Chapter 10

By the time their first Potions lesson was over, and Finn was packing up his things, he had come to one realization. He was awful at it.

He had constantly asked Charlie for help during the entire class as they took notes on the properties of common ingredients such as different flowers, essences, and beans. They took few notes on insects and roots, as they were to be covered in the next chapter, but Finn struggled to remember anything Professor Wesley explained as he drew outlines on the chalkboard.

"You'll get the hang of it," Rebecca assured him as they stepped out with the other students. Charlie looked over at Rhys, who was silently fuming to himself.

"Detention," he exclaimed, "That's ridiculous!"

"Well, you did sort of talk back to him," Rebecca muttered, but Finn was positive he had been the only one to hear her.

"On my first day! How dare he do this to me!"

"It's not like it's the end of the world, mate," Charlie assured, "It's only one detention, right?"

Rhys continued to grumble things to himself as Rebecca reminded them they were to head to the greenhouses. Finn realized that if Herbology was next, he was probably doomed. He had a hard enough time remembering magical properties of plants in Potions. Now he was going to have to do it in his next class as well.

"I'm going to fail this term for sure," he said, sagging his shoulders.

"It's not so bad," Rebecca said, touching his arm gently before making sure there was enough space between them. He was noticing more and more how much of an anxious girl she was, it was confusing to him. Charlie touched his other arm to get his attention.

"She's right, Finn," he agreed, "Herbology's more than just taking notes. You get to learn how to care for the plants before they're taken in as potion ingredients. It's more about caring for them properly than using them."

"I guess that's not too bad," Finn said, trying to be hopeful. He smiled at Charlie's eyes, which seemed to smile more than the rest of his face when he was happy.

"Nice job on your first day, Elwyn," a snarky voice taunted from behind Finn. He jerked his head over his shoulder as he jumped, accidentally running into Charlie.

"Trying to outsmart the teachers already?" It was Loki Saxon, the boy Finn was quickly discovering he wanted to hit.

"Fuck off, Saxon," Rhys snapped without a pause between them.

The other three widened their eyes and stared at their friend, who was glaring so fiercely at the Slytherin that they were positive sparks would fly from them. The taller boy glowered back at him with an icy blue stare, unwavering, as if to ask how he could possibly dare to speak to him with such language.

"Big words, Elwyn," he said quietly, "Let's see you try them again."

"Leave him alone," Finn insisted immediately. Charlie quickly stepped between the two boys, and the one with the brighter eyes stepped back. He cocked his head, and then turned around, staring at Finn.

"There's no problem with you, Rowland," he said, "Why don't you butt out?"

"Because Rhys's business is my business," he answered slowly, trying to sound calm.

"Clearly. Standing in front of your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Finn shot back.

"What's your issue, Saxon? Think one of us pissed in your juice this morning?" Rhys asked. Charlie gave him a warning glance to keep his mouth shut.

"At least I'm smart enough to not outsmart the teacher on my first day. You're such a typical Elwyn."

"Like you know anything about my family," Rhys snapped.

"I know enough about them," he answered, and then turned back to Finn. "You should pick better friends. Two half-bloods and an Auror's son who would do anything to betray the name of wizard? You're on a roll already, aren't you?" When Finn let one tremor go through his body out of intimidation, he watched a small grin spread over the boy's face, and he remembered thinking the oddest thing. His teeth are evil.

"Sax!" someone from the end of the hall shouted. The boy looked over and then stepped away from the group.

"A bumbling band like you four has definitely lowered my expectations for this school," he said with a laugh. "It's pathetic." He walked down the hallway with his bag across his chest to meet up with nameless friends and Finn looked at Rhys.

"Blimey," Charlie whistled, "He sure got your robes in a twist."

"What gives, Rhys?" Finn asked, still surprised at the boy's use of language. "And what did he mean, Auror's son betraying the name of wizard?"

"My mum's an Auror," he stated flatly, "Clearly she sent someone away that he disapproves of." Straightening himself up, Rhys started walking towards the edge of the courtyard outside of the hallway. Finn looked at Charlie and then Rebecca.

"My mum's a muggle," Charlie said, already knowing that Finn was going to ask what Saxon meant by half-bloods. When he looked back at Rebecca, she gave a small smile and nodded.

"Mine too. Why was he being so pushy?" she asked Charlie.

"Who knows. Bad family blood. Doesn't matter if you're half-blood, less, or more. Sometimes bad blood never goes away." Charlie looked and Finn, who was staring after Rhys with a worried glance. He didn't understand how someone could get angry so easily, but then again, he had hated this Loki Saxon from the very start.

"Best to stay away from him, then," Finn managed to say.

"Slytherins are always trouble," Charlie insisted, "Try to stay away from all of them, I'd say."

"Agreed," Rebecca said

The three started in the same direction where Rhys had wandered off, and Charlie changed the subject by asking the other two who their Quidditch teams were. While that discussion went on, they neared the greenhouses, and when they entered the first one, Rhys barely spoke a word as they stood next to him, setting their bags at their feet under the long wooden table. There were no stools.

"I heard Professor Longbottom's supposed to be great," Rebecca offered the three boys. When Charlie agreed, they heard a hollow tap on a flower pot and all of the students fell quiet.

