Jade self-consciously smoothed her frizzy mane of light-brown hair and walked into Transfiguration.
"Miss Rankin, you're late," Professor Morf remarked without looking up.
"Sorry, Professor," Jade bit her tongue. She had no excuse. She'd simply overslept that morning. By the time she'd jolted awake, breakfast was over and class started in five minutes. She's quickly thrown on a pair of already-worn robes, grabbed her bad, and rushed downstairs.
The Ravenclaw tower was half the castle away from the Transfiguration corridor. When Jade took her seat, she became extremely embarrassed about her disheveled appearance. Her hair normally took ages to tame, and she hadn't even cleaned her teeth.
"You look like you got struck by lightning, Rankin."
James Potter was leaning across the space between their desks.
"Shut up, or you will be," Jade growled.
James Potter never tried hard at anything. He was naturally good at every class. He was famous from the day he was born. And he never spent any time on his appearance, but still managed to look cute as he smirked at her and turned to watch the Professor's lecture.
Jade wasn't sure when she'd realized her crush on James. At first, she'd just thought he was a little annoying. In fourth year, he'd started summoning her inkwell from across the room in every class they had together. In fifth year, his house, Gryffindor, had been neck-and neck with Ravenclaw for the Quidditch cup. James and Jade both played seeker, and when she'd snatched the snitch from his fingers, he'd been cute when he blushingly congratulated her after the match.
Now, in sixth year, they had almost all their classes together.
"Miss Rankin, are you paying attention?" a voice cut through her thoughts.
"Sorry, Professor."
"Take ten points from Ravenclaw, Rankin. What's with you today?"
"Sorry, Professor," Jade hurried to take out parchment and a quill.
Where was her inkwell? She'd purchased a fancy dark-blue ink that year, as a congratulations to herself on her eight OWLS.
A note landed on her desk. Scrawled in navy-blue ink, the words
Missing something?
Were scrawled.
"Potter," she growled under her breath.
"Hey, What's wrong?" Jade's best friend, Evelyn, caught up with her after class.
"Why didn't you wake me?" Jade growled.
"Oh. Sorry. I had to wake up early so I could go to the library to finish that essay for Professor Longbottom. You already did it, so…"
"Yeah. It's OK."
"Here," Evelyn took a hair ribbon out of her own hair, consolidating her pigtails into one braid. "This should keep the Venomous Tentacula from giving you an unwanted haircut."
That evening, Jade was sitting in the library. Her hair was once again tamed and pinned at the back of her head with a jeweled comb.
"Ugh. I can't believe Morf gave us THREE FEET by the end of the week!" Evelyn stared at her meter-long, sadly blank parchment.
"Try to write larger! You write so small!" Jade chided, measuring her work.
"I do not. Let me go get some more reference books," Evelyn got up and left.
Jade continued to scratch.
When an object vanishes, it goes into everything, because…
A heavy thunking sound came from the other side of the table as several heavy books landed.
"I love you!" Jade sighed, looking up at Evelyn.
But it wasn't Evelyn.
"Oh, really?" smirked James Potter.
"Oh. It's you. I thought you were Evelyn." Jade tried not to blush.
"Well, if that's how you and Evelyn feel about each other…" James raised an eyebrow.
"NO!" Jade said loudly, earning a menacing glare from Madam Pince, the ancient librarian.
"OK. I just came to ask you if I could borrow your notes from Transfiguration today."
"Too busy stealing inkwells to take any notes?" Jade looked up at him through her glasses.
James shuffled his feet. "Fred stole mine for a laugh and dropped them in the lake."
"Really?"
"No," James smiled.
"Well, I'm using mine right now," Jade gestured to her essay. Why was he doing this? There were loads of Gryffindors in their class. Was this just an excuse to spend time with her? No, she mustn't get ahead of herself. Maybe he was just passing by. What happened to his notes?
"That's fine by me," James sat down in Evelyns chair and shifter her notes so that he could read them.
"Oi!" Jade shifted them back. "Those are my notes, and that's Evelyn's chair."
"Ohhh. Evelyn!"
