Patience

Chapter 60

I wake up to Seiko excitedly shaking me awake. I groan, weakly throw a pillow her way, and roll over to go back to sleep. It was Saturday and I intended on sleeping in until Sunday.

    "Wake up, lazy arse!" Seiko urges, attempting to pull me out of bed. Instead of helping her, I lay there limp and allow her to try to pull my dead weight off the comfort of my bed. Mar makes her way over to help Seiko. Eventually they succeed and I groggily get ready for the day.

"I hate you both." I utter as I get ready.

"We love you too!" Mar chuckles.

"Hurry up, we have to go to the carriages!" Seiko drags me along. Today was our first Hogsmeade trip and Seiko and Mar were practically skipping around the room. I quickly change into a white tennis skirt and an oversized argyle sweater, layered over my collared school shirt. I put my hair up in a pony tail and, now that I'm awake, excitedly skip to the carriages.

"Well looky here." Fred smiles.

"We must be the luckiest guys ever." George adds.

"We get to share a ride with the three most beautiful girls in Hogwarts." They say together, causing us all to blush deeply. That damn Weasley charm.

"Oh stop it." Seiko smiles and playfully smacks Fred's shoulder. "But also, like, keep it coming." We chuckle and get settled in the carriages. Lee decided to stay at Hogwarts, well he really had no other choice. He had detention with Snape for Merlin knows what.

The carriage drags us along the uneven, cobblestone, paths to the village destination. There's a slight chill in the air caused by the snow littering the ground and tree's branches. It's only just become winter and Hogwarts has attracted the icy substance per usual. I feel my bare legs create goosebumps as the cold air brushes up against them. Probably not the best outfit choice.

Eventually we get to our desired destination and join a crowd of excited students. Like a river's tide, we get pulled in the direction of everyone else. I grab on to the nearest person, who happened to be George, to prevent the separation of our friend group. He jumps at the sudden touch, but soon moves the hand I had grabbed and wraps it around my waist, pulling me closer into more protection.

"Don't be worried, love." He smiles, giving me butterflies, and rests his chin atop my head. "I'll keep you safe."

We walk along with the crowd and eventually find where our friends have been dragged to. The lot of us link our arms together and drag each other along the street and into our desired shops. We go to Honeydukes and Zonko's before going our own ways to shop for Christmas gifts.

"Okay, everyone meet up at The Three Broomsticks for butter beers at half past two." Seiko calls, already walking into Gladrags Wizardwear. We nod in response and walk in opposite directions.

I had already bought most of my gifts, so after a quick trip back to Zonko's, I head to The Three Broomsticks a bit early. I find the perfect booth and occupy it, waiting for my friends. I take out a new book I had bought and open it to the first page. I had hardly read a sentence when I heard the creek of the seat opposite me. I look up to find, to my dismay, Wood. He sits with his head rested in his hands, elbows on the table, looking at me intently.

"Piss off." I sneer.

"Nah, I just got out of the bathroom so the old bladder is empty." He smirks. Bloody idiot.

"What do you want?" I say, sending him a glare.

"Just wanted to chit-chat. Hadn't gotten my daily dose of Rosy yet."

"You sure you haven't had a dose of something else." I huff under my breath.

"Lemme buy you a butter beer." He smiles. It's odd, but somehow, his smile lightens up the room. The airy, sun filled rooms atmosphere changed with the simplicity of his smile. The small imperfections in it only make it more beautiful in it's own, mysterious, way.

"No." I grunt and redirect my attention to my book.

"Oh, don't be such a downer, Rosy." He says, snatching the book from my hand and holding it out of my reach.

"Give it back, Wood!"

"Oh, no nickname, you must really be mad." He chuckles, holding it higher. I lean over the table in an attempt to reach it, but as I near it he pulls me over and I land in the seat beside him. My face grows red with anger and I'm so furious I can't assemble a coherent sentence.

"Once again, speechless for me." He smirks. His hand snakes to my jaw and he softly moves it to face him. I glare at him so hard he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. After what felt like forever of us just sitting in uncomfortable tension, George comes in finished with his shopping.

"Hey, Wood." Georges says, pausing and taking in the scene. Wood still had his hand on my jaw and I was still glaring at him intently. I see his once welcoming expression melt into one of rage and jealousy.

"Did I interrupt something?" George asks begrudgingly, grabbing Woods collar and pulling him up and off the seat. The warmth of his hand leaving my chin and following him.

"No, Wood was just leaving." I say, still angry but not enough to let George kill Wood. Though, that would be a good fight to watch. I walk up to him and wrap my hand around his wrist, signalling for him to release a still smug looking Wood. He does so and Wood walks over to his friends, his usual commanding presence following him.

"Was he bothering you? Cause if he was I can help with that." George sneers, taking the seat next to me.

"Thanks, but he's fine. Just an annoying git per usual." He nods unsurely as everyone else slowly arrives from their shopping sprees. After copious amounts of butterbeer, we walk back to the carriages and head back to Hogwarts. As I get off the carriage I look to my left to find Wood was also arriving. He sends me a cheeky wink and mouths "let's do that again sometime" and walks away with some of his quidditch friends.

____________________________________________________

Question of the Day:

Yay! First Hogsmeade trip! Hope you enjoyed todays chapter don't forget to vote and comment! What's your favorite Hogsmeade trip in the books, with the golden trio? What's your favorite shop in Hogsmeade and why? If you could open a shop there what would it be?