It was Sunday night and a number of the first year Slytherins were sat in their designated corner of circle of chairs. They had an array of textbooks, parchments and quills out, scrawling out answers to their required homework.
Crabbe and Goyle sat together, writing a few words they came up together before spending the next five to ten minutes scouring their textbooks and thinking of ways to write their next sentence. Ink splodges decorated their parchments.
Daphne Greengrass wrote straight backed, her hand gliding across the parchment, not particularly caring about the resulting grade, as long as it was an Acceptable to prevent the nagging of her parents. She had already looked up what was needed to hit specific targets and so had a structure to get as many as she could be bothered with.
Pansy Parkinson bounced her foot as she flipped through her books, trying to find the right excerpt so that it could be said that a token effort had been made. Her parents weren't too fussed on her education. She was to be a Pureblood wife, who's know how needed to be centred over politics and schmoozing. Nothing that could be gained from the classes here - it was all about the environment and the atmosphere.
Avery spent more time calling out to others in the common room than actively working. Only the sharp reminded from Draco of his dad's expectations would briefly return his attention to his work.
Draco Malfoy was reading through his answers, scouring them for any grammar or spelling mistakes, adding in anecdotes he thought may bump up a mark or two. Both his parents took pride in his intelligence, and, his mum especially, catered to his every whim and new avenue of knowledge he could add to. He had his own area of their library, filled with a variety of books and encyclopaedias from dragons to history to quidditch and more.
Blaise Zabini, like Daphne, seemed to endlessly write. However, unlike her, he ensured that he encompassed as much information as possible. He too knew what the boundaries were for each grade - his mother had taught him to always mark out people's expectations - and he wanted to eke out the best he could. He knew he wasn't Outstanding level, after all this was his first week, and he knew he wasn't nearly as brainy as Theodore was, nor as retentive as Draco.
Theodore Nott was buried in a book, flicking through the pages to make sure that this last essay he needed to finish didn't miss anything glaringly obvious. He knew he would be remed out by his father for any grade less than an Outstanding, not because he cared about them, but he was preoccupied on how it would reflect on him. Theo didn't do this for his sire though, he did it for his mum who encouraged his thirst for knowledge.
The final person of the group gathered was Aster Potter. She had hidden herself to the back so that, although she was stuck in the corner, she had the scope of the room, keeping an eye on the huddled trio of the remaining first year Slytherins, who had already proven to be holier-than-thou. She had Theo on one side of her, his shoulder brushing hers whenever she fidgeted to relieve some of the tension she felt from being in such a big group. On her other was, surprisingly, Malfoy. He didn't really acknowledge her existence, but he didn't really do that with anyone it seemed. He also liked to spread his books out, making it difficult for Aster to not jostle them when she went back to one of hers.
She was rather impressed with herself. She had finished all her work, and unlike Theo, didn't feel the need to check them over religiously. If she passed, great, if she didn't, then the feedback will help her in future. It's not as if she wanted to do badly or undersell her capabilities, but after so long being in a school where if she did better than her cousin resulted in a severe scolding and at worse a smack, it was a novel thing to actually put work in.
It was strange being around people who didn't immediately shun her. There were looks of mild distaste from Greengrass and Avery, and Crabbe and Goyle looked confused - but she was quickly learning that was their default expression. Pansy seemed pleased by her being there, although a little put out that Malfoy was sitting next to her (she wasn't entirely sure if it was because she wanted to sit next to Aster herself or be the sole person next to him. It could easily go either way). Blaise pouted when Theo plonked down into the seat on her left, and nearly flew into a fit when Malfoy dropped down on her left, leaving Blaise no choice but to sit on the other side of Theo.
"Right. That's it. I'm officially calling it quits on studying time. For all of us." Blaise announced.
Pansy sighed in relief, "Thank Gods. My hand aches after all of that."
Daphne rolled up her parchment with a delicate shrug, "You needn't write so much. Just write key phrases and move on."
"Then why'd they ask for certain lengths then?" The gormless voice of Crabbe piped up.
