Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
I Don't Bet
Sunday, September 8th, 7:48 p.m., my dorm,
It seemed like the second I got up this morning all anyone could talk about was the Hogsmeade trip. I mean, I can see if you're a third year and you've never been before, it would be exciting. But we've all been loads of times. It's just Hogsmeade. I want to go just as much as the next person, but I had plenty of more important things on my mind other than the Hogsmeade trip. Or at least I would have if everyone within a two foot radius hadn't been talking about it. Hosmeade, I mean.
"So, what do you think about Carl Nichols?" Keely asked, throwing open my curtains and letting a large amount of unwanted light in. I don't remember giving anyone permission to just open the curtains to my bed without asking.
"Who? What?" I muttered, trying to block out the bright light unsuccessfully.
"Carl Nichols, from Ravenclaw. What do you think about him for a date?" she asked as she sat down on my bed.
"It's not like you're looking for her soul mate here, just pick someone from Gryffindor and be done with it," Riley remarked from her bed. I was feeling particularly like I had no one on my side at the moment.
"Oh no, that won't do. That's not romantic at all," Blake said, looking up from the toe-nails she was painting. I found myself wondering why Blake, of all people, was involving herself with this.
"Oh, you know who she should go with?!" Beverly exclaimed excitedly. "Penn! They would be SO cute together."
"Since when do we care about who I would be 'SO cute' with?" I asked grumpily. "Why is it me we're worrying about getting a date?"
"Because, you never go on a date," Beverly said matter-of-factly, sitting on the side of my bed opposite Keely.
"Neither does Emily," I pointed out. "Besides, dates are overrated."
"I agree," Emily said forcefully, "Focusing on school work is much more practical than focusing on boys."
"Yeah, you'd think that," Keely drawled. From her bed, Riley snorted. Did anyone ever tell her that snorting is very unladylike?
"Why would I want a date? And more importantly, if I did want one, who would want to go with me?"
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm sure there are plenty of boys who would," Keely chided, "And your face is healing nicely. I'd say it will be scar free by tomorrow."
"Keely, I highly doubt that anyone is going to care if she has a scratch on her face," Beverly argued. A scratch is putting it nicely. Though Keely was right, it is actually healing. And the bump on my head is barely noticeable.
"Yeah, Keely, it's what's on the inside that matters," Riley said sarcastically. Beverly narrowed her eyes at Riley. Um, isn't it supposed to be what's on the inside that matters? What's wrong with people these days?
"It should be," Emily muttered, seeming to share my thoughts.
"Oh no," Blake spoke up loudly, "It's all about how you look. Teenage boys are only after one thing…"
I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Thanks, Blake."
"She's right," Keely said firmly, "so go make yourself sexy!" she ordered, pushing me out of bed.
Ten minutes later I entered the Great Hall, not looking sexy in the least and not looking as though I had tried to, because I hadn't.
"Very sexy," Riley grinned and winked as I sat down.
"Always sexy," I heard behind me. I turned to see Aiden passing, also giving me a wink, though with more of a smirk than a grin. I frowned. I seriously don't know what that boy's issues are.
"Shove it, Roemer," I grumbled. I turned back to see both Keely and Beverly both looking at me intently. "What now?!" I demanded. It's hard to enjoy your weekend when your two friends won't leave you five minutes of peace.
"If you asked him he'd definitely say yes," Keely said.
"Definitely," Beverly echoed.
"Black will grow a heart of gold before I ever ask Aiden out," I muttered.
"Okay, I admit that Sirius is a big-headed git, but he's not THAT bad," Riley said. I rolled my eyes at her. Why would she assume I was talking about Sirius? I like to talk about him as little as possible.
"I was talking about Regulus," I told her.
"Gotcha," she replied, winking again.
"Riley, what's up with the winking?" I asked her. I mean, come on!
"You don't like it?" she looked disappointed, "I thought it was a good look for me."
"Can we focus please?" Beverly demanded shrilly.
"Bev, calm down," I told her. Everyone was going a bit nuts over this whole Hogsmeade thing. I'd never seen anything like it before. I was starting to feel the very strong need to get away from them.
"Uh, listen…as lovely as this has been, I really need to go talk with…James," saying the first person I could think of. I cursed inwardly, James was the last person I wanted to be talking to at that moment. However, as I reluctantly walked towards my brother, aware of the confused stares of my friends behind me, I realized that I did actually need to talk to him. I must say, although I'm not one to forgive easily, this whole thing between the two of us was getting a bit ridiculous. That's not to say if I'm struck by some brilliant idea of a prank I won't act on my inspiration.
"Why don't you just ask her out?" I heard Remus ask Sirius as I approached them.
"Ask who out?" James broke in.
Sirius appeared to ignore him as he answered, "You know I can't. It's just too complicated."
