𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 | 𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑚

Chapter 6 - The Forbidden Forest

Classes after the match were difficult to hold the attention of for very long--most of Helena's students seemed much more focused on the events of the Quidditch game, and were keen to talk about them above everything else, including their work. Griffin had gained quite the number of hallway fans--mainly girls in the years below him--who swooned or otherwise feigned attention when he spoke of his talent on the field. Helena found this especially annoying, even as a professor--mostly because the flocks of them would congregate right outside her classroom door, making it difficult for anyone else to make their way through.

Her first hour, however, was tame as always--most of the first years, it seemed, were Muggleborns, and more or less interested in the events of Quidditch. Elijah Winstaff and his buddy, Marlon Murphy, were the biggest fans of the sport out of the entire room; the rest of them simply acknowledged the fun aspects of it and then moved on to other conversations. Helena supposed they likely did not know what to do with the information of a wizarding sport yet, though she had a quiet bet placed that Geneva Kearney, a Muggleborn she had heard was a natural talent at flying from the ramblings of Madam Hooch at the High Table, would be on the Hufflepuff House team by her third year.

Halloween was approaching them fast now, and Helena was quite relieved when she found that the date was on a Saturday--perfect timing, she thought. That way everybody got a break, and a holiday, all wrapped in one. Additionally, the Hogsmeade trip was that day--Helena had overheard some of her third years discussing the possibility of wearing costumes to the village, though they had eventually decided against it due to lack of fabric within the castle. This disappointed them--one had been very set on going as Princess Leia, which had confused the other students immensely. Helena could not place the name of the character herself, but knew it to be familiar, and gave the third-year the validation she'd needed. "I know who you're talking about," she gave a little white-lie, acknowledging her. She seemed relieved.

"See?" She told her friends. "Professor Borington has taste."

And Helena nodded, even though she still did not have a face for the name Princess Leia.

The Friday evening before Halloween, her entire batch of Draught of Peace for Madam Pomfrey was finally ready. She had managed to make twenty some-odd jars with the hellebore Neville had given her, something she still felt incredibly grateful to him for--she would not have been able to dole them out this fast without his help, after all. As classes were wrapped up and supper was underway upstairs, Helena bustled around her classroom, gathering the Draught jars into a carrying crate in order to make her delivery to Madam Pomfrey. When she lifted the box, she realized something that made her groan.

It was quite heavy.

Taking a deep breath, bracing herself, Helena tried to shift the weight to her legs, careful not to put the pressure on her back. After getting as comfortable as she could with the thing, she began to make her way down the hallway from her room, up the stairs to the Great Hall. She was so caught up in her task that she didn't at first hear her name being called.

"Helena--hey, Helena!"

She turned, breathless, to see both Harry and Neville jogging up to her, their plates of food abandoned up on the table. "What'cha got there?" Harry asked, pointing to the box.

From standing still for so long, the box was starting to pull her down. Helena sat it down, brushing her palms off to ease them from the stress of holding something so large. "Draught of Peace," she told him, placing her hands on her hips and looking down at the bottles. She then looked back to him. "For Madam Pomfrey."

"Looks awfully heavy," Neville commented. "Need any help?"

"Wha--no, no," Helena immediately said, waving her hands in the air. "No, I think I've got it."