Moste Potente Potions
"I'm so sorry." Claudia whispered as she sat down next to Sirius in muggle studies. It was the first time she saw him since Filch led him away from the dungeons.
She took the cloak, carefully wrapped in brown paper, and passed it to Sirius under the table.
"No worried." He shrugged. "I haven't been in detention for nearly a month. McGonagall was getting suspicious."
Claudia laughed. The teacher was about to start the lesson and shot a warning look in their direction.
"Well, I still feel bad. If there is anything I can do in return…" Claudia whispered quickly.
"I'll hold you to that." Sirius replied with a grin. Then he paused. "Actually, there is something…" He began to say but was interrupted by a stern shush from the teacher.
"I expect this from Mr Black, but not you Miss Avery." He said, disappointed. "Extra foot from each of you on today's essay." He added.
Claudia could feel her ears burning. Over the three and a half years in Hogwarts, she did not once get a punishment! Sirius looked like he was about to argue with the teacher, but Claudia kicked him under the desk. Extra homework was bad enough, she did not need any points deducted too.
"Chicken." Sirius hissed. Claudia kicked him again.
"I can do the extra work, as a thank you..." Claudia said to Sirius, as the bell rang, and the classroom began to empty.
"Nah. Will take me ten minutes." He replied and then looked around briefly. "There was something else I was going to ask you… I could really do with some Polyjuice Potion. You don't happen to know how to make it?" Sirius whispered.
Claudia narrowed her eyes. She had the instructions in her bootleg copy of Moste Potente Potions, but it was dangerous if made badly and probably illegal. But she did owe Sirius a huge favour, so she nodded.
"Never made it. But I got the instructions." She said, trying to remember what the book said. "I think there are couple of tricky ingredients. But I can have a look. Meet me on the fourth floor in twenty minutes?"
Sirius' face lit up. "Great." He grinned. "Aren't you going to ask me what I need it for?" He asked.
"Absolutely not." Claudia scoffed. "Have you ever heard of plausible deniability?" She said and run off to the dungeons.
Claudia was panting a little when she got back up to the fourth floor. Without as much as another word, she sat down and unfolded a piece of paper. Sirius sat down next to her and leaned in to look over her shoulder.
"I presume you don't want anyone to know that you're brewing this?" Claudia asked. Sirius smiled.
"You presume right." He said. Claudia's eyes raced across the page for a few seconds.
"You would need to start by stewing some Lacewing Flies. I can order these from the Magical Menagerie. Pretend I have a fussy toad." She continued down the list. "Knotgrass grows in the Forbidden Forest. Slughorn made us pick it there before… Would it be too much to assume that you might know your way around the forest well enough to pick some?" Claudia asked, with a hint of sarcasm.
"Consider it done." Said Sirius. Claudia chuckled and continued.
"I can buy Bicorn hair during the next Hogsmeade weekend. It's used for Pepper Up Potion. Anyone could be brewing that." She said as she scanned the rest of the list. That was going to be trickier.
Sirius pointed his finger at the leeches. "Shame we have just brewed that disgusting leech juice in potions. Could have pinched couple of them off Slughorn." He said. Claudia turned her head towards him and smirked.
"Well, if someone was to be clumsy and spilled their leech juice… Slughorn might let them remake it in their spare time?" She said suggestively.
"I see." Sirius said, smiling back. "Peter can get very clumsy sometimes… What's next?" He asked.
"Boomslang skin." Replied Claudia. "As far as I can remember, it's also used in the Beautification Potion." She added.
"Surely, we can just get that in Hogsmeade too?" Asked Sirius.
Claudia scoffed and shook her head. "I'm not going to be seen dead buying ingredients to the Beautification Potion. What would people think?!" She said, genuinely terrified at the thought. She paused and looked at Sirius. "Let's face it. No one's going to believe that you are brewing one." She added, awkwardly. She may have even blushed a little.
Before Sirius could say anything, Claudia spoke again. "Can't you convince one of your girlfriends to get Slughorn to teach us? They usually seem like the type to be interested in the Beautification Potion." There was more than just a hint of judgement in her voice. Sirius began to protest.
"I don't have any girlfriends…" He said. But when he saw the sceptical look on Claudia's face, he changed his tune. "Fine. But neither of them is in our potions class." He said, slightly embarrassed.
"Neither?" She Claudia asked pointedly. "Anyway… Get them to do it in their class and I am sure Slughorn will teach us too. It's an OWL requirement." Claudia added. She was keen to move on. The type of girls that Sirius was usually interested in made her blood boil. What did he see in them?!
