VOID, harry potter

iv. herbology homework

"What?" cried Juliet, a little too loudly as people passing by turned to look at them, "But I have my permission form right here!" she said in a lower tone, pointing to said permission slip in her hand.

"I understand, but with the recent events the Headmaster has suggested–"

"Professor Dumbledore said this? But–" Juliet protested, but Professor McGonagall cut her off.

"Yes and his decision is final, and I'd also appreciate it if you wouldn't interrupt me, Miss Blanchard."

"Sorry, Professor." Juliet grumbled, and made to turn back to the castle.

"This is for your own safety," McGonagall said in a softer tone, looking down on her with a pitiful expression, "You should be able to go by next year,"

Juliet just nodded and walked away to go break the news to her friends that she wouldn't be able to go. They were as disappointed as Juliet was and promised to bring back lots of sweets from Honeydukes for her.

Disheartened, she made her way back inside the castle, where she walked past Harry Potter saying goodbye to her friends like she just did. Ron waved at her excitedly, and she waved back. Juliet had barely made it to the marble staircase when she heard her name being called from behind her,

"Juliet!" Harry called, and Juliet stopped to let him catch up, "How come you're not going to Hogsmeade? Did you not get your permission slip signed?"

"I di-" Juliet began, but stopped herself, "Yeah, my mum forgot to sign it."

"I didn't get it signed either, my aunt and uncle are muggles and are quite strict," Harry explained as they walked through the corridor together.

"That sucks," Juliet replied sympathetically.

"Yeah, but I'm glad I'm not the only one having to stay here." Harry replied, "Not that I'm happy you don't get to go! I just mean–"

"It's okay, I know what you mean," Juliet assured him with a smile. Harry's cheeks flushed slightly, and he turned away so that Juliet wouldn't see.

"What are you going to do now?" Harry asked her.

"Probably some homework," Juliet sighed, and it quickly reminded her of the Herbology project they hadn't started yet, "Hey, now that we're both here, why don't we get started on the Herbology? If you're not busy, of course,"

"Yeah that's a good idea, let's go to the library," Harry said, nodding.

"Let me just go grab my stuff, I'll be right back," Juliet said, soon disappearing through the corridor.

It took longer than Juliet had anticipated to find all her things in her dorm, and she wasn't surprised when she couldn't find Harry again. She just made her way through the gaggles of first and second-years to the library to begin on the project anyways.

Almost two hours had passed when Juliet looked up to see Harry rushing towards her in the library.

"I'm sorry, I got caught up with Lupin, and then I couldn't find my Herbology books, and I forgot we were meeting in the–"

"It's okay," Juliet just smiled at him and looked back down and continued writing.

Harry was caught slightly off-guard by this reaction: was she actually mad at him but pretending not to be? He took a seat across from her and set his bag down. It was when he had grabbed his own things out of his bag that he had really absorbed how much Juliet had already done for them. Harry glanced around the table and saw Herbology books and pages of research sprawled out around them and his chest tightened slightly: he felt guilty that he hadn't been here to help.