"We were all assigned a number and we're supposed to research it's magical significance. I've got some books, but they're really hard to read through." Cedric said, pulling out his arithmancy textbooks.
"What's your number?"
"Three."
"Oh good. There's a lot we can write on that. Three is a relatively lucky number in itself. But it can also be seen as an unlucky number. We can split your essay into half. One half exploring the lucky connotations to the number, and the other half exploring the unlucky connotations. Three is a popular number, inside and outside of the magical world. In religious cultures, like Christianity and Hinduism and Judaism, the number three is seen cropping up throughout countless texts. It's also an important number in the old beliefs."
"You make it sound so simple."
"It's not. Bill took arithmancy."
"Did he teach you or did you teach him?" Alexandra laughed.
"Focus."
"I focus a lot better when I have something to look forward to."
"The hogsmeade trip isn't enough of a prize?"
"I'm not even really sure I want to go."
"Why not?"
"It's more of an obligation. A few of the guys want to try to get some firewhisky."
"That's dumb."
"Just a bit of fun."
"And you're going to go with them?"
"I'm thinking about it."
"Fine, what would you like as reward if you finish this essay in time?"
"More one on one quidditch games." She grimaced.
"No. You know I hate quidditch."
"But you're good at it." He gave her a small smile.
"It's a stupid game. No." She looked away from him, not wanting to give in.
"Please?"
"I will practice manoeuvres with you in the sky but no actual quidditch. I hate those stupid bludgers and the game makes no sense."
"We won't use any bludgers. Please." She made the mistake of looking at him, and cursed herself immediately.
"You get one game."
"Three?"
"One."
"Two?"
"One."
"Okay, fine. One game's better than nothing."
"And it's just you and me. No inviting any other quidditch fanatics. Like my brothers."
"Deal."
"Now will you focus?" He nodded and she opened his books, flicking through. Her vision blurred and the pages from Ziegla Hammer's book appeared instead. "Unicorns." She said. "There are three stages in a unicorn's life, infancy, childhood and adulthood."
"Isn't that what a human's life is like too?"
"There are seven stages in human development. Infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and old age."
"What about that whole maiden-mother-crone thing?"
"That's Wiccan and Neopagan belief. But you're on the right track. The triple deity originated with Roman and Greek mythology. Diana and Hecate."
"I thought Diana and Artemis were each other's counterparts. Is Hecate the Greek version of Diana?"
"No no, you're right. Diana and Artemis were each other's counterparts. But Diana and Hecate were both believed to have the three aspects. More so Hecate than Diana." Cedric wrote down his notes.
"Okay, so unicorns go through three stages. Also a number of muggle cultures, including ancient mythologies, seem to find the number three relevant."
"Yeah." Alexandra looked down at the textbook and the pages blurred before being replaced by the words that seemed to be burned into her brain. "As unicorns grow, so does their magic. As they enter the third stage of their life, the magic in their blood grows more potent and has the healing power to save lives, like they're known for."
"Cool, where does it say that?" He tried to look over at the book but she snapped it shut.
"That's actually not in here. I just remember from the research on unicorns I did last year."
"You did research on unicorns?"
"For DADA. Snape made me."
"Oh, okay."
Alexandra and Cedric spent the next hour and half finishing the essay. He sighed in relief when he was done.
"Why did you stick with Arithmancy if you don't like it?" She asked.
"It's not that I don't like it. It's just hard. I didn't want to quit because it was challenging."
"Oh. That's good, I suppose."
"Of course I wasn't counting on Professor Vector being so harsh."
"Bill used to complain about her too." She laughed. "Well, you finished with twenty minutes to spare."
"We should probably leave in ten minutes to get to class on time."
"So that leaves us a ten minutes break."
"Want to get a bite to eat?"
"I'm not really hungry."
"Oh come on. You haven't had breakfast or lunch."
"I'm gonna get some dinner later."
"You need energy if we're going to play quidditch."
"We're doing that today?"
"Maybe, maybe not. You should still be prepared."
"Fine, I'll have a small snack."
"Great." He stood up and held out his hand. She didn't take it and he let his hand drop. "So, I think this qualifies us as friends, now. Doing each other favours."
"I guess it could."
"Could?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself. It was homework. It's not like I helped you bury a body." She stood up.
"So I'd need to bury a body with you to be your friend?"
"I'd settle for keeping my secrets."
"Ah, secrets. There's more than one?"
"Don't nitpick."
"So, to confirm, we are friends?"
"If I say yes, will you shut up?"
"Sure."
"Then yes." He grinned and she rolled her eyes. "What other subjects do you take?"
"All the core and arithmancy, of course. And care of magical creatures."
"Of course."
"So what kind of classes will you do at Mahoutokoro?"
"Potions, muggle studies, history, arithmancy, transfiguration, charms, strategy and alchemy. They do physical self defence classes too. They do Herbology, charms, and defence, I suppose, but it's optional. Mostly herbology is tied with potions so it's not a requirement. Magical defense is mostly building on spells you already know and they do strategy to teach you when to use offensive spells and when to use defense so having a class dedicated to defense against the dark arts isn't really a big thing."
"That sounds cool."
"Unfortunately, they're also big on quidditch. Seems like I'm never going to escape the broom." Cedric grinned at that.
"All the more reason to get more practice in."
