Sweet Revenge
It was the traditional annual welcome dinner of Hogwarts, to welcome the new students, to sort them in as anticipated and to celebrate the start of the new academic year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Everybody was expected to be at the hall.
The handful of Slytherin elites however skipped the annual welcome dinner, just like how they've been doing it for years. Instead, they all hiked up to the Astronomy Tower, and threw their own party there in the company of Firewhiskey and some crates of Cuban cigar that Briar Zabini had secretly gotten from Diagon Alley over the summer.
"Oye", Briar Zabini shouted at one the juniors, who was flirting with his sister, Barbara, "Keep your hands off her ey".
Scorpius Malfoy, who was comfortably crashed on a couch looked over to his best friend, "New year, same shit". He was slightly bored of the same old Slytherin Firewhiskey-Cigar-routine at some secret tower, and wanted something more.
"Hey Scorpius", Adrianna Nott, daughter of Theordore Nott, from one of the wealthiest Wizardry families, plopped herself down on the empty space of the couch, next to Scorpius. It is not secret that Adrianna has always sparked a crush on Scorpius, all the way from their diaper days.
"Adrianna", he threw an arm around her, pulling her closer. She leaned against him, while he smoked his cigar with his other free arm occassionally reaching for his cup of Firewhiskey.
"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS GOING ON IN HERE?".
Everyone froze, at the voice that came from the tower entrance, and slowly turned their heads to its direction.
The Head of the Slytherin House, Professor Horace Slughorn, had a distasteful look across his face. No, over-the-top furious more likely, with his deadly glare settled upon all his Slytherin students.
He yelled, "Out, everyone OUT".
One by one, the Slytherin boys and girls hustled out the corridor, heading to the place where they were supposed to go to; the Welcome Dinner.
When Scorpius Malfoy walked past Professor Slughorn, the professor shot him a look. "I expected more of you, Mr. Malfoy"
Scorpius scoffed, "Likewise, Professor".
ooooooooo
Lily Potter hustled along with other students into the dining hall, and searched for a sign of a familiar face along the way. She pushed through the crowd of thundering Slytherins to be squished into another thundering crowd of Ravenclaws. Then, she squabbled through the bodies of the Ravenclaws and found herself in the dining hall, with some of the students sitting down and chattering already.
"Lily!", she heard her name and turned to the direction of a girl who was waving at her.
Lily smiled and walked over. "Anjelica" She took the seat next to Anjelica, "How was your summer". Anjelica Grimmor, a Slytherin and probably the nicest Slytherin girl that Lily have ever met so far, was the daughter of Antoine and Anjali Grimmor. Her father was a Minister in the Ministry of Magic, while her mother was an author. Also, she was Lily's only friend in Slytherin.
"It was amazing!", Anjelica gasped. She continued, "I went to Japan and it was so pretty"
Just then, the doors of the hall opened up, and then in came the Slytherin elites. Everybody's attention was turned towards the entrance and as always, the Slytherins were happy to make such grand entrance in public. Professor McGonagall, the headmistress of Hogwarts, was clearly unhappy.
"Someone got busted", Anjelica gave Lily a light nudge with her elbow on her arm and whispered, as Adrianna Nott and her queen gang walked by.
Lily commented, in reply to Anjelica, "That's sad really"
oooooooooooo
Professor Slughorn waved his wand in the air and an imaginary image of a cauldron appeared in thin air."This is a potions challenge that I'm presenting to you". He waved his wand again, the imaginary components of the potion threw themselves in the image of the cauldron. He cleared his throat, "Can anyone tell me the components of today's potions?" Rose Weasley, who took after her muggle mother, Hermione Granger Weasley, lifted up her hand at an instant. Her eagerness stimulated sniggers around the class, especially by those from Slytherin. Obviously there were no other volunteers, hence, Professor Slughorn sighed, "Miss Weasley"
Rose knew she would get it right, she had read about it two hours before the class started. She proudly exclaimed, "Wolfsbane, Japanese petals and Phoenix feathers"
"Brilliant Ms. Weasley. 5 Points to Gryffindor", Professor Slughorn believed that Rose inherited the brain of her mother. He continued, "Whoever who finishes within 5 minutes will move on to the final round". Rose was confident that she might win the contest, and so did Scorpius but Rose also knew that her cousin, Albus, has a tremendously high chance of beating everyone flat. Albus has always been gifted at Potions.
Briar Zabini of Slytherin asked, "What's our prize?"
"It is to be announced after, Mr. Zabini", Professor Slughorn shot him a look. He clapped his hands and ushered his students,"Now, hustle"
The potty clock of Professor Slughorn was placed in front of the class. Everyone was eager and attentively waiting for him to start the clock. Rose's heart was beating rapidly. Professor Slughorn "Your time starts NOW
The clock ticked closer and closer to the end of the limit. Professor Slughorn had his eyes set on the clock, getting ready to wave his wand any moment now. The moment the longer hand of the clock reached the fifth minute, he waved his wand, "TIME IS UP!". Instantly, the sparks from the tip of his wand scattered across the room and vanquished whoever's unfinished potions. The sparks hit everyone's, except three of his class.
With a delighted smile on his face, Slughorn announced, "Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley are through to the final round!"
Rose had a triumphant smile on her face, she was proud to be the only female to compete against two boys. Albus was rather shocked by his successful attempt, his expression clearly tells you how flabbergasted he is at the mention of his name and last but not least, Scorpius reaction was somewhat casual.
"Now, final round, in front of you I've placed some Wolfsbane each. The first person to come up with the best potion a Wolfsbane can conjure, wins the challenge.". He continued, "I expect the three of you to have known eveyr potion by hard considering you've all done very well for your OWLs".
The moment the bell went off with a 'ting', the three of them started working on their Wolfsbane. Scorpius knew he was going to win this, it was too easy of a challenge for him, and Rose too. Albus, however, had a different story in mind. He was indecisive, and randomly came up with something.
"Three, two, one, STOP WORKING", Professor Slughorn raised his wand and halted their production. Everybody gritted their teeth in anticipation of the results.
Professor Slughorn walked over to each their tables, starting from Rose's, and gave her a smile. Rose eagerly looked at him, almost confident that she got it right.
He said nothing.
And then he moved on to Albus' table, where he peeped into his cauldron and took in the scent exuded by the potion he concocted. Again, he smiled. Albus gulped, his nerves were too obvious.
Last but not least, he headed on to his own Slytherin's table and took a look at Scorpius, before smelling his potion. He smiled, again and without wasting another minute, he headed back to Albus' table."Congratulations Mr. Potter, you've earned yourself my special itchy powder extract and an extra 20 points to Gryffindor"
The Gryffindors clapped in excitement. "Yeah Albus!", one of the boys shouted.
Rose was speechless, Scorpius was furious. And Albus was astounded.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Scorpius Malfoy was angry. The moment the bell went off, he got out of the class with an obivous angry expression. His best friend Briar Zabini, who was trailing behind him, teased "You got your ass kicked by Potter"
"Shut up", Scorpius shot him a reply, and kept walking ahead.
Just then, Hugo Weasley walked out of the boys' bathroom alone, busy sneezing into his napkin. Scorpius' face lit up with a smile as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at Hugo, whose back was facing him. He hexed him with a "sneezing" spell at an instant.
Green sparks came from Scorpius' wand and lashed at poor Hugo Weasley.
The spell caused Hugo to sneeze incontrollably, as his nose buggers kept flowing from his nostrils like a waterfall. Scorpius snickered and declared, "Sweet revenge"