Crikey it's been almost a month since the last update sksks. Work and college have been hectic and have not been forgiving in the slighest.
Faceclaim for young James Potter: Aaron Taylor Johnson
Faceclaim for young Sirius Black: Ben Barnes
Faceclaim for young Remus Lupin: Andrew Garfield
Faceclaim for young Peter Pettigrew: Jamie Bell
Faceclaim for young Lily Potter: Sophie Skelton
Faceclaim for young Marlene McKinnon: Freya Mavor
Faceclaim for Dorcas Meadowes: Logan Browning
Faceclaim for Mary Macdonald: Hannah Murray
And at last, faceclaim for young Snape: Louis Garell
Their second week back was kickstarted by Ophelia Nott's letter finally arriving to tell them about her new job. Harry could sense how happy the woman was through her writing, as she told them that her job was going really well.
"Everyone has been so welcoming, and surprisingly the work is not too demanding. But we all know that will only change when You-Know-Who moves out into the open more. My first shift felt like the longest seven hours of my life, but the days are passing quicker now.
My work entails mostly on the children's ward, as you knew. Though I also get drafted into the elderly wards - short staff, you see. I've made plenty of friends and can't wait to do more.
I do feel sorry for Reggie when I'm at work, being stuck at the Manor with only Ditsy, Dippey and Buckbeak remaining, but he insists he's fine. He says hi to you all, by the way, and hopes classes aren't throwing you in at the revision deep end too much.
Harry - I did what you asked, and asked my manager for a copy of loads of different job descriptions and duties for different roles here at St Mungo's. I have enclosed them all for you to read through, they're really detailed about exactly what's required and what you'd be doing on a typical day. Share them with anyone else that wants to read.
Keep up all your good work and revision!
Much love to you all,
Ophelia/Mumma xxx"
Harry had a quick skim through the aforementioned job descriptions that Ophelia had kindly given him, mentally noting to himself to properly read through them when he had a chance. He was going to need to read them anyway, especially since he was considering going into Healing after he graduated. Since he'd actually completed taking notes of every single topic they needed to know in History of Magic, he spent those periods reading over the papers instead of his usual self-study. There were just so many different jobs and responsibilities, he didn't know if he'd be able to even choose just one.
It was that evening in the common room that he just wanted to take his mind off future jobs completely. He elected to watch Ron, Dean and Seamus play a game of Exploding Snap, though in his lap he had what was previously Susan Bones's old Occlumency book. He tried to read it, although it was hard to when the little game happening in front of him kept - well, exploding, - every minute or so. Dean was the first one to be knocked out, his final card going up with a bang. After a further ten minutes of play, Seamus had won the little match, much to the Irish boys delight. Ron didn't even seem that bothered he'd just lost a game of Exploding Snap.
As time trickled on, Harry was getting more and more confused regarding memory stores. He was still on the same page from the one he'd started thirty-five minutes ago - in the book, the method and steps to undergo storing memories, even with Susan's annotations at the side, were not making any sense to him. It was just that vague it was boggling him no end. Amelia and Dorea had gone up to their dorm ten minutes ago, so he couldn't ask their opinion, but there was Hermione.
"Well, why don't you go to Professor Snape?" She suggested.
He stared at her. "Are you mental? Why would I go to him?"
"Because he was previously the one teaching you Occlumency, Harry!" Hermione replied briskly.
"Yeah, well he made it very clear he didn't want those lessons to continue once he learned Susan was teaching me." He said.
"But he'll likely have the answer to your question," Hermione pointed out, "it'll take you all of five minutes to go and ask him."
He hated the idea, and knew he'd be poorly received by the teacher, but he did really want to progress with Occlumency. Plus, he knew it would be bugging him otherwise if he didn't resolve his issue. Sighing, he stood up and walked towards the portrait hole, telling Hermione to get McGonagall if he wasn't back within forty minutes.
