Chapter IV: The Potions Master

By the end of the first week I was so ready to see Harry and Co. again. The Slytherins arrived to Double Potions first and I lingered so that I was one of the last through the door. I did this in order to see which side of the room the Slytherins sat in. Then I deliberately went and sauntered to the Gryffindor side of the room and sprawled on a chair as if I didn't have a care in the world.

I heard someone remark, "What? Is she blind as well as being a monster?"

Draco asked, in a slightly aggravated tone, "What are you doing?"

I turned and gave what I hoped was a wicked grin, "I want to see if those Gryffindors are really as brave as everyone says they are. If they can't handle me then that must mean that they're a bunch of wimps." A few of the Slytherins even chuckled at that. Good.

When the Gryffindors arrived they were obviously surprised to see me sitting on their side of the room, a few noticeably chose seats far away from me. Then Potter, bless his heart, came and sat down right next to me. Ron, ever the loyal friend, sat down on Potter's other side while Hermione sat on my right.

I smiled and said to them, "You're braver than I thought," before giggling a bit, knowing that they wouldn't get the Star Wars reference. They smiled wide at the compliment but didn't get a chance to speak before Professor Snape came striding in. He raised an eyebrow when he saw where I was sitting, but of course he didn't say anything.

Snape called roll and when he got to Harry's name he said, "Ah, Mr. Potter….our new….celebrity." The way he said it, he managed to make the word "celebrity" sound more like "scumbag." I hid a smile behind my hand because it was rather funny. Then he started interrogating Harry. I knew all of the answers from my studies, but I wasn't stupid enough to raise my hand like Hermione. Snape didn't want the answers, he just wanted to humiliate Harry. On the second question I nudged Hermione and glared at her. She quailed and lowered her hand, confused. I hoped I would get the chance to tell her later.

Harry, exasperated, said, "I don't know sir, why don't you try asking someone else if you want answers so badly?" A few students chuckled and Snape took a point away from Gryffindor because of Harry's snark. Then he instructed us in the making of a potion to cure boils. Hermione and I were paired together and we worked quickly, I wanted to tell her right then and there why I had stopped her from raising her hand, but with Snape in the room I didn't dare. While Hermione was taking a turn stirring I looked around to see how everyone else was doing, Seamus and Neville caught my eye. I suddenly had a vague memory come to me of Seamus with a blackened face, at least I think it was Seamus. In any event, my eyes refocused as I came back to the present just in time to see Neville add the porcupine quills with the cauldron still on the fire.

"Watch out!" I screamed and flung myself at Neville, pulling him out of the way, then moving towards Seamus while shouting "Everyone get off of the floor!" I got to Seamus just in time to push him out of the way before being drenched by the boiling liquid. Greenish steam filled the air as I sank to the floor. I was suddenly so, so tired.

I heard Snape snarling "Idiot boy! Look what you've done." Then Potter lost another House point for not having told Neville not to. I lay down in the pool of liquid and closed my eyes, finding relief, even though I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep.

The steam must have cleared because I heard someone gasp and say "Oh no, look at Esmira."

I heard Snape's sharp voice immediately command "Don't touch her, she's covered in the potion. Any normal person would be covered in boils right now."

I yawned and opened my eyes, "m'just tired." I mumbled, before closing them again.

"There will be no sleeping in this class. Get up, Esmira." I had been a naturally obedient person in my life before this so I automatically opened my eyes and got up and then started thinking how I didn't want to obey. I pensively looked at Professor Snape and yawned again.

Snape stared at me, then announced, "50 points to Slytherin because Esmira's actions saved Neville and Seamus a trip to the hospital wing. And may I say Esmira, that you are extremely lucky that the potion didn't do you any harm." Then he turned swiftly away as the Slytherin half of the room broke into cheers. It was a good thing none of them could see my face because I was not happy about the fact that my actions had gained back 50 of the points that Snape had taken away from Susan, John, and Leroy.

"I didn't do it for Slytherin." I muttered and saw Snape pause just a fraction before continuing. Dang it, I hadn't meant for him to hear, I hadn't really meant to say it out loud, it had just slipped out. I looked around and saw Neville and Seamus looking at me curiously. Well, I didn't mind if they had heard me. Snape then assigned Neville and Seamus to clean up the mess, carefully.

I raised my hand "Yes, Esmira?"

"Permission to go change sir?"

"Permission granted." I left, stopped by a bathroom to wash my hands and face with cold water, which helped me perk up immensely, then went to the dormitory and got changed. I returned to the classroom about fifteen minutes after I had left it and saw that Neville and Seamus had made good progress, though they weren't done yet. I briefly thought about asking Snape if I could help them, since there was no real danger to me, but then I decided against it. Not only would he probably refuse, since it was their problem and they needed to deal with it, it would also be strange for me to go out of my way to be nice to the Gryffindors and would likely make me some enemies again among the Slytherins. I probably still had some enemies, though hopefully not as many.

I headed toward Hermione and looked at our cauldron before nodding and saying "Good job at keeping it going alright."

