It took nearly two full weeks for the boys to settle into their new schedule. Polly was set in a day or so, but the boys took a little longer to get used to the immediate barrage of Quidditch practices, and the classes that were harder than ever. It wasn't even the fact that the material had gotten harder, it's the fact that the teachers assigned more homework than ever before. Polly seemed ecstatic.
"Polly?"
She looked up from her Herbology homework to see Hermione standing there, blush on her cheeks and several books clutched tightly to her chest. Polly smiled, "Something you need?"
"No, I was just wondering if it would be alright if I joined you," Hermione said. "Fred and George said you usually studied here after classes."
"Not at all, please, sit." Polly gestured to the chair across from her. "And yes, I usually some here straight after classes to do my homework, you're welcome to join any time."
"Thanks," she said, immediately opening up her books.
Angelina came along shortly after, and sat next to Polly. She couldn't stay long. Angelina had to get to Quidditch practice in approximately an hour. Angelina always tried to finish her homework before, as she was usually exhausted after. The three girls worked away, the silence of the library oddly soothing. Polly finished up her Herbology work, and began to work on an essay.
"Polly, can you do me a favour?" Hermione asked, pulling out a little folded paper. She handed it to Polly. "Can you give that to Fred and George? It's just a little thank you letter."
"Sure," Polly said, tucking it into one of her textbooks. I'm meeting them after practice, I'll give it to them then." Polly couldn't really let it go though, she was curious. "Can I ask what they did?"
"Malfoy was being a real twat," Hermione explained. "And they nearly tackled him in my defence."
"I've trained them to be attack dogs," Polly joked, smiling. "But seriously, don't listen to a word Malfoy says, you know that right?"
"Yeah, I know. I better get going. I think Lockhart implied we should reread Magical Me for next class. Bye!" Hermione rushed off, nearly tripping before she made it to the library doors.
Polly worked a little longer by herself. After she'd finished up all her assignments, she packed up and made her way up to the Hufflepuff common room. She just wanted to quickly drop off her books before meeting Fred and George in the Great Hall. It was Thursday, which meant that there was only one more day of classes before Polly had the weekend to relax. Halfway through September, and the boys were already complaining about school. Polly always just shook her head, and laughed. "You better not drop out anytime soon," she always said, giggling as George would pick her up and spin her around. "And leave you without our company? We wouldn't dare."
Polly waited around the entrance of the Great Hall for about twenty minutes before the boys arrived. They walked as if they there was glue stuck to the bottom of their shoes. They seemed to be exhausted. Polly smiled sadly at them, realizing their poor bodies must be sore. They hadn't been lazy over the summer at all, but they hadn't been preparing for boot camp either.
"Hey Polly," Fred said, plopping down at the Gryffindor table. He sat nearest he could to the doorway. George sat opposite of Fred, and Polly sat close beside George. Rubbing his back soothingly. "Oh, that's alright. Give him some comfort, just forget old George over here."
"I haven't got enough hands, love," Polly said. Fred sounded genuinely snappy this time, but she understood it wasn't actually her fault, and she just took it without a complaint. He didn't mean anything by it, she knew that much. "I'll come over in a moment."
"No," George whined, putting his head on her shoulder, and a hand on her knee. It made her jump slightly, but relax. "Stay with me."
"Your brother needs a back rub too, greedy boy." Polly giggled, laying a kiss to the top of George's head.
"He's fine," George said.
"Oh, yeah? How so?"
"He's fallen asleep on the table." After George mentioned it, Polly heard the light snores coming from across the table. She looked up and saw Fred, face down on the table, sleeping.
"So he has," she said, laughing.
The next day was a much lighter day. It was only the third Saturday in September, so Polly had mostly all of her work done for the weekend. The only thing left to do was a few readings, but those would be done on Sunday evening, so they were fresh in her mind for Monday's classes. Polly had lots of time to spend with her friends. Cedric had invited her to play a game of chess on Sunday afternoon, which she was kind of excited for. Cedric had been a little under the weather the last week, and he spent most of his time resting when he wasn't in class. And Sunday morning was special time set aside for Tanya and Polly, as they just had different friend groups. They usually sat around in their pyjamas and just talked in their room.
But Saturday was typically spent with Fred and George. They would hang out, play pranks, and just enjoy each others company. Polly would make her way down to the Quidditch pitch with some snacks, and watch the team practice for a little bit, and then when the practice was over, Polly would meet the boys outside of the dressing rooms. Then their day together would proceed. Polly loved spending her spare time with George. And Fred too, of course.
Polly was wearing her robes, as well at a black hat, with a big black pom-pom on top. Her mom had gotten in for her, and while it wasn't too cold outside, she still didn't want the wind to make her ears cold. Polly loved the winter, and the snow. But she hated cold wind. Everyone always giggled about how specific she was about her weather preferences. One time she said; "it's not snow's fault that it's cold, but the wind is just trying to be a jerk." It had sent Justin into hysterics. It was the way Polly had crossed her arms and pouted, while talking about wind.
The memory made Polly giggle, as she headed across the field and to the pitch. She made her way to her usual spot, snacks in her pocket, and book in her hand. Polly wasn't the only one sitting in the stands this time, there was a young boy, looked to be in first or second year sitting in the Gryffindor section. He was taking picture after picture, and every time the flash went off, and the camera clicked, Wood seemed to get a little more tense. Polly saw this, and worried it may effect her boys. So she made her way to the young lad.
