Geminus

After the re-appointment of Professor Lupin, no-one was looking forward to Potions with Snape; although Jenna and Kara remained curious. The twins decided that they would reserve judgement for themselves, especially seeing as Kara was extremely good at potions getting an 'O' in her OWL's with 98%, so she wished to see his teaching methods for herself.

"He can't be that bad!"

"Oh he can and he hates Gryffindors so prepare to lose some house points."

The class fell quiet as Snape glided into the room, sneering at Harry and co. as he passed.

"Silence class. NEWT level potions is only for the most able of wizard, as it is I am shocked at the presence of some of you today."

He glanced at Harry's desk.

"Now Professor Dumbledore has ... advised that there be no homework this year but instead a year long project on some of the more complex potions."

The class looked worried except for Draco who sat with a smirk on his face.

"Due to the difficulty of this assignment, I will decide the pairs so at least one of you will be capable."

Kara and Jenna glared at Snape, shocked and disgusted. They had never met a teacher so awful before.

"Right, Harry Potter...."

The smirk on Draco's face was now mirrored by Snape.

"You shall be paired with Mr Crabbe. Weasley with Mr Goyle. Granger with Miss Blaise...."

The list went on, each pairing more awful although the Gryffindors noticed they were each paired with a Slytherin. Jenna and Kara looked more and more worried as the list went on without them being called.

"Now for our two new celebrities, Mr Potter how you must miss the attention. Jenna you will partner Miss Parkinson and Kara will have Mr Malfoy."

Kara turned towards Draco, utter horror on her face; he was still smirking but this time at her.

"You will come and see me in your pairs before next lesson and I will give you your titles. Now on with today's lesson...."

Jenna and Kara were picked on several times by Snape, Kara of course managed to answer all her questions correctly and adequately much to Snape's dislike. Jenna didn't fair as well, she made a simple mistake with her potion, which caused Snape to go off into a long lecture about following instructions and causing him to take ten points from Gryffindor. All of the Gryffindors were glad when lunch finally rolled around and they quickly left the dungeons.

"Bloody hell, Snape's gunning for you two, he hardly paid me and Harry any attention and you should see the state of my potion," exclaimed Ron.

"Do you think he knows what we did to Malfoy on the train, or is he just an evil git with some serious anger management problems?"

"Yes to all of the above," was all Harry replied.

"Well so far I am not impressed by his teaching methods, he deliberately tried to put me off twice and I almost spoiled my potion. I don't know what he was talking about our last potions professor said that my technique was perfect, adequate indeed I'll give Snape bloody adequate."

Kara was fuming she had always got on with any of her professors, ok so she hadn't liked all of them but at least they had been civil and their comments constructive.

"Do I feel some mischief coming on my dear sister?"

A small smile danced across Jenna's lips as she said this. Kara's fuming was always followed by revenge on whoever had made her angry, which in itself was a rarity; she always found the logical way around obstacles, unlike Jenna who would just blast the object out of the way.

"Yes dear sister mischief is definitely a must, nobody calls my potion making adequate." Kara spat the last word like it was poison.

"So, what do you have in mind?"

"Something simple yet effective and I have the perfect thing."

"What?" Harry and Ron asked eagerly.

"You'll see"

"Are you at least going to tell me Kara? I want in on this; flying solo is not an option."

"Third year, Professor Zephyr."

Jenna grinned mischievously at her sister; she knew exactly what she had to do.

They returned to Potions after lunch, Harry and Ron had spent the majority of lunch trying to get the twins to tell of their plans whilst Hermione scoffed about them being caught and given detention and how they shouldn't allow Snape to get to them because that's exactly what he wanted, (although Hermione actually called him 'that git' which shocked everyone for her to be disrespectful to a Professor even if it was Snape).

Kara and Jenna ignored their 3 friends telling them to wait and see. When they entered the dungeons Kara and Jenna gave each other a knowing nod, they hadn't voiced their plan to each but they both knew what they had to do 'third year, Professor Zephyr' was enough of an explanation for both of them.