Hermione looked at me and said, "That's all you have to say? You should be in Gryffindor after a stunt like that!"

I looked to my right, we were quite close to the Slytherin side and I couldn't risk voicing what I wanted to say, which was, "Maybe I should have been in Gryffindor," and instead settled on saying "My ambitions lie elsewhere," while catching Draco's eye. As soon as I said it I realized that it was just as true as what I wanted to say, even though maybe I "should" be in Gryffindor, I didn't need to be in order to accomplish what I aimed to.

Hermione followed my gaze and then looked at me incredulously, "You have a thing for Draco?" Her voice went very shrill on the last word. "He's so awful."

"Not necessarily." I replied, and left her to puzzle out if I meant that he wasn't necessarily awful or if I wasn't necessarily interested in him.

At dinner I overheard other students talking that news had just come out that Gringott's had been broken into a few months ago and I cast a sharp glance at Professor Quirrell. He seemed no more or less anxious than usual but I wondered if Voldemort would punish him tonight at this fresh reminder of his failure. I immediately left the table to go outside to the hall, this time looking all around to make certain no one was following me. By now everyone knew that I only came to dinner to have a bit of human company and I often left at varying times in the middle of the meal or dessert so it wouldn't be odd that I was leaving now. Once in the hall I cast the disillusionment charm on myself and waited until someone else exited before slipping inside while the door was still open. Then I paused near the doorway, wondering where to go, any adept Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor might see through the charm as well as any of the professors, so I didn't want to go too near the head table. I decided I also didn't want to go near the Slytherin table, since the other students had little to no loyalty to me and probably wouldn't mind snitching me out if they spotted me. Going near or around the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables was out of the question since they were in the middle of the floor and there were too many possibilities of a student standing up and bumping into me. I decided that Gryffindor was my safest bet, if Fred or George spotted me they might even give me a few tips next time. My only hope for not being spotted by Quirrell was that he would be too preoccupied by his worries over Voldemort to notice me.

I went three quarters of the way up the hall by the wall next to the Gryffindor table. Finally, Quirrell stood up to leave and I followed him. As he walked briskly, turning down this hallway and that I realized that I had no idea where his room was, that would also be useful to know. I bumped into him. To my horror I realized that I had been concentrating so hard on moving my legs fast enough to keep up with him that I hadn't realized he had abruptly stopped.

He whirled, pointed a wand in my direction and stammered, "F-finite incantatem!" He looked astonished to see me, though of course he might have looked that way regardless of whatever student stood before him, on account of his acting.

Before he had a chance to speak I did a quick obvious looking him up and down and then I practically purred in a smooth voice "You're good."

"W-wha-what did you ex-expect? Tha-that I couldn't ca-cast a spell after m-my encounter with v-vampires?"

"No, no, not that." I said, "You're acting. Its superb. I can sense fear you know." An utter lie. "And I can tell, that you, Professor Quirrell, are not afraid….of me." Quirrell literally recoiled from me and I ran away, having no idea where I was going. Dash, this had gotten out of hand, dash my desire to impress others, I hadn't planned to say that, I had probably put too much attention on myself by saying that.

At least I hadn't followed that up with the threat that just popped into my mind "Sooner or later Professor, you will have to tell people what you are afraid of, because I will make certain that they know that it isn't vampires." Yes, if I had said that it might have been disastrous. Never let your enemy know that you know what they don't want you to know. I berated myself. Eventually I stopped running, having deemed that I was far away enough from Quirrell, then I wandered around trying to find my way back. It was already evening and it seemed that in my bad luck all of the paintings I came across were the "early to bed" type of folk. The staircases changed, I swear some of the doors I tried led me to places I had already been, and I quickly realized that venturing out of the main, well-known areas of the castle was a big mistake. Added to that the fact that although Hogwarts would have been plenty big anyway, it was bigger on the inside than it appeared to be on the outside. Truly, it was a marvel of magic.

Wandering around can get very dull very quickly, especially when you just want to get to your destination and you aren't exploring on purpose. By the time, what I reckoned to be four hours, had past I began to wonder if the castle had something against vampires and that I was mis-registering in its sensors as something that it needed to keep trapped and lost. I had already gone through an emotional cycle by that point of annoyance, frustration, anger, despair, and sadness. After about another hour I sat down, wondering if the rule that states "if you are lost, stay put" applied in a castle that was always moving in some way, but I was convinced that the castle was working against me and that I would never find my way out of this part of it. Then I started to count.

Seven hours, twenty-eight minutes, forty-five seconds later Snape and Quirrell found me. "What are you doing just sitting there Miss Thorncrow?" Snape said in a dangerously soft voice.

I stood up saying, "I think that the castle thinks that I am an enemy."

That brought him up short, I don't know what lecture he was planning on giving me, but instead he asked curiously, "What makes you think that?" I explained, reluctantly since Quirrell was there, how many hours I had been trying to find my way back to the parts of the castle that I knew. "Well…" Snape finally drawled, "that would certainly be an astonishingly obvious lie to make, seeing as how this morning we started searching for you only ten minutes ago and have already found you, so I am inclined to believe that you are telling the truth." He continued, "Instead of the detention that I was going to give you for following Professor Quirrell around unsolicited, and he and I would like to know why you were doing so, I would like Headmaster Dumbledore and I to observe you trying to leave this part of the castle. I would also like to know why you ran away from the good Professor here."

