I hope you guys enjoy this! I've been trying really hard to write a good story about this group. They're so much fun to write about and there is so much drama to be had :) If you don't like the pairings that are going on right now, relax. There will be much breaking up and getting together and at some point you will see a pairing you like ;) So in the meantime, read, review, and hopefully enjoy!

Fred looked over at the letter in George's hand. "Detention with Filch at seven."

"As per tradition?" Katie asked, sitting down across from the boys. Every year, without fail, the boys got in trouble on the first day and had detention on the second. And on the first year, they had gotten the girls in trouble too. It was how they met, in fact. Except that now teachers knew better than to have the six of them together for detention and made quite a task of splitting them up into separate corners of campus.

"Yep." George nodded. "Mrs. Norris ate a Ton-Tongued Toffee."

Katie laughed. "Oh, what I would have given to see that. So then Fred, who are you having detention with?"

"Snape." Fred said. "He is, of course, overjoyed to have me skinning salamanders until midnight. And I, of course, will be overjoyed to steal something valuable and dangerous from his personal desk." He grinned.

"Oh that sounds great." Angelina said sarcastically, appearing at the table and sitting next to Katie. "What about you?" She asked Lee.

"McGonagall." Lee answered. "Can't be that bad. You?"

Angelina made a face. "Well for 'sassing her during class' Trelawney wants me to polish all her crystal balls tonight. All the while she'll remind me I'm destined to die a lonely, ugly old woman with sixteen cats and no friends." She rolled her eyes. "Looks like someone's insecure about her fate." She smiled coldly at the thought and turned to Katie. "What about you?"

"Hagrid." Katie smiled. "I'm walking Fang."

"That's not fair!" Fred said.

"Life's not fair!" Katie said in a singsong voice, fairly happy for someone who had detention on the second day of school. "Hi Oliver!" She said brightly as their Quidditch captain stopped in front of their table.

As usual, Oliver omitted greetings, and handed them their practice schedules. "Where's Spinnet?" He asked.

"You mean Alicia?" Katie had been trying to make Oliver address them by first name since she joined the team.

"The Chaser." Oliver folded his muscular arms. "Where is she?"

"The library," Fred said, at the same time Angelina said, "The common room," and Lee said, "Avoiding Fred," their responses too garbled to make any sense.

Oliver raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Okay. Give this to her, will you? And make sure she's on time. We have double practice today. We need to make sure–"

"–that we win–" Fred said, bored.

"–because this is our year–" George continued.

"–and we have the best team–" Katie droned on.

"–and if Slytherin wins again, et cetera… we know." Angelina finished. "Hold on." She said suddenly. "Double practice on the second day back?"

"Don't be late!" Oliver disappeared in the crowd entering the Great Hall.

Angelina scoffed. "I'm not going to an eight hour practice on the second night back from summer." She rolled her eyes at his obvious incompetence at being captain and forked her salad.

"What if he just kicks you off the team?" Lee asked.

Angelina laughed. "He can't replace me."

"He can't replace any of us." Fred said. "I'm not going either."

"I love rebelling." George said with a grin.

"He was just trying to be a good captain and make sure that we do well." Katie said.

"Oh Katie," Fred gave her a knowing look. "We all know he's incapable of reasonable thinking. There is no need to defend him." He winked at her, "Although we understand why you feel the need to rush to his defense."

"What is that supposed to mean? I am perfectly capable of making an objective comment!" Katie stuck her tongue out at him. "And objectively speaking, he is quite good looking." She added with a self-satisfied smile.

"Okay, let's not get into that." Lee said, cutting her off. Katie rolled her eyes at him.

Angelina critically scrutinized Fred. "So where's Alicia?" She said casually to the group when he didn't notice.

Lee looked in alarm in Fred's direction and said softly, "Ange—"

"Just an innocent question." She said with a cold smile in Fred's direction. "Right?"

He grinned at her, unfazed by her obvious jab at him. "Right."

There was no need to say why it wasn't an innocent question when they all knew anyways.

"I hate my life." Alicia said, taking her seat in Charms next to Angelina. They were all sitting in the back corner; Angelina and Alicia in the front, with Lee and the twins in the back. She folded her arms and leaned back in her seat, giving anyone who dared to look over at her a death glare. "Snape gave me detention for 'walking loudly in the hallways.' What the hell is his problem? I never get detention!" She generally sweet-talked her way out of sticky situations. "Now I get to spend the evening polishing telescopes for Professor Sinistra."

"Our tradition lives." George grinned at her. "You never get detention exceptfor the second day of school. Every year. And it's always Snape who gets you."

