What
It was torture for him, pure torture to be in a potions class with Hufflepuffs. He didn't think he would survive. Snape had placed him next to an ordinary girl who had odd metal things on her teeth.
"Miss Katherine."
"Yes, sir," the girl next to him answered.
'Miss Katherine'? Why didn't he call her by her last name like he did everyone else?
"What is a bezoar?" Professor Snape asked.
"Um… I know it, I do… I swear, it's on the tip of my tongue," the girl, Katherine, seemed to think for a moment, "Oh! It's a something found in the stomach of a goat and it has nullifying effects on most poisons."
"Correct on its effects, but what is it? Draco?"
He spoke, "It's a stone, professor."
"Good. Now, I am feeling generous today so I want you all to get to know the person sitting next to you. It is not often the headmaster groups Hufflepuff and Slytherin together." He swept into his office.
A few stagnant moments passed.
"So… I'm Katie. I'm gonna assume you're Draco." The girl beside him said.
She was the first to speak.
"Yes." He answered stiffly.
"Cool, cool."
Another moment passed.
"Well, this is awkward."
He agreed.
"Okay, I know what you're thinking. 'Ugh, class with the Hufflepuffs. Totes boring. Worse than the Gryffindors. I can't believe this.' Although, probably much more refined." She giggled.
She stumbled over her words, seeming to stutter slightly on some of them.
"Honestly, though. I been paired with Gryffindors before, and they're worse than us Puffs," she said.
She spoke in a sort of rapid fire way. As if she had no reticence about what she was going to say.
"I mean, at least we Hufflepuffs know what two plants will explode if they go in a pot together."
That startled a chuckle out of him.
"Yay! I made you laugh!" She grinned, "That's another one of the bucket list."
He was suddenly confused.
She must have known… Somehow.
"A bucket list is a muggle expression of things they want to do before they die." She explained.
"So… I bet you're wondering why Professor Snape called me by my first name, not my last."
His eyes widened slightly. Was she a legilimens?
"Well, that happens to be because no one knows my last name, not even me."
"So I could be the descendent of the most powerful wizard in the world, or I could be the child of muggle. You'll never know. But… If I were you, I'd tread lightly 'round me."
"The bell's bout to ring, so I'd pack up if I were you."
The bell did indeed ring soon after that.
"And no," she said, giggling and grinning, showing off those odd metal things, "I am not a legilimens. Hard as that may be to believe."
Maybe, just maybe a potions class with the Hufflepuffs wouldn't be that bad.
