Chapter 7.

The smile of looooveee

On Monday morning, Lara blearily entered the Great Hall with Erin, walking automatically towards the Gryffindor table. She was just about to sit down, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, when someone yelled out.

"Oi, Culpepper! Think fast!"

Lara looked up and saw something flying towards her. Unfortunately, she hadn't inherited the same reflexes as Walter and she was relatively crap at Quidditch, so instead of catching the object, she squealed and jumped back. The small cotton bag landed on the floor with a thud and the contents spilled out; chocolate wands, chocolate frogs, liquorice wands, pumpkin fizzes and sugar quills.

"What the hell." Lara muttered in surprise, her tiredness having been knocked out of her. Looking up, she saw Fred stood a little way down the table, grinning widely at her dishevelled state. "Weasley!"

"You were meant to catch it."

"Catch it?" she repeated angrily. "I'm not a dog, Weasley. You could've just handed them to me."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"You're an idiot," she sighed, bending to put the sweets back into the bag. "Thank you, though!"

"You're welcome!"

Once she'd picked up everything, Lara stuffed it into her backpack before sitting at the table for her breakfast. Glancing down the table, she saw Fred was sat talking to his little brother Ron, who looked surly and annoyed.

"What's up with the little Weasley?" asked Lara quietly, leaning over to speak to Stan. "He looks upset."

"There's a rumour going around that he and Harry had a falling out," Stan replied.

"Falling out? About what?"

"The Tournament. Ron's not happy that Harry didn't tell him he was going to put his name in."

"He's not the only one," muttered Glenn, his eyes glancing towards the rest of the hall. "The Hufflepuff's are bloody furious. They think Harry took away their glory."

"I thought they were supposed to be the nice house," grumbled Erin.

"The Ravenclaw's are being knobs, too," Stan said, a cross sort of look coming to his face. "They think Harry's a fame leech. The Slytherin's are being gits, as well, but that's just a given."

"That's so stupid," Lara hissed with a shake of her head. "There's room for two champions."

"That's what I've been saying," Stan agreed. "We need to think of this as a school thing, not a house thing."

"I can't believe people are actually angry with Harry," Lara huffed and began to irately make a bowl of cereal. "He didn't even want this."

"Well, he did a bit," Glenn shrugged. "He put his name in—"

"Did he?" snapped Lara, and a look of surprise came across the three Gryffindor's faces. "Because I'm not so sure. If anyone bothered to pay attention to that boys face yesterday at the party, they would've realised how horrified he looked."

Stan, Glenn and Erin glanced at each other doubtfully.

Lara sighed. "It doesn't matter if you don't agree with me, and I could be wrong, but I don't think he's as into this as people seem to think."

"Maybe," Erin said loyally, as Lara could tell she didn't really agree but didn't want Lara to be upset. "Anyway, has anyone done the DADA homework? I was stuck on the third question."

The subject was determinedly changed and the Triwizard Tournament wasn't mentioned for the rest of the day. In fact, Lara noticed that her friends didn't mention the Tournament for the next few days. It was almost like they avoided mentioning it around her. A couple of times, Lara swore her friends would suddenly stop talking when she joined them, and they'd suddenly start a conversation about Hagrid's unhealthy obsession with the Blast-Ended Skrewts or the difficultly of their homework.

By the time Friday came around, Lara was at the end of her tether. She had far too much work to do, her lessons were bloody hard, she was 90% sure she was getting a cold, she'd twisted her ankle chasing a Skrewt around Hogwarts grounds, and her friends were annoying her with their inconspicuous conversations. She decided to spend the night in the library, mostly to be alone and bask in the quietness, and headed that way after dinner with her books.

She was so riled, so frazzled by everyday life, that by the time she got to the hallway leading to the library, she felt like she was about to explode. Which is why, she reasoned later, she lost her temper so easily.

A bunch of Slytherin's were walking towards her, sniggering as if they'd done something great. The white blonde hair made Lara realise it was Draco Malfoy, a smarmy fourth year boy whose idea of fun was bullying people. Two rather spotty and grungy boys flanked his sides, as they always did, but Lara had never bothered to learn their names. Something about the way they were acting made Lara stop walking and stare at them.

On their chests, they all wore the same large badge, the letter luminous red against their black Hogwarts robes.

Support CEDRIC DIGGORY—

the REAL Hogwarts Champion!

Lara's jaw dropped, just as the letters swirled and disappeared, only to be replaced by green words that read;

POTTER STINKS

"You pathetic bullies!" Lara squealed before she could stop herself, and all three heads turned towards her. "Take those badges off right now—"

"Who are you?" sneered Malfoy.

