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Chapter 9
It was our first day of Herbology, and we had it with the Hufflepuffs. The good news was that Herbology was taught by Professor Longbottom; the teacher I knew I could trust and that I liked the most.
Also Herbology class was almost always held in the Hogwarts Greenhouses which were impossible to miss, and it was impossible to get lost on the way there.
So here I was; sitting in Professor Longbottom's class waiting for it to start because we were actually early for once.
Kyle, Ethan, and I had snagged seats in the back for a change. Amee and Alice sat directly in front of us, and I looked anxiously at Kyle hoping he wouldn't do anything horrifyingly embarrassing for the next hour. Fat chance.
Professor Longbottom entered the Greenhouses with a spring in his step and a cheerful grin.
"Good morning class, I think before we start anything today, I'm going to take roll call to try to start committing your names and faces to memory."
Since this roll call had exactly the same names in it as the roll call Professor Blackwell gave, I zoned out until I heard Alice's name being called. However, after Alice responded with, "here," Professor Longbottom didn't move on to the next name. Instead, he added, "And class, to clear up any confusion, Alice is my daughter. Also, now you know where she gets her dazzling good looks." His grin grew larger.
"Dad!" Alice hushed him, sinking lower in her seat.
"I'm your father; it's my job to embarrass you."
"But you're not supposed to do it while you're supposed to be teaching," She murmured under her breath.
Professor Longbottom continued with the list, and I immediately felt bad for Alice. Ethan's mom hadn't said a word to him during class. Must be a father-daughter thing.
"Albus Potter," The professor called.
"Here," I replied.
"How's your father, Albus?" He asked. Apparently Professor Longbottom felt particularly chatty today.
"Um, good. I guess," I replied dumbfounded.
"That's good to here." His grin turned to a warm smile. "I'll have to pay your parents, aunt, and uncle a visit soon."
"I'm sure they'd like that, sir" I knew they would. They were always thrilled when their old school friends came to visit.
"Hmm," the Professor sighed contently and looked down at this list to call the next name.
Finally the end of it was near.
"Kyle Zabini."
Silence.
Professor Longbottom repeated himself louder this time.
I looked to Kyle for an explanation as to why he wasn't responding, and I found it. Kyle had actually fallen asleep.
I elbowed his hard in the ribs, and he woke up with a start. "Wha? Uh, here," He said sleepy-eyed.
A crooked grin appeared on Professor Longbottom's face, but he didn't say anything about Kyle's little nap.
Professor Longbottom sat on top of the small desk at the front of the room. "As most of you should by now, my name is Professor Longbottom. No, you may not refer to me as the great snake-slayer," a small smile spread across his lips as he cupped one hand at the right corner of his mouth as if telling a secret and added, "the other teachers get jealous." This caused an uproar of giggling from the girls and snickering from the boys. Alice just buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. It was going to be long year for her. Not to mention the next six after that.
"Anyway, I think by now you've heard what's expected of you and whatnot enough from your other classes, and I hope you won't be too torn when you hear that I'll be skipping that little bit of pre-term lecture for you guys. And we don't have any Gryffindors in here, so we won't have to worry about a random spontaneous combustion anytime soon.
Those who had friends or siblings in Gryffindor House laughed. Especially those who knew or had heard of Seamus Finnegan; the boy who had set anything and everything on fire during his time at Hogwarts. Even I had to laugh at the memory of my uncle Ron and my father reminiscing with Neville about their days at Hogwarts and cracking jokes about how many things Seamus managed to blow up or set on fire. It was even funnier when Seamus visited, because he would try to defend himself, while everyone (including his wife) would just shake their heads in dismay knowing the truth of the matter.
My mind snapped back to reality when Professor Longbottom informed us that we were going to run through our text book cover to cover by the end of the year in order, unlike some teachers who bounce all over the book. Knowing this meant no note-taking on what lessons go with which pages and when the lessons would be taught. He told us to just try to read through the next section in our books before we went over them in class.
Yeah. Professor Longbottom was the best.
Professor Longbottom began to explain what kinds of plants we would be learning about this year, starting with what devil's snare was and its purpose. He projected images of it onto the chalkboard with a projector and explained how to identify it.
Eventually, we were dismissed and went to lunch. I had taken to sitting with Ethan, Kyle and sometimes Lucy and her friends at the Slytherin table as enduring Scorpius's glares at the Gryffindor table had grown unbearable.
I think Kyle is developing a crush on one of Lucy's friends, but I decided to be the bigger person and not bring it to his attention, unlike he did to me about Alice. Not that I had a crush on her or anything.
Scorpius had been a prat all week long. He refused to talk to me, and seemed to like hanging around James and Fred more than me. Talk about betrayal. It was like he was a completely different person.
Rose seemed to notice this, but didn't say anything; probably in fear of offending one of us further. She tried to spend an equal amount of time with both of us, but mostly tried to stay completely out of it by hanging around her Ravenclaw friends, Louis, and Victoire at the Ravenclaw table.
Usually, lunch was uneventful except when arguments broke out between Ravenclaws about who was smarter. These were quickly resolved by Victoire. Her veela charm made even the most stubborn listen to her.
There were also those times when James and Fred would set off something exciting or flashy (usually something Fred's dad had concocted)in the Great Hall. More than once, Victoire was the one to sort this out too. However, being related to her, Fred and James were less likely to fall victim to her veela charm. Eventually, they would give in and promise to behave themselves for as long as they could (not very long). Especially when Dom stepped in. Two, part veela girls meant double the power, even though their personalities and strategies when dealing with the two were completely different. Victoire preferred the sweet, yet persuasive, almost motherly approach. While Dom preferred the tough, just as persuasive, no-nonsense approach.
Anyway, that was pretty much what lunch consisted of.
Classes began to run together as the teachers started us out with "Simple stuff." Later in the day came a much need free-period. Despite the apparently simple material, we had a list of spells to practice, and both Professor Westbrook and Professor Clearwater had assigned essays already.
The three of us claimed our usual spot by the lake and began to tackle the work as a team, helping each other when needed. (Yes. Kyle was actually doing work; much to my surprise)
I nearly fell in the lake when Kyle called Amee and Alice over.
The two walked towards us; Alice with a confused expression on her face. When they reached
us, Alice asked Kyle, "I'm sorry, but who are you?"
Kyle's smug grin faltered slightly. "Kyle Zabini?" He paused, waiting for a reaction from one of
the girls. When he didn't get one he continued. "In your Herbology class today. Sat behind you. Fell asleep during roll call."
"Oh. The boy who took a nap in my dad's class." Alice said with a nod.
"Yes!" Kyle snapped his fingers once in excitement, elated that progress had been made. He pointed to me. "This is Albus; son of Harry Potter, which you probably already knew that." He pointed at Ethan, "And Ethan; son of our potions professor."
Alice nodded again. "Well, I guess I have to introduce both of us. I'm Alice, daughter of the wannabe comedian that is our Herbology Professor. Oh, and I like to be called Ally. Not Alice." She pointed to her friend. "And this is Amee; a muggle born." Amee gave a shy wave.
"Now that we all know each other. Join us!" Kyle exclaimed.
"Um, okay." Amee said timidly.
Ally sat down next to me, and Amee sat down between Kyle and Ethan. Ally gave me a warm smile, "Remember me? My father and I used to visit when we were younger."
"Yeah. I remember. Lily tried to give you a makeover, and you ran to your dad, not leaving his side for the rest of the visit."
She laughed.