SpellBound

(Izaya's P.O.V)

Waking up in the morning is one thing. Being thrown out of bed is another method of waking up, one I can somewhat tolerate. But being levitated, spun around the room and tossed back into bed (hitting the head board, I might add) is going too far. Thus the reason of two idiots currently missing breakfast and me sitting with a smirk on my face. Professor Snape was giving out the timetables and being the angel I am, I offered to give Malfoy and Blaise theirs. Aren't I kind? Well, Crabbe or Goyle have probably freed them from the ropes I had secured on them, my fun never seems to last.

I checked my schedule to see what I had first. Charms with Hufflepuff, that's okay. Then there's break and after that... Potions with Gryffindor. I wonder if the kid with the toad will melt or explode his cauldron this year... I'll say melt... I guess it's not all bad since the Heiwajima kid's in Gryffindor. I might be able to get to know more about him... Then again, by now everyone has probably filled his head with 'Slytherin is evil' or 'They're just scum looking for trouble'. We're not that bad. I mean sure, there are a few you'd want to avoid... Never mind that. Now, where is he... I looked over to the Gryffindor table to try spot him.

Shizuo seemed to be talking to a Sixth-year in... Ravenclaw? What was a Ravenclaw doing over at their table? Then again, all of the other houses were real friendly with each other. The older kid left after Professor McGonagall told him to go back to his table. Good riddance, if you ask me. Doesn't he have someone else to bother? I huffed as I turned back to my meal, only to be faced by a glaring Draco and Blaise.

"You bastard, Izaya!" the blonde stated angrily. "I'm going to poison you in the earliest Potions class!"

I shrugged carelessly as I bit into a piece of toast. "I sent Crabbe and Goyle up."

"And that was so very helpful." Blaise drawled, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Do you know what they did?! Those two dolts just stared at us for a whole ten minutes! It was bad enough being tied up upside down for two bloody hours! Then, they wouldn't let us down unless we paid them fifteen Galleons, each!"

"And how is that my fault?" I questioned, taking a sip of pumpkin juice and crossing my arms.

"You knew they would ask for money." Draco accused, his hand gripping his wand tightly. "Or you told them to ask. Either way, I had to give them my money!"

"Cry me a river, Malfoy."
-"Why you-!"

Okay, he got me there. I may or may not have hinted them to ask for money. I put my hands up in mock surrender. "And I thought I'd be nice and give you your timetables. Oh well, maybe I'll burn them instead... I wonder what Professor Snape would say..."

"We'll finish this discussion later, just hand over our times." Draco sat down and huffed as Blaise followed suit. I gave him their times which he snatched out of my grip. Prat. Finishing the last bit of my toast I saw the first few owls fly overhead. A mighty eagle owl, Cerus I believe is it's name, landed right beside Malfoy, who was helping himself to an English-style breakfast. He waved off the owl and it took off once more. I'm assuming that meant he'd read it later. The pet bird reminded me of my cat, Serapha. Oh my poor, little feline. My sisters better have treated her well.

"Well I'm shocked, Double Potions with Gryffindor! I would have never guessed!"

Blaise's voice cut my thoughts short as he started reading out his timetable. I've always wondered why Dumbledore always paired Gryffindor and Slytherin for most classes. If he's trying to make us all buddy-buddy it hasn't worked for the past... what? Never mind. I started getting ready to leave since I knew the bell would go off any min-! Oh speak of the devil, there it is. The Hall was soon turned into a frenzy of scrambling students, all rushing to get to class. I knew I should of left sooner. God damnit...
________________________________

(3rd Person P.O.V)

Charms had been pretty easy since all they did was review Summoning Charms. Unfortunately, a few Slytherins and Hufflepuffs still couldn't get it so for the rest of the the class they had to go through the theory twice. It was now break and Izaya made his way to The Great Hall. He spotted Shiki and Akabayashi talking outside the Entrance Hall.

-"Damn punk. I swear I will hex him next time. All I wanted to do was say 'hi'."
-"How is saying 'hi' throwing a punch?"
-"it was only a weak one."
-"Yes, yes. A weak punch that cracked the wall. Oh, hello Izaya."

Shiki had noticed the raven and both older males had turned to him. Izaya semi-skipped the rest of the way, humming. "Hey~. So how are my two favorite 'senpai'~? Eh...?! What happened to you, Aka? Already getting into fights~? Bad, Aka! Bad!"

"Shut up!"

Something indeed had happened to the Red Demon's face. There were now a lot of scratches, cuts and a few bruises to go along with the scar on his eye. He also had a bandage on his wrist. The younger male looked inquisitively at Shiki, wanting an explanation.

"You know Shizuo? Yeah, well BAka thought he'd say hello to the kid by trying to punch him. Luckily, he dodged. Unluckily, he remembered BAka... And kicked him. Hard. Believe me, before we went to the Hospital Wing, he was a lot worse."

"Okay... but... Why? If he wanted revenge from what Shizuo did to him, couldn't he just throw a curse or something?"