Daphne would've rolled her eyes if it wasn't wasted on him. "Torture purposes, clearly."
The two oafs made a jointed "aah" sound and nodded like it made perfect sense. That time she did roll her eyes.
"Crabbe, Goyle," Malfoy spoke up as he finished off a sentence, "I know it's difficult, but don't be totally dense." At their confused looks, he sighed. "She's being facetious you idiots." More confused looks. "She's being sarcastic. Merlin you two are thick." He mumbled at them.
Pansy and Daphne packed their things up and took theirs and Aster's books back up to their dorm, giggling and gossiping as they went. When Aster turned around, Avery had disappeared.
"Where's Avery gone?"
Malfoy shrugged as he stretched his arms out. "No idea. Gone to pester his sister? He's going to completely flounder when she leaves."
Blaise snorted, "And it'll be hilarious. Wonder who he'd stick himself to then."
"It'll only be for a year that he'll be on his own." Theo added without looking up from his book, before pausing. "Unless he has to repeat a year, of course."
Malfoy sniggered. "Only one year? Feeling charitable there, aren't you?"
Aster looked from the three of them as they spoke, feeling more lost at their snipes at the boy. Seeing her expression Blaise explained.
"Avery has always been a little, er, slow. To say the least. I think his parents are actually hinging on their daughter to do the family business instead."
Malfoy barked a laugh, "I think you mean they're hinging on her husband to look after the business." He flashed a grin at Aster, "She's not the brightest candle there is either. It's probably all the inbreeding."
Theo rolled his eyes. "Come off it, Draco. The Black's are worst for that and you're related to them."
Aster was horrorfied - she was Heir to an incestuous line? Bloody hell.
" All of you are slightly inbred, to be fair. Yes even you Fair Flower." Blaise grinned, straightening non existent lapels. "The Zabinis, however, have had little to do with the British Sacred Twenty-eight."
"But the Sacred Twenty-eight doesn't encompass every Pureblood family." Aster interjected with a frown. "It skipped over families who wouldn't give a generous donation to the git who wrote it up."
Malfoy scowled. "Who told you that?" His father had told him from a young age that the Decree involved every true Pure family. Even the wretched Weasley were on there.
Aster shrugged. "My Grandfather. He was there when it was being written. Apparently those who he didn't particularly like or was offended by were conveniently left out for some reason." Aster shifted up on her chair to sit cross legged before continuing. "Like the Potters. He said he didn't include us as it's a common Muggle name, but my dad's dad, or his dad - I can't quite get it right in my head - had basically told him to stuff it." Aster bit her lip before continuing in a quieter voice. "He, the author I mean, hasn't included other British lines. He's got English ones down fine, even a couple of Scottish but no Welsh or Irish."
Malfoy sat back at that, frowning as he took it in. "Nott, I thought it was one of yours who wrote it."
Nott looked amused at him. "I hardly know what my own father does on his own time, let alone some man who decided that an unofficial Decree would've thought." He looked pensive for a moment before snorting, "although I wouldn't be surprised if Aster was right. It wouldn't be too far out of the realms of possibility that he was a jealous and prejudiced person."
"Well, whether it's wholly true is beyond the point, it at least gives us a basis on who the best Purebloods are." Malfoy sniffed before getting up to a chess set by the window of the lake, barking for Theo to join him.
Blaise slid over to Theo's now vacant chair. "For such a smart guy," he muttered, "he sure doesn't pick up things a lot."
Aster shared an amused glance with him at that. She was still unsure on whether to trust the two boys over their indifference over Blood Status; after all, they'd have spent so much time listening to it being preached, that wouldn't it still effect them? Aster herself had spent a decade being told she was worthless, unloved and unwanted and, despite having evidence of the contrary, still felt like this to be true. Like one day, one moment, that her Grandfather, Theo and Blaise, hell even the portraits of her parents, will sneer and turn away.
