"So you don't have detention with Malfoy, then?" Ginny Weasley prompted from the other side of the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. After that horrible session of D.A.D.A yesterday, I'd skipped Herbology completely and went back to the Slytherin dungeons to curl up in my bed and sleep. I didn't wake up until this morning, and even then I hadn't talked to any of my roommates.
"Nope," I replied simply, my eyes on the letter I was writing. I'd just finished writing one to Garren, and I was currently wrapping up the final sentence of Evan's. Next I'd move onto Lyle's, which was usually the longest.
"But you do have detention with Umbridge," Ginny clarified, her eyes on me.
"Yup," I replied dryly, tapping my quill impatiently on the table. I couldn't decide whether to end this note with an "I love you" or "Stop dating that ho Astoria."
"Good morning, Lainey," Hermione greeted stiffly as she took a seat next to Ginny.
I barely looked up at her I replied with a dull, "Hey."
"Where's Ron and Harry?" Ginny asked as I finally decided just to sign my name on Evan's letter without any last remarks.
"Working on homework, I assume," Hermione replied breezily. "I told Harry that you'll be in detention with him tonight, Lainey. Seemed to lift his spirits a smidge... He does have detention all week, though... I do wish you two wouldn't get in so much trouble."
"You started that fight in class yesterday," I grumbled. "I only finished it."
Hermione sighed, eyeing me sympathetically. "What did Malfoy try to give you detention for? Being Muggle-born?"
I rolled my eyes bitterly. "Basically. I tried to attack him on the train because he was being a little git—the usual. Umbridge got me out of that one, though. S'pose she can't be any worse than Malfoy, can she?"
Hermione bit her lip with uncertainty. "I wouldn't be so sure, Lainey."
I let out a breath, picking up a new piece of parchment to start Lyle's letter. "Whatever, I can handle myself..." I muttered before I began to scribble:
Lyle, I hope things are well at the apartment. Madam Malkin should have sent my final payment to you guys, though you might need to have Remus go to Gringotts and convert it to Muggle money for you. I'm not sure that Madam Malkin is bright enough to have done that herself. Hope you're enjoying school. Evan told me you finally destroyed his putrid pickle jar. Nice one.
I'm at Hogwarts now, as you wanted. Nothing much to report here, though I have received two detentions already. Shouldn't surprise you, I suppose.
School's a lemon, life's a lemon.
Love you,
Lainey
I looked up from my letter to see that Fred Weasley was now seated to my right, peering over my shoulder. Startled, I jumped to the side, slamming into Seamus Finnigan.
"Don't do that," he snapped. "You shouldn't even be sitting here—I don't want to get on Umbridge's bad side by being seen near you—"
"Oh hush up, Seamus," Ginny injected harshly. "Not everyone wants to smarm up to that old toad like you."
Grumbling, Seamus turned back to the conversation he was having with Dean Thomas, who was giving Ginny an amused smile.
"What does, 'School's a lemon, life's a lemon' mean?" Fred questioned, reading over my letter to Lyle.
I shrugged, glancing down at the obscure line I'd written. "Who knows? I'm sure you could find some philosophical meaning behind it."
Fred's eyebrows crept upward as he eyed me skeptically. "Think it's time for you to see a therapist, Fitz."
My eyes narrowed intensely. "I think it's time for you to butt out of my life. Just let me wallow in my own misery, please."
"Oh, come off it," he scoffed lightly. "You can't be depressed forever—Cedric never treated you well anyway—"
"If you seriously think I'm upset about Diggory, then you're daft," I spat maliciously. "You were there when my father died. You were there when my father was killed. Don't you understand what that's done to me?"
Seated on the other side of Fred, George exchanged a nervous look with Hermione, while Ginny bit her lip uncomfortably. Fred's face had drooped into a grimace, his eyes flickering painfully across my face.
"Fitz..." he began softly.
My mouth fell open, my head shaking as I swallowed back the acid filled tears. "I'm—I'm sorry—I'm sorry—I'm going—sorry—"
Stammering, I grabbed my jumbled letters and fled the Gryffindor table and the Great Hall. My first instinct was to go back to my dormitory and bury myself in my bed, but once I'd gotten out into the entrance hall, I realized that someone had followed me.
