I found Hermione in the library the next day after class as I was searching for information on Blast-Ended Skrewts. Her hair was bushier than usual, and she looked very occupied, her nose in a particularly large textbook.
"What are you reading?" I asked as I settled myself in front of her.
"The history of house elves," she said robotically, her chestnut-brown eyes glued to her textbook.
"Oh. Fascinating," was all I managed to say.
Hermione glanced up for the first time, noticed me, and said, "Oh. Maeve. Sorry, I was just really focused."
"Why are you looking for information on house elves?" I asked, only mildly intrigued. Frankly, house elf history didn't seem very interesting to me, but I figured I'd ask anyway just to be polite.
"Did you know that Hogwarts has over a hundred house elves working for it?" Hermione said.
"Well, yeah. How else did you expect our laundry and food to be done?" I said.
"What? You knew? How are you not bothered by it? An entire species, enslaved by wizardkind. It's outrageous is what it is," Hermione said, visibly upset.
"Er... well, I suppose I've never really thought about it before..." Shit, maybe Hermione was onto something.
"Well, there must be something we can do about it. So many wizards treat their house elves horribly, torturing them or punishing them in absolutely vile ways!" Hermione went on. "And I can't seem to find any information on house elves. It's as if no one cares about them! And yet, it seems they have been a part of wizard society for centuries. They deserve some sort of recognition."
"I guess you're right. There are a lot of wizarding families that are very cruel to their house elves. But the house elves at Hogwarts are better off here than anywhere else."
"They ought to get paid, at the very least," Hermione replied.
"Hmm. I suppose that couldn't hurt. It'd be nice to see them in clothes other than those old rags and pillow cases they always wear — You know, my family used to have a house elf, and I always hated those rags she would wear, so one day I gave her one of my old dresses — mind you, I was about six, so we basically had the same size — but then, she started crying and got very upset. Apparently, presenting an elf with clothes means that they are dismissed of their services to the family. I never saw her again after that. My parents tried to get her back, but she didn't trust that I wouldn't present her with clothes again because apparently the same thing happened when I was three, but I just don't remember it."
Hermione looked a little dumbfounded with my story, and she said, "Yes, well, we want them to have fair wages to more than just improve their wardrobes."
"Right, right," I agreed, though only mildly. I loved the idea of paying the house elves, but I was also worried that they wouldn't take it well.
After doing some somewhat extensive research at the library, I had come to find out that Blast-Ended Skrewts were virtually useless. They were a dangerous crossbreed between manticores and fire crabs. Apparently, their existence was a massive violation of the ban on experimental breeding, but seeing as it was Hagrid, and Dumbledore surely knew about this, I figured I didn't have to care.
I hated to find out that Draco Malfoy was right about something, but for once, he was... Blast-Ended Skrewts had no known utility. And seeing the grotesque diagrams as to how they grew up to look like, I didn't want to venture as far as to try to find out what they did by myself.
So, I went back to the common room feeling a little crestfallen about discovering nothing of use for my potion-making endeavors. James wouldn't be here because he had Prefect duty, so I just went to my dormroom and worked on my potions. Daphne and Tracey joined me at some point and Daphne asked me if I could brew her a beauty serum, to which I said she would have to show me a recipe for it since I didn't know any.
"But you've brewed Polyjuice potion before. Surely, there must be a way for you to brew some beauty potions," Daphne insisted. She was combing her gorgeous blonde hair by the mirror.
"Well, I know how to brew cure for boils," I said with a shrug.
"No, I think Daphne is onto something. Just imagine the fortune you could make if you brewed beauty products," Tracey jumped in with that bright ambitious look on her face she got when she thought of something new and brilliant.
I pondered over what Tracey said for a moment.
"You know, I have been experimenting with some body-altering potions," I told them as I began shuffling through my notebook.
"Body-altering potions? Sounds disgusting," Daphne said with a horrified look on her face. She stopped combing her hair just to turn around and give me that look.
"Well, maybe the name is a work in progress. I meant potions that could change, say, your hair colour, or your eye colour... temporarily, of course."
"That's brilliant! We could absolutely market that!" Tracey gushed, her eyes lighting up with newfound excitement.
