Jupiter | Harry James Potter

lxxix ; ruined potions

-JUPITER-

"Where were you two?" Hermione asked once Jupiter and Harry had caught up to her and Ron in the halls. "You missed the entire class, and it was a double period!"

"Ron's bed," Harry smirked, earning a back-handed slap to his chest from Jupiter.

"STOP!" Ron yelled, his nose scrunching up in disgust.

"He's joking, Ron," Jupiter said, sending Harry a sharp glare before intertwining their fingers. "Though, it was suggested."

"I hate both of you, honestly," Ron gagged. "I mean, come on, how do you spend that long snogging? It's revolting."

Jupiter saw a smirk grow on Harry's face at Ron's words. The idiot was bloody proud of himself. "You'll get it whenever you finally have your first kiss, Ron."

Ron rolled his eyes, clearly unimpressed. "Yeah, well, I'll make sure it doesn't take the whole of bloody History of Magic, thank you very much."

Hermione, who had been watching the exchange with an exasperated expression, sighed. "Honestly, you two need to be more careful. Umbridge is looking for any excuse to make things difficult for us, and skipping class is exactly the kind of thing she'd use against you."

"We're being careful, Hermione," Jupiter said, squeezing Harry's hand reassuringly. "We just... needed some time to ourselves."

Hermione raised an eyebrow but didn't press the issue. Instead, she turned to Ron, who was still grumbling under his breath. "You could stand to be a bit more mature about this, Ron. It's not like they're the only couple in the world."

"Yeah, well, doesn't mean I have to like it," Ron muttered, though there was a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Just wait until it's your turn, mate," Harry said with a grin. "Then we'll see who's spending all day in empty corridors." Nobody missed his obvious look to Hermione, whose eyes widened as Ron's ears turned a bright shade of pink.

"Anyways," Hermione quickly muttered. "What did the letter say?"

"Snuffles wants to meet at the fireplace. He wrote 'same time, same place as last year'," Harry whispered. "That reminds me... when I went to find Professor Grubbly-Plank for Hedwig, Professor McGonagall found me and said 'that the channels of communication in and out of Hogwarts may be being watched.'"

Nobody in the group looked shocked; on the contrary, they exchanged significant looks.

"What?" Harry asked, looking from Ron to Hermione and then to Jupiter.

"Well, I was just saying to Ron..." Hermione said, her lips forming a straight line. "What if someone had tried to intercept Hedwig? I mean, she's never been hurt on a flight before, has she?"

"No, never," Harry muttered, his eyes falling to the floor.

"Let's just hope that nobody read it," Jupiter said, biting the inside of her cheek. "For his sake and ours."

"But it was still sealed and everything," said Harry, trying to convince himself as much as her. "And nobody would understand what it meant if they didn't know where we'd spoken to him before, would they?"

"I don't know," Hermione sighed anxiously. "It wouldn't be exactly difficult to reseal the scroll by magic. . . . And if anyone's watching the Floo Network . . . but I don't really see how we can warn him not to come without that being intercepted too!"

They trudged down the stone steps to the dungeons for Potions, all four of them lost in thought, but as they reached the bottom of the stairs they were recalled to themselves by the voice of Draco Malfoy, who was standing just outside Snape's classroom door, waving around an official-looking piece of parchment and talking much louder than was necessary so that they could hear every word.