Chapter 16
‘i spoke to dumbledor regarding the issue at hand-’
hazel shifted, readjusting her grip on her wand as flintwick packed up the last of his scrolls that he had had her studying for the first thirty minutes of their evening tutoring session, turning so that he was facing her, a singular remaining scroll clasped before him as he continued.
‘…and while both minerva and him are updated on your progress regarding your spell work-’
hazel barley refrained from scoffing at that, only holding back her scepticism due to the utter sincerity flintwick was using in talking about her ‘progress.’ it was laughable really, only she did not feel even the slightest bit like laughing. ‘progress’ was a far too generous term for it. what would have been far more accurate, and what she would have expected him to describe her current practising of magic as, expect for the fact she knew him to be far too understanding then she would have ever though him to be, was that the ‘progress’ was non- existent.
with april creeping around the corner and with three months of classes and thrice a week tutoring sessions behind her, she still had absolutely nothing of note to show for it. practising with dorcas hadn’t helped. these countless after class tutoring sessions hadn’t helped. practising spells around the dorm before breakfast and before bed with the girls hadn’t helped. barty sneaking up on her at all hours of the day and jumping out at her in order to ‘scare the magic out of her’ hadn’t helped, despite his earnest confidence it absolutely would. watching james, sirius and peter demonstrate their own spells while she attempted to copy the movements hadn’t helped, nor had pandora’s mysterious herb tea she had kindly gathered and produced for hazel herself that she claimed could ‘open the mind and body to external forces and soften the wall between magic and magic welder.’
well actually, the tea had helped in being particularly effective in relaxing her, and her and lily had taken to drinking a cup before bed as it worked excellently in providing a lovely night’s sleep. regardless, nothing her, her professors or her friends did seemed to be in anyway helpful in weaselling out that tiny amount of magic from wherever it was buried within her and rooting it out, and now, with only a week to go until the easter exams, she was feeling the pressure.
for all her other classes she was prepared. she had spent hours studying with lily and remus, going over astronomy notes and transfiguration essays until their fingers where ink stained and minds stuffed full of star patterns and constellations. her and james had unofficially started a routine of spending an hour every thursday and friday afternoon together where james would read over her history of dark creatures essays while she helped him in his divinations work, which was probably the only class james had to actually study in and not just receive top marks from skimming the homework once, and a class hazel did surprisingly well in. the only thing she was struggling in (and by struggling meant absolutely unable to do and would without a doubt fail in), was actually casting spells in transfiguration.
the theory was easy enough, or at least easy enough after she devoted enough hours to understand it, but the actual application of the spells she had been collecting and teaching herself was so far completely useless. because she could still not produce any magic.
she thought she had come close, once. twice, actually. once with a brown eyed boy in an empty divinations classroom, and the other time in a soundless stone classroom, bathed in shadows and moonlight. but close was not enough. not enough to pass the exams that where rapidly approaching, exams that she had to pass if she wanted to meet the criteria of taking her o.w.l.s the next year. dorcas had been insistent that hazel had time to learn her magic, but that time had been rapidly running out over the past few weeks. and now, with less than a week before her magic practical and without a drop of magic available to her, her time had run out.
‘… it is still a requirement that you sit all your exams, even those that you might not be fully prepared for. in other words, your transfiguration practical will still be continuing on the tuesday morning, along with the rest of the students’ practical.’
she blinked, dragging her mind away from the rapidly negative cycle it had begun falling into and bringing her thoughts back to the present, to flintwick before her. he seemed to mistake her silence for confusion, and quickly continued, words softening with compassion.
‘i understand the situation is unfortunate, but these are the regulations of the ministry, and not of the school itself. all the staff that are required to know have been informed of your slower progress in terms of spell work, and it is not something to concern yourself over at this moment.’
she heard the unsaid words, lingering unspoken just behind those ones. its not something to concern yourself over right now.
