Of Babbling & Fluttering Lips

A/N Ello all. This chapter didn't actually take too long to write, my editing though takes ages. This chapter is the first one I've actually set in Hogwarts so I am very excited!

A big thank you to Cinderpool-Accio Chaos, My Kind of Paradise and all my other wonderful reviewers. You guy's make me feel all appreciated and stuff :) Reviews inspire me so please keep them coming.

In this chapter we witness the aftermath of the 'mixed bag Hogsmede trip.' Also Tammy's steps in the, right- I guess, direction. It might be a bit boring in my opinion as it is a preparation for next chapter. It also gives a lot more back round to Tammy so please don't skim read the scary large paragraphs.

Enjoy R&R please!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything radda radda radda, 'cept my OC, bla la bla, do not gain any profit Hmmm mmm.

CHAPTER THREE: OF MEDDLING SPECTATORS

The people around us, I believe shape who we are. They influence the paths we are on, the decisions we make and our take on things. Our families, our teachers, our friends and our enemies all affect us in some unknown mystical way. I mean, I'm a product of my Dad's, peculiar side. My Dad Dennis and his late brother Colin, in their day were Harry Potter's greatest fans. So it's kind of ironic years later that I would have feelings towards one of the 'chosen one's' offspring. But it's not only the inherited fame that makes Albus who he is. I guess it's shaped his personality and all but he's just a really down to earth, interesting guy. Also he's pretty hot.

I got back to the Huffelpuff common room later the same day of the eventful Hogsmede trip still in a daze before my friends dragged me into the dragon's den, aka our dorm. After all the interrogating and collective 'oohing' and 'ahhing' it has made me come to the conclusion that not a lot actually happened. I'm sure Kate and Aliesha were extremely disappointed that all the information I could supply them with was that I did something extremely stupid, we chatted a bit, ate some food, then I botched up the whole afternoon with a socially suicidal farewell. My friends did make me feel slightly better about it though. My two closest Huffelpuff friends help me keep my mojo together half the time so it talking it out with them helped. Aliesha is a very kind person, model Huffelpuff. Loyal friend, always there for you. But she's quite sensitive so she gets emotional. A lot. I don't know whether to say that she is the person to go to for relationship advice as she is a bit of a serial dater. She's pretty, nice, funny, perfect for the average male. Unfortunately for her theses relationships don't always end well so Kate and I are always listening to her various sob stories. I try to stay sympathetic, but after a while sometimes I feel like yelling at her. But I want to be a good friend so I keep my mouth shut.

Kate on the other hand is a force of nature. Fiery, temperamental and vocal. She and Pete have a, complicated, relationship. They have been on off since last year. When they are on you can barely have a civil conversation with either of them because they are too busy playing tongue quidditch with each other's tonsils. But when they're off, there's yelling, screaming, backstabbing and subtle hints of infidelity.

So yeah I'm stuffed when it comes to my friends modeling healthy relationships. But they even each other out; even though Kate and Leish don't always get along, I swoop as the peacemaker. We spent a great deal of the night talking so I felt spiritually healthy again by morning.

It's back to classes today so I am thankful that I have a life outside of the epic romance that is Albus and I or else I might have succumbed to hiding in my bed for the rest of my life.

I had to quickly finish my muggle studies homework during breakfast and managed to get to class late. The day has barely started and I'm already detecting a negative tone. I apologized to the Professor and slotted into a seat next to Kate. Even though it is my best subject, Muggle studies aren't really a favorite. It became mandatory for all third years after the war so I had to take it then but the only reason I continued was Mum. My muggle mother Angela, even after almost twenty years of being part of a wizarding family, has always found it difficult comprehending magic. Dad first told her about his powers after she said yes to his marriage proposal (real smooth Dad) and she has never really adjusted. She would listen at first if I talked to her about school but after a while she'd get frustrated by the unfamiliarity and would stop. Mum is great at everything else but I can only really talk to Dad about school.

