\\Blinding Love// (Fred Weasley)

Again, I woke up before Cheryl and Danni. It was the first day of school today and I was actually happy to have homework and assignments for once. At least it will be good for me for at least a week to keep me preoccupied. Not to mention the tryouts for Quidditch again. I felt groggy and my eyes were throbbing because of all the crying yesterday. They weren't as puffy as I thought when I went to the bathroom so I got ready for the day. Back to the old uniforms.

I slipped on my skirt, tucked in my shirt and put on my tie and cloak. I always made my skirts shorter than they were, seeing as how they went to the knee and they looked like something an old lady would wear. I always refashioned them the way I liked it. I swapped my school socks for the ones I bought from a muggle store one time and put those on. They were black and emerald green striped and they went up just a little past my knee.

I checked for Caim but I didn't see him anywhere so, I left the bedroom. Grabbing my bag and books and walking down through the common room, I saw a few first years being all skittish and packing their bags to get ready for their first class. I strolled down the hall, ignoring the wolf howls and growls of all the riled up hormones of the perverts. My skirt really wasn't that short, just by two inches for crying out loud. It was odd how lots of guys found me attractive for being in Slytherin. Probably just because I'm mysterious. I sat at my table and grabbed some eggs, bacon, and toast.

Draco was already there but didn't say a word to me. It looked as if he were concentrating on trying to ignore Pug face Parkinson who I hadn't seen since that day on the train. Blaise, Montague, and Adrian greeted me though. I guess Crabbe and Goyle would have too but, they were too busy stuffing their faces. I decided to test my skills on those two first.

"This food is so tasty! I wish I could marry food." Goyle had thought.

"Mmm, tasty doughnut. I love doughnuts."

Their minds were pretty much the same I concluded and both very strange and uninteresting.

Now Blaise.

"I wonder what kind of teacher Umbridge is going to be."

I didn't.

I was going to check on Montague's and Adrian's when I tuned in to someone's conversation which had caught my attention. It was the Potter Trio and they were talking about me?

"I feel sorry for her. I wonder where she'll live now." Hermione sighed sadly.

"Probably has a second house. No problem for her." Ron said stuffing his face with some toast.

"Really Ronald! Your brother seemed upset about her. They've been friends since their first day of school here."

"Yeah, she's probably a back stabber too."

"Ugh! You are unbelievable. I thought you liked her?"

"No, I liked her Quidditch skills. That doesn't mean I like her." he shrugged.

Hermione sighed. Just then Fred and George arrived.

"What are you guys fighting about now?" Fred sighed.

"Fighting already like a married couple and they aren't even dating."

"Shame!" Fred and George laughed while Ron grew red.

"We were talking about Elise Richards." Harry relayed.

"Why are you lot talking about her for?"

"Well Fred, Hermione here feels sorry for her." Ron said disgusted.

"Well, I do too; she is one of my friends. She isn't as bad as you think Ron. I wouldn't be bad mouthing her if I were you."

"That's just because you fancy her."

George began laughing as he agreed to that statement.

"Both of you buzz off." He recoiled.

"Well it's true! I heard she kissed you last year at the Yule Ball."

"It doesn't mean anything."

"I think she likes you too." Hermione commented. "There's nothing wrong with that. She is different than her friends."

That's when I tuned out from being interrupted. All the guys were staring at me and Draco was poking me.

"What?" I asked, taking a bite of my toast and looked at all of them questionably.

"You were spacing out. I thought you'd finally gone nuts." Draco joked.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Don't get me started ferret boy." The group laughed as Draco shut up and glared. I hugged him slightly.

"Come on, it was a funny thing to watch." I snickered, choking on my juice.

Everyone at the table was laughing and then stopped suddenly. Then the glares came from everyone. I looked right in front of me to see none other than Fred. I raised an eyebrow and looked at him like he was insane.

"What are you doing at our table Weasley?" Draco stood up, a mad look in his eye. I rolled my eyes. When will the fighting end?

"Elise, can I talk to you?" he stared straight at me. I simply stood up.

"Ellie has gone nuts." Montague laughed as I chucked a muffin at his head as I gathered my things and left.

Fred and I began walking down the halls to a secluded area.

"What's up?" I questioned, leaning against a wall.

"I was just wondering if you had a place to stay, you know, for the Holidays."

"Of course not. My house blew up. KABOOM! You know? My friends will probably offer when it gets closer to those times to see if I want to go with them, but I'd rather stay here. If you haven't noticed, I can't stand my own friends most of the time. All they do is complain. The only person I can truly stand is Draco, that's just because I know his true side, even though he completely acts like an ass the whole year at school. Sorry about that by the way."

