Cultural Exchange

Chpt. 2- Outbursts and Parties

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Kristy screamed. "Wait, what do you have to tell us?"

"Well, she got hit pretty hard with that baseball, so she might be out for a few hours," Madame Pomfrey said. "There is also a chance that she will have some memory loss."

"How much memory loss?" Lacey asked.

"Well, I'm not really sure. It ranges from person to person. She might not have any at all," Madame Pomfrey said.

"We'll check back later," Emily said.

They all left the room and headed to their next class; potions. They were all talking about what happened in gym class. Ron was the only quiet one. He kept his head down and walked a little ways from the others. Harry ended the conversation he was having with Phil and Ray and lingered behind the others so that Ron could catch up with him.

"Hey mate," he said to Ron. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ron said glumly.

Harry couldn't help but smile. "It's Kourtney, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's her," Ron said exasperatedly. "Who else would it be?"

Harry looked thoughtful "I dunno, Hermione, maybe?"

Ron sighed. "Well, I liked her for a few years, but I realized it would never work out. We're too close."

"Yeah, that's true," said Harry. "So, what are you gonna do about Kourtney?"

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"What do you mean?" Ron looked quizzical.

"I mean, are you gonna ask her out!?" Harry shouted at him.

"Oh...um...should I?" Ron asked.

Harry sighed deeply. "Ron, how should I put this...?" He paused for a moment trying to think of t right thing to say. "You're a bloody git if you don't ask her out! It's obvious to everyone that she likes you and vise versa!" He calmed down a little. "Now come on, everyone is probably wondering where we're at, plus we don't want to be late for Snape's class, now do we?" They walked down the potions class, both feeling a bit more relieved.

They walked in just before the bell rang. They found a seat in the back of the room and sat down, luckily, right before Snape entered the room. He walked in briskly, robes billowing behind him.

"Betcha he's gay," Kristy muttered to Emily. They both snickered and Snape glanced in their direction.

"Quiet," he muttered to them, before addressing the whole class.

"As most of you know," he drawled. "I am Professor Snape. There will be no foolish wand waving in this class, which means you can actually do some work, so don't think that you will sit in this class and waste my time."

"You're wasting my time too," Kristy muttered under her breath.

His eyes flickered towards Kristy, as though he heard her, but then focused his attention back to the class. "This is a potion class, and I am the potion's teacher. I will tell you what to do, and I expect you to do it. If you're lucky, you might pass, but if you're like Potter, well then that's an entirely different story." Harry turned slightly pink and stared at his desk intently, while Kristy glared at Snape.

"Don't do it," Emily muttered at Kristy, who looked like she was ready to snap.

Kristy muttered something loud enough that most of the class heard her. Emily sighed and shook her head sadly. Snape turned towards her.

"Do you have something to say - Miss Barner I'd presume? - that's worth interrupting my lecture?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Kristy said to him, not faltering at all.

Snape sneered wickedly. "Go on."

Kristy took a deep breath and glared smugly at Snape. "You are a complete waste of my time, you have no respect for others, and you're rude, inconsiderate, and self- righteous. You also need to take a shower, you greasy haired moron!"

All of the Gryffindors started laughing, and even a few of the Slytherins were snickering quietly. No one had ever told off Professor Snape before. Snape's face turned a weird shade of purple and red, an unusual sight to see. He stared at her in disbelief, but then composed himself.

"One hundred points from Gryffindor and detention for a week!" he shouted at her. "You should be lucky it's not more! Now everyone turn to page 143 in your text book and copy down the ingredients and procedure for a making a sleeping drought. You can all leave when the bell rings, except for Potter." With that, he went into his office, but not before giving Kristy a nasty glare.

Harry glanced at Ron. "What did I do?" he whispered.

Ron looked up from his book. "I dunno, but whatever he wants, I'll bet it's not good."

They finished copying their notes as soon as the bell rang. Everyone gathered up their things and put them in their bags and left. Everyone except for Ron and Harry, that is.

