Post by Tathrin on Jul 7, 2011 18:48:58 GMT -8
Title: First Potions
Rating: G
Summary: Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy have their first Potions Lesson of the 2017 school year. It doesn't go as well as could be hoped.
Albus's stream of chatter abruptly stopped as they touched the first stair to the dungeon. Scorpius didn't notice; each step jolted a thrill of excitement like lightning up through his heels. Finally, the day was almost over; one more class to go, the last one of their second day at Hogwarts, and the one that Scorpius had been looking forward to the most. Finding it scheduled not only last, but not at all their first day, had been a grave disappointment but now, finally, he was heading to Potions.
He took the last few steps in a gallop and bounced on his toes while he waited for Albus to drag himself down after him. Grinning widely, Scorpius pulled his new friend to the front-and-center desk inches from the teacher's own. He didn't want to miss a thing this lesson. He was talking to Albus the whole time he unpacked his supplies, but it was empty babbling; he didn't know what he was saying, and the other was hardly listening. Scorpius had progressed to drumming impatiently on his cauldron rim when Albus turned to the door and waved.
A tall girl with bushy red hair wearing Gryffindor colors grinned and waved back. Separating herself from the rest of the red-and-gold students that were, almost to a person, heading for the tables in the back end of the room, the girl slid onto the bench next to Albus, dropping a heavy stack of books with a thud.
"Hey Al!" she beamed cheerily. "Isn't this all so exciting? I'm glad we finally have a class together, I was afraid we were hardly going to see each other all term! Shame you weren't in Gryffindor like me and James--not that I've seen him much, of course. He said to tell you hello, though."
Albus gave a sickly sort of smile; Scorpius knew that the Sorting was rather a sore point with his friend. He sympathized entirely; he knew he would have felt even worse if he hadn't been sorted into Slytherin. Shared Sorting nerves had actually been what first drew them together on the train ride over, for although the cause was diametrically opposite, the feeling had been the exact same.
"Hi Rose," the dark-haired boy said. "Yeah, it's been pretty neat so far. This is Scorpius." He turned to reverse the introductions. "Rose is my cousin, I've known her forever. Well, one of my cousins, anyway."
"Oh," said Rose before Scorpius could offer a greeting, "Scorpius Malfoy, right? Yeah, my dad pointed you out at the station."
Scorpius was about to ask, "what for?" but just then the classroom door swung open and shut once more, and a large, round green figure waddled up the aisle. He introduced himself as Professor Slughorn and launched into a speech about the class. Scorpius hung on his every word. Rose was staring intently at the teacher as well, quill poised in hand. Albus fiddled with his supplies and wouldn't look up from their work table.
Their first assigned potion was so easy, Scorpius couldn't resist fiddling with it. He knew that if you added just a dash of peppermint when stirring in the nettles, it would give the final concoction more kick--provided, of course, that you paid careful attention when adding the porcupine quills, because the peppermint tended to make it bubble angrily if you put them in too fast.
He started to sprinkle the small leaves into his cauldron when suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed his own. "Wait!" Rose hissed frantically, leaning across Albus. "That's the wrong ingredient!"
"No it's not," Scorpius started to explain, "it increases potency of the nettles--"
Rose shook her head. "No, you add the nettles by themselves, then you stir in the slugs. Didn't you read the instructions?"
"Of course I did," he replied shortly. "That's how I knew to use the peppermint."
"Nowhere," Rose said darkly, "does it mention peppermint."
"Well no, but nettles--"
Rose shook her book under his nose and pointed furiously at the instructions. "Look. Do you see peppermint anywhere on there?"
"No, I already tried to tell you that it's better if you do. Just because the book doesn't say something--"
"If the book doesn't say it, then you shouldn't do it," she retorted primly. "Honestly, what's the point of going to class and reading the textbook if you're just going to start throwing things into your cauldron willy-nilly?"