"It's fine. I was just wondering."

I smiled at him.

"I'm ok. I'll live."

"Good. I don't know what I'd do if you were gone."

I shook my head at him.

"Well, I'm going to go and grab my things. I guess I'll see you later."

I nodded and then headed off in the opposite direction to D.A.D.A class with Umbridge. I didn't feel like waiting in that classroom by myself so I just stood outside the door until more people came. Luckily help came early.

"I have this class with you two?"

"Yeah, didn't you read the schedule?" George asked laughing.

"Of course not. I just read what classes I have and let the rest of the day act like a surprise." I shrugged.

"Well, I'm going to go find Angelina right quick." George then hurried off.

"So."

"What?"

"Do you remember last year when you broke your ankle because you fell down the stairs?"

"Yeah because of your stupid marbles that fell on the floor?" I glared.

"Those were actually George's but, that was still great."

I punched Fred in the arm.

"You're so mean."

He laughed as he rubbed his arm.

So class started fifteen minutes later. I sat in the middle row towards the right outside of the table, Fred on the left outside next to me like we usually did so we could plan what to do to the teachers. Class though wasn't so pleasant.

"Welcome to my class of Defense Against the Dark Arts. One difference though, you will be learning through books." Umbridge announced in a sickly high pitched chuckle and smug smile.

A whole bunch of groans and boos from the Slytherins and Gryffindors echoed throughout the room.

"Silence!" she ordered. "You will all not need your wands. We will be learning in a safe manner here, as ordered by the Minister himself."

I scoffed at her ridiculous attempt at trying to make this sound fun and safe at the same time.

"How are we supposed to practice these spells if you ban us by not using our wands?" She glared at me, still with that smug smile on her face.

"I didn't see you raise your hand Miss Richards." I rolled my eyes and raised my hand.

"Yes, Miss Richards?" I stood up from my seat and stood in the middle of the aisle.

"Are you bloody insane woman? Defense Against the Dark Arts requires us to use our wands, use magic spells, and duel until each of us knocks the others heads off."

I got an applause and whistles for that. I bowed to everyone.

"Miss Richards, take a seat!" she said outraged.

"You didn't say please Professor Umbridge." I smirked.

"Do you need a detention?!"

"Ew, with you? No thanks. I'll sit." I shuddered at the thought of being alone with her for a whole four hours. No thank you.

"You will be here for detention after classes today for your rude behavior." She stated.

"My ass I will be." I muttered.

Luckily she didn't hear me and she passed out the books we would be using. I kept passing notes to Fred all throughout that class. It's a good thing I remembered the invisible spell where only Fred and I could read the handwriting on our piece of paper. It would look blank to others and no one could reveal our words. Whoever tried was cursed with fungi on their feet. After class I threw the mother of the fits.

"My first detention of all years being here. Ridiculous!" I scowled as Fred and I walked together towards Transfiguration.

This year we would have technically three classes together, but if you count Study Hall, it would be four. In Transfiguration, Caim appeared out of nowhere. Nothing special happened, basically Professor McGonagall told us to review what we learned last year if we could remember. I heard my friends in the back snickering over something. I could have figured out what it was but it didn't seem interesting anyways. Next, my friends finally came up to me after Fred left to Astronomy while I went to Ancient Runes.

"Why were you guys snickering back there?"

"You wouldn't believe it." Cheryl giggled.

"Try me." I dared.

"Danni has two lovers!!"

"Nott and Adrian. I know." The two didn't say anything.

"You started using it again?!" They both yelled in unison.

"Yup. Cheryl, I think you should tell Montague how you feel about him because he doesn't know if you like him or not and he likes you." I stated as I parted from them and left them both gawking and myself smiling.

Ancient Runes was really fascinating. I never got to take it because it was always packed. This year though I got it. The day seemed to go by so slow. Next I had lunch which I grabbed a sandwich and ate it outside while I started on my D.A.D.A. assignment which was gay. I was to explain three spells used for defense and come up with three spells that were hardly avoidable. Talk about boring.

The day dragged on as I went to my other classes, ending with Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindors once again. I liked Hagrid actually. I had a special love for animals like he did and it was just funny how he found all creatures fascinating. After the class was over, Fred, George, and even Angelina walked with me.

"So, ready for the detention of a life time?" Fred joked.

I poked him in the ribs.

