Year One - Chapter 19

After giving the book to Ron and Hermione, she insisted on trying to talk to me, to be honest, I wasn't even mad at her anymore, I just wanted her to apologize, but she never tried to do that, just started talking to me like if nothing had happened so I kept ignoring her and sitting with Neville in most of the classes. Well, today that was a mistake.

After my dad explained to us the function of the Wiggenweld Potion, he made us do it for the rest of the class; everything seemed to be going well, Neville was following my instructions and his potion wasn't looking that bad.

—Now you have to add the flobberworm mucus, no, that's boom berry juice, you add that one later. Yes, it's that one, add it until the potion turns oran—

—Eileen! Do I have to remind you one more time that you are doing this potion individually? 1 point from Gryffindor

—I'm sorry.

I started to work on my potion until my dad finally stopped standing behind me and left, so I whispered to Neville.

—Just follow the instructions, it's really easy.

He looked extremely nervous and was even shaking, but he nodded anyway, he knew if I kept helping him, my dad would give us detention to both of us.

I kept working on my potion, looking sideways to Neville's just to make sure everything was going as good as possible, but because I was helping him a lot I was a little behind with mine, I stopped paying attention to him and focus on mine so that I could finish it on time. Oh, Merlin, what a mistake.

I was about to finish when I heard bubbling coming from Neville's cauldron, I turned to see what was going on because that wasn't supposed to happen, at this point his potion should have a turquoise colour, but his was completely brown like mud and was bubbling intensely as if the potion had feelings and was angry, really angry.

—Neville! —I whispered.— What did you do?

—I-I-I don't know, I added the Honey Water and it turned like that.

—Let me see that.

I grabbed the flask he had in his hand and while inspecting it I noted that the label where it said 'Honey Water' was falling and underneath it said 'Dittany' why were the ingredients changed?

—W-what is going to—

Neville couldn't finish his question because the potion exploder and he and I ended up completely covered with the contents of the cauldron. With my hands, I cleaned up the remains of the potion that fell on my eyes and after opening them, the first thing I saw was my dad's face, there was a mix of fear, worry and anger in his eyes. I quickly interchanged Neville's cauldron with mine, so I gave him my potion, which was also ruined because parts of Neville's potion had fallen inside, but at least it was going to save him from detention.

—Longbottom!

I looked at Neville and he looked like a ghost, he was completely pale and wasn't blinking

—P-p-professor, I-I…

—It was my fault, dad, my potion was the one that exploded. I wasn't paying attention.

—Out, both.

—What? —Neville and I said at the same time.

—Out!

We left the classroom almost running and stayed outside waiting. We didn't have to wait much before he got out of the room, completely furious. He pulled out his wand and did a different version of the Scouring Charm, but the result was the same, my robes and my face were completely cleaned. He also cleaned Neville's clothes and face.

—I want to know what happened.

To our surprise, he spoke in a very calm way; I could see he was completely furious but was doing his best not to shout.

—It was my fault, dad.

—T-that's not true, professor. It was my fault.

I turned to see Neville, completely shocked, I couldn't believe he was really telling the truth to my dad and was even looking at him in the eyes, what happened to dumb Neville who was scared to be in the same room as my father?

—Are you going to really say whose fault was it or are you going to keep protecting each other? —Oh great, you could hear more clearly that he was getting angrier.

—What happened, dad, was… Yes, it was Neville's potion the one that exploded, but it wasn't his fault, look. —I handed him the flask, I was stilling holding it tightly in my hand, the one that was actually Dittany and not Honey Water; he grabbed it and started to inspect it.— See? Someone put a label on top so that the person who grabbed it would think it was Honey Water. I was watching his potion all the time and it was perfect until he added this.

—Where did you get this, Longbottom?

—F-from the students' supply cupboard, professor.

—Go back inside the classroom and wait until the class ends.

We walked inside the room again, as soon as we opened the door, everyone turned to see who it was, and they looked extremely surprised to see that we were still alive. Neville and I only sat back down on our seats and waited for the class to finish.

—Why did you do that? —I whispered.

—What?

—Tell the truth to my dad.

—I don't know… I guess… Well, I really thought about what you guys said to me last night. —I frowned, waiting for him to keep talking because I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.— The hat put me on Gryffindor for some reason, right?

—Oh, yes, the hat was right. That was very brave, Nev. —He smiled while I was patting his shoulder.

—I still felt I was going to piss all over me.