I had had plenty of time to prepare an answer during my wanderings so I said, "I was curious." I looked down and shuffled my feet, affecting embarrassment, "I was curious to know whether or not Professor Quirrell would have garlic in his personal quarters like he does in his classroom, since he's afraid of me."

"Y-yo-you said y-you could se-sense I wasn't a-afraid of y-you last night." He stammered.

I looked up "I lied. I can't sense fear. I was just saying nonsense in the hopes that you'd forget to punish me."

"Why did you run?" Snape interjected.

"I was afraid." I said truthfully. Afraid that I would say too much. They took it to mean I was afraid of Quirrell and looked at me in disbelief, I could practically hear Snape's thoughts, nobody could be afraid of Quirrell, and Quirrell's were probably something along the lines of A vampire? Afraid of me? which was perhaps why Quirrell, in a moment of weakness, broke character long enough to give a real laugh before managing to turn it into a nervous simpering chuckle.

"W-well y-you don't need m-me anymore Prof-Professor. Good-goodbye." He said, extricating himself from the situation.

"Wait here Esmira, I'll send a student to let you know when to start to try to leave." About twenty minutes later Draco came with a curious look on his face.

He puffed out his chest and said proudly, "Professor Snape sent me to tell you they're ready." Then he stood there, expectantly.

I smiled apologetically, "I don't think it will work if you're here. I'm in the middle of an experiment, so I think you need to go now. I'll tell you later." He looked disappointed but left without saying anything. I counted to five, and then tried to follow him. I turned the corner that he had turned, it was a dead end. I stared, dumbfounded, that was just too cruel. I went and beat my hands against the walls and tried to find a secret passage that would let me out, but it was no use. Then I turned around and did a lot of what I'd been doing, wandering aimlessly, taking stairs, opening doors, and generally not going anywhere. After a half an hour I figured it had been long enough so I sat down again and waited. Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape arrived some time later.

Dumbledore began, "This is most serious indeed. You have been adopted by the school, but the castle does not recognize you as a student even. We saw everything, judging that you could not follow Draco out I am not certain you would be able to follow us out. Take my hand, child."

So I took it, and asked, "How did you see everything?" Keeping a firm hold on my hand, we started walking.

"Oh, in my office, I'll show you."

We arrived in what seemed no time at all. Dumbledore had already let go of my hand. The three of us were soon standing in front of a model of the castle floorplan. As we looked at it a few of the miniature stairs moved.

"Amazing," I said, "but there are no miniature people, how did you know where I was?" Severus answered, "You have to know the name of the person you are looking for, and you say it."

"May I try?" I asked.

"You may." Dumbledore replied.

I thought of the Marauder's Map, which gave me an idea, and I said clearly, distinctly, and a little loudly "Peter Pettigrew." A light appeared in the Gryffindor dorm room.

"Impossible." Severus said at once, "he's dead."

"I have never known the model to make a mistake." Dumbledore replied, looking troubled. "Whatever gave you the idea to say that name?"

"Well…" I floundered, "I just read about him….and I wondered who Ron's rat really was."

"What do you mean by that?" Dumbledore asked.

I lied again, in the spur of the moment I couldn't think of any other reason I might suspect. "Blood never lies, I was very confused to smell that Ron's rat has the blood of a human and not an animal." Goodness, I hoped they bought it, I didn't even know if that was medically correct. "I began to wonder if Scabbers is an animagus." For another thing, I'd hardly spoken to Ron and had never seen him with his rat, so by all rights I shouldn't even know the name Scabbers. I hoped that they wouldn't pick up on that fact either. I plowed on, "Since he is Peter Pettigrew, what is he hiding from? Justice? We'd better be careful catching him so he doesn't escape. If Peter Pettigrew isn't dead then that means that Sirius Black didn't murder him. Black was framed."

A light went on in Dumbledore's eyes. "Yes, yes I can see the sense in that. This is serious. Like you said, we must proceed carefully." He turned to Snape. "Can you ask all the students with rats to come to you and then seemingly find something wrong with Scabbers which requires you to isolate him and make a potion for him? Maybe find something wrong with one or two other rats as well so that he doesn't get suspicious? I will contact the Aurors. I believe this is serious enough for them to deal with."

I couldn't resist jumping up and down and clapping my hands together, finally I was making a difference! This discovery wasn't supposed to happen for two years. I wondered what the consequences would be.

A/N: For those wondering, the Harry Potter Lexicon website says that curfew for students begins at 9 pm, so I'm guessing that dinner ends at 8 pm. Esmira tries to find her way out for five hours, so she sits down at 1 a.m. She is found 7 hours later at 8 a.m. The website says that classes begin at 9 so I am guessing that breakfast begins at 7:45 and ends at 8:45 a.m.