UNDEFINED
Chapter 1
I saw my friends off at the train as they went to see their families for the holidays. I had discussed at length with my parents and charms teachers and we agreed I would stay at school to work on some advanced charms over the holiday. The more I could learn in school the more prepared I would be after graduation.
I was looking forward to the one on one instruction Professor Flitwick would be able to give me. I also planned on reading through the few charms books I hadn't read over the years. Tonight, however, was going to be just for me. This would be the one break I would allow myself to take from my studies. I hadn't had a night to myself in as long as I could remember and needed some serious R & R.
At dinner I didn't see Professor Flitwick and was not able to confirm our appointment for tomorrow at nine, so I decided to go to the owlery after dinner to send him a letter making sure he was going to be there. I hated any level of uncertainty.
I went to my room to get some parchment and write a short letter. I made a pit stop in the restroom to make sure I still looked presentable and didn't have any food stuck in my teeth. My long brown hair was still in perfect waves down the middle of my back. Blue eyes were still sparkling with my make-up still looking like perfection, the shadowy look with blacks and whites. I applied another layer of lip-gloss and teased my hair a bit before continuing on to the owlery.
I called my owl, Athena, down to me and began to attach the rolled up parchment to her. I watched her fly off, her brown feathers with the black tips gracefully propelling her, watching her glide through the sky. As I stood up to leave I heard a noise behind me.
I quickly turned around, holding my wand at my side ready to send a jinx at the first sight of trouble.
"Break just started, you miss your friends that much already?" the voice said.
I stepped forward. Oh, it was just Josh, the teaching assistant for Professor Flitwick. He had graduated from Hogwarts two years previously and wanted to come back and teach.
"Of course not. I just needed to confirm my lessons with Professor Flitwick tomorrow, and he wasn't at dinner." I replied to his question.
"Ah, well Professor Flitwick has actually gone away for the holidays, leaving me to tutor you in his place." Josh gave a small smile, with a hint of how pleased he was to be trusted this much.
"I see. Well I hope you are up to the job. I am not in need of a tutor to catch up. This is for extra-curricular work to prepare me for my internship next fall."
"That will be no problem. I am well up to the task. I shall see you in the morning." With a nod he walked to a dark brown owl and began to attach a letter. I didn't stick around to make any more chit chat.
After leaving the owlery I made my way down through the castle to go outside. It was one of those rare warm spring nights with the moon bright and no clouds in sight. I hadn't been outside to just enjoy the feeling of being outside in recent memory.
I walked across the grounds to sit near the lake. I wanted to just lay and watch the stars all night. I conjured a blanket for myself and spread it out. I started to lie down when yet again I sensed someone near me. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around. I could make out the figure of a more built frame, probably male, dark hair, and of course robes swishing around his feet.
"Alice, I just seem to be running into you all over the school tonight." It was Josh again.
"Oh. Yes well it was such a nice night, I couldn't resist coming out here." I relaxed slightly but still kept a sharp eye on him.
"I agree, it is very nice out here. The stars look beautiful. I miss this during the foggy nights." He was absent-mindedly looking across the sky. I wondered for a moment if he saw me walk out here from the owlery.
"Did you just come out here to look at the stars, too?"
"Sure. Just wanted to go for a walk to clear my head. Life can be too much sometimes." That was a curious response, but I didn't know much about him so didn't know what to say to respond to that.
"Yeah. Do you want to sit here?" I scooted over a little bit just in case he was going to take the offer.
He looked around for a moment, and shrugged. "Maybe for a moment."
I watched him take a seat and wondered what I was supposed to do now. I hadn't talked to teachers in a social setting before, and yes, Josh was just an assistant, but it was close enough to the same thing. He taught class sometimes. I was also pretty sure he was teaching years one through three on his own.
"Nice night." I said.
"We've already covered that." I never thought you could actually hear someone smile while they talked, but I could totally tell that his mouth formed a smile when he said that.
I gave a nervous laugh, "Oh, right." I still didn't know what to say, probably best to stay quiet.
"I broke up with my girlfriend. She wasn't who I thought she was." He blurted. So that was what he meant when he said life was hard sometimes. I thought it might have been something a little more serious than a break up. "We were together for a year and a half. Started dating soon after winter holidays during her 7th year here."
"Oh." I still had no idea what to say. "So what are we going to go over tomorrow? Professor Flitwick mentioned a few charms he wanted to teach me but I don't know how much he told you." I don't know if it was insensitive of me to change the subject but I wasn't comfortable discussing his personal life.
"He gave me some notes. I should probably go prepare. Thanks for letting me sit, and lending an ear." Josh stood up, gave another of his nods, and walked back toward the castle.
I stayed outside for a while longer enjoying the peace before heading back up to the castle. I walked up to the fifth floor to the eagle door knocker.
"What is so fragile that when you say it's name it breaks?" The eagle asked.
I thought for a moment before answering, "Silence." I entered the common room and made my way to my dormitory. There was only one other girl from the dormitory staying over the holidays, but she didn't appear to have made it to bed yet. I found this a bit odd, as it was after midnight, but supposing I myself had just made it back I should not judge.
I thought of studying some charms in preparation for tomorrow, and then remembered that this was supposed to be my night to myself and picked up a book with an actual story line to read instead. I read a few chapters before calling it a night.
The next morning I went down to breakfast to a pretty empty Great Hall. I wondered where everyone was before remembering that it was the holidays, and of course the other students would probably want to sleep-in. I, however, had my future to think about, and could not sleep my vacation away. I didn't see Josh and hoped he didn't forget and decided he needed more sleep as well.