"That's not important," she snapped heatedly. She'd always tried to keep her opinions to herself about Malfoy given he was over three years younger than her, but with her newfound stress, she couldn't filter her mouth. "You little git. How dare you make those badges—"

Malfoy laughed meanly. "What do you think gives you the right to speak to me like this—"

"Oh, shut up." Lara snipped irritably. "It's hard to listen to you be all high and mighty about yourself when you were a squealing ferret three months ago."

"You're not a prefect," Malfoy spat, the apples of his cheeks staining red. He glanced at his two beefy companions as if daring them to laugh. "Or Head Girl, you can't tell me what to do."

"You know, one day, karma's going to bite you in the arse," Lara said sternly. "I just hope you have the strength and the people to help you through it," she peered at the two idle looking boys at his side. "Although, I severely doubt it."

Malfoy looked more confused than anything. Lara wondered if he'd ever thought about the future, about when he left school and he needed real friends and family to help him through the hard times. Malfoy didn't seem to realise nobody stayed a teenager forever.

"She's right, you know," a voice sounded from behind Lara, a familiar one that she hadn't heard for weeks. Turning slightly, Lara felt her heart skip in her chest when she saw David Brentford walking forward, his arms full of books. "Real life will catch up with you at some point, Malfoy. And you'll crash and burn."

Malfoy scoffed at them both and stormed away, muttering something about 'pathetic Gryffindor's' and 'stupid seventh years'. Lara rolled her eyes at his retreating back, the fire in her stomach slowly dimming now she had nothing to focus on. Shuffling on her feet, Lara peered over at David, who was also staring at the three Slytherin's and shaking his head.

"Thank you for backing me up," Lara said quietly, and David turned to her with a small smile. "I don't know what came over me."

"I think it was justified," David waved his hand unconcernedly. "And you weren't horrible about it. What you said is true—one day, he'll need people to support him and they'll be no one around."

"Yeah…I just hope it won't have consequences for other people, too."

"Who knows?" David shrugged and then he smiled. "Are you going to the library?"

"Yeah, I have loads of homework. I've kind of…slacked off a little this week," Lara hoisted the things in her arms up her body, a book digging into her hipbone. "I have DADA, Herbology and Alchemy essays to finish."

"Best get to it then, yeah?" he began to walk towards the library, and Lara instinctively followed. "Do you mind if I sit with you? Maybe we can bounce ideas off each other."

Lara ignored the way her heart flipped in her chest. "Sure," she breathed as held the library door open, allowing her to enter the room. "Sounds good."

He smiled widely and Lara almost let out a dreamy sigh. With everything that was going, she'd pretty much forgotten about her crush on David. Sometimes she saw him in the hallways and lessons, and butterflies would explode in her stomach or she'd suddenly poke herself in the eye with her quill or drop something, but she hadn't properly thought about him since Stan's summer party…where she'd snogged Fred Weasley to make him jealous.

Lara instinctively cringed as she followed David to a table. She still couldn't believe she'd done that; it was so unlike her. At least, she thought it was, but with recent events she wasn't so sure. She'd got rather outspoken this year, more confident (or more stupid). Before, she just thought about her opinions, but this year she was speaking them, too. This time last year, she wouldn't have dared to argue with her house mates about Harry bloody Potter, and she definitely wouldn't have called Malfoy out on his foolishness.

Yet here she was, spending Friday night in the library to avoid her concerned and overprotective friends who thought she was losing the plot, and now she was about to study with David Brentford after yelling at Malfoy and his two lackeys in the hallway.

Seventh year was strange.

Lara sighed and placed her things onto the table, dropped her bag to the floor and sat down. David sat opposite her on the rectangular table, preparing his own books and scrolls. Lara couldn't help but watch him from the corner of her eye, her heart thumping slightly too fast in her chest. She'd forgotten how good-looking he was; the definition of tall, dark and handsome. And he had the most amazing blue eyes.

"Shall we work on DADA?" David asked, not noticing Lara's stare. "Get it out the way?"

"Okay," Lara nodded, reaching for her DADA books. In her nervousness, she knocked a bunch of scrolls to the floor, which then knocked over an inkpot. "Oh, shit."

"I've got it," David said instantly, whipping out his wand from his robes and muttering a spell. The ink lifted from the table and went back into the pot, as if the spillage had never happened. "Is that pink ink?"

"Ah, yeah," Lara murmured and placed her scrolls back onto the table, her face and neck burning. "My brother buys me it from Diagon Alley…if you met him, it would make sense."

David let out a quiet laugh. "Does that mean he's a little weird?"

"More than a little," Lara smiled fondly. "Which reminds me, I really need to reply to his letter."

"What does he do?"

"He's works in the Beast Division at the Ministry. Specialises in dragons."

"Does he really? That sounds…dangerous."

"Yeah, I guess," Lara shrugged. "But what's life without adventure, right?"

"Spoken like a true Gryffindor."

