An Awkward Apology

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy had always laughed at others when they explained how hard they took losing. It's just a game, had always been his reply. Now, he knew better. The recent SlytherClaw loss had hit Jeremy...hard. He'd spent the first few days moping in his common room and even despite attempts by his housemates to cheer him up, Jeremy had been unable to return to his normal self. He had plenty of reasons to feel bad or so he tried to explain to others. He'd made a number of mistakes during the game, ones he planned to never make again. His biggest mistake had come at the end of the game when he'd moved Ariah to the seeker position. Watching her run off upset had not made Jeremy feel any better about the loss. He'd been expecting some Slytherin retaliation, but when none had come, he'd hoped that they were more concerned with the fact that GryffinPuff had won than that he had been a huge reason why SlytherClaw had lost.

Sitting in the library, Jeremy had expected to get through the chapter easily. He was still only halfway though and he could barely remember all that he had read already. He hated when that happened. Scratching out a sentence he'd written, Jeremy re-wrote it, glad that he had a new spell-check quill on hand. Some of the words in this chapter were hard to spell. Jeremy looked up from his spot at a corner table and saw that the library was pretty full. With OWLs and NEWTs looming for the 5th and 7th years and finals for everyone else, it wasn't too much of a surprise. He people watched for a moment before returning to the chapter on muggle movies and his essay.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah Rowan breathed out heavily as she gathered her things from the bench she had been sitting on for the last half hour or so. She knew she had studying to do but it was actually getting around to doing it that was the problem. But was that really any different from two thirds of the student body that attended this school. 'I wish I could borrow a Ravenclaw's brain for a day or something.' It would be useful. Because then Ariah wouldn't have to think so much. Ariah wasn't an idiot or anything like that but she wasn't the best when it came to actually thinking tasks and problems through thoroughly as well as resourceful as a Ravenclaw was. Class had ended hours ago and all she managed to accomplish was sitting down and staring into space as students bustled around the hallway like bumbling bees. It was Ariah's Seventh Year and she already felt like she was shutting down and getting herself ready to Graduate and leave behind everything here. Well, everything except Leviathan and the few friends she had made here. Her brothers had told her it was best not to hold onto this place too tightly so she was more than ready to go and never come back. Her Prefect position would be missed, the Professors would be missed, and so would Leviathan. But it wasn't like she could take those things with her. 'I doubt Professor Styx would let me sneak off with my Prefect badge no matter how much I beg him.' The Slytherin Seventh Year thought to herself as she picked ticked her books under her arm and started down the hallway. She was going to force herself to study some today and she knew the Library might actually help her get something done. The NEWT's weren't going to be kind to her if she didn't study at least once. If she failed all her NEWT's Colton would surely kill her. Slytherin would disown her, and she would have to hide in a closet for the rest of her life. 'Okay maybe I just need to stop worrying about this because I'm starting to get irrational.' Ariah had a tendency to do that. It only happened when she worried a lot though. Ariah could see the entrance to the Library up ahead and she willed her short legs to carry her body there as fast as it could.

The Library was pretty packed already. It sort of worried Ariah because she was worried that she wouldn't get as much work done with so many people here. Then again it didn't look like there was a lot of people she spoke to on a regular basis or anything so maybe she wouldn't feel compelled to talk to them and end up distracting herself with meaningless blabber. A lot of the tables were taken and Ariah had to search high and low for an area that was free for her to use. A couple of books rested within her arms and they were getting quite heavy. Finally her mint green eyes spotted an area free on the right next to the corner table and lugged her heavy books over. There was a boy that seemed to already be hard at work studying and Ariah hoped that she would not disturb him. Her books and supplies seemed to have a better idea and waited until she was inches from the table to pop out of her hands and land in a messy heap on the floor. Snickers could be heard from nearby and Ariah slapped a hand over her face in embarrassment. Now that she was close to the table she was actually able to see who was occupying the table. It was Jeremy. He was a Ravenclaw Prefect and played Quidditch. That was about all she knew about him, he seemed like he was friendly though. Which immediately led Ariah feel sorry that she had disturbed him. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry Jeremy!" She apologized as she used her wand to accio her papers up into her hands and then she gathered her books. Casually she placed them on the table hoping that Jeremy would not tell her to get lost. The Slytherin Prefect worried that he remembered her failure during the Quidditch game. She probably looked like the world's biggest idiot right now. ​

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy was just chuckling to himself as he continued writing the last sentence of his essay, a really clever one about muggle teen comedies movies being nothing compared to what wizard teenagers went to, when he heard a noise that caused his hand to jolt across the page, creating a line of ink with no purpose. Turning his head, Jeremy heard a voice apologizing to him, and as he looked up, he saw Ariah. Shaking his head, he jumped out of his seat to help her, though it seemed her wand had taken care of the mess already. "It's alright Ariah" he said, "you wanna join me?" The rest of the library seemed pretty full. Jeremy gestured to the table and then moved to it and began to pile his books so she could have some room too. He knew she had every reason to simply walk away from him, especially after what he'd put her through at the quidditch game, but he hoped that she wouldn't. Jeremy had been trying to work up the courage to go up to her ever since the quidditch game to ask if she was alright, but several things had stopped him. Not only was she much older but she was from a house that was notorious for not being exactly friendly. The biggest thing that prevented him was not those things though. It was her very intimidating looking boyfriend. The guy was a prefect like him, but he'd never spoken to him. The guy just didn't exude any air that he wanted to be spoken to.

