Shattered Dreams

It wasn't as if Jaymie had never seen him before. Heck, she saw him every day. Standing there, with those eyes that looked like melted chocolate and that lopsided grin on his face, broom in hand, staring down at her from her dormitory wall. Then there were the pictures that grinned from the pages of her scrapbook, the pages of her journal, and the desktop of her computer at home during the summer. And of course, there was the voice - that voice - which sent shivers up and down Jaymie's spine whenever she heard it. And she heard it a lot. Jaymie, as well as her roommates, scoured the Daily Prophet every day, looking for any sign of him. Whenever anyone interviewed him, they all listened to it, and recorded it too. Jaymie listened to his voice whenever she had the chance, which was pretty much every day. The interviews were usually the same, and of course, the recordings always were, but Jaymie was practically addicted to the sound of his voice. So it wasn't as if Jaymie had never seen him before. But in spite of all her daydreaming, she never actually expected to meet him in real life. And she didn't expect him to shatter her dream world.

The morning had started out surprisingly well. For the first time since coming to Hogwarts, Jaymie woke up feeling refreshed. Not only that, but she still had forty-five minutes before her alarm was supposed to go off. Her roommates - Cherie Conner, Aine Thomas, and Bethany Jones - were still asleep, and Jaymie lay in bed for a few minutes, hoping to maybe go back to sleep. But she was too awake by then, so Jaymie got out of bed, switched off her alarm, and headed toward the showers. She was just wrapping herself in her bathrobe when Bethany walked sleepily in, running into the doorjamb. Jaymie giggled as Bethany softly swore. It always amused her that the star keeper of Gryffindor's Quidditch team could be as much of a klutz as Jaymie was herself. But then, she played keeper too, so maybe it was all part of the position.

"Shut up, Donovan," Bethany said to Jaymie. "You're one to talk, you know. And it's bloody early. What are you doing up, anyway? The propp team doesn't have to attend this morning."

"I know," Jaymie replied, referring to the Quidditch training session. Jaymie played keeper on Gryffindor's practice opposition (aka propp) team - a team that the Weasley twins had thought up so that Gryffindor could practice better. "As for being awake, I don't know," Jaymie continued, turning her head upside down and rubbing her dark auburn curls with her towel. "I just woke up for some reason."

"Yeah? Well, I sure wish I could 'just wake up' for practice," Bethany grumbled, brushing her shoulder length blonde hair. She quickly pulled her hair back into two pigtails, and bent over to splash water on her face. As she scrubbed her face with a towel she mumbled, "Bloody Weasley thinks he's got to be a damn drill sergeant. 5:45 practices oughta be outlawed."

"Mmhmm," Jaymie agreed, scrunching mousse into her hair.

"Rats, I'm going to be late. Bye Jaym'," Bethany said, leaving the bathroom in a rush.

"'Bye," Jaymie called softly after her.

Bethany was soon replaced by Hermione, who came in quietly to prepare for the day. Hermione was not, technically, one of her roommates, but Jaymie had enjoyed getting to know her, and was glad that the two rooms of girls - one with Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender; the other with Jaymie, Aine, Cherie, and Bethany - shared a connected bathroom. Jaymie saw very little of Parvati and Lavender though; the two girls preferred to skip breakfast and used charms on their hair and makeup, which allowed them more sleep. When Jaymie had first come to Hogwarts, Parvati and Lavender had pressed her to follow their lead, but Jaymie was a firm believer in breakfast as the most important meal of the day. Besides, Jaymie kind of thought that Parvati and Lavender looked fakely perfect - although she would, of course, never tell them that.

With these thoughts, Jaymie began putting her hair up so that half of it would be pinned into an intricate design on top of her head. She loved doing her hair like this, but she rarely had the time during the school year.

"Morning Jaymie," Hermione said, coming out of the shower. "You're up early this morning."

"You too," Jaymie grinned at her. "I just randomly woke up, and I was wide awake. What about you?"

"Oh, I just needed to get the Potions essay done," Hermione replied, squirting mousse in her hand and bending over to run it through her hair.

Jaymie gaped at her in the mirror, horror-stricken. "Holy crap, Herms, when is it due? Did I completely forget about it?"

