On Wednesday, the students of Hogwarts had legs of jello. Having run the mile on Monday (which they were not used to), they weren't the happiest bunch of kids to teach. Especially in first period Charms where Professor Flitwick was having a hard time getting his students to focus on something other than their next period.
"Now, when you want to summon something, what is the number one thing you have to remember?" he asked the class in his squeaky little voice. Nobody raised their hand, including Hermione, who was slumped back in her chair, gazing out the window to the track that was fixated permanently in her mind.
"Anybody? Oh, honestly, you have to have some idea," the tiny professor pressed. Again, nobody raised their hand, or called out the answer.
"Ms. Granger, please enlighten us."
Hermione jumped as all eyes in the room turned to her.
"Uh, well, you, um," she stammered, searching for both the question and the answer in her brain. She looked around at the students, as though they would have the answer written on their faces. She suddenly stopped looking and thinking and decided on something else; make it up. "Well, when you summon something, you can't have bad thoughts floating around, such as…running the mile in extremely cold weather in about thirty seconds." This was greeted with giggles and chuckles from the students and Professor Flitwick shaking his head.
"No, Ms. Granger, that is-" Professor Flitwick started, but was cut off by the bell, signaling the start of third period, since Wednesday was an odd-number-periods day.
The students groaned and hurried out the classroom, down three flights of staircases, out the double doors, and across the grounds. When the students reached the gym, the boys and girls split into two groups; girls going left to the girl's locker room, boys going left to the boy's locker room.
"See you in a sec!" Hermione called to Harry and Ron while being pushed and shoved through the double doors. She didn't hear there reply, if they did at all, for she had been shoved so hard she made it through the crowd and rammed into the wall inside the room. It had rows and rows of lockers in sections. Gryffindors on the far left, Ravenclaws in the middle-left, Hufflepuffs in the middle-right, and Slytherins on the far right, each locker with their house colors on them.
"Hey Hermione!" said the very flexible girl, Lindsey. She had Ms. Kvidahl, the lucky dog. Lindsey was in Ravenclaw, so her locker was across from Hermione's, and blue, unlike Hermione's red one.
"Hey Linds," Hermione replied, kneeling down to her locker, which was on the bottom, of course.
"ermione, have you heard? Ginny's going out with Michael!" said a third year named Emily, who was Ashley's little sister, but only younger by two months. Her locker was on the top and in the same row as Hermione's. Emily had to stand on the bench to reach her locker.
"No, I haven't," Hermione replied, pulling her locker open and pulling her clothes out. She loosened up her tie and unbuttoned her shirt, all the while saying, "Which Michael?"
"Umm, Harp I think," Emily replied, doing the same as Hermione.
"Ooo, someone's dating Michael? I used to have a crush on him back in first year!" Jenny said. Her locker was exactly next to Hermione's.
Emily and Jenny then started gossiping about who liked who and who was with whom. Hermione sighed; she really didn't like locker room chat, it was annoying.
"Locker room chat is so annoying," she said, pulling on her gym shorts and walking out of the locker room.
When she got out, her instinct was to walk over to Harry and Ron, but didn't. Instead, she sat next to Luna and was almost immediately joined by Ginny, Jenny, and Ashley.
"Em, go away!" Ashley whined as Emily walked over.
"Miniscule Sousa! Huggums!" said Jenny holding out her arms for a hug.
"Why do you guys like my sister more than I do?" Ashley asked.
Jenny scoffed. "'Cause she's cool, that's why. And you're not supposed to like her. It's the law of sisterhood."
"Oh, yeah, I guess."
"Fine, if I'm so unwanted and unloved, I'll just leave. I love you Ashley!" Emily said, walking over to her gang of giggling girlfriends.
"Gee, someone likes alliteration," Ashley muttered.
"Not as much as Robert Rodriguez! His kids are named Rebel, Racer, Rocket, and Rogue Rodriguez," Jenny said matter-of-factly.
"Who?" Hermione asked.
"Your mom," Jenny said and continued to talk with Ashley. Hermione rolled her eyes – they really were immature, but in a good way.
"ROLL CALL!" Professor Whipple cried. Immediately, the students got up and walked to their spots and sat.
"Everyone! Two laps around the blacktop!" she yelled throughout the gym. Nobody moved. They were all thinking the same thing: "We have a blacktop?"
"Oh, for the love of God. It's outside – obviously – you can't miss it."
Echoes of "oh" and "ok" were heard as the students got up and walked out the doors of the gym towards the general direction of the blacktop that nobody knew they had.
"How is it that we're all heading in the general direction of the blacktop if nobody knows we even had one in the first place?" Hermione asked Harry, him and Ron having caught up with her.
