The Failed Potion
James had struck up a conversation with Lily, it seemed impossible for him to be near someone and not talk to them. She was lightly blushing as they both started to crush their snake fangs. Lily was being very thorough, but James just occasionally hit the fangs with the pestle, the rest of the time wildly waving his arms around as he spoke.
Noah and Adhara, on the other hand, were sat in awkward silence, crushing their fangs. Adhara’s was now a fine powder, so she started to measure it out into the cauldron sat in front of her. Once she had the right amount she started to heat the colourless mixture with a blue flame, as the instructions said to do.
She watched in fascination at the red colour, which spread upwards through the potion quickly, until it was a solid block colour, similar to James and Lily’s ties. After about ten seconds, she waved her wand over it, and turned the flame down, so it was cooler.
She sat back so she could let it simmer for 45 minutes, and wandered what she could do now. She glanced back over at Slughorn, saw he was still sleeping, his tweed jacket expanding with every snore, and she grimaced. This was going to be boring.
She looked over at Noah, who was waving his wand over his now-red potion, like she had just done. Instead of trying to start a conversation with him, which could have easily turned even more awkward than their silence, she interjected James’ explanation of Quidditch.
“Can you even play, James? You forgot to mention there’s three hoops, and you completely missed the existence of beaters!”
“Oh yeah! And of course I can play. Much better than you, I’m willing to bet.”
Adhara looked at him dubiously. “I sincerely doubt that.”
“Bet you 5 galleons I can beat you at three laps around the pitch when we have flying tomorrow.”
“Fine.”
They shook hand dramatically across the table, and James turned to Noah. “What about you? Are you any good at flying?”
“Not particularly. I’m ok at keeper I guess.”
They carried on chatting, whilst Lily turned to Adhara.
“So, how are you liking Hogwarts so far?”
“It’s alright. I want to go to the library later, my cousin told me it’s really nice in there.”
“Ooo, I didn’t know there was a proper library here. I mean, I kind of assumed, but I wasn’t certain. Can I come with you to look at it? There was only one really shitty library back home, all the books were rubbish and kind of gross.” She said, pulling a face.
“Hopefully this one will be better than that then. My library at home only has informational, non-fiction books, about pureblood families and such in, so I’m hoping that this one will have more interesting books in, that I haven’t read before.”
“Wait, there’s wizard libraries?! That’s so cool. Where was the one near you?”
“Uhm, in my house?” Adhara said, slightly confused. She knew muggles didn’t live in the best conditions because they were all disgusting and unhygienic, but did they not have libraries at home? Where were their libraries then? Maybe Lily was talking about bookshops?
“Wow! You must be super rich then!” Lily exclaimed.
“Um, I suppose...” Adhara said, slightly uncomfortable. It was vulgar to talk about money, even if her family was undeniably rich. “Anyway, what are your dorms like?”
“They’re so great! Really cosy and stuff. How are yours?”
“They’re good. I prefer my room at home though.”
They continued chatting for a while, and Adhara started to warm up to Lily, unknowingly learning more and more about the muggle world in the process. Eventually, Adhara looked at her watch, and saw nearly 45 minutes had passed since she left the potion.
Opening the jar of horned slugs, Adhara screwed up her nose in disgust, and gently plopped four into the potion, using a pair of tongs. She passed the jar and tongs to Noah, and took her bubbling cauldron off the flame.
Whilst adding her porcupine quills into the mixture which was slowly turning a pinkish colour, she heard Lily yelp, and looked up to see James drop his porcupine quills into his potion with the flame sill high. “James! It specifically said to TAKE THE CAULDRON OFF THE FIRE before adding those!!!” Lily shouted, angrily jabbing her finger on the textbooks page.”
“It will be fine, Lily, look, nothing’s happening.” James said, peering into the cauldron, and picking up his wand to stir it with.
Just as he moved his head back, the cauldron started to admit putrid yellow fumes, and it melted and crumpled, the liquid inside spilling all over the table, and James, dripping on to all of their laps, except Noah’s, who had shoved his chair back just in time.
Adhara, Lily and James all stood up, shouting wildly, as their legs started to erupt with vicious boils. Their shouting woke Professor Slughorn, who sat up slowly, blinking blearily around the classroom. “Ah, I was wondering who it would be this year. There’s always one.” He said, shaking his head. “Better get off to the hospital wing.” His eyes scanned the room again. “Miss McKinnon, would you please go with them? And Mr Brown, would you be kind enough to take care of their potions while they’re gone? Thank you.”
A girl with waist-length blonde hair jumped up out her seat and excitedly stumbled over to the three. She had two different coloured eyes, one was greenish-brown and the other was a bright blue. Adhara couldn’t stop staring at her, until the girl nervously coughed and said, “Uhrm, hi? Are you alright? I’m Marlene by the way. You’re Adhara, right? The one who got in the fight? That was soo cool. That water thing was awesome. It reminded me of this time when my brother-“
“Right, yeah, I’m Lily, and my legs feel like they’re on fire, so I think it’s best we go now…?” Lily said, smiling at Marlene. “OH, yeah, good plan. Let’s gooo!” Marlene stuck her arm out, pointing towards the door, and started to march out. James followed behind eagerly, tripping over Severus’s chair’s leg. The greasy haired boy glared up at James who had already moved past and didn’t see.
Lily was next, and she whispered an apology to Severus, who smiled back up at her. Adhara followed, trying to blink the tiredness that had started to form out of her eyes. Once they had left the classroom, they walking along the winding corridors of the dungeons and up into the main school.
