Worse Things ((Gavin))

[Sita Mehadi H7]

Sita stomped snow into the Entrance Hall, shaking her gloves off as she stepped into the relative warmth of the castle. Relative. With its stone walls, many parts of the castle were cool even in the height of summer, and during the winter it was draughty and generally cold, with occasional patches of warmth in classrooms owned by teachers who shared Sita's wish to maintain a regular body temperature without padding out one's figure with several layers of clothing (and that, alas, wasn't all of the teachers). Sita had just come in from a Herbology class; Professor Longbottom did keep the greenhouses warm - well he had an excuse other than compassion for the students, since the exotic magical plants they'd been working with today needed it warm - but the walk back to the castle had been enough to leave Sita feeling rather chilled. Her teeth were chattering even now!

Bound for the Hufflepuff Common Room, she kept her winter cloak, scarf and hat on even inside the castle. It was only once she had reached the warm, welcoming common room that she dared to begin unfastening her heavy wool cloak. Maybe here she would cease to feel like an ice block. Lessons were over for the day, and given that it was almost the winter solstice, it had already gone dark. With another shiver, Sita felt very glad to be inside the cosy Hufflepuff Common Room rather than in the snowy, slippy, dark and cold winter wonderland outside. She carefully hung her cloak, scarf and hat up on a peg near her locker and then looked around to see whether there were any chairs free close to the fireplace. To her delight, she saw that even better than that, there was a free place on the sofa next to Gavin, and he wasn't talking to anyone at the moment... an excellent opportunity, Sita felt. She was never happier than when she got Gavin all to herself.

"Good afternoon!" Sita greeted Gavin merrily with a big smile. She sat down on the sofa next to him, her smile suddenly fading into a moment of pure horror as she realised that she'd forgotten to brush her hair before coming over. Her hat always made her hair go wacky, so it was absolutely necessary to put it back in order before going to talking to the boy she were especially fond of, especially if she was going to nurture any hope that he might begin to return the feeling. Of course it didn't matter what Gavin looked like - he'd be adorable however wacky his hair might become. But she felt she had to try a bit harder. Oh well, it was a bit late to deal with the problem now - she could hardly leave as soon as she'd arrived for something as 'trivial' as brushing her hair. She tried to cover over the pained expression by being disgruntled.

"Eurgh, I'm absolutely freezing," she complained. "Some first year decided that it would be a good idea to ambush me after Herbology - I don't even know how they recognised me in the dark - and kept on walking in front of me asking if they could join the Quidditch team. I hate trying to explain school rules - shouldn't that be up to Prefects like you?" she grumbled. "And now I feel bad because I got fed up and walked off, and then they ran to catch up with me and slipped over in the snow and got all wet," she giggled. "I feel bad for finding it funny!" She couldn't help it - there was a sort of poetic justice to it, and the first year had been just fine, if rather embarrassed. "Oh," Sita added more brightly, changing the topic of conversation as a new thought occurred to her, "speaking of Quidditch - we need to get training again - have you seen Finn around? I think he's turned into a recluse after the game... I wonder how long it'll take for him to get over it." She paused, weighing up the odds. "After Christmas, perhaps?" she hazarded a guess. "He can't beat himself up about it forever - worse things happen than losing Quidditch games... right?"

[Gavin Armstrong H6]

Blooming charms essay, Gavin usually loved charms but he wasn't a big fan of spending 2 hours straight on any one essay while he still had a pile of other subjects to deal with. He was just beginning to get frustrated when the entrance to the common room opened up. It was therefore a welcome surprise when Sita plopped herself beside him looking like an overgrown snow woman. "Good afternoon yourself, Frosty." Gavin said to her with a smile to match her own. It was amazing how happy Gavin was to have his friend back in his life, Eric and the guys were fun of course but spending time with Sita brought back old feelings of independence and wonder at the wizarding world around him.
There had been awhile of separation between them, but Gavin had been so glad to discover she didn't seem to blame him for it. The four amigos had just gone different ways in school... well 2 of them stuck together but that was a totally different story. Gavin chucked as Sita told him about being harassed by a first year who then got what for by slipping in the snow. "Don't feel bad, think of it this way, if she hadn't been racing so fast after you she wouldn't have slipped. It was karma really. But you should know Sita, it's everybody's duty to make sure the school rules are known and understood; prefects are far from omnipotent you know. We need all the help we can get; and we do appreciate it." he said putting his arm around her and squeezing to show his appreciation before leaning back down over his paper.

