The Tales of Black II (Original)

Chapter Nine: the Hospital Wing

[Chapter Nine]

I found myself up early on Saturday morning. I sat up in my bed and looked around. Through the storm, a grey light illuminated the room faintly, and I sighed.

I touched my feet to the cool floor and crept to my trunk. I yanked out my Quidditch uniform and snuck to the bathroom. Okay, brushing your teeth and pulling on pants is a bit harder than you may think, so if you think you need to do it, try to not fall down like I did. Once I had my jumper on, I braided my hair down my back and trudged down to the common room.

“Hey, Lucy,” Taylor greeted me.

“Hi, Taylor.” I grinned at him. “Ready for the today’s match?”

“Am I?” he exclaimed. “Come on, let’s go down to breakfast. I think Roger and Alfie already went down.”

“Well, I was going to wait for Terry,” I said.

“I’m right behind, go!” Terry prodded me in the back with his wand.

“Oh, hey, there you are!” I exclaimed.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked as we exited the common room.

“Not really,” I answered, understanding what he meant. Oh, now I get what people mean when they say that Terry and I have our own sort of language.

I sat between Taylor and Terry at the Ravenclaw table and scraped some butter onto a piece of toast.

“Sucks it had to be raining,” Taylor said.

“Eh, we’ll do fine.” I took a bite from my toast and glanced around briefly. About half of the teachers were sitting at their table and small clumps of students were littered around the Great Hall. “I think.”

“That’s not reassuring at all,” he complained.

“Well, I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you,” I told him as I piled a few pancakes onto my plate.

“Why not? The weather’s horrible!”

“And your point?” I raised an eyebrow. “We can make it through rain, considering that we’ve been doing at twice a week for the past few weeks. Gosh, Taylor, you’re such a pessimist.” I drizzled syrup on the pancakes and picked up my fork.

“You guys have to win today,” George said as he and Fred sat in front of us.

“No good morning? No good luck? Oh, I see how it is.” I glared at him as I took a swig of pumpkin juice.

“Good morning, Lucy,” said a voice behind me. We turned around to see Professor Lupin. “Good luck today.” He winked as he sauntered to the teacher’s table, and I grinned.

“He’s surpassed you on the list of cool blokes in the world,” I told George.

“Am I on the list?” Taylor asked.

“Somewhere,” I said. “You’re probably ahead of George.”

“Hey!”

I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Fred, you’re being awfully quiet this morning,” Terry said, looking across the table at him.

I glanced around. Fred was scowling back at Terry, who smirked.

“The hell…?” I muttered.

“I think he’s jealous,” Terry whispered to me.

“Of what?”

Terry looked past me to the boy on my left, and I understood.

“Come on, Freddie, Georgie,” I exclaimed, getting to my feet. “Let’s do some early-morning pranking.”