I finally fell asleep late that night from pure exhaustion. The next morning I woke up and rolled out of bed around 5:40. I was ready by 6:10 and went downstairs to think without waking anyone up.
I went downstairs and watched the fire flicker. Within seconds I was mesmerized by the glowing embers dancing in the sunrise. I sat there not really thinking about anything and just enjoying the peacefulness of the silence.
Suddenly there were footsteps coming from the boy's dorms and I was brought back to reality. I looked up to see Oliver Wood come down the stairs.
He saw me and came over, "Just the person I wanted to see. I talked to Dumbledore with McGonagall and he said that the rule could be bent for you. So congrats you are on the team! Practices will be on Saturday mornings from 6 am to 8 am then games on Sunday which the time with vary," I smiled widely as he thought, "Oh yeah! Your broom will come in the mail tomorrow just don't open it; we can't have anyone knowing you're on the team until the first game. We managed to get you a Nimbus 2000."
"Oh that's great," I exclaimed, "I'll see you on Saturday."
He nodded and walked out the portrait. I went back to looking at the firey embers and thinking about my very first Quidditch game. I started to worry that I would mess up and be kicked off the team. The other half of my mind was envisioning me catching the Snitch in a few minutes and winning the game for Gryffindor.
I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn't notice Ron Harry and Hermione come down and sit next to me until Ron said, "Earth to Jessica."
I sat up straighter with a start and said, "Hey guys sorry I must have zoned out there for a few minutes."
"Well breakfast starts in a few minutes. Do you want to head down with us or keep staring at the fire?" asked Harry in a sarcastic voice.
I got up with a sigh and followed them down to the Great Hall. The room looked great. Overnight all the teachers must have added their own little touched to the hall. All around the room there were pumpkins floating; each with a different evil face. The banners around the Great Hall had been turned orange and black in honor of Halloween. Even though it was breakfast there was candy corn and other kinds of candy I didn't recognize lining the table. I had never been near so much candy in my entire life. I went and sat down next to Ron across from Harry and Hermione. Ron and I began eating everything in sight as Harry and Hermione ate much slower and deliberately.
Soon I was stuffed and said, "Well Happy Halloween guys."
"Happy Halloween," they answered.
For the rest of breakfast we laughed and joked around with the other Gryffindors. We didn't bring up anything depressing like the Sorcerer's Stone. I was so full from all the candy that I barely ate any real food. I was well aware that I would pay for that later but at the moment I didn't care. When the mail came Lucky came and dropped my broomstick in front of me. I put a concealer spell on it quickly and put it in my locker to put in my room later.
Finally we made our way to Transfiguration which passed without a problem.
Then we made our way down to the Dungeons for Potions which put a damper on everyone's festive mood.
As soon as we walked in I noticed my father standing at the front of the room looking bored.
"Let's sit in the back today," Ron whispered.
We nodded. In order to sit in the back we were going to have to sit near some of the girls in our dormitory. I sat next to a blonde girl with Harry Ron and Hermione to my left.
"I want you to redo the potion you did yesterday seeing as though almost all of you failed."
I knew this was a lie and judging from some of the Gryffindor's faces they did too. Almost all of the Gryffindor kids had passed without a problem. Severus was basically letting the Slytherin students have another shot to do it with his help while all the Gryffindors were busy being scared by him.
With a sigh I began my potion. I was soon done and saw Neville struggling. I glanced over at my father and saw he was turned the other way. I slipped out of my seat and went to stand next to Neville.
I helped him with his potion for about 5 minutes before going back to my desk. To my relief Severus didn't notice. If he had I would have gotten detention for sure; even if he didn't want to.
I raised my hand and he saw it, "Yes Miss Wallwirt?"
"I've finished professor."
"Very well. Let me check," he said making his way over to me.
He bent down and peered at it, "Good job," he said quietly, "It looks right," he said louder.
The girl that was sitting two people away from me said loudly, "I think you should try it to make sure it works. You always say her potions are so great but she doesn't even follow the directions. For all we know you could be lying."
The two of us stared at her in disbelief. I looked at Severus anxiously to see how he was going to react.
"I don't think I need you to believe me," he said.
Addressing the class she said, "See that's proof that her potions aren't right."
"Of course they are correct," he said.
"Prove it then," she replied.
"Detention tonight 7 o'clock."
She didn't seemed phased, "Whatever. It's still obvious you are lying. If you really think it is perfect then you would try it. It's only a simple calming draught after all."
He was getting frustrated and said, "I will."
They stared at each other and she said, "Good I can't wait."
He turned back to me, conjured a glass and said, "Put some in here."
With a sigh at his stubbornness I poured some into his glass. He held it up to the girl sitting near me and drank it. She giggled and I immediately thought something bad was going on.
As soon as he drank it he put it down and fell to the ground.
I hopped out of my seat and asked her, "What did you do to my potion?"
As I helped him to sit up she said, "Nothing much I just added some of this."
She held up the love potion I had made a little while ago and smiled wickedly.
Severus's eyes glazed over and he said, "You know I love you."
I gave him a half smile as I helped him to his feet. I went in to the pantry and got all the things I needed to make a remedy for the love potion. I began making the potion but realized it would take me at least 20 minutes.
