Atelophobia

9_ study session

Theo

I'd rather not be spending my Saturday afternoon with a controlling know-it-all.

But here I am, waiting in the library for her.

She's not late to spite me, which I would have assumed, but instead earlier than the time we agreed to meet.

"What happened to being late to spite me?" I grin.

"I'd rather get this done with as soon as possible," she says, sitting down across from me and taking her books out.

"You're lucky I even agreed to waste my time on you, anyways."

"Well I do enjoy wasting your time," I smirk and start flipping through my pages of notes.

"Of course you do, Nott," she mumbles.

"Let's put together the description on the four basic elements, then? That should be pretty easy," she suggests.

"Uh, sure," I agree.

That may or may not have been the part I worked on already, but if she knew that I started it and went against out agreement, she would probably flip out.

"Okay then, I can write it down if we want to talk through it."

"Why can't I write it down?" I ask.

I already have the work done, anyways. I can just make it look like we're working on it together.

"Seriously," she glares at me.

"What?" I say defensively.

"You sound like a first year right now."

"I just wanted to write it, that's all."

"No, I'm going to write it since your handwriting looks like a five year old's drawing," she makes fun of me.

"And who says I don't take pride in my five-year-old handwriting?" I say, just to bother her more.

She's too easy to mess with; it's pretty entertaining seeing her get annoyed at me.

"We get points for neatness, Nott. Just give me the paper," she rolls her eyes.

"And we also get points for content, so just let me-"

"You started it already, didn't you?" She says, realization hitting.

Oh shit. I didn't mean to let it slip.

"Well, just some ideas," I shrug.

"Unbelievable, Nott. We agreed not to-"

"Merlin, I know that, Dalton. I was just killing time, here..." I throw the paper at her.

"Micromanage all you'd like," I say sarcastically.

She glares at me before reading it, her face blank of emotions as always.

I hate how she's so much harder to read than everyone else—it makes it hard to tell if I ever impress her or if she's about to lash out at me.

But she's scanning the paper too intently for her to actually be mad, this time.

"Lucky for you, I enjoy micromanaging," she gives a fake smile.

"So I corrected some things, thank Merlin this wasn't our final project we turned in," she hands the paper back.

"Come on, cara mia. You just can't admit how good it was," I smirk.

"You flatter yourself too much, Nott," she shakes her head.

We continue working for a while on the rest of the elements, which, I should've known, was going a little bit too well.

Because one second we're getting along and the next she starts yelling at me, again.

"We need to add how the elements can be used to form the metals," she says adamantly.

"That's not in the instructions," I argue.

"It just says to do a background of the elements and a background of the metals, did you not read it?"

"I did, Nott, but that is part of the background. Besides, the whole point of the project is how to transform things from one part to the other, so-"

"I am not doing another whole section just because you told me to," I retort.

Now I wish that I didn't defend her from Snape. I take back what I said earlier, I'd rather work on the entire project by myself than with her.

I can't believe I ever forgot how irritating she is.

"Merlin, Dalton, we'll just ask the Professor next class," I run a hand over my face.

"But I don't want to move onto the next section yet if we aren't done with this one-"

"Gods, shut up for once!" I yell.

But from the shocked look on her face, I regret it instantly.

For once, she didn't say that just to make me mad—that's genuinely how she goes about working on things.

"This is exactly why I don't want to work with a prick like you," she says coldly, starting to pack up her things.

"Dalton, I-" I say.

"What, Nott?" She snaps.

"I didn't mean it like that, let's just keep working on the project," I say.

"Sure you didn't," she starts to get up, but stops abruptly.

"What?" I ask, turning my head to where she was looking.

It was that same Gryffindor asshole from a week ago, standing just a few shelves over.

She sighs and sits back down, failing to mention anything about the other guy.

"Fine, we need to get it done anyways."

She tucks her nose in the textbook once again, clearly trying to avoid the gaze of the Gryffindor coming this way.

He doesn't pass by, though, and goes somewhere out of sight.

"Dumb Gryffindor still following you around?" I ask.

"Suddenly curious in me now, Nott? Are you sick?"

"No, I'm just curious what someone could possibly see in someone with so much attitude."

And if he's still bothering her, I would have to do something about it.

"I don't have that much att-" she says frustratingly and then sighs.

"I just don't want to talk to him, that's all."

"Well if you'd rather talk to me, then that's really saying something," I say with a hint of a smile.

There's a slight tug of her lips upwards before she replies.

"Well we argue more than we talk, don't we?"

"Just a little bit," I chuckle.

"How about we just talk for the rest of this study session? I promise I'll be more entertaining than the Gryffindor prick," I suggest.

"You underestimate my ability to disagree with you," she says.

Her words might have had a dagger, but there was just the slightest, slightest hint of amusement in her voice.

Part of me thinks that it was so slight that I might have just imagined it.

I must have, because the day Dalton doesn't hate me would be the day hell freezes over.