Ch. 15: Practicing Potions

Chapter Song: Take a Walk by Passion Pit

[10-Y A/N: according to the analytics, this will take you 3 minutes to read. ready? and.... go!]

     Lana, Jenna and I split up from the group and began to walk towards the dungeons, with unsure but patient steps. I held our Castle Map out in front of us and tried to pretend as if I knew exactly where everything was.

      "Who do we share Advanced Potions with again, Elle?" Lana shuffled her books to her other hand, she was carrying all three of them since she refused to buy a backpack. 'They are unnecessary, stupid', Lana'd told me that when I questioned her about it; who's laughing now?

      I tapped my finger to my chin, melodramatically thinking back to what my sister had told me at breakfast, with a malicious glint in her eye. "Slytherin, apparently. The ones who are dressed in green and silver, I think." I shrugged and pulled my hair over my shoulder, feeling the tight curls loosen as I nervously pulled at them. "Hermione said we're in for a 'real treat'."

     "Well, if you think about it," Jenna mentioned as we turned a stone corridor, "that annoying girl you just slammed against the wall was wearing green and silver." A gust of cool, damp air wafted through the stone wall halls, smelling slightly of deep earth and water. We must be close to the dungeons. "And, the boy who kept giving you dirty looks in Defense Against the Dark Arts was wearing them as well -- you know, the blond one?" She shrugged and I rolled my eyes.

      I actually hadn't noticed he was shooting me dirty looks. I arched a brow at Jenna, wondering why she had been fixated on him, but I was sure I didn't want to ask.

      "Oh, that kid. His name is Draco. Ignore him, he's a total prick. I don't even feel bad for giving him a black eye."

      Lana just shook her head at me with a grin and Jenna gasped sarcastically. "You hit someone when I wasn't even here to see it?! How dare you!" Her voice reverberated off the corridor walls, giving the dark and gloomy space a little more humorous feeling.

     We caught up with a few, fellow Gryffindors and I knew we were headed in the right direction. The excited Beginning of the Year chattering was familiar, just like how it would've been at Sorcellerie. And, just for the briefest moment, I was .... sorta homesick. I thought back to all my old friends in America. I wondered if they thought I'd fallen off the face of the Earth or something.

     That weed of disappointment was crushed by a sharp elbow to the side and Lana's withering red brow. "Hey, Street Fighter, we going in?"

     I grinned as we walked through the wooden castle door to the Potions class. Lanterns fixed midair by charms lined the sullen classroom, casting an orange, flickering glow on the students ready to kick off the new academic calendar. "How about this," I told them, adjusting the book bag over my shoulder, "next time I'm about to sock someone in the face, I'll let ya know."

      "Promise?" Jenna asked, placing her hands on her hips and making me swear. Satisfied with my answer, she chose a desk in the middle of the class.

     Since Moody had let us all leave early, the class was practically empty, excluding a couple of older Gryffindors that kept to the back, so the three of us got our choice of seats. However, the desks were positioned to only fit two people per desk. Lana and I looked at each other at the same time before quickly bolting to claim the seat next to Jenna, not wanting to sit by ourselves.

Sadly, I was slower than Lana and she plopped down the stool next to our blonde companion. "Come on Lana." I whined and tried to pull her out of the chair. "It isn't fair-you have longer legs than I do!"

Lana just shrugged and stuck her tongue out at me. "And I also get to sit by Jenna, how's them apples?"

     Pouting, I flipped my hair behind my shoulder (being sure to take every moment to enjoy my teen drama moment) and chose the desk right behind the two of them with a frown. In my brain, I fantasised what it would be like to have long legs, rather than these little stubs. 

     Slowly, I pulled everything out of my bag and sat it down on the stone table in front of me. I set up my cauldron and carefully set down all of my mixers perfectly, humming a little tune under my breath.

      "That's quite the attention to detail, my friend." I jumped a little, hitting my knee on the desk, causing my perfect set-up to jumble. I cursed under my breath and looked up to see a beaming Hufflepuff standing over my shoulder.

