A Witch Awakens
by Professor Skrewt
The Puttering Potioneer
"Mum! Dad!" Hermione called to her parents one evening. "Let's go back to Diagon Alley to get the rest of my supplies for Hogwarts. I want to get a cauldron, a potion-making kit with scales and phials, and some special ingredients."
"A cauldron?" replied her mother. "I think it would be best if your father or I supervised your potion-making, certainly at first. You can use some of our old pots instead of a cauldron, and you can brew your potions on the stove while one of us watches. Just in case you have an accident."
"Oh, all right, then," Hermione said disgruntledly. "But I will need a cauldron before I leave for Hogwarts."
"We'll make sure you have what you need, Hermione," her father replied. "Shall we go on Saturday?"
On the following Saturday Hermione and her dad were about to leave home for their trip to Diagon Alley. Hermione had the list of supplies required for first-year students at Hogwarts. Alfred was putting his wallet into his pocket when Harriet spoke up.
"Alfred, you may need wizard money for your purchases today. Why don't you take this? It's all of the wizard money left from the wand-buying trip in the autumn."
"Thanks, Harriet," said Alfred gratefully. "You may have saved us some embarrassment, or at least some time."
After Mr. Granger had parked the car, he and Hermione entered The Leaky Cauldron and made their way through the gateway to Diagon Alley. The street was filled with weekend visitors, and the shops seemed to be doing a lot of business.
"Let's get my Potions book at Flourish and Blotts," said Hermione to her dad. "You remember where we got those magical history books, don't you?"
"Sure," her father answered. "It was an interesting shop. Do you remember the name of the fellow who helped us?"
"That was Libphilius Thicklens," said Hermione. "He also sold us the texts for Transfiguration and Charms when Mum and I came to buy my wand."
Hermione and her dad entered the old book shop and looked around for Mr. Thicklens. They spotted him as he sat at a small table in the rear of the shop, sipping a cup of tea.
"Mr. Thicklens!" called Hermione. "It's me again. I need the first-year Potions textbook."
"Ah, Miss Granger! How good to see you. I see you've brought your father with you this time. It's good to see you again, too, sir," said the clerk. "You'll be wanting Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger, then."
"Yes, that's what's on the list from Hogwarts," relied Hermione.
Mr. Granger paid six Galleons for the book, bade Mr. Thicklens farewell, and left the shop with Hermione.
"Shall we try the Apothecary for potion supplies?" asked Alfred.
"Sure," agreed Hermione.
Hermione and her dad headed back along Diagon Alley, past Gringotts and Madam Malkin's, to the Apothecary, which was also a very interesting shop. Hermione had never seen so many strange substances in all her life. Even her father was amazed at the bottles full of such things as eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog that lined the shelves in the store. They seemed strangely familiar, even though he had never used any of them in his university chemistry classes. "Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble," Alfred quoted Shakespeare to himself. I'll certainly watch Macbeth with a different perspective now, he thought.
While her father amused himself looking around at the jars, tubs, barrels, and boxes of strange ingredients, Hermione quickly found a shelf labelled "Hogwarts Potion Kits". The shelf held boxes of ingredients and tools for each of the seven years at Hogwarts. She chose a box for Beginning Potions, making sure that it had brass scales and crystal vials. She also picked up a box of ingredients for first-year Potions. As Hermione was taking her selections back to her father, she noticed a display that said "Dragon-hide Gloves". Hermione stopped, found a pair of gloves that fit her, and rejoined her dad.
"Dad, here's the potions kit, some ingredients, and also some gloves," Hermione said.
Alfred paid the clerk nine Sickles for the kit, four Sickles for the box of ingredients, and five Sickles, eight Knuts for the gloves. The clerk put the kit, box, and gloves into a bag. Hermione took the bag, thanked the clerk, and she and her dad left the Apothecary.
"I can't wait to get home and try to make a potion!" exclaimed Hermione as she and her father drove home.
