"Sucks for you," Ron said.
"Ron! You're not helping at all," scolded Hermione. "Professor Snape isn't that bad, honestly."
"Yeah, actually he is," Harry confirmed.
"Okay, so maybe so. You just have to keep your mouth shut and be precise about everything. Not just your potions, but your homework and getting to class on time. Follow directions."
Erin was looking frightened. "Speaking of being on time," Harry said. "You might want to hurry on."
Hermione looked at her watch. "He's right. Come on, Erin. I'll show you to the dungeon." They climbed out of the hole behind the fat lady and made their way down a staircase. There was a grinding above as other sets of stairs clicked into different positions. Erin glanced at them and clutched her books tighter, hurrying behind Hermione as they made their way down stone halls and twisting stairs to the dungeons. A ghost passed through the hall in front of them and Erin had a shiver run down her spine. She wasn't quite used to the non-living inhabitants of Hogwarts yet, though Nick was a most enjoyable person to talk with.
Hermione stopped before a heavy wooden door with torches by its side. "This is it," she said. "Just do everything exactly as you are told and no harm can come to you." Erin swallowed hard and nodded, then she went in with a whisper of "Good luck!" coming from behind her. Erin's footsteps seemed to announce her coming like a battle horn blowing, but no one was in the room and it was deathly silent. She set her books down by a cauldron at the front.
"P—Professor?"
A man came out of the office door and slammed it behind him, black robes swirling around him and his long, greasy black hair framing his grim face. He had beetle-like eyes, thin lips, and jowls. "Sit down!"
Erin rocketed into her chair. "The name is Erin, is it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Open your book to the first potion and tell me what you see."
She fumbled with the crisp pages until she came to page five. "Um.... The love potion, sir."
The professor braced himself on her desk with his arms. "Do you have any need for that, Miss Abernathy?" She sank away from his cold, hard eyes. Did he know? Had he found out about her kiss in the common room? Surely is was just a coincidence. Right? How could he know, though? "Answer me or do you always have such problems answering simple questions?" She snapped into the present, her face ridiculously close to Professor Snape's.
"N—No, sir."
"Good. Next potion." He walked back towards his desk as she turned the page. "Go ahead and start it. It's not that difficult." She nodded and quickly got to work, studying the recipe carefully, making sure everything was in the right order. She measured carefully and avoided eye contact with Snape, who peered over her shoulder to unnerve her. The concoction was slightly off color when she finished it, but Snape nodded in approval. "That'll be the frog's eggs. You miscounted them. More precise next time, Miss Abernathy."
"Yessir," she mumbled.
"The next four are more complicated so I hope that you learn to count better very.... Quickly." He spoke slowly and softly in the most eerie manner. Erin was petrified. "Now, if you wish to know all that you need to for the final exam for the first five years worth of potions, I suggest you get moving. And do several at once. I want you to be finished with page ten when you go to lunch, understood?"
"Yes, sir."
So the cauldrons were put to work, and Snape watched as the gears ground in her head. She put a scrap of parchment by each cauldron that she was working with labeled with the page in her leather-bound book that rode in the crook of her arm as she scurried about, measuring and stirring. She was a hard worker and more obedient than any student who had come through Snape's class. She singed her fingers a couple of times and let a drop of one element or another slip onto the countertop by accident, but she immediately cleaned it up. It was near noon when she told him that her second potion was done. Not perfect. But it was done. One by one, she turned off the burners beneath them. Snape looked over the last one, then declared, "Run on to lunch. Be back here immediately after finishing."

"Five potions?! He's going to bloody run you into the ground and kill you!" Ron exclaimed. "You can't let him do that to you."
"Ron, she does have to make up four and half years of potions," Harry said.
"It's not so bad." Erin spooned some food onto her plate. "Snape's terrifying.... But not wretched."
"What class have you been taking?" Ron stared at her with disbelief. "He didn't do anything.... Malicious?"
"No. Well...." She thought about the love potion incident and turned a shade pinker. "Nothing I can't handle." Harry looked at the fragile girl who seemed that she could shatter at any moment and here she was, saying she could handle Snape. Maybe he was being a little gentle with her. Then, secretly, he thanked his least-favorite professor.

