Wicked Games

Chapter 1

Louise Corcoran was the typical 5th-year student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and was looking for a way to make her last 3 years at school worthwhile, which was to make Niall O'Hare fall in love with her. He had been her crush since their first year at Hogwarts, but she intended to make things change this year. She had heard throughout the summer vacations that most of her girlfriends had had their first kiss as so did most people from their year. She wanted her first kiss to be special and she was longing for it to be with Niall, that's why she had to act quickly or else her plan was ruined. Niall wasn't the typical boy every girl at school had a crush on, he was slightly chubby and had a boyish look to his face, wavy brown hair and the deepest shade of green for his eyes, but his intelligence and charm were something no one who ever met him would miss out on. Little people at school saw his true potential, as he was only known for being the Minister of Magic's nephew, he was the school's little celebrity and people didn't see beyond family connections in the magic world. It was only Louise, Rebecca and Alvaro who saw beyond that and shortly after became Hogwarts' four musketeers, as they went everywhere and got into trouble together.

Like a good Ravenclaw, Rebecca Mountraire always tried to reason her problems out, that's why she had a rough time with problems of the heart, but that was why her and Louise were such a good pair, Louise was creative and good at reading people's emotions and always helped Rebecca out. Especially with Alvaro problems, as if it was an episode of Friends where everyone ends up together with another member of the group. Rebecca took a liking for Alvaro and his womanizer ways in their 3rd year and came to Louise every time she needed a shoulder to cry on any time she heard he kissed another girl, which may I say was pretty often. Alvaro Lazcano was the only member of the group who wasn't in Ravenclaw, he was a Gryffindor, but had many attributes that made him a worthy Ravenclaw, he was smart, creative and resourceful, which made him compatible with Louise, Rebecca, and Niall. But it was his bravery and wit was what made him be chosen for the house of Gryffindor like Louise's creativity was what got her into Ravenclaw despite her heritage. Alvaro's father was the president of the Magical Creatures Society of Spain, it was a rather small group and decided to move to England where the magical community is much larger than Spain's. He has been living in England since he was 6 years old and is now a proper Englishman, but the game that involves flirting with the ladies was one of the many things besides his skin tone and tardiness that remained Spanish to the core.

With her new plan in mind, Louise went on board the Hogwarts Express and headed to the booth at the end of the train, their usual spot since their first ride on the legendary locomotive. As she faced the glass door, she found Alvaro was already seated next to the window looking out to the frenzy that surrounded platform nine and three quarters.

"Wow, Alvaro! Never seen you be this early to anything! What happened?" Said Louise with a slight look of shock on her face.

"Coño, Louise, I just wanted a little moment to myself before you little twats started arriving..." Alvaro said with a tone of annoyance as the gang always mocked him because of his usual tardiness.

"Well, I guess your summer went well, huh? Anything new?"

"Nothing out of the usual, I went to Valencia and picked me up some girls, got a bit of tan and did some surfing, you?" He had a look of pride on his face.

"Oh, I just spent the entire holidays in the Corcoran manor and did some thinking about this year." This last statement got Alvaro a bit more excited as he was sitting up straight, remembering their last conversation before the holidays started in that very booth.

"Oh, have you? So... what's the plan?!" Alvaro was above excited for his friends, he had always imagined Louise and Niall together and seeing Louise take the first step took him over the moon, as Niall wasn't the kind of guy to take initiative in these kinds of endeavors.

"Not much really, or else he's gonna know something's up, I want it to be as discreet as possible. It's gotta be these first two weeks of school or else it's gonna get harder to do it and someone else will take their step. I just have to get him alone and take him somewhere private to talk and tell him that it's about family problems, then take him to the Astronomy Tower, then I'll him I've liked him all these years and then I'll kiss him. It's not exactly flawless but it will do." Louise felt as if she just ran a marathon as she said it so quickly because of her nervousness, she looked at Alvaro expectantly for an answer.

"I don't know what to... Niall! How are you mate?!" Said Alvaro to his best friend with a giant smile but had a faint look of nervousness in his eyes.

"Oh, it's so good to see you both here! I'm surprised Alvaro get here on time, what an achievement, congrats mate." Says Niall while mockingly patting Alvaro's shoulder. "What were you talking about? It sounded pretty serious." He took a few steps back and sat next to Louise, their knees were almost touching.

"Uuum, we were talking about our OWL courses and how nervous I am for them..." Said Alvaro with as much composure as he could gather in the time span of 2 seconds. "Me being the only Gryffindor in this group is hard you know? With the three of you being all smart like Hawking and all, this will be like a breeze and I'm gonna be standing there like an idiot." He said this more at ease and carelessly.

"Yeah, O.W.Ls are gonna be difficult, Alvaro, being a Ravenclaw doesn't automatically make you brilliant, I gotta get an Outstanding in Potions if I wanna continue to the N.E.W.T level, you guys both know I can't do potions even if they gave me a million galleons." Said Niall, despite his connections to the Ministry, he wanted to make it on his own terms, which meant studying as hard as anyone else to get the position.

Louise was about to talk but she saw Rebecca walk past the booth and headed towards the common seating area of the train.

"Huh, that's weird." She says as she heads out the booth and runs towards Rebecca and calls her. "Becca! Why aren't you seating with us? You walked right past our booth... Is everything okay?"

"Yeah well... I really don't wanna see Alvaro's smug little face at the moment... so if you'll excuse me?" She said while trying to walk through the narrow corridors of the train, Louise stopped her.

"I don't know what happened this time between the two of you, but you better suck it up, miss, you know how upset Niall gets whenever there are fights between us. Just tell me what happened and then I'll talk to Alvaro." Louise tried to grab Rebecca by the shoulder but she jerked away.

"All I can say right now is that he got my hopes up, used me and then pulled some womanizer shit, let the golden boy tell you everything else." Rebecca already had her back against her but looked back mournfully to the booth and huffed before walking away to sit with some 7th year Hufflepuffs.

Louise went back to her compartment and she could already sense things were more tense than when Rebecca arrived, what happened between these two?