Aaron's essay was due in two hours, and he hadn't even started it yet.
To be fair, he'd jotted down a few notes about his three-page Herbology essay the night before, but presently he was stuck on the first sentence.
Sighing, Aaron glanced at the clock in the library again, willing the magical hands to stop moving or something. When they continued to tick, he groaned and rested his head against the open herbology book at his desk.
"Aaron, are you having some trouble?"
It was Dean, one of Aaron's friends. The Slytherin sat himself down next to Aaron and lifted a pile of books onto the desk.
"My essay is due in two hours," the Hufflepuff complained, pointing at his blank page. Dean rolled his eyes.
"I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to be hard working."
Aaron flipped him off. "Shut up. There was a quidditch match on, okay? And he was playing."
The corner of Dean's mouth twitched. "God, you're such a hopeless romantic."
Aaron pushed his friend jokingly. "Whatever. Are you gonna help me or not?"
"Of course. That's what friends do. But," Dean wagged a finger, "just this once, Hemingway. I'm not doing all your assignments."
"Thank you so much, Dean!" Aaron relaxed slightly as his friend began to pour over his Herbology book, occasionally scrawling notes in his spidery handwriting. Within ten minutes he'd written nearly a quarter of the essay.
Aaron felt a pang of jealousy— Dean was almost top in their year, right behind Hermione Granger. For a Slytherin, this was uncommon, as the Hufflepuffs or the Ravenclaws were usually the ones who got the high grades.
While Dean wrote up the Herbology essay, Aaron flipped open one of his friend's books. This one was about wizard politics— the structure of the Ministry, wizard and witch voting rights, laws and punishments.
"Still want to be the Minster of Magic, huh?" Aaron said. Dean nodded.
"I can do it. If I study hard enough and become friends with the right people."
"You how much of a Slytherin you are, right?"
"Very much so. There's a reason I got sorted into that house." Dean was not a particularly humorous person and Aaron's jab fell on deaf ears. "Anyway, I'm finished with your essay." Dean handed over the three pages of parchment. "You better not forget to do it a second time, because if you do you'll have to get Cecilia to do it for you."
Aaron laughed. "She'd probably make paper aeroplanes out of the paper and enchant them to fly into Flitwick's head or something."
The bell tolled, making Aaron and Dean jump. They both stood from their seats and collected their books, reading to head off to their morning class, Herbology. Aaron was a little worried that Professor Sprout would notice Dean's handwriting, but he'd rather get a detention and have the essay completed then hand in nothing.
Cecilia and Dean's cousin, Gabriel, were waiting for them at the doors to the greenhouse. Cecilia crossed her arms over her chest and said, "Took you two lovebirds long enough. Gabe and I were planning to send out a search party."
Dean's face turned red and he pushed past Cecilia roughly, ducking his head as he hurried into class.
Cecilia and Gabe laughed, and the former shook her head. "He's too serious, that one. Gabe should knock some jokes into him."
"We're not even in the same house," Gabe argued as the trio entered, running over to Dean so they could sit beside him. The seats in the greenhouse smelled like dirt and the cushions had holes where the springs protruded, so the fourth-years had to manoeuvre themselves into odd positions to be comfortable.
Aaron felt out-of-place among two Slytherins and a Ravenclaw. He saw Harry Potter, the Chosen One or whatever they were calling him these days, and his gang, across the room. Draco Malfoy was a few seats down, trying to start a conversation with Dean but failing, because the latter boy was still finishing some gap notes from one of his other classes.
"Alright, students!" Professor Sprout entered with her gardening gloves off, which meant she was collecting papers. Aaron felt sweat trickle down his brow as he handed his essay up to his teacher. It wasn't just because the room was so humid.
Sprout glanced at the writing, then back at Aaron. She raised an eyebrow and Aaron smiled nervously.
After a few more seconds, Sprout continued on, and Aaron exhaled, releasing his grip on his seat. He spotted Dean down the line and they made eye contact for a brief second. Dean nodded, face expressionless so as not to attract attention, and Aaron mouthed, "Thank you," at his friend. The Slytherin shrugged and mouthed back, "No problem."
