Chapter 4-Cystic Fibrosis
Sadie slept very well that night. She woke up to Emma staring at her intently a few inches from her face.
"EEK!" Sadie jumped.
Emma thought it was hilarious. "Time to get up. We have to go over to the Great Hall if we're gonna get breakfast," she said between laughs.
Sadie stretched and got her robes out of her trunk and, drawing the curtains around her bed, dressed. She thought it was a shame to always have to wear black to school; it made walking down the hall look like a funeral procession. She told Emma her concerns as they walked to the Great Hall. Emma, the good friend that she was, agreed whole-heartedly.
"That's why I always get the most fashionable Muggle clothes during the summer. Andrew would think I was weird if they weren't."
Sadie quirked an eyebrow. "Andrew?"
Emma turned scarlet. "Oh, h--he's my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend? Woo-woo!"
Emma whacked Sadie on the arm reproachfully. "You be quiet!"
"Ok, ok. What's he like?"
"He plays football and he hangs out with all the jocks, but he has a very appealing weakness for literature. He's smart too, but book-smart, not common sense. He's stupid in that light, which actually makes him funny, but without meaning to be, ya know what I mean?"
"Yeah. What's he look like?" asked Sadie as she opened a door to the Great Hall.
Emma grinned sheepishly and reached into her robes. She pulled out a Muggle picture of an adorable guy with ebony-colored hair, dark grayish- brown eyes, a melting smile, a really nice tan, and Emma attached to him at the hip.
"He gave me this before I left."
Sadie's eyes grew wide. "Lucky girl! MeeeOW!"
Emma laughed and pulled out a chair. Sadie pulled out the one next to her just as Harry pulled out the one on the other side of Sadie. Emma looked puzzled.
"Lost?" she said with a tone of kind-intentioned mockery.
Harry gave her a give-me-a-break look and turned to Sadie. "Hi."
"Hi," Sadie said, looking at him sideways.
Harry smiled bravely and got up rather quickly and strolled off for Gryffindor table. Emma gave Sadie an indescribably exasperating look. "Awwwwww!!!!!!"
"What?" Sadie asked incredulously.
"That was so cute! I never would have thought Harry would like you!"
"WHAT?!?!" repeated Sadie, more incredulous still. "Harry does not like me. He just came over to say hi and maybe talk but saw that we were talking and did the gentlemanly thing and went away!"
Emma smirked. "If you say so."
Sadie held up her hands and finished her cinnamon toast. There was no use in arguing this early in the morning.
A short wizard called Emma from the teacher's table. Sadie saw him hand her a stack of papers and, it seemed, instruct what to do with them. She walked back over to Ravenclaw table and passed them out.
"Our new schedules, I'm a prefect so I have to hand them out," she explained briefly when she gave Sadie hers.
Sadie looked over it with interest until Emma came back.
"You have Magical Linguistics first too, right? Ok, come on, I know where that is." Sadie was quiet as she followed Emma down long halls, through dozens of doors, and up and down several staircases. They were both at least a little worn down when they reached the class. Half of the seats were already taken and a low buzz of chatter filled the room. Sadie and Emma had no chance to join because a tall, slim, extremely well dressed woman with soot colored hair down to her hips swaggered in. She had an angular face and a good figure, but something about her told Sadie she would not enjoy this class.
The woman looked down her nose at the occupants of the room with an air of arrogance that you would use among a bunch of people whose IQ was negative. "Take out your textbooks and turn to the first section," she said in an annoyingly stately and regal voice. Sadie, remembering that she was the teacher, did as asked.
"We will be studying Merit. J wonk hoi Professor Becton. Gen fogged droop aft choragi ewe crew j mage. Gen fogged yogh raw outfit like tads."
The class stared at her in the same way.Huh???
The woman put on very snobbish airs and smirked at their ignorance. "I said, 'My name is Professor Becton. I will tolerate no high jinks in my class. I will only warn you this once.'"
Sadie couldn't help but scowl. /I wonder who spit in _her_ Corn Flakes./ Professor Becton unluckily noticed it. "Is there a problem, Miss.?"
