The first three weeks at Hogwarts passed swiftly.
For the first week or so, the prefects took it in turns to show the first years from class to class where possible. However, after a few days, Sirius, James and Erica began making their own way to class using various paintings and statues along the way as checkpoints that they were going in the right direction. When they weren't trying to find their classes or rushing for their meals in the Great Hall, they were wandering the grounds and the corridors of the school. Evenings found them crowded together in the common room either playing games or hurrying through some last-minute homework. Some afternoons they headed out into the grounds and practiced some of the spells they learned.
Slowly the shadow of what had happened on the train was beginning to lift from the students as a whole though it was still sometimes the subject of conversation especially after the Daily Prophet edition that came out the day after, blasting the maniacal conduct of the Death Eaters and highlighting to their readers why their cause could never have any merit. The Minister for Magic Eugenia Jenkins counselled everyone to stay calm and to do whatever they could to keep themselves safe. She promised that the Ministry's determination was now stronger than ever before and that extra security measures would be taken to protect the students. Rumours began to spread after that that people were pushing for the students to be kept at Hogwarts for both the Christmas and Easter periods this year following that attack. However a week later, the Minister revealed that they would not be "bowing to fear" and making such a decision.
At any rate such talk of the attack had rapidly decreased by the third week of school and people were looking ahead to the first Quidditch match of the season which was Gryffindor versus Slytherin that would take place in October. Excitement over Quidditch was helping to distract people from the daily horrors still printed in the Prophet.
As for Erica, she was thoroughly enjoying most of her classes. She had a particular fascination with Potions as well as Charms and Defence Against The Dark Arts. She was determined to learn as many defensive spells as she could, after what happened on the train but she rather liked the practicality of Potions. Professor Slughorn kept insisting on assigning them partners for each class, saying it would be a good way of getting to know each other. If he observed that a great deal of tension seemed to exist between the Gryffindor and Slytherin partners then he chose to ignore it.
Late Friday morning brought with it, Potions and the usual longing for the weekend. As students filed into the dungeon and stood around the desks, Horace Slughorn chuckled fondly at them all as he opened his textbook.
"I know I know, it's that time again. Two more classes and the weekend will stretch ahead of you all, I'm sure!" he declared with a massive smile. "But in the meantime, we will be brewing potions to cure boils today and I can assure you, when done properly, these will smell vile which is just as well since this is the class before lunch and daydreaming of food can be quite the calamity in Potion-making." He then clapped his hands together and his eyes swept around the room. "Now, partners!"
Gradually people were picked and paired off and moved to share a desk. James was assigned to work with the lumpy boy Peter Pettigrew while Sirius was partnered with Arcadia Vance. Erica was partnered with Severus Snape and the two of them moved to a desk at the front of the class while Slughorn continued to choose partners.
Severus gave her a kind of awkward, small nod of acknowledgment before getting his books out. "I've read up about this one before. It should be simple enough," he told her as he began to set up his equipment. As they both drew out their cauldrons, he hesitated and looked between the two of them. His cauldron had seen better days. The black paint was chipping away and it had a battered look to it like someone had used it to smash something up. Erica's on the other hand, still looked as polished and undamaged as the day she'd bought it in Diagon Alley. Severus' cheeks turned a little red. "Let's use yours for the potion, I'll stew the slugs in mine," he insisted brusquely as he put his cauldron aside. "We can use my scales," he added, placing his set on the table. Apart from the colour eroding away from them, they seemed capable enough. Erica set up the cauldron. They both headed to the front to help themselves to the ingredients in the store cupboard. A few minutes later they returned with their ingredients.
While everyone else was getting set up, Severus started polishing his scales. Once he had, Erica began measuring the dried nettles in the scales.
Once the rest of the class was ready, Slughorn took a seat at his desk. "Everyone turn to page 19," he instructed. He looked at his watch. "You have an hour and a half. Please, call out if you need help. Do not attempt something if you are not sure. I don't want to be sending anyone to the hospital wing." He said with a breezy laugh.
The class got to work and Severus got to work on the slugs while Erica began to crush the snake fangs with her pestle and mortal. Chatter slowly rose up among some groups while others continued to work in silence. Erica glanced over at Severus every now and again.
"Did you know Lily long before you came to Hogwarts?" she asked quietly, channeling her efforts into grinding the fangs finely.
