Running With Wolves

Chapter 24: A Potions Lesson

Chapter 24: A Potions Lesson

The Potions Classroom opened to a stream of fourth years, and the pungent odor of burnt oatmeal. Remus dodged past the fourth years into the classroom, coughing through the fumes and the smell.

"You all right, there, Remus?" Lily said lightly, coming up behind him and thumping him on the back.

"Fine, just..." he gestured vaguely at the air around him, dropping his things by their usual table. Sirius skirted round the table and dropped his things at the opposite corner of the table and began setting up his cauldron without looking up, at abnormal speed . Lily moved beside Remus, watching Sirius with raised eyebrows. James took up the remaining space on the table next to Sirius. Peter approached the end of the table, eyebrows furrowed, shoulders drooping. His bag slipped to the ground.

"I suppose I'll just work with Melby, shall I?" He said, a sour note creeping into his voice.

"Sorry, Pete," said James, who kept flicking his head in Lily's direction, in what he evidently assumed was a conspicuous manner. Peter followed his gaze, rolled his eyes, and moved to set up his station beside Owen Melby, a Hufflepuff who had the tendency to be overenthusiastic.

"Good afternoon, everybody," said Professor Slughorn from the front of the class, smiling jovially through his enormous silver mustache. "For this lesson, please turn to page one-hundred and sixty-two. For our next lesson on defensive potions, we will be brewing a draught of invisibility. This potion comes in handy because it's more effective than a disillusionment charm, and less bulky than an invisibility cloak, however, due to the difficulty of the preparation, most wizards opt for the easier, if slightly less convenient.

"My only words or advice for this potion is to read the instructions carefully. Any missteps and the result will be disastrous. No one want to miss dinner to clean their potion off the walls, eh? You may begin."

Remus released a generous breath of air as he glanced through the instructions in the textbook. The ingredient list alone spanned two pages. He tapped the burner underneath the cauldron with his wand and a small flame sparked into life.

"Have you got any extra beetle eyes, Lily? I've run out." Remus said above the chatter, digging through his potions kit.

"Yeah, sure," she pushed a pile of her left over beetle eyes to Remus.

"Thanks." Lily stopped his hand halfway through bringing the beetle eyes to the brim of his cauldron.

"Crush them first."

"Right, sorry. Merlin, it's a miracle I managed to pass my potions O.W.L."

"I think you're better at potions than you think you are, you just have to pay better attention to what you're doing."

"Have I crushed these properly?"

Lily looked over and nodded. Remus tossed them into the cauldron. He pulled his robes off his shoulders. The room was hot and rapidly filling with steam.

Slughorn's hazy form wandered around the room as they worked, peering into cauldrons, making comments and giving tips. Remus fidgeted with his newly chopped daisy roots. He was going to have to start again. The poor roots were too badly butchered to be used. Sighing, he trudged across the room to the store cupboard to get some fresh ones.

He glanced at Lily's potion. She was already halfway through her potion. It was bubbling gently as she stirred slowly turning a light shade of red. Remus rolled his sleeves up and took up his knife; he set to work cutting up the roots, measuring carefully to make sure they were all even.