School's been back for almost a month now and Georgia was starting to get behind in her work, she had been spending too much time writing in her note book. You see, it's Georgia's dream to become an author but, unfortunately, they don't offer any English subjects at Hogwarts. So, in order to keep up her writing skills she has a wizarding author her dad knew from school, who just so happens to be an English teacher in the Muggle world. However, she only sees him in the school holidays so she has many projects she has to do over the term and because of how much she wants this Georgia finds that she keeps sweeping her homework under the metaphorical rug.
It's not as though she doesn't know how to do the work, because she does. In fact, half of the problem is that she's done most of the content already in her classes back in Australia as semester one started in late January not the middle of the year, so she just sort of ignored it because she knew it already. Georgia had made a decision, she would get herself a tutor/study buddy to help her to actually do her homework, and she knew just the person. Draco Malfoy.
Unfortunately, there was flaw problem in her plan. The one person she needed wasn't very friendly with her anymore. When she had finally worked up the courage to tell her house that she was, in fact, a halfblood, he hadn't taken it well. He refused to talk to her for a week for 'deceiving' him, now he just put up with her because she had become quite close with his two best friends. Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, that's right, she remembers their names now.
Because of this fact, she would just have to use her friendship with his friends to her advantage. Speaking of advantage, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that all three boys were coming down from their dorm for the rest of the dull Saturday.
"Hey guys." Georgia smiled coyly at them as Blaise and Theodore (or Theo, as he'd asked her to call him) sat down on either side of her on the big leather couch, and Draco sat opposite them on a two seater. They all replied with various forms of greeting.
She decided not to beat around the bush and to just go right out and say it. "Draco, I need to ask you for a favour." Georgia said with a look of seriousness on her face. The boys looked taken aback, they had not expected this.
"And what exactly would said favour entail?" Draco smirked, not one to blindly agree to anything.
"I'm sure you, as the observant person you are," She said with a sarcastic smile of her face, the boys had quickly learnt that her outward emotion could change at the speed of light when she wanted it to. "Have noticed that I've been falling behind in pretty much all my subjects. I don't need a tutor, I know all the content for the semester. What I need is a study buddy. Someone who will get me to actually do the homework I need to do in order to pass my classes. And considering you're currently holding the top grades in our year second only to Granger, I figured you'd be able to help me just fine."
He looked at her as his smirk widened, "Is the little Prewett failing her classes?"
Georgia stood up and looked down at him, "I'm not failing anything, I'm just not getting my homework to a standard I can accept. If you don't want to help, that's fine. I'll just have to go talk to the snooty Granger instead, she'll probably have better advice for me anyway."
As she turned to walk out of the common room she felt a hand grip her wrist tightly. "I'm better than any Gryffindor." He growled as he spun her to face him.
"Prove it."
o0O0o
Recently, Ron and Georgia have been getting along less and less, and that's saying something. So when he stood up on his chair to make an announcement, the same morning they'd had a really big fight, Georgia was more than worried.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Teachers and students, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Gryffindors," He paused for a 'dramatic' effect. "And Slytherins. I have a special announcement for you all, however, this information may be inappropriate for young Slytherins. Georgia Prewett, you know her, I know her. Being my very own cousin, you'd think she was a pureblood, right? Wrong! Turns out her mother is one hundred percent… muggle." He stage-whispered the last word.
All the Slytherins looked at her in shock. Georgia sat still, her blood boiling. She stared Ron down, staying silent. Until she couldn't take it anymore.
"You had no right! Do you think I like hearing my friends and class mates talk shit about my family? I only didn't tell anyone because everyone just made assumptions!" She pointed her wand at him threateningly, as she did at least half the Gryffindors wands came up as well. She was clearly outnumbered, seeing as none of the Slytherins were backing her up here. The Slytherins were just in too much shock, even those who didn't really care about blood status, to keep up with the 'united front' bullshit.
"Sure it is," Ron sneered sarcastically. "You must hate her, your mother, you being in Slytherin proves that much. Or maybe you hate you're father too? Because he married your mother."
"The only person I hate in this world is you, Ronald Weasley. So thank you and go fuck yourself." She turned from the Hall and as soon as she was out of the room she ran all the way out the front doors, brown hair flying, to the edge of the grounds where the Black Lake met the Forbidden Forrest.
o0O0o
"Come on, Ron. Was that really necessary?" Charlotte asked from her place next to her cousin, looking up at him with curiosity. She hadn't been witness to the argument that had been held between the two this morning, thus didn't know about the 'necessity' of the situation.
"She said some equally mean things earlier this morning in the corridor. The only difference being that the only witnesses were from Gryffindor and Slytherin, not the whole school." Ron defended himself with a grumpy look on his face.
"I think that was the point, Ron." Hermione told him, a stern look on her face, "No matter what she said to you it wasn't in front of the entire school. Nor was it something you were keeping from close friends."
"They've got a point, mate." Harry interjected.
"What did she say anyway?" Charlotte asked.
Ron then proceeded to explain, in great detail, the confrontation from earlier that morning. As he was walking to breakfast with Seamus and Dean he came across Georgia, Malfoy, Zabini and Nott standing around in a corridor talking. Naturally he'd told them to, "Stop blocking the corridor, there are people trying to get through!"
To which Georgia replied, "Maybe if you lost a couple kilos you'd be able to get past like a normal person." Making the Slytherins laugh at Ron's reddening face as he stormed off. He knew he wasn't fat, he was quite fit actually, they were just saying it because they could. It still hurt though, coming from his cousin, no matter how much they disagreed.
"I can't believe she said that!" Hermione was horrified, anything positive she previously thought about the bespectacled girl had gone flying out the window.
