Potions Essays and Secret Admirers Oh my!(Ezzie)

[Zeak Nitesh G2]

Zeak made his way down the hall humming cheerily, his school bag hung easily from one shoulder and his cane swung slightly in his other hand. He couldn’t help but have a large grin on his face. Another Potions lesson down, another victory earned. Potion’s used to be the hardest subject for him in terms of grades and emotional scarring. Professor Snape had taken no pity on Zeak during his first year and actually enjoyed torturing the boy in front of the class. Zeak had not had the talent for Potions, it was difficult to get his ingredients exactly correct and also he could not tell when his potions had changed color. His first year had been a disaster, he vowed that his second year would be better. He began to organize better, each of his ingredients had their own special place so that he could easily recall them. His only tense moment came at the beginnings of class when he was forced to have someone read the board for him, thankfully he met Angel and she was glad to help him. After everything was prepped and laid out it was quite easy to prepare his ingredients. Still, he wasn’t the best Potions student, he still remembered when his sleeping drought had turned his partner into a toad, but at least he was getting passing marks. Zeak came to an intersection in the hall and quickly stopped, he threw his cane hand out to the side, extending his cane and just barely catching the third year walking beside him in the chest, stopping his forward momentum. “What….-“

“You don’t wanna step out that way yet partna.” Zeak interrupted in his best John Wayne voice. He didn’t know if the kid was muggle enough to recognize the voice but a second after his sentence the way in front of them was suddenly filled with twenty whooping students zooming on their broomsticks at break neck speeds. Had the kid stepped out when he did he would have been seriously injured. Zeak grinned, he could only imagine the look of surprise on the other kids face. Zeak quickly dipped into his British butler voice, “They way is clear now, sir.” He gave a quick bow and went on his way, leaving the stunned student behind. Zeak paused and quickly decided on a destination, if he went left, he could go to the library, right would take him to the student lounge. A mental image of the student lounge came to him, packed with students, and usually quite loud. Not a good place to try and do homework. Library it is, Zeak turned left and headed down the hallway and soon came to the library doors. He pushed them open quietly and entered. The library was another section that had been difficult to conquer. Naturally quiet there was not a lot of things that could help Zeak find his way, and Madam Pince hated it when he tapped away with his cane. It had been difficult for him to finally map this place out.

Zeak inclined his head toward the front desk in greeting to Madam Pince, a slight mumble from that direction confirmed to Zeak that she was there watching his progress. He sighed and stepped forward, five steps brought him to the first desk, turning left and letting his hand guide him he took three steps and reached the end of the table. Zeak turned, following the corner and moved deeper into the library. Zeak moved to a table in near the back, he touched the smooth wood concentrating all his senses to try and sense anyone near. “Hello?” He whispered, no answer came back to him. Zeak poked his cane under the desk and slowly ran it from one end to the other, it didn’t encounter anything but the table legs, this desk was empty. Sighing Zeak fished around with his hand and quickly located a chair and plopped down into it. He leaned his cane next to him against the table and quickly fished into his bag for his potions book, some parchment, and his quills and ink.

He found the marker in his book and quickly flipped to the appropriate page and began to read up on Re’em blood and its uses in potion making. A simple wave of his wand caused the letters to bulge slightly so that his sensitive fingers could identify the words. He read for a few moments and then jotted down a few words on his parchment. He was half through his essay when he heard footsteps approaching. Automatically his mind began to time the rhythm and pattern of the steps and when they stopped near his desk Zeak lifted his head and “looked” at the girl there. “Hello Ezzie, how is your day?”

