Getting up and stuff (chapter 1)

“NYAAAAAH!”

“Shut up!”

“Tubbs, seriously? Shouting at the alarm clock won’t stop it.”

“Thank you, captain obvious. Can you shut the thing down now?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Becky’s hand reaches toward the still screaming alarm and stops. “What in the name of God does it take to wake her up?!” She nods in Chantal’s direction. Chantal was still sleeping, mouth opened, with her arms and legs spread in four different directions over her entire bed.

“Let’s find out.” I say mischievously and I get out of bed.

Becky laughs and gets out of her bed as well. “So, what do we start with?”

“Well, we know a plant sprayer works, so let’s cross that one of off the list. How about drawing on her face?” Becky’s face lights up as she starts nodding her head so hard I’m getting afraid it’ll fall off if she’ll keep it up.

“Like the moustache?” Becky asks while drawing it on Chantal’s face.

“It’s lovely, but I personally think she needs whiskers as well. By the way, isn’t that a permanent marker?” Both our eyes flicker to the label on the marker. We look at each other panicked.

“Why don’t we get ready quietly and head downstairs, like, as fast as we can.” I nod to Becky’s words and get a dress, some heels, a woolly hat and some fingerless gloves and put them on within twenty seconds, a new record. “You better take your make-up with you and put it on later” Becky says. I nod again, grab my beauty case and we both head out the door.

“Shouldn’t we at least wake her up?” I ask, feeling kind off guilty.

“Yeah, we should.” Becky opens the door and throws a notebook at Chantal. “Wake up! We’re leaving and we drew on your face, bye!” Beck shuts the door and as we run away, Chantal’s yelling is clearly audible. 

With our bags hanging over our shoulders, Becky and I walk into the still very quiet atrium. Hermoine is sitting at a table by herself. Studying, as usual. Some first years are standing in a corner watching me and Beck as we put our bags on Hermoine’s table.

“Good morning, sunshine!” I say a little over-enthusiastic.

“Morning.” Hermoine says as she quickly turns the page of her Geography book.

“You do know all of Bellatrix’s lessons are cancelled, right?” Becky asks Hermoine doubtfully.

“Yes, I know, but I don’t want to fall behind.”

“You know you’re pretty much the only one at this entire school doing your homework when a class is cancelled?”

“Oh, come on Becky, cut the girl some slack. She has Lestrange as her teacher. If you don’t do your homework, she’ll flip you out the window! Or worse…” We all shivered at the thought of that. “Anyhow, I’m gonna get myself a sandwich.” I walk to the canteen, where Dobby is already awaiting my order. “Morning Dobby! Can I get a chicken curry salad on a Giotto bun?”

Dobby smiled, showing more than I cared to see. “Good morning Lotte and what a beautiful day it is to study!”

“Rather you than me, Dobby, although I do love the weather today.”

“Learning’s not so bad. Here you go, three please.” Dobby says and lays the bun on the counter in between us. I put down the money and wave Dobby goodbye.

“Boo!”

“Aah!” I shriek and almost fall over.

Two arms I know very well, catch me just before I fall over. “Morning!”

“Always nice to be greeted like that, thanks George.” I say while I get out of his grip.

“You shouldn’t wear heels if you can’t walk on them.”

“Oh, I’d be happy to switch shoes with you.” Becky and Fred laugh at the sound of that. I just smile.

“Ah, too bad, I’m afraid we don’t have the same size.” George says sarcastically.

“I’m sure there’s a spell for that.”

“You could use…”

“No use for that, now I have something to ask.” Hermoine shoots him a glare, clearly not amused George just cut her off.

“Becky!!” Chantal comes running toward Becky, a pitch-black moustache just above her lip. The skin around it is red, suggesting Chantal tried to scrub it off, but didn’t succeed.

“What happened this time?” Hermoine asks as Chantal is busy trying to catch Becky.

“She wouldn’t wake up and we decided to see how far we could go before she would.”

“So you guys drew on her face? I admire you.” George replies.

“Yeah, only we didn’t find out until after we drew the moustache, that we were using a permanent marker.” Fred and George start laughing and Hermoine just shakes her head and gets back to her studying.

“But why is Chantal only chasing Becky?” Fred asks me when he and George have stopped laughing.

“I think it’s because she doesn’t know I helped. I’m fine with it though, seeing as I don’t have the proper shoes to be chased.” I shrug.

“Lotte did it too!” Becky screams from one end of the atrium.

Chantal turns my way and I run away as well. Becky and I both run to the far left corner of the room. “I will kill you!”

“Okay, but before you do that, we just want to tell you we love you, Chantal.” Becky walks over to her and gives her a hug. Even though I don’t know what her plan is, I decide to follow Becky’s lead and hug Chantal as well. Then I know and as if we read each other’s minds, we run to Fred and George as fast as we can.

“Protect us!” I yell while Becky hides behind Fred and I hide behind George.

“Oh, forget it already!” Chantal sighs. “Hermoine, isn’t there a spell that can help me or something?”

“Sure.” A pleased look appears in Hermoine’s eyes, like she always has whenever someone asks her for help. She mumbles a few words I can’t make out and just like that, the black lines on Chantal’s face disappear.

“So we cool?” Chantal nods.

“Good. You wanted to ask me something?” I turn to George, who’s clearly confused by my sudden change of subject.

“Uhm yeah, could you take a look at my Math homework? I don’t really get it.” The sweetness in his voice makes me think he knows the answer to that question already.

“No, I did your homework for you the last three times, it’s your turn.”

“But you’re so good at it!”

“Maybe, if you did your own homework, you’d actually get better at Maths.”

“Or maybe you could teach me how you do it.” George bends down and gently kisses my lips.

“Last time, okay?” George nods and we both sit down at the table with our bags on it. “I hate how you know exactly what to do to get what you want from me.”

“It’s not like you can’t do the same.” I can’t help but blush and look away.

“Awh, how sweet! Maybe a room would be nice for the two of you?” That voice means fun-time is now officially over.