Chapter 11:

The Potions Prodigy

...

"I shall kill him," said Hermione grumpily, stabbing at her bacon. "Before this week is over, I shall kill him".

She, Ron and Harry were sitting at the Slytherin table for breakfast because it had been Ron's idea to suck up to the team captain for their Quidditch tryouts.

The weather seemed to be reflecting her mood today; instead of the sunny, cloudless heavens that one was accustomed to seeing in early October, the skies were cloudy and grey-tinged like the skin of merpeople in the lake.

"Bah," said Harry. "Who cares what Riddle thinks, we all know that you could top him in every class."

"Not the way Riddle says it. He makes me sound like, like I'm Persia Parkinson, or something!" Hermione glared at the offending henwit who was curling her long hair with her wand at the end of the Slytherin table, surrounded by goggling boys.

"Well, you can show him today in Potions who's a nitwit," said Ron, shoveling down porridge. "Pass the treacle, will you?" he added to Harry.

"Ooh," said Hermione excitedly, "I can't wait, I'll make him eat his own words when I impress the Potions Master— do any of you know who's taking us this year?"

Harry and Ron burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" she demanded.

So Harry and Ron told her.

"AIIIEEEEE!" Hermione screeched and they laughed.

"Calm down, Hermione!" said Harry in between laughs. "I don't have the Prince to help me out this year, so you'll be best at everything again"

"What do we have first, though?" asked Ron with a burp.

"Just Herbology then Charms after break," squeaked Hermione, recovering from her fit.

...

Nothing particularly interesting happened in either class during their first two lessons.
While the rest of the seventh years got to prune and care for the vicious Venomous Tentaculars in Greenhouse Five, Hermione, Ron and Harry were forced to catch up on missing lessons as they had arrived late into the term.

"Only a few weeks late!" howled Ron in despair. "Come off it, miss!" but Professor Birch, the squat, middle-aged witch with curly fair hair, ignored his pleas.

"Finish off reading these three chapters and writing the four essays that I've set Snape, and then we'll talk about promoting you to fieldwork," she said tartly and went off to Priscilla Eggby, whose Venomous Tentacular had its vines wrapped lovingly around her neck and was choking her.

Charms was a touch less agonizing as they didn't have to sit out on any fun; the whole entire class was forced to sit in on a solid double lesson entirely devoted to revision from the previous year.
Professor Twyfordshire, a gangly, timid man with a shock of white hair who kept dropping his notes on the ground, made them work in silence while he muttered about 'Blasted Nerve tonics' gone askew.

...

By the time they got to Potions down in the dungeons, Hermione felt that her eyelids were going close over her entire body due to exhaustion.

Harry and Ron headed for their usual table at the back of the class with Dean and Percivas while Hermione strayed behind on purpose.

"You go," she said, shooing them away. "I'm going to play spy-witch".

She decided that whether Riddle liked her or not, she didn't care; all she wanted to do was to stop him from discovering about Horcruxes at all costs.
Potions was the perfect opportunity to spy on him unnoticed thanks to the energy everyone put in brewing the bubbly cauldrons.

She searched the faces of unfamiliar students for Riddle's haughty one, but found that he wasn't there. Only Malfoy, Nott and Mulciber were occupied at a bench, taking out potions ingredients and parchment.

"Care to share a table with us?" asked a pretty girl with long, chestnut hair from a table in front of Malfoy's. Hermione smiled warmly and obliged.

"I'm Phyllis Pemberly, from Gryffindor," she grinned, "and this is Jacob Casby and Jack Shacklebolt"

"Hi," chimed Hermione mechanically as she shook their hands.
"Jane Granger, newly appointed Head Girl by default." She winced at her poor choice of words, but they merely chuckled in a friendly way.

A fifty-two-year-younger Horace Slughorn with gingery blond hair and moustache strode jovially into the room and clapped his hands for attention.

"Afternoon, ladies and gentleman!" he boomed, "Since we've all finished our attempt at the Nerve Calming tonic, it's time that we make something else that is sure to come up into your exams!"

