The fifth years had to submit their five-foot long Potions essay on
Remedial Ranks for balding white rats on the Thursday afternoon, during
Double Potions.
Snape was livid and excessively destructive to Gryffindor point standing when they had to perform the practical of the essay within the final forty minutes of the class. Vanessa's Potion, instead of replacing a lush white coat to the rats' wrinkly pink skin, turned them into greying haggard instead...Jade was doing reasonably well until it came to taking the sample vial up to the teacher's desk...she tripped and sent the substance streaming down Snape's face causing a swift deduction of fifteen points as white whickers sprouted down the side of his head, he looked sickly part human...
Gaby submitted her Potion that was off-colour, off-smell and had 'converted the expert teaching and hard work of the teacher into complete incompetence and stupidity of the student' according to the half-rat prat.
That night they went to bed with swollen brains screwing up in either thoughts of revenge on the git of a teacher or remedial potions itself to upgrade all the damage they caused to their House's points in one afternoon...
The next morning sufficiently made up for their crisis in Greenhouse Four. Smith stepped up and easy fifty by answering every one of Sprout's "I-don't- think-you'll-be-able-to-know-this" questions during the course of the morning's exercise. Highly proud of her friend, Gaby grinned at him while gathering her books at the end of the lesson, and he mouthed back "Anytime."
On emerging from Greenhouse Four, Smith pulled her aside to talk to her. It looked urgent.
"I just wanted you to know that...now that Kara and I are- well...you know, nothing is gonna happen between us- you and me- I mean we'll still remain friends, right?"
Gaby, who had been staring patiently up into his steel green eyes as he spoke said monotonously: "No." And he was shocked. "You've broken our friendship, Camry- and you have the nerve to tell me this! I thought we had something special..."
He chocked and Gaby could not take it anymore. Her face burst with laughter and she punched him jovially on the arm, still in hysterics.
"Don't do that," he said, gritting his teeth though smiling at the same time- "look, you got Lima beans in you hair..." Smith was carefully extracting the few small sticky green seeds from the top of her head when a friendly loud voice floated across the grounds and carried to the tree they were standing under- Smith's hand froze just above Gaby's head and his expression became rigid; she identified from this reaction who had called and turned around to see none other than Kara trotting toward them- her curly golden strands of hair tied halfway back, her book in her arms.
"There you are..." she said catching her breath."I was looking for you- Oh, hi Gabrielle."
"Please- c-call me Gaby," she told her nicely when Smith's jaw remained fixed and stalled again so he could loosen it.
"Er...what are you doing?"
"Oh- he was just teaching me how to block the eyes- stun...charm...anyway- how's your flu?"
"All cleared," Kara said, taking in the outdoors with a clear breath and grinning at Smith. "Madam Pomfery cleared it up within a day- You ready?" she asked him eagerly, her big bright blue eyes hinting.
"What- oh! Your Charms homework..." he said, heading off with her, "See you Gabs."
"He's really good," said Kara quickly, turning around to smile at her.
"Yeah..."
Then Gaby saw Smith turn back inconspicuously to look at her with a hint of reminding and she nodden a reply and suddenly remembered she had not done her own Charm practice for the test today, she wanted to call at them but stopped for some reason even though she could have. The two of them headed up the stone steps back to the castle and were gone.
"Yeah,' muttered Gaby, "real good..."
Frustrated (and this would only hinder her desperate situation more) Gaby went through all last resorts including tagging Vanessa and Jade in the flow of students forming after break to hiss at them that she wasn't prepared, the outcome was unexpected.
"Well, I guess I'm OK with that, "Jade started, "I'm rather good at them by now and I could handle them in Flitwicks Test...Besides, I don't think he takes points off for burning your first few objects...just looks at the average state of the final one..."
"I could practically do them if you jumped me outta my sleep at one in the morning," Vanessa contributed, "for the past two days I have done nothing but eat- sleep and "you-know-what-else" the Manipulation Charm..."
