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FOUR: THE POTIONS CLASS
Friday could not have come quickly enough for the Hogwarts students, and Harrison was especially looking forward to the day, as it was their first Potions lesson, and a double at that. To make it an even better day, they had the period after lunch off, and so would begin their weekend a little early.
"Do you think we'll get a chance to brew anything today?" Hermione asked eagerly as they made their way down several flights of stairs to get to the dungeons where Potions was held.
Harrison shrugged, but gave a hopeful nod. "So far we've done something practical in each of our other lessons," Harrison reminded her. "I hope we get to make a potion, that'd be really cool."
"Did you read through the first few chapters like I told you?" Hermione asked.
Harrison nodded. "It was fairly pretty interesting. I only made it through to chapter six though."
"I was reading through a few of the upper year texts, and it seems as though there's a potion for practically everything," Hermione said enthusiastically. "Blood-replenishing, Dreamless Sleeping, Bone Re-growing, Truth Serum...there's even a potion that can make you look like someone else."
Harrison held his hand out to Hermione, and she slapped it enthusiastically. After nearly a week of Harrison using the gesture to show his excitement, Hermione had given up on trying to ignore his prompts for high or low fives.
"Freakin' magic!" Harrison cried. "Can you imagine if I made myself look like Malfoy, and then went streaking around Hogwarts. It'd be fantastic!"
Hermione narrowed her eyes, peering at her friend sternly. "Honestly," she huffed, exasperated. "That's completely inappropriate."
Harrison shrugged unrepentantly, and Hermione finally smiled.
"You'd have to at least put on a pair of briefs," she compromised. "I don't want to see Malfoy's dangly bits, and I can guarantee you that no one else would want to either."
"But that's half the fun," Harrison protested.
Hermione shook her head. "Anyway, I really think that Potions may be the most useful of all our subjects. In the long run, Potions seems to have the most diverse use. And if you're going to find anything to help your brother, I'd say that it'll be potions where you'll find it."
"Do you really think so?"
"Absolutely. There're more healing potions than almost any other type. It may be worth asking Professor Snape if he knows about healing, or if it's even possible."
Harrison was cheered by the idea, and he quickly agreed to approach Professor Snape at the end of the lesson. They'd heard horror stories about Snape from the older students of Gryffindor, especially from Fred and George Weasley. The twins had warned them that they shouldn't expect for Snape to be a fair teacher at all, especially towards Gryffindor. As head of Slytherin House, Snape tended to favour his own students, and had never, to the twins' knowledge, awarded points to Gryffindor.
They entered the classroom, each of them grateful for their long cloaks, as the room was extremely cold. Potions was another class that they were sharing with the Slytherins, and Harrison managed to mostly ignore Draco Malfoy except to glare at the blonde boy. They found a seat in the front row and settled in to wait for the rest of their class, and Professor Snape, to arrive.
Hermione was glad to see Ron dash into the room and seat himself on Harrison's other side.
"Morning Ron," Harrison greeted. "Good breakfast?"
"Amazing," Ron enthused. "Pancakes on a Friday! Plus no lessons this arvo. I'm going to love Fridays all the more."
"Honestly, there's more to life than food," Hermione said.
"Of course there is," Ron agreed. "There's Quidditch too."
Harrison snickered at Hermione's aghast expression, but before Hermione could continue to berate Ron, Professor Snape swept into the room, his cloak billowing dramatically behind him.
"Therewill be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few-"
Harrison was left speechless as Professor Snape paused dramatically. The teacher was tall, dark and imposing. He was also a lot younger that Harrison had first thought. If he had to guess, he would say the man was in his early thirties.
"-Who possess the predisposition...I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."
Hermione shared a glance with Harrison who nodded back at her, silently agreeing that Snape was definitely the person they needed to speak with.
"Who of you has managed to make it past the first chapter of your assigned text?" Snape asked.
The majority of the class put up their hands, though Ron's was conspicuously down, as were Crabbe and Goyle's from Slytherin.
"Astounding. And who has made it past the first five chapters?"
Hermione and Harrison's hands stayed up, along with Draco Malfoy, and Neville Longbottom.
"More than usual. Have any of you four completed the text?"
Hermione's hand stayed standing, while the three boys put theirs down.
"Miss?"
"Granger, sir," Hermione replied. "Hermione Granger."
"Tell me, Miss Granger, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"They're ingredients in the Draught of Living Death, sir," Hermione replied. "But they can also be used in Dreamless Sleeping potions, depending on how long you wish a person to stay asleep for."
Snape nodded sharply, and Harrison watched his expression, which didn't seem to change. It was impossible to tell if he was angry or impressed.
