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"Leave off will you!" Cathy said, turning to the sniggering prat behind her, who had just flicked yet another little ball of parchment into her hair.

"Invest in a hairbrush, Creepy Cathy."

Picking the piece of parchment out of her curls, Cathy put her feet up on the empty seat beside her and continued what she was doing. She was already peeved that Umbridge was late, don't get her wrong, the woman is an idiot, but with the pressure to pass her Defence N.E.W.T this wasn't the time for her to be missing lessons.

Busily making notes from her textbook with her left hand, she was finishing a potions essay with her right. The fact that she is ambidextrous is really her only talent, that and she can dislocate her big toes at will.

"Here George! Where's Fred?" Lee Jordan shouted across the classroom to George Weasley, who had typically arrived late.

"It's his turn to have the 'flu'; teachers get too suspicious if we both have it." George stated.

He walked towards where he and Fred usually sit, before remembering that during their last lesson they had hexed the desk so that it went on fire as an excuse not avoid copying more tedious paragraphs from the textbook, making it no use to anyone, there was still a black scorch-mark where the desk was and a strong smell of burnt wood. This meant that the only other empty seat was beside Creepy Cathy.

"Cree- um, Cathy, can I sit there…… please?"

Disturbed from her writing and untwisting her knickers at the same time, she looked George directly in the eye for a full five seconds before taking her feet off the chair and moving her books too make room for him. Going back to her work, George turned and made a face at Lee, he returned this by chucking some Honeydukes chocolate at him.

Stuffing most of it in his mouth, he nudged Cathy and offered her a bit.

Puffing out air in annoyance so it ruffled her fringe, she turned.

"What?"

"Just wandering if you'd like some. There is nothing in it, I swear." George put his hand over his heart in mock oath.

Searching his usually good natured eyes for signs that he was going to poison her or humiliate her in any way, Cathy found something else. Pity.

She was fuming "No thank you, you can take your bloody chocolate and your pity and shove it up your-"

"RIGHT CLASS!!!" Umbridge was back. "So sorry I am late, I was dealing with a little incident involving dung bombs in the astronomy tower, which has forced me to issue the rule that all Zonko Joke products are now banned from the school." She said with a manic smile.

This caused most of the class to submit a series of groans and "Aw but Professor….."

"Settle Down! Now turn to chapter 12 in your books and begin to copy out the first two paragraphs to ensure maximum understanding. I expect silence."

Cathy put her head down and began writing, slipping her essay into her bag.

George opened his mouth to confront her about her sudden outburst.

"Why-"

"I said silence, Mr Weasley."

He put his head down and began writing. Out of the corner of his eye he studied her, half-hoping that she had written on her face telling him what her problem was.

George noticed that she wasn't as frizzy or fat as she had been in first year. He, Fred and basically the rest of the year kept their distance from her as her reputation for rudeness and the rumours that she wasn't the full sickle, meant that most people kept away. George hadn't had a proper look at her in years. Reddish-brown hair that clashed with her blue Ravenclaw robes was piled high on her head with hundreds of pins to keep her unruly curls in place, with a few hanging around her face, her fringe made it look a bit odd. Her grey eyes were outlined with kohl, he noted that she very rarely blinked, this helped her reputation for being mad, and it was quite frightening when she stared at you. She has quite a babyish mouth pulled into an almost permanent scowl and a snub nose dotted with freckles It was difficult to tell weather she had lost any weight under her robs but it was obvious that she still enjoyed the odd chocolate frog or six.

Overall George thought that she would be much nicer-looking if she only smiled once in a while.

The second the class was over Cathy was out of the door, not giving George the chance to ask for an apology.

"Meh, if she wants to be a bitch, let her." He said to himself.

Lee looked confused, "What?"

"Nothing, it's just that Creepy Cathy, she's a bit……"

"Frightening, mental, weird, psycho, bad taste in hair styles?"

George laughed, "All that and more. She is off her trolley, I swear."

They headed off to the common room, tripping up a few first years as they went.

"We shouldn't be so harsh George, remember we were first years once, all sweet and innocent." Lee joked.

"Ha, but they're small and they get in the way, look at 'em go." George pointed to a few that were being chased my Filtch's cat.

A few moments later they were greeted by a very grumpy Fred.

"McGonagall caught me out of bed playing exploding snap, now I've got detention with her later."

"Better her than Snape."

"'Spose," Fred grumbled "Did u hear that they're banning Zonkos?"

"Yeah, saw Filtch putting up the sign in the great hall and everything." Lee sighed.

"That's not all," George chucked a roll of parchment at Fred, "Two foot essay on grindylows from Umbridge. You'll never have more fun in your life."

Fred frowned reading the instructions for the homework, "Did we not do this already in third year?"

"I told her that, but she just took off five points and didn't explain anything." George stretched out on one of the squishy armchairs in front of the fire.

"So dear brother, how did you cope without me, in my time of sickness?" Fred sat down as well, hand on forehead.

"Your desk is still missing, so lucky George got to sit with big sexy Creepy Cathy." Lee told him, going up the stairs to their dorms. "He got off with her." He joked before disappearing.

"Cor blimey George. You lucky git." Fred laughed and then he saw George's expression. "What? She didn't try to slit your throat with her quill did she?"

"Something like that. Nah, she's just nasty and a bit weird. Nothing new."

"Not half. You poor bugger."