Chapter 3 Book I Arc II

"I can't believe that man!" Kitty Jones raged, as she thumped down into a seat next to her friends at the Gryffindor table. She kicked her bag underneath, as she dumped food onto her plate, barely checking to make sure she was taking only the vegetarian options.

"Which man do you mean this time?" Stanley asked from across the table, snorting. She glared at him.

"Lovelace," She hissed. "It's the first goddamn day back, and I already have detention for the next eight Saturdays thanks to a couple of complete idiots," she said, stabbing angrily into her salad with a fork, as the others around her raised their eyebrows.

"It's the first day back and you already have how many days of detention?" Fred Weaver asked, as he sat next to her. Fred had been one of Kitty's friends since first year. She swallowed her mouthful of salad.

"Eight! All eight of my next Saturdays are gone! And all because Underwood can't keep his damn mouth shut, and that stupid Hufflepuff seventh year felt the need to lie to a teacher!" she scowled even harder as her friends all snickered.

"Well what do you expect? Underwood is a teacher's pet, through and through. Correcting everyone is just something he always feels the need to do…wait, which 'Puff are you talking about?" Asmira asked. Asmira was a sixth year Gryffindor, with glinting dark eyes that matched the hijab she wore to cover her hair. A dark-skinned hand reached out to snag a bread roll, as she sat down across the table from the younger girl. Kitty shrugged.

"I don't really know, he was about six foot two something. He had longish dark hair? Kinda curly or wavy? His name though, it was something like Barti…Barti…"

"- Bartimaeus?"

"Yeah, that was it. The Ravenclaw called him something else first though," she said, eating another forkful of salad as she nodded. Asmira sighed and shook her head.

"Yeah, no one but Queezle Ffoukes, and Ptolemy Soter can ever make him tell the truth. I heard Faquarl Nevrakis can too. You know, depending on how hard he's hitting. Or how hard that big guy Jabor's hitting too, I guess," Asmira said blandly, as Kitty gave her a questioning look.

"Seriously? Aren't Hufflepuff's supposed to be trustworthy or something?" she asked, causing the older girl to snicker and shake her head again.

"Something like that, but really, no one's quite sure how Bart got into Hufflepuff. Regardless, never trust him to tell the truth to a teacher, alright Kitty?"

"Yeah, alright, never trust Bartimaeus to tell the truth. Ever. Got it. With luck though, once these detentions are done I won't have to talk to him again," she said, finishing up her lunch, before checking her schedule. She groaned, as she saw that she had double potions next. She really did not want to spend her afternoon in the smelly potions classroom, especially not when that class was with the Slytherins, which meant that she would have to see a certain Nathaniel Underwood. He was the reason why she now had so many detentions, after all. Why did she ever have to talk to him in the first place?

"I'm going to go get my stuff for class now," she announced as she stood up, picking up her bag from the floor as she did. Fred got up as well, flashing her a grin.

"I'll go with you. We've got potions together next, yeah?" She nodded as he fell into step beside her.

"With luck I won't get into Whitwell's NEWT class, so I won't have to take it again," he joked, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Yeah, unfortunately I do need to take her NEWT class. I think the fumes from that class are going to kill me one of these days. That is, if Whitwell doesn't poison me herself," Kitty snickered. The potions mistress dislike of all things and all persons was well known. As was her distaste for talented students that were unlucky enough to be in a House other than her own. It was too bad for herself then, Kitty thought; she had a natural affinity for potions, and it showed. She figured that it might have had something to do with how she grew up cooking, but that was beside the point. She was a Gryffindor instead of a Slytherin, placing her automatically at the end of Whitwell's disdain. The feeling was mutual though; Kitty didn't think highly of her either. She was grossly unfair, took points from everyone for everything, and handed out detentions like they were candy. It riled Kitty up, but after three years of confrontations in that class, she had come to learn that she needed to keep her mouth shut if she wanted to pass at all.

"She wouldn't poison you; I think that Button would murder her if she killed his favourite student." Kitty shoved Fred as they reached the portrait leading to their common room.

"I am not his favourite; I just actually contribute to his class," she retorted. Yeah, that was it, she thought as she entered the common room, rolling her eyes again as Fred continued to snort. She headed up to the fifth year girls dorm and grabbed her books for potions, leaving the ones for History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures still lying on her bed. She headed back down to the common room quickly, books still in hand.

"To potions then, my lady?" Fred asked, jokingly offering her his arm as she glared at him.

"You're an idiot," was all she replied, before leaving the Gryffindor common room with him, ignoring his remarks as they started to make their way to the first floor potions classroom.

"And yet you keep me around anyways for some reason," He said, as they tried not to get caught on any of the moving staircases.

"Who knows why," She grumbled, before falling silent as they entered the potions classroom, snagging seats in the back. Here at least, they would be less at risk of having their potions meddled with, or drawing professor Whitwell's ire. Slowly the other students began to straggle in from lunch, as only a select few of the Slytherin's even looked forward to having an afternoon of double potions as well. Of course, as she saw him enter, Underwood would be one of those actually looking forward to this class. He was one of Whitwell's pets after all. Child prodigy and all that crap, along with being from an older family, she thought with a quiet snort of derision. It was all overrated in her opinion. Much better to actually prove that you're capable then to rely solely on talent and your family name, she thought.

