Gillygate - 13. Anti-Cheating Quills

Friday morning was the first time I crawled out the common-room and found no floating bouquet of flowers waiting for me. I stopped and frowned. I hadn't expected Quintin to give up for at least a month, but perhaps I'd been wrong. Perhaps he'd really given up. I thought again about our talk in the hospital wing as I made my way down for breakfast. A pair of Slytherins glared and I had to resist glaring back. I was fine with ignoring them, but one more 'mud-blood' comment would mean a Pimple Jinx to the face. I'd happily take the detention.

My body flushed with pleasure as I thought about Rodney. He'd sexually activated a part of me I never knew I had. I almost didn't care about Quintin. My mood was bright as I entered the hall, passed silvery ghosts on my way to Kiena. The Fat Friar was trying to spook first years again by hiding his face in the soups. It was pretty immature, I shook my head as I sat down by my friend.

"Hey, how you doing?" Kiena asked.

"Pretty good. How about you?" I reached across for some bread.

"That's good. I'm fine."

"Hey Philkin," sitting in front of us was Agnes, a girl with stringy hair and a nasal voice "Isn't that your ex sitting with the guy he cheated on you with?"

I realised why Kiena had that tone in her voice. I looked over and saw them together, sighed in irritation and reached for the ladle of pumpkin soup.

"I don't care. I'm over the drama."

Agnes looked away, disappointed. Kiena started forking up bacon and putting strips into her mouth. With Quintin bringing back my ache I went to thinking about Rod who'd become my relief.

"Hey we have Potions first period." I stated.

"That we do."

"We should catch Rod after class and tell him about what we found… you know where…"

Kiena let out a "mmm" in agreement.

At that moment excited chatter started up as the owls flew in to deliver post. Without magical families we didn't get any packages, though Kiena got a perfectly normal envelope from her muggle mother. I had more siblings than her and only cared to write once a month if that. Kiena only had a younger sister and she wrote to her family all the time. She also had a penpal from Durmstrang school in Bulgaria, a fellow I used to tease about being her long-distance boyfriend. By now all my curiosity about their correspondence had waned.

As our class left for the dungeons later and started letting ourselves in I caught sight of Rod. Laughing amongst a trio of other strapping Gryffindor boys. Too intimidatingly popular for me to approach, I recalled the weird looks they gave me earlier on in the week when I'd bothered them. After class would be better. Professor Melisend swept into the room, her silver gown fluttering and turning her hooked nose at us.

"Good morning. Today we will be looking at poison antidotes. Firstly for garish pink blended poison. Textbooks out and turn to page three-hundred-and-ninety-four." There was rifling as students flicked through their copies. "First of all can anyone explain to me the properties of a bezoar?" Kiena turned away to scratch her head and I became focused on tapping the corner of the page. From behind us Umfrey raised his hand, of course. "Yes?"

"It's a stone from a goat's stomach that cures most poisons."

"Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor. Yes a bezoar can nullify most poisons which is why it is used in the preparation of the antidote to common poisons…" as our teacher spoke I tried scratching everything down with my quill.

My mind ended up wandering back to Gillygate but after a gentle elbow nudge from Kiena I snapped back to attention and continued writing. We had a practical after that, Kiena's little cauldron bubbled and smelt like cheese. Mine smelt foul like the breath of some awful bog creature.

Professor Melisend stopped on her way past our bench "You are far more likely to kill someone than you are to cure them with that brew, Mr Willmot." She looked between us both "I want the two of you to stay after class for a quick word." She continued on and we traded anxious looks. The plan had been to catch Rod after the lesson but now it was dashed. At the end of class our teacher was vanishing the insides of cauldrons with her wand.

Kiena and I stood awkwardly as we remained behind. My friend pulled out her wand "Fluvidus Evanesca." She vanished her failed potion and did the same to mine, hoping that by helping we may be spared some of her harshness. Our teacher finally turned to us and peered into the cauldrons, waving her wand and vanishing the excess stains so they were spotless.

"Mr Willmot and Miss Urseley, while marking your Potions reports I couldn't help noticing a striking similarity between them. While the wording may have been different, the structure and references were the same. A baffling coincidence, wouldn't you say?" she examined us and we could only lower our eyes guiltily. "You are both N.E.W.T. level students now and I expect you to do your own work. Otherwise I'll have you both use anti-cheat quills for the rest of the semester."

"Yes, Professor." We hung our heads. Arguing would be pointless, I just hoped this was only a warning.

