The Era of Aria Snape

65

Chapter Sixty-Five

ARIA HAD DEFENSE Against the Dark Arts first session-her father had yet again not gotten the job and now she was being taught by the absolute fool Professor Moody. She was less than pleased with the situation.

Not only was he ridiculous, but his seating arrangements were as well. A Slytherin next to a Gryffindor and with her luck, she sat next to George.

Aria made sure to avoid eye contact (and any other contact, like touching elbows) with the Weasley and paid careful attention to whatever the professor was saying, although it was a challenge to focus on his words when his eye kept wandering to the opposite side of the classroom.

"In short," He stood with his arms behind his back. "The person next to you will be your partner for the next task." He took a sip from the suspicious little bottle he kept on him. "Your task for the lesson is to jinx your partner without using words." He grumbled something inaudible and then said, "try the Levicorpus incantation. It's the easiest to perform non-verbally."

Aria sure as heck was not about to turn and start a conversation with George, but the thought of suspending him in midair by his ankles was most appealing.

She sighed, wondering if it was worth it. She would be sacrificing her pride if she started the conversation. Aria was sure that she was the laughing stock of the Gryffindors after George had dumped her.

"So, are we doing this?" George asked.

Aria smirked to herself. No pride needed to be sacrificed when she was partnered with a Weasley. "Gladly. I'd love to see you hanging by your ankles."

"You're still upset." He frowned.

"No. But being a Slytherin and all, pettiness is common." Every chance she got, she was going to make him hurt. Every single chance. She would throw everything he had said to her right back in his face.

He mumbled something as they moved to find their own space at the back of the class amongst the other students. Anna was paired with Fred and Aria was certain that she was enjoying it a little too much. She had seen the way that Anna looked at that idiot. It was hopeless.

They had been instructed to read through the Nonverbal spells section of their textbook, not that it was much help. The Professor had a stupid Gryffindor student hanging by his ankles in one second flat. Aria pictured it was George and used that image for motivation.

She hoped she could keep focus and accomplish this first try, although she heard that it took a lot of practice to perfect. However, she hoped she messed it up and accidentally hung George by his ears, or whatever body part was most painful to be hung by.

"Ladies first," George muttered and stood, arms hanging by his sides and exposing his chest.

Aria kept that image in the front of her mind.

She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply, allowing her mind to diminish all that surrounded her-the noises and the vibrations of spells being wordlessly cast. She only focused on how her wand felt in her palm and sounding out the incantation repeatedly.

She pointed her wand forward, repeating Levicorpus in her head.

She heard Professor Moody chanting "focus" nearby and she tried, although when she opened her eyes, George was still on his feet, an unmistakable expression of smugness across his face.

"Done yet?" He chirped.

"Watch it, Weasley. After class, I may have to wordlessly beat the hell out of you."

"You see, that is why we never worked."

Aria felt her face go red as the eyes of a few surrounding students turned to curiously glance at the two. "You had to bring that up." She knew that he would, although she assumed that he would wait until they were out of earshot of the whole damned class.

He shrugged. "It bore repeating after-"

She held up her hand and silenced him. "I don't care."

"You should, Aria. I never said that I didn't want to be with you or that I hate you-"

"Well, I hate you, George!" She closed her eyes and repeated Levicorpus and this time she felt something. When she opened her eyes George was slightly off of the ground, not quite upside down or hanging by his ankles, but it was better than the first time.

After a series of gasps-seeing as Aria had been the closest to getting the spell correct, Moody dismissed the class.

"Aria, you have a promising technique. Anger seems to bring it out of you." Moody told her as she packed her things.

"Thank you, Professor." She hoped he didn't notice the bite in her tone.

"I suggest you work on that, it could be useful, especially in your NEWT exams next year." He guided her to the door. "Work on it."

With a smile, he closed it, leaving Aria equally confused and creeped out as she headed to Muggle Studies and blocked out the past few minutes.