Year 3: Not Quite Right

Chapter 30: June 2018

Finding Justin and Olivia together in the broom cupboard had been quite the shock. Afterwards, Louis and Justin had gone back to the boys' dorm and Justin had explained that it hadn't been planned. They'd run into each other on their way back to Gryffindor Tower and had started fighting again, and Olivia had shoved Justin into the broom cupboard.

Justin admitted that he wasn't even sure which of them had initiated the kiss. All he knew was that seconds later, Julia had been dragged into the broom cupboard with him and they'd started kissing.

"So, do you like her?" Louis asked in confusion.

"Definitely not," Justin insisted. "She's rude and irritating and insufferable."

Louis didn't quite understand, but he wasn't sure he was meant to. And he didn't have time to sort out Justin's feelings because days later, exams were upon them.

Now that they were in third year, they had more exams than ever. Not only did they have to sit exams for transfiguration, charms, herbology, potions, defence against the dark arts, history of magic, and astronomy, but they also had to sit exams for their elective classes. For Louis and Justin, that meant ancient runes and arithmancy. For Julia and Olivia, that meant ancient runes and muggle studies.

They had their charms exam first thing Monday morning. It was a theoretical exam containing lots of specific questions about the theory of cheering charms, weight changing charms, orientation charms, and charm magnifications. Louis knew he'd done fine, he just hoped that the same could be said for the Slytherins. They were better off with the general questions. Recalling specific knowledge was hard, especially when they hadn't done a single homework assignment all year.

On Tuesday, the third years had history of magic, which was probably the most predictable exam they had that year. Or any year really. Professor Binns wasn't too creative in his creation of questions and after sitting two of his end-of-year exams, the third years knew exactly what kinds of questions to expect.

On Wednesday, Louis and Justin got a break while half of their year sat their muggle studies exam. Louis spent the day reviewing everything he could in preparation for his potions exam the following day. Potions wasn't his best subject, and he had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be a practical examination.

He was right. Professor Abbott-Longbottom assigned each of her students a different potion from the list of potions they'd studied that year to brew. Louis was assigned the babbling beverage, which was a relief as it was one of the easier of the potions he could have been assigned. However, halfway through the lesson, he noticed that David Flint had been assigned the sneezing solution, one of the hardest of the potions they'd studied, and was having a miserable time brewing it without directions. Louis worried that Flint was going to be mad at himself and Justin for not adequately preparing him, but there was nothing Louis could do about it now.

Friday was the ancient runes exam. Louis flew through this particular exam with ease. It comprised of four sections. The first was a basic vocabulary section. The second contained ten nouns to be declined. The third contained ten verbs to be conjugated. Finally, the fourth was a paragraph that needed to be translated. It was the paragraph that took the longest to complete, but Louis got through the whole exam in only half the time and confidently handed it in with an hour to go.

Louis and Justin were lucky that the care of magical creatures exam and the astronomy exam fell on the same day. They were able to sleep in Monday morning while half their year had to spend three hours writing about how to care for flobberworms and mooncalves and rest up for the late night they were about to have mapping the skies.

Unsurprisingly, Louis and Justin had no issues with their astronomy exam, both finishing before anyone else and proudly handing in their assignments before heading off to bed.

Their herbology exam on Tuesday was deferred until the afternoon to give the third years a chance to recuperate from their late-night astronomy exam. It didn't really matter. Louis suspected that he would have performed just as poorly whether he was sleep deprived or not. Thankfully, the herbology exam was theoretical and Louis completed it to the best of his ability.

Wednesday was the day of the third years' transfiguration exam, which was a practical one. They were called into the room one at a time and asked to bring various objects and pieces of furniture to life using the theories they had learned of inanimate to animate transfigurations. The tricky part was that they were asked to transfigure items they'd never worked with before, to see if they could successfully apply the theory they'd learned. This was the true test of transfiguration. They couldn't learn a different spell for every possible transformation possibility, but the theory was universal. Louis had a bit of a rough start to his exam, but by the end he was confident that he'd at least passed.

Arithmancy was on Thursday. It was simple enough. They had to create a number chart and use it to do a few simple predictions. Much of the year had been spent simply learning what arithmancy was – that being the use of numerology and the study of numbers to make predictions.

Finally, on the last day of their two-week exam period, the third years had their defence against the dark arts exam. Unsurprisingly, it was a practical exam. All the time Louis had spent studying dark creatures had been for nothing, he thought. The exam was simple. Professor Derlid duelled each student in turn. Each student started the duel with their wand lying twenty feet away. To pass, they had to successfully retrieve it without Professor Derlid restraining them before they could. The exam was obviously meant to emphasize the importance of physical defence and the use of one's environment to assist in duelling, two of the main topics they'd covered that year.