Ron stuffed a quill into his bag. "I'll wait for you outside," he told Harry.

"Thanks, Ron," Harry said and went to Snape's office door and knocked. "Professor?" he called out.

Snape opened his door partway. "What do you want, Potter?" he spat.

"You said you wanted to see me after class, sir," he said carefully.

"Oh, yes. You'd better tell your girlfriend to take her outbursts somewhere else, or you'll be joining her in detention. I don't have time for that in my class." He slammed the door in Harry's face.

Harry walked out of the room and joined Ron. "What happened?" Ron asked.

Harry sighed and started walked with Ron towards the Great Hall. "Oh, nothing much, he just told me that if my girlfriend makes anymore outbursts like that, I'll be in detention with her, too."

"Who Kristy?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, really, I didn't even do anything wrong..." Harry said distractedly. Ron had a mischievous look on his face, which wasn't surprising, him being a Weasley and all.

"What?" Harry asked the red head.

Ron grinned. "Oh, it's nothing."

When they walked in, everyone in the room was gradually growing silent. They both looked at each other and shrugged. They walked over to the Gryffindor table and took a seat on either side of Hermione.

"What's going on?" Harry whispered to the others.

"Dumbledore is about to make a speech," Kristy said. "So, SHHHH!" she said this loud enough for a few Ravenclaws to turn their heads.

"What are you looking at?" Kristy said menacingly. They gave her a sharp look and then turned their attention back to Dumbledore. "That's what I thought," Kristy said and she too, turned her attention to Dumbledore as Harry tried to stifle a laugh.

"My fellow students, as we all know, Halloween is a glorious time for magic and other unearthly things. Since our new friends are here to stay for a while, what a better way to get to know them more then having a Halloween dance!"

There was a huge outburst from the students in the Great Hall at this and Harry banged his head down on the table. "I hate dances!"

"Well, you don't have to go," Emily said harshly.

"Well, I like the dances itself, just not the dancing part," Harry said, his voice slightly muffled by the table.

Kristy got a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Don't worry Harry! We'll teach you how to dance!" She said this loudly and a few first and second years down the table snickered.

"Shut it, you arrogant little twerps! I'm sure you really know how to dance!" Kristy shouted at them. They glanced at her, wide-eyed and turned around without saying another word.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Now I know I didn't give you a lot of time to plan for this, considering Halloween is about a week away, but there will be a trip to Hogsmeade this Saturday so you can all buy a costume for the dance. Or, for the more creative and cheaper ones, you might want to make your own costume. Now have a nice lunch." With that, Dumbledore sat back down at his place at the staff table and everyone finished their lunch.

They headed to their next and final class for the day, which was History of Magic. The girls were discussing what costumes they were going to wear for the dance, and Ray and Phil were talking about who knows what. Ron and Harry stayed back a little so they didn't have to listen to the girls.

"So is she?" Ron asked suddenly, completely off the subject.

"Is who what?" a perplexed Harry asked.

"Is Kristy your girlfriend?" Ron asked

"Oh, no," Harry said, but then a sly grin appeared on his face. "But I was thinking about asking her to the dance..."

Ron laughed. "Go ahead, mate. It seems like she likes you."

"You should be the one talking. Are you gonna ask Kourtney to the dance?" Harry asked Ron curiously as they entered the classroom.

Ron's ears turned slightly pink. "I guess I should, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah, you should," Harry said as Professor Binns entered the class.

Lacey jumped a little. "Ah! You're a ghost! Shut up, Kristy!" she said to Kristy who was trying not to laugh.

"Yes, I am. Now class, today we will be talking about the 14th century rebellions of the German goblins. Alfred the Great was the leader of the Turkish goblins at that time and he led..." Harry smiled a little as he watched Kristy make faces at the preoccupied teacher, but his smile turn abruptly into a frown as her got hit in the head with a wad of parchment. He opened it to find a note written in Ron's untidy scrawl.