Hermione raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss—? "

"Granger," said Hermione. "Please, sir. Barry, Severus and I are new at this school, so we haven't learnt how to—"

"Oho," said Slughorn, excitedly. "Miss Granger, could you possibly be related to Hector Dagwood-Granger who founded the Most Extraordinary Society of Potions?"

"Erm, I don't think so, sir, because—"

"—she's Muggleborn," someone interrupted with a sneer. Hermione looked behind her and found Abraxas Malfoy's jeering face.

Slughorn shrugged

"Shame," he said, "but not to worry, Miss Granger, I'm sure you'll be able to catch up with the class in no time at all"

He then looked at the rest of the class, rubbing his hands together

"Well, then," he said cheerfully, "let us commence our lesson before the day grows old!"

The class groaned and Slughorn waved a hand as though swatting a fly.
"Now, now," he chided sternly, but the corners of his moustache twitched, "It's for your own good…but before we begin—and I'll be surprised if a quarter of you know the answer— though it's bound to come up in your exams…who can tell me of the uses of Acromantula venom?"

"It's powerful venom can cause death in a matter of minutes," said a velvety deep voice.

Hermione swung her head in an arc towards its source, her heart thundering in anticipation.

Tom Riddle was leaning against the doorframe, his dark hair fallen into his eyes with a masculine elegance.
His presence was daunting as his voice was compelling. Everyone turned their attention to the Dark Lord as he walked with casual grace across the room.

"The venom also has many uses when brewed correctly," he continued evenly, "and it is essential for complex potions designed for cerebral implementations, curing lethal diseases and restoring vision. However, if brewed incorrectly, the drinker will result to amnesia, madness and eventually death."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Trust him to be so overdramatic.

"But if I am not mistaken," she said frowning, looking him squarely in the eye. "That is rarely ever the case. Unless the brewer had tainted the venom with Sprigmatis sprouts or has laced it with melted silver, the chances of heated Acromantula venom turning lethal are very slim."

The class looked stunned at the new girl's audacity. Hermione smiled sheepishly and looked quickly at Harry and Ron, who gave her thumbs up.

"Oho" said Slughorn smiling broadly. "You are both correct! Ten points to Slytherin and Gryffindor."

Hermione smiled but Riddle hadn't said anything as he sauntered past her indifferently and sat down next to Malfoy who whispered something to him at once.

"Moving on," said Slughorn, straightening the collar of his velvet green robes. "Today's lesson will comprise every ounce of your brainpower, as it is one of the most complex potions you will ever come across."

Hermione sat up a little straighter on her stool.

"I've had special ministry permission to allow you to brew this potion, thanks to my excellent contacts with Walter Smervinshaft from the Department of Magical Brewery…"

Hermione snorted; trust Slughorn to bring up with his 'excellent' contacts about a million times…

"Now, please take out your parchment and quills as the instructions will not be in your copies of Advanced Potion-Making".
Slughorn tapped the blackboard with his wand and the title of the potion appeared—

"Polyjuice Potion!" gasped Hermione gleefully and everyone stared at her, including Slughorn.

"I daresay you've heard of it before, Miss Granger?" he asked, eyeing at her curiously.

"Only in passing sir," she lied quickly.

Slughorn gave her an approving nod.

"Now" he said, turning back to the rest of the class. "Does anybody know what Polyjuice potion does?"

She thought she saw Riddle move as though to answer, but felt her arm shoot up as though it had a life of its own.

"Properly brewed, the Polyjuice Potion allows the drinker to transform himself temporarily into the physical form of another," she said swiftly. Slughorn's eyebrows were in danger of rising off his forehead and getting lost in his thatched head.

"Well done, Miss Granger," he said bemusedly, "take another ten points."

"Now!" he said moving closer to the blackboard behind his desk, "In accordance to Golpalott's Second Law, which, by the way, can anybody—?"

Hermione's fist was in the air again with lightning speed.

"Golpalott's Second Law states that any potion with equally multiplied ingredients will still retain its exact effects as in its original form," said Hermione. "However, if the ingredients are unevenly proliferated, the result will not be the same"

"Excellent, Miss Granger!" trilled Slughorn. "Marvelous, take another five."

He waved his wand again and the ingredients were listed on the blackboard.

