the girl in blue and bronze

chapter fourteen.

December 6th, 1994

Extremely.

It was extremely hard.

Considering Alleta had never really been one to go out of her way to socialise or 'fraternise' with the other houses, and the Ravenclaw guys in her year were either gay or had a girlfriend, trying to find a date to the ball was proving far more difficult than she could have imagined.

She envied Fred for how easy it had been for him to ask Angelina and have her say yes. Very much bish bash bosh.  It was unfair.

Her last lesson of the day was Divination and she had been dreading it, due to her blatant and unsuccessful efforts at finding somebody so she wouldn't have to keep lying to George, who would undoubtedly be pestering her for the entirety of the next hour.

Fidgeting with the navy tie that hung loose around her neck, Allie grumbled slightly. She had always hated them and could never get them quite right, they often turned out sloppy looking or half arsed. There had been countless uniform related detentions. Those and the late ones were the extent of her misdemeanours; certainly paling in comparison to George and Fred's.

"Palm reading!" Trelawney burst out, as she snuck in quietly, taking her seat next to George and across Isla at the rounded table. "What a load of-"

"Shush." Isla shot her a look, though it wasn't malicious, she was simply trying to succeed in living out her fantasies of becoming a Divination professor; something she had only shared with Alleta a few weeks prior, and, as much as she didn't believe in the art, Allie thought it was a brilliant idea.

"Sorry." She mouthed, glancing at George, who rolled his eyes, but was smiling fondly at Isla, who was listening with a very focused and intent look. 

There was a sudden jab in her side, and Allie looked up from her shoes, which she was currently inspecting, having just noticed the separation of the sole from the toe part. She made a mental note to pick up a new pair from Hogsmeade that weekend. "Who are you going with, Lettie?" George winked, his tone hushed as he did his best not to disturb or intrude in Isla's zone.

"You'll have to wait and see! I already told you so." The smirk that graced her lips was teasing, and she shook her head to accompany it. "Besides, you would only find away to take the piss and we both know it."

"You're no fun." George scoffed, kicking her leg under the table half-heartedly.

Releasing a gasp, mainly from shock, she stifled a snort and watched him in indignation. "Did you seriously just kick me?" She asked, almost disbelieving.

"You know it"

"What are you? 5?"

"I'd say more around the 8-9 age range. If you really want to be accurate."

"No need to be so pedantic."

"Fred wanted to take you, you know?" He blurted, not too sure what encompassed him to do so, but going with it. 

Alleta paused, looking over at George, her heart stalling for a long moment. "What do you mean?" 

"I mean that Fred was going to ask you to Yule Ball. He said it would be as friends, but I guess he saw you and Cedric, and how close you are, and made assumptions." George was watching her carefully for a reaction. To be entirely honest, he suspected the two felt something more than they were allowing themselves to believe. Not that either of them had actually said anything to him. But that didn't change his own opinion. Especially not when he took into consideration the way he saw his brother act around her. Too much sneaky eye contact to be friends, and the way Lettie would get flustered. Yeah no, friends his arse.