Chapter 12: Fireworks
Leigh woke up by the sound of thumping in her ears. Her head was on fire, and she winced as the harsh sun shone through the window and into her bed. "God," she mumbled incoherently. She had forgotten the pain of these hangovers, and was again reminded of why she should stay away from firewhisky.
She pulled the sheets off her body, keeping her eyes closed as long as possible as her hand fumbled across the bedside table, attempting to find her watch. She glanced at it quickly, soon regretting it as daggers shot through her eyes and straight into her skull. She groaned, holding her head in her hands. She tried to find solace in the fact that she had experienced worse, although that didn't help very much at the moment.
Against her body's wishes she crawled out of bed and reluctantly dragged herself into the bathroom to get ready. As much as she enjoyed letting a bit loose yesterday, she still prioritised class, and she wouldn't miss it for the heftiest hangover in the world. As she started to change clothes in front of her bed, she carefully nudged Nova in the bed beside her. She stirred slightly, grumbling.
"Wake up. You'll miss class," Leigh whispered to her friend, who seemed thoroughly disinterested. Leigh had expected as much, but still felt she owed it to her friend to at least try.
Silently, when Nova remained disinterested and merely grumbled tiredly, Leigh made her way out the dorms and through the painting. Just the thought of food made her stomach revolt, and she deliberately dodged breakfast. Just the smell of bacon or eggs might make her hurl right there on the spot.
She slowly but surely made it to the history of magic classroom, her first class of the day, where Professor Binns, the ghost professor, didn't even notice her entrance. He wasn't a very attentive professor, that much was clear. His classes were often quite boring and failed to capture students' attention, and for once Leigh was tremendously thankful.
She plummeted onto a chair and immediately leant her head onto her hands on her desk. Judging by the look of the students who trudged into the classroom after her, she wasn't the only one feeling a bit...tired. Even Hermione threw her head down onto the desk after she sat down. No hands were in the air that morning.
Next up was herbology, and she followed the stream of students to the greenhouse. Seeing as Nova understandably still hadn't shown up, Leigh looked across the students in the room, searching for someone else who was missing a partner. Professor Sprout seemed to notice her efforts.
"Missing a partner, Miss Conway?" She asked, to which Leigh was quick to nod.
"Yes, I do. My partner was caught with a nasty flu and decided to stay up in the dorms until lunch–," she started, and Sprout was quick to dismiss her with the wave of a hand.
"Oh, keep it for the other Professors. I remember those 'flu's." With a chuckle she lifted her eyes to look over the students piling into the room. "Longbottom and Conway, pair up for this class!"
Neville's head whipped around at the sound of his name, and he quickly gave Sprout a nod and started making his way through the students and up to Leigh's side of the table.
"Might be my lucky day today, paired up with the future herbology professor," Leigh said with a smile as he approached her.
"The future herbology professor with a headache," Neville was quick to point out, although a grin made its way to his lips. "I guess Louise decided it was worth skipping for once."
"I understand her. For the last two hours I've kind of wished I did the same," she grumbled, and he hummed in agreement.
"It was a fun night tho. And it will be fun to get back to Hogsmeade. You got any plans yet?"
Leigh shrugged in response. "Not really. You? Gonna ask Louise?" She couldn't help but waggle her eyebrows, and Neville grinned shyly.
"Maybe I will."
Sprout shushed the class, and swiftly started the lesson. The class was spent revising Lovage, and Leigh surprisingly found herself enjoying the slow pace of the curriculum.
"As you're all hopefully aware of by now, Lovage is used both in confusing and befuddlement droughts! It's efficacious in the inflaming of the brain!" Sprout spoke passionately.
Neville leaned in closer to Leigh, nudging her arm with his. "It's also used in the Invigoration Draught," he whispered with a knowing look.
Leigh chuckled slightly, the thumping pain still present at her temples. "Oh, I'd die to have some of that right now," she groaned quietly, and Neville agreed.
Sprout's eyes scanned over the plants across the table. "As you can see, it is similar in appearance to celery, although I would strongly advise against consumption!"
The class passed relatively fast. Homework consisted of reviewing Lovage in a brief essay which should be turned in by the next lesson. Not the greatest of news, but Leigh was confident she knew enough about the plant and it's history to write something up. Besides, Neville had offered for them to write it together – an invitation Leigh was quick to accept.