"Are you all right, Lainey?" Ginny asked, peering at me sideways as I stopped short. My quill and two of my letters fell to the ground as I stared blankly at the wall.
"Yeah—yeah—fine," I blabbed as Ginny bent down to pick up my belongings. I dropped down a moment later, though she'd already retrieved everything for me.
"Give me that," she said gently, taking the remaining letter and ink from my hands. She folded them neatly, organizing everything in her hands. "Told Colin to bring our books to class for us."
"Oh—oh, yeah, I forgot...those were on the table..." I replied absentmindedly.
"You don't need to be sorry, you know," Ginny told me, looking up from the letters she was folding. "Fred...he can understand why you're upset about your father, but he can't...he doesn't want to believe you're still...that you still care about Cedric."
"He knows—he must know—he must know—well, Cedric's death was horrible, of course—but Fred must know that I care about him more than I cared about Cedric," I sputtered in embarrassment.
"You know Fred was always jealous of Cedric. Cedric was older, good-looking, one of the Hogwarts champions—and you seemed to fancy him," Ginny explained uncomfortably.
"Cedric—but—but that's over now—he's dead—Fred must know—he has to know that I fancy him more than I ever liked Cedric," I blurted with an overwhelming amount of emotions. "It's pathetically obvious, isn't it?"
The bell rang, resulting in a massive outpour of students from the Great Hall. Ginny ushered me along toward the dungeons.
"Fred's confusing—like you," Ginny said slowly as we descended the staircase. "He fancies you, obviously, but he's still bitter about Cedric. He's always going to feel like you would have chosen Cedric if he hadn't died."
"But that's not true!" I insisted much too loudly. Carl Vaisey, who was walking by with fellow fourth year Slytherin Noah Palmer, gave me a nasty scowl.
"I know, I know, Lainey," Ginny replied hastily. "But you can't blame him, you know? I mean—you seem to fancy—er—Malfoy sometimes—"
A loud, jeering laugh escaped my lips. "Malfoy? You must be joking! He's the most loathsome creature—obviously I'd choose Fred over him!"
"Here are your books!" Colin Creevey announced as he popped up between us with a large tower of books in his hands. "I hope I got them all—there were quite a few."
"Thanks, Colin," I muttered, grabbing my stack of books from him. Ginny took hers after slipping my letters into the pocket of my robes.
"Thank you, Colin," Ginny said politely. "I'll be sure to tell Fred and George to pay you extra for being their test subject."
"Great!" Colin enthused. "Even though those candies make me puke, they sure do taste good!"
Ginny giggled mildly, though I couldn't even force myself to smile.
When we walked into Snape's Potions classroom, I departed from the two Gryffindors and walked over toward the Slytherins. Melody was sitting in my usual seat reading a rather large book, so I took the empty seat between her and Harper.
"If you're wondering," Melody began, her eyes fixed on her book, "I stole your seat because I don't want to sit next to Harper. He's irking me, and I'm not in the mood to use my Target Knife today."
I raised my eyebrows at her skeptically. "When are you not in the mood to injure someone?"
"Don't change my mind, Mudblood—"
"Fitzroy—we thought you died or something," Harper greeted, just now realizing that I was seated next to him.
"Yeah, Mud, why didn't you tell us you were skipping Herbology?" Anderson asked from the other side of Harper. "We would have joined."
"It was brutally dull," Harper confirmed. "Sprout didn't even let us touch any cool plants. We just listened to her explain what we'll be doing this year. Says it's a new requirement that they have a detailed list of objectives."
"Good thing I missed that..." I muttered.
"Mouths closed, books open," Snape droned as he strutted into the room. With his wand he slammed the door closed behind him, then pointed it at the blackboard, where it now read: Page 143, Polyjuice Potion.
"For the first two months of class, we will be discussing and creating the Polyjuice Potion," Snape announced slowly, glancing around at each student from where he stood at the front of the room. "The Polyjuice Potion allows one to temporarily assume the form of another human being. Because a certain professor last year was taking a Polyjuice Potion to mask his true identity, Dumbledore wishes for me to teach you all how to recognize it. I have chosen to take it a step further, and I will teach you how to make it. Once the potions are completed, in November, you will test them on yourselves by attempting to transform into your partner."
