#20 Bait and Switch

Leaving the confines of the Herbology class and battling the elements once again, Amelia was happy once they were in the castle. Amelia bowed out for just a moment to find the lavatories, but caught up with Kassia before she made it to the dungeons.

Her stomach was still tossing and turning and the idea of facing Snape made her face red, but she stood patiently outside the office of the Potion's professor and watched as Kassia knocked on the door.

"Two galleons he makes mention of the last class to me," Amelia said with an amused smile, her red hair damp from the outside elements.

The sudden opening of the door was becoming something she was use to and looked at the door as it didn't bang against the door.

As she entered, she walked with Kassia inside and looked at the professor.

"Good morning, Professor... While I was in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey said something about restocking... I wanted to help... I heard I should speak to you?" she asked the potion professor.

With his ingredients safely held in his bag and the last half hour firmly blocked from his mind, Oscar made his way through the dungeons. That was not normally a place that he liked to be, something that still held true, but he just wanted the whole potion kit thing done with, so there he was.

The sooner that was done, the sooner he could escape and move on to better things. Well, other things at least.

Luckily it seemed like he reached Professor Snape's office in no time at all, though he did hesitate at the sight of the door open and two other students talking to the Professor already.

That was just great. As much as he appreciated not being stuck interrupting Snape on his own, it was a pain to once again be stuck awkwardly hovering outside the open office door once again. There was no way he was willing to enter without permission though.

Holding in a sigh at his oh so great timing, Oscar knocked his knuckles against the doorframe and hoped that none of its occupants would be too annoyed at his interruption.

So one for extra-curricular assistance, and another for the Potions Kit. Before he could respond, two more students arrived -- and the Hufflepuff had the sense to knock first, rather than assume to invite himself in.  

'Enter,' Professor Snape said. 'And state your purpose.'

He eyed the group now present just inside his doorway though, as strangely each Hogwarts house was represented. It was curious, though most likely a coincidence. At least he could confirm that Potions studies appealed to all houses, no matter what some of his colleague may believe about Slytherins in particular.

Snape waited to hear why Oscar and Jaxen were there before he proceeded, as it was already clear there were some opposing tasks to oversee.

Oscar was happy enough to let the other student go first. Sure, he wanted to get his potions kit over and done with, but letting someone else go first to test Snape's mood never seemed like a bad idea.

He still followed quickly behind the Ravenclaw though. There was no need to waste the Professors time after all.

"I collected those ingredients, Sir," he said, opening his bag to pull them out and show them. "I hope these are okay."

Kassia looked over at a younger Hufflepuff as well as, shockingly, Jaxen Ashworth. Had Snape not been there, she would have absolutely made a comment about him following her and Amelia. But even she knew better than to sass someone in front of her Head of House, however, so she instead fixed him with a pleasant smile instead.

She was also secretly relieved that he in turn wouldn't be able to make a comment about her embarrassing mistake in herbology, but Kassia would never admit such a thing. She took the jar and vial from the air before following Professor Snape out and to the potions classroom.

Kassia eyed the disgusting cauldrons. Weren't students supposed to clean up at the end of every class, under pain of death? How did these ones stay so filthy? However, she wasn't about to complain. It was still better than what she'd just went through that morning.

Kassia picked a cauldron at random, assuming they'd all be full of something horrifying. She looked at her nails- now shortened, with the nail polish stripped off. She'd only just scrubbed out the dirt and plant bits in the shower earlier. Good thing she hadn't painted them yet.

She went to the sink and fetched some cleaning equipment, getting to work. Amelia was busy with the professor, she didn't know the Hufflepuff, and she knew Snape would hear anything she said to Jaxen. So, Kassia focussed entirely on her cleaning.

She actually enjoyed the process of cleaning, and was no stranger to it. She'd had to pick up after her own mother more times than she could count. Helping her father when he was too exhausted to hold the mop any longer. Kassia had cleaned every possible spill, every imaginable bodily fluid.

Though she hated cleaning someone else's mess, Kassia knew how to scrub the cauldron thoroughly. Washing away what she could with warm water, scraping the bits that stuck carefully without damaging the cauldron, patiently rubbing at the more stubborn bits of grime. She took her time cleaning her fingers of any other refuse, and then dried the cauldron.

Once it was satisfactorily clean, Kassia approached Professor Snape and waited patiently.

As the Professor took his time to look over their ingredients, Oscar could not help but to anxiously shift his weight from one leg to the other. He found, as time dragged on, that he could only presume the worst.

Were his ingredients not as good as what the older students had collected? Or maybe he had messed up by growing the majority of what he had shown up with. Whatever the reason, he was pretty sure that Professor Snape was about to tell the upper years what an idiot the odd fourth year was.

Instead of that embarrassment though he was pleasantly surprised, and left fumbling for the jar and vial, as the Professor apparently deemed them all okay.

His cheeks red after he barely avoided breaking his new vial, Oscar followed the Professor out of the office and to the classroom. He hoped no one had noticed his moment of clumsiness.

Unsurprised by their new task, Oscar got straight to work after giving a silent nod of acknowledgment for their instructions.

Scrubbing a cauldron did not seem like a big enough deal to need commenting on. Not after they were trained to do it after every use in class anyway. Honestly, the only thing that surprised him was that there was a pile of dirty cauldrons left sat around at all.

He wondered who had made them. Maybe there was a group of rebellious students who just refused to clean cauldrons? Though, if that was true, it brought up the question of how he had not heard about said rebellious students and their not-so-mysterious disappearances.

Oscar kept his mind occupied entertaining those thoughts as he carried out the familiar motions of filling his cauldron with water and then scrubbing it inside and out.

Before he knew it he was wiping down his newly clean cauldron, satisfied that he had got all of the muck off.

Once he had it as dry as he thought he would get it, Oscar decided to follow the Slytherin's example in going over to Snape to wait quietly to see what he had to say. Was the Professor going to make them do anything else? He may have been fine scrubbing a cauldron clean, but Oscar still hoped that was the end of their tasks.