The New Potions Professor

Feelings

I woke up late for breakfast. Hermiones words still ring in my ears from last night, '"You're falling for him." Was I? Or is this just another person to put on my list under "daddy issues". Besides, I couldn't fall for him; it would be like betraying Severus. I could never betray him. Suddenly an owl taps at my window, a little letter in her beak. Petting the owl I give her a treat. Upon opening, it simply read:

Potions classroom. Now!

That doesn't sound very good. I throw on my robes as I speed walk to the dungeons, my mind racing. 'What's going on on? Did I do something wrong? I've never been in trouble in potions before.'

As I get to the door, an arm from inside grabs me and pulls me inside the musty classroom. Professor Reid backs me up until I'm almost on top of my desk. "Seems as though some of my more dangerous ingredients have gone missing from my cupboard. Happen to know anything about that Ms. Banks?" I look at him, trembling and puzzled. "No sir why would I have—" he cuts me off. "Don't. Lie. To me." My eyes widen as I feel the familiar flutter of butterflies arise in my stomach. 'Oh my God he has turned into Snape.'

He scoffs, putting he's arms on either side of me, his knee between my legs. I feel my knees wobble, slowly going weak. "You are the only one with access to this room when I'm not around. Quickly realizing what he's getting at, I stutter out a response. "I um I-it wasn't me sir." Merlin he's so close to me I can practically feel the heat radiating off of him. "S-sir what was stolen if I may ask?" He narrows his eyes at me, scoffing again. He backs away, pacing. My body felt cold in his absence. "Oh I don't know, just some ingredients to make an Emerald Potion." I cock my head at him slightly. "We haven't gone over that in class yet. What's an Emerald potion again?" He snaps his head towards me. "In simplest terms it would be a burning potion. But I believe you already know that, isn't that right Ms. Banks." I blink a few times before realizing what he was getting at. My eyes immediately shoot daggers at him.

"Let me get this straight. You think I stole your ingredients, slipped it into my own potion, and letting it boil over into my hand?" He glares at me. "I've heard what you've done to get a Professors attention before. Who's to say you wouldn't do it again." My face flushes as anger engulfs me. "How dare you throw my feelings for Severus back in my face!" He suddenly gets quiet. 'Well if I did have any feelings for Professor Reid, they are gone now!' His expression quickly flashes to hurt before he continues to glare at me. I turn to leave, too angry to be here right now. "How about you interrogate my lab partner who never seems to be in her bed at curfew!" I spit. With that I stormed out. I didn't like throwing Patricia under the bus like that but I couldn't just sit there and let him accuse me of something so serious. Severus would've known me better...

I get to my room and slam the door shut causing Ginny to look up from her book. She glances between me and the time. "Shouldn't you be 'studying'" she mocks. She quickly changes her tone when she saw how upset I was. "What's wrong? Is it Professor Reid again?" I wrinkle my eyebrows. "How did you—" she cuts me off. "Bri may have said something." 'Bri! She's so dead!' Sighing I sit down next to Ginny on her bed. "He accused me of stealing ingredients to get his attention." I whisper the next words under my breath, disheartened. "Like I did with Snape." I started to cry as she held me in a tight hug.

She let me cry for awhile before
speaking. "That's seriously messed up. To throw Snape back in your face like that? What gives him the right!" Nuzzling into her, I sniffle. Ginny has been like a sister to me. In fact, the entire Weasley's family had treated me like one of their own for years now.

"Hey," I look around the room, "where's Patricia?" Ginny rolls her eye, annoyed. "Who the hell knows anymore. She's never here." Sniffling, I pull away from her, a serious look on my face. "Do you think there is something... off about her?" I sit there anxiously awaiting her response. "I mean she is never around, but that's about it really. Why do you ask?" I turn away from her and start getting ready for bed. "No reason" I add, yawning and turning out the light. "Goodnight Gin." "Goodnight Jay." With that I doze off thinking about the words Professor Reid threw at me.

~

I wake up at around 3:00am after tossing and turning all night. Insitincively I look over to the girls. Hermione and Ginny lay fast asleep in their beds meanwhile Patricia, is still nowhere to be seen.

Using this time, I take the opportunity to snoop once again. When I look under her bed this time, I am shocked to see multiple small vials. The labels were ripped off of each of them indicating that she didn't want anyone to know what they were. I gasp softly, not wanting to wake the other girls. After taking a small mental note of this for tomorrow, I try to get some more sleep. Soon I drift back off, slightly more on edge knowing where she's been going every night. 'Shes the one that spiked our potion.'