Curiosity Killed The Cat
I could feel eyes staring into the back of my head. I finished cutting the last piece of the sopophorous bean I was working with before glancing over my shoulder. Not a single person was looking my way, most focused on their cauldrons, instructions or ingredients.
Steam rose from every station where several students each were furiously at work over their attempt at the Draught of Living Death. I searched each face, finding only a few others who were paying attention to someone else’s work instead of his or her own. I had known all of these students for seven years now and yet, I couldn’t figure out whether the staring eyes I had felt were my imagination or someone’s mind wandering or “
“Mr. Tonks!” The professor’s voice paused deliberately as I jumped and nearly dropped the shriveled bean. “Stop daydreaming and get back to work, my boy.”
I apologized and turned back to the table. As I bent back over my half-finished Draught of Living Death, my eyes caught a Slytherin girl’s. Immediately her face twisted into a haughty, smug expression but not before I had seen the amused curl of her lips. The smile that slipped onto my lips was irrepressible and I began humming to myself as I added the bean to the potion.
N.E.W.T level potions was not my favorite class but I did enjoy watching the changes each step created. The warm dungeon room was not as filled with students as the younger year classes generally were but still seemed to be a comfortably sized class. There were people from each house; four Slytherins, two Hufflepuffs (one being me), four Gryffindors and five Ravenclaws. As there had been for years, there was animosity between some of the houses, such as the infamous Slytherin versus Gryffindor rivalry.
The four Gryffindors were on one side of the dungeon and the Slytherins on the other. The rest of us had spread out through the space, taking up whole tables by ourselves when generally we shared with four students at each. The Slytherins had taken up two, one of them being close to me. They were the closest group to me and one where presided the witch who had met my eyes earlier.
As the time to slave over our potions came close to being over, I found it increasingly difficult to work on mine. I had only a few more things to do and yet, I found my eyes glancing sideways at the girl, curiosity getting the best of me. Why had she been staring at me? Why’d she hide the smile? Just as I finished stirring the lilac colored potion, Professor Slughorn pronounced that our time was up. My potion was still losing what color it had as he glanced at it.
“Not bad, my boy, not bad. Perhaps better concentration next time will get you one as well as Miss Black here.” The well-rounded man motioned to the girl who had stirred my curiosity so well and gave a good-hearted chuckle as her pale cheeks became tinted with the slightest bit of pink. “Well done, Miss Black, once again.”
Andromeda Black’s blush was as faint and fleeting as the English sun but I flashed a grin at her anyways. Her eyes grew wide before her face closed up in a look of arrogance. It was better than a sneer and some kind of scathing comment about my ancestry. I accepted her look and bent to cleaning up my mess.
In typical fashion of me, my things were scattered all over the table, drops of sopophorous bean juice on the pages of my potions book. Messy as always. I took my time cleaning up, taking care of the potion first before beginning to gather up my stuff. I tried to clean the juice off the pages of my book but gave up, deciding it gave the book a homely feel. I had never gotten the hang of cleaning spells. Perhaps, if I had, I wouldn’t be so messy. One of my classmates left the trail to the door, wandering over and I smiled in greeting.
“Why couldn’t you have just kept all your books in your bag? What do you need Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them and Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration in Potions for?” Her voice was teasing as she neatened up my stacks of parchments and placed the books back in my bag.
I laughed at her and replaced my leftover ingredients back in their jars. “For the same reason everyone else does; to turn overcurious Hufflepuff girls into toads and Apparate them to some faraway place like Transylvania.”
She giggled and rolled her eyes at me, picking my bag off the table for me before handing it over. “A’course. How could I have forgotten?”
I shrugged at her, accepting the strap and placing it on my shoulder. We wove through the tables towards the door together as I listened to her latest tale about her romantic life.
Aveline Levon was a pretty girl of Scottish descent. Her fair looks and tall, curvaceous figure brought to mind the pictures of stunning Viking women I remember seeing somewhere back in primary school. At least, it did for me. We had been told we made an attractive pair, both of us being tall, blonde and well muscled. However, we had and would always only be best friends. I was positive that she didn’t see me as anything more than a brother of sorts.
