Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Breakfast found me munching my way through a piece of toast. Out of my three friends, I was the first one awake and in the Great Hall. There were other members of the houses up already and scattered about the Great Hall.
Will groggily collapsed into the seat next to me after a bit. "Food," he said reverently, ladling a generous portion of scrambled eggs onto his plate before grabbing three slices of toast and pouring himself a tall glass of pumpkin juice.
"You know, I've never seen anyone eat as much as you," I commented idly, watching him shoveling his breakfast into his mouth at record speed. "It's almost as if you hadn't eaten in three days."
"I'm a growing man," Will mumbled through a bite of a muffin.
I just shook my head in amusement as more students trickled into the hall. At quarter to eight, Dumbledore walked down the table, handing out schedules to each student. "Where's Margaret?" Will asked, finally surfacing for air from his breakfast.
"Still asleep." I shrugged. "You know how she is. If she doesn't come down soon, I'll wake her up in time for her first class."
Dumbledore reached the two of us. "Ah, Miss Linden." He waved his wand over the blank sheet of parchment, and my classes appeared. "Here you go." Accepting my schedule with a word of thanks, I looked it over as Dumbledore proceeded to Will.
As Dumbledore worked to sort out Will's schedule, I finished my last bit of breakfast. Once Dumbledore had reasoned with Will's thick skull about which classes he should take, he cheerfully went on to battle with another student.
Will looked over his schedule and groaned. "Double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs."
"What's wrong with the Hufflepuffs?" I asked, confused.
"Nothing!" Will protested. "I just don't want to go to Herbology."
"What's wrong with Herbology?"
As Will floundered around, trying to come up with an answer, I grabbed his schedule out of his hands. "You have nothing to complain about! Herbology first, then a free period, then Defense Against the Dark Arts? What's wrong with today?"
Will put on a look of suffer-in-silence, and took his schedule back from me. Rolling my eyes, I studied my schedule again before standing up. "Are you done?"
He hesitated, giving the platter of sausages a longing look. Letting out a sigh, he swung his leg around the bench. "Yeah. Let's go."
As we exited the Great Hall, Will grabbed my shoulder. "Look!" Confused, I turned my head to see a bunch of Slytherins heading our way. Glancing back, I saw that my companion had an excited smile on his face while plunging his hand into his robes for his wand. "A duel!"
Seeing that Tom Riddle was in the lead, I shoved Will away from the entrance. "They're just going to breakfast. Like they'd pick a fight in front of a prefect."
"Riddle would be on their side though!" Will argued as the Slytherins approached the entrance, each scowling at us in turn except for Riddle, who didn't even spare us a glance.
I rolled my eyes. "I meant Elizabeth." I pointed to where Elizabeth was standing across from us, talking with a Hufflepuff sixth year, Charles Baker.
"Oh."
Shaking my head, I tugged his arm and we hurried up to Gryffindor Tower. Once up in the dormitory, I saw tufts of dark hair peeking out from the crimson covers. A mischievous grin crossed my face and I lifted my wand.
BANG!
The covers flew off of Margaret and hit the opposite wall. Said person shot straight up, her knotted hair hanging in her face, and her eyes bleary with sleep. "What?"
"You have," I checked my watch, "twenty minutes till classes start."
Margaret blinked at me for a moment before comprehension dawned on her face. Scrambling out of bed she raced out of the room and into the sixth and seventh year's bathroom. I chuckled while opening my trunk. Putting the necessary things into my schoolbag, I unpacked a bit. Margaret had soon returned, ready for the day. Her hair was dry and neat and she looked more alert.
"Did I miss breakfast?" she asked, grabbing her schoolbag and scrambling to collect a couple scattered quills and searching for a missing jar of ink.
I tossed it to her. "Almost. You still have time if you hurry."
She nodded and started to race towards the door in determination. "Margaret!" I called.
Margaret turned around, frustrated. "What?"
I pointed mutely to her bedside table. Grumbling to herself, Margaret walked over and grabbed her wand before going back out the door with me following behind her, a smirk on my face.
In the Entrance Hall, Margaret left me to go to Muggle Studies, while I joined Will by the door. We exited and strolled across the lawn, chatting about the upcoming Quidditch tryouts. Well, Will was chatting about it. I inserted the proper response every once in a while. I liked watching Quidditch well enough, but playing it was a different matter.
As we entered Greenhouse 6, Professor Beery was waiting for us. A couple Hufflepuffs were already there, and laughing about something. "Hello, Linden and Harrison," Beery greeted us cheerfully. "Glad to see that you're taking N.E.W.T. level Herbology!"
"I'm happy to be here, sir," I replied, while surreptitiously kicking Will. He started slightly, before mumbling something along the lines of an agreement. Beery didn't seem to notice as another Hufflepuff student entered the greenhouse, and he turned his attention to her.
Will and I positioned ourselves on the other side of the table from the Hufflepuffs. I recognized them. Rose Wood waved at me cheerfully. "Hello, Ella! How was your summer?"
"Fine. How's yours?" I asked, smiling at her.
"Great!" Rose replied enthusiastically. "My younger brother Robert entered Hogwarts this year. He's in Gryffindor."
