"Hey, Belle, can I use some of your Valerian Roots?" whispered my best friend/lab partner
"Sorry, Cho, I'm all out. I don't even have enough for my own potion," I discreetly muttered back.
"Drat. Hey, if you cut up my sopoporous beans, I'll grab some Valerian roots for you in the Potions cabinet, alright?" whispered Cho from the corner of her mouth.
"Deal," I breathed back.
As Cho walked off to get the ingredients, I got started on getting the juice out of the sopoporous beans. I was just starting on the first bean when I felt someone's presence behind me. I glanced over my shoulder wondering what Slytherin was trying to copy my work when I came face-to-face with the last Slytherin I predicted of cheating.
"Professor Snape," I spoke quietly. "Is there anything wrong with my potion?"
"Miss Potter, what on Earth are you doing?"
I looked down at my workstation. I saw my notes for the potion, neat and orderly. I saw my ingredients, placed in small, precise piles. I saw my cauldron, scrubbed clean and ready for today's assignment. I looked back up at my professor, confusion written on my face.
"I'm not quite sure what you mean, sir."
He rolled his eyes and grabbed my knife from my hand.
"Miss Potter, why would you cut a sopoporous bean to get the juice from it?" He placed a bean in the middle of my workstation and placed the knife sideways on top. "Why not crush the bean with the side of the blade," his fingertips pressed down on the flat side of the blade, "until all the juice has escaped?" I looked down at my workstation and, just like Professor Snape said, a pool of sopoporous bean juice had appeared.
"I never thought of that, sir. Thank you."
He acknowledged my comment by nodding his head once.
"I would hope, Miss Potter, that you soon learn that unlike other subjects, potions are not all in black and white. If one is creative enough, much more accurate techniques could be used. I assume that you will keep this lesson in mind when taking your NEWTs next year," Snape turned on his heel, robes billowing behind him as he went off to scold a Slytherin boy for having an untidy workstation.
"I'm back," Cho grunted as she dropped the Valerian roots on our table. "Sorry it took so long, Blaise Zabini decided that I would make a lovely date to ball and was trying to convince me to go with him."
I looked back at Cho, shocked that Blaise asked her to the Yule Ball. It was only this morning the Dumbledore mentioned that because of the success of last year's, Hogwarts would have another Yule Ball. Since last year's ball encouraged making friends from different schools, and this year's ball would only have our one school, Dumbledore was encouraging us to make friends with people in different Houses. Actually, he wasn't encouraging it, he was requiring it. You had to bring a date that belonged to different House to be let into the ball.
Apparently, Blaise thought that the pretty Ravenclaw would be his ticket into the dance.
"Did you say yes?"
Cho almost sliced off her finger in shock.
"Did I say YES? Are you joking? After he was seen snogging Lavender Brown in a broom cupboard yesterday? Of course I said no! What would Matthew think of me if I already had a date the day the Yule Ball was announced? We already promised each other we would go with a friend."
Matthew was a 7th year Ravenclaw boy Cho was currently dating. Since
Dumbledore's rule restricted them to go to the dance together, they would have to find a friend to go with instead.
"Well," I started. "Who ARE you planning on going with?"
"Umm..." Cho looked off into the distance, clearly deep in thought. "Considering most of my guy- friends are in Ravenclaw, I guess I'm going to have to meet someone new. Maybe a Hufflepuff, I hear they're quite friendly. Or perhaps I could..." Cho continued on, oblivious to the fact that I was too busy concentrating on my sopoporous beans to listen to her drone on and on about all the suitable boys.
A few minutes later, I heard the crack of a knife slamming down on a cutting board. My head snapped up to see a sopoporous bean shooting through the air, obviously the result of someone trying to cut through its hard, slippery shell. The sopoporous bean flew over the classroom like a bullet, heading straight for Cho, who was currently still listing her possible dates.
My knife cut through the air and deflected the bean away from Cho, sending it in the opposite direction. I watched in amusement and terror as the bean ricocheted off my knife and slammed into the back of Blaise Zabini's head.
The room grew silent as Zabini turned around and saw my guilty expression. All the eyes in the room stared at me in surprise.
"Miss Potter," Professor Snape said as he strode to the front of the room. "See me after class."