When Louis' turn came, he didn't even bother to go for his wand at first like many of his classmates had. He knew Professor Derlid would simply cast a knockback jinx and he would end up further away. Instead, he ran at his professor and wrestled his wand out of his hand. Once he had it, he used his professor's wand to summon his own and then tossed Professor Derlid's wand back to him. He received an O on the spot.

By the time exams came to an end, Louis was exhausted. It had been a long year, but it was finally over, and he could breathe. Though he fully expected the Slytherins to pile their summer homework onto him and Justin, he at least had a week where he not only didn't have to do any homework for them, but he didn't have to do any for himself either. He could just relax and enjoy the end of third year with his friends before the fourth-year work got piled on.

"So, Olivia and Justin," Julia commented one afternoon as she and Louis took a walk outside. It was such a nice day, and Louis had to spend so much of his time cooped up inside doing homework all year that he wanted to take advantage of the sunlight.

"Yeah," Louis nodded. He and Julia hadn't had a chance to talk about what they'd seen with each other yet, what with exams and everything. "Crazy."

"What did Justin say when you talked to him?" Julia wondered.

"Not much," Louis confessed.

"Olivia neither," Julia agreed. "I think they dislike each other too much to admit there might be feelings there."

"Hate, more like," Louis nodded, thinking about the words Justin had used to describe Olivia when Louis had suggested he might like her.

Julia shrugged. "Let them be idiots," she declared. "They'll figure it out."

"Yeah," Louis agreed. "I guess so."

They continued to walk a bit before Julia spoke again.

"You did really well in your defence exam," she said. "Congratulations."

"You too," Louis said. Though she hadn't gotten an automatic O, she'd fought well and had managed to retrieve her wand in the end. "I notice you didn't try your little trick on Professor Derlid."

Julia blushed a furious red. "No," she said. "I didn't think that would be entirely appropriate."

Louis laughed. "Kissing a professor? Hardly appropriate. Though Derlid may have let it slide as a defensive maneuver."

"I didn't mean kissing a professor," Julia said in a strange voice. She halted and Louis halted with her. "I meant kissing someone that isn't you."

"What?" Louis frowned. "Why – "

Louis was cut off when Julia boldly leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. This time it wasn't like the gentle pecks and innocent kisses they'd shared when they had been dating. This one was fiercer, more insistent, more demanding. But Louis couldn't reciprocate. He let Julia kiss him for a few seconds out of politeness and then pulled away.

"Julia – " he started.

But Julia shook her head and looked to the ground, hiding her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I just thought – never mind."

"I'm sorry," Louis said. "It's not that I don't like you, you're a great person. I just don't – "

"You don't feel the same," Julia nodded. "I get it. I'm sorry I did that. You made your feelings clear when you broke up with me."

Louis was suddenly extremely uncomfortable. All this time, had Julia been pretending that she was over him while still harboring feelings for him? Was that why she'd wanted to remain friends – in the hopes that Louis might one day return her feelings?

"Can we just forget about it?" Julia pleaded, her eyes meeting Louis' for the first time since the kiss. "Pretend it didn't happen?"

Louis wasn't sure he could. It was obvious that Julia still had feelings for him, and he doubted that they'd gone away just now when he'd rejected her. If they continued on like they had been, was Louis just leading her on? Would it be kinder to let her go now so that she could grieve and move on to the next guy?

"Sure," Louis agreed, hating to hurt Julia any more than he already had. He'd just rejected her romantically, he couldn't reject her as a friend on the same day. He'd just have to watch her more carefully from now on and dissuade any romantic ideas that she might get in her head.

LlLlLlLlLlL

When Louis returned to the dorm later, Justin was absolutely beaming.

"What's got you so happy?" Louis wondered. "Spend the afternoon in a broom cupboard with Olivia again?"

Since exams had ended there had been a couple of instances when Justin and Olivia had been noticeably unable to locate and Louis and Julia suspected that their little tryst in the broom cupboard hadn't been a one-time thing.

"Hardly," Justin scoffed. "Whatever that was, it's over now."

"Oh?" Louis questioned curiously. "What happened?"

"Something wonderful. Something miraculous. Something amazing," Justin replied. "Dominique and William broke up."

"They did?" Louis asked, immediately worried about his sister. She'd really seemed to like William. At least, that was the impression he'd gotten at Christmas. He hadn't spent much time with Dominique since returning from the Christmas holidays.

Justin nodded. "I overheard her telling her friends in the common room earlier. Do you realize what this means?"

Louis groaned. "Not again," he said. Justin had spent so long being obsessed with Dominique and when Dominique had started dating William Stimpson, Louis had thought that Justin could finally move on. Apparently, he never had.

