Chapter 2

It was only a week since the Sorting Ceremony, and Elethia was walking down the corridor. She went up the stairs and tripped, dropping her books. Elethia grunted and slowly rose from the floor to gather her books, but she soon stopped when a hand was in her way. She looked to see a girl who was a couple of years older than her. She had a round face with short hair. Elethia nearly stumbled standing up, so the girl looked at her and handed her books back before she asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Thanks."

The girl looked at Elethia and noticed the Gryffindor crest on her robe. "I see you're a Gryffindor. I am too. My name's Alice. Alice Fortescue. Third year."

When Alice extended her hand out, Elethia took the opportunity to shake her hand and replied, "I'm Elethia. Elethia Cromwell. A first year."

"I know. I saw you during the Ceremony." They walked down the hallway together and went out the door to enter the Grand Staircase. "I never met a Cromwell before. I hear though you're not a Pureblood like the rest of your family." When Elethia looked away for a moment, Alice noticed immediately and said, "Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just...um. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No. No. It's okay. You're not making me uncomfortable." Alice looked relieved, while they traveled outside to one of the courtyards, while Elethia explained, "My dad's a Pureblood and my mum's a Muggleborn, and my dad's family were not pleased when he married my mum, but he doesn't care. The only family he has left is my great-grandmother."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. It's not like it was your fault."

Alice smiled at that as she said, "I hear your family is quite powerful."

"What have you heard?"

"Nothing really, except, how your family has had extraordinary powers since the Middle Ages, but no one's ever told me what sort of powers they are."

There was a mischievous glint in Elethia's eyes as she said, "You'll just have to wait and see."

They both then smiled at each other until they reached the viaduct entrance. "Where are you heading to?" Alice asked.

"Potions. What about you?"

"I'm going to meet a friend of mine. He's at the library waiting for me."

When they passed through the doors, Elethia said, "I better get going. It was nice meeting you."

"You too. I hope we see each other again."

They bid each other their farewells and headed their separate ways. Elethia went down the spiraled staircase which led to the dungeon. She went through one of the doors and entered the classroom. It was large enough to allow at least twenty students to work and its walls were lined with pickled animals in glass jars. In one corner of the room stood a basin into which ice-cold water poured from a gargoyle's mouth, while in another was a student supply cupboard. There was also a blackboard on which the Potion's Master, Professor Slughorn, could write the class's instructions.

Professor Slughorn was short with an immense belly which was so large that his gold buttons on his waistcoat usually threaten to burst off. His mustache was gingerly blond and his hair was thick and straw colored. Elethia was not sure whether she liked Slughorn or not. He was pleasant in his own way, but he was incredibly vain.

Elethia ignored two particular Gryffindor boys staring at her. She didn't have to look at them to know who they were: Sirius Black and James Potter. They were not her favorite classmates, but she can't avoid them when she's in class.

She stopped when she noticed that there were no seats in the front of the class, so she looked around, and to her surprise there was a seat in front of the boys she was not fond of. Elethia made her way over there and sat next to a girl with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and thin lips. She was also taller than Elethia by a couple of inches. The young Gryffindor recognized her. Her name was Marlene McKinnon, and she was one of Elethia's dorm mates.

"Hi." Elethia said.

She looked at her for a moment and said, "Hi."

"I'm Elethia."

"Marlene."

"Nice to meet you."

She smiled sweetly at her and said, "Likewise." Her eyes lit for a moment as she continued by saying, "Hey, don't you stay in my dorm room? Your bed is next to mine right?"

Elethia returned her smile as she replied, "Yeah."

"Um, excuse me,..." Elethia and Marlene turned their heads to see Sirius and James with Peter and Remus by their sides. Elethia nearly rolled her eyes when Sirius continued in a cocky manner, "Do you mind? It's a bore listening to you."

When Elethia and Marlene turned back around, they heard their teacher speaking, "Alright students. I hope you gathered your ingredients. I want you all to brew a Cure for Boils potion using the ingredients that you collected. Follow the instructions carefully."

All of the students began creating their potion. Elethia added six snake fangs to her mortar and then crushed them into a fine powder. She then added four measures of the crushed fangs into her cauldron. When Elethia heated the mixture to two hundred and fifty degrees, she waved her wand after she waited ten seconds after she heated the potion. Marlene looked at Elethia and nearly widened her eyes by seeing how quick she was going in comparison to most of the other students.

