A/N: Let's keep this rolling. Brittana interaction in this chapter. Enjoy :)
Brittany arrived to her potions class a little early this morning. It was her first class of the day, though she wasn't particularly excited about this, she hadn't had much sleep last night so she had quite the jump start.
Brittany waltzed in and noticed the few usual early birds already seated in the classroom, preparing themselves for the next hour of what was bound to be Professor July's version of hell.
Deep in the headspace that was Brittany, she hadn't even noticed the body standing in front of her before colliding with it, successfully losing her breath in the process.
"Christ almighty." The figured hissed, spinning around to find to source of disruption.
Brittany kneeled over attempting to catch her breath.
"I'm so sorry." The blonde gasped.
"Do you always run into people as a greeting or am I just special?"
Brittany's eyes widened at the familiar raspy tone and snapped her head up instantly meeting the dark orbs of one Santana Lopez.
"S-Santana." Brittany stood up straight. "Uhm." Brittany shook her head remembering the original question. "N-no I'm not usually this clumsy." She mumbled, tucking a piece of loose hair behind her ear.
"Ah, so I'm just lucky?" Santana arched an eyebrow and stared back at the blonde amused.
"Yeah, I gue-"
"Tana!" A nasally voice cut through the still room, causing Santana to whip her head around to find the caller.
"Sugar." Santana sighed flatly.
The small girl with the large sharp nose waved the raven haired Latina over to the crowd she was currently socializing with.
Santana turned to look back at Brittany.
"Gotta run." She shrugged a shoulder.
All Brittany could do is nod her head furiously in understanding, causing the girl to smirk.
"See ya around." Santana offered before turning to head over to a group of Slytherin's surrounding a desk in the corner of the room.
"Stutter much Britty? " Brittany mumbled to herself in a hushed tone.
"What was that?" A deep voice came from behind the blonde.
Brittany turned.
"Oh hello Sam." She smiled, thankful for having a temporary distraction from her embarrassment.
"Are you blushing Britt?" He chuckled heartily.
Brittany bit the inside of her cheek, ignoring the question and heading to her seat from last year. Sam shook his head in amusement and followed the girl.
"Come on, spill." Sam plopped his books on the table and took a seat.
"Spill what?" Brittany huffed and buried her face in her hands.
"Why are your cheeks ruby red?" Sam interrogated, clearly enjoying this "A boy got your eye?"
Brittany snorted in response and opened her fourth year potions book to leaf through the pages.
"That's it!" Sam playfully gave her a jab to the forearm. "Look at you, first day of school and you're already on the prowl."
Brittany fiercely turned toward her best friend with a warning glare and pinched him under the arm right at his ribs, causing him to yelp.
"Sheesh, Britt." The boy rubbed the tortured patch of skin under his arms. "What the bloody hell did I do to deserve that?"
"You spoke." Brittany smiled cheekily. "Besides this year will not include any of that rubbish, this year I will be focusing on my academics solely." She sighed. "A few more bad marks and my mother will have my head."
Sam chuckled knowing full and well the truth behind that statement.
"She'll have yours as well if she knew you were my distraction." She looked at her friend knowingly.
"Don't remind me." Sam shuttered.
From a distance Brittany could hear the clicking of heals and turned to see Professor July storming her way into her class room and pointing her wand at each drape, lowering them to darken the room.
Brittany's eyes bugged and she faced foreword, smacking her palm against Sam's arm to hint that he do the same.
"Sit down, eye's forward, lips zipped, and books open." A biting tone demanded the attention of the room.
Brittany and Sam sat at the front desk, nearest the window to the left hand side of the room. So though Brittany couldn't see them, she could hear the students shuffling quickly to abide by the ardent professor.
An eerie silence loomed over the space and Brittany felt she could hear her heartbeat the room was so still.
"My name is Professor July." The blonde teacher spoke up at the front of the classroom, hood draped over her head. Long wavy blonde curls spilling out of her cloak.
The professor pulled her hood slowly off her head with two gentle hands.
"But you already knew that didn't you." She gave a poisonous smirk.
The classroom of students nodded hurriedly.
"Now this being your fourth year of potions, it may be the most important of them yet." She glided over to her podium, standing behind it and gripping the end of the oak wood on either side.
