"Audrey, is there such a thing as a humiliation charm?" I asked.
Audrey looked up at me. She was seated in an armchair near the fire, reading a text book. I slumped down in to the chair besides her.
"Umm," she said, looking thoughtful, "No, I don't think so… Why?"
"Because for some reason I keep embarrassing myself in front of Professor Lupin!" I cried, and then explained to her all about what happened in the hospital wing earlier that evening.
After I finished Audrey looked sympathetic.
"That's pretty embarrassing… but you didn't say anything too bad, did you?" she asked.
"Other than that I'm too shy to talk to him, or about his little fan club, or saying he was not a horrible kisser, or not denying it when Madam Pomfrey said I enjoyed the kiss?" I asked with mock indifference, "No, nothing bad at all. And to think I was finally starting to get used to him and not get embarrassed in front of him! Now I'll be too embarrassed to even look at him!"
"Aw, Fay, it's not that bad," replied Audrey, "Look, at least now he knows why you have been avoiding him and that you don't blame him or anything. He might be able to make a bigger effort to make you comfortable."
"Yeh, I guess, but it will still be embarrassing…"
"I wonder what he makes of his little fan club, though?" Audrey asked, grinning mischievously, "So you say he didn't see it coming? He will probably be paranoid now about all his female students, trying to see who's normal and who's day dreaming about snogging him."
I laughed at that – Audrey always knew how to make me laugh when I am down.
"Yeh, as long as he doesn't start getting suspicious about me…" I said.
"Nah, I don't think so, you heard Madam Pomfrey, all this time he's been thinking that you didn't like him…"
"Yeh, I guess…" I replied.
"And you don't day dream about snogging him, do you?" she asked suspiciously.
"Er…" I replied. The truth was, yes, of course, but Audrey was not ready to hear that (she still thinks it is gross) so instead I asked, "How was your study session with Oliver, anyway?"
She snorted at my obvious attempt to change the subject, but then smiled excitedly and said,
"Oh, it was really good! He a lot smarter than I realised, you know, very studious too when he isn't thinking too hard about Quidditch."
"So you got some work done?" I asked. Personally, I had expected them to spend the whole time chatting.
"Yes, well, it was a bit distracting at first, having him there, I mean, but I got used to it, and we really did get a lot done," she replied happily, "He was a bit anxious though, you know, tomorrow is he next match, and they don't win this one, they are out of the running."
"So, are you two officially together?" I asked curiously. I had been wondering about it for a while.
"Yes!" she replied enthusiastically, "He asked today, I said yes, if that's what he wants, and he said he wanted it, so yeh, we are together!"
"Wow, Audrey, that's awesome!" I said. I sighed, reclining back in my chair and added, "At least one of us had a decent day today…"
- - -
For a change, the following day, the Gryffindor common room was almost empty, except for a few fifth and seventh years, which unfortunately happened to include me. The rest of the school was out side watching the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match; the talk of the moment being Potter's new Firebolt.
A Firebolt, I thought grudgingly, the rest of the school gets to watch a real Firebolt in action, and here I am stuck doing Flitwick's essay. Even Audrey had taken the time off to watch the match, though it had less to do with the Firebolt and more to do with a certain Quidditch captain. But since she has not stopped talking about Oliver since he asked her out, I was not complaining too much.
Around mid-day, the students started flooding the common room; shouting and cheering enthusiastically. There was no need to ask who had won. I stood up to congratulate Oliver and quickly left the common room for the library; there was no way I could study in there now that a fully-fledged party had erupted, and if I did not leave before it became too rowdy, I probably would have been tempted not to leave at all.
Later that evening, when I couldn't possibly continue with studying, I returned to the common room, and was surprised to see that the party was still in action. Really, I thought, grinning, you'd think that Gryffindor had already won the cup.
The Weasley twins ambushed me as soon as I entered the room, and dragged me off to a table covered in junk food.
"Congratulations, you two," I said grinning.
"Why, thank you," said Fred, bowing formally.
"An honour," added George, "Fancy a butterbeer?"
"It's on the house," said Fred, winking.
"Thanks," I said, taking the drink. We discussed the game for a while, and the twins did a hilarious imitation of Malfoy and his friends after they had been hit Potters partonus.
"Potter can produce a patronus?" I asked surprised, "That is pretty impressive! We only learned that this year."
"Yeh," said George, "Professor Lupin has been giving him extra lessons to teach him, you know, in case the dementors come, so he doesn't fall off his broom again."
"Bet you wouldn't mind that, ay, Fay?" Fred asked.
"What?" I asked confused, "I can already produce a patronus."
"That's not what I meant," said Fred, smiling mischievously, "I was referring to extra one-on-one lessons with Professor Lupin."
"Fred!" I gasped, feeling myself blush, "Not you too."
The twins laughed merrily, and I pretend to glare angrily at them. Then George said, "We were only kidding. We know it was only a, you know, emergency thing."
I rolled my eyes, but laughed anyway. I could never be angry with the twins. They were just too funny.
"Have you seen Audrey anywhere?" I asked them.
"She disappeared with Wood a while ago," said George, his eyes twinkling.
With Audrey out of sight, I spent the rest of the evening with the twins, until Professor McGonagall finally came over to the common room and insisted that we all go to sleep. When I arrived at my dorm, I realised that Audrey was already in bed. I was curious to know what she had gotten up to, but I knew I should not wake her up, so I simply went to sleep, thinking that I would just ask her in the morning.
However, before morning arrived, loud voices in the common room woke up everyone in our dorm. I could hear footsteps outside my door too; girls were leaving their dorms.
"Do you reckon they're continuing with the party?" asked Audrey, poking her head out from behind her curtains, her light brown hair extremely dishevelled.
"Possibly," I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, "I'm prefect, I have to go see."
As I was putting on a robe and running my fingers through my hair to tidy it up a little, I heard a loud shout coming from down stairs.
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE! PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"
I froze, felt the blood draining from my face, my heart beating frantically, and then, as one, we all ran out to the common room, which was full of students. We arrived just in time to hear Professor McGonagall address Ron Weasley,
"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have got through the portrait hole?"
Instinctively, my eyes darted to the portrait hole, which stood open.
"Ask him! Ask him if he saw –" replied Ron frantically.
I held my breath as I watched Professor McGonagall walk over to the painting of Sir Cadogan. Sirius Black? In here? With a knife?
"Sir, Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" she asked him apprehensively.
"Certainly, good lady!" he replied.
Audrey and I exchanged a worried look.
"You – you did?" asked Professor McGonagall, sounding astonished, "But – but the password!"
"He had 'em! Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"
Professor McGonagall entered the common room, shaking with fury.
"Which person," she said, in a voice that made me sincerely thankful that I was not on the receiving end, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
There was a moments silence during which students exchanged fearful glances, and then, a third year boy I knew as Neville Longbottom let out a horrified squeak, and raised his hand.
"Detention, Longbottom. You have absolutely disgraced Gryffindor house. You are from now on banned from anymore Hogsmeade visits, and," she added furiously, then added, while looking around accusingly at the rest of the students, "No one shall be allowed to give him the common room password."
Neville hung his head in shame, his cheeks bright red. For a moment I put my fear aside, and instead felt anger directed at Professor McGonagall; this was not Neville's fault. She should not have punished him like this.
"No one is to leave Gryffindor Tower. The Head Boy," she said, nodding at Percy, "and prefects are to make sure that everything is in order here. You may stay up in the common room in wait for information."
With that, she turned swiftly on her heel and left the common room, which exploded instantly in excited muttering.