SoH, Chapter 6
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The next morning came too quickly for both Harry and Ron. Although they had gotten a decent amount of sleep, the previous day had fully worn them out and they longed for just a few more hours in their beds. Still half asleep, they changed into their clothes for the day and made their way down to the Dining Hall. Not surprisingly, Hermione was already there, sitting at one of Orion's tables, deep in discussion with Shana and Delana. Harry and Ron went over to the table and sat down next to Hermione.
All three girls looked up as the boys sat down. They all said their hellos, then the girls went back to their conversation about shoes.
"Wow, Hermione’s only been here a day and she’s already one of them," Ron said to Harry.
"I know," Harry said, watching the girls talk. "Maybe she'll drag them to the library with her instead of us from now on. That would be a nice change."
After a few minutes of the boys eating in silence, they were joined by Jimmie and Brian.
“Good morning,” Brian said in greeting. “Man, you guys missed the best part of the party last night.”
“Really? What happened?” asked Ron.
“Well, we started playing Twister about ten minutes after you went to bed. It started out normally, but then more and more people started joining in. After a while there were like 20 people trying to play on that tiny, little mat. After a few turns with all those people trying to maneuver around each other, everyone fell into a huge pile. It took a while for everyone to get untangled and get up. When most of the people had finally stood up, everyone noticed that Nicole and Kevin were still on the floor, apparently making out. After a minute, Nicole realized that everyone was watching them. She sat up and punched Kevin for ‘taking advantage of her,’ then disappeared for a while.”
“Oh, that’s not good. Is she still mad at him?” Harry asked, looking concerned.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Jimmie answered. “Considering they were caught an hour later doing the same thing in a corner of the common room. They’re sitting together at one of the Cassiopeia tables right now.”
Harry and Ron turned around in their seats to see that they were, in fact, sitting right next to each other, looking like any other happy couple in the school. Except for the fact that Kevin had a black eye and flinched the tiniest bit every time Nicole made a sudden movement.
“To tell you the truth, most people have been waiting for them to get back together. Some people even made bets as to how long it would take. Actually, that reminds me.” Brian said as his face fell, “I made a bet with Natalie Hiatt, from Cassiopeia, in fourth year; I owe her $50. And she never forgets anything. See, here she comes now,” Brian said, pointing to a girl walking toward their table. “You never saw me,” he said, then ducked away from the table to join one in the Auriga section.
Just then, the girl Brian had pointed at stopped in front of the Orion table. “Have any of you seen Brian? I could have sworn I just saw him sitting here a second ago.”
“Nope, sorry, can’t help you there,” said Jimmie. “You must have seen Ryan sitting here. He just left to use the bathroom.”
“Oh... Stupid twins. I can never tell them apart. Well, if you see Brian, tell him he owes me money.” With that, Natalie stormed off to continue her search.
“She’s kind of scary,” Ron commented.
“Kinda,” Jimmie agreed. “Oh, look, here come our schedules.”
They all looked over to the side of the Dining Hall where a group of teachers were setting up some tables and putting half-sheets of paper on them.
“Did someone just say ‘schedules’?” asked Hermione. Jimmie nodded. “Where?” Hermione asked again. Jimmie pointed. Hermione suddenly jumped up from the table and almost ran to the other side of the Dining Hall to pick up her schedule.
“Well, she hasn’t been completely transformed,” said Harry as he watched her dash away.
“You mean, she’s actually excited to start classes?” came from Delana.
“Oh, yes, very much so,” Ron answered. “We were kind of hoping you two had somehow knocked that out of her, but I’m beginning to think that can’t be done. By anyone.”
By this time Hermione was already bounding back to the table, six schedules in hand.
“You are so slow,” she stated. “I figured you would at least be on your way to the table by now. Here, I picked up everyone’s schedule while I was up there since it didn’t look like any of you were going to get up there anytime soon.” She then handed the schedules to everyone at the table.
Harry took his schedule when Hermione handed it to him and read through it. It would be easy enough to remember. They had eight periods altogether, but only four per day. The had the same four classes at the same time every other day. Harry compared his class list with Ron and Hermione and found that they would be together all day, every day, except when Hermione was gone for her Ancient Runes class (Harry and Ron had a free period during that time).
“Does anyone have anything to do for the next half hour, since class doesn’t start until 8:30?” Harry asked the table.
Jimmie pulled out a deck of cards and asked, “Have you ever played ERS?”
“Um, no, not that I can recall,” Harry answered.
As fate would have it, just as this conversation was starting, Nicole, Kevin, and Grace were walking past the table on their way back to the Cassiopeia section.
“ERS? Who’s playing?” Nicole demanded as she sat down next to Ron, completely forgetting about going back to her original table. She was followed by Kevin and Grace.
“Me, Harry, Ron, Delana, Shana, and Hermione - oh, she’s reading. Nevermind, then, it’s just the five of us,” Jimmie answered.
“Fun! Have they ever played before?” asked Grace, indicating Ron and Harry.
“No, we haven’t. Could someone explain the rules, please?” Ron requested as Jimmie started dividing the deck between the eight players. Kevin was the one to explain.
“First of all, the entire deck is passed out between all the players. It doesn’t matter if everyone has the same number of cards or not. Then, we go around the table and lay down one card at a time. If someone lays down a face card, jack, queen, king, or ace, the next person has a certain number of chances to lay down another face card. If the first person lays down a jack, the next person only has one chance to lay down another face card. Queen gets two chances, king gets three, and ace gets four. If the second person fails to lay down another face card, the first person gets to take the pile of cards. Also, if someone lays down a card and the next person lays down the same card, like two fours in a row, that’s a double and the first person to smack the pile gets to take it. Whoever has all the cards, or the most cards, at the end wins. Ready to play?”
Harry and Ron just looked at him as if he had tried to explain to them how to operate on the human brain.
“Well, we’ll help you along the way,” Kevin said as he looked at the two.
“Hurry up, let’s play already!” demanded Delana.
They started playing after that and ended their game just as people were starting to leave the Dining Hall to head to their first class.
“Yay! I win again!” exclaimed Shana as they were packing up their things.
“Wow, I never thought I would see a card game end in bloodshed,” said Harry. Somewhere towards the end of the game, someone had laid down a double and everyone smacked the pile at the same time. Delana came back with a giant gash on the side of her hand and had yelled at Nicole for not cutting her ‘daggers’ before joining the game.
Everyone laughed at Harry’s comment and started heading for the door.
The first two classes that Harry, Ron, Hermione attended at Allteline were much like Hogwarts. The first class they had was Herberlogy with Indus. It was a fairly normal lesson. They were basically starting where they had left off at Hogwarts. Defense Against the Dark Arts with Cassiopeia was about the same. They were using a little bit more advanced magic at Allteline, but since the Hogwarts students had spent much of the previous year in the DA, they felt that they would have no problems getting caught up and keeping up with the rest of the class. Before they knew it, the first half of the day was over and they were heading back to the Dining Hall for lunch.
When the former Gryffindors entered the Dining Hall, Hermione spotted Shana and Delana and immediately went to join them at the Auriga table they had chosen to occupy. Harry and Ron were going to join the girls, since they didn’t want to sit with people they didn’t know, but someone had suddenly come up behind them and started dragging them off in a different direction. When they finally reached a table, Harry and Ron saw that Nicole and Kevin had been the ones to bring them there. They also noticed that everyone from breakfast, minus Hermione, Shana, and Delana, was sitting at the table they had ended up at. And Jimmie was once again pulling out a deck of cards.
