~Second Year~
Cassandra Stirr was pissed. There were no better words to describe that state of utmost loathing. Her fists were clenched and her teeth and throat were sore from an unattended urge to scream. Her supplies were pushed away to the other side of her desk in a desperate attempt to save them from the destruction which usually resulted from Cass' temper. Her eyes threatened tears; something that only occurred at the peak of anger.
Her anger was not all a result of her frustration. It also came from her sister, Viv. Her sister was adept at surrounding herself with bitterness, that, no matter how much she loved her, Cass could not stand. This morning, at breakfast, they had had a fight about whether you were supposed to put ketchup on home fries. It might seem stupid, and Cass would admit that it was, but something about her sisters tone never refrained from putting Cass in a mood. Starting the year with double potions did not help much either. There was just something about the class which she could not stand.
Most likely it was Professor Snape, who pranced around the classroom as though he had something rather large stuck up through his arse all the way to his abnormally large nose, which was pointed so directly at the ceiling that Cass had to wonder how he could see. Though there was no question that he could, for he seemed to spot trouble from a kilometre away, unless of course it was caused by a Slytherine. Or perhaps the Weasley twins who never seemed to get caught at anything.
Though she supposed that the reason she hated the class so much could have been the fact that she was downright rubbish at the subject in general. Potions was one of those subjects which had nothing to do with logic and skill, but depended on memorization and the amount of time the student spent studying. Cass was often described by teachers and peers as "the laziest person in the history of the planet" this was a trait which was definitely not going to get her any "outstanding"'s on her potions essays, Professor Snape was also the type of professor who wouldn't put up with all of the silly excuses she concocted.
Her partner and best friend, was Stacy Hokkins; as notorious an underachiever, and the type of person who didnt do homework just to prove a point. Cass always felt like a bookworm while sitting in class with Stacy, who was always talking, and never gave Cass a second to concentrate. Cass liked to get as much work done in class as possible to make up for her inability to study.
Their third partner, Alicia seemed to be the only student in class who hadn't given up on their assignment as soon as they had seen it. She was currently chopping ingredients so fast that the table vibrated and the juices being excreted through her cuts flowed to the floor in thin, constant streams. The bright pink knife, which she had taken wihtout question from Cass' desk , was bobbing up and down so fast it blurred, and the tips of her burrowed bright green gloves fluttered comically around the handle. (Cass also had a reputation for her brightly coloured school supplies which gave most people headaches if they looked too long.)
Alicia hadn't said anything about Cass' lack of work. The potion, which was now the exact dusky watery substance as described after step five on the blackboard, was probably better off without her help, so Cass just sat there in all her uselessness, trying not to be overcome by her two most urgent desires. The first was to cry, and the second to get up and punch Professor Snape in the overlarge beak.
She stared ahead with no specific focus other than her inner ramblings. Yes, Cass could be a huge drama queen.
Cass was just wondering whether the school would let her drop the class if she got straight T's when she realized she was being watched.
"Miss Stirr," She jumped at her professors' voice.
"Sir?"
"I don't recall instructing you to sit around and do nothing, please tell me if my memory has betrayed me."
"No, sir."
"That will be another ten points from Gryffindor… and I'll take another ten points from Miss Spinnet, I do not tolerate your partner's laziness and neither should you."
Alicia looked betrayed as she was generally the one who gained the house points by answering all the questions and staying exactly on task. Alicia was not at all used to being told off. Stacy just sat and waited for her scolding, which Professor Snape was in no way reluctant to give.
Cass scrambled to pick up a knife. "What line are we on?" she whispered, scared to get caught talking during class.
Alicia displayed the same fear by merely pointing at one of the lines written across the blackboard in Snape's usual illegible wand writing, and letting Cass and Stacy figure out what had and hadn't been done.
This turned out to be a mistake, as Cass started chopping ingredients which had already been added to the potion. They were supposed to be mixing a Shrinking Solution which was a potion which could not be found in their textbooks, and one which Cass was sure must be more advanced than anything that the second years ought to have been learning. Though she reckoned she should have expected it. It was the first class of the year after all, and Professor Snape liked to panic his students before he could get around to teaching them anything.
Cass was now working with such concentration that she forgot to look at the clock every two minutes, so it wasn't until the second to last line of the potion that she remembered it was a double period and realized that she, Alicia, and Stacey would have extra time to wait after they finished their potion.
It happened during the last 5 minutes of class. Stacy and Cass had completely given up on their mess of a potion and were both sitting the edges of their seats waiting for Professor Snape to instruct everyone to give him a sample of the potions in front of them. They were not the only group to do so.
To their right, a trio of Ravenclaws which they had not been in class with long enough to recognize sat in similar positions but with sleeved arms covering their mouths and noses, trying not to breath in the blackish haze rising from their cauldron.
