Andromeda Year 1 (A Harry Potter Fanfiction) COMPLETE

A Disappointing Potions Class

"Tobias!" Andromeda calls a greeting when she walks into Potion's class and sees her friend. He looks up at her, then back down at the table. He's still ignoring her. Her heart falls. She frowns and starts to head over to the table he's at.

"Andromeda," Liz calls from another table. "We're supposed to be in groups of three for this project, remember?" Andromeda hesitates, wanting to go over to Tobias. He hadn't replied to her letter. But she turned to her roommates when Tobias stubbornly continued ignoring her.

"Sorry, I forgot," Andromeda said. "Wiggenweld potions, right?"

"Yeah, and we have to be doing three different parts of it at once," Liz said.

"And we'd better start now if we even want a chance of finishing before class is over," Vanessa complained. "I'll take the middle one," she said, pointing to the board where the instructions were separated into three different parts, one for each part of the potion.

"So you'll be lazily stirring salamander blood and flobberworm mucus the whole time?" Liz demanded.

"She also has to make sure the heat is the right temperature," Andromeda spoke up. "That's difficult. It has to be simmering at all times or it won't have the right potency."

"Fine, she can do it," Liz said. "Just don't mess it up!"

"I won't!" Vanessa replied, sticking out her tongue.

"I'll take the first one with the lionfish spines, if you want to work on the honeywater," Andromeda tells Liz.

"I can do that," Liz agrees.

About halfway through the class period, Professor Snape walks around the tables, checking on the student's progress. When he passes the table Andromeda is at, she hangs her head. She would normally be done, or almost done, with her potion by this point. But working with Liz and Vanessa, she wasn't even half done with her part of the potion. It seemed every five minutes she had to stop her work to help Vanessa fix the temperature of the cauldron. And Liz couldn't tell the difference between the different concentrations of the honeywater. So after the first time that her part of the potion had boiled itself into a large black slug shape, she asked Andromeda every time she was supposed to mix in a different concentration of honeywater with the wiggenweld bark.

By the end of the potions period, Andromeda was on the verge of frustrated tears, Vanessa had a hole in her cauldron, and Liz had three more of the black rock slugs for pets. "How disappointing," Professor Snape said blandly as he passed the table, continuing to make similar comments to the other tables. "Since none of you seemed to have been able to come close to the intended result, we will attempt this potion again on Monday. It seems to me that the fault was that the groups had too much time on their hands. Monday, we will go back to two people per potion." Groans spread through the classroom. Monday had a shorter class, too. "You are dismissed."

"How are we going to be able to do it with two people if we can't even do it with three?" Liz demands.

"And now we only have one cauldron," Vanessa says, picking up hers and looking straight through it.

"It'll be intense, but I'm sure when you focus on it more you'll be fine," Andromeda says, inching away from them and towards Tobias.

"Ugh, I hate focusing!" Vanessa whines, propping her bag on her shoulder and shuffling out of the room. Liz follows. Andromeda slips beside Tobias.

"How did the potion turn out for your group?" Andromeda asks. He glances up at her in surprise and steps away from her, looking around.

"Uh, well, like everyone else's, I suppose," Tobias tells her mutely.

"Probably still better than us, though. Vanessa's going to have to buy a new cauldron!" Andromeda tells him with a laugh. He barely twitches a smile.

"Hey, Toby!" The two first years glance up to see Jericho smiling at Tobias. The younger Slytherin boy froze. "Come on over here, I've been waiting for you." It was obvious that Tobias didn't want to listen.

"Have they been-" Andromeda started to ask, but Tobias jumped away from her as if forgetting she had been there. He gave her a guilty look and headed straight for Jericho. The older boy wraps an arm around Tobias' shoulders and drags him off before Andromeda can even finish her sentence. She frowns, looking down the hall both ways. Follow Vanessa and Liz? Or see what's going on with Tobias? She turns and heads after the two Slytherins.

"We told you to stay away from her, didn't we?" Jericho's hushed angry voice asks. Andromeda stops and ducks into a dark corner behind a column, sliding against the wall to where there was another corridor.

"I have been, I swear," Tobias rushes a reply. "We weren't even partners in potions today."

"Then why was she talking to you?" Leon's voice asks.

"Because, um, she feels sorry for me?" Tobias attempts an answer.

"Someone as pathetic as you should be pitied. You're an embarrassment to the Slytherin house," Marvelo spoke up.

"I'm sorry to bring such shame to Salazar's name," Tobias says softly. A soft thud is followed quickly by an "oof!"

"You shouldn't even speak his name," Leon says.

"That's enough for today," Jericho tells them. "I'm sure he's learned his place again. Besides, it's time for lunch." Another slap sound followed by footsteps. Andromeda waits, glancing carefully around the corner, seeing Tobias leaning against the wall just a couple feet away from her. The three guys were walking down the other direction. They stop at a painting.

"Mortal dread," Marvelo says. The painting swings open and the group walks through, letting it shut behind them. Andromeda stumbles out of her hiding place, tripping over her robes to get to Tobias.

"Are you okay? Why didn't you tell me what was going on? Have you told Professor Snape? How long have they been doing this to you?" she asks quickly, pulling his hands away from his face and brushing his hair back. His cheek was bright red from where he had been slapped and damp from tears. "Are you bleeding? Did they hit you somewhere else? Come on, we have to tell Professor Snape." She wraps her arm around him, pulling his arm up above her shoulders and half dragging him down the hall.

"I'm, I'm sorry. I didn't want to ignore you," Tobias sniffles. "I thought that, I mean, I could deal with it. You know? I didn't want you to get involved."

"Forget that. We're friends, remember? I'm here for you no matter what! I don't care what other people think about you. And what do they know about Salazar Slytherin? Those prats. You're a Slytherin. The hat decided. So obviously Salazar would have approved of you. Those idiots aren't even as smart as a hat."

"They can't even change a person's hair color," Tobias adds. Andromeda giggles. Tobias pulls his arm back. "I can walk."

"You'll actually walk with me, though? Not try to make an excuse and go the other way?" Andromeda checks. Tobias nods. She smiles at him, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the potions class, hoping that Professor Snape was still there. The classroom was empty when the two walked in.

"Not here," Tobias says. Not sure if he was relieved or disappointed.

"We'll talk to him on Monday," Andromeda tells him decisively. Tobias glances at her but finds himself unable to go against the stubbornness he sees in the set of her mouth.

"Okay," he yields. They turn and walk back down the corridors. "Did, erm, did you bring the Christmas gift your uncle sent you?" Tobias asks after several minutes of silence. Andromeda grins at him.

"Of course I did!" she tells him, pulling on his arm. "I've been dying to show you." Tobias smiles back and follows her up through the castle.