“We’re having a rematch,” Grace explained at once. “No one likes playing with Shana because she always seems to win. I mean always. She’s won every game she’s ever played. You don’t just get lucky that many times.”
“Oh, ok,” said Harry. He, Ron, and the rest of the people that had been standing sat down and started reaching for whatever they wanted to eat at that moment. After everyone had what they wanted, the food was moved out of the middle of the table and the game started. After only five minutes of play, Jimmie was declared the winner.
“Wow, that was really short compared to this morning,” said Ron.
“That’s short compared to a lot of the games we’ve played,” said Grace. “Some of them have lasted through the entire lunch period.”
“Oh well,” said Nicole. “Now we get to concentrate on more important things, like food. Or homework. Or that really hot blonde guy sitting at that table over there.”
“Ooh, he is really hot,” Grace commented after looking over her shoulder at said blonde.
“What do you think, Kevin?” Nicole asked.
“I think I refuse to be involved in this conversation,” he answered.
“Oh, come on, there’s no way you could think he’s not good-looking.”
“Didn’t we just have a very similar discussion to this yesterday?” he asked, becoming just slightly annoyed.
“Oh, right,” said Nicole. “Don’t you think you could try to be gay, just for a day?”
Kevin sighed and rolled his eyes. “If I was gay, you wouldn’t be my girlfriend.”
Nicole sat in silent thought for a moment, then came back with, “Well, how about bi?”
“No.”
“Fine then, be that way.” Kevin and Nicole refused to speak to each other for the rest of lunch.
About five minutes before the end of the lunch period, Napaliebalous stood at the front of the Dining Hall and called for everyone’s attention.
“Now, as you all know,” he started, “every year, at the beginning of October we have our annual Battle of the Bands contest.” At this point there were many loud cheers and whistles. “Yes, yes, it’s very exciting, I know. Anyway, I just wanted to remind you that the rules are the same as they have been every year. Every house must have a band if they want to be eligible for the prize. It doesn’t matter how many people are in the band or what instruments are used, as long as there are some of each present. You guys have a month to get ready for this; it will take place the first Saturday in October. Ok, that’s it. I believe you all have some sort of class to be in right about now.” Just as Napaliebalous ended his speech, a bell sounded to signal the end of lunch.
The Hall was filled with excited chatter as the students started filing through the exit. Nicole, Grace, and Brian were obviously amongst the most excited. They were already discussing who would play what and what everyone was going to wear.
“If I were you I wouldn’t pay any attention to anything they’re saying right now,” Kevin whispered to Harry and Ron.
“Why not?” Harry asked.
“They do the same thing every year; they make plans all day the day we get the announcement, then forget about it until about 24 hours before we have to perform,” Kevin explained.
“Really? Every year?” Ron asked, a little amazed that they hadn’t learned from their past mistakes.
“Yep, every year. Last year they even put a calendar up the first day so that they would get started earlier, but even that didn’t help. The calendar ended up getting filled up with all the worthless things they do, and, of course, the battle was forgotten. Day before the battle; Grace wakes up and screams, realizing that they’ve completely forgotten about it. They ended up just piecing something together,” Jimmie said, slowly shaking his head as he spoke.
“Have they ever been any good?” Harry asked, beginning to worry about his fellow Orion students’ capabilities.
“Well, last year was definitely better than most. At least all the people knew what song they were performing. Second year, I think they ended up playing three songs at the same time. Never thought I would hear the bass part for ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ over ‘I want it that way.’” Jimmie paused for a second and cringed. “Well, anyway, last year they decided that because of their lack of time, they would do a song everyone already knew. So, of course, we ended up with ‘Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears. The good part was that the singers knew the words, and that the band could actually play something that resembled the song. The only major problem was that there were five Britneys. Two were slightly tone deaf and couldn’t keep a beat. Nicole, of course, was the lead Britney. She was actually decent, but her skintight red leather outfit was just a little over the top. Pretty sure we were docked points there.”
Harry and Ron looked on in disbelief. Ron was more confused by this whole ‘Britney Spears’ thing. Harry on the other hand, understood quite well, having watched many of her videos behind Dudley’s back as Dudley decided who would be better to bring home to mummy dearest; Christina Aguilera or Britney spears. Harry always laughed when he thought of this. He had always thought that Dudley should probably be choosing between ham or turkey.
Jimmie finished explaining what exactly Britney Spears was to Ron just as they reached Transfiguration. Ron was a lot less confused about Britney Spears, but a lot more scared about imagining Nicole in a skin-tight, red, leather outfit.
Jimmie, Ron, and Harry made their way to seats in the back of the room. Hermione had already sat down near the front of the class, surrounded by Grace, Nicole, Shana, and Delana. Kevin had been sitting behind the girls, but moved as soon as he saw the boys enter the room.
“Hey,” he said as he took a seat next to Jimmie. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see other guys in my life.”
“The girls driving you crazy?” Harry asked.
“Crazy isn’t the word I would use. Clinically insane is much better terminology.” He said. He glanced back over at the girls, who were now giggling loudly.
“What now?” Jimmie asked.
“Everything!” Kevin practically yelled. “I don’t know what possessed me to get back with Nicole. She’s demanding and controlling, and I’m pretty sure she scares the first years. Why can’t I like girls that are more like Grace? At least she’s nice to people, and definitely not demanding. Now I completely understand why Napaliebalous made Grace a head girl instead of Nicole.”
Kevin was just getting into his rant when Mrs. Spenace walked into the classroom. He decided that it would probably be better to continue after class. All the other boys were relieved that he wasn’t able to continue. It was his fault he was in that mess, not theirs.
Mrs. Spenace stood at the front of the room and waited for a moment for the room to get quite. When she realized that was not going to happen, she said loudly, “Good afternoon, class.”
The class immediately became silent, and a few people mumbled a greeting back.
“Today's lesson will be a review for most of you. We will be reviewing for the next few classes, as a matter of fact, until I’m sure you’re all ready to go on. For today we will be transforming three objects.” With that, she flicked her wand and a red brick, a crystal goblet, and a piece of bread appeared on every desk.
“First, start with the brick. I want you all to change that into a working watch. I will subtract points if the watch doesn’t work.
“Next, you’ll change the goblet into a rose. I’m not picky about the color, but I do have a fondness for white roses,” she said with a wink.
“Finally, I want you to change the piece of bread into a bootleg copy of Gili.” The class looked at each other, wondering what, exactly, she was talking about.
“Just kidding. A little bit of Muggle humor,” she added quickly, realizing that only a few students had gotten her joke. “For the piece of bread, I want you to change it into a silver plate. And please, people, don't eat the bread. I know you all just had lunch. Anyone who eats the bread will be docked major points, understand?” The class all shook their heads. “Then, without further ado, please begin. Once you’ve completed all three, please place them on my desk.”
For the next 80 minutes, the class worked at transfiguring their items. Hermione, of course, finished well ahead of the rest of the class. A lot of the Allteline students were surprised at, and slightly jealous of, the speed with which she performed her required tasks. She was then given the rest of the class period to do whatever she liked; which was read up on what they would be studying the next day in charms.
At the end of the lesson, Kevin hurriedly packed his things away and ducked out of the classroom before anyone could ask him what he was doing. When the rest of the sixth year Orion guys caught up with him in their dorms, he finally answered them.
