CHERRY // marlene mckinnon

-thirty nine

  As much as Aurora had missed Hogwarts, she certainly did not miss all of the assignments that the professors had started giving out on the first day of classes.

"Sometimes I just cannot wait until we are out of this place. At least we won't have to deal with writing five page essays." Narcissa groaned as Aurora and her walked into Slughorn's classroom.

"I can't tell if I hate or love this class." Aurora replied to her as they both sat down.

"I think the problem I have is with Slughorn. I still don't know how you managed to skip all of his Slug Club parties last year." Narcissa said.
The room was then starting to fill up. Mainly with Gryffindors.

"Well he can't make me go to them if I'm 'sick' am I right?" Aurora smirked. "And plus, I was rather occupied with other things last year."

"Oh yes, I know." Narcissa said, looking at Marlene who had just walked into the room with Lily and another girl with dark hair that she didn't seem to recognize.

Like always, Marlene was in her usual outgoing and playful mood, with Lily and Mary laughing along with whatever they were talking about.

"We are going to crush those Slytherins at the match."

"Calm down, Marls. The next quidditch match isn't until two months." Mary told her.

"But you know how she is. And James too for that matter." Lily said as the three sat down. "They're both so determined to win."

"Yeah, because we will." Marlene emphasized. "But as much as I love our team, I have to admit, the Slytherins aren't too bad either when it comes to Quidditch."

"They beat your arses in like the first two matches last year." Mary agreed with Marlene.

"Can we not talk about quidditch for one minute?" Lily groaned. With Marlene and James (and even Sirius at times), it was always nonstop talking about quidditch.

"Well what do you suggest we talk about, then? Potions? Arithmancy? Ancient runes— can you believe she took ancient runes?!" Marlene exclaimed, causing Lily to lightly slap her on the arm.

"You know, it can actually be quite interesting." Lily defended herself.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night." Marlene snorted.

"Oh here comes dear old Sluggy." Mary whispered as Professor Slughorn entered the room.

"Hello, hello! Welcome back to another year of potions with me." Slughorn greeted them. "Now this year'll be a tad bit different. Difficult even. Seeing as it's your last year at Hogwarts and you have to take your NEWT exams at the end of the year. And for now, I won't assign any partners so you may all work with whom you wish."

"Now, open your books to page 268..."

*****

Aurora pretty much zoned out during the rest of the class and Narcissa had to snap her fingers in front of her face a couple of times to tell her that it was time to leave.

"What? Oh— right! Sorry." She quickly answered before getting up and gathering her things. For some reason, potions was starting to bore her. But maybe that was because she didn't have any motivation. No one at Hogwarts did, with Voldemort quickly gaining more power and recruiting even more people.  And that of course, always led to more deaths.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly, or so it seemed to since Aurora couldn't exactly concentrate.

It was pretty much the same thing for every class; the professors welcoming the students back and then assigning something for them to
complete.