Chapter Eight- Potions, Perfection and Peeves

The next morning came too soon; Scarlett ate a rushed breakfast in the Great Hall, trying her best to ignore the glares from the Gryffindor table, instead staring down at her new timetable. After she hurried to class, it would not do well to be late for her first class ever, transfiguration.

Hogwarts was an amazing school, however more than slightly hard to navigate; it had one hundred and forty two staircases, most of them located as part of the grand staircase, and some of them moved, others had a step which had to be jumped to avoid getting your foot stuck in. There were thousands of doors, some which were walls just pretending, dwalls if you like. And everything moved, portraits, suits of armours disappearing one day and reappearing somewhere else the next.

Transfiguration was very quick to become one of Scarlett's favourite subjects; although Professor McGonagall started the lesson with a lecture, finishing with changing her desk into a pig- and back again. The class of first years however began with attempting to change matchsticks into needles. This was something the Scarlett proudly managed to achieve on her third try which earned her 10 house points and a slight smile from the professor, the only other one in the class who succeeded was that irritating girl Hermione Granger.

Three times a week they had Herbology with Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff. This is where they learned about the plants they used in potions and how to care for them.

History of Magic was extremely boring, and Scarlett decided this was the class she would use to catch up on lost sleep, it was taught by a ghost named Professor Binns who wouldn't really notice.

Defence against the Dark Arts was average. Scarlett found the subject interesting; however the teacher was an embarrassment, the room smelt like garlic and Professor Quirrell seemed terrified of everything.

Astronomy was fun; all the first years climbed the astronomy tower at midnight on Wednesdays to observe the stars and planets, and to learn their names and orbits.

Charms, however, Scarlett soon found was not nearly as simple as she thought it would be. Scarlett failed so miserably at making her feather float that she was the only one it the class who was assigned extra homework. Her first attempt had done nothing, her second had turned the feather to dust, and the third had evolved feathers flying everywhere and class ending fifteen minutes early. The charms teacher Professor Flitwick seemed perfectly pleased with Harry, Ron and especially Hermione, but gave Scarlett a sharp telling off about how she had almost gained her very first detention.

As awful as Charms class was, Potions more than made up for it. Potions class was closest to the Slytherin common room, as it was also held in the dungeons. Professor Snape also started with a small speech, and then the roll, where he almost sniggered at Harry's name.
"Mr. Potter!" he spoke abruptly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked confused, "I don't know, sir."

The professor tutted, "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"I don't know, sir" Harry muttered.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Hermione was almost touching the low ceiling of the dungeon at this point, begging to give the answers.

"I don't know, but I think Hermione does, maybe you should ask her." Harry murmured.

"Sit down! And five points from Gryffindor!" Snape snapped at Hermione and the laughing ended abruptly. "How about you Miss Potter? Root of asphodel and infusion of wormwood?"

Scarlett thought for a moment, remembering what she had read in her copy of Magical Drafts and Potions. "The powerful sleeping potion known as the Draught of Living Death, sir? She answered.

"Correct," Snape said reluctantly "Where would you find a bezoar?"

"In the stomach of a goat, it is supposed to be a cure for most poisons." Harry was glaring now, honestly was he that surprised that some people read their textbooks before coming to a new school?

Snape nodded "Monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"I believe they are the same plant, also called aconite?" Scarlett was unsure on this question; she had not concentrated on Herbology.

The professor almost smiled "Very good, five points to Slytherin. Now everyone else, start writing that down."

The class continued with everyone being paired up and attempting to make a cure for boils. Scarlett was paired with a Slytherin boy named Theodore Nott, and by the end they had prepared a potion that matched the description in the textbook.

Neville Longbottom, the Gryffindor boy, however had been sent to the hospital wing when his potion exploded all over him and several of their class mates, melting the cauldron he was using and burning the shoes of those close to him. Gryffindor lost even more points.

Scarlett was glad that it seemed at least one teacher at this school didn't like her brother, though it looked like everyone else did.

A few days later and Scarlett was setting into a routine, breakfast, class, lunch, class, homework, free time, dinner, and sleep. She had even managed to (after many attempts and screeching alarms that some Slytherin fifth years helped her to silence) make her wand act as an alarm clock, making a loud buzzing noise at the set time, something that helped her get out of bed in time for class. Still, some days it seemed were bound to be dreadful, whatever she did.

Scarlett swore as her foot sunk deep into the trick step, before the step returned to the solid stone it should be. She grabbed hold of the railing to pull herself out, but it made no difference, she was well and truly stuck. This was a bad start to her day, her alarm hadn't gone off, she slept in, missed breakfast and now she way going to be late for class, and it was Charms of all subjects. Something shot out of the nearest door, and Scarlett jumped, or would have if she could move an inch.

"Oooooh, an ickle firstie late for class! You will be in trouble!" yelled the strange little man.

Scarlett thought fast, this wasn't a student, or a teacher and she was pretty sure it wasn't a ghost, "you're Peeves aren't you, you're a poltergeist"

"And how would a firstie snake know that?" replied Peeves bobbing up and down as he floated in the air.

"You're in the book, Hogwarts; a History." Scarlett mumbled still trying to pull her foot from the step. "Could you please help me out?"

"I could but I shan't!" the poltergeist cackled and turned to float away, leaving Scarlett stuck in the stair.

"WAIT!" she yelled "you like pranks right? Maybe we can come to an agreement, a truce?"

"Agreement?" Peeves turned back towards her and bobbed closer, spitting the word as it if was poison.

"Yes," she nodded quickly "you're a poltergeist, so you thrive on chaos and you can move solid objects. So if you help me out of this step, I could mail order you some Dungbombs and maybe even a Fanged Frisbee and you can have all the chaos you want. How does that sound?" she said staring into his orange eyes.

Peeves tilted his head slightly to one side contemplating the deal, "I guess that seems… fair" looking wary as if expecting a trick, though excitement was slowly becoming visible in his strange eyes.

The step seemed to solidify beneath Scarlett's foot, before it shoved her off and onto the ground. "Okay then," she said pulling herself off the cold stone floor "I will find you and give them to you when they arrive. Now I have got to go!" she headed off at a run towards charms class, praying to avoid the almost inevitable detention, and leaving one very happy Peeves behind her.

She ran into charms class.

"Miss Potter, you are ten minutes late for class," Professor Flitwick scolded, Scarlett opened her mouth to explain, "No, I don't want to hear you excuses! Detention! You will stay after class to arrange it."

Scarlett shrugged, it was bound to have happened sometime soon.