“I really didn’t want to be anywhere near Nicole. She refused to speak to me at lunch because I wouldn’t change my sexual orientation to please her, and at the beginning of class she wanted to know what my problem was! I wasn’t aware I was the one with the problem! I’d rather just take a nap right now than deal with the ways her strange little mind works.” Kevin then flopped down on his bed and closed his eyes, facing away from the door, and looking very much like he was going to do just as he had said.
At that precise moment, however, Nicole entered the room. “Kevin! Why did you run away from me like that? I wanted to talk to you.”
“Go away. I don’t want to talk to you right now.” As soon as those words left his mouth, Kevin tensed and sat up. It was soon obvious why.
“What?” Nicole demanded. Harry was sure that the look on her face at that moment would have even sent his uncle running for cover. “What did you say to me?” she demanded again.
“Um... I said... What I meant was... oh, fu-”
“Right, we’ll just be leaving now,” Brian interrupted loudly.
“Yeah, see you later Kevin, Medusa - I mean Nicole,” Ryan added. The twins and Jimmie then pulled Harry and Ron out of the room and slammed the door.
“What was that all about?” Ron asked.
Jimmie was about to answer, but suddenly had to save two other sixth year boys from walking into what was sure to be a nightmare.
“Hey, let us through,” said Casey Wood.
“That’s probably not a good idea at the moment,” Jimmie said.
“Why not?” asked Eric Riggs, who was getting slightly annoyed.
“Kevin and Nicole are in there,” Jimmie answered. Just then, something shattered on the inside of the door. The two other sixth years jumped and seemed to understand something about what Jimmie was saying that Harry and Ron still weren’t able to pick up on.
“Oh, poor Kevin,” Casey said, looking at the door. “Well, if you see him, tell him we’re sorry we couldn’t help.” Another thud on the door sent Casey and Eric hurrying away.
“If?” asked Ron.
“Yeah, ‘if.’” Jimmie answered. Ron looked at him questioningly. “Well, wouldn’t you be trying to hide from that if you got a chance to get away from it?”
“Oh, I guess you’re right. Um, does she get like that often?”
“No, not usually. Normally she’ll only resort to violence if she’s extremely annoyed by something. Like, being ignored, for example. See, right now Kevin is her boyfriend. In Nicole’s mind, that means he doesn’t have the option of not paying his undivided attention to her.” Jimmie explained. “This happened a few times in second year, too. But they always ended up back together within six hours of one of these episodes, though, which is why I’m not too worried about any serious damage being done. It’s just, no one really enjoys being around Nicole at these times. She’s kinda creepy.”
After this explanation, the group of boys found an empty space in the common room and sat down, intending to relax for their entire free period. This would have worked out fine, had a large group of girls not walked in at that particular moment and joined them. Hermione, Shana, Delana, Grace, and another girl that neither Harry nor Ron recognized all found seats in and around the already sitting boys and made themselves comfortable, talking and laughing loudly the whole time.
“Don’t you girls ever shut up?” asked Ryan.
“No,” was the blunt answer from the new girl. “You should know that by now, Ryan. You’ve been hanging out with those three longer than I have.” The girl then looked over and saw Harry and Ron sitting on one of the couches next to Ryan.
“Oh, and you must be the other exchange students. Ok, Hermione told me which was which, let’s see if I can remember. Ron’s the red-head and Harry is the other one, right?” she said, looking to Hermione for confirmation.
“Yep,” Hermione said.
“Yay! I feel smart now. I’m Starlett Kirk, by the way, but everyone just calls me Star. I’m in fifth year. Wow, you were right, Grace; they are cute.” Everyone laughed at this statement, except Hermione, who merely chuckled. She stopped altogether when Star added, “Especially the red-head.” Both of the boys started blushing when Star continued to check them out. Hermione decided it was time to change the subject.
“So, did everyone have a good first day of classes?” she asked the group. Everyone kind of mumbled an answer. Hermione looked pointedly at Harry and Ron.
“Oh, I had a great day,” said Harry, catching on to what Hermione wanted to hear. He then nudged Ron.
“What - oh, I had a really good day, too. Learned loads of stuff,” Ron said. Hermione smiled at the pair of them.
“That’s wonderful. Well, I was thinking, since we’ll all be here at this time every other day, why don’t we start a little study group? It would be a lot of fun, and we could all make sure that no one falls behind in their schoolwork.” At this suggestion, all of the Allteline students gaped at her. Harry and Ron, on the other hand, knew that the only way to get her to move on to another subject was to agree with her.
“That sounds like a great idea, Hermione,” said Ron. Hermione beamed at him.
“Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” she squealed. “I’m going to go and start making up study schedules!” With that, Hermione got up from her seat and started heading to her dorm. On the way, though, she stopped to hug her two best friends, thanking them for agreeing with her.
After she left, all of the other students burst out laughing. This continued for a few minutes, until Star had regained enough control to ask, “She’s not serious, is she?”
Ron, smiling sarcastically, answered, “Oh, yes, she’s very serious.” This caused everyone else to stop laughing and stare in disbelief.
“What?” came from one of the male twins.
“Yep, all of us are now going to be studying during this free period. Trust me,” Harry began as they started to groan in protest, “it’s better to have agreed now than try to get her to stop making us study. She won’t stop. We’ve learned that after having to live with her for five years.”
“Oh. Well, this kinda sucks. We never do work ahead of time,” Brian complained.
“Yeah, I don’t remember the last time I started an assignment before the day before it was due,” added Ryan.
“Ooh, Nicole’s not going to be happy about this. She probably hates work more than anyone here,” said Grace. “Speaking of, where is Nicole? And Kevin? I haven’t seen them since class got over.”
“Um, Kevin and Nicole are... talking. Actually, I haven’t heard anything smash against the wall in a good seven minutes. Maybe they’re done with their chat already. I’ll go find out,” said Jimmie. He then got up off of the couch he was laying on and walked over to the dormitory door.
“Nicole was in one of her moods because Kevin wouldn’t talk to her, wasn’t she?” Grace asked. All of the boys nodded. “Well, as long as she didn’t kill Kevin, I think everything-”
“Aaaagggghhhh!”
“What was that?” Ron demanded.
“It sounded like Jimmie,” said Harry.
“You’re right, I think it was him,” Grace agreed. “I wonder what happened? Maybe we should go look.” Everyone had just stood up to find out what was wrong with Jimmie, when he came bursting back into the common room, hands over his face.
“My eyes, my eyes!” he wailed as he fell to his knees outside the door.
“Jimmie! What’s wrong?” Shana ran over to him and was trying to find out why he seemed to be in pain.
After a minute or so of silently sobbing to himself, Jimmie had collected himself enough to speak. “I walked into our dorm to see if Kevin and Nicole were done fighting, and to ask them if they were going to come out and talk to us, but everything was either broken or shattered, and I wanted to see if Kevin was still alive, so I started looking for him and I found him on his bed and he and Nicole were... were...”
“Yes? What were they?” Shana prompted.
“They were... were... they were cuddling! Oh, the pain! And Kevin was apologizing to her! How could he do that? I think I need to lay down.”
“Uh, Jimmie, you are laying down,” Grace reminded him, while trying not to giggle.
“Oh, right. Then I’ll just stay here for a minute.”
Jimmie continued to lay on the floor, while the rest of the group moved back to the couches. They had barely gotten settled when Nicole and Kevin walked out of the dorm room, hand in hand.