"Mr?" Snape addressed Harrison, and he gulped nervously.
"Evans, sir," Harrison replied.
"Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Snape asked.
"Oh, uh...a goat's stomach, sir," Harrison answered. He was extremely glad that Snape had asked for something that had been in the first twelve letters of the alphabet. Anything further on than 'm' and Harrison would have been in trouble.
"And what is the difference, Mr Longbottom, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
Neville went pale, unused to being called on in class. "T-they're the s-same, sir," he stuttered out.
"And what, Mr Malfoy, is another name by which monkshood and wolfsbane is called?"
Draco opened his mouth to reply, but realised that he didn't know the answer. Harrison ducked his head to hide his grin.
"I – I don't know, sir," Malfoy admitted.
"Are you certain you read the first five chapters, Mr Malfoy?"
"It might have only been four, professor," Malfoy simpered.
"As it is covered in chapter two, I wonder if perhaps you managed to miss the three page section. Mr Evans, the final name?"
"Aconite, sir," Harrison replied.
Snape nodded, and moved to stand in front of the blackboard. Harrison breathed a sigh of relief. He would definitely have to keep up his reading if they were going to be given verbal quizzes every Friday morning.
"And Mr Evans, remove that infernal scarf from your head," Snape snapped. "You are not a pirate."
Harrison flushed, but obediently reached up to pull off his blue bandana. Hermione couldn't help but notice that Snape's eyes seemed to be searching for something on Harrison's revealed skin. Snape almost seemed disappointed by the missing scar. Hermione couldn't help but wonder what the Professor was up to.
The teachers of Hogwarts logically all knew that Harrison Evans was Harry Potter. Harrison's letter had been addressed to Mr H. Potter, and Hermione knew that Professor McGonagall would have announced to the entire Great Hall on their first night that Harrison was the famous Boy-Who-Lived had Hermioe not pleaded with her to announce him as Harrison Evans.
So why was Professor Snape trying to expose Harrison's scar, and thus his birth name, and the famous legacy that went with it? It made very little sense to Hermione, but she made a mental note to bring it up with Harrison later on.
Snape tapped the blackboard with his wand, and a set of instructions appeared on the board. It was a potion to cure boils, and Snape instructed them that they would have the rest of the lesson to brew the potion.
The class scattered, heading to the potions cupboards where the ingredients were stored, and then back to their workbenches, where they attempted to brew the potion in pairs.
Hermione quickly jotted down the instructions in her own notebook, rather than trying to keep looking up at the board. Harrison checked off each of the ingredients as they were added, and Hermione carefully stirred the potion the allotted amount of times, in the correct sequence of turns.
"This is a lot harder than it looks," Harrison commented softly.
Hermione nodded her agreement.
"Alright, take the potion off the fire, and then add three porcupine quills," Hermione instructed.
Harrison carefully lifted the cauldron off the flame, and set it on the bench. He added the three quills, and Hermione flushed with pleasure as the potion turned a brilliant green.
They exchanged a high five, and Hermione put her hand up to summon Professor Snape. Before she could even get the Professors attention, a magnificent explosion rocked the room, and the students ducked for cover beneath tables.
Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley were covered in their potion, and were quickly breaking out in angry red boils. Professor Snape strode over to them, vanishing the potion, and taking the boys to task for adding the porcupine quills before taking the potion off the flames.
"Idiot boys," Snape sneered.
Hermione thought that was quite harsh, however true the statement might have been.
"Alright, let's see if any of you dunderheads has managed to brew a potion that will cure these two. Though if it kills them, I will deduct points."
Harrison couldn't quite tell if he was joking, the delivery of the line had been completely deadpan. For Ron and Neville's sake, he hoped so.
Snape circled the class, peering into cauldrons, making short comments such as "abysmal" to Crabbe and Goyle, "horrific" to Parvati and Lavender, "mediocre" to Draco Malfoy and his partner Pansy Parkinson.
Snape stopped in front of Harrison and Hermione's cauldron, and he peered at its contents. "Acceptable."
After all the other comments, that seemed like high praise, so Hermione was rather pleased, and Harrison silently cheered.
Snape pulled out two empty vials and filled them with the green potion. He gave each vial to Neville and Ron who dabbed the potion on each of the blistering boils. The class watched in amazement as the boils shrank down to nothing, and Hermione and Harry shared another hand-slap under the table.
"Ten points from Gryffindor for such blatant stupidity," Snape punished Ron and Neville. "And ten points to Gryffindor for their passable potion."
Hermione and Harrison shrugged, not all that upset that Gryffindor hadn't come out of the lesson ahead, but grateful that they'd managed to break even. After listening to the twins talk about Snape, they were grateful to have been given points to bring them back up to an even keel.
