The weekend came and went as boring as any other weekend could be. Other than my run-in with a Death Eater, it has been the most grueling two days. After Ap saved my ass, he walked off as if nothing happened. George and Fred, on the other hand, took turns scolding me over being reckless. Although both of them knew that their attempts to change my behavior were in vain.
History of Magic is the other class Ap and I have just the two of us. It's strange to sit beside someone you used to talk to every day and not say something. I keep trying to thank him for saving me again, but he ignores me.
I catch him looking over a few times or copying off my notes but that's it. If we make eye contact he just looks away, if we reach for the ink pot at the same time he will just let me go first, or worse whenever I make a spelling mistake he goes out of his way to correct it on the paper but won't even say a single word in my direction. Scoffing I propped my head up on my arm. Temporary tattoos made out of sharpy covered my arms. All of my friends have been studying for the OWL exams, which has often caught me in a storm of boredom.
Professor Binns drew images of goblins all over the chalkboard. I wonder if sometimes Professor Binns' realizes he's taught the same lesson for the past few weeks over and over. Though most days, not a single student paid any attention. It was easy to pass any exam or test he gave out, honestly, it was quite cruel how easy it was. Without fail Professor Binns would fall asleep during the test, out of boredom, and then we took our books out to cheat. To be honest, the only person I have never seen cheat on any test, was a timid girl in our class who sits at the desk behind me.
To be frank I have no clue what her name is, I'm not sure anyone does. But particularly today I felt the need to learn her name. Solely, based on the fact that Professor Lupin's tan trench coat spread across her desk. I knew it was his based off of the cigarette burns on the sleeves, and the tea stain on the right pocket, but most of all I knew it had to be his because that was how strange this all had become. Everything has become connected no matter how I try to place it out of my mind. Remus's weak apology, the homeless man who knew my name and my mother, Sirius breaking into Hogwarts, and Apollo's strange silence.
I looked back at the shorter girl and whispered curiously, "Where did you get that?" She looked up from her detailed notes and scoffed. Her notes were color-coded based on a system that made no sense based on just a glance. She looked back down at her notes without even paying me any regard.
"Hye," I whispered, "I asked you a question."
"And I am trying to pay attention to the lesson," she retorted. Fuck this lesson, fuck this bloody class, fuck all of this pretending like it doesn't bother me. I want answers. "It's been the same lesson for the past month," I replied in a slightly rude tone.
"But it hasn't," she said standing her ground.
"Yes, it has, next Professor, will give a pop quiz based on the first wave of the rebellion. And after that, he will release us early with the same goodbye as every time before warning us of the upcoming test, that we have still yet to even be prepared for."
"Are you that pigheaded that you cannot fathom that this isn't the same lesson as every time." Is she trying to make me feel like I'm going mad?
"What are you talking about?"
She looked me in my eyes and laughed. The kind of laugh where you are pushing out air and not making any sound. His dark green eyes sparkled when she laughed. "I don't understand what is so funny," I said harshly. Her laugh grew and it began to echo. Surrounding the whole room in sound. As it echoed her face shifted and turned to look like that of the boggart that followed me around the halls. I looked around the classroom but everyone was so focused, did no one see this?
"Miss Ali please pay attention," I looked at the front of the classroom but it wasn't Professor Binns who called for me. It was my grandmother, her resting disapproval and harsh glare scared me more than the fact that she spoke. My knees went weak and I slammed into the floor. Just before it went black standing over me was Apollo a large smile on his face.
When I opened my eyes again, which felt like hours but must have only been seconds, I woke up in the potions classroom. I sit up on the floor leaning against Fred. Professor Snape looked down at me with a look of concerned disgust. I tried to form a sentence but nothing would come out. Fred ran his hands through my hair and said half-jokingly, "You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"This an important lesson class, by just putting in one drop of the wrong ingredient Miss Ali was able to make herself incapacitated. Not to mention the fact that she managed to destroy an entire work table," Professor Snape said. It was a dream? A Dream with so much meaning, yet so little at the same time. I glanced up at what was formerly mine and Fred's work table, char marks covered the area where I had been sitting and an orange goo was seeping out of the cauldron. Instinctively I reached up and touched my eyebrows, still there. My robe on the other hand was burnt and covered with the goo.
"How come you didn't pass out?" I asked Fred my voice shaky. He smiled and wiped a streak of the goop off my forehead.
"You shoved me and screamed, holy shit I think I just killed us all," he replied. Checks out, it does sound like something I would say. I looked around at my peers and saw their worried faces. Some of them hid under desks, others stayed in their seats confused, but the majority had run to the other side of the room. In the back of the class, Arthur looked at me worried. I gave him a thumbs up and turned away quickly in fear that I looked horrid. Listen I'm not a vain person just I don't want him to see me like this. Is what having a crush feels like? Because I think it feels worse than the longing for information I've been feeling for months now. Yet at the same time, it's the best feeling on the planet.