"Hullo," she said, startling him. "I'm Polly."
"Colin Creevey," he said, confused as to why a Hufflepuff was approaching him on the Gryffindor bleachers, during a Gryffindor practice.
"Mind if I sit?" she asked.
"No it's alright," he said. "What are you doing here? Not a spy are you? I'll tell Harry, I will."
"Fred and George Weasley are my best friends. They're the twins on the team. They're beaters." Polly offered Colin a chocolate chip cookie. He took one.
"I come to watch Harry play," Colin said, lifting up his camera to take another picture. "Did you know he's the youngest player in a century?"
"I did," Polly said. "And just a tip. If you want to keep watching them practice, I'd cool it with the pictures. Oliver gets a little stingy about that sort of thing."
"Who's Oliver?"
"Oliver Wood, he's the captain."
"Oh," Colin said, "Guess I shouldn't make him angry. Thanks for the advice."
"Anytime."
The practice didn't go on much longer. Colin Creevey, Polly had learned, knew a lot about Harry. Polly now also knew a lot more about Harry than she did yesterday. Almost everything about of that boy's mouth was about the boy who lived. It was like he was an audio book or something. Polly rushed away from Colin to go meet with the boys.
Once she was with them they were sent into a fit of giggles. "We could've warned you," they both said, laughing. It wasn't until Oliver came over and gave Polly a big hug and a kiss on the cheek that the twins stopped laughing.
"Polly, Colin came over and promised to stop taking photos at practice, it was so annoying. I could kiss you," he said, holding her shoulder tightly.
"You better not," George said, prying Oliver away from her. "You can say thank you, and move on with your day."
"Thanks," Oliver said, walking away unphased.
"What was that?" Polly asked, laughing.
"He was making a move on you," George said, "Not allowed, unacceptable, no."
Fred and Polly both just laughed. For the next few hours, their time was spent goofing off in the Courtyard. At one point, George had stolen Polly's hat, and worn it around the courtyard pretending to be Snape doing ballet. "Because there's a black bun on top, of course," he had said, defending his joke.
"You're such a doofus, come back over here!" Polly had shouted as George did embarrassing spins.
But now they were just sitting on the grass, lying on their backs and enjoying the sun beating down on them. The weather was going to turn cold soon. So they had to take the nice weather when they could get it.
"Hey Polly?" George said, breaking the silence.
"Yeah?"
"You look really cute in that hat," he said.
"Thanks George." Polly reached over and grabbed his hand. He gave hers a little squeeze.
Slowly, the nice weather turned colder. And the leaves started falling more and more everyday. But it was as if October came out of nowhere. Polly didn't feel like she'd been at school for over a month, but sure enough, they were in the middle of the first week of October. Time seemed to be so much faster in the school year than the summer. Summer trickled by so slowly, while school seemed to last half as long then it actually did. It made no sense. Polly felt like she was getting whiplash.
But it wasn't whiplash.
It was a cold.
She'd been struck by the virus going around school. The sniffles were the worst of it. Class was like a sniffing orchestra. It was the worst during the quiz in Transfiguration. It was as if Cedric and Anya were competing for the loudest sniffs. It was sending Polly straight up the wall. Fred had gotten sick, but surprisingly George hadn't. It was as if he had a force field around him, because while both Fred and Polly got close to him with their own sick germs, George remained fine. It pissed Polly off. But her anger came across as cute to the twins. And that made her even more mad.
"C'mon, lighten up, we're just teasing," George said. "It's not your fault you just look so adorable when you get all flustered." Polly punched George in the arm. "Even that was cute."
"Like an angry little ducky," Fred said, laughing. The laughing turned into coughing.
"That's what you get," Polly said, pouting. George smiled and brought her in closer. He kept her close and kissed her forehead. "You're gonna get sick," she warned.
"I'd like to see a virus try to take me on," George said, flexing. "My insides are as strong as my outsides."
"Like I said," Polly said, "you're gunna get sick."
"Mean," George snipped, pouting.
Polly shrugged, and wrapped her arms around George's torso. Fred looked at the two of them, quietly talking among themselves. "I'm here too, you know?"
"We know," George said, laughing but not looking away from Polly.
"Been with the guy all our lives, and suddenly he's leaving me. For a woman," Fred said, laughing. "I won't have it."
"You're right you won't," Polly said, gripping George tighter. "Mine."
"Getting a little possessive, are we?"
"Mine." Polly held George tightly. She felt his tummy rumble as he laughed.
"No need to fight over me, there's plenty of me to go around." George winked at Polly.
"If I have to share, then I'm not interested," Polly said, letting go.
"Me either," Fred said, "C'mon Polly, think it's about time we visited Madam Pomfrey". Polly followed alongside him. Fred and Polly began to chat and makes a few jokes among themselves.
"Hey, wait for me!" George called, following behind them. They all laughed together when George caught up. The conversation carried on casually, with Polly's hand tucked into George's larger one. Fred noticed but said nothing. It was only a matter of time now before George asked her out. This was clear as the nose on anyone's face. Fred was happy for George and Polly truly – but a part of him wondered if he actually was losing George. They'd spent more time apart these last couple weeks. And Fred knew that it was bound to happen, but he always kind of thought it was be him and Angelina branching off while George and Polly did the same. He didn't think George would be sailing off in his own ship while Fred was still trying to build one. Fred and George were always so in sync, but in this one area, George seemed to be miles ahead.