AN: The perspective switch has been fixed. Sorry to anyone who might have read it that way and thanks to the two who pointed it out to me.
Gabwr - Glad you liked the last chapter!
Zoran - sorry no relapse. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Hope the ending isn't too much of a dissapointment.
Oliver sat in his seat in the front of Snape's class, trying to follow the instructions written on the board for the potion they were working on. He chanced a look at Sheldon and Emily's potion beside him. The two looked nothing alike. One of the two of them were wrong, and Oliver was pretty sure it was probably his.
He looked back up at the instructions. Starting at the beginning he started reading through them, looking for one he had missed. When he got to the sixth step he was pretty sure he had figured out where he had messed up. He didn't remember adding that ingredient.
"Luckily skipping the juniper needles isn't anything dangerous or everyone would have realized it long before this."
Oliver looked up to seeing Snape standing in front of him, an all to familiar sneer on his face.
"Guess I missed that step the first time," Oliver said sheepishly.
"Hmm," Snape said walking away and heading to the back of the class.
Oliver rested his forehead on his hand. How could he have missed that step? He was sure he had been getting everything. He had been going slowly for exactly that reason and yet somehow he had overlooked step six.
"I am so going to fail this class," Oliver muttered.
"Maybe Professor Snape will let you team up with us for now," Emily suggested looking around Sheldon.
Oliver glanced over his shoulder. Snape was hovering over two Hufflepuffs now. From the look on the two girls' faces they hadn't fared much better than he had on the potion. Oliver looked back to Sheldon, " I'm not even going to chance asking him," Oliver told him softly. "Somehow, I'll make it through until Percy gets back."
"Well just don't set anything on fire between now and then."
Oliver elbowed Sheldon in the ribs.
With a wave of his wand, Oliver made the contents of his cauldron disappear. There was no point in starting over, even if he could convince Snape to accept a second attempt, which wasn't very likely, he didn't have the time to get in completed anyway.
Since coming back to Hogwart's two weeks ago, he had only gotten one of the potions to work and that included the ones he were trying to make up. Thankfully, Snape must have been in somewhat of a good mood as he had granted partial credit on most of them. Catching up on the rest of my classes was going much better.
The twins had gotten an owl from their parents four days ago saying that Percy was doing much better. He had regained a lot of his strength and was off the oxygen. They said he still tired easily though. There had been no word on when he would return.
For the sake of my potions grade I hoped it was soon.
The bell rang, and Oliver quickly gathered my things. He wanted out of the classroom before Snape could stop him. Potions was his last class today. He headed out of the dungeon area of the castle and up to Gryffindor Tower.
"Wattlebird," Oliver told the Fat Lady as he came to her portrait. She moved aside and let him into Gryffindor Tower. There was a crowd in the common room. Oliver spotted Fred and George near the center of the crowd and figured they were up to something again.
Oliver looked around for Emily or one of the other Prefects. He didn't see anyone and was trying to decide if he should break up whatever scheme the twins were up to this time when he heard a familiar voice call his name from the middle of the crowd.
Oliver looked toward the group, thinking he was hearing things. It couldn't be who he thought it was. Surely someone would have mentioned he was coming back.
Walking toward the group, Oliver's fellow Gryffindors started parting. Before long he saw him. Sure enough, he had heard his voice.
There stood Percy, still a little pale and thinner than he had been before, but he was back. Oliver hurried forward and embraced his friend.
"I'm glad your back," Oliver told him.
"It's good to be back," Percy replied. "Mom was starting to drive me crazy."
"Looks like we won't be able to pull off as much stuff George," Fred said to his twin. "With Percy back, we'll have to be twice as sneaky. He's much more observant than Emily or any of the other Prefects."
"Hey!" Emily exclaimed as everyone in the room laughed.
Even with the dangers of the Chamber of Secrets looming over us, it was nice to know that at least something was returning to normal.
The End