"You know we should thank him for being the only person to resist your charm." Fred said. "Without him this wonderful tradition would never have been created."

"It's a stupid tradition." Alicia muttered, as Professor Flitwick began to talk.

Fred leaned forward and murmured, "You met me."

Alicia turned around in her seat to look face Fred, looking right into his eyes. His chin was resting on her chair. He had one eyebrow raised and his well what are you going to say expression. Alicia wanted desperately to say something—something right for once— but the words didn't come. She looked down at her fingers, gripping the edge of her chair, and back at him. Fred reached out to touch her shoulder and smiled, his eyes twinkling the way they always did, before leaning back, and for the first time, giving his attention to the lesson.

Lee sat on the couch in the common room next to Angelina, who was laying across the couch with her legs stretched out on his lap. She was tossing grapes into his mouth and talking about her summer. She talked animatedly, as if vividly recalling her summer, but it was really just an excuse for her to be here—to enjoy the intimacy of this moment. The more she talked the more she wanted to stop, but she kept going—Angelina was never one to be at a loss for words. Beside her, Lee was busy catching the grapes with his mouth and interrupting her with smart comments that made both of them laugh and chat about random, off topic subjects. Somehow, he watched her without really listening, but caught every word she said.

"Go out with me to Hogsmeade this weekend." Lee said suddenly, interrupting her.

Angelina propped up her head on her hand, her glossy black hair falling behind her and smiled–not in a coy or flirty way as she did towards other boys, not teasing or condescending as she usually did towards Lee and the twins– just smiled, like she enjoyed his company. Because she did. So much.

"I can't." She was still smiling.

Lee put his hand on her leg and traced circles with his thumb. "Saturday date?"

Angelina always had a date on Saturday, and every guy wanted to be the one she went out with this week.

"Neiman Willis."

"Sixth year. Ravenclaw." Lee nodded. "Nice guy."

"Not if he's going out with me." Angelina said, with a small smile.

"Don't say that." Lee murmured. He thought everyone was nice, because you couldn't be mean to Lee.

Except for Angelina. She put her hand on his and traced circles on his palm. "He's buying me the whole fall catalogue at Forever Charmedand then taking me to his favorite club, and then we're... well you know." She trailed off.

"I know." He said.

She was going to make out with him by the fountain in front of the school, and they would look like they were a couple really, truly in love and on fire. They would wait until after hours, and then sneak back into the common room. Then, after all the tapestries were bored of the show, they would sneak back into his dorm, careful not to wake anyone up, and draw the hangings closed. They would kiss each other again. She'd wear a lacy red bra. And the next morning she would be gone before he woke up.

"Only one date with him?" Lee asked, with a wry smile.

Angelina smiled back, as if they had an inside joke. "He knows what's coming." Angelina leaned her head on Lee's shoulder. "But that's Saturday. How about on Sunday all of us go out and we can ditch the others?"

Lee trailed his fingers down her spine. She smiled with pleasure at the way her body responded— chills ran through her body followed by heat (the kind of heat she felt when she blushed, which wasn't often) and her brain turned to jelly. She closed her eyes. He said, "Maybe."

"Mmmm." Angelina smiled up at him and played with the hem of his shirt. "Sunday date?"

Lee always had a Sunday date, whether it was with a girlfriend or a new date. He could never stay with his girlfriends long—it just never worked out that way. Relationships lasted weeks or months and then just faded on their own. He always felt dreadful about it; his apologies were genuine and the pink roses he gave were sweet, but he really ought to know better by now.

"Elaina Mackey."

"Seventh year. Gryffindor. Sweet girl." She smiled condescendingly as she said, "Pretty too," which meant nothing next to her jaw-dropping perfection.

"Mmmm." Lee closed his eyes as Angelina reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, along his jaw line, and down his chest. "Maybe next weekend."

Except he already knew he would have another Sunday date with Elaina.

"For sure." Angelina said, with a smile.

Except she already knew she would have a Saturday date with Bryce Carter.

Oliver stood in the middle of the Quidditch pitch alone with his playbook and quill. He placed the players on his team on the field, imagining them in various formations. He scribbled out diagram after diagram. There were moving arrows and figures on each page with detailed descriptions and labeled players. The brand new playbook was already half filled with his new ideas.

"Hey." Katie came up to him and stood by him.

"Practice is cancelled." Oliver muttered, scribbling names onto each figure of his new diagram. "No one showed up except Potter."

"I know." She said in a sort of amused way, which irritated him.

"Anyways, you're late, Bell." He turned around and squinted at the hoops in the distance.

"Katie. My name is Katie." She turned and stood in front of him, not that it did any good. She was a lot shorter than him.

