Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

Confusion

"Maybe one of us should have gone with them..." Hermione sighed, kicking Ron's chair. I held in a laugh again as he lurched around, appearing ready to storm out of class on the first day.

"Did you actually slice the lovage into the small cubes or did you just chop it and drop it in?" She lectured, reminding me of Professor McGonagall.

"Blimey, I don't know Hermione. Look at it, what d'you think!" He whispered, exasperated.

"Okay, just..." She consulted the neatly scrawled notes at the end of this chapter in her book. "Here it is, okay, so you can fix it you just need... I wrote three extra slices of borage, but start with two just in case. I only read about it, I've never actually tried to remedy one. Although, I've never messed one up of course-"

"Thanks Hermione." Harry stopped her and dashed with Ron over to the cabinet again.

"It's going to be a long term." She leaned her head against her fist and I giggled.

The boys had only had a few minutes to remedy their draught before Snape began to check each pair's work. He nodded at the first few rows of Hufflepuffs before arriving at Ron and Harry, his scowl deepening.

"Mr. Potter, does this look to be the correct consistency that your textbook stated?"

I watched Harry's shoulders fall, obviously holding in his original response he had come up with for Snape's question and glancing down at his book.

"Of course, of course, check your book. Obviously you didn't read it at the start."

Ron's face was a strange mix of red and pale white as he avoided the Professors glare.

"Thanks to Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, I think we shall all test out our potions. Only one of you need try per team. If prepared correctly, you should feel mildly confused for only an hour at the most. Nothing in this potion can harm you, unless of course one was to add an extra ingredient for some reason."

Snape turned from the boys in front of us to continue his walk around the class and Harry and Ron looked madly between one another and then back at Hermione.

"He's fibbing, Borage is perfectly harmless." Hermione replied matter of factly, as if they had asked if bread was poisonous.

"Well, I'm not trying it!" Harry raised his hands and Ron grimaced, giving Hermione another worried glance before lifting the ladle to his lips.

"Well at least this one doesn't smell foul. I swear everything we make in this room smells worse than a rotting troll." Ron dropped the ladle back into the cauldron.

Hermione was now looking at me, wide eyed, with her lip jutted out slightly and I realized what she wanted.

"Oh, I'll try it, I don't care." I grasped our ladle as well, knowing full well that Hermione would despise the feeling of confusion. No sooner had the thick green potion touched my tongue, I felt the ladle drop back into the cauldron. I could still see everything in the room, but it all looked rather fuzzy now.

"Oh, how is that fair. You two messed yours up, so now nothing happens, ours is perfect and now look." Hermione muttered, not realizing Snape had stalked up behind us.

"Well done, ladies. At least someone in this class knows how to read." I heard Snape's words but simply stared into the cauldron in front of me, watching the liquid swirl around and around.

"Class is dismissed. I trust the three of you can manage to help Ms. Olsen back to her dormitory." The mysterious voice from behind me drawled.

"Come on, Cassidy. We won't make you be Hermione's partner next time, alright? You can be mine, most you'll get then is a dud potion that tastes like rat piss." Ron joked and I raised my eyebrows to him, not understanding a word from his mouth.

"I've got her bag, Hermione." Harry said, appearing at my side and looping my bag over his own on his shoulder before linking his arm through my own as Hermione did the same.

"I don't know where the Hufflepuff common room is though..." Hermione said, obviously not used to not knowing anything.

"Cassidy, where's your dormitory?" Ron asked, trudging up the stairs to the main halls with us.

"My what?" I giggled, hearing Ron's voice but not understanding any of his words.

"Where do you sleep?" Harry re-phrased, still pulling me along.

"In my dorm!" I looked around, not sure where we were until I saw a vaguely familiar giant staircase to the second floor.

"What've we got here?" A voice hummed behind us and I craned my head to try and place it around Harry and Hermione's big heads.

"What's wrong with her?" A second, similar voice asked, as I finally pulled myself from the friends arms and saw Fred and George Weasley, wands out and looking at the four of us from near the brick walls.

"Snape had us practice confusion draughts, and made us try them ourselves." Ron complained.

"So how come she's the only one confused?" George laughed, putting his wand in the pockets of his robe when Fred did.

"Ron and my potion wasn't correct, apparently." Harry said nervously.

"Wonder if we should take her to Madame Pomfrey..." Hermione started, looking me up and down.

"No, you heard Snape, it'll wear off soon!" Ron said. "We're trying to get her back to her dorm, but... What are you two doing here anyway?"

"Peeves comes this way about this time every day, so we figured we would give him a back to school prank. Remind him who's really in charge now that term's begun." Fred winked at us.

"We know where her dorm is, don't we Freddie?" George's voice sounded teasing, but the trio didn't seem to pick up on it, and I was in no state to be deciphering tone.

"Yeah, we'll take her down." Fred started over to me and reached past me. I looked at his hand to see where it had gone and watched him grab my bag from Harry, throwing it around his shoulder and starting to reach for my hand before pulling away so quickly I almost wasn't sure if he had been going for it in the first place.

"Come on, Cass, let's get you to bed." George said cheerfully, throwing his hand around my shoulder and pulling me towards his twin.

"Yeah, I should go find Tommy, I haven't seen him all day." I sighed.

The twins eyes bulged and they looked quickly between me and the trio, who's mouths were all hanging open.

"What..." I said looking around disoriented.

"Nothing." Fred took a step back to George and I and pulled on my arm to get us moving again. "Come on Cassy."