"Oh! And you could also brew some eyelash-growing serums, or hair-extending potions," Daphne added.
"That all sounds great, but I haven't really been successful with anything, so far. And I'm scared of trying the prototypes on myself," I said with a disheartened frown.
"You've got prototypes, already?" Tracey said, amazed.
"Yes, well, for hair potions. I haven't tried any yet because I don't have test subjects and I'm scared of killing someone," I told them. I rummaged through my bag, the one Isaiah enchanted with a privacy charm, until I found the little vial I was looking for. "I also have some nail-growing ones, but I think I may have messed up the recipe for that one, so I wouldn't dare drink it."
"Can I try it?" Tracey said, her hand extended towards the hair potion.
"Er... well, it's supposed to turn your hair black," I said.
"Oh," Tracey said, patting her already-black hair. "Any other colour?"
"Er... no..."
"I'll give it a shot," Daphne said bravely. Her beautiful blonde hair rested perfectly on her shoulders, and I shook my head.
"I don't want to ruin your hair, Daph," I said quickly, my eyes widening at the suggestion.
"And you're okay with ruining mine?" Tracey said with a scoff.
"Oh, no! I don't want to ruin yours either," I responded very rapidly to my now disgruntled friend.
"Yeah, yeah. Keep lying."
To my relief, neither of my friends ended up drinking any prototype of mine. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't see James again before going to bed, but I reassured myself with the knowledge that he would be waiting for me at my door the next day, as he had been doing since the start of term.
Except that, the next day, James wasn't waiting for me by my dormroom door. I peered around curiously, wondering if I had simply missed something somewhere, but there was nothing. Not even a note or anything.
Feeling a little disappointed, I trudged over to the common room, hoping that perhaps James would await me there.
But he wasn't there either.
I inched closer to the fireplace. There was nobody sleeping on the couches either.
Where the bloody Hell was James?
"Oh, Maeve!" Ah. There he was.
James was jogging up to me from the dormrooms. He looked fairly well put-together and groomed for someone who was late.
"I'm sorry, I slept in. Snape had us walking really long rounds around the corridor, last night. He said someone had been stealing from his stores and suspects they've been doing it at night," he said with a yawn. For the first time, his prefect badge was tied to his sweater. Before I could point it out, he added, "Oh, and he got upset with me for not wearing my badge. Said something about making Slytherin house look bad. So, now I'll have to be wearing it all the time."
"Like any prefect ought to be," I pointed out jestfully.
"Right, well, wearing it makes me look like an arrogant prick," James said as-matter-of-factly. I laughed.
"Yeah, and we wouldn't want anyone to know that about you, would we?" I replied.
"Hey!"
But I was already out of his reach, running away from him, laughing all the way from the common room to the Entrance Hall, where James finally caught up to me. He grabbed me by the arm and swung me closer to him. I was then in his arms, trying to break free, laughing uncontrollably.
James was laughing too when he let me go, and we just stood there in the Entrance Hall, cackling like idiots on firewhiskey.
And then, I could practically feel someone's sneer radiating nearby. Malfoy was scowling at us as he was exiting the Great Hall with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.
James' and I's laughter died down awkwardly as Malfoy left to the marble staircase, muttering something about blood traitors.
"What a sourpuss, honestly," James said, placing an arm around my shoulders. "Is he always like that? Moping around aimlesly?"
"Pretty much," I said, failing to resist the urge to smile.
"And you're friends or do you hate each other?" James asked, though uncertainly.
"I don't know anymore. I thought we had somewhat reconciled by the end of last year, but now he's back to being his unpleasant self around me," I nearly grumbled. I exhaled and shook my head, clearing away my negative thoughts. "Doesn't matter. Let's just eat. I'm starving."
After lunchtime, I traipsed to our first DADA class of the year with Tracey and Daphne. When we arrived in class, all the Gryffindors of our year were already there, as if they were overly-eager to meet our new professor. Malfoy, having had a bad encounter with the man earlier this week, sat closer to the back of the class with his goons. There were no more seats at the front since all the Gryffindors took them, so I took a seat closer to the middle with my friends.
We were just pulling out our textbook for this class, when Alastor Moody entered the classroom, his leg clumping at every other step.
