Darkness Calling: Chapter 10

The next day proved to be pretty uncomfortable. I had to deal with the aftermath of my outburst from the night before and I had my first defense lesson with Professor Snape. I had heard some pretty harsh things about him, but most people said that if you were a Slytherin he was more likely to be indifferent to you than being outright nasty.

His way of testing my knowledge consisted of a physical examination of my skills. He would ask me to do certain spells and he would randomly fire curses at me to see if I knew how to block them. On numerous occasions I ended up on my ass. It seemed that I had a lot to learn in the defense category and he didn't fail to point that fact out to me. Needless to say, by the end of my lesson, I was physically and mentally exhausted and more than ready for my lunch period.

When I arrived in the Great Hall, my normal crew was nowhere to be found, but Ginny was sitting at the Gryffindor table alone, so I headed to where she was sitting. "Hey. You mind if I eat with you?"

She looked up to see who was talking and smiled. "Sure. You have a weird lunch hour, too?"

"No, I just kinda get to choose when I go to lunch and I am absolutely starving right now."

"Oh, yeah? How come?"

"I'm not taking many classes and I have a pretty big break right now." I sat down across from her and loaded up a plate with sandwiches and a salad. Ginny was reading out of a thick book and taking a bite of food sporadically.

"I'm sorry I'm being anti-social. I just have to get this read before practice tonight." She nodded towards her textbook.

"Quidditch?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Harry scheduled our first practice for tonight. It's not really a practice; basically just a meeting for the senior teammates before tryouts."

"Harry is your team captain, then?"

"Yeah." She looked up at me with a questioning look. "You sure you aren't a spy?"

"No. I promise I am not a spy." I rolled my eyes for her to see and laughed. "I don't play quidditch."

"Then why were you flying the other day?" She closed her book and sighed.

"I just enjoy flying and I needed to blow off some steam. My dad played, though." When I thought about it, I realized I didn't know what position my father played. Luckily, she didn't ask and I was spared that small embarrassment.

"I told the trio to lay off of you, by the way." She was judging my facial expressions, searching for my reaction.

I looked down at my plate. "You didn't need to do that." I wasn't comfortable with accepting help from someone, especially one of my peers.

"Well, I did it anyway." She brushed off my reply. "And they said they would… Well at least Hermione and Harry said they would. Ron is still being an idiot, but that isn't new."

"What did Hermione say?" My question slipped out of my mouth before I thought about who I was talking to.

"Come to think of it, she looked pretty embarrassed. What is it with you two, anyway?" I knew I would regret saying something.

"Nothing. Why?" My answer was too quick. It even sounded suspicious to me.

She was watching me and I felt like I was a piece of glass that she was looking right through. I felt my ears get hot and I knew they were turning red. I knew I should have left my hair down today. Understanding donned on her face and for a second I thought she would be angry with me.

"Hey-" I looked up to meet her gaze. "I won't say anything… But, can I ask you a question?" I didn't give her an answer but, she took my silence as a "yes."

She lowered her voice to make sure no one would overhear us. "If you like Hermione, then why are you messing around with the blonde?"

"Sabrina, you mean?" She nodded. "I don't know. She and I aren't serious. It's just a good time, you know?"

"Well, I know Hermione and she isn't going to go for someone who sleeps around."

My jaw literally dropped. When I realized what I was doing I shut my mouth with a snap and asked the question that was burning to escape. "What makes you think she would go for me, anyway? Is she… Is she gay?"

"Well I don't think she is gay, but she hasn't ever said she wouldn't be interested. I know for a fact that she has experimented with a girl before." Her tone was so matter-of-fact that I had an idea exactly who Hermione had "experimented" with.

"Who?" I asked incredulously.

"Me." Nothing in her voice said that she was pulling my leg, even though I was having a hard time believing her.

"Can I ask how that came up?" I knew I was getting dangerously close to too personal.

Ginny didn't seem to mind though. "She wanted to learn how to kiss and she knew that I wouldn't say anything to anyone." My jaw dropped again. "Don't tell her I'm saying any of this to you."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked her with a look on my face that suggested that I had been Confunded.

"Because I can tell that you actually like her and if there is a chance for my best friend to be happy, then I want her to have that." She was saying all of this as if we were talking about what to have for dinner instead of whether or not Hermione Granger would go for a girl. She looked at her watch. "Listen, I have to get to my next class. Think about what I said." With that she packed up her book and walked out of the Great Hall, leaving me to ponder our recent conversation.

I still had some time before I was scheduled to meet with Madam Pomfrey, so I decided to take a walk around the grounds. When I reached the edge of the lake, I saw a black spot in the sky that was getting bigger. When it was close enough, I could tell that it was an owl. Not just any owl, but the owl that I had sent to my aunt. It landed on my arm and stuck out its leg. I detached the rolled up letter and the owl waited for me to respond to it. "You can go. Thank you." It flew off in the direction of the owlery. I sat down at the edge of the lake and unrolled the letter.

