Author's Note: It's been a while since I've written for Harry Potter! But, I just thought that I'd let you guys know that I'm starting something new! It's called "Ashley's FanFic Explosion!" Don't know what that is? It's when I write two one-shots, for FOUR different fandoms! The fandoms will be Degrassi, Hunger Games, Twilight, and Harry Potter. I will be doing this every three months, and the dates will consist of March 30th, June 30th, September 30th, and December 30th of this year! So, mark your calendars for the explosion. ;) This one-shot will take place in their fourth year at Hogwarts. :)
"I want all of you to turn to page 152," Snape instructed, a nasty frown on his wrinkled face. It was the beginning of a new unit, and they were soon to create a new potion.
When Hermione anxiously flipped to the designated page, she saw that they were going to create a collection of mood simulators. She smirked, imagining all of the different moods that she'd concoct.
Snape cleared his throat, and stood to the front of the grimly lit classroom.
"I need you all to pay close attention to the directions, or you will do it wrong," he said, his eyes narrowing in on Neville Longbottom. Neville gulped, and looked away. "The first mood simulator that we will create will be partner-based."
Harry and Ron instantly looked to each other, smirks on their faces. Snape noticed, and his frown grew deeper.
"Don't get any ideas, because I will be picking your partners. Crabbe, you'll be partnered up with Weasley. Goyle, you'll be Potter's partner," he said, causing all four of their faces to fall. Ron and Harry looked over at the two boys, receiving glares and mouthed threats. Ron's leg began to shake. "Granger, you'll be partnered with Malfoy."
Hermione almost fell out of her seat at his words. Hermione couldn't imagine having to sit with Malfoy for the whole class period, listening as he called her a mud blood, and what not. She sneaked a glance in his direction, and saw that he had a mischievous smirk on his face. It made her skin crawl.
Snape began to call off more partners, and instructed everyone to relocate.
"Good luck," Ron mouthed to Hermione, giving her a sympathetic pout.
"Likewise," she responded. She knew how much Crabbe frightened Ron. Once she was sitting next to Malfoy, she instantly felt the chill of his presence.
"Sup, Granger," he greeted, his eyes never leaving her face. "Talked to your mud blood family lately? What do they use, telephones?" he asked, bursting with laughter. She clamped her mouth shut, ignoring his childish comments. She refocused her attention on Snape, but it wasn't much better. He was just as disgusting as her partner.
"Now, our potion that we will be concocting is a Calming potion. You need to be very careful with the amount of ingredients that you put into your cauldrons, because this potion is very similar to a love potion. You do not want to make a mistake a produce that. Now... get to work, you good for nothing imbeciles," he instructed. The students were used to Snape's harsh motivation.
"Okay, you heard what he said. We have to do this right, so give me the exact ingredients that I tell you to," she told him, skimming the ingredients.
"I'll do what I want," Malfoy said, even though he had only heard half of the instructions. Hermione looked over at him with narrowed eyes, causing him to go white in the face. She knew that he understood.
"Okay... two pints of dragon blood," she read off, holding her hand out. To be funny, Draco handed her three pints. "One strip of aconite," she told him. He gave it to her, after plucking a few of the flowers off of it. "Bat Spleen," she read off. Draco replaced it with a Dragon Fly spleen, and she hadn't even noticed. "And... two foxgloves," she said. Draco didn't know how to jeopardize that, so he just handed them to her.
After Hermione stirred the contents together, Draco watched with glee. He couldn't wait to blame Hermione for their failure. He already had his plan in mind; he would cry that he gave her all of the correct ingredients, but her inability to be a dandy witch interfered with his grade. Being that Snape took a favor to him, he would believe anything that he said.
"Listen up, class. I assume that everyone is done mixing their potions?" Snape asked. Everyone nodded, afraid to speak up. "Good. If you have done it right, you are not necessarily an atrocious delinquent. If you haven't... well, we're gonna find out in a just a moment." Snape walked around and stared down at the students, until he laid eyes on Neville.
"Now, I need a volunteer," Snape said, his eyes set on poor Neville. No one's hands raised. Snape took out his wand, and waved it in Neville's direction. Against his will, his hand shot straight up. "Neville, how kind of you to volunteer. Get up here!"
Neville hurried to the front of the classroom, scared to do otherwise. Snape reached behind him and pulled out a red, fiery liquid.
"Okay. This is an Angering Potion. Whoever consumes it, will feel the greatest anger of their lives," Snape began.
"Snape must stock up on that potion every single day," Dean Thomas whispered, causing a few chuckles. Snape snapped his head toward Dean, who froze in place.
"Detention, Mr. Thomas," Snape said, rolling his tongue for emphasis. Dean hung his head in embarrassment. The professor cleared his throat and continued. "Now, Neville is going to consume this potion." everyone gasped, afraid to see the aftermath. If he were to behave anything like Professor Snape, then the students were bound to escape from the room. Hermione felt obligated to question his teaching methods, as she always did, but she didn't feel like receiving detention. She bit her tongue, and allowed him to carry on.
With a horrified look on his face, Neville drank the potion. Everyone sat on the edge of their seats, waiting for his reaction. Neville gulped, and shrugged.
