Disclaimer: I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's characters.

Thanks is in order for SweetSunnyRose's correction of my error in the last chapter. I carelessly wrote 15 years ago for Lana's mother being a pupil of Snape's, but if you think of it, it really can't be logical. I have changed it and want to thank you for telling me! (I have a whole Word document dedicated to times/dates…you'd think I would have thought that out better…oh well! No one's perfect :D)

Chapter Twelve: Madame Pomfrey

"You're to do two things: mix what I tell you to mix and dump what I tell you to dump. There will be no touching, meddling, prodding, pulling, or even thinking about doing much else," Madame Pomfrey preached to Holly and I that evening, after classes for the day were completed.

I was still debating whether or not this was going to be worse punishment than what Snape would have preferred we been given.

"Do you understand?" The slightly plump, middle-aged witch barked at us after another minute or so of rambling.

I was obviously spacing out when I took a second more to respond," Um, sure-right, of course."

"Good Lord, help me with this child," She muttered under her breath, as if I couldn't hear her. I started to argue, but Holly hit me before I could manage a single word. "When I sent this opening to the Headmaster, I expected him to send me the top of the seventh year Potions class-not two first years fresh out of their first class in the course."

The nurse spoke whilst walking into the infirmary, where many beds lined the stone walls. We sat in her office as she continued speaking and after her last little comment, I nearly needed to pick my jaw up from the ground.

"Does she realize she's been offensive?" I hissed to Holly, who simply shrugged her shoulders.

"Would you rather this or what Professor Snape had in store for us?" She spat right back at me under her breath.

Moments later, the woman reappeared in the doorway," There'll be no speaking to one another either, not while you're in my sight, at least."

"But-" I opened my mouth to argue and yet again Holly smacked me.

Madame Pomfrey noticed then and smirked before nodding to my companion," I like this girl, you could learn quite the lesson from this young lady. She's got manners, she doesn't look at me as though I've grown a third eye-"

And then, she began listing off many qualities that my companion had that I clearly needed to acquire. The irony of the situation was that I am typically not one to be rude or even seem that way. Adults typically boast to my parents on how well-behaved I was and it is quite a shock to me to hear her demolish my personality so quickly. She did not even know me. How could one be so quick to judge another?

"Now, it's the beginning of the semester meaning that there won't be many patients for the time being, but by the end of the year this hospital wing will be busier than Hogsmeade during the holidays. That'll be that time that I make sure the both of ye are locked away in here under strict directions," She rambled on and on before grabbing a bottle here, a capsule there, and plenty of other items that appeared to be ingredients to something before placing them on the desk that lay in front of us, presumably her desk.

"However, you may be able to work your way up to more responsibilities. If you can prove yourself worthy," She told us simply, before taking a seat at the desk.

Holly swallowed," Have you instructions similar to Professor Snape's?"

She chuckled," My directions will be much more straightforward than the Potion Master's. Most of the time I cannot understand a word of that jargon. Well, to me at least…they're all written by me so I suppose if you've any questions then you should just ask."

Holly nodded and swallowed again, allowing for a nice silence to hang in the air before the nurse pulled out a pad of paper and began scribbling away. We looked to one another, thinking the same thought of when this incredibly awkward moment was going to end.

"I saw your burn-healing paste. In fact, I used it just after Professor Snape brought it up to me," Madame Pomfrey said to the both of us, not even looking up from her writing.

"Then it was…satisfactory?" Holly asked, her voice shaky.

Another moment of silence passed before the woman looked up and gave us a small smirk," It will do."

And with that, she stood up and exited the office, not even looking back.

It was at that moment I decided that this must have been a worse punishment than anything Professor Snape would have made us do.

"It will do?" I exclaimed to Holly nearly half an hour later when she released us from her presence. We were strolling along a brisk pace down the dark corridors from the hospital wing. "What is that supposed to mean? She's barmy! I swear it."

Holly couldn't suppress the smile growing on her lips," Lana, she's not that bad."

"Well, of course not to you," I drawled back, irritated by my friend's lack of agreement. " She had nothing but marvelous things to say of you. She seemed as though it was only a fluke that I had even been selected."

"She didn't say fluke," Holly defended, still failing to suppress her smile.

My eyes widened as I paused in the middle of the corridor to look directly at her," She may as well have."

Finally, my friend let loose and let out a fit of chuckles. I shook my head, hardly believing how ridiculous she was sounding as we continued down the hallway.