      I gazed up at him, trying to figure out if I knew him or not. I had this humiliating feeling that I should know him and it was killing me.

        "Don't tell me, you don't remember?" He grinned at me with a nonchalant smile and suddenly it hit me like a ton of very very heavy bricks.

     It was the grin, ever confident and cavalier -- like a pragmatic prince without any cares in the world. I remembered it because his smile was a topic of ridicule for the Twins. Jealous jerks.

      "Cedric," I greeted him. "No, I remember, how could I forget?" I chuckled, a little pink in the face, but tried to play it off as if nothing happened.

He just shrugged me off and sat down in the seat next to mine, still smiling. "It's okay if you forget. Sometimes I feel like my own father forgets who I am on occasion." He just chuckled once more and I laughed along with him.

"Wait, why are you in here? I thought we had this period with Slytherin?" I rose a brow and asked as I watched him take out all of his materials.

    Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jenna and Lana both watching us with curious expressions. Once Jenna caught my eye, she and Lana both mouthed. "Who is he?"

I rolled my eyes and mouthed back. "Later."

     He shrugged. "You do, but I've to take this class if I want to graduate." His infamous grin was still on his face. "And since I'm a brilliant procrastinator, I chose not to do it... until now."

      With a soft sigh, I nodded in agreement. "I know how you feel; I'm the same way."

      He paused for a moment, as if with disbelief as he looked me over, paying particularly close attention to the caldron set on my side of the desk. "Really?" 

       I noticed that the class was beginning to fill up, but I kept the conversation going. It was one of the first outside conversations I'd had in a little while. I actually felt interesting, as if Cedric genuinely was wanting to know who I was. It was charming. "Yeah, all the time. Why do you ask?"

     Cedric just let out another chuckle and another shrug, smirking to himself at some untold joke. "No reason, it's just kind of ironic that Hermione Granger's twin is a procrastinator."

"Hey, we may be twins, but that doesn't mean that we are the same people. Trust me I'm completely different than Hermione." I grinned evilly.

This caught Cedric's interest and he looked at me very closely, a smile still playing in his eyes and around his lips. "Oh? And how different are you two exactly?"

      I opened my mouth to reply with something cocky when a new voice spoke up, interrupting.

     "There will be no abhorrent flirting in my class, Mr Diggory and Miss Granger." A cold voice called out, causing my face to burn a bright rosy colour and my body to shift as far away from Cedric as possible (I could hear him release a small snicker at my reaction, but he had gone a little pale in the face as the teacher scolded us) and look at the speaker.

     A small voice in the back of my mind was curiously picking at what had just happened. Were Cedric and I really flirting? I had never had a real boyfriend in my life let alone flirted with the opposite sex before. How did I know? Slowly, I dragged my attention back to the teacher.

     The man was tall, thin and had an unfortunately large nose for his face. His shoulder-length black hair was greasy and could probably stand a good hour of scrubbing with some serious shampoo, too. He gave me a harsh look and continued to walk towards the front of the class, his long black dress robes flowing out behind his steps.

     "For those of you who may not know. I am Professor Snape. I will not welcome you to my class, because you signed up for this. And, because of this reason, I will neither give you grace nor excuse you for any mistakes or problems you may make or assignments you do not complete." He took a long pause to look around the room sullenly. "I do not expect the majority to pass this class. In fact, I expect most of you to fail. This class is not called Advanced without reason. This is your only warning. Any rule breaking, cheating, or misbehaviour," his coal eyes landed on me, before trailing over the rest of the class, "will not be tolerated."

I grinned inwardly. I was going to like this teacher.

Let me let you in on a little thing most people probably do not know about me. I actually like to learn, and I like to be challenged. Snape was doing just that, challenging me and I am all for a little competition.

     Snape began speaking once more. "There will be no wand-waving or silly incantations in the class. Potions are the art of chemistry and knowledge. Just because one may be smart does not mean that they are wise." His gaze dropped onto mine for a couple of seconds and then he started back up where he left off, leaving me to think that he was directing that towards either me or Hermione, but quite possibly both of us.

