Oliver's POV:
I sat nervously in a chair in the small waiting area outside of Professor McGonagall's office. Our head of house and Professor Dumbledore were within the office now talking to Percy. Charlie had gone in with his younger brother which left me alone with nothing to do but wait and worry.
I wasn't really worried about myself. Other than getting in trouble for disrupting the quietness of the library during my brief altercation with Marcus that Madam Pince had already addressed, I hadn't done anything. No, my concern was for my friend. Just how much trouble was Percy going to get into over this? Would McGonagall and Dumbledore decide to expel him from school for making it rain in the library? Not to mention, just how did Percy manage to conjure those spells? We hadn't learned any of the three he had used yet. I thought about the wind blowing the torches out back at the beginning of the school year. What I had seen my friend do so far was starting to scare me.
The sound of footsteps made me look up. I saw Emily walk into the waiting area followed closely by Marcus Flint and Professor Snape. The potions master had a hold of Flint's collar as my classmate walked reluctantly in the room. As Emily took a seat next to me, Snape deposited Flint in the first empty chair. Flint immediately crossed his arms and slumped in the chair, clearly having no desire to be here.
I glanced over at Emily, whose face showed many of the same things I was feeling myself. I reached out and took her hand, uneasy about saying anything with Professor Snape present.
The silence in the room felt awkward. I could hear the breathing of everyone in the room and concentrated on it instead of letting my mind wander through all the possible scenarios that could result from what had just happened. I wasn't sure how much time had passed when I heard another set of hurried footsteps approaching. Looking to the doorway, I saw Bill Weasley come quickly around the corner and then come to a quick stop when he noticed Professor Snape.
"Mr. Weasley," Snape said easily.
"Hello, Professor," Bill said, before dropping his voice as he continued to address our potions teacher.
Even without hearing the conversation, I had a feeling I knew what the conversation was about - that Bill was trying to find out exactly what had happened instead of the stories he had heard. The fact that he had showed up told me that he had heard something.
The sound of the office door opening drew my attention away from Bill and Snape. Charlie and Percy walked out of the office, my friend looking down on the ground. The two of them took seats in two empty chairs.
"Mr. Wood, we would like to speak to you next."
McGonagall's voice drew my attention away from Percy and his brother. A feeling of trepidation washed over me as I got to my feet and slowly walked toward the professor who stood in the doorway of the office. Part of me wished that Rob was here with me.
Almost an hour later we were all finally leaving Professor McGonagall's office. I almost felt sorry for Flint as he headed toward the dungeons with Snape. The only thing keeping me from feeling bad for him was the fact that it had been Flint who had started this entire mess.
"The three of you head straight for the Great Hall. Dinner is already underway," Bill instructed us.
"But we've still got things in the library," Emily said, "though everything is probably completely ruined."
"You'd be surprised at what a little magic can fix," Bill told her. "Charlie and I will go to the library and gather your things."
Without another word, my fellow first years and I headed in the direction of the Great Hall.
"So, how much trouble did you get into?" I asked Percy as we walked down the corridor. Other than a short lecture from McGonagall about the importance of following rules and not disturbing others while in the library I hadn't received any punishment.
"I've got to serve two detentions with Madam Pince for retaliating against Flint and I lost thirty points for Gryffindor. Most of my time in McGonagall's office was spent receiving a lecture from Professor Dumbledore about the importance of not trying spells that we haven't been properly trained to do."
"Well, all things considering, that's not too bad," Emily said, as she walked down the corridor behind me and Percy.
"Frankly, I'm surprised I wasn't expelled," Percy said.
"I thought you wanted out of here," I told him, trying to lighten the mood. I hadn't actually heard Percy say anything about wanting to go home in awhile and he had seemed more settled here lately. My words didn't have their intended effect though.
"As much as I wouldn't mind getting out of here, I'm starting to think I need to be here," Percy said quietly. "It's starting to scare me that I find things easy that people seem to think I shouldn't be able to do. Even McGonagall and Dumbledore seemed surprised when I told them I had simply read about those spells in one of Charlie's schoolbook and that no one had shown me how to do it."
"You just have a greater natural ability for magic than most people do," Emily said. "Just like there are some kids born to a wizard and a witch that have no magical ability what-so-ever, or a child born to two parents without any magical tendency, there are some wizards and witches that show a stronger magical ability than others. Professor Dumbledore is thought to be one of the most powerful wizards of our day."
"So was You-Know-Who," I added quietly.
"Somehow that thought doesn't comfort me."