Lara beamed at him; no one had ever said something like that to her before. She was always so peaceful, so shy, compared to her flamboyant and rowdy house mates. Bravery; that was the definition of a true Gryffindor, and yet Lara never felt like she had much. For years she'd actually wondered if the hat had placed her in the wrong house. She wasn't a hatstall or anything—in fact, the Sorting Hat had declared her a Gryffindor within the first five seconds of being on her head. But if anything, this had made her worry more.

Had the hat just said a random house to get her off the stool? Had it really thought about where to put her?

She should have known the hat was never wrong.

They worked in compatible silence for a long while, exchanging a few words here and there about the homework. Generally, however, both of them were fairly adapt to DADA and could finish off the essay alone. Herbology was much of the same, though David seemed to struggle a little more with the creativity aspect of the essay. Still, by the time they decided to leave the library, both essays were complete.

"I don't think I've ever got that much done in one sitting," Lara commented as she left the library, turning to smile at David brightly. "I feel like a Ravenclaw."

"The Ravenclaw's would be lucky to have you," David responding teasingly, though it made Lara blush the colour of a tomato.

"Well, thank you," she replied fighting to keep her voice even. "I'll make sure to tell Mandy and Omar."

"I really admire your friendship with them," David said as the duo began to walk through the hallways. "There's not many groups of friends that mix houses."

"Well, Erin, Stan and I met Mandy on the train, and she'd already made friends with Omar. Stan and Omar hit it off, being the only boys and all, and, well…the rest is history, I suppose."

"Doesn't house loyalty get in the way? Quidditch, for instance?"

"Mandy and Omar don't really like Quidditch, to be honest," chuckled Lara, hugging a book to her chest anxiously. This was the longest conversation she'd ever had with David and the realisation made her stomach knot. "It's usually just me and Stan at the matches. The other three prefer to hang out and play Exploding Snap."

"And you and Stan are…"

"Friends." Lara stated firmly. "Just friends. I love the boy, but after the Flobberworm bet we were never going to be anything more."

"The Flobberworm bet?"

"We were down at the lake in second year, just hanging out, really. Stan bet me to eat a flobberworm and…well, I'm a Gryffindor for a reason. So after I ate one, I made him eat one and…it didn't go well. We spent two days in the hospital wing taking turns throwing up into buckets. Turns out Flobberworms have acidic properties that irritate your stomach lining. Who knew, huh?"

David looked slightly alarmed. "You ate a Flobberworm?"

"I was twelve," Lara replied embarrassedly. "And he triple dared me and called me a chicken—dance moves and clucking noises and everything—so I kinda had to."

"Okay." David let out a surprised laugh, just as they got to the Entrance Hall where they'd have to split, Lara to go upstairs and David to go down. "So, eh…what about Fred Weasley? Is he…something more?"

"Oh Circe," Lara whispered, mortified. "No, he's not. I still can't believe I—he's a great guy, probably one of the funniest people I've ever met, but…there's nothing going on between us."

David nodded, though his eyebrows pulled together slightly. "It seems like he likes you," he said quietly.

Lara fumbled nervously with her bag, her chest aching with the pressure of her thumping heart. "Funnily enough, you're not the first person to say that," she said, hoping he would catch the jokey edge to her voice.

"Oh."

He didn't.

"But I don't think he does," Lara added quickly. "He's just…he's being nice. We get along and…we're mates—mates as in the friend sense, not the mating animal sense, obviously—not that you would think that, but you never know—"

A group of Hufflepuff girls walked past, giggling and whispering excitedly to each other. Each and every one of them wore a POTTER STINKS badge, which glowed in the dim light of the hallway. They caught Lara's eye from the distance and she instantly stopped rambling, her anger at the judgemental nature of the Hogwarts students once again taking over. She scoffed irritably and glared at the girls as they walked past—not that they noticed.

"Ignore them." David said as Lara scowled at their fading figures. "People are just jealous."

"Of what?"

"Of Harry, for a start. For his fame. No one really stops to think how he got the fame," David shrugged with a wry smile. "And now people are jealous that not only did he trick the Age Line and Dumbledore, he's a Triwizard Champion. The whole worlds going bonkers about him."

"For all the wrong reasons," murmured Lara. "He could die."

"I know, it's silly."

He was the first person to not make her feel stupid about her thoughts on Harry. Throwing him a grateful smile, she hugged her books tighter to her chest and gulped nervously. David cleared his throat and ducked his head slightly.

"Eh, anyway…" he licked his lips and rocked on his heels. "I better get back…curfew in half an hour…"

"Yeah." Lara nodded. "Don't want to be caught by Mrs Norris."

David's nose curled. "I'm more of a dog person."

"Me too," Lara giggled, and then stopped herself before she got carried away. "Goodnight."

"Night."

