The Challenge | James Potter

Chapter 6 - Seating arrangements

"TWO MORE MINUTES, IT'S ALL I ASK FOR PLEASE!" Meissa groaned as Marianne yanked her bedsheets off of her, coldness immediately hitting her. "No Meissa , we need to leave now or we'll miss breakfast and miss getting our timetables and you could really do with some sort of cure from last night, you look like your on deaths door". Meissa looked rough to say the least, pale, tired and hair everywhere, clear signs of a crippling hangover. "Wow how kind of you Marianne, but fine I'll get up now for Merlin's sake, here wait, why aren't you bothering the others?" Meissa looked around the messy dorm with the three other girls still fast asleep, showing no signs of stirring. "Well when you went to bed so early last night they all dibsed not to be woken up by me and I'm obviously not going on my own, so your the lucky candidate this year, how exciting for you" Meissa grunted as she got up, her head was dizzy as the effects of last night were still very prevalent, Marianne started handing Meissa her clothes to try speed up the process as she headed towards the bathroom to change, have a quick shower and start her concealing process again. She tried to be much quicker than last time, as a human clock began counting her down "Two minutes M" Meissa cursed internally and decided to leave her arms alone as her shirt sleeves covered them. "Happy ?" Meissa questioned sarcastically as she opened the door finally ready to leave, " Would've been happier ten minutes ago" Meissa slapped her with her book as they started laughing descending the stairs.

As they entered the magnificent Great Hall it was already packed with many students eating breakfast, from the notorious and glorious Hogwarts spread. The boisterous and nervous first years were seen at the top of every table clearly overcome with excitement, however there was a noticeable lack of seventh years at the Slytherin table. "Fuck me why are the lights so bloody bright" moaned Meissa " Tell me about it, Melin have mercy, and why is everyone so bloody loud." The two girls were definitely not the problem at all! On their way towards the end of the table, where the seventh years sat, Meissa unintentionally locked eyes with a certain boy sitting at the red and gold side of the hall, already staring at her. Meissa's flashbacks returned all at once, "Oh no oh no oh no" she muttered to herself and sat down wishing last night was all a dream. Head in her hands gripping her hair, Marianne soon questioned "What happened to you last night by the way, you left so early I only saw you in the audience once" the audience being the Slytherin common room. "Long, long, long story that I wish never happened, and from it I have decided to never touch a blunt ever again." Meissa reached for the coffee and grabbed a croissant with high expectations but even the thought of food made her think about throwing up. "Fuck it must be really bad then?" Marianne and Meissa always had breakfast together and from their six years, this very table was the place where most of the gossip was spilled, as the rest of the group tended to either skip it or walk in when everything was been cleared up. As Meissa began explaining what had occurred she felt obliged to leave out the part where  Nott quizzed her about summer and mentioned her former brother and intentionally left out the part when her sworn enemies lips were only inches apart from her very own. "And then I kneed him in the balls and went to bed, so yeah an interesting enough night, but safe to say my hatred for Potter has most definitely intensified", Marianne was sitting up consuming every bit of her friends insightful story, with a few gasps here and there she was by no means disappointed with the ending. "Way to go M, honestly you have more balls than every stupid boy here" "Thank you, thank you very much" she laughed fake bowing. "I swear to Merlin though, you and Potter are literal magnets, how do you two always manage to find each other?" Marianne wondered "Honestly think the world likes laughing at me to tell you the truth, like will it ever give me a break from the pretentious sod?" Meissa sighed out. Marianne smirked and said "Or you know what it might be" in a teasing tone trying to rile Meissa up "What on earth else could it possibly be ?" "F A T E, Fate" Meissa gasped in astonishment adding dramatics, appearing to be scarily similar to someone who happened to born on the same day as her and share her last name, "How dare you, FATE! absolutely not, no way no way no way. My mission this year is to stay as far away from the cunt as possible!" Marianne was in stiches laughing as the prefects handed them their timetables "Mari shut up would you, for Merlin's sake" Meissa had also started laughing not caring in the slightest what classes she had as she took her final sip of coffee. "What class you have first M?" Meissa scanned her sheet and saw the worst possible combination resting at the top of her page "Potions with the Gryffindors" she hit her head against the table and couldn't think of a worst combination.