Disclaimer: own nothing! go me!
Dedication: to my friend Celia, just because Snape is in it! and she really, really, really likes Snape!
"Better, eat up, double Potions with the Slytherins today," Ron told everyone at breakfast.
"Stop reminding me," Harry told him as he took a bite of his pancakes. Then he turned to Hermione and said, "You're probably going to need a new partner Hermione, I doubt Neville is still in Potions."
"Oh, I was thinking about that," Ron said. Hermione and Harry turned to him, while Kyla looked down at her plate. Even though she had only knew Hermione for a little time, Kyla knew Hermione was going to flip out. Ron cleared his throat and said, "Well, since Hermione is going to need a new partner, and Kyla is new-"
"Are you suggesting Kyla and I become partners?" Hermione asked, glaring at Kyla.
"No, I was going to be her partner and Harry could be yours," Ron told her, taking a bite of eggs, unaware of Hermione's anger.
"That sounds great," Hermione told him, forcing a smile on her face.
"We better get going or we are going to be late," Harry said and quickly finished eating. As they started walking down to their class, Harry held Ron back. When Harry had Ron's attention and they were far enough from Hermione and Kyla, Harry asked, "I thought we were going to be partners, why do you have to be hers?"
"She's new here, and she needs a friend," Ron said.
"But we were always partners," Harry said.
"Look, you are going to have Hermione, the smartest witch in Hogwarts, as a partners. Potions is going to be a breeze for you," Ron told him.
"Yeah, ok," Harry nodded.
As they took their seats for class, Kyla leaned in a whispered something to Ron. Hermione glared at them and Harry could feel all the anger she had for Kyla. Ron looked back at Hermione, then looked at Kyla, and nodded. Ron walked over to Hermione and said, "Hermione, Kyla was wondering if she could borrow your Ancient Runes notes."
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"She just wanted to make sure she didn't misinterpreted things," Ron told her.
"I guess she can borrow them," Hermione said, shooting a glance at Kyla.
"Ok, thanks," Ron said and went back to his seat, right as Professor Snape came in.
"These Potions classes are going to be more work, and harder then the Potions classes you are all used to," Snape warned them. "I grantee that a fourth of you will not pass the exam. The rest of you will struggle to get by. Now to see if any of you did you reading." Snape looked around the class, and then said sharply, "O'Connor." Kyla looked up, and met him in his eyes. "What ingredient do you added in an Ausburgment potion, after it turned blue?"
Unicorn hair mixed in with wolfsbane, Kyla thought after a moment. However, Kyla shrugged her shoulder, and Snape sneered. Then he turned on Harry and asked, "Potter, same question."
"Unicorn…" Harry paused and couldn't remember what part of the unicorn. Then he suggested, "Horn?"
"Maybe you and O'Connor should have been partners, that way you both could have been wrong together," Snape sneered at him. The Slytherins scoffed at this remark, and Hermione raised her hand. Snape glared at Hermione and said, "What Granger?"
"You added unicorn hair that is mixed with wolfsbane to the Ausburgment potion," Hermione answered him.
"Well, at least one of the Gryffindor did the reading, minus five points for Potter and O'Connor not doing the reading," Snape said, and then went on to lecture them on the different potions they were going to do this year. At they very end they finished the class by doing a quick, but difficult potion. Snape warned, "When you added the last ingredient, be very careful, adding too much or too little can cause an small explosion."
Ron took the ingredient and measured it out. While Ron was measuring out the ingredients he knocked over a small bottle with some green juice in it. Ron picked it up quickly before a lot of it spilled out. As he was looking for a rag to clean up the spilled liquid he knocked over the last ingredient, which fell into the spilled liquids and absorbed it. Ron looked at it uncertainly, but when Kyla reached for it, Ron stopped her. She looked at him curiously and Ron said, "I'll add the last ingredient."
Kyla nodded, Ron gulped and he carefully added the last ingredient. At first nothing happened, but then the purple containments in the caldron started to bubble, and a deep green swirl appeared. Ron looked at it carefully and then with a bang, a giant green bubble appeared and popped, covering Ron with green dust all over his face. Kyla started giggling uncontrollably and soon she fell off her chair because she was laughing so hard. Ron quickly wiped the dust, while people were staring at Kyla who was on the ground laughing. Snape came over to investigate what had happen. He looked at Ron who still had some green dust in his hair and a spot of green below his ear. Snape smirked and said, "Well, it looks like we have this year's Neville."
