The Rise of Rouge

Potions and New Schools (Harry)

We walked into potions class, and sat down at the back of the room-our usual seats. All of a sudden, the door burst open, and Snape walked in briskly. When he got to the front of the room, he looked at our group and curled his lip in distaste.

"So here are our new students. How lovely." He said sarcastically. "Why are you not wearing our school uniforms?"

The exchange students exchanged a nervous look before Hermione came to the rescue. "Well, sir, the clothes they are wearing enhance their magical ability. At their old school, that's how it works."

"But, if they truly wish to learn at this school, would they not respect our establishment and at least try to fit in?" Snape replied, as if the others weren't even there.

"Please, sir." Lucy said pleadingly. "The headmaster knows and he's fine with it."

Snape narrowed his eyes. "Well, if the headmaster wishes it to be so, then so do I." He almost spat. "Now, to our lesson. Today we will be brewing a wit-sharpening potion. You will find the instructions on the board. You have one hour."

There was a great rustling, and everyone set to work. I concentrated on lighting a fire under my cauldron, but it wasn't working. I looked up, and Natsu already had a blazing one going. "How'd you do that?" I hissed.

He looked over and smirked. "I'm a little special."

"Can you start mine?" I asked.

He bit his lip before nodding. "Okay, but stand back." He ambled over, pointed his wand under the cauldron and whispered something. I could have sworn flames leapt from his hand instead of the wand, but I didn't say anything.

"Thanks." I said, as he went back to his cauldron.

"No problem." He replied. "Hey, which one of these is a ginger root?"

"The light brown knobbly one." Ron said, pointing at it.

"Thanks." Natsu said, nodding.

I looked at the board. It said Mix in ginger root until lime green. I sighed, and finally got to work.

When they had twenty minutes left in the lesson, everyone in our group was mixing armadillo bile as fast as they could, praying to reach the deep purple described in the potions book. Unfortunately for Natsu and Gray, Natsu had dropped his scarab beetles earlier, took some from Gray, which caused them to fight (again) but were split up by Erza simply glaring at them. Neither of them ended up with scarab beetles and Natsu was battling to stir a cement-like mixture meanwhile Gray was frantically thickening his far-too-runny potion.

I was doing my best to follow exact instructions, and 'add the bile one tablespoon at a time' but I was running out of time and therefore pouring it in freehand, stopping to stir every little bit.

"Got it!" Hermione exclaimed when she reached the intended shade, which earned her a glare from all of us. She tended the fire so it burned low, and decided to help the two struggling the most in our group-you guessed it, Natsu and Gray-while Snape wasn't looking.

"Natsu put in more armadillo bile." She whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "Gray, add these." She passed him a stoppered bottle.

Finally, the class was over, and Snape walked around inspecting the finished products. When he got to us, he stopped at Natsu, who hadn't managed to thin out his potion in time. "What is this supposed to be, Mr...?" He asked disdainfully.

"Dragneel, sir. And it's supposed to be a wit-sharpening potion." Natsu said, looking at his feet. As dumb as Natsu may have been, he knew to not mess with Snape.