Mad about Bill

My name is Niamh Connolly; I'm about to start my 6^th year in Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm too tall, too ugly, too shy and have a huge crush on Bill Weasley. I guess you could say that that just about sums me up. There's nothing else to me. I'm a boring person.

Being tall is something I am always conscious of. I'm just under 6 foot making me the tallest girl in the year and possibly in the school. It also makes me taller than a lot of the boys unfortunately. No matter where I go or who I meet, I'm always thinking of my height. If I meet someone new I always check to see if they're taller than me and am always disappointed when they're not. Whenever I'm in a crowd of people and I stick out like a sore thumb next to everyone else, I'll always try to bend my knees or stoop a little. Everyone tells me that I am model height, but to be a model you have to be pretty.

This brings me onto my next fault - I'm just not pretty. My hair frizzes unless I tie it up and I have a chubby face. I'm also generally quite a shy person except with people I know and with those rare people that you can have never talked to in your entire life and then just talk and talk and talk to without feeling shy or awkward at all. It's like that with Bill Weasley.

It all started last year when we had arrived back at King's Cross Station for the start of our summer holidays. Bill is in the year above me, so I had never really talked to him before. We'd all walked through the barrier into the station where everyone was picked up from. But my parents hadn't arrived yet. At first I was sure they were just running a little bit late. I waited for ages and anxiety started to take over. I had been worried they might have got the wrong day or something might have happened to them. The only other people left at the station were Bill Weasley and his brother Charlie. We'd got talking and my worry had slipped away. That was when I started liking Bill.

It was because of this that I was looking forward to this year more than any other. It was because of Bill.

* * *

The Hogwarts Express loomed up in front of us huge and scarlet. Clouds of smoke were billowing from its funnel. My parents always smiled upon seeing this train and the hubbub that surrounded it on the platform. They said it reminded them of their schooldays. My brother Sean also stood there smiling and recollecting his days at Hogwarts from just over ten years ago.

I turned to say goodbye to my mum and dad. I was always painfully aware of how old my parents were compared to other parents, but that didn't stop me from loving them more than anyone could ever love their mum and dad. Sean came with me to put my trunk into the luggage compartment on the train. He was extremely tall and skinny and towered over everyone else on the platform. Sometimes he reminded me of a stick insect gone wrong. I smiled at this thought.

"Do you miss Hogwarts?" I asked him. He thought about it for a second before answering.

"I don't miss any of the teachers, I don't miss all the lessons, I certainly don't miss the fact that I was bullied constantly by the Slytherins, but I would do it all again tomorrow if I had the chance."

He smiled down at me and hauled my trunk onto the train and into the luggage compartment. I was going to miss him. I hardly ever saw him as he worked in Ireland with my uncle Ben, far away from our home in Cumbria. As I hugged him, I think he was probably thinking the same thing.

"I'll miss you Titch," he said. He always called me Titch. I guess that even though I was extremely tall, I was nothing compared to him.

"I'll miss you too," I said forcing myself not to cry. Not only would I look like a baby, it would have been unfair on my parents for whom I hadn't shed a tear. I broke away from him as I heard the whistle and, waving back at him and my mum and dad, I boarded the train. I waved out of the window frantically as the train slowly pulled out of the station and only stopped when the blurred figures of my family could not be seen.

Now I had to find Alanna. Alanna was my best friend. We'd been best friends since our first year. She had always been the outgoing one, the one who supported me. Without her I was nothing. I had only walked halfway down the first carriage when the door opened at the other end and out stepped a girl with long wavy dark hair and dark eyes. She was exceptionally pretty and I was always so envious of her. But she was my best friend.

"Niamh!" she shouted as she ran full pelt down the carriage towards me with her arms out. She gave me a huge hug.

"Alanna! How was Spain?" I asked.

"It was incredible! Oh, I have so much to tell you! I'm sure you do too. Alec, Ollie and Poppy are right down at the end of the train. I'm so happy to see you!" She was practically dancing down the train as we went. Seeing her in such a good mood was wonderful, as her moods changed so frequently.

