Aesthete | George Weasley

Chapter 8

"I can't believe Snape just took five points away from me!" shouted Leanne loudly after they finally escaped the dungeon after two hours of potions.

"Not so loud – he could still be around." Katie hissed with a warning, but Leanne didn't care at the moment.

"Let him hear me and know that he has wrongly taken points from me! I knew the answer – just not exactly as he imagines!" complained Leanne.

"You can't do anything about it anyway." Katie also wanted to assure her. "Snape has the upper hand."

"Leanne is right." Tia remarked. "Snape should be taught a lesson."

"And that's what you're saying?" asked Katie, confused. "Potions is your favorite subject, and Snape loves you!"

"That doesn't mean I like him, and he has no right to bully my friends for no reason! Leanne has even studied for this lesson and yet, he finds a reason to punish her!"

"Tia, anger doesn't suit you – we can't do anything, Snape can't stand me and as it stands, he will never like me either." Leanne tried to persuade her. "I think it's really nice that you want you defend me like that, but it's really not that bad – I just hope everyone else doesn't think it's bad that I always lose points."

"Smile, Tia. Leanne is right – joy suits you much better than anger." Katie agreed.

"Oh, I'll laugh." Tia promised, quickening her steps to walk ahead of her friends. Katie and Leanne looked at each other worriedly.

"She's scary, when she's angry." Leanne remarked.

"And I'm afraid of how she'll take revenge." Katie agreed. "I hope she doesn't do rash things."

"Tia doesn't." Leanne waved off. "It's Tia we're talking about here. She's only angry because Snape has something against me. She is friendly, helpful, shy, and she apologizes about a hundred times a day!"

For a moment, the two walked silently next to each other before they both almost came to the conclusion that they were talking about Tia and no matter how short they knew her, they already knew that Tia did something occasionally that surprised everyone.

"We have a problem." Katie remarked. "Tia! Tia, wait for us!"

"Tia, we want to keep a watchful eye on you!" called Leanne after her. "We shouldn't have let her out of our sight in the first place."

Together, they ran to catch up with Tia and keep an eye on her until the girl calmed down and was no longer angry.

They probably shouldn't have let her out of their sight, because Tia hid behind a corner and watched as Katie ran past her, followed by the slower Leanne. As soon as she was sure that they hadn't seen her and that they wouldn't come back, she dared to leave her hiding place and went back the way they had just come.

Usually, Tia was quiet, shy, and reserved, but as soon as she noticed that one of her friends was being treated unfair, she couldn't help but feel revengeful.

She was quickly back in the dungeons, listening attentively near the door to the Potions classroom, but it was silent. It was time for lunch, so there were no other classes in it, and Snape should already be gone.

After Tia was quite sure that no one was nearby and no one was in the classroom itself, she carefully opened the door. It wasn't locked up – presumably it wasn't expected that students would return to the place of torture, but that made Tia's task much easier.

She didn't do much – in fact, she only swapped a few labels of the different remedies and ingredients needed for potions. She made sure she swapped the stickers for similar-looking ingredients, so it wasn't immediately obvious, and after a few minutes she left the classroom and followed her friends into the Great Hall.