Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Taking Responsibility (Louis Weasley)

Taking a break actually made me really productive and I know my break isn't supposed to be over yet, but I wanted to post this before going to bed. I hope you like it ~

At the beginning of the year, I had made the mistake of assuming that because the subjects we took weren't compulsory any more, people would be much quieter. Surely, since potions wasn't a subject that we were forced to take, it made perfect sense to think that the students would have the basic instinct of not acting out in a classroom full of rapidly bubbling cauldrons?

Apparently, I was stupid to think that and Helga, no one seemed to be concerned that it was an accident waiting to happen. Professor Zabini was well known for the attitude he held towards such accidents; if you had been mucking about and got a potion spilt on you, then it was your fault for being such an idiot. But, if you hadn't been mucking about, and still your potion was spilt, then he didn't mark you down for it. According to my parents, their Potion's professor hadn't been so kind.

Even if he was still so understanding, he was the sort of person to let idiocy happen around him so his students could learn for themselves. Of course, I didn't really appreciate the constant threat looming over my boiling cauldron. But thankfully I was coming to the end of the recipe and now all I needed to do was to leave it to boil for five minutes. A short five minutes and it would all be over.

Leaving the cauldron alone, I pulled out my stool from beneath the table and completed the notes that I had set aside when I had started to brew the potion.

Picking up my quill, I twiddled it between my fingers and pulled my textbook closer to me to see where I had left off. When the sound of laughter around me suddenly increased, I glanced up briefly to find a bunch of Ravenclaw boys at the table in front of mine mucking about with ingredients. Rolling my eyes, but paying them no further attention, I continued to consult the textbook. I really should have kept an eye on them considering that mere seconds later I heard a distinct splash of something falling haphazardly into a cauldron. My cauldron.

Scrambling to my feet, I hurried towards the cauldron on the other end of the table and peered into it to try and see what the damage was. Helga, I didn't even know what had fallen into the potion so how in Merlin's name was I going to rectify whatever had gone wrong?

"About your potion," someone started hesitantly, coming around the table to join me. I briefly recognised his voice as belonging to one of the Ravenclaw's who had been mucking about. "Look I'm really sorry about the –"

"What was it?" I asked abruptly, stopping him midsentence.

"I'm sorry?"

I frowned into the cauldron, watching the liquid that should have been a calm blue turn into a thick mud-like concoction, both in colour and consistency. "What was chucked into the cauldron?"

"What was –" For a moment it sounded like he didn't understand before suddenly he too was peering over the cauldron to catch sight of my potion which was beginning to bubble madly. Almost instantly there was a hand on my arm, trying to draw me away. "Move away Sharda."

I didn't move quick enough and within the span of a few milliseconds the potion had flared up angrily and shot outwards, straight into my eyes. A scream of pure agony left me at the sudden burning in my eyes, and the sound was enough to bring a still silence across the room that even Professor Zabini's unimpressed stare couldn't achieve. Dropping to my knees in the middle of the classroom with eyes welded shut, I covered my face with my hands as the burning finally eased.

A still silence followed where no one said a word and then, then there was a hand removing my own away from my face and I clung to the support, not knowing who was offering it. It took a while to force my heart rate to slow with deep breaths that I unconsciously timed to the chest I felt rising and falling unsteadily against the length of my side.