Albus POV:
It was the next morning, people were all eating breakfast in the Great Hall and the owls arrived to bring the post. I didn't get any, but my sister Lily got a letter from my parents, who wished her a good start into her second year at Hogwarts.
"I have to say hello to you from Mum and Dad", Lily said to me, "where's James?"
"I don't know", I said, "but thanks."
I was sitting next to Rose and Daniel, my roommate and best friend.
"Do you know who the Quidditch team captain is this year?" Rose asked.
"I have no idea, I only know it isn't James", I answered, "he was not too happy about it."
"Okay, so it's probably that 7th year, what was his name again?" Daniel said.
Our conversation got interrupted by the prefects of Gryffindor who gave us our timetables.
"Oh, we have potions first", I said. Potions was not my favourite subject, but I quite liked it.
"Together with the Slytherins", Daniel added.
Half an hour later, we were brewing the laugh-inducing potion, a potion that was supposed to make you laugh uncontrollably. We had a great teacher, Professor Cullen, who was a much nicer person than the potion teacher that I was named after, Severus Snape. When first I came to Hogwarts, I had heard quite a few bad things about him and started to worry, why my Dad thought he "was the bravest man he ever knew". I was struggling with my middle-name but then I talked to my parents about it and they told me the whole story: Severus was, like everyone else, only human and had made some big mistakes in his life, but he was not a bad person.
"Professor Cullen, are we going to try out our potions?" Scorpius asked curiously.
"Yes, of course. But if you want to try it out, you will have to concentrate to get it all right, otherwise we will already have patients for Madam Pomfrey on the first day, that's not what we want", Cullen smiled. Of all the people that had worked at Hogwarts when my parents went there, only a few had stayed: Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, Professor Binns (who couldn't die because he was a ghost) and of course Hagrid.
At the end of the lesson, Professor Cullen announced, which potion we would try out: "So I've looked at all your results, and I must admit: They turned out very well. Some might still have to wake up from their summer holidays, but most of your potions were excellent. I've decided that we will try out those two: the potions of Charlotte and Scorpius." He put two bottles on the desk.
Daniel rolled his eyes: "Always the Slytherins."
We all laughed: We knew he wasn't serious and although the two houses were still rivals, they didn't hate each other anymore.
"So, who wants to be the first one to try it out?" Cullen asked, "come on, you're most likely going to survive." We all laughed.
"Why not?" Rose said, to my surprise and got up, "I'll try."
For that brave act, she got a round of applause. "Very nice", Cullen said, "which one do you want to try: Scorpius' or Charlotte's potion?"
"Well", Rose said with a smile, "I think I'll go with the one that Scorpius brew, no offense, Charlotte."
"Okay then, let's see if it works", Cullen said, "but only take a small sip."
"Was that too much?" Rose asked after taking a little bit and then already started laughing.
"I guess it was just the right amount", Cullen laughed.
Rose almost fell on the floor and Cullen had to take the bottle so she wouldn't spill it.
We all laughed and Cullen said: "I guess no one will have to take any potion anymore, you're all already laughing."
This small joke definitely was too much for Rose and she fell over. As she was lying on the floor and laughing, I almost felt sorry for her. "How will we able to stop it?" I asked.
"If she doesn't stop after a few minutes, I'll have something that can stop it", he answered and I could tell that he was a bit moved by my worries about my cousin.
"Come on Al, don't spoil it", Scorpius joked but I couldn't help but wonder whether he was actually, at least to some extent, serious.
Rose really did stop laughing after two minutes and we tried out Charlotte's potion on a Slytherin boy. It was quite funny because he started having a hiccup. But Cullen stopped the show because he didn't want his student to struggle in front of the others. Potions class was now over and the Gryffindors now had charms together with the Hufflepuffs. "How was the potion, Rose?", I asked as we were walking through the castle to get to the charms classroom. "Pretty fun, I have to admit", she said. Leah, who was muggle-born, simply commented: "The Muggles have a similar thing, you know. It's called marijuana." We laughed.
