Purebloods

The Triwizard Tournament

The first month and a half of school were exhausting, to say the least. I still did not feel comfortable about my additional lessons, and the early morning lessons with Severus were tiring me more than the full schedule itself.

I stood in the Potions storeroom, where ingredients and partially brewed potions were stored. It was Friday, and the schools for the Triwizard Tournament would be arriving on Monday. Every Friday I got into the habit of tracking inventory for Severus, so I could communicate any needs to the professors who can provide the ingredients.

Powdered Asphodel Root – check Wormwood – check Fluxweed – check Knotgrass – check Leeches – check Boomslang Skin – check

The door swung open and the tall dark figure of Severus Snape held out his hand as if to request the parchment with quantities of items. I handed it to him after checking the last ingredient quantity: Lacewing Flies – check.

"Keep an eye on the leeches. I think someone has been stealing them. A terrible prank, probably."

"Who has access to the storeroom, though? Not likely a student can just come in anytime without the password." I never knew if other teachers had access to the supply.

"Only you and I have the password, but I will be changing the password soon. We should not have gone through as many leeches this early in the term." Severus grabbed the jar and the leeches started moving around. "I never allow students in here if they need the ingredients, which you will know."

I stood in the storeroom thinking for a moment about whether there was a history of theft for ingredients. What would a student want with this stuff?

When the lunch break came, I sat down at the Slytherin table with Catie and Adrian, who were discussing their Divinations class from the period before. Thankfully, Severus did not think I needed to take Divinations at the N.E.W.T. level, despite the Outstanding I received at the O.W.L. level.

I pulled my Defense Against the Dark Arts books out of my bag and flipped halfway through the book to where my quill was holding the page.

"Blimey, Rore, what have you been skipping ahead for? We are not even through the first four chapters!" Catie asked, ignoring Adrian's request to see her Divinations notes.

"Keep your voice down. I told you I wanted to get ahead now that I've been taking on additional Prefects responsibilities." I hoped she would not ask any further questions, as this became my lie for all the additional lessons that were added onto my class schedule.

"Higgs has been hanging around the common room every afternoon break. I've seen him more than you, so does he not have the same level of responsibility as a Prefect as you?"

"Catie, we both know Snape would never give Terence the same amount of responsibility as Aurora. She is capable of taking on more any time." Adrian's eyes peered past me down the table toward the dark-haired male who was writing on some parchment, likely heading to the Owlery after this.

"Just drop it, please." I looked back down at the book with the notes from my recent lesson with the Auror Alastor Moody. Realizing how much more difficult it would become to keep my lessons private, I stood up and put the book back in my bag. "I'm actually not very hungry, and I need to grab another book from the library. I will see you later."

Adrian's footsteps could be heard following me out of the Great Hall. "Rore, what's been going on with you?" He sped up a bit to catch up with me.

"Ade, what are you talking about? I've been... normal."