Chapter Twenty-five- Class Resumes and OWLS Approach
"Have you ever thought about it Cari?" Draco asked when they were sitting by the fireplace drinking hot cocoa after their wild snowball fight. "I mean, the greatest wizard in the world… and you'd be right there by his side. What could there possibly be to fear? Nothing. Who wouldn't want to follow him?"
Cari didn't respond, simply staring into her steaming mug, watching the foam swirl on the surface. Lucius watched this from over his own mug shrewdly, his sharp blue eyes calculating this girl who had so much potential. She was smart, he knew. Sooner or later she would see the light, she would understand- of that he was certain.
"Professor?" Lindsey asked tentatively as she poured two cups of tea, both of them now in the dungeons after their exhausting romp in the snow.
Snape raised his eyebrows and cocked his head slightly, waiting for her to continue, accepting his cup with a small nod of thanks.
Lindsey hesitated, sitting down with her own tea, warming her frozen fingers in the steam. She was debating whether or not she should mention his Dark Mark; she was aching to ask. She ran her finger around the edge of the cup contemplatively. She looked up to see Snape watching her intently.
"Nevermind," she said smiling. "It's…it's nothing."
Snape shrugged dismissively and turned his attention back to cooling off his tea.
Cari took a deep breath, enjoying the icy air in her nose, the clean, cool breeze on her face, and the invigorating, liberated feeling it gave her. She and Draco had decided to take a walk around the grounds before dinner the next night. The sun had not yet set and the last golden rays were sparkling warmly off the crisp, pristine snow. Icicles hung shimmering from the leafless trees making for a truly magical atmosphere. Cari and Draco walked on, talking lightly, enjoying each other's presence. During a lapse in the conversation Cari heard a bird call.
"Hey, did you hear that?" she asked Draco, smiling and looking around to see what could be making such a lovely noise.
"I heard nothing," Draco said, also looking around to see what Cari was talking about. However Cari turned to him abruptly.
"W-what did you say?" she stammered. Draco looked at her quizzically.
"I just said I didn't hear anything," he said lightly, looking concerned. Cari had gone quite pale. "Do you want to sit down or something?" He indicated a relatively clear, dry bench they had come to where Cari was sure there'd have been a garden had the blanket of snow not been there.
"Sure…" Cari said distractedly.
When Draco had said that something had clicked in her brain. What was it? She searched her mind to try and find what it had reminded her of- there! She gasped as the revelation hit her.
Draco was the voice she had recognized at the Death-eater meeting she had unwittingly walked into last fall.
"Are you sure you're alright, Cari?" Draco asked anxiously. Cari looked at him.
"I'm fine," she finally said, a smile gracing her features, causing Draco to smile too. For when she looked at him, she realized that that didn't matter.
They sat on the bench for awhile, talking and watching the sun set.
A brisk wind blew and Cari snuggled back into the bench, surprised when it turned out to be Draco; she hadn't realized how close he was. However she certainly wasn't complaining. From his smile she could tell neither was he.
"We should probably start back for dinner now," Cari said, getting up reluctantly. She stopped when she felt Draco's hand on her arm.
"Just… wait a second," he said. Cari sat back down.
Before she could even really realize what was happening Draco leaned forward and was kissing her, light and quick on the lips.
He drew back to gauge her reaction, slightly embarrassed when he saw her frozen look of shock.
"Yeah, well, I g-" But Draco never got to finish because Cari leaned forward quickly and planted her own fervent kiss, hands on the back of his head. Draco was surprised initially, but quickly recovered and leaned into it, running a hand up her back.
This went on, neither of them knowing for how long, and it is not for me to disclose. Let's just say… it could have made the snow melt.
"And where have you two been?" Lucius asked, attempting to mask his speculative amusement at their breathless, disheveled, and generally euphoric appearance.
"Um…" Draco and Cari looked at each other, grinning broadly, at a loss for what to say. Cari blushed deeply.
"Just…walking," Draco answered semi-convincingly.
Lucius raised a questioning eyebrow but did not press the issue.
"Well, sit down."
Cari and Draco each sat in their respective chairs at the dinner table; they were inevitably late for supper.
The two blissful weeks of freedom were over much too soon for anyone's liking and most people took their time getting back to school the day before classes so that it wasn't until about 10:00 that Cari ascended the stairs to the Ravenclaw girls dormitory. She walked in to find Lindsey lying on her stomach on her bed, her chin in her hands, and Duffer curled into a purring ball on her back, listening to everyone talking about their Christmas breaks at once. It took her several moments to even notice Cari had arrived amongst the chaos.
"Cari!" she cried happily when she finally did notice her, jumping up and sending a disgruntled Duffer tumbling to the bed. "Hey, did you get my present?"
Cari nodded and held up the box containing the metallic silver quill that had arrived from Lindsey on Christmas morning.
"Did you get mine?" she asked. Lindsey nodded in the direction of the place next to her bed with the revolting box had been replaced with a lumpy yet comfortable cat bed Duffer was currently situating himself on.
"He loves it!" she said, smiling. Then at the same time they both asked, "Who's that from?"