"Although brewing Polyjuice Potion will not apply to your N.E.WT.S examination in June, theoretical questions have been known to surface in the written tests. Now without further ado, you may start brewing!"

Hermione quickly set up her cauldron and jabbed the base with her wand to light it.

Phyllis had gone to gather up the ingredients from the front while Jacob and Jack were busying themselves with setting up their collapsible cauldrons.

"Augumenti!" she muttered and water appeared from her wand into the cauldron.

Just when her water was coming to a boil, a lacewing fly made contact with the side of her face.

She glared at the direction where it came from.

"Hermione!" mouthed Harry, motioning her to come over with his hands. She sighed and walked over to their table, avoiding the arbitrarily setting of the cauldrons in her path.

"If you think I'm going to help you after all that cheating last year, then you have some nerve," she told him frigidly.

Harry waved an impatient hand. "Listen" he said quietly, as Ron leaned in, too. "The reason why Riddle found out about Horcruxes was because Slughorn told him"

"So it's your mission, Hermione, to try to get invited to old-Sluggy's party!" piped Ron.

She frowned.

"You've got to be joking."

Harry shook his head furiously and Hermione saw that he was trying to hide a grin.

"Me and Ron are hopeless at potions—always have been, so there's absolutely no way in Merlin's gum disease that we can be his favorites."

"And Harry isn't famous in this era, either," added Ron, batting away a loose lacewing fly that had decided to come alive again and was attempting to fly up his nose. "So the only one who can do it right, is you!"

Hermione's frowned deepened.
"In case if you hadn't noticed," she whispered angrily, "Slughorn's already got his Potions Prince—if Riddle does better than me, then he'll have eyes for no-one else".

"Then it's obvious what you have to do then," said Harry impatiently, picking the wings off his flies. "You've got to out-perform Riddle today and become his favorite!"

"That's what you wanted to do anyway, isn't it?" asked Ron shrewdly.

"But, But..."

"You can be Slughorn's new Potions Prodigy!" chortled Ron.

"OK, Ok," said Hermione, as she watched Riddle cutting up his ingredients with a debonair air
"I'm going, I'm going." She turned to leave.

"—then you can take your place beside him as King and Queen Slug!" laughed Ron.

"What!?"

Ron gave her a little encouraging nudge forwards "Come on, you're giving him a Head start—get it? Head—"

"—alright, alright I'm going!"

...

Hermione jogged over to her cauldron and chopped up her ingredients as fast as she could.
"Stir in fluxweed after making a well in the centre…," she muttered and was relieved when the potion had turned out grey instead of blue, like nearly everyone else's potion.

"Ladies and gentleman," called Slughorn, emerging from the front of the class and setting down a large vat of slightly bubbling, mud-like substance. "Since it's against ministry approval to allow students to consume Polyjuice Potion, we'll have to clear everything up by the end of the bell." The class groaned in disappointment.

"However, I wanted to show you what the finished product would have looked like and its effects on a person." All twenty eyes were now fixed on Slughorn in excitement as he pulled out a tiny bottle from his velvet jacket. "Martina Kimble, second year, from Ravenclaw" he added as he scooped out a tumbler-full of potion.

"See how the potion changes colour as I add the hairs?" he asked "each person has a unique colour—oho, see how this has changed to a blue-green?" The potion had indeed changed into disgusting looking mucus and Slughorn held it up at eye level, then to everyone's surprise, he chugged the entire contents of the tumbler down.

"Sir, I thought you said it was illegal!" said Harry laughing.

"Yes, but I have excellent contacts, I can get away—".Slughorn suddenly retched, alarming the class. His skin began to slide and wriggle, his gingery blond hair grew long and auburn, his bushy moustache shrunk along with his entire body, until—

"Oho!" cried an unrecognizable Slughorn in a high squeaky girlish voice. "See it? This is the effects of properly-brewed Polyjuice Potion!"

The class applauded enthusiastically. Ron let out a wolf-whistle and everyone laughed—except for Riddle, who was having a whispered conversation with Malfoy.

Hermione tore her gaze from a much prettier-looking Slughorn and edged closer to the edge of her table and stained her ears.

