If liberty means anything at all, it means to tell people what they do not want to hear.
- George Orwell
We got our schedule the next day and I wasn't pleased whatsoever. Double Potions on Monday morning, charms in the afternoon. Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and Herbology on Tuesday, double Transfiguration and astronomy on Wednesday, Arithmancy and History of Magic on Thursday and Study of Ancient Runes, Divination and Care of Magical Creatures on Friday, terrific.
Twelve classes, of which I was determined to get twelve O's.
"Double Potions on Monday with Gryffindor, are you kidding me?" Tracey complained. Me and Tracey Davis's friendship was a rather turbulent one. Tracy was loud and obnoxious a lot of the times, which is why I could not stand her at first. She was also a half-blood, meaning that we didn't really have the same social circles. But one time in third year, when Draco Malfoy made me trip in the hallway, she had given him the lecture of a lifetime. It was so excessive that everyone forgot about my little face-plant, only referring to Tracey's fit. Ever since, she had earned my respect and we'd been really good friends ever since.
"Well, at least in Potions Snape will give us a seat next to another Slytherin, so that's good."
I had a very mixed relationship with Gryffindor. Most of them annoyed me, as they always needed to be in the spotlight, whatever it took. Some of them were just plain obnoxious, but I did like a few. I was even friends with one in my year, Benjamin Evans. Benjamin was a rather quiet Gryffindor and had a lot of Hufflepuff traits, I thought. We'd been partners in Herbology last year and we got along surprisingly well.
"So, how about we throw a little party in the common room tonight? A little welcome back bash?" Tracey continued.
"I'm in", Daphne shrugged. "Eleanor?"
"Sorry, I've got prefect duties tonight. Every Monday and Thursday."
"Well, does that mean you can keep the other prefects away from the dungeons? The Hufflepuffs won't snitch, but I heard annoying Granger and Weasley are Gryffindor prefects. They sure will be a pain in the arse", Tracey rolled her eyes, sending daggers to the Gryffindor table. I agreed that Harry Potter and his two friends were annoying, but Tracey despised them for some reason.
"Well, let's get Potions over with, shall we?" I sighed and stood up from my seat. We were obliged to like Snape, as he was our head of house, but it was quite the task. He sucked the joy out of everything.
"I swear, if they put me next to Crabbe or Goyle, I'm going to throw hands", Daphne hissed as she noticed that Snape was assigning seats at the entrance.
"Bet you're going to be seated with Malfoy as prefects", Tracey said. I hadn't even thought about that and it had already ruined the first morning of the year.
"What? He's really good at Potions. And he's hot", Daphne wiggled her eyebrows, causing me to gag. All my life it had been Malfoy this and Malfoy that and I was sick of it.
"A despicable human, that's what he is", I mumbled.
And sure enough, when we reached Snape, he appointed me to the seat in the far back, next to Draco Malfoy.
"Sir, I respect your decision, but isn't there any other spot I could get?" I asked politely, trying not to look too repulsed.
"Well, respect my decision a little more and sit down", he said, continuing to assign seats to Daphne and Tracey. I sighed and reluctantly made my way over to my seat. I ignored his obvious groans and got out my book, ink and quill.
"I do not like this any more than you do, Malfoy, but I kindly request you to just shut up and not make this any worse."
"I don't think it can get much worse, Selwyn", Malfoy spat, turning away from me. He was infuriating. This was going to be a long two hours.
I noticed Benji all the way at the front of the class and he threw me an apologetic look. He knew exactly how I felt towards Malfoy. I wish I could've sat next to Benji instead, but life was not in my favour right now.
"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: The Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation", Snape said. I quickly noted it down. Potions exams were not too difficult if you paid attention, as Snape literally tells us what will be on the exam and what won't be, but most Gryffindors paid more attention to the fluff on their cloaks than to him.
"Be warned: If you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing."
"I suggest you be the test subject", Malfoy grinned, earning a glare. "Wouldn't mind you falling into an irreversible sleep." I ignored his stupid remarks and focused on the further instructions. Why couldn't I just brew this potion on my own? Malfoy was no use to me.
Malfoy didn't move one bit as I went to gather a cauldron and all the ingredients.
"Thank you for helping, Malfoy, you're such a gentleman", I hissed as I put the cauldron on the desk.
"No problem at all", he shrugged. I tried to keep my calm and read through the recipe, but Malfoy grabbed the cauldron and started to add ingredients.
"What do you think you're doing?" I asked slightly panicky.
"Brewing a potion, what does it look like I'm doing?"
"You need to measure those precisely, you heard what Snape said!
"It's a Draught of Peace, it's not so bloody difficult", he sneered as he started stirring the potion.
"If you mess this one up, I'm shoving all the blame on you. I'm not getting a bad grade because of you." I quickly read over the recipe again, trying to follow his moves.
"Get over yourself. I've had immaculate results since first year."
"And you're telling me to get over myself? You're such an arrogant twat, Malfoy. At least let me help before you totally screw it up." The problem with Malfoy was that I didn't know how to behave around him. My techniques didn't work on him. As much as I tried to put myself above him, it didn't have any effect. He always had a snappy remark ready to push me off my pedestal.