"Stuff it, Potter."
When Evelyn returned, they had managed to share their notes. Shaking her head, she slipped back into the shelves to give her friend some time.
"It think he likes me," Jade told Evelyn that night in their dormitory.
"Maybe," Evelyn said in a bored tone.
"What do you think?"
"How would I know?"
"Well, you have as many classes with him as I do. We're in all the same classes."
"Well, I actually have to pay attention in class, unlike the pair of you. We're not all super-geniuses."
"Just tell me what you think!"
Evelyn sighed. "I honestly don't know. But I saw you two this evening in the library. You might have a chance."
"If only he'd ask me…" Jade imagined walking through Hogsmeade, holding hands with James.
"Why don't you ask him?"
She paused. "Maybe I will."
"Good."
"But how do I know he wouldn't laugh? We tease each other all the time!"
It took Evelyn a while to talk her friend up, but eventually, Jade once again felt confident.
"I'll ask him to Hogsmeade tomorrow afternoon."
After Arithmancy, the last class of the day, Jade hurried to put her books away. Arithmancy was one of the few classes she didn't have with James, as he took Care of Magical Creatures instead.
"Hey, Jade! Are you ready for practice?" Laura Adams, the Keeper for Ravenclaw, called when she entered the common room.
Cursing herself, Jade rand to get her quidditch things together.
"Woops," Evelyn commented in the team changing room, strapping on her chaser's gloves.
"Woops is right," Jade grumbled.
Practice seemed to drag on forever. The snitch they were using was especially tricky. No matter how she tried, Jade couldn't find it.
"It's alright! We'll just tell Flitwick that it got away!" Laura called.
"You'll never find it now! The sun's about to set!" Evelyn added.
Sighing, feeling her hair strain against its pins, Jade finally returned to the ground.
After that, Jade couldn't work up the courage to face James, no matter what she tried. She meekly let him steal her inkwell every class.
"I've probably ruined everything," Jade moaned one night to Evelyn.
"Don't worry about it. It's fine. Just get some sleep. The big game's tomorrow: Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor. We need you in shape."
The day of the game dawned bright and clear. The perfect day for James to catch the snitch while I'm halfway across the arena, Jade thought.
A big breakfast and lots of pep talk from Evelyn finally convinced Jade to walk onto the Quidditch pitch. Laura shook hands with Louis Weasley, the Gryffindor captain, and they pushed off.
Jade circled the pitch, keeping an eye on James while looking for the snitch. She felt a little better.
A flash of gold caught her eye. The snitch!
"And Potter dives! And so does Rankin! But they're on opposite sides of the pitch!" the commentator shouted.
Jade clutched at her broom handle, but kept going. She definitely saw the snitch. Potter must be faking, and so much the better.
"AH HAH!" she pulled out of her dive, with a metal ball in her hand. The crowd burst out into a chorus of… gasps?
Turning to the opposite side of the pitch, Jade noticed James, mimicking her pose. Something gold was caught in his hand.
Could it be? Had they both caught the snitch?
"It's the lost mmhhhmmmppphhh!" Laura shouted, but Evelyn clapped a hand over her mouth.
"…James?" Jade called.
"Jade! What happened?"
"I lost a snitch here weeks ago! It must have been flying around this whole time!"
"Which one's the real snitch?" James called.
Jade thought, then burst out laughing. "They're BOTH real!"
"The referee calls that BOTH Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will be awarded 150 points, and the game goes to Gryffindor, with 130 points, ten points more than Ravenclaw!" the announcer called.
The stands burst out in a mixture of cries and boos. The players sank to the ground.
"Good game, Jade," James walked over to her and held out his hand, just as he'd done last year. But this time, he called her by her first name.
"Good game, James." She shook it.
"I guess it's better late than never to catch the snitch."
She laughed.
James was about to turn away, when Jade called, "Wait!"
"Yeah?"
"Would you like to go to Hogsmead with me?" Jade burst out.
A grin spread across James's face.
"Yeah. Yeah, I would."
Jade smiled back and nearly ran to the Ravenclaw change rooms.
She'd done it!