"Riddle. No, there isn't a problem. Not one that I wouldn't get disciplined for mentioning."
Becton studied her closely for a moment and then sneered. "Very well," she nodded and turned to the rest of the class. "First we will start on the Mer-ish alphabet. Then pronunciation. Then conversation. Any questions?" There was a silent chorus of shaken heads. "Good. Su, Ner, Ver."
Sadie took notes with obvious resentment. She was trying to keep herself from imagining the perfect method of torture for someone with a silver spoon shoved up her butt.
Hardly soon enough, class ended. "I am totally going to hate that class," moaned Sadie as soon as she escaped.
Emma agreed. "Too bad we can't switch out, it's a required course. What have you got next? Herbology? We'd better hustle, it's outside and it looks like rain."
Hustle they did and got there with due speed. Herbology was taught by a plump, cheery witch with rather frazzled hair and the perfume of damp earth about her named Professor Sprout. She instructed them on the care of Rolocers; spiky, dull-colored plants that they were informed were used only in potions for hair dye. Sadie enjoyed the lesson, but the walk back to the castle was one to be loathed. The wind had begun to howl and there was a light drizzle. They had nearly blown over when a booming voice came behind, or above rather, them. A very hairy, very large personage loomed over them.
"'Ard walkin', eh? C'mon, yeh kin walk behind me where the wind in't quite so bad." Sadie found his huge countenance hard to get one's bearings adjusted to, but finding out from Emma, he was as kind as he didn't look and worked and lived on the grounds. He was also a good friend of Harry's gang.
Once they were inside, he turned around and shook Sadie's arm.
"Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds and Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Jest Hagrid ter most. Yer that new one, eh? Sadie or summat? Nice ter meet yeh. Bin wondrin' when 'Arry would introduce me t' his new friend so I s'pose now he don' need ter. Well, I'll see yeh 'round I guess, got an errand for the Headmaster."
Sadie's brain hadn't been working quite up to standard since her meeting the kind-hearted giant of a man, so she could only peep out a bewildered good-bye.
"I will never be surprised after /this!/"
Emma laughed. "He does tend to surprise you, doesn't he? Not that he could sneak up on you, you'd see him coming a mile off!"
They kept walking, panting after a bit, since it /was/ an awfully long way, until they reached a circular trap door with a silver stepladder. There was a plaque next to it that read "Sybil Trelawney, Divination Professor". Sadie and Emma exchanged amused looks as Emma pulled open the door and started climbing up. Suddenly, Emma choked as the sickly sweet air inside the heavily perfumed room with the drawn curtains and the chintz chairs washed over her. She was clutching her chest as she coughed horribly and leaned against the wall. She clambered back down the stepladder, gasping for breath. Then she resumed coughing so hard and wheezing that she nearly retched. Professor Trelawney jumped down the stepladder and leaned over Emma, who had just reached in her robes for a Muggle inhaler. Professor Trelawney was quite pale, as was everyone else in the class.
"It's going to be alright. I'll take you to Madame Pomfrey; she'll have a look at you."
Emma could only cough in reply. Sadie put her arm around Emma's shoulders and tried to calm herself down. "Where's the nurse? I'll take her there, Professor, so you can keep teaching."
Sadie walked with Emma, arm still around her shoulder, half for support, half for comfort, to where Trelawney had directed her.
Sadie knocked smartly on the door, labeled "Madam Pomfrey: Infirmary". "We need some help!!!"
Madam Pomfrey came to the door. "Emma! What happened?"
"My CF couldn't handle divination," Emma said with an airy laugh. Then turning to Sadie, she explained, "Cystic Fibrosis."
(A.N.-A big thanks to 'Nilla. Couldn't have done it with out you!)
"What?" Sadie asked, totally nonplussed.
"Cystic Fibrosis," Emma repeated, sitting on one of the beds. "It's a genetic lung disease I have."
Sadie quirked an eyebrow. "That doesn't tell me much."
"Fine, have it your way," Emma replied, turning her head away as she coughed again. "If it grosses you out, don't say I didn't warn you. Anyway...with CF, you have way too much mucus in your lungs, and it's really thick too, so I have to do therapy at least twice a day to help loosen things up."
