"okay, here's the plan."
it was the next day. the three friends sat at in the great hall eating their breakfast. luke butters his biscuit as alison pulls out a hand drawn map of the divination classroom in order to show how they will go about their mission more clearly.
"you and susan sit here," she says, pointing to one of the circles drawn on the right side of the paper, indicating a table on the right of the classroom. me and luke are over here," she moves her finger to the left side of the paper, pointing to another circle. "and calum and pansy are right here." she moves diagonally from her table on the map to point to the subjects.
"right," elena nods, showing her understanding of the layout. "and how are we going to find out what he's up to?" she asks.
"since me and luke are closer, we'll eavesdrop on their conversation to see if we hear anything suspicious. if he was talking with her on the train, there's a good chance they could be talking about the same thing during class." alison explains.
"okay, sounds easy enough." elena nods.
"then we'll meet in the hallway right after class to discuss what we heard. okay?"
"wait, we forgot a very important part." luke tells her.
"what?"
"a name."
"a name?" elena asks, looking at him quizzically.
"yeah, the name of the mission. something cool like," luke pauses, biting his lip and looking up to ponder. his eyes light up as he thinks of the best idea. "operation bust a boyfriend." he smiles, raising his eyebrows.
elena and alison blink at him, their faces blank, wondering if he was actually serious.
"operation bust a boyfriend!" luke repeats, making small jazz hands. "come on, it's good." he groans, frowning at his friend's lack of appreciation for his contribution.
"babe," alison says, putting a hand on his shoulder. "that's the most stupid thing i've ever heard." she tells him sweetly, then looks away from her goofy boyfriend. "so, are we ready to go?"
"yep, and it looks like we don't have to wait on calum today. he's walking to class with his own group." elena says, standing up from the table, watching her boyfriend from across the room.
alison and luke turn around, seeing calum walking out of the great hall with draco, blaise and pansy. the three hufflepuffs leave the great hall and follow far behind the slytherins to the divination classroom and take their seats.
anyone who didn't know calum and elena weren't together wouldn't ever suspect anything was going on between them. the boy didn't even look her way, making elena wonder if he was still interested in being in a relationship with her. whatever he was so busy with lately, it was putting a wedge between them, pulling them apart farther and farther each day.
as class begins, she glances over to alison and luke, watching them as they try to hear calum and pansy's conversation.
"i can barely hear them. there's too much noise in here." luke whispers to alison.
"get closer, then." she discreetly replies, keeping her eyes on the assignment her and luke were supposed to be doing.
luke bites his lip and begins to slowly lean backwards in his chair, the front legs of the stool lifting up off of the ground. calum and pansy's table was positioned in a such a way that luke couldn't see them, but could almost hear them over the rest of the noise in the classroom if he could just lean back a little further.
alison raises her eyebrows & nods, telling luke to lean back more to better hear what they were saying. he does as she says, leaning back even farther. at this point, the students at the table behind them were staring.
"oh don't mind me," luke tells them. "just doing some back stretch— woah!"
all of the sudden, his chair slips out from under him and luke falls to the floor. the classroom erupts into laughter as luke's face burns red.
"mr hemmings, are you okay?" professor trelawney asks from her desk, looking at the boy laying on the ground.
"i'm fine professor." luke says, standing up and brushing off his robe.
"and you do understand how a chair works, correct?" she asks, causing more laughter from the class.
"yes. yes i do." luke sighs, picking his chair up and sitting back down in it.
"alright. everyone, back to work please." the professor says.
elena rests her chin on her hand, silently giggling and finishing her work. when class was finally over, she met up with alison and luke in the hallway.
"we said listen in on their conversation, not make a scene!" alison laughs.
"it was quite entertaining though, i'll give you that." elena giggles, walking up to the pair. the incident gave her some much needed endorphins, making her feel a little bit better and a little less anxious.
"hemmings!" a voice calls from the other side of the corridor. the three friends turn around to see michael and ashton making their way through the crowd of students, headed towards them.
"oh hey guys!" luke smiles.
"what's this i heard about you not knowing how to sit in a chair?" michael laughs. word of luke's embarrassing fall had already gotten around to other classes.
luke's smile fades, turning into a glare and he turns to alison. "i don't like this plan. i'm getting made fun of!" he says with a frown.
"what's the plan?" ashton asks, crossing his arms and wondering what his friends were working on.
"operation bust a boyfriend!" luke quickly says.
"operation what?" michael asks, looking at luke like he was drunk on pumpkin juice.
"we're not calling it that." alison tells him sternly.
"the boyfriend we're busting is calum," elena speaks up. "he's been acting a little suspicious lately, so luke's job was to listen to what him and pansy were talking about during class."
"pansy parkinson? ugh. i can't stand her." michael scoffs, shaking his head in disgust.
"well, apparently calum can. he was talking to her, draco and blaise on the hogwarts express. now he's avoiding elena!" alison tells the boys.
"that's weird." ashton says and elena nods.
"did you hear anything before you fell out of your chair?" michael asks, chuckling at the image of luke falling backwards playing in his mind.
"actually i did. they were talking about the room of requirement." luke says, looking around at his friends.
"that could mean anything." elena shrugs.
"you know what it sounds like to me?" michael asks. the other four wizards turn to look at him. "he's cheating."
"oh wow. i hadn't even thought about that." ali says, looking at elena.
"yeah me either, because it's ridiculous," elena shakes her head, laughing a bit. "i don't think calum would do that." she shoots down the idea.
"you don't think he would, or you know he wouldn't?" luke asks.
elena thinks for a moment. sure he was acting strange, but cheating is something she could never fathom calum doing. he just loves her too much.
"how's your rib feeling?" elena asks, taking a seat on the small hospital bed beside calum's legs.
"better. madam pomfrey said i should be back out on the quidditch field by the end of the week." he says, tilting his head against the soft pillow and looking at his girlfriend.
"that's good. i'm still mad at malfoy for putting you in the hospital wing though." she rolls her eyes at the obnoxious boy who couldn't keep his hands to himself for the sake of one quidditch game.
"it's just malfoy being malfoy." calum shrugs and lets out a sigh.
"you're on the same team! he shouldn't be purposely attacking you." elena tells him, grabbing ahold of his hand and feeling bad for her boyfriend.
she softly rubs her thumbs against the back of his hand, watching her own movements. the two were quiet for a moment, enjoying just being in each other's company.
"you don't have to stay here, you know. i'll be fine on my own." calum says, gently playing with elena's fingers.
"i'm not going anywhere." she tells him, smiling softly. she would at least stay with him until he fell asleep.
he tiredly smiles back. "thank you, el. for everything you do for me. i really do love you."
"i really do love you too, cal."
everything about their relationship had been so great, so pure, so loving, all such a short time ago.
how had it gotten to this point?
———
oh to have calum hood love you :( I wish 💔
thanks for reading! -m