I do not own Harry Potter.

Albus left the common room feeling a lot better with himself, after talking with Rose. His first class of the year was Potions, despite it already being the third week of the Autumn term in late September, and he assured himself that he would try his best to make an impression and remember people he knew even if he felt sick all over and shuddering with nervous. At least his talk with Rose had relieved some stress.

Esther and Arthur were waiting for him at the top of one of the many staircases in the castle; he remembered them the best so he had decided to stick with them. "How are you?" Esther asked.

"Like if you stuffed a tomato with dynamite and threatened to put it in a microwave. I feel awful! That talk with Rose made me feel better, but I really don't feel good. Am I taking by recovery too fast?" Groaned Albus, starting to walk with them down the stairs.

"No, of course not!" Esther said reassuringly.

"If you took things any slower you'd be the world's slowest sloth!" laughed Arthur.

"Shut up!" Esther said.

"So what are we doing in Potions?" Albus asked.

"A mixture of different draughts, still just the basics though."

"Today we're doing a sleeping draught; mine'll probably fail, as usual. I'm rubbish at Potions, as you might know," Arthur explained.

"I know, you caused a cauldron to explode the first time I met you, didn't you?" Albus remembered.

"Yes!" smiled Arthur.

"What else do we have today?" Albus asked as they wandered further down into the school, close to the Slytherin common room and the Potions department.

"Astronomy with Redgrave, Hagrid for Magical Creatures, boring old Binns, and we're transforming animals into water goblets all this week with McGonagall!" explained Esther.

"Doesn't sound like a bad first day," Albus summarised, as they lined up outside Slughorn's room. Further down the dark, stone corridor was Professor Rabbitheart and his class of fourth years, the class with James, Jack and Robbie. Professor Rabbitheart was a tall, young looking man. The contrast between his thin, bony body his black cape was quite strange to look at; Albus thought he looked like a stick insect in a superhero cape. Despite his appearance, he looked like a nice person and an enthusiastic teacher.

"Albus, it's you! It's great to see you again, even if you have gone mad!" A blonde haired girl with large blue eyes grinned.

"He didn't go mad, Amelia, he just got amnesia," A taller boy, also with blonde hair, corrected.

"Thanks, Jacob, I was trying to lighten the mood!" Jacob gave a puzzled expression. "Anyway, Albus, how are you?" Amelia asked with a broad smile.

"I'm good. A lot better now I'm starting school again!" Albus smiled.

"And us," began Amelia, taking Jacob's hand and hugging him tightly, "can you remember me and Jay Jay?"

Jacob grimaced at the name Jay Jay, but shrugged it off and hugged her back.

"Yes, I suppose," Albus replied, a bit unsure of the situation.

"That's amazing!" Amelia screamed, jumping up and down with excitement. "No, but seriously, forgetting me and my Jacob, that would not be cool! If you're friends with cool people, it's like so disrespectful to forget them. I just wouldn't be cool! On a lighter, talking about cool, you are invited to my and Jacob's first term party!"

"That's nice," Albus said, thinking you are so crazy, and have you noticed how fast you talk as he did so.

"I know, right! All the cool people are coming: me, Jacob, Matt, Mike, Lis, Ben, Courtney, Ashley . . . It's gonna be great!"

"Wow! So, am I like one of the popular people now?" Albus asked, hopefully.

"No! Of course not!" Amelia laughed with a smile. "It's just that surviving a potentially life threatening accident is really sexy, to the girls at least. They went crazy when they found out you'd battled a hoard of Acromantula . . ."

"I battle the Acromantula too," Arthur interrupted. "Did the girls go crazy over me and find me sexy?" he said, flicking and spiking his hair as he used his smooth as voice.

Amelia responded with a blank expression. "Why would they? All the girls think you're weird. The only reason they would consider liking you is because of the Twenty Twelve Big One, but I was a victim of it and ended up vomiting all day, so all my girlfriends hated you!" Amelia laughed. "But back to you, Al. The party's in our common room on Friday at eight onwards, but people from other houses are coming too so you're going to have to keep it a secret. One more thing, you can have a plus one. But not weirdo over there!" Amelia sewed, glaring at Arthur.

