A/N: Sorry, sorry, and sorry! I can't apologise enough for how late this is. I know I promised I wouldn't do it again but I got swamped with assessment and I had my birthday so I was just really busy. The holidays are coming up so I shall write more then.

This chapter is dedicated to sweetstrawberrysmiles. If you like Ouran High School Host Club, Avengers or other anima, go read her stories!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, only my OCs. The world of magic belongs to JKRowling.

Updated: 28/2/2014

Chapter Five: Right Back at it Again

Grace was strolling down the steps to the entrance hall when she heard three pairs of footsteps hurrying up from behind her. Trina, Miranda and Ciara gathered around her, suspicious looks on their faces.

"Why did we just hear Nate screaming from a broom cupboard?" Trina inquired.

"Like a girl, too," Ciara added.

Grace sighed.

"I didn't put him there, if that's what you're asking. The boys, including Harry of all people, must have done it last night."

"Wait- your brother, the friendly, noble, do-gooder Harry, shoved a guy into a cupboard?" Miranda asked with her eyebrows raised.

"He-well- he probably didn't shove- or even push," Grace said. "Fred and George most likely just talked him into coming with them."

"If you saw him there, and talked to him by the sounds of it, then why was he still in the cupboard?" Trina asked.

"Not that he didn't deserve to be there," Ciara noted.

"He said something bad about Harry so I slammed the door on him," Grace shrugged.

"I never really liked the guy," Miranda commented as they took their seats next to Fred and George. "And he wasn't that cute either."

Grace scowled at her.

"What took you girls so long to get down here?" Fred asked them.

"Oh please a girl needs time to look beautiful," Trina waved off the question.

"No, you're just always beautiful," Oliver said, sliding into the seat next to Trina. His face was flushed and his hair was sweaty from his early morning run around the pitch.

In a rush of feathery wings a pack of owls flew in from overhead, dropping packages and letters to their recipients on their way for breakfast.

"I hope your mum sent you some food," Grace mentioned to George. "I miss it already."

"I think she sent something a whole heap better," George replied with his eyes on the red envelope Ron was pulling out of Hermione's jug of milk.

"What's so amazing about a red envelope?" Grace asked.

"You mean a Howler?" Miranda said. "Worst letters you could ever receive. My cousin got one once when I was staying with her."

"What are they?" Grace said.

"You'll see," Miranda replied, her eyes on Ron's smoking envelope.

Frowning, Grace turned to look at Ron and waited patiently for the supposedly terrible letter. A second later she thought a bomb must have gone off in the form of Mrs Weasley's voice.

"STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE-"

Grace's eyes widened. Fred, George and Miranda were laughing their heads off while the others were searching for the source of the noise. It was difficult as all that could be seen of Ron was the top of his bright red hair.

"LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED-ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED-YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."

In the silence that echoed around the hall afterwards a pin could have been heard dropping to the stone floor.

"Ahh it feels great to have her yell at someone else for once," Fred sighed, stretching his arms back over his head.

"Speaking of someone yelling at you two," Grace started. "I happened to find Nate locked in a cupboard this morning. As much as I think that he deserves to be there can you please not lock my ex-boyfriend up? I don't want anything to do with him and I'm not particularly angry at him but even if I was I would deal with it, not have you do it for me. Also can you not coerce my young innocent brother into doing terrible things with you?"

Grace ended with her eyebrows raised at the two boys until they gave in.

"Okay, okay we're sorry," they both said and raised their hands in defeat.

"We promise next time a guy breaks your heart we won't punish him," George said.

"But, just in case, don't hold us to that promise," Fred added.

Grace smiled. She swung her book bag onto her shoulder, took one last gulp of milk and stood.

"Well I'm going to class, see you there," she said, leaving half a bowl of porridge on the table and walking away before turning around to say, "Thank you for doing that, boys. It does mean a lot."

"She really confuses me," George commented, watching Grace's disappearing figure. "One minute she's angry at us and the next she's thanking us for the same thing."

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The next two days passed quickly, with no mention of Nate at all. It wasn't until Wednesday that they had a class with Professor Lockhart. Everyone shuffled into class and fell into seats, bored already.

"Meet your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award, Me."

Grace shared an amused look with Miranda beside her. The man was too full of himself for his own good.

"Now I thought we might start the term with a little fun and games. How does that sound?"

A murmur of excited apprehension ran throughout the class.

"First off let's have a quiz, shall we? And there's a box of Honeydukes chocolate in it for the winner."

Grace sat up straight in her chair, her eyes wide with delight. Lockhart walked around the room with a bounce in his step, handing out a collection of papers. Grace took one look at the quiz and groaned. The first question read:

What is Gilderoy Lockhart's middle name?

