Harry Potter RP

Lori nods her head and passes Al the newspaper.

"News is a tricky business," she tells him as he reads. "Everything happens so fast you know? And you got to keep up with it. The person who is on the top of their game gets the readers. That's why the Daily Prophet is one of the most popular wizardering newspapers. Mom makes sure she, and her reporters,keep on top of the news."

Albert looked at the headlines and stories, his focus shifting from one to another. Reports of Dark Magic denied by Ministry...Incident at Gringotts injuries 12, Golbins baffled...Jack Gladson facing hearing after unsanctioned Dueling...

Albert suddenly stopped reading. Uncle Jack? What was going on?

Reading over the article, he pointed it out to Lori. "Um...what's this one about?" he said, trying to make sense of it all. Unsanctioned dueling? What did that even mean?

Lori paused in shoveling a waffle in her mouth, and looked at the article Al was looking at. When she saw the headline, she immediately knew it was about. She can't believe the hearing was finally taking place now even though the incident happened a few months ago.

"Well," Lori said, swallowing her waffle. "That bloke, Gladson, was in a yelling match in the middle of town with another guy by the name of Daniel Lee. Apparently Gladson and Lee had a contract together, and Gladson accused Lee of not fulfilling it. Lee was protesting saying he did, and that Gladson was slandering his good name. The yelling match grew more and more heated until finally Gladson pulled his wand and attempted to curse Lee. However, Lee was quick to the draw and managed to deflect the curse in time. They dueled for five minutes before Gladson won by heavily injuring Lee. Bloke is in St. Mungo's as we speak. Mind you this in front of a horde of Muggles."

"I read about his arrest!" The third year girl cried. "They say Lee's arm was nearly cut off. Is that right?"

"Yes." It was Cassandra who answered. "However, when the medics finally arrived, it needed to be amputated anyways, so Gladson might have well cut it off himself."

"I like how its unsanctioned dueling they arrested him for," Lucas muttered. "I mean he sent a bloke to St. Mungo's without an arm!"

"Secondary charges," Lori explained.

"Unsanctioned dueling is illegal," Cassandra continued. "It's all good if you get an OK from an official to duel. Then you can cut off as many limbs as you want and its perfectly legal."

Albert looked at the picture again. His uncle was one to get angry, but Albert could barely believe he would do something like that, especially in front of Muggles. But there it was.

"Why didn't Mom mention this?" he muttered to himself as he looked at the article. "You'd think she'd know her own brother was involved in something like that."

Cassandra, who was closest to Al, spat out her drink.

"Mom?!" She asked in disbelief. "That guy is your uncle?!" Everyone in the group who was talking about the issue paused for a moment before a group "eh?!" echoed around.

Recovering from the shock the quickest, Lori was the first to answer the question.

"This is what happens when you don't get a newspaper," she said matter-o-factually.

"Makes sense to me," the third year girl said.

"Maybe she didn't want you to worry?" Cassandra suggested. There was some murmurs of agreement to that as well.

Albert stared at the newspaper for another moment and then nodded. "Yeah...that sounds like Mom."
Drinking the last of his water, Al stood up and gestured towards the doors. "I've got to go. See you guys later."

As he left the Great Hall Albert made a mental reminder to ask Mom about all this in his next letter. He didn't want to have any more surprises like this one again.

Lori waved slightly, before pausing a moment. Cassandra was silent as well. They looked at each other, and then at the clock. There was a pregnant pause before,

"JESUS CHRIST, AL YOU BASTARD, WE HAVE THE SAME CLASS RIGHT NOW!" Lori cried as she hurriedly began to gather some food into her arms, Cassandra helping her. The two ran after the boy, Lori swearing at him as Cassandra sprinted to keep up.

Matt sat down in the dungeons and began to wait impatiently for the class to start. He tapped his foot nervously as he wondered which potion they would be brewing that day. Looking to the front desk, he saw a small vial of purple liquid sitting in front of the professor. The liquid was completely opaque, but was remarkably thin, as it jumped around in its container whenever the professor shifted in the slightest.

