Chapter Two: Preferring Potions
"Hey, were you all right this morning?" Ron asked, sitting down next to Harry. Harry cringed, slightly, as his fingers twitched. Ron's hand was lying innocently on the table. It would be so simple to just reach out and grab it…
Harry snapped out of his daze as Snape walked in, looking as foreboding as ever. He sneered down at Harry, then his gaze returned to the entire class, which was Double Potions with the Slytherins.
"Turn in your essays on love potions, and today we shall be making the Draught of Faux Infatuation, a temporary form of the Draught of Infatuation. No one will have to drink the concoction, but for safety reasons, we are making the temporary form, lest some potion mysteriously slips into another's Pumpkin Juice today. If, for some reason, that happens..." He paused to glare at each person. "...the effects will only last for an hour. Ingredients are on my desk, instructions on the blackboard. I will pair you off."
Not to anyone's surprise, but to Harry's great relief, he was paired with Draco Malfoy. Neither of them said anything, making a silent truce not to fight, or exchange petty insults, because the last time they had fought in potions, Snape had been having an extremely bad day, and he gave them five hours of detention every night for a week. Needless to say, neither boy wanted detention again, so they kept quiet except to ask for the runespoor skin, or something. Potions went very well that day, and Harry was silently thanking his lucky stars that it was doubled. The only mishap was that Neville blew up his cauldron yet again, but that was not a surprise.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was their next period, and definitely the most popular. Their new teacher, a Londoner named Tory Wilkins, was only in her twenties, with fair skin, brownish-blonde hair, and bright blue eyes that twinkled so much there was a rumor going around that she was related to Dumbledore.
Needless to say, she was undoubtedly the most popular teacher, even among the Slytherins. The girls liked her because she was funny and nice and didn't believe in homework on the weekends. The boys liked her because she was very pretty. Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom had gotten in an argument the other day over whether she had smiled at Seamus or Neville while passing them in the hall.
"Please take out some parchment and a quill. Copy down these notes, and then we will begin our practical lesson. Today we will be studying Demiguises..."
The Demiguise was an ape-like creature with long silvery hair. Because of the invisibility properties in its fur, the Demiguise is hard to catch, but its pelt is prized in the making of invisibility cloaks, as Hermione informed them.
Harry would have founds the discussion invigorating, for he had his own invisibility cloak, but he was far too busy trying not to sweep Ron off his feet and snog his brains out. He nearly had a heart attack when Ron grabbed his hand to stop him from giving their Demiguise an apple, something it disliked immensely.
"Harry, are you all right?" he asked, looking concerned. "You've been kind of out of it all morning..." Harry shook his head.
"I'm fine," he said, briskly, pulling out of Ron's grasp. Ron shrugged and began to peel another orange. Harry's hand still tingled from where Ron had touched him. However easy he thought avoiding Ron would be, he was very, very wrong.