Already, it appeared to be getting late and Madame Pomfrey told us to hurry back to our common room to prevent any of the prefects or teachers finding us out even close to lights out. Luckily enough, we had been able to sneak by with no one in view. With the Gryfindor portrait in view, we felt as though we were nearly home free.

That was before a prefect stepped around the corner just in time to catch us out. Our eyes widened and our voices were silenced as we noticed this was not only a prefect, but one from Slytherin by looks of his robes.

"Well, well, well," The boy with dark brown, long, greasy hair said with a snarl, as if he were finding pleasure in finally finding a victim out at dark. "Looks like we've got a couple first-years out past dark."

Both of us were silent for a moment before Holly asked," What's the time?"

Before he could answer, a voice said from behind," They'll be perfectly fine, Terry. My clock still says that they've a minute to get inside the common room."

We looked up to see, presumably a Ravenclaw prefect. At her side was none other than Anna. Anna gave me a small smirk as soon as we turned. Holly and I stuttered for several seconds, hardly able to think of the right words of thanks before the prefect said to us," Well, what are you waiting for? Go on!"

Not hesitating, Holly and I ran down the corridor and as soon as we were out of their earshot, I whispered the password," Caverna Obscura!"

Holly scurried on inside, but before I went in, I turned back to call to the prefect and Anna," Thank-"

Before I could utter the rest of the phrase, the frame closed tight.

"A little birdie told me that you conjured up a perfect paste yesterday," Charlie Weasley said to me as he came up, taking a seat just across from me the next day at the Gryffindor table.

"Oi! So did I," Another fifth year chiped in. "Snape was in a foul mood all during Advanced Potions. He gave us double homework!"

"Double homework would be a walk in the park compared to the two papers he assigned us. Four parchments long!" The red-haired boy exclaimed, clearly irked by the professor." All I did was simply walk in the room, pull my chair back more loudly than he would have liked before he began bellowing at the whole class how 'we know we're suppose to enter the room silently'. "

A roaring roll of laughter erupted from the table at the sound of Charlie's impersonation of the Potion's Professor. I allowed for the table to calm down before commenting further.

"How did you find out it was me? Surely, he didn't say that it was," I asked before rolling the orange on my plate to loosen the skin.

"Oh no, but he may as well have. He accused all of us of cheating and asked which one of us was giving the answers. I suppose he had it set in his head that you couldn't have possibly-"

"Done it own our own," I finished his phrase with a nod of my head before letting out a soft, sarcastic chuckle.

"Exactly," Charlie answered, looking at me. "So, how did you do it?"

I looked at him for a long, hard moment," What do you mean? Holly and I simply followed the instructions."

"You don't have to cover it up, you know," Erica chiped in, coming to the table, obviously able to realize what we were speaking of from the tone of conversation. "He was in a terrible-"

"Yes, a terrible mood. We've established this already," Charlie said, speeding her up.

Erica rolled her eyes," I was only trying to make conversation."

"Well, try to be on time next time you 'make conversation'," Charlie argued back, knowing just what he needed to say in order to irritate her. "Now, I want details, Stockholm. Tell me how you pulled it off."

I held my hands up in defense," Holly and I only followed the directions, nothing more, nothing less."

The chorus of Gryffindors listening burst into laughter once again before Percy decided to chip in," Perhaps, you all should learn to respect intelligence when you see it. I think that this is an astronomical event that may show the professor that not all of us are complete gits."

The students continued socializing as if the younger Gryffindor student hadn't spoken at all. I shrugged my shoulders, realizing that there may not have been any way to convince them that we honestly were just…well, flukes. I continued to explain how we had been able to worm my way out of a bad punishment with a seemingly worse punishment.

Professor Dumbledore had made the comment that my mother had been skilled at potions, but she never told me that before. Surely, she would have at least mentioned it if it were true. Perhaps, he was simply becoming…batty.

As breakfast came to a close, Charlie looked over to me one last time before I turned to find Holly as we went off to classes," You know, Lana, there are Quidditch tryouts tonight after classes."

"Charlie, you know she's too young," Erica scolded as they spoke to me across the breakfast table.

"I know, I'm simply telling her to get ready in the hospital wing," He said with a smile on his face. "There's going to be a lot more patients after next week."

A/N: So, what's going to happen next? Give me your opinions!