"Potter, I want you to work with Zion." Professor Slughorn instructed, looking at his list of pupils. He was assigning a new project that they would work on for class, and he needed them in new pairs.
"Which one? There's two here. You might want to be more specific." James laughed as he spoke, encouraging the class to laugh with him. Sirius, of course, laughed the loudest.
"Ladies, decide that on your own. The other of you will work with Black." Professor Slughorn turned around and continued to looking at his attendance list before pairing more students together. Anya and Sahara looked at each other and smiled, before grabbing all their books and rushing to the sides of the men they wanted to work with, only to laugh at each other when they stood near the two best friends.
James and Sirius awkwardly watched them as the girls joined them. They were quietly laughing at each other. James suspected it was because they silently raced each other to work with them, thinking the other wanted to work with the same person. He tapped on her shoulder, "Zion."
Anya stopped laughing and looked at him, "Yes?"
"What just happened?"
Sirius was clearly eaves dropping and pretending not to, especially as he stopped moving and stared at the desk. Sahara ignored him and started flipping through her notes, comparing them to his, only to find he barely wrote anything. She was disappointed and resorted to looking through her potions text book.
Anya turned red as she spoke, "We raced to pair up with you guys, thinking the other wanted to work with one of you that we wanted to work with."
"You want to work with me?" James cockily asked, smiling at her.
She shrugged, "Well, as great as Sirius is, I do not want the content of my cauldron to explode on my face because he thought it would be funny." He laughed quietly and looked at his best friend who rolled his eyes.
"I am not that bad," Black whined as the other pair laughed to themselves.
"Quiet down now all of you!" Slughorn shouted as he looked at the pairs that were already sorted. The class fell still and silent as he continued to call out names, "Lupin, you will be working with Stevens." The Zion sisters watched as Phoebe approached their table, standing beside Remus and smiling before turning around to listen out for the other pairings, after greeting him politely.
Finally when the class was divided into pairs, Professor Slughorn looked at the students, clearing his throat with a cough, to gather their attention. He loudly declared, "These will be your partners for the rest of the academic term." A few students groaned as they recognised how lazy their partners could be. But their short-lived retaliation was quickly forgotten as Slughorn continued talking, "I want all of you to produce the cure for boils before the end of this lesson."
The class nodded, looking back at their notes from the earlier minutes and searching through the class inventory. James and Anya stared at their notes, seeing if they missed anything, and also to verify that the other knew what to do.
"Nice handwriting," Anya whispered, tracing her fingers over his writing. James nodded, before looking at her and noticing the expression of surprise on her face.
"Why are you so surprised by that?" he asked.
She smiled, "I grew up with muggles and the boys always had the worst handwritings ever, I could barely read them."
He smiled, nodding and not bothering to thank her for the compliment, he saw no need to. Instead, he continued reading her notes and admired the details in the information contained, which would make the task easier to complete to perfection. While Anya had written out the method for the potion making, James had gathered the uses and the analysis that he predicted he would need for the accompanying essay that they would no doubt be asked to write up for the theory aspect of the class.
"Good," he mumbled to himself before leaving the desk to get the ingredients they needed. Anya took his movement as a sign to gather the cauldron, mortar and pestle, and a thin, stick-like spoon to mix the ingredients with.
"If this works well, I might actually not regret choosing you to work with," Anya said, smiling as she approached their station. He looked at her and smiled, trying to not argue about his supposed greatness. He was working with a Ravenclaw, and he knew that he should not challenge their intelligence and ability to quickly excel in their lessons.
"Just get over here and start the potion with me," he replied, pulling her by her arm and letting her stand beside him as they looked at her notes, tucking his one away for the time being.
"Will we be able to finish the potion before the end of class?" Peter asked, flipping through his notes as he looked up at his friends. Over forty-five minutes were lost to instructions being shared and a detailed presentation on the potion, by Slughorn. It was a valid question.
"It's double potions today, so we should be able to." Phoebe crushed an ingredient into powder as she answered him. They stood around a square shaped worktop, each pair sitting on high chairs at their own side.
"You do the fangs," James instructed as he took the cauldron and placed it upon a fire, trying to heat the metallic pot to 250°. Anya accepted his leadership as she quickly gathered six snake fangs from the small container he had gathered them in and placed them in their mortar. Using her pestle, she crushed them to powder, smashing the content before dragging them along the base of the bowl, and repeating the action. As his partner focused on the fangs, he made sure to maintain the temperature of the pot, before slicing the pungous onions finely.
"We need to put the fangs in first," Anya whispered, as if they were in competition with their peers to get the task done quickly. James nodded and watched as she used the spoon to pour them in, leaving them to sink to the base before he took the spoon from her and added his onions. He mixed the contents while she moved a step ahead and added dried nettles into the cauldron.
"Stir this for me," he said, leaving her to add a drop of flobberworm mucus. She mixed it quickly, trying to maintain the texture of the potion, and getting tired of him acting like a leader. Next, he added powdered ginger root and shrake spines.
