Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale

Chapter Three: Quidditch, Polls, and Dares

The first Quidditch practice of the year was a flop. A major flop.

Oliver was ranting and raving about his game plans at top speed, pacing and looking like a psychopath. Alicia was daydreaming about Roger Davies, then mentally kicking herself for fancying The Enemy, then thinking about Roger's blue eyes.

Harry was contemplating ways to shove Draco Malfoy off a cliff and not get caught. He then asked himself if a bridge would bee more discreet. But the real question was if he actually wanted to be discreet.

Fred was thinking about Angelina's smile, and Angelina was thinking about Fred's laugh.

George was (surprise, surprise) inventing pranks, and debating about joke names with Maud, his inner monologue.

Katie imagined Pierce's face on a voodoo doll, and herself sticking him with pins, before finally getting bored and hacking his head off with a butter knife. After mentally jumping all over the ruined doll while shrieking, "DIEDIEDIEDIE!" at the top of her lungs, Katie raised her hand.

"Yes, Kate?" Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow in vague happiness. Maybe someone's actually understanding my Battle Tactics, he thought.

But then again, maybe not. ""Um, is there any possible way that you could condense all of this into three sentences? Because, otherwise, we are so freakin' lost." Katie said all of this with a neutral expression.

Oliver felt a surge of anger go through him. "Katie! Would you please take this a little seriously? It's our last chance- my last chance at the Quidditch Cup! If we don't train, and-and practice, and win, I'm screwed! If you could just see things my way-"

"Well, I tried to see things your way, but I couldn't get my head that far up my ass!" Katie cried, glaring.

"This isn't some game!"

"Yeah, it is!"

By this time, Oliver was clearly exasperated. "That's beside the point," he said with clenched teeth.

"Then, what is the point, Oliver?" Katie hissed, saying his name with emphasis.

Oliver found that he had nothing to say. The team was silent. Katie and Oliver's faces were no more than an inch away, and from a distance, it could have looked like they were kissing. Katie's green eyes locked with Oliver's hazel ones, and they attempted to stare each other down.

The Seventh Year found himself very intimidated by Katie's fierce stance, and backed away. "Look, let's just get in the air," he said resignedly.

The team obliged wordlessly and calmly, but up in the air was pandemonium.

Katie kept hurling Quaffles at her captain's head, and George (finding it absolutely hilarious) began hitting Bludgers Oliver's way as well. Alicia was floating around with a lovesick expression on her face, and proceeded to knock into goal posts and trees without noticing. Fred and Angelina were playing Tickle Tag, and Angelina was shrieking, "I give, I give!" every three seconds. Even Harry, the "serious Seeker" was skiving off. He hung upside down on his broomstick, seeing how long it took him to get dizzy.

If Oliver had been exasperated before, this had to be exasperation squared. For about half an hour, he tried in vain to get the team to train, but he gave up when Fred and Angelina proceeded to make out 45 feet up in the air.

"Let's just go inside!" Oliver yelled, narrowly avoiding a Quaffle that had been hit expertly by Katie.

"Thanks, honey," Katie said smirking.

She stayed immobile while the rest of the team headed downwards, cloaks fluttering out behind them. For a moment, Katie tipped her broom down, dropping five feet.

Then she lingered, suspended in air, plotting. Finally she jumped off, streaking towards the ground faster than she cared to think about.

She hit the grass, still in standing position, the rest of her teammates gaping from fifteen feet above her, and looked up at her broom. Katie took her wand out of her pocket, cried "Accio!" at it, and watched as it flew into her hand. Shaking her black hair out of her face, Katie walked serenely back to the showers, broomstick slung over her shoulder.

*

<<<<< Oliver's POV >>>>>

As soon as the team (minus Katie) and I landed, George started cackling like a madman.

Still in a crappy mood about practice, I snapped "What the bloody hell is so funny?"

George snorted, and said "God, I love that girl."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Sure you do, mate. Because Katie is just so loveable."

George just stood there with this stupid grin on his face. "She is something else."

Yeah. I guess she is.

*

"I've got three for new!" Fred called over at me during lunch.

"Fred!" I yelled back. "Would you STOP making Katie's life a bloody poll?"

Fed smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Ol. It's just so fucking fun! So far the new is winning by seventeen points." He bent over a piece of parchment, carefully adding three more tallies to the "NEW" side.

The Weasley twins were conducting a poll about the people's preference of Katie: did they like the old, perky Katie Bell, or the new, sarcastic Katie Bell?

"Ollie, can I put you down for old or new?" George waited expectantly for an answer.

I gave him a look, and answered, "New."

Just then, Katie slid into the seat next to me. "So, Ol, you like the new me better?" After a cold shower, Katie was in a much better mood than at practice.

I dove for my pumpkin juice, and downed it, avoiding the question.

"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow, smiling crookedly.

I choked on the juice.

After a coughing fit, I yelled, "Oy! George!"

The redhead looked over at me, grinning. "'Ello, Ollie!"

"Change my vote to 'old'!"

Katie bit into her sandwich, tied her hair up in a high ponytail, and stuck her green quill into it. "Sure, honey." She stood up and patted my shoulder. "I believe you."

And with that, she walked off to the Slytherin table, punched that Malfoy kid squarely in the face, and (without stopping) turned back in my direction, spread her arms wide, and called, "My life makes for an interesting poll, doesn't it?" Then, she disappeared down a corridor, expertly avoiding a fuming Severus Snape.