Walking down the Grand Staircase - wand on his person, just in case somebody wanted to emulate Francis Selwyn again, - Harry had an inkling that this meeting wasn't going to go well. He knew that Snape would be delighted to hear of his struggle, and would probably torture him even more by not answering any questions he had. Just as he came off the Grand Staircase, a whole throng of students were leaving the Great Hall - carrying toads. Clearly, the Frog Choir had just finished a practise session. He nodded at the mostly junior year students as they walked past and said hello.
He walked down into the dungeons, and grimaced when he realised he was about twenty metres away from Professor Snape's office. "This is all pointless," he said under his breath, "he's going to open the door, see me, and slam it in my face."
When he did arrive at the door, he took a few moments to prepare himself. To anyone else he looked like a bit of a loony - just standing staring at a door and shuffling about. Thankfully there was nobody about to see him though - even from out here in the corridor he could hear the chatter of Slytherin common room.
He knocked on the door.
He immediately just wanted to jog off back to Gryffindor Tower, to forget this. It was a stupid pursuit anyway, he knew Snape was going to tell him to go away once he seen him.
The door opened, and Snape was glaring straight away. "Potter, it's bad enough seeing you for classes. What could you possibly need of me at this hour?"
"It's a question about Occlumency, sir." He said. Snape looked at him with a raised brow.
"Get inside, then." The man gestured, standing aside. Once Harry was inside the office, the door slammed shut. "Well get on with it!"
He ignored the man's attitude. "I was wondering about how you even go about physically starting the method to memory stores."
After a few moments, the Potions master spoke. "Interesting dilemma. Have your efforts with Miss Bones come to a halt?"
"No, we met last Sunday, but only to go over the theory of it. I just wanted to know about the method - as the instructions in the book she gave me are very short and vague." He responded.
"I have never attempted memory stores myself, Potter, but I do know of a book that has more detailed instructions to the method." Snape started to explain.
Just as Harry was about to ask about the book did he feel himself being pulled into a state where he was observing his mind and its subsequent shield. He was soon pulled out of that state though. "What was that for?" He asked.
"Just checking that you are not all talk when it comes to Occlumency, Potter, and that you are practising. Your mind shield is one of the strongest I have seen." Snape said, storing his wand away. "Anyhow, the book I am referring to is-"
Snape's office door banged open and Draco Malfoy sped in. "Professor Snape, sir… oh, sorry."
Malfoy was looking between the two of them with a look of deep surprise.
"It's alright, Draco," Snape said, moving towards his student. "Potter is here because of the abysmal grade his recent Befuddlement Draught received. It seems he can brew every other potion except the easiest one on the curriculum."
Harry had not seen Malfoy look so giddy since that time Umbridge turned up to inspect Hagrid. "Maybe if he didn't drop his first flask it wouldn't have been so bad." Malfoy leered at him. Harry would have smirked; he wasn't here for that at all, and his Befuddlement Draught from last week had actually received an O despite it.
"Well, Draco, what is it?" Snape asked.
"They've found Montague, sir, he's turned up stuck in a toilet on the fourth floor." Malfoy said. Harry nearly let his smirk out this time - Fred and George had shoved Graham Montague of the Slytherin team into a broken Vanishing Cabinet just two days ago, when the boy tried to harass Katie Bell.
"How did he get in there?" Snape demanded.
"I don't know, sir, he's a bit confused." Malfoy replied.
"Very well, very well," Snape said, and moved forward, "Potter, see yourself out. We shall resume this tomorrow evening."
With that, Malfoy and Snape left - Draco sending him a sharp look on his way out. Harry felt peeved that his question had come that close to being answered, but shook that off.
Just as he was about to turn around and leave the office did he see it - Dumbledore's pensieve in the corner of the room, glimmering pale light. He wondered what Snape was using it for. But of course - Snape could only be using it to store his own memories... Memories he did not want anybody to access.