"I'm sure she was joking around, or just trying to fit in with the other Slytherins. She's never been very good with the whole friends thing." Charlotte said, defending her sister. Although she was still surprised that Georgia would possibly tease someone about something like that.
o0O0o
It was getting late now and Georgia was still sitting in the same place she'd been since the morning. Tears still steadily streaming down her face as she watched the Giant Squid playing around in what little light was left. She dreaded going back inside, she didn't want to see anyone. She just wanted to curl up and go to sleep right here.
Ron was wrong, she could never hate her parents. She loved them too much. That's what she was mentally clinging to as her eyes slowly fell shut.
Before she knew it she was roughly awoken by someone shaking her, "Georgia. Georgia wake up!"
Her eyes flickering open adjusting the tiniest sliver of light rising over the horizon. It was Ben, when she looked him in the eye, he just smiled at her and pulled her into a tight and familiar hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay. I was out looking for you all night."
"You're a wizard Ben."
He pulled back from her, "Yeah, and?"
"You didn't think to use a 'point me' charm?" She asked as she raised an eyebrow at him. He just looked at stared at her and started to laugh, which set her off too.
She could never hate anyone in her immediate family.
o0O0o
Turns out that the Slytherins had been worried about her, this was evident when she walked into the common room and was met with most members of said house's eyes. Luckily it was Saturday and after her classmates basically dragged her into the Great Hall with them she was able to go straight to bed.
o0O0o
Charlotte had always been a morning person, so getting up early to avoid the other Hufflepuffs was no big feat. However, one night she hadn't been able to get her usual amount of sleep and had slept in longer than she would usually allow herself. As she was sneaking out of her dorm room, careful not to wake up some of her still sleeping classmates, she ran right into the chest of a very grumpy looking Zacharias Smith.
"Oh my! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you." Her eyes wide with panic.
He looked down at her with a sneer of disdain, "Watch where you're going, Prewett. Why don't you and your traitorous arse just go back to Gryffindor?" With that he shoved her into the wall and walked back to his dorm. On her fast trip to the wall she had hit her head on the doorframe and everything around her started to spin. Having the determination she had to not show weakness to those people, she decided to make her way to the Great Hall like she had planned even though her head was still throbbing.
Charlotte was walking down the corridor that lead right to the Great Hall and just as she was about to walk inside, she felt herself falling and her vision was quickly encompassed with black.
o0O0o
"Charlotte? Charlotte, can you hear me?" Her head was pounding, as though a percussion ensemble had taken up residence inside her skull. She barely noticed the muffled voice that sounded in the distance.
"Huh? Wh-what happened to me? Where am I?" Charlotte asked to the far away voice trying to open her eyes, "Who are you?" Everything around her was too blurry to see anything and quickly scrunched them closed again, feeling nauseous.
"It's Harry, we saw you fall over, are you okay? Hermione's here too." A hand moved to rest on her shoulder, "We're going to take you to Madame Pompfrey, alright?" Charlotte felt herself being lifted into the air, and held against a firm chest.
o0O0o
Harry and Hermione were making their way down to the great hall for breakfast when they saw Charlotte fall to the ground, and quickly ran to to her. "Hermione, what do we do? What's wrong with her?" Harry asked franticly looking around for what might have caused this reaction.
"I don't know, we should see if we can wake her, then take her to the hospital wing as soon as possible." She replied while moving to gently shake her friend awake, causing Charlotte to stir slightly.
"Charlotte? Charlotte, can you hear me?" Harry asked, concern filling his voice as he looked her over trying to find some sort of injury as Hermione watched him from little ways away.
"Huh? Wh-what happened to me? Where am I? … Who are you?" Her eyes opening a little, seeming dazed and unable to focus, before they quickly snapped shut with a small groan of pain.
"It's Harry, we saw you fall over, are you okay? Hermione's here too." Hermione moved closer to put a hand on Charlotte's shoulder in an attempt at comforting the brunette. "We're going to take you to Madame Pompfrey, alright?" Receiving no reply Harry gestured for his best friend to move back as he picked up his other friend's cousin and held her securely in his arms and made his way to the hospital wing to see Madame Pompfrey.
o0O0o
"Ronald! You can't just barge in there, she's still recovering from a concussion! She needs to rest so she can get back to the Hufflepuff dormitories as soon as possible and hopefully catch-up on everything she will have missed in class!" Hermione shouted as she hurried after Ron on his way to the hospital wing, trying to convince him to go to class rather than disturb his cousin's recovery.
"Hermione, you don't understand! I need to talk to her now, it's important." He growled back to her and burst through the entrance of the wing. "Where is she? Where's Charlotte?" Ron was fuming, he was furious, he needed to see his cousin, now.
"Mr. Weasley, I'm afraid Miss. Prewett is currently on a strict 'no visitors' policy at the moment if you could come back after classes have finished it would be most appreciated." Madame Pompfrey said primly from from where she was organising a rack full of various healing potions and salves.
"It's okay Poppy, he can come in, I'm fine." Came a voice from the far end of the wing, it's owner hidden behind drawn curtains for privacy's sake. "Ron, I'm over here"
He made his way over to the partition curtain and moved it aside to find his adorable cousin, because she truly was and kind and vulnerable in this place full of bad guys. "Hey Charlotte."
"Hi Ron, what are you doing here?" She asked anxiously looking around the room before they found Hermione and calmed down knowing he couldn't possibly get away with shouting something horrible at her with the feisty headstrong Gryffindor around.
"I need to know who did this to, I know it was a 'Puff, I just need to know which one." He practically forced her to make eye contact, his words surprising her, they certainly weren't what she expected him to say.
"It was…"