"—Friday night at eleven-thirty in the classroom opposite Moaning Myrtle's should be empty," Riddle was saying in a low voice as he leaned over, pretending to borrow a pair of silver scales "—spread the word and make sure that you use the route behind the blue spangled tapestry in front of that statue of Lachlan the Lanky, unless you wish to be caught."

"—I SAY!" said a girl's voice in her ear, scaring Hermione half to death. "Look at the state of your potion!" Phyllis was looking at Hermione's brew.

"Oh my…" Hermione's Polyjuice potion had turned an acid green instead of grey.

She quickly added in knot grass and stirred it anticlockwise five times precisely and breathed in relief as her potion turned back to normal.

She quickly glanced at Riddle's concoction and mentally swore when the contents in his cauldron had turned a beautiful shade of teal grey—exactly what the instructions said was meant to look like.

"Jane!" called Harry and Ron in a strangled whisper, waving their hands frantically to grab her attention. They pointed at the girl-Slughorn that was moving around the classroom, cauldron to cauldron, inspecting its contents with a grin and a few comments.
"Hurry!" mouthed Ron, gesturing openly at Riddle's potion with his hands.

"I can't catch up!" she mouthed back. "He's too fast!" She acted out running with her arms.

Harry mimed waving a wand and an explosion with his hands. Her eyes grew round as she stared at Riddle's potion. Even though she had caught up with everyone else's potion, he was still ahead of everyone and looked nearly finished with his work.

Without thinking it through properly, Hermione turned her back to Riddle and jabbed her wand in the crook of her folded arms, aimed it at his perfect potion and whispered, "Detoniafy!"

Instantly, Riddle's cauldron exploded into pieces, spraying spectacularly upwards and soaking everyone at his table with bubbling sludge. Hermione faked shock and covered her mouth with a shaking hand.

"Oh Dear!" she said with a phony gasp. "Good gracious Riddle, are you alright?"

A very soaked Voldemort shook out some gunk out of his wavy hair and ignored her. She could see at the corner of her eye that Harry, Ron, Dean and Percivas were shaking with laughter.

"Tom, Tom, what happened?" asked a very anxious looking girl-Slughorn, running over and skidding on the mess on the floor .
"Sorry, Miss Granger," he squeaked, as he grabbed her by the neck to stop himself from toppling over his tiny girly feet.

"Argh, that's alright, sir," she choked, gasping for real this time.

"I really haven't a clue what had happened, professor," replied Riddle politely, casting scourgify to leave him looking squeaky-clean and well-groomed again—not that he looked very dreadful when he was all soaking—

Hermione shook her head furiously. What the devil was wrong with her?

"—one moment I was adding Bicorn Horn to my cauldron and the next, it'd exploded in my face."

Nott let out a pitiful whimper, his face had turned a deep shade of burnt red.

"Off to the Hospital wing, Nott, Malfoy, Mulciber…" said Slughorn absently and they left without another word. He flipped his long, glossy tresses over his shoulder, huffing.

"Are you sure you're alright, Tom?" he said anxiously.

"That potion only grazed the side of my face, but most of it went everywhere else," he shrugged carelessly. "Rather lucky. Had I not been watching Miss Granger's disastrous attempt at brewing, then I think I would have ended up blind."

Hermione looked at her own cauldron and gasped. It had turned a violent shade of purple!

She whipped her head back at Riddle and found that he was smirking.

"You—!"

"Oh Miss Granger, Miss Granger!" said Slughorn shaking his head ruefully, he turned back to his star pupil, "Tom, why don't you help Miss Granger put it right?"

She felt her face go rigid.

Then stared pleadingly at Riddle, hoping that he was ungentlemanly enough to decline…

"Certainly, Professor," he said with a courteous little bow, eyes shining malevolently.

"Good, good. Her first lesson, you know," said Slughorn, patting Hermione on the back genially and batting his long dark lashes uncharacteristically, so everyone else at her table laughed..

"Merlin's beard!" he yelped, when Ron's potion started shooting pink sparks over the other side of the dungeon. He hitched up his too-big trousers and ran to him.

