~ TWO ~

"Honestly," Nicolette groaned, throwing down her quill in frustration and massaging her temples, "You'd think that we were taking NEWTs this year instead of next!"

"Agreed," Jack said, also putting down his quill to stretch, "I don't even know if this is humanely possible to finish. I swear teachers forget that we have like six other subjects that we get homework for."

"Well," I said, biting my lip as I stopped scribbling away at my potions essay, "At least we have frees, that makes it a tiny bit better."

"Yeah, but not much," Albus snorted, "Just because you don't have anything better to do doesn't mean the rest of us are anti-social."

"Yeah, I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that, Albus Potter," I said, smiling sweetly at him and returning to my essay. I have this problem where once I get going I can't stop or I'll lose the flow of my writing and the essay will be bad.

"Where's Freema and Adeola?" Ella questioned, looking up from the book she was reading for Care of Magical Creatures.

"Probably having sex in a broom cupboard," Jack smirked. The rest of us rolled our eyes. Completely typical of Jack to say that, he'd been saying mildly suggestive things since third year and it had really only escalated from there.

"Must everything be sexual with you?" Nicolette asked exasperatedly.

"Yes Nic," he grinned, "Yes it must."

None of us were really surprised at that, it came from being around Jack for most of your life. It was only then that I realised how weird this conversation would sound out of context and sincerely hoped that Madame Pince wasn't listening from behind one of the shells, because she was going to be incredibly confused if she was.

"Well, I'd better get this done," Nicolette said grudgingly, picking up her quill again and pursing her lips as she returned to the essay she was writing, trying to make her handwriting as big as possible so that she could fill up the space that was needed. With a sigh of exasperation, Jack followed suit.

I glanced up at the clock, checking to see how much time left we had before we had to head off to classes again. There was only eight minutes left. My hand immediately increased speed as I finished the bulk of my essay and moved onto the conclusion, my eyes flicking from the textbook sat in front of me to the piece of parchment that was being written on so quickly that I wasn't even sure myself that I'd read the words on the page.

"Rose, you're going to give yourself a brain aneurysm if your eyes move any faster," Jack said with a smirk. I shot him an annoyed glare.

"No," I said, "My eyes are going to be really sore after this. What homework are you doing anyway?"

"Ancient Runes," Jack responded.

"Jack, did you even attempt the Defence Against the Dark Arts homework?" I asked, raising an eyebrow while I scribbled down a conclusion paragraph in my cramped handwriting.

"No," he said without shame, "I don't particularly like Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Jack!" I scolded, "Just because you don't like the subject doesn't mean you don't do the homework for it!"

"Yeah it does," Jack grinned, "Since when have I done homework for subjects I don't like?"

I stopped and pursed my lips, he had a point. Jack was famous for only doing what he wanted to do, which included but was not limited to; homework, writing people letters, getting out of bed in the morning and obeying teachers. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor teachers that had to put up with Jack in their classes.

"Rosie," Ella said softly, putting her book down and placing a hand on my arm, "You need to calm down. You're stressed out and you're taking it out on Jack and I'm not sure he appreciates it."

"I'm not stressed!" I said, "I just don't want any of you guys to fail your courses and it's not likely that Jack is going to pass if he hasn't done any of the homework."

"Rosie," Nic said, putting her hand on my other arm, "Just worry about yourself, we'll worry about ourselves and you can worry about yourself. You're not going to benefit from worrying about us."

I sighed, she was right. I had always cared too much about other people, worried about how they were going to pass their exams instead of how I was going to pass mine, thinking about how badly it would affect them if they didn't do their work. I was like the freaking mother hen of the group.

I opened my mouth to respond, but I was literally saved my embarrassment by the ringing of the bell. I had never been gladder to hear that bell in my whole life, "C'mon," I said to Jack and Nic, "Let's go,"

We said our goodbyes to Ella and Albus who were heading off to Divination, a subject that I had taken in third year and promptly dropped as soon as I got the chance, and met up with Adeola and Freema, who actually did look like they'd been having sex in a broom cupboard but assured us that they had just been practicing for Quidditch trials, as they made their way to Charms.

"So Jack," I muttered as we walked into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and sat down, "What's your excuse this time?"

