Corrupted Souls | remus lupin

rat tonic

As she walked into her first class of the day, double potions, Neoma frowned lightly. It seemed that three students who had been in their N.E.W.T. level class last year dropped down to a standard level, leaving Neoma with two Griffyndors, three Ravenclaws, four Hufflepuffs, and ... Severus Snape.

Of course she was a couple of minutes late (Narcissa hogged the mirror in the mornings), making her the last person to enter the classroom. Everyone sat with their houses, leaving her to sit with none other than one of the most miserable people she had ever met. 

"Good morning, Severus." She muttered, eliciting a grunt from the boy as she slid into her seat. Neoma scoffed at his greeting (or lack there of) before bending over to fetch a quill out of her bag.

Severus took a quick glance at her over his hooked nose. He hadn't spoken much to Neoma, but now that he'd been spending a good amount of time with her friends he felt like he knew much more about her than she knew about himself. The thought made him comfortable as he flipped open his book. 

"Where's Slughorn?" Amos Diggory, Hufflepuff's quidditch captain,  announced loudly from the other side of the room. "Do we get to leave if he doesn't show up soon?"

"Shut up, Diggory." Snape grumbled, though looking impatiently over his shoulder as if his gaze would summon their large-boned professor through the door. His eyes awkwardly met Lily Evans', and his face blanched as his head snapped back into its forward position.

"Just a moment!" A voice bellowed, and everyone's eyes fell onto the closed door of Horace Slughorn's office. Had he been in there the whole time?

The small wooden door swung open, and Slughorn rushed out awkwardly. His bowtie was crooked and the right side of his strawberry blonde mustache was slightly matted down; clearly he'd fallen asleep at his desk. 

"Sorry everyone, just had to finish up an important letter to a healer at St. Mungo's! Good morning to you all."

Neoma raised a brow at his obvious lie, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her chair. With a quick wave of his wand, a line of ingredients floated their way out of the storeroom and landed onto the table at the front of the room. "Welcome to your final first class of potions ... where has the time gone?! I'm sorry we couldn't meet last week, I was finishing up some work for The Ministry. But you are all fantastic students, and I have no doubt that we'll be caught up in a couple of days."

He wasn't lying when he said that the group was 'fantastic'. As a matter of fact, the class of '78 was probably the most well-rounded and talented group of witches and wizards he'd ever had the pleasure of teaching. 

"I suppose I'll break you up into your partners for the year first. Where did my paper go - one moment ..." He rushed back into his office, and Snape snorted lightly. 

"He just flew a bunch of ingredients out of a closet but can't do the same for a piece of paper?"

"Remember the time he came in last year with coffee spilled down his shirt and he never even noticed? I don't think he's a morning person." Neoma sniggered, falling silent as Slughorn made his way back to the front of the classroom. 

"Okay - whew, sorry about that ... ok ... " he squinted down at the crumpled parchment in his fleshy hands. "Glinda Korbin, Jack McCowen, and Gregory Lithe - you'll have to be a group of three, Alder Korbin with Severus Snape, Selene Lavoie with Tu Nguyen, Remus Lupin and Amos Diggory, Lily Evans and Neoma Nott."

Lily's eyes widened nervously as her eyes fell on the back of the Slytherin's head. Neoma Nott hung around some of the most cruel people she'd ever come across; she did not want a Slytherin's bigotry and arrogance to ruin one of her favorite classes. They had shared many classes together over the years but they rarely interacted - and Lily wanted to keep it that way.