"Melody!" Harper exclaimed as they rest of the class began to murmur. "Partners?"
"I will never let you inside of my body, Harper," she replied dryly, looking up from her book only to shoot him a nasty scowl.
"Enough!" Snape bellowed, immediately silencing the entire class.
I glanced over at the Gryffindors to see that Ginny was mouthing, "Partners?"
"I will assign your partners," Snape went on. Ginny's face immediately drooped. "Harper, you will be with that annoying boy to your right."
"Anderson, my name is Anderson—"
"Pucey with Greengrass—"
"Yes! I love green grass," Ashley enthused dumbly.
"He's talking about me, idiot," Astoria sneered.
"Palmer with Vaisey, Garner with Weasley—ah Fitzroy, you'll be with Flemming," Snape said, a slightly sinister grin spreading onto his dull lips. "Creevey with Jensen..."
"I'm not ingesting anything with your Mudblood germs," Melody muttered bitterly. "Nor do I want to be a Mudblood..."
"Now, the Polyjuice Potion is a gruelingly complex potion," Snape went on with his insipid tone. "Many adults fail to produce it, nevertheless I expect high quality work to receive a passing grade."
"Rubbish—he wants to fail us all," I muttered to Harper.
"Nah, he'll fail the Gryffindors but not us. You know he favors Slytherins," Harper assured me as Snape continued to rant about the Polyjuice Potion.
"Mm," I hummed, glaring resentfully at Snape. He didn't seem to favor me, though I did prefer it to be that way. I felt beyond guilty that Harry had a whole week of detention and I only had one day when I'd been just as "rude" to Umbridge. Favoritism enraged me almost as much as Umbridge, and Snape, and Malfoy, and Slytherins, and—
"Go retrieve the lacewing flies from the storage cupboard now," Snape commanded. "They take twenty-one days to brew, so we must begin promptly."
Grumbling, all of the students went over to collect the ingredients from the storage cupboard.
"Wish we could be partners," Ginny said to me as the class filed in and out of the closet. "At least I'm with Elsa Garner, though. She's nice. Better than Melody, I assume—"
"Do you want your throat slit, Weasley?" Melody snapped venomously from where she stood behind us.
"Oh—oh, hello Melody," Ginny greeted sheepishly. "Didn't see you...there..."
"You don't need to be in here, Melody," I told her as I grabbed a jar of lacewing flies. "We're partners, remember?"
"I don't trust you to do anything right, Mudblood," Melody sneered, snatching the jar from my hands. She examined it critically before stalking out of the closet.
"Guess that means it's acceptable," I mumbled to Ginny before walking back out into the classroom.
"What'd you think of Umbridge?" Anderson asked me once we'd all begun to brew our lacewing flies. Melody insisted on doing all of the work, so I just stood there as she stirred the wooden spoon through our small cauldron.
"She's as fake as Astoria and as evil as Snape," I grumbled. "So basically she's the most abhorrent being in existence. I wouldn't even say she's alive; I'm convinced she's just a body with no soul—"
"Are you talking about me?" Melody growled, glaring over at us.
"Are you talking about me?" Astoria questioned, turning around to face us. She had Ashley stirring the flies, of course, though Ashley looked completely perplexed about what she was supposed to be doing, her spoon flailing sloppily in the mixture.
"Muddy called you fake," Anderson clarified, jumping his eyebrows at me.
"I'd rather be fake than have hair like that," Astoria scoffed, eyeing me distastefully. "Don't worry, Lainey, I'm still working on the cure—"
"If you guys were talking about Umbridge, I hate her too," Ashley piped up, bringing us back to our original topic. "She made us read! We all know that Melody's the only human that's capable of reading. I just doodled the entire time—wanna see my drawings, Lainey?"
"Not really—"
"Here, Astoria, hold this stick," Ashley said, shoving the wet spoon in Astoria face. She took it quite reluctantly, holding it between her two fingers as though it were a bag of dung.
"I can't decide if I like Umbridge either," Astoria said in a nasally tone. Apparently she didn't want to smell the scentless spoon in her hand. "Yes, she likes pink, and I respect that, but she's daft if she expects us to read—"
"Look!" Ashley commanded, shoving a piece of parchment in my face. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that it was a drawing of a boy flying in the air on a broomstick...who then got hit by a boulder-sized Bludger...and fell off of his broom...and landed on the ground of the Quidditch stadium...which was actually a pool full of sharks instead of grass.
