Chapter 10
"Bloody OWLs," Vivienne cursed. It seemed that she made a point to use that phrase at least five or six times a day; with increasing intensity as the exams themselves got closer. She and Narcissa slid into their usual seats in Potions, Freya just one seat behind them. "I bet Slughorn will give a lecture about how time is ticking away and we need to get serious about our studies. Just watch."
Proving Vivienne's prediction true, Professor Slughorn did indeed start off the class with what he considered to be a motivating speech for the students. Vivienne smiled smugly to herself as Slughorn ranted on about how important these exams were, and how they would most certainly regret not taking them seriously enough.
"All right! Now, we're going to start off with the Draught of Peace today!" Professor Slughorn boomed happily. "This is a very commonly asked potion for your OWLs, especially considering it's high difficulty level. I want everybody's full concentration; that means no chattering with your friends. I'd like to split you all up today..."
Vivienne waited patiently as Slughorn split up the groups of people who were the most likely to be distracted by their friends. Vivienne was sent all the way to the back, where she sat beside Regulus Black. She almost wanted to laugh in Slughorn's face. Sitting beside Regulus is supposed to help me concentrate? Brilliant idea, Sluggy.
It had been over a month since Vivienne had kissed Regulus' cheek on the day of the Quidditch match against Gryffindor. They hadn't spoken much since then. Studies were getting more and more difficult and Vivienne found that she barely had time for anything else. She flopped into her seat lazily and shot Regulus a sweet smile. He only raised his eyebrows in return as he began gathering ingredients.
Vivienne gathered everything she needed as well, before skimming over the instructions. Add powdered moonstone until potion turns green. Well, that seemed simple enough. She grabbed a large stone and used it to smash against the moonstone, slowly reducing it to powder. It was a slow process, though, and her repeated hitting of the rock made a resounding noise. It wasn't until her arm started to hurt and she paused in her banging that she realized all her neighbors were giving her odd looks. She froze, the stone still in her hand. "What?"
"What are you doing?" Regulus asked her incredulously. His moonstone was all powdered and sat neatly in a bowl on his table. Vivienne frowned.
"I'm powdering my moonstone. Or is there already powdered moonstone in the ingredients cupboard? Hold on, I'll check-" she began, but Regulus cut her off.
"There isn't. You use your wand," he told her shortly. The expression on his face when he saw the mess she'd made on her table was a mixture of amusement and disgust. "Are you a even a witch?" He jabbed his wand at her moonstone and it gently crumbled to powder. Vivienne watched it in fascination.
"Oh. Wow. Thank you," she replied, only to see that he was rolling his eyes. She frowned at him. "No need for those condescending looks. We're all here to learn."
"Some more than others," he muttered to himself, but there was a hint of a smile on his face. Vivienne grinned and pulled the Potions book towards her so that she could read more of the instructions. She stirred and added more moonstone until her potion turned a purplish pink. It was meant to be just pink, but Vivienne decided that it was close enough. She turned the page. "Powdered porcupine quills..." she mumbled to herself. She was meant to shake them vigorously or something of the sort.
Glancing to her right, she noticed that Regulus was struggling with the porcupine quills. Well, if he couldn't do it, there was no chance that she could. She put on the sweetest smile she could muster and raised her hand. "Professor Slughorn?"
Slughorn came bouncing over, and smiled at Vivienne, before leaning over to inspect her potion. "Ah, not bad, Miss Rosier," he complimented. "Though perhaps it's not exactly the right shade, but of course, this is a very difficult potion. You're doing excellently for your first try."
Regulus stopped shaking his porcupine quills and watched the exchange between Vivienne and Slughorn. His potion was exactly the right shade, but Slughorn had merely given it a passing glance. He shook his head quickly. He wasn't honestly jealous of Rosier, was he? The idea was absurd.
Vivienne was shaking her head sadly. "I don't know, Professor. I've been trying so hard, but I can't point my finger at what went wrong. And you did say that this was one of the most important potions for the OWLs. I want to do well, I'm so afraid that I'll disappoint you and Father."
Professor Slughorn smiled down at the girl, who looked sad enough to break anyone's heart. He patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Don't you worry about that; you'll do brilliantly. Now; let's start on those porcupine quills. It's quite simple, as you can see..."
