Queen of Disaster | 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑢𝑠 𝐿𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑛

Chapter 108

"Settle down, settle down," Professor Slughorn said with a weary smile as he entered the Potions classroom, and the chattering slowly faded away at his arrival.

"If you could please place your summer assignments on the table, I'll collect them, and we'll begin the lesson momentarily," the Potions master instructed, and so the students set their long assignments before them. With an effortless swish of his wand, Professor Slughorn caused all the papers to fly toward him and collected them.

He then soon started explaining about the Golpalott's Third Law, but all Diana managed to understand was that it had something to do with poisons, meanwhile, Lily and James were taking quick notes and Layla was listening with all her attention.

Diana felt like she was growing more and more drowsy, and found it almost impossible to listen to the teacher anymore. But she wasn't alone; even Sirius was resting his head on the table, obviously dozing off. Even Alice looked bored with the lesson, but she was certainly trying her best to pay attention and take notes every now and then.

     "Golpalott's Third Law is a law for making antidotes for a blended poison — that is, a poison created by mixing several other poisons together, as you know — and it could not simply be created by finding the antidotes to each separate poison in the blended whole and mixing them together," Professor Slughorn went on to explain. "Instead, the potion maker has to find that single ingredient which, when added to the blended antidotes, transformed them near-alchemically into a combined whole which will counteract the entire blended poison. Simply put, according to this law, a true antidote to a blended poison is more than the sum of its parts."

     The only person around their table who seemed both interested in the subject and understanding it thoroughly, was Lily, who was still briskly taking notes.

"Therefore, in conclusion," Slughorn said more loudly, snapping Diana awake as she was slowly drifting to sleep, "the antidote for a blended poison will be equal to more than the sum of the antidotes for each of the separate components — yes, Miss Evans?"

He gestures at Lily who had raised her hand, and so she said, "But, sir, wouldn't be easier to just give the person a Bezoar?"

The class turned to look at Slughorn who gaped at Lily for a few seconds before bursting out in a cheerful laughter.

"You have a wonderfully unique mind, Miss Evans! Absolutely wonderful!" Slughorn chuckled. "Yes, you're quite right. That would be much easier. Ten points to Gryffindor."

      Two yeas ago, Diana would've scowled that a Gryffindor had earned extra points, but she surprised even herself when she smiled at Lily and gave her a thumbs-up.

      Next, they had Transfigurations with Professor McGonagall, who spent the first ten minutes of the class warning them about their upcoming N.E.W.Ts, telling them that they had to take the exams seriously — at which point a loud cackle came from the back of the class.

  Diana knew well enough that it had to be James and Sirius. Professor McGonagall sighed, shaking her head in disappointment. Six years had passed and yet they hadn't changed a bit.

"As I was saying," she went on more firmly, "These exams will determine your future career. Whether you want become a Potioneer, an Auror, Healer, Accountant, or anything else, you need good grades to proceed. Now, for today's lesson, we will be working on turning toads into toadstools. We will be, as you know, work on the spell nonverbally."

***

It was during lunch when Diana saw Remus approaching the Slytherin table while she was sitting beside Layla.

"Hey," Remus greeted them with a warm smile. "Do you guys mind if I joined you?"

"Whaf do you fink? 'Course we don't mind!" Layla said with her mouth full.

"Right." Remus chuckled, sitting down on the empty spot beside Diana. "Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"What's up?" Diana asked him worriedly, placing down her cup of pumpkin juice after taking a sip from it.

     "The Hogsmeade trip is in a few weeks, and I was wondering that... well... are we still going to go together?"

     "Why shouldn't we?"

     "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because your 'fiancé' literally threatened that he will kill us if we don't break up?" Remus air-quoted the word with a teasing smile, but Diana frowned. She couldn't bring herself to joke around about this certain matter.

     "He gave me until Christmas to break up with you, so I guess no one's going to kill us now," she said. "Besides, we can go as a group, and make it look like we're just friends."

"Why do you have to go through all this trouble?" said Layla. "It's not like he's going to come to Hogwarts every single day to see if you're still together. He graduated two years ago, for Merlin's sake."

"He's got spies," Diana said more quietly. "Avery and Mulciber, for example. Look over there. They're watching us as we talk."

She gestured her head down the Slytherin table, and when Remus looked up, he locked eyes with Avery, who glanced away from him abruptly.

"You're right." Remus sighed. "I guess we could go with our friends. But James and Lily won't be there; they're going on their first date — and about time, too. Also, Frank has taken a day off Ministry and is coming to Hogsmeade to meet up with Alice. Sirius is going on a date, too."

"So it's just you, me, Peter, and Layla, right?" said Diana.

"Hey, I didn't say I would come with you!" Layla retorted.

"Actually, Marlene will be there too, I guess. If she doesn't have other plans," Remus informed Diana. "So of Layla comes, it will be five of us. That's good enough, I suppose."

     Layla opened her mouth to speak, but she halted. Suddenly, everyone in the hall began to fall silent, the chattering slowly dying out. A gloomy atmosphere had fallen upon the Great Hall.

      Diana looked up to see what was going on, and that was when she saw Professor Flitwick walking over the Ravenclaw table, asking a girl to follow him out of the Great Hall with a sad expression all over his face.

      Everyone knew what that meant.

       When the Head of a house asked a student to leave with them, they either wanted to inform them of the death of a family member, or someone being severely injured or missing. Either way, it was always bad news.

     All they could all hope for was that nothing like this would happen to them.