Chapter 13
After their last Quidditch practice of the year, the girls for the Gryffindor team were getting changed, it was mostly in complete silence other than occasional murmuring from some of the girls, one of these included Angelina Johnson, who, towards the end of her sentence, did not take much care in keeping her voice low at all 'I mean, Ashley, can you not do anything right?You're hopeless!'
'Well-'
'Honestly, I don't even know why Wood put you on the team in the first place. You can barely get a few inches of the ground without falling off your broom, I would have thought after almost two years of playing Quidditch (A.N – this is end of HER third year, end of first for the golden trio) you were at least slightly talented … although I guess we'll have another year of disappointment ahead of us, won't we? Unless of course Wood finally decides that we need fresh blood … a new chaser for example?'
'Falling off my broom still hasn't stopped me being better than you though, has it?' Ashley said back, glaring at Angelina 'I still get more points than you do every match, and I make up for your stupid mistakes'
'You think you're better than me?' she said, scoffing
'No, of course not. I know I'm better than you, there's a difference between thinking something and knowing something.'
'Well, obviously George doesn't think so' Angelina said, flicking her hair over her shoulder and placing a hand on her hip
'And what exactly is that supposed to mean?' Ashley asked, whilst she grabbed her bag and walked over to Angelina, who was still stuffing her clothes into her bag.
'It means that George knows I'm better than you, he told me so himself … Fred agrees with him, too.' she said, as she pulled her bag onto her shoulder and the two made their way out of the changing rooms, wandering up the path back towards the school
'I'm sure he did' Ashley said, rolling her eyes
'He did, you can ask him yourself' Angelina said, before turning and flouncing off towards some fourth year boy
'What was all that about?' a voice behind her said, Ashley turned to see the face of Fred Weasley, who's tie was still slightly undone around his neck and his shirt still untucked
'Oh, nothing' Ashley said 'She just wanted to tell me how much I suck at Quidditch, how much better she is at everything than I am and that George thinks she's better than me … so the usual'
'Ah right' Fred said 'Is it wrong that I still find her hot?'
'Yes!' Ashley said, whacking his arm with her potions book and glaring at him
'Ah well, you've got nothing to worry about on the George part, though' Fred began, placing his arm over her shoulder and smiling at her 'He definitely doesn't like Angelina'
'I guess' Ashley said, although she was most definitely hoping that he didn't. Because if George liked Angelina, she had no chance. Angelina was far better than her at everything, well, everything other than Charms. That bitch failed at charms.
'Ashley?' Harry asked, putting his hand on her shoulder and frowning at her slightly 'Are you alright?'
'What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine … completely fine' Ashley said, 'I think I'm just going to go back to bed...'
'Alright … erm - do you want me to wake you up if George gets back?'
'No. No no no no no, definitely not.' Ashley said quickly, giving him a slight smile at the end of her sentence to try and keep to the lie
'Okay, I won't' Harry said, adding a smile. He then continued to walk into the other room (no odubt Ginny was in there), whilst Ashley walked upstairs and into Percy's old room. Since he had left the Burrow a lot of things had been changed in his room, for example, all his Ministry books were gone and most of his old school supplies … come to think of it, the only think that remained of Percy's was the desk and his old bed. At noticing the bed she wandered over and threw herself onto it, staring up at the pale white ceiling above her … there were a few visible cracks, but nothing major from what she could see. After what seemed like an eternity of staring at the plain ceiling, her eyes began to droop and she felt herself drift off.
-oOo-
'I swear George just hears our plans and then decides to just randomly do them by himself' Ron said, plonking himself down on the sofa next to Hermione
'I agree with my idiotic brother' Ginny said, before turning away from Harry to face the rest of the group '…Or should I say, my idiotic brother Ron … just in case Charlie gets confused' she smirked
'So what are we meant to do next?' Charlie asked, 'and Ginny I'll get you back for that later'
'Well we can't exactly do much…' Harry said, ignoring the siblings.
'What do you mean?' Ron asked, frowning slightly between Harry and Hermione
'Do you all not know where he is right now?' Harry asked, frowning at them all in turn
'No … why?' Ginny asked … glaring at Harry 'Do you?!'
