Lee grinned. "Maybe we should have let Angelina and Katie come with us. I kind of feel bad about leaving them alone with those two."
Fred shrugged. "Well I'm still pissed and Ange and Katie for telling Alicia, who's pissed at me because of them so there's no point in bringing them in here. I'm sure they're handling things all right."
Meanwhile, back in the Great Hall…
"HOW DARE YOU!" Alicia shrieked. "You've never even met my mother!"
George shrugged. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
"Well apparently it does, because your mother is one of the sweetest most caring people I have even met. You on the other hand are a rude, cocky, incorrigible little bastard."
"Oh really? That sure explains why I'm so popular."
"YOU aren't popular! Fred is popular and you're just his twin brother. If it wasn't for Fred you wouldn't have any friends!"
"You know what? You can take all that jealously and shove it up your—HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" George exclaimed when Katie poured her water all over him.
"Shut up," she replied, dragging him to his feet. Angelina did the same to Alicia.
"Hey stop it! Where are you taking me?" Alicia protested.
"Back to the common room," Angelina replied, stone faced.
"Why are you two so crabby?" Alicia asked. Katie let out a snort and mumbled something under her breath.
George yanked his arm out of Katie's grip at they move their way out of the Great Hall. "I can walk on my own, thanks."
"Well that sure is a surprise," Katie and Alicia retorted at the same time.
After some bickering and poking, Katie and Angelina finally got the two of them to be quiet. Once they were in the common room, they forced Alicia and George to sit on the couch (who then scooted as far away from each other as possible).
"So why do you think we brought you two up here?" Katie asked her two friends who were sitting with their arms crossed, looking surly.
"Because you've gone mad," George replied.
"Us? You think it's us who've gone mad?" Angelina asked incredulously. "You hear that Katie? They think we've gone mad."
Alicia was reminded of the Russian mafia and hoped Katie and Angelina weren't planning to cut anyone's fingers off. Unless those fingers happened to belong to a certain lump of rubbish that was sitting next at the opposite side of the couch. Then it was okay.
"Well actually, we haven't gone mad…in fact I believe it's the other way around," Katie said curtly.
"Do you two have any idea—"
"—any idea—"
"—how astoundingly—"
"—absurdly—"
"—SUMPREMELY annoying you have been today?" Angelina finished.
The portrait hole opened before they could reply.
"AND YOU TWO!" Katie screeched as Fred and Lee entered the room. "Where have you been?"
Fred looked taken aback. "Why would I want to hang around with you lot? You and Angelina can't keep a secret, and those two won't shut up for one second!"
Angelina moaned angrily. "For the last time, George, we DID NOT tell her anything!"
Alicia sat up straighter. "Tell me what?"
"See!" Katie yelled, motioning towards Alicia.
Fred and Lee looked at the girls sheepily. "Er…my mistake?" Fred offered while Lee chose to remain quiet.
Alicia stood up. "What do you have to tell me!"
Angelina pushed her back down on the couch. "Well Fred? What do you have to tell her?"
"Well, ah…"
"Go on."
"See it's actually quite funny. We all came up with this plan—OUCH, Angelina!—well I mean the actual plan was my idea, but everyone wanted to do it."
Alicia sighed. "Would you get on with it already?"
"The…the plan was to…erm…"
"Yes?"
"We wanted to get you and George together so we…"
Alicia and George stood up in fury. "WHAT? You wanted to set me up with that fat oaf over there!"
George made a face. "Disgusting! Who knows what kind of diseases I could catch from her!"
"No more than you would catch from Elliana!"
"SHUT UP! Could you two like be quiet for one bloody second? Is that too hard? Can't you stop obsessing over each other? Grow up! You both know that you liked each other so stop acting like three-year-olds! I didn't know it was possible to be that annoying for so long."
Everyone went silent and looked at Lee who never showed any signs of anger…ever.
He shifted nervously and sat down in the nearest chair. "Erm yeah…that's all I have to say."
"Uh, right…Well we made this plan that if Brady and Alicia went out George would get jealous—"
"I would not have gotten jealous!"
Fred rolled his eyes. "Yeah sure, whatever you say…but then—"
"I can't believe you two didn't tell me about this," Alicia said to Katie and Angelina. She stood up and headed towards the portrait hole.
"Alicia stop," Angelina tried, as she slipped through the portrait hole.
George stood up and followed her. "Whatever, screw this."
"And where do you think you're going?" Angelina asked.
"Away," he answered simply, disappearing from sight.
Katie threw her hands up in the air. "Great. Just fantastic."
Angelina whirled on Fred. "If you had listened to me for one second and not jumped to conclusions about why Alicia was mad about you then maybe we could have fixed everything. But noooo you just had to assume the worst."
"You could have said something."
"Are you kidding me! I did say something! You were too busy being daft to listen to me."
