Fanfic

The Marauders – Book One

Disclaimer: All main characters and settings belong to J K Rowling

N/A: Sorry I haven't posted for ages; I have been concentrating on my Harry Potter and the Golden Labyrinth story.

Chapter Eight – Potions

Lily woke up suddenly and opened her eyes. Right in front of her face was a ball of black fur. She jumped in surprise and only just managed to avoid crying out. When she realised it was only Midnight lying curled up on her pillow she relaxed and smiled, absentmindedly stroking her. Looking around the dorm Lily was surprised at the changes the girls had already made.

Frankie had surrounded her bed with many immobile pictures of Queen, mainly Freddie Mercury. She also had a moving but thankfully silent picture of a male wizard singer. Lydia had what appeared to be a large pink ball of fluff on her bedside table, but Lily had been told that it was actually a Puffskein; a pet which didn't appear to do very much. Samantha had covered her dresser in pictures of her family and various friends. Nicky and Kate's beds were smothered in posters of Quidditch teams, although they both supported different teams, which had already caused several friendly debates.

The bell rang, and Lily reluctantly got out of bed. She hurried to the bathroom and was washed and dressed before the others had even managed to get out of bed. Remembering Nicky's inability to get out of bed the morning before, Lily headed over and whipped the covers off the bed in one movement. Then she threw open the window and sat on the edge of her bed to watch Nicky's cold discomfort.

They finally headed down to breakfast and got there in time to wolf some food down before it all faded away. They got severely lost on their way to their potions lesson, due to the fact they had misread the room and thought it said Room 3 instead of Dungeon 3. Consequently they were twenty minutes late in arriving.

Everyone was already sitting on benches behind desks when the two girls timidly entered the room. As they opened the heavy door, multi-coloured steam floated out of the room into their faces. The teacher looked up from the front where he was talking to a short boy. He was a fairly short, fat man with brown hair. He scanned Lily and Nicky's faces with an inquisitive look.

'I guess you are the two missing students. I'm glad you decided to turn up for my first lesson.'

Lily and Nicky hovered in the doorway, trying to figure out if they were in trouble or not.

'Well don't hover in the door letting all the heat out.' The Professor demanded, and the girls hurried in and shut the door, then headed over to a table where Kate and Frankie were sitting.

'Who's that?' Lily muttered to Frankie as she fished out her books.

'Professor Slughorn.' She looked at Lily with a smile. 'You left breakfast before us, how come you're so late?'

Nicky replied. 'Lily misread the map and we ended up on the top floor before we realised our mistake.'

'And then Nicky got stuck in a trick step and it took us ages to get her out again.' Lily countered. Nicky just laughed and sat down.

The Professor was leaning forwards to stir a potion in one of the many cauldrons scattered about the room. Steam of many different colours and thicknesses rose from the variety of potions on display. He was talking to a group of four Slytherins, although the girls couldn't hear what he was saying.

'What did we miss?' Lily asked, trying to see if the girls had taken many notes.

Frankie shrugged, looking slightly amused.

Kate answered somewhat grumpily. 'He's just been talking to people; finding out who their families are and so on.'

Nicky raised her eyebrows at Kate's tone, but decided not to comment. She looked up at the Professor, who was talking to that greasy-haired Slytherin, Snape, at the front of the class. At last the large man straightened up and headed over to their bench. Lily fidgeted nervously; she hated getting into trouble.

'And who are these two young ladies?' Professor Slughorn enquired in a pleasant voice.

Exchanging nervous glances with her friend, Lily answered. 'I'm Lily Evans.

'And I'm Nicky Gutteridge.' Nicky added.

The professor looked at them assessing for a minute, his eyes fixed first on Lily's almond shaped eyes and then on Nicky's face. It was to the latter he eventually spoke. 'You look remarkable like a witch I used to know, Karen Bealey. She was all right at potions, although her true power was with people if I remember correctly. Yes, yes…I was at Hogwarts only a few years above her. I remember she could always talk herself out of trouble.'