‘-but the ministry has rigid regulations when it comes to the examination of students, and they have provided to be quite inflexible in altering them, regardless of your unique situation. i would therefor suggest that it would be wise to consider registering for the resits of your practical ahead of time, so there is no delay in sitting them come june. i have already spoken to minerva, and come the possibility you do not pass the upcoming practical, she will have you registered for the summer resits. i believe this is the best approach, granted your magic has come into use by then, which i am confident it will have.’
she nodded woodenly, unable to respond for fear that when she opened her mouth to speak her worries would come tumbling out. that she would confirm her fear that she, for one, was not confident her magic would emerge by summer, even if it was months away. so instead of voicing her concerns she simply nodded, attempting to give a small smile that could be read for agreement. flintwick seemed to take it as one, and smiled reassuringly back at her, flipping open the top of his satchel and carefully slipping his last scroll inside.
‘then, unless you have any questions, your free to go. the next tutoring session will take place as normal, but we will halt with the sessions next week, so you have your full attention for your upcoming exams.’
‘sounds good.’ hazel agreed, grabbing her own book bag and trying not to show how desperate she was to escape the room and flee back to her own dorm. ‘see you tomorrow.’
a few minutes later and she was speeding back to the common room, mind whirling. a slight stinging sensation in the palm of her left hand snagged her attention and glanced down to the hand that was grasping the strap of her bag to find her knuckles clenched around the strap, material digging into her skin and flesh white from her grip. she forced herself to relax her grip, flexing out her hand and stuffing it into the pocket of her robe and forcing a deep breath through her nose, then out her mouth. repeated the motion.
she had just reached the corridor that led to the common room when a happy little shout had her whirling around to spot james hurrying over to her from the opposite corridor, tie loose and half done as it always was with him, and glasses slightly askew.
‘sorry,’ he apologised when he reached her, falling into step alongside her as they both made their way towards the common room. ‘didn’t mean to startle you.’ he took a moment to eye her bag, head tilting to the side ever so slightly. ‘you just back from flintwicks?’
she nodded, confirming with a small ‘yep. more magic practise, though i don’t know how useful it was seeing as we’ve got the practical in less than a week.’
‘don’t stress out about it, im sure you’ll do amazing.’ he reassured, giving her that thousand- whatt smile he was infamous for. his enthusiasm was infectious, and as always she found it impossible not to feel lighter in his presence, especially as he continued with excitement. ‘plus, after exams is always ace. that’s when all the best parties are thrown. just think of it as a few days of studying, and then you’ll get to experience your first gryffindor party!’
‘well, when you put it like that…’
he grinned, giving her shoulder a friendly nudge with his own. ‘trust me, it’s well worth it. plus, after exams, me, pads, wormy and moons usually find ourselves with a lot of time on our hands…’
his expression morphed into one she could only describe as sneaky, and she had a fairly good idea where he was going with this. she bit back a smile. it seemed like she would be experiencing a lot of first in the next week or two- first hogwarts exams, first hogwarts house party, and first marauders prank. two of them, she could confidently say she was looking forwards to immensely.
‘and, well, let’s just say things get a little interesting then, especially for the slytherins.’ he finished, a little gleam in his dark brown eyes that had her simultaneously insanely curious over whatever insane plot he was hatching in his mysterious little mind, and worried over her slytherin friend’s wellbeing. well, it was sure to be harmless, right? and plus, what she didn’t know about, she wouldn’t be responsible to warn about.
‘then at least ive got two things to look forward too after this exam week. just please don’t kill any of my friends. i happen to be quite fond of a few of the slytherins.’
he shrugged, grinning mischievously. ‘no promises.’
she laughed, knocking her shoulder against his as they both entered the common room. immediately she spied lily sitting on the couch in their usual spot at the same time james did. he froze up beside her, and she shot him a concerned glance to realise he had his eyes already locked on her friend before them.
‘watch it, you’ve got a bit of drool coming out.’ she teased him, gesturing to his lip as he blinked, drawing his attention back and flushing a deep shade. at that moment lily glanced up, noticing the two of them from where she and james were stood by the common room door. james’s flush darkened, and he managed a quick ‘i’ll just go and check where wormy’s hidden at.’ before shuffling away, but not before shooting lily one last longing parting glance.
hazel rolled her eyes, striding towards the girl who’s own eyes where tracking james’s retreat, but quickly drew away and refocused on hazel when she noticed her nearing.
