On Wednesday afternoon, the seventh year Slytherins had their first Potions class with the new professor. All the years, the students had been use to having Snape teach and they did not quite know what to expect. There was much whispering going on as they went down to the dungeon classroom and sat at their seats waiting for the one who had taken the Potions Master's place.
Rhyann was not as phased as the rest of the teens. This was only her second year at Hogwarts and it would definitely be her last. The fact that they were having new professors did not seem all that unusual to her. From what she had heard, there seemed to be at least a few new ones each year. Plus, they still had Snape for DADA. It wasn't as if he had left or died!
Hestia Jones entered the classroom just as the bell went off. While the previous Potions Master had seemed to fit in with the mood the dungeons set, the new one seemed like a foreign ray of sunlight in a place that had not seen the open sky since it had first been built. The rosy cheeked witch was grinning from ear to ear and bounced around humming to herself as she organized her things on the desk.
"Good afternoon. My name is Hestia Jones, as I'm sure you're all well aware of by now. I will be taking over as Potions Professor but never fear. I have very thoroughly gone over what has been taught with Professor Snape." She let out a little groan and tipped her head back dramatically as if it had been the worst torture she had ever experienced in her life! She then looked back at them with that great grin. "I'll do my best to live up to the high standards he has set, but I'm afraid I've already broken one rule. I'm smiling!"
There were little laughs throughout the dank room. Most of them did not know what to make of this new perky teacher. Rhyann thought it might get to the point where Jones would be terribly annoying.
The dark haired witch walked around to the front of the desk and leaned on it nonchalantly. "Just so you all know, no, I do not have a permanent blush charm that I use and, no, I do not keep fang toothed gramandlers in a secret room to feed disobedient students to. I do expect you to put forth your best efforts though. And I look forward to get to know each of you as the year progresses." Jones gave a little clap of her hands and stood up, going round to the chalkboard. "With that said, we'll start on the most basic of potions that you will need to know for your N.E.W.T.'s. A cure-all for spider venom. It's a bit tricky at points, but I have only heard good things about the students here at Hogwarts." She waved her wand so that the ingredients and instructions appeared on the board. "I'll be coming around meeting each of you and helping you with your potions. We'll have a grand time together this year!"
Draco leaned over to whisper into his girlfriend's ear. "She makes me miss Snape already!"
Rhyann couldn't stop herself from chuckling quietly. It was true. She did miss the sour faced wizard glaring at them all. This new professor just seemed too eager and she did not need any sprightly witch chattering at her as she was making potions. Jones was most certainly one that the Headmaster had chosen for the job and she bet that Snape himself was probably displeased at his successor.
She was glad it was not a double Potions class - though they had that on Fridays. The Gryffindors, whom they shared the class with, seemed to find Jones a refreshing and welcome change. Even some of the Slytherins warmed up to her immediately. Rhyann did not know who could babble on faster - Pansy or Professor Jones! The two seemed to like each other and she was content to have just a minute to talk with her as she stirred her potion.
It was the topic of most conversations for the rest of the day. The dreamer snatched Millicent and Drucinda early so that they could go to the library to start looking up something to summon as a Slytherin mascot. Her two house mates seemed just as relieved to get away as she was.
Within minutes of getting into the library, Madam Pince had helped them find a few books that had exactly the types of spells they were looking for. Flipping through the pages after the librarian left them, Rhyann peered up at the other teens. "I think maybe we should not tell anyone we've found these so easily lest they have us taking up other jobs for the event. I, for one, do not want to be burdened with any more of it than I have to be."
"Don't worry. I definitely won't say anything." Millicent nodded, idly flipping through the thick volume in front of her.
"Neither will I." The short haired teen added. "I don't want to get stuck helping Pansy make those cheering robes she designed. Have you seen the drawings? I almost retched."
Rhyann chuckled softly in agreement. "I doubt she'll be allowed to get away with robes that short and tight anyway. There's no way Professor Snape or the Headmaster would allow it. They'll end up looking like great billowing many tailed, sparkling serpents."
"And all the sequence she wants along with color changing jewel stones will make the things weigh a half a ton!" Drucinda snorted.
"Let her do what she wants as long as we don't have to do anything. The way I'm planning it, we'll just have to find an appropriate summons for the mascot, give it to Professor Snape to do and then we can stay in the background to light the fireworks when it is time." Rhyann assured them. She knew that it was not that none of them cared for Slytherin, but events such as these easily got out of hand and they had no tolerance for it. Knowing that Dru and Millicent felt the same way as her about these things was only one reason she had chosen them as her team. She was slowly working her way up to telling them about the secreat DADA meetings.
