Honey Pastilles
The Arithmancy class was quiet as the students were taking the final notes of the lesson. It was strange. The hour flew by quicker than expected, yet it felt so insanely long.
Normally Leigh could hold her focus, but she had found herself losing it several times her last few classes. Her hand shook above the paper of her notebook, and a smudge started forming in the middle of her most recently written word. She pushed her hand onto the desk in the hopes that it would stop its constant small movements.
She managed to scribble down a few more words before the class was dismissed. She let out a quiet sigh before closing her book, plastering a small smile on her face before looking towards the person beside her.
Hermione, as diligent as she was, was still hunched over the desk beside Leigh, frantically taking notes for several more rows.
Leigh glanced at her, biting her lip before looking down at her own notes again. The quill was in her still shaking hand, hovering over her still unfinished notes. She finally put the quill on the desk, starting to gather her things.
"That last half of the lesson was so interesting," Hermione spoke moments later as they made their way through the corridor. The rest of the class was already way ahead, having spread out throughout the castle by now.
"Yeah," Leigh agreed faintly. She wasn't lying, not really. It was interesting for sure.
"How are you feeling ahead of the test?" Hermione asked, and Leigh shrugged.
"It's alright, I think."
"Yeah? That's good." She nodded. "And I mean it's not the real test. It's just to know kind of where we're at. Which is good."
Leigh nodded. It was good. It was also a bit worrying. If she did poorly on this mock test, was there any point to sticking out til the end? Would she do just as bad on the real ones?
Hermione placed a hand on her shoulder, bringing her out of her thoughts.
"You're gonna do fine," she said and shot her a smile.
She gave her a smile back. "Yeah," she said faintly. She stopped a few steps later. "I, um, I need to go talk to Sprout...about something."
Hermione looked confused for a second but quickly remained her posture. "Oh. Alright. See you later?"
"Yep," Leigh replied, sucking in a breath and moving out of sight, turning a corner and slipping out a door and into the cold air.
It was freezing, yet she felt like she could finally take a breath. The sky was blue, and the icy cold air stung at her skin, shaking her awake. She took a breath and started on her way to the greenhouses.
She wasn't actually thinking of talking with Sprout, but she had found that the greenhouses were a good place to go when she wanted some calm and quiet outside of the castle. Merlin knows she needed that.
-
The days went on, and Leigh was intent on studying for her Arithmancy test coming up, as well as staying on top of her normal coursework. She had a lot of classes, but Arithmancy remained the most difficult one. It felt like if she managed Arithmancy, she could manage any of the others which came her way.
Her daily routine consisted of nothing but reading, studying and classes. Nova tried to bring her friend to some parties or get-togethers, but was consistently unsuccessful. While Nova was disappointed that Leigh missed out on the fun, she had noticed that she probably needed the rest. The bags under her eyes told that much.
Leigh had had to skip one class, for the first time in a long time. Not just because of the sleep: she had gotten a fever and all the other symptoms of a common cold, yet she knew the lack of sleep probably also had something to do with it. She was nervous about missing out, and felt bad since Nova was her partner. Hopefully she could find another partner for the day - someone who was good in the subject.
Initially trying to fight the cold on her own, Leigh had eventually gone over to Madam Pompfreys to get something to help with it, and she had proudly let her know that Leigh should be feeling better already towards the end of the day. A few more hours, she said, but then she should feel as good as new. If only.
As a result, she skipped the first class of the day, happy to know she had a free period before lunch. She hoped that she would be able to make it to her PM classes once the magical anti-cold concoction started to kick in. She really couldn't afford to fall behind.
Stressed, and arguably quite grumpy, Leigh sat in her dorm, still intent on pushing through and studying from her bed, although her eyes slowly but surely started to shut on her. Her comforter was strewn with tissues, and a cup of tea stood on the table beside her bed. Although it was cold both inside and outside of the castle, Leigh had a disproportionate amount of thick sweaters and blankets lying on her form.
She sneezed into a tissue, letting out a shaky breath. Her nose was stuffed. She agitatedly threw the tissue onto the floor, crossing her arms. Such incredibly bad timing. Although she tried to read through her notes and course book, it was like nothing stuck. Every single piece of information just slipped out of her brain as if it was travelling down on a slope. She couldn't wait until the concoction she received from Madam Pomphrey kicked in.
Her tired eyes travelled back to the piece of tissue on the floor as she scrunched her face up in disgust, reminding herself that she truly needed to clean the space after this. With a groan she stood up, taking a moment to stabilise herself before trudging across the floor, bending down to pick up the paper and put it in the bin by the door.
Just as she was about to plop down into the bed, something outside her window caught her eye. And before long a tapping sound was heard. Confused, she neared it, opening the window slightly to see a small, familiar owl sitting patiently on the sill. The same owl which had led to quite an embarrassing moment in the front of McGonagall's class.
Feeling her face heat up at the mere reminder, she quickly let the owl inside, closing the window quickly to avoid any cold air sneaking its' way inside. The creature looked content to be inside, and extended its' leg towards her happily. A small piece of parchment was attached.
Already knowing who it was from, Leigh fought a small grin which started to grow on her face. She opened the note, immediately seeing the familiar handwriting.
1 month agreement...