It didn't help that Severus kept saying, "I love you," and kept falling.
By now everyone was laughing in Gryffindor except for Hermione and me. Even the Slytherins looked amused but they weren't laughing as much as the Gryffindors.
The boy, Blake that I had helped a couple days ago came over and said, "Here I'll take care of the potion you take care of him."
I smiled at him and said, "Thanks."
He smiled and took my spot behind the potion. I racked my brain trying to think of ways to get him to stop making a fool of himself.
I bent down and whispered in his ear, "I need you to think clearly. You are not in love with me. You got drugged with a love potion."
It didn't do anything and the only response I got was another, "I love you."
I grumbled and said to the class, "Class is over. You may all leave."
The same girl that had altered my potion said, "Oh I don't think so. I'm pretty sure everyone here wants to see this; it's hilarious."
I was on the edge of snapping and I'm sure Neville realized this. He came over and sat next to me.
"It's okay. Just let them stay. They're going to whether you tell them to or not. Just focus on getting him to settle down. It looks like that kid is doing well with the potion. Just ignore everything else except for me and Professor Snape okay?"
I looked up at him and said, "Okay I will. Thanks."
About 15 minutes later Blake had finished the potion, "Jessica it's done."
I stood up and looked at the potion. It looked perfect; just like I knew it was supposed to look like.
"Thank you so much," I told him.
I conjured a cup and poured some of the remedy in it. I bent down and handed it to him. He stared at it, making no effort to take it from me.
"What is that?" he asked.
I sighed and said, "It's going to make everything better. Just take it. Take it for me?" I added with a smile.
He perked up and took it from my hands and downed it in one gulp even though I knew it probably tasted terrible.
A few seconds later he shook his head and looked down then back up at me. I pretended to glare at him and he glared back. He stood up and glared at the girl who I had learned was named Sarah.
"What was the meaning of that?" he asked angrily.
"What do you mean sir?" she asked innocently.
"You know very well what I mean," he sneered.
"Well I thought if you had some love in your life maybe you would be happier. I didn't realize it made you fall in love with whoever gave it to you until Emily told me just now. Sorry about that but I assure you it was for your own good."
He looked dumbfounded and said, "I know that isn't why you did it and it earned you a weeks' worth of detentions. Class dismissed."
She just smiled and left while chatting with her friends. As I was about to follow Harry Ron and Hermione he put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.
"Hey guys I'll meet you in Charms. I'm just going to be a second," I yelled.
They turned around and waved. Blake was finishing cleaning off my potion table quietly. So quietly that I hadn't even realized he had been doing it.
"You don't need to do that," I said.
He shrugged, "I made the mess. I'll clean it up. Besides I wanted to make sure the antidote was working perfectly."
Severus nodded then put a spell on the door to prevent students from coming in or hearing the conversation.
"It's working well thank you Mr. Cox. May I ask how you were able to make that potion?"
I spoke up, "He's brilliant at potions. Yesterday he did the Calming Draught without the book with no problem at all. Even better than that he altered it perfectly!"
With a new found interest Severus said, "I never knew you were so good at Potions Mr. Cox. Good job and thank you for making the antidote, I'm sure Miss Wallwirt was using her time better by helping some other way."
Blake blushed and looked at the ground, "It was no problem sir."
There was a silence while I tried to figure out how to say my next thought, "I was thinking that Blake should be in a higher level class Professor."
He raised his eyebrows and nodded, "I think so too. That antidote is not an easy one. I'll have to evaluate you Mr. Cox. Would you mind stopping by tonight after dinner with Miss Wallwirt so I can figure out what class to place you in?"
Blake's face lit up as he nodded, "Yes sir. Thank you so much."
I smiled at Blake and said, "Told you so."
His eyes widened and Severus asked, "Told him what?"
I turned to him and smiled saying, "I told him you weren't scary. You really need to work on that during class though."
I was getting a kick out of Blake's face as I said this. His mouth dropped open slightly as he stared at my stupidity.
Severus merely spread his hands and said, "I have a reputation to withhold. If everyone knew I wasn't as scary as they think I am then more people would pass my class and I would have to teach more dunderheads."
Blake asked, "So basically you're only not scary when you talk to the students you don't mind teaching?"
Severus shrugged and nodded, "In a nutshell I suppose yes. Although I'm still pretty scary in my NEWT level classes and those kids are supposed to be smart."
I laughed as Blake struggled to understand this, "What?" he accused.
"You look really funny right now," I said as he laughed with me.
"You both need to get to your next class and I believe Mr. Cox has to get all the way to Herbology. I'll see you both tonight," said Severus.
We nodded, "Bye Professor," we said together.
Together we walked out of the classroom ignoring all the looks from the students standing outside.
As we walked up the stairs he asked, "Have you always known he was sorta nice or did he scare you too?"
I said, "Well he scared me for like a minute but then he was forced to teach me and I think after that he realized I knew what I was doing and he started to not hate me."
It wasn't the truth but it was a good lie, "Oh that's cool. He actually seems pretty nice. I can't wait until tonight. I'll meet you there at 6?"
"Yep."