Major props to 'Ravenclaw Heiress Vixela'who figured out that the Fat Lady's portrait password was 'broomstick' in latin. And thanks for all the reviews.
I didn't go crazy editing... i posted this at 3:15 am. darn that insomnia.
Disclaimer: I'm a book obsessed, to-myself, writer so I MUST be JK Rowling. Wait… I'm NOT? Merlin's pants.
Chapter 4
Insomnia and Late Night Quidditch
Vic POV
"It's all taken care of."
It's all taken care of??? What the hell does that mean? I thought to myself. I immediately dropped Teddy's gaze and concentrated on my food. But as hungry as I was a couple minutes before, I couldn't bring myself to put food in my mouth. I just sat there stupidly, pushing some potatoes around on my plate. Wood started talking to Teddy about who knows what and the previous conversation was forgotten. By them, at least.
Then Lucy dropped her knife loudly onto her plate. "You know, I have to go to the little girls' room. Vic?"
"Hm?" I mumbled. She didn't say anything until I looked up at her. She was giving me a we-need-to-talk look.
"Let's go." Her no-nonsense tone told me I shouldn't argue. She had already stood up and started walking towards the doors. I followed her reluctantly, not quite knowing what to expect.
She was waiting for me outside of the Great Hall. "Second floor," she stated.
"That lavatory? Why would we go in there? Nobody ever goes in there."
"Exactly." She started climbing the stairs two at a time and barely let me catch up. Once we reached the lavatory, she sat down on one of the sinks. Of course, everyone knew that this was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, but no one was brave enough to come in here anymore. People told rubbish stories that the basilisk's ghost still haunted the bathroom. But really, only one ghost did.
"Oh, look it's the Weasleys," someone sneered. I rolled my eyes and turned to the voice, spotting Moaning Myrtle sitting on one of the toilet seats.
"Listen, Myrtle," Lucy began. "We kind of need to talk so can you go, I don't know… somewhere else?"
"Well!"She exclaimed, and disappeared down the toilet. I turned to Lucy.
"Now, Luce, would you care to explain why you brought me to 'a little girls room' that's out of order?"
Her face softened. She looked down at her feet and didn't say anything for a while. When she did speak, she was very quiet. "Are you okay?"
"With what?"
She let out a huff. "For goodness sake, Vicky. You know what."
"I'm fine. Why would I care?" Why would I care? I asked myself.
"Okay…" she said, obviously not convinced. She made her way back. "Well, you coming?"
"No, that's okay. I'm full," I lied. I actually hadn't eaten at all.
"Liar," she accused.
Fortunately, growing up with Lucy taught me how to deal with these sorts of situations. So, instead of arguing back, I just put my hands up in surrender. She scoffed and rolled her eyes, leaving me alone in the 'historical restroom'. I let out a very sad and pathetic sigh.
"Aw… Is poor ickle Vickykins upset about something?" I heard Myrtle say. She had reappeared, sitting on the window ledge, swinging her feet and giggling evilly. She's been a prat ever since she found out we were Harry Potter's nieces and we wouldn't tell him she said hi. But really, Uncle Harry told us about Myrtle. Enough said. Now every time we went to any of the corridor bathrooms, she made sure to stop by and annoy us until we had a bloody fit. Needless to say, we stuck to the common room bathrooms.
I just gave her a rude hand gesture and made my way to the Gryffindor Tower. When I made it to the portrait, I said, "Manubrium scoparum."
The Fat Lady just grunted and swung open. That lady's so damn cranky. I mean, you ask her once to open up at one in the morning and all of a sudden you're Voldemort. Goodness.
When I reached our room, I just stopped and stood there. I realized that I was really hungry again. The night before, Winky had given me some left over biscuits which were now stashed in my trunk. I skidded over to the case, landing on my hands and knees, opening the trunk. I found the biscuits wrapped in a cloth on top. But as I reached out to grab them, I found my gaze lingering on a photo album of my family. Making a quick decision, I threw on my pajamas: a tank top and sweats I had cut to shorts. I grabbed the biscuits and the photo album, and climbed on my bed. Simultaneously nibbling on my snack, I opened up the album.
The first page showed Dominique, Louis, and me two years ago. They were building a sandcastle on the beach while I was filling up a bucket of water. The photograph progressed, depicting Louis's shocked face when I sneaked behind him and dumped the water on his head. Dominique was laughing hysterically. I giggled out loud at the memory.
I skipped a few pages. Another picture showed Aunt Ginny and my mom. They were at the Potters' place, playing chess at the kitchen table; moving pieces back and forth, making conversation that I couldn't hear. But I remembered the scene exactly. Maman was going on about how the game was "barbaric" and my aunt said she was just afraid she'd loose. My mother and my aunt would never admit it, but everyone else knew that they had become friends. Now they just bickered for fun.
Next was a photograph of Teddy and myself, this past summer, hanging out in his room. His bedroom was messy with junk all over the floor and posters covering the walls. He was sprawled out on his bed with his eyes closed, headphones plugged into his ear. His foot was tapping along with the silent beat. I was sitting in the big armchair in the corner, reading a book that Aunt Hermione had lent me. We weren't talking; just being.