      "Since you're an Advanced class, I shall not start off with Orientation. Flip to page twenty-seven."

I quickly opened the main book and read the page. It was a potion for a supplement that you gave to growing flowers so they will never need water. It was actually pretty cool. And complicated. As I continued reading through all of the ingredients, my frown got deeper and deeper. It was a level seven potion on a scale of zero to ten. Some of these ingredients could only be found in certain areas during certain times of the year.

     "You all have until the end of the class period to make this potion and test it on one of these flowers." I looked over to a desk cluttered with potted plants, immediately choosing with my eyes the one that I wanted. "When you are done, bring it to my desk. I will examine it. You may get your materials."

     Cedric and I both got up and made our way to the potion cabinet. "Hey, it's okay," he offered. "I'll get them for you." Cedric grinned down at me, it was then that I realized he was a good foot or so taller than me. I had to crane my neck up just to look him in the eye.

      I fought with the idea for a small moment. But, ultimately I decided that I could be lazy if I wanted to, and thanked him for the offer. 

     "Oh, okay." I smiled and he shuffled his way through the people, almost as if he was gliding on air. I couldn't have walked that elegantly, even if I'd tried.

As soon as he was gone, I was ambushed by Jenna and Lana. "Okay, who the hell is that?" Lana grinned and put her hands on my shoulders.

     "That's Cedric Diggory. He went to the World Cup with me." I shrugged.

Jenna grinned and pulled her hair out of the way of her eyes. "Does he like you?"

      I blinked a few times before I could answer, her question had given me mild paralysis. "Okay one, just because a guy talks to me, doesn't mean he likes me. Second, I don't think so."

      Jenna frowned and Lana rolled her eyes. "Is he gay?"

      "What?" I laughed, despite myself. "How the hell would I know?"

     Jenna quickly explained to me, her eyes wide. "Well, you can never tell with guys like him, the preppy, nice guy with perfectly quaffed hair? He could totally be gay and you wouldn't even know. Then, you'll have walked down the hall one day to see him making out with your brother." She elaborated as my mouth hung open.

       "Jenna," I began once I found my voice, "just because that happened to you doesn't mean that it's going to happen to anybody else that you know."

     "Here you are." Cedric handed me a set of ingredients before Jenna could respond. By the way she gave me a mournful shrug, I could tell that she did not have anything to say anyway.

      I still to this day can't believe that she caught Jay, her brother, making out with her crush Kyle. Let's just say it was a shock when she told us.

"Oh, thank you." I smiled lightly at him and made my way to the table that held the flowers. Walking, I looked through the rows and rows of flowers, more than enough for the class, and reached out grabbing a pot filled with bright, pink peonies.

      I pulled them into my arms, juggling everything as I made my way down the aisle and back to my seat. Once I set everything down, a paper ball hit me in the back. First I looked at Jenna and Lana accusingly, but neither of them was even looking at me.

I turned my head some more and saw the annoying chick sending glares in my direction, Pansy-and rightfully named. Sitting next to her was Malfoy, the perfect couple. I rolled my eyes at her and continued to work on my potion.

     Reaching into my bookbag, I pulled out my notepad and began to jot down some ideas for this potion. This was my favourite notebook since I'd enchanted it to animate any doodles I scribbled into the pages.

      "That's clever," Cedric commented over my shoulder. 

     "What's up?" I asked, having completed ignored his comment.

      He smiled sheepishly and pointed to my notes. "What spell is that?"

    "A distracting one, according to my old teachers," I replied. "But, when I'm working out a problem in my head, it helps to doodle on the pages. And, it's more fun if they move... so I enchanted my notes." I flipped quickly through the pages, trying to skip over some of my uglier works of art. 

      Cedric held open a hand. "Could I draw something?"

     "Seriously?" I giggled a little, unable to help it by the expression plastered on this guy's face:  he looked like a child on Christmas morning. "Sure, I don't mind. Draw anything, it'll work."

