As usual, I own no part of the Harry Potter series and I am making no profit from it. I'm very excited that the next installment has come along so smoothly! I didn't know if I was going to be able to pull this off with this fic, but I am attempting to keep a schedule of posting new chapters each Saturday, so look forward to that!
The weekend passed before their next potion lesson more or less uneventfully. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spent most of it in front of the fire, Harry and Ron playing round after round of wizard's chess while Hermione read furiously, sometimes reading "particularly interesting snippets" aloud to the boys who, to their credit, pretended to listen.
When they arrived in the potions classroom the next Monday, gone was the dreariness that Harry had always associated with the dungeons and with Snape. In place of the damp and the general dullness that usually permeated the classroom, were soft lights in a myriad of colors that floated slowly about on the ceiling, their work stations had been magicked a clean white, and small bouquets of soft blue, purple, and pink flowers were placed throughout the room to a slightly homey effect. While the decor was not particularly what Harry would have chosen, thinking instead of lush red and god tapestries and roaring fires, he had to admit that the small touches did have a massive effect on his mood. That, paired with Snape's absence and the Gryffindors were practically giddy.
Much to Harry's surprise, the Slytherin students also seemed to be slightly happier than usual - Crabbe and Goyle were telling jokes to Zabini and Malfoy was smiling softly to himself, smelling a flower that he'd pulled from one of the bouquets that Harry thought might have been a violet. There was something surprising, there, in the gesture. Something human Harry saw in Malfoy that he wasn't sure he'd ever seen before.
"Welcome everyone, I see you're all admiring the new decor!" said Miss Everett, smiling as she walked in the front of the classroom, "I thought I'd spruce things up a little bit, as I never could really concentrate in the dim back when I was a student. And if enough of you don't like it, then we'll figure out something else I suppose!"
She started a small lecture the many properties of powdered unicorn horn and how it should only be used sparingly and with extreme caution. "This is not one of those ingredients where you should add in an extra little pinch if you think you may have gone shy in your measuring. In fact, more often than not it might benefit someone still learning the exact pieces of the brewing skill to only add in two-thirds to three-quarters of the powder to begin with, then adding in small amounts until it has the desired effect."
Harry lost interest in the lecture, as nice as Miss Everett seemed, he wasn't sure anyone could make potions as riveting as he found Defense Against the Dark Arts, or even Charms class for that matter. He noticed Ron doodling on a spare scrap of parchment, Pavarti at the next table had charmed one of the flowers to float about her table, and across the room Malfoy was flicking idly through his textbook, looking completely zoned out. Maybe not having Snape in the room had made Malfoy less worried about not living up to his father's expectations.
Harry was drawn from his musings by Miss Everett saying, "Now, on to the brewing portion of our class period." She rapped the blackboard, still purple from last class, twice and it turned a vibrant blue, but the directions appeared in the same script as last time. "I'd like for all of you to brew this slightly more difficult potion than last time, a potion commonly called the "Fizzy Lifting" potion because of its ability to lift the drinker of the potion and it's penchant for making them burp! I'd like you all to brew the Levantanium potion and put a small amount in a vial for me on my desk when you're all done. Any questions before we begin?"
She looked slowly around the room, taking special care to look at Hermione, who to her credit blushed slightly, before she continued, "Alright, I've chosen this potion specifically because it's relatively simple, though it does have a few small fiddly bits like the potion from last time, and there are a few more dangerous ingredients this time around so do be careful and ask if you have any questions, please. One last thing before we start, I'm going to be calling you all up to the front for your grades on that potion from last time, so when you hear your name, please come to my desk. And ... begin!"
Harry skimmed over the directions on the blackboard, noticing that the substance she had been talking about previously, the powdered unicorn horn, was one of the ingredients to be added in the third to last step. He was glad that he had bothered to pay attention to that much of the lecture, at least. He pulled out his little bottle of it from his potions kit and peered at it through the glass, surprised both that it was a dull purple color and that something from a unicorn could be so volatile.
"Er, Hermione," said Harry, turning to the bushy-haired girl. She was rummaging through her potions kit, but looked up at once.
"What is it Harry?" she asked.
"This powdered unicorn horn, is it supposed to be this color?" He asked, holding up his jar and shaking it for her to inspect. Maybe he'd gotten an old batch or something.
"Yes, Harry, weren't you paying attention?" she asked and then continued without waiting for an answer, "Of course you weren't. Well, functional unicorn horn, or rather, unicorn horn for potions making has to be cut with this weird Venezuelan yam thing that's actually a bit like Mandrake, so as to be usable for most potions. If it was going to be the uncut unicorn horn, it would say, "Uncut" or "Pure" in the directions, since it's used that way for only two or three potions to my knowledge. No more than a small handful."
"Oh, okay," said Harry, relieved, "I'm just glad that mine's not gone bad or something."
"Yeah, that'd be just our luck," said Ron, lighting his cauldron.
They all worked on their potions for a few minutes before Harry heard Miss Everett calling his name. He was glad this potion didn't seem to have any time specific elements to it, because he wouldn't want to have to choose between listening to the teacher and completing his potion properly. He wove his way between the work stations to Miss Everett's desk.
"So, how'd I do?" he asked as he approached her.