"You'll see," Jack grinned as he pulled out his quill and exercise book, "Although I will tell you that it has something to do with the essay that we all handed in last week."

"You actually did that?" I asked, shocked,

"I needed it as ammunition for this excuse. I like to plan things ahead, see," Jack said with a wink.

"He's unbelievable," I muttered to Nic, who rolled her eyes, smiling affectionately at Jack. They had a friendship that gave so many mixed signals it was unbelievable. I rolled my eyes, biting back a sarcastic retort as the teacher, Professor Myles, walked into the room.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was by no means my best subject, in fact as far as subjects go, it's probably closer to my worst. Practical work is the worst, I hate it and unfortunately in Defence Against the Dark Arts, most of it is practical work. It's not that I don't enjoy cursing the shit out of Jack and Nic (because that's the kind of friendship that we have) It's just most of the time I'm too damn lazy to get out of my seat, that and I prefer to write.

Professor Myles was definitely not one of my favourite teachers. She was bitter, sarcastic and incredibly harsh, but it meant that she kept most of the Slytherins in check so I wasn't complaining much.

Professor Myles waved her wand and the chalk flew into the air and started to write across the board, instructing the class to take out the essays on the unforgivable curses that she had assigned us last lesson and then proceed to read and answer the questions on page five of our textbook.

I pulled the essay out of my bag and positioned it at the top of my desk, ready for Professor Myles to come around and collect it. The class was deadly silent save for the scratching of quills as people opened to page five and started to answer the questions, every single student inside was afraid of being on the receiving end of Professor Myles' wrath, except Jack, apparently.

I turned my head sideways, giving him a silent glare as he made the biggest racket in getting out his textbook, chatting nonchalantly to Corey Finnigan who was promptly ignoring him as Professor Myles' stared at Jack with a disapproving look on her face. Jack noticed this and smiled, giving her a cheeky wave as he did so. I must say I do admire his courage. He turned back to Corey and started to chide him about his relationship with Ella, which, according to Ella, hadn't progressed much.

Before I knew what was happening, Professor Myles was in front of Jack's desk, glaring down her nose at him. If Jack noticed, he showed no sign of being affected by it.

"Mister Harper," Professor Myles said, clearing her throat and Jack broke off his one sided conversation with Corey and looked up at her with a smile on his face.

"Hey Professor, what's up?" Jack asked.

"Would you like to tell me where your homework is?" she asked as she collected mine.

"Well, Professor," Jack said, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hands, "I have a very important question for you."

Professor Myles raised her eyebrows as if she was daring Jack to say another word.

"Have you marked our last essay yet?" he said with complete confidence. Professor Myles looked at him quizzically before answering slowly and calmly.

"No, Mister Harper, I have not, because believe it or not, I do have other students' homework to mark."

"Yeah?" Jack said, raising an eyebrow obnoxiously, "Well I have other teacher's homework to do.

I was one of the few people in the class that managed to stop myself from laughing. This was truly Jack's best excuse yet and it had definitely made an impression on the rest of the class as more than ninety-five percent of them completely fell apart laughing. It wasn't all that funny to be completely honest; it was probably more the fact that Jack had said it that was making people lose the almost perfect composure that they had during Professor Myles' lessons. I bit the inside of my cheek hard as I tried to continue working, but unfortunately, Nic had completely lost it and was laughing so loud, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole castle could hear her.

I stole a quick glance at Professor Myles' curious to know what her reaction was. It was safe to say that I was not expecting the smirk that had come across her face. To be honest I wasn't sure if her mouth could stretch out of its constant line.

"Well, Mister Harper, that is really quite funny," she said, smirking at Jack who was looking rather pleased with himself.

"Thank you, Professor," he grinned.

"However, it is obnoxious and frankly very rude although I don't know why I expected any less from you," she said, her mouth making its way back into its tight line and I felt slightly relived, "You will do detention in my office at seven pm, every day for the next four weeks."

"But Professor," Jack said cunningly, "If you give me detention, then I won't have time to do your homework."

"I am quite aware of that Mister Harper," Professor Myles said, "Which is why your detentions will run until nine o'clock, rather than eight, which will give you an hour to do your homework under my watchful gaze."

