The Potions classroom is deserted except for Penny, empty of even Professor Snape.
"Where's Professor Snape?" I ask as I take the seat across from her.
"Professor Gibson quit. He's staying for the rest of the year, but he won't be coming back next year," Penny informs me.
"Already? We're barely halfway through the year." I can't say I'll be sorry to see him go.
"He said he couldn't take us 'ignorant youngsters' anymore, and he's going somewhere where his talents will be appreciated."
"So what does this have to do with Professor Snape?"
"He's campaigning to Professor Dumbledore for the job."
"And you know all of this how?"
"I have my sources," Penny giggles.
I realize that I'm not going to get any more information out of her and flip my book open to the page for Sleeping Draught. "Have you brewed Sleeping Draught before?"
"No, but I'm confident in my skills." Penny already has all of the ingredients out and is reading the recipe while she talks. "So, are you going to tell me what it's for? I'll find out eventually, you know. You wouldn't believe how much people gossip."
It's better that she hear it from me, when I have a chance to explain everything properly. "There's a locked door that I believe is connected to my brother's disappearance. It's guarded by Mrs. Norris, so I need the Sleeping Draught to get past her."
Penny nods, as nonchalantly as if she hears this kind of stuff every day. "Tell me how it goes, all right?"
"Of course. I owe you."
"I heard you have detention with Skye Parkin," Penny says suddenly.
"Yes. Are you a Quidditch fan?"
"I love the Wigtown Wanderers!" Penny exclaims. "I've been to every one of their games since I was old enough to be a fan. So, how is Skye? Is she nice? Of course she's nice, she's a Parkin!"
"If you would let me talk, I could tell you," I say with a laugh. "Yeah, she's nice. We degnomed the Quidditch pitch together. It's obvious that the Parkins are serious. She said her dad taught her to play every position."
"Her dad is the captain of the Wigtown Wanderers," Penny informs me. "Everyone expects Skye to follow in his footsteps."
"I still have a long way to go before I get there," a voice says from the door.
"Skye!" Penny shrieks, but she seems to lose her voice after that. Her mouth opens and closes silently, like a goldfish.
"She wants your autograph," I inform Skye. "She seems to have lost her voice, so I'll ask her for you."
Penny nods vigorously. Skye digs a quill and a piece of parchment out of her bag and scribbles her name on it. Penny accepts it reverently, as if she's been given a gift from the gods.
"Now that that's done, I need to talk to you, Celena. Alone," she adds, shooting a glance at Penny.
"I'll see you at dinner," Penny says, finally recovering her voice. I follow Skye into the corridor.
"What's this about?" I ask, eyeing Skye's bookbag, which she's carrying with her, although it appears to be almost empty.
"I'm failing Charms," Skye says bluntly.
"So you want me to tutor you?"
Skye looks at the ground. "It was Professor Flitwick's idea. He says you're one of the best in the year, and we already know each other, so..."
"Where should we go?"
"Professor Flitwick said we could work in his classroom." We walk to the Charms classroom. Professor Flitwick isn't there. He's probably in his office.
Skye takes a seat in the front row. I sit next to her. "Any specific spell you need to work on?"
"Wingardium Leviosa," Skye says. "I've set the feather on fire a couple of times, and once it got sort of crumpled, but I haven't managed to make it fly."
I get up and grab two feathers from the bin, one for me and one for Skye. "Try it out so I can see what the problem is."
"Wingardium Leviosa," Skye says, flicking her wand and causing the feather to burst into flames.
"That's the problem. You aren't doing the wand movement right. It's not just a flick, it's swish and flick." I demonstrate, moving my wand in a U-shape before flicking it downwards. "Wingardium Leviosa."
I offer her my feather, and Skye tries again, and this time the feather wobbles, but does not rise. I watch closely so I can offer more advice.
"Loosen up. You're too tense. And you don't need to use your entire arm, just your wrist." I demonstrate again.
Skye loosens her grip on her wand and gives it an experimental flick. The feather bursts into flames again.
"Aguamenti." I shoot a stream of water from my wand, putting it out. "We need new feathers now." This time I grab a few extras.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Skye says. The feather wobbles. One ends lifts off the desk. I hold my breath. The feather rises gently... but one end stays firmly planted on the desk, so that the feather is standing straight up.
"Close. You're getting better," I reassure Skye. "Try it again."
"Wingardium Leviosa." The feather stirs... wobbles... and ever so slowly, it lifts into the air until it's hovering a foot off the desk.
"Not good enough," Skye sighs. "We have to get three feet on our exam."
"It's better than it was," I reassure her. "Try it again."
An hour and seventeen charred feathers later, Skye finally succeeds in holding her latest feather level three feet off the desk. She goes to try again, but I stop her. "That's enough for today."
"My dad always says that you're not finished when you get something right, but when you never get it wrong," Skye says stubbornly.
"That's good advice, but it doesn't mean you need to do everything in one day. Besides, you've decimated Professor Flitwick's feather supply."