Jayleigh,

I am so glad that you are making friends, but I wasn't worried about you. Who exactly did you make an enemy of? Please be careful. Now is not a very good time to be making enemies. I hope your private lessons go well. I'm sure they will. Your father called yesterday to ask if you had made it to school. I told him everything went fine and that you were going to write to me soon. He told me to pass on his love and that he misses you. He also wanted me to tell you that your Jeep was ready and asked whether or not you wanted him to have it shipped over. I think he is assuming that you don't plan on going back to the States anytime soon. Write back when you can.

All my love,

Addi

I was excited about my Jeep being ready. It was something that I had been tinkering with for a couple years in my free time. I managed to get it to run magically rather than on gas, but there were a few problems that I wasn't qualified to fix myself. Don't get me wrong; travelling by apparition is quick and efficient, but I liked to take my time and actually see where I was going – hence the broom and the truck. It shocked me that dad was asking if I wanted it to be here. I would have to think about whether or not I wanted my Wrangler here. It really depended on what my plans were for after school.

It was five minutes until one o'clock, which was when I needed to meet Madam Pomfrey, so I put the letter in my bag and headed for the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was waiting for me and she didn't waste any time at all. She started off with asking me questions about what I knew of the health field and also why I was interested. When she was satisfied with my answers, she began showing me around the hospital wing. It was pretty simple; there was the main room with all of the open beds, a back room where private examinations could be performed, a storeroom, and of course Madam Pomfrey's living quarters. She left me to familiarize myself with all of the different medical supplies and what they were used for.

It was two hours later before I was confident that I knew the storeroom backwards and forwards. I told Madam Pomfrey that I was leaving and she waved me off. I had been so caught up my task that I hadn't given much thought to the conversation that I had with Ginny, but as soon as my mind was no longer occupied, thoughts of a certain brunette came to the forefront of my conscience.

I was so confused with my situation. On one hand, Hermione had given me no indication that she was even remotely interested and on the other, Ginny was telling me that I should go for it. I knew I needed to decide on what I wanted because there was more to the situation than just myself. I didn't think Sabrina would be offended if I broke it off with her, but I didn't really want to. Things were easy and fun with her; no strings attached. But, I knew that it wasn't going anywhere. I just didn't have romantic feelings for Sabrina, but Hermione was a different story entirely.

Even though I didn't know Hermione very well, there was just something about her that drew me in. I had no doubt in my mind that if she gave me a chance, I would do anything to be with her. Even through all of my confusion, I knew what I needed to do first. I had to show Hermione that I wasn't the person that she thought I was. However, I had no intention of breaking it off with Sabrina, yet. Ginny just said that Hermione wouldn't go for someone who sleeps around. Well, in my opinion that means sleeping with multiple people; not just one.

I still had time before dinner, so I decided to check out the library. Addi warned me that if I wasn't careful, the Hogwarts library would suck me in and I would never be able to surface again; such is the life of a book worm. When I walked in, I realized that she hadn't been kidding. There had to be hundreds of thousands of books of all different kinds. Instead of asking the librarian for anything, I decided to explore on my own. Eventually I checked out a book on advanced Transfiguration. I found a corner chair to curl up in and got lost in the large tome.

I flipped through its pages and stopped on the chapter about animagi. I had heard about witches and wizards who could transform themselves into animals, but had not actually met one. The chapter went into detail about the history behind the magic and even gave a description on how it was done. It was extremely advanced magic and dangerous as well. I read that the Ministry of Magic required all animagi to be registered and was interested to see a list of the said registered animagi printed in the book. I was shocked when three quarters down the surprisingly short list I saw the name Minerva McGonagall. I was determined the next time I saw Professor McGonagall to ask her about it. If she could teach me how to do it, then that was definitely something I wanted to learn from her.

Some time later, the dinner bell rang and I made my way to the Great Hall. I sat at the Slytherin table with my usual group and listened to them all complaining about the amount of homework they had been assigned. They asked me about my day and I purposefully didn't tell them about having lunch with Ginny. I just wasn't sure how they would respond to that fact, just yet.

After dinner, we all went to the common room and crowded around a large desk. Sabrina, Jacobi, and Steph were all getting started on their Defense essay and I continued to read my Transfiguration text. It hadn't seemed like a very long time before Jacobi muttered something about it being two o'clock in the morning and shuffled off to bed. We all followed suit and headed for our own rooms. Sabrina didn't ask to come to my room and I didn't offer. I think it was more so that we were exhausted than anything else, but I didn't mind. I didn't even bother with putting on pajamas and just slept in my undies. In no time at all, I was sound asleep and I didn't notice the house elf that came in and left an envelope on my bedside table.