Akabayashi was about to reply but the bell cut him off. Being at the Entrance Hall meant that Izaya might get caught in another crowd, which he definitely did not want. The teen bid adieu to the Sixth-years and hurried off. He still got caught up in a crowd which made him annoyed with himself. The raven tried to slip through the gaps between others to get out. It took a while but he did it.

After escaping the sea of people Izaya made his way down to the dungeons. He saw a few Gryffindors ahead of him so he slowed his pace a little, not wanting to catch their attention. Unfortunately, there was a group of First-years right behind him, so they ended up crashing into him. The raven looked at the younger students, who stared at him, terrified. He frowned when one of them looked like they were going to burst into tears. The older male realised one was staring at the colour of his tye and he knew exactly what was going through their minds. Izaya inwardly sighed as he continued to his class. He wasn't that bad now, was he? The teen spotted Kadota walking alone so he decided to say hello... and ask about the Heiwajima kid.

"Hello Dota-chin~!" The black-haired teen slung his arm around the other. "Soooo~? How you doing~?"

Kadota pulled away from the mischievous raven and frowned. "Geez, don't call me that, you sounded like Shinra for a second." Izaya mock pouted, folding his arms. "Don't compare me to him! I was trying to be friendly. I'm probably the nicest Slytherin you'll come by."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He paused for a second. "Actually, you are probably nicer than Heiwajima."

Izaya looked at the brunette, surprised. He hadn't expected that. "Really? What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing in particular, I guess." Kadota shifted his grip on his bag. "He's just... different."

"Aren't you being a bit judgmental? He's only new to Hogwarts." The teen raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe but... He's pretty scary, if you met him, you'd understand."

For some reason, it irked Izaya at how quickly everyone assumed the blonde was either  scary, unfriendly or just strange. Earlier walking to breakfast he'd overheard a group of Gryffindors whispering about the kid, but not before eavesdropping on a trio of Hufflepuffs, who were also saying bad things about him. Then, on the way to Charms some Ravenclaws were chattering loudly so he could catch the words 'Shizuo' and 'scary', along with 'weird' and 'strong'. Izaya smiled a sickening sweet, closed-eyed smile.

"I have met him, and personally, I think he is nice enough. Now, I need to get a good seat in Potions so, ta-ta~!" And with that, the raven briskly walked away from his friend.

"People and their first impressions, I swear... " he muttered, making his way down the steps. The dungeon door creaked open as he made his way to his usual spot. There was a few more teenagers hanging around the room in groups. The little light they had reflected off a few of the various bottles and jars of items. Soon, more people filed into the room and went to their desired table. None of them was the person Izaya was searching for.

The door creaked open once more as the last few students trickled in. The first to enter was a rather small Gryffindor. Following him was Shizuo. The blonde had the same bored look on his face from the previous day. The room seemed to go an octave lower with murmurs and mutters going around. Once again, this annoyed the ravenette. So far, most of the seats were taken up and the only ones left were with the Slytherins. None of them were at all pleased with the notion of sitting with a Gryffindor... Well, all but one.

"Nē! watashi no yoko ni zaseki o toru o kuru koto gadekiru, watashi wa ki ni shi nai!"

Shizuo had a surprised, yet kind of relieved expression on his face. Everyone turned to see who said... whatever they said. To the utter shock of the house of Gryffindor, it was the Slytherin, Izaya Orihara. They were even more surprised to hear the blonde reply.

"Hontōni? e eto arigatō. Watashi no sewa o shi tekudasai."

Shizuo made his way over to the black-haired teen. Now both houses were shocked. It had been years, many, many years, since the last time Slytherin were ever remotely nice to another house. Draco, Blaise and Pansy were glaring at Izaya, disgusted at the thought of ever addressing someone 'below' them in that friendly sounding manner. Others were whispering and muttering, thinking maybe the raven was setting up a trap, something he was known for.

The door creaked open once again as Shizuo sat down. Snape strode in, closing the door behind him, ensuring silence with a piercing glare. "Settle down." he said coldly, scanning the room. He gave a slightly surprised look to where the blonde was sitting, but it was gone in a second. He swept over to his desk, looking like an overgrown bat as he stared all around, it felt like he could see right through you."Before we begin today's lesson I think it is appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moranic though as some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an 'Acceptable' in your O.W.L, or suffer my... displeasure."

A small gulp resounded from Neville as Snape's stare bore into him. Izaya had stopped listening after that, wondering if he should fail on purpose to stop studying Potions or keep it up. Potions was fun, he guessed, but sometimes the amount of homework from it was tedious, even on good days. He kept weighing the pros and cons until a small nudge pulled him out of his thoughts. The raven half-glared at Shizuo, who nodded towards the blackboard, which now had the ingredients and instructions written on it. The smaller male then turned to the cupboard where the ingredients were kept and groaned. There was now a bit of a line in front of it. Just as he started over to join the line something grabbed the furry lining of his robe.

"Umm, I already got yours since you seemed busy thinking so..."