I left for the Charms classroom ten minutes before nine, wanting to make Josh feel bad if he wasn't there at nine sharp. I was more than surprised to see him already there when I got there. He seem just as surprised.
"Oh, uh, hi, I... I wasn't expecting you for another few minutes." He stuttered out.
"I'm only here like, eight minutes early." I said with what I'm sure was a weird expression on my face.
"Yes, well, I just took you for the type to show up right on the dot of the time you were expected, not a minute before or after." He seemed to have composed himself.
"Being early is a good trait, too." I responded, setting my bag down on a desk and leaning against it. I quickly righted myself, deciding that was too casual and sat down in the chair instead.
"Right. Well I have some supplies over here, well they are really more like backgrounds. I thought we could work on disillusionment charms. I believe Professor Flitwick was going to start teaching them after break, so I thought you might like to get a head start on them."
Though he had gotten his words together, something still seemed to be off about Josh. He was acting like he was on the lake the night before. Very distracted and not interested in what was going on. I thought about asking him about it, but knew this was a professional setting, as well as the whole teacher-student relationship.
"I do like to be ahead of the curve, let's get started."
Within fifteen minutes I knew this was not going to work. Josh was so distracted he could barely explain the spell right and was only able to properly perform it once, and even that was only for a few moments.
"I'm sorry!" He said for quite literally the millionth time. "This break-up is just not sitting well with me. I didn't want to deal with it now, but she was pushing me." That was his first time adding an excuse to his apology.
I still didn't know what to say, and I was feeling very uncomfortable with this whole situation. "I'm, sorry too." Was all I could get out.
I stood there awkwardly for a few more moments trying to decide if it was appropriate for me to leave or if I was supposed to wait for some sort of dismissal.
"So, should we try again for tomorrow?" At least he hadn't broken down in tears, that may have pushed me over the edge. Not that his silence was helping much.
"Yes, tomorrow would be fine. Do you want to go on a walk with me now?" How was I supposed to get out of that? Clearly he needed to do something, or be with someone, but wasn't there someone else he could bother? All I wanted was some lessons to get me ahead, not a companion for the holidays.
"Well, I was going to do some studying." Maybe he would take that as no, and drop the subject.
"I promise not to take up too much of your time. Maybe I'll be up for helping you later today if I can get out of my own head now."
He was pushy. "Alright. A walk to where?"
"Just around the grounds will be fine." He gave a flick of his wand and the classroom was restored to it's original design.
"Do you want to talk some more about what happened with that girl?" I was trying to be sensitive, but he just laughed. "What was so funny?" I asked.
"You said 'that girl' like she's just a nobody." He still had a small smile on his face.
"Well, to me she is a nobody, I don't even know who she is." I was just being honest.
He laughed a little again. "You're right, I shouldn't be talking about this with you. You probably don't want to hear some old teacher talk about his love life"
"You're not old. Or a teacher. You are a teaching assistant." I figured this truth would be an easy one to break to him.
Another laugh. I was never not going to be able to recognize that sound again. "Right. I just thought that was how the students saw me."
"Hmm." Was all I responded. We were outside the castle now and I was curious to know where he was planning on going now. We both walked in silence for a few minutes.
"Do you fly?" He asked.
"I have a broom. I perhaps had a short bit of an obsession with Quidditch."
"A 'bit of an obsession?'" He sure seemed to like to repeat things I said back to me.
"That is what I said. So, should I get my broom?" I wish he had mentioned what we might be doing before we left the castle.
"Just call it to you. Haven't you heard of Harry Potter?"
Of course I have heard about Harry Potter. Who hadn't? Even now. His son Albus Severus was the current Minister of Magic.
"What does Harry Potter have to do with this?"
"He called his broom to him during the Triwizard Tournament."
"And I am sure he was the first to ever do something of the sort." I never gave much thought to the famous Harry Potter. It was so long before my time I didn't know how to relate to it. "Accio, broom." I called. I heard Josh do the same.
Flying again was wonderful. I hadn't been on a broom since my second year. I enjoyed it then, but after not making the Ravenclaw Quidditch team I lost interest in it pretty quickly. Why do something if I wasn't fantastic at it? My parents had spent quite a lot on Quidditch supplies that summer before second year, and I felt a bit bad for making them waste all their money, but in this moment I was glad I had such a great broom. The feeling of the wind in my hair and just being free from the world was exhilarating.
Josh seemed to be enjoying it as well. We raced a few times around the Quidditch pitch. We each won and lost about the same amount, though I had a sneaking suspicion he let me win on purpose a couple times. This suspicion was based on the difference in times from when I won and when he won. The times he won it was always a close race, when I won it was by at least two body lengths, and I knew I wasn't going that fast.
It must have been after a couple hours of flying that my stomach began to rumble. I checked my face watch, and realized lunch at the castle was over an hour ago. I headed to the ground hoping to be able to find some food left out on the table.
"Why did you stop? I was hoping for another race." Josh said when he reached the ground next to me.
"I'm hungry, and missed lunch. I'm going to see if there's still any left in the Great Hall." I replied, holding on to my stomach to try and keep it quiet.
Josh was quiet for a moment. "Well, how about we just go into Hogsmeade. You can get your choice of foods there."
"I think Hogwart's has some pretty good food. Besides, it's not a Hogsmeade weekend, I can't go." After he mentioned Hogsmeade though, I really wanted to go. A diner had been built during my fourth year and they did have some wonderful food.
"Sure you can, I'm a teacher. I can give you permission to leave the castle grounds."
"Assistant. A teacher's assistant. And do you really think you have authority to get me there?"
"Sure, follow me." With a wink he turned and started walking out of the pitch.