Curiosity brimmed inside Harry then - should he go and investigate, or just leave? What was in that pensieve wasn't any of his business. But if that was the case, then why was it just sitting out in the open on Snape's desk? You could almost say the thing was inviting, the way the light was dancing all around the corner wall.
He glanced over his shoulder. How long would Professor Snape be away for? Surely he'd be gone a while - after all, Montague was the Captain of the Slytherin team, surely Snape would a) want to make sure he is okay, and b) want to know what happened for Montague to even be in a toilet in the first place.
Harry decided then: he walked over to the desk and stood peering into the Pensieve, gazing into its luring depths. A sort of daring washed over him - with it, he took a deep breath and plunged himself straight into the almost watery surface of his Potions teachers thoughts, and felt himself go with it.
He stood in the middle of the Great Hall, yet it was different. The house tables were not there, but instead it was occupied by smaller, singular tables all facing the same way, each occupied by about a hundred or so students. It was almost dead silent - the only sound that could be heard was the scratching of quills on parchment and the occasional quiet humming of thought.
It looked to be a sunny day outside, as light was pouring into the room via the high windows. The room was also a bit stuffy, though it didn't smell of anything bad. Harry looked around the room, surveying - This was Snape's memory, so Snape had to be here somewhere, surely?
He found him. He was sitting straight across from Harry. Teenager-Snape had a pale look to him, though his hair was limp and greasy. His long hooked nose was almost touching the paper in front of him as he wrote. Harry read the title of the paper - DEFENCE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS - ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL. It turned out that Snape was as young in this memory as Harry was now; for Harry would be similarly sitting OWLs in just under a month and a half. His handwriting looked similar to a scrawl, though it looked very cramped.
"Five minutes remaining!"
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin. Turning to find the source, he located none other than Professor Flitwick walking among the tables. There was an instance where Professor Flitwick seemed to walk straight through Harry - had this been real life, he was sure they would have just bumped into each other and caused a great disturbance.
When Harry looked back up, he noticed that a boy with unruly black hair had just straightened up after setting his quill down at the top of his exam table. He couldn't believe it - he moved so quickly that he walked straight through about three people to see for himself.
Harry breathed, and stared down at fifteen year old James Potter.
Excitement soared within him as he studied the man. Now he understood why people said he and Amelia were carbon copies of their dad - they were very similar to him indeed. Although there were a few differences; James's eyes were hazel, his nose was just a tad longer, and his unruly hair was curly at the top. James's face was also structured nicely - he had prominent cheekbones and an evident jawline.
James yawned and with one glance towards Flitwick, turned in his seat and grinned at another boy who was sitting four seats behind him.
Harry's mouth fell open excitedly, for Harry recognised the boy as Sirius. His godfather was also sitting back at ease, clearly already finished the exam. He was superbly good-looking; his dark hair was slicked back, though some of it fell forwards. His face held a cheeky look to it as well. It was blatantly obvious that Sirius was among the most attractive boys in the school at the time - five girls sitting behind him were staring at his back with a hopeful look. Harry was in for a few more surprises, as his eyes landed on Remus. Young-Remus looked a bit paler than usual (the full moon was probably either approaching or had come and gone), and there were faint marks on his arms that you could see when his sleeves rolled up by themselves. Remus seemed to be re-reading his answers.
Using that same logic, that meant that the fourth Marauder, Wormtail, must also be around here somewhere. Though he didn't like the mousy traitor for obvious reasons, he wondered what the coward was like back then. He also found him in the same vicinity as Remus - though Peter Pettigrew was hardly brimming with confidence like his friends were. His feet were nervously scuffing the floor beneath him, and he kept pursing his eyes together; as if he was willing an answer to come to him. From time to time he also kept glancing at his neighbours exam with a hopeful look. Harry gravitated back to his father, who was now drawing what looked like a Golden Snitch, although on closer inspection he was absentmindedly tracing the letters 'L.E.'.
