By LadyLupin
{A/N: Okay, the second chapter is up! Sorry if the end is a little crappy; I finished the chapter kind of fast so I could get it up before I leave for college. The next one will be better, I promise! Oh, and just so you know, sempai is a Japanese word used to address someone who's socially superior to you, like an upperclassman. Oh, yeah, one more thing ::sings:: One of these things is not like the others / 17103 of these things are kind of the same... Take a good, long look at their professors... you may be surprised... }
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that night, just as Cassandra was finishing up her homework and putting her books away, she heard a knock on the dormitory door. Wondering rather irritably who would come all the way down and then knock to come in, she opened the door to see a scrawny, sallow-looking second-year standing there.
"What?" Cassandra snapped.
The girl slunk back a step. "Hey, Cassi, I--"
Cassandra scowled and slapped the girl across the face. "You were here last year. You know how you're supposed to address me."
"Yes, sempai," the younger student responded sullenly. "Professor Argent wants to talk to you."
"Fine. Where is he?"
"He's coming to the common room."
"Alright. Now get out of here." The second-year scampered off as Cassandra made her way back upstairs.
She found Jennica still sitting in the same spot by the fire. "Is Professor Argent here yet?" she asked.
"Nuh-uh," Jennica replied without really paying attention. The she looked up at Cassandra over the back of her chair, and her eyes lit up. "Is he coming here?" She squealed with delight as the wall opened. "Oh, there he is!"
Cassandra groaned silently and rolled her eyes, although she had been in much the same attitude over Severus only a short time before. Jennica had had a crush on their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher ever since he had started teaching at Hogwarts in their fourth year. He was only in his mid-twenties, or at least he looked it, but he was already head of Slytherin House because none of the other teachers were willing to take on that responsibility. The recent proliferation of Dark witches and wizards, and the rise of this self-styled Dark Lord, had made all the other teachers avoid it at all costs, either because of what association with that House would do to their reputations, or simply because they were terrified of some of the students there.
Cassandra walked over to meet him as he entered, while Jennica looked on enviously. "You wanted to see me, sir?" she said respectfully.
"Yes. Come with me." He led her to a secluded and empty corner of the common room where they would not be bothered.
"Miss Nightwalker," Professor Argent began. "Professor Woodfield tells me that your Potions work last year was some of the best he's ever seen. He feels that you are a very gifted student, and might do better to take Potions with the seventh-years this year."
Cassandra smiled at the complement, with pride and a glint of ambition in her expression.
Professor Argent nodded in response. "I know I need not ask if you accept. It is a chance any worthy Slytherin would welcome. Unfortunately," he continued, "your current schedule will not allow you to attend the class with the Slytherin seventh-years. I can offer you the choice of attending with the Hufflepuffs, who meet on Fridays at 1:00, or the Gryffindors, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:00."
Cassandra considered carefully. She and her fellow Slytherins tended to hate everything to do with Gryffindor just on principle, and class with them was annoying at best. However, Hufflepuff house had a reputation for more incompetent students than any other, and for a devoted student like her, trying to put up with that for a whole year sounded like pure torture.
"I think I'll go with the Gryffindors," she answered finally. "At least there I might get to work with someone who actually knows what they're doing."
Professor Argent smiled. "I expected that of you, Miss Nightwalker. Very well, I shall inform Professor Woodfield that you will be joining his class tomorrow morning.
"There is one more thing," he said before she got up to leave. "Someone from the Ministry of Magic will be arriving some time in the next few weeks to discuss your application to become an Animagus. I must say, it is quite an ambitious goal for a witch your age."
"We'll see," she replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What do we have first this morning?" asked Sirius as the four boys walked out of the Great Hall after breakfast.
"Ummmm... Potions," James answered after digging his schedule out of his bookbag.
Just then, Remus stopped short. "Shoot, guys, I forgot my book. It's still in the common room."
"You can borrow mine," James offered. "Besides, we probably won't need them today."
"No--ah, that's okay. I'll just kip back and get it." He turned around and took of down the hall at a run.
"Hurry up, class is about to start," Sirius called after him.
"Don't," said James severely as the three made their way down to the dungeons."
"What?" said Sirius.
