What will happen when a certain loud and irritating Gryffindor boy decides he needs his Astronomy grade to be higher? What will happen when an exhausted star lover happens to fall asleep in the wrong area in the library? Read the tales of Arabella a...
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"The meaning of life is that it stops."
-Franz Kafka
A NIGHT FILLED WITH dreams of falling and humiliation had filled the tired mind of Arabella; the fact that she had to wake up in the morning and possibly deal with them once more seemed rather unfair. As she wandered up the seemingly endless staircase to astronomy, her cheeks had become blotchy from the physical effort and her lungs felt as if they were going to collapse. It was all worth it though, for the class in her opinion.
Ever since she could remember, she had found the stars the most interesting topic she had ever faced. When she was younger her mother and father used to spend hours upon hours gazing up at the twinkling lights whilst chatting and laughing to one another.
She spent her nights watching them through the windows, wondering if she would ever manage to find someone to talk about endless topics and to ask ridiculous questions to. All whilst being looked after by the night sky that had so dearly protected her.
Being late was not a thing Arabella was good at. In fact even being early sometimes was not good enough in her mind. She had only ever been late to a lesson once and the feeling that overtook her was torturous. Her skin itched as if a thousand mosquitos had decided to feast on her flesh, tears brimmed her eyes and her chest seized up to the point where the individual task of breathing was a challenge.
Her eyes fluttered up to the ceiling of the room as she took in a deep breath. It was painted a navy blue but nobody paid attention to that as the things that surrounded the ceiling were far more eye catching. A small version of all the galaxies smothered the navy blue, each planet begging to be the centre of attention. They all rotated and moved in accordance to the real version that they lived in. It left the majority breathless because of the complexity in its structure.
Arabella sat in the second row and started to unpack the things she needed for the upcoming lesson. She used to love sitting in the first row but as she was constantly picked to answer questions aloud, her love for the seat had dissipated which caused her to move to the second row.
Minutes had passed and people were slowly starting to filter in and sit at the various empty desks that were surrounding her. Nadrei had already entered but instead of trying to sit next to Arabella he decided to go and flirt with Carla Phibbs, a rather shy Hufflepuff girl, who he had previously been trying to chat to but she always somehow managed to avoid him.
The esteemed Aurora Sinistra took her place at the front of the classroom and opened her mouth to speak, "Welcome to the first Astronomy of this academic year. I thought we would begin with the moons of Jupiter. If you could all turn to page a hundred and twelve in The Night Sky: Everything you need to know." Everyone hurriedly flipped to the desired page and prepared themselves for her next instructions.
"Now who can tell me how many moons Jupiter has in total?" Her voice quietened as she looked over the room for willing participants. Nobody raised a finger. "No one at all?" A cough sliced through the silence of the room. "Eighty to ninety two. Depending on who you ask." Arabella whispered quietly to the boy next to her who was frantically searching for the answer in hopes of receiving praise. He stuck his hand in the air to be called on.
"Thank you William, how many does it have?" She kindly spoke. "Uhm. Between eighty and ninety two I think. Maybe. Depends on who you speak to." Will spoke with a thick Dublin accent that sometimes made it rather difficult to understand him. A smile spread itself across the professor's face. "Entirely correct Mr Kelly."
Her lips had peeled apart once more to ask another question but just as she was preparing the words to leave her mouth the door flung open to reveal a rather hot and bothered James Potter. The front curls of his hair had started to stick to his forehead due to the sheen of sweat that had built up on his head. His forearm laid itself on the side of the door as he clutched his side as if he was in pain with his other arm.
His glasses were askew but he did not take any notice as he only just realised the fuss and commotion he was causing. His robe had been long forgotten. His tie was tied loosely around his neck and half of his buttons were fastened in completely the wrong pattern. It was safe to say that he looked like a hot mess.
"I'm sorry I got lost. More or less." James wore a sheepish look as he apologised for interrupting her lesson. Sinistra shook her head in dismissal and gestured for him to take a seat, not wanting to run into anymore issues he did exactly as she asked and took the only available seat. Next to Arabella.
"Have you got a spare quill I forgot mine?" He asked quietly in her ear.
"It seems you forgot a lot of things this morning Potter." She remarked back through clenched teeth.
"What do you mean?"
"Your buttons are all over the place, were you blindfolded when you got dressed? Also no robe, quill or bag by the looks of it. It would probably be easier to ask what you did remember."
"Alright, what did I remember?" James enquired.
"Your inability to shut up of course, I thought it would be rather obvious."
He huffed loudly and threaded his fingers through his hair in an attempt to flatten the strands that never seemed willing to cooperate with him. Thinking through his options, he removed his wand from his pocket and started dipping it into the ink in order to write. A few moments had passed of horrible screeching made by the contact of wand and paper.
Arabella speedily snatched his wand from his hand and replaced it with the quill that she previously been writing with. He replied with a small "Thanks." and a grin before he started to copy the notes that had been magically carving themselves onto the blackboard at the front of the room.
She stuck her hand into her bag and moved it from side to side until her skin made contact with the item she was searching for. An old washcloth was in her hand when she yanked it out from her satchel. It had various dirt marks on its pale green fabric from its previous usage. She pointed the tip of the wand towards the cloth and started rubbing the cloth against the wood of the wand in order to get the ink off of the wand.
Arabella worked tirelessly to get the ink off but a large amount of it decided to be stubborn and not come off. She pulled a small bottle of disinfectant from her bag and stated gently rubbing it onto the surface, ensuring to not damage the wood stain. Satisfied with her work she handed the wand back to the rightful owner who had already been staring at her, intrigued with what she was doing.
"You didn't have to do that, it wouldn't have stopped it from working."
"I am aware but if I was not being so challenging when you asked for a spare quill then you would not have ruined your wand so I cleaned it." She had a nervous twinge in her tone as if she was almost afraid of how James would respond. Luckily for her the class had ended and she managed to pack up and head for the door before James could even think of a response.
"Wait, you forgot your quill-" He yelled at her from the other side of the room whilst wafting said quill in the air.
"Keep it." She shouted just as loudly without turning around to face him.
