James bounced eagerly, not absorbing a word of what Professor Slughorn was saying. It was the final class before Christmas holidays, and James and his friends had spent most of their day planning a celebratory snowball fight.
Though James was not the only student struggling to focus, Slughorn was undeterred, plowing ahead with his lesson plan.
"Today, you will be finishing your Forgetfulness Potions," Slughorn said excitedly, clapping his fat hands together. "At the end of our last class, we had left them to boil for an hour, and I am very pleased to say that most of you appear to be on the right track. So as a special treat, the potion which impresses me the most by the end of class will earn 50 house points!"
An excited murmur ran through the group of now-attentive students. Even James perked up a bit. 50 points was more than enough to make him momentarily forget about his planned snowball fight.
Next to James, Rebecca smirked confidently, shooting James a sideways glare, which he returned in kind.
"Ready to watch me earn 50 points?" Rebecca asked spitefully.
"You'll have to beat me first," James retorted.
She laughed cruelly, "Shouldn't be too hard."
Fuming, James turned away from her.
"Your potions are at your stations, and you will have the entirety of class to complete them," Slughorn announced. "Begin!"
The potions room was suddenly filled with chatter and the sound of tinkling glass as the students rushed to be the first to finish. Not wanting to miss out, James quickly began to grind his mistletoe berries in his mortar.
He could vaguely hear the sound of Rebecca working next to him, and he stole a glance at her mortar. Her powder was much coarser than his, and James felt a lump beginning to form at the back of his throat. Rebecca noticed him staring and laughed.
"Getting nervous, Potter?"
"Never," James said defiantly, hoping he sounded convincing.
Apparently he didn't, because Rebecca rolled her eyes and gestured to the front of the room, "If you'd bothered to properly read the instructions, you'd see that the powder is supposed to be medium-fine."
"Mine is medium-fine," James said angrily.
"Yours is overly fine," Rebecca said firmly.
James could feel himself getting hot under the collar, "You don't know anything."
"I know more than you," Rebecca scoffed. "You know, you're not as smart as you think you are."
"Please," James hissed. "You don't know any more than I do!"
"Alright then," Rebecca said, "put your powder in your cauldron and see how it turns out. Unless, of course, you think it won't come out right."
"It will come out fine," James snapped, putting two pinches of the powder in his potion.
Much to his horror, Rebecca had been right. The color of his potion was much too light to be the correct shade. Snickering at his predicament, Rebecca sprinkled her own powder into her cauldron, turning her potion precisely the right shade of orange.
"Sorry, Potter," she smiled maliciously. "Looks like I'll be getting those 50 points today."
No, I don't think you will," he spat angrily. Unable to contain his fury any longer, James grabbed a fistful of Rebecca's powder, and furiously threw it into her cauldron.
"No!" Rebecca instinctively dived below the table.
Noticing the commotion, the students in the area immediately began to wander closer as Rebecca's potion took on a nasty brown color and began to bubble intensely.
"Uh-oh," James swallowed nervously as the bubbles on the surface of the potion began to burst, releasing clouds of gas in their wake.
Slughorn was by the door in an instant, holding it open. "Everybody out at once!" he yelled, his voice booming through the crowded potions room.
Scrambling out from under the table, Rebecca made a beeline for the door, James hot on her heels. Within a few seconds, the potion room had been cleared out. Slughorn slammed the door, whirling around to face his panicked class.
James had never seen the potions-master so angry. His already discolored face had taken on a nasty purplish tint, and using a handkerchief, Slughorn wiped the sweat from his brow, panting heavily.
Furiously, he turned towards Rebecca and James, who were keeping a purposeful distance from one another, "Either of you care to explain what you were thinking?"
"It wasn't me, Professor!" Rebecca protested angrily. "Potter just threw a handful of powder in my potion. All because he was jealous he couldn't do it right."
"That's not true!" James yelled back. "You were egging me on!"
The two immediately launched into a bitter argument, bickering back and forth incessantly.
"Since day one, Professor-!"
"And I tried, I really did-."
"Total lack of intelligence-."
"Not my fault!"
"As if I could ever-."
"Enough!" Slughorn waved his arms dramatically, causing both of them to stop in their tracks.
"Never in my life have I seen such an outrageous display of total disregard for others! Do you know what your little stunt could have caused, Mr. Potter?"
James looked at the ground.
"It could have easily wiped the memories of every person in that classroom including myself," Slughorn said harshly.
Rebecca glanced smugly at James, satisfied she had won. But Slughorn was not finished.
