A Break from Monotony, or, How That Idiot Sirius Black Managed to Charm Me
Disclaimer: The fabulous Ms. Rowling is the owner of all characters from the Harry Potter series. Credit is given where credit is due.
Chapter 4
Potions Class
Morgana managed to get lost on her way to the dungeons. She wished she had left the Great Hall with Lily now, but, alas, wishing would not do her much good now.
Someone needs to make a map of this place, She thought to herself as she poked her out of a corridor. Luckily, at this precise moment, a group of Slytherins traveling down a hallway; each was carrying his or her brand new Potions book. Morgana sighed a silent sigh of relief and followed them, but from a safe distance.
She was soon met by a door, which led to a cavernous room. She waited outside – the only people in there were Slytherins and Lily, who was sitting with a Slytherin. She waited until someone else she knew came along.
Within a few minutes, Judy came into view. Thank Merlin it isn't that Sirius Black, Morgana thought to herself, and attempted to put on what she thought was a kind smile.
"Sorry I missed you at breakfast, Morgana," Judy said, as they walked into the classroom together. "It's just that you were sitting with Black and Potter and I didn't want to deal with them so early in the morning."
"Very understandable," Morgana said off-handedly. "Shall we sit here?"
Morgana was referring to a table with four seats, and a large cauldron sitting over a fire in the middle. It was near the front, but not in the middle. Lily and the Slytherin she was with had already claimed that table.
Judy and Morgana put their bags down and stared cautiously into the cauldron. The mixture inside of it was glassy black, much like the Black Lake they had sailed across the previous night, and smelled putrid.
Morgana's curiosity begged her to drop something into the cauldron, but her common sense reminded her that, sometimes, curiosity can kill the niffler.
Much like in the Great Hall that morning, a gaggle of girls headed by Sirius Black and James Potter entered the classroom. Behind them followed Remus and Peter, both looking rather annoyed by the presence of so many giggling females.
Sirius and James picked a table near the back, accompanied by Geraldine and Susie. Before Morgana and Judy knew it, Peter and Remus were rushing to their table.
"May we sit here?" Remus asked. "James wasn't lying when he said Justin was a prat."
Judy and Morgana nodded at the two, and they put down their bags.
"What's in that cauldron?" Peter asked, peering into the depths of the black liquid. He looked quite frightened.
"Dunno," Judy said. "Probably something that will burn your eyebrows off if you lean in too closely."
Peter instantly pulled his head back from the cauldron.
For the next few minutes, chatter rose like the smoke from the cauldrons in the room. Many people were curious to find out what was in their cauldrons, and others were merely content to look around the room at the other first years. Morgana noticed that one half of the room was mainly Gryffindors, and the other Slytherins, with the exception of Lily, her greasy Slytherin friend, and Justin, who had just joined them.
The chatter died down, however, when a fat, strawberry-blond haired man walked in with a large smile on his face. He had a large mustache and an even larger bald spot, as Morgana noticed, as he turned to write his name on the board.
"Good morning, first years! I am Professor Horace Slughorn – some of you know me as your Head of House-" He winked in the direction of the Slytherins, "and I will be your Potions teacher for the next five or seven years, depending on your career choices, so I do hope we can get on well!"
He chuckled to himself.
"There will be time for getting to know one another later, however. As you may have noticed, each table has a cauldron on it, and, as far as I can see, none of you decided to drop anything in them. No matter, perhaps we'll have better luck with the Hufflepuffs," Slughorn chuckled again. "All of these potions are different, and vary in difficulty level. But – not to worry – you will be able to brew every single one of these potions by the time you finish your fifth year!"
There was a murmur of excited whispers. This seemed to be the effect Professor Slughorn was going for, because he was smiling madly at the front of the room.
"Now, can any of you dare to guess what potion is in their cauldron?"