"Please, no more talk about Hogsmeade dates or I might have to hex myself," I said, sitting down next to Remus. Looking across at James, I noticed that he was very surprised to see me there. I doubt he could have been more surprised than I was.
"Listen James, how about I forgive you and you forgive me and we forget about this whole thing?"
James looked even more surprised at this, but after a few seconds began with, "Yeah, I guess that – " he broke off after a stern look from Remus, which confused me, and said, somewhat reluctantly "No, actually I'm the one who should be apologizing to you."
Remus appeared satisfied and I was even more shocked than James had been. I then saw Remus turn the same stern look to Sirius as he nudged him hard in the ribs.
"Ow! What was that for?" Sirius asked, cowering a little under Remus' look. "If you're expecting me to apologize for something, I'm sorry to inform you that I have absolutely nothing to apologize for."
"Yeah, Remus, it's not his fault he was born a git with bad aim," I smirked, convinced more than ever that Sirius was the cause of the now fading gash.
"Excuse me? I don't have bad aim," Sirius defended himself.
I raised an eyebrow at him, and not because he actually does have bad aim (which he does). "So you're admitting to the fact that you are a git AND to the fact that you hit me with a curse on purpose?"
Sirius thought about what I'd said for a moment, as though he was trying to figure it out. I always knew that boy was stupid, but no one seems to believe me. Then, once he'd finally figured it out, he glared at me.
"I am NOT a git!"
"Sirius, that's not really up for debate. Especially considering the fact that you still haven't denied scarring my face on purpose," I answered. I had spent so much time plotting my revenge on James and I was beginning to realize I should have been plotting my revenge on Sirius.
"How about I don't have bad aim because it wasn't me that hit you with that curse?" Sirius said. I highly doubt that that's possible. I think that it's Sirius' mission in life to make me as miserable as possible and creating a huge gash across my face would certainly be a great way of doing that.
Oh great, here come Keely and Beverly. No doubt to talk to me about my date. I'll finish my story after they're done with the Grand Inquisition (Keely hates it when I write in my diary while she's talking to me. She thinks that I'm not listening. She doesn't realize that I'm probably writing down every word that she's saying).
Sunday, September 8th, 10:52 p.m., my dorm,
Well, that was fun (not really). They were asking me really weird question like what am I going to wear, how am I going to do my hair, and how am I going to do my make-up? Let's see here…I'm going to wear the same old clothes I'd wear any other day of the week, I'll probably put my hair in a ponytail, and I DO NOT wear make-up. EVER. I won't even get into the fact that the conversation lasted way too long. I mean, what's so interesting about having a date to Hogsmeade?
Speaking of which, back to my story…
Where was I?
Oh yes, Sirius being an idiot.
So, after spending a breakfast of trying my hardest not to kill Sirius (and actually succeeding), I decided to go with Emily to the library to study. Don't get me wrong, I hate the library. In fact, the only thing that I hate more than the library is Regulus Black (and all Slytherins for that matter). But, I figured if I went to the library I could get away from my friends bugging me about having a date to Hogsmeade. And it did have a positive outcome because Emily decided to award my initiative of coming to the library with letting me copy her notes. Of course, I only stayed in the library for about fifteen minutes after that and then I had to leave before I died of boredom. I don't think that Emily was too happy about that.
I reluctantly went outside to join my friends. Keely and Beverly seemed to perk up instantly when they saw me coming over. It was as though they enjoyed torturing me with this whole thing. And I was annoyed with Riley, who seemed to be enjoying watching me be tortured by them, instead of helping me out. So much for being my best friend. The whole time I was there the conversation was all about boys (which is really the worst type of conversation).
"You know who I think has a crush on you?" Beverly asked. I swear we had been talking about boys and me for two hours. I was beginning to think that this was worse than the library, and the library was pretty bad.
"Besides Aiden," said Keely. Excuse me, WHAT?
"Don't be ridiculous. Aiden and I are practically sworn enemies."
Riley rolled her eyes. She doesn't look very attractive when she does that and it's really not very polite. "Get real, Kat, you don't have a sworn enemy. And if you did, it wouldn't be Aiden."
"You're right," I told her. What can I say? When she's right, she's right. "It would be Regulus."
Riley just gave me a sigh of impatience.
"Anyway," Beverly said, "there is someone, besides Aiden, who I – "
"Don't forget about Penn," Alice spoke up. I wondered if all the time she had been spending thinking about Frank had caused her to lose brain cells.
"Are you crazy?"
"No," she said patiently, "why do you think he's always trying to get your attention?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about," I told her. She must have lost more brain cells than I thought.
"You know…like trying transfiguration spells on you and blowing up your potions," Alice explained as though she seemed to think it was really quite logical.
"Just because Penn is incompetent in Potions doesn't mean – " I began, but was cut off, quite rudely I'd have to say, by Riley.
