A/N: Hello, yes I'm back! Thank you so much for every review, follow and favourite so far. Every kind of response makes me very happy, so keep telling me what you think
I will try to update at least once a week to not keep you guys waiting so long, but for now, back to the story. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Two – Of Blue Birds and Silver Knights
The first week of school went by quickly and without any noteworthy interruptions for Joanna, though she could feel the increased degree of difficulty comparing her N.E.W.T classes to her O.W.L ones from last year. That realization caused her to already start throwing herself deep into studying, which even earned her strange looks from some fellow Ravenclaw students, who spotted her in the common room absolutely absorbed in her work.
Sometimes she was able to make out their hushed whispers as they talked to each other after noticing her. The words nerd, swot and overachiever, she was able to make out more than once, but that was nothing new. A few times she deciphered something like "Oh, look, Miss Perfect at her favourite activity again…" or "Miss Perfect started early this year, even by her standards…" That nickname had stuck with her since third year. It had been the term she ranked in all of her classes under the best three students for the first time and on top of that started to prove her talent as Chaser in Quidditch matches.
They viewed her as this obnoxious and annoyingly perfect little girl, but she was certain that she was very far from being perfect. What they never actually saw was that she didn't like studying so hard, she has never done this for fun. To maintain her grades, though, she needed to work probably twice as hard as any other student who received similar ones. Joanna had to sacrificed her entire free time, or else she would fall back into a quite average field, and displease her father tremendously in the process. She would bring so much shame to her family if she would fail to reach the appropriate grades to get the expected position in the Ministry, like everyone in her family before her.
But still, "Miss Perfect" was not a cute little nickname, or a complement, it was meant as a sardonic insult, maliciously uttered behind her back. Or, depending on the person, sometimes directly to her face. Especially many of her housemates loved to use that name for her.
While some may think that Ravenclaws carry a different mindset regarding an extensive strive for excellent grades, they could be as judgemental as everyone else. Occasionally they were even worse, because many felt an additional envy or resentment towards individuals who were better than them. It's all about academic success with the blue Eagles, and while most of them are really hard-working and diligent, a few would probably sell their own grandmothers without the slightest qualm, if that would help them to come out on top of everyone else.
Joanna had seen often enough with her own eyes how one housemate stabbed the other ruthlessly in the back when the opportunity arose to profit from it, which lead her to distrust most of her fellow Ravenclaws. Dorcas was the only one she let herself truly trust enough to call her a friend. Not that she actually had any time for other friends.
Although they did often learn together, this early into the term Dorcas would usually keep Joanna silently company in the common room when she worked, not seeing the need for starting herself yet. Today was Saturday though, and she was probably spending her first weekend in Hogwarts catching up with one of her other friends.
That meant Joanna spend the whole day alone with her books in the Ravenclaw Tower. She didn't really mind, because she loved it's tranquil atmosphere.
Their common room was round in shape and the clear lines of the interior design reminded of old Greek architecture. Mostly light colours had been used, white and cream tones, the expected blue and bronze only appearing as little highlights in between.
During the daytime, light flooded through the enormous windows, which also provided the inhabitants with the best view Hogwarts had to offer. Looking down upon the grounds from one of the Ravenclaw Tower windows you could effortlessly imagine yourself being a bird.
Every now and then Joanna's attention would stray away from the black ink words of one of her many books, distracted by an actual bird flying by one of these tall windows. Then, she would always allow her dark green eyes to follow it for a few moments, mesmerized by its beauty and envying it for its carefreeness, until she ultimately chided herself for getting side-tracked that easily and forces her attention back to her book.
Caught in one of those little moments again this Saturday evening, she wasn't the one who brought herself back into reality, but a silhouette which appeared suddenly in her field of vision.
"Joanna, Georgina Ashworth just talked in the Great Hall about how you are paired up with Regulus Black in this strange new plan for the Prefects this year, is that true?"