"Can you guess who the boy is?" Ashley questioned feverishly. "The one who's currently being eaten by sharks? Who else is honestly that ugly?"
"It's a stick figure—"
"IT'S ADRIAN!" she exclaimed, drawing Snape's attention toward us.
"Pucey! Back to brewing—"
"It's Adrian," she whispered before tucking the parchment back into her textbook. "Do you like it?"
"Lovely, Ashley, really," I retorted with dry sarcasm.
"Flemming," Snape droned as he strolled by us. "Why have you been stirring the entire time?"
"Fitzroy said she didn't want to—"
"You wouldn't let me—"
"Enough. Flemming, give Fitzroy the spoon. It's about time she learned that hard work is necessary in life," Snape growled, his eyes narrowed displeasingly at me.
I snatched the spoon from Melody, who reluctantly went back to reading her book. Harper and Anderson snickered quietly as Snape stalked away.
"He hates you," Anderson laughed. "Must be because you're a Mudblood."
"Thank you, Anderson—"
"Hey, Lay, what's on your cheek?" Harper asked, tilting his head to the side. Coyly, he reached over and brushed his hand across the scab on my cheek. I quickly turned away, ignoring the heat rising in my face.
"Er—Parkinson threw a quill at my face yesterday," I said, flustered. "She threw it pretty hard, actually..."
Harper snorted. "Parkinson's a cow. Pretty pathetic that Malfoy let's her fawn all over him. 'Specially when he could have you instead."
I opened my mouth, though no sound came out as I stared at Harper with muddled eyes. A shy, crooked smirk slid onto his lips before he turned back to Anderson.
∆
I walked to Divination with Ginny while Anderson and Carl Vaisey followed behind us, snickering about some unknown topic. No words came out of my mouth as we ascended the stairs to the Divination tower; I was still feeling disgruntled and confused about the conversation Ginny and I had had early, and she seemed to have nothing to say either.
"Today we will be looking into the future through your Zodiac signs," Professor Trelawney announced in her slow, dramatic voice once the entire class was present. I'd taken my usual seat between Ginny and Luna Lovegood at one of the small, round tables. "Each of you will create a chart through which you will determine how the planets decide your fate... Anything not completed in class will be finished for homework... Please turn your attention to the front of the class, where I will demonstrate how to produce your charts..."
After nearly an hour of tediously producing our charts, we were finally able to determine our horoscopes, which Ginny was thoroughly convinced was a load of rubbish.
"I'm going to suffer from self-inflicted pain," she announced dully to Luna and I. "Sounds just like me, really."
"That doesn't sound very pleasant," Luna stated. "Too bad you're not an Aquarius. My horoscope says I'll be making some new friends soon. That's nice."
"What are you, Ginny? Leo?" I asked, glancing over at her chart.
"Yeah, my birthday's August 11th. This is all just dumb guesses though," Ginny said as though she were trying to convince herself. "Why would I ever want to—"
"Pst, Mud!" Anderson hissed from the table behind us. "What do you think of this horoscope stuff? Legit?"
"What's yours say?" I asked him, turning in my seat to face him and Carl Vaisey. Unlike all of our previous encounters, Vaisey didn't turn away at the revolting sight of me; he actually kept his eyes in my direction as Anderson recited his horoscope.
"'Though your past love life is waning, a new spark will soon ignite in your life,'" Anderson read before looking up at me. "What do you say, Seer? Astoria's done with me—someone else in line?"
I put my fingers to my temples and closed my eyes as though I were receiving a revelation. "Hmm... I think no. Because you're a prejudice hog who only wants to song."
"Wow, your prophecies rhyme now," Ginny laughed as Anderson shrugged.
"Accurate, gotta love some good snogging," he agreed thoughtfully. "So, if this is rubbish, where's my love life actually going? Am I doomed to be with Astoria forever?"
"Well, she doesn't actually want to be with you, but either way I don't really know what's going to happen to you," I replied indifferently. "I haven't gotten any visions in a while, and I haven't really had too many feelings about what might occur. Perhaps I'm just decaying."
