We stopped in front of the Potions room while I handed my three friends their books. We walked in and sat down. We took up the entire half of the third row. Harry was sitting at the far end next to Ron. Neville and Seamus sat next to Ron, then Hermione. Dean sat after Hermione and I took a seat next to Dean. Blake slid into the chair next to me.
Dean softly called over to Harry jokingly, "You're going to fail. You're not sitting anywhere near the smart kids. I have three geniuses near me."
Harry scowled at him, "Yeah I should have thought about this seating arrangement a little more."
Ron punched him on the arm softly, "Hey what's wrong with me, I'm great at Potions."
"The only reason you're even passing potions is because of Jessica and Hermione," Harry said.
"That's the only reason you're passing too," Ron said with a grin.
All their smiles were wiped off when the door opened and my father walked in. I was really proud of him because instead of sweeping in like a vampire like he always does, he walked in calmly without a scowl etched on his face.
He stood up at the front of the classroom and said, "Today I want you to all make an aging potion. You can find this potion on page 172 of your books. You'll need some Boomerang slings which are on the left in the pantry and are labeled in Greek."
He wasn't being nice, but it was an improvement from his usual demeanor. Everyone got up nosily to go to the pantry and get their supplies. Once I was sure it wouldn't hurt anyone I brought over supplies for all of us and placed them in front of each person.
I was cutting, mashing and cracking all my ingredients at the same time so it was no surprise when I was ready to start my potion in a minute or two. Ignoring the directions in the book completely I carefully executed the correct steps to make my potion shimmer gray.
I finished up and put some in a glass vial before bringing it up to Severus's desk.
He nodded and muttered, "Nice job," quietly.
I smiled faintly and said, "Thank you."
I went back to my desk quickly and helped Dean while Hermione tried to do her potion while helping the entire end of the table. I told him exactly how to perform the next two steps then moved over to where Ron and Harry were sitting. I saw Blake finish his potion and bring it up to my father.
I got Ron and Harry started on the second step then turned to make sure Dean was doing okay. To my surprise and delight Blake had moved over one seat and was helping Dean make his potion. Dean seemed content sitting next to Blake and it looked like they were even making friendly conversation.
"What are you smiling at?" I heard someone ask.
I turned to see Harry staring at me waiting for my answer, "Nothing," I muttered.
He shrugged and rolled his eyes while he said teasingly, "Fine don't tell me."
I laughed softly because Severus had begun helping the Slytherins on the other side of the room.
"Whatever, just do step three. You just need to stir 7 times clockwise," I said.
They both were doing well so I looked up again to see my father helping some of the Slytherins in the back of the room. With a grin I noticed he had skipped Draco's row completely. I knew Wilkes had gone to Mungo's and gotten some of his memory back. He was back in school as of yesterday. I wondered if Severus was as cold to him as he was to Draco, I hoped so.
I went back to helping Harry and Ron finish up as Dean brought his potion up to the front of the room. Seamus and Neville were almost done, under the guidance of Hermione. Neville's looked a little too white and Seamus's a little too dark but they would pass easily. Ron and Harry finished at the same time.
"Bottle some up and you're good," I told them both.
"Thanks Jessica," they each said.
I slipped into my seat again. Blake had moved back to his seat now that he was done helping Dean.
"Thanks for helping Dean, Harry and Ron really needed the help," I told him.
He shrugged, "It was no problem."
From beside me Dean said, "Yeah Blake's great at potions. You really helped me out man, thanks."
"No problem," Blake replied blushing slightly.
"It sucks that you aren't going to be in our class after today," I said, "It better not mess up the rest of your schedule that you can't be in our other classes too."
Dean said, "Wait why won't you be in our class anymore?"
Blake replied, "I'm moving up to a higher level class, this one is too easy."
Dean looked confused and said to me, "Why don't you move up to a higher level class too?"
I shrugged and said, "Well all the levels would be too easy for me so instead of being in a class with kids I don't know all my professors agreed that I could stay in my regular classes to be with my friends and help out."
He nodded, "Oh okay cool."
Soon after Severus ended class by saying, "For homework I want just half a piece of parchment on the effects of Amortentia, we will be making it tomorrow."
Everyone piled out of the room loudly.
"Well I'll see you all later," Blake said to our group.
"Bye," we all chorused.
He made his way to D.A.D.A. as us Gryffindors made our way to Charms with Flitwick.
As we entered the room one of the Ravenclaw students I liked talking to while helping named Padma Patil came up to me.