"Quite well!" she replied, pulling a small bit of parchment from the top of the stack in front of her, "If you keep up this kind of performance for the next couple class periods, I'll be pleasantly surprised. Both fame and skill - quite a combination." She handed Harry the bit of parchment with his grade on it and he was delighted to see an O drawn in the same script as on the blackboard.
"Er, thanks!" said Harry, turning to go back to his potion. He made it about halfway back to his desk before he noticed Malfoy as he walked past the Slytherin desks, out of the corner of his eye, measuring out a small amount of brilliantly bright white powder from a jar marked with a hand-written label of "Powdered Unicorn Horn." He remembered how dangerous Miss Everett had described even cut powdered unicorn horn as and weighed that in his mind for a short moment against his general dislike for Malfoy. Perhaps a few days ago he would have walked past, but he remembered the look on Malfoy's face as he'd been smelling that violet earlier and something inside Harry made him stop.
"Hey, Malfoy!" said Harry, turning abruptly.
"Potter?" said Malfoy, who had been too surprised to summon the usual venom that they spoke to one another in.
"I don't think that's the right kind of powdered unicorn horn," said Harry.
"You think that I don't know what powdered unicorn horn looks like?" asked Malfoy. Harry saw a similar looking jar to the one he had in Malfoy's potion kit and reached for it as Malfoy continued, "How stupid do you think I ... oh," he finished as he saw the jar Harry held in front of him.
Malfoy's eyes flicked to both jars in front of him and then to Harry's face, a look that Harry had never seen before on his face. If he didn't know better, Harry might have thought he was embarrassed. "Well, thanks," Malfoy said after a moment.
"Er, you're welcome," said Harry, not really sure what else to say, having never really had a civil conversation with Malfoy before. He walked lamely to his seat and continued working on his own potion.
"So, how'd it go?" asked Ron when Harry'd sat back down.
"What?" asked Harry, thinking of Draco.
"What grade did you get?" Ron asked, pulling the piece of parchment from Harry's hand, "An O, I thought you might have. Your potion was nearly perfect. Hermione got one too and Neville and I ended up with Es, which is a right bit better than we usually get in potions class, so I'm not complaining. Today though, I don't know exa-"
Ron's rambling was cut off by a sharp explosion just to their left. When they looked they saw Neville looking quite put out, his face covered in powdered unicorn horn, and his cauldron giving off wave after wave of black smoke.
"What did you do!" cried Hermione, setting her stirring spoon down and starting towards him.
Neville opened his mouth to reply but seemed unable to speak.
"Are you alright?" asked Miss Everett, who had come practically running across the room, leaving the last few pieces of parchment fluttering to the ground behind her. She inspected his face carefully, asking, "Well, powdered unicorn horn does have some pretty beneficial properties when applied to the skin, so that'll be good, however, I am quite nervous that you've inhaled a good gust of it and this black smoke." She flicked her wand at his cauldron and the potion disappeared. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a Dreadful on this potion for the time being as we get you up to see Madam Pomfrey, but if you write me a good fifteen inches on where you made a mistake and what you'd do differently next time, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get an A or so, alright?"
Neville nodded, seemingly unable to speak and Miss Everett took him by the arm and out of the room to see Madam Pomfrey, calling behind her, "Please finish up your potions and place them on my desk when you've finished. For homework I'll need eighteen inches on the properties of powdered unicorn horn for Friday, that includes you Mr. Longbottom, don't make that face, let's go."
When she closed the door behind her, Ron complained, "Great, homework on top of finishing this fiddly potion. I thought she was going to be an easy teacher!"
"Honestly Ronald," said Hermione, giving him an admonishing look, "I don't know what gave you that idea. You should have plenty to write about!"
They continued to argue as they finished their potions and Harry smiled slightly, glad to see them getting along and arguing out of habit rather than anger. Both of them were smiling slightly as they stirred their potions and added the last few ingredients. They seemed almost inevitable to him, in the same way that eventually Hagrid would have another magical creature or that Dumbledore would say something both wise and strange.
Harry reflected quietly to himself, wondering if there was anyone out there for him. He'd thought Cho was kind of cute last year, but that was before ... well, he'd gotten to know Cedric better. He'd replayed Cedric saying that the prefect's baths were a good place for a bath more times than he could count in the week that followed with blushing cheeks. Even now, the loss of him stung a little, though nothing had ever happened between them. Harry wasn't even sure that he'd wanted anything to happen, or what he'd wanted to happen if it did, but ...
And there had been other boys, too. Dean Thomas for a couple days when he'd seen him holding Seamus's hand under the dinner table, Michael Corner for a couple weeks when he made a particularly impressive Arresto Momentum charm on a paper airplane in one of Flitwick's classes last year ... Blaise Zabini who he'd caught staring at him for a long moment during a quidditch match ... but no one lately, he thought to himself. No one really.
He felt his ears turning pink and dropped a spoonful of dragonfly wings into his potion, the final ingredient, and his potion turned the same pink as his ears, just a shade or two lighter than Hermione's. She was scooping hers into a vial, but stopped to peer into Harry's. "Wow, Harry, that's actually really good! I'm impressed."
"Er, thanks," he said, running a hand through his hair and reaching for a vial of his own. He did think he'd done everything right that he could think of. Maybe he wasn't lousy at potions after all, maybe he'd just had a lousy teacher.
He expressed as much to Ron, who shrugged and said, "Maybe, mate, but we have a couple more days of easier potions, don't we?"
Harry nodded, but he was excited for the next lesson nonetheless.