Ron and Harry were battling it out with wizard's chess again while Erin and Hermione sat on the floor with potions books about them and a cauldron between them. Hermione stoked the fire beneath it with her wand. Erin had been assigned three potions that she would do and turn in samples to Snape the next morning before he gave her another set to do that night. She also had to complete nine inches of parchment on the uses of certain ingredients (given to her on a list by Snape) to complete by the next class she had with him the next week. "Erin, your fingers are burned!" Hermione said.
Erin shrugged. "I'm okay. I'm bit clumsy sometimes. Don't worry about it."
"Bloody hell, Harry!" Ron smacked his wand on the board in frustration and the pieces scattered as the chess board flew through the air towards Erin's nearly completed third potion. But Erin intercepted it and the chess board was clamped harmlessly in her arms. "Bloody hell, Harry! Did you just see that?!" Ron's voice was amazingly high-pitched. "Did you see that catch?!"
"I saw it Ron."
"What.... About it?" Erin asked, setting the board back on their table. "Erin, what would you think about being on the Gryffindor Quidditch team?"
"I've never played...."
"That's okay!" Ron was very excited. "You're a natural keeper."
"She's got her studies," Hermione warned.
"That's okay, too!" Ron squeaked. Harry sat back and looked at the girl. Small, fast, with good reflexes. Wood had been a little tall for Keeper, but he was surprisingly good. Incredibly good. He adjusted his glasses.
"Would you at least be willing to try out for the team? They're good blokes and good players. Fred and George are on it, you know them. Would you?" Erin knitted her fingers together, her arm tingling from where Oliver had rested his hand when he asked her to do exactly what she was offered now. Finally, she nodded.
"Okay." Ron did a little dance and Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry beamed at her.
"This weekend then? You can borrow someone's broom for a quick go."
"Sure."
"Erin, your potion's ready." Erin came and began ladling the thick sea- green goop into a flask, which she corked and Hermione waved her wand and the remainder in the cauldron vanished. Erin packed up the pot and her supplies and set them in their place by her bed before sitting in a chair by Harry and Ron with her book to start working on her list of ingredients.
The Weasley twins fell through the entrance hole. "Good God, Fred. Do you always have to stumble over your robes?"
"It's the Fat Lady. She trips me up on purpose. I swear!" They picked themselves up and came over to Erin. "Before-dinner cauldron cake?" Fred asked.
"Don't eat it, Erin," Hermione said.
"Aw, Hermione. It's just a little snack." So Erin took it and bit into it. She felt herself glowing and a weird sensation in her back as she sprouted wings. Fred and George looked at her curiously. She had beautiful white wings and a golden halo over her. She radiated light and smiled sweetly, clutching a harp in her lap.
"Not quite as funny as the other one," George said. "But still very cute all the same."
"Incredibly cute." Erin blushed deeply.
"Magnificently cute."
"Fantastically cute."
"Monolithically cute."
"I think you won that one George." Fred flopped into the big chair by Erin. "Eat one yourself. Show her what it does to us." He took a bite out of it and instantly grew a tail and knobs poked through his hair.
"Ow. That time kinda' hurt with the horns," George noted, a pitchfork materializing in his hand. He turned very red and his face scrunched up into an evil smile. Erin giggled as her wings and harp disappeared. George proceeded to poke his little brother Ron in the head with his tail. Finally, his devil features faded and disappeared all together and he plopped himself on the opposite side of Erin from his brother. A couple of girls came in giggling. "Did you see Oliver? I didn't remember him ever looking that gorgey!"
"He was fine, indeed. So sweet of him to...." And then their voices dropped out of hearing as they began to glance over at Erin, who had busied herself with smoothing out her book pages and inking her quill. But she didn't hear them. She didn't recognize the name. Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, and Harry all exchanged knowing glances.
Fred and George looked at each other, then together said, "There's a story we know about a little frog who sat on this shoulder." They touched Erin's shoulder closest to them. "And a little squirrel who sat on this shoulder...." They touched her far shoulder. "And.... Oh well, we forgot." And their arms dropped around her behind her neck.