The Potions Master's Daughter (Book One)

Chapter 28

I finally fell asleep late that night from pure exhaustion. The next morning I woke up and rolled out of bed around 5:40. I was ready by 6:10 and went downstairs to think without waking anyone up.

I went downstairs and watched the fire flicker. Within seconds I was mesmerized by the glowing embers dancing in the sunrise. I sat there not really thinking about anything and just enjoying the peacefulness of the silence.

Suddenly there were footsteps coming from the boy's dorms and I was brought back to reality. I looked up to see Oliver Wood come down the stairs.

He saw me and came over, "Just the person I wanted to see. I talked to Dumbledore with McGonagall and he said that the rule could be bent for you. So congrats you are on the team! Practices will be on Saturday mornings from 6 am to 8 am then games on Sunday which the time with vary," I smiled widely as he thought, "Oh yeah! Your broom will come in the mail tomorrow just don't open it; we can't have anyone knowing you're on the team until the first game. We managed to get you a Nimbus 2000."

"Oh that's great," I exclaimed, "I'll see you on Saturday."

He nodded and walked out the portrait. I went back to looking at the firey embers and thinking about my very first Quidditch game. I started to worry that I would mess up and be kicked off the team. The other half of my mind was envisioning me catching the Snitch in a few minutes and winning the game for Gryffindor.

I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn't notice Ron Harry and Hermione come down and sit next to me until Ron said, "Earth to Jessica."

I sat up straighter with a start and said, "Hey guys sorry I must have zoned out there for a few minutes."

"Well breakfast starts in a few minutes. Do you want to head down with us or keep staring at the fire?" asked Harry in a sarcastic voice.

I got up with a sigh and followed them down to the Great Hall. The room looked great. Overnight all the teachers must have added their own little touched to the hall. All around the room there were pumpkins floating; each with a different evil face. The banners around the Great Hall had been turned orange and black in honor of Halloween. Even though it was breakfast there was candy corn and other kinds of candy I didn't recognize lining the table. I had never been near so much candy in my entire life. I went and sat down next to Ron across from Harry and Hermione. Ron and I began eating everything in sight as Harry and Hermione ate much slower and deliberately.

Soon I was stuffed and said, "Well Happy Halloween guys."

"Happy Halloween," they answered.

For the rest of breakfast we laughed and joked around with the other Gryffindors. We didn't bring up anything depressing like the Sorcerer's Stone. I was so full from all the candy that I barely ate any real food. I was well aware that I would pay for that later but at the moment I didn't care. When the mail came Lucky came and dropped my broomstick in front of me. I put a concealer spell on it quickly and put it in my locker to put in my room later.

Finally we made our way to Transfiguration which passed without a problem.

Then we made our way down to the Dungeons for Potions which put a damper on everyone's festive mood.

As soon as we walked in I noticed my father standing at the front of the room looking bored.

"Let's sit in the back today," Ron whispered.

We nodded. In order to sit in the back we were going to have to sit near some of the girls in our dormitory. I sat next to a blonde girl with Harry Ron and Hermione to my left.

"I want you to redo the potion you did yesterday seeing as though almost all of you failed."

I knew this was a lie and judging from some of the Gryffindor's faces they did too. Almost all of the Gryffindor kids had passed without a problem. Severus was basically letting the Slytherin students have another shot to do it with his help while all the Gryffindors were busy being scared by him.