She was alone now though, at least for now, so Jeremy knew he had to take his chance. "Listen" he began, before she could walk away from him, "I've been wanting to speak to you for a couple of days." Jeremy stuffed his hands into his pocket and looked at the people at the nearby tables. They all seemed to be busy and he hoped they were too distracted by their schoolwork to eavesdrop. "I...um...wanted to apologize to you for what happened during the quidditch game." He knew it was very lame, but he hoped it would be enough since it was all he had for right now. Jeremy was terrible at apologizing. It was one of those things that you couldn't really work on either because in order to do it, you had to do something wrong and there was nothing Jeremy hated than to do something wrong.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah didn't expect Jeremy to ask her if she wanted to join him at the table. Especially because she had dumped her stuff all over the place, mostly likely disturbing him and half of the entire library. People had always been fairly kind to Ariah but it wasn't until they knew her that they were nice enough to ask her what Jeremy just had. Were all Ravenclaws as pleasant as he was? Probably but it wasn't like she was going to be around them all that often anyways. ”Ummmm...” Ariah started to think. Well it would be nice to have someone to talk to while doing her assignments even if she didn't know him too well. He seemed decent and not too upset that she had come over to join him. But the Seventh Year was worried about something. What would Levi think if he saw her hanging out with another boy? Ariah adored her boyfriend but she knew he could get jealous really easily. Being threatening was in his nature and if he saw her hanging out with some other boy what would he do? A part of Ariah told her not to worry about it wasn't like she was flirting or anything. She was just looking for a place to sit and someone to keep her company for an hour or so while she caught up on her assignments and studying for the NEWT's. But then another part told her that she knew what Levi was like and it wasn't worth the possible risk. In the end the side of her that said forget about it won. There was no harm in just sitting, and in the end Ariah still adored Levi and was fully loyal to him. The Prefect let het mint colored eyes look around the room to see if she could spot her boyfriend before she shrugged her shoulders and sat down. ”Sure. I could use some company while I'm getting my work done.” Ariah smiled softly and immediately opened her large book that contained pieces of parchment that she had been scribbling her notes on. It looked messy and she knew it. But the Seventh Year stopped caring about her organization right around her fifth year. Hopefully she didn't look like an idiot for being as messy as she was with all her notes and supplies.

Ariah was flipping through pages of her textbook when she heard Jeremy started to instigate a conversation. There had been something he wanted to speak to her about Immediately she paused and her eyes widened ever so slightly. ”About what?” Her voice wavered a little bit. Whenever someone started a conversation out with those words she knew it was probably going to be about something she didn't like. Or it would make her want to cry. Ariah stopped fiddling with her papers and picked up on the fact that Jeremy looked nervous. Did he think she was going to bite his head off or something? Sure she was a Slytherin but people knew her as being soft hearted. Well she used to be anyways. The more she hung out with Levi the more angry and bitter at the world she became. Then the younger Ravenclaw stated that he was sorry for what happened at the Quidditch game. Ariah grew very confused by this statement though. What was there to be sorry about? Did he cheat or something? It had yet to really to sink in that he meant what had happened with her being seeker. ”Jeremy what are you talking abou-oh. You mean the whole seeker thing? Psh why on earth are you sorry about that?” Ariah didn't think there was anything for him to be sorry about. She was the one that had lost for her entire team. He was only putting in someone he thought could handle the position. It wasn't like it was either of their faults that the actual Seeker wasn't doing their job. Then again she had also gotten sick at the game. Maybe he thought that her getting sick was his fault? Perhaps she ought to explain to him that she had been feeling under the weather all morning? ​

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

When Ariah hesitated, Jeremy didn't blame her. He would have done the same if he was in her shoes. Why in the world would she want to sit next to the guy who'd embarassed her once already? He had already looked down at his notebook so that she couldn't see his hurt expression. "It's ok. You-" he began, trying to play it off as if he didn't care, when she surprised him by accepting his over. Jeremy looked up quickly, a smile on his face. He left her alone for a bit, busy with his own studies. Stealing a glance at her, Jeremy was amused by the state of her notes. They were all over the place and he wondered how she kept track of everything. Looking back at his own, he realized that he might be the odd one. It was true that the handwriting was messy. His dad always told him that his handwriting was as bad as if a hippogriff had been given a quill and some parchment. Aside from that, his notes were organized with headings and subheading and in some cases sub-subheadings.

It wasn't until he and Ariah were conversing that Jeremy next thought of her boyfriend. Her very tall, very intimidating-looking boyfriend. The blue-eyed Ravenclaw glanced around the room, hoping he wouldn't see the older guy coming towards them. It certainly wouldn't mean good things for him. Her confusion transferred to him as he became confused, wondering why she didn't seem to know or remember what he was talking about. Her question utterly perplexed him. What did she mean? There were plenty of reasons for him to be sorry. "Well, for starters, I'm sorry for switching you from being keeper to seeker. You were doing a great job as keeper" he complimented her and smiled again. "I should've just yelled at Jaden to get her head in the game." Jeremy shook his head, knowing that hindsight was always 20/20. He looked down at his book and sighed. "I still can't believe we lost. We had that game."