"I don't feel anything," he confessed. Suddenly, his facial expression began to change. He looked outraged. "Why don't I feel anything? Shouldn't I be feeling something? WHY CAN'T I FEEL ANYTHING?" he began to shout, causing everyone to give him puzzled looks. Malfoy began to die of laughter, and Hermione elbowed him in the stomach. He almost doubled over with gags.
"Take a good look at our angered friend. Now, with his Calming potion, once he consumes it, he should feel serene. If he did it wrong, which I assume that he did, there could be fatal consequences." Hermione frowned at the lack of confidence that Snape had in him.
As Neville continued his rampage, Snape took a scoop of the potion that Neville and his partner had created. He walked over, and handed the spoon to Neville. Neville stared at it angrily, before gulping it down. Hermione crossed her fingers, hoping that he had done it right.
Once again, Neville's facial expression began to change. He looked calm, and collected. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh, um... looks like Neville's partner helped him out," Snape said, a frown on his face. "Go sit down." Neville walked back to his seat, looking as if he had just come back from the spa. "Now, I will distribute portions of the angering potion to each group." Snape walked around, and handed the potions to the partners. Oddly, (not so odd), all of the Gryffindors had been picked to consume the potions.
"On my mark, the selected partner will drink the full portion of the angering potion. Do it," he instructed. Reluctantly, they all downed the disgusting substance. Hermione felt warmth boiling inside of her, but it wasn't the happy kind. It was the hotness of rage, and fury, getting stronger and stronger until she couldn't take it.
"WHY IS YOUR HAIR BLONDE?" she shouted. "EVERYONE KNOWS THAT YELLOW IS SUCH A DULL COLOR!"
Soon, all of the Gryffindors began to haul at the mouth, toward their partners.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU LIKE ICECREAM? I DON'T RECALL ASKING YOU IF YOU LIKE FROZEN MILK!" Harry yelled.
"YOUR FACE IS IRRATATING ME. PLEASE, MAKE IT GO AWAY!" Ron screamed.
"Okay! Give your partners your potions, and we will see if you have done it correctly," Snape instructed.
"You better have done it correctly, or I will jinx you for life!" Hermione bellowed. Malfoy gave her his signature smirk, and scooped the potion onto the spoon. He gave it to her, and with hesitance, she downed the whole thing.
Snape watched as the students facial expressions began to transform to relaxed. Malfoy watched Hermione closely, narrowing his eyes when she became calmer as well. He could have sworn that he gave her all of the wrong ingredients.
Hermione zeroed in on Malfoy, and her eyes lit up excitedly.
"Draco!" she called, causing everyone to avert their eyes to her. Malfoy's eyes widened confusedly. "You look so handsome today. Is that a new haircut? I think it brings out your eyes. Did I mention that you have stunning eyes? I could just swim in them. Can I touch your pimple? It looks lovely."
"Oh no," Ron breathed, shaking his head. Snape looked to the two of them with content. He was finally able to scold someone for messing up their potions.
"Hermione? Of all people? She couldn't have messed up the potion. This had to have been Malfoy's doing!" Harry whispered, looking to his love stricken best friend. Ron looked as if he wanted to run over and attack Malfoy.
Snape stomped over to the table, and his eyes went straight to Hermione. She didn't notice, though; she was too busy tutting her eyes at Draco. Being that he didn't pay attention to the part about the Love Potion, he had no idea what was going on.
"I didn't do it, Professor!" Malfoy shouted, his eyes widening as Hermione made a move to scoot closer to him.
"Clearly you didn't," Snape said, his disgusting grin returning. "Looks like our very own Hermione Granger has made a mistake. What a shame," he said, shaking his head. Everyone in the classroom didn't believe it; they knew for a fact that Malfoy had something to do with it.
"But... this is Hermione we're talking about! She's... she's... perfect," Seamus interrupted. Snape's face fell, and he zeroed in on him.
"No one is perfect. Especially not a little know it all," he spat, causing everyone to mutter incoherent things under their breaths. He turned back toward Hermione, and cleared his throat. As if she were knocked out of a trance, she looked up at him.
"Yes?" she asked.
"You fail this assignment," he stated. Her face fell, her eyes widening.
"I... fail? But... I've never failed anything before!" she said, looking as if she were about to cry. Ron and Harry felt awful for her, but all Malfoy could do was laugh. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, but they were quickly replaced with lust. She smiled at him, blowing him a kiss. Once again, he was utterly confused.
"Looks like Hermione did the exact opposite of what she was instructed to do. Instead of creating a Calming Potion, she created a Love Potion," Snape explained.
"That explains her infatuation with Malfoy," Ron whispered, his mood calming down. Malfoy simmered down as well, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, are you going to reverse it?" Harry asked.
"No. since Hermione plays by her own rules, we'll let her dig herself out of this hole," he responded.
"But sir, I didn't!" she pleaded. Just then, the bell sounded above them. Everyone moved to escape from Snape's classroom, including Hermione.
She was angry at Draco for sabotaging their project, but even more pissed at Snape for refusing to reverse it.
"I can't believe the two of them!" she screamed, as Ron and Harry hurried to catch up to her.
"Don't worry, Hermione. We'll fix this," Ron promised. Hermione turned to them, and crossed her arms.
"We better. Or..." Hermione gulped, considering her next words. "I'll probably end up marrying Malfoy."
Author's Note: Hmm, I actually want to continue this! Lol. Leave me some reviews and let me know you guys thought of the first chapter! (: