Delicate - eng version

End OF An Era

"Red, I need your help!"

It's never, ever a good thing when James Potter needs my help. Whether it's wanting to know exactly how one places a constipating curse on someone, or what the password is to Flitwick's office so that he can spray-paint 'Munchkin' on the sleeping Headmaster for a dare (that was in fourth year – twenty seven first years ran around after Flitwick the next day singing 'Follow the yellow brick road'. James got twenty-seven detentions – one for each first year), helping James always turns out bad. However, this time he looks far more desperate than usual, so despite my better judgement, I listen to what he has to say.

"I haven't started studying for Potions yet," he tells me, "Tell me, how hard is it?"

I stare at him blankly. "By 'it' do you mean the entire NEWT course?" He nods frantically. "Well, it's hard enough that there's no way in hell you'll ever get it all learned before tomorrow. You do realise your exam is tomorrow don't you?"

"Right..." he says, "So you're telling me I need to fly on a Thestral to the Ministry of Magic, steal a time-turner and go back in time?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying," I sigh.

"But our parents got to do it!" James whines.

"If our parents jumped off a dragon would you do it?"

"Our parents did jump off a dragon..."

"I don't care!" I snap, "The point is you are not flying to the Ministry, you are not going back in time and you are not jumping off a dragon!"

He looks like he's about to shout at me, but instead he takes a deep breath, runs a hand through his hair and sits down beside me. I can almost hear his brain counting to ten.

"Red, I know you're good at Potions, can you please help me?" he pleads.

"My notes are upstairs in my bag," I sigh tiredly, "But I only have half of the course done, so you're on your own for everything you've covered in seventh year." I can't believe how irresponsible that boy is. Who starts studying for their Potions NEWT the night before the exam? I have half a mind to give him a good kick up the backside.

James makes Lily run upstairs to fetch my notes and he begins studying like he's never studied before. Actually, come to think of it, he has never studied before.

"I'm going for a walk," I tell him, but he barely even hears me because he's concentrating on the notes so hard. His nose is practically touching the parchment.

I've taken to going for short walks recently because I find that if I sit in the one place for too long I get woefully bad cramps in my legs. Also, if I sit listening to James too long I get a woefully bad pain in my head. So I mosey out of the common room and down the grand staircase, looking for something to do or someone to talk to. I see Dom and Mark sitting on a random sofa on the third floor. She's trying to calm him down about his Potions NEWT tomorrow, so I decide not to interrupt them.

Further on down the stairs, I run into Jenny, who is obviously coming from the library after studying for the end of year exams, which will be starting next week. I wish I cared more about them, but every time I go to study, I end up feeling frustrated and tired, so I just fall asleep. I know I'll have to pass them if I ever want to sit my NEWTs in the future, but right now I'm more worried about becoming a mother than anything else.

"Been studying?" I ask her.

"Er...yes, sort of," she shrugs and then blushes a bit. What's so embarrassing about studying? Why on earth would a Ravenclaw be ashamed of doing a spot of revision? It's all they do.