Chapter 7

The six friends huddled together in the corner of the courtyard bouncing ideas back and forth between themselves at how to get back at the girl who obviously had issues with Kathy.

"How about we make her hair fall out?" Fred suggested finally.

"How?" Alicia asked.

"Erm...We could look in the library?" George answered.

Kathy only just managed to contain a giggle emerging, "No offence but maybe we should start small...less work, especially as most of you have extra study for transfiguration, and Snape'll give us plenty of work, I bet. Everyone says he's horrid to Gryffindor's, so we'll have loads of work, let alone researching pranks that are out of our league."

"Wont Snape be alright with you? I mean you've grown up here and he knows you." Lee quizzed Kathy, confused.

This time Kathy really did laugh, "Oh Lee, you have no idea. Severus Snape may live at Hogwarts, but he rarely mixes with anyone other than Uncle Albus, and that's when he's forced too. He ignores me, which is preferable to how he treats most Gryffindor's. We'll see how he acts in class next."

"Talking about class, hadn't we better start moving? We've got like three minutes and it's in the dungeons." Alicia pointed out.

The friends grabbed their bags and ran laughing down to the dungeons, Kathy in the lead of course, and skidding up to the door mere seconds before it swung open to admit them. Their laughter ceased abruptly, and the friends glanced at each other before following the rest of the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years into the dingy cold room.

As the class found seats alongside their newly made friends, they looked around for the potions professor; Slytherin's looked forward to having their head of house who they had been assured would favour them about the moronic Gryffindors; Gryffindor's were more wary, they had been forewarned that the Greasy Bat of the Dungeons would be horrible to them due to the fact they were not only his house but the rival house. And still Snape had not appeared. Slowly whispers started, both houses knew that Snape was never late.

"Silence." Snape walked into the classroom. "My tardiness is excusable, if any of you ever are, punishments will be handed out. Welcome to Potions class. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach. There will be no foolish wand waving in this class, and you will not behave as imbeciles in this class, or your chances of remaining in this class will be as likely as Gryffindor winning the house cup this year."

Whispers and hisses broke out through the class...until Snape glared at the class, instilling silence once more. "You will be working in pairs on the Boil Cure Potion, find it on page 8 of your text books. Begin."

The group split up and began work on the potions, Snape strolling through them, praising his Snakes and insulting the Lions, other than Kathy and George who he walked past without even looking. This happened at least 4 times before George got fed up and started insulting Snape under his breath, paying less and less attention to the potion until

"GEORGE, STOP!" Kathy screamed but it was too late, George had added the final ingredient, before the fire had been put out. It had the desired effect in that Snape paid attention; however Kathy had been splashed by the potion and was swelling up with boils.

"POTTER, how dare you interrupt my class? 10 points from Gryffindor, and get yourself to the hospital wing, Spinnet, you go with her. Weasley, what happened?" Snape's voice dropped to a deadly whisper.

George swallowed, but before he could answer Snape continued. "You added the porcupine quills before removing the potion from the fire didn't you?"

"Yes sir."

"Idiot boy. Am I so wrong to assume that at 11 years of age you can read?"

"I'm sorry sir, but had you not been ignoring me and Kathy maybe it wouldn't have happened." George replied testily.

"50 points from Gryffindor and detention on Friday, Weasley. Class dismissed."

"Bastard." Fred exclaimed coming out of the classroom.

"Yeah, he is, but we need to go and see Kathy." Alicia snapped, and Angelina agreed nodding.

The girls swept off to the hospital wing, the boys following insulting Snape the whole way, until they reached the hospital wing and saw Kathy covered in a thick potion, looking bored and irritated.

"Why did you have to call Aunt Minnie Poppy?" she whined at the mediwitch.

"She is your guardian, and would tear my head off if I didn't tell her."

"But would you tell anyone's parents?"

"Yes Kathleen, I would."

"But they wouldn't have their parent or guardian coming to see them. It's not fair. All I wanted was to be normal for the first time in my life, not to be looked as an orphan, not to be different. All I've had since last night is people staring at me, and even better, a cow with whom I will have to share a dorm for the next seven years who hates me, and I quote Poppy, 'My father warned me about rooming with a Potter. He was right, no consideration for anyone else' and she's been at it all morning. Poppy, why me?" Kathy finished her rant by bursting into tears.

The 5 at the door paused and looked at each other, before they could decide what to do Professor's McGonagall and Dumbledore arrived.

"You 5 go to lunch, you can come and see Kathy this afternoon, and we need to talk to her now." Professor Dumbledore told them, Professor McGonagall had already gone in, however strict she came across in class, Kathy meant the world to her, and hearing she'd almost died in potions (Ok, so by the time the tale got to her, it had been exaggerated slightly) has had her rushing down to the hospital wing straight away, leaving her seventh year to finish up alone.

As the 5 first years got to the Gryffindor table, they were hailed by Charlie and the other seventh years to come and sit with them.

"What happened to Kathy?" Charlie asked, a few of the girls nodding along.

"She got splashed with an incorrectly made boil-cure potion." Lee said.

"I added the porcupine quills at the wrong time." George said, shaken and obviously upset at the fact he had hurt his friend.

"At least one person always makes that mistake with that potion, it's not fatal." One of the older girls reassured him.

"But I just wasn't paying attention, I was so mad at Snape that I didn't hear Kath tell me to stop."

"Hey bro, Snape was a complete bastard, and he could have stopped you, he was watching you when you were doing it." Fred tried to cheer his twin up.

"Yeah, I don't think he expected Kathy to get splashed, at least not that badly. He looked really upset when she was splashed, for like 3 seconds before he shouted." Alicia added.

"I wouldn't want to be him; I mean, imagine facing McGonagall after allowing injury to come to her daughter. I'd put her above Snape as scarier when she's pissed." The other seventh years agreed, and proceeded to insult Snape for the rest of the meal.