Call Me Back Again

CHAPTER 13

"You have weird feet."

They were about one-third into the marathon, by now. It had just gone one in the morning, Prisoner of Azkaban was halfway through, and John was starting to feel the first wave of exhaustion coming on. He hadn't really believed Paul when he'd said there would be a few moments like that, but now that they were seven hours into the Harrython, John couldn't deny he was getting tired. Then again, he should've realised it was going to be demanding when he'd felt a lump in his throat when Dobby got liberated from the Malfoys. Sure, it was one of his favourite scenes, but he'd never choked up before at the squeaky cry of 'Dobby is free!' before. He'd hate to think how he'd react when Harry returned with Cedric's corpse, or when Sirius died, or...

Finding it hard to concentrate, John's mind had wandered and just now, for some reason he couldn't fathom, it had settled on Paul's feet, which he hadn't bothered to stick under the duvet after the most recent wee break (wee in both senses of the word: just a very short interruption to go take a piss). Now that the anomaly had caught his attention, it was proving impossible to look away. So naturally, as one does, he had blurted out his findings, which resulted in that perfectly curved right eyebrow to be pulled up to dizzying heights.

If John was already losing his ability to focus now, he'd be in for a very long night, Paul reckoned as he glared at his neighbour. They weren't even close to the halfway point yet, which was usually when he'd start to sag. Since this was John's first Harrython, Paul had kept the schedule a lot less demanding than he usually would. Apparently, taking a 15-minute break hadn't been enough. Still, even taking fatigue into consideration, who in their right mind would study someone else's feet of all things? Then again, Paul wasn't entirely convinced John fit into the 'right mind' category.

"What are you on about, John? I swear, mate, just when I thought you couldn't get nuttier... Now watch the film or you'll miss the good part, and leave my feet alone. Bloody hell..." He reached for the bag of M&M's and directed his attention back to the telly. After grabbing a fistful of the sweets, he held out the bag in John's general direction, inviting him to dig in too. With any luck, it'd get his mind off the topic of feet. Without taking his eyes off the film, he mumbled around a mouthful of chocolate, "Hermione's just about to punch Draco!"

"You! You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!"

John grinned merrily at the way he and Paul had uttered the words in perfect synchrony to Hermione. "Yes! Right in the gob! I love that part," he laughed, highly amused by the enthusiasm with which Paul cheered, and the perfect imitation of Ron's response he managed to get out between chuckles.

They'd been doing that a lot: reciting the words in chorus with the characters. Sometimes they'd even mutter the next lines moments before they were due to be spoken. So far, Ron's one-liners had proven to be particularly popular, but then half of those were just him yelling 'bloody hell', and that was easy enough to remember. They'd both been in stitches over 'why can't it be: follow the butterflies', but John felt he'd done a better job of getting the accent right. Paul knew more words by heart, though, probably because he'd seen the films more often. Apparently, it was the main reason Mike refused to watch Paul's favourite films with him. George may or may not have commented on John displaying the same habit. But, since George enjoyed Harry Potter too, he didn't allow an annoying flatmate to chase him off.

"He had it coming, didn't he," Paul said, indicating Draco.

"Not half, mate! He's one hell of a bastard. I'd still fuck him, though. That bloke is hot." With an air of finality, John put the last of his M&M's into his mouth. Looking at his now empty hand, he noticed red, yellow, and green stains. 'Don't melt in your hand' my arse, he thought. If that was true, then where did those spots come from? Looking sideways, he caught they way Paul's eyes widened. "What?"