I racked my brains. "He's the small one with brown hair, right?"
"There's three of those with that description," Will muttered to my right. I stomped on his foot, and he winced, looking at me indignantly.
Rose laughed. "Yeah, that's what he looks like. He's obsessed with Quidditch, so you might want to watch out. He'll probably attempt to tryout for Quidditch, though it's not allowed for first years."
Will straightened up, a gleam in his eyes. "A fellow Quidditch fan!"
"Or competition for your spot as Beater?" I mentioned nonchalantly, causing Will to shoot his famous scowl at me.
"Alright," Beery called. "Everyone seems to be here, so we might as well start!" He went through the curriculum with us, and explained that although we weren't taking N.E.W.T.s till the end of our seventh year, we still had to study hard for them. He concluded by telling us about our first lesson in Herbology this year - the Venomous Tentacula.
Glancing at Will during the description of this plant, I saw that he was staring at Beery, enraptured in the lesson. I grinned to myself before looking back at the Herbology professor. Of course Will would be all for tackling with dangerous, man-eating plants. Dumbledore is one smart guy.
The lesson passed quickly and soon I found myself back inside the castle and heading down towards the dungeons, dread beginning to grow in me. Neither Will or Margaret were taking the N.E.W.T. level Potions class, and I was hoping against hope that I didn't have to have a partner in this class.
Everyone was already filling into the classroom when I made it down there, causing me to be at the back of the line. Once inside, and my eyes settled to the dim glow of the room, my heart plummeted when I saw that there were no available seats on the Gryffindor section. Elizabeth and Lydia shot me sympathetic looks as I turned to look at the Slytherin section of the room. There was only one seat available, and that was next to…
This day just took a nosedive for the worst.
Slughorn appeared behind me, making me jump. "Ah, Miss Linden. It seems that there is a seat available next to Mr. Riddle for you."
Everyone in the room turned to look at me except for my soon-to-be seatmate. Admitting defeat, I slunk over and sat in the chair next to Riddle, refusing to look at him. As Slughorn started the lesson from the front of the room, I turned my attention towards him and tried to ignore the imposing figure of the Slytherin prefect next to me.
As Slughorn finished describing the effects of the Draught of Living Death, he cheerfully released us off to go complete the potion with our partners. Reluctantly I had to admit to myself that I did in fact have to speak to Riddle. When the curse takes me somewhere else, they had better do away with having to work with partners in Potions. My partner had always been Margaret, which is why she always managed to have a passing grade in the class. Potions, thanks to a friend of mine from the distant past, was a strong suit of mine.
Flipping open my book to the correct page, I scanned the list of ingredients. "I'll go grab these," I muttered to the table before walking over to the student ingredient cabinet. Elizabeth and a couple Slytherins were already there. Elizabeth, hanging back while the Slytherins were busy grabbing ingredients, cast me a guilty look. "I'm sorry, Ella. I didn't-"
I waved my hand. "Don't worry about it. It's just for Potions class." The sour note in my voice didn't convince her, though. Seeing that the Slytherins had finished gathering their ingredients, I pushed my way forward and grabbed everything that I needed before returning to my seat. In my absence, Riddle had already filled the cauldron with water and added the African sea salt and was letting it sit while he examined the rest of the instructions.
I deposited the ingredients down on the table before sitting back down and dragging the book towards me, checking over the next step. I felt Riddle glance at me. "You do not need to pretend to do the work. I would rather do all the work than get a less desirable grade in this class." His tone was icy, and I felt anger boil inside of me.
I snapped my head up to glare into his cold dark eyes. "I do not need to 'pretend' to do the work, Riddle. I am in this class for a reason." Tense with anger, I grabbed the vial of Infusion of Wormwood and poured it into the cauldron. The liquid hissed slightly before turning a bright green.
Riddle didn't reply but I could feel his arrogant disdain without needing to look at his face. As he added the powdered root of asphodel, I picked up my wand and proceeded to make it stir two times clockwise. There was a tense silence between us for a while until I glanced over to see what he was doing.
Riddle was frowning in concentration at the Sopophorous bean, a silver knife in his hand. I smirked slightly, realizing I knew something that he didn't. "Crush it with the flat of the blade," I told him.
His eyes snapped to mine. "The instructions say cut."
"The instructions are wrong." I picked up my quill and made a note to it out of habit before turning my attention back to the cauldron.
"Where did you learn that?" he asked quietly, an edge to his voice. I noticed that he unwillingly crushed it, causing juice to pour out of it. Riddle scooped it up and tossed it into the cauldron before turning to stare at me, waiting for an answer.
I merely ignored him and picked up my wand, making the potion stir counterclockwise. When I counted to seven, I added a clockwise stir, causing the potion to become a shade of pale pink. Making a mark in my book to add a clockwise stir after the seven counterclockwise, I put my quill down. Sighing in relief that the potion was finished, I leaned back in my chair and glanced around to the other cauldrons in the room, determinedly ignoring the Slytherin prefect beside me. No one had achieved the proper shade like our potion…
When I chanced a glance at Riddle, I noticed that he was staring at the book where I had changed the instructions. He looked at me, and gave me a charismatic smile that made me hesitate in surprise. "You must be good at Potions," he said. His face looked more welcoming and the smile seemed to light up the room.
