Everybody Party Till the Gasman Comes

"You're not entering," I stated, voice firm.

The twins looked up at me from their seat on the couch in the common room, bemused expressions on their faces at my words. They shook their heads and went back to conversing about what they were going to do to be able to get into the tournament.

I walked over and stood in front of them. "Don't dismiss me like that. I'm serious. No matter what you do I will not allow you to enter that tournament."

"You sound like Mum," George said absently, not even looking at me this time.

I stomped my foot, hands on my hips, in probably the most Mrs. Weasley-ish gesture I'd ever put myself in. "As I should! Didn't you hear what Dumbledore said? People have died!"

"Did you hear what he said, Sam? He said that the winner gets a thousand Galleons. Do you know what we could do with a thousand Galleons? We could start our joke shop, Sammy." They both looked up at me once George had finished speaking.

"I understand that-"

"Do you?"

I sighed, knowing I wasn't going to win this argument, and plopped myself down in the armchair on the other side of the room. I stared into the fireplace, watching as the flames crackled and licked at the various pieces of wood that had been placed in them. My knees were pulled up to my chest and I rested my chin on them. I really did understand where they were coming from. Without that money, they'd never get to open their shop. But I honestly didn't think it was worth the risk of seriously injuring themselves to get it.

A hand on my shoulder pulled me from my thoughts. I picked my head up off of my knees. I looked behind me and into George's face. "You should be getting to bed," he said quietly.

"I should," I nodded.

He walked around to the front of the chair. My feet fell to the floor and he took my hands in his. He pulled me up out of the chair, and into a hug. "Goodnight, Sam," he whispered into my hair. "I'll see you at breakfast, alright?"

I looked up at him and nodded again.

He kissed my forehead then pushed me off in the direction of the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

***

"Bloody hell!" I hissed, staring down at the class schedule that was in my hands.

George, Lee, and Fred stopped talking and looked over at me. Previously, or all morning rather, the three had been discussing a "fool proof" way for them to get into the tournament; using an Aging Potion. I'd ignored their talk and had taken out my schedule to see what I had to endure that day.

"Bloody hell what?" Lee asked, snatching the parchment from my hands.

I glared at the paper.

"Ah," Lee said, reading what it said. "Y'see here-" he pointed at a bit of the writing and addressed the twins with his words "-she's still got to have Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins."

The two redheads laughed. "I thought you didn't like that class," Fred said.

"I don't," I replied curtly. "But I can't just drop it. D'you know what that would do to Hagrid?"

The three just rolled their eyes at me and laughed. Lee threw the parchment back to me and the boys went back to discussing their plans. I'd tried again earlier, when we'd still been in the common room, to ward off their thoughts of attempting to enter, but they wouldn't listen to me. I hadn't really expected them to, but I couldn't even begin to understand how they could possibly think that they'd even be able to enter. Surely Dumbledore would do something to prevent students like them from doing so.

The loud bell rang out across the school grounds, signaling that it was time to go to the first lessons of term. I sighed and stuffed my schedule in my satchel with my books and other school necessities. I stood up from the bench and gave each of my three friends a hug before heading off to Herbology with the other fourth year Gryffindors that had it that morning.

"See you at lunch?" George asked just before I got caught up in the throng of students leaving the Great Hall.

I smiled at him, nodding. "See you at lunch."

***

Sometime around seven that night, I was allowed to leave the hospital wing. I'd fainted during Divination (I'm not even going to explain what had happened) and Professor Trelawney had made me go. Something about Venus being in the House of Pluto, or something odd like that. Anyway, she said that if I didn't go to Madam Pomfrey my doom was emanate. Turns out, my lungs were just having trouble contracting and so my heart stuttered and my brain shut down for about point-five seconds. Professor Trelawney had been right; my doom would have been quickly emanate. That woman is so smart sometimes.

I walked into the common room, which was buzzing with talk. Fred, George, and Lee were crowded on the couch, just as they had been that morning before breakfast, and I knew what they were talking about. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't notice that I'd walked up to them until I plopped down and laid across their laps.

