I settled into a row near the front of the class next to Maddie and Bri, noting by the few students lining the front rows on the left side of the classroom wearing their tell-tale green and black that we were stuck with Slytherin. It was bound to happen eventually, and if it was going to, at least it was just Charms. I prayed not to have Potions with them as well, since whichever house was partnered with Slytherin with Professor Snape lost dozens of points a week for simply existing.
The door shut on it's own as the last of the students bustled in, and I noticed Professor Flitwick set his wand back on the desk before him. Hannah and a few last students had snuck in behind us and settled in the last few spots away from the Slytherins.
Professor Flitwick began his start of the term speech which most of us were used to by now. Charms can be difficult, some people will get them faster than others, practice makes perfect. I had never disliked Charms, as they came to me fairly easy, but I had Tommy to thank for that. Charms were his favorite subject, and he was always reading ahead in the books and teaching himself new tricks. He would teach me whatever they were working on that week in class in the common room if he wasn't too busy. Before I had even gotten my letter, Tommy was telling me how he knew I would be good in Charms, just like him.
Flitwick made our first day an easy one, allowing us to re-visit and review a few major charms from last year. Maddie, Bri and I took turns conjuring up dancing blue-bell flames and using immobulus to freeze them in place. Every September that I returned to school I was more relieved to see how easily I fell back into magic.
Care of Magical Creatures was not nearly as entertaining as we had all hoped. Of course the Gryffindor's and Slytherin had been the first to attend Hagrid's third year lessons and Draco Malfoy had to go and ruin the lesson for everyone else. They had gotten to pet and meet and study a real Hippogriff, and news had spread almost immediately that the frightening animal had let Harry ride him across the grounds before being practically dared to strike Draco down. If only he would have hit him just a bit harder.
We listened to Hagrid nervously list off details about the Hippogriffs and jotted down notes and tips for if we ever encountered one ourselves, which I had to admit outside of this class seemed next to impossible.
"Alright, off ye go. I figure I oughta give you a bit of time to get back up to the castles and all. Can't be late for your classes the first week." Hagrid said giving the class a wave as we all pushed books and quills into our bags, shouting thank you's and goodbyes to Hagrid as we headed up the hill back to the school.
The Hufflepuffs were in no hurry, of course, knowing our destination. Still, potions was held deep into the dungeons, which left little time to dawdle. We had barely made it ten steps down the staircase into the dark halls when I had to pull my robes back up. There was no point to them outside in the sun with Hagrid, but the chill was already seeping into my bones, and I was sure Professor Snape would be on the look out for a reason to deduct points from the class for wardrobe errors.
We finally reached the open doors leading into Snape's usual classroom. The cauldrons were set two to a desk, aligned with two chairs each and small fires giving off little to no warmth already lit underneath them. I looked between my two friends, remembering immediately how Snape broke us into pairs, not trios. Bri and Maddie returned my look, both glancing at the tables set for two awkwardly, trying to decide which of us was going to be dislodged from our group before Hermione rushed up to us.
"Cassidy, yes! We were so worried we would have potions with Slytherin like last year." She rambled quickly and I smiled at her, grateful as well to not have been paired with the Slytherin's. "Anyways, do you have a partner? Obviously Ron and Harry..."
I nodded quickly and matched her smile as she led us to the seats directly behind Ron and Harry, Bri and Maddie taking two behind us. This couldn't have worked out much better. Hermione was well known to be next to perfect in all subjects, potions included. I was decent as well, but I would use any chance I could get to keep from making the small mistakes Snape was always on the look for.
"Take your seats, pick a partner, I do not care who you pick or where you sit, just sit." Snape's voice shocked us all into silence and I sat up a bit straighter in my chair, looking to the front where he stood behind his desk and waved the door shut without even looking at it.
Hermione and I sat in silence and I peeked at her potions book which already had small notes sticking out of half of the pages. It was times like this I envied Hermione, or any of the other students from wizarding families, imagining how much better I could be if I too got a head start on the materials of every class. Father would be livid if he ever caught me reading one of "those" books, as he liked to refer to them, in his house. The same reason Tommy couldn't have his own broom and that neither of us could ever have an owl.
"Open your books to page eleven, and I hope you have all prepared yourselves for this term. There will be no reviewing from last year. You have learned and passed examinations for that year already and I should hope you've retained that knowledge. We will be making Confusion Concoctions today. Read the warnings and uses on page eleven before retrieving your scurvygrass, lovage and sneezeworts from the cabinets." His eyes fell on Hermione and I and lingered on my face a second too long. I was sure he was about to knock five points from Hufflepuff for a speck of dirt on my nose before I watched his eyes soften slightly. Even Snape pitied me for Tommy. I felt my heart rate quicken thinking of him and dropped my eyes to my hands in my lap, hoping Hermione couldn't hear the thuds in my chest. "Begin." I barely heard Snape speak before Hermione was sliding her stool back to race to the cabinets.
I grabbed her wrist before she could stand and she shot me an instant glare.
"I would pretend to read the instructions again, although I'm sure you've memorized them by now." I glanced at the notes stuck along the page and smiled. "If he sees us getting the ingredients before reading like he told us too..."
She nodded and sat back down next to me, pulling the book closer to us as I read, and she re-read, the pages.
"With you as a partner, I might never lose another point for Gryffindor." She beamed as we finally stood together and started for the supply cabinet. "Are you used to him bullying you too?"
I pulled a handful of the dried grass from the jar as Hermione broke off some long celery resembling lovage. "Yeah, something like that." I whispered, hoping she would drop it.
We worked in near silence, especially after Snape snapped at Justin Finch-Fletchley for his voice being 'much too chipper' and 'giving the entire room a migraine.' Hermione had finished slicing the lovage into equal sized cubes long before I was even half done grinding the scurvy grass.
"May I?" She asked, already reaching for the bowl.
I held back a laugh as I handed it over, knowing Hermione was even more of a perfectionist than I was. "Fine, but don't think I'll let you do all of the work every time, I'll start to feel guilty."
"Oh, please. We're always great partners! You're the only one I can handle studying with, no one else has the stamina." She joked, setting the now powdered scurvy grass back on the table and glancing at the book once more.
After prepping all of our ingredients, the actual making of the potion took us less than ten minutes. Class was nearly finished by the time Harry and Ron had all but given up, their potion not the right color or texture.
"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."