Severus looked towards Erica and his shoulders went quite stiff. His stare was glassy and cool. "Why are you asking me that?" He tapped his wand against the side of his cauldron, heating up his water.
Erica briefly stopped what she was doing to do the same with her cauldron. "I was just curious," she told him, slightly nettled now. "She said you were good friends before you came here," she explained.
"Yes," Severus answered, tossing another slug in the cauldron. "We live quite close by so we've spent a lot of time together," he added before stirring his cauldron.
Erica wasn't sure if further questions would be welcome yet but she wasn't about to abandon her efforts to turn this into a continuous conversation. She finished grinding the the snake fangs and looked at her open textbook. She scooped out five or six spoonfuls and added them to her cauldron. She saw Severus glance into her cauldron and then look away quickly as though he'd been caught misbehaving. She smiled a little, putting the rest of her crushed fangs to side for now as per the instructions.
"Checking up on my side?" he asked with a grin.
Another tiny flush of colour illuminated his cheeks. "No," his tone was defensive.
Erica considered pushing it further but from the little she'd seen and heard of Severus in classes, he didn't seem to have much of a sense of humour and it just wasn't worth getting into an argument about it. What he was becoming well-known for already was a talent for Potions. While Erica considered herself to be giving the subject a good effort, her results had yet to approach Severus' own. For now anyway.
She poured the dried nettles from the scale into a separate bowl and picked some up in her fingers. She began to sprinkle it evenly over the potion. She put the bag down, stirred it six times counter clockwise and then gently sprinkled some more. The potion was beginning to turn a light green and a smell began to emanate from it. Erica covered her nose with the back of her hand. It smelt of rot with a sour sting added to it and her eyes began to water. She thought she saw Severus smile as he brought his own hand up to his nose.
"This looks cozy," a sneering voice from behind them spoke up. Erica turned around. At the desk behind them sat Slytherins Thorfinn Rowle and Nicholas Avery Rowle's raven hair was half hanging in his face. Cruel green eyes leered at Erica as his lips twisted into an unpleasant grin. The considerably better groomed Avery was leaning forwards, arms folded, his icy blue eyes darting between Severus and Erica. Their potions were bubbling away, smelling foul but not in the way Erica's was.
"You do well to cover your nose, Snape," Rowle spat, never taking his eyes off Erica. "I can attest to the aroma of that half-wit next to you. Oh," Rowle made a weak attempt at covering his mouth, "I mean halfblood. Silly me."
"Got it in one," Erica shot back, "it's silly you. Can't even tell the difference between someone else's aroma and your own." She turned back to her potion.
Both the Slytherins laughed mockingly.
"My my someone's deluded. But then you Snowdrops aren't known for being especially bright, are you?" Avery jeered.
"That's right. There's the older brutes," Rowle agreed. "Tyler and Gary."
It was Erica's turn to go very still. Fists c;lenched, forearms on the table, she could see her knuckles turning white.
Severus was looking sideways at her. "Just ignore them," he whispered so quietly that the two Slytherins wouldn't hear him. "They're just idiots."
"I doubt there's much of a braincell between them," Rowle continued. "And I'd say that probably runs in the family. Poor Severus here is gonna end up carrying you, Snowdrop." He threw something at Erica's back and she suspected it might have been a slug. "This is why people like you shouldn't be allowed to attend Hogwarts."
Erica thought of her parents, of them asking her to behave herself. But that image was rapidly paling in comparison to the boiling anger surging up in her chest. She would love to turn around and hex him but that would mean he would win and she would only lose house points and get detention. But all the same, it was so tempting. It would serve him right and it would be worth the detention. It would be worth it just to get one over on him. She took one slow breath after another; trying to rise above the impulse. She could and would control her response.
She stared ahead at the instructions on the next page of her textbook. Concentrate.
"Oooh it's the silent treatment," cackled Avery.
"Not really, Nicholas my friend," said Rowle, "she's just too stupid to come up with a response. Sad really. Pathetic even."
Erica's nails were biting into her palms. One fist loosened and grabbed at her wand.
"Don't," whispered Severus.
"This is quite entertaining," Rowle continued. "I mean she is actually as pathetic as a mudbloo-AGH!"