I tried hard not to laugh and ended up coughing really hard, making everyone turn to see me again and I stopped coughing.

The class finished after 15 minutes and after that disaster, I walked to the Black Lake to help Roger with the flying seahorse. It hadn't rained all day, but the sky was completely grey, so it was best not to stay outside for long.

When I got to the Lake, he was already there, throwing some stones into the lake.

—Ready to catch those seahorses?

Looked like he was completely distracted thinking in something because he got scared when he heard me and dropped the stone he had in his hand.

—Ah. —He smiled when he saw me, picked up the stone he had dropped and throw it to the lake.— Hullo, Eileen.

—Hi. So, are you ready? But I'm gonna need you to explain the charm to me, Fred only mentioned it but didn't explain it.

—Sure, take out your wand.

I grabbed my wand from one of the pockets of my robe and pointed it to the lake, he stood right next to me, grabbed my hand with his and started to move it in the form of a V.

—And then you just have to say Carpe Retractum.

—Oh, that's easy.

We started looking for the flying seahorses, throwing more stones to the lake to provoke them and make them go flying. It wasn't that hard to catch them; the difficult part was putting them in the glass jar.

We talked about our classes for a while and somehow came up the topic of the incident that happened today, so I started telling him everything that happened, from me helping Neville until my dad made us go back to the classroom.

—The flask had another label? So, do you think any of your classmates did it?

—Well, I suppose, but I don't know who, I couldn't recognize the handwriting.

I put the last seahorse in the jar and handed it to Roger, he put it away in his bag, I grabbed mine and we started walking back to the castle.

—Why do you need so many of them, anyway? The potion only needs three.

—I… I may or may not have lost a bet to Cedric Diggory.

I smirked; boys can sometimes be complete idiots.

—And what was the bet?

—Well… —He chuckled and put a hand behind his head.— It was something dumb.

—Ah, come on! What was it?

—We bet who could hold up more time in a classroom full of dungbombs. The loser had to capture the seahorses.

—What is it why you guys and your dumb bets? —I started laughing and he smiled.— The other day, Seamus dared Dean that he couldn't eat 20 donuts in less than 10 minutes.

—And he did it?

—Sadly, yes. You don't want to know what happened next.

He laughed and I felt something falling on my head, I looked up and the sky was full of clouds, more and more drops started falling over my face; in a matter of seconds it was raining a lot, Roger and I started running, covering our shoes with mud.

We walked to the Entrance Hall and stood there, trying to catch our breath. I looked at our clothes all wet and full of dirt, dripping and creating a puddle of mud.

—If Filch finds us like this, he's going to kill us.

Roger grabbed his wand and did a complicated movement with his hand while whispering something; a wave of warm air came out of the tip of his wand, drying our clothes and hair.

—I think we still have time to go to the Great Hall and eat something quick. —He said while looking at the watch in his right arm.— Do you want to go?

I nodded and we walked up the great marble staircase, leaving just a little bit of dirt after each step.

—Have you talk to your father?

—No, the game is tomorrow, right? I'll talk to him after dinner, I just hope he isn't mad at me for what happened in class.

—I know I asked you, but you really don't have to do it if you don't want to.

—No, it's fine… The Gryffindor Quidditch team also asked me to do it, or, well, it looked like it… And of course, I also want Gryffindor to win.

We entered the Hall and I saw that my dad was still here, he frowned when he saw us and was looking at Roger, I rolled my eyes and said goodbye to Roger, we left to sit in our tables, there weren't a lot of people here because lunch was almost about to finish, but Fred and George were still there, so I sat in front of them.

—Hi, guys.

—Hey, Leen. We saw you enter with Mister Davies, is there something you want to tell us?

—What is there to say? We're just friends, just like I'm friends with you two.

—Yeah, sure. Lee saw you yesterday, very hidden in the library with him and now you two come to lunch when it's about to finish, what were you doing when everyone was here? Giving little kisses to Ravenclaw's Chaser?

George started giving kisses to the air while I felt my cheeks get a little bit red and hot, Fred was just quiet and concentrated on eating his food.

—Ew! Roger and I are only friends, and if you really want to know, I was helping him catch some flying seahorses, that's why we were late.

George laugh and Fred was still quiet, I just started to serve myself the leftovers of tomato soup.

—Well, Leen, we'll go to the pitch to train, wanna come with us?

—Are you going to train with this rain?

—Oliver orders, he really wants to win the cup this year. So…?

—No, sorry, I think I prefer to stay here with my clothes dry. Good luck.