Harry,

When are you gonna ask Kristy to the dance? It better be soon, because I want to see the look on your face when you get rejected. Only joking, mate. Why don't you ask her now?

Ron

Harry read the letter and grinned. He looked at Ron, shook his head no, and wrote back.

Ron,

Don't rush me! I'll ask her later. I don't exactly see you springing up to ask Kourtney, but under the circumstances, I see why. As for the rejected thing, I hope spiders attack you in your sleep, Weasley!

Harry

Ron read the note and shuddered. "Spiders?" he whispered to Harry. Harry nodded and Ron shoved him slightly. "You prat!" he said.

After class ended, they went back up in the common room to drop off their stuff. Ray and Phil went to go find some mischief. Lacey, Hermione, Emily, and Ron decided to go see how Kourtney was doing.

"Are you guys coming?" Lacey asked Harry and Kristy.

"Nope, I'm wiped. I send my condolences though," Kristy said and laughed slightly. Everyone else looked at her strangely.

"You guys gotta get out more. It was a joke. You know ha, ha. Laugh, laugh. Come on people, work with me here!" silence.

"Ugh..." Kristy muttered and turned back to the book that she was reading.

"Yeah...well are you coming, Harry?" Lacey asked him.

"I'll pass. I'm pretty tired. I'll go down later," Harry said.

Kristy was half listening from the sofa where she was reading her book. "Uh-huh, yeah, me too, later."

"Ok, see you guys later," Emily said to both of them. At the same time Ron was mouthing 'Ask her!' to Harry. Harry gave Ron a look and he grinned and followed the girls down to the hospital wing.

Okay, thought Harry. This can't be too hard. What's the worst that could happen? Okay, one. Two. Three.

"Harry, I have something to ask you," Kristy said.

At the same time, Harry said, "Kristy, I have something to ask you."

They both laughed. "You go first," they said at the same time.

There was a moment of awkward silence. Then, "Would you go to the dance with me?" the both of them asked each other.

"Yes!" they said in unison.

The both of them started laughing. "Well, that was interesting," Kristy said.

"Yeah." said Harry, his face slightly pink. "So," He got off the chair and sat next to Kristy on the sofa. "What are you reading?"

"Oh it's a really cool book I got out of the library," Kristy said.

"Uh oh, a Hermione in the making," Harry said, grinning.

Kristy hit him playfully. "It's a quidditch book, Harry," she said.

"Oh, well in that case..." Harry scooted closer to her and started reading, with interest.

For the hour or so, Kristy and Harry sat there reading the quidditch book. They didn't even look up when they hear the stomping of their best friend's feet signaling that they entered the common room.

"Guess whose back? Back again," a very recognizable voice said.

Kristy and Harry looked up. "Hey Spak!" they said in unison once again and started laughing.

"Well, well, well...is it time to have 'the talk' with you two?" Kourtney said, grinning.

"What are you talking about?" Kristy asked her.

"Well, I dunno, you tell me. You two are looking pretty cozy together on that couch," Kourtney said, laughing.

"Yeah...well...um..." Kristy stammered.

Spak grinned. "Holding hands, too. I'd have to say our young Kristy is...in love!" she pretended to cry.

"Put a sock in it, Spak..." Kristy said.

Ron laughed. "Oh, Herm our precious little Harry is growing up so fast!" he wiped a fake tear. Even Hermione grinned at this.

"Oh yeah? Go ahead and ask Kourtney what you were planning on asking her," an annoyed Harry said.

Kourtney looked at Ron. "What were you going to ask me?"

"Is he gonna pop the question?" Lacey suddenly whispered to Emily.

"Lacey! They're not even dating...yet." Emily said, laughing.

Ron's ears turned slightly pink. "Do you...um; wanna go to the dance with me?"

Kourtney looked at him like he sprouted another head. "Are you crazy?! There's no way I would go to the dance with you! God only knows what's crawling around in your hair!"

Kristy stared at her dumbfounded, her mouth slightly open.

