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Chapter Thirteen: Who Really Did It?
To say that Juniper disliked being confined in a hospital bed was a massive understatement. She absolutely despised it and was only allowed to leave the bed in order to use the nearest lavatory. She couldn't wait for Monday so that she could be out of this infernal place and she still had about two more days to spend here, which made her wish that her burns would heal faster. Late that night, Juniper struggled to sleep, but no matter which way she turned, the bed was unbearably uncomfortable. She lay awake, staring at the ceiling, listening to the two other people, who had been admitted to the Infirmary earlier that evening, snore lightly.
Juniper was about to reach towards one of the bedside tables in order to grab a Sugar Quill, for if she couldn't sleep, she might as well stuff her face, when she felt a strange vibration on her wrist, coming from her rose-gold watch that her maternal grandmother had given her for her fourteenth birthday. At first, she didn't know why it would be doing such a thing, then she remembered the Protean Charm and that it had been enchanted to vibrate whenever James was trying to contact her. She picked up her wand from the bedside table and tapped the watch lightly, which caused James to appear in its face.
"Sleep must be a foreigner to you right now." He gave Juniper his usual cheeky grin.
Juniper ran her fingers through her hair, wincing as she snagged a few tangles along the way. "You have no idea. I hate being here. I mean, if I can get up to use the lavatory, I should be able to do other things, right? But Madam Pomfrey doesn't want me doing anything too strenuous."
"Well, you could always sneak out during the night. I do it all the time," James said proudly.
"Yes, but you also have your father's invisibility cloak, so it's easy for you. My parents said that Jaenelle and I couldn't have one until we were of age, which I think is stupid."
James nodded sympathetically. "Your parents are really strict, aren't they?"
"I wouldn't say strict. They just think that my sister and I are too young for some things."
"Invisibility cloaks included, it seems. You know, it's fun to rebel every once in awhile," he smirked. "You could acquire one and hide it from them. What they don't know won't hurt them."
Juniper chuckled. "My parents seem to know that I'm going to do something bad before I even do it." It was an exaggeration, but Juniper never really got away with anything.
James shook his head, feigning disappointment. "It seems I have a lot to teach you."
"Right, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you get detention last weekend because you and your friend, Seth, apparently gave some poor bloke a set of donkey ears and a tail, right in front of McGonagall and she caught you?"
The bespectacled Gryffindor ruffled his hair nervously. "Er...maybe. But he was being a complete git and deserved it."
"Either way, you still suffered the consequences and, therefore, didn't get away with it."
"That's only because I didn't wait until after class when McGonagall wasn't around," James frowned.
Juniper could see that he was getting a little flustered and giggled lightly, thinking it was rather cute, but would never outright say so out loud.
"What are you giggling at?" James smirked.
Juniper blushed. "Nothing," she said quickly.
"I don't believe you. Come on, tell me!" James urged, grinning impishly.
"No!"
"Don't make me sing to you!"
"Dear Merlin, have mercy on my ears!" she begged, covering her mouth with her watch-free hand to keep from laughing too loudly. It was clear that James couldn't carry a tune to save his life.
"Aww, you didn't want to hear my amazing singing voice?" James pretended to be offended. "I was thinking about joining the Frog Choir," he joked.
"I feel sorry for those frogs," Juniper muttered, earning a laugh from the Gryffindor.
"Seriously, though, how's your leg doing?"
"It doesn't hurt at all, which makes me wonder why Madam Pomfrey is so adamant about me staying here all weekend."
"Don't worry about it so much. I'll come visit you tomorrow and Sunday as much as I can, and I'm sure Kaylynn will too."
Juniper pouted. "It's still not the same."
"I know, but at least it's only two more days. You can survive that long."
"I'm not so sure about that."
"Want me to come down there and keep you company for the rest of the night?" James offered.
"No thanks. I think I might try and get some sleep." Juniper knew that she was being a little whiny, but the fact that she was practically bed-ridden the whole weekend was starting to get to her. Not to mention she didn't want to risk James getting caught just because he wanted to keep her company.
"You sure?" Juniper nodded. "Hm...okay then. I guess I'll do the same, but it'll be hard knowing that you're down there all alone."
There was a part of Juniper that did want him to come to the Infirmary and she knew James would do it if she asked him. He'd do it for any of his friends, but the more sensible part of her knew that it wouldn't be right. After they said good night, Juniper tried her best to get back to sleep.
"I bet you're finally glad to be out of here," Kaylynn said through the green curtain, which Juniper was behind. It was now Monday, which meant Juniper had survived the long weekend. Her leg had healed completely without even the smallest trace of a burn scar and, after eating a small breakfast in bed, Juniper was released, although she would have rather eaten breakfast in the Great Hall with everyone else, but beggars couldn't be choosers.