"You can put those away," he growled, stomping over to his desk and sitting down. "You won't need your books."
We returned our books to our bags, and I noticed that several students (mostly Gryffindors) were looking very excited.
Professor Moody took attendance, his glass eye fixing every single student as they answered to their name being called on. There was definitely something eerie about this man. I supposed that after spending most your life defeating dark wizards, you'd end up looking and acting a little mad.
"Right then," he said after Blaise Zabini declared himself present. "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures — you've covered boggarts, red caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"
Most students murmured in agreement.
"But you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses," Moody went on. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark—"
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out. He was seated at the very front of the class with Hermione and Harry.
Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron, and after a moment, Moody smiled, which made his heavily scarred face look even more twisted and contorted than ever. I tried not to look horrified by his distorted features.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody asked, though it seemed he already knew the answer. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."
He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together. Tracey gave me a side-eye that said "what."
"So — straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms," he began. "Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better."
Tracey and I gave each other a curious look. When I glanced at Daphne, she was picking at her nails with disinterest.
"How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."
A Gryffindor girl jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati Patil something under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head. More reason to be wary of him.
"So... do any of you know what the three Unforgivable Curses are? Name just one of them. Any of them," Moody went on as normal.
Several hands rose uncertainly into the air, though none of my friends. We just stared and watched from afar. Moody pointed at Ron, but his magical eye was still fixed on Miss Brown (I couldn't remember her first name for the life of me).
"Er," Ron said tentatively. "My dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," Moody said appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."
Immediately, I was reminded of what Aiden had told me over the summer about Lucius Malfoy being one of those death eaters who claimed to have been put under the Imperius curse.
Moody got to his clanky foot, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. A large black spider was scuttling around inside it.
Moody reached into the jar, caught the spider, and held it in the palm of his hand so that everyone could see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"
The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing back and forth as if on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then it did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Everyone was laughing — everyone except Moody.
"Think it's funny, do you?" he rumbled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"
The laughter died away almost instantly.
"Total control," Moody said quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."
I shuddered at the thought of that. Tracey looked just as disgusted at the thought, and Daphne wasn't picking at her nails anymore, her attention now utterly fixed on Professor Moody.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards claiming to be controlled by the Imperius Curse," Moody continued. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who were the liars. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped. Daphne's hand fluttered to her chest in surprise.
Moody levitated the somersaulting spider to his desk.
"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to my slight surprise, did Neville Longbottom's. Even Neville looked surprised at his own daring.
"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.
"There's one — the Cruciatus Curse," Neville said in a small but distinct voice.
Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.
"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the class list again.
Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he pointed his wand at the spider on his desk, who was apparently too scared to move.
"The Cruciatus Curse needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," Moody said. "Engorgio!"
The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. A few people pushed their chairs backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"
At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. The creature squealed horribly. I felt bile rise from the back of my throat. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently—
"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly.
She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville whose hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.
Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.
"Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. The spider wasn't moving anymore now, but it was still alive.
"Pain," Moody said softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular once too."
There was a short ominous pause. A pause where everyone looked too shocked to say anything.
"Right... anyone know any others?"
I looked around at my classmates. From the looks on everyone's faces, I guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the spider.
Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.
"Yes?" Moody said looking at her.
"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.
Several people looked uneasily around at her.
"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting at his lopsided mouth.
"Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse."
He reached for the spider again, and as if rejuvenated, it scuttled around frantically on the desk, trying to evade Moody's curse.
Moody raised his wand, and I felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.
There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air — instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead.
Several students stifled cries; Tracey had her hands to her mouth; Daphne's eyes were wide open, and I felt an emptiness tugging at my insides.
Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor, completely unbothered.
"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
Both of Moody's eyes looked right at Harry's face. Everyone else was looking at him too. Harry remained quiet, looking straight at the blackboard and not at our professor.
"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it."
I exhaled in relief. At least, that wouldn't be happening.
"Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared suddenly, and the whole class jumped again.
"Now... those three curses — Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus — are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills... copy this down..."
We spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang — but when Moody had dismissed us and we had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Everyone was talking about what we had just seen.
"That was quite the show," Daphne said with morbid fascination.
"That was probably the most interesting class we've ever had," Tracey added in agreement.
