Gaius and Lancelot walked down the many corridors of the castle. "Where do you want to go Gaius?" Leon asked
"I was thinking on Potions." Gaius turned to the young knight. "You don't have to go with me Sir Lancelot, I may be old, but I can look after myself."
"Nonsense Gaius, I have nowhere to go. Why not accompany you."
"Well, let's hope that this class is worth your while then." Gaius said.
"Yes, Remus did say that the professor will not be welcoming." Lancelot remembered.
"Then we will just have to be persistent." Gaius responded, causing Lancelot to chuckle. They continued to walk down the castle until they came to the dungeons where the Potions class was held.
"Why would you want to have a class down here? It is so uninviting." Lancelot observed.
"It's creepy isn't it? I can't stand it down here." A boy said.
The physician and knight turned to see a tall boy with slick black hair. "Name's Josh, I'm a sixth year Ravenclaw."
"My name is Lance and this is Gaius. We are-"
"You are the administrators from Wales. I know; you were introduced at the Feast. Have you come to watch the class?" He asked.
"Yes, I am interested in what your professor teaches you here." Gaius responded.
"Well, you'll find that Professor Snape is quite the character. He might not like you in his class very much."
"We'll take our chances." Lancelot smiled. They followed Josh inside the dreary room and sat in the back. The class slowly filled with students, it was a few moments before Professor Snape made an appearance.
Lancelot immediately got up and approached the man.
"Professor Snape, my name is Lance and my colleague and I would like to watch your class."
The professor was silent, his mouth slowly turning to a small sneer before answering, "If you wish"
Lancelot smiled, "But if you interrupt my class, be sure that you will be kicked out." Snape continued.
Lancelot's smile faltered slightly, "Of course sir." Lancelot gave a slight bow and returned to his seat next to Gaius. "I know now what Remus meant by he would be unwelcoming." He whispered to the physician.
"Well, at least he is allowing us to watch his class." Gaius said.
The class started quickly. Professor Snape wrote ingredients on the board, "You will be making draught of the living death. You can find your ingredients in the cabinet; I will be examining it at the end of class." He looked around at the silent students. "Don't just stand there, get to work."
The students rushed around gathering supplies and starting their potions. "Amazing, draught of the living death, I've never heard of it." Gaius muttered to himself. He walked over to a pair of students and looked at their cauldron. "May I watch?" He asked.
The boy and girl looked back and smiled; "Sure" Gaius maneuvered around so that he was next to the table and had a better view. He watched them for a few minutes before moving onto another pair.
Lancelot also walked around the room, making sure to stay clear of Snape, who was still sneering at him whenever they made eye contact. He came to a pair of girls who looked lost. "You seem troubled."
The two girls looked at him, "We are, we followed the directions, but something went wrong." They looked back at their cauldron which was an ugly orange color. "Oh, well, I'm not really good at potions, but maybe I could help you."
"That would be great sir" One of the girls replied.
"It would be my pleasure ladies." Lancelot smiled and approached their desk. He went through each step with them and finally found the problem. "It seems you skipped a step." He observed.
"But how can we get it back? It's not like we can take the ingredients out." The second girl said.
"Sounds like you need more help." Gaius approached the frazzled teens.
"Do you know how to fix it?" The first girl asked.
"I think I may have an idea on how to fix your problem." He grabbed the book and looked through the ingredients list. "I think that if you add these ingredients, it should counteract the others so that you can add the step you missed and then continue on." Gaius said.
"Really? Oh thank you sir, I hope it works." The two girls went to gather more supplies and went to fixing their potion.
At the end of the class, Professor Snape did his usual walk through, testing everyone's potions. He stopped in front of the two girls from earlier and gave them a hard glare. The two girls shrunk down as he examined their cauldron. "Next time you have trouble, fail like you should. The two administrators won't be here to help you next time."
"Now wait a minute" Lancelot interrupted.
"Lancelot" Gaius scolded, but was ignored.
"Do you have a problem?" Snape asked.
"Yes, you shouldn't scold them for asking for help. They just skipped a step. Anyone could have done it." Lancelot argued.
"I don't appreciate being told how to run my class. Administrator or not, if you don't keep your mouth shut, I will kick you out of my class."
Lancelot was about to retort, but Gaius interrupted. "I am terribly sorry sir; we will not bother you any longer." The old man gently pulled the younger knight out of the room.
Once they reached the top of the steps, Lancelot turned to Gaius. "Thank you Gaius, I fear that I would have lost my temper in there."
Gaius smiled, "I must say, I have never seen you so hot headed. I would have expected that from Gwaine, not you."
Lancelot chuckled, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "I guess some of his bad habits have rubbed off on me. I just couldn't believe how he treats his students. No wonder no one likes him."
"Yes, he seems to have a unique personality doesn't he?" Gaius chuckled. "I'm sure our relationship with him has been tarnished. I'm afraid that he won't be welcoming to us anymore."
"No matter, I won't lose any sleep over it."
"Well, how about a nice calming walk around the grounds, maybe we can find the other." Gaius suggested.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea."
They headed out of the castle and down the hill towards the lake. Their conversation mostly revolved around Merlin and his adventures, but occasionally, they would shift to their surroundings. Once they came to the Quidditch Pitch, they saw Gwen walking with Elyan and Leon. "Hello you three, what have you been up to?" Gaius asked.
"The three of us walked around the castle until we came to an open door, so we went in. It turned out to be a Charms class. The professor, Professor Flitwick, is really short, he couldn't have been human." Leon said.
"He was sweet though and welcomed us. It was a first year class so we got to see them learn a levitation spell. It was wonderful." Gwen smiled.
"We left halfway through the class and found Transfiguration." Elyan continued, "Did you know that Professor McGonagall can transform into a cat!"
"What?" Lancelot and Gaius looked shocked.
"Yeah, we walked into the classroom and there was a cat on the desk, we asked one of the students and they said to just wait. A few moments later, there was a pop and Professor McGonagall was standing in front of her desk. She told us that she is an animagus, which means that you can transform into an animal." Leon explained.
"That's amazing" Lancelot said.
Elyan nodded, "But that wasn't the strangest experience, after we left Transfiguration, we came to History of Magic, it's taught by a ghost!"
"A ghost, how can a class be taught by a ghost?" Gaius asked.
"We don't know, but according to some of the students, he has been around for years." Gwen said.
"Wow, that is so hard to believe, but this is a magic school, so I guess anything is possible." Lancelot said.
"It seems that you three experienced a lot" Gaius chuckled.
"Yeah, we didn't want to spend too much time in one class" Gwen answered.
"Well, we only went to one class. It wasn't much fun at all" Lancelot grumbled.
"What happened?" Leon asked.
"Lancelot and I went to Potions" Gwen scrunched up her nose at this, "The Professor there, Professor Snape, was less than pleasant. We helped a pair of his students with their potion and he scolded them for it. He told them that they should have failed instead of ask for help." Gaius explained. The others gasped. "Then Lancelot defended them and almost got us kicked out, I decided that it was time for us to leave and take a walk around the castle."
"Looks like Gwaine is rubbing off on you Lancelot" Elyan smiled.
"I know, it's terrible" Lancelot sighed. The others chuckled.
They all continued walking in silence until they heard the clock tower chime. "I guess it's almost lunch time, we should head back to the Great Hall." Leon said.
"I wonder what everyone else has been up to?" Gwen asked.
"Gwaine probably pulled some kind of prank, Merlin probably learned something new about magic, Arthur and Percival probably swept some girl off her feet, and Uther probably made someone mad." Lancelot guessed.
"Well, we'll just have to wait and see." Gaius smiled and followed the group inside.