Without looking at her he said, "If you want to be technical like that, your name is Katherine. Or would you like me to call you Katherine Elyse?"

"No. Just Katie." She said lightly.

Oliver sighed and put down his playbook. He looked right into her eyes. "Look, practice is cancelled. Now go finish your homework and get a good night's sleep. I want you ready for practice tomorrow. And be on time."

Katie looked right back at him and smiled knowingly. "I didn't come here for Quidditch practice. I came here because I've been watching you pace the Quidditch pitch for the last fifteen minutes and it's pathetic. Oliver, there's a life outside of Quidditch, and it's beautiful, it's exciting, it's amazing, and you're missing out on it. When was the last time you kissed a girl? Talked to someone for ten minutes about something that wasn't Quidditch? Walked out in the rain just because you felt like it? Oliver—"

Oliver opened up his playbook again and turned around. "Listen, Bell—"

"Katie."

"—I'm just doing my job as captain. Quidditch is my life. And yes, it's beautiful, it's exciting, it's amazing, and I don't want to miss out on it."

Katie stepped in front of him again. "Oliver, you are a great captain—the best. And no one will argue that you're the most dedicated player that ever graced the Hogwarts house teams. But a captain—a team—is only as good as their weakest player. So if the rest of us aren't good enough for you then maybe you should try to build us up instead of wearing us down."

"I know how to run my team."

"Look at this field Oliver, we are not a team."

Oliver looked down at her and knew she wasn't going to leave. "What do you want from me?"

"Take the day off." Katie said. "Have dinner with your friends, don't take out your playbook, and don't talk about Quidditch at all. The first pretty girl that walks past you, grab her hand, kiss her passionately, and make out with her by the fire in the common room. Set off Filibusters in Snape's classroom and talk back to him during detention. When it rains tonight, take a walk outside and look at the stars."

Oliver looked at her with an expression of amusement and surprise. He closed his playbook. "Alright. No promises though." He tossed her the playbook.

Katie smiled—the kind of smile that was radiant and made him feel like he would do anything just to make her smile like that again. "It's a start." She looked at him for one last moment, and then turned to leave.

"Wait." Oliver grabbed her hand.

"Yeah?" Katie turned around.

He kissed her cheek. "You said to kiss the first pretty girl that walked past me."

"Can you remind me again why you're hiding in the library, of all places?" George said loudly, clearly annoyed to be there.

"Because it's the last place Fred is coming to." Alicia placed stacks of books around them.

"I don't think I've ever been in here." George said, looking around. "And I don't think I'm ever coming back." He watched as she took out ink, her quill, and a piece of parchment. "Are you doing homework?" He said incredulously.

"Yes! This O.W.L. level work is crazy. Aren't you going to work?" Both Angelina and Alicia were determined not to do well in their classes, although they were both very easily swayed to participate in the boys' pranks and games instead. Unfortunately, teachers had stricter homework policies for O.W.L. students.

"Nope." George folded a piece of parchment into a paper airplane and threw it across the room. It landed in front of a pretty blond girl who looked up at him. He grinned at her and she smiled back before opening it up. After reading it she looked up at him and scribbled something on the parchment, refolded it, and sent it flying back. George caught it in midair and unfolded it. "Fantastic."

"Going out on Saturday?" Alicia said sarcastically. George never went through with date plans. He flat out wasn't interested in relationships. Why? That was hard to figure out with someone like George who could smile and joke at his own funeral.

"Yep. Maybe you should get a date too."

"I don't want a date."

"Okay. What do you want?" George said impatiently. The library was such an unpleasant place and he wished he hadn't agreed to come keep Alicia company. Behind the shelves, creepy nerds who kept peering at them from between books.

"I want…" Her voice trailed off. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted exactly. "I don't know what I want."

"How ironic." George said sarcastically. Being in the library was deeply depressing, and he was annoyed with the overall air of forced silence. "I know what I want." He snapped his fingers. "Chocolate cake." He got up to leave. "Figure out what you want."

"A strawberry tart." Alicia said to him as he left.

He didn't laugh.

She stared at the paper in front of her—an essay about identifying poisons—and wished she knew what to do. All she knew was that she didn't like the library any more than George did, and it was time to act like Alicia Spinnet again—and Alicia Spinnet does not hide in the library to avoid her problems. Alicia shoved her ink, quill, and parchment back into her bag and made her way to the common room. Fred was sitting with George and Lee, and they were playing Exploding Snap with Angelina and Katie. Alicia dropped her stuff on the floor next to Katie and grabbed Fred's arm.

"We need to talk."

She dragged him off the chair and stepped out of the portrait.

