Author's Notes: Sorry for the short chapter. I'll upload two today as a consolation prize.
I am using a small section of dialogue directly from Half Blood Prince in this chapter. I fully acknowledge the original author of them and their owner, JK Rowling, who owns everything about Harry Potter.
Chapter Five
As Heather entered the Great Hall for breakfast the following morning, she was greeted by bright sunshine and a cloudless blue sky from the enchanted ceiling. It felt like the kind of day where everything was right with the world and nothing could go wrong. Passing the Hufflepuff table she saw Justin and his two friends Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbot talking closely about something. At the sight of him she could feel her spine quiver with excitement.
When she reached the Gryffindor table, she squeezed herself in between Hermione and Ron. Professor McGonagall was making her usual rounds handing out schedules to each student. This process took longer than normal for the sixth-years, as she had to determine if each student had achieved the required marks on their exams to continue in their chosen classes. To no ones great surprise, Hermione was immediately cleared for every class and hurried off.
"Potter, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Transfiguration are all fine, but why aren't you taking Potions?" Professor McGonagall asked as she reached Heather.
Heather was taken aback, "Professor, you told me that I wouldn't be able to take it unless I got an 'Outstanding" on my O.W.L."
"You did, when Professor Snape was teaching the subject. Professor Slughorn will be more than happy to take you with an 'Exceeds Expectations." She replied briskly.
"But I didn't buy the textbook or get any supplies." Heather said
"I'm sure Professor Slughorn will be able to loan you an old book and you can order anything else you need."
Happily, Heather took her new schedule, the newly restored dream of being an Auror burning in her chest. Professor McGonagall turned to Ron. Quickly she cleared him to take all the same classes as Heather, with the exception of Potions. While Slughorn was more lenient with his standards than Snape, he didn't seem to think getting an 'Acceptable' was enough to continue in his subject.
With a slightly dejected Ron, who it turned out had also harbored dreams of being an auror, Heather left the Great Hall for Gryffindor Tower fifteen minutes later. Sixth-years had several free periods every day, and their first one was directly after breakfast before Defense Against the Dark Arts. Up in the Common Room, Ron spread out in one of their favorite armchairs, relishing the perks that came with being an older student. An hour later they made their way down to Snape's new classroom, a sense of foreboding coming over them. Snape had been after this subject for as long as anyone could remember, and Heather doubted that his finally achieving this dream would change his disposition in any way towards her.
It was everything Heather expected and worse. Snape set the class to work on non verbal spells, something none of them had ever attempted before. After several minutes in which most of the class cheated, whispering the spells they were attempting, Snape called a halt. Sweeping over to where Heather stood with Ron, he brandished his wand at Heather, intending to give the class a demonstration. Having had too many experiences at this end of Snape's wand, Heather raised her own and cried "Protego!"
The force of the spell knocked Snape backwards several steps. With a scowl he said "Didn't I tell you, Potter, that we were practicing non-verbal spells?"
"Yes" replied Heather, crossing her arms petulantly.
"Yes, sir" Snape growled.
"There's no need to call me 'sir', Professor." She had said it without even realizing it, but the way Snape's face went splotchy made whatever punishment he was about to dish out worth it.
"Detention" Snape said, recovering slightly. "I won't take cheek from anyone, not even the Chosen One."
The last lesson of their day was Double Potions. Ron was heading back up to the Common room for another free session, looking slightly put out at not being able to join them. Lining up for class with Hermione outside the dungeon, Heather was thrilled to see a Justin standing two spaces up with Ernie. Hermione filled her in on all of her classes that day, but Heather was only half listening to her. When the bell rang the door to the classroom swung open and they filed inside. In a spur of the moment decision, Heather made her way to the table where Justin and Ernie were setting up their cauldrons, Hermione in tow.
"H-hi" she stammered when Justin looked up and smiled, "Mind if we sit with you?"
"Not at all," said Justin.
Once they were all settled, there were only a dozen of them, Slughorn began. As he rose and puffed out his chest, Heather raised her hand.
"Yes, Harry m'boy?"
"Sir, I didn't get a textbook or anything, I didn't realize I could take this class until today."
"Ah, yes I remember being told something about that. Well, not to worry. I have a small stash of old textbooks you can borrow."
Over in the corner in a dusty cabinet sat a small pile of battered textbooks. Extricating the correct one and returning to her seat, Slughorn started teaching. In several cauldrons scattered around the room were different potions. One, in a cauldron on the Slytherin's table, Heather recognized having taken it twice, but the rest were all new. The one closest to her was an iridescent pearl colored and was giving off several delightful scents. Slughorn took each potion in turn, asking if anyone recognized them. As was normal in almost every lesson, Hermione's hand shot into the air before anyone else each time.
The potion Heather was smelling, which was flooding her nostrils with heavenly scents, it turned out was a very powerful love potion named Amortentia. According to Hermione it was supposed to smell like the things that each person was attracted to. When it came time to brew today's potion, the Draught of Living Death, Heather found her new highly used textbook had been scribbled in by it's previous owner. Hermione was already busy at work, and Heather was hesitant to bother her. As much as she loved Hermione, interrupting her during her work was rarely a good idea. Unable to decipher the original directions, she attempted the modifications and to her surprise, they worked.
About halfway into the lesson the directions called for cutting a bean, requiring a silver knife. Heather did not have one and so asked to borrow Justin's. He nodded and handed her the knife. For the briefest second their hands touched, sending chills all through her. Hoping fervently that Justin hadn't noticed, Heather set back to work keeping her head down.
When the lesson was almost over, Slughorn called a halt to their work and began circling the room, inspecting everyone's work. Because of the directions in the book, Heather's potion was farther along than anyone, a fact that wasn't taken too well by Hermione. As Heather was handed the prize for the best potion, a small bottle of liquid luck, she slammed her book into her bag. When class was dismissed, Heather caught up to her in the corridor.
"How did you do that?" Hermione whispered.
Seeing Malfoy just ahead, Heather didn't respond for a moment. Hermione, thinking she was ignoring her, began walking faster making Heather have to run to keep up with her.
"Hermione, wait. It's this book. It has different directions written in it by whoever owned it before. I couldn't read what it said, so I used them."
Hermione slowed and her face turned stony, and Heather felt a heat rise in her cheeks. "What, do you think I cheated?"
Turning to look at her, Hermione responded stiffly "Well, it's not like it was your work."
"So what?" asked Heather
"So what? You got the best grade today and you didn't deserve it!" Hermione gushed
"Yeah, I did. Why are you so upset?"
"It's just not right" she said and huffed off.
Hermione's mood towards her did not improve as the week wore on. Each Potions lesson Heather used the directions of the previous owner, someone named 'The Half-Blood Prince' to great effect, resulting in Slughorn beginning to fawn over her. Heather had offered to let Hermione read from the book too but she stubbornly refused. Ron took Heather's side in the argument when he asked what was going on, which did not help the situation much. Justin, who had no idea how Heather was doing so well, was stopped her as she left the dungeon that Thursday and asked if she could help him with Potions. Hearing this, Hermione let out a loud sniff.
Heather had to think fast about how to get out of that without offending him. More than anything she would enjoy getting to spend time with him, but it would be painfully clear quickly that she really didn't have much knowledge in the subject.