Mischief Attained [The Mischief Attained series - part 1]

Chapter 8

The following weeks were anything but spectacular. Jayla spent every bit of time she had with her nose buried in school books. The boys joined her a few times, but Jayla got so stressed she snapped at them a few times when they were distracting her. So all three of them agreed that it might be better to just let Jayla do her thing till those O.W.L.s were done. Surprisingly, Fred and George never teased her for that, but still offered to help her practice whenever she needed to – they even volunteered to be on the receiving end of her Stunning Spells.

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The last week before the exams was almost over. Jayla dragged herself into the Great Hall for dinner after yet another long and exhausting study session in the library. She sat down at the Slytherin table, took a deep breath and closed her eyes, which were dry and hurt from all the reading at night lately. She was done with everything now though, which meant she'd have the weekend off to clear her head with some walks in the fresh air. She also hadn't talked to Fred and George all week and definitely longed for some human interaction. Speaking of the devil, the two red heads had just sat down at the Gryffindor table. Jayla saw them put their heads together while they were constantly eyeing her. She watched them scramble something on a piece of paper, before Fred got up and walked towards her.

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"Oh, no, what is he going to do now?" Jayla's heart started racing, bracing herself to be suddenly dragged into one of their newest pranks. She must have looked at Fred with visible shock written on her face, because, as soon as he'd reached her, he said: "Don't look at me like that, I'm not going to do anything embarrassing."

Then he just sat down next to her as if it was the most normal thing ever for a Gryffindor to take his seat at the Slytherin table. Jayla nervously looked around, everyone was starring at them, even the teachers. The girl immediately put her head down, so her red cheeks were hidden by her dark hair.

"What is it?" she mumbled through closed lips.

Fred actually had the audacity to lean closer and whisper into her ear. Seriously, did he just not care what others were thinking?

"We just thought you looked super tired – no offense – and thought you could need something fun to cheer you up. That is, if you can put your books away for a bit," he whispered. Jayla almost jumped when he suddenly took her hand, which had been resting on her thigh, but before she could even react, he had already withdrawn and left his seat again. Jayla's cheeks were glowing red and warm by now as she could still feel everybody's eyes on her. What had he been thinking? They hadn't tried to hide their friendship anymore and the interest in it had ebbed down, but sitting down at the Slytherin table with all the teachers present? Fred definitely acted like he owned the whole world. Jayla usually admired that about him and had made herself feel more confident over time too, but sometimes it was also infuriating – like today.

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It took her a bit to realize Fred had actually put a note in her hand. At least it made sense now why he had randomly grabbed her hand. Jayla stuffed it into her cloak. It had to be something secret, otherwise he would have just told her. The others had lost interest in her by now, so she risked a look at Fred and George. Fred was back to teasing their little brother once more, but hers and George's eyes met. Had he just been waiting for her to turn around?

"Sorry about that," he signalled her without actually talking while pointing at his brother.

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Jayla gulped down her dinner because she wanted to read the message as soon as possible. Curiosity has always been her weakness. After all, that's also what made her end up with the two redhaired pranksters. She locked herself in one of the girls' toilets on the ground floor and took the crumbled note out of her pocket.