Study Date | James Potter

Chapter 37 - "This Drunken Adventure"

Rose closed her eyes and focused hard.

"-Three," she heard the instructor say, and she turned tightly on the spot.

Opening her eyes, she found herself in the same place, and let out a groan of frustration.

Ten minutes later, she and Tina were walking out of the Great Hall.

"I swear if I have to hear him talk about the three D's one more time I'm going to hex somebody," Tina grumbled.

"Please let it be him," Rose said. "But at least you've done it."

"I managed it once and I splinched myself-"

"-come on, it was only a finger, and that was your first time. James told me that somebody in their year splinched half of their body and an eyeball, and I'm ninety percent sure he wasn't joking."

Tina shuddered. "Merlin, that's bad. It was still awful though. It felt so strange. I don't even know how to describe it."

Rose made a face. "More awful than DADA with all of the idiots?"

Her friend's nose scrunched up. "Definitely not," she said.

Rose and Tina had made up the day after Snape had revealed her and James, although they had pointedly avoided the subject of the Order. A week had passed since, and they had just had their first apparition lesson. Only three people taking the course had managed to apparate so far - Tina included - and none without splinching themselves. Unfortunately, another one of the three was Rabastan Lestrange. In the advent of Rose's and James being exposed, he'd seemingly forgotten how she'd beaten him in the common room, and never passed up a chance for a snide remark.

"A little slow aren't you Evans? Maybe if you could apparate then you wouldn't be late to Charms," he mocked from behind her.

"Don't," Tina tried, taking hold of Rose's wrist, but Rose was in no mood for his comments. She wheeled around.

"I was late to Charms the other day because I was busy with my prefect duties - something you wouldn't understand, being too incompetent to keep the position, and honestly I'm not even surprised, since you can't remember the most basic of facts, like you can't apparate inside Hogwarts." She sent him a scathing glare.

He opened his mouth to reply, and Rose cut him off. "But you know what Lestrange? Since you're obviously the expert, why don't you apparate up to the Astronomy Tower and throw yourself off it, and hopefully you'll splinch both arsecheeks this time, not just the one."

He flushed an angry red to his ears and neck, and even his friends were sniggering. He reached for his wand, but Rose shook her head and tutted.

"Careful Lestrange. If I see you doing magic in the hallways I'll have to give you a detention." She smirked and placed her hand on her wand, with a look that dared him to try. He sneered at the both of them, then turned and stalked away. His friends followed, Matthew and Regulus among them, although not without a subtle exasperated glance from the latter.

Rose continued to smirk triumphantly as she was pulled away by Tina, leading them to the common room.

"Really Rose, I don't know why you have to rise to it. Just ignore him and he'll stop eventually." She shook her head. "Honestly, and you were calling me the Gryffindor one while you're acting like this. I think it's Potter's influence."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Come on Tina, we both know that Lestrange wouldn't stop if he was being chased by stampeding hippogriffs. Better it be me than some poor firstie..." she trailed off as the scene flashed into her mind of a small blonde first year lying on the floor, with a hulking Ravenclaw brute looming above her.