I love my Mum so I took Muggle Studies to have something I could relate to her with. It works pretty well actually and I get high marks so it works out both ways.

But at the moment the most substantive reason for taking it is sitting two rows ahead of me. Albus' dark hair is slightly messy and contrasts violently to Malfoy's pale head and Weasley's reddish brown locks.

'Snap out of it' I scolded myself. Day dreaming about certain boys was not definitely going to help me in any way.

About halfway through the lesson we had to pair up for a practical exercise. At the moment we are studying muggle automobiles so a car's gear system is placed on every student's desk. I turned to Kate lazily and asked her if she wanted to try it out first.

"Uh, Tam, I'm actually going to go with- Pete." She said quickly grabbing onto Pete's arm.

"Okay…" I said looking round for another victim to be my partner. Though we didn't have set pairs, we basically always went with the same people. And by Kate taking Pete it had caused a male domino reaction leaving one boy left. Wonderful.

"Uh, I guess we are together Creevey." Albus mumbled.

I crinkled my forehead perplexed. We had always been on first name basis, why the change?

We began following the directions with the gears and I bit my lip with no idea how to deal with the situation.

I decided grabbing the bull by the horns was the best approach.

"Yesterday was cool aye?" I said uncertainly.

He continued with the exercise for a minute then finally said. "If you call a close encounter with a stalker cool."

I stared at him absolutely demolished. Is that really all he thought of me?

"That was a joke." He said quickly.

"Oh." I murmured looking down.

That did for our non school related conversation. Gah, that stupid boy is so stupid. Stupidly stupid stupid. Stupid for making me feel stupid. He is other stupid related words. Stupid.

When the hour was finally up, I raced out of the classroom as fast as possible to go murder Kate.

"You did that on purpose!" I whisper screamed at her before we split off to different classes.

She just gave me a loopy grin as she turned the corner while I made my way up the enchanted staircase to History of Magic.

This particular subject was always boring. Mostly due to the teacher, Professor Binns. I mean being a Ghost must definitely have its drawbacks but you'd think he'd at least put a bit more effort into his lessons. Mostly I just noted down the topic to study later and talked to Renee for the rest of the time.

Renee, I'd have to say would be my best friend. I knew her before starting Hogwarts and even though she ended up in Gryffindor we have always stayed close. We can talk about anything and everything. But her friends don't exactly get along with my friends so we keep them separate and try and see as much of each other as we can.

I patiently waited until the usual conversation topics were over before injecting my information about Albus. Renee listened to me go on and on for almost ten minutes before she interrupted me.

"Look Tammy, crushes are supposed to make you feel good about yourself. Said crush should highlight your best attributes and make your day a bit brighter." She said sounding very sensible.

"It used to be like that. Then I actually did something about it and it feels like I've gone one step forward and two back." I pouted.

Renee shook her head at me.

"It shouldn't make you feel bad. Let him go. He's obviously not good for you."

This all made a lot of sense to me. Stupid Albus was making me feel all self centered and such. Like the entire world needed to hear my miniscule love life dilemmas.

"I just feel so angsty all the time!" I sighed probably a bit too loudly because the whole class turned round to stare at me.

"Uh, because you know, um, history never repeats, so, erm, such leaps will never be made again?" I tried to clean up as Prof. Binns glared at me. He just shook his head and turned back to the board. I lay my head on the desk in self declared angst.

The rest of the day ran reasonably uneventfully. Kate manage to avoid my anger and at lunch but I had managed to cool down by the time I walked into our last class, Potions.

My eyes naturally scanned the room for a mop of black hair and found it sitting up the front of the class. Alone.

"Ah Miss Creevey." The Potions Master greeted me, "You can partner with Mr. Potter here today."

My cheeks blossomed bright red as I sat down beside Albus. He smiled at me.

Weird.

"Uh, so where are your friends?" I queried cautiously not wanting to repeat another Muggle Studies classic.

"Prefect meeting." He laughed, "They are such nerds."

I laughed in response but was still very wary of this- happy – Albus.

