Chapter 6

Paige had taken a shower, and cleaned up, but was now sitting on her bed idly. Soon her thoughts wandered to the image of James earlier that morning half-naked and wet from his shower.

Shaking her head in disgust, she picked up her books and headed down to the common room.

When she got there though, she was surprised to see James, sitting in front of the fire, working intently on something. She was about to sit down at another table, but then decided to go sit next to him instead, He did save your life after all, the least you could do is sit next to him.

Clearing her throat, she asked, "Um do you mind if I sit here?"

Looking up, James flashed her a swoon-worthy smile and nodded, then went back to work. Happily surprised by his lack of conversation, Paige plopped down onto the worn out arm chair, and went to work.

For an hour they sat in silence, both were working on their holiday homework. Then Paige started her Astronomy chart. It was the one class that she absolutely hated; she would have rather taken divination in its place.

Abruptly James looked up. "Having trouble there? Anything I can help with?" he asked in a smug tone.

Paige looked up, taken aback by his awareness of her struggling. "Um…no, I'm fine, thanks."

"Really? Because you're sighing every five seconds, and your eyebrows are knitted so close together, it looks as if you have a unibrow." He said with a chuckle.

Pursing her lips in annoyance, she replied flatly, "You don't take Astronomy, anyways." He leaned over and snatched her book and chart away before she could protest and replied, "But I did."

"You did?"

"Mmmhhhmmm, why do you think Fred and I would come in so late every Friday night last year?" He explained while scrutinizing her chart.

Paige hadn't really thought about it, she had just assumed they had been doing something stupid. "What marks did you get?" She couldn't help herself she had to ask.

Giving her a smug smile he answered, " I finished with an O." Before going back to work on her chart. Paige's eyebrows shot up, that was even better than what she had finished with last year. Without even looking up from her chart he complained in mock hurt, "You don't have to look so surprised."

Blushing she mumbled, "I didn't." He just laughed in response, which made her blush even more. After a couple more minutes of examining her chart, he whistled really low, and leaned back into the couch.

"Is it really that bad?" She asked glumly.

"It's bloody awful! But tomorrow night we can go to the astronomy tower and fix it."

"Oh ok, but why not tonight?" She would've like to get it over with tonight.

"Well it's Christmas Eve and Santa won't come if you're awake." He said sarcastically, then continued more seriously, "And it's going to be cloudy from the looks of it." Paige looked out the window and could see the heavy storm in the distance.

"So how's your ankle?" He asked dragging her away from her thoughts.

"Um, it throbs sometimes, and I look like a gimp when I walk, but other than that it's fine." She tried giving a weak smile as reassurance, but it came out as a grimace.

"That must've been one ugly piece of ice you hit it on. But when you fell back under, it helped me keep track of you." Paige shivered she hadn't realized that she had fallen back in.

"Um, actually I did that to myself." She admitted sheepishly.

"How the bloody hell did you do that to yourself?" He asked in amazement.

Blushing even more so now, Paige explained, "When I fell in, my skates were so heavy that they were making me sink, so I had to get them off. But my left one was still really tight after it was unlaced. And I was so panicked, that I used my right skate to kick it off, but I ended up taking a good whack at myself before I was successful."

James just stared at her in amazement, before saying, "Wow…. that is really…" but he trailed off.

"Stupid, dimwitted, pathetic." She finished for him. He just let out a bark of laughter. She had to chuckle a little as well at herself, because it had been really dumb. But once they stopped, Paige asked how he'd found her.

"Well I was done training, and when I was walking back I saw that you were still ice-skating, so I was watching you do that last jump…"he paused. It was his turn to blush, " That's when I saw you fall in, but when I got there, you had gotten out, but you were unconscious, and bleeding so much. Then the ice gave out beneath you again, and as you can guess I jumped in after you, then flew you back to the hospital wing." Paige stared at him for a moment, making him shift uncomfortably, but then she whispered, "James, you don't know how grateful I am to you. I don't know how I'll ever repay you." He gave her a weak smile and half-joked, "You could put in a good word for me to Rose."

He then got up and started gathering all his stuff, "Well I'm going to dinner, care to join me?" He asked politely. Paige shook her head, "Thanks, but I'm not all that hungry. Happy Christmas!"

Shooting her a dazzling smile and a "Happy Christmas!" Then walked back up to his room to drop off his stuff. She trailed behind him, but closed the door behind her when she got to her room. Flopping onto her bed, Paige realized that, that was the longest and most civil conversation she had ever had with James Potter.