Nicky looked surprised, but also flattered that her mum had been remembered and she had been recognised. 'Karen's my mother. Pete Gutteridge is my dad.' She added, wondering if Slughorn would remember him too.

'Pete?' The Professor asked, surprise evident on his face. 'Pete and Karen? Well, well. I didn't know that. Yes, Pete was very intellectual wasn't he? Always top of the class. Probably never met a spell that he couldn't master. Yes…very interesting combination…' He mused.

After a short pause he turned his attention to Lily. 'Now you, however, I don't recognise my name nor looks.'

'My parents never came here.' Lily said, trying not to make it sound like a bad thing. 'They're both muggles.'

'I see.' Was all Slughorn said, before turning and heading to the front of the classroom.

James and Sirius were sitting on a bench with Peter, and they were feeling bored. They had all been talked to and assessed in turn. Slughorn had been very interested to discover Sirius' family, and had talked to an increasingly annoyed Sirius about them for a fair while. He too knew of James' parents, and was keen to talk of his father who he was in regular contact with. James' father experimented with potions, and was constantly trying to invent new ones with uses to the magical world. He had produced many potions that were now in regular use at St Mungo's Hospital, and Slughorn was quick to point out that he was often asked for advice. Peter however, seemed of little interest to Slughorn. Although he was pureblood his parents were just an ordinary and none too talented witch and wizard.

'Did your father really invent the Lispituclar potion?' Peter asked, awe evident in his voice. James nodded, smiling slightly at the hero-worship in the boys eyes. 'I had that when I was younger, to get rid of my lisp. You have no idea how thankful I am. You must be amazing at potions already, with a father like that.'

James shrugged in an off-hand way, secretly basking in the attention. He caught Sirius' eye and smiled. Just then Professor Slughorn walked to the front of the dungeon and coughed to get everyone's attention. The class stopped talking and looked up at him.

'Right, now I know you all we can get down to the actual business of potions. I would like to start off by showing you some potions that you will hopefully be able to produce by the end of this year, and a few more that you will master in the next few years if you work hard.' Here he looked around smiling, as if expecting everyone to be thrilled by this news. He walked to a near by cauldron with a thick green mixture that was bubbling slowly.

After they had been told the names of many potions, often supplied by Lily who appeared to have an excellent mind for remembering them. Nicky looked down at her scroll of parchment covered in notes on the names and properties of the various potions, and was glad that they had just finished the last one.

'Right. For your homework I would like you to learn that short list of potions, their properties and what they look like for a test on Friday.'

James looked at Sirius disbelievingly. 'What, all twenty?' He whispered in horror. Sirius nodded unhappily as he glanced down his parchment.

During the second half of their lesson they set to attempting to make a simple potion from the front of their textbook. Slughorn strolled around the classroom, correcting people and advising them, generally making sure that there were no major accidents.

'Why would we want to make a potion that will cure boils?' Sirius muttered to James as he crushed a pair of snake fangs and sprinkled then into his dark blue potion. James glanced at his own potion, which was brown. He glanced at the instructions in his book, which were telling him it should be sky blue. He dropped in a few more dry nettles, hoping that they night help. Instead the potion hissed and turned green and started bubbling furiously.

Lily was having much more success at this stage. Nicky looked at her friend's potion, which was the perfect shade of sky blue, and shook her head in surprise. 'How did you do that?' She asked incredulously.

'I just followed the instructions.' Lily replied, sprinkling a touch of powdered doxy wings into the mixture. A slight waft of purple steam floated up, and the potion acquired a few purple swirls that moved exactly at the book described.

'Well just look at mind.' Nicky replied, slightly grumpily. Hers was a strong turquoise, which was better then lots of people had managed but paled into insignificance next to Lily's.

Lily glanced at it for a second, then handed Nicky a bowl of powder. 'Sprinkle a pinch of this in.'

Nicky sniffed it dubiously. 'What is it?'

