REVISED.
"Can I leave now?"
That was the one question that Kirsten Carlisle couldn't stop repeating since she was taken to the hospital wing. Two days of hearing the blond pest moaning and groaning of how he was still in pain had driven her up the wall.
"Yes, yes, dear, you may leave in a moment," Madame Pomfrey snapped at her, bustling from her office and making her way towards the curly haired witch. A grin spread onto the Kirsten's face at the news of her soon to be release.
"Now dear, let me see your wound," Madame Pomfrey said, putting down her antidotes at the bedside table, and reaching for Kirsten's shirt.
"Honestly, Madam Pomfrey, I'm fine," Kirsten said. The woman glared at the young girl, her hands grasping her shirt. "Come on…any decency?"
"You're fine now, but you won't be if you start jumping in front of attacking hippogriffs," she said angrily, unwinding the bandage on Kirsten's lower back. With the mirror in her hand, Kirsten was able to see her back unscathed. Well with the exception of a few scars that graced her back from earlier times.
"See, not even a scratch, and it doesn't hurt either," Kirsten reassured her. The woman only scoffed at the remark, but left Kirsten's side in order to tend to Malfoy. The Gryffindor pulled on the robe of her uniform, and turned to say something scathing at the Slytherin, only to see a sling on his arm.
She looked at him in disbelief.
"Now you two, off to your classes," Madam Pomfrey commanded.
Kirsten took out her timetable from her bag to read that she had potions.
Double Potions with the Slytherins.
"Where's the Potions classroom?" Kirsten asked the woman. She threw the young witch an odd look, but the look vanished as it suddenly turned into recognition.
"Oh yes, how could I have forgotten. Potions with the Slytherins?" Madame Pomfrey asked as she read Kirsten's timetable before eyeing Malfoy. "Well you can take her there, I suppose," she said to the blond offhandedly.
The woman had to be crazy.
And obviously Madame Pomfrey didn't care that Kirsten and Malfoy were at each other's throats for the past couple days, since the young witch and wizard were walking out of the double doors of the infirmary, the nurse watching them as they went.
The black haired witch reluctantly followed behind the blond as they walked through the corridors in silence which was slightly surprising since all he did was insult her to no end.
"I see you're in with Potter's crowd already. Pathetic really."
She spoke too soon.
"You're one to talk, look at the two trolls you hang around with," she retorted, observing her surroundings. They walked down another set of stairs, and Kirsten looked suspiciously at Malfoy. The area he was leading her down toward resembled what dungeons would look like. And the further down they went, the more Kirsten confirmed that's exactly where he was leading her.
"I hang around with the right sort, unlike you, conversing with blood traitors and Mudbloods," Malfoy remarked.
"Now, now…you happen to be conversing with one," she said. "Wouldn't that tarnish your reputation?"
"Shut up, Carlisle."
He walked ahead of her and practically swaggered through the door.
Kirsten followed him through the door to be met with a class full of students. A prickling sensation swept her body as if someone were staring at her rather hard. Kirsten turned to the front of the class to see the man, who was glaring at Lupin at the feast, glaring right at her.
"Well, well, well, Carlisle. Waltzing in my class without an excused note I see. Twenty Points from Gryffindor," the man's voice was soft and contained as he spoke. But that didn't deter Kirsten in the slightest as she stared at him disbelievingly.
He had to be joking.
"Excuse me? Malfoy just came waltzing in without an excused note and you didn't do shit, yeah?" the grey eyed witch retorted without thinking. The whole class seemed to become extremely quiet as the expression on Professor Snape's face turned murderous.
"Another twenty points from Gryffindor, Carlisle. Never speak with such disrespect to me. We are not in a Muggle school where you run amok. Take a seat, or I will give you a detention for a week," he snapped.
She had an inkling she'd have an asshole for a teacher. It wouldn't be school without that one teacher. But did it have to be one of the primary subjects?
Forty points were out of the bag and she hadn't even taken a seat yet.
Kirsten glanced around at the class and rolled her eyes, careful for Professor Snape not to see her. She didn't want to have anymore points docked off.
Unfortunately for her, the only empty seat available happened to be next to Malfoy, Harry seated on the other side of him. She made her way to the empty seat.