"Oh, it's not due for another week," Hermione said, smiling sedately at her in the mirror. "I just wanted to get it out of the way."

"You totally freaked me out!" Jaymie said, taking a deep breath.

Hermione laughed a little, saying, "Well, I'll see you around, okay?"

"See you," Jaymie called, pinning up the last curl of her hair.

Just as she reached for her make-up bag, Cherie and Aine's alarms went off simultaneously. Jaymie laughed to herself; she always found it amusing that the two insisted on setting separate alarms, even though they always got up at the same time. Aine picked hers up and threw it across the room, as Cherie groaned and rolled over, burying her head in her pillow. Soon, however, the two girls stumbled into the bathroom and into the showers. Aine came out first, and seeing Jaymie applying make-up, she exclaimed, "Jaymie Donovan! What are you doing?"

"Putting on eyeliner at the moment," Jaymie replied, rubbing the pencil on her inner lid.

"Well that was obvious," Aine replied, a bit sarcastically, causing Jaymie to bite back a grin. "But the hair, the make-up; you look like you're going to a ball or something. What's that all about?"

"I don't know," Jaymie shrugged, putting the finishing touches on her make-up. "I just woke up super early this morning, and I'm trying to kill time."

"Well, you look killer, that's for sure. You're going to make the rest of us look like we just rolled out of bed and came to class. I might need sunglasses to look at you. Oh, and I'll have to get Beth to grab me a beater so that I can walk next to you. Otherwise, I'll be crowded out by the boys."

"Oh, 'Lise, you couldn't look ugly if you tried. Besides, what are you saying about the way I've looked formerly? Do I need to be insulted?"

"Dah-ling, you always look gorgeous!" Cherie exclaimed, being overly dramatic, as usual. Coming up behind Jaymie, she touched Jaymie's hair, saying, "But I sure wish I could do my hair like this."

"It's not too hard," Jaymie said, peering closely at her self in the mirror. "It takes awhile to do, but it's easy once you get the hang of it. I'll show you how to do it sometime."

"Sounds great!" Cherie enthused, giving Jaymie a side hug. Jaymie returned the hug, and then, grinning, she turned and walked out of the bathroom. It seemed like it would be a fairly cool day, so she put on her black stockings under her pleated skirt. She buttoned her blouse, knotted her tie loosely, and pulled her sweater carefully over her hair. She cast one more glance at herself in the mirror, and was extremely satisfied with what she saw there.

Seeing that Aine and Cherie were still getting ready, Jaymie sat back down on her bed, pulling out her Potions book as she did so. Maybe I can get some ideas for that essay. I might as well do something useful, she thought to herself. Jaymie, however, was not very interested in Potions, and her mind wandered to thoughts about how strange it was that she had only known Cherie, Aine, and Bethany for two and a half months. She had come to Hogwarts at the beginning of her sixth year, transferring from Aidanlea, its counterpart in Canada. And yet, Jaymie thought, it seemed as though she had known the girls forever. Of course, their shared obsession of Oliver Wood, former Hogwarts student and now pro-Quidditch player, had certainly gone a long way in helping to establish a good relationship between the girls.

Ah, Oliver, Jaymie thought, sighing at the mere thought of him. She walked over to the poster that was taped against the wall. He stood, broomstick in hand, in the middle of a Quidditch pitch. His smiling face was currently tilted up toward the sky, and in a matter of seconds, he had hopped on his broom and flown off. Maybe that's a sign that he's feeling better, Jaymie thought, knowing that he'd been ill for about two weeks now. Jaymie stood, grinning at the poster, until the voice of Cherie broke through her thoughts.

"Jaym, are you ready to go to breakfast?" she asked.

"Just a minute," Jaymie said, dashing back to her bed. She shoved her Potions book into her bag, pulled her robes on, stepped into her shoes, and turned back toward the door, where her two friends were waiting.

"Thursday, here we come," Aine said dramatically, flinging open the door. Cherie and Jaymie giggled, and after Jaymie had closed the door behind them, the three joined arms, walking down the staircase side-by-side. They glanced around the Common Room for Hermione, but she had apparently already left for the Great Hall.

"Do you know," Jaymie asked thoughtfully as they climbed out of the portrait hole, "I haven't tripped or run into anything or hurt myself in any way yet today?" The three girls joined arms once again, heading down the staircase toward the Great Hall. "It's really rather odd."