To their left, the Weasley twins had teamed up their friend Lee. Yet they didn't seem to have gotten any further than the first three lines on the recipe weren't even trying to look as though they were doing something productive. They were crouched low over their cauldron whispering to each other, occasionally pointing behind them and to the front of the classroom in the general direction of the Professor Snape's office. Whatever they were planning, Cass hoped bitterly that it would cause her professor pain, or at least some extreme humiliation.
Professor Snape walked to the far front of the room so that he was standing behind his desk in the front of the classroom. Almost everyone was turned to him with expectant expressions on their faces. All except for one of the Weasley twins who was bent over off his stool, pulling something out of his bag.
It happened in a flash. One moment Cass was turning away and looking back into her cauldron at her, Alicia and Stacy's pathetic excuse for a potion, which was now a dull brown instead of the bright green colour it was supposed to take, and the next she wasn't looking anywhere. The world went a brownish kind of orange and her head started pounding as though someone were trying to take out her eyes with a pair of plungers. She screamed in the kind of shock which made her wonder if she had made any noise at all.
"Cass!" asked Stacy from beside her.
Cass tried to answer but the fearful lump in her throat made it impossible. Why couldn't she see? Would she ever be able to again?
"Cass?" asked a voice on the other side of her. This one belonged to a boy. "Cass, I'm so sorry," his voice was an urgent whisper, and she could feel his breath against her ear. "I didn't mean for it to land in your-"
Cass didn't know where whatever had landed, for his voice was suddenly blurred out by sixteen more. The whole class was suddenly muttering and yelling. Then there was silence. For a second, Cass wondered whether she had suddenly lost her hearing as well, but was reassured by the constant bwub-bwub of their cauldron still bubbling like it had been for the past twelve minutes. The silhouettes of multiple people were fading in and out of existence, and the details were being blotted and unblotted out by the fuzzy black dots on the surface of her eyes.
She tried shaking her head, to clear whatever it was obstructing her view. Her arms were suddenly cold. She tried breathing harder, maybe she wasn't getting enough oxygen, but that didn't help in the slightest.
Then she heard footsteps. The steal toed shoes of Professor Snape clinked over to her desk, and Cass could have sworn she could hear the boy behind hers heartbeat.
"Mr. Weasley," She could hear the sneer in his voice. "Return to your seat."
Cass heard more footsteps, this time more muffled, scuttling off in the opposite direction.
"I promise to all of you that the owner of this, will be punished."
Cass didn't know what he was talking about, and bent down to rest her head on her cutting board, hoping it would prevent her from passing out, if that was what was about to happen.
"Sir-" Stacy's voice could be heard to her right.
"As for Miss Stirr, Miss Hokkis can escort her to the hospital wing. Let me use this as an example of what happens when you double the suggested amount of gurdy roots and liver."
That's when Cass lost focus. Before she had been trying to tell what was going on, but now she was too concerned about her anger towards Professor Snape. She felt a pressure on her arm. And let it drag her to the side. She must have left the classroom at some point. She also must have walked up some stairs, for the next thing she felt was a cup against her mouth, and something rather squishy to supporting her tense backside.
The first thing she heard was yelling. The first thing she saw was Stacey. Well….the back of Stacey.
"I KNOW IT WAS YOU WHO DID THIS, AND I DON'T CARE IF YOU CAME TO APOLOGISE, YOU AND YOUR STUPID BROTHER! YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?"
"I'm sorry!" came the same exasperated voice she had heard in Professor Snape's classroom. "I didn't mean for it to land in your cauldron."
Cass, realizing she was lying on the same rather bouncy bed in the hospital wing she had spent a week in after her first flying lesson, shifted her weight to her elbows so that she could see over Stacey's waving arms.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU MEANT TO DO, YOU TWO ARE THE MOST INSUFFERABLE GITS I HAVE EVER KNOWN! DROPPING DUNGBOMBS? THAT'S NOT EVEN ORIGINAL!"
As if on cue, a carbon copy of the redhead whom her best friend was screaming at entered the room. "Not original, huh? You think you can do better?"
"Yes!" It reminded Cass of her old nemesis from muggle-school whenever she said "duh".
"We'll see. Come on George." The second redhead dragged his brother out of the room.
Cass couldn't help but wonder what exactly had happened to make Stacey so mad. She didn't end up with some kind of creepy tentacles or irreversible plague-like acne, did she? "Stacey?"
She twisted around to look at Cass.
"You know I'm fine, right?"
"Yes," she sighed, "But someone needs to say it to those two, and I'm glad it was me."
With that, Stacey turned around, and padded over to Madame Pomfrey's office. Madame Pomfrey had thankfully either not heard the argument between Stacey and the twins or had decided to ignore it, because when she came out of her office to give Cass a final check-up she didn't even mention it. She just went on muttering about careless teachers expecting her to be able to fix anything.
It wasn't until they were outside the hospital wing and heading back to the Gryffindor common room that Cass was able to voice the fear she'd been thinking about since the twins had left.
"You know, I think they took what you said as a challenge."
"Well I wasn't lying when I said I could do better."