Potions Class just kept getting weirder every year. Today's class was the first and it was about the errors of mismatching chemicals.
"Who here knows what happens when you combines wolfs' bane and a Mummy hand?" Hermione shot her hand up all to quickly. Then Jared followed. "Mister Heru?"
"You get a really pissed off, radioactive gelatinous hand that can break through the space/time continuum." Jared stated with his head held high. Alex was leaning back with a dazed look on his face.
"Your right. Five points to Gryffindor." Snape's icy glare to Alex could have put out a fire. "Twenty points from Gryffindor." Draco Malfoy sneered a look at Potter and Weasley.
"Dude, wake up." Jared elbowed Alex's ribs.
"I am up." Alex shifted his head to his hands and went back into his stupor.
"Mister Core, would you care to tell me what Leathe's Bramble is used for." Snape asked with a deep bellow.
"To augment the effects of Memory charms." Alex looked up at his teacher. "Lockehart ordered several pounds of it as a teacher of this school." His reference to the Second Year Defense Against Dark Arts teacher seemed to shock Snape.
"One point to Gryffindor."
"I hope the girls are having a better time than this."
"What is the difference between an Animagi and a Changeling?" Amara was called on by Professor McGonagall to answer the question.
"An Animagi can only turn into an animal but a Changeling is a person who can transform into an other person there is physical contact with." Amara said, questioning herself.
"Very good Miss Derres." She smiled warmly. "And what is the proper way to tell when there is a Changeling in disguise?" She searched the crowd for a second. "Miss Katane."
"The body language, the small facial flaws and the overall attitude because a Changeling may have taken the guise of a person but it is still a disguise and nothing more." Katelyn said, still writing down the notes that magically appeared on the chalkboard.
"Hmm… I see you still haven't come up with an ending to your letter." Amara whispered to her friend.
"I am so sorry that my life cannot be summed up into more than three pages." Kate quietly snapped. "And I've been preoccupied with writing to my parents." Kate's quill moved fast to copy down the notes, write to her parents and to an unmarked address.
"Are you sure that they really want us at the meeting?"
"Dumbeldore already said that all four of us HAD to attend. You can't refuse a good dinner and a hearty conversation."
"Yes I can. Why do you think that I'm dating Jared?" Both girls giggled for a moment then went back to class work.
Lunch at Hogwarts was the same as the first meal on Sorting Night but the sun was clearly outlined with vibrant hues of gold and red on the enchanted ceiling. Alex, Jared, Katelyn and Amara were sitting at one end of the table while Harry and his friends sat several people away. Alex had dark bags under his eyes with fatigue bearing on him. Jared and Amara were holding hands but nothing too noticeable. Kate sat next to Alex, trying not to laugh at his tiredness.
"So how were your guys first half of the day?" Kate asked to the guys of the group.
"Alex nearly got a Molotov cocktail thrown at him." Jared jested. He had to add, before anyone questioned about his joke. "I finally put some useful knowledge to work."
"So you leveling a school were something to be proud of?" Kate asked, still worrying about the ending to her letter. "Never mind."
"We got extra work for Divination after the teacher found out about Katelyn being an adept at it." Amara smiled. "Hey, what was that?" A shout came from outside where Harry, Ron and Hermione had just headed. Alex got up after his three compatriots.
"POTTER, you and the mud blood are worthless. ANYONE can survive a Death Spell from a weak dark wizard!" Draco Malfoy yelled at the top of his lungs. Draco raised his wand as a challenge. Harry would only kindly accept if he had not been with his closest friends. "Choose your second!"
"No! I will duel you, you idiot! Not with my friends as a second." Malfoy raised his wand to cast a spell but as his hand came to point the cedar wand, it cramped. He made an agonizing moan.
"He said he wouldn't duel you so challenge someone else or bugger off, you ponce." Alex said with his own Dogwood stick pointed.
"You right. I don't want to fight Potter, I want to destroy you!" Draco's hair bounce has he shouted it. His wand dropped and smacked him on the head.
"Fine. No seconds." Alex rolled up his sleeves as he prepared. Crabbe and Goyle were lightly chattering with Draco in a hesitant fashion.
"Do you really want to get kicked out again? You barely know any non-lethal spells." Kate whispered loudly.
"I stopped his wand alright."
"You could have just shattered his hand. It's a lot funnier and growing them back are a pain in the butt." Jared retorted.
"Right. Well, I'm off. Wish me luck."
"DON"T KILL HIM!" Amara whistled as he went to the center of the circle.
"May the best me win!" Draco said confidently as the readied their wands. The first spell was Malfoy's. The brilliant ball of blue missed Alex. A foreign language was muttered on his lips. Draco Malfoy screamed in pain as his hand went limp and his wand splintered into his hand. "MY BLOODY JESUS!" He cried out as Crabbe and Goyle carried him off to the Hospital Wing.
"So that is why you wanted him to stay here, eh, Albus?"