O C T O B E R  1 9 7 6

.・。.・゜✭・.・✧・゜・。.

POTIONS HAD ALWAYS been Clara's best class. This was a well known fact. She was Professor Slughorn's star pupil, you'd have thought she walked on water with the way he praised her in nearly every class. But today, as they were in the midst of brewing the Draught of Living Death, a commotion took over the back of the classroom. A thick cloud of purple smoke surrounded a set of twins – their fiery auburn hair barely visible through the violet fog. The entire class went into stunned silence.

"Merlin's beard, what on Earth is going on back there?" Professor Slughorn asked, eyes wide as saucers.

"It was him!" the boys shouted in unison, pointing at one another in order to blame their twin for the disaster.

Professor Slughorn was not a stern man, not at all. Perhaps a bit vain, but always good-natured. But bear in mind that this was the same man who collected his star students as if they were stamps – proudly showing them off when given the chance and subtly taking credit for their achievements. It was no secret that the Professor played favourites. Of which the Prewett twins certainly were not among.

Most of the time, he pretended as though the twins weren't even in his class at all, which was more than alright by both of them. But as the two boys stood side by side, covered in violet tinted soot with devilish grins on their faces, Slughorn simply couldn't turn a blind eye to them any longer.

"I suppose I'll have to split you two up." Professor Slughorn tutted, shaking his head as he surveyed the room.

Clara tried to shrink herself, practically hiding behind her cauldron and doing just about everything in her power to avoid the Professor's gaze. There was absolutely no scenario in which she was going to happily work with either of them. Especially after that. Clara had high expectations for herself in this class. The last thing she needed was for her perfect reputation to be tarnished by a boy with a pretty smile and a knack for destruction.

"Miss McKinnon, would you please partner up with Gideon?"

Damn.

Clara and Marlene shot a desperate look at one another. The girls had been potions partners since their first year. That was how they met after all. A Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor, an unlikely team, but perfect for them nonetheless. Even though it seemed that most days the girls harboured traits from each other's houses rather than their own, they still knew each other like the back of their hands. They had years of experience together under their belts, after all.

It wasn't just that Clara preferred working with Marlene simply because they were friends, she trusted her. The blonde was effortlessly intelligent in a way that Clara envied. While Clara had to pour hours over textbooks and soak old sheets of parchment with dark ink as she scrawled notes endlessly, Marlene had no need. It was probably this fact alone that allowed the blonde to be so outgoing and charming. No doubt that less time studying allowed for a more vibrant social life.

Being partnered together for so long was like a safety blanket to Clara, there was no risk of anything unexpected happening. When it came to potions, she needed a partner who could be trusted to not sabotage the entire brew in five seconds flat. And the Prewett twins could not be trusted. But now that her best friend had reluctantly packed up her bag and began walking toward the back of the class, that meant there was only one possibility left for Clara. A possibility that she was absolutely dreading.

"Fabian, please come work with Miss Potter for the remainder of the period." Professor Slughorn directed.

What on Earth had Clara done to deserve this punishment? It was a fate she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy. That wasn't to say she thought Fabian was a bad person. There was nothing wrong with him, necessarily. She simply didn't want her perfect six year track record in potions to be ruined in five minutes flat.

Dropping his belongings haphazardly on the table, Fabian took a seat in the stool Marlene had occupied just moments ago with a rather smug look on his face.

"What?" Clara asked curtly, suddenly feeling quite protective over the pewter cauldron in front of her.

Fabian's blue eyes glistened with a spark of mischief, "My plan worked."

"What are you talking about?"

"Getting partnered up with you was exactly what I wanted when I added that extra drop of Sopophorous bean juice into our cauldron."

"You're so full of it." she rolled her eyes, promptly bringing her attention back to the Advanced Potions Making textbook laid out before her.

"Maybe," he said, leaning closer to her and peering into the cauldron, "But being partnered up with the top student in the class is nothing I'll complain about."

"Back up. I'm convinced if you look at the potion too long, it'll explode."

