Welcome to the Dungeons, Children.

The hallowed halls of Hogwarts were not ones that Alistair ever thought he would stalk once more. Hogwarts was colder than he remembered, less welcome and nothing like the home he had been searching for. No, he found his home in the little cottage in Hogsmeade he shared with his brother. It would do. Certainly, anything was better than having to live with the withering looks he received from the portraits that lined the walls like a second skin, as if they had yet to forget his discretions during his own time at Hogwarts, an education which he did not complete, as many sought to remind him as they hissed their verbal assaults in his direction.

Alistair was only in the castle for one reason and one reason alone – to teach Hogwarts and maybe to give the Dark Followers a helping hand. Other than that, he had no reason to be there.

It was his fourth class of the day and after most of the morning spent with idiot First Years, Alistair was waiting on a class that had some knowledge behind it – though his hopes weren’t high. Much to his despair, however, he was put in charge of hurrying the students out of the Great Hall to their post-lunch classes. He stood himself at the front of the hall, casually flicking his wand in the direction of the idle Hufflepuffs still stuffing their faces, making their current buns disappear and instead take their books from their bags and have the hard-covered tomes throw themselves at the students.

The shrieks that followed amused Alistair to no end and as he cast his eyes across the hall he realised the Ravenclaws had already gone, there were a handful of Slytherin stragglers still whereas the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables were near-full. Imbeciles, he thought disparagingly before flicking his wand again to send more textbooks flying.

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READ THIS BEFORE POSTING:
Alistair is in the Great Hall, therefore late. The door to the Potions classroom has been left open and the students can go inside and settle down their things. He will come into class in his second post. He is not in the classroom - just to make that clear. Saying "Good Afternoon Professor" is futile, you'll just be talking to a wall. Also, it is just after lunch so the students will no doubt be chatty and excitable. Have fun. Don't be boring, you lot!

Next to Transfiguration, Hitame basically adored Potions. She always found it fun and there was hardly ever a dull moment with some people who always messed the potions up and had them blow up in their faces. It was always fun in there, especially if there was someone who bothered the Professor and made them to something to them. Well ... she always found that funny, not the proper thing to find humorous but who cares? Humorous was humorous even if the views on it were different.

Right after lunch, the Gryffindor girl went straight to the Potions Dungeon. She hadn't been in the mood to eat, so it didn't take her long to get there. And though she was expecting someone to be in there already, the Professor obviously, she was a bit glad to find there was no one there. The girl blinked a few times as she stood in front of the open door, staring at the empty classroom, not really wanting to go in yet. She glanced down the corridor when she heard voices, from other students and though she didn't see anyone yet, she thought they were coming to the same class and since she didn't want to seem like an idiot standing there, Hitame stepped in and as usual walked to the back of the class and took a seat there. She placed her bag beside her and lowered her head to the desk, turning it so she was staring at the door, to look at the others who came in.

Faith loves potions class, maybe it was just because she loved the simmering air when everyone was busy in the middle of a potion, maybe she just liked the way that she could put completely unrelated compounds into a cauldron, do the right thing, and something completely new would be made out of it. Maybe it reflected on her life somewhat as well, seeing as her life had been a bunch of completely unrelated things thrown together, to make a person who now marched down the almost deserted hallway towards the potions class door.

She was expecting people to be lining up outside the classroom, but obviously Lunch was in full swing. Faith had been reading in an abandoned classroom, so she had had an apple and that was about it, she usually eat small meals throughout the day, and only slid into the Great Hall to grab something to eat later, she didn't like the idea of a huge meal all at once.

Faith noticed that the door was open to the classroom, and there was only one person in there. Another student, Faith walked in and glanced around, fully expecting to see the teaching hiding in some corner, waiting for the students to enter, hiding so they could jump out and scare the less observant ones, but they were nowhere to be found, unless invisible, she had to guess they were probably late.

Faith glanced towards the other girl and nodded slowly at her before setting down towards the front of the class and pulling out her potions textbook, some parchment, a quill and ink, and overall setting up her work area.

Amelia hated Potions and it hated her. She tried her best but it never worked out. She always ended up blowing things up. She had blown up at least eight cauldrons in her five years at Hogwarts. She lost count of how many cauldron she had ruined. She just wanted to get through this year before dropping Potions. She had to make it to her OWLS then she could drop it.

