I kind of combined two parts here to make it a little longer than the last few posts. Plus these two really go together well. Hope you continue to enjoy!
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Artemis
I stared at the fire inquisitively in my pajamas. The warmth of the fire mixed with the too comfortable common room chair and my pajama pants with my loose black t-shirt and Slytherin blanket covering my body made me sleepy. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and then pulled my knees up. I had gotten comfortable when I noticed someone coming into the room.
"Did I wake you?" a voice asked me shyly. Audrey came into view. She had a profound expression on her face. I was finding it difficult to read. I couldn't decide whether she was happy or not.
I eventually shook my head, though she probably couldn't see it. "No, I still have to wait up for Malfoy."
"You left the hall early," she noticed, taking a seat by the fire. Her brownish eyes looked a honeyish color, a color I had never quite seen in someone's eyes before.
"Yea, my cousin tried to force feed me vanilla pudding, and I don't even like pudding," I shrugged. "Why did you leave so early?"
"I can only take so much of my friends," she said, getting comfortable in the chair, bringing her knees up to her chin. "Plus I was hit on by a guy whose face was covered in chicken. Low key, it was creepy."
I chuckled. "Ron Weasley?" I assumed.
"Yea! That creepy ginger kid!" she answered. "He is so disgusting! If you're going to try to talk to me, don't spray food all over the place when you talk." Audrey shuddered at the thought of Ron's half-chewed food.
I can imagine how disgusting the whole ordeal probably was. "He is pretty creepy," I concurred. "Besides, we all know gingers don't have souls."
"Exactly! And he can't play Quidditch to save his life." She flicked a stand of brown hair behind her back. "I hope I hit him in the face with the Quaffle this year!"
"One reason we will beat them," I chuckled.
"He just can't take a hint," she muttered, irritated. I could tell she was frustrated. It was apparent in everything from her body language to her voice.
"A hint that you don't like him?" I asked.
"None whatsoever," she confirmed. "He doesn't understand I don't want anything to do with him. He's below me. Besides that, he's a Gryffindor. I would be more of an outcast than I already am if I were to date him." She paused for a moment. "And I don't even want to imagine double dates with Nikkie and Harry."
Wow. She really didn't want him. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. But with this, there was another side of the story that I was sure she wasn't telling me without my asking. I narrowed my eyes. "If you don't like him, who do you like?"
"No one," Audrey answered way too quickly. She looked away from me, focusing her eyes on the roaring fire in the fireplace.
"You answered too quickly," I told her simply.
She furrowed her brow. "Excuse me?"
"You answered my question too quickly," I repeated. "You didn't even think about it, therefore you are lying. There is someone you like."
She sighed. "Well, to be honest with you," she said, "he doesn't even know I exist. We've heard of each other, but we've never talked until recently."
For once in my life, I could say that I was confused. It took a lot to make me confused. Girls... well, they especially confused me. And I didn't enjoy the feeling very much. "What's he like?"
"Well...," she began, drawing out the word and smiling, "he's smart, cute, mysterious, and yea." She had this big smile on her face, and her eyes got squinty as her smile grew. It was almost too cute; whoever this guy was, she really liked him. Her pink face said it all.
I laughed. "That's helpful."
"It really is. There aren't many people like him, well no one really. He's... special," Audrey went on.
"Special as in 'special ed'? Or..."
Audrey shook her head. "No, he's just... special." Oh yeah. She liked this guy a lot. He was "special." But who had all the qualities she had mentioned?
The gears in the back of my mind started turning. Smart? I was smart. Attractive? Depends on whom you asked. Mysterious? Most definitely. Special? I liked to think I was special. I pondered. I really wanted to know whom this... "special boy" was.
"What house is he in?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.
She pretended to think for a moment. "This 'un," she said, still smiling.
I was in this house. "Does he play Quidditch or something?" I wondered. "He sounds like he might be the athletic type."
"Yes he does," she got more comfortable. That smile still peeked out at me from right above her arms.
Well that narrowed it down quite a bit. Crabbe and Goyle were hideous, so that counted them out. No one would ever like Vlad because he was a nobody. So that left Malfoy and myself- two very unlikely suspects. But I was determined to find out, no matter how disturbing the results were.
