Magic? || Years 1-5

A Ball?: Year 4

"ChoChang..." He had mumbled quietly and quickly. Amisty fought down her grin, nudging him with her elbow.

"That pretty Ravenclaw Seeker you've been staring at all year?" She teased lightly, nudging him again.

"Oh, hush!" He blushed harder, shoving her away as she burst out into a fit of laughter, nearly waking up the nearby dormitories.

When Care of Magical Creatures rolled around once more Amisty was relieved to find that there was no horrid story written about Hagrid in the Daily Prophet.

"She didn' seem very int'rested in magical creatures, ter tell yeh the truth," Hagrid had told them quietly. "She jus' wanted me ter talk about you, Harry. Well, I told her we'd been friends since I went ter fetch yeh from the Dursleys. 'Never had to tell him off in four years?' she said. 'Never played you up in lessons, has he?' I told her no, an' she didn' seem happy at all. Yeh'd think she wanted me to say yeh were horrible, Harry."

"'Course she did. She can't keep writing about what a tragic little hero I am, it'll get boring," Harry replied off-handedly.

"She wants a new angle, Hagrid. You were supposed to say Harry's a mad delinquent!" Ron exclaimed.

"But he's not!" Hagrid protested.

"She should've interviewed Snape. He'd give her the goods on me any day," Harry muttered, rolling his eyes. "'Potter has been crossing lines ever since he first arrived at this school..."

They burst out laughing.

"Said that, did he? Well, yeh might've bent a few rules, Harry, bu' yeh're all righ' really, aren' you?" Hagrid spoke over them.

"Cheers, Hagrid," Harry replied cheekily, grinning.

"You coming to this ball thing on Christmas Day, Hagrid?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Though' I might look in on it, yeah. Should be a good do, I reckon. You'll be openin' the dancin', won' yeh, Harry? Who're you takin'?" Hagrid asked.

"No one, yet," Harry replied, blushing once more. Amisty hid a grin behind her hand, trying to keep from laughing.

"Cho Chaaaang~" She whispered in his year as she passed to go and throw out a bowl of dead cabbage leaves.

He elbowed her in the ribs in retaliation.

-=+=-

As the end of the term grew closer, a select few of the teachers seemed to have given up in keeping their students attention.

Professor Flitwick even let them play games in class on Wednesday, and Amisty spent the majority flicking the paper ball halfway across the room with Hermione as her glass wolf figurine raced after it. But, of course, other teachers weren't quite so lenient.

Professor McGonagall and Moody, as expected, kept them working all the way up until the bell. Professor Binns just kept lecturing them about the goblin rebellions, somehow making riots sound just like a story about dust.

And, of course, Snape told them he'd be testing their poison antidotes on the last lesson of term.

"Evil, he is. Springing a test on us on the last day. Ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying," Ron growled.

Amisty glanced up from her wand, from which she was charming ribbons to make little pictures in the air, her Potion notes shoved to the side of the table.

"Mmm... you're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" Hermione hummed, looking up from her Potions notes to watch Ron's progress of his Exploding Snap card castle.