Mass Collision

19. Return

Christmas break had come and gone and Natalia returned to school and there was a new announcement on the board. Everyone who was going to turn 17 soon was going to start apparition classes. Natalia rolled her eyes as the others talked about it, she was still 15 until the end of the month.

She had gotten more homework the moment she stepped into her first class on Monday and it incredibly annoyed her. She also kept getting these looks from Potter and his friends, like they knew something she didn't know about her. It was weird and becoming creepy.

When Natalia had finally turned 16, she didn't do anything special, just looked at her one black and white photo of her, her mother, Nico, and Bianca. It was bittersweet and she was pissed, but still went to all of her classes.

In potions, Harry walked up to her as she was setting out her ingredients, "Uh, Happy birthday," he told her with a smile and handed her a parcel. She looked at him confused.

"Thank you, Harry, are you excited to start apparition lessons?" She asked him politely and nodded.

"You?" She shook her head.

"Can't start, just turned 16 today," she explained and he nodded, forgetting that she was Ginny's age.

"I'll see you later," he waved and went to sit in his group with Ron and Hermione. Natalia had tucked the parcel into her bag to forget until she got back to the common room.

~

She got back to her dorm room and ripped open the parcel to find a little scrapbook. She turned to the first page and it was her first day in England when she had first arrived. She flipped through all of the pages and it was her entire first year at Hogwarts, including summer. She smiled at every picture and found that only ¼ of the book was filled and the rest was empty.

She bit her lip before deciding that she would put pictures in it from this year, she had a lot from her ball. Natalia took her picture of her family out and used some spello tape to place it into the book.

She hugged the book and placed it into her bedside table before pulling out her textbooks to get started on her homework.

~

February had come and passed, all of them were much too busy to be doing anything for Valentine's day. Draco and Natalia had a 'date' which was them in the ROR with several spell books, no air conditioning, and a whole lot of stress.

Natalia wasn't proud of it, but after a few hours in the room, she had gone around punching things around her.

That was all about a month ago now and she was up early, in the library, looking for something to help her and Draco when she heard a lot of running and panicking. She put her book back and followed the noise to see Madam Pomprey and McGonagall hauling Ron off to the Hospital wing with Slughorn and Harry rushing behind them. She followed them, but stayed a good distance away to hear Harry explaining what happened. Natalia understood exactly what happened the moment she heard 'mead'. She huffed and could hear McGonagall calling for the Weasley family.

Natalia knew that most of the family would be down there in only a short amount of time, Ginny probably minutes. She turned on her heel and walked away from the scene and straight to the dungeons.

The first thing she did when she got there was march up to Draco's dorm room and slam the door open. The only people in the room were Blaise, Theo, Crabbe, and Goyle so she grabbed a pillow and started hitting Draco with it.

"OW!" He shouted and everyone in the room woke up. "What in the bloody hell are you doing woman?"

"Your mead did poison someone," Natalia told him and he looked hopeful for two seconds before seeing her face. "Ron Weasley, on his birthday." She used the pillow and smacked him across the face once more.

"It's just Weasel!" Draco defends, using his arms to block her hits.

"It's his fucking birthday!" Natalia yelled at him.

"How was I supposed to know when it was going to happen? It was supposed to be a Christmas present!" Draco shouted back and Natalia gave him a frustrated sigh, throwing the pillow at him and walking out of the dorm.

~

A few weeks later was the first Apparition test, but seeing as Natalia wasn't old enough, she just went to her regular classes with Draco since he wasn't able to either.

She entered potions and there were only four of them that day. Harry, Natalia, Ernie, and Draco.

"All too young to Apparate just yet?" said Slughorn genially. "Not turned seventeen yet?"

They shook their heads.

"Ah well," said Slughorn cheerily, "as we're so few, we'll do something fun. I want you all to brew me up something amusing!"

"That sounds good, sir," said Ernie sycophantically, rubbing his hands together. Malfoy, on the other hand, did not crack a smile.

"What do you mean, 'something amusing'?" he said irritably.

"Oh, surprise me," said Slughorn airily.

Draco opened his copy of Advanced Potion-Making with a sulky expression. It could not have been plainer that he thought this lesson was a waste of time. Natalia took the time and noticed how thin he was. She herself was eating the same amount as him, maybe less, but she looked healthier. It was weird she didn't notice the changes until recently. Her clothes that she came here in didn't dreadfully hang off her body like she was a skeleton and she no longer looked like she hadn't seen the sun in years.

Natalia glanced through her book and found the perfect one. Alihotsy Draught, it caused hysterical laughter. She got out the necessary ingredients and a mask as anyone who inhaled the vapor after correctly making it would suffer the side effects.

After an hour and a half, Slughorn came to look and marveled at her potion. "Perfect, absolutely perfect! One smell and you'll have someone laughing for days," he complimented as he helped her bottle it up carefully. As soon as the class was let out, her and Draco scurried out of the room. Draco was pissed that Harry was getting so much praise and was exhausted.

She pulled Draco to an empty corridor, "I'm going to go work on it." Draco's eyes widened.

"But you don't have to look out!"

"It'll be fine," she waved him off, "I'll be back." She walked off to the seventh floor and the door appeared for her. She walked in and closed the door behind her. She walked over to the cabinet and raised her wand, they hand found a few spells that were working so she muttered the incantation. She got out an apple from her bag and placed it in the cabinet.

She watched as it glowed and opened it again to see it gone. She smiled and closed again. It glowed and she opened it to find the apple with a bite taken out. She smiled victoriously. It was progress and that was hopeful.

Although, doing it over and over again was making her insane.