Disclaimer: Anything relating to the Harry Potter stories belongs to J. K. Rowling. She can have my characters and ideas as well.
CHAPTER 5
"In 1775, a wizard by the name of George Washington led the way to the revolution of the…" Hmm, George Washington was a wizard? This is actually interesting. If only I could keep my eyes open, but Professor Binn's voice is so monotonous, Nina thought while aimlessly twirling some strands of her hair.
"And then, in 1776..." The sound of the History of Magic Professor's voice soon became a low buzz that was threatening to sooth her into a deep sleep. Wake up, wake up! she kept telling herself. In an effort to stay awake, she started to doodle and pinch herself occasionally. Her doodle started to look like a tree and ended up looking like a haystack when her head and eyelids became too heavy to support themselves anymore.
The loud bang of a book dropping onto the classroom floor broke her reverie with a start. Hoping that nobody noticed her she looked around the floor and saw it was her book that lay sprawled on the ground. Hmm, must've knocked it over or something. Trying to pick it up inconspicuously she heard the sniggering of some boys from the back of the room. Oh crap, she thought, did they notice me jerk out of my sleep? I hate it when that happens.
She slowly looked to her left and saw Lily, furiously trying to write down everything coming out of the professor's mouth, unaware of anything else going on around her. She looked to her right and saw Sara, fast asleep with her head on the table. Well, at least I wasn't the only one sleeping. Oh, is she drooling? She could still hear the boys behind her chuckling. She decided to turn her head around a little to see what was going on.
She looked behind her with a slightly annoyed-looking face. Remus, James and Peter were still laughing about something, unaware of her glare. Sirius, on the other hand, caught her glare, and made the same face she was making back to her. His look surprised her for a split second, and then she felt an urge to laugh. She just smiled and turned her head back around shaking it slightly thinking, what is it with him and his weird ass faces?
She poked Sara to wake her up; she looked up for a second, mumbled something about chocolate and fell back asleep. About a minute later, Professor Binns excused the class. Everyone jumped out of their seats and started scrambling for the door to get to the great hall for lunch. Sara was suddenly wide-awake and bubbling with energy.
"Pick up the pace, slow pokes! I'm hungry." She urged her friends. "I have to get to the pumpkin pasties before Lupin eats them all."
"Relax, Sara." Lily said while grabbing her books. "I'm sure he'll leave at least one for you."
"Are you crazy?" she responded frantically, "That greedyass pig won't leave me anything! I'll just go now and save you guys seats!" She ran out the door and left her two friends behind to take their time gathering their things. When they finally reached the Great Hall, Nina spotted two empty seats and Sara, with at least four pasties on her plate.
"Holy cow, did you take all of them or something?" Nina said to her friend while taking a seat.
"No." she replied, and then said in a louder voice, "I had to steal them from a certain someone who was trying to hog them all up!"
"Hey!" Remus's voice came indignantly from across the table, "I was saving them for you!"
"Yeah, right." Sara said rolling her eyes, "Saving. I'm sure. That's a good one, Remus." Remus had a slightly offended look on his face and was about to say something back when he thought better of it and continued eating his lunch. After they were done eating the girls got up to go outside on the grounds to get some fresh air. They found a shady spot under a big oak tree and sat down. Lily took out a spare parchment and started scribbling something down.
"Please, Lily. Put that stuff away and relax in the sun for a while." Sara said while laying herself down on the soft grass.
"Oh, I'm just jotting down some ideas for the Prefects meeting today. James and I are supposed to come up with some extra-curricular events for this year. You have any ideas?" Lily asked.
"Ooh!" Sara exclaimed getting up quickly and then said excitedly, "You've got to have a dance sometime this year. A fancy one—like a ball!"
"Oh, no." Nina moaned. "Don't do that, Lily. It's way too played out and cheesy. I don't think anyone will be interested in it."
"What?" Sara yelled, "Don't be such a boring ass, Nina! Everyone will love it! You just don't want to dress up and go with a guy. I know you."
