Through the Tears

The first few weeks passed by like a dream. I had decided that I should wait a little while until I started changing the future. If I acted like I didn't belong someone would have noticed and would start asking questions. If I ever made a mistake I would simply say, "Wow, England is very different from France."

I tried to stay relatively low-key but I still couldn't help answering all the questions. I can still remember the first class I had with Voldemort. Even though I didn't want to be noticed, I was always very conscious of him whenever he was near me.

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I can't believe I have to have Slughorn again! I thought. I was walking down to potions with one of my new classmates, great aunt of my best friend, Lisa Potter.

She was looking at my schedule and telling me about the teachers I had.

"Your Muggle Studies teacher is alright, Mr. Brotenal, but his assistant is a whole other story. Stay away from him as much as you can, that guy is a perverted freak," she told me.

"I'll keep that in mind," I responded. "What's his name?"

"Something Pettigrew," she told me. I shivered. "Oh, you have Snape for defense against the dark arts. He's awful. Barely anyone aside from Slytherins gets into his advanced class. The rest of us are forced to study the basics with Sprout."

We were the last to arrive to potions and took the only two available seats.

Professor Slughorn entered and started talking about the expectations he had for the class. When he reached the end of his lecture, he asked the class questions to see who remembered what.

"Can anyone tell me what color a polyjuice potion would be if Newt's toes were added instead of Salamander toes?"

Two hands went up into the air, mine and the future dark lord's.

"Well this is a surprise," commented Slughorn. "Let's see what Ms. Grendell can do."

"Well sir," I started. "Because of the unique type of iron in Salamander blood, it would cause a reaction to the merttyl weeds turning the rest of the potion an indigo color as suppose to it's usual murky brown. However changing the type of toes between toad, salamander, lizard or newt will not change the effect of the potion. In addition to changing the color though, salamander toes also make the potion silkier, less bubbly which is the primary reason that it is the most commonly used variation of the polyjuice potion."

Professor Slughor, along with the majority of the class had their mouths hanging wide open. None of them were expecting an answer like that.

"Very good Ms. Grendell. Ten points to Gryffindor." I grinned. "Now, who can tell me the ingredients of a time slowing potion?"

The same two hands were up.

"I believe it is only fair to let Mr. Riddle answer this question."

Riddle glared. "The ingredients for a time slowing potion are centaur blood, black sand, saffron leaves, diced lily pads and crushed rose petals."

Professor Slughorn glared at his favorite student, "Very good, Tom. Ten points t-"

"Excuse me, professor," I said, interrupting the teacher. "But his answer is wrong."

Both Slughorn and Tom looked at me like I was absolutely crazy.

"Well it's not wrong," I clarified. "It's just impractical. The combination of the centaur blood, diced lily pads and crushed rose petals together creates a blockage. It means that after drinking the potion, the user is no longer in control of time. Instead, the potion decides when time will resort back to normal. However, if you substitute the black sand with boiled octopus ink and add some dragon scales, three to be precise, than it would reverse that effect of the potion and allow the user to be in full control."

Slughorn took a minute to understand try to understand what I was saying. I don't think he fully got the meaning of what it but he understood enough to know I was right. "Ms. Grendell – that's absolutely incredible. Twenty five points to Gryffindor!"

My housemates cheered and smiled at me. Looking over at Tom Riddle I could see him glaring at me, a look that would make someone weaker scared. I just stared back just as intently. Bored with the game, he looked away.

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So far my closest friends were Lisa Potter, Mike Sunnice, Will Annmer, Pippy (short for Penelope) Lenelier and ironically, Harry Weasley and his twin Charlie Weasley – twins must run in their families.

I had been quickly accepted into the group and became even closer friends with Lisa, Harry and Charlie. I guess I just have a thing for those two families.

I had come in contact with other people of my generation's grandparents. There was a Malfoy, Longbottom, Patil, Zabini, Finnigan, and even a little first-year McGonagall.

I had been in school for about three weeks when I was called into Dippet's office.

"Ms. Grendell, I am in need of you help," he told me. "It seems that we did make the right choice with out head girl. She is unable to handle all of her responsibilities and we were forced to demote her back to a prefect. Your grades have proved to be quite impressive, matching those of our best student. You're even doing better than him in Defense against the dark arts. Seeing as you are the best candidate, the position of head girl is yours if you want it."

I grinned and accepted.

A/N: there it is. Chapter 3. HOORAY!

People, I am very disappointed. 5 reviews for the last two chapters?! I mean, come on. I know that I didn't give you a lot of time seeing as this is my third chapter in three days, but if you read it you should at least write something … please?