The class progressed uneventfully, and before Aaron knew it he was picking up his quill and parchment and heading off to his next class, Muggle Studies. He hadn't wanted to take the elective, but it was part of the deal he made with his dad. If he didn't take Muggle Studies, he'd be out of Hogwarts faster than he could say expelliarmus.
Most of Muggle Studies was spent relearning things Aaron already knew. As a half-blood, his father was a Muggle and most of his life, Aaron had been taught everything about his father's world and nothing about his mother's. It took a lot of convincing to let him go to Hogwarts, and even that was two years late. Muggle Studies was like a repeat of his entire life.
He'd been told a few times that he was top in the class, but that wasn't exactly an achievement, especially in the eyes of his pureblood friends. Aaron preferred to keep that information private.
There were only eight other students in the class, out of the entire year. Aaron didn't know any of them, but none were in Slytherin and only two were from the Ravenclaw. The rest were a scattering of Hufflepuffs, like him, and Gryffindors.
Professor Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher, was absent that day, so Professor Flitwick had been asked to substitute the class. Aaron smiled at the comment he'd made regarding Cecilia and Flitwick earlier.
The class was mostly spent writing notes and reading from textbooks, but Aaron didn't mind. At the end of the class he handed in his book and parchments and left without a word, trying to get out of the class first so he wouldn't have to face the crowds in the corridor.
Unfortunately, Muggle Studies had run later than Aaron had expected, and the hallway outside the classroom was jam-packed with students. A lot of them snickered as the Muggle Studies kids filed out of their class. One Slytherin yelled something about 'mudbloods' and ran off cackling.
Aaron kept his head down and his mouth shut as he headed off to Great Hall for lunch. Luckily, neither Herbology nor Muggle Studies had homework, and he hoped his double Divination didn't yield any either.
On the way to the Hall, Aaron met up with Cecilia and Dean on the staircase, and they walked together to lunch.
Aaron sat down at the Hufflepuff table, and grabbed some food from the many plates in front of him. A girl on his left had her books and parchments spread all over the tabletop and her elbow kept bumping his own, but he didn't care because Cedric Diggory was sitting eight seats down.
Cedric was Hufflepuff's seeker on the quidditch team, a prefect and Aaron's crush. His friends loved to tease him about it, and faked fainting in the corridors or on the staircases whenever Cedric walked past.
The older boy was talking animatedly to another prefect about the Triwizard Tournament, a competition Aaron had learned was being played again for the first time in a few centuries. From the way Cedric was gesturing, Aaron guessed he was going to enter the Tournament, or at least find a way to be involved.
Aaron briefly wondered if he could compete, then banished the thought. He wasn't unfit, exactly, but he was horrendous at quidditch despite his impromptu obsession, and made a conscious effort to avoid physical activity when he could. He would be eliminated in the first round, even before.
"Hey, new kid. Hemingway," Cedric called. Aaron's heart flew into his throat and for a moment he forgot how to speak.
"Um…"
"Hey, Cedric, don't ask him. He's only been here for a year," one of Diggory's friends chided. Aaron felt his cheeks grow hot and he mumbled, "Nah, it's ok. What is it?"
"What do you think of Harry Potter?"
"Harry Potter?"
"The Chosen One?" Cedric looked incredulous. "He's in your year, Hemingway. Thought you might have been paying attention instead of frolicking around with your boyfriend in Slytherin."
The Hufflepuff table burst into fits of giggles. Aaron glared down at his plate. "He's alright. Potter."
Cedric grew serious again, realising he'd wounded the younger boy's pride. "Okay, cool. I was just wondering. A group of us don't really like him that much, since he gets so much attention and stuff. We wanted to know what the people in his year thought."
"Oh. Okay." Aaron sunk lower in his seat, picking at a slice of cake. He suddenly was looking forward to double Divination and wished he could disappear into one of those glass orbs Professor Trelawney kept around the classroom.