It was as we went through the third carriage that we met Bill Weasley. I had not stopped thinking of him all through the summer, but now the real thing was standing right in front of me, a good few inches taller than me. I could see that my imagination was nothing compared to the real Bill. Either I'd forgotten quite how much I liked him, or I'd never seen him look so good. He had obviously grown his hair over the summer and it was now just long enough to tie back into a short ponytail. He had an earring in his left ear and was wearing muggle jeans and a baggy t-shirt. I tried to remain cool on the outside, but in reality my heart was fluttering wildly.

"Hi Niamh," he said, smiling. I smiled slightly too wide a smile and blushed a little. "Look who's been made Head Boy!" he said pointing at a badge on his chest.

"Cool!" I said, kicking myself inside for not having thought of anything better to say. He just grinned even more to my delight.

"Well I'll see you around," and with that he turned and walked back the way we'd come. I watched him go but could sense Alanna's gaze on my back. I could not let on that I liked him even to her. I knew nothing would happen and it would break my heart. I couldn't let even her know of my distress when that happened.

"How do you know Bill?" she asked suspiciously.

"Oh, we just talked for a bit last year at King's Cross when we were waiting to be picked up. That's all."

I tried to look as guilt free as possible. I knew what Alanna was like. This was going to be an interesting year.

We continued down the train, occasionally waving to friends we could see in their compartments. Alec Brown, Poppy Mills and Ollie Coolhurst were in the very end compartment chatting animatedly. They looked up as Alanna opened the compartment door.

"Niamh!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Wow, it's good seeing you guys!" I said, hugging them all individually. We were all part of one large group, but it consisted of two smaller groups of absolute best friends. So there was Alanna and I, and there was them. We were all really close though.

Alec was probably the most dominant of the three, though Poppy did everything of her free will, so I suppose you couldn't really say that. Those two were the more outgoing ones. Alec was the laid back, lazy one who never did his homework. He was a chaser on the Gryffindor quidditch team and was therefore very popular in Gryffindor. He was a lot of fun to be around, being one of the more naughty people in the school, but he also had a stubborn streak, which would emerge every now and then, much like Alanna.

Poppy was the happiest person you ever met in your life. She'd been a tomboy all her life, but whenever she needed a girly chat, she'd talk to Alanna and I. I guess you can't always hang around boys. She was always the positive one, the one who would always insist that every cloud had a silver lining, no matter what the situation. Sometimes she was serious but often she was just like a child, bounding around tirelessly. She really had a great character.

Ollie was the quietest of the three. He was one of those people who are just so genuinely nice. He, like me, is incredibly shy except for with his friends. Unlike me though he was one of the top students in the year, though he refused to believe it being far too modest for his own good. We all used to copy his homework, something I feel really guilty sorry for him about, having spent so long on his homework only to have someone else share the credit. He was not, as you might imagine, a geeky kid, oh no! In my opinion he is one of the best-looking boys in our year. He was the most sensible of us, and the most logical. He always came up with the ideas, and in some ways, I think that out of Alec, Poppy and him, he is the one I get on best with.

We talked all about our holidays. Alanna had gone to Spain, Ollie had gone and stayed a month at Alec's, Poppy had gone to Wales and I had spent all my holiday in Ireland visiting my aunt, uncle and cousins. We talked and talked until we found no more to say. Instead, Alec and Ollie played a game of chess whilst Alanna, Poppy and I just stared out the window at the darkening sky talking intermittently.

The train pulled up into Hogsmeade in the early hours of the evening just as the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down. We all climbed into a carriage and shut the door quickly behind us so that the rain didn't come in. The carriages slowly made their way to the castle, looming threateningly against the black backdrop of the sky.

By the time we were getting out the carriages, thick sheets of rain were cascading down from the sky.

"Quickly! Move along there!" came the harsh voice of Professor McGonagall. We all hurried to get inside the confine of the castle.

"I'm soaking!" complained Alanna as come to the Entrance Hall.

"I would never have guessed!" said Alec sarcastically. Alanna scowled at him menacingly. Like I said, there are two sides to her.

We had started making our way to the Great Hall when I heard a familiar frosty voice behind me.