Scorpius leaned across Albus's cauldron to glare at her. "I am not," he said slowly, gravely insulted, "adding things 'willy-nilly.' I just happen to have thought it out carefully, thank you, and I know that the use of peppermint with nettles, when your potion also contains horned slugs but no daisy roots, will give--"
"Oh, so you know more than the book, then? I suppose Arsenius Jigger should have consulted you before he published." Scorpius scowled and tried to interrupt, but Rose plowed ahead tartly. "Well! Maybe you should just teach the class, Professor Malfoy, and the rest of us can just throw our useless books away then." She sniffed disdainfully and began crushing her snake fangs with extra vigor.
"That is not what I said," Scorpius hissed angrily. He glanced around anxiously, but Professor Slughorn was trying to help a small brown-haired Gryffindor boy beat out the blue flames that were dancing a jig on his table. "I said," he continued crossly, "that I am very carefully choosing to deviate from the book's prescribed instructions, because I know one thing that will make this potion better. If you did, you would do the same, and if you wanted to know what it was I could tell you."
"Well I don't," Rose shot back. "I will listen to the book, because it clearly has been in use for years, and I think that if no one has come up with a better idea in all this time, no first year is going to do so now."
"Fine then, when you get a poor grade for a watery potion, don't blame me."
"And when you get marks off because your potion is useless, don't blame me."
They both exchanged one last, venomous glare across the top of Albus's gently bubbling cauldron, then turned away sharply towards their own work. Scorpius's mood was not improved by the fact that his argument with Rose had made him ignore the careful timing necessary, and now his porcupine quills were being tetchy and he had allowed some of the potion to burn. Judging by the smoke issuing from Rose's cauldron, she was suffering similarly, but that did nothing to fix his potion or relieve his feelings.
When it came time to turn in their potions at the end of class, Scorpius was quite grumpy. He knew that he had made a very poor showing, and he had so wanted to impress Slughorn. He was so embarrassed by his concoction that he debated evanesco-ing the whole thing and telling the professor that he had spilled his cauldron, but trudged up despondently nonetheless to place a small vial on the desk. Better to get poor marks than no marks, he decided, consoling himself with the knowledge that he would do much better next time and maybe the professor would think this first one had just faltered due to nerves.
Rose came back to their table with a scowl to match Scorpius's. They stared as Albus poured out a thin, perfectly glistening liquid into his own vial and carried it up. He flushed pink when he noticed them staring at him and tripped on his way back to his seat.
"Albus," Rose said in a voice that was as much annoyance as awe, "that looked great."
"Yeah," Scorpius nodded, "well done."
Rose glanced at Scorpius. "I see rebelling against the text didn't work out so well for you," she said lightly. "Maybe next time you'll be more cautious."
"Well, following the book clearly didn't work for you," Scorpius snapped back.
The girl sniffed. "I was distracted trying to save your potion."
"You distracted me," Scorpius replied hotly. "That's why my potion didn't work."
"Albus didn't have any problem," Rose replied, gathering up her stack of books. "Maybe you should learn from his example."
"Actually," Albus mumbled reluctantly, "I, ah, I added the peppermint, too."
"You what?" Rose stared at him in betrayal and he fidgeted.
"Well, Scorpius made it sound like a good idea..."
The boy in question grinned proudly. Rose frowned at them both. "Well," she announced at last, "it was a ridiculously simple potion. No doubt it was assigned solely because it's so hard to foul up, even when you add things you shouldn't, and it was only because I--we," she added grumpily, "were distracted that our own turned out so poorly."
Albus nodded hurriedly. "No doubt," he agreed with a hopeful grin.
"Hmph!" said Rose, and turned on her heel. She paused at the door and glanced back, her expression not softening although she did relent enough to give Albus an abortive wave farewell. "I'll look forward to seeing you next class, then, Albus," she said pointedly.
"I can't wait!" Scorpius shot back tartly as she stomped away. He grabbed his own bag and stuffed his carefully-packed supplies back into it haphazardly. "I hope you don't mean to sit with your cousin every day," he grumbled. "No offense, Albus, but she's horrid."
Albus sighed as he followed the other boy out the door. "Well, I can tell that Potions is going to be really fun," he muttered to himself, green eyes rolling. He trailed Scorpius slowly up the stairs, thinking to himself that he ought to have known that nothing good could come of this class; his entire family--and Uncle Neville--had warned him about the dangers of the Hogwarts dungeon and its Potions lessons.