"That's fine, I was gonna take Esther anyway." Albus smiled and held Esther's hand.

Amelia gasped, "You have a girlfriend?! You are way cooler than I thought! I'll see you at the party then!" Amelia smiled once more and pulled Jacob with her to the back of the line. As they left, Albus caught a glimpse of Jacob mouthing something to them, but he couldn't be sure exactly of what he was trying to say. Something about Amelia being a crazy person.

The classroom door opened and out came Professor Slughorn, dressed in his emerald and amber robes with a bow tie and hat. "Hello students, lead in!" Slughorn greeted the class the in a deep, excited voice.

Slowly, the class led into the classroom. Albus, Esther and Arthur were about to go in when Slughorn stopped them. "Hello, Mr Potter! And might I ask, how are you today?"

"I'm good, Sir."

"That's nice! I believe you got bitten by an Acromantula, I don't want to seem boastful but I was the one that made the brew that fought against the infection." Said Slughorn, chuckling slightly. "How's the amnesia, better I'm hoping?"

"A lot better, Sir, I can remember most things now." Albus stated.

"Brilliant! Today's lesson is basic, not much harder than the topics we've previously covered. I believe Rose may be able to help you catch up: she's rather good at this subject! She may nearly be skilled enough for the "Slug Club", I believe it's being called. Maybe next year she'll be good enough to be enrolled!"

Slughorn gestured for Albus and the others to enter. All the hand labelled vases, the flaming cauldrons and cutting equipment brought back many memories to Albus. He was particularly reminded of his first encounter with Arthur, and all the following lessons he'd spent concocting draughts and elixirs at an average standard. The room was lit by a dim orange and emerald glow, and the flames under the cauldrons warmed the room while the cold, underground weather cooled it. Slughorn stood at the front of the room and began the lesson.

"Hello, boys and girls! In today's lesson we'll be creating a simple sleeping draught. This draught is used for putting the subject to sleep for between two and six hours, its effects are harmless, but in school hours, you can get in severe trouble for using it. For this task, you may work individually but have help from the three other people at your station. For those of you that aren't aware of our seating arrangements, consult the sheet on the board," added Slughorn, giving Albus a discrete nod. "Many of the ingredients you will need already be on your desk in the correct quantities, but ingredients of more common uses can be found in one of the many jars around the room. Instructions on how to make the sleeping draught are on page two hundred and nine in your textbooks. If you are having troubles, please consult me rather than trying to fix the problem yourself. Off you go!"

Whilst the class went to their seats and started inspecting the instructions, Albus went to the front of the class to look at the seating plan. Pinned to the black board was the seating plan, where a piece of chalk was hovering in the air, jotting down bullet points for the class to follow. Rows of stations were drawn on the plan, each with the names of the people sitting there written in the correct place. Albus' name was written on the same station as Esther, Poppy and a boy that Albus had never spoken to before: Sebastien Austfergan.

Sebastien was a black boy from Ravenclaw, with eyes so dark brown they were nearly black and short curly hair. Everyone knew that Sebastien had been in a car accident when he was younger, and because of that, he had to use a wheelchair. Albus had never really spoken to him before; he'd never really had to. They would smile at each other and say hi when they met in a corridor, although there wasn't much more communication between them than that.

"Hey, over here!" Esther called from across the room.

Albus joined the group at a round table with four pewter pots lit by Bunsen burners and wooden chopping boards accompanied by rounded knives and herbs in clay pots. The table was split into four sections, Sebastien's section was built lower so that he could have easy access to it.

"Book, Albus?" Esther reminded him. Albus took out his book and turned to page two hundred and nine.

1. Grind 1 inch of Bicorn horn into a thick paste in a pestle and mortar with five drops of Salamander blood

2. Simmer an infusion of finely sliced Mistletoe Berry and Dragon Milk until it turns a deep indigo colour.

3. Continue to simmer the Mistletoe infusion whilst chopping Rat's Tail into 28mm long pieces.

4. Add the Rat's Tail to the Mistletoe infusion and boil vigorously for two minutes.

5. Mix counter clockwise with a wooden spoon twenty times, then thrice clockwise. By now, the potion should be bright magenta.