By now Gaby felt somewhat stupid, she was the only one entering the charms classroom looking extremely nervous and stressed out, not that this happened all the time, it was just one of her weak subjects.
"Guys, what am I going to do?" she hissed at them as they took their positions at the back of the classroom, hoping he would start with the front.
"Just do like you always do, "Jade put it simply, "do your stuff..."
"How do I know what stuff to do if I don't have any stuff to do?"
But her protests were drowned by the remaining students bustling into the classroom and the scraping of chairs as they took their positions, faces fixed and sitting with erect confidence. Gaby was about to lose her head.
Flitwick suddenly popped up from behind his desk and greeted them with an anxious squeak...which was made more profound by the cause of this event to witness his hard work in action today...how badly Gaby was going to disappoint him, he had put so much faith in her Charmwork during the week that she promised secretly she'd do better, but never felt the chance. It was too late now.
Everyone took out their wands and Gaby followed suit, her blood boiling and she was beginning to break a sweat under her robes in the cool classroom. Feeling the impulse, she pushed her quill off the desk and disappeared beneath the top in search for it, purposely taking her time pretending the search for the thing right under her nose before resurfacing.
"Ah! Miss Flame...we'll start with you then..."
"OW!" Gaby rubbed the top of her head; she had jumped at the sound of her name. How in the world did that happen?
She emerged to see both Vanessa and Jade looking directly at her and made a mental note to reward their giveaway. Gaby strode up to the front of the class, eyes pressed in on her back as she passed rows of tables, her wand limp at her side. Not only was her head completely blank now, it was aching.
Gaby wished her teacher would stop smiling pleasantly at her and disappear behind his podium just as he had come and they didn't have to worry about the test for now...but so many of them had come prepared...
"Now, now young lady, chin up, show some dignity..."
Gaby mustered the last bit of endurance she had, and stared pointlessly at the four long pieces of licorice on the table in front of her and stared at the phrase on the card she was going to establish. Since when did candy scare her so she never could remember! Smith was sitting in the first row, next to Kara, who was also joining the eyes of the class to the person in front of Fliskwick's podium. Smith suddenly gripped the edges of the table as if just remembering something and fixed Gaby with an impenetrable stare. She showed him it was allright since it wasn't his fault he was busy, and held her wand at ready. Muttering the incantation, with actual concentration, she aimed it at the first licorice strip...it hurt her head to bend it and by the time she got the first word into shape, she was exhausted. She formed the second almost effortlessly as it consisted only of two letters but the third one chose to spring flat out across the table top while forming the last curve of the "e", lashing out threateningly at the others, that quivered slightly before her very cold hand. The class gasped surprisingly, and the sense of feeling the majority with her, with her errors and knowing her pain, eased the last trace of nervousness from the back of her mind. She noticed that if the candy twisted a bit, it would from easier, and now she was sure she was done.
|WECLONE AT HOGSWARE | | |
"Very nice Miss Flame but do you approve-"
But Gaby was already mid-way in the process of horrid correction.
|WECLOME TO HOGWARTS | | |
And then she turned to grin at her teacher, wand in her folded hands in front of her. The class broke into laughter. Not bad for a first timer she thought. "Allright Miss Flame," Flitwick squeaked, observing the reaction of his class and the finished effort. "You may sit down."
"Class Charmer," Vanessa muttered at her teasingly as she sat down.
"Told ya," said Jade. And they were right; she did have nothing to worry about.
It was easier watching from this perspective; and funny that Flitwick had called up Smith soon after, he faced the table, effortlessly administering the magic as if he was merely writing his name on a vertical piece of parchment and eventually putting her to shame. Gaby grinned at him as he was reading it over-
"Oh!" he whispered, grinning too, catching the hint and switched it around the other way so the class could see what he wrote, there was a loud "Aaaahhhhhh," as they observed his work and Flitwick bounced on the balls of his feet.
|QUIDDITCH CHAMPIONSHIPS| | | | |
This suited him perfectly.