[Esmeralda Mendez]

This secret admirer thing was driving her crazy. She had no idea who kept sending her these messages, and she really didn’t know what to do anymore. Ezzie was flattered that someone was sending her letters and such, but she had a serious boyfriend. She was sure, no, she was positive that TJ was being loyal to her wherever he was, so she figured it was the right thing to do to be faithful to him. She was far too in love wit TJ to try and do anything that might ruin their relationship. Ezzie had narrowed it down to guys in fifth year and up, in her house. Most of her letters came to her either in her dormitory or in the common room, and she’d gotten a letter during a beginner’s level class. So she figured it must be an older Gryffindor boy. But who could it possibly be? Because of Carson and Ethan especially, Ezzie somewhat knew all of the sixth year Gryffindor boys. Ethan would be a sixth year now, had it not been for the terrible accident that had happened last Christmas. He was amongst some of the more popular guys in Hogwarts. Most of them hadn’t really liked Ethan as she’d later figured out. They were just there for the parties and the popularity. He was a good person to know if you wanted to have fun. After he died, most of the sixth year boys who used to be his friends actually managed to trash talk the kid just weeks after his funeral. Some of them hadn’t even bothered to attend. But then there were the ones who were close to Ethan and blamed Ezzie for his death like the many others.

Because of all these little problems with the sixth year Gryffindor boys, Ezzie had pretty much ruled out that certain group of Hogwarts students. But it didn’t hurt to check. She’d had some awkward conversations with old acquaintances and strained talks that were borderline arguments with others. But eventually, Ezzie came to the conclusion that none of the sixth years could be responsible for the adorably romantic secret love letters. And so the search continued. Ezzie figured she’d head to the library and try to talk to some of the Gryffindors in her year. Perhaps one of them could be held responsible for the sweet little notes? Ezzie walked quietly into the library, accidentally stepping on a loose floorboard on her way inside. Madame Pince looked up with a glare at Ezzie. The woman was crazy about keeping the place quiet, which drove Ezzie crazy sometimes. The squeak of the floorboard was rather loud however, and everyone looked up at her as she walked in. She muttered a quick apology directed at the librarian and offered an embarrassed smile toward the other students who had noticed her rather noisy entrance.

Ezzie sighed, her mind busying itself with possibilities of who it could possibly be. The letters and the roses were so sweet and romantic. Whoever wrote them had to be really poetic. But why was Ezzie so preoccupied with a silly secret admirer? For all she knew, it could be just some mean Slytherin playing a joke on her or something. She had no idea who this guy (hell, it could even be a girl for all she knew.) was, so why should she be worried in the least? Perhaps it was because Ezzie was enjoying all the attention she was getting from this admirer? TJ hadn’t even sent her one little letter in the week and a half that they had been in school already. He had promised her that he would write her daily, and he hadn’t even wrote her once. The first Hogsmeade trip was approaching rather quickly, and Ezzie needed to know whether or not she’d be meeting TJ when she arrived there that day. She had things to do that day, and it probably would be more responsible for Ezzie to be getting some recording done in the studio instead of spending the entire day in TJ’s new apartment. Though, if TJ never wrote her, she wouldn’t know where to go. He still hadn’t told her where this alleged apartment of his was located.

Ezzie looked around, finally noticing a good possibility. She waved the negative thoughts about TJ out of her head and walked over to a boy named Zeak Nitesh, a Gryffindor in her year. The boy was a sweet kid. He’d never picked on her and had tried to be nice when she was going through those rough times last year. Sadly though, the boy was blind. Ezzie always felt a twinge of pity whenever Snape would pick on him in Potions class. Could he really help it? Ezzie tried to help whenever she could, but she was terrible in Potions. She wouldn’t be able to help the kid, no matter how hard she tried. She’d simply lead him to failure. Well, in Potions class anyway. Ezzie walked over to the table he was sitting in and he looked up, his light eyes showing no sign of actually seeing the figure in front of him. It always surprised her how he’d always be able to identify who was who without them having to even say a word. She’d heard that when one sense is gone, the others are magnified, but Zeak’s case was unbelievable. Ezzie smiled to her fellow classmate. “You never cease to amaze me with that little trick of yours. How could you tell it was me?” Ezzie said with curiosity as she set her books down at the table. She glanced down at his paper. The handwriting was a bit different than the ones in the letter, but Ezzie figured this was worth checking into anyway.

