The first day of classes went by in a blur. Katie found herself wholly unprepared. She ended up writing to her parents, twice, for things she had forgotten. Luckily, Angelina and Alicia were not taken unawares. They hadn't forgotten half of their textbooks at home, and were gracious enough to let Katie bum off of them. To Katie's relief, she wasn't the worse one off. Fred and George decided to save money this year, namely, by not buying any of the books. Their teachers were fit to be tied, but there wasn't too much they could do, short of buying the books themselves. After their last class of the day, the four of them banged loudly into the common room.
"If you think you're going to be looking over my shoulder all semester you're cracked." Angelina barked at the brothers. They both grinned in unison.
"Calm down little lady." George said, only a bit patronizingly.
"We're not cheap, we're protesting." George finished with a flourish. His brother continued the thought.
"We don't think the best way to learn is from a textbook, so this year, we're testing a new strategy." Katie looked at them in askance.
"When you say, 'new strategy' do you really mean not at all?" The look of hurt on their faces was identical.
"You do us a disservice, Bell." George quipped. Fred nodded agreement. Katie threw up her hands in exasperation and let the subject drop. When they wanted to be, the Weasley brothers were as good as secret keepers.
The couches by the fire were free, and they had a couple of hours before dinner, so they settled in. The twins took one couch, the girls another, and Katie settled in between Alicia and Angelina's legs on the floor. Katie produced her wand, a stack of parchment and three borrowed books. After a couple of failed attempts, she got the spell right and began copying the first chapter out of the texts she had forgotten. Her wand traced the book without any instruction than hurriedly copied the words in Katie's own hand on the parchment. Now she wouldn't have to borrow her friend's books to do her homework. Everyone stared wide-eyed for a minute. After a second Fred mumbled,
"What a spectacular waste of parchment." Alicia squeaked indignantly,
"When did you learn to do that?" Katie grinned and looked up at her.
"I didn't spend my summer in fabulous foreign countries. Maybe I cracked a book? Maybe I spent the summer bettering my mind." Everyone laughed, and Katie was offended. After a moment she caved.
"I saw Oliver at lunch. Apparently it's standard fare for 7th years." Angelina crossed her arms.
"It should be standard fare for first years! That would have saved me loads of time!" Katie giggled.
"I think that's the point. They don't want us to know how to plagiarize until we learn the proper respect for our academics." Fred made a face.
"Shoot, I would have liked to learn that spell someday." Katie's face cracked into a broader grin. Her wand's steady progress eventually lost its interest, and talk turned to other things. Namely, how much they missed some of their classmates, how much they loathed others, and what they were going to do about some of the stricter teachers. In an attempt to alienate and infuriate, Snape had made a seating chart. While the Slytherins were conveniently assigned a seat next to their friends, their group, and the rest of the Gryffindors, were scattered around the classroom like leaves on the wind. Nobody was taking it well.
They were arguing loudly about how the commit the perfect murder when the Fat Lady swung open to reveal a familiar face. But of course, they were all too enthralled in discussion to notice. Eventually, Katie did hear his voice mixed in with the squeaky tones of a new first year. The 11 year old was asking about Quidditch, and Katie chuckled. The kid had asked the right person. However, the kid didn't anticipate the depth of discussion his question warranted.
"Now…Jones is it?" The kid nodded, looking a little scared.
"To answer that we really need to take into account wind velocity and mass. How much do you weigh?" The little boy opened his mouth and no words came out.
"Lets just call it six stones shall we? Now if you take that weight and calculate…" Katie couldn't let this go on any longer.
"Get over here, Wood. You're scaring away our potential recruits." Oliver's head popped up in surprise. He spotted her, along with the rest of the gang, and smiled a little sheepishly. He bade farewell to the boy and trotted over to the fire. He loomed over them and fixed Katie was a frustrated look, the sheepishness, however brief it may have been, was gone.
"Okay, I wasn't scaring him I was coaching him. There is a difference you never seem to understand. One time I ask you do something a little scary and all of a sudden I'm scary. I'll say this again. That was a trust exercise and you clearly demonstrated that you have no trust in me as a mentor or a friend…" Katie cut him off again.
"Easy big guy. My trust is as deep and vast as the sea. My common sense, however, is not so easily fooled. Sit, please, people are staring." And they were, so he did. The couches were full, so Oliver pulled up some floor next to Katie. Angelina hurumphed and pulled her legs up so he wouldn't crush them when he leaned back against the couch. Oliver twisted his head to flash her smile, but she only rolled her eyes and unceremoniously dumped her feet on Alicia's lap. The good-natured girl grinned and fished around in her bag for some nail polish. Angelina gave Alicia a funny look when she started peeling off her socks and shoes in order to apply the paint, but let it happen. There really was no saying no to Alicia, not when she was on a mission to beautify.
Oliver turned back to Katie and gestured at her wand.
"Look at you go, figured out the spell I see." Katie nodded.
"Eventually, yes. It works like a charm." George chortled.
"Did you hear that Fred? Katie's spell works like a charm." They laughed as Katie gave them a look of disbelief.
Oliver ignored them, and leaned closer to examine Katie's wand at work.
"Well…almost like a charm. You're spelling gargoyle wrong." Katie's eyebrows knit together and she leaned in as well.
"No…no I'm not." A smile twitched at the corner of his lips.
"I hate to break it to you Birdy, but you are. It's G-A-R-G-O-Y-L-E." Katie bent back over the parchment.
"Well crap." She paused and looked up into Oliver's laughing green eyes.
"Good thing I'm not turning this in." The smile he was trying to repress twitched again. He made a sympathetic face and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, spelling is hard." That warranted a smack. She cuffed at him.
"Hush! Why don't you just go back to scaring the first years!" He laughed and halfheartedly blocked the blows.
"Whoa, whoa take it easy! Don't be mad just because I'm beautiful and smart." She went to hit him harder but Wood was faster. He grabbed her wrist, one in each hand, and wrapped her arms deftly about her, putting her in a straightjacket of her own limbs and successfully halting her assault. Katie struggled for a minute then relaxed, successfully defeated. Angelina snorted and wiggled her newly painted toes.
"If you two are done, I'm hungry." George grinned and bounced in his seat.
"Dinner!" Was all he had to add to the conversation. Alicia nodded.
"Yeah, let's just change and head down. Don't smudge your paint Angie." Everyone rose, Wood released Katie and stood as well.
"That reminds me," he said, smiling as he reached a hand down to Katie.
"Marissa is going to eat with us." Everyone froze, their eyes taking on a wary look. Katie froze along with everyone else, and Oliver groaned a little as he hauled her deadweight to standing. Oliver took in all their expressions and waved his hands to prompt their memory, coming to the incorrect conclusion that they were just confused.
"You know, Marissa, my girlfriend?" Fred and George both started laughing, Angelina scowled, and Katie swallowed what must have been a bug, since she began coughing wildly. Alicia, being the helpful friend that she was, began patting her on the back.
"Awesome." Alicia said in that wavering sort of way people only used when they were lying.
"We're super excited to meet her." She wrapped an arm around Katie, who was still coughing, and Angelina who was still scowling.
"Come on girls, let's go change." To their retreating backs, Katie heard Wood remark, in his confused and innocent tone.
"What's up with them?" Fred chuckled again and thumped him on the back.
"Don't worry about, let's go eat."