Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 9
"So, what happened?" I asked.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just returned from Hagrid's house. They were back in the common room sooner than I thought they would be, so I was a little confused as to what happened.
"Hagrid is worried about what Malfoy's father is going to do," Hermione said. "He is one of the governors of the school, so he could lose his job."
"That isn't fair," I said. "Malfoy is just putting on an act!"
"Yeah, but you can't prove that," Harry said.
We all sighed. It was true, you couldn't really prove that he was acting. There was no way that Hagrid could get fired over it though. It wasn't Hagrid's fault that Buckbeak attacked a student.
The following day we had Potions first thing in the morning. As always, Harry and Ron were complaining the whole way there about how awful class was going to be. I never really minded Potions class. It was always an easy subject for me, one that I took an interest in and did well.
The only thing that I wasn't looking forward to was sharing the classroom with Slytherin. We have had Potions with them all three years that I've gone to Hogwarts and this year wasn't going to be any different than the others.
"We will be creating a Shrinking Solutions today," Snape announced as he walked into the classroom. "The instructions are on the board. You may begin."
I went over to the cabinet and picked out all of the ingredients that were needed. It was almost sad to say that I knew the exact ingredients to pick out without even looking at the board. During the summer, when I had nothing better to do at the Dursleys, I would normally pick up my potions book and read through the instructions for each to make sure that I was prepared when we got to class. Each year it had benefited me because I had never messed up a single Potion.
I sat down in my usual seat next to Neville, whom I always had to help while we made our Potion. We had it down to a practical science now on how to keep Snape from noticing that I was helping him. Basically, Neville would just watch how I made the Potion and he would just copy what I was doing. I had to go slowly just to make sure he was able to see each step.
"Make sure the roots are cut up evenly," I whispered to him.
"Does it really make a difference?" he whispered back.
I nodded to him and he went on cutting up each root precisely and managed to keep all of them even enough that it wouldn't effect the potion.
"Professor, I can't cut up the roots because of my arm," Draco said.
"Weasley, cut up his roots for him," Snape said without even looking up from his desk.
Ron looked like he would rather do anything else but cut up the roots for Malfoy's potion. When he went to cut them, he chopped them up into completely uneven pieces and was throwing them all around the place in the process.
"Professor, Weasley is mutilating my roots," Malfoy complained.
"Use his roots, he can use yours," Snape said sounding completely bored with the whole situation.
Ron's jaw dropped and his face went red. He had spent practically the entire class period cutting his roots up evenly and now he couldn't even use them. After that, Snape forced Harry to skin Malfoy's shrivelfig, much to Harry's dislike.
I heard Malfoy talking to Harry, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying to each other. I wasn't really paying attention to what Neville was doing and I immediately regretted looking away.
"Neville, why is your potion orange?" I whispered.
"I-I don't know, I was just-" he stuttered and began to frantically look through the instructions on the board and in his book.
"Mr. Longbottom," Snape said as he walked over to our table. "Is there a reason that your potion is orange instead of green? Are you honestly that incapable of creating a simple potion without the help of Miss Potter?"
Neville's face went completely red as Snape walked away shaking his head.
"Help me," he begged.
I looked over at Snape who was facing in the opposite direction and quickly seized the opportunity. I grabbed a bunch of ingredients and began to add some to the potion in an attempt to fix it. I had read about this sort of thing in a book that Hermione had given me a while back on how to fix potions. Luckily, I was able to return the potion to it's intended color just before Snape turned around. His eyes narrowed when he saw me backing away from Neville's potion.
"What are you doing Miss Potter?" Snape asked slowly as he waked over towards my table.
"I'm not sure what you mean Professor," I said.
"You wouldn't be helping Mr. Longbottom again, would you?" he said eyeing me curiously.
"I couldn't imagine what would give you that idea," I said.
He narrowed his eyes further and walked over to look at Neville's potion. He stirred it around a little bit and then looked up from Neville to me.
