Percy speaks up, "it is just that all the other houses are already awake and look at our house, there is basically n.o.body is here.""Well, there is not that many Hufflepuff that are awake," I point out to him lazily, which is correct since I only see their Head of House, Professor Sprout and two or three little groups of Hufflepuff huddled together, I shake my head, those Hufflepuff are always together holding hands, I muse.
He looks at me and snorts, "you know that is not what I mean, look at the Slytherin table, every single one of them is already awake."
I laugh at him and say a bit teasingly, "if I hadn"t known I would have thought that you were a big Slytherin fan."
"Hey, I am being serious here, okay then, look at the Ravenclaw table, mostly all of them are already awake and they are even getting a head start on their cla.s.ses."
I look at him for a while, I know his character from the books but here in front of me is the real flesh and blood and I must say, he is far more intelligent than the books make him out to be or is it just because he did not have that much scene time, anyways I am amazed that he started to figure out the issues that plague each house.
I rub my chin for a bit and decided to throw him a little bit of guidance "Well, let me shower you with a bit of my knowledge, the four houses are like your fingers, they are each different from each other but if you make a real effort and twist them and turn them this way and that, you can even them out eventually and make them similar to each other but then your fingers will be broken and will not function anymore." I pause for a bit and look at him and ask, "Anyways you get what I am saying, right?"
He nods his head slowly than a bit faster and faster, "yeah, I do."
"Well that is good, but do not get confused, I did say that the houses are different but that does not mean you should give up on improving or getting rid of bad habits. Well, I have said my piece, and I have to go now but if you ever need a bit of guidance you know where to find me." I get up from my seat, wipe away the crumbs, and wave Percy goodbye as I head out of the dining hall.
----------------------------------------------------
"Today we will be covering the Wiggenweld Potion, so listen up closely, because this is a very important potion for all of you since none of you do not even know a lick about Healing spells. The Wiggenweld Potion is able to cure injuries and it is the antidote for the Sleeping Draught and the Draught of Living Death," said Professor Snape.
Right now, I am in Professor Snape"s Potion cla.s.s deep down inside the bas.e.m.e.nt. I already knew how to make this potion since as Professor Snape said it would be the only thing I would know for curing injuries until I could learn Healing spells.
"You will work with the person that is right next to you and the two of you will be making the potion by yourselves, make sure to follow the instructions very closely, it is very simple, so I do not want to see any accidents happening. Now then stop gawking at me and begin!"
There was an immediate scrabbling of noise as some people got up and went to the supply cabinet to get their ingredient for the potion, others started flipping through their books to get to the Wiggenweld Potion section.
I look at my partner for the day and say to him, "well it seems like today you have the honor of working with me." I have to say, he really is lucky to have me as his partner, I guess it was not really luck but just Professor Snape dumping his problems on to me, but I must say if there was anybody worse than Neville Longbottom in potionnering than it would be him, Adrian Pucey (Ch. 20).
All I get for a response is a low grunt, I raise my eyebrow and ask him "Adrian is there some dissatisfaction among the ranks?"
He hurriedly raised his head and starts splattering, "no, no I was just feeling a bit cold, it is chilly in, here right?" I raise my eyebrow again as soon as I did not hear the magic word and he too notices it and tries to fix it quickly by adding "I mean boss," he finishes.
I sigh it seems like much of the progress we made together has been erased thanks to the long break, I quickly make sure to mentally jot this down for when I build my evil, cough, I mean organization. You just cannot give your minions, I mean, workers a break, they will have nothing to do so it will give them plenty of time to think and you never want your workers to think about their situation.
It seems like we will have to start from base one again I think to myself, I place my hand on his shoulder and say to him kindly as if I was a lovingly grandpa, "listen up here, Adrian, you know I always want the best for you, Right?"
He shakes his head immediately and says, "yes boss!"
"Good, it is just that I do not want anything to happen to you, you know how terrible you are when it comes to potions, and it can get awfully dangerous work especially for you and I do the best I can to make sure you do not mess things up but if you do not listen I cannot be held responsible for any of the mistakes you make, you know?"