Cari indicated the new black hoodie Lindsey was wearing while Lindsey implied Cari's necklace.
"This is my Christmas present from Draco!" Cari whispered excitedly, her eyes sparkling. Lindsey nodded understandably, Cari delighting in showing off the thin silver chain which was molded into the most intricate, delicate chain of leaves- ivy, it looked like. Accenting the silver were exquisitely carved emeralds, a shimmering green. Of course, Cari would have adored it if it were made of plastic.
"And what about yours?" Cari prompted teasingly. "Does Lindsey have a little boy toy of her own?"
"Ew, no!" Lindsey cried, though smiling: she hadn't seen Cari in this good of a mood in quite some time. "This is from Professor Snape."
"Really?" Cari asked, raising her eyebrows. "You guys are, uh… pretty good friends now, huh?"
"Uh-huh," Lindsey plopped back down on her bed, hugging the sweatshirt to herself. It was the first Christmas present she had gotten in at least five years, though probably more. It's hard to get Christmas presents when you can't even buy food.
"He's a good guy," she finally said.
"Whatever you say…" Cari said, looking at Lindsey like she was crazy, and turning to organize her things before going to bed- classes were to begin the very next day, after all, throwing them immediately back into the same old schedule.
"Wow, I didn't realize how very much I enjoyed not being here!" Lindsey whispered aggravatedly as she and Cari took their seats in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom that Wednesday.
"Careful, he might have another jinx on your desk," Cari reminded her mischievously. Lindsey looked around warily.
"I wouldn't put it past him," she muttered darkly.
"Yeah, how did that detention with him go?" Lisa asked, taking the seat on her other side. Lindsey shrugged.
"About at much fun as having all of your appendages chopped off one by one," she grumbled. Cari looked disapproving but Lindsey didn't miss the grin that flickered across her lips. Lisa put a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.
"Hey, you're not going to disown me for saying that?" Lindsey asked in feigned surprise.
"Yeah, whatever happened to 'Oh, Professor Balbossa is so hot!'?" Cari asked, mimicking Lisa exaggeratedly. Lisa smiled sheepishly.
"I just realized how stupid I was being," she said. "And he said he's seen muggles hit balls better than me!"
Since the start of classes after Christmas break Paige had finally been ejected from the Ravenclaw quidditch team on account of her poor grades. Lisa Turpin was now Ravenclaw's second Beater, and she was loving it.
The girls all continued chatting until the bell sounded and Professor Balbossa walked in and began another long-winded lesson. The period could not have ended too soon.
"Good Lord does that man love to hear himself talk or what?" Lindsey cried as she walked with Cari and Lisa to the Great Hall for supper, Pippy and Kristin coming to join them.
"Are you talking about Professor Balbossa?" Pippy asked. They all nodded. "Yeah, that guy never shuts up!" They all laughed. Apparently whatever attraction there had been with Professor Balbossa had worn off as gold paint wears off of what you thought to be a solid gold necklace, and is really just a hunk of lead.
Lindsey's rogue feat of jinxing seemed to be what broke the spell the feigningly French professor had held over practically all the witches in school, but especially for her. No longer was she afraid to speak in his class, and no longer did he dare to hit her with his pointer. The humiliations in front of the class had stopped too. Lindsey thought of all this and smiled smugly to herself. Sticking up for yourself pays off, she thought happily.
Eating dinner in the Great Hall the good mood high everyone was on from winter holidays was apparent in the general jolly animation of conversation. Someone to Cari's left told a joke that caused that whole end of the table to burst into laughter. Suddenly Cari's head snapped up.
She recognized that laughter. She recognized it from that night so long ago when she and Lindsey had been looking for Duffer…
Sharply she turned her head to see who it was that was laughing like that. Immediately she gasped in surprise and averted her gaze. Cautiously she looked up to see Lindsey looking at her quizzically; she just shook her head.
No, it couldn't be him, she tried to convince herself. There has to be more than one person who laughs like that! And yet… somehow Cari knew that that just wasn't the case.
And so the days passed as they had before Christmas, the snow eventually melted and quidditch resumed. However as the weather sweetened the disposition of the fifth years soured as everyone stressed to cram for O.W.L.S, even Lindsey. As the dreaded tests drew near she and Snape increased their tutoring sessions to Monday through Friday, still trying to accomplish the amazing feat of five years of wizarding school jammed into one. Considering the circumstances Lindsey wasn't doing so badly.
However that did nothing to improve her mood, nor anyone else's.
Cari constantly either had her nose in a book or her wand in her hand; she even stopped seeing Draco in the evenings to focus all her energies on studying. Lindsey was jumpier than a rabbit in a wolf den, constantly staring wide-eyed into space and talking to herself. Any time someone spoke to her during one of her studious reveries she would jump a foot in the air and shout out a random fact, spell, or potion ingredient.
Lisa looked to need quite a bit more sleep as dark circles grew under her eyes and she bit off anyone's head who tried to speak to her in the morning. Not only did she have O.W.L.S to worry about but Ravenclaw was in the running for the Quidditch Cup and all of this stress was taking its toll.
It was like this for all the fifth years, and every other year tended to avoid them. And second by second exam time drew closer.