Cinnamon Curls

"You know what we should do?" Paige leaned over as Professor Binns dragged on about the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.

"Hm?" I was currently in the process of noting down the members of the MAEW. Taking notes and doodling to keep my mind from wandering away from this eternal lecture, or at least it felt eternal this Monday morning.

"We should -" Paige had to scoot a little closer so that we would be able to talk more efficiently using hushed voices. I leaned in, genuinely intrigued. "We should make our own quidditch tournament! I know there's supposed to be the Triwizard Tournament and all, but it doesn't start in a month, people are getting restless without quidditch practice and matches!…Fine, I'm getting restless" Paige was in the middle of tearing up a corner of her notebook.

"Paige, that's bloody brilliant"

Oliver, who was sitting on the bench beside us, made sure Professor Binns was turned away, then he got up and squeezed himself onto the bench Paige and I were sitting on. "Oy what are you two plotting huh?" he said, apparently eager to have his mind entertained by anything other than how the MAEW might have been connected to the International Warlock convention in 1289. "Go on, spill the beans"

"What if we start our own Quidditch tournament?"

"Sick"

And so the plotting began. How many people would we involve? How would we get any of the equipment needed? Where would we even have the space to do it? Perhaps we had to do a modified version of quidditch?

The plotting came to a pause however, when we entered the dungeon. Knowing well that it would not be tolerated in Snapes presence. So instead Paige scribbled furiously on a piece of parchment, but concealing it in her notebook whenever Snape looked our way.

"Now, it is very likely that you will be faced with brewing this potion at your Ordinary Wizarding Levels. It's important to remember, a little of this potion can help reduce unnecessary anxieties, taking too much however, can cause heavy or irreversible sleep." Snape informed, his voice draggy and nasal as always "So carefully follow the instructions Miss Tally, unless you want your dear friend Mr Brooks to sleep for all eternity" Paige quickly reddened, Oliver grinning at her. The piece of parchment she was scribbling on was not seen again that lesson. Ironically, Draughts of peace was a rather stressful potion to brew, the measurements and steps oddly specific.

Step seven: Shake stewed mandrakes vigorously until they are ready and then add till the potion turns red

When on earth would the stewed mandrakes be shaken vigorously enough? I had no idea. But I shaked them to the best of my ability, before starting to add them to the potion. I paid close attention to the color of the liquid within my copper cauldron. Just one more.

"Dammit" I hissed under my breath. I must have added a tiny bit too much. The potion turned a deep blood red, instead of the vibrant red it was supposed to. After a few minutes of trying to save my potion, Professor Snape wandered past, took a quick look in my cauldron with a disapproving look, and waved his wand in a swift motion, and my cauldron cleared out.

"My classroom is open for practice, Friday at 19.00" I could swear there was a tiny sense of satisfaction on his face "And put your tie back on, Miss Lupin"

It was my turn to turn red. In the midst of the stress I had tossed aside my robe, and my house tie was currently on the floor. I hadn't noticed myself taking it off, I just remembered a sense of feeling trapped with it laying around my neck. I tried my best to un-frizzle my hair and tried to make myself as presentable as possible. Oliver's had turned out pretty good, Paige had made a solid attempt, not drinkable, but far better than mine. Fortunately I wasn't alone. Most had struggled, and at least half a dozen of us had had our cauldron magically cleaned by the Professor. But at least I wasn't the worst. One slytherin boy, Zeenac Flecker, had managed to somehow fry off his own eyebrows. Luckily it would only take a mild hair growing potion to get them back. Oliver retrieved a glass vial from Professor Snape's desk and poured his potion in, before securing it in a thin vertical pocket in his green canvas book bag.

Wednesday evening was mostly spent in my dorm reading. I was in the process of rereading The Chronicles of Narnia, one of my favorite childhood books. This time however, I made sure to take my time, the books aren't the longest, so I had to restrain myself from reading them too quickly. Enjoying every bit of blissful nostalgia, along with a cup of tea of course.

"Hey Kira?" Cally called from her bed on the opposite side of the room.

"Hm?" I looked up attentively, letting her know she had my ears and thoughts.

