[Lawns] Whoa!!!

[Girty Hubbles]

For February it was actually a nice day, of course it was not bikinis down by the lake weather, you would be stupid to not be wearing more then three layers, but the sun was out and when the bitter northern wind was not blowing from off the mountains it was actually rather pleasant. With this in mind Girty thought that she would take to the castle grounds and get a bit of sunlight and catch up on some reading. Professor O’Donnell had got Alex on some crazy assignment and he left the castle at the crack of dawn meaning she would not have him to distract him today, which would mean she would have to do something constructive.

Her tour of the castle grounds did not get very far, she got out of the courtyard, across the bridge and was just making her way across the lawns when she saw a gaggle of girls. They were whispering frantically between each other and would occasionally burst out into fits of hysterical high pitched giggles. Something must have been getting their attention, these were the fan girls, anyone popular or attractive they gathered around like vultures circling a dead carcass…who was the poor sod this time.

Walking slowly over, her hands deep in her pockets of her black coat, her yellow converse soaking in the damp morning dew off the long grass and the ends of her Hufflepuff fluttered around in the breeze. When Girty came level with the bunch of girls she gave them all a quick glace before following their gaze to the sight of the new Occlumency Professor sitting down enjoying the sun reading the news paper with a cup of tea in his hand.

“You’re all hopeless.”

She said as she rolled her eyes and started to stride off towards him. In the background she could hear the squeaks of protest that he should not be disturbed but to be honest Girty did not give a dam. She had heard that Professor Wade…Vaid something like that anyway, was quite the hit of the school but seeing as she did not take his class she had no idea who the man was but as she got closer Girty could not help but feel like she knew this guy. Coming to a stop only a few meters away the Hufflepuff’s mouth dropt open and she quickly glanced over her shoulder thinking about running away…but it was too late, he had seen her.

“Hey.” Girty said rather nervously, it had been years since she had seen Will and he was just as handsome. The things she knew…the things she had seen would make her the envy of every fan girl in the school.

[Professor William Vaid]

February. The shortest, yet possibly most dullest month of the year. It always was. Never was there a day in February where Will could remember it being sunny, hot, or anything but grey, dull and miserable. Of course there was always happiness the week surrounding Valentine’s day, but even then, the sun never shone once. Quite typical really, you could never trust the weather from one minute to the next in Scotland, except for February. Will had just woken up, and was glad it was a Sunday. No work today, and it gave him a chance to just relax for a while. His room however, had become stuffy and claustrophobic. Barely any air remained in the room, and so Will got dressed for the weather outside in his jeans, a shirt and a thick black jacket. His stubble was perfectly rugged as always, and so he quickly combed his hair before reaching onto the window sill where the owl had dropped his daily newspaper, and also dropped something rather disgusting of its own on the sill.

Locking his door, which he made sure he did well, due to a few certain girls routing through his belongings a few days previous, he made his way through a small group of students blocking the small corridor. The castle was full of students doing nothing productive with their time but standing in everyone’s way and chatting to each other. Quickly passing the kitchens, a familiar House elf stuck her arm out with a big mug of tea in it. Grabbing it as he passed he turned round and walked backwards.
“Thanks Lulu, your a doll” he smiled with a wink. Even the house elf gave a small giggle before he turned back around and walked forwards once again. With his folded newspaper under his armpit and his tea in his hand, he was set and happy for the day. He thought about later going to have a chat with Dan and Dia, then maybe go to see Warren for a drink. He had been racking his brain for weeks on how to get payback on Warren for all the pranks, but the golden idea was yet to come to him.

As he made his way through the doors, he wandered down to his favourite place on the lawns. Luckily it was dry so he wouldn’t get a wet bum this time, and the morning breeze was refreshing. As the wind was blowing his hair slightly, he sat down on the small hill and placed his mug on the floor between his bent legs momentarily before opening up the paper and resting it on his knees. A certain sub headline caught his attention and he began to flick frantically for the page it was on. Hardly noticing the new gaggle of girls that had made their formation near him. It was even worse when him and Dan was together, quite a strange feeling for Will, although he was sure Dan was used to the attention.

Flicking his head up for a moment, he caught sight of a familiar looking face before looking back down again, and realising who it was. He stood up abruptly, knocking over his tea in the process and the newspaper partially landed on the spillage.