"Mix it firmly," he said each time an ingredient went in. Anya would roll her eyes but not say anything. She had, after all, written out the instructions for them both.
"Mix slowly now," he instructed when the shrake spines were pushed in. She huffed as she did as he said, leaving him to glare at her. He clearly did not like it when he was challenged.
The shrakes refused to quickly merge into the potion, so they watched carefully as they mixed it, frequently switching on the role of stirring. When one was not stirring, they would look up and notice how some peers were referring to their textbooks and how others were confused as to how much of each ingredient to put. But at their own table, Sahara and Sirius were too busy enjoying the task, making jokes as they completed the task, especially as they made a mess of their side of the worktop. Remus and Phoebe got along enough to work well, almost robotically, doing the same things as Anya and James, minus the attitude that Potter and Zion were too busy displaying to one another. Peter was working with Kylennia, doing everything she said, and luckily for him, she knew the process well enough and navigated them both to avoid any type of mess. She was not cruel, but she was a perfectionist with her own standards that she swore to always live up to.
"Okay, we can go to the next step now," James said, relieved as he looked at her.
She frowned, "Add the stewed horned slugs then, your highness."
He rolled his eyes, "You have quite the attitude."
"I know, I am charming," she smiled, "so much so that Flitwick should make the entire syllabus about me."
"Get the porcupine quills ready then, Zion," he said, ignoring her statement and trying to take back control. Sirius heard them and laughed as he nudged Sahara, getting her to look at the floppy power play between two eleven year olds.
Anya scowled at Sirius, making Sahara laugh a little louder as she disappeared to gather the quills as asked. She picked up two fine ones that were long and sturdy, most likely plucked from an adult within the species. Returning to her post, James wore a disgusted expression as he pushed a glug of the slugs inside. Quickly, Anya dropped the pair of quills inside and watched as he pulled the spoon out, waiting for the last ingredients to blend quickly. It did not. Anya stared at James, waiting for him to tell her what to do next while he watched the cauldron, with distraught.
"Hey guys," Phoebe called out, "you're meant to wave your wand over the cauldron for it all to mix and morph magically."
"That's not what it says in her notes," James tapped on the parchment and Anya giggled to herself.
"No, not on that page," she answered, flipping it over and showing him the last sentence. He glared at her, looking awfully prepared to wrap his fingers around her throat and strangle her for her decision of squeezing in a single sentence into the bottom of the page rather than write it on the back of the scroll or on a fresh new one. He groaned as he watched her take out her wand and wave it above the black pot. Soon, pink smoke floated on the surface of the cauldron.
"Professor!" Anya exclaimed, grabbing his attention and calling him over. Slughorn approached the pair and looked at their potion, watching the pink smoke disappear to reveal a blue liquid.
He smiled at the pair, "Good, well done." He patted their shoulders before announcing their achievement, "Potter and Zion have finished their potion first, and they have done so perfectly. Let's see who's next."
The pair grinned as they looked at their friends, who quickly rolled their eyes at their pride.
"We work well together, Zion," Potter commented, scooping some of the potion into a vial, as their professor had asked them to do, after the announcement.
"You're still annoying," she replied, filling her vial at the same time as him. He chuckled but did not reply to her comment.
"Done!" Lily Evans shouted as Professor Slughorn approached her and Alexa Laurent's cauldron. Alexa was an English Ravenclaw, of French descendent, with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes - but she had an attitude that made her seem stuck up and rude, according to boys.
"Well done, ladies," Slughorn praised them and handed them two vials to fill up.
Sirius walked around the table and leaned into James, jokingly stating, "Alexa is hot."
Sahara heard and rolled her eyes before smirking, "I hear she hates you."
"How do you know that?" James asked as he watched Sirius return to his former spot. Sahara looked at Anya who had completed the task of filling out her vial. "You sure about that?"
Anya smiled and nodded, holding her vial in her hand. The conversation came to an end as the remaining pairs called out their achievements. Soon, Slughorn ordered the students to clean up after themselves once their potions were approved of and checked thoroughly.
"Why do I get the feeling that Sahara hates Sirius?" James asked, leaning in.
"She doesn't, she loves to torture him with her presence, that's all." Anya compared both of their vials and compared them. "Does my flask have too little or does yours have too much?"
"Yours needs a little more," Kylennia answered for them as she poured her portion, letting Pettigrew pour his into his glass. James nodded and took her clear vessel, filling it in for her while she held his. He was attentive and precise with the assignment.
She watched him carefully, "You do realise we're not getting graded on this part of the project, right?"
He looked up at her and then leaned close towards her, "Of course, but you do realise that it is my notes that you will need for the essay we need to write afterwards, right? And if you piss me off, I might not help you write yours... and that is the part where our own individual efforts are assessed. Best not to act up, princess."
"My bad, your highness, how would you like me to serve you?" She sarcastically replied, rolling her eyes and earning a nudge from him as he handed her the flask. She placed both in the stands and they awaited for the next instructions as the rest of the class quickly finished up.