“What’s wrong with Jimmie?” Kevin asked, pointing to the figure who was still laying on the floor.
There were a few muffled laughs before Grace calmly answered, “We think it’s probably something he ate. We figure he'll be fine in a day or so, or when the shock wears off.”
Nicole and Kevin were confused about the last statement, especially when the rest of the common room burst into laughter. They shrugged it off, though, figuring it was nothing.
“Well, we’re off to the library... to study,” Nicole said, adding the last part when she realized that everyone in the room was looking at her with doubtful eyes.
“Umm... yes. We need to study badly... so don't come looking for us or anything. We really don't want to be disturbed,” Kevin said, knowing that everyone in the room knew he was lying.
“Right... studying,” Star said. “Well remember, just don't get caught. I don't think the librarian really likes people 'studying' in there.” She lapsed into a fit of giggles as Nicole and Kevin both turned a nice shade of pink and quickly made their exit.
All of them sat their for a few more seconds, laughing, before Grace got to her feet.
“Know what? I think I should go help them study.” Grace said making her way to her dorm. “And I think I have just the study aid.” She ran into her dorm and returned a moment later holding a bag.
“Yep, I was right. I have seven invisible water balloons left. I'm pretty sure these will help them greatly.”
It took Harry a few moments to put everything together, but when he did, he couldn't help but laugh. He was surprised at how the whole of Orion house was much like Fred and George, unlike at Hogwarts where in Gryffindor house, only Fred and George were like Fred and George. Grace made her way across the room and had just opened the door to leave, when she suddenly stopped and turned around.
“Hey, Star, I think this might be more of a two-person job. Wanna help?” She asked. Star jumped to her feet.
“Yeah, sounds like fun,” she said with a mischievous grin on her face.
“Good. I bet they haven't gone far,” Grace said, looking out into the hallway. “The library is so far away. I'd put money on them being in one of the classrooms on the way there.”
Star nodded and they both left the common room.
“So... let me see if I've got this straight,” Ron said, slightly confused with what had just transpired. “Nicole and Kevin are going to, umm... do it, I think is the phrase you use, and Grace and Star are going to find them and throw water balloons at them?” The room once again burst into laughter.
“Yes, you have the water balloon part right, but as for Nicole and Kevin doing it... I highly doubt it.” Ryan said. “My guess is that they'll just make out for a while. Nicole is really innocent at heart. And on top of that, Kevin would probably say something to offend her before the first article of clothing was removed.”
“What’s this about articles of clothing being removed?” asked a slightly shocked Hermione, who had just rejoined the group, a stack of papers in hand.
“Oh, nothing, really,” said Ryan. “We were just discussing what we thought Kevin and Nicole might be up to at the moment. They left for the library to ‘study’ a few minutes ago.”
“What’s so strange about going to the library to study?” Hermione actually did look confused.
“Hermione, come on, you can’t actually be that dense,” said Ron. Hermione suddenly understood what their conversation had been about, and the tiniest bit of a blush appeared on her face.
“Oh, well, in that case, I guess I won’t be able to give them the study schedules I arranged for them,” she said as she started handing the schedules to everyone who was still in the room. When everyone had one, she realized that she still had five in her hand; her own, Nicole’s, Kevin’s, Grace’s, and Star’s.
“Where are Grace and Star?” she asked.
“They went to find Nicole and Kevin,” Brian answered promptly. “Grace wanted to finish off her supply of invisible water balloons.” At this, another wave of laughter was sent throughout the group.
“But that’s horribly rude,” said Hermione, frowning. She was the only one who hadn’t joined in the laughter.
“Oh, come on Hermione, it’ll be hilarious,” Shana stated. “That’ll be the second time Nicole’s been hit with them in the past two days. I can’t wait to see what consequence befalls poor Grace this time. I thought the closet was kinda boring, myself.”
“Closet?”
“Yeah, you heard about the closet,” Jimmie said. “Remember? That’s why she walked into the meeting late yesterday.”
“You mean, she was actually locked in a closet?” said Hermione, sounding scandalized. “I thought that was just an excuse for showing up late.”
“You really shouldn’t get so worked up over it,” Jimmie said. “Stuff like that happens all the time between Grace and Nicole. It’s a miracle they’ve not caused each other serious harm from some of the things they’ve done to each other.”
“I thought they were supposed to be really good friends, though,” said Ron.
“Oh, they are, don’t get me wrong. I’ve never seen another pair that are better friends. That’s the reason they can do those things to each other without the other coming back and trying to really kill them.”
“Oh, I see,” said Harry, just as the common room door swung open and a flood of students came in. “Well, looks like classes are over for the day. What do we do now?” he asked.
Hermione started to suggest that they start studying for the next day since they hadn’t done anything during their free period, but was cut off by Brian.
“Sorry, Hermione, but there’s no time for studying right now.” Hermione looked at him as though he had just told her that the moon had exploded. He continued unfazed. “We have to have a house meeting.”
“What for?” asked Harry.
“To discuss what we’re going to do for the Battle of the Bands contest,” he answered. “Everyone agreed that we were going to work harder this year than any other year. To do that, we need to actually get to work on it right away, not just talk about getting to work on it. We can’t wait until the last minute this year if we want to have a chance at winning.” After Brian’s mini-speech to his group of friends, he stood on one of the tables near the couch he had been sitting on and called for the attention of his house mates. He then started in on a longer version of his speech.
After ten minutes of listening to Brian speak, most of the people in the common room began returning to their previous activities.
“What are you all doing? We need to get to work on this right away!”
“Brian, shut up. We do the same thing every year. This year’s not going to be any different. We’re all too lazy to start on it now,” came from someone across the room.
“Fine, then, you can’t be in the band,” Brian answered.
“Goody for me.”
“Is anyone else going to listen to what I have to say?” Brian asked the room.
“No,” was the collective response.
Brian looked around at everyone there, and noted that most of them had, indeed, stopped listening and gone back to their own conversations. Defeated, he stepped down off the table and sank back into the couch.
“Well, you tried,” Ron said, trying to comfort him.
“All I have to say is this; if we lose this year, it’s not my fault,” Brian stated.
A few minutes of silence passed, then Brian spoke up again. “I’m going to find Grace and Star, see if they need any help. Anyone want to come along?”
Jimmie, Ryan, and the female twins all agreed at once. Harry and Ron were about to agree as well, but a fierce look from Hermione made them quickly change their minds.
“Are you sure you’re not going to come with us?” Brian asked one final time.
“Yeah, we’re sure,” Harry answered him. “Lots of studying to get done. Wouldn’t do to get behind this early in the school year.”
“Alright. Suit yourselves.” Brian and the others then left the common room. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were alone to talk for the first time that day.
“Were you seriously considering going with them?” Hermione asked her two best friends.
“Of course we were, Hermione!” Ron answered. “It’s just a bit of fun.”
“Just a bit of fun? What would happen if you were caught? What would Dumbledore think when that was reported to him? How would that make our school look?”
“Hermione! Settle down before you hyperventilate. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re still here, we didn’t go with them. There’s nothing for you to worry about. We’re just going to sit here with you for the rest of the night, like good little boys, and study. Happy?”
“Yes, Ron, that does make me happy. Now go get your things for tomorrow. You’re taking notes so you’ll be prepared to answer any questions the teachers may have for you.”
