Chapter6
Potions
Hermione was laughing…laughing as she had never laughed before. She was seated on the green, lush grass and nearby, her parents two-story house loomed. Hermione smiled and turned towards her friend, Anna and was surprised to see her looking at Hermione in a cold way. The smile faded on her face as her friend's features became distorted and there was an angry light in her eyes, which had become narrowed. She suddenly realized that she wasn't sitting on the grass anymore, and her house had disappeared from view…
She backed away slowly from her friend who was still looking at her in anger. As she got up her friends eyes followed her but she remained seated but she uttered, "Why, Hermione? Why?!"
And with a sudden thrust Hermione got up, confused, blinking at the faint light pervading her eyes, still half-closed. She tried to retain the dream, which she had but it was already fading as she took in her surroundings. She rubbed her eyes and wondered why she was in the hospital. Then as the last remnant of her dream left her, the realization came crashing down upon her.
"Of course! The Forest!" she muttered. 'But why am I in the Hospital Wing?'
The thought had barely registered into her head when a goblet was pushed underneath her nose while a familiar voice said, "Ah, woken up I see, Miss Grayson!" She looked up to see the Hogwarts Matron smiling down at her. She accepted the goblet without question. Her face screwed up in disgust at the vile taste but her brain had already started functioning as the Touch Up potion worked through her body. But even as she thought back to her ordeal the previous night, her memory only came to the point where she had mad her way to her bed in the girls' dormitory in the Gryffindor Common room. How had she landed up here?
'Someone must have brought me here,' she thought even as she saw Professor Stallys coming towards her with a look, which clearly said that she was going to interrogate her. Hermione desperately tried to think of some story, which she could tell the Defense professor, but her mind was drawing a major blank. She looked apprehensively at the professor as she opened her mouth to speak.
"Miss Grayson, I hope you're fine now." Hermione nodded. Stallys looked appraisingly at her for a moment. "Then, would you care to tell me how you came to be here, in this fashion?" She gestured towards her.
"Uh Professor, I was walking through the castle grounds…you know, near the lake and I looked towards the Forest and I saw a sort of shining light over there, near the trees," Hermione said, making up the lie as she spoke. Stallys narrowed her eyes but did not say a thing, so Hermione continued on with her story. "So I was..um..curious about it and I went towards it and…"
"And you were knocked off by that shining light." Professor Stallys completed for her. She nodded. Stallys looked at her sharply for a few moments before saying, "Very well, Miss Grayson. I want you to know that this type of irresponsible behavior would have earned you a detention but for the fact that you're a new student and you have no idea about how dangerous the forest is. And in such times, it would have been better if you had contacted a teacher. However its quiet possible that you saw a unicorn though it might have been something else. Nevertheless, if you see anything suspicious, you must notify any of staff." Hermione nodded. "I hope to see you in my classes soon."
She left with a little nod of her head, leaving Hermione to ponder her words. She had the uncomfortable feeling that Stallys had not believed a word of her little story and that she might have to watch out for the Defense professor in the future.
***
"My, my…you're really sweet, Lily." Ophelia said, her sarcasm evident. Lily sighed, she and Ophelia had been discussing Lily's sudden outburst on James. Well, Lily called it discussion even though Ophelia had been the one speaking and Lily had been all but trying not to listen to her.
"Look, can't we just drop it? Oh….all right, I'll apologize to him, okay? Now can we please talk about anything other than James bloody Potter?!!" Lily said resignedly. Ophelia grinned to herself, which however was noticed by Lily who glared at her.
"You did this on purpose didn't you?" Lily asked her, still glaring at her best friend.
"Oh….Lily...didn't you just want to talk about something else," Ophelia smirked, her voice singsong. Lily gave her one last glare before launching on the topic of Jane.
They were wondering what Jane might be doing out at night. "She might have been out t meet someone you know…maybe some boy who li…" Ophelia shut up as the door swung open and Jane herself walked in. They stared at her as she flopped down on her bed and immediately began to tear away her bandages that Madam Pomfrey had bound on her. Jane seemed to realize that they were staring at her because she suddenly stopped and glanced at them. She smiled uncertainly at them but they kept on staring before Lily seemed to realize what she was doing and smiled back, which broke the ice.
