Monsoon Wings

The next morning, Juno woke up earlier than usual and started to get dressed in a haze. She dreamed about Draco the other night. This vision left her dreading the dawn. Olivia and Hermione were still snoring at the other side of the room. Juno put on her socks and shoes, and travelled down to the common room. Only a few students were up and fully dressed. Near the spiral staircase of the boys’ dorms, Harry and Jayden were already awake and were descending the stairs, gibbering all the way.

‘…I told you it wasn’t me, I didn’t leave the common room at all last night,’ Jayden was saying, adjusting his red-and-gold Gryffindor tie.

‘Okay, okay, I believe you,’ Harry said, waving his hand. ‘Oh, hey, Juno.’

‘Hi,’ Juno replied tiredly.

They sat down near the fireplace and talked about the Triwizard Tournament for a while, before the others came, fully dressed and excited about their first day of school. Olivia was having her hair tied up in a loose bun, looking very lovely. They all left the common room, and Juno parted with them, tracing her way down to the dungeons, dragging her weary feet all the way. The staircases kept changing, and she had to remember which stair leads to where, because a stair can end up in different floors.

She reached the dungeon and waited at the stairs. Sure enough, exactly at eight, Draco came, his hair flaxen and wet, with his usual smirk. He was walking alone, without any company. He was thinking of being with Juno only.

‘Good morning,’ Juno greeted, stone-cold.

Draco handed his bag over to her and walked away, ascending the stairs to the Great Hall, Juno trailing behind him, carrying a bag on each shoulder. She started to feel like a fool.

They entered the Great Hall; Draco shamelessly kept on chattering things like, ‘You’ll be cutting my roots for me in Potions’ and ‘Hah! My bag is heavy, isn’t it?’ and ‘You should thank me for being kind to you’ and ‘I can be cruel, you know’ and much more futile things.

They sat together, and Juno was asked to do dim-witted things like taking this doughnut or pouring orange juice, which he was capable of doing himself. It was not long till Snape came, hovering as a bat, giving out the Fourth-year time-tables for the Slytherins. As he passed Juno, his lips curled, looking like an overgrown nasty bat.

Juno didn’t know the Gryffindor’s time-table; she looked over at the Gryffindor table and noticed McGonagall giving out the time-tables. Nevertheless, she peeked over at Draco’s, paying special attention to the boxes in which ‘Gryffindor’ is written.

And she saw it. Monday. 08:40-09:30, Potions, Gryffindor. Then far below, after Lunch. History of Magic, Gryffindor, 13:00-14:40. Double periods.

Hallelujah.

Three periods stuck with this savage sweater-burner.

She started peeking at Tuesday’s column. 09:40-11:30, Defense against the Dark Arts, Gryffindor. Again, double. She was about to peep at Wednesday before Draco shoved the paper off and cursed. She immediately returned to her porridge.

After breakfast, they went down the dungeons for Potions. Juno had no hope sitting next to Jayden or Olivia. Once they reached the Potions dungeon, Draco chose a desk nearest to the door and motioned her to sit next to him.

It was the worst Potions period in the whole of Juno’s life. She and Draco had a yelling match there.

Snape, apparently, began the class with the curl of his lips. Immediately the class turned quiet. Snape had a gift of keeping a class quite without endeavor.

‘I do not wish to be loquacious,’ Snape said quietly, eyeing each one of them (resting longer on Harry, as usual). ‘Today you will be making the Glittering Concoction. The recipe shall be found in page 4 of your textbooks. It is a quite simple potion, of course, and I expect you all can finish it within 50 minutes. Of course, though, with your amateur skills, you will end up exploding your concoctions. Therefore, you will be put into pairs.’

There was an instant hush as everyone eagerly exchanged glances with their partners.

Snape curled his lips. ‘I believe I have the right to decide your partners. Weasley, you go with Finnigan. Wince, you with Rocky. Granger, better with Longbottom. Patil, go with Zabini. Potter, you go with Malfoy—‘

Draco shot up his hand.

‘Yes, Malfoy?’

‘Sir, I’d better be with Emily.’

Had it be Harry, Snape would have taken ten points off Gryffindor for denial and being considerate. Because it was Draco Malfoy, he agreed without more ado and paired Harry with Dean instead.

Again, hallelujah.

Draco constantly demanded this and that throughout the lesson. He wanted her to cut the Blackpepper beans, stir the potion, and adding this and that. Snape, meanwhile, was hovering around the dungeon bullying the Gryffindors, taking points off them just because the flame was too big or because the Narckle-plant roots were not chopped in equal portions.

‘Now you put in 3 spiders into the solution,’ Draco ordered.

‘The book says 2,’ Juno said, throwing him a very grubby look.

‘Because I say 3, you put in 3,’ he replied mulishly, doing nothing himself but fussing over her.

Juno lost her temper. She raised her voice, ‘You assume you are smarter than the book?!’

‘Are you deriding me?!’ he yelled.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Juno cracked, ‘Not to mention you are the cause of the World Cup disaster!’

‘YOU DIDN’T TELL ME IT WAS A BURNER! ALL YOU WERE DOING—’

‘I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH IT!’ Juno cut across him, standing up. The potion was already black, but it wasn’t the bubbles frothing out of the cauldron that enticed the rest of the class, it was their verbal combat.

‘—BEHAVING LIKE CRAZY BABOONS—‘

‘YOU ARE THE BABOON!’

DHUAAAAARRRR!!

Snape had sent red livid sparks from his wand, and was now glaring at them (Juno, essentially), breathing like a wheezing elephant. Seamus and Ron were giggling, and when Snape threw them both a murderous look, they immediately kept straight faces.

Snape turned to Juno.

‘Thought you’d look good, yelling and howling in my class, Emily? That’s fifty points off Gryffindor.’

A murmur of pessimism occurred amongst the Gryffindors. Juno thought this was too much. And he did nothing to Malfoy?! She wanted to argue, but Hermione and Harry behind Snape were mouthing ‘No, no!’ to her.

If Juno remained silent, then the danger was Jayden. He had stood up, face ruby and fingers clamp together. The rest of the Gryffindor held their breaths.

‘Then there must be fifty points off Slytherin, too, I guess?’ he declared.

Snape calmly said the one word which was infuriating. ‘Detention, Rocky. This evening five o’clock, my office.’

Ron had stood up, too. Fortuitously, Seamus pulled him back down by his robes.

The first period on the first day of school. Already fifty points were off and a detention.

Juno took a swift gaze at Draco, who was serenely sitting on his seat with one leg on the other thigh, looking at her and smirking offensively.