Mischief Managed | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 75

That day, Lily, Marlene, and Alice decided to skip all the classes to keep Jenna company in an attempt to cheer her up or at least distract her. They only left their dorm for the meal times and went down to the Great Hall earlier than the others, returning back to the common room soon.

Jenna had finally managed to turn her silver hair back to blue. From what it looked like, she was no longer as sad as she was angry.

Later that night, Jenna avoided going down in the common room, knowing well that if she even caught a glance of Sirius, she would curse him into oblivion. So she stayed up in their dorm with the other three girls. Lily was making them do extra work and studying that night to make up for the classes they had missed that morning.

The next day, however, Jenna knew that she could no longer hide in her dorm forever. She had to go to her classes and face Sirius one way or another. She just had to ignore his whole existence and pretend that he didn't exist.

The Gryffindors had double Herbology with Hufflepuffs first in the morning, and so the four girls left the castle together after breakfast. They crossed the vegetable patch, and made for the greenhouses as usual.

When they entered the greenhouse, Jenna stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of a squat and rather stout little witch. She was wearing a patched hat over her flyaway hair as she beamed at the students who entered the class.

Jenna sent her friends a curious glance as they walked up toward their usual tray and stood behind the table, waiting for all the students to arrive.

     "Where's Professor Pierce?" Jenna whispered. "And who is this?"

     "Weren't you listening to Dumbledore on the night we arrived from Christmas Break?" Lily said quiet, and when Jenna shook her head, she went on, "Dumbledore said Professor Pierce had an incident with a flesh-eating plant over the holidays, and so he decided to retire. At least temporarily. We don't know how long he'll be away."

     "I hope she stays," said Alice, her eyes on the kind-looking witch. "She looks very friendly, does she not?"

    "I hope she teaches well," said Lily, going over her Herbology notes in case the new teacher would decide to test them.

     "I don't care as long as she doesn't give as much homework as the last professor," said Marlene sleepily, yawning widely. It was still too early for her to be in a classroom.

     Just then, a group of noisy boys entered the greenhouse, laughing. Jenna pretended to be reading her book as James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walked past them to get to their usual seats at the back of the class.

      Jenna felt Lily, Marlene, and Alice watching her worriedly, as though afraid that she would either burst into tears or pounce forward to punch Sirius across the face. But Jenna showed no sign of doing either.

     "All right. Is that everyone?" the young witch asked, looking outside the greenhouse before closing its door and
standing behind the trestle bench. "Hello, everyone. I'm Professor Sprout; your new Herbology teacher."

     The sound of a snigger came from the back of the class when she introduced herself. Someone had probably found the irony of her name amusing. Lily rolled her eyes at the childishness, sure that it was either Sirius or James. The professor decided to ignore this and she went on.

     "I'll be here to fill up the post of Professor Pierce until he returns. Unless, of course, he decides to retire permanently," she said with a bright smile. "Now, can someone please tell me how far ahead is your class in your book?"

     She then saw a girl with red hair and bright green eyes raise her hand. "Yes, miss...?"

     "Lily Evans," the girl introduced herself. "We have been studying Mandrakes in the past few months, Professor."

     "Thank you, Miss Evans." She gave her an appreciative smile. "I expected that would be the case, so today I have prepared for you young Mandrakes to repot, just to see how well you have been doing in the class."

     She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke, and everyone shuffled forward for a better look. Just like before, a hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green in color, were growing there in rows.

     "Now, please put on your earmuffs," Professor Sprout instructed and the students did exactly as asked, already knowing how horrible the cries of a Mandrake could be.

     As soon as Jenna put on her own earmuffs, all sound was shut out completely. She could clearly see the miserable look on Marlene's face, who hated Mandrakes more than Jenna hated the History of Magic class.

     When Professor Sprout gave them the signal, almost almost all at once the students grabbed onto the Mandrakes and pulled the small, muddy, and ugly baby plants out of the earth.

     The Mandrakes didn't seem to like coming out of the earth, but they didn't even want to go back into it either. They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists, and gnashed their teeth. Marlene grimaced at the ugly leaves that were growing right out of his head as they bawled and wailed loudly.

     Professor Sprout walked around the classroom, watching them repot the Mandrakes carefully to see how they were doing. Once everyone was done, the professor gave them a thumbs-up and so they all removed their earmuffs, sweating and tired from the work. It was certainly harder than it looked, but it had gone better than their first time.

    "Well done, everyone!" Professor Sprout called out to them. "I'm glad to see almost all of you did a good job on the repotting. But I must, there was one pot that stood out the most." She then gestured over at Alice, saying, "And what's your name, my dear?"

    Alice blushed, saying in a small voice, "I-I'm Alice Fortescue."

     "Well, that was quite remarkable for a second year student, Miss Fortescue." Professor Sprout beamed at her. "That would be twenty points for Gryffindor."

     A murmur of excitement raised from the Gryffindors. Alice had now turned red, smiling broadly to herself. It was safe to say that she already loved the new professor.