Blue Eyed Girl

The next morning Roxanne awoke with the worst headache of her life. She felt miserable. She'd barely been able to sleep with George's face plastered in her mind. She couldn't have been happier that it was Saturday. She considered rolling over and going back to sleep, but she decided against it. She knew that if she hadn't been able to sleep before, the chances of that happening now were pretty slim.

So Roxanne rolled out of bed and looked around the room. She was the only one left in the room. Everyone else must be at breakfast, she figured. She opened her trunk and pulled out the most comfortable clothes she owned: fuzzy, navy blue fleece sweatpants and one of her brothers' oversized sweatshirts. She pulled her hair into a messy ponytail and started off for the hospital wing. She needed some sort of headache potion, and she needed it now.

Roxanne greeted Madame Pomfrey and informed her of her complaint. Madame Pomfrey finished tending to her Ravenclaw patient and poured Roxanne a generous helping of the headache draft. Roxanne swallowed and winced in disgust as she tried to keep herself from gagging at the taste. Madame Pomfrey didn't say anything but gave her a look that said "Well, what did you expect?" and took the glass from Roxanne. She shooed Roxanne away, mumbling something about having to tend to her other patients (all two of them) and went back into her office.

Roxanne walked out of the hospital wing and turned in the direction of the Great Hall. Before she got very far, she stopped in her tracks. She remembered her conversation with George from the night before. He wanted space? She'd give him space. She turned instead to make her way to the kitchens. The elves were delighted to see her and made her a huge meal. Roxanne surprised herself and ate most of it. She thanked the house elves and left.

Walking down the corridor again, Roxanne looked at her watch. 10:30? It was only 10:30? She could've sworn that years had past since she'd gotten up this morning. This whole loner thing was not Roxanne's forte. She was tempted to go to the Great Hall anyway to see Katie, but she willed herself not to give in to the temptation. Instead she went to the library to catch up on some homework after stopping by her dormitory to pick up her books. She walked through the library to the back where her favorite table that overlooked the lake was. She rounded the last bookshelf and stopped. Her usually empty table was now occupied. George was sitting there. He was writing furiously, then stopped and stared out the window. After a few seconds, he returned to his writing.

Roxanne was surprised. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen George in the library, if ever. He looked so out of place. She was about to leave when he got up. He stuffed his papers into his bag and turned to leave. Roxanne quickly ducked behind the shelf. The last thing she needed right now was for George to see her watching him.

He quickly brushed past the shelf she was hiding behind and walked out of the library. Roxanne couldn't help but follow him. She knew there were numerous reasons why she shouldn't, but his odd behavior had piqued her interest.

Roxanne made sure to stay far enough from George that he wouldn't sense anyone following him. This wasn't very difficult, however, because she nearly had to run just so she wouldn't lose him. She wondered where he was going, and why he was in such a hurry. Just when Roxanne wasn't sure she would be able to keep up much longer, George turned in to the owlery. Roxanne thanked her lucky stars that the chase was finally over. She was about to go through the door to the owlery when she heard someone call her name. Roxanne jumped, but then turned to see Katie jogging toward her.

"Hey," Katie greeted her friend. "Where were you this morning? Why weren't you at breakfast?" Roxanne explained about her headache and her meal in the kitchens. "Okay, that's cool," Katie continued. "So what are you up to today?"

"Oh, I dunno. I'll probably be hanging around our room most of the day doing homework." Roxanne managed to come up with a formidable excuse for spending the rest of the day in her room. She was hoping, no, praying that George was sending that note to her, and she wanted to make it very easy for that owl to find her.

"Aw, come on, it's supposed to be a beautiful day. You don't want to be cooped up in that room all day, do you?" Katie complained.

"No, I think I really have a lot of homework to catch up on," Roxanne insisted, hoping that Katie would soon give up her fight. Just then the owlery door opened, and George emerged. Roxanne looked away as he started walking toward them. Well, there goes totally avoiding him, she thought to herself. Hopefully he wouldn't realize that she'd been following him.

"Hey, George," Katie greeted him as he walked by. He nodded and smiled at her in acknowledgement, looked at Roxanne for a second, and kept walking. Um...okay? Was that good or bad? At least he looked at Roxanne and didn't completely ignore her.

"So anyway, why don't you come out with me? At least for a whi...oh...I get it," Katie said suddenly. Roxanne hadn't really been paying attention to her. She'd been staring at George as he walked away from them. She'd hoped that Katie wouldn't notice, but she should have realized by now that people at Hogwarts were a lot more perceptive than she'd anticipated. Katie saw her staring after George. "I know what you're doing."

"What?" Roxanne asked, hoping to sound surprised by this accusation. "What are you talking about?"

"You're hoping that whatever George was doing in the owlery is for you," Katie informed her. "How did you even know he was in there?"

"I...well, I..." Roxanne didn't want to have to admit that she was slowly turning into a psycho stalker. It seemed like Katie already knew anyway.

"You followed him, didn't you?" Katie hit the nail right on the head. "You've been following him all morning, haven't you?"

"Not ALL morning..." Roxanne replied, trying to salvage what was left of her dignity. "Just part of it."

"Oh, Roxanne. You're hopeless," Katie laughed as she put her arm around her friend and began walking her to the Gryffindor dormitory. "Well, come on. We need to get there before the owl does."

Roxanne smiled back at her friend. At least Katie didn't think Roxanne was a TOTAL psychopath. "Thanks, Katie."

Katie just smiled in return and walked Roxanne all the way back to their room.