Blaise considered her profile, the reflection of the candles dancing across the lenses of her glasses and the way she was abusing her bottom lip again with her teeth. She was fiddling with her hands again, twitching them in a random pattern. Blaise exhaled lowly. Whoever had doubted her self worth was due some serious pain. And luckily for him, his mother thrived on punishing abusers. It's how she got her moniker after all, the Black Widow.
However, he knew that no amount of assurances that she was not what they said (or what he could imagine she was told) would change her mind, it would only be through actions. He may only be eleven, twelve next month, but he had seen enough to have a childish idea on what to do. He was his mother's son after all. And if he asked her help in getting his friend to see her own worth? Well, nobody needed to know.
For now, he sat with her and talked to her about his time across Europe with his mother, making her laugh at incredulous stories, divulging not quite secrets to her, and outlining the hierarchy of the common room in vague and hilarious terms.
The clock had just struck eleven when Aster turned to Blaise with a beaming smile. "Thanks, Blaise."
"For what?" He asked bemused.
"For making me laugh. And giving me a brief lesson on who's who in here without drawing attention to it."
"No idea what you're talking about, Potter." Blaise sniffed.
Aster smirked. "Of course not. Well. Goodnight." She told him before picking up Binky who had made a nest on the floor at their feet and moving off to the dorms.
For a change she felt like she had almost slept relatively well. She still woke up with her heart beating a little too fast, and sweat clung to her, but for once she didn't remember why. After checking the time, she slipped into the shower, scrubbing all the grime of her forgotten nightmare away before deciding to just pull her tangle of hair into a ponytail, not bothering to make sure there were no escaped tangles. It was out of her face for the most part which is what she wanted.
Walking back into the room, she noticed that Greengrass was sitting on the edge of her bed patiently.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you." Aster quietly muttered to her.
"You didn't. Are you finished?"
"Hm? Oh! Yes, sorry I -" the door shut behind Greengrass. Well that was rude.
Huffing to herself, she checked her timetable and checked which books was needed before pulling it on to her shoulder and made her way out of the room. On her way she met both Theo and Blaise.
"Morning!" The latter grinned, while Theo grunted.
"Mornin'. You're in a good mood. Well...you are. Theo? Not so much." She sniggered making Theo grunt again.
"Yes, he's the antithesis of a morning person. Honestly, I'm surprised he was as receptive as he was on Saturday morning."
"And you? You're a morning person."
Blaise pulled a face. "Eh, depends. On a school day, yes. Mainly because I have to be. On a weekend? No. I try to milk as much as a lie in as possible." He paused to turn Theo the right way when he was about to turn right further into the dungeons rather the left to the Great Hall, much to Aster's amusement. "If you're wanting a morning person all round, you're more likely to find Draco as one."
"Really? I got the impression he would be the type to stay asleep, or at least in bed, for as long as possible."
"What can I say, Potter? I'm a man of hidden depths." Came the droll reply behind them, making Aster blush and Blaise to grin.
"I think 'man' is a bit of a stretch, don't you? You're only eleven." Blaise teased, which Theo grunted at again, apparently in agreement.
Malfoy curled his lip. "Well I'm certainly not saying boy. It's so...childish."
"We are children, Malfoy." Aster deadpanned, with the echo of another Theo-grunt, this time as he walked into a stone pillar.
"What is with him? He's never this bad!" Malfoy complained, deciding not to grace Potter's remark with a verbal response other than a pulled face and roll of the eyes.
"All the early morning last week have caught up to him, apparently." Blaise said as he resorted to pulling Theo in front of him and guiding him into the Hall and their seats before he did something ridiculous like sit at the Hufflepuff table. Or worse, the Gryffindors.
"Well he better pull himself together soon. I don't want to be on the end of the glare of Professor Fawley in Defense. You'd think for a Slytherin he'd give more of a leeway." Malfoy complained as he shoved food on to his plate.
"You mean like Professor Snape does?" Aster replied sarcastically, trying to find the pot of tea.
"Yes! He doesn't take points off us, at least. Fawley seemed to do it at just your name, Potter."
