Harry Potter and the Bucket List

Year 2 - 6

Beta: Cloudy

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"Good morning Miss Potter," said a pretty blonde Ravenclaw who approached me at breakfast. I shifted in my seat at the Slytherin table to get a better look at her. Her hair was long, straight, and neatly pushed back by a blue and black headband. She had a nice smile which made me reflexively smile back at her.

"Good morning," I greeted pleasantly.

"I'm Penelope Clearwater," Penelope introduced herself. "I was told you want to learn Latin?"

"Oh!" I brightened. "Yes. Actually, all of us would like to. Would that be okay?"

Penelope's cheeks reddened and she looked over at the other second-year Slytherins in surprise. "All of you? I suppose I could. Are you guys free, say, Sunday evenings?"

"We'll make time for it. The library might not be big enough to accommodate all of us, but there's an empty classroom near the potions room," I said. "Would it be okay to meet there?"

"Sure," Penelope said sweetly. "I'll see you all next Sunday."

"Thank you," we politely said on cue. A snake should never initiate malice without reason. Penelope was doing us a favor, so we had to treat her courteously. Doing anything less would be... bad.

And if a snake was being bad, that meant they needed to be disciplined.

Which sounded awful on its own, but I didn't see it any different from a parent scolding a child for misbehaving. I wasn't about to raise these babeh snakes to start wailing in public at the slightest issue.

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October rolled into November without much fanfare. Latin tutoring started up without fuss. When Theodore mentioned it to Hermione on our run, Hermione, Harry, and Neville requested to tag along. Penelope was flattered to have so many people who wanted to learn under her, but since the group had gotten so big she had to enlist the help of a second helper. She had talked to Professor Flitwick and Professor Flitwick recommended Cedric Diggory.

What. A. Coincidence.

Hermione, Pansy, and Tracey certainly weren't complaining about Cedric's involvement. The three girls were not-so-subtly swooning over the fourth year, much to the chagrin of the boys.

All the other classes were progressing well enough except for DADA.

Since the disastrous episode of the pixies, Professor Lockhart had not brought live creatures to class. Instead, he read passages from his books to them and sometimes reenacted some of the more dramatic bits. He usually picked Harry to help him with these reconstructions. He did pull me up once, but I "accidentally" kept sneezing fireballs at him and "tripping" in such a manner I ended up kicking his shins three times.

He stopped calling on me.

Unfortunately, my brother was too kind for such tactics. It greatly amused me to see him suffer a bit so I hadn't stepped in on his behalf. Already, Harry had been forced to play a simple Transylvanian villager whom Lockhart had cured of a Babbling Curse, a yeti with a head cold, and a vampire who had been unable to eat anything except lettuce since Lockhart had dealt with him.

Harry was hauled to the front of the class during another Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, this time acting a werewolf. Harry hated to act like a werewolf. We both found Lockhart's perspective on werewolves to be deeply insulting to our favorite uncle.

"Go ahead then Harry, give us a nice howl," Professor Lockhart said encouragingly.

Harry stared at Lockhart for several seconds then turned to me and said, "Rosie, please."