50 Thursday, December 19th
"Soooo… Azraeyn huh?" Kade leaned across his desk towards Noelle. "He told me that you invited him to the Christmas party tomorrow. Excited?" Noelle kept her eyes on her notes, only pursing her lips in amusement to show she'd heard. "It'll be like your first real date with him, won't it?" Kade pursued the matter.
"Unless you count the lake." She murmured in response.
Kade laughed quietly. "That disaster? I don't think anyone would count that. Besides, you invited one of your best friends along on that date and he invited several of his."
"And there will be plenty of other people at the Christmas party too. So then, by your logic, does it still qualify as a date?" Noelle tilted her head, eyes still turned down.
He grinned. "That's different!"
A girl across from him turned in her seat. "Shh!"
Kade looked abashed and sat back, but Noelle could still see the gears turning. She sighed. "What?"
"I'm just thinking that this means it worked." He answered.
She finally looked at him in confusion. "What worked?"
He doodled a little heart in the margins of his book. "My plan. The one I started at my party." He filled the heart in with an "N + A."
"Oh no. You don't get to do that." Noelle started.
"Alright class!" McGonagall clapped her hands together, looking over the room with a steely gaze. "I trust that each of you has had time to study the spell. Begin your practicing and I will go around the room to assess you." She got down from the platform and began making rounds.
Noelle pulled out her wand and began practicing the spell. As far as spells went, it certainly wasn't winning any awards. They were practicing dying their eyebrows.
Kade returned to their conversation as McGonagall started at the opposite end of the room. "Do what?" He asked innocently.
"Act like all of this was part of some, elaborate eight-step plan or something you cooked up." She laughed.
"No…" He agreed. "But I still am glad it's going somewhere for you. And I'm glad to have been a part of it. Even if it did start out a little rocky."
"Rocky is one way of putting it." She looked over to see Kade wiggle green eyebrows at her. "That was fast."
"I'm getting pretty good at this transfiguration thing I think." He grinned.
"Is that so?" The professor stood behind their desks with her arms crossed. "Let's see it."
Noelle's eyes widened and she faced forwards, watching Kade from the corner of her eye. Now nervous, his hand shook a bit as he performed the spell, but his look was one of determination. Noelle wouldn't be surprised either if he did perform well in transfiguration. He enjoyed changing his appearance and dressing up often, and he liked decorating things around his dorm for the holidays.
Sure enough, his eyebrows darkened from an emerald green into a deep purple. He looked up at McGonagall for approval. She nodded and moved on. "Well done Mr. Emerson."
Noelle breathed a sigh of relief as she moved out of earshot and shared a look with Kade. He closed up his book and leaned back. "Well, I expect to hear all about your date."
Noelle rolled her eyes as she tried once more to change her eyebrows. "If there's anything to tell, don't worry, you'll be one of the first to hear of it."
Biting her lip, she tuned out the rest of the classroom. Feeling her brow tickle, she looked over excitedly, pointing at her forehead. "Did I do it?"
Kade peered at her and shook his head. "Nope. Maybe you're trying too hard?"
She pouted and slouched. "Story of my life."
Paul, who had been at the bathroom, came back and sat next to Kade, sparing them both a glance. "Nice eyebrows Noelle. Did you mean to make the left one bigger than the right?"
"What?!" She reached up with a quiet shriek, feeling her eyebrows. Kade and Paul both laughed and she glared at them. "Oh, ha ha." Her arms fell to her sides.
"No worries Noelle." Kade chuckled. "You'll get it."
She turned forwards, focused again. Or, as focused as she could force herself to be at the time. Her mind was strained in multiple directions as she thought of the days ahead.