"How inconsiderate of me. I will endeavour to be better." She said distractedly. Where the bloody hell was the tea?
"You should. Perhaps change your name. Gringrotts should be able to help with that - what are you doing?" Malfoy sputtered as Aster ducked her head under the table.
" Trying to find the tea!" She huffed as she came back up.
"You mean this tea here?" Came the innocent reply. Turning her head slowly, she narrowed her eyes at Blaise.
"You better wish that I had merely overlooked it, Zabini." She hissed at him, making him blink owlishly before turning to Draco.
"I think we've found another person who isn't a morning person." Malfoy snorted, spraying orange juice over his plate as Aster snatched the pot away from her friend and glared at him.
Over the course of the next five minutes the four of them woke themselves up, Malfoy was the most alert out of all of them, Blaise was chipper enough but seemed to become near unbearably gleeful as time progressed, Theo seemed to jolt awake in stages until he no longer resembled a zombie and Aster clutched the tea to her side of the table, smacking Blaise's hand whenever he tried to reach for it.
"You can't be trusted with it. Hands off."
" I'm not the one with a dependency of it. You're truly leaning into the British stereotype, you know."
"Yes, and for a good reason. Its delicious, it's warm, and it has caffeine."
"Then you'd love coffee!" He declared.
"Did you not just hear me say it was 'delicious'? Cause coffee isn't that."
Blaise rolled his eyes at her before sighing heavily and turned his body to face her.
"That's because you've not had it correctly. You, no doubt, had cheap ground bought from a cheap place, which burnt it beyond repair. Italian coffee, however! It is belissimo! "
"You can shove your Italian coffee on your side. And you can tell my grandfather's House Elf that she made crap coffee. Its your funeral."
"I'll make the arrangements." Theo offered.
"I'll make the guest list." Malfoy added.
"I'll do the eulogy." Aster laughed.
Blaise mockingly laughed with them. "Ah, she can't be that bad!" Before he paused abruptly. "This isn't the one who sent a basket of bread to you because the Hogwarts Elves weren't doing your favourite is it?" At her unabashed nod he groaned. "Just me choose what I get to wear for eternity." Making the other three laugh.
They had all just walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom when they all stopped at the sight of the man at the front.
"G-g-good m-morning, cl-class! T-take your s-s-seats. P-p-p-profes-s-sor Faw-fawley is awa-away, I'm a-a-afraid." He nervously chuckled.
Oh god - no, wait Merlin - it was that creep in the Leaky Cauldron. Hopefully he won't start talking to himself while teaching.
Once everyone had sat down, he audibly gulped before tripping over to the desk and shuffled sheafs of parchment until he found what he was looking for.
"N-now, a-as it's o-o-only your se-second w-w-week, P-p-profes-s-sor Faw-fawley i-is h-ha-happy f-for y-you t-t-t-to read t-t-today."
"Gracious Merlin, at least we won't have to try and interpret and translate whatever he's saying." Blaise muttered, making Malfoy snort.
Aster thought she saw the Professor snap his eyes to the boys and narrowed them as they flashed red for a moment before he continued on as the same as before.
Looking around her, she couldn't see that anyone else had seen what she did until she caught Theo's eye.
' You saw it too?' He mouthed at her, and after glancing to see the teacher with his back turned, nodded her head.
' Did his eyes flash red?' She silently asked, which Theo furrowed his brow to before nodding slowly.
' Think so. We'll talk later.' He said as the Professor turned back round, watching as all the class flipped their textbooks to the right page.
The two hours seemingly crawled by. Aster couldn't help but keep watching the professor at random intervals. The way that he would stand in a corner and bow his head, muttering to himself, before rushing to the front to do who knew what, and then go back again. By the end of the lesson Aster had filled out about three sheets of one foot parchment pages from her pad, front and back. Safe to say, she was thrilled to be away from there and her hand was covered in ink, and was cramping from the harsh grip she clutched at her quill with.
Theo dropped back to walk with Aster, waving on the others to go on ahead.