Rating: G
Summary: Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy have their first Potions Lesson of the 2017 school year. It doesn't go as well as could be hoped.
Albus's stream of chatter abruptly stopped as they touched the first stair to the dungeon. Scorpius didn't notice; each step jolted a thrill of excitement like lightning up through his heels. Finally, the day was almost over; one more class to go, the last one of their second day at Hogwarts, and the one that Scorpius had been looking forward to the most. Finding it scheduled not only last, but not at all their first day, had been a grave disappointment but now, finally, he was heading to Potions.
He took the last few steps in a gallop and bounced on his toes while he waited for Albus to drag himself down after him. Grinning widely, Scorpius pulled his new friend to the front-and-center desk inches from the teacher's own. He didn't want to miss a thing this lesson. He was talking to Albus the whole time he unpacked his supplies, but it was empty babbling; he didn't know what he was saying, and the other was hardly listening. Scorpius had progressed to drumming impatiently on his cauldron rim when Albus turned to the door and waved.
A tall girl with bushy red hair wearing Gryffindor colors grinned and waved back. Separating herself from the rest of the red-and-gold students that were, almost to a person, heading for the tables in the back end of the room, the girl slid onto the bench next to Albus, dropping a heavy stack of books with a thud.
"Hey Al!" she beamed cheerily. "Isn't this all so exciting? I'm glad we finally have a class together, I was afraid we were hardly going to see each other all term! Shame you weren't in Gryffindor like me and James--not that I've seen him much, of course. He said to tell you hello, though."
Albus gave a sickly sort of smile; Scorpius knew that the Sorting was rather a sore point with his friend. He sympathized entirely; he knew he would have felt even worse if he hadn't been sorted into Slytherin. Shared Sorting nerves had actually been what first drew them together on the train ride over, for although the cause was diametrically opposite, the feeling had been the exact same.
"Hi Rose," the dark-haired boy said. "Yeah, it's been pretty neat so far. This is Scorpius." He turned to reverse the introductions. "Rose is my cousin, I've known her forever. Well, one of my cousins, anyway."
"Oh," said Rose before Scorpius could offer a greeting, "Scorpius Malfoy, right? Yeah, my dad pointed you out at the station."
Scorpius was about to ask, "what for?" but just then the classroom door swung open and shut once more, and a large, round green figure waddled up the aisle. He introduced himself as Professor Slughorn and launched into a speech about the class. Scorpius hung on his every word. Rose was staring intently at the teacher as well, quill poised in hand. Albus fiddled with his supplies and wouldn't look up from their work table.
Their first assigned potion was so easy, Scorpius couldn't resist fiddling with it. He knew that if you added just a dash of peppermint when stirring in the nettles, it would give the final concoction more kick--provided, of course, that you paid careful attention when adding the porcupine quills, because the peppermint tended to make it bubble angrily if you put them in too fast.
He started to sprinkle the small leaves into his cauldron when suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed his own. "Wait!" Rose hissed frantically, leaning across Albus. "That's the wrong ingredient!"
"No it's not," Scorpius started to explain, "it increases potency of the nettles--"
Rose shook her head. "No, you add the nettles by themselves, then you stir in the slugs. Didn't you read the instructions?"
"Of course I did," he replied shortly. "That's how I knew to use the peppermint."
"Nowhere," Rose said darkly, "does it mention peppermint."
"Well no, but nettles--"
Rose shook her book under his nose and pointed furiously at the instructions. "Look. Do you see peppermint anywhere on there?"
"No, I already tried to tell you that it's better if you do. Just because the book doesn't say something--"
"If the book doesn't say it, then you shouldn't do it," she retorted primly. "Honestly, what's the point of going to class and reading the textbook if you're just going to start throwing things into your cauldron willy-nilly?"
