"Lexi, do I have to go?" Bridgette whined later that night. It was 7:45 and she had to meet Cedric in the library at 8:00 for tutoring.
"Yes, Bridge, just go and get it over with!" Alexis exclaimed, pushing Bridgette out of the common room. Bridgette pouted and walked slowly towards the library, pulling her sweater up a little bit so the v-neck didn't run so low.
She saw that Cedric was already waiting for her when she arrived about ten minutes later. She took a seat across from him and said, "Ok, let's just get this over with."
"I see you're happy about this," Cedric said sarcastically, opening a book.
"I don't need a tutor, we like learned the same exact stuff over there!" Bridgette exclaimed.
"Yes, but apparently you were failing Potions and Charms...plus, you didn't have Astronomy back in New York," Cedric said, paging through her file.
"Sorta hard to when there's always lights on outside you know, it wasn't my fault, and the only reason I was failing Potions and Charms was because Brent Stevenson was in my classes so THERE!" Bridgette exclaimed again, Madame Pince sending them death glares.
"Brent Stevenson? But I thought you had a boyfriend?" Cedric asked, smiling up at her.
"God, get a clue, Anthony was my summer boyfriend, so that left me free during the school year, and stop smiling, it's like you're patronizing me!" Bridgette said in a hushed whisper.
"But I thought you loved...what's his name...Mark was it?" he asked.
"ANTHONY!" she exclaimed, trying to keep her voice down.
"Well, I thought you loved Anthony," Cedric said, raising his eyebrow at her.
"I do, but we decided since we were both away during the year we'd put our relationship on hiatus, plus, I was only dating him my 4th year, so yeah," Bridgette said.
"Whatever, we should be getting to work...do you want to start with Potions, Charms or Astronomy," he asked, looking up from the file.
"Potions...Brent always wore a blue shirt on the day we had potions," Bridgette said dreamily.
"And what did he wear on the day you had Charms?" he asked, his voice becoming high and breathy as he feigned interest.
"Shut up," Bridgette snapped as he batted his eyelashes at her.
"Ok, so Potions," Cedric said, opening a book, "Problem, we need a lab to do this, so I guess we'll be doing Charms, all of the physical stuff you'll have to practice alone, but you can study some of this stuff I guess."
"Why did you pick the library, of all places?" she asked. "It would have been easier in the common room."
"You would have been more distracted in the common room," Cedric answered.
"Like I'm not distracted wherever I go?" Bridgette said, picking up the book and sticking her nose in it as she read it.
"Well, it's harder to get distracted here in the library," he said, picking up his own book.
"As if," Bridgette murmured, reading on. She had read every single word of this stuff before, and she knew how to do it ALL. Her only problem with it was that she'd always get distracted by Brent when they were taking tests, or anything else.
"Ok, I think you can go," Cedric said an hour later. "We'll probably get kicked out soon anyways."
"Ok, bye," Bridgette said, setting down the book and practically running out of the library.
"Bridge! There's someone here to see you! He sounds American too...transfer student I hope," Alexis said from outside the Hufflepuff portrait.
"Bridgette Peterson?" a voice from the other end of the common room said. Bridgette raised her eyebrows and smiled.
"Brent Stevenson! What are you doing here?" she asked.
"My parents got jobs here, the ministry in London needs more workers supposedly," Brent said, smiling down at her. She was still in love with Anthony, but it was hard not to forget him when she was around Brent.
He had dark, dark brown hair that fell just to his eyes, always left unkempt, and gorgeous hazel eyes, and to go with them a beautiful smile that lit his face up. Not to mention he had a body to kill for.
"Wow, I'm so glad there's someone from back home here!" Bridgette exclaimed. "And I can't believe we're in the same house...what are the odds of that?"
"Yeah I know, I thought I'd get in Ravenclaw, I mean after reading about it," Brent told her.
She laughed and out of the corner of her eye saw Cedric come in. "How come you weren't at the ceremony?" she asked, glad that he was actually TALKING to her. Usually they just engaged in small talk, nothing like this. She saw all the other girls looking on jealously.
"We didn't get here until this morning," Brent explained.
"Yeah, you too! I'm so grateful I'm not alone here, this place is huge!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, so much bigger than our other one!" Bridgette agreed, nodding her head. He almost rivaled Cedric in the looks category as far as she was concerned.
She and Brent spent the majority of the night laughing and talking about their old school and friends. She caught Cedric looking over at her several times and smirked at him. She could tell he was jealous.
"I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to head off to bed, ok?" she asked at around 12 as everyone was starting to go to bed, at least the older kids.
"Sure, I'll see you tomorrow," he said, standing up with her.
"Goodnight," she said, smiling a bit before slowly turning around the smile still on her face as she began to walk away.
"We always have this HUGE feast for Halloween," Alexis explained to Bridgette and Brent as they went down to the Entrance Hall. "But that's after Hogsmeade, which is amazing!"
"Hogs...what?" Bridgette asked, following Alexis to the door where Filch stood.
"Hogsmeade, it's a village not too far from here with the most amazing shops. Hogwarts students 3rd years and above get to go once every 2 months or so," Alexis told her.
"I think I read about that," Bridgette said as they showed Filch their permission slips and walked out into the cool October air. "Isn't it the only all-wizarding village in all of Britain?"
"Maybe...I don't really pay attention to facts, I just care that its fun!" Alexis said, giggling as the three of them made their way to one of the carriages.