Fabian let out a laugh as he relaxed in his seat, reaching for the ingredients Marlene had left behind and continuing the measurements where she had left off. After a moment of working silently side by side, Clara thought maybe being partnered with Fabian wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe if he behaved, Slughorn would let him go back to his brother and she could have Marlene back. It was wishful thinking, though.
Fabian, however, couldn't bite his tongue for very long. Becoming bored of the mundane task of counting his clockwise stirs, he brought his eyes back to Clara whose brows were furrowed in concentration as she skimmed over her textbook.

"So, Sirius has the hots for you then?"

Her head whipped up so quickly, she thought perhaps she'd given herself whiplash. A piece of sloth brain onto the floor as she shook her head, "Absolutely not."

"You're telling me he made a scene in front of the entire school and it's not the truth?" The scepticism in his voice caused Clara to make a mental reminder to confront Sirius later.

He still had to hold up his end of the deal; remind the entire school just how much she detested him, because she certainly wasn't going to deal with this line of questioning all year.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. He just lives to make my life hell." she muttered as she looked over the cauldron, comparing its appearance to what the text said it should look like by this point.

"So what he said about me is a lie then as well?" he asked with a cheeky grin, finding the whole thing rather amusing.

"Yes." she responded flatly, not even giving him the courtesy of making eye contact.

"That's a shame, I really thought we connected on the train." he sighed, feigning disappointment.

"Oh please, you spent the entire time talking about Quidditch as if I wasn't even there."

"Well, you could have joined in."

Clara pressed her lips into a thin line. Clearly he wasn't getting it. It wasn't exactly a secret that she didn't care for Quidditch. The last thing she wanted to do was spend an hour discussing whatever the hell a Bludger Backbeat was. It was just as boring as listening to her dad and brother talking nonsense about the sport constantly.

Pushing out of her seat, Clara made her way to the cupboard of ingredients making sure to make eye contact with Marlene on the way. Knowing exactly what she wanted, Marlene too rose from the table she sat at with Gideon.

The blonde met her near the cabinet filled floor to ceiling with various ingredients, "So, how's it going?"

"Absolutely horrid, I think I'm going to kill him." Clara muttered under her breath, "Do they allow visitors in Azkaban, you'll come see me won't you?"

Marlene snickered before glancing over her shoulder, "I don't think so. Gideon's not too bad at least. He's actually pretty smart whenever he's separated from his brother."

"I'll trade you." Clara offered, only half joking.

"Tempting," Marlene snickered, "But no, I think I'll keep Gideon."

The two of them knew they couldn't spend much longer in there without Professor Slughorn coming in to check up on them, so they each grabbed an extra vial of powdered root of asphodel that they didn't truly need and made their way back to their tables. When Clara returned, she found Fabian working silently on the potion, having almost caught up to where the rest of the class was. The brew was the exact colour the book said it should be, if not a little bit dull. But with it being Fabian, it was much better than she honestly expected.

Perhaps he really was smart when he actually applied himself. Of course he had to have some intelligent part of his brain to be in N.E.W.T. level Potions but she figured the twins had somehow conned their way into the class. Perhaps they had found a way to blackmail Slughorn and Dumbledore. For some reason that seemed more likely than either of them having an interest or talent in Potions.

"Can I ask you something?" Clara requested as she sat back down beside him.

"Anything." he replied with a smile.

"If you're decent in potions, why did you feel the need to cause a scene to get in trouble?"

The boy still had a thin layer of purple soot covering his face and robes, but he didn't seem bothered by it. It was like he was wearing it as a badge of honour.

"Because what's life without a little fun?"

"You consider being punished to be fun?"

"Depends on who's giving the punishment." he winked.

Clara's lip curled up in disgust at the boy's comment. Deciding that the conversation was suddenly at a dead end before it even truly got started, she brought her attention back to the cauldron before her.

"Now it's my turn to ask you something." Fabian said after only a moment.

"Says who?"

"Says me. You don't get to be all nosy without letting me ask something."

"I'm not playing this game."

"It's not a game, but if it were you certainly wouldn't be playing fair."

Clara rolled her eyes, "Go on, then."

"If you don't fancy Sirius, and you don't fancy me. Who do you fancy?"

"I'm not answering that."

A wicked grin grew on Fabian's lips, "You're still not playing fair, Potter. C'mon tell me who you fancy."

"I fancy you leaving me alone, if you don't mind."

Fabian's lips parted, ready to object with yet another witty remark he had prepared in his rolodex. But the sound of their Professor clearing his throat at the front of the class stopped him.

