Lisa could feel the bags sagging under her eyes as she struggled to stay awake in Potions class. The stench from the ingredients laid out infront of her was foul, but so was the drowsiness that she was experiencing. If she did not have Noel jab her awake every few seconds, her face would have already lolled into the cauldron.
She stayed up all night doing her school work. Apparently, Umbridge was not the only one who had given her something to do, but Lisa had to prioritize her Defense essays first, managing to turn them in just mere minutes before nine o'clock in the evening. The rest of the time she had spent figuring out her Arithmancy equations, writing a paper for Transfiguration and studying the ingredients and measurements for their work in Potions.
Her memory was getting cloudy the longer she sat stationary in her seat. Fortunately Noel had also took it upon himself to study earnestly, and was now doing most of the work.
He suddenly thrusted a ladle into her hand, stirring her out of her half asleep state, "What—?"
"Snape's coming this way. Act busy." he said, with as little lip movement as possible. Sure enough, the black robed professor stopped in front of their desk, eyeing Lisa with an accusing look on his face, "Miss Branson. Could you tell me how many tablespoons of peppermint does Amortentia need, essentially?"
She opened her mouth to speak, and closed it again, like a fish out of water, shooting Noel a desperate glance.
"Two and a half." he said in the lowest voice possible, before covering it up with a believable cough.
"Two and a half." she replied, Snape cocking his eyebrow grimly, "Excellent. But maybe next time I would prefer you coming up with an answer by yourself and without Mr. Johnson feeding answers in to your ear." he said sharply, "Five points from Gryffindor." with that, he left, going to check up on another pair of students.
"I'm sorry," Lisa sighed, rubbing her cheek against the sleeve of her school robes, "I don't know what to do, I'm so tired."
"It's okay, I got it. I'll make the Amortentia, just try to read up on the ingredients, measurements and procedures, just incase Snape decides to double back and ask you something else."
"You're the best, Elly." she said, rubbing his shoulder, before flipping open a book.
All the periods before lunch flew by in an agonizingly slow pace, and many times have Lisa's eyelids threatened to shut completely, more so when she and Noel had different classes. By the time the bell rang for lunch, she sprinted towards the Great Hall to get an early start, ate a few spoons of mashed potato, before she lay her head against the table, taking a desperately needed nap.
"Oh man," she heard Noel's voice from somewhere, not bothering to pop an eye open, since she was so focused on dozing off, "If she was at my house and she slept on the table, mum would have gone ballistic."
"Probably my gran, too," said Katie, chuckling, "We weren't even allowed to prop our elbows against the dinner table. She would go batshit crazy if any of us dared to do that."
"Yeah but Lisa gets a pass today. Second day back and it's already been hell on earth for her."
"Stop talking... I can't fall asleep when you two are talking as if I'm not here." she grumbled, burrowing her face deeper into her arms, trying to drown out the sound of the rest of the chatter in the Great Hall.
She only had about fifteen minutes of successful napping, hauling herself towards her next class, grumpy beyond belief. At that point there was absolutely nothing she wouldn't do if it meant that she could clamber back to her dorm room and hibernate for the rest of her day. Her train of thoughts were scattered haphazardly around her head, walking half asleep.
Until a moving figure collided with Lisa, knocking her aside and the notes in her arms were strewn across the floor.
"Ah, shit, my bad," a voice cursed, doubling back to help her as she collected her notebooks and papers. "I'm so sorry. My brother's chasing me, you see. I think I lost him—hey, I know you! You're little Johnson's girlfriend."
She stared at the Weasley twin infront of her, not exactly sure which one he was as he handed back her notes with a smile. Lisa momentarily lost herself, gazing back at what looked to be the softest hazel eyes she's seen in her life. It was safe to say that they were entirely mesmerizing.
You're staring, her subconscious violently reprimanded, nearly making her blush. She regained her composure, trying to remember what he had said before she spaced off.
"Little Johnson...You mean Noel? No, uh, we're not together. He's my best friend."
"Really?" he cocked his head to the side, "It's just, the way he—"
"George!" A voice from a distance yelled, making his eyes go wide, "I better go," he hurriedly picked up the last bits of paper from the floor, hurriedly shoving it into Lisa's arms, "Bye, sorry again!"
"Yeah, no problem." she said, but he had already took off, his twin brother running past her mere seconds after.
The incident definitely made her feel awake, rubbing at the sore spot on her shoulder that was impacted pretty hard, feeling as though it would leave a bruise. She walked faster to her next class, before the bell caught up to her.
-----
"Noel, you're smart...well, ish, but whatever. Help me with this, will you?" Katie asked, scooting closer to the boy who was sitting at the opposite end of the couch, solemnly doing his Potions essay. He looked at her book, chuckling to himself, "Arithmancy. Seriously? I don't even take that. Lisa does, though, and she is brilliantly clever at it. Ask her."
"Yeah well I can't very well ask her, can I? She's upstairs catching up on her beauty sleep and would scream bloody murder if anyone woke her up." she sighed, tucking her quill behind her ear.
