by
Catherine King
In Herbology, they learned about Tarada plants in Greenhouse 2, which held vegetation.
“Now, what three Muggle trees have relations to the Tarada plant?”
Hermione’s hand shot up. “The Tarada plant comes from dogwood, apple, and cherry.”
“Good, 10 points for Gryffindor. Now where is its country of origin, and where did the name come from? Write the answer on your parchment, and hand it in to me.”
At the end of the class, everyone - save Neville - had gotten the answer wrong. Neville knew the answer straight off. Herbology was his best subject - it was what made him pass his exams to get into the second year in the first place. He had become better and better, and now he was good enough to be a teacher in Herbology. No, really. Neville showed very little pride on the matter.
“Now, homework will be: make a chart of other plant discoveries in Poland, and tell what you think would be another good name for the Tarada plant.”
In Potions, their lesson wasn’t half as enjoyable. Snape made them work on Love Feelings Potions and was dying to have someone to practice on. “Hmmmm… now whom should I pick? I’ll start with - Longbottom!”
Neville looked freaked out of his skull; he was looking almost as if he was going to execution. When given a sip of the crimson liquid, his face turned an emerald hue and he screamed:
“I have a crush on Sally-Anne Perks, of Hufflepuff!”
The Gryffindors stared at Neville as though he had done extreme magic in front of Muggles, while the Slytherins screamed with laughter. Snape looked as though trying not to laugh. He then shoved some Silence Solution into Neville’s mouth.
“That was amusing,” said Snape, as Hermione led Neville back to his seat. “Now, we will only do three people per lesson. Our next dummy to test his potion will be best as - Finnigan!”
Seamus turned a disgusting red before spilling out his secret, but Harry wasn’t listening. He was adding extra wormwood to his potion.
“This is our last victim,” said Snape smoothly. “You will all preserve your potion with rickaden, the preservation herb. And now up is - Potter!”
Harry’s stomach had been extremely painful, but ‘extremely’ was too poor an adverb for how he felt now. Harry scooped up his potion into a crystal phial, screwed up his courage, and walked to the head of the classroom. When up there, he looked down at his potion, which was amethyst purple. Snape had said that the darker it was, the harder to resist. This hue would almost haunt Harry for the rest of his life. This day would, too.
Harry closed his eyes and took a sip.
It was such an ugly feeling. First he felt like lizards were crawling into his heart. Then it was like they were crawling out. Before he knew it, he was screaming, “I have a crush on Cho Chang, the former Ravenclaw Seeker!”
The Slytherins laughed uproariously; Draco Malfoy fell out of his chair and Harry had an evil desire to choke him with Love Feelings Potion. Instead, he walked shakily to his desk. The bell that rang six minutes later was more welcome than anything on Earth.
The next lesson was double Charms with the Ravenclaws. Parvati and Lavender jabbered with Padma, Parvati’s twin sister. Seamus and Dean tried to help Mandy Brocklehust with how to make a group of beetles play “I Want It That Way,” but it looked more like flirting. Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Terry Boot had a hard time making some apples play a game of Monopoly with a board game they conjured up. The game was eventually ended, but the apple that got Boardwalk and Park Place put up a vicious fight, and was soon eaten.
The Care of Magical Creatures was very enjoyable. They learned about centaurs, and when they were chatting with the centaurs, well, let’s just say they learned about Astronomy as well as centaurs. Harry, Ron, and Hermione took the centaur named Firenze, who knew Harry quite well. Dean, Seamus, and Neville took the one called Bane. Finally, Lavender and Parvati were with the centaur named Ronan.
At the end of the lesson, a happy and relaxed class walked toward Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Gradison taught them how to lift curses off of animals.
“It’s a simple procedure,” she assured them. “You just do a very hard Freezing Charm -- which will not hurt the animal because of the curse -- and then perform the countercurse, if you can figure out what the curse is.”
In Transfiguration, they discovered that you can’t mix apples and oranges. The hard way. The class had to turn, well, apples into oranges. The most they could do, however, was all make a mixture of the two. Even Hermione. As detention (uh-oh!) Professor McGonagall had them eat the “fruits” that they had conjured up - for lunch, and not eat anything else. That was torture.
It was Friday, and afternoons were off, so Harry, Ron and Hermione went off to visit Hagrid.
“So, Hagrid, how’s your week going?” asked Harry.
“Fine, jus’ fine…Say, have yeh learned how to lift the curse or hex offa an animal? ‘Cause a brat in Slytherin hexed a Feromen after it wouldn’t take ‘im fer a lift… and I never made to me 7th year.” Hagrid had been expelled in his 3rd year at Hogwarts.
“Of course, we know, Hagrid,” said Hermione. “We learned about it today. C’mon, I’ll show you.” And she and Hagrid went to see the Feromen, which was a rainbow-colored bird with silken feathers, and was so vain it would only carry those who appealed to it on its back. It was also extremely stubborn. Harry and Ron could here Hermione saying, “It’s OK, we’re trying to help!” and Hagrid booming, “No, Ducky, Fang is not that kid!”
“Ducky?” asked Ron. “What kind of a name is that?!”
“A stupid one,” Harry muttered. Aloud he said, “Ron, our match against Ravenclaw is coming up. We should begin training sessions, and try not to linger. Got it?”
“Got it,” replied Ron. He too was eager to win the Quidditch cup. They hadn’t won it in their fourth year, and the shame almost hung over their heads.
