"I thought you would be here," a voice spoke from behind the shelf startling Finley causing her to drop the book she was scanning through. She turned to face the person and her mood worsened, finding herself face to face with the annoying Collins boy from the Book Keep in Diagon Alley. Genuinely thinking that the boy would finally leave her alone once they arrived in Hogwarts, turns out that she was wrong and was more irritated with the fact that he was here pestering her.
"I heard about what happened in potions, you must be really pissed," he teased as he followed along the direction Finley headed from the other side of the shelf.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Finley scowled as she shoved the book she held in between the space that Nicholas used to see her. "And I hardly find the reason for it to be your business."
"It's entertaining first of all," the boy says as he jogged ahead to meet Finley at the end of the shelf, "and second, I heard that you looked like you wanted to snap Potter's neck when he got the liquid luck."
"Did I ask?" Finley snaps as she walks on ahead, not liking the feeling of validation from the person she did not find amusing.
"The attitude must be a family thing."
"Read my lips buddy," she snapped facing the boy Nicholas, "Leave me the fuck alone!" She seethed before pushing the boy away, even more annoyed than she had been when entering the library.
"I don't particularly want to blame you, having liquid luck might actually be the answer to your problems if you know what I mean," Nicholas whistled following behind her still. "One vial for a day's worth of luck?"
"And he still speaks," Finley grumbled taking in every little bit of patience Finley had to not break someone's nose. The patience was depleting fast, and the part that this boy had done nothing but to egg on event of Harry besting her in potions was starting to tap onto her in the most aggravating way possible.
"You know, I can help you," Nicholas started as they neared the entrance to the restricted section. "I specifically remember you buying a book about Felix Felicis in Diagon Alley, it's only a matter of when you start brewing it."
"Hypothtically, I do have the ingredients and the cauldron, but what makes you think I would brew it," she glared at him, turning to see how he had successfully got a reaction out of her.
"Because you will," he tells her handing her a piece of paper before leaving, every step he took was taunting her to curse him just once— for therapeutic reasons.
Looking down at the piece of paper she was given, not even wanting to go check what it was yet her curiosity was going to kill her if she left it as is. Opening the folded paper, jaw clenching as she sees the messily written word on it, she was for sure not going to look forward for this year's hogsmeade visit.
"I don't particularly like the idea of us being on this carriage, the air is a bit heavy," Luna says as she turns to everyone on the carriage including Finley who joined her brother and the Gryffindors. Much to her misfortune Blaise caught a cold, Theo was no where to be found, and lately Draco had been avoiding her like she was some type of disease. Her saving grace would've been Astoria, if not for the fact that she ran off with a boy who asked her to Hogsmead for a date.
"You both have nargles around your head did you know that?" The soft spoken Ravenclaw says as she looks at Finley who stopped herself from rolling her eyes, avoiding her habit of being rude.
"You said so when you found me petrified on the train with a broken nose, thanks again by the way," Harry tells Luna, obvious that he had mentioned that event specifically for Finley to react to. Wanting to know if she knew anything about her boyfriend being a death eater or not, the one thing missing from Harry's efforts was a large banner to parade it around the school.
"I always knew your stealth tricks were shit," Finley nonchalantly says as she took something out of her coat, a rolled stick thing that caused both Hermione and Harry's eyes to widen.
"You smoke now?" Hermione gasped as she made an attempt to grab the stick.
"I don't," Finley rolled her eyes as she softly placed the paper stick in between her lips. "If I don't light it, it's nothing," she explains.
"Your housemates are becoming bad influences on you," Hermione frowns at her friend, thinking about how drastic of a change it had been. It was bad that she had been drinking at such a young age, but smoking?
"It's not even real, Mione," Finley explains. "It's a prop cigarette, it just smokes."
"But still—"
"My god, these Gryffindors," Finley huffed, as soon as the carriage stopped, she hopped off the carriage.
