One Of Those Days (Annabeth)

[JAMIE SEONA WOOD]

Some days were good, some days were less good, and that didn’t mean tomorrow might not be better. It was a motto Jamie had always lived by, but sometimes it was hard to remember it, especially when things were just massing up against you. And the worst days were those when her luck seemed to be running out, just like today. Charms had been a total desaster, her silent magic had completely left her. Then in Quidditch training, she had missed the easiest quaffles, feeling unusually slow on her broom, as if trying to waft through quicksand. The Captain had called her to extra-training afterwards, while everyone could go back to the castle, to find the fault if there was one. And then, to top it off, she had walked into a group of Slytherins, who had nothing better to do than pick on her, one girl tearing at her hair with the words: “Oh, just wanted to look if you weren’t faking the mute thing, to gain pity points and extra credit.” And then they had called her a few very unpleasant words. She had tried to brush it off, not let herself be provoked and had walked away with her head held high, but the words had still found a way through the wall she had built up, and stung.

By this point, Jamie really had had enough of this day, and she just wanted to bury her head under the blanket and be done with it. Tomorrow surely would be better, it always was. But for that, she first needed to enter the common room. And because everyone seemed to work together today,to make this day a nightmare for Jamie, the Fat Lady, ancient guardian of the Gryffindor Common Room refused to open for her, as she scribbled down the password and held it up in front of the Fat Lady’s eyes. “I’ve got migraine today, I can hardly see a thing”, she claimed in her dramatic voice. “You’d have to spell it out, my dear.” Something inside Jamie started to simmer. This just proved it, this day was the worst waste of space she had ever come across!!! Raising both her hands and her eyebrows in a ‘HUH?! What on earth?!’ gesture, she stood there, waiting for the portrait to come to its senses. Since when did portraits even HAVE migraines?! Why did the Fat Lady feel the need to be moody now?! She KNEW Jamie couldn’t talk!

She put her hands together before her chest, pleading, but the Lady shook her head. “At least write bigger, squinting my eyes hurts. Maybe it is that constant squinting that even CAUSES my migraine.” Accusations… blames… now that really took the cake! Gritting her teeth, Jamie pulled out her wand and concentrated with all her might. The Fat Lady began to look unease, not knowing what would await her now. But before she could say another thing, the tip of Jamie’s wand began to glow, and with harsh, quick movements, she wrote ALPHA CENTAURI – mirror inverted of course – into the air in flaming letters using the Flagrate spell, underlining it three times, her eyes dark with frustration.
”Alright, alright… no need to work yourself into a tizzy”, the Fat Lady murmured and swung open. Scrunching up the piece of parchment in her fist, Jamie stomped through the opening and went straight to the fireplace, tossing the paper inside like she always did. Then she leaned her head against the cool marble of the mantlepiece, trying to fight back the tears.

[ANNABETH DELANCA ALDERTON]

The day was going by slowly. Any attempts at studying, however few there had been, had seemed to fail miserably. First and foremost her charms homework hadn't quite gone according to plan. Long story short it ended with Sergio chasing a mouse out of the room and leaving her without her homework. Cats. God knows where he went now, but he did wander off quite regularly. usually he ended up being trapped by a couple a first years who couldn't resist a fluffy black cat the size of a kitten. She just laughed when Serg came back with his fur brushed the wrong way and tail looking horridly scraggly.

She'd also tried to pull a few jokes over on a couple of the hufflepuff kids, but that hadn't gone well either. Completely backfired, actually.Her spell hadn't quite met its mark and Slugulus Erecto had ending up making a couple Snakes chase her back to the Fat Lady.

Currently she'd decided it best to go after Sergio. Not because she wanted to, but simply because it was better than trying to do work that she didn't want to do. She stepped out from the dorms and found herself tediously weaving around students who didn't know where to stand and thus found themselves in her way. She strode into the common room, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed as she scanned the ground for that little black ball of fluff she so adored.

And there she spotted him. He was trotting over to the figure of Jaime Wood. His stride made him look ridiculous. He had a skip in his step and his tail and head held high with some kind of new-found confidence. He really looked quite pompous. She watched him jump up and tap the unhappy girl on the head as he purred.

What a little attention seeker.

She did look more than a bit upset and, feeling a sort of protective nature towards her she walked over. "Hey, Jaim. Something the matter? I guess it's just one of those days, huh?" She gave a smile, though she then turned to glare at the innocent look Sergio gave her. "Don't you look at me like that young man. You ate my charms homework."

[JAMIE SEONA WOOD]

Jamie was angry about this day, she was angry about certain people, but most of all right now she was angry about herself. Such things happened! There was no need to make a fuss about it and yet look at her! She was probably going at this all wrong. It was not the day out to get her, it was her being thin-skinned and giving not only herself but also others a hard time. Didn’t they say that magic was closely linked to our emotions? Then that had probably been the reason why her broom hadn’t responded, it had felt her unwillingness and then things just had piled up. On a normal day, the antics of the Fat Lady wouldn’t have bothered her that much. This inward reasoning calmed her down a little, and an unexptected visitor helped in there as well.

She felt a movement beside her and suddenly there was fur touching her face, tickling the sensitive skin around her nose. Looking up, she found herself faced with a furry black cat, the one she knew belonged to Annabeth, one of her Quidditch team mates and adopted bigger sister. Really, Sergio was just what she needed right now! Lifting her hand, she moved it over his tiny head and smiled, inwardly using terms of endearment like people would do aloud. Somehow he would understand, right? Stroking Sergio’s fur was as calming as stroking her owl’s feathers, but for that she would have had to go to the owlery, and frankly, Jamie didn’t feel like going anywhere right now, so she was glad for Sergio’s company. Cats seemed to have a knack for knowing when they were needed for consolation, and the way he held himself, as if he had just saved the world from something, lifted her mood considerably.

And then something happened that made her feel even better. She should have guessed actually that Annabeth wouldn’t be far when Sergio was around, but hearing her voice and her caring words almost made the tears come back again. It was an annoying phenomenon, but whenever Jamie was upset, she couldn’t stand being called out on it. As long as she was alone with it, she could keep up her composure, but as soon as someone inquired after it, that composure was gone. It could make her act a little offish in these moments, since she just didn’t want to lose it, but right now she was too tired for fighting it solitarily and so she turned around and gave a shaky shrug. Yes indeed, it was one of those days.

Her hands describing a circle, meaning ‘everything’, she afterwards put her index finger into her mouth, acting as if she gagged. ‘This whole day is just… ugh!’ After all, Anna would have seen her at Quidditch, so she would know one part of her super-awesome day… She couldn’t help but chuckle silently though when she heard what Annabeth said to Sergio. Raising her eyebrows questioningly, she made a ‘stuffing something into your mouth’ gesture repeatedly. “Really, he ate it?”