"A common mistake!" (Gaby's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach) "But excellent..."
He passed her a jovial look on his way back to his seat, before turning around and sitting down next to Kara, who (from what Gaby could see from behind) was congratulating him in an outburst of quiet phrases.
"This isn't mine!" Gaby choked at Vanessa and jade on either side of her, on the final double Potions class of the week. She was holding her five- feet long Potions essay in her hands and staring at her name at the head to the:
|(A| |) |
Right next to it.
"Of course it's yours," said Jade, matter-of-factly. She was sporting a "c" while Vanessa bit her lip over a large red "C", too. Gaby felt her insides drop.
"He's giving back the samples today!" Jade whispered. And sure enough, as she spoke, three labeled vials clunked on their table top and Snape's whirling cloak past them in sullen silence. After the distribution (Gaby was still staring at her vial apprehensively), Snape leaned over on his desk.
"I want you to take that back- I have nothing more to do with them," he said silkily. "As I had said..." he flicked a glance at Gaby's table."I would grant ten points each for everyone who had A's in my class..."
His eyes flickered; peering over Gaby saw an "A" on Smith's Potions paper in front of him. She felt happy and proud.
"However," they both looked up the stare at the teacher, "certain major mishaps have to be taken into account." He flicked his wand to the board and the names of the students in the class materialized on the black, alongside each score in accordance. Gaby received a "C" in her Practical along with Vanessa, Jade and Smith.
"C is a failure!" he said dangerously, "no one in my class is going to pass with just a "C"! Which proves all the lower scorers complete imbeciles!" he stopped pacing the front of his desk. "Most of which came from Gryffindor, therefore it is logical enough to allocate ten points to each Slytherin until the others know-what-they-are-doing-in-my-class!"
Gaby felt like tearing Snape up into extremely tiny bits and pieces. Smith flicked around in his seat to look aghast at her, she merely shrugged.
"Today we will be doing a proper potion in the event that your hair replenisher must be in by Friday, "Snape said softly."Get into your pairs."
But just as Gaby was about to revert her station to the table in front of hers, Smith's table (Kara moved over to partner Harley) Snape, within a second, rounded on her extending a long arm to block her passage.
"How about..." his yellow eyes skittered around the heads of the students, "you partner someone else for a change," then his discoloured teeth split into an unmistakable leering sneer, "Mr. Prince Malfoy."
Trying as best to remain neutral about this sudden chance in plans, Gaby headed over to Prince's table instead (Vanessa gasped behind her and Smith's jaw dropped).
"Smith! Work with Donald."
Gaby felt totally out of place at the Slytherin side of the classroom, where leering faces surrounded her with ugly teasing and chuckles. Snape placed the instructions on the board with a wave of his wand. "I expect this to be done by the end of the period, Malfoy's in charge," then he swept out of the classroom, slamming the door behind him.
"This is going to be fun, "Prince muttered beside her and Gaby lowered her head to slice up stewed lizards tails a bit faster than she meant to."Since I'm in charge, you get to do all the work..." And from the insides of his robes, Prince extricated The Handbook on Unsightly Quidditch Fouls, leaned back in his bench and lengthened his legs across the table top right next to where Gaby was working, her anger now burning more than the fire beneath the cauldron as she tried to avoid Vanessa's eyes. She knew she would burst. She cast her eyes to the blackboard for the next instruction.
[5] Heat for about one minute, then apply Pelican Powder...
And looking over the table she saw it disappear underneath Prince's shoes. "Prince, could you kindly let me get to the powder?"
No response.
"Prince? I would like to get some of the powder you have under your shoe..."
Prince turned a page. Gaby's hand stiffened at the pocket of her robes. Smith, Vanessa and Jade were watching, she had twenty seconds more before the Potion could go terribly wrong.
"Prince Malfoy, could you give me the Pelican Powder, please?" her voice now shaking as she saw a smile curl around the corners of his lips, he was clearly enjoying this.
