Chapter 10: - Potions class

Miriam kept refusing to answer Lily's question about why the Artemis' and Blacks disliked each other and all she kept saying was that it was just stupid and that it was nothing, even when Lily had pointed out that it was because of this so called 'Stupid' animosity between the families that the first years where now being watched like an hawk by Prefect Amanda Hugh- Genghis, Miriam had said that had nothing to do with anything about her family and everything to do with Sirius being a jerk!

"But don't you see" Lily said that evening has all the first year girls sat in their dormitory "The reason we're sitting up here is because of the hostility between the Blacks and your family!"

"No!" Miriam said slamming her trunk closed "the reason we're sitting up here is because Sirius and James think that it's funny to throw Dung bombs around the common room!"

"She's got a point" Alice said bitterly as she pulled her slippers on and picked up her toiletry bag "The only reason we're here at all is because we all STINK!!!!" There was a groan of agreement from Amy and Dymphna.

"I'm going to strangle Sirius and James with my bare hands" Dymphna said fuming,

"Not before I get to them first" Amy said

"That's if there's anything left of them after Hug-and-kiss has finished with them" Miriam said smiling as she thought about the possibilities of what Amanda Hugh-Genghis would be doing to the two boys at this very moment.

"Don't you see that all this hatred between us and the boys can be linked directly to Miriam and Sirius and then to the fact that they both detest each other because of what ever happened between their families!" Lily said trying to get the girls to understand what she was saying

"No I see that it's directly linked to that slime ball Mundungus Fletcher" Miriam said her temper rising "After all he was the one who got them the Dung bombs in the first place!"

"You don't know that!" Lily said starting to get irritated, she'd been working on Miriam all day and had got nothing but an even more annoyed friend who became very snappy and kept blaming Sirius for everything; this was made even worse by Alice telling Miriam that she was absolutely right and saying that her brother was to be blamed as well.

The prank in the common room had only just served to fuel the two girls' dislike of James and Sirius even more, and when Alice had said that she and the others stunk it was true the girls really did smell and it wasn't a pleasant smell. Sirius and James had persuaded Mundungus Fletcher, (which Lily thought wouldn't have took much to do) to get them some Dung bombs which they had released in the common room that evening making everyone who was in the room smell really bad. Why they had done it Lily had no idea all she knew was that most of them had been aimed at herself, Alice and Miriam.

"But I'm trying to say that if your brother and Narcissa can put their differences aside then maybe you and Sirius could!" Lily said trying to persuade Miriam to think rationally

"Lily, you know absolutely nothing about my family or the Blacks" Miriam retorted, has she spun round to face her brandishing her toiletry bag "And as for the differences between Tad and Narcissa there are none"

"Well your exactly like Sirius! Your both bull headed!" Lily shouted in frustration before she could even stop herself, Miriam had opened her mouth to reply but a shout from the other side of the dormitory door stop Miriam from saying anything that she may have regretted

"The Showers are free now, if your going to use them, but be quick the third years still need to use them" the voice was that of Dorcas Meadows the fifth year prefect. The girls traipsed to the showers feeling completely miserable, Lily knew that the reason for the bad feelings amongst the girls was entirely her fault she'd been asking Miriam again and again about what was the reason for her family to loathe the Black family so much and she hadn't relented all day, James and Sirius's Dung bomb prank had only helped to enhance the girls' foul moods but the course of the dispirited mood was all Lily's fault, she resolved to apologise to Miriam as soon has they had all stopped smelling like a pile of manure.

After returning back to their dormitory each girl smelling fresh and clean, Lily turned to look at Miriam who was sitting on her bed brushing her wet hair has Mac purred loudly curled up on her pillow,

"Miriam-" Lily began but she was cut off by Miriam

"You don't have to apologise Lily" she said calmly "It's me who should. I know you was only trying to make us all get along with each other and believe me I would really try to if Sirius was willing to"

Lily seriously doubted that Miriam would try to get along with Sirius even if her life depended on it but Lily appreciated the gesture

"It's just that some people are not meant to get along with each other, and after tonight's little practical joke Sirius Black will wish that he never came to Hogwarts" Miriam continued as she still brushed her hair.

Lily sighed kicked her slippers off and climbed into bed, she was glad that she and Miriam were still going to be friends and that neither one of them had said anything that they could regretted but Lily had the unsettling feeling that she was going to regret her part in winding Miriam up into wanting to take revenge on Sirius and James. She consoled herself by thinking that at least tomorrow was another day and that they where to start lessons again.

