itA/N: I don't even know if it's worth apologizing anymore for taking so long…I'm lame. I know. Sorry! Haha. Just wanted to give a big THANK YOU to all of my reviewers! You guys are the best, you don't even know. Oh man. You make my day so great, & writing so much more fun. I hope you enjoy the next chappy, I definitely had fun writing it. And to all my fellow seniors…we're almost OUT!
/And all the roads that led to you were winding,
And all the lights that light the way are blinding.
There are many things that I would like to say to you,
But I don't know how,
Don't know how…/
--Oasis, "Wonderwall"
I can't exactly recollect what finally got me to get up and go back to the school, but I think it was a cranky villager with a broom who kept trying to hit me, and yelled to get off of her property before she wrote to my head of house. At any rate, I somehow managed to end up stumbling through the portrait hole around one in the morning. All I'd wanted was for it to be completely empty so I could wash my face, change back into my pyjamas, and then sleep for maybe ten years. But the horrid night wasn't over yet. I had the luck to walk in on Oliver and Angelina seriously going at it on the couch. Like, seriously. Oliver had his shirt off and his hands up Angie's.
"Oh, guys," I moaned, throwing my hands over my eyes (which were still being covered by the long arms of Fred's quidditch jacket), and turned away.
"Merlin, Katie!" Angelina exclaimed, yanking her shirt down and jumping up to stare at me. "What in Merlin's name happened to you? You look terrible!"
I was suddenly conscious of my smeared eye makeup and we clothes. I shifted uncomfortably. Oliver was quickly throwing on a hoodie and stared at me as well. "It's one in the morning, Bell," he said. "What are you still doing up?"
"And Fred was just in here about ten minutes ago, too!" Angelina interjected, "What's going on?"
"And why are you wearing his jacket?" Oliver asked quizzically. "Were you two together?"
So Oliver's a bloody genius. Someone should give him a trophy.
"Katie, what is going on?" Angelina asked, sounding genuinely concerned. "Is something wrong? You look terrible…"
"Yeah, you've already told me that," I reminded her, dully.
"But are you okay? Did you and Fred have a fight? He didn't look very happy either…"
And so is Ange…together their IQ's must be a million. No wonder they're dating.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I answered.
"To which question?" asked Oliver.
I shrugged. "Both.
"Well, sit down," Angelina commanded, gesturing to a seat. "We'll clean you up and get you some hot cocoa or something."
"No, it's okay, guys…I'm just going to go to bed…" I trailed off. This was extremely awkward.
"You sure you don't need anything, Bell?" Oliver asked.
"No, I'm fine, just don't…take my best friend's virginity tonight, okay?"
And I left to go upstairs. I collapsed on my bed and tried not to cry anymore. Just stared at the ceiling and hoped Alicia wouldn't wake up. I didn't want to talk to any more understanding people tonight.
I got up, dressed, and ready rather mechanically the next morning. Angelina followed my lead of not saying anything, and Alicia, who knew nothing whatsoever, chattered as happily as her blonde self could be expected to. I was groggy, disoriented, and cranky from the lack of sleep among other obvious issues. I'm pretty sure Alicia just figured I was upset over Hermione. Whatever.
We clammered down to breakfast and I made a point of sitting next to Alicia, leaving my usual spot between the twins open. When the boys arrive, no one seemed to notice, or at least didn't say anything. Fred looked sullen and gloomy, and said nothing to me and very little everyone else. All the rest of our friends actually seemed cheerful. It was rather disgusting.
"What are you doing all the way over there, Bell?" Lee asked suddenly, buttering his toast.
"Yeah, didn't feel like sitting next to me today or something, Kates? Think you're too good for me, eh?" George raised his eyebrows wickedly. I just shrugged. I wasn't in the mood.
"Sheesh, what is with everyone today? First my brother, now you…" George paused as he looked from me to Fred and made an exaggerated face as though understanding had just dawned on him. "Ohhhh, I see," he said, nodding. "Our lovers have had an ickle spat, have they?"
"Shut up!!" Fred and I both yelled simultaneously. George looked slightly taken aback. I think he might have only been joking. Oh great.
"Did you say anything to him?" Fred suddenly demanded. I stared at him, shocked.
"Of course not!" I retorted, just as indignantly. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
"Oh, I don't know, Katie, maybe because my brother just announced to half the table that we'd had a fight!"
"You're being ridiculous," I said, still disbelieving.
"Am I?" Fred challenged.
"Yes, you are," I said, a little more angrily. "George is smart, he doesn't need me to point out when you're being an idiot. It's clear enough!"
"You little—"
"Don't you curse at me, Fred Weasley!"
"Then maybe you should stop being such a b—"
"SHUT UP, both of you!"
George was glaring at us, with a completely disgusted look on his face. "Merlin!" he said, staring at us. "Get a grip, would you? If you're not civilized enough to eat together, then could you take it somewhere else?"
"I've lost my appetite, anyway," Fred said nastily, throwing down his napkin. "Don't expect to see me in class today."
And he took off, stalking out of the Great Hall.
"Yeah, well good riddance!" I yelled after him. The rest of the table stared at me.
"What are you looking at?" I demanded. "It wasn't my fault. You don't even know what happened!"
"Then maybe you should tell us," Alicia said simply. She had the air like she was talking to a four year old. The four year old being me.
"I don't have to take this from you," I said, copying Fred by throwing down my towel. "All of you are just as bad as he is!"
And I stomped off, but not before overhearing Lee say, "Yep. That settles it. They're in love."
I grabbed a syrupy pancake from a nearby Ravenclaw first year's plate and whirled around and hucked it at Lee. It flew like a saucer and then smacked him in the face. When the pancake slid off, his face was covered in syrup. Ha-ha.
