Rose Evans

Chapter Ten

CH.10

"No no no," Harry groans as his potion turns a nasty shade of orange.

"Try not to crush the entire seed," I tell him, "you're getting bits of shell in it and it's counteracting."

"But it says to crush it to get the juices out!" He groans.

"Think about it, Harry," I put the lid on my cauldron and slide closer to him, "it wouldn't make much sense to crush it then try to sort through it, watch," I take a seed and crush only the top of it, then carefully let the juice drip out into a vile, "and no shell remnants."

"My old book would have said that, I bet..." he sighs, "how'd you know that?"

I shrug. "It just made sense, I guess." I jot down my findings next to the recipe in my book, "maybe my notes can help someone out someday."

"What like your kids?" Harry chuckles.

"Maybe," I shrug, "who knows maybe I won't have any and can share my book with yours."

He rolls his eyes and laughs. "If you don't have kids I most definitely will not!"

We both laugh and continue our potions. Mine just had to be gently stirred, but I kept an eye on what Harry was doing.

"Miss Evans!" Slughorn was looking down at my potion, "I'm glad to see you've got your spark back, mhmm!" He smiled at me, a twinkle in his eye. "Oh, Harry," he looked down at his, "You're not finished, what seems to be the issue my boy?"

"I messed up and had to start over," he says glumly, "I'm sorry, Professor."

"Oh no apology necessary!" He laughs, "you knew you were wrong and you're fixing it! Five points to Gryffindor!"

I chuckle and nudge Harry with a smile, "mistakes happen... look at Hermione..." I whisper. We both glance over to see Hermione flustered over her cauldron with her hair sticking out in every direction. We both giggle and continue working on Harry's potion.

"Hey Ri," Harry looks up at me suddenly, making me jump a bit, "want to grab a bite together? Maybe go sit outside until curfew?" He smiles hopefully.

"Uh, yeah... that would be nice," I nod. It's been a while since we had twin time. I've missed my brother, and now that he knows not to push too hard it'll be nice to just hang out.

After potions, the four of us walked to Defense together. Snape likes to talk to me after most classes, which is okay I think... he's not pushy or weird about it. It's kind of nice, actually... but it still makes me anxious when I really think about it.

We sit in our regular seats and begin taking notes on the lecture. Snape seemed out of focus, a little jittery. The lecture seemed far too long, probably because I had something to look forward to after class; dinner with my brother.

"Why don't you go to the Great Hall?" I tell Harry as he's packing up after class, "get some food together and I'll meet you there."

Snape makes eye contact for a moment, he's stopped verbally asking me to stay. Other students would have noticed.

"Yeah, okay," he nods, "you don't have to stay, you know..."

I shake my head, "go," I assure him, "I'm fine."

He sighs and leaves with Ron and Hermione while I hang back and slowly pack my things. Once all of the students have left I approach Snape's desk and seat myself on the table directly in front of it.

"Sirina," he takes a deep breath, "how are you?"

"I'm good," I nod, "I'm having dinner with just Harry tonight, outside... like a picnic. We haven't had a lot of twin time lately." It was nice having someone to tell these things to... since nobody else could know.