Room 703
The next morning went as expected. It was packed with classes, and homework started to slowly but surely stack up. Only two days in, yet seventh year students were being faced with the reality that the year would be difficult to say the least. Many had caught on quickly, and spent every minute they could spare between classes with their nose in a textbook, while others took the laid-back route and said there was plenty of time to remember what they needed for the N.E.W.Ts.
Leigh belonged to the first group, and so far things were going well. It was nice seeing the teachers again; Professor Horace Slughorn was back as potions master, and Professor Filius Flitwick's chipper and encouraging demeanour during charms class helped diffuse some of the stress students already faced. This didn't go unappreciated, especially by Neville, who had a tendency to get stressed quite easily when it came to his studies.
The whole day was spent going up and down the stairs, and students' legs were undoubtedly sore after a few hours. To make matters worse, Leigh had her first Advanced Arithmancy Studies class on the first floor today. While regular Arithmancy classes were held on the seventh floor, the Advanced classes were held on the first floor, for reasons unbeknownst to her. The location was particularly frustrating given that she had to walk from the first to the seventh floor for her meeting with the twins.
And so, after her last class, which she truly did adore every second of, she bid Hermione and her other classmates goodbye before starting the journey up to the seventh floor. For being a magic school, it surely was strange that there were no other, more magical, solutions to travel 7 floors.
After 5 floors, Leigh was exhausted, and she felt relief wash over her as she saw a perfectly good reason to stop for a quick breather: Neville walking past.
"Hi Leigh," he said softly as he took the last few steps down towards her. His eyes furrowed together as he looked at her. "Are you alright?"
Leigh had never felt so unfit in her life.
"I'm alright just all these stairs and–", she started, but stopped shortly as she felt her cheeks start to burn in embarrassment. "–I'm fine." She spoke curtly, and while Neville looked like he wasn't fully convinced, he nodded at her reply.
In an effort to keep attention away from her red cheeks, she attempted to change the topic, speaking between her own strained breaths. "Where are you off to?"
Her attempt seemed to do the trick, and Neville looked down at the book in his hand with a small smile. "Herbology greenhouse. Spoke with Professor Sprout and she agreed to spend some time going over opportunities for me. Maybe even an internship this year!" Neville spoke excitedly.
"That's amazing Neville." Leigh grinned at his excitement. Out of everyone, he was someone who deserved the world.
"Yeah, it's great," he mumbled softly while scratching the back of his neck, eyes skimming over the herbology textbook in his grasp. He looked back at her, and his eyebrows furrowed yet another time. "Where are you off to? I thought the last classes of the day had ended by now?"
"Yeah I'm sure they have," she started, shuffling awkwardly on her feet. "Just this Weasley thing I have, you know." She said with a wave of the hand. "Weasley twins."
Realisation spread across Neville's face, "Right, you said something about that."
"Yeah..," Leigh trailed off.
Neville gave her a small smile. "Well, good luck with that."
Leigh chuckled. "Thanks, I'm sure I'll need it." She shook her head to herself.
The boy in front of her shrugged. "I'm sure it won't be too bad. They're quite decent actually. I'm sure you'll get along sooner or later."
Leigh wasn't so sure, but she hummed slightly in response anyway, appreciating his attempt to make her feel a tad bit better. "Thanks Neville," she said sheepishly. "Well, I'll see you around," she spoke, not wanting to keep him from the greenhouse too much longer. Besides, she had had enough time to properly catch her breath.
"See you around, Leigh," Neville said, smiling again before trudging his way past her and down the stairs. She watched him as he turned the corner and went out of sight.
She took a deep breath before, again, climbing up the last two stairs to the seventh floor. She navigated to room 703, and pushed the door open, revealing a spacious classroom with chairs and desks pushed to the walls on each side.