"And therapy would be..." Sadie prompted, when Emma didn't continue.
"Oh, lots of stuff--I do an inhaler, I do a PEP--this thing that I blow into and it opens my airways--I do the equivalent of a Muggle nebulizer, sometimes I come up here and Madam Pomfrey gives me Chest Physical Therapy, which is when she pounds on my back to loosen stuff up. That's why I was up before you this morning--I'd just finished therapy."
"Anything else I should know?" Sadie asked, not quite sure how she felt about all this new information about her friend.
"Yeah," Emma said. "There's another part to CF--there is thick mucus in the rest of the body too, so it doesn't affect just my lungs. In CF, your pancreas is also clogged, and so the body can't digest food well. I take these little digestive enzyme pills after I eat, and that helps, but since my body still doesn't absorb nutrients that well I have a hard time gaining weight."
"So...is that all?" Sadie asked.
"Almost," Emma replied. "Are you bored or something?"
"Almost," Sadie mimicked. "No, go on, I'm fine."
Madam Pomfrey cleared her throat before Emma could continue. "Excuse me for a moment," she said with a tiny smile. "I'll go mix up your next nebulizer, Emma. You should do one now, see if that helps, before going back to Sybil's."
Emma nodded, and then turned back to Sadie. "As I was saying, there's one more thing you should probably know about CF. There are a bunch of bacteria that people with CF can get but people without CF are immune too. The most common one is Pseudomonas (Soo-duh-MONE-us). Once you have Pseudomonas, it never goes away--just kind of dormant for a while. Most of the time, once you have it, you have to go in four times a year and get a "cleanout", which is a three or four week cycle of IV antibiotics. I had my first cleanout last month, which is amazing since normally you get Pseudomonas when you're like seven, and it was so weird because I was hooked up to this IV line for four weeks. I got a lot of attention, which I didn't really want. I probably won't have to go in quarterly yet, but I definitely will in the future."
Sadie blinked. "Oh."
Emma laughed. "Don't worry, you'll get used to the idea."
When they finished, lunchtime had already rolled around. They had a pleasant meal and pleasanter company, namely Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They told Emma and Sadie that they were in Divination with the Ravenclaws and wondered where they were. Emma gave them a condensed explanation and they were nearly as stumped as Sadie was.
"Do any of you know a big hairy guy named Hagrid? Emma and I met him today on the way back from Herbology," asked Sadie, by way of a casual change of subject.
Harry looked pleasantly surprised. "You know Hagrid? We're all good pals. We've been up to his house for tea lots of times."
Sadie put her chin in her palm, her elbow propped on the table and looked inquisitively at her friends. "What's /tea/ like?"
Their conversation immediately launched into a discussion of the finer points English normalcy. Sadie head was still swimming when she and Emma reached Charms. It was taught by the Ravenclaw teacher, Professor Flitwick, a short little wizard with a very squeaky voice who was, overall, comparable to an elf.
He announced at the beginning of class that they were going to start learning about the Cleaning Charms. The class was only slightly interested until Flitwick told them to trash the place. With an almighty cheer everyone started the Garbage Wars. Papers were thrown across the room; desks turned over, bookcases totally disheveled. Draco kept throwing paper balls at her, but he was easily ignored. In fifteen minutes the room could get no worse. The students stood around the perimeter of the room and gradually turned their heads towards Professor Flitwick who stood on his desk, which was difficult considering the slew of stuff all over it.
He glanced around the room at the expectant young faces surrounding him. Then, he raised his wand, and in a squeakily yelled, "SPLOTISIO!" There was a great whoosh and Prof. Flitwick toppled off his desk while the entire room seemed shake and everything inside whirled around and around until, as suddenly as it had begun, the room stopped and everything was back in its place. There was silence for a moment until there was one, then two, and then the whole group of students was applauding the bruised professor. He took a slightly exaggerated bow while still nursing his sore head.
"Alright class, you've seen what you can do. Now get out your ink bottles and pour some one your desks. Then, nice and easy now, say, 'Splotiso!' with the -is- nice and long. If you have any problems, just come and ask. Now, hop to it!"
