Chapter 2 (Sugar Quill)
When they walked into class, everyone had out their cauldrons out and were gathering the ingredients for the potion they were supposed to make.
Ella and Sophie tried to make themselves as small and inconspicuous as possible and headed toward their seats.
"Late again," Snape sneered.
Sophie and Ella looked up. Snape had seen them!
"Ten points from Ravenclaw."
They headed toward their seats in silence. They had lost points for their house, again.
"You will be working in partners to make a babbling beverage, today," said Snape, addressing the two latecomers.
"Better get started. You will be graded on your progress at the end of the hour."
The whole class let out a groan.
"I'll get the ingredients," Sophie muttered to Ella. They were always partners.
Ella opened her book and looked at the instructions.
"This shouldn't be too hard. It'll take us 30 minutes tops," she said when Sophie came back.
With that they began brewing their potion.
Ten minutes into the class, there came a knock at the door. Johnny Shepard, a Ravenclaw first year, walked into the room, looking around nervously.
"Er . . . are Sophie and Ella Hammerstein in this class? B-because P-p-professor Dumbledore needs to see them in his- in his office. He said . . . he said . . . he needs to see them r-right now," he stammered.
Ella and Sophie gathered their things. What in the world was happening? Could Dumbledore have found out about their prank?
"You will make up this class later girls," Snape called out as they left the room.
As soon as they left the dungeons, little Johnny let out a sigh of relief.
"Are you all right?" Ella asked him kindly. "You looked awfully scared back there.
"I'm fine, it's just that," he lowered his voice, "Professor Snape scares me. He is so creepy!" Johnny shuddered.
"Yeah, well, he tends to have that effect on people," said Sophie. "The greasy git."
They all laughed.
"Well, I'd better get back to class," said Johnny and he took off down the hall.
Sophie and Ella were standing in front of the gargoyles guarding Dumbledore's office, looking perplexed.
"Er. . . do we just knock, or what?" said Sophie.
"Well, there's probably some sort of password or something," Ella said, thinking aloud.
"Yeah, well, we don't have it do we?"
"Yes, but there has to be someone around here who can tell us!"
Just as soon as Ella said this Professor Flitwick came walking down the hall.
"I expect you two are here to see Professor Dumbledore," he said when he spotted the twins. "Well, the password is sugar quill. Now run along you two. Run along." With that he turned around and strode back down the hallway, whistling as he went.
"Sugar quill?" said Sophie incredulously.
"Well, it's worth a try, isn't it?" retorted Ella.
"All right, all right, I'll try it! Sugar quill!
The gargoyles immediately jumped aside and a spiral staircase appeared.
"That was odd," Ella remarked, staring at the staircase.
"Come on, let's go!" said Sophie, pulling Ella up the stairs.