"All right," Skye concedes. "Should we practice again tomorrow?"
"Fine." Skye picks up her book and leaves. I remember that one of the requirements to be a Quidditch player is that you have to keep your grades up. No wonder Skye's so insistent about learning Wingardium Leviosa.
The next day is Friday, the day before the Quidditch match, the day before we finally enter the locked room. Our only class is Potions.
"Today we will be brewing the Herbicide Potion," Professor Snape says when we've all taken our seats. This time, we're joined by Liz Tuttle. Merula is at a table with two other Slytherins. "Who can tell me what the Herbicide Potion is used for?"
Rowan and Liz both raise their hands. "Miss Tuttle?"
"As the name implies, the Herbicide Potion is used to kill unwanted plants, such as weeds," Liz answers.
"Correct. Five points to Slytherin," Professor Snape says. "Please note that the Herbicide Potion is toxic to all living organisms, so drinking it will most likely kill you." This last sentence is directed at Barnaby Lee, the boy at Merula's table. He's swallowed several of his own brews on dares.
"Now, who can tell me what makes the Herbicide Potion so difficult?" Professor Snape continues. "Miss Khanna."
"Two of the four ingredients, lionfish spines and horklump juice, have healing properties," Rowan answers. "The trick is to make sure they react properly with the other ingredients, thereby inverting their effects."
"Correct." Professor Snape always sounds as if that word pains him, unless it's addressed to a Slytherin. "You may begin."
I crush a mixture of lionfish spines and standard ingredient and add it to my cauldron. The mixture lets off a sharp smell when I wave my wand over it.
I start working on the weekend's homework while the potion brews, as has become my custom. The other Ravenclaws are doing the same, along with about half of the Slytherins, including Liz.
I finish my essay in just under forty minutes, which is perfect timing. I add the horklump juice to my cauldron and turn up the heat. The next ingredient, flobberworm mucus, is a thick slime used to thicken the potion, which is more of a paste than a liquid.
Finally, I stir the paste four times clockwise and wave my wand over it.
I can make out the sounds of soft talking coming from Merula's table, though not the words. I look over just in time to see Merula stir her potion. One... two... three...
I scoop some of my completed potion into a bottle, as if I'm going to drop it off on Professor Snape's desk, but instead I walk over to Merula's table.
"You need to stir one more time," I say.
Merula jumps, but recovers quickly and turns. "What?"
"The directions say to stir four times. You only stirred three times," I explain.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
I sigh in annoyance. Is Merula really going to mess up her potion because her pride won't let her accept help from me?
"Shockingly, in this solitary instance, Serantos is correct." Professor Snape must have heard our conversation. "Even a reckless, incompetent fool like you can become a middling witch by following instructions, Serantos."
"Ehm... thanks?" It's a compliment... or as close as I'm going to get from Professor Snape.
Merula looks annoyed, but she stirs her potion again. I carry my potion to Professor Snape's desk. Merula fills her own bottle and is right behind me.
"Don't think you're getting in that room before me, Serantos," she hisses.
I ignore her. I beat her once, I can do it again.
I meet Ben in the Room of Requirement that afternoon. "You wanted to talk to me?"
"Yeah." Ben is pale. He leads me to a pair of chairs that the room has constructed. There's a small table in between them, because everything about that screams "place to have important conversations". At least according to the Room of Requirement.
"I don't know if I can do this, Celena," Ben says. "Go into that room."
"Are you afraid? No one blames you. We're all scared of what we'll find behind that door," I say.
"Afraid of what we'll face in that room? Yes. No. Partly," Ben says vaguely.
"What?"
"I'm afraid of what I'll find behind that door, but... I'm also afraid to let you down," Ben confesses. "I want to be brave, I want to help you, but I don't know if I'm ready."
"So don't come." My answer is blunt and catches him off guard. "If you aren't ready, that's okay. We'll help you get ready. You have to start small, and this... isn't small."
"That's definitely true." Ben smiles weakly. "But I'm a Gryffindor. I'm supposed to be brave."
"The Sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor for a reason. You are brave. It's just locked inside of you, buried deep. We'll help you find it," I reassure him. Ben still looks upset. "Look, Ben, you can't be so afraid of the present that you forget about the future. Maybe tomorrow you won't be ready to face your fears, but when you are, even if it's years from now, they'll be waiting."
"You make that sound like a good thing."
"It is. You can't avoid them forever, but you can put off confronting them. At least, with big fears you can. Baby steps, remember?"
"Baby steps. Next time, I'll come. This time, maybe it will help your alibi to leave me behind."
"Next time you'll be ready. Next time we'll help you through it. That's a promise." Ben and I leave, agreeing on the change of plans. I'll find Rowan and Alana and tell them.
Tomorrow, we enter the locked room.
A/N: Another chapter where I told the characters what to do, and they were like, "Nope". I thought it was unrealistic that Ben would be willing to do something like entering the locked room in his first year, but maybe next year? Remember, he's still getting used to the magical world at this point.