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Chapter Nineteen: Advanced Potions
Holly was the only person my age. Was that so terrible? Not necessarily, but being in a class filled with students older than myself was…intimidating to say the least. I could only hope that Snape would be generous in his seating chart and at least allow for us to sit next to one another.
Just because we were the youngest in the class, didn't mean I didn't recognize the others in the class. In fact, I knew Percy Weasley right off the bat…as well as a majority of the Quidditch team. To my luck, I hadn't seen many of them about unless I was, well, at a Game. The Weasley twins were the newest additions to the Gryffindor team and it only slightly lowered my respect for them.
I stayed as close to my companion as I could, making sure to not draw any unnecessary attention to myself.
"You don't think this was a mistake do you?" Holly asked me as we waited in the back of the classroom.
I looked straight at her," Of course not! They all recommended we do it…you can't go wrong when you're going off of a recommendation, right?"
She looked away, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear," I'm not so sure of that."
Almost as soon as she said this, Professor Snape appeared from out of his office in the dungeons, sweeping into the room and looking over all of us with narrowed eyes. All speaking that had been taking place was silenced as he looked us over before stiffly saying," Take a seat."
Holly and I looked at one another as if we had just discovered the world's best treasure. Was he really being this generous?
It must have been too good to be true because just as everyone's chatter started back up and partners were chosen, he made another announcement," In your assigned seating on this parchment."
Just as quickly as our hopes had been up was how quickly they'd been destroyed. Holly and I shot each other a look of disappointment before hearing the collective class groan. Everyone filed up to the front of the classroom to see just where they had been placed. Each student tried to keep their emotions mum, but it was obvious that some of them had gotten lucky and were just trying to keep it quiet.
Holly and I were the last two to check out the seating chart. As soon as I located my name near the very back of the class, I made my way to my seat and saw that she was on the opposite side of the room in the very front. We couldn't have been any farther away from each other.
I hadn't even taken the care to look and see who my lab partner was until several seconds later. When I did look…I'd really rather wished I hadn't.
A Quidditch player I hadn't spoken with since my first year at Hogwarts. A boy with a certain obsession for the sport and a Scottish accent to top it all off. The last time I spoke with him was when he was sitting, injured in the medical wing. It took nearly all of the manners within me not to groan a loud.
"Ah, Lana Stockholm, it's been awhile aye?" He asked with a ridiculous smirk on his face.
I narrowed my eyes at him before sarcastically responding," A bit too long, Oliver Wood."
It wasn't that I hadn't seen Oliver Wood for that long…that would have been ridiculous. In fact, I saw him quite frequently whether it be on the Quidditch pitch or wandering about the common room. When someone is both a Quidditch player and in the same house, it would be hard not to at least see them. Also, it was rumored that Oliver would be Captain of the Quidditch team this year…just one more thing to make him slightly crazier than what he already was about the sport.
There was a silence for a while as Snape looked over his notes at the front of the class. Strangely enough, a quite buzz of conversation hung over the room. Wood took this as an opportunity to "catch up", I suppose.
"So…how've you been?" The brown-eyed boy asked, folding his hands on the table.
"Just fine," I said simply, looking at him from the corner of my eye. "Could be better, but…Quidditch is well, I suppose?"
I asked the wrong question…
His eyes lit up at the mention of that," Oh yeah, we've got a lot of returning players this year and who knows what type of new ones coming up from second year. It's always exciting, ya know to put together a team for a new season and-"
If I didn't cut him off there, then he would have gone on for another ten minutes straight," Oh, that sounds wonderful."
He smirked and nodded," It is."
For the first time in my life, I was pleased that Snape had begun his lecture. Already, I realized that this was to be a long term if I was to deal with Mr. Quidditch every day during this hour.
Essentially, he explained the basics of the class and what we were already expected to know. I couldn't help but notice his glare periodically at both Holly and myself. The thought passed through my head that perhaps he really didn't have a say in the decision to move us up. At the moment, I found that Snape and I must have had something in common: he didn't want me in Advanced Potions and I certainly didn't want to sit in his class next to Wood.
Toward the end of his lecture, I distinctly remember his last words.
"Typically, students are compelled to take more levels of Potions in order to prove to both themselves and future employers that they have knowledge that is above average. Consider this a warning: if ever at once you found Potions to be difficult before…you may wish to reconsider your class schedule."
Almost immediately, his dark eyes shot over in our direction. I didn't think he was referring to me, but he seemed to be looking straight at Oliver.
And with that, the bell rang sounding the end of class.
"Today, we are going to be brewing an Oculus Potion. The use of this potion is mostly in medicine when a patient's eyesight has been impaired or lost either by a Conjunctivitis Curse or natural causes. Therefore, the correct brewing of this potion is essential as I will be taking the best to Madame Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing; I have yet to take this potion to her from a student. Your ingredients and recipe are located in front of you and in case you do not understand: the only ingredients to be used are Wormwood, stewed Mandrake, ground Unicorn horn, and crystallized water. You may begin," Snake droned in his usual monotone voice in front of the class.