"So you saw it too, huh?" He murmured to her.
Aster nodded, glancing behind them before replying in a low voice. "Yeah, he shouldn't have been able to hear them. We were across the classroom! And they weren't exactly speaking loudly."
"Not to mention the flash of red." Theo added.
"Hm. I thought it was the lighting in the room."
"Maybe. But it would've happened more than once if that was the case." They stopped in the corridor, looking out the window to the grounds.
"Do we - do we tell anyone, you think?" Aster thought out loud.
Theo frowned. "I'm not sure. We'll likely get brushed off as a couple of kids seeing things, or deliberately stirring stuff up. Not to mention we're at the bottom of the ladder. Even Hufflepuffs would be believed before us." Theo sneered.
Aster ran a hand over her hair, before wincing as it caught over her throbbing scar and letting out a hiss.
"You alright?"
"Yeah. It just...stings. it keeps doing that for some reason."
Theo glanced around before lowering his voice. "It's a curse scar, right?"
Her eyes snapped to him, staring at him for a long minute before reluctantly nodding. "Don't- don't tell anyone? Please? I'm trying to get Grandfather to tell me about it, but that's all he was willing to say for now."
"Course I won't say anything. Not anyone's business. Blaise has likely already worked it out though, if not soon will. He's too nosey." He said, making Aster giggle.
Theo blew out a breath. "We'll keep an eye on the turban twat then?"
Aster cleared her throat. "Er, yeah. I think if - if we even hear anything dodgy we better tell someone. Maybe Snape?"
"Yeah, not only is he our Head, but he's also less likely to pull out the All Slytherins Lie card." Theo agreed, pulling her away from the wall and continuing to walk to the Great Hall.
A shadow stepped out from the alcove behind them. His eyes narrowing at the very secret conversation he had just overheard, glancing back at the classroom the two had come from before heading off towards the Hall himself.
Lunch went by smoothly, Blaise having learned not to hide the tea away from Aster, much to her relief.
Once the hour was drawing to a close they all got up and walked their way down to the dungeons Potion classroom, quietly talking to one another with the background of jeering Gryffindors behind them.
Professor Snape stood at the front with his arms crossed against his chest staring at them.
"Today, you will be taking your first steps into physically brewing." He said tonelessly, his eyes scanning the students. "You will be brewing the Boils Cure. Instructions are on the board." He flicked his wand, scrawled writing appearing in detail.
"You will put your homework on the edge of the desks. You will be working in pairs. One of you get the ingredients, the others sets up. Begin." He snapped, watching as the usual scurry of deciding who worked with whom and then divvying up the difficult jobs on who would do what. If he could be bothered, he'd weep for humanity.
Unsurprisingly Nott and Potter matched leaving with Zabini and Draco working together. Worse pairings had occurred.
Like the one where Longbottom and Weasley that had just been decided. There was an explosion waiting to happen.
He kept his usual eagle eye on the students as they worked through the assignment, Vanishing cauldron contents too many times to be decent, including Boy Wonder and Friend's much to his discontent, if any of his blustering was to be considered.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor, Longbottom. For disrupting a classroom. Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr Weasley, for disrespecting a teacher. That'll be zero for both of you today." He drawled, briefly catching the smirk Potter was wearing as she looked across the classroom at them.
Deciding that she needed to pay more attention he stalked to her side, almost pulling to a halt as her and Nott's potion was well on track. Maybe the boy had done the work?
"Did we already put in the lacewing flies?" Nott muttered to himself.
"Yes, Theo. Otherwise it wouldn't look like this." She said before looking at him slyly "told you to put the ingredients away each time we used them."
"Oh shut it, Potter. Right what's next?" He turned back to his book, before looking up at the board. "Why're the instructions different?"
Potter shrugged, "No idea. Why is that, sir?" She asked, turning to look at him right behind her, making the boy beside her jump.
How long had she known he was there? A while, going by the mischievous twinkle in her eye was to be taken as an answer.
