Between the Cracks // 𝓕𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂

33. Honey Pastilles

33. Honey Pastilles

The Arithmancy class was quiet as the students were taking the final notes of the lesson. It was strange. The hour flew by quicker than expected, yet it felt so insanely long.

Normally Leigh could hold her focus, but she had found herself losing it several times her last few classes. Her hand shook above the paper of her notebook, and a smudge started forming in the middle of her most recently written word. She pushed her hand onto the desk in the hopes that it would stop its constant small movements.

She managed to scribble down a few more words before the class was dismissed. She let out a quiet sigh before closing her book, plastering a small smile on her face before looking towards the person beside her.

Hermione, as diligent as she was, was still hunched over the desk beside Leigh, frantically taking notes for several more rows.

Leigh glanced at her, biting her lip before looking down at her own notes again. The quill was in her still shaking hand, hovering over her still unfinished notes. She finally put the quill on the desk, starting to gather her things.

"That last half of the lesson was so interesting," Hermione spoke moments later as they made their way through the corridor. The rest of the class was already way ahead, having spread out throughout the castle by now.

"Yeah," Leigh agreed faintly. She wasn't lying, not really. It was interesting for sure.

"How are you feeling ahead of the test?" Hermione asked, and Leigh shrugged.

"It's alright, I think."

"Yeah? That's good." She nodded. "And I mean it's not the real test. It's just to know kind of where we're at. Which is good."

Leigh nodded. It was good. It was also a bit worrying. If she did poorly on this mock test, was there any point to sticking out til the end? Would she do just as bad on the real ones?

Hermione placed a hand on her shoulder, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"You're gonna do fine," she said and shot her a smile.

She gave her a smile back. "Yeah," she said faintly. She stopped a few steps later. "I, um, I need to go talk to Sprout...about something."

Hermione looked confused for a second but quickly remained her posture. "Oh. Alright. See you later?"

"Yep," Leigh replied, sucking in a breath and moving out of sight, turning a corner and slipping out a door and into the cold air.

It was freezing, yet she felt like she could finally take a breath. The sky was blue, and the icy cold air stung at her skin, shaking her awake. She took a breath and started on her way to the greenhouses.

She wasn't actually thinking of talking with Sprout, but she had found that the greenhouses were a good place to go when she wanted some calm and quiet outside of the castle. Merlin knows she needed that.

-

The days went on, and Leigh was intent on studying for her Arithmancy test coming up, as well as staying on top of her normal coursework. She had a lot of classes, but Arithmancy remained the most difficult one. It felt like if she managed Arithmancy, she could manage any of the others which came her way.

Her daily routine consisted of nothing but reading, studying and classes. Nova tried to bring her friend to some parties or get-togethers, but was consistently unsuccessful. While Nova was disappointed that Leigh missed out on the fun, she had noticed that she probably needed the rest. The bags under her eyes told that much.