"Oh hello Connolly," said the voice in mock friendliness. It was Harriet Stonebridge, a Slytherin in my year whose favourite hobby was insult-the-Gryffindors. She always walked around with a gang of Slytherins girls, but she was obviously the leader and the most unpleasant, though Anastasia Hilsankov could be pretty foul too. I knew that whatever was coming next would be a more than just a congenial conversation.

"We were just wondering, were those your parents on the platform, or your grand-parents?" asked Harriet. I could feel my blood boiling. My anger levels soared and my fists clenched.

"How dare you!" I said through clenched teeth.

"How dare I? Well quite easily, to be -"

I didn't even let her finish her sentence. Instead I had slapped her harder than I believed I could across her cheek. If my hand was hurting that badly, I didn't even want to know the pain I'd inflicted upon Harriet. She looked at me with her eyes wide in shock. I didn't suppose anyone had ever done that before to her. No sound came from her. She stood stock still for a few seconds and then slowly raised her hand to her cheek. I was pleased to see it shaking a bit, I was certainly still shaking, though not from what I had done, but from my outrage. There was a silence that extended beyond us, evidence that everyone around had just witnessed what I had done. Harriet seemed about to act, but Alec, sensing this, stepped in front of me summoning all his height (he was about as tall as me) and looked at Harriet threateningly, almost daring her to do something.

Alanna took hold of my hand and dragged me off to the hall in silence. Ollie and Poppy followed behind, and Alec came last.

"You'll regret that!" came Harriet's voice from behind. I didn't know whether to treat that as just an empty threat or to take it seriously. How could I have got into a fight so early on in the year? I'd only been inside Hogwarts for about five minutes! Damn, this was going to be an awful year! But as soon as we entered the Great Hall and my roving eyes settled on Bill, who was talking enthusiastically to his friends further up the table, I decided that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad year.

As soon as we had sat down at the Gryffindor table, Alec turned to me, beaming.

"Nice one!" he said as he slapped me on the back. Poppy looked awestruck and just grinned madly at me.

"Never knew you had it in you!" Ollie commented with an equally amazed look about him. It began to sink in that I had just hit Harriet, something I doubted anyone had ever done. I smiled to myself until I saw Alanna with a scowl upon her face.

"Idiots!" she snapped at the others. "Don't you know what this means?"

"Umm, we should have a party?" said Alec smiling. Ollie chuckled at this while Poppy was nodding her head in agreement, still speechless.

"No!" She shot Alec a dirty look. She was in one of her moods now. "It means that she is going to get revenge for this!"

"Oh don't be so melodramatic!" laughed Alec, obviously not having noticed Alanna's look or having chosen to ignore it. "Let's just worry about that if it happens, which it won't."

"Of course -"

"Let's just forget about this and enjoy the feast and the sorting," I butted in, not in the mood to fight on our first day back. Ollie nodded his agreement. Alanna turned to look at the teacher's table as the sorting began so I couldn't see her face, but I knew she would have a very unflattering look upon it.

* * *

The first two weeks of term slugged by. It was a shock for me to have to work so hard after such a long break, but after a while I readjusted to life at Hogwarts. As Head Boy, Bill had to spend a lot of the time away from the common room and patrolling the corridors around the school, to my disappointment. Well, it was disappointing until I'd worked out practically his whole patrolling schedule. I'd conveniently be where he was going to patrol. No, I'm not a stalker, not really, I'm just mad about Bill. Despite all this effort, he hardly spoke to me at all, except to say "hi" whenever he saw me or to ask for the butter or something at meal times. But whenever he said absolutely anything to me, I melted inside. He would always smile when he said it too, a smile so wonderful I am positive that even if I was having the worst day of my life, it would cheer me up.

Everything was fine until about two or three weeks into term. We all reluctantly entered the dungeons for Potions with the Slytherins. The classes were a lot smaller now lots of people had dropped it after their OWLs. I only took it because I had my heart set upon becoming a carer for magical creatures, a job that required a Potions NEWT.

Apart from Ollie and I, only five other Gryffindors had been foolish enough to take potions. There was about double that from Slytherin. I could see Harriet talking with one of the members of her gang - Josalyn Jones. She was a nasty piece of work too. My heart always sunk when I heard the dungeon door clang shut, a noise that echoed around the room commanding silence.