"Why do people keep saying things that sound oddly familiar? And why do these two keep showing up? We don't even know them!" Ron shrieked in a girlish manner.
"Yeah, you do. We hang around with Hermione all the time, or are you too oblivious to notice?" Jenny said.
"Huh? Did you say something?" Ron said obliviously. "Oh yeah, you're Ashley and you're Jennifer, right?"
Jenny stopped dead in her tracks. "What did you just call me?" she hissed through gritted teeth. It was a very frightening sight.
"Jen, he didn't mean it," Ashley said, placing a hand on Jenny's shoulder.
"Oh, no you didn't!" Jenny charged at Ron.
"Is she nuts?" Ron said running around to the other side of Harry and then over to Hermione as Jenny chased him.
"Uh, I wouldn't go so far as 'nuts' but 'short-tempered,'" Ashley said matter-of-factly, trying to keep Jenny within eyesight. "Now, Jenny, do you really want him to see you acting like this?"
Jenny stopped chasing Ron. She stopped walking and all emotion was completely wiped from her face as her eyes widened at the fact of him seeing her acting like a maniac.
"Uh, we'll meet you down at back in the gym," Jenny muttered, grabbing Ashley's arm and fast-walking away from the Trio.
As Jenny thought of what him would think, Harry's heart sank. She likes someone else? he thought. But I could've sworn…
"Ah, now wasn't that refreshing?" Whipple said in a false-cheery voice. The students scowled on her direction. "Well, isn't this a cranky bunch."
The students took their seats on their roll-call numbers and sat down, doing the "butterfly" stretch. The teachers took roll by walking up and down next to all the rows and checking the student off on a clipboard, unlike all the other professors.
"Ok, my class, Kvidahl's class, and Whipple's class, go lean up against the left wall; Osborne and Rechebong, the right wall," Professor Page called. Immediately, the students did as ordered. Slytherins, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws were all mixed together as the students lined up.
"Ok, now, I want you to get into groups of eight within the classes that you're with," he said. Some students emitted groans, but others did what he said almost instantly. Hermione grouped together with Jenny, Ashley, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Luna, and Ginny's boyfriend, Michael.
"Ok, now, you all are gonna line up in single file lines on this blue line here-" Page pointed down to a blue line that touched one end of the gym and continued to the other "- and then wait until I…or one of the teachers instructs you to do anything."
The students moved in a giant blob to one end of the gym and sat down, talking amongst themselves about the task that was yet to come.
Jenny was seated behind Harry, which made his stomach do flip-flops and his cheeks blush. Harry was seated behind Ron, who was behind Hermione, who was first. Ginny, Luna, and Michael brought up the rear…in that order.
"Hey, Harry," Jenny whispered, which did her no good considering nobody was paying attention, "do you want to-"
"Ok," Professor Rechebong called, "the ones, threes, fives and sevens are going to run down to the other end of the gym and roll the dice. Whatever you get you're going to times by two and do that many jumping jacks. The evens will roll the dice and do that many push-ups." At her words some of the students switched spots with others, including Michael, who switched with Luna.
"When all of the people in your team have gone, you may sit down."
"And may I add, Professor," Whipple started, "you will not sit until the last person has- Hey, you chatty people over there!" Her attention went to the Trio's group where they were still talking. "Shut up before I stop chuckin' things at cha!"
Students in the vicinity snickered.
"HEY! WHEN I'M TALKING YOU'RE NOT!" Professor Page yelled randomly and angstily.
"But you weren't talk-" Luna started.
"I said NO TALKING!" Page yelled.
"Sheesh, PMS-ing much," she muttered, but just loud enough for her group to hear.
"Oh, my God, now stand up and do what I said, I have a migraine," Rechebong said, massaging her temples and blowing her whistle.
Immediately, almost sixty students ran down to one end of the gym and rolled their dice, doing jumping jacks. Hermione had apparently rolled "1" since she came back after only two jumping jacks.
Now it was Ron's turn. He ran down, rolled the dice, and his jaw dropped to the floor. He held up six fingers to his group.
"Oh, please, six push-ups? What a wuss!" Hermione shrieked from the back of the line.
Ron ungratefully got down on the floor, did two push-ups and collapsed along with more than half of the rest of the students. All the teachers instantly pulled their wands out and zapped the students, making them smell like fish.
"Great," Harry said. "Now it smells like fish."
Ron groaned and ran back, still not having done six full push-ups.
"Go Harry!" Jenny yelled as Ron crossed the blue line and slapped Harry's hand. Harry turned around to look at her and she smiled broadly at him, giving him a thumb's up sign.
