(Eng) Weasleys, Pranks and other Curses

08

Madeline and Ginny had been on my case forever about how it felt to take the potion and whether I was really in love with George now and - I had brushed them off with some rude answers. I wouldn't fall in love with one of the twins after all! It would come to that! Me, of all people. I wouldn't do this mess to myself!

But I didn't need to be given a truth potion for anyone to suspect that I was only protesting so vehemently in order to keep up my facade. Whenever I wasn't paying attention, my mind wandered to George. How he had appeared in the tower, his red hair carelessly swept from his face and his Quidditch cloak only half-buttoned.

Immediately, the blood rushed to my cheeks again. How was I supposed to sleep like this? Luckily, Ginny had had to go to her bedroom at some point, and Madeline had been too exhausted on her own to maltreat me much longer. She had crawled under her covers when the other girls from our year had come in and had just given me sly looks.
"It must be nice to know that your crush feels the same way as you do," Madeline was still whispering before she finally turned around and let me have my peace.

She had no idea what she had just said, though. It hadn't even occurred to me that George felt the same way I did. Yeah, somehow, I was pretty clearly not a Ravenclaw. George hadn't just come to the tower out of boredom. But he had also never really said why he had come looking for me in the first place!

Once again, I was grateful that I could blame the racing heart on the love potion. He had been looking for me. He had listened to my confusing explanation about fortune telling without making fun of me.

I felt alternately hot and cold when I felt his hands in mine again. Rough and strong. I had felt the fine scars that dozens of jokes gone wrong must have left. Or Quidditch practice.
No!

I jumped out of bed before I knew what I was doing. I couldn't go on like this! I had to confess to Madame Pomfrey what I had done and ask her for an antidote.

"Where are you going?" muttered Madeline, half asleep.
"I need a drink." That was only half a lie. A healing potion was something to drink, after all. I threw on one of the plush robes hanging by the door and brazenly swiped Madeline's slippers.

To my amazement, the common room was not empty. Neville Longbottom was struggling with his bag.

"You got bricks in there?", I asked, after looking suspiciously at the spectacle. Besides their siblings, Neville was a favorite victim of the Weasleys.

"Oh," the boy gasped. "I must have done something wrong with that protection spell."

"Protection spell?" I got down on my knees next to the bag and spotted what was holding the thing to the ground. It was three patches. Or stickers? I pulled one off and immediately the bag gave a jolt.

Neville landed awkwardly on his butt. "Ouch," he grumbled. "How did you do that?"
I held up the sticker. "Where did you get those?"

"Fred gave them to me. They're supposed to keep the Slytherins from stealing my stuff all the time. But for some reason, my bag doesn't want to come with me now either." He sighed and let go of the sling. ""They've been playing another trick on me, haven't they?" His resigned face hurt my soul.

It hadn't been that long ago that I had been in Neville's shoes. Always the new kid, always behind in school material because we had moved in the middle of the year. I pulled the other two stickers off Neville's bag, too.

"Are they in the dorm?" I couldn't get into the boys' dorm, but I'm sure Neville would do me the favor of getting them.

But he shook his head. "The last time I saw them was near the transformation classroom. I think they have their workshop there somewhere."
That wasn't that far from the room where they'd set up their fancy stall. Besides, it was on the way to the hospital wing.