"Good morning, first years!" their new professor exclaimed. He was smiling with bright bucked teeth, but looked exhausted. He was covered in bits of dirt and plant from head to toe, especially in his brown hair. He was tall a thin, and his ears seemed larger than normal. "I'm Professor Longbottom, welcome to Greenhouse One. Now, today I had a lesson all planned out for you, but unfortunately, I've got a bit of a slug problem in one of my crops. So, for today, you'll be getting a bit more hands-on than I had planned for this lesson."

Everyone exchanged confused glances and then shrugged.

"Now, how many of you have read through our book for this class?"

There was a murmur of hesitant replies. Professor Longbottom put a soil covered hand to his forehead, smearing a few brown streaks up into his hair, which was also littered with dirt.

"All right. Well, we'll get to that, then. I want everyone to get their wands out. Can I have a few volunteers to help me bring out some of these pots?"

A few students immediately went forward, and Rebecca was one of them. She trotted behind four or five others that disappeared out of the back of the greenhouse, and Finn gave a confused look to Charlie.

"A bit unprepared, don't you think?" he asked, and Finn snickered.

In a line, the teacher and the students came trudging back in with several large planters, and they were set along the large wooden table that ran down the entire span of the greenhouse. They soon disappeared to fetch more, and Charlie gave a short look into one of the planters.

Each of them was populated with an array of indigo colored flowers. Finn found them to be almost beautiful, and went to touch one of the petals with Charlie pulled his hand away.

"Don't touch it," he warned, "That's aconite."

"It's not poisonous to touch," Loki's voice scoffed from across the table.

"It's toxic to any porous skin," Rhys interrupted, "Like fingers. Idiot."

Loki actually didn't bother sending a remark his way, instead glowering down at the plant as though it gave off the most horrendous odor. When Professor Longbottom came back in with the rest of the batch, he hurried to the front of the greenhouse with an exhausted breath and spoke as loud as he could.

"All right. Now, since we'll be working with our hands today, I hope everyone brought their gloves. Yes?"

There was an echoing shuffle as everyone dug through their bags for their gloves. Finn was feeling unbearably hot in the humidity of the greenhouse, and was considering taking off his sweater.

"Gloves on? All right. Now, can anyone tell me what plant you're looking at?" The professor pulled on his own gloves although his hands were already covered in dirt, as well as the entire front of his robes.

"Aconite, sir," Loki said immediately, interrupting Rhys and making him tap impatiently on the table. Finn stared with his eyes narrowed as the teacher awarded Slytherin five points.

"Very good. Now, I'm sure many of you are going to learn about the aconite plant in your Potions classes, but you'll hear it from me first, seeing as I've got a little problem."

They all leaned against the table as he continued to speak.

"Aconite, also commonly called monkswood, or the wolfsbane plant, is a very common ingredient in potion making. Can be highly poisonous if not handled properly, which is why I've got you all with your gloves on."

Rhys stuck his tongue out at Loki while the boy wasn't looking, and Finn and Charlie laughed to themselves. Finn was happy to see Rhys finally smile.

"Unfortunately for my stock of aconite here, it slipped my mind to put slug repellant on them last night. So, I'm going to assign jobs to each of you for today, and ten points will go to whichever house finishes their tasks the quickest and most efficiently."

At the mention of a contest, everyone perked up. They all separated into four separate sections of the large table by their houses, and the professor came around with large pots, up to Finn's waist.

"All right, I want a couple of you around the pot, and the rest of you, dig for slugs!" Finn felt that Professor Longbottom said this all a bit to eagerly, but he leaned over the planter just the same. He saw Loki standing beside the large flower pot with his arms crossed, as if digging in dirt was beneath him.

Charlie and another girl from their house stood beside the flower pot and waited for instructions. Finn looked over at Rebecca with a shrug. They both plunged their hands into the cool soil and turned it over in their hands.

As soon as the tasks had begun, there were several squeals from some of the girls as they dropped the slimy creatures onto the floor and wrung their hands about.

"No, not on the floor!" the professor shouted, "In the pot! Throw the slugs into the pots! Quickly, now, come on!"

The other students laughed and giggled while some of them made retching sounds from peeling the slugs off of the floor of the greenhouse and putting them into the large pots. The teacher went around inspecting each pot until a good dozen or so slugs inhabited each one.

"All right, now, those of you not digging, here's your task. And I want you to speak very clearly when you do this, and focus really hard, I don't want you burning down my greenhouses." At the mention of burning, the rest of the students straightened up. "This is why you've got your wands out. Now, watch closely as I do this."

He walked up to the large pot between Charlie and the other girl. He waved his wand just a bit down into the pot and said calmly, "Incendio."

A wisp of bright flame twisted from the tip of his wand and incinerated the slugs at the bottom of the flower pot, twisting them into black crisps before they disappeared entirely.

"Got it?" he said, looking at the two who clutched their wands nervously. "It's easy, go on, just try it out. You do it calmly, and think small."

Professor Longbottom hurried away to the next group of students to show them the same spell, and Charlie cleared his throat, looking at the other girl. "Well, after you."

Finn watched them for a second before going back to digging his hands into the soil of the planter again. He looked over at Rebecca, who was laughing as she played with a slug that crawled around her glove and onto her wrist.

"They're cute," she said, turning around and showing her new slimy friend to Charlie.

"If you say so," he shrugged, shaking his head with a chuckle.