8 Chapter 8: Me, a Swirl, and the Dreaming Girl

The castle dungeons, where the potions classroom is located, were undoubtedly unpleasant. There was an ice-cold water fountain in one part of the room, spilling from a gargoyle's mouth, making the space chilly; a strong fragrance of ingredients made you dizzy; and pickled animals and insects were displayed in glass jars, bubbling away on the shelves. The area was spacious enough for at least twenty students to work, and tables were set up to fit the space of the cauldrons, large or small.

The professor had not yet arrived, or at least had not arrived in the classroom where the student dwells, because there was another room, most likely the professor's office, and the door was locked. Unlike the other classes, the students right now are scarily quiet; they were unmoving, looking around nervously at the office of the professor.

Without warning, the door of the office slammed open, and Professor Snape came out of said room. He was dressed in long, flowing black robes that flowed wildly when he turned around. He was a thin and sallow-skinned man, with a hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth.

He stood in front of the class, beside the blackboard. As he looked around the class, inspecting every student inside, his deep, penetrating eyes fixed their gaze on me, and his greasy hair framed his face like a curtain.

Obviously, I avoided his eyes; a master Legilemens is always a bit uncomfortable to look at, be it because he has a hooked nose or otherwise. When he saw me avoid his gaze, he narrowed his eyes, tilting his head slightly.

"I see we've received a new student." His lips were pursed, and his voice was soft but authoritative. "You are fortunate that the headmaster persuaded me to enrol you in my lessons. You, in my opinion, are just as worthless as first-year students and have no right to take fifth-year classes. But, fortunately, I will only have to put up with you for a year because I only accept the finest students to the NEWT Potions class, which I doubt you will pass given your lack of knowledge on the subject."

Talk about making a bad first impression...

Snape turned to look at the other students, his face mocking. "That also applies to all of you; most of you will undoubtedly say your farewell. Which I am looking forward to."

Snape flicked his wand in the air again, and the chalkboard instantly showed a list of ingredients and the name of a potion. It was the recipe for the Draught of Peace, a potion to relieve anxiety and agitation.

"You have one hour," he added. "As usual, the ingredients are in the cupboards in the corner of the room."

We dashed off to get the materials as soon as Snape gave the signal. The list is as follows: Powdered moonstone, hellebore syrup, stewed mandrake, unicorn horn powder, and porcupine quill powder. The students rushed to the cupboards, taking what they needed while hoping there was still enough remaining.

As soon as I had all of the ingredients, I got to work. I followed the formula exactly, because while Snape was not a good teacher, he was a fantastic potioneer. I cautiously added the components because it was said in the book that if it was brewed incorrectly, it would ruin the entire potion, and I only have one chance to get it right.

Snape wasn't much help either; he kept walking around my table, obviously checking if I made any mistakes, and if I did, I'd be punished much like the other students I saw.

The mixture was suddenly rapidly bubbling, so I swiftly swirled it approximately seven times, clockwise and counter-clockwise. Next, it was time to add the most difficult ingredient, hellebore, so I lowered the temperature of the flames and poured the ingredients.

I gradually add more and more materials until I reach the powdered porcupine quills.

I only had to wait about seven minutes for it to finish simmering. I looked around when I realised I had nothing to do and witnessed the horror on my classmates' faces as Snape strolled by. It appears that he was irritated; perhaps it was because I didn't make any mistakes, though that's a stretch because if he wants to mess with me, he could probably simply make up a mistake.

The potion creates a silvery vapour that spirals above the cauldron after seven minutes, and the liquid is white. Snape noticed this and approached my cauldron, ostensibly smelling and stirring the pot before staring at me, expressionless.

"Passable," he said flatly.

"Thank you, sir." I said, secretly smirking.

"Do not get it in your head, Ashworth," he continued. "You will meet me at the end of the month, and I will test you on your knowledge of the previous year's curriculum. If you fail, you should forget about passing the Potions subject."

I sighed, there's no fucking winning with this git. "Understood, professor."

======

The next day, while I have some free time that I could use to work on my Charms and Transfiguration assignments, in the morning I have to go to the greenhouse to help Professor Sprout in her classes. This morning was supposed to be the third-year Slytherins and Ravenclaws Herbology class, so me and the professor were preparing the lesson earlier, bringing puffapods to the students' tables. I was told to wear a mask, as the puffapod's spores could make a wizard or witch extremely dizzy.

"Make sure not to drop it, especially the seedpods." Professor Sprout said to me. "If it gets touched, it will sprout instantly."

We continued to put the pots of puffapods on the table, and once it was time for the class to begin, I stood near the door, giving every single student masks. A lot of the students seemed to be surprised by my existence in the greenhouse; some Slytherins even gave me stink eyes, as in their eyes I'm a "mudblood," while some of the Ravenclaws just greeted me.

It was then, when the last student entered, a blonde-haired girl, that I noticed that the girl was not wearing shoes. The girl seems out of it, like she was high on weed or was just sleepwalking through her classes. This was the girl I talked to when I was sorted into Ravenclaw, the one eating pudding. This is definitely Luna Lovegood.

I stopped her just right in front of the door, barring her from entering. Instead of protesting, the girl just stared at me, her eyes seemingly dreaming.

"Where are your shoes?" I asked. "It's not safe to walk in the greenhouse without shoes."

"I don't know," she answered casually. "It just disappears."

"Disappears?"

"I think the Nargles got it," she continued, tilting her head around to see what was behind my body as she tried to look at the greenhouse. "I've bought a lot of shoes, but they seem to disappear often."

Great, I guess I should tell Professor Sprout about this…

"Wait here. Don't enter the greenhouse without shoes, got it?"