Professor Snape briefly talked us through the potion we were to be doing today - an enlargement potion. He seemed to be in a doubly sour mood today, having taken five points off Mia Cornwall, a Gryffindor in my dormitory, for scraping her chair accidentally against the floor. I knew I would have to watch everything I did, as I was prone to doing things wrong in Potions lessons.

To my surprise, my enlargement potion went quite well, turning into a thick purple liquid. I grinned across at Ollie, who was still adding the finishing touches to what looked like a perfect enlargement potion.

"Mine's turned out OK for once," I whispered to him as Snape walked back down to the front of the classroom.

"Yeah, that's really good! I've just got to add a few more spiders." He carefully tipped several dead spiders into his potion and beamed as it turned deep purple.

"Stop, everyone," barked Snape as he stood with an icy expression on his face by his desk. "Take a bottle from the box," he said indicating a wooden crate in the corner, "and put a sample of your potion in it. Label them clearly and deposit them onto my desk...NOW!"

There was a rush as everyone congregated to where the crate with the bottles was. I waited until the tumult had died down before taking a bottle of my own and then went back to my potion only to find -

"It's gone green!"

I was aware that everyone had turned to look at me. Several of the Slytherins laughed ("I never would have known!") My heart dropped as I stood staring at what had once been a flawless potion and was now a green mess. How did it happen? My outburst had alerted Snape and he came striding over to where I stood.

"Silly girl!" he snarled. "I only said a drop of Armadillo bile, not a whole bottle. That'll be fifteen points from Gryffindor for deliberately disobeying orders."

"But I did only put a drop in! I don't know how it happened, but it wasn't me!"

"Be quiet and sit down -"

"But I didn't do it! That's unfair -"

"Five more points from Gryffindor for arguing with me. I suggest you do what I asked before I take off any more points!" He turned round and marched back down to the front of the classroom, a small smirk appearing on his face. I looked round to see Harriet flashing a victorious smile at me across the dungeon. My blood began to boil again. So she'd done it. Ollie seemed to have picked up on this too, because he took hold of my arm and whispered,

"Leave her. At least she's paid you back for slapping her. If you do anything else, it'll all start again." I knew he was right. He was always right. At least Harriet wouldn't bother me again.

* * *

As September passed and October came, the weather grew colder and sunny days became scarce. However also with the month of October came talk of the annual Halloween Ball. The Halloween Ball was for the fourth years and upwards and was held traditionally every year on the night of Halloween. It was always very popular among us, the students, and even among some of the more frivolous teachers.

The lead up to the ball was always one of the most busy times of year. The girls would plan what to wear and we would have a lot more girly talks than usual, discussing who we would love to go to the ball with, and when we were feeling particularly malicious, who we'd rather die than go to the ball with. The boys were traditionally the ones to do the asking. They would spend all their time desperately trying to find the courage to ask the girls out (well if they were anything like Alec). All in all, October was a month filled with fun.

"Who can I ask out?" Alec moaned as we sat slumped in our favourite armchairs in the common room. The fire was blazing pleasantly in mockery of the rain outside. Alanna was the only one missing, as she was in the library completing a transfiguration essay due in for tomorrow.

"What about Georgina?" I said, concentrating too hard on a game of chess I was playing with Ollie, a game we played quite regularly. Georgina was one of the leaders of the Girly Giggly Club. Ollie had named it in a fit of annoyance after running into the group too many times in one day and being giggled at too many times for even him to put up with.

"Ask Georgina? If I didn't strangle her first! Besides, she's going with Russell."

"Ask Mia," was Ollie's suggestion. Ollie never totally got into the spirit of the ball, though if he had wanted to, he could have asked anyone out being as good-looking as he was. We'd made pacts that if Poppy or Alec didn't get asked out or didn't ask anyone out, they'd go to the ball together and ditto for Ollie and I. Alanna always managed to find someone to go with, so that was OK. I knew Ollie wouldn't ask anyone out, so luckily that meant I had a definite back up. But I knew who I really wanted to go to the ball with.

