The Potions Master's Daughter (Book One)

Chapter 16

I laughed and said, "Okay yeah. They better not get their hopes up too high. I'm not a very good teacher."

Harry said, "According to most people I talked to you are. Throughout the day I think you helped all of the Gryffindors at least once and some of the other houses too. They said you would be a brilliant teacher."

I reddened and said, "Well that's nice of them. I'm sure having the boy-who-lived there will attract members too."

It was his turn to redden and he said, "Some of the kids with older siblings said that they think some of the older kids would come too."

"Even if it means getting taught by a bunch of first years?"

Hermione said, "Everyone knows about how good you are at magic. I heard some 5th years talking about their Transfiguration class and how they couldn't make the box turn into a match. Then someone said that a first year had turned McGonagall's desk into a pig and they seemed impressed. I think it would be a good idea to make it available to all of the years and all of the houses; well except Slytherin."

"That sounds good. As long as they are fine with it I'm sure we can handle teaching them. I'll ask Dumbledore about getting a free room then if a lot of kids are planning to come."

"That would be great, thanks," Harry said.

"No problem."

I didn't want to be rude but I had to leave, "Hey guys McGonagall asked if I could talk to her in private half an hour before the meeting. I don't mean to be rude and leave so suddenly but I have to go. I'll be back in time for the duel for sure."

Hermione said, "It's no problem. Have a good meeting."

I smiled graciously at her and said, "I hope it goes well. Bye!"

Ron and Harry waved their goodbyes and I headed out through the portrait. I felt bad about lying to them about two things. I wanted to leave early so I could collect my thoughts. Telling them McGonagall wanted to talk to me sounded better than saying Snape wanted to talk to me.

I slowly made my way down to the Dungeons. I still had 10 minutes before he was expecting me. Along the way I thought about the club everyone seemed to think was a good idea. I wasn't sure how they had found out about what magic I could do. Honestly someone probably told someone about it and off it went. If a lot of students really came and expected me to teach them could I? I am only 11 for crying out loud! It was one thing when I was trying to be nice during class and help someone out, but to purposely go in front of a lot of kids and teach them; it was crazy. I was more surprised that the older students might come than the number of kids coming. If older kids were coming would they think I could teach well? It was different if the kids knew me from being in their classes but to teach a bunch of strangers; I don't know how the professors do it. My common sense told me they could do it because all the students were much younger than them and they had been doing in for years.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I missed the last staircase to the dungeons. I backtracked and went down the correct one. Glancing at my watch I was only 2 minutes early. I knocked on the door firmly.

"Come in," came Severus' familiar voice.

I opened the door with a smile and said, "Hello."

Closing the door behind me I went over and sat in a chair across from him. With a flourish of his quill he finished grading a potion and looked up.

"Thanks for coming. I heard other students talking about what you have been doing. Mainly my 5th years. I had one girl straight out ask me if you were my best student."

I laughed and said, "Oh I would have killed to hear that conversation."

He glared at me and I stopped laughing but held a smile on my face, "I simply told her that I couldn't tell who was my best student because I hated everyone."

"Sounds like something they would believe."

"So my main question is how do a bunch of the 5th year Hufflepuffs know about what you did in your classes?"

I said, "Well you see the four of us want to start a club to learn spells since we don't like Professor Quirell's teaching. We were asking around to see if anyone was interested and then word got out to some of the kids older siblings and so and so forth."

"What kind of club would this be?" he asked.

I sighed and said, "Well basically it started because Ron and Harry asked if Hermione and I could teach them some spells since Quirell isn't good. Then Ron suggested that other people might want to do it to. We talked about it for a while and we thought if Dumbledore would let us we could use an empty room and teach a handful of spells to some of our friends. Then when Ron and Harry were asking to see if anyone would be interested if we got permission word got out. One of Harry's friends told him that his older sister in 5th year and some of her friends were wondering if they could join too. Apparently he had told her about what I did in my classes. Soon everyone seemed to know and we decided that we would make it a club if Dumbledore would let us."

He ran his hand through his hair and said, "So basically if everything goes to your plan you will be teaching a lot of kids spells that you should learn in Defense Against the Dark Arts but can't because Professor Quirell doesn't teach anything. That last thing I agree with completely by the way."

"Well yes," I said, "Why? Do you not like the idea?"

He said, "I like the idea of the club. I'm not thrilled that you will be teaching it but if you think you can handle it I will recommend that the club be allowed to Dumbledore if he doesn't agree right away."

"Really!? Thank you."

He said, "So I know what you did in Charms and Transfiguration as well as Herbololgy. At dinner I heard you did something weird during Flying too. At first I didn't believe it because the spell is very difficult but to ease my worries what happened during your flying lesson?"

I sighed and tugged at my clothes saying, "Well we were supposed to hover and touch back down. Instead Neville went 10 feet up and couldn't get down. He fell and I slowed his falling so he landed softly."

"That's a hard spell to do. I have only ever seen Dumbledore do it. Did anything else happen?"

"Well yes. Draco Malfoy challenged me to a race and then he pushed me off my broomstick so I stopped that fall too."

He stared at me and said, "He pushed you off on purpose?"

I shrugged and said, "Well obviously."

A scowl appeared on his face and he said, "He better be glad you didn't get severely hurt or I would have his head."

"Aw that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me," I teased.

"Knowing you it probably didn't end there. What else happened?"

I hesitated and said, "We exchanged a few words and then class was over."

It was obvious he didn't believe me, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," I lied hating every second of it.

"Because I heard that he challenged you to a Wizard's Duel tonight."

I paled and Severus said, "Not that you heard this from me but don't get caught. If he doesn't back out like I think he will don't hurt him...too badly."

I grinned at him and said, "Don't worry I was just planning on disarming him and leaving before Filch can catch us."

Severus said, "I always hated Filch when I was in school. Just don't get caught and I'm fine with you going."

"Don't worry I won't. I'm just going to use an invisibility spell on the four of us just to be safe."

"Good idea. Well that's all I wanted to talk to you about. We should probably go to the meeting. You should go ahead and then I'll leave in a few minutes so we don't enter together."

I rolled my eyes saying, "You over think everything."

"That's a good thing. Now go."