"Quills down, please! This concludes the allowed time for the exam!" Professor Flitwick said, his voice carrying. "That includes you, Stebbins! Please remain seated whilst I collect your parchments. Accio!"
Well over a hundred rolls of parchment zoomed towards Flitwick's small outstretched arms… which consequently knocked him over backwards. About twenty people laughed at the sight. Two students who were near the front got up out of their seats and helped Flitwick back to his feet. "Thank you, Fenwick, Podmore." Flitwcik panted. "Very well, everybody, this marks the end of your OWL in Defence Against the Dark Arts. You're free to go!"
Some people let out some whoops of celebration. James stood up, and Harry noticed their similar height. His father slung his bag over his shoulder and waited for Sirius to get up. Harry also kept tabs on Snape - for this memory had to be significant in some way. Snape was walking towards the door to the Entrance Hall, absorbed in the exam paper still, as his finger was tracing one of the questions and his mouth was moving wordlessly. The Marauder's weren't that far away from Snape, so Harry felt content. He heard Sirius ask Remus something about question ten, and a few moments later heard James ridicule Wormtail for being thick.
Thankfully he didn't have to worry about Snape veering off in a different direction, for he seemingly followed the Marauder's towards the lake - where James and his three friends gladly slumped down on the lawn underneath the same beech tree where some of the study groups happened. Snape was sitting a distance away, though he was still in sight. Just as James Potter pulled a golden snitch out of his pocket did Harry notice some other groups congregating nearby - a group of girls were down by the lakeshore, some taking their shoes and socks off and paddling their feet in the water.
Harry was surprised when his father and Sirius walked towards him - as if they'd just noticed him, - and the former saying loudly, "Alright, Snivellus?"
Snape reacted so quickly you would have thought he was expecting it; he lunged his hand inside his robes and yanked his wand out. He was too late though, for James was already shouting "Expelliarmus!"
Snape's wand was purged from him, landing with a tiny thud on the grass behind him. Sirius let out a bark of laughter, "Nice one, James!"
James, who looked giddy from Sirius's encouragement, stuck his wand forward again. "Impedimenta!"
People all around were beginning to watch this exchange. Some were gathering nearer, others electing to watch from afar. Only a few looked disgusted or apprehensive. Clearly, Snape was not a popular student. Wormtail was watching hungrily, though Remus interestingly wasn't getting involved.
"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" Sneered James Potter.
"I was watching him, Prongs, his nose was near touching the paper," Sirius said snidely, "there will be great big grease marks all over it. The people marking it won't be able to read a word for all the smudging."
Snape was struggling to get up and defend himself, as the jinx was still on him. "You - wait!" He said through short breaths, looking up at his attackers with pure loathing.
"Wait for what?" Sirius leered, kneeling down, "What're you going to do, use us as tissues to wipe your nose on?"
Snape let out a screech of choice words.
"You watch that filthy mouth of yours," James snarled coldly, but then sent an excited look at the crowd gathering around them, as if he was saying, 'You're all going to like this next part,', "Scourgify!"
Soap bubbles foamed from Snape's mouth, the froth was dripping in excess down his chin, making him gag and choke. The crowd laughed for the most part, though some on the outside of the circle left without a backwards glance. A boy who was standing quite near James and Sirius was egging them on enthusiastically. "Get him, boys!"
Sirius grinned back, and said "Cheers, Fenwick." whilst James saluted the boy and said, "We'll give him hell, Benjy-"
"Oi! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
The crowd looked around. It was one of the girls that was previously down by the lake edge. Her hair was ginger, quite long, and bright green almond-shaped eyes…
Which looked remarkably like Harry and Amelia's eyes…
"Mum." Harry realised.
"You alright, Evans?" Said James Potter, his wand arm dropping to his side, whilst his free hand went to his hair.
"Leave him alone," Lily said, looking at James with every indication she did not approve of him, "What has Severus ever done to you?"