‘hey zel.’ she smiled warmly as hazel plopped down on the couch beside her, before a small frown appeared on her pretty face. ‘what was potter saying?’
hazel snorted, shaking her head. ‘well, apart from possibly the most cryptic allusion to a prank i’ve literally ever heard, nothing much.’
lily groaned, letting her head fall down so it thumped against her folded up knees. ‘those boys.’ she complained as hazel smiled sympathetically, rubbing her back soothingly as lily continued to fret. ‘i mean honestly, you would think they would have put those silly ideas behind them this far into our schooling. i mean, were going to be in seventh year next year, for crying out loud. we’re going to be adults. i mean, adults,’ she stressed, lifting her head to look at hazel, widening her eyes to emphasise her disbelief, ‘you would think they’ve outgrown the pranks by now.’
‘did i hear the mention of pranks?’ marlene asked, appearing from behind the couch and flopping down beside lily, who made a little noise in confirmation. ‘what are the boys planning?’
lily huffed, elbowing marlene in the side which the other girl swatted away with ease, tilting forwards and resting her elbows on lily’s lap so she was leaning over the girl and closer to hazel.
‘well, did one of them mention it?’ she questioned, ignoring lily’s exacerbated ‘don’t encourage them, marls!’ and keeping her eager attention on hazel. hazel shrugged, shaking her head slightly in denial.
‘no, james didn’t mention anything about it, just that they would probably throw something together.’
‘throw something together.’ lily repeated, rolling her eyes. ‘those boys never throw a prank together, christ, ive seen them spending months planning one out. i mean, if they put even half that amount of time they do into making mischief into something productive such as studying-’
‘james wants to!’ hazel blurted out, then bit down on her tongue, hard, as both marlene and lily snapped their attention onto her, suitable confusion painted across both their features. shit. she probably could have done this in a better way. because hazel had been figuring out a way to nudge the pair together for the past three months she had been in hogwarts and seen how the two looked at each other (or more accurately, how james looked at lily constantly, and how lily snuck glances at him when she thought no one was watching), and had decided almost immediately that she would try something to get them to start interacting with each other.
she had known lily since she was thirteen, and heard all about james’s crush on the girl. what she hadn’t know about, and what perhaps lily didn’t even realise herself, was that the crush didn’t seem so very one sided, at least not from where hazel was standing. granted, hazels very unthought out plan to set them up didn’t involve randomly blurting out james’s desire to start studying, but as usual her brain had decided to blurt something out without her fully realising what was happening, and now she was left to quickly back it up. well, she could do this. make it natural. easy.
she nodded quickly, clearing her throat as she continued in the most nonchalant tone she could muster, shrugging her left shoulder slightly to really help sell it. ‘i mean, he mentioned to me that he wants to take his studying far more seriously, as its going to be important going into seventh year to have those kind of good habits. its only that-’ shit, what was a subject james took that lily had also? ‘…ancient runes, well he was really struggling with that subject, and studying for it. i would have offered to help, but i don’t take it.’ she shrugged again, relaxing back into the couch cushions. ‘and i don’t know anyone who’s that good at it that they can help teach him.’
‘well lils here takes it.’ marlene piped up, and lily shot the girl a wide eyes look, but hazel was already shaking her head. ‘im sure lils is way to busy to help him with any extra work. it’s a shame though, he seemed really serious about it.’
hazel snook a glance over to lily who was now biting her bottom lip thoughtfully, brow pinched as she seemed to weigh it over. beside her, marlene was perfectly still, as if holding her breath. oblivious, lily tilted her head, brow furrowing further as she slowly started ‘well, i suppose i could help potter out a bit…’
marlene’s brows shot upwards and hazel shot her a look that had her schooling her features back into indifference just as lily turned to her. before she could open her mouth the boy in question appeared himself, both james and peter weaving through the few stray students milling around the common room as they approached the girls. before anyone could intervene, hazel was already greeting them loudly, then latching her gaze onto james’s as she proclaimed ‘hey, i was just telling the girls about you wanting to get serious about studying for this and next year.’
