Chapter Eleven: Feeding the Fire
"Perhaps those who are the best suited for power are those who have never sought it."
After splashing her face with cold water, Azalea had eventually decided to head up to the astronomy tower. Creeping to doors and gripping the handles, she slowly pulled them open. She took a quick glance behind her to see if she had woken up Ocean and her friend, and was glad to see they hadn't even stirred. The dark-haired witch slipped out and started making her way there.
When she had made it to the astronomy tower, she semi-consciously started to point out constellations. 'I find the Big Dipper and follow the end of the handle to locate the Little Dipper,' she thought to herself while following her mental instructions, 'follow it north until you find Polaris, and then you've found the Little Dipper. Even further north, you'll find Cassiopia.'
Pointing out other constellations like Orion, Draco, Cyrus, she soon fell into a light doze. A few hours of blissful sleep later, she was awakened by someone violently shaking her body. "Azalea! Azalea! You're going to be late for class and you already missed breakfast," Ocean's voice yelled in her ear, causing a ringing affect to start.
All Azalea did in response was lay there staring at her sleepily. Her eyes began to droop before an, "Ouch," came flying out of her mouth. "Did you just kick me," the dark-haired witch said unbelievingly.
"Yes, yes I did," Ocean said as if nothing just happened. Azalea just shook her head and complied with the caramel-coloured witch, getting up and getting ready.
~*~
"Okay class, today we're actually going to be brewing Amortentia. I'll put you in partners and you can get started," was Potion Master's introduction to the day. "First we begin with Lestrange and Rosier. Then Black and Hornby, Riddle and Nott and Rosefield and Malfoy. The rest of you can come see who you're paired up with!"
Azalea nearly gagged at the person she was paired with. 'A Malfoy?! I would have settled for Riddle,' she thought bitterly. She looked around the room searching for her partner and spotted a pale boy with white, long blonde hair. "Wonder who that is," she muttered sarcastically as she grudgingly dragged herself to the really blonde boy. Going up to him, she tapped on his shoulder. It was a minute delay before he actually turned to face her.
"So you're the Rosefield girl everyone's talking about," he said, mouth lifting up into the traditional Malfoy smirk after studying her. "Yea, I'm the Rosefield girl," said Azalea. A small smile came over her lips when he took her hand and placed a gently kiss on her knuckle, similar to what Riddle did. 'At least he's a lot more charming than Draco.' She concluded.
"I'm Abraxas by the way." The white-blonde boy said while leading her to a table by the small of her back.
"I'm Azalea," the dark-haired witch offered politely. "That's a beautiful name," he said, and smirked at her reddening face.
Azalea wasn't very good at holding conversations with guys other than Harry and Ron. The only person that was an exception to that was Oliver Wood. She remembered developing a crush on him in the second year and he eventually found out. The most embarrassing part about it was how awkward he looked while trying to figure out a way to let the little Gryffindor down easily. She almost laughed at the memory.
"I hope it's Ok, but we're going to be sitting by my friends." Azalea's head snapped up and looked at the group of wizards sitting before her. It was the same group of guys she saw at dinner the first day. "Not at all," she lied through her teeth. He pulled out a chair for her before sitting down himself. From all the odd looks he was getting from his friends, she assumed this was an un-usual action from him.
The chit-chat soon ceased when Riddle opened his textbook. As if there was cue of some sort, all the other boys opened their textbook to start.
"Azalea, would you get the ingredients while I heat up the cauldron," he asked and without a problem she obliged. The dark-haired witch went up to the ingredient table and got the necessary items.
"Ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, peppermint and powered moonstone," she said, sitting down among the group of blokes.
Half an hour blew by before she heard Professor's jovial voice praising Riddle. "And look how perfect the spiral steam swirls. Atta' job my boy! Ten points to Slytherin!"
The dark-haired witch was still looking
at Riddle, along with the rest, and wasn't mistaken when he glanced up a at her with a small but smug smirk.
"Why you little insufferable git," she growled lowly under her breath and was fortunately not heard by anyone.
"Hey Rosefield, are you almost done?" Malfoy said from beside her. She looked at him and irritatedly said, " who's Rosefield?" Azalea's face instantly displayed uncomfortableness as she slightly shifted in her chair. The witch let out a joking laugh that only radiated off nervousness.
"I'm just joking," the witch said to Malfoy who was now giving her peculiar glances, "just finishing up." Slowly, Malfoy's eyes returned to normal from the narrowed state he had them in and his shoulders relaxed slightly. Azalea looked around the group to see if anyone notice their exchange and to her content, they didn't. That was until she could feel the familiar intense gaze of Riddle piercing the side of her face. Turning to finally meet his gaze, she was met with cold, suspicious eyes. Something told her that he did hear her major slip and something else told her that he defiantly wasn't going to let this inconsistency pass.