"Well tell me, Selwyn, what colour should the potion be?" he snapped. I grabbed the book and read over the first couple of lines.
"Green, slowly turning blue", I said eventually.
"Well, would you look at that. Still complaining?" he sighed, shoving the cauldron to me. I cursed under my breath as the colour did exactly what it was supposed to.
"Well at least let me help. I knew you were selfish, but that doesn't mean I tolerate it." Malfoy just rolled his eyes and sat back. I continued the next few steps of the potion, feeling his eyes burn, following my every move.
"Your turn", I said, eventually, shoving the cauldron back to him.
The rest of the lesson went on like that, shoving the cauldron back and forth. I was either brewing, or looking at the other students, most of which were failing. Seamus was just incompetent in general and since he was paired with Ron Weasley, that concoction was doomed.
I kept checking Malfoy's moves, just to make sure he didn't screw up, until he shoved the cauldron my way again. It wasn't particularly pleasant, but at least it got the job done. Quite immaculately if I may say so. The potion emitted a silver vapour and Snape seemed pleased, or at least not more annoyed than usual.
"You should take some of it. You could use it", Malfoy said, putting his stuff away. There still were a couple minutes of class left and I sure as hell was not going to spend it casually gossiping with Malfoy. I ignored him, but he certainly did not let it go.
"You're so uptight, almost as bad as Granger. You know that's really unattractive?"
"Well, good thing I don't care the least whether you find me attractive or not", I spat. I always led people to believe that I didn't care about what they thought of me, but that was a big, fat lie. I cared about people's opinions. I didn't necessarily want them to like me, but I wanted them to respect me. And even from Malfoy, a comment about my appearance hurt. I grabbed my stuff and left the classroom as soon as Snape dismissed us.
"Well, you look agitated."
I was about to snap at the person who spoke, until my eyes met his.
"Adrian, what are you doing here?" I asked, trying to calm myself down. I really had to find a way to stop Malfoy from getting on my nerves like that.
"I've got Potions in half an hour. Seems like you didn't enjoy yourself very much?" he grinned.
"I'm paired with Malfoy", I sighed. "We don't get along very well."
"Oh, I've noticed. Don't let him get to you. All he knows to do is throw insults and beg for attention. You're far above him."
I smiled at the compliment. He was right. I should ignore Mafloy's stupid remarks. But I was too fiery to do so. I wanted the last word.
"Oi, Adrian!" Cassius Warrington, Adrian's best friend called. "Come here, lad, there's a hundred galleons on the line!"
"I'm sorry", Adrian chuckled. "Bet they're about to do something stupid again. I'll see you around?"
"Sure." Adrian threw me a wink before heading off to see his friends.
"Ooh la la, I almost see a blush on Eleanor Selwyn's face!" Daphne squealed, linking my arm in hers. "Didn't know you were capable of blushing."
"Oh, shut it, Greengrass. I am not."
"Well, I don't blame you. He's two years older and quite sexy, might I add?"
"And graduating at the end of the year, I don't have time for such nonsense", I sighed. Tracey joined us and linked her arm through my other one.
"Quite sexy? Daphne, I thought the only person you think is sexy was Eleanor's Potions partner? Couldn't notice you were having an absolute blast, Eleanor."
"Don't get me started, honestly. He's infuriating", I grunted, not wanting to spend another second thinking about Draco Malfoy.
"Maybe, but he's also incredibly hot. Did you see his jawline up close? Bet you'd get a paper cut." I gagged as Daphne kept fawning over the piece of garbage. I really wished my friend had higher standards.
Potions on Monday should be considered a crime, but at least we had Charms in the afternoon, again with Gryffindor.
I thoroughly enjoyed the subject, as it seemed the most useful to me. I used charms and spells every day.
"Oi, Selwyn, it's been a while."
I looked up to see Benjamin walking down the corridor.
"Well hello Benjamin, how are you doing?" I asked. We were friends, but not that close, so I hadn't heard from him at all over summer.
"I'm good, how about you? Where are your friends at?"
"On their way. Tracey forgot her book. First year without your sister at school, right? All good?" Benjamin had had a bit of trouble with his sister last year, as she spent all her time thinking about her new boyfriend instead of checking in on him, but they worked it out eventually.
"Yeah, of course. It's weird that she's looking for a job now. Just three more years and then that's us."
"Have you got any idea what you want to do in life?" I asked.
"Not at all. You?" I had thought about it quite a bit, but it was a touchy subject. If it was up to my parents, I would marry a wealthy, pure-blood Slytherin, create some pure-blood children and be a rich housewife for the rest of my life. That wasn't exactly my idea of a nice future, though. I wanted to do things. Maybe I could become an auror, at least my parents thought it was a respectable job if you were in the right department. Deep down I wanted more excitement, like being a curse-breaker, but those were just dreams. That job was way too out of the comfort zone of my all set-up, preppy, rich girl future.
"Not sure yet, but plenty of time to decide, right?" I said as I noticed Benjamin was still waiting for an answer.