James muttered something about Snape's mere existence being a contributing factor. Many of the surrounding students laughed. Lily didn't, though. "You think this is all one big laugh," she said harshly, "but you're just a big arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."
"I will if you go out with me, Evans," James said with a raised brow and sly smile. "Go on, go out with me and I'll leave Snivelly alone forever."
Snape was beginning to regain strength as the jinx gradually wore off. He was crawling towards his wand, as nobody was going to pass it to him for him.
"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid." Lily proclaimed with a filthy look.
Sirius snickered, amused. Harry noticed two girls jog up to his mother - one he recognised as Marlene McKinnon. The other one was a darker skinned girl - beautiful and tall. It was the latter that spoke. "C'mon, Lils, they're not worth it."
"Yeah," Marlene said, "Dorcas is right. Besides, they're going to go back to tormenting Snape anyway when your back is turned. They'll never lay off him."
Just as Lily Evans was about to follow her friends, the crowd let out noises - for James had just started dangling Snape upside down. Lily, who for a nanosecond looked like she was about to smile, regained composure and said, "Let him down!"
James let out a noise, but let Snape crumple to a heap on the grass nonetheless. "You're lucky Evans was here to save you, Snivellus."
"I don't need help from mudbloods like her!" Snape snarled.
There was a silence, and Harry almost gasped. Sirius and James looked ready to pounce on Snape. "Fine," Lily Evans blinked, "I won't bother in future. Also, I'd wash those pants if I were you, Snivellus."
"You apologise to Evans right now!" James shouted at Snape.
"I don't want you to make him apologise! You're just as bad as he is!" Lily rounded on James.
James yelped, as if wounded. "What?! I would NEVER call you that… word!"
Lily started listing all the things that seemingly annoyed her about James. Harry was momentarily distracted when he saw two other girls over by Wormtail and Remus - one of them was Alice Longbottom; though in this memory she would have been Alice Fortesque. The other girl was a mystery - though he did hear Wormtail sigh and say, "They'll never stop hounding him, Mary." He made a mental note to remember that name.
When he tuned back into his mother's rant, it looked as though she had had enough. "...It's a wonder your broomstick is able to bear the weight of your fat head, Potter. You make me SICK."
With that, his mother turned on her heel and stomped away, Marlene and the girl Dorcas following. Interestingly, Marlene didn't even indicate that her and Sirius knew each other in this memory: which was funny considering they would eventually be engaged to one another, and Marlene would be the mother of Sirius's child a few years after this memory.
Harry heard Sirius say something along the lines of "bad luck" to James. He was hardly listening to them though as he watched the back of his mother, Marlene and Dorcas head back down to the lake. Intrigued, Harry felt himself following his mother and her friends. After that little episode, Harry felt a bit faint seeing what his father and Sirius were actually like. He followed them part of the way down the hill, where Mary and Alice soon fell in beside them. Lily was huffing and puffing in annoyance still. Unfortunately, Harry didn't get to follow them down the hill any longer, as he felt a pull.
"Having fun?" Snape said slowly. Harry felt himself feel with dread.
That concluded his time in the pensieve. He felt himself be yanked out of it and back into the present. When he blinked, he was back in his Potions teachers office. Uh oh.
"Charming man, your father," Snape said sarcastically. The man looked livid.
"I-I didn't-"
"Get out," Snape seethed, looming towards him. "You will not tell anybody what you saw in that device, Potter!"
"I-I won't," he said shakily, as Snape had just grabbed him and threw him harshly almost across the room.
"Then get out! I do not want to see you in this office ever again!" His teacher bellowed. Harry had never left a room so fast, and flinched when a jar of pickled slugs was smashed against the wall via a Banishing Charm just as he crossed the threshold from classroom to corridor. Harry didn't stop running until there was at least three floors between him and Snape. When he finally felt safe to breathe, all sorts of thoughts flew around his brain; both regarding his mother and his father. He was now beginning to understand why Snape called him arrogant all the time.