'He's gone somewhere with Angelina…I'm guessing you all remember her quite well …'
'What?!' Ginny asked, standing up and clenching her fists 'When he gets back I'm going to bloody kill him!'
'Well … it's understandable' Hermione said quietly, whilst Harry tried to pull Ginny back down into her seat, which didn't work out well and caused Harry to almost get kicked in the shin.
'What?' Ron asked, ignoring his best friend and younger sister 'how?'
'Well, George thinks Ashley doesn't like him, right?' Hermione began, slightly louder than she was before
'Well, yeah…' Ron said, frowning
'And therefore he's not going to wait until she decides she wants to be with him, if she ever does for that matter, so because he wants to be with someone he's going to go after someone who's wanted to be with him for a while, so that's why-'
'That's why he's on a date with Angelina instead of sitting in his room and moping' Charlie ended, 'One problem with that whole date thing though …'
'Which is?' Ginny asked, smiling to herself as Harry rubbed his knee
'Angelina didn't want George from what I can remember … ' Ron began 'All I remember is that she wanted Fred.'
-oOo-
George sat waiting in the restaurant, staring at the glass door. He didn't quite know why he had asked her to come and meet him … he didn't even like her … not in that way, at least. Well, what harm can this do? … Ashley said herself that she doesn't like me, so why should I keep trying? It's just a hopeless case, I may as well just give up and find someone who actually wants to be with me instead of someone who I have to keep chasing. Who's to say Angelina isn't the one for me? For all I know, she could be, right? Even if she isn't the one then it can't hurt to try, it's just a date. No commitments. George's thoughts were interrupted by the fact that Angelina had now walked into the restaurant and was standing on her tiptoes as to look over all the tables, scanning for George. Eventually her eyes found him and she did a grin that looked far too big … in George's opinion at least, it looked more fake than real.
'Good evening, Angelina' George said, standing up and walking over to the other side of the table, continuing to pull out a chair so that she would have a place to sit.
'Thanks, George' she said, and flashed him a smile which still didn't look entirely real this is wrong, this is so so wrong George thought,
'So, how've you been?' he asked, looking up at her
'I've been good, you?'
'Erm yeah, same' he lied, and gave her a half-hearted smile
'So, what exactly was the reasoning for you asking me out?' she asked, placing an arm upright on the table and leaning her chin on her knuckles, then twirling her hair with the other hand.
'I'm not entirely sure' George admitted, trying to ignore the fact that she was currently gazing at him in complete and utter adoration.
'I don't know why, but I always thought you liked that Ashley girl' she said, frowning and sitting back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest 'I mean, ugh. Do you remember her? She used to hang around you and Fred like a little puppy dog, practically begging for some attention from anyone'
'Yeah. I remember her' George said, looking down towards the empty plate that was in front of him
'Do you remember when she almost lost us the game against Hufflepuff? I mean, come on, anyone could have beaten Hufflepuff! The only reason we won that match was because Cedric Diggory didn't try as hard so we'd win … I mean, I know Harry fell off his broom and everything, but if she'd just scored more goals then we would have won! She was too absent-minded to be part of the team … I should have thrown her off when I was captain really … sadly the only replacement was too busy getting distracted by Harry'
'Why would he not try?' George frowned, trying his best to ignore her slipped in comment about his sister.
'Wasn't it obvious? He fancied Ashley loads, he thought that if he let Gryffindor win she'd want to talk to him more, which is obviously what he wanted'
'He fancied Ashley?'
'Apparently he still does' Angelina shrugged 'No idea why though, in my opinion I think she looks like one of those pug dogs, you know the ones with the squashed up faces?'
'Yeah...' George said, and gave a slight fake laugh
'Although I have to admit her and Diggory look good together' Angelina said
'Wait, when did you see her and Cedric?'
'Oh, erm, in our sixth year she helped him a lot with the Tournament thing, do you not remember the fact that he was her "prize" in the second task?'