"I didn't really find it to be an entertaining class," I admitted, feeling remnants of bile at the back of my throat. I didn't necessarily have sympathy for the spider, but I couldn't get that horrified squeal out of my head.
"I suppose it was a little intense, but I feel like I've really learned something, you know?" Tracey said positively.
Next class was Arithmancy. When I entered class, Hermione was already there, and she looked very eager to see me.
"I have made a breakthrough," she said.
"Oh?" I replied as I slipped into the seat next to her. Daphne and Tracey sat behind us with Padma Patil.
"House elves have worked as slaves for wizardkind for centuries, and no one has ever done anything about it. I'm starting a club," she said rather too quickly and suddenly for me to keep up. "I haven't quite decided on the name yet, but I'll work on the badges tonight and see what would fit — you'll join, won't you?"
Before I could answer (or even understand what she was on about), Professor Vector started class, and we were all swooped into another Arithmancy lesson that required our utmost attention and focus. We also got a fair bit of homework afterwards, which wasn't so fun.
The next week, we had another DADA class, and this time, Professor Moody decided that he would demonstrate the use of the Imperius curse on us so that we understood its power more and learned how to fight back against its effects.
"But — but you said it's illegal, Professor," Hermione piped up uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said — to use it against another human was—"
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," Moody said, his magical eye swiveling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way — when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely — fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."
He pointed a gnarly finger at the door. Hermione went pink and muttered something I couldn't hear. Meanwhile, Ron and Harry grinned next to her. She evidently didn't want to leave class.
Professor Moody beckoned each of us forward, one at a time, and put the Imperius curse on us. I watched with horrified fascination as my clasmates did some random over-the-top things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Lavender Brown (I had since then learned her name) imitated a squirrel. Daphne Greengrass performed a series of front flips and back flips that she definitely would not have been capable of doing on her own accord. Students only recovered once Moody removed the curse from them.
"Potter," Professor Moody growled. "You're next."
When Harry Potter was put under the curse, Moody ordered him to jump on the desk. Harry bent his knees and looked like he was about to jump, but then, it seemed that something had stopped him halfway through — he smashed headlong into the desk, knocking it over.
"Now that's more like it!" Moody growled in his usual low voice, though there was a hint of pride in it, this time. "Look at that, you lot... Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention — watch his eyes, that's where you see it — very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"
Professor Moody insisted on putting Harry through the curse four times in a row, that is to say, until Harry could throw off the curse entirely.
I wasn't very looking forward to my turn, but just when I thought I would be next, Draco Malfoy was summoned to do his turn. He confidently swaggered to the front, bumping into my shoulder along the way, and looking like he thought this was going to be easy.
"Imperio!"
Malfoy's face went blissfully blank. His typical sneer was gone, and he looked very much at ease, as if nothing could ever bother him.
"Grab a partner and dance!" Moody ordered.
I imagined Draco dancing with one of his goons and beamed, but then my face blanched when he grabbed me and began dancing with me.
"Spin her around!" Moody said. Everyone was looking very amused at the scene unfolding before them, but I couldn't believe what was happening.
Malfoy spun me around, and when I was facing him again, Moody said, "Lift her up into the air."
With force that I never could have imagined coming from him, Malfoy lifted me into the air and spun me around with him.
"Malfoy, stop it," I said, when he wouldn't stop spinning. I was starting to feel a little sick. People were laughing all around us. "Stop!"
Then, as if blinking back to reality, Malfoy let go of me, but since I was in the air, I crashed right onto him and he fell on his back with the weight of my body suddenly atop him.
Professor Moody had stopped the curse, and students were giggling at the scene, namely Lavender Brown. I tried not to roll my eyes at her and started getting to my feet.
Malfoy's face was flushed red, and he got to his feet as well. He brushed off some dust from his sleeves and ambled back into the crowd, ignoring me completely.
"Miss Blackwood. It appears you're next."
I looked over at Professor Moody nervously, hoping he wouldn't make me dance with Malfoy again.
"Imperio!"
I suddenly felt like I was floating. Every thought and worry in my head gently slipped away, leaving me only with this vague sense of elation. I felt very relaxed, as if nothing could ever go wrong.
