"Oi Weasley, you think your Mum and Dad'll have a threesome with me?" Some older Hufflepuff girl says to me as I walk down the hall towards my potions class. All of her friends laugh along with her.
I slow down and look at her head to toe, "With you? Not a chance."
Her jaw falls open and all of her friends are now laughing at her instead of me. Ever since the new textbook came out it seems that the only thing people can talk about is how fit my family was back when they were in Hogwarts.
"What was that about?" Darcy says from his spot by the potions classroom door.
"Just a bunch of idiots. It's whatever." I grumble. We walk into the classroom together and sit down with Ophelia and Chandler. Both of which are being oddly quiet.
"What's gotten into you two huh?" Darcy says to Ophelia and Chandler as he pulls out the notebook that he uses for his notes.
I look up at my sister and her friend. They share a look between the two of them before Ophelia talks, "Nothing? We can't be focused in class?" She says it awkwardly like there's something in her mouth.
I give her a look but she just shrugs her shoulders. I don't look away from her till Professor Slughorn comes in the room and stands in front of the class, "Alright everyone! Welcome back from the winter break, I know you've had a day to get back into the mental state of learning and studying so I thought that given we have double potions today that we brew the Wiggenweld potion!" He says it so happily but it's the hardest spell in our books this year. I'm not looking forward to it.
"Now who can tell me what this spell is used for? Anyone? Anyone at all?" Professor Slughorn asks the class. Ophelia and I both put up our hands, "Anyone but the Weasley twins?" No one does anything, "Fine, Miss Cassiopeia Weasley, if you please."
"The Wiggenweld potion is commonly used to heal injuries and restore stamina but it can also be used as an antidote for sleeping potions," I say carefully. I watch Professor Slughorns face when I talk to make sure that he's agreeing with everything I say.
He claps his hands together once and smiles, "Perfect answer Miss Weasley, like I was reading the textbook myself, ten points to Slytherin." He starts to walk back and forth in front of his desk walking us through the potion and how to make it perfectly. I jot down a few of the things he says that I know aren't in the textbook. That's the thing with Slughorn, he'll walk you through the potion before he has you brew it and if you'll listen carefully you'll pick up on little hints and things that the book doesn't tell you.
"Head off then! You have till the rest of the class to finish up your stuff. How's about we... let's see, Christmas just happened so let's do red sparks from your wand if you need any assistance!" He says cheerily.
Loads of people rush over to the supply cupboard like they always do but I stay in my seat and read over the instructions carefully, then compare them with the notes that I just took.
"You want me to get your ingredients for you?" Darcy asks me once he realizes that I'm not getting up.
"No its alright, I'll get them myself, just making sure I know what I need," I say. I take my textbook with me into the line for the cupboard. Ophelia and Chandler are standing in front of us but neither of them are talking, just communicating through looks.
"They're doing something," I say to Darcy.
Darcy looks around the room, "Huh? Who's doing something?"
"Ophelia and Chandler, they've got something up their sleeves or whatever but I can't seem to figure out what it is."
Darcy shrugs, "Sounds like it's none of your business Cass."
"She's my sister, I've got to make sure that she doesn't go off the rails or whatever."
"There's no talking you into minding your business is there?" Darcy says with a tired smile.
I look at him and pat his cheek with my spare hand, "Not a chance Williams, but thank you for trying." I take my hand away from him before it gets too weird. Already he was sort of leaning into my touch.
Once I finally get into the supply cupboard I work quickly, wiggentree bark, moly, dittany, a pint of horklump juice, flobberworm mucus, seven chizpurfle fangs, billywig sting slime, a sprig of mint, boom berry juice, a mandrake, honeywater, sloth brain mucus, moondew drops, salamander blood, ten lionfish spines, a unicorn horn, and wolfsbane.
Told you it was the hardest potion we've got to learn this year.
I load everything up into one of the little wicker baskets that are kept in the potions class and carry it carefully back to my desk. Already Ophelia is using a grater to get her wiggentree bark ready for the cauldron.
I get to work. First things first, I boil a bowl of plain water on a different burner and put my mandrake and my sprig of mint into it. Doing this first means that it'll be ready when I need it later. I take a glance around the room and notice that no one else has done that part yet. Instead of using a grater to get the wiggentree bark ready like the textbook says, I take Professor Slughorn's advice and use a potato peeler instead. It makes the bark easier to handle and by the looks of things, it takes half the time because Ophelia is still working away at hers. Then I take the Moly, a little blue flower with a black stem. I take off all the leaves and put them in the bin that's beside our workspace. I can feel Chandler watching my every move and I know that he's copying me carefully. I put the flower aside too, getting the dittany ready. It's rather simple, strip the stem of all its round leaves and use a bronze blade to cut them into really small pieces.
Then I use a hammer to crush up the seven chizpurfle fangs, not too much because you don't want it to be powder, but also you don't want the pieces to be too big. The perfect size is the same size as the rubber on the back of those muggle pencils that everyone seems to be using recently. Then I take off all the small flowers from my sprig of wolfsbane, tossing the rest of it in the bin. I put all the little flowers into a mortar and pestle and grind them up till it's a bright purple mush.
I turn on the burner underneath my cauldron and wait for it to get hot before I begin.
"How'd you get your bark done so fast?" Darcy says to me quietly.
"Use a potato peeler instead," I say back.
"That's not what the book says." He says matter of factly.
I look up at him, "Then why'd you ask me if you weren't going to do it?" I say with a small smile.
