curiosity killed the cat

Chapter 2

Eliza's first class of seventh year is Potions.

She sits next to Asajj Ventress, a fellow Slytherin with a short pixie cut, extremely pale skin that makes Eliza sometimes wonder if she secretly has vampire genes, and an intimidating glare that's intense enough to spook the Bloody Baron. In the row behind them are Cody and Ahsoka, and Rex isn't far away, either. The rest of the classroom is scattered with a variety of seventh-year students, all from different Houses but all in the classroom to take N.E.W.T. Potions. By the front of the classroom, the Potions professor, Professor Dooku, lurks as he always does, pacing around and lecturing about the lesson material, his robes sweeping and his silver hair heavily slicked back with gel in a hairstyle that makes him look permanently bald from certain angles.

It's about ten minutes into the lecture, and Eliza can't help but tune Dooku out—she already knows all about the Draught of Living Death, having heard enough about it from Cody's incessant blabbering on certain random Potions throughout the years to probably write a ten-foot-long essay on it. Instead, she turns her head slightly, observing her surroundings and taking in the room around her.

The gray stone walls of the classroom, which are lined with wooden shelves and cupboards, curve upwards to create a domed ceiling. An array of jars containing pickled animals, mysteriously bubbling liquids, and various other potions ingredients don the shelves, and black matte desks are scattered across the classroom, each fit with two matching stools that are currently occupied by the students in the class.

In one corner of the room is a student supply cupboard, and in another stands a gigantic basin. A stone gargoyle is crouched atop of the basin, a steady stream of water pouring out of its mouth. The few candles littered across the walls shine light throughout the classroom, though it clearly isn't enough—there's a dim, hazy atmosphere all over, which is only helped by the fumes that are steadily rising from the large black cauldron at the front of the classroom. Behind the cauldron is a blackboard that stretches from one wall to another, with scribbled chalk instructions visible upon it and a fat leather armchair to its side.

Dooku is in the middle of pointing at the large black cauldron at the front and loudly proclaiming about the properties of the Draught of Living Death when the door opens with a BANG!, and Anakin Skywalker walks into the classroom.

At the sound, Dooku stops lecturing, and he, along with every single student in the room—Eliza included—turns to stare at the newcomer.

Up until now, Anakin Skywalker has completely slipped Eliza's mind. After the Start-of-Feast ended last night, she dimly remembers seeing him disappear into the mass of students leaving for the dorms from the corner of her eye while she'd been making her way to the other side of the Great Hall towards the Gryffindor table. Her, Ahsoka, and Cody had stayed back, mingling with Rex and their Gryffindors friends so they could all catch up—after all, with Rex and Cody being siblings, they interact with each other's friends fairly often, which meant that throughout the years, Eliza and Ahsoka had also gotten close with a good bit of Rex's Gryffindor friends.

After a grumpy Grievous had kicked them out of the Great Hall for "loitering" at the end of the night, the hallways had almost been empty with the closeness of curfew looming by then, and they'd had to rush back to the Slytherin Common Room. Eliza and Ahsoka had waved goodbye to Cody at the top of the stairs in the back of the common room that diverged into two—the boy's and girl's dorms—before going up the split path on the right and entering the dorm they shared with Aayla, Barriss, and Asajj. Eliza had gone to sleep stomach full, content to be back at Hogwarts, and the name Anakin Skywalker forgotten, far from any crevice in her mind.

Now, though, as she stares at the figure by the doorway, she realizes just how tall Anakin is.

Being of average height, Eliza isn't short by any means, but Anakin seems to tower over her, even from a distance. She hadn't noticed yesterday, since he'd been sitting down in the Great Hall, but she can estimate he had a good eight inches over her at the least. His height is only exemplified by his lean stature, with his sweeping robes and broad shoulders seeming to fill out the entire door frame.