"Whatever, it's going to be more like Hell if you ask me. What's the worst she can do to me? Make me sit in front of a pink wall?"

"Yes, we all know how you despise the color pink." George snickered.

"That's the main reason why I hate her so much. And that ridiculous little 'Ahem Ahem' thing she does. UGH!"

The three all laughed and Fred and George made fun of her snickering 'Ahem' all the way back into the castle where I parted ways and went straight into hell itself. I noticed Harry about to go into the same room as I when I called out to him.

"Oi! Potter!" I called out as I jogged to him.

He turned around with a glare but, that subsided when he saw me.

"Oh hey, you got a detention too?"

"Yup, I have her first period so when I heard we weren't going to be using magic, I flipped." I laughed.

He smiled and then told me the reason why he had detention with her.

"You did not!" I gawked with a hearty giggle.

"I can't believe you said that. Not that I don't believe you Harry because I-" I stopped in my tracks and he looked at me strangely.

"Never mind. Come on, we don't want to be with her for and extra hour because we're late."

"Now Miss Richards and Mr. Potter, you both will be writing sentences for me today."

"Geez, what fun!" I thought sarcastically although, I couldn't complain about the easy work given to me.

She gave Harry and me parchment and quills.

"Where's the ink?" he asked quizzically.

"Oh, you won't need any. Just begin writing."

"Uh, you haven't told us what to write." I was getting annoyed.

The room was giving me a headache. It was all pink and bright and the worst thing was that there were plates of kittens EVERYWHERE on the walls!! The continuous meowing was driving me insane already and I had only been there probably five minutes tops.

"Mr. Potter, you are to write, 'I must not tell lies' and you Miss Richards are to write 'I will not be bad'. Go on, I'll tell you to stop when the message sinks in." I glared at this frou frou witch and began writing.

I was writing so fast and so long that I hadn't noticed my hand hurting. I stopped for a moment and stretched my joints when I noticed something on the top of my hand. It was the words I was writing, imprinted on me. I looked at my parchment and saw the 'ink' was red.

'Blood?' I stared at her intently.

"Has it sunken in yet Miss Richards?" I mustered up a smile.

"Why yes ma'am." I said handing her the parchment with my now wrecked hand to show her the proof.

"Very well then, you are dismissed." I stole a glance at Harry as I gathered my things and left.

His hand was now also just as messed up as mine. I waited a few minutes outside the classroom for him. Soon enough, he came out clutching his hand.

"Hey." I greeted with a small smile.

"What was that?! We were writing with our own blood for crying out loud."

"She's evil. I think just being in that room would have done the trick for me. I can't STAND pink."

It was silent for a moment as we walked in the same direction.

"Doesn't your hand burn?" A random question from Harry was spoken.

"Not really. I've had worse, believe me." I chuckled and then became silent again.

"How is that?" he asked.

"Harry, some things are better left unsaid. I know what you're thinking, about how you believe I'm different and that possibly I have information that could help you and your friends out. I just can't though."

I began to walk off back to the dungeons. I was welcomed by my friends and I found Caim and my house elf on my bed.

"Hi?" I threw my bag aside and flopped on my bed as Caim purred next to me.

"Caim, could you be a different animal? I just suffered a fate worse than death."

He then changed into a bunny.

'My word girl, what happened to your hand?"

"Umbridge is what happened."

"Would you like me to sneak into her room and poison her with my bite?" he spoke as he changed into a Black Mamba. I rolled my eyes.

"How about I suffocate her to death?" he then changed into an anaconda. I laughed.

"How about you just go scratch her eyes out?"

"Good idea!" he growled as he turned into a tiger.

"Caim! I'm joking. I don't want to be expelled." I giggled as I rolled my eyes.

Dotty was sitting on the bed in fear and in wonder as she watched this little scene.

"Oh Dotty, would you mind bringing me a sandwich to eat?" Dotty smiled and disappeared and within a few seconds returned with a meal for me.

"Thanks. I really need to stop skipping."

Later that night after my friends gawked over my newest wound and cursed Umbridge for being an evil, oversized, looking pink plum, I tried to fall asleep. I couldn't believe that I gave a hint to Harry Potter about my hidden power. I was wondering what he would tell his friends, especially Fred.

But, what do I care what Fred thinks anyways? Sure he was a friend but technically, he was the 'enemy'. I can't believe how much I sound like a Slytherin right now. I was stuck in between the good side and the bad. When school ends, I'll literally be forced to join the Death Eaters and then, I'll have no choice. I guess I would find out tomorrow what he told everyone.