I looked sideways at Jack, who shrugged, giving Professor Myles a 'fair enough' look. That was one of the best things about Jack; he loved mucking up, but he knew when enough was enough and always accepted his punishment, unlike me, who argues for hours and then proceeds to sulk for a week.

Thank you father for giving me your stubborn gene; I would say that it is appreciated, but that would be lying and I don't like lying to people, because that makes me dishonest, and dishonest people you can always trust to be dishonest… okay I'm going to stop now before I make people's brains explode with confusion because that's exactly what that sentence does to me.

Looking up furtively I glanced at Professor Myles, who was writing out Jack's detention slip before proceeding to nudge Jack. He looked up at me, surprised that I was stopping my work to talk to him in Professor Myles' lesson of all places.

"What?" he mouthed.

"That was a good one," I whispered back, smiling slightly, "You even got her to prove that she has mouth muscles."

"Rose, she's married, of course she has mouth muscles," Jack whispered. I hit him.

"Not the time," I whispered to him, "Seriously not the time."

I picked up my quill and resumed the scribbling of my notes just in the nick of time, because surely if Professor Myles' had caught us talking, she would've had my head and Jack's, and I'm a prefect!

I bit my lip as I felt Professor Myles' eyes burning into the back of my head, as if daring Jack to try to speak to me. He didn't, although I could feel him staring back at her defiantly. Sometimes I wondered about him, he was brilliant at school, but never did any work, he was rude to the teachers but the only teacher that ever gave him detention was Professor Myles. He was gay and straight, short but tall. He was a complete contradiction of himself. I stopped myself in mid thought, I'd tried to figure out Jack before, and all I'd succeeded in doing was giving myself a headache.

I forced myself to concentrate on my work, but found that no matter how hard and fast I scribbled down the words, nothing went into my brain and stuck there. I had absolutely no idea why. I'd been using the same work ethic since first year and it had always made me able to remember everything we learned in class. What was so different now?

I slowed the scratching of my quill and turned my attention to the room around me. Jack wasn't doing his work, as per usual, Nic was scratching her quill in the same rhythm that she always did. Professor Myles was overseeing the class as usual and everyone else was working. Everything was exactly the same as before, so why can't I bloody concentrate!?

I lifted my eyes off of my work for one second, just to scan the room. That's when I noticed it; the fact that there was no kicking of my chair. Glancing quickly at the front of the classroom, I made sure that Professor Myles was still writing down the theory work for us to copy down (she was) and glanced quickly behind me and my suspicions were confirmed.

Scorpius Malfoy was not there.

Malfoy sat behind me in almost every class purely so he could annoy the crap out of me by kicking my chair. He had done it so often that it had become a part of the way that I concentrated during class, the things that happen when you're in the same class of people for six freaking years are seriously beyond me.

I seriously never thought that I would say this, but I actually miss Malfoy tapping his foot against the leg of my chair for the entire lesson. It was nice not to have it, but I had become so used to it that not having it seemed weird.

I finished copying down the work on the board without having a single clue what it was about just as Professor Myles started to write up instructions for us for the practical part of the lesson. I bit back a groan. I hate practical so freaking much.

I bumped Jack's arm and motioned to the board, to myself, Nic and then to him. He nodded with a grin and I knew he was seriously looking forward to hitting us with the impediment jinx. My cousin Dominique had taught me the impediment jinx when I was eleven years old so that I could stop Malfoy in his tracks if he tried to bother me, thankfully I'd always been too scared to use it.

Part of me wondered where Malfoy was today, the other part of me didn't care at all and a very small part of me missed his presence. I had the other two beat it up quite severely.

"Alright," Professor Myles said, "Break into groups of three and practise the impediment jinx on each other. The third person will be there to catch you if you fall."

As soon as Professor Myles waved her hand to tell us that it was okay to move, the chatter broke out across the classroom, most people were discussing the first Hogsmeade weekend which was next Saturday or talking about their summer holidays.

"Jack Harper, you're a fucking genius," Nicolette said, walking over to Jack and throwing her arms around him, "That was honestly the best thing ever."

