ARITHMANCY & ALCHEMY | h.p.a.u

Copper

𝔙𝔢𝔫𝔲𝔰 𝔯𝔢𝔭𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔡 𝔠𝔬𝔭𝔭𝔢𝔯 𝔦𝔫 𝔪𝔶𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔩𝔬𝔤𝔶 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔩𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔪𝔶 𝔟𝔢𝔠𝔞𝔲𝔰𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔦𝔱𝔰 𝔩𝔲𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔰 𝔟𝔢𝔞𝔲𝔱𝔶 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔦𝔱𝔰 𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔦𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔲𝔰𝔢 𝔦𝔫 𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔡𝔲𝔠𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔪𝔦𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔯𝔰

♀

ALBUS WOKE UP WITH A sense of foreboding and a funny taste in his mouth. Scorpius had Hux sneak in Firewhisky and the last shot he'd taken had sent him over the edge. Thankfully it was the weekend so he didn't have to drag himself out of bed.

It wasn't until he moved his hand to scratch at his jaw that he noticed his Invisibility Cloak was still on, which begged the question: What the hell did he do last night?

The question plagued him to no end as he got ready for class, racked his brain even during breakfast as he struggled to recall what the night led into. Scorpius seemed to have a failing memory as well, in fact it looked as if no one remembered the chaos of last night. 

He curved around the ancient columns to reach the Alchemy lecture room, following the slope of the stairs that bisected the rows to a middle left where Diana sat, her hair pulled up in a half ponytail secured with a satin blue ribbon. Two Ravenclaw girls flanked her, occupying one of his potential seats.

"Diana?" he called out, raising a hand to draw her attention.

He noticed the change in her posture at the sound of his voice, but didn't turn around. He frowned at that. 

Albus took initiative to slide past a few disgruntled students in the row in front of her until he could see her. 

"What's going on, I thought we were sitting together." he pressed, ducking his head to catch her gaze.

The Ravenclaw girls huffed and stood up with a rather vicious movement to give them space. 

"Diana," he leaned a hand on the desk as he softly called out her name. "What happened?"

She looked up to him and his heart tore. She was upset. Very upset. Enough that her bursts of silver overwhelmed her brown eyes. 

"You never came. I waited- I waited all night- like an idiot!" 

Diana was stuttering again. Just like the night of the Yule Ball, when he rejected her confession, like an idiot.

Albus pinched the bridge of his nose, upset at his own stupid. "I'm sorry... If it helps, I don't remember anything from last night-" 

The Ravenclaw Captain was already shaking her head. "I don't want to hear it, Potter. Let's just get your grades back up, and we can pretend like we don't exist to each other afterwards."

No, no, no! This couldn't be happening.

"Let me make it up to you." he noticed Professor Babbling setting up at the podium so he tossed his bag on the floor behind Diana and hoisted himself onto the desk, swinging around to sit down next to her. "Please, Diana?"

She looked at him from under her lashes, the silver fading. "I'll see. I'd really like to be friends with you, Albus. But if you're going to toy with me just because I used to have feelings for you, I don't think it's going to work out."

"It'll work out." he promised. 

It would. It had to. He worked hard to earn his chance with Diana, to worm his way into her life. And he'd be damned if he let the opportunity pass him up again. 

~

Quidditch practice had picked up again, which meant he was late to their nightly tutoring session in the Room of Requirement after Althea had drilled him for his insubordination to her grueling practices. 

Which meant that when he walked past the rotating bricks, his head seized at the sight of his very own nymph dressed in civilian clothes. 

"Transmutation Quiz is on the desk. You have ten minutes." she said briskly without turning her back from the mirror where she threw up alchemical equations for next week's unit.

He dropped his bag by the chair, picking up the quiz to scan the level of difficulty before setting it down and leaning against the desk with arms crossed and eyes locked to her waist.

What was that? Jewelry? A belt? It hung seductively over her hips, small crystals swinging against her cream corset top to barely skim over the pale blue jeans that flared at the bottom where Albus was surprised to see a hint of white sneakers.

For some reason the image didn't sit with him well. He much preferred seeing her tight calves accentuated with her blue satin ribbon heels. His hands dropped to grab the edge of the desk, squeezing tight as the forbidden thought of her with nothing on but the ribbon heels had him thankful for black pants.

He'd spent an adequate amount of time admiring her beauty- and quickly scribbled the answers for the quiz, coming up behind her with paper in hand as her hovering quill moved out of the way.

She was too focused on reading her notebook to the right to notice him until he reached out to twirls one of the crystals hanging at her hip. "So, civilian clothes are allowed now for tutoring sessions?"

He enjoyed seeing her skin dimple as he dropped the crystal to brush against her skin. 

Before she could voice anything out, he held up his quiz. "Finished."

She cleared her throat at his proximity and snatched the sheet from his hands. Another piece of jewelry, this time a collection of silver bangles.

He pretended to inspect Diana's alchemical equations on the mirror, but kept his eyes on her pacing form- Salazar, he wanted to fuck her with nothing but that strange jewelry around her waist- until she huffed and slammed the paper on the desk 

"Just as I thought. A perfect score." she seethed, sparks of silver popping yet again.

Stop. Stop getting hard every time her eyes turn silver.

"I did have the perfect tutor." he spun around. Shit. Did he underestimate the difficulty of the quiz?

Diana wasn't amused. "I knew you weren't struggling with Alchemy. Why are you doing this? You clearly don't need my help."

"I do." he insisted, moving to sit on the chair purely for the reason of seeing Diana's slender form loom over him- was this what it would be like if she was on top- no, stop! He needed help, he couldn't be down this bad already.

"Clearly not!" Diana reached to point at the last question. "This was a level three exam question. You answered it perfectly. You don't need my help."

 "I used your techniques and studied from your notes. I will admit that I've had an above average score like Alchemy but your techniques propel my grades even higher and I'd like to continue that... if that's alright with you?" he held his breath, hoping she would buy his half-lie.

Diana's nose crinkled in thought. "Fine, I'll continue to tutor you. But the moment you're at an exceptional rate, you're done. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." he swallowed, sliding lower in his chair to hide the evidence of his arousal as the light reflected on her enchanting jewelry. 

He made a mental note to recommend sticking to robes for their tutoring session. The curse of a vivid imagination would be the end of his tutoring sessions with her, especially if he was slipping up on making himself look dumber than he actually was in order to stay in her sessions.

In the mean time, he'd come up with a way to make up for leaving her last night. Which meant visiting Lily again.