"Can anyone tell me why?" She arched and eyebrow.
The class stayed still. The students stayed silent.
Professor July was gritting her teeth and gripping her podium until her knuckles turned white.
"That was not a rhetorical question." She bit.
And there it was, that tone, clearing its throat before speaking up.
"Because fourth year equals Wicked Games, Wicked Games equals much needed survival skills."
The entire roomed shifted and locked their eyes on the raven haired girl's silhouette in the back of the room on the far right. It was incredibly dim where she sat but Brittany knew exactly who it was.
"And," Professor July motioned for the girl to continue.
"And a vital survival skill could in fact be, concocting a quick potion from what you have handy." The girl said bluntly, shrugging her shoulders as if it were obvious.
"Precisely." The professor nodded in Santana's direction. "That's exactly right class. It could indeed be very vital. So my advice to all fourth years at the start of the semester is always to listen,"
Professor July looked around the room.
"Listen as if your lives depended on it." Her gaze was so fierce and direct you'd think she was staring at every single student individually, and looking right into their souls. "Because it might just." She said curtly.
Brittany could hear a boy behind her gulp almost embarrassing loud from the desk behind them and she shut her eyes quickly, afraid of what was to come.
"Something bothering you boy?" Professor July narrowed her glare in on the beat red face two desks from the front.
The boy weakly shook his head and stared at his fidgeting fingers on top of table.
"Hmm?" Professor July seethed, venom basically dripping from her lips. She slowly made her way around her podium and began to descend down the stairs at a torturing pace, toward the boy. "At a loss for words are we?"
The boy was biting his lips so hard Brittany was convinced they'd bleed.
Professor July was standing in front of the boy in question now. The room was in dead silence and she stood in front of him, tilting her head to the side with a wicked smirk on her face. Without a moments notice she smacked both of her palms on the table.
"You'll learn in here boy that my biggest pet peeve of all, is the weak minded who can't speak up for themselves. Now gather your things, and get the hell out of my classroom."
The boy didn't need to hear another word, he quickly collected everything off his desk and scurried toward the large mahogany doors.
"And don't come back until you've grown a spine!" The harsh professor yelled after him.
Every student's eyes widened but quickly they smartened up and composed themselves, not wanting to be the next victim.
"Absolute rubbish, the way she treated that boy, don't you think?" Sam slung the strap of his bag over his shoulder and followed Brittany down the hall's toward the court yard.
"This isn't the first time we've had Professor July Sam, he should know better. We all know better." Brittany held her books closer to her chest to walk a little faster.
"What's the hurry Britt?" Sam's brow furrowed and picked up his pace to keep up with his friend.
"I'm just in dire need to get outside, that all." Brittany shook her heard but continued her way to the cobble stone path at the start of the court yard, quickly spotting a stone bench and table to study at. The table was just under an oak tree set off the path in a patch of fresh green grass. Brittany thought it'd do just fine for her to study for the next 30 minutes she had free before Herbology.
"I get that." Sam dropped his bag next to the tree, opting to sit on the grass just under the oak instead of at the table. "The first day back is always a little overwhelming."
Brittany paused organizing all of her books and looked back at the boy, offering a small smile.
Sam smiled back before his eyes diverted and his smile quickly fell.
"What?" Brittany chuckled, turning to follow his gaze. She looked up and saw an army of Slytherin cloaks hovering over her blocking all the sunlight.
"Can I help you?" She arched an eyebrow in question, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
"This is our spot Hufflepuff, so you need to move." A tall tan boy with a dead muskrat of a haircut that Brittany knew as Noah Puckerman spoke up.
"Oh yeah?" Brittany smirked.
"Says who?" Sam stood up wiping the dirt and grass off his hands, onto his cloak.
Puck narrowed his eyes and stepped toward Sam, puffing out his chest.
Sam sneered and matched his stance, not backing down in the slightest.
"Says me." A raspy tone came from the back of the crowd, and the group parted like the Red Sea.
Brittany's eyebrows shot to her hairline when she saw the small owner of the voice filing her nails and making her way through the group to step in front of Brittany.
"Santana?" Brittany choked out.
