Fourth Year IV.
Rhea, Fred and George were sitting in the Great Hall eating their breakfast. Angelina, Alicia and Lee had already left because they had to work on their essay for Ancient Runes. And Katie was trying to hang out with the girls from her year. Trying to socialise with others just how Rhea told her to. The six of them won't be always there to hang out with Katie and so she needs to find friends her age, just so she won't stay alone once they graduate. We can say that Rhea thinks forward into the future.
She was just about to drop one more spoon of honey into her porridge which still wasn't sweet enough for Rhea's taste when Fred who sat on her right nudged her almost causing the sticky content of the spoon to drip on Rhea's clean robes. She gasped slightly, quickly tilting the spoon towards the bowl with her breakfast so it won't drop on her clothes. She then turned towards Fred with a glare on her face.
"What?" The ginger just grinned at her cheekily, not giving her any answer whatsoever. "So what, you just elbowed me to see the honey mess my clothes? Well, too bad for you then."
"No, although it was funny to see you freak out." Fred chuckled, enjoying the pissed off look on Rhea's face. George who sat opposite them just gave out a breathy laugh before taking a bite from his toast. Shaking his head at his brother, that boy had to have a death wish if he thought that what he just did was a good idea. Everyone knew not to mess with Rhea's clothes and hair...especially the hair. You do not touch the hair mate.
George watched as Rhea swatted Fred's arm causing him to hiss slightly and slap Rhea back. The havoc the two caused all the time is indescribable. It can be started simply by a wrong touch of the other and they start a slap war between each other. See it's moments like this that make George believe that the two of them should be together. And it's pissing him off that the two are so damn oblivious. It was becoming irritating that he had to watch the obvious feelings they had, yet they were both too blind to notice.
"All right, okay, you won. Ouch woman that hurt." Fred whined covering his head with his arms to hide from Rhea's painful smacks. Rhea's delicate hand stopped, hovering in the air just a few inches from Fred's head. She eyed the boy doubtfully before lowering her arm down slowly, letting it fall on the table next to her bowl with porridge. Once the threat was eliminated Fred let his guard fall and he smiled seeing the proud look on Rhea's face for beating him.
He couldn't help but think that she looked so utterly beautiful when she smiled. The early morning light that was coming from the windows was shining right at her. Creating a glorious glow around her, making her look like a princess...no even better, she looked like an angel. Everything about her looked angelic. Her silky hair, falling down in gentle sandy blonde waves all the way down to her waist. Her pale green eyes, glimmering in the morning sunlight and the contagious smile that graced her face.
Fred just couldn't help but smile. And he didn't even know the reason why. Why would a girl he knows since his first year make him spontaneously smile? She didn't have to put a lot of effort into it. All she had to do was smile, to get him to grin like an idiot at her natural beauty. Was that mental? Was he going insane all of a sudden? Merlin that can't be happening, he still needs to do so many things before he lets George ship him into the nuthouse.
"What got you all smiley?" Rhea asked curiously, seeing Fred just stare at her and smile with this absent smile that Rhea never saw on his face before. It looked like he wasn't even in his body at that moment. As if he was possessed. The ginger was quick to snap out of it at the sound of the girl's voice. His cheeks quickly working to match his hair.
"Oh...I...um...Ron's about to get into trouble." Fred said quickly, finding his younger brother's current situation as the greatest opportunity to save himself. He let out a relieved sigh when Rhea looked over at Ron who was holding an angry red envelope in his hands. Rhea immediately recognised it as a howler. And a howler from Mrs Weasley means nothing good.
"Bloody hell," George muttered from his seat, his face going pale once he noticed the envelope. Many bad memories coming back to him from the time when their mum sent him and Fred a howler in their first two years for some pranks that they have done. Rhea maybe wasn't personally familiar with them as her uncle never thought about the idea of sending the girl a howler, but she was there when the twins received theirs and simply said...it was bad.
"Open it," Rhea heard Neville urge Ron who was still gawping at the envelope. "It'll all be over in a few minutes..." He tried to assure him with a gentle voice. But Rhea knew better, if it's from Mrs Weasley those few minutes will be filled with so much painful yelling that the candles from the ceiling might fall.
Ron gulped reaching a hand toward the letter to open it. Once it was only half opened it burst out of Ron's hands and a terrible booming sound of angry Mrs Weasley filled the whole Great Hall.
"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED!" Mrs Weasley's booming voice, louder than Rhea has ever heard filled the room. The plates and cutlery shaking on the table. Some goblets even falling. Fred's eyes widened and he quickly grabbed onto Rhea's shoulders and hit behind her while George held his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out the sound of his angry mother.
