Disclaimer: The characters belong to JK Rowling. The plot belongs to me!
Thanks for reviewing guys...athough I was sad I only got 4 on the last chapter...sigh But whatever. Please review if you haven't already! Aight...so...this chapter's gonna be kinda...awkward. In response to the comments I got on 1st/3rd person, I've decided to just give 3rd person a trial chapter & see what you guys think. PLEASE have a definite opinion & submit it! It would mean so much to me. And I know it seems like a little nit-picky thing, but it seriously affects the whole tone of the story to me. Oh, & Moony4Moony...you crack me up. You alwaise find the little things I forget about! Thanks tho, it keeps me on my toes. Anyway. On with Chapter 4.
Katie Bell was flying. Really, she was! And without her Cleansweep, too! She was flying through the air all on her own, scoring goals like mad as she wasn't burdened down by trying to stay on a broomstick. Angelina, Alicia, and the twins threw her dirty looks of jealousy as Wood beamed at her from the Gryffindor goalposts. It wouldn't matter if Harry caught the snitch now! Oliver blew her a kiss, and Angelina got extremely jealouys, and started yelling at her to quit hitting on her boyfriend.
"KATIE!"
"No, Ange--"
"KATIE BELL!"
"Angelina, it was just a blown kiss, nothing serious..."
"Katie."
"I swear it, Ange!"
"Katie, would you wake up?"
"What the?"
Katie sat up suddenly, and looked around wildly. Aww...her bed. What a jip. She lay back down.
"Five, A.J.," she yawned sleepily, laying back down.
"Katie...up."
Katie responded by pulling the cover over her head and sinking even deeper into the covers.
"Fine, have it your way!"
She grinned to herself as she snuggled in the warm blankets, about to drift off when suddenly an invisible force blasted her out of bed. She landed hard and tumbled a few inches from where Angelina stood above her twirling her wand in her fingers.
"Aw cmon, Ange," Katie moaned, rubbing her head where she'd hit the floor. "Non-verbals no fair in the morning!"
"Get dressed," she replied, walking off to do her hair. Katie made a face at her as she passed.
"Good morning, Little Miss Mature, I saw that!" sang out Alicia happily, as she fixed the tie of her uniform underneath her collar. "It's such a gorgeous morning!"
I hate blondes, Katie thought.
Fourty-five minutes later, Katie's hair was straightened and hung just past her chin in layers, the very top gathered in a small ponytail at the back of her head. Her makeup was done and she was dressed...sort of. The red and gold tie still hung sloppily undone around her unbuttoned collar. The small dark-haired girl ran around furiously, gathering her undone homework and textbooks to throw messily into her back. Alicia only added to the stress.
"KATIE! We'll be late for breakfast again if you don't hurry up!" she cried.
"Merlin, Alicia, what in the bloody heck do you think I'm trying to do!" Katie shot back, accidentally throwing her shoe out the open window in her fury. "Oh great, NOW what?"
Angelina groaned and strode over to the window. "Honestly," she said, exasperated. "How did I get cursed with you two for room mates? Wingardium Leviosa!" She threw Katie's shoe back at her, which she put on, and the three of them went down to breakfast.
Katie's mood did not improve much as she got told off by Professor Snape for not having her tie done. ("Two points from Gryffindor! Miss Bell, honestly, what makes you think you have the right to troop down to breakfast looking like you just rolled out of bed!")
"Miserable old git," Katie muttered spitefully as she reached their usual spot at the table.
"Hope you weren't talking about me?" George said brightly as the girls sat down. Katie, however, remained standing, glaring at George.
"You mean hope she wasn't talking to you, George," Fred corrected seriously. "You really wouldn't want to be seen talking to the likes of Katie Bell, now would you?"
And he gave her such a look of complete disdain and disgust that Katie, whose red hot temper was legend, grabbed and orange and hurled it at the twins. Both ducked, however, and the fruit had such misfortune as to land with a thud on the back of Professor McGonagoll's head. The woman sighed and said, "5 points from Gryffindor, Miss Bell. Do try to control yourself?"
