╰┈➤ ❛┊ potions class┊❜

brylee woke up twice that night in the girls dormitory for the fifth year ravenclaws.

the first time she woke up, however, she dreamt of her mother and her fate, how she'd die in the infirmary wing of hogwarts in brylee's fifth year. brylee wondered if there was a way to stop that, to change her fate. the second time she woke up, brylee felt like she was drowning, mentally and physically. she was in a dark cave and in the murky water, the face of regulus black looked up at her.

both times she woke up in cold sweat, hoping that everything from the last two days was just a long dream, that she was home in hogwarts with her two best friends, ginny and luna. both times, her hopes her destroyed.

the next morning, brylee pretended like everything was normal. that she was normal, and not born in a completely different time period from the others. she introduced herself to the two girls in her dorm, not including racquelle or herself, julie, a petite blonde, and diane, a tall redhead, whose entire personality was that she was a chaser on the quidditch team.

at breakfast, the ravenclaw head of house, professor barclay, introduced herself. she seemed strict, and unbending towards rules. immediately, brylee missed professor flitwick who was the ravenclaw head of house in her time. she handed brylee a timetable of various classes for each day of the week.

her first class of the day, potions with the slytherins.

getting to the potions classroom was not a problem for her, though because she was "new" to the school, she followed racquelle and her blonde friend, julie.

upon arriving at the classroom in the dungeons, brylee felt a wave of familiarity wash over her. the room looked exactly as the same as in her time. all the books in the same place. the ingredients in the same cabinet. the students in the same seating arrangements. the only thing that differed was the students. this year, she would have potions with the slytherins rather than the hufflepuffs it seemed.

racquelle dropped off her books at her desk with julie and met up with brylee. "let me introduce you to professor slughorn. he'll help with the seating and books, though i'm pretty sure there's only one seat left."

brylee nodded a quick thanks and walked towards the front of the mostly empty room where slughorn stood. she stood mostly to the side as racquelle talked to the tall man, smiling awkwardly when he looked over at her.

"ah, mrs. nephele, is that right? i'm pleased to welcome you to hogwarts," he said to brylee as racquelle walked away. "let me show you your seat and then i'll get you your books, is that alright?"

brylee nodded. "that would be great. i appreciate it professor slughorn."

walking her to the middle row, he gestured to the seat closest to julie. "this will be your seat for the time being. next to you will be mr. black. he is just wonderful at this class and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask him. now for your books." and with that, slughorn walked away, leaving brylee in shock.

what a coincidence that the only open seat was next to the one person she was so curious about. fate had to have had a hand in it, she decided as she set her bag down. brylee looked to her right and smiled at julie, who gave a soft smile back.

giggling, the blonde girl said, "i'm so glad you got a seat close to us!"

racquelle peaked over julie's head. "yep, as i thought. next to black. good luck with him. thomas sat with him last year and he said black had barely said a single word to him all semester."

brylee sighed. what was it with her and bad potions partners? "it's alright, i have had my fair share of bad partners, so i'll make do." she looked around the room. "where is thomas anyway?"

racquelle rolled her eyes. "he always shows up to class at the last minute. don't worry about him."

right at that moment in walked the devil. well, thomas to be exact.

"aww, was somebody missing me?" he laughed, glancing between brylee and racquelle.

the girls looked at each other, hmphed and simultaneously shook their heads. "not me," they both said.

looking up at thomas, julie giggled. "i think you guys hurt thomas' feelings."

brylee glanced at him. he stood there, clutching his chest like he was about to have a heart attack. shaking her head, she turned her attention to racquelle. pointing at thomas with thumb, she asked, "is he always this dramatic?"

she nodded. "always. there's no escape unfortunately. we've been dealing with it for four years and now it's your turn."

thomas gasped. "you're saying that as if it's a bad thing."

racquelle looked at him amused and said, "just go sit down thomas."

the boy sighed, sounding exasperated. and then proceeded to sit in the seat behind brylee. the thought in brylee's mind, however, was how interesting this year was going to be.

it wasn't long before the rest of the class had arrived, with regulus black being the last to enter.  brylee tried not to watch him as he sat down next to her without saying a word. brylee sighed silently. so that's how it was going to be. did she really have to be the first one to talk? she'd rather not say anything to him if she could help it, but her curiosity about the dark haired boy pushed her to introduce herself before slughorn began the class.

she turned her head to face the boy who was taking out a quill and a piece of parchment from his bag.

