Oh No!
“TAV!” Squealed Albus after she fell against the table, knocking over his ink pot.
She ingored his whining and stood back up onto the broom. Drifting was a lot harder than it looked. The drifters were swerving and diving through the air like birds. They looked weightless and free. She could barely stand on the broom.
“You should give it a try Al”
He looked at her skeptically as she waved her arms around desperately trying to stay on the broom.
“Yeah cause that looks so easy and fun”
“Balancing is the hardest part”
Tav had no idea if that was true but she hoped it was. She is a good flier, and never had trouble controlling a broom, so the balancing part must be what’s holding her back.
“I can’t, I need to get this charm’s work done”
Tav rolled her eyes. He’s such a workaholic.
“Im sure you could take a break. We have today, tommarow, and the weekend to write a single paragraph. I’m sure you could get it done in time”
“Yeah but I’m fucked for the practical work so this needs to be bloody perfect if im going to pass”, he snapped.
“Ok. I’m going to bother Millie instead”
Tav finds it best to aviod Al when he’s stressed. He’s decided that this charms work is high-stakes and there’s much anyone can do to change Al’s mind. He’s either going to quit on his own terms or obsess over it until he passes out on the table. The latter scenario is more likely.
Tav scanned the common room for Millie but couldn’t spot her anywhere. A herd of first and second years rushed towards one of the windows as a big black squib swam by. A pair of fourth years scoffed and rolled their eyes. Tav found it amusing considering they were those first years not long ago.
She walked towards the fire which burned in neon green. Tav flung herself onto one of the long green sofas next to the fireplace. Across from her Ember and Aurelia were sitting criss cross on the other sofa, loose pieces of parchment sprawled around them. They were both reading from a textbook in Ember’s hands while a floating notebook and quill waited above Aurelia’s head.
“What are you guys doing?” Tav asked quietly, hesitant to disrupt their intense focus.
“Reviewing” said Aurelia, not bothering to look up from the textbook. The quill suddenly jumped to life and scribbled something on the notebook as Aurelia moved her finger along the textbook page.
“Hey Tav,” said Ember, looking up from the book. She was always the friendlier of the pair. “Do you happen have your care of magical creatures notes from last year?”
“No sorry. I burned them all. It was very therapeutic”
“Wow you really hate that class”
“It felt more like that class hated me”
They fell into silence again as Ember and Aurelia continued with their note taking. Tav stared at the fire for some time. It was mesmerizing how the green flames licked the edges of the fireplace and then died back down, only to repeat the process again. Reaching, recoiling, repeating.
Tav felt a little guilty for not focusing on her school work like everyone else, but at the same time she felt no motivation for studying. It’s only the beginning of the school year, what’s the rush? But that’s why your not top of the class, nagged a voice in her head.
——————
Tav let out a loud whoop, earning a glare from a small study group. After a couple of hours of fooling around Tav managed to drift from one end of the common room to another. She found the faster you flew the easier it was to balance. It was like alchemy, you just need to let go.
She heard someone stomp down the stairs behind her and turned to see an angry Albus.
“Finish your paragraph?”
“No. Jack insisted on doing his push-ups in the dorm and it’s distracting me”
Tav saw an opportunity to tease Albus but held back at the risk of complimenting Jack.
“How much are you writing?”
“It’s not the quantity it’s the quality. I’m still editing”
By editing he means re-writing the same paragraph again and again until he is satisfied (in theory) or goes completely insane.
“I thought last summer you said you’re going to stop obsessing over school and try to have fun”
“Well I can’t afford to mess around” he snapped, his eyes glassy and on the verge of tears. Albus marched off and Tav instinctively followed him.
He sat down at a empty table, rubbed his eyes, and got back to work on charms. Tav continued messing around on her broom next to him. Neither saying a word to each other.
——————
Tav woke up on the common room floor. She checked her watch for the time. It was a quarter til midnight.
The watch was a gift she received on her seventeenth birthday. It’s a wizard tradition for boys to be gifted a watch when they came of age. Tav complained on and on about how sexist that only boys get fancy watches, to the point that her uncle Draco gave in. He gave her this big golden watch which was passed down from generations of Malfoy men. Seeing him break the tradition was half of the present.
Tav pushed herself off the cold hard floor and stretched her back. They were so wrapped up in their tasks that she couldn’t remember falling asleep. Maybe she hit her head after falling and Albus didn’t notice.
Speaking of which. Albus was passed out on top of his charms paragraph. A collection of crumpled drafts surrounding his head like a paper halo. His right hand was still holding the ink pot and his left arm was dangling over the desk.
Tav has seem him in this exact position a million times before. Some habits are hard to break.
“wingardium leviosa”
His limb body lifted off the chair and followed the direction of her wand. Tav climbed the marble stairs carefully, not wanting to disturb the other students sleeping in various places across the common room. It was quite common for students to spent the night there.
She knocked on the door to the boys dorm room. She wasn’t very fond of any of the other Slytherin boys in her year, so she didn’t mind waking them up. Jack opened the door, fully dressed and wide awake. It seems none of them have proper sleep schedules.
He stared at her forehead with concern.
“Is your head okay”
Tav rolled her eyes.
“No seriously Tav. There’s a huge bruise on your forehead”
Jack normally wasn’t this petty but she wouldn’t put a dic move like this past him.
“Whatever. I’m just bringing Albus back”
Jack moved out the way to let her in. She could see him watching her in her peripheral vision as she put Albus in his bed.
The boys dorm was messy, as usual. There was clothes, books, and random objects covering the floor. She carefully avoided the pyramid of monster energy drinks. Albus would never forgive her if she knocked it over. She nearly escaped the death trap of a room when she tripped over a thick book.
Jack quickly caught her. He put both hands on her shoulders, and inspected her head with concern. Once Tav found her balance she shoved his hands away. She was about to leave when he took his wand out and pointed it at her forehead.
“Hey!”
She slapped the wand away.
“I’m trying to help!” He yelled, earning a shush from one of the beds.
“Quit fucking with me” Tav whisper-yelled.
“I’m not” he responded in the same tone, “there’s actually a bruise on your head”
She scoffed and took her phone out to check.
There was in fact a huge bruise on her forehead. Jack picked up his wand, pointed it at her head, and within seconds the bruise disappeared.
“Your welcome”
Oh no