Joanna recognized the disgruntled sounding voice immediately as Dorcas, but her vision needed several seconds to adjust, after being so suddenly torn away from her little daydream. She looked up at the blond girl, whose brilliant blue eyes were fixed on her, demanding an answer.
"Um… yes?" she replied without confidence, not sure of why that caused so much irritation in her friend.
Dorcas huffed in annoyance and let herself slide into the chair across from Joanna. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Still confused about the anger she seemed to have brought over Dorcas unsuspectedly, she just shrugged. "I'm sorry, I just did not deem it relevant enough to mention."
Dorcas gave her an incredulous look. "Not relevant enough? Are you kidding me?" Seeing the puzzled expression appear on Joanna's face, she leaned a little over the table and continued speaking in a hushed voice. "Jo, haven't you heard all these horrible rumours about him?"
"Oh come on Dorcas, you don't really listen to such vicious gossip, do you?" Joanna shot back in disbelief.
She shrugged. "Normally not, Jo, you know that, but with all the things they say about him and a few of his Slytherins friends, there has to be some truth to at least a few of those rumours."
"And that truth would be?"
Dorcas sighed exasperated. "I don't really know, okay? I mean, they say a lot of atrocious stuff about him. That he and his friends curse first years in dark corridors, that he used a Cruciatus on someone last year. Some even say he belongs that group of pure-blood fanatic Slytherins who already swore their allegiance to Voldemort."
Joanna looked at her doubtfully. "Do you really believe all that?"
"As I said, I don't really know what to believe and what not," groaned Dorcas "I just know that I would trust that guys as far as I can throw him. And you need to do rounds with him tonight, don't you?"
Frowning, Joanna gave a short nod. She had almost forgotten that their first round together had been scheduled for today.
"See, I'm just concerned," said Dorcas gently. "I don't have a good feeling about leaving you alone with him for half of the night."
Smiling softly at her friend, Joanna shook her head lightly, "Oh, please don't worry, Dorcas. I'm not trying to argue that he appears to be a rather unpleasant guy, but I doubt that any of these rumours are true. Don't you think Dumbledore would know, if that was the case? He would have already been expelled from school long ago. All this gossip just emerges from these stupid prejudices we all have against each other and that we need to overcome at some point. You now, I think that's exactly what this odd Inter-House friendship endeavour tries to achieve. Maybe this will actually turn out to be a good thing."
Dorcas didn't seem quite convinced. "Whatever you say, Jo. All I ask is that you promise me to watch your back when you're alone with him, okay? And, of course, that you tell me of something like this next time."
Joanna warm smile grew a little wider at seeing how much Dorcas seemed to genuinely care about her wellbeing.
"Promised."
When Joanna arrived at the entrance to the Great Hall later that evening to meet up with her new Prefect partner, she already spotted him waiting for her. He hadn't noticed her yet, which gave her time to stop to quickly check her watch, scared she might be already late.
No, she wasn't too late, he was just over-punctual.
Feeling quite relieved by that, she began to approach him once more.
He finally noticed her presence when she was only a few feet away from him. Looking up, he immediately fixated her with his gaze. While his expression was as emotionless as ever, his steel coloured eyes looked at her in the same way they did on the train. Definitely not happy to see her.
"Green, right?", he asked, sounding quite annoyed.
Joanna just nodded like some dense dimwit, not finding herself able to utter a coherent sentence, let alone one word, with those judgemental, piercing grey eyes staring her down.
He raised an eyebrow at her sheepish reaction, but apparently decide to ignore it. "Then let's get this over and done with."
Without another word, he released her from his gaze and took off in the direction of the stairs. Joanna shook off the embarrassment of how stupid she acted and hurried to follow him.
After their initial encounter Joanna thought she would not be able to bear a whole night of awkward tension in his company, but she was mistaken. They quickly settled into tolerable silence, as they walked side by side through the corridors. It helped that she wasn't able to see the aversion he felt towards her in his eyes from this angle. She could work with the silence.