     Cedric tapped the tip of his quill to his chin, playfully pondering the idea of a drawing before fixating on an idea. I watched him work, scratching careful marks onto the notepad's pages with quick, steady strokes. 

    Peering down the round nub of my nose, I watched his little doodle take form. Then, like a proud five-year-old, Cedric gave me a little 'Ta-Da' and flipped my book back around to face me. A golden snitch flapped its wings around on my notes, little more than a circle and some really jacked up wings.

     "Not really an artist, huh?" I laughed.

     Cedric tossed his golden head back with a burst of laughter, earning Jenna and Lana's curious looks. "Well, you don't mince words, aye? No. I'm definitely not an artist." Cedric shook his head and nodded to my own scribbles. "Does this help your studies?"

     "Probably not, it's just fun... I don't know, it just makes my thinking go smoother."

"I get it." He nodded and turned back to his work, I took it as a sign that he was going to let me do my work with out interrupting again.

    Time to get serious, I told myself. Cedric was nice, but he was a distraction.

     Pour three-fourths of a pint of Willow's Water into the pot and bring it to a slow boil. I read and did as followed. This was going to be challenging since the temperatures and everything had to be exact or my flower was going to die.

     As soon as my pot began to boil, I took it off the burner and added three wings of the golden butterfly. I quickly stirred in all the other ingredients and began chopping up some worms wort. As I did this, my eyes travelled over to Cedric's catastrophic pot.

     What was supposed to be a calm lilac colour, was a burning brownish-green and boiling harshly. Cedric's face was contorted and confused as he reread over his ingredients. Quickly, I took my spoon out of my pot and set it down, running over to his to help him out. He was going to make it explode if he kept going down the path he was on.

     "Woah, wait!" I scolded him as he was about to push some ground chiffon into his pot. I yanked his spoon away from him.

      "I don't know what went wrong," Cedric admitted, hanging his head in defeat.

I sighed and took the pot off of the burner and conjured up a bowl of ice to set it in, hoping it would chill it off. Slowly, but surely, the pot began to turn from a ghastly green to a yellow, then finally down to a light blue. "Hand me some dead man's hair." I held out my hand and Cedric rummaged through his experiment ingredients, pulling out what I'd asked for.

    Taking the hair, I sprinkled it into the pot, grinning as the potion began to bubble and change to a nice lilac colour. "There you are." I took the pot off the ice and set it next to his burner. "Continue from there."

'Miss. Granger," A cold voice called to me as I made my way back to my side of the desk. "That will be the last time I see you taking over someone else's potion. Five points from Gryffindor."

     Professor Snape turned his greasy head away from mine and I sneered at him but bit back my retort. I had a feeling that arguing with him would just make it worse.

I continued making my potion in silence, and about half an hour later, it was finished-ending up a beautiful sea weed green. Biting my bottom lip, I carefully dipped my ladle into the potion and brought it to my peonies, making sure I didn't spill any of it on the desk, and poured it into the pot.

A sizzling sound came from my pot as I slowly emptied the ladle, and then a small puff of lilac smoke. When I looked down at it, the flower was no longer wilted, but springy and more alive than it had been before.

In awe, I let out a shocked laugh. I did it! I have never completed a level seven potion before! I did a small dance in excitement, not even caring that it caused people to give me strange looks. Not even caring that a Gryffindor a few tables away from me mumbled under his breath "Americans."

None of it mattered, because I had done it.

Gingerly picking up my flowers, I carefully made my way to Snape's desk. He heard me make my way over and he lifted his head to give me a surprised scowl. "You think you have finished it, already?"

I grinned and set the flowers on to his desk. "Yes, sir."

"Hmp. I'll be the judge of that." He looked over my flower and examined it, lifting up the leaves and bending the stems lightly. "Interesting." He looked up at me with mild surprise and nodded behind me. "Bring me your potion."

     Jogging back to my desk, I grabbed the pot and walked it over to Snape's desk, carefully setting it down in front of him. Slowly, he stood up and stirred it, then poured some of it into a flask to examine it closer. "Interesting, you seem to have created the potion almost perfectly."