"You have no idea." Juniper buttoned her blouse and tucked it into the black pleated skirt before straightening her black and yellow striped tie and sitting on the bed to slip on her shoes. "I just hope nothing like this happens again."
"I still say that we corner Avery and make her talk."
Juniper rolled her eyes, Kaylynn had been going over this all weekend, even though both Juniper and Eileen pointed out that there was no solid evidence. "I just want to forget about it. I'm still alive, aren't I?"
"Yes, but don't you want revenge on the person who did it?"
"It's hard to get revenge when I don't even know who did it, and stop insisting it was Avery just because of what she said after it happened."
"You're so incorrigible sometimes," Kaylynn muttered as Juniper came out from behind the curtain. The honey-blonde Hufflepuff had Juniper's satchel resting on the chair beside the bed.
"You're one to talk." Juniper immediately felt bad for what she said and sighed. "Sorry, I just want to move past it. There's really nothing I can do."
"There's a lot you can do about it." Yet, Kaylynn's expression softened. "Nevermind, let's just head to Herbology."
Juniper tucked her wand into her robes pocket and picked up her satchel. After being bed-ridden all weekend, she was actually looking forward to her classes. The two girls waved good-bye to Madam Pomfrey before walking out of the Infirmary.
James sat in Charms class, glancing frequently at his watch and bouncing his left leg up and down. Liam, who was sitting next to him, gave him a light kick.
"Would you stop doing that?" he hissed as Professor Flitwick went over the Levitation Charm that they had learned in their first year.
James straightened in his seat and tried to pretend that he was listening. "Sorry."
"What's wrong with you?"
"I'm just bored and don't see why we have to re-learn something we can all do in our sleep."
"Yeah right, you were thinking about Juniper."
"Sure, part of me was," James admitted. After all, she had been freed from her prison known as The Infirmary that morning.
"Is there something wrong, boys?" Professor Flitwick squeaked, addressing the two Gryffindors.
"Sorry, Professor," the two boys said quietly.
"Please pay attention, then." For the rest of the class, the students practiced levitating a feather like they had done in their first year. It was surprising to see that there were still some students who couldn't grasp the correct wand movements or the enunciation of Wingardium Leviosa, even after five years.
Liam lowered the feather for the fifth time after levitating it successfully. "By the way, I asked Jaenelle to the New Years Ball."
"Wingardium Leviosa!" James' feather rose into the air, hovering for a few seconds before he directed it back down. "Isn't a little too early for that?" he asked. "It's not for another two and a half months."
Liam shrugged. "I wanted to ask her before someone else did."
"What did she say?"
"She said she'd have to think about it. That girl is such a damn tease. She'll keep me hanging on a thread until the very last minute."
"Well, it's not the end of the world if she does end up saying no. There are plenty of attractive girls in this school."
"Hm...with how sweet you are on Juniper, I was beginning to think you didn't notice any of the other good looking girls."
"You're kidding, right? I'm not blind, I do notice other girls."
"Could have fooled me." Liam smirked. James chucked the feather at Liam, but it just floated back down onto the table.
"So, what are you going to do if Jaenelle says no?" James asked, glancing at Professor Flitwick to make sure that their Charms teacher didn't notice that they were, more or less, slacking off.
"Go on to the next girl, I guess. You know, I've seen the way Avery looks at you when you pass her in the corridors. Maybe you should ask her.
James grimaced. "I think I'd rather go out with Peeves than someone like her."
Liam shrugged. "Your loss, mate."
"I think I'll live with the disappointment." Why was Liam always trying to push some other girl on him? First it was Jaenelle, then it was Avery. Jaenelle was all right, but James didn't have any sort of feelings for her. Avery, on the other hand, while beautiful, had a personality that didn't sit right with him, and he wasn't about to make himself miserable by asking her to the ball.
James was finally glad when class ended and they were able to head to lunch. Just as he was coming into the Entrance Hall, he happened to see some of the fourth years coming up from the dungeons. Juniper was talking with Kaylynn and Eileen.
"I'll meet you in the Great Hall," James said to his friends before heading over to where the three girls were talking. Kaylynn spotted him first and nudged Juniper, who looked up.
"Hi, ladies," James said, grinning at the three girls. "How was Potions?"
Juniper plucked a piece of lint off of her robes. "It was all right."
"All right?" Kaylynn lifted an eyebrow. "If you call setting Eileen's cauldron on fire all right, then sure."
Juniper glared at the blonde Hufflepuff. "No one got hurt, so it's no big deal," Eileen spoke up quietly.