And to be honest, a small part of Harry couldn't even blame Snape for hating James Potter so much.
Things started to look a bit pear-shaped on Wednesday evening.
After Astronomy seventh period, Dorea and the others gladly walked down to dinner. When they were walking down the staircase, she noticed that Fred appeared next to her. "Good evening," she said to him, "how was Defence?"
Fred and the other NEWT students had just come from the class. "Lupin had us formally duel each other, actually. It was quite fun. Though he had me paired with Cadwallader… he's a miserable git for a Hufflepuff." At that, Dorea giggled.
Just as the whole school was slowly filing into the Hall, Fred put a question to her. "Hey, do you want to go out to the pitch half an hour before practise? I was thinking of practising the Dopplebeater technique, and you can get a feel for being a Beater. What do y'say, babe?"
"Oh, Freddie, I would love to, but once dessert is finished me and Hannah are actually going to go over some work for Muggle Studies." She replied.
What Fred did next shocked her. His whole attitude changed. "You never have time to do anything anymore except study!"
"Oh Fred, come on, don't be like this. We can easily do it tomorrow night. I just want to really do well and to alternate time between all of my friends." She replied gently.
"You know what? Fine. You do you. I'll just go practise with George instead." Fred said, but in a tone that carried a bit of malice. With that, he walked ahead of her without a backwards glance or even another word. Dorea stared at the back of her boyfriend, scared shitless, as that was the first time he'd ever spoken to her like that. A whole tonne of possibilities entered her head then, as she realised she had been neglecting her boyfriend a bit. I'm so horrible, she thought, how could I do that to him?
She was glad when they finally sat down, for she felt dizzy and nauseous from nerves. She barely registered Ron asking if she was okay. She just faked a smile and said yes to appease him.
Though Fred was sitting with George and Lee about halfway down the table, he was still within her peripheral vision. From time to time she just gazed at him, wanting to apologise straight away. She should have just said yes - Hannah would have understood, and wouldn't have begrudged her. She sighed, spooning another mouthful of salmon into her mouth.
"Right, what's wrong?" Hermione nudged her fork.
Dorea looked up at her. "Nothing wrong particularly, I'm just feeling a bit crap."
Hermione looked doubtful, as did Amelia. Harry and Ron were busy talking with Neville, so thankfully they didn't notice her moping.
After a minute or two, Amelia said, "It's Fred, isn't it?"
She looked up at her godsister. "How did you know?"
"I was talking with Anthony when we were walking down to dinner, but I saw Fred leave your side and walk away quite abruptly. He doesn't look that happy either." Was Amelia's response.
"Did you guys fight?" Hermione looked shocked, though had the decency to speak quietly.
"Well, he just got annoyed at me, that's all. He says I spend too much time studying and that I don't have time to do anything with him anymore, which I've just realised is kind of true. Now I feel awful."
Amelia and Hermione looked sympathetic. "Don't beat yourself up about it, Dorea. Fred loves you."
"Yeah, he's probably just stressed from his NEWTs." Hermione supplied. "After all, they're doing far harder work than us."
She guessed that could be a valid reason for his outburst. With one last longing glance down the table at Fred, she pushed him from her mind for now. She would resolve it at practise - after all, they'd be seeing each other there anyway.
After a slice or two of cheesecake and some delicious chocolate sauce, Hannah wandered over. Their little recap only took about ten minutes, double checking their answers for a question that came up in last year's Muggle Studies paper. Then, at seven, it was time for Quidditch practise.
Dorea walked down with the rest of the team and the Reserve's. Fred and George were already in the changing rooms when the others came down. You could say that the atmosphere was normal - everyone seemed to be chatting away. When Dorea came out of her changing cubicle, she almost walked right into Fred… But then realised it was George.
"Sorry," she muttered, "didn't see you there."
George caught her lower arm as she was about to walk ahead. Oh no, what if Fred told him and now he hates me? She couldn't bear to have both twins disliking her. "Fred told me about your scuffle."
