The Mark of a Death Eater

Potions

I woke up the next morning to someone screaming very loudly in my ear.
"Get up!"
The person poked me in my stomach, hard.
"Ouch, ouch! Hey!" I protested. I tried to pull the bed sheet over my head and failed, because someone had pulled it off the bed.
"Geeet uuup! Really Emma! You're going to miss class."
That made me sit up.

Daphne Greengrass was standing over me, looking upset.
"What's the time?" I asked sleepily.
"You have got exactly seventeen minutes for class to start." she said, checking her silver watch.
I groaned. "Oh Daph! Why didn't you wake me?" I cried.
"I've been trying for ages!" she replied exasperatedly, throwing her hands up in frustration. "Why didn't you wake us? You're so lucky that Astoria was up early because of her homework."
It's usually my job to wake them up.
"Never mind that, you'd better hurry up. Hungry?" Daphne asked.
"Not really." I admitted, rushing to brush my teeth.
"Oh well, guess I brought this for naught." she said, holding up a plate of toast and a mug of tea she'd probably grabbed from the Great Hall. I took the tea and drained it in one gulp, hurrying to get dressed.
"I have a free period now but I think you have potions," she reminded me.
I nodded and pulled on my shoes.
"How did you oversleep? Didn't you sleep really early last night?"
"Yeah, but then I was up half the night," I said truthfully. "I can't believe I slept in!" I groaned again.
"Yeah, well, neither can we," she said flatly. "Now get to class before you lose that perfect 'O' you were going for."

As I dressed, I shuddered as I recalled last nights events. It all seemed so dreamlike now. I grabbed my bag and a chocolate frog (how does one function without chocolate?) and raced to the common room, pausing only to yell, "thanks!" to Daphne over my shoulder.

Once I got to the common room, I realised how I must have looked, having not brushed my hair. "Accio hairbrush," I called from the door, and my hairbrush quickly flew through the room towards me.
I quickly brushed the tangles from my hair and, glaring at a bunch of second years who dared to look at me, I shoved the brush in my bag and ran off.

Unsurprisingly, I was the last person in potions. Except for professor Slughorn.

For some reason I cannot quite put my finger on, I can't stand Professor Slughorn. On the first day of school in the year, it was just the matter that I thought he had an annoying demeanor and had a horrid mustache but now that I know him better, oh there are so many reasons. On the night of the first banquet, I had my hood on, but on the first day arriving at Potions, my green hair was exposed to the universe. Professor Slughorn was simply amazed at my hair. ("Coloured hair at Hogwarts! Oh my. I've never seen a young witch with green hair.")
In the next week, he'd nvited me to one of his little "parties". Of course I said yes, to be polite, with total conviction that I would not go. But after persuasion from Pansy and Daphne, I ended up attending the damned thing. It was every bit as horrible as I expected it to be.

Once Slughorn realised how incredibly intelligent I was it only gave him more reason to adore me (sadly). I could have done without his attention.

Professor Slughorn walked in just a few minutes later, but not late, saying, "my apologies, I had a bit of a lie in."

Idiot.

I had to pass the pot of Amortenia to get to my seat and caught a strong whiff of new parchment. Hurrah, who doesn't use parchment? That should narrow down the males I was attracted to very well.

Professor Slughorn had put the Amortenia next to the door so all of us could try and smell our different enticements in it. So far, parchment was the most prominent, followed by the burning-nose scent of ink, and something else I thought I knew but couldn't place.

I sat down on the wooden chair and waited for two professor to tell us what we were going to do.
"Now", he said, smiling broadly. "I think that all of you have been quite proficient in your progression with potions, so today we'll be doing an antidote to Veritaserum."
There was a murmur of assent through the classroom.