Chapter 4 Book I Arc II

Ptolemy Soter had a headache. He sighed as he sat back in his seat in the library, Bartimaeus at his right, the only non-Ravenclaw in the small group surrounding him. Affa, Penrenutet, Teti, and Methys all shared the same House, and had gathered around him as a nuclear group since first year. He had no idea why. When it came to things like this, the short, dark skinned, frizzy haired boy was completely lost. Regardless, it had become another part of what he loved about Hogwarts. He had friends, interesting classes, and a large library to spend his free hours in. It was so different from when he was at home.

It wasn't that he didn't love his home and his family, because he did. Honestly though, it just got…overwhelming sometimes. With all the people, the noise, the protocol, and the formalities that came with being part of an ancient pureblood family. Not to mention the itchy dress robes. He hated the itchy dress robes with a passion. Hogwarts was definitely a much needed break from having to deal with the summer social scene. And the family reunion. And his cousins. And how much everyone drank. Just thinking about it all made him sigh, causing Bartimaeus to look at him.

"Something wrong Ptol?"

And just like that, the other four looked up from their respective books at him as well. He smiled softly, shaking his head.

"No, nothing's wrong. I'm just happy to be back here with you guys," he said quietly, picking his Ancient Runes textbook back up to hide the smile on his face, as he watched Bartimaeus roll his eyes.

"You're a real sap sometimes, you know," he snickered. Ptolemy just shook his head continuing to smile, before he immersed himself back into his book once more.

He managed to get another ten minutes of reading before Bartimaeus got visibly bored, leaning back into his chair, making it squeak obnoxiously.

Another five minutes and the Hufflepuff had his wand out, muttering things under his breath so it shot out tiny colourful sparkles.

Two minutes later, Ptolemy looked to his side again to see that Bartimaeus had transfigured his quill into a squirrel. He raised his eyebrows at him.

Thirty seconds later and he was up and out of his chair, leaning over Bartimaeus' lap in an attempt to snatch the wand out of his hand. He could see now that his friend was trying to set the transfigured squirrel on the pair of seventh years that had just walked in, and he had to stop him.

"Don't you dare," he said. His voice stayed quiet as he continued to try and work the wand out of the Hufflepuff's hand. "We are in the library. You do not need to be starting fights on the first day. Well, anymore than you already have. You don't need more detentions -"

"Well, well, Bartimaeus! Good to see you. Had a good summer? Heard you already got more than a few detentions…also shouldn't the two of you know by now that you can't fuck around in the library?" And there was Faquarl. Ptolemy sighed, rolling his eyes as he shot Bartimaeus a last warning glance. He got up off of the Hufflepuff's lap, and went back to his own seat.

"We weren't fucking, Faquarl. I was trying to stop him from doing something stupid," Ptolemy replied blandly, before bringing his book back up to the front of his face, effectively cutting off any answer from Faquarl. Not that he had anything against the Slytherin seventh year himself. It was just that when you got him, Jabor, and Bartimaeus in one room together, well…things usually went crazy pretty fast. There had been many memorable incidents between the three of them, after all. Well, mainly just between Bart and Faquarl, as Jabor mostly was there for muscle. Not the least of them being the "Ink Incident" in first year, the "Carriage Accident" of third year, the whole mess with the Black Lake and greenhouse four in fourth year. Last year had featured the two of them locked in a prank war for a month, until the teachers finally got fed up with them. It had become pretty much assumed by the entire student body that Bart and Faquarl were a 'thing,' at least at some point, although as far as Ptolemy knew neither of the two seventh years had done anything to encourage or discourage rumors of such. He had been hoping that the two of them would finally just start avoiding each other after the mess that they had caused at the leaving feast last year; especially since they would both finally be graduating. Unfortunately, it seemed that the two just couldn't avoid annoying each other.

Though he tried to distract himself from them once again with his book, the unmistakable coughing and foot tapping of Honorius caught his attention, once again. Looking up with slight annoyance, he felt his eyebrows rise up in surprise at what he saw before him; somehow in the short timespan he had been looking away, the transfigured squirrel had ended up on Jabor's head, Bartimaeus was being held in a headlock by Faquarl, Faquarl himself had somehow ended up sporting a new bright pink color of hair, and the other Ravenclaws had by now abandoned their books in order to place bets on the fiasco at hand. He couldn't help but wonder how they had managed to end up like this in less than five minutes. Jabor didn't even look terribly bothered by the squirrel on his head; he was feeding it bits from a sandwich he had been hiding in his bag. His attention moved back now to the skeletal librarian who continued to sear them with an affronted look; the man flicked his wand, changing Faquarl's hair back to its natural color, and turning the poor squirrel back into a quill much to Jabor's muted dismay.

"I want all of you damn kids out of my library. Now!" Honorius snapped sharply, glaring at the group from across the room. "That includes you!" He continued, turning towards the Ravenclaws and causing Affa to jump in surprise, before they scattered. They made a smart choice, knowing when to run.

Ptolemy sighed and quickly packed up his things, as Bartimaeus sulked back over to him. Faquarl and Jabor had also made a hasty exit with the other Ravenclaws, not wanting to test Honorius as well.

"Sorry about that," the older boy mumbled, stuffing his hands into his pockets as they left the library. Ptolemy shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. What was that even about anyways? Why did you put the squirrel onto Jabor's head?" he asked, looking up at Bartimaeus from the corner of his eye. The taller boy shrugged.

"I was aiming for Faquarl's head actually. My aim was off," he replied, causing Ptolemy to blink.