"So…I guess you're okay now?" Lily asked her.
"Yeah, Madame Pomfrey is a genius with such things. She just insisted I wear these bandages for the rest of the day," Jane said.
"But what really happened to you?" Ophelia asked her. Jane stared at her. "I mean we saw you in your bed, half covered with blood and looking like trash."
" I thought I saw something shining near the edge of the forest…so…I went over to investigate and we-ell…" Jane gestured at her bandages, sheepishly but Lily thought she looked almost uncomfortable so she reminded the two of them about their classes for the day. Immediately Jane brightened up and began bustling around her bed, picking out her books for the day. Lily noticed that her belongings were really tattered and old. Ophelia hadn't moved from her place and was watching Jane putting her books inside a faded old bag; she had a smile on her face. Lily knew what Ophelia must be thinking. For Ophelia, a girl who could go in the Forbidden Forest, to follow a mysterious light, must be highly adventurous and good to have as a friend. Lily shook her head at her, highly amused.
*
"Well Jane," said Lily told Hermione, "first class for today is Potions…taught by a batty old Professor by the name of …"
" Professor Slughorn who has a slight crush, I think, on our dear, highly charming Head Girl!" Ophelia said snickering.
"What?!" Hermione couldn't help but splutter out. She raised her eyebrows at the redhead beside her. Ophelia winked at Lily who jabbed at her with her elbow, rolling her eyes.
"Don't believe her, she just loves to, shall I say, create a controversy." Lily said against a teasing Ophelia. Hermione looked forward, they had come to the Potions' dungeon where she had spent (or would spend) many an unhappy day with her best friends, Snape taunting them from the front of the class and the Slytherins snickering appreciatively and then in her sixth year, with Slughorn showering praises on Harry and reminiscing his mother's skill at potions. Well she would just have to see Lily at potions now, thought Hermione as she entered the cold dungeon.
It did not seem as though there had been any major changes at Hogwarts for the past twenty years. The seventh year NEWT class comprised of a handful of students from each house, though Hermione noted, the number of students were significantly more than her own class back in her own time. She noticed James and Sirius sitting at the back of the room; apparently the other two Marauders hadn't taken potions for their NEWTs. Slughorn had already entered the class and he beamed at the as they entered.
"Ah Miss Evans! Welcome! I was just wondering where my favorite student was!" Slughorn said happily. Ophelia raised her eyebrows significantly at Hermione, a look that earned her a glare from Lily. Hermione, however, had another problem. The class evidently had been seated in pairs and it seemed she was the lone student in the class without a partner. Slughorn seemed to have come to he same conclusion.
"Oh it seems our new student is in search of a partner," he said. The class snickered and Hermione felt her cheeks flushing. Slughorn seemed not to take notice.
"Well, Miss Grayson you can share with Mr. Snape here," Slughorn said to Hermione's horror. She looked where Slughorn was gesturing and saw a head bent over the cauldron, his hair slicked back and looking as oily as ever. Snape looked up just then and scowled at her across the room. Somehow through her horror she made her way to Snape's cauldron, which looked, as oily and black as his hair. Snape was glaring at her now, the fumes from his potion surrounding him in a sort of purple haze and making him look madder than ever. He instantly transferred whatever potion he was making into two-three tiny bottles. Till then Slughorn had started explaining about the Befuddlement Draught that was supposed to be the potion they would be attempting for the next three weeks, according to him.
However, as soon as Hermione started with her attempt, Snape hissed from his stool, "Mudblood, don't you dare touch my things with your filthy hands, I don't want to contract dragon pox from you." Hermione glared at him but kept her mouth shut, wisely.
She took out her cauldron and started with her potion which looked quite complicated from her book. According to the book, she was supposed to heat the Alsyxia fluid till it was boiling and she was to add the stone of Kilje exactly after forty-two bubbles had come upto the surface. It was pretty difficult to try and count the bubbles through the din created by the various students and Hermione grit her teeth in irritation. Her potion was supposed to turn grayish silver but it was lurid orange. Then she realized she hadn't added the elking hairs and hastily added them.
