Dandelions

DISCOVERING YOUR FAVORITE WAY TO BREAK YOUR BONES

The potions classroom was eerily silent, just as Professor Snape preferred it to be. The sound of students lowly mumbling to each other and cauldrons bubbling was the only thing to dull the silence. Rory shivered in his robe a little, hating the chill of the dungeons. He tried his best to ignore it while following the written instructions on the board.

Snape's handwriting was loose and swingy, his letters drooping and curling around the blackboard that Rory squinted at. He couldn't remember the last time he saw a teacher actually writing in cursive, nevermind so illegibly. It was going alright, though, Rory always asking Maggie which step said what and how to add the ingredients to his potion when confused.

"What's standard ingredient?" Rory leaned over toward Maggie, whispering it lowly so that Snape wouldn't hear.

"That's this herbal stuff," she pointed to her own little pile of green and brown powder, "Sprinkle it in while stirring."

"Why's it called that? Standard ingredient, I mean."

"Well, it's a staple of pretty much every potion," Maggie explained, following the steps at least two to three ahead of Rory, "It's standard, y'know?"

"Oh," he said quietly, nodding as he did his best to follow her example. It was sort of fun, potions class, that is. Not knowing what anything was happened to actually be frustrating, but making little potions in his cauldron felt like the best part of science class back in muggle school.

Rory glanced back up at the blackboard after adding in his standard ingredient, making out the instructions to let it boil for thirty seconds. He sat on his stool, slumped over with horrible posture, as he watched Maggie continue on with her steps. She didn't seem to mind being stared at, and slowly Rory began to feel guilty about asking for her help so often.

"Y'know," he said quietly, "Can I repay you for helping me? Like, maybe do your charms homework, since I'm good at that?"

"Oh, no," she giggled behind her hand to muffle the noise, "You're good, I don't mind helping you out."

"Still," he persisted, "I'd like to repay the favor."

Maggie idly stirred her pot while thinking it over, glancing back over to Rory with a grin shortly after.

"Buy me something from the trolley when we go back for winter holiday."

"What?" Rory sputtered, "That's hardly-"

"I'll consider us even for life," she tutted, stopping Rory from making any further protests. She looked proud as he slumped back down on his stool, defeated.

"Do you have any other friends in this class?" Rory asked randomly, looking around at the other students. Unfortunately, he didn't really know anyone other than Maggie--and it had briefly occurred to him that he might have prevented her from hanging out with her friends.

"No, I don't really, ehm, have any other friends," she sheepishly answered, letting out a nervous laugh at the end. "Merlin, that makes me sound like a loser!"

"No," he immediately protested, "I mean, I also don't really...have other friends."

The two sat in an awkward, lonely silence for a bit as Rory glanced up at the board to see what his next step would be.

"Don't you have a twin sister?" Rory suddenly said, "Mary? Why don't you two hang out, then?"

"Oh," Maggie exclaimed sadly, "She doesn't really want to talk to me, plus she was sorted into a different house. I don't know, I guess we're avoiding each other now."

Rory couldn't help but think it was so crazy how different the Church twins were when compared to the Weasley twins. It seemed like the two redheaded boys were attached at the hip, speaking in unison and finishing each other's sentences. Then there was Maggie and Mary, clearly a rift formed between them due to unknown reasons--not even Maggie seemed to grasp why Mary was acting like she was.