The Other Witches

7. Charms, Potions, and the Art of Making Friends (or Enemies)

Sitting in Charms class and continuously summoning a pillow and throwing it across the room again is a very tedious process. Especially when you've done it successfully approximately thirty times. And your friend in Gryffindor is accidentally whacking you with her pillow every time she does it. And her fellow Gryffindor is whacking her with his pillow on purpose. Tedious and distracting. And thoroughly entertaining for your friends in Hufflepuff.

"Accio," I say for the umpteenth time. "Lucy, are you sure you don't want to do something about that guy who's obviously bothering you?" I catch the pillow in the middle of my sentence. 

"No," she says with a determined look on her face. "I won't...Accio...give him the satisfaction...Accio!...of complaint...ACCIO!" She says it with a little too much energy, and the pillow comes to her. To her face, that is.

"Class dismissed!" the professor shouts. "Remember, a foot of parchment on the proper execution of a summoning charm, to be turned in on Monday!"

As we stream out of the classroom with the rest of the students, Lucy is greeted with a smack on the head with a roll of parchment. "Seriously, Demille, are you even living? You and Glasswater, and that other three..."

"Shut up, Potter. Is the purpose of your life to annoy me constantly?"

"Quite possibly, Demille, if you keep up that attitude."

Lucy opens her mouth to say something, but closes it once she realizes where we are. The crowd of fourth years has taken us down to the dungeons, to the potions classroom. Down here, it's dark, damp, and cobwebby. Yay.

We find a group of four seats. There is a brief scuffle as Von and Ella try to shove each other out of the last seat. Von wins, sort of surprisingly, considering she is about 4 inches and several pounds smaller than Ella. Ella settles for a seat at the next table, where a group of Hufflepuffs are chatting animatedly.

The door bangs open, and a man in flowing black robes sweeps to the front of the classroom. I seem to remember something about a famous potions professor wearing black. Is it a tradition or something? He taps on his desk with a long, light-colored wand, and the class falls silent.

"Welcome to Potions," he begins. "I am Professor Lassep. I hope this class means at least a little to you. Not that I really care. Turn to page 12 in your books. You will be brewing an Antidote to Common Poisons. Ingredients in the cupboard, instructions on the board. You have an hour. Begin."

I hurry to the cupboard with the rest of the class. Bezoar, check. Mistletoe berries, check. Unicorn horn, check. Ok. Now for the instructions.

As I wait for my mixture to finish brewing, a woman bustles in and whispers something in the professor's ear. His eyebrows rise in shock, and he hurries out of the room.

"I really don't see why some of you enjoy this," a voice calls, adressing the whole class.

Scorpius, the blond Slytherin boy, rises from his seat. "Shut it, McFleeble. Just shows that the rest of us are the slightest bit more intelligent than you."

"Let's see if that's true, Malfoy." A tall, dark-haired boy stands up and strides confidently to the large empty space to shouts of "Yeah, take him, McFleeble". I really don't see why this McFleeble person took that as a challenge to a duel. The kid I met on the train whispers warningly to Scorpius, but he stands up anyway, facing his opponent.

"Stupefy!" "Expelliarmus!" "Protego!" "Petrificus Totalus!" The spells echo in the dugeon. Each spell that one casts, the other expertly dodges or blocks. Finally, Scorpius is disarmed. McFleeble turns with a wicked look on his face. "Now you get it, Malfoy!" He raises his wand.

I don't know what compels me to do it. I find myself jumping out of my seat and yelling "Protego!" just as McFleeble cast his spell. White blades of light ricochet off the bluish-green sheet of the shield charm, and I think, Whatever he was going to do, it can't have been good. Finally, the shield fades, but just as McFleeble spins around to attack me, Von shouts, "Expelliarmus!", and his wand appears in her other hand. Behind me, Lucy helps Scorpius up, earning scornful glares and rude comments from her fellow Gryffindors. Scorpius acts livid, but whispers a small "Thanks" to Lucy.

"SHUT IT PEOPLE! THE PROFESSOR'S COMING!" Lauren yells from the doorway. Apparently, that's quite a menacing threat, because everyone shuffles around wildly to find their seat. My potion is done brewing. When I add the final ingredients, the Antidote doesn't emit as much bluish-purple steam as it probably should, like Von's, but it'll pass the test. I cork my vial of potion just as Professor Lassep comes back into the room.

I linger for a little while after class ends, because fascinating jars in the cupboard are very distracting. When I finally come out of the classroom, I walk in on Von and McFleeble having a diss battle of sorts.

But then everything gets quiet.

Well, I guess the house emnity is worse than I thought.

Hello Wattpandas.

Thank you for staying here while I wasted away without an email. I am really sorry about the lateness of this posting.

And for one person out there: Stve is coming soon.

-RedV