"You're really good at this." Marlene commented.

Elethia smiled at that before she turned back to her potion by adding horned slugs and porcupine quills to her potion. She stirred the potion five times clockwise and then waved her wand to complete the process, forcing pink smoke to rise from the cauldron. It finished just in time when Professor Slughorn came around the room to see each of the student's progress once more. When it was Elethia's turn, he looked into her cauldron, and his eyes lit in pleasure as he exclaimed, "Excellent, Miss Cromwell! You have the makings of a master potion maker."

Her smiled beamed in delight as she replied, "Thank you, Professor."

Just when she said that, a loud explosion rang across the room. Everyone's heads turned immediately to one of her classmates grunting in pain. Her eyes widened when his pale skin broke out in boils. The one who laughed first was Sirius, followed by James, then Peter. There were very few people who laughed, and that included Elethia as she snapped her head back to face Sirius. He smirked and stared her down, but everyone soon quieted down when they heard Slughorn say, "Quiet everyone." He went over to Elethia's classmate with boils and stared at the pieces of cauldron. "It appears your pewter cauldron was coated in bulbadox powder, Mr. Snape." Elethia tilted her head to the side to see Sirius and James smirking at each other, but she turned back around when Slughorn said, "Miss Cromwell, take Mr. Snape to the infirmary, why don't you?"

She nodded her head once but then glared at Sirius and James when she heard laughter. Elethia was not even surprised to see Peter laughing with them or how Remus chuckled to himself. She's been disappointed in them for a while now, especially how they simply forgot about her. They allowed Sirius and James to continue on with their childish antics, and Elethia was not pleased at all.

Elethia went to her classmate and put a hand on his shoulder, leading him away from the class. A couple of the students gave him worried glances, while everyone else laughed by the time Elethia and Snape reached the door. Professor Slughorn silenced the entire class by resuming the lesson.

By the time they were out the door, her classmate shook her hand away and walked off on his own. "Wait."

Elethia chased after him even when he cocked his head to the side and said, "Leave me alone."

She reached his side and nearly winced when he narrowed his black eyes at her and snapped, "I'm not asking for your help."

They stared at each other for a moment. His greasy black hair covered some of the boils on his face, but Elethia didn't care about the boils. She only thought how he felt and how someone needed to look after him, so she stared him down and replied, "I'm not asking."

His eyes softened a little as he was at a loss for words. They soon walked together, heading to the infirmary. Elethia noticed the Slytherin crest on his robe. She hadn't met many Slytherins, but she heard that there were no good witches and wizards who came from Slytherin. Perhaps her classmate was good though. It was worth a try to get to know him.

"My name's Elethia by the way. What's your name?"

He didn't bother looking at her as he said, "Severus."

Elethia remembered the boys and said, "I'm sorry what's happened. I didn't think it was funny at all what they did."

"You'd be the first." They reached the infirmary and told Madam Pomfrey what happened, so she prepared a bed for him to lay down in and prepared a potion to cure him. When Severus and Elethia were alone, Elethia heard Severus say, "Go back to class now. I'll be fine."

"What about you? You have other classes."

"Well clearly I can't go."

"I can take notes for you if you'd like."

His eyes nearly widened when he looked at her, so he replied, "Why would you want to do that?"

She looked away for a moment and then stared back at him to say, "Let's just say I know what it's like to be the odd one out." No one said anything as Severus stared at her, completely dumbfounded. Elethia sighed to herself unsure what to say to next. She thought how he was incredibly dismissive, so she stood from her spot and said, "Just forget it. I hope you get better."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Elethia looked at him and smiled warmly as she replied, "I'll be sure to get your notes then."

"And if you can...tell Lily to get my notes for any of my classes that you're not in?"

"I'll be sure to pass on the message."

I apologize how long it took me to finish this chapter. There's been so much going on. I will try to do better to continue updating my HP fanfic and my other fanfics too. I hope you enjoyed the second chapter, and I look forward to hear your thoughts on what you look forward to or what you think will happen in the review section. Thank you again for reading!