     "Thank you, sir." I smiled, knowing that it could be improved, but it would still do the job.

     Snape just sat back down and grabbed a piece of parchment. "What colour was the smoke that erupted from the pot?"

     "Lilac."

     Snape's eyes connected with mine and he gave me a frustrated expression. "Really? Lilac."

     I just nodded. "Yes, lilac," I snarkily replied. I knew it was a mistake as soon as it was uttered, but man.. this dude was being a huge buzzkill. "Would you like me to spell it?"

      "Five more points from Gryffindor for your mouth," he said in his monotone voice. "However, this seems to be a good enough potion, your score is an Exceeds Expectations." He scribbled something down on the parchment before him. It looks like a class roster. "Your smoke should have been a bright yellow. And for some unexplainable reason, it was lilac, so you get docked for whatever mistake you must have made."

      I just nodded, an E sounded pretty damn good to me, to be honest.

     "Now, clean up all of your materials, then by the time you have finished that, class should be done and you may leave."

     I grabbed my cauldron and flask and was about to make my way to the desk when Snape called out to me once more. "Miss. Granger, take these flowers away. Do I look like a man who enjoys flowers?" He frowned at me and I just shrugged and grabbed the flowers from his desk.

"You may not be a fan of peonies, but judging by the majority of one type of flower I see you have provided, you are a fan of lilies."

His face grew a dark red, ad he angrily closed his book. "Get to your seat." He hissed and I quickly did as I was told.

     As I cleaned everything up, I watched Jenna and Lana giving me mournful looks, almost begging for my help, they were still struggling with their potions. But, I couldn't help them or else Gryffindor would lose a few more points.

     God, Hermione was already going to be livid when she found out that I'd lost 10 points on my first day.

     When the bell finally rang, most of the students had not completed their potions. In fact, only four people had, not counting myself. Me, Draco, Cedric (partly because I had helped him), Jenna, and the guy from Gryffindor that had mumbled about me being an American.

     Snape stood up in front of the class. "Time is up. For those of you who did not complete the potion, you must now stay after class and clean everything up, and you will write a three parchment essay about the importance of temperature changes in Chemistry and Potions. Those of you who did finish, no assignment. We will resume the day after tomorrow."

     I quickly stood up with Jenna and Lana. Lana had given up ten minutes ago so all of her stuff was already put away.

     "Come on you guys, let's just get out of here." Lana sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Why did I sign up for Advance Potions? Now I have to write an essay and it's due next class...." She groaned and shook her head as we left the dungeons.

"Well, think of it this way-on Thursday we are going to be seeing who will be in the TriWizard Tournament, and cheer them on as they fight to the death." I chuckled evilly and rubbed my hands together.

"Actually, they don't fight each other-it's kind of like an obstacle course really." Cedric's head popped up behind the three of us. "And I'm signing up."

"You are?" I rose an eyebrow at the Hufflepuff. Sure, he had some muscle, but I'd seen a few of those Durmstrang boys out for a run-shirtless-and if he was thinking he was going to beat them, well....I didn't feel the same way.

     Cedric beamed and tossed his hands behind his head, walking in step with us. "Yeah! It'll be brilliant, you three'll support me, if I get in, right?"

"Of course!" Jenna cheered and fist-bumped the air.

"Why not?" Lana chuckled as well and I just nodded.

Cedric laughed with Jenna and made his way around us. "Thanks. Well, I have to go to Charms now, see you around."

"Bye." We all called at once and he was gone.

"Granger." A sneer sounded behind me and I sighed.

"What?" I turned around to see Draco.

He gave me a cold look over and shook his head with a cold chuckle. "Great-there really is two of you now." He spat at me.

"Get lost, Malfoy." I sighed.

Draco walked around me and sent me a grin over his shoulder. "Done, Granger." And he was soon gone as well.

"What a douche nozzle." I scoffed at him and Lana nodded.

