Babbling, Bumbling Band of Baboons

When I got the notice, slowly, I made my way into the Professor's office. The room was full of pictures. Half of them of himself. They scurried once they saw me walk in. Some of them having embarrassing thing in their hair. My attention wasn't really on them. Red was apparent in my eyes, from crying that was.

Hermione shot me a look of concern. Maybe it was because she knew what it was like to be called that. Her parents were both Muggles. They were both dentists, she informed me once. I knew obviously knew alot of Muggle jobs; Muggles being all over America. Very nice jobs, good pay, too.

Trailing back to her eyes, I threw on a small smile. It was nice knowing what it was like to go through something. Even something like this. Where Malfoy thought he got off calling someone that, God only knows where. You could get into serious trouble for calling someone that at Hogwarts, why risk that?

As my eyes looked around the room, I saw a stiffen Mrs. Norris on the desk. Her fur stiff along with her body. It was a shame she was dead. I always admired her, she was a beautiful cat. Especially like with her long, multi-coloured fur. Very close by, Filch stood next to her, sobbing. I felt bad for the guy, even as much as I didn't like him. Mrs. Norris was kind of all he had; at least it seemed that way.

"Nice of you to join us, Miss Haywood," Dumbledore greeted me.

"Now let's get to the bottom of this now that the girl is here!" Filch barked. I became frightened as Professor McGonagall motioned me over to sit next Harry. Nothing left my mouth as I sat next to him, I looked over at him, a scared look on my face. He gave me a slight reassuring nod.

"Calm down, Argus, please." Dumbledore requested. "Like I said, Mrs. Norris is not dead." The headmaster muttered some strange words that could barley be heard as he waved his wand around a crystallized Mrs. Norris. The cat didn't respond.

It wasn't long before the moronic excuse for a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor spoke up. ". . .I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadogou. A series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography, I was able to provide the town folks with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once. . ."

All of his portraits were nodding to agree, well, the ones that were of him, of course. One of them even had forgotten to take off its hair net. That was a funny site. Lockhart in a hair net? Imagine what his fan girls would do if they saw him like that.

"What do you mean not dead? But why is she all stiff?"

I spoke up, I know they wouldn't have wanted me to, but I wanted to know, it really scared me. "Professor, he's right. Why is she all stiff? If Mrs. Norris isn't dead, what could possibly make her like this?" I asked innocently, not meaning harm by it.

"Maybe you would know seeing as you and your little friends had something to do with it!"

Nervous was not a good to describe how I was feeling, not even close. Take nervous and times it by fifty, and you have what I am. "N-no! We would n-never hurt her!

"Argus, please! Now, she's been petrified."

"Ah! I thought so!" . . .No you didn't, Lockhart, shut up. Everyone knows you're a fraud.

"But how, I cannot say. . ."

What did he mean by petrified? It made no sense. All I could do was think and try to remember if I had ever heard that being used in a class before. Nothing popped into my head, unfortunately. All three of us sat there, confused looks on our faces. Hermione didn't seem too confused though, I wouldn't be surprised if she read it some where. Ron had the most dumbfound look on his face, though. Harry and I were just simply confused.

"Ask those two" Filch pointed to Harry and I. Why me? Because I was from America? "Who knows what they teach those lot in the States! They could teach them anything!"

"Argus, please stop speaking like that," McGonagall pleaded. I felt offended, but I ignored it. He was worried about his cat, that's all. Even though I knew he didn't like me.

"A second year could not do this. It is much too advanced dark magic for a second year to d—" Dumbledore was interrupted. That, was a first.

"He did it! He did it! You saw what he wrote on the wall! He saw — in my office — he knows I'm a — I'm a —" He paused, his face looking weirder than normal. "I'm a Squib!"

Harry glared at Filch, anyone could tell he was getting annoyed at this whole thing. "I never touched Mrs. Norris!" He started, probably awkward for him, everyone in the office was staring at him, even all of the Lockharts in the room. "And. . .I don't even know what a Squib is!"

"Rubbish!" This is a bunch of rubbish. . . "He saw my Kwikspell letter!"

"If I might say something, headmaster," Snape spoke up. I had almost forgotten he was there. I turned around to look at him. "Maybe Potter and his friends were just at the wrong place at the wrong time." DUH! THANK YOU! About time someone realized that.

—

The next day, I walked down to the Great Hall as soon as I woke up. I knew Fred and George wouldn't be up. It was the best time to hide from them. Some gut feeling told me that Fred knew what happened.

It was long after I sat down in the Great Hall, I was leaving it to go to the library to get some work done, I knew the twins wouldn't find me there. Some how, Hermione did. Maybe because it seemed like since I yelled at George, I was concentrating heavily on my school work. It was the only thing that could get my mind off of George, really. Riku sat on the table next to my book work as I studied. Sitting next to the window gave him a nice view of all the owls flying by. He really enjoyed watching them. Probably because he wanted to catch and kill one.