Every head in the Great Hall seemed to turn to the source of the sound. Many of them doing so just so they could tease the person later. Everyone first looked at the twins but seeing they had no envelope in front of them they scanned the whole room, of course finding it in front of another Weasley. Rhea didn't fail to notice how Percy quickly turn in the door once he heard the voice of his mother. He had just arrived at breakfast but hearing the voice full of rage he opted to rather leave eating for later.
"YOUR FATHER'S NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!" The letter continued, spitting out words at Ron who was pale in the face and staring at the piece of paper floating in front of him with such a fear as if he was staring at his mother in person. "Oh, and Ginny dear, congratulations on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud." The letter spoke in a much calmer voice. Turning down the table towards the youngest Weasley that sat alone. Every eye suddenly turning to her causing her to shrink down in embarrassment.
A ringing silence fell. The red envelope, burst into flames and curled into ashes on the table in front of still stunned Ronald. The boys seemed to not be even breathing from how frightened he was at the moment. Harry looked similar to him. His eyes wide as he just stared at the pile of ashes on the table. Rhea felt Fred shaking behind her still gripping onto her shoulders and she looked over at George to see him covering his ears still whilst rocking back and forth.
"You fine? She asked the two finally getting them to acknowledge the situation around them. George's hands dropped from his ears and he looked around, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw the pile of ashes on the table. Fred peeked his head over Rhea's shoulder, resting it there for a second before pulling himself into an upright position.
"Know what? I think we should get to class." He announced, hurriedly standing up from his seat and aiming it for the door, George hot on his heels. Both of them leaving Rhea in the Great Hall sitting there debating whether she should finish her breakfast or go after those two. But the loyalty to her friends won over the hunger so with a sigh she grabbed her bag, slinging it over her shoulder and started walking towards the door and after Fred and George.
***
Once the three made their way inside the DADA class Rhea thought she might be sick. Staring at her was a giant portrait of Gilderoy Lockhart in all his glory. His pompous clothes shining even on the portrait and his hair nicely combed. Even the ludicrous portrait looked too cocky for Rhea's liking. She let out a disappointed groan seeing the ridiculously large portrait which mind you was moving.
Both Fred and George caught onto her displeased act and chuckled at her misery. Knowing how hugely Rhea dispised the overconfident man that thought that every book of his was the absolute masterpiece. She felt sick just seeing his stupid blonde hair and whitened teeth. But many young witches were into him mainly for his looks. Probably not seeing that fact that he cannot love anyone but himself properly. Even Alicia was into him. No doubt has read all his book sixty times back and forth over the holiday. That's why it was no surprise that she was already sitting at the front of the class, having Angelina next to her. The other girl looked like she would rather get hit by a bludger in the head than to be there with beaming Alicia but she had no other choice.
"Excited?" Fred asked, nudging Rhea's side a bit as she seemed to freeze in the doorway of the classroom.
"Can't you see the happiness radiating off her Freddie?" George teased some more coming to stand on Rhea's other side.
"I don't doubt she wants to ask him for thousands of autographs." Fred continued cheekily, smirking down at Rhea who was sending him a murderous look.
"Maybe even a picture with him, that would be a dream come true," George added, using a ridiculously high pitched voice at the end of his sentence.
"Oh I, know. Our dear Rhea wants to run her hand through his golden locks." Fred said with a mock dreamy voice, doing a parody of almost every witch in this castle.
"I'd rather chop off my hand," Rhea muttered angrily, pushing her way towards the empty desk by the window. She was soon joined by Fred who sat next to her while George took his spot next to Lee who looked quite miserable after spending too much time with Angelina and Alicia earlier. The Gryffindors had this class with Slytherins and that meant that Edmund would also be there.
And sure enough, a boy with raven hair and Slytherin robes sauntered inside the classroom. His tall figure radiating with natural serenity. Edmund had always a talent to look at peace. Whatever he was doing he did it with a calm attitude. But he also gave out the confidence and need to respect him. Well, to everyone but Fred. The boy would never respect the Slytherin. No matter what.
Edmund sat down in his usual seat where the rest of the Slytherins were. He caught Rhea's eyes from the other side of the room and waved at her, with the cheeky smile plastered on his face. Rhea smiled and waved back, catching the attention of Fred who look between the two and groaned. Reaching over to pin Rhea's hand back to the table so she wouldn't be able to wave at Edmund anymore. The Slytherin just rolled his eyes and smiled to himself. Shaking his head at how Rhea started scolding Fred.
Fred quickly dismissed the subject and started conversing with George and Lee who were sitting by the desk next to them. Rhea sighed glancing over towards Edmund again but the boy wasn't looking at her anymore. He was rather looking at the girl with Slytherin robes that stood in the doorway. Rhea recognised the girl thanks to her platinum blonde hair and crystal blue eyes that seemed to shine from afar. It was Althea Snow. A pureblood and one of the nicest Slytherin Rhea has ever met.