There was no way Grace could know that. She had skimmed through the first book but upon seeing nothing of interest, she threw aside and hadn't touched the rest. Lara and Hannah had probably read them all though.

Flicking through the pages of the quiz Grace answered the few questions that were actually about defence as they were all simple but then was stumped.

Once Lockhart's back was turned, Grace ripped the back page out of Magical Me. On it she wrote: Lara, this is a ridiculous test, do you think you could please help me? Gracie. She scrunched the page into a ball and tossed it lightly across the room at Lara's head.

It bounced off her dark brown hair onto the desk in front of her. With a flick of her head she turned around to meet Grace's eyes quizzically. Grace gave her a small smile and nod. Lara turned her head back to the paper and scribbled her own response. It landed on Grace's desk within a few seconds.

No way! I'll give you some chocolate if I win but I'm not going to help you cheat. Besides it's not like it's going to matter anyway.

Grace nodded to herself and turned back to Lara for thumbs up.

Lockhart gave them another ten minutes to finish up before collecting the quizzes, by hand onto his desk.

"That's kind of odd, you know," Ciara whispered.

"What?" Miranda and Grace hissed back.

"Not using magic to collect a test. It's not that big a thing but it means he's either incompetent or prefers the Muggle way of doing things."

Miranda and Grace rolled their eyes at her.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Lockhart said. "I'm sure you'll all score highly on that quiz. There'll be a great competition for the chocolate! While I mark them, boys and girls, you can have another challenge. Break yourselves up into pairs and time how long it takes you to disarm the other. Off you go!"

Uncertain looks were shared by everyone in the classroom but they all got to their feet to find a partner. Grace and Miranda worked together while Ciara set off to find Trina.

"How are we supposed to do this?" Miranda grumbled. "He expects us to know disarming spells after all of the terrible teachers we've had?"

"We did learn a couple of charms last year," Grace pointed out, setting up her watch to time them.

"Defensive spells, not attack," Miranda argued.

"Come on, let's just try," Grace suggested. "Ready. . . Set . . . Go!"

"Expellirarmus!" Miranda shouted at the same time that Grace yelled, "Protego!"

A wavering shield hovered in front of Grace's face but was swiftly broken by Miranda's charm. In a short burst Grace's wand pulled tightly away from her hand, however she was able to maintain a tight grip on it and soon enough the charm ceased to work.

"Rikktisumpra," Grace said.

Miranda fell to the ground, clutching her side as the Tickling Curse took over, causing her to cough and wheeze with laughter. There wasn't enough strength in her body to continue holding her wand so it slipped out to the ground where Grace immediately snatched it up.

She cast the counter-curse on Miranda straight after stopping the timer. It had taken her one minute and twelve seconds to disarm Miranda.

"That shouldn't count," Miranda gasped. "You didn't actually disarm me."

"Considering what everyone else is doing, I think it should count," Grace said.

All around the classroom, chaos reigned. A distinct screech of "Ow, my eye!" came from one corner. Two Slytherin boys had decided to wrestle each other for their wands instead while their female counterparts stood arguing over who should win. Megan, a blonde Ravenclaw, kicked her opponent in the shin until he gave up his wand. Hannah and Lara hid under their desk, with Lara holding both of their wands in her hands, having finished the challenge quickly.

Miranda and Grace were forced to duck at the variety of spells that were flying their way, even a Filibuster's firecracker.

"I really hope the rest of the term isn't like this," Grace wished.

For the last half hour of the lesson, Miranda and Grace joined Hannah and Lara, eventually with Ciara and Trina. By the time the bell rang, signalling the end of the day, all six girls were praying for a different teacher even if he gave Lara a chocolate prize. The rest of the night Grace spent in the hospital wing, healing those who were injured in class.

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Grace had to work extra hard at the hospital wing that night to help nurse all of the victims from Professor Lockhart's first lessons. It didn't help that Jesse was distracting her the whole time with his broken hand. The work continued the next night until finally all of the fifth year students were alright and Grace left for the common room.

"So," Grace said, exhaling as she flopped onto the couch next to Harry. "How was your first week back?"

"Good," he said. "We've had some interesting classes.

"Like what?"

"We replotted Mandrakes in Herbology and Lockhart released a cage of Cornish pixies."

"Cornish pixies?" Grace repeated.

"Freshly caught Cornish pixies," Harry imitated perfectly, causing Grace to burst out laughing.

"Well I guess you're lucky," Grace said. "He gave us a 'lesson' in duelling. No practise, no teaching us anything, just off and disarm your partner. Five people were sent to the hospital wing."

Harry's eyes raised above his glasses. "I guess I should be glad that the pixies destroyed all the paintings of Lockhart."

"No, they've already been replaced," Grace informed him seriously.