Cedric got up from his seat and clapped Aaron on the back, making the younger Hufflepuff jump. "Don't worry about it, Aaron. See you later."
"See you."
Aaron flopped down on his bed, throwing his books and quill under it and groaning into his pillow. He had nearly an hour until dinner in the Great Hall, so he thought he would kill some time with Dean, Cecilia and Gabe after he dropped off his school supplies in his dormitory.
He could smell the food from the kitchens wafting up through the floor. It made Aaron's mouth water.
Making sure his wand was in his pocket and his uniform was hung up on its coat hanger, he bounded out of his dorm room and through the common room doors, making his way down the staircases to the dungeons, where the Slytherins' common room was.
Gabe and Dean were waiting for him outside. They explained that Cecilia got detention in Arithmancy for passing a rude poem about some of the teachers at Hogwarts in class, so she was unable to hang out with them until tomorrow. They showed Aaron the poem, and he lost it at a rare species of animal lives in Snape's nose/ though how he grew it to that size, nobody knows. Dean rolled his eyes and muttered, "Typical of her," but Aaron saw his mouth twitch a few times, which Dean disguised as a yawn.
Gabe, on the other hand, had tears streaming down his cheeks and began to read the poem out loud in his impression of Professor Snape's voice. This involved pinching his nose and standing on his tip-toes to look more menacing, which wasn't hard, considering he was nearly six feet tall.
"We should go to the Astronomy Tower," Gabe declared when he'd finished his little performance. Dean agreed, but Aaron was less keen. He was terrified of heights and the Astronomy Tower just made him nauseous and sweaty. But Gabe and Dean insisted and Aaron, not wanting to refuse, agreed to go and throw bits of paper down at the students or something. If they were lucky, they might even get a visit from their owls, so the three boys took some food in their pockets to feed their pets when they got to the Tower.
As the trio climbed the steps of the Tower, Aaron thought about what Cedric had been talking about earlier. Was he really going to enter the Triwizard Tournament? Aaron didn't know much about the Tournament, but it sounded dangerous— maybe even life-threatening. And if they were reviving it for the first time in a few hundred years, all manner of things could go wrong.
"Dean?" Dean turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
"What happens in the Triwizard Tournament?" Aaron asked. They'd come to a stop near the top of the Tower, and just looking down at the stairs below him made Aaron want to vomit. He was trying to distract himself.
Dean shrugged. "I don't know if this is all true, but I heard that there are three challenges, and three contestants. During each challenge, one contestant can be eliminated, but it's not compulsory. The goal is to survive through all three challenges and collect the Triwizard Cup at the end, which is hidden in the last challenge."
"What kind of challenges are there?"
Gabe piped up this time. "In the past, there have been dragons, broomstick flying, underwater activities, spell casting and duelling, all sorts of stuff. It changes every time, and sometimes the contestants even have to do mini-challenges to find out what the next big challenge will be."
"Why do you want to know all of this?" Dean asked Aaron, climbing the remainder of the Astronomy Tower steps. "Thinking of entering?"
"God, no," Aaron said quickly, shaking his head. "I'd be wasted before it even started."
"True," Gabe laughed, giving his friend a playful shove. "Hey, is that Satan?"
'Satan' was Gabe's tiny owl. The bird was one of the most antisocial creatures Aaron had ever met, and it bit anyone who came close, including Gabe on some occasions. As a joke, after he'd learnt about Muggle belief systems in a class last year, Gabe named the bird Satan. The joke stuck.
"Rose is here, too! And look, Aaron, it's your one, Roger," Dean called from the top of the Tower.
Roger screeched, and Aaron grinned, forgetting his fear of heights temporarily. He ran up the rest of the stairs and his owl flapped over to him, landed on his shoulder and shrieked in his ear.
"Ouch! Jeez, Roger, be quiet! You're going to make me deaf." Aaron pulled out some of the owl food he'd taken from his room, and Roger inhaled it, pecking at his hand for more treats.
