Dim light awoke jenny, she crawled out of bed and into the bathroom. Octavia looked at her disapprovingly; 'what were you doing last night? You look like Death.' Jenny who was now looking at herself in the mirror had to admit that she looked pretty rough. Octavia walked away down the corridor to breakfast. Jenny threw on her robes and arrived in the great hall as Severus did.
'Morning' he said gruffly.
'Morning' she replied with an awkward smile. He took her hand, she hastily shock him off. He gave her an affronted look and put his hands in his pockets. They sat opposite each other. Throughout breakfast, as she tried to swallow toast, he quizzed her on Transfiguration. She found that she was quite dreadful, and was in fact rubbish at the subject.
'Oh God!' she said putting her head in her hands 'I'm going to totally fail this!'
'I have every confidence in you' he said. She laughed. He looked at her frowningly and left.
A bell rang from afar and the Hall began to clear. She followed her fellow sixth years into the anti chamber off the great hall and waited for the call. Eventually they where called in and she sat at her desk ready to take the exam.
But all she could think about was Severus and that she had upset him. She struggled to write more than two paragraphs on human transfiguration. And barely wrote a page on the control of animagus (her specialised subject). When she turned the final page and realised that she couldn't answer on the reversal of Kentauros mammals, she put her head on the desk and wept.
At break she dully walked to her dormitory and lay down. Her head pounding. Her chest in agony.
She heard the shrieks of younger students in the common room. And tried to cover her head with her pillow. When a loud burst of laughter reached her ears she leapt out of bed and stormed into the common room.
'Will you all please SHUT UP!' she bellowed.
The fourth years stood and left the common room, muttering abuse at her.
Jenny stood alone in the dim room; she sat on one of the leather sofas and picked up a copy of witch weekly that had been left on one of the tables. She flicked through and came across an article on Minerva McGonagall.
'…McGonagall was recently connected with the writer Malcolm Lewis. Is this another notch on her bedpost? …' Jenny closed the magazine and resolved to do better.
She left the common room and made her way to her herbology class.
Jenny went over with Sprout what she was still finding difficult and moaned about the exam with her fellow classmates.
As she left the greenhouse she met Severus.
'I was looking for you.' He said.
From the opposite side of the lake, Remus watched the two figures in conversation. He saw them laugh and heard it faintly across the water. Something boiled within him.
'What is it?' Sirius said
Remus did not reply.
Sirius followed his gaze and saw Jenny talking with Severus.
'Oh, him.' He said turning to James.
'I'll kill him.' Remus said quietly.
Peter laughed, the three taller boys looked at him darkly. 'Sorry' he said.
Peter who felt they were very much over dramatising what they had seen, headed to the library and decided to not get involved in this confrontation. He was bored of their constant warring with Snape, as far as Peter was concerned he was a nice chap. A bit greasy, but what can you do? Peter had terrible acne, but no one was as horrible to him as they were to Snape. Peter decided he was going to get his grades this year and not go off gallivanting in the night.
That afternoon Jenny, while in her charms lesson, was called to McGonagall's office. She suspected that the cause of this meeting would be about the exam. She was very wrong.
'Miss Trinity, do come in. sit down.' McGonagall shut the door behind Jenny and sat behind her desk.
'I was approached yesterday by Remus Lupin.' She leaned heavily on her desk and looked Jenny in the eye.
'Oh.' Jenny said taken aback.
'He's very upset.' McGonagall continued. 'I don't usually get involved in such matters as these, you really aught to be able to resolve them yourself.' She said smiling. 'But Remus Lupin is a very bright young man; he needs to do well this year.'
'You want me to go out with him for the sake of his grades? What about mine?' Jenny said outraged 'I completely fluffed my exam today because of this! I'm sorry, I wont do it.' she sat back in her chair.
'Jenny think this through, do this for me, please. Do this and I will help you get back into Hogwarts next year? Because, lets face it, your not going to do it with your grades.'
Jenny stood and made her way to the door. 'Think it over Jenny.' McGonagall called after her.
The door slammed shut and Minerva sank into her chair despairingly.