─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
'Here comes torture,' Sara whispered as Snape let them into the Defense against the dark arts classroom.
Sara and Nico took a seat at the back of the classroom, looking around it. Snape had imposed his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier than usual, as curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candlelight. New pictures adorned the walls, many of them showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly injuries or strangely contorted body parts. Nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the shadowy, gruesome pictures.
'I have not asked you to take out your books," said Snape, closing the door and moving to face the class from behind his desk; Hermione hastily dropped her copy of Confronting the Faceless back into her bag and stowed it under her chair. 'I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention.'
'Sure you do,' Sara muttered under her breath and a grin spread over Nico's face.
Snape's black eyes suddenly fell upon her, his expression threatening, but Sara only raised a brow in amusement, staring at his desk.
'You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe. Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an O.WL. in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the N.E.W.T. work, which will be more advanced.'
Snape set off around the edge of the room, speaking now in a lower voice; the class craned their necks to keep him in view. 'The Dark Arts,' said Snape, 'are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.'
Sara stared at Snape. It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice?
'Your defenses,' said Snape, a little louder, 'must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures - he indicated a few of them as he swept past - 'give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse'- he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony - 'feel the Dementor's Kiss' - a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall - 'or provoke the aggression of the Inferius' - a bloody mass upon ground.
'Has an Inferius been seen, then?' said Parvati Patil in a high pitched voice. 'Is it definite, is he using them?'
'The Dark Lord has used Inferi in the past," said Snape, 'which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. Now. . . '
He set off again around the other side of the classroom toward his desk, and again, they watched him as he walked, his dark robes billowing behind him.
'. . . you are, I believe, complete novices in the use of nonverbal spells. What is the advantage of a nonverbal spell?'
Hermione's hand shot into the air and so did Sara's. Snape took his time looking around at everybody else, making sure he had no choice, before saying curtly, 'Very well - Miss Potter?'
'Your adversary has no warning about what kind of magic you're about to perform,'said Sara, looking Snape dead in the eye, 'which gives you a split-second advantage.'
'An answer copied almost word for word from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six,' said Snape dismissively (over in the corner, Malfoy sniggered), 'but correct in essentials. Yes, those who progress in using magic without shouting incantations gain an element of surprise in their spell-casting. Not all wizards can do this, of course; it is a question of concentration and mind power which some lack.'
Sara managed to perform non verbal spells two months ago when she desperately fought for her life.
'You will now divide,' Snape went on, 'into pairs. One partner will attempt jinx the other without speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal silence. Carry on.'
Sara and Nico paired up like usual, standing into their duel positions and bowing slightly.
'Don't worry, I'll go easy on you,' Nico muttered with a grin, making Sara to playfully roll her eyes.
As she waited for Nico to hex her, she looked around the classroom, her eyes stopping on none other than Draco Malfoy. She scoffed silently as to why she would look at him. She truly found a bitter truth in Harry's beliefs and maybe she wanted to find out what was the matter with the boy on her own.
Draco suddenly turned around and caught her eyes at which Sara turned her attention from him with a scowl.
'Stupefy,' Sara heard Nico muttered and dodged his spell non verbally.
'So you still remember how to do it,' he grinned and Sara began attacking him with hexes, at which he had to dodge her and he succeeded in doing it non verbally.
'You did it!' Sara's happy cries were however interrupted by Snape.
'Do you remember me telling you we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?'
'Yes,' said Harry stiffly.
'Yes, sir.'
'There's no need to call me 'sir,' Professor.' Several people gasped, including Hermione. Behind Snape, however , Ron, Dean, Seamus and Nico, including Sara, grinned appreciatively.
'Detention, Saturday night, my office,' said Snape. 'I do not take cheek from anyone, Potter . . . not even 'the Chosen One.''
'He is one sassy person,' Nico said in a better mood when they walked to the library , thinking about starting Snape's homework.
It took them a while to finish the essay as he required a something rather complex, even Sara and Nico would find difficult.
After that free period they headed for their Potions class. When they arrived in the corridor they saw that there were only a 14 people progressing to N.E.W.T. level. Crabbe and Goyle had evidently failed to achieve the required O.W.L. grade, but four Slytherins had made it through, including Malfoy. Four Ravenclaws were there, and one Hufflepuff, Ernie Macmillan. Harry, Ron and Hermione were talking in quiet voices, rather close to the door.
'Well hello there, you three,' Sara greeted with an excited tone, rather than the bored one she would usually use before Snape's class.