"Switch places with me, Malfoy," Kirsten whispered.
"No," he replied. She opened her mouth, but closed it seeing Professor Snape throw her a glare, expecting her to say something rude to Malfoy. She wouldn't give him any excuses and instead kept her mouth shut.
Professor Snape carried on the lesson, informing the class that they had to create a Shrinking Solution. As soon as Snape turned away from Kirsten, she glared at the blond next to her.
"Switch seats with me, prick," she told him, slamming her knife next to her cauldron. He glared at the grey eyed witch while Ron and Harry sniggered, but his lips curved up into a smirk as he looked back and forth between the three.
"Sir," Malfoy called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because my arm—"
"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," Snape said without looking up from his desk.
Ron's face turned brick red.
"There's nothing wrong with your arm," the redhead hissed at Malfoy, but this only got the blond to smirk again.
"Weasley, you heard Professor Snape; cut up these roots."
Kirsten, who was finished slicing her roots carefully, watched Ron seize his knife and chop Malfoy's roots roughly.
"Professor," Malfoy drawled, "Weasley's mutilating my roots, sir." Snape approached their table, examined the disgustingly chopped roots Ron chopped, and gave Ron an unpleasant smile.
"Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley."
"But, sir—"
"Now," Snape said in a dangerous voice. Ron reluctantly slid his beautifully cut roots to Malfoy, and kept the mutilated roots.
"And, sir, I'll need this shrivelfig skinned," Malfoy said, his voice filled with desire to laugh maliciously at them.
"Potter, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfig," Snape said, and Kirsten noted that he threw Harry a look of loathing similar to how he's looked at her.
With the man's vicious behavior, Kirsten was actually surprised Snape didn't demand anything of her. She watched as Harry took Malfoy's shrivelfig and began skinning it fast. The black haired witch glanced over at Ron, who was having trouble repairing his roots and rolled her eyes.
"Ron, switch your roots with mine," she told him.
All three boys stared at the witch in surprise.
"Kirsten, you're kidding…right?" Ron asked, unsure himself about her sabotaging her own potion.
"Just give them to me. It's not as if it'll make a difference with my grade in this class," Kirsten said, eyeing Snape from the corner of her eye and shrugged her shoulders. "The man hates me."
Before Ron could say anything further, she grabbed his cutting board and switched it with hers. "Besides, I have to take extra potions with him to catch up…"
"Thanks, Kirsten," Ron said, gratitude displayed on his face. "You're a lifesaver."
"Yeah, I know," she replied, throwing a smile his way and getting back to her own work.
"Seen your pal Hagrid lately?"
She almost forgot the Slytherin was sitting next to her with how quiet it was for the past several minutes. Of course he had to ruin her peace.
"None of your business," Ron said jerkily, without looking up.
"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," Malfoy said, a note of mock sorrow in his voice. "Father's not very happy about my injury —"
"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury," Ron snarled.
"—he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this"—he gave a huge and fake sigh—"who knows if my arm'll ever be the same again?"
"So that's why you're putting it on," Harry said angrily. "To try to get Hagrid fired."
"Well," Malfoy said, and then he lowered his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. But there are other benefits too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me."
"Orange, Longbottom," Kirsten heard Snape say and turned her head to see a frightened Neville with Snape looking down at him. "Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"
It was like Malfoy and Snape practiced to be complete asses together. Tag teaming Gryffindors seemed to be a sport for them.
"Please, sir," Hermione said, "please, I could help Neville put it right —"
"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," Snape said coldly, and Hermione turned just as pink as Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly." Snape went away, but Neville's condition hadn't gotten any better.
"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione.
"Hey, Harry," an Irish accent called out near their table. Kirsten turned to see Seamus Finnigan leaning over Harry's brass scales, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning—they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted."
Kirsten narrowed her eyes at Seamus.
"Where?" Ron and Harry asked quickly. From beside her, Kirsten saw Malfoy leaning his head closer to Harry and Ron.
"Not too far from here," Seamus said, looking excited. "It was a Muggle who saw him. "Course, she didn't really understand. The Muggles think he's just an ordinary criminal, don't they? So she phoned the telephone hot line. By the time the Ministry of Magic got there, he was gone."