"Do you happen to have your toad with you Mr. Longbottom?" he asked with an evil grin.
"Y-yes," Neville stuttered.
Snape held out his hand and Neville took Trevor out of his pocket and handed him to Snape.
"Gather around class," Snape said. "Everyone should be finished making their potions by now and I believe that it is time that we test one out. If this potion was made correctly, this toad should turn into a tadpole. If not, then it will likely be poisoned."
Neville began to shake and his eyes grew wide as he stared hopelessly at his toad. I wasn't really sure if I had been able to correct the potion entirely because Snape had turned around too quickly, so I wasn't really sure what was going to happen.
Snape took out a spoon and dipped it into the potion. He poured the liquid down Trevor's throat and everyone stared intently at the toad, waiting to see what would happen.
Suddenly there was a pop and the toad turned into a tadpole. All of the Gryffindors cheered and Neville let out a sigh of relief. Snape pulled out another potion and dropped some of it on the toad to return it to its original state.
Snape looked up from the toad and glared over at me.
"Five points from Gryffindor," he said. "How many times do I have to tell you Miss Potter to not help him during class?"
"Sorry, Professor," I said.
There was a moment when Snape looked as though he regretted lecturing me or something. It was probably my imagination.
"I can't believe that he took points away from you," Ron said as we walked out of the classroom. "He never takes points from you - you're the best in our class! Well, Hermione's good too-Hermione?"
I looked around and noticed that Hermione was nowhere near us.
"Where'd she go?" I asked.
"She was just with us…wasn't she?" Harry asked.
"There she is," I said pointing ahead of us.
Hermione was in the middle of the hallway picking up books that had fallen out of her torn backpack. It was surprising how many books that she had considering the fact that we didn't have that many classes in one day. Ron picked up the remaining two books that she had and handed them over to her.
"Thanks," she smiled.
"How did you do that?" Ron asked.
"Do what?" she asked looking confused.
"You were walking behind us just a moment ago-" Harry started.
"Oh, I'd forgotten something…" she mumbled.
She suddenly went silent and then walked off towards the Great Hall for lunch.
"Is it just me, or does it seem like she's not telling us something?" Ron asked.
After lunch, we had Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Lupin. I had already heard from several people that this class was fantastic with him as a teacher.
"The only thing you'll need today is your wands, you can put away everything else," Lupin announced as he walked into the classroom.
"This is my favorite class already," Ron said.
Lupin stood awkwardly in front of the class, just looking around at all of the students. Then he started moving into another room.
"Follow me," he said.
The whole class followed closely behind Lupin through the hallways, down some stairs, and right towards the staffroom. The whole time there, I was trying to figure out what we could possibly be learning about that was inside of the staffroom.
As we walked in there, I noticed that the room wasn't empty. In an armchair say Professor Snape, looking oddly sad about something. As soon as he saw us, weirdly enough he looked directly at me to start with, he looked as though his mood changed completely.
"Leave the door open," Professor Snape said. "I don't wish to watch this…"
He walked out of the room quickly and quietly, his usual black robes billowing out as he walked. It kind of resembled a bat a little bit…
"Moving on," Lupin said. "If you haven't noticed already, there is something inside of this wardrobe."
As if on cue, the wardrobe that sat ahead of me began to shake. Several people stepped back away from the wardrobe.
"No need to worry," he smiled. "There is only a boggart inside of there. Does anyone know what that is?"
Hermione, as usual, was the only one that raised her hand.
"It's a shape-shifter," she said. "It changes shape according to the person's greatest fear."
"Correct!" Lupin said. "Now, does anyone notice a problem here - Emily?"
I was completely caught off guard and Hermione was staring at me expectantly as she raised her hand high in the air.
"Well…" I said. "There are a lot of us in here, so it probably won't know what to turn into."
"Exactly," Lupin smiled at me. "Now, the key to getting rid of a boggart is laughter - you must turn it into something that is funny. In order to do this, you must think of something to turn the boggart into that would make you laugh - then use the spell 'Riddikulus'!"
