"Well…" said Alexis. She turned to Fred and George. "What's this favour meant to be?"
They exchanged glances.
"We're not allowed to tell." replied George.
"We promised Charlie." added Fred.
She crossed her arms in frustration.
"Fine. Be that way."
"Ask Charlie when he wakes up." said George. "He'll be down for dinner. Didn't eat last night either."
As Hermione began to scold them, Alexis, Draco, Harry and Ron went upstairs.
"It's so boring!" exclaimed Ron, flopping onto his bed.
"Well why don't you drag Hermione up here and have a nice little make-out session with her?" asked Draco, grinning wickedly. Ron turned as red as his hair, if that was even possible.
"Yeah!" said Alexis, winking at Draco. "Harry can bring Ginny up too!"
She was knocked over as soon as the words left her mouth.
"Well then," said Harry, "Ron and I will go downstairs…and you two can have your little love seat right here." he finished, patting Ron's bed. Ron screwed up his face.
"Gross! Do it on Harry's bed, if you have to."
Draco and Alexis were edging away from each other.
"Err…scrap that idea." said Alexis, pale cheeks flushing. "Let's do something else…"
By dawn Alexis was back in the saddle, and in half an hour she was off her parent's (now her) property.
"Woah," she called, as Fury suddenly stopped short. "What is it?"
He shook his black head and spread his wings in agitation. Alexis clicked her tongue, but Fury still didn't move. She froze when she heard footsteps.
In one moment, Fury had flung her off his back and there was a sickening thud as her head hit a tree.
It was dinner time. Even though the table was more crowded than usual, everyone was having a good time with the exception of Charlie, who was still feeling a bit sleepy. Alexis wasn't exactly feeling hungry, but she was trying to dodge bits of food sent her way by Draco. She felt brilliant. The afternoon had just been lazing about with the boys, listening to the other three girls' endless chatter. She'd even managed to forget Sandra for a while, who had been attempting to start a conversation with Draco, throwing him looks which she didn't want to decipher and occasionally tugging on his arm. If Alexis had been on better terms with the girl instead of their instant dislike (which was for pretty much no reason, just instinct), she might have advised she leave the guy to his lazy afternoon. In her opinion, he'd need his break. If she and the others weren't doing any kind of work, why should he?
Alexis felt oddly comfortable leaning against Draco, him having finished his dinner and food flicking and now in conversation with her. Of course, it didn't mean anything. It was practically against her personal rules to mean anything.
Well of course, she thought. I can't let some stupid schoolgirl crush ruin our friendship. That's stupid. Even if I don't want to be just friends… But obviously I do.
She had had a crush on him twice, once when their friendship first started and once only a few weeks ago.
Yeah, and obviously my feelings are going haywire… oh well, I'll probably forget all about him when I do fall in love…
Although she didn't think that that was likely to happen, because the few relationships that she had had been destroyed completely by her studies (she wasn't in Ravenclaw for nothing). Oh well, it was always worth trying anyway. Any thoughts that she might have wanted to ponder on after that were sent scurrying away into the dark corners of her mind, because suddenly Charlie got up, announced that he was done, and motioned to Alexis to follow him outside.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Mrs. Weasley. "It's freezing outside!"
"We won't be long." Charlie assured her.
Mrs. Weasley still looked sceptical, but made no move to stop them as they went outside.
"So…this is about the favour right?" asked Alexis.
He nodded.
"Then why are we," she waved her arm around, "Out here?"
"Ok, well, I have to ask you to take care of something for me…"
"Yes? Get on with it!"
She followed him to the Weasleys' broom shed.
"Um, Charlie, there are spiders in there…"
She could hear his laugh.
"Aly, I'm not Ron, you know."
"Yeah, but still…" she didn't finished her sentence as he came back out with a large wooden crate in tow.
Thump
"Charlie…what's in there?"
He started to yank the lid off.
"Don't worry. You'll find out soon."
It started to shake.
"Okay," said Alexis uncertainly, "Now is when I start to get nervous."
He didn't reply. With one final vicious wrench, the lid of the crate came off.
