Chamber of Love

Chapter 49

  Two days passed by and the fifth year immediately turned out to be more difficult and exhausting than the previous years. First day was easy, no homework or anything. Just casual lessons and conversations about what they were going to learn that year. But the second day was like a shockwave. Every single professor started to teach intensively and gave homework due within a week. Of course, not everybody took that seriously and decided to start them later. On the third day, another pile of assignments were added to the students' schedules. And now everyone was anxious for what was awaiting them on the next day, and so on.

"Smith, I have better things to do. Stop insisting." Matthew Holt, one of the chasers and now the new captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team walked into the common room, followed by a desperate looking Zacharias Smith.

"But think about it! No one else is going to audition, so why do I have to?" Zacharias asked.

Juliette, who was writing the introduction of her Charms essay in the corner of the room, stopped everything and looked up upon hearing their voices.

"Because," Matthew stopped and turned around to look at Zach, lazily holding his bag. "There will be auditions for a Beater as well. If they are auditioning, so are you."

Juliette almost dropped her quill. There was no way Zacharias was actually going to audition. Yes, he did tell everyone how he wanted to be the Seeker and all but Juliette always tried to convince herself that he was just messing with people. Especially with her. And now he was actually talking to the captain about it.

"Okay, but I'm still going to get in the team, right?" Zacharias kept persisting.

"We'll see." Matthew sighed, and walked away before Zach could say anything else.

Few other students in the room stopped glancing at them and kept going on with their business while Juliette frowned at their interaction. Matthew was a close friend and a teammate of Cedric's. She's seen them joking around countless times at dinner table, in the courtyard during breaks and in the common room after they came from classes; slouching in the couches by the fire. Maybe Juliette was misreading the situation but he didn't look too happy that Zacharias was going to audition to be the Seeker. She desperately wanted to believe that he wouldn't let Zach in the team. Right? He could just give the position to someone else. No big deal. Right?

As Juliette absentmindedly tapped her quill on her mostly empty paper, Zacharias turned to go to his dorm room. But not before noticing Juliette in the corner. Their eyes locked for a second and Juliette's frown deepened, causing a smirk to appear on his lips. She felt her heartbeat accelerating and face heating up. How could he possibly make her that angry and frustrated by just looking at her? Why was she letting him?

Just when she expected him to make a snarky remark, he looked away headed for the stairs, disappearing from her view.

Juliette took in a deep breath and looked back at her paper.

He's not joining the team, She tried to convince herself. The dry tip of the quill touched the paper, but it didn't move.

He can't. He doesn't deserve it, She pressed the quill with an unintended force, almost piercing the paper.

Juliette huffed a little too loud and gave up on her barely started essay. Hate was a strong word, but it was also the only word that could describe her feelings towards Zacharias Smith.

She put her stuff in her bag that was placed on the floor, against her chair. Her goal was to finish at least half of the essay before going to bed but now she couldn't even focus because of something she didn't even have a say in.