One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

[Professor Conan Edogawa]

Conan had two and a half hours before Taylor finishes Quidditch practice and in that time he had to finish the Muggle Studies essay homework that was due tomorrow. It wasn't individual work really. In fact, Professor Hayes has been kind enough as to assign partners for everyone so it would be less work for all of them. Apparently though, Conan had the misfortune of being the partner of Jeremiah Raven in this work. The Hufflepuff hadn't totally thought that it was a misfortune when he was first assigned as Miah's partner considering that both of them were already on tolerable terms to the point that they can stand in the same room without biting each other's heads off. In fact, there had been one or two instances that he and the Gryffindor were actually capable of walking side by side without a fight breaking out. And so, Conan didn't really see it as a problem. In fact, more than a problem, he saw it as an opportunity. He had been trying to find ways on how to make up with Ai after all, and since the Lion and the Head Girl were friends, Conan figured that perhaps Miah would be able to help him out. Well, that was what Conan thought a week ago when the homework was given out. But now that tomorrow was their deadline and only two days ago did he have a fight with Heath James, the Hufflepuff was not a happy camper. In fact, what made the whole thing worse was that the said Gryffindor was almost an hour late.

Conan was sure that he had told Jeremiah to meet him at the Student Lounge at exactly 1:00 in the afternoon, and yet as he glanced at the clock it was already 1:48 in the afternoon. Just twelve minutes and Conan would have been waiting for more than an hour. He even made sure to arrive ten minutes earlier so that they could start on working immediately but that Lion had the nerve to not show up. And so when he was already fifteen minutes late, the Hufflepuff had begun to work without him. He was not failing his NEWTs just because he lacked one homework because of a Gryffindor that refused to come on time. And so, with a stack of books he had gathered in front of him, he had gotten several pieces of parchment and wrote and wrote and wrote, once in a while looking at his numerous sources. Just as he was on his third page and letting the ink on the first two pages was drying, Jeremiah Raven had arrived. And not quite in the way Conan wanted him to show up.

 

[Jeremiah Raven]

Jeremiah cursed when he noticed the time. The day had not been going his way, and quite frankly it was a disaster. He had ran into Ai, and had found himself distracted by her presence over lunch. Being a vegan, he had fruit, but finding the Great Hall too busy, decided to eat in the Kitchens. It seemed that Ai had the same idea, and joined him, eating his fruit whenever he left it for a moment. After having to fight her away from his banana, Jeremiah had decided that it was time he should head to Conan to work together on Muggle Studies - and it was then that he saw the time on the clock tower. It was already twenty past one! He had four floors to get through first, and the stairs could be such a pain to deal with at the best of times. Chewing his lip, Jeremiah began to run to his destination, knowing that he was skating on thin ice with Conan.

He and Conan had been on bad terms for years, and only recently had they tried to fix it. Well, Jeremiah had always been trying to fix their relationship, but Conan had been insufferable. Since the Borely Mansion, however, where they had experienced things that Jeremiah had not expected, they had slowly begun to work things out. He was so grateful, since he had been growing sick and tired of all the fight he was in. He was one argument away from telling Conan and Liam to go to Hell, as they had both aggravated him to such a degree that he was honestly thinking about hexing them. he had already had himself involved in a spell fight with Liam, a fist fight with Conan, and another screaming match with both of them. He was too tired for this cr@p. It was his final year, and he was not a happy camper.

Running into the room, after being held up by the moving stair cases, he hurriedly blurted an apology - in Italian, before correcting himself in English. "Conan - apologies, I got hung up with Ai-" he cut himself off, remembering that the twins hated each other. "I mean - wow!" The Seventh year stepped on something - he knew not what - and fell right into Conan. Their heads smashing together, and Jeremiah being flung across Conan's lap. He felt something drip down the back of his head, and cringed at the smell of fleshly flung ink. The ink was all over his back and the back of his head, with some dripping down his neck. Ink covered pages sunk to the floor around him and Conan, and he could only imagine how p!ssed off Conan would be at this. Slinking back, having to put a hand on the desk and a hand on Conan, he looked at the Hufflepuff, almost beggingly. "Conan..." This was an oops.
​

 

[Professor Conan Edogawa]

Conan had been working on their essay for almost an hour and in a matter of seconds and a flash of black, all his work has went down the drain. He should have expected that Miah would show up in the most unpleasant way possible and imaginable to all mankind. If the Hufflepuff was a self-proclaimed callous brat and jerk, then Jeremiah Raven must have been born a stupid idiot. Really, was it that hard to tell time. He was pretty sure that even a first year would be able to tell the difference from 1:00 PM and 1:50 PM. That was too much of a difference not to miss! And yet, this Gryffindor was able to be late for almost an hour, be clumsy enough to trip on something that was completely visible and manage to destroy the hard work that he had accomplished so far! And what was Conan asking of him originally?! It wasn't so hard. It was just to show up on time so they could finish their work. As soon as he regained his senses, he could feel the pain in the growing bump on his head, the unpleasant smell of splattered ink and the icky feeling it had brought to the skin. "What the f**k is wrong with you?!" the Hufflepuff yelled at the Gryffindor that had just arrived and roughly pushed him away to get out of his face and away from him immediately. Seriously, he thought he could make amends with this guy today but that thought was now thrown out of the window.

Conan couldn't even bear to believe this guy's reasoning on why he was late! "You show up an nearly an hour late all because you were hanging with my sister?!" he said exasperatedly. This guy was unbelievable! He had been here waiting for him for almost an hour and the Gryffindor was late just because he was hanging out with Ai?! Conan could not believe the stupidity of this guy. Can't he even bear to be responsible enough just to show up on time?! The young man looked at Jeremiah's ink-covered clothes just before looking over at his having the same design. Conan growled at this in obvious irritation, "And you splatter ink all over me," he said, obviously annoyed by this development. He didn't care that others were looking at the scene that they were causing, but any of them would cause a scene like this too if they would experience what he was experiencing at the moment. Conan looked over to his previous work only to see that all three pages are now completely splattered and covered with ink or blotches of it. He took a deep breath to try and calm down though that wasn't really working. "And you f**king destroyed my work!" he said angrily before turning his gaze to the Gryffindor boy and glaring at him with much passion that he could ever muster. "How much of an idiot can you be?!"