Lumos/Nox

Friends

"Whoa! Put that shit out!" Dan shouted, dancing around on the tips of his toes. His cauldron had lit on fire. "Is there a fire extinguisher here?"

The potions professor levelled a gaze at him, unimpressed. "What exactly is a 'fire extinguisher'?"

Throwing his hands up in the air, Dan blew a curl out of his face and answered, "It's a magical device that extinguishes fire. What the hell kind of school is this if you aren't equipped to put out fires?" His curly hair was killing him, but these wizards didn't supply electricity, and his hair-straightener had nowhere to go, so he compromised and ran a rough hand through it, pulling it back. It hurt a little, but his stupid hair deserved it anyway.

"I would think that after a full two months of being at this school, you would have learned that wizards do not use such muggle contraptions. Daniel, take out your wand. Yes, your wand!" Professor Snape's upper lip was curled into a derisive sneer. His greasy black hair hid half his face.

"Alright, alright!" Dan grabbed his wand – a long 30-centimetre stick made of vine wood and a thestral hair core – from the edge of the cauldron and thrust it into the fire. "Um. Aguamenti." A fountain of water spilled from the tip of his wand and doused the flame after a fair amount of wand waving.

Beside him, Fin let out a giggle. "Show that to your 'fire extinguisher', why don't you?"

Dan smiled in reply. Snape, however, was less than pleased. "Mr. Howell, I'm not sure I see what there is to laugh about. You'll have to empty your cauldron and start again. Class ends in 10 minutes." He swished back around to face the rest of the class, black robes billowing around him like a flimsy dress in a hurricane.

Fin leaned over, resting his chin on Dan's shoulder. "What an arse, that professor, huh?" With an overdramatic sigh, he quietly said, "I'm sorry you have to restart your potion. In all fairness, though, none of us got very far. Look, mine's been stuck in the pearly-milk-coloured stage for the past twenty minutes! It was supposed to have turned bright lavender by now, after I added the mistletoe berries. I thought I did everything just right!"

Shrugging, Dan absentmindedly stirred the liquid bubbling in the cauldron with his wand. It fizzed weakly, and the singed coating on the surface of the potion began to melt away, revealing a shimmering lavender colour beneath. It flashed and winked at him as it swirled in a living whirlpool. "There's no way," Dan breathed.

"Blimey!" Fin stood up straight. "You lucky arse!"

Snape looked up from his desk. "Bottle up your concoction in a flask and bring it to me. They'll be graded on accuracy." With a wand wave, a flask-stand appeared on the mahogany. He smirked when he saw Dan approach. "You've got something to show me? Very well, then, put it in the stand."

Dan shrugged. "Have a positively sparkling day, professor!" He gently plinked his flask into the stand and danced out of the classroom with his bag in tow. On his way out of the heavy dungeon door, he crashed into another student, sending the contents of his pockets – quills, bottles of ink, and a hilariously-coloured piece of green parchment – flying. Scrambling to collect it all before it was trampled by all the second-years who were now streaming in, Dan bent down, face flaming.

A tug at Dan's hair, and then,"Oi, watch where you're going!" A northern accent shouted before it disappeared into the doorway. Dan looked up just in time to see the black hair disappear, too.