"Hello, boys." I smiled up at them.

"And where have you been?" Fred questioned.

I shrugged, which is rather hard to do when laying across people. "Oh, just in the hospital wing. I was in there for a couple hours and, can you imagine?, Madam Pomfrey had nothing for food. You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat, would you? I'm starved."

George gave me a quizzical look. "Why were you in the hospital wing?"

"It's a long story. And by long I mean incredibly boring, so do I really have to tell you what happened?"

"Yes, you do."

"Can I make it more dramatic than it was?"

"Be my guest."

I grinned. "Alright, here goes nothing: So there I was, sitting in Divination just minding my own business, when suddenly everything gets blurry and my hearing's shot. Next thing I know, I'm laying on the ground in front of my, Harry, and Ron's table with everyone around me and I've a nasty headache. Professor Trelawney's eyes are as wide as tea saucers and she says to me, 'Samantha! Venus is passing through the House of Pluto right at this very moment! You must get to Madam Pomfrey immediately, or suffer the consequences which can and will be dire.' At first I was kinda like, 'Oh, alright.' But then she freaked out and threw me out the door! So-"

"Hold on," Lee interrupted me. "She threw you out?"

"Well," I blinked at him, "not exactly threw, but this is my story so shush now, yeah?"

The twins grinned at each other then looked back at me.

"Okay, so where was I? Right! So she throws me out the door and I go stumblin' down the stairs. On my way to the hospital wing I got stopped by, who else?, Filch. He says to me, 'Shouldn't you be in class?' So I says to him, 'Shouldn't you be makin' small children cry?' He didn't like that. But anyways! So I walk to hospital wing and, lo and behold, Trelawney was right! Venus was passing through Pluto's house and I probably would've died if I hadn't gotten there!"

The boys stared at me, not at all comprehending my story. "I don't understand," George said. "How exactly would you have died if you hadn't gotten to the hospital wing?"

"Oh, right. I left that part out. My heart stuttered." They stared at me and I shook my head at them. "You don't have to get it. The good news is that I'm alive and you lot can stop being so worried about me. The bad news, though, is that I really need some food and if you haven't gotten me some soon, I might implode."

The three looked at each other. "Oi, Ginny!" Fred yelled across the room at his sister. "Could you c'mere for a second?"

Ginny walked over and stood in front of the four of us, arms crossed over her chest. She stared down at me for a few seconds and I grinned at her. "What do you need?"

"Can you take her off our hands for a bit?" George asked.

"Aye, I'm not on your 'ands! I'm on your laps. Get it right, Georgie."

Ginny took hold of my arm and pulled me from the boys' legs. I fell to the floor in front of the couch with a thump. The other students in the common room watched this exchange with amused expressions on their faces; some of them even laughed.

I jumped up from floor and put my hands on my hips. "Fine," I said. "I didn't want to hang out with you guys anyways. I'll just-" I looked at Ginny for help. "What will I do?" I asked quietly so that only she could hear me.

"Hang out with me?" she suggested.

"Right!" I turned back to the boys. "I'll just hang out with Ginny. Have fun without me, boys."

I hooked my arm with Ginny's and pulled her to the opposite side of the room. When I was half-way across the room, I heard the twins say, "We will."

I rolled my eyes at Ginny and we sat down in a couple of armchairs that were next to each other. "So, how was your day, Gin?"

"It was alright," she said, making a face. "Classes, y'know? Boring. And yours?"

"Well, besides the almost dying thing, it was pretty good. Oh, and the part where you pulled me off the couch. That hurt." I rubbed my elbow where I'd banged it on the hard floor.

Ginny giggled. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Eh, s'alright."

It was silent for a few minutes. "So..."

I looked at Ginny, eyebrow raised. "So what?"

She grinned. "When are you going to tell George that you like him?"

"Ginny, I swear that I'll kill you if you ever say that aloud again."

I turned around to look back at the boys. Lee and Fred were deep in conversation, and I saw Lee say something about a potion, sticking to their plan. However, George was looking at me, a small smile on his face. I smiled back at him, and he went back to talking with his friend and his brother.