"What are you going to do about it?" And as she made a grab for it, his foot thrust forward and the vial of powder fell with a chink to the floor. There was a scraping of chair legs but Gaby held up a hand over to the Gryffindor section as she bent down to retrieve it.
"Reparo!" The pieces fused together again, the powder scattered. She tried her best hastily with a collectable charm and rose again just in time to apply it to the potion before it frothed over the rim, it turned a green solution, exactly as the instructions stated, she was done.
Prince was suddenly up on his feet, handbook cast aside. "You know you're not supposed to use wands in this class for that."
Gaby was leveling the sample into a vial. "What are you going to do about it?"
In a roar of fury Prince was at her. Vial and wand crashed to the floor as she wretched his arms away from her shoulders as he made to shove her hard against the wall- She doubled back- Slyherins scampered out of the way.
"You dare to touch Royalty!" Prince seethed, advancing again.
The chair she heard before was suddenly thrown aside in a wave of fury as her best friend bounded forward- Jade and Vanessa screamed- and like clockwork, as if Prince knew this would happen- he pointed his wand straight at the unarmed Gaby as his accomplice Donald, did the same to Kara, who shrieked with surprise.
Gaby looked at the wand tip right before her eyes, poised and ready to strike, to the satisfied sneer lingered on Prince's pale face, to the frozen figure of Smith right behind him. He looked from Malfoy's back to Kara- Gaby expected him to do something, anything, she didn't even care if he blasted Donald off his feet instead. Go on! She willed him to look at her, help her you idiot! I can take care of myself! But he merely lowered his wand as Prince glanced at his form from the corner of his eye. He tut- tutted. A whole minute passed and wands were still held at bay, Gaby held her breath.
Then Prince turned, his wand at his side as Donald went back to his seat-
"TARANTALLEGRA!"
Prince's sudden spell hit the wall behind her as Gaby ducked, and ricocheted of to impact the nearest cauldron, which cracked, boiling green liquid seeped to the floor, burning holes into benches abandoned by Slytherins.
"What's going on here?" Snape has just re-entered, looking uglier than ever.
"Flame went mad and exploded this cauldron Professor...I was trying to clean it up when Smith there- he tried to hex me behind my back!"
The Gryffindors broke into a wave of protests.
"SILENCE!" he yelled, then continued in a dangerous whisper that nevertheless carried over the heads of the class, "This will be dealt with accordingly- Malfoy, get these students out of here- you two!"
He rounded on Smith and Gaby and seized them by the forearms, dragging them out of the classroom, Gaby trotted to keep up with her teacher's furious pace lest her arm be detached from her body.
"I should have known you were unable to handle this!" he seethed, and slammed the door into the faces of the protesting Grffindors behind him who had all burst into a frenzy of insults the moment he took captive of the two students.
One minute later, they were hurled into Snape's office, surrounded by ugly things, such as himself, swimming in jars on shelves lining the walls.
"Do you care to tell me what went on in there?" he half-shouted.
Gaby's tongue remained lodged inside her mouth and she knew Smith was battling the same impulse of useless defense.
"Speak! They jumped but said nothing.
"Every student is allowed a right to defense, now take it or leave it!" he spat in their faces. They chose not to, not now. There was a moment of stiff silence, in which the pair of accusing yellow eyes looked from face to face, and Gaby and Smith stared back at them, defiant and non- protesting. Gaby knew what he was trying to do, and did not let him.
"I will find out!" he shouted, slamming the door behind him. Gaby's hand went to her other arm, where Snape left an impression in her skin. "Are you allright?" Smith asked her.
"It's...not...fair!" her voice trembled, "It's just not fair!"
"Nothing can be fair at times," he said so sullenly that Gaby looked up at him, suddenly remembering what he did previously in class.