Cally had moved into Paige and mine's dorm room in the middle of our third year. She had always been the quiet kind, carrying herself like she wanted to disappear. But something had changed after Christmas last year. She was still relatively quiet, but she finally carried herself up the stairs with pride. We might have known her as Kristof for a couple of years, but the stairs up to the girls' dorms had never vanished under her feet.

"Would you be able to help me out with the herbology assignment sometime this weekend? I'm kinda struggling with keeping the slugs off my Fanged Geranium"

"Oh sure, can I keep some of the teeth after you're done with the plant tho?"

Cally seemed kinda surprised by that, but smiled "Yeah of course. What are you gonna do with them?"

"Not sure yet, but it's surely gonna be useful someday, right?" I said, nodding to my night stand, where all sorts of oddities could be found. There was a jar with a variety of rodent bones, another jar with candle stumps, and a third jar with all kinds of random things like buttons, bobbins with thread, charms and pretty stones.

"Why do you keep all that …?"

“Trash?” I finished for her, “some of the things are just pretty or fun to have. Other stuff can suddenly come in handy in incantations or potions. Or you know, just decorations and crafts"

“I guess that makes sense”

——————————————————————————

The rest of the week was spent outside in the last few days of gentle sunshine, practicing charms, incantations and spells, and in Oliver’s and Paige’s case, planning our very own quidditch event. This year we had Friday afternoon free, which usually felt pretty great, but this week it felt pretty pointless as I had to spend my evening in the bloody dungeons. We were currently sitting underneath a large tree in the park, half working and half just allowing the weekend to settle in.

At last I said goodbye to my friends, who were off to who knows what, while I was going to be stuck in the dungeon.

“You don’t have to go, you know that right?” Oliver asked, while propping a piece of chocolate in his mouth.

“I know, but if I don’t do it now it’ll come bite me in the arse later” I responded “Better to just get it over with, and Snape made a point of pointing out how important it would be for our O.W.L’s” I started to get up, and pack my things.

"Well, at least take this token of hope with you" Paige dramatically placed the remainder of the chocolate bar we had been sharing in the palm of my hand. I had plenty left, but I didn't mind the extra mental support chocolate today. I wrapped my hand around Paiges.

"Thank you, for this kind deed, it will be remembered" I slipped my hand away from Paige and grabbed my bag, slipping the leftover chocolate in a front pocket. I turned around a little too quickly, but I was rapidly back on track and started to head towards the castle, walking backwards, waving at Paige and Oliver. Once inside the castle I picked up the pace a little, not wanting to be late. As expected, not many people showed up. I had attended a couple of times the previous years as part of practice for exams or tests, but there were never a lot of students here, especially not in the very first month of school. The week before finals was another story however. Of course many also preferred to just practice on their own, but that meant gathering materials on your own, and I was not about to spend all my galleons on powdered unicorn horn or have a lovely conversation with Professor Snape about loaning a long list of ingredients. So instead I was here, on a Friday afternoon, waiting to be let into the dungeons. There were currently seven other students here, waiting. A trio of first years, all Ravenclaws, with the spark of academic inspiration that would probably fade drastically in a couple of months, were chatting enthusiastically. There was a Slytherin seventh year, who already looked tired, her black hair was put messily up, and she was frantically flipping through a copy of Advanced potion making. Two students were sitting on the floor, not bothering to spend their energy on standing, the Gryffindor one looked a little older than the Ravenclaw one, and I recognized them to be the Duncan brothers. Bryn, the one from Gryffindor, was also a fifth year student. We exchanged a polite smile and nod, but it seemed like his main focus was on trying to explain the importance of differentiating between stirring clockwise and counter clockwise to his brother. Liam Parett, a Hufflepuff one year older than me, was leaning against the wall picking at his nails impatiently. At precisely 19.00, the door to the potions classroom opened up, and we all waddled in. It felt nice to have plenty of space in the classroom. A comfortable amount of chit chatting sounded through the classroom. I took my time with finding and measuring the ingredients according to the book. Not wanting to mess up again this time. When I was sure I had everything needed, I began, checking each step at least twice or thrice. I also began placing a ruler underneath the step I was on, to be able to keep track with my eyes more easily.