Something within Erica snapped like a string and behind her she heard a great sloshing sound followed by a cry from Avery as well. She and Severus turned around to see both of the Slytherins' cauldrons had tipped over and sent all of their contents over the desk and the laps of the yelling wizards. Both of whom were up on their feet and jumping about on the spot. Their hands were dripping with potion and gigantic boils were appearing on their hands.
All of the tension flowing through Erica immediately vanished and she turned to smile at Severus who returned it albeit with a cautious one. He lifted one eyebrow.
"I didn't mean to do it," she mouthed at him.
Slughorn was tutting heavily. "Oh dear, oh dear boys, how clumsy of you! Apparently you did not take heed when I said I didn't wish to send anyone to the hospital wing. And what a mess you have made," he said as he traipsed around his desk and approached their sopping one. "Evanesco!" he cleared the mess away and looked towards their things. "You two better go to the Hospital Wing and get those boils looked at. And clean yourselves off. You should be paying attention to your potions and not trying to chat to other teams."
He turned away, muttering something about boys will be boys. He reached his desk again and then turned his head. "I regret to say that I will deduct 10 points from Slytherin for being so careless. Very disappointed in you both."
Once Slughorn had sat back down and started looking through some papers on his desk, Erica looked back over her shoulder at the scowling faces and smirked. "I guess being pureblood isn't all it's cracked up to be, huh?" she said cattily and then turned back to her own potion. She heard the boys mutter curses and stalk off with their things.
The door slammed after them and, next to her, Severus seemed to relax a little. "Finally some peace and quiet," he muttered. He smiled a little more at Erica then eyed her potion. "Time for more snake fangs I think."
Erica added some along with another sprinkle of dried nettles. Severus scooped some of the stewed slugs out of his cauldron and dropped them into hers. The colour of the potion, after six clockwise stirs, began to darken.
"Now we let it simmer for a while," Severus declared. He began to clean his scales. As he did, his gaze shifted across the classroom to where Lily had been paired with Anastasia Yaxley, a haughty-looking thin girl with hair so pale it looked silver in the dim lighting of the dungeon. He looked away once he realised Erica was looking at him.
Erica's curiosity about Severus had been derailed by the Slytherin twerps but she wasn't sure that he would welcome any more questions. He had that kind of closed-off feel to him that Tyler had when he got in a mood.
They sat in silence for about ten minutes or so while their potion brewed. Erica passed some of the time by writing notes and re-reading the instructions. She looked over towards James whose cheek was resting against his hand while his other hand dumped clumps of dried nettles into the potion. Next to him Peter was looking more and more alarmed by the second. James saw Erica looking and lifted his head with a grin. He didn't notice the sparks flying from his cauldron though Peter was tugging on his robe.
"Mr Potter," Slughorn called across the room, "you might want to watch your potion."
James's head turned towards his potion but it was a second too late. Several sparks touched his robes and, in seconds, his sleeve was aflame. It spread across his sleeve and began to climb up his arm. James jumped up with a yell while Peter jerked back with a yell and fell off his chair.
James out a great curse and grabbed his wand. "Aguamenti! Aguamenti! Aguamenti!" he cried out hastily over and over while jabbing his wand at the flames.
His wand simply spluttered out a few droplets of water and James' shocked expression rapidly transformed into one of panic. Meanwhile Peter was using the desk to pull himself up and his eyes darted around the room frantically.
"Oh dear," Slughorn began to withdraw his own wand but it was another voice that spoke the incantation.
"Aguamenti!"
Lily, who had been sitting at the table diagonal to James', had stepped forward, her wand out. A fine stream of water shot at James' robes, rapidly dousing the flames in a matter of seconds. Great billows of smoke wafted around the classroom and other students waved it away from them.
James exhaled hard and stared at his burnt robes for a few seconds before turning towards Lily. "Thanks!" he declared.
Lily gave him a faint smile. "You really should watch your potion," she pointed out as his potion continued to spark.
"Yes, well done Miss Evans," Slughorn congratulated the girl. "Take 20 points for Gryffindor for fast and accurate response," he added before turning to James. "And I say 20 because your carelessness, Mr Potter is going to cost Gryffindor 10 points." The class grumbled low at his words.
"As we have now had two incidents in the space of half an hour, I would counsel everyone to remain focused and attentive," Slughorn remarked, looking at James..
Once more James looked back at his cauldron only for the contents to explode upwards in a miniature geyser. James and Peter both leapt back as distinctly purple potions sloshed out all over their ingredients and equipment. Slughorn sighed and bowed his head at once before waving his wand to vanish the mess.