“Bloody hell, Girty!” He said in shock, before grinning at her and pulling her into a big hug.
“You’ve always had a way of sneaking up on me” he laughed.

[Girty Hubbles]

Will always had a way of making Girty feel special, ever since she was small, after all when she met Will she was four and it was just cool to have another person to play with. However as she grew older Will just grew more handsome and at the age of seven Girty had developed a small crush on her brothers friend. It has been a while since she had seen Will, when they mentioned Professor Vaid she would never had made the connection, she did not know his last name so with out looking upon his stunning features she would never have known.

Feeling her cheeks go warm as he shot up knocking over his tea she knew he was still that dork that had turned up on the door step every summer. But as he shouted out her name rather loudly and embraced her in one of the biggest hugs she had had in a long time her cheeks turned redder still. Carefully she wrapped her arms around Will and gave a small laugh, it was nice to be greeted in such a manor by someone after such a long time, a lot had changed, she had grown up a lot since they last met but still there was something about Will that made Girty’s heart flutter ever so slightly.

“It is great to see you too Will.” Girty finally chirped up, her voice still wavering ever so slightly with nerves. “But I think if we stay like this for any longer around hundred jinxes are going to fly over in our direction.”

Pushing herself out of the mans embrace Girty gave a small glance back around at the gathering of fan girls and could not help but laugh at the shocked faces and the muttering that were passing between them…there would be a few rumours flooding around the kitchen by tea tonight. Looking back at Will Girt shot him a true Hubbles smile and tried to forget the fact that her cheek were still rosy red, maybe she could blame it on the cold wind.

[Professor William Vaid]

So many memories of when they were younger came flooding back when he saw the grown up Girty. She had become a beautiful young woman, and it was rather refreshing to see a Hubbles family member without stubble. The amount of times she had purposely walked in on him while we was in the toilet he could not recall, and even when Will and Dan would be up late at night playing some video game, she would always sneak down and sit and just watch them play for hours on end. How she didn’t get bored he’d never understand, as if it was him, he’d be fast off, snoozing on the sofa.

Looking down at his now empty mug that had the smallest amount of tea dregs at the bottom, he sighed and stuck his tongue out at Girty before pulling out his wand and flicking it over the mug, and it suddenly stood upright, filled with nice hot tea once more. “Gemino” he cast and it duplicated the tea and picked it up, handing it to Girty. He looked over at the crowd of girls that were now shooting evil glares over at Girty, and Will just smiled and put his arm around her, his back to the gaggle of fangirls and brought her over to where he just sat. Letting his arm come away from her shoulder, he sat back down, and looked up and her for a moment, then motioned for her to sit next to him.

“I think so too, and I don’t really want to take either of us to the Hospital wing on such a relaxing day like today” she smiled at her, before refolding the now partially wet newspaper. He considered using a spell to dry it but he couldn’t be bothered, someone more interesting than a newspaper had come along, the person who he had been trying to find since he found Dan. Trying to find Girty was like finding a needle in a haystack, but he knew she would be the one to find him, she always was. Even if it was in the toilet.

Noticing her blushing, Will put it down to the cold wind blowing around them.
“So, how has school been for you? I hear your on the quidditch team too” he grinned.

[Girty Hubbles]

He put his arm around her; this was too much even for Girty. A small giggle escaped from her as Will led her to where he had been sitting. Him making (well summoning) her a cup of tea was a big enough thing as it was. If you had made Girty sit down and write a list of all the guys she had liked over the years it would never have occurred to her to write down Will but now he had his arm around her she could not help but feel like an eight year old all over again with the biggest crush in the world.

When he removed his arm and sat down back on the grass Girty actually felt a little disappoint, but then that was when she had to remember that she was with Alex and that there was no point in wishful thinking, Will was her brothers best friend and now a professor. This was a very hard hitting reality and the Hufflepuff quickly dropt to the floor, sitting cross legged and cradling the mug of tea in her hands for warmth.

As Will spoke about the possible injuries they may sustain from the jealous fan girls Girty laughed softly and wondered if it was actually a good idea to have her back to them. The ones who were loyal to Dan normally tried to befriend her to get close to Dan, but if they saw her chummy with their other idol things might get a little messy. Gently sipping on her tea Girty watched as he folded up the newspaper, that had to be a good sign, it would mean he would make conversation and just as she thought this he spoke.