With that, the class flew to their seats and ink was quickly all over the classroom. A few people got it once or twice, but then they purposely dumped it again and then couldn't get it cleaned up again. In the end, Professor Flitwick had to clean up, but at least they got another demonstration.
Sadie and Emma's next class was Potions. The air around them gradually became colder as they traveled father and father under the school.
"W-what kind of freak is this guy?" shivered Sadie.
"You'll s-see soon enough," responded Emma grimly.
They reached the classroom just as the black-haired teacher in front was standing up.
He glared up at them. "I do not tolerate tardiness in my classroom."
The bell sounded on his last syllable, just as they slipped into their seats.
"I'm sorry, sir," stated Sadie dutifully, gazing straight into his cold black eyes.
He glared down his nose at her and turned to the class with an irritated air. "Well, get out your books!"
There was a shuffle and then piercing silence once again.
"Miss Riddle, I am Professor Snape," he stated in deathly quiet.
Sadie looked up and peered at him. "Nice to meet you," she rejoindered calmly. Snape didn't respond.
"We will be concocting the Exegir, found on page 574," he informed the class curtly, "It has the effect of making the one who drinks this elixir have the appearance of natural attractiveness for approximately five hours, depending on the need." He sounded bored, but the class was hanging on his every word, especially the girls. He glanced around the room with cold amusement. "Get into partners and prepare it. You may keep a medium-sized vial." There was a murmur of excited approval throughout the room. Sadie turned to Emma.
"This is really cool, but I can't help but feel like this is very out of character for him."
"Yeah, maybe. But so what? I'm gonna try and save some extra for later, not just a 'small vial'." Emma was obviously ecstatic at the prospect before her. Sadie decided to be wary nonetheless.
"Boil 5 liters water rapidly."
"Check. Keep at a rolling boil while gradually adding six diced slugs. Yuck."
"Check. Um, good luck with this one. Seven drops black widow venom."
"Oh my gosh, eew, here we go. The next one is the first shedded skin of eight rattlesnakes, cut into strips. It's supposed to turn banana yellow now."
"Ok, it did. We let it stop boiling and then put in nine alligator tears.ok."
"Ha hah! How are ten toad eyes for ya?"
"I've got an even better one. /One clod dragon feces."/
"Ugh! Don't make me gag! I hope we don't have to drink this.Oh my goodness! No way! 'Spit twice into potion while stirring slowly'! I hope you brushed your teeth this morning."
"Of course I did! Okay..now stir it in really good, and then sprinkle thirty dried flies' wings overtop. "
"Alright, now we have to put two fingernails and two toenails in it, so one each. Here, you can borrow my clippers."
"Thanks. Eew, they splashed! Um, now we need to stir continuously for five minutes with a braid of unicorn hair and a horn. We can do both at once, can't we?"
"We should be able to. Ugh, I can feel all the stuff sitting on the bottom in there. Oh, look here. It says we use it like soap or bubble bath. That is going to be so gross!"
"I know! I'd have to wash afterwards too so I would actually feel clean, especially with the dragon poo!"
"Oh no! We /can't/ wash it off! It won't work then! Look, it says it real small by the picture."
"Greeeaaat. Ok, I think we've stirred enough, I can't feel the chunkies in there anymore. Let's take 'em out."
The instant the unicorn horn and hair left the surface of the mixture it turned a shimmery pastel purple with streaks of off-white. Sadie got out her ladle and poured it into the two ladles that Emma held. It was awfully thick.
"It looks like marble."
"Yeah kinda. Are you gonna try yours right away?"
"No, I'll save it for a special occasion."
"Attention class! We need to clean up in the next five minutes, so wrap it up!" Snape called from the far corner of the dungeon.
"Professor, we're done. Does it look right?"
Snape glided over and peered down at them. "Might perhaps be acceptable."
Emma looked to Sadie, astonished. "Sadie, I think he meant it was perfect. Otherwise he for sure would have pointed it out."
"Whoa," was Sadie's only reaction. She still couldn't help but not be very believing.