Kara sat down next to Jenna and both discreetly removed their wands from their robes as Snape begin his monotonous lecture once again, with a swish of his wand the method and ingredients where on the board.

"... now Wolfsbane does not ... oof!"

Snape had gone to sit down but his chair had moved back causing him to fall. He glared at the sniggering class but got up and tried again only for the chair to move back again.

They managed to keep this up for five minutes noticing Snape getting more and more frustrated and searching the room for the culprit, but so far when he had looked towards Kara and Jenna they had been acting normal, no hint to say they were guilty and weren't tending to their potions, as soon as his eye's started to travel the room again Kara flicked her wand so that the chair slammed into the wall and then returning to it's original place.

"That's enough; I want you all to place your wands on the table in front of you."

Snape said in a dangerous whisper but everybody heard and obeyed immediately. Snape went round to each in turn and muttered "priori incantatum" to each of the wands in turn, he gave a knowing glare to Harry as he performed the charm on his wand, when it revealed that his last charm was 'incendio' to light his cauldron Harry smirked at Snape. Harry's smirk was returned with a glare and Snape moved swiftly onto Kara.

"Thought you'd get away with it did you?" sneered Snape.

"No, not really, I'm surprised it took you this long," Kara said indifferently.

"Now let's see, thirty points from Gryffindor and a detention, see me at the end," sneered Snape; Kara opened her mouth to retort but decided it better to keep quiet.

"Now, let me see if you were foolish enough to join in this little prank."

Snape now turned on Jenna who gave him an 'I don't give a f**k' look. Snape performed priori incantatum on Jenna's wand and not to his surprise the last spell cast was a movement charm.

"Now let's see, thirty points from Gryffindor and a detention should suffice as well," sneered Snape.

"Wow thirty points and a detention, how will I cope?" Jenna said dramatically.

"Do not make things worse for yourself Miss Geminus, everybody return to your potions."

The rest of the lesson passed uneventful.

When potions finally ended, Harry and Ron were looking at the twins incredulously and Hermione just gave them an 'I told you so' look.

"Wow Jen, I think that's the slowest so far, even Zephyr the old ding bat caught onto us quicker than he did."

"No Professor Greaves was slowest, it took him all lesson, remember?" chuckled Jenna and Kara joined in musing of that day when Professor Greaves had followed the chair round the entire room trying to sit down on it with no avail, it had only been when class had ended that they allowed the professor to sit before sending the chair zooming back to sit him behind his desk where he immediately started to grade papers without another thought to the moving chair.

Dinner was spent moaning about Snape.

"I can't believe how he has paired us up, like Blaise is more able then Hermione; although I reckon you got the worst pairing Kara."

"Yeah me too. That chair trick was brilliant though, shame you two got caught."

Even Hermione laughed as they remembered Snape's face as he fell. The laughter went quiet as Draco appeared at the table.

"You ready?"

"For what?"

"To see Snape. Why else would I want to be seen with you?"

Kara stood up, muttering 'leave it' under her breath to Harry and Ron, and headed out with Draco. They walked in silence to Snape's classroom.

"Ah Draco, good, right the potion you two will look at is Veritaserum. I want a detailed report on the potion and its effects before the Christmas holidays. I then want a detailed description of each of the ingredients and their properties by February. You will find each of the ingredients by hand, not using any of the store supplies, by April and then I want a sample of the potion in June."

Even Draco looked shocked at the amount of work but he soon recovered.

"Sir, I wish to get started on this straight away, so could ... her detention be served working in the library? I would report if she did not appear of course."

Kara looked at Draco puzzled but was even more so when Snape agreed.

"What was that about?"

She stopped Draco as they left the classroom.

"I actually want to do well at this so I warn you I will expect hard work from you."

"Is that a challenge Mr Malfoy?"

For a moment, a smile appeared on Draco's face.

"Indeed it is Miss Geminus. Think you are up to it?"

"Oh I am definitely up for it. See you at 7."

With that she walked off, leaving Draco behind, the faint smile still on his face.