Snape narrowed his eyes. "Because, Mr Nott, the esteemed authors of your textbooks" He sneered, "are, themselves, dunderheads and regurgitate all information before them." He replied before continuing to prowl about the room, just catching the girl smugly saying, "There you go, Theo. That's why."
In the comfort of his own mind he couldn't help but snort. It was something exactly what Lily would have done. Although with less...malicious glee. Perhaps. Depending on the day it was.
In the week that she had arrived he had to be honest to himself that she was not as he originally had thought. She was a brat to be sure, but they all were, especially at this age. Her ability to smoothly belong to a group of friends must have been a genetic from her popular parents, although the fact that she seemed to really only gravitate to two others, the wider group more or less accepted her. As much as Slytherins do with an unknown, anyway. Perhaps their parents had written to them to tell them to cosy up to the last of the Potter line.
There were mannerisms which made his heart clench due to similarity of those of her mother's. That morning, with her frantic search for the tea pot, superimposed itself over the image of Lily desperately trying to find her favourite quill in the library. Complete with ducking under the table and narrowing her eyes dangerously at the supposed perpetrator. He wasn't the only one to have noticed either. Minerva had snorted and said "reminds me of Lily with you Severus" as they watched on.
It was disconcerting how much he saw Lily in the girl. There were hints of Potter too, such as the superior toss of the head, the malicious smirk she directed once she got her way, and her inability to stay suitably still for an indefinite length of time. Even sitting here and paying strict attention to her first Potion, she tapped her quill against her fingers, in complete contrast to Nott who was like a statue as he compared his textbook, their individual homework notes (at least one of his pairs of Slytherins barring Draco had picked up on that) to the chalkboard. Only his eyes seemed to move, dashing everywhere as if he was Petrified. It would be amusing if not so unnerving to witness. He knew things were bad in the Nott household, but he would need to remain vigilant if this was a result of his home life. Another child's name to add to the list, he sighed.
Moving back to the front of the room he told them that their time was up. "Decant the potion in the vials and bring them to the desk. Clean up after yourselves. Any who don't will be returning to do so twicefold." He snarled, watching with perverse happiness as they all scurried to do so as he said. He watched as pairs argued over who would do the washing up, even Draco and Blaise were not exempt for this. All but Nott and Potter from his Slytherins and then Granger from the Gryffindors, who had to work on her own for the duration of the lesson, argued on this.
Granger mechanically went about setting her station to rights with exacting detail, and Potter near enough skipped to the sink with their equipment once Nott had emptied the cauldron where she then scrubbed the cauldron clean with a fervour which could only come from doing the activity countless amount of times. Interesting. She even tilted the thing about against the light to make sure it was wholly clean. Well at least he knew three students who weren't going to be coming back to his classroom - oh wait, make that five. Zabini lost the battle to Draco in the scrubbing duty.
It probably said things that his favourite part of teaching was watching them panic at the thought of spending more time with him, doing a menial chore without - gasp - magic. Spoiled brats. At his bark of "five minutes!" he smiled internally as the panic intensified and noble sacrifices were made to do the dishonours of cleaning. Looked like Longbottom may have been pulling the "I'm famous" card to make Weasley do the job.
"...is he...smiling?" Aster murmured to Theo from out the corner of her mouth.
Theo frowned as he looked round, pretending to look at his classmates loudly complaining over cleaning. Catching a glimpse of the man he couldn't help but agree. "It sort of feels like that doesn't it? I mean, he's not actively smiling but there's certainly a - an aura of er, glee."
"Weird bloke." Aster shook her head as she put her Potions kit back to rights before rolling up the material bag and putting it into her own along with the rest of the equipment.
"Time is up." Snape announced to the room, freezing students in the progress of scrubbing their kit with unbridled horror.
"For those who are still scrubbing - leave them. You can come back after dinner to do so. Everyone who has brought back their cauldrons to their desks - put them on the table."
Aster grumbled under her breath, reaching elbow deep to get it back out again. Snape waited for everyone to have done so before he let out a puff of blue smoke from his wand, the sand floating in the air and around them.
