Chapter 4: The first crush
A week after the raid of the Hogwarts Kitchen, the three girls were seeing more and more of William. Albus on the other hand was getting quite annoyed of the girls talking nonstop about the Hufflepuff boy. At dinner Albus sat between Gaby and Rose who sat next to Anna. This was a bad idea. Albus thought as Rose leaned over to talk to Gaby. Finally the boy got up and moved further down the table from the girls.
"Where did Albus go?" Anna asked as she looked at the empty space.
"I don't know," replied Gaby. "Did you see William wave at me between Potions and Transfiguration?"
The other two girls nodded and giggled. As they continued to talk about the events that had happened that day with Willam, the boy approached them. "Good evening ladies."
All three girls turned as red as humanly possible. Rose smiled shyly and looked down at her plate, while Anna simply said "Hi" and pretended to be very interested in finding Al. Gaby, on the other hand, tried to look dignified and hide her blush as she gave a small wave. Of course, none of these attempts worked and it remained obvious that they had been talking about William.
"Am I interrupring something?" the boy asked, holding back a grin and replacing it with a smile.
"Oh, no, not at all." Anna answered, after managing to spot a very unhappy-looking Albus quite some distance from them. "We were just..er..."
"Talking about classes." Gaby continued, putting on an innocent expression.
"Right." William said, taking the seat occupied by Albus less than a minute ago. "So, what have you girls been up to?"
"School." Rose said, winning the battle with her blush and looking up. "You?"
"Well, ladies, while you've been nice girls and studied, I found a new passage leading outside the castle." Will said, grabbing an apple from the table. "But, if you'd rather write papers, that's okay."
The girls stared at the boy, was he kidding or was he just trying to show off to the girls. Anna who had been barely listening and looking for Albus turned to the boy when she had heard his announcment. The girls looked at each other and then moved in close to hear the new secret passage.
"How about we go somewhere, where we know we won't be heard?"
They all agreed and they got up from the table and left the great hall. Albus watched them get up and leave with the hufflepuff boy, and felt really jealous, Why do the girls do everything with him? He too t hen got up from the table and followed secretly behind them.
William took the girls down the hall from the kitchen and into a empty room that seemed to have been sitting empty for many years. Cob webs every where, dust an inch thick on the desk. Once they all were in the room the Hufflepuff boy turned to them.
"First of all, how do I know I can trust you?" he asked, getting glares form the girls. "Okay, okay, just kidding. Now, on the fourth floor there's a painting. Behind that you will find a tunel. At the end of the tunel: freedom." William ended, grinning and straightening his back to give his words more importance.
"There isn't just one painting on that floor." Rose noticed, raising an eyebrow.
"That's where I come in." he answered. "I have to make sure you three keep it a secret, so you'll only find out which painting it is if you go for a walk with me this evening."
Anna and Rose looked at eachother with amused expressions, while Gaby - to everyone's surprise, including hers - turned a slight shade of pink. Her twin was the first to notice and give a questioning look. Gabrielle pretended not to notice and quickly turned around.
"Well, it's settled then. But I don't know if we can make it tonight...We - WHAT do you think you're doing!?"
When Gaby opened the door, Albus nearly fell on his nose into the classroom.
Albus stood up brushing the dust off his black robes, his eyes didn't catch those of the three girls and the other boy. He felt quite embarrassed that he had been snooping around and falling on his face. The gryffindor boy walked behind the three girls and ushered them out of the room leaving William behind.
The students in the hall were thin, it was getting closer and closer to curfew, and Albus wanted to rush up the stairs to the seventh floor. And they had barely made it, by the time they reached the seventh floor the bell had rang. Once inside the common room Albus sat the girls on the couch while he paced in front of them.
"What do you think you were doing?" Albus said not looking at the girls.
"We weren't doing anything Albus," Anna said harshly to her friend and then turned to the girls. "Did you see how Will--"
"Enough about William. We are in our first years, we shouldn't be getting into trouble like this."
"Oh Al, your just being jealous." Rose said.
Albus snorted and then rushed up to the boys dorm and the girls didn't see him for the rest of the night. The girls on the other hand waited until the common room cleared out before they decided to sneak out. The girls wished that they had Uncle Harry's invisibility cloak, so that the next adventure would be much easier. But, of course, that couldn't stop the three from trying.
Gaby led the way, followed closely by Anna and Rose, who made sure no one saw them leaving. When they reached the staircase, Rose muttered something about the owlery and rushed off, telling them to meet her on the fourth floor. The twins only nodded and carefully made their way up, avoiding the main corridors and using all the secret passages they knew. This proved useful since they heard Peeves singing his rude songs as they passed him by.
As soon as the twins left the safety of the secret passages, Anna spotted a figure behind one of the statues, a figure that turned out to be none other than Rose Weasley. The girl sighed when she saw her friends and whispered "It's okay, Will!" before coming out and smiling widely. Apparently, she had owled William and the two arrived before the twins.
"Nice to see you again, ladies, but we do have to hurry before Filch comes." the boy said with a small grin as he walked to a painting of a blonde girl. "Good evening, miss, would you be so kind as to let us pass?" William addressed her, bowing his head.
"Of course, sir!" the girl answered, blushing slightly and making room for the students to pass. When the painting closed again, they found themselves in complete darkness.
No one moved afraid of falling and getting hurt. The room was small and cramped and everyone was trying to make themselves comfortable with out falling. Anna suggested that everyone should pull out their wand and light them up. And they did as suggested, there they found a very steep stair case that led down into a dark room.
Down the stairs they went in single file line. Gaby was the last person in line and as she took a step off the stair case she missed the step and tripped. Luckily William was there to catch her and helped her up. He made sure that she was ok before leaving her, Anna walked over to her sister and placed arm around her.
Gaby face was red, she could feel it burning. She had this deep crush on the second year, and all the girls knew it too. How was she going to say to the boy, she desperately wanted to go out with him. She walked slowly behind the group as they looked around the room that they were in.
It looked like someone used it recently. A small armchair was pushed against one of the walls and an even smaller table had an empty bottle of butterbeer on it. Rose examined the items with obvious disgust when she passed by them while Anna couldn't help wonder who had been there before them.
"I thought this was a secret passage." Gaby muttered, holding her wand high to light up the scene.
"Well it is. I came here last night to think." Will answered, grinning. "Sorry I forgot to clean up after myself. I wasn't expecting you girls tonight."
The girls exchanged amused looks and continued to walk through the passage until the air became cooler. Soon, a light appeared and the children found themselves outside, under the clear moonlight that covered the grounds.
Later, Gaby would pinpoint this as the exact moment when she fell in love with the night. The droplets that had settled on the grass looked like silver under the light coming from the stars and the Forbidden Forest looked less dangerous, less...threatening. Looking at her twin, the girl could tell Anna felt the same way.