"I take pride in that one," Jack grinned, breaking away from the hug and shoving Nicolette across to an open space where we could practise our spells.

"Even I have to admit, that is pretty damn good," I said, "You're getting better at excuses Jackery."

Jack snorted, "And your nicknames for me are getting worse Ro."

I wrinkled my nose at the awful nickname that Jack had come up with during our second year, "You're horrible."

"You love me," Jack said.

"No," I said obnoxiously, "You love me."

"Sure do," Jack said with an increasingly perverted wink, "You're a hot piece of arse."

I gave him a deadpan look, "You're gay, Jack."

"Bisexual," Jack corrected.

"Same thing," I said with a shrug.

"Not really," Jack said with a thoughtful look, "Bisexual is the ability to stick your hand down someone's pants and be satisfied with what you find."

"JACK!" I shouted as Nicolette completely broke down with laughter. Jack just winked at me.

"You are the most perverted person that I know," I said, hiding my face in my hands, "We should start calling you Captain Innuendo."

"I will accept that title graciously," Jack said again with a wink, taking out his wand and pointing it at me, "Okay Ro-Ro, on the floor, I'm going to hit you with all I've got."

"Not If I get you first," I said, taking out my wand and muttering impedimenta under my breath. A jet of red light shot out of my wand and hit Jack square in the chest. He froze in place and then toppled backwards, hitting his head on a desk.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, realising that I had probably shot the spell at him a tiny bit too early.

"Rose you're an idiot," Nicolette said as she crouched down beside Jack and muttered the counter curse, "You okay Jack?"

"You suck at catching," Jack grumbled, putting a hand to the back of his head and rubbing it furiously.

"That one was Rose's fault believe it or not," Nic said, shaking her head at me. I punched her.

"Violence is never the answer Ro-Ro," Jack said philosophically, pulling his hand away from his head and accepting Nicolette's hand to get up off the ground. Nicolette let go of his hand almost immediately, letting him thump about two inches back onto the ground.

"Damnit Nic, what's wrong with you?" Jack said as he rubbed his tail bone which I was sure was going to kill in the morning.

"Jack, your hand is covered in blood," Nicolette said. Jack and I both looked down at Jack's hand. Sure enough, it was glistening with scarlet blood.

"Well shit," Jack said, looking down at it, "Hospital wing for me then?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, nodding fervently, "Come on."

"Professor," Nicolette called out across the classroom to Professor Myles who was correcting Corey Finnigan's technique, "We're just taking Jack to the hospital wing."

Professor Myles nodded and the three of us walked out. By sixth year, we had finally got it into our heads that we could leave the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom without permission to take someone to the hospital wing. Not a lesson went by that someone didn't have to go. Professor Myles didn't even care when we walked out of the room unannounced during practical any more, she knew that people wouldn't leave unless they were hurt, the students at Hogwarts were already scared shitless of her.

"il y a du soleil," Nicolette remarked as we walked past a window on the third floor.

"How many times, Nic, we don't speak French," Jack grumbled, "English please."

Nicolette rolled her eyes, "I said, it's sunny."

"Yeah," I said, "For the first and last time in history."

"My head hurts," Jack mumbled.

"Oh no shit Sherlock," I said, standing on tiptoe to get a look at the wound. I was surprised at the size of it, "Okay Jack it's quite big," I said, taking off my scarf and pressing it to the back of his head.

"Hold that in place until we can get you to the hospital wing."

"You're so mean Ro-Ro," Jack whined, pressing the scarf into his head, soaking it in scarlet blood, "If you hadn't shot that curse at me I wouldn't have this massive cut."

I sighed, rolling my eyes. It was always my fault when it came to Jack hurting himself. I hauled his free arm around my shoulder and helped him walk towards the hospital wing. Ah well, at least there was sunshine to brighten my mood.

AN: I swear there is a freaking pattern with my multichaps. I upload a chapter, and then four months later I upload the second chapter and it kicks off from there. It has happened with every multichap I've ever written.

Short authors note this time because I'm going to see Beautiful Creatures in fifteen minutes.

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd love it if you could tell me in a review :)

DFTBA,
Best Wishes

~The Original Horcrux~