Chamber of Secrets pt5
Her arrival at potions class was, as usual, early, so she took her usual seat at the front of the class, but she felt uncomfortable there, so she gathered her things and moved off to the corner, still in the front row but off to the side so she wasn’t at the center of attention when everyone walked in. While she waited she pulled out her personal notebook, scribbling down some ideas she was very focused when the other students started filtering in.
Luna took a silent seat beside her completely unnoticed, that is until she pulled Ryleigh in for a tight hug, startling her.
“Oh!” The girl yelped at the sudden embrace.
“Oh, Luna, you scared me.” She explained.
“Sorry, you looked like you needed a hug.” Luna explained as she pulled away.
“Thanks.” Ryleigh said, closing her personal notebook and replacing it with her potions class one.
“Oh, I forgot to leave this for him, be right back.” Ryleigh said and stood, taking the stack of work she had done at home and walking up to Snapes desk she placed the stack down before turning to walk back. As she did he walked into the room, his entrance dramatic as usual as he strode forward at top speed.
“Ms. Walsh, is there a reason you’re out of your seat?” He stated rather than asked.
“I was.. just handing in my missed work Professor…” she explained and motioned behind her to the stack of work.
“I’m sure. If you would sit. Now.” He said and she scurried off back toward her seat without a word.
Luna grabbed her arm gently as she sat down in an effort to comfort her and she smiled at the girl.
Ryleigh spent the entirety of potions class feigning attention toward the subject but instead her thoughts were clouded with other things. To such an extreme that she didn’t notice when Snape called the class to a close. Luna had to shake her shoulder to get her attention. When she looked up Ginny was standing in front of her desk and Luna at her side, both girls had already gathered their things and the rest of the class was empty.
“Ryleigh?” Ginny asked, her face etched with worry.
“Sorry.. I was… just zoned out I guess.” She said, then quickly moved to gather her things together.
“Let’s go then.” Ginny said.
“I’ve got to run or I’ll be late but I’ll see you guys later?” Luna said and rushed out without waiting for a response from the Gryffindors.
“Ms Walsh, if I could speak with you.”
Ryleigh froze in her path and Ginny froze with her. “I’ll wait for you in the hall.” Ginny said and walked out quickly, head down.
“I’m really sorry professor for being distracted I don’t—“
“That is not the subject I wish to speak to you on.” He interrupted.
“It’s… not?”
“I found this among your work and thought you might be needing it back.” He said and handed her a peice of parchment. It was one she’d used to scribble on when she’d hand an idea at the beach.
“Oh thank you sir, I.. it must have got mixed in.”
“Might I ask you what it is you’re doing with this ingredient list?”
The list in question was, benzoar, dittany, and powdered griffin claw.
“It was just something’s I wanted to look into when I got back.” She said softly.
“For what purpose?” He pushed.
“I just… was trying to see what properties they had to see if… I was…” she stuttered.
“Ms. Walsh, you are a first year student with little to no experience in the realm of potions making aside from this class, and while I will admit you have proved yourself not to be an idiot like your fellow housemates it is inadvisable to say the least for someone of you age to be experimenting with potion creation.” He said and she stood, mouth agape at him.
“I’m not—“
“I know that you are, what I don’t know is the goal of these ingredients.”
“I—“ she stuttered. She wasn’t afraid of his reaction by any means, she wasn’t even unsure of her answer, she knew it she was just feeling completely overwhelmed by the situation and couldn’t seem to formulate what she was feeling or thinking. Tears sprang to her eyes as he waited for his answer. She tried her hardest to keep them in but ultimately failed at his as she began to cry.
Snape looked shocked and confused to say the least.
“I’m sorry I don’t…” she managed to get out before she backed away from him and ran out of the room, past Ginny who looked back at him and gave him a dirty look then ran after her.
Ryleigh ran out of the dungeons toward the stairs and just managed to jump onto a staircase as it was shifting, leaving Ginny on the floor below. She rushed past a few groups of students who gave her sideways glances but she paid them no mind as she ran. She found herself at last in a lonely hallway, having next to no idea where she was but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She was so overwhelmed by absolutely nothing. She didn’t understand what this feeling was, this encasing hold on her that she just couldn’t break free of.