Spinning on her heels, Lara skipped towards the stairs, and all the way back to the common room. The Fat Lady gave her a very suspicious look when Lara turned up in front of her, a massive smile on her face and an illuminous glow to her cheeks. She tried to ask about it, but Lara said the password and rushed through the portrait hole, a dreamy sigh escaping her lips.

The common room was rather full, which was expected since it was so close to curfew. Lara intended to go straight to her dorm and tell Erin about her evening, but as she moved towards the stairs, someone yelled out, "Hey Culpepper!"

Turning, Lara saw the Gryffindor sixth years gathered around the fire. She wasn't sure which one had called her name, so she bounded over and smiled at them all. "Hey guys," she greeted them happily. "How's things?"

"You seem chipper," Lee smirked.

"I got two essays done, so I'm pretty happy right now," she shrugged, which was half-true.

"So that's where you've been all night?"

"Yep. What have you lot been up to?"

"The boys have been betting on the First Task," Angelina replied with a roll of her eyes. "Who'll be the fastest, who'll be the slowest, who'll be the most hurt…"

"Harry will win, obviously," said George confidently, making Lara smile at her budding-friends loyalty. "And then Diggory, Krum and Delacour. Krum's not smart enough to come second, and Delacour's not as nimble as the others…"

"You're putting a lot of thought into this," Lara said and settled down onto the floor in front of the fire, realising she wanted to stay for a little while and talk about the Tournament. Whenever she mentioned it to her friends, they'd make no comment and change the subject.

"But Diggory will have the most injuries," Lee said.

"No way, that'll be Harry," snorted Fred. "I mean, it's Harry."

"Has he made up with Ron yet?" Lara asked concernedly.

"No." Fred growled, rolling his eyes dramatically. "He's doing my bloody head in. He just sits and looks moody."

"He's a delight," George said sarcastically, his voice light. "Sunshine of my life, that boy. Sometimes I wonder if I'd ever laugh without him."

"He's annoying you, too, huh?"

"So much." George sighed. "He's a wildly frustrating person."

"He'll come round eventually," Alicia said. "He's just being a stubborn git. Reminds me of someone, actually…two someone's, in fact, and they're ginger and quite identical…"

Both twins scoffed, which did nothing more than prove Alicia's point.

Lee turned the conversation back to betting and Lara put a galleon on Harry winning, purely to show her allegiance to her house. As the group argued about whether or not it was moral to bet on potential deaths, Fred slipped from the arm of Lee's chair and onto the floor beside Lara. Lara, who had been staring into the fire dazedly, turned and smiled at him.

"What's up with you?" he smirked in amusement.

"Just a little giddy, that's all."

"About what?"

"My essays—"

"Bull." Fred snorted, giving her a flat look. "I know that smile. It's the smile of looooveee—"

"Shut up," chuckled Lara, elbowing him in the ribs gently. "I may have ran into David."

"And?"

"And we studied together."

"Studied?"

"It was nice," Lara laughed at Fred's horrified tone. "And then afterwards, he asked if I had anything going on with Stan or you, and we bonded over our shared confusion about the Tournament."

"It's sounding promising, Culpepper."

"You think?"

He grinned at her hopeful tone. "Yeah. Just a little more and I'll reckon he'll make the move."

"What do you mean?"

"If he sees me flirting with you and realises that someone else might fancy you, he'll make his move. I mean, he must already suspect, right? To ask if there's anything going on between us?"

"I guess." Lara shrugged slightly. "But…what do I tell him if we do, you know, get together? Oh, by the way, I flirted with Fred Weasley to make you notice me? Doesn't that sound weird?"

"No. And if he thinks it is, you know what you say?"

"What?"

"I had to because you're a bloody idiot," he said in a high-pitched voice, flailing his hands around effeminately. "And you're a stupid git who wouldn't make a move because of your man pride of whatever, so I had to give you a push. That push included me snogging the sexiest boy in the school—which, obviously, was Fred Weasley. There. Done."

Lara tried to keep the smile from her face and couldn't. "You make it sound so simple."

"That's because most things are, love," Fred grinned. "It's overthinking that complicates things. Which is why I don't overthink anything."

"Yeah, that's why." Lara snorted.

"So rude," Fred sighed in mock disappointment. "Anyway, the final stage of the plan is that you come to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow."

"With you? Like a date—"

"No, we'll go as a group," Fred said. "And you can be in that group. When we run into David in the village, I'll make sure to make it look like I fancy the hell out of you and he'll get jealous, realise he doesn't have all the time in the world and ask you out. Voila."

"Simple."

Fred's eyes glinted brightly and his smile, if possible, widened.

"Exactly. You're getting it, Culpepper."

Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and alerts guys! So happy you like this story!

Next chapter: the Hogsmeade trip that is definitely not a date, not at all...