Kourtney burst out laughing. "I'm joking! Of course I want to go to the dance with you!"

Ron's look of horror suddenly changed to one of bliss. "Whew. That's a relief."

Harry waved a hand at Kristy, who was still staring at Kourtney in disbelief. "Woohoo, anyone home?"

"I don't think there's ever been anyone home," said Emily, laughing at the expression on Kristy's face.

Harry poked her in the side. She still kept staring, but fidgeted a little. Harry grinned mischievously and started tickling her. She screamed bloody murder.

"Okay! Okay! I'm better now! Harry!" She was torn between laughing and screaming. Harry stopped and helped her back up to a sitting position.

"Thank you..." She gave Harry a dark look.

Just then, Phil and Ray walked in the room.

"Hey, stoners!" she yelled in their direction.

"Proud of it!" they both yelled back and disappeared up the steps to the boy's dorm.

"Right...so, who are you guys gonna go to the dance with?" Kristy asked suddenly.

"Oh, um, I don't know yet," Lacey said.

"I was thinking about asking Draco Malfoy," Emily blurted out.

Kristy screamed and grabbed her cross that was hanging on a chain around her neck. "Ah! Get away from me, you demon!"

Emily laughed. "Chill out, I was only joking."

Kristy glanced at her warily and let go of her cross. "I knew that."

"Sure you did," Kourtney said sarcastically. "Let's go down to the Great Hall! A ball to the head sure makes a person hungry!"

Kristy sighed. "Wish I could, but I have detention with Snape in ten minutes."

"Don't worry," Harry reassured her. "I know the way to the kitchens. We can go down later, if you want." He ignored the look that Hermione was giving him.

Kristy was about to thank him, when Kourtney interrupted them. "Wait, hold the phone! Did I miss something here?"

Emily laughed. "Oh, Spak, Kristy flipped out on Snape! He insulted Harry's intelligence, which-" she paused for a moment. "Never mind," she added hastily. "Anyway, Kristy snapped at him! It was funny, but she got detention for a week and lost Gryffindor a hundred points."

"Oh, I see." Kourtney looked thoughtful. "Damn, I wish I would have been there to see that!"

"Well, it's not happening again, so you're out of luck," Kristy said. "A week of detention with Snape is gonna be horrible! Speaking of which, I'll see you guys later." She walked out of the portrait hole, while the others gradually got up and went to dinner.

~*~

Kristy walked into the room three hours later, only to see her usual group of friends sitting by the fire, chatting. She plopped down on the arm of the chair that Spak was sitting on, exhausted from her detention.

"Three hours of scrubbing cauldrons and wiping potion bottles!" she said indignantly. "I can't believe that stupid grease monkey!" She sighed in frustration. "So, what have you guys been up to?"

"Not much, just talking about what we're gonna wear for the dance," Lacey said.

"Oh," she said half-heartedly, not even bothering to ask what they decided on wearing. She looked around at her ground of friends. "Where are Ray and Phil?"

Ron pointed to the one corner of the room where they were huddled together reading and writing on a piece of notebook paper. "They're Fred and George's in the making," Ron said.

"Who?" Kourtney asked, jumping into the conversation.

"Two of my brothers, they were doing the same exact thing last year. They're big pranksters. They've broke more rules then everyone in the school put together."

"You wouldn't be talking about us would you?" asked a voice behind him.

"Oh, hey George, hi Fred," Ron said as he turned around and saw the twins.

"Hey Ronnie, word on the street is that you have a girlfriend. Is it true?" Fred asked him with a grin on his face.

"Um..." Ron didn't know what to say.

"Come on, Ron! Stand up to your brothers!" Kristy told him. "Yes, he has a girlfriend!" she exclaimed to the twins.

"So, I take it you're his girlfriend?" George asked her.

"Hell no!" she shouted. "No offense Ron, but you're not my type."

"Uh..." He was still at a loss for words.

"What's the matter Ronnie? Cat got your tongue?" Fred asked him.