6. Slowly fold in the Bicorn horn paste in 1 2/3 teaspoon lots.

7. Drop a Peppermint Leaf on top of the concoction; if brewed properly it should turn transparent with the potion.

Albus didn't think that seemed too hard. A thin vile of blood was already at his section, along with a branch of mistletoe, a jug of dragon milk and a long, leathery rat tail. The rest of the class was already simmering their infusions, so Albus didn't want to spend much more time fussing over finding ingredients.

As Albus was starting to mark the one inch on his horn, Slughorn waddled over to Albus' table with Rose. "I hope everyone's getting on alright here! Anyway, I was thinking that Poppy here could swap with Rose, only for this lesson, just to help my good friend, Albus here, catch up." Rose and Poppy swapped places. "Thank you for your time!" Slughorn went back to inspecting everyone's work.

"Hey, Al!" Rose smiled, awkwardly. Albus smiled back.

Despite every attempt Albus made, the bicorn horn could not be sliced. He stabbed at it, tried to slice it, and even squash it; all it did was slip out the way and bounce around the table.

"Having trouble?" asked Rose.

"Have a guess!" Albus replied, stabbing the horn and sending it into Sebastien's stomach. "Sorry . . ."

"It's alright," said Sebastien, placing the horn back where it was. "Do know what would help . . ."

"A rounded blade," Rose interrupted, "I used that round blade and it sliced like a Excalibur through butter."

"Or, you could cut it slower," Sebastien suggested.

Albus tried Sebastien's method; he used the same knife but cut it at half the speed. The horn was sliced like Excalibur through butter. "Thank you, Sebastien!"

"Just Seb. My sister is obsessed with The Little Mermaid and it drives be crazy," explained Seb.

"You have a sister? How old is she?" Albus asked.

"Seven, but she's already great at magic. The last time I saw her, she was enchanting my dad's phone to glow pink when he got a message."

"I thought underage magic was against the law?"

"It is, but when you're in primary school it's not treated that seriously. The worst she got was a warning from a howler."

"Wow! Did you ever get in trouble like that?"

"I made a Potion that melted my Headmaster's nose off, he needed a rhinoplasty worth three and a half thousand pounds." The whole table started laughing (apart from Rose who was annoyed at Seb for correcting the mistake she'd caused).

"So are all your family members amazing at everything?" Esther asked.

"Each person in our family seems to be great at one specific thing. My sister's great at Charms, my mum's great a Herbology, my other brother in the third year is amazing at Transfiguration, my dad, oddly, is into Wizard Sciences and I'm quite good at Potions." Seb explained.

Whilst Sebastien and Esther continued to talk about their families, Albus continued making his sleeping draught. His paste looked about right, so he started his Mistletoe infusion. A berry was plucked and sliced from the branch he was given, but then he realised, how much dragon milk should he use?

"How much dragon milk should I put in?" Albus enquired to Rose.

"Don't you read? If you look in the last chapter in the books, it says that in situations like this, you add small amounts of the liquid until the optimal colour is achieved," answered Rose.

"Ok." Albus did what Rose said and poured drops of the dragon milk into cauldron with the Mistletoe berry. First, the infusion turned white, then green, then lilac, and then a grizzle black. "Damn it, I added too much!" Albus cried.

"That's alright, I know how to fix that," Seb said, pointing his wand at Albus' cauldron, "Corrigo!"

Albus' sleeping draught turned from black to indigo, the perfect indigo. "That was amazing! You really are great at Potions!"

By the time Albus added a peppermint leaf, the Potion was nearly perfect, thanks to Seb. As he packed up his bag for the next lesson, Albus couldn't help feeling that he'd made a valuable friend in Seb. Not only was he going to be a valuable friend, but he was also funny, clever and helpful. However, there was something else. Something about his name. Something about that name, Austfergan, that scared and intrigued him . . .

Thank you for reading! :-) As always, please review! A rhinoplasty is the medical word for a nose job by the way. I promise that the next chapter will be fun but scary, and may contain dragons!