Her soft Scottish accent and quiet frustration allowed my mind to drift and I turned once again to Potions class. Never before had a class ever interested me so much. I was used to the occasional stare and eye up by the girls (I’m not vain, I just happen to know that I’m good looking) but Slytherins did not often lower their selves to even look at a “Mudblood”. Just as I was used to the looks, I was used to the jeers and calls from the Slytherins. I would have expected a negative comment and ugly look much more than I had the sense of camaraderie I felt with her. It was just odd.
“LOOK! There he is! Oh, I wish I could get his attention somehow…” Aveline’s voice had changed to a sharp whisper in my ear as she grabbed my shoulder and clung with surprising strength. It startled me, causing me to stumble over my own feet as we left the dungeon stairway. My moment of unbalance had incited a snicker from a pair of Slytherin girls behind us and I looked back at them.
Now it was my turn to blush as I saw that it was Andromeda Black with one of her friends. My stumbling had also alerted Aveline to the fact that my attention was not on her. She followed my gaze and saw the blush just as the pair passed us. Apparently, she was not the only one to see for Andromeda Black burst into a wide, patronizing smile as she leaned closer to her friend. Her friend’s laughter burst from her lips as they made their way up another flight of stairs.
My face only burned hotter and I ducked it to keep Aveline from seeing. I couldn’t understand why such a thing had embarrassed me so easily. Generally, I just laughed off my clumsiness and flashed a beaming smile at those who chose to be rude. It was baffling and apparently Aveline thought so too. Her monologue about the tall, handsome Ravenclaw she liked had been cut short as her brow furrowed into her “thinking cap” expression, as I liked to call it.
All through lunch both of us were silent, lost in his or her meditation. Her expression had not changed once and she still seemed just as baffled as ever. I had spent the better part of lunch scribbling down last minute notes to add as I rewrote my essay for Transfiguration. My mind had been thoroughly distracted from Potions class and all the mysteries that was a certain Slytherin girl. Aveline did not seem to have such luck. Finally, she could hold it in no longer and turned on me.
“Ted, can I ask you a question?”
I could tell she was unsure about it. Hufflepuffs are known for our patience but when our patience wore thin, we almost always felt ill at ease sometime later. I nodded, adding another side note to a certain paragraph on the parchment before me.
“Ted? What happened back there?”
Glancing up at her, I blinked. “Nothing at all.” I could see the disbelief in her eyes as she opened her mouth to protest. I didn’t know what to tell her. How does one explain about staring and the odd looks without sounding a little mental? I had nothing concrete to explain. Just vague wonderings about it all. I also didn’t want Aveline to get the idea that I liked the Slytherin. I didn’t really. I had never spoken to her in my life. I looked at and my friend and shook my head. What could I tell her? It all bloody mental and I was resolved to put it as far from my mind as I could.
The blonde beside me sighed and accepted my refusal to explain. People were slowly filing out of the Great Hall and I realized that we were due for our next class soon. I stuffed one more bite of pudding in my mouth and rose from the table, taking my time as always. We still had plenty of time to make down to the Herbology greenhouses. Aveline rose as well, grabbing her bag before throwing me a look of mild panic.
“Ted, I left my book in the dormitories. Do you mind if I run down to the common room and meet you at the greenhouses?”
I knew how much Aveline liked order and organization and could hear the frustrated annoyance in her voice. I nodded and waved her off, watching as she left the Great Hall at a fast pace. Smiling at my friend, I threw my marked up essay in my bag haphazardly and swung the strap over my shoulder.
I was shifting my robes when I noticed a drop of pudding on the Hufflepuff emblem. Of course I had food on me. As my grandmother always said whenever we pointed out food on her shirts, ‘I was just saving it for later’. A wide smile crossed my face as I thought about that old woman. I had loved to go over to my grandmother’s as a child.