"Anyway," George said, looking at the other girls. "Is it you?" he asked, indicating towards Emily.

She was taken by surprise. "What? No, I have an American boyfriend, thank you very much."

"If you want to get technical, he's Egyptian," proclaimed Kristy.

"Enough!" Kourtney screamed. "I am his girlfriend, and if you have a problem with that, too bad!"

"Whoa, testy little American girl..." George grinned. "I like her. Good job Ronnie, for once you didn't screw up. Now if you don't mind, we have some important business with Lee about a large pack of dung bombs he just bought." The two boys left the common room.

Ron sighed. "Brothers..."

"Yeah, they're a pain," Kourtney said. "My little brother Korey is so annoying. One time..." Kourtney and Ron went off together, talking.

"Uh oh, she's talking about her brother, they might be a while," Kristy said. "Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow." There was a chorus of good nights and Kristy headed upstairs.

~*~

The rest of the week went by pretty fast. They had Care of Magical Creatures on Wednesday and Kourtney got mad at Malfoy and gave him a black eye for insulting Hagrid. Kristy got another They had two free classes on Friday, because they were supposed to have double Defense Against the Dark Arts, but they still didn't have a teacher. It was Friday night, after dinner and they were all sitting in the common room, bored to death.

"I'm bored," Kristy said.

"Me too," Ray said.

"I'm bored."

"Me too."

"I'm bor-"

"Guy's shut up, would you?" Phil said.

They all sat in silence for a few minutes.

"I'm bored," Ray said.

"Me too," Kristy said.

"Ugh, we need to find something to do, and fast!" Emily exclaimed.

"I know!" Kourtney said, suddenly coming out of her state of boredom. "Let's throw a party!"

"And how are we gonna do that?" Lacey asked.

"Well, it's not that hard," said Kourtney. "All we need is some food, some of that yellowish crap you Europeans drink, oh right, butterbeer, and some tunes."

"You got it," Harry said. "Hey Ron, go down to the kitchens and tell Dobby to bring up some food. I'll go get the butterbeer."

"Right," he said and they both left in an instant.

"Now, it's time for some tunes," Kourtney said as she ran upstairs to the girl's dorm. She came back down lugging a stereo with two speakers.

"Whoa, Spak, where did you get that?" Kristy asked her.

Before she could answer, Hermione spoke. "Kourtney, how many times do I have to tell you that muggle devices don't work at Hogwarts?"

Kourtney grinned and blew some dust off of the top of the stereo. "Ah, but this isn't a muggle stereo. Turns out my great grandfather's best friend's sister in law's cousin, twice removed, is a witch. This, my testy little European friend, is a wizard's stereo. It runs on magic. Now, as I was saying..." She put a CD in the stereo and pressed the play button. "Let the tunes begin."

As soon as the music started playing, Lacey covered her ears and screamed while Kristy made a face. "Britney Spears? I'm glad I was smart and brought my own music." With that, she headed upstairs. She came back down with a case full of CD's and tossed them on the table in front of the group.

"Now this is some good old American music," she stated. "Well, it's not old music, like the kind of stuff some your grandfather would dance the polka to, but you know what I mean." She pulled out a CD from one of the little pockets in her case and put it in just as Harry and Ron came back with the food and butterbeer.

When the music started playing, Emily looked at Kristy. "Which CD is this?"

"One of the one's that I burnt."

Harry gave a puzzled look. "You lit one of your CD's on fire?"

A laughing Kristy answered his question. "No, it's what you call it if you make a copy of a CD or find music and put it on a CD. Everyone does it but," she gave a wary look in Hermione's direction. "It's...kind of illegal."

Hermione huffed at this and pretended to ignore that fact. Ron was the only one who was still left out. "What's a CD?" he asked, baffled.

Kourtney rolled her eyes. "It's this little ity bity round thing that the 'big people' put music on so you can listen to it whenever you want to." She used her hands for emphasis.

Kristy gave her a pointed look. One word explained it all: "Europeans," she said to Kourtney.