Immediately, the Slytherin boy who was sitting with Lily and Justin thrust his hand into the air. Slughorn smiled. "Ah, yes, boy, and you are…?"
"Snape. Severus Snape," The boy answered. "This is a potion to induce dreamless sleep. I can tell by the purple hue and the dizzying effect."
"Very good, very good indeed. Have five points!" Slughorn was delighted. "Anyone else brave enough to-"
Sirius Black raised his hand lazily in the air. "We have a Swelling Solution over here."
Slughorn smiled. "Ah, yes, Sirius Black! I'm sad to say you aren't in my house, tut, tut." – Sirius did not look sad at all – "And how do you know this potion is a Swelling Solution, dear boy?"
"Just based off the number of times my brother's used it on the cat," Sirius answered, shrugging.
"The boy's got nerve! Just like the other Black's! Five points for Gryffindor!"
Sirius and James winked at each other, and Geraldine and Susie were sent over the moon.
Morgana rolled her eyes, and noticed that Severus Snape had whipped around to glare at Sirius and James.
Severus suddenly stood, and walked over to Morgana's table. "Sir, they've got Doxycide."
He went to another table. "This is Draught of Living Death,"
And then he went to the last table, "And this potion will cure boils."
"But will it cure greasy hair?" Morgana heard Sirius mutter. Luckily for him, Slughorn did not hear over his sheer amazement at this gutsy first year.
"Merlin's beard, boy, you know your potions!" Slughorn said to Severus. "How did you become so intelligible?"
"My mum is a master Potioneer, sir," Snape said humbly. "Eileen Prince is her name."
"I never did teach Eileen, but I do know her teachers thought very highly of her. I see you've inherited her talent!" Slughorn beamed at Severus, who maintained humble posture. "Take twenty points for Slytherin!"
"Stupid git," Sirius mumbled, "Anyone with a nose like his could sniff out each individual ingredient in those potions."
"As Mr. Snape correctly identified, this last potion," Slughorn traveled to the table with the cure for boils, "is a potion to cure boils and your first assignment. If you would please take out your books and refer to page twelve, you will find directions to brew this potion. You will find that you will have all necessary ingredients in your potions kits."
There was a great amount of hurried rustling among the room, and Slughorn waited for the noise to die down before he continued. "You will work with the people at your table, and you have until the end of the class to complete the potion and bring a flask to my desk."
Morgana, Judy, Remus, and Peter all stared at one another. "Did any of you know we would have to make a potion on the first day?" Peter asked.
"No," Judy answered, "But it's not unexpected."
Just then, Slughorn walked up to the table. "Do you four have everything you need? Good," He did not give them a chance to answer. "Let me vanish this potion for you – Merlin, that's a strong smell."
He waved his wand and the black mixture disappeared from the cauldron. Morgana noticed he was going around the every table and doing the same thing.
"I guess we should get started then," Morgana said, and opened her potion book. She read the instructions once over. "This shouldn't be too difficult."
Morgana and Judy took roles as leaders immediately. They set the boys to chop and separate ingredients while Judy monitored the flames and Morgana stirred and added the ingredients.
They would have made a good team, but Remus was a menace at potions, as the group soon found out. He mangled every herb he touched with a knife, rendering them useless for the potion.
"Peter, can you sort him out?" Judy asked rudely, her face sweating. The flames had to be at a precise temperature and she was working very hard to maintain them.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Remus apologized. "I'm rubbish at potions."
"We can see that," Judy said to him. "Just…let Peter do it. Don't touch anything."
Morgana felt Judy was being a little harsh on Remus – it was his first time – but she did not say anything. She silently agreed with Judy, seeing as she wanted to get good marks on her first assignment for potions class.
Peter proved to be much better at chopping ingredients, even though he had shaky hands. This seemed to ease Judy's nerves, which everyone in the group was grateful for.
