Author's Note: Big thanks to my reviewers; this story is as popular as my Nightmare On Elm Street fic. Yay. Oh, yeah, one other thing, Professor Sprout isn't teaching yet. I needed a... shall we say, different type of teacher? o.O I hope you like her.
Athena's Wisdom: Wow, thanks for your wisdom. lol ;)
Jaz man: Oh, yeah you're right. Sorry, I haven't read that book since the day it came out, plus the fact my memory sucks majorly. Forgive my stupidity.
jez: Maybe this'll help you see where I'm coming from: I'm going by the timeline of this taking place in the seventies and the bit of Hagrid and Tom being in school took place in the fifties. Since I made this the first year Dumbledore is Headmaster, it's also the first year Hagrid was hired to work at the school.
Abbika-Rose-Writers: Hey, thanks for dropping in! I hope you stick around to read the rest.
WotcherTonks: Hey thanks! Btw, I love your name ^-^
Umi Winner: Aw, I love how you are so enthusiastic.
stormyice1997: Thanks!
Since you guys have been nit-picky I will try harder to be accurate. Sorry for the wait, now enjoy!
Chapter 4: Females and Potions RivalryThe next morning it was hardly a surprise when Sirius received an owl from his mother. He was surprised however, she hadn't sent him a Howler, but just the same, he scowled as he opened it. He scanned it briefly, crumpled it, and stuck it in his goblet of milk. While Sirius was busy drowning his letter, James was reading over his fondly.
"Dad's so pleased I've gotten into Gryffindor he's going to get me a new broom!" James grinned, "The latest model, the Stardust!"
"You have to let me ride it when you get it. I've never been on a broom before." said Blake.
"You're in luck then, we've got flying lessons this afternoon."
Blake, Remus and James turned around on their bench to see Lily Evans hovering behind them; she smiled. A Slytherin girl and two fellow Gryffindors stood beside her.
"I don't think we've had the chance to meet properly. I'm Lily Evans." She shifted her books and held out a hand.
Remus, being closest, shook it. "Nice to meet you Lily, I'm Remus Lupin."
"These are my friends," She swept her hand out, first to the blonde, brunette, then raven haired girl. "Noelle Tempest, Jessica Daniels, and Willow Madigan."
Remus nodded a greeting to each and James and Blake exchanged hellos.
"We'll see you later." Lily said waving and walking away. Noelle, Willow and Jessica around her, speaking in undertones to each other.
"Let's go out on the grounds and we can take a look ' round before the bell rings." Blake said, cuffing James on the shoulder.
James nodded, still staring after the red head. They each grabbed one more slice of toast and made their way outside.
"Where to first?" Remus asked.
"The Whomping Willow." grinned James.
"Aren't we supposed to stay away from it?" Remus inquired.
"We just wanna look." said Blake.
They stopped a safe distance before the tree, staring up at it in wonder.
"Why ya' think Dumbledore wanted this?" James squinted up at its gnarled branches. "It's rather ugly."
"It's not like any willow I've seen before." Blake shielded the morning sun from his eyes as he in took the huge tree.
"It's magic." said James, "It has to be, it looks too old to be a normal tree. Don't you agree?"
Remus had been standing the furthest from the willow, eyeing it with apprehension.
"Wa's wrong?" Blake turned too, staring at his friend with furrowed brows.
"Nothing," Remus shook his head, "I just don't like this tree."
"What? It's a tree. What's wrong with it?"
"Other than the fact it could whomp us." Blake sniggered.
James grinned at this. "You know what we should do?" He didn't wait for them to answer, "We should trick someone into getting close to it."
"Touch it?" said Remus.
Blake's eyes lit up, "Yeah, one of the Slytherins! Or..." He turned round, "One of the girls." He smiled slyly.
James laughed.
"What Lily?" Remus asked, following Blake's gaze to three figures approaching in the distance.
"Yeah. It'd be fun." James continued to grin, his hands on his hips.
"Not really." Remus mumbled.
Lily appeared at the crest of the hill, waving her arms. "Class is about to start!"
James acknowledged her and beckoned to the others. "We'll explore during lunch."
They made their way to the greenhouses, Lily and her friends in the lead by twenty feet, the space diminishing as they reached their destination.
Professor Mae greeted them all warmly, instructing them to gather round. Again this woman was unlike the other professors they had met thus far; she was bubbly and didn't seem to stop smiling. She had almond violet eyes set in a heart shaped face, surrounding were deep red curls.
"Even though today is your first day in my class I wanted it to be interesting for you all. And I just so happen to have received a newly born Devil's Snare!" She beamed as if this was one of the greatest things in the world. "Yes Pettigrew?" She regarded the chubby hand slowly rising in the air.
