Infamous | Fred Weasley x OC |

Chapter Forty Seven

After dinner, Emmy, Maddie and I decided to go to the library to work towards our OWLs. After Emmy's relentless badgering, Maddie gave in and agreed to help Emmy with her transfigurations essay. We could only have been working for about half an hour before Emmy gave up with trying to do her essay, finding it too hard even with Maddie's help and bailed early.

I stayed with Maddie in order to finish my essay. She'd finished her transfigurations essay ages ago but had stayed to do extra revision for the OWL exams, even though it was only November. It didn't take me much longer to finish my essay but before I could say "meet you back at the common room," none other than Kevin Newman decided to join us.

He walked past the table Maddie and I were sat at as if he were going to just walk past but then suddenly stopped, turned to face us, opened his mouth as if he were going to say something but decided to just slide into the empty seat next to me instead.

"Revising for your OWLs?" he asked at last. Maddie nodded enthusiastically but he didn't so much as move. He just kept looking at me. I nodded too.

"Mind if I join you?" he said only after I answered, even though he had already sat down next to me, "I've got to do revision for my NEWTs."

"Not at all!" Maddie beamed but again Kevin waited for me to answer.

"Fine by me," I shrugged, "I was going to call it a day anyway," I said, packing up my ink pots and parchment. No sooner had I said that Kevin jumped to his feet.

"Same here," He said quickly, "Revision is frightfully boring, isn't it? Can I walk you back to the common room?"

I could hardly protest so instead just sighed and said, "Sure."

Maddie's smile had vanished and she hastily continued scribbling down notes. Not that anyone but me noticed as Kevin was still staring right at me.

"See you back at the common room, Madds," I said but Maddie just grumbled into her parchment without even looking at me. I frowned. What was with her...?

*

Kevin awkwardly shuffled beside me as we walked back to the Hufflepuff common room. For once, he wasn't rambling on about quidditch or how great Cedric was doing in the tournament or how Harry Potter wasn't really a Hogwarts champion because he was underage. In fact, he didn't say anything at all. Every time I caught his eye he would smile bashfully and look at the floor. Why was everyone acting weirdly today? First Maddie and now Kevin. At least Emmy was still normal but her normal was weird. What was going on?

When we reached the stack of barrels marking the entranceway to the Hufflepuff common room, I went to tap the barrel to the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff' that would let us into the common room when Kevin suddenly said "Let me," and darted forward. But he had failed to give me time to move out of the way and he bumped into me, sending me staggering backwards.

I would have fallen into the stack of barrels had Kevin not grabbed me by my waist and pulled me backwards so I was standing upright again. I mumbled my thanks, expecting him to let go of my waist but he never did. Instead, for some unknown reason, he thought it was a good idea to lean in and kiss me.

I wriggled free from his hands and pulled my lips away from his.

"Kevin, what the hell are you doing?" I said, making a point of wiping my mouth, which may have been overkill but I wanted him to know I did not like him that way.

Kevin's boyish smile faded and instead looked sheepishly down at his feet. Suddenly I felt a little guilty.

"You're an alright guy and all," I said by means of an apology, "But I don't like you that way."

I'm pretty sure Kevin mumbled an apology but he was looking at the floor the whole while and I couldn't make out a word he was saying. He spun around on his heels, hastily tapping the rhythm on the barrel to get out of the embarrassing situation as quickly as possible but in his haste, he accidentally tapped on the wrong barrel triggering the defensive mechanism that deterred non-Hufflepuffs from entering.

An enormous vat of vinegar was doused on the two of us. And here I was thinking that evening couldn't get any worse.

I sighed and waited in the corridor a moment while Kevin tapped the right barrel and disappeared into the common room. I waited a minute longer so I didn't bump into again when I went into the common room and ran all the way through the common room until I got to my dorm.

By the time I'd showered and gotten rid of the vinegar smell from my hair, Maddie had finished up in the library and was sitting on her bed in her pyjamas, brushing her hair and getting ready for bed.

"Oh my god, Maddie," I said, sighing as I sat down on my bed, "Thank god you're here. I have something crazy to tell you!"

"What?" Maddie asked innocently enough. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. She would never believe what happened with Kevin!

"When Kevin and I got back to the common room, well just outside actually but that's not really important," I rambled, "Anyway, Kevin drastically misread things and kissed me! Can you believe it?"

Maddie's face set in a frown. She didn't say a word. Instead, she set her hairbrush down on the nightstand by her bed and lay down, pulling the covers tightly around her and lying with her back to me.

"Maddie?"

"I'm really tired, Allie," she said firmly, "I just want to go to sleep."

"Oh...okay then."

I lay down in bed too and just lay there, staring at the ceiling, wondering what on Earth had happened that evening.