"Now off you go to your next class." She dismissed us and we left. Once outside we could see no Rod or anyone down the corridors. We walked quickly to our Transfiguration class and were the last in, everyone was settling into their seats. I avoided looking further back to where Quintin sat.

"Alright class." The young Professor Harcourt clapped his hands together confidently "You better shake a leg if your first lesson didn't wake you up. We're turning flobberworms into fritters, cakes into cabbages and if we have time we're going to transfigure chess pieces. Next lesson we're going to start human transfiguration so we got to get this done." He put his arms behind the back of his silver suit. I had my chin resting in my hand, staring again at the shape of his hips and thighs. Absent-mindedly admiring his physique, a habit I admittedly frequented in this class. When I met his dark eyes I quickly looked away and felt my cheeks warm. Our teacher strolled back to his desk and I convinced myself he hadn't noticed me checking him out.

The flobberworms were ten inches long and passed around in tubs. They didn't move much and were too distracted munching piles of shredded lettuce to notice the students doing magic on them. I was handed my crate by a helpful Gryffindor and carried it back, setting it down onto my desk. It expelled yellow mucus that made me gag. Come on, don't be a girl. I pulled out my wand.

Rod was one of the first students to finish and move on. I was having more difficulty, but it pleased me to see that due to his cursing and disgusted expression Quintin was too.

"Gusano Bunellium." I did the correct wand movements and visualised. My worm reared its head to me finally, crusty scabs grew from its skin in a few places and stopped. I lowered my wand with a sigh. Halfway through the lesson those of us lagging behind had to stop and move on. Kiena at least looked like she made a decent attempt.

I was a whiz when it came to duelling. I impressed my Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, the solemn Slytherin head-teacher who only showed his favouritism by not yelling at me and the slightest upward quirk of his corner-lip. Even more so impressive considering I was a Hufflepuff and muggle-born. But this wasn't Professor Brickenden's class, and Professor Harcourt looked far from satisfied with my achievements.

"See me after class, Philkin."

Dammit. "Yes Sir." Catching Rod alone was seeming more and more like an impossible task. At the end of the lesson we were turning pawn pieces into queens and all I'd managed to do was make mine taller. I was demoralised. Everyone went to leave at the end of class and I packed up slower, Kiena gave me a sympathetic smile before leaving. Professor Harcourt sat down behind his desk with a sigh, swishing his wand and making one of the chairs drag itself over.

I sat down opposite and my mouth felt dry. He really was quite young for a teacher but sharp-minded and keen-eyed. Even the boys were impressed by him and sucked up at times. He was cool, even if never lenient. I could tell nothing would fool him, he knew how teenaged minds worked and under those dark eyes I'd just obey. Serious, occasionally witty in a dry way and arrogant – though he probably had a right to be. His brain worked fast in a way that I'd never known anyone else's to, undoubtedly why he taught here at such a young age.

He leaned back in his seat with another sigh "Philkin, I'm a bit worried about your performance in my class." While I hadn't done well I wasn't the worst, but I decided to let him finish. "Your three-scroll-report was also of unsatisfying quality."

"Oh…" I was confused "What was wrong with it?"

"I don't feel like you're doing your best."

I felt the confused expression etch its way onto my face. I had tried. I spent almost all my free time practicing what I learnt in lessons until I got it right. Professor Harcourt stood with another sigh, walking around the desk until he was leaning against it. My heart was hammering. No way had he seen me checking him out all those times, I kept trying to convince myself. No way.

"I'm willing to offer you some extra credit." He spoke with hands in those silver trouser pockets. The smile on his handsome face was friendly. Blood flowed to my cock but I also felt frightened of him.

"I-I definitely" I cleared my throat "plan to come by and practice with the flobberworms on my s-study breaks Sir."

"Good boy." He hopped up and whipped back around to the other side of his desk. The sentiment reminded me of what Rod said to me after we… Good boy.

I stood up as my teacher started looking through desk papers.

"Well… if that'll be all…"

He gave a brief smile in farewell. I left uncertainly, turning back at the door to see his dark eyes flicker up then back down. A grin forming as he went back to his reading. I exited the door for lunch.

o0O0o

spellman's syllabry

Fluvidus Evanesca - vanishes liquids. Made it up in chapter ten.

Gusano Bunellium - took the liberty to invent an incantation for the flobberworm to fritter transfiguration spell. "Gusano" is Spanish for "worm", "bunellium" is taken from "buñuelo" which is Spanish for "fritter".