"What! Angelina—"
"Forget it, I don't want to talk to you anymore."
"Fine, be that way."
"I will."
"Fine."
"Fine!"
Angelina and Fred then stormed up to their rooms leaving Katie and Lee behind in an awkward silence.
Katie sighed. "And I thought today couldn't get any worse."
"Yeah. So did I."
Katie sighed. "I should probably go upstairs now."
"Okay," Lee grabbed her hand and gave it a small squeeze. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Katie watched Lee as he went up the stairs to the boys' dormitories. He seemed different to her somehow. She shook her head and turned to go deal with Angelina. He probably just seemed different because—much unlike the rest of her dear friends—he wasn't screaming his lungs out at anyone.
The next day, things went by much more smoothly. Everyone seemed to be ignoring each other—except for Alicia and George, but even they had piped down a bit.
Rather than yelling at each other they instead took turns giving each other dirty looks and making rude hand gestures. They would purposely slam into each other when passing by each other and exchange a few insults, but that's about it.
Katie and Lee weren't fighting of course but knew that if they were to speak to each other Angelina and Fred would accuse them of 'choosing sides'.
Dinner ended and still no outbursts had occurred. Feeling vengeful, Alicia decided she wad going back to the stairwell so she could mess up whatever George said was so important. She made sure that almost everyone had left before she went so no one would try to follow her.
Once the coast was clear she turned away from the crowd that was heading back to Gryffindor tower and headed towards the corridor that George led her to the day before.
George was in a mood for a fight so after dinner he had stealthily followed Alicia hoping to annoy her. When he saw her going the way to the stairwell he was going to go after her but chaos over by the portrait hole caught his attention.
"George!" Fred shouted from the other side of the crowd that had formed itself in the middle of the corridor.
George weaved his way over to his brother. "What's going on?"
Fred pointed to the portrait hole. George looked at it with a strange expression.
"Wait…that's not…"
"Yep."
"What? No way."
Just then Percy came to the front of the crowd and yelled for someone to get Dumbledore. George stood in a daze trying to wrap his head around what had happened. Someone had tried to break into the common room?
Dumbledore came and stood in front of the ripped painting. Looking for trouble, Peeves came along cackling about something. George ignored him and continued to wonder why anyone would possibly want to break into the common room. He looked up right when Peeves uttered the words "…Sirius Black!" Gasps were heard throughout the corridor.
"Wait what…what happened? What about Sirius Black?" George asked Fred, who had been listening.
"Weren't you paying attention?"
"No."
Fred sighed. "Sirius Black was in the castle, he's the one who—"
"What!" George exclaimed as Percy led them all back down to the Great Hall. "Oh shit," George mumbled looking around as if suspecting Sirius Black to jump out and attack him.
Fred laughed and shook his head as Katie and Angelina rushed over looking worried. "Have either of you seen Alicia?"
Fred looked at her blankly. "No…not since dinner. Why are you asking us out of all people?"
But Katie and Angelina were already asking other people.
"What's wrong?" Fred asked when he noticed George face had turned ghostly white.
"I have to go," he said turning around heading back in the direction they had just come from.
"Where do you think you're going?" the Hufflepuff prefect asked George as a huge pile of purple sleeping bags appeared in the center of the Great Hall.
George groaned inwardly. "I, er…dropped something," he answered trying to edge his way past.
"Well I'm sure you can get it tomorrow morning, now you have to go to sleep."
George tried to argue, but in the end he gave in and stormed off to get a spot on the floor, Fred running behind him.
"What was that about?" Fred asked, confused.
George looked around to see if anyone was listening. "I know where Alicia is."
"Well where is she?"
"Uh…she's just in this corridor I took her to once…by accident," George answered.
Fred involuntarily led them over to Angelina and Katie. "Well the teachers will find her then, right?"
"No…I'm pretty sure they wont." George said, laying his sleeping bag next to Fred's who had put his next to Angelina. Angelina sniffed at him but made no protest.
"I'll go distract them then, you go get Alicia. Where is Lee, by the way?" Fred said looking around.
"He's over there with that Ravenclaw girl. What's her name, Arwen?" Katie said sourly.
The candles went out as the Head Boy and Girl ushered everyone into their sleeping bags. "Hey! You over there, no talking!" Percy scolded.
"We were just telling them to be quiet, Percival!" Fred piped. "Go," Fred whispered when Percy turned around.
George quickly tipped toed away and made his way back towards Gryffindor tower. As much as he was still angry at Alicia, he knew he couldn't just leave her up there. Wandering along dark stairwells leading to unknown places definitely wasn't a good thing to be doing with a murderer on the loose. And as much as he would like to go back to the Great Hall and forget about Alicia, he knew he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something happened to her.
George turned down a dark disserted corridor. "If Sirius Black kills me, I swear, I will haunt Alicia for the rest of her life," he whispered to himself.
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