When Hermione and her father got home, she jumped out of the car and ran into the house with her bag from the Apothecary.
"Mum! Look what I've got — scales and vials and ingredients for making potions, and the textbook for first-year Potions! When can I try out some potions?" Hermione implored her mother.
"Calm down, Hermione," said Harriet. "Why don't you read your textbook first? At least read the introduction and the first couple of chapters. Then come back and we'll discuss the next step."
"Oh, all right!" groused Hermione. "I'll be back in a little while."
Hermione went to her bedroom, sat down at her desk, turned on the light, and began to read Magical Drafts and Potions. She was amazed at the many different kinds of potions that wizards had invented: potions to make someone fall in love, to cure coughs and colds, to induce sleep, to transform someone into a different form, and many more. Hermione read on, looking for a potion that looked interesting, was not too difficult, used ingredients that she had purchased, and would likely be approved by her parents.
She finally found one called Tanning Draught that made one appear to have vacationed recently in the Mediterranean. She checked the list of ingredients against the ones in her little box from the Apothecary. She had everything except for a stick of cinnamon, which she was sure she could find in the Granger kitchen, and bark from a ginkgo tree, which she could get from a neighbor's yard.
Hermione gathered up her potion kit, the box of ingredients, and the potions book, and hurried back to the kitchen, where her parents were talking.
"I want to make a Tanning Draught," she announced.
"A what?" said her father.
"A Tanning Draught," replied Hermione. "It makes your skin get darker. The ingredients are not very exotic and seem harmless enough. May I try to make it?"
"Let me read what your book has to say about it," said her father.
"I want to read about it, too," said her mother. The Drs. Granger took Magical Drafts and Potions from Hermione and began to read.
"While you're reading about the potion, I'm going over to the Johnsons' to scrape some bark off their ginkgo tree," Hermione told her parents, and she left.
After a few minutes Harriet said, "This looks safe enough to me. I'm glad the effect is supposed to wear off in three days. What do you think, Alfred?"
"Yes, I think we can let Hermione brew a Tanning Draught," he answered. "We should watch her do it, though."
"Right," agreed Harriet. "I do hope we're not making a mistake by encouraging her to experiment a bit with magic before she goes to Hogwarts. We're not competent ourselves to judge whether she's attempting something dangerous."
"It is a bit risky," said Alfred, "but if we don't let her try a few things, we won't have a clue how dangerous Hogwarts might be. And, without a clue, how can we let her go?"
Just then Hermione came back in the kitchen door, her cheeks red from the cold but her eyes alive with anticipation.
"I got the ginkgo bark. Mrs. Johnson wanted to know why I needed it, so I told her I was doing a project for school. That's kind of true, isn't it?" Hermione asked with some concern in her voice.
"Close enough," said her father.
"Look what I found for you to use in lieu of a cauldron, Hermione," said her mother, giving her an old pot that she had found in the attic.
The young witch thanked her mother and put the pot on the stove. "Let's get started, then," she said.
Hermione assembled the ingredients for the Tanning Draught on the counter beside the stove, next to the scales. She opened her potions text to the instructions she needed and set the book in the cookbook holder. Her parents watched as she followed the instructions:
1. Add two cups of water to your cauldron.
2. Light a medium fire under your cauldron.
3. Bring the water to a boil.
4. Meanwhile, grind 1 ounce of ginkgo bark into a powder.
"How can I grind this bark?" Hermione asked her parents.
"Let's break it into small pieces and put them one at a time into the spice grinder," suggested Alfred. "I'll set up the grinder for you."
