Invidiosa

Off To A Brain-Dead Start

The week progressed until her detention with Snape. Seeing as he wasn't the potions master anymore, tediously preparing ingredients for the next class wasn't on his mind anymore.

Attia came in her muggle clothes and glasses, noticing Harry not around. 'Where's Potter?—Sir?'

'With Dumbledore. Sit,' he pointed, clearly grievously wounded about not punishing his least favourite student. He snapped and she obeyed. She suspected any cheek might get her next week too, so she shut up as he instructed her to copy records of library logs— under an alias. 'Parum Stella' was this so called person signing out books and somehow getting away without using their real name. Someone must have thought it cute to avoid library fines or tracking on the... rather obscure books they were signing out. Ancient Rites in Preparing the Departed, Phantoms, Ghosts, and Poltergeists etc. Then there were guides of herbology, Venomous Verdure, A Wicked Witch's Green Thumb, The Herbologist's Almanac. Fantastic Fauna, Extreme Phenomena and Transparency on the Immaterial, Non Corpoereal Memoirs— They checked out so much! It was such a menial task to write them all, and date the from 1975-1978. Pointless torment by Snape.

'And do sort them into their correct categories,' he remarked blithely, and she fought ever vein in her body not to groan.

When she was done by 11pm, hand aching, he sent her off.

'And do take that parchment with you. It's useless to me,' he remarked to the piece she had written on. She wanted to look at him scornfully but bit the inside of her mouth to stop, taking it, rolling it up and heading off to her dorm.

Attia sludged through classes, fighting to get through her homework with Yoona and Rolf who each took a class less, and the lack of overlapped made the work difficult to work together through homework as they always had. She didn't appreciate Harry's edge, and did as much research as possible to ready herself for sixth level potions before she blew a fuse at him.

Yoona fumbled about with arithmancy. 'Ye think I should make an appeal to Snape? Defence Against the Dark Arts— I mean, if You-Know-Who is back and all, how d'ye suppose I fend for meself?'

Rolf looked up concernedly, getting her point. 'Well... he's not exactly known for being a lax guy. We could teach you in our free time.'

'Would ya?' Yoona's head lifted with excitement. 'We could use the room— like ya did— last year.'

'Sure.' He looked at Attia, someone who definitely needed more help than Yoona in her practical use of defensive spells. She was more concentrated on filling a cup with a charm Flitwick had taught them—trying.

'Aguamenti.' A jet stream of water forming into a ball began above the cup, as Attia tried to deftly maneuver it where she wanted it.

'Not sure a library is where to do that, Atts...' lamented Yoona. She was right, of course. In the next instant, Attia missed when she released it and it instead went all over the table, watering the wood and the books.

Yoona flicked her wand quickly to get away the water before Pince could see, siphoning it away with a spell. She looked back at Attia again after. 'Ye'd better not be thinkin' of tryin' again.'

'I won't,' Attia muttered back, embarrassed.

The afternoon, right after Gryffindor's morning trials, was reserved for Slytherin, as her brother had arranged. Attia stood behind him, loyal little co-captain, staring at her brother curiously as he called out an attendance.

'Why attendance?' Attia asked quietly from behind him, noting that there were also a number of new guys from seventh years who probably didn't get on with Montague, or Flint before him, the last years. Which, was well enough because Jules not Attia had either.