The Serpent and The Bird

Battle for your Heart

- Hmm, I don't think that's right. - Everleigh made the effort to not sound condescending while leaning towards Garreth's cauldron. - It should be a more vibrant green. It looks... quite yellow.

- Oh, no. It's totally fine. I'm creating my own version of the Wiggenweld. If you add a biiiiit extra of Dittany leaves, and my secret ingredient (leech juice), you will get...

The explosion was probably heard in the Astronomy tower. The whole Potions class was evacuated when a big cloud of black smoke coming out of Garreth's unusable cauldron filled the entire room.

- MR. WEASLEY!

Garreth went completely pale as professor Sharp limped furiously towards him. And that was saying something, considering his whole face was covered in smoke residue and Everleigh was only able to see the white of his eyes. She did a double take on his face just to make sure that she had seen correctly. He was missing one eyebrow.

Perhaps it was the comical situation they were in, but she felt a laugh coming out of her mouth and had to bite her lip hard just to hold it inside.

- Just what in the bloody hell were YOU thinking? Perhaps you were not thinking at all. - Professor Sharp's screams were heard in the hallway, and several students were popping their head out of other classrooms to find out what was going on. - You will accompany me to see the Deputy Headmistress immediately. The rest of you, class dismissed. And for the love of Merlin, someone dissipate this bloody smoke.

Everleigh watched Garreth's terrified figure leaving the Potions hallway with professor Sharp, while a couple of Ravenclaw students and Natsai entered the classroom to open the windows. The new witch didn't think twice to follow them into the darkness of the room to look for the windows as well. Once they did and were able to open every one of them, Everleigh whispered a soft incantation and her wand created a consistent gust of wind.

- Oh, that's a great spell! How didn't I think of that. - One of the Ravenclaw girl exclaimed. Rapidly, all four of them were getting the dense smoke out of the classroom. The smell lingered, however.

*********

- Oh, it's gonna reek of leeches in here for a while. - Natsai murmured, while exiting the room with Everleigh and heading to Defense Against the Dark Arts tower for the last class of the afternoon. - I can't believe Garreth. He's always getting in trouble because of his experiments, but I thought he had mastered that potion already.

- I feel terrible. I really hope he doesn't get into much trouble because of it.

- Probably just detention after class. Meaning, he won't be able to come with us to Hogsmeade for your supplies and butterbeers today.

- Maybe we can go back tomorrow again with him. It's Saturday, after all. Will detention continue for the rest of the weekend?

- Since it's the first day of class, perhaps he'll get a lesser "sentence". - Natsai replied, with some hope in her voice. Professor Sharp yelled again in the distance, but the long hallway brought the echoes of multiple curse words and insults that made everyone tremble. Everleigh and Natsai looked at each other.

- Perhaps not.

********

Leander Prewett ought to be the biggest pillock Sebastian had ever met. They bumped heads since first year, mostly because he was a twat that thought himself above everyone else. Ironically he wasn't a Slytherin.