"Um, Professor, isn't Devil's Snare dangerous?" He asked timidly.
"Right you are Pettigrew!" She grinned.
"How'd you know?" Lily asked Peter, impressed.
He shrugged sheepishly, "I was caught in some when I was little."
"It doesn't take a genius to figure out Devil's Snare is dangerous." Rabastan jeered.
Lily shot him daggers.
"How is it dangerous Professor?" asked Noelle turning back to Mae.
"It'll strangle you to death." She answered cheerfully.
Noelle exchanged glances with her friends; simultaneously the students closest took a step back.
"Oh it'll only kill you if you aren't calm."
James, Remus and Blake exchanged looks.
"Now I'll tell you a rhyme that should be of use if you ever get caught in this, full grown of course." She laughed looking down at its tendrils creeping out of the pot.
"It gets bigger?" James rose an eyebrow; the plant was already as big as his head.
"Oh yes! Much, much bigger. The biggest one I've seen is about the size of this greenhouse. Now the rhyme goes like this: Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare, it's deadly fun but will sulk in the sun."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Peter.
"It means it dislikes the sun, stupid." Severus scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"Yep, yep that's right." She nodded, "And don't call your fellow classmates stupid." She added, then returned as quickly as she had left to her cheerful voice. "Sun is about the only thing that will hurt it. Didn't you notice that this greenhouse is heavily shaded today?" Most hadn't and now took the time to glance overhead. She rolled her eyes, shaking her head while smiling. "Today I want you all to try it out."
"You want us to see if it'll strangle us?" Sirius looked at the plant with distain.
Mae nodded, "It'll be good for you. And don't question my methods." She said, "Now I want you each to pass it around and remain calm. We'll see if you have good nerves." She grinned.
The Devil's Snare moved slowly from person to person. The girls had the hardest time and in the end the only one's who hadn't been at risk of losing their hands were: Severus, Rabastan, Willow, Lily, Sirius, James and Remus. Peter nearly made it, but his anxiety took over and Professor Mae had to detach the plant before it cut of the circulation in his left arm completely, but that didn't prevent him from blacking out on the greenhouse floor. Narcissa came close as well, with much prompting from her cousin, but ended up squealing and dropping the pot. Students jumped back as its spindly fingers reached for their feet and the hems of their robes.
"She's the weirdest teacher I've ever had." said James as they traipsed up the hill.
Blake nodded in agreement.
"Well, she must be decent, and no one was killed." shrugged Remus.
"Do we know where Potions is?" asked Blake changing the subject.
"In the dungeons." answered Lily from behind, her group of friends following.
Blake turned round, "Is that all you can do? Butt into other's conversations?"
Willow laughed, agreeing silently.
"Hey!" James growled defensively, "She's just being helpful."
Remus smiled at this.
"Sorry Lily." Blake apologized.
Lily waved it off, "No worries." She smiled, "You guys want to walk to Potions with us?"
James nodded grinning, "I don't think we'd find it any other way." He grinned.
On their way into the lower levels of the school Blake and Jessica sparked up a conversation about where they were from and how they had first learned they were magical. James couldn't think of anything of meaning to say to Lily and proceeded to discuss the weather. Noelle and Remus however took turns glancing at each other, while Willow's gaze held steadily to the back of a black haired boy.
Finally they arrived at their Potions class, most students had arrived before them and were seated chatting quietly. Professor Townsend reclined on the front of his desk, looking like a chiseled Greek vision of perfection and annoyance. His dark brown waves of hair hung around his defined cheekbones and skimmed his shoulder blades clothed in deep blue robes. He tapped his arm impatiently with his wand.
James's group took a table at the right of the classroom, seated near the front. And examined their surroundings with curiosity. The room was lit by hundreds of candles and the left wall was lined with shelves of various peculiar objects in jars, vials and tubs. Altogether the room reminded Blake of Frankenstein's lab.
Townsend glanced at his wristwatch, sighed and then stood. He allowed the students at the entrance to file in before he waltzed to the door and shut it on any who had yet to arrive. His students glanced up and watched him make his way back to his desk.
"Today may be your first day of potion making, the second day at Hogwarts, but that doesn't mean you're going to get a break."
Severus smiled at this; he liked this professor already, no nonsense, the way he liked it.
"You will start off by showing me how much or how little you already know by taking this quiz." He began passing out parchment with twenty questions on each.
"What? I don't know any of this." James grumbled, looking it over.
Blake nodded in agreement.
