"Follow him, you idiot!" Liz hissed as Neville began making his way out of the Great Hall. Jen nodded silently and quickly stood, following after him.
"Is she okay?" Ginny asked, moving over to walk with Liz as she left the Great Hall at a much slower pace.
"Yeah, she's fine." Liz smiled.
"Well, alright." Ginny raised her eyebrows curiously but didn't say anything else, knowing it might not be her place.
"Hey, Liz?" Ron stepped up beside her. "Do you think you could ask around and find out what you know about the girls with black hair in Ravenclaw? You know, try and dig up some info about the Owl Pal stuff."
Liz laughed and rolled her eyes, folding her arms.
"'The secrecy will be lots of fun!'" she quoted Dumbledore. "I'm not going to help you find out who it is, sorry."
"But I wanna know!" Ron whined.
"What if it's someone in Slytherin?"
"Oh, Merlin help me if she is."
"That's why you're not supposed to know what house she's in. This whole system is meant to help us see past our differences and get to know a person without prejudice getting in the way." Liz explained.
"Yeah, but..." Ron sighed, obviously not having anything to say to that.
When they had made it out of the Great Hall they almost ran into Jen and Neville, who were hugging tightly.
Ginny's eyebrows raised in shock and Ron gawked. Harry just smiled at the touching scene.
"Neville!" Ron gasped. Jen and Neville quickly stepped away from each other and looked over, both blushing.
"Uh... uh..." Neville swallowed nervously.
"We're dating!" Jen squealed happily.
"That's great!" Ginny said, smiling.
"Congratulations," Liz said, moving forward and hugging Jen. "I knew you'd succeed."
"And now we get to hang out with their group more often!" Jen said happily.
"I'm flattered." Ginny laughed, causing Jen and Liz to turn to her again, both smiling happily.
"Now I care even less about my Owl Pal than I did before." Jen said with a laugh. "The only thing on my mind is you." She poked Neville in the arm and he blushed.
"We really are going to be late to class if we don't get a move on, you know." Harry reminded everyone.
"Oops!" Jen exclaimed. "Got caught up in the moment. Let's go, shall we? What do we have first?"
"Potions." Liz sighed.
"With the Hufflepuffs, how boring." Jen sighed. "I wish we had it with you Gryffindors."
"Trust me, we wish that too." Harry laughed. "We're stuck with the Slytherins of all people."
"So what do you have first, Neville?" Jen asked her new boyfriend. He blushed again, obviously thinking about it.
"Transfiguration." he told her.
"Great. Well I'll see you at lunch, alright?" Jen leant up and kissed his cheek before gabbing Liz's arm and dragging her off to their dorm in order to grab their bags.
"There you go, everything worked out." Liz said.
"Yeah, it did. And he's amazing! He blushed so much when I asked him and then he couldn't stop stuttering when he tried to say yes." Jen sighed dreamily, a loopy smile on her face which strangely resembled the one which could be often seen on Luna's face.
"Right. Did you finish your Potions essay?"
"We had a Potions essay?" Jen exclaimed, panic on her face. Liz laughed.
"Just teasing. The Potions essay I speak of doesn't exist."
"You're horrible!"
"Payback, my friend."
"For what?"
"Waking me up this morning!"
"Oh come on, we both know you would've slept all day if I didn't."
"That doesn't excuse you."
"Yes it does!"
"No it doesn't."
"This argument is pointless, you realise that don't you?"
"I wish I knew who my Owl Pal really was."
"Don't you dare change the subject on me like that!"
Giggling, Liz ran off to Potions, leaving Jen startled for a moment before she too started running to try and catch up.
Reaching Potions, they stumbled in the door just as a Hufflepuff knocked a potion off one of the shelves and it smashed onto the floor, making a 'boom' and causing smoke to go everywhere.
"Back we go." Jen mumbled as she grabbed Liz's cloak and dragged her back through the door to get away from all the smoke. They could hear Snape yelling angrily from inside the classroom and frowned, wondering what he was doing there.
"What happened to Slughorn?" Liz asked curiously.
"No clue. But we're going to die." Jen sighed woefully.