"What about mine, Mudblood?" Vaisey said airily, squinting down at his chart. "For Gemini, it says...'Within the next year, you will start a new hobby.'"
I pressed my lips together. "Pretty sure that's for you to decide, buddy. If you want to start a new hobby, go right ahead."
"Go right ahead, go right ahead..." Vaisey repeated, leaning back and nearly falling off of his stool as he contemplated my words.
I glanced at Anderson with raised eyebrows, and he just shook his head.
"He's been acting like this all morning," he told me, glancing at the slightly dazed Vaisey. "I'm convinced he's drunk, or something."
"Should have known there was a reason he was willingly talking to me without a rude comment," I pondered bitterly.
"What's yours say, Mud?" Anderson asked, eyeing my chart from where he sat.
I cleared my throat before reading my horoscope: "'Your attempts to get something that you want will fail at first, but you will prevail and find another way.'"
"Doesn't sound too bad," Anderson commented. "Capricorn, right?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
Anderson rolled his eyes at me. "I know all of my friends' birthdays, Mud. Who do you think I am, some drunk like Vaisey?"
"Me—what—who—hello?" Vaisey stammered, his eyes darting around lazily. Anderson couldn't seem to stop laughing; I couldn't seem to stop the warming feeling in my gut that came with the fact that Anderson had actually referred to me as his friend.
After Divination finally ended, we all went to lunch, where I actually managed to eat half of a sandwich. Following that, the fourth year Slytherins had History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs, in which I took a nap. Though, in the middle of class I was rudely awoken by Carl Vaisey when he had a sudden outburst of screaming. His closest friend, Noah Palmer, demanded that I bring him to the hospital wing because he couldn't stand to miss a minute of class. I was more than happy to miss the remainder of the period by dragging a trembling Carl Vaisey over to the hospital wing.
"Doing all right there?" I asked him skeptically, my arm weaved through his as we trudged through the corridor.
"I—I think I'm about to puke," he blurted, his face looking particularly pale.
"Because my filthy arm is supporting you?" I questioned flatly.
"Yeah, Mudblood, and because of that potion...oh God..." he sputtered, his face contorting in revulsion.
"What potion?"
"The one—oh—oh no." He paused, covering his mouth with his free hand. "Gonna puke," his muffled voice said.
Groaning loudly, I tugged harder on his arm. "Almost there, just keep it in, please..."
We were at the entrance of the hospital wing when a thought finally occurred in my brain: what if the twins had given him one of their Puking Pastilles? But, he'd said it was a potion... Before I could even ask him, though, we were entering the hospital wing, and then Carl Vaisey was vomiting all over the ground.
"Oh—ew!" I blurted, jumping away from him as he collapsed in his own puke. Everyone within the hospital wing turned to gawk at us, Madam Pomfrey running frantically to help Vaisey as he continued to upchuck. I noticed that Cassius Warrington, seventh year Slytherin, was lying palely in one of the beds, while Miles Bletchley was standing attentively at his side. Warrington seemed thoroughly dazed, though Bletchley was fully aware and now glaring at me.
"It may have been amusing to watch Vaisey fall in his puke, but I swear I didn't do that on purpose," I told Bletchley as his jaw shifted. "What's wrong with Warrington?"
"Apparently Mr. Bletchley has been testing potions on other students—how outrageous!" Madam Pomfrey said as she helped Vaisey to his feet. His entire front was covered in his chunky puke, and his eyes were barely open.
"There is a valid reason," Bletchley insisted hotly. "This batch just didn't work out as I'd planned... How was Vaisey before he got sick, Mudblood? Did he seem...happy?"
"He seemed as though someone took out half of his brain," I snorted. "Though I couldn't say he was unhappy. He was actually nice to me, for once."
"Mm, we don't want that..." Bletchley said, scratching his chin as he stared pensively at the ground. "S'pose I can replace the Essence of Comfrey with Boom Berry..."
"What are you up to, Bletchley?" I demanded, crossing my arms as I studied him uncertainly.
"None of your business, Mudblood," he barked, glowering at me hatefully.
