“They are sickeningly cute together,” I mutter to George as Fred steals Georgiana's quill and dangles it out of her reach.
“It's almost disgusting how cute they are,” George agrees, “it's not even been two weeks, though. Give it time, they'll become old and bitter like we are.”
I grin at him and give his hand a squeeze. Ever since we made up he hardly lets go of my hand. If he's not holding my hand he has an arm around my waist or shoulders. In class he sits with his leg pressed against mine. I think it has a little to do with Lucas.
“Oi, you lot!” Oliver appears through the portrait hole and climbs into the Gryffindors' common room, “why aren't you in bed?”
“Relax, Oliver,” Fred says casually, “it's early yet.”
“Bed. Now!” Oliver snaps, “we have the biggest match of the season tomorrow! I don't want any of you falling asleep!”
Angelina and Alicia shoot each other an exasperated look and begin packing up.
“Well, I guess we'd better go,” George says, “you're going to the game, right?”
“Yeah, someone has to cheer for Slytherin,” I tease. I kiss George lightly.
“Go on,” I say, “sleep well.”
“Night,” he says, following his brother upstairs. Georgiana floats over to me, a love struck smile on her face.
“Let's get you to bed,” I laugh, shouldering my bag and heading out of the common room.
“He's wonderful,” Georgiana says, following me along the corridor, “isn't he?”
“Yeah, it's all roses and sunshine,” I say, “you're not in constant danger of eating him if he kisses you.”
“Mmm, I'm glad I'm not you,” she says, “must be hard being a vam-”
“Shh!” I hiss, “don't say that word.”
“Why?” she laughs, “you've managed to keep it a secret so far.”
“Yeah, by being careful,” I point out, “not by yelling it through the halls.”
“No one is around to hear,” she says, “I can't believe you kept being a vampire secret all this- shit.”
I look up and see Lucas descending the stairs in front of us. He's frozen, staring at me. He definitely heard.
“I'm sorry!” Georgiana says again, “I didn't notice him!”
“It's done,” I snap, “there's nothing we can do about it.”
We walk into breakfast and I look right over at Lucas. He's staring at me. None of the other boys seem bothered. Maybe he hasn't told them. I walk over and sit down by George. He's dressed in his Quidditch kit and is looking nervous. My stomach is so knotted, I know exactly how he's feeling. I take his hand and give it a squeeze. He squeezes back and shoots me a small smile.
“Aurelia?” Lucas taps me on the shoulder, “can... Can I have a word?”
I nod, my mouth dry. I follow him out of the Hall. He looks at me apprehensively.
“Is it true?” he asks, “are you really a... A vampire?”
I look at him and I know he knows I am, he just wants me to admit it.
“Yeah,” I sigh, “yeah, it's true.”
He lets out a long breath.
“Wow,” he says, “didn't see that coming.”
“Please don't tell anyone, Lucas,” I beg. Maybe he'll force me to dump George and go out with him. Black mail me! I'll have to tell George immed-
“I'm not going to tell anyone,” he says, “I wouldn't do that to you. Besides, who would believe me?”
I feel relief course through me. And I give him a quick hug.
“Thanks,” I say earnestly.
“Just one thing,” he says, “don't eat me, yeah?”
“I won't,” I laugh. He grins at me.
“Better go comfort George, then,” he says, “he looked pretty shaky.”
I give him the biggest smile I can and skip off into the Hall. I sit down next to George and give him a hug.
“You need to eat something,” I tell him, buttering some toast and putting it on his plate, “you get grumpy and headaches when you don't. Come on, you'll play better if you're not starving.”
He takes the toast and gives me a small smile. I look down the table at the rest of the team. Fred is talking quietly with Georgiana, Alicia and Angelina are picking at their food, looking sick and Oliver has his head buried in his arms. After a few moments he stands up and turns to the team.
“Let's go,” he says.
“Good luck,” I say, giving George a quick hug. He takes my face in his hands and kisses me.
“See you down there,” he says, his voice strong.
After a little while, Georgiana and I head down, just a head of the rest of the school. We sit right at the front of the Gryffindor stands wearing borrowed Gryffindor scarves. The stands fill quickly, everyone anxious to start the match. As soon as the Gryffindor team emerge, the crowd starts cheering. I have to cover my ears, the noise is deafening. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are cheering for them too, drowning out any noise the Slytherins are making.
The captains shake hands and they mount their brooms. As they kick off I leap onto my seat, cheering. Alicia grabs the quaffle and shoots forwards, towards the hoops. A Slytherin chaser grabs the Quaffle and tears up the pitch. He's almost reached the hoops when a bludger flies out of nowhere and knocks him, making him drop the Quaffle.
“Nice bludger work there by George Weasley!”
I feel a swell of pride as I clap and cheer. Angelina has the quaffle and flies down the pitch. She reaches the other end, ducks a bludger and scores.
“AHHHH!” I jump up and down screaming. Angelina high-fives Alicia, then the Slytherin captain slams into her, nearly knocking her off her broom.
“FRED NO!” Georgiana screams, but Fred's already thrown his club, which hits the Slytherin boy in the back of the head. Madame Hooch awards a penalty to each team. Alicia takes the penalty and scores, but the Slytherin chaser misses.
A few moments later they score.
“Noooo!” the crowd seems to speak as one. Well, two if you listen to the Slytherins, but nobody does.
The game quickly turns dirty, the players knocking into each other, George elbows someone in the face. Katie Bell scores another goal and Fred and George swoop around her in case the Slytherins try anything. While they're doing that the Slytherin beaters his two bludgers at Oliver, both of which hit him in the stomach.
