Chapter 714 - The REMATCH Ⅱ (1/2)
With fifteen minutes remaining until the hour, Rowan at long last found Hogwarts safely deserted and empty of students. Peeking into the Great Hall in one final round, she did not find any students lingering in the corridors nor near the great staircase. Satisfied, she at long last makes her way out of the castle out onto the cold grounds. She shivered briefly at the crisp wind and tugged her new scarf in Slytherin house colors around her neck and up to cover her mouth all the way to the tip of her nose. Potter never had returned her scarf after Hogsmeade. Luckily, she was prepared for such an eventuality and had kept a few extra scarfs in her trunk for use.
The Quidditch Stands were still some distance away when Rowan heard loud pounding footsteps behind her. Perplexed and curious, she paused to glance around only to see the tall, slender figure of James Potter jogging behind her. His hazel eyes sparkle despite the gloom, while his untidy black hair is as messy as ever sticking up at the back.
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Rowan arches her brow at his rosy-cheeked panting figure. ”James,” she slowly said, ”why aren't you already sitting at the stands?”
”I forgot my house scarf in the dorms and had to go back to retrieve it, Rowan,” James sheepishly replied rolling his eyes reflexively. The two of them were a bit more at ease with each other, but still, at times, there was some distance between them. But they were well on their way to becoming friends of sorts.
Rowan's lips twitch as she fights to hide an emerging smile by saying, ”Why am I not surprised? And besides isn't that my scarf, to begin with?”
James finds himself unable to suppress a rueful grin at the Slytherin's teasing jab. ”Well, it's mine now,” he confidently retorted, before changing the subject. ”Besides the point, why aren't you already in the quidditch stands?”
”I was rounding the last of the stragglers,” Rowan bluntly replied as arched her brow at him. James ruefully grins back as they trudged across the frozen ground towards the Quidditch Stands. The student body already sitting stands voices and shouts can already be heard echoing across the grounds.
”Ever the exemplary Prefect,” James impishly remarked with a teasing glint in his eyes.
”Some of us have responsibilities, and take them seriously, James,” Rowan pointedly commented back.
”Touché,” James murmured with a shrug.
The two of them fall into a familiar silence as the quidditch stands draw nearer. The two of them begin to separate as each headed towards their house stands, when James calls out, ”Good luck, Slytherin is going to need it!”