I pick up my pint of horklump juice, popping off the cork topper. Then I pour it in my cauldron. I pour it down the sides so that I don't spill anything and I make sure that every drop is out before I put the bottle down. Instantly it starts to bubble and turn a darker shade of red. I pick up my bowl of sloth brain mucus and pull my wand out of my pocket. Tapping the tip of my wand on the bowl three times, the top part of it turns into a small wooden spatula so I can scrape all the mucus into the cauldron. I wipe my wand off on a spare rag and pick up the unicorn horn. I use the horn to stir my potion like the instructions say. It feels so strange to use something so pure and perfect in potions not going to lie.
I toss in my Moly flower and scrape my dittany off of my cutting board with the same bronze knife I used to cut them up. I stir till I don't see any clumps, then I turn the heat down to the lowest possible setting so I can get my mandrake out of the water and cut it into small bits.
"Ah shit." Ophelia grumbles, "I fucking forgot to stew my fucking mandrake, piece of shit ass plant."
I watch as Professor Slughorn, who was at a nearby table, walk up behind Ophelia and say, "Mind your language, Miss Weasley. Classrooms aren't a place for that."
Slughorn goes to the other side of the room as someone shoots red sparks around. Once he's gone, we all start laughing at Ophelia's now red face.
"Oh fuck off you lot. You all swear... except for goodie two shoes over here." She looks at me and fake smiles.
"So now you're poking fun at me all because a teacher called you out on your behaviour? Mature." I say as I put my mandrake chunks in my cauldron along with the now wilted sprig of mint.
"Real mature," Ophelia says mocking me. She's still got that weird thing going on with her mouth like she's trying hard to keep her tongue in place.
I put the wolfbane flowers, now all mushy into my cauldron and turn the heat up again, stirring slowly, then I sprinkle the soft mandrake cubes into the cauldron along with the sprig of mint. The potion gets thicker, it turns a bright pink colour. I get nervous because of the colour so I scramble for my textbook to make sure that it's all correct.
It is.
After I put in my chizpurfle horns and three tablespoons of bilywig sting slime, my potion gets watery again and turns a dark pink colour.
"You wanna pass me that mortar and pestle?" Darcy says, nudging my arm with his elbow.
"You're standing right beside her?" Chandler says from the other side of the table, "She's gonna be the only one of us to get this potion right and Slytherin needs the points so..."
"I'm at the same spot that she's at!" Ophelia says loudly, "I can do this potion just as good as her."
"Yeah? How's that mandrake that you forgot about coming along?" Chandler says to her.
"Do you like having a tongue Chandler? Cause I can easily rip it outta your head." She says in a very threatening tone.
The two of them start bickering loudly, which distracts Darcy, who knocks over his boiling mandrake all over the floor.
"Bloody hell!" He shouts, the class erupts into laughter, Slughorn comes rushing over to help him clean up his mess.
Ignoring him, I add a few drops of moondew, and then add about a fourth of my salamander blood. The potion bubbles up and I stir it till it goes a very bright red.
"It's alright Mister Williams, instead of the potion, write me two feet of parchment on the recipe step by step and hand that in instead." Professor Slughorn says standing up from the floor.
Ignoring both of them, I add another fourth of my salamander blood into my cauldron, still stirring slowly. The mixture turns from bright red to yellow.
The room is quiet besides the bubbling of cauldrons and the clinking of unicorn horns on metal cauldrons.
When my potion turns green, I add another fourth of the blood and it goes a turquoise colour. Really pretty turquoise colour actually. I turn up the heat all the way and the soft bubbling that it was doing turns into a hard boil, I'm careful not to get it on my hands or clothes cause it could very well poison me.
The potion changes colour again, to deep indigo, turning the heat back down. I add the rest of the salamander blood. Using some magic, I make it so the unicorn horn stirs by itself so I can prepare the lionfish spines.
"is it uh, supposed to be grey?" Some kid on the other side of the room calls out.
"No, it's really not." One of their friends says back to them. Slughorn excuses himself so he can go help out the other student.
Once the colour of my potion changes from pink to red I add five of the spines and take control over the stirring again.
"Can you believe that? Two feet of parchment on this?" Darcy says to no one in particular. He doesn't get a response, everyone is looking into their potion, watching it carefully. I glance up at Ophelia, her hair is falling out of her ponytail, a bit of it is dipping into her potion, I debate telling her or not but Chandler tells her before I can.
"Fuck me." She groans, a big chunk of her hair has burned off, giving her a lopsided hairstyle. Godric I wish phones were allowed in classes.
The potion turns a mustard yellow and I add the rest of the lionfish spines in, I stir it a bit and add a bit of the Floberworm mucus and stir till it goes red.
"Everyone should be on the last few steps! Remember, your potion needs half an hour to simmer without you touching it!" Professor Slughorn says loudly.
Ophelia looks up from her potion, "You really gotta pressure us like that huh?" She mumbles, clearly exhausted.
I add the honey and my potion turns turquoise. I run my finger along my textbook to make sure that everything is in order. I can feel Darcy looking at me which makes me a little nervous. I add a few drops of boom berry juice in, stir it a few times, and take the unicorn horn out of the cauldron.
"Done already? You're fucking kidding me." Ophelia says loudly.
I sit down on my stool and pick up my quill, "Not done yet, I'm going to take some notes on the process and things to make sure I do it better next time."
Both Leah and Chandler stop what they're doing and look at me, "Are you fucking serious?" Chandler says, it sounds like he's trying to hold something in his mouth just like Ophelia is.
"I'm not allowed to improve on myself?" I say raising one eyebrow.
Neither of them says anything, they just go back to working on their cauldron.
"You're seriously taking notes?" Darcy half whispers to me.
"You seriously spilt your mandrake everywhere?"