Hello! Night here! You should all probably know by now that I'm the one who does the updating. Anyway, I wasn't planning on updating the next chapter for another day or two, but due to extreme boredom, I've decided to do it early.
Also, Mare, Minkx, and I have worked out a writing system. Instead of having all of us write one chapter together, we are now each taking turns writing a whole chapter. Mare wrote this chapter, since it is her turn to write. We also have 3 other chapters besides this one that we have yet to publish on this website, and an 8th chapter that Minkx is currently writing.

In response to the review:

Willholmer: Hello Willholmer, good to be hearing from you. And thank you for the comment on our "impeccable grammar" and umm...good to hear you're not ashamed of Minkx? And yes, we are rather proud we managed to accumulate 3 reviews (well, not counting yours, since you reviewed due to your relations with Minkx or because Minkx told you about the story). We're not very sure how long this story will be, though we have the general plot in mind and we do plan on making it as interesting as possible. It saddens us to hear that you will no longer be reading this story, but thank you for reading and reviewing up until now. Thank you again and I hope you enjoy whatever other fanfictions you may read on this website.

Hmmm...did I sound to formal when answering the reviews? I apologize if I made people nervous with my formality...

DISCLAIMER: NIGHT, MARE, AND MINKX DO NOT OWN THE HARRY POTTER BOOK OR MOVIE SERIES. THOSE ALL BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING. NIGHT, MARE, AND MINKX ONLY OWN THEIR OCS AND THE IDEA FOR THIS STORY.

Anyway, read and review.

Enjoy the story!

Chapter 4

After walking sopping wet to the Great Hall and drying off there during the feast, Marcus had headed off to the Slytherin Common room. Andrea meanwhile had sat with her Ravenclaw friends in their common room, laughing about the new ridiculous bust of Rowena by the hearth. She had excitedly told them about the prophecy, hoping that they might be able to collectively think of something, using the wits that their house was known for. However, they had not come up with anything that could be used for solid evidence as to who the prophecy pointed to, when she mentioned that Marcus' patronus was a raven, there was an argument about the fact that this was at the same time, an uncommon animal patronus, but also representative of eviler things that might as well be abundant in Slytherin. Andrea had disputed the latter because after Marcus had told her that his patronus was a raven on the train, she questioned him unabashedly until he told her that the only raven patronus he had seen in his house or otherwise had been his. Plus, she had insisted, the prophecy said "Born and bred of magic," Marcus was a pure blood, the child in the prophecy was a pureblood, and how many purebloods with raven patronuses did they know? Before falling asleep, Andrea had promised herself she would go to the library to look up more information about the prophecy. A nagging feeling kept at her though, because there was the fact that Marcus could be the child of the prophecy, and then where was she, his best friend? Not someone with a flying patronus for sure…

Amidst the clatter of magical plates popping up in the middle of the air before landing on the red tablecloth, Andrea met up with Marcus to discuss the prophecy.

"Oh, let it go Andrea, I was only pulling your leg, my patronus is really a gorilla." Marcus laughed, already distracted as he was jostled by his Slytherin friends; somehow the long bench was almost empty with ten people on it but Marcus was falling off as his friends pushed him.

"Really Marcus? You want to be the one in the prophecy, you were practically rubbing it in my face last night-"

"That's what she said." A blond boy with his hair cut into a mushroom style had appeared at Marcus' side, one of his arms slung casually over the others' shoulder.

"Anthony- help me!" Marcus cried jokingly as he was finally shoved off the bench. "She's eating me alive here, this one."

"Better listen to your girlfriend-" This boy named Anthony drawled.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" Andrea admonished, eyeing this newcomer with a disdain.

"Once a Ravenclaw always a nagggg-" Anthony insisted, staring at Andrea now.

Andrea shot an irate glance at Marcus who looked away with a grin-

"Alright, alright Anthon- she's not my girlfriend, and I think we're about to go get our schedules-"

"Nice meeting you! I've got to go get my schedule" Anthony interrupted with a short bow towards Andrea, leaving her completely boggled at his behavior.

"Hufflepuff?" She commented.

"I keep him as a pet of sorts-" Marcus said, his eyes following Anthony to his table where he had sat down. "What do you have first?"

"Double Potions. I'll see you there." Andrea said leaning over Marcus' shoulder to read his schedule and then walking away.

