Whimsical {James Potter}

Chapter 5: Man to Man

Chapter 5: Man to Man

The Potions room is remarkably stuffy for how cold it can become, down so low. Each table has a brewing station already set up, their cauldrons filled with water and heated with a low flame. Slughorn is their potions master and a strange one at that. A jolly man but there is just something about him that Cressida can not put her finger on. And most of her doesn't bother to.

Potions, as it seems, is not where her talents lay. Of course, talent does not equal everything and she still does well enough to pass, but she does not find the same ease in the class that Lily Evans or Snape does.

"Alright class," Slughorn calls for attention, "you'll be working with the person next to you for today. The recipe is on page eighty-four."

The classroom is filled with chairs scraping against the stone as they are tucked under the desks. Cressida leans forward, almost lazily, flipping through the brand new potions book on the desk. "A 'Wit-sharpening' potion," she reads aloud to her partner. "The antidote to the confundus charm," she adds purely out of mild interest. "Doesn't look too hard."

Remus gives her a smirk out of the corner of his mouth. "Don't get too relaxed yet. And I want you to let me double-check everything before you do it."

"You have no faith in me," she states. "Remus, I have a plan. You don't need to worry."

His expression morphs into a wince as he reads over the recipe in his own book. "You said that last year. And you ended up burning my eyebrows off." He pulls down on the skin at the end of the short hairs. "It's still patchy."

Cressida leans closer, eyeing off the small, uneven patch of hair. "Are you sure it wasn't like that before?" Remus smacks her quietly with the back of his hand, sending her into a fit of giggles. "And trust me, my plan is better this year. I'll go get the ingredients."

Ginger root, armadillo bile, scarab beetles.
Easy.

Laying the ingredients back out, Remus starts working on the preparation work, crushing the scarab beetles. Her own attention lingers on two of her friends on the opposite side of the large, squared table. Sirius is already trying to stir something into the cauldron whilst James is attempting to stop him, but the longer-haired boy pays him no heed. "We may not be the best, but at least we'll do better than those two," she notes to Remus. He stops his grinding, and the pair watch the other pair bicker. Sirius only starts to listen once James slaps his hands. "And to think I spent three years being that idiot's partner."

"I was content with being James' by the way," he cheeks. "Thanks for consulting me when you decided to kick him out of his seat."

They, along with most other students, begin on their potion. Cressida lets Remus take the lead, her eyes set on somewhere else entirely. Her mouth mimes a count. 'One, two three.' "Three."

Remus half-pauses. "Huh?"

"Put in three ginger pieces," she demands, handing him back the root.

Remus frowns at her, looking back down at the recipe. "But it says two on here."

"And Snape put in three," she counters.

Remus' eyes follow her gaze. Just on the far end of another table is the git they call Snivellous is working by himself (no surprise there). He has an outstanding capability in potions that not even her friends can deny. And for years, at James aggravation, he's excelled the class. If her and Remus can just outdo him in one class, Snape would hate them forever because of it. Not that he doesn't already, but his anger at them fuels her beyond belief. James and Sirius would be more than content for that to happen, even if not by themselves.