James's Wandmaking classes with Olivander were canceled that week because Olivander was sick.
This was probably for the best. In the aftermath of the news about yew wands gaining support in the magical community since Hugo and Devon had gone public with their story, James would have wanted to attempt to make a replica of Devon's yew wand.
The problem with that is that yew is THE most difficult wood to work with in Wandmaking. As prolific a Wandmaker as James had proven to be, he still needed more practice and more experience before he could attempt a wand of THAT degree of difficulty.
James, Albus, and Lily took advantage of James's Wandmaking classes being canceled to take extra-long sibling time sessions that Monday and Wednesday night.
This sibling time was used to view the 1999 and 2001 movies The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. On both nights, the three of them whipped huge tubs of popcorn to share and just had fun watching and enjoying a couple of fun movies together.
But things took a definite somber turn on Thursday.
Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all had Potions last class on Thursday afternoon.
They were to make Liveliness Potion, an energy potion given to lethargic people to give them energy.
Hogwarts had been through a handful of Potions Masters since Slughorn had retired following the Battle of Hogwarts.
This year, Hogwarts had hired a young lad named Brad Brew, a former Ravenclaw only a few years out of Hogwarts who had achieved the grade of O in Potions all seven years he had been at Hogwarts. Professor Brew had also received extra credit on both his Potions O.W.L. and his Potions N.E.W.T.
Professor Brew had coffee colored hair and black eyes. His height was average, but he was skinny because he had never liked to eat much.
Professor Brew put the students in pairs to work.
On this day, he assigned Hugo to work with Lily, Devon to work with Ainsley, and Samantha to work with Stephanie.
Unfortunately, they never got a chance to see how well they could make Liveliness Potion because of an unfortunate mishap.
Stephanie, though a master witch with a wand in her hand, tended to struggle with wandless magic and tended to lose focus in classes that focused on wandless magic.
This reality would come to bite the Saver sisters in the butt.
The first step to making Liveliness Potion was to heat three fifths of a cauldron worth of water on high for five minutes. Then, after turning the heat off, an active magical teal power known as Bixby Powder was to be added.
It was essential to turn off the heat before adding the Bixby Powder as Bixby Powder was very reactive and could lead to explosion if mixed with too much heat.
Stephanie, failing to concentrate properly, forget to turn the heat off before adding the Bixby Powder.
After Stephanie's solution started to stir a little, a loud BANG! ensued that was followed by a major SPLASH!
Stephanie's cauldron exploded and broke into numerous pieces of shards of sharp glass.
A few shards of this glass hit Samantha's shoulders and Samantha suffered deep and painful cuts.
Worse, Bixby Powder dissolved in water caused severe burns to skin and hair and during the splash Samantha had gotten a fair amount of the solution on her arms and hair and a bit on her face as well.
Samantha's skin had burned black on the places where the Bixby solution had hit her arms and face. Her hair had given her some protection from the top of her head being burned far worse, but the Bixby solution had been burned her hair off and she was now bald.
Seeing what had happened, Professor Brew said quickly, "Miss Saver, get yourself to hospital wing pronto. The rest of you may go with her, class dismissed."
Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, and Lily all escorted Samantha to the hospital wing and James was quickly informed of what had had happened to Samantha and rushed to join them in the hospital wing.
Madam Pomfrey was somber as James, Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily took seats in the hospital wing. She took one look at Samantha and guessed what had happened at once.
"Bixby burn," diagnosed Madam Pomfrey in a subdued voice, "I'm guessing you guys were making Liveliness Potion in Brew's class and something went wrong."
"It's my fault," admitted Stephanie guiltily, "I forgot to turn the heat off before adding the Bixby Powder to the hot water and..."
"Your cauldron exploded, and Miss Saver was sitting next to you and suffered the damage from the blast and spill," realized Madam Pomfrey.
"Yes," said a shaken Stephanie as she looked down at her feet.
Samantha looked Madam Pomfrey in the eyes and asked, "Can anything be done for me?"
"I will give you a cream to heal your cuts," explained Madam Pomfrey, "As for your burns, you will have to wait for new skin to grow to replace your burned skin. You will have to live with the pain of these burns until that process naturally manifests itself. The bad news is that your hair will not grow back. You will be bald for life."
Stephanie's face began to redden, and her eyes were watering.
After everything Samantha had done for her, having set up for her to adopted by the Savers so that she wouldn't have to stay in that orphanage, Stephanie was now responsible for great damage to Samantha.
Madam Pomfrey opened a drawer and withdrew a small white tube with simple black lettering the spelled out the words Cut Cure.
Madam Pomfrey opened this tube and applied the cream to all of Samantha's cuts.
Samantha's cuts quickly healed, and she felt some relief from that.
But that was all Madam Pomfrey could do for her.
"But my burns will heal in matter of days and I'll be myself again.," said Samantha resiliently, 'Remember that witches and wizards are quick healers. And it's mostly on my arms but not anywhere near my hands. My ability to function will not be limited while these burns heal."
A still guilt ridden Stephanie looked Samantha straight in the eyes in said, "Sister, I'm sorry about your hair."
"Yeah, it's a shame there's nothing we can do about that," said Lily sadly.
"Maybe we could find or even make a wig for Samantha," suggested Devon.
NO!' said Samantha firmly, "That would be symbolic of denial and a refusal to accept what has happened. The best path forward is to accept and acknowledge what has happened and move forward."
"I agree with you there, Samantha," said James decisively.
