𝐈. 𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 | 𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏

eight

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Lilith was busy doodling on her parchment with her quill, giggling quietly ever so often, she wasn't used to using quill when she had pens, or parchment when she had notebooks.

"I don't know, sir."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Lilith frowned when she saw ink splattered on the side of her parchment and she visibly deflated, resting her head on her arm. She huffed lightly, but it seemed to gain the attention of the Potions Master.

"Miss Jade? Would you care to help Mr. Potter?" He asked coldly, and Lilith blushed furiously at the sudden attention she received.

Chin up, straighten your back, eye contact.

Lilith did as she was told by the voice in her head, which she now recognized as her father.

"Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." Lilith answered, maintaining eye contact to appear confident in front of the Professor.

He simply narrowed his eyes down at her before turning back to the others.

"Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" He snapped.

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."

Lilith was visibly upset that she received no points from the Potions master, but the Weasley twins had already warned her that he despised Gryffindor and favors Slytherin.

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs,  criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.

He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes.

Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Lilith frowned at his choice of words, that wasn't something a teacher should call their students.

"That's not nice." Lilith commented, staring at the Professor with a look.

"Excuse me? Miss Jade?" The Professor snapped towards her.

"I said, that's not very nice, is it?" She repeated. "A Professor shouldn't call his student an idiot. Of course he doesn't understand, Professor. This is our first class, yes I understand that we all should have read the book before coming to Hogwarts, but you don't expect us to memorize the whole book, do you? If we do, then what is your purpose here as a teacher? Aren't you supposed to teach and guide us? Not call us names or degrade us for not knowing." Lilith's frowned visibly deepened, and there was something in the innocent girl's expression that caused everyone else to frown as well.