Finder's Keeper || Oliver Wood [1]

Chapter 7: The Holidays

Christmas — or at least the days before Christmas — at Hogwarts was truly magical. The snow that had coated the grounds was soft and pure white, the weather was chilly but the castle's warmth and coziness made up for it, and the overall vibe was simply relaxing. Walking down the corridors at this time of the year without worrying about deadlines or the next class was such an amazing feeling for Jessica.

As much as Jessica loved spending time with her friends, being alone felt just as, if not more, refreshing. With all the drama that went around the school and the amount of work the teachers gave them, it felt great to be on her own for a while. Besides, she would only stay in the castle for two days, meaning she would be leaving tomorrow evening.

The morning of her first day alone at Hogwarts, Jessica ate breakfast alone, comfortably seated in the Gryffindor table. There were a few recognizable faces here and there including Harry Potter and the youngest Weasley boy, Ron, seated a few feet away from her.

Jessica had the mentality that getting everything done right away was the equivalent of being productive. This meant that in group works, she ended up doing majority of the work before the others could even help. It wasn't that she was a genius; she was just a hardworking student who wanted to do well in her classes. It was a flaw, really — she didn't know when to ask for help. She knew she had to fix that little problem of hers, but at the moment, she didn't care. She was alone for two days of the Christmas break and wanted to get started on most of her homework to be able to rest and spend more time with her family when she got home and to not procrastinate once she returned to Hogwarts.

She decided to begin with the Potions group work she was assigned to with Chopra and Higgs. She didn't know their work ethic and as usual, wanted to make sure everything got done on time.

With her cup of steaming hot cocoa and a plate of two eggs, a few strips of bacon, and a slice of toast barely touched, she began writing down notes based on one of the books she borrowed from the library as well as possible points to tackle in the essay portion of the assignment on a fresh roll of parchment. Although she didn't actually start writing the essay, she ended up jotting down countless bullet points of what should be tackled in it that it filled up a good part of the parchment.

Jessica leaned back to look at what she had written so far, deciding that she should give herself a well-deserved break and give her group mates the benefit of the doubt when she heard laughter behind her, followed by the sound of footsteps running down the hall. She turned her head to see what the commotion was, but before she could even register the two boys dangerously near the Gryffindor table, one of them had bumped into her. It wasn't hard, but it was just enough to accidentally knock both her bottle of ink and cup of hot cocoa onto the roll of parchment she finished working on not even a minute ago.

A shocked gasp left her lips and she groaned in disappointment. She had already done a good part of the group work and somebody just had to ruin it for her.

"Oh, shit," a deep voice muttered behind her. "Let's go."

But Jessica didn't want to let it go. She didn't get mad easily, but she could be feisty when she wanted to. She whipped around and came face to face with two Slytherins, one she didn't recognize and one she knew well enough: Terence Higgs.

"I'm so sorry, Hawthorne," Higgs chuckled nervously. When Jessica didn't reply, he explained, "Wright here stole my first ever Quidditch jersey and threatened to burn it if I didn't pay him back for this bet we had so I chased him down here."

"Uh-huh."

Hearing the uninterested tone of her voice, his smile dropped and he actually did look guilty.