"And you, Miss. Sims," he said, "your taunting of Potter today did not go unnoticed by me. You are a very talented girl, there is not a reason good enough to stoop to that level!"
Rebecca stared at Slughorn, her mouth agape.
"Both of you will be uninvited from all future Slug Club meetings!" Slughorn announced grandly. Then, noticing perhaps that the two of them were not as devastated as he thought they should have been, Slughorn cleared his throat.
"And you will serve detention tonight!"
"What?" Rebecca and James exploded in unison.
They began to protest. It wasn't fair to do this on their final night. Not with the Christmas feast being scheduled. They'd serve detention any other time. Even more than once! But they just couldn't tonight. But no matter how hard they tried, Slughorn refused to budge.
And so James found himself trudging down to Hagrid's hut in the inky black of winter's night. While the rest of the school enjoyed a nice hot dinner, James would be serving detention with his mortal enemy, and feasting on Hagrid's infamous rock cakes. His only comfort was that Rebecca was just as unhappy as he was. James found her sulking on Hagrid's front steps, dejectedly petting Fang.
Fang tried to raise his head to greet James, but couldn't muster the strength, instead just looking up at the boy with his big, watery eyes. James leaned down and rubbed the old dog between his ears, feeling very sorry for him.
"Where's Hagrid?"
"At the feast," Rebecca said bitterly, "just like everyone else."
"What about our detention?" James sputtered. "Are we just supposed to sit out here?"
"Hagrid left a note," Rebecca pulled a small slip of paper out of the pocket of her cloak. "We're to wash Fang and help ourselves to any of the special cakes Hagrid's made for us."
"So where's the washtub?" James asked.
"Inside, but I couldn't get Fang to move," Rebecca said, sadly looking down at the dog. "To be honest, I don't know if he can make it up the steps. I assume Hagrid just carries him around, but he's too big for me to lift."
"Could we get a board and make a plank of some sort?" James asked.
"Actually," Rebecca cleared her throat uncomfortably, "I was thinking we could use magic. Something like the levitation charm."
"Why didn't you just do that before I got here and save me all this trouble?" James asked, getting irritated.
"Because, Potter," Rebecca spat bitterly, "I couldn't cast a spell strong enough to lift something as big as Fang."
James stared in shock, "You couldn't?"
"He weighs more than me, of course not!" Rebecca snapped angrily.
Picking up on her agitated tone, Fang whined in concern. Rebecca quickly began petting Fang between the ears, until the dog had calmed down and was silent once more.
"So you want me to try?" James smirked, glad to finally have the upper hand.
"Just hurry up and do it," Rebecca hissed, fighting to not disturb Fang once again.
"No, no," James said, casually rocking back and forth, hands in his pockets. "I need to hear you ask me first."
"Are you actually joking?"
Even in the dark, James could see Rebecca's face turn a violent shade of red.
"Admit you need my help and ask for it, or go find a plank of wood," James said stubbornly.
"Could you stop trying to one up me for one second and be a decent person? Fang is dying and all you can think about is humiliating me!" Rebecca's voice cracked as she spoke, and James felt a pang of guilt.
"Right," he muttered. "I'll do it for Fang. No asking necessary."
Rolling up his sleeves, he raised his wand and took a deep breath, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Fang drifted lazily off the ground, but not high enough to reach the top step. Instead, he just gently floated back down, landing with a soft "thump".
"Er, I guess he's too big for me as well," James said sheepishly.
"Well," Rebecca spoke in a strange, halting manner, "what if we tried it together?"
"Huh?"
"If we both did the spell at the same time, we might be able to lift him high enough."
James was silent for a minute before responding, "It's worth a shot. On my mark."
"Why your mark?"
"Rebecca!"
"Right, for Fang."
James cleared his throat, "One, two, three! Wingardium Leviosa!"
Once again, Fang lifted up on the ground, much higher than before, but he still came one step short of making it in the hut. Dejectedly, James and Rebecca set him down.
"It was worth a shot," Rebecca sighed, looking down woefully at Fang. "Why won't you just walk up the steps yourself, you meathed?"
Stretching, Fang let out a mighty yawn before casually getting on all fours, and walking calmly up the stairs.
James stared at Rebecca, "I can't believe that worked."
"I can't either," Rebecca stared after Fang, somewhat amazed. "I didn't know he could even still do that. I guess we can give him his bath after all."