"I don't know whether or not Penn is trying to get your attention, but I do know that he is definitely not incompetent in Potions," Riley said.
"Well either way I know for a fact that he doesn't have a crush on me because I happen to know who he does like," I informed them all triumphantly.
Alice frowned. "You do? How?"
"He told me."
"Why would he do that?" Keely asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because he likes me. As a friend," I added to Keely raising her eyebrow even higher. If that was possible. To raise her eyebrow higher, I mean. Because she had it raised pretty high. I was almost afraid it might get stuck up there or something.
"Well then who does he – "
"Oh look, there he is!" Beverly exclaimed suddenly. She brightened up considerably and I looked around in confusion.
"There who is?"
"There's that boy I was talking about," then she stood up and waved to someone walking towards the lake. "Oy, Derek! C'mere!"
I knew exactly what was to follow. And I knew exactly what I had to do. So I stood up before anyone could say another word and bolted for the castle. Of course, I couldn't make it all the way there without some type of incident. Instead I had to run straight into Porter.
"Er, sorry, I didn't see – Oh, Kat! Hey! I was actually looking for you. Do you think I could talk to you for a second?" I looked up at Porter, than glanced behind me to see Beverly striding very purposefully in my direction.
"Uh – sorry, I really have to run," and I took off towards the castle, "I'll talk to you later, though!" I called back to him. He looked slightly disappointed but I didn't have time to worry about that. As soon as I was in the castle I sprinted down the halls, not sure if Beverly was still following me. I figured by best bet would be to go straight to the place in the castle which was furthest from Beverly. I wondered what had come over my friends (mainly Keely and Beverly). Not only did they seem to think I needed to find a date and also think that nearly half the male population would be 'so perfect' for me, they also seemed to think that at least 1/3 of the male population had some sort of crush on me or something. Which was ridiculous. And the probability of that happening was definitely zero. For some reason the announcement of this upcoming Hogsmeade trip had made them go insane. I was beginning to wonder if I should take them to the Hospital Wing. Or maybe they needed to go straight to St. Mungo's.
Within ten minutes I found myself bursting through the door to the top of the Astronomy Tower. I also found myself extremely out of breath.
"Who're you running from?" I looked around to see Graham sitting on the ground, bending over a piece of parchment. He looked up at me with a grin.
"No one. What makes you think that?" He appeared to be working on his Astronomy charts, which was strange because he rarely does work.
"Well, I highly doubt that you take runs up to the Astronomy Tower for fun," Graham answered before looking down at his parchment and scribbling a few words on it.
"If it's really so important that you know, I was running from Beverly," I answered. He nodded, but kept his eyes on his parchment. I frowned. Why in the world was he up here on a Sunday afternoon working on Astronomy homework? I had no idea, so I asked him.
He seemed to be amused by my question. "How do you figure I would be able to do charts at this hour?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's the middle of the afternoon. I think I'd have a hard time seeing any stars," he said, gesturing up towards the sky. If I was the type of girl to feel stupid, I would have felt stupid at that moment. However, I'm not that type of girl.
"What are you doing then?" I asked, sitting down.
"Planning a prank," he answered, as if it were a daily occurrence. Which it actually is, now that I think about it.
"Ohhh. I should've figured." I tried to lean over to peak at what he was writing, but he pulled it away from me.
"So, what're you running from Beverly for?" he asked.
I paused for a moment. I don't usually share my problems with Graham. He's not really the serious, share-your-feelings type. But at the same time he's not insensitive like someone such as Aiden. And I figured he would probably understand and sympathize, because he's the kind of boy who finds more enjoyment in having fun with friends and planning pranks than going on dates with girls to Hogsmeade.
So, I told him about my horrid day. He listened intently and nodded as I talked, as though he could imagine the pain I must be going through. It was refreshing to talk to someone who really understood how horrible what I was going through really was. It was a change from people ignoring my pain or insisting I was being over-dramatic or thinking it couldn't possibly be that bad.
"I can't say I'd particularly want to go to Hogsmeade with Derek Knightly either," Graham said with a serious expression.
"I don't see how anyone would," I said morosely.
Graham looked at me thoughtfully. I didn't know he did anything thoughtfully. I thought that he did most things without much thought. "I would ask you to Hogsmeade myself so then the girls would leave you alone and you could actually have a good time, but I don't really fancy having a date."
I frowned at him. He acted as if I would actually want to go with him. I think that he took my frowning for being disappointed, because next he added:
"But if it makes you feel any better, if I were to have a date I'd probably rather go with you than one of the other, senseless, girls around here, because at least you know how to have fun."
My frown just deepened. "Well, thanks for that. But I really wouldn't want to go with you, even if you did offer."