Izaya turned back to the blonde and smirked. It was funny how everyone thought this guy was scary. Heck he was being nice to a Slytherin, and normally, that's really something. "Why thank you, I really appreciate it~." the raven said as he took half of the ingredients. The only thing wrong about the teen Izaya could see, was that he was too tall. Turning to his cauldron he looked at the instructions on the board.

As soon as the water in his cauldron was ready to go, he poured some of the powdered moonstone in. It started to take on a greenish- yellow colour and gradually turned green. It took longer than expected, and Izaya huffed. He didn't even know how long he had. He turned to Shizuo, who was measuring out moonstone.

"Hey, um, what's the time limit?"

The blonde finished pouring the moonstone in and stirred six times counterclockwise before answering. "We have an hour and a half. Around ten minutes have past."

"Ah, thanks. Oh, before you go any further, you stirred it the wrong way."

The blonde cocked his head in confusion. "I'm on the fifth step. Anyway, back in Durmstrang, we made it slightly different."

"You made this in Fourth-year?" Izaya inquired, adding the second batch of moonstone and stirring the amount of times required. Shizuo nodded and smiled.

"We practiced in Fourth so we'd have a bit of experience for Fifth. Man, my cauldron blew up in my face. I was lucky I didn't have to go to the Infirmary." He paused and added the first bit of porcupine quills. "Then again, it was pretty funny."

During the time it took for his potion to simmer Izaya asked Shizuo a few questions. He found out the blonde was from Ikebukuro and he had a brother. He watched as the taller male poured in the hellebore rather quickly, and was surprised to see it didn't explode.

"You poured that in rather fast, how come it didn't explode?"

Shizuo turned to him as he let his simmer. "I found out that moonstone and porcupine quills lessen the chances of hellebore exploding. Now I let it simmer for fourteen minutes."

"Did they teach you that at Durmstrang or..?" Izaya thought it was nice to talk to the blonde. He was friendly once you got to know him.

"I found out when I practiced making this a second time. Actually, when I said 'we make it differently', I meant 'I make it differently'. Unfortunately, even if it lessens the hellebore, it rises the potency of the powdered unicorn horn."

"Potency? Wh-!"

"Its been seven minutes." Shizuo pointed out.

He was right. Izaya's potion was now a vibrant pink. He sighed as he carefully added the blasted syrup at a moderately slow pace, hoping that it wouldn't blow up in his face. He had heard an explosion from his right as he finished pouring. Most heads turned to see who had caused the disturbance. Standing in front of a now half destroyed cauldron with a load of burns and scrapes was Blaise Zabini. Draco's expression was split between shock and amusement. He was about to start laughing but stopped as soon as Snape strode furiously over.

"Idiot boy!" he snapped. "It said to add it slowly, not dump it in all at once! Mr. Goyle, take Mr. Zabini to the Hospital Wing." He turned and glared at everyone still staring. "Get back to your potions now! I don't want another mess to clean up!" Shizuo turned back to his and checked the time as Izaya stirred and let it simmer again.

"Five more minutes..." the blonde muttered, and checked to see if everything was measured out correctly. The two talked some more as their potions brewed, the taller asking the questions this time. Izaya told him he lives in Shinjuku with his family. He said he has two twin sisters in Third-year, both little pests. Shizuo had laughed a bit at that. Izaya decided he had a nice laugh, it was deep and low yet gentle and sweet. He shook his head once he thought that. 'Weird...' the raven thought. 'What made me think like that?'

After, they didn't get to talk much since Shizuo had to be extra careful with the powdered unicorn horn. The blonde nearly spilled some, which caused him to panic slightly. Luckily, the end result was two successfully made Draughts of Peace. Izaya was staring at the silver vapor as Shizuo wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead. Snape went around, checking the potions. At least a quarter of the class' were disastrous, some spitting green sparks to others as thick as cement. He swept past Izaya and Shizuo, giving a curt nod of approval.

"Potter, what is this supposed to be?"

Every Slytherin perked up, smirking. Shizuo frowned.

"The Draught of Peace." the boy answered.
"Tell me, Potter, Can you read?"

Shizuo glared at Draco, who had let out a laugh. Shizuo was confused, there was worse potions but he picked this Potter boy to critique? He went back to paying attention to the conversation.

"-up of hellebore."

The professor muttered 'Evanesco' and Harry's potion vanished, leaving him with an empty cauldron.

"Those of you that have managed to read the instructions, fill one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name and bring it up to my desk for testing. Homework: twelve inches of parchment paper on the properties of moonstone and it's uses in potion making, to be handed in on Thursday."

Shizuo and Izaya filled up their flagons along with everyone else and joined the end of the line. The blonde was being extra careful again. Izaya rolled his eyes as the taller male behind him watched his step. Unfortunately for him, Draco thought it would be funny to see him trip and stuck out his foot, which served it's purpose. Shizuo's eyes widened as he regained his balance. He was holding his potion up a bit higher than chest height and because of that, a bit splashed out and landed in his eye.

The clang of a flagon and Shizuo's pain filled shout were the things Izaya heard before turning around.
________________to be continued...