May 10th, 1985 -- as Catherine Turner
Catherine Turner was on her way to the library. She didn't really want to spend the rest of her evening revising, but she'd put off procrastinating long enough on her latest round of essays. She turned the corner to another corridor and just barely avoided hitting someone coming the other way. "...Gods, Hector. I'm so sorry!" she apologised to her housemate.
"In a hurry?" Hector Hinkle asked, turning around with a smirk. He had been attempting to revise for his OWLs, but decided to quit for the night and now he was certainly glad he had.
"To spend my night buried in Transfiguration textbooks? Hardly," Catherine replied, laughing. "Unfortunately it has to be done!"
"It does not," Hector said, rolling his eyes. "I bet you can take a night or two off!"
"Well-" Catherine considered it. "I suppose I could push one more day-" It didn't exactly take much to convince her.
"You should listen to me," Hector told her. "I'm bloody brilliant," he said moving closer.
She grinned as she shifted her bag. "Oh yeah?"
"Beyond bloody brilliant, actually," he said, reaching for her bag and slipping it off her shoulder.
"So you're getting all Os on your OWLS, then?" Catherine asked.
"Of course," Hector lied, letting her bag drop to the floor.
"I'll have to double-check later, you know," she teased him, realising she wasn't getting to the library anytime soon.
"And I'll tell you the same thing," Hector replied with a smirk.
"I'll find out if you're lying..."
"And what'll you do?" Hector asked, moving his arms around her waist.
"If I told you, you'd know what I was planning," Catherine told him, laughing. "And- wow, you're a little forward, aren't you?" They were in the middle of a hallway, after all.
"Is that a bad thing?" Hector asked.
"Absolutely not!" she replied, grinning.
"Brilliant," Hector returned her grin, backing her up a little until her back was against the wall. "Better now?"
"If you're going to snog me, then it's much better-"
"Oh I'm definitely going to snog you," Hector said as he leaned in, feeling pleased with himself.
"Brilliant!" Catherine giggled and met him halfway. This was much better than revision.
Hector couldn't believe his bloody luck. He'd heard Catherine didn't mind a snog or two, but this was absolutely fantastic.
Catherine hadn't really thought about snogging him before, but he was cute, and she certainly wasn't going to pass up the chance when it so willingly appeared in front of her.
"Better than revision, yeah?" Hector asked in between kisses.
"Um, yeah," Catherine told him.
"Told you I was brilliant," Hector mumbled, kissing her again.
"You're a fifth-year. Where did you learn how to do this-"
"I'm pretty observant," Hector told her. He'd definitely been watching the older blokes and taking note.
"It clearly worked..."
"Glad to hear that," Hector smirked.
"Do you make a habit of cornering girls in the hallways and snogging them?" Catherine teased him.
"Just fit older girls that I've been thinking about," he replied easily.
"I should have guessed," Catherine replied, giggling again. It was a line she had heard before, but she didn't mind.
"You don't mind, yeah?"
She shook her head. "Not if the snog is good!"
"Good," Hector said with a grin, backing off a bit. "We'll have to do it again sometime..."
"Just come find me," Catherine teased him.
"You can bet on that," he told her, quickly stealing another kiss.
"Or I'll come find you," she replied afterward.
Hector grinned. Paris wasn't going to believe this. "Yeah...you can do that."
Catherine spied someone coming down the other end of the hall and stepped away from him. She liked snogging, sure, but she didn't generally like to get caught at it. "I will, count on it."
"Later then," Hector winked, picking up her bag for her and handing it over.
She grinned at him. "Definitely! You on your way back to the common room, or...?"
"Think so," he replied. "I've had enough revising for tonight."
"Sadly, I think I'm still going to head to the library," Catherine said after a moment of thought. "So, yeah! I'll see you later!"
"Later," Hector smirked, watching her over his shoulder as he walked away.
Catherine waved to him as she continued on her way to the library, grinning the entire way. Well, that had been a pleasant distraction, she realised, as she headed in.
Adam Fletcher had to blow his NEWTs out of the water. It was the only way he knew to try and earn his mother's trust again after the stunt he pulled during hols. Flipping a few pages, he became engrossed in his notes.
Catherine was pretty sure half of the school was in the library that night, as the place was absolutely packed. Looking around for somewhere to sit, she finally found a spare space. "...Saving this space for anyone?" she asked, realising with a bit of a start that it was the Head Boy she was talking to.
Adam glanced up from his notes. "What? Oh no, no it's free," he replied.
"Oh, brill. Thanks," Catherine told him, looking relieved as she sat down and got out her books.
"Not a problem," Adam responded, digging back into his notes.