"The real problem is going to be fluxweed. It must be picked on full moon. If you buy it anywhere or steal it from Slughorn, everyone will know that you're brewing Polyjuice." Said Claudia, recovering her composure.
"Does Sprout grow it?" Asked Sirius. Claudia nodded.
"Pretty sure she does. It's got healing properties. We could take it at the next full moon... Let me just check when that is." Claudia said, taking out a diary from her bag. But Sirius spoke first.
"Twenty-sixth of February. But I can't do that day." Claudia laughed.
"Why? Are you a werewolf?" She asked. Sirius shifted uncomfortably but was quick to defend himself.
"I'm still in detention for collapsing half the dungeon! I bet Filch got something special planned for me." Sirius sighed.
Claudia looked sheepish. "Sorry. My bad." She whispered, before adding. "I'll get it. Consider it my payback for you taking the blame the other day."
Sirius laughed. "Hold your horses. Do you think I can actually brew this?" He said, squinting at the paper. "I can get some of the ingredients, but I absolutely need you to do the hard work." He said. It made Claudia chuckle.
"What makes you think I can do this? It's bloody complicated." She asked.
"You're second only to Snivellus in that class. I can hardly ask him…" Sirius replied.
"Snive… Who?" Asked Claudia.
"Snape." Sirius replied, frowning.
Claudia shook her head. "You and your little friends better not have a horrid nickname for me." Said Claudia. Sirius was grinning again.
"Not yet. But wait until James makes the Quidditch team…" He smirked. Claudia could not help but to laugh with him.
The next two weeks went quickly. Claudia just about found enough time to order the Lacewing flies, found an old storage cupboard in the dungeons and began stewing them. She did not have a spare minute to think about the artefact. She barely had time to keep up with her homework.
The Slytherin team had practice every other day in the run up to the Ravenclaw game. Claudia still felt pathetic every time she looked at Anthony, but – at least on the Quidditch pitch – she was beginning to get over it. She was getting better. Still not back to her best but good enough for Parkinson. Mercifully, he stopped talking about kicking her off the team.
The second game of the season had arrived. Slytherin went toe to toe with Ravenclaw all game, but Macmillan was first to the snitch and Slytherin had their second victory. Slytherin's margin over the other teams was such that they would have to really mess up the last game not to lift the cup at the end of the year.
The celebration in the common room was huge that night. The team was sitting on the sofas in the middle of the common room. There was raucous laughter and empty butterbeer bottles everywhere. Claudia was chatting to Julius, who was sitting opposite her. He was doing really well as keeper. He was on his third butterbeer.
"Maybe I'll do this for a living." He said cheerfully. "Wouldn't it be amazing? Fly for a living?" He asked, beaming at Claudia.
"Sure would." She replied. He was good, but he was not that good, Claudia thought to herself. Julius sunk into the sofa. He was still grinning at her. She had never seen him this happy before.
Claudia felt someone touch her shoulder. It was Anthony. Her stomach did a somersault.
"Do you want a butterbeer?" He asked. Claudia shook her head and pointed at her Gillywater.
"I'm fine. Thanks." She muttered.
Anthony squeezed himself on the sofa between Claudia and Parkinson. She tried to play it cool but was painfully aware that their legs were touching.
On one hand, it was excruciating. On the other, she wanted him to move even closer.
"I told you that you just needed to relax." He said, smiling. Claudia shrugged.
"I can do lot better than that." She replied, looking up at Anthony from beneath her eyelashes.
They looked at each other for little longer than was comfortable.
"Is she always this hard on herself?" Anthony asked, slowly turning toward Julius. But he did not get a response. Julius grumbled something under his breath, got up and left.
"Sometimes." Claudia replied instead, smiling. She could not care less where Julius went to at that moment.
Anthony grinned back at her but before he could respond, Professor Slughorn walked into the common room, beaming. Claudia always hated Slughorn's victory speeches, but never more than right now.
He went on and on.
But Claudia did not hear a word of what he was saying. All she could think about was Anthony. He put his feet on the table and stretched his arms across the back of the sofa. One inch was all that what was separating her from being in his arms. Just one inch. She had never been so painfully aware of anything in her life.
Anthony yawned and stood up.
"You've heard the boss. Off to bed." He said.
Claudia did not even notice that Slughorn had finished his ridiculous speech. Anthony extended his hand to her. She grabbed it and pulled herself up.
For a fraction of a second, Claudia thought of kissing Anthony. But they were in the middle of the common room. The rest of the team were watching. It was the stupidest idea she has ever had.
"Night." Whispered Anthony, as they parted ways and went to their separate dormitories.
