Chapter 7: Flames And Dogs Bring Jealousy...Who'd Have Thought?
Leia's Pov:
I awaken to the sound of Hermione's voice and the sight of two big yellow eyes and a wet nose full of whiskers staring at me not three inches away.
"Come on, Leia. Get up or you'll miss breakfast and be late for class."
"I will Hermione," I say in a grouchy tone of voice, with the knowledge that it is too early to attempt pleasantries. "I will as soon as you get this damn cat of yours off of me."
"Oh, sorry. Come on, Crookshanks. It's time for your breakfast."
The orange monster leaps from my bed to its owner's and I am able to slide out from under the covers and onto the floor. I get dressed right away, having taken a shower the night before. I brush out my hair and attempt to put on my new Gryffindor tie, but I can't figure it out. I finally give up and put my hand above it, whisper a spell, and watch as it ties itself. I had to do the same thing yesterday on the train with my other tie. I have never had to wear a tie before. I do believe they are more complicated than they have to be.
I debate whether I should wear any jewelry. I do love it, but at the moment I can't make up my mind exactly what I should wear.
"Hermione, which do you like better?" I ask, holding out two sets of earrings to show her - teardrop rubies set in gold or red roses. I love them both.
"Oh, really, Leia. Let's just go," Hermione says exasperatedly. I, however, keep insisting. We're not that late! She finally gives in and says, "Uh, I like the roses, I think," as she throws her satchel over shoulder. "Now hurry up and let's go."
I nod and quickly put the roses in my ears, adding a ring to my finger that my father gave me for my seventeenth birthday (a silver snake with ruby eyes). Then I sling my satchel over my shoulder and hurry from the room behind Hermione. But we don't get very far when there is a loud, piercing scream from the seventh-year dorm.
"Where did that- that thing come from?!"
"Somebody do something!"
"Get it out of here!"
We race back to the room and see Lavender and Parvati Patil cowering on one of the beds. They point to the floor and there is Salazar sitting peacefully at the foot of my bed.
"You mean Salazar?" I inquire, innocently, laughing to myself at how silly they're being.
"You brought it in here? I might have known," said Lavender with a scowl.
"He won't hurt you, Lavender. Really..." I say, shaking my head at her. I put out my arm to Salazar and he knowingly slithers up it and wraps himself around my shoulders. Hermione and I turn and again make our way down the stairs to the common room as Lavender complains to Parvati about dangerous pets and uncivilized people. I just shake my head.
We meet up with Harry and Ron by the fireplace. Harry notices Salazar.
"You're bringing him to breakfast?" he asks, puzzled. I laugh.
"No, no, he's staying here, but Lavender and Parvati were freaking out about him being in the same room with them, so I brought him down here. He can wander around Hogwarts, I suppose. I don't see why it would be a problem." Harry nods his head in agreement or understanding - I can't tell which.
We all walk through the portrait hole, I set Salazar down on the stone floor, and we go down to breakfast, Salazar gliding along the stone in the opposite direction, grateful of the freedom, I'm sure. While we are eating, Professor McGonagall comes down each side of the Gryffindor table and hands everyone their schedule for the year. I look mine over briefly. I picked my classes weeks ago with Dumbledore and so I know what is going to be on the schedule. My main concern is what class I have first. Potions with Professor Snape. Snape...where do I know that name?
"Leia, what class do you have first?" Harry asks, trying to read my schedule over my shoulder as he eats. I turn to him.
"Double Potions."
"Great! You'll be with all of us then- Ron, Hermione, and I."
"Oh, ok." I am glad to know someone. It is never a pleasant treat to be in a class of strangers. We finish breakfast and head to class, the only one located in the dungeons. Harry and Ron sit by the door in the very back and Hermione and I find two seats in front of them. Everyone is talking, but all noise ceases to exist in that dark room as Professor Snape comes into the room, his cloak sweeping along behind him. The door slams shut and everyone looks attentive, though I am not sure how much of it is playacting. Class begins as Professor Snape gives a brief lecture on the importance of N.E.W.T.s, which everyone will be taking at the end of the year. When that is finished, he starts to lecture on a potion that we will be brewing in class today. I take brief notes. I have made this potion before. Mother taught me (potions were always her specialty). It is a potion to protect a person from getting burnt by a fire's flames, a complicated potion to say the least.
"The instructions are on the board." Professor Snape motions to the board as he speaks. "You may begin." Everyone sets to work on brewing his or her potions. I ignore the instructions on the board, however, and reach into my satchel for my potion kit. I put it together myself a year or so ago so that I would always be guarantied to have most of the ingredients I'd need for most potions. I pull out the necessary ingredients and begin to brew my potion the way Mother taught me two and a half years ago. She told me then that by following her directions it would take half the time usually required for this potion. Ever since, I have been finding shorter ways to brew even the most complicated and dangerous potions. Hermione occasionally glances over at my cauldron to see my progress. When she looks over a third time, she sees how different my potion has become.
"Leia, what did you do?"
"What ever do you mean, Hermione?"
"No where on the board does it say that at any time this potion is to be orange!"
"Oh, not to worry. I know what I'm doing."
"Merlin, I hope so." Hermione goes back to her own potion shaking her head. I don't think she believes that I have it all under control.
