Potions, Class 2

[Albus Dumbledore]

Horace Slughorn arrived at his classroom and headed over to his desk. He was prepared, as always, for yet another incident with his cursed chair. As he walked around his desk to where the chair should have been, he found that, once again, the chair was gone. In its place was a twisted pile of wood, as though someone had taken the chintzy wooden chair that was usually there and taken it apart, reassembling it in the wrong order. He sighed heavily. Did other professors have this kind of problem with their chairs? He somehow doubted it.

He blasted the chair into a pile of sawdust, then waved it away with his wand. Then, smiling to himself, he conjured the large, comfortable armchair that he preferred.

Once this business was settled, he sat down and began to relax with a bowl of crystallized pineapple before class began.

[Rori Logan]

Rori found herself in a great mood as she woke up and she was looking forward to her classes today. Hopefully, today would go smoothly and nothing catastrophic, like someone's potion exploding everywhere, would happen. She held her book tightly in hand as she entered the classroom, only to find she was the first one there. Smiling brightly to the professor she greeted him with a friendly 'hello' and took her seat.

[Amy Icefire]

Amy sighed. Not thinking about Sirius was getting a little easier, considering she had been avoiding him and it was a relief when he wasn't in the same class as she was, but she knew that he was in this one. She would just avoid looking at him as she had been doing and things would go great.

Arriving for class, Amy walked in giving the professor a smile and waving at the girl already in the room. She took a seat on the far side of the room and laid her book carefully on her desk.

[Narcissa Black]

Narcissa woke up happily because of the dinner last night she had with the Lestranges, Lucius, and Bella. Hopefully today would be a good day for Slytherins to finally decide that they needed to straighten up. She was going to wait on Regulus then go to Potions, but realized that he was already gone. Narcissa knew that Regulus wouldn't be the first one in class, so he was probably flirting with some girl. She laughed at the thought of it and headed towards class.

Giving the girls in the room a dirty look, Narcissa took a seat at the back. Of course, she had to be the first Slytherin there and be stuck with that filth, as usual. Why couldn't Regulus or some other Slytherin get there early so she wouldn't be alone?

[Regulus Black]

Regulus entered Potions with his hair a little astray. He didn't bother to brush it this morning when he got up, for he had better things to do. A little payback was due to a Hufflepuff boy who Regulus thought tried to trip him. Instead of beating the boy up, Regulus hexed him to have a huge boil on each side of his face. That would teach him to mess with him.

Grinning as he laid eyes on his cousin, he made a bowing gesture as he stood next to her. "Cissa," he said proudly, and taking the seat next to her. "I didn't mean to keep you waiting. I just had a little business to take care of with a Hufflepuff this morning. You know the one that tried to trip me..."

[Severus Snape]

Severus trudged into class, he was feeling still vaguely confused and annoyed that he couldn't understand why he was confused. Maybe not voicing the feelings out caused confusion...He quickly pushed that thought away. He'd have to learn to deal with himself as quickly and quietly as possible it was hard enough only being half a Prince and in Slytherin.

He went to his customary table and began to set up for the class.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie walked into class, feeling an uncharacteristic flutter in her stomach. She didn't know why she should be nervous about seeing Severus, but she was. As she entered the room, she saw him at the same table as before, preparing his supplies. All she could see was the top of his head, as he was bent low over the table.

Taking a deep breath, she walked over to where he was and put down her books. "Hi, Severus," she said quietly.

[Rabastan Lestrange]

Rabastan came in, for once a few minutes early. He was generally never worried about being to class on time, but had nothing better to do today.

He spotted Narcissa, her cousin (the good one) and Severus, and felt instantly better about being early. At least he wasn't the first. Still, he flashed Rori a smile, young as she was, just because he could before sitting in the back near Narcissa and Regulus.

"At least we're in the majority right now," he said, gesturing to the two Ravenclaws and one Gryffindor.

[Rayne DiCostas]

Rayne entertained the thought that perhaps being a redhead automatically made you a Gryffindor. There were certainly enough of them; her, Amy, Evelyn, Molly. At least they always sported one of the house colors.

The thought made her smile as she came in and took a seat near the front, waiting patiently for the rest of the class to arrive.

[Severus Snape]

The red hair that entered the classroom was so obnoxiously eye catching. Severus decided he didn't like it. He looked at Natalie and smiled and said "G-Hi." he caught himself before he accidental said good day or good morning, he wasn't sure what he was going to say. He fidgeted for a moment than stopped. He never did before, why was he going to start now? He wasn't sure if he wanted to fuss with gurdy roots or chicory or whatever else he thought they might work on.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus walked into potions class. He had just returned early this morning from the latest full moon, so he was feeling particularly exhausted and weak. It had been a rough one, even though he'd been with the pack.