Katie flopped miserably down between the Weasley twins. Fred ruffled her hair playfully. "Bad day, Kates?" he asked.
"You've no idea," she groaned.
"Well, don't go looking for help here," George said, helping himself to more pancakes. "Frankly, neither of us care."
"George!" cried Alicia, mortified, but Katie just grinned.
"You know you guys love me," she said, buttering a piece of toast for herself and smirking up at the two redheads.
"Oh, more than you know, Kates," George snickered, casting a sidelong glance at his twin who promptly choked on the eggs he was eating, dropped his fork, and cast his eyes toward the enchanted ceiling, an odd pink tinge appearing at his cheeks.
Katie observed Fred curiously. "You okay?" she asked.
For some reason, George found this extremely funny and started laughing until his eyes watered. Now it was he who started choking on his food. Alicia quickly started pounding on his back, her eyes concerned, until the piece of ham dislodged itself from his throat and landed in Lee's hair.
"Oh, gross!" Lee yelled. "George!"
They all laughed and Fred, who had recovered from his temporary silence, said, "Wow, that's about the most pathetic thing I've seen since Ollie here asked Angelina out."
The couple huffed and the rest of them laughed harder. Katie glanced at Fred, curious as to the sudden change of temperament that had just occurred before George made an idiot of himself, but now he looked as he always did: sort of goofy, freckled, red-headed, unarguably good looking, and grinning. He caught Katie's glance and winked at her. She smiled and winked back, something they always did in class. Maybe she'd been imagining things.
The group trooped down to the History of Magic classroom where Professor Binns bored them all to death as usual. While her responsible girlfriends took notes, Katie satisfied herself by laying her head on her desk and drifting off to sleep again.
But Katie had a hard time staying asleep. Not that she was even remotely interested by the ghost's long and boring lecture, no, but she kept feeling as though someone were watching her. And she definitely couldn't sleep with that kind of paranoia. Katie sat up, looking around to find the culprit (if there even was one) and to her astonishment found Fred Weasley's eyes studying her from across the room. (They were banned from sitting next to each other in this class, too). As son as she made eye contact, however, he looked away and suddenly became intensely interested in the tip of his quill. Katie sat, stupefied. So she wasn't imagining things then?
This happened a second time. And then a third. After the third, while Katie sat puzzling with all her might to figure out what this could mean, Angelina wrote something down, neatly folded it, and passed it to Katie who opened it up.
She yelped as soon as she read the words, and flew out of her seat, sending her quill and ink bottle flying in her surprise. Almost instantly, she dove under her desk to retrieve the lost school supplies without drawing too much attention to herself, got stuck, and then banged her head on the top of the desk as she tried to free herself. Professor Binns, his expression remaining as unchanged as ever, looked down at the tangled mess of a girl that was his student.
"Are you quite alright there, Miss?" he asked, staring down at her with a look that flooded Katie with embarrassment and made her feel as though she wanted to fall through the floor that very instant.
"Just grand, Professor," she answered as cheerily as possible. "Just…er…making sure these desks were sturdy, you know."
"Indeed," he answered unamused.
Katie guiltily unwound herself as the class laughed at her, and returned back to her seat, where the note reading "I think Fred likes you" sat on the desktop.
"He does not," she hissed to Angelina, once all settled back in.
"Does too," she said simply, and returned to her notes.
Katie looked over at Fred who winked at her and grinned, giving her the oh-so-cheesy thumbs up symbol. Katie grinned back, and returned the wink. Stupid Angelina, she thought. Doesn't understand best friends. Bust she couldn't explain away Fred's odd behavior at breakfast that morning, or this sudden, new feeling she had in her stomach when he smiled.
Whether she would admit it to herself or not, either on his part or on hers, things were changing.
