Who: Seamus Finnigan, Padma Patil What: DA shenanigans! When: December 9, 1997 Where: Hogwarts Castle, then Greenhouse #6 Rating: PG
Seamus glanced furtively around the Prefects’ Meeting Room, surveying the space out of his peripheral vision. At last, he thought. The weekly meeting with the Head Boy and Girl had been over for quite some time, but people had lingered in the room talking in twos and threes as they usually tended to do. Seamus had often idly wondered if, like him, the others were taking advantage of every small opportunity to mingle while unsupervised. Usually, he was all for dragging the socializing out as long as possible. But tonight, he wanted nothing more than for everyone to just go. No, not wanted, he needed them out. The Slytherin prefects, unsurprisingly, had been the first to leave, and even Head Boy Macmillan had left some time ago. Finally the room was empty of all the other prefects. It had been quite a challenge to end up the last one there, as he usually walked up to the seventh floor with the Patil twins. They’d all talk until they reached the seventh floor where he and Parvati would veer off to Gryffindor as Padma would make her way over to Ravenclaw tower. Parvati almost always waited for her sister, and it took him getting into a bit of row with Padma tonight to ensure that they were the last two in the room.
Well, perhaps not technically a row, but he’d publicly whinged quite a bit over the fact that he’d been assigned rounds with Parkinson again and he’d made such a nuisance out of himself that Padma had asked him to stay after the meeting. Once everyone else had gone, she’d firmly reminded him of his responsibilities as a prefect and the attitude one was intended to have. He was listening with only half an ear though, as most of his attention was now focused on the large clock hanging at one end of the room. He had to time this all just right, and Merlin, he hoped Ginny had been able to hold up her part of things.
As the clock hands swung over to show that it was, in fact, now quite late, Seamus interrupted Padma. “Look, I understand...I really do. I apologize. I was out of line.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair and smiled at her sheepishly. “Y’know me, I let my temper get the best of me sometimes, yeah? Let’s forget it. We’d better be gettin’ back to our houses anyhow, it’s almost curfew. C’mon, I’ll walk you up.”