Ron, Harry, and Kirsten shared a look between one another. The conversation they had on the train was the last time they had talked about Black. But now that the topic was brought back, Kirsten couldn't help but think about it.
"Not too far from here….," Ron repeated, shooting a significant glance at Harry, and they both turned to Kirsten and shared the same look once again. "What, Malfoy? Need something else skinned?"
Kirsten looked closely at Malfoy, and noticed his eyes were shining malevolently while fixed on Harry.
"Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Potter?"
"Yeah, that's right," Harry replied offhandedly. Kirsten raised an eyebrow at Harry's remark.
"Of course, if it was me," Malfoy said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out there looking for him."
She narrowed her eyes at the contents of her cauldron, not looking Malfoy in the eyes.
The git knew something.
"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" Ron asked roughly.
"Don't you know, Potter?" Malfoy breathed out.
"Know what?"
The blond boy let out a low, sneering laugh.
"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked angrily.
"You should have finished adding your ingredients by now; this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers and then we'll test Longbottom's…." Professor Snape said, interrupting the conversation between Harry and Malfoy. But Kirsten couldn't help but think what Malfoy had said. Revenge?
So far of what she knew, Sirius Black was after Harry. So what exactly would Harry be vengeful for?
That question was left unanswered as end of the lesson soon came around and Professor Snape strode over to Neville and his cauldron. The potionsmaster was severely disappointed to find that Neville was able to procure a perfect Shrinking Solution.
"Five points from Gryffindor," Snape said. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."
Kirsten grabbed her bag and head out of the class.
"He is the biggest ass in the world," Kirsten stated as they left the room. Ron and Harry grinned in her direction.
"Kirsten, you shouldn't – "
"Told you so," Ron said, interrupting the bushy haired witch. The curly haired witch couldn't hold in her shock much longer at how ridiculous the Potions professor was.
"I mean really! Five points off because the potion was all right? He seriously has something against all Gryffindors! And Malfoy! That son-of-a—ARGG!" something pushed Kirsten aside from them and she looked to see the blond haired demon himself.
"Careful Carlisle, you don't want to injure my arm, do you?" Malfoy drawled, passing by them with Goyle and Crabbe guffawing.
If she couldn't take out her anger directly on Malfoy...
Her eyes landed on the large boy next to him.
"Come on," she muttered, speeding up near Crabbe. She pulled out her leg slightly, catching Crabbe's leg and causing him to tumble down. He wasn't the only one to do so as he grabbed Goyle, who ended up incidentally slamming Malfoy against the stone wall.
The curly haired witch's eyes widened slightly at the chain reaction but a smile spread on her lips as she heard others in the corridor laugh at their misfortune. Walking passed the three fallen Slytherin, she turned her head to look at them.
"I guess what goes around really does come around, huh?" she said, smiling down at the blond Slytherin. She waited for Ron, Harry, and Hermione to catch up with her before the four students continued their way up toward the common room.
"You just made my day, Kirsten," Harry said, grin bright as day on his face.
"Honestly, why couldn't you be here during first year?" Ron said, turning to look at Kirsten. "Where's Hermione? She was just here?"
Kirsten frowned at his question.
What was he -
Glancing to her right, Hermione was no longer beside her. She swore she recalled Hermione standing right next to her just a second ago.
"There she is," Harry said, pointing behind them. Kirsten sped up to Hermione, with Harry and Ron following, wondering how the hell the young witch fell behind them so fast.
Grey eyes landed on a sliver of gold around Hermione's neck before the bushy haired witch tucked the chain away into her robes.
"How did you do that?" Ron asked, as both him and Harry both meet up with the two witches.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"One minute you were right behind us, the next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again."
"What?" Hermione asked once again, looking slightly confused. "Oh — I had to go back for something. Oh no —" At least a dozen large books spilled out of Hermione's bag, from a ripped seam.
"Why are you carrying all these around with you?" Ron asked her.
"You know how many subjects I'm taking," Hermione replied breathlessly. "Couldn't hold these for me, could you?" She handed Ron a couple of books, who flipped it over to take a look at the cover.
"You haven't got any of these subjects today. It's only Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon."
"Oh yes," Hermione said vaguely, but she packed all her books back in her bag. "I hope there's something good for lunch, I'm starving."