Ron flushed a deep red and the whole Slytherin side laughed at him. Snape's eyes narrowed and he asked Kyla, "O'Connor, what happened?"
Kyla looked at him, genuinely confused. Snape turned to Ron and Ron said, "Well, I knocked over this bottle and then I knocked the ingredient in it, and it kinda absorbed it."
"SoWeasley put in a diluted ingredient in the potion, and you didn't warn him?" Snape asked, turning his glare to Kyla.
"She didn't see me do it," Ron told him in Kyla's defense.
"So you weren't paying attention?" Snape asked Kyla. When Kyla didn't say anything, he announced, "Minus ten points from Gryffindor, five for O'Connor's lack of attention and five for Weasley's lack of common sense."
The bell rang and Snape said, "Clean up."
Hermione and Harry cleaned first and they waited for Ron and Kyla. As they finished and were walking over, Hermione notice Kyla had stopped Ron and was brushing off some of the green dust that was still in Ron's hair. Kyla started giggling and Ron whispered something in her ear. Hermione stiffened and when they came close enough, she said, in a very know-it-all tone of voice, "Great job guys, you lost us fifteen points."
Then she stormed off, leaving Kyla with her mouth hung, at a lost for words and all she could do was point after Hermione in disbelief.
"She just needs time to get use to you," Ron told Kyla, who nodded even though she didn't believe him.
Kyla was sitting in a chair in the common room, checking over her Ancient Runes notes. Hermione came in through the portrait and went to her usual chair, only to find that Kyla was in it. Hermione glared at Kyla, crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. Kyla looked up at Hermione, when she heard Hermione start to tap her foot. Hermione glared down at her and said, "You're in my chair." Kyla looked up at Hermione confused and Hermione said, "That's my chair, get out."
Kyla nodded slowly and got out of the chair. Hermione noticed she still had her notes, so she grabbed them back and told her snidely, "Yeah, I need my notes back."
Kyla held up her hands, nodded, turned around and muttered to herself, "Loca."
"What was that?" Hermione asked angrily.
Kyla shook her head and sat down at the opposite side of the room. Hermione looked over he notes and noticed something was wrong with them. She looked closer at them and noticed that they had a correction mark. She glared at Kyla and asked, angrily, "Did you correct my notes?"
Kyla looked at her baffled and shook her head. Hermione glared at her and muttered, "Liar."
Kyla shot daggers at Hermione, but said nothing. Then a furry ginger cat came waddling down the stairs and Hermione stuck her hand out to pether cat, but the cat ran over and jumped up on Kyla's lap. Hermione eyes widen in shock. Crookshanks never, never warmed up to anyone expect herself. As Kyla smile and petted Crookshanks who purred, Hermione lost it. "Get away from my cat!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Kyla stared at her in disbelief, and all she could do was blink. Everyone in the common room stared at them. Hermione stormed across the room and snatched up Crookshanks in her arms. "Stay away from my cat! He's mine! And how dare you correct my notes, they were perfect." Kyla opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn't find the words or she could and just not translate it. Hermione glared at her and yelled, "What? What do you want to say?"
Kyla shrugged her shoulders, and sighed angrily. Kyla turned to go up to the dormitory, and that made Hermione more livid then before. Hermione ran up and blocked the stairs and asked, "What's wrong? To shy or scared to say something?"
Kyla sighed and headed towards the portrait. Hermione was close on her heels and said, "You aren't good enough." Kyla turned around and looked as though she was going to slap Hermione. Hermione said again, only quieter, "You aren't good enough. Not good enough for Hogwarts, not good enough for advance potions class, and you aren't good enough for him. My cat I mean."
Ron and Harry came in talking about the possible future chasers. They stared at Kyla and Hermione who were both staring murder at each other. Then Kyla turned around quickly and ran out of the common room. Hermione glared after her and mumbled "Coward." Then Hermione stormed off to her room.
Ron looked at Harry and said, "I'll take Kyla, you take Hermione."
Ron went to follow Kyla when Harry stopped him and said, "I'll take Kyla, and you take Hermione."