'Why are you so cheery? It's potions,' Ron scoffed.
'But it's not Snape!' she cheered a bit in which Nico joined her.
'This one'll really kill you with her happiness,' Ron muttered to his twin and the other boy just grinned into a 'you have no idea' way.
Before they could say anything else, the dungeon door opened and Slughorn's belly preceded him out of the door. As they filed into the room, his great walrus mustache curved above his beaming mouth, and he greeted Harry, Sara and Zabini with particular enthusiasm.
The dungeon was, most unusually, already full of vapors and odd smells. Sara and Nico sniffed interestedly as they passed large, bubbling cauldrons. The four Slytherins took a table together, as did the four Ravenclaws. Sara and Nico had to chose a table for their own as the trio shared a table with the Hufflepuff. They chose the table near a gold shining potion that caught Sara's eye instantly; she had read about it, Liquid Luck.
She couldn't help, but also look at the other potions, the one closer to Harry's table smelling unusually of the wet grass on the Quidditch Pitch after a rainy day, her favorite milk chocolate and strawberries. Oh Merlin strawberries. A scent that she smelled always, wether she was in class, or in the Great Hall, or in the library or even in her dorm, or when she was kissing Nico.
'Now then,' said Slughorn, after Harry and Ron found themselves some books, returning to the front of the class and inflating his already bulging chest so that the buttons on his waistcoat threatened to burst off, 'I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of thing you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?
He indicated the cauldron nearest the Slytherin table.
Sara's hand hit the air before anybody else's; even Hermione's. Slughorn pointed at her.
'It's Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion thar forces the, drinker to tell the truth,' Sara said with a smile.
'Very good, very good!' said Slughorn happily. 'Now,' he continued, pointing at the cauldron nearest the Ravenclaw table, 'this one here is pretty well known. . . . Featured in a few Ministry leaflets lately too . . . Who can - ?'
This time Nico was the one the raise his hand first, clearly excited.
'It's Polyjuice Potion, sir,' he said in his deep voice, a mischievous spark appeared in his eyes.
Sara too had recognized the slow-bubbling, mudlike substance the second cauldron, as she, Nico and Hermione brewed it into their second year.
'Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here . . . yes, my dear?' said Slughorn, now looking slightly bemused, as Hermione's hand punched the air again, wanting to be the first to answer.
'It's Amortentia!'
'It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask,' said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, 'but I assume you know what it does?'
'It's the most powerful love porion in the world!' said Hermione.
'Quire right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?'
'And the steam rising in characteristic spirals,' said Hermione enthusiastically, 'and it's supposed to smell differently to each of according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and-'
But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence.
'So that's why I could smell you,' Sara whispered to Nico and he chuckled slightly, licking his upper lip.
'That chocolate smell is practically killing me, it reminds me of your lips and how much I want to kiss you,' he muttered, a grin playing at his lips.
'Soon, my love,' Sara said quietly as Slughorn demanded Nico's name.
'Nicolas Weasley, sir,' he said and put on his most serious and most attractive smile.
'So this is the Nicolas Weasley you were talking about Sara,' Slughorn beamed enthusiastically and Sara nodded. She remembered when Harry said that to Slughorn, when they tried to in him over.
'And also Sara and her best friend are the brightest in our year, they are like two legged libraries,' Harry said with a smile at his sister.
'And Nicolas Weasley is a pureblood so you know, it really isn't about blood.'
'Well you three each take 20 well earned points for Gryffindor, Miss Granger, Miss Potter and Mr Weasley!' Slughorn said genially.
Malfoy looked rather as he had done the time Hermione had punched him in the face. Nico turned to Sara and gave her his dazzling smile.
'So you've been talking good things about your boyfriend eh?' he asked in a quiet and amused voice.
'Shut it, you git.'
'Idiot.'
And as they were assigned to brew the Draught of Living Death in the hour that remained, neither Sara nor Nico waited any longer.
By the time Slughorn told them to stop, their two potions were near perfect and Slughorn beamed happily at the sight of them.
Nico tucked one lock of red hair behind Sara's ear as it fell into her eyes. She was all sweaty, even with her sleeves rolled up and her hair was kind of a mess, a beautiful mess Nico thought.
The lesson ended with Harry's sudden success in brewing a perfect potion and he earning a vial of Felix Felicis.
'How is your brother suddenly better than you at potions?' Nico asked with a frown as they made their way to dinner.
'I have no idea.'
But later that night she found out that This book is the property of the Half Blood Prince.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───