She leaned against the cold stone all and dropped her bag to the ground. Sliding down she sat in the ground and cried.
She wanted to go home. She wanted to be with her mother, her brother and sister. She wanted her grandfather back.
Xx
Some time later she could hear footsteps approaching so she wiped the tears from her face with her cloak and gathered her things. She assumed she’d already missed charms and history of magic was probably coming to a close she decided she would just head to transfiguration and await her punishments for skipping those classes to be dealt tomorrow.
She arrived outside the transfiguration class before the previous class had ended so she waited, contemplating her apology to professors Flitwick and Binns. When the second years began filing out of McGonagalls classroom Ron and Harry stopped in front of her and she looked at them questioningly.
“Oh hey, Ginny was looking everywhere for you.” Ron said.
“Here I am.” Was Ryleighs snarky response, Ron scoffed.
Harry pointed at her and said, “your hairs a little…”
She immediately racked her fingers through her hair to take whatever mess had occurred.
“Uh.. thanks.” She said then awkwardly pushed past them to get into the room.
McGonagall was cleaning up from her last class when she entered.
“You’re early Ms. Walsh.” She stated.
“I, I can come back if—“
“No no, come along over here you can help me set up.” McGonagall said and Ryleigh placed her bag on the table before walking up to McGonagalls desk.
“Here take these and place one at each seat.” She handed Ryleigh a stack of parchments and the girl nodded taking them and doing as she was asked.
“Is everything alright Ms Walsh?” McGonagall asked after a few minutes of silence.
“Fine.” Ryleigh said back.
“Well then, perhaps you’d like to explain why you were not in attendance for your last two classes?” She asked and Ryleigh froze as was becoming a habit it seemed.
“I—“
“Professor Snape said you’d had a conversation with him that you ran out on. I know that Professor Snape can be… difficult to deal with and he doesn’t take well to Gryffindor students but that is no excuse for him to leave you in tears.” McGonagall was suddenly right beside her. “Did he say something to upset you?”
“No.. he really didn’t I just, got upset, I was… just overwhelmed is all. I’ll apologize to professors Binns and Flitwick, I was already planning to—“
“Calm down now, no one is upset, we understand the circumstances and why you would be having a difficult time.” She said and placed a hand on Ryleighs shoulder, “I just hope you know that you can always come to me or the other Professors should you need anything.”
“Thank you..”
“Now then, let’s get this finished.”
Xx
January went on pretty uneventfully, though Ryleigh had been finding herself more often avoiding Professor Snape and spending her free time helping Professor McGonagall instead. She missed her extra potions time but she also knew that the potions master had an unintentional tendency to trigger her panic attacks. She wasn’t really sure what it was that was doing it but she was sure that she would need to deal with it eventually. When February came and Hermione Granger was released from the hospital wing Ryleigh finally noticed she’d been gone and had a good laugh with Ginny and Luna about that, both of them saying it’s because the “golden trio” as they called them hadn’t gotten into any trouble recently.
This of course came to head as soon as someone absolutely trashed Harry’s bed and dorms. She did feel bad, thinking about who could have done something like that and why they would have. Luna suggested the Nagrles again and although Ryleigh would be the first to admit that her knowledge of magical creatures was limited at best she was fairly certain these creatures Luna kept bringing up simply weren’t real. Of course she wasn’t planning on saying that to Luna.
After that it was pretty quiet, classes continued on and everyone pretty much stayed out of trouble. Ginny had stopped running off and disappearing and Ryleigh had decided she would stop avoiding Snape as it was hurting her potions grades. So that Monday morning she made her way to potions and sat herself front and center while she waited, took her personal notebook out and opened to the ingredients section of the text.
A few minutes later the potions master entered and eyed her.
“Welcome back Ms. Walsh.” Was all he said and she smiled then went back to her textbook.