After a half hour of unenthusiastic searching, Millicent found the perfect spell in one of the books. The spell could create an illusion of a great serpent as big as fifty feet long, the colors could be changed and it could be moved around at the caster's will. So Draco would have his mascot slithering around the quidditch pitch as he wished. Rhyann copied the spell out and stuck the parchment in her robes. There would be no rush to bring it to Snape as the tournament would not be until the end of October.
"So what are we going to do now?" Drucinda sighed, knowing that none of them wanted to return to the Slytherin common room.
"We'll just pretend we're still searching and every time we need to escape or they want us to do something else, we can come to the library to do our homework instead, or just read or sleep." The petite brunette suggested and with only a momentarily pause to gage their current states of mind, she continued on. "Though, I do have something else we can do. A private and exclusive secret club."
Two pairs of sleepy, bored eyes suddenly lit up. Millicent peered at Rhyann suspiciously while Drucinda was much more curious. "A secret club?"
"Very secret. Draco doesn't even know about it and he can never know." She stated firmly. Her voice so low that the other two could just manage to hear her. Of course, saying that not even Draco knew made the pair all the more interested. "In fact, there are no other Slytherins involved except for me but I want to bring the two of you in."
Millicent folded her arms and still retained her wary expression. "So secret that not even your own boyfriend knows and no other Slytherins?"
"The nature of the club does not allow for people like Draco or Pansy to know about it." Rhyann replied cryptically.
"What's this club for?" Drucinda whispered, leaning forward on the table. "And who else is involved?"
"Students from various other Houses are in it." She did not give any specific names. She knew that saying Potter was the leader of it might scare them off right away. "We learn various spells and practice them."
"Oh, so it's like a study group." The big teen huffed.
"No, not a study group. We learn things that are not taught at Hogwarts."
Now this drew Millicent's attention fully along with Drucinda who had already been more interested. The two of them exchanged looks and they leaned in closer to Rhyann. "What sorts of spells?" "Why are you all doing it?"
"Spells that would be more useful in the world as it is today." Rhyann let the shadows hang over her words. "Our classes are not preparing us fully for what awaits us out there. The club started up to do just that."
"And you run the club?" Drucinda questioned.
Shaking her head, Rhyann eyed them both seriously. "No, I'm not the leader. I was asked to join just last year. It has been going on before I came to Hogwarts."
Millicent frowned slightly, scratching her chin. "Is that the club that Potter had started? The one they were training to be Dumbledore's army? 'Cause they were caught in fifth year. I haven't heard a thing about it since, so I thought it was over with."
Drucinda was nodding her head. "Yeah, I remember that. Draco was sending us all out to try to discover them and where they met. We never did find anything though."
"I don't know about the whole training as Dumbledore's army thing, but if it is the same club, then it is still going." Rhyann did not know the history of what had happened there herself. She remembered a few colored stories that Draco had told her, but she always took those with a grain of salt. He had a tendency to exaggerate to make himself look better and to make Potter look like a fool.
"So Potter and his lot are in it?" Millicent asked charily.
Rhyann nodded in response and held her breath.
"Well," Millicent leaned back, her face unreadable. "I think that it might be a good idea. Most of what they teach us here is hogwash. I'd like to learn something useful for a change."
"Me too. I don't think Potter is half-bad. I mean, he's done some impressive things over the years." Drucinda ran a hand through her short dark locks. She had known that Rhyann studied with Granger and she had seen her a few times with Potter and his friends. It did explain a lot about what was going on.
Exhaling in relief, Rhyann then gave them very serious looks. "This club is no joke now. If I bring you in, I'm responsible for you. You can't tell anyone. You can't even talk to anyone about it outside of it even other members. We can't risk anyone else knowing about it. Will you be able to do that?"
"Of course." Millicent replied as almost offended that she couldn't keep a secret and Drucinda nodded her agreement.
"Just as importantly, you have to get along with the others there. There's going to be some tension because we're Slytherins." Rhyann was not going to make it sound like they would be happily accepted. The two of them deserved to know how it would be before they got there. "There's to be no fighting though. If someone gives you a hard time, you have to be the bigger person. We have to show them that there are Slytherins that can be trusted."
"Don't worry, Rhyann. We'll be on our best behavior." Drucinda promised. She then gave a sad shake of her head. "It's too bad that a few Slytherins have given us all a bad name."
"And we'll be taking the first steps to prove that otherwise." Rhyann gave them a little smile and stood up. "Come on. We better go now so we can be there on time."