It was long after curfew and they still hadn't exchange another word, when Joanna noticed a dark figure at the far end of the dimly lit corridor they traversed.
"Black," she addressed him in a hushed voice, placing a hand lightly on his arm to get his attention.
He jerked slightly under her touch, but swiftly turned to her with a sneer on his face. "What? Suddenly the mute is able to talk?"
Joanna raised a finger to her lips, her forest green eyes flashing warningly.
"Shhh! Don't be so loud, there is someone," she whispered lowly and then pulled her finger away again to point in the direction of her discovery. "Can't you see?"
The figure stood exactly at the same spot, unmoving.
The sneer faded from Black's features as he concentrated on the area she had pointed out to him.
Joanna looked at him expectantly. They needed to be careful about this if they wanted to find out who it was that dared to roam through the school this late after curfew. His reaction, though, was far from what she had expected-
He suddenly broke out into roaring laughter.
Shocked at his unforeseen behaviour, Joanna found herself only able to stare at him. Never even once had she seen a genuine smile on his face, hearing him all of the sudden burst out laughing like a mad man was immensely surreal to her. His usually frosty façade had not only cracked, but shattered completely in an blink of an eye.
Black needed a few moments to collect himself again. Still chuckling a little, he ran a hand through his short black hair and let his eyes, which missed the former resentful expression and instead held a few tears from extensive laughing, focus on Joanna.
"Oh yes, Green, I think that armour stand over their deserves at least two weeks of detention for being outside his dormitory at this scandalously late hour."
Baffled, Joanna tried to block out the obviously very amused Black for a second and approached the still unmoving, shady figure. It couldn't be… or could it?
Oh, it definitely could.
Standing merely a few feet away from it, she was now able to make out its polished metal skin. It was not a human being, it was only a decorative stand wearing a set of knight's amour.
Groaning heavily, Joanna buried her face in her hands, feeling the embarrassment wash over her for the second time this day and beginning to seriously doubt her level of intelligence. Behind her back, she could hear Black laughing a little again, while beginning to catch up to her.
Deciding to ignore him she stared sheepishly at the knight in front of her.
She sensed Black's presence directly behind her, as he leaned in a bit to whisper into her ear. "Do you think we should take him directly to Dumbledore? That bloke is not only extremely dodgy, but also has quite the dangerous look about him, don't you think?"
His voice had adopted a teasing tone and his warm breath against her ear caused a shiver to run through her body. She jerked away from his sudden physical closeness and turned around to face him. "Very funny, Black. Glad to know that my stupidity is so highly amusing to you."
He gave her a cocky half-smile. "That it is. Though I have to say I am quite surprised. I heard that you are supposed to be the smartest witch in our year. A proper Miss Perfect."
Joanna huffed in annoyance. She felt the urge to throw every awful rumour she had ever heard about him at his smug face, but, remembering she was indeed alone with him in an abandoned corridor, managed to contain herself and instead settled for a false smile and frosty sarcasm.
"You're welcome, but I think our round is over for today. Thank you for your wonderful company and have a pleasant remaining night."
She immediately turned around and walked away from him without another word, beginning to make her way purposefully back to the Ravenclaw Tower. Before she could vanish around the corner, she heard him shout out: "You are quite the peculiar Ravenclaw, Green. Until next time!"
Back at her dormitory, Dorcas was still awake, apparently waiting for her return. When she saw Joanna enter, she sighed in relief. "You're not dead. That's good."
Joanna let herself unceremoniously fall onto her bed. "Yup."
"How did it go?"
Groaning unhappily, she popped herself up one elbow to look at Dorcas. "Great. I'm stupid, but don't worry, he is just an arse."
Dorcas gave her a questioning look. "Should I even ask further?"
"Nope."
"Okay, I won't, but know that you can tell me if you want to. Sleep well, Jo."
Joanna muttered a "You too." and tried to do just that, but when she closed her eyes, all she could see was a pair of amused looking, piercing grey eyes before her mind's eye.
How very peculiar.