"So... er... I've narrowed it down to two people," I muttered after a few minutes. Audrey waited to hear more. I, however, didn't want to press any further on the subject. For some reason, it worried me a bit.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?" she asked, shyly. She seemed to want to tell me who he was.
"Depends."
"On what?"
"Will you tell me which of the two it is?" I set my bargain.
"Maybe," she replied, dragging out the word.
"Well, I have it narrowed down to Malfoy and myself."
Audrey contemplated a moment before she looked back over at me. "Promise me you won't freak out?"
I put my right hand up. "I promise I won't freak out." However, my stomach did a cartwheel. And I wasn't sure if it was because of the vanilla pudding or because I was hoping she'd say my name. Either way, I felt completely sick to my stomach.
Audrey took a breath. "Well, it's definitely not Malfoy. Anyone who is a jerk to my best friends doesn't deserve to be considered liked in that way, or anyway for that matter."
I sat up a bit. "So you like...?" I asked just to clarify.
With a smile on her face lit up by the fire, she answered, "I like you."
I wasn't sure what to reply. Luckily, the prefects came into the door of the common room with the noisy first years. I didn't have the chance to reply, to tell her that perhaps I liked her as well. She almost immediately went off to bed after they came in, and personally I didn't blame her. I decided I would talk to her in the morning. Before Quidditch practice.
Despite all of the noise and chatter, I pulled my blanket over my head and drifted into a deep sleep, the butterflies of that chance encounter still fluttering about in my stomach.
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Audrey
I awoke early. The sun had crept up from behind the curtains and it was shining directly in my face. I wasn't a vampire or anything but sunlight and I did not get along. I just didn't like sunlight. I crawled out of bed, but my thoughts kept dragging me down.
Last night, I had done the unthinkable. I finally told Artemis Fowl the truth. I didn't know how he took it quite yet, and I was really kind of scared to. The boy was out of my league in every way possible. So I tried not to get my hopes up; getting my hopes up always ended in tragedy for me. Preparing myself for the worst, I dressed in my Quidditch uniform, brushed out my hair, and then went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
There I saw Nikkie, sitting at the table alone like usual. Harry almost always slept in if he could help it. I joined her, sitting on the opposite side of the table. She looked up from her plate of pancakes with a smile on her face.
"Well you look happy this morning," she greeted me.
"Just peachy," I retorted.
"What's your problem?" Nikkie asked.
"You started it," I replied. "If you didn't introduce us yesterday this wouldn't be going on. This is bad, Nikkie."
"So what? You and Fowl are talking now?" she said. "Just means you aren't a stalker anymore."
"I wasn't one before!" I countered. "I just didn't have the courage to talk to him!"
"I don't see what the problem is," Nikkie insisted. "You're talking to the guy you're crushing on. This is a big step-"
"-I told him I liked him!" I cut her off, panicked.
Nikkie's eyes widened. "Already?!"
I nodded. I didn't trust myself to speak. I tended to screw up pivotal moments by talking. I figured this was one of those moments.
"Why?!"
"We were talking about who I liked and he just figured it out!" I responded, shoving half a pancake in my mouth.
"What did he say?" Nikkie asked.
I shrugged, still eating. I thought it was rude and absolutely disgusting to talk with food in your mouth. That was over half the reason I thought Ron was a blithering idiot.
"What do you mean you don't know?!" she screamed.
"Bunch of first years came in so I went to bed," I explained. When she gave me 'the look' I continued. "I'll talk to him soon. We have practice here shortly."
"Well that explains your green robes today," Nikkie laughed.
I rolled my eyes. "Yea... I hate these things. They make my hair and eyes look all red and stuff..."
Nikkie continued to laugh. "Tell me what he says pleaseeeeeeee?"
"How could I not tell you?" I questioned. "You're my best friend after all. You have the right, and privilege of knowing."
"Good point."
"I'll find you after practice okay?" I said. "Sometime this afternoon."
"Okeyday." Nikkie and her made up words made me laugh sometimes.
With that, I got up and made my way out to the Quidditch field. As I got closer and closer to the field, my mind started racing. What if he didn't like me? What if he did? My eyes squinted as I entered the bright sunlight shining down on the Quidditch field. I held my breath, hoping for the best.