A few moments later, Fang was happily soaking in the warm water of the washtub, while James and Rebecca scrubbed his mass of fur. Hagrid's hut was silent, except for the crackling of the fire in the corner. It was James who eventually spoke first.
"Rebecca?"
"Hm?"
"Did you mean what you said outside? Is Fang really dying?"
Rebecca sighed, "It looks like it. He won't even eat the cakes I sneak him anymore. Even Hagrid knows it's just a matter of time, but he won't admit it."
James looked down at Fang, who had fallen asleep and was peacefully snoring.
"What will Hagrid do?" he asked.
"I don't know," Rebecca admitted sadly. "I think he'll be very lonely."
"Sometimes I wish-," James abruptly stopped speaking, suddenly feeling very vulnerable and embarrassed.
The sound of swishing water stopped as Rebecca abruptly lay down the sponge she was using, "Sometimes you wish what?"
"Nothing."
"Tell me."
"Why should I?"
"Because I asked."
James found himself unable to object to such a flawless statement of pure logic. Sighing, he set down his own sponge, flopping backwards onto the floor.
"I wish that I could just wave my wand and solve everything for everyone all at once. And then there would be no more problems."
There was a moment of silence before Rebecca finally spoke, "That's a nice wish."
"It is?" James was shocked that she approved.
"Sure," she said. "Of course, life would get a little boring with no problems to solve."
"There are things to do besides solve problems," James rolled his eyes.
"Like what?"
"Make new ones."
Rebecca laughed, but not the sarcastic bitter laugh she normally directed towards him. This laugh was warmer, almost friendly.
"Well, what would you wish for?" he asked.
"You want to know what I'd wish for?" Rebecca sounded shocked.
"Of course," James said, surprised to find that he meant it.
Rebecca was quiet before answering, "I wish that Slughorn had really inhaled that potion today and permanently forgot about the Slug Club so that nobody would ever have to suffer through one of those awful meetings ever again."
James fought to suppress a laugh, "They're not that bad!"
"Yes they are!" Rebecca jumped to her feet and began to strut around the room, doing an impressive imitation of Slughorn.
"Hello all! I am very big and important and if you do not send me Christmas cards for the rest of your miserable lives I will forever badmouth you to a group of children!"
James could stand it no longer, and dissolved into a fit of giggles. Rebecca soon joined him, and suddenly the two of them were writhing around on the floor, screaming with laughter. Fang, now awake, joined in, adding a chorus of howls to complete the ridiculous symphony.
Suddenly, the door to the hut swung open with a bang, hitting the wall and causing both James and Rebecca to shout in fear. Hagrid stood in the doorway, brandishing his pink umbrella.
"What's going on? Who's hurt?"
"No one's hurt!" Rebecca cut in quickly, leaping to her feet. "We were just laughing at something."
"It sounded like you were screamin' bloody murder!" Hagrid said, pressing a hand to his heart and sinking into the nearest chair. "Don' ever scare me like tha' again!"
"We're sorry, Hagrid," James said, standing and dusting himself off. "We finished cleaning Fang."
Fang clumsily clambered out of the washtub, shaking himself dry and sending droplets flying across the room. Hagrid grinned and went to pet his dog.
"He's lookin' better already. Thanks to the both of you for yer trouble," Hagrid smiled fondly at James and Rebecca, who were now both covered in water. "In fact, I brought sumn for you."
And reaching into his pockets, Hagrid pulled out two enormous slices of cake. Real cake from the feast. Not the nasty miniature cakes which sat untouched on Hagrid's table.
James and Rebecca eagerly accepted, quickly scarfing down the slices. And after hugging them both and thanking them once again, Hagrid ushered them out of his hut and waved them off up towards the castle.
When they finally reached the Hogwarts entryway, Rebecca turned to James and stuck out her hand. James looked at it in surprise, but took in nonetheless.
"Thanks for helping tonight, Potter. I know we both had to be there, of course. But that was the happiest I've seen Hagrid in a long time," she said, shaking his hand.
"No problem," James said, suddenly not able to meet her eyes. "I just hope Fang makes it a little longer."
Rebecca stepped back, smiling sadly, "Yeah, me too."
The two of them stood awkwardly facing one another. James was considering just turning and running away when Rebecca cleared her throat.
"Happy Christmas, Potter. I hope your holiday is filled with all the misery and woe you deserve."
"Same to you," James looked at his feet, shuffling back and forth awkwardly. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else he wanted to say to her. But before he could figure out what it was, Rebecca had turned and walked off, disappearing into the shadows before he could even get the chance.