Pulling out my wand as I began walking, I flicked the piece of rowan wood and watched happily as the pudding was siphoned off. I was really getting the hang of these nonverbal spells we were supposed to be using all the time now. Hours of practicing with Aveline must have done the trick.
I shrugged to myself and headed out to the grounds, enjoying the crisp smell of late autumn/early winter air. A lot of the trees were already leafless, those with leaves still in bright vibrant colors or a mucky shade of brown. As much as I love the cold though, I was slightly chilled in the mild wind that was blowing across the grass. I began looking through my bag for my gloves or a hat or really anything I could use or transfigure.
“Aha!” I had found something alright. I yanked my scarf out of my bag and shook my head at myself as a book plopped to the ground as well as several rolls of parchment and some quills. In typical fashion, the stuff that could went rolling away from me, making the process of picking it all up quickly rather hard to do. I let my bag drop from my shoulder and was trying to stuff my book back into my bag when I heard voices coming near.
I glanced up to see quite a few of my classmates headed down to the greenhouses, although Aveline was not in the group. I was watching them come nearer when I spotted a pair of familiar eyes and an equally familiar amused smirk. My eyes flew back down to the ground as the voices became discernable and I could hear actual words. The same friend from earlier was going on about something a fellow Slytherin had said that she thought was especially funny when I heard another female voice interrupt.
“Noreen, I think I dropped my pin. I’ve got to look for it.”
The annoyance was understated but I heard it clearly underneath the words. Her friend did not seem to notice the annoyance before waving her friend off and continuing with the two Slytherin boys listening eagerly to her story.
I glanced up at the retreating group to see one of the boys looking back, a tall, black haired youth. I avoided eye contact and went back to gathering my things when a pale hand shot out and grabbed the roll of parchment I had been going for. Pulling my hand back, I looked up into the eyes of Andromeda Black.
It startled me, how close she was and I’m sad to say that I jerked back from her only to fall back on my butt. A reluctant smile flew to my lips as she giggled and drew out her wand. I could smell her shampoo or perfume or whatever it was, she was that close. I blinked, wondering if I was dreaming or seeing things. However, the slender, brown haired girl was still there. Without a sound, she had gathered all my things into her hands and easily neatened my bag for me. I looked up into her eyes and smiled, pleased to see the expression returned. She had a beautiful smile.
“Ted!” I jumped again and glanced up, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks. It was Aveline and I couldn’t figure out why I was blushing yet again. It wasn’t like she had caught us kissing or flirting shamelessly, though she had done that to me on more than one occasion before with other girls. Both Andromeda and I rose to our feet as I accepted my bag back from her. As Aveline ran toward us, I turned to Andromeda Black and handed her something I had spotted on the ground.
“Is this your pin? And thank you.”
Surprise and pleasure flashed across her face as she took the tiny glass star pin I had found. “It is. Thank you and you’re welcome.”
She flashed me a bright, fleeting smile before walking off toward the greenhouses. For some reason, I felt proud and irrationally pleased about the whole thing. I was still staring after her, watching as her head bent over her hands against her robe. I was still staring in that direction long after she had become just a black figure against the greenhouses along with eight or so others. Aveline’s hand on my shoulder alerted me to her presence but I couldn’t yet tear my eyes from the greenhouses.
When she spoke up, I had to laugh at the dryness of her tone. “Now that was something.”
We walked up to the greenhouses just as they were opened for us to enter. Slowly, we all filed into the one being used for our class when I felt another hand on my shoulder. It was far too heavy to be Aveline’s small hand and the grip was rough, jerking me to a stop. I looked over my shoulder to find the same dark-haired Slytherin from earlier regarding me with barely contained fury in his eyes. I pulled my shoulder out of his grip, noticing as I did that we were the same height. However, his body was slim and aristocratic while mine was built from having both Quidditch practice and a naturally large bone structure. I stared at him, eyebrow raised.
“Leave Andromeda alone. What would she want with the likes of you, Mudblood?”