Snape assigned a ten-inch essay on the reason Neville and Ron's potion had exploded, with an emphasis on the reactions of ingredients when mixed improperly.
"To those who didn't bother to even open your text books, be aware that I will be verbally quizzing you each and every week for the rest of your lessons in Potions. A wrong answer will lose you two house points. Therefore, it will be up to you to keep your studies up to date."
There was a moment of silence as the students took in the unhappy news.
"Dismissed."
Harrison didn't think he'd ever seen his fellow Gryffindors move so quickly. Classes were officially over for the week, and it was lunch time as well. Ron Weasley was the first out the door.
Hermione lingered with Harrison and they waited until the rest of the students had left the classroom. Harrison nervously approached the Professors desk, clearing his throat slightly to gain Snape's attention.
"Evans," Snape said without looking up. "What do you want?"
Harrison hadn't been expecting the question to be so abrupt, but he supposed that the Professor was a busy man, and he was probably as anxious to get to lunch as Harrison was.
"Sir, I was wondering if you could answer some questions I had. About potions," Harrison was a little stilted in his speech.
"Ask."
"Uh...well, my brother, he's sick. He has leukaemia, and I haven't come across anything so far that says if the magic world has come up with a cure, so, I was wondering if there was. A cure, I mean."
"It is not a disease that wizards have dealt with," Snape replied without looking up.
"Oh. Well...thank you sir."
"Patience, Potter."
"I'm not...I've never used that name, sir," Harrison said.
"Why?" Snape questioned.
Harrison was a little startled by the question, but he wasn't about to refuse to respond to this very cranky man. "My mums' were both Evans' and that's what I've used since I was five, sir. The name Potter doesn't mean anything to me, so I don't really want to use it."
Snape looked up, and Harrison was startled by how dark the Professor's eyes were. He struggled to maintain eye contact, knowing that the Professor was silently evaluating him, and he didn't want to be found lacking.
"So you took your mother's name," Snape concluded. "Just as well. I knew her, in my youth. She had a thirst for knowledge and a passion unrivalled by any of her peers."
"You were friends, sir? W-what was she like?"
"Unforgettable," Snape replied after a moment's pause. Snape looked away from Harrison's bright green eyes, and found Miss Granger waiting to the side. "You say that your brother, who I assume to mean your cousin, has leukaemia. What stage is he in?"
"He's in remission right now," Harrison said. "I'm his perfect match, and the last bone marrow transplant worked really well. His chemo sessions are further apart now, and the doctors are really hopeful. I guess I was really hopeful too."
"There has never been a witch or wizard diagnosed with any type of cancer, and thus, no search for a cure has ever been started," Snape said. "As most witches and wizards have little to do with the muggle world, I'm not sure that it's ever occurred to anyone to begin working on a cure."
"How would I go about trying to find one?" Harrison asked earnestly.
Harrison was startled when the left side of Snape's lips curled into what some would consider an attempt at a smile. "That's exactly what your mother used to say. And I will tell you the same thing I told her. The art of Healing magic is millennia old. There have been very few recent breakthroughs in wizarding medicine or healing in the last hundred or so years. We have ways to counteract most any illness or injury, and thus, we have never worked to 'perfect' any of them. So, in order to cure your 'brother', you will need to know a good deal more about potions, healing, herbology and human physiology before you can even begin."
Harrison had been expecting that answer, but was nonetheless disheartened at the news.
"You are eleven years old," Snape reminded him. "Even the best minds in the healing arts have had to start somewhere. May I suggest you visit the library in the near future and find any available texts on the art of healing the body."
"Thank you Professor," Harrison said softly.
Snape nodded a dismissal, and Harrison and Hermione left quickly and headed towards the Great Hall for lunch.
"That went well," Hermione noted.
"Surprisingly well," Harrison replied. "The twins had me terrified, but, he wasn't so bad. I can't believe he and my birth mum were friends."
"You know what makes it even more unbelievable," Hermione said. "Lily Evans was a Gryffindor, and Professor Snape was a Slytherin. Plus your mum was a first generation witch. It would be a little like me and Draco Malfoy being friends."
Harrison's nose wrinkled at the imagery. He couldn't imagine Draco being kind enough to anyone to be a genuine friend, and the idea of Draco and Hermione hanging out was repulsive.
"Exactly," Hermione said, laughing at Harrison's horrified expression. "Plus, they would have graduated just before the huge break-out of the war when blood-purity was the most important thing anyone was talking about back then. Seeing as Slytherin's tend to pride themselves on being purebloods, can you imagine the kind of taunting a first-gen witch would have got from a Slytherin."
"Do you think he was lying?" Harrison asked. "About them being friends?"