Angelina glared at George.

They had bolted out of the common room and into one of the secret passages and followed the sound of Fred and Alicia's footsteps. Now they were now crammed in a very small tunnel, bodies pressed together and ears pressed against the walls as they tried to listen in on the conversation.

It was not exactly an ideal situation, given that there was so little space she could barely breathe without getting her ribs crushed against his chest.

"This better be good." Angelina pressed her ear against the wall and jammed her elbow into his side, trying to shimmy into a more comfortable position.

"Mmm. I thought you'd enjoy being in the dark in the close proximity of a male body." George drawled sarcastically.

Angelina wished there was enough space for her to slap him. "Attractive male." She corrected caustically.

"I felt that was obvious." George said airily. Angelina started to snap back when he cut her off, "Do you want to hear them."

"Fine."

They were both silent after that.

Katie was sitting on the magnificent fountain in front of the school when it started raining that night. She smiled when she felt the cool raindrops fall on her bare shoulders. She probably should be inside, but she wasn't cold. It had been a warm September night and the rain was refreshing. Katie was always carefree. She never worried too much about the future the way Alicia and Angelina did—no, she was one to enjoy the moment. Right now she loved the feeling of the rain on her skin, as if it could wash everything away. She threw her head back and closed her eyes, feeling the raindrops on her face. Her bronze hair cascaded down, soaking up the raindrops as they fell faster.

Katie opened her eyes and looked up at the top of the fountain where there were dancing arcs of water. She stood up from her spot on the second tier of the fountain and stepped up. Her clothes clung to her body and slipped down her skin, weighed down by the rain. By now she soaked, by both the intensifying rain and the fountain as she climbed up. She stepped onto the highest tier of the fountain—the very top—and smiled. Droplets of water from the dancing arcs of water fell on her bare skin and she felt the streams of water as she stepped out to interrupt their path.

She spread her arms out, threw her head back, and began to dance. Twirling around with the dancing arcs of water. The rain continued to fall and she began to laugh.

"What are you doing?"

"Dancing on the fountain." She didn't stop. Her laughter rang out.

Oliver stood in front of the fountain, his hands in the pocket of his jeans. His shirt was soaked through and his hair was messed up. He watched his chaser dance on the top of the fountain, seemingly in harmony to the dancing streams of water. His first thought was that she had to be freezing, as was he. His second thought was that she looked beautiful. And she looked happy. There was something radiant about her as she laughed and danced in the rain on the top of a fountain most people just walked by and never looked at twice. She was graceful and she was free.

Then, as quickly as the rain started, it began to slow down. As the last droplets of rain cast ripples into the water in the still moving fountain, Katie stopped dancing. Oliver couldn't stop looking at her as she stood there, water dripping from her hair and clinging to her eyelashes, her clothes soaked through and seemingly weighing down her small body.

"Did you enjoy the rain?" She asked, looking down at him.

"What?" For a moment the only thing on his mind was the image of her standing on top of that fountain.

"You actually walked out in the rain." She smiled at him and began to climb down the fountain.

Oliver reached up to help her down. He put his arm around her waist, lifted her, and then set her down with ease. His other hand held hers for just a moment. Her heart raced, and in that moment so did his. Something about her was so mesmerizing. She was so innocent and genuine. Every emotion on her face was real and nothing was hidden. Not a moment passed her by unnoticed.

"Yeah. I walked in the rain." He said. "And I didn't talk about Quidditch at dinner, I set off a dung bomb in Snape's office and laughed when he tried to curse me, I finally learned the names of the guys in my dorm."

It had been a great day. He couldn't remember ever feeling so full of life and energy. Just thinking about it all gave him a rush of happiness.

Katie laughed. "How was it?"

"Well, awkward. I mean I should know their names by now—"

"Not that. I mean how did it feel to live and breathe something other than Quidditch?"

He grinned. "Great!" He was almost surprised by his own response. "Thanks Katie."

She smiled at him with that beautiful smile that had earlier captivated him.

He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so happy. He looked at her earnest blue eyes, so full of hope. Hope for him, for herself, and just for life, for all there was to live for. It was the hope that was now coursing through his veins, from being with her, watching her, thinking about her. He had thought about her several times throughout the day, wondering what it was that made him do this. Because really, he shouldn't. As beautiful and wonderful as today had been, it was a day in the life of someone else. Her life. His own life was completely different, and he didn't dare bring her into a day of his life. No. He couldn't. As much as he had enjoyed his time, it was time for him to return to his own life.

It's better to cut your losses early.

Or in this case, hers.

So I hope you enjoyed that! And that you'll feel like reviewing whether you did or didn't :)