"Mr. Bletchley!" Madame Pomfrey scolded shrilly. She turned her gaze away from Vaisey, who was now lying unconscious on one of the beds, to scowl at Bletchley, though his attention had already retreated back into his pondering thoughts.
"Don't worry, I'm going back to class now..." I said carelessly to her before slumping out of the hospital wing.
Luckily, by the time I arrived back at Professor Binns' classroom, the bell had rung, and the fourth years were groggily dripping out into the corridor.
"Grabbed your books," Harper greeted, as he plopped a pile of books into my arms. "I told Melody to, but of course that was foolish of me. We can't have the princess doing any physical labor, especially not for anyone else—"
"Do you want to die today, Harper?" Melody droned, her eyes on one of her books as she walked out into the corridor. Astoria and Anderson were right behind her, arguing as usual, while Ashley was apparently still sleeping in the classroom.
Harper ignored Melody's comment, instead letting out an exaggerated groan as we walked through the corridor. "Arithmancy—otherwise known as 'the depths of hell.'"
Melody and I let out similarly pitched snorts at the same time, and we quickly glanced at each other with revolted expressions.
"Whoa, that was creepy," Harper commented, looking between us. "Almost sounded like you guys were the same person..."
As the three of us entered Professor Vector's Arithmancy classroom, my spirits dropped at the sight of Draco Malfoy, sitting in his normal chair in the front row. I nearly thought about finding a different partner for this year, though Harper ushered me over to my usual seat, nearly shoving me into the chair before taking his spot on the other side of Malfoy.
"Phew, close one," Harper sighed as he plopped his books down on the desk. "Thought Lainey was going to ditch you, Mal, but I whipped her for you, no worries."
Malfoy scrunched his nose as he eyed Harper displeasingly. "Who the bloody hell is 'Mal'?"
"That's your nickname, mate," Harper insisted, giving Malfoy a light pat on the back. "You'll get used to it."
Malfoy nearly snarled as he shoved Harper's hand away. "We're not friends—"
"Oh, he humiliated you once almost two years ago, boo hoo," I griped sardonically, referring to the time that Harper, Anderson, and I had publically shamed Malfoy via a comical skit in the common room. "Get over yourself, Malfoy—"
"Don't talk over me, Mudblood," he commanded disdainfully, "unless you'd like a reason for me to give you another detention. I'll do it—gladly. Speaking of detention, are you excited for your session with Professor Umbridge tonight? I'm sure she'll give you a nice treat."
I rolled my eyes scathingly. "I'm not afraid of Dolores. She's probably just as dangerous as Astoria Greengrass, who's generally harmless—"
"Welcome class," Professor Vector's sincere voice boomed throughout the classroom. "Hope you all enjoyed the summer holiday. I'm actually surprised to see some of you are back in this class." She glanced warily between Harper and I.
"I need to get as many O.W.L.s as possible," I told her tonelessly. "I made a bet."
"You think you could get an O.W.L. in this class? That's pathetic," Malfoy snorted nastily.
"I'm just in this class for Melody," Harper announced bluntly. "Can't let some other bloke be partners with my purple-haired princess—"
"Harper—" Melody began to growl.
"Anyway," Vector continued loudly, "speaking of O.W.L.s, I am sure that you're all aware that there is not an O.W.L. for this class this year, though after having taken three years of Arithmancy, you will be eligible to take the exam—"
"So I can take all of my O.W.L.s this year except for in this bloody class?" Malfoy spat ruthlessly. "That's rubbish—"
"Please, Mr. Malfoy, do not test my patience on the first day of the term," she insisted wearily. "Now, for our first activity of the year, we'll be playing a little game to refresh your memories—"
"Games, yes!" Harper exclaimed greedily. "Oh—oh, continue, Professor."
She gave him a wry smile before pressing on. "I've written a list of Arithmantic symbols you should know on the board, and I'd like you and your partners to write the name and meaning of each symbol."
Half of the class, including Harper and I, groaned as Vector gave us a patient smile.
"Sorry to disappoint. Begin, please. I'll be collecting these."
Malfoy ripped out a piece of parchment as I leaned back in my chair.
"I was hoping this wouldn't be worse than Divination," I grumbled to myself.
"What'd you do in Divination?" Harper questioned as he peered around Malfoy.