Alec sat pondering this suggestion furrowing his forehead in deep contemplation while I commanded my knight to take Ollie's pawn, which it did in an overly violent way. Poppy, bored by this non-existent conversation, got up and went to ask a group of fifth years if she could join in their game of exploding snap. A small group of fourth year girls were giggling in the corner, looking slyly at Ollie every now and then.

"I'm going to ask her," said Alec determinedly after a long silence.

"Eh?" Ollie grunted without looking up from the chessboard. I was too tired to say anything, so instead just sunk further down into the armchair and watched Ollie carefully contemplating his next move.

"I'm going to ask Mia to go to the ball with me." He looked around at Mia sitting on the other side of the common room. She was also playing what looked like a very intense game of chess but with a third year boy.

"Actually, maybe not," Alec said turning back round. "She's bound to be going with someone else."

"How will you ever find out if you don't ask her?" came Ollie's voice, though his eyes were darting around the chessboard and he had a look of deep concentration on his face. I often wondered how he could pay attention to two different things at the same time. I guess he's just very good at things like that.

"But...she'll laugh at me."

"It's a risk you've got to take," said Ollie, looking up from the board for the first time after finally asking his queen to take out my bishop, which she did with much club-banging and eventually dragging the unfortunate piece off the board.

"But it's a risk I don't want to take." Alec turned back round again to look at Mia. She had obviously just won the chess match and had a wide smile on her face while the third year had a sulky frown on his.

"Now's your chance," I said ordering my remaining bishop to an empty square. "Ask her now, she's in a good mood."

"Yeah, go on! Be a man!" Ollie said encouragingly slapping Alec on the back and shoving him out of his chair.

Alec stood up uncertainly.

"You can do it mate! Good luck," said Ollie. His attention had quickly turned from the chess game to Alec.

"Good luck," I repeated as Alec walked anxiously over to where Mia sat. Ollie and I tried to hear what was said between the two, but the racket made by the rest of the Gryffindors made it impossible. We could see Alec talking to Mia. He looked incredibly nervous. She was saying something back to him, however it was not possible to decipher what. Soon Alec was making his way back to where we sat with disappointment and humiliation written all across his face.

"She's going with Francis Hogarth," he grunted.

"Francis Hogarth?" I asked. "Isn't he that really ugly Hufflepuff?"

"Well he beat me to her! I'm going to bed." With that he headed to the boys dormitories without another word.

"Poor guy," said Ollie. He looked down at the board and smiled up at me gleefully. "I make that checkmate."

* * *

It was only two days later back sitting in the same armchairs when Alanna burst into the common room wearing a grin so large that she was almost unrecognisable as the normally sarcastic girl I knew.

"Guess what!" she asked eagerly.

"Snape's taken early retirement?"

"Harriet's fallen down a bottomless pit?"

"No more homework for the rest of the year?" Poppy was in the middle of answering a particularly hard Transfiguration question.

"No!" said Alanna impatiently. "Tobias Spence just asked me to the ball!"

Alec and Ollie both looked at each other in a confused way - Alanna was always asked by people to the ball each year, yet she had never looked so excited. Poppy and I, however, just gawped at Alanna, too amazed to find the right words.

"Omigod!" we said together. Tobias Spence, a Ravenclaw seventh year, was considered by everyone to be the best-looking boy in the year, if not, the school. He was hot property! All three of us screamed at once and hugged, dancing round the room oblivious to the strange stares we were getting from everyone. I was so happy for Alanna; she'd had a crush on Tobias for years. But I still couldn't help feeling jealous. How come she was always being asked to the ball? Why couldn't I be as pretty as her? I tried to push these thoughts to the back of my mind, but they kept submerging as we had calmed down and she was telling us all about him asking her. Alec and Ollie still looked vaguely baffled, but decided not to ruin Alanna's happiness.

Eventually everything went back to the relaxed silence that normally ensued between us in the common room. Ollie was now helping Poppy with her Transfiguration homework - homework I knew I should probably be doing; Alanna was gazing into space with a slightly insane grin upon her and face and Alec and I were attempting to juggle between a game of chess and our Herbology homework. Playing chess was a regular evening pastime we had. Luckily for me, Alec was a lot worse at it than Ollie.