Lighting up the paper roll from her lips before mockingly sucking up the smoke and blowing it her friend's faces. The only one in the group who seemed to like the smoke was Luna who smiled softly at the slightly thick smoke she created, "See you later then," she says before walking away, not even waiting for a lecture from Hermione. Finding every word that came out of friend's mouth extra irritable today that she didn't want to be around to spout words she half meant, well— she would mean all of them but she wouldn't be nice about it.
Neither looking back to see the shocked and disappointed look on Harry's face, not that she was bothered by it in the first place. Minding her own business as she let herself walk five minutes longer in the cold into an old apothecary.
The place itself looked run down, the windows looked too dirty and in need of a deep clean. The wood looked too wet that it might give in with all the snow on top of the roof, she had been in this shop before in her third year to look around and to hide from Harry back when she was forbidden to make contact with him. How that aged poorly.
"I knew you couldn't resist," Nicholas' familiar voice spoke from behind her, inwardly swearing under her breath not wanting to snap at him.
"Well, you were right," she nonchalantly says. "Who am I to resist a chance to brew a hard potion?"
"Well if you were sane you wouldn't," Nicholas grins as she knocks on the shop's door.
"What's that suppose to mean," Finley snaps.
"Nothing—"
"What are you doing here?" An old woman's voice spoke right after they heard the shop's door open, surprising the both of them. The old woman looked as old as Rosmerta from the Three broomsticks except a tad but youthful, might be the perks of running an apothecary shop. The woman glared at Finley which Nicholas found amusing for some reason as the girl herself seemed to glare back, whatever the story that came in between the both of these ladies must be something.
"Been a long time since I last saw you here Evans."
"Potter actually," Finley rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"And the last year you disguised yourself as a Zabini, but you're still as rotten of a Slytherin you are," the woman accusingly says.
"You still smell like dragon dung, you must be afraid of showers—"
"We would like to purchase some herbs madam Moss," Nicholas intervened, not liking the brewing chaos that Finley and the shop keeper were making with their spats. He would be lying if he wasn't more eager to learn about what happened between these two ladies but it wasn't the right time.
"I'm not selling her anything," the lady snapped as she snarls at Finley.
"It's not my fault you didn't know the difference between a kidney stone from the moles on you face—"
"Merlin's hairy ass woman, shut up," Nicholas finally snaps at Finley making she shut her mouth but did not stop her from keeping the angry look towards the Madam Moss.
"As I was saying, I would like to purchase something," Nicholas says after giving Finley a stare mentally telling her to shut her mouth for the rest of the conversation. Having the old woman look at him from his shoes to his face, she held out her hand towards him.
"Well what is it then?" Madam Moss asked paying no mind to Finley who childishly mimicked the old woman.
"Nothing out of the ordinary," Nicholas says as he hands her the ingredients they needed, flinching as the woman swiped it away from his hand.
"What are you two going to do with this? These are for a felix felicis potion," madam Moss asks sternly. "You students aren't even allowed to make this much less have it in the most potent form—"
"Gee, now I'm more eager to brew it," Finley sarcastically says not being able to keep the urge to be rude to the woman under wraps.
"Can we at least have some of them?" Nicholas asked wanting to at least get a bit of the ingredients on hand or the whole waiting in the cold would be for nothing.
"I can only give you the ashwinder eggs," the lady says before closing the door to fetch the ingredients. Nicholas turned to Finley again a bit distressed, but was surprised to see the girl unbothered by the fact they didn't have all the ingredients on hand.
"Are you not upset?"
"At what?" She asks as she checks her nails that were ungloved.
"That we can't get the ingredients—"
"You call yourself a Ravenclaw?" She raised her brow at him. "You're not very smart now aren't you?" She clicked her tongue before patting Nicholas' shoulder.
"Meet me by a pub near Zonko's, you can't miss the snake sign," she says, leaving the boy utterly confused from where she left him.
Hi!
That's it, that's the whole last minute message.
Rayah.