Yawning tiredly, he went to his usual table and began to set up. Hopefully the potion for the day would be an easy one, because he didn't think he had the energy to figure out something too complicated.

[Severus Snape]

Severus watched a yawning Lupin enter the class, He looked like he had been ill again. He was always sick, how the hell did he manage to keep up with Black and Potter if he was always looking like he was going to die? he shook the question away and thought of what else to say to Natalie besides hi, Should he mention her uniform looked nice? or that her hair looked healthy? He gave up and instead asked "Do you think Sulghorn eats only that candy to get that big, or is he some sort of half breed? " His language was distorted by listening to a bitter and angry mother, and a cruel and mean father, but he wasn't trying to be rude or a bigot, it was they only way he knew how to express the idea of someone that seemed to have a parent or more that wasn't a wizard or witch.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie didn't laugh often, so it was a rare sound that escaped from her mouth at his comment. She giggled quietly, covering her mouth with her hand. "I imagine he just likes it," she said, glancing up at Slughorn as he munched away on his favorite candy. "But it's true... he seems to always be eating it."

She looked at Severus in a sidelong manner. She could sense that he was nervous, but she didn't understand why. Are you OK?"

[Severus Snape]

Severus had dropped the quill he had been fiddling with. "Yeah, I'm fine!" he said quickly and picked it up and put it away, then thought better of it and fished it back out. "You OK? I'm Ok..." he said and hoped that fat professor would stop eating and make with the lesson already, but he knew that hope was in vain, most of the students hadn't shown up yet!

[Natalie St. Clare]

"I'm fine," Natalie said simply. "I haven't even been taking the dream potion for a while... the nightmares seem to be better now. I still have dreams sometimes about my Uncle Alastor, but I feel certain that he's alive and safe somewhere, so they're not so bad." She still couldn't understand why he was nervous; he'd never been nervous around her before. "It's almost Halloween. Do you think you'll dress up this year? I don't imagine they'll have another Halloween Ball, after last year's..."

[Severus Snape]

Severus couldn't keep a flush from creeping to the pale cheekbones on his face. He had been looking forward to another chance to dance with Natalie, last year had been a disappointment for him, but with all the other ones in his life he took it in stride. "Maybe not, what fun would it be to get dressed up with nowhere to go?" he asked her as once again he tucked his quill away.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie noticed the faint blush of color on his normally pale cheeks, but she didn't understand it. Perhaps Severus found it warm in the classroom? She knew she would be able to see what he was thinking if she touched him, but for some reason, she felt reluctant to do so. It felt like an intrusion.

"I don't know," she said, pushing her hair back out of her face. "Maybe they'll arrange something for us. I remember in the muggle neighborhood where we lived, the muggle children used to dress up in costumes and go from house to house asking for treats. Their idea of a witch costume was usually insulting... they made the witches look ugly and green!"

[Sirius Black]

Sirius hated potions. He was still wondering how well he had managed to do with his last potion, the one Emmeline had helped him with. If he managed a passing grade, he might have to try and sit near her more often, even though it would probably annoy Kris.

As he entered the room, he glanced around in search of his friends, only to have his eyes catch on a spot of red hair. Amy. He stared at her for a minute, thankful that she wasn't looking his way. If she had been, he might not have been able to look away. But he did, tearing his eyes from her small figure and bright red hair. Instead, he noticed Remus was back, sitting in his usual spot and looking about ready to pass out.

Quickly, he headed over to the desk next to him. "Hey, Remus," he said. "You doing OK?"

[Remus Lupin]

Remus yawned again and looked up at Sirius. "Oh, hey," he said. "Yeah... I'm fine. I was... sick... yesterday, and I just got out of the hospital wing this morning. I guess I'm still a little worn out."

It seemed like it was getting harder to cover up his absences, especially now that Kris was gone with him. He was going to have to tell them soon, but he had no idea how to do it. How would they react? Would they be horrified, shocked, disgusted? Would he have to leave Hogwarts? These thoughts were continuing to plague his mind. He was happy here. He liked having friends, and he didn't want to lose them... but how much longer could he keep his secret, especially since Kris was determined to tell Sirius about hers...

[Severus Snape]

Severus thought of a green witch, would a person still be beautiful, but just be green? would being green really affect someone that much. "Would a green witch be less of a witch? or more of one?" he mused aloud. "I'm sure muggles wouldn't know a real witch or wizard of we bit them." he said slouching down to the table top and sighing as he contemplated sliding his hand to cover hers, but he knew what that meant and decided against it.