She was once partnered with the girl at potions and she couldn't come over how awfully nice Althea was. The girl had an incredible talent for potions and unlike the other Slytherins, she wasn't mean to Rhea. It was so bizarre to have someone from Slytherin house being nice to her other than Edmund. Althea had everything, she was slim, beautiful complexion, radiating blue eyes and hair that always fell in the right place. Rhea would even be jealous because the girl was everything Rhea wanted to be. But Althea was so nice that it was impossible to feel any negative emotions towards her.
Rhea noticed how Edmund's cheeks turned slightly pink when the girl walked in. And she instantly knew what was going on. Edmund was crushing on Althea. She couldn't blame him, she would be crushing too, but she thought Althea was way out of her league. But Edmund would be perfect for her in Rhea's eyes. Of course, it could be because he was her friend but still they would look cute together.
She wanted to cheer when she saw Althea walk all the way towards Edmund who had a free seat next to him. She probably asked him if she could sit there. To which nodded, not trusting himself with words. He just stared at the girl, his cheek flushed pink. Rhea chuckled silently seeing how suddenly the cool and collected exterior of her friend crumbled when the girl entered the room. He was so whipped. She should have a word with him about this. Definitely will force him to tell her everything.
When the whole class was seated, Lockhart strutted inside the room, full of confidence. Rhea wanted to gag at the sight of him. He stood in the front of the class and reached forward picking up Alicia's copy of Travels with Trolls, and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.
"Wasn't it repulsive enough?" Rhea muttered under her breath getting a chuckle out of Fred who heard her clearly thanks to how close he was to her.
"Let's hope he won't start kissing himself," Fred whispered to her and Rhea had to put her hand over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud and gaining the attention of the whole class.
"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. Rhea put a hand over her upper chest, looking like she might be sick. Of course, it was all played, but she and Fred were just having a good laugh out of it. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" He waited for them to laugh; a few people smiled weakly. Mainly the girl in the front seats that were trying to charm him.
"Really? I would have thought she was blinded by the shine of his teeth." Rhea said to Fred who this time couldn't contain himself and laugh aloud. Lockhart looked up and winked at the two, thinking that they had appreciated his joke. Luckily he didn't comment on it some more or else Rhea wouldn't be able to hold herself back.
"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz." The class grew nervous. No one was ready to be writing a quiz on the first day back. Not even Snape would do something like that. "Nothing to worry about, just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in..." Rhea looked over at Fred who was not so subtly glaring at the professor. Obviously not happy about the pop-up quiz they were assigned. The two of them haven't even take a peek inside the terrible looking books. When Lockhart came by Fred and Rhea's table to give them papers he looked over at Rhea, winking at the girl and then moving on to the next table.
The Black girl thought she might choke on her own spit the moment she saw the action of her professor. Fred didn't know whether he should laugh or be utterly disgusted so he just decided to simply pat Rhea on the back as a sign of comfort.
"You have thirty minutes...start...now!" Once Lockhart said that Rhea looked down at her paper. Deciding whether she should cry or laugh was hard at that exact moment. The questions were ridiculous.
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart s favourite colour? Golden, like the colour of his luscious locks.
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition? To have the whitest teeth in the whole wizarding world.
3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?Graduating Hogwarts
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54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?A new comb
Rhea was coming short on creative answers once getting to the finish. She was sure she answered everything wrong but in the eyes of reality, it was all correct. Fred did the same as her coming up with the funniest possible answers. Sometimes even glancing over at Rhea's paper to inspire himself. And that's how they handed over their paper half an hour later. Lockhart stood in the front of the class. Scanning through the papers.
"Tut, tut, hardly any of you remembered that my favourite colour is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wanderings with Werewolves more carefully, I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples, though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky!" Lockhart said, eyes still inspecting the papers in his hands.
"Oh how foolishly stupid are we," Rhea said sarcastically, her and Fred high-fiving secretly so Lockhart won't hear them.
"We shall forever be ashamed Black, let's find ourselves a hole and die there together," Fred added to her previous comment.
"Who said I want to be dying with you, Weasley," Rhea smirked back at the taller boy who rolled his eyes. Both of them were forced to look to the front of the class once Lockhart spoke again.
"...but Miss Alicia Spinnet knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions good girl! In fact" he flipped her paper over scribbling something with his quill there, "full marks! Where is Miss Alicia Spinnet?"
Alicia's friends looked over at her in disbelief, Angelina even moving slightly away from her, staring at the tanned girl who held her hand up proudly. Grinning as if she had won the Quidditch Cup for her house. That would have been an achievement.
"Excellent!" beamed Lockhart. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so...to business..."