"How did your Potion turn out?" she asked him, casting around for something diversional, it was his turn to look at her, but he merely smiled and said, "Perfect." Gaby grinned. "If it wasn't for that git Donald I would have never figured it out, he kept correcting me...and I felt like shoving my wand up his -"
Snape was livid and excessively destructive to Gryffindor point standing when they had to perform the practical of the essay within the final forty minutes of the class. Vanessa's Potion, instead of replacing a lush white coat to the rats' wrinkly pink skin, turned them into greying haggard instead...Jade was doing reasonably well until it came to taking the sample vial up to the teacher's desk...she tripped and sent the substance streaming down Snape's face causing a swift deduction of fifteen points as white whickers sprouted down the side of his head, he looked sickly part human...
Gaby submitted her Potion that was off-colour, off-smell and had 'converted the expert teaching and hard work of the teacher into complete incompetence and stupidity of the student' according to the half-rat prat.
That night they went to bed with swollen brains screwing up in either thoughts of revenge on the git of a teacher or remedial potions itself to upgrade all the damage they caused to their House's points in one afternoon...
The next morning sufficiently made up for their crisis in Greenhouse Four. Smith stepped up and easy fifty by answering every one of Sprout's "I-don't- think-you'll-be-able-to-know-this" questions during the course of the morning's exercise. Highly proud of her friend, Gaby grinned at him while gathering her books at the end of the lesson, and he mouthed back "Anytime."
On emerging from Greenhouse Four, Smith pulled her aside to talk to her. It looked urgent.
"I just wanted you to know that...now that Kara and I are- well...you know, nothing is gonna happen between us- you and me- I mean we'll still remain friends, right?"
Gaby, who had been staring patiently up into his steel green eyes as he spoke said monotonously: "No." And he was shocked. "You've broken our friendship, Camry- and you have the nerve to tell me this! I thought we had something special..."
He chocked and Gaby could not take it anymore. Her face burst with laughter and she punched him jovially on the arm, still in hysterics.
"Don't do that," he said, gritting his teeth though smiling at the same time- "look, you got Lima beans in you hair..." Smith was carefully extracting the few small sticky green seeds from the top of her head when a friendly loud voice floated across the grounds and carried to the tree they were standing under- Smith's hand froze just above Gaby's head and his expression became rigid; she identified from this reaction who had called and turned around to see none other than Kara trotting toward them- her curly golden strands of hair tied halfway back, her book in her arms.
"There you are..." she said catching her breath."I was looking for you- Oh, hi Gabrielle."
"Please- c-call me Gaby," she told her nicely when Smith's jaw remained fixed and stalled again so he could loosen it.
"Er...what are you doing?"
"Oh- he was just teaching me how to block the eyes- stun...charm...anyway- how's your flu?"
"All cleared," Kara said, taking in the outdoors with a clear breath and grinning at Smith. "Madam Pomfery cleared it up within a day- You ready?" she asked him eagerly, her big bright blue eyes hinting.
"What- oh! Your Charms homework..." he said, heading off with her, "See you Gabs."
"He's really good," said Kara quickly, turning around to smile at her.
"Yeah..."
Then Gaby saw Smith turn back inconspicuously to look at her with a hint of reminding and she nodden a reply and suddenly remembered she had not done her own Charm practice for the test today, she wanted to call at them but stopped for some reason even though she could have. The two of them headed up the stone steps back to the castle and were gone.
"Yeah,' muttered Gaby, "real good..."
Frustrated (and this would only hinder her desperate situation more) Gaby went through all last resorts including tagging Vanessa and Jade in the flow of students forming after break to hiss at them that she wasn't prepared, the outcome was unexpected.
"Well, I guess I'm OK with that, "Jade started, "I'm rather good at them by now and I could handle them in Flitwicks Test...Besides, I don't think he takes points off for burning your first few objects...just looks at the average state of the final one..."
"I could practically do them if you jumped me outta my sleep at one in the morning," Vanessa contributed, "for the past two days I have done nothing but eat- sleep and "you-know-what-else" the Manipulation Charm..."