Judging from the color, opacity, and viscosity, and considering it's a first-year potion, I'll bet my hat that's a cure for minor aches. Immediately, Matt stood up, picked a loaner textbook off the shelf, and sat down with it. He turned to the corresponding page and began to prepare the cauldron and ingredients needed.

As Al walked in, Slughorn stood up, walked around to the front of his desk, and began to speak. "Now, class, today we'll be making this," Slughorn said, holding up the vial for all to see. "This potion can alleviate headaches, stomachaches, and even-"

He was suddenly cut off as Cassandra and Lori burst into the room, panting heavily. "Sorry we're late...Professor..." Cassandra apologized between labored breaths.

"Nonsense, you're just in time! Come, take your seats. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Can anyone tell me how to brew this particular potion?"

Matt immediately answered without raising his hand, once again. "Bring the cauldron to a boil, then add the juice of two Abyssinian shrivelfigs. Allow it to stew for five minutes, then add three drops of essence of dittany and five drops of essence of Murtlap tentacle. Once the potion turns blue, add two whole plangentines, though the faster they are absorbed, the better, so it works better if you grind them into a fine powder first."

Cassandra groaned next to him, already tired of how matter-of-factly he recited the recipe.

"Uh...yes, actually, that's correct. 10 points to Ravenclaw, though the bit about the plangentines is debatable. Why, last class, a girl from Slytherin did something like that, if I remember. Well, do what you will, just be sure to call me over before you add it. Wouldn't want another explosion, now, would we? In any case, class, turn to page 439 in your textbooks and begin."

Matt already had his cauldron boiling, and was pouring in the shrivelfig juice when Slughorn finished speaking.

"Dude, you left us behind," Lori complained to Al as she cranked up the heat of the fire so the water would boil faster. "We were almost late."

Cassandra was sitting next to Matt, wondering why the hell she was stuck with him as a lab partner. She wondered why she even bothered at times.

Albert stared awkwardly forwards before responding weakly with "Well...you were eating. I thought you wanted to finish." Albert glanced over at Slughorn's desk, only to see the Potion's teacher was nervously glancing at the two of them. "I think Slughorn is watching us." he added, gesturing towards the Professor with his head.

"So...we add these AFTER the water boils, right?"

"I am very good at eating and running. Special talent really," Lori informed him, reaching for a waffle and putting it in her mouth. Looking up, she noticed Slughorn staring at them intently. Or the waffle in her hand. She looked back to the textbook, trying her best to ignore their creeper teacher.

"Yeah, seems that way." Pausing for a moment she regarded the bubbling water. "Guess we should add the Abyssinian shrivelfigs." She handed Al one of the shrivelfigs as she began to squeeze the juice out of the other ones. Once both of the shrivelfigs were squeezed dry, she looked back at the book. "It says to let it stew for five minutes."

She paused for a moment.

"I guess we don't have to do anything for a few minutes. Waffle?"

Glancing at the waffle, Albert nodded. "I can't believe we're stuck in here for two class periods. It's going to get really boring in here." he added as he began drying the shrivelfig. "But I don't want to think what detention Slughorn will think up if we cause another explosion."

At the word explosion, Slughorn's eyes flashed with panic before he realized nothing was happening.

Lori noticed his reaction and gave a demonic grin. So just the word explosion made him react like that huh? She would have to keep this in mind for later.

"I know right? I hate Potions. I can't wait for History of Magic though," she told him. Pausing for a moment, she realized the five minutes had passed. "You wanna do the tentacle or the dittany?"

Matt busily prepared the potion, and gave Cassandra little opportunity to do anything. He was completely absorbed, to put it lightly.

Cassandra was honestly thinking about screwing up their Potions lab on purpose. Seriously, they were partners. What part of partners did this boy not understand?!

