AFTER THAT NIGHT, Mallie didn't see the two pranksters until the morning before Halloween; the day Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were set to arrive.
She had set her alarm early that morning for class, but when it rang, smacked the snooze button and fell right back to sleep.
She didn't know how long she'd slept in when Shark's screeching from the corner of the room eventually managed to coax her out of bed.
She glanced at the clock on her bedside table and did a double take, she was already 20 minutes late for her first class: Potions.
Mallie still believes that she had never moved faster than she had that day, rushing to throw on clothes and grab books before sprinting across the castle.
Snape refused to let her in due to her tardiness. Surprise surprise.
Mallie stood irritated outside the door that Professor Snape had just slammed in her face, scowling at the intricate design of the door silently before turning on her heel and trudging down the corridor angrily.
The brunette swiftly made her way to the doors of the library (she tripped once but no one saw that) and waltzed in.
Her eyes scanned the room, for the most part it was empty, and Mallie was about to take a seat at an empty desk when she noticed a head of blonde hair crouched down at a table a little way away.
Mallie smiled to herself before pulling out a chair across from him, and plonked herself down opposite him.
Charlie looked up momentarily confused, but a grin broke out onto his face when he recognized her,
"What are you doing out of class?" Mallie asked as she leaned over to place her head in her hands.
Charlie squinted at her, "I could ask you the same thing."
She huffed irritably, "Kicked out of Snape's, overslept."
"Back to you Mr Walowits, why're you here?"
Charlie strung a mysterious smile and wiggled his eyebrows,
"Ditching." He said simply.
Mallow huffed humorously,
"As if, you're too goody-two-shoes to ditch."
Charlie gave an indignant look of hurt to Mallie as his eyebrows furrowed,
"Am not.." he mumbled.
Mallie giggled, "Why are you really not in class?"
Charlie sighed and gave in,
"Prefects get the day off to help get the castle ready for our guests."
"Knew it." Mallie laughed and leaned over to poke him in the shoulder, Charlie shoved her off.
Mallie's eyes once again scanned the partially empty library and noticed that most of the students she could see were sporting a Prefect badge.
"Where's West?" she wondered out loud.
"Catching a couple Z's in the common room, lucky him." Charlie replied.
"It's almost time for second lesson you know?" He said.
Mallie turned to look at the large clock standing against the wall behind her, seventeen minutes before she had to be at History of Magic.
Mallie softly chewed her bottom lip, silently calculating how long it would take to get to her next class.
"You could just ditch."
She looked at him incredulously,
"What?"
"Yeah, you could just pretend you're a prefect or something. Help me with these forms I have to fill out, it's gonna take me ages."
Mallies stomach bubbled,
"I don't know Charlie.."
She'd never ditched class before she wasn't sure that she wanted to start.
"Aw, who's the goody-two-shoes now?" he teased, "Plus you have History now, right?"
Mallie nodded nervously as she began to chew on her pinky nail.
"Binns isn't even aware of reality anymore, he won't know you're gone. You can just tell the rest of your teachers you didn't feel well."
Charlie had a point and both he and Mallie knew it.
"Alright .. fine." Mallie gave in,
"But if I get caught you're getting thrown so far under the bus, Walowits."
Charlie grinned, "Naturally."
××××
Mallie had spent the rest of the day helping Charlie and Wes, who had finally decided to make an appearance, with putting out decorations. She fit in surprisingly unnoticed among the prefects.
They had gone off to a meeting now and Mallie, who knew she wouldn't be able to blend in any longer, slunk off to the Great Hall where they served tea and coffee between lessons.
She sat in the corner of the hall where she was less than noticeable to anyone that walked in, and sat sipping her tea and cleaning out a good quarter of the cookie jar that stood on the Hufflepuff table.
An hour before the guests were to arrive, Mallie was spotted by the two brothers strutting into the hall for their own cup of tea.
Mallie's nose was still stuck in her novel when Fred and George had made their way over to her, careful not to spill their respective teas as they placed themselves down opposite her.
"Ouh, biscuits!" Freds eyes widened and he leaned over to take one of the cookies Mallie had placed on a napkin beside her.
"You'd swear I wore a sign against my forehead saying 'OPEN BUFFET', Fred .." she mumbled playfully.
George too helped himself to one and smiled at Mallie as he bit into it, but she was too busy hiding her blush from the dashing smile he had offered her to say anything about his theft.
This, of course, did not go unnoticed by Fred, "How come you chew me out and not George!"
Mallie shrugged taking a hopefully unsuspicious sip of her tea while George offered clarification,
"You should know by now Freddie, I have all the ladies hooked." he winked at Mallie who further tried to hide her reddening cheeks behind her tea cup.
Both of them chuckled at her.
"So, Jo-Jo, can I call you that?" Fred started, "Whatcha doing out of class?"
Mallie smiled slightly at the nickname.
"Well, Charlie convinced me to ditch.." she said somewhat embarrassed.
George and Fred both shifted uncomfortably in their seats at the mention of Charles' name. After their first meeting, Charlie hadn't seemed to warm up to the two twins as Mallie had promised.
While Fred had found the whole thing irritating and ignored the fact that Charlie was rude to them, George always had a look of distaste at the mention of Mallie's blonde friend.
"Oh, okay." Fred said.
"I know better than to ask if you two have a reason to be out of class." Mallie tried to avert the topic.
The two brothers grinned smoothly and shook their heads.
The three sat chatting, their tea lying cold and unfinished, when they heard a clamber of footsteps getting louder from outside the doors of the Great Hall.
George looked at Fred and then Mallie with a grin,
"They're here."
××××
hey friends,
sorry for this chapter:(( been stuck for about a month so if it sucks I apologise but hopefully the next chapter will be better;)
This was a really long a/n ...
much love,
-mel