VOID, h. potter

iv. herbology homework

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CHAPTER FOUR
— herbology homework

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FORTUNATELY FOR JULIET, Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons became increasingly better after the first one and soon became everyone's favourite lesson.

After boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed: in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had gotten lost. From Red Caps they moved on to Kappas, creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.

In Juliet's last Herbology lesson, Professor Sprout had introduced a new term-long partnered project they had to complete. It sounded very fun and exciting to Juliet up until Professor Sprout mentioned that she had assigned their partners already, much to the class' disappointment. Juliet was content with being partnered up with Harry, but she couldn't tell from his expression if he was as well. They hadn't decided about anything to do with the project yet.

Caleb was less fortunate with his pairing, as he was put with Hannah Abbott. There wasn't anything wrong with Hannah, Caleb liked her, she just seemed to like him a little... too much.

However, the rest of Juliet's lessons were only growing duller. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence after his first, very disastrous, lesson and were now spending all their time learning how to look after Flobberworms, which, in Kate's opinion, were 'the most boringest creatures on planet earth'.

Divination was even more boring than Care of Magical Creatures. Will had been right: Juliet and Kate felt their sanity and will to live chipping away every minute they spent in that stuffy tower. It also didn't help that Trelawney always felt the need to comment on Juliet's supposedly 'intense aura', which spooked Kate out every time.

Potions was the worst of them all: Snape's anger and moodiness had multiplied by tenfold ever since the news spread of his new fashion sense. This then meant that Snape's hatred for Juliet had increased ten times as much as it was before, and that he took his anger out by treating her more horribly than the rest of the class. He had failed Juliet three times in the past three lessons for 'not getting the potion right' because it 'didn't look right' from where he was standing. The third time that it happened, Juliet had had enough and stood up for herself.

While expected but still incredibly unfortunate, this led to a week's worth of detentions, which Juliet had seen coming due to the fact that her 'confrontation' consisted of calling him a 'greasy twat' and a 'useless abomination'.

Despite this, Juliet's spirits stayed high as she now had Quidditch to occupy her. She and Callum tried out for the team and while Juliet was successful in becoming one of Hufflepuff's chasers, Callum unluckily only qualified as a reserve Keeper. Their new Hufflepuff Quidditch captain, Cedric Diggory, welcomed them both kindly and Juliet began training hard through the month of October in all types of weather with her new team.

On Halloween, Juliet, Kate, Will, and Callum were all excitedly chattering about their trip to Hogsmeade, which they were finally able to go to now that they were third-years. They waited in the line with their permission slips in hand where Filch the caretaker and Professor McGonagall were checking off names and collecting the slips in.

Soon it was their turn, and Kate, Will, and Callum were all approved to go, but when it was Juliet's turn, McGonogall pulled her aside.

"I'm sorry, Miss Blanchard, but it's been advised that you don't go into Hogsmeade this year."