I skimmed the rest of the album until I reached the last page. It was a picture of my parents and my siblings. It was taken a couple days before I got back to school. I had practically forced them to sit down for a picture that I could add to my album. They were just standing in front of the cottage, smiling. And as I looked at this picture, homesickness pulled at my heart. I closed the album and pulled my covers over my head.
Eventually, all the other girls came up from dinner and made their way into dreamland, but I continued to stare at the top of my four-poster bed. At around one o' clock, I knew I had to do something.
So soon I found myself climbing down the marble staircase, barefoot and still wearing my pajamas. Through one of my late night walks last year, I discovered that in one of the small windows in the Entrance Hall, the glass was so loose you could pop it out. Of course, it being glass, I had accidentally cut myself once or twice the previous year. I managed to come out cut-free tonight. I hopped lightly onto the grass and made my way. One look towards Hagrid's dark hut told me he was asleep, so I went to the quidditch pitch instead. I grabbed a broom out of the cupboard and started flying.
When I was flying, I felt on top of the word; invincible. Believe me; it does wonders to a girl's ego. But tonight, I still had that feeling of homesickness in my stomach. I landed right in the middle of the pitch, sitting down on the dew laden grass. I could have been sitting there for minutes or hours before I felt a hand grasp my shoulder. My hand shot to my wand and I whipped around.
"WHAT THE HELL TEDDY??" He was staring at me, looking a little frightened. His hair was brown, but I wasn't sure if he knew this or not. I was about to lash out at him again, but my heart was beating too fast. I clutched a hand over my heart and laid down.
"Uh…" I heard him mutter.
Once my heart calmed down a bit, I sat up and glared at him. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"Not today," he retorted.
"What are you doing here? Do you have some new hobby of stealing my late night hideouts?"
He softly chuckled. "No. I saw you out here. I was looking out my window. I climbed out the window in the Entrance Hall."
"Yeah…"
"What were you doing awake anyway?" he asked.
"Oh I just wasn't feeling great. I miss my family…"
He was silent for a little while, and I realized what I'd said wrong. "Me, too."
"Couldn't sleep?" I asked.
He pointed at the full moon. "Not tonight." Though Teddy was not a werewolf, he had always been a little off on nights of the full moon. We talked about it once and he told me he wasn't sure if it was because of the werewolf genes. He thought maybe the fact that he always thought of his father on full moons kept him awake. That was one of the few times we ever talked out his dad.
I whispered, "Sorry, Teddy." I meant it for both things. This was my usual response. I didn't know how to make it better, so I stuck with sympathy. We sat in comfortable silence. I noticed- after a little while- how close I was sitting next to him. It was overwhelming.
So I thought I should subtly- or not so subtly- bring up what happened before dinner. "Teddy…" I began, breaking him out of thought. "So, what are your plans for Hogsmeade now? I mean, because Lucy and I were trying to get some people to go…" I trailed off.
He turned to look me in the eye. His gaze was so intense, like he was searching for something. It took all I could not to flinch. Then he finally answered, softly, "I'm not going with anybody, if that's what you mean."
To keep me from saying something horribly stupid like, "That's great!", I just bit my lip and nodded. When I realized he was still staring at me a few minutes later, the homesickness in my stomach was replaced with butterflies.
His gaze dropped to my lips and back up to my eyes. Then, when he started to lean in-
"Weasley! Lupin!" I shot up and Teddy muttered a swear word under his breath. Professor Amble was walking toward us. Her illuminated wand tip was pointed at us. She gave us a hard glare. If looks could kill…
"What do you two think you're doing out of bed at this hour?" she scolded. I had a feeling that if it weren't the middle of the night, she would have been yelling. "Now, you know that I have no choice but give you detention."
Yeah, I had kind of figured that. I nodded my head and Teddy said, "Yes, professor."
"Come along now," she said, gesturing to the castle. I started forward, feeling Teddy's gaze on me. No matter how much I couldn't believe it, something had just- or almost- happened. When we reached the castle, she just opened the front doors. I wouldn't have gone out the windows if I knew the door wasn't locked. Merlin.
"You will go right to bed, now. Got it?" We nodded. "I'm going to have to talk to your head of house about the punishment." I shared a look with Teddy- the first time I looked at him before the almost you-know-what. Our head of house. Bad. That's Neville. This meant my parents and his grandmother would be hearing about it soon.
We walked up the marble staircase in silence, pondering over our own thoughts. Personally, I wasn't too concerned about the detention. I had gotten detention plenty times before. I was just thinking about what happened… before.
After getting much grief from the Fat Lady, she let us in. I was about to head up to my dorm when Teddy called me back.
"Hey Vic?"
"Yes, Teddy," I answered.
I gave me a small smile. "Goodnight."
And a good night it had turned out to be.
Wow. This one took long. Some good ol' fluff for ya there.
PLEASE REVIEW. They make me jump for joy!!!! I'll post soon.
Again, just a question for the comment boxes: Should Lucy have a love interest?? Who?? I've gotten some answers but more feedback is appreciated.
Reviewers get Dr. Martinez's chocolate chip cookies! (Shout out to all who know what the hell I'm talking about.)