"Hey Jessica. Are you excited for tonight? I am! Do you know what we are going to learn or are you just gonna wing it?"
I smiled and said, "Well we were thinking of teaching an invisibility charm , and a couple other things but other than that yeah we are going to wing it."
Her head bounced up and down as she said, "Well that's great! You must be so nervous for tonight but everyone is so excited. It's the talk of the school right now."
I laughed, "Well then they should get ready to be disappointed. It's going to be fun but nothing amazing."
"Oh you are so humble. I'm sure it'll be really amazing!"
Padma is the kind of girl who talks to everyone for a little bit at a time and really fast, so I wasn't surprised when she quickly said bye and went off to talk to someone else.
Charms flew by and soon we were off to Herbology. Dean, Seamus and Neville were walking a little ahead of Harry, Ron, Hermione and I.
"Charms seemed to really fly by, didn't it?" Hermione asked.
I nodded, "Yeah it did, it's probably because I was so busy thinking about tonight."
"I thought it was going really slowly," Ron said.
"Yeah he nearly fell asleep," Harry said punching him on the arm.
"But you did fall asleep," Ron said laughing.
Hermione and I laughed. We still had 20 minutes to walk the distance of about 20 feet. We started to drag our feet.
Once we got to the greenhouse we stood outside the door talking.
Dean, Seamus and Neville had already gone it, but the smell of the greenhouse often gave me a headache.
"I haven't been able to concentrate at all, you guys are going to have to tell me what we learned today," Hermione said with a faint smile and small laugh.
"Well these guys have been sleeping during class so I don't think they can help us much," I said jerking a finger at Ron and Harry.
Ron put his hands up in surrender and said, "It's not our fault the classes are boring compared to what we are doing tonight."
"It's really not going to be that awesome. I'm afraid everyone is going to be disappointed," I said.
"Oh come on, it's going to be amazing and you know it!" Harry said.
I shook my head, "Whatever, let's go inside so we can get a good seat."
They followed me inside and to the back of the greenhouse. We sat next to Neville, Seamus, Dean, Justin and Ernie like we had for all our Herbology classes.
An hour later I walked out of Herbology in a haze. I couldn't remember what we did or where the time had gone. We all walked to lunch together.
Once we got to the Great Hall, Ernie and Justin excused themselves to sit at the Hufflepuff table and the rest of us took some seats at the end of the Gryffindor table.
I zoned out again until I heard someone hiss, "Jessica."
I shook my head, "What?" I asked.
"We asked you if you knew what you were going to start the meeting with yet," Ron told me.
I offered a sheepish grin before saying, "I have no clue still, sorry. Do any of you have any ideas?"
They all shook their heads.
I shrugged and said, "Well whatever, if nothing comes to us we can just have the meeting. We don't really have to prove we know what we're doing."
Hermione nodded, "Yeah you're right. We don't really have to do anything special."
We all shrugged and continued eating. Once we were done eating I stood up and put my hands on the table.
"Well I hate you leave you guys but I have to go do all my homework, since I won't have time to do it tonight," I said with a sheepish smile.
"It's fine, we know you're busy," Hermione said.
"I think I'm going to go see if Blake wants to come with me to do it in the library since he won't have time either," I said.
They nodded and raised their hands in a way of farewell.
I cautiously made my way over to the Slytherin table and tapped Blake on the shoulder. He looked up from the book he was reading and put it down when he saw it was me.
I took a seat next to him since he was off to one side by himself and looking at the plate in front of him, "Aren't you going to eat anything?"
He shook his head, "I'm not really hungry right now," he lowered his voice, "Besides I need to lose some weight."
I looked him over and said with a laugh, "Dude you're basically a stick, eat something."
He shook his head again and said, "No it's better if I don't. I've been working out to gain some muscle too."
I was suddenly serious, "Why?"
"Because if I don't look small and scrawny maybe I won't be as much of a target here, and I can get some time away from everything," he looked down and I understood what he meant.
"But you're going to get sick if you are exercising and not eating, it's not healthy."
"I'm only going to do it until I lose 10 pounds then I'll eat and focus on my exercise, okay?"
I looked at him and said with a sigh, "Fine, but just eat a little bite of an apple," I added, "For me please?"
He sighed, picked up an apple and took a single bite. I sighed, it wasn't much but it was better than not eating at all. I nodded and stood back up.
"Do you want to go down to the library and do our homework, since we won't have time to do it tonight?" I questioned trying to change the subject.
He nodded and asked, "Wouldn't you rather do homework with your friends though?"