"Indeed, he seems like a real ass-waffle."

I looked over at the silent Jenna and immediately was filled with dread. "Jenna, no. No, no, no, no, no, no! I know that face."

Jenna's eyes were glued to Malfoy's back, watching him walk away. Her mouth was open and she was practically drooling. "He. Is. So. Hot!"

"NO! BAD JENNA!" Lana smacked her upside the head and I shook her at the shoulders.

"That's the guy that called me a Mud-blood." I reminded her. "He's not a cool guy-stay with your crush on the fire-breathing guy, Jenna!"

Jenna blinked a few times and I felt like she was returning back to Earth. "I'm sure he is a sweet guy under neath all that." She smiled.

Lana and I took a few steps away from her. "Diagnosis, Doctor?" I sighed and asked Lana desperately.

"I'm sorry Elle. It seems that your friend Jenna is too far gone. She has a mass spread of love fever. It has gotten so hot it has melted her brain. She will never recover." Lana fake cried and looked at the ground remorsefully. "Best to put her out of her misery now."

"Not funny you guys!" Jenna pouted. "I get it, I get it. The blondy is off limits. Gez."

       "Good." I pointed my finger in her face, to assert the point of course, and we continued on our way to the next class.

✧

     The next day, after school everyone was hanging out in the Great Hall watching all of the seventh-years come forward and place their names in the Goblet of Fire.

     I was tired after a long day of torturous Divination, so the only thing I wanted to do was just lie down on the oak bench beneath me, with its cool surface and smooth wood supporting my lazy frame, to read a nice book beside Hermione. She was doing the same.

     I had yet to tell her about the fact that I'd lost some house points the day before, but I decided to pocket that one for later. It was sure to be a peace breaker, and I didn't have the energy for a know-it-all lecture to happen right now. Maybe at dinner.

      Glancing up from the pages of my Charles Dickens novel, I caught Fleur smiling at me before placing her name into the fire. I smiled back, setting down my novel and sitting up straight, sending her a friendly wave that she returned before leaving.

       Sitting in a wooden row behind me, Lana picked at her nails and yawned. "You know, she asked me about you today. She wants to talk again, you guys never talk anymore." She sent me a crooked smile.

     "We haven't talked since I was in the second year," I reminded her. "She changed, you know. Got snottier." I sighed and read through the page on my book.

     Lana nodded her head. "Yeah, you are right, but she is not like that anymore. Trust me, she is better now." She chuckled. "Still a little prissy, but hey, what're you going to do? Just talk to her. I bet she misses talking in French."

       I grinned at her and looked over at Fleur, she was sitting with the other girls from Beauxbaton's and chattering in French. "Looks like she doesn't miss it that much." I smiled and looked at Lana. "But I will talk to her soon."

     Lana helped herself to my book bag, rifling aimlessly through it, until I decided to call her out on it. "Looking for something, Sticky Fingers?"

     Lana feigned a look of shame and stifled a sarcastic grin. "Could I borrow your Potions Notes? I haven't even begun to start that essay."

     "It's due tomorrow," I replied.

     "Tell me something I don't know, Elizabeth," Lana groaned. 

     I rolled my eyes but unzipped the side pocket of the bag, taking out the Potions notebook and throwing it at her. Lana fumbled with the tossed item, but only for a moment. She winked and blew me a kiss as she flipped it open. 

     "Thanks, bestie!" 

     Hermione arched a brow, but didn't comment.

A strong looking man came in and I immediately recognized him as Victor Krum. The star athlete of the Bulgarians. He strut his way through the crowd of people to put his name in the Goblet, as he did he looked up at Hermione and sent her a wink.

My mouth popped open to form an 'O'. As he made his way out of the room I turned and grabbed my sister's arm. "Whhhaaaatt was thhaaaat?"

Hermione's face was a cute pink color. "N-nothing. Really."

     I gasped. "My sister is such a tease. You now have two guys after you!" I groaned dramatically.

     Hermione rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about? And you shouldn't even be calling me a tease. What about yourself? What are you at now? Two? Three?"

