Puppy Wants To Play (Julie)

[August Jensen]

A thick blanket of snow had covered the grounds of Hogwarts, turning everything a pure white. Which was why August was staying safely inside the castle. He’d made the mistake of going outside in it a few evenings before, his prefect duties requiring a quick tour of the grounds to round up any stragglers, and had ended up trying to break up a snowball fight. August had discovered two fundamental things about snow. It was very cold and it was very wet.

So instead of risking pneumonia he was going to the library. Sure it was draughty in there and there were a lot of old books that kind of made him sneeze when they were really dusty, but it in now way even came close to the subzero temperatures of the outdoors. Besides August had some library books to return. Some overdue library books to return. In fact he’d got them out back in his third year and had somehow managed to misplace them in his dorm. Now that he’d found them again it seemed like as good a time as any to return them.

August wandered into the library, not watching where he was going because he was busy trying to smooth out some of the corners of the book he was carrying where his rat, Pookie, had nibbled them. His attention was so fully on the chewed paper that he bumped into somebody. The jolt made him drop his books, right onto the feet of the person he’d just accidentally barged into. ”Oh!” August look at the girl apologetically, recognising her instantly. ”I’m sorry Julie!”

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[julielondon]

This was the second time in under a month that Juliette had been in the library, and in all honesty, it was unnatural. She'd managed to skillfully avoid the place from her second year onwards, and now she was making nearly frequent visits to it. She supposed it was her own fault that she found herself spending more and more time in this dank, dusty room - If she'd listened in classes and actually made an effort to do her homework, she probably wouldn't be in this position. But no, here she was, hunting down yet another book for yet another essay.

Essays were a pointless waste of time. Students spent hours on end copying information from a textbook on to paper, and then end up just throwing it away when they get it back. They didn't serve any purpose, didn't teach them anything new, so why do it? Julie particularly hated them on days like this, when she could be outside playing with snow or watching her irritating pet lemur shove it down people's backs. These hours could be spent in a much more constructive way.

But, whether she agreed or not, it had to be done. She made her way towards the exit, with two or three heavy books in her arms, but came to an abrupt halt when someone walked into her. She may have fallen over, if the sudden weight on her feet hadn't made her buckle forwards. School shoes weren't amazingly protective, and those books were heavy. In shock, she dropped her own books on the floor, which simply added more insult to the injury.

”I’m sorry Julie!”

Juliette just about suppressed a groan at this, and managed to ease her grimace into a small smile before she straightened up. August Jensen was irritating at the best of times, and just about unbearable at the worst. She'd made the mistake of being occasionally nice to him, and now it seemed to her that he just wouldn't leave her alone. Almost every time she saw him, she wanted nothing more than to slap that beautifully bright smile off his face and tell him exactly where to stick his good mood.

"It's okay, August." However, she could never bring herself to actually be mean to the boy. And the smile was annoyingly contagious. Every time she saw him, without a single exception so far, she found herself beaming straight back at him. "I didn't want those toes this week, anyway."

Somehow, the Hufflepuff had forced her to warm to him. No matter how annoying he was, she could never manage to be nasty to him. Even when she did lash out, when she was dismissive or just plain ignored him, he'd respond by being even sweeter and friendlier, and she'd have to stop. It drove her crazy.

((Quality dwindled a bit near the end - sorry!))