Chapter 20
September 5, 1991.
Jacob camped out outside the hall and patiently waited for his friend to come up from the greenhouses, being careful to avoid Snape. Without Stephen around, it was likely that he would get detention should the greasy haired Potions master find him outside the Great Hall during lunch. Fortunately, Stephen showed up before Snape did, although his robes were covered in soil after his tenure with Professor Sprout, and the pair walked into the Great Hall. during which Stephen nabbed some sandwiches and a turkey leg and that was about it during an uncharacteristically boring lunch period.
"Must be the lack of Snape," Stephen said when Jacob brought this up after lunch.
After lunch they went their separate ways. Stephen went off to the dungeons to relax before his final period,History of Magic and, then it was Jacob's turn in the greenhouses. Professor Sprout was teaching them all about how to recognize different plants, and how to pot a few of them. Now he understood how Stephen got so dirty. And, all and all the lesson went by uneventfully. Which seemed very odd for a day in the first week of Hogwarts.
And soon Jacob came to the Great Hall for dinner that evening feeling very….what was the word?...out of it. He still loved the fact that he was at Hogwarts, but that day seemed so..normal? Nah, he thought, Hogwarts is never normal. And that's the way I like it. He soon found Stephen almost falling down the staircase after what Jacob assumed to be a very boring History of magic class. He asked what subject had put him to sleep this time.
"Goblin signings? Treaty rebellions? How am I," he yawned, "supposed to remember?
And Jacob accompanied his defeated friend into the hall where he then looked as though he had been slapped across the face.
"What's the matter?" Jacob asked.
"I just remembered I have Astronomy tonight…" he groaned, slumping to the floor in utter defeat and exhaustion, causing some laughs from Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
Jacob made a move to stop his friend from pulling his wand out on his fellow housemates, pulled back after remembering the state his friend was in. Once Stephen came to,and headed back after of course grabbing a turkey leg. As he went back to the Slytherin common rooms, Jacob could hear him muttering about sleep.