War For Hogwarts: Episode 2 (A Harry Potter Fanfiction by Mark Borne)

Mark sat in his charms classroom, determined not to lose more house points. Others in his house were already starting to glare at him. I guess Hufflepuff loyalty doesn’t extend to strangers, he thought, and returned his attention to Professor Flitwick, who was explaining the effects of the lumos spell, and how to turn it off.

          “It is important that you remember that nox extinguishes a lit wand!” Professor Flitwick instructed them. He apparently didn’t want anyone casting lumos until they could reverse the spell, making the first day difficult, as he loaded their heads with information on lumos and nox, and kept using the lumos spell in order to have them practice their mastery regarding nox.

          Regardless, Mark felt dazed, and he wondered how anyone could think. He frowned, remembering how Flitwick had awarded Kiera ten house points for mastering nox.

          All the way to Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration class, Mark felt very cross towards Kiera. I could have gotten it, but I hadn’t been spoiled like you, Kiera, he thought.

          In Transfiguration, Mark tried endlessly to turn a match into a needle, but ultimately failed. Just when McGonagall opened her mouth to end the class, Mark heard a girlish squeak, and he, alongside everyone else, looked over to see a Ravenclaw boy wearing an ecstatic expression on his face, a cat in the place of his match. Ravenclaw was awarded twenty points, and McGonagall told him she’d give him private tutoring, so that the pace of the class wouldn’t hinder his abilities.

          Afterwards, there was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Mark found himself surprisingly good at. He instantly nailed down the Vermillious spell, although Professor Lumpot told him that it wasn’t uncommon, and didn’t award any house points.

          But eventually, potions arrived, and Mark was dreading what would happen.

          “I doubt any of you can brew a simple potion on your own,” Snape droned, after ten minutes of Mark not paying attention. “Pair up in increments of two. Work together to brew two potions of your choosing in the list provided. Points will be awarded and removed appropriately.”

          “Yeah, right,” Donald, one of the Ravenclaw first-years, muttered.

          Snape’s gaze snapped in the direction of Donald and gave a look so stern, Mark felt as if the entire classroom would wither. “What did you say, Tanner?” he demanded, his voice thick with annoyance.

          “I said, I can’t wait,” Donald hastily replied, beads of sweat appearing on his head.

          “No, you did not,” Snape hissed. “Ten points from Ravenclaw. You’d think being in your house, you’d be smarter than that, Tanner.”

          Mark winced. Snape really was as bad as they said. His wince, however, attracted the attention of Snape, who glared at him for a second, and turned back to the board. “Pair up with the person next to you, and proceed to finish your potions,” Snape told them, and began scribbling in some sort of book.

          Mark was momentarily frightened. Who did he pair up with? The person on his left, or the person on his right? He turned towards his left, but found Katherine McKarthy, a Gryffindor girl, already paired up with Bill Stark.

          “No, dummy, we’re pairing up,” an impatient voice muttered, and Mark groaned as he turned to find Kiera Malfoy to be his new potions partner.

          “Magic is conspiring against me,” Mark muttered.

          “No, this potions class is,” Kiera sighed. “It conspires even against me, a Slytherin. I could barely resist the urge to tell Snape that pairing up actually is groups of two.”

          “I actually think he did that on purpose,” Mark countered. “I believe he thinks we’re too incompetent to understand basic instructions.”

          “Ten points from Hufflepuff for Mark’s own incompetence!” Snape called out.

          We really need house equality in this class.

          Kiera sighed and shrugged, and held up a recipe. “Let’s try this one. It’s very difficult, but I’ve practiced potions for the last five years, so I think we can get it down.”

          “We’re supposed to do simple ones,” Mark reminded her.

          “This is simple,” she told him. “It’s just difficult for first-years who just started potions. Trust me, two of these, and Snape will forget about hating you.”

          She had been right, though. They were difficult for Mark. Kiera, however, did most of the work, and soon, they had two potions that glistened with a greenish-grayish color. Eventually, Snape began to inspect potions, and when he got to Kiera and Mark, his gaze fell first on Mark, stern and unforgiving, and then on Kiera, with a glimmer of hope in his eyes, and then finally on the potions.

          “Hmm…seems to be done right,” he muttered. “But appearances can be deceiving.” He pulled out a slender, black wand and muttered something under his breath, that Mark couldn’t quite catch. The potions turned bright red, then pink, then purple, and then darkened into a blackish green, before settling back to its original color. “Well done on taking the initiative to do a complicated potion, Kiera. Ten points to Slytherin.”

          “But Mark helped,” Kiera told Snape, before he could wander off to the next table. “He deserves just as many points.”

          “I watched, and you did all the effort,” Snape retorted. He turned towards Mark, with a sinister look in his eye. “Be glad I’m not removing points, Mister Sanderson. Your laziness will not be tolerated from this point onward.”