If the git is going to make it so we'll have to clean them again anyway I'm going to sic Mum on him. Frame or no frame. Aster thought to herself, crossing her arms at her chest.
"If you've cleaned them sufficiently then none of the sand will leave a mark. If it shows up...well. You'll be joining your classmates by the sinks after dinner." He sneered, prowling by the desks, looking into each one (rather needlessly as the crestfallen of those who thought they were free were obvious). He didn't stop by any until he got to Longbottom and Weasley.
"Well, well, Mr Longbottom, Mr Weasley. Looks like you'll be returning here after dinner. Do you have enough time between autograph signing, Longbottom?" He mocked, ignoring Weasley's tomato face or the puff of indignation from the chest of the Prat Who Lived.
Snape slunk to Malfoy's and Blaise's table, narrowing his eyes, working out if two specks of sand was worth the whining of Draco and then his parents. Deciding against it, he wordlessly and wandlessly, Scourgified it before moving on to Aster and Theo. If he were the type of man to do so, he would have blinked in shock. There was nary even a scratch from the steel wool of the sponge on its surface.
"Three points to Slytherin, for such assiduous cleaning." Severus murmured to them - knowing that if Lily were alive she would have harangued him if no recognise was given for how well she had done. Even the damned potion looked as it should have done. A rare phenomenon in itself. But for her to avail herself to two talents within the same subject? Nigh impossible.
The next cleanest was Granger's, although she herself had managed a couple of scratches already. Not the worst that could be seen, but certainly too rough to be keep occurring - he would need to keep an eye. As a Muggleborn, she likely didn't understand or quite comprehend how acidic a potion could become. He had heard from his colleagues how Granger seemed to be a loner, reading ahead for too much and a general know-it-all, which was obvious from the first lesson where she kept waving her hand about obnoxiously when he was testing Longbottom.
It took Snape about ten minutes to make his circuit around the room, checking the cleanliness of people's cauldrons. Overall, it appeared that two thirds of the class would be returning to scrub their kit. With an imperial dismissal, they all walked out of the dim room and into the slightly brighter corridor.
The Gryffindors had charged ahead at the thought of the end of the day and dinner, with Longbottom's insufferable boasts echoing all the way down back to them.
The Slytherins moved to drop off their bags before heading their separate ways - Bulstrode whispering to Pansy before moving off with Davis and Moon, then Pansy and Greengrass going to the dorms to do...something. Aster wasn't entirely sure. Avery, Crabbe and Goyle had somehow disappeared, but the likelihood that they were already at the Great Hall was so great that there was no need to worry.
The remaining four made their way through the corridors, talking about how they thought their first (or solo in the case of Draco) Potions went. Aster was pretty pleased with her's and Theo's as well as the points that she got them for her cleaning. Who knew Aunt Petunia's chores had a silver lining?
Draco and Blaise were bickering back and forth on who should do the cleaning next time as well as why their final shade was a little too dark.
This lasted all the way to the table and the first part of dinner before Theo had enough and snagged Draco's attention away to talk about Quidditch.
"So. How'd you find the lesson?" Aster said with a monumental effort to sound and look straight faced.
"Very funny, Potter. Truly you're a comedian." Blaise said pushing her shoulder with his own.
"How'd you like it?" He asked, before shovelling a heap of mash potato into his mouth.
Grimacing at the sheer amount of food he just inhaled, "I enjoyed it. I like how you've got to actually think. Not like the others where to some extent its natural, you know?"
"Oh gods. You're not gonna fall in love with Snape are you?" He whispered in horror.
Aster snorted, "Oh damn. You've foiled me." She shook her head with a smile. "Don't be a total idiot, Zabini. No, I just like it. Charms seems to just come to me, which, you know, great. It's good to have an easy subject. But Defence and History is just a note taking subject for the most part, Astronomy is at an obscene time of day, or night, and Transfiguration just confuses me right now." She shrugged, "so it was a nice change." She said before turning back to her food.
