The Keeper

Chapter 40

I listened to Bag It Up by Oasis, Another One Bites The Dust by Queen and Express Yourself by Madonna.

I'm planning something quite significant for the plot, but I'm a bit conflicted. I don't want to bring it in too early but I also don't want to bore you guys with too many fluffy, filler chapters (especially because this one is not my best work!). So if you could let me know what you think in the comments, I'd be really grateful - thank you!

Please vote and comment <3

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He'd done it again. I'd woken up in my bed, my duvet pulled up to my chin. I really was a heavy sleeper, huh. At least it was the weekend and I didn't have to drag myself out of bed. But I did want to see Oliver to thank him for actually carrying me from the common room into bed. He even tucked me in.

Despite my body urging me to stay put, I rolled over and slid out of bed. Sasha had left already. Her bed was made, too. 

Unsurprisingly, Aleeza and Louise had fallen asleep on the same bed, although there weren't any textbooks with them. I smirked. They'd been spending nights on the same bed quite a lot recently.

I really didn't want to wake either of them up - they looked so peaceful. But I did want to know where Sasha was.

"Hey," I whispered, nudging Louise's side. She was generally a lighter sleeper so she wouldn't take as much noise to wake up.

"Y/N?" Louise said groggily.

"Hi," I replied. "Sorry to wake you, but I was wondering if you know where Sasha is? I didn't see her last night."

She shrugged. "I think she was planning to meet Felix for some drill practice, but I'm not sure."

"Sasha's been spending a lot of time with Felix recently, hasn't she?" I said with a grin.

"She keeps using the upcoming Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff game as a reason to have extra sessions," Louise added, "but they've been doing a lot more prep than usual."

"Without the rest of the team," I pointed out. There wasn't a full team practice scheduled until next week, and Felix and Sasha had already had multiple practices by themselves. Not that I was complaining, of course. They'd make a wonderful couple. "Oh well," I sighed. "I won't disturb her. You go back to sleep." I jerked my head in Aleeza's direction. "She's looking a bit lonely."

I quickly left the room before Louise could throw a comeback at me. I was curled up on the sofa when I decided that a good use of my time would be studying instead of doing literally nothing. My study materials were back in the dorm so I went to get them.

I was still wary of Louise verbally attacking me, but she was already asleep. She was lying significantly closer to Aleeza than she was when I woke her up.

Smiling to myself, I grabbed some parchment, a couple of textbooks and a quill. I made my way over to the Great Hall to get a piece of toast before studying. I ate my toast and went to the library.

Because it was so early, the library was nearly deserted. Only a few other students were there. I found a table far away from anyone else and placed my copy of The Monster Book of Monsters in front of me. It started to squirm so I gently stroked its spine. It calmed down and I opened it to a page on porlocks.

We had to sketch a detailed image of a porlock that took up at least half a side of parchment. All of the time I had spent doodling in my sketchbook helped me with this. I'd just finished sketching the head when I realised that I could put the parchment over a picture of a porlock from my textbook and simply trace the image. But it wasn't worth starting over.

"Dammit," I muttered.

"Homework getting you down?"

I looked up.

"Oliver?"

He grinned and took the seat opposite me. "You know, you should really be used to being surprised by me," he said. "It's like the only way we've been meeting for months."

"That's very true."

I continued sketching. I could feel Oliver watching me as I did so.

"You're a great artist," he commented.

I scoffed. "I'm just copying a picture," I said. "Thank you, though."

"You should see my, uh, perfectly crafted porlock," he said. 

Slowly, he retrieved a piece of parchment from his bag. The drawing wasn't awful - it certainly resembled a porlock and I could tell that he had put a lot of effort into it. Despite this, it wasn't the most eloquent drawing I'd ever seen.

"Go on." Oliver smiled. "You can laugh if you want."

"I wasn't going to laugh!" I protested.

He raised his eyebrows. "I laughed multiple times while I was drawing it, and again when I showed it to my roommates. Although it wasn't as bad as Prue's. You remember her, right?"

I nodded. "She was my study partner," I said. "But we haven't studied together in a while. I'd like to start again - she's smart."

"I was hoping that you remembered because she's the one who convinced us to go to Hogsmeade together," Oliver said. I bit my lip. I hoped he wasn't irritated that I didn't remember that. Upon noticing my expression, however, he winked and I relaxed. "Anyway, her porlock looked like... well, it didn't look like a porlock, let's leave it at that."

On the topic of people I hadn't spoken to in a while, my mind meandered back to that group of Gryffindor girls who pestered me after I went to Hogsmeade with Oliver.

"Remember after our first trip to Hogsmeade how we got swarmed by people asking questions?" I said. When he said yes, I continued, "Have that group of three girls ever talked to you again? One of them was called Milly, I think. And that Albert Montgomery boy."

"I know who you mean," Oliver replied, his voice turning bitter. "Milly, Madison and Courtney. Oh, and of course, Albert too. He enjoys spending time with them very much. Luckily, I've managed to avoid them and their annoying personalities."

The more we spoke, the louder we became. I didn't realise how far our voices were travelling until Madam Pince's sharp 'shh' cut through our talking. I turned to look at her to apologise, but I saw that she had a smile on her face.