"What was that, Mr. Lupin?"

The color in Remus's face drained slightly as he turned to face Perkins. The professor was wearing the traditonal black robes, but his hair wasn't pulled back into it's normal ponytail, and was left hanging around his face, casting errie shadows in the weak light of the dungeons. His eyes were iced over with ill kept contempt, his thin upper lip slightly protruding in a scowl. Like Professor McGongall, Perkins had the ungodly ability to keep a class silent at a whisper. The entire class fell at a hush at Perkins entry, and as he spoke, no one even dared draw a breath. Remus turned around, and keeping a polite mask of civilness on his handsome young face, answered politely, "Nothing, Professor Perkins."

Perkins slightly raised one brow. "Did I hear you use the term, 'shove off' in my classroom, Mr. Lupin, or shall I have one of your incapable classmates fix me a ProHearing Potion?"

Remus colored slightly and hesitated, but from his left, Sirius broke in. "He was talking to me, Professor," he explained quickly. "We were just kidding around."

James shut his eyes wearily, discreetly shaking his head and mumbling,"Why did you open your mouth?" Everyone knew it was better to just shut your mouth and look away when Perkins was concerned.

Perkins arched an eyebrow, but said nothing, slinking to the back of the classroom without a word.

James and Sirius looked at each other, their faces equal masks of surprise. Remus dropped his head into his hands. "Good job, Sirius," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth as Perkins levitated the blackboard to the front of the room. Sirius looked surprised. "What did I do now?"

"Today," Perkins began in his leering whisper, "if you can actually manage to put your cauldrons on the fires without burning off anyone's hands, we shall attempt to make a very useful potion, which clears up boils. As many of you may know, popping boils seem to be a special epidemic in this school. I say, attempt because the last class I attempted to teach this Potion too ended up melting off the noses of 6 people." He gave a sneer that was slightly close to a smug smirk as he finished, "Let us hope that does not happen again."

Lily and her friends exchanged nervous looks, Evans self conciously touching her nose as Perkins flicked his wrists and the ingredients and directions appeared on the board. "Follow the instructions to the word," Perkins warned, his cloak billowing from an unseen wind as he began his inspection around the classroom. "You have been warned."

Lupin kept his eyes fixed directly at his cauldron, flickering from his hands to the boards. He was not about to look at Sirius or James, who were still glaring at him, and he was not about to help Peter even though the poor boy's eyes were huge and watery in panic as Perkins began to sweep towards him, no doubt a sharp comment on the Professor's tounge as Peter feverishly threw his ingredients into his cauldron in no particular order.

"Mr. Pettigew," Perkins began in a bored drawl. "May I ask what you are doing?"

Peter paused, half in the process of dumping porcupine quills into his bubbling fuschia potion. "Professor?" Peter questioned shakily, his face flushed and glistening from sweat. The dungeons were unnaturally hot as the potion's required roaring fires, and the added stress of Perkins usually sent many students straight for the Anti-BodyOrder charm, but Peter had yet to manage it.

"Mr. Pettigew, may I ask you a question?" Perkin continued, his lip curling. Peter nodded. "C-certainly sir."

"Are you a..." Perkins paused, and his voice hushed, as if he were speaking of a particularly nasty word,"..muggle-born?"

Peter looked up startled, his gray eyes widened. "E-excuse me, sir?"

Lily's head shot up, and the Slytherins sniggered as Perkins smirked and turned away. "I'll take that as a yes."

Lily's face flushed bright red and her eyes blazed as her hand shot up in the air. Her friend's faces all reflected equal surprise and hatred, and James, Sirius and Remus were all sharing scorns of disgust. Perkins barely managed to restrain from rolling his eyes as he glanced at her. "What, Miss Evans?"

"Sir, I beg your pardon, but what does Peter's heritage have to do with his potion-making ability?"

Perkin's face darkened. "Miss Evans, did my conversation with Pettigew have anything to do with you?"

"Professor, as a matter of fact, I'm Muggle-born." Her voice was innocently sweet but her tone coldly furious as she continued,"I was simply wondering if by any chance that would affect my grade."

"The only things that affect your grades, Miss Evans," Perkins hissed dangerously, "is your performance in my class and your cheek. 20 points from Gryffindor for your rudeness, Miss Evans." Whirling around with a furious expression on his face, he glanced at the clock. "Times up!" he snapped. "Take a flask of your potion and place it on my desk as you leave," he hissed. "30 points from Gryffindor thanks to Lupin, Black and Potter." Lily's face was a mask of rage as she bottled her potion, and Lupin was tense with fury. Perkins smiled.

"Class dismissed."

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Author's Note: Hey, everyone. This is kind of important, so please just..pay attention. lol. This is going to be one of the last first year chapters - there is one more left, and then MWPP and I are skipping off to third year, and from there, I might be skipping every other year - that's undecided. But next chapter is most definitely the last first year. Just a heads up, people, so you can get used to the idea. :o) Okay, thanks for listening --> now reveiw!