They walked up the grand staircase near the Great Hall at a snail’s pace, as by now their legs felt like they were burning to a crisp. Marlene was circling around them, jogging and cheering them on, shouting encouragement, which Adhara found to be quite unhelpful, but it seemed to envigorate James, who was far ahead of the others.
Lily was dragging her feet up, step by step, and Adhara trying to keep her face blank of the pain she was in. It wasn’t difficult, but not exactly easy for her either. To try to distract herself, she observed Marlene. She was rather tall for her age, with long limbs that seemed to be everywhere, in a tangle, and yet perfectly coordinated.
She reminded Adhara of an over excitable puppy, with her incessant chattering and movement. They reached the hospital wing, and knocked. The women who had healed her and Sirius after their fight stuck her head out the door, then opened it wide.
“I suppose you’ve just had your first potions lesson then have you? Ah well, there’s always at least one. Usually not this many though.” She said maternally, tutting. Adhara frowned slightly, unused to the fondness in her voice, especially from a stranger.
“Oh, you again, dear? What are all your names, please?” She said looking at Adhara, then bustling over to a small desk in one of the corners. She picked up a quill and a clipboard, and noted down their names as they said them.
“Lily Evans.”
“Adhara Black.”
“Marlene McKinnon.”
“I don’t need yours, love. You aren’t injured, are you?”
Marlene laughed, “No, sorry.” She blushed lightly, and Adhara’s stomach squirmed strangely. It could be a side effect of the potion, she thought, slightly concerned.
“It’s fine, dear. And what was your name, love?”
“James Potter.” Adhara blinked in surprise. Potter? She didn’t realise there was a Potter heir. Interesting. She supposed she should have realised by now, and thought she was rather stupid for not, looking back.
The woman lead them all to a clean empty bed on the other side of the room. “Sit down whilst I fetch some potions.” They all obediently sat down in a row on the edge of the bed, and waited. Adhara was grateful for the rest on her sore legs.
James and Lily started up a conversation next to her, leaving her to talk to Marlene. She felt the strange feeling in her stomach and chest again, and so she just sat, staring down at her hands fiddling in her lap. “Soooo…” Marlene started, “What’s your favourite colour?”
Adhara looked at her, raising her right eyebrow slightly. “Slightly random. It’s probably dark blueish grey though. What’s yours?”
“Pink!” Marlene replied, beaming. As their conversation continued, Adhara felt the feeling in her chest start to ebb away. She briefly thought it must’ve been the distraction, when Madam Pomfrey came back holding three or four different murky-looking bottles.
She conjured three small cups on the table next to the bed, and started to pour the various liquids in the cups, not being particularly precise, but they all seemed to turn out the same. She waved her wand over the cups and whispered a spell under her breath, which Adhara couldn’t quite hear, before handing each of them (except Marlene) a cup filled with an opaque purpleish mixture.
After seeing James drink his without any trouble, she brought hers up to her lips, and downed it. It was thick, but not unpleasant as it slipped down her throat. It tasted faintly of blueberries, she thought. After Lily had drunk hers, Madam Pomfrey waved her wand again, and the cups vanished out their grips.
A tingling sensation filled her legs almost immediately, as if she had been sitting funnily for too long. It quickly turned into an uncomfortable itching, but Madam Pomfrey warned them scratching at it would only make it worse, so they all sat squirming until it passed.
Her legs felt normal again, so she stood up. “Alright, you are all free to go. Although, your lesson has pretty much finished, so it might be quicker to head straight to the Great Hall for lunch, and fetch your bags afterwards.”
“Thank you.” They all chorused, and headed out the doors and down the stairs to the entrance hall.
When they got there, crowds of students were bustling into the hall. They all looked at each other, intimidating by the older years, who were pushing and jostling about. They weaved through the crowd, stumbling at every other meter.
They managed to squeeze through the huge double doors without any serious injuries, and looked around for familiar faces or a space to sit. Adhara saw Sirius waving wildly at her, but also saw Elodie and Ophelia at a different table. She looked between them, unable to decide where to go.
The house banners had been taken down, and the four long tables had been split into shorter sections, lined with benches.
She was about to walk over to the two girls, deciding she should try to be good friends with them, until James grabbed her and Lily’s arms and dragged them towards Sirius. Marlene followed behind them bouncing up and down excitedly. She seemed to have boundless amounts of energy.
They all slid into the benches, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter opposite Lily, Marlene and Adhara. The hall was filled with the noise of hundreds of students chatting and shouting, and they were all struggling to hear each other.
Soon another girl came over. She had long braids which trailed down her back to her waist. They had little gold charms in them, and Adhara was rather entranced. “Hey, do you think I could sit here? My name’s Mary, by the way.” She said, smiling softly.
Lily nodded, and Marlene said “Of course you can! My name’s Marlene.”
“Hi, I’m Lily.”
“I’m Adhara Black.” She said, with a tight lipped smile. If this was another muggle born, she was in deep trouble. The boys all greeted her, then turned back to their game of shoving each other, and trying to throw food into their mouths.
After they had all finished eating and chatting, Sirius said, “Oh, by the way, we brought up all your bags for you.”
“Thanks Siri.” Adhara said, standing up, “What have you got next?”
“Defence Against the Dark Arts.”
“Oh brilliant! So do we.”
The whole table stood, and wandered out the Hall, to the courtyard that Marlene somehow knew about.