I frowned and rolled my eyes. "Yeah right, I don't have any admirers."

The doors banged open slightly and Cedric walked in, with his grin still on his face. He walked up to the cup and dropped his name in, then as he turned to leave he sent me a wave and a smile.

      Hermione just gave me a look as he left the room as well.

"W-hat? Cedric?" I shook my head. "Psh. He's just my friend."

     "Well, now you know how I feel when you say that about a certain someone." Hermione's eyes travelled over to look at Ron, who was staring at the French girls.

I brushed her off and called to Ron. "Hey! Weasley! Take a picture, it will last longer."

Ron's head snapped in my direction, with an expression as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Hermione gasped with a fit of chuckles and slapped my arm. "Why are you so blunt?"

      "I don't know, that's just the way I am." I shrugged.

      The Great Hall doors banned open loudly and I saw my favourite set of twins, Fred and George. They waltzed in carrying a vial of cloudy blue liquid. Fred's Cheshire grin spread heavy on his lips as he met my my gaze. He waved the little vial in the air and gave a dramatic wink. I, however, wasn't sure what kinda stunt they were thinking of pulling, but I could tell by the paling in Hermione's cheeks that it probably was going to be terrific. 

     I hopped up and joined them, chuckling as Fred linked arms with me and George linked with my other. "What is that?"

     They both paraded around the room for a moment, flashing a pair of potions to their friends. Clearly they felt that they had something up their sleeves.

"Aging potion!" George grinned and shook his in front of my face.

     Fred nodded. "Just cooked it up this morning!"

     I felt a pit in my stomach. "I wouldn't do that if I was you, you guys." I frowned at the two vials. They waltzed over to where I had been sitting and dropped me down into my spot, waving hello to Lana and Hermione with casual self-confidence.

Hermione closed her book and joined arms with me. "It's not going to woork." She sung to them.

"Oh? And why is that, Granger." Fred winked at us.

    Hermione and I both sighed, simultaneously before sharing a knowing look between ourselves. I pointed to the white chalk line around the Goblet of Fire as it burned with bright hot blue flames, shrowding the entire Great Hall with blue hue. "You see that? That's an age line."

     "Dumbledore drew it himself." Hermione nodded.

     I agreed, crossing my arms over my chest. "Besides, I thought you two were horrid at making potions?"

    "Side Effects of Ageing Potions May Include:  loss of taste, loss of smell, impaired hearing, impaired eye sight," Lana listed off, reading directly from my notebook. "Would you like me to go on?" She teased, waving the book in front of Fred and George's face. 

       "Not to mention, of course," Hermione repeated, "Headmaster Dumbledore drew it himself."

     Fred turned to her and cocked his head to the side while George hummed merrily. "So?"

     "Sooo," she inhaled a deep breath, a flash of annoyance in her eyes. That spark of annoyance wasn't ignored by Fred who shot me a secret smirk, like look-I-got-under-her-skin, "a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by something as pathetically dim-witted as an ageing potion!"

    "Yea, but's that's why it's so brilliant, ain't it?" Fred eagerly inserted, not at all effected by Hermione's lecture, "'cause it's so pathetically dim-witted!"

     Lana, who'd checked out of the conversation due to partial need to brush up on Advanced Potions and partial boredom, cooed at my notepad and showed the page to me. "Aw, Elle, Cedric autographed your book? Mhm, I see you, you flirt!" 

     I flushed and snatched the book from Lana's hand. "It's not like that, you creep. He just thought the spell was cool." Lana made a goofy face and tossed air-quotes up with her fingers, laughing at me. "Besides," I brushed it off, "it's fun to see your drawings come to life."

     Cedric's sad-looking Golden Snitched flapped across my book's page. 

     Fred frowned down at it. "Not really an artist, aye?" 

    That's what I said! I replied in my head, but squashed it down. Rather, I turned my nose up at him and arched a brow. "What, think you could do better?"