"First of all, " Nina started to say seriously, "I don't really care about dressing up or going with a guy—I can go by myself for all I care. Second of all, what the hell is it with you and ass?"
"Okay, okay," Lily interjected, "you both are starting to sound like asses. Just relax. I'll put the idea through at the meeting and it'll be up to the Prefects to vote on it."
"Fine." Sara said resolutely as she lay back down on the grass.Nina just shrugged her shoulders and leaned up against the tree. Great, Nina thought, how am I gonna get out of this one. I hate dances. Sara's right. I do hate dressing up. And I definitely don't wanna go with a guy—I'll be too nervous. I can't go alone either—I'll look like such a loser.
"What do you guys think of a talent show? Or a movie night?" Lily asked reading off of her parchment, "Game day?"
"Yeah," Nina said, "those are good ideas."
"A dance is the best idea though." Sara added, "Maybe you should make it a rule that the girl has to ask the guy to it. You know, to make it different." Oh, hell no, Nina thought just as a guy's voice behind her said, "Now that is a good idea." James and his buddies came around to where the girls were sitting and plopped themselves down on the grass. Nina unconsciously shook her head.
Remus saw her and said, "It is a good idea, Nina. You can go with someone you actually like instead of the first loser who asks you and you feel sorry rejecting."
"I dunno," Nina said frowning, feeling a little uncomfortable talking about this with the guys.
"You're too shy, Nina." James added, "Don't be afraid of asking anyone. Nobody is gonna reject you, you know. Right, Sirius?" He patted Sirius on the arm to agree with him. Oh for God's sake. Nina thought, her face getting redder by the second. Why does this always have to happen to me?
Sirius seemed to be tapped out of some deep thought when James hit him and quickly said, "Oh…yeah." He gazed at her for a second and then returned to whatever he was thinking about.
Nina desperately wanted to change the subject so she said, "It's not that. I just don't like dances in general." She looked down on the grass and started picking at the blades.
"Well, too bad. You have to come if we have one." Sara said stubbornly.
"Of course she will." Lily said.
"Yeah, don't worry." Remus added to Nina. "Go with someone you know; like one of us guys. I'll go with you. You don't even have to ask me—"
"What?" came a cry from Sara. She looked irate. "You can't do that!"
"Why not?' Remus demanded.
"Because! It just takes the fun out of everything. You can't go with her. She has to stop being so silly and immature about everything. If everyone's gotta do it, she can too. It's not a big deal! She doesn't need anyone's help!" Nina couldn't believe her ears. Why was Sara acting so strange and insensitive? She was always defending her before, and now she was just putting her on the spot and embarrassing her in front of everyone. Nina was so shocked she couldn't even say anything to defend herself.
Remus was about to say something back when James came in between them, "Okay everyone just calm down."
"Oh shut up, Potter! I am calm!" Sara stood up and stormed off, kicking a pebble on her way back into the castle. James had an expression on his face that meant "what did I do?" and Remus, Sirius and Lily looked surprised and slightly confused. Nina was still looking at the ground, not sure of had just happened.
She got up after a few seconds and while avoiding any eye contact with anyone mumbled quietly, "I'm gonna head to class." She walked away quickly so no one would follow her. She wanted to be alone. Her head was just buzzing with thoughts as she found her way back to the common room. What was that all about? I didn't even say anything! Sara and Remus practically had their own conversation, making assumptions about me and then Sara goes and gets pissed off at me for no reason. Geez, she must be PMS-ing or something. That's still no excuse though to go off on me like that. What the hell! Those guys must all think I'm such a boring prude! Now nobody will ever want to go with me for sure… Well, maybe that's a good thing. I don't even know if I should be going with anyone since—Nina gasped as the feeling of two arms grabbing her around the waist abruptly interrupted her thoughts.
A/N: Any feedback on this story would be greatly appreciated! Cheers.