And then, I heard Professor Moody's voice from afar, a distant voice which quickly echoed into my brain: Give us a show, Miss Blackwood. How about some ballet? Dance some ballet for us.
For some reason, what the voice was telling me to do made so much sense. I just had to listen.
My body obeyed the commands, as if it already knew how to dance ballet. I felt my body sway and jump and bounce onto my tippy toes to no music at all.
Give us a twirl.
And I twirled on one foot, my arms crossed over one leg that would kick out every so often, making me twirl even more.
Then suddenly, I felt the vague empty feeling in my brain disappate as Professor Moody growled, "Spendid. Now, who's next?"
I blinked back to reality and couldn't believe what I had done. I would have felt embarrassed but then I realized that everyone else had done something embarrassing as well.
"How do you like Professor Moody?" Isaiah asked me later that evening after I had told the S4 that I had DADA today.
"She's not very fond of him," James piped in for me. He was smiling with amusement.
"What? You're not?" Wyatt said, almost outraged.
"Well, I don't know how I feel about him. Doesn't anyone else feel weird about the fact that he's performing the imperius curse on us? Just today, he made me dance the ballet," I said as I shook my head. "So weird."
"I would have loved to see that," James said fondly.
"He made me bark like a dog," Wyatt said. "Actually quite funny when I think back to it. Hey, Isaiah actually managed to beat the curse—"
"No, I barely did," Isaiah interjected quickly. "He cursed me at least six more times afterwards until I got it right — it was hard!"
"Still impressive," Elijah said approvingly to his friend. "I rather like Moody's teaching style. I feel like I've learned more in his class than with any other Defence Against the Dark Arts professor we've ever had."
"James did some cartwheels, you know?" Wyatt said suddenly.
"Now, I may not be fond of Moody, but I would have loved to see that," I said to James, referring to what he had said to me earlier. He smiled widely at me and chuckled.
"I can't understand what's not to like. The man has really lived through the dark arts. He's more knowledgeable about the subject that anyone else Dumbledore could have hired," Elijah went on.
"Well, you're probably right... But still... Something about him just doesn't sit right with me," I said.
The next time I saw Hermione, she hoisted a badge at me and told me to put it on. I was a little dumbfounded, not really understanding what all the hurry was about.
"You said you'd join S.P.E.W.," she said urgently.
I didn't remember having that conversation with her, but I was afraid to disappoint her so I nodded, and said, "Right! Yes... Erm... I'll wear it proudly."
"Good! Do spread the word. We need more people to join if we really want to make a change," Hermione said passionately.
It was too late now for me to ask her what S.P.E.W. was, so I just nodded in agreement at her before we went our separate ways. I looked down at the badge, still no clue as to what this S.P.E.W. thing was. The badge simply had the four letters squeezed onto it.
Without another thought, I pinned it to my robes and went down to the dungeons to the Slytherin common room.
The first thing James said when he saw me was, "What's Spew?"
"No idea," I told him honestly.
It was getting a little bit late, but I didn't mind hanging out with James a little longer. He peered around furtively before cautiously guiding me to an empty Slytherin study room
When he closed the door behind him, I said, "Why are we sneaking around?"
"It's just that, now that everyone knows we're together, I don't want them to get the wrong idea when I drag you into an empty study room. Don't want them to think we're doing anything suspicious."
"Well, are we?" I asked, my eyebrows raised at him.
"No, no, of course not," he replied rapidly. "I just wanted to do this..."
My heart stopped for a moment as he inched closer to me, until his lips pressed into mine. For a moment, I was melting into him, and then he pulled away gently and chuckled.
We hadn't kissed since that evening in my dormitory. So, this, had also caught me by surprise.
"You always look so surprised when I do this," he said, seemingly repressing a smirk.
"Well, I am..."
Without another word, James kissed me again. The kiss was just faintly deeper as the last, but not enough to scandalize anyone. It was like he was stopping himself from kissing me too deeply even though he really wanted to.
I didn't question him about it because I didn't mind.
He then kissed my forehead — which made my heart drum even more than a regular kiss did, for some reason — and bid me goodnight before exiting the room.
I couldn't stop myself from grinning like an idiot. I didn't think I could ever get used to this.