'Powdered marigold petals.'

Nicky looked at the instructions. 'It doesn't say marigold here.'

'I know, I put it in by mistake. But it worked.'

Nicky shrugged and did as her friend suggested, and soon her potion paled into blue.

At the end of the lesson, Slughorn congratulated Lily and Nicky whole-heartedly on their potions, commenting that Lily showed a natural talent. When he saw Severus' he was hugely impressed, and showed the whole class the accuracy of the potion's appearance, and awarded Slytherin ten house points. James and Sirius left potions feeling very annoyed that Severus had beaten them, although glad that Lily had done as well and had also received house points.

After break, James and Sirius headed up to the transfiguration classroom with Peter in tow. James, who had a good memory for direction, led them right so that they were early for the lesson. James took out his wand and twirled it experimentally in his fingers, accidentally letting off a stream of sparks. A couple hit Sirius in the face, and a few caught Peter on his arm. They didn't really hurt, but stung like mad.

'Attack your own friend would you?' Sirius demanded in a mock-threatening voice. He drew his wand and waved it at James, sending off a string of fiery red sparks. James dodged and banged into Peter, who was rubbing his arm. Grabbing the boy James used him as a shield and Peter was struck by yet more sparks.

Deciding that he had had enough, Peter whipped out his own wand and waved it at the pair of boys, hitting them with sparks. When everyone else started arriving James, Sirius and Peter were shooting sparks and sometimes stars at each other, dodging behind statues and laughing loudly. It was only when someone shouted that Professor McGonagal was arriving that they shoved their wands away and hurried to join the queue for the classroom, rubbing various sore spots.

Nicky had quite enjoyed the display, and whished that she could join in. Lily wasn't really sure what to think; it was defiantly against the rules, but even she couldn't repress a small smile at the boys' antics and comic faces.

In transfiguration they were all handed out matchsticks again. As everyone checked their notes from the day before and struggled to remember what to do, Professor McGonagal wandered around helping people. James knew that he could change the matchstick into a needle easily; he could sense it. But he just couldn't quite work out how. It was the most frustrating situation as he sat staring at it, wand held loosely in his hand.

Sirius was watching Peter as he struggled to change his matchstick in anyway. He was frowning and muttering to himself, his face turning red with concentration. Sirius laughed and poked James to get his attention.

'Looks like he's constipated, doesn't he.' The boys laughed loudly and Peter turned to look at them enquiringly. They just smiled and said nothing.

At the end of their lesson very few people had managed to change their matchsticks. Nicky watched as McGonagal congratulated a pair of Ravenclaw girls for their achievements, then glanced down at her own matchstick. She was sure that it was turning pointed at one end, although it was nothing compared to Lily's which looked exactly like a needle with no hole. She left the lesson feeling fairly dispirited, but soon cheered up at the though of Herbology next.

James and Sirius were still laughing at Peter as they left the classroom, and finally consented to tell the boy what they had been laughing about. Sirius was the only on of the three who had achieved anything in the way of transfiguration, and James teased him jokingly as they walked across the grounds to the greenhouses.

Herbology was calmer then it had been the day before. All of the plants had grown noticeably over-night, but they didn't need re-potting yet. They watered the plants and were then shown how to remove small red parasites from the undersides of the leaves. The leaves twisted when you held them, and if you held too hard then they ripped off.

Nicky held her leaf gently, twisting her hand with its movement as she used her tweezers to pick a parasite off. She let go and watched as Lily attempted the same with her own plant, succeeding only in pulling off the leaf she was holding. When they left the greenhouse at the end of the lesson, Nicky couldn't help but feel slightly pleased that she was better then Lily at something, even if it wasn't by much.

After eating lunch, Lily persuaded Nicky to go to the library with her. Lily was an avid reader, she had heard that Hogwarts had a massive library and couldn't wait to visit it.