The wardrobe shook again and Lupin looked around at everyone in the class.
"Neville," Lupin said. "I would like you to go first."
Neville, who was standing next to me, looked completely and utterly mortified and went red in the face. He looked over at me, hoping that I would help him get out of this, but I just shrugged. He sighed and then walked towards Lupin and the wardrobe, probably regretting standing in the front with me.
"Excellent," Lupin said. "Now, what is it that you fear the most?"
He mumbled something that I couldn't quite hear and looked around nervously.
"What was that?"
"Professor Snape," he said louder.
Several people laughed at this, but I could almost understand why. Snape was rather cruel to Neville sometimes for some reason - one that I couldn't really figure out.
"Okay, now this is what I want you to do…" Lupin said.
He started whispering something to him so that no one else could hear. I tried to listen in on what he was saying, but I couldn't hear anything. Neville laughed, so I assumed that it was a good idea.
"Okay, ready?" Lupin said as he stepped out of the way of the wardrobe.
Neville nodded nervously and prepared himself for what was going to come out of there. Lupin waved his wand and everyone tried to get a better look at it. Out of the wardrobe walked Professor Snape, looking the same as the original. Neville looked terrified.
"R-riddikulus!" he shouted and pointed his wand at the boggart.
Suddenly, the image of Snape was changed completely. He was now wearing a long, green dress and a hat that had a vulture sitting on top of it, and in his hand was a huge red handbag. Everyone started laughing as this humiliated Snape cowered away.
"Okay, next person!" Lupin said. "I suggest that you all think of what you're going to do when the boggart faces you!"
As Pavarti stepped forward to face the boggart - a mummy - I began to think of what mine was going to be. I knew that the most terrifying thing to me was the sight of Voldemort, but there was no way that I was going to have him come into the room.
"I'll just take off its legs…" I heard Ron mumble to himself.
I smiled over at him and he gave me a smile back. It was common knowledge that Ron's greatest fear was spiders.
"What is yours going to be?" I whispered to Harry.
"I was thinking about a dementor," Harry whispered back. "What are you going to do?"
"That's a good one, I won't take that one from you…" I said, thinking. "I can't think of one…"
"Maybe you could have Snape tell you that you brewed a potion incorrectly," Ron said.
"Very funny," I muttered as he chuckled.
Then the spider turned to Ron and it turned into a gigantic spider, sort of resembling Aragog from the year before. Several people screamed, but Ron said the spell and it's legs flew off and it started rolling around.
Just as it turned to me, I saw a glimpse of my own brother's face on the boggart. He was lying on the ground, bloody and mangled. I stepped back a few feet, terrified at the sight in front of me. Lupin's eyes widened in horror and he jumped in front of me. Instantly, the boggart turned into a small white orb that was floating in the air. He waved his wand and it turned into a balloon and flew away and popped into the air.
"Excellent job everyone," Lupin said, his face oddly pale. "Homework will be to summarize what the boggart is, you can look through the book for help if you need it."
The bell rang for that class to be over and everyone began to leave the room. I glanced over at Harry who had a look of terror.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled to him.
"No, it's fine," Harry said in a low voice.
"Why didn't Lupin let you go?" I asked.
"I'm not sure…" he said. "He probably thought that mine would be worse than yours or something."
Ron and Hermione caught up with us in a minute, both talking about the boggart. Hermione was upset that she didn't get the chance to see hers.
"Did you see that one for Lupin?" Ron asked us. "What was that about?"
"I couldn't really tell what it was," Hermione said.
"It almost looked like a crystal ball…" Harry said.
"It looked more like a moon to me," I said. "Maybe he's afraid of the night..."
Thanks for reading! Just so you all know, I'll probably go back to posting every other day after this chapter. With Christmas being tomorrow and my dad's wedding coming up, I'm not going to have much time on my hands. I hope that you all won't be too angry with me and I hope that you'll still read the story.
Tell me what you think! PLEASE REVIEW!
Happy holidays!