     "Probably not," Fred quipped, nodding to George. "Ain't that right, Georgie? Lee's our Marketing bloke." He held my gaze and cocked a crooked grin. "I know where my talents are."

     "Speaking of which," George said, raising his cloudy blue vial in the air to his brother's, like a cheers.

Fred and George just shrugged and popped the top off of their flasks. "Bottoms up George!"

"Bottoms up."

As they downed the aging potion, they walked through the circle of chalk to the goblet and threw their names in. "Wicked!" Fred and George high-fived each other, but a moment too soon. Suddenly a blast of fire spat out of the goblet and struck the two of them, sending them flying through the air and to the hard stone floor.

    I walked over to them and peered down at their hurt expressions. "Woah, wicked indeed." I chuckled as they started to grow beards and their hair began to grow long and white. "You two look every aged, I guess your potion really did work." I snickered as Hermione just shook her head, motherly towards the both of them. "By the way, Fred," I squat close to the floor where they were still sprawled, leaning close to his ear, "ageing potions are meant to be green. Next time, get a second opinion?"

"You said!" George socked Fred in the arm.

"You said!" Fred cried back and the two of them began to rumble around on the ground.

     Lana cheered from the sidelines and tried to start a bet on who would win, but no one would participate.

Jenna giggled and called to me. "They should get to the Infirmary and get cured, or else they may have to stay like that forever."

      I pulled Fred off of George. "Now boys, you two better get your sorry arses out of here and to the Infirmary. Or do you want to be two decrepit old men forever?"

      Fred got up and brushed himself off. "I'm still an attractive old man, right L?"

"Oh, sure Fred." I rolled my eyes and just looked away. "You're so attractive that I can't even look at you. Get to the Infirmary."

     Jenna rushed up to Hermione, Lana, and I and joined in our group. "You guys, the cute guy from Durmstrang is here."

I looked around her and saw him. He was tall and tan with thick chocolate curls. Pretty attractive if I did say so myself. "Look, Jenna, if you really think he is attractive, then talk to him already!" I sighed and tried to shove her in his direction.

"Yeah, it is really not that hard, honestly. Any guy would be lucky to be looked at by you." Lana thrust her hands on to her hips with a groan.

Jenna flipped around and snorted at Lana. "Oh please, you mean any guy would love to be with you. You are a fourth Veela!"

"That has nothing to do with anything!" Lana pointed a finger under Jenna's nose.

I shook my head at the two of them and began to make my way over to the guy. If she wasn't going to talk to him, I was.

"What are you doing, Elle?"Jenna's nervous voice called to me but I just nodded towards the guy, figuring she already knew.

The guy looked up at me with cloudy grey eyes and smiled. "Hello."

"Hi!" I stuck out my hand and he took it gently, laying a polite kiss on the back of my hand-I just thought he was going to shake it. "My name is Elle."

"Leo," He grinned at me. "Is Elle short for something?"

My face flushed a little, embarrassed. "Well, yeah...Elizabeth...but I don't prefer it."

    He just shrugged. "I think it is a lovely name. Better than Leo." 

     I brushed off the ice breaker and took the plunge into the freezing cold. "Alright, Leo. You see that girl behind me?" He and I both looked over my shoulder to see a furiously blushing Jenna standing next to Lana and Hermione. "The pretty blonde?"

He nodded curiously. "Yes. What about her?"

"Well," I laced my fingers together. "She is very shy, but she is also very curious about how you created that fire during the first night here. Maybe if you started the conversation first she won't be as shy?"

He grinned and nodded. "Okay. She seems very nice, I shall talk to her right now."

He walked over to Jenna and began to talk with her, leading her over to the benches so they can sit and talk. My mouth popped open, surprised. I can't believe that I actually pulled that off! I'm definitely a designated matchmaker.

"Hey, Liza! We are heading to dinner, you coming?" I glared over at Lana, but she had me there -- I was starved. I had better eat, tomorrow we were going to find out who was going to participate in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

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[ 10 Y A/N: I removed the Muggle IPod, aren't you happier now?!]

AU Scene: