Mondays
Chapter Three ~ Mondays
September 3rd, 1978
Josephine spent her weekend trying to formulate a plan for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and reading through her Charms textbook. So far she knew that she’d be one of the Chasers, Fabian and Gideon would be the Beaters, Saoirse Hawkins would probably be another Chaser. She had been an alternate last year.
Hawkins was tall, thin, and very Irish. She had a thick accent when she was angry, but that was rare. She was probably one of the nicestest girls in Gryffindor. Josie thought she acted more like a Hufflepuff sometimes with the way she protected her best friend, Finley Wilson.
Wilson had been Gryffindor’s seeker last year. She wasn’t the best at finding the Snitch, but she was really fucking fast. So, when another seeker dove after the Snitch she was almost always able to beat them to it.
Josephine would need one more chaser and a keeper. She’d probably give the keeper position to Preston Fawley. He was an asshole so she will probably make the Keeper tryout very difficult. Josie didn’t know who she wanted as her other Chaser. She supposed she’d have to make it a student from a lower grade, she would need someone to give the role of Captain to next year.
It was humid, very humid. To the point where Jo’s face felt gross and her clothes clung to her sides. A quick charm fixed that as she walked to her first period, Transfiguration. The fact that she would have to spend the whole day with Regulus Black seemed to have slipped her mind. It wasn’t until she walked in the classroom when it hit her smack in the face.
“Hey, Sharpe!” yelled the familiar voice of Evan Rosier. Great. Rosier was kind compared to the other Slytherins. He seemed the most light hearted even with being a rumored Death Eater's son. That didn’t stop Josie from glaring at him.
He was on top of the desk that Black was sitting at. It was in the back corner of the room, it had two chairs and Rosier’s stuff wasn’t at the other. So, she would have no choice but to sit next to him. Josephine walked over to the two boys. Rosier didn’t move from the desk.
“Should I sit here?” she asked. Josephine wasn’t scared or intimidated by either of the boys but the way her voice came out in a light and airy tone made it seem that way.
“You can sit wherever you like,” smiled Rosier, cheekily.
“Move, Evan,” muttered Regulus Black. He stared lazily at Josephine with a monotone expression. The classroom was beginning to fill with other students from their year. It was weird having all of the houses in the same classroom. The environment almost felt different. McGonagall walked into her classroom, Rosier got off of the desk and moved to his own. Directly in front of theirs.
Josephine sunk into her seat letting her bag fall gently to the floor. Professor McGonagall began to talk about expectations and how the N.E.W.T.s partners would work for tests or projects. The sound of Josie sliding her wooden chair across the stone floor caused McGonagall to pause and look towards her and Regulus for a moment before she continued. Josie had slid her desk as far as she could manage from Regulus’s.
It was childish, she knew. Josie had underestimated her nerves of being around him. She bounced nervously in her seat, tapping her quill and pulling on the skin around her nails. It wasn’t surprising that she was so uncomfortable, the last time she spoke to Regulus was in their 5th year and it didn’t even really count.
Regulus was oddly still though it was obvious that he was trying his best not to look at her. His hair was messy and falling into his eyes and his fingers would brush it out of the way for a moment before it would fall right back down again. Most of his fingers had silver jewelry. Most. Josie rolled her eyes.
When Transfiguration ended Regulus and Evan got up quickly and left. It wasn’t like Jo had expected Regulus to hold her hand as they walked to History of Magic but, the way they just left without a word surprised her.
History of Magic had always been a class that Josephine deeply enjoyed, even when Mary called her crazy for liking the way Professor Binns “droned on and on for the entire period”. Binns was the only professor who was a ghost at Hogwarts and Josie liked that if you paid attention to his class you would be able to get all sorts of crazy stories from how he died. Each time his death was different from his last. Josephine was pretty sure he died of old age in his sleep, but his stories were very convincing.
Regulus was not in History of Magic when Josie walked in. She took a seat in the second row against the wall, it was the only desk still open. Most of the students in her class must have had a free period before this class because some were eating toast hidden sneakily into folded napkins.
Professor Binns began his usual lecture and Josie pulled out a quill. Regulus was still not here. Binns had a strict ‘no tardy’ policy, it would most likely land Regulus in detention if he didn’t have an excuse. Not that Josie really cared, it was the first day of classes, which meant little homework. McGonagall had already assigned a paper but that wasn’t due until the end of the week. They had plenty of time to work on it after Regulus’s detention.
“Ah, Mr. Black, what a pleasure to have you join us,” Professor Binns greeted Regulus who had just tried to quietly open the door while Binns was writing something.
“Good morning, sir,” a soft blush was on his pale face.
“Can you tell me who Emeric the Evil was, Mr. Black?”
“He was a dark wizard in the middle ages, sir,” Regulus’s eyes scanned the room before landing on Josie.
“And who killed Emeric the Evil?” It was obvious that Professor Binns was trying to embarrass Regulus. Students hardly learned anything about Emeric the Evil in their first year and what they did learn mushed together to the point where it had them confusing Emeric of Evil with Uric the Oddball.
“I believe it was Egbert the Egregious,” said Regulus without missing a beat.
Josie masked her surprise in him knowing the answer, it wasn’t that she didn’t know the answer, it was more him being confident and calm enough to remember it in that moment. She would have probably blanked.
“Where were you, Mr. Black?” asked Professor Binns, “Is there a place more important to be than my class?”
“No, sir,” said Regulus, “I must have lost track of time, it won’t happen again, sir.”
Bad excuse.
“Detention Mr. Black,” Binns looked down at his attendance sheet for a moment, “oh, and Ms. Sharpe, I will use this as a teaching moment. This year since you are all in pairs, detention will be carried out with your partner. I will be seeing you both tonight.”
Josie made no protest to her teacher but her head snapped in Regulus Black’s direction. He was unphased, taking a quill and paper out from his bag. She clenched her jaw at his laid back persona, Regulus didn’t even seem to care that she would also have detention for his mistake.
The rest of the class Josie had to sit quietly and listen to Binns talk about all of the nonsense from the middle ages that played no relevance to the world today. In her head she silently debated whether to get upset with Regulus after the class was over. He probably truly lost track of time while being with his friends, she had done that before, it didn’t stop her from being upset though.
Binns’s detentions were by far the worst. It mainly consisted of grading papers for him but, since it was the first day of the year it would probably mean reorganizing filing cabinets without the use of magic or filling bookshelves also with the lack of magic.
“What the fuck was that, Black?” asked Josie the second they stepped out of the classroom. She decided to be angry with him. “It’s the first day back and you decided not to be on time?”
“I lost track of time,” said Regulus, “I already told Binns that, weren’t you listening?”
“There’s ten minutes between classes-”
“Oh fuck off, Sharpe, I already gave you an excuse. What else do you want?” Regulus said. He didn’t raise his voice at her but he didn’t whisper it either. People in the hallway turned to look at them.
They didn’t speak again until potions, their last class of the day. In the potions classroom desks weren’t separated in twos, they were separated in fours. Josie could already see Regulus walking into the classroom with Crouch. They sat down across from each other. At a different table than the one Josie was already at. Assholes.
Josie picked up her bag and dragged it to the seat next to Regulus. Neither of them acknowledged her.
A minute or two later Rita Skeeter sat down next to Crouch. Josie rolled her lips together into a line to stop from grinning. It was too good. Barty Crouch and Rita Skeeter partners.
“Hi, Josephine Sharpe,” said Rita Skeeter, her notepad and animated quill were already writing furiously. Josie noticed that Regulus and Crouch stopped talking when Rita came in.
“Hey, Skeeter,” Josie smiled, “How was your summer?”
“It was good, now tell me Josephine Sharpe, you are partners with Regulus Black are you not for the N.E.W.T.s projects?” asked Skeeter. Right into the questions, of course.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Right, I saw the two of you fighting this morning on your way out of History of Magic,” said Skeeter with almost mock concern. “You were a wreck, Sharpe, tears and make up.”
“Oh, no, I…We weren’t fighting, I was fine” said Josie.
Skeeter raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips, “Well, that’s not what it looked like. Black do you have anything to say about how upset you made poor Josephine.” The use of Josie’s first name really sold the story that Skeeter was trying to write.
She had somehow convinced Dumbledore that the school needed a newspaper. That’s how Hogwarts Headliners came to fame. It had two different types of printouts, a daily letter/flier looking thing that held all of the gossip around the school called Hogwarts Hearsay. Apparently it had no connection to Rita Skeeter or Hogwarts Headliners. Headliners came out once a week on Saturday and were generally more boring than the Hearsay because it was run through Dumbledore's approval.
“She was fine,” said Regulus, “we weren’t arguing.”
Skeeter let out a soft sigh, “It was strange that the two of you were partnered, don't you think, Black?”
Regulus grit his teeth slightly, “No, we both are taking the same classes.”
Skeeter continued anyways, “A pureblood from a very prestigious family and a girl with a muggle father.”
A girl. The words themselves weren’t insulting, Josie was a girl, but god did she want to rip the long blonde hair from Rita Skeeter’s head in that moment.
“Her mother was a witch,” Crouch said, adding his two cents where it wasn’t needed.
“How could I forget, May Sharpe, right?” smiled Skeeter, the quill worked faster against the paper presumably making up some sort of lie.
“Uh, yeah,” said Josephine, her neck craning to see where Slughorn was.
“A very prestigious witch from one of the most powerful pureblood families, no?”
“I guess.”
Skeeter smiled again, “funny how after your mother died the rest of them fell shortly later. Do you know why?”
“Dragon Pox, I think,” said Josie. Slughorn had walked in but was now taking his sweet time putting things into his desk.
Crouch scoffed. Josie’s eyes flickered to his. “Yeah right, the most powerful wizarding family did not fall to measly Dragon Pox.”
“Why did they fall, Crouch?” asked Skeeter, with a bright glint in her eyes.
Crouch was right, of course. The most powerful wizarding family didn’t fall to Dragon Pox, it was just some sort of coverup. Nobody had ever told Josie the real thing that they had died from, most people probably didn’t know. It was some top secret Ministry of Magic issue.
“Ow! What the fuck, Black?” said Crouch loudly.
“What! What did he do?” asked Skeeter.
“Welcome back!” Slughorn's loud voice projected over the classroom. “Our first lesson will be brewing Veritaserum. Please open your textbooks to page 3!”