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Chapter Fourteen: Shrinking Solutions and Beating Hearts
Juniper plopped down onto the bench between Kaylynn and James and began filling her plate. She hadn't realized that they, plus Eileen, who was sitting across from them, were staring at her until she lifted her fork.
"What?" she asked. "Haven't you ever seen a hungry person before?"
"Not someone who looks like they crawled out of the rubbish bin," Kaylynn said. "Did something happen?"
Juniper frowned and lowered her utensil. "No, what makes you say that?" She hoped they wouldn't hear the nervous tone in her voice. She tightened her ponytail, which had loosened slightly. She made a mental note to remember that ponytails and hair fingering did not mix very well.
"Juniper?" James asked, tilting his head at her. "Did something happen in the Owlery."
She shook her head. "You'd be a little windswept, as well, if you'd ran from one of the towers, all the way down here." She hoped that excuse would suffice.
"That's not the look of someone who is windswept," Eileen spoke up, picking off a piece of crust from her toasted sandwich. "That's the look of someone who is positively mortified and very nervous."
Why did Eileen have to be so observant? "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I don't know how many times I've said this, but you're not a very good liar, Juniper." James lifted an eyebrow.
Juniper was silent. How could she tell James or any of them what she'd heard? She had no idea how Eileen would react, as Juniper had only known the girl for a month and a half, but James and Kaylynn would probably go around the school making threats to every male student and, most likely, carrying out those threats. She hated having to go to them with her problems. She was sure that they would get annoyed with her after a little while, Kaylynn had already displayed some displeasure in the past.
"Can we please just drop it?" Juniper had almost said it in a less than courteous way, but was forced to bite her tongue, as she wasn't the type to curse that often.
"You can't just keep things bottled up," Eileen said.
Kaylynn shook her head. "Trust me, once you really get to know Juniper, you'll realize that she keeps a lot of things bottled up."
"I do not!" Juniper protested. "There are just some things I don't like to share. What's so wrong with that?"
James sighed. "There's nothing wrong with it, but it depends on how you go about it. You're always skirting around certain subjects, and every time something is clearly wrong, you try to avoid it all together, or you come up with some lie."
"What is this, gang up on Juniper day?" the flustered Hufflepuff asked. Part of her realized that she was being rather whiny right now, but she didn't care. Why couldn't they see that she didn't want to talk about what she'd heard?
"It's clear you have certain things on your mind," James said as he stood up. "I'm not going to continue pushing you to talk, but you know I'm all ears if you ever want to." With that, he walked back over to the Gryffindor table. Juniper watched him before turning back around. Kaylynn and Eileen looked at her for a second before focusing on their food, which relieved Juniper. At least they had decided to drop the matter, for now.
James set out the various potions ingredients. Since today was Monday, there was another tutoring session with Juniper. Over the weekend, Juniper had agreed to let him help her work on her Potions and she needed assistance more than ever after setting Eileen's cauldron on fire, even if it was an accident. As James finished setting out the ingredients, Professor Slughorn came out of his office.
"Good evening, Mr. Potter, another night of tutoring?" he asked.
James nodded. "Yes, sir." When he first started tutoring Juniper, he had asked Professor Slughorn if he could use the Potions Lab from time to time. The Professor gave him permission as long as the mess was cleaned up, afterwards.
"I hope to see you at my Christmas Party this year, especially after you managed to skirt around the last one."
James laughed nervously. The truth of the matter was that he'd only been to two of Slughorn's parties and had always found them to be very dull affairs. James wanted to be successful in life, and he didn't think that meeting a wide variety of celebrities would help him achieve his goals.
"Miss Clayton, what a pleasant surprise." James looked up as Professor Slughorn addressed Juniper.
"Hi, professor, sorry for inconveniencing you like this by using your classroom."
"Quite all right, quite all right. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, my door is always open. I trust you're feeling much better after the incident that happened last Thursday?"
"Yes, sir, my leg is as good as new."
"Splendid! Well, I'll leave you both two it." After he had left, James focused his attention on Juniper. She seemed to be rather uncomfortable and was nervously tugging at the hem of her black and yellow Quidditch jumper.
"You all right?" he asked, frowning slightly.
Juniper shook her head. "I was kind of a um...bi-bi-I wasn't very nice to you earlier during lunch and I'm sorry."
James grinned. "I hardly think what happened earlier would qualify as you being a bitch." Juniper winced at the word. "Sorry," he added quickly. "You just had a lot on your mind and if you want to talk about it, you will."
Juniper seemed to relax and came over to stand near the table. "So, what are we going to be making today?" she asked.
"You are going to be making a Shrinking Solution. I'll just sit here and watch and advise here and there," James said.
"Oh, shouldn't I be learning something slightly more advanced, like a Poison Antidote or a Wit Sharpening Potion?"