Rose, Dean's huge grey owl, was chasing Satan around the Tower. Satan was screeching and feathers were going everywhere, but the smaller owl was fast as well as rude, and it had no trouble escaping Rose's claws. Dean was chasing after the two of them, desperately trying to grab his own owl, but Rose managed to elude her master despite her size. Dean cursed when Satan decided to take a dump on his head. He wiped the bird poop off with his sleeve and flipped off Gabe's pet.
All this was happening while Gabe and Aaron gazed over the edge of the Tower. Aaron shrunk back a little, but Gabe went right to the edge and looked down.
"Imagine if someone fell down here! Do you think they'd survive?"
Aaron shook his head. "I doubt it. It's got to be at least fifty metres up here. You'd die from that."
Gabe grinned. "It's more than that. Based on our altitude, I'd say sixty or even seventy."
"Stop making me look stupid."
"I'm a Ravenclaw. It's my job."
Dean had finally caught Rose, and Satan squawked and flew away with Roger. The Slytherin threw his owl a handful of treats before carrying her over to the edge of the Tower and dropping her over the side. Rose cawed in surprise, then spread her wings and swooped over the other towers of Hogwarts, vanishing into the fading light.
"We should get to the Great Hall," Dean said, picking at his sleeve to make sure the rest of the bird dung was gone, "otherwise we'll be late."
The three boys hurried down the stairs and along the corridor, following the smells of food and raucous laughter. They reached the Great Hall just as the food appeared on the tables. Cecilia, who was seated at the Slytherin table already, waved at the boys and welcomed Dean over. Gabe headed off to the Ravenclaw table, while Aaron walked in the opposite direction to Hufflepuff, quickly, before all the good food was gone.
He sat next to the girl with the papers and books from earlier, and she smiled at him. She wore a prefect badge and looked around seventeen or eighteen.
"I'm Grace," the girl said in an American accent. Aaron noticed that she was wearing braces.
"Aaron Hemingway. Like the author."
"I know who you are," Grace told him, grabbing two sausages from a plate in front of her, "you're the one who came in at the start of last year. The one with the crazy Muggle dad. Don't be offended," she said quickly as Aaron's jaw tightened, "both of my parents are Muggles. My dad's so embarrassing sometimes. Parents always are."
Aaron also decided to grab a sausage. He piled his plate high with other tasty foods, too. "This your last year?" He asked Grace between mouthfuls. She grimaced. "Yeah, unfortunately. I want to work in the Ministry, but you know how they are with Muggle-borns. I'll have to do an internship for at least three or four years, if they even accept me at all."
"My dad wants me to come back to his place and study to be an engineer," Aaron explained.
"What do you want to do, though?" Grace asked. Aaron shrugged.
"Dunno. All of my friends are doing different things. Their parents have already made up their mind for them, or they've known since they were little or something. I have no idea, and my dad's not helping."
"Well, maybe you'll find a subject here that you want to take further when you leave Hogwarts," Grace reasoned, pointing at Aaron with her fork. "You seem like a smart kid. You'll do fine."
"I guess."
"You'll do fine," Grace repeated, more sternly.
By this time, dinner was nearly over, and a lot of students were getting up from their seats to talk to their friends or were fidgeting.
However, Professor Dumbledore stood from his seat, and the hall went silent, with the students quickly sitting down whatever house table they were nearest to.
"Students," he said loudly, "as you may or may not know, the Triwizard Tournament approaches. Soon, two other schools will arrive as Hogwarts to compete with us during this time."
The students chittered excitedly. Aaron saw Cedric and his friends elbowing each other and exchanging glances.
"The two schools are Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Durmstrang Institute."
The older kids whispered among themselves— clearly, they knew people from both schools and were anxious to compete against them in the Tournament. Aaron was beginning to feel nervous. He hoped none of his friends— or Cedric, for that matter— was going to actually consider entering the Tournament. In fact, he was pretty dubious that the Tournament was even a good idea. Why the headmaster of Hogwarts was offering to host it, Aaron had no clue.
I guess I'll find out in couple of weeks.