"No we're not!" Liz said with a laugh. "Maybe Snape was just talking to Slughorn or something, or getting some ingredients he needed."
"But spare potions aren't kept in the classroom. It's only the stuff we need for the lesson."
"Then Snape and Slughorn must have been talking. Relax. I doubt Snape will be taking our class." Liz said reassuringly before leading Jen back into the recently de-smoked classroom.
"You were saying?" Jen muttered, glaring at Liz before looking back at where Snape stood at the front of the room.
"Now that I have cleared up that tragic mistake," Snape was saying and his eyes flitted over to Liz and Jen momentarily before they hurriedly found some seats. "We can go on with our lesson. Before you ask, yes I am replacing Professor Slughorn for today. He seems to have come down with a nasty cold and is unable to teach at the moment. We will be working on some rather difficult potions today which will help to test your ability. The instructions are on the board. Get to work."
"We're making a love potion!" Jen squealed after a moment of contemplation.
"As if! Snape wouldn't make us do th-" Liz paused as she saw the name of the potion written above the instructions. It did indeed say 'love potion'. "Well, that's unexpected."
"This is great! We could make anyone fall in love with us for a day!" Jen grinned.
"But you're dating Neville now, what on earth would you do with a love potion?" Liz enquired curiously.
"Oh I dunno, probably give it to a first year or something. It's hilarious watching them go after the people they like."
"We were once first years too, you know." Liz reminded her.
"Duh! I'm not stupid. Hey, pass me the root?" Jen held her hand out expectantly and Liz obeyed, placing the root in her friends hand before looking up at the instructions again to familiarise herself.
"Snape probably won't even let us keep any of the potion. He'll make us bottle it and hand it in, as always." Liz shrugged.
"Don't be daft," Jen giggled, glancing to where Snape was sitting at the desk at the front and then leaning close to whisper conspiratorially. "We'll bottle twice as much as we need to, hand in one bottle and keep the other."
"What if he catches us?" Liz asked, worried.
"Have we ever been told not to take any of the potion for ourselves?" Jen asked, raising her eyebrows. Liz paused and then smiled, shaking her head. "Exactly."
The rest of the lesson continued normally and Liz and Jen were able to successfully finish the love potion which they were making. Jen quickly scooped some of the potion into two bottles, pocketing one and then heading up the front of the room with the other to hand it in. While she was up the front, Liz grabbed another bottle and took her own lot of the potion, slipping it into her pocket secretly.
When Jen came back, she was smiling hugely.
"What do you think would happen if someone who was already in love with someone else was given a love potion to make them in love with that person? Would they become even more infatuated or just burst from the pressure?"
Liz stared at her for a moment.
"I don't think I want to know. Promise me you won't do it to Neville?"
"Oh, fine! I hate how you can always tell what I'm planning, though." Jen pouted.
"You just spelled it all out for me!" Liz said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Well, there is that."
"Yes, there is that, isn't there?"
"Oh well. Who will I give it to then?"
"Give it to Ron and tell him to use it on Hermione." Liz giggled.
"Oh my gosh, that's perfect!" Jen squeaked. She picked up her bag from the floor and swung it over her shoulder, grinning. "Those two have been eyeing each other for so long it's not funny. I mean, we've noticed and we're not even in Gryffindor!"
"True." Liz grinned. "Maybe that way he'll stop thinking so much about his Owl Pal."
"Is that a hint? Do I need to find you a guy to stop you sending letters to your Owl Pal like crazy?" Jen joked as they left the classroom.
"No!" Liz laughed. "Besides, I've only sent him two letters so far."
"Only two? It's only the second day! I haven't even sent one yet." Jen folded her arms.
"Yes, and I have a feeling you're going to end up with a detention." Liz sighed melodramatically.
"You wish." Jen grinned and shoved Liz's shoulder.
"Come off it, I'm not that mean as to wish detention on you." Liz said, batting her eyelids innocently.
"And I'm in love with Snape." Jen said with a raised eyebrow.
"Ew!" Liz squealed, laughing and dashing off down the corridor to get away from her friend. Jen shook her head and also laughed, chasing after her.