You know what, screw it. This boy was going down.

Growling a bit, she added a half of a plangentines when Matt's back was turned. Not enough to screw up the potion (and make it explode), but enough they wouldn't get a perfect grade.

Cassandra didn't want to get a perfect grade if she didn't earn it. And right now, she certainly wasn't earning it.

Matt called the professor over to stand by while he added the powdered plangentines. When the professor got there, though, he frowned thoughtfully. Matt became nervous instantly. "Um...what is it, professor? Is something wrong?"

"Well, actually...are you sure you didn't already add plangentines? It looks like there are already some in there..."

Matt was dumbfounded. "No, professor, I didn't add any...I don't know how they could have gotten in there."

He looked down at the ingredients he set out, and much to his surprise, half of a plangentine was gone. There's no way! I didn't put anything in there!

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Cassandra acting extremely nonchalant. Normally, he wouldn't have noticed, except the fact that Slughorn was standing next to them critiquing their potion was enough to make any normal first year nervous.

Matt looked directly at Cassandra and asked, quietly, "...why?"

Cassandra didn't bother even denying it.

"We're partners," she told him, fully knowing she would probably get detention for this. Again. Or house points taken off. But she didn't care. This needed to be said."What part of that don't you understand? Just because you are amazing at Potions doesn't give you full rights to do the whole damn thing. What's the point of me even showing up if you do everything."

She gestured to Lori and Al, who although were struggling, were obviously working together. And for some reason were talking about tentacle rape. She tried to ignore that.

"Look at those two," she continued. "They understand the partner part. They do everything together. Sure both suck, but they suck together. I'd rather get a bad grade and earned it and get a good grade and didn't." She sighed and turned to Slughorn.

"It would have been perfect if I didn't put in half of it earlier," she told him. "I don't care if you take off house points or give me a detention." Slughorn sighed and shook his head.

"That won't be necessary," he told the two. "Even if you put half of it earlier, I can see this would get an Exceeds Exception." He then turned to Matt. "But Cassandra has a point. The part of partners is to work together. You need to remember that Matt. Just because you are better at Potions at Cassandra then her doesn't mean you have the right to monopolize the whole thing. Both of you are supposed to be learning. Right now, Cassandra isn't learning anything. Now you two need to work this out between the two of you."

With that he left, leaving the two to their own devices.

Matt groaned. "If you want to get in on the potion, why don't you just bloody tell me rather than sabotaging it and getting the professor to scold me? Seriously, I don't mind, not after that bloody explosion ruined that first class. It's not like I mean to leave you out, I just love potions. And for Flamel's sake, talk to me if you have a problem!" He made an exasperated noise, and set to cleaning out the cauldron to get ready for the next potion.

"I shouldn't have to be 'oh Matt, can you let me in on the potion we are making this class'," Cassandra said darkly. "And if you want people to talk to you about there being a problem, you need to realize there is one in the first place."

She paused for a moment before muttering under her breath,

"Never thought I would be giving people advice on how to interact socially."

******

Slughorn was staring at Al's and Lori's brew, not quite sure what to grade it. It certainly passed and was far better then an Acceptable. But it wasn't quite an Exceeds Expectations.

"Exceeds Acceptance," he decided at last, walking away feeling very proud of himself.

Lori and Al looked at each other, then down at their potion before shrugging at each other, deciding that passing was good enough for both of them and returned to their conversation as they cleaned out the cauldron.

Matt turned on Cassandra. "Yeah? Is that so? Well, maybe I'm not the smartest bloke socially, but is it really that hard to tell me when there's an issue? Really? Why is it me not being able to tell what you're thinking without you bloody telling me is a bad thing? I'm not a bloody psychic, you know! So please, from now on, if you could just humour me and tell me when you don't like what I'm doing, I would be glad...no, ecstatic to oblige."

Under his breath, he muttered, "For ♥♥♥♥'s sake, it really isn't that hard, is it?"