Marcella Bell's eyes lazily scanned the contents of her half-full cauldron. The depressing damp of the colourless dungeon was making her sleepy, and the fact that she was in Double Potions first thing on a Monday morning had forced her to be in a particularly bad mood. She raised her eyes to the blackboard and reread step 3 of the tedious instructions Professor Snape had provided in order for the class to brew an effective Shrinking Potion.
Add three small drops of Salamander Blood and stir once anti-clockwise. Then add a dash of Eye of Newt and allow to simmer for exactly seven minutes. Stir continuously for another four minutes.
'Eye of Newt,' she thought to herself, 'how.. medieval.'
She had just allowed her potion to simmer for the required amount of time and was beginning to stir when she could suddenly feel the distinct presence of somebody standing in front of her, their piercing eyes boring through both Marcella and her bubbling cauldron. Marcella raised her head immediately and her gaze was met by the cocky smirk of Draco Malfoy. She gasped slightly due to surprise, and the two remained still for a few moments, the flaming torches hanging on the walls surrounding them causing flickers of soft light to illuminate patches of his perfectly set in place blond hair.
"I need the Newt." He said eventually, a snarl dancing across his pale face. Marcella raised an eyebrow and blinked.
"Take it." She replied blankly with an air of contempt. Malfoy stared at her for another second before slowly reaching over her cauldron towards the glass jar containing the Eye of Newt. Though his head was now facing the floor, she felt as though his greyish eyes were drilling holes in her shoes. When finally he had turned to leave, Marcella watched him practically strut away across the dungeon floor and frowned with dislike. Her eyes followed him as he returned to his own cauldron, his hair still completely in place. She grunted angrily under her breath and shifted her attention back to her Shrinking Potion, her fingers now wrapping themselves gently around one of her messily-tied plaits.
The cold and almost eerie dungeon was abuzz with chatter five minutes later as Marcella was adding the final touches to her slightly off-colour potion. She was just about to carry her sample over to Snape's desk ready to be marked when another interruption came in the form of a short succession of rapid but very loud steps outside the room, followed by a horrendous crash which sounded as though a bull had just ran at and collided with the door in an attempt to smash into the dungeon. The Potions class fell immediately silent, and all eyes were now focused on Snape, who had previously been antagonising a tiny boy with mousy brown hair and large eyes about the poor quality of his stirring technique. Now, the Professor was sweeping towards the dungeon door in a flash of black robes but, when he had opened the door and proceeded to search up and down the corridor with his glaring eyes for the origin of the noise, he seemed somewhat confused. Rather than finding a large animal or man standing in the doorway as suggested by the immense level of the sound, a copper-haired young girl rolled into the room. The cold stone floor around the girl was littered with sheets of pale pink parchment, her robes were patched with dirt and slightly torn across her left knee. The deep red tendrils of her hair were bedraggled. She looked as though she had just taken a bad tumble.
"Oh! Oh, Professor! I'm so very glad you're here!" The girl squeaked up at the towering Snape, "I – I… I saw your door and – well, I got a little carried away and I started to run and – and I sort of – well, sort of stumbled a bit and er… Here I am!"
The girl was now scrambling awkwardly to her feet, and Marcella grinned as she realised that the interruption to her Potions class with the Slytherins was in fact Lorri Darlington, a fellow Gryffindor and somebody that Marcella liked very much. Lorri was now standing upright in the dungeon doorway, beaming as though falling over and colliding with the heavy door was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her. She was also smiling expectantly at Snape who, on the other hand, was glowering at her.
"And just what exactly is the purpose of this completely inappropriate interruption to my class, Miss Darlington?" He snarled down at her.
"Well – er, Sir, I have an announcement to make to your class." Lorri replied, the hint of discomfort in her voice contrasting with her smile. Snape narrowed his eyes.
"Then I strongly advise that you make it brief, Miss Darlington, because frankly, I am positive that the remainder of my lesson is far more valuable to these students than whatever it is that you have to say."
Lorri flinched slightly, but then began to slowly weave herself around cauldrons within the dungeon, handing out her flyers and starting to speak in what sounded like a lower voice than usual.
"Er – well, the Prefects, as you can see on the flyer you've just been given, have organised an event… Er – a party, to celebrate Valentines Day in all its glory."