By the next day the scene of the Gryffindor common room smelling too much like a cesspit in the summer sun felt like a distant memory, Amanda woke the first years even earlier then usual and talked them all through their times tables and what each lesson for today would involve. Lily was beginning to dislike Amanda Hugh-Genghis along with the rest of her fellow first years and Lily couldn't help but feel glad that Amanda's voice was sounding very horse this morning, because it meant two things, the first was that James and Sirius who where sitting separated from the rest of the year had received a very thorough chastising for the events of last night and secondly that Amanda wasn't going to be talking a lot today. Amanda's talk about what they should expect from the lessons ruined the classes for Lily that day because she already knew what they were going to do and there was no surprises.

Monday morning was devoted to a lesson of Herbology and Charms, the Gryffindors had Herbology with the first year Hufflepuffs and Lily immediately understood why Miriam had wanted to have been sorted into that house, not only were they kind and helpful but they were a cheery bunch of students as well. In their first lesson they had to plant seeds into large trays, while the Herbology teacher Professor Sprout talked them through it, Lily, Alice and Miriam was joined at their tray by a smiling David Darcy, the boy who had shared the girls' boat on the crossing to Hogwarts. Darcy was also joined by his new friend Robert Smithson, who was as cute as Darcy and had short light brown hair. Lily really liked Darcy and Smithson they made her laugh and were fun to be around they all talked about how their first week had gone and when Lily, Miriam and Alice had told them all about Amanda Hugh-Genghis' new curfew regulations the boys where outraged on the girls behalf which made Lily like the pair even more. When the bell rang to signal the end of the class Lily felt slightly sorry that the Hufflepuffs where not going to be with them in Charms.

The Charms professor was called Flitwick and was very tiny, he was even shorter then Amy Brown who was very small for her age, Flitwick's lesson was exactly has Amada had said it would be, With lots of talking about what they where going to do in the rest of the year and lots of theory work about the first charm spell they where going to learn in their next lesson.

After lunch the Gryffindors had double Transfiguration with their head of house: Professor McGonagall. McGonagall was extremely pleased with them for being able to transfigure their matches on the first attempt and rewarded them all with five points each, she obviously hadn't know that Amanda had insisted on teaching them how to do that transfiguration the day before.

"Very good Miss Evans" McGonagall said has she moved around the classroom looking at everyone's pins, Miriam had received an "Exceptional" from McGonagall and was given an extra ten house points because she had transformed her match into a very ornate hat pin with a fancy stylised thistle at the end of it which Professor McGonagall had even asked if she could keep.

"Show off!" Sirius had hissed to her as McGonagall moved off to inspect Peter's attempts at changing his match into a pin, Lily held her breath waiting for Miriam to retaliate with a snide remark but none came, instead Miriam was smiling a very mischievous smile. Lily half wished that Miriam would have retorted to Sirius' comment because has Miriam kept smiling Lily knew that she was planning something.

After Transfiguration the class headed down for dinner in the great hall but has Lily, Alice, Frank and the rest of the first years sat at the Gryffindor table Miriam had said that she needed to talk with Severus Snape and so headed off to sit with him at the Slytherin table.

"What's she doing?" James asked sounding disgusted as he sat next to his sister "She's a Gryffindor hasn't she got any loyalty?"

"You can talk!" Alice said pushing James away from her "Not only are we in the same house but we're family! And you still threw those Dung bombs at me!" James looked a little guilty and tried to apologies but Alice's mention of the Dung Bombs had relit the anger that the girls had felt the night before, James and Sirius scurried off to the safety of the other end of the table in a bombardment of chicken, mash potato, peas and other readily available food that was in the girls grabbing range.

Even though Professor McGonagall had deducted twenty points for their behaviour and Amanda had shouted at them when they got back to the common room Lily could only think that it was all worth it has the memory of the Mash potato that she that thrown had hit James right at the back of his head. The animosity that had started between the girls and boys had increased in intensity by mid week and in potions that Thursday the girls was given another reason to dislike James and Sirius.

Professor Toll made the Gryffindors and Slytherins pair up as she set them the task of creating a boils potions from the Homework they had been given, Lily was working with Alice while Miriam partnered Frank, across the other side of the room James and Sirius where working together mixing up their potion ingredients next to the table where Severus Snape and his partner Elwood Wilkes where adding their ingredients into their cauldron. Halfway through the class they had run out of Dandelion root and so Professor Toll left to get more, Like most classes as soon as the teacher leaves the room everyone started making a lot of noise, Miriam and Frank had turned round to talk to Alice and the Slytherins were yelling across the class to each other. Eloise Rookwood, Miriam's cousin was working at a separate cauldron from her friend Maureen Pritchard and so took Toll's absence from the class as an opportunity to shout to each other their plans for that evening, the noise was getting really loud now and Lily only wanted to concentrate on cutting up her ingredients.

