"Why did I have to be paired up with such a moron?"
"I do hope you're not talking about me, dahling."
"Hm?" Helen blinked and looked up from her work. "Oh, no, not you, E." Edna smirked and relaxed back into her chair, where she'd been watching Helen struggle with her homework for the last fifteen minutes.
They were studying in the library, though Helen was doing most of the work now that Edna had finished hers. Professor McGonagall had assigned them as partners for a Transfiguration project that they'd finished days ago, now Helen was slogging through a Charms assignment she was meant to have help with, though her 'help' had apparently bailed. Edna was there for "moral support," as she'd put it.
"You know I can't stand the common room, dahling, with its ghastly skulls and slime," she'd said, and Helen had laughed and returned to her work.
She and Edna had been friends since the first year, when Edna had taken one look at her and nodded decisively.
"I can work with this," she'd said as they were led into the Great Hall for the first time. Helen hadn't paid her much attention, she was too curious about what was going to happen and distracted by all the other first years jostling and shoving around her, and hadn't given Edna's words another thought until the next morning. She'd woken up in her new four-poster bed in Ravenclaw Tower to an almost-stranger rooting around in her trunk, and had instinctively stretched and punched the intruder in the face, sending Edna stumbling backwards and her thick, round glasses flying off her face.
Helen's first urge had been to apologize, but she'd squashed it in favor of demanding what Edna was doing in her room, instead of wherever Slytherins went. Far from looking abashed, Edna had put her glasses back on and stared at Helen with wonder.
"Show me again!" Helen's mother had taught her to hide her elastic capabilities from childhood, since before she could even remember. And Helen had obeyed, only using her special abilities at home and when it was absolutely necessary. But Edna had looked absolutely gleeful, so after hesitating for a moment, Helen had stretched her arm again. Edna had practically squealed in excitement, waking up the other girls in the dormitory. "Dahling this is wonderful! Stunning! Splendid!"
And since then Helen had been Edna's pet project, not a day had gone by that Edna hadn't broken into Ravenclaw Tower in the wee hours of the morning, because heaven forbid Helen dress herself. The other girls ignored her and Helen had learned to just roll with it, and to never wear anything Edna hadn't approved even though they all wore the same uniforms, as Helen had pointed out several times. She'd also learned to put up with Edna's experiments, the sooner she put on the cloak or boots or whatever it was Edna wanted her to try on the sooner Edna would demand it back to adjust it. Edna had been trying to invent fabric that would stretch as Helen did, and had been experimenting for the last five years with varying success.
But recently she hadn't been able to experiment as much, for which Helen was secretly grateful. With the Quidditch Cup and exams approaching, Quidditch practice and homework had been piling up lately. Though, she thought sourly, it wouldn't as much if a certain someone would show up when he was supposed to. A certain annoying someone whom everyone let get away with everything just because of his charming smile and his blue eyes. And thick blonde hair. And nice muscles.
"I can't believe he stood me up," Helen suddenly exclaimed, throwing her quill down and collapsing back with a huff, while Edna drank a cup of tea she'd conjured out of nowhere. She was smirking as if she had been reading Helen's thoughts.
"'Stood you up'?" Edna said, drawing out each word and raising her eyebrows over her teacup. "An interesting phrase for the circumstances, dahling." Helen flushed and frowned at her lap, her arms crossed.
"Well I can't do the whole project by myself! I've got Quidditch!" she snapped, and Edna leaned back in her chair to observe. She was very familiar with Helen's rants, she had one every other day, usually about classes or Quidditch or elvish rights. More recently a Gryffindor named Robert Parr had been cropping up several times as the source of Helen's ire, which Edna had noticed but decided not to point out. "But I guess no one else's priorities matter to the great Robert Parr, he's probably forgotten about the whole thing, or he expects me to do his work for him-augh! He's just so-"
"Helen?" Helen straightened in her seat, looking around. She stood and scowled, her arms crossed.
"Nice of you to show up," she said venomously as Robert Parr approached them, turning slightly to fit his massive frame through the shelves of books. "We were supposed to-"
"Where were you yesterday?" he demanded, interrupting her. She paused for a moment, her mouth half-open and an indignant look on her face as she stared up at him.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, her hands on her hips. "We were supposed to meet today, after Potions!"
"No," Robert said, looking more confused than angry. "We were supposed to meet yesterday after Potions." Helen gaped at him, lost for words until she understood.
"My Potions, you lunkhead."
"I was here for two hours yesterday!" Robert said. Helen's eyebrows drew together slightly, she wouldn't have expected him to wait that long. He reached into his bag. "I finished my half, here." He handed her two rolls of parchment, one with a crude but proportionally correct diagram of an owl on it, the other with the first half of the actual essay.
Helen was surprised to find that it was written rather well, his handwriting was legible and his points were clear. Also, throughout the essay he used phrases like 'we reasoned,' and 'my partner and I,' as though Helen had been as involved with writing the first half as he had been. She looked up at him with raised eyebrows, and he shrugged, looking embarrassed.
"I thought maybe you got stuck at Quidditch or something, I didn't want you not to get credit."
To her fury, Helen found herself blushing at his thoughtfulness, and she shoved the parchment back into his hands so he wouldn't notice. Edna smirked, her eyes bright with interest.
"What were you saying, dahling?" she drawled in her odd accent, and Helen froze. "About Robert expecting you to-"
"Nothing!" Helen said, hating the way her voice had gone up an octave. "Nothing- here, sit down," she said to Robert, who obeyed without hesitating. "I'm almost done with my half, then we have to rewrite them so they fit together."
As it turned out, Helen's half needed the most rewriting. Robert had left his open for her additions, she'd made no such allowances, expecting she'd have to do the whole thing by herself.
"Did you think I wasn't gonna do it?" he asked. Helen grimaced and didn't answer, scribbling out one of her sentences. Robert glanced at Edna, who smiled in an almost predatory way, showing her teeth. "Why not?" Helen didn't look up, she was hunched over her work. She gave a tense shrug.
"I don't know, I guess-" She shifted her parchment, turning away from him slightly. "-I just don't expect much from you." Robert blinked, surprised and a little hurt by her bluntness.
"Oh," he said. Helen stopped writing and took a deep breath.
"Sorry," she said. "That's not fair."
"No, I get it," Robert said quickly. "I-yeah, that makes sense I guess." He looked so disheartened, even Edna seemed sorry for him. "Well, you have my papers, I'll just-"
"Sit down, Parr. Don't you dare bail on me." Robert froze halfway out of his seat, startled. Helen glanced at him, and her lips twitched into a smile. He grinned back at her as he sat back down.
"You know, I don't really like this paragraph," he said, and Helen turned slightly so he could point to it. "I couldn't figure out how to explain what I meant."
Helen shuffled the papers closer, too, and leaned towards him to continue working, while Edna settled back into her chair to watch.
A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!