A/N I do not own Harry Potter or any recognisable characters.

Potions

Mia glanced over at Scorpius, who looked content to say nothing right away. Instead of asking him any questions, as she usually would, she busied herself with getting out her books and ingredients.

"Mia," Al whispered, "How do you know Scorpius? I mean, he's a pureblood and you're a muggleborn. How on earth did you cross paths?"

Mia sighed as she heard. Of course, she had known that she would be asked eventually, but that still didn't make it any easier.

"I can't tell you right now. I promise I will later though, but I don't want anyone else overhearing."

Slightly gratified, Al whispered back, "Ok, if you want I can show you the perfect place to not be overheard, and you can tell me in our free?"

"Sure." Mia replied, but then fell silent as the teacher had just walked in.

"Hello class!" the teacher said brightly, "My name is Pernot Tassimo, or for you, Professor Tassimo. I don't think any of you will recognise me, as I was home-schooled, due to the fact that my family seem to have a bit of a grudge against Hogwarts, for reasons that don't really matter right now. I have however, been a potions master for 4 years now, and have decided to take up teaching, with regards to Professor Slughorn's most recent retirement. I am honoured to be the one to start you off on your magical education. Now. As to how my lessons will work, I have a single lesson with you today and a double on Friday. As most potions take more than an hour to work, generally we will be doing theory work on the Mondays and practical on the Fridays. I will set you homework on the Monday to be given in the following Monday, but there will be no homework on Friday's lesson unless you need to redo a potion. Clear? Furthermore, I am lousy with names, so will you please remain where you are currently seated at least until Christmas."

The class stared at him after his energetic introduction, taking what he had said in. Rose was frowning, thinking about what his parents' grudge against Hogwarts could be.

"I see you are all bursting with energy, so please could you extend that energy to your hands, and copy down the safety instructions that are on the board. Once you are – " The class groaned at the mention of safety instructions. "Yes, yes, I know safety instructions are boring, but just think, 5 minutes of writing down safety instructions, or an overnight stay in the hospital wing. Your choice. Anyway, as I was saying, once you are finished, I would like you to turn to page 5 of your books and annotate the instructions with some improvements. Yes Miss urm... Weasley! I am asking you to write on a book."

Professor Tassimo then sat down at his desk, and tapped a plan of the classroom; immediately the name of each student appeared on their corresponding place in the classroom.

The class settled down after that, but just as Mia had finished writing 'Make sure no part of the potion ever touches your skin', a note was shoved onto her piece of parchment.

She pulled it towards her and read:

Having fun with Potter?

Smiling slightly as she recognised Scorpius's curving, elegant handwriting, she wrote back:

Can you at least call him Al? And yes. I like him, and he is my friend.

Fine. Why is Al your friend? I thought you were my friend.

You're my friend too; I can have more than one friend! And as to how I am friends with him, I met him on the train. You didn't meet me at the train; you weren't there for me when we crossed the lake either. He was.

Have you told anyone yet? Have you told Al yet?

No. I don't really know what to say. Our parents told us to be friends? He doesn't even know who I am. I promised to tell him how I know you in our free.

So you aren't planning on telling anyone that we've pretty much been betrothed since we were nine? When are you planning on telling people?

I wasn't really planning on telling anyone. I just want to be a normal girl. And we should probably stop writing these notes now. I think the rest of the class has finished writing the safety instructions down too and I don't want to miss the annotations.

Scorpius looked up and saw Professor Tassimo starting to write the corrections down on the board and hurriedly got out his book.

Pernot Tassimo had been watching the note exchange between Scorpius and Mia curiously, noting as he did, the startling contrast their hair made; pale blonde and deep brown. Once he had finished writing up the corrections he called softly,

"Please could Emilia Rodwins and Scorpius Malfoy remain after class."

The two looked at each other guiltily and carried on writing down the instructions.

"Now, for homework, please could you name five things that could go wrong whilst making the potion to cure boils that is on page five, how to prevent them from occurring, what will happen if they do occur and what to do if they do occur. This should give you a greater understanding of why we need safety precautions, even with a simple potion, and will hopefully mean that Friday's lesson will go more smoothly – if you decide to not leave the homework for the last minute that is."

Professor Tassimo then declared "Class dismissed!" And everyone bar Scorpius and Mia left to hurry to their next lesson.

"I know you two were passing notes. I didn't stop you, because I knew that you had finished the work. I will also not ask to see the note, as I am sure that you wouldn't appreciate that. I just would like to say that you can come and talk to me about anything. I will tell nobody and I have been known to give good advice. I am not going to give you detention, but I would ask that you don't pass notes in my lesson again. You can go now. I'll just give you notes for your respective teachers to tell them where you have been."

"I have History of Magic with Professor Binns next Sir." Said Mia quietly.

"I have Charms with Professor Flitwick." Scorpius said.

Professor Tassimo wrote them notes and the two hurried off. It was only when they left the classroom that Mia realised she had no idea where she was going.

"Come on, I'll show you the way." At Mia's questioning look, Scorpius elaborated, "To your class – my dad made me memorise the map of Hogwarts before I came so that I wouldn't get lost. I won't be much later than I am now, come on."

"Thanks Scorpius – how is anyone supposed to find their way around here – there should be signs!"

Once they reached the History of Magic room, Scorpius left Mia and ran off to wherever the charms room was. Mia made her way to the front, and awkwardly placed the note upon Binns' desk, seeing as he couldn't hold it. Mia wondered how he could even mark papers, seeing as he couldn't touch anything… maybe he used a charm or a dictating quill. She made her way back to the desks, and slid in beside Charlotte, who was writing down everything Binns said and barely noticed the sudden appearance of her friend.

Binns seemed not to have noticed her arrival either, but was steadily talking about the creation of the school – something Mia remembered as being extremely interesting when reading about it in Hogwarts: A History, but which Binns made to seem as interesting as watching paint dry.

Mia wrote down what the ghost said on autopilot, leaving her mind free to wander what on earth she was actually going to say to Al. Nothing she thought of sounded remotely promising. How much should she tell him, for starters? She did want to confide in someone, but she also just wanted a normal time at Hogwarts.

As the end of the lesson arrived, Mia packed up her things and met Al by the door. Wordlessly, he started walk. They went up several flights of stairs, and once they had reached a corridor on the 9th floor, Al started pacing. Mia waited, and gasped as a door appeared from nowhere.

"Come on in then. Nobody will be able to hear what you say. I promise I won't tell anyone either – unless you ask me to of course." Al grinned roguishly and walked through the door.

Mia followed, and was amazed at what she saw. There was a lovely big sofa with a crackling fire next to it.

Answering her unasked question, Al explained: "This is the room known as the Room of Requirement. Dad told me about it before I came. You walk past that picture on the wall three times thinking about what you want the room to become. I thought about a comfy room that couldn't be eavesdropped on and voila."

Mia sat down and cleared her throat.

A/N Hello. Sorry I haven't written in a while, I have had a bit of a writer's block and was busy with school. I have however, drawn up a timetable of Mia's lessons. I don't mind emailing it to anyone if they really want to see it. Also, any thoughts on my Potions teacher? If anyone thinks the name is weird, that is probably because it is. It is another anagram and 50 virtual points to whoever can guess what the anagram is of. Please review – I haven't stopped wanting to know what you think!