Verboten

Potions

Lunchtime passed without a hitch, and Hanji had almost forgotten about what she said. Almost, that is. She still sometimes paused before taking another bite of beef, her gaze accidentally wandering to the Slytherin table where Erwin sat silently, his gaze brooding like some kind of male, anxious Mona Lisa. His crew of Slytherin prefects all babbled to each other around him, but he looked lost to them, not even listening.

Hanji's beef would feel bitter.

It was just her luck that very few had passed their OWL examinations in Potions in her year. Two Gryffindors, three Hufflepuffs, four Ravenclaws, and only three Slytherins. That group was an excellently intelligent bunch.

Of course Erwin Smith had to be amongst them.

A Hufflepuff must have overheard something about the incident, because she brought Hanji aside after lunch on the way to the common room and whispered: "Is it true that you and the head boy had a fight and that you hexed each other and his eyebrows had swollen up to the size of chocolate bars?"

Hanji blinked at her. "How did you-"

"You were pretty loud- to me, at least. And, err, I happened to be searching for something I left behind..."

"Of course you did. But that never really happened-"

"I knew it. It's pretty unlikely anyway. He deflects hexes faster than anything."

"Anyway," the girl said, "I just thought it would be a good idea to warn you. Erwin Smith is, like, the ringleader of the Slytherins. You should feel lucky he didn't deduct fifty points from Ravenclaw. He did that to Gryffindor once. He's that powerful."

"That's ridiculous..." Hanji suspected she sounded uncomfortable. She puffed up her flat chest proudly. "He's a student like any other! And he has no right to go around calling my family idle just because they don't know magic."

"Ermm... can I just be honest?"

                "Huh?"

The girl looked down squeamishly at her shoes. "It wasn't very nice of you to tell him what you told him, you know?"

                Hanji swept her inquiry aside huffily. "Yeah, yeah, his parents divorced or something. Whatever, it's his business- not mine. He shouldn't have called me that anyway."

Shaking her head, the girl sighed. "You're right. It's none of your business. I'm Nanaba, by the way."

Hanji grinned her widest grin. "Hanji Zoë. Man, I'd love to talk with you some more- but I don't think Snape wants me to be late to his class this year. I've lost a total of thirty points for Ravenclaw last year, what a nightmare..."

                "Potions? Oh, I'm going there too!"

                "Really?"

                "Yeah- now let's just run for it."

Together they broke into a sprint, holding their messenger bags close to themselves, hoping that they wouldn't too late. By the time they arrived at the dungeons, their foreheads shiny and breaths short, the other students had already arrived. Nanaba and Hanji looked tentatively at each other- they had both hoped to sit together.

                Luckily enough for Hanji, Professor Snape hadn't arrived yet. She looked at her fellow Ravenclaws, praying inside her head for them to scoot over and let her sit in the middle inside of next to- gulp.

Unfortunately, Nanaba's Hufflepuff friends had saved a seat for her. Leave it to the badgers to be most loyal. She wanted to seriously yell at her buddies, but they only looked away.