Luna and Ginny entered shortly thereafter and joined her, she could tell they noticed the change but didn’t say anything about it and she was glad.
Xx
The spring seemed to come and nearly go before she could blink. Snape hadn’t asked her about her list again and she almost wished he would because she seemed to be a stalemate in her research but she wouldn’t ask him for help.
It was Friday and the houses were all prepping for the upcoming final quidditch game of the year, Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor. She was sitting in potions once again when Snape called for the class to dismiss, instead of leaving with her friends as she normally world she told them to meet her and stayed behind. She gathered her things and carefully approached Snapes desk.
“Professor?” She asked and he glanced up at her then back to his desk.
“I was hoping for some.. advice on something I’ve been working on.” She asked and he raised a brow, looking up to meet her eyes.
“What is it?” He asked. She swallows hard.
“I’ve been thinking about this potion idea. I don’t think anything quite like it exists, at least not in any of the books I’m allowed to take from the library.”
“You still haven’t said what it is.” He said.
“Oh— right, a sort shielding potion. I’ve been working on it a lot, if I could combine the right ingredients they would act to create a sort of thick skin.”
He looked vaguely interested in the idea but said nothing.
“So far I’ve got belladonna as a base, benzoar, dittany, flitterby, powdered griffin claw so far.”
He contemplated this for a while before nodding.
“Tomorrow.” He said then looked at a small diary on his desk. “2pm”
She nodded eagerly and he waved a hand to dismiss her.
Xx
“You’re coming to the game right?” Ginny asked sweetly as they sat by the fire in the common room together. Ryleigh was flipping through the pages of another potions book.
“Have you seen the book I had yesterday? Ingredients encyclopedia? From herbology?” She asked.
“You are ignoring me Ryleigh.” Ginny said with a pout.
“Sorry— what?” The black haired girl said, putting the book down to meet her friends eyes.
“Are you going to the game with me tomorrow?” She asked again.
“Oh. I forgot. I um… told Snape I’d meet to talk about this potion that I—“ she tried to explain but the red head just scoffed.
“All you ever do is talk about potions.” Ginny complained.
“All you ever do is talk about quidditch and Harry Potter but you don’t see me complaining about it.” Ryleigh snapped back.
“That’s different! That’s friend stuff, I’m supposed to tell you that! It’s not my fault you’ve never even had a crush on someone!” She shouted and more than a few of the other Gryffindor students looked over at them.
Ryleigh stared at her.
“I’m gonna go.” Ryleigh said and started gathering her things.
“Yeah, just run away and don’t tell anyone where you’re going!” Ginny yelled again.
Ryleigh spun around at that, “I did that ONCE Ginny! You’ve been doing it all year!”
Ginny looked at her genuinely confused.
“At least I still hang out with my friends without homework and potions in the way.”
“You know what Ginny, think whatever you want. To answer you question, no I’m not going to the game tomorrow, I’ve gone to every other game with you or Luna when you’re off disappeared, I hate quidditch and I think I’ll spend my time doing something I like instead.” With that she made her way up the stairs to her dorm and closed the door. She knew eventually Ginny would have to join her up here as they shared a room but it was enough for now.
How could she even hold that position! It was infuriating! The girl had gone and disappeared so many times over the year but she had the nerve to judge Ryleigh for the one time she’d needed some space?!
A knock sounded from the door and Ryleigh didn’t answer, hoping they would go away if she waited long enough.
“It’s Hermione…” the voice called.
“Come in.” Ryleigh said softly.
The brunette girl opened the door and entered. She was holding ‘Ingredients Encyclopedia’ and held it out for Ryleigh to take.
“You left this downstairs.” She said, then asked, “can I sit?”
Ryleigh shrugged.
“Thanks.” Ryleigh said.
“You know there’s nothing wrong with taking an interest in school.” She said and Ryleigh almost laughed, this girl was only a year older than herself but she was trying her best to make her feel better.
“Yeah, thanks.” She finally settled on.
Hermione smiled awkwardly at her before she tucked a hair behind her ear and walked back toward the door.