An Unpredicted Exception @Hogwarts

9

Celine is nervous when she arrives in to the library. "I really liked the way Theodore agreed with my challenge." Julie says softly while walking beside the girl. "That way you have Horace all for yourself and I can stare at Theo all I want." Julie beams at that thought.
The girls find an empty table large enough for four people and put their books down, they are a little early. But this way they don't have to hurry, and they can honor their house by studying more. Celine chooses to sit right across Julie, so they left a space beside them. It doesn't take the boys long to find both of them. Just as Celine has all her books on the right pages and her quill ready to write, the seat beside her is shoved behind and someone takes the place. When she looks up, Celine looks right in to the now familiar brown eyes. "Hey," she says softly with a small smile. "Hey" the boy looks back at her with the same big smile as she had seen before.

Studying together with the Slytherins goes unexpectedly good. Theodore actually is the best in potions so with his help, they all have the potions assignment done in no time. He and Julie then get involved in a hushed conversation about with which kind of potion you can take someone out, without people notice. It seems like they don't agree with anything because the argument doesn't stop the next 20 minutes. In the mean time Horace starts explaining Celine the last few Arithmancy chapters, which she doesn't understand. His voice is low and soft, so he doesn't disturb other students. He often looks up from writing his notes while explaining to Celine, to look if she still hangs on. The girl does her best to understand what he is saying, and with the minutes the chapters get more and more clear. But she can't help to be distracted by the way Horace's hair steaks out every way, after he tousled his hair with his hand. Or the way he pushes his black glasses back on his nose each time they slide a bit forward, or the way his lips form that smirk he's got when he looks back at her and sees that he still got all her attention. Surprisingly Celine still understands the lessons in the end, she thanks the boy wholeheartedly and together they focus on the next subject. "So," Horace starts, "I was hoping that you could help me with Herbology again. Last time it was a piece of cake with your help." Celine already grabs her notes when Theodore decides to bug in again. "You would help the both of us right? I did help you all with potions just now." He looks at Celine while pointing at the already done assignments on the edge of the table. "Neh, Celine, you can't help a man who thinks that the best way to humiliate a person is to use polyjuice potion." Julie tells her. Theodore grins when Julie calls him a man, but that falls when she completes her sentences. "No, come on, think about all the things you can do! I mean, you can walk around the school naked while singing songs as that person. Horace back me up in this."Horace smirks at that. "Or confess your love as that person to professor Sprout." he agrees "Exactly!" Theodore extends his hand to his friend for a high five. Horace slams his hand and the boys smirk mischievously. "I still think that a truth serum, like Veritaserum, is way better. Think about all the secrets you can recieve with that!" Julie disagrees. Celine nodds, "I agree with Juul, there is also less chance of exposure with that potion. What if the person you want to prank walks into you while you are being him?" She explains, while considering the options in her head. "Wow, you girls are actually not that boring as we thought." Theodore says taken aback. "Excuse you, you sound surprised. Didn't expect us to be better in embarrassing pranks than you, don't you?" Julie tells him, feigning to be offended, but actually loving the compliment. "No, but the Polyjuice potion is still better." The discussion goes on, this time including Horace and Celine. In their enthusiasm they start speaking louder and louder, until Horace almost yells "But what if you don't have embarrassing secrets?" Then the four notice the sourly looking librarian, standing besides their table. "Ah, madam, sorry, we can be quite." Theodore starts but the woman looks at them sternly, not taking any excuses. They are being chased out of the library the next instance.

Standing outside the door, the four are looking at each other for only a few seconds before they burst in to laughter. "Merlin, I've never been chased out of anything before." Celine says giggly. "I told you dear, those Slytherins are bad influences!" Julie tells her friend and then squint at Horace. "Everybody's got an embarrassment secret. Don't say you don't." That reminds Celine about the thing she wanted to ask Horace. Still smiling she turns herself to him and asks. "Where did you knew the song 'Brother John' from?" He looks at her questionably, "From your mnemonic you mean? I don't really remember, it's just something everyone grew up with right?" He smiles. Julie looks baffled at Celine, "You told Horace about the muggle song?" Immediately Horace tenses. He looks shocked. "What are you guys talking about?" Theodore asks then, a bit alarmed by his friend's reaction. "Oh, Celine made a mnemonic for Herbology on a song I didn't recognized, so I thought that it could be a muggle song. But if a Slytherin knows it, then it couldn't be a muggle-only song, right?" Julie explains happily."Ye-yeah, right." Horace answers weakly, gripping his robe so tightly that his knuckles turn white. "Well, if we can't study here now, we must come back an other time." He continues, changing the subject. "Ah, right!" Theodore agrees like he suddenly remembered why they were here for. "We helped you today, how about you two help us Friday? We don't have much time to work this weekend because of the quidditch game." Celine however still looks at Horace, eying the boy suspiciously. Julie answers in stead "Yes, we can be there. For now we will head up to our common room, at least we can learn there without being thrown out. Shall we go Celine?" "Oh, right." Celine stops staring and then starts blushing when she realized she looked that long at the boy, again. "Bye guys, I had fun studying for once, let's do this again." She tells the boys with a genuine voice. The two agree, and Celine follows Julie with one last glance at Horace. The Slytherin refuses to meet her gaze, his face shadowed with panic. Did she said something wrong?