It was at this point that Professor Snape gave a soft yet perfectly audible scoff at the front of the room. Lorri halted for a short moment, then proceeded to continue with her announcement.
"Um… Partners, yes… Well, you can invite somebody if you like…"
Lorri's voice had faded into oblivion as Marcella's eyes had fallen upon Draco Malfoy again. He was clutching his flyer gingerly and had draped his arm across Pansy Parkinson's shoulders, who was currently giggling shrilly, apparently at something hilarious that Malfoy had just said. Marcella furrowed her brow as thoughts of the Valentines Day party emerged in her mind, and the fact that she knew perfectly well that any fun that could possibly be had there would almost certainly be punctured by the presence of the Slytherins, especially Draco Malfoy.
"… So, er – yes…" Lorri was still speaking as Marcella fell hard back to reality. "If you er – have any questions about Valentines Day or the party, whether or not to get your partner a present, for example-" From the other end of the dungeon, Snape scoffed once again. Lorri stopped in her tracks, forced quiet mid-sentence. She then looked down to her oversized shoes, took a sharp breath and resumed her speech for the second time. "Then er… we Prefects are hear to um – answer them for you." She was now heading in the direction of the door, her steps rapid and her head facing the floor, indicating that her announcement had come to an end. "I look forward to seeing you all on Valentines Day, perhaps the most glorious day of the whole year!"
As Lorri's hand (which was sporting a nasty graze as a result of her earlier fall) was outstretched towards the doorknob, a quietly vicious chuckle floated up from behind Professor Snape's desk and echoed throughout the dungeon. Lorri froze. After a few seconds of staring at her feet, she slowly turned and raised her head in the direction of the smug Potions teacher.
"Something wrong, Professor Snape?"
Marcella's eyes widened at Lorri's question, but Snape's only narrowed further. They were now simply dark slits creating a break in the gaunt white skin on his face.
"Miss Darlington," he said, "I merely find it amusing that you place such an amount of faith in what is so obviously a scam."
Marcella could easily tell that he had taken great pleasure in hissing the word 'scam' at Lorri, who was now biting her lip and fiddling with the remaining few flyers in her hands.
"A… scam, Professor?" She asked, her voice wavering.
"That's correct, Miss Darlington, a scam. Valentines Day is a manufactured celebration which is really only of any importance to stupidly infatuated adolescent couples and Muggles of very low intelligence."
Lorri's hands were shaking now and she was breathing harshly through her nostrils.
"Er… hmm… I – I believe you're wrong about that, Professor." She murmured. Snape raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Lorri took a hesitative step forward. "V – Valentines Day is a time to spend with the people you care about the – the most… And also to tell those you love how you feel about them and the place they have in your heart." She stopped to draw breath, and waited anxiously for Snape's response, though once again, none came. At the realisation that he was going to remain slient, Lorri continued. "And – And it's a time for the magical community to express love for one another through magic, not just Muggles of very low intelligence, Sir…" Her voice had grown somewhat stronger as she drew to the conclusion of her second speech of the lesson. She now stood nervously in the doorway of the dungeon, staring at Snape, her eyes wide and her feet shuffling on the spot with an obvious degree of fear. The Professor kept her gaze for several seconds, until finally he drawled,
"That is fifty points from Gryffindor, Miss Darlington, for interrupting my lesson inappropriately and deliberately provoking an argument with a teacher. Now leave, I am growing steadily more weary of your presence in my classroom."
Lorri gasped slightly and immediately skidded towards the door, into the stone corridor and out of sight. Marcella suddenly came to realise that her mouth was hanging open, and she promptly brought her hand up to her jaw. She looked around the room at her fellow students and noticed that they too were expressing looks of either shock or restrained amusement. As Professor Snape heaved himself up from behind his desk and forced the class silent with his formidable stance, Marcella couldn't keep her eyes from falling upon Draco Malfoy once more. She was slightly surprised to see that, while Pansy Parkinson was making every effort to engage him in conversation by frequently stroking his arm and giggling loudly, Malfoy was staring intently at the base of the open doorway, directly at the patch of floor that Lorri had rolled into the dungeon on.