It was then that the portrait door swung open and Bill Weasley entered the room flanked by his friends. I suddenly abandoned the game of chess (it was Alec's turn anyway) and instantly became alert at the sight of Bill standing there so perfectly. I willed him to sit in an armchair near us and watched with eagle eyes as he, to my disappointment, dropped onto a couch on the other side of the common room. Luckily there weren't very many people in the room as it was getting late, so I could just about hear what he was talking about with his friends.

"Another year, another Halloween ball. I have no one to invite!"

"Just use your charms and good looks and ask someone," said a pretty blonde haired girl. I could feel a surge of jealousy course through my veins.

"What charms and good looks?" asked a third person - Bill's best friend Reuben Goldman. He grinned as Bill punched him playfully in the arm.

"It's OK for you, you've got what's-her-face to go with." Bill said, a sly smile creeping up his face.

"Ah, you mean beautiful Lady Melanie Falcon?" Rueben said attempting to put on an aristocratic voice. Bill and the pretty blonde girl laughed at this.

"She only said yes to stop you bugging her!" Bill joked.

"Oi, watch it! At least I've got someone to go with!"

"I'd rather go to the ball with Snape wearing only his underwear than go with Melanie!"

"You're just jealous," Reuben said laughing. I happened to know that Melanie Falcon was a very attractive Ravenclaw seventh year, but had a terrible temper. "Just ask someone to go with you. Anyone!"

Bill cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted,

"Can someone go to the ball with me? Please?" This was temptation beyond belief. I knew that Bill was only doing it jokingly as Reuben and the blonde girl were both laughing. But what if he meant it? What if Bill was really appealing to the whole common room? Two halves of my mind were fighting over what to do. Of course it was a joke! What sort of person would advertise the chance to go to the ball with them, not knowing who would accept their offer? But the other half of my mind insisted that Bill would not shout so much and draw attention to himself so if he was not serious.

I was too late however. The blonde haired girl said she'd go to the ball with him. She said it in a reluctant way, and I knew they were friends, but what if she really did like him, and worse still, what if he liked her?

"I'm going to bed," I announced to Alanna, Alec and the others as I watched Bill hug the girl with gratitude out of the corner of my eye.

"What about this game of chess?" asked Alec.

"Someone else can take over where I left off, I'm just really tired." I walked over to the door leading to the stairs and up to the girls' dormitories. I sprinted up the stairs and collapsed onto my four-poster bed. I blinked back the tears that were already forming in the back of my eyes.

The door creaked open revealing the figure of Alanna. She walked over to my bed and sat beside me.

"You really like Bill, don't you?"

Shocked and wondering if I had been too obvious, I didn't know whether to continue to deny the fact, or to confess up to it. Instead, I just hung my head in misery and gave a little nod. She put her arm around me. I could feel my tears slipping down my cheeks. She hugged me tightly before saying,

"She doesn't like him, they're just friends - she's doing him a favour, like how Ollie will go with you if you don't go with anyone else. Trust me on this. I think she likes that Hufflepuff, you know, the really short one. She kept looking at him in the library when he was searching for a book. Trouble is, I saw him ask someone else. She probably knows, which is why she said she'd go with Bill Weasley."

Alanna was really comforting when she wanted to be.

"I never knew you liked Bill so much, I mean I guessed you might have a bit of a crush on him, but never as big as like this! Don't worry, everything will be fine."

"Thanks Alanna," I said through choked tears. It was stupid of me to cry really, I never had a chance.

* * *

The date of ball came closer and closer and soon no one could talk about anything except for it. Teachers had given up trying to keep their students concentrating on their subjects and Filch, the grumpy new caretaker, seemed to be in a bad mood purely because everyone else was in a good mood. He had tried to give a fourth year girl a detention just for laughing in a corridor! However, something totally different and unexpected happened to me in a corridor in the run-up to the Halloween ball.

We'd all just got out of our Transfiguration lesson and Alec, Ollie and Poppy had gone off on their own. Alanna and I walked up a crowded corridor to get to Herbology. The excitement about the ball was filling the air as the students talked keenly about what they were going to wear and other finer details which, though insignificant as they may be on the actual night, were fun to just talk about.

"I'm going to wear my light blue robe," announced Alanna upon hearing one of these conversations. I didn't know what I'd wear; it wouldn't really matter as I was only going with Ollie.