Potions, as Andrea had expected, had been a breeze to return to after the summer. As also expected, Marcus was faring no better than last year, and even managed to somehow solidify his Shrinking potion. Andrea noticed that he didn't seem to be too miffed about it though, the fact that he was too lazy to bother decoding the directions that were covered by splatters from the potion was an indication of this. Knowing Marcus however, she had her suspicions about the seemingly nonchalant attitude.

"You know," Andrea interjected, grabbing Marcus' hand before he could add another strand of unicorn hair to his bubbling, sinister concoction, "Remaking a potion in the same cauldron without emptying it out isn't going to get you anywhere." She said, narrowing her eyes at Marcus, who merely smiled and answered, pushing the sophorus bean from his cutting board into the cauldron, "I'm really trying Andrea, you've got to give me some credit here." He winked and before Andrea could stop him, added a bunch of random ingredients that she was certain were not in the instructions. "There, we'll just let that brew." The potion in Marcus' cauldron now turned an alarming red and was frothing and foaming enthusiastically over the edges, all unbeknownst to Marcus who had ducked under the table.

"Marcus!" Andrea hissed, spotting Proffesor Wilkes, a middle aged witch with a stern face, across the room before putting her head very quickly underneath their desk, black hair hitting Marcus in the face.

"Ack! You found me!" Marcus whispered in mock surprise. Andrea stared at him, waiting for an explanation, however, Marcus turned back to what he was doing- now she could see that he was reading a book- without a word.

"Marcus!" Andrea said with more urgency. "What are you doing?" But before Marcus could open his mouth, Andrea decided that the potion now dripping onto his chair in ominous, large glops, was the bigger concern.

"Aguamenti!" choked Andrea, handling the problem in the nick of time as a small fire had just started at the bottom, eating away the edges of the cauldron. "Epartenum Sipholus!" The potion started swirling and conforming itself into a funnel, rather like a fondue pot swirls cheese, and Andrea siphoned it into her wand while muttering under her breath. She was not saying more spells of course, but threatening Marcus with death in a number of creative ways. After averting disaster, Andrea looked around for Marcus, and was displeased to see him by the vials, resembling test tubes that they would have to use to submit their potions in by the end of the class.

"Andrea!" Professor Wilkes called as Andrea was just about to call out to Marcus. Sighing, she headed towards her teacher instead.

"I see you are done with your potion, and rather than cleaning up after your friend over there-" Andrea blushed slightly as Ms. Wilkes continued, "Would you two be so indisposed as to hand out those vials by my table which Marcus is at?"

Nodding at this, Andrea quickly went to see what Marcus was doing. Surprisingly he didn't seem to be holding anything suspicious, but why was he holding his hand like a cup then? Half curious, half anticipating major trouble, Andrea drew closer to Marcus.

"Andrea! Come look at this!" Marcus said enthusiastically once he noticed her at the table.

"What?" Said Andrea, now glancing at Marcus' palm. There didn't seem to anything there.

"Miniature dungbombs!" Marcus said devilishly, "One drop of shrinking potion on each one, brilliant, 'innit?" Looking closer, Andrea could now see what at first looked like dust were in fact, very, very minute dungbombs.

"But how did you get yours to work?" Andrea said, impressed against her will.

"Oh." Said Marcus, having emptied the last of his dungbombs into the vials at Andrea's end of the table. Andrea waited, tipping out as many dungbombs as possible when Marcus wasn't looking, but Marcus had already gathered up some vials in hand. "I didn't." He said over his shoulder, "I used yours."

Andrea's expression changing from surprise to confusion to reluctant amusement was lost on Marcus, who, after distributing his vials, gathered up his bags and left class in the middle of lots of puffs, bangs and smoke.

Well, that's it. Chapter 4. Mare just couldn't resist having Marcus play a trick in Potions Class, so we let her. The next chapter will be a bit more serious...and that's probably because I was the one who wrote it and I couldn't resist adding a bit more drama.

The OCs belong to:

Andrea Orpheo belongs to Night

Marcus Valenski belongs to Mare

Potions Teacher belongs to Mare

Anthony belongs to Mare (He may or may not make a further appearance. Even if he does, he's probably just going to be a minor/background character because we really don't have a role in mind for him, other than acting as one of Marcus's friends.)

Anyway, please review and submit feedback, as always. We appreciate helpful criticism since Mare, Minkx, and I are rather young writers and we're still learning and improving upon our writing. But please do keep in mind that Mare, Minkx, and I are also trying to have a bit of fun with this.