Chapter 4:
The second floor potions lab was almost identical to the first floor one. The only real difference was that the tables for brewing potions were clustered in sets of four instead of sets of two. The six brewing stations were lined up in two rows against either wall, with the teacher's demonstration cauldron in the center of the room in front of the large chalkboard. As the three friends entered they chose the center station on the left side of the room.
"Good morning everyone!" Ms. Whiting smiled as she turned from her last line of instructions on the board. The woman was younger than Danny had expected-likely only a student a few years before. She was of average height and build, but she did have a few distinct features. Namely, her bright green hair and amber eyes. While Danny had seen people with hair colored different ways, bright green was a first. "I'm looking forward to teaching you all this year as we learn some new potions together." She stated as she pushed up her glasses and pulled out a small clipboard from her desk drawer, "Before we get started I just want to make sure I have all of your names correct, and that I mark down who's in what group together. When I say your name please say 'here' and raise your hand so I start matching some names and faces."
As she started down the list the three started getting their ingredients ready for the potion they'd be brewing that day-a hair raising potion. "Hey, do you have any spare rat tails? I can't seem to find mine." Chase muttered as he rooted in his bag.
"I'm not surprised, how do you find anything in that mess?" Alicia wrinkled her nose as Danny snorted at Chase's slight glare. Chase was notorious when it came to organizational skills, or more accurately, lack thereof.
"I'll have you know I use a very good system for these." He retorted as he continued rooting through his bag, nearly his entire arm in the backpack. It is quite convenient that they have magical backpacks that can carry nearly twice what they look like they should be able to. Danny thought as he watched Chase continue to fumble around before he gave up and placed the bag on the floor.
"What? Put the last one used on top?" Danny guessed as he handed his friend a few spare tails.
"Shut up…" Chase muttered as he accepted, "And thanks."
As Ms. Whiting called Alicia's name-actually managing to say her last name correctly on the first guess-the door burst open, showing a near out-of-breath boy with red hair and freckles entering. " 'm sorry…" He panted while averting his gaze from anything except his green converse sneakers, "…couldn't find the room."
"That's okay; I'm still finding everything as well. I'm guessing you're my new transfer student?" Ms. Whiting smiled encouragingly at the boy.
"Yes ma'am." He nodded.
"Alright Ted, why don't you work with Danny, Chase, and Alicia over at cauldron 3?" She motioned toward the trio.
He nodded again as he looked over hesitantly at the three. Chase waved as he approached. "Hey Ted."
"Uh, hi…" The boy muttered as he sat down on the end next to Alicia.
"I'm Chase. That's Danny, and she's Alicia." Chase gestured to each of the three as he introduced them.
"Nice to meet you." He replied, a small smile on his lips for a moment before the nervous hollowness returned.
"I'm guessing you used to go to Hogwarts, right? No offense, but I don't know anybody from Ohio with that accent." Danny said as he started mincing his rat tails, "My dads are from England and they both went there." He paused as he double checked the board on what to do next, "Or did you go somewhere else?"
Ted was quiet a moment before he responded, "Yeah, I used to go there."
"Cool, I heard it's a big old castle-way more interesting than our school." Chase added as he dropped his tails into the center cauldron.
"Yeah, it was pretty nice. We didn't have our school at the bottom of a lake, though, so this one's kinda neat too." He shrugged.
"If you don't mind me asking, why'd your family come all the way over here? I think Hogwarts is a boarding school-even more so than ours-if your parents moved you could've kept going there, right?" Alicia asked as she started working on the next ingredient's preparation. "Not to say we don't want you here-that isn't the case at all-but it's got to be a bit tough to move-especially for your brothers who are older than you and already starting their upper-level coursework."
"Only you would think about coursework as the worst part of moving." Chase rolled his eyes.
She huffed, "It's important. Getting good scores on your FOX exams is crucial to a good career in the wizarding world."
"FOX exams?" Chase tilted his head slightly.
"Oh no, not again…" Danny rolled his eyes knowing that Alicia was going to start talking more about schoolwork.
Alicia ignored his remark and continued, "Chase, the Formative Occupational eXam is the only way to be anything half-decent in the Magical Congress."
"Though in fairness they aren't given until we're seniors." Danny added, "And aside from you I don't think anyone else in our grade has been worried about them."
"In any case, thanks to your sidetracking we never got a chance to hear from Ted." Alicia said as she turned to her left, "Sorry about that." She apologized.
"It's okay…" He said.
"Honestly I'd rather not talk about why we moved, if it's okay." Ted said.
"Sorry…" Alicia said, "Um, what about quidditch then? I know all of us have our favorite teams, do you follow it?"
"Yeah, the Chudley Cannons are my favorite." Ted replied as he pulled a pin out of his pocket. It was a bright orange pin with two black C's overtop a pair of crossed fingers.
"I haven't heard of them, are they good?" Chase asked as he avoided getting pricked by a porcupine quill.
"Well… they haven't won in a while, but I think they've got a shot, right now they're ninth in their league." He replied as he replaced the pin in his pocket.
"Better than Chase's favorites, remind us where are the Brooksdale Bandits right now?" Danny smirked as he needled his best friend in the ribs.
Chase mumbled something that the others couldn't hear fully, but Ted was fairly sure he said 'last' somewhere amidst the muttered syllable. "But just because the Arnover is first right now means nothing, we aren't a third of the way through the season."
"The Ants won last year, and I'll eat my wand if we end up anything less than third this year. Gelting is on a roll, as long as Thurgood manages to recover from everything by next week's game we're looking a good chance of first." Danny defended.
"Gelting's good now, but look at his performance compared to last year, the guy's slipping." Alicia said as she motioned for everyone to step back as she started mixing the final-and volatile-ingredients in, "Besides the Pummelers are in third and climbing."
"If Gelting's slipping what about Solomon? Beater? More like bleater, he jumped nearly a foot off his broom to avoid that bludger that hit Dorset."
"Because it was aiming straight at his head! If he hadn't gotten out of the way he'd've been out of the rest of the game, it was a strategic decision. Besides, Dorset's fine-isn't like he hasn't gotten hit with a bludger before."
As Alicia was about to pull out her copy of "Quidditch: Modern Tactics and Strategies" the bell rung. "Alright everyone, that looks like all the time we have for today. We'll let these simmer for the next few hours and I'll test your work at the end of the day to see how effective these hair-raising potions are." Ms. Whiting said as she scribbled something on her clipboard.
"Hey, do you want to join us at lunch?" Danny asked as the four got up and headed toward the door.
"Um, sure. Thanks." Ted said another smile cracking his freckled cheeks.
"Well, whatever reason made you come here, I hope you like it." Chase said as the four exited to the hallway among the throng of students heading to the atrium for lunch. As he walked alongside his new classmates Ted felt okay for the first time in a few weeks. Maybe this can be okay, even without dad…