Characters: Alana Jordan, Charlie Weasley, Andre Egwu, Tulip Karasu

Genre: Friendship/Romance

Alana sat in the Great Hall eating on Hogwarts favorite dish: sandwiches.

If you could call it eating. She had been there for the last 20 minutes and only a corner of it was gone.

She was patiently waiting for Andre to come into the Great Hall after his Quidditch practice. She was both nervous as well as excited.

Alana and Andre hadn't talked to each other ever since she had the very cringeworthy conversation about his broom the week prior.

**FLASHBACK TO A WEEK AGO**

"Hey Curse Breaker, I need my broom for Quidditch practice tomorrow. I'll let you have it back when I'm done."

"Andre! Uh yeah, about your broom..."

"Alana, why are you looking at me like that?"

"I...Oh I'm so sorry Andre! Snape caught me about to fly three nights ago, and he destroyed it! I tried to stop him, but-"

"He what? Alana! What the bloody hell! I told you not to-"

"I'm sorry! I tried to tell Snape that it was your broom, I did! But he simply wouldn't listen! I'm going to ask him to repair it when I attend class later, but I don't know if he will. You know how Snape is."

"Yes, I know. He's a greasy haired wanker with no fashion sense. But...I trusted you, Alana. My grandmother gave me that broom, you know."

"I know, and I feel absolutely horrid about all this Andre."

"It wasn't...it wasn't your fault. Snape just...I'll talk to you later about this. I need time to think."

"Dre-"

"See you, Curse-Breaker. Or should I call you Broom-Breaker now?"

**END FLASHBACK**

"Alright Charlie?" said Alana happily as Charlie approached her and sat down across from her.

"Alright. Just came from practice so forgive me if I'm a bit smelly. I needed something to drink," said Charlie as he grabbed a water pitcher and filled up his small wooden goblet.

"You're not smelly at all actually," said Alana, pushing her sandwich plate to the side. "You smell like you rode the wind."

Charlie laughed. "And that's a good thing?"

"It is to me," said Alana, smiling brightly.

Charlie could feel the hot blush spreading across his cheeks and up to his ears. He rubbed the back of his neck and let out a nervous chuckle. He was grateful that his hair that he normally kept in a ponytail was loose and covering them, and he could easily pass the redness of his cheeks as flush from practice.

"So, you look a lot more chipper than you have these days," said Charlie hastily.

"That's because things are finally looking up for me," said Alana. "As I told you earlier, I have- Oi, Andre!"

Mid sentence, Alana had seen that Andre had walked into the Great Hall. Andre looked her way as she shouted his name. He sighed, but reluctantly headed over towards the Gryffindor table.

Andre had been avoiding having a conversation with Alana ever since she had told him about Snape breaking his broom. Though he knew that it wasn't fully Alana's fault, he still couldn't help but feel like she should have checked her surroundings better. Maybe she wouldn't have gotten caught. He had even went to Snape the next afternoon and begged for at least the remains of his faithful Comet, but Snape wasn't having it, and had threatened to take 50 points from Ravenclaw if he "continued to pester him with his incessant whining".

As Andre sombered over, Charlie felt a twinge of guilt. Though he had felt bad that Andre's broom had gotten destroyed, he couldn't help but be a tad bit thrilled. Alana and Andre wasn't talking, and in his heart he felt that the longer they didn't speak, Alana's fancy of Andre could diminish.

"Alright there Charlie, Alana," said Andre as he stopped by Alana's side.

Alana quickly stood up from the table. She shyly put her arms behind her back, slowly turning her body. She didn't know how long she would keep his attention.

"Look Dre, I'm really sorry about the whole broom fiasco," she began. "I take full responsibility. I should have took care of if better."

"Look, I-"

"But wait!" interrupted Alana. "I have something for you that will hopefully make up for what happened.

Andre rolled his eyes as Alana fumbled through her robe's inside pocket. "Look, I really don't want to talk about that anymore. What's done is done. I'll just have to get over it. You don't have to give me anything."

Alana held out a fist. "Oh but I think you're going to like this. Ooh just wait and see!"

Charlie looked on quietly. Andre shrugged and let out a sigh.

"Alright. What is it?"

Alana took her wand out from her wand pocket. She held out her fist a bit further, pointed the wand to it, and said "Engorgio."

In a matter of seconds, her fist started to open as the item she was holding grew. Andre backed away a bit, not knowing what was growing in her hand.

A broomstick emerged and continued to grow as Alana held onto it. When it got to it's full size, Alana held it out to Andre, who recognized it immediately.