Sadie slept very well that night. She woke up to Emma staring at her intently a few inches from her face.
"EEK!" Sadie jumped.
Emma thought it was hilarious. "Time to get up. We have to go over to the Great Hall if we're gonna get breakfast," she said between laughs.
Sadie stretched and got her robes out of her trunk and, drawing the curtains around her bed, dressed. She thought it was a shame to always have to wear black to school; it made walking down the hall look like a funeral procession. She told Emma her concerns as they walked to the Great Hall. Emma, the good friend that she was, agreed whole-heartedly.
"That's why I always get the most fashionable Muggle clothes during the summer. Andrew would think I was weird if they weren't."
Sadie quirked an eyebrow. "Andrew?"
Emma turned scarlet. "Oh, h--he's my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend? Woo-woo!"
Emma whacked Sadie on the arm reproachfully. "You be quiet!"
"Ok, ok. What's he like?"
"He plays football and he hangs out with all the jocks, but he has a very appealing weakness for literature. He's smart too, but book-smart, not common sense. He's stupid in that light, which actually makes him funny, but without meaning to be, ya know what I mean?"
"Yeah. What's he look like?" asked Sadie as she opened a door to the Great Hall.
Emma grinned sheepishly and reached into her robes. She pulled out a Muggle picture of an adorable guy with ebony-colored hair, dark grayish- brown eyes, a melting smile, a really nice tan, and Emma attached to him at the hip.
"He gave me this before I left."
Sadie's eyes grew wide. "Lucky girl! MeeeOW!"
Emma laughed and pulled out a chair. Sadie pulled out the one next to her just as Harry pulled out the one on the other side of Sadie. Emma looked puzzled.
"Lost?" she said with a tone of kind-intentioned mockery.
Harry gave her a give-me-a-break look and turned to Sadie. "Hi."
"Hi," Sadie said, looking at him sideways.
Harry smiled bravely and got up rather quickly and strolled off for Gryffindor table. Emma gave Sadie an indescribably exasperating look. "Awwwwww!!!!!!"
"What?" Sadie asked incredulously.
"That was so cute! I never would have thought Harry would like you!"
"WHAT?!?!" repeated Sadie, more incredulous still. "Harry does not like me. He just came over to say hi and maybe talk but saw that we were talking and did the gentlemanly thing and went away!"
Emma smirked. "If you say so."
Sadie held up her hands and finished her cinnamon toast. There was no use in arguing this early in the morning.
A short wizard called Emma from the teacher's table. Sadie saw him hand her a stack of papers and, it seemed, instruct what to do with them. She walked back over to Ravenclaw table and passed them out.
"Our new schedules, I'm a prefect so I have to hand them out," she explained briefly when she gave Sadie hers.
Sadie looked over it with interest until Emma came back.
"You have Magical Linguistics first too, right? Ok, come on, I know where that is." Sadie was quiet as she followed Emma down long halls, through dozens of doors, and up and down several staircases. They were both at least a little worn down when they reached the class. Half of the seats were already taken and a low buzz of chatter filled the room. Sadie and Emma had no chance to join because a tall, slim, extremely well dressed woman with soot colored hair down to her hips swaggered in. She had an angular face and a good figure, but something about her told Sadie she would not enjoy this class.
The woman looked down her nose at the occupants of the room with an air of arrogance that you would use among a bunch of people whose IQ was negative. "Take out your textbooks and turn to the first section," she said in an annoyingly stately and regal voice. Sadie, remembering that she was the teacher, did as asked.
"We will be studying Merit. J wonk hoi Professor Becton. Gen fogged droop aft choragi ewe crew j mage. Gen fogged yogh raw outfit like tads."
The class stared at her in the same way.Huh???
The woman put on very snobbish airs and smirked at their ignorance. "I said, 'My name is Professor Becton. I will tolerate no high jinks in my class. I will only warn you this once.'"
Sadie couldn't help but scowl. /I wonder who spit in _her_ Corn Flakes./ Professor Becton unluckily noticed it. "Is there a problem, Miss.?"
