Chapter One: Tessa is a Colossal Klutz
POV: Tessa
Playlist: Collide - Howie Day
"She fell down the stairs,"
"Don't be dramatic, James, it was just the last few steps,"
"Or flights."
I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, hoping they wouldn't realize I was awake; I knew exactly where I was. The smell was unmistakable. I'd know the healing potions that polluted the oxygen in the Hospital Wing anywhere. And the voices? Those belonged to my next door neighbor, James Potter; his best mate, Sirius Black, and my best friend since second year, Lily Evans.
I didn't want to face the humiliation. This had happened at least once a month for the past six years. Sometimes more. I would trip over my own feet, and somehow hit my head, or twist my wrist, or break my leg, or even cut my lip open, and every single time I would get some sort of ridicule from my so-called-friends. After the first few times it became somewhat humorous to them.
"Looks like a pretty bad bump on her head, I think we might have to amputate," The voice of Madam Pomfrey, the school Healer, sighed.
There was a sharp pain on my head, just above my right eyebrow. I could tell she was poking me.
"Hey, quit it," I exclaimed, my eyes snapping open. I slapped her hand away from my head. "You can't amputate my face!"
"I thought you were awake," Madam Pomfrey smirked. She pulled a potion off the tray that was set up on the bedside table. She wet a cotton-ball with the blue liquid and started to dab it on my head as I gave her the deadliest glare I could muster up.
"You should have seen it, Tess," James grinned enthusiastically, sitting on the foot of the bed. "It was a brilliant fall. Award worthy, really. Best one yet."
I rolled my eyes. "Ouch," I groaned, glaring harder at Madam Pomfrey. This was the worst a head injury potion had felt, and trust me – I had a lot of head injuries in my time. "Be careful, I'm delicate."
"It was quite funny, Tessa," Lily admitted. I could tell she was trying to lighten the mood without making me mad. Normally, I loved to hear about my epic falls, but my head hurt almost too much to be amused by injury. "It was a train reaction. We were on our way to potions and James and Sirius were walking in front of us. Whatever they were talking about made James drop his books, and when he bent over to pick them up, you tried to walk around him and ended up twisting your feet in the middle of your maneuver. You almost recovered, but you recovered right into the trick step and it made you trip and then you fell the rest of the way down the stairs."
"I think you even did a few somersaults," James laughed. "And broke the fall with your head."
I turned my face to sneer at him, but Madam Pomfrey snapped my head back, continuing to dab the awful potion on my head. I could almost feel the bump going down.
"Sirius carried you all the way here," Lily explained, slapping the back of James's head. "He didn't even wait to see if you were okay or not. He just picked you up and started back up the stairs."
"It looked pretty bad, so I figured it was another one of your 'accidents'," Sirius smirked. He was a little more somber about the situation than Lily and James. "I didn't want to leave you there on the off chance that you'd get up and go to Potions and pass out in the Shrinking Solution because of a concussion."
"Thank you for that," I snorted sarcastically. I looked at Madam Pomfrey hopefully as she turned away from my head, which felt slightly better, but still hurt. "What's the prognosis? A week of bed rest? A month? Am I terminal? Am I going to make it to my eighteenth birthday?"
"Our eighteenth birthday," James interjected.
He had taken pleasure ever since the day I had moved in next door when we were six to point out whenever he could that he was two hours and twenty-two minutes older than I was.
I ignored him, as did everyone else.
"You're going to have a black eye for a week or two, but unless something drastic happens, like falling off the astronomy tower, or contracting some incurable Muggle disease, you'll make it to your eighteenth birthday, and you'll be well enough to go back to classes tomorrow," Madam Pomfrey said, handing me my school bag. It must have been brought up by Lily or James after my fall. "But just to be safe, take the telescope the farthest away from the edge of the tower."
I snarled, snatching up my bag and standing from the bed. It would be just my luck that I'd nearly die and have to attend a full load of classes the next day. It was only October and I was already failing miserably. Even with the help of Lily, I had never been the best student. I tried my hardest and only came out the other end merely average- at best. Except for in charms, of course, because it was more wand work than book work.
"Here, let me carry that for you, Tess," Sirius barely muttered as he took my bag off of my shoulder. I felt guilty. He was already carrying his full load of books as well.