"My broom!" exclaimed Andre excitedly. He grabbed the broom from Alana's hand. His hand rubbed the A that he had long ago carved into the broom.

"But how did you-"

"Snape!" said Alana. "He didn't really break it at all. He put on a spell that made it appear to me that he had completely destroyed it, when he hadn't done much damage at all. He only did it to make whoever had been spying for Rakepick tell her that Snape had ruined my plans. After I spied on her for him, he gave it back!"

Charlie swallowed hard as Andre propped the broom against the table and hugged Alana, lifting her up from the ground a bit as he spun her around in an enthusiastic embrace.

"Wicked, Alana! You have no idea how happy I am!" he cheered as he set her feet back onto the ground. "Thank you so much!"

Alana felt her heart beating a mile a minute. Andre had never hugged her before, and to give her such an enthusiastic one, it made her feel all tingly and warm. She was smiling so hard, that it was hurting her cheeks.

"I still need it one last time, if that's alright with you," said Alana hesitantly.

Andre beamed. "Of course! Anything!"

Andre grabbed his broom and cradled it as if it was his lost child. He then grinned widely at Charlie.

"You better be ready Saturday, Weasley," challenged Andre amusingly. "I'm coming for that Snitch."

Charlie smirked, but tried to make it look friendly. "We shall see, Egwu. Famous last words and all of that. Congrats on getting your broom back."

"I'm going to go practice right now while I have time before Herbology," said Andre, resting his broom against his shoulder. "Thanks, Curse-Breaker."

Alana's face lit up as Andre said his appointed nickname for her. It had been a long time since she had heard it. She watched proudly as Andre scooped up a sandwich table and then hurried out of the hall.

She held her cheeks and giggled as she twirled around. She felt a bit like a lovestruck firstie, but she couldn't help it. She had done well by Andre. He was happy again and speaking to her. And he had smelled quite lovely when he had hugged her.

She looked over at Charlie, who was staring in the direction of the exit, appearing lost in thought.

"Charlie, are you in there?" she joked merrily.

Charlie broke out of the trance he was seemingly in and looked over at Alana. He faked a smile.

"Of course I am," he said thought almost gritted teeth. "Glad the bloke got his broom back. He was happy enough, want he?"

Alana could hear the slight cutting in Charlie's voice, which threw her off. "You don't seem too thrilled, Charlie. Are you nervous about the game now that he has his broom back?"

Charlie shrugged and let out a small chuckle. "Absolutely not. And I am thrilled that he got his broom back. He really loves it. And he looked like you have given him a signed Pride of Portree jersey or something."

"Well his broom is very special to him,"said Alana, sitting back in her seat. "It was from his grandmother, you know."

"Right,' said Charlie in a low voice. He looked down at the huge sandwich in front of him and made a face.

Alana looked at Charlie, puzzled. "Don't worry, we will still beat the tar out of them. We always have with you being the best seeker and all."

Charlie again felt himself blush. He couldn't help but smile, despite not really wanting to.

"You always give the best compliments, Alana," said Charlie with a grin.

"I know, I know. You tell me that all the time in Care of Magical Creatures," said Alana, getting back up from the table. "I'm off. I have to tell Tonks and Penny what happened. Then I have to speak to Barnaby about everything. They had been so worried. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, later," smiled Charlie as Alana somewhat skipped off.

Charlie looked gloomily down at his plate. Now it was his turn to pick at his sandwich. Suddenly he heard the creek of the bench as someone had sat down beside him.

"Well that was uncomfortable to watch," said Tulip, smirking."

"You seen that then?" groaned Charlie.

"Oh yeah. As loud as the two of them were, I bet even Slytherin table saw that. Why don't you just tell her?"

Charlie tensed up. His eyes grew wide as he looked directly at the snarky redhead.

"What are you going on about?" he managed to push out, knowing full well he wasn't fooling her.

Tulip grinned. "And here I thought you Gryffindors were supposed to be brave. Aren't you the father of dragons, Charlie Weasley? You'll handle full on dragons, but you won't tell a teenage girl that you fancy her?"

"I don't know what you're going on about."

Tulip shrugged. "Alright then. Keep denying it to me all you want. Anybody with a pair of working eyes can see that you fancy her. So quit being a ninny and talk to her. Or you'll really lose to us, wont you?"

And with that, Tulip snatched Charlie's sandwich from his plate, took a satisfying bite, and walked off, leaving him both appalled and intrigued.