"Why not?" he acted outraged. But I don't see why. I mean, two seconds ago he was telling me the same thing. "I'll have you know that I am a terrific date. In fact, I don't think you could find a better date in all of Hogwarts."
"I don't mean to be rude but I find that hard to believe," I think that I almost snorted, but I stopped myself. Unlike Riley, I knew how to act like a lady.
"Wanna bet?"
"Bet what?"
"Bet that I would be an absolutely terrific date," Graham said with a challenge in his voice. Graham was always up for a challenge.
I was confused. "But what would we base the bet on?"
"What do you mean?"
"How would we know who won?" I asked.
"Well, obviously you would go on a date with me to Hogsmeade and if you have a horrid time you would win, but if you had a wonderful time I would win," he explained.
I looked at him, thinking. I did love a challenge. I loved to win. But that still didn't change the fact that I refused to have a date to Hogsmeade. Still, it was tempting…
"I don't bet."
Graham grinned. "Great! Because like I said, I'd really rather not go with a date."
"I've gathered as much," I mean, how many times was he going to make that fact clear? I think I got it after the first time.
"It's too bad for you, though," he added.
"Right," I said, standing up. "This has been a great talk," I patted Graham on the head. I headed towards the door.
"If you see Aiden tell him to come meet me up here," Graham said behind me.
I was really hoping that I wouldn't see Aiden, but I decided to not tell Graham that. Instead I headed towards the Gryffindor common room. The whole way there I prayed that I wouldn't run into one of the many people that I didn't want to see at that moment. The list had become very long, even considering the fact that James was no longer on it. Somehow I was actually successful in avoiding all of these people. Even when I entered the common room I didn't see anyone who I wanted to avoid in there. I did see Cooper sitting across the room. He smiled, waved, and gestured me over to him. I waved back and headed in his direction.
I was on my way over when Porter stepped in front of me.
"Hey, Porter," I said. Then I remembered that he had something to talk to me about. Which was a little strange, because Porter didn't usually have 'something to talk to me about'.
"Kat, hey…I had a question," he hesitated a little, like he wasn't sure he really wanted to ask it.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I was wondering if…if maybe you could help me with Transfiguration," he said as though he really didn't want to. Which made sense, because he usually didn't need to ask for help. It would kind of be like Emily asking for help.
Also, I've never been asked for help. Which is why I was a little shocked at first.
"Uh – yeah, I – " but then I stopped and we both turned our attention to a spot only a few feet away.
Liam had just walked up to this fourth year girl. She's quite pretty, but from what I can tell she seems to be really stuck up. Liam looked really nervous. I was curious, especially when Porter gave me a look that seemed to say that he knew what was about to happen and he wasn't very confident that the outcome would be good. The girl just raised her eyebrow at Liam. I personally don't see what the need for it was. Some boy coming up to talk to you doesn't warrant a 'what are you doing talking to me' attitude.
Apparently what he was doing talking to her was to ask her to Hogsmeade. And if she hadn't liked the fact that he was coming up to talk to her, she definitely didn't like the fact that he was asking her to Hogsmeade.
She gave this laugh, like the idea was funny. "No. I do not want to go to Hogsmeade with you. In fact, I don't see how anyone would want to." She said it all primly, like she was all high and mighty or something. I was suddenly angry at the girl. How could she be so mean? Not that I would have necessarily said yes (because I had vowed not to go to Hogsmeade with a date) but I wouldn't have had to say it like that.
I marched right up to the two of them and turned to Liam, smiling sweetly.
"Hey, um, Liam?" I began, pretending to sound all nervous. I was going to show her. "Do you think…that is to say would you…I mean, the thing is…do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?"
Liam looked shocked at first. Which was understandable, seeing as I'm sure he thought that I was the last person who would've asked him to Hogsmeade. And the girl looked angry. Probably because she was thinking she was all great and here I came along to make her look bad. I just gave her a smirk while Liam recovered from his shock and realized what I was doing.
"Uh…yeah, of course I would," he said with a smile. The girls stalked away angrily.
Then Liam turned to me and said in a low voice. "Just as friends though, right?"
"Of course," I answered.
He gave a big sigh of relief at this. "Good!"
I frowned, not sure whether I should be insulted or not.
That's the moment when I realized that I had just gotten a date to Hogsmeade.
A/N: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I had a hard time writing it but it's done!!! YAY!!! If you notice any mistakes PLEASE let me know!!!!
Sorry I haven't written in FOREVER!! I really want to try and start writing regularly (which is always hard for me). I am busy with school so I can't really promise frequent updates, but I swear that I'm really going to try hard!!! Hopefully once I get into the story more it will be easier...
Also, I know that there are a lot of characters all at once (or at least it seems that way to me, it feels like a little too much) but I'm really going to try to really give you all a sense of the characters and who they are, and hopefully get to know them better.