The usual, I don't own the characters, setting, blah, blah, BLAH! BLAAAAHH! Be nice, courteous, and review like your lives depended on it. What would the world be without another well rounded/reviewed story for us to waste our time on? See, you neeed me, you neeed this, darlings, so read+review. Bon appetite, or whatever.
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Harry Potter sat up in his bed, but his morning-yawn was cut short.
"Yeowch!" His head had hit the top of his bunk bed. He must have grown more than expected over the summer.
"And that," Ron said and grinned. "Is why I chose the bed on the top - about three years ago." He added thoughtfully.
"They do have rather low roofs, don't they Ron? I find it such a bother," Ron stared up in the ceiling, to find it extended another two meters, before he looked down at a giggling Dean at the foot of his bed. Typical average-height Dean, always jest at others misfortunes.
"Ha-ha very funny," He replied. It wasn't easy to be Ron. Nope, not at all. And it would get even harder, he would soon find.
"Enough, enough. Can't we all just get along?" was Harry's would-be tearful plea.
"Fine, fine, whatever," Replied a rather terse Ron.
So the rather fine group of boys marched down the stairs without much further ado, and stomped into the common room. Harry, Ron, and Seamus raced for the one remaining chairs, but Harry reached it first, and for the first time in his life experienced the rather astonishing feeling of having two half-grown boys piled on top of him. Remarkable, you learn something new every day. He kicked the two struggling boys of his lap, who sat down on the carpet, and gave rather nasty looks at the occupants of the two other chairs: Lavender and Parvati, who were giggling over a book called, "500 Essential Cosmetic Spells for every Girl". Indeed Lavenders hair was a tad-bit longer, as were Parvati's eyelashes. Hermione bounded down the stairs, and gave rather pitying looks at Ron, Seamus, Parvati, and Lavender.
"So Harry," she remarked, but was cut short by Seamus sticking out his tongue, and Parvati and Lavender laughing even harder. She continued a bit louder, "Have you studied for our Potions pre-examination today? The one Snape intended to prepare us for OWL's?" In a jolt Harry sprung up on his chair, and the four flirting fifth-years silenced in a flash.
"Apparently not," She said crossly. She glared at them sternly in turn, and then continued warningly, as if handling an atom bomb. "What I am about to give you must be handled with care, and not given to other student." And in a swift movement she dropped a parchment with notes to the five scrambling teenagers.
"Thanks Hermione," Ron commented as Hermione marched to the door, yelling something over her shoulders about being irresponsible, and not being late.
"Components for a clarifying draught: 1 part shriveled bat-ears, 3 ½ parts mandrake juice,,blah, blah, BLAH!" The group gave each other fervent looks. There was no way they could cram all this in 30 minutes. Two parchments, small handwriting, many numbers.
"We could, um, perform a spell to transfer the knowledge over from the… or, well, transfigure the parchment to look like our ink-bottles…" Scowls met the stuttering girl. Cheating in Snape's class was a big no-no. Lavender gulped,
"Or, play a game or something, like Seamus memorizes the first 3 draughts, and whispers them to us in class, or…" Ron nudged her. To stop her babbling. A rather kind thing to do, actually.
"I got a brilliant idea." Parvati said, seriosity written all over her face. "Why don't we, discuss this over breakfast. That way," She paused making sure everyone understood, "we can eat and study at-the-same-time!" She beamed at the group. The four others looked rather embarrassed at each other, but accepted the idea without comment.
Downstairs in the great hall Hermione waited patiently. She handed over their beakers with pumpkin juice, and began to explain slowly.
"A way to memorize the draughts is to take the first letter of the draught and…" Amazingly it all made sense and they all swallowed it without objection. After scarcely five minutes she had it all explained out, and they had the next 20 to dwell on the information. Very mysterious, hmmmm…
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What are you waiting for? Theres a job to be done.
