Chapter 8
Bella's POV
I smiled to her and shrugged. "Not really."
She smiled and laughed.
I added while laughing, "But you might want to ask Harry and Ginny that."
She looked at the couple, who still had their arms around each other. "Looks like I do." She said.
Harry and Ginny were both blushing a bright red—almost as bright as Ginny's hair.
Meanwhile Alice was smiling and jumping up and down in a circle, clapping and squealing. (A/N: I can totally picture that, can't you?) "Finally!" she squealed, looking at Edward and me. "Do you two have any idea how long I've been waiting?!? Come on! Before Halloween would've been nice, ya know!"
To distract her, I offered, "Harry and Ginny have been secretly dating since last June!"
She froze for a second, shocked. "Hm…How did I not see that…? Odd."
I rolled my eyes. Alice was so predictable some times.
Harry and I had learned about the Gaunt family—Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt—Voldemort's maternal grandfather, uncle and his mother—last night from Dumbledore. We'd shared what we'd learned at breakfast.
I wasn't hungry today. My thoughts of Voldemort always took away my appetite. I played with the porridge in my bowl, rather than eating it.
I glanced up at the Head Table. All the professors were there, with only one exception: the headmaster.
Dumbledore was absent.
And it was painfully obvious that I wasn't the only one who noticed. Many of the younger ones were glancing at the empty chair worriedly.
I sighed. Hermione heard and looked at me curiously. I explained, "We're never going to have a normal school year. Never have, never will. Most normal year we had was first…unless you count when we saved the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone, of course."
Harry joined in the conversation. "I can't wait for all this to end. To be normal. Voldemort to be gone. I hope it's soon."
"Yeah," I sighed as I stood to go to class. "Me too."
Later, before classes began, we were all in the Common Room, when Alice suddenly said, "Edward?"
He looked at her questioningly.
"What's up? You look…frustrated." She said.
"It's a few of the professors. I can't read their minds very well. It's not like Bella. It's like she's not there, but with Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape…just…like a radio with a bad connection." He said.
"Occlemency!" I exclaimed. "Simple."
At that, we headed to our classes.
Our first class was a double Potions block with the Slytherins. I wasn't happy about the 'Slytherin' aspect of it, but I was almost smug. I'd overheard Malfoy and other seventh year Slytherins saying that Esme would be easy to fool and deceive. Boy, we they in for a surprise. I smirked at the thought. The Slytherins did not deserve a warning. Well…excluding the one who already knew, anyways. (A/N: First one to guess correctly gets a cyber-cookie! Hint: they are in the same year as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Not: Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, or Pansy Parkinson.)
When everyone was seated, Esme walked up to the front of the class.
I was seated up front. Edward was to my right, with Emmett and Rosalie on his other side, and Hermione on my left. Ron was beside her, go figure, and Harry beside him. Alice and Jasper were behind us.
The class fell silent. They probably weren't sure if Esme was a kinder professor, —like Lupin, Sprout, or Flitwick—a strict, mean professor (*cough*Snape*cough*), or a strict, but fair professor—like McGonagall.
"Good morning, everyone," Esme said, smiling at everyone as her motherly topaz eyes went from person to person. "I am Professor Cullen. I will be your Potions professor this year. And welcome to Potions class."
She was happy today—or so it appeared. I knew her well enough to see that she was worried as well.
"Today, we will be making the Draught of Living Death. As it is your first day back, I believe it should be an easy first assignment.
"First of all, who can tell me what it are the effects of the Draught of Living Death?"
Naturally, Hermione's hand was first up. Esme nodded to her.
"The Draught of the Living Death is an extremely powerful sleeping potion which sends the drinker into a deep trance that mimics the state of death." She recited, as if memorized from the book. Then again, she probably did, being Hermione. (A/N: Remember that potion.)
Esme nodded and smiled while praising her, "Correct, Ms. Granger. Take a well earned ten points for Gryffindor."
A/N: YAY! I got a beta! Her name is RockerGrl1321. She says hello. This chapter passed her inspection, so I posted this. Tell ya what.
If I get 20 reviews in the next half hour, then I'll update. And I'll be counting the number of people who review, so someone can' just review 8 times in a row. Sorry. ;-P REVIEW!!!