Turning back to my food, I shook my head. While pouring myself another goblet of pumpkin juice, I said to no one in particular, "That girl."

*

"Truth or dare?"

"Umm...."

"Oliver! Truth or dare?"

I blinked once, then twice. "Um, dare? Yeah. Okay. Dare."

Angelina's eyes glittered as she smiled widely, probably plotting what kind of torture she could inflict upon me in Magical Truth or Dare, where you can't lie, and can't back down.

She twisted a long braid around her finger as her eyes slid past Fred, Katie, George, Percy, Alicia, Harry and his two best friends Ron and Hermione, went back to Percy, then settled on Katie.

Her smile widened. "Okay, Oliver. You have to kiss Kate for fifteen seconds."

"What?!" I cried.

"WHAT?!" Katie shrieked.

Angelina wagged her finger at us. "Magical Truth or Dare, you know."

Katie's eyes slitted and widened in a time span of about two seconds, and she stood up. "Excuse me for a second," she said in a waaaaaaaaay-too-calm voice.

Katie walked over to the portrait, and flung it open. Just as Angelina got up to retrieve her wayward friend, Katie stuck her head out of the portrait hole and let out a glass-shattering yell. Everyone in the common room froze, as for a minute and twenty-one seconds, Kathryn Bell screamed the longest scream that has ever graced the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Katie stuck her head back in, and let the portrait slam shut. She brushed off some nonexistent dirt, and said, "I'm done." She seated herself back in between Fred and George.

And Angelina's grin was back. "It has to be a real kiss."

"Somebody dare me to kill her," Katie said through clenched teeth.

I glared at the grinning girl. "Angelina Johnson, as you team captain and your friend, I advise you strongly against this."

"Oh, fuck you," Angelina said sweetly. "Get on with it! We wanna see some romance!"

"This is not romance," Katie snapped. "This is...tyranny! Only worse!"

The two of us proceeded to stare her down. Finally, Katie looked back at me. "Aw, hell, let's just get this over with."

So she leaned forward, and I leaned forward, and for fifteen seconds, it was one hell of a kiss, with people whooping and laughing in the backround.

When we pulled back, Angelina managed to choke out, "Which one of you victims are dishing out the next round of hell?"

"I am," Katie announced. "Angelina, truth or dare?"

Still laughing, Ang wasn't paying attention.

"Say 'dare,'" I ordered.

"Dare," she said without thinking. "Oops...!"The color slowly drained out of her caramel colored face.

Katie smirked. "I dare you to tell everyone in this room that you are a...a sex-crazed lunatic."

"What?"

"A horny sex-crazed lunatic."

"What?!"

"A horny sex-crazed lunatic, and could you please give them a lap dance."

"What?!"

Katie smirked again. "And if they say yes, then you have to give them one!" (A/N: Katie is SO evil)

"WHAT?!"

"Do I have to spell it?"

"WHAT?!"

"Payback, hon. Now come on, we wanna see some humor!"

"THIS IS NOT HUMOR!" Angelina roared.

"That was not romance," I retorted.

"Oh, yes it was" Angelina hissed viciously. "'Cause you two actually like each other, so making you kiss was freakin' romance! But this!" She broke off. "This is just wrong! Lap dances? Oooh!"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Kate beat me to it. "First of all, Oliver and I do not like each other. Second of all, you don't actually have to give them a lap dance unless they say yes. Now, shut up, and begin the public humiliation. God knows, I need a laugh."

Angelina let out an indignant and furious, "Oohhghhh!" and proceeded to inform the nearest First year of her "sexual needs."

Lee, Fred, George, Alicia, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and even Percy were cracking up behind me. I glanced at Katie, who had a half-smile playing on her thin lips.

"I am so good," she said quietly.

I had to agree with her. The queen of mean. The master of revenge. The Princess of payback. (A/N: Ok, Katie's evil, and Ol's a hopeless loserish geek. *nods head vigorously* Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh!)

"Oh, yes."

<<<<< End Oliver's POV >>>>>

The next day, it was all over the school that Angelina had given three Gryffindor guys (and one girl) a lap dance. She threatened to inflict everyone with major pain and discomfort if they didn't shut up. Needless to say, nobody paid attention. It was only when Katie stood up on the Gryffindor table and put on quite a show did they finally silence.

It was half-past noon when Katie finally took action.

Pierce Addams had just called Angelina a slut, and walked off in a hurry. Angelina put her head in her hands, burst into tears, and croaked, "I am not a slut."

Katie placed a hand on her shoulder. "No, you're a good person on the receiving end of a dare. More importantly, though, you're my friend, and those people are asses." She sighed. "And I'm going to set things right."

Katie took a deep breath, shoved her plate in, and stood up on the table. "Angelina did NOT do what she did out of her own accord! NOT! So whatever the hell you think is moot! Let me repeat: MOOT! She had just dared me to kiss Ol, so naturally, I was royally pissed. Afterwards, I dared her to...well, you know, and if you don't, I'm not wasting my frigging time explaining it to you, and since were were playing Magical Truth or Dare, she couldn't back down! That would be MY dark mind at work, not hers! So, LAY OFF! Honestly!" Katie paused. "And Pierce Addams is a rat bastard!"

The 'bastard' echoed in the large hall. She gave one more glare at the entire room, and sat down in her rightful place.

Angelina coughed. "Thanks, Kate."

"No big."

Oliver poked Katie in the side. "Hey! What d'you mean, naturally?"

Katie spent the rest of the lunch hour laughing.

*