"Riddle. No, there isn't a problem. Not one that I wouldn't get disciplined for mentioning."
Becton studied her closely for a moment and then sneered. "Very well," she nodded and turned to the rest of the class. "First we will start on the Mer-ish alphabet. Then pronunciation. Then conversation. Any questions?" There was a silent chorus of shaken heads. "Good. Su, Ner, Ver."
Sadie took notes with obvious resentment. She was trying to keep herself from imagining the perfect method of torture for someone with a silver spoon shoved up her butt.
Hardly soon enough, class ended. "I am totally going to hate that class," moaned Sadie as soon as she escaped.
Emma agreed. "Too bad we can't switch out, it's a required course. What have you got next? Herbology? We'd better hustle, it's outside and it looks like rain."
Hustle they did and got there with due speed. Herbology was taught by a plump, cheery witch with rather frazzled hair and the perfume of damp earth about her named Professor Sprout. She instructed them on the care of Rolocers; spiky, dull-colored plants that they were informed were used only in potions for hair dye. Sadie enjoyed the lesson, but the walk back to the castle was one to be loathed. The wind had begun to howl and there was a light drizzle. They had nearly blown over when a booming voice came behind, or above rather, them. A very hairy, very large personage loomed over them.
"'Ard walkin', eh? C'mon, yeh kin walk behind me where the wind in't quite so bad." Sadie found his huge countenance hard to get one's bearings adjusted to, but finding out from Emma, he was as kind as he didn't look and worked and lived on the grounds. He was also a good friend of Harry's gang.
Once they were inside, he turned around and shook Sadie's arm.
"Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds and Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Jest Hagrid ter most. Yer that new one, eh? Sadie or summat? Nice ter meet yeh. Bin wondrin' when 'Arry would introduce me t' his new friend so I s'pose now he don' need ter. Well, I'll see yeh 'round I guess, got an errand for the Headmaster."
Sadie's brain hadn't been working quite up to standard since her meeting the kind-hearted giant of a man, so she could only peep out a bewildered good-bye.
"I will never be surprised after /this!/"
Emma laughed. "He does tend to surprise you, doesn't he? Not that he could sneak up on you, you'd see him coming a mile off!"
They kept walking, panting after a bit, since it /was/ an awfully long way, until they reached a circular trap door with a silver stepladder. There was a plaque next to it that read "Sybil Trelawney, Divination Professor". Sadie and Emma exchanged amused looks as Emma pulled open the door and started climbing up. Suddenly, Emma choked as the sickly sweet air inside the heavily perfumed room with the drawn curtains and the chintz chairs washed over her. She was clutching her chest as she coughed horribly and leaned against the wall. She clambered back down the stepladder, gasping for breath. Then she resumed coughing so hard and wheezing that she nearly retched. Professor Trelawney jumped down the stepladder and leaned over Emma, who had just reached in her robes for a Muggle inhaler. Professor Trelawney was quite pale, as was everyone else in the class.
"It's going to be alright. I'll take you to Madame Pomfrey; she'll have a look at you."
Emma could only cough in reply. Sadie put her arm around Emma's shoulders and tried to calm herself down. "Where's the nurse? I'll take her there, Professor, so you can keep teaching."
Sadie walked with Emma, arm still around her shoulder, half for support, half for comfort, to where Trelawney had directed her.
Sadie knocked smartly on the door, labeled "Madam Pomfrey: Infirmary". "We need some help!!!"
Madam Pomfrey came to the door. "Emma! What happened?"
"My CF couldn't handle divination," Emma said with an airy laugh. Then turning to Sadie, she explained, "Cystic Fibrosis."
(A.N.-A big thanks to 'Nilla. Couldn't have done it with out you!)
"What?" Sadie asked, totally nonplussed.
"Cystic Fibrosis," Emma repeated, sitting on one of the beds. "It's a genetic lung disease I have."
Sadie quirked an eyebrow. "That doesn't tell me much."
"Fine, have it your way," Emma replied, turning her head away as she coughed again. "If it grosses you out, don't say I didn't warn you. Anyway...with CF, you have way too much mucus in your lungs, and it's really thick too, so I have to do therapy at least twice a day to help loosen things up."