Her eyes scanned the room and captured the two men she was looking for; one leaning upon the desk in the front of the classroom, hands clasping the edge of the wood, and the other standing in front of an open window with his hands in his pockets. As the two of them looked her way at the sound of the door opening, she could distinguish which one was which (or at least so she hoped).
"Look who finally decided to show up," the twin by the desk, Leigh guessed Fred, spoke. He tore his gaze from her form to look down at his wrist, jokingly looking at an imaginary watch while tapping his foot.
Leigh huffed, "You're the one stupid enough to chose a classroom on the seventh floor. I walked all the way from the first one," Leigh defended, taking a further step into the classroom as she tried to catch her breath. She was panting harder when she met Neville on the 5th floor, but boy was it still bad.
The other twin, George, looked her up and down with a playful grin. "We can see that."
She shot daggers his way, and decided to ignore the rude, and frankly unwanted, comment. Instead, she walked towards the desk and dropped her pile of books on the wooden surface, still trying to (subtly) control her rapid breathing. The twin leaning against the desk a short distance from her observed her humorously.
She met his gaze and squinted her eyes slightly while studying his face. Slowly, she lifted a finger and pointed it at him. "...Fred, right?"
A proud grin grew on his lips, and he nodded profusely.
Leigh looked over at the twin by the window "–and George, then." She spoke, and received a nod from him.
Her attention turned back to Fred as he spoke, smile still remaining on his face. "If you're ever confused, just remember that I'm the hot one."
Before Leigh had time to respond, George piped up and took a couple of steps closer to his brother. "Ah, I wouldn't be so sure. I think I've aged better than you, actually."
Pretending like George didn't exist, Fred's gaze was stuck on Leigh as he leaned forward slightly towards her, cupping his hand over the side of his lips. "Ignore him. Chronic liar." He said and shook his head in feigned disappointment.
"Oi, I heard that!" George exclaimed.
Leigh watched as Fred slowly leaned back again, and for the sake of her own sanity she decided to change the subject. "How did you guys get up here anyway?" She asked instead, not having seen them in the staircase for the last 10 minutes when she made her way up.
"Brooms," the two of them spoke simultaneously, nodding slightly to the right side of the classroom by the window, where two brooms leaned against the window-frame.
"Nicked them off Hooch," Fred continued, still leaning against the desk. "The first years just finished their first flying class. Too good an opportunity to resist."
George nodded in agreement, grin present on his lips. "Yeah, just snatched one from one of the youngins – work smarter, not harder," he joked (or at least Leigh hoped so, for the first years' sake).
Two chairs were already surrounding the desk in front of her, and she quickly moved an additional chair from its place by the wall to in front of the desk. She took a seat, and the twins caught on and did the same.
Just as she singled out her notebook from her pile, and started to open it, Fred's hand reached in front of her and snatched her Arithmancy textbook.
"What's this?" He said curiously, flipping the book over in his hand. She guessed he wasn't familiar with the book given that he probably never did arithmancy to start with.
Leigh reached out her hand towards him to grab the book, but Fred evaded the casual attempt to get it back. "Just a book for my advanced arithmancy studies class," she mumbled mindlessly, annoyed that they couldn't just get the meeting started and over with.
She was met with an 'ooooh' from Fred. "Advanced arithmancy? Hear that Georgie? She's proper smart this one."
George chuckled beside his brother, clearly enjoying the sight of Leigh's cheeks reddening in embarrassment.
"I'm not– Well, I mean...– Ugh, give me that!" She erupted, tilting her head forward slightly in the hopes that her hair might cover up her red face. With a quick flick of her wand, the book came flying from Fred's grasp and was returned back to the top of the book-pile on the desk.
Without looking at either of the twins she took a breath and cleared her throat, turning to her notebook which laid open in front of the three of them. Her hair still hung like curtains in front of her cheeks.
"So..." She trailed off, finally getting courage enough to look up at them both after a few seconds. She hoped those precious seconds were enough to let her cheeks calm down. "Let's get to it."