The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Double Potions

James Potter became an instant celebrity for the stunt he'd pulled in flying lessons. The story of him catching the Drooble's Best Blowing Gum ball - not once but twice - had spread like wildfire after Madam Hooch had told it to the Captain of the Gryffindor team, who'd quickly told his entire team at dinner, where the Ravenclaws had overheard and talked about it at their table from which the Hufflepuffs overheard, from whom the Slytherins had overheard... By the time James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter went up to the Great Hall that night, half the Gryffindor house was up and waiting in the common room to ask the small herd of first years about the details of the catch.

Even Alice Bell asked Lily with wide eyes if it was true that James Potter had caught a blowing gum ball clear across the grounds. "It was a red ball," Lily said mulishly. "It wasn't that impressive."

By next morning when the first years went down to breakfast, laden with their cauldrons, and ingredients for Potions, everyone in the school was either high-fiving or whispering about James as they passed by him.

"Where'd you learn to fly like that, Potter?"

"Way to go!"

"Is it true you've got a Nimbus at home?"

"Maybe we'll finally beat Slytherin for the House Cup once you're old enough to play!"

"Are you going to try out for Gryffindor team next year?"

"Like your head needed any further inflating." This last came from a smirking Remus as the five first years arrived to the Great Hall and Lily broke away from the four boys to go sit with a gaggle of the second year girls she'd been hanging out with.

James guffawed, "I told you, it's not ego if it's true, and I've proven it's true, haven't I?" He swaggered over to the Gryffindor table ahead of his friends, relishing the way it seemed that everyone in the Hall - or at least everyone not at the Slytherin table - was staring at him with awe and excitement. The Slytherins were either ignoring him or glowering. Severus Snape was the glowering one, sitting at the table across the room with a piece of bacon halfway to his mouth, his eyes following James with a sort of loathing.

Once they'd all finished breakfast it was time for Potions and the first year Gryffindors followed along behind the first year Slytherins down into the dungeons where the Potions Master's classroom was. They turned into a classroom just down the hall from the stairwell that Lily and Snape had sat in to talk and found themselves seats around a classroom lit by several places lining the walls, each desk featuring cutting boards and small pits for fire to heat the cauldrons. James and Sirius sat next to one another while Remus and Peter took another desk. Lily sat alone at a table at the front. Then Severus appeared at her side and, smiling, took the seat beside her.

Professor Horace Slughorn was a large man that sort of reminded James of exactly his name - a great slug. He waddled to the front of the room and set himself into a plush green velvet chair by the teacher's desk and smiled around at the students as they placed their cauldrons and ingredients cases onto the desks and settled themselves in. "Good morning everyone," Professor Slughorn called, cutting over the chattering voices. He smiled as silence fell over the dungeon room. "I can tell that we are all very excited to learn the art of potion-making... But of course you are, it's a very exciting art! Much more subtle than the red and green sparks you create in classes like Charms and Transfiguration, much more poetic." Slughorn's eyes drifted over the class, "You'll learn about such amazing things in this class over the years you are required to take it leading up to O.W.L.s - and, I hope, will enjoy it so much that perhaps you shall carry on into your N.E.W.T. years..."

Horace Slughorn went on for ages, it seemed, talking about the 'subtle beauty' of potion making before launching into an eons long talk about the different types of cauldrons and the reasons why you'd use each for different sorts of potions. James and Sirius had lost their attention spans somewhere around the declaration that potions was more poetic than Charms and Transfiguration, realizing that they probably weren't going to be using their wands in this class, rendering it very boring indeed. They'd begun drawing pictures and enchanting them to move across the parchment. Detail by detail, they'd created a very compelling picture of a Quidditch game and were prodding the players they'd drawn to compete against one another across the pitch.