"Alright, kids. Pour a sample of your potion into the vial you were given at the beginning of class and label it with your names. Once you've done that, you're free to go." Professor Slughorn announced from the front of the room.

"Thank Merlin." Clara muttered under her breath as she quickly bottled up their sample, making sure to stop herself from writing Marlene's name instead of Fabian's.

Doing everything in her power to minimise the boy's opportunities to bother her any further, Clara quickly packed up her belongings and carried their sample up to the front of the class. Hoping to get away from Professor Slughorn and escape the dungeons unnoticed wasn't in the cards for her, though.

"Ah, Miss Potter. Let's take a look at your sample, shall we?"

At the beginning of class, the Professor stated he was hoping to see potions that were ideally a light shade of lilac in colour, if not beginning to turn clear. Honestly, Clara wasn't too pleased with their results as she felt her final potion turned a bit too grey rather than the pastel lilac she was hoping for but a smile formed on Slughorn's face that confused her slightly.

"I think you and Mr. Prewett make a great pair."

"Oh, sir, I don't know." she replied, quickly shaking her head, "I much prefer working with Marlene."

"Nonsense, this is a great sample. One of the best in the class."

"Yes, well thank you, sir. Marlene and I did make a good bit of progress on it before switching partners, so really I–"

"You and Mr. Prewett will remain partners for the rest of the term and we'll see how it goes." he interrupted, before giving her a more serious look, "You can't always rely on the same partner, life doesn't work that way, Miss Potter. I know what you and Miss McKinnon are capable of and what you as an individual can achieve, so I believe it's time to challenge yourself a bit. You may be surprised how well you two end up working together." his signature smile returned to his face as he finished his speech.

Deflated, Clara merely nodded before replying, "Yes, sir."

She knew arguing with him was a losing battle, so she pulled her bag higher on her shoulder and sulked past the table she and Fabian had been working at and made her way out the door – ignoring the boy who had been sitting there waiting for her.

"Did we fail?" he called after her as he attempted to catch up with her in the corridor.

"No, we didn't fail. We exceeded expectations."

"Then why do you look like you were just told your cat died?"

"That might've been better news."

"You wound me, Potter, you truly do." he remarked sarcastically.

"We're partners for the rest of the term."

Clara couldn't bring herself to look at the boy, she could already feel the smug aura growing around him and knew she'd see a shit-eating grin plastered on his face the second she glanced over. The sight of his silent gloating would be enough to make her want to take a leap from the Astronomy Tower.

"My plans never fail." he remarked in a sing-song voice.

An annoyed groan escaped Clara's throat, "I'm not happy about this, I hope you know that."

"Oh, I know. But I think you'll come to enjoy having me around. I'm more than just a pretty face, y'know."

"Oh, please." Clara huffed.

"Hold on a minute, Clara." Fabian sighed as she rounded a corner, his tone of voice dropping and becoming much more serious than she was used to.

With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, she spun around to face him, "What?"

"I'm really not that bad, and I'm not awful in potions when I try – let me finish." he uttered when he saw her part her lips to object, "I know how important your grades are to you, so I promise I won't fool around in class, alright?"

Clara narrowed her eyes at him, as if she was trying to detect a lie, but for once there wasn't a single sparkle of mischief in his eyes. Instead the look on his face made Clara believe he actually didn't want to make her life more difficult.

She let out a sigh, almost feeling as if she was falling right into a trap, "Alright."

His signature smirk returned to his lips not even a second later, "And who knows, maybe I'll get you to go to Hogsmeade with me by the end of term."

The second Clara inhaled, ready to shut down even the mere suggestion of a date, the boy had already brushed past her and made his way up a set of stairs that had already begun moving.

Watching him wave down at her as the staircase pivoted made her jaw clench and all she could think about was that Fabian Prewett could not be trusted. He was nothing but chaos. While he wasn't nearly as infamous as her brother or his friends, the Prewett twins did have a reputation of their own.

How was it that Clara had such a knack of attracting troublemakers into her life? It was like she was a magnet for destruction.

All she knew for sure was that between being partnered with Fabian in potions and having the entire school think something was going on between her and Sirius Black, this was shaping up to be the longest term of her life.