The Potioneers of Damocles ✓ | JILY

Chapter Nine

"What are you working on?" Hestia hissed, keeping her voice low so Professor Avania didn't hear them. Quickly, Lily covered her mind map with her Care of Magical Creatures work, her cheeks turning a slight shade of red.

"Nothing," She hissed back, looking around to see if anyone else had heard.

Although Professor Avania usually tried to make the lessons as interactive as possible, today was one of the rare 'theory' lessons, and the entire Gryffindor class had been forced to sit in silence as they worked on sketches of Porlocks. Professor Avania hadn't said the reason why, but judging from the sunglasses and jumpiness when Sirius made exclaimed loudly, the reason was so clear she might as well have had a sign: hangover.

Hestia glanced over again, nudging her friend, "Hey, you've hardly even started on your Porlock drawing, it's been hal - "

"Silence at the back, please!" Professor Avania exclaimed suddenly, pointing one of her sharp fingers at them.

"Sorry, professor," The two girls chorused, both of them looking back down at their papers. Lily's cheeks went even redder but Hestia simply smiled, not as phased by the telling off as her friend. A few seats down, Lily heard a slight chuckle and looked over to see James sniggering slightly, shaking his head without looking up from his sketch.

Her eyes drifted down to his sketch and she was amused to see that they seemed to have reversed roles for this one lesson only. Usually he was the one distracted whilst she put her mind to the task. Today, he actually seemed to be getting into the sketch, even drawing each individual Porlock hair in different coloured ink.

This stood in stark contrast to what she'd been working on, the only part of the plan she'd fully come up with on her own: changing her personality to get what she wanted. Caradoc's words had been helpful in theory, be something new but the only problem was she wasn't sure what something new was. The best place to start, she'd decided was a mind map of all the four potioneers traits, allowing her to figure out the gaps.

"Lily," Hestia's voice brought her back to the present, "What are you working on?"

"I said nothing."

"And I said you hadn't done any of your Porlock drawing," Hestia replied, "Clearly you have something else your working on."

"No."

"Aw, is it a secret?" Hestia teased, her eyes constantly flicking back to the front just in case Professor Avania felt like lecturing them again, "You know if you don't show me, I'll just assume the worst, like it's a plan to cheat in a test or something."

"No... maybe a bit," She admitted, sighing as she shyly pushed the paper out. Hestia leant forwards, her dark hair falling onto the parchment as she read, her brow slowly furrowing.

Over the last few weeks or so, she'd become so accustomed to just casually referencing the weird elements of the plan, that she'd forgotten that to an outsider, spying and mind mapping people was very much not normal.

"It makes sense with the plan.." Lily covered quickly as Hestia slid it back over to her.

"Sturgis told me about your breakfast thing so I'm not too surprised by this, I'll admit," Hestia replied, "Why have you got some things circled in red? Are they the things you're planning on removing psychologically to create your perfect Potioneers."

"Obviously not!" Lily huffed, "Those are the traits that I have and someone else has. Like Oni is hardworking, so am I. Benjy is very precise, as am I. Finola is - "

"I get it," Hestia replied quickly, "And - "

"Miss Evans and Ms Jones, if I catch you talking when you should be working one more time, I will send you both to detention," Professor Avania snapped and the two girls instantly bent their heads all eyes turned to them.