"I don't know," Hermione admitted. "I did think it was a little strange that he made you take off your bandana. It was like he wanted you to expose your scar."
"I've been keeping it covered up anyway," Harrison said. "Snape's been the only one to say anything about the bandanas, so I'll have to be particularly careful on Friday's, but...I didn't really think anything of it. It's not part of the uniform, so, really, I've been expecting at least one of the teachers to say something about it."
"Don't you see, Harrison; they think you're trying to hide your scar," Hermione said. "They don't know about you and Dudley wearing colour co-ordinated bandanas, they probably think that you're just hiding your most famous feature."
"Huh," Harrison breathed out, feeling a little idiotic. "I never thought of it that way."
Hermione rolled her eyes and gave him a friendly shove. "Honestly."
Harrison grinned. He'd made a game of seeing how many times a day he could make her say that word. His total for the week was twelve. They entered the Great Hall and headed to the first year section of the Gryffindor table, taking seats next to each other with Ron on Hermione's left and Parvati Patil on Harry's right.
"I wonder if I could get away with wearing a fedora," Harrison joked.
"And then I could call you Indy instead of Harrison," Hermione teased.
He mocked straightening the rim on an invisible fedora and gave it an imaginary tip to Hermione.
"Professor of archaeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it? Obtainer of rare antiquities," Harrison quoted.
"I love those movies," Hermione said.
"That's one thing I'm really going to miss while we're here," Harrison said. "Friday night movie nights. Dud and I used to make popcorn and then we'd do a marathon of whatever looked good. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, James Bond."
"My dad would love movie night at your place," Hermione commented. "I think there's only so many times he can put up with watching Disney or the Wizard of Oz before he goes completely mad."
Harrison laughed lightly. "Hey, maybe over the holidays we could get together and do a movie night. Your parents could meet mum and you could meet Dud. It'd be great."
Hermione was incredibly pleased with the invitation and nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds fantastic."
Parvati Patil started giggling hysterically as she and Lavender whispered to each other. Harrison raised an eyebrow at them, but it only made the giggling worse. He shrugged and turned back to Hermione.
"I worry when they giggle," he whispered.
Hermione chuckled a little. "They do it all the time in the dorm," she confided. "It's best to ignore them."
Harrison thought that was quite good advice, so he angled his body slightly away from the giggling duo.
"Hey, could we stop by the owlery this afternoon?" Harrison asked. "Only, I've got a letter to send to Dud, and I promised to write at least once a week."
"Of course we can," Hermione confirmed. "I've got my own letter to send too. Mum and dad don't know much about the wizarding world, so I'm making sure to tell them everything."
"Mum thought about buying me an owl, but I wasn't too sure if I'd really need one," Harrison said.
"Well, the school owls are available for everyone, so it really negates the need to own one. I'm surprised that there aren't more cats running around, seeing as they're on the list of approved pets," Hermione said.
"Well, they're pretty high maintenance. With owls, you just send them to the owlery, and with toads you just feed them flies. But with cats you'd have to empty out litter-boxes, and get up early to feed them, and keep them groomed. It's a lot of effort really. Plus, this castle is huge. They'd get lost in a day," Harrison said.
"Good point," Hermione said. "I was thinking of asking my parents for a cat, but I suppose I never thought much more about it then that they're really cute."
Harrison felt a mental light bulb begin to glow in his mind. He made a note to talk to the only older students he knew later that evening when Hermione had gone to bed. He had the perfect idea, and he knew exactly how to go about it.
"Better a cat that a rat. Ron's pet is beyond creepy. I swear to God, it watches me when I'm sleeping," Harrison said dramatically.
Hermione laughed. "Watches you?"
"With its beady little eyes. They glow in the dark, almost. It's scary."
"I'm sure you're just imagining things," Hermione placated.
Harrison shook his head. "No way. I swear, it's plotting ways to kill me. I thought about poisoning its water supply with my contact solution."
"With what?"
"The solution I put my contact lenses in at night," Harrison explained. "One part hydrogen peroxide, one part saline."
Hermione stared at him in shock. "You wear contacts?"
Harrison nodded. "I look geeky with glasses."
Hermione stared at him considerately. She couldn't imagine him with glasses at all. His green eyes were far too unique to be covered up with a pair of glasses.
"Anyway, don't poison anyone's pet Harrison. Even if it is planning to take over the world."
"Does that make him Pinky, or the Brain?"
Hermione just rolled her eyes.
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A/N: What was it about 90's that made such a great year of animation? Yes, Pinky and the Brain came out in 1993. I watched it religiously. We're pushing back canon two years so that I can put in all these quotes from cartoons that I grew up with.