"Make that three incidents," he said. "Mr Potter, I will see you in detention tomorrow after lunch, I think. We can go over what is commonly good potions practice." James scowled but said nothing. The potions master looked down at the damaged textbooks. He cast a repairing charm, once then twice and then a third time but the textbooks remained damaged by the potions. Slughorn shook his head. "The magical damage is too severe," he remarked. "You will need to order new textbooks. In the meantime you can two of the older spares we have. They're a tad outdated but the potion recipes are essentially the same."
He gestured to the cupboard and Peter got up to go and retrieve the books. He cast a mournful look at James and Erica felt kind of bad for him. It hadn't been his fault his textbook had been damaged. James looked up at Slughorn in protest.
"But sir, we followed all the instructions. I don't know where we went wrong!"
Slughorn's eyebrows rose. "Do you not?" he asked. "Perhaps you should take a look at your ingredients."
"My ingredients are-" James began to say as his eyes swept over the remainder of potions ingredients that had not been vanished with the mess.
"Specifically the dried nettles," Slughorn added.
James went still. "Dried nettles?" he repeated. "I thought it was dried pine needles."
Slughorn closed his eyes and took a great breath. "I thought as much. Mr Potter, I am going to take another five points from Gryffindor for your disregard for the simple instructions. That is something else we shall go over on your detention, I think. Now," he continued before James could get a word in, "start again and this time pay attention fully to the potion."
James took a textbook from the returning Peter and turned to the page. He then set about getting his ingredients. Lily returned to her seat and Erica turned back to her and Severus' potion which was now bubbling away nicely, pale wisps of silver smoke rising from the cauldron.
Slughorn noticed this as he passed their desk. "Excellent work Mr Snape and Miss Snowdrop too. I see you have been most attentive of the instructions."
Behind Slughorn, James scowled and proceeded to pull a face. Erica fought back a laugh and focused on Slughorn instead.
"Thanks sir," she answered along with Severus.
The rest of the class passed by quickly. Erica and Severus were among the first to finish their potion and so were permitted to spend the last ten minutes or so chatting. Not that there was much to chat about. Severus was quite quiet and looked over towards Lily a few times. Erica occupied herself with watching everyone else. Sirius and Arcadia were arguing quite fiercely but their potion seemed to be puffing the required silvery smoke.
"What a gossip!" Sirius complained as soon as he, James and Erica left the dungeons and jogged up the stairs towards the Great Hall. "Bleedin' nosy she was, asking how my family are handling my Sorting," he continued. "None of her bloody business, that's how."
"At least it's over now," Erica pointed out.
"Your lesson went all right," James argued. "You were with Wonder Boy Snape."
"James, I am perfectly adequate at Potions thank you very much," Erica retorted waspishly.
"I'm just saying, you could afford to make mistakes with him working next to you. Me, I was stuck with Pettigrew," James complained. "I don't know why I got all the heat. He was supposed to be watching the potion too."
Erica did not comment that Peter had, in fact, been watching but it would not reflect well considering the boy hadn't actually raised the issue.
"And did he say anything?" James raged as they walked into the Great Hall. "No he did not."
"I wish Vance had said nothing," Sirius grumbled. "Nosy cow."
The hall was mostly empty as they walked in. The three of them took their seats at one end of the Gryffindor table where lunch was laid out in the form of: beans, eggs (in various forms), sausages, bacon, fried potatoes as well as bread, butter and various sandwich fillings such as jam, butter and sliced meat. Jugs of pumpkin and fruit juices lined the middle of the table. Erica immediately began loading her plate with scrambled egg, toast and sausages. James seemed to be building a plate consisting of entirely meat while Sirius was drowning his fried potatoes and bacon with beans.
For about five minutes or so they said nothing but some of the tension began to dissipate in the air. The hall continued to fill up around them.
"I wonder what the record for the most detentions in a month is," James pondered between swigs of his pumpkin juice. "I mean five in three weeks is pretty impressive, right?" he asked as he looked between his friends.
Sirius considered this. "I bet there's someone who gets detention every day."
James frowned. "Yeah right. Someone like that would just get expelled," he pointed out though there was a slight air of concern around him.
"Why would you want to break a detention record?" Erica asked. "Surely you have better things to do."
