Cursed With Curious Minds | Hp Next Generation

19 - Affectionate, Passionate and Careless

"So what 10 words did you decide for yourself in the end?" Astrid asked Delilah about half an hour before the next animagus meeting with McGonagall.

Delilah's face quickly turned to that of worry. "Shit."

"Don't tell me-"

"I've been distracted!" Delilah defended. "In case you didn't notice, the love of my life has a girlfriend! I can't pine over somebody with a girlfriend... it's unethical. So instead, I wallow in sadness, and wallowing leaves no time to do work."

"I know this is a touchy subject, Delilah, but that happened two days ago. You can hardly use it as an excuse."

"Two days before the deadline is when I work best!"

Astrid sighed. "You still need the list."

"I'll be back."

Delilah got up off the sofa in the Ravenclaw common room and marched up the stairs. Two minutes later she came down with a parchment and a quill, and slammed them into the coffee table in front of her.

"Help me, then."

The two stared at the blank parchment for quite some time.

"How did you start yours?" Delilah asked.

Astrid laughed, and pulled out the first draft of her list. "I struggled. A lot." The parchment was full of messy, scribbled words, and others that had been crossed out, then written again, and crossed out again. It was almost impossible to tell what the final 10 words were. "I kind of, thought about something that describes me, but turned it around to make it more positive."

Delilah sat in thought for a moment. "Well the only thing I can think is procrastinator."

Astrid laughed. "That would definitely be accurate – but it's not positive enough." Astrid tried to think of a positive synonym for procrastinator, but nothing came. "How about passionate?"

"Passionate?"

"When you like something, you're super passionate about it! Like quidditch, or- or James!"

Delilah twitched at the mention of James. "I guess you're right." She said, and wrote it down.

Once the first word was down, it wasn't that hard to think up much else and after half an hour the two of them had compiled a list for Delilah, and were quite proud of it.

Astrid checked the time. "We need to go." She said, immediately packing up her things.

Delilah looked at the clock. "Oh yeah, Merlin." And followed Astrid out the door.

***

Astrid and Delilah were a few minutes late, but luckily it didn't look like James and McGonagall had started.

"I was wondering where you'd got to, sit down." McGonagall pointed to the two empty seats.

Delilah intentionally positioned herself in the end seat, forcing Astrid in between her and James.

"I trust you've all brought the list I told you to make last time," McGonagall began, as the three of them rustled about in their bags for their lists. "So, we will talk through them and see what we've learnt about ourselves from this task. Anybody want to go first?"

Astrid looked to Delilah, then to James. Both were equally awkward.

"I will, Professor." She said.

"Brilliant. Now, Miss Williams, would you please read out your list?"

Astrid took in a deep breath, and read out her list. "Imaginative, intelligent, determined, resourceful, witty, inquisitive, optimistic, introverted, affectionate and trustworthy." She looked hopefully up at McGonagall, who was considering her words deeply.