Regulus' mouth dropped open as Professor Slughorn took Vivienne's porcupine quills and powdered and shook them for her. Regulus had been struggling with it for over fifteen minutes and all Vivienne had to do was raise her hand and put on a sad face to get the work done for her! He watched in silence as Slughorn happily chatted with Vivienne and shook her quills. Once he was done, Vivienne dropped another line or two about not wanting to disappoint him and he smiled at her warmly before moving on.
"You cheated!" Regulus blurted out, once Slughorn had left. He couldn't hold in the anger of having worked so hard to do something, while this girl had managed to get the teacher to do it for her. "You're supposed to do it yourself, everyone else is!"
Vivienne raised an eyebrow at him coolly. "I didn't see Slughorn complaining. What's your problem?"
"My problem is that you only had to bat your eyelashes at him, and he did all the work for you," Regulus muttered. "Perhaps you can do it now, but you'll be in a rather tight spot during your OWLs when the examiner doesn't buy your little act."
Vivienne sighed, and turned completely to face Regulus. Her eyebrows were raised. "All right, Black. Allow me to put it this way. We were supposed to shake the powdered porcupine quills. You took all the efforts and did yours yourself. I got somebody else to do it for me, but ultimately, we both ended up with the same bloody quills. All your self-righteousness didn't quite get you anything; your quills are no better than mine. So we each used our own talents and completed the task. I don't see what you're whining about."
Regulus frowned at her, but Vivienne simply smiled sweetly at him, and turned away to add her quills to the potions, humming some irritating song under her breath.
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Rabastan Lestrange sat in the library that evening, poring over his homework. He'd fallen quite behind, especially since Quidditch had been taking up a lot of his time. He finished one of his essays, rolled up the parchment and shoved it aside before looking up.
Freya was sitting beside him, her head buried in a book as her blonde hair fell over one shoulder. It had taken Rabastan a little while, but he found that the more he teased her, the less she blushed in his presence. It had been a few weeks since they'd gone on a date in Hogsmeade; and Rabastan found that there was something about this shy girl that he liked. Perhaps it was the way her cheeks instantly flared up whenever he complimented her, or the way her blue eyes widened in admiration whenever he said something. Freya seemed to find everything he did wonderful, and Rabastan enjoyed being with her. It was nice, sometimes, to be admired in a quiet way. "Finished studying for your test tomorrow?" he asked her.
Freya jerked her head up, as if she was pulled out of a trance. She nodded, smiling at him. "Almost. There's just this last paragraph in Transfiguration and I can't find all the side-effects of the spell..."
Rabastan turned the book towards him, their hands brushing lightly as he did so. Freya almost pulled her hand away in embarrassment, but she froze when Rabastan placed his hand on top of it, preventing her from moving it. He was smiling. "Why are you so jumpy?"
"I'm not," she reassured him. The feeling of his warm hand on top of hers felt nice. Even though they'd been on a date and he often asked her to go on walks with him, he'd never attempted to touch her in any way that implied they were more than friends. Freya took a deep breath as Rabastan glanced at the page she was reading.
"Oh, I remember this!" he said, smiling. "Professor McGonagall told us the side-effects last year. Dry skin and possible rashes, though the rashes vary from person to person. It's not given in the textbook."
Freya looked up at him, impressed. "Really? I must have missed that in class. That's odd, I swear I've been taking notes whenever she talks about these spells..." She shrugged and scribbled down the answer in the margin of her textbook, before closing it. "Thanks so much, Rabastan. It's really sweet of you to help me study."
Rabastan smiled. "Honestly, it's not a problem. I have Quidditch in a few minutes now, though, so I should get going. Walk down to the pitch with me?"
Freya nodded. "Of course. Give me a moment to gather all my things."
Freya put all her books away, and then shyly took the hand that Rabastan offered her so that they could walk out of the library together. He'd found her worrying over her OWLs one evening, and ranting about the fact that neither Narcissa nor Vivienne were good study partners. Narcissa preferred to study on her own and Vivienne preferred not to study at all. So Rabastan had offered to help her out whenever he could. His OWL results were nothing extraordinary, and half the time he didn't know the answers to the questions she asked him. But it was still extremely sweet of him to offer.
"Do you have any plans for the next Hogsmeade weekend?" Freya asked hesitantly, as they walked. Whenever she and Rabastan spent time with each other, it was always initiated by him. He was the one who always asked her to go on walks or to study. When Freya had mentioned this to Vivienne, she'd gotten a good scolding. You don't want him to lose interest, do you? Her friend had asked. Show him that you enjoy spending time with him!