"Sorry, Perce," I said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Look at it this way though mate, you've finally done something that neither of your brothers has done yet. You made it rain in the library!"
"Somehow I don't think my parents are going to be too happy about that accomplishment," Percy replied, though I did see a small smile come to his face.
The three of us continued to the Great Hall in silence. As Bill had said, dinner was already underway and most of our classmates were already within the hall. The Gryffindor table was almost full, but I saw the normal spaces that we occupied empty. As Emily made her way between the aisle between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables, Percy and I started down the other aisle.
I noticed students at both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables fell silent as we approached. Their attention was focused on Percy who was ahead of me. Reaching out, I placed my hand on his shoulder, letting him know that he wasn't facing this alone.
We reached the empty seats without incident. As we our places at the table across from Emily and Ellen, the talk around us continued back up again.
"Great, I'm going to be the talk of school again," Percy said, as we started filling our plates.
"You made it rain in the library, Perce. What do you expect?" I asked, unable to keep the amusement I was feeling out of my voice.
"So it's true then?" Ellen asked, looking around at all three of us.
"Yes. I definitely could have done without my robes catching on fire though," Emily replied.
"I told you I was sorry about that. I didn't intend for that to happen," Percy told her.
"I know you didn't," Emily replied.
"I miss all the cool stuff," Ellen said, as she rested her elbow on the table and propped her head up on one hand. "I bet this goes down as a school legend. Something that will be remembered even after we've graduated."
"With any luck my name won't be remembered with it. Somehow I don't think the Ministry will look to highly on the fact that I destroyed school property with a rain storm."
"You heard Professor McGonagall. Most of the books should be able to be restored from the water damage."
"I sure hope so."
Deciding that steering the conversation away from the current subject I steered the conversation to our classes. We were in a discussion of the quiz we had taken in our Charms class earlier that day when Bill and Rob appeared behind Emily our things from the library in their hands.
"There you are," Bill said, as he and my brother handed our belongings to us. "Everything has been dried out and restored. I couldn't find any trace of whatever was left of your essay though Perce. Someone must have thrown the parchment away before I got there."
"I guess I'll have to just rewrite," Percy said. "If they let me back in the library."
"Well, you don't have to find out tonight," Charlie said, placing two more books on the table in front of his younger brother. "Those were still on the table you were sitting at so I figured they were what you were working from."
"Thanks, Charlie."
"Just don't make it rain in here, Kiddo," Charlie told him, reaching across the table and ruffling Percy's already unruly hair after having air dried from being wet and not being combed. "I want to eat my food without it getting soggy."
I stifled the laugh, able to put myself in Percy's shoes. I know what it was like to get teased by an older brother.
The older two Weasleys left to join their own friends, leaving my classmates and I to go back to the conversation they had interrupted.
Percy's POV:
"Come on, Perce. Being late isn't going to make things any better," Oliver called out over his shoulder as he hurried down the steps toward Snape's classroom.
"Don't be so sure about that," I said, not sure if it was loud enough for Oliver to hear and not really caring either.
The corridors were empty, those who had found their way down to this area of the castle having already reached their destination. I had been dragging my feet going places all day, in an attempt to keep away from people. As many students as there were at Hogwarts though, I hadn't been very successful.
I noticed Oliver had paused at the bottom of the steps to wait for me to catch up. Not wanting to get him in trouble I quickened my pace. Though most of our classmates were in the room as I entered, we weren't late, nor had Snape come into the room.
I walked to the front of the room trying to ignore the whispers that I felt were about me. Reaching the front row, I noticed something had been placed at my seat. Sliding past Oliver to my seat, I saw that it was a green and black umbrella which told me exactly who had put it there. I heard snickers around me as I sank down into my chair.
Beside me, Oliver snatched the umbrella and marched over to where Marcus sat, a smug look on his face.
"I believe you lost something, Flint."
"I don't believe I'm going to need it. I don't hang out with the walking rain shower."
"I was thinking more like you could hold it up in the next thunderstorm and perhaps some lighting would zap some decency into you," Oliver told him, as he dropped the umbrella onto Flint's desk.
There were several snickers from the other students, even on the Slytherin side of the room.
"You think you're clever, don't you Wood?"
"Clever enough to deal with the likes of you."
The sound of Marcus' chair scraping against the stone floor echoed throughout the dungeon classroom. Oliver didn't so much as flinch as Flint got to his feet, glaring at my friend. Before anything else could be said, another cold monotone voice spoke up.
"Is there a problem here gentlemen?"
All eyes turned to the back of the classroom, where Professor Snape had just stepped into the classroom.
