Blue Eyed Girl

Roxanne tried to put the episode with Malfoy out of her head, and focus her attention on the Founder's Day Ball. It wasn't very difficult because that was pretty much the only topic of conversation. Hardly anyone could pay attention during class. The girls discussed how they would be wearing their hair, or what their robes looked like. The boys were talking about their dates, or deciding who would still be available to ask at the last minute.

Finally, after all of the waiting and anticipation, the day of the ball was upon them. Some girls woke up bright and early to begin their preparations. Roxanne, however, slept in for as long as she could. She was just as excited for the ball as the next girl, but she didn't really feel the need to prepare for twelve hours. Besides, just because she had been in the hospital wing did not mean that her sleepless nights ended. It was just the opposite; she had so much work to do she thought she would never catch up. She had been lucky that most of her teachers allowed her as much time as she needed to get caught up, or told her there was no need to make up any of the missed work, or worked with her after class. The exception to this was Snape. He didn't give her any special treatment whatsoever, and expected her to be caught up already. Of course, Roxanne was not surprised by this. In fact, she had expected it, but that didn't make it any easier.

So Roxanne stayed up all night both nights since she had been released from the hospital wing, and did her work for Potions. She was grateful for Katie because she stayed up with Roxanne one night to help her, even though Katie, the Weasleys, and many others tried to convince her that Potions wasn't important enough to lose sleep over. After all, she was still recovering. But Roxanne's overachiever attitude would win out in the end, and she would stay up anyway. Besides, she felt that she had mostly recovered.

She took this weekend as an opportunity to catch up on missed sleep. When she finally awoke, she realized it was already time for lunch. She got up, pulled on sweatpants and a sweatshirt (no doubt one that said "I Love New York" on it), and strolled down to the Great Hall.

When she entered she noticed that, while most of the male population of the student body was present, the same couldn't be said about the girls. There was a total of about 25 girls in the Great Hall. Surely the rest were busy getting ready, or obsessing that something wasn't going right.

Roxanne took her usual seat at the Gryffindor table across from Fred and George.

"Well, lookey here," George said in a sarcastically surprised tone of voice, "a girl has emerged from the dark depths of the dressing room. Do you come bearing news?"

"Nope, sorry," Roxanne replied while serving herself a small helping of oatmeal, "I just woke up actually. I haven't seen any of the girls all day.."

"Well, I guess that's a good thing," George said. "Although, I am a little hurt that you aren't making the effort to make yourself look pretty for me tonight," he finished jokingly, trying to make her feel guilty.

"Is that so?" Roxanne retorted playfully, "Well then I guess I'm a little hurt that you aren't doing the same for me."

"Moi?" George said innocently, "I don't need to do anything to make myself look pretty. I'm always pretty."

"Wow, okay, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," Roxanne replied, laughing. Just as she said that, she remembered the last time she had said that same thing. It was during her confrontation with Malfoy. Except that time she hadn't said it so playfully. She curiously took a quick glance at the Slytherin table. What she saw surprised her. Malfoy was staring at her, with a slight smile on his face. As soon as he noticed that she had seen him, he abruptly turned his head and started talking to Goyle as his face reddened slightly. Roxanne was confused. She couldn't understand why Malfoy had been staring at her. Was it possible that he was trying to seem threatening? That didn't explain why he turned away when she noticed him. And besides, the look on his face wasn't a menacing one. She wasn't quite sure what kind of look it was, but it was certainly a look she had never seen on Malfoy's face before.

"So are you guys excited for tonight?" Roxanne asked Fred and George, hoping to put all thoughts of Malfoy out of her mind.

"You bet," Fred replied. "I can't wait to get my groove on," he said as he started dancing in his seat.

"Well, please don't dance like that," George said, putting his hand up to shield his vision from his brother, "You'll give us all nightmares."

"That was uncalled for," Fred said as if his feelings were hurt.

"No, that was perfectly called for," George said, "I'm just trying to protect the innocence that still exists in our school."

Roxanne watched this exchange as she finished her lunch amused and asked George, "So how are you going to be dancing tonight?"

"Hmm, let's see, how about...not at all?" George said as he was rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Oh yes you are," Roxanne informed him, "My date will not be a wallflower. I'll put a charm on your shoes if I have to."

"No you wouldn't," George challenged her.

"Oh, I wouldn't?" Roxanne said impishly as she began pulling her wand out of the pocket of her sweatshirt. "Do you want me to give it a try right now?"

"No, no that's okay!" George surrendered, "I believe you."

"Good," Roxanne said satisfied, putting her wand back in her pocket.

"I guess, since you're going to make me dance, I should probably start practicing now," George said, and he started dancing in his seat the same way Fred had.

"Whoa! Down, boy!" Roxanne said. She couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, well, you need to work on that," Roxanne said as she stood up from her seat, "And I will see you later. I suppose I should go start 'pretty-fying' myself now," she finished lightheartedly, as she started to walk away.

"Good," George said playfully, "You've got a lot of work ahead of you."

"Hey!" Roxanne exclaimed as she turned and faced him. "I resent that remark!" Of course she knew he was kidding, but she decided to play along anyway.

"That's nice," George said impassively, satisfied that he had gotten a response. "Now skedaddle," he finished waving his hand at her. Roxanne just rolled her eyes and walked away.

The truth was George didn't think Roxanne could get more beautiful than she already was. Even though she was wearing baggy sweats, had her hair pulled back messily in a bun, and wore no makeup, she was more beautiful that anyone he had ever seen. He had considered the possibility that he thought this because he liked her so much, but this thought was dismissed as he saw more than a few of the boy's heads turn as Roxanne walked out. And the most amazing thing about it was that she had no idea. She had no idea that heads turned when she walked into a room, or how everyone would start whispering to each other about her; debating whether she was some sort of model or an actress. She was totally clueless as to how beautiful she really was. George figured it was probably better that way. Sure, he knew pretty girls, but they were always worried about how their hair or makeup looked, and took hours to get ready to go everywhere. All they thought about was how they looked and how other people thought they looked. He loved how Roxanne was different; it was refreshing. He couldn't get enough of her, and he couldn't wait to see her again.