Claudia was so exhausted. She did not even have the strength to change into her pyjamas. But yet, she could not fall asleep. Was it possible that Anthony liked her too? She pulled up a pillow and buried her face into it. Well, Anthony did like everyone. And what exactly happened between them that was out of the ordinary? She must stop reading too much into it. And she absolutely must not tell Alice about it. She would only get her hopes up. Hope was the last thing Claudia needed. Hope was what was eating her alive. If only she could accept that nothing will ever happen between her and Anthony, she could forget this whole business and move past it...
It took Claudia a herculean effort to fall asleep that evening.
The following Friday, Claudia was sitting on the floor of the Slytherin common room, leaning against the wall next to the fire. That way, no one could surprise her and see what she was doing.
She was staring at the page with instructions for the Polyjuice Potion, but her mind was elsewhere. Anthony's presence was still distracting.
On top of that, she had absolutely no idea where to look for the artefact. She had hoped that by this point, she would have had some leads. It seemed that her luck has run out. The only consolation was that Marcus was following a false trail.
Claudia sighed and made herself focus on the Polyjuice Potion. It was a good distraction from everything else.
She was just triple checking that the only thing she needed to get in Hogsmeade was the Bicorn horn. She was about to put her Moste Potente Potions copy back in her bag, when she noticed a page poking out of the pile. There was a word that caught her eye.
'Luck'. Claudia could really use some of that. She looked around to make sure no one was watching her and skimmed the page. The name of the potion was Felix Felicis, or liquid luck. It guaranteed success in all endeavours. That's exactly what she needed! She looked at the instructions and her heart sank instantly – she had never seen anything more complicated in her life.
The potion took six months to brew and the ingredients list was extensive. Claudia had not even heard about some them. But she had nothing to lose by looking around in Pippin's Potions.
She took out a piece of parchment and copied the required ingredients. Squill bulb and tincture of thyme should be straight forward. She could pretend she needed the Murtlap tentacle for Murtlap essence and the Common Rue was used for poisoning recovery. She laughed. Together with the Bicorn horn she was getting for the Pepper Up Potion she was supposedly brewing, she would look like a right hypochondriac.
Then, she wrote down the ingredients that she did not know: Ashwinder egg and Occamy eggshell. There was no time to research them. She would just need to try her luck in Hogsmeade. Claudia folded her shopping list and put it in safely in her pocket. It was now time to try and get some sleep.
"Ready to go?" Asked Alice as they finished breakfast. Claudia yawned.
"Go ahead. I'll join you later in the Three Broomstick. I've got some shopping to do anyway." She said. Alice looks concerned.
"You've been in weird mood for weeks. What are you not telling me?" She asked, pointedly. Claudia did not know how Alice did it. She could always tell when something was wrong. But there were so many things that Claudia was not telling Alice, she did not even know where to start. She looked at Alice.
"It's nothing. I just need to go to Pippin's Potions. Replenish some things." Said Claudia.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Asked Alice. Claudia shook her head. She did not need another lecture. She knew exactly how Alice would feel if she knew what she was planning on brewing, and more importantly for whom.
Down in Hogsmeade, Claudia popped into Dogweed and Deathcap for the tincture of thyme and squill bulb. It was just the potions shop left.
"I will need Bicorn horn, Murtlap tentacles and Common Rue." She said when it was her turn to approach the counter. The shopkeeper measured her suspiciously. He must have been used to Hogwarts students buying all sorts of things they were not supposed to.
"I'm refilling my first aid kit." She said with a smile. The shopkeeper seemed somewhat satisfied and began putting together Claudia's order. She used the time to look at the small jars behind the shopkeeper's counter to see if she could spot any of the rarer ingredients for Felix Felicis.
Then she saw it. A jar of golden eggs with a fading label that read 'Ashwinder eggs'. Her eyes widened when she saw the price. They were unbelievably expensive. The shopkeeper must have noticed her because he sniggered.
"Interested in Ashwinder eggs?" He asked, with a wink. Claudia did not understand what was so strange about it. She said nothing. "Thinking of brewing a love potion, eh? Who is the lucky guy?" The shopkeeper added.
Claudia could fell that she was blushing. She had no idea that's what Ashwinder eggs were used for. She was suddenly very aware of the other people in the shop, hoping that nobody saw or heard anything. She did not dare ask about Occamy eggshells.
"How much is it for these three?" She mumbled and rummaged through her purse, avoiding all eye contact.
She paid and run out of the shop as fast as she could and headed for the Three Broomsticks. She had not hope getting these ingredients. There would be no Felix Felicis to help her with Anthony or the artefact. She felt like all hope has gone.
She did not stay in the pub long. It was crowded again and Claudia was in no mood to be around people. She blamed a headache and left for the castle by herself.