[Zeak Nitesh G2]

Zeak couldn’t help but letting a smile cross his face as Ezzie sat down at the table. He slightly shifted aside some of his stuff so that she could have more room. “Do you really wanna know?” He asked, his voice dropping to a low tone as if he was guarding a secret. Zeak leaned closer to Ezzie and began to speak in a low whisper. “I’m a wizard, but shh…” He added making a shushing motion with his finger and lips. “Don’t tell anyone or else my secret will be known and than people will cease to be amazed.” Zeak straightened, a serious look on his face but he wasn’t able to hold it for long and soon started laughing at himself. “Wow, even I thought that one was a little lame.” He said once his short little fit had worn itself out. Zeak liked Ezzie, she was one of the few people that didn’t walk on egg shells around him. He could still sense an undertone of pity to her, this was naturally, who couldn’t feel pity for the blind boy? At least Ezzie still treated him like a human being, unlike others.

“Actually,” He stated after a short pause. “The reality is not that complex.” Zeak put quill down and paused for another second, usually his brain simply reached the conclusion automatically with the given evidence. Zeak rarely had to exert much effort in the process. “Every person has a unique way of walking. Although it may look exactly the same on the outside, everyone has a slight difference. Someone may plant their heels harder than others, others still tend to just slap their feet down flat as they walk.” Zeak shrugged and couldn’t help but grin again. “I’m really not that amazing. I’ve only memorized the patterns of a few people. My close friends, the other 5th year Gryffindors.” Zeak once again turned his blind eyes toward Ezzie, “I was directly behind you in the sorting during our first year that plus all the times we’ve been in the common room together and all the classes we have together.” He chuckled a little, “Your footsteps are one of the easiest for me to recognize.” The statement wasn’t far from the truth, although Ezzie wasn’t exactly in his circle of friends he found that he was around the girl a lot. The only other person he had more exposure to was Angel White, another Gryffindor 5th year.

Zeak sighed and ran his fingers across the parchment in front of him, feeling the slight indentions his quill had caused as he wrote. Most people wouldn’t have been able to even feel the indentions but Zeak was able to read perfectly fine like this. “You know, I can’t figure out why Professor Snape assigns such long essays for something that doesn’t have that much practical use. I’ve already managed to list all the applications for Re’em blood in the first paragraph, now I’m trying to find some filler to fill in the rest of the roll.” He sighed and then regarded the books that Ezzie had set down on the table a few moments ago. “So, has your Potions Essay forced you into the library also?”

[Esmeralda Mendez]

Ezzie smiled at Zeak, though she doubted he’d noticed the gesture being that he couldn’t see it. Ezzie didn’t know what her life would be like had she been blind. There was so much she’d be missing out on, so much she’d never get to experience. Ezzie hated having even the smallest disability like a sore throat or a sprained ankle. Ezzie would never be able to imagine what it was like to be blind for the rest of your life. Now that was a true reason to be upset with your life, but oddly enough, Zeak was a decently friendly and positive person. Ezzie didn’t know how he managed it. She was sure it must have been hard trying to get past such a tough disability, but Zeak handled it well. She admired people like this, people who could have nothing, yet be perfectly happy. Ezzie used to be that way. She’d lived off scraps for quite a long time, but she was perfectly fine. It was when Ezzie was given the money and the fame that she cracked under the pressure of it all. If anything, it was better to have nothing at all than to have a surplus of good fortunes.

She glanced down again, removing the small parchment from her pocket. The crumpled up piece of paper had been in her pocket amongst the many other love letters she’d received from her secret admirer. The most recent of the bunch was an adorable poem written in a decently legible sort of script. The words were slanted, and there were many points and sharp edges to the letters. But when those letters were put together with the meaning of the words, they looked beautiful, passionate, and romantic. Whoever the writer was wrote on a decently straight line, despite the fact that the parchment did not have lines. The writer of the letters always found a way to shape the words so they fit together and all looked perfect on the page. The parchment looked rather expensive, like it had been saved especially for a special occasion or an important document. Ezzie almost felt guilty not treating the notes with better care, because out of the six letters (one for each day) that she had received, there were four of them crumpled up in her robe pocket so she could take it out whenever she wished. The other two were sitting in her dormitory hidden in her notebook full of songs.