“Yes, mother,” Ron sighed as he and Harry went to retrieve their books.
next
The next morning came too quickly for both Harry and Ron. Although they had gotten a decent amount of sleep, the previous day had fully worn them out and they longed for just a few more hours in their beds. Still half asleep, they changed into their clothes for the day and made their way down to the Dining Hall. Not surprisingly, Hermione was already there, sitting at one of Orion's tables, deep in discussion with Shana and Delana. Harry and Ron went over to the table and sat down next to Hermione.
All three girls looked up as the boys sat down. They all said their hellos, then the girls went back to their conversation about shoes.
"Wow, Hermione’s only been here a day and she’s already one of them," Ron said to Harry.
"I know," Harry said, watching the girls talk. "Maybe she'll drag them to the library with her instead of us from now on. That would be a nice change."
After a few minutes of the boys eating in silence, they were joined by Jimmie and Brian.
“Good morning,” Brian said in greeting. “Man, you guys missed the best part of the party last night.”
“Really? What happened?” asked Ron.
“Well, we started playing Twister about ten minutes after you went to bed. It started out normally, but then more and more people started joining in. After a while there were like 20 people trying to play on that tiny, little mat. After a few turns with all those people trying to maneuver around each other, everyone fell into a huge pile. It took a while for everyone to get untangled and get up. When most of the people had finally stood up, everyone noticed that Nicole and Kevin were still on the floor, apparently making out. After a minute, Nicole realized that everyone was watching them. She sat up and punched Kevin for ‘taking advantage of her,’ then disappeared for a while.”
“Oh, that’s not good. Is she still mad at him?” Harry asked, looking concerned.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Jimmie answered. “Considering they were caught an hour later doing the same thing in a corner of the common room. They’re sitting together at one of the Cassiopeia tables right now.”
Harry and Ron turned around in their seats to see that they were, in fact, sitting right next to each other, looking like any other happy couple in the school. Except for the fact that Kevin had a black eye and flinched the tiniest bit every time Nicole made a sudden movement.
“To tell you the truth, most people have been waiting for them to get back together. Some people even made bets as to how long it would take. Actually, that reminds me.” Brian said as his face fell, “I made a bet with Natalie Hiatt, from Cassiopeia, in fourth year; I owe her $50. And she never forgets anything. See, here she comes now,” Brian said, pointing to a girl walking toward their table. “You never saw me,” he said, then ducked away from the table to join one in the Auriga section.
Just then, the girl Brian had pointed at stopped in front of the Orion table. “Have any of you seen Brian? I could have sworn I just saw him sitting here a second ago.”
“Nope, sorry, can’t help you there,” said Jimmie. “You must have seen Ryan sitting here. He just left to use the bathroom.”
“Oh... Stupid twins. I can never tell them apart. Well, if you see Brian, tell him he owes me money.” With that, Natalie stormed off to continue her search.
“She’s kind of scary,” Ron commented.
“Kinda,” Jimmie agreed. “Oh, look, here come our schedules.”
They all looked over to the side of the Dining Hall where a group of teachers were setting up some tables and putting half-sheets of paper on them.
“Did someone just say ‘schedules’?” asked Hermione. Jimmie nodded. “Where?” Hermione asked again. Jimmie pointed. Hermione suddenly jumped up from the table and almost ran to the other side of the Dining Hall to pick up her schedule.
“Well, she hasn’t been completely transformed,” said Harry as he watched her dash away.
“You mean, she’s actually excited to start classes?” came from Delana.
“Oh, yes, very much so,” Ron answered. “We were kind of hoping you two had somehow knocked that out of her, but I’m beginning to think that can’t be done. By anyone.”
By this time Hermione was already bounding back to the table, six schedules in hand.
“You are so slow,” she stated. “I figured you would at least be on your way to the table by now. Here, I picked up everyone’s schedule while I was up there since it didn’t look like any of you were going to get up there anytime soon.” She then handed the schedules to everyone at the table.
Harry took his schedule when Hermione handed it to him and read through it. It would be easy enough to remember. They had eight periods altogether, but only four per day. The had the same four classes at the same time every other day. Harry compared his class list with Ron and Hermione and found that they would be together all day, every day, except when Hermione was gone for her Ancient Runes class (Harry and Ron had a free period during that time).
“Does anyone have anything to do for the next half hour, since class doesn’t start until 8:30?” Harry asked the table.
Jimmie pulled out a deck of cards and asked, “Have you ever played ERS?”
“Um, no, not that I can recall,” Harry answered.
As fate would have it, just as this conversation was starting, Nicole, Kevin, and Grace were walking past the table on their way back to the Cassiopeia section.
“ERS? Who’s playing?” Nicole demanded as she sat down next to Ron, completely forgetting about going back to her original table. She was followed by Kevin and Grace.
“Me, Harry, Ron, Delana, Shana, and Hermione - oh, she’s reading. Nevermind, then, it’s just the five of us,” Jimmie answered.
“Fun! Have they ever played before?” asked Grace, indicating Ron and Harry.
“No, we haven’t. Could someone explain the rules, please?” Ron requested as Jimmie started dividing the deck between the eight players. Kevin was the one to explain.
“First of all, the entire deck is passed out between all the players. It doesn’t matter if everyone has the same number of cards or not. Then, we go around the table and lay down one card at a time. If someone lays down a face card, jack, queen, king, or ace, the next person has a certain number of chances to lay down another face card. If the first person lays down a jack, the next person only has one chance to lay down another face card. Queen gets two chances, king gets three, and ace gets four. If the second person fails to lay down another face card, the first person gets to take the pile of cards. Also, if someone lays down a card and the next person lays down the same card, like two fours in a row, that’s a double and the first person to smack the pile gets to take it. Whoever has all the cards, or the most cards, at the end wins. Ready to play?”
Harry and Ron just looked at him as if he had tried to explain to them how to operate on the human brain.
“Well, we’ll help you along the way,” Kevin said as he looked at the two.
“Hurry up, let’s play already!” demanded Delana.
They started playing after that and ended their game just as people were starting to leave the Dining Hall to head to their first class.
“Yay! I win again!” exclaimed Shana as they were packing up their things.
“Wow, I never thought I would see a card game end in bloodshed,” said Harry. Somewhere towards the end of the game, someone had laid down a double and everyone smacked the pile at the same time. Delana came back with a giant gash on the side of her hand and had yelled at Nicole for not cutting her ‘daggers’ before joining the game.
Everyone laughed at Harry’s comment and started heading for the door.
The first two classes that Harry, Ron, Hermione attended at Allteline were much like Hogwarts. The first class they had was Herberlogy with Indus. It was a fairly normal lesson. They were basically starting where they had left off at Hogwarts. Defense Against the Dark Arts with Cassiopeia was about the same. They were using a little bit more advanced magic at Allteline, but since the Hogwarts students had spent much of the previous year in the DA, they felt that they would have no problems getting caught up and keeping up with the rest of the class. Before they knew it, the first half of the day was over and they were heading back to the Dining Hall for lunch.
When the former Gryffindors entered the Dining Hall, Hermione spotted Shana and Delana and immediately went to join them at the Auriga table they had chosen to occupy. Harry and Ron were going to join the girls, since they didn’t want to sit with people they didn’t know, but someone had suddenly come up behind them and started dragging them off in a different direction. When they finally reached a table, Harry and Ron saw that Nicole and Kevin had been the ones to bring them there. They also noticed that everyone from breakfast, minus Hermione, Shana, and Delana, was sitting at the table they had ended up at. And Jimmie was once again pulling out a deck of cards.