"Besides, I'm great looking bald," bragged Samantha.
"This is still Samantha Saver alright," grinned Ainsley.
While it was obvious that Samantha's burns were still causing her intense physical pain, her positive attitude and confidence seem to improve everyone's moods.
"And you know what," said Samantha clearly, "There are several people in this room who have been through far worse than what has happened to me today. That includes Stephanie losing the only home she had ever known last summer."
"It's good to see a girl of only twelve have such a sense of perspective," said Madam Pomfrey.
James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Lily, and Stephanie were immensely proud of the way Samantha had handled the situation. There was no doubt now (not that there ever had been about the sincerity of Samantha viewing Stephanie as a sister. Samantha did not view Stephanie as an adopted sister. Samantha cared for Stephanie in the way any true sister would. And her sense of perspective and positive attitude were contagious.
If Samantha didn't need to do the woe is me thing then they didn't need to have a pity party for her, though Stephanie still felt guilty because of her feeling of responsibly for what had happened to Samantha.
"Samantha's decent, this won't affect Stephanie's relationship with her at all," predicted Hugo.
"Stephanie," said Samantha sincerely, "Look I know you feel bad about what happened today. But I don't blame you at all. Look, stuff happens."
"But it's my fault for my inattentiveness," said Stephanie sadly, "I mean, you suffered injuries in our Quidditch final against Hufflepuff last your when I missed a Bludger, but at least that was a physical mistake. This was a stupid mental lapse on my part. "
"You're my sister," Samantha told Stephanie, "And I'm going to stick by you 100%. True families don't dessert each other when times get tough, they stick by each other."
"Your willingness to forgive and support is giving me some emotional relief," said Stephanie, "But I do feel bad that you're the one who has to pay the price for my mistake in the form of both pain and the permeant loss of your hair."
"Instead of feeling guilty," Samantha advised Stephanie, "Use today as a learning experience and use it as motivation to learn to focus better in classes."
"That's sound advice," said Lily, "You know what Stephanie, I suggest you make a goal for yourself to become a better Potions student."
"It's my worst subject," said Stephanie in a defeated voice.
"Set it as a goal that never again will a Potions accident be your fault because of mental reasons," Samantha advised Stephanie, "And in the process you'll get better at Potions. Let something good come out of this day. You can."
"And you will," added Lily fiercely.
"Maybe something positive can come out of this," said Stephanie, sounding like she was feeling better now.
"Besides," grinned, Samantha "With Saturday being Halloween what happened today won't be at the forefront of our minds for very long."
Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie, and Lily were all still in the hospital wing on Friday morning.
By Friday morning it had become clear that Madam Pomfrey's initial diagnosis of Samantha had been incorrect.
This proved to be both good news and bad news for Samantha.
The good news was that her hair had in fact grown back.
This was an immense relief to both Samantha and Stephanie.
"Madam Pomfrey?" asked Samantha, "Do you know why my hair grew back?"
"It's a simple explanation," answered Madam Pomfrey, "The Bixby burned off all your hair but apparently it didn't go to the roots. Because it didn't get into the roots, you were able to grow hair back."
"I'm relieved by that," admitted Samantha, "I tried to put my best face and my best spin on it, but I was actually very unhappy about losing my hair."
"I'm relived too," said Stephanie quietly, "It's a huge burden off of my conscience to know that my mistake did not cause any permeant damage to Samantha after all."
"To be honest, "admitted Samantha reluctantly, "By the time bedtime rolled around last night I had already started to regret turning down Devon's offer to make me a wig. In fact, thinking it over lying in bed last night, the nanosecond before I asleep, I resolved to ask Devon this morning if he was willing to put that offer back on the table."
"I would've been, "confirmed Devon a nanosecond later, "In fact, had your hair not grown back overnight, I was actually planning to make the offer to make a wig for you again this morning before breakfast. But how your burns feel?"
"My burns still hurt like hell and haven't shown any improvement yet, "said Samantha matter of factly, "I'd expected my burns to heal in a few days. To have seen no progress yet means that won't be the case."
"I initially thought your burns were shallower. It may be weeks or even months before your burns are fully healed," Madam Pomfrey informed Samantha, "It depends how deep they are and at this point that is unclear. "
"Well, I'll just have to deal with it until it heals. I'm a tough cookie. I can handle it," said Samantha in a dogged determined voice.
"I love your fighting spirit, Samantha, " said James proudly.
"How long does Samantha need to stay here?" Lily asked Madam Pomfrey.
"I can release her now," answered Madam Pomfrey, "She cannot gain anything by remaining in the hospital wing."
"So, I can go to Hogsmeade tomorrow and participate in Halloween tomorrow night?" asked Samantha hopefully.
"No reason you can't," smiled Madam Pomfrey, "You're just going to be in a lot of pain for a while."
Samantha nodded.
Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie, and Lily all smiled and slowly left the hospital wing.
They were able to make it to breakfast in time to eat a breakfast of sausage biscuits, hash browns, and orange juice.
They then took the normal mandatory Friday library time breaking for a lunch of hot dogs (mustard, ketchup, and hot sauce were the condiments used) onion rings, and Coca Cola classic.
At two p.m. Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie, and Lily all went for a walk around the perimeter of the Black Lake.
After everything that had happened that week, this was a good release for all of them to just walk around the lake without thinking about anything.
On Friday night, Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie, and Lily all went into Lily's room and watched Terminator 2 Judgement Day on Lily's DVR.
After that they all went to bed looking forward to Halloween the next day.