he frowned, shooting a quick confused glance around his shoulder as if looking for any other james’s she might possibly be addressing before meeting her stare with a confused one of his own. ‘i-’
‘and i was telling them how ancient runes is the subject your most worried about. it just so happens that lily takes that, and could possibly help tutor you, as in, just the two of you, if of course she’s open for it.’
james blinked, then his eyes shot comically wide, mouth parting then closing as he began to rapidly nod his head in aggressive agreement. ‘yes- runes! tricky thing, those runes. really… ancient. i could really use some help, i mean, if you don’t mind…, not that you would mind, just that your help would be great, you know, if you could help- not that you couldn’t help, of course you could, i mean you’re so smart and good at runes…’
he trailed off and had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing at the sheer awe he was staring at lily with, big brown eyes hopeful as he stared at the now blushing girl before him. lily coughed, looking partly embarrassed at his sudden outburst, partly furious at herself at blushing in the first place, and just a tiny bit pleased at his compliment, although she was doing a good job at hiding that last part. she nodded hesitatingly that had james beaming, and her consequently pinning him with a narrowed glare.
‘i can only do saturdays.’ she decided, and he was already nodding in eager agreement before she had finished. ‘and you better be serious about this potter, because i will not have my time wasted in teaching someone who doesn’t want to be taught.’
‘clear! and saturday’s work for me!’ he beamed. ‘it’s a date. wait- shit, i mean not like an actual date- i meant like a studydate, not that’s like a date with studying, but just like that’s a pla-
‘2 pm potter.’
he snapped his mouth shut with an audible sound, nodding his head frantically. ‘yep. cool. that’s great.’
lily nodded, more to herself this time, and hazel shared a quick victory glance with marlene who had her lips pressed together in a firm line in attempts to supress what was surely laughter. hazels eyes met with peters as she looked away, and she caught the same amusement shining in his own before he quickly tucked it away as james looked at him, practically beaming.
‘well, now that that’s sorted.’ hazel announced, then looked back at peter who caught her eye once more, and was nodding in excitement before she had to even continue her sentence.
‘want a round of chess?’
he was already turning to the oversized oak shelf tucked into the corner of the common room that housed the chess game along with an assortment of other small games, books, and a few random lamps and knick-knacks. ‘ill grab the box.’
________________________
being beat by peter in several rounds of chess was probably the highlight of hazels week, which all things considered, could have been far worse.
the last few days before the weekend passed in a blur of scrawled upon rolls of parchment, ink stains and broken quills, and a constant supply of mugs of tea, that had hazel and the other gryffindor students taking to ducking their heads automatically before rising from their places of study, lest they accidentally get in the path of a magically summoned cup of tea. why the students of hogwarts couldn’t actually just get up and go to the kitchens to make themselves a cup was beyond her, but clearly that was too much of an ask, apparently.
instead, accio’ed mugs of tea, coffee or similar beverages had taken to whizzing around the common room at all hours, and where actually becoming somewhat of a safety concern in her opinion. it had been funny on friday, when an unsuspecting sirius had gotten a mug full of coffee in the face when he sprang up from the common room couch cushions without monitoring for assaulting flying mugs before.
it had been far less funny when it had happened to her only hours later.
the weekend passed in a similar fashion, and hazel had the distinct lingering impression that back home she would never have devoted such time to studying for her exams. in fact her, tony and cass would have probably been out at the pub, instead of holed up in the library re-reading books and rolls of scrawled notes. they had actually done that the day before their easter tests last year- they had spent the night before having a couple drinks in the roaring hog which had accidentally spilled over into the next morning, and lead to all three of them taking their first tests still slightly inebriated. surprisingly to literally everyone (including herself), she had gotten one of her best marks from it, and to this day hazel was convinced that was why she had done so well in them. regardless, hazel knew enough to realise that was not how it was done in hogwarts, and she could admit there was no part if her that was regretful of that, since the stakes of her passing these tests where far higher than they had ever felt back home.