I punched him on the arm slightly and with a laugh said, "You are my friend stupid."
He grinned at me and said, "Sure let's go."
He was about to pick up his books to bring to the library when I opened the locker and took them from him, putting them in the locker instead.
We walked to the door of the Great Hall while receiving many hateful glances from the Slytherins, directed towards Blake.
He took a few steps ahead of me and held the door open, "Ma'am," he said tipping an imaginary hat."
I giggled and stepped through saying, "Why thank you sir."
He came through the door and held out his arm to me, "Shall we?"
I surprised myself by giggling again and took it, "We shall."
We looked straight ahead and started walking. We both stole a glance at each other at the same time and erupted into laughter.
We were still laughing when we got to the library so we were told to be quiet by Madame Pince. We both nodded, but continued laughing quietly.
We went to the back of the library and sat down at a table. We both pulled out our school books.
"Well lets start with Transfiguration. She just wants half a page on the pros and cons of becoming an Animagus," I said.
"Well you should know all about that," Blake said nudging me in the side.
I reddened and said, "Yeah, it was weird and I know if you mess up one little thing it could kill you. So I guess that would be a bad thing but a good thing would be you can spy on people."
My eyes lit up as I got an idea, "Hey Blake! That's a great idea, I could spy on people in animal form, oh that's perfect."
"What's perfect?" he asked confused.
I shook my head, "Nothing, I'm just planning a prank to play on either Harry or Ron or someone."
"As long as it's not me," Blake said rolling his eyes.
"Course not, since you already know I'm planning it, it wouldn't be as fun to play anything on you."
He nodded, "Exactly, well let's get writing. You totally want to let me use one of those cool quills you can conjure up right?"
I laughed quietly, "Sure."
I conjured up two quills and we put them to work. Talking the whole time we were done our homework 10 minutes before the break ended.
"Well I'm glad that's out of the way," I said pushing my books away.
Blake nodded, "Yeah me too, it will make it easier for us to finish the potion and go to the club later."
I rubbed my hands together nervously, "Yep, I'm really excited yet so nervous, everyone has such high standards and I know I'm just gonna blow it."
"No you won't," Blake assured me, "You're brilliant. Nothing is going to go wrong."
"I sure hope so, but I just have terrible luck. Don't you think?"
"You have the worst luck in the world," he said, "And I'm a close second."
"Obviously."
"Well we should get going to our next class, we don't want to be late," Blake said.
"Alright let's go to D.A.D.A . with that nutter," I said with a quick laugh.
Blake returned it with a smile as he picked up both of our papers and books. I opened the locker and he put all of our things it in.
We walked out of the library chatting away. We talked all the way to our D.A.D.A. class. We walked in and took seats next to each other in the back. None of my other friends were there yet, and most of the Slytherins were missing too.
5 minutes later Harry Ron and Hermione came in with Neville, Seamus and Dean. They took seats all around me and Blake.
Another 5 minutes later Quirell finally walked in, and glanced around like he was scared of children. He got up to the front of class and did roll call. After that he launched into another lecture on some sort of thing he had encountered on his studies, but I began to tune him out.
Finally class was over and everyone got up and scrambled out the classroom. We all made our way outside to Flying together.
Once we arrived at the field we saw Madame Hooch standing in the middle of the field.
Everyone was soon gathered around her so she said, "Today I am going to just explain the rules of Quiddatch to everyone, then I want everyone to participate in a game. We will have two games going today; one for people who think they can handle a more competitive game and one for those we would prefer a less competitive game."
We all just stood there looking at each other so she yelled. "Well spread out! Make four teams, quickly now."
It was agreed that Hermione and Neville were going to play in the less competitive game while the rest of our friends were playing in the more competitive game.
I went through Flying, not really engaged in the game. I flew around looking for the Snitch and eventually found it before Malfoy did, but my heart wasn't fully in it.
After Flying was over, it was already time for dinner. We met up with Neville and Hermione and walked up to the Great Hall.
Blake Hermione and I walked in front of the other people. Hermione and I wanted to get away from their constant chatter because we were nervous and Blake followed suit.
We got into the Great Hall and said bye to Blake. He went to sit at the Slytherin table as all the Gryffindors went to sit together at the Gryffindor table. Hermione and I picked at our food tentatively, while everyone else dug into theirs.
Soon enough dinner was over and I met up with Blake to go down to Severus's, so he could finish his potion from last night.
We made our way out of the Great Hall side by side. I hadn't seen my father at dinner so I assumed he was already downstairs, he tended to miss dinner and just eat later in the night.