Chapter Five

Rhys stood at the front of Professor Wesley's desk awkwardly as the remaining students filtered out of the room. He was glad to know that he, in fact, understood the subject better than he anticipated, though the satisfaction was quick to wear off as the teacher took his seat, not once looking up at him. His skin was becoming hot once more as the anger built up slowly at such an arrogant demeanor, but he forced himself to calm down and wait patiently for the teacher to speak up.

"You'll be coming back here after all of your classes to serve detention, is that clear?"

"WHAT?" And his patience had dissipated in an instant. "You can't do that!"

"Oh, but I can, Mr. Elwyn," Professor Wesley retorted bitterly as his eyes trailed up to meet his. "That's the beauty about being a teacher, having the authority to give haughty brats, like yourself, detention."

"I haven't done anything wrong!"

"First, you speak out of turn, interrupt my class with irrelevant claims—"

"They're not irrelevant! It's something anyone in Potions should know!"

"The point being that it's not fundamental knowledge, Mr. Elwyn," Wesley interjected again, seeming slightly more annoyed. "Your constant arguing with me on the matter isn't helping your case."

He bit his tongue once more, stifling all the colorful things he would have liked to have called this demon of a teacher. Silently he waited, glaring into the other man's eyes as if both were challenging the other to a battle of wits, but it was hardly a battle at this point.

"You may leave."

He whirled around on his heels as he stormed out the door to meet the others. "Detention! That's ridiculous!" He hissed as his hands tightened around his bag strap. "On my first day! How dare he do this to me!"

"It's not like it's the end of the world, mate," Charlie spoke with a reassuring smile, "It's only one detention, right?"

Though his frustration was getting the better of him, those words alone coming from someone else was enough to keep his complaints to a low grumble. It was not often that someone would go out of their way to make him feel comforted, so he might as well oblige the kindness by calming himself down.

"Come on," Rebecca called to them as she began to walk out of the dungeon, "We have to head to the greenhouse next for Herbology."

"I'm going to fail this term for sure," Finn whimpered as his shoulders sank in defeat.

"It's not so bad," Rebecca assured as they continued walking.

It was becoming harder to concentrate on their conversation when he still felt so flustered and slightly panicked. What would happen if his parents found out that he got detention on his first day? What would Regina say about it? Or was this something that they didn't have to know? In the back of his mind, he sincerely hoped so. How else was he supposed to prove that he was on the right track by being Sorted into Gryffindor? Everything he had been doing went against his family's traditions and all he had to show for it was a detention sentence.

"I guess that's not too bad," Finn's sigh broke into his troubled thoughts, making Rhys look up from the ground to see where he was being led.

"Nice job on your first day, Elwyn," a proud voice jeered, making him flinch at the thought of who it could have been. Regardless, he kept his gaze forward as he continued to walk past the others who had turned back to look. "Trying to outsmart the teachers already?"

"Fuck off, Saxon," Rhys spat back venomously, feeling no need to hold back his resentment from the other boy as he turned around to scowl at him.

The taller Slytherin boy glared back at him in disbelief, obviously not used to being spoken to in such a way, and that was fine. Regardless of his pride he had already proven that he was not deserving of the formalities that had been instilled in him. There was a brief moment of silence that passed by, but Rhys held his ground as the other gathered himself to reply.

"Big words, Elwyn," he muttered almost threateningly, "Let's see you try them again."

"Leave him alone," Finn broke into their conversation as Charlie quickly stepped between them, making Loki take a step back to keep his personal space.

Slowly, he drew his attention back to the smaller boy behind him, making Rhys want to cut in again, but Charlie put his arm in front of him. What the hell was Finn thinking? This was not his battle to fight and Rhys felt perfectly capable of sending the other boy off. What was there to gain by drawing the attention away?

"There's no problem with you, Rowland," he said, "Why don't you butt out?"

"Because Rhys's business is my business," he answered slowly, trying to sound calm.

For a moment he was dumbstruck. It was clear he was only making it his business, but what for? Perhaps, these people were becoming more attached than he anticipated, which meant that Finn was actually sticking up for him.

"Clearly. Standing in front of your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Finn hissed.

