Mass Collision

16. Early Break?

It was getting closer and closer to Christmas which meant midterms, exams, tests, and it was getting colder. I hadn't lost many more memories and it seemed like things were slowing down.

Today was our last D.A. meeting and I was kind of sad. It was a lot of fun and I had time to practice magic. It was a little harder for me to understand the spells and the movements, but after a few times watching others do it I had it down. When learning with Remus and the others they would all show me first and then I could do it on the first try, maybe (more like 5ish).

I excused myself from helping the third years and said I had to meet up to tutor a 2nd year Hufflepuff. I made my way to the seventh floor and into the room of requirement that was decorated for Christmas, surprisingly.

"Wow, did you decorate this for us, Potter?" I ask teasingly.

"No, one of the house elves, Dobby did," he laughed, shaking his head. "Okay," he said, calling them all to order. "I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break —"

"We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come. . . ."

"Then leave," I tell him, confused. "You're not being forced to be here."

"We can practice in pairs," said Harry. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, just for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."

They all divided up obediently; I partnered Neville as usual. The room was soon full of intermittent cries of "Impedimenta!" People froze for a minute or so, during which their partners would stare aimlessly around the room watching other pairs at work, then would unfreeze and take their turn at the jinx. Neville had improved beyond all recognition and I was very proud of him.

I go to say the spell when something happens. A memory flashed of the beginning of the battle with the Newborns and when I got the scar on my back.

I came back to Neville shaking me and calling my name. "Yeah?" I asked him.

"You zoned out, are you okay?" He asked.

I nodded, "Just my ADHD," I told him.

"Oh," he breathed out relieved.

"Yeah, sorry about that," I apologize and raise my wand. "Impedimenta!" I shouted and he froze. I unfroze him and then we grabbed cushions to switch to stunning. Space was really too confined to allow us all to work this spell at once; half the group observed the others for a while, then swapped over.

At the end of an hour, Harry called a halt. "You're getting really good," he said, beaming around at them. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff — maybe even Patronuses."

There were murmurs of excitement and I called out, "Hey, I can do that one!"

"Wait, so you didn't know basic spells like Impedimenta, but you can produce a patronus?" Smith asked.

"Oh, bite me!" I snapped at him. After that people started to clear out in small groups like usual and I was left there with Harry and Cho. "Well, looks like you two want to talk, so I'll just go," I say awkwardly.

I scurry out of there as fast as possible and make it back to the common room. "How was the second year?" Daph asked.

"Miserable, he's absolutely hopeless!" I said dramatically flopping onto the couch. "At my school they would've thrown him in the forest with his wand and seen if he made it out alive, but noooooo of course we can't do that here. Can't weed out the week!"