so, she took to studying at all hours of the day. the only proper break she had afforded herself over the weekend was her weekly call with cass and tony, while the others and most of the hogwarts upper student body had forgone the hogsmead trip, opting to stay in the castle and continue revising. the only other notable thing that took place over the weekend apart from that was lily and james’s study session.
true to their word, both lily and james met up for a study session on saturday, and had spent a good three hours together, much to everyone’s surprise. lily had been surprisingly tight lipped about the encounter once the girls had met back up in the dorms, but everyone had the grace not to push her for details, and to act neutrally unaffected when she hesitantly announced she would be meeting him there next weekend for their next tutoring session.
now, monday afternoon had rolled around, and hazel could finally say that she had sat her first ever hogwarts exam. she had sat divinations with lily and peter, and potions with dorcas, james and sirius already, and now only had one more exam left before she was done for the day. unfortunately for her, that was one of the exams she was least looking forwards to, simply because she already knew who she would be stuck working with as her class partner. evan.
sprout had kept the original partners from her first herbology class, to neither her or evan’s enthusiasm, and now standing side by side by the boy in front of their small assigned wooden bench while both marlene and dorcas shot her small sympathetic smiles from their own station, she reconsidered asking sprout for a new partner rotation. preferably someone who didn’t seem inclined to stab her half the time she was in his close proximity.
there was one positive of the whole situation, and that was that at least the test itself was relatively straightforward. at least it had seemed that way to hazel when professor sprout had stood at the front of the class and announced that each student would be graded on their ability to grown and cultivate a mandrake sapling within the next two hours of their double herbology class. they had been working on the individual steps over the past few weeks, and although many students where still struggling in perfecting the soil quality or replicating the ideal nutrient blends, so far hazel had been having no major problems in the task, and was fairly confident in her ability to complete the test today.
the only part they would be working with their partners with was creating the soil blend, which currently her and evan where now in the process of. evan himself was doing a remarkable job at contributing to the task while keeping all communication with her to the absolute bare minimum, and she would have almost found the lengths he was taking to ignoring her presence impressive if it wasn’t going to fuck up their work, and consequentially, their grades.
‘no don’t add any extra growing extract, i just put some in-’
she frantically waved her hands before the dish containing their soil in an attempt to protect it from the small pouch of growing extracts evan had been moments away from adding in. he drew back his hand and the pouch with a scowl, levelling an impressively unimpressed look at her.
‘well, perhaps you could mention what step you’re on, instead of just working on your own.’
she grit her teeth, temper flaring. ‘i did mention it. i said that i had just finished prepping the soil, if you had been listening to me instead of just scowling at the air and brooding by yourself in the corner then perhaps-’
‘or maybe you could just let me work on the soil before you get one of the steps wrong and make us start again.’
‘its meant to be partner work.’
‘well it works better as partner work if both of the people actually know what they’re doing.’
‘i do know what im doing. and my deepest apologies im not perfect at everything like you are, but surprisingly enough being at the school for past three months means im just a little bit behind those who have been here for the past six years, such as yourself.’
he scoffed, rolling his eyes. ‘perhaps you could get barty to help you, seeing as you get on so well together.’
she blinked, drawing up short. what? how the literal fuck had they just gone from arguing about mandrake soil to discussing barty? she had the distinct impression she was missing something, something important, but her attention snagged on a particular detail, and was already speaking before she could examine that small niggling feeling.
‘i don’t like barty.’
he raised a brow, seemingly momentarily taken aback. ‘excuse me?’
‘i mean i do like him as a friend,’ she clarified, ‘but nothing more than that. and he doesn’t like me more than a friend either, and neither of us is ever going to start.’
‘i don’t care.’
‘you don’t have to.’ she shrugged. ‘im just saying that nothings ever going to happen there. you don’t have to care or not, im just letting you know regardless.’