Kourtney gave an exasperated sigh and got up. "I'm going to find some more people so we can get this party started!" She walked out of the common room.

It took her about 10 minutes to gather a crowd of people, ranging from 1st year Hufflepuffs to 7th year Slytherins. Obviously she was good at this stuff. Ron and Harry persuaded the house elves to bring up more food and drinks, and with Kristy's new choice in music, the party was overwhelming. Everyone was dancing and having fun. Phil, Ray, Kristy, and Emily were having a butterbeer drinking contest.

Kristy set down her 4th mug with a loud clunk. "I could do this all day," she said, a little unsteadily.

Phil put his 7th mug down. "I've got you all beat," he said, as he fell off his chair.

Ray tipped back his chair and finished his 12th mug, and put it on top of his head like a hat.

"Buttered toast!" he screamed.

He got out of his chair and started running around the room doing the Macarena. Emily sat there, laughing crazily as she finished her 8th butterbeer.

Professor McGonagall walked in, with a fuzzy pink bath robe over her pajamas, to see what the cause of the noise was.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here!" she yelled. No one even noticed she was there. She flicked her wand and the music stopped immediately. Everyone stopped dancing and looked around for the reason that the music stopped playing. They found it.

"Sneaking out to go to a-- a party! Never in my life, not even during Quidditch season, was there ever a party this big! By the Gryffindor's none the les--" She faltered as she saw students from the other three houses in the common room. A series of expressions passed over her face, until she reached anger.

"Anyone that is not a Gryffindor, get out immediately, and go to your own common rooms!" she shouted. No one moved.

"NOW!" she screamed, and everyone scrambled out of the common room. A handful of Gryffindors were left over.

She looked around at the Gryffindors. Many of the first years were cowering in the corner of the room, farthest away from the angry professor.

"I am very disappointed in all of you. You have put Gryffindor house to shame. You should be lucky that I-- are you drunk?" she asked Ray who was standing off to the side. He has bloodshot eyes, butterbeer slopped down the front of his shirt, and he was humming the Chicken Dance.

"No, Poorfessor, I square, there is no blood in my alcohol system." He said, his speech slurred greatly.

"You may kiss the bride!" Phil shouted from his position on the floor.

She shook her head, her anger building once again. "Who was responsible for this mess?" she asked the remaining students.

Kourtney raise her hand slightly. "Well, I thought of the idea, but technically, everyone was responsible for the mess."

McGonagall gave her a stern look. "Then, as a punishment for your actions, you and your friends will clean up the common room, without magic." She looked at Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Kristy spoke up. "What did we do?"

"As her friends, you should have stopped her from doing this." She indicated around the common room. "Clean it up and I expect you to report to me when you are finished. Everyone else, go to bed!" She turned and left the common room, disgruntled.

"Witch," Kristy muttered as their fellow Gryffindors went to their dorms. She got up shakily. "Okay, it's one o'clock in the morning, we've got the six of us, three drunks, a common room to clean that's full of junk, and we have to do this all by ten so we can go to Hogsmeade." She sighed. "It's going to be impossible."

"Look on the bright side," Lacey said. "At least we didn't get any points taken away, or get detention."

"True, but how are the six of us going to get this cleaned up," Harry said.

Hermione cleared her throat impatiently. "Well, I know a sobering spell. That might be able to help us a little."

"Good thinking, 'Mione," Harry said.

She quickly did the spell on Phil, Ray, and Emily. "Wow, what happened?" Phil asked as he got up from the floor.

"Party, you, butterbeer, McGonagall, and clean," Kristy said. "Those words pretty much sum it up."

"Yeah, guys shut up and clean would you?" Kourtney said as she started to pick up empty cups and such off of the floor. "I really want to go to Hogsmeade later!"

They spent the next three hours cleaning. After they were done, Harry and Ron went to go find McGonagall to tell her they were finished and the rest of them went to their dorms to try to get as much sleep as they could before their trip to Hogsmeade.