𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖌𝖗𝖎𝖒 [h. potter]

IV

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IV: THE THEORY OF DEFENSIVE MAGIC

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Professor Sprout opened the Herbology lesson with another long-winded speech about the importance of O.W.L.S. They were vital to your wizarding career, this year was going to be the hardest one yet, make sure to pay attention in class, blah, blah, blah. Pippa already zoned out, staring at the belladonna plants that were growing in the corner of the greenhouse. She didn't really pay any attention until Professor Sprout clapped her gloved hands together, a dull thud echoing around the room.

"But enough about that. Let's get to the good stuff, shall we?" Pippa smiled at the woman's words. She had always quite enjoyed Herbology, largely because of Professor Sprout herself. She was a jolly lady, and quite caring as well. She genuinely wanted to see her students succeed and Pippa could tell she also actually loved what she was teaching, which made Herbology lessons all the more enjoyable in Pippa's mind.

Terry, who was standing next to her, didn't seem to share the same sentiment. "I won't need to know any of this anyways," he had said once while they were working in the greenhouse. "I don't recall professional Quidditch players having to repot Stinksap." Surprisingly — considering how rough-and-tumble Terry was, especially when it came to Quidditch — the greenhouses, more specifically the plants they housed, seemed to frighten him more than anything, which Pippa suspected to be the source of his disdain for the subject.

But, despite Terry's groaning, the class went by rather quickly, and soon enough, the bell rang, signifying the start of lunch period. Pippa wished lunch could last forever, and she could just sit there indefinitely, chatting with Terry, Padma, and Michael, but, as it always did, the bell seemed to ring way too soon, cutting off Pippa and Terry's rather heated conversation about whether Muggle or Wizarding sports were better (Terry pointed out the infinitely more interesting concept of Quidditch when compared to something like football, while Pippa argued that Muggle sports at least had variety and were considerably less fatal).

Speaking of Muggles, Pippa's Muggle Studies class was just as Pippa had expected: easy as could be. This year, Professor Burbage explained, they would be going over the medicinal innovations made by Muggles over the years, and study the Muggle way of remedying disease without potions or plants with magical properties. Pippa had a basic understanding of how the human body fought disease and how antibiotics and antiviral medications and such worked - her mother was a Muggle nurse - so she opted to not pay any more attention to Professor Burbage, doodling in the margins of her textbook throughout the class as her non-Muggleborn peers feverishly took notes. Once again, the great bell rang, signaling that it was time for the class that Pippa had been anticipating, yet dreading the most.

Defense Against the Dart Arts.

She caught Michael and Padma as they walked down the halls, joining them in their conversation about the aforementioned class. Terry had Care of Magical Creatures (much to Michael's chagrin, but Terry insisted that the class was actually fun, once you looked past Hagrid's educational shortcomings), so he probably wouldn't be able to catch his three other friends. As a matter of fact, Terry would be lucky to make it to class on time. Pippa laughed quietly to herself at the thought. Poor Terry, always running late.