She tried to read his expression, "It was my fault."
"Are you serious?" George said. "It was Fred who lost his head. You're not to blame, Dorea."
She was thankful he didn't blame her. "But I have been neglecting him a bit. I just have been so busy, with the study groups and what not. I have to make it up to him…"
George understood. "He'll be taking his anger out in practise, so watch out for any particularly harsh bludgers circling the air. Once he lets off some steam, catch him at the end. He feels terrible about how sharp he was with you, truly he does, but he's more mad at himself."
She couldn't help but give him a side hug. "Thanks, Georgie, I'll talk to him when we're tidying up."
Practise in itself went as usual - Angelina had them do about five laps of the pitch in both directions to warm up, and then they did some passing exercises in small groups. Dorea was put in a group with Fred and Alicia - and was a bit disheartened when he barely looked at her. When they got down to actually practising, she couldn't really focus on him for obvious reasons, as both the officials and reserves were playing, but nonetheless she could tell how Fred was hitting bludgers with a bit more power than usual. The first word he uttered to her since his episode earlier was a simple "Sorry!", as one of his bludgers hit the tail end of her broom, causing Dorea to spin. When she straightened back up they even made eye contact - but only for a second, as Dorea had to go up the pitch and support Ginny.
When their hour-long session came to an end, Angelina was happy with everyone. "Practises next week will consist more of getting our strength up, and working our reflexes. We all know how nimble Slytherin actually are."
With that, they dismounted their brooms and walked back down the slight hill where the changing rooms were. Dorea noticed that Fred was near the back, so gestured to Amelia and Ginny to go on ahead, and they knew why. Amelia even mouthed "Good luck!".
Fred was in fact bent down, as the laces on his shin pads had come loose. He seemed to almost fall in beside her when he was back up and walking again.
She suddenly realised she didn't quite know how to start the conversation. The best she could come up with was "Hello,"
"Hey," Fred said, though with no indication of his usual confident demeanour.
"Burnt off quite a bit of steam there," she said, a tad awkwardly.
"'Suppose." Was Fred's one word answer.
She stopped momentarily, to let some of her annoyance flare. "Have you elected to forget earlier?"
He looked back at her. "Look, I'm sorry for that, alright? I hate how I acted and how I spoke to you. I've been stressed - what with the NEWTs approaching, graduation, and how close me and George are to getting a premises. It's not an easy time, Dorea."
She sighed. "I understand that, Fred," she said as gently as she could manage without praying for more patience, "but even though you were right in saying that I'm short on free time to spend with you, it didn't warrant snapping at me."
It was Fred's turn to sigh. "I know, it was unfair. But you have to admit, you've been that focused about spending time with all of your friends that you've forgotten about me a bit."
"Do you think I'm ignoring you on purpose?" Dorea replied, a bit more tersely than what she intended.
"Who knows," Fred said, "I barely know anything anymore."
"Woah, right," Dorea said, internally calming herself down before this dissolved into an actual full-blown fight. She didn't want that at all. "Let's not do this. Let's think of solutions to this problem instead."
"Can it wait until the morning? I'm exhausted, I need to shower, I have no energy - I'm not exactly in a negotiating mood right now." Fred quickly replied, marching a bit quicker down to the changing rooms.
Dorea just stared at his back, mouth ajar. The audacity… What she almost said was, "You'll be lucky if I even want to continue this - us, - in the morning, Fred Weasley." And maybe she should have. But she wanted to make this work. After all, scuffles in relationships were normal, weren't they? She loved Fred. It was their first argument in almost a year of dating. No, it would be silly to have one argument and end it. What she actually said was, "Yeah, let's talk in the morning. That way it gives us both time to think of ways to make this better."
Fred looked back at her, and gave her a look of understanding. She inclined her head in acknowledgement back. That's good, at least we're civil now. Level playing field.
She just hoped he felt the same way, come the morning. She had every faith in him.