"Horoscopes. Rubbishcopes, as Ginny Weasley has dubbed them."
Malfoy snorted as he began to copy the symbols from the board. "Divination is a joke. Told you not to waste your time, Fitzroy."
"What's my horoscope? 'You will date the girl of your dreams'?" Harper questioned eagerly.
Melody let out a genuine, mocking laugh, though she didn't look up from her book to see that we were all staring over at her.
"What are you? What's your Zodiac sign?" I asked Harper after we'd all gotten over the fact that Melody Flemming knew how to exhort a laugh.
"Gemini, obviously—why don't you know my birthday, Lainey?"
"I haven't memorized all of the Zodiac dates. I know your birthday's in June...maybe..." I replied, avoiding his eyes as I watched Malfoy scrawl the Arithmantic symbols onto his parchment.
"May 24th, nice try, Fitzroy," he snapped, clearly insulted.
"I'm a Gemini too," Malfoy commented, his eyes darting between the parchment and the blackboard.
"What a coincidence," I replied dryly. "Well, if I remember correctly, Carl Vaisey's also a Gemini, and he said his horoscope was, 'Within the next year, you will start a new hobby.'"
"That is vague as shite," Harper blurted, flabbergasted.
"Well, he was drugged by Bletchley, so that could have been complete rubbish... Though most of Divination is complete rubbish—"
"Drugged?" Malfoy scoffed, turning to me with his nose scrunched. "What is that?"
I rolled my eyes impatiently. "Sorry—Muggle term. Bletchley gave him a faulty potion. Had to take him to the hospital wing last period."
"So that's what happened to Vaisey," Harper said as though he'd just been hit by a boulder of realization.
"Doesn't surprise me," Malfoy grunted as he went back to jotting down the symbols. "Bletchley's always had a weird thing with potions. Reckon he plans to make a business of it."
"How's it going over here?" Professor Vector asked as she approached our desk. She glanced down at Malfoy's parchment and saw that he'd already filled out half of the symbols, while I'd done absolutely nothing. "You've got to at least try, Miss Fitzroy."
"Malfoy seems to think I'm hopeless, so I'm not even going to bother—"
"I didn't say that," he snapped agitatedly. "I just implied that you had no chance at getting an O.W.L. in this class—there's a difference, Fitzroy—"
Vector cleared her throat, glancing down at us with slightly impish eyes. "Mr. Malfoy, I understand your desire to take the O.W.L. this year, therefore I believe I can bend the rules—"
Malfoy's eyes darted up to her as a crafty grin spread across his lips. "Of course you can. See, Fitzroy, I always get what I want—"
"But," Vector interjected hastily, "you must do me a favor in return."
Malfoy's face dropped into a scowl. "Such as?"
"I'd like you to tutor Miss Fitzroy," she replied coolly. "It would be nice to see her pass my class this year—"
"Oh—I don't want help from Malfoy—"
"Dear, just look at his paper," she said kindly, motioning with her hand toward his nearly filled out chart of symbols. He'd been doing it rather mindlessly, but also rather well. "Whether we like it or not, Mr. Malfoy is somewhat of an Arithmancy prodigy. If you do wish to receive an O.W.L. in this class, you will need his help."
I crossed my arms, glaring at his parchment bitterly as a pompous aura consumed him whole.
"Perhaps you can tutor Mr. Harper for us as well, Miss Flemming?" Vector prompted, glancing over at Melody and Harper, neither of which had even taken out a piece of parchment to complete the "game."
"Who in their right mind would expect me to waste my time trying to teach this brainless buffoon how to excel in a subject that I have no care for?" Melody retorted quite calmly as she finally glanced up from her book.
Vector cleared her throat again, puffing up her chest with authority. "You will tutor Mr. Harper if you wish to pass this class, Miss Flemming. Perhaps the four of you can study together, hm?"
Harper gasped, looking between all of us with wide, fervent eyes. "Like—like a double date! Lay—we're finally going on a double date with our true loves! Oh—man—this moment is coming too soon. Mel, Mal, Lay and...Ry—yeah, that can by my nickname..."
Professor Vector gave us an amused smile before moving onto the next group of students, leaving Malfoy, Melody, and I to grumble over Harper's raw enthusiasm.