"What's your issue, Saxon? Think one of us pissed in your juice this morning?" He asked in order to draw the argument back to him. Regardless of Charlie's muttered warning, he was not about to let Finn get involved with such a creep. It was the least he could do.

"At least I'm smart enough to not outsmart the teacher on my first day. You're such a typical Elwyn," Loki countered indignantly.

"Like you know anything about my family," Rhys snapped.

"I know enough about them," he mocked as he turned away from Finn. "You should pick better friends. Two half-bloods and an Auror's son who would do anything to betray the name of wizard? You're on a roll already, aren't you?" Finn winced at the boy's words, making Loki's expression turn to a threatening sneer.

"Sax!" a voice echoed across the hall, making them all snap back to attention.

"A bumbling band like you four has definitely lowered my expectations for this school," he chuckled cynically. "It's pathetic."

Even his stride as he walked away was arrogant, and Rhys could do little more than stare after him as he gritted his teeth. He could feel eyes on him but his body instinctively tense up with all the pent of frustration he had yet to express.

"Blimey," Charlie whistled, "He sure got your robes in a twist."

"What gives, Rhys?" Finn asked a bit anxiously. "And what did he mean, Auror's son betraying the name of wizard?"

"My mum's an Auror," he answered curtly, "Clearly she sent someone away that he disapproves of." Finally, he let go of his bag strap, allowing his body to relax as he straightened himself out and began walking across the courtyard.

He wasn't about to do them any favors by lingering there. In fact, he was more afraid of snapping at them on accident than actually getting into a fight. It was the last thing they deserved, but he also had no energy left to try and explain things to them. The fact that he was an Elwyn never crossed their minds; in fact, they seemed downright clueless, but that comforted him. That meant that what Finn and Charlie did for him was out of kindness and actual concern for him. For that, he did not mind where they came from.

"My lord, I've never seen you act so unseemly."

"Linneus, was it?" he mumbled dryly as he kept his pace. The other boy kept a fair distance as he walked alongside him. "Is there something you wanted?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Do I look okay to you?" he snapped, glaring over at Linneus just as his eyes turned from orange to a light pale green.

"No, my lord," he admitted with a faint sigh. "Forgive my rudeness." With a wordless bow Linneus began to turn back.

"Wait! Your eyes!" he called after the blonde hastily, feeling guilty for having snapped at him.

Linneus turned his head, though the colors were indistinguishable as they began to swirl. "What about them?"

"The colors mean something, don't they?"

A faint smile quickly spread on the boy's lips as his eyes settled into a dark shade of green. "A valid question, my lord. Let me know if you ever figure it out."

He couldn't help but offer a small smile as well before he continued walking toward the greenhouse. Though the stress and inhibition from before only made him frown once more, it was nice to be able to put a smile on someone's face, even if it was only necessary because he was making an ass of himself. In a way, Linneus was becoming closer to him like the others, or at least he was trying.

When he entered the greenhouse he immediately noticed Anna on the other side of the room who offered him a nervous smile in greeting. Of course she had seen him act that way, the others probably had no idea how to approach him now that he had shown one of his uglier qualities. He could not even think of anything to say when they arrived at the greenhouse, standing next to him as they put their bags on the floor..

"I heard Professor Longbottom's supposed to be great," Rebecca spoke casually, earning a nod from Charlie before a loud tap made the students go quiet.

"Good morning, first years!" The professor greeted from the other end of a long wooden table. He smiled proudly, a clear gap in his teeth, with dark and tired eyes. The man was completely covered in bits of earth that stuck to his clothes and even matted his brown hair.

"I'm Professor Longbottom, welcome to Greenhouse One. Now, today I had a lesson all planned out for you, but unfortunately, I've got a bit of a slug problem in one of my crops. So, for today, you'll be getting a bit more hands-on than I had planned for this lesson."

Rhys glanced at the others who seemed just as confused as he was.

"Now, how many of you have read through our book for this class?"

There were few incoherent murmurs, making Professor Longbottom run his dirt covered hand through his hair. "All right. Well, we'll get to that, then. I want everyone to get their wands out. Can I have a few volunteers to help me bring out some of these pots?"

A few students, including Rebecca stepped forward, following each other to the back of the greenhouse.