Lily and James didn't seem to notice. They were still in the beginning, lovey-dovey, affectionate stage of their relationship. I didn't like it. I was used to not being around James and Sirius much during the school year (outside of Quidditch, of course) because Lily and I had an undying hate towards them and their lack of maturity. During the summer holiday, however, because I lived next door to James Potter, I saw their goofy faces pretty much everyday. I had nothing better to do. To have summer friends and school friends combined into one large group of fun was a foreign concept to me, and I wasn't so sure if it was really the best idea; Lily and James were paying more attention to each other than they were to me.
"You know, I could tell James a Hippogriff swallowed his broomstick right now and he wouldn't care," Sirius laughed, shifting my book bag from one shoulder to the other. I tried to reach out and take it, but he slapped my hand away in the same manner I had slapped Madame Pomfrey's. "It's nice to see that Evans is finally showing him some affection back."
"Yeah, I guess," I sneered, turning to him. "I don't like it."
"Me either," Sirius smirked. I thought he was looking me in the eye for a split second until his grin grew bigger.
"What?" I groaned, my hand flying self-consciously up to my face. Was something hanging out of my nose? It would be just like Sirius to laugh at my misfortune when I was already having a bad day.
"Your eye is the blackest one I've ever seen," He stifled a laugh. "I haven't seen a black eye that bad even in professional Quidditch matches. That floor certainly did a number on you."
"I blame you," I huffed, staring pointedly at the back of James and Lily's heads as we made our way up the staircases to the Gryffindor common room. I really should have been watching my feet.
"Me?" Sirius looked taken aback. "I wasn't the one that dropped the book."
"No, you're not," I agreed. "But you are the one that put that ruddy enchantment on that step down to the dungeons in an attempt to prank Slytherins. An enchantment that can't be reversed – even by Flitwick."
"It's just a small price that everyone has to pay for my entertainment," He grinned as we came to a halt in front of the portrait of the fat lady.
James muttered the password and the portrait swung open for us to enter. We did so, and in the process, because I wasn't watching my feet, one of them was caught on the single step up there was and I tripped forward, knocking into Lily and James.
Lily rounded on me. "Do you mind?" She bit harshly, placing her arm protectively around James's waist. "We are having a conversation."
"Sorry," I said quickly, as innocently as I could. "I tripped."
"You would, Tessa," James laughed, leading Lily across the common room. "You would."
I took a deep breath to huff at him. I figure that my frustration must have been too powerful because when I huffed I felt faint and literally swooned. If it had not been for Sirius standing next to me, I might have fainted fully and hit the ground, but as it was I opened my eyes to see a quizzical Sirius staring back down at me.
"Was that a real faint or are you just trying to be funny?" His eyes were slightly amused yet concerned as he looked down at me.
I felt weak, and tired, and embarrassed all at the same time, but I didn't want to let Sirius know that so I stepped up straight again, and his arms fell to his side.
"Dramatic affect, Sirius," I fake-smirked. I found my way to my favorite love-seat across the common room and sat down next to the fire. Sirius sat in the armchair diagonal to me, throwing our bags down.
"You fell," He told me.
"I know. I was there. It happens all the time. Don't ridicule me."
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" He asked. "We do have Quidditch practice tonight, you know."
"Yes, I know, I booked the field," I glared. "Can you stop acting like my mother now? I'm getting bored."
"I'm sorry, I'm just worried," Sirius said innocently, leaning back into his chair. "I mean, you fell down a whole flight of stairs practically, and nearly fainted. It would be okay if you missed one Quidditch practice due to injury. You do have the power to cancel."
I rolled my eyes, but didn't press the matter further. I had learned the hard way that Sirius was very hard to win against in a debate. The only way to get him to stop arguing about a topic was to just stop talking back to him.
We sat in silence for a few moments. It took a minute for me to realize that we were the only ones in the common room, besides Lily and James, who seemed to be having a very intense staring contest. Everyone else was in class. I was getting tired and was beginning to wonder if I should go take a nap before Quidditch practice when the portrait hole swung open and a crowd walked in. Class must have been over for the day.
"Where were you guys? You missed an important lecture!" Remus Lupin exclaimed, tossing his things down before he crashed in the chair next to Sirius. He looked about as worn out as I felt. "There is no way I'm going to let you lot copy my notes!"
"Tessa had one of her colossally klutzy episodes and fell down the stairs," Sirius explained.
"Just the last few steps," I grumbled, folding my arms across my chest at Sirius's comment. I had heard enough of his voice for one day.
Sirius grinned. "Or flights."