Ezzie smiled. It was cool how Zeak had all those special talents. She supposed that it came with the struggles of being blind for such a long time, which wasn’t always fun. Now it seemed, Zeak was almost used to having to live without one of his five senses, but what was it like for the poor guy in the early stages of his disadvantage. Had he always been this calm about his problem? Ezzie didn’t know, but Zeak certainly had found ways to cope. Recognizing people’s footsteps was just the beginning of it. He was now “reading” his Potions book and writing his essay, which truthfully Ezzie hadn’t even started. She figured she’d do it with Casey or Carson later on, who were much better at Potions than Ezzie would ever be. She remembered seeing Zeak in their Potions classes, he was actually pretty good at it despite his obvious missing senses. “That’s too cool. I wouldn’t possibly be able to tell who was coming. I mean, how can you possibly remember all those footstep patterns? I think it’s amazing. And honestly…I haven’t even started that assignment yet.” Ezzie said, shamefully. She really needed to get back on top of her work this year. Ezzie glanced down at his paper. His words floated upwards as he wrote. He can’t write in a completely straight line Ezzie thought to herself as she quietly observed his writing. It was similar to the words in the letters, but was it a match? There was only one way to find out. “Hey I know this is kind of a random question, but um..are you into writing? You know, stories, poetry, love letters…” Ezzie said, accidentally blurting out the last part without meaning to.

[Zeak Nitesh G2]

Zeak couldn’t contain his happiness at Ezzie’s amazement. It was these exact reactions that kept him happy throughout all the years of having to deal with his blindness. Why let a simple disability get him down? So what if he had to forego a few experiences. Although it would be nice to actually see the beauty of Hogwart’s castle as the train approached, or see the last rays of a setting sun as it dipped below the horizon, he received other experiences that others would not be able to enjoy. He could continue to amaze people by simply identifying them as they drew near. His heighten senses had saved more than a few students from bodily harm. Zeak was forced to give up some of lives simple pleasures, but he had managed to carve out pleasures of his own in this existence. He chuckled at her statement, “Honestly, I have no idea how I do it. I’m not even aware that I am remembering it. I simply hear a pattern and something in my brain clicks, almost like a computer.” He shrugged but continued to grin. “I figure though, as long as I have the ability, I might as well use it.” He couldn’t help but laugh as a new thought struck him. “Though I’ll probably come down with Alzheimer’s disease because of the extensive pressure I put on my brain.”

Even though Zeak had this emotional armor protecting him from his disability there was still some days when his armor collapsed for a period of time. He found that his hand inadvertently trailed to his cane and fingered the padded dragon head handle, or more pointedly the tear and bite marks there. His mood dropped for a few seconds as the memory of all the past incidents that had caused that damage to his cane came to mind. Still, to this day only one other person knew where that damage had come from, and Zeak hadn’t even wanted her to walk in on that. Zeak had his low days, but he hated to be pitied, so he would rather no body see him during those days, he wasn’t going to dump his problems on others. He quickly shook the thoughts out of his mind and grinned again, bringing back his happy mood armor. A slight rustling reached his ears, Ezzie had just pulled out a piece of parchment, but hadn’t she just said she hadn’t even started on the essay yet? He fell silent and quickly became curious as Ezzie began to talk once again.

It was rare for Zeak to be surprised, even though Ezzie had warned him that it was a random question he was still thrown by the complete randomness of it. Also she mentioned love letters, though she seemed a bit surprised that she had spoken that part. Zeak cocked his head, was Ezzie getting love letters? It was something that probably shouldn’t be out of the norm, she was getting quite famous in her singing career. Zeak tapped his chin for a second as he thought. “Nope, I can’t really say that I am. All of those styles are very visual. I can’t write a lot of stories, I have no idea what life is like with vision, and I think people would get tired of a book where every character approaches the world as if they were blind.” He chuckled a little. “Same with Poetry, I can’t exactly describe the beauty of the sun reflecting off of a sparkling lake now can I, but if you ever wanna know what potion ingredient Snape has spilled onto his lap, I’m your man.” Once again another chuckle escaped him. “Why such a random question? Someone sending you poetry and love letters?”