The Other Half

Chapter 5

Yawning Lily Evans stretched her arms above her head, "I am not ready for class."

Through a mouthful of porridge, Emilia said, "we have potions second, you have nothing to worry about there."

Lily scowled, "doesn't mean I like it."

Slughorn, their potions professor, had a sweet spot for Lily, not quite in a creepy way but he doted on her and she wasn't a big fan of the attention, though she was a fan of the reference letters.

Marlene looked down at her schedule, "I have charms."

"So do I," piped up Mary.

"Hmm Defence Against the Dark Arts," Emilia said quietly.

"Darn, we don't have all our classes together," Lily said.

"Life can't be perfect," Marlene said wistfully with a smile.

Students began to exit the Great Hall and Emily realised how late it was. "We better get going," she chimed in.

The girls gathered their things and headed off to their respective classes.

Mary and Marlene took to the left, Emilia up the stairs in front of the Hall, and Lily to the right and out the door to herbology.

Emilia hurried along, her feet skimming over the floors,. She had no intention of being late. DADA was a favourite subject, and Prof. Mortigan, who had taught at Hogwarts for a millennia was the great teacher anyone could ask for.

Emilia filed in with the rest of the students as she reached the door. She spotted James, Sirius, and Remus, crammed into their desks at the front corner. They had all recently become academics, catching up to Remus' study habits, and now that they applied themselves were top in their classes.

Emilia sat herself down beside Remus who had a desk to himself, as James and Sirius had paired up at the desk to the right of them.

"Emilia, why are you in 6th year Defence?" James asked, "you don't want to be an auror." James sometimes did this, egged her on for no good reason. They were siblings after all and they had a knack for getting a rise out of each other of the stupid stuff.

Emilia scrunched up her nose, "just because I don't want to follow in your footsteps doesn't mean I don't want to learn. Remus doesn't want to be an auror either, why not ask him."

"Yeah, but Remus is a nerd," he said turning to his friend, "no offense, mate."

"None taken," Remus shrugged.

Emilia rolled her eyes, "if you looked around you once in a while James, you'd see why we all need to learn how to defend ourself against dark magic."

That shut him up. Everyone was well aware of the rise of this so called "Dark Lord", a blood supremacist and violent wizard. Perhaps Emilia went to far bringing him up, but she turned her head back to the front where a man was setting up his briefcase on his desk.

"Good morning class, my name is Professor Tandle. I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this year."

"Where's Mortigan?" Shouted a Slytherin from the back.

Tandle's face dropped, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately Professor Mortigan was, well he passed away this summer."

Murmurs went up like wildfire in the classroom, "dead?" "but he was so young!" "so powerful." "what do you think happened?"

"Please, students," Tandle called out, "I'm very sorry I don't know the details but I assure you everything will be alright."

Forgetting about the earlier spat between the two, James and Emilia locked eyes. There was no so thing as "twin telepathy", but when you have lived by someone for so long, you can tell why the other was thinking. They both knew, he was lying.

The class continued, though hardly anyone raised their hand and silence filled the room for long stretches of time. Everyone, no matter your house, had adored Mortigan, he had been a great teacher, who really cared. It was a hit to everyone that he was gone.

When the class was dismissed Emilia found herself dredging down the narrow staircases to the dungeon for potions. She was rather glad she was in class with Lily, besides being a friend, if she was her partner she'd certainly get a good mark from Slughorn.

Entering the dimly lit, cavernous classroom, she saw Lily, a beacon of red hair, calling her over to sit by.

The potions classroom was always cold, and smelled like old stone and a mix of herbs you could never quite place. Two person tables were assembled in rows, lanterns hung from the ceiling, and the walls were lined with shelves filled with everything from bundles of rosemary to mummified fingers.

Emilia and Lily were the only non Slytherins in the small class, aside from a Hufflepuff and two Ravenclaws.

Horace Slughorn, a round sort of man with tiffs of hair neatly combed back and a hideous olive tweed suit and black robes got up from behind his desk at the front of the classroom and grinning at them all said, "welcome students. I suppose it may have crossed someone of your minds the current gifted population of this class."

Emilia was a little shocked, "gifted? She had always been good at potions, good marks. But she didn't think of herself as gifted.

He went on, "I have especially curated this class of all the top students from last year, and people who I believe have great potential." His eyes flitted over Emilia when he said this. "You all are also invited to my small extra curricular study group. As I believe you shall all have great success in the future."

"Guess we're in the Slug Club," Lily said with a giggle before they turned their pages to Chapter 1.