"I love this class," he muttered.
After about ten minutes of jumping-jacks and push-ups, a group of eight Hufflepuffs had sat down, winning that round.
Whipple blew her whistle. "Ok, that was…interesting," she started. "Now, in this one you're going to have to carry one person...like, give them a piggy-back ride."
Harry immediately turned to Jenny, but she didn't notice, for she was exchanging glances with Ashley. Ron looked at Harry and Hermione looked at Ron. Ginny and Michael looked at each other and Luna was staring at the ceiling muttering, "I want a cookie."
"Ok, we need a plan," Hermione said. "Michael can carry Ginny-"
"No he can't," Ron said automatically. Michael, who was standing next to Ron, took a giant step away from him and grinned in his direction, only making Ron's scowl more pronounce.
"Ron, yes he can. We don't have a choice," Hermione replied, raising her tone so he wouldn't fight back.
Ron crossed his arms in front of his chest and scowled at Michael, but didn't say anything.
Hermione rolled her eyes like she always did and continued lecturing, like she always did. "Ok, Michael will carry Ginny. Umm, Ron, you can carry…me, I guess. Ashley, will you be able to carry Luna?"
"Heck yes I will!" Ashley replied, giving Luna a high-five.
"Umm, ok," Hermione said, frightened by Ashley's happy hyperness. "And Harry, you can carry Jenny," Hermione finished, not at all taking into account how both Harry and Jenny's faces went scarlet as they looked at each other. Ashley, however, was grinning like a maniac in Jenny's direction. Actually, she was grinning like a maniac at everyone, which was kinda creepy.
"Ok, ready…GO!" Professor Whipple called and she blew her whistle. First up for the Trio's group was Ashley and Luna. Ashley ran down to one end of the gym, turned to come back…and fell, with Luna coming down on top of her.
Across the gym, Whipple pointed at them and laughed openly.
Harry turned his attention away from his group and over to the Slytherin-occupied section of the gym where he could see Goyle trying to carry Crabbe. Crabbe was yelling at Goyle and trying to tell him to go faster, but no sound emerged because if they can't talk in canon, than they can't talk in fictionous stories…but that is completely beside the point.
Anyhoo, Malfoy was leaning against the wall, looking very sexy with his hair falling in front of his face, watching his troll-like cronies struggling with a look of disgust on his face. He was obviously too cool for this and was going to stand around and play with his belly button.
"I'm obviously too cool for this and I'm going to stand around and play with my belly button," he muttered while playing with his belly button.
"Harry," said a soft voice from behind him, tearing his gaze away from the sexy Malfoy (though Harry didn't think that, just the author).
"Huh?" he said, turning around. It was Jenny. For some odd reason she was blushing like mad and biting her bottom lip.
"Umm…we're next…and last," she replied, not making eye contact.
"Oh…ok, then," Harry replied, also blushing furiously and not looking at her.
Ron and Hermione could be seen coming closer to them by the second. Harry wished they would stop going so fast and slow down just so he didn't have to-
"Go Harry! We can win! Go!" Hermione shrieked, jumping off of Ron.
Harry and Jenny exchanged awkward glances. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by something heavy on his back.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked, very close to his ear. "Go!"
Harry ran. He didn't register a thing of why he was running or what they were doing. All he registered was how close she was to him. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist. Her head was resting on his shoulder and he could feel her every breath on his ear. He tried his sudden desire to leave the gym and carry her away to-
THE AUTHORS OF THIS STORY WOULD LIKE TO KEEP THIS STORY AT A SAFE RATING FOR ALL AGES, SO WE WOULD LIKE FOR OUR MATURE READERS TO PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER AND FIGURE OUT WHAT EXACTLY IT IS HARRY WANTS. I MEAN, JUST BECAUSE HE'S A CHARACTER IN A BOOK DOESN'T MEAN HE DOESN'T HAVE RAGNG HORMONES.
"Harry! We won!" Ginny yelled, jumping up and down as they crossed the blue line. "What do we win?"
"No-run pass," Osborne said, handing them each one. "Ok, you can go change; we're out of time thanks to some people." He looked mainly at the Slytherins, for all of them had taken up on what Malfoy was doing and started playing with their belly buttons too.
Harry hadn't comprehended a word of what anyone was saying for his eyes were fixed on Jenny, unblinkingly.
"So, uh, we won…I guess," he said.
"Yeah," she replied quietly. "I guess we did." She managed a half-smile and disappeared into the crowd of girls heading into the girl's locker room.
Harry smiled belatedly behind her and walked into the boy's locker room thinking, I really love this class.