"The Quidditch match is going to start soon, are you coming?" A very familiar voice asked me.

I turned around to see who it was, none other than Hermione. Did not surprise me one bit. "Uhm. . . . Yeah, I guess I can go. When does it start? I don't want to cut out alot of my studying time. . ."

Hermione slowly pulled up a seat and sat down, she looked slightly worried. "Abbigail, why are you studying so hard lately? You seem to only study when we have exams coming up, and we don't. Is there something bothering you?" You could see it in her eyes, it was like she already knew what was wrong, but she was asking to be nice.

"Well. . .yeah. George. . .kissed me not that long ago, and now he's calling his own twin's girlfriend adorable! He says the kiss was an accident and that it was just a kiss, but it still hurts. . ." I looked at my cat who slowly looked back at me. It was amazing how they could sense emotion, he walked over to my hand and rubbed his head against it. Riku knew how I loved it when he rubbed his head against me.

"You and George kissed? Are you together?" For once in my life, I saw Hermione Granger with a puzzled look on her face.

"No, he leaned in to whisper something to me, and I didn't know what he was doing, so I turned my head and looked at him, and we accidental kissed. Yeah, it was an accident, but still." I sighed. "I don't even think he likes me. Maybe we should just stay best friends. Maybe I should just go back to pretending nothing happened."

"Ah, I heard him talking to Louise about it, he explained how he was joking. I'm sure he really was joking. But maybe he should have paid attention more to your feelings. Maybe the best thing is just to forgive him and pretend like it never happened?"

"Maybe, Hermione. . . . Maybe. Well, we should get going."

"Yes, we should." She pat Riku on his head a few times before putting the chair back.

When we got up in the stands, everyone was cheering. I sat next to Hermione with Ron on the other side of me. I looked at him and smiled. "Hi, Ron."

"Hi, Abbie. How's. . .you and George going? I'd just punch him if I were you."

"How do you know about. . .?"

"Oh," Ron shook his head. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I just kinda figured you were mad at him for this morning, plus you practically push him every time you see him."

My face turned pink as I looked down at the Quidditch pitch. As the game began, I noticed George's game was off. He was missing bludgers, Wood wasn't too pleased. And because of this, it almost hit Harry a few times. Hermione was gripping onto my sleeve tightly as she began to worry for Harry. I, too, was worrying for him. Even after the time out, George still played bad. But almost anyone could see that the bludger was attracted to Harry as if Harry was strong magnet.

As the game continued, I always watched George. As the crowd grew quiet, I screamed, "GEORGE! I'M SORRY!" as loud as I could. He looked back at me, trying to find me in the crowd. Why the hell was he trying to find me in the crowd? Shouldn't he be paying attention to the game? "PAY ATTENTION TO THE GAME, YOU GIT." I yelled even louder. He shook his head and realized I was right, he paid attention to the game one more. One minute later, I saw George flew into Louise, the both of them falling to the ground. I shot up, my hands covering my mouth as I gasped. You could see George grasping his stomach on the ground.

I quickly left Ron and Hermione, dashing for the stairs. When I reached the bottom of it, racing to get to the pitch, you could hear: "HARRY POTTER HAS JUST CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" Alot of other students were running on the field. When all of us got there, most of them ran over to Harry, and I ran over to George. I pulled him into a hug as he moaned.

"E-easily, Abbigail. . . . My stomach hurts from when I collided with Lo. . ." He grabbed my hand and used it to sit up slowly. "I'm sorry Abbie, I really am. . ." You could hear the pain in his voice. I gripped his hand before hugging him very cautiously this time.

"I don't know why I got jealous. Maybe because you're my best friend? I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't like us fighting, I just want it to stop."

"You have no idea how much I want it to, also."

People were walking with towards us with Harry, his arm looking like it was made out of elastic, I don't even think any bones were present. "Come on, take George and Louise to the Hospital Wing just to make sure they're okay. We're going with Potter." Wood told us. Fred was helping up Louise as I helped up George. He rested his arm over my shoulder, putting some weight on me as I helped him walk.

"So why did you fly into her?" I questioned, gripping his wrist as we walked.

"Well, I was just so happy, I didn't even know what I was doing." I smiled as I looked up at him.

—

As we were in the Hospital Wing, I never let go of George's hand, I was worried because he seemed to be in pain. It was the first time I had ever seen George in pain. Madam Pomfrey told George he had one broken rib and a broken arm while she gave him medicine. Louise was on the bed next to George's. Fred sat in the middle so he could see both of them. I didn't hear what was wrong with Louise is there was anything, nor did I really care. All I cared at the moment was George healing.