“School is good…Dan made me retake parts of the seventh year.” She shrugged “But you know it is for my own good, I mean if I want to take over for Dan I need good grades and Quidditch well that is just a perk.”

To be honest Quidditch was more then a perk, when she was sitting in Astronomy in the middle of the night or more lectures of the Goblin rebellions in History of Magic the thought of soaring through the air and the sounds of the cheering crowds kept her going, so did thoughts of Alex that was another perk of staying in school.

“It is nice to see you again Will…” Girty commented rather absentmindedly. “Warren muttered something about seeing you but I never made the connection that you were Professor Vaid, Merlin that sounds so droll. You do know I will always call you Will?”

[Professor William Vaid]

Picking up his cup of tea, he wrapped both sets of his fingers around it to gather warmth to himself before looking over the lawns to the lake that was now sparkling like a sea of diamonds. Taking a deep breath in, he let it out as a sigh before turning his head back to Girty. Giving her a small smile, he pictured her as a kid again, and all the time he had to help her up the stairs when he brother and Warren was being cruel, all the times he’d let her sit with him and Dan late at night and help play video games and assign her buttons to press to let her become involved. He had not thought about those times for years, and the sudden rush of all the memories were enough to send you dizzy. She was like the little sister he never had.

Girty answered his questions on schooling and Will gave a nod in agreement to Dan’s choices for Girty.
“Well as long as you’re doing as best you can, that’s all that matters isn’t it? I’m sure you know what’s best for you, and your brother probably likes to think he does” he laughed. Dan was a typical protective older brother now, he could see that. He was glad that the pair had stuck by each other throughout things as he had seen so many siblings break apart due to differences.

“Well i’ll be sure to come and see you play in your next quidditch match. You’ll find me parked next to Dan somewhere on the stand” he winked. It was then that he felt like he had missed a whole chunk of his family’s life, he classed the Hubbles’ clan as family anyway. The Hubbles’ took Will in like he was one of their own. Will felt happy to know he had another family he could rely on throughout anything.

Girty then spoke once again and broke his thoughts. Flicking his eyes back over to her, he smiled and looked down at her tea before looking back at her again.
“Yes, well, don’t call me Professor Vaid, it would sound weird coming from you!” he laughed. Sure enough, he wouldn’t be able to take her seriously even if she did, and he was sure she wouldn’t be able to say it without laughing anyway. That was the thing about Girty, as soon as she laughed or smiled, you had to do the same. It was infectious.

[Girty Hubbles]

The cup of tea that was clasped in her hands was warming the rest of her body against the bitter February breeze that was coming off the lake and billowing across the lawns. The grass blew in the wind creating an image much like the waves on the lake and no matter hoe cold it was for them outside the lake Girty could not help but smile, knowing that this was the place she knew she could spent her life at, no matter how much she grumbled and moaned about how the castle was falling apart she would be content to stay at Hogwarts.

With a small satisfied sigh Girty turned to look back at Will, she gave a small nod of her head when he did the typical teacheresk speech of ’As long as you are doing your best’ and that clearly Dan was doing it for his own good, he did have her best intensions at heart but with the amount of paper work that he threw at her she could not help but wonder if Dan enjoyed torturing her.

Will had not changed much, apart from age a tiny bit, but then Girty saw that as life experience and she could not help but find it a little appealing. Her cheeks flushed a bit at this thought, Will was Dan’s best friend and he was nine years older then her! The wink, that is what had done it. Girty would not deny she liked the attention and seeing as her and Alex had not met up in a while it was something that she was craving badly and along with his smiles and caring glances it was satisfying these needs.

“Yeah well I will not call you Professor.” She gave Will a tender glace. “I mean you are like a brother to me and so if I never call Dan Professor I am sure as hell not going to call you it either!”

With a small chuckle Girty sipped on her tea however her part of her mind was else wise occupied and ended up missed most of her mouth. A small trickle of liquid slipped down her chin and fell onto her coat. Knowing straight away she had made a prat of herself Girty pulled her cup away and desperately tried to stop herself from spilling anymore.