The Potions Master's Daughter Part 2

CHAPTER 8 The haunting

'Listen to your inner self... Look through your inner eye...'

Instead of gazing into the crystal bowl in front of her, Alice had been staring at Professor Trelawney for the past couple of minutes, as though she'd been petrified.

'Seriously, since when are those two friends...' Daphne muttered under her breath. She was staring at the table on the far end of the classroom where Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein giggled about the contents of their crystal bowl.

Meanwhile, Alice's eyes glazed over from looking at Professor Trelawney's draped robes and gigantic glasses.

'Alice, are you listening to me?' Daphne clicked her fingers in front of her face. Alice snapped out of it, shaking her head and blinking rapidly.

'Sorry, what?'

'You always stare at that woman,' said Daphne, looking at her suspiciously. 'What is it about her?'

Alice shrugged, bringing the crystal bowl closer to her. 'I don't know... I feel like I know her from somewhere.'

'Yeah, you've said that before,' said Daphne, sighing and looking at the instructions again. 'Right, we must find the answer to what bothers our inner eye, apparently.'

'Yeah...' Alice said absent-mindedly, resting her eyes on Professor Trelawney again. 'Why do I feel like I've met her before...?'

'Maybe 'cause we've had classes with her for over a year?'

'It's not that...' Alice shook her head. 'It's like I've met her in another life...'

Daphne sniggered. 'Your brain's foggy from all that incense,' she said. 'Right, let's actually do this task.'

Blaise caught up with them during break time, after Divination. He hated the class and opted out of it this year. He had spent all morning playing amateur Quidditch with a few other avid players, so his robes were in disarray and he smelled like the wind.

'We're having our own tournament this year,' he said and drank a whole jug of water in one go. 'Madame Hooch agreed to supervise an unofficial tournament, without spectators. It will just be practice.'

'Can we come to watch?' asked Alice, pouring herself some coffee.

'Sure, if you have free time!' Blaise smiled widely. He loved Quidditch more than anything. 'I really want to take this time to practice so I can get on the team.'

'When will they finally let you do it?' said Daphne irritably. 'You're amazing at it, you've been waiting way too long in my opinion.'

Blaise smiled, lifting the left corner of his mouth. 'I have to be patient. Graham Montague will become captain next year after Marcus graduates and I know he will select Cassius and Adrian as Chasers. I spoke with him privately and he said he would consider me for the sixth year.'

'Two years,' said Daphne. 'Isn't that too long to wait?'

'I am a patient person,' said Blaise stoically and looked at his schedule. 'Charms and Potions. Shall we?'

Their first Potions class of the year went by as smoothly as ever, meaning that Neville managed to melt his two cauldrons, Snape threatened to test Harry's potion on Harry himself and Draco slipped a toad's leg behind Theodore's collar. Alice, on the other hand, was trying her best to become invisible. Her goal for the class was to avoid any interaction with Snape at all cost.

'Heat up and solidify salamander toxin...' Blaise read the sixth step of the recipe. 'Heat up and solidify...?' he muttered. 'Does that make sense to you?'