"No, Professor," Oliver replied, his eyes still focused on Marcus. "Just returning something."
"Then perhaps you would like to return to your seat, Mr. Wood."
Oliver backed away from Marcus, not turning his back on the Slytherin until he had put some distance between them. Snape strode to the front of the classroom.
"Have you not looked out a window today, Mr. Flint? There isn't a cloud in sight so why don't you put that umbrella somewhere out of the way so we can work on potions today."
"Yes, Professor," Flint said, finally sitting down in his seat.
I turned my gaze to the front of the classroom, and didn't see what Marcus did with the umbrella. I focused on Professor Snape as he explained our class assignment to us. It wasn't long before we had our books open and were working on our latest potion. As we started sorting and cutting out our ingredients, Professor Snape walked through the classroom collecting our extra-credit essays. As I had stayed up late rewriting the one that had gotten damaged and then disappeared, I had one to turn in. After collecting them, Snape returned to his desk and proceeded to start grading them. Every so often I would cast my gaze in his direction and see his Quill working quickly. Apparently he wasn't going any easier on the grading of the extra-credit assignments than he did our regular assignments.
I was about to add Timberdust to the potion when Snape spoke up.
"Mr. Weasley, can I see you at my desk please."
"Yes, Professor," I replied, handing the vial containing the Timberdust to Oliver as I got to my feet.
I squeezed past his chair and made my way up to Snape's desk. Not sure what was going on, I didn't say anything as I stood in front of his desk and clasped my hands behind my back. Standing as straight as I could, I looked across the desk at him, struggling not to look down at the desk between us.
"Mr. Weasley, did you write your extra-credit essay on your own?"
"Yes, Professor."
"Did you perhaps discuss it with anyone in your house?"
"No, Professor."
"Then how do you explain this, Mr. Weasley."
Professor Snape placed two pieces of parchment down on his desk side by side. I recognized the one immediately as the essay I had turned in. I had to look at the name on the other parchment to see whose it was. In the top corner of the parchment I saw Jason's name scrawled. As I scanned his essay, it started to seem familiar and then I realized why - for the most part it was the first essay I had written in the library. Having based the second essay on what I wrote in the front, I knew the one I had turned in was similar to Jason's copied essay.
"As there are more than thirty uses for salamander blood in the field of potion making, and I asked for only four in the essay, I find it unlikely that two students would both randomly pick the same four. Add in the fact that they are discussed in the same order and for the most part impart the same information I do believe you can see my concern. So, I ask you again, can you explain this, Mr. Weasley."
"My first essay disappeared during the incident in the library last night," I said softly, still looking at the parchments on the desk.
"Just how did it disappear?"
I recounted to Snape the same events I had told Dumbledore and McGonagall the evening before but added the part about Bill and Charlie not being able to find the ruined essay.
"So, I rewrote the essay last night from what I could remember and using the library books."
"So, you believe Mr. Goyle took the ruined essay from the library and copied it."
"His essay is almost exactly like the first one I wrote," I said, realizing how lame those words seemed. I could already imagine an owl being sent to my parents informing them that I was caught cheating on a potions assignment and I wondered if they would believe me over Professor Snape.
"Well, Mr. Weasley, if you did the research like you claim you should be able to answer a few extra questions for me," Snape stated, reaching out and pulling the parchments toward him.
"I'll try, sir."
"How many other uses of salamander blood that you didn't mention in your essay can you name?"
I rattled off seven more uses that I remembered seeing being mentioned in the books I had been using for my research. Professor Snape asked me five more questions without letting me know if I had answered them correctly or not, though I was confident that I did.
"You many return to your seat, Mr. Weasley."
I nodded before turning to face the class. I saw heads duck as my classmates went back to acting like they were focused on the class assignment and not what was going on at the front of the class. I headed back toward my seat, wanting to really head right out the door at the back of the room.
"Mr. Goyle, I need to have a word with you," Snape called out.
"What was that about?" Oliver asked, as I sat down next to him.
"I'll tell you later," I told him. "Where are we?" I asked, wanting to immerse myself back into the process of potion making.
Whether I was imagining it or not, Jason seemed to be at Snape's desk for a shorter amount of time than I had been. However, when he past me on the way back to his desk, I could tell he was not happy even before the 'teacher's pet' comment that was directed toward me.
"That will be another five points from Gryffindor, Mr. Goyle," Snape called out.
I relaxed a little. Apparently Jason had gotten in some kind of trouble for the identical essays. As Snape said nothing else to me, I hoped that meant that the incident was over and done with. At least as far as our potions professor was concerned.