Author's Note: I don't even know that this is even a one-shot, it's so short, but in re-reading HBP I was reminded of Apparition Lessons.

Apparition Lessons

March 1995

It was a well-known fact that Apparition was difficult, but that didn't stop all of the sixth-years from signing up for practice.

Wilkie Twycross was an ancient wisp of a man who bored the pants off most people, and yet they studiously tried to do as he instructed during the first lesson, though nothing seemed to happen (except that a lot of people fell over when they spun on their first and second attempts). But then, Twycross hardly seemed to expect anything different to happen.

"Never mind, never mind..." he said in his faint voice. "Please adjust your hoops to their original positions, and we will try again..."

It was Adrian who actually managed it first, on the third attempt, though it startled him so much that he tripped as soon as he reappeared inside his hoop and he crashed to the floor as ungracefully as was possible to do.

"Shite!"

He said it without even thinking, and everyone around him broke into laughter at his uncharacteristic outburst.

Professor McGonagall looked annoyed. "Mr. Pucey! I'll thank you not to swear, please. You are a prefect, after all!"

As he gingerly struggled back to his feet and brushed off his trousers, scowling in annoyance that he'd made a fool of himself, he caught Alicia Spinnet watching at him with a smile behind her hand as she tried not to laugh too, from a row over and two behind him. He blushed furiously and stepped back out of his hoop. Just what he needed, he thought bitterly. The girl he secretly liked, amused at his expense.

Twycross, of course, ignored the fact that Adrian had managed to Apparate at all, and instead blandly pointed out that wizards and witches who were not accustomed to the sensation often tripped or fell upon reappearing, and only with practice could one avoid such mistakes.

Adrian did not like to be called out on his mistakes. Especially when his crush was so close, watching his every move. Merlin, but it was humiliating.

On the next round, Adrian managed successfully and didn't fall. In the same round, Cedric Diggory and Chrysanthe Hayden also Apparated. But while Diggory landed with only a small stumble, Chrysanthe tripped and crashed to the floor like Adrian had. And — just like Adrian — she yelled out in surprise, though a bit more colorfully.

"Fuck!"

"Miss Hayden!" Professor McGonagall yelled furiously. "Really! Might I remind you that you area prefect, too?"

"Sorry, Professor!" Hayden snapped, as her boyfriend (laughing his head off, along with everyone else in the Great Hall, sans teachers) stepped over to her and held his hands out to help her back to her feet, before telling her she was amazing for managing it so quickly.

Alicia managed to Apparate on the fifth round, but she splinched herself in the process and screamed softly. The sound made all the hairs on Adrian's neck stand up and he turned abruptly before he remembered he couldn't run to her and make sure she was alright, as Youngman had done for Hayden. Fortunately, Alicia had only left two fingernails behind, but though McGonagall and Flitwick put her right, Adrian could tell it really bothered her. She didn't like making mistakes, either.

Twycross dispassionately reminded everyone that splinching happened when one was not sufficiently focused on their destination, and Alicia's face turned as red as fire as she moved back behind her hoop. She caught Adrian looking at her and he gave her a small, sympathetic smile of encouragement — the most he could do in the situation without being noticed. She returned the smile and his stomach swooped slightly.

She managed to Apparate successfully on the sixth round. Unlike him, she didn't fall, either. She just sighed heavily in relief that she'd managed correctly.

Kenneth Towler (who was one up and over from Adrian) managed his first attempt during that round as well, but just like Adrian and Chrysanthe, he tripped and fell flat on his face.

"Thank you for not swearing, Mr. Towler," Professor McGonagall called loudly and dryly from the front of the Great Hall.

Towler wrinkled his lip and got back to his feet, but as he turned around to walk behind his hoop again, he muttered under his breath, "You're fucking welcome, professor."

Only those around him heard the comment and all of them tried desperately not to laugh. Adrian didn't particularly like Kenneth, and what little sense of humor the Gryffindor prefect possessed was buried deep... but when it came out, it was dry and sarcastic and just right. If they had been in the same house, they might have actually been friends, Adrian thought distantly.

By the end of the lesson however, the only others who had managed to Apparate were the Weasley twins and Viola Bradford. Patricia Stimpson of Ravenclaw splinched herself something awful though, leaving both legs behind at the kneecaps, and she was in such hysterics that Professor Sprout agreed to take her to the hospital wing for a Calming Draught. Stimpson was always like that, though.

When the sixth-years moved out of the hall at the end of the hour to head back for their common rooms or the library, Adrian's eyes fell on Alicia's long swinging ponytail; she was chatting with Angelina Johnson and rubbing her two fingers as though they still stung from being splinched.

He kept his distance. He hadn't spoken to her since the day after Christmas, and he didn't plan to. It was simply too easy to be around Alicia, too easy to drop the mask he had carefully constructed since the age of eleven to hide his real self. If he were perfectly honest, that mask was exhausting, and whenever he was around Alicia he felt an odd desire to be himself. He couldn't afford that, and the fact that he wanted to do so scared him witless.

But it didn't stop him from falling asleep that night to the pleasant daydream of finding Alicia in a little hidden nook in the library, trapping her against the bookshelves, taking her hand in his and kissing her fingers before asking if she was okay since their Apparition practice. He imagined she would blush and lower her eyes slightly and tell him she was fine. He would kiss her fingers once more, slow and deliberate, then kiss the inside of her wrist and murmur that at least she hadn't fallen to the floor and made a fool of herself like he had.

"You aren't a fool, Adrian. Anyone could fall on their first attempt. Chrysanthe and Kenneth did, too." She hesitated, then whispered, "I would never think you were a fool. And I didn't mean to laugh. I wasn't laughing at you, just at what you said. It was so unlike you!" Her hand came up to his tie, then moved a bit higher until her fingers brushed along his neck and she skimmed his jaw with her thumb.

He fell asleep before the fantasy progressed any further, which was just as well, because it was fruitless to imagine such things.

Even if he couldn't stop his brain from doing it.