So much interest in this story, I'm always so grateful, I can't even express it properly!
Two things: firstly, if you want to know what Shell Cottage looks like as a floorplan, I made what I imagine it to be and put it on photobucket. Search up AngelicKat445 and it should appear!
And secondly, I am going away for two weeks across the country. I will not have my laptop and I don't really plan on being online whatsoever, so I'm sorry for no updates until after August 8th!
"You weren't kidding when you said small," Blaise muttered under his breath to Draco, earning him a glare from Kenzie who was walking just a foot ahead of them. The three of them were almost the last to arrive at Shell Cottage. The only ones left were Ron, Rose, Annabelle, and her plus one.
The hoard of baggage was being pushed into the small dining room for the moment until everyone was there and Eryn and Rose could tell everyone where they were sleeping. Everyone was sitting in the different places in the room, some in chairs, some on the table, and others just leaning on the walls, waiting for the latecomers to show up. Across the wide hallway was the entrance to the living room with its tall fireplace tall and waiting for someone to appear in it.
Shell Cottage really was a lovely place. Yes, it was small, but whoever designed it made the most of the close quarters. The kitchen was connected directly to the dining room, as well as having a door that led outside to the back garden. The only bathroom in the house was across the hall from the kitchen, but was surprisingly roomy with the toilet and shower/bath.
Up the stairs just between the bathroom and kitchen, you reached a small landing that led off to three different rooms: a master bedroom, a larger bedroom, and a smaller bedroom. And while the girls had the sleeping arrangements planned out, they'd yet to tell the boys of them.
"Shouldn't they be back with them by now?" Eryn asked Kenzie quietly. The latter girl shrugged.
"Maybe they didn't enunciate their destination and are at Shull College instead," she replied with a smile. Eryn had to grin as well, but it was mostly due to the happy mood her friend had taken on ever since Draco had stepped into the house. It was nice for her to have her boyfriend there.
Speaking of boyfriends, it wasn't unnoticed how tense it was between the Slytherins and Gryffindors. While Blaise and Draco were standing sullenly in a corner, murmuring to one another, Harry, Oliver, and Neville were chatting animatedly, sending the other two pointed looks every once in a while. The whole stressed atmosphere would have to go, Sam thought to herself as she leaned back on her arms on the table and watched the fireplace for activity.
A loud clattering and a puff of smoke erupting from the living room caught everyone's attention, and they listened as there were numerous groans of pain and surprise. The lot already there rushed in to help and see what was going on.
Rose and Ron had tumbled to the ground, both covered in ash and soot and looking rather disgruntled. Especially Rose. Her friends instantly pulled her to her feet and helped her dust off, while Ron wandered to Harry and blew a handful of leftover Floo powder in his face.
"Where's Annabelle and anonymous?" Sam asked as she fluffed Rose's hair. The blonde couldn't help leering as she turned her head towards the large fireplace once more.
Annabelle was better off than the couple had been, only getting a few smudges on her cheeks. And the girl beside her looked almost exactly the same, nearly pristine in her white summer dress and little flats. She grinned at everyone widely, practically beaming rays of sunshine at them.
"So… who's this?" Eryn asked with a smile that was very much for show. Annabelle looked almost as displeased as Rose, if not more so. She forced her own look of happiness and began fixing her braid.
"Everybody, I'd like you to meet –"
"Annella Bellefontaine!" the girl interrupted, positively shining with energy. She was almost bouncing on the balls of her feet, her mane of very natural red curls bouncing with her. The faintest hint of an accent could be heard on her tongue. "I am an exchange student from Beauxbatons Academy! I'm staying at Annabelle's house for the summer and attending Hogwarts in the fall!"
Jaws dropped, and eyes narrowed a little, mostly at Annabelle.
"You didn't tell us you were hosting a foreign exchange student?! I'm so hurt!" Kenzie cried out. Annabelle rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, well, I didn't know until a week before school ended," she snapped back. "My mum signed us up to be a host family, so we get Anna."
"That is my nickname! Annabelle was sweet enough to give me one, she said Annella was too difficult to spell," Anna quipped. "Now, who are all of you?"
There was a long awkward silence, everyone looking wearily at one another, not wanting to be the odd one out. But in the end, as was to truly be expected, Eryn coughed and looked at the newcomer.
"I'm Eryn," she said, sticking her hand out to shake Anna's. "You've already met Ron and Rose –" she gestured to the pair, who were still wiping dirt off themselves "- and Annabelle too, obviously."
