Disclaimer!

These characters do not belong to me nor do I make any money off this story. I am merely writing Fan Fiction. The characters belong to their respective author. I hope you enjoy Joining Forces.

Ron POV:

"Can't believe they left so soon," I said, lazily looking over a few notes I took from Potions Class today. I threw a few fake jabs into the air. "I was getting good at their lessons."

"Not all of them left," Harry said. "But there was probably something that happened back at America. Can't say I blame them, a lot of odd things have been occurring lately." He analyzed the newspaper in front of him for a while longer, the pictures moving slowly. Some people still had an air of confidence around them, but others looked more perturbed. "Ah, the ministry," I remarked. "Another someone blaming Kingsley? Ridiculous, the man's already been doing enough. The ministry hasn't looked so good in ages, it isn't his faults that there are still a bunch of rotten apples. It takes so long to weed out. After we graduate, we should really go over and help him."

"Definitely." Harry agreed as he compared the listed result on his textbook to what he had so far and scrunched his nose slightly. At the front, Slughorn was rushing forward to the front of the classroom where a student had almost dropped a jar. "The boomslang skin! Did any of the ingredients fall onto that table?"

Ignoring him, we continued to complete our potions. Sometimes sneaking in glances at the newspaper we didn't get the chance to read that morning. "What is it this time?" Hermione asked, peering over to take a glance. "Just the usual, employees goofing off and causing trouble. Some illegal cases found such as theft, fraudery. It really is a basket full of bad apples."

"Speaking of bad apples," I looked at whatever was swirling in my cauldron. "Hermione do you know how to fix this?"

Hermione took a few glances around my table along with what was rumbling in the cauldron and shook her head. "Ron, the Valerian Sprigs weren't supposed to be cut so largely. Did you stir clockwise or counter? How many times? Pay closer attention, or else we'll never know what surprise Professor Slughorn has for us."

"What is so interesting that he would classify as a surprise?" I asked, trying to continue on with the instructions, but finding results still varying.

"Some new potions he hasn't taught us." Hermione answered quickly. "New knowledge, discoveries!"

"Exactly, he would have to tell us this stuff anyway." I countered. "He's a teacher."

"Oh, Ron! Be careful with the Occamy eggs!" She quickly grabbed my wrists, directing me to softly place them in the water until they sunk deep into the cauldron. "If you have trouble early on, just tell me. It's not as if I'm unwilling to help, but I really want to know what Professor has for us."

"I...I understand." It's not that I wanted to make her unhappy, but rather, I truly didn't see the intrigue of Slughorn's class. I still tried naturally, but at the end it was more of less the same results.

"Harry, Hermione!" Slughorn remarked as he reached our table. As expected, already invisible to him. "What wonderful results I see here." Looking towards me, his eyes traced my cauldron to me a couple of times before shaking his head. "Rowen, what have you done? Knotgrass is not that difficult to find, you don't need to add so little."

"My name is Ron," I muttered. "Not Rowen, or Randy, or-" But Slughorn had already moved on, praising Percy on his excellent ratio of Boomslang skin and how well he stirred it. I rolled my eyes.

After going through the class, he went to the front with a pleased smile. He unveiled a table that was hidden before. On it was a collection of disassembled body parts such as eyeballs, horns, and hooves. "What do you know," I whispered to Harry and Hermione. "I think Slughorn is taking a side hobby as a butcher. I don't think he's doing a good job though, that table looks nasty."

Harry held back a snicker while Hermione gave me a little jab, smiling secretly.

"Professor?" Percy was the first one to speak. "Might you tell us about your work?"

"This, my students," Slughorn proudly beamed. "Is your surprise today. Yesterday, I found the strangest creature near the Black Lake, I called Hagrid over however he didn't know what it was either! However, it was dead, just lying there. I insisted to inspect and dissect it which Dumbledore agreed after a heated argument with him and Hagrid as the opposition."

"It's a random dead creature?" A student who had a fairly good potion asked as she cleaned up her space. "I wonder why Professor Dumbledore wouldn't want it in the school. Won't it smell?"

"Strangely enough, it doesn't really have a scent. I spent much time anatomizing it, didn't even leave for the Quidditch matches. Only left when I needed to eat and when so, I cast a strong protection charm over it. Can't have anything happening to the specimen, can I?"

"Of course not," I said. "It's so...interesting?"

"Very much so," Hermione nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Hermione, you should know this more than anyone else." Slughorn, approval sinking deep into his voice, said. "If something new appears, I for sure want to know what it can be used for, what makes it tick—of course the creature was already slain when I found it, however I feel I can still make progress."

"What are you going to do to its body parts when you finish?"

"Probably experiment a bit, see what they can do, what new potions I can make. I do have to be careful though, I only have so much,"

"Interesting!" I remarked, nodding my head. "And how much have you dissected so far?"

"Not too much yet." Slughorn continued, too invested to really notice that the majority of the class didn't seem too intrigued. "I've been taking my time analyzing each aspect, but to make sure the other parts of the body doesn't rot I cast a charm on it."

"What did the creature look like?" Percy asked. "A bull?"

"Nothing I've seen before. The top part of its body was a bull yes, however the bottom was a snake,"

"A creature that is half-bull, half-snake?" Percy repeated faintly.

"It's like the minotaur Hagrid found only with the rest of it half-snake rather than half-human." Hermione said. "Perhaps it's another creature from Greek mythology, I only skimmed some of the books because I was eager to find out about the minotaur. I don't think I've read about a half bull half snake yet."

"I hope it's not a named creature," Slughorn said. "I've been thinking of what I could call the species. What do you think of the Slughornace?"

I thought it was ridiculous.

"Where do you think it came from?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not sure. I have been going to the Forbidden Forest more often as of late, but all I find there is whatever was always there. And some grey squirrels, though you shouldn't do anything yourself as of late. Don't worry too much though, leave this to the professionals like your good professor. This is a marvelous surprise, isn't it? I see you all are as excited as I am!"

"Yup," Percy nodded. "Brimming with joy right now."

Nira - Aw, thank you!

Raven's Arrow - I thought it was unlikely for others to hit on them since they were already in couples which was well-known.

James Birdsong - Hope you continue reading!