"And why were you trying to put a squirrel onto Faquarl's face...?" He let the sentence trail off as he looked up at his friend, trying to keep a straight face. Sometimes the things Bart did amazed even him, and that was saying something. Especially considering the things Ptolemy had seen him do over the past six years.

"Well technically I was trying to put it into his mouth because he wouldn't shut up. Moving on though, did you see what Khaba was wearing today? It was just so... pink! I swear, I nearly went blind in his class today!" Bartimaeus exclaimed, waving his hands around for emphasis. Ptolemy couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head.

"Still, you shouldn't have tried to put a squirrel in his mouth. Remember last time, with the prank war? I'm guessing you also remember all those detentions we already have too. Did I mention the NEWTs this year too? We need to concentrate on important things; or should I say, you need to concentrate things…and seriously? Was it that bad?" he asked, letting his curiosity finally get the better of him now. Because honestly, what kind of teacher would wear pink robes?

Bartimaeus nodded, snickering. "Oh he'll get over it. And hey, what's more detentions to me now? But yeah, it really was that bad Ptol. Seriously the robes were-" He paused, and Ptolemy tilted his head, wondering why the other had stopped talking. That was, before he nearly yelped as he was pulled into an alcove.

"Shhh, there he is!" The Hufflepuff whispered in his ear, throwing a hand over his mouth before he could protest. He shivered; now Ptolemy wasn't one to lie to himself, and he certainly wasn't about to start now. However he had been finding it hard to admit for a while now the true nature of his feelings for who he considered to be his best friend. He had been finding it hard for the past three years, in fact. Not that it mattered now or anything, as he saw the almost blindingly bright pink robes of the new DADA professor enter into his vision. All thoughts of such things flew clean from his mind at the sight of that.

The robes were quite possibly, the most eye-searingly bright shade of pink he had ever laid eyes upon. Ptolemy felt the need to blink several times before eventually coming to a squint. He heard Bartimaeus snickering quietly against his ear, and he was hard pressed not to do the same. He couldn't see why anyone let alone a teacher would ever wear robes of that colour. Aside from that though, he had to admit that they were cut in the latest fashion style at least…although the matching turban did seem to be just a bit much. As he stayed with his eyes squinted he noticed something else too, and leaning back against Bartimaeus, he whispered to him.

"Is it just me, or does Khaba's shadow seem a little...off to you?" He felt Bartimaeus shift, leaning over the top of his head now to squint at the passing professor, before pulling back into the alcove quickly, tugging Ptolemy further back with him.

"It looked at me! His fucking shadow turned and looked at me!" he hissed into his ear, as the frazzled Ptolemy turned to look up at his friend frowning.

"What do you mean it looked at you?" He asked brows furrowing, as he watched him peek around the corner to look at the receding back of the pink robed professor again.

"I mean that his shadow stopped walking, and the head literally turned around and looked straight at me Ptol! I know I've seen a lot of weird shit since starting school here, but that has got to be one of the freakiest things yet," he said, before looking down at the Ravenclaw. Ptolemy watched as Bartimaeus eyes went wide, as it seemed he finally realized how close they were standing. Alright, so it was slightly amusing. Bartimaeus stepped back quickly, only to accidentally bang his back into the wall.

"…Ah. So. Well…sorry about grabbing you like that..." he mumbled wincing, scratching the back of his head in sheepishness. Ptolemy grinned.

"Don't worry about it Rekhyt, it's fine," he said, before they both fell silent. Bartimaeus instinctively grabbed him again as a group of giggling Gryffindor girls walked past. The Ravenclaw felt his cheeks burn as he looked up at his best friend of the past six years. The sound of the girls finally receded away down the hall.

"I, uhm…" Ptolemy found himself stammering.

"Sorry," he mumbled letting go once again.

"I said it's okay."

"…What?"

"It's okay."

"So it's…"

"I'm fine with it."

"Okay, so uhm…"

That was all that Bartimaeus said, before leaning forwards just enough to press his lips against Ptolemy's, cutting off any more words from either of them.

Ptolemy's face was still red when he sat at the Ravenclaw table for dinner, and the questioning looks he was receiving from Methys weren't helping. Neither were the obnoxious eyebrow wiggles that Bartimaeus kept sending his way all the way over from the Hufflepuff table.

"So, did something finally happen?" asked Affa bluntly, causing Ptolemy to drop his fork.

"I'm sorry, but…what?" he replied, trying to mask the current state of his emotions, and failing terribly. His eyes flickering down so he didn't have to face his snickering friends.

"Damn. Another month and I would've won the pot," Penrenutet muttered, before getting the back of his head smacked by Methys.

"Oh don't whine. We all figured that Queezle would win the pot anyways," she said, before returning her attention to the book on her lap and the food on her table, curiosity sated. Ptolemy meanwhile slowly put his head down on the table, wondering how long this had been going on. He looked up frowning though when someone flicked his head, only to see Affa staring at him pointedly. He sighed.

"Yes Affa, something did happen. I mean, after our first detention anyway, we're going to go to Hogsmeade together, so…yeah," the boy said, before letting his face fall back into his hands once again, as he watched a few flashes of gold pass through the hands of his friends. He really did not want to know what bet that was about now. He'd had an eventful enough first day back as is, and could only hope that the rest of the week would pass by more smoothly. All he had to do was make it through his first (literally, his first) detention unharmed and sane, and he would be fine. The odds of that were looking questionable though…for now, he just wanted to eat dinner and then go straight to bed. So of course, that was what Ptolemy did.

A/n: Hey look, I didn't take forever to update! This chapter has actually been ready to post since Thursday but I wanted to get more of chapter seven written before posting it. Again, thanks to the lovely, glowing lampshade that is Jojo for editing this chapter. And nice reviews make me really happy to get okay.