"Stuff you, Riddle," hissed Hermione, when Voldemort perched himself on the edge of her table.
"How dare you sabotage my work!"

"If you call that sabotaging your work, then what would you suggest I call your ministrations upon mine?" he coldly replied, grabbing her silver knife and cutting up Boomslang skin.
Tom had spent nearly an hour and a half producing one of the most difficult potions in his life, cutting up the ingredients to perfection—he even thought of stealing some after class for his own use. But now this idiotic girl had exploded his hard work and ruined his plans.

"I call it a well-timed accident," the wench replied, smirking.

"I suppose you felt like showing me up in class today?" he asked coldly.

"And it looked like I was going to until you pulverized my potion."

"Well then," he said icily, folding his arms. "Now that you've made your point, will you cease attempting to ruin my life?"

"You are so melodramatic," she scoffed. "'Ruin my life', honestly!"

"Why don't you just sit down and let me do all the work?" snapped Riddle, "because you seem to be making so much progress…"

Hermione glared at Riddle's arrogantly cold expression. Her hands closed around the handle of her knife—if only she could get Slughorn to turn his back…

"Don't even think about it," said Riddle warningly, as though he'd read her mind.

"So very, very tempting," she growled, tightening her grip on the sharp weapon.

"If you do then I'll—"

"What?' she said with a laugh. "Tell on me?"

"No," he said evilly. "I'll just make sure today will be your last day as Head Girl."

"Humph, like that's enough to stop me shaving you bald with this," she scoffed, twirling the dagger dangerously.

Riddle glared at her opened his mouth to retort.

"Time's up!" called Slughorn, jovially. "Please empty out your cauldrons—there will be no homework today." The class dashed madly to the door in front of them as though Slughorn had told him that he was going to give them venereal disease.

Riddle gave Hermione a look of deepest loathing and strode out of the classroom in cold disdain without a second glance.

"Jane: one, Riddle: negative three," she muttered to herself, scooping up her books.

"Hey, good stuff today, Jane!" said Harry at the door. "Listen, me and Ron are going to run off to the try-outs now, d'you want to come, tonight?"

"No, you go ahead. I need to get my invite," she replied, waving off her friends with a triumphant grin.

Hermione lapsed into thoughtful silence as she stared at her potion which was still bright-purple in colour from Riddle's tampering when she wasn't looking.

"I can fix that later," she murmured, vanishing the potion along with her cauldron.

She looked around the class; she was the only one there, apart from a Hufflepuff boy who was sniffing the contents of his cauldron. She glanced at Slughorn who had turned himself back to his normal form by taking an antidote to the potion.

Hermione whispered a very quiet apology before she shot the explosion incantation at the Hufflepuff's potion; it burst in front of his face.

"Yeeaaaaaahh!" howled the boy as his hot potion drenched him head to toe.

Slughorn let out a muffled cry and rushed to the boy who was on the ground, writhing.

"There, there, Aubrey," he said soothingly, helping him up, "let's get you to the hospital wing then, shall we?"

He walked Aubrey out of the door. "Miss Granger, could I possibly ask you to clear out Aubrey's cauldron for me?" he asked as he passed her.

"Certainly, Professor," said she graciously and Slughorn beamed approvingly.

"Ah, many thanks Miss Granger, have a wonderful afternoon."
He bounced out the door with a whimpering Aubrey before halting and to glance back at Hermione thoughtfully.
"By the way," the jolly professor grinned, "I would like it very much if you should attend some of my Slug parties during some time during this year. Such marvelous knowledge you exhibit, m'dear, simply marvelous".

Hermione laughed with glee and she leapt up to do a bit of a war-dance.

"Potions Prodigy!" she sang, happily "and on the way to Slug Queen!"

With Slughorn gone, she felt a familiar reckless energy. Looking around hastily to make sure that she was the only one left in the dungeon, Hermione ran quickly up to Slughorn's desk at the front and conjured up a jar.

She swiftly plunged the open jar into the vat of Polyjuice Potion Slughorn had forgotten to vanish until the jar was filled to the top.

"Thanks for the idea, Draco," she purred, screwing on the lid and dashing out of the room, smiling ear to ear.

...