Irritation swept through me. I knew what he was trying to do. Letting out a huff, I grabbed my Potions book and rifled through the pages, looking for something to occupy my time with and hopefully make Riddle leave me alone.
Pain pierced in the centre of my forehead, and I stiffened. Immediately, I let the song Dies Irae from Mozart's Requiem fill my mind. The orchestra and booming voices of the choir drowned out any other thought or picture. My eyes flashed up to Riddle's, who looked slightly taken aback, before smoothing his features into a blank mask. The pain disappeared, and I warily let the music fade.
Riddle turned to face the front, acting like nothing had happened. I was on my guard, though. Knowing that Riddle could do Legilimency earned him another point of suspicion, and especially the fact that he used it on me. I had to be careful around him. If he was to find out about the curse… Looks like I'll need to find someone to teach me Occlumency. Why didn't I leap at the chance when Edgar Ward offered all those years ago?
Slughorn stopped in front of our cauldron, beaming as soon as he caught sight of the color. He delicately dropped the leaf he had been holding into our cauldron, and we watched as it disintegrated. "Ten points to both Gryffindor and Slytherin!" Slughorn boomed in delightment. "A wonderfully made potion. I would expect nothing less from my two top Potions students!"
"Thank you, sir," Riddle said in the charming voice he reserved for teachers and the rest of the student body. Was it because he knew I already distrusted him that he didn't bother to use it on me?
Before Slughorn could say anything, the bell rang. Immediately I stuffed my things into my book bag and swept out of the room, hurrying up the stone steps out of the dungeons and into the Entrance hall. Taking a deep breath to steady my fluttering heart, I walked into the Great Hall for lunch.
Out of my friends, I was the first one there. Seating myself in my usual spot along the table, I pulled a platter of chicken towards me, moodily piling things onto my plate, losing myself in my thoughts. I've liked being in this time. It's been fun going through Hogwarts with Will and Margaret. I feel like I need to be careful, though. Something about Riddle doesn't seem normal. I thought back to all the classes Slytherin and Gryffindor had together over the years, and to the scuffle by the carriages. He's gifted at magic, more than what I've seen in a long time. That one I need to watch. I don't want to know what would happen if he was to find out about my curse.
I took another deep breath. Just get through the next year and a half. May 2, 1945. That's when I leave this time. Then I won't have to ever deal with Tom Riddle again.
"What's got you in such a mood?" Margaret asked, settling herself next to me on the bench. "How was Potions? Glad to be rid of it, personally."
"I'm partnered with Riddle," I muttered to my plate.
Margaret stopped and stared at me. "Are you joking?" At the sight of my expression, she said, "Okay, not joking."
"Not joking about what?" Will piped up, seating himself across from us and pulling a platter of sandwiches towards him. "I'm starving."
"Riddle and Ella are partners in Potions," Margaret informed him.
Will paused in chewing, gaping at me. After a moment, a grin curled around his face. "Dis is gweat!" He paused for a moment, swallowing, before returning to say, "Ella! You have an opportunity. Find out his weakness so we can defeat him in battle!"
"You've been hanging out with Peter too much," I told him crossly.
"It's a tradition!" Will sounded insulted. "Gryffindors and Slytherins must continue to battle for years to come!"
"I'll make sure of that," I mumbled into my drink.
"Anyway, we have DADA after lunch. That's always fun to go to," Margaret said, steering the conversation away from my unfortunate Potions experience.
Will brightened. "Maybe we'll learn more jinxes!"
"Or maybe about a Dark creature," I said mildly.
"Leave that to Care of Magical Creatures. I want to learn more about fighting." Will was adamant in this. "Maybe we could form a dueling club. Didn't there used to be one?"
"It got disbanded after several brawls between Slytherins and Gryffindors happened. It was a little too intense, apparently." I grinned at the memory. Hugh Turner had been in the middle of it all. Will reminded me a lot of him; both were the model Gryffindor.
Will was not to be deterred. "I'm sure that we can convince Dippet to let us form one again."
Margaret nodded thoughtfully. "It would be fun, you have to admit."
My mind flashed to hazy memories of dueling. I had always signed up whenever it was offered. I grinned slightly as a dim memory of me blasting Hugh off his feet with an incantation passed through my mind. Maybe this would be a good idea after all.
My companions chatted about plans for the dueling club. Peter, who was coming from his Transfiguration class, was immediately interested in the idea and helped plan, slipping in different jinxes he thought would work against particular Slytherin students. "What is with everyone being obsessed with battling Slytherins in this time?" I muttered into my pumpkin juice.
A/N
Hello, and welcome back to the next chapter! Thank you for all the follows and favorites, and a big thank you to Guest, Extended Experience, and Cassie-D1 for your reviews! I'm really glad that you like my story so far!
I should have the next chapter up pretty soon.
Please review!
(Any fellow Sherlockians out there who are excited/scared for the third episode tomorrow?)