Year One
"That's not how you do it!"
"Yes, that is! It's flick and swish, not swish and flick!"
"No it isn't! Professor said it was swish and flick!"
"I know what I'm doing! I did this when I was five!"
"Oh yeah, well you've been doing it wrong! Idiot."
"You're calling me an idiot, half blood?"
A gasp filled the room as her eyes filled with tears, spilling over quickly as she turned away, swiping at them desperately with her hands.
"Shit, Gupta-"
"Mister Raizada! 50 points from Gryffindor for that slur, another 50 for language, and a meeting with me after class."
Arnav Singh Raizada turned to see the furious, flashing eyes of his professor. She raised an eyebrow expectantly, and he bowed his head, muttering a quiet "Yes, Professor", underneath his breath.
The arguments between Khushi Kumari Gupta and Arnav Singh Raizada were already legendary, just three weeks into school.
It was her own bad luck that she had both of them in her class, and without fail, they would erupt into angry taunts every, single period.
She rubbed at her forehead with her hands as she sank into the chair, attempting to muster a glare for the young eleven year old pouting in front of her. If she had her way, she would be on her soft, plush reading chair, a cheesy romance in hand and a fire smoldering in front of her.
Instead, she was disciplining the same student for the fifth time in five days, about the same girl.
"Mister Raizada, what is your excuse for today?"
"She called me an idiot!"
"She calls you that every five minutes."
"So?"
She closed her eyes and let out a frustrated breath, before pasting a sarcastic smile on her face.
The boy shrunk in his seat, eyes cast downwards guiltily as he pouted.
"Gabe Petrow pranked her and she giggled. She giggled. She yells at me, but she giggles for him!"
She bit her lip to restrain the knowing smile. So that was the problem.
"Calling girls half bloods generally will not earn you giggles, Mr. Raizada."
She only got a stony look in response.
Someday, he would realize.
Year Two
"Roses are red, violets are blue, you remind me of poo. Go out with me will you?"
The large, singing valentine generously given to a mortified Khushi Kumari Gupta by the one and only Arnav Singh Raizada finally shut its mouth after five minutes of singing love songs.
A smirking 12 year old walked up to the girl with the flaming cheeks and handed her a bouquet of roses.
"So, Gupta, go out with me?"
"These are fake."
"... Er..."
"You compared me to poo."
"Well, I can explain..."
"No. I said no the first 100 times; what makes you think my answer would be any different?"
"I thought the valentine was romantic."
"You thought wrong."
"Is that 101 rejections? This has to be a record!"
Year Three
"Gupta, what the hell! Fix this, now!"
"No can do, Raizada. You've got jelly fingers, you stick with them."
"Professor! She won't un-jelly my fingers!"
She looked over to the feuding pair to find Arnav with jellied fingers, and a furious Khushi stabbing her wand into the air as she practiced.
"Why are you so mad anyway? Is it because I asked Lucia to Hogsmeade?"
She strained to hear the conversation, her curiosity piqued by the two arguing teenagers.
"No! Me? Jealous! Ha!"
"Really? You look jealous to me."
"Shut up Raizada! Damn it, why can't I get this?! Petrificus totalus!"
Khushi turned her wand on him, right as the spell went off. Arnav froze and fell straight to the floor, flat as a board.
She closed her eyes in frustration. These two were worse than Shlok and Aastha from that damned romance novel that was supposedly a sequel to her all time favorite series.
Not again.
Year Four
"Psst! Gupta! Go out with- !"
Arnav walked into the class with that question on his lips every morning, murmuring it in her ear right as she would sit down.
But today was different. Today, Arnav Singh Raizada broke off mid question, upon seeing Khushi holding hands and laughing with none other than Alan Reichoff, his biggest enemy on the field.
Khushi dropped a peck on his cheek, calmly ignoring Arnav behind her, who had his mouth open like a fish.
"Mister Raizada! Are you done staring at Miss Gupta? May I start class?"
"Erm, uh- yeah. Start class."
For the first time, Arnav Singh Raizada didn't interrupt her with an inappropriate comment. He didn't throw spitballs, he didn't try to secretly hit Akash with a tongue-tying curse behind his back.
He sat there sullenly, staring at the girl in front of him.
Year Five
"Expecto patronum!"
The cries of students yelling the spell rang out in the classroom, echoing off the walls as they attempted the charm.
Unsurprisingly, Khushi's patronus was the first one out of his wand, a silvery, faded lioness emerging from the tip.
The lioness pranced around the room, preening as she curled up in a corner, licking herself clean. A delighted smile lit up Khushi's face as students surrounded her, congratulating her on the success.
Across the room, she observed Arnav watching Khushi as she basked in the praise, her brilliant smile radiating throughout the room. She watched as he lifted his wand, closing his eyes momentarily as a soft smile appeared on his face, like he was recalling a beautiful memory.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
Arnav's cry cut sharply through the air, echoing endlessly in the room. Almost instantly, a silver lion jumped from the tip of his wand, pawing softly over to the lioness in the corner and gently nudging it with its nose.
She saw Khushi freeze at the sight of the well defined lion, much more defined than her own lioness. The hazel eyes clashed with the dark brown, and they quickly looked away from each other, embarrassed.
She walked over to him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"That memory must have been very strong, Arnav. Keep it in there for future use."
Year Six
"Mister Raizada! What are you doing?! Get off- Oh my god, get off of him!"