I was frustrated throughout the remainder of the day. Without Fred there to help me, I mixed a potion that turned Snape's hair green instead of relieving a headache. I wasn't really even in the mood to laugh at myself about it in the first place, but giving me a detention only made it worse. Miserable old blighter.
By the time I was trudging along down to quidditch practice, I was in no mood to mess with. I sincerely hoped that Fred would skip practice as well as the day, but sure enough, he was there suiting up as usual. I kicked off. Hard. The wind felt good in my face. I was ready to throw my whole heart and soul into that practice. It was strong, determined intensity and it felt amazing.
"Slow down, Bell! This is practice!" Oliver called from the goalposts.
I responded by hurling the quaffle, hard, in one of the goal hoops. I scored.
"You rock, Katie!" George yelled over the wind.
"Thanks, I know!" I called back, giving the thumbs-up sign.
"Let's not get cocky now, team!" Oliver shouted. Team meaning me.
Alicia tossed me the quaffle and I scored again, this time almost knocking Wood off of his broom.
"Bell!" he barked. "I thought I told you to take it easy! Save this for Slytherin!"
"Yeah, well, you know what they say, Captain! Cheat on your boyfriend, not on your workout!"
Wood glared at me, and as Fred whizzed past, he muttered, "Yeah, you'd know about that wouldn't you?"
I glared. "What?" I asked.
"You heard me!" he shouted. Merlin, the boy did NOT let things go!
"How could I have cheated on you? You were never my boyfriend!"
"Maybe I could have been, if you would have let me!"
"Maybe I was trying to, you were just too daft to notice!"
"WEASLEY, BELL, BREAK IT UP!" Oliver yelled from the goal posts.
We ignored him.
"Too daft to notice? Sorry, but I took 'Let's just be friends' as rejection!"
"DON'T YOU MAKE ME COME OVER THERE!"
"Well, maybe I'd changed my mind!"
"You might have told me!"
"LAST CHANCE, YOU TWO!"
My face was hot with fury. "Even if I had, you would have been too stupid to believe me!"
"THAT'S IT!" If it was possible, Oliver looked even angrier than we did as he sped toward us. He opened his mouth to say something, or yell more likely, but I never got to find out what it was because just at that second, there was a sharp CRACK at the back of my head that knocked me off my broom.
Now, if this ha been anything remotely like a fairy tale, Fred would have dove sharply down, caught me in midair in his arms, apologized, and kissed me, but that didn't happen. Fred didn't catch me. In fact, no one did.
Instead, I landed in a heap, pain at every point in my body. I groaned and rolled over as I heard Oliver swear profusely at Fred, and George yell "Fred, you daft prick! Why didn't you block that bludger! What do you think that bat is for!"
The whole team surrounded me in about a matter of two seconds. Fred looked immensely guilty. "I—I'm so sorry, Kate," he stammered.
"Never mind that," Oliver said angrily, shoving him aside and yanking me off the ground. "You alright Bell?" and then without waiting for an answer grabbed both me and Fred and drug us over to the side of the pitch. I was limping, but I don't think he noticed. Prick.
"The rest of you, back to practice!" he barked.
"Alright," Wood growled, releasing us both. "What is with you two? Look, I know you're having some sort of personal issue going on, but that is no reason to let it interrupt my practice! You're part of a team." He glare at us, and we both remained silent.
"Look," he continued, "I don't know what it is that you two need to do to resolve this, but do it soon and do it quick."
"They need to have a good snog is all!" George shouted from the air.
"Shut up, Weasley!" Wood yelled. "Both of you are dismissed from practice until your attitudes change." And he kicked off on his broom and left.
"Katie—" Fred began.
But I turned on my heel and marched off across the field. As I got closer and closer to the locker rooms, I broke out into some kind of retarded limp-run and the rain and my all-too-present tears began at the same time.
"Hey."
I was walking down the halls on my way back to the common room when the voice took me off guard. I'd waited until I thought the rest of the team had left before I had, but I guess I hadn't waited long enough.
"Yeah?" I asked, turning around to see who it was. It was too dimly lit and dark outside to be exactly sure, but I was almost positive it was Fred.
"I believe I heard a certain dashing young man give a suggestion about snogging…and I think it was a fantastic idea."
I was half-amused in spite of myself at Fred's stupid way of complimenting himself by referring to the looks of his identical twin, but he did it all the time. What I was more impressed by was the sudden change of heart. Maybe injuring me had got to him. Still…
"What do you—"
"Shh!" he lowered his voice. "Don't say anything. I think we both know we want it. Am I right?"
He scared me by suddenly taking me close to him and pressing me against his chest. I nodded so he could feel it. Could this actually be happening? It was too good to be true…
"Good," he whispered, gently, directing me to a nearby closet. I could barely make out his red hair before he closed the door completely. The closet was small, and our bodies were close. I could feel his breath on my face. My heart was racing as I pulled off the hood of the sweatshirt I'd been wearing to keep the rain off of my hair. He gently pulled me in closer, making me feel safe in the way that only Fred could. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I put my hands on his chest. And then we kissed.
He was a great kisser, just like I knew he would be. It wasn't long before we were full on snogging. In the excitement, I knocked over a bucket that made a loud, clanging noise but neither of us seemed to care.
It was too bad I didn't hear the footsteps. It was also too bad I didn't hear the person outside the door whisper Lumos. And it was really too bad that the person who yanked the door open happened to be Fred.
I instantly released the guy I'd been with.
"GEORGE!" I cried, incredulously.
"KATIE!"
I hate the dark.