The blonde-haired girl just nodded. I gave her a mask, and she walked towards Professor Sprout. While the class has not yet started, the place has already turned quite noisy. The living plants seem to be disturbed by it, but not to the point of attacking the students, yet.

"Professor, can I talk to you for a moment?" I spoke quietly.

"What is it? Why is Miss Lovegood just standing near the door? Bring her here," she pointed out.

"She's not wearing shoes, Professor."

Sprout looked at me, his eyes wide with perplexity. "Not wearing shoes? Why?"

"She said it disappeared for no reason." I continued. "Nargles, whatever that is."

"Nargles, what are nargles?" Sprout was even more confused. "Is she finding excuses?"

"No, I think she just doesn't want to tell the truth or simply does not know." I whispered. "I think someone hid it from her."

Sprout's eyes instantly narrowed. "Are you sure that that is the case?"

"I frankly don't know, professor; I'm just assuming. She doesn't seem to be the type to lie to skip classes, and you know, if she did want to skip classes, she wouldn't have come."

Both of us then turned towards the blonde-haired girl. She just stood there, her eyes wandering around, twinkling her toes every now and then, looking around the greenhouse dreamily. She truly looks like she was high on drugs.

Sprout hummed. "Well, I guess you do have a point."

The professor then walked towards the front of the class, making the students' attention go to her. She took a handheld spade near her and used it to lightly tap the table, making some noise, so the students became quiet.

"Before we start the class for today, I wish to ask you all something, especially the Ravenclaw students." She spoke with a firm tone. It was not like Professor Sprout at all; she looked quite stern, and I could see a shadow of Professor McGonagall in the way she acted. "It has come to my attention that one of your housemates has lost her shoes. Do any of you in the room have anything to do with it?"

Before she asked that question, there was a rather comfortable silence. But now, the students looked tense, and they were afraid to speak up.

"No? At all?" she continued. "Very well. "I'd like to inform you all that this inappropriate behaviour will be severely punished; if I catch any of you in my class right now as the ones behind this, I will not hesitate to send you to detention for the rest of the school year, especially now that the Triwizard tournament is approaching; you wouldn't want to miss it, would you?"

The classroom fell silent once more, and no one responded to her. She only sighed and moved her gaze to me. "You should assist Miss Lovegood in finding her shoes, and then bring her to Professor Flitwick."

I nodded in response to her comments. "Okay, professor."

======

I'm simply wandering around the corridors with the blonde-haired girl, waving my wand in the air every couple of feet and casting Revelio. I was going to use the summoning charm, but I don't know how her shoes look, her description isn't enough because it was barely usable, and the summoning charm would frequently fail if we didn't know where the item was, so I decided to multi-task and use this opportunity to collect some pages of the field guide, which I did.

"Luna, was it?" I said. "Do you know where they might hide your shoes? Waving my wand every now and again is becoming tiresome."

"I honestly don't know," she answered, her eyes wandering away. "But I once found one accidentally, tied to a small pillar on the transfiguration courtyard's roof."

Seriously?

I sighed. "Why don't you say it earlier?"

"You didn't ask," she answered. "You only said to describe my shoes to you."

"Well, let's just look around there, then." I continued.

The Transfiguration courtyard was only a short distance away from the greenhouse corridors. We passed the great hall, where I got a few pages, and opened the wide door to the courtyard.

The space was relatively big, with a lot of vegetation in the corner, outdoor passages all around it, and a wonderful fountain in the centre. I cast Revelio there, and I immediately located the shoes, which were tied to one of the pillars on the roof of the outdoor passageways.

"There it is," she said, pointing at the shoes. She hadn't even used Revelio when she discovered it...

Finally, she took out her wand, pointed it at her shoes, and chanted the incantation of the summoning charm.

"Accio."

The shoes then untangled themselves from the pillar and flew towards Luna, where they dropped themselves in front of her. She quickly wore it, moving it around to check its comfortability, and finally turned towards me.

"Good?" I asked, and she nodded. "Alright, let's go to Professor Flitwick then."

"Why? We should go to the greenhouse again. I want to see the plants there," she answered.

"Well, we need to report it to him." I said. God, I feel like a prefect. "Luna, you do realise what they're doing to you is rather cruel, right? Why didn't you report it?"

"Professor Flitwick didn't believe me that Nargles took the shoes."

"Come on, Luna, you know it's not the nargles." I said, raising my brow at her. "They're bullying you."

"They're just playing with me," she continued. "I hear that girls my age like to do this sort of thing; I prefer not to be judgmental of them."

"So you know who they are?"

"Not really," she murmured.

Seeing that this conversation is going nowhere, I just shook my head. "Come on, let's go to Flitwick."

When we went to the professor, he was obviously angry when I told him the situation, not just at the bully but somehow also at Luna, even though he was not as angry at her as than the former. Luna was being chastised in his office for not telling him about the bullying and for lying to him about the shoe situation, as she had previously told him that it had been taken by something else, which he referred to as a "fictional creature."

Luna, though, kept her calm and instead stood her ground when it came to the existence of nargles and continued to explain to the professor what nargles are, which the professor just shook his head at, seemingly giving up on her quirky beliefs.

Finally, the professor would question every Ravenclaw this evening to punish whoever had done this to her, and we were dismissed.

So now we're walking towards the greenhouse again to see if the class is still ongoing.

"Thank you for today, Abe," she said calmly, smiling dreamily at me.

What? Abe?

"Abe?" I raised my brow.

"Short for Abraham, I just thought about it," she pointed out excitedly. "Your name is rather long; it makes my tongue tired. Or would you prefer that I call you Abram instead? Though I heard that's supposed to be a pet name in the Hebrew language."

"I'll stick with Abe..."