James shook his head in amusement. "Really, June, I thought our tutoring sessions were going well and I come to learn that you're setting other people's cauldrons on fire?"
"You've done much worse," Juniper muttered, blushing furiously. James smiled impishly and reached over to give her ponytail a playful tug.
"I'm just messing with you."
The familiar sound of a stomach growling interrupted the silence and James, Juniper, and Kaylynn looked at Eileen.
"What are you all staring at?" she asked. "It's just bodily noises, let's just go." There was a small pink tinge on her cheeks. James and Kaylynn followed, but Juniper remained behind.
"You coming, June?" Kaylynn asked, stopping when she noticed her friend wasn't walking.
"I'll meet you guys there in a little bit. I actually have to go send a letter to my parents."
"I'll walk with you," James offered, stepping closer to her, but Juniper shook her head.
"It's fine, I don't want to keep you from your lunch."
"You're not," James insisted.
"No really, I-"
"Let her go by herself," Eileen chimed in. "Besides, it should only take her about five minutes at the most and I don't think there would be any problem with you sitting with us at the Hufflepuff table for a little bit."
James shrugged, it made sense that he should give Juniper her space. It was true that, while he did like walking her places, that didn't mean that it had to happen all the time. After all, he didn't want Juniper to get tired of him. "Okay," he said before continuing on into the Great Hall with Eileen and Kaylynn.
Juniper turned on her heels and headed up the many staircases towards the Owlery. Grimacing at the smell, she stepped over as many of the droppings as she could, but she couldn't avoid all of them and some of them smeared over the bottoms of her shoes. She hadn't written to her parents in a few weeks, despite the fact that they sent an owl quite regularly. She cleared some owl droppings off the tbalewith a flick of her wand and a Scourgify spell, before setting her bag down and pulling out a piece of parchment and her quill and ink. She really should invest in a Self-Inking Quill, but it always seemed to slip her mind. Maybe she'd get one on her next visit to Hogsmeade.
Dipping the quill into the ink, she hastily scribbled a short letter to her parents, telling them that everything was all right. Of course, she didn't mention anything about the Bludger incident as she didn't want them making such a big deal about it. Once finished with the letter, she waved the parchment back and forth so that the ink would dry more quickly, then walked about the Owlery to look for an owl.
She reached towards a brown Tawny, but it seemed to be rather ornery today and took a nice chunk out of her right forefinger, drawing blood.
"Well, screw you then," Juniper said angrily as she stuck her wounded finger in her mouth. Luckily, she found a Barn Owl that seemed perfectly willing to carry her letter. It sat perfectly still on the perch and allowed her to tie the letter to its left foot. Once she had given it instructions on who to bring the letter to, she watched as it flew off. Just as she was about to go back downstairs, she heard two very familiar voices coming up the stairs.
"Don't you think that Avery is going too far with this?" the first voice belonged to Riley.
"You usually go along with everything she says and does. Why are you so worried now?" Cheri came into view. As they seemed focused on each other, they hadn't noticed Juniper, yet. The young Hufflepuff began to back away slowly while looking for a place to hide.
"I know I do, but you'd think she would have gotten over her hatred of Juniper and her family, but Juniper could have really been hurt a lot worse than she was at that Quidditch Match."
Juniper froze. Did this mean that Avery really was the one who had bewitched that Bludger? Juniper found, what she thought was, a safe place behind a row of owls, who were snoozing.
"I just can't believe that she got him to bewitch the Bludger for her."
Him? Who were they talking about?
Cheri scoffed in disgust. "Why should it surprise you? He'd do anything for Avery. She has him wrapped around her perfect little forefinger."
"She has a lot of people wrapped around that little finger of hers. But it's been...what, five or six years since her father was fired from his job. You'd think they'd be able to get over it by now?"
"I've known the Burkes for a while now, they'll never be over it. Now, hurry up and send your Mum that tonic so that we can leave. It stinks in here."
There was a silence as Riley tied the package to an owl's foot. "Do me a favor and don't tell Avery I said any of this."
"Why, are you afraid she'll come after you?" Cheri sneered.
Riley snored. "You really think I'm afraid of her? Right, I'm done. Now, let's head down to lunch, I'm starving.
"Could have fooled me." Juniper heard their footsteps fading away, but she didn't move until she was completely sure that she wouldn't come back. So, it seemed that Kaylynn was partially right. Avery had been involved in the accident, although she hadn't been the one to actually bewitch the Bludger. Riley had mentioned the person being a 'he', so that narrowed down the gender, but there were many male students at Hogwarts. How could she expect to narrow any of them down? Once she was sure that they were gone, she quickly left the Owlery, her mind reeling with questions that she was sure wouldn't be answered for the longest time.