Transfiguration was one of Catherine's better subjects, but that didn't necessarily mean that she enjoyed all the extra work she found herself having to do for it. She wrote for a few minutes, but then started to daydream (and her encounter with Hector certainly wasn't helping her focus). She was doodling idly on her parchment and cursed under her breath when a sweep of her hand caused her ink well to tip over.
Adam looked up. "Ink spill?" He guessed, looking across the table.
"Lucky for me, it missed my essay," Catherine said wryly. "Pity, I was looking for a good reason to start over-"
"I'm sure it's not that bad," Adam told her, charming the table clean from the ink spill.
"Here, you have a look," Catherine told him, sliding her parchment over to him. "You did this last year, surely you remember this particular chapter."
Adam slid his work to the side. He supposed it wouldn't hurt to look over the girl's work. "Hm...it is a tricky chapter," he agreed. "Look over the last bit again. It starts to get a little vague there."
"Tricky, evil, brutal, pick your poison," Catherine said. "I swear, if something like this had come up last year, I wouldn't have done well on the OWL."
"I'm sure you did fine, Adam replied.
"Oh, I ended up with an E, but it was the hardest I've ever worked for a mark, let me tell you-" She eyed the pile of books that he had next to him. "Looks like you're revising for transfig as well?"
"NEWTs," Adam nodded. "I'm determined to do well on them."
"Oh, I think you will," Catherine said, sending him a smile. "You’re Head Boy, after all. You're plenty smart."
"Thanks," Adam replied with a slight blush. "It doesn't come easily," he admitted.
Catherine discreetly slid her chair closer to him. "If it came easily, the NEWTs wouldn't have the reputation that they do," she pointed out.
"That's certainly true," he agreed, flipping through his notes again.
"And then what would all you poor seventh-years complain about?"
Adam had to smile at that. "The fact that we'll have to get jobs and join the real world?"
"So what are you planning on doing, then? Or are you still in Camp Undecided?"
"I'm torn between the Ministry and St. Mungo's," Adam admitted.
"Ooh, impressive choices," Catherine said.
He blushed a little again. "I um. I want to help people."
"Then go to St. Mungo's if you really want to help people," Catherine told him, smiling a little. "I hear a lot of stuff at the Ministry is boring paperwork and all of that."
"I suppose that's true," Adam replied. "What are you thinking about doing once you're out of here?"
"Ah, you don't get to ask that yet!" Catherine answered, her smile growing. "I'm still a carefree sixth-year!"
"And carefree sixth year, I'm afraid I'm blanking on your name," Adam admitted.
"It's Catherine," she replied, giggling.
"Catherine," Adam repeated. "I won't blank in it again," he promised.
"No, you better not!"
"I'll add it to my notes right here," Adam said, scribbling it at the top of the page he was looking at.
"Catherine with a 'C', though," she corrected him, smiling.
"What was that you said about me being plenty smart?" Adam asked, crossing it out and spelling her name correctly.
She giggled a little again. "Why, would you like me to take it back?"
"That depends how offended you are by my misspelling your name," Adam told her with a smile, ignoring that nagging feeling he had that he should get back to studying.
"People mess it up all the time, don't worry," she assured him.
"I'm Adam with two 'A's," he joked with a smile.
"Duly noted," Catherine said, grinning at him.
"You don't want to write it down to be sure?" He teased her.
"My memory's good, I think I'll be fine!"
"Course, you're a Ravenclaw after all," he said, nodding to her tie.
"Though please don't take that as to meaning all I care about is school and revision!"
"I'll try not to," Adam assured her.
"Good, because that stereotype is horrible."
"It could be a lot worse," Adam told her.
"Everything could always be a lot worse!"
"Point," Adam replied, not particularly wanting to think about that.
"Like, for example, you could have spent this entire evening completely alone..."
"And I would have never known how to spell your name," Adam replied, looking amused.
"Also very important!"
"As is studying for NEWTs," he reminded her.
"Okay, true, but even Head Boys need a little break every now and again, don't they?"
"I guess we do," Adam agreed.
"But if you really want to get back to your notes, I guess that's okay-"
"I think I can spare myself a little break," he told her.
"Good, I was hoping you'd say that!"
"Oh yeah?" Adam asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
"Because I really don't want to write this essay," Catherine said, laughing a little. "And any excuse to talk to someone else is a good one..."
"Keeping you from writing your essay makes me sound like a bad influence, doesn't it?"
"You're only a bad influence if I wanted to write the essay-"
"Ah, I see," Adam smiled. "So what do you prefer to do instead of studying?"
"Snogging," Catherine replied, grinning again as she wondered what his reaction would be.
Adam raised his eyebrows. He certainly hadn't been expecting that. "That's uh. A little forward," he managed with a smile.