"Good afternoon class," Professor Jessica Whitwell said smoothly, as she entered the room from her office. A small amount of murmured "good afternoons" replied back throughout room, causing the bone thin woman to frown. She strode up to the front of the classroom, as the black robes she always wore made her look even paler in comparison.

"This year, is the year you sit your O.W.L's. Those in turn will lead you towards your path in life, and decide which courses you can take, and what you can achieve with your life. Some of you, I expect to see next year in my NEWT level course…others," she paused, cold eyes sweeping the room, "I do not expect to see again after this year." Her tone made Kitty shiver; it always did after the summer holidays. She always forgot just how cold the potions mistress was when she wasn't around her all the time. Only two more years, she told herself, holding in a grim smile. Two more years and I won't have to deal with teachers like her who don't want me around. I'll be out and finally able to make a real difference in the world! And with those thoughts swirling around her head, Kitty Jones dug out her parchment and inked her quill to take down whatever notes Professor Whitwell was writing on the board.

"Now, this year we shall be covering poisons, both common and uncommon ones, and their antidotes. Hopefully by now you all know that a bezoar, found in the stomach of a goat, is usually the go to antidote when it is discovered that someone has been poisoned. However, there are some very lethal poisons that render that antidote useless..." Professor Whitwell began to drone on, as Kitty allowed herself to doodle on the parchment she was meant to be taking notes on, wondering who the Gryffindor quidditch captain was this year, and ignoring the looks she could feel were getting thrown back at her by Nathaniel. She resisted the urge to flip him off, knowing that then she would lose house points, because at least one of the Slytherins in the class would report it to Whitwell. And she would probably get even more detentions on top of all that. Instead she nudged Fred with her elbow in order to whisper at him.

"I told you she was planning on poisoning me. How much do you wanna bet that I'll be forced to drink at least one thing in class this year?" She watched as he stuffed his hand into his mouth to keep from laughing out loud, and grinned, ducking her head as she wrote down a few actual notes on her page.

One double period class, a roll of parchment, and half a bottle of ink later, Kitty was grateful to be leaving the potions classroom. She wasn't the only one happy to be done with classes as they all filed out, knowing that potions was probably everyone's least favourite class. After all, Whitwell barely had tolerance for certain students within her own House, let alone others. Kitty massaged her sore hand, ignoring Fred as he talked at her while they made their way back to the Gryffindor dorms.

"So, you plan on being the star chaser again this year?" Fred asked her as they waited for a set of staircases to move. She shrugged.

"I plan on being on the team again, yeah. Dunno much about being the 'star chaser.' I think that's a load of BS, but whatever," she said, scowling as he laughed and threw an arm over her shoulders.

"Kitty, you have been the 'star chaser' of the team since you started playing in second year; you're the reason that the Slytherin team has barely won any of their matches against us. Just watch, you're going to be playing professionally by the time that you graduate." She pushed his arm off of her, pursing her lips as she stared at him.

"Fred, I don't want to play professionally. I'm going to either go work at the Ministry, or be a Healer. I haven't decided yet," she said bluntly. He gaped at her.

"But...but Kitty! You're the best chaser that Hogwarts has seen in years! You're even better than Farrar! You have-"

"No Fred. I don't care if I'm the best chaser Hogwarts has seen, I play the game because it's fun, and that is that," she said, before pushing past him to enter into the Gryffindor common room.

"And now I'm just going to drop this stuff off, and then I'm going to go to the library. I can't believe that Whitwell assigned us a foot long essay on the first day back," she grumbled, getting a sulky nod from Fred.

"Fine, fine. I'm gonna go find Nick," he said, before wandering off. Kitty let out a sigh, glad for some quiet. Fred was a good friend and all, but in the last few years he had gone from a quiet, shy kid, to one who barely ever shut up. And he also seemed to have gotten it into his head that she was meant to be a quidditch star, when she really didn't even want to play professionally. Quidditch stars didn't make reforms in the magical world, after all. They didn't help to combat the corruption that seemed ever present in politics, or work towards much change at all. But now was not the time to be thinking of such things.

She quickly stuffed some more parchment as well as an extra quill and bottle of ink into her bag, making sure that she still had her potions text and notes from that day with her, before trudging off to the library. She made sure to slip in quietly before making her way over to an empty corner table, avoiding the librarian all the while.

Honorius the librarian was notorious for his dislike of the students, especially when they had the utter gall to enter what he seemed to think was his library. He tended to prowl around the shelves and glare students down whenever he saw them touching a book. And heaven forbid you ever get an overdue notice. Rumour was that he ate students with overdue library books. No one was actually sure how true or not that was, but Kitty never planned to find out, and had always made sure to get her library books back with plenty of time to spare whenever she dared check one out.

