Atropos → george weasley

xi. ottilie takes initiative

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eleven

ottilie takes initiative

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The next night, Ottilie planned on exploring the corridor after curfew but ended up entranced by the second half of the book Binns had given her. It was nearly four in the morning by the time she returned to reality.

In the end, she decided exploring a perilous corridor could wait. She didn't think doing it running on so little sleep was wise.

Her eyes were aching when she stirred on Friday morning. Her limbs were stiff, and she felt vaguely sick during breakfast, where she hurriedly copied down some notes from Corpus of the Magic and Curses of the Ancient Egyptians, Volume I.

Though she only had double Potions that day, she was hoping to find Professor Binns to ask him some questions and see if, perhaps, he had Corpus of the Magic and Curses of the Ancient Egyptians, Volume II to loan her.

"Hey, do you know if anyone has History of Magic this afternoon?" Ottilie asked a Slytherin girl wearing a prefect's badge.

The prefect stopped to stare. "I have it today after lunch." She shook her head. "Why would you ever want to see Professor Binns?"

"I'm returning this," Ottilie said, gesturing to the book on the table. The fifth year just walked away.

Finally, it was time for Potions. Ottilie joined the handful of other Slytherin first years waiting outside the double doors, light from a lamp on the wall drawing her into a daze.

Soon, the small crowd of students gathered in front of the doors—Snape had his locked so students couldn't enter early. Hermione Granger discovered this when she tried the door and looked embarrassed when it didn't open. Draco and his friends snickered to themselves.

The doors swung open a minute later to reveal Snape standing with a critical gleam in his eyes. He said nothing and turned around again

Ottilie followed her classmates inside. She watched as the others scanned the gloomy, dark room. It was quite unlike the other classrooms. It had no windows and only a few lamps to illuminate the workbenches and shelves upon shelves of ingredients on the walls. Ottilie, thanks to her time scraping melted cauldron off of the floor, was already accustomed to it.

She chose to sit in the very back next to a section of shelves dedicated to insect parts.

A Gryffindor sat to her left, her friend next to her. They gave Ottilie a sideways glance, and the girl closer to her, who looked South Asian and was wearing her hair in a long plait, angled her body slightly away from her.

Apart from Transfiguration, Ottilie had been in no other class where the room was so quiet before the professor began the lesson. Snape hadn't even said anything, but no one seemed willing to break the silence.

Everyone, even Draco, seemed to be slightly on edge.

First, Snape began roll call. Ottilie discovered she was sitting next to Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown.

Ottilie's thoughts had drifted back to Ancient Egypt when Snape got to Harry Potter's name.

"Ah, yes, Harry Potter. Our new—celebrity," said Snape quietly. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, sitting in front of her, laughed.

When Snape got to Ottilie's name, he gave her a chilly glare. Although he'd said her name sourly, it nearly could've been considered affectionate when compared to the way he'd said Harry's.