"Ah, Severus. How was the first day of brewing, my boy?" Albus asked as he sat down after he doubled the amount of cauldrons sat in the sinks - well he did say they'd be scrubbing twice over.
"Better than I thought, worse than it should have." He reported as he poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice.
Albus chuckled. "So it went well by any other's standards then."
Severus sneered, "Those with less expectations, yes."
"And how many points did you take from my Lions?" Minerva asked as she served herself from the vegetable dish.
"Thirty. Now don't give me that look, Minerva. They were warranted."
The Witch scoffed. "You always say that, Severus."
"Yes well. This time it was due to Longbottom poncing about due to his celebrity status, and Weasley for back chatting."
"Is that how it actually happened? Or will the answer be different if I ask them?"
Severus rolled his eyes. "Of course it will be different if you ask them. I'm Evil Incarnate, you know. The next thing Longbottom is to vanquish." The three professors sniggered to themselves. "I had to Vanish their attempt at the most basic potion, which, if left to stand, would have resulted in an eruption. No, I'm not exaggerating. I have no idea they did it."
Minerva sighed, "And I assume Mr Longbottom and Mr Weasley took that to heart." She stated, no need to ask as she had already had other professors and prefects come to her about their browbeating.
"Hm. I genuinely heard Lonbottom say 'But I'm famous!' and Weasley, to my face say, ' you greasy git, you can't do that'. I wasn't in too charitable a mood after that."
Minerva's lips disappeared. "No," she agreed, her accent coming out as a near growl. "I wouldn't have been either. Thirty points was nigh lenient, I'd say."
Severus turned his head to her slightly. "I'd be happy to take more off now." He purred.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm aware. No, what's done is done. I'll keep more of an eye on them."
"And what of our young Slytherins, Severus, how'd they do?" Albus asked as he cut into his pie with excitement.
"Yes, did they gain thirty points?" Minerva added dryly.
"No, only three, alas."
Minerva's eyebrow rose in shock and disbelief. "Only three? Goodness. What happened? Or didn't happen?"
"They're all idiots, Minerva. You know that. Two thirds of the class are returning after dinner to finish scrubbing."
Albus paused in his cutting as he caught the change of tone of voice of his younger colleague.
"And that makes you happy...why?" Minerva warily asked.
"Because I warned them that if it was insufficiently done then they'd be doing it twice fold." Minerva snorted as Albus acknowledged this as if it were an age old wisdom.
"And did you explain why or the purpose of this exercise?"
Severus scoffed, "Of course I didn't. That's for the beginning of next lesson."
"So who was the lucky one, or ones, who got the points? And why?"
"Mr Nott...and Miss Potter. Their cauldron was superbly clean. Not even a scratch from the steel wool."
Albus beamed, "And how did Miss Potter brew? I've been eager to find out."
Severus glowered. "She was...adequate."
"Meaning brilliant." Minerva interrupted.
"I thought at first it was Nott who was doing the brewing but soon learned she was the one doing it mostly. He was telling her the next steps, after comparing the book, board and homework I set, while she did the actual potion itself. Even kept him right at one point."
"Severus, most teachers would be ecstatic that there was a child, let alone two, who had picked their subject up so easily. Let alone realising the purpose of their homework." Minerva chided before turning her head to the Headmaster. "Don't you agree, Al - Albus! Will you stop making art out of your food. You are not a child!"
Albus looked at her over his spectacles, before glancing back to his plate. Severus stretched a little and had to press his lips together to stop the bubble of laughter that was forming at the scene where Albus had cut his steak pie into a cow in a field.
"It never hurts to know where our food comes from, Minerva." He said serenely.
"Children. I'm surrounded by children." She growled to herself.
"Well we are a school." Albus retorted, seeing Severus' mouth twitch into his version of a full blown smile before winking at him.
Oh this day had turned out to be fan-fucking-tastic.
A/N: I don't know why I started on Dumbledore playing with his food but it is now my head cannon.