"hi," she said, "i'm brylee nephele, the new transfer student." short and simple, she told herself, was the way to go.

his dark gray eyes glanced over at her. "regulus black," he stated simply and then he turned his attention back towards the front of the room.

she looked away, annoyed. fine, she determined, if that's what he wanted to then she could do it too. fortunately (or maybe unfortunately, she wasn't sure yet) for her, brylee didn't have to say much else to regulus black for the rest of the class. that is, until the end.

nearing the end of class, slughorn began walking around, trying to find the person, or people, with the best version of the potion they'd been told to make. as he approached brylee and regulus's table, his face seemed to brighten, as if he expected great things from the table.

the ravenclaw girl knew she wasn't the best at potions (even thought she had been in her class) but she was pretty competent and had great faith in her skills. besides, she'd already learned most of this year's curriculum in her time. there was no way she could fail.

just then, slughorn stopped by her table and gazed deeply into the potion.

he stood back up and laughed with a hand to his chest. "absolutely amazing, mrs. nephele. absolutely amazing. 15 points to ravenclaw then, for a pretty perfect potion."

brylee sighed in relief. his laughing had scared her to death and back but she was glad she didn't mess up.

leaning over her cauldron, slughorn looked at regulus black's potion. again, he leaned back and laughed. "mr. black, what an amazing potion as well. though i am afraid mrs. nephele's is just a little better. 10 points to slytherin then."

glancing between brylee and regulus, he stated, "my my, i believe we have two here competing for first place. i wish you both good luck then." and with that he walked away.

brylee glanced into regulus's cauldron. it did look exactly like hers. she folded her arms over her chest and quietly grumbled. from the corner of her eyes, she saw regulus look at her potion too. he turned away and let out a scoff. one that she was sure he meant her to hear.

"don't get too confident," he spoke to her after what felt like an eternity, "i'll beat you next time."

brylee's eyebrows shot up in surprise as her eyes met regulus's dark gray ones. wanting to say something back quick, she replied, "good, i like a challenge."

at the end of the class, just as brylee was about to walk out with racquelle, julie and thomas, professor slughorn called out her name.

"mrs. nephele, a moment if you will," he said, catching up with her and her newly made friends. "i would like to invite you to come to a little dinner party of sorts next week. i invite many talented students and i'd like you to join."

brylee blinked. she hadn't been invited to his little club in her time period, and had instead only heard hermione and harry complain about it. "sure professor, i appreciate the invite." and with that, she walked away to catch up with racquelle, thomas, and julie.

upon catching up with them, thomas immediately began questioning her. "what was that whole thing with black about? it seems like he has a personal vendetta against you. and then slughorn, what'd he want?"

brylee shrugged. "i have no idea. i literally just introduced myself. that's the only thing i've ever spoken to him. and slughorn wanted me to join his little dinner club."

"his dinner club?" racquelle interrupted. "i'm in it too! thank god i finally have someone to share the suffering with."

"suffering?!" brylee's eyes widened. "are they really that bad?" she asked innocently.

"oh yeah," julie answered with a tone that seemed distant. "the worst, or so i've heard. from racquelle. she complains every time she gets back from one of those."

"complain is a nice way to say it," thomas added. "i can hear her grumbling about them even when i'm in the common room and she's in her dorm."

racquelle glared at him. "are you admitting to eavesdropping then?"

thomas gave her a smug grin. "hmm? me? never. why would i willing listen to you, huh? i have much better things to do."

brylee sighed. the tension between them was so thick, she could cut it with a knife. this was just like harry and ginny all over again.

suddenly, she began missing her best friend. her eyes glazed over as she remembered the last time she'd seen her. ginny had given her a sympathetic look before she had entered the hospital wing to see her dying mother. brylee felt a hand on her shoulder and blinked away the memories.

julie's bright blue eyes were staring straight at her when brylee realized she was still with racquelle, thomas and julie. "are you alright?" she asked in a dreamy voice.

brylee nodded. "just thinking of a couple of friends who are just like racquelle and thomas. they ended up together by the way, if you were curious."

thomas and racquelle looked at her and then each other. their expressions turned into those of disgust. julie giggled and whispered in brylee's ears. "i've been trying to get those two together since last year. i'm so happy to have some help."

brylee laughed and whispered back to her. "let's get out of here before they try to kill me on my first day."

╰┈➤ ˗ˏˋ ❝  𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 ¡! ❞

hello darlings!! how are you
all doing today?? i hope you
drank some water? if not, this
is your reminder to do so asap

hii, it's been a while y'all. i really
missed this fic and have been
daydreaming about reg and brylee
so much, it's insane but it helped
me get this chapter out for you
guys so i'm glad.

anyway, let me know your thoughts
and i will see you all next time <33