Thankfully, lunch was next up, and Leigh was glad the nausea she felt at the beginning of the day had subsided. She made her way to the Gryffindor table, placing herself across the table from Nova. Her friend had her head lying upon her crossed arms upon the table.
"How are you feeling?" Leigh asked softly as she took a sip of pumpkin juice.
"Uhh," was all that was heard in reply, and Leigh giggled.
Her last class, charms, flew by, and by this point she could feel the focus starting to return to her mind. Professor Flitwick was helpful as usual, and Leigh made a bunch of notes on the topic of today's lesson; the Ascendio charm. Flitwick decided they should wait to put their knowledge into practise until the next lesson, which would be hosted outside. If used incorrectly inside, there was a big risk students would shoot straight up into the ceiling, which Flitwick stated would be deeply unfortunate. Leigh couldn't help but agree.
At the end of class Leigh gathered her belongings and made her way towards the door alongside the rest of the students, and immediately furrowed her brows once she entered the corridor.
There was a strange excitement hanging in the air, and once she started moving further down the crowds of people in the corridor she saw sparkles, whizzing around the air between students. Small, shimmering forms moved about in the air, like small fireworks. One of those, a red snake, no bigger than the length of a hand, slithered in the air in front of a Slytherin's face. The student watched it wondrously, and yelped as the snake suddenly came crashing into his nose, leaving a black mark of ash.
The sound of fireworks going off made Leigh jump, the bang echoing between the stone walls. She whipped around to see a cloud of smoke and sparkling forms moving across the stone floor.
"What the..," she started to herself, but was quickly cut off as sounds of laughter spread across the hallway. More popping was heard, and cheers erupted closely afterwards.
She stood on her toes and peeked in the direction the sounds were heard, and soon saw a matching pair of familiar redheads moving in her direction, high-fiving students and throwing candies as they walked through the crowd. But why were they there? The only reason Leigh could think of was that they decided to pay the school a little visit to spread the word of the grand opening of the shop. Still, she couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't been made aware of these plans. Neither the twins nor McGonnagall had let her know that Fred and George would waltz into the school throwing fireworks and Merlin knows what else in front of the students in the corridors.
George's gaze met hers, and with a laugh he nudged Fred, who's eyes soon caught her form. She stood her ground by the wall of the corridor, crossing her arms as her gaze trailed them as they made their way towards her, still throwing candy left and right.
"Hey," they spoke in unison once they reached her.
"Fancy seeing you here," George followed up with a playful wink.
She was painfully aware of the attention that was now on her; the amount of eyes set on her speaking with the twins. She shuffled awkwardly, lowering her voice in the hopes no one else would hear them. Judging by the sounds all around them, she figured that was the case.
"How did you two get into the castle unseen?" She asked, noticing they weren't exactly coming from the main entrance.
George replied to her question with a chuckle. "We know this place like the back of our hand."
"Yeah don't worry about us, Conway," Fred replied, amused, yet with a small smile as he gazed down at her. He looked at his hand, where he held a pile of fliers, before he and George started moving away from her. "Work calls!"
Before she had time to properly consider her actions, her hand dashed out and encircled Fred's wrist, stopping him dead in his tracks. He turned, meeting her gaze with a look of surprise on his face. Leigh found herself looking at him for a second too long before clearing her throat, hastily removing her hand from his wrist.
"Uh– I didn't know you two would come here. McGonagall didn't tell me," she admitted in hushed tones, confusion clear in her voice as she analysed Fred's face for answers. The brown eyes, smooth skin and faint smile didn't hold any.
Fred's grin only seemed to grow at her question, and he took a step towards her, his body towering over hers as he looked down at her. For a second the chaos around them quieted for a bit, and Leigh gulped as she realised their proximity. Her gaze involuntarily ran across his face before settling on his eyes, which were set on her own. He kept his voice low. "That's because she doesn't know about it."
It took a few seconds for her to react to the information before she spoke. "O- Oh," she uttered quietly, attempting to regain her posture, quickly glancing away from him before meeting his gaze once more. The grin spread on his lips as he observed her.
"Don't worry, Conway, you'll have plenty of opportunity to reprimand me," he said cheekily, the same smirk growing on his lips. Upon noticing she was at a loss for words, he leaned in again, closer this time, and his free hand softly positioned itself at her elbow. She could feel his faint breath against her ear as he spoke. Her face heated up before he even said the first word. "See you soon."
With a final look towards her, surely noting her red face, he gave her a wink before turning on his heel to follow his brother through the crowd.
Leigh's head was buzzing.