Hermione broke the ginkgo bark into half a dozen pieces, which she fed into the spice grinder. When the grinder had finished, she resumed following the instructions in Magical Drafts and Potions:
5. Add the ginkgo bark to the boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the water turns a light brown.
6. Add one eye of newt for each year of age of the person who will take the draught.
At this instruction, Hermione checked her ingredients. She hoped that she had enough eyes of newt for herself. She doubted that she had enough for either of her parents. Fortunately, there was a vial with a dozen newt eyes in the box of potion ingredients. Hermione plowed ahead:
7. Add a pinch of powdered dung beetle.
8. Alternate stirring clockwise and counterclockwise until the mixture just begins to thicken.
"Yech! I wonder where those dung beetles were found," groaned Harriet, as Hermione got a pinch of the required ingredient from a little packet in her box and dropped it into the boiling pot.
9. Add the stick of cinnamon and simmer, stirring only clockwise until the potion has the desired degree of darkness.
Hermione added the cinnamon and continued stirring.
"How dark are you going to make this potion?" asked her mother.
"Just a little darker. Since I'll be testing this on myself and I haven't been on a tropical vacation, I don't want to get very tan," said Hermione. "There, that looks about right. The last step is..."
10. Remove the cauldron from the fire and let the potion become cool enough to drink.
"Well, there it is," said Hermione, as she turned off the flame under the pot. "Now we wait. The books says the potion can be drunk in stages, to make sure the desired effect is achieved. You're supposed to wait five minutes between doses for the full effect to be felt. I think I'll try just a tablespoonful at first."
At last the potion in the pot was cool enough to drink.
"Wait a minute, Hermione," said Alfred. "I want to record this experiment with my Polaroid camera." He left the room and returned soon with the camera. "OK, I'm ready if you are. We'll need to see how you looked before drinking the potion," he said, taking a picture of Hermione.
Hermione dipped a tablespoon into the pot, put the spoon to her lips, and drank the potion.
"Ugh, it's not very tasty," she said.
A couple of minutes passed, while Alfred and Harriet watched Hermione carefully, both for signs of tanning and for symptoms of illness.
"What do you think Don Fredericks would say if we let Hermione poison herself while we stood by?" wondered Harriet.
"Nothing complimentary, that's for sure," replied Alfred.
After five minutes had gone by, Hermione's skin did seem a little darker. Her dad took another picture. The family compared the two photos. They agreed that there was a slight darkening visible in the later picture.
"Now I'll try two tablespoonfuls," said Hermione. Her parents nodded in approval.
Five minutes after the second dose, the Polaroid revealed a definite darkening of Hermione's skin. The experiment continued, with ever larger doses and ever more pronounced effects. After Hermione had drunk half of the potion, she definitely looked like she did halfway through summer.
"I think I'll stop here," said Hermione. "I don't want to look too conspicuous at school next week."
"Good idea," said her father and mother together.
"This is great, though. I really can make magical potions!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Are you sure this potion is magical?" asked Harriet. "Maybe I should follow the same instructions as you, just to see whether these ingredients have some effect on the melanin-producing cells in the skin, without resorting to magic."
"But I used all but one of the newt eyes from my box of ingredients," said Hermione. "We would have to go back to Diagon Alley to get more."
"Let's remember to buy some more, then, on our next trip there," said Harriet. "I would really like to be sure the effect is magical, not natural."
"I thought we agreed that magic is natural, for some people," Alfred reminded his wife.
"Anyway, I want to try some other potions in my book," said Hermione. "Some of the simpler ones use ingredients that I already have or can find nearby. OK?"
"OK, but not today, Hermione," replied her mother. "Your father and I both have other things to do today besides supervise your potion-making. Please clean up after yourself. You can store your left-over potion in the refrigerator."
"Oh, Mum, this is so much fun! Can't I try just one more today?"
"Nope, that's it for today. You can try another one next weekend, when we have more time to oversee your projects," Harriet stated firmly.
So, for the next week Hermione had to be content with reading Magical Drafts and Potions. Eventually she got to try making other potions, with mixed results. Her father enjoyed testing the Belching Beverage that she concocted using a combination of soy beans, dry ice, and few other ingredients. The Hair Tamer potion was less successful. It seemed that more than beginner's magic would be required to reduce the amazing bushiness of Hermione's hair.