“Is he okay? Georgiana shrieks. Oliver is clinging to his broom, gasping for breath. Madame Hooch awards Gryffindor a penalty and Angelina scores again. Moments later Fred aims a quaffle at a Slytherin chaser and knocks the quaffle out of his hands. Alicia catches it and scores again.
“GO ALICIA!” I scream. My voice is getting hoarse from all this screaming, but I don't care.
“HARRY!” I scream, pointing upwards. Harry has started flying upwards, but the Slytherin seeker has caught hold of the back of his broom.
“PENALTY!” I scream as Madame Hooch blows her whistle, “WHAT IS THIS?!”
Alicia misses the penalty, but Angelina scores shortly after. We're too busy cheering for a few moments to notice the Slytherin seeker go into a dive, but then the three houses collectively gasp. As we watch Harry dives, shooting through the air like lightening.
“GO HARRY GO!”
The tension mounts as both seekers fly through the air. They draw level, then Harry pulls out of the dive, his hand held high in the air. There's a second of pure silence.
“YES! AHHHHHHH!!!!”
The team all fly at Harry, hugging him. The Gryffindors begin flooding onto the pitch. I grab Georgiana's hand and we run down with the rest of them, cheering. Dumbledore hands Oliver the cup and the whole house cheers and screams, jumping up and down. I hug Georgiana, still screaming.
“PARTY!” someone yells and we're swept up to the castle in a wave of red.
We reach the common room and everyone swarms through. The team are forced up onto a table with the trophy and the house sings a rendition of Mighty, Mighty Lions. Georgiana and I don't know the words, so we just pretend to sing. A couple of people appear laidened with food and drinks. George jumps down off the table and pushes his way through the crowd to me. He grabs me and kisses me hard.
“Well done!” I gasp when we break apart. He grins and kisses me again.
After a little while the cheering dies down and we sit down in a corner with Angelina, Alicia, Fred and Georgiana.
“Where did you two get the scarves?” Fred asks. Georgiana and I glance at each other a little sheepishly.
“We might have stolen them off you guys,” I admit. George smirks.
“You snuck into our dormitories and stole our scarves?” he asks. I nod and he laughs.
“That's brilliant,” he chuckles, nuzzling my neck.
The high over winning the cup lasts a couple of weeks, with students randomly bursting into Mighty, Mighty Lions in the hallways. After a while things settle back down and I start to feel nervous about the up coming exams. In late May, less than three weeks before the exams start, Professor Flitwick organises times for us to arrange our schedules, pending exam results.
After Potions I head up to his office, feeling nervous. I knock and enter. Professor Hagrid is standing in the corner. He smiles at me as I take my seat.
“Ah, Miss Dunmore,” Flitwick pulls out my file, “have you decided if you want to take Care of Magical Creatures?”
“I'd like to, yes,” I nod. Flitwick smiles brightly at me.
“Good, we'll put the rest of your schedule together and work it in,” he says, “what other classes do you hope to take?”
“Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Muggle Studies, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Arithmancy Advanced, Alchemy, Earth Studies and Ancient Studies,” I say. Flitwick is making notes.
“That is a lot of work,” he says finally, “that plus three lessons of Care of Magical Creatures will not give you a lot of time without classes.”
“I know, I'm prepared to put in the work,” I say confidently. He nods and starts filling in a time table.
“Well, it looks like dinner time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be the best times,” he says finally, “does that suit you, Hagrid?”
“It's fine, professor,” Hagrid says, smiling at me again. Flitwick notes this in and looks down at my timetable.
“You are going to be very busy,” he says, “if at any time you feel you can't cope, you can drop one or more subjects.”
He slides the timetable over to me. I have lunch on Monday, Wednesday and Friday off and dinner on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as breaks as they're not long enough for a class, but other than that all of my time is taken by classes.
“Now, you realise that this may be changed, depending on your marks,” Flitwick says, “Arithmancy Advanced, for example, requires an O in Arithmancy.”
“I know,” I say, “I'm sure I can get the marks I need.”
“Well, good luck,” Flitwick says, “send in Miss King, please.”
I walk out and send Kia in, then head down to lunch. George had his meeting with McGonagall at the same time as me, so I can't wait to compare our time tables.
“Hey, how'd you go?” I ask, sitting next to him, “can I see?”
We swap timetables and we both gasp.
“George, you're doing four classes?” I ask.
“Ari, you're doing eleven!” he exclaims, “how many hours a week is that?”
We switch back and start counting our hours. George finishes long before me.
“I've got forty hours a week,” I say.
“I've got twenty,” George says, “why are you taking so many classes?”
“Because I can,” I shrug. Fred, Georgiana and Angelina walk over and join us.
“How many hours are you doing a week?” George demands.
“Uh, twenty five,” Fred says, counting his up, “why?”
“Aurelia is doing forty,” George says, despite me hushing him, “forty!”
“I'm doing thirty,” Georgiana says, “let me see yours. Whoa! Aurelia, you barely have time to eat! Some days you have five classes without break!”
“I'll live,” I shrug, “is anyone else freaking out about these exams?”
“Not even slightly,” George answers, “looking forward to the Hogsmeade visit the weekend after, though. I was thinking we could go on a proper date to celebrate the end of exams.”
He nudges me playfully and I blush.
“A proper date?” I ask, “what would that involve?”
He winks at me.
“You'll have to wait and see,” he says, “but trust me, it will be very romantic.”
_________________________________________________________________
I turned 20 today. I AM SO OLD! I can't cope with this.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think :)