"True," James agreed, "and I think my mum would flip out if I tried to go for a record."
"You're doing well enough without trying, anyway, mate," said Sirius.
James began to grin and began buttering some toast. "Yeah and at least this one's with old Sluggy. He'll be better company than Binns anyway."
"I still can't believe you managed to get detention with him," Erica remarked. "Why did you have those firecrackers in your history book anyway?"
"I was hiding them from mum!"
Sirius was sniggering. "It was a great show though. Shame Binns didn't thank you for waking everybody up." He said between mouthfuls of bacon.
"They probably didn't have firecrackers back in his day," Erica chuckled as she poured herself a second goblet of pumpkin juice. "And some of them singed that Yaxley girl's hair, didn't they?" she recalled before taking a sip from her drink. "She was fuming."
James sat up straight and pulled a whimpering face. "My hair. You fiend! My poor hair!" he exclaimed as his friends laughed. "Like, calm down. There's this thing called magic, you know. And her hair looked fine later."
"Oh noticed did you?" asked Sirius. "Look good did it?"
"Oh shut up!" James scoffed.
As they were laughing, two familiar figures stalked through the doors. Rowle and Avery scowled over at Erica. She just glared back at them. At first it seemed like they were going to carry on towards the Slytherin table but then Rowle began to stalk over to her. Erica put her goblet down and reached into her pocket for her wand.
"You're going to pay for showing us up you pathetic little freak," he spat, hand withdrawing his own wand.
James and Sirius brought their wands out in unison. "Try it," James said. "Real clever, trying to start a duel in front of the teachers."
"Gold star thinking right there, isn't it James?" Sirius sneered up at Avery who was giving him a look of utter loathing.
"That level of idiocy surely merits a special school," James agreed.
"Hiding behind your boyfriends?" Avery jeered at Erica, his still fixed on Sirius. "Big brave girl you are. I guess you might want to choose better protectors than a couple of blood traitors-ow!" his words broke off as Sirius kicked him from under the table. He jumped back, holding his knee.
"I don't need protectors," Erica growled, leaning across the table. "I'll happily take you any time."
Avery huffed indignantly, still rubbing his knee. Next to him Rowle rolled his eyes towards Sirius. "Resorting to muggle tactics, Black? You've fallen real low."
"Jealous because you can't punch to save your life?" Sirius countered. "Poor sad Rowle."
Rowle was on the verge of cursing Sirius. Their wands were pointed directly into each other's faces and a couple of sparks were already dropping from them. Erica reached into her pocket to draw her own wand out when her eyes wandered over to the staff table. Professor Slughorn was already striding over to them.
"Guys," she whispered to James and Sirius. "Teacher." Quickly, Sirius angled his wand before dropping down his sleeve. James lowered his under the table hastily.
Unfortunately for Rowle and Avery, their reactions were slower and by the time Professor Slughorn arrived, they were in the middle of putting their wands away.
"What is going on here?" he questioned. "You boys again? I do hope you weren't causing more trouble," his tone was fairly jovial but there was a warning undercurrent to it. His eyes moved to Erica and then back to the two Slytherins. "Like harassing Miss Snowdrop again."
"That's exactly what they were doing sir," James said. "Just can't leave her alone, can you boys?"
"We were just chatting," Avery lied.
Slughorn fixed Avery with a disbelieving look. "With your wands out?"
"Real friendly," Sirius smirked up at the boys.
"Now now," Slughorn cut in before Avery could say anything else, "this is really getting to be a nuisance now boys. I'm afraid that's another ten points from Slytherin and I think a detention with me at 5pm tonight as well will suffice. Come to my office. You know Professor Dumbledore's rules. No duelling in here or between classes. Come on now boys. Go to your table please."
Both of the Slytherins' faces were scarlet with irritation but they couldn't argue with a teacher. Rowle nodded stiffly. "Yes sir."
They began to saunter away and Slughorn eyed the three Gryffindors. "I do hope none of you were going to be so foolish as to engage in the duel?"
"Not us sir," James answered.
"We know the rules sir," Erica bestowed on Slughorn a charming smile."
The Potions master gave them all a speculative look before turning away from the table. "Yes well be sure to remember them," he urged them as he began walking back down towards the staff table. Across the room, Erica saw the Slytherins taking their seats and glaring across the room at them.