A/N: Sorry people, it took me so long to update. I seem to have a touch of writer's block and a small bout of horrible homework but I'm better now ;)The last chapter was a little weird but I'm not going back to fix it. Hopefully this chapter can patch things up a little.
After getting their schedule, Parvati and Lavender hurried to their first class: Care of Magical Creatures. They strode across Hogwarts grounds and near Hagrid's Hut, where the class was taking place. After a particularly boring class where the only mildly interesting thing was Malfoy being sent to the Hospital Wing, they traipsed back into the castle for Transfiguration.
"Hello, class." Professor McGonagall greeted them, "To start off our first class, we will do a little review to refresh your minds. Now…take out your wands and I want to you to transfigure these beetles into buttons. You have the rest of the class period to recall the incantation, I will stop you five minutes before the bell…begin!" Cringing in disgust, Parvati and Lavender made their way to the front of the class to get a beetle and quickly dropped it on their desk.
Coolly stunning both beetles—which had begun to scuttle away—Parvati then leaned back in her chair, fighting the urge to look up the spell in the book. Instead, she adopted a pensive look on her face and tried to recall. Nothing came to mind. She glanced across the room to find Hermione starting to wave her wand and mutter the spell.
However, at the same time; Lavender had slipped on her shoes, causing a clamor and by the time Lavender had recovered from the fall, Hermione had a neat pile of buttons lying on her desk. Before anyone can cast her dark looks, Professor McGonagall walked down the aisle of the classroom, collecting the beetles and tutting as she went.
"Tsk, tsk… Miss. Granger here was the only one to remember to spell, so in that case, you are to do a foot and a half essay on the incantation, how it is properly used, and where you had gone wrong in doing the spell….although I doubt some of you even attempted the spell…" at that moment, the bell had rung and Professor McGonagall had to shout to make herself heard over the scuffle of reaching for bags and the screeching of chairs. "To be turned in on next Monday!"
Lunch was then to be had. The smell of hot shepherd's pie and steaming Yorkshire pudding filled Parvati's nose and she sighed. She helped herself to a small slice of shepherd's pie and drank a glass of water before getting up. After that, both Lavender and Parvati got up and spent the rest of their free time allowed for lunch near the lake.
"Umm… Parvati?" Lavender asked uncertainly, "Are you OK?"
"Of course I am; why do you ask?" Parvati asked after a slight pause.
"Well… I noticed that you don't seem to be eating as much and you did seem rather faint this morning…" Lavender trailed off, with a look of concern and puzzlement directed to Parvati.
"I—I'm fine…" choked Parvati, at a loss of words. "It—It's nothing…I'm absolutely fine." At this Lavender looked rather unconvinced but the bell just rang and so they started to make their way to Herbology.
Herbology was extremely boring; repotting some dreary- looking plant into some more nutrient- rich soil. Professor Sprout didn't spend any time in greeting the class; she looked almost as horrible as the plants.
"Let's see what we can do for these plants." She said, with a slight tone of sadness in her voice. The class immediately got to work, scooping the soil into pots and carefully placing the plants in them. Towards her third pot, Parvati stumbled and fell to the ground as she was making her way to her spot, with a new pot in hand. The pot had shattered and had pierced a small part of her hand.
"Parvati!" Hermione exclaimed, seeing her. "Are you OK? Here let me fix the pot…and your hand…do you need to go to the hospital wing?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine…" Parvati said to the worried looks of Hermione and Lavender who had rushed over to see what was wrong.
"Here, tie this handkerchief around your hand to stop the bleeding…" Hermione said, handing Parvati her handkerchief.
"Thanks." She muttered, feeling a wave of nausea as she tied the kerchief around her hand. As she stood up, she felt a fresh wave of nausea take over her and this time Harry and Ron peered over.
"D' you need any help there, Parvati?" Harry asked with a slight tone of worry in his voice.
"No. Thanks, I'm fine…" Parvati said, walking towards her spot. She continued on repotting plants for the rest of the class period pretending to not notice Lavender's looks of concern that she shot to her every minute or so, with Lavender's words over lunch break still ringing in her head.
"Potions…last thing for today…" Lavender said as they went back into the castle to wash up and head out to their next class. The subdued Gryffindors slowly walked to the dungeons with a slight feeling of foreboding take over them with every step they took towards the class. Professor Snape disliked Gryffindors in general so they weren't feeling particularly excited. All the same, it was, at last, nearing the end of the day and that was good news to anyone.