Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(79) Nearly There

The air grew warmer within each passing day, flowers were abloom and the trees were slowly growing back their green leaves. Along with the blossom of spring, of course, was the sound of sniffling and sneezing all throughout the castle. Allergy season, ofcourse, wasn't all too lovely, most especially for Noel, who spent the afternoon averting his sneezes away from his school work.

Florence looked up from her notes as her tutee let out another sneeze again, Noel gratefully accepting a tissue box that Lisa slid his way. The two were now needing Florence's assistance more often than they used to, as O.W.L.s were nearing, and they wanted to be as prepared as they could possibly be.

She had exams of her own to prepare for as well, but she absolutely felt sympathy towards the two, who needed loads of things to improve if they wanted decent grades. It wasn't like Lisa and Noel were hard to teachz

"The world hates me," the Gryffindor boy concluded as he spotted the smudge on his paper due to his instinctive sneezing jolt. Lisa giggled, patting his best friend on the back, "You shouldn't have spent all that time outside yesterday."

"Blaming the victim, I see?" he murmured, before crumpling the tissue into a ball and chucking it into the nearest disposal area he could find. Lisa grimaced, "I don't think Madame Pince is going to be all too happy with your snot balls in the paper bin." she pointed out, making Florence chuckle in agreement. "Well, it's her problem for not putting up a proper garbage can in the library."

"See? Florence gets it!"

They heard a familiar shushing noise from the distance, making Noel frown, "That old hag."

"Noel," said Florence, pointing the tip of her quill at what was written on his parchment, "This bit of the potion isn't right. Try looking it up in your book... I'm sure it says something else. And Lisa, your arithmancy equations, maybe you'd want to make them accurate enough?"

"I haven't got the notes for that," she said, "I was out yesterday. Called to the office because Callan was misbehaving again."

"Well, you could look around for an arithmancy book... I'm sure they have it in there somewhere." Lisa nodded, hauling herself off of her seat and to the bookshelves at the back.

Noel scooted his parchment over to Florence, his ingredients corrected, "Is this right?"

"Replace toad blood with salamander blood for your Strengthening Solution... and that'll be right."

"Right! I completely forgot about that..."

"It happens," she shrugs, "Just try getting it into your head, use key words and stuff..."

Lisa returned with a thick black book, sliding it carefully onto the table before flipping it open to look for her equations, "We're sorry that you have to help us...You probably have your own preparations to do...considering the exams are nearing for you as well."

"Yeah well I don't think sixth year exams are harder than O.W.L.s. I know how much of a pain in the arse it can be...So I'm happy to help," Florence reassured the two, "Besides, it'll be worth it when you two pass with flying colors."

"Oh boy, expectations," Noel gulped.

"No pressure," Florence winked, before picking up her quill to resume jotting down her notes. Her line of sight was then clamped over by two soft hands, startling her. She now knew that she would never get any work done with people constantly interrupting her study.

"Nicolai," she grumbled, "Get off. I have work to do."

The Ravenclaw girl promptly removed her hand, scowling as she took one of the vacant seats. "How are your O.W.L.s children doing?"