Here again there is a little bit of weird transitions and for this I apologize!!
Also, sorry for not updating for a while..i thought it went up but i guess not so im putting it up again, enjoy!
Chapter 4: Projects, Potions and Partners, Oh My!
Hermione, Harry and Ron took seats in Proffessor McGonagal's and waited for her to arrive. When she did she was carrying a stack a folders. Proffessor McGonagal only brought folders to when a major assignment was being given. But it seemed she had too many; usually there were only 3 or 4.
"O.K. I am hoping you have all figured out by now that we are, in fact, starting a project today. This project is not like any you have had in this before, for three reasons. The first reason is because it will be taking up the entire first half of the school year to complete" some people at the back groaned loudly but she continued as though she hadn't heard, " and secondly, because you will be working alone. On other projects we have always had groups but I would like you to do this one by yourself as you will be writing a paper at the end and that usually doesn't work with more than one person," she stared around at the sternly.
"Lastly, everyone will have a different project," Ron looked offended at this comment and Harry swore quietly.
"Yes, this means none of you will be able to copy off friends. All your ideas and work will have to be done on your own." she finished, smiling. Then she began to pass out the folders containing their projects. Hermione opened hers and sighed.
Your task is to explain the background, the making and logic behind the enchanted sky in the great hall. I expect a well-written five paragraph essay, a wandpoint presentation (instead of powerpoint, get it, eh eh, lol) and you will turn your paper into a 3 minute oral presentation to be given as commentary during your wandpoint. Good luck.
There was also a sticky note on the inside of the folder.
Ms. Granger,
I thought you would enjoy doing this project as I have found how much the sky interests you. Have fun with it, I can't wait to see the final result!
Professor McGonagal
Just as Hermione got McGonagal's eye and mouthed a thank-you, Harry swore again, except not so quietly.
"5 points from Gryffindor, for your obscene language, Mr. Potter" Proffessor McGonagal looked rather harrassed. Then she said to the , " Ok, you may go"
The looked delighted. It had only been a five minute and they were already out. What were they going to do with the extra 40 minutes before potions?
As they left the Hermione turned to Harry,
"What was that about?" she asked sternly.
"My project is impossible. Lemme see yours" they traded folders and Hermione opened his up.
Explain what you can about the Sorcerors Stone and what part in plays in Transfiguration.
Hermione checked the notes down the bottom.
"Oh come on, yours is so easy!" they said at the same time.
Hermione scowled.
"No we are not going to trade. And it says at the bottom in the notes that you can use interveiws, you can go to Dumbledore and ask him all you want about Nicolas Flammel! " she offered.
"Where's it say that?" he asked. She pointed to the bottom.
"Oh, i didn't read that. OK i 'spose i can do this now. Thanks 'Mione" he added..
"What have you got Ron?" she asked.
"Ermm, I have to do a bigrphee on some guy..ummm Thadius Switch" he said, examining his folder.
"Oh brilliant, he's the founding father of Transfiguration you've got a great assignment. I'm jealous. Oh and it's bi-og-ra-phy not bigrphee. It means a paper on a person's life. Haven't you ever done one?" she asked.
"No, I didn't go to school before I came here. Mum just taught me the basics." he replied.
"Ok, well, have you got any notes?" she asked.
"Yeah, I have to interview a teacher of my choice and two she's assigned. Oh bloody hell" he suddenly yelled causing the rest of the , who were all out in the hall discussing their projects, to look around at them.
"What?" asked Harry and Hermione.
"I have to interview Snape. Just my luck." he threw his paper back into the folder.
"Oh well, I'm going to start researching this, wanna come?" she said.
Ron looked harrassed.
"No thank you, I'm going to the kitchens." he replied.
"Me too" added Harry.
"Ok, see you at potions!" she called after their retreating backs.
Then she set off for the library.
When the bell rang outside the Library signalling the end of first period, Hermione gathered her books, said thank-you to Mrs. Pince and exited. When she reached potions, she found her seat next to Harry and Ron.