"Yeah, Quidditch, I don't know. I haven't seen him, I imagine he's hiding from the entire Hufflepuff population because he can't stand the fact that we accept the loss while he isn't. I am sure you're right, after he has some rest over Christmas we'll have our old Finn back. I have actually been thinking, but I will need your help... I was thinking the team could get together and get Finn a 'thank you for being an awesome captain' Christmas gift? Nothing too big you know, maybe we can make a papier-mâché snitch and all sign it or something? Do you guys do papier-mâché in the wizarding world? Muggles do it all the time... sort of. But it would mean so much more if the whole team did it, you know. Do you think you could rally the troops? If you think they will like it that is... I mean just tell me if you think it's a stupid idea... Is it a stupid idea?" Gavin asked looking down at his paper in an embarrassed way so he wouldn't have to see the expression of scorn he was imagining on Sita's face thinking how dumb it was to suggest a muggle craft to a witch.

[Sita Mehadi H7]

Sita froze (in a different way than she had been doing from the cold) as Gavin put his arm round her. There really should be a law against ambiguous actions like that – it had really taken Sita quite by surprise and just as she was enjoying it, leaning back and getting comfy, he’d withdrawn his arm again and gone back to looking more interested in his work than in Sita. It had been nice while it lasted…
“Eurgh,” Sita complained, refusing to be mollified and hitting him lightly on the arm, “since when did it become my duty to be responsible? I don’t want to be responsible, it’s not consistent with my personality,” she pouted. He was still trying to work and that made her pout more. “What are you working on?” she asked, whipping his parchment off him. “Yuck, Charms,” she said, handing it back to him as soon as she’d answered her own question. “Rather you than me.” She listened to his answer about Finn, settling down to pay attention as he began proposing a plan that would need her help. As it happened, she thought it was a very good plan, and it wasn’t just because she was biased when it came to Gavin.

“Gavin, that’s genius!” Sita said eagerly, her eyes shining. She put her hand out and pushed his chin up to stop him staring down at his paper – not that he wasn’t adorable when he was being shy and embarrassed, but now was not the time for that, when they were actually supposed to be having a conversation. “Not stupid at all; I think he’ll like it - it’d be something a bit unusual too. It’s not a wizard craft but we did papier-mâché at Llanrhystud,” she assured him, not verbalising the memory that sprang to mind of Ingrid and herself making a whole basket of fruit out of papier-mâché as children, “so I know how to do it… and Grace is really good at art so she can help too, she’ll be able to make it actually look like a Snitch rather than a lump of newspaper shreds. And you can charm it to fly, since you can actually do Charms.” Sita said this last part with a sad little smile – much to her frustration, she had never been any good at Charms: she loved the pretty effects other people could create but could never achieve them herself. “It’ll be really good. I’ll get hold of some old newspaper; I think Billy had some sheets left over from making his Combustible Halloween Pumpkin.”

Talking of one festive occasion led her mind to another. “How long have we got left until Christmas?” she asked, before relating her shopping troubles to him, all the time working up the courage to ask him her most burning question regarding Christmas celebrations. “I still have lots of presents left to get… I’m getting yours in Mossley – my hometown – I can send it in the post. And I’ve got most people’s. But I haven’t got Billy’s yet either and he lives in Ireland so it’s easier to give it to him before we leave. And I suppose I should get Stacey something… you know who she is, Anastasia Castlerock, Ravenclaw in our year. She’s Billy’s friend so mine by association, but I don’t think that she really likes either of us… but still, it would be rude not to get her something. Thank goodness we’ve got another Hogsmeade weekend before the end of term!” She glanced at him surreptitiously to see whether he was still paying attention. Talking about shopping was a sure way to get a boy to turn their brains off (certainly worked every time with Billy), so maybe now he wouldn’t overthink her next question: “Are you going to the Yule Ball with anyone, Gavin?” There. She’d asked. Not really so subtle, but it couldn’t be helped. She regarded him anxiously as she waited for him to answer, the fingers hidden in her lap crossed for good luck.