By now Gaby felt somewhat stupid, she was the only one entering the charms classroom looking extremely nervous and stressed out, not that this happened all the time, it was just one of her weak subjects.
"Guys, what am I going to do?" she hissed at them as they took their positions at the back of the classroom, hoping he would start with the front.
"Just do like you always do, "Jade put it simply, "do your stuff..."
"How do I know what stuff to do if I don't have any stuff to do?"
But her protests were drowned by the remaining students bustling into the classroom and the scraping of chairs as they took their positions, faces fixed and sitting with erect confidence. Gaby was about to lose her head.
Flitwick suddenly popped up from behind his desk and greeted them with an anxious squeak...which was made more profound by the cause of this event to witness his hard work in action today...how badly Gaby was going to disappoint him, he had put so much faith in her Charmwork during the week that she promised secretly she'd do better, but never felt the chance. It was too late now.
Everyone took out their wands and Gaby followed suit, her blood boiling and she was beginning to break a sweat under her robes in the cool classroom. Feeling the impulse, she pushed her quill off the desk and disappeared beneath the top in search for it, purposely taking her time pretending the search for the thing right under her nose before resurfacing.
"Ah! Miss Flame...we'll start with you then..."
"OW!" Gaby rubbed the top of her head; she had jumped at the sound of her name. How in the world did that happen?
She emerged to see both Vanessa and Jade looking directly at her and made a mental note to reward their giveaway. Gaby strode up to the front of the class, eyes pressed in on her back as she passed rows of tables, her wand limp at her side. Not only was her head completely blank now, it was aching.
Gaby wished her teacher would stop smiling pleasantly at her and disappear behind his podium just as he had come and they didn't have to worry about the test for now...but so many of them had come prepared...
"Now, now young lady, chin up, show some dignity..."
Gaby mustered the last bit of endurance she had, and stared pointlessly at the four long pieces of licorice on the table in front of her and stared at the phrase on the card she was going to establish. Since when did candy scare her so she never could remember! Smith was sitting in the first row, next to Kara, who was also joining the eyes of the class to the person in front of Fliskwick's podium. Smith suddenly gripped the edges of the table as if just remembering something and fixed Gaby with an impenetrable stare. She showed him it was allright since it wasn't his fault he was busy, and held her wand at ready. Muttering the incantation, with actual concentration, she aimed it at the first licorice strip...it hurt her head to bend it and by the time she got the first word into shape, she was exhausted. She formed the second almost effortlessly as it consisted only of two letters but the third one chose to spring flat out across the table top while forming the last curve of the "e", lashing out threateningly at the others, that quivered slightly before her very cold hand. The class gasped surprisingly, and the sense of feeling the majority with her, with her errors and knowing her pain, eased the last trace of nervousness from the back of her mind. She noticed that if the candy twisted a bit, it would from easier, and now she was sure she was done.
|WECLONE AT HOGSWARE | | |
"Very nice Miss Flame but do you approve-"
But Gaby was already mid-way in the process of horrid correction.
|WECLOME TO HOGWARTS | | |
And then she turned to grin at her teacher, wand in her folded hands in front of her. The class broke into laughter. Not bad for a first timer she thought. "Allright Miss Flame," Flitwick squeaked, observing the reaction of his class and the finished effort. "You may sit down."
"Class Charmer," Vanessa muttered at her teasingly as she sat down.
"Told ya," said Jade. And they were right; she did have nothing to worry about.
It was easier watching from this perspective; and funny that Flitwick had called up Smith soon after, he faced the table, effortlessly administering the magic as if he was merely writing his name on a vertical piece of parchment and eventually putting her to shame. Gaby grinned at him as he was reading it over-
"Oh!" he whispered, grinning too, catching the hint and switched it around the other way so the class could see what he wrote, there was a loud "Aaaahhhhhh," as they observed his work and Flitwick bounced on the balls of his feet.
|QUIDDITCH CHAMPIONSHIPS| | | | |
This suited him perfectly.
"A common mistake!" (Gaby's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach) "But excellent..."