"Hey, how was the kitchens?' she asked.
"Goof, we gof du sumfin" replied Ron, his words mispronounced on account that he had a cake in his mouth.Harry handed Hermione a muffin. Chocolate chip, her favourite.
"Thanks guys" she wrapped the muffin up and placed it in her bag for later.
Just then Snape enetered the rom.
"Ok, students, today we will be concocting a very difficult potion so listen up." he said. This was often said in his , but Hermione didn't think it was neccasary (sorry, can't spell!) to say how difficult the potions were as they were in the advanced and should therefore be expected to be doing harder potions.
"We will be making a potion today that will turn out different colours. Whoever has the same colour as you is the person in this you are most romantically attached to," here he stopped and scoffed, as though not believeing the accuracy of the potion. Hermione got the feeling that when he made this potion, no one else had the same colour as him and this had left him very bitter.
Just then, Draco wandered in. He was a good 5 minutes late but Snape continued as though there had been no disturbance. Harry and Ron began whispering, no doubt about how much they hated Malfoy.
"So, the ingrediants and recipe are on the board, please work alone and you should be done a good ten minutes before the end of ." he sat down at his desk and began grading what looked like last week's tests. Hermione could see quite a few red marks on most of them. She got out her cauldron and needed ingrediants and began making the potion. After adding the bat spleen, frog eyes and gillyweed, Hermione took out the book she had checked out of the library and continued reading while her potion simmered for 10 minutes. She felt a tap on her shoulder.
"What do you want Harry?" she asked without looking up. A harsh voice floated down to her as she turned the page.
"I'm extremely embarrassed you would think I was Potter." Draco gave her a ugly look. He had finally realised how juvenile calling Harry 'Potty' was last year and had gone back to calling him by his last name.
Hermione looked up.
"Ok, well what do YOU want, Draco?" she spat at him.
"I think you still have my potions book. Can I borrow yours?" he asked. He was very polite, which shocked Hermione.
"Um, yeah sure. Take it." she replied. She checked her watch and saw the ten minutes were up. She added the next ingrediants and then began getting the next ones ready. Over the next 10 minutes, Hermione stirred in the remaining ingrediants. It soon turned a dark blue and Hermione looked around to see who else had her colour. Harry's was a greenish/yellow colour and Ron looked very embrassed that his potion had turned a bright pink.
A second later there was a scream from across the room. Hermione looked around to see Lavender and Parvati giggling madly. Lavender's potion was the same colour as Harry's. When he saw what they were laughing at, Harry groaned and sank into his seat, his hands over his face.
"Whyyyy" he moaned.
Hermione patted him on the back.
It looked like Ron was best suited with a blonde haired Slytherin. When Her fellow housemates saw this, they inched away from her as though she were carrying some deadly contagous disease. Ron didn't look too pleased either.
Two slytherin boy caused a ruckus when they found they both had the same red coloured potion.
Then a third (who had an orange mixture in front of him) slapped one of the boys and ran from the room crying. The slytheirns inched away from these two as well.
Snape seemed to be watching the mayhem with a sneer on his face. He appeared to be enjoying the trouble he was causing.
Hernione turned to see Draco standing next to her, holding out her book.
"I got some of my potion on it, sorry. Thanks for letting me borrow it," he said, handing it to her.
As he turned to leave Hermione got out a tissue to clean off the liquid. She stopped, holding the tissue mere inches from the book's cover when she dropped it.
Hermione sat staring at her book for what must have been an eternity before snapping back to her senses and realizing what she was seeing. The red cover of her book was sabataged by a BIG BLUE POTION STAIN! Hermione examined it carefully, making quite sure that they had the same colour, but there was no mistaking it. Hermione didn't have time to dwell on the sudden find because Snape was clearing his throat once again. She hastily cleaned off her book and put it in her bag.