"And therapy would be..." Sadie prompted, when Emma didn't continue.
"Oh, lots of stuff--I do an inhaler, I do a PEP--this thing that I blow into and it opens my airways--I do the equivalent of a Muggle nebulizer, sometimes I come up here and Madam Pomfrey gives me Chest Physical Therapy, which is when she pounds on my back to loosen stuff up. That's why I was up before you this morning--I'd just finished therapy."
"Anything else I should know?" Sadie asked, not quite sure how she felt about all this new information about her friend.
"Yeah," Emma said. "There's another part to CF--there is thick mucus in the rest of the body too, so it doesn't affect just my lungs. In CF, your pancreas is also clogged, and so the body can't digest food well. I take these little digestive enzyme pills after I eat, and that helps, but since my body still doesn't absorb nutrients that well I have a hard time gaining weight."
"So...is that all?" Sadie asked.
"Almost," Emma replied. "Are you bored or something?"
"Almost," Sadie mimicked. "No, go on, I'm fine."
Madam Pomfrey cleared her throat before Emma could continue. "Excuse me for a moment," she said with a tiny smile. "I'll go mix up your next nebulizer, Emma. You should do one now, see if that helps, before going back to Sybil's."
Emma nodded, and then turned back to Sadie. "As I was saying, there's one more thing you should probably know about CF. There are a bunch of bacteria that people with CF can get but people without CF are immune too. The most common one is Pseudomonas (Soo-duh-MONE-us). Once you have Pseudomonas, it never goes away--just kind of dormant for a while. Most of the time, once you have it, you have to go in four times a year and get a "cleanout", which is a three or four week cycle of IV antibiotics. I had my first cleanout last month, which is amazing since normally you get Pseudomonas when you're like seven, and it was so weird because I was hooked up to this IV line for four weeks. I got a lot of attention, which I didn't really want. I probably won't have to go in quarterly yet, but I definitely will in the future."
Sadie blinked. "Oh."
Emma laughed. "Don't worry, you'll get used to the idea."
When they finished, lunchtime had already rolled around. They had a pleasant meal and pleasanter company, namely Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They told Emma and Sadie that they were in Divination with the Ravenclaws and wondered where they were. Emma gave them a condensed explanation and they were nearly as stumped as Sadie was.
"Do any of you know a big hairy guy named Hagrid? Emma and I met him today on the way back from Herbology," asked Sadie, by way of a casual change of subject.
Harry looked pleasantly surprised. "You know Hagrid? We're all good pals. We've been up to his house for tea lots of times."
Sadie put her chin in her palm, her elbow propped on the table and looked inquisitively at her friends. "What's /tea/ like?"
Their conversation immediately launched into a discussion of the finer points English normalcy. Sadie head was still swimming when she and Emma reached Charms. It was taught by the Ravenclaw teacher, Professor Flitwick, a short little wizard with a very squeaky voice who was, overall, comparable to an elf.
He announced at the beginning of class that they were going to start learning about the Cleaning Charms. The class was only slightly interested until Flitwick told them to trash the place. With an almighty cheer everyone started the Garbage Wars. Papers were thrown across the room; desks turned over, bookcases totally disheveled. Draco kept throwing paper balls at her, but he was easily ignored. In fifteen minutes the room could get no worse. The students stood around the perimeter of the room and gradually turned their heads towards Professor Flitwick who stood on his desk, which was difficult considering the slew of stuff all over it.
He glanced around the room at the expectant young faces surrounding him. Then, he raised his wand, and in a squeakily yelled, "SPLOTISIO!" There was a great whoosh and Prof. Flitwick toppled off his desk while the entire room seemed shake and everything inside whirled around and around until, as suddenly as it had begun, the room stopped and everything was back in its place. There was silence for a moment until there was one, then two, and then the whole group of students was applauding the bruised professor. He took a slightly exaggerated bow while still nursing his sore head.
"Alright class, you've seen what you can do. Now get out your ink bottles and pour some one your desks. Then, nice and easy now, say, 'Splotiso!' with the -is- nice and long. If you have any problems, just come and ask. Now, hop to it!"