She settled down at a half-hidden table in the corner, with her bag placed onto the chair beside. She huffily pushed the short ends of her dark hair behind her ears to keep it out of her face, as she pulled out her book and writing materials. As she opened up her book to the potion she was set to write an essay on, she inked her quill and sat there…and sat there…and sat there…and sat…

She sighed heavily, letting her quill drop into the ink bottle unceremoniously, as her head slowly fell forwards to rest on the table. It was only four in the afternoon, and there were still two hours to go before dinner, and Kitty was already feeling like she was about to call the day just done. She already had an essay to write, and eight days of detention, and school had barely just begun. She was just thankful that she hadn't put her House into the negative points range too.

Turning around in her seat in order to get a better view, she found herself groaning inwardly. Just great, it was the dumb Hufflepuff from earlier named Bart. He was there with the tiny Ravenclaw yet again, though interestingly enough there was a group of other 'Claws with them as well. He was trying to sit calmly (if he did calmly that was) in a chair that was leaned back so much it might as well be a less than comfy bed. He looked as if he was about to fall off it, talking face upwards at a dark haired Slytherin she had never actually seen before. Well, she had seen him before. She just wasn't acquainted with him. There was another Hufflepuff next to him who stood at least a head taller than everyone else. Considering the Slytherin wasn't that much taller from Ptolemy, the difference in height was definitely noticeable. Talk about a mixed crowd. She wondered what that was all about…and wait, was that a squirrel on the table? She squinted a little before deciding that yes, that was indeed a squirrel on the table. A live, perceptibly scared squirrel too. I mean it wasn't her business, but it was definitely weird. The thought of the essay she had to turn in by Thursday morning brought her back, as well as the thought of even more detentions if she didn't finish it on time as well.

She really hoped that this year would turn around for her soon, so it wouldn't be all bad. It would probably be best if she did what she could to avoid those other three for the rest of the year, especially once they got done with all of their detentions. It was only two months after all, and how bad could anything get in two months? Especially since Lovelace seemed to be such a dull teacher, she doubted that the detentions would be anything worse than writing lines. She thought about this as she gave up on her essay for now and packed up her things, figuring that she could maybe go fly around the quidditch pitch for a bit before supper. The weather was still nice enough after all to do so, and maybe it would help get her to think. Either way, she was getting away from those seventh years that were now tossing the squirrel around and arguing loudly, and was that thing now in his mouth?!

A quick stop at her dorm to drop off her bags, a change of uniform, and a pick up of her broom later, and Kitty was off to the quidditch pitch. She grinned when she saw that it was empty of any other people when she arrived, and was quick to mount her Comet 290 before taking off. Maybe it wasn't the best broom on the market, but it was a sturdy and reliable one, and Kitty loved it.

Kitty loved flying too. It was a comfort for her, and had been since her first lesson when she was eleven and had just entered the magical world. She didn't even care too much for quidditch, she just liked to fly. It helped clear her mind, even when she flying upside down, and in and around the goal posts like now. It was only when she heard slow clapping that she stopped, eyes scanning the area below her before she saw the source of the sound. Someone was in the stands. Frowning, Kitty flew over to the person, before sighing to herself when she caught sight of who it was.

"What do you want?" She asked Nathaniel Underwood stiffly, as she hovered down next to him without landing. He shrugged, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

"Nothing, I was just walking around and saw someone flying around doing the kind of stupid tricks that could kill a normal person. So obviously, I had to walk over and see who was stupid enough to try. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that it was you but I guess you're good, so…yeah," he ended lamely, leaving Kitty staring down at him suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.

"So, what's the other reason you have to come over talking to me? Is there something you want?" she asked, as she continued to stay hovering in the air, keeping eye level contact with him. His eyebrow rose, and his head tilted to the side a little, before he burst into laughter, making her scowl.

"I'm sorry, I really am, it's just-" he began, before laughing again, taking a few minutes before composing himself again.

"I really am sorry, but that was just too funny. However no, I do not want anything from you; I just figured I might as well talk to you some, since we are going to be stuck in detention for eight days together," he said, standing straight again. She blinked, squinting at him.

"Are you drunk?" She said bluntly, causing him to stop and stare at her, before snorting and shaking his head.

"Of course not, I can't drink yet; I'm still underage after all -"

"Hasn't stopped anybody before."

"- and besides, I'm at school, so there is no way that I'd get drunk," He finished, before pulling out a silver pocket watch, flicking it open and glancing at it. "Anyways, you might want to go in now if you plan to clean up before dinner. It's five thirty-five. See you around Jones," he said before turning away, hand half-raised as he left.

Kitty shook her head. She didn't know what to do about that boy. He was just so weird.

A/N: I'm sorry about how long it took to update this. The chapter was being held hostage until I got my homework done. Plus I went to Europe for twelve days. So yeah. Hopefully we'll get to some more regular updates soonish. Who knows tho. Much thanks to everyone who was read this, or left kudos. And even more thanks to the beautiful Jojo for editing it for me.