(Thank you to the person asking me to do the thing I said I'd do. 😅)

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Boom!

Sparks flew out of Campbell's cauldron, and he yelped loudly, yanking at your sleeve and ducking under the work table, pulling you with him.

"Hit the deck!"

Against your better judgment, you both peered over the edge of the table as the cauldron crackled over the fire, throwing off sparks and emitting a foul smell. Your classmates watched on in equal horror, transfixed by the wreckage of a potion that sat before them.

And then it exploded. Loudly. Messily. All over the place.

Campbell yelped again and yanked you back down just in the nick of time, granting you a narrow escape from the toxic mess. However, the shelf behind you was less fortunate, and the potion splatters began to eat away at whatever they so happened to land on.

"Dude..." A voice floated to your ears as one of Campbell's fellow Hufflepuffs stared in awe at the disaster before him. "Snape's gonna kill you. And I don't think we'll ever find the body. It was nice knowin' ya."

As though cued, the great old greasy bat himself came through the door in a swish of billowing robes and bad attitude.

"Save me!" Campbell pleaded quietly, hiding behind you for effect. Alas, it was to no avail.

"Mr. Bain," Snape said in that quiet, silky tone that reminded you all too much of a black adder, "would you care to tell me exactly what happened here, or will I have to extract the information from your..." his eyes moved languidly to focus on you. "...partner?"