"O.k. I take it you have found your matches." he smiled malevolently here. " Now, the reason I wanted to end early was to give you an assignment. The person who has your colour will be your partner for this task-" he began to explain, but just then Neville made a pitiful squeak and raised his hand in the air.
"Please sir, " he said, fear making it's way into his voice, " please, I think I've messed up my potion-"
"Yes, what a suprise Longbottom.We'll find a pair for you to work with at the end of the lesson, shall we. And, " he contemplated an idea, " yes, i think 10 points from Gryffindor for your utter stupidity." Neville squeaked again and sat lower in his chair.
"Now, as I was saying. These people will be your partners for the term-long assignment I will sending by mail tomorrow." Hermione stole a glance at Draco. He was listening to Snape with rapt attention and hadn't seemed to have bothered to look to see who had his colour.
Snape continued, "So I can take down the pairing and so everyone knows who they are working with, I would like eveyone to dip a piece of parchment into their potions and bring it to me. Make sure to put your name on, then I will read off the pairing." he waited while everyone ladled potion onto a spare piece of parchment.
"Come on, it should dry instantly if you've done it right." he barked, annoyed already with their slowness.
Ron seemed to be having difficulty with the drying part. He eventually just brought his dripping parchment to Professor Snape and held it out to him. He let go a second too soon and the tiniest bit of potion spilled onto Snape's cloak. Ron siggered at the look of utmost horror on his face. His laughter subsided quite quickly when he learned he would be recieving detention for a week. Hermione heard him mutter softly, 'Miserable Bugger'. She brought her dry, colour-stained parchment to the Professor just as Draco left. When Snape saw the matching colours, a look of great amusement spread across his face. He looked at Draco's retreating back before saying,
"Out of the way Granger, you are holding up the line." Hermione threw him a nasty look and walked back to her seat.
Snape shuffled through the papers and matched them together.
"O.k. Listen up, here are the pairs. Weasley and Miss Archer (a/n she's an utter cow who goes to my school so i thought I'd use her for this part, lol)" Ron scowled at his bad luck.
"Miss Brown and Potter," Harry burried his head in his hands as Lavender grinned happily,
"Mister Blair and Mister Gill" the two boys who had made the third cry got uneasy looks here. The boy who had run out had never come back.
"Mister Burd doesn't have a partner so Longbottom will be with him, " Neville eyed the tall scary looking boy wearily and Hemrione gave him a sympathetic look.
He continued on with the pairing until there were only four people without partners. Draco was beginning to look wary.
"So that leaves Zabini with Miss Brim and Mister Malfoy with" Hermione shut her eyes and and began humming loudly as though trying to block it out but still it came, "Granger" she sighed. Oh well, she had done her best to avoid it. She now realized how the whole was staring at her.
' Stare at Draco, would you?! He's half of this god-awful team as well you know!' she thought to herself.
"That's it, you may go. Expect the assignment tomorrow morning." and with that, the torture commenced.
A/N Reviewer comments: Here I would like to say thank you so much for giving me feedback your comments are helpful for not just this fic but others that I may write later!
Ccbchunks: 1. I'm not sure what you mean by the spelling is random..it may be some of the stuff I spell differently from you. I'm british and there are words (tho most ppl don't know this) that we spell differently. Ex. Colour..see we add the U. Also, there was one section that didn't get looked over before I put it up and Im sorry for that my computer was being weird, lol. 2. o.k. here there are two things...first of all the story is already wirtten up to a point and I like the way it has mostly gone so it's going to stay like that when I put it up here. Second..you will find out later why he has acted the way he has..just like all writers..it's not good if you tell everything straight out...I personally like that I'm leaving you wonderin why..understand? Oh and no need to say 'Jes' with the things..that's my name you can just type Jes, k? also, yay I'm on your favourites! (see the U, lol)
Sparrow-Heart: Thank you also for the concern you have brought up. However, again this is the way I write..i think it gives it a bit more of a real feeel..you know..I mean I know that when I talk (especially if I'm embarrased and confused) I tend to break up my speech.
Thanks again to all my reviewers!!!