"Do we have a problem here?" Santana arched an eyebrow but her face remained cold like stone.
Brittany felt her face turn red and she was sure if it was from anger or hurt.
"I'm confused, you want us to leave? Like you really think you can kick us out."
"No." Santana said simply shrugging her shoulders.
Brittany sighed in relief and allowed herself a half smile toward the brunette.
"I know I can kick you out." Santana bit back.
Brittany's smiled quickly faded and she stepped back.
"What's wrong with you?" She furrowed her brow in confusion.
Sam approached Brittany's side and put his arm around her shoulders comfortably.
Santana's eyes snapped to Sam's hand rubbing the blonde's bicep then back to the blue eyes glaring at her.
"You need to take this poor bloke of a boyfriend you have, and be on your way. I will not ask again." Santana clenched her jaw.
Brittany stepped forward causing the army of Slytherin's to gasp their obvious shock for her bold behavior.
"You really don't want to be doing that." Santana tilted her head to the side and glared daggers into Brittany's soul.
"Really? Because I'm almost positive I'm not one to give in to low life, wanna be bad ass' that live solely off of the legacy built by great Slytherin's before you." Brittany took another step forward. "News flash sweet cheeks, just because you sport the color green, doesn't make you who they were. You have to earn a legacy around here."
"Well you shouldn't have much problem then, not like you have much to live up to being a naïve Hufflepuff yourself." Santana's words earned snickers from her posy. "I do believe I heard that they hand out points in Hufflepuff just for having beautiful dreams about majestic animals and peace between our world and the fecking muggles world."
"What the hell is your problem?" Brittany was using every ounce of strength in her to hold back from doing anything stupid, so much so that she was shaking.
Santana's eyes flicked over Sam..
"We don't associate with," She trailed off, letting her eyes run up and down Sam's body before looking back too Brittany with a grimace. "Mudbloods."
All Brittany saw was red, she lifted her wand and was quickly tugged back into Sam's embrace.
"Come on Britt, it's not worth it." Sam whispered in her ear. "She's not worth it."
Brittany could feel her eyes start to burn and tears start to pool at the brim of her eyes. Her frustration was making her blood boil and it was taking everything in her to no turn Santana Lopez into the snake she was.
"Britt, please." Sam encouraged again quietly.
This time she nodded and let him lead her over to collect her things. She wrapped her arms tightly around her books and made her way back to the cobblestone path with Sam tight on her heels. The last thing she heard before reentering the castle was the Santana's cult following high fiving each other and patting the raven haired girl on the back for a job well done.
"Who the hell does she think she is?" Brittany was pacing back and forth in the Hufflepuff common room, while Sam sat slouched in a large leather arm chair, playing with a makeshift sling shot. "I mean what decade does she think she lives in?" She stopped short and collapsed on the long upholstered couch in front of the fire place, rubbing circles on her temples. "Honestly!"
"Relax Britt." Sam said aimlessly continuing to fire off small pieces of papers with his hand made gun. "Some people are raised a certain way. Some people never change, even though the decades do."
"Well some people need to get with the times. I mean so what if your mom's a muggle? You're still a damn good wizard." Brittany sat up straight. "I'd bet gold that you would ruin her in any duel she scrounge together."
"Nobody is dueling anyone Britt, I'm not even worried about this, why is this bugging you so much?"
Brittany huffed and blew her bangs out of her face.
"Because I'm not as good as you are at just letting things roll off my back." Brittany pouted. "She attacked my best friend." She looked up at Sam through her golden lashes.
Sam frowned.
"Brittney you never have to worry about me okay? I'm a big kid, I can handle it myself. But I know when to choose my battles, I think you could learn to do the same." He grinned at his best friend with his world class wink.
"Damn." Brittany huffed.
Sam raised a questioning brow.
"I'll try alright?" Brittany exasperated.
Sam nodded proudly.
"No promises though. That girl is just so freaking infuriating."
"Just pick your battles Britt." Sam smirked before pushing himself off the chair and walking up the staircase to the boy's dorm, leaving Brittany alone in thought down in the common room.
"Yeah thanks." Brittany said in a hushed tone to the boy that was no longer there. "I'll get right on that."