Friday's Child // Draco Malfoy

8:

Juno loved learning. Though, she found conventional learning less appealing, resenting the institutionalisation that came with being in a classroom, she loved to consume and absorb new information, especially in a more practical sense. To teachers she was a bright and engaged student, eccentric and unorthodox in her thinking, but undeniably intelligent. She of course excelled in Care of Magical Creatures, before Draco, she'd considered Hagrid to be the closest thing to a friend she had - she still went for tea with him at least once every two weeks. Sprout, Flitwick, McGonnagall, Slughorn and Sinistra only ever had good things to say about her - but, as with many of his students who weren't in Slytherin, Professor Snape overlooked her potential and picked fault in everything he could. He didn't know how to handle a student like Juno, and he had the same problem with her sister. She didn't perceive criticism and scolding like other students, she didn't fear him, and she was never off-put by his attempted intimidation.

As Christmas drew nearer tensions in the castle seemed to be increasing, students and teachers alike could sense the change in the wizarding world, each wary of the looming darkness. As the power of the Dark Lord progressed, Snape became less and less tolerant, and much more agitated, and, the way he would usually deal with Juno's whimsicality turned from a little snide to rather aggressive, and malicious almost. Potions was much more enjoyable with Slughorn as teacher, but that meant DADA was now detestable - Snape made what once was a fun and exciting lesson dismal and macabre.

Thus, that Friday, the class was more than disappointed to learn that Slughorn was off sick and that Snape would be taking over the lesson. The class had been silenced as Snape glided into the room, theatric as ever, with his long robe sweeping the floor behind him, slamming the windows closed with a flick of his wand.

"Considering your potions Professor is too incompetent to turn up today, I will be taking your lesson. I expect the curriculum I taught will be vastly different and much more advanced than that of Slughorn. Clearly," he sneered, looking over at Ron and Harry, who were glaring in his direction, clearly agitated by Slughorn's absence, "Slughorn will allow just about anyone in this classroom, but I wouldn't have even dreamed of letting you step foot in here unless you achieved an O in your O.W.L.S. Turn to page 42 of your textbooks, today we will be making essence of insanity. Begin-"

While most people worked with a partner, Juno always worked alone. As with most things in life, the way she brewed potions was not by the book, sometimes ending in a perfectly made potion, other times creating a small disaster on her desk. She always knew how to make the potion, but, like her mother, she often experimented with ingredients and order.

Gathering her ingredients and apparatus, she lit up her cauldron and quickly skimmed the instructions in her textbook. It was more complex than previous potions they had made that year, but still, she was confident in her abilities, and, upon reading the instructions, decided it would be more efficient to add the Alihosty before the Billywig sting, and to mash the Lovage instead of cutting it. She also decided to alter the rotation and number of stirs as she saw fit, wanting to ensure the ingredients marinaded and fermented enough, to create a more potent and effective mixture.

All was going well until she added the Lovage. By mashing it, she had separated the water from the plant, thus causing waves of thick, purple smoke to bellow out from her cauldron.

"Do not breathe in this smoke, everyone cast bubble head charms," Snape ordered, his voice stern, and frightening to most, covering his mouth with his sleeve. All the students complied. He opened the windows to let out the smoke, and raised his wand to cease the flow.

"Wait-" Juno said, halting him from cleaning the mess.

"Wait? Wait?! Miss Lovegood, you realise breathing in the amount of smoke your potion is creating would leave this entire class confused for days-"