They left and I ended up alone eating my soup, I could feel a pair of eyes watching me from the professors' table and when I looked up, I saw my dad looking at me.

—Where were you?

I was startled when I heard that and dropped the spoon, splashing myself with a little bit of soup, am I going crazy and finally, hearing voices?

—You are not crazy. —I grabbed the spoon again and kept eating when I realized the voice belonged to my dad's. —With Legeremancy I can not only see your memories and your feelings, but I can also hold a conversation with you inside your mind.

—You could've told me earlier, don't you think? —I answered him inside my mind.

—I admit it was funny to see you get startled. —I looked up to see him and I saw that behind his cup of coffee he was smiling, I stuck out my tongue as discreetly as I could, and he was still smiling. I can't believe he thinks this is funny!— You haven't answered my question, what were you doing and why were you with Mr Davies?

—Isn't it obvious, dad? We were here, at Hogwarts, where else could we have been?

—Hogsmeade, maybe?

—Don't you have a class you should be in?

—We'll talk about this later, Eileen. I know you don't have more classes now, so I want you to wait in my office. Come on.

I lazily got up from my seat, grabbed my bag from under the table and followed my dad outside of the Hall, we walked down the marble staircase and kept walking to his office.

—Hey, dad…

—Yes?

—I'm sorry for what happened in class. —He put his hand in my right shoulder and squeezed it a little bit.— You're not mad at me, are you?

—No, I know it was not your fault or surprisingly, Longbottom's fault. —I smirked after I heard him say that, Neville isn't that bad in classes when he isn't working under pressure.

—Do you have any idea of who could've done it?

—Not yet.

We kept walking and I realized that he took me to the potion's classroom and not his office. There was no one outside so I assumed all the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were already inside.

—I don't want you to cause any distraction and go directly to my office.

—Me? Cause a distraction? I'm offended, father.

He sighed and I chuckled. When my dad opened the door, everyone inside stopped making any kind of noise, I walked behind my dad and it was so funny to see the confused faces some of them were making, I saw Roger sitting in the front, next to Cedric, I waved my hand and he waved back.

My dad started to write some things on the board with his wand and I walked to the end of the room, where the door to his office was. I opened the door and closed it behind me as quietly as I could. I walked to the door where a little kitchen was and sat down in the table that was in the middle of the room. I pulled out some parchment from my bag and started doing my D.A.D.A homework, we had to do an essay about the Gytrash. Professor Quirrell had only assigned us to do one page, but I got excited and ended up doing three pages.

I was adding the final details to my essay when I heard someone opening the door to the office and seconds later I saw my dad walking into the kitchen and headed directly where the coffee maker was and started making himself a cup of coffee.

—Hi, did you have a good class?

—No, one potion could've exploded if I hadn't noticed it in time.

—Does that happen a lot? Potions that go bad.

—More than you think.

—I just don't know what's so hard about following instructions…

He sat next to me with a cup of coffee in hand and started reading my essay.

—You wrote 'Gytrash' wrong.

I looked where his finger was pointing and sure enough, in the title, I had written 'Jytrash'

—I knew it looked weird… —I grabbed my quill and tried to write it correctly, but I couldn't even notice if it was a G or a J anymore, ah, doesn't matter, professor Quirrell knows what I'm talking about.— What did you want to talk to me about?

—I want to know what your relationship with Mr Davies is.

—Relationship? —I chuckled.— We're just friends. I think. Acquaintances?

—And where were you during lunchtime?

—Agh! Not this again, dad… — I turned around in my chair to look at him better and he was frowning for the ten thousand times this day.— George asked me the same question when he saw us walking into the Hall. I was just helping him to catch the seahorses for your class. He helped me carrying some books yesterday and I returned the favour.

He gave another sip to his coffee and stared at something in the wall in front.

—You are hanging out with a lot of boys lately. I don't like it.

—But, what's the problem?

—I know how problematic boys can be at that age.

—Are you saying you were problematic? —I smiled widely, and he just took another sip of his coffee.— Will you let me try your coffee?

—No.

—Oh, come on! I'm already 12 years old.

—I won't let you drink coffee until you are 16.

I sighed in frustration, sometimes it's tiring that he keeps treating me like a five-year-old girl. He got up and left the cup in the sink, which started cleaning itself.

—If you still have work to do, you can stay here and do them. I'll be in my office marking some essays.

—Wait! About tomorrow's match…

—I won't let Gryffindor win.