"Should I wear my midnight blue robe or my rose coloured robe?" I asked Alanna. She was always good at that kind of thing.

"I think you should wear the rose robe; you look really pretty in that," she said after considering her answer for a minute.

"I never look pretty," I said glumly.

"Of course you do!" Alanna said, a confident note in her voice. "You always look pretty," she said.

I knew she was only saying that because she was my best friend, but even so it still brought a smile to my face. "It's just that -"

But I never finished my sentence. My foot hit something as we were walking and I could feel myself losing my balance and flying through the air. I quickly put my hands out to break my fall and came crashing down onto the stone flagged floor with a loud thud. All the wind in my lungs left me and for a moment I could not breathe; then thankfully I managed a few short, sharp breaths. The whole corridor stopped their talking and I could feel dozens of pairs of eyes turn towards me. Alanna was the first person to move after the initial shocked stillness as she kneeled down by my side and asked if I was OK.

From behind me I could hear the sharp voice of a girl.

"Detention, Hilsankov! Report to your head of house immediately!"

I slowly looked round and, despite the pain I was experiencing, I still had enough strength to feel happy at seeing Anastasia Hilsankov, one of Harriet's gang, dragging her feet stubbornly away from where the Head Girl stood. The Head Girl was a seventh year Hufflepuff with short unkempt hair and usually a smile to go with it. But now she had a face of thunder. I smiled to myself in relish.

Slowly I eased myself into a sitting position; I wasn't feeling nearly as winded as before. Suddenly, however, at seeing the approach of the head boy I found myself unable to breathe again.

"Are you OK?" asked Bill, kneeling on the other side to the one Alanna sat by. Reuben knelt in between the two, right in front of me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It wasn't a bad fall," I lied. Alanna shot me a quick smile, knowing fully what was going through my mind right now.

"Bill, Myra just got the better of you again," said Reuben, turning to Bill with a grin on his face.

"Oh yeah! I completely forgot! Dammit, why can't she let me give just one person a detention? What's the point of becoming a head boy if you can't do that?" He seemed momentarily subdued as he watched the head girl, whom I had deduced was Myra, walk down the corridor with a look of contempt on his face. Reuben just laughed.

"I guess she's just better than you, mate. I make that, ooh, three - nil? You're really not up to scratch!" said Reuben, slapping Bill on the back. Bill smiled grimly and then sighed deeply. I tried to keep that sigh in my memory forever; it was so...beautiful!

Alanna spoke for the first time in ages, "are you ready to get up now, Niamh?" I nodded, not able to find words while in the company of Bill. "She's was winded, so she can't really get up very easily," explained Alanna to Bill and Reuben.

"OK then," said Bill. He put one of his strong arms round my back and hooked my arm around his neck before hauling me back onto my feet. I nearly fainted in ecstasy as my arm touched the soft skin of Bill's neck and as I felt his powerful arm around my back lift me off the floor.

"Thank you," I said breathlessly, aware my cheeks were probably turning as red as Bill's hair.

"No problem! I think it's awful some of the things these Slytherins get up to. Feel free to tell me if it happens again."

"You just want to give someone a detention!" interjected Reuben, smirking at Bill.

"That as well as helping people!"

"Sure..." said Reuben nodding his head in mock agreement. Bill gave him a light-hearted punch on the arm.

"Seriously, if it ever happens again, then tell me," said Bill, addressing me once again.

"OK. Thanks," I said, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Bye," said Bill as he started walking up the corridor again. Reuben echoed him.

"Bye," I said as Bill waved over his shoulder before he carried on talking with Reuben. They soon disappeared round the corner and onto the next corridor. I turned to Alanna who was beaming like a Cheshire cat.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh nothing! By the way did you like my little trick?"

"What little trick?"

"Telling Bill you couldn't get up easily!"

It suddenly clicked. "You knew he was going to help me up?" I asked in surprise. Alanna just grinned even more and nodded.

"Oh thank you, thank you! You're the best friend ever!" I said, hugging her madly. I skipped all the way to Herbology (by now the pain had subsided) and Alanna didn't protest once, as I'm sure she would normally have done. She really was great!