'Oh...yeah' George said, and suddenly had flashbacks of the memory he had tried hard to forget
'Fred, have you seen Ash anywhere?' a confused looking George asked his twin brother, looking over his shoulder and back towards the castle to see if he could see her
'No, I haven't, now would you stop pining over the love of your life and help me with these bets?'
'Is there any point bothering? The task looks like it's about to start'
'Really?!' Fred said, before turning around to look at where the crowd of people seemed to be getting on the last of the boats 'Come on then' he said, before the two set off to where the crowd were. They reached the boats just as the last one was leaving
'Well … that was lucky' Fred smirked, looking over at his brother, who was still frowning up at the castle 'Honestly, George, she's probably with Harry, no doubt he's worried about this … or she's studying with Hermione and Ron … they aren't here either'
'I guess' George muttered, whilst there boat made it's way towards the centre of the Black Lake, where there were three stand type objects protruding from the water, each containing students from the three different schools. Fred and George pushed their way to the front of the Hogwarts stand and saw Harry, who was currently listening intently to what Dumbledore was saying,
'The competitors have precisely one hour to recover something that has been taken from them. On the count of three, one … two … three!' Dumbledore said loudly, at this the four competitors leaped into the water, well, all other than Harry, who had begun thrashing around and was therefore shoved in by Moody. Now all there was to do was wait.
'Fred?' George spoke up, half an hour through the task, causing his brothers head to snap up from looking at the dark water beneath him
'What, George?' he sighed, looking back down again
'You don't think, that the thing Diggory needs to save … you don't think it's Ashley?'
'Why on earth would it be Ashley?' Fred frowned, looking up at him again
'Well, they have to recover something that someone has taken that's important to them..'
'I doubt Ash is that important to Hufflepuff boy'
'I suppose' George said. The last half hour of the tournament was tense, people were expecting someone to appear out of the water any minute, a mere minute before the hour was up, Cedric Diggory appeared from the water. Clinging on to him was Ashley.
'George…' Fred said, looking worriedly at his twin brother
'It's fine … not like I care, right?' he said, giving a nervous laugh afterwards 'It's not as if I have a problem with it …'
'Sorry, George' Fred sighed, clapping a hand on his brothers back. As soon as everyone had gotten back to the castle, they immediately dispersed into their common rooms. The entirety of the Gryffindor house was currently spread all over the Gryffindor common room, obviously talking about the previous task that the famous Harry Potter had completed. The only people who were not joining in with these conversations were Fred and George, the latter of whom had gone to bed as soon as he had stepped through the Fat Lady's portrait.
'I bet she was only Cedric's prize because she wanted the attention … I heard she tried to snog him in the prefects bathroom once' Angelina said, sniggering slightly
'You know what, Angelina?' George said,
'What?'
'You're just … mean' he said 'All you've done so far is bitch and moan about Ashley, and you know what? It gets annoying after about 3 seconds. It just makes you sound like you're completely jealous of her!'
'Me, be jealous of that thing? Have you drunk too much Firewhiskey by any chance, George?' she smirked
'You should be jealous, actually. Ashley is far better than you in every aspect, she's a nicer person, she's funnier, she's better at Quidditch, she's a better friend and she's actually beautiful, unlike you' George said, then pushed his chair away from the table and got to his feet, he walked straight past Angelina without even glancing towards her and was about to open the door
'Wait, George!' Angelina said, standing up from her own chair and turning to face him
'What?' he sighed, turning to face her
'Do you like her?'
'What?' George frowned,
'Do you like Ashley?' she said, rolling her eyes
'Yes, I do … if that wasn't plainly obvious from all the stuff I just said that made me look like an idiot'
'Well then you should probably consider telling her that… I mean, it's been completely and utterly obvious that she's head over heels for you since fifth year … probably before that, actually, considering whenever I mentioned you to annoy her she used to go bright red and become more clumsy than usual … hard as that is to imagine'
'Huh?' George frowned, rubbing his head slightly
'Did you not know that she liked you?' Angelina said, her eyes widening slightly
'No. I didn't.' George said, then walked out of the restaurant, slamming the door behind him.
Okay, so another chapter for all of you.
One comment though, if you don't like it don't read it.
Anyway, thanks for reading :)