Blue Eyed Girl

The next few weeks flew quickly. The students grew more and more excited as the Founder's Day Ball crept ever closer. There were now only ten days left and most of the female students were frantically searching for the "perfect outfit." There were thousands of styles and colors of dress robes to choose from and each Hogsmeade weekend Madam Turner's Clothing Shoppe was always packed with Hogwarts students. Roxanne, of course, was excited as well. However, her excitement was somewhat pushed aside by the massive amounts of homework her professors had suddenly dumped on her. She had also been receiving owls from her parents telling her that her grandmother was very ill. So with trying to do all of her work and worrying about her grandmother, she didn't have time for much else, including sleep, which she hadn't gotten much of lately.

Roxanne was sitting in a wooden chair that seemed to be steadily getting harder, at a table in the Gryffindor common room with books sprawled out in front of her. The rest of her friends had gone to bed long ago. It seemed like days since she and Katie were laughing hysterically at there little accident in Potions class. The look on Snape's face was priceless. He even made them all evacuate the dungeon, just from the small potion spill, saying something about it being "dangerous." But in truth, there mishap had happened only hours ago.

She eventually decided to move her books over to a more comfortable seat on one of the couches if front of the dying fire. She sat down, wrapped a blanket around her, and opened her Charms book to begin studying for the test the following day. Suddenly, she was somehow reminded of her grandmother as she began staring into the fire. She really wished she could have been home with her, instead of here, studying for yet another test on the endless list of assessments. She thought of her gentle smile and the twinkle in her crystal blue eyes when she bragged about her grandchildren. A silent tear slid down Roxanne's face, which she quickly wiped away as she heard the portrait swing open. She had no idea who could possibly be returning this late. She clutched her wand in her hand, just in case, and turned toward the portrait.

"What are you still doing up?" a startled George asked her.

"I should be asking you the same thing," she replied as she put her wand down, no longer in danger.

"I was uh... just finishing up some homework in the library," George said, averting his eyes from Roxanne and slowly making his way toward the stairs.

"Right, I'm sure," Roxanne said skeptically. "I bet you don't even know where the library is, do you? And since when do you actually do homework?"

"Since today...I'm turning over a new leaf," George said now staring intently at the floor. Roxanne just raised one disbelieving eyebrow in reply.

"Okay, fine. I was putting some finishing touches on a little 'surprise' Fred and I are giving Filch," George surrendered. "Happy?"

"Sure," Roxanne smiled, stretching her arms and back while George stood expectantly.

"What?" Roxanne asked puzzled.

"You still haven't told me why you're still up," George said.

"Oh, there's a whole bunch of reasons," Roxanne said. "It's a long story. Don't worry about it."

"I've got time," George said while crossing his arms in front of him, showing her he wouldn't be moving any time soon.

Roxanne laughed weakly, "Do you want the whole list or the abridged version?"

"Whole list," George said, "it can't be that bad."

"Okay..." Roxanne said and then taking a deep breath. "I miss my friends, I miss family, I am completely stressing out over the millions of tests I have to take, I have a ton of homework that's due tomorrow that I haven't finished yet, I want to be home with my grandmother, I've gotten a total three hours of sleep all week, and to top it all off, the Founder's Day Ball is in, like, a week and I don't have dress robes or a date," she said feeling close to tears. "But, hey, it could always be worse, right?" she finished with a weak smile after a long silence.

"Wow," George said, his face softening, "that all sounds pretty awful."

"Yeah, well..." Roxanne said turning back to one of her books. "You should probably get some sleep. Sorry I dumped all of that on you."

"No problem at all," George said as an idea was forming in his head. Okay, here's my chance he thought to himself, don't blow it.

"Well, I think I can help you with one of the things on that sucky list," George said.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Roxanne asked, generally curious. Then she thought of something, "Wait, if you mean you thinking up a way to cheat on my tests is helping me, than you can forget it," her thought came out a little harsher than she had meant it.

"No! Of course not," George blurted out, a little too loud. "I mean, I know you're one of those 'overachiever' types who don't like to cheat," he finished what he hoped was smoothly.

Roxanne smiled in response. "Okay, then shoot."

"Would you like to go to the Founder's Day Ball with me?" he said rather quickly. Merlin, why am I so nervous? he thought to himself.

"Sure!" Roxanne said, trying to keep her newfound enthusiasm hidden. "I mean, that would be great," she finished a little more quietly.

George let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, "Alright then." He was smiling like an idiot. "Well, I guess I should get to bed."

"Okay," Roxanne said, "'night."

"'Night," George replied, turning and walking up the stairs.

"George?" Roxanne said as he was halfway up the steps.

He turned around, "Yeah?"

"Thanks," Roxanne said. She smiled and then turned back to her book. George stood on the stairs a minute longer, just watching her and smiling to himself. He couldn't believe his luck. He also couldn't seem to figure out this new nervousness that he felt when he was around her. He had never felt it before. He just couldn't explain it. He finally turned and walked the rest of the way to his room a very happy man.