The Sorting Hat's Mistake (A Harry Potter FanFiction) ON HOLD

Chapter 16: Mermaids?

***ROWAN POV:***

"No, no no," I say to Dalton, laughing. "You can't look at me, you have to keep your eyes on the goblet!" Dalton huffs, turning his eyes to the goblet.

"Rumnos!" The goblet then fills with a thick, red liquid. Dalton leans in to smell it, then winces. "That is definitely not rum!" He exclaims, pushing the glass away from him. I pull out my wand and quickly transfigure it back. I run a hand through my hair swiftly. 

"Try again," I say, looking down at the table with my head in my hands. Dalton says the spell again and gives a loud whoop. I look up and clap quietly. His goblet is filled with, what looks to be, rum. "Well done, well done," I say, praising him. He stands up and takes a mock bow.

"Hey, have you been training for the next task?" He asks me as he sits back down. This was usually the drill: complete the spell and then talk for hours. Pretty repetative if you ask me, but not a boring type of repetative. I shake my head, rubbing my eyes.

"I haven't had time," I admit, playing with my hands in my lap. I hear Dalton sigh. Then he noticibly perks up.

"I could help, you know," he tells me. I look up at him.

"Aren't I supposed to be the tutor?" Dalton laughs. It's an angelic sound, and seems to be a lovely sound for my ears.

What are you thinking? I snap to myself, then turning back to Dalton.

"Well, I may be  complete bull in Transfiguration, but I happen to be very skilled in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms." I raise an eyebrow.

"Oh really?" I ask, leaning on the palm of my hand. "And what, may I ask, was your grade on last year's final? For each class?" Dalton smirks.

"An O for Defense and an O for Charms." My mouth drops opened.

"B-but that's the same grades I got!" Dalton laughs again and I feel a tingling in my chest.

"You underestimate me, Rowan," Dalton observes, playing with his wand on the table. I roll my eyes.

"I guess I do."

"So I can help you then?" His eyes are full of sincerity and an honest want to help. I smile slightly.

"Yeah," I say. "I need all the help I can get."

**************

I didn't think Dalton would stay true to his word to help me for long, but it turns out I was completely wrong. Almost every day leading up to the first task, Dalton helps me practice spells and dueling techniques. I figured out that Dalton doesn't know much about theory, but in the moment he's more skilled than I am. Yes, that was sort of hard for me to admit, but I'm still better at theory.

The only problem with these meetings is that I have to make sure Draco doesn't know. Ever since the thing with Tyson happened, he's been really protective over me, and always has to know where I'm going. I feel bad about it, but usually when I go and see Dalton I'm either "going up to the common room" or I "need some space". Draco is understanding of that, which makes me feel even worse about lying to him.

"You're late," I tell Dalton, standing up from where I was sitting down near a tree. He shrugs, his cheeks tinged pink from the cool air and his hair a mess at the top of his head.

"Sorry." I can't help but smile.

Our lesson goes by as they usually do, getting a lot of work done, then only getting a little work done while fooling around. Sometimes it's productive, but then at other times it's the complete opposite.