She shrugged. "It's an honest answer!"
"I guess most people would say the same thing if they were being as honest," he replied.
"Seriously, try it sometime! If you're not already, I mean. Much better than revision."
"I'm not at the moment, but I'll keep that in mind," Adam told her.
"You won't regret it!"
"I'm sure I wouldn't," he replied with a smile.
"You're cute, I doubt you'd have trouble finding anyone," Catherine told him.
Adam blushed a little. "Uh thanks."
"You're welcome," Catherine said cheerfully. She was enjoying this, she had to admit.
"You're pretty cute too," Adam mentioned.
Catherine grinned at him. Now this was more like it. "A compliment from the Head Boy! I'm a lucky girl."
"I guess you are," Adam told her.
Catherine leaned in on the table. "Unless, of course, you tell that to every girl who tries to chat you up in the library-"
She was a lot more forward than Adam had expected. He'd be an idiot to turn this down, even if his mum would be disappointed in his actions. "Only a few," he teased.
"Only a few, hmm?" Catherine asked, playing along. "I guess that's not that bad-"
"I only stop studying for them..."
"Oh is that so?"
"I've stopped studying, haven't I?" He asked, shutting his book, which caused a picture of Alicia and John to flutter to the ground.
"Here, I'll get it," Catherine offered, bending over to pick it up. "Aww, this is a such a cute picture! And this is your..." she waited for him to fill in the blanks for her.
"Nephew," Adam smiled. "And my sister," he replied.
"He is definitely one of the cutest babies I've ever seen! Congrats, uncle!"
"Thanks," Adam said, taking the picture back from her. "He's about six months old now."
"Did you get a chance to see him a lot over the hols?" Catherine asked.
"Yeah," Adam replied, keeping the smile on his face. "He's growing like a weed." She didn't know him well enough to hear about his family drama.
"Yeah, I bet he is!"
"One reason I can't wait for the year to be over is to spend more time with him," Adam admitted, tucking the picture back in his book safely.
"Yeah, I'd want to do the same thing if I had a niece or nephew," Catherine said, grinning.
Adam paused, pulling out the picture of Allie. "Got one of those too," he smiled.
"Oh, that is so not fair!" Catherine exclaimed, still grinning as she had a look. "You have one of each, you're basically set."
"Yeah," Adam grinned. "I'm lucky I guess!"
"You are," Catherine agreed. "...Are they twins, or something?" she asked. "Because she looks to be the same age as your nephew."
"Same age," Adam nodded, a little hesitant.
"...So how does that work?" Catherine asked, slightly confused. "Same age, but not twins?"
"Ah...it's complicated," Adam said. "Allie, my niece- her name is Allie, she's not really my sister's...well she is-" Adam paused and showed her another picture with Alicia, Carol, and the kids. "She's my sister's girlfriend's daughter."
"That's- oh." Catherine hadn't been expecting that. "Good-looking family, though!" she said, smiling again.
"Thanks," Adam said with a shrug. "They're really happy and Allie and John are great," he smiled.
"Which is all that really matters, isn't it?"
"That's the rumour," he replied.
She sent him another smile. "So I've heard!"
"So no nieces or nephews for you?" He asked, tucking the other picture away.
Catherine laughed. "Good lord, no. My brother only left Hogwarts last year."
"That's right," Adam remembered. "He was in Gryffindor, yeah?"
She nodded. "Quidditch player, too."
Adam nodded. "Yeah, I remember him."
"It's a bit strange being here on my own, but then again... some things are better without having him around!"
"Some things?"
Catherine grinned again. "Such as snogging without it getting back to him!"
Ah, so they were back to that. "There is definitely less of a chance of him catching you here."
"Try no chance..."
"Not catching you in person anyway, unless he's got someone keeping tabs on you," Adam teased her.
"He better not!"
"If he does, it's not me," Adam promised.
"Well that works out well," Catherine said.
"Does it?"
"Sure it does, if I'm ever interested in snogging you!"
Adam laughed. "I guess it does work out well then."
"Which, you know, I think I could be-"
After her earlier comments, Adam wasn't too surprised. "Oh you could be, could you?"
"If you ever find the time..."
"I think I'd be an idiot to turn down an offer like that," Adam replied.
"I said that you were plenty smart, did I?" Catherine asked, smirking a little.
"I guess you knew the truth," Adam smiled at her.
"I have a gift, what can I say?"
Adam laughed. "So it's a gift?"
"Well, I'm hardly ever wrong!"
"You want to get out of here then?" Adam asked.
"I thought you would never ask," Catherine replied, giggling again.
Adam slipped his books into his bag. "Let's go then."
Grinning, Catherine quickly followed suit. Yeah, her essay could definitely wait until later.