She had been trying to improve her Potions skills all summer but she hadn’t gotten that far in improving. Her mum tried to help her but she only had so much free time. Edgar was living on his own and Claire was living with their dad. So they weren’t able to help her. Drew was no better than her. She sighed it was going to be an long year.

Franki didn't much look forward to Potions. She had no problem with the subject- it was the professor she dreaded seeing. Between Alistair d'Eath and his father, Franki and her family had been thrown out of her home. The girl was a compassionate soul, but to see any of the d'Eaths inflicted a pain in her that she was not always sure she could hide.

So when she entered the Potions classroom and saw the professor was absent, she could not help but say aloud, "Thank Merlin!" And it wasn't quiet either. Two girls were already there, but both seemed timid. This was in contrast to Franki, who was still working on that inside voice concept.

She walked up and took her place next to a girl in her year. She began getting her own things out and then stopped, staring at the girl. "I don't know you. You're in my year but I think I knew your sister. She was a pureblood right? Sorry she was murdered. I read about it in the paper. You look a lot like her. Carbon copy really." Franki continued unloading her bag.

Aidan wondered into the Potions classroom. The dungeon felt weird to him, he didn't like small or dark spaces. Still, he strode into the classroom and looked around. He didn't see anyone he knew. Well, he recognised a couple of people from other classes, but none that he could even name. He slid into a desk into the middle of the room, slightly closer to the front but not at the back. He secretly wanted to sit right at the front, but he didn't want to seem like a complete teachers pet or anything.

Aidan looked around the room. No Professor yet then, he saw. Aidan liked to be early, but not too early. He wondered how long the Professor would take to arrive here. He didn't know what the standard was for classes yet. Everything was still exciting and new to him. He started unpacking his books and such onto the desk as he waited.

Faith glanced at the girl who sat down next to her and frowned as she spoke. Her.. sister? Faith glanced over her shoulder to see if the girl was talking to someone else, but no one was there, so Faith looked back at the girl. "I'm sorry.. I don't know what you're talking about.. I don't have any relatives.." She said smiling nervously and adjusting her quill across her parchment, her eyes avoiding the girl who had started to ask weird question.

It was then that it hit her though, she was talking about that other girl, that Chase girl.

"Oh! Wait.. I'm sorry.. yeah, I'm not related to her, I erm.. we just look exactly alike.. but we honestly aren't related at all.. I guess I should get used to that though, I never met her personally, but I heard she was a nice person." Faith said nodding once at her parchment before going silent.

"Oooh," Francesca said. "That's so weird. No one looks that similar without being somehow related. I'm sure your lines cross way back. Though she was pureblood, so you'd have to have some of that. But most of our family lines started pureblood, you know." She shrugged. "Crazy world we live in."

She spoke of said girl and said she was nice. Franki shrugged. "She was happy. Not to speak ill of the dead but I remember her fall. Going from popular, pretty, carefree Hufflepuff to hunted down and pregnant. Poor thing. She became a bad luck magnet from what I hear. Pity. Our families were acquainted." She shrugged. "What's your name again? Same year, but I haven't had many classes with Ravenclaws."

Faith frowned when she heard about the girls bad luck. Seemed a pity that someone would go from super popular and loved, to being hunted down and pregnant.. and then to die? And according to the Daily Prophet, it hadn't been pretty. Stabbed or something, and now she was dead, and now people thought she was her sister. It's weird how things turned out in life. Faith had been much too preoccupied keeping her father happy to even notice the popular Hufflepuff girl who looked just like her.

"I'm um.. I'm Faith Blackburn." Faith said, not wanting to go into detail, the girl kept talking about blood status, and by the coloring on her robes and the crest, she was a Slytherin, well Faith wasn't a pureblood like this other girl, so she hoped not to ruin her reputation already by saying her blood status. Faith simply adjusted her Prefect badge and looked down at her parchment, wishing class would start up already.

Risé walked into the classroom early, she had just left lunch after her books had taken to beating her about the head to get her to go to class. Now she sat in the back of the room sporting a broken lip, which was bleeding slightly. She had ducked but the book had anticipated that, and gotten her right in the face. She was embarrassed, but it hurt more than her embarrassment did.

Risé glanced forward towards the front of the room as two girls sat talking about something or other, and the other people in the room ignored them almost completely. Risé joined the group of people ignoring them, and set up her work area so that when the professor finally came into the room, she wouldn't be totally unprepared.