Ok, so I know it's no where close to Valentine's day but still, I felt like writing this….so there.
Disclaimer: while writing this my own little cupid shot an arrow (which was rather painful seeing as it landed on target in the middle of my arse) which suddenly gave me a revelation. And guess what I found out? C'mon, guess! I found out that I am not in-fact JK Rowling! I know! That's what I said!
Katie Bell looked around the castle in disgust. At February 10th, almost every corridor, classroom, and bathroom was covered in frilly, pink, heart shaped decorations (whether it was sticking to the windows, draped around the knights of armor or hanging from one side of the stall to the other). All in respect to the "holiday" coming up.
Now normally Katie was a very reasonable girl. On a daily basis she let inanimate objects alone without glaring at them, she wouldn't stalk around the castle with a constant scowl on, and she wouldn't throw dirty looks at couples holding hands in the halls. But this week it seemed like an alter ego had taken her place-not to say that her outspoken/going personality, stubbornness, and sarcastic nature had been erased with her faults; they were still firmly intack.
Pushing a lock of dark golden blonde hair out of her eyes, she scowled at a first year couple incredulously. She herself hadn't even thought about dating as a first year. Thinking back she remembered that she spent a large amount of her first year bugging the family friend-Tom Finn; current 6th year and Griffindor Quidditch captain at the time- to let her play at least as a reserve-despite the 'no first years on the house team' rule. As she continued to dinner, the 5th year was suddenly aware of a smile creeping across her face…she instantly forced it to drop into a scowl.
"Still in a sour mood?" Fred Weasley asked his normally-smiley friend as she plopped into the seat next to him.
Katie let out a long sigh, "I'm going to be in a sour mood until all these…things," he voice gradually growing tenser as she picked up a pink teddy bear (which was rather cute holding a large red heart) that was placed next to the salt and pepper for decoration off the table, "are completely alleviated off the face of the earth," she snarled as she chucked it clear over the Hufflepuff table across from her and it landed in a bowl of soup at the Ravenclaw table. Her brow furrowed even more.
"Nice shot," George said, across from her, as he turned back around from watching the teddy bear's trajectory. "Oh what is that face for? The soup splashed right in that Cho girl's lap!"
"I was hoping to hit the Slytherin table…" she scoffed under her breath as she glared at the table on the opposite side of the Great Hall.
"Did that bear come from over here?" their 7th year captain Oliver Wood asked as he sat down next to George.
"Yes," the three of them chorused.
"I thought so…that was a decent throw coming from you Fred," he said, piling food into his plate.
"Actually it was Kati-What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his newly elbowed ribs.
"Bell?" Oliver asked, looking up confused. "You threw that?" she rolled her green eyes in response with a huff, "you need to work harder in practice then," he pointed his chicken drumstick at her, "You should've hit the other wall-Slytherin table at worst," he added, taking a bite.
"Y-ye-yeah? Well," she fumed as she stood up, "It didn't have any aerodynamics!" she shouted before reaching over and tipping his food-loaded plate into his lap and stalking out.
"Did I do something wrong?" he asked his beaters as the large doors slammed shut-charming his lap clean with a casual sweep of his wand.
"M'dear cap'n," Fred started as he picked up some heart shaped confetti off the table, "This weekend is Valentine's Day; for this week everything you say that is not 100 percent correct, to her-" he threw the confetti up for the dramatic affect the twins were famous for, "-it 100 percent wrong."
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"Ok, ok, ok, ok!" Angelina said excitedly as she rushed into her dorm where her fellow fifth years Katie and Alicia Spinnet were doing their homework on their beds. "Guess who asked me to Hogsmeade this weekend!" the darker girl demanded, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet happily.
"Who?" Alicia asked as Katie groaned inwardly.
"I said GUESS!"
"Ok…hmm," Alicia mused, scratching her right temple, "…Fred?"
"No."
"Oh…I don't know then," she quickly turned back to her homework.
"Guess Katie."
"The king of America," Katie mutter sarcastically and not looking up.
Angelina groaned loudly as she sat at the foot of Alicia's bed. "Guys! This is important!"
"Valentine's Day is NOT important of all things!" Katie suddenly burst out rather loudly, drawing looks from her best friends. "Sorry…" she mumbled, looking back down at her work.
"It's alright," Alicia said offhandedly. "The whole castle knows how you get this week-it's kind of a tradition."
"Well at least I left my mark," she mumbled tensely.
"If you dropped the sarcasm I'm sure you'd get a date," Angelina said like only a best friend was aloud to, with reassurance. "You know that-?"
"So who are you going with?" Katie asked with a small smile, quickly redirecting her.
"Oh!" it was if she had forgot her whole reason for sprinting up those stairs, "Chris McKlinney."
"Who?" Katie and Alicia chorused.
"Chris McKlinney."
"Who the hell is that?" Katie asked, looking at her friend as if she needed a cat-scan. "Is he younger than us?" she asked skeptically with an eyebrow cocked. "Merlin no-he's a seventh year-"
"What?" they chorused again.
Katie and Alicia looked across to each other. "Did she just say a seventh year? " Katie asked.
Alicia shot a dodgy glance at their beaming friend, "I think she did."
"Oh please!" the braided-haired girl rolled her eyes with a laugh, "You two know him."
"No we don't," Katie looked back to Alicia, "…do we?"
"Is he that beater-?" Alicia started.
"-YES!"
"For Hufflepuff?"
"No."
"…Slytherin?"
"NO!"
