Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(132) Pre-Game

The following days were spent in caution, with the news of Umbridge getting suspicious, Harry had advised everyone to be more careful the morning before their next scheduled meeting. It was important that they kept it up, seeing as everyone was benefiting greatly from the lessons.

It took much longer to get to the room of requirements, though, as members of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad have also took to the halls in search of illicit activities. Nicolai, on one night, had been a foot away from bumping into Draco Malfoy, had Florence not pulled her back by her robes. The Ravenclaws then spent a good amount of days recording the Inquisitorial squad's roaming schedule and routes, before finding another safe way from each of the House's common rooms to the room of requirements.

Harry delved deeper into defensive spells, encouraging partner practices and an occasional healthy competition between the boys and the girls. Even with the Inquisitor breathing down their necks, each session was filled with not only valuable lessons, but fun and great companionship shared among the members.

Some people seemed to excel greatly in some areas of teaching, which gave Harry the help he needed to keep the slow learners up to speed.

Florence, in particular, was rather proficient in summoning her corporeal patronus with ease, Nicolai, on the other hand, was still struggling with her patronus, however she was pretty good at her jinxes.

"Better not spite me, Xander..." she told him jokingly as she pretended to brush dirt off of her shoulders, before skipping away to her girlfriend, leaving the lanky blonde slightly mortified.

Due to the lessons being set at a later time, the lot of people would have to go to bed really late at night. Florence had been, as Fred had told her, 'stretched too thin' with her exam preparations, Quidditch practices and late nights of sleeping. The morning after their last DA meeting, Cho Chang had to fetch her from the locker room, as she had fallen asleep in mid change, her Ravenclaw jumper only halfway down her torso.

"Flo," the raven-haired girl poked at her shoulder, the captain only letting out a soft snore in response. "Florence we have practices."

She patted her cheek softly, making her jolt awake, an evident look of confusion on her face. "Where–Where am I?"

"Locker room. We have practices, Cap."

"Right, right." she mumbled, whilst rubbing at her eyes. She pulled her jumper down, before fixing her ponytail. "Sorry. Please tell the others I'll be out in two minutes."

"Got it. And oh," Cho paused, pointing to a spot on her own face, "You have a bit of drool right here."

"Ah," Florence said, a little embarrassed, "Thanks."

Fred, for the better part of the month wherein his girlfriend was practically consumed by stress, had felt as though he had turned into his mother. He had subconsciously been trailing Florence around, reminding her to eat, as she would usually skip lunch to work on homework on the nights when the have DA meetings.

He resorted to bringing her food at first, but after being threatened of being kicked out of the library by one raging Madame Pince, he would just camp outside the library three minutes before the Lunch bell, ready to maneuver his girlfriend back to the great hall to eat, despite her attempts of protest.

"See I knew Ravenclaws were brainiacs but if I'd known that dating you would have to include camping outside the library I would have had second thoughts.."

"Fred, love, I'm not asking you again, I need to do my homework—"

"No, no. We go through this everyday. You need food." he replied firmly, an arm looped around Florence's shoulders to keep her from running to the direction of the library.