He passed her a jovial look on his way back to his seat, before turning around and sitting down next to Kara, who (from what Gaby could see from behind) was congratulating him in an outburst of quiet phrases.
"This isn't mine!" Gaby choked at Vanessa and jade on either side of her, on the final double Potions class of the week. She was holding her five- feet long Potions essay in her hands and staring at her name at the head to the:
|(A| |) |
Right next to it.
"Of course it's yours," said Jade, matter-of-factly. She was sporting a "c" while Vanessa bit her lip over a large red "C", too. Gaby felt her insides drop.
"He's giving back the samples today!" Jade whispered. And sure enough, as she spoke, three labeled vials clunked on their table top and Snape's whirling cloak past them in sullen silence. After the distribution (Gaby was still staring at her vial apprehensively), Snape leaned over on his desk.
"I want you to take that back- I have nothing more to do with them," he said silkily. "As I had said..." he flicked a glance at Gaby's table."I would grant ten points each for everyone who had A's in my class..."
His eyes flickered; peering over Gaby saw an "A" on Smith's Potions paper in front of him. She felt happy and proud.
"However," they both looked up the stare at the teacher, "certain major mishaps have to be taken into account." He flicked his wand to the board and the names of the students in the class materialized on the black, alongside each score in accordance. Gaby received a "C" in her Practical along with Vanessa, Jade and Smith.
"C is a failure!" he said dangerously, "no one in my class is going to pass with just a "C"! Which proves all the lower scorers complete imbeciles!" he stopped pacing the front of his desk. "Most of which came from Gryffindor, therefore it is logical enough to allocate ten points to each Slytherin until the others know-what-they-are-doing-in-my-class!"
Gaby felt like tearing Snape up into extremely tiny bits and pieces. Smith flicked around in his seat to look aghast at her, she merely shrugged.
"Today we will be doing a proper potion in the event that your hair replenisher must be in by Friday, "Snape said softly."Get into your pairs."
But just as Gaby was about to revert her station to the table in front of hers, Smith's table (Kara moved over to partner Harley) Snape, within a second, rounded on her extending a long arm to block her passage.
"How about..." his yellow eyes skittered around the heads of the students, "you partner someone else for a change," then his discoloured teeth split into an unmistakable leering sneer, "Mr. Prince Malfoy."
Trying as best to remain neutral about this sudden chance in plans, Gaby headed over to Prince's table instead (Vanessa gasped behind her and Smith's jaw dropped).
"Smith! Work with Donald."
Gaby felt totally out of place at the Slytherin side of the classroom, where leering faces surrounded her with ugly teasing and chuckles. Snape placed the instructions on the board with a wave of his wand. "I expect this to be done by the end of the period, Malfoy's in charge," then he swept out of the classroom, slamming the door behind him.
"This is going to be fun, "Prince muttered beside her and Gaby lowered her head to slice up stewed lizards tails a bit faster than she meant to."Since I'm in charge, you get to do all the work..." And from the insides of his robes, Prince extricated The Handbook on Unsightly Quidditch Fouls, leaned back in his bench and lengthened his legs across the table top right next to where Gaby was working, her anger now burning more than the fire beneath the cauldron as she tried to avoid Vanessa's eyes. She knew she would burst. She cast her eyes to the blackboard for the next instruction.
[5] Heat for about one minute, then apply Pelican Powder...
And looking over the table she saw it disappear underneath Prince's shoes. "Prince, could you kindly let me get to the powder?"
No response.
"Prince? I would like to get some of the powder you have under your shoe..."
Prince turned a page. Gaby's hand stiffened at the pocket of her robes. Smith, Vanessa and Jade were watching, she had twenty seconds more before the Potion could go terribly wrong.
"Prince Malfoy, could you give me the Pelican Powder, please?" her voice now shaking as she saw a smile curl around the corners of his lips, he was clearly enjoying this.