For the continuation of the lesson he stayed like that. And I've got to say, I'm glad I was there.

This Albus made me smile, while still be mysterious. This Albus brushed up against me 'accidently' with a secret smirk on his face only we could see. This Albus made my lips flutter the whole time and my babbling uncontrollable. Oh man, I am falling.

"See you round." He grinned grazing my hand slightly with his as we walked out the door at the end of the lesson. All I could do was gawk in wonder at him as he walked away.

This complete 180 from this morning really though me off. I was ready to give him up cold turkey and then he goes and turns the tables. Talk about mixed signals.

---**

Rose Weasley never really talked to me. I never really talked to her. We were happy with this arrangement. The opinionated Ravenclaw would just clash with my 'happy go lucky' attitude. We subconsciously knew it'd probably be better if we just kept it to the occasional greeting in passing. So naturally I was quite astounded when she plonked herself and her books down beside me during breakfast the next morning making me choke on my toast.

"We need to talk."

Her intense stare scrutinized me as I stifled my mouthful down my throat.

"Uukay." I gagged slightly trying to clear my airway.

"Look, I saw you with Al the other day." She started. I nodded warily hoping this wasn't going to lead anywhere undesirable.

"And I want to know what your intentions are with him."

"Uh." I muttered unsure of what to say. Also my throat hurt from the sudden swallowing and I could feel my diaphragm about to convulse involuntarily as Rose stared holes into my forehead.

"Did you just laugh at me?" she said appalled.

I tried to stifle my hiccups but I couldn't. And it's not even like my hiccups were cute ones that make hormonal tweens squee. They are borderline belches.

"No." I stifled another one. "I –hiccup- just –hiccup-"

"Look." She cut me off, "Don't mess with Albus. He's been hurt before and if you hurt him so help me-"

I let out another hiccup accidently.

"Uhh!" she grunted and stalked off leaving me with my hiccups and shame.

Oh man I am a dork.

I hurried trying to get to class after that to Kate and Aliesha about the up close Weasley encounter but then I spotted the woman herself and the item of my affections walking ahead of me. They obviously didn't realize I was behind them because of some of the things they were saying…

"Jeez your Huffelpuff friend is weird." (Rosie sweet as pie drawled.)

"Yeah, you should have seen her on the weekend, talk about wacko." My dear Albus replied confidently.

That did it.

"Oi Potter!" I yelled making them both jump out of their skins. They whirled round to face me with guilty looks on their faces.

"Who the hell do you think you are talking about me like that behind my back?" I continued steam practically coming out my ears.

Before either could reply I was back at it.

"If I'm wacko oh great Albus what are you? The king of hot 'n' cold?" I rambled before he interrupted me.

"Tammy do you want to study with me tomorrow?" he asked quickly looking very guilty about insulting me.

"What?" I gaped.

"You, me, study, tomorrow after school." He spelt it out for me.

"But I'm angry at you!" I exclaimed feeing like all the hot air was being let out of me.

He gave me the particular gaze I loved, "Let me make it up to you."

"Uck, you threw off my groove!"

"We will be studying Transfiguration." He hinted.

"I do like transfiguration." I admitted.

"Cool then, see you after class tomorrow then?" he said and turned on his heel and escorted Rose up the staircase.

I stood in the hallway once again for what felt like hours contemplating the phenomenon that was Albus Severus Potter.

A/N Phew! Man that was long! Don't know how I managed over 2,000 words but there you go.

I know Tammy may seem a little more sensible in school, but that's how she is. She is only loopy around certain mood altering individuals. (aka Albus Potter.)

Also I don't think Rose Weasley is mean and stuff, that's just how Tammy sees her.

SNEAK PEEK TIME!!

CHAPTER FOUR: OF PIXIE STEPS

My internal pep talk didn't really seem to be working and I was running out of time. I had already shot and missed several times now and I reckoned this was my last try. I readjusted my position and tried to channel all the confidence I had to make this last blow the hardest. The time was now.