Between the Cracks // 𝓕𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂

36. Ferula

Chapter 36: Ferula

The early December morning rose outside the window of the flat; the sun shining in and engulfing the rooms with light. The snow was falling – slowly, slowly – each crystallised flake unique as it singled down towards the ground.

Inside, Fred Weasley laid under the warm comforter of his bed, being awoken first when the light shone directly onto him, making him blink and yawn before coming to his senses.

He stared up at the ceiling as he stretched his back, enjoying the warmth his bed had to offer before he was expected to get up. Then, in a second, everything from yesterday evening dawned on him, and his eyes widened, his face heating up.

"Oh shit."

-

This was the day Leigh had been working towards for weeks. It might seem obsessive, but she had early on decided that her success in Advanced Arithmancy would somehow determine her overall success her final year at Hogwarts. She had studied, revised, paid attention and written essay after essay to try and get the knowledge to sink in. Despite it being a mock exam, Leigh saw it as the moment of truth. It was now or never. Was she cut out for academic success or not?

The day outside was cold. It gave mixed signals: both the sun and the snow coexisted outside her window.

She had woken up early. The mock exam wasn't until after lunch, but she needed to stay disciplined throughout the day. There was still Arithmancy topics she wanted to go through a final time before the test, and she needed to plan her day to know exactly where she had a few minutes to spare to do exactly that.

She got dressed quickly and started collecting her books for her upcoming classes. Her eyes caught sight of something hanging on her dresser: Fred's jacket.

Her thoughts instantly went back to yesterday. His presence, his words, the embraces. She quickly shook her head, refocusing her attention on the day before her. She shoved the jacket in her bag – hopefully she'd be able to pop by and leave it sometime during the day, or perhaps after classes. She wouldn't want to hog it for several days before returning it.

With a sigh she grabbed all her things before rushing down the stairs, grabbing an apple from the great hall before getting seated in the library. At least 20 minutes to spare before her first class of the day.

-

Her second class of the day was Potions, and she maintained her focus as she made her way to the designated classroom. Ron, her usual partner for Potions, rushed into the classroom about 1 minute before class started, chatting about Merlin knows what.

As Leigh went to retrieve her notebook and Potions textbook from her bag, she was again reminded of Fred's jacket. Maybe she could return it during lunch? Although she would be thankful to have that time to revise before the test, which was straight after lunch. She bit her lip in thought.

Class started, and everything went as expected. They had started to venture into the more advanced parts of the curriculum, but Leigh was still confident about today's topic, and her mind automatically started to wander as she prepared the ingredients.

Ron talked intermittently, and Leigh mostly replied with some brief 'hm's or 'yeah's, although she had no clue what he said most of the time. Instead, she thought through some Arithmancy content. She reminded herself of the things she still needed to go through, and a wave of frustration rushed through her. Another two hours to go before the test, and the stress started to thump in her ears. She gritted her teeth together, not paying as much attention as she normally would as she continued working on the ingredients, letting the knife in her hand slice through some items on the board in front of her.