"Well, my mum made me read up on all this stuff...she thinks I'm completely clueless," Bridgette sighed, jumping a little as the carriage pulled away.
"First, we're going to Honeyduke's, and then Zonko's, oh, and then the Three Broomsticks!" Alexis said, her face alight as she named the places off.
"Does she always get this excited?" Brent whispered to Bridgette who giggled and nodded as Alexis rambled on and on.
The carriage stopped a moment later and they all piled out, following Alexis who practically dragged them over to a shop called Honeyduke's.
"One of the best candy shops in...well, probably in the world!" she exclaimed, opening the door and dragging them inside. "And the best chocolate you'll find anywhere."
Bridgette laughed and detached herself from Alexis, walking over to a corner of the store where they sold all the gummy candies, her favorite.
She stood on her tip-toes but couldn't reach the top shelf. "Want help with that?" Brent asked, smiling over at her.
"Thank you," she said, smiling and moving aside so that he could reach up. As he reached his arm up her breath lightly caught as his shirt rose up, revealing just enough of his stomach to excite her.
"Is this what you wanted?" he asked, holding up a bag of gummy bears.
"Uhm...actually I prefer gummy worms..." she said, lying. But she didn't care, she just wanted another peek at that stomach.
He nodded and reached up again, revealing even more of his stomach. "Thanks," she said, blushing a little as he handed her a bag of gummy worms.
"You alright?" he asked, smirking a bit and tossing his head over to get some of his bangs out of his eyes.
"I'm fine," she said, smiling. "Uhm...thanks for getting that for me."
"No problem," he said.
Bridgette walked around the store for another minute, once in a while finding something high up for Brent to get for her, it seemed like more and more of his stomach showed each time.
"Are you done? 'Cause my arm's starting to hurt," he joked.
"Oh wow, I thought you'd be stronger," she said, giggling a bit as they made their way over to the cash register.
"Hey, where did Lexi go?" Brent asked, looking around the shop.
"I think she left us," Bridgette said, frowning a bit as she got up on her tiptoes to look around the store, not seeing her anywhere.
"Aw man, that means I'm stuck with you all day?" he asked sarcastically as they both paid for their candy and walked out of the shop.
"I feel so loved," she said, laughing lightly.
He laughed then sighed, looking around the square. "Well, we're in a foreign village with no tour guide...what should we do first?" he asked.
"I have no clue, why don't you pick, you're the smart one," Bridgette said, smiling over at him.
"Hey, you beat me in everything back home except Charms and Potions," he said, looking around. "How about in there? The Three Broomsticks?"
"Sure, why not," Bridgette said, slightly chuckling at his first statement.
Brent opened the door for her then closed it behind her before following her to a seat at the bar. "Two butter beers," he said to the woman behind the bar.
"Have you ever had one of these before?" Bridgette asked, taking it from the woman.
"Yeah, they're not that strong at all, now firewhisky...that's something else," Brent said, laughing and taking a swig of the butter beer.
"Oh my god this stuff is wonderful!" Bridgette exclaimed after she took a sip of hers. "Why have I never had this before?"
She giggled and drank some more before placing her bottle down on the bar.
"You know, it's a shame we didn't talk more back in America, I really like you Bridgette," Brent said, the playful look in his eyes slowly disappearing and turning into something else.
"I...I like you too, Brent," she said, suddenly getting nervous as his gaze intensified.
He set his butter beer down and slowly started to lean towards her, his eyes never looking away from hers once.
She closed her eyes and leaned forward, their faces only inches apart. "Hey, Bridgette!" someone exclaimed. Bridgette opened her eyes and groaned, seeing Cedric standing beside them.
If a death glare ever escaped her eyes, it was then, at Cedric as he stood by them, smiling cheerfully, "Oh, I'm sorry did I interrupt something?" he asked, his voice obviously not sorry.
"No, of course not," Bridgette said through clenched teeth.
"Ok, good," Cedric replied, somehow squeezing in between them, she didn't even know there was a stool in between them, and smiling over at her.
"Actually, Bridgette and I were just leaving, weren't we?" Brent said, glancing over at Bridgette who threw him a grateful look.
"Yes, yes we were, bye Cedric!" she exclaimed, jumping up and practically running out of the pub with Brent. "Thank you so much," she said once they were outside.
"What's his deal anyways?" Brent asked, stuffing his hand in his pockets as they made their way to Zonko's Joke Shop.
"Well, before me and my family moved to New York, me and Cedric were supposedly best friends," Bridgette explained.
"You moved over when you were...how old?" Brent asked, holding the door open for her.
"Uhm...three, maybe four?" she said, trying to remember.
"Wow, that long ago? Why's he so caught up on it?" Brent asked, an incredulous look on his face.
"This summer my mum and his mum made us watch home movies and he claims to remember me," she replied, rolling her eyes. "And now he's bent on making me remember him in hopes that I'll go running into his arms or something."
"Wow," Brent said, chuckling slightly as he picked out a few things for himself.
"Yeah, it's one of those things where my mom is all I always thought you two would be best friends all your lives and then end up getting married and having kids," Bridgette told him.
"You shouldn't be forced into that, you don't even remember him," Brent said, looking at all the weird gadgets that lined the shelves.
"Yeah, I know, and I really don't plan to either," Bridgette told him, looking at some stuff, picking it up but then setting it back down a moment later as it made a weird noise.
"Anyway...before Cedric interrupted, you were...uhm...saying something?" she said, looking over at him.
He grinned and set down his stuff before leaning towards her, softly pressing his lips against hers.