Freaks: Year Two

Potions And Peaches

Alabaster ran into the Potions classroom, skidding to a halt at the doorframe, narrowly missing the wall that he had not taken notice of. He was late, he knew for sure because when he looked into the classroom, the students were already taking notes from the board that showed a messy chalky scrawl.

He slowly walked into the classroom, hoping that no one would take notice that he was a few minutes late. The professor was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was in his office right now or had stepped out for whatever reason and Alabaster was glad because maybe then he would not be caught and be in trouble on the first day of classes.

Unfortunately, someone had taken notice of his tardiness. Eve spotted him right away and shot him a glare that he picked up as, why are you late, you are making everything worse. Something like that. Alabaster could not be too sure, but she was angry, that much was clear.

He went over to the third row where a Gryffindor girl was sitting with an empty chair beside her. He looked at her and asked, "May I sit with you?"

The girl gave a forced smile and answered, "Okay."

Alabaster returned the smile not picking up the fact it was forced, and sat down next to her. He looked at the board, not getting any picture of what they were supposed to be doing. He started to get his Potions textbook out of his bookbag while asking, "So...what are we doing?"

The girl indicated to the board with her left hand while she continued to use her purple quill with her right to make notes. "Just taking notes while Professor Slughorn gets a new cauldron for the potion we are brewing today."

Alabaster nodded, placing his textbook on his desk just as Slughorn entered the classroom. "Alright class, now that we have gone over the safety precautions of potion making, you will now brew a simple Giggling Potion with your partner. The instructions and ingredients can be found on the board and in your textbooks on page eight."

Alabaster looked over to the Gryffindor girl. "How much did I miss?"

"You missed the introduction," she told him as she opened her book to page eight. "Just about the basic safety rules with the cauldrons and handling the ingredients...some of the potions we will be brewing...that type of stuff, don't worry too much about it."

Alabaster opened his textbook. "So...what is your name?"

"Alice Prewitt," she replied. "You can call me Ali."

Alabaster nodded. "My name is Alabaster Jackson...you can call me...well Alabaster."

She nodded, and gave an awkward, nervous smile. "Okay." She looked back at the recipe for the Giggling Potion that was listed in the textbook. "So..." she started slowly. "How about you get the ingredients while I get the cauldron ready?" He nodded. "We need alihotsy leaves, billywig wings, knarl quills, puffskein, and horseradish powder," Ali read as her eyes scanned each ingredient on the page.

Alabaster nodded and stood up. "Sure." He grabbed his textbook, and went to the back where all the potion ingredients were stored.

Alabaster looked around the potion storeroom. There were bottles, and bottles of different types of colourful liquids, some of which had different textures and thicknesses, and there were containers with frog legs, puffskein, a couple of different types of eyeballs, big and small, and a lot of other oddities that he could not quite identify.

He first found the puffskein. It was pretty easy to identify without reading the label as the ingredient had a very unique look to it due to the furriness.

Next, he needed to find where the alihotsy leaves were. He thought that would be the next best thing to find as he knew they were some type of leaf by the name.