New York Dreaming

Chapter 4

"Okay! For this class, we'll be working on a charm you learned back in second or first year. 'Vera Verto.' This WILL be on your final exam, so I thought we should review it, so at least half of you idiots will at least know what it does when it comes up on the practical aspect of your exam." Professor Herason, the transfiguration professor, boomed across the classroom. "Now we are going to work in pairs!" I immediately reached for Rachel's arm, and she reached for mine, (since Jay is not in this class, he is in an upper level transfiguration class.) "I will assign the pairs, so no one is left alone, even though many of you are just going to sit there and do nothing like toads." I groan along with the rest of the class.

"Rachel and Meridith!" Rachel looks over at me with a sad face. Meridith isn't that bad, she's a muggleborn Gryffindor. At least she won't get a Slytherin.

The professor called off more names, most of the Slytherins getting paired together. I wait, and then hear "Madison and Scorpius." I feel my stomach drop. Everybody likes him, literally everyone. I feel tons of jealous stares, and my stomach drops even father. Great. Now I might get food dropped on my head at dinner like what happened to Rachel when she got paired with him for an Astronomy project.

"OK! Go to your partner and practice! I trust at least one of you remember it, if not, well, pretend to be doing something all class while I grade more disappointing papers, flunking at least half of them for my personal amusement." I roll my eyes with a light chuckle. Wow. What an amazing professor we have.

Scorpius catches my gaze and lifts his hand, beckoning me over. His partner must have already left. I get up, grabbing my wand and walk over to his desk, looking around the room as I go.

I sit down and he greets me. "Hey. I don't think we've met. I'm Scorpius, Scorpius Malfoy." He puts his hand out, and I look at it skeptically for a minute before reaching out and shaking it.

"I'm Madison Anderson, but my friends call me Madi." I say quietly, looking anywhere but his eyes.

"You shy?" He asks me.

"A little bit." I admit, looking up at him with a light smile.

"That's ok. You remember how to do this?" He asks, picking up his wand.

"Yeah. Tap three times, then incantation, right?" I ask, grabbing my wand off of the desk.

"Yeah. We can use my owl if you want." He reaches forward and unlatched the cage which holds his jet black owl in it. It flies out and lands on his outstretched arm. He turns toward me. "This is Dragon."

I look at him in amusement, "Dragon?" A smile playing on my lips.

"Hey, I was eleven!" He laughs. "You can touch him if you want. He might bite you, since he hates everyone, but you can try to pet him." My eyes widen and he runs a hand through his blonde hair, shrugging.

I reach out to touch Dragon's head slowly, and Dragon's eyes follow my hand. I get about an inch from Dragon's head when he leans forward and nuzzles his head against my hand. I smile and scratch his head, and when I pull my hand away, Dragon hoots unhappily.

It's obvious Scorpius is stunned. "Wh-How did you...? I can barely get him not to rip my head off half the time!" He looks at me incredulously.

"I must be the owl whisperer." I reply.

He throws his head back with a hearty laugh. "I guess so." I can already feel myself open up, and my shyness sizzle away. He is actually really nice.

"Ok, want to try the charm?" I ask him. He grabs for his wand which is sitting at the end of the table.

"Yeah." He taps the owl once, and then Dragon lunges toward the wand, his beak snapping. Scorpius whips his wand away, and says "Dragon, NO." He points to Dragon, reprimanding him, and Dragon lunges toward his finger. "UGH!" Scorpius says, frustrated. He puts his wand back on the desk, raising his arms in surrender.

I'm cracking up in my seat. He turns and glares at me. "You- the owl- bit- haha." I choke out.

"That's so NOT funny." He pouts, slouching in his seat, his arms crossed.

"It really IS funny." I reply, a smile still across my face. He smirks a little, but tries to hide it.

"Ok, Miss Owl Whisperer, you try. I'm not liable for any damage done to wand or flesh."

"Fine." I use my wand, and tap the owl once, twice, and three times, with merely an annoyed glance from the dark animal. "Vera Verto." I say, and I watch as Dragon turns into a black feathery goblet. I look over at Scorpius, a triumphant look in my eyes, and my chin high in the air.

"I'm not even surprised anymore." He rolls his eyes.

"Alright since you all wasted the beginning of our class time talking about things no one cares about we are out of time. If you did not get to do the charm that is not my problem. You know what else wasn't my problem? Last year's test scores! Your wonderful parents all felt the need to lodge a complaint with my teaching, just like I then felt the need to take a very long vacation to Guatemala this summer. Moral of the story kids: study or else I will go back to Guatemala, where I was almost roasted alive over an active volcano because the natives thought I was an overgrown chipmunk demon. Class dismissed." The Professor then grabbed their bag and walked out of the room, bumping into the doorframe on the way out, kicking the door frame with a huff and arms flailing, then stalking down the hallway.

"What even...?" I began.

"Finite Incantatem." Scorpius pointed his wand at his goblet, which turned back into a very pissed off looking Dragon, who flew back in his cage. "You're pretty cool, Madi. We should hang out more." Scorpius latched Dragon's cage back up.

I was surprised and taken off-guard. Normally nobody is this nice to me.... "Yeah, totally!" I stutter out.

"How about by the Black Lake, this Friday at 8:30? I'll bring food and stuff." He asked.

"Sounds cool. I'll be there." I reply, getting off the stool and walking back to get my bag. He waves, and I wave back with a smile.

"Tell me everything." A very curious and eager looking Rachel says to me as soon as I pick my messenger bag up and sling it over my shoulder. She links arms with me and practically drags me out of the classroom.

"He's really nice. We're hanging out by the Black Lake on Friday at 8:30." I reply, lowering my gaze as we pass the Potter Squad in the hallway, even though they don't see us walking past them.

She looks over at me with her jaw dropped and wide eyes. "You're going on a date?!?!" She narrows her eyes at me. "What the hell, Madi! You know I like him!"

......What? "What are you talking about??? We're just hanging out!" I look back at her, equally shocked as she is.

"Madi, you might think that you're just 'hanging out' but that's boy code for a date." She says exasperatedly.

"I'm pretty sure he just wants to hang out." I say, rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

She pushes me with her shoulder a little, our arms still linked. "Whatever you say, Madi." She looks down for a minute, then back up at me, looking in my eyes. "You know, if you do end up dating, I'd be fine with it." She says with meaning.

"Oh my God. RACHEL. I. Don't. Like. Him. At. All." I reply, punctuating each word.

"Yeah, well then make sure HE knows that." She says back to me.

I really hope she's wrong. Because even though he's nice, I can't like him. Unless he magically becomes a girl over the next three days, I'm pretty sure he isn't my type- and I have to admit, I don't find him attractive at all. I just hope if he does like me and makes a move that once I shoot him down, we can still be friends. He was really nice, and I'd really like to talk to him more.

"I will, I promise." I say back, turning to go up the Grand Staircase toward the common room, since Transfiguration is our last class of the day.

"Ok." She says, then looks up at me with a smirk. "What are you going to wear?" Oh God, here it goes...