Harry walked off to find Kyla. She was just sitting on the floor with her back pressed against the wall and her head in her hands. Harry walked over to her and cleared his throat. Kyla looked up at him, her face free of tears, and then she quickly looked back down at the ground. Harry sat down next to her and said, "I guess I should thank you." Kyla looked up at him slightly confused. "Most people tend to stare at me with out blinking for a long time, you try to avoid my eyes. Thanks, but it kinda disturbs me."
Kyla still didn't say anything and she shifted away from Harry slightly. Harry continued talking, "What also disturbs me is, I don't know if I should bow or say 'your highness' when I'm around you." Kyla inhaled sharply and Harry said, "Yeah, I know about it. You're the heir to the Ireland throne. Ron told me not to mention it to anyone, especially you. I guess you're a little sensitive to it.
"I meet Ron on the train to Hogwarts in the first year. He was my first real friend, and there is something I noticed about him. What to know what it is?" Kyla shrugged and Harry took that as a yes. "He goes for the wrong type of girls. There was Fleur Delacour who was part veela. Part veela, meaning she could probably get any guy she wanted, and Ron went after her. Of course there Hermione, he didn't realize he liked her until she started dating someone else. And if you ask him, he doesn't like her. Maybe he doesn't like her anymore, maybe he likes someone else, someone else who normally wouldn't give him a second glance."
Kyla looked down at her left hand and rubbed her fingers, thinking about what Harry had said. Then Harry cleared his throat and said, "I haven't told anyone about you, and I got a feeling that if I told Hermione, she would freak out. So I wont tell her."
Kyla nodded appreciatively and Harry said, "Hermione is used to be the only girl in the group, and now you came along and she just needs to get used to the idea of another girl."
Kyla nodded and Harry said, "Now, let's get back to the common room."
"Hermione, come on out," Ron said, staring at the shut door. When the door still didn't open Ron said, "Hermione, you know I can't go in there. Please come on out and we can talk."
The door opened up and Lavender came out. She smiled at Ron and said, "Hermione doesn't want to talk to you."
"Why?" Ron asked.
"She said something about you being to thick too notice it yourself and it made her anger," Lavender told him. Then she went back inside shutting the door.
"Hey, come on!" Ron cried into the door. "I'm not thick, girls are just confusing."
The door opened and four pillows were flung at Ron. He heard Hermione say, "Tell him to go away."
Ron tried to take a step in the girl's dormitory but the high pitching scream was heard. Ron stepped away and the scream stopped. Then Ron yelled in, "Either come out, or I'll keep trying to get in."
Hermione came out and glared at him. Ron smiled and asked, "Can we talk?"
"What do you care?" Hermione asked bitterly. "Shouldn't you be trying to find Kyla right now?"
"No, Harry is talking to her," Ron told her. "So what's wrong? You snapped at Kyla and me for losing points in potions."
"I don't like her," Hermione told him.
"Why?"
"She seems loose," Hermione told.
"Loose? Like she's mad?" Ron asked confused. Hermione shook her head and Ron thought out loud, "Loose, loose, do you mean… oh! Wow, I don't know how to answer that."
Hermione huffed and rolled her eyes. She turned around to back in her dormitory when Ron stopped her. "Listen, Hermione I'm sorry I've been a little distance. It's just I want to make sure Kyla gets used to Hogwarts."
"Yeah, I'm sure she just a friend," Hermione said bitterly.
"She is, Hermione relax, she is just a friend," Ron told her, but also trying to convince himself.
"Ok," Hermione said. Then she added, "Ok, well, I need to finish some homework. Thanks for talking with me."
Ron nodded, and went down to finish up his own homework. Kyla walked in, followed by Harry. Ron nodded his hello to them, while Harry grabbed his own homework. While they were working, Lavender and Parvati came down the stairs. They walked over to Kyla and paused. Lavender nudged Parvati, who shot Lavender a glance. Parvati smiled and said, "Kyla, can we talk to you for a second."
Kyla lookedover them carefully and nodded. They pulled her up the stairs to the guys' dormitory and Lavender said, "We don't want to be over heard."
Kyla nodded, and Parvati continued, "Well, if for some reason there is a school dance, don't ask Ron, or Harry for that matter."
If there's a school dance I won't be there, Kyla thought to herself, but she nodded in agreement. Lavender sighed and said, "Good, and don't tell anyone we had this talk."
A/N: yeah, another chapter! woot woot! ok, I kinda need a life if I have so much time to write! ok, thanks for reading, and to those who reviewed thanks!