Scorpius leaned across Albus's cauldron to glare at her. "I am not," he said slowly, gravely insulted, "adding things 'willy-nilly.' I just happen to have thought it out carefully, thank you, and I know that the use of peppermint with nettles, when your potion also contains horned slugs but no daisy roots, will give--"
"Oh, so you know more than the book, then? I suppose Arsenius Jigger should have consulted you before he published." Scorpius scowled and tried to interrupt, but Rose plowed ahead tartly. "Well! Maybe you should just teach the class, Professor Malfoy, and the rest of us can just throw our useless books away then." She sniffed disdainfully and began crushing her snake fangs with extra vigor.
"That is not what I said," Scorpius hissed angrily. He glanced around anxiously, but Professor Slughorn was trying to help a small brown-haired Gryffindor boy beat out the blue flames that were dancing a jig on his table. "I said," he continued crossly, "that I am very carefully choosing to deviate from the book's prescribed instructions, because I know one thing that will make this potion better. If you did, you would do the same, and if you wanted to know what it was I could tell you."
"Well I don't," Rose shot back. "I will listen to the book, because it clearly has been in use for years, and I think that if no one has come up with a better idea in all this time, no first year is going to do so now."
"Fine then, when you get a poor grade for a watery potion, don't blame me."
"And when you get marks off because your potion is useless, don't blame me."
They both exchanged one last, venomous glare across the top of Albus's gently bubbling cauldron, then turned away sharply towards their own work. Scorpius's mood was not improved by the fact that his argument with Rose had made him ignore the careful timing necessary, and now his porcupine quills were being tetchy and he had allowed some of the potion to burn. Judging by the smoke issuing from Rose's cauldron, she was suffering similarly, but that did nothing to fix his potion or relieve his feelings.
When it came time to turn in their potions at the end of class, Scorpius was quite grumpy. He knew that he had made a very poor showing, and he had so wanted to impress Slughorn. He was so embarrassed by his concoction that he debated evanesco-ing the whole thing and telling the professor that he had spilled his cauldron, but trudged up despondently nonetheless to place a small vial on the desk. Better to get poor marks than no marks, he decided, consoling himself with the knowledge that he would do much better next time and maybe the professor would think this first one had just faltered due to nerves.
Rose came back to their table with a scowl to match Scorpius's. They stared as Albus poured out a thin, perfectly glistening liquid into his own vial and carried it up. He flushed pink when he noticed them staring at him and tripped on his way back to his seat.
"Albus," Rose said in a voice that was as much annoyance as awe, "that looked great."
"Yeah," Scorpius nodded, "well done."
Rose glanced at Scorpius. "I see rebelling against the text didn't work out so well for you," she said lightly. "Maybe next time you'll be more cautious."
"Well, following the book clearly didn't work for you," Scorpius snapped back.
The girl sniffed. "I was distracted trying to save your potion."
"You distracted me," Scorpius replied hotly. "That's why my potion didn't work."
"Albus didn't have any problem," Rose replied, gathering up her stack of books. "Maybe you should learn from his example."
"Actually," Albus mumbled reluctantly, "I, ah, I added the peppermint, too."
"You what?" Rose stared at him in betrayal and he fidgeted.
"Well, Scorpius made it sound like a good idea..."
The boy in question grinned proudly. Rose frowned at them both. "Well," she announced at last, "it was a ridiculously simple potion. No doubt it was assigned solely because it's so hard to foul up, even when you add things you shouldn't, and it was only because I--we," she added grumpily, "were distracted that our own turned out so poorly."
Albus nodded hurriedly. "No doubt," he agreed with a hopeful grin.
"Hmph!" said Rose, and turned on her heel. She paused at the door and glanced back, her expression not softening although she did relent enough to give Albus an abortive wave farewell. "I'll look forward to seeing you next class, then, Albus," she said pointedly.
"I can't wait!" Scorpius shot back tartly as she stomped away. He grabbed his own bag and stuffed his carefully-packed supplies back into it haphazardly. "I hope you don't mean to sit with your cousin every day," he grumbled. "No offense, Albus, but she's horrid."
Albus sighed as he followed the other boy out the door. "Well, I can tell that Potions is going to be really fun," he muttered to himself, green eyes rolling. He trailed Scorpius slowly up the stairs, thinking to himself that he ought to have known that nothing good could come of this class; his entire family--and Uncle Neville--had warned him about the dangers of the Hogwarts dungeon and its Potions lessons.