That was all. Three words. She rolled her eyes. Even without a name it was obvious who it was from. He was ridiculous.
She quickly jotted down her reply on the other side of the parchment.
Fred it hasn't even been two weeks.
- L
She attached it to the owl's leg, opening the window and watching it fly away. She reminded herself to ask Fred about the creature's name the next time she saw him.
Knowing Hogsmeade wasn't far, especially not for a flying owl, she refrained from lying down on her bed, instead sitting down. She took a breath, sniffing and rubbing her itching nose with the back of her hand. Her eyes glanced up to the window again, searching for the familiar flapping of wings. She was strangely giddy and decided to blame it on Madam Pomprey's concoction kicking in.
As expected, the owl returned not long after, a new parchment attached to its leg.
We could decorate the shop for Christmas. Come over.
She blinked at the note, biting her lip and momentarily thinking about saying yes. Weirdly enough the thought of being surrounded by Christmas ornaments, maybe even Christmas music, at the shop sounded like the greatest idea. Leigh blamed the fever.
Although a part of her wanted to say yes, she knew she couldn't. She quickly drafted her response.
I can't. Got a cold and I really need to study for my Arithmancy test.
-L
Her eyes scanned over the words again. Something was missing.
I can't. Got a cold and I really need to study for my Arithmancy test. :(
-L
Nodding to herself, she attached the note to the owl's leg and softly scratched its head. Moments later it was happily out in the air again.
Leigh plopped onto her bed, falling back upon the mattress and letting out a low groan. Her headache was killing her and it felt like her whole head was just stuffed of goo. Surely Wizarding medicine has come further than this. Half a day to combat a cold? Maybe she should forget her intentions to study education and instead work towards finding on a better magical strategy to combat colds.
The moments ticked by, and for a second she wondered if she would even receive a response.
Surely enough, the owl returned, having not only a parchment attached, but also a small package.
Opening it, she was faced with a small box of honey pastilles, the Honeydukes logo clear as day on the top of the container. The smile immediately returned to her face.
Honey is supposed to help with colds, right? Hope you feel better soon.
Let me know if you need anything.
Fred :)
Leigh read the note two, three times. She opened the box and popped a pastille in her mouth, immediately tasting the sweet honey flavour. She didn't care if it helped with the cold or not.
She glanced back at the note. Maybe that helped more than the pastilles.
-
Leigh had managed to pull herself out of bed and drag herself down to the class after lunch. Still feeling under the weather, it could undoubtedly be worse.
The rest of the day went by painfully slow. When she finally made it to dinner, meeting up with her friends, the cold symptoms had subsided, but the exhaustion had tripled. She swore she could sleep for days if her mind let her.
Nova sat beside her, eating slowly and seeming distracted. Her eyes wandered, and Leigh tried to desperately figure out what was going on. She followed Nova's gaze, and gasped in realisation.
"Nova," she said in a hushed tone, watching as her friend looked at her. She nodded in the direction that Nova was previously looking. Towards none other than Terry Boot, who seemed to be glancing back to meet Nova's gaze.
"What's up with that?" Leigh asked, quite excited at the prospect of the two of them knowing of each other's existence.
Nova sighed. "We were partners this morning when you were gone."
Leigh got even more excited. "Really?"
"Yeah," Nova chewed her lip before taking a sip of juice.
Leigh traced her actions with her gaze, unsure of why she wasn't jumping with joy. "And it went...well?" She asked.
Nova immediately nodded. "It was great. He's unreal."
Leigh couldn't help but giggle at her friend, who seemed to be both nervous and trying to impress.
"What are you waiting for then", Leigh asked, pushing Nova slightly. "Go sit with him!"
"What?" Nova's shocked face turned to her. "No, no."
"Yes! He's been looking at you for the past 15 minutes, go! Whatever this nervous-thing is you got going on is not you. You love these kind of things. And you're super charming and talkative." Leigh glanced over at Terry, who snuck another look at Nova. "Go!"
The girl seemed to let Leigh's words get to her, because a small grin started to grow at the corner of her lips. Nova finally decided to walk over there, Leigh smiling as she did so. The two of them seemed to get along amazingly, staying seated until way after the meal was over, and way after Leigh and the rest of the group left the great hall.
Almost an hour later Nova's voice sing-songed through the common room, making Leigh look up from her conversation with Neville at her side. Nova almost tip-toed over to her, a secretive grin on her face.
"Guess what," Nova spoke before looking over at Neville. "Hello Neville."
"Hi," Neville spoke politely, looking between the two of them with a grin.
"What?" Leigh entertained her friend, who was practically shaking with suspension in her boots.
"Guess who just got a date?"
Leigh's jaw almost dropped to the floor. Her voice was almost inaudible as she spoke to her friend.
"No way."
Neville looked at them both with wide eyes, trying to figure out what was truly going on.
"You didn't actually?" Leigh continued, shocked to her core.
Nova bit her lip and nodded.
"Terry?"
"Terry."
Neville, who was unaware both of Nova's crush and her prior conversation with said crush, scrunched up his eyebrows, trying to connect the dots. "Boot?"
"Boot!" Nova squealed, jumping into the couch in the middle of Leigh and Neville. "It's happening!"