"…well he certainly isn't on our team," Alicia stated matter-of-factly.
"No, 'Lic," Angelina laughed at her extremely BOOKsmart friend, "He's a Ravenclaw."
"Oh…that was my next guess."
"Sure it was 'Lic," Katie laughed, opening her potions textbook as Angelina started to list the ways 'which Chris was adorable'.
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"Abigail tried to get back together with me."
Katie looked up two days later after dinner, deciding that she had glared at the fire from the couch long enough, to see her captain sitting down next to her.
"That Hufflepuff girl?" Katie asked, scrunching up her nose-what she had heard from him she decided that she didn't like the girl. Even though he was her Quidditch Nazi of a captain, they had become rather close over the years and Katie knew from the start that that girl wasn't good for him. "Didn't you guys break up right before your birthday?"
"What was it…November 12?" Oliver thought for a moment, "Yup, that was a good birthday present…"
"I thought you swore off Hufflepuffs," she protested defensively-over what she wasn't sure.
"I did," he said, chuckling a bit. "I said she tried."
"Either be honest and tell me you weren't playing hard to get," she started lightly, "Or lie to me and tell me you weren't playing hard to get."
"I wasn't playing hard to get," he said truthfully, putting his hands up for a moment, before letting them drop back into his lap. "She said she wanted to come to some of our practices to watch."
Katie snorted and Oliver looked at her funny.
"I'm sorry," she said through a laugh, putting a hand on his shoulder as she clamped the other one over her mouth in attempts to stop. "Did you just say that she wanted to come to practices? THAT girl?"
Oliver nodded, "So I told her that on most Thursdays and Tuesdays we had practice from 4-7 before classes and 5-8 every night." Katie looked at him expectantly, urging him to continue.
"And?"
"And she slapped me across the face and said 'some things NEVER change'-or something like that-before stalking off." Katie broke out into laughter again, "What?"
"Oliver, you don't see the hilarity in this?"
"No."
"Oh," she stopped laughing much more abruptly than she planned, "Well if you were your captain you would understand."
"What?"
"Oh, never mind Oliver," she laughed lightly, "just think of some plays or something."
"Mmm, maybe later," he mumbled. "How bout a game of chess or something?"
"Sounds good," she smiled, "even though I'm going to lose in 5 turns."
"I'll go easy the first few times around."
"That's what you said last time."
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"Hey, Bell!"
Katie turned on her heel, glare at full power. It was Saturday-the day before V-day- and Angelina and Alicia were talking about what they were going to wear for 'the big day' tomorrow. Angelina couldn't stop talking about how blue Chris's eyes were and it turns out George asked Alicia leaving Katie as the fifth wheel. She couldn't say she liked it. So she decided to go to the kitchens and drown her worries away in an ocean of chocolate.
But apparently Roger Davies had other plans.
"What do you want Davies?" Katie asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"What are you doing?" he asked, looking around the empty corridor.
"What are you doing?" she threw back.
"I'm asking you to Hogsmeade tomorrow," he said bluntly, "And I believe I asked you first. So what are you doing?"
"I'm going to the kitchens," she said, pointing over her shoulder before turning back and walking off.
"Hey BELL!" he shouted, catching up and stepping into stride with her. "This is where you say 'I'm saying yes to the dashing Ravenclaw captain' or 'I'm accepting the offer from the lovely gentlemanly Davies'."
She stopped and looked him up and down. It wasn't that Roger was a foul looking guy, in fact he had an 8 on her scale, but he was Roger. Sure he had short, spiky black hair, blue eyes and was a solid 6' tall, but he was still Roger Davies. Roger Davies, the guy that pulled her braids back when she was a first year, the guy who sent her fake love notes all second year even though she figured it out the first month, the guy who asked her out countless times as a third year, and the guy who told her time and time again that he would never ask her out again since. Lot of good that had done. Well at least he had persistence.
"Nah, I don't really do captains," she said, continuing on her way.
"Ok, I'm going to ignore your playing hard to get thing," he said, ending up at her side again. "Can I ask why? We have to be half decent to be given the title."
She stopped and turned to him, "Well let's see my choices. We've got a Scottish Nazi, the bulkiest seeker in school history," she counted off her fingers, "an ugly gorilla, and a…" she thought about the last one.
"Yes?"
"Hmm…I dunno what to call the last one, " she mused.
"Oh c'mon, I'm not that bad."
"Oh, I already said you," she said without a beat, "But I don't think I know anything foul enough for Flint."
"That was low Bell," he said shortly.
"And yet you still come back for more," she mumbled as she tickled the banana.
"One day, Katie," he said, holding up a finger, "On hour or even one butter beer if it makes you fell better. Give me one chance Katie."
Katie looked over to him as a small door swung open. His normally piercing eyes had gone soft and this was one of the spare times he actually used her first name.
"Ok Roger," she sighed as he broke out into a smile. "One hour and one butter beer. First thing so I won't be in a mood yet. There, more than you asked for. Ok?"
"Brilliant," he said, leaning forward and giving her a quick peck on the cheek before dashing off. "See you at ten then."
"THAT WAS COMPLETELY UNCALLED FOR DAVIES!" she shouted after him. "I SHOULD DOCK 15 MINUTES OFF YOUR TIME FOR THAT!"
Hmm, just a note from your lovely author. You know, technically I could leave it here…and then add on chapters. Hmm, yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. Okz, I'll start it up on a second and get it up soon! Hope you all liked it and remember reviews make the world go round! …I know, I'll stop, ok? Just go and review.