"Well, I had thought of that, but considering you are struggling in this class, I thought it would be best to start with something a little more simple, but not too simple. Plus, there's a very slim chance of you catching the cauldron on fire," he smirked.
"You'd be surprised," Juniper muttered as she found the recipe towards the middle of her Potions book. With her eyes on the page, she reached for, what she thought was, the Shrivelfigs.
"That's the leeches," James said.
Juniper, realizing that it would be easier to actually look at the ingredients, took her eyes off of the book and managed to grab the right ingredient, which she then proceeded to juice, before stirring the potion and proceeding to heat it.
"Do you have anything planned for Halloween?" James asked as Juniper began chopping the daisy roots.
"Er...besides the feast? Not really, why?" She added the roots to the cauldron and proceeded to grab the caterpillars. Fortunately, they were deceased, so she didn't feel so bad about adding them to the bubbling concoction.
"Well, you know Chris?" Juniper nodded. "He's supposed to be having a party in the Room of Requirement that evening after the feast. I figured you might want to come."
Juniper made a face. "I'm really not the partying type," she said.
"Careful." James nodded towards the potion. "You don't want to add too much wormwood."
"Oh." Juniper began stirring as vigorously as her arms would allow her.
"It should be fun, and everyone likes dressing up for Halloween," he grinned playfully. "I think I'd love to see you dressed up, even if it's in a white sheet with two little eyeholes."
"I'd rather not mutilate some sheets just to look like a poor excuse for a ghost," she said scowling while juicing four leeches. "Ugh, this is so gross."
James chuckled. "So, what do you say? You want to go?"
"I don't know. I'll think about it." Juniper continued working on the potion. James was happy to see that she was getting it correct and hadn't started any fires. He couldn't help, but smile at her determined expression.
"You're really cute when you're focused like that."
Juniper blushed and nearly dropped the large spoon that she was holding. James reached across the table to help steady her hand. He looked at her and couldn't help, but notice the flecks of green and brown in her hazel eyes. Her lips parted slightly, and he found himself with the overwhelming urge to kiss her. He'd kissed a few girls before and had more than one girlfriend in the past, but Juniper did certain things to him. He wondered what it would be like to pin her against the wall and...his thoughts trailed off as he mentally shook his head, realizing that he was thinking very inappropriate thoughts and immediately released her hand.
"Er...I guess I'd better get back to the potion then," Juniper said, but her voice shook slightly.
James did the best he could to grin his thoughts away. "That might be best." He watched her work, talking every once in awhile about, what he considered to be, safe subjects. Soon, before them in the small cauldron, was a an acid green Shrinking Solution. James flicked his wand, using a Summoning Charm on a clear flask.
"This could come in handy," he said as he began to fill the flask and corked it before holding it out for Juniper to take.
"Sure, but I doubt I'll never need to shrink anything," she said.
"You never know," James said grinning at her. "Anything could happen."
James spent the rest of the tutoring session helping Juniper with one of her essays that she was having trouble with before the two of them cleaned up the classroom, then James walked her back to the Hufflepuff dorms.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he said. "I also hope to see you at the Halloween Party," he added.
"Tomorrow for sure, but I'm still on the fence about the party."
James laughed. "You'll have fun, trust me." He winked at her, then turned and strode off.
"You're seriously going like that?" Kaylynn asked, wrinkling her nose as she looked at the brown haired Hufflepuff standing before her. It was the evening of the Halloween Party. Juniper, Kaylynn, and Eileen were in the girls' dorm. The three other fourth years had already headed down to the Room of Requirement where the party would be held.
Juniper peered through the eye-holes of the white sheet. "I don't see what's wrong with this. It's a perfectly acceptable Halloween costume. After all, aren't ghosts usually associated with this holiday?"
"But we were supposed to both go as pirates!" Kaylynn wailed. "I was going to be the captain and you were going to be my first mate!"
"Why not ask Eileen then?" Juniper looked over at the dark haired Hufflepuff who was sitting cross legged on her bed with a thick book in front of her. "What are you going as?"
Eileen moved the book aside and slid off her bed. She walked towards her trunk and opened it. After rummaging through it for a few seconds, she produced, what appeared to be, a normal headband, but attached to them were a pair of faux cat ears.
"Tada." Eileen slipped the ears onto her head. "I'm a cat."
"You don't have a tail," Kaylynn pointed out.
"I'm a bobtail cat," Eileen amended.
Kaylynn groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose before picking up the extra pirate hat on the bed and holding it out to Juniper. "Please, at least just wear this?"
Even though Juniper was perfectly happy with her pitiful costume, she still took the pirate hat and put it atop her head. "I suppose there are ghost pirates," she relented with a sigh.
Kaylynn grinned and leaned down to kiss Juniper on the cheek. "Thank you!" she said gratefully leaving the other Hufflepuff a little shell-shocked. The only thing left for Juniper to do was slip on her shoes, which she did. Soon, the three of them were on their way to the Room of Requirement.