They were letting the cauldron simmer now, and Morgana took this chance to look about the room to see how the other groups were doing. At least we're not doing as badly as they are, Morgana thought when her eyes trailed over to a group of Slytherins who were still struggling to light a fire underneath the cauldron.
Lily, Snape, Justin, and another Slytherin were doing very well – they were a few steps ahead of Morgana and her group. Sirius, James, Susie, and Geraldine seemed to doing quite well too, except they seemed to have forgotten to take the cauldron off the heat before adding the porcupine quills. This resulted in the melting of the cauldron, and Sirius appeared to have a massive hole in the stomach of his robes and a few swelling boils. Geraldine was apologizing profusely to Sirius between tears and noisy sobs.
Morgana had to stifle her laughter.
"Ah, Mr. Black, I see we've had a bit of an accident," Slughorn said when he approached their table. "We'll get you sorted out at the end of the class, if the pustules aren't too painful. Miss Evans' group seems to be on the right track to brewing a perfect boil-cure."
Sirius grimaced and forced himself not to scratch the boils on his stomach. "I think I'll be fine for now, sir."
"Good boy," Slughorn said. "Carry on."
As Morgana watched in amusement, one of the boils popped, and the pus flew onto James' face. Morgana could not help herself – she burst into raucous laughter, earning her dirty looks from her classmates.
"Miss Woodsworth, please do calm yourself!" Slughorn chastised, though he did not seem to know why she was laughing.
"I'm sorry, sir," She said through bated breath.
"Ugh, gross, Sirius!" James shouted, grabbing a fistful of Sirius' robes to wipe the pus from his face.
"Use your own bloody robes!" Sirius yelled, pulling back the robes from James.
"Yours are already ruined!" James retorted. "And I don't want your belly bile on mine!"
"Gentlemen!" Slughorn roared. "There is no need for arguing over spilled potion – or pus, in this case."
Slughorn waved his wand and the pus vanished from James' face. He then proceeded to mend the hole in Sirius' robes – it looked as if an invisible needle and thread were stitching the hole shut.
"Five points from Gryffindor for disturbing the class, tut tut," Slughorn said. "Please, everyone, return to your potions."
Slughorn was right – the entire class had stopped brewing to watch the commotion between James and Sirius.
Judy seemed to be the sole exception to this fact. She had continued to watch over the potion, and it was now a bright green as it was supposed to be. "Gits," She muttered underneath her breath as she carefully spooned a bit of potion into a crystal phial.
Without a word to Morgana, Remus, or Peter, she took the phial to Slughorn's desk for evaluation. Morgana noticed as Judy walked up to the desk that Severus was giving her a glare so etched with hate, she was surprised Judy had not burst into flames.
"Oh-ho!" Slughorn said jovially and loudly enough for the entire class to hear. "It seems we have a winner!"
Slughorn dropped his voice, but not low enough to prevent Morgana from hearing. "What is your name, dear?"
"Judith Wynn," Judy responded.
Slughorn cleared his throat and raised his voice once more. "It seems Miss Wynn's group has successfully finished brewing the boil-cure first! Ten points for Gryffindor!"
Severus audibly groaned, and Lily elbowed him in the ribs.
Slughorn followed Judy back to the table to examine the potion further. "Yes, it does seem this is a viable potion; very well done, you four. Mr. Black, could you come here, please?"
The boils must have made it difficult to walk, because Sirius grimaced the entire way toward Morgana's table. "Yes, sir?"
Slughorn conjured a goblet and filled it with the boil-cure potion. "Drink up, my boy."
Nervously, Sirius took the goblet and drank the contents in one go. After he swallowed, he fake-gagged and returned the goblet to Slughorn.
"Better?" Slughorn asked.
Sirius touched his stomach gingerly, but apparently did not feel the boils. "They're gone!" He exclaimed wildly.
"All thanks to Miss Wynn's group, here," Slughorn said proudly. "Next time, Mr. Black, do try to keep it in your cauldron." Slughorn winked and walked away.