"What are you going to do about it?" And as she made a grab for it, his foot thrust forward and the vial of powder fell with a chink to the floor. There was a scraping of chair legs but Gaby held up a hand over to the Gryffindor section as she bent down to retrieve it.
"Reparo!" The pieces fused together again, the powder scattered. She tried her best hastily with a collectable charm and rose again just in time to apply it to the potion before it frothed over the rim, it turned a green solution, exactly as the instructions stated, she was done.
Prince was suddenly up on his feet, handbook cast aside. "You know you're not supposed to use wands in this class for that."
Gaby was leveling the sample into a vial. "What are you going to do about it?"
In a roar of fury Prince was at her. Vial and wand crashed to the floor as she wretched his arms away from her shoulders as he made to shove her hard against the wall- She doubled back- Slyherins scampered out of the way.
"You dare to touch Royalty!" Prince seethed, advancing again.
The chair she heard before was suddenly thrown aside in a wave of fury as her best friend bounded forward- Jade and Vanessa screamed- and like clockwork, as if Prince knew this would happen- he pointed his wand straight at the unarmed Gaby as his accomplice Donald, did the same to Kara, who shrieked with surprise.
Gaby looked at the wand tip right before her eyes, poised and ready to strike, to the satisfied sneer lingered on Prince's pale face, to the frozen figure of Smith right behind him. He looked from Malfoy's back to Kara- Gaby expected him to do something, anything, she didn't even care if he blasted Donald off his feet instead. Go on! She willed him to look at her, help her you idiot! I can take care of myself! But he merely lowered his wand as Prince glanced at his form from the corner of his eye. He tut- tutted. A whole minute passed and wands were still held at bay, Gaby held her breath.
Then Prince turned, his wand at his side as Donald went back to his seat-
"TARANTALLEGRA!"
Prince's sudden spell hit the wall behind her as Gaby ducked, and ricocheted of to impact the nearest cauldron, which cracked, boiling green liquid seeped to the floor, burning holes into benches abandoned by Slytherins.
"What's going on here?" Snape has just re-entered, looking uglier than ever.
"Flame went mad and exploded this cauldron Professor...I was trying to clean it up when Smith there- he tried to hex me behind my back!"
The Gryffindors broke into a wave of protests.
"SILENCE!" he yelled, then continued in a dangerous whisper that nevertheless carried over the heads of the class, "This will be dealt with accordingly- Malfoy, get these students out of here- you two!"
He rounded on Smith and Gaby and seized them by the forearms, dragging them out of the classroom, Gaby trotted to keep up with her teacher's furious pace lest her arm be detached from her body.
"I should have known you were unable to handle this!" he seethed, and slammed the door into the faces of the protesting Grffindors behind him who had all burst into a frenzy of insults the moment he took captive of the two students.
One minute later, they were hurled into Snape's office, surrounded by ugly things, such as himself, swimming in jars on shelves lining the walls.
"Do you care to tell me what went on in there?" he half-shouted.
Gaby's tongue remained lodged inside her mouth and she knew Smith was battling the same impulse of useless defense.
"Speak! They jumped but said nothing.
"Every student is allowed a right to defense, now take it or leave it!" he spat in their faces. They chose not to, not now. There was a moment of stiff silence, in which the pair of accusing yellow eyes looked from face to face, and Gaby and Smith stared back at them, defiant and non- protesting. Gaby knew what he was trying to do, and did not let him.
"I will find out!" he shouted, slamming the door behind him. Gaby's hand went to her other arm, where Snape left an impression in her skin. "Are you allright?" Smith asked her.
"It's...not...fair!" her voice trembled, "It's just not fair!"
"Nothing can be fair at times," he said so sullenly that Gaby looked up at him, suddenly remembering what he did previously in class.
"How did your Potion turn out?" she asked him, casting around for something diversional, it was his turn to look at her, but he merely smiled and said, "Perfect." Gaby grinned. "If it wasn't for that git Donald I would have never figured it out, he kept correcting me...and I felt like shoving my wand up his -"