"You could always try to do it yourself." he suggested, setting down his reading glasses. "I mean, Lisa doesn't always get hers correct right away... Sometimes it takes her hours, just staring the book down as if she could guilt trip it to spill all the answers. She does this thing when she's just so frustrated where she'll tug on her—" he paused, noticing the look on Katie's face, "What?"
"I find it incredibly cute how you notice the small mannerisms she has." she giggled, "Goes to show how much you really like her—"
"Shhh!" he cut her off quickly, frantically looking around to see if anyone had overheard their conversation. Noel glared at Katie, "Can you atleast give me a warning before you talk about it my you know what with you know who?"
This made Katie laugh, "What? Lisa's suddenly she-who-must-not-be-named now? Stop being pathetic, Noel."
"No. But you know you can't say her name with the 'you like her' phrase, Bell. I have enemies. And they could use it as leverage."
"Pffft. What enemies? You and I both know you can't even hurt a fly, let alone make enemies?"
"That's beside the point," he grunted, "And that mannerism of Lisa's isn't small. She practically tugs on her own hair like a maniac while letting out low growling sounds. It would be pretty hard to miss that."
"Oh shut up, you. You've liked her since forever, you know. I'm pretty sure that you memorize her actions down to every emotion. It's cute, yes, but it's again, also pathetic." she retorted, grabbing a throw pillow and setting it down on her lap. "Why don't you just tell her about your little crush already?"
"Katherine Bell—"
"That isn't my name, asswad!"
"I know. I just use it to tick you off. But if you're definition of not being pathetic is telling my long-time best friend about harboring a long-time, not so little crush on her and potentially ruining our friendship, then I'd much rather stay pathetic, thank you very much."
"See, now that's you're problem." she pointed out, "You always assume the negative outcome in anything. Always seeing the glass half empty."
"Yeah well in my case with Lisa, it is always going to be half empty. There's no other way it's going to go."
"There you go again!"
"What?"
"Being pessimistic." she rolled her eyes at him, bringing the pillow up before smacking him round the head with it, "You—" smack "—don't—" smack "—even—" smack "—know—" smack "—how—" smack "—she'll—" smack "—react!"
He swatted the pillow away, "What the bloody hell was that for?!"
"So my words will stick better. It always has a tendency of sliding off after a few hours. Look at it this way, alright? You tell her, confess, and it will go two ways. Everything always goes two ways. You keep thinking of the doom road to hell when you can think of the staircases to heaven. Maybe she's liked you all along too? Or maybe she'll grow feelings for you, then happy ever after, married in five years, children two years after—"
"Ooo, are we talking about Lisa here?" gasped a voice from behind them, nearly making Noel's soul evaporate in fear of it being someone who wasn't supposed to know. Seconds later, Angelina plopped onto the couch across from them, a wide smile on her face.
"You are very silly, Katie. How can Lisa and Noel get married if he can't even tell her how she feels?"
"That's exactly what I've been telling him. He won't listen."
"Godric's sake," Noel groaned, horrified, "You two cannot, I mean, cannot talk me in to confessing, even if we sat around the fireplace for the whole night."
"You know that after next year you're going to leave this place, right?" Angelina remarked, putting her feet up the coffee table. Noel frowned, "Ofcourse I do."
"Then if you don't get around telling her how you feel, then you'll never get to anymore. It's a whole world out there, Elly. Lisa might leave to go work somewhere else—"
"But she won't leave," he chuckled nervously, "She and I have everything planned. Get stable jobs at the Ministry, become colleagues."
"Yeah? Then?" Angelina replied, "That's all you're ever going to be to her? Best friend slash future colleage, then? You'll be contented with that?"
"Well..."
"And the dating pool grows. She'll meet a lot of new people and your chances with her will get slimmer and slimmer until one day, you wake up and you're not just her best friend and colleague anymore. Now you're the godfather to two adorable Elisabeth juniors."
"Wow," Katie whispered, "Your sister does this whole feelings pep talk way better than I do..."
"You're going a bit too far ahead, now don't you think, Ange?"
"I probably am. But it's clear as day that what I said is exactly what's going to happen if you keep dilly dallying around—"
"Dilly dallying around with what?" Lisa asked as she descended down the staircases, smiling at the three, "What's the big meeting all about?"
"Nothing, really," Angelina cleared her throat, Noel eyeing her nervously.
"We were just talking about you, is all—"
"No, we weren't," Noel said almost promptly, confusing Lisa, "I mean, I mean we were, but not anything bad, really. Just wondering how the nap's going to make you feel after...So, how exactly are you feeling?"
"Refreshed, more than anything," she sighed happily, "But now I don't think I'll be able to sleep at curfew..."
"Well that's great, Lisa." Angelina smiled, heaving herself off of her spot on the couch, "But if you will excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be. Gryffindor tryouts is tomorrow. And I want everything to be spotless."
"Bye, Ange," Katie waved.
Angelina gave her little brother one last look, mouthing something to him before sashaying out of the common room.
Tell her. Asap.