CHAPTER: 7 - What!
They entered the dungeons, thankfully on time. The six girls took seat near the back of the dungeons behind a group of slytherin girls. Suddenly the professor burst into the dungeons; she wasn't very tall but still remained intimidating. She had light brown hair that hung limp around her face and cold blue eyes that held none of the sparkle or warmth that would be found in Isabelle's deep blue orbs.
"This class does not require silly incantations or foolish wand-waving." she paused as she looked at the class, who were listening in silence to her speech. Professor Drea possessed the ability to keep the class silent without effort. "Many of you will not appreciate the subtle art of potion-making, the beauty of a softly simmering cauldron, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... I can teach you, to put a stopper, to death." she pronounced each word slowly and in a near whisper, but the class caught her every word.
"As many of you already know, I am Professor Drea; head of Slytherin house, and, of course, potions master."
The class spent the first half of the class copying out notes on potion ingredients and their uses. About half way through the class the professor indicated for them to set up their cauldrons.
"Today we will be making a simple Amorabsimilis potion, the antidote to a love potion (A/N: in Latin amor means love and absimilis means different. oh just if your wondering love potions were allowed then. ... according to me and so were mild forms of truth serum.)
"You will work in pairs." drawled the Professor. "Girl, boy. Naturally." she looked around at the students, some of which were inching away from members of the opposite sex.
"Black - Black," Lily watched as Sirius' smirk grew even wider as he dragged his cauldron in the direction of Narcissa Black, apparently his cousin.
"Dolohov - Bulstrode, Lupin - Evans, Malfoy - Lorearmi, Pettigrew - Mance, Parkinson - Myoora, Potter - Pragasty, Rookwood - Walker, Snape - Walker and Zabiv - Zabini." Lily thought she had gotten a pretty good deal compared to Jo and Miranda, and even Isabelle looked quite taken aback at her chosen partner.
"So." said Remus as he positioned his cauldron next to Lily's.
"So." she repeated.
They spent the rest of the class in silence, only speaking when necessary. The professor, meanwhile, was wandering the classroom, watching the students abysmal attempts at making the potion. Criticising everyone whenever possible, except, Severus Snape, who seemed to have been blessed with the ability of perfect potion-making skills. These were only rivalled by Amber who astonishingly ended up with a perfect Amorabsimilis potion.
Lily looked down at her potion which surprisingly was the same colour as Amber's -the right colour.
"If you have done everything correctly, your potion should be a dark blue and bubbling slightly." she sneered at Peter, who's potion was, unfortunately, a bright yellow and was as still as glass. He gulped.
"Collect a vile from the front and fill it with Amorabsmilis, and bring it to my desk." she instructed, and she waved her wand and 20 viles appeared on her desk.
The class hurried forward to collect a vile, many of them collecting them for their partners as well. When all the viles had been collected by the professor and she had magicked away all their remaining potion, the bell rang out through the dungeons.
Lily's first week at Hogwarts passed uneventfully. She worked hard, studying at every spare moment.
"Hey Guys, guess what!" Amber said, as she entered the common room with Sky.
"What?" said Issy.
"Next Wednesday we have flying lessons with Ravenclaw!" Amber said excitedly.
"F- f- flying lessons?" stuttered Miranda.
"Yep!" said Sky, grinning at the thought.
"I cannot fly!" Miranda said, panicking.
"Don't worry," Sky began, giggling, "me 'n Jo will catch you! Won't we Jo?"
No reply.
"Jo?" Sky turned around to face a very pale Jo.
"Are you ok?" asked a concerned Amber.
"I have a ... a ... a fear of heights." Jo explained, Lily looked at her strangely, surely this wasn't the same Jo that had called her a cow for simply mistaking the her quill as Lily's own?
"I as well." Miranda said quietly.
"Both of you!" whined Issy.
"Oui/yes." replied Jo and Miranda sadly.
"But ... but ... you can't!" wailed Sky.
"I can , and I do, so just leave it!" snapped Jo, back to her usual self.
"What's your team?" inquired Amber, dragging their attention away from Jo and Miranda.
"Team?" asked Lily.
"Quidditch team."