"I've got the summer to make a plan," Justin declared. "Your job is to make sure she doesn't start dating anyone while she's away from Hogwarts. Nobody who's going to stick around in September, that is."

"You really think you still stand a shot?" Louis asked in disbelief. If anything, Justin's perseverance was impressive.

"William was obviously not what she was looking for," Justin shrugged. "Maybe a younger man is what she's missing."

Louis rolled his eyes. "You stand a better shot with Olivia," he muttered. And that was saying something given the animosity between the two. Then again, there's a fine line between love and hate, and Louis suspected that Olivia at least was dancing on that line. Where Justin stood, Louis had no idea. Was Dominique a distraction from his feelings for Olivia or had Olivia been a distraction from his feelings for Dominique?

Louis hoped it was the former.

LlLlLlLlLlL

Exam results were released the day before the end of term, and Louis was happy with his. He'd received O's in ancient runes, astronomy, and defence against the dark arts, E's in charms, potions, history of magic, and arithmancy, and A's in only transfiguration and herbology.

Justin had received almost the same exam results, although his arithmancy was an O and his ancient runes was an E. Additionally, while Louis had gotten an E in potions, he'd only gotten an A, but had managed an E in transfiguration.

Louis thought about comparing grades with Julia but decided against it. He'd been trying to put a little distance between the two of them the past few days since the kiss and thought it best that he stay away for a while longer. The summer would give Julia time to get over her feelings for him, and they could start fresh in the fall as just friends.

Unsurprisingly, the Slytherins found Louis and Justin on their last evening at school before the holidays to inform them that their arrangement from the previous summer still stood. Neither boy made any attempt to protest the situation. They'd accepted things long ago. Louis saw Julia watching the interaction from the other side of the Entrance Hall and knew that she didn't approve, but just hoped that she would continue to keep her promise of silence even in the wake of this new rejection.

Justin was more than happy with the new distance between Louis and Julia. He thought Louis had finally manned up and told Julia to stay away from him to protect both boys from the risk of her revealing their situation with the Slytherins to Professor Longbottom, but if Louis was being honest, he was more worried now than ever.

"Plus, now that Julia's out of the picture, Olivia's gone with her," Justin said. "I don't know what I was ever thinking, kissing her. But now that my queen is free, I can devote all my thoughts to her."

Louis tried not to gag at the way his best friend was describing his sister.

All too soon, the students of Hogwarts were on the Hogwarts Express and mere hours away from returning to their families for the summer.

"Alright, so should we split things up the same as last year?" Justin asked, looking through the assignments he and Louis had to divide.

"I'll take Roper and Reed," Louis volunteered, just as he'd done a year ago.

"And I've got Pearle and Pritchard," Justin said, separating the assignments.

"And as for Flint – well the charms assignment is a lot longer this year than last," Louis noted.

"Right," Justin agreed. "How about I take transfiguration, charms, and herbology, and you take astronomy, potions, history of magic, and defence?"

"What about the electives?" Louis wondered.

"Crap," Justin muttered. "I almost forgot about those."

Louis sighed. "You know what? I'll take care of magical creatures."

"Are you sure?" Justin wondered. As the subject neither boy was taking, it was the assignment that would likely require the most effort to complete."

"Yeah," Louis nodded. "You did better in arithmancy this year anyway, so you should stick with that."

"Alright," Justin agreed. "Anyway, it's only one extra assignment."

"Right," Louis nodded.

With the division of assignments out of the way, the boys were finally able to sit back and relax. When the food trolley came by, they each bought a sandwich for lunch as well as a pile of candy each to splurge before they returned to their families, where their candy intake would likely be rationed for the next two months.

When the train pulled into the station, the boys grabbed their trunks and lugged them through the train and down onto the platform. They said their goodbyes, and just as Louis was about to go in search of his family, he found his path blocked by Julia.

"Oh, hey," he said in surprise. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you until next year."

"Are we okay?" Julia asked, a sense of urgency in her voice.

"What do you mean?" Louis asked worriedly.

Julia sighed. "Just that you've been acting weird ever since – you know. And I want to make sure we're okay. That I didn't ruin everything."

Louis relaxed. "You didn't ruin anything," he promised her. "Things have just been – we're fine, I promise."

"Alright," Julia said, sounding unsure.

"I promise!" Louis repeated. "Look, I have to find my family, but I'll write you, okay? We can write all through the summer, and I promise things will be totally normal when we come back in September, all right?"

"Alright," Julia agreed, seemingly pacified. "I'll expect a letter soon."

"I'll start writing it as soon as I get home," Louis promised.

As soon as Julia walked away, Louis cursed himself. Promising to write the letter right away sounded like something a boyfriend would say. He'd have to be careful from now on when he spoke and wrote to Julia of how he phrased things. Thankfully, he had the whole summer to practice.