"You have fifteen minutes. Get to work." Townsend ordered, "No help from your neighbors either." he added as he saw Noelle and Jessica speaking in whispers. They stopped abruptly and bent their heads. Townsend walked back to his desk and sat down, watching the students silently. Behind his locked door several students grumbled about the unfairness and sat on the marble floor, wondering if he'd let them in at all.
Remus read the questions with dispassion. He knew very little about potions as it was, and what he did know, he was unsure of in accuracy. He wrote down what he knew and put a question mark beside those that he didn't. Most students were facing similar problems. Finally, after what seemed hours, the fifteen minutes were up.
Professor Townsend stood, "Pass your parchment to the left." The students did and with a sweep of his wand the tests were picked up and stacked neatly on his desk. Another flick and the students' cauldrons had appeared in front of them on their tables, along with various ingredients. "While I check your work you are to brew a simple potion that rids warts." He flicked his wand once again and instructions appeared on the blackboard to their right. Townsend spoke no more and resumed his seat behind his desk.
Remus, James and Blake exchanged glances.
"Well," breathed James, "Let's get started."
Halfway through the potion making Professor Townsend stood and drew in their attention.
"The results were as I had expected," He passed out their quizzes, most prominent were the red check marks. "You each failed miserably." He walked back to the head of the class. "But, I was surprised to see a student ace the quiz." The students exchanged looks from one to the other. "Severus Snape, ten points for Slytherin."
Severus smiled smugly.
"Willow Madigan also seems to have a head on her shoulders, she aced as well."
Severus's smugness disappeared immediately, and he watched her being congratulated by those around her.
"Ten points more to Slytherin."
"Aw, man. I wish you were a Gryffindor." Blake grumbled. Willow gave him a small smile in response.
"I advise you all to make an example of these two fine students. Now, let us see about these potions."
Simultaneous gulps swept through the room.
Professor Townsend arrived at the first table, "Alexander, give me your hand." He did so reluctantly and Townsend tapped the palm with his wand. A huge wart big enough for everyone in the room to see, appeared where the wand had touched.
Alexander cringed and recoiled, girls gasped and made remarks of disgust.
"Now Rabastan, if you'd be so kind. Ladle some of your potion onto Alexander's hand."
Rabastan did as instructed; slowly he poured the thick blue mixture onto Alexander's palm. The wart shriveled and disappeared. Alexander sighed with relief.
"Very good. Top marks." Townsend swept away.
Nearly everyone's potion had turned out perfect, those that didn't had only minor problems, save for Peter's potion who began eating Marsden's flesh. Peter helped the Slytherin up to the hospital wing, apologizing profusely. Marsden cursing repeatedly and vowing to curse Peter the moment he got the chance.
James, Blake and Remus left class chuckling about the incident. Lily hadn't thought it very funny and her group separated from theirs.
"So where are we going for lunch?"
"You still want to go explore?" asked Remus tiredly.
"O'course." James grinned enthusiastically.
"I think we should see about this giant squid." replied Blake. "I heard some boys talking about it in the lavatory."
"Giant squid huh? That sounds interesting."
"Yeah, and we can add that to our list of pranks!" James grinned again.
"We've got a list now?" asked Remus raising his brow.
"Yeah!" Blake added, "We can make a game of it."
"How so?"
"We'll make a list of things to do, and then we're each assigned to some and we try to pull them off before each other."
"A contest." mused Remus.
"That sounds a bit hard. Why don't we make it a group effort?" said James.
"A group needs a name." said Remus.
"Yeah," agreed Blake, "What should we call ourselves?"
"Dunno." said James sitting cross-legged. All the while they had made their way from the dungeons out onto the grounds, bypassing lunch altogether. Once they reached the lake they stopped at a nearby tree and camped in its shade.
"We'll have to think on it." replied Remus.
James and Blake nodded. They sat together, enjoying the afternoon and coming up with various pranks to pull for later days.
Flying lessons were altogether uneventful and boring, well mostly. Madame Hooch never letting them stray far from the ground. But Blake enjoyed it immensely and the boys had come up with a fun game of bumper-car brooms. That is until Madame Hooch noticed and banned them from ramming into each other. James, who being the best on a broom, (which was as natural as breathing) convinced Madame Hooch to allow him to fly farther than the others. And she used him in her examples, until he dared to fly as high as one of the tower spires. She reprimanded him, for the second time during the lesson, and made him sit and watch the others. James complained loudly, and when he became bored of that, entertained the others with his commentary of the goings on. He even got laughs from the Slytherins.
At the end of the day everyone was happy to return to the warmth and comfort of their bed, falling asleep as they touched their goose down comforters. Tomorrow would be another interesting day at Hogwarts.
A/N: I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I did writing the latter half. Review please!!