‘whatever.’ he dismissed, turning from her and shovelling their prepared soil into both of their individual pots, clearly putting an end to the conversation. still, she knew that she wasn’t imagining that his shoulders were lowering ever so slightly where he had tensed them, and that his scowl looked slightly more put on then it had moments before. her brows knit together, puzzled, and she quickly turned and began working on her own pot now that it was filled with their soil before she could open her mouth and question him over it. they were still working in silence, but it felt far less hostile now, and she felt herself relaxing slightly as the minutes wore on, bringing her full concentration on her own work in front of her.
she was almost complete in setting up the foundations for her seed when the growing potion she had been working on began to shimmer an odd colour in the copper vial she was using. frowning, she brought up to her nose, taking a small inhale.
this was a potion they had been working on last month, and it was because of that she could tell that now, smelling it during their test, that it smelt wrong.
‘bollocks.’
evan turned to her, glancing at her face first and then down at the small vial clasped in her grasp. ‘what?’
‘i got the potion wrong.’ she explained, frowning down at it. ‘i have to remake it, and the next batch won’t be finished for another twenty minutes.’
‘this class is over soon.’ he warned, glancing up at the front where sprout was hovering, and then back at her. ‘you’ll hardly have time to remake the potion and work on your own plant.’
‘i have time.’ she countered. ‘its just going to be more of a time limit, that’s all.’
‘well if you weren’t so shit at making the potion, you wouldn’t have this problem the first place.’ he fired back, but this time his words where delivered with far less heat then they had been only minutes before. christ, he was such a little shit. impossible, she felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards.
his eyes narrowed as he caught the movement, but before he could demand an explanation she was already moving back to the bench, grabbing her open textbook and glass dish and dragging them towards her, brushing any stray pieces of soil out of the way as she deposited both book and dish, then moving to grab another potted seed from where a row of spares had been left towards the edge of the class.
‘what are you doing?’
she shrugged, not taking her eyes off of the new pot before her as she placed it beside her dish and began to measure out a new vial of growing extract. ‘being less shit at it.’
he snorted, looking sceptically at her from where she was now carefully extracting some of the assigned potion from the flask and using a dropper to transfer a small amount into the copper vials just as she had done at the beginning of class, taking great care to not spill any. she was expecting for him to go back to ignoring her, and the sound of his voice almost broke her concentration as he spoke back up after a brief pause.
‘if you want it to actually work, you might want to start by actually measuring out the potion right in the first place.’
she frowned, glancing down at the vial she had now clasped in one hand, studying it intensely. it looked just like the one madame sprout had used, and she had measured it out exactly as it stated in her textbook’s instructions. he gave her exactly three seconds to figure it out before rolling his eyes, snatching the vial out of her hand and grabbing a dropper in another.
‘the instructions from the book will end up tainting the mixture once you add it to the soil. here, it’s like this…’
she bit back her surprise as he talked her through the steps, until she had her vial properly measured and potion ready to use. bit it back even more as he lingered, watching her carry out the next few steps and correcting her where necessary. granted his commentary was usually accompanied with an eye roll or exacerbated huff, but was surprisingly helpful, all things considered.
thanks to his help, by the end of the class when all the students where packing up their belongings and filing out of the classroom she had successfully completed in growing the mandrake seed into a sapling, and after showing it to madame sprout for inspection and receiving a satisfied nod in approval had placed hers under a shaded part of the back of the classroom where the rest of the students who had also succeeded in growing their own had stored them. now she was filing out of the class behind evan, who seemed to be content in going back to ignoring her presence completely. it probably would be better to leave it like that. it would defiantly be better. still, before she could stop herself, the words where already tumbling out.
‘thanks for helping me.’
‘you clearly needed it,’ he dismissed, and she had a brief urge of going up on her toes just so she could reach up and smack him. she reframed, but the thought was enough to warm her considerably.
‘besides,’ he continued, glancing down at her, ‘this doesn’t make us friends.’
‘never said it did,’ she responded. ‘and when i choose my friends, i typically go for the ones that doesn’t glower at everyone that comes within a five meter radius of them, and looks moments away from hexing every living thing in sight.’
he scoffed, rolling his eyes and made to turn, making his way from the greenhouse and back to the looming castle, hazel in tow. she noticed however that he during their ascent he slowed his footsteps just a fraction, so it was less like he was practically running from her as he had been on their way down here, and now simply walking just slightly ahead of her.
she bit back a smile.