With that, the class flew to their seats and ink was quickly all over the classroom. A few people got it once or twice, but then they purposely dumped it again and then couldn't get it cleaned up again. In the end, Professor Flitwick had to clean up, but at least they got another demonstration.
Sadie and Emma's next class was Potions. The air around them gradually became colder as they traveled father and father under the school.
"W-what kind of freak is this guy?" shivered Sadie.
"You'll s-see soon enough," responded Emma grimly.
They reached the classroom just as the black-haired teacher in front was standing up.
He glared up at them. "I do not tolerate tardiness in my classroom."
The bell sounded on his last syllable, just as they slipped into their seats.
"I'm sorry, sir," stated Sadie dutifully, gazing straight into his cold black eyes.
He glared down his nose at her and turned to the class with an irritated air. "Well, get out your books!"
There was a shuffle and then piercing silence once again.
"Miss Riddle, I am Professor Snape," he stated in deathly quiet.
Sadie looked up and peered at him. "Nice to meet you," she rejoindered calmly. Snape didn't respond.
"We will be concocting the Exegir, found on page 574," he informed the class curtly, "It has the effect of making the one who drinks this elixir have the appearance of natural attractiveness for approximately five hours, depending on the need." He sounded bored, but the class was hanging on his every word, especially the girls. He glanced around the room with cold amusement. "Get into partners and prepare it. You may keep a medium-sized vial." There was a murmur of excited approval throughout the room. Sadie turned to Emma.
"This is really cool, but I can't help but feel like this is very out of character for him."
"Yeah, maybe. But so what? I'm gonna try and save some extra for later, not just a 'small vial'." Emma was obviously ecstatic at the prospect before her. Sadie decided to be wary nonetheless.
"Boil 5 liters water rapidly."
"Check. Keep at a rolling boil while gradually adding six diced slugs. Yuck."
"Check. Um, good luck with this one. Seven drops black widow venom."
"Oh my gosh, eew, here we go. The next one is the first shedded skin of eight rattlesnakes, cut into strips. It's supposed to turn banana yellow now."
"Ok, it did. We let it stop boiling and then put in nine alligator tears.ok."
"Ha hah! How are ten toad eyes for ya?"
"I've got an even better one. /One clod dragon feces."/
"Ugh! Don't make me gag! I hope we don't have to drink this.Oh my goodness! No way! 'Spit twice into potion while stirring slowly'! I hope you brushed your teeth this morning."
"Of course I did! Okay..now stir it in really good, and then sprinkle thirty dried flies' wings overtop. "
"Alright, now we have to put two fingernails and two toenails in it, so one each. Here, you can borrow my clippers."
"Thanks. Eew, they splashed! Um, now we need to stir continuously for five minutes with a braid of unicorn hair and a horn. We can do both at once, can't we?"
"We should be able to. Ugh, I can feel all the stuff sitting on the bottom in there. Oh, look here. It says we use it like soap or bubble bath. That is going to be so gross!"
"I know! I'd have to wash afterwards too so I would actually feel clean, especially with the dragon poo!"
"Oh no! We /can't/ wash it off! It won't work then! Look, it says it real small by the picture."
"Greeeaaat. Ok, I think we've stirred enough, I can't feel the chunkies in there anymore. Let's take 'em out."
The instant the unicorn horn and hair left the surface of the mixture it turned a shimmery pastel purple with streaks of off-white. Sadie got out her ladle and poured it into the two ladles that Emma held. It was awfully thick.
"It looks like marble."
"Yeah kinda. Are you gonna try yours right away?"
"No, I'll save it for a special occasion."
"Attention class! We need to clean up in the next five minutes, so wrap it up!" Snape called from the far corner of the dungeon.
"Professor, we're done. Does it look right?"
Snape glided over and peered down at them. "Might perhaps be acceptable."
Emma looked to Sadie, astonished. "Sadie, I think he meant it was perfect. Otherwise he for sure would have pointed it out."
"Whoa," was Sadie's only reaction. She still couldn't help but not be very believing.