"Careful, Donovan," a mocking voice spoke from behind them. "You'll jinx yourself."

"It is odd," Cherie spoke up, as if the other person had never butted in. "It is rather unlike you. Maybe-"

"Good morning to you too, Conner," the mocking voice interrupted, and a boy appeared beside the three, wrapping his arm around Cherie's waist. "It's such a joy to see you." Cherie stopped walking, releasing Aine, whose arm she had been holding. Aine and Jaymie stopped as well, turning on the stairs to glare at this intruder.

"Matthews," Cherie gritted out stonily, "get off of me before I beat the bloody hell out of you."

"Now Conner," the Gryffindor said, mockingly stern. "There's no need to use such nasty language."

Cherie looked disgusted, merely saying, "You heard me, Matthews." Jaymie saw that Cherie had slipped her hand into the pocket of her robes, and was now tightly gripping her wand. Before Cherie could do anything, however, Aine had pulled out her wand and pointed it at Jeremy Matthews' head.

"Matthews," she nearly shouted, "get your bloody hands off!"

Jeremy smirked at her, but he released Cherie's waist and backed off. "Calm down, Thomas," he said mockingly, although he looked a bit wary. "There's no need to get all riled up, just because you're jealous."

Aine narrowed her eyes, looking utterly disgusted. "Don't flatter yourself Matthews." Without waiting for a response, she turned and headed down the stairs. Jaymie and Cherie followed her quickly, ignoring the smirking Gryffindor boy who stared after them.

"Stupid prat," Aine muttered as they sat down at the table in the Great Hall. "I don't know how he made it into Gryffindor - noble my eye! He's more Slytherin material in my opinion."

"Are you talking about Matthews?" Beth asked, coming up behind them. Jaymie jumped, startled, and Beth laughed, sat down and threw her arm around her. "Morning Donovan!" she said cheerily. "Didn't scare you, did I?"

"No, not at all," Jaymie lied serenely. "And to answer your original question, yes, we were."

"He's muggle-born," Bethany said, leaning forward and lowering her voice. "You know Slytherin would never let in a 'filthy mu-' well, you know. It might rub off - as if they're not dirty enough by themselves."

"Bastards," Aine said, stabbing an egg. "And I still don't think he belongs in Gryffindor."

"Yeah, 'cause I can just see him in Hufflepuff," Bethany replied sarcastically.

"Well, there's still Ra-" Aine began defensively, but was cut off by Jaymie, who said, "And he'd never make it in Ravenclaw. You know he's not exactly the brightest crayon in the box. Or at least I sure know it."

Jaymie said this somewhat bitterly; Snape had assigned her to partner with Jeremy Matthews in Potions earlier in the semester. The partnership came to an abrupt end when Jaymie had broken a rather thick bottle over Jeremy's, in her words, "rather thick skull." His skull wasn't too thick however; he'd been sent - well... carried, unconscious - to Madame Pomfrey right away (although not before three girls had fainted from the sight of all the blood). This resulted in 15 points being stripped from Gryffindor for the disruption, and four days of detention for Jaymie. It was worth it to Jaymie however, because it also resulted in a change of partners; she was now paired with Aine's cousin, Dean Thomas, which was a refreshing relief, especially since Dean (quite unlike Jeremy) could tell the difference between dried wolfsbane and hellebore (which, as everyone knows, look nothing alike). Of course, Jaymie also appreciated the fact that Dean didn't make... erm... suggestive comments to her every two minutes, as well as the fact that he didn't try to grope Jaymie every time Snape turned his back.

The girls had been so caught up in their conversation about the hated Jeremy Matthews that they hadn't noticed the whispering of students around them and the gawking glances toward the professors' table. Finally becoming aware of her surroundings, Aine asked quizzically, "What's everyone staring at?" The four girls turned simultaneously toward the professors' table, and sucked in a collective gasp.

"What's he doing here?" Jaymie asked, a look of awe and amazement on her face.

"He's here. Who cares why?" Cherie replied dreamily.

"I can't believe Weasley didn't tell us he was coming," Beth said under her breath. And Aine, for once in her life, appeared to be speechless.