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by the time thursday had come around, the quidditch fields and stands were soaked from the week's worth of rain. quidditch practice was canceled, much to arden's dismay, as was the upcoming match against ravenclaw. the professors apparently believed that students were getting more used to the constantly-changing schedules, so they started assigning more and more work.
ardent sat in the library working on her one-and-one-half foot essay on the history of the sorcerers stone late at night. surrounding her were books and scrolls and notes for her other classes— the assignments she would get around to eventually. she only had 8 inches worth of words on her paper so far. same amount as 30 minutes ago. she wasn't getting anywhere. she sighed, closing her eyes and resting her head on the bookshelf behind her. winter break, where are you? she thought.
"quitting so soon?" the familiar voice of andrew mcclaggan brought arden out of her thoughts.
"hey andrew," she spoke softly, the corners of her mouth turning up at the sight of one of her closest friends.
"hey arden. what can i help with?"
"you could do all my essays," she said, flashing him a cheesy grin.
"yeah, as fun as that sounds, i think i'm gonna pass."
"your help sucks," arden stated, rolling her eyes.
"one of these days, your eyes are going to get stuck in the back of your head and you can best believe that i will stand back and laugh at you."
"i'm sure you will because you're a pathetic piece of shit."
"awe how sweet."
arden and andrew had been close since their fourth year at hogwarts. the two didn't get along very well at their first encounter, but they found common interests. not very many, but there were a few. they met in the library in their fourth year, but the two were there for very different reasons. arden had gone for books, and andrew, at the young age of 14, had gone for a smoke.
"you can't do that in here," she had said, earning an "i can do whatever the hell i want," in response.
their bickering continued for most of their fourth year until andrew suddenly needed help in transfigurations and mcgonagall assigned her to be his tutor. it was quite awkward at first, arden would admit, but it got better over time. they grew quite close, and they dated for almost a year until they came to the mutual conclusion that it just wasn't going to work. but instead of ending everything there, they got closer as friends.
"come on, arden, let's get you to bed. you've been up working long enough on this shit—"
"it's not shit, it's work. work that needs to get done."
"work that can be done when you are rested. come on."
"no, andrew, stop i need to get this done."
"you need to sleep, hoe," he teased.
"boy, shut up and leave me alone."
"no thank you, ma'am," andrew said, placing her books and scrolls into her bag as she reached for them and swatted at him.
"andrew give them back, i need to study for binn's class!" arden groaned jumping up, reaching for her school bag.
"no can do. you need to sle- uhg."
arden shook her hand, trying to shake off the pain in her knuckles from punching andrew in the abdomen
"fuck, arden," he gasped, trying to catch his breath. andrew took another deep breath before slinging the back over one shoulder and throwing arden over the other. she punched and kicked, but it was pointless; he wasn't going to let her down until they got to the dormitory.
