"Josephine's missing Potions?" Ron asked Neville loudly, leaning over his breakfast and Harry shushed him when Draco looked over from the Slytherin table.
"She's missing Potions to rest," he repeated with emphasis. "And Hermione said she saw Snape there and he extended it."
"Snape?" gasped Harry, eyes wide. "Snape?"
"Professor Snape—" Hermione corrected, walking past them to take her seat, "—he also said she overworked herself to make up for our incompetency." She said that word with venom, putting her books down to take a slice of toast. "I've never seen Professor McGonagall so angry so I left with Nikolay before they could see me."
"We're going to lose so many points in Potions today without her," Ron muttered under his breath.
"No, we're not," Hermione continued buttering her toast but had an encouraging look in her eyes when she turned to Neville. "Because Neville's going to show you what he went over with Josie in the library on Wednesday."
"Yeah," the Gryffindor nodded with shaky confidence, though it steadied after Hermione smiled. "She went over some tips to break down the steps," he said, opening his textbook to the potion they would be brewing today. There was a sheet of parchment paper sticking out and he turned it over, revealing colour-coded instructions and an annotated diagram of his desk. "I just have to follow this."
"What's that?" Ron made a face at the colourful monstrosity.
"Highlighters," Dean answered, leaning past Harry. "Didn't know we were allowed to bring them."
"The teachers don't mind as long as you use quills and parchment for school work," explained Hermione. "Josie brought in a book of refill paper for draft essays and pads of blank A4 for mind-maps, timelines and diagrams. She said she had to get her trunk expanded quite a bit for everything to fit in."
"No wonder she can carry her cat all the time," Parvati murmured under her breath.
"Nikolay doesn't look that heavy," remarked Harry, glancing up from the diagram before pausing at the stares the girls were giving him. "Is he?"
"She carries 7 kilograms with her everywhere she can. That's most of the day everyday," said Parvarti. "And apparently he should get heavier the more the older her gets."
"You think she could punch Malfoy if we asked?" Harry asked tentatively.
Hermoine and Neville exchanged glances.
"Josie can do worse," answered Hermione, then she paused to add delicately: "subtly. I quote: 'if he brags one more time about narrowly escaping a helicopter on his broomstick, I'll hex him with a flatulence hex the next time we've Potions'."
"...Which she was excited about doing today," followed Neville quietly, head lowered.
Ron looked like he'd been forced to eat sour lemon and stopped eating.
"That would have been amazing," Harry mumbled.
They all agreed.