At one point, Ron has a bit of trouble with his potion, but Hermione helps him correct the problem and get back on track. Otherwise, there is no commotion for almost an hour. Then suddenly, someone lets out a cry of panic and I look across the room to see poor Neville Longbottom staring wide-eyed at his cauldron, his potion acting now as a geyser. I abandon my own potion (which I have to let sit for a few minutes before I can go on with the next step) and hurry over to Neville. I get there before Professor Snape and throw in something I brought from my potion kit. The contents of the cauldron become calm immediately and the potion returns to what it was before Neville messed it up.
"There, Neville," I say, smiling at him sympathetically. "Just pick up where you left off (before you made that mistake) and you'll be fine." He nods and thanks me quietly. "Don't mention it," I say before returning to my own potion. Professor Snape watches me with curiosity shining in his eyes. Within ten minutes my potion is complete. I clean up my place and sit down, watching my classmates struggle with their own potions. Hermione looks over and sees my potion. Then she looks down at me.
"Are you finished already?"
"Yeah," I reply. She looks shocked and confused, but only goes back to her own potion. Professor Snape notices me sitting as well and sweeps across the room in a way that is almost threatening. He stands over my cauldron and looks from it to me.
"Am I to understand, Miss Gerwin," he says, "judging by the color of your potion and by your leisurely attitude, that your potion is complete?"
"Yes, sir."
"How, might I ask? Following my instructions, this potion takes two hours to brew."
"Begging your pardon, sir, but I have brewed this potion many times and have learned how to do it in half the time."
At first, he looks as though he may dump the potion and tell me to start over (or dump it all over me), but then he looks thoughtful. "Are you confident it will have the effect it is supposed to?" he asks.
"Yes, sir," I say, holding my head high. He hands me a goblet. I stand up and take it from him.
"Then would you kindly demonstrate its use for the class?" I do not speak, nor do I move. I am sure I brewed it correctly- that is not my concern. I am just not sure I trust him. I have just recalled where I've heard the professor's name before. He is one of my father's most trusted Death Eaters. I would not be worried so much if Snape knew who I was, but to him I am just another Gryffindor, another friend of Harry Potter. What that means for my future in this class, I cannot say. I watch as Snape takes a lit torch from the wall and brings it over to me.
"Go on then," he says. "Take a sip and place your hand in the flames. Prove to us that your version works just as well." Without a word I dip the goblet into the potion and lift it to my lips as everyone watches with curiosity and amusement. I take a sip of the potion and set the goblet down. Slowly I bring my hand to the flame. I watch as the orange and yellow tongues dance around and over my hand and between my fingers. I feel nothing but a tiny inkling of the fire's warmth. I smile with pride as I pull my hand out and show it to Professor Snape. He examines it and looks amused.
"I never thought I'd see the day," he says, chuckling to himself. "Never believed it could happen while I was teaching. So many, not a one...until now...until now..." He returns to his desk and sits down, writing something down on a piece of parchment. I wonder at his reaction. So does everyone else, apparently. Whispers fly through the room, but none are distinguishable. It is not until class is over and Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I are heading to our next class, Transfiguration, that I find out why Snape surprised everyone today.
"I can't believe it!" Harry is saying. "He didn't get angry. He didn't make your potion vanish. He didn't fail you for not following his directions. He actually looked...delighted! I've never seen Snape so happy before, except when he was busy making my life miserable, which he seems to get some evil pleasure from."
"I take it he does not usually like his students to do things better than him?"
"Not all. Just Gryffindor. He's head of Slytherin House, by the way."
"I see." I wonder at how pleased Snape seemed and I wonder what he meant by his last words. But I do not have much time to dwell on it because we have reached the classroom of Professor McGonagall. There are several empty seats in the front of the room still. I sit down between Harry and Hermione (Ron sits on Harry's other side). As class starts, I doodle in the margins of my notes in between making a note or two about how to change a desk into a dog. After a brief lecture, Professor McGonagall tells us to do just that. Within thirty seconds my desk is transformed into a German Shepard. Hermione, who hasn't quite figured it out yet (her desk currently has four hairy legs), looks at me incredulously.
"How'd you do that?"
"I just followed directions," I say, laughing as my transformed desk licks my hand. Hermione glares at me, but soon goes back to her own desk. I turn to Harry, whose desk has a fury top and four paws that it keeps trying to walk away on. "What's her problem?"
"She is usually the first to get things like this right. I don't think she likes being beaten by you twice now- first potions, now transfiguration. But don't worry; she'll get over - Hey! Get back here!" Harry is cut off as his desk, which now has four furry legs and a tail, runs across the room chasing my German Shepard desk. I laugh hysterically at the sight. As I stand there, tears welling up from laughing so hard, Professor McGonagall comes over.
"Miss Gerwin, is that your desk that is now a German Shepard?" she asks as she looks across the room at my desk, which Harry is dragging back over along with his own.
"Yes, professor," I say, trying to suppress a new fit of giggles.
"Good work, Miss Gerwin." With that she walks away to check on the progress of the other students. She did not even comment on Hermione's work. She changed her desk into a black Labrador just before McGonagall came over. Hermione does not look happy.
"Great job, Hermione!" I say, trying to make her feel better.
"Stuff it."
Merlin, I try to give a compliment! I think to myself as Harry, panting, hands me my desk. Before it can get away again, I quickly change it back to its original form. "Phew, sorry about that, Harry."