those who have witnessed death can see them. Since seeing someone die is a way of having their innocence ripped away from them, Unicorns are wary around them, as a Unicorn is a sign of innocence. So a Unicorn and a Threshal are in a sense opposites and would seriously freak each other out, when around each other. They are opposites, but they go together as well as the same side of two magnets," Chaki recited, as if reading from a book.
"Now, this is why we keep you around, Chaki, because you're so smart, you make for our lack of it," Hannah said jokingly. Chaki smiled.
"Well, I don't know about that anymore. She might be slipping, seeing as she forgot to do her homework a couple of days ago," Monica said absently.
"WHAT!" Hannah and I both yelled. Chaki winced.
"I got distracted," she said simply.
"Oh, I think I know how, rather by whom, you got distracted by," I said mischievously.
"Oh really?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Yup!" I replied cheerily. Then a thought occurred to me, what am I going to do about the dress for the ball? That could prove to be a problem.
As if reading my mind, Hannah reassured me, "Don't worry Ashley. We got a dress for you, seeing as the dance is this Friday."
"What day is it?" I asked, almost panicking. I mean wouldn't you, if you had been out for more than a week? I must have missed a lot of school and that means lots of homework! I suppose I could always copy off of Chaki or Monica. I never do that, but I'm in a dire need. I know better than to copy off of Hannah, knowing her, she'll put all the wrong answers jut to screw me up.
"Oh! Come up to the room, we'll show your dress," Hannah said enthusiastically, ignoring my question completely. Oh well, it's probably Tuesday or something.
At least I know that I haven't been out that long, because Hogsmeade was the weekend before the mystery ball.
"Don't worry, you'll like it. They did a fantastic job of picking out one for me," Monica said reassuringly.
We went up to the room and Hannah pulled out the dress they got for me.
It was beautiful.
It was black. In my opinion, black is the only color that looks good on me. The straps were to go around my arms, like Jasmine's shirt in Aladdin, and that too was what I preferred. The top had thread on the front that crisscrossed, like a corset, except I knew it wasn't a corset. The skirt part was a flowy kind, and it went down to my ankles.
"Oh my god, it's perfect!" I whispered. I grinned and turned to face Chaki and Hannah, who had identical grins on their face. I tackle hugged them onto Monica's poof. Monica jumped on me so we were all in one pile of giggles.
We soon stopped giggling, when Chaki noticed it was time for dinner. We must have been up there for a while, or I just got out of the Hospital Wing later than I had thought.
We went down to dinner, and found that Eric was there early.
"Hi!" I said cheerily. He got up and engulfed me in a gigantic hug.
"I was worried about you," he said quietly after releasing me.
"Don't worry little bro, I'm okay," I said, still smiling. "By the way, how's Charlie doing?"
"And you assume I would know?" he asked, raising a thin eyebrow.
"Duh, I mean you guys a practically attached at the hip, one would assume you would know how he was doing," I said, putting a hand on my hip.
"Yes, well, he's awake now; I just got back from the Hospital Wing. He asked if you were okay," Eric said, smirking.
I just raised an eyebrow and walked over to the Slytherin table, where Monica, Chaki, and Hannah were sitting. I sat down and we started chatting about what I had missed. I noticed Kyle Anders sneering at me so I just raised an eyebrow and he stopped.
That seems to be working a lot lately. Raising my eyebrow, I mean. It's odd how a simple gesture can have so much impact on something. Heh, well I can use it to my advantage more often. Then something occurred to me.
"Hey guys, it's been a while since we've pulled something. I don't think we want the school to think that we're losing our touch, do we?"
"No that would be bad!" Monica said, as if it had dawned on her that we hadn't done anything as of late.
"Yea would should definitely do something," Chaki agreed.
"Huh?" Hannah said, as she snapped out of her daydream of staring at Eric. I swear, one of these days I'm just gonna snap and lock them in a closet.
I whacked her on the back of the head, "Stop staring at my brother! It's disgusting!"
"Hey that hurt! And he's not disgusting, he's dreamy," she sighed dreamily.
"Okay whatever, anyway we need to do something," I said.
"Let's go back to the dorm and discuss it there, so no one will eavesdrop," Chaki suggested wisely. We finisheddinner quickly and went up to our room to discuss possible pranks.
