The Art of New Beginnings

Chapter Seven: Confronting Fears

Nott didn't reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through double Potions. He swaggered into the dungeon, his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, acting, in Erica's opinion, as though he was the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.

"Settle down," Severus snapped as Tracey immediately began to pepper him with questions about the Hospital Wing and his injury, but Erica caught him wink at Crabbe and Goyle when he thought nobody was looking.

They were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution, which Erica had never bothered to try before because of its lack of general uses. Nott set up his cauldron right next to Erica and Draco so that they were preparing ingredients on the same table, and she was fairly certain that if he got any closer she wouldn't be able to help herself and she would shove his head into the cauldron and laugh as he screamed.

She was beginning to get used to these sudden violent impulses, and they were easier to suppress than the morbid anger she experienced last year, so shrugged off the rather delightful images with a vicious smirk and nothing more.

"Sir," Nott called, "Sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm-"

"Miss Riddle can help you with preparation of your ingredients," Severus replied without even looking up from Blaise's cauldron as he commented lightly on the colour. He did look up when he heard Erica's hiss though, the smirk he wore positively cunning. Yeah, Erica decided, he was definitely doing this on purpose to mess with her.

"There's nothing wrong with your arm," she ground out as she yanked his roots towards her, picking up the knife and- after shaking away the brief image of shoving it in his eye- chopping them so that they were roughly the same size before shoving them back towards him.

The lesson continued like that as he made her skin his Shrivelfig, prepare the caterpillars and stir his potion for him. "My father isn't very happy about my injury," he mentioned almost conversationally towards the end of the lesson. "He's complained to the school governors as well as to the Ministry of Magic, and he has many families backing him. I saw the way you handled the beasts, though, and-"

"Hippogriffs," she hissed through gritted teeth.

"What?" He frowned at her.

"They aren't beasts," she ground out. "They're Hippogriffs, and they're far more majestic and intelligent than the likes of you will ever be."

"Okay, whatever," he rolled his eyes, handing her two vials as she ladled some of his potion into them, handing them straight back over as soon as she was finished so she could deal with her own. "You were a natural anyway, and they didn't even commend you for it. Doesn't that frustrate you?"

"I don't do things like that just to be commended for it," she finished with her own potion, vanishing the remaining contents and stowing away two of the three vials she'd filled in her bag before peeling off a sticker to label the one that remained on her desk. "I did what I did because I like magical creatures, and I was excited, and I helped Hagrid keep control of them and look after them whilst he took you to the Hospital Wing because Hagrid is my friend and because Hippogriffs aren't dangerous, and I wasn't about to leave them unattended. I don't want to be thanked for it."

"You've changed," he frowned at her, as though she was a particularly difficult puzzle that he was trying to work out. "Malfoy, and the others, that stupid Weasel who fawns all over you, they make you weaker."

"Don't get me wrong, Nott," she turned to him, a particularly dangerous glint in her eye as she toyed with her wand just a little, setting the quill she had been using down. "I won't hesitate to make an example of you, if you make it necessary. There are a variety of spells that can be used to inflict torture and pain upon a person. I am quite well versed in a few of them. Care to get acquainted?"