She swept down the hallway, her cape flying as Arnav threw one last punch at Reichoff's face, his normally mischievous eyes flashing in fury. She pulled him off of Reichoff, calling over a terrified first year and asking him to take the injured boy down to Pomfrey.
She turned on Arnav, who didn't even have the decency to look ashamed.
"What were you thinking, Mister Raizada?! You're a prefect? You could lose your position."
"He cheated on her. He cheated on Khushi!"
Arnav hadn't spoken to Khushi since that day in her class, when they had formed complimentary patronuses. He had kept out of Khushi's way, respecting her relationship.
To her own surprise, Khushi and Alan had seemed happy. He would bring her roses in class, often dropping off little love notes. For a boy who was known to be a player, it was a radical change.
"Do you have proof of this, Mister Raizada?"
"Yes. I heard her sobbing in the hallway."
"I see. I should give you detention and demote you for this."
He looked up at her defiantly, clearly willing to accept the consequences.
"Just don't tell Gupta, please. She doesn't need to know I did this."
"I didn't see a thing."
She was about to turn and leave a shocked Arnav standing in the hallway when a glimpse of flying black hair from around the corner caught her eye.
She changed her mind and walked towards the hair, carefully watching the spot from the corner of her eye.
In the small enclave, she saw Khushi sink down against the wall, wiping the tears away furiously.
For some reason, she didn't think the tears were because of her cheating boyfriend.
Year Seven
"Raizada!!!"
The furious, shrill screech of Khushi Kumari Gupta was heard loud and clear as she stormed into her classroom, her hazel eyes glittering with repressed anger.
Her normally black hair was colored a bright, neon pink, all the way down to the tips. She heard Arnav snort, attempting to cover it up with a cough as the rest of the class tried to hide their giggles.
"Yes, Gupta?"
"This is all your fault!"
"What?! You have no proof of that!"
"It must be you! Who else would do this?!"
"You can't just blame me!"
"I won't leave you!"
Khushi lifted her hand to shoot a stinging jinx at Arnav, who easily deflected it. Before she knew it, a full fledged battle had erupted in her class, with two duelling students furiously shooting spell after spell at each other.
She finally stepped in, drawing her wand.
"Expelliarmus!"
She stepped between the two students, determined to end this once and for
all.
"My office. Now."
She sat down in front of the two, pouting students angrily glaring each other down. She rubbed her forehead, the throbbing ache settling in as she eyed the teenagers in front of her. She would much rather be sitting at home in front of the fire, reading the "S" series of romance novels by her favorite author. The new one had just come out, and she was just getting to the steaming romance.
Instead, she was here.
"Seven years. You two have tortured each other- and the rest of the school- for seven years."
"He started it!"
"She started it!"
"Shut up! Not one more word. Am I clear?"
The two in front of her fell silent, kicking at the ground in frustration as they gritted their teeth, glaring at each other when they thought she wasn't looking.
"You two are seventeen. It is high time you got over your little crushes on each other and put the rest of us out of our misery."
"I do not-!"
"Silence!"
"Mister Raizada, instead of turning her hair pink and giving her singing valentines that insult her, I would suggest not acting like a doofus and acting your age, for once."
She heard a snort from Gupta, and whipped around to face her, pinning her with a sharp glare.
"And you, Miss Gupta, need to consider the fact that Mister Raizada here has something beyond the obnoxious prankster you've known since you were eleven, because we both know that he's more than that. I know it's embarrassing to have such a huge crush on someone who tends to act like a monkey, but spare us the pulling the pigtails nonsense that everyone else outgrew in kindergarten."
She shrunk back in her chair, shifting uneasily as she avoided Arnav's eyes.
"Now. Will you two get this little thing over with, or do I have to give you detention again?"
They nodded quietly and filed out of the room, heated blushes filling their cheeks as they walked out of her office.
A couple of weeks later, she walked into her empty classroom to see Khushi Kumari Gupta heatedly snogging Arnav Singh Raizada on a desk, her legs wrapped around his waist.
"Mister Raizada! Miss Gupta!"
The couple pulled apart guiltily, and she could see the smudges of Khushi's lipstick on Arnav's neck, their hair dishevelled and their lips swollen.
She simply raised an eyebrow, and they scuttled out of her classroom, slipping their fingers between each other's.
"Oh, and Miss Gupta? You might want to button your shirt."
She caught Khushi's mortified expression as Arnav tugged her out of the classroom, laughing as they walked away. She could hear Khushi berating him for indecency, swearing to never kiss him again.
She settled into her chair at the front of the classroom, a secretive smile on her face. 20 years later at their wedding, she could tell the guests that she was responsible for this couple.
She reached down into her bag just as students rushed in, pushing a book hastily into the opening. The title peeked out from the bag as she stood up, preparing to lecture.
Shaadi, by EXPELLIARMUS
She glanced up at the clock.
Only one more hour, and she could finally get to Chapter Seven in the best romance novel she had read yet. The author was even a witch, and she wove words that cast a spell over her readers.
It was no wonder she was on the Daily Prophet's best seller's list.
Perhaps if she turned the story of Gupta and Raizada into a novel, she could be there too. Maybe she'd even meet this mysterious EXPELLIARMUS.
Now that would be nice.
Note: For our favorite writer.
Edited by chotidesi - 11 years ago
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