Chapter Nine

Maroon Was Never My Color

No one talked to Cailee the first thirty minutes of class. They had all seen her rip up her letter, and they had all wondered what had made her so angry. They had never seen her like this, even when Pansy Parkinson called her a slut. And they didn't want her blowing up in their faces, so they let her simmer down.

Seamus had gotten a small fire going, with help from Hermione, to keep them, and their Benevalor's warm. It was still snowing, and the temperature around them was freezing. Hagrid had told them they needed to examine their animals for signs of sickness. As no one had been expecting the snow, and as one of the animals had already gotten really sick and was recuperating inside Hagrid's hut, he wanted to make sure none of them were getting sick.

"Mines fine," Cailee finally said, after looking it over, and noting in her journal that they were all supposed to keep, how her animal was doing.

"Mine too," said Ron, slamming his journal shut. His Benevalor immediately jumped into his lap and started licking Ron's face. Ron laughed and rolled backwards, and his pup jumped onto his chest and grabbed the scarf tied around Ron's neck and drug it off. Cailee's pup followed Ron's, and grabbed the other end so the two were playing tug-of-war. Cailee giggled. She jumped out of the snow and chased them around.

"Ah! I can't get it from them Ron, and their ruining it!" she squealed after she dived into the snow and they ran off.

Ron just laughed harder.

"Ron! It's your bloody scarf, do you not want it back?" she asked, giving up the chase and turning to look at him.

"Nah, not really. My mum made it a few Christmas's ago, and its maroon. I never liked maroon."

"Why didn't you tell me that?" she asked, running over to him.

"Cuz I haven't laughed so hard at something since this summer when Fred and George came and stayed a week. They pulled so many pranks on our mum; I'm surprised she didn't throw them out. Especially after they used permanent ink to doodle all over Lockhart's books and put a spell on the books so that when someone opened them, they shouted obscenities."

"RON!" Cailee screamed, and tackled Ron

"Ow! Ger—off—me!" he yelled, tugging at her around the waist to pull her down. He finally got a grip on her shoulders and flipped her around so that she was lying in the snow and he was leaning over her. She stared at him intently for a moment, breathing hard, and then he rolled away.

'What was that all about? It was like she was reading my mind,' Ron thought, staring at the Benevalors still wrestling away in the snow.

"Professor Dumbledore would like me to inform you about the upcoming Halloween feast. As you all know, we usually host a feast in the Hall, with entertainment from some of Hogwarts finest ghosts. This year, however, you have the Link Room. Dumbledore has given his consent for all classmen, 5th year and up, to attend a Halloween party in there. Your meals will be sent up there, and you are allowed to, how do I say it, let your hair down? Be yourselves, but uphold the Hogwarts standards," Professor McGonagall said.

A hushed whisper went up through the classroom, as everyone began to quickly talk about the upcoming party.

"Quiet, please! You still have one week until your party, and right now you're in class. So, textbooks out, review for your practical mini-exam. You have five minutes," she said, sitting behind her desk.

Cailee got out her book, and flipped to the tenth chapter. She re-read half of it, and reviewed all the incantations. She skipped the whole wand movement section, because she didn't need it. She whispered under her breath and tried to remember things she had been taught in class. She glanced over at Ron, and saw his eyes zipping across the pages at lightning speed and his hands fiddling with his wand. She reached out and put her hand on his leg, smiled, and whispered, "Its okay. You'll be fine." He smiled back weakly, and continued studying. Cailee removed her hand and looked over at Hermione, on her right. Hermione had her left hand on the corner of her book, but her right was no where to be seen. Cailee scooted her chair back a bit, and leaned around Hermione. Then she found out where her right hand was, it was clasped inside Harry's left hand. Cailee smiled, and scooted back in. She had known for a while that the two had feelings for each other, but she had waited it out to see what would happen.

"Miss Ooteropeia? Would you like to go first?" McGonagall asked, stepping out from behind her desk.

"Yes, ma'am." Cailee said, standing up also, and walking to the front of the room.

"Would you please demonstrate for the class how to transform this little piece of parchment into a bookshelf filled with books?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes ma'am," Cailee said again, reaching into her robes for her glass ball. All thirteen (A/N, earlier I said twelve, there is really 13) stars were twinkling. Cailee smiled. She concentrated hard on the task at hand, moving her finger around and around. Suddenly, in a flash of violet light, there stood a bookshelf with books inside it. The class broke into applause. McGonagall smiled, and wrote something down on her grade book.

The whole class continued on that way, all of them transforming objects of equal difficulty. It was a fairly easy, after you had performed your task, but Cailee was as relieved as everyone else when class was over.

Cailee and Hermione went and got their books for that afternoon, not in any hurry, and then went to the bathroom to take care of business and fix their appearance. Cailee didn't realize how much time they had taken, they didn't have much time to get all the way down to the Dungeon's in time, so they skipped going to the Great Hall and ran the whole way. They reached the classroom just as Snape was shutting the door.

"Ah, you decided to join us, I see," he said oily, shutting the door behind them. Cailee went and slumped down into her seat at the front near Malfoy. He gave her what's-up look, and she just shook her head.

"Well, I graded the essays I assigned you last week. I was not pleased. It seems this class, even though it IS Advanced Potions, needs to go back to the basics. A simple Shrinking Potion should do it, right? After that, a Vanishing Toxin, and after that, I think a Sleeping Draught potion. Finish them by the end of class, or zero points for the day," he said. He didn't even bother flicking the directions up on the board. Cailee flipped through her book and found the ingredients for each. Then she got up and went to the student store-cupboard and grabbed what she needed.

After five minutes she was all ready halfway through her first potion. Malfoy was doing well, adding the right balances of each ingredient. She had taught him well. He might not need to be tutored anymore. She looked up and saw Seamus struggling. He was getting angry, the longer she watched. Finally, he kicked his cauldron and spewed its contents over the side onto the fire and everyone heard a loud hiss.

"Ah, Seamus. Another bout of anger? You do need to control that temper of yours. And, as your temper could turn to violence, I think ten points from Gryffindor will teach you not to lose your temper anymore," said Snape.

"You're such a—" Seamus said, but Dean had kicked him beneath the cauldron and he stopped talking. He glared angrily at Snape.

"I'm such a what?" Snape prodded. Seamus didn't answer.

"Well class, that just goes to show you how much bravery Gryffindors' really have," he said, swooping off as all the Slytherin's laughed.

"You're laughing at that? How could you? That was so low—" Cailee muttered to Malfoy.

"I…uh…" Malfoy stuttered, but couldn't finish.

"I don't poke fun at your House, I would expect the same from you," she said vehemently, and turned facing the other way at her cauldron so she didn't see Malfoy for the rest of class.

Author's Notes: Probably one of my shorter chapters, but all the same, its a chapter. Keep reviewing and I will love you all forever!