Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 126

"Potter!" Jasper muttered as he poked the girl in the shoulder softly.

"What?" Kirra looked around; the whole class was staring at her. She sat up straight; she had been almost dozing off, lost in the heat and her thoughts.

"I was saying, my dear, that you were clearly born under the baleful influence of Saturn," said Professor Trelawney, a faint note of resentment in her voice at the fact that Kirra had obviously not been hanging on her words.

"Born under — what, sorry?" said Kirra, still clearly out of it, she had been thinking about Mattheo, her eyes wandering over to him every now and then as she admired her features and the fact that he looked fine even though she was about to break down.

"Saturn, dear, the planet Saturn!" said Professor Trelawney, sounding definitely irritated that she wasn't riveted by this news. "I was saying that Saturn was surely in a position of power in the heavens at the moment of your birth. . . . Your dark hair . . . your mean stature . . . tragic losses so young in life . . . I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in midwinter?"

"No," said Kirra, already fed up with the lesson, "I was born in July." Jasper hastily turned his laugh into a hacking cough. Half an hour later, each of them had been given a complicated circular chart, and was attempting to fill in the position of the planets at their moment of birth.

It was dull work, requiring much consultation of timetables and calculation of angles. "I've got two Neptunes here," said Kirra after a while, frowning down at her piece of parchment, "that can't be right, can it?"

"Aaaaah," said Jasper, imitating Professor Trelawney's mystical whisper, "when two Neptunes appear in the sky, it is a sure sign that a midget is being born, Kirra . . ."

Kirra snorted in laughter as she elbowed the boy in the stomach under the table, "shut up, I'm not a midget." She whined to the boy who was smirking widely at her

"Yeah yeah sure, the first years are all the same height as you," Jasper mocked playfully as he studied his chart in front of him while sending her amused looks

"Well jackass, they are just really tall this year," Kirra fired back playfully as she wacked him softly on the arm, "what did you get? Jupiter, the large planet that is almost the size of your forehead?" 

Jasper put his hand on his chest in mock hurt. Seamus and Dean, who were working nearby, sniggered loudly, though not loudly enough to mask the excited squeals from Lavender Brown — "Oh Professor, look! I think I've got an unaspected planet! Oooh, which one's that, Professor?"

"It is Uranus, my dear," said Professor Trelawney, peering down at the chart.

"Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender?" said Ron, causing Jasper and Kirra's laughter to only increase.

Most, unfortunately, Professor Trelawney heard him, and it was this, perhaps, that made her give them so much homework at the end of the class. "A detailed analysis of the way the planetary movements in the coming month will affect you, with reference to your personal chart," she snapped, sounding much more like Professor McGonagall than her usual airy-fairy self. 

"I want it ready to hand in next Monday, and no excuses!"

"Miserable old bat," said Jasper bitterly as they joined the crowds descending the staircases back to the Great Hall and dinner. "That'll take all weekend, that will. . . ."

"Tell me about it, and we already have a shit ton of homework from our other classes," said Kirra with a sigh, basically running to keep up with Jaspers pace, "J could you slow down, my legs arent that long man!"