Astrophile [J.P]

Chapter 7

~ But tell me did you sail across the sun? Did you make it to the Milky Way 

To see the lights all faded and that heaven is overrated. ~ 

***

Even though Felicity had tried her best to get out of the situation and was hoping that Potter would just leave her be after the incident that happened in the corridors, Professor Sinistra called them both to her office and personally set a schedule for the tutoring.

And that was precisely the reason why she was in the library after curfew, sacrificing her sleep and trying her very best to cope up with the struggle of teaching him. By now, she had realized that she was unbelievably right in thinking that the tutoring would definitely affect her grades. Because even though about an hour had passed, James Potter was still stuck on questioning about the most conceptual and basic things rather than focusing on the lesson.

"I still don't get it." James slammed the book shut rocking his chair back and forth.

She who had her head down in despair, looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, "kill me, please."

"Oh-h-h-h, Latvia knows how to say please."

"Shut up and tell me what you can't understand," she snapped at him.

He showed her the page where the diagram of a solar system was illustrated. "Why is Venus close to the Sun?"

She facepalmed then dragged her hand down. "Good gracious, Potter, how am I supposed to know why it's closer? I didn't create the solar system."

"But there must be a reason why Venus is placed thus. It could have been Uranus as well."

She sighed, "right, I'll give you an example you'll understand. Just suppose that... Suppose that you're the Sun. Then who would you want to revolve around you, or rather be close to you?"

He stopped rocking the chair and his face had that thoughtful look she had never seen before, "well, obviously, if I were the Sun I would want my friends to be close to me. And Lily, I would want her to be just where Venus is. And Snape must be on Pluto's place."

A smile threatened to break on her face but she hid it, "okay, so just like that, you're the sun, Lily's Venus and your friends are Mars, Earth, Jupiter etc. So in that same way, the planets must be aligned. Those who can stay close to the sun remain there and those who can't bear its heat are far away."

He glanced at her, "oh, I never thought about it like that."

"So I guess you got that tiny thing right?"

"Yeah, I did," he was looking at her with an expression that meant as if he had achieved a great target.

"Too bad, that isn't included in our course. You spent an hour understanding the one thing which was totally unnecessary and merely conceptual."

His jaw dropped open in shock, "but... You should have told me!"

She remarked, "as if you would have heard me earlier?"

He groaned, "not fair. You just ruined my life!"

"I didn't design the curriculum so stop looking at me like that. And I haven't ruined your life either, instead it's you who have been doing that. Since the past forty minutes."

After another painful hour of James getting confused every now and then and Felicity either banging her head or continuously wishing to be killed, the lesson finally ended and she picked up her books to leave, but James's voice took her by surprise, "know who you would be in my solar system?"

Reluctantly, she turned to face him, "a black hole, probably. Or that Big Bang which is going to end the universe."

"Nope," his characteristic smirk spread on his face, "you're Neptune."

She was mildly surprised, "why Neptune?"

"Because you aren't completely intolerable and I'm fine with whatever place you take. But since you can't stand me but are still not as hostile towards me as Snape, so obviously you're Neptune."

"You know what, Potter, I'm actually amazed you remembered the order of the planets in the solar system. I wasn't really expecting that."

"Oh come on, Latvia, what do you think I am? A buffoon?"

"By the looks of it, you're even worse, " she remarked, "you're a buffoon with an inflated head. And a humongous ego."

His grin widened, "appreciate the compliment."

"I so freaking hate you," she muttered under her breath making her way out of the library as quick as possible.

But she couldn't quite easily control the immediate urge to go back and slap him, when she heard the familiar careless drawl after her, "love you too, Latvia."

However when she turned around, James Potter was nowhere to be seen. She was rather taken aback at his sudden disappearance because it could be in no way possible that he had vanished so suddenly.

"James Fleamont Potter, you're getting a slap in the next lesson. And I'll make sure you won't be able to wriggle out of it that time."

She went out of the library still fuming at how he could have easily gotten away with saying something like that so abruptly to her.

As she was standing in front of her common room, she could have sworn that she heard his voice again, "good luck trying that, Latvia."

Standing shocked for a moment or two, she finally decided that it was merely a superstition. Anyhow, she was a bit alarmed that James Annoying Potter had occupied her mind so much that she was hearing his voice even when he wasn't present.

"If I ever go insane, I would know exactly who to blame for that," she mumbled and solving the riddle at the entrance, stepped inside the common room.

***