Taste of Youth

Gryffindor’s are hard-headed and stubborn, I’m coming to find out. Lily didn’t talk to me for the rest of the week and Alice only talked to me when she had time to come to my library hideout which with her boyfriend and training was next to never. So instead of being the bigger person and admitting I had done something wrong, which I hadn’t. I avoided. I went to breakfast while most people were still asleep, I skipped lunch and had dinner in the kitchens with a very nice house elf named Pooky. I spent a great deal of my time in the library reading or in my brothers and came back to the dorms only when I needed a change of clothes. Like I said, Gryffindor’s are hard-headed and stubborn.

One of the days that I was in the kitchens having dinner and talking to Pooky about how to margarine, Remus, Sirius and James came sauntering in and stopped in front of my small dinner table. I looked up at James as he stood over my table looking decidedly annoyed. Pooky hurried over with chairs and lengthened the table for all of them to fit. The group sat down, James still glowering and the other two looking annoyingly amused.

“So, is there any particular reason that you’ve stopped coming to any and all group events, Luciana? Perhaps a fight with a certain friend? A certain gorgeous redhead perhaps?” James asked crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at me.

“Remove that expression off of your face, Potter.” I pointed my fork at him, “If anyone is fighting thats between us. Lily and I are big girls.”

“You two certainly aren’t acting like it.”

I let my fork drop into my plate and gave him an annoyed look, “If she doesn’t want to talk to me then that’s her problem. I’m around.”

“You most certainly are not around. This is the first time I’ve seen you since we came back from the trip, that I might at you did not join in on. She misses you, you know.”

“I have more important things to do than waste my time with people who call me a coward and then proceed to act like I have done the wronging.”

“What could you possibly-”

“I’m settling my brother’s estate, James Potter. I found his will the day of the trip so I’m trying to get his affairs in order because his body has been rotting in a county morgue for the past two years and he doesn’t deserve that. So stop pestering me about Lily. If she would like to talk to me, she can be a proper adult and do it herself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Poppy’s expecting me for my Healer training.” I pushed away from the table and stood brushing crumbs from my pants.

“Healer training?” Remus pipped up glancing at the fish-mouthing James, “Is that why you haven’t been doing training in the morning and night?”

“I still do morning training with Cormack but I’m trying to get into a branch of Auror’s that double as Healers. That’s what I meant I told Lily I might not continue Auror training. There aren’t a lot and if there’s a war the branch comes in handy.” I shrugged and picked up my bag from the floor, “I’m meeting with the Head of that department before school starts for an assessment. Have a good night boys, ask Pooky for her chocolate cake. It’s delicious.”

I departed just as James seemed to be gathering control of his jaw and heard him sputter as the door swung closed. Poppy had already set up a stack of books and two different desks of unlabeled potions bottles when I arrived. She greeted me with a yawn and motioned toward the things.

“I want you to label these potions with their correct names and write their uses on a piece of parchment. There are another set of potions on that desk that I want you two label and list down cures for. The books are your homework so leave them alone for now.” The woman hunkered down behind her desk and slapped a pile of papers in front of her, “Damn paperwork.”

I smiled and sat down pulling out my quill and paper setting about doing what she asked of me. The potions were ones that she had taught me earlier and the uses were from the many books she had assigned me. I was finished with those and moved on to the illness inducing potions on the other desk. I went through them one by one checking them carefully. It was the last one that startled me the most. The liquid was a mother-of-pearl sheen that could only belong to Amortentia, I popped the cork up and inhaled. There was the scent of new parchment, brewed coffee, fresh snow, pine needles and an odd musky cinnamon-like scent that I couldn’t identify. I blinked several times, bewildered and corked the bottle quickly. I scribbled down the supposed cures for it and gave Poppy the papers.

“Thank you, Luciana.” She told me taking the papers and looking them over scrawling O’s in the corners of them before handing them back, “Have a good night.”

“You too, Poppy.” I smiled and walked out heading for my brothers courters to grab the papers I had to owl to his lawyer in the morning.

Mrs. Norris stalked past me on the fifth floor, giving me an annoyed merow before stalking off to wherever Filch was skulking. Outside of the entrance to my brother’s room there was a figure who seemed to be arguing with Hilly in the party painting. I headed forward curious as to who was trying to enter my brothers room. The figure turned quickly at the sound of my approach the light about my wand lighting up her fiery hair and bleaching out the green of her eyes.

“Hey, Luciana.” Lily murmured shuffling her feet and blinking towards my light.