They entered through the doors into a huge room full with bookshelves bursting with books. Nicky found the quite atmosphere slightly intimidating, but Lily felt perfectly at home and thankful for the unusual quietness compared to the rest of the school. As she moved forwards to browse the bookshelves, Lily noticed several older students sitting at tables and working hard.

'They're seventh years.' Nicky whispered, coming to stand beside her. 'They have their NEWTs this year. Looks like the teachers aren't being kind with the homework.'

'NEWTs?' Lily asked, intrigued.

'Oh my god!' Nicky exclaimed, perhaps somewhat too loudly for a library. 'Something Lily doesn't know!'

Less then three seconds later the librarian, Madame Piper, was bustling them out of the library and muttering about unwelcome loud voices.

'Well done Nicky.' Lily sighed, looking at the firmly shut door longingly. 'I didn't even get to borrow any books.'

Nicky shook her head, smiling at her friend. 'You have plenty of books to keep you occupied lily.' She commented.

'Well, what are NEWTs anyway?' Lily asked, still sounding slightly annoyed.

'They're the exams you take at the end of your seventh year. You take your OWLs at the end of your fifth year.'

'I didn't realise wizards had exams and homework and things like that.'

'How would you get a job if you didn't have any qualifications?' Nicky asked, looking surprised.

'I don't know.' Lily replied with a shrug. 'What do witches and wizards do once they leave school?'

'They get a job.' Nicky said, looking at Lily strangely.

Lily laughed. 'I'm not a complete imbecile. I just wondered what sort of job. Like muggles become bankers or teachers or doctors.'

'Wizards can become bankers and teachers too. Someone has to teach us.'

'But I thought to goblins ran the banks.'

'They run the banks, but they have curse-breakers who get gold and do jobs for them. And what are doctors anyway?'

'You go to them if your hurt and they heal you.'

'Oh, those muggle people who cut open their patients.' Nicky said with a shiver. 'We don't have them. We have Healers at St Mungo's, the wizard's hospital in London. They can heal anything.'

The girls headed up to defence Against the Dark Arts, still talking about various professions, both magical and non-magical. Lily hadn't realised that there were so many wizarding jobs, and she wondered what she wanted to be when she was older. As they waited outside the classroom (they were miraculously there before the bell) Nicky was reminded of one of the most dangerous wizards professions.

'Auror.'

'What's that?'

'They're wizards that fight other wizards, a bit like muggle police and army. It can be a really dangerous job, especially against Dark Wizards.'

'You mean…there are such things as Dark Wizards.'

Nicky nodded gravely. 'Normally they don't get very powerful. They get caught and sent to prison while they are still growing. But occasionally one will grow too powerful, too much for the authorities to handle. The last one was not that long ago, Grindlewald. I wasn't born then but my parents were. They shudder whenever they think of it. I was Dumbledore himself who defeated Grindlewald.'

The girls fell silent, each left with their own thoughts. It was just staring to occur to Lily how real magic was. It wasn't just something that she could learn to do tricks with. When she was older she would need this magic to get a job and make money. And magic was dangerous too, very dangerous. Lily only prayed that there would not be another dark wizard in her lifetime.

When they entered the classroom, the pupils noticed there was a large tank of the teacher's desk. Inside the tank among the seaweed was a grotesque creature watching them eerily through the water. When Professor Lerta came in she explained that is was a Grindylow, and proceeded to teach them about it. For homework they were told to write a short essay on Grindylows and how to defend yourself against them.

'That was a really interesting lesson.' Lily commented as they headed out of the classroom. 'What do we have next?'

Nicky, who was already consulting her timetable, looked up with her eyebrows raised. 'Proper Use of magic.'

'What's that?'

Nicky shrugged. 'Dunno. Never heard of it.'

'We don't have any textbooks for it.' Lily said thinking hard. 'We'll just have to go along and see.'

A/N: I know this chapter doesn't have an amazing ending, but if I added the Proper Use of Magic lesson in and everything else I was going to it would be far too long.

If you read this please review, even if it is just to tell be that you are reading it.

Thank you

Reth