“We’re having a rematch,” Grace explained at once. “No one likes playing with Shana because she always seems to win. I mean always. She’s won every game she’s ever played. You don’t just get lucky that many times.”
“Oh, ok,” said Harry. He, Ron, and the rest of the people that had been standing sat down and started reaching for whatever they wanted to eat at that moment. After everyone had what they wanted, the food was moved out of the middle of the table and the game started. After only five minutes of play, Jimmie was declared the winner.
“Wow, that was really short compared to this morning,” said Ron.
“That’s short compared to a lot of the games we’ve played,” said Grace. “Some of them have lasted through the entire lunch period.”
“Oh well,” said Nicole. “Now we get to concentrate on more important things, like food. Or homework. Or that really hot blonde guy sitting at that table over there.”
“Ooh, he is really hot,” Grace commented after looking over her shoulder at said blonde.
“What do you think, Kevin?” Nicole asked.
“I think I refuse to be involved in this conversation,” he answered.
“Oh, come on, there’s no way you could think he’s not good-looking.”
“Didn’t we just have a very similar discussion to this yesterday?” he asked, becoming just slightly annoyed.
“Oh, right,” said Nicole. “Don’t you think you could try to be gay, just for a day?”
Kevin sighed and rolled his eyes. “If I was gay, you wouldn’t be my girlfriend.”
Nicole sat in silent thought for a moment, then came back with, “Well, how about bi?”
“No.”
“Fine then, be that way.” Kevin and Nicole refused to speak to each other for the rest of lunch.
About five minutes before the end of the lunch period, Napaliebalous stood at the front of the Dining Hall and called for everyone’s attention.
“Now, as you all know,” he started, “every year, at the beginning of October we have our annual Battle of the Bands contest.” At this point there were many loud cheers and whistles. “Yes, yes, it’s very exciting, I know. Anyway, I just wanted to remind you that the rules are the same as they have been every year. Every house must have a band if they want to be eligible for the prize. It doesn’t matter how many people are in the band or what instruments are used, as long as there are some of each present. You guys have a month to get ready for this; it will take place the first Saturday in October. Ok, that’s it. I believe you all have some sort of class to be in right about now.” Just as Napaliebalous ended his speech, a bell sounded to signal the end of lunch.
The Hall was filled with excited chatter as the students started filing through the exit. Nicole, Grace, and Brian were obviously amongst the most excited. They were already discussing who would play what and what everyone was going to wear.
“If I were you I wouldn’t pay any attention to anything they’re saying right now,” Kevin whispered to Harry and Ron.
“Why not?” Harry asked.
“They do the same thing every year; they make plans all day the day we get the announcement, then forget about it until about 24 hours before we have to perform,” Kevin explained.
“Really? Every year?” Ron asked, a little amazed that they hadn’t learned from their past mistakes.
“Yep, every year. Last year they even put a calendar up the first day so that they would get started earlier, but even that didn’t help. The calendar ended up getting filled up with all the worthless things they do, and, of course, the battle was forgotten. Day before the battle; Grace wakes up and screams, realizing that they’ve completely forgotten about it. They ended up just piecing something together,” Jimmie said, slowly shaking his head as he spoke.
“Have they ever been any good?” Harry asked, beginning to worry about his fellow Orion students’ capabilities.
“Well, last year was definitely better than most. At least all the people knew what song they were performing. Second year, I think they ended up playing three songs at the same time. Never thought I would hear the bass part for ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ over ‘I want it that way.’” Jimmie paused for a second and cringed. “Well, anyway, last year they decided that because of their lack of time, they would do a song everyone already knew. So, of course, we ended up with ‘Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears. The good part was that the singers knew the words, and that the band could actually play something that resembled the song. The only major problem was that there were five Britneys. Two were slightly tone deaf and couldn’t keep a beat. Nicole, of course, was the lead Britney. She was actually decent, but her skintight red leather outfit was just a little over the top. Pretty sure we were docked points there.”
Harry and Ron looked on in disbelief. Ron was more confused by this whole ‘Britney Spears’ thing. Harry on the other hand, understood quite well, having watched many of her videos behind Dudley’s back as Dudley decided who would be better to bring home to mummy dearest; Christina Aguilera or Britney spears. Harry always laughed when he thought of this. He had always thought that Dudley should probably be choosing between ham or turkey.
Jimmie finished explaining what exactly Britney Spears was to Ron just as they reached Transfiguration. Ron was a lot less confused about Britney Spears, but a lot more scared about imagining Nicole in a skin-tight, red, leather outfit.
Jimmie, Ron, and Harry made their way to seats in the back of the room. Hermione had already sat down near the front of the class, surrounded by Grace, Nicole, Shana, and Delana. Kevin had been sitting behind the girls, but moved as soon as he saw the boys enter the room.
“Hey,” he said as he took a seat next to Jimmie. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see other guys in my life.”
“The girls driving you crazy?” Harry asked.
“Crazy isn’t the word I would use. Clinically insane is much better terminology.” He said. He glanced back over at the girls, who were now giggling loudly.
“What now?” Jimmie asked.
“Everything!” Kevin practically yelled. “I don’t know what possessed me to get back with Nicole. She’s demanding and controlling, and I’m pretty sure she scares the first years. Why can’t I like girls that are more like Grace? At least she’s nice to people, and definitely not demanding. Now I completely understand why Napaliebalous made Grace a head girl instead of Nicole.”
Kevin was just getting into his rant when Mrs. Spenace walked into the classroom. He decided that it would probably be better to continue after class. All the other boys were relieved that he wasn’t able to continue. It was his fault he was in that mess, not theirs.
Mrs. Spenace stood at the front of the room and waited for a moment for the room to get quite. When she realized that was not going to happen, she said loudly, “Good afternoon, class.”
The class immediately became silent, and a few people mumbled a greeting back.
“Today's lesson will be a review for most of you. We will be reviewing for the next few classes, as a matter of fact, until I’m sure you’re all ready to go on. For today we will be transforming three objects.” With that, she flicked her wand and a red brick, a crystal goblet, and a piece of bread appeared on every desk.
“First, start with the brick. I want you all to change that into a working watch. I will subtract points if the watch doesn’t work.
“Next, you’ll change the goblet into a rose. I’m not picky about the color, but I do have a fondness for white roses,” she said with a wink.
“Finally, I want you to change the piece of bread into a bootleg copy of Gili.” The class looked at each other, wondering what, exactly, she was talking about.
“Just kidding. A little bit of Muggle humor,” she added quickly, realizing that only a few students had gotten her joke. “For the piece of bread, I want you to change it into a silver plate. And please, people, don't eat the bread. I know you all just had lunch. Anyone who eats the bread will be docked major points, understand?” The class all shook their heads. “Then, without further ado, please begin. Once you’ve completed all three, please place them on my desk.”
For the next 80 minutes, the class worked at transfiguring their items. Hermione, of course, finished well ahead of the rest of the class. A lot of the Allteline students were surprised at, and slightly jealous of, the speed with which she performed her required tasks. She was then given the rest of the class period to do whatever she liked; which was read up on what they would be studying the next day in charms.
At the end of the lesson, Kevin hurriedly packed his things away and ducked out of the classroom before anyone could ask him what he was doing. When the rest of the sixth year Orion guys caught up with him in their dorms, he finally answered them.
