Harry Potter and the Lost Cities

CHAPTER TEN

Sophie smiled as she entered the streamer-covered, confetti-filled Foxfire cafeteria, overflowing Thinking Cap in hand. As of yesterday, midterms were― thank goodness― over, and now all that was left was to celebrate.

Not that she'd given midterms a whole lot of thought this year. Her mind had been full of other things― wizards, potions, and far-off magic schools were just a few of them.

"Foster, over here!"

And there was another one.

Ever since they'd gone to London, Keefe had improved a little. The success of his plan had clearly boosted his self-esteem, and he enjoyed making fun of wizards and, as he called them, their "hocus-pocus sticks." But they still had nothing on Keefe's abilities. Sophie had upped the hours spent with Oralie in hopes that the Forgotten Secret about Stellarlune would help, and Alden and Elwin had been doing almost constant research, but they hadn't been able to find anything.

But Sophie pushed her worries from her mind. Today was a day for fun. She turned to Keefe, who was waving at her to join all their friends at a table in the cafeteria. She hurried over. "Hey, Keefe."

The others turned at her voice, greeting her eagerly.

"Thanks for the makeup, Sophie! It's perfect," Biana said, holding up the freshly unwrapped gift.

"No problem," Sophie replied, smiling.

"Never mind makeup, open my present, Sophie!" Dex exclaimed. "It's the one in the purple paper."

Sophie sat down next to across from Dex and fished a purple gift from her Thinking Cap, tearing the paper off to reveal a smooth box with several small, glass vials containing different colored liquids.

"I always get you techy-stuff," Dex explained. "So I figured I'd change it up a little this time around. It's a bunch of pranking elixirs, with instructions on how to use them. Don't look at them here!" Dex winked. "You don't want to show everyone what they do. You've gotta catch them by surprise."

"Thanks, Dex!" Sophie exclaimed, her mind racing down the list of people she could prank.

"Why would you get her that?" Biana whined. "Now she's gonna get us all!"

"Yeah, aren't you a little worried she'll get you with one of them?" Tam asked.

Dex shrugged. "You can't prank the person who gave you the supplies in the first place. It's an unspoken rule. And besides, she knows it's a bad idea to prank me, since she'll run out of elixirs eventually and I'm the one who knows how to make more." He grinned slyly.

"Too true. Thanks, Dex, I'll use these well." She returned Dex's smile as she carefully closed the box.

She barely noticed the bells marking each new parent-teacher conference as she and her friends opened presents, laughing and popping the prize-filled bubbles floating overhead. They laughed especially hard when Tam opened a particularly large gift from Linh: an adorable baby gremlin.

"Why would you give me this?!" Tam exclaimed, examining the animal with a high level of disgust. "You know I hate animals! I'll probably throw it out the window the moment I get the chance."

"Oh, no, you won't!" Linh replied. "Look, it's so cute, and it's just a baby, how could you throw it out the window? Don't you have a heart?"

Tam groaned.

Marella snickered. "Looks like you're stuck with it, Tam." She gave him a particularly flirty smile that made Sophie's eyebrows raise.

Before she could investigate further, a crisp-accented voice spoke from behind her. "Hey, Sophie? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Surprised, Sophie turning to face Fitz, who flashed a smile. "Sure," she agreed, rising to her feet.

Fitz led her outside the cafeteria to a quiet hallway before he stopped and turned to face her. "Sorry. I just― I wanted to keep my gift private." He handed her a teal-wrapped box.

"Oh― thanks." As she unwrapped the gift, Sophie couldn't quite work out how she was feeling. She had no hard feelings against Fitz― but since they'd broken up, she'd been trying very hard not to have any more-than-friend-ish feelings toward Fitz, too. And she couldn't quite keep her heart from fluttering at that moment.

Inside the box, were two things: a thick slice of mallowmelt and another, even smaller, teal box.

One that looked an awful lot like a jewelry box.

She carefully opened it, revealing a simple but elegant bracelet with white, square beads, with splashes of blue across it.

"Oh," she breathed. "It's beautiful, Fitz. Thank you."

Fitz offered his movie star smile. "I'm glad you like it."

He took a step closer, and Sophie's brain felt like it was going to shut down due to the internal war going on in her brain. Part of her, the part she was trying to suppress, couldn't help but think about his smooth lips, the ones she'd wanted for so long to press against her own. But the other half couldn't stop thinking about how their relationship had ended last time.

And how she would always be unmatchable.

"Sophie..." Fitz said. "I know you said you just wanted to be friends. But... it's not enough for me." He sighed. "I know it's not fair to pressure you like this. So... I won't ask right now. But think about it. Please?"

Sophie managed a nod. She noticed Fitz glanced down at her lips, and for a moment both sides of her were screaming― on in excitement and anticipation, the other in fear. But then Fitz stepped back and Sophie exhaled.

"I guess we should get back now," Fitz said awkwardly. Sophie nodded again and they reentered the cafeteria.

Sophie was hoping the short excursion would go unnoticed, but as soon as they approached the table, Marella demanded, "Where were you guys?"

Sophie blushed. "Oh... we were just... talking."

Marella raised her eyebrows, but fortunately, she didn't press the subject further.

"Foster, you still have to open my gift!" Keefe exclaimed, shoving a gift her direction.

Sophie obediently picked it up and tore the paper. Inside, she found a tunic. Confused, she picked it up to get a better look at it. She grinned when she realized what she was seeing.

It was a red tunic with "Empaths Give Me All the Feels" embroidered across it.

Ro cracked up. "Subtle, Hunkyhair."

Keefe glared. "You already saw it! Why do you have to be annoying about it again?"

Ro smirked. "Can't help myself."

"What does it mean?" Fitz asked, and Sophie was fairly certain she detected a hint of anger in his voice, although she wasn't sure why.

"It's an inside joke," Sophie replied, giggling a little as she folded the tunic back up. "Thanks, Keefe."

"Anytime. I expect you to wear it at least every other day."

Sophie rolled her eyes, but before she could come up with a good response, Keefe's imparted buzzed in his pocket.

He fished it out, and his eyes widened when he saw the name on the imparter.

"What?" Sophie asked, concerned "Who is it?"

Keefe glanced at her, then slowly flipped the imparted towards her so Sophie could read the name.

Lady Gisela.