It was during things like this where my tie felt constricting, and became a constant bother. It waried how much it bothered me, but as soon as there were many stressors, like many people, repetitive noices, quick temperature changes, or like now with steam rising from my cauldron to my face. But I was more prepared for the feeling today, so instead of just flinging it to the floor, I neatly tucked it into my pocket in my robe, which I placed on the backside of my chair. Almost at once I felt more calm and present, no longer feeling the urge to cry. I was back on track, so I continued.

Step seven: Shake stewed mandrake vigorously until they are ready and then add until the potion turns red.

This time I cut the mandrake pieces into smaller cubes. I slowly added them to the potion, after each addition I gave it some time, paying attention to the color of the liquid. I was perhaps a little overcautious, but hey the potion turned a vibrant red, signaling me to proceed to the next step.

Step eight: Stir until the potion turns orange.

Simple enough, but it did not specify direction or speed of the stirring, which concerned me. But I had to try. At this point I was very concentrated, paying no attention to my surroundings, only focusing on the color of the potion in my cauldron.

"You're -" the person speaking did not get to complete the sentence.

"Bloody hell!" My entire body jumped from the unexpected interruption, the person speaking had leaned over my shoulder, and therefore got a good slam to the jaw from my shoulders. I quickly turned around to see who I had injured. Standing right behind me was Georgia, massaging her jaw and grimacing.

"Well, damn" she groaned.

"Oh gods! I'm so sorry!" I clasped my hands over my mouth. "I didn't realize you were there"

"No no, I should have made myself known, you certainly were in your own world there" She chuckled.

"Can I take a look?" one hand was still covering my mouth, the other one was reaching outwards.

"Oh, there's no-" Georgia stopped herself, as my hand was already gently tilting her head to the side. The Gryffindor was almost a head taller than me, so it was easy to spot the red forming along her jaw.

"You'll probably be a little black and blue, but shouldn't be more severe than that" I let go of her jaw, done with my inspection. "And thank the gods for that, if not I think I would have died from guilt" I turned back to my potion, seeing a bright orange color, I sighed in relief, it was still on the right track.

"Wouldn't want that now, would we?" I suddenly became very aware that Georgia was still there. I circled around my cauldron to my potions book, but also to face Georgia again. I didn't really respond to her question, but instead asked her one in return.

"OK just cus I'm curious -" I moved my ruler down to step nine of the potion.

Step nine: Add more stewed mandrake until the potion turns yellow.

"What are you doing here?... Not that you're not allowed to be, but you know?"

"Well" She gestured towards her own cauldron a few tables over. "I'm brewing potions"

I smiled and shook my head. "Duh, you don't say"

"No ok, I am brewing potions, but it's cus I'm trying to retake my potions O. W. L.s this year." She gave an awkward smile. "But damn, only being able to practice on Friday evening? Cruel"

"Right?! I think he does it on purpose" I whispered back.

Luckily this time my potion turned out passable. Not perfect yet, but a whole lot better than the first attempt. Georgia and I chatted a bit here and there, mostly asking to borrow supplies or for a second opinion on the wording of a step written in the potions book. I was glad to be done, but it hadn't been that bad. Partially because Professor Snape just kept to his desk, rummaging through some paper work. Most of the students had already left by the time Snape was impatiently ushering us out the door. Georgia waited for me to finish packing, which was a very sweet gesture, but also stressed me out. Now I had to be quick, which of course led to me fucking up and being slower than usual. Eventually I closed up my book bag and slid it onto my shoulder.

"Are you going to be here next week?" Georgia asked as we exited the classroom.

"I guess that depends on how I do in class next week" I shrugged

"Hmm, fair"

"You?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's kinda the only time I have all the ingredients available and such" She sighed.

"Fair enough"

We reached the end of the dungeons, where Fred and Lee were waiting for Georgia. I wondered what they were up to at this hour, because it did not seem like they were about to head to the Gryffindor common room.

"I'll see you around then" I said to Georgia.

"Yeah" She responded.

I waved at the guys before turning to walk away. Before I quickly remembered

"Oh, by the way, Oliver, Paige and I are trying to make our own quidditch games this semester. I don't fully know the plan yet, but though you guys should know"

"Cool! Count us in" Said Lee, Georgia nodded and Fred sent a thumbs up in my direction. Content with myself I finally started wandering towards the Hufflepuff common room. I couldn't wait to see the mixture of fear and excitement in Oliver's face when Lee showed up.