“I really didn’t want to be anywhere near Nicole. She refused to speak to me at lunch because I wouldn’t change my sexual orientation to please her, and at the beginning of class she wanted to know what my problem was! I wasn’t aware I was the one with the problem! I’d rather just take a nap right now than deal with the ways her strange little mind works.” Kevin then flopped down on his bed and closed his eyes, facing away from the door, and looking very much like he was going to do just as he had said.
At that precise moment, however, Nicole entered the room. “Kevin! Why did you run away from me like that? I wanted to talk to you.”
“Go away. I don’t want to talk to you right now.” As soon as those words left his mouth, Kevin tensed and sat up. It was soon obvious why.
“What?” Nicole demanded. Harry was sure that the look on her face at that moment would have even sent his uncle running for cover. “What did you say to me?” she demanded again.
“Um... I said... What I meant was... oh, fu-”
“Right, we’ll just be leaving now,” Brian interrupted loudly.
“Yeah, see you later Kevin, Medusa - I mean Nicole,” Ryan added. The twins and Jimmie then pulled Harry and Ron out of the room and slammed the door.
“What was that all about?” Ron asked.
Jimmie was about to answer, but suddenly had to save two other sixth year boys from walking into what was sure to be a nightmare.
“Hey, let us through,” said Casey Wood.
“That’s probably not a good idea at the moment,” Jimmie said.
“Why not?” asked Eric Riggs, who was getting slightly annoyed.
“Kevin and Nicole are in there,” Jimmie answered. Just then, something shattered on the inside of the door. The two other sixth years jumped and seemed to understand something about what Jimmie was saying that Harry and Ron still weren’t able to pick up on.
“Oh, poor Kevin,” Casey said, looking at the door. “Well, if you see him, tell him we’re sorry we couldn’t help.” Another thud on the door sent Casey and Eric hurrying away.
“If?” asked Ron.
“Yeah, ‘if.’” Jimmie answered. Ron looked at him questioningly. “Well, wouldn’t you be trying to hide from that if you got a chance to get away from it?”
“Oh, I guess you’re right. Um, does she get like that often?”
“No, not usually. Normally she’ll only resort to violence if she’s extremely annoyed by something. Like, being ignored, for example. See, right now Kevin is her boyfriend. In Nicole’s mind, that means he doesn’t have the option of not paying his undivided attention to her.” Jimmie explained. “This happened a few times in second year, too. But they always ended up back together within six hours of one of these episodes, though, which is why I’m not too worried about any serious damage being done. It’s just, no one really enjoys being around Nicole at these times. She’s kinda creepy.”
After this explanation, the group of boys found an empty space in the common room and sat down, intending to relax for their entire free period. This would have worked out fine, had a large group of girls not walked in at that particular moment and joined them. Hermione, Shana, Delana, Grace, and another girl that neither Harry nor Ron recognized all found seats in and around the already sitting boys and made themselves comfortable, talking and laughing loudly the whole time.
“Don’t you girls ever shut up?” asked Ryan.
“No,” was the blunt answer from the new girl. “You should know that by now, Ryan. You’ve been hanging out with those three longer than I have.” The girl then looked over and saw Harry and Ron sitting on one of the couches next to Ryan.
“Oh, and you must be the other exchange students. Ok, Hermione told me which was which, let’s see if I can remember. Ron’s the red-head and Harry is the other one, right?” she said, looking to Hermione for confirmation.
“Yep,” Hermione said.
“Yay! I feel smart now. I’m Starlett Kirk, by the way, but everyone just calls me Star. I’m in fifth year. Wow, you were right, Grace; they are cute.” Everyone laughed at this statement, except Hermione, who merely chuckled. She stopped altogether when Star added, “Especially the red-head.” Both of the boys started blushing when Star continued to check them out. Hermione decided it was time to change the subject.
“So, did everyone have a good first day of classes?” she asked the group. Everyone kind of mumbled an answer. Hermione looked pointedly at Harry and Ron.
“Oh, I had a great day,” said Harry, catching on to what Hermione wanted to hear. He then nudged Ron.
“What - oh, I had a really good day, too. Learned loads of stuff,” Ron said. Hermione smiled at the pair of them.
“That’s wonderful. Well, I was thinking, since we’ll all be here at this time every other day, why don’t we start a little study group? It would be a lot of fun, and we could all make sure that no one falls behind in their schoolwork.” At this suggestion, all of the Allteline students gaped at her. Harry and Ron, on the other hand, knew that the only way to get her to move on to another subject was to agree with her.
“That sounds like a great idea, Hermione,” said Ron. Hermione beamed at him.
“Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” she squealed. “I’m going to go and start making up study schedules!” With that, Hermione got up from her seat and started heading to her dorm. On the way, though, she stopped to hug her two best friends, thanking them for agreeing with her.
After she left, all of the other students burst out laughing. This continued for a few minutes, until Star had regained enough control to ask, “She’s not serious, is she?”
Ron, smiling sarcastically, answered, “Oh, yes, she’s very serious.” This caused everyone else to stop laughing and stare in disbelief.
“What?” came from one of the male twins.
“Yep, all of us are now going to be studying during this free period. Trust me,” Harry began as they started to groan in protest, “it’s better to have agreed now than try to get her to stop making us study. She won’t stop. We’ve learned that after having to live with her for five years.”
“Oh. Well, this kinda sucks. We never do work ahead of time,” Brian complained.
“Yeah, I don’t remember the last time I started an assignment before the day before it was due,” added Ryan.
“Ooh, Nicole’s not going to be happy about this. She probably hates work more than anyone here,” said Grace. “Speaking of, where is Nicole? And Kevin? I haven’t seen them since class got over.”
“Um, Kevin and Nicole are... talking. Actually, I haven’t heard anything smash against the wall in a good seven minutes. Maybe they’re done with their chat already. I’ll go find out,” said Jimmie. He then got up off of the couch he was laying on and walked over to the dormitory door.
“Nicole was in one of her moods because Kevin wouldn’t talk to her, wasn’t she?” Grace asked. All of the boys nodded. “Well, as long as she didn’t kill Kevin, I think everything-”
“Aaaagggghhhh!”
“What was that?” Ron demanded.
“It sounded like Jimmie,” said Harry.
“You’re right, I think it was him,” Grace agreed. “I wonder what happened? Maybe we should go look.” Everyone had just stood up to find out what was wrong with Jimmie, when he came bursting back into the common room, hands over his face.
“My eyes, my eyes!” he wailed as he fell to his knees outside the door.
“Jimmie! What’s wrong?” Shana ran over to him and was trying to find out why he seemed to be in pain.
After a minute or so of silently sobbing to himself, Jimmie had collected himself enough to speak. “I walked into our dorm to see if Kevin and Nicole were done fighting, and to ask them if they were going to come out and talk to us, but everything was either broken or shattered, and I wanted to see if Kevin was still alive, so I started looking for him and I found him on his bed and he and Nicole were... were...”
“Yes? What were they?” Shana prompted.
“They were... were... they were cuddling! Oh, the pain! And Kevin was apologizing to her! How could he do that? I think I need to lay down.”
“Uh, Jimmie, you are laying down,” Grace reminded him, while trying not to giggle.
“Oh, right. Then I’ll just stay here for a minute.”
Jimmie continued to lay on the floor, while the rest of the group moved back to the couches. They had barely gotten settled when Nicole and Kevin walked out of the dorm room, hand in hand.