Rabastan smiled down at her. "Why, Freya, are you asking me on a date?"
Freya blushed, and she saw that Rabastan was smiling down at her teasingly. The more you blush, the more I make fun of you, he'd told her once, quite seriously. She shook her head and looked up at him boldly. "Yes, I am. Do you have other plans?"
Rabastan shook his head. "Well, I'm going to meet up with a few people for drinks in the Three Broomsticks, but we could have lunch after that, if you'd like."
"I would."
"All right," he replied. They were nearing the Quidditch pitch, and he grinned at her. "I noticed how you tried to control your blush there. It didn't quite work, you know."
"It's chilly outside," Freya replied defensively. "My cheeks go red in the cold, you know that."
"No, your cheeks go red when you're embarrassed," Rabastan corrected. They had reached the Quidditch pitch, and he stopped and turned to face her. He was standing quite close, and Freya could see his brown eyes glittering in amusement. She used her grip on his hand to keep herself steady. "But I've told you before, it's cute. I don't want you to stop doing it... and there you go again!" he laughed, as Freya flushed once more. She was shocked that the rest of her body was getting enough blood, considering the amount that went up to her face when she was with him.
Rabastan detangled their hands, and lifted one up to touch her face. It was cold, but Freya loved the way his thumb gently glided over the red part of her cheek. He stepped even closer, and Freya's breath hitched as he carefully pressed his lips to the spot where his thumb had been. He pulled back, brown eyes judging her reaction carefully before he leaned forward again, this time kissing her lips instead.
Freya shuddered as Rabastan's lips softly brushed over hers, before coming down on them with a little more pressure. Her head spun; she couldn't believe that he was doing this, much less on the Quidditch pitch where anybody could see them. Her eyelashes fluttered closed, but she barely had time to react before he pulled away again. Freya couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face, and she could see that he was smiling as well. "Clearly, that is the most effective way to make you blush," he commented lightly, his warm breath fanning across her face.
"It is. You should do it more often," she replied, surprising herself with her own boldness. She only wanted him to lean down and kiss her again, preferably for longer this time. But Rabastan stepped back, with a smile.
"Quidditch practice," he breathed out, with an apologetic smile. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Of course."
She turned away to leave, but he called her back. "Oh, and Freya?"
"Yes?"
"Those Transfiguration side-effects I told you? The dry skin and possible rashes?"
"What about them?"
"I made them up."
"Rabastan!" Freya scolded, laughing. She couldn't bring herself to be angry with him, though she tried to pretend as though she was. "What if I'd written that in my test tomorrow?"
"Sorry!" he called after her, before jogging down to the pitch. She watched him leave, before smiling giddily to herself and turning back. She couldn't wait to get back to her common room and tell Vivienne and Narcissa everything that had happened. Just as she was walking up to the castle, however, she noticed a familiar figure.
Rochelle Vittori was walking past the Quidditch pitch, alone. There was a grim look on her face, and she seemed to be deep in thought. The older girl barely glanced at Freya as she walked past, but Freya's heart sank and all the happiness she had felt a moment ago was dragged away from her.
Had Rabastan kissed her because Rochelle was nearby? Had the only reason he'd been smiling and flirting with her been because she was a part of his plan to make the real girl of his dreams jealous? Freya wanted to slap herself for being an idiot.
Rabastan would never want her. Not more than he wanted Rochelle. A tear slowly threatened to form in the corner of Freya's eye, but she blinked it away. Don't be stupid. You can't cry over him. You knew he was using you and you chose to play along. It's your own fault.
She clenched her fists together and walked back to the castle alone.
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A/N – Bad news? There may not be another update for two or three days. I've got an exam coming up. Good news? Well… there is none. Sorry. But this is my second update today, so that counts, right?
Skylar Alpha, really? Well, I swear there's this scene in the first movie right after Harry gets onto the Quidditch team. Hermione comes up and goes "It's in your blood." (in her usual snooty way) and shows Harry this award/ badge thingy which had 'James Potter, Seeker' written on it. I guess I thought he was a Seeker because of that. But obviously JKR has more authority than the movies. Thanks for telling me!
Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything?
Review!