Chapter Six
Dropping Students
The Potions classroom was in the dungeons, but wasn’t at all cold looking. The windows were wide open and the sun poured in and lit up the classroom. Professor Schink wasn’t mean at all, but just a bit impatient. He assigned a small dollop of work which David and Lilly quickly finished, then worked on the potion to make pictures move in their remaining time.
Lilly took shots of David and the classroom with her mamera, and David took shots of Lilly, the students, and Professor Schink, who wasn’t to keen on David taking his picture. Then Lilly and David brewed the potion and dipped the film in. They had to let it set for a bit, so they talked quietly.
“So, what did Rowling make up, and what is true?” asked Lilly. David looked at the table and thought.
“Well, there is an Alberto Dumbledolm, but no Albus Dumbledore, and the same situation with McDronagall, Spiggett, and Pomfred. Rowling was pretty thick to hold such a grudge, don’t y’ think?”
Lilly nodded. They had fun talking about all sorts of Hogwarts things and Rowling.
When the potion was complete, the photos looked positively splendid. David in the picture was winking and waving, and Lilly was also waving and laughing. Potions class soon ended and Dave led Lilly towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. When Lilly asked him who would be teaching, he said he had no idea (“The last one got mauled by a centaur when he was teaching us its weaknesses last year.”). When they entered the classroom, the teacher wasn’t even there, so Lilly and David sat down in the back and waited anxiously with all the other nervous students for the new teacher to make an entrance.
Finally, a short, fat man came in. He was bald at the top with little hair by his ears, and was very pudgy.
“Um……hello,” he said nervously glancing around. “I’m Mr. Streege. Today, you get to taste this drink and…..uh….tell me what you think it is.” Mr. Streege held up a bumpy bottle with a jet black liquid held inside it. Lilly made a face. She thought it looked like ink. She wondered why he wasn’t even called a ‘professor’. Then Mr. Streege began pouring out the ghastly liquid into individual goblets. He instructed everyone to get one. Lilly was very curious as to why he’d do this. All of the students were hesitant, because they thought the same thing as Lilly. They all thought it was just weird. But, they drank it anyway because they trusted Mr. Streege, but Lilly and Dave did not. David gave Lilly a serious look which she knew meant, do not drink this. Lilly nodded at Dave and they pretended to drink the awful looking liquid.
Lilly and David guessed all these wild potions, but they couldn’t guess what it was or even get a word out to the teacher because Mr. Streege kept laughing, madly. It was very peculiar. He sounded like a mad scientist, laughing over his Frankenstein. Then, all of the students started acting all drunk and dizzy-like. David and Lilly exchanged very puzzled and confused looks. Soon, all of the students with the exception of Lilly and David fell to the ground and started cringing and yelling all kinds of gibberish. Now Lilly and David were really confused. Then suddenly, Mr. Streege abruptly stopped laughing and looked skeptically at David and Lilly. His stare looked like they had just killed someone dear to him.
David and Lilly jumped when they saw Mr. Streege staring at them, then fell to the floor and pretended to cringe and yell like everyone else. Then Mr. Streege laughed maniacally even more. Then he noticed Lilly’s spilled cup, then saw Dave’s cup. It still had a bit of the poisonous drink in it. Lilly saw Mr. Streege eying the cup and a sly look was spreading across his face. Lilly got scared. Then, it happened. Mr. Streege picked up the cup and poured it all over David’s head! Lilly saw drops get into his mouth. Oh no, she thought. Dave had been poisoned! Then Mr. Streege jumped as if someone had scared him and ran out of the classroom and into the hall.
Lilly bolted up and tried to figure out what had poisoned everyone. After a short, hopeless search of the room and the screaming students, she ran to the hospital wing where she saw Madam Pomfred pouring a blue substance into a long glass bottle. Lilly ran over to her and told her what had happened. Madam Pomfred was so shocked that she dropped the bottle which shattered into pieces. Then she rushed over to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with Lilly.
When Madam Pomfred saw the students writhing on the floor, including Lilly’s poor Dave, she quickly instructed Lilly, “You must inform the Headmaster about all of this immediately. Go to his office,” then she noticed Lilly’s petrified, stationary look. “Now!” Madam Pomfred cried. Lilly was startled, but nodded and ran into Dumbledolm’s office.
His office was gigantic. It had a 15ft door that led into a diamond shaped room where in the center was a desk and chair surrounded by many empty picture frames.
Lilly ran up to the desk and panted, “Professor Dumbledolm! My class has been……well…..knocked out because of something Mr. Streege gave them. Please come!” The chair spun around. Dumbledolm was very tall and thin and had a long white beard and green robes. He stood up.
“Thank you, Miss Green.” Then he passed by Lilly and went through the large door. Lilly was about to follow him when an announcement rang throughout the school. It was Professor McDronagall. “All students must report to their house common rooms immediately. All teachers report to the hospital wing at once. Thank you.” Lilly knew she should’ve obeyed, but she didn’t know anyone in Ravenclaw that could tell that she wasn’t there. Also, Lilly was dying to know what had happened, so she ran down to the hospital wing.
It was pretty easy to get there since there were hundreds of students flooding the halls. When Lilly peeked into the hospital wing, she saw all of her classmates, frozen and unconscious. Lilly was again, stunned. All the teachers but Mr. Streege were at the hospital wing, all looking extremely worried, especially Dumbledolm.
“Why on earth would Streege do such a thing?” asked McDronagall. Dumbledolm stared at her, mystified. Then all of the sudden, someone grabbed Lilly’s shoulder. Expecting to see Dave, Lilly smiled and turned around. Instead of Dave, it was a prefect. Lilly was saddened when she remembered that Dave was one of the unfortunate students lying before her in the hospital wing. The prefect had two, blue eyes, cold with authority.
“You need to go to your house common room, now.” They said. Lilly returned a cold stare back to him and walked towards the African painting. When she arrived in the common room, it was bustling with excitement and curiosity. Lilly could hear that they were happy to get out of class, but were also curious as to why.
Lilly didn’t feel happy in the slightest. All she had for a friend was Dave, and now that he wasn’t there, she had no one. Lilly decided to think about the Streege occurrence and went up to her dorm where it was quiet. She saw Doan playing with a mouse in a corner and picked him up and held him on her bed. Lilly stroked him gently. How could all of this happen, and in her first class! Lilly tried to think what had gotten into Streege. He could be Voldemort in disguise, but Lilly quickly dismissed this thought because she knew that Voldemort would do something much more drastic.
Just as Lilly was about to consider what else might have happened, a girl with extremely long blond hair and blue eyes stomped up the stairs into Lilly’s dorm and sat on the bed opposite her.
When she noticed Lilly staring at her, she went and sat on Lilly’s bed and said, “Hi, I’m Lana Breech. I was just at the owlry and someone said to give this to a girl who slept in my dorm and was the only one in it with bright red hair.” Lana handed Lilly a letter. Lilly quickly opened it, grateful for a distraction from her misery. It was a reply from her parents. It read:
Lilly,
Stay away from that boy, if you can’t be more than friends with him. We are happy you are in Ravenclaw. Make more friends, and have fun.
Best of Luck,
Mum and Dad
Lilly smiled at this then looked up at Lana. She smiled back.
“I can’t believe Streege. What could’ve gotten into him?” Lana asked. Lilly had a feeling that this girl would be somewhat talkative. Then Lilly and Lana dove into an interesting conversation about what had happened in their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. They came up with the strange conclusion that Peter Pettigrew, a loyal, faithful, and active servant of Voldemort, had come to Hogwarts with him. Voldemort was somewhere, Lilly could feel it. She just had to get this news to Dumbldolm.