“What’s wrong with Jimmie?” Kevin asked, pointing to the figure who was still laying on the floor.
There were a few muffled laughs before Grace calmly answered, “We think it’s probably something he ate. We figure he'll be fine in a day or so, or when the shock wears off.”
Nicole and Kevin were confused about the last statement, especially when the rest of the common room burst into laughter. They shrugged it off, though, figuring it was nothing.
“Well, we’re off to the library... to study,” Nicole said, adding the last part when she realized that everyone in the room was looking at her with doubtful eyes.
“Umm... yes. We need to study badly... so don't come looking for us or anything. We really don't want to be disturbed,” Kevin said, knowing that everyone in the room knew he was lying.
“Right... studying,” Star said. “Well remember, just don't get caught. I don't think the librarian really likes people 'studying' in there.” She lapsed into a fit of giggles as Nicole and Kevin both turned a nice shade of pink and quickly made their exit.
All of them sat their for a few more seconds, laughing, before Grace got to her feet.
“Know what? I think I should go help them study.” Grace said making her way to her dorm. “And I think I have just the study aid.” She ran into her dorm and returned a moment later holding a bag.
“Yep, I was right. I have seven invisible water balloons left. I'm pretty sure these will help them greatly.”
It took Harry a few moments to put everything together, but when he did, he couldn't help but laugh. He was surprised at how the whole of Orion house was much like Fred and George, unlike at Hogwarts where in Gryffindor house, only Fred and George were like Fred and George. Grace made her way across the room and had just opened the door to leave, when she suddenly stopped and turned around.
“Hey, Star, I think this might be more of a two-person job. Wanna help?” She asked. Star jumped to her feet.
“Yeah, sounds like fun,” she said with a mischievous grin on her face.
“Good. I bet they haven't gone far,” Grace said, looking out into the hallway. “The library is so far away. I'd put money on them being in one of the classrooms on the way there.”
Star nodded and they both left the common room.
“So... let me see if I've got this straight,” Ron said, slightly confused with what had just transpired. “Nicole and Kevin are going to, umm... do it, I think is the phrase you use, and Grace and Star are going to find them and throw water balloons at them?” The room once again burst into laughter.
“Yes, you have the water balloon part right, but as for Nicole and Kevin doing it... I highly doubt it.” Ryan said. “My guess is that they'll just make out for a while. Nicole is really innocent at heart. And on top of that, Kevin would probably say something to offend her before the first article of clothing was removed.”
“What’s this about articles of clothing being removed?” asked a slightly shocked Hermione, who had just rejoined the group, a stack of papers in hand.
“Oh, nothing, really,” said Ryan. “We were just discussing what we thought Kevin and Nicole might be up to at the moment. They left for the library to ‘study’ a few minutes ago.”
“What’s so strange about going to the library to study?” Hermione actually did look confused.
“Hermione, come on, you can’t actually be that dense,” said Ron. Hermione suddenly understood what their conversation had been about, and the tiniest bit of a blush appeared on her face.
“Oh, well, in that case, I guess I won’t be able to give them the study schedules I arranged for them,” she said as she started handing the schedules to everyone who was still in the room. When everyone had one, she realized that she still had five in her hand; her own, Nicole’s, Kevin’s, Grace’s, and Star’s.
“Where are Grace and Star?” she asked.
“They went to find Nicole and Kevin,” Brian answered promptly. “Grace wanted to finish off her supply of invisible water balloons.” At this, another wave of laughter was sent throughout the group.
“But that’s horribly rude,” said Hermione, frowning. She was the only one who hadn’t joined in the laughter.
“Oh, come on Hermione, it’ll be hilarious,” Shana stated. “That’ll be the second time Nicole’s been hit with them in the past two days. I can’t wait to see what consequence befalls poor Grace this time. I thought the closet was kinda boring, myself.”
“Closet?”
“Yeah, you heard about the closet,” Jimmie said. “Remember? That’s why she walked into the meeting late yesterday.”
“You mean, she was actually locked in a closet?” said Hermione, sounding scandalized. “I thought that was just an excuse for showing up late.”
“You really shouldn’t get so worked up over it,” Jimmie said. “Stuff like that happens all the time between Grace and Nicole. It’s a miracle they’ve not caused each other serious harm from some of the things they’ve done to each other.”
“I thought they were supposed to be really good friends, though,” said Ron.
“Oh, they are, don’t get me wrong. I’ve never seen another pair that are better friends. That’s the reason they can do those things to each other without the other coming back and trying to really kill them.”
“Oh, I see,” said Harry, just as the common room door swung open and a flood of students came in. “Well, looks like classes are over for the day. What do we do now?” he asked.
Hermione started to suggest that they start studying for the next day since they hadn’t done anything during their free period, but was cut off by Brian.
“Sorry, Hermione, but there’s no time for studying right now.” Hermione looked at him as though he had just told her that the moon had exploded. He continued unfazed. “We have to have a house meeting.”
“What for?” asked Harry.
“To discuss what we’re going to do for the Battle of the Bands contest,” he answered. “Everyone agreed that we were going to work harder this year than any other year. To do that, we need to actually get to work on it right away, not just talk about getting to work on it. We can’t wait until the last minute this year if we want to have a chance at winning.” After Brian’s mini-speech to his group of friends, he stood on one of the tables near the couch he had been sitting on and called for the attention of his house mates. He then started in on a longer version of his speech.
After ten minutes of listening to Brian speak, most of the people in the common room began returning to their previous activities.
“What are you all doing? We need to get to work on this right away!”
“Brian, shut up. We do the same thing every year. This year’s not going to be any different. We’re all too lazy to start on it now,” came from someone across the room.
“Fine, then, you can’t be in the band,” Brian answered.
“Goody for me.”
“Is anyone else going to listen to what I have to say?” Brian asked the room.
“No,” was the collective response.
Brian looked around at everyone there, and noted that most of them had, indeed, stopped listening and gone back to their own conversations. Defeated, he stepped down off the table and sank back into the couch.
“Well, you tried,” Ron said, trying to comfort him.
“All I have to say is this; if we lose this year, it’s not my fault,” Brian stated.
A few minutes of silence passed, then Brian spoke up again. “I’m going to find Grace and Star, see if they need any help. Anyone want to come along?”
Jimmie, Ryan, and the female twins all agreed at once. Harry and Ron were about to agree as well, but a fierce look from Hermione made them quickly change their minds.
“Are you sure you’re not going to come with us?” Brian asked one final time.
“Yeah, we’re sure,” Harry answered him. “Lots of studying to get done. Wouldn’t do to get behind this early in the school year.”
“Alright. Suit yourselves.” Brian and the others then left the common room. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were alone to talk for the first time that day.
“Were you seriously considering going with them?” Hermione asked her two best friends.
“Of course we were, Hermione!” Ron answered. “It’s just a bit of fun.”
“Just a bit of fun? What would happen if you were caught? What would Dumbledore think when that was reported to him? How would that make our school look?”
“Hermione! Settle down before you hyperventilate. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re still here, we didn’t go with them. There’s nothing for you to worry about. We’re just going to sit here with you for the rest of the night, like good little boys, and study. Happy?”
“Yes, Ron, that does make me happy. Now go get your things for tomorrow. You’re taking notes so you’ll be prepared to answer any questions the teachers may have for you.”
“Yes, mother,” Ron sighed as he and Harry went to retrieve their books.
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