Above the noise Lily could hear Severus Snape laughing with his friend, Severus had obviously just made a joke has he and Wilkes roared with laughter. Lily had finished shredding her dandelion roots and looked up again to check on the next ingredients when James and Sirius hurled themselves across their table towards Severus and Wilkes punching and kicking them.

Eloise Rookwood and Maureen Pritchard screamed as Walden MacNair and Antonin Dolohov joined in the fight,

"Someone help!" shrieked Maureen has James punched Severus in the face, Frank and Remus dashed to help their friends fighting against MacNair and Dolohov who were trying and get to James and Sirius, Wilkes seemed to be forgotten as Sirius held Severus down, James punched him in the stomach,

"Stop it!" yelled Miriam climbing onto her chair so she could be seen above the brawl "Stop it!"

Amy and Dymphna on the other hand were yelling encouragements to the Slytherins as Dolohov had broken free from Frank's grasp and had grabbed hold of Sirius by his long black hair,

"Scalp him!!!" Lily heard Dymphna yelling as she and Amy jumped up and down trying to see the fight.

Lily didn't know what to do and looking around at Miriam and Alice neither did they, the other Slytherins were encouraging their friends, MacNair had finally freed himself from Remus' hold and had pinned him down on the class room floor,

"Don't you dare!" Miriam yelled as MacNair raised his fist to hit Remus, Miriam jumped off her chair and flung herself at MacNair's raised hand kicking him in the face as they both crashed onto Remus. There was now two fights in the class room, James had left Severus and had gone to help free Sirius from Dolohov's grasp has Frank still tried to pull the Slytherin off Sirius, Remus was now trying to stop MacNair from hitting Miriam although she was sporting a cut lip that was bleeding very badly. Wilkes had moved out of the fighting area and was yelling encouragements with the rest of the Slytherins while Severus was lying on the floor crumpled up in amongst his black robes, Lily prayed he wasn't dead.

The madness had to end Lily told herself as Alice screamed and Lily saw Dolohov punch James in the face and he crashed against the table and the cauldron on the desk shook violently,

"We've got to stop this!" Lily yelled to Alice who nodded, Lily grabbed hold of her cauldron and she ran to MacNair who looked almost mad with rage he jabbed Remus in the stomach making him double over in pain and grabbed Miriam by the front of her robes pulling her up off the ground, he raised his fist again to punch her and as Miriam covered her face with her arms Lily brought to cauldron down onto MacNair's head covering him in it's contents and knocking him out as the heavy metal cauldron smashed down onto his skull,

"MISS EVANS!" yelled the voice of Professor Toll has she finally returned back into the room. At the same moment MacNair had crashed to the ground pulling Miriam on top of him,

"BOYS!!!" Shrieked Toll looking at James, Sirius, Frank and Dolohov, Lily was amazed to see that only a few seconds ago it looked like Dolohov was winning but now James and Frank was pinning Dolohov to the ground as Sirius pointed his wand at him, that scene and the one in front of Lily had all frozen at the entrance of Professor Toll and all Lily could think of has she stood holding her cauldron was that this didn't look very good at all.

"What in Merlin's name has been going on here!" Troll asked almost hysterically has her eyes scanned the scene in front of her and her gaze rested on Miriam who was now trying to pull herself free from MacNair,

"Miss Artemis!" Toll called her eyes widening as she saw the cut on Miriam's lip which was bleeding even worse now "quickly!, quickly!" Toll said rushing to pull Miriam free,

"You there" she pointed to Elwood Wilkes and Morton Avery, "Bring Mr Snape and follow me quickly to the hospital wing"

Lily didn't understand Toll's sudden change in attitude all lesson she'd been in a bad mood and having just seen what had happened in her absence Lily had half expected her to have exploded, but instead she seemed almost concerned for Miriam's welfare over something as mundane as a split lip, she didn't even give the Slytherins a second look as they carried an unconscious Severus Snape out of the class room but instead she had her arm around Miriam's shoulder holding her very close to herself, as she reached the door Toll turned and addressed the remainder of the class,

"You will all wait here until I return do I make myself clear," she barked "and put those cauldrons out!" with that she swept out of the room and down the hall, Lily managed to get a quick look at Miriam before they disappeared down the hall, she was looking very pale and her lip was still bleeding Lily couldn't help but think she'd look pale too if Professor Toll had her arm around her too.