Eryn took Anna round the shoulders and led her through the group, introducing everyone until she finished with Oliver Wood, who nodded politely at her, completely oblivious to the way she bit her lip and giggled.
"If I could have everyone sit in the dining room, we'll explain sleeping arrangements and general rules!" The majority of the people began to mull towards the dining room's general direction, some muttering that it was summer and there shouldn't be any rules. A quick swat from a still rather annoyed Rose shut them up quick though.
"What, we don't get to choose who we room with?" Draco called out, looking at Kenzie suggestively and then back at Eryn. Eryn scowled at him and briskly shook her head.
"If we let you do that, we'd be in for no sleep at nights considering the activities of some," Eryn responded, trying very hard not to look at Sam. Although Sam and Neville hadn't done anything besides lots and lots of kissing – as far as her friend's knew – they still had their doubts of Neville's virginity being intact. Well, his virginity that he's now ready to give.
"So, are we correct to assume that it'll be a problem to room the Slytherins and Gryffindors together?" Kenzie asked first. There was a collective noise of agreement and some hisses and muttered remarks, but otherwise the group was calm. "Then you'll enjoy this. Upstairs, there are three bedrooms. The master is going to be where all the girls are sleeping, and if there are any late-night visitors and you wake up Rose, you'll be in for worse than a lack of sleep.
"The larger of the other rooms will be going to the Gryffindor boys, and the smaller to Draco and Blaise. Any problems with that?"
An overall silence allowed everyone to take in the news and mull it over. Really there shouldn't have been any problems with it. Eryn was an absolute perfectionist and she made sure in her planning that the rooming would be without flaw. So far, that seemed to be working well.
"Everyone can go put their stuff where it's meant to go!" Sam told the group, clapping her hands together like they were children. "Come on, pick up those duffel bags and move on up! Anna, you go on up, we'll join you in a minute."
Anna nodded enthusiastically and followed the males walking up the steep steps. This left the five original friends standing round the dining room table. They each gave each other looks of thought, considering the summer before them.
Just the school year previous, the girls had set out on a dare to seduce a male of the others picking. The ones that were selected for them had become their boyfriends and were now just a floor above them. But this left one big fear: what if they found out?
Awful images came into their heads, of dumping or yelling or just plain hurt written on their faces. None of them could bear the idea of having their little (okay, it was pretty massive) secret being exposed.
"Anna can't know," Kenzie said first, standing up straighter and looking round warily. Nods around the circle came as a reply. "And neither can the guys. They'd be heartbroken and angry and…"
"We know." Annabelle's voice was quiet as she looked at the table. "We've been through too much to lose them over them finding out. We can't let them know."
"A pact," Rose proposed. "A pact to hold this secret to our grave. And whoever doesn't shall feel the wrath of the broken pact."
"The word 'pact' is beginning to lose meaning," Sam interjected, smirking a bit. Rose rolled her eyes and put her hand in the centre of the table. One by one, the others piled theirs on as well and looked at one another.
"I, Eryn Winters, solemnly swear to hold the secrets of the sixth year dare until the day I day, and perhaps even past that," Eryn said quietly, calmly, praying they weren't being overheard. "Do you swear to honour this pact just as solemnly?"
"I do."
"I do."
"I do."
"Ditto."
The atmosphere slowly began to decrease in anxiety and they smiled at one another, lightening up and beginning to take their bags up as well. What they hadn't noticed was a certain someone listening into their little ceremony, but they scampered back to their room before any backs turned towards them.
"So, what first?" Rose asked as she sprawled herself onto the large California king-sized bed. Sam grinned as she stepped out onto the balcony and breathed in the ocean air. Shell Cottage had a lovely view of the Atlantic Ocean, and she could already imagine what it would feel like against her skin. She hadn't been swimming since almost the last day of school, when she was tossed starkers into the Black Lake.
Good times.
"I want to go to the beach!" she exclaimed, and began to go through her suitcase searching for a swimsuit. Her friends all watched as garment after garment went flying onto the previously clean hardwood floor until she finally giggled and began changing. Kenzie quickly shut the bedroom door.
"You're going to give everyone a show," she berated her friend, the former of who just stuck her tongue out as she shimmied into the one-piece.
Somehow, though, she managed to talk almost all the girls and quite a few of the boys into joining her and they all raced downstairs. Rose was the only girl who refused to go into the ocean, so standing in the kitchen and looking out the window towards where they were rushing, she was silent and alone with her thoughts.
Or so she assumed.
"What can't we know?"
Hey, look, a cliffhanger! See you in two weeks!
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