"A bit unprepared, don't you think?" Charlie mumbled quietly, earning a small chuckle from Finn.

Each student came back with large planters in hand, setting them along the tables before running back to get more. In a line, the teacher and the students came trudging back in with several large planters, and they were set along the large wooden table that ran down the entire span of the greenhouse.

There were bright indigo colored flowers in each planter, giving off a faint fragrance that seemed to entice Finn to reach out his hand.

Charlie took hold of the boy's hand with a shake of his head."Don't touch it. That's aconite."

"It's not poisonous to touch," Loki's voice called to them from down the table, making Rhys's anger resurface almost immediately..

"It's toxic to any porous skin," he snapped back, refraining from looking at the boy, "Like fingers. Idiot."

After each table was lined with planters, Professor Longbottom returned to the front of the room with a few short pants for air before he spoke up over all their chatter. "All right. Now, since we'll be working with our hands today, I hope everyone brought their gloves. Yes?"

Rhys wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead before reaching into his bags to shuffle around for his gloves. The air was becoming increasingly stuffy with the humidity sticking to their skin as the temperature was on the rise.

"Gloves on? All right. Now, can anyone tell me what plant you're looking at?" He asked as he pulled his own dirtied gloves over his hands.

Rhys opened his mouth to speak only to hear Loki's voice announce, hastily, "Aconite, sir." He held in an exasperated groan as he drummed his fingers against the table as Slytherin was awarded five points.

"Very good. Now, I'm sure many of you are going to learn about the aconite plant in your Potions classes, but you'll hear it from me first, seeing as I've got a little problem. Aconite, also commonly called monkswood, or the wolfsbane plant, is a very common ingredient in potion making. Can be highly poisonous if not handled properly, which is why I've got you all with your gloves on."

Rhys could not help but stick his tongue out at Loki while he was looking down at his plant, earning a chuckle from Finn and Charlie.

"Unfortunately for my stock of aconite here, it slipped my mind to put slug repellant on them last night. So, I'm going to assign jobs to each of you for today, and ten points will go to whichever house finishes their tasks the quickest and most efficiently."

Everyone seemed to snap back to attention at the idea of competition. As they split up into the four houses, eager smiles were seen as each house eyed the other with confidence. Loki looked especially cocky as the Slytherin table huddled together while Professor Longbottom gave them each large pots.

"All right, I want a couple of you around the pot, and the rest of you, dig for slugs!"

Rhys quickly found a spot by a planter, grabbing chunks of soil and turning it over, moving his fingers around in the dirt to feel around for any slugs. Several girlish squeals began to sound throughout the greenhouse as some girls from each house dropped the slimly creatures onto the floor, too disgusted to touch the dirt again.

"No, not on the floor!" the professor shouted, "In the pot! Throw the slugs into the pots! Quickly, now, come on!"

He could not help but chuckle to himself as he watched some of the girls shut their eyes tightly as they peeled each slug from the floor. His eyes caught Anna's on the other side of the room and she flashed another contagious smile to him as she held up a wriggling slug with both of her hands triumphantly. As she tossed it into her pot she stuck her tongue out playfully at him before quickly sinking her hands into the dirt again. Rhys laughed once more as he continued to dig further, pulling the resistant creatures from the soil and tossing them into the pot. As the competition went on, Professor Longbottom began to walk along each table to inspect the pots which, as far as Rhys could tell, was nearly full with slugs.

"All right, now, those of you not digging, here's your task. And I want you to speak very clearly when you do this, and focus really hard, I don't want you burning down my greenhouses." Rhys looked up with curiosity, wondering what kind of task the others were to perform. "This is why you've got your wands out. Now, watch closely as I do this."

He walked up to the large pot between Charlie and the other girl. With a wave of his wand pointed down into the pot he said calmly, "Incendio."

A bright wisp of an orange flame spiraled down into the pot, burning all the slugs into nothing more than black crisps that dissolved into the air. They stared in awe as they gripped their wands eagerly, though still seemed slightly anxious.

"Got it? It's easy, go on, just try it out. You do it calmly, and think small."

As the teacher walked away, Charlie looked to the girl nervously. "Well, after you."

Rhys smiled to himself before he returned to his digging. The day was already getting better.