"He's not really going to try and make it to Gryffindor Tower and back before the bell rings, is he?" asked Peter. "We've only got," he checked his watch, "one and a half minutes left."
James shook his head. "The moon's only three days waning, he really shouldn't be exerting himself like that, and Sirius, you shouldn't have--"
Sirius sighed exaggeratedly. "Yes, mother," he said with a grin as they walked into the classroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cassandra was the first student in the Potions classroom that morning. She set up her cauldron and supplies at the front of the room, near the teacher's desk, and waited as the Gryffindor students arrived and started pairing off around her. When the bell rang, she was still partnerless; all of the Gryffindors had avoided her completely, although some of them gave her sideways looks as they walked in. She hoped that Professor Woodfield would let her work alone.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Professor Woodfield addressed the class. "I would like to welcome you all to your final year learning about the noble art of potion-making. Now, as many of you may have noticed, we have a new student in our class this year." He motioned for Cassandra to come forward and face the class, which she did, though reluctantly.
"I want you all to say hello to Cassandra Nightwalker. Miss Nightwalker is a sixth-year from Slytherin House, whose excellent Potions marks last year led me to invite her to join us in this class this year."
A wave of muttering swept through the classroom. The other students didn't seem too eager to accept her--not that she cared, of course.
"Ah, Miss Nightwalker," the professor said more quietly, turning to speak to her, "there does not seem to be anyone left for you to pair up with. Do you want to work alone, or would you like to join another pair for today--now let me see, are we missing someone today...?" He trailed off as he looked back over to his desk to check the roll.
"I can work alone, thank you," Cassandra replied curtly. She was just about to move back to her place when the door swung open once more. "Sorry I'm late, Professor," said a breathless voice. It was the boy from Flourish and Blotts, the same boy she had seen in the halls the day before.
"Ah, wonderful!" exclaimed Professor Woodfield. "Mr. Lupin, you can work with Miss Nightwalker, right up here, there you go. Hurry and set up so we can start class."
"Hi," said the boy named Lupin with a grin as he set his things down next to hers.
"Hello," she answered coldly, extremely put out at losing the opportunity to stay as far away from her classmates as possible.
The class went by more quickly than Cassandra could have expected an hour in a room full of Gryffindors to pass. By the end of class, she knew that the work was going to be a lot more challenging than she had expected it to be. Still, there was no way her pride would let her back out now.
"Now, class," Professor Woodfield said before they left. "Because the potions you make in this class will be some of the most difficult known to wizarding kind, I feel it is necessary that you all know the people you will be working with extremely well. That being the case, I would like you to remain with the people you worked with today for the rest of the year." There were excited cheers from many in the class, and moans from some of the rest. "I am sure you will all do an excellent job, so please do not come to me with any requests to change unless you can think of a very good reason. That will be all; class is dismissed."
What? was all Cassandra could think as she left the dungeons in stunned disbelief. I have to work shackled to Mr. "Sorry, but potions isn't my best subject" for a whole year?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Man, Remus, I can't believe you ended up partners with the new girl!" said James on their way out.
"I can't believe you and Peter are together while I got stuck with Lisa Thatcher," said Sirius. "She is the most stuck-up, know-it-all, little..."
"Hey, wait--wasn't she that girl you were staring at in the halls yesterday, Moony?" interrupted Peter.
"Who, Lisa?" said Remus distractedly; he was not paying very much attention to the conversation going on around him.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "No, wolf-brain, the new girl. Your Potions partner."
"Oh, yeah. Cassandra..."
"Was that her name?" Sirius glanced back over at Remus. "Geez, Moony, get a grip."
"This is incredible," said James. "Remus, I have tried for seven years to get you to pay attention to girls, and suddenly you fall head-over-heels for a Slytherin?"
Remus reddened slightly. "I am not--" he tried to protest, but could not, it seemed, find the words to argue.
{A/N again: If anyone is shocked by the violence in this chapter, here's my explanation: I figured that the relationship between students in Slytherin is very hierarchical, there's like a pecking order, y'know--and people in the lower eschelons get smacked around a lot. Please review, it's not that hard, but if you criticize my work, make sure it's polite & intelligent or I'll sign you up to be used as an experimental charms test subject...}