She glanced over at Snape who had already achieved the halfway gray-silver stage and was now scribbling across a book…a familiar book. Hermione stared at him; it was his copy of advanced potion… that had caused so much friction between Harry and her in her sixth year. Snape looked up from his scribbling and looked suspiciously at her.
"Stop looking into my cauldron, you dirty little mudblood, I wonder why Professor Slughorn insists on Befuddling draughts for people with substandard brains," he said slowly. Hermione's temper flared but before she could retaliate, she felt something whiz by her hand and fall into Snape's potion. Snape who was busy glaring at her did not notice. Hermione looked behind her and it didn't take her more than a minute to spot James and Sirius who were fiddling about their brass-scales and looking like any normal student should but the covert looks they were passing towards Hermione and Snape gave them away. She frowned at them and then realized. She looked back towards her table just in time to see greenish slimy tentacle-like things protruding out from Snape's cauldron and grabbing him by the head. One moment Snape was looking shocked, head
held in slimy mucous like hands and next moment, his whole head was dunked in his own cauldron. The whole class was now watching the spectacle as Snape tried to force his head out from the cauldron. Hermione looked desperately around for Professor Slughorn but he was conveniently absent from the class at that particular moment. Meanwhile, the class had divided itself into a small mass of Slytherins who were looking interestedly at Snape yet none would come ahead to help him while the rest of the class was a combination of students from the other three Hogwarts houses. Some of the students had now started cheering, leaded on by James and Sirius.
Finally, after much trouble, Snape managed to get his head out from the cauldron. However the green slimy hands were not satisfied. Snape tried to duck as the two hands fused into one gigantic one, which readied itself for its last strike on the unfortunate boy in front of it. With a loud squelching sound, it struck Snape flat on his face so much so that he was pushed backwards. Then the hand dissolved itself back into the cauldron with a splat. There was silence in which the class pensively watched Snape. Then suddenly, as though a bubble had been burst, the laughter started. Hermione, who had walked several spaces back when the slime-hands had first started attacking Snape, now sat down on her stool and held her table for support. She had tried to keep a straight face and glare at James and Sirius but somehow, at that moment she just couldn't manage it. She had never laughed so much in her life and even though she felt guilty about laughing at someone else's misery, it was sweet revenge for all the times Snape had taunted her both as an adult in her own time and now.
"What's going on over here?" Slughorn had finally re-entered the class. It was as though watching a movie in slow motion, Slughorn making his way through the mass of students gathered around Hermione's table, then watching his expression change from one of trepidation to a short bark-like laugh which he quickly suppressed. He re-arranged his features with difficulty and put on an expression of sympathy as he made his way towards Snape who was still numb with shock and had not moved an inch.
"Evanesco!" Slughorn said as he vanished all the green slime from Snape's face and then repaired all the damage done with a single flick of his wand. "Severus are you ok?" he asked of Snape who jumped as though an electric shock had run through him.
"They did it, sir!" he said, pointing at the two Marauders who were standing a few feet away. Slughorn looked at them and considered them for a moment.
"We didn't sir." Sirius said.
"We couldn't have done it anyway…we were sitting across the other end of the room from Snape, it wouldn't have worked anyway," James said, casually shrugging as though he hardly cared at all. It was very well done indeed and Slughorn shook is head while looking at Snape genially.
"They're right son…it couldn't be them. Now why don't you run up to the hospital wing and get a calming draught from Madam Pomfrey. That'll soothe you up," he said to Snape who was looking enraged now.
"She must have helped them!" he shouted, pointing at Hermione. She gaped at him. Slughorn was now looking almost amused and he led a protesting Snape away from the dungeon.
It was a very cheerful set of students who came out from the classroom, all of them no doubt chattering about the slimy green Snape. Hermione went out, looking disapprovingly at James and Sirius but they were too busy enjoying all the pats they received from the Gryffindors.
'Welcome to the Marauders, Hermione,' she mused before shaking her head and making her way towards the common room.
Udne Ki Aasha
Jaane Anjaane Hum Mile
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