"Oh! I got a good idea!" I said after a few minutes, "We could make a wall and put it up in front of the door to the Great Hall to make it look like it disappeared. Like there was no door, and instead there is a wall. But a simple illusion charm wouldn't work because people would walk right through it. So we need an actual wall."
They stared at me for a few minutes then Hannah exclaimed, "That's brilliant Ashley! Wow, that carriage incident must have knocked some kind of smart into you!"
I glared at her for a moment bur sobered up when I was reminded that Charlie was still in the Hospital Wing. Oh I do hope he's alright. I would feel awful if he wasn't. I know Madam Pomfrey said he would be okay, but I stilled worried.
"Ashley, are you okay? You spaced off there," Hannah said, waving her hand in front of my face.
"Huh? Yea, I'm fine," I said, shaking out of my daydream.
"Thinking about a certain someone?" Monica asked smirking.
"Who?" I asked, feigning ignorance. I very well knew who she was talking about. Charlie Weasley. I have no clue how she got it in her head that I liked him, but apparently she did, and I could tell by the mischievous glint in her eye that there would be planning and I would not be a part of it.
Wonderful.
Just what I need right now, my friends planning to try to get me hooked up with the one person I don't want to be with.
"Anyway," Chaki intervened, "We need to think up a prank for this week, until the ball."
"How about putting a sign on someone's back, like the whole 'kick me' thing?" Monica suggested. BRAIN BLAST!
"YEA! How about we put one on Snape that says Warning, Explosive Gas, Do NOT Pull Finger," I said excitedly. I think this is my best idea yet! It would be so amusing to see Snape in something like that.
We discussed it further and worked out the kinks and were all set to pull it.
Pretty soon it was dark out, and we went to bed. The next few days flew by, and the homework I missed piled up and needless to say, I was swamped. Luckily I managed to get it all done, by sacrificing my sleeping hours. I know I should be sleeping, seeing as I just got out of the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey insisted on lots of sleep.
The highlight of the week was watching Snape walk around with huge pink letters on hid back that were bright and bold, and spelled out the phrase, WARNING: EXPLOSIVE GAS! DO NOT PULL FINGER.
Needless to say, it was the highest form of amusement I had gotten in a very long while. I was the only one from our group around when he found out.
I have never seen someone turn that color red before.
He stuttered and glared at me, as if I was the one behind it. Well I was, but that's beside the point.
Anyway, after a particularly evil glare sent my way by everyone's favorite potions master, I went to the Hospital Wing.
You know what bugs me? The fact the Snape is a Potions Master. I mean, all the rest of the teachers are just teachers. But he gets to be the Master. It makes no sense, I tell you.
As I walked in the general direction of the Hospital Wing, who did I run into? Three guesses who.
Apparently he was all healed so Charlie Weasley was walking down the corridor. Luckily it was an unused corridor and was the back way to the Hospital Wing. Why he was there, who knows? I walked up to him with a light smile on my face.
"Hi," I said. Okay kinda lame, if you catch my drift, but oh well.
"Hey," he said softly. Did I mention how hot he looks right now? Yea, once in a lifetime thing, but still…
"I never got to thank you," I said, still smiling. Luckily it wasn't a goofy smile, which would have ruined the moment.
"For what?" he asked confused. Geez, what a moron. Does he not remember what happened last Saturday?
I rolled my eyes, "The carriage incident, silly."
Oh dear god. I called him silly. I sound like a ditzy Carrie, who calls her boyfriends silly when she flirts with them,
"Oh, that was nothing," he said scratching the back of his head, like when guys are all macho and make things out to be no big deal. It gets kind of annoying. But I wasn't really annoyed.
I just smiled and moved closer to him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Still smiling, I walked away from him, in the direction he came.
Yes, even if it was a peck, I just kissed Charlie Weasley.
No time to worry about it now. The mystery ball thing is fast approaching, so I have to go laugh at my friends freaking out.
I hope it's not awkward between us next time we meet. Oh well, I'll just act as if nothing happened, I'm good at that.
The ball's tomorrow, so I'd better go relax, because tomorrow will be hectic.
Short chapter, yes, I know. But you'll get over it. The next chapter will be huge to compensate. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, and please review.
HEY READ THIS! Okay now that I got your attention, when you review (you know you will) could you include the name of a song or two? As you may have guessed the next chapter is the ball, and I have no clue what I'm going to do for a songs and such. Anything would be helpful, THANKYOU:D
Did I mention how great you guys are?