"Quidditch?" asked Lily, puzzled.
"Geez, I forgot how much you don't know!" yelped Amber.
Meanwhile Sky was pretending to faint.
"Well," began Issy, "Quidditch is our sport."
"And it's, like, the best sport ever." added Sky.
"Yeh, and like, everyone follows Quidditch." said Jo matter-of-factly, recovering from her speechless state.
"It's kind of like rugby in the muggle world." explained Issy.
"Oh, ok." said Lily.
"Rugby?" asked Sky, frowning.
Lily shook her head in response, "Don't worry."
"And it's played on broomsticks, in the air." continued Issy.
"You have three chasers on each team -" began Amber.
"- and they use the quaffle and score for their team." said Sky.
"And then there's the keeper." added Jo, "and he -"
"Or she." corrected Amber, always the feminist.
"Or she," repeated Jo, "guards the three hoops that the chasers try to score in."
"And then you have two beaters, and they have these bats -"
"like baseball bats." interrupted Issy.
Amber raised her eyebrows, but continued, "and they protect their team from bludgers."
"They're these black balls that try to knock players off their brooms." said Jo, grinning.
"Ouch." said Lily.
"Yeh," agreed Amber, "No-ones ever died though, just a couple of injuries." said Amber.
Lily just gave her a look to show her that that wasn't exactly comforting.
"But that's what the beaters are for." said Sky, twirling her hand in the air.
"And then finally -"
"-there's the seeker-"
"-and they try to catch the golden snitch-"
"-and when they do, the game ends-"
"-and their team gets 150 points-"
"-so they nearly always win."
"Oh, and when the chasers score they get 10 points." added Amber as an after thought.
"Ok..." said Lily slowly, not completely understanding.
"I guess you need to see a game." said Issy sadly as she began filing her nails.
"Mmm."
There was a moment of silence.
"So any of youse play Quidditch?" asked Amber.
"Nah." said Issy.
"Me and Miranda definently don't." said Jo, shaking her head at the mere thought.
"Don' look at me." said Lily, yawning.
"I do, I'm a chaser and I'd love to be on the house team." said Sky sighing, and for the first time Lily noticed her very light welsh accent.
"Are you from Wales?"
"Yeh, so's Amber." Sky shrugged.
"You are? I didn't know that!" Lily was surprised.
"Lily, we've only known each other for a week, you can't expect to know everything." said Jo.
"I guess." said Lily, shrugging.
"Where y'all live anyway? I live in London." said Issy.
"Surrey." said Lily, yawning again.
"Hay-on-Wye." said Sky, frowning at her nails.
"That's on the border of Wales and Britain, right?" commented Lily.
"U-huh." replied Sky.
"For me, it was Liverpool till I was nine, and now it's Hay-on-Wye, too." Amber said in response to Issy's question.
"Joanna and I lived in Pari' till we were nine." said Miranda softly.
"But now we live in Birmingham." supplied Jo.
"Well you learn something new everyday." said Issy.
"Mmm, what about siblings?" asked Amber.
"I'm only a child." said Sky sadly.
"Lucky!" whined Issy, " I've got Ella who's seven and Jake who's nine. They're SO annoying." complained Issy as she ran her fingers through her golden-blonde hair.
"You guys have met Dan, he's thirteen."
"My sister, she's a muggle and she's really mean to me. Petunia, she's three years older than me and she's always ranting and raving about some guy." Lily rolled her eyes and shock her head.
"Only me and Miranda." said Jo happily.
Sky turned her wrist to look at her watch and yelped. "It's already eleven thirty and I haven't even started my potions essay!" whined Sky.
"Here." Amber threw Sky a roll of parchment, "You can copy mine."
"Isn't that, well, cheating?" asked Lily.
Amber rolled her eyes.
"Thanks Amber, you're a life saver." said Sky ignoring Lily's comment, and she began hurriedly coping Amber's completed work.
"Night people." yawned Amber as she ascended the stair case to the dorms.
"Night." chorused the others.
"Actually wait, I'm coming too!" said Lily as she gathered up her homework.
"Mmm, me too." said Miranda, and she joined the two girls and ascended the staircase for bed.
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