The Big Dipper

The Fight

Classes started up again on a chilly, rainy day in early January. The last thing any of them, even Ursula, wanted to do was spend an hour outside for Care of Magical Creatures, but Hagrid let them stand around the bonfire of salamanders he had prepared for the third years so they all kept nice and warm.

Slytherin played Hufflepuff a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly, and Ursula's face was chapped and her lips were blue by the time the game ended. According to Flint, Gryffindor had upped their practices to five times a week with the intention of trouncing Ravenclaw. If they did, they would take second place in the championship.

January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. What did change, however, was that Ursula was now spending more than an hour most nights studying with Gemma in the library or the common room.

"We should go subject by subject," said Gemma, explaining her studying regime. "Once we've sorted all of our old notes — including by spell or topic, etc. — I say we rewrite them, that way we relearn everything we might have forgotten and remember it better by writing it down. Are these all of your old notes?"

"Everything I could find," said Ursula, dropping an enormous stack of papers onto the table in front of her. "So this is why you made me keep all of these at the end of every year."

Gemma nodded.

"And now it's about to pay off," she said. "Which subject do you want to start with?"

"Charms?" suggested Ursula. "That seems like a good place to start."

"Charms it is," said Gemma. They sorted through notes on Cheering Charms and Banishing Charms, Levitation and Locomotion, quizzing each other on spells and wand movements and theory. The next day they reviewed Potions, and the day after that they worked on Arithmancy.

Eventually the others began to join them, especially by the time flower buds poked through the snow in early March. Cassius joined after a bad Transfiguration mark sent him spiralling, and Lilian followed, studying in their little group two days a week. All that studying cut down on the time Ursula spent with Lucian, but she was pleased to see that he had backed off of being so protective and was proudly wearing the watch she had given him now that he was seventeen.

Unfortunately, Ursula wasn't the only one whose relationship had hit a bit of a rough patch. Or, more accurately, she was the only one among their trio who still had a relationship. Lilian and Philip broke up near the end of January, with no tears or broken hearts in the process. Vanessa, on the other hand, had a lot of tears to shed after Peter dumped her, one chilly March evening.

According to Lilian, Vanessa was up most of the night, crying or sniffling which made for intermittent and poor sleep on Lilian's part. Since the following day was Saturday, Ursula and Lilian spent the whole morning trying to coax their friend to come to the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw Match to cheer herself up.

"I j-just don't understand w-why he'd d-dump m-me," wailed Vanessa, crumpled tissues in hand.

"I know darling, I know," said Ursula soothingly, rubbing her back.

"He just said h-he w-wasn't f-feeling it!" continued Vanessa. Ursula and Lilian exchanged looks over their friend's head. "And then he b-broke up with me!"

"Okay," said Lilian, for the fifth or eighth or tenth time, fighting to keep the exasperation from her voice. They had been going in circles for the last hour and a half. "How about I get you a nice warm washcloth to wipe away those tears, hmm?"

She went into the bathroom, and a moment later Ursula heard water running. She put her arm around Vanessa's shoulders and said, "You're too good for him anyway."