That night I lay tossing and turning in my bed, I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t sure whether it was from an anxiety pang or the late night sugar fix that Shia and me had enjoyed only half an hour ago, either way I could not sleep.
I lay for a few more minutes, waiting to see if sleep would creep up upon me. But I had no such luck.
I slid out of bed, letting my bare feet tough the rough wooden floor. I paced around the room a little; sometimes I cleared my mind, making it easier for me to fall asleep. Bu the notion of falling asleep had passed now, and I couldn’t bring myself to lie back down on my bed.
So instead I pulled a pair of fluffy bed socks onto my chilled feet and started to descend the stairs.
It was hard to leave the room without making a sound, but it was almost impossible to walk down the creaky wooden steps without causing noise. The stairs normally took me a few seconds to run down, but now it took my five minutes to get to the bottom floor. I was being cautious; waking up half of your House was not really a good move.
I took a little breather at the bottom of the stairs, I had been holding my breath for most of the decent and now I was feeling a little light headed.
Luckily for me the door at the bottom, which lead in to the Common Room was ajar, so the hard work of lifting the latch had already been done for me.
I took one large step to the door, avoiding all the loose floor boards and stopped. From inside the Common Room I could hear muffled voices. It was easy to pick out the four different tones; there were the deep velvety tones of Samuel Blake, the polite and clipped tones of Richard Light, the whispered tones of Paul Pauls and finally the sooth honey tones of James Potter. Yet James’s usual smooth tones were less smooth, it was almost like he was in pain. Each of their voices was hushed and they were talking in a rather intense manner.
I had to hear what they were talking about, it seemed rather important as all four of them were huddled near the fire.
Pulling the door inwards slightly I widened the gap so I could slip through, as soon as I was in the warm room, I darted for the back of one of the leather sofas.
None of the boys noticed me flash from the door to the sofa, or if they did they didn’t let on.
“James, why are you so off with us at the moment?” Sam asked.
“Does it really matter?” James replied glumly.
“Well, we are your friends, so yes.” Richard said in his usual tone of ‘is it really not that obvious?’
“It’s...its cos I can’t get a girl....okay” James said sounding even more depressed.
“Is that all, we all thought that you were gunna top yourself.” Sam said a sound of relief in his voice.
“Is that all! Is that all! ALL!” James said indignantly. Getting this girl obviously meant a lot to him.
“Okay calm down,” Richard said. Richard was always the mediator between Sam and James.
“Well it looks like we need to get you a girl,” Paul said.
“Did you have any particular bird in mind?” Sam said. There was a shuffling noise; I guessed that Sam had moved next to James.
“Don’t be stupid you all know who I like,” James said, depressed again.
“But hasn’t she already told you to shove off?” Sam said, in a very inconsiderate manner. “What did she say again? Was it ‘I’ve know you for too long and it just seems weird’, yeah it was just that.”
There was a scuffling noise and a few grunts of anger. I could picture James trying to lunge at Sam for being such an inconsiderate idiot.
“Stop, Sam apologise for being an idiot.” Richard demanded. I could tell that he was getting sick and tired of Sam’s attitude.
“Sorry,” said Sam, it sounded like he was pouting.
There was a moment of silence, where only the crackling fire could be heard.
I almost fell over, I had just thought over the last few moments, and what had been said. It clicked, James was talking about me, he like me, I was the girl he wanted.
Oh Merlin help me, what do I do?
I was distracted from my pleas to Merlin by James speaking again.
“She’ll never go out with me, I know her too well.” he said miserably.
“Look, I don’t see Rachael Edgley being chased around by boys do I?” Sam said. The cheek of it, I could be chased around by guys if I wanted to, well not really.
“S’pose” James mumbled
“You have the charm and the looks and you know her.” Richard said in a reassuring tone.
“’kay,” James said perking up a little.
I couldn’t take it anymore; I needed to get out of the room before I heard too much.
I crawled commando style to the door and then quickly slid through the gap. I took the stairs two at a time, probably waking up everyone as I went.
There was a small clunk as I shut the dorm door behind me, and the sound of me socked feet running across the floor to my bed.
I grabbed my wand from under my pillow and drew the curtains.
“Oh dear.” I breathed.
Falling back amongst the pillows my mind was more alive than it was half an hour ago when I crept down stairs. I suppose that my story is one of bad ends of eve’s dropping.
My mind was bursting with a stream of continuous questions.
Do I like James Potter?
Would it work?
Would we last?
Would I like it?
I closed my eyes and tried to answer the questions, but sadly sleep caught up with me and I drifted off to sleep.
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