Harry groaned.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask you about Nate," Grace started. "He said that you helped Fred and George lock him in a cupboard. I wanted to ask whether they made you do it."

"I didn't really do much but I went there myself," he explained. "Fred and George said that he hurt you so I went along with it."

"Oh Harry," Grace sighed. "He didn't actually hurt me. Fred and George say I'm overprotective but, I swear every time something small happens to any of the girls, they go mental."

"Lucky they're Beaters then," Harry grinned. "If anything happens they can just whack a few Bludgers around."

"Are you looking forward to getting back on the pitch?"

"Yeah," the grin seemed to widen. "I have a feeling we're going to win the cup this year. We have a great team, so why not?"

"You're starting to sound like Oliver; only you're not infatuated with Trina."

"Gracie!" Miranda called from the doorway of the boys' dormitory. "Can you help me with our Potions homework?"

"Yeah, I'll be up in a second," Grace replied. "I'll see you at training tomorrow. My friends and I are going to have breakfast down at the stadium. Night."

Grace pressed a kiss to Harry's head and ruffled his hair before dragging her feet up the stairs.

The problem with going to the boys' room when she was this tired was that it meant she ended up sleeping there for the night.

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"Finally it's Saturday," Miranda sighed, relaxing into Louis's tight hold. "Didn't come soon enough."

"After that horrid DADA lesson, I'm glad to just watch the team train," Grace said as she wobbled along the beaches with her arms balancing her out.

"Godric don't even talk to me about that awful teacher," Lara complained. "Dumbledore's a good headmaster and all but to leave us with him. At least he didn't try another 'fun and games' lesson."

Lee cheered as Ciara tossed the Quaffle over Oliver's shoulder, straight into the hoop.

"Yeah, that's my girl!"

"C'mon, Ollie! You can do better than her!" Trina screamed up at her potential boyfriend.

"What's going on with you and him anyway?" Grace asked. She jumped down from the highest bleacher to land next to Trina. An intrigued smile crept onto her face and she propped her chin onto her hands.

"Well. .. I dunno . . . I really like him," Trina explained. "And he's said he likes me. He's just too shy to do anything yet."

"Too shy?" Jesse snorted. "He's been planning to do something romantic so you'll remember it forever and ever."

He clutched his hands to his heart and gasped mockingly. All of the girls cooed at his words.

"Don't make fun of him, dumbass!" Trina scowled at Jesse.

"Oh so I'm guessing you don't want to hear what else he said?" Jesse smirked.

"Please tell us! Please! Please! Please!" the girls chanted.

"There may have been the mention of a picnic, strawberries and cherry blossoms."

"You forgot that it was tonight," Lee added, his eyes still on Ciara.

Trina erupted into a bout of squeals. Jesse and Lee looked slightly alarmed while the rest of the girls exchanged happy looks.

"Wow," Lee said once Trina had calmed down. "Ciara looks incredibly sexy on her broom."

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"Ollie, where are we going?" Trina whined, almost playfully.

"It's only a bit further," he responded.

The sun was setting over the Hogwarts grounds so it cast the perfect light over the walking couple. Only moments before Oliver had asked Trina to go for a walk by the lake and now he led her along the bank with hands over her eyes.

"Here," Oliver said.

He moved his hands from Trina's eyes to reveal the scene before them. A red and white checkered rug spread across the ground, topped with baskets of strawberries: chocolate covered, in tarts, with other berries or simply on the side to other delicious treats. Draped in the trees were delicate strings of cherry blossoms.

"Oh wow . . . its perfect," Trina breathed. "You did this all for me?"

"I've been asking Hannah and Ciara for advice all week. I really wanted to make tonight special for you," Oliver said, shuffling his feet ever so slightly.

"So the boys were right when they said you were nervous all week?"

"You don't meet a girl like you every day, Trina, so course you made me nervous."

"Naw," Trina blushed, taking a step closer to him. "You know you're pretty amazing yourself. And romantic too."

Now they were only inches apart.

"Do you want something to eat?" Oliver asked, gesturing lamely at the picnic.

Trina automatically agreed. She took Oliver's hand in her own and pulled him to the ground.

Even when she was trying to eat neatly, half of the strawberries were gone in minutes.

"These are sooo good, Ollie," Trina gushed. "Where did you even get them?"

"Professor Sprout has a secret strawberry patch," he explained. "I saw them when I was flying over the grounds."

"Well I like them almost as much as I like you."

"So you like me too?"

"Since the start of third year I guess."

"Will you go out with me?"

"I don't see why not."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes!"

Trina leapt across the rug and wrapped her arms around Oliver's neck while he sat there in shock. Above them the stars twinkled merrily.

"Does this mean I have to learn the rules of Quidditch?"

I'll post again soon! Please review with any questions or comments.