This was our first official potion to be made though we had spent many days simply reading out textbooks, which is quite dull, in my opinion, but it did prevent from any social interaction with any other persons.
As soon as Snape stopped speaking, I grabbed the hair tie off of my wrist and tied my hair out of my face before looking to my lab partner.
"You want to start the heat?" I asked him, grabbing the recipe from in front of us.
Strange, Snape had already prepared everything for us. There seemed to be some sort of an issue with this picture. It was for this reason that I wished to double-check each of the ingredients to be sure they were precisely what they were labeled to be.
"Huh?" Wood responded, clearly not paying attention at first before realizing what I had asked. "Oh, right, sure."
I furrowed my brow at him, suspiciously before adjusting the cauldron over where he was supposed to start the fire. I saw from the corner of my eye him raising his wand to begin. Quickly, he spluttered out the spell and managed to start a bustling flame under the cauldron. Unfortunately, that was not the only place the fire spread to.
"Bloody-" I started, realizing my sleeve was set ablaze. "Oliver!"
The look on his face was of absolute horror much more animated than I had chosen to be. Instantly, I shoved the outermost robe off my shoulders and sent it to the floor before stamping it out profusely with my foot. Professor Snape would have never known had the girl in front of us not looked back and shrieked. By the time the fire was extinguished, Snape had just arrived at our work station with a fowl look on his face.
"What is going on?" He demanded, observing my lack of robe and seeing it on the ground.
"Oh, nothing, Professor just a simple-" I started, bending over to pick up my robe in the process.
"It was all my fault, Professor. Just a shaky hand," Oliver chipped in, taking blame for what was rightfully his mistake.
Snape raised a brow," A shaky hand? Tell me, what does a shaky hand earn you in Quidditch?"
Oliver swallowed, clearly not expecting this question," Well, either a missed goal or an opponent scoring."
The dark haired man clicked his tongue," Ah, well this may not be a Quidditch pitch, Mr. Wood, but believe it or not there are consequences to mistakes in our world, as well. With that being said, ten points will be taken from Gryffindor."
A silent groan could be felt amongst our housemates. I opened my mouth to protest this and actually argue for Wood, but Snape stopped me before I could even begin.
"Do you wish to make it twenty…Miss Stockholm?" He asked slowly, just as he turned to return to the front of the classroom.
I shut my mouth and picked the recipe card back up. Snape returned to the front of the room without another word. I refused to look at Oliver for a while, but knew that I would have to speak to him at some point.
"You can put in the crystallized water," I said to him as I measured out the precise amounts of mandrake and unicorn we would need.
"Alright," He answered confidently.
I peered out of the side of my eye to be sure that he was indeed doing it correctly. I was sure he could handle it and he did with no problems. In fact, we worked rather well together in getting all of the ingredients put in with the correct ratios and stirring and whatnot. I was determined that for the rest of the term we would give Snape no reason to question us or…take points away for that matter.
I had just finished putting in all of the mandrake when Oliver read the last instruction on the list, requiring us to sprinkle in the ground unicorn hair.
"Lana, could you put in the unicorn hair?" He asked, as he began to cleanse his hands from the mess he'd made of them. "I'd, uh, rather be safe than sorry."
I smirked slightly at him," Of course."
I grabbed the ground unicorn hair that I had measured out before and sifted through it to be sure it was indeed what it appeared to be. After confirming this, I carefully sprinkled the hair into the potion, being sure to spread it out evenly. I furrowed my brow as the substance began to boil and my heart sank. There was no blaming it on Oliver this time…
"Is it supposed to…" He started to ask to which I promptly shook my head.
"No, no it's not," I said quickly, as we watched the potion gurgle even more. "Get down!"
I nearly pulled the Quidditch star to the ground just in the nick of time as the potion shot straight up to the ceiling before splattering all across the room. As I watched the aftermath, I swallowed hard, not wanting to accept that had just happened. I never messed up a potion…never. What type of a curse did Wood have on him? I was fairly sure it had spread to me, as well.
After the screams had settled and Oliver and I pulled ourselves up from the floor, I saw a livid Professor Snape standing in front of us as Wood said shakily," This time it wasn't my fault."
All I could do was glare at him as the bell sounded; the rest of the class exited, but there was no way we were getting out of this one unscathed.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think and remember that from here on out Lana is in her fourth year, Oliver is in his fifth year, which means that Harry and his crew are now in their first year. Don't be surprised if you don't hear about Harry much for awhile though. He will be mentioned, but I'm not going to focus too heavily upon him. Just thought I'd let you know :D